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of Atlas, "are they within us. Let us call them forth by
utterance that is not uttered, by the gesture that is not made,
by the working that is above all working, for they are great and
glorious, rays of our father the Sun. Then from our bride that
waits for us in the nuptial chamber, green in the green West,
blue in the blue East, exalted above our father in the even and
in the morn, spring forth our heirs and our hosts, to greet us in
the darkness. Dim-glimmering are our gardens in the light of the
seed of light; they are peopled with shadows; they take form;
they are as serpents, they are as trees, they are as the holy
Zcrra, they are as all things straight or curved, they are
winged, they are wonderful. With us do they work, and that which
was but one in seven, and that which was two is become eleven!
With us do they work, and give us of the draught miraculous; us
do they instruct in magic, and feed us the delicate food. Let us
call forth them that are within us, that they that are without
may enter in, as it was made manifest by Him that maketh secret."
This passage, not devoid of a rude eloquence, makes clear what
was held in exoteric circles. For in Atlas the poet was not as in
England a holy and exalted being, one set apart for his high
calling, throned in the hearts of the people, cherished by kings
and nobles, one on whom no wealth and honour are too great to
shower, but one of the people themselves, of no greater con
sequence than any other. Every man was an artist in so far as he
was a man; and every man being equally so in nature, whether so
in achievement or not mattered nothing, as appreciation was of no
moment. Accomplishing Art for the sake of Art, the interest of
the creator in his work died with its creation. It may therefore
be possible that these words are those of poetic exaggeration, or
that there is a concealed meaning in them, or that they are
intended to mask and mislead, or that the poet was not himself
fully instructed. Indeed it is certain that only the High House
had the secrets of Atlas, and that the magicians of the House
held the undeniable if sometimes dangerous doctrine that the
truth and falsehood of any statement alternated as do day and
night according to the status of the hearer of the statement.
However, so strong is the tradition concerning the 'Angel of
Venus' that it must at least be considered carefully. The theory
appears to have been that if the magicians of Venus invited the
Atlanteans, means would assuredly follow, just as if a King
summons a paralysed man to his presence, he will also send
officers to convey him. Now whether the 'Angel of Venus' is
really an angel in anything like the modern sense of the word, or
merely a title of one of the principal magicians of the planet,
it is evident that the High House ardentl desired his presence.
That this might be manifested by the birth of a child 'without
the stain of Atla' was clearly an ultimate desideratum, an
outward and visible sign of redemption, an obvious guarantee of
the reality of the occurrence. It was then a Virgin high
priestess who achieved so notable a renown; whether or not this
is a mere poetic parable of the abiogenesis--if it is indeed fair
so to describe it--of the eleventh stage of Zro is another and an
open question. In any case, such is the tradition, and numerous
parodies of it are still extant in the stories of the births of
Romulus and Remus, Bacchus, Buddha and many other legendary
heroes of modern times; we even catch an echo in the myths of
such barbarian lands as Syria.
So much and no more concerning the Underground Gardens of
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