The Choice

Tara of the Oracles
The Alchemical Twins Face the Fates

Fellowship of Isis Liturgy by Olivia Robertson

The Gateway. I: The Choice

Ritual No. 2

When the Wise Man Fails, the Fool Finds the Way

The Octagonal Temple of Alchemy

Priestess Alchemist: (To Twin Apprentices Aiden and Elaine) Both of you seek the same goal though each has a separate path. The Sun Goddess of Japan, Amateras has shafts of Light that illumine each path however varied.

Priest Alchemist: Holy Goddess Amaterasu no Kami, may your Sun arise in us, that we may be drawn to You Who reigns in highest Heaven.

ORACLE OF THE GODDESS AMATERASU NO KAMI

I am high and I am low. I am present in all that is, but my presence is concealed as a precious jewel in rock. Those who seek me with vainglory will never find me. Only the humble in heart, who honour the least insect and flower, know me and feel my penetrating ray of Love.

Those who demand My Power for their own use, perish by that very power. For my rich store concealed within the smallest speck of stone can reduce the proud to dust.

I ignore the liturgies of the cold minded, but I rise in my glory to the simple minded, to children, to dreamers. So I rose from my cave when the earth was darkened, not drawn by invocations of the learned, but by laughter at the wild dance of a mad girl, Uzumi.

Heed my words. You can only restore the polluted skies and waters and earth, not through your science but through your own inner goodness.

Priestess Alchemist: We give thanks to the Goddess Amaterasu no Kami for Her Oracle.

Priest Alchemist: (To Elaine) Elaine, you long to enter the inner Mysteries. To seek admittance to their Portals, you need to use this French Tarot Card, “Le Mat” as your key (gives card to Elaine). What do you make of it?

Elaine: I see a Jester who in his folly enlightens Royal Courtiers by laughing at them! His bag of tricks is slung on a white moon rod held in his left hand, while his right hand keeps him down to earth with a staff. A cat warns him of the danger of his ways - by exposing others follies - he reveals his own! His hat of Mercury shows that his wit comes from his mind. His Zero indicates an enigma.

Priestess Alchemist: You have spoken clearly as you always do. Now enter the mystic path through trance to find inner reality. We shall be with you but not help you.

Trance Journey

Elaine: I am filled with excitement. What is going to happen? I see many colours. This is not like Aiden’s lava plain … rather I see rich gold and crimson curtains, and there is a low murmur of voices. Before me are fantastically clad men and women in the costumes of old Japan! Am I to appreciate the wit of The Mikado? I hope not. Oh Good. A very modern looking Producer in T-Shirt and black trousers approaches me, holding a script. He explains that he is producing a modern version of the myth of Amateras and Uzumi, but with an up-to-date relevance. He introduces me to the author, obviously distinguished, as he is signing autographs. He has a shock of white hair and brilliant black eyes.

He is explaining to me the plot. I am thrilled to have a leading role as Uzumi. I’ve always felt I could make a good actress. He turns to me and gives me a resumé of His play. There are not actual goddesses and gods, of course. They are only archetypes. In his interpretation, Amateras represents nuclear power. Everyone wants what she has and they are busy making nuclear bombs, status symbols. However, there is the good side. In his play, life on earth is perishing, due to Global Warming. Energy sources have diminished.

How do I come in? As a modern Uzumi, I am the daughter of a nuclear scientist who had discovered a new immense source of nuclear energy. He had only time to write the formula on a piece of paper, when he died. He entrusted the formula to his daughter - Uzumi.

What is the story line? Dramatic, he says. As Uzumi I have the choice of giving this formula to my father’s colleagues and so save life on earth. Or, interrupts the Producer, hand over a force that may destroy not only all life but possibly the earth itself! How’s that for choice?

They put the piece of paper in my hand. I am pushed out of this theatre into a street - this must be “Street Theatre” where the public join in. I look around. This is realism indeed! I am in a failed modern city, with gaunt disused buildings, no vegetation, no lights. I see a dead dog in a gutter. Abandoned cars covered with mud are mixed with rusted refrigerators. Are they using a film taken of New Orleans some years ago? Some people are hanging around turning over garbage bins.

An ancient woman attracts my attention. She is making signs in the dust - a fortune-teller. I approach her, but she ignores me. I put coins in one of her gnarled hands with their long black-purple nails. She feels them and stares ahead with opaque eyes. She is blind. Suddenly she reaches forward and clasps my wrists. I say that I have to make a hard choice. What does she advise?

Instead of speaking she draws a hangman’s noose, a loop over a bent line. Or is it a form of Ankh? Then she speaks in a hoarse voice, and though in Japanese, I understand every word.

