Tara - XI. Portal to Aquarius: Introduction & Rites

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Fellowship of Isis Liturgy

By

Olivia Robertson

Tara of the Oracles

The Alchemical Twins Face the Fates

The Octagonal Temple of Alchemy

XI. Portal of Aquarius: Introduction to Rituals One and Two

The Awakening

As said the Goddess Ishtar, seeking Her dead lover Tammuz: "I Shall Awaken the Dead."

I wish to share a series of extraordinary happenings, all unexpected, that came to me from the 17th July to the 20th of August, this year. These did not involve high spiritual attainment, but involved the honouring of the forgotten dead, the rejected, the despised, and bringing them to life as our fellows, forgotten parts of our own selves. Time resolves into itself in the coils of a spiral. Like a clock-face with no hands, all our yesterdays are here, awaiting recognition. We may not grow without acknowledging our roots.

On the day of our Festival, the 17th July, I had only a vague idea of what to do. I had no idea why I had chosen the 17th, as a date in August would have been more suitable. It was only some weeks later I learnt that this date in the Mayan calendar is marked Consciousness Convergence, following the earlier Planetary Convergence. The movement from the old to the new world thus was to begin then, gaining in strength before the Galactic Convergence in 2012.

What came to me for our Rite was to recreate the awakening of Osiris by Isis, as at Opet on the 23rd for our needs. Why not awaken Angus Og, our Gaelic God of Love and Joy?

My intention was for every single participant in our ceremony to have a voice. Each would be asked to explain why they wished to revive the God of Love and Joy! We accept the Opposition, so there was to be an Enforcer of Law and Order, whose role was to blindfold the God, to prevent his receiving or giving any new ideas of any sort! In all my adventures I noticed that the chosen place used was a part of the experience. Unexpectedly we rededicated our old Abbey ruin as Priory of the Noble Order of Tara; and a Grand Knight Commander undertook the role of Angus.

What really happened was that the descent of the God brought by the Goddess Tara was experienced by the Knight, and enjoyed by those present. They had voiced their genuine need for Him, including the end of Institutional abuse of children. The God was needed. His Presence was felt.

I was much struck by all this, but thought it was over. Through Tara and Angus we had brought hope and help to so many from spirit world, who had died in Ireland unwanted, rejected by society. The Goddesses and Gods of their ancestors were alive. Angus had been awakened by a Priestess representing the Goddess Tara of the Tuatha De Danaan, Star of all sacred mounds and hills.

But a more amazing happening began in London, when, on the morning of 22nd July, my hostess Caroline Wise said: “It’s suddenly happened! We’re going to the Boot and Flogger Pub in the East End to visit the Crossbones Cemetery.” She explained that the Diocese of Southwark has within it the foundations of a great Isis Temple, on the banks of the Isis River – now called the Thames.

On our journey by underground to the East End, with her husband Michael, she explained further. “A brilliant poet and actor, John Constable, has saved the graveyard from destruction by the railway. The cemetery was used for the bodies of “Winchester Geese” – prostitutes, paupers, unbaptized babies and suicides - who were dumped there in unconsecrated ground. It was only closed down in 1853. John is holding a ceremony honouring Isis Magdalene, at Opet – we are to bring ribbons to tie on the Great Iron Gates”. To her consternation – she suddenly realised we had come a day too early! But 22nd July was Mary Magdalene’s feast day, so we would do our own Rite then.

To enter the territory of Shakespeare – to pass Little Dorrit Cottages and Quilp Street was to enter Dickens’ London. The Gates themselves – elaborate ironwork – had pathetic ribbons and other items, including a doll, tied to them. They were marked “Mary Jones, infant 3 months” – “John Billings – waterman” and so forth. For a child who died unbaptized, or other people, who like prostitutes had been rejected by the church – here was their resting place, a rubbish pit!

I felt enthusiastic on their behalf. I conducted a ceremony as Priestess of Isis, re-consecrating the ground In Her Name – the Divine Isis, Magdalene, Mother Mary – what Name you choose. I shook the sistrum….. Unexpectedly, John Constable passed by and joined us. Fortunately Caroline’s camera just held out with a waning battery. This would be for the computer Web. But I knew that the inner spiritual Web was alive, with so many spirits wishing to join us! Awaken yourself and you help others to awaken.

We continued the process we had begun in Caroline’s Temple Garden with the Wakening of Merlin by the Goddess Elen, as he promised to restore forests. But the strangest awakening took place in Richmond, on the following Sunday, when my niece Cressida and her husband Bob, helped to launch the model Ship of Isis upstream in the Thames (Isis). In full mummers’ guise they honoured all those who had been transported across the sea to Australia. To interested bystanders they sang a folk song of an emigrant who sang that he would miss his country less than his comrades and his beloved sweetheart Polly.

