1911 · CLOSE READING
The Vision and the Voice
The Vision and the Voice (1911), PDF p. 47
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THE VISION AND THE VOICE
the substance of him. But the light is without heat. It is the
vision of Ut in the Upanishads. And from this vision have
come all the legends of Bacchus and Krishna and Adonis.
For the impression is of a youth dancing and making music.
But you must understand that he is not doing that, for he is
still. Even the hand that turns the wheel is not his hand, but
only a hand energized by him.
And now it is the dance of Shiva. I lie beneath his feet,
his saint, his victim. My form is the form of the God Phtah,
in my essence, but the form of the god Seb in my form. And
this is the reason of existence, that in this dance which is
delight, there must needs be both the god and the adept.
Also the earth herself is a saint; and the sun and the moon
dance upon her, torturing her with delight.
This vision is not perfect. I am only in the outer court of
the vision, because I have undertaken it in the service of the
Holy One, and must retain sense and speech. No recorded
vision is perfect, of high visions, for the seer must keep either
his physical organs or his memory in working order. And
neither is capable. There is no bridge. One can only be
conscious of one thing at a time, and as the consciousness
moves nearer to the vision, it loses control of the physical
and mental. Even so, the body and the mind must be very
perfect before anything can be done, or the energy of the
vision may send the body into spasms and the mind into
insanity. This is why the first visions give Ananda, which is
a shock. When the adept is attuned to Samadhi, there is but
cloudless peace.
This vision is particularly difficult to get into, because he
is I. And therefore the human ego is being constantly excited,
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