THE VISION AND THE VOICE
And they come up into the surface of the stone. And she
is singing a chant of praise: Glory unto him that hath taken
upon himself the image of toil. For by his labour is my
labour accomplished. For I, being a woman, lust ever to
mate myself with some beast. And this is the salvation of
the world, that always I am deceived by some god, and that
my child is the guardian of the labyrinth that hath two-and-
seventy paths.
Now she is gone.
And now there are Angels, walking up and down in the
stone. They are the Angels of the Holy Sevenfold Table.
It seems that they are waiting for the Angel of the Aethyr to
come forth.
Now at last he appears in the gloom. He is a mighty
King, with crown and orb and sceptre, and his robes are of
purple and gold. And he casts down the orb and sceptre to
the earth, and he tears off his crown, and throws it on the
ground, and tramples it. And he tears out his hair, that is of
ruddy gold tinged with silver, and he plucks at his beard, and
cries with a terrible voice: Woe unto me that am cast down
from my place by the might of the new Aeon. For the ten
palaces are broken, and the ten kings are carried away into
bondage, and they are set to fight as the gladiators in the
circus of him that hath laid his hand upon eleven. For the
ancient tower is shattered by the Lord of the Flame and the
Lightning. And they that walk upon their hands shall build
the holy place. Blessed are they who have turned the Eye
of Hoor unto the zenith, for they shall be filled with the
vigour of the goat.
All that was ordered and stable is shaken. The Aeon of
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