THE SKETCH

London, England

26 October 1910

(page 69)

THE ELUSIVE RITES OF ELEUSIS:

THE RITE OF SATURN.

1. The Rite opens with a Litany of Lamentation.

2. The Mother of Heaven [Leila Waddell] plays an invocation on the violin, her back to those present.

3. The Master of the Temple, seated by the ceremonial fire, called the hell broth, recites “The Eyes of Pharaoh.”

4. he Suspected Traitor, having been found, is slain with a spear.

5. After it has been discovered that the temple is empty, the Master recites a translation of Verlaine’s “Colloque Sentimental” and Swinburne’s “Garden of Proserpine.”

6. Impelled by the despair which he has expressed by a recital of Thomson’s “The City of Dreadful Night,” the Master kills himself by the side of the Messenger of Joy, who has fallen exhausted by the altar; the Mother of Heaven weeps over him, and, for a moment, the Angel of Death is seen.

There began last week, in the Caxton Hall, a series of celebrations of the Rites of Eleusis. Then was given the Rite of Saturn; to follow are the Rites of Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, and Luna. So far as the first celebration was concerned, the hall was so dark that one may well call the Rites of Eleusis elusive. The Rite of Saturn is the first of the seven Rites of Eleusis, which are described as illustrating humanity, its fate, good and evil. In the first rite, Man, unable to solve the riddle of existence, takes counsel of Saturn, extreme old age. Such answer as he can get is the one word “Despair.” In his “Eleusis,” Mr. Aleister Crowley writes: “When I have seen God face to face and read within those eternal eyes the secret that shall make you free, Then will I choose you and test you and instruct you in the Mysteries of Eleusis, O ye brave hearts, and cool eyes, And trembling lips! I will put a live coal upon your lips, and flowers upon your eyes, and a sword in your hearts, and ye also shall see God face to face.”