Standing with my niece near Belas Knap, a Long Barrow in Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, we had a ceremony on the 26th in which we apologised to annoyed former Neolithic spirit residents, who strongly objected to an archaeologist, who had taken away bits of their home and their bones. We apologised and they appeared to wish to join our adventure. They insisted we crouch in one of their burial chambers along with its former residents. It was a friendly, cosy gathering.

At the Goddess Conference in Glastonbury, in a hall with a few hundred people, I broke the dreadful news! The God of Love Himself had been caught up in his own computer…He had been micro-chipped. Our Irish Priest, Stephen Goggin gave a harrowing account of his suffering as a computer head. But rescue was at hand – Julie Felix as Venus brought Him to life and we all processed round the hall to the drumbeats of our chant: “Love is the Heartbeat of the Universe!”

The culminating happening for FOI members was at our gathering on the 2nd of August, to Awaken the Archangel Michael, sent to a death sleep by “The Dogmatic Enforcer of structured Religion.” A strange transformation took place. As our priest awakened as the reborn Archangel, he changed dramatically. He gave an Oracle. Michael explained that we should not kill. He had never killed any dragons. His Sword of Life was a beam of Divine Energy, awakening the Dragon of the Earth Herself, Lilith.

I had thought that this string of happenings had ended on my return to Ireland. But on the 20th of August, the same pattern followed – again totally unexpectedly. I had chosen the date – the 20th of August – for some of our members to visit a group of Druids – requesting a ceremony in honour of the Goddess Dana, Mother of All, and Lugh, Gaelic God of Light. I shall not tell where, as the land contains a vortex. There were castle and church ruins, and a medieval graveyard. I had surely been guided to invoke Dana, for She came, amidst birdsong and the scent of wild flowers. When She came to me in 1952 She brought a pure happiness that is unlike any other. Our Hostess, a Druid, felt this happiness to be above all others in her life. But those who suffer were not forgotten. For Dana awakened Her divine Son Lugh with His Light. One of our members of the Druid Clan of Dana has a gift for soul rescue work. At the end of our visit she became aware of all those souls entrapped in the past of those towering, formidable ruins. She was able to lead them into Divine Light. So be it with us all.

These rites may be used as alternatives to those in “Psyche”

For initiates on the Spiral of the Adepti

Tara of the Oracles

The Alchemical Twins Face the Fates

Fellowship of Isis Liturgy by Olivia Robertson

XI. Portal of Aquarius

The Cosmic Cauldron

Ritual No. 1

Face Your Fear and It Becomes Your Shield

The Octagonal Temple of Alchemy

Priestess Alchemist: (to the twin apprentices, Aiden and Elaine) Many feel faint-hearted when they face the New Age, which some call the Fifth world and others, Aquarius. We need to help create the new aeon ourselves, and so work with the Deities. Let us invoke the Goddess Ceridwen, Who creates the Cosmic Matrix.

Priest Alchemist: (raises his staff) I invoke the Goddess Ceridwen – of the Cauldron of Creation. We, who face rebirth, call to Her Who from Her Depths brings forth new life.

ORACLE OF THE GODDESS CERIDWEN

You face with fear and disbelief the mighty black abyss that reigns within the heart of your Milky Way Galaxy. Yet each one of you is born from the abyss which lies within the body of the humblest mother on earth – a cat – a reptile – a caterpillar! You think of heights and depths, greatness and smallness, light and darkness, past and present, caught up in the duality that divides you from the All.

Know that there are no divisions, no heights, no depths, no greatnesses, no smallness within Divine Reality. Love glows as warmly in a mighty star as in the heart of a rose. Truth shines clearly in the eyes of a snake as in the gaze of a God.

Look for quality, not quantity. Then you will discover that there is no difference between the old and the new, past and present. If you wish to know the future, remember what did happen! For all rotate in My Cauldron that bestows Inspiration, Prophecy and evolutionary shape-shifting. Love yourself and you will love others. All are One.

End of Oracle

Priestess Alchemist: We give thanks to the Goddess Ceridwen for Her Oracle.

Priest Alchemist: (to Aiden) My son, you have ever aspired to the stars; yet to achieve stellar consciousness you need to experience fully your physical incarnation. Are you willing to undergo the Initiation of Ceridwen’s Cauldron and learn to become the Bard Taliesin of the shining brow?

Aiden: I have always loved that legend. I am willing.

Priest Alchemist: You will find it is more than a legend. (he hands Aiden a card from the Marseille deck) Describe this card.

Aiden: (examines the card) Anti-church! It depicts ‘La Maison Dieu,’ House of God, as a tower broken at the top. Two youths are thrown downwards. I wonder … The tower is destroyed when celestial fire breaks open its roof. And the youths reach for green shoots growing from the earth. The 4 elements glow around them as coloured spheres.

Priest Alchemist: Well described! You are ready for the Initiation. You may enter trance. We will be with you but may not help you.

Trance Journey

Aiden: I make my way eagerly up the Hill of the Zodiac Temple. I love a guided Initiation! It makes me feel safe somehow. I enter the Temple and pay my respects to the Vestal Flame. I notice for the first time a small stream is flowing from the central altar and flows around the Temple. Yes! It is leaving the Temple, flowing through the Portal of Aquarius. I make my way there.

Above the Portal is the painted figure of a woman pouring water around the door. She is the Source. On the left is a family of monkeys; above them is a tree, with birds. A snake is gliding at the foot of an oak tree. On the other side is a painting of Adam and Eve, black-skinned and naked. They are eating apples – of course. The apples on the ground are sprouting shoots. This is orthodox. I feel reassured. I part the blue-green curtains and pass through the portico ********

How horrible! I am a crowded dark cave – or is it a cell? Judging by the costumes, I am in the nineteenth century… Are we trapped coal-miners? No. They would hardly have women, with babies and very young children here. I feel their fear. Disease and death are here – I share their despair. I gather that for a political reason they have been drawn from their homes – whatever they were like – for transportation. I cannot understand their language – they are being removed on racial and religious grounds from some territory newly designated as belonging to another race. I give my sympathy. So they start telling me their stories. And as they speak I begin to see where they come from – happier times in their homes. Also I begin to see their other lives in other times*****

I never realised I had wanted to make television programmes! But I do. Here is my chance. So I begin to tell these people a long and very involved story. It has lots of love in it and violence and courage and hope – and parties and drinking – then I decide, seeing how happy and interested they look – I hand on the story to a woman who eagerly continues.

This is wonderful! She brings us to Ancient Egypt! Hers is a glorious adventure involving sunlight, passion and a noble death by being buried in sand with her lover. Her hearers love this as they too have suffered passion and immolation, and in this cold cell, they could do with sun *******

Strange. As I think this, a ray of sunlight gleams through a fissure in the wall. I find the people are changing. Suddenly there is a terrible noise and all goes dark – a blackness unknown to me before. The cell is rotating. We are descending into a pit. But I tell them all that this is a tunnel leading to a most wonderful land – they believe me and stop screaming. One of the children says he can see the land – lots of berries are there to eat.

The noise and rushing ceases ***** and we find ourselves seated under a spreading oak tree eating berries. We are laughing and talking as if nothing had happened! A smiling woman with long hair and a blue dress speaks. “This meditation has been a great success,” she says. She addresses me. “I am Arianrhod of the Silver Wheel. How did you enjoy your stay with my sister Ceridwen within the earth?”

I am about to burst into rage about the dreadful cell – but I remember all the wonderful stories we lived through. I say cautiously: “We lived in interesting times.”

She looks thoughtful. “You take things so seriously, like your twin,” she says. “These are all dreams you create yourselves. I think you had better leave here amongst the stars, and be with my niece, Crierwy, beloved daughter of Ceridwen, Healer with Lavender.”

I like the gyrations of Arianrhod’s Silver Wheel in Her White Vortex as little as I enjoyed being with Ceridwen’s black matrix. I feel so sleepy ***** How lovely it is, to sit in an old-fashioned Victorian garden amongst lavender bushes. A little girl is busily planting primulas. She gives me a sprig of lavender ****

Aiden slowly returns from trance. He wonders has he passed the test but the company assure him that he has. Because he had forgotten it! He was only thinking of the people in the cell and how they fared. Reports are shared and healing sent forth. Thanks are given to the Deities.

Recommended Reading: “The Mabinogion,” Welsh Texts Society. “The Transformations of Gwion,” Welsh Myth of Ceridwen & Taliesin, Epic Poem, Classical Library. “A Celtic Miscellany,” Kenneth Hurlstone, Jackson, Routledge & Kegan Paul. “The Celtic Book of Seasonal Meditations,” Claire Hamilton, Rider. “The Welsh Triangle,” Peter Paget, Panther – Granada Publishing.

