The Vision and the Voice

The Cry of the 24th Aethyr

NIA[1]

An angel comes forward into the stone like a warrior clad in chain-armour. Upon his head are plumes of gray,[2] spread out like the fan of a peacock.[3] About his feet a great army of scorpions and dogs, lions, elephants, and many other wild beasts. He stretches forth his arms to heaven and cries; In the crackling of the lightning, in the rolling of the thunder, in the clashing of the swords and the hurling of the arrows:[4] be thy name exalted!

Streams of fire come out of the heavens, a pale brilliant blue,[5] like plumes. And they gather themselves and settle upon his lips. His lips are redder than roses, and the blue plumes gather themselves into a blue rose,[6] and from beneath the petals of the rose come brightly coloured humming-birds,[7] and dew falls from the rose-honey-coloured dew.[8] I stand in the shower of it.

And a voice proceeds from the rose: Come away! Our chariot is drawn by doves.[9] Of mother-of-pearl and ivory is our chariot[10] and the reins thereof are the heart-strings of men. Every moment that we fly shall cover an aeon. And every place on which we rest shall be a young universe rejoicing in its strength; the meadows thereof shall be covered with flowers. There shall we rest but a night, and in the morning we shall flee away, comforted.

Now, to myself, I have imagined the chariot of which the voice spake, and I looked to see who was with me in the chariot. It was an Angel of golden hair and golden skin, whose eyes were bluer than the sea, whose mouth was redder than the fire, whose breath was ambrosial air. Finer than a spider's web were her robes. And they were of the seven colours.[11]

All this I saw; and then the hidden voice went on low and sweet: Come away! The price of the journey is little, though its name be death. Thou shalt die to all that thou fearest and hopest and hatest and lovest and thinkest and art. Yea! thou shalt die, even as thou must die. For all that thou hast, thou hast not; all that thou art, thou art not![12]

NENNI OFEKUFA ANANAEL LAIADA I MAELPEREJI NONUKA AFAFA ADAREPEHETA PEREGI ALADI NIISA NIISA LAPE OL ZODIR IDOIAN.[13]

And I said: ODO KIKALE QAA. Why art thou hidden from me, whom I hear?

And the voice answered and said unto me: Hearing is of the spirit alone.[14] Thou art a partaker of the five-fold mystery.[15] Thou must roll up the ten divine ones like a scroll, and fashion therefrom a star.[16] Yet must thou blot out the star in the heart of Hadit.[17]

For the blood of my heart is like a warm bath of myrrh and ambergris; bathe thyself therein. The blood of my heart is all gathered upon my lips if I kiss thee, burns in my fingertips if I caress thee, burns in my womb when thou art caught up into my bed. Mighty are the stars; mighty is the sun; mighty is the moon; mighty is the voice of the ever-living one, and the echoes of his whisper are the thunders of the dissolution of the worlds. But my silence is mightier than they. Close up the worlds like unto a weary house; close up the book of the recorder, and let the veil swallow up the shrine, for I am arisen, O my fair one, and there is no more need of all these things.

If once I put thee apart from me, it was the joy of play. Is not the ebb and flowing of the tide a music of the sea? Come, let us mount unto Nuit our mother and be lost! Let being be emptied in the infinite abyss! For by me only shalt thou mount; thou hast none other wings than mine.[18]

All this while the Rose has been shooting out blue flames, coruscating like snakes through the whole Aire. And the snakes have taken shapes of sentences. One of them is: Sub umbra alarum tuarum Adonai quies et felicitas.[19] And another: Summum bonum, vera sapientia, magnanima vita, sub noctis nocte sunt.[20] And another is: Vera medicina est vinum mortis.[21] And another is: Libertas evangelii per jugum legis ob gloriam dei intactam ad vacuum nequaquam tendit.[22] And another is: Sub aquâ lex terrarum.[23] And another is: Mens edax rerum, cor umbra rerum; intelligentia via summa.[24] And another is: Summa via lucis: per Hephaestum undas regas.[25] And another is: Vir introit tumulum regis, invenit oleum lucis.[26]

And all round the whole of these things are the letters TARO; but the light is so dreadful that I cannot read the words. I am going to try again. All these serpents are collected together very thickly at the edges of the wheel, because there are an innumerable number of sentences. One is: tres annos regimen oraculi.[27] And another is: terribilis ardet rex עליון‎.[28] And another is: Ter amb (amp?) (can't see it) rosam oleo (?).[29] And another is: Tribus annulis regna olisbon.[30] And the marvel is that with those four letters you can get a complete set of rules for doing everything, both for white magic and black.

And now I see the heart of the rose again. I see the face of him that is the heart of the rose, and in the glory of that face I am ended. My eyes are fixed upon his eyes; my being is sucked up through my eyes into those eyes. And I see through those eyes, and lo! the universe, like whirling sparks of gold, blown like a tempest. I seem to swell out again into him. My consciousness fills the whole Aethyr. I hear the cry NIA, ringing again and again from within me. It sounds like infinite music, and behind the sound is the meaning of the Aethyr. Again there are no words.

All this time the whirling sparks of gold go on, and they are like blue sky, with a lot of rather thin white clouds in it, outside. And now I see mountains round, far blue mountains, purple mountains. And in the midst is a little green dell of moss, which is all sparkling with dew that drips from the rose. And I am lying on that moss with my face upwards, drinking, drinking, drinking, drinking, drinking of the dew.

I cannot describe to you the joy and the exhaustion of everything that was, and the energy of everything that is, for it is only a corpse that is lying on the moss. I am the soul of the Aethyr.[31]

Now it reverberates like the swords of archangels, clashing upon the armour of the damned; and there seem to be the blacksmiths of heaven beating the steel of the worlds upon the anvils of hell, to make a roof to the Aethyr.[32]

For if the great work were accomplished and all the Aethyrs were caught up into one, then would the vision fail; then would the voice be still.

