Ascent
Twenty-two tunnels of the night side
from Malkuth to Keter · from the dense to the hidden
after Kenneth Grant · "Nightside of Eden", 1977
↓ enterThe one who stands at the threshold. You may enter — but not return the same.
A call sounded from within. Answer — or burn.
The sun shines even from the other side. Whoever has seen it does not return to the light in its earlier form.
The moon you can see only by turning your back. What comes out of sleep.
The star shows the way — but does not say where to.
A word that breaks walls. Your own first.
The one called by a fearful name turns out to be only a witness.
A mixing of what should not be mixed. Out of it the new is born.
Not an end. A sliding into water you have not been in before.
An inverted position in which all is seen rightly. The price: giving up motion.
The sting that teaches. Without it — no understanding.
An open palm with a wheel in it. The turning is yours, but the wheel turns itself.
The point from which all proceeds. To find it is to arrive.
A serpent that coils. Not to choke — to hold the form.
The walls around — both a motion and a prison. It depends on whether they move with you.
The sword between two lovers is not a division. It is what makes them two.
A bond between worlds. Without it — two sealed wells full of emptiness.
Breath is neither an in nor an out. It is what joins them into one.
A door that is still a door — even when no one is on the other side.
The one who is silent when you see him — and speaks when you turn away.
A house you have never entered — and yet you know every corner.
The one who stands at the very top. To hear him — be ready to hear silence.
end of the ascent
Twenty-two tunnels are walked. The one who climbed is not the same one who stands here. That is the answer.