Virgo Mundi
My name is Lola, because I am the Key of
Delights, and the
other children in my dream call me Lola Daydream. When I
am awake, you see, I know that I am dreaming, so that they must be
very silly children, don't you think? There are people in the dream,
too, who are quite grown up and horrid; but the really important
Adonia
thing is the
wake-up person. There is only one, for there could
never be any one like him. I call him my Fairy Prince. He rides a horse
Pegasus
with beautiful wings like a swan, or sometimes a strange creature
Sphinx
like a lion or a
bull, with a woman's face and breasts, and she has
unfathomable eyes
V.V.V.V.V.
My Fairy
Prince is a dark boy, very comely; I think every one must
love him, and yet every one is afraid. He looks through one just as if
one had no clothes on in the Garden of God, and he had made one,
and one could do nothing except in the mirror of his mind. He never
laughs or frowns or smiles; because, whatever he sees, he sees what is
beyond as well, and so nothing ever happens. His mouth is redder
than any roses you ever saw. I wake up quite when we kiss each other,
and there is no dream any more. But when it is not trembling on mine,
I see kisses on his lips, as if he were kissing some one that one could
not see.
Now you must know that my Fairy Prince is my lover, and one day
he will come for good and ride away with me and marry me. I shan't
tell you his name because it is too beautiful. It is a great secret between
us. When we were engaged he gave me such a beautiful ring.
Sigilla annuli was like this. First
there was his shield, which had a sun on it and
1.Cognominis some roses, all on a kind of
bar; and there was a terrible number
666
written on it. There was a bank of soft roses with the sun shining
2. I Ordinis on it, and
above there was a red rose on a golden cross, and then there
3. II Ordinis was a
three-cornered star, shining so bright that nobody could possibly
4.III Ordinis look at it
unless they had love in their eyes; and in the middle was an
eye without an eyelid. That could see anything, I should think, but
you see it could never go to sleep, because there wasn't any eyelid.
On the sides were written I.N.R.I. and T.A.R.O., which mean
many strange and beautiful things, and terrible things too. I should
think any one would be afraid to hurt any one who wore that ring. It
is all cut out of amethyst, and my Fairy Prince said: "Whenever
you want me, look into the ring and call me ever so softly by my name,
and kiss the ring, and worship it, and then look ever so deep down
Incantatio into it,
and I will come to you." So I made up a pretty poem to say
every time I woke up, for you see I am a very sleepy girl, and dream
ever so much about the other children; and that is a pity, because
there is only one thing I love, and that is my Fairy Prince. So this
is the poem I did to worship the ring, part is words, and part is
pictures. You must pick out what the pictures mean, and then it all
makes poetry.
THE INVOCATION OF THE RING
ADONAI! Thou inmost D,
Self-glittering image of my soul,
Strong lover to thy Bride's desire,
Call me and claim me and
control!
I pray Thee keep the holy tryst
Within this ring of Amethyst.
For on mine eyes the golden 1
Hath dawned; my vigil slew
the night.
I saw the image of the One:
I came from darkness into
L.V.X.
I pray Thee keep the holy tryst
Within this ring of Amethyst.
I.N.R.I - me crucified,
Me slain, interred, arisen,
inspire!
T.A.R.O. - me glorified,
Anointed, fill with frenzied
D
I pray Thee keep the holy tryst
Within this ring of Amethyst.
I eat my flesh: I drink my blood
I gird my loins: I journey
far:
For thou hast shown O, +,
y, 777, kamhlon,
I pray Thee keep the holy tryst
Within this ring of Amethyst.
Prostrate I wait upon Thy will,
Mine Angel for this grace of
union.
O let this sacrament distil
Thy conversation and
communion.
I pray Thee keep the holy tryst
Within this ring of Amethyst.
I have not told you anything about myself, because it doesn't really
matter; the only thing I want to tell you about is my Fairy Prince.
