Præstigia Mercurius dicitur primus invenisse...The universe, so the sect of præstigiators teacheth, is one of three, equal and identical, juggled by a god in a greater universe, itself one of three juggled by a god in a greater universe still; and so ad infinitum. But ours and its triplets are not bedrock, so to speak, and somewhere in each, the sect teacheth, a god juggleth three lesser universes, somewhere in each a god juggleth three lesser still; and so ad infinitum. And ’tis a meditation of the sect to envision somewhat of the series, first seeing a god juggle three universes, then the juggler-god thereabove, for nine universes, and juggler-gods therebelow, for twenty-seven. That is the limit of the envisioning for most priests, unaided by drugs or inspiration, but temple officers must envision two-hundred-and-forty-three sober, and hierarchs two-thousand-one-hundred-and-eighty-seven, or lay claim thereto, at least, with proof supplied by their skill in literal juggling.Hugonis De Sancto Victore Didascalion, Liber Sextus, Caput XV, “De magica et partibus eius”.
He who can juggle three balls of siderite at ease can envision eighty-one; and he five at ease envision two-hundred-and-forty-three; and he seven envision two-thousand-one-hundred-and-eighty-seven: thus the sect teacheth, and who is to say them nay? For the skull is its own place and none may peer therein to see what truly coloreth its pulp and thrilleth its fibers. Rarely, rarely, once in nine generations or more, cometh one who can juggle nine siderites at ease, proving his envisionment of nineteenth-thousand-six-hundred-and-eighty-three; and he hath power to reshape the sect as he please, inventing or cancelling liturgies, rearing or unstoning temples, for he is avatar of the Sphæropactotheos or son thereof, bred on a mortal maid. There are no signs for the coming of such an One: no comet or meteor-fall will blaze or shriek the heavens; no storm topple ancient oaks, flatten temple-walls; no quake divert rivers, drain lakes: for these are smaller prodigies for lesser advents; but in the central shrine of the central temple, where priests sit in perpetual meditation, lids closed on whirling worlds, the avatar-bell will chime once to signal His advent, scarce louder than breath or heart-beat, and fall again into its centuries’ silence.