[Dedicated to K.M.Ward] <br /> <br /> <br />"I will arise and go unto my father" <br /> <br />MALKUTH <br /> <br />Dark, dark all dark! I cower, I cringe. <br />Only ablove me is a citron tinge <br />As if some echo of red, gold and lue <br />Chimed on the night and let its shadow through. <br />Yet I who am thus prisoned and exiled <br />Am the right heir of glory, the crowned child. <br /> <br />I match my might against my Fate's <br />I gird myself to reach the ultimate shores, <br />I arm myself the war to win:- <br />Lift up your heads, O mighty gates! <br />Be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors! <br />The King of Glory shall come in. <br /> <br />TAU <br /> <br />I pass from the citrine:deep indigo <br />Is this tall column. Snakes and vultures bend <br />Their hooted hate on him that would ascend. <br />O may the Four avail me ! Ageless woe, <br />Fear, torture, throng the treshold. LO1 The end <br />Of Matter ! The immensity of things <br /> <br />Let loose -new laws, new beings, new conditions;- <br />Dire chaos; see ! these new-fledged wings <br />Fail in its vagueness and initiations. <br />Only my circle saves me from the hate <br />Of all these monsters dead yet animate. <br /> <br />I match, &c. <br /> <br />YESOD <br /> <br />Hail, thou full moon, O flame of Amethyst ! <br />Stupendous mountain on whose shoulders rest <br />The Eight Above. More stable is my crest <br />Than thine -and now I pierce thee, veil of mist! <br />Even as an arrow from the war-bow springs <br />I leap -my life is set with loftier things. <br /> <br />I match, & c. <br /> <br />SAMECH ( and the crossing of the Path of Pe) <br /> <br />Now swift, thou azure shaft of fading fire, <br />Pierce through the rainbow! Swift, O swift! how streams <br />The world by! Let Sandalphon and his quire <br />Of Angels ward me! <br />Ho! what<br /><br />Aleister Crowley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-ladder/
