Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1898 · PDF PAGE 63

Songs of the Spirit

We shall regather where the skies are blue And live and love for aye, pure, passionate, and true. Also before my eyes there gleams from Heaven The likeness of a Man in glory set ; The sun is blotted, and the skies are riven— A God flames forth my spirit to beget ; And where my body and his love are met A new desire possesses altogether My whole new self as in a golden net Of transcendental love one fiery tether, Dissolving all my woe into one sea of weather. So I am ready to assume the Cross, Start on my journey with the last word said ; Turn m…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 94

Songs of the Spirit

…n by God’s desire, To save me from their fire— Those kiss me and respire The perfume of the Name. Remorse and terror banished By pitying lovers, Who from my eyes have vanished, (The Lidless Eye discovers), Repenting souls that turn, Whose hearts with pity burn For me, who now discern Their love around me hovers. Their love wards from my head The furious hate Of those loves doubly dead That may not pass the gate : 84

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1898 · PDF PAGE 71

Songs of the Spirit

…ping above the wind, All the subtle paths are clear for wicked breath, And no angel warns the ear that this is death ? Is this fiend the Love that came when youth rose up Purple with its holy flame, and flower-fair cup, Gave me of his burning wine to fire my heart, Filled me with desires divine toward my art ? Is he then the Love who robs me of my aim, Doubts me if my heart still throbs with that cold flame, Calm and eager purpose yet to reach the goal That high hopes have sternly set before my soul, To know, will, dare for man’s sake if man ma…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 70

Songs of the Spirit

SUCCUBUS. WHO is Love, that he should find me as I strive, Pale and weary, dumb and blind, where curses thrive, Fold my sleep within his wings, and lead my dreams 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…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 33

Songs of the Spirit

… so God would not have me die ; Her deadly lips 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 Dea…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 34

Songs of the Spirit

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

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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 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 52

Songs of the Spirit

Is the last song made, whose faint melodies Brushed the pale air with an archangel’s wing ? Is Hope divorced, our queen ? Is Love discrowned, our King ? Far o’er the Ocean sets a fiery star And meteors cross the angry horizon, A comet blazes, reddening the bar Of silver water where the moonlight shone, And, as I stand upon the cliff like one Amazed, a shape seems always at my back To whisper wickedness, o’erheard of none, And stealthily to follow on my track, And cloke my lifted eyes with suffocating black. Vainly I turn to seek him, for my eye…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 2

Songs of the Spirit

“ Hush, the music swells apace, Rolls its silver billows up Through the void demense of space To the heavens’ azure cup ! Hush, my love, and sleep shall sigh, This is immortality ! ” The Tale of Archais

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1898 · PDF PAGE 64

Songs of the Spirit

…billow rears And I must pass to seek an unknown sky ; We dare not see each other’s face for tears, And the last kisses—Did we only die ! Love ! Ah ! One kiss ! One kiss ! One kiss ! Good-by, Good-by ! 54

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1898 · PDF PAGE 119

Songs of the Spirit

…o these that sink, sleep, and expire, your welcome accord. With winds and white seas for your raiment Your stature immutably stands : My love, with no claim, as a claimant Came seeking out truth in the sands, Found truth, and must place in poor payment this book in your hands. 109

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1898 · PDF PAGE 90

Songs of the Spirit

…e sea and the sand The wail of the wind. The earth gives a bleak echo back, and behind Lurk sorrows and sins in the grasp of a hand, And love and despair are the lords of mankind. The mountains are steadfast ; immutably grand, Bid me to their bosom the chain to unbind : At peace and at pity I now understand The wail of the wind. 80

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1898 · PDF PAGE 9

Songs of the Spirit

… Priest Speaks. (Boccaccio. Day IV. Tale VIII.) 32 Passover ............................................................ 36 The Violet’s Love-Story ....................................... 37 The Farewell of Paracelcus to Aprile ................... 41 A Spring Snowstorm in Wastdale ........................ 55 In Neville’s Court, Trinity College, Cambridge ..... 59 Succubus .......................................................... 60 A Rondel ............................................................ 63 Nightfall ..............................…

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1898 · PDF PAGE 93

Songs of the Spirit

…ng since, ere God did vex My soul with sacrifice. Pale youth and bloodless maiden Whose breasts have bled, With wrath or mercy laden, By love or terror led, Reproachful or reviling, Some pure and some defiling, Some fearful and some smiling, Some living and some dead. 83

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1898 · PDF PAGE 109

Songs of the Spirit

…st 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

…EGISTUS. 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 89

Songs of the Spirit

…t— 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 99

Songs of the Spirit

… is one flame, Whose holy hand Gathers this earth, who built the vaults of space, Moulded the stars, and fixed the iron sea, Because His love lights through my face And all of me. Because my hand may fasten on the sword If my heart falter not, and smite Those lampless limits most abhorred Of iron night, 89

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1898 · PDF PAGE 5

Songs of the Spirit

DEDICATION TO J. L. B. THE vault of purple that I strove To pierce, and find unchanging love, Or some vast countenance above All glory of the soul of man, Baffled my blind aspiring gaze With sunlight’s melancholy rays, And closed with iron hand the ways That sunder space, divide the days with fiery fan. Thine was the forehead mild and grave That shown throughout the azure nave Where Monte Rosa’s silence gave The starry organ’s measured sound. Where for an altar stood the bare Mass of Mont Cervin, towering there And angels dwelt upon the stair, …

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