THE VISION AND THE VOICE
She is weeping, weeping. And the tears grow and fill the
whole stone with moons. I can see nothing and hear nothing
for the tears, though she keeps on praying. ‘Take of these
pearls, treasure them in thine heart. Is not the Kingdom of
the Abyss accurst?” She points downward to the cauldron;
and now in it there is the head of a most cruel dragon, black
and corrupted. I watch, and watch; and nothing happens.
And now the dragon rises out of the cauldron, very long
and slim (like Japanese Dragons, but infinitely more terrible),
and he blots out the whole sphere of the stone.
Then suddenly all is gone, and there is nothing in the
stone save brilliant white light and flecks like sparks of golden
fire; and there is a ringing, as if bells were being used for
anvils. And there is a perfume which I cannot describe; it is
like nothing that one can describe, but the suggestion is like
lignum aloes. And now all these things are there at once in
the same place and time.
Now a veil of olive and silver is drawn over the stone,
only I hear the voice of the angel receding, very sweet and
faint and sorrowful, saying: Far off and lonely in the secret
stone is the unknown, and interpenetrated is the knowledge
with the will and the understanding. Iam alone. I am lost,
because I am all and in all; and my veil is woven of the green
earth and the web of stars. I love; and I am denied, forI
have denied myself. Give me those hands, put them against
my heart. Is it not cold? Sink, sink, the abyss of time
remains. It is not possible that one should come to ZAA.
Give me thy face. Let me kiss it with my cold kisses. Ah!
Ah! Ah! Fall back from me. The word, the word of the aeon
is MAKHASHANAH. And these words shalt thou say back-
IV c 17