On This Page:
VI. Portal of Virgo
Introduction: Alchemy of Lovers
Rite 1. Venus in the Depths
Rite 2. Creation Comes From Two
Fellowship of Isis Liturgy
By
Olivia Robertson
Tara of the Oracles
The Alchemical Twins Face the Fates
The Octagonal Temple of Alchemy
VI. Portal of Virgo: Introduction to Rituals One and Two
Alchemy of Lovers
Curious. To use the word “Love” is respectable, invoking the blessing of the clergy. They promulgate the concept of the Love of God. This in my dear land of Ireland suggests at once the Alchemy of the Phoenix. On this spiritual path, in the dying Piscean age of Buddhism, the Bible faiths, this Divine Love, all other loves excelling, involves self-purification. The Righteous had to destroy Old Adam, the sin of Eve, “The Wrathful Deities” of Buddhism, and plenty of Devils. “The devils” try to persuade the spiritual practitioner to be tempted away from the need to destroy earthly temptations.
I have a statue of Gandarvi given to me from Angkor Vat. This merry lady, in a Yogic posture, tempts monks from chastity! Since I was a small girl the whole problem of Sin has puzzled me, because nobody would tell me exactly what Sin was: I mean the worst Sin of all, the Original Sin that drove Adam and Eve out of Paradise. I gathered they had to put on clothes and have children who all inherited Sin.
In a way my glorious ignorance – not innocence – of what were mysteriously called The Facts of Life, helped my journey of discovery. Nobody would tell me what the Facts were, until my elder sister Barbara declared, when I was Seventeen, “Oh, I suppose I must tell you.” I saw she was embarrassed, as we sat in a dusty ditch by a dusty road bordering the river Slaney. She chose, rather than use words, to illustrate the Facts of Life with a stick, and drew a diagram in the dust. And I was totally astonished!
However, this did not entirely explain the terrible nature of the sin of my outcast uncle. Our Original Sin could be cleansed by baptism. What HAD my uncle done? He was surely bound for Hell.
He looked such a beautiful little boy with blue eyes and golden hair, in a Scotch kilt, in his photo in the old Family Album. All my mother would say evasively, when I inquired, was: “If anyone mentions your uncle, say it was Shell Shock!” I gathered he had committed three offences: The first one was that he had become a Roman Catholic. The second was that he openly admitted voting for De Valera (Republican). The third could not be mentioned at all, as it was wicked. Oscar Wilde had done it. So my uncle was forbidden ever to come home to the Castle. His own mother, my grandmother, repudiated him. She was a very religious Anglican.
How did my rejected uncle cope? And he did manage to get back to his beloved home. How? He became a ghost. No, he did not kill himself. He was still alive. But he used to come for lengthy periods to live in hiding in the Wing. I had heard of the Monster of Glamis and “Jane Eyre,” but my uncle looked all right – good-looking and normal in fact.
Our family did not ever enter the Wing; but it was next to the staff quarters. Our good-hearted butler used to keep my uncle alive with trayfuls of food. Exercise? That was taken care of. He used to come out at night and glide through our Wilderness and by the river. And this was where he became the Castle Ghost. For many a brave citizen of Clonegal would spy him amidst the trees at night. They would return and tell fascinated listeners: “I saw the ghost of the poor gentleman by the lake, all pale and thin.” He would sometimes be sighted by the river Derry, once used by the Druids, or making his ghostly way down the haunted Yew Walk, where monks made phantom procession. May he now find happiness – in the next World.
Not all the disgraceful secrets of our family dealt with the hidden sin of my uncle (not the clergyman, by the way – he was “Good” and wanted therefore to put his brother in a Home.)
One evening I was poking around in my beloved library… when I discovered two books hidden behind the Barchester Towers series. They looked very intriguing. Both were in yellowed paper-back and were very worn. One was called “Life in a German Garrison Town”. The cover depicted a burly officer with cropped fair hair and blue uniform, hiding behind a bush. He was spying on a lady with hair piled up in a bun, wearing a long white dress. She was in happy intimacy with another officer. But the other book had my hair on end! It showed a woman – also with 1900 style hair – SCREAMING. And no wonder – for she was wriggling helplessly within a gigantic man’s hand. The title was “In the Hands of the White Slave Traffic.”
