Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
FOLLOW A WORD THROUGH THE COLLECTION

Search the corpus.

Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.

22 matching pages

Page 1 of 2
1902 · PDF PAGE 138

Tannhäuser

These leaves ? A strong man sobbing ! The earth quakes Responsive. Hillo-ho! Who comes by there ? [ Tannhduser enters. He appears old and worn ; but from his whole body radiates a dazzling light, and his face is that of the Christ crticified. Save us, Saints, save us ! I have looked on God ! Tannhauser. Heinrich! my friend, my old true-hearted friend ! Fear not ! I am not ghost, but living man ! Ah me, ah me, the sorrow of the world ! Heinrich. Thou, Tannhauser ! what miracle is this ? Your body glows —with what unearthly light ? Tannhauser. I …

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 57

Tannhäuser

… :— I heard of knights no better horsed than I, No better sworded, with no gift of song, Who, caught by one ineffable desire, Rode on by old mysterious watersheds, Traversed strange seas, or battled with strange folk, Held vigil in wild forests, all to seek The vision of the Holy Grail. And I Rode forth on that same foolish wandering ; And found a-many ventures on the way ; At last an old Egyptian ; who bestowed The magic word, which, when I had pronounced, Called up thine evil corpse-light in the sky. He riddled me —ah God ! I see it now ! The…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 58

Tannhäuser

…ld watch the ripe red venom flow Slow on the hills of amber, staining them Its own warm purple. Look, the tender stream ! Venus. Let its old sleepy fragrance lull thee now. Yet madden thee in brain and sense and soul, Mixing success with infinite despair. So ; take our secret back to sleep with us :— And in that sleep I know that thou wilt choose The fact, and leave the dream, and so disdain These far-off splendours, catch the nearer joy. Take squalid kisses, banish crested love Intangible. Delights it thee, my friend. To reach the summits unat…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 142

Tannhäuser

Weep for the pain, the travail, the old curse ; Weep, weep, and die. So dawns at last the Grail, The Glory of the Crucified ! Dear friend. Be happy, for my heart goes out to you, And most to that poor pale Elizabeth — Were it not only that the selflessness That fills me now, forbids the personal, Casts out the individual, and weeps on For the united sorrow of all things. For if I die, it is not Tannhaiiser, Rather a spark of the supreme white light That dwelt and flickered in him in old time ; That Light, I say, that hides its flame awhile To s…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 89

Tannhäuser

… I know not ; possibly Kept as an hostage. I was prisoner once. Wolfram. Prisoner .■* By here ? Tannhauser. A-many castles, sir, Held by old ogres—and not all of them Stand in the mid-day, front the sober sun. Answer the slug-horn. Landgrave. You are pleased to riddle. Ever the poet ! 87

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 101

Tannhäuser

…. Facing them are the competing minstrels. Around, courtiers and fair ladies. Landgrave. Welcome all minstrels ! Let us celebrate In the old fashion, dear to Germany, My child's betrothal to this noble youth. Great lord, true knight, and honest gentleman, So long who journeyed on the holy quest Forgotten of these younger days, and now Come back among us to receive reward For those long sufferings ; in days of peace. In fruitful love, and marriage happiness. So, to the poet's tourney. Wolfram. Sire, Lord Heinrich Craves your high pardon. Landgra…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 71

Tannhäuser

… Come close to me again. Forget this nightmare. Rather, tell me it, And I will soothe thee. Have I not a balm, A sovereign comfort in my old caress ? Tannhauser. I must begone. She waits. Venus. Who waits ? Come here ! Let us talk fondly, set together still, Not with these shouts and wavings of the arms, Struts and unseemly gestures. Tannhauser ! Tannhauser. She waits for me, my sweet Elizabeth ! Venus or Lilith, I have loved thee well ! Now, to my freedom ! Venus. Your Elizabeth ! • Tannhauser. Ay, to those pure and alabaster brows, The tender…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 82

Tannhäuser

…l happiness in uneasiness. Hunger and thirst, in His sweet Name — Tannhauser. Ah no! I have been shown another way than yours ! I am too old in this world's weariness, 80

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 137

Tannhäuser

…behind him skulked that crew That lurked, and itched to kill him, him unarmed, Not daring ! But he reached his hand to me ! " Good luck, old friend ! " and, smiling, he was gone. Gone to the Pope —Great soul to mountebank ! It was her wish, they whisper. Well-a-day ! He's gone, and not a friend have I again. This bank is soft with delicate white moss. No pillow better in broad Germany. Were Madeline but here ! What rustle stirs 135

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 99

Tannhäuser

…to men —mig^ht hear, misfht come ! The kind, grave face of you— that light outshone The mystical ideal. Therefore too I minded me of our old baby-love, And —marriages are made in heaven, you know ! Besides—Our Lady shewed me in a dream How you would come. TannhAuser. And now .-' So sure are you The loving word you spoke an hour ago Came from the heart— who called me by mistake } N 97

