READING

From Liber Sæculi, the 22nd Æthyr.

The voice of the Crowned Child, the Speech of the Babe that is hidden in the egg of blue: I have opened mine eye, and the universe is dissolved before me, for force is mine upper eye-lid and matter is my lower eye-lid. I gaze into the seven spaces, and there is naught.

I have gone forth to war, and I have slain him that sat upon the sea, crowned with the winds. I put forth my power and he was broken. I withdrew my power and he was ground into fine dust.

Rejoice with me, O ye Sons of the Morning; stand with me upon the Throne of Lotus; gather yourselves up unto me, and we shall play together in the fields of light. I have passed into the Kingdom of the West after my Father.

Behold! where are now the darkness and the terror and the lamentation? For ye are born into the new Æon; ye shall not suffer death. Bind up your girdles of gold! Wreathe yourselves with garlands of my unfading flowers! In the nights we will dance together, andin the morning we will go forth to war; for, as my Father liveth that was dead, so do I live and shall never die.

RESPONSORY

And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
--- And a little child shall lead them.