The Sword of Song

AMBROSII MAGI HORTIS ROSARUM 83 the Serpent should be his at last. “None for the fool,” they laughed back—nay, even his maiden queen. For she would not any should know thereof. Yet all were right, both he and they. But truth ran quickly about; for that was the House of Truth; and Mercury stood far from the Sun. Yet the Suggler was ever in the Sign of Sorrow, and the Fig Tree was not far. So went our Father to the Fool’s Paradise of Air. But it is not lawful that I should write to y ou, brethren, of what there came to him at that place and time; nor indeed is it true, if it were written. F or alway doth this Arcanum differ from itself on this wise, that the Not and the Amen,1 passing, are void either on the one side or the other, and Who shall tell their ways ? So our Father, having won the Serpent Crown, the Uræus of Antient Khem, did bind it upon his head, and rejoiced in that Kingdom for the space of two hundred and thirty and one days2 and nights, and turned him toward the Flaming Sword. 3 Now the Sword governeth ten mighty King- doms, and evil, and above them is the ninefold lotus, and a virgin came forth unto him in the hour of his rejoicing and propounded her riddle. The first riddle :4 The maiden is blind. Our Father : She shall be what she doth not. And a second virgin came forth to him and said : The second riddle : Detegitur Yod. Quoth our Father : The moon is full. So also a third virgin the third riddle : Man and woman : O fountain of the balance! To whom our F ather answered with a swift f lash of h is sword, so swift she saw it not. Came a fourth virgin, having a fourth riddle : What egg hath no shell ? And our Father pondered a while and then said : On a wave of the sea : on a shell of the wave : blessed be her name ! The fifth virgin issued suddenly and said : I have four arms and six sides : red I am, and gold. To whom our Father : Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani ! (For wit ye well, there be two Arcana therein.) Then saith the sixth virgin openly : Power lieth in the river of fire. And our Father laughed aloud and answered : I am come from the waterfall. So at that the seventh virgin came forth: and her countenance was troubled. The seventh riddle : The oldest said to the most beautiful: What doest thou here ? 1 This is obscure. 2 0 + 1 + 2 + . . . + 21 = 231. 3 The Sepiroth. 4 The m aiden ( Malkuth) is blind ( unredeemed). Answer : She shall be what she doth not, i.e., see. She shall be the sea, i.e., “ exalted to the throne of Binah” ( the gr eat sea) , the Qabalistic phr ase to expr ess her r edemption. We leave it to the reader’s ingenuity to so lve the rest. Each ref ers to the Sephira indicated by the number, but going upward. Hammer of Thor. Arcanum. Griphus I. Griphus II. Griphus III. Griphus IV. Griphus V. Griphus VI. Griphus VII.