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diff --git a/5794-h/5794-h.htm b/5794-h/5794-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2b3a7a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/5794-h/5794-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1223 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Rosa Alchemica, by W.b. Yeats + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + .side { float: right; font-size: 75%; width: 25%; padding-left: 0.8em; + border-left: dashed thin; margin-left: 0.8em; text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; + font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Rosa Alchemica, by W. B. Yeats + +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.org + + +Title: Rosa Alchemica + +Author: W. B. Yeats + + +Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5794] +This file was first posted on September 1, 2002 +Last Updated: July 3, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROSA ALCHEMICA *** + + + + +Text file produced by Charles Franks and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + + +</pre> + + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + ROSA ALCHEMICA + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By W.B. Yeats + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <div class="middle"> + <p> + O blessed and happy he, who knowing the mysteries of the gods, + sanctifies his life, and purifies his soul, celebrating orgies in the + mountains with holy purifications.—<i>Euripides.</i> + </p> + </div> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> ROSA ALCHEMICA. </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0003"> II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0004"> III </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005"> IV </a> + </p> +<p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0005a"> V </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + ROSA ALCHEMICA. + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + I + </h2> + <p> + It is now more than ten years since I met, for the last time, Michael + Robartes, and for the first time and the last time his friends and fellow + students; and witnessed his and their tragic end, and endured those + strange experiences, which have changed me so that my writings have grown + less popular and less intelligible, and driven me almost to the verge of + taking the habit of St. Dominic. I had just published Rosa Alchemica, a + little work on the Alchemists, somewhat in the manner of Sir Thomas + Browne, and had received many letters from believers in the arcane + sciences, upbraiding what they called my timidity, for they could not + believe so evident sympathy but the sympathy of the artist, which is half + pity, for everything which has moved men's hearts in any age. I had + discovered, early in my researches, that their doctrine was no merely + chemical phantasy, but a philosophy they applied to the world, to the + elements and to man himself; and that they sought to fashion gold out of + common metals merely as part of an universal transmutation of all things + into some divine and imperishable substance; and this enabled me to make + my little book a fanciful reverie over the transmutation of life into art, + and a cry of measureless desire for a world made wholly of essences. + </p> + <p> + I was sitting dreaming of what I had written, in my house in one of the + old parts of Dublin; a house my ancestors had made almost famous through + their part in the politics of the city and their friendships with the + famous men of their generations; and was feeling an unwonted happiness at + having at last accomplished a long-cherished design, and made my rooms an + expression of this favourite doctrine. The portraits, of more historical + than artistic interest, had gone; and tapestry, full of the blue and + bronze of peacocks, fell over the doors, and shut out all history and + activity untouched with beauty and peace; and now when I looked at my + Crevelli and pondered on the rose in the hand of the Virgin, wherein the + form was so delicate and precise that it seemed more like a thought than a + flower, or at the grey dawn and rapturous faces of my Francesca, I knew + all a Christian's ecstasy without his slavery to rule and custom; when I + pondered over the antique bronze gods and goddesses, which I had mortgaged + my house to buy, I had all a pagan's delight in various beauty and without + his terror at sleepless destiny and his labour with many sacrifices; and I + had only to go to my bookshelf, where every book was bound in leather, + stamped with intricate ornament, and of a carefully chosen colour: + Shakespeare in the orange of the glory of the world, Dante in the dull red + of his anger, Milton in the blue grey of his formal calm; and I could + experience what I would of human passions without their bitterness and + without satiety. I had gathered about me all gods because I believed in + none, and experienced every pleasure because I gave myself to none, but + held myself apart, individual, indissoluble, a mirror of polished steel: I + looked in the triumph of this imagination at the birds of Hera, glowing in + the firelight as though they were wrought of jewels; and to my mind, for + which symbolism was a necessity, they seemed the doorkeepers of my world, + shutting out all that was not of as affluent a beauty as their own; and + for a moment I thought as I had thought in so many other moments, that it + was possible to rob life of every bitterness except the bitterness of + death; and then a thought which had followed this thought, time after + time, filled me with a passionate sorrow. All those forms: that Madonna + with her brooding purity, those rapturous faces