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- Liber 10
-
- 1. I behold a small dark orb, wheeling in an abyss of infinite space. It is
- minute among a myriad vast ones, dark amid a myriad bright ones.
-
- 2. I who comprehend in myself all the vast and the minute, all the bright and
- the dark, have mitigated the brilliance of mine unutterable splendour,
- sending forth V.V.V.V.V. as a ray of my light, as a messenger unto that
- small dark orb.
-
- 3. Then V.V.V.V.V. taketh up the word, and sayeth:
-
- 4. Men and women of the Earth, to you am I come from the Ages beyond the
- Ages, from the Space beyond your vision; and I bring to you these words.
-
- 5. But they heard him not, for they were not ready to receive them.
-
- 6. But certain men heard and understood, and through them shall this
- Knowledge be made known.
-
- 7. The least therefore of them, the servant of them all, writeth this book.
-
-
-
- 8. He writeth for them that are ready. Thus is it known if one be ready, if
- he be endowed with certain gifts, if he be fitted by birth, or by wealth,
- or by intelligence, or by some other manifest sign. And the servants of the
- Master by his insight shall judge of these.
-
- 9. This Knowledge is not for all men; few indeed are called, but of these
- few many are chosen.
-
- 10. This is the nature of the Work.
-
- 11. First, there are many and diverse conditions of life upon this earth.
- In all of these is some seed of sorrow. Who can escape from sickness and
- from old age and from death?
-
- 12. We are come to save our fellows from these things. For there is a life
- intense with knowledge and extreme bliss which is untouched by any of them.
-
- 13. To this life we attain even here and now. The adepts, the servants of
- V.V.V.V., have attained thereunto.
-
- 14. It is impossible to tell you of the splendours of that to which they
- have attained. Little by little, as your eyes grow stronger, will we
- unveil to you the ineffable glory of the Path of the Adepts, and its
- nameless goal.
-
- 15. Even as a man ascending a steep mountain is lost to sight of his friends
- in the valley, so must the adept seem. They shall say: He is lost in
- the clouds. But he shall rejoice in the sunlight above them, and come to the
- eternal snows.
-
- 16. Or as a scholar may learn some secret language of the ancients, his
- friends shall say: ``Look! he pretends to read this book. But it is
- unintelligible -- it is nonsense.'' Yet he delights in the Odyssey, while
- they read vain and vulgar things.
-
- 17. We shall bring you to Absolute Truth, Absolute Light, Absolute Bliss.
-
- 18. Many adepts throughout the ages have sought to do this; but their
- words have been perverted by their successors, and again and again the
- Veil has fallen upon the Holy of Holies.
-
- 19. To you who yet wander in the Court of the Profane we cannot yet
- reveal all; but you will easily understand that the religions of the world
- are but symbols and veils of the Absolute Truth. So also are the
- philosophies. To the adept, seeing all these things from above, there
- seems nothing to choose between Buddha and Mohammed, between Atheism
- and Theism.
-
- 20. The many change and pass; the one remains. Even as wood and coal
- and iron burn up together in one great flame, if only that furnace be
- of transcendent heat; so in the alembic of this spiritual alchemy, if
- only the zelator blow sufficiently upon his furnace all the systems of
- earth are consumed in the One Knowledge.
-
- 21. Nevertheless, as a fire cannot be started with iron alone, in the
- beginning one system may be suited for one seeker, another for another.
-
- 22. We therefore who are without the chains of ignorance, look closely
- into the heart of the seeker and lead him by the path which is best
- suited to his nature unto the ultimate end of all things, the supreme
- realization, the Life which abideth in Light, yea, the Life which abideth
- in Light.
-
- 22. We therefore who are without the chains of ignorance, look closely
- into the heart of the seeker and lead him by the path with is best
- suited to his nature unto the ultimate end of all things, the supreme
- realization, the Life which abideth in Light, yea, the Life which abideth
- in Light.
-
-