I have been called a fool by some.
These friends and lovers tell me my Lady is but a dream,
my Beloved an illusion,
my hearts-song a frail and desperate wish.
But they have not looked upon her as I have.
They have not tasted her moon-dewed sweat,
or drank the wine from her cup - jeweled and bloody and feverish.
They have not felt her soft caresses like I have,
nor smelled her perfumed hair, her scented skin, her intoxicating
breath.
I have sought my Lady,
in the fiendish caverns of hell,
in the impenetrable heights of Olympus,
through the black Abyss of Time,
and across the Great Desert of Burning Sands.
I sought her, but she has always been here.
I travel beyond all I have become,
beyond all I am, or have been.
I set foot on the path that leads to her Temple door.
I arrive.
I open the door.
I see a veil.
My fingers grasp the edges,
and rend the purple veil of passion aside.
Behind it is yet another veil, black and reeking of sulfur.
I rend this veil of sorrow.
I enter the Chamber of the Rose.
As I approach the throne,
lifetimes of pain, confusion and suffering
bury themselves into the crevices of Night, and are no more.
These eyes of god will not be distracted!
I look upon her now, face to face.
Eyes meet, souls connect.
I pull her face to mine, and we kiss.
The Two, which are One, become the Many, which is None.
I am here, my Lady, standing before you.
A man before the Queen of Heaven,
unashamed at the nakedness of my birth,
hiding nothing behind this final veil of resurrection.
She lifts her hand, and gestures to me.
She points to the sky above,
to a star I recognize as my own.
Then she points to the earth below,
and I see a volcano erupting,
spewing forth lava, and fire, and desolation.
She whispers in my ear:
We have always been, you and I.
Through aeons, and lifetimes,
through strife, and war, and glory, and laughter and death.
We have always been, though you knew it not.
I was there with you in the lusting loins of your concubines,
and in the passion of their aching hearts.
I called out to you, and you heard me.
I hid myself, and you found me.
Now I appear before you without disguise and without deceit,
for I am the essence of ALL-THAT-IS,
and you are the essence of ALL-THAT-IS-NOT,
and through us the worlds are created and destroyed.
And as she said these words, my mind awoke and my vision became strong.
I saw my Lady,
recognized her voice, her smile, her anger, her joy.
I saw all those I have ever loved,
shadow-play, reflections,
illusions of light and darkness.
I understood what was, and what is, and what shall yet be.
I am thy roaming Knight of Life and Death, oh my Queen.
I have traveled up and down the earth in search of you.
I have endured many trials,
yet my vows have never been broken,
my dedication has never ceased,
for you are Love, and Life, and Light,
and you are Pain, and Death, and Darkness.
Therefore, it is not these things which attract me to you,
Therefore, it is not these things which repel me from you.
For we are what is,
when all is blasted away in the furnace of Self and No-Self.
We are what is,
when the Universe rips a thread in the fabric of time,
and the planets collide,
and the stars burn up, and fade into oblivion.
We are what is, when the forms, and the powers are recombined,
and new worlds are created
and new creatures are generated,
to live, and to die, and to be reborn.
And as I spoke these words, my Lady’s throne crumbled to dust,
and the veils which hid her face from me for so long,
burnt up in flames, and vanished into the aethyr
.
And I, and my Lady, lay playfully on a bed of grass,
in the midst of a rose scented garden,
hidden away from the eyes of the watchers.
For none can understand the nature of our Love.
It is a Love beyond Life, and a Life beyond sight.
And there,
at the source of the four raging waters,
at the kernel of existence,
at the very heart of all the worlds,
on a bed of grass,
I, and my Lady became One,
and the One became the Many,
and the Many became None.
