Ishtar Rite 8. The Virgin Chooses the Unicorn
Ishtar of the Starry Heavens
Shape-Shifting of the Alchemical Twins
Fellowship of Isis Liturgy by Olivia Robertson
The Virgin Chooses the Unicorn
Ritual No. 8
A Single Eye Penetrates Delusion and So Reveals the Truth
The Octagonal Temple of Alchemy
Priest Alchemist: (To Twin Apprentices Aiden and Elaine) That you may achieve singleness of purpose amidst evil and confusion in this transitory world, you need to invoke the Moon Goddess Selene.
Priestess Alchemist: Shining Selene, Queen of magic. Goddess of lovers, mirror of Truth, enliven us in our graveyard of this world with visions of our future Heaven!
ORACLE OF THE GODDESS SELENE
To achieve purity of purpose you need to receive a shaft of the Light of Truth from Deity. Within you – dormant – is the uncreated Flame, Source of all that is. It shines in the mind as the mirror of Truth, and in the heart, as Infinite Love. Nothing else matters. Some courageous spirits choose earthly incarnation. They follow the lengthy and weary toil of developing the physical body, from rock, to reptile, from reptile to bird and so forth, until the human condition is attained. Know that each creature is sacred, expressing a unique creation.
You wonder when you realise the alarming fate of fallen angels. Usually, their problem is that these are too angelic, and despise other creatures, who are also offspring of Divine Parents.
All the best secrets are open to all! Can you understand the Sphinx? Yet you may look upon it. In verity, the spiritual Moon is the Sphinx! It holds up the mirror to you, as it reflects the light of Sun and Stars so you can receive their beauty. Gaze with naked eyes at the Sun – and you will be blinded. See and enjoy the Deity in what you may safely look at – a lover, a child, a dog, and through love you will attain the truth beneath this passing drama you call reality.
Priest Alchemist: We give thanks to the Goddess Selene for Her Oracle.
Priestess Alchemist: (To Elaine) Elaine, one of your merits is that you enjoy life in all its fullness, spreading your affections to all you meet. But this can lead to diffusion, a loss of concentration on the task at hand. For time is limited for those on earth. Therefore you need to choose the Trial of the Unicorn of the Moon, and enter its sphere within the Constellation of Monoceros. Report to us as we accompany your pilgrimage. We may not help you.
Trance Journey
Elaine: Eagerly I mount the hill to the Temple of the Stars. It is glorious spring weather with soft breezes and grasses with daisies brushing my sandals. Within the Temple, rainbow lights criss-cross over the hall, centering on the Sacred Flame. Easily I find the Portals of Monoceros, in the North, beyond those of Lepus. On one side, the left, is a glorious tapestry of a rampant unicorn with a long gleaming white horn on his forehead, and an elegant white horse’s body, surrounded by wild flowers. Across the doorway is a sublimely beautiful Goddess wearing a crescent moon as a tiara, her rosey robes ornamented with fleur de lys, spreading around her on a daisied lawn. There is a sparkling fountain in the distance. I almost forget what I must do! I pull myself together, and pass through the doorway, framed with rose brocade curtains.
How splendid! No wonder the Goddess compared the world to a passing drama… I find myself in an elaborately gilded box in an Opera House. And my favourite Aïda is being performed in a sumptuous setting. I have entered during the scene outside the Temple of Isis when the exiled Princess Aïda, now a captured slave, is mourning the loss of her beautiful country, Ethiopia. She is singing of grassy groves and sacred temples and lofty tree, and is contrasting this radiant landscape with the sterile Egyptian desert. In the distance comes the intoning of a hymn to Isis: “Oh Thou, Isis, of infinite Love, Thou Who knowest the secret of every heart, we invoke Thee!” Aïda’s rival, an Egyptian princess, is praying inside the Temple. My mind wanders, as it is apt to do during lengthy arias. I longed to visit the lovely African land Aïda is describing – I can understand Italian fairly well. It is so poetic.
