(55) In the future of mankind, when the days grow old

(110) Just as a sour bitter green apple is forced by the sun, that it becometh very pleasant or lovely to be eaten, and yet all its qualities are tasted; so the Deity keepeth its qualities also, but striveth or struggles gently, like a pleasant lovely sport or scene.

(57) And when the sweet quality is dried, then it is a corpus or body, which is perfect, but wanting reason.

(29) But, that the fruits upon the body are much pleasanter, more lovely, sweeter and milder, and with a good taste and relish, that is [because of] the third birth out of the earth, according to which the earth shall be purged and cleansed at the end of this time, and shall be set or put again into its first place; but the wrath will abide in death. The richly joyful Gate of Man.

(94) And the first heaven shall depart and pass away, And a new heaven shall appear, And all the powers of the heavens shall give sevenfold light.

(100) This they drive and act so long, till all the matter is quite dried, till the sweet quality or sweet water is dried up, and then the fruit falls off, and the stalk drieth also and falleth down. And this is the End of Nature in this World.

(2) Then nature will have a final opportunity. And the stars will cease from the sky. The mouth of error will be opened that the evil darkness may become idle and silent. And in the last day the forms of nature will be destroyed with the winds and all their demons; they will become a dark lump, just as they were from the beginning. And the sweet waters that were burdened by the demons will perish. For where the power of the spirit has gone, there are my sweet waters. The other works of nature will not be manifest. They will mix with the infinite waters of darkness. And all her forms will cease from the middle region.

(34) The sweet quality is set opposite to the bitter, and is a gracious, amiable, blessed and pleasant quality, a refreshing of the life, an allaying of the fierceness. It makes all pleasant and friendly in every creature; it makes the vegetables of the earth fragrant and of good taste, affording fair, yellow, white and ruddy colours.

(23) Keep telling forever a stone to become a ruby, Keep telling forever the old to become young! Tell earth to assume the quality of water, Bid water to become honey or milk! God is the creator of heaven and them that dwell therein; Also of water and of earth, and them that dwell therein; To heaven He gave its revolutions and its purity, Can the heaven will to become as dregs? Can earth will to assume the clearness of pure wine? That Person has assigned 'to each its lot, Can mountain by endeavor become as grass?"

(91) And then the sweet quality yieldeth to be taken captive, and so the bitter, the sour, the sweet and the astringent reign jointly together, and the sweet stretcheth itself a little forth, but it can escape no more, for it is captivated or caught.

(9) Those who have indulged without limit in the pleasures of the world, at the time of death will be like a man who has gorged himself to repletion on delicious viands and then vomits them up. The deliciousness has gone, but the disgrace remains. The greater the abundance of the possessions which they have enjoyed in the shape of gardens, male and female slaves, gold, silver, etc., the more keenly they will feel the bitterness of parting from them. This is a bitterness which will outlast death, for the soul which has contracted covetousness as a fixed habit will necessarily in the next world suffer from the pangs of unsatisfied desire.

(18) The bitter quality qualifieth in the sweet, and in the astringent (or harsh and sour) quality, and the love riseth up therein from eternity to eternity.

(7) And sweet to us is such a deprivation, Because our good in this good is made perfect, That whatsoe'er God wills, we also will." After this manner by that shape divine, To make clear in me my short-sightedness, Was given to me a pleasant medicine; And as good singer a good lutanist Accompanies with vibrations of the chords, Whereby more pleasantness the song acquires, So, while it spake, do I remember me That I beheld both of those blessed lights, Even as the winking of the eyes concords, Moving unto the words their little flames.

(39) For the sweet water, and the light in the sweet water, rise up continually in the astringent quality, and the bitter quality triumpheth continually therein, and so there is nothing else but mere laughing and joy, and mere existing in love.

(70) Then the sun and stars will return again to their first place, and will pass away in such a form or manner; for the Heart and Light of God will give light and shine again in the corporeity, that is, in the body of this world, and replenish or fill all.

(52) In the sour quality it causes a rankness and brittleness, a stink, a misery, a house of mourning, a house of darkness, of death and of hell; an end of joy, which therein can no more be thought upon: For it cannot be quieted or stilled by anything, nor can it be enlightened again by anything; but the dark, astringent or harsh, stinking, sour, torn, bitter, fierce quality riseth up to all eternity. Now observe:

