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122 THE LADDER As Horus sped the flame, Harpocrates Receive the flame, and set the soul at ease. I who was One am One, all light Balanced within me, ordered right, As it was ever to the initiates ken Is now, and shall be evermore. Amen.
vi DEDICATION Yea, with one song of starry flame In brilliance of immortal youth Didst thou stand stedfast and proclaim Freedom and Ecstasy and Truth, Erect amid the wreck of Things Poised on inexorable wings ! . . . . So much the universe may see When its bats-eyes may endure the sun : This secret rests my prize to me, That I knew thee, surpassed of none, Fighting and faithful to the end, A Perfect knight, a perfect friend.
UT 129 Dissolved His being to a nameless naught, Brake all the wings and waves of time and thought, So in the quivering flame that hurled Its founts of life to the remotest world Supreme stood Death, and sware Destruction to all things that were ! IV Child, father, warrior, I worshipped Thee before ; Friend, bridegroom, now I yield me to the rod. My God, and very God of very God As breath, as death, as all, as naught, unknown, Known, is there not an end, when one alone Stand I, and thou, and He Arisen above all things that be ?
98 THE TWINS I Have pity ! show no pity ! Those eyes that send such shivers Into my brain and spine : oh let them Flame like the ancient city Swallowed up by the sulphurous rivers When men let angels fret them ! II Yea ! let the South wind blow, And the Turkish banners advance, And the word go out : No quarter ! But I shall hold theeso While the boys and maidens dance About the shambles of slaughter ! III I know thee who thou art, The inmost fiend that curlest Thy vampire tongue about Earths corybantic heart, Hells warrior that whirlest The …
…DELEM AH, sweet my sister ! Was it idle toil, When in the flowerless Eden of Shanghai We made immortal mischief, you and I Casting our flame-flowers on the dull brown soil ? Did we not light a lamp withouten oil Nursed by unfruitful kisses, stealthily Strewn in the caldron where our Destiny Bides broodingMother, bid its brew to boil ! Ah, Sweetheart, we were barren as Sahara, But on Sahara burns our subtle star. Soon an oasis, now too lone and far, Shall bloom with all the blossoms of Bokhara : See ! oer the brim the mystic fountain flows…
v DEDICATION Out of the East, out of the East Didst thou flame forth, O Son of Man, The chainless champion of the Beast ! A warrior comet, thy plumes fan The shuddering airs black wildernesses To fiends insatiate caresses. Thou camest crowned and helmed and armed, Sworded, a mighty man of war : Swayed all the stars, aghast, alarmed As at the Thunderbolt of Thor ! The very aethyr rocked and shook At thine indomitable look ! [Here must we utterly restrict Our theological remarks. One whom not Heaven could contradict Says : Now, Sir, if you plea…
…bove, And I, her memory. Fare Thee well ! To Thine I Amsupreme exclaim, The total of all that may be said ! I answer from the abyss of flame : Dorothy ! and her mouth was red.
…bliss beyond : But this I know that I am gone To the heart of Gods great diamond ! I match, &c. KETHER I am passed through the abyss of flame ; Hear ye that I am that I am ! THE RETURN Behold ! I clothe mine awful light In yonder body born of night. Its mind be open to the higher ! Its heart be lucid-luminous ! The Temple of its own desire The Temple of the Rosy Cross !