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 86

Tannhäuser

…usin. Is my face so changed with care, My body shrunken with my suffering (That was not ever of the body) so ."* Wolfram. I know you, my old friend ! Our chiefest bird ! Sweetest of singers ! Tannhauser. No, the naughty one ! 84

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 25

Tannhäuser

…lose my purpose in its silent sea, And lose my life, and find my life, and pass Up to the sea that is as molten glass. I mind me of that old Egyptian, Met where Aurora streamed her rainbow hair, Who called me from the quest. An holy man ! A crown of light scintillant in the air Shone over him : he bade me not despair. " The Blood of the Osiris " was his word : (Meaning the Christ?) "The life, the tears, the tomb ! " The Love of I sis is its name ! " (I heard This for the love of Mary.) In her womb Brews the Elixir, and the roses bloom. For the …

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 26

Tannhäuser

…hall know its Peace ! " Let be ! I ride upon the sand instead, Look to the Cross, whereon I take mine ease ! Let be ! Just so the Roman soldier said. Esaias ? He is dead— as I am dead ! What was his symbol and his riddle's key ? Go, seek the stars and count them and explore! Go, sift the sands beyond a starless sea ! So, find an answer where the dismal shore Of time beats back eternity ! No more ! Let me ride on more hastily than this. That so my body may be tired of me. And fling me to the old forgetful kiss. Sleep's, when my mind goes, riderl…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 28

Tannhäuser

Still, I must see his symbol of the Sun, The Winepress, and the Beauty ! Puerile And pagan to that old mysterious one, The awful Light and the anointed Vial, The Dawning of the Blood, even as a smile : Even as a smile on Beauty's burning cheek- Ha ! In a circle ? As this journey is ? How vain is man's imagining and weak ! Begod my lady, and my lady's kiss ? Back swing we to the pitiful abyss. Liken God's being to the life of man. So reason staggers. Angels, answer me ! Ye who have watched the far unfolding plan— How is time shorter than eternit…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 103

Tannhäuser

…gether sing (we hear) So sings the married life, a tuneful sphere. Husband is he, and she is very dear. How truly beautiful it is to see Old age in perfect unanimity. Affections smooth, and buzzing like a bee. The sun sets, in conjunction with the moon. Death comes at last, a pleasure and a boon, And they arrive in heaven very soon. \_Immense, spontaneous, uncontrollable applause sweeps like a whirlwind through the court. An Unknown Minstrel {breaking in unheralded). Tender the phrase, and faint the melody, When poets praise a maiden's purity ;…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 113

Tannhäuser

…Chains the swift soul ; for even Death is bound. In its apparent amplitude I saw, I, who have slept through death, have surely found The old accursed law. And death has changed to life. This task alone Shoots to the starry throne : 1 1 1

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 75

Tannhäuser

… My true knight ! I ask thee once again, Once more invoke the epithets of love. Suspend my powers — constrain thee on my knees For thine old kisses. See, I am all thine ! All thine the splendid body, and the shape Of mighty breasts, and supple limbs, and wide Lips, and slow almond eyes ! Adorable, Seductive, sombre, moving amorously. Droop the long eyelids, purple with young blood. The lazy lashes and the flowing mane. The flame of fire from head to feet of me ! K 73

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 42

Tannhäuser

Because no soul of man has ever crossed Again that River—the old fable's wrong ; .(Eneas came never to the ghostly side ! Was not the boat weighed with his body still ? Felt he the keen emotions of the dead ? Could he, the mortal and the warrior, Converse with Them, and understand ? Believe ! No soul has crossed in utter sympathy And yet returned ; because of this decree : No man can look upon the face of God ! Yet Moses looked upon His hinder parts. And I —yes, goddess ! in this passionate Life in our secret mountain, well I know Thy beauty, a…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 40

Tannhäuser

…s in their dalliance, Laughing in chorus with the birds ; and then (Coming at harvest time upon my tracks) See these same lovers in the golden sheaves Under the sun. The same, the fuller fruit. Say you ? But somehow, nearer to the end. Lost the old sense of mystery, and lost That curious reverence in sacrilege With Wonder—the child's faculty ! Less joy, Less laughter, yes ! that symptom I approve ; Yet is that subtle fading-out of smiles Rather the coming of a dull despair. And not at all that keen despair, that sharp Maddening pain that should…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1902 · PDF PAGE 141

Tannhäuser

The Glory of thy Countenance unveiled ! Thy face, O mother ! Splendour of the Gods ! Behold ! amid the glory of her hair And light shed over from the crown thereof, Wonderful eyes less passionate than Peace That wept ! That wept ! O mystery of Love ! Clasping my hands upon the scarlet rose That flamed upon my bosom, the keen thorns Pierced me and slew! My spirit was withdrawn Into Her godhead, and my soul made One With the Great Sorrow of the Universe, The Love of I sis ! Then I fell away Into some old mysterious abyss Rolling between the heigh…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →