The Project Gutenberg EBook of Household Gods, by Aleister Crowley

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Household Gods

Author: Aleister Crowley

Release Date: November 14, 2004 [EBook #14040]

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HOUSEHOLD GODS ***

Graphics and textual content produced by Lolaness.

HOUSEHOLD GODS

A Comedy By Aleister Crowley

[Privately Printed in 1912]

TO LEILA WADDELL

SCENE

THE HEARTH OF CRASSUS; AFTERWARDS THE LAWNS, THE WOODS, THE LAKE, THE ISLE.

CHARACTERS

CRASSUS, a barbarian from Britain.
ADELA, his wife, a noble Roman lady.
ALICIA, a servant in the house.
A STATUE OF PAN.
A FAUN.

HOUSEHOLD GODS

THE SCENE is at the hearth of CRASSUS, where is a little bronze altar dedicated to the Lares and Penates. A pale flame rises from the burning sandal-wood, on which CRASSUS throws benzoin and musk. He is standing in deep dejection.

CRASSUS.
Smoke without fire!
  No thrill of tongues licks up
  The offerings in the cup.
Dead falls desire.

Black smoke thou art,
  O altar-flame, that dost dismember,
  Devour the hearth, to leave no ember
To warm this heart.

I see her still -
  Adela dancing here
  Till dim gods did appear
To work our will.

The delicate girl!
  Diaphanous gossamer
  Subtly revealing her
Brave breast of pearl!

Now - she's withdrawn
  At dusk to the wild woods,
  Mystic beatitudes
That dure till dawn.

Let life exclaim
  Against these things of spirit,
  Mankind that disinherit
Of love's pure flame!
[He bends before the altar and begins to weep.]

Ye household gods!
  By these male tears I swear
  That ye shall grant this prayer.
All things at odds

Shall be put straight -
  Harmonized, reconciled
  By some appointed child
Of some far Fate!
[A curtain has been drawn aside during this invocation, and
ALICIA advances. She smiles subtly upon him; and, giving a
strange gesture, makes one or two noiseless steps of dancing.]

ALICIA.
Master still sad?

CRASSUS.
These faint and fearful shores
  Of time are beaten by the surge of sense,
  Love worn away - by love? - to indifference.
Who knows what god - or demon - she adores?
  Or in what wood she shelters, or what grove
  Sees her profane our sacrament of love?

ALICIA.
I saw her follow
The stream in the hollow
Where never Apollo
  Abides.
So thick are the trees
That never the breeze
Stirs them, or sees
  What satyr inhabits the glen, what nymph in the
    pools of it hides.

Lighter of foot
  Than a sylph or a fairy,
  Sinuous, wary,
  I passed from the airy
Lawns, where the flute
  Of the winds made tremulous music for man.

I followed the ripple
  Of the stream; I crept
  Where the waters wept -
    The floss in the foss
    Gurgling across
    The bosses of moss,
Like a dryad's nipple
  In the mouth of Pan!

CRASSUS.
O pearl of the house! you came to the end?

ALICIA.
The dusk of the slave, the dawn of a friend?

CRASSUS.
Freedom is thine for the skill and the will.

ALICIA.
The skill is mine - but the will lies still,
Still as the earth that dare not stir
Till the kiss of the sun awaken her!

CRASSUS.
Yet at these secrets and riddles? Behold!
I can fill thy lap with a harvest of gold.

ALICIA.
Yet all the gold you could give to me
Would fall at my feet when I rose to be free.

CRASSUS.
What will you then?

ALICIA.
No gift from men.
Of my own free will I give you wit,
(O man so sorely in need of it!)
And happiness; and the flame that hath dwindled
On this dull hearth shall be rekindled.
But this you must swear:
To will, and to dare,
To seek the spirit and slay the sense;
  And for this hour
  To give me power
To lead you in silent obedience,
Though I bade you fall on your sword….

CRASSUS.
                        Enough!
I give my life as I gave my love.

ALICIA.
O! love you have not understood.
You have not guessed its secret food.
You have not seen its single eye;
But fear and doubt and jealousy
Have risen, and now your love is trembling
Like a mountebank dissembling
When his trick's detected. Come!
To find home we must leave home.

CRASSUS.
Starless and moonless, hidden in cloud,
The night's one flame of pearl.

ALICIA.
The bat flaps; the owl hoots aloud.

CRASSUS.
Lead on; I trust you, girl.

ALICIA.
You are bold to trust me; or, have you divined
My secret?

CRASSUS.
No; the crystal of your mind
Shows only faint disturbing images,
Things passing strange, as if enchanted seas
Kept their great swell upon it, and strange fish
Played in its oily depths. Some monstrous wish,
The shadow of some unspeakable desire,
Strikes my heart cold, and sets my brain on fire.

ALICIA.
Learn this, as we pass through the portico:
Fear nothing; there is nothing you can know!
And by these terraces and steps that gleam
Wintry, although the summer night is hot,
This - what we seek is never what we find!

Life is a dream, like love; and from the dream
If we may wake, we never find it what
We would; for the wisdom of a mightier mind
Leads us in its own ways
To a perfected praise.

CRASSUS.
Why are these shadows thrown across the lawn
From the elms and yews? They were not wont to reach
Beyond the branches of that copper-beech.

ALICIA.
Attend the dawn
Of an unknown comet, that shall come
From the unfathomable wells of space
Into its halidom.

CRASSUS.
I know it not. Last night I walked alone
Here, and saw nothing.

ALICIA.
                        I was not with you!
There is no God upon the eternal throne
Of stars begemming the bewildering blue
Unless one has the eyes to see him. Think
How we two stand upon the brink
Of nothing! Here's a globe, whereto we trust,
No larger than the smallest speck of dust