A Religious Bringing-Up in The Gate of the Sanctuary from The Temple of the Holy Ghost (Collected Works, Vol I) by Aleister Crowley.

“WITH this our ‘Christian’ parents marred our youth:
‘One thing is certain of our origin.
We are born Adam’s bastards into sin,
Servants to Death and Time’s devouring tooth.
God, damning most, had this one thought of ruth
To save some dozens—Us: and by the skin
Of teeth to save us from the devil’s gin—
Repentance! Blood! Prayer! Sackcloth!
This is truth.'” [via]

Consider also:

  1. “Smitten by Beauty down I fell as dead– So strikes the sunlight on a miner’s head. Blind, stricken, crushed! That vast effulgence stole, Flooded the caverns of my secret soul, And gushed in waves of weeping. I was wed Unto a part, and could not grasp the whole.”
  2. “After a while he took the word again: ‘Go thou then moonwards; on the great salt plain; So to a pillar. Adamant, alone, It stands. Around it see them overthrown, King, earl, and knight. There lie the questing slain, A thousand years forgotten–bone by bone. ‘No more is spoken–the tradition goes: ‘There learns the seeker what he seeks or knows,’ Thence–none have passed. The desert leagues may keep Some other secret–some profounder deep Than this one echoed fear: the desert shows Its ghastly triumph–silence. There they sleep. ‘There, brave and pure, there, true and strong, they stay Bleached in the desert, till the solemn day Of God’s revenge–none knoweth them: they rest Unburied, unremembered, unconfessed. What names of strength, of majesty, had they? What suns are these gone down into the West?”
  3. L’Inferno
  4. “Again the cursed cry: ‘What quest is this? Is it worth heaven in thy lover’s kiss? A queen, a queen, to kiss and never tire! Thy queen, quick-breathing for your twin desire!’ I shudder, for the mystery of bliss; I go, heart crying and a soul on fire!”
  5. “Oh! my pure heart! Adulterous love began So subtly to identify the man With its own perfumed thoughts. So steals the grape Into the furtive brain–a spirit shape Kisses my spirit as no woman can. I love her–yes; and I have no escape. I never spoke, I never looked! But she Saw through the curtains of the soul of me, And loved me also! It is very well. I am well started on the road to Hell.”