A Pythagorean Poem
Announces the New Era of Peace
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Orion the
Hunter, in one of the many possible drawings of him
Editorial Note:
“The
Occultation of Orion” starts with a description of the Pythagorean Music of the
Spheres, and concludes with an angel, or divine intelligence, proclaiming the
end of the reign of violence on Earth.
Longfellow
writes this opening note to the poem:
“Astronomically speaking, the title is incorrect,
as I apply to a constellation what can be properly applied to some of its stars
only. But my observation is made from the hill of song, and not from that of
science, and will, I trust, be found sufficiently accurate for the present
purpose.”
In
Greek Mythology, Orion was the son of Neptune. His father gave him the power of
wading through the depths of sea, and he was a mighty hunter, as Bulfinch says.
[1]
Orion
loved Merope, the daughter of Oenopion, who didn’t like the idea and deprived Orion
of his sight. Later on, thanks to the help from Vulcan, Orion was given his
sight back by the Sun.
Bulfinch
adds:
“After
this he dwelt as a hunter with Diana, with whom he was a favourite, and it is
even said that she was about to marry him. Her brother was highly displeased and
often chid her, but to no purpose. One day, observing Orion wading through the
sea with his head just above the water, Apollo pointed it out to his sister and
maintained that she could not hit that black thing on the sea. The
archer-goddess discharged a shaft with fatal aim. The waves rolled the dead
body of Orion to the land, and bewailing her fatal error with many tears, Diana
placed him among the stars, where he appears as a giant, with a girdle, sword,
lion’s skin, and club. Sirius, his dog,
follows him, and the Pleiades fly before him.”
In
Theosophy, the Pleiades are seen as a source of guidance and inspiration for
mankind.
The poem
is reproduced from “The Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow”, The Wordsworth
Poetry Library, U.K., 1994, 886 pp., pp. 127-128.
(Carlos
Cardoso Aveline)
000
The Occultation of Orion
I saw, as in a dream sublime,
The
balance in the hand of Time.
O’er
East and West its beam impended;
And
day, with all its hours of light,
Was
slowly sinking out of sight,
While,
opposite, the scale of night
Silently
with the stars ascended.
Like
the astrologers of eld,
In
that bright vision I beheld
Greater
and deeper mysteries.
I
saw, with its celestial keys,
Its
chords of air, its frets of fire,
The
Samian’s great Aeolian lyre,
Rising
through all its sevenfold bars,
From
earth unto the fixed stars.
And
through the dewy atmosphere,
Not
only could I see, but hear,
Its
wondrous and harmonious strings,
In
sweet vibration, sphere by sphere,
From
Dian’s circle light and near,
Onward
to vaster and wider rings,
Where,
chanting through his beard of snows,
Majestic,
mournful, Saturn goes,
And
down the sunless realms of space
Reverberates
the thunder of his bass.
Beneath
the sky’s triumphal arch
This
music sounded like a march,
And
with its chorus seemed to be
Preluding
some great tragedy.
Sirius
was rising in the east;
And,
slow ascending one by one,
The
kindling constellations shone.
Begirt
with many a blazing star,
Stood
the great giant Algebar,
Orion,
hunter of the beast!
His
sword hung gleaming by his side,
And,
on his arm, the lion’s hide
Scattered
across the midnight air
The
golden radiance of its hair.
The
moon was pallid, but not faint;
And
beautiful as some fair saint,
Serenely
moving on her way
In
hours of trial and dismay.
As if
she heard the voice of God,
Unharmed
with naked feet she trod
Upon
the hot and burning stars,
As on
the glowing coals and bars,
That
were to prove her strength, and try
Her
holiness and her purity.
Thus
moving on, with silent pace,
And
triumph in her sweet, pale face,
She
reached the station of Orion.
Aghast
he stood in strange alarm!
And
suddenly from his outstretched arm
Down
fell the red skin of the lion
Into
the river at his feet.
His
mighty club no longer beat
The
forehead of the bull; but he
Reeled
as of yore beside the sea,
When,
blinded by Oenopion,
He
sought the blacksmith at his forge,
And,
climbing up the mountain gorge,
Fixed
his blank eyes upon the sun.
Then,
through the silence overhead,
An
angel with a trumpet said,
“Forevermore,
forevermore,
The
reign of violence is o’er!”
And,
like an instrument that flings
Its
music on another’s strings,
The
trumpet of the angel cast
Upon
the heavenly lyre its blast,
And
on from sphere to sphere the words
Re-echoed
down the burning chords,-
“Forevermore,
forevermore,
The
reign of violence is o’er!”
NOTE:
[1] See “Greek and Roman Mythology”, Thomas Bulfinch,
Dover Publications, N.Y., 2000, pp. 165-166.
000
