THE PALACE OF THE WORLD (1)

from

THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY GHOST

by

ALEISTER CROWLEY

The fragrant gateways of the dawn (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The mother, Midnight, has withdrawn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 (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 (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 (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 (6). I and Thou
Are as they had not been (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 fronm 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. (8)

O sacred spirit of the Gods! (9)
O triple tongue! (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; (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; (12)
Behind me, mightier than the Sun,
To whom the cherubs sing,
A strong archangel, (13) known of none,
Comes crowned and conquering.

An angel stands on my right hand
With strength of ocean's wrath; (14)

Upon my left the fiery brand,
Charioted fire smites forth: (15)
Four great archangels to withstand
The furies of the path. (16)

Flames on my front the fiery star,
About me and around. (17)
Behind, the sacred sun, afar,
Six symphonies of sound;
Flames, as the Gods themselves that are;
Flames, in the abyss profound. (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! (19)
Thine through eternity's swift hour,
Eternity, thy shrine --
Yea, by the holy lotus-flower,
Even mine! (20)




Notes:

1. Describes the spiritual aspect of the "Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram" which we append, with its explanation. The abstruse nature of mastering poems is well reflected in this one.

(i) Touching the forehead say Ateh (Unto Thee).
(ii) Touching the breast say Malkuth (The Kingdom).
(iii) Touching the right shoulder, say ve-Geburah (and the Power).
(iv) Touching the left shoulder, say ve-Gedulah (and the Glory).
(v) Clasping the hands upon the breast, say le-Olahm, Amen (To the Ages, Amen).
(vi) Turning to the East make a pentagram (that of Earth) with the desired weapon. Say I H V H.
(vii) Turning to the South, the same, but say A D N I.
(viii) Turning to the West, the same, but say A H I H.
(ix) Turning to the North, the same, but say A G L A.
(x) Extending the arms in the form of a Cross say:
(xi) Before me Raphael;
(xii) Behind me Gabriel;
(xiii) On my right hand Michael.
(xiv) On my left hand Auriel;
(xv) For about me flames the Pentagram,
(xvi) And in the Column stands the six-rayed Star.
(xvii-xxi) Repeat (i) to (v), the Qabalistic Cross.

Those who regard this ritual as a mere device to invoke or banish spirits, are unworthy to possess it. Properly understood, it is the Medicine of Metals and the Stone of the Wise. [Author's Note]

2. This ritual was given to Neophytes in the Order of the Golden Dawn.

3. The moon, as before, signifies Aspiration to the Highest.

4. For the "Flaming Sword" is the "Pentagram unwound."

5. The arms being extended, and the magus being clad in a Tau-shaped robe and a nemmes, the sacred Egyptian headdress, his figure would cast a shadow resembling the Ankh, or "Key of Life."

6. Khabs am Pekht, Konx om Pax, Light in Extension. The mystic words which seal the current of light in the sphere of the aspirant.

7. Cf. Omar Khayyam the Sufi.

8. Binah, the revealer of the Triad of Light

9. Ruach Elohim (see Genesis i.) adds up to 300= [Shin] =Fire.

10. [Shin] by shape hath a triple tongue.

11. These archangels are at points on the "Tree of Life" which cause them to surround as described one who is "crucified" thereon.

12. Raphael dwells in Tiphereth, Beauty.

13. Gabriel, dweller in Yesod, where are the Kerubim.

14. Michael, lord of Hod, an Emanation of a watery nature.

15. Auriel, Archangel of Netzach, to which fire is attributed.

16. The path of [Thav], or Saturn and Earth, which leads from Malkuth to Yesod indeed, but is dark and illusory. This first step upward attracts the bitterest opposition of all the Enemies of the Human Soul.

17. As asserted in the ritual.

18. It flames both above and beneath thew magus, who is thus in a cube of 4 pentagrams and 2 hexagrams, 32 points in all. And 32 is [AHIHVH], the sacred word that expresses the Unity of the Highest and the Human.

19. As in ritual.

20. Supreme affirmation of Unity with the Highest in the Lotus, the universal symbol of Attainment.