1898 · PDF PAGE 1
Songs of the Spirit
SONGS OF THE SPIRIT
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Page 1 of 11898 · PDF PAGE 11
Songs of the Spirit
SONGS OF THE SPIRIT
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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 82
Songs of the Spirit
… its doom ; Foulness is rampant, purity is dumb ; Despair stalks terrible. But I am come, God-nurtured, in the void abyss of gloom ; The Spirit of my God is set on me ; He hath anointed me to preach glad news Unto the meek ; the broken heart to loose, To utter to the captive liberty, The prison’s opening to all the bound, And unto all men to proclaim aloud The year acceptable before the Lord. Therefore He fills my voice with silvery sound, And by His spirit, a pillar of fire and cloud, My eyes are lightning, and my tongue a sword. 72
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1898 · PDF PAGE 77
Songs of the Spirit
…ophyte Stand on the forehead of the rock ; I saw The armies of unalterable law Shudder within their spheres, as to him came His master’s spirit, like a tongue of flame, To touch his lips and ears and eyes and hands With that pale amber that divides the lands Of sense and spirit, and beheld him quail 67
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1898 · PDF PAGE 3
Songs of the Spirit
SONGS OF THE SPIRIT BY ALEISTER CROWLEY “ Sublimi feriam sidera vertive ” HOR. LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER & CO. MDCCCXCVIII
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1898 · PDF PAGE 95
Songs of the Spirit
… me now ; I sink to sleep ; Calm and content my brow, My eyes are large and deep. The morning shall behold On feet and plumes of gold My spirit soon enfold The flocks on heaven’s steep. Refreshed, encouraged, lightened, Sent on the Way Whose Sun and Star have brightened From dawning into day, I set my face, a flint, Toward where the holy glint Of lamps affords the hint That leads me—where it may. 85
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1898 · PDF PAGE 109
Songs of the Spirit
ASTROLOGY. A LONELY spirit seeks the midnight hour, When souls have power To cast 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 102
Songs of the Spirit
Through the dim air a spirit frets His closely-woven wings ; Like love, upon my brow he sets The crown of many kings. (The trembling demons of the sea Before the poet bend ; He greets the angels quietly As one who greets a friend ; He waiteth, passionless, to be A witness of the end.) I chant in low sweet verses still A mystic song of dread, As one imposing all his will Upon the expectant dead ; And lights dip down, and shadows fill The dreams that haunt my head. I sing strange stories of that world No man may ever see ; My lips with strong del…
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1898 · PDF PAGE 113
Songs of the Spirit
The Spirit of Jehovah, like a dove On wings of love, Breathe the sweet kiss, a sacrament untold, And clothe the heart’s desire with flames of gold. No rash Icarian wing this passion plies, But sanctifies, As if a censer (that a cherub 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 g…
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1898 · PDF PAGE 33
Songs of the Spirit
…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 tasted the Lethean breath. There was a voice that cried : 23
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1898 · PDF PAGE 7
Songs of the Spirit
…thy mind a star most bright ; And, following with wakeful eyes The strait meridian of the wise, My feet tread under stars and skies ; My spirit soars and seeks and flies, a child of light. Thus eager, may my purpose stand Firm as the faith of honest hand, Nor change like castles built of sand Until the sweet unchanging end. Happy not only that my eye Single and strong may win the sky, But that one day the birds that fly Heard your fair friendship call me by the name of friend. vii
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1898 · PDF PAGE 28
Songs of the Spirit
…ngless ? ” 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
…itadel, 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 the sacred hand of the Most High 69
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1898 · PDF PAGE 63
Songs of the Spirit
…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 my back resolute on dung and dross, And face the future with no twitch of dread, But dare to converse with the …
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1898 · PDF PAGE 55
Songs of the Spirit
…s, as patient and as true As in the past, his form to whom I turn, And break my bondage and would touch anew His holy lips ; my body and spirit yearn ; He fades away, and fires of Hell within me burn. Still, as I journey through the waste, I see A silver figure more divine arise ; The Christ usurps the horizon for me, And He requickens the forgotten skies ; His golden locks are burning on my eyes, And He with rosy finger points the way, The blood-wrought mystic path of Paradise That leads at last through yonder icy spray Of Death to the blue va…
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1898 · PDF PAGE 71
Songs of the Spirit
When the gates of spirit tense with angel’s tread Close, and all the gates of sense swing wide instead, When the will of men is sleeping, and when the mind Hears no sobs of spirits weeping 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 i…
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