Collected Works (Vol. I)

THE HOLY OF HOLIES 211 Not one. I tell you, destiny is sure, Yet moves no finger: though it tune my tongue, My tongue shall tune it too: my words endure As destiny decays: my hands are flung In prayer to Heaven nay, to mine own crown, To raise myself, and not to drag it down !} O holiest Lord of the divine white flame Of brilliance sworded in the temple sky ! O thou who knowest my most secret name, Who whisperest when only thou and I Make up our universe: bestow thy kiss: Arise! Come, let us pierce the old abyss ! Rise! Move! Appear! Tet us go forth together, Into the solemn passionless profound, Into the darkness, and the thrilling weather, Into the silence louder than all sound, Into the vast implacable inane ! Come, let us journey thither once again ! THE CHANT TO BE SAID OR SUNG UNTO OUR LADY ISIS. ROLL through the caverns of matter, the world’s irremovable bounds ! Roll, ye wild billows of ether ! the Sistron ? is shaken and sounds ! Wild and sonorous the clamour, vast in the region of death, Live with the fire of the Spirit, the essence and flame of the breath! Sound, O sound ! ' An allusion to the sign called ‘‘ Enterer of the Threshold,” in which the Egyptian Gods often stand, It is a sign of high initiation (if you know the rest!) and implies the gathering of force from the Gods and its projection as will toward any object. 2 A musical instrument used for religious purposes by the IXgyptians, It consisted of an oval framework (with a handle) crossed by four wires loosely fixed, which on Leing shaken gave forth a musical sound. Gleam in the world of the dark, where the chained ones shall tremble and flee ! Gleam in the skies of the dusk, for the Light of the Dawn is in me! Light on the forehead, and life in the nostrils,: and love in the breast, Shine, O thou Star of the Dawning, thou Sun of the Radiant Crest ! Shine, O shine! Flame through the sky im the. strength of the chariot-wheels of the Sun ! Flame, ye young fingers of light, on the West of the morning that run! Flame, O thou Meteor Car, for my fire is exalted in thee ! Lighten the darkness and herald the day- light, and waken the sea! Flame, O flame! Crown Her, O crown Her with stars as with flowers for a virginal gaud ! Crown Her, O crown Her with Light and the fame of the down-rushing Sword ! Crown Her, O crown Her with Love for maiden and mother and wife ! unto Isis! Hail! For She is the Lady of Life ! Isis crowned ! Fail A LITANY. Tue ghosts of abject days flit by ; The bloated goblins of the past ; Dim ghouls in soulless apathy ; Fates imminent, and dooms aghast ! O Mother Mout,! O Mother Nicht, Give me the Sun of Life and Light ! 2 1 Mout, the Vulture Goddess of The Womb of Years. * «Mother, give me the Sun!” This, the tragedy-word of I[bsen’s '‘ Ghosts,” served as inception—by reversal—of this poem,