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.

18 matching pages

Page 1 of 1
1901 · PDF PAGE 51

The Mother’s Tragedy

…an god And less than man. Thine eyelids tremble not. PACHAD. I shall avenge it as a god. The land Shall be made free. AMENHATEP. And the old gods have sway, Re-born from incorruption. PACHAD. The old gods! - I must muse deeply. Keep your ancient ways A little. I must play the part through so. CHORUS. In the ways of the North and the South, Whence the dark and the dayspring are drawn, We pass with the song of the mouth Of the notable Lord of the Dawn. Unto Ra, the desire of the East, let the clamour of singing proclaim The fire of his name!

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 27

The Mother’s Tragedy

THE MOTHER’S TRAGEDY 13 ULRIC. My Cora! old! But urgently a word Came of some purpose. - I am half afraid To hear it—and yourself! Reluctance sits Doggéd against the will to speak. Dear friend, Let us sit close and whisper. GORA. Listen, then! You are grown man: young men seek happiness. Is there one joy your soul hath never felt ? One pure sweet passion ? ULRIC. Sweet! you speak of love! You must have guessed I meant to question you, And smoothed the passage to my modesty. CORA, with bitter sorrow at her heart. You make me very glad. Yes, yes,…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 123

The Mother’s Tragedy

…ness as its mother, Remembering Who once caught me by the well ; And the strange loves of that misshapen Other, The feast of blood, the cold enchanted dell, Where fire was filtered up through earth to smother, Sick scents of hell. And that wild night when vine-leaves wooed and clustered Round my wild limbs, and like a woman I went Over the mountains — how the Northwind blustered !— And slew with them the beast, and was content. The madness. Oh! the dreadful light that lustred The main event. Ay! the wild whirlings in the woodland reaches; The g…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 58

The Mother’s Tragedy

… was the leprosy of her own soul, And drove me forth to compass my disgrace With infamies ineffable. PACHAD. I know; I shall avenge. The old gods come again. THE LEPER. Nay! I have lived through all these barren years, Discrowned, diseased, abominable, cast out, And meditating on the event of life, And that initiated Hope that we, Royal, inherit, of the final life, Nor newer incarnation, and possessed Of strange powers, who have moved about this court Loathed, and unrecognised, and shunned, have thought That the old bondage was as terrible As t…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 45

The Mother’s Tragedy

… rheumy corners; yea, some fire Malignant, terrible—nay, pitiable, Thou poor fool stricken with senility, How spurred to passion? Yet behold thy god, Horus, lest anger take benignancy From his left hand and smite thee with his strength. Thou hearest? Nay, thou pitiful old man, For I have loved thee. Yet my godhead must Get worship. Anger not the god, but stoop, My faithful priest, and worship at my feet. AMENHATEP. I am most miserable. But truth must leap In this tremendous moment from my lips, Its long-shut barrier. For I pity thee With my old…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 23

The Mother’s Tragedy

THE MOTHER’S TRAGEDY 9 Of my old life; I sought another world. I ‘‘ got religion ””"—how I hate the phrase !— So jest the matron newspapers. The end. Since then I lived, as I am living still, Wrapped in the all-absorbing love of him My child, my child! And now my selfishness Is shamed, and I have made the sacrifice To give this pure heart to that maidenly, And let mine old age grow upon my hair, Finding my happiness in seeing him The all-devoted, and in God’s good pleasure Have little children playing at my knees, That I may listen, in their in…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 61

The Mother’s Tragedy

THE FATAL FORCE Within the gateway of the golden East To rule my fate; but I have conquered Fate Thus far, that I am perfect in myself, The absolute unity and triple power Engrafted. For the foolish people see An old grey woman, wicked, not divine, Who shall this hour assume the royal self And the old godhead, and the lithe strong limbs And supple loins and splendid bosom bare Full of bright milk, the breast of all the world. This lesser mastery I have made mine own By strange devices, by unheard-of ways Of wisdom, by strong sins, and magical R…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 49

The Mother’s Tragedy

…rils! For three times I cast Its faint dust in the tripod, and three times The smoke of adoration has gone up To greet our gods; for the old gods are dead.” Then there came forth a leper in the hall, In the most holy temple. So amazed All shrank. And he made prophecy and said: “The child that shall be born of thee is called Fear. He shall save a people from their sin; For the old gods indeed go down to death, But the new gods arise from rottenness.” Then said the goddess: “I indeed am pure In my impurity ; immaculate In misconception; maiden in…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 107

The Mother’s Tragedy

…roken bosom still abide His virginal white bride. So, in the dawn of skies unseen above, Your passion’s fiercest flakes shall catch new gold, The sun of an immeasurable love More beautiful shall touch the chaos cold Of earth that is grown old. Then, shameful sisterhood of earth’s disdain, Your lips shall speak your hearts, and understand; Your lovers shall assuage the amorous pain With spiritual lips more keen and bland, And ye shall take God’s hand.

