Wool Over Our Eyes

As I skip amongst the thickets
Well, just look at what I've found
An innocent wee critter
Sitting, shivering on the ground

Entrapped and gagged and bound
Upon a sacrificial mound
Such a miserable predicament
So, how'd you like the sound

Of a haven-cum-community
A vibrant congregation
Of waywards just like you
The fates aligned for me to save from

The depraved and heathen demons
And their vile abominations
Enslaving feeble minds
Into a life of prostration?

Not like my operation
Not the slightest correlation
Why, we've dances, feasts and festivals
It's like we're on vacation

No time for contemplation
Would you like to come and take some
Salvation in exchange
For just some light indoctrination?

(The pact is sealed)

Welcome in, brethren
Step down off the pentagram
Blessed be and bend the knee
And pledge to me forever and

Forget the need to question and
We'll never need to reprimand
Lethargy is heresy
You're very keen to lend a hand

There's effigies to render
And a temple yet to build
We've many seeds to tend to
And there's earth still left to till

And every second spare
You'd best remember to keep filled
In reverent prayer and penance
Lest dissenters shall be kill!

-Ecting up the mess
Until they find their crimes regrettable
All evidence says heaven's light's
Not likely for the sceptical

The bedding's of the finest moss
The lichen often edible
Now, don't you think your life outside
Was tiresome and forgettable?

Deep in the dark of the woods
Where secrets sleep
We serve He Who Waits Beneath
Till the soul, devotion reap
For the lamb who herds the sheep

In the dark of the woods
We pledge our lives
Sages say that faith is blind
Arms raised high in sacrifice
Pull down wool over our eyes

Time for your donations
Fill the dish up, pass the gold plate
Every penny pays to kill
The Bishops of the Old Faith

Our benefactor waits
Betwixt the crippling link of old chains
Tethered to the plains
Until the heretics are all slain

So, pay the tithes and pray you might
Remain upon the list of all
The cherished, chosen children
For whom love is unconditional

Your contribution's absolution
For the guilt within you all
Our movement may be new
But all your sins are still original

You'll find my sermons stirring
Form the circle, get your heads down
Heavy hangs the neck
Of any vessel of the Red Crown

Blessed to be the shepherd
Of the desperate and oppressed now
Destined for ascension
Ne'er the wealthy ever left ground

So, empty out your bank accounts
And dance around the fire
And focus your devotion
Through the crackling of the pyre

So potent and ambrosial
It flows through blackened spires
To satiate our patron
And their rancorous desires!

The game is barely set
Yet e'er within the deck you've dwelt
We've never met and yet
We meet again upon my pelts

The cards we want are often drawn
But seldom ever dealt
But, chance the hand you're given
Mayhap lift you where you fell

Tell me, little lamb
Do you see destiny immutable?
Does fate or dedication
Keep you bended knee and dutiful?

Feign predestination
Or is zealotry the truth of all
The paths you never take and never leave
Yet in the future walk?

Saviour or enslaver?
Oh, these labels are but shallow things
You brave the twisting mists
Betwixt the hallowed and the harrowing

And pray that they may shift
Against the rhapsody of Haro's wings
So, just embrace the chaos
And the clarity the tarot brings

Deep in the dark of the woods
Where secrets sleep
We serve He Who Waits Beneath
Till the soul, devotion reap
For the lamb who herds the sheep

In the dark of the woods
We pledge our lives
Sages say that faith is blind
Arms raised high in sacrifice
Pull down wool over our eyes

The time has come, enlightened ones
The hour is at hand
Or do you doubt the crown?
The righteous power it commands?

We swear to scriptures devilish
Devout or ever-damned
till fetid grip from heretics
Is scoured from the land

Who today can truly say
Their faith has never faltered?
Whose neck, so trained to pray
Would never strain against the halter?

These reins that pave the way
Towards our patron's radiant reign
And so, which waif ordained by grace
Shall fate see slain upon the altar?

For what have we to give
Once coin and toil have been expended?
For naught have we to live
If plots of soil to be lamented

Are the unascended end
To whence our mortal coil has wended
The rested dead are spoiled
Not with the spoils we are intended

But flesh, bequeathed freely
Grants a life a higher purpose
In death, a deeper meaning
Everlasting pious service

Sowing seeds precedes a reaping
Start a line, now who's the first?
You all decided to convert
So, tell me, why are you so nervous?!

For your fervour has been fated now
To satiate the beast
In chains, he waits beneath
And how he craves to be released

We celebrate in blessed flame
So, pray and take a seat
And pledge unto their name
Lest you be plated at the feast

Let your faith remain unshaken
In our monastery's beliefs
You've no claim to consecration
When there's coffers to be greased

Stay praiseful to your deity
Their prophecy and priest
For the sheep may be the shepherd
But the flock is being fleeced

Deep in the dark of the woods
Where secrets sleep
We serve He Who Waits Beneath
Give the flesh, ascension seek
From the lamb who herds the sheep

In the dark of the woods
We pledge our lives
Sages say that faith is blind
Arms raised high in sacrifice
Pull down wool over our eyes