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Page 1 of 31907 · PDF PAGE 193
…he pain was sudden — and the joy was long . Persists that triumph , keenly , utterly ! Write , then , in thy mysterious book of song : “ Death chisels marble where life moulded clay. ” 1 And again : Dim winds shall whisper echoes of Our slow ecstatic breath , Telling all worlds how sweet is love , How beautiful is Death.2 Thus in this cup which Aleister Crowley offers us , we find that to sip the honey of Virtue is to quaff the wormwood of Vice ; they are one , and there must be no comparison . Outside our minds exists neither one nor the other…
1907 · PDF PAGE 192
…with such dismal darkness . Is there a life eternal ? The grim horror of such a possibility grips us by the throat . Is there an eternal Death ? Ah ! Saviour, deliver us from the misery of our lot ; lead us to the realms of eternal Rest , where rich and poor , good and bad , are made one , lost in the depths of the Lethean sea. And what can all this lead us to , this progress through misery ? To the great archetype the Arahat ship of Buddha . It was by gazing on the sunken eyes of a corpse , so the legend runs , that Gautama forsook pleasure fo…
1907 · PDF PAGE 38
…; the Voice begotten said : “ Divided be thy ways and limited ! ” Answered the reflux and the indrawn breath : “ Let there be Life , and Death !” ? Worthy of the author of “ The Marriage of Heaven and Hell !” “ Let there be Life and Death ,” and the link between these two is Love . Here we will give but one or two curious examples , dealing with the great songs of love in the next chapter . As a singer of love - songs Aleister Crowley excels . The following is from “ The Star and the Garter " : Your lips are gathered up to mine ; Your bosom hea…
1907 · PDF PAGE 149
…e in “ The Jilt,” in which her new -found lover feasts off the agony of her last victim , which still moistens her blood -red lips : His death lends savour to our passionate life ; His is the heart I taste upon your tongue ; His death -spasms our love -spasms , my wife ; His death -songs are the love -songs that you sung ! Ah ! Sweet , each kiss I drink from you is warm With the dear life -blood of a man-a man ! The scent of murder lures me , like a charm Tied by some subtlety Canidian . Ay ! as you suck my life out into bliss, Its holier joy i…
1907 · PDF PAGE 326
…l and body cannot express it ... if they could the perfect union of all the powers would be at an end ." So Crowley finely describes : . Death from the universal force Means to the forceless universe Birth . I accept the furious course , Invoke the all - embracing curse . Blessing and peace beyond may lie When I annihilate the “ 1. " Therefore , O holy mother , gnash Thy teeth upon my willing flesh ! Thy chain of skulls wild music clash ! Thy bosom bruise my own afresh , Sri Maharani ! draw my breath Into the hollow lungs of death ! There is no…
1907 · PDF PAGE 50
…into dreams of my lover , To wake with his mouth like a dove Kissing me over and over ! Better sleep so Than be conscious , and know How death hath a charm to discover . 1 But not until we read “ The Eyes of Pharaoh " do we read one of the most astounding paintings in words , I make bold to say , that has ever been written in any language : And death's insufferable perfume Beat the black air with golden fans As Turkis rip a Nubian's womb With damascenéd yataghans . ? This one astonishing verse upsets the equilibrium of the whole poem , as it wo…
1907 · PDF PAGE 276
…bliss : This world is shadow - shapen of The bitterness of pain . Vain are the little lamps of love ! The light of life is vain ! Life , death , joy , sorrow , age and youth Are phantoms of a further truth . Beyond the splendour of the world , False glittering of the gold , A Serpent is in slumber curled In wisdom's sacred cold . Life is the flaming of that flame . Death is the naming of that name . That star upon the serpent's head Is called the soul of man : That light in shadows subtly shed The glamour of life's plan . The sea whereon that l…
1907 · PDF PAGE 300
…man's appointed term ? To feed God's friend , the coffin - worm ! Crowley further states in a short foreword to these Images of Life and Death ” : “ To me life and death have most often appeared in majesty and beauty , in solemnity and horror ; in emotions , to be brief , so great that man had no place therein . But there are moods , in which the heights are attained indirectly , and through man's struggle with the elemental powers ." 2 Only by energy and strife May man attain the eternal rest , Dissolve the desperate lust of life By infinite a…
1907 · PDF PAGE 281
274 THE STAR IN THE WEST For the old gods indeed go down to death , But the new gods arise from rottenness . 1 2 The pantheistic idea , which is so near akin to the agnostic , we find set in the fine prayer of Jephthah , and still more so in the final words of Tannhäuser : I say , then “ I ”; and yet it is not “ I ” Distinct , but “ I " incorporate in All.3 It further finds development in the last four lines of “ Ode to Poesy ”: No man, No petty god , but One who governs all , Slips the sun's leash , perceives the sparrow's fall , Too high for …
1907 · PDF PAGE 159
…t basis for blackmail , enabling man to buy off the terrors of hell through the medium of the priest who held the keys of heaven : still death reigns , and God and priests are fed , Man's blood for wine , man's flesh for meat and bread .? And these priests are not dead yet . As the human race throve so did their gods , the old savage of man's early thoughts grew , and growing became more evil , as their gods so were men , and as men so were their gods , the one continually acting and reacting on the other : Of obscene deities and apish men , Ri…
