Collected Works (Vol. II)

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.