My name is Lola, because I am the Key of Delights, andthe {Virgo Mundi} other children in my dream call me Lola Daydream. WhenI am awake, you see, I know that I am dreaming, so that they must be verysilly children, don't you think? There are people in the dream, too, whoare quite grown up and horrid; but the really important thing is the wake-upperson. There is only one, for there never could
{Adonai} be any one like him. I call him my Fairy Prince.He rides a horse
with beautiful Wings like a swan, or sometimes a strangecreature {Pegasus} like a lion or a bull, with a woman's face and breasts,and she has {Sphinx} unfathomable eyes. My Fairy Prince is a dark boy,very comely; I think every one must {V.V.V.V.V.} love him, and yet everyone is afraid. He looks through one just as if one had no clothes on inthe Garden of God, and he had made one, and one could do nothing exceptin the mirror of his mind. He never laughs or frowns or smiles; because,whatever he sees, he sees what is beyond as well, and so nothing ever happens.His mouth is redder than any roses you ever saw. I wake up quite when wekiss each other, and there is no dream any more. But when it is not tremblingon mine, I see kisses on his lips, as if he were kissing some one thatone could
not see. Now you must know that my Fairy Prince is mylover, and one day he will come for good and ride away with me and marryme. I shan't tell you his name because it is too beautiful. It is a greatsecret be- tween us. When we were engaged he gave me such a beautiful ring.It was like this. First there was his shield, which had a sun on it and{Sigilla annuli} some roses, all on a kind of bar; and there was a terriblenumber {1. Cognominis 666} written on it. Then there was a bank of softroses with the sun shining {2. I Ordinis} on it, and above there was ared rose on a golden cross, and then there {3. II Ordinis} was a three-corneredstar, shining so bright that nobody could possibly {4. III Ordinis} lookat it unless they had love in their eyes; and in the middle was an eyewithout an eyelid. That could see anything, I should think, but you seeit never could go to sleep, because there wasn't any eye- lid. On the sideswere written l.N.R.I. and T.A.R.O., which mean many strange and beautifulthings, and terrible things too. I should think any one would be afraidto hurt any one who wore that ring. It is all cut out of an amethyst, andmy Fairy Prince said: " Whenever you want me, look into the ring and callme ever so softly by my name, and kiss the ring, and worship it, and thenlook ever so deep down
into it, and I will come to you." So I made up a prettypoem to say {Incantatio}
every time I woke up, for you see I am a very sleepygirl, and dream ever so much about the other children; and that is a pity,because there is only one thing I love, and that is my Fairy Prince. Sothis is the poem I did to worship the ring, part is words, and part ispictures. You must pick out what the pictures mean, and then it all makespoetry.

THE INVOCATION OF THE RING
ADONAI! Thou inmost [symbol of Fire],
Self-glittering image of my soul,
Strong lover to thy Bride's desire,
Call me and claim me and control!
I pray Thee keep the holy tryst
Within this ring of Amethyst.
For on mine eyes the golden [symbol of Sun]
Hath dawned; my vigil slew the Night.
I saw the image of the One:
I came from darkness into L.V.X.
I pray Thee keep the holy tryst
Within this ring of Amethyst.
I.N.R.I. - me crucified,
Me slain, interred, arisen, inspire!
T.A.R.O. - me glorified,
Anointed, fill with frenzied [symbol of Fire]
I pray Thee keep the holy tryst
Within this ring of Amethyst.
I eat my flesh: I drink my blood
I gird my loins: I journey far:
For thou hast shown [circle], +,
[Ayin], 777, [kappa alpha mu eta lambda omicron nu],
I pray Thee keep the holy tryst
Within this ring of Amethyst.
Prostrate I wait upon Thy will,
Mine Angel, for this grace of union.
O let this Sacrament distil
Thy conversation and communion.
I pray Thee keep the holy tryst
Within this ring of Amethyst.

