OF DRAMATIC RITUALS

The wheel turns to those effectual methods of invocation employed in the ancient Mysteries and by certain secret bodies of initiates today. The object of them is almost invariably7 the invocation of a God, and that God is conceived in a more or less material and personal fashion. These rituals are therefore well sited for such persons as are capable of understanding the spirit of Magick as opposed to the letter. One of the great advantages of them is that a large number of persons may take part, so that there is consequently more force available; but it is important that they should all be in harmony. It is well therefore that they should all be initiates of the same mysteries, bound by the same oaths, and filled with the same aspirations. But they should not be friends unless by accident. They should be associated only for this purpose.

Such a company being prepared, the story of the God should be dramatized by a well-skilled poet accustomed to this form of composition. Lengthy speeches and invocations should be avoided, but action should be very full. Such ceremonies should be carefully rehearsed; but in rehearsals care should be taken to omit the climax, which should be studied by the principle character in private. The play should be so arranged that this climax depends on him alone. By this means one prevents the ceremony from becoming mechanical or hackneyed, and the element of surprise assists the lesser characters to get out of themselves at supreme moment. Following the climax there should always be an unrehearsed ceremony, an impromptu. The most satisfactory form of this is the dance. In such ceremonies appropriate libations may be freely used.

“The Rite of Luna”8 is a good example of this use. Here the climax is the music of the Goddess, the assistants remaining in silent ecstasy.

In “The Rite of Jupiter” the impromptu is the dance, in that of Saturn long periods of silence.

It will be noticed that in these rites poetry and music were largely employed—mostly already-published pieces by well-known authors and composers. It would be better9 to write and compose specially for ceremony.10

“ . . . the veil slowly parts, and MAGISTER TEMPLI is seen standing in the shrine.” From the Rite of Saturn. Caxton Hall Westminster, October 1910. Aleister Crowley as MAGISTER TEMPLI. Leila Waddell to his left, kneeling.

7 The word is unwarrantably universal. It would not be impractical to adopt this method to such operations as Talismanic Magick. For example, one might consecrate and charge a Pantacle by a commemoration of the Equinox of Gods, and the communication by Aiwaz to the Scribe of The Book of the Law, the Magician representing the Angel, the Pantacle being the Book, and the person on whom the Pantacle is intended to act taking the part of the Scribe.

8 [In “Liber 850, The Rites of Eleusis,” supplement to] The Equinox I(6).

9 “PERHAPS! One can think of certain Awful Consequences.” “But, after all, they wouldn't seem so to the authors!” “But—pity the poor Gods!” “Bother the Gods!”

10 A body of skilled Magicians accustomed to work in concert may be competent to conduct impromptu orgia. To cite an actual instance in recent times: the blood of a Christian being required for some purpose, a young cock was procured and baptised into the Roman Catholic Church by a man who, being the son of an ordained Priest, was magically an incarnation of the Being of that Priest, and therefore congenitally possessed of the powers thereto appurtenant. 237 The cock, “Peter Paul,” was consequently a baptised Christian for all magical purposes. Order was then taken to imprison the bird; which done, the Magicians assuming respectively the characters of Herod, Herodias, Salome, and the Executioner, action out the scene of the dance, and the beheading, on the lines of Oscar Wilde's drama, “Peter Paul” being cast for the part of John the Baptist. This ceremony was devised and done on the spur of the moment, and its spontaneity and simplicity were presumably potent factors in its success.

On the point of theology, I doubt whether Dom Gorenflot successfully avoided eating meat in Lent by baptising the pullet a carp. For as the sacrament—by its intention, despite its defects of form—could fail of efficacy, the pullet must have become a Christian, and therefore a human being. Carp was therefore only its baptized name—cf. Polycarp—and Dom Gorenflot ate human flesh in Lent, so that, for all he became a bishop, he is damned.

THE RITES OF ELEUSIS

THE RITE OF SATURN

THE OFFICERS OF THE TEMPLE

MAGISTER TEMPLI, the representative of Binah, Saturn.

MATER CŒLI, Venus in Libra, the house of Saturn's exaltation.

BROTHER AQUARIUS, the house of Saturn; in Chesed, because Pisces is water: “Hope.”

BROTHER CAPRICORNUS, in the throne of Capricornus, the house of Saturn ; in Geburah, because Mars is exalted therein. He is Mars in Capricornus.

BROTHER CAPRICORNUS EMISSARIUS.

THE LEADER OF THE CHORUS, or CHORAGOGE.

SCENE. —In the East is a veiled shrine, containing an altar. To its Chokmah, Binahy Chesed, and Geburah are M. T., M. C., Bro. A., and Bro. C. respectively. Bro. C. E. is disguised as an ordinary member of the garrison.

PART I

BROTHER CAPRICORNUS enters and turns off Blue light. Red lamps are brought in by BROTHER CAPRICORNUS and the LEADER OF THE CHORUS.

First the Temple is lighted by two red lamps. PROBATIONERS chant the Capricornus and Aquarius sections from 963 while others wait without in darkness. Red lights are then hidden within veil, BROTHER CAPRICORNUS turns on the Blue light.

The Temple being in darkness, and the assistants seated, let BROTHER CAPRICORNUS arise from his throne, and knock thrice with his spear-butt upon the floor. MAGISTER TEMPLI in the shrine, with MATER CŒLI.

CAPRICORNUS. Procul, O procul este profani !

[He performs the Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. He next lights the hell-broth and recites:]

Even as the traitor's breath

Goeth forth, he perisheth

By the secret sibilant word that is spoken unto death.

Even as the profane hand

Reacheth to the sacred sand,

Fire consumes him that his name be forgotten in the land.

Even as the wicked eye

Seeks the mysteries to spy,

So the blindness of the gods takes his spirit: he shall die.

Even as the evil priest,

Poisoned by the sacred feast,

Changes by its seven powers to the misbegotten beast:

Even as the powers of ill,

Broken by the wanded will,

Shriek about the holy place, vain and vague and terrible:

Even as the lords of hell,

Chained in fires before the spell,

Strain upon the sightless steel, break not fetters nor compel:

So be distant, O profane !

Children of the hurricane !

Lest the sword of fire destroy, lest the ways of death be plain !

So depart, and so be wise,

Lest your perishable eyes

Look upon the formless fire, see the maiden sacrifice!

So depart, and secret flame

Burn upon the stone of shame,

That the holy ones may hear music of the sleepless Name!

Holy, holy, holy spouse

Of the sun-engirdled house,

With the secret symbol burning on thy multiscient brows !. . .

Even as the traitor's breath

Goeth forth, he perisheth

By the secret sibilant word that is spoken unto death.

CAPRICORNUS. Brethren, let us awaken the Master of the Temple.

[THE LEADER OF THE CHORUS beats the tom-tom, and the other brethren clap and stamp their feet. No result.]

Silence—it is in vain ! Brethren, let us invoke the assistance of the Mother of Heaven !

[He goes to veil and reaches through with his hands. MATER CŒLI. [Passes through Throne of

MAGISTER TEMPLI and enters the Temple.] Children, what is your will with me?

CAPRICORNUS. Mother of Heaven, we beseech thee to awaken the Master.

MATER CŒLI. What is the hour?

CAPRICORNUS. Mother of Heaven, it lacks a quarter of midnight.

MATER CŒLI. Be it unto your desire!

[She plays.* As she ends she kneels: the veil slowly parts, and MAGISTER TEMPLI is seen standing in shrine. He slowly enters Temple, MATER CŒLI returns to throne, having been blessed and raised by him.]

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Mother of Heaven, beloved of the Stars, wherefore hast thou awakened the Poison of Eld, the Dweller in Eternity?

MATER CŒLI. Shabbathai.

[MAGISTER TEMPLI comes down to hell-broth and recites “The Eyes of Pharaoh.”]

Dead Pharaoh's eyes from out the tomb

Burned like twin planets ruby-red.

Enswathed, enthroned, the halls of gloom

Echo the agony of the dead.

Silent and stark the Pharaoh sate:

No breath went whispering, hushed or scared.

Only that red incarnate hate

Through pylon after pylon flared.

As in the blood of murdered things

The affrighted augur shaking skries

Earthquake and ruinous fate of kings,

Famine and desperate destinies,

So in the eyes of Pharaoh shone

The hate and loathing that compel

In death each damnèd minion

Of Set, the accursèd lord of Hell.

Yea! in those globes of fire there sate

Some cruel knowledge closely curled

Like serpents in those halls of hate,

Palaces of the Underworld.

But in the hell-glow of those eyes

The ashen skull of Pharaoh shone

White as the moonrays that surprise

The invoking Druse on Lebanon.

Moreover pylon shouldered round

To pylon an unearthly tune,

Like phantom priests that strike and sound

Sinister sistrons at the moon.

And death's insufferable perfume

Beat the black air with golden fans

As Turkis rip a Nubian's womb

With damascenéd yataghans.

Also the taste of dust long dead

Of ancient queens corrupt and fair

Struck through the temple, subtly sped

By demons dominant of the air.

Last, on the flesh there came a touch

Like sucking mouths and stroking hands

That laid their foul alluring smutch

Even to the blood's mad sarabands.

So did the neophyte that would gaze

Into dead Pharaoh's awful eyes

Start from incalculable amaze

To clutch the initiate's place and prize.

He bore the blistering thought aloft:

It blazed in battle on his plume:

With sage and warrior enfeoffed,

He rushed alone through tower and tomb.

The myriad men, the cohorts armed,

Are shred like husks : the ensanguine brand

Leaps like a flame, a flame encharmed

To fire the pyramid heaven-spanned

Wherein dead Pharaoh sits and stares,

Swathed in the wrappings of the tomb,

With eyes whose horror flits and flares

Like corpse-lights glimmering in the gloom

Till all's a blaze, one roar of flame,

Death universal, locked and linked:—

Aha! one names the awful Name—

The twin red planets are extinct.

[A pause.

[The lamp burns out, and darkness covers all.

[LEADER OF THE CHORUS secretly removes hell-broth vase.

PART II
The Temple in Darkness

MAGISTER TEMPLI. I.^¶ Brother Aquarius, what is the time?

AQUARIUS. Midnight.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. I. Brother Capricornus, what is the place?

CAPRICORNUS. The Fortress that is upon the Frontier of the Abyss.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. I. Brothers Aquarius and Capricornus, is the Beloved with us?

AQUARIUS and CAPRICORNUS. The Mother of Heaven is enthroned.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Mother of Heaven, let us lament together !

[Recites Swinburne's “Ilicet”*

[MATER CŒLI plays accordingly.^†

MAGISTER TEMPLI. I. Brother Aquarius, to what end are we assembled?

AQUARIUS. [Rises and whispers in his ear.] Shabbathai.

ALL [aloud]. Shabbathai.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. I. Are the brethren fed?

AQUARIUS. Upon the corpses of their children.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. I. Have they quenched their thirst?

AQUARIUS. Upon poppy-heads infused in blood.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. The raven has croaked.

AQUARIUS. The owl has hooted.

CAPRICORNUS. The bat has flapped its wings.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Then...

Lights ! [CAPRICORNUS switches on the blue glare

I. Brother Aquarius, I scent danger.

AQUARIUS. I. Master, there are evil things abroad. [To CAPRICORNUS] Turn out the guard !

CAPRICORNUS. Brethren, stand to your arms !

All PROBATIONERS rise and follow him. He pricks all assistants with his spear, inspects doors, etc.]

Master, every man is vigilant at his post. There is no alarm.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. I. Brother Aquarius, I scent danger.

AQUARIUS. I. Master, there is a traitor within the gates.

[To CAPRICORNUS] Inspect the garrison !

CAPRICORNUS. Brethren, purify your hearts !

[He rises and looks into every eye. When he comes to BRO. CAPRICORNUS EMISSARIUS, he hales him forth by the hair, before the altar, and plunges his spear into him. He completes inspection. Returns and bows to MAGISTER TEMPLI.]

Master, justice has been executed upon the traitor. Only the faithful remain.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. So perish all traitors !

[CAPRICORNUS extinguishes light.

[A pause.

PART III
Darkness

AQUARIUS. [Comes forward and kneels to MAGISTER TEMPLI.] Master, we beseech thee to permit the ceremony to proceed.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. There was no crackling in the dried leaves.

[CAPRICORNUS joins AQUARIUS kneeling.

AQUARIUS and CAPRICORNUS. Master, we beseech thee to permit the ceremony to proceed.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. There was no heart in the black lamb.

[All PROBATIONERS join AQUARIUS and CAPRICORNUS kneeling.]

ALL. Master, we beseech thee to permit the ceremony to proceed.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. The sacred python was found dead.

[MATER CŒLI comes forward, kneels before MAGISTER TEMPLI, thus making the apex to the pyramid of petitioners, rises and plays her petition,* then again kneels.]

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Let the ceremony proceed.

[MATER CŒLI returns to her throne, AQUARIUS rises, and CAPRICORNUS returns to his post and lights the lamp.

AQUARIUS and all present dance wildly for joy to the sound of the tom-tom.]

[During the confusion BRO. CAPRICORNUS EMISSARIUS slips into the temple and hides behind the veil, where he removes his disguise and dons his dancing robe.]

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Silence!

[A pause.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. I.

AQUARIUS. I.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. I. Holy be the Lamps of Joy !

AQUARIUS. Holy be the Lamps of Sorrow!

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Let us enter the ark of Increased Knowledge!

CAPRICORNUS. Hail, thou that sittest in the City of the Pyramids!

AQUARIUS. Hail, thou that art encamped upon the Great Sea!

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Hail, brethren !

CAPRICORNUS. Master, what is Increased Knowledge?

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Death.

AQUARIUS. Master, what is the Ark thereof?

MAGISTER TEMPLI. The grave.

AQUARIUS and CAPRICORNUS. Master, how shall we enter it?

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Arise and follow me!

[He rises and circumambulates the temple widdershins. CAPRICORNUS plucks forth every third person and makes them follow him, continuing this process until one only is left. To this one MAGISTER TEMPLI addresses the allocution, as he hales him forth.]

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Thou also must die !

[MAGISTER TEMPLI stops in E.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Brethren ! let us humbly seek for help behind the veil!

[He throws veil open, showing the empty shrine. BRO. CAPRICORNUS EMISSARIUS must have well dissimulated himself so that he is not discovered. MAGISTER TEMPLI draws veil again. capricornus puts out lights.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Alas ! there is no God !

[Returns to his throne. All move confusedly about wailing aloud.]

MAGISTER TEMPLI. I. Silence. [All resume seats.

Behold, I declared it unto you and ye believed me not!

[A pause.

PART IV
Darkness

AQUARIUS. In truth, master, the ceremony cannot proceed. There is no god in the shrine.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Brother Aquarius, let search be made.

AQUARIUS. Brother Capricornus, let search be made.

[Light on.

[CAPRICORNUS enters veil and walks up and down. He returns.]

[Lights off.

Brother Capricornus, what do you find ?

CAPRICORNUS. Master, there is nothing but a little pile of dust.

AQUARIUS. There is no living thing therein ?

CAPRICORNUS. There is no living thing therein.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. [Recites poem: “Colloque sentimental.”]

In the ancient frozen solitary park

Two figures passed anon—now mark !

Their eyes are dead, their lips are soft and grey;

One scarce can hear the words they say.

In the ancient frozen solitary park

Two ghosts evoke the past—oh hark !

“Dost thou remember our old ecstasy?”

“Why do you wish to remind me?”

“Does thy heart beat still at my name, and glow?

“Seest thou my soul in dreams, dear?” “No.”

“Ah ! the fair days of joyaunce and of gree

“When our mouths kissed, ah kissed!” “Maybe!”

“How blue the sky was, as our hope was clear!”

“Hope has gone down to Hell's nadir.”

So in the foolish alleys they conferred,

And only midnight overheard.

AQUARIUS. Master, it is not to be borne.

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Mother of Heaven, let us lament together!

[Recites Swinburne's “The Garden of Proserpine.”

