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vel Lapidis Lazuli
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Chapter III
- 1.
- I was the priest of Ammon-Ra in the temple of Ammon-Ra at Thebai.
- 2.
- But Bacchus came singing with his troops of vine-clad girls, of girls in dark mantles; and Bacchus in the midst like a fawn!
- 3.
- God! how I ran out in my rage and scattered the chorus!
- 4.
- But in my temple stood Bacchus as the priest of Ammon-Ra.
- 5.
- Therefore I went wildly with the girls into Abyssinia; and there we abode and rejoiced.
- 6.
- Exceedingly; yea, in good sooth!
- 7.
- I will eat the ripe and the unripe fruit for the glory of Bacchus.
- 8.
- Terraces of ilex, and tiers of onyx and opal and sardonyx leading up to the cool green porch of malachite.
- 9.
- Within is a crystal shell, shaped like an oyster -- O glory of Priapus! O beatitude of the Great Goddess!
- 10.
- Therein is a pearl.
- 11.
- O Pearl! thou hast come from the majesty of dread Ammon-Ra.
- 12.
- Then I the priest beheld a steady glitter in the heart of the pearl.
- 13.
- So bright we could not look! But behold! a blood-red rose upon a rood of glowing gold!
- 14.
- So I adored the God. Bacchus! thou art the lover of my God!
- 15.
- 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.
- 16.
- I will set up my dance in your conventicles, and my secret loves shall be sweet among you.
- 17.
- Thou shalt have a lover among the lords of the grey land.
- 18.
- This shall he bring unto thee, without which all is in vain; a man's life spilt for thy love upon Mine Altars.
- 19.
- Amen.
- 20.
- 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.
- 21.
- Thou shalt set up the abominable lonely Thing of wickedness. Oh joy! to lay that corner-stone!
- 22.
- It shall stand erect upon the high mountain; only my God shall commune with it.
- 23.
- I will build it of a single ruby; it shall be seen from afar off.
- 24.
- Come! let us irritate the vessels of the earth: they shall distil strange wine.
- 25.
- It grows under my hand: it shall cover the whole heaven.
- 26.
- Thou art behind me: I scream with a mad joy.
- 27.
- Then said Ithuriel the strong; let Us also worship this invisible marvel!
- 28.
- So did they, and the archangels swept over the heaven.
- 29.
- Strange and mystic, like a yellow priest invoking mighty flights of great grey birds from the North, so do I stand and invoke Thee!
- 30.
- Let them obscure not the sun with their wings and their clamour!
- 31.
- Take away form and its following!
- 32.
- I am still.
- 33.
- Thou art like an osprey among the rice, I am the great red pelican in the sunset waters.
- 34.
- 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.
- 35.
- Yea! I smite -- and the blood makes as it were a sunset on the lapis lazuli of the King's Bedchamber.
- 36.
- I smite. The whole world is broken up into a mighty wind, and a voice cries aloud in a tongue that men cannot speak.
- 37.
- 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!
- 38.
- Again the inhuman voice!
- 39.
- I rear my Titan bulk into the teeth of the gale, and I smite and prevail, and swing me out over the sea.
- 40.
- There is a strange pale God, a god of pain and deadly wickedness.
- 41.
- My own soul bites into itself, like a scorpion ringed with fire.
- 42.
- That pallid God with face averted, that God of subtlety and laughter, that young Doric God, him will I serve.
- 43.
- For the end thereof is torment unspeakable.
- 44.
- Better the loneliness of the great grey sea!
- 45.
- But ill befall the folk of the grey land, my God!
- 46.
- Let me smother them with my roses!
- 47.
- Oh Thou delicious God, smile sinister!
- 48.
- 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.
- 49.
- The world is all grey before mine eyes; it is like an old worn wine-skin.
- 50.
- All the wine of it is on these lips.
- 51.
- Thou hast begotten me upon a marble Statue, O my God!
- 52.
- 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?
- 53.
- 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.
- 54.
- I feel the essence of softness.
- 55.
- I am hard and strong and male; but come Thou! I shall be soft and weak and feminine.
- 56.
- Thou shalt crush me in the wine-press of Thy love. My blood shall stain Thy fiery feet with litanies of Love in Anguish.
- 57.
- There shall be a new flower in the fields, a new vintage in the vineyards.
- 58.
- The bees shall gather a new honey; the poets shall sing a new song.
- 59.
- I shall gain the Pain of the Goat for my prize; and the God that sitteth upon the shoulders of Time shall drowse.
- 60.
- Then shall all this which is written be accomplished: yea, it shall be accomplished.
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