I have not told you anything about myself, because itdoesn't really matter; the only thing I want to tell you about is my FairyPrince. But as I am telling you all this, I am seventeen years old, andvery fair when you shut your eyes to look; but when you open them, I amreally dark, with a fair skin. I have ever such heaps of hair, and big,big, round eyes, always wondering at everything. Never mind, it's onlya nuisance. I shall tell you what happened one day when I said the poemto the ring. I wasn't really quite awake when I began, but as I said it,it got brighter and brighter, and when I came to "ring of amethyst " thefifth time (there are five verses, because my lover's {Advenit Adonai}name has five V's in it), he galloped across the beautiful green sunset,spurring the winged horse, till the blood made all the sky turn rosy red.So he caught me up and set me on his horse, and I clung to his
neck as we galloped into the night. Then he told me hewould take me to his Palace and show me everything, and one day when wewere married I should be mistress of it all. Then I wanted to be marriedto him at once, and then I saw it couldn't be, because I was so sleepyand had bad dreams, and one can't be a good wife if one is always doingthat sort of thing. But he said I would be older one day, and not sleepso much, and every one slept a little, but the great thing was not to belazy and contented with the dreams, so I mean to fight hard. By and bywe came to a beautiful green place with the strangest house you ever saw.Round the big meadow there lay a wonderful
{Regnum Spatii} snake, with steel gray plumes, and hehad his tail in his mouth, and {Palatium Otz Chiim} kept on eating andeating it, because there was nothing else for him {Draco [Tau Lamed]} toeat, and my Fairy Prince said he would go on like that till there was nothingleft at all. Then I said it would get smaller and smaller and crush themeadow and the palace, and I think perhaps I began to cry. But my FairyPrince said: "Don't be such a silly!" and I wasn't old enough to understandall that it meant, but one day I should; and all one had to do was to beas glad as glad. So he kissed me, and we got off the horse, and he tookme to the door of the house, and we {Ceremonium 0'= 0'} went in. It wasfrightfully dark in the passage, and I felt tied so that I couldn't move,so I promised to myself to love him always, and he kissed me. It was dreadfully,dreadfully dark though, but he said not to be afraid, silly! And it's gettinglighter, now keep straight forward, darling! And then he kissed me again,and said: "Welcome to my Palace ! " I will tell you all about how it wasbuilt, because it is the most beautiful Palace that ever was. On the sunsetside were all the baths, {Domus X v. Regnum} and the bedrooms were in frontof us as we were. The baths were all of {v. Porta} pale olive-colouredmarble, and the bedrooms bad lemon-coloured {4 loci secundum Elementa}everything. Then there were the kitchens on the sunrise side, and theywere russet, like dead leaves are in autumn in one's dreams. The placewe had come through was perfectly black everything, and only used for officesand such things. There were the most horrid things {Qliphoth} everywhereabout; black beetles and cockroaches, and goodness knows what; but theycan't hurt when the Fairy Prince is there. I think a little girl wouldbe eaten though if she went in there alone. Then he said: " Come on ! Thisis only the Servants' Hall, nearly everybody stays there all their lives."And I said: " Kiss me!" So he said: " Every step you take is only possiblewhen you say that."
We came into a dreadful dark passage again, so narrowand low, that {Via [Tau] v. Crux} it was like a dirty old tunnel, and yetso vast and wide that everything
in the whole world was contained in it. We saw all thestrange dreams and awful shapes of fear, and really I don't know how weever got through, except that the Prince called for some splendid strongcreatures to guard us. There was an eagle that flew, and beat his {Cherubim}wings, and tore and bit at everything that came near; and there was a lionthat roared terribly, and his breath was a flame, and burnt up the things,so that there was a great cloud; and rain fell gently and purely, so thathe really did the things good by fighting them. And there was a bull thattossed them on his horns, so that they changed into butterflies; and therewas a man who kept on telling everybody to be quiet and not make a noise.So we came at last in the next house of the Palace. It was a great domeof violet, and in the centre
{Domus IX v. Fundamentum} the moon shone. She was a fullmoon, and yet she looked like a woman quite, quite young. Yet her hairwas silver, and finer than spiders' webs, and it rayed about her, likeone can't say what; it was all too beautiful. In the middle of the hallthere was a black stone pillar, from the top of which sprang a fountainof pearls; and as they fell {Yod v. Membrum sancti foederis} upon the floor,they changed the dark marble to the colour of blood,
and it was like a green universe full of dowers, andlittle children playing among them. So I said: "Shall we be married inthis House?" and he said: "No, this is only the House where the businessis carried on. All the Palace rests upon this House; but you are calledLola because you are the Key of Delights. Many people stay