[MATER CŒLI plays accordingly.*

CAPRICORNUS. Master, it is not to be borne!

MAGISTER TEMPLI. Mother of Heaven, let us work together!

MATER CŒLI. Behold thine handmaiden!

[MAGISTER TEMPLI and MATER CŒLI go together hand in hand, within the veil, CAPRICORNUS turns light up.]

[MATER COELI plays a Pæan of despair,^†

[MAGISTER TEMPLI, rending veil, appears standing on altar.

O melancholy Brothers, dark, dark, dark!

O battling in black floods without an ark!

O spectral wanderers of unholy Night!

My soul hath bled for you these sunless years,

With bitter blood-drops running down like tears :

Oh, dark, dark, dark, withdrawn from joy and light!

My heart is sick with anguish for your bale!

Your woe hath been my anguish ; yea, I quail

And perish in your perishing unblest.

And I have searched the heights and depths, the scope

Of all our universe, with desperate hope

To find some solace for your wild unrest.

And now at last authentic word I bring,

Witnessed by every dead and living thing ;

Good tidings of great joy for you, for all:

There is no God ; no Fiend with names divine

Made us and tortures us ; if we must pine,

It is to satiate no Being's gall.

It was the dark delusion of a dream,

That living Person conscious and supreme,

Whom we must curse for cursing us with life ;

Whom we must curse because the life He gave

Could not be buried in the quiet grave,

Could not be killed by poison or by knife.

This little life is all we must endure,

The grave's most holy peace is ever sure,

We fall asleep and never wake again;

Nothing is of us but the mouldering flesh,

Whose elements dissolve and merge afresh

In earth, air, water, plants, and other men.

We finish thus ; and all our wretched race

Shall finish with its cycle, and give place

To other beings, with their own time-doom

Infinite æons ere our kind began ;

Infinite æons after the last man

Has joined the mammoth in earth's tomb and womb.

We bow down to the universal laws,

Which never had for man a special clause

Of cruelty or kindness, love or hate :

If toads and vultures are obscene to sight,

If tigers burn with beauty and with might,

Is it by favour or by wrath of fate?

All substance lives and struggles evermore

Through countless shapes continually at war,

By countless interactions interknit:

If one is born a certain day on earth,

All times and forces tended to that birth,

Not all the world could change or hinder it.

I find no hint throughout the Universe

Of good or ill, of blessing or of curse;

I find alone Necessity Supreme;

With infinite Mystery, abysmal, dark,

Unlighted ever by the faintest spark

For us the flitting shadows of a dream.

O Brothers of sad lives! they are so brief;

A few short years must bring us all relief:

Can we not bear these years of labouring breath?

But if you would not this poor life fulfil,

Lo, you are free to end it when you will,

Without the fear of waking after death.

[Blow out red lights.

[BRO. CAPRICORNUS EMISSARIUS runs out with tom-tom and dances wildly. At the conclusion AQUARIUS and CAPRICORNUS run up, tearing the veil asunder, BRO. CAPRICORNUS EMISSARIUS flings himself at foot of altar, CHORAGOGE lights salt again, or other glare. MAGISTER TEMPLI is discovered lying dead, his head supported by MATER CŒLI weeping.]

[CAPRICORNUS extinguishes the light.

[AQUARIUS draws the veil.

[MATER CŒLI plays the final hopeless dirge.*] [Silence.

AQUARIUS. Brother Capricornus, what is the hour?

CAPRICORNUS. Noon.

AQUARIUS. Let us depart; it is accomplished. [Full light.

[CAPRICORNUS stands with drawn sword before the veil; the others escort the people out.]

^* Kuyawiak: Wieniawski.

^¶ The figures represent knocks, I. a single knock; 22. a battery of two knocks; and so on.

^* Swinburne's poems being in copyright, we can only give titles or first lines. The reader should consult Messrs Chatto & Windus' edition of his works.

^† Aria arranged for G string : Bach.

^* Abendlied: Schumann.

^* Légende : Wieniawski.

^† Wiegenlied : Hauser.

^* Marche funèbre : Waddell.

THE RITE OF JUPITER

OFFICERS

CENTRUM IN CENTRI TRIGONO. Black Robe, Swastika.

SPHINX. Green Robe, Violin and Sword.

HERMANUBIS. Violet Robe, Caduceus.

TYPHON. Red Robe, Prong two-forked, or Sword.

The Temple represents the Wheel of Fortune of the Tarot. At its axle is the Altar on which sits C.I.C.T. On the rim, S. at East spoke, H. at North- Westy T. at South- West. Hebe and Ganymede are seated at the feet of C.I.C.T. To the West of the Wheel is the Veil.

PART I

C.I.C.T. I- 333.

SPHINX. 22-22.

HEBE. Pisces Section from 963. [See EQUINOX, No. III., Special Supplement.]

SPHINX. Brother Hermanubis, summon the guests to the banquet of the Father of the Gods!

HERMANUBIS. 4444. Brother Typhon, summon the guests to the banquet of the Father of the Gods!

[TYPHON draws aside veil as GANYMEDE begins his dance. Lights down.]

HERMANUBIS. Welcome to the banquet of the Father of the Gods!

Bear the bowls of Libation! (done).

Be silent and secret! For it is by stealth that we are here assembled. Know that Saturn hath been deceived, having swallowed a black stone, thinking it to be his son, the child Jupiter. But Jupiter is here enthroned, and shall overthrow his father. Beware then lest ye break silence—until Jupiter be ready to make war!

TYPHON. Him that speaketh will I slay forthright!

[A long pause.

PART II

CENTRUM IN CENTRI TRIGONO I.

SPHINX I. HERMANUBIS I. TYPHON I.

TYPHON. Hail unto thee, thou great god Hermanubis!

Art thou not the messenger of Jupiter?

HERMANUBIS. Hail unto thee, thou great god Typhon!

Art thou not the executor of his vengeance?

TYPHON. Brother Hermanubis, what is the hour?

HERMANUBIS. Noon. Brother Typhon, what is the place?

TYPHON. The summit of Olympus. Brother Hermanubis, what is thy position?

HERMANUBIS. Upon the rim of the Wheel. And thine?

TYPHON. Upon the rim of the Wheel.

HERMANUBIS. Let us seek the centre of the Wheel.

[They with SPHINX rise and walk, faster and faster round the rim, returning exhausted to their places.]

TYPHON. Brother Hermanubis, we are no nearer to the centre of the wheel.

HERMANUBIS. We are no nearer to the centre of the wheel.

TYPHON. Hast thou no message from the Gods?

HERMANUBIS. None, brother. Let us seek an oracle of the Gods.

[They rise and go round the rim, stopping and prostrating themselves before the SPHINX.]

HERMANUBIS. Hail unto Thee, that hast the secret of Jupiter!

Declare unto us, we beseech Thee, the mystery whereby we may approach the centre of the wheel.

[SPHINX plays a riddling sarcastic music*

[TYPHON goes to his place in terror.

[HERMANUBIS goes to his place in wonderment.

SPHINX. Neither by sloth nor by activity may even my secret be attained. Neither by emotion nor by reason may even I be understood. How then should ye come to the centre of the wheel?

HERMANUBIS. Mother of mystery, what is thy position on Olympus?

SPHINX. Upon the rim of the wheel.

C.I.C.T. Feeling, and thought, and ecstasy

Are but the cerements of Me.

Thrown off like planets from the Sun

Ye are but satellites of the One.

But should your revolution stop

Ye would inevitably drop

Headlong within the central Soul,

And all the parts become the Whole.

Sloth and activity and peace,

When will ye learn that ye must cease?

TYPHON. How should I cease from lethargy?

HERMANUBIS. How should I quench activity?

SPHINX. How should I give up ecstasy?

C.I.C.T. What shines upon your foreheads?

S.H.T. (together). The Eye within the Triangle.

C.I.C.T. What burns upon your breasts?

S.H.T. [together). The Rosy Cross.

C.I.C.T. Brethren of the Rosy Cross! Aspirants to the Silver Star! Not until these are ended can ye come to the centre of the wheel.

When the chill of earth black-breasted is uplifted at the glance

Of the red sun million-crested, and the forest blossoms dance

With the light that stirs and lustres of the dawn, and with the bloom

Of the wind's cheek as it clusters from the hidden valley's gloom;

Then I walk in woodland spaces, musing on the solemn ways

Of the immemorial places shut behind the starry rays;

Of the East and all its splendour, of the West and all its peace;

And the stubborn lights grow tender, and the hard sounds hush and cease.

In the wheel of heaven revolving, mysteries of death and birth,

In the womb of time dissolving, shape anew a heaven and earth,

Ever changing, ever growing, ever dwindling, ever dear,

Ever worth the passion glowing to distil a doubtful tear.

These are with me, these are of me, these approve me, these obey,

Choose me, move me, fear me, love me, master of the night and day.

These are real, these illusion: I am of them, false or frail,

True or lasting, all is fusion in the spirit's shadow-veil,

Till the Knowledge-Lotus flowering hides the world beneath its stem;

Neither I, nor God life-showering, find a counterpart in them.

As a spirit in a vision shows a countenance of fear,

Laughs the looker to derision, only comes to disappear,

Gods and mortals, mind and matter, in the glowing bud dissever:

Vein from vein they rend and shatter, and are nothingness for ever.

In the blessed, the enlightened, perfect eyes these visions pass,

Pass and cease, poor shadows frightened, leave no stain upon the glass.

One last stroke, O heart-free master, one last certain calm of will,

And the maker of Disaster shall be stricken and grow still.

Burn thou to the core of matter, to the spirit's utmost flame,

Consciousness and sense to shatter, ruin sight and form and name!

Shatter, lake-reflected spectre; lake, rise up in mist to sun;

Sun, dissolve in showers of nectar, and the Master's work is done.

Nectar perfume gently stealing, masterful and sweet and strong,

Cleanse the world with light of healing in the ancient House of Wrong!

Free a million million mortals on the wheel of being tossed!

Open wide the mystic portals, and be altogether lost!

[A pause.

SPHINX I. HERMANUBIS I. TYPHON I.

CENTRUM IN CENTRI TRIGONO I.

[A pause.

PART III

TYPHON. I desire to begin the banquet.

HERMANUBIS. Brother Typhon, I will inquire of the Oracle.

Mother of Mystery, I beseech thee to begin the Banquet; for it is certainly necessary that this should be done.

[SPHINX turns, bows, and stretches her hands in mute appeal to C.I.C.T.]

C.I.C.T. I. I heed not the passion, or the reason, or the soul of man. Mother of Mystery, declare my will.

[SPHINX plays the most exalted (passionless because beyond passion) piece that she may*]

HERMANUBIS. This means nothing to me.

TYPHON. I feel nothing.

C.I.C.T. I. Mother of Mystery, declare my mind.

[SPHINX plays a cold, passionless, intellectual piece,^†

HERMANUBIS. Ah! Ah! This is music; this is the secret of Jupiter.

TYPHON. I feel nothing.

C.I.C.T. I. Mother of Mystery, declare my heart.

[SPHINX plays an intensely sensual passionate piece.^‡

TYPHON. Ah! Ah! This is music; this is the secret of Jupiter.

HERMANUBIS. Accursed! Accursed! be the soul of impurity, the body of Sin!

C.I.C.T. I. Irreconcilable, my children, how shall ye partake of the Banquet of Jupiter, or come to the centre of the wheel? For this is the secret of Jupiter, that He who created you is in each of you, yet apart from all; before Him ye are equal, revolving in Time and in Space; but he is unmoved and within.

[A pause.

TYPHON. I.

[TYPHON recites.

Sweet, sweet are May and June, 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

Their warm involving deep—

Love, sleep!—

And lover lies with lover

On air's substantial steep.

Ah! sweeter was September—

The amber rain of leaves,

The harvest to remember,

The load of sunny sheaves.

In gardens deeply scented,

In orchards heavily hung,

Love flung

Away the days demented

With lips that curled and clung.

Ah! sweeter still October,

When russet leaves go grey,

And sombre loves and sober

Make twilight of the day.

Dark dreams and shadows tenser

Throb through the vital scroll,

Man's soul.

Lift, shake the subtle censer

That hides the cruel coal!

Still sweeter when the Bowman

His silky shaft of frost

Lets loose on earth, that no man

May linger nor be lost.

The barren woods, deserted.

Lose echo of our sighs—

Love—dies?—

Love lives—in granite skirted,

And under oaken skies.

But best is grim December,

The Goatish God his power;

The Satyr blows the ember,

And pain is passion's flower;

When blood drips over kisses,

And madness sobs through wine:—

Ah, mine!—

The snake starts up and hisses

And strikes and—I am thine!

[He crouches at the feet of SPHINX toward C.I.C.T.

[HERMANUBIS recites.

HERMANUBIS I.

O coiled and constricted and chosen!

O tortured and twisted and twined!

Deep spring of my soul deep frozen,

The sleep of the truth of the mind!

As a bright snake curled

Round the Vine of the World!

O sleeper through dawn and through daylight,

O sleeper through dusk and through night!

O shifted from white light to gray light,

From gray to the one black light!

O silence and sound

In the far profound!

O serpent of scales as an armour

To bind on the breast of a lord!

Not deaf to the Voice of the Charmer,

Not blind to the sweep of the sword!

I strike to the deep

That thou stir in thy sleep!

Rise up from mine innermost being!

Lift up the gemmed head to the heart!

Lift up till the eyes that were seeing

Be blind, and their life depart!

Till the Eye that was blind

Be a lamp to my mind!

Coil fast all thy coils on me, dying,

Absorbed in the sense of the Snake!

Stir! leave the flower-throne, and up-flying!

Hiss once, and hiss thrice, and awake!

Then crown me and cling!

Flash forward—and spring!

Flash forth on the fire of the altar,

The stones, and the sacrifice shed;

Till the Three Worlds flicker and falter,

And life and her love be dead!

In mysterious joy

Awake—and destroy!

[He crouches at the feet of SPHINX, facing C.I.C.T. SPHINX. I.

C.I.C.T. I. [SPHINX plays an enchantment*

C.I.C.T. (recites.)

Lift up this love of peace and bliss,

The starry soul of wine,

Destruction's formidable kiss,

The lamp of the divine:

This shadow of a nobler name

Whose life is strife, whose soul is fame!

I rather will exalt the soul

Of man to loftier height,

And kindle at a livelier coal

The subtler soul of light.

From these soft splendours of a dream

I turn, and seek the Self supreme.

This world is shadow-shapen of

The bitterness of pain.

Vain are the little lamps of love!

The light of life is vain!

Life, death, joy, sorrow, age and youth

Are phantoms of a further truth.

Beyond the splendour of the world,

False glittering of the gold,

A Serpent is in slumber curled

In wisdom's sacred cold.

Life is the flaming of that flame.

Death is the naming of that name,

The forehead of the snake is bright

With one immortal star,

Lighting her coils with living light

To where the nenuphar

Sleeps for her couch. All darkness dreams

The thing that is not, only seems.

That star upon the serpent's head

Is called the soul of man.

That light in shadows subtly shed

The glamour of life's plan.

The sea whereon that lotus grows

Is thought's abyss of tears and woes.

Leave Sirenusa! Even Greece

Forget! they are not there!

By worship cometh not the Peace,

The Silence not by prayer.

Leave the illusions, life and time

And Death, and seek that star sublime,

Until the lotus and the sea

And snake no longer are,

And single through Eternity

Exists alone the Star,

And utter Knowledge rise, and cease

In that which is beyond the Peace!

[GANYMEDE dances and falls as dead.

TYPHON. O that the banquet of Jupiter might begin!

HERMANUBIS. O that the banquet of Jupiter might begin!

SPHINX. O that the banquet of Jupiter might begin!

C.I.C.T. Let the banquet of Jupiter begin!

[All go without veil, except C.I.C.T. and SPHINX, HERMANUBIS and TYPHON draw and guard the veil. SILENCE.]

C.I.C.T. I-333.

