READING
From Liber Lapidis Lazuli: Chapter III.
- I was the priest of Ammon-Ra in the temple of Ammon-Ra at
Thebai.
- But Bacchus came singing with his troops of vine-clad girls,
of girls in dark mantles; and Bacchus in the midst like a fawn!
- God! how I ran out in my rage and scattered the chorus!
- But in my temple stood Bacchus as the priest of Ammon-Ra.
- Therefore I went wildly with the girls into Abyssinia; and
there we abode and rejoiced.
- Exceedingly; yea, in good sooth!
- I will eat the ripe and the unripe fruit for the glory of
Bacchus.
- Terraces of ilex, and tiers of onyx and opal and sardonyx
leading up to the cool green porch of malachite.
- Within is a crystal shell, shaped like an oyster -- O glory
of Priapus! O beatitude of the Great Goddess!
- Therein is a pearl.
- O Pearl! thou hast come from the majesty of dread Ammon-Ra.
- Then I the priest beheld a steady glitter in the heart of
the pearl.
- So bright we could not look! But behold! a blood-red rose
upon a rood of glowing gold!
- So I adored the God. Bacchus! thou art the lover of my God!
- I who was priest of Ammon-Ra, who saw the Nile flow by for
many moons, for many, many moons, am the young fawn of the grey
land.
- I will set up my dance in your conventicles, and my secret
loves shall be sweet among you.
- Thou shalt have a lover among the lords of the grey land.
- This shall he bring unto thee, without which all is in vain;
a man's life spilt for thy love upon My Altars.
- Amen.
- Let it be soon, O God, my God! I ache for Thee, I wander
very lonely among the mad folk, in the grey land of desolation.
- Thou shalt set up the abominable lonely Thing of wickedness.
Oh joy! to lay that corner-stone!
- It shall stand erect upon the high mountain; only my God
shall commune with it.
- I will build it of a single ruby; it shall be seen from afar
off.
- Come! let us irritate the vessels of the earth: they shall
distil strange wine.
- It grows under my hand: it shall cover the whole heaven.
- Thou art behind me: I scream with a mad joy.
- Then said Ithuriel the strong; let Us also worship this invisible
marvel!
- So did they, and the archangels swept over the heaven.
- Strange and mystic, like a yellow priest invoking mighty
flights of great grey birds from the North, so do I stand and
invoke Thee!
- Let them obscure not the sun with their wings and their clamour!
- Take away form and its following!
- I am still.
- Thou art like an osprey among the rice, I am the great red
pelican in the sunset waters.
- I am like a black eunuch; and Thou art the scimitar. I smite
off the head of the light one, the breaker of bread and salt.
- Yea! I smite -- and the blood makes as it were a sunset on
the lapis lazuli of the King's Bedchamber.
- I smite! The whole world is broken up into a mighty wind,
and a voice cries aloud in a tongue that men cannot speak.
- I know that awful sound of primal joy; let us follow on the
wings of the gale even unto the holy house of Hathor; let us
offer the five jewels of the cow upon her altar!
- Again the inhuman voice!
- I rear my Titan bulk into the teeth of the gale, and I smite
and prevail, and swing me out over the sea.
- There is a strange pale God, a god of pain and deadly wickedness.
- My own soul bites into itself, like a scorpion ringed with
fire.
- That pallid God with face averted, that God of subtlety and
laughter, that young Doric God, him will I serve.
- For the end thereof is torment unspeakable.
- Better the loneliness of the great grey sea!
- But ill befall the folk of the grey land, my God!
- Let me smother them with my roses!
- Oh Thou delicious God, smile sinister!
- I pluck Thee, O my God, like a purple plum upon a sunny tree.
How Thou dost melt in my mouth, Thou consecrated sugar of the
Stars!
- The world is all grey before mine eyes; it is like an old
worn wine-skin.
- All the wine of it is on these lips.
- Thou hast begotten me upon a marble Statue, O my God!
- The body is icy cold with the coldness of a million moons;
it is harder than the adamant of eternity. How shall I come
forth into the light?
- Thou art He, O God! O my darling! my child! my plaything!
Thou art like a cluster of maidens, like a multitude of swans
upon the lake.
- I feel the essence of softness.
- I am hard and strong and male; but come Thou! I shall be
soft and weak and feminine.
- Thou shalt crush me in the wine-press of Thy love. My blood
shall stain Thy fiery feet with litanies of Love in Anguish.
- There shall be a new flower in the fields, a new vintage
in the vineyards.
- The bees shall gather a new honey; the poets shall sing a
new song.
- I shall gain the Pain of the Goat for my prize; and the God
that sitteth upon the shoulders of Time shall drowse.
- Then shall all this which is written be accomplished: yea,
it shall be accomplished.
RESPONSORY
- The leaven taketh, and the bread shall be sweet; the ferment
worketh
- --- and the wine shall be sweet.
- Wail, O ye folk of the grey land, for we have drunk your
wine, and left ye but the bitter dregs. Yet from these we will
distill ye a liquor beyond the nectar of the Gods.
- --- And the wine...