Across the Zodiac (32 page)

A bright mist of various colours intermixed in inextricable confusion,
an image of chaos but for the dim light reflected from all the
particles, filled a great part of the space before us, but the cord
was still discernible in the background. Presently, a bright
rose-coloured point of light, taking gradually the form of an Eye,
appeared above the cord and beyond the mist; and, emanating from it, a
ray of similar light entered the motionless vapour. Then a movement,
whose character it was not easy to discern, but which constantly
became more and more evidently rhythmical and regular, commenced in
the mist. Within a few moments the latter had dissolved, leaving in
its place the semblance of stars, star-clusters, and golden nebulae,
as dim and confused as that in the sword-belt of Orion, or as well
defined as any of those called by astronomers planetary.
"What seest thou?" said a voice whose very direction I could not
recognise.

"Cosmos evolved out of confusion by Law; Law emanating from Supreme
Wisdom and irresistible Will."

"And in the triple band?"

"The continuity of Time and Space preserved by the continuity of Law,
and controlled by the Will that gave Law."

While I spoke a single nebula grew larger, brighter, and filled the
entire space given throughout to the pictures presented to us; stars
and star-clusters gradually fading away into remoter distance. This
nebula, of spherical shape—formed of coarser particles than the
previous mist, and reflecting or radiating a more brilliant
effulgence—was in rapid whirling motion. It flattened into the form
of a disc, apparently almost circular, of considerable depth or
thickness, visibly denser in the centre and thinner towards the
rounded edge. Presently it condensed and contracted, leaving at each
of the several intervals a severed ring. Most of these rings broke up,
their fragments conglomerated and forming a sphere; one in particular
separating into a multitude of minuter spheres, others assuming a
highly elliptical form, condensing here and thinning out there; while
the central mass grew brighter and denser as it contracted; till there
lay before me a perfect miniature of the solar system, with planets,
satellites, asteroids, and meteoric rings.

"What seest thou?" again I heard.

"Intelligence directing Will, and Will by Law developing the microcosm
of which this world is one of the smallest parts."

The orb which represented Mars stood still in the centre of the space,
and this orb soon occupied the whole area. It assumed at first the
form of a vast vaporous globe; then contracted to a comparatively
small sphere, glowing as if more than red-hot, and leaving as it
contracted two tiny balls revolving round their primary. The latter
gradually faded till it gave out no light but that which from some
unseen source was cast upon it, one-half consequently contrasting in
darkness the reflected brightness of the other. Ere long it presented
the appearance of sea and land, of cloud, of snow, and ice, and became
a perfect image of the Martial sphere. Then it gave place to a globe
of water alone, within which the processes of crystallisation, as
exhibited first in its simpler then in its more complicated forms,
were beautifully represented. Then there appeared, I knew not how, but
seemingly developed by the same agency and in the same manner as the
crystals, a small transparent sphere within the watery globe,
containing itself a spherical nucleus. From this were evolved
gradually two distinct forms, one resembling very much some of the
simplest of those transparent creatures which the microscope exhibits
to us in the water drop, active, fierce, destructive in their scale of
size and life as the most powerful animals of the sea and land. The
other was a tiny fragment of tissue, gradually shaping itself into the
simplest and smallest specimens of vegetable life. The watery globe
disappeared, and these two were left alone. From each gradually
emerged, growing in size, complexity, and distinctness, one form after
another of higher organisation.

"What seest thou?"

"Life called out of lifelessness by Law."

Again, so gradually that no step of the process could be separately
distinguished, formed a panorama of vegetable and animal life; a
landscape in which appeared some dozen primal shapes of either
kingdom. Each of these gradually dissolved, passing by slow degrees
into several higher or more perfect shapes, till there stood before
our eyes a picture of life as it exists at present; and Man in its
midst, more obviously even than on Earth, dominating and subduing the
fellow-creatures of whom he is lord. From which of the innumerable
animal forms that had been presented to us in the course of these
transmutations this supreme form had arisen, I did not note or cannot
remember. But that no true ape appeared among them, I do distinctly
recollect, having been on the watch for the representation of such an
epoch in the pictured history.