(26) A writer on the subject has well said: "The soul, preserving its desire for material things—the things of flesh and material life—and not being able to divorce itself from these things, will naturally fall into the current of rebirth which will lead it toward conditions in which these desires will flourish and become manifest. It is only when the soul, by means of many earth-lives, begins to see the worthlessness and illusory nature of earthly desires, and it begins to become attracted by the things of the life of its higher nature, and, escaping the flowing currents of earthly rebirth, it rises above them and is carried to higher spheres. The average person, after years of earthly experience, is apt to say that he or she has no more desire for earth life, and that his or her only desire is to leave the same behind forever. These persons are perfectly sincere in their statements and beliefs, but a glance into their inmost souls would reveal an entirely different state of affairs. They are not, as a rule, really tired of earth life, but are merely tired of the particular kind of earth life which they have experienced during that incarnation. They have discovered the illusory nature of a certain set of earthly experiences, and feel disgusted at the same. But they are still full of another set of experiences on earth. They have failed to find happiness or satisfaction in their own experience, but they will admit, if they are honest with themselves, that if they could have had things 'just so and so,' instead of ' thus and so,' they would have found happiness and satisfaction. The 'if' may have been satisfied love, wealth, fame, gratified ambition, success of various kinds, etc.,—but be it what it may, the 'if' is nearly always there. And that IF is really the seed of their remaining desires. And the longing for that IF is really the motive for rebirth. Very few persons would care to live over their earth life in the same way. But, like old Omar, they would be perfectly willing to remake the world according to their heart's desire, and then live the earth life. It is really not the earth life at all which is distasteful to them, but merely the particular experiences of earth life which are disdained. Give to the average man and woman youth, health, wealth, talent and love, and they will be very willing to begin the round of earth life afresh. It is only the absence of, or failure in, these or similar things, which causes them to feel that life is a failure, and a thing to be joyfully left behind. The soul, in its sojourn upon the Astral Plane, is rested, refreshed and reinvigorated. It has forgotten the weariness of life which it had experienced during the previous incarnation. It is again young, hopeful, vigorous, and ambitious. It feels within itself the call to action—the urge of unfulfilled desires, aspirations, and ambitions—and it readily falls into the currents which lead it to the scene of action in which these desires, are manifested." The same writer also says: "Another point which should be cleared up is that regarding the character of the desires which serve as the motive power for rebirth. It is not meant that these desires are necessarily low or unworthy desires or longings. On the contrary, they may be of the highest character, and might be more properly styled aspirations, ambitions, or high aims, but the principle of desire is in them all. Desires, high and low, are the seeds of action. And the impulse toward action is always the distinguishing feature of desire. Desire always wants to have things, or to do things, or to be things. Love, even of the most unselfish kind, is a form of desire; so is aspiration of the noblest kind. A desire to benefit others is as much a desire as its opposite. In fact, many unselfish souls are drawn back into rebirth simply by the insistent aspiration to accomplish some great work for the race, or to serve others, or to fulfill some duty inspired by love. But, high or low, if these desires are connected in any way with the things of earth, they are rebirth motives and rudders. But in conclusion, let us say that no soul which does not in its inmost soul desire to be reborn on earth will ever be so reborn. Such a soul is attracted toward other spheres, where the attractions of earth exist not. In that case, the law of attraction carries the soul away from earth, not toward it. There are many souls which are now on the Astral Plane, undergoing the final stages of the casting off of the earthly bonds. And there are many souls now in earth life which will never again return to earth, but which after their next sojourn on the Astral Plane will rise to the higher planes of existence, leaving the earth and all earthly things behind forever. At the present time we are nearing the end of a cycle in which a very great number of souls are preparing for their upward flight, and many who read these lines may be well advanced in that cyclic movement."

(7) Therefore we must ascend again towards the Good, the desired of every Soul. Anyone that has seen This, knows what I intend when I say that it is beautiful. Even the desire of it is to be desired as a Good. To attain it is for those that will take the upward path, who will set all their forces towards it, who will divest themselves of all that we have put on in our descent:- so, to those that approach the Holy Celebrations of the Mysteries, there are appointed purifications and the laying aside of the garments worn before, and the entry in nakedness- until, passing, on the upward way, all that is other than the God, each in the solitude of himself shall behold that solitary-dwelling Existence, the Apart, the Unmingled, the Pure, that from Which all things depend, for Which all look and live and act and know, the Source of Life and of Intellection and of Being.

And one that shall know this vision- with what passion of love shall he not be seized, with what pang of desire, what longing to be molten into one with This, what wondering delight! If he that has never seen this Being must hunger for It as for all his welfare, he that has known must love and reverence It as the very Beauty; he will be flooded with awe and gladness, stricken by a salutary terror; he loves with a veritable love, with sharp desire; all other loves than this he must despise, and disdain all that once seemed fair.

This, indeed, is the mood even of those who, having witnessed the manifestation of Gods or Supernals, can never again feel the old delight in the comeliness of material forms: what then are we to think of one that contemplates Absolute Beauty in Its essential integrity, no accumulation of flesh and matter, no dweller on earth or in the heavens- so perfect Its purity- far above all such things in that they are non-essential, composite, not primal but descending from This?

Beholding this Being- the Choragos of all Existence, the Self-Intent that ever gives forth and never takes- resting, rapt, in the vision and possession of so lofty a loveliness, growing to Its likeness, what Beauty can the soul yet lack? For This, the Beauty supreme, the absolute, and the primal, fashions Its lovers to Beauty and makes them also worthy of love.

And for This, the sternest and the uttermost combat is set before the Souls; all our labour is for This, lest we be left without part in this noblest vision, which to attain is to be blessed in the blissful sight, which to fail of is to fail utterly.

For not he that has failed of the joy that is in colour or in visible forms, not he that has failed of power or of honours or of kingdom has failed, but only he that has failed of only This, for Whose winning he should renounce kingdoms and command over earth and ocean and sky, if only, spurning the world of sense from beneath his feet, and straining to This, he may see.

(80) And the sweet quality always flies from the bitter and the astringent, and always stretcheth its palate wider, and the bitter and the astringent continually hasten after the sweet, and refresh themselves from the sweet, and dry up the body.

(33) In this rising up the astringent quality becometh meek, light, thin or transparent and pleasant or lovely, and obtaineth its life, whose original riseth up out of the heat in the sweet water, and this now is the true fountain or wellspring of love. Observe this in the deep Sense.