Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1898 · PDF PAGE 32

Songs of the Spirit

I said : the height is as the deep, Twin breasts of one white dove ; Death’s face is as the face of Sleep, And Lust is likest Love. And with my blood I forced the door That guards the palaces of sin ; I reached the lake’s cinereous shore ; I passed those groves within. My blood was wasted in her veins, To freshen them, who stood like death, Our Lady of ten thousand Pains With heavy kissing breath. I said : Our Lady is as God, Her hell of pain as heaven above ; Death’s feet, like Sleep’s, with fire are shod, And Lust is likest Love. Our Lady cru…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 33

Songs of the Spirit

…relax and fade, Her body slackens with a sigh Reluctant, like a maid. I said : O vampire Lover, weep, Who cannot follow me above, Though Death may masquerade as Sleep, And Lust laugh out like Love. But God’s strong arms set under me Lifted my spirit through the air Beyond the wide supernal sea, Beyond the veil of vair. God said : My ways are sweet and deep ; The sceptres and the swords thereof Change : for Death’s face is fair as Sleep ; And Lust is clean as Love. I slept upon His breast ; and Death Came like Sleep’s angel, and I died, And tast…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 28

Songs of the Spirit

The lips of death upon the moon’s dark face, So that her silver lustre might rejoice The fiery lover, the sharp nightingale, And those pale mortals whom the day beholds. Asleep, because the many bid them slave From dusk to dawn being poor ; and braided up The loose hair of all trees and flowers, and made Their one white light divide to red and green And violet and the hues innumerable Lesser than these, and gave man hope at last With the invariable law of death Abundant in new life, and having filled The world with music, dost demand of us “ Is…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 34

Songs of the Spirit

…orehead, that is red As blood with His Desire. I knew that Voice was more than God, And echo trembled for its trust : Sleep’s feet, like Death’s, with fire are shod, And Love is likest Lust. So I returned and sought her breast, Our Lady of ten thousand Pains ; I drank her kisses, and possessed Her pale maternal veins. I said : Drain hard my sudden breath, Be cruel for the vampire thrust ! Let Sleep’s desire be sweet as Death, And Love be clean as Lust ! I died amid her kisses : so This last time I would not forget— So I attained The Life ; and …

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1898 · PDF PAGE 116

Songs of the Spirit

With Death in the blossoming bowers That slays with his merciless sabre the passion of flowers. This pastime had hope for its metre, And trust in high God for the tune, And passion of sorrow made sweeter Than loves of the leafiest June, When Artemis’ arrows are fleeter than rays of the moon. My hope in the ocean was founded, Nor changed for the wind and the tide ; My love by the heaven was bounded, And knew not a barrier beside ; My faith beyond heaven was grounded, as God to abide. Though death be the stain on our roses, The roses of heaven ar…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 50

Songs of the Spirit

… my heart, And knew her work was perfect, and her part Most perfect when she died between the breath, And in the bridal kisses kissed to death.” So grew the newer blossom and was glad : Sweet little hopes her faint fair forehead had That one day such a death might crown her days. And so God too was glad, the story says. 40

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1898 · PDF PAGE 57

Songs of the Spirit

… may be overthrown, And o’er the wilderness appear the moon With cold lips to bestow the inestimable boon. Still I have never prayed for death, but rather Would be found fighting toward the goal I seek, Stretching both hands toward a loving father, And struggling toward some barren voiceless peak With feet made stedfast, if God made them weak ; So, on the journey, in the hottest fight I would be found by Death, whose palace bleak 47

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1898 · PDF PAGE 35

Songs of the Spirit

For in Those Hands above His head The Depth is one with That Above, And Sleep and Death and Life are dead, And Lust is One with Love. 25

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1898 · PDF PAGE 40

Songs of the Spirit

… had torn Their wood to splinters—“ Jesus ! I am dying ! Send me Thy cross to fashion some unborn Oarage of Truth to quit this stream of Death ! ” O vain, O wasted breath ! I have no strength. Upright I kneel, lamenting The days when Love seemed fair, the bitter years When pain might have found truth, ere unrelenting I shipwrecked Life ! O agony of tears ! Vain tears ! In silence, with abated breath I drift, drift on to Death ! 30

