My son, by powerful exercise of will These mystic counsels too thou must obey. Thou canst not see the answer in thyself; By cowardly fear thy power is still congealed; Thou canst not fashion weakness to a wave That lets thy note ring out amongst the spheres. So listen to thy soul-powers when they speak; And thine own voice within their words perceive. PHILIA: In fire cleanse thou thyself;--and lose thyself As cosmic wave in music of the spheres. ASTRID: Build thou thyself in music of the spheres; In cosmic distances fly light as air. LUNA: Sink with thy weight of earth to cosmic depths; Take courage as a self in thy sore weight. THE OTHER PHILIA: From thine own being draw thyself away; Unite thyself with elemental might. THE MYSTIC: Thine own soul speaks thus in these temple halls; Feel thou therein the guidance of the powers. THE CHIEF HIEROPHANT (addressing the Hierophant): My brother hierophant, explore this soul, Which we are to direct to wisdom's path, Down to its depths; tell us what thou dost find Its present state of consciousness to be. THE HIEROPHANT: All hath been done that our rite doth demand. The soul no more remembers what it was. The web of semblance, spun on error's loom, Opposing elements have swept away; In elemental strife it doth live on; Naught save its being hath the soul retained. Now of this being it shall read the life In cosmic words, that speak from out the flame. THE CHIEF HIEROPHANT: O human soul, read now what through the flame The cosmic word declares within thyself. (A pause of considerable length ensues, during which the stage is darkened till only the flame and indistinct outlines of the characters are visible; at the conclusion of the pause the Chief Hierophant continues.) And now from out the cosmic vision wake! Declare what can be read from cosmic words! (The Neophyte is silent. The Chief Hierophant, much alarmed, continues): He speaks not. Doth the vision leave thee? Speak! THE NEOPHYTE: Obedient to thy strict and sacred rite I sank into the being of this flame To wait the sound of lofty cosmic words. (The assembled mystics, the Hierophant excepted, show an ever-increasing alarm during the speech of the Neophyte.) I felt that I could shake off from myself The weight of earth and be as light as air. I felt the loving tide of cosmic fire Did bear me up on streaming spirit-waves. I saw the body that I wear on earth As other being stand outside myself. Though wrapt in bliss, and conscious of the light Of spirit round me, yet I could regard Mine earthly sheath with longing and desire. (Consternation all around.)