Household Gods

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 upThe offerings in the cup.Dead falls desire.Black smoke thou art,O altar-flame, that dost dismember,Devour the hearth, to leave no emberTo warm this heart.I see her still -Adela dancing hereTill dim gods did appearTo work our will.The delicate girl!Diaphanous gossamerSubtly revealing herBrave breast of pearl!Now – she's withdrawnAt dusk to the wild woods,Mystic beatitudesThat dure till dawn.Let life exclaimAgainst these things of spirit,Mankind that disinheritOf love's pure flame!

[He bends before the altar and begins to weep.]

Ye household gods!By these male tears I swearThat ye shall grant this prayer.All things at oddsShall be put straight -Harmonized, reconciledBy some appointed childOf 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 shoresOf 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 groveSees her profane our sacrament of love?ALICIA.I saw her followThe stream in the hollowWhere never ApolloAbides.So thick are the treesThat never the breezeStirs them, or seesWhat satyr inhabits the glen, what nymph in thepools of it hides.Lighter of footThan a sylph or a fairy,Sinuous, wary,I passed from the airyLawns, where the fluteOf the winds made tremulous music for man.I followed the rippleOf the stream; I creptWhere the waters wept -The floss in the fossGurgling acrossThe bosses of moss,Like a dryad's nippleIn 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 stirTill 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 meWould 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 dwindledOn 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 hourTo give me powerTo 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 jealousyHave risen, and now your love is tremblingLike a mountebank dissemblingWhen 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 divinedMy secret?CRASSUS.No; the crystal of your mindShows only faint disturbing images,Things passing strange, as if enchanted seasKept their great swell upon it, and strange fishPlayed 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 gleamWintry, although the summer night is hot,This – what we seek is never what we find!Life is a dream, like love; and from the dreamIf we may wake, we never find it whatWe would; for the wisdom of a mightier mindLeads us in its own waysTo a perfected praise.CRASSUS.Why are these shadows thrown across the lawnFrom the elms and yews? They were not wont to reachBeyond the branches of that copper-beech.ALICIA.Attend the dawnOf an unknown comet, that shall comeFrom the unfathomable wells of spaceInto its halidom.CRASSUS.I know it not. Last night I walked aloneHere, and saw nothing.ALICIA.I was not with you!There is no God upon the eternal throneOf stars begemming the bewildering blueUnless one has the eyes to see him. ThinkHow we two stand upon the brinkOf nothing! Here's a globe, whereto we trust,No larger than the smallest speck of dustOr mote in the sunbeam is to that sun's self,And we are like dead leaves in autumn's whilOf wind upon it.CRASSUS.Mystify me, girl!It is the right of an elf.Surely your flickering fireWill draw me to some mire!ALICIA.Here the stream dips its mouth into the wood.So does youth's calm and chaste beatitudeTouch 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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