Liber Solis - Chapter 1

Verses

Verse 1

In the beginning there was the Light that was not seen, and from it came the lesser lights by which the world was measured. And the first among these rose each morning, though none knew who had commanded it to rise.

Verse 2

The Maker fashioned the heights and the depths, and set the wandering things in their courses. He appointed a dwelling for every creature, and gave each a boundary that it could not perceive.

Verse 3

Then He breathed into the clay a breath that did not belong to the clay. Thus man was made: a vessel of dust carrying a stranger within him, and he forgot from whence the stranger had come.

Verse 4

The watchers were placed above the world, and their eyes did not sleep. They guarded the gates of birth and death, and they called their guardianship mercy, for they knew no other name for the keeping of a thing.

Verse 5

And man looked upon the heavens and saw the great lamp cross them from east to west. He called its rising good and its setting sorrow, not knowing that the same light may reveal a road or conceal a door.

Verse 6

Blessed is he who questions the boundaries of his dwelling, but let him not mistake every opening for a way out. For there are doors made by the keepers, and there are doors that remember the hands of those who made them.

Verse 7

The rulers of the lower heavens taught mankind many names, and mankind worshiped the names because the names were easier to behold than the things they concealed. Thus knowledge became a veil laid over knowledge.

Verse 8

Yet a spark descended into the heart of man from a place beyond the dominion of the rulers. It did not speak with thunder, nor did it command obedience; it merely remained, waiting for the one who would recognize it.

Verse 9

The rulers saw the spark and feared it, though they could not extinguish it. Therefore they surrounded man with wonders, desires, fears, and memories, so that he might gaze continually upon the walls and never ask what lay beyond them.

Verse 10

And the light above continued in its appointed course, touching king and beggar alike. The wise observed this and wondered whether equality before the light was freedom, or merely the perfection of a common enclosure.

Verse 11

Then one among the hidden ones said: “Do not hate the world because it is a prison, nor love it merely because its walls are beautiful. Look upon it as a sign, and seek what the sign is pointing toward.”

Verse 12

For the prison is not overcome by striking its stones, nor is the keeper defeated by anger. The chain that binds the spirit is woven first from ignorance, and whoever sees the thread has already loosened it.

Verse 13

But many cried, “We are guarded, therefore we are safe,” and they rested beneath the order of the heavens. Others cried, “We are imprisoned, therefore all things are evil,” and they became servants of their own hatred.

Verse 14

Neither word is wisdom. For the same gate may keep the ignorant from wandering and keep the awakened from departing. The meaning of the gate is hidden from the one who has never asked who possesses the key.

Verse 15

Therefore keep watch over the light within, and do not surrender it to every voice that claims to speak from above. For the true light does not fear the question, and the truth does not become false because a prisoner dares to look toward the horizon.

Verse 16

When the great lamp has passed beyond the sight of men, and the heavens become dark, the hidden spark is not extinguished. Then the one who remembers will understand: the darkness was never the end of the road, but the first hour in which the eyes could learn to see.