Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
FOLLOW A WORD THROUGH THE COLLECTION

Search the corpus.

Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.

18 matching pages

Page 1 of 1
1899 · PDF PAGE 41

Tale of Archais

…HAIS 33 Until the glint and glory of the place Grew o’er the blue dim line of ocean. It was a temple never built of man, Being of marble white, and all unhewn, Above a cliff, about whose base were strewn Boulders of amethyst or malachite. Save these the cliffs rose sheer, a dazzling white, Six hundred feet from ocean ; so divine Was the tall precipice, that from the shrine A child might fling a stone and splash it in the brine. Within whose silver courts and lily bowers The Queen of Love led Charicles ; white flowers Blushed everywhere to scarl…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 5

Tale of Archais

TO THE WHITE MAIDENS OF ENGLAND THIS TALE OF GREECE IS DEDICATED.

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 53

Tale of Archais

…oud Of fire and adamant, a ceaseless crowd Of rushing atoms roaring into space, Driven by demons from before the Face. And these gleamed white, while Helios lit the heaven, Like tusks ; but at the coming of the even Were visions wonderful with indigo ; And in the glory of the afterglow Were rosy with its kiss ; and in the night Were crowned with that unutterable light That is a brilliance of solemn black, Glistening wide across the ocean track Of white-sailed ships and many mariners. So, on the tallest spire, where wakes and whirrs The eagle wh…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 46

Tale of Archais

38 THE TALE OF ARCHAIS O lotus-flower too white, Starred purple, round and sweet, Rich golden wheat Of night. I’ll kiss thee, lotus-flower, I’ll pluck thee, yellow grain, Once and again This hour. There coos a dove to me Across the waves of space ; O passionate face To see ! I’ll woo thee, silver dove, Caress thee, lotus-flower ; It is the hour Of Love. Cypris blushed deep ; albeit for love did swoon At the song’s sweetness, while the cold dead moon Was still and pale ; her nymphs are fain to sigh With sudden longing filled, and like to die For…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 28

Tale of Archais

…roven False at dewfall, at the dawn Sin and sorrow, interwoven, Like a veil are drawn Over love and all delight, Grey desires invade the white. Love and life are but a span ; Woe is me ! and woe is man !

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 54

Tale of Archais

…S So stood she there, with eyes of victory Fixed on the sun, about to sink his rays Beneath the ocean, that the pallid bays Fringed with white foam. But, as in pity, yet The sun forgot his chariot, nor would set, Since as he sank the maiden thought to leap Within the bosom of the vaulted deep From that high pedestal. And seeing this, That yet an hour was left her, Archais Lift up her voice and prayed with zeal divine To Aphrodite, who from her far shrine Heard and flew fast to aid over the night-clad brine. PRAYER OF ARCHAIS O Mother of Love, B…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 25

Tale of Archais

…end god, who oft caressed Her pale chaste wifehood, and who pressed Upon my forehead kisses blest ; Bid blossom out this rose, This fair white bud whose heart is pure, Whose bosom fears not, neither knows The long vague mysteries that endure Of life uncertain, of love sure, Teach her the mystic overture To Love’s transcendant throes.

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 64

Tale of Archais

56 THE TALE OF ARCHAIS Of being cast beneath the hoof of Time) And answered her : “ O mightiest, O sublime White deity of heaven, a swamp is know To me, so vile, so more than venomous grown With filthy weeds ; yea, all lewd creatures swarm Its airless desolation through ; and warm Sick vapours of disease do putrefy Its feverish exhalations ; yet do I With some fond band of loyal worshippers Often draw thither ; and black ministers Of mine therein do office ; I have seen This being cursed of Zeus, a snake unclean With its unholy neighbourhood ; …

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 69

Tale of Archais

…gh him to his beard for all his spite.” “ I, even now beneath his doom ? ” “ Even thou ! For learn this law, writ large upon the brow Of white Olympus, writ by him who made Thee, yea and Zeus, of whom is Zeus afraid

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 56

Tale of Archais

…so in sudden waves Tears welled impatient from their crystal caves. (Men say those barren pinnacles are set Since then with jewels ; the white violet Was born of those pure tears ; the snowdrop grew Where waking hope her agony shot through, And where the Queen of Love had touched her tears, The new-born lily evermore appears.)