What was now especially noteworthy was that, solid as they appeared,
each form was in some way transparent. From the Emblem before
mentioned a rose-coloured light pervaded the scene; scarcely
discernible in the general atmosphere, faintly but distinctly
traceable in every herb, shrub, and tree, more distinguishable and
concentrated in each animal. But in plant or animal the condensed
light was never separated and individualised, never parted from,
though obviously gathered and agglomerated out of, the generally
diffused rosy sheen that tinged the entire landscape. It was as though
the rose-coloured light formed an atmosphere which entered and passed
freely through the tissues of each animal and plant, but brightened
and deepened in those portions which at any moment pervaded any
organised shape, while it flowed freely in and out of all. The
concentration was most marked, the connection with the diffused
atmosphere least perceptible, in those most intelligent creatures,
like the
ambâ
and
carve
, which in the service of man appear to
have acquired a portion of human intelligence. But turning to the type
of Man himself, the light within his body had assumed the shape of the
frame it filled and appeared to animate. In him the rose-coloured
image which exactly corresponded to the body that encased it was
perfectly individualised, and had no other connection with the
remainder of the light than that it appeared to emanate and to be fed
from the original source. As I looked, the outward body dissolved, the
image of rosy light stood alone, as human and far more beautiful than
before, rose upward, and passed away.

"What seest thou?" was uttered in an even more earnest and solemn tone
than heretofore.

"Life," I said, "physical and spiritual; the one sustained by the
other, the spiritual emanating from the Source of Life, pervading all
living forms, affording to each the degree of individuality and of
intelligence needful to it, but in none forming an individual entity
apart from the race, save in Man himself; and in Man forming the
individual being, whereof the flesh is but the clothing and the
instrument."

The whole scene suddenly vanished in total darkness; only again in one
direction a gleam of light appeared, and guided us to a portal through
which we entered another long and narrow passage, terminating in a
second vestibule before a door of emerald crystal, brilliantly
illuminated by a light within. Here, again, our steps were arrested.
The door was guarded by two sentries, in whom I recognised Initiates
of the Order, wearers of the silver sash and star. The password and
sign, whispered to me as we left the Hall of the Novitiate, having
been given, the door parted and exposed to our view the inmost
chamber, a scene calculated to strike the eye and impress the mind not
more by its splendour and magnificence than by the unexpected
character it displayed. It represented a garden, but the boundaries
were concealed by the branching trees, the arches of flowering
creepers, the thickets of flowers, shrubs, and tall reeds, which in
every direction imitated so perfectly the natural forms that the
closest scrutiny would have been required to detect their
artificiality. The general form, however, seemed to be that of a
square entered by a very short, narrow passage, and divided by broad
paths, forming a cross of equal arms. At the central point of this
cross was placed on a pedestal of emerald a statue in gold, which
recalled at once the features of the Founder. The space might have
accommodated two thousand persons, but on the seats—of a material
resembling ivory, each of them separately formed and gathered in
irregular clusters—there were not, I thought, more than four hundred
or five hundred men and women intermingled; the former dressed for the
most part in green, the latter in pink or white, and all wearing the
silver band and star. At the opposite end, closing the central aisle,
was a low narrow platform raised by two steps carved out of the
natural rock, but inlaid with jewellery imitating closely the
variegated turf of a real garden. On this were placed, slanting
backward towards the centre, two rows of six golden seats or thrones,
whose occupants wore the golden band over silver robes. That next the
interval, but to the left, was filled by Esmo, who to my surprise wore
a robe of white completely covering his figure, and contrasting
signally the golden sash to which his star was attached. On his left
arm, bare below the elbow, I noticed a flat thick band of plain gold,
with an emerald seal, bearing the same proportion to the bracelet as a
large signet to its finger ring. What struck me at once as most
remarkable was, that the seats on the dais and the forms of their
occupiers were signally relieved against a background of intense
darkness, whose nature, however, I could not discern. The roof was in
form a truncated pyramid; its material a rose-coloured crystal,
through which a clear soft light illuminated the whole scene. Across
the floor of the entrance, immediately within the portal, was a broad
band of the same crystal, marking the formal threshold of the Hall.
Immediately inside this stood the same Chief who had received us in
the former Hall; and as we stood at the door, stretching forth his
left hand, he spoke, or rather chanted, what, by the rhythmical
sequence of the words, by the frequent recurrence of alliteration and
irregular rhyme, was evidently a formula committed to the verse of the
Martial tongue: a formula, like all those of the Order, never written,
but handed down by memory, and therefore, perhaps, cast in a shape
which rendered accurate remembrance easier and more certain.

