Oracles
…ea, Spouse of eternity ! Mother, we cry to Thee : Hear us, Mout, Mother ! IV Sound, sistron, sound afar ! Shine, shine, O dawning Star ! Flame, flame, O meteor Car ! Isis, Our Lady ! 69
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…ea, Spouse of eternity ! Mother, we cry to Thee : Hear us, Mout, Mother ! IV Sound, sistron, sound afar ! Shine, shine, O dawning Star ! Flame, flame, O meteor Car ! Isis, Our Lady ! 69
…tar of the Magi. VII Lift, lift the Cross of Light, Rose, golden, green, and white, Rise, rise athwart the night ! Mighty Aeshuri ! VIII Flame, flame, thou Blazoned Sun ! Seal-Star of Solomon ! Seven Mysteries in One ! Godhead and Mankind ! IX Beauty and life and love ! Let fly thy darling dove ! Bend to us from above, Lady Ahathor !
… life when the sultry air, Hot with the lust of night and shame, Brooded on dust, when thy shoulders bare Shone on the sea with a sudden flame Into all Time to abundant fame ? Daughter of Lust by the foam of the sea ! Mother of flame ! Sister of shame ! Tiger that Sin nor her son cannot tame ! Worship to thee ! Glory to thee ! Venus Callipyge, mother of me. Fruitless foam of a sterile sea, Wanton waves of a vain desire, Maddening billows flecked with fire, Storms that lash on the brine, and flee, Dead delights, insatiate ire Broke like a flower…
ODE TO VENUS CALLIPYGE 39 Daughter of lust by the foam of the sea ! Mother of flame ! Sister of shame ! Tiger that Sin nor her son cannot tame ! Worship to thee ! Glory to thee ! Venus Callipyge, mother of me.
…ng lips at last Madly kissed me ? How I bless thee, Now, for that superb repast ! All-consuming, all-devouring, All-absorbing, burnt the flame ; Burnt unchecked till, hotly showering, Passion disregarded Shame ! Was it sin—that moonlight madness ? Was our passion so accurst ? Sweetness damned to mother Sadness ? Satisfaction to bring Thirst ? II
“ ’TIS PITY—” —FORD. BLOW on the flame ! The charcoal’s vaporous fume Shall hide our shame ! Come, love, within the gloom ! For one last night, sweet sister, be the same ; Come, nestle with me in sweet Death’s hot womb ! Two sunny eyes ! And this is all my ruin ! Two gleaming thighs ! And all to my undoing ! Far-swelling curves in ivory rapture rise Warm and too white—bethink you of the wooing ! A kiss of fire ; A touch of passionate yearning Steals higher and higher— And kisses are returning ! The strong white grasp draws me still nigher and n…
THE DANCE OF SHIVA Written at the House of Sri Parananda Swami, Ceylon. WITH feet set terribly dancing, With eyelids filled of flame, Wild lightnings from Him glancing, Lord Shiva went and came. The dancing of His feet was heard And was the final word. He danced the measure golden On dead men . . . His Saints and Rishis olden, The yogins that . . . He trampled them to dust and they Were sparks and no more clay. The dust thrown up around Him In cycles whirled and twined, Dim sparks that fled and found Him Like mist beyond the mind. The universe …
…ence with pain, of love with vice, Like a tall ship swan-lovely, swallow-swift, That makes upon the breakers. So the rift Sprang and the flame roared. Farewell, Paradise ! How shall a man that is a man reward Her priceless sacrifice, rebuke the Lord ? Why, there’s Convention’s corral ; ring her round ! Here’s shame’s barbed wire ; push out the unclean thing ! Here’s freedom’s falconry ; quick, clip her wing ! There, labour’s danger—thrust her underground ! 158
I6 THE LITTLE HALF-SOVEREIGN “ Is not a candle burning Somewhere amid the flame Scorching the smoke of London With its eternal shame ? “ Is there no gate so stubborn That shall not find a key, That with our Sovereign’s image Graven in majesty ? ” Why not the Devil’s portrait Graven in Walham Green ? Why with the bare suggestion Dare we insult our Queen ? Give me the golden trumpet Blown at the judgment-day, Closing the gate of mercy Over the Cast Away. Melt me its gold to money, Coin me that small, small ring Stamped with the Hoof of Satan, Bea…
…-lyrics laden ! Joy’s fulness is fainting for passion and sorrow. To-night melts divine to the dawn of to-morrow, O Lesbian maiden ! The flame-tongue of passion Is lambent and strong ; In mystical fashion Sucks sweetness from shade, As the voice of thy song In the halls of the dead, Breaking fitful and wild, Weird waking the slumber of Venus, the sleep of her child, O Lesbian maiden ! Thy tongue reaches red On that pillar of might ! Flaming gold from thy head Is a garland of light On the forehead of night, 2I
…learn As she sings slowly all their shame, and makes me tingle with delight At new debaucheries, whose might rekindles blood and bone to flame. The circle gathers. Negresses howl in the naked dance, and wheel On poinard-blades of poisoned steel, and weep out blood in agonies ; Strange beast and reptile writhe ; the song grows high and melancholy now ; The perfume savours every brow with lust unutterable of wrong. Clothed with my flower-bride I sit, a harlot in a harlot’s dress, And laugh with careless wickedness that strews the broad road of th…
…on thee has none Laid sufficient woes of toil. Seed of Abel, this thy shame— To the boar-spear yields the sword. Seed of Cain, to heaven flame, And to earth cast Heaven’s Lord ! THE LITANY OF SATAN O thou, of Angels fairest and most wise, God by Fate’s treachery shorn of liturgies ! O Satan, have pity of my long misery ! O Prince of Exile, Sufferer of wrong, Whose vengeance, conquered, rises triply strong ! O Satan, have pity of my long misery !