singing in the morning + light, those bronze divinities with their passionless dignity, those wild + shapes rushing from despair to despair, belonged to a divine world wherein + I had no part; and every experience, however profound, every perception, + however exquisite, would bring me the bitter dream of a limitless energy I + could never know, and even in my most perfect moment I would be two + selves, the one watching with heavy eyes the other's moment of content. I + had heaped about me the gold born in the crucibles of others; but the + supreme dream of the alchemist, the transmutation of the weary heart into + a weariless spirit, was as far from me as, I doubted not, it had been from + him also. I turned to my last purchase, a set of alchemical apparatus + which, the dealer in the Rue le Peletier had assured me, once belonged to + Raymond Lully, and as I joined the <i>alembic</i> to the <i>athanor</i> + and laid the <i>lavacrum maris</i> at their side, I understood the + alchemical doctrine, that all beings, divided from the great deep where + spirits wander, one and yet a multitude, are weary; and sympathized, in + the pride of my connoisseurship, with the consuming thirst for destruction + which made the alchemist veil under his symbols of lions and dragons, of + eagles and ravens, of dew and of nitre, a search for an essence which + would dissolve all mortal things. I repeated to myself the ninth key of + Basilius Valentinus, in which he compares the fire of the last day to the + fire of the alchemist, and the world to the alchemist's furnace, and would + have us know that all must be dissolved before the divine substance, + material gold or immaterial ecstasy, awake. I had dissolved indeed the + mortal world and lived amid immortal essences, but had obtained no + miraculous ecstasy. As I thought of these things, I drew aside the + curtains and looked out into the darkness, and it seemed to my troubled + fancy that all those little points of light filling the sky were the + furnaces of innumerable divine alchemists, who labour continually, turning + lead into gold, weariness into ecstasy, bodies into souls, the darkness + into God; and at their perfect labour my mortality grew heavy, and I cried + out, as so many dreamers and men of letters in our age have cried, for the + birth of that elaborate spiritual beauty which could alone uplift souls + weighted with so many dreams. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0003" id="link2H_4_0003"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + II + </h2> + <p> + My reverie was broken by a loud knocking at the door, and I wondered the + more at this because I had no visitors, and had bid my servants do all + things silently, lest they broke the dream of my inner life. Feeling a + little curious, I resolved to go to the door myself, and, taking one of + the silver candlesticks from the mantlepiece, began to descend the stairs. + The servants appeared to be out, for though the sound poured through every + corner and crevice of the house there was no stir in the lower rooms. I + remembered that because my needs were so few, my part in life so little, + they had begun to come and go as they would, often leaving me alone for + hours. The emptiness and silence of a world from which I had driven + everything but dreams suddenly overwhelmed me, and I shuddered as I drew + the bolt. I found before me Michael Robartes, whom I had not seen for + years, and whose wild red hair, fierce eyes, sensitive, tremulous lips and + rough clothes, made him look now, just as they used to do fifteen years + before, something between a debauchee, a saint, and a peasant. He had + recently come to Ireland, he said, and wished to see me on a matter of + importance: indeed, the only matter of importance for him and for me. His + voice brought up before me our student years in Paris, and remembering the + magnetic power he had once possessed over me, a little fear mingled with + much annoyance at this irrelevant intrusion, as I led the way up the wide + staircase, where Swift had passed joking and railing, and Curran telling + stories and quoting Greek, in simpler days, before men's minds, subtilized + and complicated by the romantic movement in art and literature, began to + tremble on the verge of some unimagined revelation. I felt that my hand + shook, and saw that the light of the candle wavered and quivered more than + it need have upon the Maenads on the old French panels, making them look + like the first beings slowly shaping in the formless and void darkness. + When the door had closed, and the peacock curtain, glimmering like + many-coloured flame, fell between us and the world, I felt, in a way I + could not understand, that some singular and unexpected thing was about to + happen. I went over to the mantlepiece, and finding that a little + chainless bronze censer, set, upon the outside, with pieces of painted + china by Orazio Fontana, which I had filled with antique amulets, had + fallen upon its side and poured out its contents, I began to gather the + amulets into the bowl, partly to collect my thoughts and partly with that + habitual reverence which seemed to me the due of things so long connected + with secret hopes and fears. 'I see,' said Michael Robartes, 'that you are + still fond of incense, and I can show you an incense more precious than + any you have ever seen,' and as he spoke he took the censer out of my hand + and put the amulets in a little heap between the <i>athanor</i> and the <i>alembic</i>. + I sat down, and he sat down at the side of the fire, and sat there for + awhile looking into the fire, and holding the censer in his hand. 'I have + come to ask you something,' he said, 'and the incense will fill the room, + and our thoughts, with its sweet odour while we are talking. I got it from + an old man in Syria, who said it was made from flowers, of one kind with + the flowers that laid their heavy purple petals upon the hands and upon + the hair and upon the feet of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, and + folded Him in their heavy breath, until He cried against the cross and his + destiny.' He shook some dust into the censer out of a small silk bag, and + set the censer upon the floor and lit the dust which sent up a blue stream + of smoke, that spread out over the ceiling, and flowed downwards again + until it was like Milton's banyan tree. It filled me, as incense often + does, with a faint sleepiness, so that I started when he said, 'I have + come to ask you that question which I asked you in Paris, and which you + left Paris rather than answer.' + </p> + <p> + He had turned his eyes towards me, and I saw them glitter in the + firelight, and through the incense, as I replied: 'You mean, will I become + an initiate of your Order of the Alchemical Rose? I would not consent in + Paris, when I was full of unsatisfied desire, and now that I have at last + fashioned my life according to my desire, am I likely to consent?' + </p> + <p> + 'You have changed greatly since then,' he answered. 'I have read your + books, and now I see you among all these images, and I understand you + better than you do yourself, for I have been with many and many dreamers + at the same cross-ways. You have shut away the world and gathered the gods + about you, and if you do not throw yourself at their feet, you will be + always full of lassitude, and of wavering purpose, for a man must forget + he is miserable in the bustle and noise of the multitude in this world and + in time; or seek a mystical union with the multitude who govern this world + and time.' And then he murmured something I could not hear, and as though + to someone I could not see. + </p> + <p> + For a moment the room appeared to darken, as it used to do when he was + about to perform some singular experiment, and in the darkness the + peacocks upon the doors seemed to glow with a more intense colour. I cast + off the illusion, which was, I believe, merely caused by memory, and by + the twilight of incense, for I would not acknowledge that he could + overcome my now mature intellect; and I said: 'Even if I grant that I need + a spiritual belief and some form of worship, why should I go to Eleusis + and not to Calvary?' He leaned forward and began speaking with a slightly + rhythmical intonation, and as he spoke I had to struggle again with the + shadow, as of some older night than the night of the sun, which began to + dim the light of the candles and to blot out the little gleams upon the + corner of picture-frames and on the bronze divinities, and to turn the + blue of the incense to a heavy purple; while it left the peacocks to + glimmer and glow as though each separate colour were a living spirit. I + had fallen into a profound dream-like reverie in which I heard him + speaking as at a distance. 'And yet there is no one who communes with only + one god,' he was saying, 'and the more a man lives in imagination and in a + refined understanding, the more gods does he meet with and talk with, and + the more does he come under the power of Roland, who sounded in the Valley + of Roncesvalles the last trumpet of the body's will and pleasure; and of + Hamlet, who saw them perishing away, and sighed; and of Faust, who looked + for them up and down the world and could not find them; and under the + power of all those countless divinities who have taken upon themselves + spiritual bodies in the minds of the modern poets and romance writers, and + under the power of the old divinities, who since the Renaissance have won + everything of their ancient worship except the sacrifice of birds and + fishes, the fragrance of garlands and the smoke of incense. The many think + humanity made these divinities, and that it can unmake them again; but we + who have seen them pass in rattling harness, and in soft robes, and heard + them speak with articulate voices while we lay in deathlike trance, know + that they are always making and unmaking humanity, which is indeed but the + trembling of their lips.' + </p> + <p> + He had stood up and begun to walk to and fro, and had become in my waking + dream a shuttle weaving an immense purple web whose folds had begun to + fill the room. The room seemed to have become inexplicably silent, as + though all but the web and the weaving were at an end in the world. 'They + have come to us; they have come to us,' the voice began again; 'all that + have ever been in your reverie, all that you have met with in books. There + is Lear, his head still wet with the thunder-storm, and he laughs because + you thought yourself an existence who are but a shadow, and him a shadow + who is an eternal god; and there is Beatrice, with her lips half parted in + a smile, as though all the stars were about to pass away in a sigh of + love; and there is the mother of the God of humility who cast so great a + spell over men that they have tried to unpeople their hearts that he might + reign alone, but she holds in her hand the rose whose every petal is a + god; and there, O swiftly she comes! is Aphrodite under a twilight falling + from the wings of numberless sparrows, and about her feet are the grey and + white doves.' In the midst of my dream I saw him hold out his left arm and + pass his right hand over it as though he stroked the wings of doves. I + made a violent effort which seemed almost to tear me in two, and said with + forced determination: 'You would sweep me away into an indefinite world + which fills me with terror; and yet a man