Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1910 · PDF PAGE 139

The Winged Beetle

…hought, So in the quivering flame that hurled Its founts of life to the remotest world Supreme stood Death, and sware Destruction to all things that were ! IV Child, father, warrior, I worshipped Thee before ; Friend, bridegroom, now I yield me to the rod. My God, and very God of very God As breath, as death, as all, as naught, unknown, Known, is there not an end, when one alone Stand I, and thou, and He Arisen above all things that be ?

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1910 · PDF PAGE 138

The Winged Beetle

…s ! Hail to the golden hair in golden showers Hiding the eyes like blue blue lotus-flowers ! His name is Ut, for He Hath risen above all things that be. II Ardent and white, the Lord Whirls forth a strident sword. Its blade is broader than the great World-Ash ; Its edge is keener than the lightning-flash. Brighter than all the lights of heaven, it whirls Out in a chaos of creative curls And sheathes itself in Me, Arisen above all things that be. III Even as the burning tongue Of God to God that clung

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1910 · PDF PAGE 133

The Winged Beetle

…s of hair, that hiss And fasten all their fangs upon me—these I knew, forget ; they leave your saint at ease. I have forgotten all these things, erotic While it was dark, while flesh corroded flesh With cancerous kisses acrid and exotic Like orchids, while the star-queen flung her mesh Over us as we swam, one soul dicrotic That blindly leapt through billow salt and fresh :— Oh darkness ! how the perfume of it clings ! How then have I forgotten all these things ? The light came on us kissing. Then I vaunted My lust again, and drank that fearful …

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1910 · PDF PAGE 66

The Winged Beetle

…BABE See yon solitary star ! What a world of blackness wraps Round it ! Unimagined gaps ! Let it be ! Content thy car With the voyage to things that are ! Nor, an thou perchance behold How I plunge and batten on Earth’s exenterate carrion, Deem torquoise match midden-mould Or deny the Hawk of Gold !

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1910 · PDF PAGE 6

The Winged Beetle

…arry flame In brilliance of immortal youth Didst thou stand stedfast and proclaim Freedom and Ecstasy and Truth, Erect amid the wreck of Things Poised on inexorable wings ! . . . . So much the universe may see When its bat’s-eyes may endure the sun : This secret rests my prize to me, That I knew thee, surpassed of none, Fighting and faithful to the end, A Perfect knight, a perfect friend.

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1910 · PDF PAGE 208

The Winged Beetle

… out our poor brains upon the walls of the Universe. Is there no Power that might reveal itself ? [Kneels.] Who art Thou before whom all things are equal, being as dust ? Who givest his fame to the poet, his bankruptcy to the rich man ? Who dost distinguish between the just and the unjust ? Thou keeper of all secrets, of this great secret which I seek, and have nowise found ! This secret for whose very shadowing-forth in parable I, who am young, strong, successful, beloved, most enviable of men, would throw it all away ! Oh Thou who givest that…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 70

The Winged Beetle

…e tune Of our ripe rhythm, seeded the hideous play Of death-worms crawling on a corpse, afloat With life that takes its thirst Only from things accurst. Closer than Clodia’s clasp, Death had me down To his black heart, and fed upon my breath, So that we seemed a stillness—whiter than The stars, more silent than the stars, a crown Of stars ! For in the icy kiss of death I found that God that is denied to man So long as love and thought And life avail him aught.

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1910 · PDF PAGE 39

The Winged Beetle

…nar-chaste With the satyrs were embraced, Spelled the secret of the key : Sic pervenias. And he Went his wizard way, inweaving Dreams of things beyond believing. When he will, the weary world Of the senses closely curled Like a serpent round his heart Shakes herself and stands apart. So the heart’s blood flames expanding, Strenuous, urgent, and commanding ; And the key unlocks the door Where his love lies evermore. She is of the faery blood ; All smaragdine flows its flood. Glowing in the amber sky To ensorcelled porphyry. She hath eyes of glit…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 209

The Winged Beetle

MR TODD 199 could I guess you had the key of things ? Simple as ABC —or, rather, as A ! And nothing to pay after all ! “ For of all Gods you only love not gifts.” [Ushers TODD to the door.] I follow you. [TODD smiles kindly on him. They go out. [The child turns ; and, finding himself alone, begins to cry. CHARLEY. My nice man has gone away. Old Todd has taken him away. I think I hate that old Todd ! [Enter TODD. I hate you ! I hate you ! Where is my nice man ? [TODD whispers in his ear. Oh, I see. It is when people get to be grown-ups that they…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 127

The Winged Beetle

…that would ascend. O may the Four avail me ! Ageless woe, Fear, torture, throng the threshold. Lo ! The end Of matter ! The immensity of things

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1910 · PDF PAGE 217

The Winged Beetle

…relight velvet-lined Or on the balcony, veiled by rosy wings Of mist. Thy breast was soft, thy kiss was kind. We often said imperishable things Those evenings in the firelight velvet-lined. On summer evenings how the sun is fine ! How space seems deep ! How roars the heart’s red flood ! I lean toward thee, adoring, queen of mine, And thought I breathed the perfume of thy blood— On summer evenings how the sun is fine ! The night fell thick and thick, a screen of sable ; Mine eyes within the blackness guessed at thine. I drank thy sighs—oh poison…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 174

The Winged Beetle

…it, on the shame !— Shame from the Knowledge and unto the Name— Hide it, O hide it, in flowers of flame ! Now in the balance of infinite things Stirs not a feather ; the universe swings Poised on the stealth of ineffable wings. Surely the sable Osirian bird Sole in the æther shall utter the Word Now that its crying can never be heard !