SPHINX. 22-22

[HERMANUBIS and TYPHON draw veil, SPHINX is standing before altar, C.I.C.T. has disappeared. He has donned a white robe, and panther-skin, and white and gold nemmes. HERMANUBIS, TYPHON, and others return to their places, HERMANUBIS and TYPHON come forward and salute SPHINX.]

TYPHON. I. Mother of Mystery, hast thou the secret of Jupiter?

HERMANUBIS. I. Mother of Mystery, hast thou the secret of Jupiter?

[SPHINX plays a triumphant melody*

TYPHON. Brother Hermanubis, what is the place?

HERMANUBIS. The Summit of Mount Kithairon.

TYPHON. Procul, o Procul este viri!

[All male probationers retire to back of stage.

TYPHON Sisters, let us invoke the Father to manifest in the Son.

SPHINX. Per Spiritum Sanctum. Amen.

[She also retires to her place on wheel.

MÆNADS. Evoe! Evoe Ho! Iacche! Iacche!

TYPHON.

Hail, O Dionysus! Hail!

Winged Son of Semelé!

Hail, O Hail! The stars are pale;

Hidden the moonlight in the vale;

Hidden the sunlight in the sea.

Blessed is her happy lot

Who beholdeth God; who moves

Mighty-souled without a spot,

Mingling in the godly rout

Of the many mystic loves.

Holy maidens, duly weave

Dances for the mighty mother

Bacchanal to Bacchus cleave!

Wave his narthex wand, and leave

Earthly joys to earth to smother!

Io! Evoe! Sisters, mingle

In the choir, the dance, the revel!

He divine, the Spirit single,

He in every vein shall tingle.

Sense and sorrow to the devil!

Mingle in the laughing measure,

Hand and lip to breast and thigh!

In enthusiastic pleasure

Grasp the solitary treasure!

Laughs the untiring ecstasy!

Sisters! Sisters! Raise your voices

In the inspired divine delight!

Now the sun sets; now the choice is

Who rebels or who rejoices,

Murmuring to the mystic night.

Io! Evoe! Circle splendid!

Dance, ye maids serene and subtle!

Clotho's task is fairly ended.

Atropos, thy power is ended!

Ho, Lachesis! ply thy shuttle!

Weave the human dance together

With the life of rocks and trees!

Let the blue delirious weather

Bind all spirits in one tether,

Overwhelming ecstasies!

Io! Evoe! I faint, I fall,

Swoon in purple light; the grape

Drowns my spirit in its thrall.

Love me, love me over all,

Spirit in the spirit shape!

All is one! I murmur. Distant

Sounds the shout, Evoe, Evoe!

Evoe, Iacche! Soft, insistent

Like to echo's voice persistent:—

Hail! Agave! Autonoe!

[TYPHON goes up stage.

AGAVE. Evoe, Ho! Iacche! Hail, O Hail!

Praise him! What dreams are these?

AUTONOE. Sisters, O sisters!

AGAVE. Say, are our brothers of the rocks awake?

AUTONOE. The lion roars.

MÆNADS. O listen to the snake!

AUTONOE. Evoe, Ho! Give me to drink!

AGAVE. Run wild!

Mountain and mountain let us leap upon

Like tigers on their prey!

MÆNADS. Crush, crush the world!

AGAVE. Tread earth as 'twere a winepress!

AUTONOE. Drink its blood,

The sweet red wine!

MÆNADS. Ay, drink the old earth dry!

AGAVE. Squeeze the last drops out till the frame collapse

Like an old wineskin!

AUTONOE. So the sooner sup

Among the stars!

AGAVE. The swift, swift stars!

MÆNADS. O night!

Night, night, fall deep and sure!

AUTONOE. Fall soft and sweet!

AGAVE. Moaning for love the woods lie.

AUTONOE. Sad the land

Lies thirsty for our kisses.

MÆNADS. All wild things

Yearn towards the kiss that ends in blood.

AGAVE. Blood! Blood!

Bring wine! Ha! Bromius, Bromius!

MÆNADS Come, sweet God,

Come forth and lie with us!

AUTONOE. Us, maidens now

And then and ever afterwards!

AGAVE. Chaste, chaste!

Our madness hath no touch of bitterness,

No taste of foulness in the morning mouth.

AUTONOE. O mouth of ripe red sunny grapes! God! God!

Evoe! Dwell! Abide!

AGAVE. I feel the wings

Of love, of mystery; they waft soft streams

Of night air to my heated breast and brow.

MÆNADS. He comes! He comes!

AGAVE. Silence, O girls, and peace!

The God's most holy presence asks the hymn,

The solemn hymn, the hymn of agony,

Lest, in the air of glory that surrounds

The child of Semelé, we lose the earth

And corporal presence of the Zeus-begot.

AUTONOE. Yea, sisters, raise the chant of riot! Lift

Your wine-sweet voices, move your wine-stained limbs

In joyful invocation!

MÆNADS. Ay, we sing.

AGAVE.

Hail, child of Semelé!

To her as unto thee

Be reverence, be deity, be immortality!

Shame! treachery of the spouse

Of the Olympian house,

Hera! thy grim device against the sweet carouse!

Lo! in red roar and flame

Did Zeus descend! What claim

To feel the immortal fire had then the Theban dame!

Caught in that fiery wave,

Her love and life she gave

With one last kissing cry the unborn child to save.

And thou, O Zeus, the sire

Of Bromius—hunter dire!—

Didst snatch the unborn babe from that Olympian fire:

In thine own thigh most holy

That offspring melancholy

Didst hide, didst feed, on light, ambrosia, and moly.

Ay! and with serpent hair

And limbs divinely fair

Didst thou, Dionysus, leap forth to the nectar air!

Ay! thus the dreams of fate

We dare commemorate,

Twining in lovesome curls the spoil of mate and mate.

O Dionysus, hear!

Be close, be quick, be near,

Whispering enchanted words in every curving ear!

O Dionysus, start

As the Apollonian dart!

Bury thy hornèd head in every bleeding heart!

IST MÆNAD. He is here! He is here!

AUTONOE. Tigers, appear!

AGAVE. To the clap of my hand

And the whish of my wand,

Obey!

AUTONOE. I have found

A chariot crowned

With ivy and vine,

And the laurel divine,

And the clustering smell

Of the sage asphodel,

And the Dædal flower

Of the Cretan bower;

Dittany's force,

And larkspur's love,

And blossoms of gorse

Around and above.

AGAVE. The tiger and panther

Are here at my cry.

Ho, girls! Span there

Their sides!

Ist MÆNAD. Here am I.

2nd MÆNAD. And I! We are ready.

AGAVE. Strong now and steady!

Ist MÆNAD. The tiger is harnessed.

2nd MÆNAD. The nightingale urges

Our toil from her far nest.

3rd MÆNAD. Ionian surges

Roar back to our chant.

4th MÆNAD. Aha! for the taunt

Of Theban sages

Is lost, lost, lost!

The wine that enrages

Our life is enforced.

We dare them and daunt.

AGAVE. The spirits that haunt

The rocks and the river,

The moors and the woods,

The fields and the floods,

Are with us for ever!

Ist MÆNAD. Are of us for ever.

Evoe! Evoe!

AUTONOE. Agave! He cometh!

AGAVE. Cry ho! Autonoe!

ALL. Ho! Ho! Evoe, Ho! Iacche! Evoe! Evoe!

AGAVE. The white air hummeth

With force of the spirit.

We are heirs : we inherit.

Our joys are as theirs;

Weave with your prayers

The joy of a kiss!

Ho! for the bliss

Of the cup and the rod.

He cometh! O lover!

O friend and O God,

Cover us, cover

Our faces, and hover

Above us, within us!

Daintily shod,

Daintily robed,

His witcheries spin us

A web of desire.

Subtle as fire

He cometh among us.

The whole sky globed

Is on fire with delight,

Delight that hath stung us,

The passion of night.

Night be our mistress!

That tress and this tress

Weave with thy wind

Into curls deep-vined!

Passionate bliss!

Rapture on rapture!

Our hymns recapture

The Bromian kiss.

Blessèd our souls!

Blessèd this even!

We reach to the goals

Of the starriest heaven.

Daphnis, and Atthis, and Chrysis, and Chloe,

Mingle, O maidens! Evoe! Evoe!

[C.I.C.T. rises upon the altar; he wears a white and gold robe and the panther skin, and a white and gold nemmes. Throwing off his veil and raising his hands in blessing, he recites;]

C.I.C.T.

I bring ye wine from above,

From the vats of the storied sun;

For every one of ye love,

And life for every one.

Ye shall dance on hill and level;

Ye shall sing in hollow and height,

In the festal mystical revel,

The rapturous Bacchanal rite!

The rocks and trees are yours,

And the waters under the hill,

By the might of that which endures,

The holy heaven of will!

I kindle a flame like a torrent

To rush from star to star;

Your hair as a comet's horrent,

Ye shall see things as they are!

I lift the mask of matter;

I open the heart of man;

For I am of force to shatter

The cast that hideth—Pan!

Your loves shall lap up slaughter,

And dabbled with roses of blood

Each desperate darling daughter

Shall swim in the fervid flood.

I bring ye laughter and tears,

The kisses that foam and bleed,

The joys of a million years,

The flowers that bear no seed.

My life is bitter and sterile,

Its flame is a wandering star.

Ye shall pass in pleasure and peril

Across the mystical bar

That is set for wrath and weeping

Against the children of earth;

But ye in singing and sleeping

Shall pass in measure and mirth!

I lift my wand and wave you

Through hill to hill of delight;

My rosy rivers lave you

In innermost lustral light.

I lead you, lord of the maze,

In the darkness free of the sun;

In spite of the spite that is day's

We are wed, we are wild, we are one!

[The lights go out and the company join in universal dance!]

HERMANUBIS. Silence.

TYPHON. Silence.

C.I.C.T. 1-333. The Secret of the Father is in the Secret of the Son.

SPHINX. 22-22. And the Secret of the Son is in the Secret of the Holy Ghost.

GANYMEDE. 4444. Gloria Patri.

HEBE. Et Filio.

TYPHON. Et Spiritui Sancto.

HERMANUBIS. Ut erat in Principio.

SPHINX. Et nunc est.

C.I.C.T. Et erit semper.

ALL. Amen.

^* Serenade: Drdla.

^* Samadhilied: Waddell.

^†Adagio: Brahms.

^‡Preislied: Wagner.

^* Andante : Mendelssohn.

^* Obertass: Wieniawski.

THE RITE OF MARS

OFFICERS

BROTHER SOL IN ARIES. White Robe, White and gold nemmes, Sceptre.

(MARS) BROTHER MARS. Red Robe, Sword.

(VENUS) SISTER SCORPIO. Green Robe, Violin, Sword.

(ATHENA) BROTHER ARIES. Violet Robe, Spear.

(VULCAN) BROTHER CAPRICORNUS. Black Robe, Tom-tom, Sword.

A guard of PROBATIONERS, armed.

Mars is throned in the South, Scorpio on his right, Aries on his left. In the East is also a veil, behind which is Sol in Aries. In the North is Capricormus, crouching, kept from the altar by the guard.

Charcoal in censer alight. No incense.

BROTHER SOL is concealed behind the veil in the East, enthroned upon the Altar.

MARS, ARIES, and scorpio enthroned.

BRO. CAPRICORNUS. 4444-1.

BRO. ARIES. I-4444.

[MARS reads the Twelvefold Affirmation from 963.

[SOR. SCORPIO plays a short martial air*

[CAPRICORNUS draws aside veil, and admits Probationers and Guests.]

[The voice of Mars is heard reciting the 91st Psalm of David.

BRO. ARIES. Let the sacred perfume be kindled upon the Altar of Mars (does so).

SOR. SCORPIO. Hail unto the Master of the Battle!

BRO. ARIES. Hail unto the Leader of the Armies of Jupiter!

BRO. CAPRICORNUS. Hail unto the Warrior of Eternity!

BRO. MARS. Hail, brethren!

[CAPRICORNUS returns.

I. Let the Temple be purified and consecrated.

[CAPRICORNUS does so.

I. Are the Brethren prepared?

BRO. ARIES. They are prepared, Master! They are drawn up in military array around the sacred altar.

BRO. MARS. I. Brother Capricornus, I command you to perform the Ritual of the Pentagram.

BRO. CAPRICORNUS. Fiat (does so).

BRO. MARS. I. Brother Aries, I command you to perform the Invocation of the Holy Fire.

BRO. ARIES. Fiat (goes to altar).

333. (erect). I swear by Djinn and by Shin and by the space between that I will not stir from this place until the fire of God hath flamed upon the water that is upon the altar.

(His face over lamp) Dost thou hear, Brother Ash?

(Erect) By Aub, the witchery of the secret flame;

By Aud, the subtlety of the inmost fluid;

By Aur, the effulgence of the radiant light;

I call thee, Ash! I adore thee, Ash!

(Over lamp) Ash! Ash! Ash!

I caress thee! I kiss thee! I suck thee up into my mouth and nostrils!

Ohooatan! (three times). (The water flames).

Behold! the fire of God upon the altar as I have sworn by Djinn and by Shin and by the space between! (returns to his throne).

BRO. MARS. I. Hail, sister of the Scorpion!

SOR. SCORPIO. Hail, Lord of the Eagle and the Serpent!

BRO. MARS. Amen. I appoint you to lead the army.

SOR. SCORPIO. Let us carry the holy symbols with sacred song and dance round the altar of Mars.

[The song* is sung as all march roundfive times deosil before

MARS in procession headed by SCORPIO, ARIES, CAPRICORNUS.]

Strike, strike the louder chord!

Draw, draw the Flaming Sword!

Crowned child and conquering Lord!

Horus, avenger! [All resume stations.

Brother Aries, let us invoke the Master of the Battle.

BRO. ARIES [advances and kneels to MARS]. Mighty and Terrible One, we beseech thee to lead us in the Battle. Here, by thy Symbols, thy Spear, the Sword, and The Drum, we pray thee to strengthen our arms and to defend our hearts. For we are thy chosen warriors, O thou Master of the Battle!

[Silence.

We now invoke thee, O Ama-Inanna, whom our Brethren worshipped in the days of ancient Babylon, great Goddess of Love and War, who made love and war to Gilgames, the ruler of thine own city Erech. We invoke thee, our Mother, that thou entreat for us with the Master of Battles.

SOR. SCORPIO. To what end do we ask the aid of the Lord Mars?

BRO. ARIES. Unto Jupiter we have given the thunderbolt and the lightning-flash; for we seek to enthrone him in the stead of Saturn his father. But Saturn yet reigns; we need the Sword of Mars.

SOR. SCORPIO. My heart and hand are with you, children.

[She plays.*

[MARS starts up and recites:

I.... The Dukes of Edom were amazed : Trembling took hold on the mighty of Moab!

2. Lord, when thou wentest out of Seir; when thou marchedst out of the Field of Edom; the earth trembled, and the heaven dropped: the clouds also dropped water.

3. Curse ye Meroz, saith the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the Mighty!

4. The river Kishon swept them away : that ancient river, the river Kishon!

5. Oh, my soul, thou hast trodden down strength!

1. He bowed the Heavens also and came down: and darkness was under his feet: at the Brightness that was before him thick clouds passed: hail stones and flashes of fire!

2. The Lord thundered through the Heavens, and the Highest gave forth his Voice; hailstones and flashes of fire!

3. He sent forth his arrows and scattered them: He hurled forth his lightnings and destroyed them!

4. The Channels of the Waters were seen: and the Foundations of the World were discovered.

5. At thy Rebuke, oh Lord! At the Blast of the Breath of thy Nostrils!

1. Oh Lord! I have heard thy Speech, and was afraid!

2. The Voice of the Lord is upon the Waters.

The God of Glory thundereth!

The Lord is upon many Waters.

3. The Voice of the Lord is strong and powerful!

The Voice of the Lord is full of Majesty!