here all their lives though." I made him kiss me, andwe went on to another passage which opened out of the Servants' Hall. Thispassage {Via [Shin] v. Dens} was all fire and flame and full of coffins.There was an Angel blowing ever so hard on a trumpet, and people gettingup out of the coffins. My Fairy Prince said: "Most people never wake upfor anything less." So we went (at the same time it was; you see in dreamspeople can only be in one place at a time; that's the best of being awake)through another passage, which was lighted by the Sun. Yet there {Via
[Resh] v. Caput} were fairies dancing in a great greenring, just as if it was night. And there were two children playing by thewall, and my Fairy Prince and I played as we went; and he said: "The differenceis that we are going through. Most people play without a purpose; if youare traveling it is all right, and play makes the journey seem short."Then we came out into the Third (or Eighth, it depends which way you {DomusVIII v. Splendor} count them, because there are ten) House, and that wasso splendid you can't imagine. In the first place it was a bright, bright,bright, orange colour, and then it had flashes of light all over it, goingso fast
we couldn't see them, and then there was the sound ofthe sea and one could look through into the deep, and there was the oceanraging beneath one's feet, and strong dolphins riding on it and cryingaloud, "Holy! Holy! Holy!" in such an ecstasy you can't think, and rollingand playing for sheer joy. It was all lighted by a tiny, weeny, shy littleplanet, sparkling and silvery, and now and then a wave of fiery chariotsfilled with eager spearmen blazed through the sky, and my Fairy Princesaid: "Isn't it all fine?" But I knew he didn't really mean it, so I said"Kiss me!" and he kissed me, and we went on. He said: "Good little girlof mine, there's many a one stays there all his life." I forgot to saythat the whole place was just one mass of books, and people reading themtill they were so silly, they didn't know what they were doing. And therewere cheats, and doctors, and thieves; I was
really very glad to go away. There were three ways intothe Seventh House, and the first was {Via [Qoph] v. Cranium} such a funnyway. We walked through a pool, each on the arm of a great big Beetle, andthen we found ourselves on a narrow winding path. There were nasty Jackalsabout, they made such a noise, and at the end I could see two towers. Thenthere was the queerest moon you ever saw, only a quarter full. The shadowsfell so strangely, one could see the most mysterious shapes, like greatbats with women's faces, and blood dripping from their mouths, and creaturespartly wolves and partly men, everything changing one into the other. Andwe saw shadows like old, old, ugly women, creeping about on sticks, andall of a sudden they would fly up into the air, shrieking the funniest
kind of songs, and then suddenly one would come downflop, and you saw she was really quite young and ever so lovely, and shewould have nothing on, and as you looked at her she would crumble awaylike a biscuit. Then there was another passage which was really too secret{Via [Tzaddi] v. Hamus} for anything; all I shall tell you is, there wasthe most beautiful God-dess that ever was, and she was washing herselfin a river of dew. If you ask what she is doing, she says: "I'm makingthunderbolts." It was only starlight, and yet one could see quite clearly,so don't think I'm making a mistake. The third path is a most terriblepassage; it's {Via [Pe] v. Os} all a great war, and there's earthquakesand chariots of fire, and all
the castles breaking to pieces. I was glad when we cameto the Green Palace.
It was all built of malachite and emerald, and therewas the loveliest {Domus VII v. Victoria} gentlest living, and I was marriedto my Fairy Prince there, and we
had the most delicious honeymoon, and I had a beautifulbaby, and then I remembered myself, but only just in time, and said: "Kissme!" And he kissed me and said: "My goodness! But that was a near thingthat time: my little girl nearly went to sleep. Most people who reach theSeventh House stay there all their lives, I can tell you." It did seema shame to go on; there was such a flashing green star
to light it, and all the air was filled with amber-coloureddames like kisses. And we could see through the floor, and there were terriblelions, like furnaces for fury, and they all roared out: "Holy! Holy! Holy!"and leaped and danced for joy. And when I saw myself in the mirrors, thedome was one mass of beautiful green mirrors, I saw how serious I looked,and that I ~had~ to go on. I hoped the Fairy Prince would look serioustoo, because it is a most dreadful business going beyond the Seventh House;but he only looked the same as ever. But oh! how I kissed him, and howI clung to him, or I think I should never, never have had the courage togo up those dreadful passages, especially knowing what was at the end ofthem. And now I'm only a little girl, and I'm ever so tired of writing,but I'll tell you all about
the rest another time. Explicit Capitulum Primum velDe Collegio Externo.
