MORE HYMNS

Reunion

Did we meet on the ark
sometime in the dark
or just somewhere long ago?
i look in your eyes
and glimpse paradise
or the devil deep below—
i touched you once a thousand years ago.

Don't cover your face,
no, it's the last trace
of an altar in this land
i'd walk on the water
sometimes be your lover
but my legs refuse to stand—
still i don't need these sermons
and won't you, please, untie my hands?

Do i still look the same?
you haven't changed
i'd have known you anywhere
but where is your cross?
god, i hope it's not lost
or trampled in the air—
you know between the shows
i really do try to care.

Tho the Word has gone out
there's still quite a doubt
just who to take to take to bed
just as Moses threw down
magick tablets of stone
we raise temples to the dead—

and so spirits try to fly
to soar to pies in the sky
on wings that martyrs fed—
but back down here on the ground--what's going on,
did you catch what that man just said?

There's no reason to doubt
you know it came from the mouth
of the savage Dreams of Pan
the wheel ever turns
while the hopeless they burn
and this fire engulfs the land

yet the hopeful try to plot it out
while the knowing need to blot it out
so seldom do we figure out

The destiny of the Sons of Man—

                                                              

they hold the Heart of the Universe
in the burning palms of Their hands.

Which way did you turn
that last time we yearned
to share our lives as one?
did you become a saint,
eternal stalemate,
did you resurrect the gun?


 cloistered in a cubicle
waiting for signs to click,
sewing lilies on stained glass--
don't you know
those patterns never fit?

Did we meet on the ark

Sometime in the dark

Or just somewhere long ago…?

 

JEFarrow

April 1978
San Francisco

IN REMEMBERANCE

 

Behold the joy has risen for the Spring

Behold the Light!

 

Inside the world the sun is burning bright

Behold the Son of Man!

 

                        We wait in line like purgatory beings

                        Watching the stars from below the moon.

 

The lamb walks with the child

A lion walks with the man

Behold the Love! Behold the Dove!

 

Seasons are shooting forth microcosom on fertile fields

Inside sacred wombs the macrocosm grows

Behold the Son of Woman!

 

                        A hollow ring thru the darkness

                        Shrouded figures approach the ancient tomb

                        The cave is like night

                        The passage leads thru hell.

 

                        Do not fear the journey

                        Trials only make you stronger

                        For fires only feed

                        The flame of Light within.

 

So open, so wondrous, lust rolls thru the fields

The vibration of life reveals the body-soul

Behold the Light! Behold the Love!

 

A naked child climbs the hills up to the sky

Behold the Son of God!

 

 

1977

 

San Francisco

JEFarrow

When You Are Old

When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true;
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face.

And bending down beside the glowing bars
Murmur a little sadly, how love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

W.B. Yeats

PHANTASMAGORIA IN TWO

 

 

If a fiddler played you a song, my love

And if I gave you a wheel

Would you spin for my heart and loneliness

Would you spin for my love

 

If I gave up all my pride for you

And only loved you for now

Would you hide my fears and never say

“Tomorrow I must go”

 

Everywhere there’s rain my love

Everywhere there’s fear

If you tell me a lie I’ll cry for you

Tell me of sin and I’ll laugh

If you tell me of all the pain you’ve had

I’ll never smile again

 

I can plainly see that our paths have changed

Our sands are shifting around

Need I beg to you for one more day

To find our lonely love

 

If you tell me of all the pain you’ve had

I’ll never smile again

 

A Celtic Tale

In skies of frozen snows
Where winds of sadness roam
Red sun's burning low
You were my home
Where I would go
In green fields
Now unknown
Your name upon
The standing stone

Love invites
One last call
When death from life
Begins to fall

The streams no longer go
To tides of distant seas
No love can grow old
Without memories
Your arms my home
Where I would sleep

Tears
Now unfold
How can I now
Alone grow old
Dusty Stars
Shed their lights
When death from life
Slips silently to the night


Seascape Dream

I stood alone in the fog & rain
and watched all the ships sail by
seagulls soar above my head
across the ocean sky.

I stood on the beach when the tide came in
and watched all the seaweed turn
our boat set out with hopeful sail
never to return.

What can I do to free myself
when myself is to blame?
A million years of drying tears
mankind seems so insane.

O the city sun it shines so bright
but not like the country sun
waves roll & crawl across the sand
but you get tired of running around.

What can I do to free my friends
when I am so far from free?
I seem to see war everywhere
or is it just in me
in me
in me...?

The earth she turns with her weight of fear
the mountains do not care
yet still we struggle to be free
just to breathe some cleaner air.

So what can I do to free myself
when myself is to blame?
I thought I sensed a light somewhere
or is it just a game
a game
a game...?

I stood alone in the fog & rain
and watched all the ships sail by...

JEFarrow
Honolulu, 1972

Ever So Lonely/Eyes/Ocean

ever so lonely
ever so lonely without you
ever so lonely without you

sink into your eyes
and all i see
love is an ocean
and you for me
sink into your eyes
your eyes
your love is an ocean

an ocean refuses no river
ever so lonely
an ocean refuses no river
waiting for the time
when we can be
alone together
alone together eternally

the ocean
the ocean
refuses no river
the ocean
your ocean
refuses no river

ever so lonely
ever so lonely
without you
your ocean
your ocean
refuses no river



[Sheila Chandra is a fusion singer of extraordinary depth and gives her own interpretation to such traditional Western folksongs as "Reynardine" (see below.) To lovers of Folk and Hindu music, S. Chandra is the performer to seek.]

Reynardine

As I walked out one morning among the sprigs of thyme
I met a fair pretty maiden did converse with Reynardine
Her hair was black and her eyes were blue, her lips like the blood-red wine
And he smiled as he looked upon them
Did this sly, bold Reynardine.

"I pray, my lord, be civil--my company forsake
For it is my good opinion, I fear you are a rake!"
"Oh, no, no rake am I," cried he, "brought up on better strain,
But I'm searching for concealment
All from the pious men."

Her cherry cheek, her ruby lips, they lost their former dye
She fell all down upon her knees
All on the mountain high.

And he'd not touched her but once or twice
When she come to again
Most eagerly she asked of him, "Please tell to me your name."

"Oh, if by chance you look for me, by chance you'll never me find
For I'll be in my Green Castle
Inquire for Reynardine."

And day and night she followed him
His teeth so bright did shine
And he led her over the mountain
Did this sly, bold Reynardine.

EPITAPH

 

The walls on which the prophets write

Is cracking at the seams

Upon the instruments of death

The sunlight brightly gleams

Where every man is torn apart

With nightmares and with dreams

Will no one lay the burial wreath

As silence drowns the screams

 

Between the iron gates of fate

The seeds of time are sown

And watered by the deeds of those

Who know and who are known;

Knowledge is deadly friend

When no one sets the rules

The fate of mankind I see

Is in the hands of fools

 

Confusion will be my epitaph

As I crawl a cracked and broken path

If we make it we can all sit back

And laugh

But I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying.

Yes I fear tomorrow I’ll be crying…

 

The Vampire

Shall I tell you of the night?
it was long ago
late November and the snow
just about to fall
and the moon was big and bright
cold and sharp and clear
and the air was biting.

Softly, swiftly down the road
never made a sound
someone came from far away
someone tall and old
as I looked into his eyes no reflection came
and I gave him bedding.

Oh, my little rosary
how I miss you so
never used you very well
now I never will.

I am farther from you now
than the two ends of Eternity…

Now I do his bidding.

Europa

The little princess was walking along the sand
her father had been the king of the sun
her mother was an earth woman of high degree.
This little princess dipped her toes into the sea
when there emerged from the waves a great white bull
with garlands of flowers around his horns.
The princess looked on with utter amazement as
the bull walked up to her
and lowered his head.

i want to feel your body
i want to feel your warm breath on my neck
i want to steal your body
i want to feel every word you said

The princess stroked his glistening golden back
foaming with beads of sea-foam
and sweat.
She felt his skin was hot
hot
and hard
like a rock
hot, hard his
body was hot.

i want to feel your naked body
i want to feel your hot breath on my neck
i want to steal your body
i want to feel every word you said

She ran her slender hands along his strong smooth back
and kissed the sweet smelling flowers around his horns;
She placed her small white fingers around his neck,
then jumped up and rode out to sea...

i want to ride your naked body
i want to hear your hot breath on my neck
i want to steal your body
i want to feel every word you ever said

She felt his nostrils flare with his hot desire--
and she clung all the tighter to his neck and the sea.
They swam and danced together on the summer waves--
rode the currents laughing sunlight free.

San Francisco

JEFarrow

1984

Novitiate

Agnes, you've got needs you never seem to fill
but it's just the Church that tries to break your will--
The priest breaks wafers melting on your tongue
pressed bread & wine will never make you one;
 his blessings won't satisfy you
lonely Daughter of the Sun.

Agnes, Child-in Christ, hiding in a cell
got your feelings tied around angelus-swinging bell
love can not survive the burning in your hell
so cover your eyes with roses, learn their meaning well
no one cares to understand
and the shadows never tell.

There's no Lover but that tortured one
stapled to your wall
you want to run away--guilt only makes you crawl
you want to fly, church bells make you fall.

 

And the Pope will not bother to pray for your tonight
but safe within the darkness
I know you think he's right--
so pray for our salvation
everybody's on their own
we stumble so simplistically
searching for the throne--
and deep within your heart
this world can't be your home.

And deep
deep within your heart
you know you're all alone.

[JEFarrow, Arizona 1969]

TALE OF THE MONK

my eyes are empty
said a sad-faced monk
he lost his way when the world was young
men filled the air with lusty song
his dream of peace had come & gone

cathedral steps are covered with glass
a dark-haired child lies on the stone
while ever tolls the warning bell--
but no one hears its clandestine tone

above the spire a white dove sails
a shattered body falls to the ground;
while ever croons a choir in Hell--
the King's army tramps thru the town

cold mist blows all up & down
upon his grave rosemary grows
soldiers guard the frozen stairs
a fallen saint lies in the snow

my eyes are empty
said a sad-faced monk
he lost his life while the world was drunk
men filled the air with lusty song--
a dream of peace had come & gone

just as flowers continue to grow
the Spirit's essence is to sing
to renew itself
in the Spring.

