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This hexagram was very easy to formulate and felt strangely familiar: as I formulated it, it took on the
face of a Chinese blue-glazed lion temple guardian, familiar and friendly. I passed through even before
I was ready, and immediately began falling through darkness, only lit perhaps by a reddish fiery glow
from below.
'I soon hit the surface of a warm thick viscous liquid, and holding my breath tried to prevent myself
going under, but continued my fall till I reached the bottom where I found I could breathe. Tried to
look around but the material was too viscous to move fast in and was ill-lit. Starting to swim towards
the surface, I saw a group of greasy looking rocks ahead. I reached them only to find that they were
really the huge scaly claws of (I thought) a reptile which turned out to be rather like a huge leathery
Dodo.
'I tried scrambling up one but as the claw and toe were about three to four feet high, I slipped back
several times. Finally succeeding, I clung to the bird's leg. To solve the difficulty, I availed myself of
the plasticity of the astral regions and, growing larger (like Alice) till the Dodo was about the size of a
chicken, I stood ankle deep in the liquid. Then the image of one of Louis Morellato's drawings of a
figure from the Sepher Yetzirah flashed into mind. At the same time a ring of cloud spread around my
waist and I realized that I was standing with one foot on earth and one in the liquid. A bright glow
began to suffuse the air above my waist, dimming the rather reddish glow from below. As in the
drawing, so here, a crescent of stars spread above me. I stood thus and formulated the hexagram on my
forehead, which increased the clarity of the vision. Expanding the hexagram to my new height, I
stepped through it. It broke like putting a hand through a wet newspaper and I stepped out: but the
vision seemed determined to come with me, so I returned and unsuccessfully tried re-acquainting
myself with the landscape. Realizing that I should have established a more peaceful frame of mind
before exiting from the vision, I first formulated the Middle Pillar (4) and retired again through the
enlarged hexagram.'
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4] See Appendix III.
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It is interesting to compare the vision with the text of the hexagram (which had not been seen by the
Skryer before this operation). The text reads: 'thunder rumbling within a swamp! When darkness falls,
the Superior Man goes within and rests peacefully.'
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