Black Butterflies, Olibanum, and a trip to Persephone's Garden.

[kebechet]

Halloween is almost upon us, the air is alight with Black Butterflies, the fruits of forgetfulness are ripening in Persephone's Garden, and a whiff of pungent incense heralds the coming of autumn --

 

Illustration by Tanya Bjork! The tee is available at Black Phoenix Trading Post!

 

Sister of the first-born light,

 

Type of sorrowing gentleness!

 

Quivering mists in silv'ry dress

Float around thy features bright;

When thy gentle foot is heard,

 

From the day-closed caverns then

Wake the mournful ghosts of men,

I, too, wake, and each night-bird.

 

O'er a field of boundless span

 

Looks thy gaze both far and wide.

 

Raise me upwards to thy side!

Grant this to a raving man!

And to heights of rapture raised,

 

Let the knight so crafty peep

 

At his maiden while asleep,

Through her lattice-window glazed.

 

Soon the bliss of this sweet view,

 

Pangs by distance caused allays;

 

And I gather all thy rays,

And my look I sharpen too.

Round her unveil'd limbs I see

 

Brighter still become the glow,

 

And she draws me down below,

As Endymion once drew thee.

 

Soft, deep, and luminous: Lady of the Night orchid, benzoin, opopponax, currant, black chypre, white gardenia, ambergris, damp, wooded mosses, and black lily.

 

 

++ SINGLE NOTES

OLIBANUM

Representative of the Path of Shin, connecting Hod (Splendour) with Malkuth (Kingdom), and is one of the primary ingredients in Abramelin incense and oil. In some traditions, olibanum is also a perfume of Tiphareth (Beauty), and is integral in assisting in helping one connect with their higher self. Our olibanum represents purification by fire, and possesses all the generous, expansive, radiant qualities of Sol.

 

 

++ THE GARDEN OF PROSERPINE

An ode to pale-limbed Persephone, inspired by Algernon Swinburne with artwork by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

...'tis thine in earth's profundities to dwell, fast by the wide and dismal gates of hell.

 

I AM TIRED OF TEARS AND LAUGHTER

I am tired of tears and laughter,

And men that laugh and weep

Of what may come hereafter

For men that sow to reap:

I am weary of days and hours,

Blown buds of barren flowers,

Desires and dreams and powers

And everything but sleep.

 

White lavender, oudh, and Siamese benzoin.

 

 

SHE CRUSHES FOR DEAD MEN DEADLY WINE

No growth of moor or coppice,

No heather-flower or vine,

But bloomless buds of poppies,

Green grapes of Proserpine,

Pale beds of blowing rushes

Where no leaf blooms or blushes,

Save this whereout she crushes

For dead men deadly wine.

 

Poppy wine, chthonic incense, Balm of Gilead, and pomegranate.

 

 

PALE, WITHOUT NAME OR NUMBER

Pale, without name or number,

In fruitless fields of corn,

They bow themselves and slumber

All night till light is born;

And like a soul belated,

In hell and heaven unmated,

By cloud and mist abated

Comes out of darkness morn.

 

Greek musk, violet leaf, carrot seed, and ho wood.

 

 

HE TOO WITH DEATH SHALL DWELL

Though one were strong as seven,

He too with death shall dwell,

Nor wake with wings in heaven,

Nor weep for pains in hell;

Though one were fair as roses,

His beauty clouds and closes;

And well though love reposes,

In the end it is not well.

 

Somalian myrrh, purple roses, orris root concrete, French cypress, and pomegranate juice.

 

 

CROWNED WITH CALM LEAVES SHE STANDS

Pale, beyond porch and portal,

Crowned with calm leaves she stands

Who gathers all things mortal

With cold immortal hands;

Her languid lips are sweeter

Than love's who fears to greet her

To men that mix and meet her

From many times and lands.

 

A diadem of narcissus blossoms and pale daffodils.

 

 

DEAD DREAMS OF DAYS FORSAKEN

There go the loves that wither,

The old loves with wearier wings;

And all dead years draw thither,

And all disastrous things;

Dead dreams of days forsaken,

Blind buds that snows have shaken,

Wild leaves that winds have taken,

Red strays of ruined springs.

 

15-year aged patchouli, Egyptian cumin, white frankincense, labdanum, and bitter almond.

 

 

TO-DAY WILL DIE TO-MORROW

We are not sure of sorrow,

And joy was never sure;

To-day will die to-morrow;

Time stoops to no man's lure;

And love, grown faint and fretful,

With lips but half regretful

Sighs, and with eyes forgetful

Weeps that no loves endure.

 

Siamese benzoin, white lilac, tuberose, aniseseed, and white carnation.

 

 

HOPE AND FEAR SET FREE

From too much love of living,

From hope and fear set free,

We thank with brief thanksgiving

Whatever gods may be

That no life lives for ever;

That dead men rise up never;

That even the weariest river

Winds somewhere safe to sea.

 

Bourbon vanilla and 10-year aged frankincense.

 

 

THE SLEEP ETERNAL

Then star nor sun shall waken,

Nor any change of light:

Nor sound of waters shaken,

Nor any sound or sight:

Nor wintry leaves nor vernal,

Nor days nor things diurnal;

Only the sleep eternal

In an eternal night.

 

Opium tar, asphodel, and lavender, with tuberose, grave moss, frankincense, and mandrake root.

 

 

Coming soon:

Black Phoenix Trading Post's fruits from Garden of Proserpine, a hat tip to Stoker and Shelley, the return of Carnaval Diabolique, a gritty, modern interpretation of the Alice mythos, and, of course, the Halloweenies.