Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1905 · PDF PAGE 78

Orpheus

In her bright cheeks: she darts away to find Like some uncovered hind Shade in the forest from the stag’s pursuit, Ere the sun’s passion shoot His ray, strange deeps unknown and feared to uncover. But now the ancient root Of some wise oak betrays her to her lover: She stumbles and falls prone: the forest noon Guesses life’s law ; all nature’s tune Tells that the hour is come when May must grow to June. -Then in the broad glare of the careless sun Apollo’s light is on her and within ; His shafts of glory pierce her one by one; His kisses darken,…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 42

Orpheus

Thy beauty and I ' Are of old even so As lover and lover. Come forth! I invoke thee! the hills are aglow. THE SNOW Bright breasts I uncover, Heart’s heart to thy gaze ; O lyre of my lover, I know thee, thy praise. Black heavens that hover, Blind air that obeys, I come to thee over The mountainous ways As a bride to the bridegroom: I blush, but I come And bow to thee dumb. ORPHEUS O blacker than hell, O bluer than heaven, O green as the dell Lit of sunlight at even! O strong as a spell! O bright as the levin ! Come forth! I invoke thee, O ice, b…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 126

Orpheus

…iod And fallen gently in the arms divine, Caressing arms of pale Persephone, And bathed her in death’s river tenderly, Washing the whole bright body, the long limbs, The clothing hair, the face, the witchery Of all the smiling shape in the dark stream, As one who gathers the first floral beam Of daylight by the water, dives and swims Deep in cool alleys, softer than a dream: So, rising to the other bank, aglow With the bright motion and the stream’s young flow, She might discover the Elysian ground, And find me waiting, find me sad and slow Pac…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 80

Orpheus

… supreme fertility And glowing masteries Of autumn summer-shaded, The golden fruit of all the blossoming sky. And now the watcher to the bright breasts blind Loses the seemly shape, the loud swift song; “Now the moon falls, and all the gold is gone, And round the storm-caught shape hard gusts of wind Blow, and her leaves are torn, a flying throng Of orange and purple and red; the sombre sun Shines darkly in her breast But wakes no joy therein, And all his kisses sharp and keen Bring only now desire of rest, Not their old rapture: the warm viole…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 73

Orpheus

The morning shakes its ocean-bathéd tresses, The bright sun broadens over all the earth. The green leaves fall, fall into his caresses, And all the world’s heart leaps, again addresses Its life, and girds it in the golden girth. Then noon full-fashioned lies upon the steep. The large sun sighs and turns his bridle-rein, Thinks of the ocean, turns his heart to sleep, Laughing no longer, not yet prone to weep, Feeling the prelude of the coming pain. The hills and dales are dumb beneath the heat, And all the world lies tranced or mutely dreaming, …

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1905 · PDF PAGE 32

Orpheus

… seated upon Olympus, tunes his lyre. ORPHEUS FIRST word of my song, First tune of my lyre, Muse, loved of me long, Be near and inspire! Bright heart! Mother strong! Sweet sense of desire! Be near as I lift the first notes impassioned of fervour and fire! Not ever before Since Nature began Hath one cloven her core, Found the soul of her span ; No son that she bore Her spirit might scan ; But I, being born beyond Nature, have known her and yet am a man. Ye fieriest flowers, Life-stream of the world, In passionate bowers Of mystery curled, ct 33

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1905 · PDF PAGE 38

Orpheus

…forth! I invoke thee, O wind, come forth to me fleet as a fawn. THE WINDS From fourfold quarters, The depth and the height, We come, the bright daughters Of day shed on night; The sun and the waters Have brought us to light ; The sound of him slaughters Our soul in his sight. We hear the loud murmur; we know him; we rest; We breathe in his breast. ORPHEUS By sunlight up-gathered As dust of his cars, By moonlight unfathered, Unmothered of stars, Unpastured, untethered, Unstricken of scars, Come forth! I invoke ye, O clouds! ye veils! ye divine a…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 70

Orpheus

…ss to a solemn state Pregnant with hope and fate. O Orpheus, we are here! THE EARTH Life hidden in death, Life shrined in the soul, Life bright for his breath, Life dark for his goal, I am Mother, and Burier, and Friend—- Look thou to the end! I am Light in thy Love, Iam Love in thy Life. I am cloistered above Where the stars are at strife. I am life in thy light, and thy death Is part of my breath. My voices are many, Thy lyre is but one; But thou art not as any Soul under the sun! Thou hast power for an hour The motherly dower. 71

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1905 · PDF PAGE 83

Orpheus

…nd With seasons and stings As a serpent’s encompassing Time. Come forth! on the heavy grey wings! Ye arbiter lords That sit as for doom, Bright splendour of swords Leaps forth in your gloom ! But stronger my chords Shall lift in your womb The love of your passage and time, immemorial ages, your tomb. : Ye linger for long, But ye pass and are done: 84

