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Marsyas.
I bear a message. Heaven hath sent / The knowledge of a new sweet way / Into the Secret Element.
Olympas.
Master, while yet the glory clings / Declare this mystery magical!
Marsyas.
I am yet borne on these blue wings / Into the Essence of the All.
Now, now I stand on earth again, / Though, blazing through each nerve and vein,
The light yet holds its choral course, / Filling my frame with fiery force
Like God's. Now hear the Apocalypse! / New-fledged on these reluctant lips!
Olympas.
I tremble like an aspen, quiver / Like light upon a rainy river!
Marsyas.
Do what thou wilt! is the sole word / Of law that my attainment heard.
Arise, and lay thine hand on God! / Arise, and set a period
Unto Restriction! That is sin: / To hold thine holy spirit in!
O thou that chafest at thy bars, / Invoke Nuit beneath her stars
With a pure heart (Her incense burned / Of gums and woods, in gold inurned)
And let the serpent flame therein / A little, and thy soul shall win
To lie within her bosom. Lo! / Thou wouldst give all--and she cries: No!
Take all, and take me! Gather spice / And virgins and great pearls of price!
Worship me in a single robe, / Crowned Richly! Girdle of the globe,
I love thee. I am drunkenness / Of the inmost sense, my soul's caress
Is toward thee! Let my priestess stand / Bare and rejoicing, softly fanned
By smooth-lipped acolytes, upon / Mine iridescent altar-stone,
And in her love-chaunt swooningly / Say evermore: To me! To me!
I am the azure-lidded daughter / Of sunset; the all-girdling water;
The naked brilliance of the sky / In the voluptuous night am I!
With song, with jewel, with perfume, / Wake all my rose's blush and bloom!
Drink to me! Love me! I love thee, / My love, my lord--to me! to me!
Olympas.
There is no harshness in the breath / Of this--is life surpassed, and death?
Marsyas.
There is the Snake that gives delight / And Knowledge, stirs the heart aright
With drunkenness. Strange drugs are thine, / Hadit, and draughts of wizard wine!
These do no hurt. Thine hermits dwell / Not in the cold secretive cell,
But under purple canopies / With mighty-breasted mistresses
Magnificent as lionesses-- / Tender and terrible caresses!
Fire lives, and light, in eager eyes; / And massed huge hair about them lies.
They lead their hosts to victory: / In every joy they are kings; then see
That secret serpent coiled to spring / And win the world! O priest and king,
Let there be feasting, foining, fighting, / A revel of lusting, singing, smiting!
Work; be the bed of work! Hold! Hold! / The stars' kiss is as molten gold.
Harden! Hold thyself up! now die--
Ah! Ah! Exceed! Exceed!
Olympas.
And I?
Marsyas.
My stature shall surpass the stars: / He hath said it! Men shall worship me
In hidden woods, on barren scaurs, / Henceforth to all eternity.
Olympas.
Hail! I adore thee! Let us feast.
Marsyas.
I am the consecrated Beast.
I build the Abominable House. / The Scarlet Woman is my Spouse---
Olympas.
What is this word ?
Marsyas.
Thou canst not know
Till thou hast passed the Fourth Ordeal.
Olympas.
I worship thee. The moon-rays flow
Masterfully rich and real
From thy red mouth, and burst, young suns / Chanting before the Holy Ones / Thine Eight Mysterious Orisons!
Marsyas.
The last spell! The availing word! / The two completed by the third!
The Lord of War, of Vengeance / That slayeth with a single glance!
This light is in me of my Lord. / His Name is this far-whirling sword.
I push His order. Keen and swift / My Hawk's eye flames ; these arms uplift
The Banner of Silence and of Strength--- / Hail ! Hail ! thou are here, my Lord, at length!
Lo, the Hawk-Headed Lord am I: / My nemyss shrouds the night-blue sky.
Hail! ye twin warriors that guard / The pillars of the world! Your time
Is nigh at hand. The snake that marred / Heaven with his inexhaustible slime
Is slain; I bear the Wand of power, / The Wand that waxes and that wanes;
I crush the Universe this hour / In my left hand; and naught remains!
Ho ! for the splendour in my name / Hidden and glorious, a flame
Secretly shooting from the sun. / Aum! Ha !--my destiny is done.
The Word is spoken and concealed.
Olympas.
I am stunned. What wonder was revealed?
Marsyas.
The rite is secret.
Olympas.
Profits it?
Marsyas.
Only to wisdom and to wit.
Olympas.
The other did no less.
Marsyas.
Then prove
Both by the master-key of Love.
The lock turns stiffly? Shalt thou shirk / To use the sacred oil of work?
Not from the valley shalt thou wrest / The eggs that line the eagle's nest!
Climb, with thy life at stake, the ice, / The sheer wall of the precipice!
Master the cornice, gain the breach, / And learn what next the ridge can teach!
Yet--not the ridge itself may speak / The secret of the final peak.
Olympas.
All ridges join at last.
Marsyas.
Admitted,
O thou astute and subtle-witted!
Yet one--loose, jagged, clad in mist! / Another--firm, smooth, loved and kissed
By the soft sun! Our order hath / This secret of the solar path,
Even as our Lord the Beast hath won / The mystic Number of the Sun.
Olympas.
These secrets are too high for me.
Marsyas.
Nay, little brother! Come and see!
Neither by faith nor fear not awe / Approach the doctrine of the Law!
Truth, Courage, Love, shall win the bout, / And those three others be cast out.
Olympas.
Lead me, Master, by the hand / Gently to this gracious land!
Let me drink the doctrine in, / An all-healing medicine!
Let me rise, correct and firm, / Steady striding to the term,
Master of my fate, to rise / To imperial destinies;
With the sun's ensanguine dart / Spear-bright in my blazing heart,
And my being's basil-plant / Bright and hard as adamant!
Marsyas.
Yonder, faintly luminous, / The yellow desert waits for us.
Lithe and eager, hand in hand, / We travel to the lonely land.
There, beneath the stars, the smoke / Of our incense shall invoke
The Queen of Space ; and subtly She / Shall bend from Her Infinity
Like a lambent flame of blue, / Touching us, and piercing through
All the sense-webs that we are / As the aethyr penetrates a star!
Her hands caressing the black earth, / Her sweet lithe body arched for love,
Her feet a Zephyr to the flowers, / She calls my name--she gives the sign
That she is mine, supremely mine, / And clinging to the infinite girth
My soul gets perfect joy thereof / Beyond the abysses and the hours;
So that--I kiss her lovely brows; / She bathes my body in perfume
Of sweat....O thou my secret spouse, / Continuous One of Heaven! illume
My soul with this arcane delight, / Voluptuous Daughter of the Night!
Eat me up wholly with the glance / Of thy luxurious brilliance!
Olympas.
The desert calls.
Marsyas.
Then let us go!
Or seek the sacramental snow,
Where like an high-priest I may stand / With acolytes on every hand,
The lesser peaks--my will withdrawn / To invoke the dayspring from the dawn,
Changing that rosy smoke of light / To a pure crystalline white;
Though the mist of mind, as draws / A dancer round her limbs the gauze,
Clothe Light, and show the virgin Sun / A lemon-pale medallion!
Thence leap we leashless to the goal, / Stainless star-rapture of the soul.
So the altar-fires fade / As the Godhead is displayed.
Nay, we stir not. Everywhere / Is our temple right appointed.
All the earth is faery fair / For us. Am I not anointed?
The Sigil burns upon the brow / At the adjuration--here and now.
Olympas.
The air is laden with perfumes.
Marsyas.
Behold! it beams--it burns--it blooms.
Olympas.
Master, how subtly hast thou drawn / The daylight from the Golden Dawn,
Bidden the Cavernous Mount unfold / Its Ruby Rose, its Cross of Gold;
Until I saw, flashed from afar, / The Hawk's Eye in the Silver Star!
Marsyas.
Peace to all beings. Peace to thee, / Co-heir of mine eternity!
Peace to the greatest and the least, / To nebula and nenuphar!
Light in abundance be increased / On them that dream that shadows are!
Olympas.
Blessing and worship to The Beast, / The prophet of the lovely Star!
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