Melusina, Life Centres of the Goddess
Fellowship of Isis Liturgy by Olivia Robertson
Music of the Spheres
Ritual no. 9
ORACLE OF THE GODDESS MAYA THROUGH HER PRIESTESS
Priestess: (Invocation) Divine Maya, Goddess Whose Body shines like a copper sun across limitless space, bring us beauty and immortality.
Oracle: Beauty is immortal and those who love beauty bring their souls to spiritual rebirth. The music of the stars echoes in every atom of your bodies. When your body, soul and spirit are in harmony with the heavens, you yourselves become part of the symphony of eternal life. Eternal life is not a continuation of restless activity, whether of thought or feeling. It is not an endless plodding round the cyclic aeons. Everlasting life brings deep peace as well as movement; darkness as well as light; and silence as well as sound.
Follow then the practice of the stars if you would find the still centre of the Great Spirit within yourselves. Stars start as swirling dust and grow and become mighty: but when the time comes, they enter the abyss of My darkness and are reborn in another sphere. So seek deep sleep, because in that sleep you awaken into other spheres of being.
The mystery of Time is that there are many times and spaces, and as you grow in experience and wisdom, you will learn to enjoy these many-faceted heavens. For time is not a continuance, a progression, a ladder. Rather it is a spiral, and each twist of the spiral forms a different Space-Time Heaven. And yet all these Space-Time Heavens are one in infinity. Therefore strike a note in one sphere, and you resonate with other space-time spheres. You will experience these simultaneously in your various psychic and spiritual "bodies".
You can teach this even to a child. Fold a piece of paper many times, say thirteen. Pierce these folds with a pin. This is the action of the first creative cause, Time. Now flatten out your piece of paper and you will see thirteen holes in different parts of your paper. The paper may be termed 'space'. In a mystical experience of Eternal Reality, you are in the centre of the folded paper, experiencing the action of the piercing pin thrusting through space. So you experience your myriad incarnations simultaneously, in widened consciousness.
Therefore do not travel through your lives in pursuit of spiritual progress in a linear way, plucking your life's music note by note. Rather enter into the core of your being, wherein dwell Love, Beauty and Truth. Then you will gain control over your whole life, and you will pluck your strings in beautiful chords high and low! So will you be in harmony with the music of the stars.
Priestesses wear gold crowns and copper coloured robes and carry gold wands: Priests, conical green headdresses and green or gold robes. Women companions wear flower chaplets: Men, green headbands and all wear yellow robes. Candidate is veiled in white. On green draped altar are seven lighted candles, a silver bowl of water, burning incense and a flute.
Priest Hierophant: Companions, we are assembled to awaken the spiritual throat centre, which links head and heart. The Rishis of India describe this lotus as the Pure, the Ethereal, the Excellent! It has 16 smoky-purple petals responding to the sound of 16 vowels. This lotus is the seat of the Buddhi of intellect. Within the petals is a white moon-like sphere where, seated on a white elephant, reigns the silver God Siva, united with the golden Goddess Gauri.
Priestess Hierophant: Within the pericarp of the lotus is the Shakti Shakini, Who presides over the Gateway of the Great Liberation, Mukti. She is Light itself, and has five beautiful faces each with three eyes. To pass through the Gateway of Liberation is to achieve purification of the five senses.
Priest Hierophant: To Initiates of South America, these five faces were known as the five suns. To the Algonquins of North America the awakened throat centre is called Snake-Bird the Thunderer. The Life Force that rises up the spine awakening each centre they call Manitu. The spirits who manipulate this force are the Manitus. When the Plumed Serpent arises from the base of the spine it makes a rattling like that of the rattle-snake. Arisen, it is winged like a bird.
Priestess Hierophant: The Goddess Who presides over the Life Flow is Maya, Who shines like a copper-coloured sun. From the sound of Her Voice, rising octave upon octave, come the 13 Heavens. From Her womb, the matrix of space, She gives birth to all living beings. (offers incense) I offer this incense to Thee, Divine Maya! Bring us love and happiness!
Priest Hierophant: The Consort of Maya is the Plumed Serpent, the God Cukulcan. From the depths of Maya's Space He brings movement, which brings with it the measurement of Time. When He wears His wind mask He stirs life into spirals of changes through the Three Spaces of Time. Yet He forsook the Highest Heaven to become a man, there to bring love upon earth, through uniting with the Maiden Mayahuel, the embodied Maya. (offers incense) I offer incense to Thee, Divine Cukulcan, God of the Law of Time: Bestower of Compassion.
1st Priest: Here is a candidate who would awaken the Third Sun, the Throat Centre. (introduces Candidate)
Priest Hierophant: First let this Candidate show forth understanding of a Mystery!
MYSTERY PLAY: HOW PEACE WAS BROUGHT TO EARTH
Flute Music. (enter Xochiquetzal, Maiden of Song & Mayahuel, Maiden of Joy. Both wear chaplets of flowers. They are weeping.) (X' is pronounced 'Z').
