Aphelion Issue 293, Volume 28
September 2023
 
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What Killed Aleister Crowley?

by Alexis Child


He summoned Pan until the darkness of
chaos appeared, or a demonic counterfeit
in vague and monstrous shapes. Crouching
naked in a corner, stripped of magician's
robes, he is haggard and wild-eyed, gibbering
in tongues; chained to the spirit of fear, a mere
reflection of his former commanding self.

He descends into the deeper emptiness of
the abyss, appearing to look upon the
sleeping ocean, waiting for it to awaken,
hoping to hear the bell of the God's realm,
yet knows the Old Ones are locked away,
senile from neglect, dead or dying in a
labyrinth of sewers rotting beneath the city.

Still in a trance, the mystic departs to
the domain of the pagan dead, stars
looking downwards with a holy glance.


© 2022 Alexis Child. All rites reserved until the worms crawl in…

Alexis Child hails from Toronto, Canada; home to dreams and nightmares. She worked at a Call Crisis Center befriending demons of the mind that roam freely amongst her writings. Alexis once lived with a Calico-cat child sleuthing all that went bump in the night and is haunted by the memory of her cat. She has had a small measure of underground success with her gothic rock and darkwave bands in the past. Besides having rare mystical experiences she hopes are not just short circuits in the brain, she writes dark poetry while starving in the garret with her muse. A starving child is a frightful sight. A starving vampire is even worse. Please donate non-perishable food items and B-negative blood (and make it a double!).

Alexis' fiction has been featured in Danse Macabre, Schlock, Screams of Terror, and U.K.'s Dark of Night Magazine. Her poetry has been featured in numerous online and print publications, including Aphelion, Black Petals, Blood Moon Rising, The Horror Zine, ParABnormal Magazine, The Sirens Call and elsewhere. Her first collection of poetry, Devil in the Clock, a dark and sinister slice of the macabre, is available on Amazon. Alexis' second collection of poetry is coming soon from Cyberwit Publishing.

Visit her website:http://www.angelfire.com/poetry/alexischild/ and her YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg6S5u4yX73kA1ZWGnKaEBA/videos

Find more by Alexis Child in the Author Index.

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