Ishtar of the Starry Heavens: Part II. Introduction to Rituals Three and Four

Olivia pouring a libation at the well, directly behind her is the tapestry.

Used by permission.

Fellowship of Isis Liturgy

By

Olivia Robertson

Ishtar of the Starry Heavens

Shape-Shifting of the Alchemical Twins

The Octagonal Temple of Alchemy

Introduction to Rituals Three and Four

The Democratic Grael

My spiritual adventures began in 1946, with a vision of the Holy Grael of the last supper, man sacrificing himself in the way women do when they give birth.

In 1976 my brother and I had great joy in creating a chapel round our Holy Well, which is associated with the Goddess and Saint, Brigid. It has been suggested that a Priory of St. Brigid (associated with “Priory O’Neill) once existed on the castle site round the well. We used the water, which never runs dry, for drinking, and in 1976 began using it ceremoniously as part of our Fellowship of Isis ceremonies. It possesses healing power and other virtues.

It happened that a distinguished tapestry worker from Holland presented our Temple of Isis with a giant tapestry roughly woven from Hessian. Some of it with her blood was woven into the pattern. This showed a huge ochre-coloured womb, and round it was depicted an enormous pair of woman’s thighs. The vaginal canal was indicated by the space for a door. My nephew David, a sculptor, was delighted by this gift. The artist chose my drawing-room door as the site for hanging this tapestry.

I was not pleased. During the day I had to enter my beautiful white and blue drawing-room through a giant woman’s legs, beneath her equally giant womb. In the end I endured this no longer. Originally the work had been donated to our temple: it should go there! So I summoned our builder, Johnny Roberts who did our work for the Temple. I asked him to hang the tapestry behind our well. He pointed out that it was far too long, but I directed that the woman’s legs should be folded back round our dolman altar. He did so.

My nephew was so furious at this desecration of a work of art – worth thousands – that he butted his head against a pillar *** I myself would have preferred a Glastonbury style hanging of “La Dame a la Licorne” – something Camelot.

I also wondered what on earth our neighbours would think. So I went to our Housekeeper, Mrs. Sheil, a monument of Catholic propriety, and asked her to come and see the masterpiece in the Temple. Apprehensively, I showed her the work *** She exclaimed in delight: “It is beautiful! It’s The Chalice!” And so it remained ever since. I regarded this as a useful mistake on the part of Mrs. Sheil. Only on reading “The Da Vinci Code” did I accept the womb as the Chalice.

One can really regard Dan Brown as a “Parsifal uncovering the Holy Grael” because for millions he has revealed the chalice as a womb. Well and good. But now came a danger. We had escaped “blood lines” through democracy. This revival of “Blood Lines” seemed fascist, a return to “Aryan supremacy” - “the Chosen People” - “the Superman.” Rumours of Indigo Children, superior offspring of extra-terrestrials! Personally I rather preferred the Merovingians: they did not cut their hair, healed by laying on of hands, conversed with beasts, and had the charm of being descended from a Sea Monster. Could one want more?

But we must evolve. We are 2 percent human, we are assured by scientists – 98 percent Chimpanzees. How do we know that there are not people walking around like Da Vinci? 98 per cent humans, 2 per cent extra-terrestrial?

So do we end up as evil-minded as the genocidal racists of the 20th century? Do we develop the paranoia that gives us delusions of DNA stemming from Atlantis – from Christ – from Akhenaton – from Gods – Nephilim – Ufonauts? There must be an answer. Here is mine.

Life is not a Patriarchal hierarchy, mounting a ladder of importance, licking the feet of those above, kicking the noses of those below. Life is not a caste system. Life is bodied forth from the divine womb of the Mother Goddess, inspired by the Father God. From this democratic Holy Grael of the Cosmic Womb are birthed every creature, whether Deity or insect, equally loved and cared for. The animals on our earth have their own evolution carried on in the inner planes, whence come the Holy Beasts – the Kerubim, and the divine birds and reptiles of the Ancient Egyptian Pantheon. As for trees – the Monkey Puzzle Tree is a God in its home in South America.

With this new vision I now accept the Grael Tapestry behind our well as the Womb of the Goddess Who brings forth all that is.

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