Emerald Tablet X: The Key of Time Long ago, Thoth set out …

Emerald Tablet X: The Key of Time

Long ago, Thoth set out to discover the mystery of time. He asked the Dweller: ‘O Master, what is time?’

The Dweller responded: ‘In the beginning … a timeless, spaceless, nothingness. And into the nothingness came a thought, purposeful, all-pervading, and It filled the Void.’

‘There existed no matter, only force, a movement, a vortex, or vibration of the purposeful thought that filled the Void.’

Thoth asked: ‘Was this thought eternal?’

The Dweller told him: ‘In the beginning, there was eternal thought, and for thought to be eternal, time must exist. So into the all-pervading thought grew the Law of Time.’

‘Time changes not, but all things change in time. For time is the force that holds events separate, each in its own proper place.’

‘Time is not in motion, but ye move through time as your consciousness moves from one event to another.’

‘Even though in the time ye are separate, yet still are One, in all times existent.’

From that moment, Thoth wrote, he sought to “solve the mystery of time.”

“Found I that time moves through strange angles. Yet only by curves could I hope to attain the key that would give me access to the time-space.”

“Found I that only by moving upward and yet again by moving to right-ward could I be free from the time of the movement.”

During his journeys, Thoth saw “man’s beginning” and “learned from the past that nothing is new.”

Long ago, Thoth “stood in the Halls of Amenti and heard the voice of the Lords” chant “the song of the cycles.”

“I saw the great path opened and looked for the instant into the beyond.”

“Knew I then even Infinity is moving on to some unthinkable end. Saw I that the Cosmos is Order.”

“Saw I the wheeling of cycles like vast circles across the sky. Knew I then that all that has being is growing to meet yet another being in a far-off grouping of space and of time.”

Words, Thoth wrote, are “power to open the planes that are hidden from man.”

“Hark ye, now man, this word I leave with thee. Use it and ye shall find power in its sound. Say ye the word: ‘ZIN-URU,’ and power ye shall find.”

Once, during his search for “deep buried wisdom,” Thoth reached the door to these hidden planes and called for “one who was fairer than the daughters of men.”

“Used I the drum of the Serpent. Wore I the robe of the purple and gold. Placed on my head, I, the crown of Silver. Around me the circle of cinnabar shone. Raised I my arms and cried the invocation that opens the path to the planes beyond:

‘Thou dark prince of Arulu, open the gates of the dim, hidden land and release her whom ye keep imprisoned.’

Thoth lit his circle in flames and “called Her in the space-planes beyond” to “return from Arulu.”

“Then before me rose the dark figures … of the Lords of Arulu. Parted they before me and forth came the Lady of Light.”

“Free was she now from the Lords of the night … free to live as a child of the Light.”

“Magic is knowledge and only is Law. Be not afraid of the power within thee for it follows Law as the stars in the sky.”

“Open thy eyes and see the great Sun-Light. Be not afraid for all is thine own. Fear is the Lord of the dark Arulu to he who never faced the dark fear.”

“Man is only what he believeth, a brother of darkness or a child of the Light.”