Share via Share via... Twitter Facebook Pinterest WhatsAppRecent ChangesSend via e-MailPrintPermalink × The Fatal Force THE FATAL FORCE.1 1899. “She In the habilments of the goddess Isis That day appeared.” — Anthony and Cleopatra, iii, 6, 16 “Stoop not down, for a precipice lieth beneath the earth, reached by a descending ladder which hath Seven Steps, and therein is established the throne of an evil and fatal force.” — ZOROASTER. {col. start below} PEOPLE. RATOUM, Queen of Egypt. THE LEPER, her divorced husband. KHOMSU, their son (dead). S’AFI, son of KHOMSU and RATOUM. THE KING OF SYRIA. AMENHATEP, High Priest. Chorus of Priests. Soldiers of Egypt. Syrian Troops. S’AFI. WHY is thy back made stiff, unrighteous priest, Thy knee reluctant? Thine old eyes, grown blind, Stare into silence, and behold no god Longer. Thy forehead knows no reverence Nor sign of worship. Or sits mutiny Blasphemous on thy brows? For in thine eyes I see full knowledge, and some glittering fire Lurks in the rheumy corners; yea, some fire Malignant, terrible — nay, pitiable, Thou poor fool stricken with senility, How spurred to passion? Yet behold thy god, {141A} Horus, lest anger take benignancy From his left hand and smite thee with his strength. Thou hearest? Nay, thou pitiful old man, For I have loved thee. yet my godhead must Get Worship. Anger not the god, but stoop, My faithful priest, and worship at my feet. AMENHATEP. I am most miserable. But truth must leap In this tremendous moment from my lips, Its long-shut barrier. For I pity thee With my old heart’s whole pity. Thou art young, And beautiful, and proud, and dear to me, Whom I have served thy life through. Now that love Demands a deadlier service — to speak truth. Thou art not Horus, but a man as I. CHORUS. Thou art not Horus, but a man. Thy life Is not of the immortals, but, as ours, Stands at the summons of the hooded death. {141B} S’AFI. Speak! I have this much of a god in me — I am not shaken at your cries; my lips Are silent at your blasphemy; my ears Are strong to hear if there be truth at all In your mixed murmurs: I command you, speak! AMENHATEP. The burden of the madness of the Queen Lies on the land: the Syrian is near; And she, believing that her godhead guards Her people, sleeps. The altars are thrown down; The people murmur. She hath done thee wrong, But be thou mighty to avenge! S’AFI. To-day I, Horus, shall become Osiris. Yea, Strange secret dreams of some mysterious fate Godlike have come upon me, and the throne Totters for your disloyalty. AMENHATEP. Beware! How died thy father? S’AFI. That amazing god Incarnate in him chose a nobler form, And in my mother’s body sought his home, Whose double incarnation is divine Beyond the old stories. Yes, I am a god. AMENHATEP. Beware the fatal magic of her heart! For she is great and evil, and her voice Howls blasphemy against yet living gods. Thou knowest not the story of thy birth, The truth. {142A} S’AFI. Then speak the truth, if so a priest May tune his tongue to anything but lies. AMENHATEP. Sixteen strange seasons mingle gold and grey Since in this very temple she, the Queen, Spake, and threw open to our reverent gaze A royal womb made pregnant with that seed Of which thou art the harvest. She spake thus: “Princes, and people of the Egyptian land, And broken priests of broken deities Discrowned this hour, look up, behold your god! For I am pregnant with my own son’s child, The fruit of my desire’s desire. Most pure, The single spirit of my godhead yearned From death to reap dominion, and from birth To pluck the blossom of its fruitful love, And be the sun to ripen and the rain To water it. My soul became the bride To its own body, and my body leapt With passion from mine own imperial loins Begotten, and made strong from my own soul To answer it. I hail thee, son of mine, Thou royal offspring of a kingly sire, Less kingly for the single flower of love! I hail thee, son, the secret spouse of me, King of my body and this realm to-day! For lo! the child leapt up within my womb, Hailing me mother, and my spirit leapt, Hailing him brother! Son and spouse and king, Exulting father of the royal soul That lies here, loving me, assume thy crown And sit beside me, equal to thy queen. For look ye to the burning