These rites may be used as alternatives to those in “Psyche”

For initiates on the Spiral of the Adepti

Tara of the Oracles

The Alchemical Twins Face the Fates

Fellowship of Isis Liturgy by Olivia Robertson

XI. Portal of Aquarius

The Goddess of Aquarius is Here

Ritual No. 2

The Art of Magic is to Turn Evil into Good

The Octagonal Temple of Alchemy

Priest of Alchemy: (to twin apprentices, Aiden and Elaine) There are two spirals of the life flow: that which descends, and that which rises. To pit these two against each other is the way of madness, for in verity they are One, coiled around a central axis. But to the Awakened, this axis is a single point, that pierces all spheres, and the two spirals form an ever-renewing circle. To undertake the magical work of union, we need to invoke the Goddess Dana, Who is Mother, Mystic, Omnipresent.

ORACLE OF THE GODDESS DANA

Place yourself in the centre of Divine Reality and you are immortal! You only die because you lose connection with the Holy Being that you derive from the Mother of All. Blessed by the life-giving energy of the Divine Father, the Mother expresses Herself in as many ways as there are beings. I speak to you on behalf of Deities Who take the Name of Mother, in manifold religions.

Without one single atom, the Body of the Cosmic Goddess is incomplete. Deity manifests itself in minute details not through numbers. Numbers give you the outer assessment: It is the soul that shows forth each individual Spirit.

There are many Families of Beings. Angels do not incarnate in physical form. Only very few creatures have the courage to do so! You are each of you very brave! You accept painful challenges, frightening evil, so that great Good can come through such ordeals.

Have no fear! All are saved, not through virtue alone but through Divine Love that rejects none: accepts all.

End of Oracle

Priest Alchemist: We give thanks for this encouraging Oracle, the very essence of Alchemy.

Priestess Alchemist: (to Elaine) Elaine, you rush into situations, your flag flying, without the necessary understanding of both parties in a dispute. Are you willing to endure the Awakening of the Aquarian Goddess, that you may face even alarming new ideas?

Elaine: I’ve become aware I’m a bit set in my thought. I accept the challenge of change.

Priestess Alchemist: (gives her a card from the Marseille deck) Describe this card.

Elaine: (gives an exclamation) This card has affected my life since I was about three years old – I saw it lying on a railway carriage seat. It is called “L’Etoile – the Star.” I loved the lady having blue hair and no clothes on! Though my nurse turned it upside down at once. The girl is kneeling with her left knee on the earth: her right foot is in a stream. She holds two jars: one she is pouring back into the water: the other she empties on the earth. As a child I loved the stars best! There are 7, red, blue and yellow. In the centre is a big star with eight yellow and red rays. I would surmise this represents Aldebaran, principal red star of Taurus. The woman is bringing green trees and plants to a dry land.

Priestess Alchemist: We are glad you relate psychically to this card already. You are prepared for trance. We shall be with you but may not help you, as you know.

Trance Journey

Elaine: Full of hope for wonders, I climb the hill of the Temple of the Stars *****

I enter and honour the Vestal Flame. I follow the little stream flowing from the central Altar to its exit through the Portal of Aquarius. The Portal is much as Aiden described it, except that the Aquarian Goddess pouring forth the water seems to have eyes that look at me! So rather quickly I pass through the portal to avoid her gaze *****

In vain. She is there, waiting for me at the other side. Why! She is the Woman in the Tarot Card – blue hair and all. I can hear her Voice, which is clear and cool.

“No, Elaine,” she says. “I am not a projection. I am real. However, I do not incarnate as human; but we of the Sidhe – Devi – Angels do project in many forms. It would be so tiresome to go through the physical birth process – and so forth….”

I ask, “Who are you? Are you a Goddess?”

She replies: “I am a fifth Element Devi – Angel – Sidhe. We have many names on the 5th level. We roughly approximate to the human. We evolve not through physical matter, but through the inner elements – in various ways. I’m a bit like you – I evolved through earth, air, fire and water. And I propose to take you on a little trip through all four! The fifth is the ether that encompasses All. The Goddesses and Gods are beyond this. They extend into other dimensions beyond our capacity to understand. But they help us, sometimes through incarnation into physical form, but more often by Projection, as we do.”

“So you always project as the most advanced humans? I ask. “Masters of the Wisdom – those sort?”

“Not at all”, she replies. “We enjoy manifesting as faeries, unicorns, dragons, cats, owls – a whole range of mythological creatures. We have power over the physical realm. You know, you are like your twin. You try and delay happenings through conversation. What is book learning compared with experience?”

