The Equinox (Volume I, Number V)

32 THE RITES OF ELEUSIS Lift up this love of peace and bliss, The starry soul of wine, Destruction’s formidable kiss, The lamp of the divine: This shadow of a nobler name Whose life is strife, whose soul is lame! 1 rather will exalt the soul Of man to loftier height, And kindle at a livelier coal The subtler soul of light. From these soft splendours of a dream 1 turn, and seek the Self supreme. This world is shadow-shapen of The bitterness of pain. Vain are the little lamps of love! The light of life is vain! Life, death, joy, sorrow, age and youth Are phantoms of a further truthi Beyond the splendour of the world, False glittering of the gold, A Serpent is in slumber curled In wisdom’s sacred cold, Life is the flaming of that flame Death is the naming of that name, The forehead of the snake is bright With one immortal star, Lighting her coils with living light To where the nenuphar Sleeps for her couch. All darkness dreams The thing that is not, only seems, That star upon the serpent‘s head ls called the soul of man. That light in shadows subtly shed The glamour of life’s plan.