The Scarlet Letter
Volume III, Number 2 | December 1995
Column: Heretics for Tea & Crumpets
Theme Papers
By Sr. Zuleica


Jaguar WomanQueen of the Themes, that's me! I don't know what it is about Liber XV that has my mind reeling with the possibilities. Well, there is that theatrical streak in me that relishes putting ART into ritual. But the main reason is to plunge the depths of the incredible diversity of the archetypes invoked in the Mass.

How many different cultures have their own mythic interpretation of the Tetragrammaton; of IAO? What does it do to a Mass to put it into a another time and era? Tweak the Ritual, pull it by it's tail and see if you can shake down more of the mysteries encoded in it.

Working on a theme Mass pulls the team together in research and preparation. We want to be able to draw the participants into the myth where they will experience it in reality. This is accomplished in part by costume design and environmental engineering of the temple. Subtle instruction lies everywhere, in sounds, gestures, smells, each suggesting a more specific place to go. The team uses group and solo meditation and visualization techniques to focus the intent.

By the time we meet to set up the temple, we're there. We are erecting a diving board in Malkuth... time to vault into the Aethyr.

The results have been incredible, speaking for myself. The spots of the Jaguar Goddess are still there, I swear, from the jungle Mass. The Descent of Persephone Mass was interesting in that the participants were only indirectly given information about the intent of the Mass, however, the information was sucessfully transmitted through the ritual. Frater Sharash was awesome as Hades: when he opened the veil, for a moment I did not recognize him. In the Assasin's Mass, I felt very withdrawn, it was like the Houri symbolized the mysteries they defend from the outside.

Jungle woman, she strolls into the forest, hot and steamy, the Jaguar watches from behind the shadows, slowly stalking jungle Woman through the forest, getting closer and closer until the Jaguar and the Woman are One. And Jaguar Woman prowls the Village and calls it her own. She circles once, she circles twice, she circles three and a half times she stop at the hut of a sleeping young man. She wakes him up, say Hey you boy, you come worship the Goddess, you come bleed your soul into my Cup, I give you a wish.

He say, "How I worship the Goddess," she say, "mmm, you takes a bath in the turquoise lagoon, you perfume yourself with musky scents, you put on the glory of the sun, mighty above the emerald forest, the King Snake God coiled aroung your head and above all, boy, you don't go dragging your lance in the dirt."

Jaguar Woman she take the lance and make it strong and tall, and the boy, now a man, now a Priest, take her and sit her on the throne, he bathes her he perfumes her he kiss her goodbye and close her behind the veil. He crawling King Snake, he circle once, twice, three and a half times he God Man now he demand to see His Bride, she just laugh, say 0 Big God King Snake come unto me, and he parts the veil and lo, she is the Jaguar Goddess, fierce, sleek and spotted. She writhes and scratches and purrs and together they offer their body and soul into the cup as the lance quickens their desire for union lo, the wish is made, that all who partake of this cup shall become Gods themselves.


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