But as I am telling you all this, I am seventeen years old and very
fair when you shut your eyes to look; but when you open them, I am
really dark, with fair skin. I have ever-such heaps of hair, and big,
big, round eyes, always wondering at everything. Never mind, it's
only a nuisance. I shall tell you what happened one day when I said
the poem to the ring. I wasn't really quite awake when I began, but
as I said it, it got brighter and brighter, and when I came to "ring of
Advenit
Amethyst" the
fifth time (there are five verses, because my lover's
Adonai
name has five V's
in it), he galloped across the beautiful green sunset,
spurring the winged horse, till the blood made all the sky turn rosy
red. So he caught me up and set me on his horse, and I clung to his
neck as we galloped into the night. Then he told me he would take
me to his Palace and show me everything, and one day when we were
married I should be mistress of it all. Then I wanted to be married
to him at once, and then I saw it couldn't be, because I was so sleepy
and had bad dreams, and one couldn't be a good wife if one is always
doing that sort of thing. But he said I would be older one day, and
not sleep so much, and every one slept a little, but the great thing was
not to be lazy and contented with the dreams, so I mean to fight
hard.
By and by we came to a beautiful green place with the strangest
Regnum Spatii house you ever saw. Round the big
meadow there lay a wonderful
Palatium Otz snake, with steel gray
plumes, and he had his tail in his mouth, and
Chiim
kept on
eating it and eating it, because there was nothing else for him
Draco lh
to eat, and my Fairy Prince said he
would go on like that till there
was nothing left at all. Then I said it would get smaller and smaller
and crush the meadow and the palace, and I think perhaps I began to
cry. But my Fairy Prince said: "don't be such a silly!" and I
wasn't old enough to understand all that it meant, but one day I should;
and all one had to do was to be as glad as glad. So he kissed me, and
Ceremonium we got off the horse, and
he took me to the door of the house, and we
0$=0$
went in. It
was frightfully dark in the passage, and I felt tied so that
I couldn't move, so I promised to myself to love him always, and he
kissed me. It was dreadfully, dreadfully dark though, but he said not to
be afraid, silly! And it's getting lighter, now keep straight forward,
darling! And then he kissed me again, and said: "Welcome to
my Palace!"
I will tell you all about how it was built, because it is the most
Domus X
beautiful place that ever was. On the sunset side were all the baths,
v. Regnum and the bedrooms
were in front of us as we were. The baths were all of
v. Porta
pale olive-coloured marble,
and the bedrooms had lemon-coloured
4Loci secundum everything. Then there were the kitchens on the
sunrise side, and
Elementa they
were russet, like dead leaves are in autumn in one's dreams. The
place we had come through was perfectly black everything, and only
Qliphoth used
for offices and such things. There were the most horrid things
everywhere about; black beetles and cockroaches, and goodness knows
what; but they can't hurt when the Fairy Prince is there. I think a
little girl would be eaten though if she went in there alone.
Then he said: "Come on! This is only the servants' hall, nearly
everybody stays here all their lives." And I said: "Kiss me!" So
he said: "Every step you take is only possible when you say that."
Via t v. Crux We
came to a dreadful dark passage again, so narrow and low, that
it was like a dirty old tunnel, and yet so vast and wide that everything
in the whole world was contained in it. We saw all the strange dreams
and awful shapes of fear, and really I don't know how we ever got
through, except that the Prince called for some splendid strong
Cherubim creatures
to guard us. There was an eagle that flew, and beat his
wings, and tore and bit at everything that came near; and there was
a lion that roared terribly, and his breath was a flame, and burnt up
the things, so that there was a great cloud; and rain fell gently and
purely, so that he really did the things good by fighting them. And
there was a bull that tossed them on his horns, so that they changed
into butterflies; and there was a man that kept telling everybody
to be quiet and not make a noise. So we came at last in the next
Domus IX house
of the Palace. It was a great dome of violet, and in the centre
v.Fundamentum the moon shone. She was a full moon, and yet she
looked like a woman
quite, quite young. Yet her hair was silver, and finer than spiders'
webs, and it rayed about her, like one can't say what; it was all too
beautiful. In the middle of the hall there was a black stone pillar,
Yod
from the top of which sprang a fountain of pearls; and as they fell
v.Membrum upon the floor, they
changed the dark marble to the colour of blood,
sancti foederis and it was like a green universe
of flowers, and little children
playing among them. So I said: "Shall we be married in this
House?" and he said: "No, this is only the House where the business
is carried on. All the Palace rests upon this House; but you are
called Lola because you are the Key of Delights. Many people stay
here all there lives though." I made him kiss me, and we went on to
Via w v.Dens another
passage which opened out of the Servants' Hall. This passage
was all fire and flames and full of coffins. There was an angel blowing
on a trumpet, and people getting out of the coffins.
