Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1902 · PDF PAGE 120

Tannhäuser

…sery —begin The alluring mysteries of lust and sin ; Ends their delight !— and are they clear to sight ? Or mixed with death, compact of night ? Begin — the bitter tears of impotence. The sad permuted sense Of this despair—what would you ? and renew The long soft warfare—the enchanted arms. The silken body's charms. The lips that murmur and the breasts that sting ; The eyes that sink so deep Beyond the steeps and avenues of sleep, And of their wonder bring No ultimation from the halls of night, The slippery staircase, and the Fatal Throne, The …

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1902 · PDF PAGE 142

Tannhäuser

… " ; and yet it is not " I " Distinct, but " I " incorporate in All. I am, the Resurrection and the Life ! The Work is finished, and the Night rolled back ! I am the Rising Sun of Life and Light, The Glory of the Shining of the Dawn ! I am Osiris ! I the Lord of Life Triumphant over death. — O Sorrow, Sorrow, Sorrow of the World ! Heinrich. This was my friend. Deep night descends, perfused With unsubstantial glory from beyond. 140

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1902 · PDF PAGE 37

Tannhäuser

…e, dear, The loves of lambent spring. Our lamp the drooping moon, dear, Our roof, the stars that sing ; The bed, of moss and roses ; The night, as long as death ! Still, breath ! Life wakens and reposes, Love ever quickeneth ! Sweet, sweet, when Lion and Maiden, The motley months of gold, Swoop down with sunlight laden, And eyes are bright and bold. Life-swelling breasts uncover 35

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1902 · PDF PAGE 79

Tannhäuser

Voice of the thunder ! Light of the levin ! I worship and wonder, O maker of Heaven ! The night falls asunder ; The darkness is riven ! Light, O eternal ! Life, O diurnal ! Love, O withdrawn ! Heart of my May, spring Far to Thy dawn ! God of the dayspring ! Sun on the lawn ! Hail to Thy splendour, Holy, I cry ! Mary shall bend her Face from the sky. Subtle and tender— Then I can die ! Tannhauser. The simple love of life and gladness there ! Merely to be, and worship at the heart. How complex, the machinery of me ! Better ? I doubt it. Hark ! he…

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1902 · PDF PAGE 78

Tannhäuser

…o the East ! Song-bird and beast Wake and reply. Let me not die, Now, at the least ! Lord of the Light ! Queen of the dawn ! Soul of the Night Hid and withdrawn ! 76

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1902 · PDF PAGE 137

Tannhäuser

A desolate and melancholy wood. Night/all. Heinrich. WE LL, I am lost ! The whistle brings no hound, The horn no hunter ! North and South are mixed In this low twilight and the hanging boughs. I have slept worse than this. Poor Tannhauser ! I met him walking, as in dream, across The courtyard, while behind him skulked that crew That lurked, and itched to kill him, him unarmed, Not daring ! But he reached his hand to me ! " Good luck, old friend ! " and, smiling, he was gone. Gone to the Pope —Great soul to mountebank ! It was her wish, they whi…

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1902 · PDF PAGE 119

Tannhäuser

… [Smo-s. Can you believe the deadly will's decree, The bitter earnestness of this desire, The deep intention, the solemnity, Profound as night and penetrant as fire, The awful grasping at the Infinite, Even as I grapple at the breasts of thee, The seeking and the striving to the light Deep in thine eyes, where Hell tlames steadily? I am not clinging thus Despairing to the body of thy sin For mere delight —Ah, deadly is to us The pleasure wrapping us, and holding in All love, all hate —the miserable way ! Dawns no devouring day Still on the infi…

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1902 · PDF PAGE 107

Tannhäuser

…is tune I knew not ! See, the strings are moved Subtly as if by witchcraft — or by God ! [Sings. In the Beginning God began, And saw the Night of Time begin ! Chaos, a speck ; and space, a span ; Ruinous cycles fallen in, o 105

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1902 · PDF PAGE 81

Tannhäuser

…ic in the solitude Up from the valley. Pilgrims, by my fay ! \Enter Pilgrims. Pilgrims. Hail to Thee, Lady bright, Queen of the stars of night ! Ave Maria ! 79

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1902 · PDF PAGE 124

Tannhäuser

Then came our Lady of the Sevenfold Light, Shewed me a distant plan, distinct and clear, As twilight to the dayspring and the night, Dividing and uniting even here : The middle path — life interfused with death — Pure love ; the secret of Elizabeth ! This is my secret —in the man's delight To lose that stubborn ecstasy for God ! To this clear knowledge hath my path been trod In deepest hell— in the profoundest sky! This knowledge —the true immortality, I came unto through pain and tears. Tigerish hopes, and serpent loves, and dragon fears, Most…

