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Black blood upon the altar! and the rustle of angel wings above!
Black blood of the sweet fruit, the bruised, the violated bloom — that setteth The Wheel a-spinning in the spire.
Death is the veil of Life, and Life of Death; for both are Gods.
This is that which is written: "A feast for Life, and a greater feast for Death!" in The Book of the Law.
The blood is the life of the individual: offer then blood!
COMMENTARY (ΜΓ)
The title of this chapter refers to a Hebrew legend, that of the prophet who heard "a going in the mulberry tops"; and to Browning's phrase, "a bruised, black-blooded mulberry".
In the World's Tragedy, Household Gods, The Scorpion, and also The God-Eater, the reader may study the efficacy of rape, and the sacrifice of blood, as magical formulae. Blood and virginity have always been the most acceptable offerings to all the gods, but especially the Christian God.
In the last paragraph, the reason of this is explained; it is because such sacrifices come under the Great Law of the Rosy Cross, the giving-up of the individuality, as has been explained ad nauseam in previous chapters. We shall frequently recur to this subject.
By "the wheel spinning in the spire" is meant the manifestation of magical force, the spermatozoon in the conical phallus. For wheels, see Chapter 78.