My Fairy Prince said: "Most people never wake up for anything
less." So we went (at the same time it was; you see in dreams people
can only be in one place at a time; that's the best of being awake)
Via Z v.Caput through another
passage, which was lighted by the Sun. Yet there
were fairies dancing in a green ring, just as if it was night. And
there were two children playing by the wall, and my Fairy Prince and
I played as we went; and he said: "The difference is that we are
going through. Most people play without a purpose; if you are
travelling it is all right, and play makes the journey seem short."
Domus VIII Then we came
out into the Third (or Eighth, it depends which way you
v.Splendor count them,
because there are ten) House, and that was so splendid
you can't imagine. In the first place it was a bright, bright, bright
orange colour, and then it had flashes of light all over it, going so fast
we couldn't see them, and then there was the sound of the sea and
one could look through into the deep, and there was the ocean raging
beneath one's feet, and strong dolphins riding on it and crying aloud,
"Holy! Holy! Holy!" in such an ecstasy you can't think, and rolling
and playing for sheer joy. It was all lighted by a tiny, weeny, shy
little planet, sparkling and silvery, and now and then then a wave of fiery
chariots filled with eager spearmen blazed through the sky, and my
Fairy Prince said: "Isn't it all fine?" But I knew he didn't really
mean it, so I said: "Kiss me!" and he kissed me, and we went on. He said:
"Good little girl of mine, there's many a one stays there all his life."
I forgot to say that the whole place was just one mass of books, and
people reading them till they were so silly, they didn't know what they
were doing. And there were cheats, and doctors, and thieves; I was
really very glad to go away.
Via q
There were three ways into the Seventh House, and the first was
v.Cranium such a
funny way. We walked through a pool, each on the arm of a
great big Beetle, and then we found ourselves on a winding
path. There were nasty Jackals about, they made such a noise, and at
the end I could see two towers. Then there was the queerest moon
you ever saw, only a quarter full. The shadows fell so strangely, one
could see the mysterious shapes, like great bats with women's
faces, and blood dripping from their mouths, and creatures partly
wolves and partly men, everything changing one into the other. And
we saw shadows like old, old, ugly women, creeping about on sticks,
and all of a sudden they would fly up into the air, shrieking the funniest
kind of songs, and then suddenly one would come down flop, and you
saw she was really quite young and ever so lovely, and she would have
nothing on, and as you looked at her she would crumble away like a
Via x v.Hamus biscuit.
Then there was another passage which was really too secret
for anything; all I shall tell you is, there was the most beautiful Goddess
that ever was, and she was washing herself in a river of dew. If
you ask what she is doing, she says: "I'm making thunderbolts." It
was only starlight, and yet one could see quite clearly, so don't think
Via p v.Os
I'm making a mistake. The third path is a most
terrible passage; it's
all a great war, and there's earthquakes and chariots of fire, and all
the castles breaking to pieces. I was glad when we Came to the Green
Palace.
Domus VII
It
was all built of malachite and emerald, and there was the loveliest
v.Victoria
gentlest living, and I was married to my Fairy Prince there, and we
had the most delicious honeymoon, and I had a beautiful baby, and
then I remembered myself, but only just in time, and said: "Kiss me!"
And he kissed me and said: "My goodness! But that was a near thing
that time; my little girl nearly went to sleep. Most people who reach
the Seventh House stay there all their lives, I can tell you."
It did seem a shame to go on; there was such a flashing green star
to light it, and all the air was filled with amber-coloured flames like
kisses. And we could see through the floor, and there were terrible
lions, like furnaces for fury, and they all roared out: "Holy! Holy!
Holy!" and leaped and danced for joy. And when I saw myself in
the mirrors, the dome was one mass of beautiful green mirrors, I saw
how serious I looked, and that I had to go on. I hoped the Fairy
Prince would look serious too, because it is a most dreadful business
going beyond the Seventh House; but he only looked the same as ever.
But oh! How I kissed him, and how I clung to him, or I think I should
never , never have had the courage to go up those dreadful passages,
especially knowing what was at the end of them. And now I'm only a
little girl, and I'm ever so tired of writing, but I'll tell you all about the
rest another time.
Explicit
Capitulum Primum
vel
De Collegio Externo.
PART II
I was telling you how we started from the Green Palace. There are
three passages that lead to the Treasure House of Gold, and all of them
are very dreadful. One is called Terror by Night, and another the
Arrow by Day, and the third has a name that people are afraid to
hear, so I won't say.
Via y v.Oculus
But in the first we came to a mighty throne of
gray granite, shaped
like the sweetest pussy cat you ever saw, and set up on a desolate heath.
