The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING is called seventy, and the triple Aleph, whereby thou perceivest it, divideth into the number of the terrible word that is the Key of the Abyss. Iam Hermes, that am sent from the Father to expound all things discreetly in these the last words that thou shalt hear before thou take thy seat among these whose eyes are sealed up, and whose ears are stopped, and whose mouths are clenched, who are folded in upon themselves, the liquor of whose bodies is dried up, so that nothing remains but a little pyramid of dust. And that bright light of comfort, and that piercing sword of truth, and all that power and beauty that they have made of themselves, is cast from them, as it is written, “ I saw Satan like lightning fall from Heaven.” And as a flaming sword is it dropt through the abyss, where the four beasts keep watch and ward. And it appeareth in the heaven of Jupiter as a morning star, or as an evening star. And the light thereof shineth even unto the earth, and bringeth hope and help to them that dwell in the darkness of thought, and drink of the poison of life. Fifty are the gates of under- standing, and one hundred and six are the seasons thereof. And the name of every season is death. During all this speech, the figure of the angel has dwindled and flickered, and now it is gone out. And I come back in the body, rushing like a flame in a great wind. And the shew-stone has become warm, and in it is its own light. Bou-saada, December 3, 1909. 9.50-11.15 pr. Comment on this cry can but profane it, yet it is necessary to emphasize the very peculiar nature of the attain- 119