The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE KEY OF THE MYSTERIES The Master said : “If a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” Affirmation and negation must, then, marry each other, and from their union will be born the practical truth, the real and progressive word. It is necessity which should constrain the workmen to choose for the corner-stone that which they had at first despised and rejected. Let contradiction, then, never discourage men of initiative! arth is necessary for the ploughshare, and the earth resists because it is in labour. It defends itself like all virgins; it conceives and brings forth slowly like all mothers. You, then, who wish to sow a new plant in the field of intelligence, understand and respect the modesties and reluctances of limited experience and slow- moving reason. When a new word comes into the world, it needs swaddling clothes and bandages; genius brought it forth, but it is for experience to nourish it. Do not fear that it will die of neglect! Oblivion is for it a favourable time of rest, and contra- dictions help it to grow. When a sun bursts forth in space it creates worlds or attracts them to itself. A single spark of fixed light promises a universe to space. All magic is in a word, and that word pronounced qabal- istically is stronger than all the powers of Heaven, Earth and Hell. With the name of Jod hé vau hé, one commands Nature : kingdoms are conquered in the name of Adonai, and the occult forces which compose the empire of Hermes are one and all obedient to him who knows how to pronounce duly the incommunicable name of Agla. In order to pronounce duly the great words of the Qabalah, R 241