It’s the 8th day after the full moon, Ugraparbah night, a night of radiating terror. The hunger is immense and the knowledge is out there, just reach out and let it flow through you, download it and upgrade yourself.
So, it’s a day after the last quarter of the moon and finally, the time felt right for the Renanuteth invocation, the Serpent head goddess, the mother of all serpents. We kept delaying it, as she demanded an offering of that intoxicating smoke, one needs to be very certain of time, space and mind to offer it.
The temple space is ready, Zar music is playing in the background and on the altar between the burning candles a silver plate with a bunch of dry leaves, our offering, Salvia divinorum.
It’s been a year since we last journeyed into the Salvia dimension and I was very nervous to cross the gates of these ancient strange worlds again.
Some of you know that I’m an experienced traveller in hyperspace and in some of the galaxies and constellations I travelled to, I feel at home, (ayahuasca, mushrooms, peyote, San Pedro, to name a few) but Salvia, is a whole different story.
We opened the space and read the invocation:
Thōzo pithē etc (Thermouthe Pythia)
Thermouthē
The doors are open
And seven virgins
Shall arise from the deep earth
Their garments of purest linen
Their faces those of serpents
You are the fates of heaven
Wielding golden wands
Welcome
Hail thou seven fates of heaven
O noble and good virgins
O sacred ones
Hail thou chrepsienthaēs?
Hail thou menescheēs
Hail thou mechran!
Hail thou ararmachēs
Hail thou echommiē
Hail thou tichnondaēs
Hail thou erou rombriesē
Hail thou seven
snake-headed goddesses
The fates of heaven
The goddesses who hold the pole in its place
Thozopithe formula
Hail thou bear goddess,
Great one
ruling heaven.
Reigning over the pole of the stars.
Hail Highest one,
beautiful-shining goddess.
Whose element is Incorruptible.
Hail thous Composite of the all,
The all-illuminating,
bond of the universe
You who stand on the pole, you who the lord god appointed to turn the holy pole with a strong hand.
The first offering
As soon as the first offering is done, I noticed a very subtle movement, like ripples of heat and colour emanating from the altar. I look around the room, there’s a strange glow all around the fireplace.
The colour-heat ripples around the altar are getting bigger and before I realise what is happening a wave of serpent-like fractal shapes and colours are flowing over me. I try to stay calm, letting the serpent aura engulf me. Yeah… stay calm, I keep hearing myself mumbling…
Something is moving along the altar, two serpents, one black and the other colourful. Both glowing and moving (flowing?) down the altar along the wall towards the fireplace. The coloured serpent disappeared in the fire, and the black serpent stopped at the left of the fireplace and erected itself. Beautiful, fearsome, awesome, terrifying. Her flaming eyes pierced mine with a hypnotic gaze.
I tried to shift my gaze, to move a little but I was frozen with awe and terror. She’s getting closer, her aura is so bright and huge I can nearly touch it (that if I wasn’t freaking out here, my heart is racing. I think I’m going to faint.) Wait, she’s communicating with me. I can hear a strange whisper echoing inside my head, an ancient serpentine language vibrating down my spine. She’s taking over me, crawling up and down inside my body.
I can’t take it anymore, I cry out and fall down to my knees, I can hear myself praying in her ancient language.
Praying for mercy
Crying my heart out for Her to spare my life.
She’s gone.
My Serpent queen.
The Second Offering
Still shaking, I place the second offering on the altar. The smoke is thick and white.
The music is rhythmic, hypnotic, wild and tribal. I can feel it in my bones like the rhythm is part of me. I hear the ‘mama song’ and I can feel them, my three beautiful mamas, dancing around me, opening the gates for me, making me see. The Zar company are here, with their drums and songs. His Holiness, the Nubian priest is there too. So majestic in his white robes. He stretches his arm out and invites me to approach. The music stopped and everything went quiet.
Stillness, like we are all frozen between time and space.
The air is crackling with static electricity and energy, it feels like we are trapped in a teardrop that is gonna explode any moment now.
Cacophonia.
An explosion of sounds, screams and shouts, and crazy rhythms are turning slowly into music and songs, these ancient songs and hypnotic rhythms I’ve heard before. The music gets louder and louder it takes over me, it’s in me, it’s coming from inside me, I am the music.
The black mama took me by the hand and started to dance. We are dancing. Blue mama is to my right and red mama to my left. More people joining in and circling us, with their drums and bells, all dancing the wild ecstatic dance. I can feel something behind me, not sure what, it sends shivers down my spine. Black mama holding my hands tight looking into my eyes and smiling, whispering in her ancient language, “keep dancing habibti”. I close my eyes and I dance and spin, I can’t feel my body, there is something on my back, I freak out but black mama’s hands are squeezing mine reassuring me to keep dancing, so I find my rhythm and let go, I can fly. I can see the company from above in a dancing frenzy, the Nubian priest is on his knees praying and crying, the three mamas spinning like mad dervishes.
All of these are orchestrated by the elder of the company. He is standing in the middle of all the maddens, a big grin on his face drumming his magickal drum and shouting mad order towards the sky.
I can feel he’s calling me, I can feel his drumming vibrating in my ears and heart, and I hear shouting and wild screams. Black mana’s grip is tightening around mine and I can feel her pulling me down.
I crash back to the here and now.
The Third Offering
At this point, I’m weary and tired, but there’s no way back, it has to be done.
I inhale the smoky essence of the offering and lean back into the fluffy white clouds.
There’s a huge wheel in the distance. The wheel rotates slowly as if spinning in a very slow motion. With each rotation of the wheel, it seems that I’m moving forward towards it like it’s pulling me nearer to it somehow.
I look down at my feet and realize that I am attached to the wheel like Leonardo de Vinci’s The Vitruvian Man.
As soon as I understand that I’m attached to the wheel, it starts to spin faster and faster. I can see myself spinning, turning, becoming an endless spiral of Fibonacci numbers, and fractals.
I close my eyes and think to myself “I can relax now”
Boom, I’m back in the room.
We closed the circle, taking extra care to see the portal tightly shut, and making sure that no strange entities lurked in the shadows.
I don’t know when I’ll go through this portal again.