south, and see The sun grown amorous, and behold his fire Leap to my godhead. For without a man I single, I the mother, have conceived Of my own loins, and made me no less god Than all your gods! Ye people and ye priests, Behold the burden of my life, and fear, {142B} And know me Isis. Worship me, and praise The goodliest ruler of the world, the queen Of all the white immeasurable seas, And that vast river of our sowing-time, And of your Sun. Behold me made a god Of my own godhead, and adore the sun Of my queen’s face, and worship ye the fount And fertile river of my life. Bow down, Ye people and ye priests, and worship me, And him co-equal. I am very god!” So spake the Queen; but I arose and said: “Queen and our lord, we worship! Let the smoke Of this divinest incense be a smell Sweet to thy nostrils! For three times I cast Its faint dust in the tripod, and three times The smoke of adoration has gone up To greet our gods; for the old gods are dead.” Then there came forth a leper in the hall, In the most holy temple. So amazed All shrank. And he made prophecy and said: “The child that shall be born of thee is called Fear.2 He shall save a people from their sin; For the old gods indeed go down to death, But the new gods arise from rottenness.” Then said the goddess: “I indeed am pure In my impurity; immaculate In misconception; maiden in my whoredom; Chaste in my incest, being made a god Through my own strength.” The leper with smooth words Turned, and went laughingly towards the west, And took of his own leprosy and threw Its foul flakes in the censer. So he passed, Laughing, and on the altar the flame fell, Till a great darkness was upon the room, And only the Queen’s eyes blazed out. So all {143A} Silently went, and left her naked there, Crowned, sceptred, and exultant, till a chant Rolled from her moving lips; and great fear fell Upon us, and the flame lept, and we fled, Worshipping. but the mood passed, and we see A lecherous woman whose magician power Is broken, and the balance of her mind Made one with the fool’s bauble, and her wand, That was of steel and fire, like a reed, snapped! S’AFI. So lived my father. Tell me of his death. AMENHATEP. At thy first breath the gods were patient still, Till the abomination filled its cup, And hatred took her heart. She slew thy sire, And made his body the banquet of her sin In the infernal temple. “So,” she said, “I reap the incarnation of the god.” So, gloomy and hideous, she would prowl about Seeking fresh human feasts, and bloody rites Stained the white altar of the world. And yet Her power is gone, and we behold her go, Haggard and weary, through the palace courts And through the temple, lusting for strange loves And horrible things, and thirsting for new steam Of thickening blood upon her altar steps. Her body wearies of desire, and fails To satisfy the fury of her spirit; The blood-feasts sicken her and yield no strength; She is made one with hell, and violent force Slips and is weakness, and extreme desire Spends supple. {143B} S’AFI. I have heard you as a god Immutable. CHORUS. Thou art as proud and calm As statued Memnon. Thou art more than god And less than man. Thine eyelids tremble not. S’AFI. I shall avenge it as a god. The land Shall be made free. AMENHATEP. And the old gods have sway, Re-born from incorruption. S’AFI. The old gods! I must muse deeply. Keep your ancient ways A little. I must play the part through so. CHORUS. In the ways of the North and the South Whence the dark and the dayspring are drawn, We pass with the song of the mouth Of the notable Lord of the Dawn. Unto Ra, the desire of the East, let the clamour of singing proclaim The fire of his name! In the ways of the East and the West Whence the night and the day are discrowned, We pass with the beat of his breast, And the breath of his crying is bound. Unto Toum, the low Lord of the West, let the noise of our chant be the breath Proclaiming him Death! {144A} In the ways of the depth and the height, Where the multitude stars are at ease, There is music and terrible light, And the violent song of the seas. Unto Mou, the most powerful Lord of the South, let our worship declare Him Lord of the Air! In the mutable fields that are sown Of a seed that is whiter than noon, Whose harvest is beaten and blown By the magical rays of the moon, In the caverns and wharves of the wind, in the desolate seas of the air, Revolveth our prayer! In the sands and the desert of death, In the horrible flowerless lands, In the fields that the rain and the breath Of the sun make as gold as the sands With ripening wheat, in the earth, in the infinite realm of its seed, The hearts of us bleed! In the wonderful flowers of the foam, Blue billows and breakers grown grey, When the storm sweeps triumphantly home From the bed of the violate day, In the furious waves of the sea, wild world of tempestuous night, Our song is as light! In the tumult of manifold fire, Multitudinous mutable feet That dance to an infinite lyre On the heart of the world as they beat, In the flowers of the bride of the flame, in the warrior Lord of the Fire, There burns our desire! AMENHATEP. Cry now, bewail the broken house, bewail The ruin of the land; cry out on Fate! {144B} CHORUS. Slow wheels of unbegotten hate And changeless circles of desire, Formless creations uncreate, Swift fountains of ungathered fire, The misty counterpoise of time, Dim winds of ocean and sublime Pyramids of forgotten foam Whirling, vague cones of shapeless sleep And infinite dreams, and stars that roam, And comets moving through the deep Unfathomable skies, Darker for moonlight, and the glow-worm eyes Of dusky women that were stars, And paler curves of the immutable bars That line the universe with light, Great eagle-flights of mystic moons That dip, while the dull midnight swoons About the skirts of Night: These bowed and shaped themselves and said: “It shall be thus!” And the intolerable luminous Death that is god bent down his head And answered: “Thus immutably, Above all days and deeds, shall be!” And the great Light that is above all gods Lifted his calm brow, spake, and all the seas, And all the air, and all the periods Of seasons and of stars gave ear, and these Vaults of heaven heard The great white Light that shaped its secrecies Into one holy terrible word, Higher than all words spoken; for He said: “Death is made change, and only change is dead.” For the most holy spirit of a man Burns through the limit of the wheels that ran Through all the unrelenting skies When Icarus died, And leaps, the flight of wise omnipotent eyes, When Daedalus espied An holy habitation for the shrine Solitary, ‘mid the night of broken brine {145A} That foamed like starlight round the desolate shore.3 So to the mine of that crystalline ore Golden, the electric spark of man is drawn Deep in the bosom of the world, to soar New-fledged, an eagle to the dazzling dawn With lidless eyes undazzled, to arise, Son of the morning, to the Southern skies; And fling its wild chant higher at the fall Of even, and of bright Hyperion; To mix its fire with dew, to call The spirit of the limitless air, made one In the amazing essence of all light. Limitless, emanation of the might Of the great Light above all gods, the fire Of our supreme desire, So out of grievous labyrinths of the mind The soul’s desire may find Some passionate thread, the clear note of a bird, To make the dark ways of the gods as light, And bring forth music from slow chants unheard, And visions from the fathomless night. So is the spirit of the loftier man Made holy and most strong against his fate; So is the desolate visage of the wan Lord of Amenti4 covered, and the gate Of Ra made perfect. So the waters flow Over the earth, throughout the sea, Till all its deserts glow, And all its salt springs vanish, and night flee The pinions of the day wide-spread, and pure Fresh fountains of sweet water that endure Assume the crown of the wide world, and lend A star of many summits to his head That rules his fate and compasses his end. And seeks the holy mountain of the dead To draw dead fire, and breathe, and give it life! But thou, be strong for strife, And, as a god, cry out, and let there be The mark of many footsteps on the sea {145B} Of angels hastening to fulfil Thy supreme, single will! Alone, intense, unmoved, not made for change, Let thy one godhead rise To move like morning, and like day to range, A furnace for the skies, That all men cry: “The uncreated God! Formless, ineffable, just, whose period Is as his name, Eternity!” So