It was midnight, and the Devil came down and sat in the midst;
but my Fairy Prince whispered: "Hush! It is a great secret, but his name
is Yeheswah, and he is the Saviour of the World." And that was very
funny, because the girl next me thought it was Jesus Christ, till another
Fairy Prince (my Prince's brother) whispered as he kissed her: "Hush,
tell nobody ever, that is Satan, and he is the Saviour of the World."
We were a very great company, and I can't tell you of all the strange
things we did and said, or of the song we sang as we danced face outwards
in a great circle ever closing in on the Devil on the throne.
But whenever I saw a toad or a bat, or some horrid insect, my Fairy
Prince always whispered: "It is the Saviour of the World," and I saw
that it was so. We did all the most beautiful wicked things you can
imagine, and yet all the time knew they were good and right, and
must be done if ever we were to get to the House of Gold. So we enjoyed
ourselves very much and ate the most extraordinary supper you
can think of. There were babies roasted whole and stuffed with pork
sausages and olives; and some of the girls cut off chops and steaks
from their own bodies, and gave them to a beautiful white cook at a
silver grill, that was lighted with the gas of dead bodies and marshes;
and he cooked them splendidly, and we all enjoyed it immensely.
Then there was a tame goat with a gold collar, that went about laughing
with everyone; and he was all shaved in patches like a poodle.
We kissed him and petted him, and it was lovely. You must remember
that I never let go of my Fairy Prince for a single instant, or of course
I should have been turned into a horrid black toad.
Via m
Then there was another passage called the Arrow by Day, and there
was a most lovely lady all shining with the sun, and moon, and stars,
who was lighting a great bowl of water with one hand, by dropping
dew on it out of a cup, and with the other she was putting out a terrible
fire with a torch. She had a red lion and a white eagle, that she had
always had ever since she was a little girl. She had found them in
a nasty pit full of all kinds of nasty filth, and they were very savage;
but by always treating them kindly they had grown up faithful and
good. This should be a lesson to all of us never to be unkind to our
pets.
Via g v.Piscis
My Fairy Prince
was laughing all the time in the third path. There
was nobody there but an old gentleman who had put on his bones outside,
and was trying ever so hard to cut down the grass with a scythe.
But the faster he cut it the faster it grew. My Fairy Prince said:
"Everybody that ever was has come along this path, and yet only one
ever got to the end of it." But I saw a lot of people walking straight
through as if they knew it quite well; he explained, though, that they
were really only one; and if you walked through that proved it. I
thought that was silly, but he's much older and wiser than I
am; so I said nothing. The truth is that it is a very hard Palace to talk
about, and the further you get in, the harder it is to say what you mean
because it all has to be put into dream talk, as of course the language
of the wake-world is silence.
Domus VI
So never mind! Let me go on. We came by and by to the Sixth
v.Pulchritudo House. I forgot to
say that all those three paths were really one, because
they all meant that things were different inside to outside, and
so people couldn't judge. It was fearfully interesting; but mind you
don't go in those passages without the Fairy Prince. And of course
tbsp
there's the Veil. I don't think I'd better tell you about the Veil. I'll
only put your mouth to my head, and your hand - there, that'll tell any
body who knows that I've really been there, and that it's all true that
I'm telling you.
Ceremonium
This Sixth House
is called the Treasure House of Gold; it's a most
5$=6$
mysterious place as ever you were in. First there's a tiny, tiny, tiny
Humilitas
doorway, you must crawl
through on your hands and knees; and even
then I scraped ever such a lot of skin off my back; then you have to
Supplicium be
nailed on a red board with four arms, with a great gold circle in
the middle, and that hurts you dreadfully. Then they make you swear
the most solemn things you ever heard of, how you would be faithful
to the Fairy Prince, and live for nothing but to know him better and
better. So the nails stopped hurting, because, of course, I saw that I
was really being married, and this was part of it, and I was as glad
as glad; and at that moment my Fairy Prince put his hand on my
head, and I tell you, honour bright, it was more wakeup than ever
before, even than when he used to kiss me. After that they said I
Sepulchrum could go
into the Bride-chamber, but it was only the most curious
room that ever was with seven sides. There was a dreadful red
dragon on the floor, and all the sides were painted every colour you
can think of, with curious figures and pictures. The light was not
like dream light at all; it was wake light and it came through a
beautiful rose in the ceiling. In the middle was a table all covered
with beautiful pictures and texts, and there were ever such strange
things on it. There was a little crucifix in the middle, all of diamonds
and emeralds and rubies, and other precious stones, and there was a
dagger with a golden handle, and a cup of the most delicious
wine, and there was a curious coin with the strangest writing on it,
and a funny little stick that was covered with flames, like a rose tree
is with roses. Beside the strange coin was a heavy iron chain, and I
took it and put it round my neck because I was bound to my Fairy
Prince, and I would never go about like other people till I found him
again. And they took the dagger and dipped it in the cup, and
stabbed me all over to show that I was not afraid to be hurt, if only
I could find my Fairy Prince. Then I took the crucifix and held it up
to make more light in case he was somewhere in the dark corners,
but no! Yet I knew he was there somewhere, so I thought he must
Pastos Patris be in the
box, for under the table was a great chest; and I was
nostri C.R.C. terribly sad
because I felt something dreadful was going to happen.
