The major locus of this activity was a two-part performance ritual in Melbourne Australia, on Oct.5th full moon and Oct.20th dark moon. The transglobal nature of the material involved, however - incorporating magickal systems and mythology from Medieval Alchemy, Jewish, Vedic/Hindu, Norse, Greek, Egyptian, Mayan, Christian and Wiccan traditions- warranted transglobal participation on an active as well as content level. Our intention was crosscultural fusion and global unity.
Additional networking was done to create translocal rituals and meditations specifically orientated to the 'Pentagrammaton' performance rituals in Australia.
Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia. Performed as a part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.PENTAGRAMMATON
PART I - ASCENDING -5th of October, at the Shunyata Awarehouse, 9pm
Aries Full Moon. Planetary Fire Element (Haleakala, Hawaii)
Stage seperated into Microcosm -the Alchemist’s Workshop; the Macrocosm -the Tree of Life; and the Magick Circle bridging them -the Pentagrams.
<Lights fade up on Microcosm.>
Alchemist sits puzzling over his glassware, tubes and bubbles bubbling with a red (life) elixir. He complains that every time he attempts to use Mercury, as his tome tells him, it dissipates/dissolves.
Hermes/Mercury the Messenger of the Gods appears and does a kama-kali/ ritual dance demonstrating the principles of ‘As Within, so Without’ and ‘As Above, So Below’, suggesting he not take the book so literally.
Hermes disappears. Alchemist abandons glassware and goes into meditation.
<Lights fade down on Microcosm.Lights fade up on Circle as Hermes casts it>
Hermes appears and casts Circle.
Hermes: "Through the vast Multi-verse of potentialities
The Quantum Qabbala branches out infinitely
Borne from a crack between
>From a CHorus between the multi-verses
I come: Hermanubis Nexhagus
Elder Jester of the Pre-create,
Weaver of chromosomes
I come to reveal the new aeonic formula
In the beginning was the Word
Who knows? The Word was the secret of its speaker I am the Keeper of the Ways
The formula of TETRAGRAMMATON
was the four-letter name of God
YHVH (Hermes marks each letter around the pentagram on the floor as he speaks them)
Each letter representing an aeon and an element
Now the new formula re-turns
Of the five-letter name for Gods/Goddesses//God/dess
YHVHS (Hermes adds the letter shin on the fifth point)
PENTAGRAMMATON
For there are five aeons,
And there are five elements, not four
The HarleQuintessence shall no longer be left out of the formula!"
While the Spinner turns the Wheels of Fate/ Chaos Clock Hermes performs elemental invocations for each direction (Nema’s six-fold),
The characters evoking the Godforms of Osiris (illustrated), Isis, Horus (hawk) and Maat (loon) appear briefly (spectrally) when called, then vanish as the corresponding Elemental In-it-I-ate enters for each calling and speak the Words of Power (Abrahadabra, Agape, Thelema, Ipsos, AHA) of the five aeons each letter of the YHVHS formula represents, then follow the rope pentagram in the sand on the floor with their element -the fire elemental lights the pentagram,
the water elemental puts out the flame with water, the air elemental cools the sand with a fan, the earth elemental sprinkles red ochre along it. Each elemental initiate returns to their starting point, taking their position on the pentagram. While speaking the final Harpocrat invocation Hermes himself takes his place on the fifth arm of the pentagram as the spirit initiate.
At the beginning of each of the following chakra layers, the Sacrament-bearer enters the Circle and, marking the transition with chimes, invokes the essence of that chakra with a speech and applies a sacrament (eg. water for svadisthana, smudging for manipura, etc.) to the five initiates.
MULADHARA PENTAGRAM
Red Light (layer) up on Circle.
The Spinner enters Circle and begins piercing the Muladhara/ base chakras (‘spinning wheels’) of the five initiates -moving from one to the next in a progression to form etheric banishing pentagrams between them, beginning with earth- as they begin chanting the first Chakra Tone <Oh>, -joined after a while by didgeridoo. (the chanting for each tone is done by all of the cast, not just elemental initiates).
The ascending pentagrams are purgative, release through piercing; and building/raising of energy.
SVADISTHANA PENTAGRAM.
<Orange layer of light added above red layer in the Circle.
White light fades up on Macrocosm/Tree of Life.>
The Spinner pierces the Svadisthana/ navel chakras of the five initiates (banishing pentagram of water), who shift up to the second chakra tone <Ooo> -joined after a while by cello, while the Loon enters and dances her moon dance.
The Weaver and the Cutter enter and the three Fates merge into a six-armed two-legged 3-headed Arachne/Kali kama-kali triple-Goddess formation.
Hermes: Spinner, weaver, cutter
Isis, drawn by the peacock enter from stage-left. Iris enters stage-right and goes to Isis and fills one of her cups with milk from the Mother’s breasts; the other cup contains honey.
