Priest Alchemist (to twin apprentices, Aiden and Elaine):  Love is a rambling rose that finds her place in every heart throughout the universe.  Yet she hides herself from those who would possess her, and opens her heart to the humble.  To win the priceless treasure of love, we need to invoke the aid of the Goddess of Earth, the lion-headed Allat of Babylon.

Priestess Alchemist (raises sceptre): Mighty are the Mothers adored as Kali, Pele, Proserpine and Frigga.  But none are greater nor more hidden than Thou, Allat, of the lion’s head, Whose steps shake the earth.  You know the secret of every heart, in the depths of earth.  Help us to find love and to hold it.

No true mother wishes to hold her children to her and so stunt their growth.  A wise mother desires each of her offspring to show forth their original selves.  Why The Cosmic Mothers conceal themselves is so that their progeny may people planets and attain their solar bodies.

Deep within the recesses of My Heart is a living fire that is attuned to the fires within all that is.  This living network of flame pervades the cosmos, wherever there is matter.  But know that the living flames that show forth as great suns yet emerge from the solemn darkness of the Mothers of The Abyss.

This darkness fills struggling humanity with terror; yet is the refuge of victims fleeing from those who hunt them.  It hides those who suffer torment, and finally provides the enfolding darkness of death.  Death leads to a greater sphere of being. The Heavenly Father inspires lives to evolve, even through pain and wrong-doing.  This must be, yet when a species expands to soul-destroying activities – I call these children home.

Do not ignore the Divine Mothers!  Come to Me with good heart, and you will discover My love.  But you will return to the Mothers in any case!  That is the Law of Nature – of your becoming.

Priest Alchemist:  We give thanks to the Goddess Allat for Her Oracle.

Priestess Alchemist (to Aiden):  You have heard the wisdom of Allat, the Goddess of Ancient Babylon.  Are you willing to undergo the Initiation of Tammuz, lover of the Goddess of Love and Beauty, Ishtar?

Aiden: Of all the ancient myths, that of Ishtar and Tammuz draws me most strongly.

Priestess Alchemist:  So be it. (shows him a tarot card) Describe this Tarot card!

Aiden (examines the card): Ah! “La Force,” XI of the Marsaille deck.  I don’t know any other pack that gets the picture correctly.  This depicts an Enchantress who is not taming a lion – the lion is emerging from her own body!  She is holding the lion’s head upwards, with its opened jaws.  The Lion Power is thus arising through her body, and appears as five sun rays ascending from the crown of her head.  Her hat is shown as two forces, in a figure of 8, one blue, one white. So the Western tradition also knows of the Kundalini force which they called “The Melusina Dragon.”

Priest Alchemist:  I see you are ready for your ordeal!  You may enter trance.  We shall be with you psychically, but may not help you.

Aiden:  I climb up the hill to the Zodiac Temple – I almost run!  I enter and honour the ever-living flame in the centre.  As Elaine said, the Portal of Leo in the South-West is easily found.  But I notice that the figure of Nefertiti is with Akhenaton.  I pass through the doorway, wondering what I shall find.

What greets my eyes is a vast expanse of starry constellations.  Indeed, these extend below my feet as I stand on a rock – I feel dizzy.  I have never seen so much deep space.  But I seek Ishtar.  She I know is Lady of fifteen, of the eight-pointed star.  Below me is the moon and her silvery feet are resting upon it.  The whole Divine Figure begins to manifest in response to my prayer.

“Divine Ishtar,” I pray, “Who are surrounded by your starry girdle, the Milky Way, come to me! I adore you from far away.  I would reach you and hold you.  I see your form arising from the depths of the seas of space.  Your breasts shine whitely as the stars of Gemini.  Incomparably higher, sublime and pure, is the constellation of Virgo, guarded by the lion, Leo.  A veil hides your face, but through it I see the white star, Spica, above your head.  I must reach you – to have and to hold forever!

I am overcome by longing – so I throw myself upwards, so I may see your divine face – even if to raise your veil means my death!”

To my horror, this happens.  I fall from the rock into an abyss which opens beneath me.  I circle as I fall and what is most terrifying is that there seems no end to my fall – even a merciful death.  I remember in some long distant past a prayer offered to the Lion Goddess Allat!  “Allat! Save me!”

Talk of from the sublime to the ridiculous!  I fall with a bump upon the earth floor of some sort of pub.  Or may I dignify the place by calling it a tavern?  Yes, this would do – because I am in the Middle East.

Then I really get a shock.  There are bombs falling and people are huddled together here for shelter.  It’s not a pub – it is some sort of café underground.  The air is thick with smoke and a few families are living here.  Then there is still further horror.  There is a rumbling below us – an earth tremor.  A hanging lamp is shaking to and fro.

I hear weeping, and a woman is huddled in a corner trying to stem the blood pouring from her forearm.  At once I manage to treat her and say, “I am a doctor.”  I don’t know why – but I want to explain why I began bandaging her arm.  I am accepted in this capacity, for I must look a stranger.  

Maybe it is the courageous playing of a flute by a boy seated on a bench by a fire, or the soft touch of the woman’s cascade of long black hair – but I feel strangely drawn to her. As she gazes into my eyes and thanks me – the miracle happens.  I have sought love all my life but somehow it always dissolves.  But this feeling is different.  I know!  I’m thinking about this woman and not me!  And she is thinking of the people around us. Before she was wounded she was giving them small loaves of bread.

How amazing!  Bombs are falling – the earth is shaking – I am stuck in an overcrowded refuge – and I am more happy now than I ever have been in my life before!  The woman suddenly smiles – and though she is not conventionally beautiful – she is lovely.  And she says: “I am happy.”

Then to my alarm I find I have forgotten my name, and where I come from.  Why am I here?  Premature dementia?  Amnesia?

I ask the woman what is her name.  She looks upset.  “It must have been that bomb,” she says.  “I can’t remember my name or where I am from. Perhaps I’m losing my mind.”

Then I take courage and say.  “It doesn’t matter.  I like that flute music.  I’m Man of the Flute.  And you were giving bread.  You’re Woman who gives Bread!”

We hold hands and I say:  “I like this place with no window and lots of people and danger.  For me with you it’s heaven.  And she says:  “Strange! I also like it.  It’s the best room in the world – even if we die here!”

Then there is a shattering explosion and part of the roof falls in.  I clasp the woman in my arms. Suddenly light comes through the roof. An old woman towers over us and she raises us to our feet.

“Know Me as Allat,” she says, “Ruler of these realms.  You both have found love within my earth as man and woman.  Now Know yourselves and ascend to your starry spheres.  You, My sister, are The Goddess Ishtar, of Virgo; you, my brother are Tammuz, Leader in Aries of the starry Zodiac.  I have my starry mansion in Leo, the Lion.  It is time for us to leave.  My Blessing remains with these people. They shall attain heaven.”

We rise above the earth, beyond the sun and we reach the stars.  And we bring with us the green earth in our hearts.

Aiden recovers slowly from trance and looks very happy. All agree that he has attained his degree - he has found love veiled within the earth. Reports are shared and rays of love for lonely people are sent forth. Thanks are given to the Deities.

 

 

 

Sources:  “Babylonia Liturgies”edited by Maspero, Frazer, Hooke, Sandars.  “The Story of Ishtar and Tammuz,” Colm O’Loughlan. Irish publication.  Illustrated. “Babylonian Religion & Mythology” Budge. “Larousse Encyclopaedia of Mythology”, Moreaul & Cie. “The Goddesses of Chaldea, Syria & Egypt,” Durdin-Robertson, Clonegal Castle. “The Rite of Rebirth,” FOI Liturgy

 

 

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