The Order of ChAOS presents...
The FEAST of VALHALLA PART II
Being Amfortas' Vision of Odin on the World Tree at MONTSALVAT,
And the coming of the Valkyrie
(Photographs by Adrian and Video Stills selected by Orryelle from the footage of Soncha, Zya and Ci Orse)
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(Photographs by Adrian and Video Stills selected by Orryelle from the footage of Soncha, Zya and Ci Orse)
Norns Triptych -Digital painting by Tas, as inspired by 'Le Pendu' at the Feast of Valhalla. (c)2004 Eclipse Ink.
In Wolfram's epic poem 'Parzival', the Black and the White are dramatically contrasted then brought together, as represented by the Magpie, whose accordian-like black and white plumage is like unto a combination of the Raven of Death and Dove of Love, symbol of the Holy Grail. The Grail is now seen as the Well of Celtic and Norse mythology, as Parzival reMembers his heritage...
As he falls Amfortas cries out to Odin in his death-throes.
And in the dusk-light a vision opens up before him, as lights come up upon a God a-Hanging in a Tree:
'Le Pendu'
('The Pendulum')
A Short Play by Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule
- based around the Hanged Man Tarot Trump and Odin's ordeal hanging upon the World Tree, Yggdrasil.
Invocation of Odin:
Odin, Woden,
With one eye turned outward
To the world of form and living breath
The other eye turned inward
To the dreaming trance of the dwale, The shamanic death
Oh Dale I enwrap myself in your nightside cloak of deepest blue
(he spears himself in the side)
Hnikkar, Hakelberg, guide us through
The long dark night
As upon den Geisterwegen und den Wegen des Todes we tread
Irlik Kahn oh mighty lord of the dead, guide us through...
Gwyn ap Nudd, Faery King
Take us beneath the barrow mound
By cloven hoof and raven's wing
O, the Well,
the Well of reMembrance
I reMember it Well
The Well is deep
And the Descent steep
to re-Member
the Well of reMembrance
The Well is deep
And the Ascent steep
To reTurn to the surface
The Well is deep
and the re-Turn steep
To the enTrance
Hugin: Aaarrkk
Odin: Ah Hugin, Raven of Thought, I hear you call from the branches below
Munin: Aaarrkk
O: Ah Munin, Raven of Memory, I hear you reply from the Well above
As above, so below,
As below, so above
I am beginning to Understand
I am beginning to stand under him
Even as he understands me
Even as he stands under me
I sacrifice my self to my self
Even as he is sacrificed unto I
I sacrifice mine eye
Into the Well of Mimir
So I die
In the UnderWorld Underneath the Well
(He tears out his eye and drops it in the Well where his reflection is projected below)
I sacrifice outer sight
For inner vision
My view is inverted, I stare within
Growing new eyes, Under the skin
Urd (retreiving Eye from Well and holding it aloft): I am Urd, Norn of the Past...
...(she passes it to:) Verdanthi: I am Verdanthi. I am Present...
...(she passes it to:)
Skuld: I am Skuld.
I See your Future
Urd: I saw your past
S: I see you rise
U: I saw you fall
S: I see you fall
U: I saw you rise
S: I see you come
U: I saw you go
S: I see Thought above
Hugin: Aaark
U: I saw Memory below
Munin: Aaark
S: I see
U: I saw
S: See
U: Saw
Hugin: 'Marjorie Daw'
Munin: 'Marjorie Caaaw'
('Marjorie Daw' is based on the cry of the Magpie, an Australian member of the Corvus family along with ravens and crows)
For nine days and nine nights have I hung from the World Tree
And I with my One Eye I see
The symbols woven in the webs they flow
And their secrets ebb in the Well below
(Verdanthi pulls one rune-stone after another from the Well.
Munin calls out each rune's name, echoed by Hugin then Odin as he is pulled into the corresponding rune posture by Urd and Skuld, with Verdanthi reflecting each asana)
The wind whispers to me their tunes
The runes, the runes:
...LAGUZ ...ANSUZ ...HAGALAZ ...GEBO ...WUNJO...
Yes the wind whispers to me their names
As Yggdrasil's sap runs through my veins
I see the symbols woven by the Norns
Spun and sewn into and through their web of fate
And so although I see the runes about me strewn
I know I only co-create my Fate
My destiny
As I sway upon the Tree
For though it is HE who discovers language,
And with the power of the Logos projects his Will
It is SHE who weaves the webs of Destiny
It fills
Before the Word there was Nothing but Beneath the Word was the Vision
(projection in Well of Holy Grail chalice expanding to become Well itself; as Odin's oration becomes singing, with Hugin's accordian and Norn's voices accompanying)
Now Behold the vision and beGone for Beyond the Word is the Song
Now Behold the Vision and beCome the Song
As collision and collusion twixt music and word, rune and tune, sung and saith
Vision now heard on the rhythm of breath...
Oh Hugin -Thought- fly swift, go back now
Meet and merge with your reflection,
Fly to and through the Well, into Hel,
Into the depths of Mem-ory
The future is past
For when first is last the eye has been cast
in the Well even after it reaches the deepest depths...
The past is young and the future is old
And yet to behold
The future is still young and new,
The past wise and wizened from all she's been through
Future and Past
Merge in the Present
(Urd and Skuld merge with Verdanthi behind the Well into an eight-limbed kamakali formation)
The Present opens a Gift, and inside the present is another...
(Verdanthi reaches into the Well and pulls out an arachnean child, which in the Well projections grows into full size and rebirths itself)
...Present. And inside that present is another...
...Present. And inside that present is another...
...Present. And inside that present is another...
(etc. in a loop with increasing velocity)
Click on Image above to open the Present (Quicktime movie sample)
In the Well is reflected
Both maiden and crone
For Hel waits below
Resplendent and rotting
On Her bittersweet breath are begotten
Children of Compost, Spawn of decay
Fecund forms from the Eye of the night
Springing forth to the light of the day
(Urd and Skuld -Future and Past- spin out from the centre on opposite sides from previously, beComing each other)...
U: I saw your birth
S: I see you die
U: I saw you crawl
S: I see you fly
Urd: I saw you burrow
Skuld: I see you soar
S: I saw you after
U: I see you before
S: I Saw
U: I See
S: Saw
U: See
H & M: Marjorie Daw/Caw
As his death-vision of Odin fades, a raven comes and circles thrice about the fallen warrior, then reveals herself as a Valkyrie -a chooser of the slain- a swan-maiden come to take his soul (as the raven plucks out his eye in Midgard) to Valhalla, the feasting hall of Gods and heroes.
But before the audience-in-it-I-Ates may follow them into the Great Hall they must pass Heimdall, the Guardian of the Bifrost Rainbow Bridge betwixt the Worlds...
Heimdall: "Come, cross the Rainbow Bridge, Bifrost.
Cross from you Midgard realm of mortals, to the realm of the divine,
To do so you must raise the Serpent through the Rainbows in your spines
Through ssseven-coloured ssspectrum, ssseven chakras round which the Kundalini Ssserpent winds,
The Rainbow Ssserpent's ssshimmering ssscales are the ssseven notes, ssseven tones to ssset Her on Her climb...
So chant these ssseven now with us, to Cross Bifrost...
In the Great Hall of Valhalla,
the Tarot Play continues into the Minor Arcana as swords meet staves at the valorous Feast, fill your Cups and Pentacle-plates, while Brigid-Babalon gives the Beast his Just Desserts...
Text and Images (except where otherwise noted) copyright (c) Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule