Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1901 · PDF PAGE 108

The Mother’s Tragedy

…he reaper, challenging a kiss; The lips of her were fresher than the morn, The perfume of her skin was ambergris; The sun had kissed her body into brown; Ripe breasts thrown forward to the summer breeze ; Warm tints of red lead fancy to the crown, Her coils of chestnut, in abundant ease, That bound the stately head. What joy of youth Lifted her nostril to respire the wind ? What pride of being? What triumphal truth Acclaimed her queen to her imperial mind ? I watched, a leopard, stealthy in the corn, As if a tigress held herself above; My body …

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1901 · PDF PAGE 50

The Mother’s Tragedy

…irst breath the gods were patient still, Till the abomination filled its cup, And hatred took her heart. She slew thy sire, And made his body the banquet of her sin In the infernal temple. “So,” she said, ‘‘T reap the incarnation of the god.” So, gloomy and hideous, she would prowl about Seeking fresh human feasts, and bloody rites Stained the white altar of the world. And yet Her power is gone, and we behold her go, Haggard and weary, through the palace courts And through the temple, lusting for strange loves And horrible things, and thirsting…

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1901 · PDF PAGE 47

The Mother’s Tragedy

…m birth To pluck the blossom of its fruitful love, And be the sun to ripen and the rain To water it. My soul became the bride To its own body, and my body leapt With passion from mine own Imperial loins Begotten, and made strong from my own soul To answer it. I hail thee, son of mine, _ Cc

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1901 · PDF PAGE 116

The Mother’s Tragedy

…gling happy breath. ‘‘Could I end so—this moment!” Lingereth The lazy gaze, half mournful and half blythe. But there’s another, when the body dieth— Hast thou no knowledge what the carcass saith ? I watched all night by my dead lover’s bed. I saw the spirit; heard the motionless Lips part in uttering a supreme caress: “T care not nor for life nor death;” they said, ‘““Only for love.” ‘What difference?” said I, ‘“‘ Dead or alive, I love thee utterly.”

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1901 · PDF PAGE 80

The Mother’s Tragedy

…ke a living flower; To die in your embraces, in the shower That dews like death your swooning loveliness. To know you love me; that your body leaps With the quick passion of your soul; to know Your fragrant kisses sting my spirit so; To be one soul where Satan smiles and sleeps ;— Ah! in the very triumph-hour of Hell Satan himself remembers whence he fell!

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1901 · PDF PAGE 88

The Mother’s Tragedy

…nfant band, Rises more splendid.” Spin the rope of sand! Two loves are one; but O to their dividing! Fertility—distaste’s adoption ! Her body’s growth—desire’s mortality! I look and loathe. Behold how lovers die, And immortality puts on corruption!

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1901 · PDF PAGE 46

The Mother’s Tragedy

… disloyalty. AMENHATEP. Beware ! How died thy father ? PACHAD. That amazing god Incarnate in him chose a nobler form, And in my mother’s body sought his home, Whose double incarnation is divine Beyond th’ old stories. Yes, I am a god.

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1901 · PDF PAGE 73

The Mother’s Tragedy

… light; Fanned to whirling fiery flight, As the spark of life is dwindled In the sacramental span, In the star that flashes white In the body of a man; By the swart Osirian power, If, when strikes the holy hour Of the holy sacrifice, Angels swoon from starry homes Full of inexpressive eyes, That the blood that swells and foams Lighten with the fervid air, To create from death’s despair Masteries of music, domes Gilded with the splendid essence of the highest hope of man; If the sombre stream that ran From the smitten breast be kindled with the …

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1901 · PDF PAGE 91

The Mother’s Tragedy

…d bitter. Slow the words creep forth as a sleepy and deadly flood. They glitter, those Satanic eyes! ‘“‘Beast! I gave you my soul and my body to all your lust!

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1901 · PDF PAGE 83

The Mother’s Tragedy

…n as thy cold devouring kisses roll Over my corpse; I hear its death-cry thrill me! Thine !—O my God! I render thee the whole, My broken body and my accursed soul! Come, come, come, come! Ah! conquer me and kill me !