Maiden of Joy: Sister, we mingle our tears at seeing our lovely earth destroyed by warring Gods! The God of Sun and Storm, Tezcatlipoca, continually leads rebellions against the just laws of the God of Law and Purity, Quetzalcoatl.. Quetzalcoatl desires Peace, but his Laws are enforced by his defenders, the Jaguar Warriors. Tezcatlipoca takes pleasure in tempting Quetzalcoatl to break his own laws of Purity - and on one occasion he succeeded! Each prevails in a cycle of time and then is defeated. Hence we have perpetual conflict. Our earth faces destruction. What can we do?
Song Maiden: Mayahuel, your joy brings the cure! When Quetzalcoatl disguised as a man, found love with you on earth, and friendship with a dog, Xotl, he tempered his law with pity. I may be able to have the same effect on Tezcatlipoca. Indeed, his passion for music draws me to him!
Joy Maiden: Let us then devise a cunning plan! I shall persuade Quetzalcoatl to help us. (they whisper and then laugh).
Both Maidens: With our united power, we cause all music to cease on earth!
They clap their hands. Abrupt end of music in discord.
Exeunt.
Sun God: (entering, wearing demon mask) I, the mighty God, Tezcatlipoca, am in anguish! The earth has suddenly become sick with silence. I must have music. I shall restore music to all creation, to the awakened dawn, to the dreaming man, to the waiting mother, to the passing water and the flying bird, life should be all music! (raises arms) Come, O Wind God, Ehecatl, Messenger of the Gods! Come with the swiftness of the eagle.
Enter Quetzalcoatl, disguised with wind mask and green cloak.
Quetzalcoatl: (as Wind God) Why do you summon me so wildly, who am the ever busy Wind God?
Sun God: Travel through the boundless sadness, between the blue smoke and the Spaces of Time, to the Sixth House of Music. There musicians play their flutes melodiously, and with burning choirs of Spirits scatter Light abroad. Bring to the earth a cluster, the most flowering, of these divine music-makers.
Quetzalcoatl: I will do so on one condition. You must, if I succeed, grant a boon to an earthly Maiden of Song, who prays to you.
Sun God: By my word as a God, her prayer shall be granted.
Quetzalcoatl: I ascend the Heavens with my snake-bird wings. (Exeunt)
Flute music. Enter God of Music, in gold.
God of Music: In my House of Music let my musicians delight me!
Enter Musicians wearing white, red, blue and yellow. Flute music.
Musician in White: Softly shining with white light, our music brings beautiful dreams of heaven to babies and to the child in all creatures.
Musician in Red: Glowing with red light, we musicians inspire lovers and warriors to overcome all obstacles!
Musician in Blue: Bathed in blue light, our music causes creation through our chords of magic.
Musician in Yellow: Our golden light brings music milled by the sun from the peaks of starry mountains.
Quetzalcoatl: (entering as Wind God) I am the Wind God, Ehecatl, Messenger of the Gods! (to Musicians, raising his arms) I summon you, in the Name of the Mighty God Tezcatlipoca, to descend with me to earth!
God of Music: Oh, it is this interfering Wind God, with one of his crackbrained ideas! (to Musicians) Ignore him. Be silent.
Music stops and Musicians turn their backs on Wind God.
Enter Sun God.
Sun God: (In a rage, to God of Music) Your insult draws me here as a lightning flash! (to Musicians) I am God of Sun and Storm! You have defied me. So shall I deafen you with my thunder!
Drum rolls. Musicians stop ears and flee.
Quetzalcoatl: (holds out his cape) I shall muffle the thunder claps with my feathery wings! My friends, follow me to a place of safety, the earth!
Music.
Wind God leads Musicians in a spiral dance. Enter Mayahuel wearing copper crown. She holds out her arms.
Maya: (to Musicians) Know me as the Goddess Maya, your Mother! I welcome you to earth! (Musicians encircle her.)
Dance.
Maya: Heavenly music now comes to earth! She raises her wide dark eyes to Heaven, and smiles. As the arms of the trees are uplifted. there greets the Wind God's wanderers the awakened voice of earth's people, the wings of the quetzal birds, the face of the flowers and the cheeks of the fruit.
Sun God: Heavenly music has descended with a flutter of happiness.
Quetzalcoatl: (removes wind mask) Know me as Quetzalcoatl! I have brought you music, nobler than before.. Now keep your word to the Maiden of Song!
Sun God: Whatever is her request, I shall grant it. Let her approach me.
Enter Song Maiden now wearing gold crown.
Song Maiden: I am no earthly maid, but the Goddess Quetzalpetlatl, twin sister of Quetzalcoatl! My prayer is that you cease your warfare against my brother, that earth may be at peace.
Sun God: (removes demon mask) You are indeed a Goddess! For your sake I shall spare Quetzalcoatl, and leave him in peace. You are so lovely and so happy! I must hold you, not tomorrow, nor any time after, but now in the very instant - I myself in person, I the warrior youth, shining like the sun with the beauty of dawn! (Goddess & God fall into each other's arms)
Maya: (laughing) Thus was peace brought to the earth!
