(5) Then they came to the bank of a river of blood and crossed it without drinking its waters; they only went to the river bank and so they were not overcome. They went on until they came to where four roads joined, and there at the crossroads they were overcome. One of the four roads was red, another black, another white, and another yellow. And the black road said to them: "I am the one you must take because I am the way of the Lord." So said the road. And from here on they were already overcome. They were taken over the road to Xibalba and when they arrived at the council room of the Lords of Xibalba, they had already lost the match. Well, the first ones who were seated there were only figures of wood, arranged by the men of Xibalba. These they greeted first:

(27) I am the Bull, raised on high in the Blue; the lord of the Bull’s field; which Sothis describeth to me at her successive hours

(18) "But the slow progressive disappearance of the Bull is most happily commemorated in the vanishing series of letters so emphatically expressive of the great astronomical fact. For ABRACADABRA is The Bull, the only Bull. The ancient sentence split into its component parts stands thus: Ab'r-achad-ab'ra, i. e., Ab'r, the Bull; achad, the only, &c.--Achad is one of the names of the Sun, given him in consequence of his Shining ALONE,--he is the ONLY Star to be seen when he is seen--the remaining ab'ra, makes the whole to be, The Bull, the only Bull; while the repetition of the name omitting a letter, till all is gone, is the most simple, yet the most satisfactory method that could have been devised to preserve the memory of the fact; and the name of Sorapis, or Serapis, given to the Bull at the above ceremony puts it beyond all doubt. * * * This word (Abracadabra) disappears in eleven decreasing stages; as in the figure. And what is very remarkable, a body with three heads is folded up by a Serpent with eleven Coils, and placed by Sorapis: and the eleven Volves of the Serpent form a triangle similar to that formed by the ELEVEN diminishing lines of the abracadabra."

(79) For when his animated or soulish spirit was generated in his body, then he stung forth from his body into the Salitter of God, as a fiery serpent out of a hole.

(14) Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and entreated him.

(14) Afterwards, he came to the vegetation, then to the ox, then to Gâyômard, and then he came to fire; so, just like a fly, he rushed out upon the whole creation; and he made the world quite as injured and dark at midday as though it were in dark night.

(26) He brought forth a camel from a rock, and made the golden calf to bellow.

(246) 252 See, how N. stands there among (you), the two horns on him (like) two wild-bulls, 252 for thou art the black ram, son of a black sheep. 252 born of a white sheep, nursed by four sheep. 253 The blue-eyed Horus comes against you; guard yourselves against the red-eyed Horus, 253 furious in wrath, whose might no one withstands. 253 His messengers go; his runner hastens. 253 They announce to him who lifts up his arm in the East 254 that this One passes in thee of whom Dwn-`n.wi said: "He shall command my (?) fathers, the gods." 254 The gods are silent before thee; the Ennead lay their hands upon their mouth, 254 before this One in thee (of whom) Dwn-`n.wi said: "He shall command my (?) fathers, the gods." 255 Stand at the doorway of the horizon; open the double doors of b.w, 255 that thou mayest stand at their (the gods') head, as Geb at the head of his Ennead-- 255 they (the gods) enter, they are smitten with fear; they depart, they lift up their head. 256 They see thee like Min, chief of the two 'itr.t-palaces. 256 He stands, he stands behind thee, thy brother stands behind thee, thy relative (n) stands behind thee. 256 Thou perishest not; thou art not destroyed. 256 Thy name remains among men; thy name has its being among the gods.

(7) And the disk of the sun was a great dragon whose tail was in his mouth and who reached to seven powers of the Left and whom four powers in the form of white horses drew. And the base of the moon had the type of a ship which a male and a female dragon steered and two white bulls drew. The figure of a babe was on the stern of the moon who guided the dragons who robbed the light from the rulers. And on its prow was a cat's face. And the whole world and the mountains and the seas fled together to the west to the left.

(4) E'en with these words His aspect changed, and straightway, in the twinkling of an eye, all things were opened to me, and I see a Vision limitless, all things turned into Light - sweet, joyous [Light]. And I became transported as I gazed. But in a little while Darkness came settling down on part [of it], awesome and gloomy, coiling in sinuous folds, so that methought it like unto a snake. And then the Darkness changed into some sort of a Moist Nature, tossed about beyond all power of words, belching out smoke as from a fire, and groaning forth a wailing sound that beggars all description. [And] after that an outcry inarticulate came forth from it, as though it were a Voice of Fire.

(5) And they raised their eyes and saw a great, exceedingly mighty light, which no man in the world can describe. He said unto them anew: "Look away out of the light and see what ye may see." They said: "We see fire, water, wine and blood."

