NOTE: This poem corresponds to the Atu VIII: Adjustment in the Tarot from the 22-poem cycle “The Angel and the Abyss.”
The Sign of the Sphinx
For I was born in the sign of the Sphinx
In the incandescent air
With my serpent rod and my shining links
And my halo haunted hair
And I glide upon the Red Lion
And ride him to his lair
Four kerubs guard the silent Sphinx
Four pillars of the sky
A God, a Beast, a Star, a Priest
Four Angels, Adonai!
But me they hid in the pyramid
To die, but not to die
“To become a Sphinx one must be born a Sphinx”
The Transformers did not lie
And the pile of dust was burned to ash
As the Angel wind passed by
A Star was born in the Abyss
From the Eye that is not “I”
— Grady L. McMurtry
(March 1961 e.v)
Originally published in Thelema Lodge Calendar, March 1991