I determined to investigate further. So I went down to the hall, where we used to sit reading after dinner, and – naively – put my new books by me on the floor – covers up. My mother at once observed them – and seizing them – exclaimed! “These must have been left by the Major – your father’s cousin.” Forthwith they were put in the heart of the huge log fire – and made a merry blaze.
The fire cure for Sin was quite frequently used. My mother was no bigot – a Liberal – but was a strong upholder of Decency. I still feel that historians may regret what she did to her Grandfather’s letters.
This Grandfather was a famous Physician, Dr. Robert Graves. He made a death mask of Napoleon. However, he had one flaw. My mother said it ran in that branch of the family. He had had a MISTRESS. Now all that I knew of Mistresses was that they were evil, glamorous, and that Charles II had a lot of them, and turned them into Duchesses. It seemed preferable than being a respectable wife of Henry VIII and having your head cut off. I gathered that Mistresses were bad anyway – but wives were expected to be submissive – and Good – or else ***
One day I came into the library and found my mother busy burning a pile of letters. “They are from Dr. Robert Graves,” she explained. They were about his Mistress and her children. These historic documents went up in smoke.
What are my conclusions – now I DO know the Facts of Life which are the fundamental source of the universe. Alchemically speaking, we all emerge from the Flame of the Goddess Vesta. As AE put it, “We must live within the Spirit’s Fire or pass like smoke.” During the past Piscean Age – The Path of the Phoenix was usual – the sole Arabian bird that renews itself from its own ashes and ascends into sun-like glory.
It is a dangerous path, that of asceticism, and there are those who achieve enlightenment. But alas, watching its effects on my own land of Ireland, our poor Irish Phoenix, in self-sacrifice for Purity, has burnt itself and lies on its back, with useless burnt wings, and its poor emaciated legs sticking upwards at that sun it could not reach.
But what of our future in the Aquarian Age? Who are our successors? Even as a child the main puzzling problem was “Illegitimate Children.” How could a baby be unlawful? Those whom God had joined – father’s nose, mother’s mouth – could not be cut in half or ignored. I thought of the judgement of Solomon. But this was the case. I was told that the Poor dropped Illegitimate Babies down wells. The rich denied them inheritance. They could not become priests. Therefore, it was for mothers to be married to anyone – even if a drunkard or cruel, or mad.
Many years ago, a young man – actually a nice young man – had presented his girl friend with a baby. So – from their point of view correctly – the Clonegal matrons decided he must marry the girl.
I was never told anything directly, being unmarried – but I got all my information from my sister-in-law Pamela. She told me that the Matrons were dragging the man in a dog-cart to the church to be married. But he broke free and was last seen haring across a field, leaping over a hedge.
Yes, this is ridiculous – funny, old-fashioned. But what became of the baby? Was he or she handed over to a Care Home – a horrifying fate that had befallen thousands of abused children?
So, why we need to find a new way for a New Aeon, is that we must not divide humans, animals, plants, all creation, into higher or lower categories – whether through a caste system – religion – a snobbish class hierarchy – or racial grouping. As I see it, evolution is not a straight line, leading from fungi to animal to us – “Lords of Creation.” No, like everything in our cosmos, it is a spiral. So, each spiral ring is of equal value.
Deity divides itself into two, Goddess and God. This is spread through the cosmos until all separate entities know themselves as divine, from the Vestal Flame – the Divine Mother. Every creature, every crystal, each atom is original. Yet all belong to the Cosmic Web. Thus Isis and Osiris are One. Space and Time are One. Deity with all its offspring is One. As Above so Below. Also as Below so Above. This is the Alchemy of Lovers.
To me the necessity is never to lose control of ones own original eternal soul. So indeed Beware the Closed Group.
Every country, every religion, all legal structures, need to offer their members a way of escape from their institutions. Spiritual Awakening comes through change!
Tara of the Oracles
The Alchemical Twins Face the Fates
Fellowship of Isis Liturgy by Olivia Robertson
VI. Portal of Virgo
Venus in the Depths
Ritual No. 1
To Find Venus, Look Where You Have Avoided
The Octagonal Temple of Alchemy
Priestess of Alchemy (to twin apprentices Aiden and Elaine): Life without the love of the Goddess of Love is sterile, feared, ignored. Yet without the fire of The Goddess of Creation there is no life. To find the love all long for yet dare not demand, the Oracle of Venus is essential.
