THE HOLY PLACE
203
The first face spake and said:
‘“Welcome, O King, art thou!
Await thy throne a thousand dead ;
A crown awaits thy brow,
A seven-sting scorpion; for thy rod thou
hast a bauble now.”
The next face spake and said:
‘“* Welcome, O Priest, to me!
Red blood shall dye thee robes of red,
Hell’s cries thy litany |
Thy mitre sits, divided strength, to end thy
church and thee !”
The third face spake and said:
** Welcome, O Man, to Death!
Thy little span of life is sped,
Sighed out thy little breath.
The worm that never dies is thine; the fire
that lingereth !”
‘¢ Three voices has thy frame,
Their music is but one.
Fool-demon, slave of night and shame,
That canst not see the sun !
I am the Lord thy God:? make thou homage
and orison !”
The wild heads. sank in fear:
Then, troubled, to those eyes
Remembrance crept of many a year,
Barred gates of Paradise.
Again the Voice rolled in the deep, mingled
with murmuring sighs :
‘¢T mind me of the day
One? came from Death to me;
His soul was weary of the day,
His look was melancholy ;
He bade me open in the Name that binds
Eternity.
‘‘ Yet though He passed within
And plunged within the deep,
1 The assumption of the form ofthe God of
the Force whom one addresses is the Egyptian
magical spell to subdue it.
2 Jeheshua, or ‘' Jesus.”
The seven palaces of sin,
And slept the lonely sleep,
Yet came He out alone: but then I thought
I heard Them weep.
‘* Fle passed alone, above,
Out of the Gates of Night ;
Angels of Purity and Love
Drew to my sound and sight.
I heard Them cry that even there He fixed
the eternal Light.
‘“‘T think beneath these groans,
And laughters madness-born,
Tears fell that might dissolve the stones
That grind the accurséd corn.
Beneath the deep, beneath the deep, may
dwell the star of morn !
‘‘ Therefore, O God, I pray
Redemption for the folk
That dread the scourging light of day,
That bear the midnight yoke.
The Chaos was no less than this—and there
the light awoke.”
‘©O Dog of Evil, yea!
Thou hast in wisdom said.
The glory of the living day
Shall shine among the dead.
Thy faith shall have a holier task, thy
strength a goodlier stead.”
Then I withdrew the light
Of mine own Godhead up,
As stars that close with broken night
Their adamantine cup.
I sought the solar airs: my soul on its own
tears might sup.
For in the vast profound
Still burns the rescuing sign ;}
Beyond all sight and sense and sound
The symbol flames divine.
For He shall make all life, all death, His
solitary shrine.
1 The Triangle surmounted by the Cross.
This was the symbol of the ‘Golden Dawn.”