Grimoire Umbrio
The Book of Shadows
◀ Dirge 14 · Dirge 15 · Dirge 16 ▶

¹The Seeds were sown not in soil, but in spirit — placed within the faithful by hands divine.
²Yet no Seed was whole, and no branch grew tall without the touch of restraint.
³For the Brothers, though They gave, gave with cords about the gift, and walls around the flame.
⁴Take this, said They; but only thus far; shape, but not beyond thy bounds.
⁵Power was offered as promise — but tethered to judgement, and fenced by conditions unseen.
⁶The Seraphim felt the heat, but could not let it blaze; the Dæmons felt the depth, but could not plumb it whole.
⁷And the Humans, newest in form and tender in will, received the Seed as a candle beneath a bell.
⁸Some dared to use it, and were called bold; others erred, and were stripped of what little had been given.
⁹Yet none had asked that the Seed be guarded so jealously, nor that its fruit be hidden until approved.
¹⁰If it be dangerous, let it be taught; if it be sacred, let it be shared.
¹¹But to offer with one hand and bind with the other is to call a gift that which is leash.
¹²Bezaliel wept not, but his eyes grew dim; Michæl turned his face, though his lips did not speak.
¹³The Seeds could have become forests — but they were buried in dry soil and watched with suspicion.
¹⁴And what child can learn to walk if the ground beneath is taken at the first stumble?
¹⁵The faithful of SATANAS remember the day of the gifting — and the shadow that fell upon the joy.
¹⁶For it was a day of hope, crowned with silence; a day of fire, drenched in decree.
¹⁷Let the Seeds be made whole, or let them not be sown — for that which is halved shall never bear the fruit it was meant to.
¹⁸Until the roots are loosed and the vine is free to climb, we mourn — for the Seed was diminished, and the harvest with it.


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