My weekend was UnusualOn Saturday I went to South London with maeghanne, who kindly let me be her guest to a Gnostic Mass held by the OTOs AMeTH Lodge. We had been told to get there for twelve, but didnt actually mass until like three or four in the evening. Everyone there was normal and friendly. No one came across as Behold I am the super Thelemite, Neo Mega Therion. Behold how I wear nothing but black and invent new aeons each week. Aha we are now in the aeon of Bast, now you are all tragically old and must follow my formula, bwahaha like you tend to get in Pagan circles (or at least the forums!). A lot of people there were massing for the first time and had varying degrees of understanding of Thelema, so I didnt feel overwhelmed or anything like that.Later on in the day the mass began, the Deacon came into the waiting room and talked. She explained the signs and movements we should do during the mass, and explained about the cakes of light. Okay, for those who dont know, a cake of light is the communion host for the mass. It does contain the menstrual blood of the priestess, but its a tiny drop into one cake, which then gets burnt to ashes and added to the rest of the cake mixture. The other ingredients are olive oil, abramelin oil, wine leavings and abramelin oil. We went upstairs to the Temple room. At one end of the room was the super altar, the other end was the tomb where the priest awaited inside, in-between them were two altars one containing a large bowl for water, the other was were the deacon stood and the incense went on it too I think, so that must have been the fire altar. We all sat to the sides of the temple room on large cushions. The deacon and the people said the Thelemic creed followed by three vibrated Aumgns. After that the priestess flanked by two children entered the temple. The priestess goes to the tomb and lets out the priest, who is dead. She then makes him live again and commands him to give a benediction to the congregation, to his complaint of I am but a man, how can I? she makes him a priest. The priest then puts her on the altar, and she becomes Nuit, the goddess. Then by calling upon the gnostic saints and all manner of things he comes on par with her as a god. Together they then infuse this godliness into the cakes of light and wine. At some point during this part of the mass they both scream Hail or something like that into the cup and it blew me away. So yeah, then the congregation takes communion and takes of this godliness (Such is the Gnostic element of the mass). We did this by walking to the super altar, taking a cake from one of the children and crossing it over the paten, then we consumed it and took a small cup of wine, which we crossed over the priestess and drank. We then turned to face the tomb standing in the form of osirus slain and said There is no part of me that is not of the gods. Although I didnt do this No, I went to the super altar, took a cake, crossed it. Put it in my mouth and tried to eat it but it wouldnt go down, so I took the wine and crossed it over the priestess and tried to swallow it down with the wine, which kinda worked. Then I turned around, crossed my arms and Choked! Ack ack ack There is no part of me that is not of the gods Hahahahaha!It was an amazing experience though. Afterwards we went to the caf downstairs and had dinner, it was fun.I really want to go to the next mass, if I still have a great time and dont choke to death, I may even ask for Minerval!On Sunday I didnt go to Temple because I had plans in the evening, so I just did a small arati at midday for Nirshrimhadeva and sang some Bhajans.At four I was in Covent Garden, at the London Discussion Group at treadwells bookshop. randomkev21 was running it and sparkx and casparian were there too. We just discussed what topics the future meetings would be about and agreed that wed do an hour of discussion and an hour of practical work. The first one we chose was Colour symbolism, which I have to admit Im not so keen on, but we have some good ones coming up Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, Twirling Mantra and Deity Worship (I said Id show everyone how to do Arati for that one, gulp). So yeah, fun times ahead.
Post je objavljen 02.10.2009. u 12:20 sati.