FOI Online Liturgy
Booklet: Tara of the Oracles,
The Alchemical Twins Face the Fates
By: Olivia Robertson

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TEMPLE OF ALCHEMY

PRIESTESS ALCHEMIST (TO TWIN APPRENTICES, AIDEN & 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 resume 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.

NOTE: “Amateras” – singular. Full Title: “Amaterasu no Kami”

SOURCES: “The Noh Plays of Japan,” trans. Waley, Grove Press, New York. “Nihongi,” 720 AD trans. Aston. Allen & Unwin, & Paragon Reprint Corp, New York. “Kojiki”, 720 AD, trans. Philippi, University of Tokyo. “The Goddesses of India, Tibet, China & Japan,” Durdin-Robertson, Clonegal Castle. Professor Ohnuma, late of Tokyo University, 2 F 2-14-9 Ginza, Tokyo, 104-0061. Marseille Tarot, 1748, B.P. Grimaud, Paris, 1930.