hath been summoned from
the earth, waits before Thine Altar, with ears unstopped, with
eyes unsealed, and with an open heart. Hear and descend! Descend, O
Many-shaped! Descend in Flame! Descend in Sound! Descend in Spirit! Hear
and descend!"

The Voice ceased and there was silence. Then through the silence came
a sound like the booming of the sea. It passed and presently, moved
thereto by I know not what, I raised my eyes from my hands with which I
had covered them, and saw a small dark cloud hanging over the Altar in
and out of which a fiery Serpent climbed.

Then all the Spirits clad in light fell upon the marble floor, and with
a loud voice adored; but what they said I could not understand. Behold!
the dark cloud came down and rested on the Altar, the Serpent of fire
stretched itself towards me, touched me on the forehead with its forky
tongue and was gone. From within the cloud a Voice sweet and low and
clear spoke in heavenly accents:

"Depart, ye Ministers, leave Me with my son whom I have summoned."

Then like arrows rushing from a bow the flame-clad Spirits leapt from
the ground and sped away.

"O Harmachis," said the Voice, "be not afraid, I am She whom thou dost
know as Isis of the Egyptians; but what else I am strive not thou
to learn, it is beyond thy strength. For I am all things, Life is my
spirit, and Nature is my raiment. I am the laughter of the babe, I am
the maiden's love, I am the mother's kiss. I am the Child and Servant of
the Invisible that is God, that is Law, that is Fate--though myself I be
not God and Fate and Law. When winds blow and oceans roar upon the
face of the Earth thou hearest my voice; when thou gazest on the starry
firmament thou seest my countenance; when the spring blooms out in
flowers, that is my smile, Harmachis. For I am Nature's self, and all
her shapes are shapes of Me. I breathe in all that breathes. I wax and
wane in the changeful moon: I grow and gather in the tides: I rise with
the suns: I flash with the lightning and thunder in the storms. Nothing
is too great for the measure of my majesty, nothing is so small that
I cannot find a home therein. I am in thee and thou art in Me, O
Harmachis. That which bade thee be bade Me also be. Therefore, though I
am great and thou art little, have no fear. For we are bound together
by the common bond of life--that life which flows through suns and stars
and spaces, through Spirits and the souls of men, welding all Nature to