CABANA AT THE CROSSROADS

INVOCATION TO HECATE

O Triple Form of Darkness
Sombre splendor!
Thou Moon unseen of men
Thou Crowned demon of the crownless dead.
O breasts of blood, too bitter and too tender
Unseen of gentle spring.
Let me the offering
Bring to Thine Shrine's sepulchral glittering.
I slay the swarth beast, I bestow the blood
Sown in the dusk and gathered in the gloom
Under the waning moon.
At midnight hardly lightenig the East:
And the black lamb from the black ewe's womb
I bring and stir the slow infernal tune
Fit for Thy Chosen Priest.

Here...where the band of Ocean breaks the road
Black trodden, deeply stooping to the abyss.
I shall salute Thee with a Nameless Kiss
Pronounced toward the uttermost abode of Thy supreme Desire.
I shall illume the fire
Whence the wild stryges shall illume the lyre
Whence thy lemures shall gather and spring round
Girding me in a sad funereal ground
With faces turned back...
My face averted.
I shall consumate this awful act of worship
O renowned
Fear upon earth, and Fear in Hell,
And Black Fear in the Sky beyond fate

I hear the whining of Thy wolves! I hear
The howling of the hounds about Thy Form,
Who comest in the terror of Thy storm
And night falls faster, ere Thine eyes appear
Glittering through the mist,
O face of Woman unkissed
Save by the dead whose love is taken ere they wist!
Thee, Thee I call! O Dire One! O divine!
I, the sole mortal seek Thy deadly shrine;
Pour the dark stream of blood
A sleepy and a reluctant river
Even as Thou drawest with Thine Eyes on mine, To me
Across the sense bewildering flood
That holds my soul forever!
--Aleister Crowley
1875 - 1947

Goddess of the crossroads
Goddess of Manic-Depression
Dweller in the deep places of the earth and mind, Traveler in the land between worlds! Torch-bearer! Protectress of the very old and very young: Protectress of those used and abused; Healer of those who are torn apart; She will be there for us when we call on her and at the end.
Grandmother to lost children and the downtrodden. Nurse to the suckling infant, Comfort to the lone man or woman in the darkest night. She who seeks vengance for her children who are wronged!
Wanderer and prowler! Sorceress who lives at the edge of the mind. Drawer-up of the secret compost from the unused internal well. She who has no relatives on the earth save for her children. Without Mother or Sister.
Lady on the brink, both bi-polar and uni-polar! They call her mad, and it is she who terrifies the disbeliever and the unworthy! Bringer of nightmares! But she it is who soothes the sleepless and disheveled spirit.
Mother of night! Dark Power of the moon! Keeper of the shadow! Walker of the endless highways! She unites those who follow her as her children; the Hekite.
Bearer of the sacred poppy. Shape-shifter. Transformer. Keeper of the hounds of Hell and the three headed dog Cerebus! She walks abroad in the hour of the wolf and under the Dark Moon!
Hear my call O Lady and cover us with your starry cloak. Let the unborn moon seed in my heart this night. And let her growing light shine upon our intention; That she be at our full deliverance,

So Mote it Be!

--Reverend High Priest Hawk Brown
Copyright 1997

KALI

There is an idol in my house
By whom the sandal always steams.
Alone, I make a black carouse
With her to dominate my dreams.
With skulls and knifes she keeps control
(O Mother Kali!) of my soul.

She is crowned with emeralds like leaves,
And rubies flame from either eye;
A rose upon her boson heaves,
Turquoise and lapis lazuli.
She hath a kirtle like a maid :--
Amethyst, amber, pearl, and jade!

Her face is fashioned like a moon;
Her breasts are tongues of pointed jet;
Her belly of opal fairly hewn;
And round about her neck is set
The holy rosary, skull by skull,
Polished and grim and beautiful!

This jeweled shape of gold and bronze
Is seated on my bosom's throne;
She takes my mused orisons
To her, to her, to her alone.
Oh Kali, Kali, Kali, quell
This hooded hate, O Queen of Hell!

Her ruby-studded brow is calm;
Her eyes shine like some sleepy flood;
Her breast is oliban and balm;
Her tongue rolls out, a-dripping blood;
She swings my body to and fro;
She breaks me on the wheel of woe!

To her eternal rapture seems
Mere nature; underneath the crown
Of dusky emeralds there streams
A river of bliss to sluice me down
With blood and tears, to drown my thought.
To bring my being into naught.

The cruel teeth. the steady sneer,
The marvelous lust of her, I bring
Unto my body bright and clear
(Dropped poison in a water spring!)
To fill me with the utmost sense
Of some divine experience.

For who but she, the adulterous queen,
Made earth and heaven with all its stars,
The storm, the hunger epicene,
The raging at invisible bars,
The hideous cruelty of the whole ?--
These are of Kali, O my soul!

The sterile force of bronze and gold
Bends to my passion, as it grips
With feverish claws the metal cold,
And burns upon the brazen lips
That, parted like a poppy bud,
Have gemmed curves like moons of blood.

The mazes of her many arms
Deludes the eye; they seem to shift
As if they spelled mysterious charms
Whereby some tall grey ship should drift
Out to a windless, tideless sea
Motionless from eternity.

This then I seek, O woman-form!
O god embowelled in curves of bronze!
The shuddering of a sudden storm
To mix me with thy minions
The lost, who wait through endless night,
And wait in vain, to see the light.

For I am utterly consumed
In thee, in thee am broken up.
The life upon my lips that bloomed
Is crushed into a deadly cup,
Whose devilish spirit squats and gloats
Upon the thirst that rots our throats.

Gape wide, O hideous mouth, and suck
This heart's blood, drain it down, expunge
This sweltering life of mire and much!
Squeeze out my passions as a sponge,
Till naught is left of terrene wine
But somewhat deathless and divine!

Not by a faint and fairy tale
We shadow forth the immortal way.
No symbols exquisitely pale
Avail to lure the secrets grey
Of his endeavor who proceeds
By doing to abolish deeds.

Not by the pipings of a bird
In skies of blue on fields of gold,
But by a fierce and loathly word
The abomination must be told.
The holy work must twist its spell
From hemp of madness, grown in hell.

Only by energy and strife
May man attain the eternal rest,
Dissolve the desperate lust of life
By infinite agony and zest.
Thus, O Kali, I divine
The golden secret of thy shrine!

Death from the universal force
Means to the force less universe
Birth. I accept the furious course,
Invoke the all-embracing curse.
Blessing and peace beyond may lie
When I annihilate the "I."

Therefore, O holy mother, gnash
Thy teeth upon my willing flesh!
Thy chain of skulls wild music clash!
Thy bosom bruise mine own afresh!
Sri Maharani! draw my breath
Into the hollow lungs of death!

There is no light, nor any motion.
There is no mass, nor any sound.
Still, in the lampless heart of ocean,
Fasten me down and hold me drowned
Within thy womb, within thy thought,
Where there is naught-Where there is naught!
Kalighut.
-- Aleister Crowley

HAPPY NEW YEAR!