The Vision and the Voice

THE VISION AND THE VOICE also above. The higher you go, the greater is the distance from one grade to another. Tam being slowly pushed backwards down the avenue, out into the wind. And this time Iam caught up by the wind and whirled away down it like a dead leaf. And a great Angel sweeps through the wind, and catches hold of me, and bears me up against it; and he sets me down on the hither side of the wind, and he whispers in my ear: Go thou forth into the world, O thrice and four times blessed who hast gazed upon the horror of the loneliness of The First. No man shall look upon his face and live. And thou hast seen his eyes, and understood his heart, for the voice of the ape is the pulse of his heart and the labouring of his breast. Go, therefore, and rejoice, for thou art the prophet of the Aeon arising, wherein He is not. Give thou praise unto thy lady Nuit, and unto her lord Hadit, that are for thee and thy bride, and the winners of the ordeal X. And with that we are come to the wall of the Aethyr, and there is a little narrow gate, and he pushes me through it, and I am suddenly in the desert. THE DESERT, NEAR Bou-SAapa.* November 29, 1909. 1.30-2.50 p.m. Tue Cry OF THE 20TH AETHYR, WHICH IS CALLED KHR The dew that was upon the face of the stone is gone, and it is become like a pool of clear golden water. And now the light is come into the Rosy Cross. Yet all that I see is the night, with the stars therein, as they appear through a tele- * This night I took the shew-stone to my breast to sleep, and immediately a Dhyana arose of the sun, seen more clearly afterwards as the Star. Exceed- ing was its brilliance. 41