Priest Alchemist (raises staff): Divine Goddess Venus, Bringer of ecstasy, Mother of all created creatures through the love of men and women, secret hope within each lonely heart, give us your Oracle, that we may find lost happiness.
ORACLE OF THE GODDESS VENUS
You need to face truth with courage: love with humility. It is easy to adore great Queens, shining beauties, delightful singers and dancers. Yet you may not find the love you seek where you desire! I delight to hide myself: to draw on and then vanish: to mask Myself. So I am known as the Goddess of myriad illusions reflected in the moon.
Yet these very illusions are the stuff of creation. Each fragment of My Divine Body seeks to return to Me by creating heavens round planetary matter. These dreams you call worlds. Yet worlds are not earths, but rather the very tissue of spiritual longing.
Those who regard themselves as most pure, have concealed what they deem impure in nightmare fantasies that haunt world dreams. Discarnate entities dwell lost in the phantoms created by themselves, suppressed in vain in pursuit of so-called purity.
Return to Me! I am easily found when you put aside your elaborate list of demands! For I come unexpectedly, and have little use for spiritual arrogance. Know Me as the laughter loving Venus! My Divine Son is Eros with His arrows of Living Flame.
Priest Alchemist: We give thanks to the Goddess Venus for Her Oracle.
Priestess Alchemist (to Aiden): Aiden, you have at last found love through Ishtar, not as Goddess but as woman. Are you willing to experience the Initiation of Astraea, Goddess of Justice? For without Astraea of Truthfulness, love becomes putrefied.
Aiden: I often try to balance wisdom with feelings. I am glad to undergo the trial.
Priestess Alchemist: So be it! (She hands Aiden a card from the Marsaille deck) Describe this card.
Aiden: The card depicts a young man in a tunic with bare legs, choosing between two women. The woman on his right side is plain and forbidding. But on his left, the girl is pretty with golden curls. The severe woman has her hand on his shoulder – the pretty one has her hand over his heart. Above them is Cupid, shooting an arrow at his heart. It is a choice between learning or love.
Priest Alchemist: You are ready to enter trance.
Trance Journey
AIDEN: I feel this should be an enjoyable experience! I love both Minerva and Venus! So I climb up the Hill of the Zodiac with hope. I enter *** I pay respects to the central Vestal Flame – and make straight for the Portal of Virgo. It is easily found. It is in Roman style with two columns. On the left is Ceres, garnering the harvest and bestowing it on a crowd of people. On the right is the austere figure of Astraea, Winged Goddess of Justice who returns to our earth at the time of the reaping. I almost feel I have passed the test already! Still – I pass through the Portal – I expect to see fine harvest fields – possibly crop-circles. And happy lovers - and children having picnics ***
I can’t understand it. I am in some gigantic hall and the furniture is higher than myself. And presiding over this, looming over me, are very tall, terrifying men called The White Brothers. I know somehow that they usually wear black, but when they do powerful magic, they wear white over black.
They are very kind and good, because they are saving me from a fiery pit where I and the other boys here would burn forever. Yes – I’m a very small boy! About eight. There are other boys and I wonder if I am as thin and pale and bruised as they are. I know! This scene was ages ago – I’m in a Dickens novel – probably Oliver Twist. I expect Fagan or Mr. Bumble any minute. But I am hungry. So are the others. This is pretty real.
Funny – I’m half this boy and half me. I mean where is the fiery pit? Oh, of course. It is hell. I feel like laughing. But I get beaten. And that hurts. This is a fantasy – because it’s nowadays and that cannot be true. For they have television – that is, the White Brothers. Not us. We are regularly beaten and starved. I must be in some third-world country. Africa? Yet we all look European.
What amazes me is that this boy takes for granted that one of the Brothers was really saving him by getting him to do some activity that leads to this fiery pit! And then he is flogged afterwards for doing it! So both Brother and boy are destined to finish up in the Pit – burning for ever. This is absurd. It’s like some horror comic. Who thinks up this sort of story? This boy is living a life of torment inflicted on him by these men, who believe that they are helping others through inflicting pain. I may be in a mental home run by the inmates!
I am beginning to have enough of this – imaginary or not. But then I find the boy has two sources of a heaven – the Ugly Nurse – and the other – the Lady with the Guitar. The Ugly Nurse is so kind to him – me; when he is beaten she bandages his sores. But he – me – really prefers the Lady with the Guitar. He had glimpsed her on a Brother’s television. So when he is really miserable, he travels to her lovely house and goes there through the television screen by imagining it. He learns to do this at night. The lady is always so nice to him and shows him how to play the guitar, and how to swim in her Star Swimming Pool.