4. The Voice of the Lord breaketh the Cedars!

Yea! the Lord breaketh the Cedars of Lebanon!

5. The Voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire!

Yea! the Lord shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh!

1. Eloah came out of Temani of Edom: And the Holy One from Mount Paran:

2. He had Karnaim in his hand; and there was the Hiding of his Power.

3. Before him went the Pestilence; and Flaming Fire went forth at his feet.

4. He stood, and measured the Earth: He beheld, and drove asunder the Nations.

5. And the Everlasting Mountains were scattered; the Perpetual Hills did bow!

1. Was the Lord displeased against the Rivers?

Was thine anger kindled against the Rivers?

Was thy wrath kindled against the Sea?

That thou didst ride upon thy Horses and thy Chariots of Salvation?

2. The Mountains saw thee and they trembled. The deluge of Water rolled by: the Deep uttered his Voice; and lifted up his hands on high.

3. The Sun and the Moon stood still in their habitations.

At the light of thine arrows they went, at the shaking of thy glittering spear!

4. Thou didst march through the Land in thine indignation: thou didst thresh the Heathen in thine anger.

5. Thou didst march through the sea with thine Horses : through the Depth of the Mighty Waters!

[CAPRICORNUS starts up wildly and dances the dance of MARS.]

[CAPRICORNUS falls on floor near his place. SOR. SCORPIO. Brother Aries, let us crown the Master of Battles.

[They advance to altar. SOR. SCORPIO takes crown and crowns MARS, all PROBATIONERS joining in chant as before.]

BRO. MARS. May Victory crown your arms!

PROBATIONERS. Let us join battle! We conquer! We conquer.

[CAPRICORNUS rushes forward and threatens them, reciting:

My head is split. The crashing axe

Of the agony of things shears through

The stupid skull: out spurt the brains.

The universe revolves, then cracks,

Then roars in dissolution due;

And I am counting up the gains

And losses of a life afire

With dust of thought and dulled desire.

[SCORPIO, as if alarmed at the interruption, flees to throne of MARS and there with MARS defies the rabble. BRO. ARIES rallies PROBATIONERS.]

So, all is over. I admit

Futility the lord of will.

Life was an episode for me,

As for the meanest monad, knit

To man by mightier bonds than skill

Of subtle-souled psychology

May sever. Aim in chaos? None.

The soul rolls senseless as the sun.

[All are driven back up to altar.

BRO. CAPRICORNUS [ends]. “There is no God.”

MARS [leaps up and goes to altar with uplifted sword]

I. Silence! [a pause]. There is no God—but God!

[ARIES and PROBATIONERS dance a war dance.

[CAPRICORNUS slinks from temple.

[MARS recites.

This is the day which down the void abysm

At the Earth-born's spell yawns for Heaven's despotism,

And Conquest is dragged captive through the deep;

Love, from its awful throne of patient power

In the wise heart, from the last giddy hour

Of dead endurance, from the slippery steep,

And narrow verge of crag-like agony, springs

And folds over the world its healing wings.

Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance—

These are the seals of that most firm assurance

Which bars the pit over Destruction's strength;

And if, with infirm hand, Eternity,

Mother of many acts and hours, should free

The serpent that would clasp her with his length,

These are the spells by which to reassume

An empire o'er the disentangled doom.

To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;

To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;

To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;

To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates

From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;

Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;

This, like thy glory, Titan, is to be

Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;

This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory!

[SCORPIO plays in accordance*

BRO. ARIES. Hail to Thee that sailest heavenwards!

Hail to Thee in whose eye is a Flame of Fire!

Hail, Lord of the Destroying Army!

MARS. Hail, brethren.

BRO. ARIES. Hail unto Thee, that hast fought at the side of our Lord in the great Battle!

Hail unto Thee, our Lady of Tumult!

Terrible and beautiful wast thou in the midst of the battle, upon thy chariot!

Hail unto Thee, as unto thy Lord!

SOR. SCORPIO. Hail, brethren!

BRO. ARIES. Let us rejoice in our victory!

[He leads PROBATIONERS in the triumphal dance which becomes slow and voluptuous.]

[A pause.

BRO. ARIES [to seal his triumph]. 1-4444.

BRO. CAPRICORNUS [without]. 4444-1.

[BRO. ARIES extinguishes all lights.

[SCORPIO plays love poem.^†

[MARS recites:

Who is this maiden robéd for a bride,

White shoulders and bright brows adorable,

The flaming locks that clothe her, and abide,

As God were bathing in the fire of Hell?

They change, they grow, they shake

As sunlight on the lake:

They hiss, they glisten on her bosom bare.

O maiden, maiden queen!

The lightning flows between

Thy mounting breasts, too magically fair.

Draw me, O draw me to a dreaming death!

Send out thine opiate breath,

And lull me to the everlasting sleep,

That, closing from the kisses of disdain

To ecstasy of pain,

I may sob out my life into their dangerous deep.

Who cometh from the mountain as a tower

Stalwart and set against the fiery foes?

Who, breathing as a jasmine-laden bower?

Who, crowned and lissome as a living rose?

Sharp thorns in thee are set;

In me, in me beget

The dolorous despair of this desire.

Thy body sways and swings

Above the tide of things,

Laps me as ocean, wraps me round as fire!

Ye elemental sorceries of song,

Surge, strenuous and strong,

Seeking dead dreams, the secret of the shrine;

So that she drain my life and being up

As from a golden cup,

To mingle in her blood, death's kiss incarnadine.

Who cometh from the ocean as a flower?

Who blossometh above the barren sea,

Thy lotus set beneath thee for a bower,

Thine eyes awakened, lightened, fallen on me?

O Goddess, queen, and wife!

O Lady of my life!

Who set thy stature as a wood to wave?

Whose love begat thy limbs?

Whose wave-washed body swims

That nurtured thee, and found herself a grave?

But thou, O thou, hast risen from the deep!

All mortals mourn and weep

To see thee, seeing that all love must die

Besides thy beauty, see thee and despair!

Deadly as thou art fair,

I cry for all mankind—they are slain, even as I!

[SOR. SCORPIO takes crown off.

[A pause.

[BROTHER CAPRICORNUS dances the dance of Vulcan to anvil-music in gradually increasing red light, at end rushes to throne and finds MARS and SCORPIO, their weapons laid aside, in each other's arms.]

BRO. CAPRICORNUS. Ah, wanton!

[SOR. SCORPIO takes violin and charms the offended deity, who retires pacified.*]

MARS. Brethren in arms, this is not defeat, but victory! For though I be dethroned, not to Me, not to our lady was the glory. For always is the true God hidden—behold!

[One turns on the white light, and there stands SOL. IN ARIES upon the throne of the East, MARS goes to him and recites:]

Unity uttermost showed,

I adore the might of thy breath,

Supreme and terrible God

Who makest the Gods and death

To tremble before thee:—

I, I adore thee!

[He kneels.

O Hawk of gold with power enwalled,

Whose face is like an emerald;

Whose crown is indigo as night;

Smaragdine snakes about thy brow

Twine, and the disk of flaming light

Is on thee, seated in the prow

Of the Sun's bark, enthroned above

With lapis-lazuli for love

And ruby for enormous force

Chosen to seat thee, thee girt round

With leopard's pell, and golden sound

Of planets choral in their course!

[He rises.

O thou self-formulated sire!

Self-master of thy dam's desire!

Thine eyes blaze forth with fiery light;

Thine heart a secret sun of flame!

I adore the insuperable might:

I bow before the unspoken Name.

[He bows, then turns toward altar.

For I am Yesterday, and I

To-day, and I to-morrow, born

Now and again, on high, on high

Travelling on Dian's naked horn!

I am the Soul that doth create

The Gods, and all the Kin of Breath.

I come from the sequestered state;

My birth is from the House of Death.

[He advances to altar.

Hail! ye twin hawks high pinnacled

That watch upon the universe!

Ye that the bier of God beheld!

That bore it onwards, ministers

Of peace within the House of Wrath,

Servants of him that cometh forth

At dawn with many-coloured lights,

Mounting from underneath the North,

The shrine of the celestial Heights!

[A t altar.

He is in me, and I in Him!

Mine is the crystal radiance

That filleth æther to the brim

Wherein all stars and suns may dance.

I am the beautiful and glad,

Rejoicing in the golden day.

I am the spirit silken-clad

That fareth on the fiery way.

I have escaped from Him, whose eyes

Are closed at eventide, and wise

To drag thee to the House of Wrong:—

I am armed! I am armed! I am strong! I am strong!

I make my way : opposing horns

Of secret foemen push their lust

In vain : my song their fury scorns;

They sink, they grovel in the dust.

[He turns to SOL.

Hail, self-created Lord of Night!

Inscrutable and infinite!

Let Orpheus journey forth to see

The Disk in peace and victory!

Let him adore the splendid sight,

The radiance of the Heaven of Nu;

Soar like a bird, laved by the light,

To pierce the far eternal blue!

[He turns to ARIES and SCORPIO.

Hail! Hermes! thou the wands of ill

Hast touched with strength, and they are shivered!

The way is open unto will!

The pregnant Goddess is delivered!

[He kneels to SOL.

Happy, yea, happy! happy is he

That hath looked forth upon the Bier

That goeth to the House of Rest!

His heart is lit with melody;

Peace in his house is master of fear;

His holy Name is in the West

When the sun sinks, and royal rays

Of moonrise flash across the day's.

[He rises and faces altar.

I have risen! I have risen! as a mighty hawk of gold!

From the golden egg I gather, and my wings the world enfold.

I alight in mighty splendour from the thronèd boats of light;

Companies of Spirits follow me; adore the Lords of Night.

Yea, with gladness did they paean, bowing low before my car,

In my ears their homage echoed from the sunrise to the star.

I have risen! I am gathered as a lovely hawk of gold,

I the first-born of the Mother in her ecstasy of old.

Lo! I come to face the dweller in the sacred snake of Khem;

Come to face the Babe and Lion, come to measure force with them!

Ah! these locks flow down, a river, as the earth's before the Sun,

As the earth's before the sunset, and the God and I are One.

I who entered in a Fool, gain the God by clean endeavour;

I am shaped as men and women, fair for ever and for ever.

[He turns and falls clasping SOL'S feet. All prostrate themselves in adoration. SOR. SCORPIO plays her solar chant.*]

[SOL in ARIES recites:

The world's great age begins anew,

The golden years return,

The earth doth like a snake renew

Her winter weeds outworn;

Heaven smiles, and faiths and empires gleam,

Like wrecks of a dissolving dream.

A brighter Hellas rears its mountains

From waves serener far;

A new Peneus rolls his fountains

Against the morning star.

Where fairer Tempes bloom, there sleep

Young Cyclads on a sunnier deep.

A loftier Argo cleaves the main,

Fraught with a later prize;

Another Orpheus sings again,

And loves, and weeps, and dies.

A new Ulysses leaves once more

Calypso for his native shore.

Oh, write no more the tale of Troy,

If earth Death's scroll must be!

Nor mix with Laian rage the joy

Which dawns upon the free;

Although a subtler Sphinx renew

Riddles of death Thebes never knew.

Another Athens shall arise,

And to remoter time

Bequeath, like sunset to the skies,

The splendour of its prime;

And leave, if nought so bright may live,

All earth can take or Heaven can give.

Saturn and Love their long repose

Shall burst, more bright and good

Than all who fell, than One who rose,

Than many unsubdued.

Not gold, not blood, their altar dowers,

But votive tears and symbol flowers.

Oh, cease! must hate and death return?

Cease! must men kill and die?

Cease! drain not to its dregs the urn

Of bitter prophecy.

The world is weary of the past.

Oh, might it die or rest at last!

BRO. ARIES. 1-4444. The battle is indeed fought.

SOL. IN ARIES. 333-333. The victory is indeed won.

BRO. ARIES. Brethren, the Sun is arisen. Let us depart in joy.

SOR. SCORPIO. Let us depart in love.

MARS. Let us depart in peace.

[The officers leave the Temple, MARS and SCORPIO escorting SOL in ARIES, ARIES and CAPRICORNUS following at the head of the Guard of PROBATIONERS.]

^* March : Beethoven.

^* Tune. Litany: Waddell.

^* Romance in G: Beethoven.

^* Polonaise: Vieuxtemps.

^†Romance: Franz Ries.

^* Romance from 2nd Concerto: Wieniawski.

^* Papillon: Bohm.

THE RITE OF SOL

OFFICERS

SOL. Leopard skin. Nemyss white-gold over white-sleeved robe. Spear.

ARIES. White robe, spear.

LEO. Red robe, spear.

SATAN-TYPHON. Violet robe.

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. Green robe.

BESZ. Black robe.

FOUR PROBATIONERS..

Sol is throned in the East; behind him is a black veil which conceals a great scarlet cross. Before him is a second veil. He is supported by Aries on the right, and Leo on the left. The other officers are without the temple, in waiting. In presentation in public, a third veil divides the temple from the congregation.

LEO parts the outermost veil, and advancing, recites chorus from “Atalanta in Calydon.”

Before the beginning of years

There came to the making of man... etc.

... His life is a watch or a vision

Between a sleep and a sleep.

[Returns. A pause.

ARIES. 333-333.

LEO. 333-333.

ARIES. Brother Leo, what is the place?

LEO. The Temple of the Sun upon the Mountain of Abiegnus!

ARIES. Brother Leo, what is the hour?

LEO. Sunset!

ARIES. It is the hour of sacrifice.

LEO. Brother Aries, what is the sacrifice?

ARIES. It is hidden from me.

[Silence.

SOL. I-22-22-1.

ARIES. Hark! it is the Summons of the King.

LEO. It is the Lord of Heaven that awakens the Children of the Light. [They draw the veil—full light—and kneel.

ARIES. Let us adore the Exalted One!

LEO.

Life of Life, thy lips enkindle

With their love the breath between them;

And thy smiles before they dwindle

Make the cold air fire; then screen them

In those looks, where whoso gazes

Faints, entangled in their mazes.

Child of Light! thy limbs are burning

Through the vest which seems to hide them;

As the radiant lines of morning

Through the clouds, ere they divide them;

And this atmosphere divinest

Shrouds thee wheresoe'er thou shinest.

Fair are others; none beholds thee,

But thy voice sounds low and tender

Like the fairest, for it folds thee

From the sight, that liquid splendour,

And all feel, yet see thee never,

As I feel now, lost forever!

Lamp of Earth! where'er thou movest

Its dim shapes are clad with brightness,

And the souls of whom thou lovest

Walk upon the winds with lightness,

Till they fail, as I am failing,

Dizzy, lost, yet unbewailing!

ARIES. Hail unto Thee, O thou that art exalted in thy strength, that travellest over the Heaven in Thy Bark in the Splendour of noon! [ARIES and LEO resume thrones.

[A PROBATIONER recites the 12 fold Glorification of God from 963.]

[Enter SCORPIO-APOPHIS dressed in a filmy white robe, her hair in disorder.]

[ARIES and LEO rise and bow.

ARIES. Hail thou! Whence comest thou?

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. From the House of God.

ARIES. What bringest thou as an offering to our Lord?

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. The House of God is fallen. There is nothing left therein. Therefore I bring nothing but myself.

LEO. Let us burn her upon the altar of burnt offering.

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. But in the fire my tears would be dried up; and these tears are of mine offering to the Lord.

LEO. Let us throw her to the sacred crocodile.

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. But in the water my heart would be chilled; and this heart is of mine offering to the Lord.

LEO. Let us throw her to the winds from the Watchtowers of Silence.

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. But in the wind my hymns would not be heard; and these hymns are of mine offering to the Lord.

LEO. Let us bury her in the consecrated mountain!

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. But in the earth the worms would devour my flesh; and this flesh is of mine offering to the Lord. Oh Lord, let thy servants return unto their thrones that I may worship Thee as I will.

SOL. 22-I-I-22.

[ARIES and LEO return to their thrones.

[SCORPIO-APOPHIS plays her passionate melody, her siren melody, her despairing “Venus in Tannhäuser” melody* She clasps the feet and knees of SOL but he gives no sign of life.]