bear The sceptre of the air! So mayest thou avenge, all-seeing, blind, The wrath of this consuming fire, that licks The rafters and the portals of the house, The gateways of the kingdom, where behind Lurk ruinous fates and consequence; where fix Their fangs the scorpions; where hide their brows The shamed protectors of the Egyptian land. Go forth avenging; men shall understand And worship, seeing justice as a spouse Lean on thine iron hand. For Murder walks by night, and hides her face, But righteous Wrath in the light, and knows his place; For hate of a mother is ill, and the lightning flashes But foil a harlot’s will, burn the earth to ashes, Cleanse the incestuous sty of a whore’s desire, Scatter the dung to the sky, and burn her with fire! So the avenging master shall cleanse his fate of shame, Set his seal of disaster, a royal seal to his name. [Exeunt. S’AFI. I am not Horus, but I shall be King. Enter THE LEPER. THE LEPER. I am a leper, but I am the king. {146A} S’AFI. Monstrous illegible horror, let thy mouth Frame from its charnel-house some pregnant word Intelligible. THE LEPER. I am the king; thy mother’s limbs Clung fast to mine when I begot thy father. S’AFI. He died in battle; thou art not the king. THE LEPER. I did not fall in battle; but my queen Saw on my breast the livid mark of sin That was the leprosy of her own soul, And drove me forth to compass by disgrace With infamies ineffable. S’AFI. I shall avenge. The old gods come again. THE LEPER. Nay! I have lived through all these barren years, Discrowned, diseased, abominable, cast out, And meditating on the event of life, And that initiated Hope that we, Royal, inherit, of the final life, Nor newer incarnation, and possessed Of strange powers, who have moved about this court Loathed, and unrecognised, and shunned, have thought That the old bondage was as terrible As thine incestuous mother’s iron hand, Rending the entrails of her growing realm To seek her bloody fate, whose violence Even now makes the abyss of wrath divine Boil in the deep. Thou mayest be that great Osiris, bidding man’s high soul be free, Justified in its own higher self, made pure And perfect in its own eyes, being a god. {146B} Destroy this priestcraft! We are priests indeed, Highest among the secret ones; and we — See where our heritage is made; I, king, A leper, and thyself, the hideous fruit Of what strange poisons? But in mine own self I am the king and chief of all the priests; And thou, in thine own eyes, art a young god, Strong, beautiful, and lithe, a leaping fawn Upon the mountains. S’AFI. Yea, I am a god. I am fire against the fountain of my birth, The storm upon the earth that nurtured me!5 Leave me: we twain have no more words to speak. THE LEPER. Neither in heaven nor in hell. I go, The dead king, worshipping the living man. [Exit. S’AFI. I have been a god so long, my thoughts run halt From many contemplations. Like the flow Of a slow river deep and beautiful, My even life moved onward to full scope, The ocean of profounder deity, And — suddenly — the cataract! My soul, Centered eternally upon itself, Comprehends hardly all this violence Of wayward men intemperate. I am calm, And contemplate, without a muscle moved Or nerve set shrieking, all these ruinous deeds And dissolution of the royal house. I see this grey unnatural mother of mine Now, as she is, disrobed of deity, And like some reeling procuress grown wolf By infamous bewitchment, haunt the stairs, {147A} And pluck the young men by the robe, and take The maidens for her sacrifice, and burn With great unquenchable dead lustrous eyes Toward impossible things grown possible In Egypt. I will cleanse the land of this. Let me remember I am yet a god! Re-enter THE LEPER. THE LEPER. Thou must be brought before her presently Borne in a coffin. See thou fill it not, But take the lion’s mask and play his part Before the throne. Be ready, and be strong. S’AFI. I shall do so. Come, let us go together In hateful love and sacrilegious hate, Disease and godhead. I am still the god. [Exeunt. Enter RATOUM. RATOUM. I stood upon the desert, and my eyes Beheld the splendid and supernal dawn Flame underneath the single star that burns Within the gateway of the golden East To rule my fate; but I have conquered