Читать книгу Кельтские сумерки. Уровень 1 / The Celtic Twilight - Уильям Батлер Йейтс - Страница 12

In Ireland, we don’t hear much about dark powers, and it’s rare to meet someone who has seen them. These dark powers are said to be always around us, like bats[83] on an old tree. We don’t hear much about them because dark magic is not commonly practiced. I have met very few people in Ireland who try to communicate with evil powers, and they keep their activities hidden. They are usually small clerks and meet in a room with black curtains for their practices. They didn’t let me into that room, but since I had some knowledge of the mysterious arts, they showed me what they could do in another place. Their leader, a clerk from a flour-mill[84], invited me to join them and witness spirits who can talk to us face to face, in solid and heavy forms like our own.

On the agreed night, I arrived around eight o’clock and found the leader sitting alone in a small dim room. He was wearing a black robe that covered him completely, except for his eyes that peered through two small holes. On the table in front of him, there was a dish with burning herbs, a large bowl, a skull with painted symbols, two crossed daggers[85], and some tools shaped like stones. The sorcerer took a black rooster out of a basket and used one of the daggers to cut its throat, letting the blood flow into the large bowl. He opened a book and started an invocation in a language I couldn’t understand. Before he finished, another sorcerer entered the room and sat on my left side. I had the invoker directly in front of me, and I began to feel a strange effect from his eyes. I struggled against their influence, and my head started to ache. The invocation continued, and nothing happened in the first few minutes. Then the invoker stood up and turned off the light in the room, so there was no light except for the herbs burning on the dish.

Then the person on my left started moving and exclaimed, “Oh God! Oh God!” I asked him what was wrong, but he didn’t realize he had spoken. A moment later, he said he could see a large snake moving around the room. I didn’t see anything with a clear shape, but I felt like dark clouds were forming around me. I knew I had to resist[86] entering a trance state caused by this influence, which felt evil. After a struggle, I managed to dispel the dark clouds and regain[87] my normal senses. The two sorcerers began to see black and white columns moving in the room, and eventually, they saw a man in a monk’s robe[88]. They were confused that I couldn’t see these things because, to them, they appeared as solid as the table in front of them. The invoker seemed to be gaining more power, and I felt as if a wave of darkness was emanating[89] from him and surrounding me. I also noticed that the person on my left had fallen into a deep trance. With a final effort, I pushed away the dark clouds. However, since those clouds were the only shapes I could see without entering a trance, and I didn’t particularly like them, I asked for lights to be turned on. After the necessary ritual, I returned to the ordinary world.

For several days, I couldn’t shake off the feeling of having deformed and grotesque figures lingering around me. The Bright Powers are always beautiful and desirable, and the Dim Powers can be beautiful or strange. However, the Dark Powers manifest their imbalanced nature through shapes of ugliness and horror.