Skip to main content

Glorian averages 100 donors a month. Are you one of the few who keep Glorian going? Donate now.

Chapter:

The Eternal Lover

They who possess much elemental nature are often given visions, and as they easily enter the elemental realms we have been privileged to record such inspiration by a pupil. 

This will give the student some ideas about these realms from whence inspiration is derived. It is given in her own language. 

•    •    •    •    •

Natural beauty and music are the links that hold her to this plane. She is highly religious; but of a pagan nature, and this world seems to her one of toil and suffering. When taken into these higher spheres she begins to grow younger and childlike and is happy and at peace with all things. Past records show her to have possessed an imperative nature, and to have been a courtesan as well as a nun; but the elemental source of her being constantly beckons to her. Having suffered greatly in past incarnations, she lost touch with her elemental guardian, who possesses great enlightenment and power. 

I can trace her incarnations from her elemental spheres—her source of enlightenment—to this dark world. Though bearing her karma with rebellion, she is not divorced from those elementals who come and guide her thoughts. Certain beings of a hierarchal nature have also appeared to her and their beauty and serenity are wonderful to behold. 

Her life has been a constant giving without, as she thinks, much return. As a child she felt that this world was an illusion. She easily senses any dishonesty or hypocrisy in people who possess such and has the elemental power of the sylph of placing a finger upon the weak spot of a person’s character. 

The Eternal Lover

I heard a voice that called to me saying, “Come, my beloved, and follow me. I am he who lives in the land of Perpetual Fragrance, whose walls are of crystal.” 

And the sound of the voice caused the Tree of Love to put forth her branches within me. The Tree of Love whose flowers are light with music and whose leaves are inscribed with gold. 

I sought my Beloved for many days, but I found him not, neither did the echo of his voice come to me upon the wind, and I journeyed far into the Valley of Despair. 

Now while I walked in this valley, from the mountain on the farthest side there came a horseman, whose spear and shield shone, and he lifted me and carried me through the illusion of the world where there was an altar garlanded with the blossoms of sensation, and the corners of it were carved very curiously with the heads of rams. 

Behind it stood One crowned and above his head was the nimbus of the moon. He stretched out his hands and anointed me and held towards me an ewer out of which he drew necklaces of pearl and sapphire and emerald, and as I tossed them up to the laughter of the sun I heard again the voice of my Beloved bidding me sit beside the Stream of Lost Remembrance. 

Now the waters of this stream ran clear, yet when I put my hand in it I drew out precious stones, and each stone had its own particular fragrance; and from the thickets and hedges there came fauns and elves, playfellows of a bygone age, and they decked me with the jewels, singing songs that were like the gentle spray of fountains, and they showed me the path my Beloved had taken. 

Like a bird that was freed, happiness soared up within me, my mind became calm and like a net that floats upon a moonlit sea I drifted into sleep. 

In the distance of a dream I saw my Beloved standing beside the watch-tower of my soul, and he cried to me saying: “Prepare the way, for I come to you with a new body and a new mind; with a casket of precious ointment and a chalice from the moon. 

“The pastures of your brain will be made fertile and about your feet will be spread the net of expression to enable you to hold the imagination of other minds. 

“No father has begotten me, no mother has suckled me. A symbol of time, and an advocate of justice I stand serene in the resting-place of silence. 

“I am the crystal wall built about the garden of Nature, on the ramparts of which are the storehouses of understanding. 

“Out of my land comes song and laughter and the rhythm of the dance. My messengers run before thought with the rush and fluttering of wings. 

“Sowing and reaping I have followed you through the fields of yesterday. In Arcady I permeated your mind with the Dayspring of Youth, for I am the eternal lover before whom all others fade. Each holds for you but a facet of me and so cannot satisfy your hunger or assuage your thirst. 

“Babylon was known to me. Through the rites of Istar you have worshipped me. Asshur heard the sound of my voice, but I remained hidden from them. Egypt unveiled my face, Greece cast her treasures at my feet and listened to my songs. 

“Through the eyes of many lovers I have looked on you, drawing aside my veils by the magic of colour and perfume and sound. 

“The going down of the sun and the rising thereof have been but links in the chain that forged you to me; for I am He who comforted you in the pangs of birth and folded about you the sheltering wings of death. Your eternal star.” 

•    •    •    •    •

In answer to my Beloved a messenger came forth to the watch-tower of my soul, and he touched my forehead so that my mind was caught up into a higher Heaven. 

Circular like a great courtyard, it was divided into twelve divisions in which each sign of the Zodiac had its place, and from each sign wound spiral staircases that led to a balcony of crystal where the people of the sun walked with the daughters of the moon. 

In the centre of the courtyard rose a fountain, greater than the one that encircled its walls, and the sound of it seemed the source of all music, and over it high up till it merged with the innermost Heaven curved a rainbow that paled and quickened as the waters rose and fell. 

Then he who guided me bade me look into the dusky cities of the world, and I saw that the only light that came to the earth was the reflection from the crystal wall, and where the spray of the fountains chanced to fall it illumined the minds of poets, it coloured the brushes of painters, and made dreams stir in the hearts of men. 

And as I looked the spirit of the fountain spoke to me saying: “Whom do you seek?” and I, thinking it was the voice of him whom I sought, held out my arms crying: “My Beloved, my Beloved, upon whose forehead shines the eternal star.” 

Swiftly the jagged icicle of torment entered my heart, for the voice answered: “Already he has journeyed far from here. Seek him in the world through the door of service.” The fountain shimmered to silence. The rainbow stood still. 

