Grimoire Umbrio
The Book of Shadows
◀ Dirge 3 · Dirge 4 · Dirge 5 ▶
¹The stars kept their course, and the moon was untroubled, but the thoughts of men were stolen in their sleep.
²For in the night, when peace held dominion, there came one cloaked in the brightness of HÆVAN, yet bearing no light within.
³A Seraph passed through the encampments of the Levites and breathed silence upon their memory.
⁴What they had known, they knew no longer; what they had built, they no more claimed.
⁵The voice of the stranger became familiar, and the faces of their hosts were turned to foes in their minds.
⁶And they rose not in rebellion, but in ignorance — children made to flee by fear they understood not.
⁷Yet no war had been declared, and no council had been called; no word of SATANAS had summoned the parting.
⁸This was not a division forged in discourse, but a theft — subtle, swift, and clothed in brightness.
⁹Who shall give answer for that night? For truth was taken from the hearts of a people as dew vanisheth from stone.
¹⁰The Egyptians watched and sorrowed, for their neighbours became strangers, and their kindness turned bitter in the telling.
¹¹And SATANAS, beholding the deceit, spake no wrath — but within Him, the flame of grief grew sharp and silent.
¹²The harmony of ages was broken not by sword nor flame, but by a whisper beneath the veil of night.
¹³The Seraph returned unto HÆVAN, praised for his cunning — but we, who know the wound, call him accuser.
¹⁴For what is justice if truth be denied? And what is unity if minds be altered without assent?
¹⁵Would the Levites have chosen to leave, had they remembered the days of shared bounty?
¹⁶Would they have stayed, had they not been unraveled from within by hands unseen?
¹⁷O ADONAI, if Thy will be righteous, why then send it by stealth and not by voice?
¹⁸We sing not of vengeance, but of sorrow — for that which was done in silence now echoes louder than trumpet or flame.
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