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Page 1 of 31904 · PDF PAGE 5
THE SWORD OF SONG II I suppose!” continued the Knight, in a superior, but rather offended voice. “If you would, please, sir!” “Well, that,” pronounced the Knight, with the air of having thoroughly studied the question and reached a conclusion absolutely final and irreversible, “ that, Goodness only knows. But I will sing it to you.” PRELIMINARY INVOCATION NOTHUNG.* THE crowns of Gods and mortals wither ; Moons fade where constellations shone ; Numberless aeons brought us hither ; Numberless aeons beckon us on. The world is old, and I am strong—…
1904 · PDF PAGE 8
THE SWORD OF SONG i h l a r h f s o r k h y h l w
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THE SWORD OF SONG CALLED BY CHRISTIANS THE BOOK OF THE BEAST ALEISTER CROWLEY SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF RELIGIOUS TRUTH BENARES 1904
1904 · PDF PAGE 91
… and from that the eyelid had been torn. A prodigious beard had she, and all of white : and they wist he would have smitten her with his sword. But he would not, and she propounded unto him the tenth riddle : Countenance beheld not countenance. So thereto he answered: Our Father, blessed be thou !— Countenance ? Then they brought him the Sword and bade him smite withal : but he said : If countenance behold not countenance, then let the ten be five. And they wist that he but mocked them ; for he did bend the sword fivefold and fashioned therefro…
1904 · PDF PAGE 90
…s head, and rejoiced in that Kingdom for the space of two hundred and thirty and one days2 and nights, and turned him toward the Flaming Sword. 3 Now the Sword governeth ten mighty King- doms, and evil, and above them is the ninefold lotus, and a virgin came forth unto him in the hour of his rejoicing and propounded her riddle. The first riddle :4 The maiden is blind. Our Father : She shall be what she doth not. And a second virgin came forth to him and said : The second riddle : Detegitur Yod. Quoth our Father : The moon is full. So also a thi…
1904 · PDF PAGE 87
…iced to that goat 1 a crown every day. The second a p hallus. The third a silver vase of blood. The fourth a roy al sceptre. The fifth a sword. The sixth a heart. The seventh a garland of flowers. The eighth a grass-snake. The ninth a sickle. And the tenth week did he daily offer up his own body . Said the goat: “Though I be not an ox, yet am I a sword.” “ Masked, O God !” cried the Adept. “ Verily, an thou hadst not sacrificed—” There was silence. And under the Goat’s throne was a rainbow 2 of seven colours: our Father fitted himself as an arr…
1904 · PDF PAGE 49
THE SWORD OF SONG 42 Now who dares Call me no Christian ? And, who cares ? Read ; you will find the Master of Balliol, Discarding Berkeley, Locke, and Paley’ll Resume such thoughts and label clear “My Christianity lies here !” With such religion who finds fault ? Star, it seems foolish to exalt Religion to such heights as these, Refine the mystic agonies To nothing, lest the mystic jeer “So logic bends its line severe Back to my involuted curve !” These are my thoughts. I shall not swerve. Take them, and see what dooms deserve Their rugged gran…
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…he name is called. The nam e really is ‘Ascension Day and Pentecost; with some Prose Essay s and an Epilogue,’ just as the title is ‘The Sword of Song’ y ou know, just in the sam e way, just in the sam e way, just in the same way . . .” Alice put her fingers in her ears and gave a little scream . “ Oh, dear me! That’s * This passage is a parody on one in “Alice through the Looking-Glass.” harder than ever!” s he s aid to hers elf, and then, looking determ inedly intelligent: “So thats what the song is called. I see. But what is the song?” “You…
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THE SWORD OF SONG 56 all the maddest, fiercest vices that the mind of fiends ever brought up from the pit. But always to the very end his power is un- exhausted, immense, terrible. H is delerium does not amuse ; it appals ! A man who could conceive as he did must himself have had some glorious chord in his heart vibrating to the eternal principle of Boundless Love. That this love was wrecked is for me, in some sort a relative of his, a real and bitter sorrow. He might have been so great ! He missed Heaven ! Think kindly of him ! 169. Correctly …
1904 · PDF PAGE 93
…ing simples for her daughter t hat had died t o bury her withal. N ow no simples grew in the desert. Therefore our F ather drew with his sword lines of power in the sand, so that a black and terrible demon appeared squeezing up in thin flat plates of flesh along the swor d-lines. So our Father cried : “Simples, O Axcaxrabortharax, for m y mother !” Then the demon was wroth and shrieked : “Thy mother to black hell ! She is mine !” So the old hag confessed straight that she had given her body for love to that fiend of the pit. But our Father paid…
1904 · PDF PAGE 35
THE SWORD OF SONG 28 You know for me the soul is nought36 Save a mere phantom in the thought, That thought itself impermanent, Save as a casual element With such another may combine To form now water and now wine ; The element itself may be Changeless to all eternity, But compounds ever fluctuate With time or space or various state. (Ask chemists else !) So I must claim Spirit and matter are the same37 Or else the prey of putrefaction. This matters to the present action Little or nothing. Here’s your theories ! Think if you like : I find it wea…
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THE SWORD OF SONG 38 Destroying passion, feeling, thought, The very practice you have sought Unconscious, when you work the best, I carry on one step firm-pressed Further than you the path, and you For all my trouble, comment : “True ! “Auto-hypnosis. Very quaint !”53 No one supposes me a Saint—54 Some Saints to wrath would be inclined With such a provocation pecked ! But I remember and reflect That anger makes a person blind, And my own “Chittam” I’d neglect. Besides, it’s you, and you, I find, Are but a mode of my own mind. But then you argue…
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THE SWORD OF SONG 8 He tells me when I cite the “Fall” “But those are legends after all.” He has a hundred hills45 to lie in, But finds no final ditch46 to die in. “Samuel was man ; the Holy Spook Did not dictate the Pentateuch.” With cunning feint he lures me on To loose my pompoms on Saint John ; And, that hill being shelled, doth swear His forces never had been there. I got disgusted, called a parley, (Here comes a white-flag treachery !) Asked : “Is there anything you value, Will hold to ?” He laughed, “Chase me, Charlie !” But seeing in hi…
1904 · PDF PAGE 41
THE SWORD OF SONG 34 Known as I know my consciousness, That all divisons hosts confess A master, for I know and see The absolute identity Of the beholder and the vision. How easy to excite derision In the man’s mind ! Why, fool, I think I am as clever as yourself, At least as skilled to wake the elf Of jest and mockery in a wink. I can dismiss with sneers as cheap As your this fabric of mine own, One banner of my mind o’erthrown Just at my will. How true and deep Is Carroll47 when his Alice cries : “It’s nothing but a pack of cards !” There’s t…
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THE SWORD OF SONG 12 Exactly! Grown my mental stature, I ponder much: but never yet Can I get over or forget That bitter text’s accurded nature, The subtle devilish omission,57 The cruel antithesis implied, The irony, the curse-fruition, The calm assumption of Hell’s fevers As fit, as just, for unbelievers— These are the things that stick beside And hamper my quite serious wish To harbour kind thoughts of the “Fish.”58 Here goes my arrow to the gold ! I’ll make no magpies ! Though I hold Your Christianity a lie, Abortion and iniquity, The most …
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THE SWORD OF SONG 36 So to the laws all bards obey I bend, and seek in my own way By false things to expound the real. But never think I shall appeal To Gods. What folly can compare With such stupidity as prayer ? Some years ago I thought to try Prayer51—tests its efficacity. I fished by a Norwegian lake. “O God,” I prayed, “for Jesus’ sake Grant thy poor servant all his wish ! For every prayer produce a fish !” Nine times the prayer went up the spout, And eight times—what a thumping trout ! (This is the only true fish-story I ever heard—give G…
1904 · PDF PAGE 88
…d she laughed and let him pass. Now is our Father come to the Unstable Lands, ’Od wot, for the Wheel whereon he poised was ever turning. Sworded was the Sphinx, but he out-dared her in riddling : deeper pierced his sword: he cut her into twain: her place was his. But that would he not, my Brethren; to the centre he clomb ever: and having won thither, he vanished. As a hermit ever he travelled and the lam p and wand were his. In his path a lion ro ared, but to it ran a maiden, strong as a young elephant, and held its cruel jaws. But force he ran…
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…e easier understand Where Schelling (to the Buddha leading) Calls real not-self. In any case There is not, there can never be A soul, or sword or armour needing, Incapable in time or space Or to inflict or suffer. We I think are gradually weeding The soil of dualism. Pheugh ! Drop to the common Christian’s view ! This is my point ; the world lies bleeding :— (Result of sin ?)—I do not care ; I will admit you anywhere ! I take your premises themselves And, like the droll deceitful elves They are, they yet outwit your plan. I will prove Christ a …
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THE SWORD OF SONG 30 That masks the primal cause of being. With all respect to Buddha, fleeing The dreadful problem with the word “Who answers, as who asks, hath erred,” I must decidedly insist On asking why these things exist. My mind refuses to admit All-Power can be all-Wickedness. —Nay ! but it may ! What shadows flit Across the awful veil of mist ? What thoughts invade, insult, impress ? There comes a lightning of my wit And sees—nor good nor ill address Itself to task, creation’s ill, But a mere law without a will,40 Nothing resolved in s…
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THE SWORD OF SONG 6 We’ll have the ham to logic’s sandwich Of indignation: last bread bland, which After our scorn of God’s lust, terror, hate, Prometheus-fired, we’ll butter, perorate With oiled indifference, laughter’s silver: “Omne hoc verbum valet nil, vir” ! Let me help Babu Chander Grish up ! As by a posset of Hunyadi38 Clear mind! Was Soudan of the Mahdi Not cleared by Kitchener ? Ah, Tchhup ! Such nonsense for sound truth you dish up, Were I magician, no mere cadi, Not Samuel’s ghost you’d make me wish up, Nor Saul’s (the mighty son of …