One day it suddenly comes to an end – thank Heavens. The boy had been hit on his ear which bled. He is lying in a hospital bed, with the Ugly Nurse leaning over him. The boy in pain, at once escapes into the magic television screen. He looks back and sees the Ugly Nurse is closing a boy’s eyes, and wonders why she is crying so much. Then he-me races through the TV set – and jumps into the Star Swimming Pool. And by the marble steps stands the Star Lady waiting for him, with a plate piled with strawberry ice-cream. But I notice that for a moment she is the Ugly Nurse.”
End of Trance
Aiden recovers, very shaken. He hardly notices that he has attained his alchemical degree. Reports are shared and rays of wisdom and love are sent forth, which include white brothers and abused children. A Woman Practitioner adds "white sisters," and says "We must never get like that."
Tara of the Oracles
The Alchemical Twins Face the Fates
Fellowship of Isis Liturgy by Olivia Robertson
VI. Portal of Virgo
Creation Comes From Two
Ritual No. 2
Loneliness is Hell. Lovers find Heaven.
The Octagonal Temple of Alchemy
Priestess of Alchemy (to twin apprentices Aiden and Elaine): Though wisdom may be pursued openly, the path of love lies hidden even from ourselves. In order to experience the fundamental act of creation, you need to receive the Oracle of the Sun Goddess of Eire, Grainne.
Priest Alchemist (raises staff): I invoke Thee, Grainne, radiant Goddess of the Inner Sun, that brings life to all that is; Grainne of the grains of myriads of beings.
ORACLE OF THE GODDESS GRAINNE
My Blessings for all creatures are enjoyed by all beings in all planets, when these follow the path of Nature. But when a species develops mental powers without love and goodness, contact with My inner fire is lost. Such a race decays without My Life-force. Every sort of machine is evolved, all avenues that relate to the outer shell of form are explored. But the more so-called enemies – germs – viruses – are killed – these return in ever increasing power! In the end, in many planets, a race dies out, surrounded by every conceivable instrument for their health and well-being!
The present human race has the free-will to destroy itself. But the rest of engendered creatures are not subject to human destiny. They are in the charge of the Protectors. These Guardians of life on every earth see that one species does not in its advance destroy other vulnerable creatures – whether animal or plant or element.
On your earth we pursue three methods to protect the planet. Firstly, we educate those humans who can commune with Us – and so they in turn inform – warn – their fellows. Secondly, we introduce a new race from the old, who have enhanced reverence for all life and the ability to protect the vulnerable. Thirdly, we work through the great Nature Deities to change the formation of the earth itself for good – even to alter your earth’s axis.
I know you expected a sentimental Oracle singing praises of bird and bee! Instead, receive my warning. Return to your appointed task, to be guardians of this earth and all its creatures or you will lose your destined way. In this you will have my gratitude. My Blessing and My Support.
Priest Alchemist: We give thanks to the Goddess Grainne for Her Oracle. May we heed Her words.
Priestess Alchemist (to Elaine): Elaine, you have struggled all your life to bring your dreams to everyday reality and feel frustrated by your failures. Dreams vary! One man’s hell is another man’s heaven! You have lost touch with the other half of humanity – man. Are you willing to undergo the Initiation of the Lovers, as depicted on this Tarot Card and so achieve Union?
Elaine: Troubles mostly come from men. But I will undergo the Initiation, but won’t promise to change my mind. (She examines the card given to her.) This depicts elemental alchemy. The man wears 3 colours, red, blue and yellow, the 2 women wear blue and red but in reverse order, and both have yellow headdresses. Obviously the man – a student – needs help from both women, Minerva and Venus. The Cupid figure is naked and emerges from a White Sun, with 3 coloured rays. This is the Alchemical Sun.
Priestess Alchemist: You as usual are well prepared for Trance. We shall be with you, but not help you.
Trance Journey
Elaine: I make my way up the Hill to the Temple of the Zodiac. I pass through the Portal, * * * I honour Vesta, and find the Portal of Virgo. It is as Aiden describes – but I look up at the Roman Pediment, and Eros smiles down, in the form of a seraph with outspread wings. I pass through the Portal, drawing aside a saffron veil.
I find myself on the summit of a hill, and round me are exquisitely beautiful conical hills, deep blue and violet. The sky is rich with white clouds as if sculptured in white clay, white and grey, in serried ranks across the sky. This can only be one place as beautiful – Connemara! I love the cultural heritage of the West of Ireland. This is where I wish to be! And best of all, the hill is crowned with a very high dolmen. It is silhouetted against the orange setting sun.
As I gaze at it, a very old man comes up to me, not in Druid robes, but in shabby old tweeds. He has a tangled white beard. When I gaze into his grey eyes, I feel awe.
“Yes,” he says gently, answering my thought. “I am Amergin, wise in the ways of the People of the Goddess Dana. Have you come to rest yourself in peace in the Bed of Grainne?”
I look around. Where is the bed? Then I vaguely remember that dolmens were called Beds of Grainne. I had a disturbing picture of victims being sacrificed on the top stone.
The Bard smiles. Again he reads my thoughts. “No-one could reach or even lie on the cap-stone! No. These dolmens had a far more important role in creation itself. They channel Divine Energy of the Sun of Grainne. Are you willing to receive this golden flow within your very self?”
Eagerly I assent. Amergin instructs me to touch the two supporting stones. I feel nothing. Then he tells me to stand between the stones not touching them, facing the West. I do so. At once I am hit by a flow of power like a shaft of cold light, right up from the base of my spine to my shoulders and head. I am transfixed.
Amergin says: “This is the fundamental life-force arising through stone from the matrix of the Earth Mother. To enjoy the Love and Joy of the Goddess Grainne in Her Home, you need to lie between the mighty stones, head facing the East, your legs apart. Spread your long hair about you, and shut your eyes * * * I shall retire.”
I lie prone between the mighty stones, the capstone high above me, casting a black shadow over me. The ground is soft and grassy, speckled with wild flowers. Suddenly the cold power gives way to the most glorious golden sun ray that penetrates my whole body. I am blissful…. It reaches my heart like a living rose. It is surrounding me like a golden halo. And what is so perfect is that I am in the centre of a golden harvest of ripened corn, dry crisp, ready for the harvest * * * *
There is a frightening change – the earth starts to rock. Is this an earthquake? My golden glow is swallowed up by White Silver Power like lightning. Is this a thunderstorm? The golden grain has vanished – beneath water. To my alarm water is rising in a violet-blue flood. I find I am floating upwards with it – as it rises higher and higher, until the capstone itself is submerged. I shall drown! I call to Amergin for help – but he is not here.
Then far above me I see a Golden Wheel, rotating at remarkable speed. It changes colour to silver. As I lift up my arms towards it, above the waters with their white crested waves, a Mighty Form appears within the Wheel. I see a noble face – then a God with waving black hair like sea-weed, and mighty arms reach mine. The God lifts me into the Light. I hear a great voice that resounds like the rhythmic sound of waves.
“My daughter, daughter of Grainne, I am Manannan McLir of sea and space. Behold my wheel, which draws the waters from small springs and raises them as clouds and returns them to the earth as health-giving rain. Mine are mighty floods and gentle dewdrops. I am the very body of all that is, and My Mantle girdles every planet that harbours living creatures.
You are parched and dry, burnt with mind and matter. Without Me you are as withered as a dead plant, as a lightning-struck tree. But in the Holy Union with Grainne, I produce all planets born from Her fiery energy of suns, and My dark waters from the deeps.
Feel our Union with re-born life!"
Suddenly I am back under the dolmen, and the flood is gone. My whole body is filled with a flow of silvery and violet Power in harmony with the golden sun flow of Grainne. I enter a state of ecstasy * * *
I am slowly returning to earth to tell others * * * Can I remember? Space and time are One. Light and darkness are One. Goddess and God are One. So be it with us all.
End of Trance
Elaine very slowly returns from trance and hardly notices that she has attained her degree. She wonders how long can she hold this Ecstasy. Reports are shared and rays of love are sent forth to all who are lonely. Thanks are given to the Deities.
Recommended Reading: “The Alchemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz.” “The Trinososphia,” Saint Germain. “A Vision,” W B. Yeats. “A Prisoner in Fairyland,” Algernon Blackwood. “Return to Elysium,” Joan Grant. “The Da Vinci Code,” Dan Brown.
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