… them in the drowsing eye, to fold The picture in : with wingèd imagery That Hermes gathers with that floral gold Whose triple flower or flame or pinioned light Lends life to death, and love and colour unto light. How flames that scarlet stronger than Apollo, Too swift and warm to know itself a bird ! How the light winds and waves of moonlight follow, Shot from the West, cadence of Daylight’s word ! 99
…l, to draw some saint’s charred lust, to tempt, to win Another sacrifice to sin, another poet’s heart to gnaw With dubious remorse. Oh ! flame of torturing flower- love ! sacrament Of Satan, triple element of mystery and love and shame, Green, gold, and crimson, in my heart you strive with Jesus for its realm, While Sorrow’s tears would overwhelm the warriors of either part.
…me. Thy golden lips are carven Cleopatra wise. Large, full, and moist, within them lies the silver rampart, whence there slips That rosy flame of love, the spring of blood at my light bidding spilt ; And thy desires, if aught thou wilt, are softer at my suffering. Fill up with Death Life’s loving-cup ! Give me the knowledge, me the power For some new sin one little hour, provoking Hell to belch us up.
INVOCATION * O SELF Divine ! O Living Lord of Me ! Self-shining flame, begotten of Beyond ! Godhead immaculate ! Swift tongue of fire, Kindled from that immeasurable light The boundless, the immutable. Come forth, My God, my lover, spirit of my heart, Heart of my soul, white virgin of the Dawn, My Queen of all perfection, come thou forth From thine abode beyond the Silences To me the prisoner, me the mortal man, Shrined in this clay : come forth, I say, to me, Initiate my quickened soul ; draw near, And let the glory of thy Godhead shine Throug…
…ne chrysanthemum. The wingèd Lion, that wrought dire amaze In the Dark Place, where Light was, did his ways Take fiery to enkindle a new flame : The Eagle of the High Lands yet that came By the red sunset to an eastern sky Shall plume himself and gather him and fly Even as a Man that rideth on a Beast Trained, to the Golden Dawn-sky of the East. Therefore his word shall seek the Ivory Isle By double winds and by the double Style, Twin doorways of the Sunset and the Dawn. And thou who tak’st it, shall be subtly drawn Into strange vigils, and sha…
…mpted him. Some, by the dying torch-light call thy name, In the dumb hollow of old pagan fanes, To succour feverish shriekings of fierce flame, O Bacchus, soother of men’s ancient pains. Others, whose throat is thirsty for breast-blood, To hide a whip ’neath flowing robes are fain, Mingling in lonely night and darksome wood The foam of pleasure and the tears of pain. O virgins, demons, monsters, O martyrs ! Great souls contemptuous of reality ! Seekers for the Infinite, satyrs, worshippers, Now mad with cries, now torn with agony ! You whom my …
…as ! hoatahe Iaida ! O crowned with starlight ! Winged with emerald Wider than Heaven ! O profounder blue Of the abyss of water ! O thou flame Flashing through all the caverns of the night, Tongues leaping from the immeasurable Up through the glittering Steeps unmanifest To the ineffable ! O Golden Sun ! Vibrating glory of my higher self ! I heard thy voice resounding in the Abyss : “ I am the only being in the deep Of Darkness : let me rise and gird myself To tread the path of Darkness : even so I may attain the light. For from the Abyss I cam…
…e veiled, Whereon the everlasting lamps rejoice. Their pedestals upon the Universe Are set in rolling clouds, in thunder-gusts, In vivid flame, and tempest : but to me, Balanced between them, burns the holy light Veilless, one liquid wheel of sacred fire, Whirling immutably within itself And formulating in the splendid sun Of its white moony radiance, in the light Of its immaculate eternity, Thy glorious vision ! O thou Starlight face, And crownèd diamond of my self and soul, Thou Queenly Angel of my Higher Will, Form in my spirit a more subtle…