End of Play
1st Priest: (to Candidate) What have you understood from this play?
Candidate: I realise that sound through the law of octaves brings all spheres into harmony, both in the cosmos and within ourselves.
1st Priest: You are accepted as Candidate. To awaken the throat centre, you need to make a spiritual journey to the sixth Sacred Planet, Uranus.
3rd Priestess: (anoints each brow with water) May you see with spiritual vision.
3rd Priest: Let us perform the Dance of the Snake-Bird, the Thunderer, and so create a magical space ship!
Dance in which a shining sphere is created around companions.
3rd Priestess: To give our ship power to move, we need to chant the sacred Name of "Maya".
All chant "Maya". A tingling may be felt at back of neck and in throat.
3rd Priestess: Let us shut our eyes. Behold! Glowing with light, Our Spirit Guide Manitu stands before us. He wears the White Feathered Headdress of North America. He makes a sign and our ship rises swiftly through our Temple and into the sky * * * there is the rolling of thunder as we break the space-time barrier. We are now in the etheric Sphere. Our ship darts by Meztli the moon: Tonatiol the sun diminishes in size as we fly past Mars, the Asteroids, Jupiter and Saturn until we reach Uranus.
THE THIRD SPACE OF TIME: TLALOCAN
3rd Priestess: Our ship has entered the 3rd Space of Time, Tlalocan, which contains the 5 Moons of Uranus. This etheric Space is ruled by Xochiquetzal and Tezcatlipoca. Here the soul wins happiness, abundance and rebirth through learning to control the five senses. (to Candidate) Leave the ship and enter! We shall follow.
Contemplation
3rd Priest: (to Candidate) Return to our ship! What have your discovered?
Candidate: I have learnt that to control the five senses I need to respect each one for its quality, and so enjoy them all in balanced harmony.
3rd Priestess: The Manitu presents you with an ear of maize. You have passed the test!
THE SECOND SPACE OF TIME: TLILLAN TLIAPALLAN
2nd Priestess: Our ship is rapidly descending towards green clouds which obscure Uranus. Manitu tells us that we are entering the 2nd Space of Time, Tlillan Tlapallan, astral realm of Wisdom. It is ruled by Quetzalcoatl and His Sister, the Goddess Ouetzalpetlatl. Here dwell the Initiates of the Pyramids of Light. Leave the ship and enter. We shall follow.
Contemplation
2nd Priest: (to Candidate) Return to our ship! .. What have you learnt?
Candidate: I have learnt that Wisdom is infinite. If I set a boundary to knowledge, my mind atrophies. The Initiate on one sphere is neophyte on another.
2nd Priest: You have passed the trial. Manitu gives you a green feather.
THE FIRST SPACE OF TIME: TONATIUHICAN
1st Priest: Our ship sinks through the green clouds of Uranus itself. To the physical eye it is a desolate planet of rock, ice and ammonia. But in the spiritual realm it is the Heaven of Music, where preside the Goddess Maya and the God Cukulcan. (to Candidate) Leave the ship and enter. We shall be with you.
Contemplation
1st Priest: (to Candidate) Return with us to our ship. What have you experienced?
Candidate: There are no words for ecstasies.
1st Priestess: Then hear the Chant of Maya. "All moons, all years, all days, all winds, reach their completion and pass away. So does all blood reach its place of quiet as it reaches its power and its throne. Measured is the Time in which you praise the splendour of the Heavens. Measured is the Time when you can know the Sun's benevolence. Measured is the Time in which the Gods contemplate you through the grid of the stars. But Love, Beauty and Truth are eternal. I hold you forever within My starry wings".
1st Priest: (to Candidate) The Manitu gives you an opal. You have passed the last test. Let us return to our ship * * * it rises above Uranus and its five moons and we look back. We see a great pyramid of Light. Springing from the pyramid we hear the Voice of Maya rising octave upon octave, to the flute-playing of Cukulcan. The constellations respond with celestial harmony. We feel a silvery light within our throats. Power circulates through our bodies, a starry stream drawn by the music of the spheres. But we must descend to earth as did the musicians, to bring divine music there and so win Peace * * *
1st Priestess: Our space ship flies past Saturn - Jupiter - the Asteroids Mars - * * * there is the rolling of thunder as our ship breaks the Space-time barrier. We drop like an eagle upon the earth and reach our Temple. * * * Manitu bids us dissolve our ship through performing the snake-bird dance in reverse. He blesses us in the Name of the Great Spirit, and so leaves us.
Through chanting the name of Maya the companions send forth harmony to the earth. Reports are shared. Candidate is unveiled if successful, and is presented with a flute. Thanks are given by the Priesthood to the Deities.)
Sources: "Central Mexican and Central American Mythology", Irene Nicholson. "North American Mythology", Cottie Burland. "New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology", intro. Graves, all pub. by Hamlyn. "The Serpent Power", Arthur Avalon, Theosophical Society. "Handbook of Astronomy", Ian Ridpath. New Orchard, Dorset.
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