home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- 33
- u80ici1.11h40. The joy of men shall be our silver gleam, their woe our blue
- gleam all in the mother-of-pearl.
-
- 41. (The scribe was wroth thereat. He spake:
-
- O Adonai and my master, I have borne the inkhorn and the pen without
- pay, in order that I might search this river of Amrit, and sail thereon as one
- of ye. This I demand for my fee, that I partake of the echo of your kisses.)
-
- 42. (And immediately it was granted unto him.)
-
- 43. (Nay; but not therewith was he content. By an infinite abasement unto
- shame did he strive. Then a voice:)
-
- 44. Thou strivest ever; even in thy yielding thou strivest to yield and lo!
- thou yieldest not.
-
- 45. Go thou unto the outermost places and subdue all things.
-
- 46. Subdue thy fear and thy disgust. Then yield!
-
- 47. There was a maiden that strayed among the corn, and sighed; then grew a
- new birth, a narcissus, and therein she forgot her sighing and her loneliness.
-
- 48. Even instantly rode Hades heavily upon her, and ravished her away.
-
- 49. (Then the scribe knew the narcissus in his heart; but because it came not
- to his lips, therefore was he shamed and spake no more.)
-
- 50. Adonai spake yet again with V.V.V.V.V. and said:
-
- The earth is ripe for vintage; let us eat of her grapes, and be
- drunken thereon.
-
- 51. And V.V.V.V.V. answered and said: O my lord, my dove, my excellent one,
- how shall this word seem unto the children of men?
-
- 52. And He answered him: Not as thou canst see.
-
- It is certain that every letter of this cipher hath some value; but
- who shall determine the value? For it varieth ever, according to the subtlety
- of Him that made it.
-
- 53. And He answered Him: Have I not the key thereof?
-
- I am clothed with the body of flesh; I am one with the Eternal and
- Omnipotent God.
-
- 54. Then said Adonai: Thou hast the Head of the Hawk, and thy Phallus is the
- Phallus of Asar. Thou knowest the white, and thou knowest the black, and thou
- knowest that these are one. But why seekest thou the knowledge of their
- equivalence?
-
- 55. And he said: That my Work may be right.
-
- 1w3,6,956. And Adonai said: The strong brown reaper swept his swathe and
- rejoiced. The wise man counted his muscles, and pondered, and understood not,
- and was sad.
- u80 Reap thou, and rejoice!
-
- 57. Then was the Adept glad, and lifted his arm.
-
- Lo! an earthquake, and plague, and terror on the earth!
-
- A casting down of them that sate in high places; a famine upon the
- multitude!
-
- 58. And the grape fell ripe and rich into his mouth.
-
- 59. Stained is the purple of thy mouth, O brilliant one, with the white glory
- of the lips of Adonai.
-
- 60. The foam of the grape is like the storm upon the sea; the ships tremble
- and shudder; the shipmaster is afraid.
-
- 61. That is thy drunkenness, O holy one, and the winds whirl away the soul of
- the scribe into the happy haven.
-
- 62. O Lord God! let the haven be cast down by the fury of the storm! Let the
- foam of the grape tincture my soul with Thy light!
-
- 63. Bacchus grew old, and was Silenus; Pan was ever Pan for ever and ever
- more throughout the aeons.
-
- 64. Intoxicate the inmost, O my lover, not the outermost!
-
- 65. So was it ever the same! I have aimed at the peeled wand of my God, and
- I have hit; yea, I have hit.
-