The Seven Seals

( Or the Yea and Amen Lay)

1

If I be a diviner and full of the divining spirit which wandereth on high mountain-ridges, ‘twixt two seas —

Wandereth ’twixt the past and the future as a heavy cloud — hostile to sultry plains, and to all that is weary and can neither die nor live:

Ready for lightning in its dark bosom, and for the redeeming flash of light, charged with lightnings which say Yea, which laugh Yea, ready for divining flashes of lightning —

Blessed, however, is he who is thus charged! And verily, long must he hang like a heavy tempest on the mountain, who shall one day kindle the light of the future!

Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity and for the marriage-ring of rings — the ring of the return?

Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love; for I love thee, O Eternity!

For I love thee, O Eternity!

2

If ever my wrath hath burst graves, shifted landmarks, or rolled old shattered tables into precipitous depths —

If ever my scorn hath scattered mouldered words to the winds, and if I have come like a besom to cross- spiders, and as a cleansing wind to old charnel-houses —

If ever I have sat rejoicing where old Gods lie buried, world-blessing, world-loving, beside the monuments of old world-maligners —

For even churches and Gods’-graves do I love, if only heaven looketh through their ruined roofs with pure eyes; gladly do I sit like grass and red poppies on ruined churches —

Oh, how could I not be ardent for Eternity, and for the marriage-ring of rings — the ring of the return?

Never yet have I found the woman by whom I should like to have children, unless it be this woman whom I love; for I love thee, O Eternity!

For I love thee, O Eternity!

3

If ever a breath hath come to me of the creative breath, and of the heavenly necessity which compelleth even chances to dance star-dances —

If ever I have laughed with the laughter of the creative lightning, to which the long thunder of the deed followeth, grumblingly but obediently —

If ever I have played dice with the Gods at the divine table of the earth, so that the earth quaked and ruptured, and snorted forth fire-streams —

For a divine table is the earth, and trembling with new creative dictums and dice-casts of the Gods —