Fate Thus far, that I am perfect in myself, The absolute unity and triple power Engrafted. For the foolish people see An old grey woman, wicked, not divine, Who6 shall this hour assume the royal self And the old godhead, and the lithe strong limbs And supple loins and splendid bosom bare Full of bright milk, the breast of all the world. This lesser mastery I have made mine-own By strange devices, by unheard-of-ways Of wisdom, by strong sins, and magical Rituals made righteous of their own excess Of horror; but I have not made myself {147B} So absolute as I shall do to-day In this new infamy. For I must pass Desolate into the dusk of things again, Having risen so far to fall to the abyss, Deeper for exaltation; I must go Wailing and naked into the inane Cavernous shrineless place of misery, Forgetful, hateful, impotent, except The last initiation seize my soul, And fling me into Isis' very self, The immortal, mortal. Let me know this night Whether my place is found among the stars That wander in the deep, or made secure As the high throne of her that dwells in heaven, Fruitful for life and death, Wisdom her name! This hour the foolish ones shall see their souls Shrink at my manifest deity. This night My spirit on my spirit shall beget Myself for my own child. Behold! they come, Fantastically moving through the dance, The many mourners, and the fatal bier Looms in the dimness of the anteroom. It is enough. My hour is at hand! CHORUS enter and circumambulate. Even as the traitor's breath Goeth forth, he perisheth By the secret sibilant word that is spoken unto death. Even as the profane hand Reacheth to the sacred sand, Fire consumes him that his name be forgotten in the land. even as the wicked eye Seeks he mysteries to spy, So the blindness of the gods takes his spirit: he shall die. Even as the evil priest, Poisoned by the sacred feast, Changes by its seven powers to the misbegotten beast: {148A} Even as the powers of ill, Broken by the wanded will, Shriek about the holy place, vain and vague and terrible: Even as the lords of hell, Chained in fires before the spell, Strain upon the sightless steel, break not fetters nor compel: So be distant, O profane! Children of the hurricane! Lest the sword of fire destroy, lest the ways of death be pain! So depart, and so be wise, Lest your perishable eyes Look upon the formless fire, see the maiden sacrifice! So depart, and secret flame Burn upon the stone of shame, That the holy ones may hear music of the sleepless Name! Now the sacred and obscene Kiss, the pure and the unclean Mingle in the incense steaming up before the goddess queen. Holy, holy, holy spouse Of the sun-engirdled house, With the secret symbol burning on thy multiscient brows! Hear, O hear the mystic song Of the serpent-moving throng, Isis mother, Isis maiden, Isis beautiful and strong! Even as the traitor’s breath Goeth forth, he perisheth By the secret sibilant word that is spoken unto death. RATOUM. The hour is given unto death. Bring in Dead Horus, for the night is shed above. [Coffin brought in. {148B} CHORUS. The noise of the wind of the winter; the sound Of the wings of the charioted night; The song of the sons of the seas profound; The thunder of death; the might Of the eloquent silence of black light! RATOUM. The noise of many planets fallen far! CHORUS. Death listens for the voice of life; night waits The dawn of wisdom: winter seeks the spring! RATOUM. The music of all stars arisen; the breath Of God upon the valley of the dead! CHORUS. The silence of the awaiting soul asleep! RATOUM. The murmur of the fountain of my life! CHORUS. The whole dead universe awaits the Word. RATOUM. Now is the hour of life; my voice leaps up In the dim halls of death, and kindling flame Roars like the tempest through forgetfulness. This is my son, whose father is my son, From my own womb complete and absolute, And in this strong perfection of myself Stands the triumphant power of my desire, Manifest over self, and man, and god! For in the sacred coffin lies his corpse Who shall arise at the enormous word Of my creating deity; his life Shall quicken in him, and the dead man rise, {149A} Osiris; and all power be manifest In our supreme reunion; let the priest Cast incense on the fire, upon the ground Let