“Give me to know this mystery.”
“To bind the sweet influence of the Pleiades is the opposite of loosing the belt of Orion,” answered Akaza.
“It has not been granted me to know the significance of either,” responded Yermah, humbly.
“Alcyone, the central sun around which the spiral galaxy of the firmament encompassed in the Milky Way, and all the stars, suns and planets included in that circle, are revolving in the only one of the seven sisters whose love is mortal. From out that center issues evermore a ray of the divine creative spirit, coalescing into the life of animate nature here.
“The adept gathers the component parts of that incomprehensible being—man—to his divine center,” Akaza continued. “He wills them into the being of another, and that other becomes the mother of a son, given from the depths of space. Such a son art thou, Yermah.”
“And thou art in very truth my father?” asked Yermah, wonderingly.
“Yes. For this cause am I in the flesh, and for this, also, must I remain in the body, until thou art restored to the Brotherhood. I am the hierophant, the second in power in our order. So it was granted to me to create an entity which should rule the future as Atlantis rules the present.”
“Tell me all of my beginning. How and why this should be. Thou wert an old man when I was born; and thou art a vowed celibate?”
“Swear by Him who made us that thou wilt not reveal what I am about to unfold.”
He held up a six-pointed diamond star which blazed on his bosom for the Dorado to kiss, as they stood facing each other. As Yermah’s lips touched the center, he turned to the east, and, with both hands clasped over his head, said solemnly: