Sermon 28

As Ayem and Nerevar, who was her student, crossed the sky, returning to Vvanderfal, Ayem revealed this wisdom,

The Scripture of Marriage:

"Do not think me less in my disunity. My fragmentation is but an illusion. Look for me upon the canvas of your being. Skin yourself, and seek to contain every part of me. You shall always be less one.

"Do not mistake truth. Azura births us, and Mephala is the Mistress of divine interplay, it is she who moves matter. Boethiah is the cruel necessity which welcomes all.

"Thus too does Seht exhale the Universe, and Vehk is the Universe's heat, and I am heat's death. From the ever-echoing syllable do I arise, a vibration shuddering up existence's spine, never reaching the mind. For to arrive at an end is to know limitation. Be an atlas of smoke, twist and turn in the serpentine dance of a dragon. For to me, Vvanderfal is but a seed on my tongue, waiting to be swallowed, and all the oceans are but drops of oil upon my lotus-feet.

"This is the nightmare-in-daytime to some, yet you, whose soul is glass and ebony, need not fear. Your uncreation is half a key. Come to the gateless gate knowing gladness. Beyond lies extinction, and possibility's flowering.

"Listen. You can hear it now, the great boom of the Doom Drum. Be not afraid. It is the announcement of our nuptials. I come to you clad in the east's wealth, appearing as lightning, and my words are stars. Do not shrink from me. My bridal-bed is all-embracing as the womb. Its sheets swirl around you, amniotic, and I cradle you close to my breast. I am mother to those who need one. Father to others. Friend and lover I provide in equal measure. Walk like me, and I walk like you.

"The Sharmat knows the aching longing which lies buried in all hearts. He was cast out into the dark by his beloved. No vows join him. He is the wolf, cold and weary, desperate for warmth. He is the slave searching for a master. Nerevar-named-Hortator, you, and those in your image, do not spurn him. His love is many-barbed and bladed, but its shape is true. Take him into yourself, and thus know transfiguration. For the Sharmat is love's hypo-reality, and the weak fly from this. You are better-formed though. Hold him close, revel in the screams torn from your lips, exult in your bleeding throat. This is the wolf's love, and it is sculpted like hunger, gilded with red fangs. In this sweat-bathed orgy of duality, you shall know, for an agonizing instant, the meta-reality which bids us speak our lines, play our parts. Religion seeks to cloak this in law and desert-born prejudice, and it stems from misguided mercy. The elders do not wish to see their children terrified. But God is known through alien horror, and you must soak yourself in faith-acid if you wish to dissolve your eyes into sight.

"And they shall cheer to see us joined. Dance with me, 'neath the falling blossoms, dance, hold me near. Listen to the breath on my lips, my dowry: THEOSIS.

"To your husband-wife, offer the appropriate gift, thus sealing love. To Seht-who-is-Azura provide the possibility. To Vehk-who-is-Mephala, give possibility's motion, and to Ayem-who-is-Boethiah, sacrifice only that which you cannot live without. Do not be like the Dry People, who throw their firstborn into the burning mouth of a brass god. Keep close your potential, and be a microcosm of ALMSIVI, and Her mirror. For Seht is the body, Vehk is the breath in its lungs, the blood in its veins. And I, I AM."

And thus Ayem and Nerevar were united, prefiguring the divine marriage we shall all enjoy with our Mother-Father, in the meta-oblivion beyond kalpa's tyranny.

The ending of the words is ALMSIVI.