“In any adventure, remember yourself. In difficulty, remember the Tarot card” *****

The whole scene abruptly changes. I am involved in a horrible traffic accident. A drunken driver has driven straight into a pylon supporting a railway bridge. I feel a strong impulse to run away. The man and his companion are obviously dead. I feel caught between two situations – one, home and peace, the other being called as a witness in a police court. Suddenly a train roars overhead on the bridge – and I suddenly remember a magical Card on a railway seat. I remember my real self. I don’t run away. The lady had her foot in water. So I run up to the car and truly, the men are dead. But then I see one of them leave his body like mist but human in form. He quivers – the first ghost I have ever seen. He is terrified. Then he sees me and I reassure him. I tell him his wife has been waiting for him. I know she is ‘dead’. He visualises her and she is able to come to him.

Yet I am back with the Devi. “You see how an emblem works”, she says. “And you have others, so that when all fails and you lose hope – your real self – these will help you.”

I think a bit. “Yes, I remember”, I exclaim. “I used to get my father to play music from Mozart’s Magic Flute opera. I loved the music that got the lovers through fire and water.”

This time the projection was instantaneous. I heard the most hideous noise. It was a violent quarrel between members of two families. The recriminations, accusations, rage, all centred round a young family member arrested for some offence. Noise can be disrupting – evil. I rushed to the window and opened it. The view showed only tall buildings blotting out the sky. But then I heard a metallic rendering of the Mozart flute music that I loved. At once I found myself. I returned to the quarrel, but now took no sides. I did not speak. Instead, I listened. And as I listened – there came heavenly tranquillity.

I left the projection and was with the Devi. “I’ve had earth and air,” I said. “But what about fire?”

“That should be no problem. Whenever you feel the electric-magnetic fire rush through you, you will remember who you are.”

With despondency I find myself where I must hate – in a Society Party. Everyone except me is mildly drunk. They are talking rubbish. They are, I decide, snobs, tedious – stupid – and I hate them. Then one man comes up to me and says: “I know what you think of us. You despise us.” I feel guilty. He knew. I am adding to the depressive atmosphere. But suddenly I feel a rush of Fire Power. I burst out laughing. “You don’t know,” I say, “But you are about to find out! You are all wonderful!” Filled with psychic knowledge, I proceed to give all present psychic readings. The room is filled with waves of excitement.

I am getting the hang of these projections. These had been past episodes, but I am certainly improving my behaviour!

“This is all very well,” I say to the Devi, “But what about prophecy – upcoming disasters?”

“There is only one way to deal with gloom and doom” she declares cheerfully.

“To deny them?” I suggest, “And say that all will be well if we take a positive viewpoint?”

“Not at all. This never works, because disasters do occur. For instance we all die – quite often in fact. No. The answer is - to go with the flow. You have always loved paintings of the Aquarian water-giver, pouring forth the water of Aquarius. And, remember this, prophecies help – do not hinder. They give magical underground streams that bring you to new dimensions.”

I find myself in a meeting dominated by fearful prophecies. At first I agree that everything is awful – the establishment are busy trying to kill us with weapons of mass destruction – doctors are inventing new diseases through antibiotics – that sort of thing.

Suddenly an angry prophet knocks over a glass of water. It pours onto the floor making a reflective puddle. He is furious – but I laugh! I remember the painting. “We are all having a splendid time, denigrating everyone else! All around us is wickedness – but not us. Howe lucky we are.” Suddenly the furious man laughs. We all laugh. Nothing brings more enjoyment than gloom and doom. Horror movies pay.

I return heavenwards. “I think I get the message,” I say to the Angel – Devi “We create our own tragedies – horrors – adventures, to explore life itself in all its mysteries. But when we think we’ve had enough drama creating – what is the next step?”

“Admit that you are empty,” she replies. “Pray to be filled from the Divine Source.”

**** “Now, watch the sea.”

I am on the shore of a tide-less sea. Slowly rising from the sea is the divine form of the Goddess Dana of the Atlantic Ocean. She is very tall, has long waving hair spread out about her. Her robe is a turquoise blue. Around her are sea creatures – dolphins, sea lions – small fishes.

As I watch a White Star descends upon Her from the stars of Aquarius. I find all my emblems – the Tarot card, the flute music – I feel the onrush of divine energy, which I share with all.

The Devi brings me back to where we met, at the Portal of Aquarius. And I thank Her and say: “I like the shape of things to come."

Elaine returns from trance, very happy. Rays of love, joy and understanding are sent to all. Reports are shared. Thanks are given to the Deities.

Recommended Reading: “Varieties of Religious Experience,” William James. “A Vision,” AE (George Russell) “The Transformations of Lucius,” Apuleius, Roman Priest of Isis. “The Crock of Gold,” W.B. Yeats. “The Demigods,” James Stephens. “The Extra Day,” Algernon Blackwood. “Sayings of the Ancient One,” P.G. Bowen. “The Divine Adventure,” Fiona MacLeod.

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