STICKS & STONES
WARM OR LUKE WARM?
by
Morgause Fontleve
PREVIOUS
Rede has roots in Christianty
Issue
No. 38 August 2007
Do modern day Pagans possess the ardour, the joy, the zeal, the rapture, the transport and fervor of Initiates of yore? The Ancient Mysteries teachings tell us to live life with abandon, to the full, just like the gods … But do we even know our own philosophical and mythological heritage? And do we make any efforts towards changing any of this?
Phaon of Lesbos was extraordinarily good looking, beyond belief, a boon obtained from the Beautiful Aphrodite, for ferrying her at Mitylene free of charge. She gave him an alabaster urn with ointment, which would make women fall in love with him and render him forever young. But alas, Phaon was insensitive to love. The importunate love of Sappho caused Phaon to flee to Sicily where he built a temple to the God Apollo.
At Leucas, stood a white rock which stretched out to sea. Upon it was built Phaon’s temple to Apollo and a leap from its promontory, was said to cure love. Servius tells us that due to Phaon’s lack of interest in Sappho, she chose to throw herself from the white cliffs of Leucas. Was Sappho hoping that the leap would be fatal to herself, or rather to the power of fascination which Phaon yielded over her? Ptolemy Hephaestion in the extant summary of his works listed the many men and women who by the Leucadian leap were cured of the madness of love … or perished.
Warton remarks, in the 233rd Spectator, Nov. 27, 1711. 'Sappho the Lesbian,' says Addison, 'in love with Phaon, arrived at the temple of Apollo habited like a bride, in garments as white as snow. She wore a garland of myrtle on her head, and carried in her hand the little musical instrument of her own invention. After having sung a hymn to Apollo, she hung up her garland on one side of his altar, and her harp on the other. She then tucked up her vestments like a Spartan virgin, and amidst thousands of spectators, who were anxious for her safety and offered up vows for her deliverance, marched directly forwards to the utmost summit of the promontory, where, after having repeated a stanza of her own verses, which we could not hear, she threw herself off the rock with such an intrepidity as was never before observed in any who had attempted that dangerous leap. Many who were present related that they saw her fall into the sea, from whence she never rose again; though there were others who affirmed that she never came to the bottom of her leap, but that she was changed into a swan as she fell, and that they saw her hovering in the air under that shape. But whether or no the whiteness and fluttering of her garments might not deceive those who looked upon her, or whether she might not really be metamorphosed into that musical and melancholy bird, is still a doubt among the Lesbians.”
Part of the cliff at Santa Maura (Leucadi) is known to this day as Sappho’s Leap. From here, right through historical times, criminals condemned to death, would be cast into the sea. Boats would pick the bodies up, and those surviving would be pardoned their fault and be set free.
The inner mystery here lies in the knowledge that the swan was the form Zeus chose in order to ravage Leda, suggesting the passionate rush and ebbing of love that exists between the Divine and the Earthly Realms. The elongated shape of the swan is reminiscent of Zeus’ mighty member. The long neck being the shaft of the penis, the head the glans, and the swollen breast the scrotum. Many Hellenic, Roman and later Renaissance artists attempted to portray this “unlikely” meeting and only after some considerable twisting and turning, and changing position and approach, are Zeus and Leda able to find each other and consume their attraction. Michelangelo’s Leda succeeds in representing the Hierogamus (the meeting of spiritual and matter) and in making their transient passion quite plausible. In the form of a swan the God is allowed to partake of his instincts and reproductive drive and Leda of enjoying his proximity and invasion. The Gods take what they want, mercilessly delivering mankind to war, illness, old age, and finally death. Their egg-borne progeny would be the death of Agamemnon and the destruction of Troy.
Interesting it is also to note that swans also drew the chariot of Venus and were symbolic of melancholic passion. Was the masculine sex drive the propelling force for the motion of the Goddess? Was phallic worship part of the secret cult of Isis/Venus? Yes, if one recalls how Isis sought the missing member of her lover and son and how eunuchs carried their severed genitalia in jars, in the procession to Isis, in Lucius Apuleius’ “The Golden Ass” and the lingam-like shape of the Omphalos Stele at Delphi.
The Leucadian leap was said to be an expiatory rite which made part of the Apollonian worship and Sappho’s transformation into a swan, her willing taking on of total abandonment to the will of Venus.
