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elements and the planets and the signs and the sephiroth; and
then shall he take the holy table that he hath made for his altar,
and he shall take the call of the Æthyr of which he will partake,
which he hath written in the angelic character, or in the character
of the holy alphabet that is revealed in Popé, upon a fair sheet of
virgin vellum; and therewith shall he conjure the Æthyr, chanting
the call. And in the lamp that is hung above the altar shall he
burn the call that he hath written.
Then shall he kneel before the holy table, and it shall be
given him to partake of the mystery of the Æthyr.
And concerning the ink with which he shall write; for the first
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Æthyr let it be gold, for the second scarlet, for the third violet,
for the fourth emerald, for the fifth silver, for the sixth sapphire,
for the seventh orange, for the eighth indigo, for the ninth gray,
for the tenth black, for the eleventh maroon, for the twelfth
russet, for the thirteenth green-gray, for the fourteenth amber, for
the fifteenth olive, for the sixteenth pale blue, for the seventeenth
crimson, for the eighteenth bright yellow, for the nineteenth
crimson adorned with silver, for the twentieth mauve, for the
twenty-first pale green, for the twenty-second rose-madder, for
the twenty-third violet cobalt, for the twenty-fourth beetle-
brown, blue-brown colour, for the twenty-fifth a cold dark gray,
for the twenty-sixth white flecked with red, blue, and yellow; the
edges of the letters shall be green, for the twenty-seventh angry
clouds of ruddy brown, for the twenty-eighth indigo, for the
twenty-ninth bluish-green, for the thirtieth mixed colours.
This shall be the form to be used by him who would partake
of the mystery of any Æthyr. And let him not change so much as
the style of a letter, lest the holy word be blasphemed.
And let him beware, after he hath been permitted to partake
of this mystery, that he await the completion of the 91st hour of
his retirement, before he open the door of the place of his
retirement; lest he contaminate his glory with uncleanness, and
lest they that behold him be smitten by his glory unto death.
For this is a holy mystery, and he that did first attain to reveal
the alphabet thereof, perceived not one ten-thousandth part of the
fringe that is upon its vesture.
Come away! for the clouds are gathered together, and the
Aire heaveth like the womb of a woman in travail. Come away!
lest he loose the lightnings from his hand, and unleash his
hounds of thunder. Come away! For the voice of the Æthyr is
accomplished. Come away! For the seal of His loving-kindness
is made sure. And let there be praise and blessing unspeakable
unto him that sitteth upon the Holy Throne, for he casteth down
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mercies as a spendthrift that scattereth gold. And he hath shut up
judgment and hidden it away as a miser that hoardeth coins of
little worth.
All this while the Angel hath been pushing me backwards,
and now he is turned into a golden cross with a rose at its heart,
and that is the red cross wherein is set the golden shewstone.
BOU-SÂADA.
December 1, 1909. 2.30-4.10 p.m.
THE CRY OF THE 17TH ÆTHYR, WHICH IS CALLED TAN
Into the stone there first cometh the head of a dragon, and
then the Angel Madimi. She is not the mere elemental that one
would suppose from the account of Casaubon. I enquire why her
form is different.
She says: Since all things are God, in all things thou seest just
so much of God as thy capacity affordeth thee. But behold!
Thou must pierce deeply into this Æthyr before true images
appear. For TAN is that which transformeth judgment into
justice. BAL is the sword, and TAN the balances.
A pair of balances appears in the stone, and on the bar of the
balance is written: Motion about a point is iniquity.
And behind the balances is a plume, luminous, azure. And
somehow connected with the plume, but I cannot divine how, are
these words: Breath is iniquity. (That is, any wind must stir the
feather of truth.)
And behind the plume is a shining filament of quartz,
suspended vertically from the abyss to the abyss. And in the
midst is a winged disk of some extremely delicate, translucent
substance, on which is written in the  dagger alphabet: Torsion
is iniquity. (This means, that the Rashith Ha-Gilgalim is the first
appearance of evil.)
And now an Angel appears, like as he were carven in black
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diamonds. And he cries: Woe unto the Second, whom all nations
of men call the First. Woe unto the First, whom all grades of
Adepts call the First. Woe unto me, for I, even as they, have
worshipped him. But she is whose paps are the galaxies, and he
that never shall be known, in them is no motion. For the infinite
Without filleth all and moveth not, and the infinite Within goeth
indeed; but it is no odds, else were the space-marks confounded.
And now the Angel is but a shining speck of blackness in the
midst of a tremendous sphere of liquid and vibrating light, at first
gold, then becoming green, and lastly pure blue. And I see that
the green of Libra is made up of the yellow of air and the blue of
water, swords and cups, judgment and mercy. And this word
TAN meaneth mercy. And the feather of Maat is blue because
the truth of justice is mercy. And a voice cometh, as it were the
music of the ripples of the surface of the sphere: Truth is delight.
(This means that the Truth of the universe is delight.)
Another voice cometh; it is the voice of a mighty Angel, all
in silver; the scales of his armour and the plumes of his wings are
like mother-of-pearl in a framework of silver. And he sayeth:
Justice is the equity that ye have made for yourselves between
truth and falsehood. But in Truth there is nothing of this, for
there is only Truth. Your falsehood is but a little falser than your
truth. Yet by your truth shall ye come to Truth. Your truth is
your troth with Adonai the Beloved one. And the Chymical
Marriage of the Alchemists beginneth with a Weighing, and he
that is not found wanting hath within him one spark of fire, so
dense and so intense that it cannot be moved, through all the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]