"Ye who, lost in outer night,
Reach at last the Source of Light,
Ask ye in that light to dwell?
None we urge and none repel;
Opens at your touch the door,
Bright within the lamp of lore.
Yet beware! The threshold passed,
Fixed the bond, the ball is cast.
Failing heart or faltering feet
Find nor pardon nor retreat.
Loyal faith hath guerdon given
Boundless as the star-sown Heaven;
Horror fathomless and gloom
Rayless veil the recreant's doom.
Warned betimes, in time beware—Freely
turn, or frankly swear."

"What am I to swear?" I asked.

A voice on my left murmured in a low tone the formula, which I
repeated, Eveena accompanying my words in an almost inaudible
whisper—

"Whatsoe'er within the Shrine
Eyes may see or soul divine,
Swear we secret as the deep,
Silent as the Urn to keep.
By the Light we claim to share,
By the Fount of Light, we swear."

As these words were uttered, I became aware that some change had taken
place at the further end of the Hall. Looking up, the dark background
had disappeared, and under a species of deep archway, behind the seats
of the Chiefs, was visible a wall diapered in ruby and gold, and
displaying in various interwoven patterns the several symbols of the
Zinta. Towards the roof, exactly in the centre, was a large silver
star, emitting a light resembling that which the full moon sheds on a
tropical scene, but far more brilliant. Around this was a broad golden
circle or band; and beneath, the silver image of a serpent—perfectly
reproducing a typical terrestrial snake, but coiled, as no snake ever
coils itself, in a double circle or figure of eight, with the tail
wound around the neck. On the left was a crimson shield or what seemed
to be such, small, round, and swelling in the centre into a sharp
point; on the right three crossed spears of silver with crimson blades
pointed upward. But the most remarkable object—immediately filling
the interval between the seats of the Chiefs, and carved from a huge
cubic block of emerald—was a Throne, ascended on each side by five or
six steps, the upper step or seat extending nearly across the whole
some two feet below the surface, the next forming a footstool thereto.
Above this was a canopy, seemingly self-supported, of circular form. A
chain formed by interlaced golden circles was upheld by four great
emerald wings. Within the chain, again, was the silver Serpent, coiled
as before and resting upon a surface of foliage and flowers. In the
centre of all was repeated the silver Star within the golden band; the
emblem from which the Order derives its name, and in which it embodies
its deepest symbolism. Following again the direction of my unseen
prompter, I repeated words which may be roughly translated as
follows:—

"By the outer Night of gloom,
By the ray that leads us home,
By the Light we claim to share,
By the Fount of Light, we swear.
Prompt obedience, heart and hand,
To the Signet's each command:
For the Symbols, reverence mute,
In the Sense faith absolute.
Link by link to weld the Chain,
Link with link to bear the strain;
Cherish all the Star who wear,
As the Starlight's self—we swear.
By the Life the Light to prove,
In the Circle's bound to move;
Underneath the all-seeing Eye
Act, nor speak, nor think the lie;
Live, as warned that Life shall last,
And the Future reap the Past:
Clasp in faith the Serpent's rings,
Trust through death the Emerald Wings,
Hand and voice we plight the Oath:
Fade the life ere fail the troth!"