 
 

PART II

I was telling you how we started from the Green Palace.There arethree passages that lead to the Treasure House of Gold, and allof them are very dreadful. One is called the Terror by Night, and anotherthe Arrow by Day, and the third has a name that people are afraid to hear,so I won't say. But in the first we came to a mighty throne of gray granite,shaped {Via [Ayin] v. Oculus} like the sweetest pussy cat you ever saw,and set up on a desolate heath. It was midnight, and the Devil came downand sat in the midst; but my Fairy Prince whispered: "Hush! it is a greatsecret, but his name is Yeheswah, and he is the Saviour of the World."And that was very funny, because the girl next me thought it was JesusChrist, till another Fairy Prince (my Prince's brother) whispered as hekissed her: "Hush,
tell nobody ever, that is Satan, and he is the Saviourof the World." We were a very great company, and I can't tell you of allthe strange things we did and said, or of the song we sang as we dancedface out-wards in a great circle ever closing in on the Devil on the throne.But whenever I saw a toad or a bat, or some horrid insect, my Fairy Princealways whispered: "It is the Saviour of the world" and I saw
that it was so. We did all the most beautiful wickedthings you can imagine, and yet all the time we knew they were good andright, and must he done if ever we were to get to the House of Gold. Sowe en-joyed ourselves very much and ate the most extraordinary supper youcan think of. There were babies roasted whole and stuffed with pork sausagesand olives; and some of the girls cut off chops and steaks from their ownbodies, and gave them to a beautiful white cook at a
silver grill, that was lighted with the gas of dead bodiesand marshes; and he cooked them splendidly, and we all enjoyed it immensely.Then there was a tame goat with a gold collar, that went about laugh-ingwith every one; and he was all shaved in patches like a poodle We kissedhim and petted him, and it was lovely. You must remember that I never letgo of my Fairy Prince for a single instant, or of course
I should have been turned into a horrid black toad. Thenthere was another passage called the Arrow by Day, and there {Via [Samekh]v. Sustentaculum} was a most lovely lady all shining with the sun, andmoon, and stars, who was lighting a great bowl of water with one hand,by dropping dew on it out of a cup, and with the other she was puttingout a terrible fire with a torch. She had a red lion and a white eagle,that she had always had ever since she was a little girl. She had foundthem in a nasty pit full of all kinds of filth, and they were very savage;but by always treating them kindly they had grown up faithful and good.This should be a lesson to all of us never to be unkind to our pets. MyFairy Prince was laughing all the time in the third path. There {Via [Nun]v. Piscis} was nobody there but an old gentleman who had put on his bonesout-side, and was trying ever so hard to cut down the grass with a scythe.But the faster he cut it the faster it grew. My Fairy Prince said: "Everybodythat ever was has come along this path, and yet only one
ever got to the end of it." But I saw a lot of peoplewalking straight through as if they knew it quite well; be explained, though,that they were really only one; and if you walked through that proved it.I , thought that was silly, but he's much older and wiser than I am; soI said nothing. The truth is that it is a very difficult Palace to talkabout, and the further you get in, the harder it is to say what you mean
because it all has to be put into dream talk, as of coursethe language of the wake-world is silence. So never mind! let me get on.We came by and by to the Sixth {Domus VI v. Pulchritudo} House. I forgotto say that all those three paths were really one, be-cause they all meantthat things were different inside to outside, and so people couldn't judge.It was fearfully interesting; but mind you don't go in those passages withoutthe Fairy Prince. And of course there's the Veil. I don't think I'd bettertell you about the Veil. I'll {[Pe Resh Kaph Tau]} only put your mouthto my head, and your hand - there, that'll tell any body who knows thatI've really been there, and that it 's all true that I'm telling you. ThisSixth House is called the Treasure House of Gold; it's a most {Ceremonium5' = 6'} mysterious place as ever you were in. First there's a tiny, tiny,tiny doorway, you must crawl through on your hands and knees; and even{Humilitas} then I scraped ever such a lot of skin off my back; then youhave to be nailed on a red board with four arms, with a great gold circlein {Supplicium} the middle, and that hurts you dreadfully. Then they makeyou swear the most solemn things you ever heard of, how you would be faithfulto the Fairy Prince, and live for nothing but to know him better and better.So the nails stopped hurting, because, of course, I saw that I
was really being married, and this was part of it, andI was as glad as glad; and at that moment my Fairy Prince put his handon my head, and I tell you, honour bright, it was more wake up than everbefore, even than when he used to kiss me. After that they said I couldgo into the Bride-chamber, but it was only the most curious , {Sepulchrum}room that ever was with seven sides. There was a dreadful red dragon onthe floor, and all the sides were painted every colour you can think of,with curious figures and pictures. The light was not like dream light atall; it was wake light, and it came through a beautiful rose in the ceiling.In the middle was a table all covered with beautiful pictures and texts,and there were ever such strange