And sure enough, when I had the courage, I asked them to open the
box, and the same people that made me crawl through that horrid
hole, and lost my Fairy Prince, and nailed me to the red board, took
away the table and opened the box, and there was my Fairy Prince,
Baculum
quite, quite dead. If
you only knew how sorry I felt! But I had with
I. Adept
me a
walking-stick with wings, and a shining sun at the top that had
been his, and I touched him on the breast to try and wake him; but
it was no good. Only I seemed to hear his voice saying wonderful
things, and it was quite certain he wasn't really dead. So I put the
walking-stick on his breast, and another little thing he had which I
Crux Ansata had
forgotten to tell you about. It was a kind of cross with an oval
handle that he had been very fond of. But I couldn't go away without
Pedum et
something of his, so I took
his shepherd's staff, and a little whip with
Flagellum
blood on it, and jewels oozing from the blood, if you know what I
Osiridis
mean, that they
had put in his hands when they buried him. Then I
went away, and cried, and cried, and cried. But before I had got
very far they called me back; and the people who had been so stern
were smiling, and I saw they had taken the coffin out of the little
Curinter mortuos room with seven sides. And the coffin
was quite, quite empty. Then
vivum petes? they began to tell
us all about it, and I heard my Fairy Prince within
Non est hic ille; the little room saying
holy exalted things, such as the stars trace in
resurrexir
the sky as they travel in the
car called "Millions of Years." Then
they took me into the little room, and there was my Fairy Prince
standing in the middle. So I knelt down and we all kissed his
beautiful feet, and the myriads of eyes like diamonds that were hidden
in his feet laughed joy at us. One couldn't lift one's head, for he was
too glorious to behold; but he spoke beautiful words like dying
nightingales that have sorrowed for the fading of roses, and
pressed themselves to death upon the thorns; and one's whole body
Advenit
became a single
eye, so that one saw as if the unborn thought of light
L.V.X.
brooded over an eternal sea. Then there was light as the lightening flaming
sub tribus
out of the east, even unto
the west, and it was fashioned as the swiftness
soeciebus
of a sword.
By and by one rose up, then one seemed to be quite, quite dead,
and buried in the centre of a pyramid of the most brilliant light it is
possible to think of. And it was wake-light too; and everybody knows
that even wake-darkness is really brighter than the dream-light. So
you might just guess what it was like. There was more than that too;
I can't possibly tell you. I know too what I.N.R.I. on the ring
meant: and I can't tell you that either, because the dream-language
has such a lot of important words missing. It's a very silly language,
I think.
By and by I came to myself a little, and now I was really and truly
married to the Fairy Prince, so I suppose we shall always be near
each other now.
Symbola
There was the way out of the little room with millions of changing
Hodos
colours, ever so beautiful, and it was lined with armed men,
Chamelionis waving their
swords for joy like flashes of lightening; and all about us glittering
Gladius et
serpents danced and sang for joy. There was a winged horse
Serpens
ready for us when we
came out on the slopes of the mountain. You
see the Sixth House is really in a mountain called Mount Abiegnus,
Mons Abiegnus only one doesn't see it because one
goes through indoors all the way.
v.Cavernarum There's one House you
have to go outdoors to get to, because no
passage has ever been made; but I'll tell you about that afterwards;
it's the Third House. So we got on the horse and went away for our
honeymoon. I shan't tell you a single word about the honeymoon.
Explicit
Capitulum Secundum
vel
De Collegio ad S. S. porta
Collegii Interni.