1907 · PDF PAGE 188
…past ; and it is only when we have lost the body of corruption , that its soul rises sublime purifying all ; our personality purified by death the great Time Soul lies cradled in our own as the four lips of two lovers are in their bridal kiss . Alone by trampling life's grapes do we gain the vintage of the Soul , the Medean draught of rejuvenescence . The whole of this wonderful philosophy the poet sums up in the following two verses of extraordinary and extravagant power : XXVIII . Aubrey attained in sleep when he dreamt this Wonderful dream o…
1907 · PDF PAGE 113
…ime of superstition , let loose their hell - hound voices : —fiend ! atheist ! devil ! are hurled at his head ; kill him ! Crucify him ! death ! death ! But Tannhäuser stands a colossus amid the bursting bubbles of this Stygian mire of corruption , and turn ing to the Landgrave he says : Will they answer you ? My arm is weary as your souls are not Of beastliness : I have drawn my father's sword , Hard as your virtue is the easy sort , Heavy to handle as your loves are light , Smooth as your lies , and sharper than your hates ! I know you ! Cowa…
1907 · PDF PAGE 114
…nce shed upon the air ! Out flames the miracle of life and love ! Out, out the lights ! Flame , flame , the rushing storm ! Darkness and death , and glory in my soul ! Swept , swept away are pope and cardinal, Palace and city ! There I lay beneath The golden roof of the eternal stars , Borne upon some irremeable sea That glowed with most internal brilliance ; 2 And verily My life was borne on the dark stream of death Down whirling aeons , linked abysses , columns Built of essential time . And lo ! the light Shed from Her shoulders whom I dimly …
1907 · PDF PAGE 110
…orn again in another world , to slough the skin of the terrene and be robed in all the supernal glory of the celestial . Love changes as Death , it effaces the past , it brightens the future , beautifies as the hand of some mystic artist , all misery , all sorrow , all woe , overwhelming , illimitable . Now we see the horrid form of his lower self , which he once strove to cast off , bending over him ; the Venus of his body rises lecherous over the pure Isis of his soul , the carnal lusting over the Spiritual , as Iago slavered over Desdemona .…
1907 · PDF PAGE 184
THE CUP 177 His , dispersed me , gave me death ." This is pure Buddhism . In death is found release , freedom from desire , which fools alone reject . In the spiritual contemplation of life the slags of existence fall to the bottom of the burning furnace of the human soul ; the power of em pire and glory is shattered , “ The golden image with the feet of clay ,” and the marred vessels of the ( All) mighty potter are cast outside , from the wheel of Fate —why contemplate what is so unprofitable and use less ? Yet in this mysticism which is more …
1907 · PDF PAGE 169
…f Mankind !” Before the darkness , earlier than being , When yet thought was not , shapeless and unseeing , Made misbegotten of deity on death , There brooded on the waters the strange breath Of an incarnate hatred . Darkness fell And chaos , from prodigious gulphs of hell . Life , that rejoiced to travail with a man , Looked where the cohorts of destruction ran , Saw darkness visible , and was afraid , Seeing . There grew like Death a monster shade , Blind as the coffin , as the covering sod Damp , as the corpse obscene , the Christian God . S…
1907 · PDF PAGE 271
… agony of the world From this mine head , that bowed awhile Before the terror suddenly shown. The nameless fear for self , far hurled By death to dissolution vile, Fades as the royal truth is known : Though change and sorrow range and roll , There is no self - there is no soul !? TIME AND SPACE One question still remains before we dismiss the question of Time and Space , and that is their homo geneity and accidental reality in the Ego . Being forms of extension , Space permits Size , and Time , Number , i.e., in Consciousness . This is the mean…
1907 · PDF PAGE 173
166 THE STAR IN THE WEST Here's why Creation jumps at prayer . You Christians quote me in a breath This , that , the other atheist's death ; How they sought God ! Of course ! Impair By just a touch of fever , chill, My health - where flies my vivid will ? My carcass with quinine is crammed ; I wish South India were damned ; I wish I had my mother's nursing , Find precious little use in cursing , And slide to leaning on another , God , or the doctor , or my mother . But , dare you quote my fevered word For better than my health averred ? The bra…
1907 · PDF PAGE 145
…f white hands raised up , These perfumed infamies unsung ; For God's breath , her sharp tainted breath ; For marriage - bed , the bed of death . The host is lifted up . Behold The vintage spilt , the broken bread ! I feast upon the cruel cold Pale body that was ripe and red . Only , her head , her palms , her feet , I kissed all night , and did not eat .' 1 Jezebel , vol . i, pp . 131-132 .
1907 · PDF PAGE 144
…scorn , her cruel blows , Fill my whole life , consume my breath ; Her red - fanged hatred in me glows , I lust for her , and hell , and death . I see that ghastly look , and yearn Toward the brands of her that burn .? Sleep shuns him , and his parched throat thirsts for the blood of her veins , “ Aching with all the pangs of night ”; his vision grows more monstrous , a horrible 1 Jezebel : and other Tragic Poems , vol . i, p . 133 . 2 lbid . vol . I, pp . 130-131 .