is a great man just in so far as + he can make his mind reflect everything with indifferent precision like a + mirror.' I seemed to be perfectly master of myself, and went on, but more + rapidly: 'I command you to leave me at once, for your ideas and phantasies + are but the illusions that creep like maggots into civilizations when they + begin to decline, and into minds when they begin to decay.' I had grown + suddenly angry, and seizing the <i>alembic</i> from the table, was about + to rise and strike him with it, when the peacocks on the door behind him + appeared to grow immense; and then the <i>alembic</i> fell from my fingers + and I was drowned in a tide of green and blue and bronze feathers, and as + I struggled hopelessly I heard a distant voice saying: 'Our master + Avicenna has written that all life proceeds out of corruption.' The + glittering feathers had now covered me completely, and I knew that I had + struggled for hundreds of years, and was conquered at last. I was sinking + into the depth when the green and blue and bronze that seemed to fill the + world became a sea of flame and swept me away, and as I was swirled along + I heard a voice over my head cry, 'The mirror is broken in two pieces,' + and another voice answer, 'The mirror is broken in four pieces,' and a + more distant voice cry with an exultant cry, 'The mirror is broken into + numberless pieces'; and then a multitude of pale hands were reaching + towards me, and strange gentle faces bending above me, and half wailing + and half caressing voices uttering words that were forgotten the moment + they were spoken. I was being lifted out of the tide of flame, and felt my + memories, my hopes, my thoughts, my will, everything I held to be myself, + melting away; then I seemed to rise through numberless companies of beings + who were, I understood, in some way more certain than thought, each + wrapped in his eternal moment, in the perfect lifting of an arm, in a + little circlet of rhythmical words, in dreaming with dim eyes and + half-closed eyelids. And then I passed beyond these forms, which were so + beautiful they had almost ceased to be, and, having endured strange moods, + melancholy, as it seemed, with the weight of many worlds, I passed into + that Death which is Beauty herself, and into that Loneliness which all the + multitudes desire without ceasing. All things that had ever lived seemed + to come and dwell in my heart, and I in theirs; and I had never again + known mortality or tears, had I not suddenly fallen from the certainty of + vision into the uncertainty of dream, and become a drop of molten gold + falling with immense rapidity, through a night elaborate with stars, and + all about me a melancholy exultant wailing. I fell and fell and fell, and + then the wailing was but the wailing of the wind in the chimney, and I + awoke to find myself leaning upon the table and supporting my head with my + hands. I saw the <i>alembic</i> swaying from side to side in the distant + corner it had rolled to, and Michael Robartes watching me and waiting. 'I + will go wherever you will,' I said, 'and do whatever you bid me, for I + have been with eternal things.' 'I knew,' he replied, 'you must need + answer as you have answered, when I heard the storm begin. You must come + to a great distance, for we were commanded to build our temple between the + pure multitude by the waves and the impure multitude of men.' + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0004" id="link2H_4_0004"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + III + </h2> + <p> + I did not speak as we drove through the deserted streets, for my mind was + curiously empty of familiar thoughts and experiences; it seemed to have + been plucked out of the definite world and cast naked upon a shoreless + sea. There were moments when the vision appeared on the point of + returning, and I would half-remember, with an ecstasy of joy or sorrow, + crimes and heroisms, fortunes and misfortunes; or begin to contemplate, + with a sudden leaping of the heart, hopes and terrors, desires and + ambitions, alien to my orderly and careful life; and then I would awake + shuddering at the thought that some great imponderable being had swept + through my mind. It was indeed days before this feeling passed perfectly + away, and even now, when I have sought refuge in the only definite faith, + I feel a great tolerance for those people with incoherent personalities, + who gather in the chapels and meeting-places of certain obscure sects, + because I also have felt fixed habits and principles dissolving before a + power, which was <i>hysterica passio</i> or sheer madness, if you will, + but was so powerful in its melancholy exultation that I tremble lest it + wake again and drive me from my new-found peace. + </p> + <p> + When we came in the grey light to the great half-empty terminus, it seemed + to me I was so changed that I was no more, as man is, a moment shuddering + at eternity, but eternity weeping and laughing over a moment; and when we + had started and Michael Robartes had fallen asleep, as he soon did, his + sleeping face, in which there was no sign of all that had so shaken me and + that now kept me wakeful, was to my excited mind more like a mask than a + face. The fancy possessed me that the man behind it had dissolved away + like salt in water, and that it laughed and sighed, appealed and denounced + at the bidding of beings greater or less than man. 'This is not Michael + Robartes at all: Michael Robartes is dead; dead for ten, for twenty years + perhaps,' I kept repeating to myself. I fell at last into a feverish + sleep, waking up from time to time when we rushed past some little town, + its slated roofs shining with wet, or still lake gleaming in the cold + morning light. I had been too pre-occupied to ask where we were going, or + to notice what tickets Michael Robartes had taken, but I knew now from the + direction of the sun that we were going westward; and presently I knew + also, by the way in which the trees had grown into the semblance of + tattered beggars flying with bent heads towards the east, that we were + approaching the western coast. Then immediately I saw the sea between the + low hills upon the left, its dull grey broken into white patches and + lines. + </p> + <p> + When we left the train we had still, I found, some way to go, and set out, + buttoning our coats about us, for the wind was bitter and violent. Michael + Robartes was silent, seeming anxious to leave me to my thoughts; and as we + walked between the sea and the rocky side of a great promontory, I + realized with a new perfection what a shock had been given to all my + habits of thought and of feelings, if indeed some mysterious change had + not taken place in the substance of my mind, for the grey waves, plumed + with scudding foam, had grown part of a teeming, fantastic inner life; and + when Michael Robartes pointed to a square ancient-looking house, with a + much smaller and newer building under its lee, set out on the very end of + a dilapidated and almost deserted pier, and said it was the Temple of the + Alchemical Rose, I was possessed with the phantasy that the sea, which + kept covering it with showers of white foam, was claiming it as part of + some indefinite and passionate life, which had begun to war upon our + orderly and careful days, and was about to plunge the world into a night + as obscure as that which followed the downfall of the classical world. One + part of my mind mocked this phantastic terror, but the other, the part + that still lay half plunged in vision, listened to the clash of unknown + armies, and shuddered at unimaginable fanaticisms, that hung in those grey + leaping waves. + </p> + <p> + We had gone but a few paces along the pier when we came upon an old man, + who was evidently a watchman, for he sat in an overset barrel, close to a + place where masons had been lately working upon a break in the pier, and + had in front of him a fire such as one sees slung under tinkers' carts. I + saw that he was also a voteen, as the peasants say, for there was a rosary + hanging from a nail on the rim of the barrel, and I saw I shuddered, and I + did not know why I shuddered. We had passed him a few yards when I heard + him cry in Gaelic, 'Idolaters, idolaters, go down to Hell with your + witches and your devils; go down to Hell that the herrings may come again + into the bay'; and for some moments I could hear him half screaming and + half muttering behind us. 'Are you not afraid,' I said, 'that these wild + fishing people may do some desperate thing against you?' + </p> + <p> + 'I and mine,' he answered, 'are long past human hurt or help, being + incorporate with immortal spirits, and when we die it shall be the + consummation of the supreme work. A time will come for these people also, + and they will sacrifice a mullet to Artemis, or some other fish to some + new divinity, unless indeed their own divinities, the Dagda, with his + overflowing cauldron, Lug, with his spear dipped in poppy-juice lest it + rush forth hot for battle. Aengus, with the three birds on his shoulder, + Bodb and his red swineherd, and all the heroic children of Dana, set up + once more their temples of grey stone. Their reign has never ceased, but + only waned in power a little, for the Sidhe still pass in every wind, and + dance and play at hurley, and fight their sudden battles in every hollow + and on every hill; but they cannot build their temples again till there + have been martyrdoms and victories, and perhaps even that long-foretold + battle in the Valley of the Black Pig.' + </p> + <p> + Keeping close to the wall that went about the pier on the seaward side, to + escape the driving foam and the wind, which threatened every moment to + lift us off our feet, we made our way in silence to the door of the square + building. Michael Robartes opened it with a key, on which I saw the rust + of many salt winds, and led me along a bare passage and up an uncarpeted + stair to a little room surrounded with bookshelves. A meal would be + brought, but only of fruit, for I must submit to a tempered fast before + the ceremony, he explained, and with it a book on the doctrine and method + of the Order, over which I was to spend what remained of the winter + daylight. He then left me, promising to return an hour before the + ceremony. I began searching among the bookshelves, and found one of the + most exhaustive alchemical libraries I have ever seen. There were the + works of Morienus, who hid his immortal body under a shirt of hair-cloth; + of Avicenna, who was a drunkard and yet controlled numberless legions of + spirits; of Alfarabi, who put so many spirits into his lute that he could + make men laugh, or weep, or fall in deadly trance as he would; of Lully, + who transformed himself into the likeness of a red cock; of Flamel, who + with his wife Parnella achieved the elixir many hundreds of years ago, and + is fabled to live still in Arabia among the Dervishes; and of many of less + fame. There were very few mystics but alchemical mystics, and because, I + had little doubt, of the devotion to one god of the greater number and of + the limited sense of beauty, which Robartes would hold an inevitable + consequence; but I did notice a complete set of facsimiles of the + prophetical writings of William Blake, and probably because of the + multitudes that thronged his illumination and were 'like the gay fishes on + the wave when the moon sucks up the dew.' I noted also many poets and + prose writers of every age, but only those who were a little weary of + life, as indeed the greatest have been everywhere, and who cast their + imagination to us, as a something they needed no longer now that they were + going up in their fiery chariots. + </p> + <p> + Presently I heard a tap at the door, and a woman came in and laid a little + fruit upon the table. I judged that she had once been handsome, but her + cheeks were hollowed by what I would have held, had I seen her anywhere + else, an excitement of the flesh and a thirst for pleasure, instead of + which it doubtless was an excitement of the imagination and a thirst for + beauty. I asked her some question concerning the ceremony, but getting no + answer except a shake of the head, saw that I must await initiation in + silence. When I had eaten, she came again, and having laid a curiously + wrought bronze box on the table, lighted the candles, and took away the + plates and the remnants. So soon as I was alone, I turned to the box, and + found that the peacocks of Hera spread out their tails over the sides and + lid, against a background, on which were wrought great stars, as though to + affirm that the heavens were a part of their glory. In the box was a book + bound in vellum, and having upon the vellum and in very delicate colours, + and in gold, the alchemical rose with many spears thrusting against it, + but in vain, as was shown by the shattered points of those nearest to the + petals. The book was written upon vellum, and in beautiful clear letters, + interspersed with symbolical pictures and illuminations, after the manner + of the <i>Splendor Solis</i>. + </p> + <p> + The first chapter described how six students, of Celtic descent, gave + themselves separately to the study of alchemy, and solved, one the mystery + of the Pelican, another the mystery of the green Dragon, another the + mystery of the Eagle, another that of Salt and Mercury. What seemed a + succession of accidents, but was, the book declared, the contrivance of + preternatural powers, brought them together in the garden of an inn in the + South of France, and while they talked together the thought came to them + that alchemy was the gradual distillation of the contents of the soul, + until they were ready to put off the mortal and put on the immortal. An + owl passed, rustling among the vine-leaves overhead, and then an old woman + came, leaning upon a stick, and, sitting close to them, took up the + thought where they had dropped it. Having expounded the whole principle of + spiritual alchemy, and bid them found the Order of the Alchemical Rose, + she passed from among them, and when they would have followed she was + nowhere to be seen. They formed themselves into an Order, holding their + goods and making their researches in common, and, as they became perfect + in the alchemical doctrine, apparitions came and went among them, and + taught them more and more marvellous mysteries. The book then went on to + expound so much of these as the neophyte was permitted to know, dealing at + the outset and at considerable length with the independent reality of our + thoughts, which was, it declared, the doctrine from which all true + doctrines rose. If you imagine, it said, the semblance of a living being, + it is at once possessed by a wandering soul, and goes hither and thither + working good or evil, until the moment of its death has come; and gave + many examples, received, it said, from many gods. Eros had taught them how + to fashion forms in which a divine soul could dwell, and whisper what they + would into sleeping minds; and Ate, forms from which demonic beings could + pour madness, or unquiet dreams, into sleeping blood; and Hermes, that if + you powerfully imagined a hound at your bedside it would keep watch there + until you woke, and drive away all but the mightiest demons, but that if + your imagination was weakly, the hound would be weakly also, and the + demons prevail, and the hound soon die; and Aphrodite, that if you made, + by a strong imagining, a dove crowned with silver and had it flutter over + your head, its soft cooing would make sweet dreams of immortal love gather + and brood over mortal sleep; and all divinities alike had revealed with + many warnings and lamentations that all minds are continually giving birth + to such beings, and sending them forth to work health or disease, joy or + madness. If you would give forms to the evil powers, it went on, you were + to make them ugly, thrusting out a lip, with the thirsts of life, or + breaking the proportions of a body with the burdens of life; but the + divine powers would only appear in beautiful shapes, which are but, as it + were, shapes trembling out of existence, folding up into a timeless + ecstasy, drifting with half-shut eyes, into a sleepy stillness. The + bodiless souls who descended into these forms were what men called the + moods; and worked all great changes in the world; for just as the magician + or the artist could call them when he would, so they could call out of the + mind of the magician or the artist, or if they were demons, out of the + mind of the mad or the ignoble, what shape they would, and through its + voice and its gestures pour themselves out upon the world. In this way all + great events were accomplished; a mood, a divinity, or a demon, first + descending like a faint sigh into men's minds and then changing their + thoughts and their actions until hair that was yellow had grown black, or + hair that was black had grown yellow, and empires moved their border, as + though they were but drifts of leaves. The rest of the book contained + symbols of form, and sound, and colour, and their attribution to + divinities and demons, so that the initiate might fashion a shape for any + divinity or any demon, and be as powerful as Avicenna among those who live + under the roots of tears and of laughter. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005" id="link2H_4_0005"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + IV + </h2> + <p> + A couple of hours after Sunset Michael Robartes returned and told me that + I would have to learn the steps of an exceedingly antique dance, because + before my initiation could be perfected I had to join three times in a + magical dance, for rhythm was the wheel of Eternity, on which alone the + transient and accidental could be broken, and the spirit set free. I found + that the steps, which were simple enough, resembled certain antique Greek + dances, and having been a good dancer in my youth and the master of many + curious Gaelic steps, I soon had them in my memory. He then robed me and + himself in a costume which suggested by its shape both Greece and Egypt, + but by its crimson colour a more passionate life than theirs; and having + put into my hands a little chainless censer of bronze, wrought into the + likeness of a rose, by some modern craftsman, he told me to open a small + door opposite to the door by which I had entered. I put my hand to the + handle, but the moment I did so the fumes of the incense, helped perhaps + by his mysterious glamour, made me fall again into a dream, in which I + seemed to be a mask, lying on the counter of a little Eastern shop. Many + persons, with eyes so bright and still that I knew them for more than + human, came in and tried me on their faces, but at last flung me into a + corner with a little laughter; but all this passed in a moment, for when I + awoke my hand was still upon the handle. I opened the door, and found + myself in a marvellous passage, along whose sides were many divinities + wrought in a mosaic, not less beautiful than the mosaic in the Baptistery + at Ravenna, but of a less severe beauty; the predominant colour of each + divinity, which was surely a symbolic colour, being repeated in the lamps + that hung from the ceiling, a curiously-scented lamp before every + divinity. I passed on, marvelling exceedingly how these enthusiasts could + have created all this beauty in so remote a place, and half persuaded to + believe in a material alchemy, by the sight of so much hidden wealth; the + censer filling the air, as I passed, with smoke of ever-changing colour. + </p> + <p> + I stopped before a door, on whose bronze panels were wrought great waves + in whose shadow were faint suggestions of terrible faces. Those beyond it + seemed to have heard our steps, for a voice cried: 'Is the work of the + Incorruptible Fire at an end?' and immediately Michael Robartes answered: + 'The perfect gold has come from the <i>athanor</i>.' The door swung open, + and we were in a great circular room, and among men and women who were + dancing slowly in crimson robes. Upon the ceiling was an immense rose + wrought in mosaic; and about the walls, also in mosaic, was a battle of + gods and angels, the gods glimmering like rubies and sapphires, and the + angels of the one greyness, because, as Michael Robartes whispered, they + had renounced their divinity, and turned from the unfolding of their + separate hearts, out of love for a God of humility and sorrow. Pillars + supported the roof and made a kind of circular cloister, each pillar being + a column of confused shapes, divinities, it seemed, of the wind, who rose + as in a whirling dance of more than human vehemence, and playing upon + pipes and cymbals; and from among these shapes were thrust out hands, and + in these hands were censers. I was bid place my censer also in a hand and + take my place and dance, and as I turned from the pillars towards the + dancers, I saw that the floor was of a green stone, and that a pale Christ + on a pale cross was wrought in the midst. I asked Robartes the meaning of + this, and was told that they desired 'To trouble His unity with their + multitudinous feet.' The dance wound in and out, tracing upon the floor + the shapes of petals that copied the petals in the rose overhead, and to + the sound of hidden instruments which were perhaps of an antique pattern, + for I have never heard the like; and every moment the dance was more + passionate, until all the winds of the world seemed to have awakened under + our feet. After a little I had grown weary, and stood under a pillar + watching the coming and going of those flame-like figures; until gradually + I sank into a half-dream, from which I was awakened by seeing the petals + of the great rose, which had no longer the look of mosaic, falling slowly + through the incense-heavy air, and, as they fell, shaping into the + likeness of living beings of an extraordinary beauty. Still faint and + cloud-like, they began to dance, and as they danced took a more and more + definite shape, so that I was able to distinguish beautiful Grecian faces + and august Egyptian faces, and now and again to name a divinity by the + staff in his hand or by a bird fluttering over his head; and soon every + mortal foot danced by the white foot of an immortal; and in the troubled + eyes that looked into untroubled shadowy eyes, I saw the brightness of + uttermost desire as though they had found at length, after unreckonable + wandering, the lost love of their youth. Sometimes, but only for a moment, + I saw a faint solitary figure with a Rosa veiled face, and carrying a + faint torch, flit among the dancers, but like a dream within a dream, like + a shadow of a shadow, and I knew by an understanding born from a deeper + fountain than thought, that it was Eros himself, and that his face was + veiled because no man or woman from the beginning of the world has ever + known what love is, or looked into his eyes, for Eros alone of divinities + is altogether a spirit, and hides in passions not of his essence if he + would commune with a mortal heart. So that if a man love nobly he knows + love through infinite pity, unspeakable trust, unending sympathy; and if + ignobly through vehement jealousy, sudden hatred, and unappeasable desire; + but unveiled love he never knows. While I thought these things, a voice + cried to me from the crimson figures: 'Into the dance! there is none that + can be spared out of the dance; into the dance! into the dance! that the + gods may make them bodies out of the substance of our hearts'; and before + I could answer, a mysterious wave of passion, that seemed like the soul of + the dance moving within our souls, Alchemica took hold of me, and I was + swept, neither consenting nor refusing, into the midst. I was dancing with + an immortal august woman, who had black lilies in her hair, and her dreamy + gesture seemed laden with a wisdom more profound than the darkness that is + between star and star, and with a love like the love that breathed upon + the waters; and as we danced on and on, the incense drifted over us and + round us, covering us away as in the heart of the world, and ages seemed + to pass, and tempests to awake and perish in the folds of our robes and in + her heavy hair. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly I remembered that her eyelids had never quivered, and that her + lilies had not dropped a black petal, or shaken from their places, and + understood with a great horror that I danced with one who was more or less + than human, and who was drinking up my soul as an ox drinks up a wayside + pool; and I fell, and darkness passed over me. + </p> + +<p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0005a" id="link2H_4_0005a"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + V + </h2> + + + <p> + I awoke suddenly as though something had awakened me, and saw that I was + lying on a roughly painted floor, and that on the ceiling, which was at no + great distance, was a roughly painted rose, and about me on the walls + half-finished paintings. The pillars and the censers had gone; and near me + a score of sleepers lay wrapped in disordered robes, their upturned faces + looking to my imagination like hollow masks; and a chill dawn was shining + down upon them from a long window I had not noticed before; and outside + the sea roared. I saw Michael Robartes lying at a little distance and + beside him an overset bowl of wrought bronze which looked as though it had + once held incense. As I sat thus, I heard a sudden tumult of angry men and + women's voices mix with the roaring of the sea; and leaping to my feet, I + went quickly to Michael Robartes, and tried to shake him out of his sleep. + I then seized him by the shoulder and tried to lift him, but he fell + backwards, and sighed faintly; and the voices became louder and angrier; + and there was a sound of heavy blows upon the door, which opened on to the + pier. Suddenly I heard a sound of rending wood, and I knew it had begun to + give, and I ran to the door of the room. I pushed it open and came out + upon a passage whose bare boards clattered under my feet, and found in the + passage another door which led into an empty kitchen; and as I passed + through the door I heard two crashes in quick succession, and knew by the + sudden noise of feet and the shouts that the door which opened on to the + pier had fallen inwards. I ran from the kitchen and out into a small yard, + and from this down some steps which descended the seaward and sloping side + of the pier, and from the steps clambered along the water's edge, with the + angry voices ringing in my ears. This part of the pier had been but lately + refaced with blocks of granite, so that it was almost clear of seaweed; + but when I came to the old part, I found it so slippery with green weed + that I had to climb up on to the roadway. I looked towards the Temple of + the Alchemical Rose, where the fishermen and the women were still + shouting, but somewhat more faintly, and saw that there was no one about + the door or upon the pier; but as I looked, a little crowd hurried out of + the door and began gathering large stones from where they were heaped up + in readiness for the next time a storm shattered the pier, when they would + be laid under blocks of granite. While I stood watching the crowd, an old + man, who was, I think, the voteen, pointed to me, and screamed out + something, and the crowd whitened, for all the faces had turned towards + me. I ran, and it was well for me that pullers of the oar are poorer men + with their feet than with their arms and their bodies; and yet while I ran + I scarcely heard the following feet or the angry voices, for many voices + of exultation and lamentation, which were forgotten as a dream is + forgotten the moment they were heard, seemed to be ringing in the air over + my head. + </p> + <p> + There are moments even now when I seem to hear those voices of exultation + and lamentation, and when the indefinite world, which has but half lost + its mastery over my heart and my intellect, seems about to claim a perfect + mastery; but I carry the rosary about my neck, and when I hear, or seem to + hear them, I press it to my heart and say: 'He whose name is Legion is at + our doors deceiving our intellects with subtlety and flattering our hearts + with beauty, and we have no trust but in Thee'; and then the war that + rages within me at other times is still, and I am at peace. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Rosa Alchemica, by W. 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