The Slayer of Souls

You may be interested in “The Slayer of Souls” by Robert Chambers, an occult romance which includes, among other things, a fictional reference to the “Yezidee” or Yezidi.

The Yezidi are mentioned in various sources, not the least of which are in the works and life of Sir Richard Francis Burton, including The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî [PDF], and in an unpublished section of Aleister Crowley’s introduction to the New Commentary to Liber Legis:

“Aiwaz is not (as I had supposed) a mere formula, like many angelic names, but is the true most ancient name of the God of the Yezidis, and thus returns to the highest Antiquity. Our work is therefore historically authentic, the rediscovery of the Sumerian Tradition.” [via]

Although it’s not a direct reference, to that passage by Crowley, Hymeneaus Beta notes in the Editor’s Introduction of Magick: Book 4, Liber ABA the connection between this “God of the Yezidis”, as that likely was used to mean at that time, and Melek Ta’us, the peacock angel of the Yezidi. The connection is more certainly what Crowley meant because further on in that unpublished introduction to Liber Legis there is mention of “Aiwaz” meaning “Messenger”, which is one of the characteristics of Melek Ta’us.

One of the places that I’ve encountered the deity Melek Ta’us is as he appears within the Feri Tradition, and discussion can be found about that online of which one example is at Feri Tradition: FAQ. There’s a lot more about the Yezidi and Melek Ta’us (also transliterated variously as Tawûsê Melek, Malak Tawus, or Malik Taws, Melek Taus …) online.

But, after that digression, back the the work of Chambers:

There’s an interesting review The Repairer of Reputations: The Slayer of Souls by Robert Chambers from pornokitch where they’ve been reading through Chambers’ works, trying to decide whether history has been just or unjust to Robert Chambers.

Consider also:

  1. “Then I perceived the stars to reflect a single sun– Not burning suns themselves, in furious regular race, But mirrors of midnight, lit to remind us of His face. Thus I beheld the truth: ye are stars that give me light; But I read you aright and learn I am walking in the night. Then I turned mine eyes away to the Light that is above you: The answering splendid Dawn arose, and I did not love you. I saw the breaking light, and the clouds fled far away: I was the resurrection of the Golden Star of Day. And now I live in Him; my heart may trace the years In drops of virginal blood and springs of virginal tears.”
  2. “Nightmares can be the truth. It wasn’t just villains who had to make the hard decisions.”
  3. “Rise, Phantom disanointed, and proclaim Thine own destruction, and the sleepy death Of those material essences that flame A little moment for a little breath, The love that perisheth!”
  4. “Up rears the pillar. Quaintly shaped and hued, It focussed all the sky and all the plain To its own ugliness. I looked again, And saw its magic in another mood. A shapeless truth took image in my brain.”
  5. “I love you now again with an undivided song. Because I can never love you, I cannot do you wrong. I saw in your dying embraces the birth of a new embrace; In the tears of your pitiful faces, another Holier Face. Unknowing it, undesiring, your lips have led me higher; You have taught me purer songs that your souls did not desire; You have led me through your chambers, where the secret bolt was drawn, To the chambers of the Highest and the secrets of the Dawn! You have brought me to command you, and not to be denied; You have taught me in perfection to be unsatisfied; You have taught me midnight vigils, when you smiled in amorous sleep; You have even taught a man the woman’s way to weep.”