“Clever lady. You see clearly and walk straight ahead, and you have no answer. Why not stop thinking, shut your eyes and walk backwards?” How absurd! I burst out laughing, yet without thinking I shut my eyes and walk backwards ***

I fall heavily and hit my head on the ground. But there is no ground. I am falling down a shaft. I scream and struggle. It is hopeless. So I let it happen *** I find myself at the bottom, in a small circular room. It is illuminated by a flaming torch. Desperately, without hesitation, I put the precious formula into the flames. It burns to ashes.

Oh wonder! The torch becomes a shining halo of light around the Divine form of Amateras - transformed from the old woman who made me laugh! Once more she holds my wrists. She says: “You are a true Uzumi.” Majestically she rises above the earth and she brings me with her. And her golden Light brings love to the hearts of all creatures, and the elements of earth are cleansed from human pollution. The earth is saved. I am happy.

End of Trance

Reports are shared and thanks are given to the Deities. Elaine has won her degree, not through wisdom, but through laughing! Both she and Aiden have found the Inner Sun that unlocks all doors.

End of Rite

Sources: “The No Plays of Japan,” translated by Arthur Waley, with letters by Oswald Sickert, Grove Press, New York, 1920, reprinted 1922, 1950, 1957. “Nihongi: Chronicles of Japan from the Earliest Times to A.D. 697,” translated by William George Aston, George Allen & Unwin, London,1956, (originally published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., London, 1896), later reprinted by Paragon Reprint Corp., Paragon Book Gallery, Ltd., New York, 1959 and 1967. “Kojiki,” translated with introduction and notes by Donald L. Philippi, University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo, Japan, 1968. “The Goddesses of India, Tibet, China and Japan,” Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, illustrated by Anna Durdin-Robertson, Cesara Publications, Clonegal Castle, 1976. FOI contact, Tarot College, Rt. Rev. Professor Ohnuma, late of Tokyo University, 2 F 2-14-9 Ginza, Tokyo, 104-0061.

Tarot of Marseilles (French: Ancien Tarot de Marseille), earliest known variants dating possibly to fifteenth and no later than seventeenth century. A standard Marseille Tarot deck first issued by B. P. Grimaud, 1930, Paris, France, is the version used for these rites.

Notes:

1. “Amateras” is the singular form of Her Name. The full title of this Goddess in Japanese is “Amaterasu no Kami.”

2. No plays (also ‘Noh’ plays) are the oldest dramatic form preserved in Japan. The form used today was created in the Ashikaga court of the fourteenth century. No plays are performed around the recitation and dancing of a principal and secondary figure, who are accompanied by a seated chorus chanting the story, and music of drum and flute, on an otherwise empty stage with a symbolic pine tree backdrop.

The plays focus on legendary or historical events of a tragic nature, infused with Buddhist ideals. Intensity of the atmosphere is relieved by comedic interludes (kyogen) during intermission.

Back to Tara of the Oracles

May Isis richly bless all who visit this site.

This central Fellowship of Isis website is officially authorized and chartered by Fellowship of Isis co-founder Rt. Rev. Olivia Robertson, AU, FOI Foundation Centre, Clonegal Castle, Enniscorthy, Ireland

Notice of Copyright and Disclaimer of the Circle of Isis Website Contents: The Circle of Isis - Fellowship of Isis Central Global Website is an officially sanctioned central global website of the Fellowship of Isis, authorized by Rt. Rev. Olivia Robertson, AU, co-founder of the Fellowship of Isis, Foundation Centre, Clonegal Castle, Enniscorthy, Ireland. The contents of the Circle of Isis Website are not public domain. All contents published under the name the "Circle of Isis - Fellowship of Isis Central Global Website" on this website are copyrighted. Our original URL (www.thecircleofisis.com) is copyrighted as well as our new updated URL (www.fellowshipofisiscentral.org). The name of this website "Fellowship of Isis Central Global Website - Circle of Isis" is copyrighted. Direct links to these webpages are permitted. Copying the appearance, content or format of these pages is not permitted. All rights reserved.

Notice of Copyright of the Fellowship of Isis Liturgy: Fellowship of Isis Liturgy copyright is legally shared by the author, Rt. Rev. Olivia Robertson, AU, FOI co-founder, with members of the Circle of Isis Advisory Board. Those members are Rt. Rev. Loreon Vigne, Rt. Rev. deTraci Regula, ArchDrs. Linda Iles and Rt. Rev. Caroline Wise. The content and format of the Fellowship of Isis Liturgy presented on the Circle of Isis website are not public domain. The content and format are protected by a separate copyright. Rt. Rev. Olivia Robertson, AU, FOI co-founder, personally upholds our copyright. Private or public distribution, private or public reproduction, private or public publication in any form, by any means, of the FOI Liturgy as presented on the Circle of Isis website, is not permitted. Direct links to the FOI Liturgy pages on the Circle of Isis website are allowed, printing a copy for private ritual use is allowed. All other rights reserved.