THE PILLAR OF LIGHT
Authorised Version
1. Upon the Heaven are these words inscribed, the words of thy salvation. Upon the Heaven in signs of fire before the dawn of time. Upon the Crystal Tablet that passeth not away.
2. In the tongue of tongues are they inscribed, and in the tongue of Angels that was before all tongues. 3. What is your language of the earth, My children? What are the words of thy speech?
4. Are they not fallen from the first, the mother language? Are they not broken and impaired?
5. Yet I have brought to you a clear recital; a faultless sound of the celestial voice. 6. I have forged your words into a crystal mirror that they may reflect the Truth; and the words that are writ upon the Heaven are transcribed without fault upon the earth.
7. Gaze deep into the crystal mirror and thy heart shall be transformed; hearken to the clear recital. 8. For there is no other Truth than this, nor any way unto salvation.
9. Them that have seen these signs and do not heed them; ignorant they, and full of folly.
10. Hard are their hearts, like to ice that resisteth love’s fire. 11. In the things of the world have they rested their trust; they seek Truth in the veil of illusion. 12. An hundred pursuits they pursue, and in them seek contentment.
13. Ask them: where shalt thou hide when the storm is upon thee, and wherein take shelter?
14. An hundred safe places there are and an hundred good havens; even so shall they answer. 15. An hundred most truly there are, yet but one is the Truth, and the ninety and nine are illusion. For this world shall dissolve and its splendours be vanished; its pain and its sorrows shall pass like the summer rain. 16. Life is not long, death is swift in the coming; and the ninety and nine thousand things shall be gone, but the Truth shall remain.
17. The world is but a shadow, yet it is a shadow of Truth; and at the ending of the age shall the world be redeemed. 18. Neither a leaf upon a bramble shall be lost, nor a blade of grass pass into nothingness. 19. But thou, My child, of all the world, thou alone hast power to choose; and thus art thou called maid, for maid is she that hath the power of choosing†.
20. Fix then your will upon the Truth and your heart on the Spirit My Mother, for by your love shall the world be redeemed, even to the last blade of grass.
21. In thy work praise Her and in thy resting, in thy speech and in thy silence. 22. For thou wert made one with Her, and this is thy true estate. It is good for a maid to till the soil, but it is better to live with her Lady. It is good to build and to weave, but it is better to live with her Lady. It is good to serve maids in every way, but it is better to live with her Lady.
23. She that liveth wholly with her Lady is the servant of all the world; no labour is so great as this, nor so greatly to be honoured.
24. She that has followed Me upon the mountain liveth wholly with her Lady and treadeth no step without Her. 25. She doth eat not to herself, but to her Lady; she moveth not nor drinketh to herself. 26. Hard is the path upon the mountain and narrow the way. Yet none know joy to its fullest measure save only them that tread it.
27. None shall call upon Me and be lost. Every cry of the world shall I heed; and when the whole of a heart cries upon Me, that soul shall I take beneath My mantle. 28. Cry and thou shalt have answer; love and thou art beloved, hope and thy hope shall be fulfilled, in this world and in all the worlds to come.
29. Hold fast to the Truth, for the Truth is a pillar; a steadfast pillar that all the world cannot shake. 30. Not by the breadth of an hair has it moved since time's dawning, neither yet by the breadth of an hair until time have its end. 31. From the uttermost height of the Heaven descendeth the pillar; descendeth it down as a glorious pillar of Light. To the nethermost depths of the hells it descendeth; nor the might of the demons can move it the breadth of an hair.
32. Like to a mist is this world that surroundeth the pillar; to a mist that is swiftly dispelled by the cold wind of death. 33. Hold you fast to the Truth, for the Truth, is thy shelter; sure refuge ’gainst which neither death nor the storm shall prevail. 34. This world shall be scattered like straw, and an hundred shall follow; and each in its turn shall be scattered like chaff on the wind. 35. The empires are born and decay, the stars live and perish, but the pillar of Truth moveth not by the breadth of an hair.
36. Like to a play is thy life, and the acting of mummers; like to a painted scene all the things of the world 37. The things of thy life and its acts and its purposes; where shall they be in an hundred score years from this day? Yet an hundred score years are no more than a breath in the measureless life of thy soul.
38. The things thou doest of themselves are nothing; the things thou buildest or that thou destroy; the things the foolish take for life’s high purpose, are but painted scenes gainst which the play is played.
39. For the play is not on earth but in the Heaven, not in the body, nor yet in the mind, but deep within the heart.
40. Truly, the truth of the play is the dance of the soul; 41. her journey through forests and plains, over seas, over mountains; her restless and wearisome quest through the whole of the world; 42. and each step brings her nearer to That which she yearns for in secret; or else, in her ignorance, carries her further away. 43. Like a leaf on the wind is the foolish soul blown without purpose; the plaything of passions, the puppet of every desire; 44. knowing not whence she comes, nor yet where she is going; seeking substance in shadows and having no heed for the Truth.
45. All the glories of earth are but shadows of Heavenly splendour; all earthly desires but reflections of Heavenly love. 46. Hold you fast to the Truth, for the Truth is thy guide through the labyrinth. Hold you fast to the Truth and thy steps shall be led not astray. 47. Hold you fast to the Truth, and give heed to the lucid recital, for the pillar of Truth moveth not by the breadth of an hair.
NOTE
† Maid is related to “may” and its conditional form “might”, which also, of course, means “great strength”. The two meanings are not unrelated. That which might or might not be is that which we have the power to decide. The same idea-cluster is found in Latin potens - that which potentially may happen or not happen is that which we have the potency to decide upon. Thus maid is the “powerful” — she who has the power to choose: maid, of course, meaning humanity — the central or Axial being of the world-system.
Other related words to maid are Greek mega, Sanskrit maha, majesty, magnitute, May (the month — in the Old Aristasian Calendar Maia), and Maya the divine power of creation.