"Summoning The Guardians Of The Astral Gate" by Bal-sagoth

It is written in the ancient legends... that high amidst the
moon-swathed
peaks  of the great Mountain of Shadows, hides the
aeon-weary threshold of the
Astral Gate... the portal from our world, to beyond... It is
said that one who
holds  the key and knows the empyreal incantation may stand
within the ancient
ring  of  stones  atop  the mountain when the stars are
correctly aligned, and
unlock the mystic gate, summoning its sidereal sentinels,
thereby attaining 

ultimate enlightenment and wisdom unparalleled...

[Part 1: THE INVOKING]

[The Aspirant Reaches The Summit]

Keepers  of the cosmic threshold, my ascent has been fraught
with terror,
deathsteeped,  storm-hammered. (These grim mountains are
strewn with the bones
of  the ill-fortuned dead.) O' Guardians of the Astral Gate,
the spheres blaze
at  last  in  trine...  I  hold the Key! (The trinity of
stars shall touch the
circle  of  stones once more...) The incantation of Xuk'ul
is known to me, the
Orb  of  Summoning  earned  with  bloodshed! (The
crystalline key to the Outer
Realms  and  the  arcane  rite  to  empower  it  are  at 
last mine, Seized at
swordpoint from the citadel of the Black Templars.
Enlightenment awaits!)

Many  years ago, the mystic Orb of Summoning was seized by
the mysterious
Black  Templars,a band of sombre, plunder seeking knights
from the kingdoms to
the  east  of  the  Great Sea. They wrested the sorcerous
gem from the ancient
shrine  of  Azaimedes,  where i t had lain hidden for
countless centuries, its
true  power and purpose known only to the dour shamans who
tended to the elder
place of worship. It is said that the tapestry of slaughter
woven that day was
unparalleled  in its ferocity, and that the marble walls of
the ancient shrine
were,  and  still  remain, stained vivid crimson with the
spilled blood of the
Orb's keepers.

Ka-kur-ra, I summon thee,
Zul'tekh Azor Vol-thoth.
Mighty Xuk'ul arise,
Kur'oc Gul-Kor, come forth.

I  hold  aloft  the  pulsing orb, astral spheres, empower
the mystic key.
Ring  of  elder  stones entwined in prophecy, the Rite of
Invocation enthralls
thine  power.  Replete  from  drinking  deep of darkness,
black shapes dancing
'twixt  the  stones,  Lucent  beams  lancing  forth from the
gleaming, cepheid
stars, a creeping mist ensorcells my tongue...

A   great  stillness  binds  the  moon-cloaked  mountaintop 
in  glooming
shackles...  (High above, the myriad stars gleam bright
against the night sky,
three  more  resplendently  bedazzling  than  the others,
their sidereal auras
engulfing the stones...) And the central stone of the
ancient ebon ring begins
to  pulsate  with  a  darksome  energy...  A  thunderous
maelstrom ablaze with
writhing  celestially  spawned  power  then rends the
stygian night... (A vast
shimmering  aperture,  a  vortex  of  heliacal  fire...  the
pathway to beyond
beckons!)
The Astral Gate is open...
The Guardians have awakened...

[XUK'UL:]</i>  Impudent  mortal!  You  dare  summon
us? If 'tis elucidation you
seek, you shall have it!

Such  searingly  terrible  stellar  majesty... my sanity is
lashed like a
vessel  on  a storm-wracked sea. What price this invocation'
Shall the singing
stars claim my very mind?

To  countless  worlds we travel, riding the endless black
seas 'twixt the
stars...  the  ebon oceans of infinity... flying through a
thousand suns, then
watching  their light fade, as if it were but a flickering
candleflame snuffed
by  the  wind.  As  beings  of  p  ure energy we become one
with the vastness,
transcending  the  ethereal  walls  of  time,  spanning at
once this celestial
eternity,  and yet existing as no more than a mote of dust
within the vista of
its endlessness... Journeying beyond...

The  threshold  looms,  (the star-way between dimensions
stretches before
me...)  The  Gate  To  That Which Lies Beyond yawns wide...
Unspeakable forces
gibber  and  pulsate in the Outer Darkness... Elder horrors
dwell here, things
which  were  ancient  and  revelled  in sublime galactic
malevolence when even
Xuk'ul  was  naught  but a bloated cosmic maggot, writhing
and suckling at the
breast  o  f  its  amorphous mother...
They-Who-Lurk-And-Breed-In-Limbo... the
squamous sovereigns of the elder void!

Primal  terror  drags  my  essence screaming back from the
threshold. The
ichor of pestilent tongues clings to me, tendrils probing,
the ire of fiends!

The  ravening  black worms of madness are devouring the
shredded remnants
of  sanity  as  I  return  to  my  slumbering  steel-clad 
body...  but as the
dream-veil  lifts,  I  feel  my  limbs transform, flesh
becoming cold stone...
enshrouded  by  a  dark mantle of obsidian . And the
laughter of the Guardians
echoes,  carries  upon  the  winds  of this spectral eve.
Such is the price of
enlightenment.  And  so,  a new brooding sentinel of stone
joins the others on
the  nighted mountain top... Standing silently in the
ancient circle of truth,
standing... waiting, Beneath the stars.

[Lyrics: Byron]
[Music: Jonny Maudling]