Written on the summit of Scafell Pike in permanent ink are verses from the Emerald Tablets of Thoth, signed “R. Bennett” and “2015.” No one knows who left the graffiti, or why. The Telegraph reports, “The National Trust said a team of rangers would be sent to the summit later this week when the weather clears in a bid to clean it off without causing any more damage.”
The verses in the graffiti are as follows:
O light, all pervading, one with all and all with one, flow thou to me through the channel. Enter thou so that I may be free. Make me one with the all-soul, shining from the blackness of night. Free let me be of all space-time, free from the veil of the night.
“I, a child of light, command: Free from the darkness to be. Formless am I to the light-soul, formless yet shining with light. Know I the bonds of the darkness must shatter and fall before light.
Blogger Helen Conway notes, “I think the real issue here is why poetry is thought by some to be incompatible with the joy of enjoying nature when in fact so much poetry has been inspired by nature. To me the word of the poem are not at all incompatible with the feeling of wonder, elation, spirituality and transcendence that some people feel when at the top of a peak like Scafell.”
Thanks to Soror Hypatia for the tip!
Literary vandal defaces the summit of Scafell Pike with poetry in permanent black ink.
