AE in the Irish TheosophistRussell, George William
Religion
AE in the Irish Theosophist
Russell, George William
Theosophy
but of the mighty and unseen tides going by me with billowy motion.
"Oh, Fountain I seek, thy waters are all about me, but where shall
I find a path to Thee?" Something answered my cry, "Look in thy
heart!" and, obeying the voice, the seer in me looked forth no
more through the eyes of the shadowy form, but sank deep within
itself. I knew then the nature of these mystic streams; they
were life, joy, love, ardour, light. From these came the breath
of life which the heart drew in with every beat, and from thence
it was flashed up in illumination through the cloudy hollows of
the brain. They poured forth unceasingly; they were life in
everyone; they were joy in everyone; they stirred an incommunicable
love which was fulfilled only in yielding to and adoration of the
vast. But the Fountain I could not draw nigh unto; I was borne
backwards from its unimaginable centre, then an arm seized me, and
I was stayed. I could see no one, but I grew quiet, full of deep
quiet, out of which memory breathes only shadowiest symbols, images
of power and Holy Sages, their grand faces turned to the world,
as if in the benediction of universal love, pity, sympathy, and peace,
ordained by Buddha; the faces of the Fathers, ancient with eternal
youth, looking forth as in the imagination of the mystic Blake,
the Morning Stars looked forth and sang together. A sound as of
an "OM" unceasing welled up and made an auriole of peace around them.
I would have joined in the song, but could not attain to them.
I knew if I had a deeper love I could have entered with them into
unending labours amid peace; but I could only stand and gaze;
in my heart a longing that was worship, in my thought a wonder
that was praise. "Who are these?" I murmured? The Voice answered,
"They are the servants of the Nameless One. They do his bidding
among men. They awaken the old heroic fire of sacrifice in forgetful
hearts." Then the forms of elder life appeared in my vision. I
saw the old earth, a fairy shadow ere it yet had hardened, peopled
with ethereal races unknowing of themselves or their destinies and
lulled with inward dreams; above and far away I saw how many
glittering hosts, their struggle ended, moved onward to the Sabbath
of Eternity. Out of these hosts, one dropped as a star from their
heart, and overshadowed the olden earth with its love. Where ever
it rested I saw each man awakening from his dreams turned away with
the thought of sacrifice in his heart, a fire that might be forgotten,
but could never die. This was the continual secret whisper of the
Fathers in the inmost being of humanity. "Why do they not listen?"
I marveled. Then I heard another cry from the lower pole, the pit;
a voice of old despair and protest, the appeal of passion seeking
its own fulfilment. Alternate with the dawn of Light was the breath
of the expanding Dark where powers of evil were gathered together.
"It is the strife between light and darkness which are the world's
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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