THE EQUINOX Vol. I. No. VI 1st part
July 30, 1990 e.v. key entry by Fr. H.B. (class A material) and by Bill Heidrick, T.G. of O.T.O. First proofreading against first edition on 12/10/90 e.v. by Bill Heidrick --- could benefit from further proof reading
Copyright (c) O.T.O. disk 1 of 2
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Pages in the original are marked thus at the bottom: {page number} Comments and descriptions are also set off by curly brackets {} Comments and notes not in the original are identified with the initials of the source: AC note = Crowley note. WEH note = Bill Heidrick note, etc. Descriptions of illustrations are not so identified, but are simply in curly brackets.
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THE WINGED BEETLE
By ALEISTER CROWLEY
PRIVATELY PRINTED: TO BE HAD THROUGH "THE EQUINOX"
300 copies, 10"s." net
50 copies on handmade paper, specially bound, " Pounds"1 1"s." net
--+--
CONTENTS
ROSA Coeli --- Abjad-i-al'ain --- The Hermit --- The Wizard Way --- The Wings --- The Garden of Janus --- The Two Secrets --- The Priestess of Panormita --- The Hawk and the Babe --- The Duellists --- Athor and Asar --- After Judgment --- The Five Adorations -- Telepathy --- The Swimmer --- The Muse --- The God and the Girl --- Rosemary --- Au Bal --- Disappointment --- The Octopus --- The Eyes of Dorothy --- Bathyllus --- The Mantra-Yogi --- The Poet and his Muse --- Lilith --- Sport and Marriage --- The Twins --- The Convert --- The Sorceress --- The Child --- Clytie --- A Slim Gilt Soul --- The Silence of Columbine --- The Archaeologist --- The Ladder --- Belladonna --- The Poet at Bay --- Ut --- Rosa Decidua --- The Circle and the Point --- In Memoriam --- Ad Fidelem Infidelem --- The Sphinx --- The Jew of Fez --- The Pentagram --- Song --- An Hymn --- Prologue to Rodin in Rime --- The Camp Fire --- Ave Adonai --- The Wild Ass --- The Opium-Smoker --- In Manu Dominae.
Mr. Todd: a Morality.
TRANSLATIONS: L'Amour et le Crane --- L'Alchimie de Douleur --- Le Vampire --- Le Balcon --- Le Gout de L'Infini --- L'Heautontimoroumenos --- Le vin de L'Assassin --- Woman --- Tout Entiere --- Le vin des Amants --- Le Revenant --- Lola de Valence --- Le Beau Navire --- L'Invitation au Voyage --- Epilogue to "Petits Poems en Prose" --- Colloque Sentimental --- En Sourdine --- The Magician.
MR. NEUBURG'S NEW VOLUME OF POEMS.
"Imperial" 16mo, pp. 200
----------------
"Now ready. Order through" The Equinox, "or of
any Bookseller."
THE TRIUMPH OF PAN.
POEMS By VICTOR B. NEUBURG.
This volume, containing many poems, --- nearly all of them hitherto unpublished --- besides THE TRIUMPH OF PAN, includes THE ROMANCE OF OLIVIA VANE.
The First Edition is limited to Two Hundred and Fifty copies: Two Hundred and Twenty on ordinary paper, whereof less than Two Hundred are for sale; and thirty on Japanese vellum, of which Twenty-five are for sale. These latter copies are numbered, and signed by the Author. The binding is half-parchment with crimson sides; the ordinary copies are bound in crimson boards, half holland.
The price of ordinary copies is Five Shillings net; of the special copies, One Guinea net.
EXTRACTS FROM FIRST NOTICES.
"Not everyone will care for Mr. Neuburg's tone in all the pieces, but he is undoubtedly a poet to be reckoned with, and a volume so original as this is should create no small stir. It is superbly produced by the publishers." --- "Sussex Daily News."
"When one comes to the poems ... it is evident that they are written in English.... In a certain oblique and sub-sensible sense, eloquent and musical....Distinctly Wagnerian in their effects...." --- "Scotsman."
"It is full of 'the murmurous monotones of whispering lust,' 'the song of young desire,' and that kind of poppycock." --- "London Opinion."
"A competent master of words and rhythms. ... His esoteric style is unreasonably obscure from an intelligent plain poetry-lover's standpoint." --- "Morning Leader."
"A charming volume of poems... Pagan glamour ... passion and vigour. ... 'Sigurd's Songs' are commendable for dealing with the all too largely neglected Scandinavian Theology. ... A scholarly disciple. ... The entire volume is eminently recommendable." --- "Jewish Chronicle."
"A gorgeous rhapsody. ... Fortunately, there are the police. ... On the whole, we cannot help regretting that such splendid powers of imagination and expression are flung away in such literary rioting." --- "Light."
"Sometimes of much beauty of rhythm and phrase. ..." ---"Times."
"Poets who have any originality deserve to be judged by their own standard. ... A Neo-mystic or semi-astrological pantheist. ..." --- "Liverpool Echo."
"Love-making appears to have an added halo in his eyes if it is associated with delirium or bloodshed. ... Mr. Neuburg has a 'careless rapture' all his own; the carelessness, indeed, is just the trouble. His versification is remarkable, and there is something impressive in its mere fluency. ... So luxurious, so rampant, a decadence quickly palls. ... On the whole, this book must be pronounced a quite grievous exhibition of recklessness and folly." --- "Manchester Guardian."
"...We began to be suspicious of him. ... Hardly the sort of person we should care to meet on a dark night with a knobby stick in his hand. ... This clever book." --- "Academy."
"A vivid imagination fostered by a keen and loving insight of nature, and this allied to a command of richly adorned language ... have already assured for the author a prominent place amongst present-day poets. ... An enthusiastic devotion to classic song ... sustained metrical charm. From first to last the poet's work is an important contribution to the century's literature." --- "Publishers' Circular."
"This [book] contains the answer to a very well-known riddle propounded by the late Elizabeth Barrett Browning. You remember she asked in one of her poems, 'What was he doing to Great God Pan: Down in the reeds by the River?' Well, Mr. Victor Neuburg has discovered the answer, for he was obviously wandering near the river if he was not hidden in the reeds. ..." --- "ROBERT ROSS in "The Bystander."
"There is no question about the poetic quality of much of Mr. Neuburg's verse. ... We are given visions of love which open new amorous possibilities." --- "Daily Chronicle."
RIDER'S OCCULT PUBLICATIONS
-------------------
JUST PUBLISHED
THE KABALA OF NUMBERS. A Handbook dealing with the Traditional Interpretation
of Numbers and their Predictive Value. By "SEPHARIAL," Author of "A
Manual of Occultism," "Kabalistic Astrology," "Prognostic Astronomy,"
etc. etc. About 168 pp. crown 8vo, ornamental cloth gilt, 2"s." net.
-------------------
A MANUAL OF OCCULTISM. A complete Exposition of the Occult Arts and Sciences
by "SEPHARIAL," Author of "A Manual of Astrology," "Prognostic
Astronomy," "Kabalistic Astrology," etc. etc. With numerous diagrams and
illustrations. 368 pp., handsomely bound in cloth gilt. Gilt tops.
Crown 8vo. 6"s." net.
CONTENTS:
PART I. THE OCCULT SCIENCES, comprising: Astrology --- Palmistry ---
Thaumaturgy --- Kabalism --- Numerology --- Talismans --- Hypnotism.
PART II. THE OCCULT ARTS, comprising: Divination --- The Tarot Cartomancy
--- Crystal Gazing --- Clairvoyance --- Geomancy --- Psychometry ---
Dowsing --- Dreams --- Sortileges --- Alchemy.
The need for a concise and practical exposition of the main tenets of
Occultism has long been felt. In this manual of Occultism the author has
dealt in a lucid manner with both the Occult Sciences and the Occult
Arts, and has added some supplementary matter on the subjects of
Hypnotism and Alchemy. The book is written from the point of view of a
practical student, and contains many experimental results, which form
valuable keys to the study and practice of the subjects dealt with. The
text is illustrated with numerous explanatory diagrams and symbols.
"Almost every department of the secret arts is touched upon in this
manual, and, for those who are interested in such things and have the
time to study them, it is a mine of information." --- "The Academy."
"A well-furnished store of information for students of the occult arts
and sciences." --- "Light."
THE NEW GOD AND OTHER ESSAYS. By RALPH SHIRLEY, Editor of the "Occult
Review." Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 248 pp., 3"s." 6"d." net.
CONTENTS
The New God --- Prophets and Prophecies --- Prophecies and Anticipations --- Julian the Apostate --- Mystical Christianity --- The Perfect Way --- Relationship of Christianity to Gnostic Faiths --- Early Christian Evidences --- Founders of Orthodox Christianity --- Friedrich Nietzsche --- The Strange Case of Lurancy Vennum --- Cagliostro.
Dr. ALFRED RUSSEL WALLACE, writing to the author, characterises this book as "excellent both in style and matter."
"Mr HAVELOCK ELLIS writes to the author: --- "I have read your brilliant and stimulating volume of essays with much interest."
"The highly controversial matters of which he treats are dealt with in an exceptionally interesting and fascinating fashion ... suggestive and thoughtful, and written in a clear and illuminative style." --- "The Globe."
"Marked by very considerable literary ability." --- "Scotsman."
"Twelve brilliant and striking essays." --- "Liverpool Daily Post."
"Essays ... combining lightness of expression with considerable depth and originality of thought." --- "Birmingham Daily Post."
"Mr. Shirley illuminates his subject with a pleasing humour, and his book is readable and interesting as well as instructive." --- "The Yorkshire Observer."
DEATH: ITS CAUSES AND PHENOMENA. By HEREWARD CARRINGTON and JOHN R. MEADER.
Ornamental black cloth, gilt, 8 3/4 in. x 5 1/2 in., 552 pp., 8"s." 6"d."
net.
CONTENTS.
PREFACE. PART I. "Physiological." --- I. The Scientific Aspect of Life and Death. II. The Signs of Death. III. Trance, Catalepsy, Suspended Animation, etc. IV. Premature Burial. V. Burial, Cremation, Mummification. VI. The Causes of Death. VII. Old Age; its Scientific Study. VIII. The Questionnaire on Death: Answers. IX. My Own Theory of the Nature of Death (Hereward Carrington). X. My Own Theory of the Nature of Death (John R. Meader). XI. On the Possible Unification of our Theories. XII. General Conclusions.
PART II. "Historical." --- I. Man's Theories of Immortality. II. The Philosophical Aspect of Death and Immortality. III. The Theological Aspect of Death and Immortality. IV. The Common Arguments for Immortality.
PART III. "Psychological." --- Introductory. I. The Moment of Death. II. Visions of the Dying. III. Death Described from Beyond the Veil. IV. Experiments in Photographing and Weighting the Soul. V. Death Coincidences. VI. The Testimony of Science --- Psychical Research. VII. On the Intra-Cosmic Difficulties of Communication. VIII. Conclusions. Appendices. Bibliography. Index.
"The book ... has much to recommend it on the score of stimulus to calm reasoning and further research" --- "Pall Mall Gazette."
"The collaborators may certainly claim that they have brought proven evidence as to the persistence of individual consciousness and personal identity which merits consideration." --- "Sunday Times." "Well worth reading." --- "The Tatler."
"Our authors have maintained an admirably detached attitude ... Mr Carrington's theory will stand many tests of application in the light of our present knowledge." --- "Westminster Gazette." "An extraordinarily interesting book." --- "Truth."