[At the end ARIES and LEO rise from their thrones—a pause.]

ARIES. (Loudly). 333-333.

LEO. (Louder). 333-333.

ARIES. The hour of sacrifice is past.

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. The hour of sacrifice is to come.

LEO. The sacrifice is not accepted.

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. The sacrifice is accepted.

ARIES. Depart from us, thou unclean thing!

ARIES and LEO raise her and march from the temple, ARIES leading, LEO following her.]

[ARIES and LEO re-enter and resume thrones—a pause.

ARIES. 333-333.

LEO. 333-333.

ARIES. Brother Leo, this is of evil omen.

LEO. Brother Aries, it is indeed of evil omen.

ARIES. There will be no more sacrifice to-day.

LEO. There will be no more sacrifice to-day.

ARIES. The sun is already setting.

LEO. The night birds are already abroad.

ARIES. It grows very dark.

LEO. The path is too steep and dangerous for any pilgrims to come hither.

ARIES. There is no moon to-night.

LEO. I think there will be rain.

ARIES. Let us close the shrine.

LEO. The disk of the sun is not yet quite obscured.

ARIES. But no pilgrims can come now.

LEO. No pilgrims can come now. But it is the rule of the temple that the shrine is open unto the last spark of sunlight.

ARIES. Brother Leo, I beg that you will close the shrine with me.

LEO. It cannot be.

ARIES. Brother Leo, I know the rule. But evil will assuredly come to us from this.

LEO. Brother Aries, the Law may not be broken.

ARIES. Brother Leo, the Law is made so that the wise may break it at their need.

LEO. Brother Aries, in my heart is fidelity—fidelity— fidelity.

ARIES. Brother Leo, a god has whispered in mine ear: it is folly—folly—folly.

LEO. The sun will be obscured in a moment: and no pilgrims can come to-night.

ARIES. No pilgrims can come to-night.

LEO. There will be no more sacrifice.

ARIES. There will be no more sacrifice.

[SATAN-TYPHON, SCORPIO-APOPHIS, and BESZ enter silently tn procession. The light grows momentarily dimmer.]

ARIES. Hail, brethren! Ye are come to adore the splendour of the sun?

SATAN-TYPHON. We are come to sacrifice.

ARIES. What are the offerings?

BESZ. Dancing.

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. Music.

SATAN-TYPHON. Silence and Stillness.

[He prostrates himself and remains motionless.

[SCORPIO-APOPHIS bows to SOL and plays an adoration.*

[BESZ dances in adoration in three-time.

[SATAN-TYPHON rises and bows.

ARIES. Whence come ye, brethren?

SATAN-TYPHON. From the dwelling-place of the sun.

ARIES. Who are ye, brethren?

SATAN-TYPHON. I am the twin brother of the sun.

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. I am the beloved of the sun.

ARIES. [To BESZ.] But who art thou, brother?

[BESZ begins to stammer.

LEO. Who art thou?

[They threaten him with their spears, BESZ crouches in terror and lurks toward West.]

SATAN-TYPHON. I would have speech with my brother the Sun.

ARIES. It is well.

LEO. It is not well. There is danger herein to my Lord.

[He bars the way.

ARIES. Speech cannot harm our Lord.

LEO. Brother, if thou be indeed our brother, what wilt thou say?

SATAN-TYPHON. O Sun, my brother, is it thy will that I have speech with thee? For I lay with thee nine moons in the womb of our mother; for we have loved as none have loved; for I am closer knit with thee than light and darkness, or than life and death!

SOL. 22-I -I-22.

[LEO gives way and returns to his throne, very sad.

[SATAN-TYPHON advances to SOL and ARIES closes the veil on them.]

[BESZ jumps up and runs off crouchingly.

[The lights go out.

[SCORPIO-APOPHIS plays her serpent melody*.

[LEO recites.

Mortals never learn from stories

How catastrophe becomes;

How above the victor's glories

In the trumpets and the drums

And the cry of millions “Master!”

Looms the shadow of disaster.

Every hour a man hath said :

“That at least is scotched and dead.”

Some one circumstance: “At last

That, and its effects, are past.”

Some one terror—subtle foe!

“I have laid that spectre low.”

They know not, learn not, cannot calculate

How subtly Fate

Weaves its fine mesh, perceiving how to wait;

Or how accumulate

The trifles that shall make it master yet

Of the strong soul that bade itself forget.

[A dim red light dawns. BESZ enters, leading four PROBATIONERS who bear the Pastos. They place it before the altar.]

ARIES. What is this offering?

BESZ. The eater of Flesh is my name.

ARIES. Oh, our Lord, our Lord! Arise in thy might, and let thine enemies be scattered!

[ARIES and LEO draw veil. The throne has been cast down. On the black veil is a great red cross, whereon SOL has been crucified. Before him stands SATAN-TYPHON in the sign of Apophis and Typhon.]

[ARIES and LEO fall as if slain, SCORPIO-APOPHIS plays her murder melody*]

[Meanwhile the PROBATIONERS advance, and under the direction of Typhon, who stabs SOL in the proper manner with the spear of SOL, take down SOL from the cross and lay him in the Pastos. They cover it. BESZ does his brutal demoniac dance upon the lid of the coffin.

Exeunt OMNES exc. SOL. This ends in complete darkness. Silence. There is a flash of light, and the stage is shewn empty. Only a glimmer remains. Now SCORPIO-APOPHIS steals on to the stage, and plays a low secret melody.* The red lights increase. She uncovers and embraces the corpse. Then covers it again, goes to the throne, and instals herself thereon. The green light dawns and glows brighter and brighter, as the red light dwindles and goes out.]

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. 7777777.

[The PROBATIONERS and other officers enter, erect.

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. Children, array yourselves before me, and worship at my feet.

ARIES. Our Lord is slain. And who art thou that hast assumed His Throne?

LEO. Our Lord is slain. And who art thou that hast assumed His Throne?

SCORPIO-APOPHIS. I am the Mother of the Gods and the Sister of Time and the Daughter of Space. I am Nature that holdeth sway when the effort of man is exhausted....... Brother Leo, I am the goddess that cometh forth riding upon the Lion. Behold! I strike thee with my wand, and inspire thee.

I command thee to declare me unto the multitude.

LEO.

Lo! in the interstellar space of night

Clothed with deep darkness, the majestic spaces

Abide the dawn of deity and light,

Vibrate before the passionless pale faces

Shrined in exceeding glory, eremite.

The tortoise skies in sombre carapaces

Await the expression and the hour of birth

In silence through the adamantine girth.

I rose in glory, gathered of the foam.

The sea's flower folded, charioting me risen

Where dawn's rose stole from its pearl-glimmering home,

And heaven laughed, and earth: and mine old prison,

The seas that lay beneath the mighty dome,

Shone with my splendour. Light did first bedizen

Earth with its clusters of fiery dew and spray,

When I looked forth and cried, “It is the day!”

The stars are dewdrops on my bosom's space;

The sun and moon are glances through my lashes,

Long, tender rays of night; my subtle face

Burns through the sky-dusk, lightens, fills, and flashes

With solemn joy and laughter of love; the grace

Of all my body swaying stoops and dashes

Swift to the daisy's dawn of love: and swiftest,

O spirit of man, when unto me thou liftest!

Dawn shakes the molten fire of my delight

From the fine flower and fragrance of my tresses!

Sunset bids darken all my body's light,

Mixing its music with the sad caresses

Of the whole world: I wheel in wingless flight

Through lampless space, the starless wildernesses!

Beyond the universal bounds that roll,

There is the shrine and image of my soul.

I am Nature and God : I reign, I am, alone.

None other may abide apart: they perish,

Drawn into me, into my being grown.

None other bosom is, to bear, to nourish,

To be: the heart of all beneath my zone

Of blue and gold is scarlet-bright to cherish

My own life's being, that is, and is not other;

For I am God and Nature and thy Mother.

I am the thousand-breasted milky spouse,

Virginal also : Tartarus and Gaia

Twinned in my womb, and Chaos from my brows

Shrank back abashed, my sister dark and dire,

Mother of Erebus and Night, that ploughs

With starry-sandalled feet the fields of fire;

My sister shrank and fell, the infernal gloom

Changed to the hot sweet shadow of my womb.

I am : that darkness strange and uterine

Is shot with dawn and scented with the rose;

The deep dim prison-house of corn and wine,

Flowers, children, stars, with flame far subtler glows

Formless, all-piercing, death-defying, divine,

A sweet frail lamp whose shadow gleams and shows.

No darkness, is as light is where its rays

Cross, interweave, and marry with the day's!

I am: the heart that flames from central Me,

Seeks out all life, and takes again, to mingle

Its passion with my might and majesty,

Till the vast floods of the man's being tingle

And glow, self-lost within my soul and sea

Of love, the sun of utter light, and single

Keen many-veinéd heart: our lips and kisses

Marry and muse on our immortal blisses.

I am: the greatest and the least: the sole

And separate life of things. The mighty stresses

Of worlds are my nerves twitching. Branch and bole

Of forests waving in deep wildernesses

Are hairs upon my body. Rivers roll

To make one tear in my superb caresses,

When on myself myself begets a child,

A system of a thousand planets piled!

I am: the least, the greatest: the frail life

Of some small coral-insect still may tremble

With love for me, and call me queen and wife;

The shy plant of the water may dissemble

Its love beneath the fronds; reply to strife

With strife, and all its tiny being crumble

Under my rough and warrior husband-kiss,

Whose pain shall burn, and alter, and be bliss!

I am: no word beside that solemn one

Reigns in sound's kingdom to express my station,

Who, clothed and crowned with suns beyond the sun,

Bear on the mighty breast of foam Thalassian,

Bear on my bosom, jutting plenilune,

Maiden, the fadeless Rose of the Creation!

The whole flower-life of earth and sky and sea

From me was born, and shall return to me!

I am: for men and beings passionate,

For mine own self calm as the river-cleaving

Lotus-borne lord of Silence: I create

Or discreate, both in my bosom heaving:

My lightest look is mother of a Fate:

My fingers sapphire-ringed with sky are weaving

Ever new flowers and lawns of life, designed

Nobler and newer in mine older mind.

I am: I am not, but all-changing move

The worlds evolving in a golden ladder,

Spiral or helical, fresh gusts of love

Filling one sphere from the last sphere grown gladder;

All gateways leading far to the above.

Even as the bright coils of the emerald adder

Climb one by one in glory of sunlight, climb

My children to me up the steep of Time.

I am: before me all the years are dead,

And all the fiery locks of sunrise woven

Into the gold and scarlet of my head:

In me all skies and seas are shaken and cloven:

All life and light and love about me shed,

Begotten in me, in my moving moven,

Are as my tears: all worlds that ever swam

As dew of kisses on my lips: I am.

[She draws LEO up to her. The others kneel in adoration.

SCORPIO-APOPHIS plays her soft voluptuous melody.*]

ARIES. Brother Leo, what is the hour?

LEO. The evening star is arisen.

ARIES. The sacrifice is accomplished.

LEO. What is the sacrifice?

ARIES. Man.

LEO. Who is the priestess?

ARIES. Woman.

LEO. Unto what God?

ARIES. It is hidden from me.

LEO. Let every man depart unto his house.

ARIES. I-333-I-I. LEO. I-333-I-I. SCORPIO-APOPHIS. 1-1-333-1.

^* Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde: Wagner.

^* Romance: Max Bruch.

^* Andante Religioso : Thomé.

^* Mort d'Adonis: Waddell.

^* Canzonetta: D'Ambrosio.

^* Romance: Saint Saens.

THE RITE OF VENUS

THE OFFICERS

VENUS. Blue Robe.

TAURUS. Orange Robe.

LIBRA. Green Robe.

PISCES. Crimson Robe.

LUNA IN TAURUS. Silver Robe.

SATURN IN LIBRA. Black Robe.

No officer has any weapon. Venus is throned, and on her right are Libra and Saturn in Libra, on her left Taurus and Luna in Taurus, while at her feet lies Pisces. Her throne is an oyster-shell, as in the picture by Botticelli. Before it a veil. Without, an altar; and without the temple, a further veil.

PRELUDE

Full light, VENUS, seated before altar, LIBRA and TAURUS at its sides.

VENUS. 7777777.

LIBRA. 7777777.

TAURUS. 7777777.

VENUS. Brother Libra, I command thee to declare the Secret of Venus.

LIBRA recites Swinburne's “Hertha.” [All present recline and sleepy.]

VENUS. Having ears they hear not. Brothers Taurus and Libra, let the veil be drawn. [They do so.

PART I

[Twilight, VENUS is enthroned on high, swathed in masses of red hair and roses. The altar is covered with roses; there is a small flame thereon.]

TAURUS and LIBRA draw the inner veil apart. LIBRA returns and kneels.

LIBRA.

Daughter of Glory, child

Of Earth's Dione mild

By the Father of all, the Ægis-bearing King!

Spouse, daughter, mother of God,

Queen of the blest abode

In Cyprus' splendour singly glittering.

Sweet sister unto me,

I cry aloud to thee!

I laugh upon thee laughing, O dew caught up from sea!

Drawn by sharp sparrow and dove,

And swan's wide plumes of love,

And all the swallow's swifter vehemence,

And, subtler than the Sphinx,

The ineffable iynx

Heralds thy splendour swooning into sense,

When from the bluest bowers

And greenest-hearted hours

Of Heaven thou smil'st toward earth, a miracle of flowers!

Down to the loveless sea

Where lay Persephone

Violate, where the shade of earth is black,

Crystalline out of space

Flames the immortal face!

The glory of the comet-tailéd track

Blinds all black earth with tears.

Silence awakes and hears

The music of thy moving come over the starry spheres.

Wrapped in rose, green, and gold,

Blues many and manifold,

A cloud of incense hides thy splendour of light;

Hides from the prayer's distress

Thy loftier loveliness,

Till thy veil's glory shrouds the earth from night;

And silence speaks indeed,

Seeing the subtler speed

Of its own thought than speech of the Pandean reed!

[LIBRA returns.

VENUS. 7777777.

SATURN. Amen.

VENUS. 333-1-333-

LUNA. Amen.

VENUS. 1-55555-1.

LIBRA and PISCES. Amen.

VENUS. Brother Saturn, what is the hour?

SATURN. Twilight.

VENUS. Sister Pisces, from whose house are we come out?

PISCES. From the House of Death.

VENUS. Brother Taurus, what is stronger than death?

TAURUS. Love.

VENUS. Brother Libra, what is the place?

LIBRA. The Mountain of Venus, that hangeth from the navel of the Universe over the Great Abyss.

VENUS. Let us celebrate the Rite of Venus.

[LUNA plays a waltz tune. The PROBATIONERS dance together.]

VENUS. Children of Love, what is the hour?

ALL. [A confused murmur.] It is the hour of love.

[ALL sink down together. The lights go out. A long pause.]

PART II

VENUS. (Awaking) 333-1-333.

[Venus is brilliantly illuminated; the rest remain dark.

VENUS. Little brother, what is the hour?

PISCES. The dawn is at hand.

VENUS. Little brother, what is the place?

TAURUS. It is the holy mountain of our Lady Venus.

VENUS. Children, awake and rejoice.

LIBRA. Awake and rejoice.

PISCES. How shall we rejoice?

TAURUS. As our Lady hath appointed.

LIBRA. As you like it.

PISCES. Wherein shall we rejoice?

TAURUS. In our Lady Venus.

LIBRA. In what you will.

TAURUS. Thy will, our Lady, and not ours be done!

PISCES. Mistress, let the adorations be performed!

VENUS. Children, array yourselves before me, and rejoice in the adorations of my beauty.

[They form, each with his partner. Libra disappears behind veil, TAURUS recites invocation.]

TAURUS.

Salutation to Hathor, holy cow in the pastures of Evening.

Salutation to Hathor, in the Mountain of the West; in the land of perfect Peace, Salutation.

