1. Verily and Amen! I passed through the deep sea, and by the rivers of
running water that abound therein, and I came unto the Land of No Desire.
2. Wherein was a white unicorn with a silver collar, whereon was graven the
aphorism Linea viridis gyrat universa.
3. Then the word of Adonai came unto me by the mouth of the Magister mine,
saying: O heart that art girt about with the coils of the old serpent, lift up
thyself unto the mountain of initiation!
4. But I remembered. Yea, Than, yea, Theli, yea, Lilith! these three were
about me from of old. For they are one.
5. Beautiful wast thou, O Lilith, thou serpent-woman!
6. Thou wast lithe and delicious to the taste, and thy perfume was of musk
mingled with ambergris.
7. Close didst thou cling with thy coils unto the heart, and it was as the
joy of all the spring.
8. But I beheld in thee a certain taint, even in that wherein I delighted.
9. I beheld in thee the taint of thy father the ape, of thy grandsire the
Blind Worm of Slime.
10. I gazed upon the Crystal of the Future, and I saw the horror of the End
of thee.
11. Further, I destroyed the time Past, and the time to Come had I not the
Power of the Sand-glass?
12. But in the very hour I beheld corruption.
13. Then I said: O my beloved, O Lord Adonai, I pray thee to loosen the coils
of the serpent!
14. But she was closed fast upon me, so that my Force was stayed in its
inception.
15. Also I prayed unto the Elephant God, the Lord of Beginnings, who breaketh
down obstruction.
16. These gods came right quickly to mine aid. I beheld them; I joined
myself unto them; I was lost in their vastness.
17. Then I beheld myself compassed about with the Infinite Circle of Emerald
that encloseth the Universe.
18. O Snake of Emerald, Thou hast no time Past, no time To Come. Verily Thou
art not.
19. Thou art delicious beyond all taste and touch, Thou art not-to-be-beheld
for glory, Thy voice is beyond the Speech and the Silence and the Speech therein, and Thy perfume is of pure ambergris, that is not weighed against the
finest gold of the fine gold.
20. Also Thy coils are of infinite range; the Heart that Thou dost encircle
is an Universal Heart.
21. I, and Me, and Mine were sitting with lutes in the market-place of the
great city, the city of the violets and the roses.
22. The night fell, and the music of the lutes was stilled.
23. The tempest arose, and the music of the lutes was stilled.
24. The hour passed, and the music of the lutes was stilled.
25. But Thou art Eternity and Space; Thou art Matter and Motion; and Thou art
the negation of all these things.
26. For there is no Symbol of Thee.
27. If I say Come up upon the mountains! the celestial waters flow at my
word. But thou art the Water beyond the waters.
28. The red three-angled heart hath been set up in Thy shrine; for the
priests despised equally the shrine and the god.
29. Yet all the while Thou wast hidden therein, as the Lord of Silence is
hidden in the buds of the lotus.
30. Thou art Sebek the crocodile against Asar; thou art Mati, the Slayer in
the Deep. Thou art Typhon, the Wrath of the Elements, O Thou who transcendest
the Forces in their Concourse and Cohesion, in their Death and their
Disruption. Thou art Python, the terrible serpent about the end of all
things!
31. I turned me about thrice in every way; and always I came at the last unto
Thee.
32. Many things I beheld mediate and immediate; but, beholding them no more,
I beheld Thee.
33. Come thou, O beloved One, O Lord God of the Universe, O Vast One, O
Minute One! I am Thy beloved.
34. All day I sing of Thy delight; all night I delight in Thy song.
35. There is no other day or night than this.
36. Thou art beyond the day and the night; I am Thyself, O my Maker, my
Master, my Mate!
37. I am like the little red dog that sitteth upon the knees of the Unknown.
38. Thou hast brought me into great delight. Thou hast given me of Thy flesh
to eat and of Thy blood for an offering of intoxication.
39. Thou hast fastened the fangs of Eternity in my soul, and the Poison of
the Infinite hath consumed me utterly.
40. I am become like a luscious devil of Italy; a fair strong woman with worn
cheeks, eaten out with hunger for kisses. She hath played the harlot in
divers palaces; she hath given her body to the beasts.
41. She hath slain her kinsfolk with strong venom of toads; she hath been
scourged with many rods.
42. She hath been broken in pieces upon the Wheel; the hands of the hangman
have bound her unto it.
43. The fountains of water have been loosed upon her; she hath struggled with
exceeding torment.
44. She hath burst in sunder with the weight of the waters; she hath sunk
into the awful Sea.
45. So am I, O Adonai, my lord, and such are the waters of Thine intolerable
Essence.
46. So am I, O Adonai, my beloved, and Thou hast burst me utterly in sunder.
47. I am shed out like spilt blood upon the mountains; the Ravens of
Dispersion have borne me utterly away.
48. Therefore is the seal unloosed, that guarded the Eighth abyss; therefore
is the vast sea as a veil; therefore is there a rending asunder of all things.