"One closes their comprehensive survey with the conviction that the subject has been dealt with by two well-equipped, careful investigators." --- "T. P.'s Weekley." "A really useful piece of work." --- "T.P.S. Book Notes."
-------------------
London WILLIAM RIDER & SON, Ltd., 164 Aldersgate Street, E.C.
The Star in the West
BY
CAPTAIN J. F. C. FULLER
"FOURTH LARGE EDITION NOW IN PREPARATION"
THROUGH THE EQUINOX AND ALL BOOKSELLERS
SIX SHILLINGS NET
=====================================
A highly original study of morals and
religion by a new writer, who is as
entertaining as the average novelist is
dull. Nowadays human thought has
taken a brighter place in the creation:
our emotions are weary of bad baronets
and stolen wills; they are now only
excited by spiritual crises, catastrophes of
the reason, triumphs of the intelligence.
In these fields Captain Fuller is a master
dramatist.
=====================================
"This page is reserved for Official Pronouncements by the Chancellor
of the A".'." A".'.]
Persons wishing for information, assistance, further interpretation, etc., are requested to communicate with
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE A.'. A.'.
c/o THE EQUINOX,
3 Great James Street,
W.C.
Telephone: CITY 8987,
or to call at that address by appointment. A representative will be there to meet them.
======================
Probationers are reminded that the object of Probations and Ordeals is one: namely, to select Adepts. But the method appears twofold: (i) to fortify the fit; (ii) to eliminate the unfit.
======================
The Chancellor of the A.'. A.'. views without satisfaction the practice of Probationers working together. A Probationer should work with his Neophyte, or alone. Breach of this rule may prove a bar to advancement.
THE EQUINOX
"The Editor will be glad to consider
contributions and to return such as
are unacceptable if stamps are enclosed
for the purpose"
THE EQUINOX
THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE A.'. A.'.
THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC ILLUMINISM
An. VII VOL. I. NO. VI. Sun in Libra
SEPTEMBER MCMXI
O.S.
"THE METHOD OF SCIENCE---THE AIM OF RELIGION"
WIELAND & CO.
3 GREAT JAMES STREET, GRAY'S INN
LONDON, W.C.
PRINTED BY
TURNBULL AND SPEARS.
EDINBURGH
CONTENTS
PAGE
EDITORIAL 1
LIBER X 3
LIBER XVI 9
LIBER XC 17
LIBER CLVI 23
LIBER CC 29
LIBER CCCLXX 33
THREE POEMS FOR JANE CHERON. BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 41
CIRCLE. BY ETHEL ARCHER 52
THE ELECTRIC SILENCE 53
SONG 66
THE SCORPION. BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 67
THE EARTH. BY FRANCIS BENDICK 108
SLEEP. BY ETHEL ARCHER 112
THE ORDEAL OF IDA PENDRAGON. BY MARTIAL NAY 113
THE AUTUMN WOODS. BY VICTOR J. I. NEUBURG 149
THE DANGERS OF MYSTICISM 153
THE BIG STICK. BY JOHN YARKER, E. WHINERAY, ALEISTER CROWLEY, ETC. 160
SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
THE RITES OF ELEUSIS 1
["The necessity of giving immediate publication to the text of The Rites of
Eleusis has obliged us to hold over the instalment of The Temple of Solomon
the King until next March."]
EDITORIAL
SLOWLY but surely the EQUINOX climbs from crest to crest of prosperity. such has been the response to the appeal in our last number that we have been able to put in hand the task of translating the Official Instructions of A.'. A.'. into French, and, if it continues, we shall be able to publish them in every important language of the world within the next two years.
Your overworked Editor, too, has been able to take the longest and happiest holiday of his life. River and forest have given him all that nature can; and this was the least part of his contentment. Moreover, he has been able to prepare, under sublime guidance, a dozen Official Instructions of A.'. A.'., to conclude the great Qabalistic Dictionary of Gematria, and to begin the almost equally important Greek Dictionary on similar lines.
He has had leisure to produce more play, sketches, poems, and stories in this last year than he has done in any previous five years of his life.
For all this his gratitude is due, and must be expressed, to the self-sacrificing devotion of our sworn sub-editor, Mr. Victor J. I. Neuburg. Rarely in all history has so unpleasing an exterior concealed such sterling qualities of heart and brain, such indomitable courage, such inflexibility of will, such loyalty and truth. We are glad to hear that he is about to accept a highly paid post on the staff of our bright little contemporary "The Looking-Glass," and that he who himself sings so musically may be in his turn the means of making others sing.
As we observed above, we are causing several extracts from the EQUINOX to be translated into French. {1}
We are further glad to hear such good reports from every branch. The North and the Midlands are already making London look to its laurels; the West has surpassed all hope; America, South Africa, Burma, India, the Malay Peninsula, West Africa, all thrive. Australia has received an important addition to its strength; we have excellent accounts from British Columbia, Paraguay, and Brazil. France is being specially nursed at present, but Holland, Switzerland, and Germany need no such aid. The work in Spain is still hampered by political conditions, and we are sorry to hear little from Italy. In Algeria and Egypt work has got somewhat into arrear, but we hope that the winter will see the fundamental task fairly accomplished.
As we go to press, we are overjoyed to receive the most excellent accounts from the Caucasus, where the good work done by Monsieur Nelidoff twenty years ago has come to marvellous fruition.
With regard to personal progress of Probationers, nothing can be more satisfactory. The process of sifting, subtle but severe, initiated by V.V.V.V.V., and carried out so thoroughly by the Praemonstrator of A.'. A.'., has been perfectly successful.
Every day brings a report illustrative of the fact that people who do not do the practices, but gossip about the A.'. A.'., find themselves mysteriously outside, without word spoken; and the correlative fact, that people who do the practices find that results do happen.
It is most astonishing, even to us; under the old empirical, dogmatic methods people could work really hard for years, and get absolutely nothing; in our three years' experience with the A.'. A.'., we have not found one man in whom three months' work has not produced at least one notable result.
What can we add but this: Blessing and worship to the Beast, the Prophet of the Lovely Star! {2}
LIBER
PORTA LVCIS
SVB FIGVRA
X
{3}
A.'. A.'.
Publication in Class A.
Imprimatur:
N. Fra A.'. A.'.
LIBER
PORTA LVCIS
SVB FIGVRA X
1. I behold a small dark orb, wheeling in an abyss of infinite space. It is minute among a myriad vast ones, dark amid a myriad bright ones.
2. I who comprehend in myself all the vast and the minute, all the bright and the dark, have mitigated the brilliance of mine unutterable splendour, sending forth V.V.V.V.V. as a ray of my light, as a messenger unto that small dark orb.
3. Then V.V.V.V.V. taketh up the word, and sayeth:
4. Men and women of the Earth, to you am I come from the Ages beyond the Ages, from the Space beyond your vision; and I bring to you these words.
5. But they heard him not, for they were not ready to receive them.
6. But certain men heard and understood, and through them shall this Knowledge be made known.
7. The least therefore of them, the servant of them all, writeth this book.
8. He writeth for them that are ready. Thus is it known if one be ready, if he be endowed with certain gifts, if he be fitted by birth, or by wealth, or by intelligence, or by some {5} other manifest sign. And the servants of the master by his insight shall judge of these.
9. This Knowledge is not for all men; few indeed are called, but of these few many are chosen.
10. This is the nature of the Work.
11. First, there are many and diverse conditions of life upon this earth. In all of these is some seed of sorrow. Who can escape from sickness and from old age and from death?
12. We are come to save our fellows from these things. For there is a life intense with knowledge and extreme bliss which is untouched by any of them.
13. To this life we attain even here and now. The adepts, the servants of V.V.V.V.V., have attained thereunto.
14. It is impossible to tell you of the splendours of that to which they have attained.
Little by little, as your eyes grow stronger, will we unveil to you the ineffable glory of the Path of the Adepts, and its nameless goal.
15. Even as a man ascending a steep mountain is lost to sight of his friends in the valley, so must the adept seem. They shall say: He is lost in the clouds. But he shall rejoice in the sunlight above them, and come to the eternal snows.
16. Or as a scholar may learn some secret language of the ancients, his friends shall say: "Look! he pretends to read this book. But it is unintelligible --- it is nonsense." Yet he delights in the Odyssey, while they read vain and vulgar things.
17. We shall bring you to Absolute Truth, Absolute Light, Absolute Bliss. {6}
18. Many adepts throughout the ages have sought to do this; but their words have been perverted by their successors, and again and again the Veil has fallen upon the Holy of Holies.
19. To you who yet wander in the Court of the Profane we cannot yet reveal all; but you will easily understand that the religions of the world are but symbols and veils of the Absolute Truth. So also are the philosophies. To the adept, seeing all these things from above, there seems nothing to choose between Buddha and Mohammed, between Atheism and Theism.
20. The many change and pass; the one remains. Even as wood and coal and iron burn up together in one great flame, if only that furnace be of transcendent heat; so in the alembic of this spiritual alchemy, if only the zelator blow sufficiently upon his furnace all the systems of earth are consumed in the One Knowledge.
21. Nevertheless, as a fire cannot be started with iron alone, in the beginning one system may be suited for one seeker, another for another.
22. We therefore who are without the chains of ignorance, look closely into the heart of the seeker and lead him by the path which is best suited to his nature unto the ultimate end of all things, the supreme realization, the Life which abideth in Light, yea, the Life which abideth in Light. {7}
LIBER TVRRIS
VEL
DOMVS DEI
SUB FIGVRA
XVI
A.'. A.'.
Publication in Class B.
Imprimatur:
N. Fra A.'. A.'.
LIBER TVRRIS
VEL DOMVS DEI
SUB FIGVRA XVI
0. This practice is very difficult. The student cannot hope for much success unless he have thoroughly mastered Asana, and obtained much definite success in the meditation-practices of Liber E and Liber HHH.
On the other hand, any success in this practice is of an exceedingly high character, and the student is less liable to illusion and self-deception in this than in almost any other that We make known.
[The meditation-practice in Liber E consisted in the restraint of the mind to a single predetermined imagined object exterior to the student, simple or complex, at rest or in motion: those of Liber HHH in causing the mind to pass through a predetermined series of states: the Raja-Yoga of the Hindus is mainly an extension of the methods of Liber E to interior objects: the Mahasatipatthana of the Buddhists is primarily an observation and analysis of bodily movements. While the present practice differs radically from all of these, it is of the greatest advantage to be acquainted practically with each of them, with regard firstly to their incidental difficulties, and secondly to their ascertained results in respect of psychology. ED.]
1. First Point. The student should first discover for himself the apparent position of the point in his brain where thoughts arise, if there be such a point. {11}
If not, he should seek the position of the point where thoughts are judged.
2. Second Point. He must also develop in himself a Will of Destruction, even a Will of Annihilation. It may be that this shall be discovered at an immeasurable distance from his physical body. Nevertheless, this must he reach, with this must he identify himself even to the loss of himself.
3. Third Point. Let this Will then watch vigilantly the point where thoughts arise, or the point where they are judged, and let every thought be annihilated as it is perceived or judged.<>
4. Fourth Point. Next, let every thought be inhibited in its inception.
5. Fifth Point. Next, let even the causes or tendencies that if unchecked ultimate in thoughts be discovered and annihilated.
6. Sixth and Last Point. Let the true Cause of All<> be unmasked and annihilated.
7. This is that which was spoken by wise men of old time concerning the destruction of the world by fire; yea, the destruction of the world by fire.