things on it. There was a little crucifix in the middle,all of diamonds and emeralds and rubies, and other precious stones, andthere was a dagger with a golden handle, and a cup full of the most deliciouswine, and there was a curious coin with the strangest writing on it, anda funny little stick that was covered with flames, like a rose tree iswith roses. Beside the strange coin was a heavy iron chain, and I tookit and put it round my neck because I was bound to my Fairy Prince, andI would never go about like other people till I found him again. And theytook the dagger and dipped it in the cup, and stabbed me all over to showthat I was not afraid to be hurt, if only I could find my Fairy Prince.Then I took the crucifix and held it up
to make more light in case he was somewhere in the darkcorners, but no! Yet I knew be was there somewhere, so I thought he mustbe in the box, for under the table was a great chest; and I was {PastosPatris nostri C.R.C.} terribly sad because I felt something dreadful wasgoing to happen. And sure enough, when I had the courage, I asked themto open the box, and the same people that made me crawl through that horridhole, and lost my Fairy Prince, and nailed me to the red board, took awaythe table and opened the box, and there was my Fairy Prince,
quite, quite dead. If you only knew how sorry I felt!But I had with {Baculum I. Adepti} me a walking-stick with wings, and ashining sun at the top that had
been his, and I touched him on the breast to try andwake him; but it was no good. Only I seemed to hear his voice saying wonderfulthings, and it was quite certain he wasn't really dead. So I put the walking-stickon his breast, and another little thing he had which I had forgotten totell you about. It was a kind of cross with an oval {Crux Ansata} handlethat he had been very fond of. But I couldn't go away without somethingof his, so I took a shepherd's staff, and a little whip with
{Pedum et Flagellum Osiridis} blood on it, and jewelsoozing from the blood, if you know what I mean, that they had put in hishands when they buried him. Then I
went away, and cried, and cried, and cried. But beforeI had got very far they called me back; and the people who had been sostern were smiling, and I saw they had taken the coffin out of the littleroom with seven sides. And the coffin was quite, quite empty. Then {Curintermortuos vivum petes? they began to tell us all about it, and I heard myFairy Prince within Non est hic ille; resurrexit.} me little room sayingholy exalted things, such as the stars trace in the sky as they travelin the Car called " Millions of Years." Then they took me into the littleroom, and there was my Fairy Prince standing in the middle. So I kneltdown and we all kissed his beautiful feet, and the myriads of eyes likediamonds that were hidden in his feet laughed joy at us. One couldn't liftone's head, for he was too glorious to behold; but he spoke wonderful wordslike dying nightingales that have sorrowed for the fading of the roses,and pressed themselves to death upon the thorns; and one's whole body becamea single eye, so that one saw as if the unborn thought of light broodedover an eternal sea. Then was light as the lightning flaming {Advenit L.V.X.sub out of the east, even unto the west, and it was fashioned as the swift-
tribus speciebus.} ness of a sword. By and by one roseup, then one seemed to be quite, quite dead, and buried in the centre ofa pyramid of the most brilliant light it is possible to think of. And itwas wake-light too; and everybody knows that even wake-darkness is reallybrighter than the dream-light. So you must just guess what it was like.There was more than that too; I can't possibly tell you. I know too whatl.N.R.I. on the Ring meant: and I can't tell you that either, because thedream- language has such a lot of important words missing. It's a verysilly language, I think. By and by I came to myself a little, and now Iwas really and truly
married to the Fairy Prince, so I suppose we shall alwaysbe near each other now.
There was the way out of the little room with millionsof changing {Symbola Hodos Chamelionis colours, ever so beautiful, andit was lined with armed men, waving
Symbola Gladius et Serpens} their swords for joy likeflashes of lightning; and all about us glitter-ing serpents danced andsang for joy. There was a winged horse
ready for us when we came out on the slopes of the mountain.You see the Sixth House is really in a mountain called Mount Abiegnus,{Mons Abiegnus v. Cavernarum} only one doesn't see it because one goesthrough indoors all the way.
There's one House you have to go outdoors to get to,because no passage has ever been made; but I'll tell you about that afterwards;it's the Third House. So we got on the horse and went away for our honeymoon.I shan't tell you a single word about the honeymoon. Explicit CapitulumSecundum vel De Collegio ad S. S. porta
Collegii Interni.
 

PART III

You mustn't suppose the honeymoon is ever really over,because it just isn't. But he said to me: "Princess, you haven't been allover the Palace yet. Your ~special~ House is the Third, you know, becauseit's so convenient for the Second where I usually live. The King my {Caputcandidum} Father lives in the First; he's never to be seen, you know. He'svery, very old nowadays; I am practically Regent of course. You must neverforget that I am really He; only one generation back is
not so far, and I entirely represent his thought. Soon,"he whispered {[Aleph Mem Aleph] erit [Aleph Yod Mem Aleph]} ever so softly,"you will be a mother; there will be a Fairy Prince again to run away withanother pretty little Sleepy head. Then I saw that when Fairy Princes werereally and truly married they became {Arcanum de Via Occulta} Fairy Kings;and that I was quite wrong ever to be ashamed of
being only a little girl and afraid of spoiling his prospects,because really, you see, he could never become King and have a son a FairyPrince without me.  But one can only do that by getting to the ThirdHouse, and it's a dreadful journey, I do most honestly assure you. Thereare two passages, one from the Eighth House and one from the Sixth; thefirst is all water, and the second is almost worse, be-cause you have tobalance yourself so carefully, or you fall and hurt yourself. To go throughthe first you must be painted all over with blood up {Via [Mem] v. Aqua}
to your waist, and you cross your legs, and then theyput a rope round one ankle and swing you off. I had such a pretty whitepetticoat on, and my Prince said I looked just like a white pyramid witha huge red cross on the top of it, which made me ever so glad, becausenow I knew I should be the Saviour of the World, which is what one wantsto be, isn't it? Only sometimes the world means all the other childrenin the dream, and sometimes the dream itself, and sometimes the
wake-things one sees before one is quite, quite awake.The prince tells me that really and truly only the First House where hisFather lived was really a wake-House, all the others had a little sleep-Houseabout them, and the further you got the more awake you were, and beganto know just how much was dream and how much wake. Then there was the otherpassage where there was a narrow edge {Via Lamed v. Pertica stimulans}of green crystal, which was all you had to walk on, and there was a beautifulblue feather balancing on the edge, and if you disturbed the feather therewas a lady with a sword, and she would cut off your
head. So I didn't dare hardly to breathe, and all roundthere were thousands and thousands of beautiful people in green who dancedand danced like anything, and at the end there was the terrible door ofthe Fifth House, which is the Royal armoury. And when we came in the {DomusV v. Severitas} House was full of steel machinery, some red hot and somewhite hot, and the din was simply fearful. So to get the noise out of myhead, I took the little whip and whipped myself till all my blood poureddown over everything, and I saw the whole house like a cataract of foamingblood rushing headlong from the flaming and scintillating Star of Fire
that blazed and blazed in the candescent dome, and everythingwent red before my eyes, and a great flame like a strong wind blew throughthe House with a noise louder than any thunder could possibly be, so thatI couldn't hold myself hardly, and I took up the sharp knives of the machinesand cut myself all over, and the noise got louder and louder, and the flameburnt through and through me, so that I was very glad when my Prince said:"You wouldn't think it, would you, sweetheart? But there are lots of peoplewho stay here all their lives." There are three ways into the Fourth Housefrom below. The first {Via [Kaph] v. Pugnus}
passage is a very curious place, all full of wheels andever such strange creatures, like monkeys and sphinxes and jackals climbingabout them and trying to get to the top. It was very silly, because thereisn't really any top to a wheel at all; the place you want to get to isthe centre, if you want to be quiet. Then there was a really lovely passage,{Via [Yod] v. Manus} like a deep wood in Springtime, the dearest old mancame along who had lived there all his life, because he was the guardianof it, and he didn't need to travel because he belonged to the First Housereally from the very beginning. He wore a vast cloak and be carried a lampand a long stick; and he said that the cloak meant you were to be silentand not say anything you saw, and the lamp meant you were to tell everybodyand make them glad, and the stick was like a guide to tell you which todo. But I didn't quite believe that, because I am getting a grown-up girlnow, and I wasn't to be put off like that. I
could see that the stick was really the measuring rodwith which the whole Palace was built, and the lamp was the only lightthey had to build it by, and the cloak was the abyss of darkness that coversit all up. That is why dream-people never see beautiful things like I'mtelling you about. All their houses are built of common red bricks, andthey sit in them all day and play silly games with counters, and oh I
dear me, how they do cheat and quarrel. When any onegets a million counters, he is so glad you can't think, and goes away andtries to change some of the counters for the things he really wants, andhe can't, so you nearly die of laughing, though of course it would be dreadfullysad if it were wake-life. But I was telling you about the ways to the FourthHouse, and the third way is all full of lions, and a {Via [Teth] v. Serpens}person might be afraid; only whenever one comes to bite at you, there isa lovely lady who puts her hands in its mouth and shuts it. So we wentthrough quite safely, and I thought of Daniel in the lions' den. The FourthHouse is the most wonderful of all I had ever seen. It {Domus IV v. Benignitas}is the most heavenly blue mansion; it is built of beryl and amethyst, andlapis lazuli and turquoise and sapphire. The centre of the floor is a poolof purest aquamarine, and in it is water, only you can see every drop asa separate crystal, and the blue tinge filtering through the light. Abovethere hangs a calm yet mighty globe of deep sapphirine blue. Round it therewere nine mirrors, and there is a noise that means when you understandit, "Joy! Joy! Joy!" There are violet flames darting through the air, eachone a little sob of happy love. One