LVI
Arouse the splendor and put on the wings
For to love Her surpasses all things
As the priestess chants her incantation,
I raise up the cup and adore Babalon!
— In Nomine Babalon: 156 Adorations to the Scarlet Goddess
The Hermetic Library arts and letters pool is a project to publish poetry, prose and art that is inspired by or manifests the Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to submit your work for consideration as part of the Arts and Letters pool, contact the librarian.
ΚΕΦΑΛΗ ΜΓ Mulberry Tops in Liber CCCXXXIII, The Book of Lies by Aleister Crowley.
“Black blood upon the altar! and the rustle of angel wings above!” [via]
The Nameless Quest in The Gate of the Sanctuary from The Temple of the Holy Ghost (Collected Works, Vol I) by Aleister Crowley.
“Then surged the maddening tide
Of my intention. Onward! Let me run!
Thy steed, O Moon! Thy chariot, O Sun!
Lend me fierce feet, winged sandals, wings as wide
As thine, O East wind! And the goal is won!
Was ever such a cruel solitude?” [via]
All Night in White Stains by Aleister Crowley.
“So in our lusts, the monstrous burden borne
Heavy within the womb, we wait the morn
Of its fulfillment. Thus eternity
Wheels vain wings round us, who may never die,
But cling as hard as serpent’s wedlock is,
One writhing glory, an immortal kiss.” [via]
All Night in White Stains by Aleister Crowley.
“But we, one joy, one love, one shame for leaven,
Quit hope and life, quit fear and death and love,
Implacable as God, desired above
All loves of hell or heaven, supremely wed,
Knit in one soul in one delicious bed
More hot than hell, more wicked than all things,
Vast in our sin, whose unredeeming wings
Rise o’er the world, and flap for lust of death,
Eager as anyone that travaileth” [via]
All Night in White Stains by Aleister Crowley.
“But we will wrest from heaven a little star,
The Star of Bethlehem, a lying light
Fit for our candle, and by devils’ might
Fix in the vast concave of hell for us
To lume its ghastly shadows murderous,
That in the mirror of the lake of fire
We may behold the image of Desire
Stretching broad wings upon us, and may leap
Each upon other, till our bodies weep
Thick sweet salt tears, and, clasping as of yore
Within dull limits of Earth’s barren shore,
Fulfil immense desires of strange new shames,
Burn into one another as the flames
Of our hell fuse us into one wild soul” [via]
“How Sweet I Roamed
” by The Fugs
from Electromagnetic Steamboat: The Reprise Recordings
“How sweet I roam’d from field to field,
And tasted all the summer’s pride,
‘Till I the prince of love beheld,
Who in the sunny beams did glide!He shew’d me lilies for my hair,
And blushing roses for my brow;
He led me through his gardens fair,
Where all his golden pleasures grow.With sweet May dews my wings were wet,
And Phoebus fir’d my vocal rage;
He caught me in his silken net,
And shut me in his golden cage.He loves to sit and hear me sing,
Then, laughing, sports and plays with me;
Then stretches out my golden wing,
And mocks my loss of liberty.” — William Blake
William Blake and the Imagination in Ideas of Good and Evil by William Butler Yeats.
“Furious and terrible they rend the nether deep,
The deep lifts up his rugged head,
And lost in infinite hovering wings vanishes with a cry.
The fading cry is ever dying,
The living voice is ever living in its inmost joy.” [via]
William Blake and the Imagination in Ideas of Good and Evil by William Butler Yeats.
“Passions, because most living, are most holy—and this was a scandalous paradox in his time—and man shall enter eternity borne upon their wings.” [via]