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1905 · PDF PAGE 50

Orpheus

…e of earth we list to: should not we then answer thee? ORPHEUS O sea mixt with zther In whirls that awake, Roar skywards and wreathe her Bright coils as a snake, In agony seethe her Sad cries for the sake Of peace—I invoke ye! Come forth! O spouts in the wave’s wild wake! THE WATERSPOUTS Whirling over miles of ocean, Lowering o’er the solemn sea, Hears our life the deep commotion That we know—thy witchery. Wheeling, hating, fearing ever As we thunder o’er the deep, Death alone our path can sever, Death our guerdon if we weep. We obey thee, we a…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 52

Orpheus

…vagrant virgin, Nor their own mild looks discover, But the light and glow of that they are meditating over. ORPHEUS O curves unbeholden, Bright glory of bays! Deep gulfs grown golden With dawn and its ways! With sunset enfolden In silvery praise! Come forth! I invoke ye, O gulfs, where the sea is as children, and plays. THE Bays Where the hills reach to heaven behind us A voice is rolled over the steep, Some godhead whose glory would blind us, Reflected far-off on the deep. 53

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1905 · PDF PAGE 60

Orpheus

…his suit, and the summer for envy is sad. Wan grows Aphrodite, And Artemis frail; Apollo less mighty, Iacchus too pale. Dark Hades grows bright, he Alone may avail When the god and the mortal are one, as the mountain is one with the gale. , THE CHILDREN OF EARTH Our hair deep laden with the scent of earth, The colour of her rosy body’s birth, Our mother, lady and life of all that is divine ; 61

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1905 · PDF PAGE 72

Orpheus

…ps and turns, and all his fragrance fills The shade and silence; all the rocks and rills Ring with the triumph of his steeds behind. The bright air winnowed by the plumeless leapers Laughs, and the low light pierces to the bed Where lovers linger, where the smiling sleepers Stir, and the herds unmindful of their keepers Low for pure love of morning’s dewy head. 73

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1905 · PDF PAGE 54

Orpheus

…inning and end; I am all, and my name is the Sea! ORPHEUS Then thou, O my mother, Hast given to me The power of another, The watery key. Bright air is my brother, My sister the sea; I have called, and they answer and come; and their song is but glory to thee. One other is left me, The light of the earth. If Fate had bereft me, Oh Muse, of thy birth, Still I had cleft me A way in her girth! I tune the loud lyre once again to the mother of men in her mirth. O mighty and glad In spring-time and summer! O tearful and sad When the sun is grown dumbe…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 147

Orpheus

…lain Of that gigantic phantasy. I turned to my Eurydice Even as she turned. The faint breath glows,— The lightning of a living rose. The bright eyes gleam—night’s spotless stars Glimmering through folded nenuphars. The red mouth moves, still to the word: “Yes, love!” and “yes, love!” Then I heard No sound and saw no sight—the world Folded its mighty wings, and curled Its passion round us; bade forget The joy with which our eyes were wet. All faded, folded in the bliss ; Unfolded the first fadeless kiss. Then my soul woke, not sundering lips, Bu…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 149

Orpheus

While the bright sounds are lifted up to spring Beyond this tide of being, Shadows and sense far fleeing Into a shadow deeper than the Ocean When passes all the mind’s commotion To a serener sky, a mighty calm emotion ! - The whole world fades, folds over its wide pinions Into a darkness deeper than its own. Silence hath shattered all the dream-dominions Of life and light: the grey bird’s soul is flown Into a soundless night, Lampless: a vivid flight Beyond the thrones and stars of heaven down hurled, Till the great blackness heaves An iron bre…

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1905 · PDF PAGE 112

Orpheus

…e, and slake Despair in purposeless caresses, dire Shames fang-wise fastened of the eternal snake. Is there no warmth where beauty is so bright? No soul still flickering in the lambent light Still shed from all the body’s excellence? No lamp unchidden of the utter night? Cannot my life be molten into thee Or thy death fall with rosier arms on me Or soul with soul commingle without sense, As the sun’s rays strike deep into the sea? O beauty of all beauty—central flower Of all the blossoms in the summer’s bower! Fades not all Nature in thy fall? …

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1905 · PDF PAGE 76

Orpheus

…lden-throated nightingale, Pale sobs of love and life With death and fear at strife, Fiercely beset and hardly conquering, When spring’s bright eyes at last Flash through the sullen past, And tune its pain to tears, its peace to sing. The earth’s lips cling To the child’s bosom, and low smiles revive ; Love is new-born upon the golden hour, And all the life of all the exultant spring Breathes in the wind that wakes the world alive Into the likeness of a flower. 77

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1905 · PDF PAGE 77

Orpheus

…horns: erect she stands, Holding in glimmering hands A silver bow across the shining weather, While, bound in pearl-wrought bands, . Her bright hairstreams; shedraws the quivering feather Back to the small ear curved: with golden zone Gathering her limbs she stands alone Like a young antelope poised upon a spire of stone. What tender lightning flashes in the bosom Heaving with vigour of young life? What storm Gathers across the brow’s broad lotus-blossom? What sudden passion fills the fragrant form With subtle streams of warm Blood tingling to …

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1905 · PDF PAGE 103

Orpheus

… helical, fresh gusts of love Filling one sphere from the last sphere grown gladder ; All gateways leading far to the above. Even as the bright coils of the emerald adder Climb one by one in glory of sunlight, climb My children to me up the steep of Time. 104

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