H.P.Lovecraft: Through the Gates of the Silver Key

THE BA OF RANDOLPH CARTER

The silver key would salvage what was left
of Randolph Carter and his former selves.
Fuschia blossom strewed the patio path;
crimson onyx glowed in the level sun
of early autumn and the equinox.
Those strange and ancient cities beyond space
were still achievable, could yet be found,
despite the hardening carapace of age.
No more his galleys sailed the Oukranos
facilitated by the river god
gliding past the spires of gilded Thran.
No more his elephant caravans nosed their way
through dripping perfumed jungles of far Kled
where porphyry palaces beneath the huge round moon
shone with ivory columns yet unbroken.
- Yet could he recreate these living dreams,
make the imagined real; he had the craft;
the silver key lay shining in his hand.

The blind cosmos ground mindlessly on and on
from something into nothing; then back again.
Universes blossomed and decayed
in the wheeling cosmic garden; died, were born.
Randolph Carter himself through many lives
manifested what at base he was:
the oneness, the ever-living primal source,
the integrated purpose, blind and dumb
perpetually unfolding once and again;
the universal mind in living matter;
the endless unexhausted infinite.

__________________________________

This poem has been adapted from 'Through the Gates of the Silver Key' by H.P.Lovecraft. To an enquiring mind this wonderful story reveals in fictional form many of the most profound philosophical riddles that still await the beginning of our understanding which, despite the best efforts of Kant, Schopenhauer, the later Jung and modern physics, is still in a groping stage of comprehension. (Of course, the creative arts and the dreaming consciousness have long since mapped the contours of this unknown terrain - but who, with eyes and thought prepared, will see?) I believe that this is what appeals to us most in Lovecraft, despite the endless caveats concerning his literary style.

Ba (pronounced bar, with a long a) was the ancient Egyptian name for the soul. It is often shown in the Books of the Dead as a winged creature hovering above the mummy. The pyramids had huge shafts to enable this presence to escape the embalmed corpse after death and fly to the heavens and to the Heavenly sun god Ra. - See the caption illustration to my reading of Cavafy's 'Kaisarion' and also the lines in my 'Mystic Charioteer' posted on 16.9.07:

...the little ba, on wings of spirit form,
unbodied in a body pure as dawn,
partaking of the clarity of dawn,
in silent tumult, in concentred thought,
wrapped about in rays of sun and dew
and steaming up as dew itself will steam,
concerted dew that rises to a head;
and fanning out above in rainbow forms
(the pliant platform whence the journey starts);
the rainbows back are bended, arching low,
the ba has taken place; and then is fired,
in ecstacy, in ecstacy is fired
and wings its swiftened way towards the sun.

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[merlinreborn]

I want to thank you deeply for your meditative reading and the creative work you have done.

[brychar66]

@merlinreborn Many thanks Reinhard. I see from your webpages that you share my love for Tennyson, Yeats, George.

[suhiir]

Nice reading. Your voice is atmospheric and evocative.

Wow. What is the image at 2:40? It's beautiful.

[brychar66]

Thanks! The picture is called 'tropical moon of thetis' and you can find it by looking under Google images search.

[binarynightmare]

I believe 'Through the Gates of the Silver Key' was Lovecraft's final journey for Randolph Carter, for in the story Lovecraft more or less gives us the Ultimate Truth of his universe from the being beyond the Ultimate Gate who I believe was in fact Yog-Sothoth who is beyond time and space yet one with it, and Carter, achieving this state of siultaneousness as all facets of himself, becomes not unlike Yog-Sothoth. I believe the story is nothing less than Carter's ascendance to godhood.

[ksol1460tv]

@DeathShamans - In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree; And Sam was taking opium and getting stoned enough for three. (Then again I'm not an empath so who knows! Maybe we're both right.)

[ksol1460tv]

@rsouthern - Multiple personalities aren't the problem. People's ignorance/ fear attitudes toward them are. Bluejay

[rsouthern]

Fiction comes only with the unwilling to sell everything you own and take up the cross and walk with the holy spirit just like Jesus.Or choose another teaching if you like. You'll become spirit possessed by demons, angels aliens, that drag you around like a madman having hallucination, voices, speaking tongues until you find yourself rejected by friends/family hurt beyond belief with multiple personalities and schizophrenia (your new family/friends) So,what causes this and can you recover? I did

[dubscarab]

Great work.