The Vision and the Voice

THE EQUINOX scope. And there cometh a peacock into the stone, filling the whole Aire. It is like the vision called the Universal Peacock, or, rather, like a representation of that vision. And now there are countless clouds of white angels filling the Aire as the peacock dissolves. Now behind the angels are archangels with trumpets. These cause all things to appear at once, so that there is a tremendous confusion of images. And nowI perceive that all these things are but veils of the wheel, for they all gather themselves into a wheel that spins with incredible velocity. It hath many colours, but all thrilled with white light, so that they are transparent and luminous. This one wheel is forty- nine wheels, set at different angles, so that they compose a sphere; each wheel has forty-nine spokes, and has forty-nine concentric tyres at equal distances from the centre. And wherever the rays from any two wheels meet, there is a blind- ing flash of glory. It must be understood that though so much detail is visible in the wheel, yet at the same time the impression is of a single, simple object. It seems that this wheel is being spun bya hand. Though the wheel fills the whole Aire, yet the hand is much bigger than the wheel. And though this vision is so great and splen- did, yet there is no seriousness with it, or solemnity. It seems that the hand is spinning the wheel merely for pleasure, it would be better to say amusement. A voice comes: For he is a jocund and a ruddy god, and his laughter is the vibration of all that exists, and the earth- quakes of the soul. One is conscious of the whirring of the wheel thrilling one, like an electric discharge passing through one. 42