THE EQUINOX
gored lion and the moan of the torn bull, and the cry of the
man that is torn by the claws of the Eagle, and the scream of
the Eagle that is strangled by the hands of the Man. Mingle
all these in the death-shriek of the Sphinx, for the blind man
hath profaned her mystery. Who is this, Oedipus, Tiresias,
Erinyes? Who is this, that is blind and a seer, a fool above
wisdom? Whom do the hounds of heaven follow, and the
crocodiles of hell await? Aleph, vau, yod, ayin, resh, tau, is
his name.
Beneath his feet is the kingdom, and upon his head the
crown. He is spirit and matter; he is peace and power; in
him is Chaos and Night and Pan, and upon BABALON his
concubine, that hath made him drunk upon the blood of the
saints that she hath gathered in her golden cup, hath he
begotten the virgin that now he doth deflower. And this is
that which is written: Malkuth shall be uplifted and set upon
the throne of Binah. And this is the stone of the philosophers
that is set as a seal upon the tomb of Tetragrammaton, and
the elixir of life that is distilled from the blood of the saints,
and the red powder that is the grinding-up of the bones of
Choronzon.
Terrible and wonderful is the Mystery thereof, O thou
Titan that hast climbed into the bed of Juno! Surely thou
art bound unto, and broken upon, the wheel; yet hast thou
uncovered the nakedness of the Holy One, and the Queen of
Heaven is in travail of child, and his name shall be called Vir,
and Vis, and Virus, and Virtus, and Viridis, in one name that
is all these, and above all these.
Desolate, desolate is the Aethyr, for thou must return
unto the habitations of the Owl and the Bat, unto the Scor-
140