Sappho loved, and loved more than once, and loved to the point of desperation and sorrow; yet it matters not if it all comes to an end of the fatal Leucadian leap, for as Pagans we should know that there are worse and steeper precipices down which our souls may fall and that this is symbolic of spirit descending into matter.
The real Mystery of Sappho’s action is synonymous of spirit plummeting into matter. Her leap of faith is synonymous of her soul-seed fertilizing the churning sea of her emotions, whence it dies, is absorbed, and in a vivifying bursting forth, it gives birth to the child of promise, the new Sappho. Sappho gives birth to herself.
In Ovid’s Metamorphosis, we learn about the existence of an oak and linden tree growing side by side in the Phrygian countryside, within a wall enclosure. It was told that once Jupiter and Mercury, disguised as mortals visited this place. They visited a thousand homes, looking for a place to rest, but every home was bolted and barred against them. One house took them in, a humble thatched-roof dwelling where an old woman, named Baucis, and her husband Philemon, had grown old together. By accepting their humble origins and practicing the art of contentment, they had eased the hardship of their lot. In their house they were both master ands servant. The couple set out chairs for the gods, threw a rough piece of cloth over the table and stirred up the ashes on the hearth to make them comfortable. They added the last of their fuel to it, brought in their meager reserve of vegetables, smoked bacon and cooked it for them, gave them warm water in which to wash, serve mottled berries preserved in lees of wine, endives and radishes and a piece of cheese and eggs lightly roasted in the ashes not too hot.. All of this was set out in clay dishes and beech wood cusps, nuts, figs and dates and plums for dessert and fragrant roasted apples and black grapes just gathered all drizzled with honey and honeycomb.
As the dinner progressed, the old woman and old man noticed that the jug often emptied and refilled itself as if by miracle. Baucis and Philemon realized their guests were two gods and begged for their pardon for such a humble meal. The gods told them of the disaster that would befall the neighborhood and that they would escape unscathed, if they left their home and did as they told and took refuge on a steep mountainside. Without hesitation, they left, leaning on their walking sticks and watched as the entire countryside drowned in marshy waters. They wept for the fate of their people and their old, small but adequate cottage. The gods changed it into a temple with marble columns and golden roof tiles, ornately carved doors and marbled paving.
Mercury then asked the good old man and his worthy wife what boon they wished of him and this was their answer: “We ask to be your priests, to serve your shrine, and since we have lived in happy companionship all our lives, we pray that death may carry us off together at the same instant, so that I may never see my wife’s funeral, and she may never have to bury me.” Their request was granted and they acted as priest and priestess in that temple as long as they lived. Then one day, bowed down with their weight of years, they were standing before the sacred steps, talking of all that had happened there, when Baucis saw Philemon beginning to put forth leaves, and old Philemon saw Baucis growing leafy too. When the foliage was growing over their faces, they exchanged the last words, “goodbye, my beloved!” then the bark sealed their lips forever. The trees still stood side by side in Ovid’s time, and wreaths are still placed on their branches, and fresh flowers would regularly be put up with these words:” Whom the gods love are gods themselves, and those who have worshipped should be worshipped too.”
And this brings us to the last point: Besides the Rites of Passage, the Full Moon Esbats and High Dates, do we Neo-Pagans have daily religious practices and do we pay homage to the gods and reverence to those who went before us?
SA Pagans are Hot!
September 2007 saw the commencement of a true metamorphosis in South African Paganism. Pagans and Witches, nationwide, buried past differences, and organized themselves in a formidable stand against religious discrimination of witches and the violation of the individual’s Human and Constitutional rights. Thank you to the Pagan pioneers and delegates, who actively participated in the re-writing of religious and legal history in our country. Thank you for all for your hard work and for demonstrating true zeal and passion for the Old Ways!!
Long Live 8 September 2007! May Bona Dea bestow Her blessings upon us! May our clans honour us in centuries to come!
Consulted Reading:
233rd Spectator, Nov. 27, 1711
Leonello Modona in his La Saffo Storica (Florence, 1878)
The Metamorphosis of Ovid – translation by Mary M. Innes – Penguin Classics – 1955
Yeat’s Leda and the Swan - Stefan Beyst 2002
Ovid’s Lucius Apuleius “The Golden Ass” – translation by Robert Graves
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