8. [This and the following verses are of modern origin.] Let the Student remember that each Point represents a definite achievement of great difficulty.
9. Let him not then attempt the second until he be well satisfied of his mastery over the first. {12}
10. This practice is also that which was spoken by Fra P. in a parable as followeth:
11. Foul is the robber stronghold, filled with hate;
Thief strangling thief, and mate at war with mate,
Fronting wild raiders, all forlorn to Fate!
There is nor health nor happiness therein.
Manhood is cowardice, and virtue sin.
Intolerable blackness hems it in.
Not hell's heart hath so noxious a shade;
Yet harmless and unharmed, and undismayed,
Pines in her prison an unsullied maid.
Penned by the master mage to his desire,
She baffles his seductions and his ire,
Praying God's all-annihilating fire.
The Lord of Hosts gave ear unto her song:
The Lord of Hosts waxed wrathful at her wrong.
He loosed the hound of heaven from its thong.
Violent and vivid smote the levin flash.
Once the tower rocked and cracked beneath its lash,
Caught inextinguishable fire; was ash.
But that same fire that quelled the robber strife,
And struck each being out of lust and life,
Left the mild maiden a rejoicing wife. {13}
12. And this:
13. There is a well before the Great White Throne
That is choked up with rubbish from the ages;
Rubble and clay and sediment and stone,
Delight of lizards and despair of sages.
Only the lightning from His hand that sits,
And shall sit when the usurping tyrant falls,
Can purge that wilderness of wills and wits,
Let spring that fountain in eternal halls.
14. And this:
15. Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury:
Which is master of the three?
Salt is Lady of the Sea;
Lord of Air is Mercury.
Now by God's grace here is salt
Fixed beneath the violet vault.
Now by God's love purge it through
With our right Hermetic dew.
Now by God wherein we trust
Be our sophic salt combust.
Then at last the Eye shall see
Three in One and One in Three,
Sulphur, Salt, and Mercury,
Crowned by Heavenly Alchemy! {14}
To the One who sent the Seven
Glory in the Highest Heaven!
To the Seven who are the Ten
Glory on the Earth, Amen!
16. And of the difficulties of this practice and of the Results that reward it, let these things be discovered by the right Ingenium of the Practicus.
{15}
LIBER TZADDI
vel
HAMVS HERMETICVS
SVB FIGVRA
XC
{17}
A.'. A.'.
Publication in Class A.
Imprimatur:
N. Fra A.'. A.'.
LIBER TZADDI
vel HAMVS HERMETICVS
SVB FIGVRA XC
0. In the name of the Lord of Initiation, Amen.
1. I fly and I alight as an hawk: of mother-of-emerald are my mighty-sweeping wings.
2. I swoop down upon the black earth; and it gladdens into green at my coming.
3. Children of Earth! rejoice! rejoice exceedingly; for your salvation is at hand.
4. The end of sorrow is come; I will ravish you away into mine unutterable joy.
5. I will kiss you, and bring you to the bridal: I will spread a feast before you in the house of happiness.
6. I am not come to rebuke you, or to enslave you.
7. I bid you not turn from your voluptuous ways, from your idleness, from your follies.
8. But I bring you joy to your pleasure, peace to your languor, wisdom to your folly.
9. All that ye do is right, if so be that ye enjoy it.
10. I am come against sorrow, against weariness, against them that seek to enslave you. {19}
11. I pour you lustral wine, that giveth you delight both at the sunset and the dawn.
12. Come with me, and I will give you all that is desirable upon the earth.
13. Because I give you that of which Earth and its joys are but as shadows.
14. They flee away, but my joy abideth even unto the end.
15. I have hidden myself beneath a mask: I am a black and terrible God.
16. With courage conquering fear shall ye approach me: ye shall lay down your heads upon mine altar, expecting the sweep of the sword.
17. But the first kiss of love shall be radiant on your lips; and all my darkness and terror shall turn to light and joy.
18. Only those who fear shall fail. Those who have bent their backs to the yoke of slavery until they can no longer stand upright; them will I despise.
19. But you who have defied the law; you who have conquered by subtlety or force; you will I take unto me, even I will take you unto me.
20. I ask you to sacrifice nothing at mine altar; I am the God who giveth all.
21. Light, Life, Love; Force, Fantasy, Fire; these do I bring you: mine hands are full of these.
22. There is joy in the setting-out; there is joy in the journey; there is joy in the goal.
23. Only if ye are sorrowful, or weary, or angry, or discomforted; then ye may know that ye have lost the golden thread, the thread wherewith I guide you to the heart of the groves of Eleusis. {20}
24. My disciples are proud and beautiful; they are strong and swift; they rule their way like mighty conquerors.
25. The weak, the timid, the imperfect, the cowardly, the poor, the tearful --- these are mine enemies, and I am come to destroy them.
26. This also is compassion: an end to the sickness of earth. A rooting-out of the weeds: a watering of the flowers.
27. O my children, ye are more beautiful than the flowers: ye must not fade in your season.
28. I love you; I would sprinkle you with the divine dew of immortality.
29. This immortality is no vain hope beyond the grave: I offer you the certain consciousness of bliss.
30. I offer it at once, on earth; before an hour hath struck upon the bell, ye shall be with Me in the Abodes that are beyond Decay.
31. Also I give you power earthly and joy earthly; wealth, and health, and length of days. Adoration and love shall cling to your feet, and twine around your heart.
32. Only your mouths shall drink of a delicious wine --- the wine of Iacchus; they shall reach ever to the heavenly kiss of the Beautiful God.
33. I reveal unto you a great mystery. Ye stand between the abyss of height and the abyss of depth.
34. In either awaits you a Companion; and that Companion is Yourself.
35. Ye can have no other Companion.
36. Many have arisen, being wise. They have said "Seek out the glittering Image in the place ever golden, and unite yourselves with It." {21}
37. Many have arisen, being foolish. They have said, "Stoop down unto the darkly splendid world, and be wedded to that Blind Creature of the Slime."
38. I who am beyond Wisdom and Folly, arise and say unto you: achieve both weddings! Unite yourselves with both!
39. Beware, beware, I say, lest ye seek after the one and lose the other!
40. My adepts stand upright; their head above the heavens, their feet below the hells.
41. But since one is naturally attracted to the Angel, another to the Demon, let the first strengthen the lower link, the last attach more firmly to the higher.
42. Thus shall equilibrium become perfect. I will aid my disciples; as fast as they acquire this balanced power and joy so faster will I push them.
43. They shall in their turn speak from this Invisible Throne; their words shall illumine the worlds.
44. They shall be masters of majesty and might; they shall be beautiful and joyous; they shall be clothed with victory and splendour; they shall stand upon the firm foundation; the kingdom shall be theirs; yea, the kingdom shall be theirs.
In the name of the Lord of Initiation. Amen.
{22}
LIBER CHETH
VEL
VALLVM ABIEGNI
SVB FIGVRA
CLVI
{23}
A.'. A.'.
Publication in Class A.
Imprimatur:
N. Fra A.'. A.'.
LIBER CHETH
VEL VALLUM ABIEGNI
SVB FIGVRA CLVI
1. This is the secret of the Holy Graal, that is the sacred vessel of our Lady the Scarlet Woman, Babalon the Mother of Abominations, the bride of Chaos, that rideth upon our Lord the Beast.
2. Thou shalt drain out thy blood that is thy life into the golden cup of her fornication.
3. Thou shalt mingle thy life with the universal life. Thou shalt keep not back one drop.
4. Then shall thy brain be dumb, and thy heart beat no more, and all thy life shall go from thee; and thou shalt be cast out upon the midden, and the birds of the air shall feast upon thy flesh, and thy bones shall whiten in the sun.
5. Then shall the winds gather themselves together, and bear thee up as it were a little heap of dust in a sheet that hath four corners, and they shall give it unto the guardians of the abyss.
6. And because there is no life therein, the guardians of the abyss shall bid the angels of the winds pass by. And the angels shall lay thy dust in the City of the Pyramids, and the name thereof shall be no more. {25}
7. Now therefore that thou mayest achieve this ritual of the Holy Graal, do thou divest thyself of all thy goods.
8. Thou hast wealth; give it unto them that have need thereof, yet no desire toward it.
9. Thou hast health; slay thyself in the fervour of thine abandonment unto Our Lady. Let thy flesh hang loose upon thy bones, and thine eyes glare with thy quenchless lust unto the Infinite, with thy passion for the Unknown, for Her that is beyond Knowledge the accursed one.
10. Thou hast love; tear thy mother from thine heart, and spit in the face of thy father. Let thy foot trample the belly of thy wife, and let the babe at her breast be the prey of dogs and vultures.
11. For if thou dost not this with thy will, then shall We do this despite thy will. So that thou attain to the Sacrament of the Graal in the Chapel of Abominations.
12. And behold! if by stealth thou keep unto thyself one thought of thine, then shalt thou be cast out into the abyss for ever; and thou shalt be the lonely one, the eater of dung, the afflicted in the Day of Be-with-Us.
13. Yea! verily this is the Truth, this is the Truth, this is the Truth. Unto thee shall be granted joy and health and wealth and wisdom when thou art no longer thou.
14. Then shall every gain be a new sacrament, and it shall not defile thee; thou shalt revel with the wanton in the market-place, and the virgins shall fling roses upon thee, and the merchants bend their knees and bring thee gold and spices. Also young boys shall pour wonderful wines for thee, and the singers and the dancers shall sing and dance for thee. {26}
15. Yet shalt thou not be therein, for thou shalt be forgotten, dust lost in dust.
16. Nor shall the aeon itself avail thee in this; for from the dust shall a white ash be prepared by Hermes the Invisible.
17. And this is the wrath of God, that these things should be thus.
18. And this is the grace of God, that these things should be thus.
19. Wherefore I charge you that ye come unto me in the Beginning; for if ye take but one step in this Path, ye must arrive inevitably at the end thereof.
20. This Path is beyond Life and Death; it is also beyond Love; but that ye know not, for ye know not Love.
21. And the end thereof is known not even unto Our Lady or to the Beast whereon She rideth; nor unto the Virgin her daughter nor unto Chaos her lawful Lord; but unto the Crowned Child is it known? It is not known if it be known.
22. Therefore unto Hadit and unto Nuit be the glory in the End and the Beginning; yea, in the End and the Beginning.
{27}
LIBER RESH
VEL
HELIOS
SVB FIGVRA
CC
{29}
A.'. A.'.
Publication in Class D.
Imprimatur:
N. Fra A.'. A.'.
LIBER RESH
VEL HELIOS.
SVB FIGVRA CC
0. These are the adorations to be performed by all aspirants to the A.'. A.'.
1. Let him greet the Sun at dawn, facing East, giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice:
Hail unto Thee who art Ra in Thy rising, even unto Thee who art Ra in Thy strength, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Uprising of the Sun.
Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.
Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Night!
2. Also at Noon, let him greet the Sun, facing South, giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice:
Hail unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy triumphing, even unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy beauty, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Mid-course of the Sun.
Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.
Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Morning!
3. Also, at Sunset, let him greet the Sun, facing West, {31} giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice:
Hail unto Thee who art Tum in Thy setting, even unto Thee who art Tum in Thy joy, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Down-going of the Sun.
Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.
Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Day!
4. Lastly, at Midnight, let him greet the Sun, facing North, giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice:
Hail unto thee who art Khephra in Thy hiding, even unto Thee who art Khephra in Thy silence, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Midnight Hour of the Sun.
Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.
Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Evening.
5. And after each of these invocations thou shalt give the sign of silence, and afterwards thou shalt perform the adoration that is taught thee by thy Superior. And then do thou compose Thyself to holy meditation.
6. Also it is better if in these adorations thou assume the God-form of Whom thou adorest, as if thou didst unite with Him in the adoration of That which is beyond Him.
7. Thus shalt thou ever be mindful of the Great Work which thou hast undertaken to perform, and thus shalt thou be strengthened to pursue it unto the attainment of the Stone of the Wise, the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness. {32}
LIBER A'ASH
VEL
CAPRICORNI PNEVMATICI
SVB FIGVRA
CCCLXX
{33}
A.'. A.'.
Publication in Class A.
Imprimatur:
N. Fra A.'. A.'.
LIBER A'ASH
VEL CAPRICORNI PNEVMATICI
SVB FIGVRA CCCLXX
0. Gnarled Oak of God! In thy branches is the lightning nested! Above thee hangs the Eyeless Hawk.
1. Thou art blasted and black! Supremely solitary in that heath of scrub.
2. Up! The ruddy clouds hang over thee! It is the storm.
3. There is a flaming gash in the sky.
4. Up.
5. Thou art tossed about in the grip of the storm for an aeon and an aeon and an aeon. But thou givest not thy sap; thou fallest not.
6. Only in the end shalt thou give up thy sap when the great God F. I. A. T. is enthroned on the day of Be-with-Us.
7. For two things are done and a third thing is begun. Isis and Osiris are given over to incest and adultery. Horus leaps up thrice armed from the womb of his mother. Harpocrates his twin is hidden within him. Set is his holy covenant, that he shall display in the great day of M. A. A. T., that is being interpreted the Master of the Temple of A.'. A.'., whose name is Truth. {35}
8. Now in this is the magical power known.
9. It is like the oak that hardens itself and bears up against the storm. It is weather-beaten and scarred and confident like a sea-captain.
10. Also it straineth like a hound in the leash.
11. It hath pride and great subtlety. Yea, and glee also!
12. Let the magus act thus in his conjuration.
13. Let him sit and conjure; let him draw himself together in that forcefulness; let him rise next swollen and straining; let him dash back the hood from his head and fix his basilisk eye upon the sigil of the demon. Then let him sway the force of him to and fro like a satyr in silence, until the Word burst from his throat.
14. Then let him not fall exhausted, although the might have been ten thousandfold the human; but that which floodeth him is the infinite mercy of the Genitor-Genetrix of the Universe, whereof he is the Vessel.
15. Nor do thou deceive thyself. It is easy to tell the live force from the dead matter. It is no easier to tell the live snake from the dead snake.
16. Also concerning vows. Be obstinate, and be not obstinate. Understand that the yielding of the Yoni is one with the lengthening of the Lingam. Thou art both these; and thy vow is but the rustling of the wind on Mount Meru.
17. Now shalt thou adore me who am the Eye and the Tooth, the Goat of the Spirit, the Lord of Creation. I am the Eye in the Triangle, the Silver Star that ye adore.
18. I am Baphomet, that is the Eightfold Word that shall be equilibrated with the Three. {36}
19. There is no act or passion that shall not be a hymn in mine honour.
20. All holy things and all symbolic things shall be my sacraments.
21. These animals are sacred unto me; the goat, and the duck, and the ass, and the gazelle, the man, the woman and the child.
22. All corpses are sacred unto me; they shall not be touched save in mine eucharist. All lonely places are sacred unto me; where one man gathereth himself together in my name, there will I leap forth in the midst of him.
23. I am the hideous god; and who mastereth me is uglier than I.
24. Yet I give more than Bacchus and Apollo; my gifts exceed the olive and the horse.
25. Who worshippeth me must worship me with many rites.
26. I am concealed with all concealments; when the Most Holy Ancient One is stripped and driven through the marketplace I am still secret and apart.
27. Whom I love I chastise with many rods.
28. All things are sacred to me; no thing is sacred from me.
29. For there is no holiness where I am not.
30. Fear not when I fall in the fury of the storm; for mine acorns are blown afar by the wind; and verily I shall rise again, and my children about me, so that we shall uplift our forest in Eternity.
31. Eternity is the storm that covereth me.
32. I am Existence, the Existence that existeth not save through its own Existence, that is beyond the Existence of {37} Existences, and rooted deeper than the No-Thing-Tree in the Land of No-Thing.
33. Now therefore thou knowest when I am within thee, when my hood is spread over thy skull, when my might is more than the penned Indus, and resistless as the Giant Glacier.
34. For as thou art before a lewd woman in Thy nakedness in the bazaar, sucked up by her slyness and smiles, so art thou wholly and no more in part before the symbol of the beloved, though it be but a Pisacha or a Yantra or a Deva.
35. And in all shalt thou create the Infinite Bliss, and the next link of the Infinite Chain.
36. This chain reaches from Eternity to Eternity, ever in triangles --- is not my symbol a triangle? --- ever in circles --- is not the symbol of the Beloved a circle? Therein is all progress base illusion, for every circle is alike and every triangle alike!
37. But the progress is progress, and progress is rapture, constant, dazzling, showers of light, waves of dew, flames of the hair of the Great Goddess, flowers of the roses that are about her neck, Amen!
38. Therefore lift up thyself as I am lifted up. Hold thyself in as I am master to accomplish. At the end, be the end far distant as the stars that lie in the navel of Nuit, do thou slay thyself as I at the end am slain, in the death that is life, in the peace that is mother of war, in the darkness that holds light in his hand as a harlot that plucks a jewel from her nostrils.
39. So therefore the beginning is delight, and the End is delight, and delight is in the midst, even as the Indus is {38} water in the cavern of the glacier, and water among the greater hills and the lesser hills and through the ramparts of the hills and through the plains, and water at the mouth thereof when it leaps forth into the mighty sea, yea, into the mighty sea.
[The Interpretation of this Book will be given to members of the Grade of Dominus Liminis on application, each to his Adeptus.]
{39}
THREE POEMS FOR JANE CHERON
{41}
THREE POEMS FOR JANE CHERON
I
THE WAIF OF OCEANUS
"TO FRANK HARRIS"
SHE is like a flower washed up
On the shore of life by the sea of luck;
A strange and venomous flower, intent
To prove an unguessed continent.
New worlds of love in the curve of its cup!
New fruits to crush, new flowers to pluck.
White waif, white champak-blosso blown
From the jungle to the lost lagoon!
White lily swayed by the wind of time!
Grey eyes that crave the chrism of crime!
Blanched face like a note on a clarion!
Red mouth like the sun through simoon, typhoon!
Hurricanes howl, howl in her heart;
Serpents sleep in her smile; I hear
Horrible happenings long ago,
Direful deeds, weirds of woe, {43}
Things beyond history and art
In the tresses that tumble over her ear!
In what grim gloom did Satan get
This child on what wood-nymph dishevelled?
Whence was the wind that swayed the woods
On their bestial beatitudes?
Or what garden of rose and violet
Lay under the moon wherein they revelled?
She is like a poppy-petal.
All the seas of sleep are hidden
Under the languorous eyelids, whose
Lashes are long and strong to bruise
My heart where her lusts like hornets settle
On sacred leaves, on flowers forbidden.
She is like a drug of wonder.
All the limits of sense dissolve
When we fall like snows from the precipice
Sun-kissed to the black ravines of ice.
I am drowned in the universal thunder;
The hours disrupt, the aeons involve.
Ah! not in any mortal mood
Ends the great verb we conjugate.
From the highest hyberbole she doth swerve
In an incommensurable curve,
And the line of our beatitude
Is one with the sigil of our Fate. {44}
Pallid, a mummy throned, she sits;
The Egyptian eyes, the Egyptian hair,
The band on her brows, the slender hands,
All hieroglyphs of a God's commands
Beyond the rimes that a poet knits
With fruitless travail, sterile care!
Marvellous! marvellous, marvellous!
And again a marvel, a lotus-bud
Dropt from the brows of a Goddess unknown
On the ivory steps of the golden throne,
Virginal brows and luminous
With the star-stream flowing therein for blood.
Ah, but electric thrills the Host
Of the esoteric Eucharist!
The Pagan power of the corn and wine
Mystical, magical, hers and mine,
The dove-plumed snake of the Holy Ghost
That wings and writhes in the wounds unkissed!
Lie there, love --- if I love you indeed
Who adore and wonder and faint for drouth
Of the passion-flower fallen from the other side
Of time and space the tedious tide.
Lie there, lie there, and let me bleed
To death in the breath of the murderous mouth! {45}
II
THE SNOW MAIDEN
"TO MARGARET CALLAGHAN"
MY love is like the lucent globes
That drip from lips of cool crevasses,
To clothe them with the virgin robes
Of mosses, flowers, and grasses.
O spheres compact of fire and dew,
Lamps of the hollows of the mountain,
What dream angelic fathered you
On what celestial fountain?
Nay! but I lay on lower earth
Stagnant in sunless meres! The prison
Of monstrous spawn, detested birth ---
Behold me rearisen!
It was yon fierce diurnal star
That licked me up with his huge kisses,
And dropped me in his rain afar
Upon these frore abysses!
Yea! as I press to the cool moss
My mouth, and drink at its delirious
Delight --- acclaim the Sun across
The menaces of Sirius! {46}
Doth not the World's great Alchemist
Rule earth's alembic with the sun?
Is not the mind a foolish mist,
And is not water one?
The slim white body that you gave,
Wild Jaja', with exotic nautches
Wanton and wonderful, a wave
Of debonair debauches,
Is worth the virgin limbs and lips
Of her the virtuous, the viceless,
With life who never came to grips,
Who gave me nothing priceless.
Give me the purity distilled
From dervish sweat and satyr bruises.
The Holy Graal with wine is filled
From no unbroken cruses.
Doth not the World's great Alchemist
Corrupt His oysters to make pearls?
Shall not these lips praise Him? They kissed
No cold reluctant girl's.
Jaja' hath woven the web of God
From threads of lust and laughter spun.
In heaven the rose is worth the rod;
And love as water, One. {47}
III
JEANNE
A PASTORAL
"TO RAYMOND RADCLYFFE"
"Hey diddle diddle! the cat and the fiddle!
The cow jumped over the moon."
I LAID mine ear against your heart,
Jeanne!
A masterpiece of nature turned
A masterpiece of art,
With your blanched Egyptian beauty foiled
By the hungry eyes, and the red mouth soiled
By the honey of mine that your greed has spoiled,
Jeanne!
The body a corpse and the soul inurned!
Against your heart I laid mine ear,
Jeanne!
And the clock went ticking, ticking.
How could I choose but hear,
Jeanne!
Ah me! what thoughts came pricking
Like spurs in the flanks of a weary horse?
Nor heart nor clock could feel remorse,
But kept their definite deadly course,
Jeanne!
Alas! for man, for his life's disaster:
The clock beats fast, but a heart beats faster. {48}
Oh, your love was a marvellous thing,
Jeanne!
It was dawn, it was fire, it was birth, it was spring,
Jeanne!
But this is the curse, that it quickens its rate,
Lest man by love should escape from fate
And win from the dust to the Uncreate,
Jeanne!
Nay, we are lovers, you and I ---
And we must die, and our love must die!
How have we striven, each of us,
Jeanne!
To break the bars of the prison-house,
Jeanne!