Now all is gone from the stone.

Ain el Hajel.

November 26, 1909. 2-3.25 p.m.

[1] NIA = Scorpio, Sagittarius, Taurus = Nun, Samech, Vau = 116. She is Atu XIV — Art, the Woman clothed with the Sun (see 27th Aethyr) between Scorpio, love as the instrument of change by putrefaction, and Venus, the heavenly Isis. But see also Liber AL vel Legis, Cap. III v. 72 — Coph Nia. This completes the mystery of Atu XI — Lust, by the vision of Babalon = 156, also in partial form. The Beast and the Scarlet Woman are attributed to Leo and Water, Scorpio. They are the two-in-one Chief Officers of the Temple of the New Aeon of Heru-Ra-Ha. (Note: the Eagle Kerub in the 23rd Aethyr is Aquarius. Scorpio is the woman-serpent. This is important. For the old attribution of the Golden Dawn is of the Eagle to Scorpio.)

[2] The Ajna-Chakra — Chokmah.

[3] Sacred to Juno.

[4] Arrows of Sagittarius, the rainbow which follows this storm.

[5] Blue of Sagittarius (Atu XIV — Art).

[6] Woman in Sagittarius.

[7] Sacred to Venus.

[8] Distilled from cauldron in Atu XIV — Art. The elixir. In this Aethyr is a mystery of the IX° of the O.T.O.

[9] Sacred to Venus. This woman combines Jupiter (Juno) and Venus; but is more than all this, the quintessence of Scorpio, the Lady of the Cup.

[10] Chariot — Atu VII = Cancer, cardinal sign of Water. Mother of pearl is sacred to Water. Cups symbolize pleasure, especially sexual pleasure. Ivory comes from the tusks of the elephant; teeth pertain to the letter Shin, the Fire of the Spirit. Ivory is thus a symbol of the hard gleaming militant delight of sexual energy, which bears love in her Chariot through heaven.

[11] All typical of Venus.

[12] Prophetic of the 8° = 3^□ initiation. Love is the motive power which makes the Adeptus Exemptus take the plunge into the Abyss.

[13] This passage in Enochian translates, roughly, into English as follows: "You have become elevated to the secret wisdom. Yet the true secret is unto you as a through-thrusting flame, casting down the empty by the fire of its gathering. Come forth! Come forth! For I am of the Holy Name." The Seer's answer on the next line, also in Enochian, translates, "Open the mysteries of your Creation."

[14] The traditional attribution (See the document "On Man, the Microcosm" in Vol. 1, The Golden Dawn.)

[15] That is, the Pentagram.

[16] The Ten Sephiroth form the Flaming Sword. The idea is to make a perfect man (the Pentagram) by folding up his ten consecutive qualities into a single symmetrical symbol.

[17] This Star must itself be blotted out in the Point-of-View, the Quintessence of Individuality.

[18] The totality of experiences has amounted to perfection. There is then no more need of a manifested universe. See Liber AL vel Legis, v. 29, for the Object of Division.

[19] Refers to the 5° = 6^□ initiation. Under the shadow of thy wings, Adonai, repose and happiness.

[20] Refers to the Night of Pan, and so to 8° = 3^□ which with 6° = 5^□, make the two initiated steps. The highest good, the true wisdom, the generous life, are under the night of night.

[21] This refers to the general doctrine about death. Liber AL vel Legis, Cap. II, v. 72-74, et al. The true medicine is the wine of death.

[22] Combines the four sentences (in this order, Aquarius, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio) on the circular altar in the vault of Christian Rosencreutz. (See p. 224, Vol. II, The Golden Dawn.) The meaning is, Liberty, Law, Light fill the universe. The gospel of liberty by the yoke of the law to the glory of god pure in the vacuum ["tends not" — meaning is unclear].

[23] S.A.L.T. (These letters are the initials of the Latin words in the text.) Under the water, the law of the earth

[24] M.E.R.C.U.R.I.U.S. Meaning: the mind destroys the eternal (by abstracting its reality). (See any good Yoga treatise.) The heart is their shadow; i.e., reality only appears as impressions. Binah (8° = 3^□) is the highest way. Mind is the destroyer of things, heart is the shadow of things, understanding is the way of the highest.

[25] S.U.L.P.H.U.R. An alchemical injunction; a reference to Liber AL vel Legis, Cap. 2, v. 57. The sum of the way of light: through Hephaestus you may rule the water.

[26] V.I.T.R.I.O.L. Reference to IX° O.T.O. A man entered the tomb of the king and found the oil of light.

[27] Refers to the time required to assimilate the initiation of 8° = 3^□. For three years is 156 weeks; and 156 = Babalon. Three years control the oracle.

[28] Elyon, the exalted one. Ayin, Lamed, Yod, Vau, Nun = 156, a name of Babalon, with the phallic Yod in the midst.) Terrible burns the king in the highest.

[29] Meaning, the rose must be thrice anointed with oil. (That is, with the oil.)

[30] Refers to the Tree of Life, to be ruled by the three reciprocating Paths — Daleth, Teth, Peh; that is, by the Supernal Love, by the formula of Babalon and the Beast conjoined, and by that formula which is hinted at in Liber AL vel Legis.

[31] This passage describes an initiation, the first of this series. It is the exhaustion of the lower self of the Seer in his first union with Babalon.

[32] This roof seems to be the Path of Peh (Mars, blacksmiths, steel, etc., the first ring that binds the Olisbon referred to in Note 30). The union with his mate first occurs in Yesod, of which Peh may be called the roof. Later we shall find the other marriage of Teth and Daleth.