Household Gods
Aleister Crowley




Aleister Crowley

Household Gods / A Comedy





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		Now – she's withdrawn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
		Or mote in the sunbeam is to that sun's self,
		And we are like dead leaves in autumn's whil
		Of wind upon it.

		CRASSUS.
		Mystify me, girl!
		It is the right of an elf.
		Surely your flickering fire
		Will draw me to some mire!

		ALICIA.
		Here the stream dips its mouth into the wood.
		So does youth's calm and chaste beatitude
		Touch the black mouth of Love, the ancient whore.

CRASSUS.

Girl! what a scorpion leaping from your lips!

		ALICIA.
		My mouth stings as no scorpion ever stang.




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