Suddenly I wonder is this an earthquake? I find myself tumbling, as it were, in some vortex. Scenes rush before me – and I am speeding ahead to our present era. I know this because I hear the drone of engines. There is danger… I am in the middle of some war between rival Africans – I know not where. The people do not see me. Soldiers are swarming into this village and slaughtering the inhabitants. I see rape but cannot prevent it. But what is worse is the kidnapping of small boys. One of them is struggling and calling for help. I send out a prayer to the Goddess Selene.
As if in answer to my prayer for him, an elderly woman approaches me. She is as tall as a Masai woman and wears a beaded necklace and an elaborate headdress. She can see me! She must be a Wise Woman. I note that she is holding an ebony wand. She speaks. She has the contralto resonant voice of Africa which I have always admired.
“My daughter,” she says. “Those boys are being kidnapped and forced to become boy soldiers. I have come to answer your prayer.”
I break forth into anger. “Then stop it! You are a Wise Woman. Why don’t the Gods stop all this?”
To my amazement, the woman is transforming into the divine form of the Moon Goddess. Her wand is now made of silver, and shines with unearthly life. I offer to fall on my knees, but smilingly she forbids this.
“I come,” she said, “because your heart is genuinely moved by evil and suffering. But understand that all you see is the troubled nightmares of sleepers, who enact their desires in the ever-changing world, the dream fabric which sentient beings wrap around the earth. This is the choice of each creature you observe killing or being killed. They follow their path of finding their own individual souls. They would not thank you for intervention! Those we send from heaven to help are often killed themselves.” ***
“But now awaken, wild dreamer!” The Goddess touches my forehead with her shining wand…….
I am in an earthly paradise of which Aïda sang. Here are lofty trees and rushing rivers and a flowery meadow in which many African children play, watched by loving parents. But some are curled asleep on a mossy bank. And among these is the little boy I noticed being captured. He cries out in agony. One of the mothers turns to me.
“It’s just a nightmare he’s having,” she says. “When he wakes up he will forget it. It’s not real.” She is right – as I worried at the boy’s fear – he suddenly woke up, and saw me – and then jumped up, laughed and joined his playmates.
Selene laid a hand on my shoulder and stroked my hair. “It was you who rescued him from his nightmare,” she said. “You used your Unicorn’s horn of Light!”
As I find I am a Unicorn – I return to my human body! But now, where the Goddess touched me with her wand, I feel in my forehead a shaft of silver light.
End of Trance Journey
Reports are shared. It is agreed that Elaine has won her degree. Thanks are given to the Deities. Rays of white light are sent forth to all.
End of Rite
Sources: “Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable” , Dr. Ebenezer Cobham Brewer, originally published in 1870, first revised edition published in 1894, a standard work, continuously in print since it was first published, many reprints readily available new and used. “On the Nature of the Universe,” Lucretius, translation and introduction by Ronald E. Latham, Penguin Classics, New York, 1958. “The Sea Priestess,” Dion Fortune, originally privately published by the author, 3 Queensborough Terrace, London, 1938, the original edition was printed in Guernsey, C.I., British Isles, by The Star and Gazette, Ltd. Many re-prints readily available from Samuel Weiser (New York) and Aquarian Press (London), and others. “The ‘Lunar Calendar”, Nancy F. W. Passmore and contributors, Luna Press, Boston, Mass., published annually since 1975. Editions of this calendar are classics in their field.
Note: Used in all rites of “Ishtar of the Starry Heavens, Shape-Shifting of the Alchemical Twins” - “Star Names, Their Lore and Meaning” by Richard Hinckley Allen, first published G. S. Stechert, 1899, republished by Dover Publications, New York, 1963. The Mr. Jorkens series by Lord Dunsany (“The Travel Tales of Mr. Joseph Jorkens,” (1931), “Mr. Jorkens Remembers Africa,” (1934), “Jorkens Has a Large Whiskey,” (1940), “The Fourth Book of Jorkens,” (1947), “Jorkens Borrows Another Whiskey,” (1954), “The Last Book of Jorkens,” prepared for publication in 1957, finally published in 2002)