water of the fertilising Nile Be spilt, because these dark maternal breasts That gave their milk to that divinest child Are not yet full of the transcending stream That knows its fountain in my deity. The incense fumes before me: I am come, Isis, within this body that ye know, Transmuting! Look upon me, ye blind eyes! Behold, dull souls and ignorant desires! See if I be not altogether god! [She assumes the appearance of her mature beauty, standing before them with the wand upraised. Wonder and worship! Sing to me the song Of the extreme spring! Rejoice in my great strength And infinite youth and new fertility, And lave your foreheads in this holy milk That springs, the fountain of humanity, Luminous in the temple! Raise the hymn. CHORUS. Through fields of foam ungarnered sweeps The fury of the wind of dawn; Through fiery desolation creeps The water of the wind withdrawn. With fire and water consecrate The foam and fire are recreate. With air uniting fire and water, The springtide’s unbegotten daughter Blossoms in oceans of blue air, Flowers of new spring to bear. The sorrowful twin fishes glide Silent and sacred into sleep; The joyful Ram exalts his pride, Seeing the forehead of the deep Glow from his palace, as the sun Leaps to the spring, whose coursers run Flaming before their golden master, As death and winter and disaster Fall from the Archer’s bitter kiss Fast to their mute abyss. {149B} The pale sweet blooms of lotus burn; The scent of spring is in the soul; Men’s spirits to the loftiest turn; Light is extended and made whole. The waters of the whispering Nile Lisp of their loves a little while, Then break, like songsters, into sighing, Because the lazy days are dying; And swift and tawny streams must rise World’s world to fertilise. The lotus is afire for love, Its yearnings are immortal still; But in its bosom, fed thereof, Lust, like a child, will have his will. Immortal fervour, strangely blent With mystic sensual sacrament, Fills up its cup; its petals tremble With faint desires that dissemble The fierce intention to be wed One with the spring sun’s head. The fountains of the river yearn Toward the sacred temple-walls, They foam upon the sands that burn With spring’s delirious festivals. They flash upon the gleaming ways, They cry, they chant aloud the praise Of Isis, and our temple kisses Their flowery water-wildernesses, Whose foamheads nestle to the stones With slumberous antiphones. All birds and beasts and fish are fain To mingle passion with the hope All creatures hold, that cycled pain May make its stream the wider scope Of many lives and changing law, Till to the sacred fountains draw Essences of dim being, mated With lofty substance uncreated, Concluding the full period That makes all being God. S’AFI (disguised in the mask of a lion). I lift the censer. Hail, immortal queen, From the vast hall of death! Dead Horus cries {150A} Towards the dawn. Bid me awake, O mother! O mother! from the darkness of the tomb, That live Osiris may cry back to thee, O spouse! O sister! from the halls of life, The profound lake, the immeasurable depth, The sea of the three Loves! O mother, mother! Isis, the voice that even Amenti hears, Speak, that I rise from chaos, from the world Of shapeless and illusionary forms, Of dead men's husks, and unsubstantial things. O mother, mother, mother! I arise! RATOUM. Horus, dread godhead, child of me, arise! Arise Osiris, to the sacred rites And marriage-bed of fuller deity. Now, at the serpent-motion of this wand, Rise from the dead! Arise, dead Horus, rise To be Osiris. Isis speaks! Arise! [The coffin is opened. THE LEPER is raised out of it swathed in bandages. Our of the sleep of ages wake and live! [The wrappings fall off. THE LEPER. I am the resurrection and the death! [RATOUM falls back shrieking. The priests raise a chant to stifle the sound. S’AFI (tearing off his mask). I am the hideous poison of thy veins And foulest fruit of thy incestuous womb. RATOUM. I am thy mother! I have nurtured thee With woman’s tenderness and godhead’s strength. S’AFI. I am the avenger of my own false birth. {150B} RATOUM. I have loved thee ever; I have made thee god. S’AFI. I hate myself, and therefore I hate thee. RATOUM. I am still goddess, still desire thy love. That