3.
PART I
——
Here beginneth Chapter 3 of the Book which is called "The Tablets
of Æth,'' wherein is transcribed the Third Quadrant of the Twelve
Mansions.
——
"To know what really exists, one must cultivate silence with
ones self, for it is in silence that the eternal and unexpected
flowers open, which change their form and color according to
the soul in which they grow. Souls are weighed in silence, as
gold and silver are weighed in pure water.''
——
"The worldly hope men set their hearts upon turns to ashes;
or it prospers, and anon, like snow upon the desert's dusty
face, lighting a little hour or two, is gone.''
REFLECTION
TABLET THE SEVENTH
The symbol of Nature's eternal war for the impossible equilibrium
between spirit and matter; the symbol, also, of Time, which is but
the illusion in which eternity clothes itself; forever putting on and
forever putting off new garments of matter. The crowned king is
the victorious soul, waiting, with the scythe of Time, to reap the harvest
of the world; while incarnated man, as represented in the wrestling
youths, is struggling for that which he did not produce, and which
only death can reap. The poppy reveals the secret of the illusions of
Nature's master-showman. All earthly things are unreal to the spirit,
which is the only real thing. Man's effort to hoard and save the things
of this world is injustice to others. The struggle
is eternal, and no
matter how careful or cunning man is to monopolize either power,
truth or wealth, swift-footed time will readjust all things without error.
O child of Adam! "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where
moth
and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal.''
TABLET THE EIGHTH
Scorpio
REFLECTION
TABLET THE EIGHTH
A significant symbol to the seer, showing forth the two ultimates
of life and death, of earthly things and sex. Scorpio is both the eagle
of the spirit, soaring aloft, well fed with all that is worth carrying
away from the earth; and also the scorpion, whose natural home is
the desert.
In sex, either way, life is given. Shall it be to your spirit making
fat and full your immortal self, or will the other interpretation be yours?
And will you leave yourself dead and annihilated, a skeleton, to the
Ego, the Divine spirit? For sex is indeed the foundation of all.
Raised to the region of Libra, it is power and magnetism. To the
bosom it is love; to the brain it is enthusiasm. It is the promethian fire
of life, the creative force, giving vigor to whatever region to which it
is raised; or, lowered, to be spent with no returns, it debases and renders
life a desert of dry bones.
O child of Adam! Reflect on the fall of man from spirit to matter, and
combine
the wisdom of the serpent with the purity of the dove, and "lest ye partake
of the tree of life ye shall surely die.''
TABLET THE NINTH
Saggitarius
REFLECTION
TABLET THE NINTH
The symbol of the conscious soul. The shell is the body, drawn
by the five senses—stars—which form an under arc, to represent the
world of material things and our relation thereto. The child, armed
with the feathered lance, is the soul; riding thus, fully armed, in the
shell of the body, it realizes the duality of truth; that all things are
changeable; and that each thing is true upon the plane of its manifestation,
while an illusion to that which is interior to its life, while
the soul is in its dream state. Sagittarius represents conservatism and
the permanence of crystallized institutions; but, when the spirit awakes
and bursts the shell of matter, the senses, instead of being the guardians
and jailors of its environment, become its servants, and the means by
which, united as the one Ego, sense-perception, it races o'er the fields
of Æth—a being of life and beauty, shining in the empyrean of God.
O child of Adam! Ever remember that temperament and environment constitute
the north and south poles of human possibility, and that ability, combined
with opportunity, is the measure of responsibility.
[Blank Leaf]
