The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE EQUINOX tears ; the song of Castor and Pollux, whom death could not divide, and who love alternately in hell and upon earth. . . . Then he calls softly Eurydice, his dear Eurydice, his so much loved Eurydice: Ah! miseram Eurydicen anima fugiente vocabat, Eurydicen! toto referebant flumine rip. While he sings, that pallid statue of the sculptor death takes on the colour of the first tint of life, its white lips begin to redden like the dawn . . . Orpheus sees her, he trembles, he stammers, the hymn almost dies upon his lips, but she pales anew; then the Grand Hierophant tears from his lyre sublime heartrending songs, he looks no more save upon Heaven, he weeps, he prays, and Eurydice opens her eyes . . . Unhappy one, do not look at her! sing! sing! do not scare away the butterfly of Psyche, which is about to alight on this flower! But the insensate man has seen the look of the woman whom he has raised from the dead, the Grand Hiero- phant gives place to the lover, his lyre falls from his hands, he looks upon Eurydice, he darts towards her, . . . he clasps her in his arms, he finds her frozen still, her eyes are closed again, her lips are paler and colder than ever, the sensitive soul has trembled, the frail cord is broken anew—and for ever. . . . Eurydice is dead, and the hymns of Orpheus can no longer recall her to life! In our Dogme et rituel de la haute magie, we had the temerity to say that the resurrection of the dead is not an impossible phenomenon even on the physical plane; and in saying that, we have not denied or in any way contradicted the fatal law of death. A death which can discontinue is only lethargy and slumber; but it is by lethargy and slumber that 122