Once a Door is Opened

December 18, 1999

Once a door is opened on the dark
And entities and presences are hailed
As friends and welcome bedfellows we part
From the seal of God’s protection for we’ve failed
To keep our sacred contract with the light.
Preferring the path of sensual act and thrills
We turn to the strong and beckoning arms of night
And the siren voice that lures and sweetly kills.
Hard will it be to close again that door
Against the forces of the Prince of Dust
A castle breached has not the strength before
Arrows of desire and battering rams of lust
That penetrate the Sanctuary’s core,
Betray the spirit’s charge and solemn trust
And quench the single flame, the beacon light
That burns in secret splendour fronting night. *
All may be lost if lost the will to progress
And we choose to sound the depths of our darker side
Where Falsehood waits our fatal move to bless, *
And catastrophe and calumny reside.
And if the soul in battle with night is lost
How shall we reckon the damage, assess the cost
And how survive the shame of separateness?
But once a door is opened on the light
And being’s spark rejoins the parent flame
Protecting Deities invoke the Name,
A Grace descends rescinding the plots of Night
And the Holy Spirit posts ‘No Entry’ signs;
As heaven’s guardian rays relume our sight
The Progenitor of death and deceit resigns.
So shall we turn most naturally to bliss
Forsaking our lower nature’s perfidy
And unconscionable desire for the abyss
To the transforming Godhead’s force and majesty
And fulfil the promise of our destiny.

Amal’s comment: “It is a successful many-aspected expression. Two lines stand out as extra felicitous. I have marked them.