A devouring fire is thy soul, and the corpses of the dead are enkindled at thy breath.

Salutation to Hathor, the child of Isis and of Nephthys!

Salutation to Hathor, the bride of Apis, of Apis that hath the beetle upon his tongue!

A devouring fire is thy soul, and the corpses of the dead are enkindled at thy breath.

Salutation to Hathor, whose necklace is of the Souls of the blessed ones of Amennti.

Salutation to Hathor, whose girdle is of the Souls of the blessed ones of Seb!

Salutation to Hathor, whose sandals are of the Souls of the blessed ones of Nu!

A devouring fire is thy soul, and the corpses of the dead are enkindled at thy breath.

[Returns to his throne.

VENUS. Brother Libra, art thou silent?

[A pause.

Brother Libra, where art thou?

LIBRA, still hidden, recites from Swinburne's “Atalanta”

We have seen thee, O Love, thou art fair; thou art goodly, O Love;

Thy wings make light in the air as the wings of a dove, etc.

... Famine, and blighting of corn,

When thy time was come to be born.

[LIBRA appears and confronts her.

All these we know of; but thee

Who shall discern or declare? etc.

... Wilt thou utterly bring to an end?

Have mercy, mother!

VENUS. Nay, brother, thou art the chiefest of my chosen.

LIBRA. Alas.

VENUS. Yea, brother: in the end all turn to me, and all return to me.

Isis am I, and from my life are fed

All showers and suns, all moons that wax and wane;

All stars and streams, the living and the dead,

The mystery of pleasure and of pain.

I am the mother! I the speaking sea!

I am the earth and its fertility!

Life, death, love, hatred, light, darkness, return to me—

To me!

Hathoör am I, and to my beauty drawn

All glories of the Universe bow down,

The blossom and the mountain and the dawn,

Fruit's blush, and woman, our creation's crown.

I am the priest, the sacrifice, the shrine,

I am the love and life of the divine!

Life, death, love, hatred, light, darkness are surely mine—

Are mine!

Venus am I, the love and light of earth,

The wealth of kisses, the delight of tears,

The barren pleasure never come to birth,

The endless, infinite desire of years.

I am the shrine at which thy long desire

Devoured thee with intolerable fire.

I was song, music, passion, death, upon thy lyre—

Thy lyre!

I am the Grail and I the Glory now:

I am the flame and fuel of thy breast;

I am the star of God upon thy brow;

I am thy queen, enrapcured and possessed.

Hide thee, sweet river; welcome to the sea,

Ocean of love that shall encompass thee!

Life, death, love, hatred, light, darkness, return to me—

To me!

[PISCES performs a sleepy sinuous dance by herself, and returns to Venus' throne lapsed into herself, and as if exhausted.]

Rise, rise, my knight! My king! My love, arise!

See the grave avenues of Paradise,

The dewy larches bending at my breath,

Portentous cedars prophesying death!

[She is interrupted by the Violin of the throned LUNA, who plays her unutterable melody* PISCES manifests distress.]

VENUS. Brother Libra, what is this song?

LIBRA

My soul is an enchanted boat,

Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float

Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing;

And thine doth like an angel sit

Beside a helm conducting it,

Whilst all the winds with melody are ringing.

It seems to float ever, for ever,

Upon that many-winding river,

Between mountains, woods, abysses,

A paradise of wildernesses!

Till, like one in slumber bound,

Borne to the ocean, I float down, around,

Into a sea profound, of ever-spreading sound.

Meanwhile thy spirit lifts its pinions

In music's most serene dominions;

Catching the winds that fan that happy heaven.

And we sail on, away, afar,

Without a course, without a star,

But by the instinct of sweet music driven;

Till through Elysian garden islets

By thee, most beautiful of pilots,

Where never mortal pinnace glided,

The boat of my desire is guided;

Realms where the air we breathe is love,

Which in the winds and on the waves doth move,

Harmonising this earth with what we feel above.

We have past Age's icy caves,

And Manhood's dark and tossing waves,

And Youth's smooth ocean, smiling to betray:

Beyond the glassy gulphs we flee

Of shadow-peopled Infancy,

Through Death and Birth, to a diviner day;

A paradise of vaulted bowers,

Lit by downward-gazing flowers,

And watery paths that wind between

Wildernesses calm and green,

Peopled by shapes too bright to see,

And rest, having beheld; somewhat like thee;

Which walk upon the sea, and chant melodiously!

[VENUS manifests distress, PISCES slips away to the throne of LUNA.]

[LUNA plays her conquering melody.*

VENUS. Oh! Oh!

LIBRA. Holier than pleasure is pain; nobler is abstinence than indulgence; from sloth and faith we turn to toil and science; from the tame victories of the body to the wild triumphs of the mind.

VENUS. It is the ruin of the temple.

LIBRA. For from thee cometh the Utterance of the Present; but of the Future no word.

VENUS. And thou wilt?

LIBRA. The Word.

[SATURN comes out and dances his dance, and falls, clasping the hem of LIBRA'S robe.]

VENUS. Who is this? These are not my dances; these footsteps tread not my measures; not me he worships by the paces and pauses of his feet!

[LUNA plays a wild and horrible melody.^†

[SATURN drags LIBRA backwards into the dusk.

[The PROBATIONERS group similarly; MARS with MARS and VENUS with VENUS. Some, too, stand isolated.]

VENUS. Brother Taurus, art thou faithful, thou alone?

TAURUS. [Seductively yet ironically.] Knowest thou not me?

VENUS. Yea, my beloved, Lord of all my doves.

TAURUS. Venus, our Lady!

VENUS. Come unto me!

[She half rises and draws him to her.

TAURUS. Within the veil?

VENUS. There is no veil before my shrine!

[She unfastens his robe. As it falls he leaps up with the Caduceus, as MERCURY, and tramples her beneath his feet.]

TAURUS. In the Beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God; and the Word was God!

[All come forward; SATURN and LIBRA linked; LUNA and PISCES linked; and bow to him.]

LUNA. The Treason is accomplished.

PISCES. The mind is nobler than the body.

SATURN. Friendship is holier than love.

LIBRA. Nature is overcome by wit.

PISCES. How shall we adore thee?

TAURUS. As you like it.

SATURN. What shall we sacrifice?

TAURUS. What you will.

[LUNA plays a moto perpetuo* ALL bowing in adoration to MERCURY.]

LIBRA. Brother, what is the hour?

PISCES. Dawn.

LIBRA. Let us depart unto the work of the day.

ALL. Amen.

^* Romance in D: Beethoven.

^* Polonaise in D: Wieniawski.

^†Witches' Dance: Paganini.

^* Moto perpetuo: Ries.

THE RITE OF MERCURY

OFFICERS

MERCURY. Violet Robe.

FR. and SOR. GEMINI. White Dancing Robe and Black Robe.

VIRGO. Green Robe.

FOUR PROBATIONERS.

Mercury is throned between the Twins. At the west of the Altar is Virgo, and his four attendants.

I

MERCURY. 22-333-333. [Full light.

The Speech in the Silence.

The Words against the Son of Night.

The Voice of Mercury in the Universe in the Presence of the Eternal Gods.

The Formulas of Knowledge.

The Wisdom of Breath.

The Radix of Vibration.

The Shaking of the Invisible.

The Rolling Asunder of the Darkness.

The Becoming Visible of Matter.

The Piercing of the Coils of the Stooping Dragon.

The Breaking Forth of the Light.

[All being seated, the FOUR PROBATIONERS rise from among the other PROBATIONERS and march to the altar.]

FIRST PROBATIONER. 333-333-22. Brethren, let us kindle the holy perfumes in honour of the most divine God.

ALL FOUR PROBATIONERS. [While he does so.] Hail unto the most divine Lord Mercury!

FIRST PROBATIONER. [To FR. GEMINI] Our Brother, child of the Voice, we ask Thee for thy help. Wilt thou purify the Temple, that we may proceed with the Invocations?

FR. GEMINI. I am one with you, Brethren!

[He rises and performs the Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram. While he does so, the FOUR PROBATIONERS stand facing the assembly.]

FR. GEMINI. Let the rites of Mercury be celebrated.

[They turn round, facing the altar again.

[MERCURY reads Gemini and Virgo sections from 963 at altar.]

[The big lights are put out; only a small purple light remains.]

FIRST PROBATIONER. O Thou Lord of Harmony! Master of the Right Will, Thou who hast brought unto us the divine seeds of self-knowledge—we, the humble Servants of the children of Thy voice, we call on Thee to lead us out of our Ignorance!

CHORUS OF THREE OTHER PROBATIONERS. We call Thee, O Thrice Holy!

FIRST PROBATIONER. O Thou, Divine Worker! Master of all that is Divine! Herald of all that is coming! Builder of our House! Holy art Thou, Thou that knowest the Supreme Mysteries!

CHORUS. We call Thee, O Thrice Holy!

FIRST PROBATIONER. O Thou, All Good, we call Thee!

VIRGO. I. [Rising.] Not Good alone, Brethren! But all complete in the perfect Equilibrium.

FR. GEMINI. Ay, The Balance must be kept even. Sister, let us invoke the Lord of Knowledge!

VIRGO. He gave unto you, children of His Voice, the Power of the making of fair things. Sing ye unto your Shepherd!

FR. GEMINI. [Rises and stands before MERCURY.] O Spirit, O Divine Messenger, Mighty One, most mighty circling and all comprehending Divine Bearer of the Wand, hail! Cœlestial, æthereal, inter-æthereal, water like, air like, fire like, earth like, like unto light, like unto darkness, shining as do the Stars, moist, hot, cold Spirit, hail to Thee, ever laughing Child-God, all-knowing. Through Thee alone can we hope to reach Light and Truth. [Returns to his seat.

[SOR. GEMINI plays accordingly.*

[A short pause.

MERCURY. At the Ending of the Light,

At the Limits of the Night,

Stood Mercury before the Unborn ones of Time.

Then was formulated the Universe;

Then came forth the Gods thereof,

The æons of the Bornless Beyond.

Then was the Voice vibrated;

Then was the Name declared.

At the Threshold of Entrance,

Between the Universe and the Infinite,

In the Sign of the Enterer

Stood Mercury, as before him

The æons were proclaimed.

In Symbols did he record them;

In Breath did he vibrate them;

For between the Light and the Darkness did he stand.

II
The Temple in Darkness

MERCURY.

O Light in Light! O flashing wings of fire!

The swiftest of the moments of the sea

Is unto thee

Even as some slow-foot Eternity

With limbs that drag and wheels that tire.

O subtle-minded flame of amber gyre,

It seems a spark of gold

Grown purple, and behold!

A flame of gray!

Then the dark night-wings glow

With iridescent indigo,

Shot with some violet ray;

And all the vision flames across the horizon

The millionth of no time—and when we say:

Hail!—Thou art gone!

The Moon is dark beside thy crown; the Sun

Seems a pale image of thy body bare;

And for thine hair

Flash comets lustrous with the dewfall rare

Of tears of that most memorable One,

The radiant Queen, the veiléd Paphian.

The wings of light divine

Beneath thy body shine;

The invisible

Rayed with some tangible flame,

Seeking to formulate a name,

A citadel;

And the winged heels are fiery with enormous speed,

One spurning heaven; the other trampling hell;

And thou—recede!

O Hermes! Messenger of inmost thought!

Descend! Abide! Swift coursing in my veins

Shoot dazzling pains,

The Word of Selfhood integrate of Nought,

The Ineffable Amen! the Wonder wrought.

Bring death if life exceed!

Bid thy pale Hermit bleed,

Yet life exude;

And Wisdom and the Word of Him

Drench the mute mind grown dim

With quietude!

Fix thy sharp lightnings in my night! My spirit free!

Mix with my breath and life and name thy mood

And self of Thee.

[SOR. GEMINI plays accordingly.*

[A short pause.

FR. GEMINI. Master, be it thy pleasure to perform the Invocation of Mercury.

[All PROBATIONERS rise and join the four others in front of the altar.]

MERCURY. [Leaves throne.] Majesty of the Godhead, Wisdom-crowned Thoth, Lord of the Gates of the Universe: Thee, Thee we invoke!

O Thou of the Ibis head: Thee, Thee we invoke!

Thou who wieldest the Wand of Double Power: Thee, Thee we invoke!

Thou who bearest in Thy left hand the Rose and Cross of Light and Life: Thee, Thee we invoke!

O Thou whose head is as an Emerald, and Thy Nemyss as the night sky-blue! Thou whose skin is of flaming orange, as though it burned in a furnace: Thee, Thee we invoke!

Behold, I am yesterday, to-day, and the brother of The Morrow! I am born again and again. Mine is the unseen force from which the Gods are sprung; that giveth life unto the dwellers in the watch-towers of the Universe.

I am the charioteer of the East, Lord of the Past and the Future. I see by mine own inward light; Lord of Resurrection, who cometh forth from the dusk, and whose birth is from the House of Death.

O ye two divine hawks upon your pinnacles, who keep Watch over the Universe! Ye who company the bier unto the House of Rest. Ye who pilot the Ship of Râ, ever advancing onwards unto the heights of Heaven!

Lord of the Shrine which standeth in the centre of the Earth!

Behold He is in me and I in Him!

Mine is the radiance in which Ptah floateth over his firmament.

I travel upon high.

I tread upon the firmament of Nu.

I raise a flashing flame with the lightning of mine eye, ever rushing forward in the splendour of the daily glorified Râ, giving my life to the dwellers of Earth.

If I say “come up upon the mountains,”

The Celestial waters shall flow at my word;

For I am Ra incarnate,

Khephra created in the flesh!

I am the image of my Father Tmu, Lord of the City of the Sun!

The God who commands is in my mouth;

The God of Wisdom is in my heart:

My tongue is the sanctuary of Truth :

And a God sitteth upon my lips!

My word is accomplished each day, and the desire of my heart realises itself, like that of Ptah when he creates his works.

I am Eternal; therefore everything acts according to my designs, and everything obeys my words.

Therefore I say unto Thee: come forth unto me from thine abode in the Silence, unutterable Wisdom, All-light, All-power ! Thoth, Hermes, Mercury, Odin, by whatever name I call Thee, Thou art still un-named and nameless to Eternity! Come thou forth, I say, and aid and guard me in this Work of Art.

Thou, Star of the East that didst conduct the Magi! Thou art the same, all present in Heaven and in Hell. Thou that vibratest betwixt the Light and the Darkness. Rising, descending; changing ever, yet ever the same!

The Sun is Thy Father!

Thy Mother the Moon!

The Wind hath borne Thee in its bosom!

And Earth hath nourished the changeless Godhead of Thy Youth.

Come Thou forth, I say, come Thou forth

And make all spirits subject unto me!

So that every spirit of the firmament,

And of the Ether,

Of the Earth,

And under the Earth,

On dry land,

And in the Water,

Of whirling Air,

And of rushing Fire,

And every spell and scourge of God, may be obedient unto Me!

[A pause.

[MERCURY goes to his throne.

FR. GEMINI. I. Brother Virgo, didst thou hear the Voice?

VIRGO. Ay, Brother.

FR. GEMINI. Tell me, Brother, is not Mercury a great God?

VIRGO. Indeed, Son of Maia, the greatest of all Gods that tread upon the Milky Way.

FR. GEMINI. It is so.

SOR. GEMINI. Yet, Brother, there is the Sun-God!

VIRGO. Is not Mercury the Sun-God, when hidden during the Night, among the souls of the dead? Hail unto Thee, Trismegistus, Hail unto thee!

SOR. GEMINI. Hail, O Sender of Dreams!

BR. GEMINI. Hail, O Supporter of Bacchus Infant!

MERCURY. Hail, Twins!

FIRST PROBATIONER. Thou art indeed the greatest of all Gods, O Mercury!

CHORUS. Hail, Mercury.

MERCURY. Yet, ye will betray me!

Bury me in a nameless grave!

I came from God the world to save,

I brought it wisdom from above,

Worship, and liberty, and love.