leper lies: thou art indeed a god. S’AFI. I am a god to execute my will. [Threatens her with his dagger. RATOUM. Mercy! Thou canst not strike a woman down! S’AFI. So! The thin casing of the godhead rots, Mere mummy-cloth: the rotten corpse within, Dust and corruption! I am still the god, And gods slay women: therefore I slay thee. RATOUM. Then thou shalt seem me once again a god! [By a tremendous effort she towers before him. Silently they gaze at one another for a while, he vainly endeavouring to force himself to strike. At last she collapses into the throne; he springs forward and drives his knife into her. THE LEPER. It is finished! The sacrament is made! The god Has flamed within the altar-cake: 'tis done! [Silence: presently THE LEPER breaks into a horrible, silent, smooth laughter. Again silence. {151A} S’AFI. I am done with godhead: let me be a man. CHORUS. Hail, S'Afi, king of Egypt and the Nile! Hail, S'Afi, Lord of the two lands,7 all hail! S’AFI. King of himself and lord of life and death, No lesser throne! I have borne me as a god, Avenging on my nearest blood the sin That brought me shameful to the shameless light. I have not faltered nor turned back at all, Nor moved my purpose for a moment’s thought. Nor will I now. The god is gone from me, And as a man I feel the living shame of my existence, and the biting brand Of murder set upon me, and the sting Of my discrowned forehead. I shall die Having this proof of my own nobleness To soothe the rancour of my stricken soul In the abodes of night, that I have dared, With the first knowledge to make good my spirit Against its fate, to steel my flinching heart Against all men, dominions, shapes, and powers, Seen and unseen, to justice and to truth, Sought out by desolate ways of hateful deeds, And so set free myself from my own fate, Whom I will smite to end the coil of things Here, to begin — what life? For Life I know Stands like a living sentinel behind The rugged barrier of death, the gates Where the rude valley narrows, and man hears The steep and terrible cataract of time Break, and lose shape and substance in the foam And spray of an eternity of air! My death, and not my life, may crown me king! {151B} So let me not be buried in that state Due to the hateful rank that I abjure By this proud act, but let my monument Say to succeeding peoples and dim tribes Unthought of: “This was born a living man Bound, and he cut the chain of circumstance, And spat on Fate.” And all the priests shall say And all the people: “Verily and Amen.” [Stabs himself. CHORUS. Spirit of the Gods! O single, Sacred, secret, let the length East and west, the depth and height, North and south, with music tingle, Ring with battled clarion choirs of the far-resounding light! Let the might of Osirian sacrifice Dwell upon the self-slain king! Spirit of the Gods! Unite Streams of sacramental light In the soul, thrice purified, Consecrated thrice, Till Osiris justified In the supreme sacrifice Take his kingdom. Hear the cry That the wailing vultures make, Circling in the blackening sky Over the abysmal lake. Spirit, for our spirit’s sake Give the token of thy fire Trident in the lambent air, Till our spirits unaware Worship and aspire! Hear, beyond all periods, Timeless, formless, multiform, Thou, supreme above the storm, Spirit of the Holy Ones, Spirit of the Gods! Enter MESSENGER. MESSENGER. The battle rages: even now the shock Of hostile spears makes the loud earth resound, The wide sky tremble. {152A} AMENHATEP Here lies Horus dead, There Isis slain. We have no leader left. MESSENGER. The fight is doubtful. We may conquer still. AMENHATEP. By this shed blood and desecrated shrine And horrible hour of madness, may it be That all the evil fortune of the land, Created of these dead iniquities, Burn its foul flame out. Are ye not appeased, Even ye, O powers of Evil, at this shame And sacrilege? And ye, Great Powers of Good, Hath not enough of misery been wrought, Enough of expiation? We have sinned, But our iniquity he purged away, Who as avenger hath denied his life, To be made one with ye. O by his blood And strong desire of holiness, and might And justice, let him mediate between And mitigate your anger, that the name Of Egypt may not perish utterly. Make, make and end! THE