began to see what the dream-world wasreally for at last: every {Ratio Naturae Naturatae} time any one kissedany one for real love, that was a little throb of violet flame in thisbeautiful House in the Wake-World. And we bathed and swam in the pool,and were so happy you can't think. But they said: "Little girl, you mustpay for the entertainment." [I forgot to tell you there was music likefountains make as they rise and fall, only of course much more wonderfulthan that.] So I asked what I must pay, and they said: "You are now mistressof all these houses {Adeptum Oportet Rationis from the Fourth to the Ninth.Yon have managed the Servants' Hall Facultatem Regnare} well enough sinceyour marriage; now you must manage the others, because till you do youcan never go on to the Third House. So I said: "It seems to me that theyare all in perfectly good order." But they took me up in the air, and thenI saw that the outsides were horribly disfigured with great advertisements,and every single house
had written all over it:
FIRST HOUSE
This is his Majesty's favourite Residence. No other genuine.Beware of worthless imitations. Come in HERE and spend life! Come in HEREand see the Serpent eat his Tail! So I was furious, as you may imagine,and had men go and put all the proper numbers on them, and a little sarcasticremark to make them ashamed; so they read: Fifth House, and mostly dreamat that. Seventh House. External splendour and internal corruption. andso on. And on each one I put "No thoroughfare from here to the First House.The only way is out of doors. By order.'" This was frightfully annoying,because in the old days we could
{Gladium, quod omnibus viis walk about inside everywhere,and not get wet if it rained, but nowa-custodet portas Otz Chiim} days there isn't any way from the Fourth to the Third House. You couldgo of course by chariot from the Fifth to the Third, or through the Housewhere the twins live from the Sixth to the Third, but that isn't allowedunless you have been to the Fourth House too, and go from
there at the same time. It was here they told me whatT.A.R.O. on the ring meant. First {Nomen [Tau Resh Ayin Aleph] it meansgate, and it is the name of my Fairy Prince, when you spell Nomen ADNIit in full letter by letter. [Aleph Lamed Pe].[Daleth Lamed Tau].[Yod VauDaleth].[Nun Vau Nun]} There are seventy-eight parts to it, which makesa perfect plan of {Cartae Tarot v. Aegyptiorum} the whole Palace, so youcan always find your way, if you remember {I.N.R.I.=[Yod].[Nun].[Resh].[Yod]=tosay T.A.R.O. Then you remember I.N.R.I. was on the ring too. [Virgo].[Scorpio].[Sun]= I.A.O. =
I.N.R.I. is short for L.V.X., which means the brillianceof the wide-
L.V.X.} wide-wake Light, and that too is the name ofmy Fairy Prince only
{[Aleph Daleth Nun Yod] = 65 spelt short. L.V.X. = LXV}The Romans said it had sixty-five parts, which is five times thirteen,and seventy-eight is six times thirteen. To get into the Wake World youmust know your thirteen times table quite well. So if you take them bothtogether that makes eleven times thirteen, and then you say "Abrahadabra,"which is a most mysterious word, because it has eleven letters in it. Youremember the Houses are numbered both ways, so that the Third House iscalled the Eighth House too, and the Fifth the Sixth, and so on. But youcan't tell what lovely things that means till you've been through themall, and got to the very end. So when you look at the Ring and see I.N.R.I.and T.A.R.O. on it that means that it is like a policeman keeping on saying"Pass along, please!"
I would have liked to stay in the Fourth House all mylife, but I began to see it was just a little dream House too; and I couldn'trest, because my own House was the very next one. But it's too awful totell you how to get there. You want the most fearful lot of courage, andthere's nobody to help you, nobody at all, and there's no proper passage.But it's frightfully exciting, and you must wait till next time beforeI tell you how I started on that horrible journey, and if I ever got thereor not.
Explicit Cepitulum Tertium vel de Collegio Interno.
 

PART IV

Now I shall tell you about the chariot race in the firstpassage. The {Via [Cheth] v. Vallum} chariot is all carved out of pure,clear amber, so that electric sparks
fly about as the furs rub it. The whole cushions andrugs are all beautiful soft ermine fur. There is a canopy of bright bluewith stars (like the sky in the dream world), and the chariot is drawnby two sphinxes, one black and one white. The charioteer is a most curiousperson; he is a great big crab in the most lovely glittering armour, andhe can just drive! His name is the mysterious name I told you {Nomen [YodHeh Vau Aleph] = 22 about with eleven letters in it, but we call him Jehufor short, because 22x19 = 418 = Abrahadabra} he 's only nineteen yearsold. It's important to know though because this journey is the most difficultof all, and without the chariot one couldn't ever ever do it, because itis so far - much farther than the heaven is from the earth in the dreamworld.The passage where the twins live is very difficult too. They are{Via [Zayin] v. Gladium} two sisters; and one is very pure and good, andthe other is a horrid fast woman. But that shows you how silly dream languageis - really there is another way to put it: you can say they are two sisters,and one is very silly and ignorant, and the other has learnt to know andenjoy. Now when one is a Princess it is very important to have good manners,so you have to go into the passage, and take one on each arm, and go throughwith them singing and dancing; and if you hurt the feelings of either ofthem the least little bit in the world it would show you were not reallya great Lady, only a dress
lady, and there is a man with a bow and arrow in theair, and he would soon finish you, and you would never get to the ThirdHouseat all. But the real serious difficulty is the outdoors. You haveto leave the {Via quae non est Vaginae
House of Love, as they call the Fourth House. You arequite, quite Quinque Animae}naked: you must take off your husband-clothes,and your baby-clothes, and all your pleasure clothes, and your skin, andyour flesh, and your bones, every one of them must come right off. Andthen you must take off your feeling clothes; and then your idea clothes;and then what we call your tendency clothes which you have always worn,and which make you what you are. After that you take off your
consciousness clothes, which you have always thoughtwere your very own self, and you leap out into the cold abyss, and youcan't think how lonely it is. There isn't any light, or any path, or anythingto catch hold of to help you, and there is no Fairy Prince any more: youcan't even hear his voice calling to you to come on. There's nothing totell you which way to go, and you feel the most horrible sensation of fallingaway from everything that ever was. You've got no nothing
at all; you don't know how awful it all is. You wouldturn back if
you could only stop falling; but luckily you can't. Soyou fall and fall faster and faster; and I can't tell you any more. TheThird House is called the House of Sorrow. They gave me new {Domus IIIv. Intellectio} clothes of the queerest kind, because one never thinksof them as one's own clothes, but only as clothes. It is a House of utmostDarkness. {Abest Egoitas} There is a pool of black solemn water in theshining obsidian, and one is like a vast veiled figure of wonderful beautybrooding over {Ego est Non-ego Puerperium} the sea; and by and by the Painscome upon one. I can't tell you anything about the Pains. Only they aredifferent from any other pains, because they start from inside you, froma deeper, truer kind
of you than you ever knew. By and by you see a tremendous{Partus} blaze of a new sun in the Sixth House, and you are as glad asglad as glad; and there are millions of trumpets blown, and voices crying:"Hail to the Fairy Prince!" meaning the new one that you have had for yourbaby; and at that moment you find you are living in the first Three Housesall at once, for you feel the delight of your own dear
Prince and his love; and the old King stirs in his Silencein the First House, and thousands of millions of blessings shoot out likerays of light, and everything is all harmony and beauty below, and crownedabove with the crown of twelve stars, which is the only way you can putit into dream talk. Now you see you don't need to struggle to go on anymore, because {Vita Adepti} you know already that all the House is onePalace, and you move about in your own wake world, just as is necessary.All the paths up to the Second House all open - the path of the Hierophantwith the {Via [Vau] v. Clavus} flaming star and the incense in the vastcathedral, and the path of the {Via [Heh] v. Fenestra} Mighty Ruler, whogoverns everything with his orb and his crown and his sceptre. There isthe path of the Queen of Love which is {Via [Daleth] v. Porta} more beautifulthan anything, and along it my own dear lover passes to my bridal chamber.Then there are the three ways to the Holy House of the old King, the wayby which he is joined with the new {Via [Gimel] v. Camelus} Fairy Prince,where dwells a moonlike virgin with an open book, and always, always readsbeautiful words therein, smiling mysteriously  through her shiningveil, woven of sweet thoughts and pure kisses.
And there is the way by which I always go to the King,my Father, {Via
[Beth] v. Domus} and that passage is built of thunderand lightning; but there is a holy Magician called Hermes, who takes methrough so quickly that I arrive sometimes even at the very moment thatI start. Last of all is the most mysterious passage of them all, and ifany of you saw it you {Via [Aleph] v. Bos} would think there was a foolishman in it being bitten by crocodiles and dogs, and carrying a sack withnothing any use at all in it. But really it is the man who meant to wakeup, and did wake up. So that is his House, he is the old King himself,and so are you. So he wouldn't care what any one thought he was. Reallyall the passages to the first Three Houses are very useful; all the dream-worldand the half-dream world, and the Wake-world are governed from those passages.I began to see now how very unreal even the Wake-world is, because thereis just a little dream in it, and the right world is the Wide-Wide-Wide-Wake-World.My lover calls me little Lola Wide-awake, not Lola Daydream any more. Butit is always Lola, because
I am the Key of Delights. I never told you about thefirst two houses, and really you wouldn't understand. But the second Houseis {Domus II v. Sapientia}
gray, because the light and dark flash by so quick it'sall blended into one; and in it lives my lover, and that's all I care about.The First House is so brilliant that you can't think; and there, too, {DomusI v. Corona Summa} is my lover and I when we are one. You wouldn't understandthat either. And the last thing I shall say is that one begins to see thatthere isn't really quite a Wide-Wide-Wide-Wake-World till the Serpent outsidehas finished eating up his tail, and I don't really and truly understandthat myself. But it doesn't matter; what you must all do first is to findthe Fairy Prince to come and ride away with you, so don't bother aboutthe Serpent yet. That's all.
Explicit Opusculum in Capitulo Quarto vel de CollegioSummo.