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1901 · PDF PAGE 124

The Mother’s Tragedy

… And thou, Persephone, I know thy story, That I must taste the terror of thy wrong: How Hades ride across the promontory, Snatch my pale body in mid over-song ; Drag me from sight of my Apollo’s glory With horses strong. | Nay! as Apollo half the day is shrouded, As Artemis twice seven nights is dark; Surely he shines in other land unclouded, Surely her shaft shall find another mark. So dawns the day on Acheron ghost-crowded, And on my bark. I know not how yon world may prove, nor whither Hermes conduct me to what farther end. Yet if these bays…

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1901 · PDF PAGE 10

The Mother’s Tragedy

…Or human tongue reveal ? Nay, shall the mortal know them and endure Whose little period Is limited by God ; Whose poor abode Is the mean body, prey to all distemperature ? Yet, mortal, in the Light and Way Divine, Gird on the armour of the Holy One: Seek out the secret of the inmost shrine, Strong in the might and spirit of the sun. Arise, arise, arise, Give passage to mine eyes, Ye airs, ye veils; ye bucklers of the Snake! I knew the deepest cells, Where the foul spirit dwells; Called to the dead, the drowsed, arise ! awake! Their dark profoun…

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1901 · PDF PAGE 66

The Mother’s Tragedy

52 THE FATAL FORCE The incense fumes before me: I am come, Isis, within this body that ye know, Transmuting! Look upon me, ye blind eyes! Behold, dull souls and ignorant desires! See if I be not altogether god! [She assumes the appearance of her mature beauty, standing before them with the wand upratsed. Wonder and worship! Sing to me the song Of the extreme spring! Rejoice in my great strength And infinite youth and new fertility, And lave your foreheads in this holy milk That springs, the fountain of humanity, Luminous in the temple! Raise th…

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1901 · PDF PAGE 26

The Mother’s Tragedy

…he changing rhyme Of virgins dancing before Artemis; In all the pleasures that delight the mind, Invigorate the soul, lend favour to The body of the youth—for I am old

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1901 · PDF PAGE 31

The Mother’s Tragedy

THE MOTHER'S TRAGEDY 17 With your true, noble, and unselfish self— Were you the synthesis of all I hate, In mind and body leprous and deformed— Did every word and gesture fill my soul With hatred and its parody, disgust— It touches not my question! This one fact O’ermasters all eccentric circumstance : I love you—you, and not your attributes! CORA. Great noble soul! I hate myself the more That I must wound you further with the truth. A double prong this poisoned poniard Snaps in our hearts. I kept the secret long. Your breath, that burns upon m…

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1901 · PDF PAGE 109

The Mother’s Tragedy

…ite, One moment gives, the other takes away. I, the mere rhymer, she, the queen of rhyme, As sweeps her sickle in the falling wheat, Her body’s sleek intoxicating time, The music of the motion of her feet. I swoon in that imperial embrace— Lay we asleep till evening, or dead ? I knew not, but the wonder of her face Grew as the dawn and never satiated. She knew not in her strong imperial soul How hopeless was the slavery of life, 95

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1901 · PDF PAGE 102

The Mother’s Tragedy

…anged life met its fate. There came a man and loved her, and her soul The first time knew true sympathy. Elate, That pure joy filled her body’s broken bow! With infinite fresh fire and purer wine; Her whole life grew one exquisite divine Flower of the sunlight; memory alone Held its stern sceptre on a cruel throne. She simply fled and would not see his face. A noble folly! In the countryside Where her harsh youth was nurtured, in the place Where she revolted, she lay down and died. With crossed hands folded on her budded breast She closed her e…

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1901 · PDF PAGE 48

The Mother’s Tragedy

… Thou royal offspring of a kingly sire, Less kingly for the single flower of love! I hail thee, son, the secret spouse of me, King of my body and this realm to-day! For lo! the child leapt up within my womb, Hailing me mother, and my spirit leapt, Hailing him brother! Son and spouse and king, Exulting father of the royal soul That lies here, loving me, assume thy crown And sit beside me, equal to thy queen. For look ye to the burning south, and see The Sun grown amorous, and behold his fire Leap to my godhead. For without a man I single, I the …

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