which men require to fill their hearts with happiness and plenty.
For love is so elusive,
Still harder to define,
And difficult to value,
Within the span of time,
Which makes a human life complete,
Acquiring luxuries,
Affords an instant status,
But can never bring true peace.
And only in their owning fills the heart with empty space.
This then is the Hell on Earth,
which men through greed create,
It does not occupy a space within the fiery bowels,
Nor is it just a state of mind where damned souls prostrate,
Themselves before a demon lord in ghastly revelries.
Desire for endless products in such good societies,
Perpetuates injustice and the avarice of greed,
Desiring endless products yields the thrice polluting seeds,
That soil the Earth, and soil men’s hearts, and mar love’s parity.
And all in all the Spirit said:
men have no need for goods at death . . .
She then did with a calming voice begin to reassure,
That death in life was the only fear that the living must abjure:
All things arise in nature, but must surely pass away,
If death is hard thy comfort be,
That time shall have its way.
Though loved one’s ne’er returneth,
The tears of loss shall turneth,
Such pain of loss that grieveth,
To consoling memories.
Life’s trials may bring hearts seasonal tears, but pity not your kin,
Nor decry your children’s hopes and dreams,
for hatred be a sin,
Which kills the joy of living,
And tends to self forgetting,
The value of forgiving,
All faults and detriments.
All things arise and pass away,
Be not bitter to the end,
Be glad and keep a happy heart,
And treat all as a friend,
Hold the joy of life as sacred,
Tend not the roots of hatred,
For the fear of death in living,
Is the only price to pay.
For justice in the heart must equal justice in the mind,
Justice be equality,
Yielding in good time,
A greater understanding of our place within the scheme,
And universal suffrage now must be the greater dream,
Which occupies our heart’s desires,
Assimilating all,
Within the cosmic order as all things are meant to be.
And if your love is strong it shall project you to the stars,
And if your heart is selfless then your soul shall be set free.
And if your love is good and pure you shall be free to roam,
Amongst the stars and find the path which surely leads you home,
Back to the place from whence you came and where you ought to be.
Canto VI
The Spirit conducts the Voyager to the outermost limits of the
Earth. She then accompanies him through the various celestial
regions of the planets and beyond the solar system to the
pathway of the Milky Way, and on into the heart of the
galaxy.
Through her words and visions I had come to realise,
That death and life were intertwined,
Within my Spirit’s eyes,
I saw the forms of all the people I had seen before,
Yet knew the shades portended not some dreadful purgatory.
But were simply projections from my inner faculties.
I knew within her anima my joy and fears were framed,
And knew that in her animus my shadow self remained.
I knew that she and I were one and each part was a whole,
And that the Spirit was some inner aspect of myself.
I felt a growing gladness then uplifted through the skies,
As if a wing-ed chariot or a wind had reified,
my body from its earthly dross,
and drawn me to the stars.
And from great heights I teetered there upon the planet’s rim.
The seas and oceans spread before,
The continents and mountains,
the streaks of cloud concealed,
Which marked in swirling patterns the Earth’s great majesty.
I saw no sign of humankind,
or cities they had built with pride,
Nor any evidence of strife of their activity.
My Spirit then did speak to me of yet one more endeavour,
Whilst seeking to assure me,
and assuage my lingering fear,
With calming reassurance that no harm would fall upon me.
One final revelation,
To quash God’s mystery.
.
The Canticle of Departure
(The Spirit):
So now prepare to surf the solar tides,
Embrace the beckoning fiery orbs which gleam,
As soon we shall explore on astral seas,
The vast majestic depths of galaxies.
Charted as the course for all who wish,
To set their ships to sail the stellar winds,
Desist the minds of men’s imaginings,
Exterminating powers and dreadful schemes.
Hatch out hopes in voyages to explore,
Vistas deep and to the breach once more,
Muster brave the courage to endure,
Auto theos agape estin.
Men oft use this mantra as a shield,
To keep their fear well hidden in their hearts,
But we must not ’til we have with our eyes,
Beheld the place wherein which God resides.
As timelessness approaches yet unknown,
For hours and minutes are in space dethroned,
Time that king of life shall have its basis,
Subject to the flight’s velocity.
(The stream of which is measureless in stasis,
Transcended by light’s relativity).
Now my love embrace this vision shared,
Your trembling form shall age not as we dare,
To flee from Master Time as we concurrently,
Shall in our flight betray the centuries.
And ever present as that moment is,
On Earth the lives of humans pass in hours,
And subject to the work of Master Time,
May not partake of youth eternally.
O Time, all things that live have liberty,
But must the kiss of death accept from thee!
But you and I do not of this endure,
As we swift cheat the deadly airs which claim,
And hold the breath of living entities,
Within the sphere of Earth’s activity.
Enfolding round that orb the atmosphere,
Which through its presence stokes the flame of life,
Must also carry with it bitter dregs,
Which shall in time all living forms destroy.
The three dimensions that we now can see,
Lead us to the fourth and presently,
Other realms which to the eye lay hidden,
Shall be accessed by the rational mind.
