Sphinx, Goddess Myths and Mysteries
Fellowship of Isis Liturgy
VIII. Earth and Pluto: Bread of Angels
ORACLE OF THE GODDESS SOPHIA
Invocation: Divine Sophia, Source of all Wisdom, who through the breath of inspiration inspires our soul, permeate us with your Love, Beauty and Truth! We would not live a lie; aid us to show forth our own divine essence.
Oracle: When you pray, you answer your own prayer by making it! You seek wisdom and in the search will find it. Many long for love and will suffer any hardship in order to obtain the object of their devotion. Those who seek for perfect beauty themselves become creators of living art. But those who honour wisdom need to search in the depths as well as in the light. No experience, however harsh, should be shunned. It is only through having empathy with every being you encounter you will find the buried treasures of their souls. This is the love that demands nothing and therefore gains everything; for the small world of self is augmented by the accumulated joys, passions and knowledge of all those whom you encounter. Discrimination is essential if you would understand others. Otherwise, instead of helping the struggling human, animal or tree, you will only be entrapped in the vortex of helpless agony or prison, abattoir and axe. Enter into the sphere of the Divine Sophia now, not tomorrow. In this way you will find communion with those who have travelled further along life's pilgrimage than yourself. With their wisdom, gained through many lives, you will be so strengthened that you will easily limit your consciousness to those who are prisoners of time and space. By understanding their feelings, yet retaining your own link with Divinity, you will help them to free themselves. Love, Beauty and Truth are the absolutes of Heaven, in which there is no evil. But wisdom is hidden in the depths of dreaming souls, who through their will-power gain the fruits of good and evil fortune, and so learn to use both. Psychic experiences, whether pleasant or unpleasant, provide the testing ground of the evolving Spirit. Wisdom cannot be given: it can only be won.
Priestesses wear gold tiaras, carry wands and wear white and blue. Priests, gold mitres, hold staffs and wear scarlet and gold. All others wear white and yellow. On yellow draped altar is a 7 branched candlestick, a cup of spring water, burning incense and a six pointed star. On a table is fruit juice, wheat cakes and a sheaf of wheat. Music may be played throughout.
Priest Hierophant: Companions let us seek to understand the mysteries; we gather to learn from the Sophia of the divine wisdom. She manifests as the three Sophias of love, beauty and truth. From Her is born Eros, God of Love.
1st Priestess: The deities use our earth as a drawing board. Nature portrays their living works of art. Birds sing their songs. We humans enact their plays in physical life. Their mystic dramas conceal hidden wisdom: their language speaks to us through symbols of the Zodiac and the encircling planets.
1st Priestess: Each divine drama with human actors is presented at the opening of a new era. Thus knowledge does not stagnate as dogma, but finds new expression as our consciousness evolves.
2nd Priest: Let us witness the drama "Bread of Angels" so that we may uncover its secret.
2nd Priestess: (anoints each brow with water:) May you see with the Eye of vision.
A bell is rung. Enter Evangelist in white robes.
Evangelist: Behold our mystery play! Our first scene is set in Heaven. Before us are enthroned the three Sophias.
MYSTERY DRAMA: BREAD OF ANGELS
SCENE 1. HEAVEN. THE THREE SOPHIAS
Three Sophias are clothed in grey veils and seated.
1st Sophia: In the encircling spirals of space, the sacred time has come for us to symbolise once again the passing of the old age, and the advent of the new dispensation. The Aries Ram makes way for the tied fishes of the Age of Pisces. The Eastern Path is quietly manifest through the wisdom of the Buddha. But in the West, our human children demand the Mystery of the Sacrificed God. From this they hope for salvation.
2nd Sophia: Let us represent Eros, bringer of Divine Love, emerging from the Matriarchal centre. He manifests as the Sacred Ram, in the constellation of Aries, Lamb of God. From thence He transforms from star to planetary being, and becomes Mars, God of Battle. In the Human incarnation on Earth, he is a demigod and falls victim to the conquering fisher king of Pisces.
3rd Sophia: Must our Western audience have it so? Surely the murder of Julius Caesar was sufficient? What further sacrifice is needed? Caesar was killed by the Romans because the Egyptian priests acknowledged him as the Ram God Amon.
1st Sophia: True, Caesar well represented the Aries hero. But he could not act the dual role of fisher king. He had not the vision nor the compassion. The old god is not killed but transmuted into the new.
3rd Sophia: Oh, how I wish these Aryans had the cheerful dispositions of the Indians and the Chinese! Our son the Buddha died peacefully at the age of ninety. No sacrifice was required nor given.
2nd Sophia: Gentle sister, we deal with Romans and barbarians! They only respond to violent emotions. The arrow of Mars must be plunged into their hearts.
1st Sophia: Our ideal representative in this case is Bacchus, wild son of the God Jupiter and Semele of the growing corn. When his Bacchanallian revellers were persecuted by the law-giver, King Pentheus, the King's own mother incited the revellers to have him torn to pieces between two trees. Such is the effect of religious ecstasy!
3rd Sophia: That befitted the past cruel age. But now our audience pities the human Pentheus, and dislike and fear God! How about reversing the story, and have King Pentheus survive, and the God sacrifice Himself! As voluntary victim, Bacchus will open the hearts of all.
2nd Sophia: Your compassion ideas usually end with terrible consequences. But I agree.
1st Sophia: Let it be so.
Evangelist: Our scene moves to the orbit of the great Sirius.
SCENE 2. THE SPHERE OF SIRIUS
Evangelist: Our Sirius twins are discussing their roles in the coming play.
