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58 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. Pass, be no more ! The beckoning dawn Woos the white ocean : I must go Wither my soul’s desire is drawn. Whither ? I know not. Even so.
110 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. O visionary valley of my Soul ! When shall thy beauty, even thine, be made As pure and mighty as these hills that roll In mist and sun and shade ? O thou ! the Highest ! make my will as thine, My consciousness, the consciousness divine !
…AN of Sorrows : brother unto Grief ! O pale with suffering, and dumb hours of pain ! O worn with Thought ! thy Godhead springs again The Soul of Resurrection : thou art chief And lord of all thy Soul : O patient thief Of God’s own fire ! What mysteries find fane In the white shrine of thy white spirit’s reign, Thou man of Sorrows : O, beyond belief ! Let God's own Peace be with thee : let thy days Prosper in spite of thine unselfish soul ; And as thou lovest, so let Love increase Upon thee and about thee : till thy ways Gleam with the splendour…
86 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. My veins : some deadlier asp or cockatrice Slimes in my senses : I am half awake, Half automatic, as I move along Wrapped in a cloud of blackness deep as hell, Hearing afar some half-forgotten song As of disruption ; yet strange glories dwell Above my head, as if a sword of light, Rayed of the very Dawn, would strike within The limitations of this deadly night That folds me for the sign of death and sin— O Light ! descend ! My feet move vaguely on In this amazing darkness, in the gloom That I can touch with trembling sens…
12 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. Swoon, and her soul, as my soul, trances, Knowing no longer aught that is ; Only united, moving, mixed, A music infinitely fixed. Music that throbs, and soars, and burns, And breaks the possible, to dwell One moving monotone, nor turns, Making hell heaven, and heaven hell, The steady impossible song that yearns And brooks no mortal in its swell— This monotone immortal lips Make in our infinite eclipse ! Formless, above all shape and shade ; Lampless, beyond all light and flame ; Timeless, above all age and grade ; Moveles…
94 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. The glory of the living day Shall shine among the dead. Thy faith shall have a holier task, thy strength a goodlier stead.” Then I withdrew the light Of mine own Godhead up, As stars that close with broken night Their adamantine cup. I sought the solar airs : my soul on its own tears might sup. For in the vast profound Still burns the rescuing sign ; Beyond all sight and sense and sound The symbol flames divine. For He shall make all life, all death, His solitary shrine.
THE SOUL OF OSIRIS
122 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. When, like a bad dream changing, swiftly grows A new soul’s joy, a fuller-pettalled rose. Many the spirits broken for one man ; Many the men that perish to create One God the more ; many the weary and wan Old Gods that die to constitute a Fate : How many Fates then, think you, must control The stainless aspiration of the soul ? Not one. I tell you, destiny is sure, Yet moves no finger : though it tune my tongue, My tongue shall tune it too : my words endure As destiny decays : my hands are flung In prayer to Heaven ; nay…
116 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. Where icy fingers grip the overbold Son of their secrets, and like springes close On his choked throat and frozen body—Nay ! That death were twilight, and the gate of Day ! No death ye bring as his, that grips the flag In desperate fingers, and with bloody sword Flames up the thundering breach, while bastioned crag, Glacis, and pent-house belch their monstrous horde Of hideous engines shattering—this strife Clears the straight road of Glory and of Life ! Nay : but the hateful death that stings the soul Into rebellion ; t…
66 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. My thought had thanked him for the generous breath Wherewith he warned us : for delay were death. And now, too late ! no moon is overhead— Some other meaning in the words he saith ? Or, am I tricked in such a little snare ? I lifted up my eyes. What soul stood there, Fronting my path ? Tall, stately, delicate, A woman fairer than a pomegranate. A silver spear her hands of lotus bear, One shaft of moonlight quivering and straight. She pointed to the East with flashing eyes : “ Thou canst not see her—but my Queen shall rise…
74 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. “ You crossed the bridge—no man’s heart trod you there ? ” Then crossed his breast in uttering some prayer : “ I pray you follow of your courtesy, My lord ! ” I followed very bitterly. “ Likes you the sword I gave ? ” I did not dare Answer one word. My soul was hating me. He bade me draw. I silently obeyed. My eye shirked his as blade encountered blade. I was determined he should take my life. “ Went your glance back—encountering my wife ? ” “ Taunt me ! ” I cried ; “ I will not be afraid ! ” My whole soul weary of the co…