We have raged like cats in a ring of fire,
Driven by desire that was true Desire,
The hate of the lower, the love of the Higher,
Jeanne!
What is the end of it, Jeanne? Why, that's
A mystery not to be solved by cats!
In the fields we wandered through to-day,
Jeanne!
Hand in hand, this wonderful May,
Jeanne!
This May we have made so marvellous
With the infinite longing and love of us, {49}
In the fields all faery with flowers there lay
The placid cows --- that had nothing to say,
Jeanne!
No flame of words from maddening blood,
But complacent chewing of the cud.
I dared not whisper the sudden fear
Of my heart in your miracle of an ear,
Jeanne!
I tightened my lips, and my hand on yours;
So that you might think I loved you more.
But now in the midnight the thought endures,
And the love --- ah what is the dream we adore?
Suppose the infinite peace of the heart,
Jeanne!
The crest and crown of labour and art,
Of the mystic quest, of the toil of the saint,
The mount on whose slopes the strongest faint,
Jeanne!
Suppose that peace of God, that House
Of Delight of the Bridegroom and the Spouse,
Were only the calm of the chewing cows,
Jeanne!
Suppose that in all the worlds inane
There were one thing only vexed and vain,
Turbulent, troubled, and insane,
Jeanne!
Suppose that the universal plan
Had but one flaw, and that flaw were man! {50}
Then --- even then --- we are here,
Jeanne!
We love --- we shall die, sweet heart, take cheer,
Jeanne!
We are bound to a fate that brings release;
We move in a moil that must one day cease;
We shall win to the everlasting peace,
Jeanne!
And how things are, and why, and whence
Are puzzles for fools that lack the sense
Of cows --- enough of the future tense,
Jeanne!
For the end of love and the end of art
Is just --- my ear against your heart!
ALEISTER CROWLEY.
{51}
CIRCE
HER mouth a rosebud of delight,
Low-laughing 'mid the languid curls,
Whose kissing cadence seems to cite
The rhythmic melody of Night.
Her hair a saraband where whirls
A wanton witch, whose perfumes smite
The shuddering air; a summer night
Where summer lightning darts and curls.
Her soul a Parian marble shrine,
Centred in lily-cups that fold
Their carven petals, smooth and cold,
Far o'er a lake of frozen wine ---
Yet deep within whose inmost fold
Sleepeth a snake: the crystal brine
Of endless sorrow seals his shrine;
Wiser than Sin is he, so old!
ETHEL ARCHER.
{52}
THE ELECTRIC SILENCE
{53}
THE ELECTRIC SILENCE
[This parable is a synopsis of The Temple of Solomon the King, with which it may be collated. --- ED.].
I WAITED for news that my heart beat. The severing night was between me and my love. There was no god of sleep; sleep were traitor. I sought to praise my love, and to lament the hours that divided us; and I could not. Therefore I wrote down the story of my life.
And it is this:
* * * * *
Gilded and painted to hide its worm-eaten planks, my pleasure-boat was foundering. I cursed the treachery of the workmen, and resolved to trust myself to my own arms rather than to abide any longer therein.
No sooner had I taken off my clothes and plunged into the river than I perceived that it was now become dark. On the one hand glowed a star, curious indeed, but of no great brightness, and promising but little; while on the other was a sombre and fantastic lamp, whose fascination was its horror.
If I swam lazily towards either of these, it was because their light, confused and difficult on the one part, and tenebrous on the other, was yet light in comparison with that aimless and abiding gloom which had now settled upon the bosom of {55} the river. And these lamps were above the river, children of a nobler element. And in the river is the great Leviathan that devours men.
But before I had come within the sphere of attraction of either of these, suddenly mine eyes were gladdened with a marvellous vision. Infinitely far off, as it seemed, a ray of sunlight shot through the Saturnine gloom of the skies, and lit the surface of the water. And then I perceived that upon the river there floated, within that small circle of light, an ark, or as it might be, a coffin. Then looking up into that pierced cloud I saw within the light a certain house surrounded by a grove. Within, all was dark; yet from it proceeded a ray as silvery as the first ray was golden.
And I desired ardently to enter that house. Yet, having no wings, the task appeared beyond my human force. Then the heavens closed as suddenly as they had opened, and I was left darkling. Yet I had this candle of hope, that within the ark, could I reach it, might be some help of knowledge or power whereby that house might be attained.
So I swam steadily toward, though with some fear, for the eddies in that great stream were numerous, and my sole guide was a slender snake of light that moved upon the water.
Or so it appeared; for I have since discovered that I had an interior sense of direction as trusty as the mariner's compass; so that, though I knew it not, it was never possible for me to go astray.
Now as I swam I came upon one floundering and spluttering in the stream, who with mighty puffings urged me to continue. {56}
For but a little way beyond us (quoth he) is a mighty swimmer and a dexterous.
So with a mighty effort my comrade put forth all his strength, and we gained upon this one, and greeted him.
Thereupon he (and he was a goodly man, and fair) did most heartily welcome me as a fellow-traveller to that house, and confirmed me in my belief that the ark did indeed hold the secret of the way thereto. And as for the guide that might convey us through the darkness and the tumult of the stream, he spoke (something darkly) of one appointed, and more clearly that he was aware of divers marks upon the way; for, said he, to them that view it from above this trackless waste of water is mapped out and charted with a perfect science.
Behold! quoth he. And at that moment was there a glimmer just before me of a white shining triangle, and what was most strange, rather an impression than a vision of a man that hung upon a gibbet by one heel. This, said the fair man, is a most notable sign that we travel the right road.
Now by the light of the triangle I perceived another wonder; for my friend was not swimming as I was in the stream, but was borne by a boat, frail indeed, yet sufficient. Within this shallop or cockleshell he pulled me, and set me at the bench. Then (still by the light of the triangle) I saw a dark man at the thwart, rowing a strong stroke.
We pulled on almost in silence; for when I asked of the fair man his name he answered me only "I wish to know," and of the dark man "I wish it were light," the first clearly a confession of ignorance, the second a patent evasion; which things discomforted me much.
Yet we progressed evenly and rapidly, and were mightily {57} cheered after a while to see just a flash of lightning sundering two dark clouds; next a pale crescent, heavy and slow, yet silvered; next, as if it had dropped from the stars, an unicorn galloped past us and was gone ere we could fix it; next a tall lighthouse upon the water.
"Here," said the dark man my comrade, "is a pleasant place for refreshment before we turn to the further journey." As he spoke, although no sun was visible, a mighty rainbow appeared, and crowned the tower. I cried out joyfully, "The bow of promise," but they answered nothing. And at that I understood that they had travelled further already, and were but returned for an hour to succour me who had no boat.
Seven days then we remained in the tower, eating and drinking. Also in my sleep I had many marvellous dreams, of greater sustenance than sleep itself. And there was given unto me by my fair brother (for so I may now call him) a little book, wherein it was written how a man might build himself a shallop, and have for steersman one appointed thereunto.
This then I laboured to build, and the toil was great. Moreover, certain vile fish rose from the water, and with their fins beat upon the planks of my boat, that I might not end it.
However, at last I had it perfect, and was about to set sail at dawn. But first the dark man my brother departed from us, and went his way. And then the old man of the tower took me aside and offered me a seat at the funeral feast of his master. And although I verily believe that this old man was a rogue, a very knavish fellow, and a sot, yet in that funeral I took great pleasure. For the gentlest perfume was {58} borne upon the breeze, and the air was lit with faint electric flames that gathered themselves into a hill of light. So I, being lifted up, and my heart overflowing, came into the funeral chamber that was exceeding bright, and there was the table for the feast, and beneath it the coffin wherein lay the body of the master. There too I saw barren wood bear roses, and I heard the voice of the master. After that I was shewn all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and many other things of great use and beauty.
Then I took my leave of the old man of the tower, and boarded the shallop that I had made, when he cried out piteously that he feared earthquake, and asked me for my aid.
So with a heart both heavy and light I abandoned my shallop and the dreadful labour of its fashioning, and came back to him.
Then came earthquake as he had foreseen; and he and the boats also were swallowed up. In the tidal wave of the earthquake I was borne far away, even from the fair man my brother; and in the darkness he was lost to me. I knew not even whether he had perished.
But fashioning a raft from the loose planks of the wreckage, I made shift to paddle. The ark was invisible, and I had no more memory thereof, so turned away was I and absorbed in the bright signs upon the way. And now my raft was like to sink, and my arms were exceeding weary, when a voice sounded but a little above me: "Enter the ark!"
And I looked up and beheld a bearded man, mighty, with the signs of labour and long journeying writ upon him. I knew him; and for this reason was I much amazed, for I had believed him far from that place. But taking my hand {59} he drew me not without pain into the ark. Here (quoth he) forget all that thou hast seen and heard; for in this ark they are not lawful.
So I obeyed him, else I had drawn after me the raft that had brought me hither.
Then he questioned me, saying:
What lieth above the ark?
And I answered him:
The house of the silver ray, that is lighted by the ray of gold.
"He:" How many roofs hath the ark?
"I:" One.
"He:" Thou must pass through this one. Yet thou lookest eagerly upon the four walls of the ark.
"I:" I seek a door.
"He:" The door is in the roof.
"I:" Lead me to it, I pray thee!
"He:" Fix thine eyes upon it.
"I:" Sir, I will. Yet I pray thee to tell me thy name.
"He:" Thou didst know it of old, didst thou not?
"I:" The son of the mountain?
"He:" The Stone of the Crossways.
"I:" It is enough. Let me fix mine eye upon the door.
"He:" It is well.
Then I obeyed him, and in that obedience forgot him. For though mine eye wandered often, and although once the planks beneath me threatened to give way and plunge me once more into the stream, yet I strove as a man may.
Then, mine eye being accustomed to the gloom, I beheld by my side, yet a little above me, the dark man my brother. {60} Him I greeted most gladly, and told him of the earthquake. Whereat he sighed heavily.
Brother, quoth I, canst thou now tell me thy name? But he only answered me: "It is a pity!"
And with that I returned to my task, and he guided me therein with his counsel and example. Yet in the ark the gloom is fierce; the river without is but twilight, wherein shadows are free; within is darkness itself, and the essence and quintessence of darkness.
In this terrific silence I abode for very long; then for an instant that seemed longer than many lives the sun of heaven broke in and smote mine eye, so that I fell backward nigh fainting. But he bade me be of good cheer and return to the task. I obeyed; and behold! again the sun, and behind the sun a glimpse of one appointed equally to be hidden and to be seen, each as may be fitting.
But the brightness of the sun and its heat dazzled me and scorched me. My members refused to obey; and I slid backward into the great stream that was here so icy cold, and it refreshed me and comforted me.
Now then I was minded to enter again the ark when there flew unto me, I wot not whence, a dove, and perched upon my shoulder. And thus I swam for a while, and the waters of the stream were soft and warm, caressing me.
Yet I felt that this aimless drifting was enervating my limbs; so I gathered some stray planks of my raft -- for they still floated round the ark --- and began half playfully to paddle, with what purpose I cannot tell.
And so it was ordered that the dove flew to me with an oak-leaf in its beak. {61}
Thereat I was silent. But gazing eagerly thereon, I beheld one appointed, and I understood that the oak-leaf was sent from the House.
Then I took counsel of him who is to this end appointed, and with his own hand he brought to me a champak-blossom, a mustard-seed, and again an oak-leaf.