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1898 · PDF PAGE 23

Songs of the Spirit

…reach—we know not what ! How meaningless Your bright assemblage and your steady task Of doubtful motion. And the soul of man Grapples in death-pangs with your mystery, And fails to wrestle down the hard embrace That grips the thighs of thought. And so he dies To pass beyond ye—whither ? To find God ? All my life long I have gazed, and dreamed, and thought, Unless my thought itself were but a dream, A little, troubled dream, a dream of death Whence I may wake—ah, where ? In some new world Where Consciousness doth touch the Infinite, And all the …

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1898 · PDF PAGE 91

Songs of the Spirit

…ome, where bound ?) To baffle those protectors Whose wings are broad around. Uprise they and upbraid, Till life shrinks back afraid, And death itself dismayed Sinks back to the profound. 81

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1898 · PDF PAGE 109

Songs of the Spirit

…ts of the tomb, And from hell’s womb Or heaven’s breast bring all the load of fears, Toils of long years, Sorrows of life and agonies of death, Hard caught-up breath, The labouring hands of love, the cheeks of shame, The gloomy flame 99

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1898 · PDF PAGE 31

Songs of the Spirit

…t which is below is like that which is above. HERMES TRISMEGISTUS. THAT which is highest as the deep Is fixed, the depth as that above : Death’s face is as the face of Sleep ; And Lust is likest Love. So stand the angels one by one Higher and higher with lamps of gold : So stand the shining devils ; none Their brightness may behold. I took my life, as one who takes Young gold to ruin and to spend ; I sought their gulfs and fiery lakes, And sought no happy end. 21

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1898 · PDF PAGE 46

Songs of the Spirit

PASSOVER. BLOOD on the lintel ! On the outer side Death stood with wing implacable, with sword Steeped in the furnace cruel and abhorred Of Hell, in Styx well tempered. Far and wide Its adamant smote out, a full fierce tide Of vengeance and destruction from the Lord, While past yon door with blood well overscored Safety and Peace and Passover abide. Blood on the lintel ! But within our gates Spilt our own blood lies curdling on the ground, Crying to God from each envenomed wound While the fierce combat yet no whit abates, And though protected, …

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1898 · PDF PAGE 72

Songs of the Spirit

…ed and unsubsisting save in foreign thought, To its own strength a slave by witchcraft brought ! This is not Love but Lust, not Life but Death is found, All the halls of sense with strife cry and resound. The Brain awakes in wrath ; behold ! the foemen flee, All the earth is clad with gold and all the sea ; Driven back the demons yield, falter and cease ; For a little while the shield of sleep is peace. Clear and bright the lamp burns ; clean and sharp the sword, While I watch their paths between before the Lord. 62

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1898 · PDF PAGE 70

Songs of the Spirit

… Through a land of pleasant things, of woods and streams, Bind my slumber with a chain of pure delight, Though the canker of it stain at death of night, Fill with passion and distaste and wakened pleasure All the moments run to waste that else were treasure ? Who is Love ? a fury red with all men’s blood On his cruel altars shed, a deadly flood ? Or a veiléd vision black with shame and fear, Whose most loathliest attack at night is near, 60

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1898 · PDF PAGE 41

Songs of the Spirit

…thy fellow-men the fates, And found out Paradise in Hell’s despite.” I heard them laugh, the Harpies and the Hates . . . Then fell, like death, the intolerable night. 31

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1898 · PDF PAGE 75

Songs of the Spirit

…th ; He trims his lamp, and brings The books of many kings To spread their holy wings About his head, and sing to him the secret ways of death. His eyes are fixed, he sees Men dimly, like to trees Walking, and guesses they must be the angels of the Lord ; His hand is strong to hold The talent of fine gold, The wand so clean and cold ; His altar has a lamp divine, his girdle has a sword. 65

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1898 · PDF PAGE 106

Songs of the Spirit

…im Jerusalem was seen A city cold and grey ! The flowers of fire that grow beneath, And blossom on the Tree Are fed from his despair and death Who sings of land and sea, And all those mountains where thy breath, Jehovah, still must be. 96

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1898 · PDF PAGE 53

Songs of the Spirit

…ht bidding. Surely, surely, there We might float ever to the sea, and spare The dainty plumage of that perfect place. O God ! O Life ! O Death, thou would`st not wear Such evil mask upon thy golden face— O Mary, pity me of thine abounding grace. 43

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