[Dedicated to Paul Busson (1873-1924)]

In this holiest of seasons, twelve nights betwixt the years
The silence of winter is all-consuming
Our homesteads lie sleeping the old folks are watchful
Gruesome tales of corn-demons to forewarn the young
Over the mountain, to the hidden temple
Where the pillar of flames shall be summoned by the priest
On through the biting frost and the wind-driven snow
A belling of stags echoes in the woods

In this ice-cold Solstice night death and resurrection await
To invoke the rebirth of the sun

From darkness grows light, from ashes a fire
To conquer the cold
The rites of Yuletide defying the times
The virgin-born child

Sol, Sol Invictus
Shining Guardian of the west
In saecula saeculorum
Conquer with fire and with faith

A solemn pilgrimage through nightclad wintry woods
Ghosts of winter screaming to lure us all astray
Neolithic magick, wisdom without words
Bloodbound memories pierce the gossamer veils of time

In this ice-cold Solstice night death and resurrection await
And summer shall free our soil

From darkness grows light, from ashes a fire to conquer the cold
The rites of Yuletide defying the times
The virgin-born child

Sol, Sol Invictus - Shining Guardian of the west
In saecula saeculorum - Conquer with fire and with faith

Blood-sacrifice for the three-fold goddess
Summon the Goat with a Thousand Young
Mithras Invictus Jesus Christus
Fire brings cleansing, fertility through death

Mummers rage through snow covered villages
Reaping the souls of the careless and young
Domina Perahta grant us good harvest
In barter for the blood of one third of our youth

The sunwheels are rolling, the hillside's on fire
From Albion to Attica old Europe's ablaze
Unbroken tradition, neolithic bloodline
The Horned God approaches, the chanting now fades

Il dyi ei ischturien. Ei ven ad esser sarain.
Ei ven freid. Dieus mora!

At the standing stones the scythe will set him free
Bound to the oak, the Kingpriest's life for our creed
A crown of mistletoe, reborn for all to see
For a new year, in a red dawn, as the new sun

Sol, Sol Invictus
Invincible sun of the west
In saecula saeculorum
Conquer with fire and with faith

From Attica's green pastures to Albion's white shores
From Thule's boiling geysers to the walls of Hagar Q'im
Beneath the fragile crust of this modern age of reason
A darker world lies waiting, primordial and pure
Hidden in the shades from ratio's cold pondering
to rise when the stars are right

Sol, Sol Invictus
Lightbringer of the dreaming west
In saecula saeculorum
Conquer with fire and with faith

He is the Heresiarch - Even the spirits of the oaks heed his world
And so from the wells of night to the yawning gulfs of space
Ever the praises of his name shall resound
Thus spoke the Heresiarch - Enthroned in clouds and fire
When the seven suns align, down the onyx steps he strides
Roaming alone in black aether, looking for antediluvian knowledge
Written in the kodex of Atalant forlorn

Heresiarch! Saint of the streets and whores.
Bringer of fire and force - Heresiarch
Heresiarch! God of the sevenfold veil
Light on the warrior's blade, oh bringer, of plagues

Go out among men and find the gates, that he in the void may know.
To his messenger, must all things be told.
And he shall put on the semblance of men, the waxen mask and the robe that hides
And come down from the world of seven suns
Great messenger, oh bringer of death
Father of the million young, unholy stalker, among the lambs
Strike with fury, oh thousandfaced moon
Come, oh vengeful, to our holy rite - A knife and a chalice - the sacrifice begins

Gorgo! Mormo! Wanderer on the wildest winds!
Lightbringer of the damned - Heresiarch
Heresiarch! Flame in Elysian gardens
Sword of the vengeful blessed, oh groom of the night

Oh brilliant one, who wanders the black abyss
Crawl forth from the tombs of holocaust
Oh thousandfaced moon, oh doom of lost Atalant
Wading mid corpses - Through cities of dust
Oh monarch of mayhem, oh mind-reaping messenger
Rise from the dirges and wailing of psalms
Oh pestilent force, oh vanquish the veils of light
To rave and to rape and to rip and to bend