PART III
You mustn't suppose the honeymoon is ever really over, because it
just isn't. But he said to me: "Princess, you haven't been all over the
Palace yet. Your special House is the Third, you know, because it's
Caput candidum so convenient for the Second where I usually
live. The King my
Father lives in the First; he's never to be seen, you know He's
very, very old nowadays; I an practically Regent of course. You
must never forget that I am really He; only one generation back is
apa
erit apia not so far, and I entirely
represent his thought. Soon," he whispered
ever so softly, "you will be a mother; there will be a Fairy Prince
again to run away with another pretty little Sleepy head. Then I saw
Arcanum de Via that when Fairy Princes were really and
truly married they became
Occulta
Fairy Kings; and that I
was quite wrong ever to be ashamed of
being only a little girl and afraid of spoiling his prospects, because
really, you see, he could never become King and have a son, a Fairy
Prince without me.
But one can only do that by getting to the Third House, and it's
a dreadful journey, I do most honestly assure you.
There are two passages, one from the Eighth House and one from
the Sixth; the first is all water, and the second is almost worse, because
you have to balance yourself so carefully, or you fall and hurt
yourself.
Via p v.Aqua
To go through the
first you must be painted all over with blood up
to your waist, and cross your legs, and then put a rope round
one angle and swing you off. I had such a pretty white petticoat on,
and my Prince said I looked just like a white pyramid with a huge red
cross on the top of it, which made me ever so glad, because now I
knew I should be the Saviour of the World, which is what one wants
to be, isn't it? Only sometimes the world means all the other children
in the dream, and sometimes the dream itself, and sometimes the
wake-things one sees before one is quite, quite awake. The Prince tells
me that really and truly only the First House where his Father lived
was really a wake-house, all the others had a little sleep about
them, and the further you got the more awake you were, and began to
know just how much was dream and how much wake.
Via l v.Pertica
Then there was the other
passage where there was a narrow
stimulans
edge of green crystal, which
was all you had to walk on, and there was a
beautiful blue feather balancing on the edge, and if you disturbed the
feather there was a lady with a sword, and she would cut off your
head. So I didn't dare hardly to breathe, and all around there were
thousands and thousands of beautiful people in green who danced and
danced like anything, and at the end there was the terrible door of the
Domus V
Fifth House, which is the Royal armoury. And when we came in the
v.Severitas House
was full of steel machinery, some red hot and some white hot,
and the din was simply fearful. So to get the noise out of my head, I
took the whip and whipped myself till all my blood poured down
over everything, and I saw the whole House as a cataract of foaming
blood rushing headlong from the flaming and scintillating Star of Fire
that blazed and blazed in the candescent dome, and everything went
red before my eyes, and a great flame like a strong wind blew through
the House with a noise louder than any thunder could possibly be, so
that I couldn't hold myself hardly, and I took up the sharp knives of
the machines and cut myself all over, and the noise got louder and
louder, and the flame burnt through me and through me, so that I was
very glad when my Prince said: "You wouldn't think it, would you,
sweetheart? But there are lots of people who stay here all their
lives."
Via k v.Pugnus
There are three ways into the
Fourth House from below. The first
passage is a very curious place, all full of wheels and ever such strange
creatures, like monkeys and sphinxes and jackals climbing about them
and trying to get to the top. It was very silly, because there isn't
really any top to a wheel at all; the place you want to get to is the
Via z v.Manus centre, if
you want to be quiet. Then there was a really lovely passage,
like a deep wood in Springtime, the dearest old man came along who
had lived there all his life, because he was the guardian of it, and he
didn't need to travel because he belonged to the First House really
from the very beginning. He wore a vast cloak, and he carried a lamp
and a long stick; and he said that the cloak meant you were to be
silent and not say anything you saw, and the lamp meant you were to
tell everybody and make them glad, and the stick was like a guide to
tell you which to do. But I didn't quite believe that, because I am
getting a grown-up girl now, and I wasn't to be put off like that. I
could see that the stick was really the measuring rod with which the
whole Palace was built, and the lamp was the only light they had to
build it by, and the cloak was the abyss of darkness that covers it all
up. That is why dream people never see beautiful things like I'm telling
you about. All their houses are built of common red bricks, and
they sit in them all day and play silly games with counters, and oh!
