"The trees floated. Gushing towards the sky? Or rather a collapse; at any instant I expected to see the tree-trunks shrivel like weary wands, crumple up, fall on the ground in a soft, folded, black heap. They did not want to exist, only they could not help themselves. So they quietly minded their own business; the sap rose up slowly through the structure, half reluctant, and the roots sank slowly into the earth. But at each instant they seemed on the verge of leaving everything there and obliterating themselves. Tired and old, they kept on existing, against the grain, simply because they were too weak to die, because death could only come to them from the outside: strains of music alone can proudly carry their own death within themselves like an internal necessity: only they don't exist. Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance. I leaned back and closed my eyes. But the images, forewarned, immediately leaped up and filled my closed eyes with existences: existence is a fullness which man can never abandon."
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
David Bowie - The Drowned Girl (1982)
Once she had drowned and started her slow descent
Down the streams to where the great rivers broaden
Oh, the open sky chant most magnificent
As if it was acting as her body's guardian
Wreck and duck weed slowly increased her weight
By clasping her in their slimy grip
Through her limbs, the cold blooded fishes played
Creatures and plant life kept on, thus obstructing her last trip
And the sky that same evening grew dark as smoke
And its stars through the night kept the brightness still soaring
But it quickly grew clear when dawn now broke
To see that she got one further morning
Once her pallid trunk had rotted beyond repair
It happened quite slowly that she gently slipped from God's thoughts
First with her face, then her hands, right at the last with her hair
Leaving those corpse-choked rivers just one more corpse.
Down the streams to where the great rivers broaden
Oh, the open sky chant most magnificent
As if it was acting as her body's guardian
Wreck and duck weed slowly increased her weight
By clasping her in their slimy grip
Through her limbs, the cold blooded fishes played
Creatures and plant life kept on, thus obstructing her last trip
And the sky that same evening grew dark as smoke
And its stars through the night kept the brightness still soaring
But it quickly grew clear when dawn now broke
To see that she got one further morning
Once her pallid trunk had rotted beyond repair
It happened quite slowly that she gently slipped from God's thoughts
First with her face, then her hands, right at the last with her hair
Leaving those corpse-choked rivers just one more corpse.
---Bertolt Brecht (1918)
Monday, October 26, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Aleister Crowley - excerpts from the Gnostic Mass (1913)
Lord visible and sensible of whom this earth is but a frozen spark turning about thee with annual and diurnal motion, source of light, source of life, let thy perpetual radiance hearten us to continual labour and enjoyment; so that as we are constant partakers of thy bounty we may in our particular orbit give out light and life, sustenance and joy to them that revolve about us without diminution of substance or effulgence for ever.
So mote it be.
Lord secret and most holy, source of life, source of love, source of liberty, be thou ever constant and mighty within us, force of energy, fire of motion; with diligence let us ever labour with thee, that we may remain in thine abundant joy.
So mote it be.
Lady of night, that turning ever about us art now visible and now invisible in thy season, be thou favourable to hunters, and lovers, and to all men that toil upon the earth, and to all mariners upon the sea.
So mote it be.
Giver and receiver of joy, gate of life and love, be thou ever ready, thou and thine handmaiden, in thine office of gladness.
So mote it be.
LORD of Life and Joy, that art the might of man, that art the essence of every true god that is upon the surface of the Earth, continuing knowledge from generation unto generation, thou adored of us upon heaths and in woods, on mountains and in caves, openly in the marketplaces and secretly in the chambers of our houses, in temples of gold and ivory and marble as in these other temples of our bodies, we worthily commemorate them worthy that did of old adore thee and manifest thy glory unto men.... Oh Sons of the Lion and the Snake! With all thy saints we worthily commemorate them worthy that were and are and are to come. May their essence be here present, potent, puissant and paternal to perfect this feast!
So mote it be.
Mother of fertility on whose breast lieth water, whose cheek is caressed by air, and in whose heart is the suns fire, womb of all life, recurring grace of seasons, answer favorably the prayer of labour, and to pastors and husbandmen be thou propitious.
So mote it be.
Mysterious Energy, triform, mysterious Matter, in fourfold and sevenfold division, the interplay of which things weave the dance of the Veil of Life upon the Face of the Spirit, let there be Harmony and Beauty in your mystic loves, that in us may be health and wealth and strength and divine pleasure according to the Law of Liberty; let each pursue his Will as a strong man that rejoiceth in his way, as the course of a Star that blazeth for ever among the joyous company of Heaven.
So mote it be.
Be the hour auspicious, and the gate of life open in peace and in well-being, so that she that beareth children may rejoice, and the babe catch life with both hands.
So mote it be.
Upon all that this day unite with love under will let fall success; may strength and skill unite to bring forth ecstasy, and beauty answer beauty.
So mote it be.
Term of all that liveth, whose name is inscrutable, be favourable unto us in thine hour.
So mote it be.
Term of all that liveth, whose name is inscrutable, be favourable unto us in thine hour.
So mote it be.
Unto them from whose eyes the veil of life hath fallen may there be granted the accomplishment of their true Wills; whether they will absorption in the Infinite, or to be united with their chosen and preferred, or to be in contemplation, or to be at peace, or to achieve the labour and heroism of incarnation on this planet or another, or in any Star, or aught else, unto them may there be granted the accomplishment of their wills; yea, the accomplishment of their wills. AUMGN. AUMGN. AUMGN.
So mote it be.
Gustav Mahler - Symphony #8 (conclusion) (1906)
"Alles Vergangliche
Ist nur ein Gleichnis.
Das Unzulangliche;
Hier wird's Ereignis.
Das Unbeschreibliche,
Hier ist's getan;
Das Ewig-Weibliche
Zieht uns hinan."
All that is transitory
Is but a parable.
All that is inadequate
Is here fulfilled.
The indescribable
Here becomes actual;
The Eternal Feminine
Draws us heavenward.
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1832
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