And these I treasured in my bosom, though I hardly knew wherefore. Nor could I understand what purpose they should serve, save darkly. And seeing this, the dove came to me again bearing an olive-branch; and with this I was so mightily pleased that for awhile I forgot all else, and swam lustily in the stream for my pleasure.
But now came a current of ice-cold water and enwrapped me; and when I looked, it bore spots of blood upon it. Then I went hastily into the ark that was ever near by; and, climbing to the roof by the ladder that I had before made, looked through. And all the sky was a hurricane, a madness of storm.
Now in my eagerness I had approached closely to the roof, so that the storm whirled me away into itself. One might say that I was the storm. And when I came to myself I was floating upon the bosom of the river, borne by that very bark that once I had built myself in the lighthouse. And in the storm I had lost my hair and beard; for the wind had torn all out by the root. So that I heard a voice saying, "It is a babe upon the waters." And looking at the bark, I found it refashioned by him that is appointed to refashion. For it had planks of my old shallop, and planks also of the ark, and it was shaped like a cradle rather than like a boat. And I heard the voice of one appointed to speak saying: "Behold thou me!" {62} And I could not. Nevertheless I gazed earnestly, and paddled in the direction of the sound.
While this was a-doing suddenly the river fell in a cataract. And I looked for the olive-branch, and it was withered, and sunk beneath the stream. And I looked for the dove, and it was wrapped round with a most hideous serpent. And I was helpless. In the end he devoured that rose-winged companion of my journey, and went seeking a new prey.
Now in this cataract I had most surely been wrecked but that I clung tightly to the boat. This indeed floated as serenely as if it had been upon the still waters of a lake; and when I had a little plucked up courage, I saw sitting at the helm him that is appointed to steer; I saw him face to face.
This then endured for a space; and with his aid I began ship-buildning. "For" (said he) "there are many that swim, and find no boats. Be it thy task to aid them." Of my journey to the House he spake nothing. But in the ship-building came the fair man my brother to my help; and one evening as we sate at meat he said: May it please you to enter the House; for there is prepared for you a goodly bedchamber. But I would not at that time; for I was ashamed, being unclothed; not understanding that in the House robes are provided by him that is appointed to provide them.
Thus we laboured, and built many fair shallops upon the model of that wherein we sailed. In all these there was not one splinter of wood too much, or too little; and there was no ornament; and neither paint nor varnish covered the planks, for they were planks of a tree that cometh neither from the East nor from the West. But the sails were of gold tissue, very brave, with figures inwoven. {63}
Now at last the time being come, did I take my chamber in the House. And upon the secret things that were there shown to me I ponder yet; so that in this place I shall make no mention of them. But this treasure will I give out, that everything noble in that House seemeth vile to them that are swimming in the stream; and everything vile to them appeareth noble. Thus they endure not the delicate stuffs with rough and impure handling; and the rubbish they carry away with them, and devour. Thus wisely hath the master of the House ordained.
Now of the silver radiance that issueth from the darkness of the House I will say nothing; nor of the golden ray that illuminateth the darkness of the House.
But for the sake of one that may come to share my bed-chamber will I speak of the last adventure.
Upon the breast of the river came a wild swan, singing, and for a moment rested upon mine image reflected in the water. And I said: "Come up hither."
And the wild swan said: "How shall I come up thither?"
"I:" I will guide thee.
"The Swan:" Who art thou?
"I:" My Father is the keeper of the King's Cup: I have prepared a little ship wherein I may go my journeys upon the great river.
Who will draw it?
"The Swan:" I will draw it.
So we set forth together; and of the horrible tempests that arose it is unworthy discourse. And of what followed after is discourse unprofitable; but the wild swan still guides my ship. {64}
And the end shall be as is appointed by the master of the House; but this I know, that this ship is the King's ship. And in my bosom are the champak-blossom, and the mustard seed, and the oak-leaf, more lovely than before.
And upon us watcheth ever he that is appointed to watch.
And the wild swan sings ever; and my heart sings ever.
. . . . . .
Now then I had laid aside the pen, and a voice cried: Write!
Fear not!
Turn not aside!
Is it not written that Sorrow may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning?
Sleep therefore in peace and in faith: shall he not watch whose eye hath no eyelid, who to this end is appointed?
And my heart answered: Amen! {65}
SONG
COME, Love awaken! O'er the wild salt sea,
Shadows strange-shapen whirl themselves and flee
As eddying mist, by storm winds overtaken,
And sunbeams kissed --- the shafts all curled and shaken
In shuddering ecstasy!
Come, Love, nor list to tired dreams that twist
Thy lithe long limbs in fierce abandonment,
Awake, and learn of me the secret of the sea,
Whose meaning is the sum of all things blent
In fiercest harmony.
Soft winds are calling on the cloudy deep,
(Like foam-flowers falling from the breasts of Sleep
Their Lotus-kiss is), such a world forestalling
Of wanton blisses, that the fear of palling
Makes e'en the Sirens weep.
Ah me! What serpent hisses from out those purple bysses,
Far in the womb of the long-lying sea?
She wakes! Nor dare he creep back to her soul, whence Sleep
Has torn aside the mist-hung drapery;
Too strange the way, and steep.
ETHEL ARCHER.
{66}
THE SCORPION
A TRAGEDY IN THREE ACTS
BY
ALEISTER CROWLEY
"God is Love." --- Epistles of St John.
{67}
To GR:Alpha-Gamma-Alpha-Theta-Alpha in memory of the Hour of
Initiation, and to Lampada Tradam and
Mohammed ibn Rahman in memory of our
wanderings in the Desert, and to my brothers
of the O.'. of K. D. S. H. in memory of the
Martyrdom of our G.'. M.'.
J. B. M.
I dedicate this tragedy.
THE SCORPION
PERSONS OF THE TRAGEDY
ACT I
SIR RINALDO DE LA CHAPELLE, "Preceptor of the Knights Templars"
SIR RAYMOND, SIR JAMES, SIR EUSTACHE, and OTHERS, "his Knights"
JOCELYN, "a Troubadour, in their company"<>
ESQUIRES, "etc., to these"
SAID OMAR, "an Arabian Emir. His band of Warriors"
LAYLAH, "his newly-wedded bride"
A NYMPH, "and children attendant on her"
ACT I
SCENE: "The desert. In the foreground, a walled well with a lever. Three
palms. Tall grasses. The ground is uneven. In the background other
palms, among which are several military charges, held by esquires. Around
the well are Knights Templars, armed, reposing. Also" JOCELYN, "a
troubadour."
JOCELYN ["sings to his harp"]:
Noon slumbers softly in the palms;
The desert breezes whisper psalms;
And we who rest must rise and ride
Beneath the banner cruciform
That braves the Saracen and the storm,
This blessed Christmastide.
For we are hardy, and worn with blows
And battles,
And languish for our mother snows.
What is the gladness of the well
To us who pine for citadel,
And joyous burg, and Christian feast?
But we are vowed to Christ to fight
For God, our honour, and our right
Against the recreant East. {70}
We have left our ladies, you and I,
My brothers!
To keep our castles, and to sigh!
Oh! could some holy hermit give
One short day's dalliance fugitive!
Speed hither through the enchanted air
Our ladies, for our faith's reward!
Would it not sharpen every sword
And perfume every prayer?
Love sharp as holly and pure as snow,
And kisses
Beneath the moon for mistletoe!
SIR RAYMOND. Something ill sung, Jocelyn, and too sadly, forsooth! Here the hermits are foul and malicious. I would clear the land of them.
SIR JAMES. Spies, every one. And enchanters to boot.
SIR EUSTACHE. The maids are worse, to my mind. Think of the gallant Florimond, as tall a knight of his hands as ever swung sword or couched lance.
SIR RAYMOND. Netted like a fish!
SIR JAMES. And now lives in the desert with the witch, a wild man, and banned.
SIR RAYMOND. Little better than a robber. And the word goes that he hath apostatized from our holy faith.
[ALL "cross themselves."
JOCELYN ["sings"]
Heigho! Heigho! the Crescent and Cross!
If the one is a bargain, the other's a loss. {71}
Who would be found
On the ground
Of Mahound
A recreant knight, and a renegade boaster?
Better we each
Leave our bones here to Bleach
And be saved, than go burn with the Paynim impostor!
For the infidel swine
Lack our spirit divine;
There crazy old prophet prohibits them wine!
Drink, every knight!
God and my right!
We'll drive the black dogs to their kennels to-night!
SIR JAMES. Peace to thy ribaldry! Here comes the Preceptor. To saddle!
JOCELYN. Why cannot he ride with us, as a good knight and gay?
SIR JAMES. Who poises in his mind the destinies of Christendom needs not in his ear thy fool's prattle, or thy fool's face at his elbow. Though he have seen but five-and-twenty summers he is wiser than many a greybeard! See, even afar, how weightily he sits his horse. His forehead bent, his shoulders arched ---
JOCELYN. The seat of a hunchback!
SIR JAMES. Like Atlas supporting the world.
SIR RAYMOND. Good Jocelyn, could thy wisest thought match his most foolish, thou would'st sit at the council.
JOCELYN. Gramercy! I smile awry. With a hawk on my wrist, and a madrigal at my lips, a prayer in the morning {72} given, and a kiss stolen at night, I want none of your dusty conclaves. I had as lief be a scholar.
SIR JAMES. If the world were like thee, Christendom would perish in a year and a day. Thy good knights comrades would row the Turkish galleys, and a few prize fools --- such as thou --- make sport for their Emirs or guard their women.
JOCELYN. And a good thing. I am weary of crusading. The sacred Sepulchre is empty --- praise God, Who performed a miracle to make it so! --- and we must perforce come and fill thousands more with good Christian flesh and blood, that was alive and jolly. Let us be off, though! The Preceptor sheds dullness as the sun sheds light, alike on the evil and on the good. One, two, three --- I'll race you all to Sidi Khaled.
["They go off R. toward their horses," JOCELYN "singing as he goes."
What is the worth
Of a hound or a hawk?
A monkey for mirth!
A parrot for talk!
Rosamond's skin
Is whiter than milk,
Seductive as sin
And softer than silk.
Would I were back
From crusade for an hour,
My limbs lying slack
In Rosamond's Bower!
["From the palms C. comes forward" LAYLAH, "veiled, with a pitcher. She
attaches it to the cord of the lever and" {73) "dips it into the well.
She looks about her, and seeing no one, raises her veil."
LAYLAH. From the heart of the sand
The water wells up
Purer than the rain.
So in my heart
Love springs
Chaster than the grace of heaven itself.
Earth purifies
More subtly than the sea.
Only through matter
Can spirit understand itself,
Justify itself, become itself.
This mystery I heard
From the holy man of Bassu.
His beard was whiter than snow
Because it had once been blacker than burnt wood.
So will I cherish my love,
The love which I owe,
Which I give, to my husband
The noblest of the Emirs;
For I and my love and my service
And my duty
All are his.
I have no duty to God
But to obey my husband.
So my heart is freer
That all other hearts, {74}
As the dweller among the palms
Is freer than the wanderer in the desert.
The wanderer must find the palms;
The dweller is at ease.
My heart is a young gazelle
Leaping with love toward my husband.
He is black-bearded and bold and magnificent.
Even on the morn of the wedding he rode forth
Against the infidel.
He is so strong and brave:
God must look favourably upon him,
Bidding him return a conqueror
To the flower of his garden
That awaits his hand to pluck.
["During the last part of the song" SIR RINALDO DE LA CHAPELLE, "preceptor
of the Knights Templars, has entered L. quitely, dismounted, tethered
his palfrey to palm, and approached" LAYLAH. "As she pulls the pitcher
from the water he claps his hands over her eyes. She shudders with
fear, but gives no sound."