…ne crimson coal To burn all lesser gods, to gild the shame Of this my lifes long infamy, the soul (Abased for Him) in Him one flower of flame Mine Aceldama one white lily-bloom Availing me above all wealth and fame
… who am, As a wolf lurks for a strayed white lamb ? The chain of the stars snaps, And the deep of night is hoary ! Thou whose mouth is a flame With its seven-edged sword proceeding,
…g wide on a false scent. I am the plaything of distress ; The marionette of the Event ! Yet this red lust that rots my sword Is the same flame that tempered it. Though my death be my births reward, And folly be the prize of wit,
…THE CIRCLE I AM the Holy Queen of Heaven ! Eternal matter is my name. The veiléd star, the crowned eleven. These are my soul, as thou my flame, O wingéd globe of serpents twined, O sun of glory in my skies ! O subtle spirit of my mind ! O ardent rapture of mine eyes ! Thou secret centre, motion, rest : Come to my breast ! Come to my breast ! THE POINT I am the Lord of Heaven, and I Am secretly arrayed and robed In all the azure abyss of sky By serpents wingéd, wound and globed. Thou art the Infinite of space, Thou the blue-lidded love of air !…
…urs them, crested comb Of sleeps dead sea That eats the shores of life, rings round eternity ! II So, he is gone whose giant sword shed flame Into my bowels ; my bloods bewitched ; My brains afloat with ecstasy of shame. That tearing pain is gone, enriched By his life-spasm ; but he being gone, the same Myself is gone Sucked by the dragon down below deaths horizon. III I woke from this. I lay upon the lawn ; They had thrown roses on the moss With all their thorns ; we came there at the dawn, My lord and I ; God sailed across
44 THE GARDEN OF JANUS For now that cosmic chaos of I AM Bursts like a bubble. Mystical The night comes down, a soaring wedge of flame Woven therein To be a sign to them who yet have never been. XXXI The universe I measured with my rod. The blacks were balanced with the whites ; Satan dropped down even as up soared God ; Whores prayed and danced with anchorites. So in my book the even matched the odd : No word I wrote Therein, but sealed it with the signet of the goat. XXXII This also I seal up. Read thou herein Whose eyes are blind ! Thou may…
…ross the stair. How its creak is thunder ! Now care ! now dare ! be ware ! Orsaved ! at last Im there, Drowned in your torrent hair, A flame, a waif, a wonder. A lioness in her lair Your body leaps from under. V Take the prize on trust ! Dare the course and run it ! Sweet knight, you win the just, Your thrust ! a gust of lust ! Ah, God, then, if you must Wordless still, weve won it ! Tall Troy is in the dust ! Weve done it, done it, done it ! VI Do you love me, dear ? Said the glance you darted. Good cheer ! why fear the year ! Twice on…
…inds his teeth Like a slave under the whip ; And his tortured groans can only wreathe A sneer upon her lip. In the half-light her jewels flame Like stars that presage pestilence. O laughterless, O hideous game Of sterile smiles, of cold incense ! Her deaths-head grins the gargoyle shame Of her virile virulence. Now let the slave gasp out his soul In the agony supreme !
45 THE TWO SECRETS SHE used to lie, superbly bare Wrapped in her harvest flame of hair, And shooting from her steel-grey eyes Inexorable destinies : Mute oraclesmysterious A soul in a sarcophagus ! For I, through all my life astrain, Through all the pulsing of my brain, Through all the wisdom I had won From this one and the other one Saw nothing. Nothing. Had I known And loved some Sphinx of steel or stone While countless chiliads rolled, may be I had not guessed her mystery. So there she lay, regarding me. And I ?I gave the riddle up. I dra…
… career, Pointing my flaming way With the spasm of night for a spear ! O moon ! O secret sweet ! Chalcedony clouds of caresses About the flame of our feet, The night of our terrible tresses ! It is a wonder, then If the people are mad with blindness, And nothing is stranger to men Than silence, and wisdom, and kindness ? Nay ! let him fashion an arrow Whose heart is sober and stout !
105 THE CHILD ALIGHT and alive is the holiest flame. Leap out, O ye sparks, at the half-hidden name For ever my glory, for ever my shame ! Rejoice, O my soul, if his happiness hear ! Exalt thee, my joy, if the spell shall uprear Delight in my dream, in the dream of my dear. By passion and clamour the music is vain. Resurges the stridence, insists it is pain ; Until, at the last, all the puzzle is plain. Cry out on Apollo ; he laughs at the whine. Evoke we a soul nor of man nor divine Deep-throned in a darker, unspeakable shrine. O beautiful, be…
…ming of Seb ! Fling the wide veil, O Nuit, on the shame ! Shame from the Knowledge and unto the Name Hide it, O hide it, in flowers of flame ! Now in the balance of infinite things Stirs not a feather ; the universe swings Poised on the stealth of ineffable wings. Surely the sable Osirian bird Sole in the æther shall utter the Word Now that its crying can never be heard !