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 44

The Mother’s Tragedy

…n (by the son of herself and the LEPER). THE LEPER, her divorced husband. THE KING OF SYRIA. AMENHATEP, High Priest. Chorus of Priests. Soldiers of Egypt. Syrian Troops. PACHAD. HY is thy back made stiff, unrighteous priest, ! Thy knee reluctant? Thine old eyes, grown blind, Stare into silence, and behold no god Longer. Thy forehead knows no reverence Nor sign of worship. Or sits mutiny Blasphemous on thy brows? For in thine eyes

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 46

The Mother’s Tragedy

…amazing god Incarnate in him chose a nobler form, And in my mother’s body sought his home, Whose double incarnation is divine Beyond th’ old stories. Yes, I am a god.

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 115

The Mother’s Tragedy

…cy, Happiness, and Love; Reverses life and fact: and so believes. So man grew up and so religion grew. Now when the zons grow to millionfold, Hath earth one mystery, one glory new ? Are not these thoughts immeasurably old ? Only—day breaks as I am musing sadly; The phantoms scatter—is not earth divine ? I leap to saddle; gallop forward madly Into the morning strong and keen as wine. The gold air whistles and the glad horse thunders, Spurning the quiet woodland: now the light Stirs bird and beast—a thousand glowing wonders Flash into glory, lamb…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 26

The Mother’s Tragedy

…s dancing before Artemis; In all the pleasures that delight the mind, Invigorate the soul, lend favour to The body of the youth—for I am old

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 21

The Mother’s Tragedy

THE MOTHER'S TRAGEDY 7 I have a glass whose bitter destiny No wizard may conjure. Arise ye there, Old hours of horror, clear by one and one, In the confused and tossing ocean, Where memory picks spar and spar from out The dreadful whirlpool hardly yet appeased, To join together in imagination The ship—the wreck! And yet I stand at last Secure in my unselfish love to them, Repaid in mine own currency. I trust God hath made smooth the road beneath the hearse Of my forgetful age. All must be well. SPIRIT OF TRAGEDY. Mortals never learn from storie…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 17

The Mother’s Tragedy

…another note I cannot understand. CORA. I am so moved, I cannot find it in my heart to say The words I purposed. Let my folly pass As an old worldly woman’s talk. MADELINE. O no! You bear the sainted fragrance of your love Higher than even my dreams. In earthly life 3

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 40

The Mother’s Tragedy

…this event! Yet even I, its very self, lament The execrable tyranny, The rayless misery Of this wild whirlpool sea of circumstance. Mine old eyes look askance: It is my punishment to dwell In mine own self-created hell. [CORA vushes in. MADELINE. What curse of God hath smitten you? I see Exceeding horror in abiding shape, Blasting the countenance of peace and love With some distortion. O your mouth’s awry! CORA, 2% a hoarse, horrible voice, You cannot tell! I cannot tell myself. Some vital mist of blood is shrouding sight From all but my corrup…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 24

The Mother’s Tragedy

|e) THE MOTHER’S TRAGEDY Naked as dawn, the purpose of the hour Grows on my vision, and my cynic laughter Chills in my veins: the old avenging power Shows me the thing that is to be hereafter. I gloated on the coming of the curse— I did create a hearse, Black plumes and solemn mourners; and saw The triumph of some natural law Fit for a poet’s verse. I saw some common fate to lure, to tempt; (No mortal of the ages is exempt) Some notable disaster to the house Wherein such piety and love abide; I saw some hateful spouse Carry away the bride. That…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1901 · PDF PAGE 113

The Mother’s Tragedy

…earthquakes gnash their teeth be- neath her. The night is monstrous: in the flickering fire Strange faces gibber as the brands burn low; Old shapes of hate, young phantoms of desire More hateful yet, shatter and change and grow. There is a sense of terror in the air, And dreadful stories catch my breath and bind me, Soft noises as of breathing: unaware What devils or what ghosts may lurk behind me! Even my horse is troubled: vain it is Invoking memory for sweet sound of youth ; The song, the day, the cup, the shot, the kiss! This night begets i…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →