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    The Wizard Way & Other Poems: 'Velvet soft the wizard trod''
    The Wizard Way & Other Poems: 'Velvet soft the wizard trod''
    The Wizard Way & Other Poems: 'Velvet soft the wizard trod''
    Ebook86 pages54 minutes

    The Wizard Way & Other Poems: 'Velvet soft the wizard trod''

    By Aleister Crowley

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    About this ebook

    Edward Alexander Crowley was born on 12th October 1875 to wealthy parents in Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire.

    He was educated at Malvern College, Tonbridge School, Eastbourne College and finally Trinity College, Cambridge where he focused on his passions of mountaineering and poetry and published several volumes.

    Life for Crowley was to abandon his parents’ Christian faith and instead to inject himself into Western esotericism. In 1898, he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and was trained in ceremonial magic before studying both Hindu and Buddhist practices in India.

    On his Egyptian honeymoon in 1904 he claimed contact with an entity―Aiwass―who gave him the sacred Book of the Law which served as the basis for the Thelema religion where he identified as its prophet. During the Great War, which he spent in the United States, he claimed to be working for British Intelligence but by the 1920s he had decamped to pursue a libertine lifestyle in Sicily, and in the ensuing scandals was evicted by the Italian Government.

    He divided the following two decades between France, Germany, and England, and the continuing promotion of Thelema.

    During his life he gained widespread notoriety for his drug use, his bisexuality, and his alarming views on society. In short, polite society frowned on his ways, his thoughts and his influence but to many others his stance had much of value. Even after death he was a darling for the 60’s counterculture but his influence has since waned.

    His literary works were both prolific and covered many topics. In the early part of his career he published many poetry books, even plays, before his darker and more forceful works came to dominate his output.

    Aleister Crowley died on 1st December 1947 at Hastings in England. He was 72.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPortable Poetry
    Release dateDec 1, 2023
    ISBN9781835472705
    The Wizard Way & Other Poems: 'Velvet soft the wizard trod''

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      Book preview

      The Wizard Way & Other Poems - Aleister Crowley

      The Wizard Way & Other Poems by Aleister Crowley

      Edward Alexander Crowley was born on 12th October 1875 to wealthy parents in Royal Leamington Spa in Warwickshire.

      He was educated at Malvern College, Tonbridge School, Eastbourne College and finally Trinity College, Cambridge where he focused on his passions of mountaineering and poetry and published several volumes.

      Life for Crowley was to abandon his parents’ Christian faith and instead to inject himself into Western esotericism.  In 1898, he joined the esoteric Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and was trained in ceremonial magic before studying both Hindu and Buddhist practices in India.

      On his Egyptian honeymoon in 1904 he claimed contact with an entity―Aiwass―who gave him the sacred Book of the Law which served as the basis for the Thelema religion where he identified as its prophet.  During the Great War, which he spent in the United States, he claimed to be working for British Intelligence but by the 1920s he had decamped to pursue a libertine lifestyle in Sicily, and in the ensuing scandals was evicted by the Italian Government.

      He divided the following two decades between France, Germany, and England, and the continuing promotion of Thelema.

      During his life he gained widespread notoriety for his drug use, his bisexuality, and his alarming views on society.  In short, polite society frowned on his ways, his thoughts and his influence but to many others his stance had much of value.  Even after death he was a darling for the 60’s counterculture but his influence has since waned. 

      His literary works were both prolific and covered many topics.  In the early part of his career he published many poetry books, even plays, before his darker and more forceful works came to dominate his output.

      Aleister Crowley died on 1st December 1947 at Hastings in England. He was 72.

      Index of Contents

      THE WIZARD WAY

      CHICAGO MAY

      LEAH SUBLIME

      THE NEOPHYTE

      THE NAME

      THE EVOCATION

      THE ROSE AND THE CROSS

      HAPPINESS

      THE LORD'S DAY

      CERBERUS

      THE PALACE OF THE WORLD

      THE MOUNTAIN CHRIST

      TO ALLAN BENNETT MACGREGOR

      THE ROSICRUCIAN

      THE ATHANOR

      THE CHANT TO BE SAID OR SUNG UNTO OUR LADY ISIS

      A LITANY

      THE WIZARD WAY

      Velvet soft the night-star glowed

      Over the untrodden road,

      Through the giant glades of yew

      Where its ray fell light as dew

      Lighting up the shimmering veil

      Maiden pure and aery frail

      That the spiders wove to hide

      Blushes of the sylvan bride

      Earth, that trembled with delight

      At the male caress of Night.

      Velvet soft the wizard trod

      To the Sabbath of his God.

      With his naked feet he made

      Starry blossoms in the glade,

      Softly, softly, as he went

      To the sombre sacrament,

      Stealthy stepping to the tryst

      In his gown of amethyst.

      Earlier yet his soul had come

      To the Hill of Martyrdom,

      Where the charred and crookèd stake

      Like a black envenomed snake

      By the hangman's hands is thrust

      Through the wet and writhing dust,

      Never black and never dried

      Heart's blood of a suicide.

      He had plucked the hazel rod

      From the rude and goatish god,

      Even as the curved moon's waning ray

      Stolen from the King of Day.

      He had learnt the elvish sign;

      Given the Token of the Nine:

      Once to rave, and once to revel,

      Once to bow before the devil,

      Once to swing the thurible,

      Once to kiss the goat of hell,

      Once to dance the aspen spring,

      Once to croak, and once to sing,

      Once to oil the savoury thighs

      Of the witch with sea-green eyes

      With the unguents magical.

      Oh the honey and the gall

      Of that black enchanter's lips

      As he croons to the eclipse

      Mingling that most puissant spell

      Of the giant gods of hell

      With the four ingredients

      Of the evil elements;

      Ambergris from golden spar,

      Musk of ox from Mongol jar,

      Civet from a box of jade,

      Mixed with fat of many a maid

      Slain by the inchauntments cold

      Of the witches wild and old.

      He had crucified a toad

      In the basilisk abode,

      Muttering the Runes averse

      Mad with many a mocking curse.

      He had traced the serpent sigil

      In his ghastly virgin vigil.

      Sursum cor! the elfin hill,

      Where the wind blows deadly chill

      From the world that wails beneath

      Death's black throat and lipless teeth.

      There he had stood—his bosom bare—

      Tracing Life upon the Air

      With

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