The Vision and the Voice

THE VISION AND THE VOICE demon, and so feared him not, and ordered the demon to proceed.) Thou canst tell me naught that I know not, for in me is all Knowledge: Knowledge is my name. Is not the head of the great Serpent arisen into Knowledge? (Here the Scribe again commanded Choronzon to continue with the call.) Know thou that there is no Cry in the tenth Aethyr like unto the other Cries, for Choronzon is Dispersion, and cannot fix his mind upon any one thing for any length of time. Thou canst master him in argument, O talkative one; thou wast commanded, wast thou not, to talk toChoronzon? He sought not to enter the circle, or to leave the triangle, yet thou didst prate of all these things. (Here the Scribe threatened the demon with anger and pain and hell. The demon replied:) Thinkest thou, O fool, that there is any anger and any pain that I am not, or any hell but this my spirit? Images, images, images, all without control, all without reason. The malice of Choronzon is not the malice of a being; it is the quality of malice, because he that boasteth himself “JT am I,” hath in truth no self, and these are they that are fallen under my power, the slaves of the Blind One that boasteth himself to be the Enlightened One. For there is no centre, nay, nothing but Dispersion. Woe, woe, woe, threefold to him that is led away by talk, O talkative One. O thou that hast written two-and-thirty books of Wisdom, and art more stupid than an owl, by thine own talk is thy IV h 97