Two Versions of Scriabin's "Black Mass"

In a light mist, transparent vapour
Lost afar and yet distinct
A star gleams softly.

How beautiful! The bluish mystery
Of her glow
beckons me, cradles me.

O bring me to thee, far distant star!
Bathe me in trembling rays
Sweet light!

Sharp desire, voluptuous and crazed yet sweet
Endlessly with no other goal than longing
I would desire.

But no! I vault in joyous leap
Freely I take wing

Mad dance, godlike play!
Intoxicating shining one!

It is toward thee, adored star
My flight guides me

Toward thee, created freely for me
To serve the end
My flight of liberation!

In this play
Sheer caprice
In moments I forget thee
In the maelstrom that carries me
I veer from thy glimmering rays
In the insanity of desire
thou fadest
O distant goal

But ever thou shinest
As I forever desire thee!

Thou expandest, star!
Now thou art a Sun
Flamboyant Sun! Sun of Triumph!

Approaching thee by my desire for thee
I lave myself in thy changing waves
O joyous god

I swallow thee
Sea of light

My self-of light

I engulf Thee!

- Alexander Scriabin, 1903

"Ritual is not a mere commemoration, but a repetition, a reactualization of the past events, so that the present time is interrupted in order to retum to the mythical time. This conscious repetition of gestures, customs and habits only achieves a real meaning as an identity with the primordial action destroying the chronological time (present) and projecting into the cosmogonical, mythical time when the creation of the world took place." - Lia Tomas, The Mythical Time in Scriabin