Embedded Files
from "The Temple of the Holy Ghost"
by Aleister Crowley (Note 1)
The fragrant gateways of the dawn (Note 2)
Teem with the scent of flowers.
The mother, Midnight, has withdrawn
Her slumbrous kissing hours:
Day springs, with footsteps as a fawn,
Into her rosy bowers.
The pale and holy maiden horn (Note 3)
In highest heaven is set.
My forehead, bathed in her forlorn
Light, with her lips is met;
My lips, that murmur in the morn,
With lustrous dew are wet.
My prayer is mighty with my will;
My purpose as a sword (Note 4)
Flames through the adamant, to fill
The gardens of the Lord
With music, that the air be still,
Dumb to its mighty chord.
I stand above the tides of time
And elemental strife;
My figure stands above, sublime,
Shadowing the Key of Life (Note 5)
And the passion of my mighty rhyme
Divides me as a knife.
For secret symbols on my brow,
And secret thoughts within,
Compel eternity to Now,
Draw the Infinite within.
Light is extended (Note 6). I and Thou
Are as they had not been (Note 7).
So on my head the light is one,
Unity manifest;
A star more splendid than the sun
Burns for my crownéd crest;
Burns, as the murmering orison
Of waters in the west.
What angel from the silver gate
Flames to my fierier face?
What angel, as I contemplate
The unsubstantial space?
Move with my lips the laws of Fate
That bind earth’s carapace?
No angel, but the very light
And fire and spirit of Her,
Unmitigated, eremite,
The unmanifested myrrh,
Ocean, and night that is not night,
The mother-mediator. (Note 8)
O sacred spirit of the Gods! (Note 9)
O triple tongue! (Note 10) Descend,
Lapping the answering flame that nods,
Kissing the brows that bend,
Uniting all earth’s periods
To one exalted end.
Still on the mystic Tree of Life
My soul is crucified; (Note 11)
Still strikes the sacrificial knife
Where lurks some serpent-eyed
Fear, passion, or man’s deadly wife
Desire, the suicide!
Before me dwells the Holy One
Annointed Beauty’s King; (Note 12)
Behind me, mightier than the Sun,
To whom the cherubs sing,
A strong archangel, (Note 13) known of none,
Comes crowned and conquering.
An angel stands on my right hand
With strength of ocean’s wrath; (Note 14)
Upon my left the fiery brand,
Charioted fire smites forth: (Note 15)
Four great archangels to withstand
The furies of the path. (Note 16)
Flames on my front the fiery star,
About me and around. (Note 17)
Behind, the sacred sun, afar,
Six symphonies of sound;
Flames, as the Gods themselves that are;
Flames, in the abyss profound. (Note 18)
The spread arms drop like thunder! So
Rings out the lordlier cry,
Vibrating through the streams that flow
In ether to the sky,
The moving archipelago,
Stars in their Seigneury.
Thine be the kingdom! Thine the power!
The glory triple thine! (Note 19)
Thine through eternity’s swift hour,
Eternity, thy shrine –
Yea, by the holy lotus-flower,
Even mine! (Note 20)
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