Hermes (as Isis
hands Iris a peacock feather plucked from her steed):
Drawn by the peacock,
Through the heavens Isis rides
She gives one star to the messenger Goddess
The Iris of her eye
Iris fills her cup of silver
With star-mother's milk
She bears it hence with cup of honey golden
To link us with the Old Ones
And line our spines with silk
CROSSROADS:
<Strobe Light on Circle, speeding up when the birds cross, slowing down again as they part.>
Percussion begins over the
The weaver and cutter exit. The Loon takes her perch on the Yesod sephiroth/branch of the Tree of Life.
MANIPURA PENTAGRAM
<Yellow Layer of Light added to Circle.>
Manipura/ Solar Plexus is pierced between the five initiates (banishing pentagram of fire) as they chant the third chakra tone <Aah> -joined after a while by strings and percussion. The Peacock (Netzach) and the Hummingbird/Hermes (Hod) take their perches on the Tree of Life.
The hawk -Horus- dances over to him and they go into battle. Maat in Her aspect of Maut the Vulture appears, awaiting the outcome. Horus slays Osiris and becomes the new Sun king.
<Lights fade up on Microcosm as Osiris dies.>
The elixir in the bubbles and tubes has gone black (Nigris).
ANAHATA PENTAGRAM
<Light fades down on Microcosm. Green Light layer added to Circle.>
Horus lifts up the (still beating) heart of Osiris as the piercing (banishing pentagram of air) and chanting <Ayy> -joined by sampled heartbeat and panpipes- shift up to the ANAHATA /Heart Chakra.
Maat takes the (foam?) heart of Osiris and weighs it in her scales against a fallen tailfeather of Horus. The hawk finishes his dance, joined by the raven and the rooster.
The Hawk takes his perch on the Tiphareth branch of the Tree of Life, the Rooster on Geburah and the Raven on Chesed.
VISSUDHA PENTAGRAM
<Blue Light layer added to Circle.>
The piercings (banishing pentagram of spirit) move up to the VISSUDHA /Throat Chakra and the <Eee> tone is chanted, joined after a while by insectoid electronic and percussive sounds. The Ibis/Thoth enters, takes the feather of Horus from Maat’s scales and dips it in the blood of Osiris’s heart. With it he inscribes their letter of the Pentagrammaton formula YHVHS on each of the five Elemental Initiates as they are each pierced, who when marked begin chanting this letter.
As the final letter (Shin) is written and spoken ('Sh!'...) the chant and the lights begin to soften and fade, until there is darkness and silence.
The Weaver appears as a sihouette in the Abyss as Kali and draws forth the Kalas <-rainbow slide projected onto white sheet and threads> from her yoni.
Weaver comes out of the Abyss as the Ibis enters it.
AJNA PENTAGRAM
<Macrocosm light and previous Circle light layers fade back on. Indigo Light layer added to Circle.>
The Heron and the Owl (weaver) dance while the AJNA /Third Eye Chakra is pierced (invoking pentagram of earth). The sixth chakra tone <Mmm> is chanted -joined by full 'Orchestra'.
The Weaver weaves a (invoking of earth) pentagram between the five Ajna piercings with the white threads from her yoni -the vision for the descent.
The Heron and the Owl take their perches -Chokmah and Binah.
SAHASRARA PENTAGRAM
<Violet light layer added to Circle.>
The SAHASRARA/Crown Chakra is ‘pierced’ (invoking pentagram of spirit) -chimes above heads, and chanted <Nnngg> -with electronic and orchestral sounds added after a while. Iris enters and takes the Rainbow Bridge
< Black light on, so that ajna thread pentagram and white elixir glow. Dim light up on Microcosm.>
On Iris’s arrival in the Microcosm the elixir in the Alchemist's glass bubbles is white (Purification, containing Cauda Pavonis, the Colours of Rebirth).
She pours gold and silver elixirs (honey and mother's milk) over the seated meditating Alchemist from her two cups.
The Alchemist (still painted red) rises and turns, revealing eagle wings on his back -the Red Lion (solar male) has merged with the White Eagle (lunar female). S/he takes the silver cup from Iris and, bearing cup and staff, follows her back across the Rainbow Bridge (through the Circle) to the Macrocosm. There s/he ascends the Tree of Life to Kether, the crown, where s/he (slips dry ice into and) inserts the staff into the smoking cup and spreads hir wings at its crown (Kether).
Hermes: 'The red lion and the white eagle are conjoined. The nature of true Alchemy is that it changes not alone the substance of the Work, but also changes thence the Alchemist.' (line from 'Liber Pennae Praenumbra' by Nema)
The Cutter enters and cuts the threads of the AJNA chakra, as the Alchemist withdraws the staff from the smoking chalice. The Five initiates join in the centre of the circle, grounding the energy with a return to the <Oh> tone of the MULADHARA/Base Chakra, completing the Octave.
Hermes performs banishings (Nema's six-fold), including letters of Pentagrammaton formula reversed to form ShYHVH -Shiva the Destroyer. Each elemental initiate exits in their corresponding direction. Hermes exits upwards as Hanged Man for final (Harpocrat/ Spirit/ Above) banishing. The Cutter closes the Circle.
<All lights out.>