Confessions of Aleister Crowley

380 Underneath the tangled roots Of majestic tress that quiver In the quiet airs; where shoots Of kindly grass are green, Moss and ferns asleep between, Lilies in the water lapped, Sunbeams in the branches trapped --- Windless and eternal even! Silenced all the birds of heaven By the low insistent call Of the constant waterfall. There, to such a setting be The carven gem of deity, A central flawless fire, enthralled Like Truth within an emerald! Thou shalt have a birchen bark On the river in the dark; And at the midnight thou shalt go To the mid-stream's smoothest flow, And strike upon a golden bell The spirit's call; then say the spell: "Angel, mine angel, draw thee nigh!" Making the Sign of Magistry With the wand of lapis lazuli Then, it may be, through the blind dumb Night thou shalt see thine angel come, Hear the faint whisper of his wings, Behold the starry breast begemmed With twelve stones of the twelve Kings! His forehead shall be diademmed With the faint light of stars, wherein The Eye gleams dominant and keen, Thereat thou swoonest; and thy love Shall catch the subtle voice thereof ... It was given me during these days to experience fully once more every incident in my initiation, so that I might describe them while still white-hot with their wonder. It is this that assures me that this poem is unique of its kind. Its only rival is the Bhagavad-Gita, which, despite its prolixity, confines its ardour to Vishvarupa-darshana. Apart from this, it treats of Hindu dogma and ethics. At its best, it is a sectarian work. "Aha!" covers all religious experience, asserts no axioms, advocates no cut-and-dried codes. In some {609} eleven hundred lines I have described all the principal trances, from the three types of Dhyana (Sun, Moon, Agni) and the four elements (for instance, the Disc "like a black boundless diamond whirring with millions of wings"), to the spiritual beings that inhabit the invisible universe, and the Samadhic Trances, Atmadarshana and Shivadarshana. I have also described the moral and intellectual phenomena of initiation and indicated the main principles on which the aspirant should base his working. The Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel comes as the climax to these triumphs. It is significant that I proceed from this point instantly to declare the Law of Thelema, and give a dithyrambic epitome of the three chapters of the Book. I say distinctly that this message to mankind is to be identified with the Word of my Holy Guardian Angel. It is only as I write this that I realize that the poet in me perceived that Aiwaz and mine Angel were one. Till this moment I believed that I had reached this conclusion after many months of meditation in the last three years and accepted it provisionally with the greatest hesitation.