Ritual
1. I
behold a small dark orb, wheeling in an abyss of infinite space. It is minute
among a myriad vast ones, dark amid a myriad bright ones.
2. I
who comprehend in myself all the vast and the minute, all the bright and the
dark, have mitigated the brilliance of mine unutterable splendour, sending
forth V.V.V.V.V. as a ray of my light, as a messenger unto that small dark
orb.
3. Then
V.V.V.V.V. taketh up the word, and sayeth:
4. Men
and women of the Earth, to you am I come from the Ages beyond the Ages, from
the Space beyond your vision; and I bring to you these words.
5. But
they heard him not, for they were not ready to receive them.
6. But
certain men heard and understood, and through them shall this Knowledge be
made known.
7. The
least therefore of them, the servant of them all, writeth this book.
8. He
writeth for them that are ready. Thus
is it known if one be ready, if he be endowed with certain gifts, if he be
fitted by birth, or by wealth, or by intelligence, or by some other manifest
sign. And the servants of the
master by his insight shall judge of these.
9. This
Knowledge is not for all men; few indeed are called, but of these few many are
chosen.
10.
This is the
nature of the Work.
11.
First, there
are many and diverse conditions of life upon this earth.
In all of these is some seed of sorrow.
Who can escape from sickness and from old age and from death?
12.
We are come
to save our fellows from these things. For there is a life intense with knowledge and extreme bliss
which is untouched by any of them.
13.
To this life
we attain even here and now. The
adepts, the servants of V.V.V.V.V., have attained thereunto.
14.
It is
impossible to tell you of the splendours of that to which they have attained.
Little
by little, as your eyes grow stronger, will we unveil to you the ineffable
glory of the Path of the Adepts, and its nameless goal.
15.
Even as a man
ascending a steep mountain is lost to sight of his friends in the valley, so
must the adept seem. They shall
say: He is lost in the clouds. But
he shall rejoice in the sunlight above them, and come to the eternal snows.
16.
Or as a
scholar may learn some secret language of the ancients, his friends shall say:
<< Look! he pretends to read this book. But it is
16.
unintelligible it is nonsense.
>> Yet he delights in the Odyssey, while they read vain and vulgar
things.
17.
We shall
bring you to Absolute Truth, Absolute Light, Absolute Bliss.
18.
Many adepts
throughout the ages have sought to do this; but their words have been
perverted by their successors, and again and again the Veil has fallen upon
the Holy of Holies.
19.
To you who
yet wander in the Court of the Profane we cannot yet reveal all; but you will
easily understand that the religions of the world are but symbols and veils of
the Absolute Truth. So also are
the philosophies. To the adept,
seeing all these things from above, there seems nothing to choose between
Buddha and Mohammed, between Atheism and Theism.
20.
The many
change and pass; the one remains. Even
as wood and coal and iron burn up together in one great flame, if only that
furnace be of transcendent heat; so in the alembic of this spiritual alchemy,
if only the zelator blow sufficiently upon his furnace all the systems of
earth are consumed in the One Knowledge.
21.
Nevertheless,
as a fire cannot be started with iron alone, in the beginning one system may
be suited for one seeker, another for another.
22.
We therefore
who are without the chains of ignorance, look closely into the heart of the
seeker and lead him by the path which is best suited to his nature unto the
ultimate end of all things, the supreme realisation, the Life which abideth in
Light, yea, the Life which abideth in Light.
23.
We therefore
who are without the chains of ignorance, look closely into the heart of the
seeker and lead him by the path with is best suited to his nature unto the
ultimate end of all things, the supreme realisation, the Life which abideth in
Light, yea, the Life which abideth in Light.