10 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. “ THE TWO EMOTIONS.” OW barren is the Valley of Delight ! Swift the gaunt hounds that nose the warm close trail Of all my love’s content ; in vain I veil My secret of remorse ; from their keen sight And scent my poor deception takes to flight. I borrow perfume from young loves waxed pale ; I borrow music from the nightingale. In vain : she knows me, that I hate her quite. Not altogether : in my patchwork brain Some rag of passion tears its woof asunder. Strange, that its own insatiable pain Should find an opiate in her ey…
THE GATE OF THE SANCTUARY. 55 “ THE TWO LOVES.” HAT is my soul ? The shadow of my will. What is my will ? The sleeper’s sigh at waking. Osiris ! Orient godhead ! let me still Rest in the dawn of knowledge, ever slaking My lips and throat where yon rose-glimmering hill, The Mountain of the East, its lips is taking To Thy life-lips : I hear Thy keen voice thrill ; Arise and shine ! the clouds of earth are breaking ! The clouds are parted : yes ! And there above I bathe in ether and self-shining light ; My soul is filled with the eternal love ; I …
114 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. Yet, in one hour I dare not hope, The mighty gate of Life may ope, And call me upwards to unite (Even my soul within the scope) With That Unutterable Light. Steady of purpose, girt with Truth, I pass, in my eternal youth, And watch the centuries wax and wane : Untouched by Time’s corroding tooth, Silent, immortal, unprofane ! My empire changes not with time. Men’s kingdom's cadent as a rhyme Move me as waves that rise and fall. They are the parts, that crash or climb, I only comprehend the All. I sit, as God must sit ; I…
THE SOUL OF OSIRIS A HISTORY BY ALEISTER CROWLEY LONDON : KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRÜBNER AND COMPANY, LTD. 1901 All rights reserved
44 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. Of perfect passionate joy, the joy of wine, The drunkenness of extreme pleasure, filled From sin’s amazing cup. Oh, mine, mine, mine, Mine, if your kisses maddened me or killed, Mine, at the price of my damnation deep, Mine, if you will, as once your glances willed ! Take me, or break me, slay or sooth to sleep, If only yours one hour, one perfect hour, Remembrance and despair and hope to steep In the infernal potion of that flower, My poisonous passion for your blood ! Behold ! How utterly I yield, how gladly dower Our s…
24 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. PART II. KNOW. When Ramoth-Gilead’s field Grew bloody with hot ranks of dead, I smote amain with sword and shield, My brows with mingled blood were red ; And on my cheek the kiss of hell, The hatred of my Jezebel. I waited many days. At last The rushing of a chariot grew Frightful through all the city vast, Men were afraid. But I—I knew Jehu was here, whose sword should dip Deep in my love’s adulterous lip. The spirit filled me. And behold ! I saw her dead stare to the skies ; I came to her ; she was not cold, But burning…
128 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. Nature is one with my distress. The flowers are dull, the stars are pale. I am the Soul of Nothingness. I cannot lift the golden veil. O Mother Isis, let thine eyes Behold my grief, and sympathise ! I cannot round the perfect wheel, Attain not to the fuller end. In part I love, in part I feel, Know, worship, will, and comprehend. O Mother Nephthys, fill me up Thine own perfection’s deadly cup ! My aspiration quails within me ; “ My heart is fixed,” in vain I cry ; The little loves and whispers win me : “ Eli, lama sabact…
92 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. Red blood shall dye thee robes of red, Hell’s cries thy litany ! Thy mitre sits, divided strength, to end thy church and thee ! ” The third face spake and said : “ Welcome, O Man, to Death ! Thy little span of life is sped, Sighed out thy little breath. The worm that never dies is thine ; the fire that lingereth ! ” “ Three voices has thy frame, Their music is but one. Fool-demon, slave of night and shame, That canst not see the sun ! I am the Lord thy God : make thou homage and orison ! ” The wild heads sank in fear : Th…
48 THE SOUL OF OSIRIS. There is a shallop—how the breakers gallop, Grinding to dust the unresisting shore, A moon-mad thought to wander in the shallop ! Act—think no more ! Pale as a ghost I leave the sounding coast, The waters white with moonrise. I embark, Float on to the horizon as a ghost, Confront the dark. The cadent curve of Dian seems to swerve, Eluding helmcraft : let me drift away Where sea and sky unite their clamorous curve In praise of Day. Is it an edge ? Some spray-bechiselled ledge ? Some sentry platform to an under sky ? Let me…