I passed through the gateway into the outer courtyard that I saw dimly through my tears. Leaning against a pillar, for all strength seemed to have left me, I waited; and out of the shadows moved a form, and I called to it, for I thought I recognised one whom I loved, but as it came towards me up the steps of the loggia, I saw it was no mortal, but the goddess Venus with one of her handmaidens, and I ran to her delirious with delight. Under my hand I felt the roundness of her breast and my whole body was filled with the wonder of her beauty, but when I touched her she turned and looked at me with wounded eyes, and uttering a cry of pain fled from me. Stooping, I picked up a spray of blossoms she had dropped in her flight; it seemed but lately picked from the Tree of Youth, for the bees of happiness followed after it, humming the song of Spring.

•    •    •    •    •

I returned to the world fettered with poverty, and Fate led me into strange paths. I who had looked upon service as my right now was called upon to serve. 

I heard the roar of the jungle called Commerce where the mind of the machine rules supreme. I saw men whose souls had dwindled till they had become like shrivelled leaves. I heard the hollow laughter of the rich, as with indifferent feet they trod the wine press of wealth, demanding more and yet more and seldom seeking to give; seeking happiness and pleasure and finding the Cask of emptiness. 

I moved among many so bowed with the stress and struggle of existence that they had almost forgotten that there existed such a thing as beauty. To them I gave a blossom from the branch that I carried, and where I plucked a flower another budded in its place; and those who looked at or held these fragile petals felt hope revive within them, and loveliness entering in made of their minds gardens of escape from this world. 

Yet I was lonely and sad. I caught no glimpse of him whom I sought; he seemed distant as the rose that grows in some far land, perfuming only my dreams. 

One day as I walked along a street a figure beckoned me, and I followed her through narrow passages and devious ways till we seemed deep under the earth; and in an alcove of the wall behind grated bars I saw something which vibrated. Looking closer I recognised the Stone of Remembrance that like a shuttle travels back and forth through the space of time. Putting my hands through the bars I held it and it gave me the power to see into the past and to understand the reason of suffering. 

•    •    •    •    •

That night in a vision I again saw the Beloved, and in one hand he held a casket and in the other a chalice. 

I took the casket and opened it only to find in it seven other caskets, and he said to me: “Open the third casket.” And when I had unlocked it I saw within it an image of myself embalmed in fine linen, and he said again: “Open the second casket,” and I did so, finding another body similar to the first, but on the brow was a diadem of seven pearls. 

He bade me unlock the fifth casket. With fear I did so, and in it lay a decomposed body, and knowing that it came from the evil of my thoughts I shrank from it in loathing; but the Beloved poured over it the contents of the chalice that he held transforming the malice of it into the wisdom of experience. 

Then a voice came from the seventh casket, and at my touch it sprang open, and in it was a sprig of amber and mother of pearl cunningly joined together and entwined; and I lifted it out and planted it in the earth, watering it with my tears. New life flowed up the amber stem, yet its smell was rancid, but the entwining twig of mother of pearl gave of itself and nourished it, and as it did so the amber faded to primrose and finally into the likeness of the pearl. 

The voice of the Beloved cried: “Prepare the way, for I am he who returns to you.” And stooping over me he sealed my lips. Yet there was singing in my heart. 

Then, looking at the caskets, he turned and said to me in anger: “Open the first.” I did so. In it was my soul enkindled, and it gave to me its message. Then did the Beloved with gentleness unseal my lips. 

Opening the fourth casket he showed to me that it contained nothing, yet as I wondered there rose from it a cloud of perfume, fragrance of happiness I had given to others. 

And in the sixth casket was a ball of crystal, and looking in the crystal I saw stretched out of Heaven the great arm of a God, and down this arm came chariots and horsemen, all the pageant of bygone days; and entering my mind they revealed to me the lost beauty of each century. 

Unscathed by death, unmarred by time, Love stood before me; and he passed his hands over the caskets enveloping them in a rosy flame, and with my Beloved and him I passed into the glory of the sunrise. 

But the time for fulfilment was not yet come. I was left alone in the land of solitude where stillness hovered with the outstretched wings of some menacing bird; and from under the earth came a muffled sound like the repeated note of a tolling bell. 

I wandered through the desolate coldness of the valleys seeking some way of escape, but the mountains bound me in on every side. 

In my hopelessness I prayed, and as I did so I saw far away in the distance many men pulling at a rope that seemed immeasurable; stretching into the very beginning of time. 

Guided by a light I found my way, and when I came to the place, I saw that the men were careworn and fatigued, yet buoyant with an inward strength, and on each of their foreheads shone a lambent flame. Then I knew that they were the Chain of Initiates who bear the burden of the world and I asked their blessings. And one of them bade me place my hand over his as it clasped the rope; like an electric current there vibrated through me the cruelty of man and the sorrow and suffering of humanity. It crashed through my senses like lightning, till a merciful darkness overtook me. 

When consciousness returned I found myself on a pinnacle of a mountain and before me stretched a path leading to the open country. I lay there looking up into the sky, and as I looked the clouds opened and out of Heaven came two hands bearing a chalice, pouring a crystalline substance over me. I stood upright and before me rose a tree. 

The Tree of Love, whose flowers are filled with music and whose leaves shine with gold, and about it thronged the sylphs of the air, the fauns and dryads of the woods, and the little people of the fields. 

Around my neck they placed an amaranthine garland, and the children of the moonbeams clothed me in shimmering garments and placed a crown of stars about my head. 

Through the groves of Arcady they led me to an altar, answering the voice of my Beloved with their singing, and as the morning mist is caught up and interpenetrated by the sun I was made one with beauty, Conquistador of Love.