Dear me, how they do chat and quarrel. When any one gets a million
counters, he is so glad you can't think, and goes away and tries to
change some of the counters for things he really wants, and he
can't, so you nearly die of laughing, though of course it would be
really sad if it were wake-life. But I was telling you about the
Via m v.Serpens ways to the
Fourth House, and the third way is full of lions, and a
person might be afraid; only whenever one comes to bite at you, there
is a lovely lady who puts her hands in its mouth and shuts it. So
we went through quite safely, and I thought of Daniel in the lions'
den.
Domus IV
The Fourth House is the most wonderful of all I had ever seen. It
v.Benignitas is the most
heavenly blue mansion; it is built of beryl and amethyst,
and lapis lazuli and turquoise and sapphire. The centre of the floor is
a pool of purest aquamarine, and in it is water, only you can see every
drop as a separate crystal, and the blue tinge filtering through the
light. Above there hangs a calm yet mighty globe of deep sapphirine
blue. Round it there were nine mirrors, and there is a noise that
means when you understand it, "Joy! Joy! Joy!" There are violet
flames darting through the air, each one a little sob of happy love.
Ratio Naturae One began to see
what the dream-world was really for at last; every
Naturatae
time any one kissed any one
for real love, that was a little throb of
violet flame in this beautiful House in the Wake-World. And we
bathed and swam in the pool, and were so happy you can't think. But
they said: "Little girl, you must pay for the entertainment." [I forgot
to tell you there was music like fountains make as they rise and fall,
Adeptum
only of course much more wonderful than that.] So I asked what I
Oportet Rationis must pay, and they said:
"You are now mistress of all these houses
Facultatem
from the Fourth to the Ninth. You have managed the Servants' Hall
Regnare
well enough since your
marriage; now you must manage the others,
because till you do you can never go on to the Third House." So I
said: "It seems to me that they are all in perfectly good order." But
they took me up in the air, and then I saw that the outsides were
horribly disfigured with great advertisements, and every single house
had written all over it:
F IRST HOUSE
This is his Majesty's favourite Residence.
No other genuine. Beware of worthless imitations.
Come in HERE and spend life!
Come in HERE and see the Serpent eat his Tail!
So I was furious, as you may imagine, and had men go and put all
the proper numbers on them, and a little sarcastic remark to make
them ashamed; so they read:
Fifth House, and mostly dream at that.
Seventh House. External splendour and internal corruption.
and so on. And on each one I put "No thoroughfare from here to the
First House. The only way is out of doors. By order."
Gladium,quod
This was
frightfully annoying, because in the old days we could
omnibus viis walk about inside
everywhere, and not get wet if it rained, but nowadays
custodet portas there isn't any way from the
Fourth to the Third House. You
Otz Chiim
could go of course by chariot from the Fifth to the Third, or go through the
House where the twins live from the Sixth to the Third, but that isn't
allowed unless you have been to the Fourth House too, and go from
there at the same time.
Nomen ayrt
It was here they
told me what T.A.R.O. on the ring meant. First
Nomen ADNI it means gate, and it is
the name of my Fairy Prince, when you spell
tld
. qla it in full letter by letter.
dgi . zvn
Cartae Tarot
There are seventy-eight parts
to it, which makes a perfect plan of
v.Aegypitorum the whole Palace, so you can
always find your way, if you
I.N.R.I. =
remember to say T.A.R.O..
Then you remember I.N.R.I. was on the ring too.
i.n.r.i.
= I.N.R.I. is short
for L.V.X., which means the brilliance of the wide-
F. H. Q. =
wake Light, and that too is the name of my Fairy Prince only
I.A.O. =
spelt short.
L.V.X.
inra
= 65
L.V.X. = LXV
The Romans said it had sixty-five
parts, which is five times thirteen,
and seventy-eight is six times thirteen. To get into the Wake World
you must know your thirteen times table quite well. So if you take
them both together that makes eleven times thirteen, and then you
say "Abrahadabra," which is a most mysterious word, because it has
eleven letters in it. You remember the Houses are numbered both ways,
so that the Third House is called the Eighth House too, and the Fifth
the Sixth, and so on. But you can't tell what lovely things that means
till you've been through them all, and got to the very end. So when
you look at the Ring and see I.N.R.I. and T.A.R.O. on it that means
that it is like a policeman keeping on saying "Pass along, please!"
I would have liked to stay in the Fourth House all my life, but I
began to see it was just a little dream House too; and I couldn't rest,
because my own House was the very next one. But it's too awful to
tell you how to get there. |