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 74

Tale of Archais

…e love it rested, all her charms Half-shown, half-hidden, amorous but chaste. And so, between the branches interlaced And all the purple white-starred undergrowth, Zeus crept beside the maid, little loath To waken her caresses, and let noon Fade into midnight in the amorous swoon

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 65

Tale of Archais

… air Kissed, cleansing them from that infested den Of obscene deities and apish men, Rivalling their gods in petty filthiness. So Love’s white-bosomed Queen gat full success In the first season of her sojourning. Then, on the verge of night, she went a-wing To that most damnèd pestilence-rid marsh, And, changing her bright shape, she donned the harsh Vile form of woman past the middle age, Who hath not virtue that may charm the sage When the desire of folly is gone by, And wrinkles yield to no false alchemy. So, lewd of countenance, dressed all…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 80

Tale of Archais

…ease His angry struggles in their cruel hold. But all implacable, unyielding, cold, Their sinuous pressure on his breast and thighs, The white teeth sharp and ready otherwise In one fierce snap to slay. There hissed “ Be- ware ! Fear Charicles avenging, and despair ! ” And Zeus beheld the springe his foot was in, And, once more wise, being out of love, would win His freedom on good terms. His liberty For Charicles’ he bartered. Willingly The boy accepts, yet in his eye remains A tender woman-feeling, and his pains, And even Archais’ woes he did…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 68

Tale of Archais

… labyrinth of foam, Boiling up into heaven’s unchanging dome Of brightest aether ; then, its womb uncloses To bring to birth a garden of white roses, Whence, on a mystic shell of pearl, is borne A goddess, bosomed like the sea at morn, Glittering in all the goodlihead and grace Of maiden magic ; her delicious face Grew more and more upon the hero’s sight, Till all the hut was filled with rosy light,

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 21

Tale of Archais

…ht reed Shrilling dim visions of things glorious, And saw the maiden, that disported thus, And worshipped. Then in doubt he stood, grown white And wonderful, with passion’s perfect might Firing his veins and tingling in his brain, He stood and whitened, and waxed red again. His oat unheeded glanced beneath the wave, His eyes grew bright and burning, his lips clave— A sudden cry broke from him ; from the height His swift young body, like a ray of light, Divides the air, a moment, and the pool Flings up the spray like dew, divinely cool : A momen…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 22

Tale of Archais

…forgive thee, thou art good and kind. ” “ O love ! O love ! O mistress of my mind, You love me ! ” “ Nay, I was a while afraid, Being so white and tender ; for a maid I lived alone with flower and brook, nor guessed Another dwelt within the quiet nest

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 32

Tale of Archais

…eeping in, To spread corruption, and destroy the earth. But in the holy hour and happy birth That swam through stars propitious, meadows white, And fresh with newer flowers of the night In the pale fields supernal, when his sire Took from the nurse the child of his desire, A man, the prayers of many maidens sent So sweet a savour through the firmament That no false spirit might draw nigh. And still His angel ministers defend from ill The head they nurtured. Evil dreams and spells, Cast at the dimmest hour, the sword repels

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1899 · PDF PAGE 73

Tale of Archais

…wise to grieve, too happy to rejoice. So came the dawn on Ida to disclose Within her confines a delicious rose Lying asleep, a-dreaming, white of brow, Stainless and splendid. Yea, and fair enow To tempt the lips of Death to kiss her eyes And bid her waken in the sad surprise Of seeing round her the iron gates of hell In gloomy strength : so sweet, so terrible, So fair, her image in the brook might make A passionless old god his hunger slake By plunging in the waters, though he knew His drowning body drowned her image too. Yet she seemed gentle…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →