The Vision and the Voice

THE VISION AND THE VOICE is set in a jewel of threescore pearls and twelve. And He hath garnished it with the Four Holy Living Creatures for Guardians, and He hath graven therein the seal of righteous- ness,* and He hath burnished it with the fire of His Angel, and the blush of His loveliness informeth it, and with delight and with wit hath He made it merry at the heart, and the core thereof is the Secret of His being, and therein is His name Generation. And this His stability hath the number 80, for that the price thereof is War.+ Beware, therefore, O thou who art appointed to understand the secret of the Outermost Abyss, for in every Abyss thou must assume the mask and form of the Angel thereof. Hadst thou a name, thou wert irrevocably lost. Search, therefore, if there be yet one drop of blood that is not gathered into the cup of Babylon the Beautiful, for in that little pile of dust, if there could be one drop of blood, it should be utterly corrupt; it should breed scorpions and vipers, and the cat of slime. And I said unto the Angel: Is there not one appointed as a warden? And he said: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani. Such an ecstasy of anguish racks me that I cannot give it voice, yet I know it is but as the anguish of Gethsemane. And that is the last word of the Aethyr. The outposts are passed, and before the seer extends the outermost Abyss. I am returned. Bou-SAaba. December 5, 1909. 10.10-11.35 p.m. * Full title of Jesod is Tzediq Jesod Olahm, “ The Righteous is the Founda- tion of the World.” + 1. S. V. D., Jesod,=80, the number of pé, the letter of Mars. gi