A maiden by the seaside was taken from her land
On a bull across the waves until she reached a foreign strand
Her father, a great king, less human than divine
True godhood she would find - Twelve stars in azure skies

Stronghold walls of Uruk, Etemanaki's fane
Mighty rock of Zion your legacy remains
Aeneas left his mother Troy, summer birds search for new lands
The goddess sends her siren's call, across the continents

On a strong white bull, the goddess rides
In the darkest night twelve stars will rise
Daughter of the east with an azure gown
Our new Jerusalem found

And I saw brothers fighting, not for honour but for gold
Enthralled by foreign agents like cattle we are sold
Oh goddess grant me an answer! Pray, make me understand!
Will the brothers fight forever? Can they be as one again?

The goddess speaks:
"My son. War is forever. He's the father of all men
But brothers once united will stand as one again
My touch was felt in Dublin, my voice was heard in Spain
Ten thousand years may pass by, but this fortress shall remain"

There are shadows over Athens and Rome still lies in flames
In these days when need is great, there's no heroes there's no saints
But when the night is darkest, Prometheus' touch will burn
And the goddess on a white bull - though she never left - returns

When the iron dog is howling in the forests of the east
When summer is like winter and women are like men
When the woods are like a beggar's vest and the peasants dress like lords
When palaces are raised for soldiers - the great cleansing is near

When money turns to iron and our misery burns red
When two-hundred gulden can not buy a loaf of bread
When the heavy handed lord arrives and skins his folk alive
When laws are made which none obey - the great cleansing is near

The kodex tells of days to come - a winter without end
Who is left to tell our story as rose clouds of ash descend?
Fortress Europa falling - none left to defend
Enthroned in clouds and fire, ancient harbinger of the end

When presumption is on the rise and Christian creeds fades away
When the crucifix is torn from walls and banished to the graves
When the redcoats march the new roads - our front line the Danube
When pestilence is raging the great cleansing is at hand

The kodex tells of days to come - a winter without end
Who is left to tell our story as rose clouds of ash descend?
Fortress Europa falling - none left to defend
Enthroned in clouds and fire, ancient harbinger of the end

Once More the chains of time are fading
As the three-fold goddess shows her face
Neath dark horizons armies gather
Apostates tremble as we march

The godless heathens they cover in their crannochs
As we march forth from Autumn's golden mist
Ten-thousand Strong, in search for glory and wisdom
The ageless altars of reason now in sight

The gates of twilight open, a crown of oak and bone
Enthroned in stone and starlight
The goddess unfolds the path

Empires rise, Empires fall
Dead kings are dreaming in the timeless halls
Revelation unfolds
By myth and magick we are bound

Arise now from thy slumber
Cast off the chains of guilt
Her voice is calling you
The goddess stands unveiled
In the light of the evening star

Wooden idols gaze from solemn dead eyes
Witness to the pagan age
When blood was split in hope for summer and corn
And dead cold bodies lowered to the moors

The road to Keter Beckons
Crown of the sephirot
Vanquished is all iniquity
Dominion of timeless bliss

Empires rise, Empires fall
Dead kings are mourning in the timeless halls
The poet's song - her voice in the wind
As darkness descends we call out her eternal hail

The goddess in the darkness spoke
Of days to come and empires to fall
Awake now! From the sleep of thousand centuries
The spell has been broken
Your soul is free to soar

For all the words unspoken, for all the deeds undone
For all our shattered dreams, for all the songs unsung
For all the lines unwritten and all our broken hearts
For all our wounds still bleeding and all our kingdoms come

For all loved ones never forgotten and all burning memories
Goddess take our hand, oh won't you grant us peace
For all that we are longing for yet we shall never have
Beyond the dreaming west, once we all will be healed