LEPER. All things must work themselves To their own end. Created sin grown strong Must claim its guerdon. Ye abase yourselves Well for repentance; but ye shall not ward With tears and prayers the ruin ye have made, Nor banish the enormous deities Of judgment so invoked by any prayers, Or perfumes or libations. What must be Will be. Material succour ye demand In vain. But ye may purify yourselves. AMENHATEP. Knows then thy prophecy of our final doom? {152B} THE LEPER. Inquire not of your fate! Myself do know, Mayhap. Ye shall know. I await the event. AMENHATEP. We shall be patient, and we shall be strong. THE LEPER. The noise of rushing feet! The corridor Rings with their scurrying fear. This is the end. [Enter a flying soldier, crying aloud, and seeks a hiding-place. Speak not, thou trembling slave: we understand! [The soldier slips on the marble floor, and lies groaning. AMENHATEP See that due silence greets catastrophe! No word from now without command of mine. [Silence. Then grows a noise of men fighting, & c.; above this after a while rises a shrill laughter, terrifying to hear. Then cries of victory and the triumphant laugh of a great conqueror. His heavy step, and that of his staff, & c., is next heard coming masterfully down the corridor. The soldier gives a shriek. THE LEPER. The Syrian must not see a cur like this Cower at death. For Egypt’s honour, then! {153A} Give me that spear. [Aside.] That royalty's own hand Should send this thing to his long misery! [Taking a spear, he runs through the soldier. The KING OF SYRIA, attended, enters. KING OF SYRIA. Your armies beaten back before my face, Your weapons broken, I am come to take The crown from her pale brows that sitteth there. THE LEPER. The Queen is dead: I am the King of Egypt. To-day I saved the house from its own shame By strange ways: I will strike one blow to save The land from its invaders. In the name Of all our gods, I here invoke on thee The spirit of my leprosy. Have at you! [Springs at the KING OF SYRIA, only to be transfixed on his drawn sword; but he succeeds in clasping the king, who staggers. His soldiers, with a shout, rush forward, drag down THE LEPER and attack the priests. All are slain. Silence: then a shield drops, clanging on the ground. KING OF SYRIA (assuming crown and sitting on throne). Salute the conqueror of the Egyptian land! [The soldiers salute and cheer. I am a leper: get ye hence! [Exeunt soldiers. Unclean! [Silence. This was the hour that my ambitious hopes Centered upon; and now I grasp the hour — So fares mortality. [Silence. Unclean! unclean! {153B} {full page below} CURTAIN. {153} 1. This play deals with the effect of shattering all the solid bases of a young man's mind. Here we find him strong enough to win through. In the “Mother’s Tragedy” is a similar case with a weaker nature. It is well to note that in the former play the mother is evil; in the latter good. Hence also in part the tragedy. For a good mother is an affliction against which none by the strongest may strive. It is fortunately rare. 2. S'AFI is the Egyptian for fear. 3. See Vergil, Aen. vi. II. 14-19. 4. The West: the Egyptian Land of the Dead. 5. Fire and Water, Air and Earth, are the antagonisms of the elements. 6. This antithetical use of the relative is uncommon. 7. Upper and Lower Egypt. Previous | Index | Next Preface | Aceldama: A Place To Bury Strangers In | The Tale of Archais | Songs of the Spirit | The Poem | Jephthah | Mysteries: Lyrical And Dramatic | Jezebel, and Other Tragic Poems | An Appeal to the American Republic | The Fatal Force | The Mother’s Tragedy | The Temple of the Holy Ghost | Carmen Saeculare | Tannhäuser | … The Collected Works of Aleister Crowley | Volume I | Volume II | Volume III Thelema If you have found this material useful or enlightening, you may also be interested in Thelema Liber Legis, The Book of the Law Ordo Templi Orientis A∴A∴ Trademark Ordo Templi Orientis, O.T.O., and the O.T.O. Lamen design are registered trademarks of Ordo Templi Orientis. Copyright All copyrights on Aleister Crowley material are held by Ordo Templi Orientis. This site is not an official O.T.O. website, and is neither sponsored by nor controlled by Ordo Templi Orientis. 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