第46章

The firearms which have become so intricate in their mechanism and so destructive in their operations, are only a degeneration of the Magic Wand.The first weapons of warfare and slaughter were very crude and clumsy, then larger and more destructive, until at last they have become as fine in texture and mechanical genius, compared with their early brothers, as the Magic Wand is to-day, above and beyond, the present weapons of warfare.At last, the original mode of defense will be rediscovered and become a utility in the hands of the majority of mankind.At the same time, the mental and moral nature will be evolving into better conditions, too, so that their use will not be given to the ignorant and evildoers, but placed in charge of the educated, those who are morally capable of leading and ruling.

Yes, we are now stepping upon the plane of reason and intuition, where right, not might, will prevail and rule the world.The present mode of government and rule will be changed, and one of humanitarian justice take its place.

God hasten the Millenium.

THE BOOK WHICH IS CALLED THE TABLETS OF AETHTHE SACRED SCROLL WHICH IS CALLED THE TABLETS OF AETHNOW FOR THE FIRST TIME TRANSCRIBED FROM THE ASTRAL RECORDS AND DONE INTO A BOOK,By ZANONI

TO WHICH IS ADDED A SERIES OF INTERPRETATIVE REFLECTIONS FOR THE SPIRITUAL MEDITATION OF THE FAITHFUL.

FOREWORD

Thy temple is the arch Of yon unmeasured sky; Thy Sabbath the stupendous march Of grand eternity.

To my Brothers and Sisters of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor:

GREETING--For some years it has been my desire to leave a spiritual legacy to the many devoted friends and followers who have braved so much amid present truth and error for my sake.

In choosing the present work for such a purpose, I have had in view the deeper spiritual needs of the soul--the prophetic element of the interior spirit, which can best exalt itself through the contemplation of Nature's arcane symbolism of the starry heavens--not the material expression of the glittering splendors of the midnight sky, but the spiritual soul-pictures of those blazing systems that reveal to the seeing eye the shining thrones of THE RULERS--the Powers that Be.

Ever since the dawn of intellectual human life upon our Mother Earth, long before the days of the cave man, or even the first frost that heralded the coming of the Ice Age, souls have hoped and hungered and souls have quailed and fallen in their struggles with the mysteries of God.But ever and anon some bright flower of the race has gained the spiritual victory.A Messianic soul has responded to aspirations of a great-hearted, great- souled woman, pregnant with spiritual yearnings beyond her race, and she has unconsciously blessed her kind for the generations yet to come with that incarnated mystery--THE SON OF GOD.Blessed, O Woman, is thy patient mission on the earth, and transcendent are the holy mysteries of thy maternity.Every human birth is a Divine miracle in humanity, performed by the Motherhood of God.

Hence it is that, from the earliest ages of life, triumphant souls have stormed the gates of the sanctuary and penetrated Nature's most occult mysteries and there recorded their spiritual victories.Amid these sacred records lies one great scroll, that none but the brightest and bravest may read.

This sacred scroll, sealed with the seven mystic seals of the heavens, contains The Tablets of Aeth, a record of the soul's experiences upon the planes of both conscious and sub-conscious life-spirit and matter, that are expressed in a series of universal symbols, which manifest to the seer theprocesses of creative life, of spiritual cause with material effect.And, finally, the mystery of the seven vials and the seven stars of Saint John are written therein; for the Tablets are the hieroglyphic keys which unlock the realities of truth involved within the unrealities of external life, and open up, to the aspiring soul, inconceivable vistas of knowledge yet possible of realization, within the Divine womb of the uncreated Aether.

Myriads of exalted spirits, who have toiled for the treasure which doth not corrupt, have added, and are adding, their portion of personal conception to this universal conception of life, so that the sacred symbols themselves, inscribed upon these imperishable Tablets, ARE EVOLUTIONARY--are slowly unfolding through the eons of time, and revealing wider and yet deeper processes of the light, life, and love, of the Motherhood of God.

Therefore, all Divine revelation of infinite truth is limited and finite as to its conception, when revealed through a finite capacity.All Divine truths are universal; all personal conceptions of such truths are limited; hence springs the unquenchable fountain of the ONE eternal truth, eternally repeating itself, in cosmic as in human life, by the progressive unfoldment of Nature's unlimited potentialities.

"The outward doth from the inward roll, And the inward dwells in the inmost soul."The true poet is always a seer, and he might have added that the INMOST SOUL is the uncreate, and, the yet uncreated itself, lies buried in the ever eternal beyond; hence the immortality of the human spirit.

This sacred astral scroll, rightly and reverently studied by the disciple of the higher law, becomes a boundless source of knowledge and inspiration.There is no mood of the mind or yearning of the soul that cannot be satisfied and refreshed from this inexhaustible fountain of spiritual truth, no passion of the human heart that cannot be eased of its burden and soothed of its pain.Its spiritual refreshment falls like the dew from heaven upon those who are weary and heavy laden with the trials and sufferings of external life.