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1902 · PDF PAGE 44

Tannhäuser

…wn of flame, The monolithic core of mystical Red fury that is called a woman's heart) Sinking, I say, from the supreme embrace. The Good-night kisses ; sinking into sleep — What dreams betoken the dread solitude ? Venus. What dreams ? Ah, dreamest not of me, my knight ? Of vast caresses that include all worlds ? Of transmutation into molten steel Fusing with my intolerable gold In the red crucible of alchemy. That is— of clay ? Tannhauser. I dream of no such thing. But of Thy likeness have I often seen The vast presentment—formless, palpable, B…

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1902 · PDF PAGE 24

Tannhäuser

…why travel ? To what end? What is the symbol I am set to find ? What is that burning heart of blood to spend Caught in a sunset with the night behind, The Grail of God ? I would that I were blind ! I would that I were desolate and dumb, Naked and poor ! That He might manifest A crimson glory subtly caught and come, An opal crucible of Alkahest ! And yet—what gain of vital gold expressed ? 22

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1902 · PDF PAGE 108

Tannhäuser

…racle of tlame Unluminous and void : the silent claim Of that which was, to be : the cry to climb, The bitter birth of Nature: uttermost Night Dwelt, inaccessible to sound and sight ; Shielded from Voice, impervious to Light. Lo ! on the barren bosom, on the brine, The spirit of the Mighty One arose, 106

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1902 · PDF PAGE 64

Tannhäuser

…stles mingle in delight ! And from the athanor of death and pain Bring golden showers of rain To crown our bed withal, the empire of the Night ! O Wife! Incarnate Beauty self-create! O Life ! O Death ! Love unimaginable ! Despair grows hope, as hope grows desperate ; And Heaven bridges the great gulf of Hell. Thy life is met with mine, Transmuted, grown divine. Even in this, the evil of the world ! What agony is this. The first undying kiss From jewelled eyes and lips in passion curled ? O sister and O serpent and O mate. Strike the red fang of…

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1902 · PDF PAGE 122

Tannhäuser

…pace, The twilight-moving place, The gates of matter, and the dark threshold, Before the faces of the Things that dwell In the Abodes of Night, Spring into sight Demons dog-faced, that show no mortal sign Of Truth, but desecrate the Light Divine, Seducing from the sacred mysteries. But, after all these Folk of Fear are driven Before the avenging levin That rives the opening skies, Behold that Formless and that Holy Flame That hath no name ; That Fire that darts and flashes, writhes and creeps Snake-wise in royal robe, Wound round that vanished …

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1902 · PDF PAGE 109

Tannhäuser

…ire, and brooded still : Nature and Time, their soleness undispelled. Ever awaiting the eternal Will. And Law was unbegotten : uttermost Night Dwelt, inaccessible to sound and sight ; Shielded from Voice, impervious to Light. Then grew within the barren womb of this The Breath of the Eternal and the Vast, Softer than dawn, and closer than a kiss— And lo ! the chaos and the darkness passed ! At the creative sigh the Light became. Chaos rolled back in the abundant flame. The vast and mystic Soul, The Firmament, a living coal, Flamed 'twixt the gl…

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1902 · PDF PAGE 9

Tannhäuser

… dwell, eternal shapes of shadowy light. Only the love on earth that shook and smote us Begets new stars —truth's flowers fallen through night Beyond the gold and glamour of Life's lotus I Eternal bliss of Love in birthless bowers ! Light, the gemmed robes of Love ! Life, lifted breath, Ageless existence deifying death ! Love, the sole flower beyond these lesser flowers !— In thee at last the live fruit quickeneth ? Eternal bliss of Love in birthless bowers ! * * * • « There, secret ! Know it ! Now forget ! Betray not Wisdom unto Folly ! Less s…

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1902 · PDF PAGE 29

Tannhäuser

Oh God, Thy blinding beauty, and the hght Shed from Thy shoulders, and the golden night Of mingling fire and stars and roses swart In the long flame of hair that leaps athwart, Live in each tingling gossamer ! Dread eyes ! Each flings its arrow of sharp sacrifice. Eating me up with poison ! I am hurled Far through the vaporous confines of the world With agony of sundering sense, beholding Thy mighty flower, blood-coloured death, unfolding ! Lithe limbs and supple shoulders and lips curled, Curled out to draw me to their monstrous world ! Warm b…

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1902 · PDF PAGE 129

Tannhäuser

…n iron words. That my mind grows, o'erleaps the limit set, And I perceive the truth that lies beyond— One further step into a new-fallen night. Hear then — I hate to hurt your perfect soul ; 127

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