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I met you in the garden, beloved. The sins of the world have conferred beauty upon your countenance.
The suffering of the world has straightened your shape.
You are truly a king. Your crimson is blood, your ermine is snow from the eternal cold of the poles, your crown is the heavenly body of the sun, which you bear on your head.
Speak to me, my master and beloved!
The Shade: Oh Simon Magus, who hides in Philemon, are you in my garden or am I in yours?
Philemon: : You are, Oh master, in my garden. Helena and I are your servants.
You can find accommodation with us, because Philemon and Baucis have become what Simon and Helena were the hosts of the Gods.
We granted hospitality to the terrible worm. And since you came forward, we took you in.
It is our garden that surrounds you.
The Shade: Am I not the master? Is this garden not mine? Is not the world of the heavens and of the spirits my own?
Philemon: You are, Oh master, here in the world of men. Men have changed.
They are no longer the servants and no longer the swindlers of the Gods, but they grant hospitality to the Gods.
Your brother came before you, Oh master, the terrible worm, whom you dismissed, when he gave you clever counsel on the mountain in the desert with a tempting voice.
You took the counsel, but dismissed the worm. He found a place with us. But where he is, you will be also, since he is your immortal brother.
When I was Simon, I sought to escape him with the ploy of magic and thus I escaped you.
Now that I gave the worm a place in my garden, you come to me.
The Shade: Did I fall for the power of your trick? Have you secretly caught me?
Philemon: Recognize, Oh master and beloved, that your nature is also of the serpent! Were you not raised on the tree like the serpent of Moses?
Have you laid aside your body, like the serpent its skin? Did you not go to Hell before your ascent?
And did you not see your brother there, who was shut away in the abyss?
The Shade: It is true. You are not lying. Even so, do you know what I bring you?
Philemon: This I know not. I know only one thing, that whoever hosts the worm also needs his brother.
What do you bring me, my beautiful guest? The worm brought me ugliness.
Do you bring me beauty?
The Shade : I bring you the beauty of suffering. That is what is needed by whoever hosts the worm. ~The Black Books, Vol. VI, Page 245-247
