The Vision and the Voice

THE VISION AND THE VOICE pions of the sand, and the blanched eyeless beetles that have neither wing nor horn. Return, blot out the vision, wipe from thy mind the memory thereof; stifle the fire with green wood; consume the Sacrament; cover the Altar; veil the shrine; shut up the Temple and spread booths in the market place; until the appointed time come when the Holy One shall declare unto thee the Mystery of the Third Aethyr. Yet be thou wake and ware, for the great Angel Hua is about thee, and overshadoweth thee, and at any moment he may come upon thee unawares. The voice of PAZ is ended. BISKRA, ALGERIA. December 16, 1909. 9-10.30 a.m. THE CrY OF THE 3RD AETHYR, WHICH IS CALLED ZON There is an angry light in the stone; now it is become clear. In the centre is that minute point of light which is the true Sun, and in the circumference is the Emerald Snake. And joining them are the rays which are the plumes of Maat, and because the distance is infinite, therefore are they parallel from the circumference, although they diverge from the centre. In all this is no voice and no motion. And yet it seems that the great Snake feedeth upon the plumes of Truth as upon itself, so that it contracteth. But ever so little as it contracteth, without it gloweth the golden rim, which is that minute point in the centre. And all this is the sigil of the Aethyr, gold and azure and green. Yet also these are the Severities. It is only in the first three Aethyrs that we find the pure 141