SIR RINALDO. You are a brave maiden.
LAYLAH. You are --- an infidel. I had not my dagger, or your shriek --- not mine --- would have summoned my kin.
RINALDO. I have a score good knights within sound of my horn. And your kin are but the dotards and women and little children. Your fighting men are away.
LAYLAH. Ay, slaying your good knights. {75}
RINALDO. It may be so. But you are my hostage.
["He releases her. She faces him."
LAYLAH. A worthless pledge.
RINALDO. These silks and pearls! I could draw your veil through a link in my chain mail.
LAYLAH. I am the bride of the Emir.
RINALDO. A fair bride. I guessed you his daughter.
LAYLAH. My feet have not entered his house.
RINALDO. Your feet are fair. ... Can you tell fortunes?
LAYLAH. On the forehead of every man his destiny is written.
RINALDO. Read mine.
LAYLAH. Let me go to my house.
RINALDO. Then I will read yours. You are to be captive to a strange knight.
LAYLAH. Not to you, Sir Knight!
RINALDO. The rest is dark.
LAYLAH. You dare not touch me.
RINALDO. Sit there! ["He seats her on the wall of the well."] Do you guess what I have been thinking as I rode through the sun to these palms?
LAYLAH. Some new plot to carry fire and sword through our quiet villages.
RINALDO. No. I was wondering why men should not live at peace. I was wondering what was the quarrel that has beggared Europe and made Asia a shambles these nigh five score years.
LAYLAH. I cannot tell you.
RINALDO. This is all I know, that in the time of Pope Urban the Second, some pilgrims to Jerusalem began to {76} grumble.<> And a madman screamed so loud on their behalf that all Europe was infected.<> All pilgrims grumble. All mankind grumbles. Can chivalry do nothing better than redress grievances? Progress and learning are dead in this eternal redressing. Or if we must redress grievances, let us redress the great grievance, man misunderstanding man!
LAYLAH. Let me go to my house. {"She tries to slip away."]
RINALDO. Sit there! ["He puts her back very accurately."] We worship one God, as you do. That is the essence of agreement. We have one prophet, as you have; there's little odds in a name. Let our fools go worship at the tomb of our prophets, as your fools go worship at the tomb of yours; and let us break the heads only of those who break the peace.
LAYLAH. Let me go to my house. You are breaking the peace now, and I will break your head.
["She has unloosened a stone from the Well and strikes him.
His cheek bleeds."]
RINALDO. ["unmoved."] Sit there! ... So this is my reading of the future. I who met you in hate shall leave you in love ... and there an end of the Crusades!
LAYLAH. Love! ["bitterly sarcastic."]
RINALDO. Love! ["enthusiastic."]
LAYLAH. I had rather a scorpion stung me.
RINALDO. My crest is a scorpion. ["He points to the golden bejewelled crest upon his light helmet."] I am thirsty. Give me water.
LAYLAH. I would give water to a thirsty dog. ["She pours water into his hands."] {77}
RINALDO. For water I will give you fire. Twelve hundred years ago came peace on earth and goodwill toward men through a virgin sacrifice. ... History repeats itself.
LAYLAH. I am on the edge of the well; but I shall not fall in. You are a renegade, I see; and, I think, a monster. You are mad with pride and conceit of your own wisdom. So I know you for a fool.
RINALDO. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
LAYLAH. Prate on! Even the dust mocks at you.
RINALDO. There are snakes in the dust.
LAYLAH. What do you mean?
RINALDO. I saw it in your eyes three minutes since. I did not need to turn my head to know that on the horizon gallop your husband and his band.
LAYLAH. You are clever.
RINALDO. And you were forced despite yourself to drop a hint that might warn me to rejoin my knights.
LAYLAH. No!
RINALDO. Yes. By that I knew that you loved me.
LAYLAH. And by this ("she strikes him") know that I hate you.
RINALDO. You are too young. I have seen lions.
LAYLAH. You are a savage.
RINALDO. Nature is savage. Passion is savage. The God alike of Jews and Moslems delights in death. Or why are men and beasts slain in His honour? Brutal force is at the heart of things. Man is dragged crying from his mother's womb in dire agony; man fights his surroundings --- the nearer they are the more bitterly must he fight them {78} --- and at last he is hurled fighting into the hungry mouth of death.
LAYLAH. The cloud grows.
RINALDO. Indeed you love me, if you bid me waste no time.
LAYLAH. Oh no! ...
I must respect you. You treat me as if I were a pebble in the sand. Nothing moves you.
RINALDO. Love moves me.
LAYLAH. We are opposites in all.
RINALDO. So Nature hath ordained. Man hates his neighbour: but when he finds his opposite, he loves it. All joy is the warfare of enemies, from the clash of lance and sabre, when Saracen meets Christian on the plain to --- this, when Christian rushes Saracen in his arms and ---
["He clasps her."
LAYLAH. Oh! ["The pitcher is overturned and the water flows out."
RINALDO. I love you.
LAYLAH. I am a speck of dust in the simoom.
RINALDO. Let it whirl! There is no more Christian and Saracen, but man and woman --- as it was in the beginning and for ever shall be.
"He has borne her in his arms to the tall grasses. She struggles
uselessly. They are now invisible."
LAYLAH. Help me, O God of Battles!
RINALDO. God is love.
["Music. From the well issues a nymph dressed in silver and azure gauze,
with jewels and roses in her hair. After her a cluster of children."]
{79}
THE NYMPH ["sings."]
In the well
Where I dwell,
It is cool, it is dusk;
But the truth
Of my youth
Is a palace of musk.
Truth comes bubbling to my brim;
Light and night are one to Him!
In the dark
You may mark
The slow ooze of my springs,
But you know
Not the glow
Where the soul of me sings.
Truth comes bubbling to my brim;
Life and death are one to Him!
There is cold
In the old
Grey gloom of my caves;
There is heat
In the beat
Of my passionate waves.
Truth come bubbling to my brim;
Love and hate are one to Him.
["They dance and return to the well." R. "and" L. "are now seen behind the
grasses, she sobbing upon his shoulder."] {80}
RINALDO. The cloud blackens all the sky. Laylah!
["He takes the scorpion from his helmet."
Keep this token of me.
LAYLAH. For a token of hate and of revenge!
RINALDO. As you will. But the Crusades are ended!
["He draws her to the well, and lays her down. With her arms on the low
wall, and her face hidden, she sobs." RINALDO "takes his palfrey, and,
with one glance over his shoulder towards the enemy and another to"
LAYLAH, "rides off, driving the spurs into his horse. "LAYLAH "remains
sobbing. After a long interval she half-rises, and stretching her arms
after him, calls brokenly:"
LAYLAH. Come back! ... Come back! ...
["Sobs again take her more violently than ever. She struggles to her feet,
holds out the scorpion crest and calls:"]
Come back! ... Come back!
["She collapses. Dead silence. After a little the distant galloping of
horses is heard. It grows louder and louder." LAYLAH "rises, mistress
of herself, kisses the golden scorpion and hides it at her heart, and
refills the pitcher."
["Enter a band of Saracens, who dismount. Their leader, the" EMIR SAID
OMAR, rushes forward to the well."
SAID OMAR. Victory! we have chased the infidels three days, and the vultures of the desert are gorged, and the jackals burst with fatness. My gazelle, didst thou languish for me? My rose, my tulip, my anemone, slim palm of the oasis, sweet water of the well! We shall feast to-night, {81} little one, star of the night, beautiful young moon over the sand-dunes!
["He clasps her in his arms."
LAYLAH ["tonelessly"]. Victory! Ay, victory is sweet. We shall feast to-night.
["She shudders."
SAID OMAR ["seeing that all is not well"]. What is it? What is it?
LAYLAH. I have had evil dreams.
SAID OMAR ["to his men"]. On to the houses! We must feast; we must sleep.]
["He takes" LAYLAH "on his saddlebow."]
You must sleep, whisper of the west wind!
LAYLAH. I shall have evil dreams.
SAID OMAR. No! you shall not sleep to-night, white fairy of Paradise, black-eyed gazelle of the wilderness!
LAYLAH. Be gentle with me ... I ache ... I have been stung by a scorpion.
SAID OMAR. There are no scorpions in the winter. Where is the wound?
[LAYLAH "puts her hand to her heart, and falls fainting limp across the
saddlebow."]
Call Ibrahim, the wise physician! On to the houses!
["Exeunt. The voice of the nymph of the well, faintly from below."
"Truth comes bubbling to my brim:
Love and Hate are one to Him!"]
CURTAIN.
{82}
PERSONS OF THE TRAGEDY
ACT II
LAYLAH, "wife of Sidi Omar"
SILMAN, "her son by Sir Rinaldo de la Chapelle"
OTHMAN, .
AKBAR, :"her sons by Sidi Omar"
MOHAMMED,.
FATMA, "her aged Nubian nurse"
LEDMIYA, "a young handmaiden, musical. Other waiting-women. Pipe-slaves."
ABDUL KHAN, "an eunuch. Other eunuchs"
ACHMET, "equerry to Sliman"
A FAIR-HAIRED CHRISTIAN MAIDEN, "daughter to Sir Rinaldo de la Chapelle"
MESSENGERS
THE POPULACE
{83}
ACT II
"Twenty years later. An Oriental Palace in a city near Jerusalem; the Hall
of Audience. In the throne is" LAYLAH "veiled. Around her are waiting-
women and her old nurse" FATMA. "At the door an eunuch on guard with
drawn scimitar."
LEDMIYA ["a young girl with a stringed instrument"].
As the flower waits for the rain,
As the lover waits for the moon,
We wait, we wait, an hungry pain,
For tidings from the battle plain ---
If those we love are hurt or slain,
Or if the Lord hath smitten again
The legions of the Cross, and hewn
A path of blood where glory flares.
The sabre strikes, the trumpet blares,
The war horse neighs, --- Oh let us see
The Crescent borne to victory!
LAYLAH. Is there no news?
FATMA. It is rumoured that the battle has begun.
LEDMIYA. Under the very walls of Jerusalem!
ABDUL KHAN. Within the southern gate.
FATMA. Many, many will fall. Alas, alas! {84}
LAYLAH. Sliman is strong and brave --- my splendid boy.
FATMA. Ay, there are hairs on his chin. But the strongest and the bravest fall first.
LAYLAH. Thou ominous owl! Be silent, or I will have thee whipped.
FATMA. Oh! Oh! indeed I only say what we all know. If he should die indeed, thou mayst have Sidi Omar left, thy dear lord. And Othman, and Akbar, and Mohammed!
LAYLAH. Sliman is my first-born.
FATMA. Ay, he is not like his brothers. He is square and solid-set. He is more like the cedar than the palm.
LAYLAH. Sidi Omar's mother was a princess from Lebanon.
FATMA. He is silent and stern.
LAYLAH. Sidi Omar's father was the holiest man of Syria. He lived alone forty years in the mountain.
FATMA. He is relentless in anger, and obeys not. One would say there was Christian blood in him.
LAYLAH. On the night of his begetting there was Christian blood on Sidi Omar's hands.
FATMA. He is as fair as a Christian.
LAYLAH. The men of Sidi Omar's tribe are white men, thou wizened old black witch.
FATMA. Ah! Sidi Omar! Sidi Omar! Sidi Omar! Happy the prince whose wife is as faithful as thou. Thou canst not open thy mouth without uttering his name.
