The Last Ritual

death shall be lovely : whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our age long love. Come ! lift up thine heart and rejoice ! We are one ; we are none. There is help and hope in other spells. Wisdom says : be strong ! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal ; refine thy rapture ! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art : if thou love, exceed by delicacy ; and if thou do ought joyous, let there be subtlety therein ! But exceed ! exceed ! Strive ever to more ! and if thou art truly mine—and doubt it not, an if thou art ever joyous !—death is the crown of all. Ah ! Ah ! Death ! Death ! thou shalt long for death. Death is forbidden, o man, unto thee. The length of thy longing shall be the strength of its glory. He that lives long and desires death much is ever the King among the Kings. Fear not at all : fear neither men nor Fates, nor gods, nor anything. Money fear not, nor laughter of the folk folly, nor any other power in heaven or upon the earth or under the earth. But your holy place shall be untouched throughout the centuries : though with fire and sword it be burnt down and shattered, yet an invisible house there standeth, and shall stand until the fall of the Great Equinox. Now this mystery of the letters is done, and I want to go on to a holier place. Also for beauty’s sake and love’s ! Despise also all cowards ; all fools despise ! But the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty ; ye are brothers ! As brothers fight ye ! There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt. Love is the law, love under will.