So be my grave without a name

That earth may swallow up my shame!

[SOR. GEMINI plays her saddest yet swiftest melody.*

[A pause.

VIRGO. O, who art Thou, most lovely form that killeth me with the pleasure of Thy Vision?

MERCURY. I am thyself—that which is of thyself and dependent upon thyself.

VIRGO. Sister and Brother Gemini, kneel ye before the greatest of all Gods.

FR. GEMINI. Alas, Brother! Is the Speech greater than the Silence?

VIRGO. I. Brethren, kneel ye before the greatest of all Gods! [None obey.

MERCURY, I. Silence.... Thou hast no followers, Brother.

SOR. GEMINI. Behold thine handmaiden! Where thou goest I will go; thy people shall be my people and thy God my God!

[She walks to the throne.

MERCURY. Peace upon thee, beloved!. . . But the Brethren say sooth. Even Mercury liveth not for ever.

[He recites.

The light streams stronger through the lamps of sense.

Intelligence

Grows as we go. Alas: its icy glimmer

Shows dimmer, dimmer

The awful vaults we traverse. Were the sun

Himself the one

Glory of space, he would but illustrate

The night of Fate.

Are not the hosts of heaven in vain arrayed?

Their light dismayed

Before the vast blind spaces of the sky?

O galaxy

Of thousands upon thousands closely curled,

Your golden world

Incalculably small, its closest cluster

Mere milky lustre

Staining the infinite darkness! Base and blind

Our minion mind

Seeks a great light, a light sufficient, light

Insufferably bright,

Hence hidden for an hour: imagining

This vast vain thing,

We call it God, and Father. Empty hand

And prayer unplanned

Stretch fatuous to the void. Ah! men my friends

What fury sends

This folly to intoxicate your hearts?

Dread air disparts

Your vital ways from these unsavoury follies;

Black melancholies

Sit straddled on your bended backs. The throne

Of the unknown

Is fit for children. We are too well ware

How vain is prayer,

How nought is great, since all is immanent

The vast content

Of all the universe unalterable.

We know too well

How no one thing abides awhile at all,

How all things fall,

Fall from their seat, the lamentable place,

Before their face,

Weary and pass and are no more. So we,

Since hope must be,

Look to the future, to the chance minute

That life may shoot

Some flower at least to blossom in the night,

Since vital light

Is sure to fail us on the hideous way.

What? Must we pray?

Verily, O thou littlest babe, too weak

To stir or speak,

Capable hardly of a thought, yet seed

Of word and deed!

To thine assured fruition we may trust

This weary dust.

We who are old, and palsied (and so wise!)

Lift up our eyes

To little children, as the storm-tossed bark

Hails in the dark

Some hardly visible harbour light; we hold

The hours of gold

To our own breasts, whose hours are iron and brass:—

So swift they pass

And grind us down:—we hold the wondrous light

Our scattering sight

Yet sees, the one star in a night of woe.

We trust, and so

Lift up our voices in the dying day

Indeed to pray:

O little hands that are so soft and strong,

Lead us along!

[SOR. GEMINI plays accordingly*

[A pause.

FR. GEMINI. Brother Virgo, wilt thou not join us who love not Speech?

VIRGO. Hail unto Mercury. He killeth Sol at the close of every Twilight, and hangeth up the sky of Night on the Tree of Heaven, fastened up with the Star-headed nails.

MERCURY. Brother Gemini, do Thou perform the dance of thy Virginal Sister.

[FR. GEMINI dances.

[At the end of his dance, he falls before the altar. SOROR GEMINI and all PROBATIONERS circumambulate round him, then stop, facing MERCURY.]

MERCURY. Come, Sister, no Divine Being can be reached, save through Me.

[He descends, and joins the PROBATIONERS, leading SOROR GEMINI by the hand.]

[VIRGO, left now alone before the empty shrine of MERCURY, walks slowly in front of it!]

VIRGO. Hail unto the Lord Mercury!

[A pause, during which all PROBATIONERS bend their heads low. MERCURY stands apart with SOR. GEMINI. VIRGO stands still before the shrine, hooded.]

MERCURY. And this word I speak unto ye:

[He is heard whispering.

StiBeTTChePhMeFShiSS

[A pause.

MERCURY (loudly). Konx Om Pax!

[Purple light off, white light on.

[He seats SOR. GEMINI upon his Throne. She plays her babe-music.*]

FR. GEMINI. The will of the Gods be accomplished!

[All depart.

^* Hungarian Dance No. 2: Brahms.

^* Sarabande: Bach.

^* Scherzo: Tschaikowski.

^* Berceuse: César Cui.

^* Nocturne: G. Boyle.

THE RITE OF LUNA

OFFICERS

LUNA. Silver Robe and Veil. Violin. Artemis. The Lady of the Moon.

CANCER. Amber Robe. Cup. Warden of the Holy Graal.

TAURUS. Orange Robe. Bow and Quiver. The Lord of the Bow.

A NYMPH. White Robe. The Head of the Dragon.

A SATYR. Black Robe. The Tail of the Dragon.

PAN. Black Robe, Tom-tom.

In the east Luna is throned, Cancer on her right, Taurus on her left. Beyond these the Satyr and the Nymph. At the apex of a descending Triangle, upon the earth, Pan.

One reciteth “The Twelvefold Certitude of God” from 963. The veil is withdrawn.

CANCER. 333-333-333.

TAURUS. 333-333-333.

CANCER. I. Brother Taurus, what is the hour?

TAURUS. Moonrise.

CANCER. I. Brother Taurus, what is the place?

TAURUS. The Chapel of the Holy Graal.

CANCER. I. What is my office?

TAURUS. Warden of the Graal.

CANCER. I. What is my robe?

TAURUS. Chastity.

CANCER. I. What is my weapon?

TAURUS. Vigilance.

CANCER. I. Whom do we serve?

TAURUS. The Lady Artemis.

CANCER. I. How many are her servants?

TAURUS. Nine.

CANCER. I. Who are they?

TAURUS. Three for the dew; three for the rain; and three for the snow.

CANCER. I. Who are the great Officers?

TAURUS. Thyself, the Warden of the Holy Graal.

Myself, the Lord of the Bow.

A nymph, a satyr—

PAN. I. And Pan!

CANCER. Brother Pan, I command thee to honour our Lady Artemis.

TAURUS. Bear the Cup of Libation!

CANCER. 333-333-333.

[PAN recites chorus from Swinburne's “Atalanta.”

When the hounds of spring are on winter's traces...

The wolf that follows, the fawn that flies.

TAURUS. The goddess stirs not.

CANCER. Silence is the secret of our Lady Artemis.

PAN. Hath no man lifted her veil?

CANCER. No man hath lifted her veil.

TAURUS. Bear the Cup of Libation!

CANCER. 333-333-333. It is the hour of sealing up the shrine.

TAURUS. Let us banish the spirits of the elements.

[Performs the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram and returns.]

Bear the Cup of Libation!

CANCER. 333-333-333. Let us banish the spirits of the planets.

[Performs the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Hexagram and returns.]

CANCER. Bear the Cup of Libation!

PAN. 333-333-333. Let us banish the holy Emanations from the One, lest our Lady's sleep be stirred.

[He banishes the Sephiroth by the appointed Ritual.

Bear the Cup of Libation!

CANCER. 333-333-333. Brother Taurus, the shrine is well guarded.

TAURUS. The shrine is perfectly guarded.

SATYR. Bear the Cup of Libation!

CANCER. 333-333-333.

PAN.

Hear me, Lord of the Stars!

For thee I have worshipped ever

With stains and sorrows and scars,

With joyful, joyful endeavour.

Hear me, O lily-white goat!

O crisp as a thicket of thorns,

With a collar of gold for Thy throat,

A scarlet bow for Thy horns!

Here, in the dusty air,

I build Thee a shrine of yew.

All green is the garland I wear,

But I feed it with blood for dew!

After the orange bars

That ribbed the green west dying

Are dead, O Lord of the Stars,

I come to Thee, come to Thee crying.

The ambrosial moon that arose

With breasts slow heaving in splendour

Drops wine from her infinite snows,

Ineffably, utterly, tender.

O moon! ambrosial moon!

Arise on my desert of sorrow,

That the magical eyes of me swoon

With lust of rain to-morrow!

Ages and ages ago

I stood on the bank of a river,

Holy and holy and holy, I know,

For ever and ever and ever!

A priest in the mystical shrine,

I muttered a redeless rune,

Till the waters were redder than wine

In the blush of the harlot moon.

I and my brother priests

Worshipped a wonderful woman

With a body lithe as a beast's,

Subtly, horribly human.

Deep in the pit of her eyes

I saw the image of death,

And I drew the water of sighs

From the well of her lullaby breath.

She sitteth veiled for ever,

Brooding over the waste.

She hath stirred or spoken never.

She is fiercely, manly chaste!

What madness make me awake

From the silence of utmost eld

The grey cold slime of the snake

That her poisonous body held?

By night I ravished a maid

From her father's camp to the cave.

I bared the beautiful blade;

I dipped her thrice i' the wave;

I slit her throat as a lamb's,

That the fount of blood leapt high

With my clamorous dithyrambs,

Like a stain on the shield of the sky.

With blood and censer and song

I rent the mysterious veil;

My eyes gaze long and long

On the deep of that blissful bale.

My cold grey kisses awake

From the silence of utmost eld

The grey cold slime of the snake

That her beautiful body held.

But—God! I was not content

With the blasphemous secret of years;

The veil is hardly rent

While the eyes rain stones for tears,

So I clung to the lips and laughed

As the storms of death abated,

The storms of the grievous graft

By the swing of her soul unsated.

Wherefore reborn as I am

By a stream profane and foul,

In the reign of a Tortured Lamb,

In the realm of a sexless Owl,

I am set apart from the rest

By meed of the mystic rune

That reads in peril and pest

The ambrosial moon—the moon!

For under the tawny star

That shines in the Bull above

I can rein the riotous car

Of galloping, galloping Love;

And straight to the steady ray

Of the Lion-heart Lord I 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!

Is it 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!

Let him pierce his God to the marrow!

Let the soul of his God flow out!

Whether a snake or a sun

In his horoscope Heaven hath cast,

It is nothing; every one

Shall win to the moon at last.

The mage has wrought by his art

A billion shapes in the sun.

Look through to the heart of his heart,

And the many are shapes of one!

An end to the art of the mage,

And the cold grey blank of the prison!

An end to the adamant age!

The ambrosial moon is arisen.

I have bought a lily-white goat

For the price of a crown of thorns,

A collar of gold for its throat,

A scarlet bow for its horns;

I have bought a lark in the lift

For the price of a butt of sherry:

With these, and God for a gift,

It needs no wine to be merry!

I have bought for a wafer of bread

A garden of poppies and clover;

For a water bitter and dead,

A foam of fire flowing over.

From the Lamb and his prison fare

And the Owl's blind stupor, arise!

Be ye wise, and strong, and fair,

And the nectar afloat in your eyes!

Arise, O ambrosial moon,

By the strong immemorial spell,

By the subtle veridical rune

That is mighty in heaven and hell!

Drip thy mystical dews

On the tongues of the tender fauns,

In the shade of initiate yews,

Remote from the desert dawns!

Satyrs and Fauns, I call.

Bring your beauty to man!

I am the mate for ye all;

I am the passionate Pan.

Come, O come to the dance,

Leaping with wonderful whips,

Life on the stroke of a glance,

Death in the stroke of the lips!

I am hidden beyond,

Shed in a secret sinew,

Smitten through by the fond

Folly of wisdom in you!

Come, while the moon (the moon!)

Sheds her ambrosial splendour,

Reels in the redeless rune

Ineffably, utterly, tender!

Hark! the appealing cry

Of deadly hurt in the hollow:—

Hyacinth! Hyacinth! Ay!

Smitten to death by Apollo.

Swift, O maiden moon,

Send thy ray-dews after;

Turn the dolorous tune

To soft ambiguous laughter!

Mourn, O Maenads, mourn!

Surely your comfort is over:

All we laugh at you lorn.

Ours are the poppies and clover!

O that mouth and eyes,

Mischievous, male, alluring!

O that twitch of the thighs,

Dorian past enduring!

Where is wisdom now?

Where the sage and his doubt?

Surely the sweat of the brow

Hath driven the demon out.

Surely the scented sleep

That crowns the equal war

Is wiser than only to weep—

To weep for evermore!

Now, at the crown of the year,

The decadent days of October,

I come to thee, God, without fear;

Pious, chaste, and sober.

I solemnly sacrifice

This first-fruit flower of wine

For a vehicle of thy vice,

As I am Thine to be mine.

For five in the year gone by

I pray Thee give to me one;

A lover stronger than I,

A moon to swallow the sun!

May he be like a lily-white goat,

Crisp as a thicket of thorns,

With a collar of gold for his throat,

A scarlet bow for his horns!

CANCER. May our Lady Artemis be favourable!

TAURUS. May our Lady Artemis never be awakened!

[NYMPH comes forward and dances her virginal dance.

PAN. Of what worth is the gold in the mine?

CANCER. Brother Pan, be silent.

NYMPH. Bear the Cup of Libation!

CANCER. 333-333-333.

PAN. [Recites.

Mother of Light, and the Gods! Mother of Music, awake!

Silence and Speech are at odds; Heaven and Hell are at stake.

By the Rose and the Cross I conjure; I constrain by the Snake and the Sword;

I am he that is sworn to endure—Bring us the word of the Lord!

By the brood of the Bysses of Brightening, whose God was my sire;

By the Lord of the Flame and the Lightning, the King of the Spirits of Fire;

By the Lord of the Waves and the Waters, the King of the Hosts of the Sea,

The fairest of all of whose daughters was mother to me;

By the Lord of the Winds and the Breezes, the King of the Spirits of Air,

In whose bosom the infinite ease is that cradled me there;

By the Lord of the Fields and the Mountains, the King of the Spirits of Earth

That nurtured my life at his fountains from the hour of my birth;

By the Wand and the Cup I conjure; by the Dagger and Disk I constrain;

I am he that is sworn to endure; make thy music again!

I am Lord of the Star and the Seal; I am Lord of the Snake and the Sword;

Reveal us the riddle, reveal! Bring us the word of the Lord;

As the flame of the sun, as the roar of the sea, as the storm of the air,

As the quake of the earth—let it soar for a boon, for a bane, for a snare,

For a lure, for a light, for a kiss, for a rod, for a scourge, for a sword—

Bring us thy burden of bliss—Bring us the word of the Lord!

TAURUS. In vain thou askest speech from our Lady of Silence:

CANCER. Bear the Cup of Libation!

PAN. 333-333-333.

[Recites.

Roll through the caverns of matter, the world's irremovable bounds!

Roll, ye wild billows of ether! the Sistron is shaken and sounds!

Wild and sonorous the clamour, vast in the region of death.

Live with the fire of the Spirit, the essence and flame of the breath!

Sound, O sound!

Gleam in the world of the dark, where the chained ones shall tremble and flee!

Gleam in the skies of the dusk, for the Light of the Dawn is in me!

Light on the forehead and life in the nostrils, and love in the breast,

Shine, O Thou Star of the Dawning, thou Sun of the Radiant Crest!

Shine, O shine!

Flame through the sky in the strength of the chariot-wheels of the Sun!

Flame, ye young fingers of light, on the west of the morning that run!

Flame, O thou Meteor Car, for my fire is exalted in thee!

Lighten the darkness and herald the daylight, and waken the sea!

Flame, O flame!

Crown Her, O crown Her with stars as with flowers for a virginal gaud!

Crown Her, O crown Her with Light and the flame of the down-rushing Sword!

Crown Her, O crown Her with Love for maiden and mother and wife!

Hail unto Isis! Hail! For She is the Lady of Life!

Isis crowned!

CANCER. In vain thou invokest our Lady of the Moon!

TAURUS. Bear the Cup of Libation!

CANCER. 333-333-333.

PAN.