Enter Twins in white.
Boy: The Gods propose. But it is humans who dispose. They demand that I give my life for them! So deep is their conviction of sin that only the torture and death of an innocent victim will convince them of divine forgiveness. Salvation, they hold, can only come from a human sacrifice to their deities.
Girl: I only have passive suffering, as Mother, but those with spiritual aspiration will always turn to the divine Sophia. I shall represent Her Grace and Mercy. Also I shall remind us both that we are students of the mysteries, who allow the deities to manifest through us for the benefit of all on earth.
Boy: At first the war theme will prevail, a battle between follower of differing faiths. As the age of Aquarius approaches, wisdom will prevail.
Girl: When the cosmic clock strikes twelve, we shall offer an alternative version. Peace and goodwill shall be for all beings.
SCENE 3. THE PALACE OF THE EMPRESS LIVIA IN ANCIENT ROME
Enter the Empress Livia and her son the Emperor Tiberius wearing the imperial purple.
Livia: You are the most unlucky of men, and this is worse than being wicked. You have been singled out for the wrath of the gods, having presided over the death of one of them. The sybil prophecied the coming of a new God for this coming age of Pisces. Some hoped it was you. Not likely now.
Tiberius: I am no worse than the other candidates! Virgil thought it was your husband Augustus - others, his son Britannicus. Their good names were destroyed by the slanders of Suetonius. I don't know of any objections to Cesarion whose parents, Cleopatra and Caesar hoped would be the coming God. He hadn't much time to be disgraced, because he was murdered - some say by your husband.
Livia: (oracularly) As High Priestess of Isis, I was told a secret by an Egyptian Priest: this man killed under your aegis was no less than Osiris. The priest acknowledged this when he met his mother, Isis and her baby in Egypt thirty years ago.
Tiberius: How have I offended the Gods? I respected this fellow philosopher when I was told about him, and asked what he looked like. After all, I am no rival. I have no wish to be a God, though I have no doubt, dear mother, you will become an official Goddess! I do not like being an Emperor. You know I gave it up for a bit.
Livia: The Gods, disliking the pride of you philosophers, have cast you in the domain role of King Pentheus, opponent of Bacchus.
Tiberius: If so, it would be me that would be dead upon a tree, and not Bacchus. He is an immortal. I have no wish to injure this teacher, especially on the charge of "Blasphemy". Those who offend the Gods, let the Gods punish.
Livia: (bitterly) And so they have! it is you they have punished for your waning faith in Them. You represent Rome. We turn away from the Gods: and so we have killed our own God - Mars - Horus, the risen Son.
Tiberius: So it is generally held. But a Centurion told me a very different story - that may free us from the charge of "Blasphemy" and injustice.
Livia: You fill me with hope. Tell me the Centurion's story.
Evangelist: We find ourselves in Jerusalem in Spring that same year.
SCENE 4. JERUSALEM, 30 AD
Evangelist: There enter three very worried men, a Judge, High Priest and a Rich Man, richly attired.
Judge: I refuse to punish an innocent man! My wife has had a vision in which Mercury told her that I will be accursed for generations if I do not act. But the people have been misled by religious fanatics. They demand this death, which is their legal right. What can I do?
High Priest: The prisoner who ought to be executed is the convicted terrorist whom you released! He is inciting our people to a rebellion which will lead to the destruction of our temple and our home. But this Messiah - if he be so, harms none.
Rich Man: Gentlemen, I have the answer to this problem, given to me by an angel. Let my nephew suffer public punishment for 3 hours, and then undergo the 3 day initiation of Osiris in the underworld of Amenti. If he is the prophet I hold him to be, he will survive the test. I can prepare the cave of initiation.
Judge: Brilliant! If he fails, he will die and we'll hear no more of him. My soldiers will cooperate. They will guard the cave and after 3 days they will roll back the entrance stone.
High Priest: My priests will guard the precinct, keeping away the Zealots. The only problem, if people see a dead man walking round, won't they ask questions?
Judge: Not at all. They'll think they've seen a ghost and run away.
Rich Man: He may sail with me to Britain to keep him out of harm's way. Unless of course, he is Osiris! In which case he will ascend into the heavens on the wings of Horus the Hawk. Time will tell.
Exeunt.
Evangelist: We move forward two thousand years to the second millenium, dawn of the Aquarian Age. We find ourselves in an inner city slum, somewhere on earth.
SCENE 5. INNER CITY SLUM, CIRCA 2000 AD
Evangelist: The Sirius twins are disguised as humans, weary from a protest march to save the environment.
Enter exhausted twins.
Boy: The stage of earth darkens, and only a livid light shows in the west from a chemical factory.
Girl: Angels are harvesting the seeds of earth. They are transporting them to the celestial ark. Yet some seeds remain in the earth.
Boy: I shall write our messages in the growing wheat. Those who eat of it shall be reborn.
Girl: I shall give messages in the sky, shining like a star, as I appear to children. Even as dreams of earth dissolve, from the Heaven of Sophia, life springs anew. Those who drink from my overflowing cup of water live forever.
Exeunt All .
Bell rings.
End of Mystery Drama
Evangelist: (to companions) The 6th scene is to be created by each of you.
Priestess Hierophant: Let us in our dreaming souls create the future.
Contemplation Rays of love are sent forth. Dreams are shared. Thanks are given to the Deities.
Source: "The Most Holy Trinosophia", St. Germain, editor, Manley P. Hall, Philosophers Press, Los Angeles.
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