LAYLAH. Do not take it in thine, mother of lies!
FATMA. My mouth has been shut these twenty years.
LAYLAH. What? Any time these twenty years thou hast {85} deserved a beating, old scandal-monger! And often thou hast had it.
FATMA. It was not a beating that thou didst earn, princess. Many a time I have fetched water from the well by ---
LAYLAH. Abdul Khan! take out this prating hag and beat her soundly. Fatma! this is the last time I leave thy lying tongue in that camel-lipped old face of an unbelieving Jinneeyah!
["The eunuch drags her out, screaming and scolding."
What news! What news!
LEDMIYA ["at the window"]. A horseman gallops from Jerusalem.
LAYLAH. Oh, quick, quick, quick, his tidings! For pity's sake. Would it were the winged horse of brass! I am distracted. Mind me not! I can wait. A queen must be able to wait.
LEDMIYA. He is quite near now. And in the distance is a glint, and a faint shouting. I think the battle is coming here.
LAYLAH. Oh, we cannot have been beaten! Silman is so strong and brave.
FATMA ["re-entering"]. All is lost! All is lost! Let us all flee!
LAYLAH. Peace, parrot! ["Enter Messenger."
MESSENGER. Pardon, princess!
LAYLAH. Thy news, or thy head shall pay it.
MESSENGER. Glorious news! Sidi Omar hath entered Jerusalem, and sacked the House of the Knights Templars, and the House of the Knights Hospitallers, and --- {86}
LEDMIYA. ["at window"]. Oh, I can see the spears shining through the dust of the horses!
MESSENGER. --- but ---
LAYLAH. Speak, if thou wouldst ever speak again!
MESSENGER. But the Knights of Malta appeared in great strength, riding from the valley on their noble chargers, armed at all points ---
LAYLAH. Yes? Yes?
MESSENGER. So that we judged it best to fall back upon the reserves. The Maltese fell upon us --- you may see them fighting now.
LAYLAH. What news of my brave Sliman?
FATMA. And Sidi Omar? And Othman? And Akbar? And Mohammed?
LAYLAH. Peace. What news?
MESSENGER. Sidi Omar is hurt.
LAYLAH. And Sliman?
MESSENGER. I do not know, princess.
LAYLAH. Get forth, back to the fight. Reward him, ye!
FATMA. Reward for such bad news! What is the world coming to? In my young days ---
LAYLAH. Such withered weeds were burnt.
FATMA. Alas, Sidi Omar! The strong, the brave, the comely! He is dead, he is dead.
LAYLAH. Hurt, said the messenger.
LEDMIYA. Now comes another from the fight, riding hard. he bears a fair-haired child across the saddle. Oh, do look!
LAYLAH. Is there no messenger?
LEDMIYA. It is Achmet! It is good Achmet! {87}
LAYLAH. The equerry of Prince Silman! Out of the way, girl!
["She pushes" LEDMIYA "roughly from the window."]
Booty! He must be well and victorious! Bring him in! Now we shall know --- good tidings! good tidings!
["She paces up and down impatiently. Enter" ACHMET "with a young girl."
ACHMET. The duty of my Lord! Good tidings from the battle. The spoils of my lord's spear! He prays you to keep her among the women until he return and place her in his harem.
LAYLAH. A man! He is a man! I have borne a man-child, a lion, a conqueror!
ACHMET. Indeed, he has slain twenty Christians with his own hand. And still he is in the front of the battle. He laughed: "To-day I am a man, I need thee no more; by my chamberlain and carry this toy to my mother." I think she is a princess.
THE CHILD. My father is the Grand Master of the Temple, and he is coming to cut all your heads off.
LAYLAH. Leave her with us! Ride back on a fresh horse, and bear aid to the prince. ["Exit" ACHMET
LEDMIYA ["at window"]. There is a tumult in the courtyard, and a great wailing. ["Wailing without."
LAYLAH. The sun will be set in an hour. One hour more of favour and protection for my boy, oh God of Battles!
THE CHILD. Our God is love! He will protect me, I know.
LAYLAH. Imp! Be silent! How you startled me! And now I look at you --- what is it? what is it? You frighten me. Take her away --- there, with the pipe-slaves.
[FATMA "takes the child down stage to the pipe-slaves." {88}
THE CHILD. You are ugly, you black creature!
LEDMIYA. Oh! Oh!
["She runs to" LAYLAH "and hides in the folds of her dress."
LAYLAH. What now?
LEDMIYA. They are bringing in a corpse.
LAYLAH. Oh my God --- if Achmet lied!
["The door opens. The corpse of" SIDI OMAR "is brought in by six eunuchs."]
Ah! ["She goes down hall."] Lay him there! ["She rends her veil."] Sidi Omar, these twenty years have I been wedded to thee and thou hast not known my heart! Leave me, that I may bewail him as is fitting.
["All depart but" FATMA and LEDMIYA "and the" PIPE-SLAVES "with their prisoner."]
Fatma, do thou lament. I await tidings of the battle. Is there sign of a messenger?
[FATMA "goes to corpse and mutters over it."
LEDMIYA ["at window"]. There are many that make hither. Some bear the dead away --- two, three, five, eight, oh so many! Some ride weary or wounded ...
LAYLAH. Some ride like messengers?
LEDMIYA. No. Yes, one. No, he has fallen from his horse, and lies still.
["Wailing without."
LAYLAH. Go, bid those fools be quiet. Is there not enough woe in this house but that their shrieks should edge it?
[LEDMIYA "goes out. The wailing stops. Then suddenly it begins again more
loudly than before."
FATMA. More death! More misery!
[LEDMIYA "returns, and goes again to window." {89}
LAYLAH. Silence, thou blotchy spider! Thou baboon of ugliness! Mother of curses!
["Four eunuchs bring in the corpse of the boy" MOHAMMED.
Ah God! my youngest, my own delicate darling! Lay him by his sire! ["She goes down and bends over him."] Was not this arm too tender to bear a sword? Why would he go to the battle? He was made for luting and the zephyr. His eyes were larger and lovelier than the gazelle's! His eyebrows were blacker than the kohl upon mine eyelids. Alas, my baby! My young one, my tender one! ... Is there tidings, girl?
LEDMIYA. One rides fast. His horse stumbles at the gate. He leaps clear. The horse has fallen. He runs hither.
LAYLAH. News! News!
[LEDMIYA "goes out. Enter a Messenger."
2ND MESSENGER. The duty of my lord to his mother! We keep the hounds at bay now. Prince Sliman is like the Angel of Death. No man can stand before him. The Christians tremble, and give back when he rides against them.
LAYLAH. A man! A man! He is not hurt?
2ND MESSENGER. Scratches. As if a lion were at play with kittens!
LAYLAH. I am glad he has scratches. Every one shall be sung by the poets as if it were the axe-blow of old Duke Walter.
["Again the wailing surges in the courtyard." LEDMIYA "rushes in."
LEDMIYA. Alas, alas, my queen! I cannot say it! Do not ask me to say it! ... They are bringing him in.
LAYLAH. Who? Devil-child! ["She strikes her. Four eunuchs bring in the corpse of" AKBAR.] Forgive me! I am not myself. I am not a woman. Lay him there, beside his {90} father! ["She goes down to corpse."] Akbar, my little one! Strong wast thou and greater than thy brothers. Thou hadst the hawk's eye, and the deer's foot; and thine hand on the bowstring was surer and stronger than thy father's! Three, of my five, my five that should guard me and cherish me! Three taken, and two left! Yet, while one is left ...
LEDMIYA ["at window"]. The battle is fiercer every moment. Hundreds and hundreds must be killed. But the press is thinner. I can make out the banners. Oh! I can see Sliman's banner!
LAYLAH. Let me see! let me see! ["She rushes to window."] Yes! it flows free in the good air! How fierce he fights. I cannot see him; but he must be there. Yes! it moves forward now; the Christians part before him like the air before an arrow. The dust swallows all up again.
["Wailing rises without, louder and more insistent."
A curse upon these fools! But for them I could hear his battle-cry. ... Has he ever cried, and I not heard him? Oh, why did the strange knight not bear me on his palfrey? I must be mad.
FATMA. You must be mad!
LAYLAH. Bewail the dead, thou bald vulture, shaggy toothless crone, dam of perdition! There floats the banner again, above them all. The Templar's banner dips; some one has cut through the staff. The Christians are in rout. ...
["Four eunuchs enter, bearing the corpse of "OTHMAN.
FATMA. Othman is dead! Alas! Alas! Weep, mother, three brave boys beside their sire! All dead! dead!
LAYLAH ["not turning from window"]. Lay him beside his father and his two brothers! Brave banner! Brave {91} banner! We go through the Christians as a wedge cleaves a plank, as a ship cleaves the sea, as a bird cleaves the air! Victory! Sliman! Sliman! Drive them, like cattle, to their walls again!
FATMA. She has always been mad! I wonder what really happened.
LAYLAH. The sun is setting in blood. There are storm-clouds lit like burning charcoal blown upon by the mightiest of the Djinn. I cannot see the banner. It grows dark. They must stop fighting soon. They will withdraw to their walls --- nay, let them camp among the dead! Come back with tidings! Tell me, Sliman is safe. Ah! there sounds the horn of truce.
THE CHILD. My father is the Grand Master of the Temple, and he will come and cut all your heads off.
LAYLAH ["goes down to her"]. Thou preposterous little curd of sour milk! Thy father is dead! I saw the Banner of the Temple snap like a dry twig. My brave son Sliman cut it at a single blow. He will whip home the dogs, your friends, and you shall be his toy to play with and break and make sport of. He will twist your skinny arm --- so!
["She catches the child's wrist, twists it, and makes her scream."
Spindle-legged little spider! {"The child bites her wrist."]
Venomous as a scorpion!
THE CHILD. My father's crest is a scorpion.
LAYLAH. No! No! it cannot be. I am mad. I hear a strange thing. Now I know what I saw in your face. Child! Child! I am sorry I hurt you. I want to be friends with you. I am all-powerful here. No harm shall come to you! His child! Come and kiss me! ["The child shrinks away."] {92}
No! I am sorry. I am your good friend. I will take you back to your father. He is not dead. I am sure he is not dead.
THE CHILD. I do not understand you.
LAYLAH. Oh, you shall understand. Your father will make you understand! ["changing again to roughness"]. What was your mother like? Had she your golden hair, and the complexion like a shaved sow? And the simper, and the grey eyes! I have grey eyes too; but mine are steel-grey, true as steel; and yours are chill and watery. But you have your father's temper, and his silence, and his will.
THE CHILD. What do you know of my father?
LAYLAH. Nothing. I only jested; I wanted to try you, to hear what you would say. Tell me about your mother.
THE CHILD. She was a fair and noble lady. She died when I was born.
LAYLAH. Thank God!
THE CHILD. I do not understand.
LAYLAH. Oh! will your father say, "I do not understand?" What am I? Yet I gave him my greatest gift --- and I have yet a greater gift to give him --- and I have a gift that he has always had and I have never lost.
THE CHILD. Are you an enchantress? You do not talk sense.
LAYLAH. Your are the child of an enchanter.
THE CHILD. My father burns enchanters alive when he catches them.
LEDMIYA ["at window"]. There is a great concourse without. The men are returning. They ride slowly, as in peace. {93} But one rides fast, for I can hear his hoofs ring the gallop above all the trampling.
LAYLAH. It is Sliman! His horse ha | | |
