Here we have the sacred flower, symbol of the virgin soul, uncontaminated by the snake of passion, which can only enfold the body-- the stem; the snake of matter--of lust--of evil. But the flower of the spirit--the soul--lifts its pure white petals upward as an incense cup to the Sun of the Spirit. In this symbol read the great lesson of the experience of evil. If, the flower of the soul, blossoms; the mud of the soil and the snake of the passions are but the surroundings of its roots and stem. Both are necessary for the perfection of the flower. The roots sink deep into Mother Earth, and draw nourishment and life, lifting matter upward, while the snake of passion becomes, under another aspect, the serpent of wisdom. Coiled around the stem of this life, it gives to the incarnated soul that wisdom which later blossoms in the Seraph of the Sun spheres. O child of Adam! Take suffering, if it forge the sword of the spirit. Take evil and passion, and turn them into deep lessons of life, blossoming the evil into good, changing passion into wisdom. Only "the pure in heart can see God." PART I Here beginneth Chapter 3 of the Book which is called "The Tablets of Aeth," 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." TABLET THE SEVENTH Libra SYMBOL A crowned king, with a scythe raised in the air, looks closely at two boys wrestling beneath him in a field of grain, a red poppy below them. VII 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