Thus the warrior within us works, or, if we choose to phrase it so, it
is the action of the spiritual will. Shall we not, then, trust in it and
face the unknown, defiant and fearless of its dangers. Though we seem to
go alone to the high, the lonely, the pure, we need not despair. Let no
one bring to this task the mood of the martyr or of one who thinks he
sacrifices something. Yet let all who will come. Let them enter the
path, facing all things in life and death with a mood at once gay and
reverent, as beseems those who are immortal--who are children today, but
whose hands tomorrow may grasp the sceptre, sitting down with the Gods
as equals and companions. "What a man thinks, that he is: that is the
old secret." In this self-conception lies the secret of life, the way of
escape and return. We have imagined ourselves into littleness, darkness,
and feebleness. We must imagine ourselves into greatness. "If thou wilt
not equal thyself to God thou canst not understand God. The like is only
intelligible by the like." In some moment of more complete imagination
the thought-born may go forth and look on the ancient Beauty. So it was
in the mysteries long ago, and may well be today. The poor dead shadow
was laid to sleep, forgotten in its darkness, as the fiery power,
mounting from heart to head, went forth in radiance. Not then did it
rest, nor ought we. The dim worlds dropped behind it, the lights of
earth disappeared as it neared the heights of the immortals. There was
One seated on a throne, One dark and bright with ethereal glory. It
arose in greeting. The radiant figure laid its head against the breast
which grew suddenly golden, and Father and Son vanished in that which
has no place or name.
III.
Who are exiles? as for me
Where beneath the diamond dome
Lies the light on hills or tree
There my palace is and home.
We are outcasts from Deity, therefore we defame the place of our exile.
But who is there may set apart his destiny from the earth which bore
him? I am one of those who would bring back the old reverence for the
Mother, the magic, the love. I think, metaphysician, you have gone
astray. You would seek within yourself for the fountain of life. Yes,
there is the true, the only light. But do not dream it will lead you
farther away from the earth, but rather deeper into its' heart. By it
you are nourished with those living waters you would drink. You are
yet in the womb and unborn, and the Mother breathes for you the diviner
airs. Dart out your farthest ray of thought to the original, and yet you
have not found a new path of your own. Your ray is still enclosed in
the parent ray, and only on the sidereal streams are you borne to the
freedom of the deep, to the sacred stars whose distance maddens, and to
the lonely Light of Lights.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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