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1910 · PDF PAGE 22

The Winged Beetle

12 ROSA COELI Things beyond words, beyond the want of them Beyond the pauses and the ecstasies . . . . Where should my dream get such a diadem Of voiceless thoughts as these ? XII These dreams reform Themselves into a rainbow to the storm Of simple passion ; let me from the string Take many-coloured wing As a swift-thoughted arrow Vertically shot against the sun ! I would you were a sow And these my verses were your squealing farrow, That they might suck the milk of your perfection Unto them, that the world’s ear might be won, The world’s heart…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 50

The Winged Beetle

… body’s wealth of ambergris (Narcissus-scented flesh of man !) I burnt before him in the sacrifice ; For he was sure— Being the Doubt of Things, the one thing to endure ! XX Wherefore, when madness took him at the end, He, doubt-goat, slew the goat of doubt ;

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1910 · PDF PAGE 128

The Winged Beetle

…s my crest Than thine—and now I pierce thee, veil of mist ! Even as an arrow from the war-bow springs I leap—my life is set with loftier things. I match, &c. SAMECH (and the crossing of the Path of Pe) Now swift, thou azure shaft of fading fire, Pierce through the rainbow ! Swift, O swift ! how streams The world by ! Let Sandalphon and his quire Of Angels ward me ! Ho ! what planet beams This angry ray ? Thy swords, thy shields, thy spears ! Of meteors war and blaze ; but I am I, Horus himself, the torrent of the sky Aflame—I sweep the stormy s…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 90

The Winged Beetle

80 ROSEMARY Unto the latter things, the destined doom, Ten years ago ! how blind and black the abyss ! How swept the springtide from the winter’s womb At the sharp summons of the swift strong kiss That rapt me up from the unfriendly earth Into the star-abodes of Salmacis, Bringing the soul that slept to sudden birth. O frenzy of flame that swept across the world In orgiastic opulence of mirth, And left me ever in His arms close curled, Never, O never ! to shrink back again, But (through all ruinous time violently hurled) Never to lose the stigm…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 21

The Winged Beetle

…thing mortal serves to name another As mortal as itself. Why must our deathless loves Be stained by the black-hearted mother That called things by dead names ? The sunny elf Language shall play with the ethereal flames But never dare approach The central and volcanic fire, The inmost Force, nor, like a glittering army Send forth its scouts to encroach Upon our citadel desire. Ay ! though these flaming sentences Eat like strong acid in my vitals, char me, Blast me like lightning, smash me like black seas Towering above the lofty ship Whose masts…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 150

The Winged Beetle

…te loss is infinite loss, That tears are trivial, tears are happiness, That this blind ache is God’s last punishment For love ; that all things in that one thing shent Are damned, that had I loved her less I could have prated in some honeyed strain. Taking a subtle pleasure in my pain. It is my bulk, the mass of my intent, That makes the ruin abject. I had sung Some partial earthquake ; here the universe Crashes with one great curse, Whelming the singer and the song. My tongue Is palsied ; only this chaotic clash Of curses echoes the dire crash…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 195

The Winged Beetle

… CARR. If I did, I should have to cut—— EUPHEMIA. What ? CARR. My lucky ! EUPHEMIA. What a dreadful expression ! Where do you learn such things ? CARR. I notice you don’t have to ask what it means. EUPHEMIA. Stop teasing, darling ! CARR. I’m not teething ! That’s what I complain of ; you always treat me as a baby ! EUPHEMIA. Come to his mummy, then ! CARR. You’re not my mummy ! That’s what I complain of ; you always treat me as a Cheops, ever since that night on the Great Pyramid ! EUPHEMIA. [Hides her head in his bosom.] Oh shame, shame ! CARR…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 148

The Winged Beetle

…past, Blossoms too beautiful ! Think of the hardships conquered comrade-wise ! Think of the babe and its most piteous end ! ” —All these things sound like lies. I do not comprehend Anything of them—“ Pity ! pity ! pity ! ” ’Tis like the dripping of some stagnant rain From the housetops of a ruined city Upon the flagstones. Not one petal clings Upon the stalk of life or memory. Stain Not one pale thought with blushes ; my soul’s dead As a corpse flung out of the tideway on The stinking flats of London mud. The springs Are dry beyond appeal ; dul…

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