96
THE ARGONAUTS
JASON,
Let us begin: the hour draws on apace.
Drive off the demons from the sacrifice !
-ORPHEUS.
Let all the demons enter and dwell therein !
My friends, ye are as ignorant as priests !
Let there be silence while the sleeper?
wakes ! |
O coiled and constricted and chosen !
O tortured and twisted and twined !
Deep spring of my soul deep frozen,
The sleep of the truth of the mind !
As a bright snake curled
Round the vine of the World !
O sleeper through dawn and through day-
light, |
O sleeper through dusk and through
night !
O shifted from white light to gray light,
From gray to the one black light !
O silence and sound
In the far profound !
O serpent of scales as an armour
To bind on the breast of a lord !
Not deaf to the Voice of the Charmer,
Not blind to the sweep of the sword !
I strike to the deep
That thou stir in thy sleep!
Rise up from mine innermost being !
Lift up the gemmed head to the heart !
Lift up till the eyes that were seeing
Be blind, and their life depart !
Till the Eye that was blind ?
Be a lamp to my mind!
1 The Hindus hold that the Kundalini, the
spring of spiritual power, lies coiled and sleep-
ing upon a lotus-flower at the base of the spine.
She may be aroused by various methods.
2 The ‘‘third eye,’ that rudimentary eye
called the pineal gland.
Coil fast all thy coils on me, dying,
Absorbed in the sense of the Snake!
Stir, leave the flower-throne, and up-
flying |
Hiss once, and hiss thrice, and awake !
Then crown me and cling !
Flash forward—and spring !
Flash forth on the fire of the altar,
The stones, and the sacrifice shed ;
Till the Three Worlds! flicker and falter,
And life and her love be dead !
In mysterious joy
Awake—and destroy !
JASON.
It is enough !
HERACLES,
Too great for a god’s strength !
THESEUS.
Speak !
CASTOR.
Change! Not to be borne!
POLLUX.
But this is death !
ORPHEUS.
Let the light fade. The oracle is past.
JASON.
The Voice is past. We are alive again.
ORPHEUS.
What spake That Silence?
HERACLES.
‘* This is not a quest
Where strength availeth aught.” I shall not
go.
1 Of gods, men, and demons.