Not through faith but science shall we linger,
Nor through faith in blind deductive schema,
But the grounds of logic and induction,
Gathered to our hearts prec
ipitously.
Herculean pillars at the edge,
Of the astral fields we shall rebuke,
Crystal spheres and mists ethereal,
Shall not occupy our wandering minds.
Nor shall occult tracts on chemistry,
Drawn from magic mirror clouds be scried,
Nor shall we in alchemy lay hope,
Nor lend trust to false astrology.
But through sense and every mathematic,
Shall the views before us be made clear,
So that false beliefs in gods and angels,
From men’s dreaming hearts shall thus be purged.
(The Voyager):
If there be dimensions more than this,
Which access to souls alone are made,
Let me not be blind or prejudiced,
Lest I spurn salvation in the grave,
But until the spiritual eye can see,
I shall not displace my dignity,
Reasoning the truth through clear conclusions,
So that then the cosmic face be clear.
And if I, through error, lose the pathway,
Shall I through false knowledge thus be damned?,
As a Satan purged of power for wisdom,
Or an Adam punished for a plan.
They like God through knowledge sought to conquer,
Innocence and love were not enough,
Jealous of their power thus God condemned them,
Hence both they and God became corrupt!
(The Spirit):
Stories such as these through sense and reason,
Are when analysed still lacking proofs,
Banished from the garden not from Eden,
The garden was a metaphor for youth.
Eden is our planet seed of nature,
and in this the cosmos is the womb,
So we must now set out on the journey,
To return to where we once were born.
Travelling at a speed unknown,
the swift velocities,
Did span the space we then embraced,
as if the clarity,
Of mind and body played its part,
as like was drawn to like,
The light within our hearts embraced the light within the stars.
We did not lose our faith or fear the void betwixt the light,
But knew that we would soon be free,
to trace our path in flight,
and from thenceforth our souls would seek
the true reality.
And as the stars illuminating,
Cast their energy,
The Spirit sought to then explain the nature of their being:
Within the heart of every star a core of hydrogen,
Will synthesise its atoms fused to then form helium,
And this creative process causes heat and energy,
Irradiating solar light to cause all life to be.
The hydrogen exhausted must result in helium,
Which marries with its self same form producing carbon atoms,
And with her helium consumed her elemental patterns,
Arrange to fuse and thus produce resulting oxygen.
Such is the lifespan of the stars,
For all that lives must die,
A billion worlds evolve and fall in the blinking of an eye.
The stars turn not the wheels of Fate,
But turn upon their axis,
Combusting proton fusion with abundant hydrogen,
Explode extending filaments,
the streams of mass ejection,
Emit atomic particles within coronal light.
The plasmic solar wind expands beyond the realm of Pluto,
Cocooned the planet seeds within the sphere of Helios,
Bombarding the ionosphere, magnetic fields colliding,
Inducing with transparent veils a wandering joyousness.
Aurora round the throne of Night,
Beguiles with swirling motion,
All those who from the coils of sleep unfettered now observe,
To offer with her crown of light electric excitations,
Repaid with thrift the homage of their hearts’ solicitude.
Yet she must flee like vaporous mists which melt into the morning,
To be replaced by banks of cloud, the vaulted troposphere,
To slip concealed beyond the air and with the sun now dawning,
She rises as she dissipates beneath the exosphere.
From the sisters of the Pleiades to the Pillars of Creation,
The gaseous mists of nebulae protect in nurseries,
The young evolving planet spheres,
Which house the life formations,
Nurturing organic soup to feed life’s chemistry.
The cosmic light which there reflects a sense of prearrangement,
Is but the source of life through chance and process formed in stars,
No light of mind, nor light of God shall you behold to guide,
Or fool you with the empty dreams of divine reverie.
There are no hosts, celestial choirs or holy seraphim,
No angels to accompany our flight mercurial,
No Sybil saints shall tally up the price that we must pay,
No gates of Heaven nor of Hell that we must kneel before.
Yet as I felt the Spirit's words the questions rose within,
Of who she was and who was I?
Did I end or begin?
I felt my end was part of her,
But why I did not know,
And why was fear still gnawing here within my mortal soul?
(The Voyager):
Oh why do we swift flee from that which is the source of life?
And why do we with daunting speed embrace the frozen night?
Towards the very centre of that luminous galaxy,
Within its starless heart wherein no life nor light can be!
(The Spirit):
That starless heart was once a star and as a star gave birth,
To the interstellar matter which makes up this universe.
Black Star of Death whose mighty force doth consume energy,
Your dreadful might shall drink the light and draw all things to thee!
This said I knew I clung to Death her face I recognised,
Within her gaze my eyes did range,
Yet still her love I spied,
Until her folded pinioned wings,
Held fast to suffocate,
My weakening form until forlorn,
all strength had ebbed from me.
Onwards ever onwards the procession of the stars,
The beating wings no sound did bring,
No air nor melody.
The vacuum death of breathlessness did rob me of my soul,
As I did sink within the depths,
Spatial oblivion.
Incipit vita nova . . .
The Dance Macabre Page 6