Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1898 · PDF PAGE 109

Songs of the Spirit

…t away one moment bonds of clay, And touch the day With pallid wistful lips beyond the earth, And bring to birth New thoughts with which life long has travailed ; As if one dead Should rise and utter secrets 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 89

Songs of the Spirit

…rew one clear Concept, ideal, divine, Of a god of light and laughter, of a god of wheat and wine. Work on, strong mind, devise The outer life aright ; Dream, subtle soul, and arise To noblest litanies That pierce the mask of night— In a man work lifts his eyelids, but his dreams lend eyes their light. So dreams and days are wed, And soul and body lie Ambrosial in Love’s bed. See, heaven with stars is spread— So glad of life am I If an angel came to call me I am sure I would not die. 79

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1898 · PDF PAGE 25

Songs of the Spirit

…warning of a mind o’er-strained ? [Moving towards door.] Voice. Stand still And see salvation in Jehovah’s hands. Ph. Is this the end of life ? Voice. Thy Life begins. Ph. Strange Voice, I hear thee, and obey. Perchance I have not lived so far. Perchance to-day, Like a spring-flower that slowly opens out Its willing petals to the tender dawn, My soul may open to the knowledge of A dawn of new thought that may lead—— Voice. To God. Ph. Hope hardly dared to name it ! 15

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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 28

Songs of the Spirit

… 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 my work meaningless ? ” O thou, supreme, Thou, First and Last, most inconceivable All-radiating Unity, thou sphere All-comprehensive, all-mysterious, Spirit of Life and Death, bow down and hear ! [Bends deeper and prays silently. The flame grows duller, and finally leaves the room in absolute darkness. Curtain. 18

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1898 · PDF PAGE 79

Songs of the Spirit

…m who braves the gale of night, And mock his might ; They rush upon him like a wave, and break In fiery foam against him, and they shake Life in its citadel, They open Hell To let the Furies and the Fates spring forth On their wild chargers of the icy North To quench the holy lamp. His spirit and his life within him quail, And all the armaments of sin assail With deadly tramp, And swordless fury that devours and bites And tears and clutches him, whom heavenly lights Shield and lead on afar, Where beyond storm and passion is the sky, And where t…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 23

Songs of the Spirit

…yes intent to penetrate The black circumference, and find out God— And only see myself. The walls of Space Mock me with silence. What is Life ? The stars Are silent. O ye matchless ministers That daily pass in your appointed ways To 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 lon…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 91

Songs of the Spirit

… spring the spectres (Whence come, 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 74

Songs of the Spirit

…y in their eyes So large and clear and wise, And angels yearn toward the world that wonders, wakes, and grieves. Sleep holds the hand of life, And, as a loving wife Moves not for fear the sufferer should wake before his hour, So sleep is deadly calm, And fills with perfect balm 64

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1898 · PDF PAGE 31

Songs of the Spirit

…d 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 13

Songs of the Spirit

IN MEMORIAM A. J. B. THE life by angels’ touch divinely lifted From our dim space-bounds to a vaster sphere The spirit, through the vision of clouds rifted, Soars quick and clear. We know the dance that hails the golden pinions The sun waves over an awakening earth ; We know the joy that floods the heart’s dominions At true love’s birth. Even so, the mists that roll o’er earth are riven, The spirit flashes forth from mortal sight, And, flaming through the viewless space, is given A robe of light. As when the conqueror Christ burst forth of pris…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 72

Songs of the Spirit

…id Visioned 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 37

Songs of the Spirit

…light dances, A spectre-flame, through midnight’s infamy. My blood grows chill and stagnant with my shame. O Love, to speak thy name ! O Life ! O Heaven ! O dreams long dead ! Ye Spirits Rising unbidden from Hope’s cobwebbed door, Ye quick desires that every soul inherits, Leave me to weep, and torture me no more ! My face grows grey with sheer despair ; I shrink From dreams ; I dare not think. I had a poet’s dreams. My soul was yearning To grasp the firmament and hold it fast, 27

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1898 · PDF PAGE 42

Songs of the Spirit

THE PRIEST SPEAKS. (Boccacio. Day IV. Tale VIII.) LAY them together for the sake of Love Within a little plot of piteous earth, When life’s last flower is faded in the sun. Lay them together in the tender ground That summer showers may shed a trembling tear. And summer breezes whisper melodies Of pity. Lay them there, and when the sky Opens a lingering eyelash of deep cloud, And the sea sparkles out from under it To kiss the earth into awakening From the dream-slumbers that its fancies weave— Fancies of starlight on the lucent sea Gleaming from…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 20

Songs of the Spirit

…t track the intangible and blind, And seeking, shall securely find Hidden in secret places Fresh feasts for every soul that strives, New life for many mystic lives, And strange new forms and faces. My mind still searches, and attains By many days and many pains 10

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1898 · PDF PAGE 113

Songs of the Spirit

…rub swings) Blossomed with wings And floated up, an incense-breathing bird, With songs half heard Before the throne of God. Even so this life Of sordid strife Is made most holy, beautiful, and pure, By this desire, if this desire endure. So to the altar of the Highest aspire Those souls whose fire Has on it cast one grain of pure incense, (Who guesses—whence ?) Those souls that cast their trammels off, and spring On eager wing, 103

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1898 · PDF PAGE 14

Songs of the Spirit

…ands and bars we strive against in vain, Far o’er the world, and all its triple iron And brazen chain, Far from the change that men call life fled higher Into the world immutable of sleep, We see our loved one, and vain eyes desire In vain to weep. Woeful our gaze, if on Ione Earth descendent, To view the absence of yon flame afar— Yet in the Heavens, anew, divine, resplendent, Behold a star ! One light the less, that steady flamed and even Amid the dusk of Earth’s uncertain shore ; One light the less, but in Jehovah’s Heaven One star the more …

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1898 · PDF PAGE 34

Songs of the Spirit

…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 know Her lips and God’s have met. 24

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1898 · PDF PAGE 32

Songs of the Spirit

… above ; Death’s feet, like Sleep’s, with fire are shod, And Lust is likest Love. Our Lady crushed me in her bed, Between her breasts my life was wet ; My lips from that sweet death were fed ; I died, and would forget. 22

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1898 · PDF PAGE 38

Songs of the Spirit

…tter tears ! I felt the springs of youth within me leaping, Let loose my pleasure, never guessed that pain Was worth the holding—now, my life is weeping Itself away, those agonies to gain Which are my one last hope, that by some cross Eld may avenge youth’s loss ! Yet still youth burns ! The hours its pleasure wasted Compel their bitter memories to grow sweet ; Like some warm-perfumed poison if I tasted, Felt its fierce savour pulse, and burn, and beat, Yet in my veins its sleepy fire might bring Strange dreams of some sweet thing. Half a regre…

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