The Vision and the Voice

THE VISION AND THE VOICE And for three days after he shall remain from sunrise unto sunset in the temple, and he shall obey the counsel that his Angel shall have given unto him, and he shall suffer those things that are appointed. And for ten days thereafter shall he withdraw himself as shall have been taught unto him from the fulness of that communion, for he must harmonize the world that is within with the world that is without. And at the end of the ninety-one days he shall return into the world, and there shall he perform that work to which the Angel shall have appointed him. And more than this it is not necessary to say, for his Angel shall have entreated him kindly, and showed him in what manner he may be most perfectly invoked. And unto him that hath this Master there is nothing else that he need- eth, so long as he continue in the knowledge and conversation of the Angel, so that he shall come at last into the City of the Pyramids. Lo! two and twenty are the paths of the Tree, but one is the Serpent of Wisdom; ten are the ineffable emanations, but one is the Flaming Sword. Behold! There is an end to life and death, an end to the thrusting forth and the withdrawing of the breath. Yea, the House of the Father is a mighty tomb, and in it he hath buried everything whereof ye know. All this while there hath been no vision, but only a voice, very slow and clear and deliberate. But now the vision returns, and the voice says: Thou shalt be called Danae, that art stunned and slain beneath the weight of the glory of the vision that as yet thou seest not. For thou shalt suffer many IV z 113