In the original Vision of the Tablets of Aeth a great circle was seen, in the center a head, a faint shimmer above the head, as if the light were about to dawn; a dull, lurid glow beneath, as if of chaos or hell; the hair around the head like floating clouds, the beard like strange cloud-streaks. Each sign of the Zodiac surrounding the center head had within it a faintly seen face. Beginning with the first, it became more and more distinct and perfect with each sign until it evolved into godlike beauty in Pisces. The symbolic planets were around the Zodiac, and beyond these, making a third grand circle, were the ten Evolutionary Angels. The vision is that of the evolution of all life, spiritual and material. We gaze at the cosmic sex mystery, and the discerning mind, the loving spirit, can read the correspondence of the great sacred conjugal act of both man and God; of its heights, of its depths, and of all that lies between. To aid in meditation on the bead at the center, herein is written a vision, an experience of the soul in the Sleep of Sialam. The Hermetic brethren encircled my astral body, which was deeply entranced. "From whence," the great question, quivered through my inmost being. To answer that awful problem of the soul the released spirit went on its fearsome journey, back through star systems; back, back beyond all stars, back to the blackness of nothing-- that awful nothing, whose outside ring vibrated with fearful flames; the fiery cherubim, winged, taking all possible shapes, and unformed living shapes. A human flamed and changed and vanished. The tornado of whirling, flashing, chaotic life swirled and drove through the darkness of chaos of nothing from nothing--and that great, unknown abyss is God! But the life is EVOLUTIONARY. Deity is progressive, so never can man cease to be. Never can he return to that awful center of nothingness, or be absorbed within the bosom of the unmanifested being. On, and on, and on, with Deific power, God moves in ever-increasing whirls of evolution. Thus came the answer of the ages: "From primeval force, from the mighty breath of unmanifested being, through every phase of action and reaction, from the energies of storm and lightning, from star-dust to sunlight, has come the spirit of man!" And the Astral Brethren understood. THE TWO SEALS OF THE EARTH I SYMBOL A human being, with a flaming, burning heart. II SYMBOL A round disk inside a light, as from a sun, conceived, but not seen. So here endeth the Book which is called "The Tablets of Aeth," transcribed from the astral originals in the Year of Doom MDCCCXCIII. "Omnia Vincit Veritas." "THY KINGDOM COME." (Zanoni) April, 1893 CHAPTER XII PENETRALIA THE SECRET OF THE SOUL