Must every star that saves the night

‘Gleam fearfully afar,

Give no man love, but only light,

Or cease to be a star?

Nay, there's no man since time began

Through the ages until now,

But won the goal of his set soul,

A star upon his brow!

Oh! though no star serene as thou

Shine in my night forlorn,

Come, let me set thee on my brow,

And make its darkness morn!

PAN. [Rises.] Brother Satyr, scourge forth these that profane the sanctuary of our Lady: for they know not the secret of the shrine.

[SATYR dances the dance of the scourge, driving the officers down the stage, where they crouch.]

PAN. [Goes to altar.] Brother Satyr, I command you to perform the dance of Syrinx and Pan, in honour of our Lady Artemis.

SATYR. And in thine honour!

[He dances the dance and falls prostrate in the midst.

PAN. [Advancing to the Throne of Luna.]

Uncharmable charmer

Of Bacchus and Mars,

In the sounding rebounding

Abyss of the stars!

O virgin in armour,

Thine arrows unsling

In the brilliant resilient

First rays of the spring!

By the force of the fashion

Of love, when I broke

Through the shroud, through the cloud,

Through the storm, through the smoke,

To the mountain of passion

Volcanic that woke—

By the rage of the mage

I invoke, I invoke!

By the midnight of madness,

The lone-lying sea,

The swoon of the moon,

Your swoon into me;

The sentinel sadness

Of cliff-clinging pine,

That night of delight

You were mine, you were mine!

You were mine, O my saint,

My maiden, my mate,

By the might of the right

Of the night of our fate.

Though I fall, though I faint,

Though I char, though I choke,

By the hour of our power

I invoke, I invoke!

By the mystical union

Of fairy and faun,

Unspoken, unbroken—

The dusk to the dawn!—

A secret communion,

Unmeasured, unsung,

The listless, resistless,

Tumultuous tongue!—

O virgin in armour

Thine arrows unsling,

In the brilliant resilient

First rays of the spring!

No Godhead could charm her,

But manhood awoke—

O fiery Valkyrie,

I invoke, I invoke!

[He tears down the veil.

[LUNA plays accordingly.*

[A long silence.

CANCER. 333-333-333.

TAURUS. I. Brother Warden of the Graal, our task is ended.

CANCER. Let us depart, it is accomplished.

^* Chaccone; Bach.

THE RITES OF ELEUSIS: THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING

Aleister Crowley

(The Bystander, Nov 23, 1910, p 384)

The Rights of Eleusis

Among the various accounts that have appeared of the character of the Rites of Eleusis, so-called, I find that very few people seem to understand intellectually what they were all about. It will be as well, therefore, if I make here a plain statement as to the exact nature of the rites. The ceremonies developed from very rude beginnings. The first one was in this wise. I happened to have a few friends in my room in the evening, among them the celebrated Australian violinist, Miss Leila Waddell. It struck me that we might pass the time by a sort of artistic dialogue; I read a piece of poetry from one of the great classics, and she replied with a piece of music suggested by my reading. I retorted with another poem; and the evening developed into a regular controversy. The others were intensely interested in this strange conflict, and in the silence of the room spiritual enthusiasm took hold of us; so acutely that we were all intensely uplifted, to the point in some cases of actual ecstasy, an intoxication of the same kind as that experienced by an assistant at the celebration of the Mass or the performance of Parsifal, but stronger because of its naturalness and primitiveness.

It was subsequently decided to try and tune everybody up to some definite, prearranged emotion, and we strung together a rough ceremony in honor of Artemis. This was so successful that it even impressed persons who had always been complete sceptics and scoffers. Having been of help in private, we endeavoured to reproduce the effects in public with greater elaboration.

How to Write Rites Right

With regard to the genesis of the Rites of Eleusis I must explain that they did not spring fully armed from my brain, Minerva-like. The actual form which my ideas took was simply a question of convenience and compromise. It was necessary to have a series of some sort, and seven seemed to be about the right number, if we were going to get them done before people went away for Christmas. I might have chosen another sort of deities; but I thought that those associated with the days of the week would make it easier for everybody, and it certainly made it very much easier for me, because the correspondences of colour, form, idea, number, and so on of the planets had been so very well worked out. Of the way in which the rituals were constructed, I must say a few words. Let us put ourselves in the position of the dramatist. Take, for example, the first ritual, that of Saturn. Working on tradition, just as Wagner did when he took the old Norse Saga for his world drama, we find Saturn as a black, melancholy God, the devourer of his children. Ideas of Night, Death, Black hellebore, Lead, Cypress, Tombs, Deadly Nightshade. All these things have a necessary connection with Saturn in the mind of anyone who has read the classics. The first condition of this rite is, then, to make the temple a kind of symbolic representation of the sphere of Saturn. So the representative of Saturn wears the Black Robe. The time is declared to be midnight (though, as a matter of fact, it is only twenty minutes past eight — this is an ordinary theatrical convention; and masons will think of certain analogies in their own “Orgies”). If the brethren are fed, it is “on the corpses of their children” as Saturn fed on his. If they drink, it is “Pop-pyheads infused in blood” — symbols of sleep and death. Saturn further represents the earth, the plane of matter, humanity bounded by old age and death, humanity blindly groping after illumination and failing to get it.

The Truth Behind the Veil

It is, then, the primitive darkness of humanity that is represented in this ritual. Therefore, we have the despairing cry, “There is no God”; and as a logical result the suicide of the high priest, for there cannot be a priest without a God. It is the blackness of uttermost despair; and so the ritual ends. It is only in the second rite, the rite of Jupiter, who is etymologically and actually identical with the Hebrew Jehovah, that light breaks. But even in that rite, when the Supreme Power is declared, He is too exalted for anyone to approach Him; it is only by the work of the Divine Spirit that He is made manifest; and this manifestation only takes place in the God-man whom some call Iacchus and others Jesus — again an etymological and mystical identity! This doctrine appears to me to differ from the orthodox doctrine of Christianity in one point only; it is not sectarian. I do not require Mr. John M. Robertson to tell me that the story of the crucifixion is merely a mystery play adapted from the rites of Mithras; the rite being symbolical of a spiritual truth, all nations that possess knowledge of spiritual things will have incorporated it in their rites under some name or other.

The Deadness of Dogma

If my interpretation has been erroneous, let me be shown my error, and I will repent; but no sensible person can maintain for a moment that my interpretation is un-serious or irreverent. And my chief defense — my counter-attack — is that the orthodox methods of inculcating the doctrine in question have been so purely dogmatic and dull, that they have lost all vital force. Without art, truth becomes falsehood. Imagine anyone taking the teachings of the “Blue Bird,” and pounding them into a creed, and writing dull sermons about them! The unfortunate children who had to learn them would begin to hate Maeterlinck bitterly. But let the sublime truths of Christianity be once again “clothed round by sweet art, with the spacious warm heaven of her imminent wings,” and there will be that true revival of religious life that everyone is blindly seeking.

CONCERNING “BLASPHEMY” IN GENERAL & THE RITES OF ELEUSIS IN PARTICULAR

Pioneers, O Pioneers!

Whenever it occurs to anyone to cut a new canal of any kind, he will be well advised to look out for trouble. If it be the ishthmus of Suez, the simple-minded engineer is apt to imagine that it is only a question of shifting so much sand; but before he can as much as strike the first pickaxe into the earth he finds that he is up against all kinds of interests, social, political, financial, and what-not. The same applies to the digging of canals in the human brain. When Simpson introduced chloroform, he thought it a matter for the physician; and found himself attacked from the pulpit. All his arguments proved useless; and we should probably be without chloroform to-day if some genius had not befriended him by discovering that God caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep before He removed the rib of which Eve was made.

The Abuse of the Gutter

Nowadays a movement has to be very well on the way to success before it is attacked by any responsible people. The first trouble comes from the gutter. Now the language of the gutter consists chiefly of meaningless abuse, and the principal catch-words, coming as they do from the mouths of men who never open them without a profane oath or a foul allusion, are those of blasphemy and immorality. The charge of insanity is frequently added when the new idea is just sufficiently easy to understand a little. There is another reason, too, for these three particular cries; these are the charges which, if proved, can get the person into trouble, and at the same time which are in a sense true of everybody; for they all refer to a more or less arbitrary standard of normality. The old cry of “heresy” has naturally lost much of its force in a country nine-tenths of whose population are admittedly heretics; but immorality and insanity are to-day almost equally meaningless terms. The Censor permits musical comedy and forbids Oedipus Rex; and Mr. Bernard Shaw brands the Censor as immoral for doing so. Most people of the educated classes will probably agree with him.

Insanity and Blasphemy

As for insanity, it is simply a question of finding a Greek or Latin name for any given act. If I open the window, it is on account of claustrophobia; when I shut it again, it is an attack of agarophobia.

All the professors tell me that every form of emotion has its root in sex, and describe my fondness for pictures as if it were a peculiarly unnatural type of vice. It is even impossible for an architect to build a church spire without being told that he is reviving the worship of Priapus. Now, the only result of all this is that all these terms of abuse have become entirely meaningless, save as defined by law. There is still some meaning in the term “Forger,” as used in general speech; but only because it has not yet occurred to any wiseacre to prove that all his political and religious opponents are forgers. This seems to me a pity. There is, undoubtedly, a forged passage in Tacitus and another in Petronius. Everyone who studies the classics is, therefore, a kind of accomplice in forgery. The charge of blasphemy is in all cases a particularly senseless one. It has been hurled in turn at Socrates, Euripides, Christ, El-Mansur, the Baab, and the Rev. R. J. Campbell.

The Morality Red Herring

Legal Blasphemy is, of course, an entirely different thing. In the recent notorious case where an agent of the Rationalist Press Association, Harry Boulter by name, was prosecuted, the question proved to be not a theological one at all. It was really this, “were the neighbours being annoyed?” “was the man's language coarse?” and the Judge and Joseph McCabe agreed that it was. But in modern times no one has ever been prosecuted in any civilised country for stating philosophic propositions, whatever may be their theological implicatons. We have no longer the Casuists of the Inquisition, who would take the trouble to argue from Bruno's propositions of the immanence of God that, if that were so, the doctrine of the Incarnation was untenable (and therefore he shall be burned). It is only the very narrowest religious sects that trouble to call Herbert Spencer an Atheist. What the man in the street means by Atheist is the militant Atheist, Bradlaugh or Foote; and it is a singular characteristic of the Odium Theologicum that, instead of arguing soberly concerning the proposition, which those worthies put forward, they always try to drag the red herring of morality across the track.

Of all the stupid lies that men have ever invented, nothing is much sillier than the lie that one who does not believe in God must be equally a disbeliever in morality. As a matter of fact, in a country which pretends so hard to appear theistic as England, it requires the most astounding moral courage, a positive galaxy of virtues, for a man to stand up and say that he does not believe in God; as Dr. Wace historically remarked, “it ought to be unpleasant for a man to say that he does not believe in Jesus”; and my dislike to Atheism is principally founded on the fact that so many of its exponents are always boring me about ethics. Some priceless idiot, who, I hope, will finish in the British Museum, remarked in a free-thinking paper the other day, that they need not trouble to pull down the churches, “because they will always be so useful for sane and serious discussion of important ethical problems.” Personally, I would rather go back to the times when the preacher preached by the hour-glass.

The Pot and the Kettle

I have always been very amused, too, in this connection of blasphemy by the perusal of Christian Missionary journals, on which I was largely brought up. They are full from cover to cover of the most scandalous falsehoods about heathen gods, and the most senseless insults to them, insults penned by the grossly ignorant of our religious population. It is only in quite recent years that the English public have discovered that Buddha was not a God, and it was not the missionaries that found this out, but scholars of secular attainment. In America, particularly, the most incredible falsehoods are constantly circulated by the Missionary Societies even about the customs of the Hindoos. To read them, one would suppose that every crocodile in India was fed with babies as the first religious duty of every Indian mother; but, of course, it is most terribly wicked for the Hindoo to make fun of the deities of the American. For my part, who have lived half my life in “Christian” countries and half my life in “heathen” countries, I cannot see much to choose between the different religions. Their arguments consist, in the end, of passionate assertion, which is no argument at all.

Religion and Draw-Poker

There is an excellent story—much better known in India than in England—of a missionary, who was explaining to the poor heathen how useless were his gods. “See!” said he, “I insult your idol, he is but of dead stone; he does not avenge himself, or punish me.” “I insult your God,” replied the Hindoo, “he is invisible; he does not avenge himself, or punish me.” “Ah!” said the missionary, “my God will punish you when you die”; and the poor Hindoo could only find the following pitiable answer: “So, when you die, will my idol punish you.” It was from America, too, that I obtained the first principle of religion; which is that four to a flush are not as good as one small pair.

Orgies!

Still, I suppose it is useless to contest the popular view that anyone whom any fool chooses to call an Atheist is liable to conduct “orgies.” Now, can anyone tell me what orgies are? No? Then I must reach down the Lexicon. Orgia, only used in the plural and connected with Ergon (work), means sacred rites, sacred worship practised by the initiated at the sacred worship of Demeter at Eleusis, and also the rites of Bacchus. It also means any rites, or worship, or sacrifice, of any mysteries without any reference to religion; and Orgazio means, therefore, to celebrate Orgies, or ceremonies, or to celebrate any sacred rites. It is really a poor comment upon the celebration of sacred rites that the word should have come to mean something entirely different, as it does to-day. For the man in the street Orgie means a wild revel usually accompanied by drunkenness. I think it is almost time that someone took the word Orgie as a Battle Cry, and, having shown that the Eucharist is only one kind of orgie to restore the true enthusiasm (which is not of an alcoholic or sexual nature) among the laity; for it is no secret that the falling away of all nations from religion, which only a few blind-worms are fatuous enough to deny, is due to the fact that the fire no longer burns in the sacred lamp.

Outside a few monasteries there is hardly any church of any sect whose members really expect anything to happen to them from attending public worship. If a new Saint Paul were to journey to Damascus, the doctor would be called in and his heavenly vision diagnosed as epilepsy. If a new Mahomed came from his cave and announced himself a messenger of God, he would be thought a harmless lunatic. And that is the first stage of a religious propaganda.

The Stations of the Cross

Now the real messenger of God can always be distinguished in a very simple way. He possesses a mysterious force which enables him to persist, heedless of the sneers and laughter of the populace. It then strikes the wiser people that he is dangerous; and they begin on the blasphemy and immorality tack. In the life of our Lord, this will be noticed. In the first place, there was just the contemptuous “he hath a devil,” which was the equivalent of our “he's just a crank,” but when it was found that this crank had adherents, men of force and eloquence like Peter, to say nothing of financial genius like Judas Iscariot, the cry was quickly changed into wild accusations of blasphemy and allegations of immorality. “He is a friend of publicans and sinners.” A sane Government only laughs at these ebullitions; and it is then the task of the Pharisees to prove to the Government that it is to its interest to suppress this dangerous upstart. They may succeed; and though the Government is never for a moment blind to the fact that it is doing an injustice, the new Saviour is crucified. It is this final publicity of crucifixion (for advertisement is just as necessary in one age as another) that secures the full triumph to him whom his enemies fondly suppose to be their victim. Such is human blindness, that the messenger himself, his enemies, and the civil power, all of them do exactly the one thing which will defeat their ends. The messenger would never succeed at all if it were not that he is The Messenger, and it really matters very little what steps he may take to get the message delivered. For all concerned are but pawns in the great game played by infinite wisdom and infinite power.

Orderly, Decorous Ceremonies

It is, therefore, a negligible matter, this abuse, from whatever source it comes. It should waste my time if I were to prove that the rites of Eleusis, as now being performed at Caxton Hall, are orderly, decorous ceremonies. It is true that at times darkness prevails; so it does in some of Wagner's operas and in certain ceremonies of a mystical character which will occur to the minds of a large section of my male readers. There are, moreover, periods of profound silence, and I can quite understand that in such an age of talk as this, that seems a very suspicious circumstance!