(1) Already was the flame erect and quiet, To speak no more, and now departed from us With the permission of the gentle Poet; When yet another, which behind it came, Caused us to turn our eyes upon its top By a confused sound that issued from it. As the Sicilian bull (that bellowed first With the lament of him, and that was right, Who with his file had modulated it) Bellowed so with the voice of the afflicted, That, notwithstanding it was made of brass, Still it appeared with agony transfixed; Thus, by not having any way or issue At first from out the fire, to its own language Converted were the melancholy words. But afterwards, when they had gathered way Up through the point, giving it that vibration The tongue had given them in their passage out, We heard it said: "O thou, at whom I aim My voice, and who but now wast speaking Lombard, Saying, 'Now go thy way, no more I urge thee,' Because I come perchance a little late, To stay and speak with me let it not irk thee; Thou seest it irks not me, and I am burning.

Then when Sophia Zoe saw that the rulers of darkness cursed her companions, she was angry. And when she came out of the first heaven with every power, she chased the rulers from their heavens, and she cast them down to the sinful world, that they might dwell there as evil demons upon the earth. She sent the bird that was in paradise so that, until the consummation of the age, it might spend the thousand years in the rulers’ world: a vital living being with soul, called the phoenix, which kills itself and reanimates itself for a witness to their judgment, because they dealt unjustly with Adam and his race. There are three human beings and their descendants in the world until the consummation of the age: the spiritual and the psychical and the earthly. This is like the three kinds of phoenixes of paradise: the first is immortal; the second attains one thousand years; as for the third, it is written in the Holy Book that it is consumed. Likewise three baptisms exist: the first is spiritual, the second is by fire, the third is by water. Just as the phoenix appears as a witness for the angels, so too the water serpents in Egypt have become a witness to those who go down for the baptism of a true person. The two bulls in Egypt, insofar as they indicate the sun and the moon as a mystery, exist for a witness to Sabaoth, that Sophia of the world has been exalted above the sun and the moon, from the day when she created them and sealed her heaven until the consummation of the age. And the worm that is brought forth from the phoenix is also a human being. It is written of it, “The just will sprout like the phoenix.” The phoenix first appears alive, and dies, and rises again, as a sign of what appears at the consummation of the age. These great signs appeared only in Egypt, not in other lands, signifying that it is like the paradise of god.

(7) The first were horned like oxen; but the four Had but a single horn upon the forehead; A monster such had never yet been seen! Firm as a rock upon a mountain high, Seated upon it, there appeared to me A shameless whore, with eyes swift glancing round, And, as if not to have her taken from him, Upright beside her I beheld a giant; And ever and anon they kissed each other. But because she her wanton, roving eye Turned upon me, her angry paramour Did scourge her from her head unto her feet. Then full of jealousy, and fierce with wrath, He loosed the monster, and across the forest Dragged it so far, he made of that alone A shield unto the whore and the strange beast.

(11) The unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine; and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, and perished in the waters. They were about two thousand.

(6) But for his hideous sins upbraiding him, My Lady put him to as swift a flight As such a fleshless skeleton could bear. Then by the way that it before had come, Into the chariot's chest I saw the Eagle Descend, and leave it feathered with his plumes. And such as issues from a heart that mourns, A voice from Heaven there issued, and it said: "My little bark, how badly art thou freighted!" Methought, then, that the earth did yawn between Both wheels, and I saw rise from it a Dragon, Who through the chariot upward fixed his tail, And as a wasp that draweth back its sting, Drawing unto himself his tail malign, Drew out the floor, and went his way rejoicing. That which remained behind, even as with grass A fertile region, with the feathers, offered Perhaps with pure intention and benign, Reclothed itself, and with them were reclothed The pole and both the wheels so speedily, A sigh doth longer keep the lips apart. Transfigured thus the holy edifice Thrust forward heads upon the parts of it, Three on the pole and one at either corner.

(2) So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward, Turn itself back to re-behold the pass Which never yet a living person left. After my weary body I had rested, The way resumed I on the desert slope, So that the firm foot ever was the lower. And lo! almost where the ascent began, A panther light and swift exceedingly, Which with a spotted skin was covered o'er! And never moved she from before my face, Nay, rather did impede so much my way, That many times I to return had turned. The time was the beginning of the morning, And up the sun was mounting with those stars That with him were, what time the Love Divine At first in motion set those beauteous things; So were to me occasion of good hope, The variegated skin of that wild beast, The hour of time, and the delicious season; But not so much, that did not give me fear A lion's aspect which appeared to me. He seemed as if against me he were coming With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger, So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;

(1) On the fifth day they appeared again and were seen in the water by the people. Both had the appearance of fishmen; when those of Xibalba saw them, after having hunted them all over the river. And the following day, two poor men presented themselves with very old-looking faces and of miserable appearance, [and] ragged clothes, whose countenances did not commend them. So they were seen by all those of Xibalba.

(68) But when, in these two days, the creation of heaven and of earth was completed, and the heaven was made in the heart of the water, for a difference or distinction between the light of God and the wrath of God, then, on the third day, through the terror or crack of the fire-flash, which rose up in the heart of the water, and presseth through death, incomprehensibly as to death, there sprang up all manner of ideas, forms and figures, as was done before the time of the kindled wrath.

(26) The bull of Amenta, Osiris, as he is called in the first Chapter (see note 5, Chapter 1