San Francisco

JEFarrow
1981

From A DREAM PLAY by August Strindberg [1849 - 1912]

The following are passages from August Strindberg's stage masterpiece "A Dream Play." Strindberg might justifiably be called the Father of Modern Drama as his works pre-figure such influential artistic movements as Expressionism, Absurdism, Surrealism and Existentialism (and “A Dream Play” reflects them all.) The Swedish writer's work reflects a creative fusion of Christianity and Hinduism, and often depict the mortal conflict between Man and Woman, and the discord between External and Internal Reality. He was obsessed by the women in his life and experimented with magick and alchemy (at one point actually burning his hands with sulfuric acid in an earnest—and misguided—attempt to perform The Great Work.)

Before he died in 1912, Strindberg was publicly honored by the working class and students in Stockholm who hailed the writer as being a great artist and national hero. This acclaimed overwhelmed the dramatist and afforded him at least a partial reconciliation with the external world.

August Strindberg was a Prophet on many levels. Toward the conclusion of “A Dream Play” the Japanese incarnation is compelled to burn himself alive as the only means of purification.

His name is Hiroshima.

Strindberg inspired many famous playwrights and directors in the 20th Century—and his poetic Vision continues to enlighten.

All of Strindberg’s plays are on the Gnostic Pagan Reading List.

In A DREAM PLAY the DAUGHTER (of Indra) travels from the upper planes to descend on Earth in order to see what it's like to be human. During the process she experiences different incarnations--always reaching the realization of the illusory nature of mortal reality ("It's no more real than a dream--but a true dream.") Throughout the journey the Daughter exhibits her compassion by saying, “I pity mankind," while at the same time trying to free herself from the taint of lower plane material existence.

SCENE ONE. The Descent

DAUGHTER

Bourne on a cloud, I followed the lightening's blazing trail from the ethereal heights. But the cloud sank, and still is falling. Tell me, great Father Indra, to what region am I come? The air's so dense, so hard to breathe.

INDRA

Leaving the second world you arrived at the third. From the Star of the Morning far have you come to enter Earth's atmosphere. Mark there the Sun's Seventh House that's called The Scales. The Morning Star is at the autumn weighing, when day and night are equal.

DAUGHTER

You speak of Earth. Is that the dark and heavy world the moon lights up?

INDRA

It is the darkest and heaviest of all the spheres that swing in space.

DAUGHTER

Does not the sun shine there?

INDRA

It shines, but not unceasingly.

DAUGHTER

Now the clouds part, and I can see...

INDRA

What do you see, child?

DAUGHTER

I see...that Earth is fair...It has green woods, blue waters, white mountains, yellow fields.

INDRA

Yes, it is fair, as all that Brahma shaped, yet in the dawn of time was fairer still. Then came a change, a shifting of the orbit, and maybe more. Revolt followed crime that had to be suppressed.

DAUGHTER

Now I hear sounds arising...What kind of creatures dwell down there?

INDRA

Go down and see. The Creator's children I would not decry, but it's their language you hear.

DAUGHTER

It sounds as if...it has no cheerful ring.

INDRA

So I believe. Their mother tongue is called Complaint. Truly a discontented, thankless race is this of Earth.

DAUGHTER

Ah, say not so! Now I hear shouts of joy, trumpets blare. I see the lightening flash. Now bells are pealing and fires are lit. A thousand thousand voices rise, singing their praises and thanks to heaven. Your Judgment is too hard on them, Father.

INDRA

Descend and see, and hear, then come again and tell me if their lamentations and complaint are justified.

DAUGHTER

So be it. I descend. Come with me, Father!

INDRA

No. I cannot breathe their air.

DAUGHTER

Now the cloud sinks. It's growing dense. I suffocate! This is not air, but smoke and water that I breathe, so heavy that it drags me down and down--and now I clearly feel its reeling! This third world is surely not the highest world.

INDRA

Neither the highest, truly, nor the lowest. It is called Dust, and whirls with all the rest, and so at times its people, struck with dizziness, live on the borderline of folly and insanity...Courage, my child, for this is but a test.

[INDRA withdraws into darkness]

DAUGHTER

I am sinking!

[Blackout]

FINAL SCENE: Ascent & Farewell

DAUGHTER

The hour has come to leave both friend and place,
how sharp the loss of all I loved,
how deep regret for all destroyed.
This then it is to be a human being--
ever to miss the thing you never prized
and feel remorse for what you never did,
to yearn to go, yet long to stay.

And so the human heart is split in two,
emotions by wild horses torn--
conflict, discord, and uncertainty.
It's finished! I truly pity mankind,
but soon with the aide of fire
I will return from whence I came.
Tell all on earth that I shall remember them.
Where I am going, and in your name,
I will carry your petition to the throne.

New World, I welcome you...
Old World, farewell!

GO TO

 HYMNS III

HYMNS IV

HYMNS V

HYMNS VI

THE GNOSTIC PAGAN SCHOOL

PARALLEL PERSPECTIVES

UPDATED 12/09


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