Wheels on fire #1
the first, seventh and thirteen scenes
CROSS-ROADS
These late eclipses of the Sun and Moon portend no good to us
In cities, mutinies. In countries, discord. In palaces, intrigue
Though wisdom of Nature can reason it thus and thus, yet Nature finds herself scourged by the sequent effects: love cools, friendship falls off, ties of blood divide and the bonds crack ‘twixt parent and child’
These aspects come under the prediction: There’s Age against Age
The writing’s on the wall
We have seen the best of our time
Spheres of influence fall from bias of Nature.
Trials, tribulations and all ruinous disorders follow us disquietly to our graves!
Hail Great Hecate, to your crossed-roads lead us
Hail Great Hecate, Goddess of Destruction’s Age: may your shadow never be less
Goddess of Nature: Strike Root! Chaos of All: Wield the Iron Rod!
Black Swan: Mistress of Life. Night’s Owl: Mistress of Death
Obey my call, Great Hecate: Crack of Doom!
Obey my call, Great Hecate: Stitch in Time!
Obey my call, Great Hecate: In the Blood!
O Great Hecate, let us hear your voice! Letter of the Law: give us a sign!
Hundred-holds! Hundred-hands! Hundred Claws! O you Windy-Winged One!
Come, Ho!
Every path now yours, you offer us the never ending choices
Left, Right or Onward
With your magic you try us. With your magic you ties the knots to teach us
With your magic would I tread the track whose way is all uphill, all dark sayings, and where your serpent waits
There is a lame dance in my step and I hunger for the night that holds no day
O Hecate, this path of presumption, yea this path of arrogance calls you
Mother of Mothers, in the fresh dew of the sunrise, in the sacred oil of peace in the blood of birth and battle, let your hands paint me pictures with words!
‘Hang fire! The gruesome irons in the fire!
Who rejoices in the swan’s song…in her murder…in the field of blood?
Round and round the hammer drums, the iron sways, the spirits dream!
Root and branches in the Wind’s eye! The ashes…the ashes!’
DIVISION — NEW ORDER — THE NEEDLE — REGAN’S STRAW — THE CAMEL’S BACK
STORM STILL
O you Sticks and Stones!
Hammer out these bent deep senses, and grace this dreadful summoner’s cry!
Let the Secret Forces that keep this awesome bedlam o’er our heads at bay
find out their enemies now!
Tremble you Demons that have within you undivulged crimes unwhipped of justice
Rive, you Bloody Hands!
That under covert and opportune scheming have practiced on our life
Not Rain, Wind, Thunder nor Fire are my cruel daughters
Hearken to me, O you Elemental Queens and Kings!
I tax you not, you sovereigns with unkindness!
I never gave you Kingdom, called you children. You owe me no subscription
Here I stand, your humbl’d slave. A poor, infirm’d, weak, and despised old man
Buy yet I call your servile Ministers, that will with two pernicious daughters
join their high engendered battles ‘gainst a head so old and white as this!
I am more sinned against than sinning!
So let fall your horrible pleasures!
From your skies let foul portents fly and crack!
Your Realms of Nature crumble!
Your Foul Fiends’ axes grinding, the Fallens’ Flames a’crackling!
O Blackest Angels, croak on! And take my heirs for yours!
Ho you taking airs with lameness, break their young bones!
I call you thund’ring Lightnings, dart your blinding flames into their scornful eyes!
I call you fen-sucked Fogs drawn by the Moon to puss and blister, infect their beauty now!
O may the woundings of this Fathers’ curse pierce every sense about them day and night!
O Blasts and Fogs upon them!
Ho, Iron Fist! Ho, Tall-One!
Let all the vengeances of your Heavens rain down upon their heads!
O, Ho! ‘Tis Foul!
So Blow Winds!, and crack your cheeks! Rage! Blow!
You Cataracts and Hurricanoes, spout till you have drenched our flesh and blood!
Drown the dream!, you sulphurous and thought executing Fires!
Break with the past!
You Oak cleaving Lightning Bolts, singe my white head!
And you all shaking Thunder; crack Nature’s moulds!
Howl and moan you whirl-winds, star-blastings and vexings of the Foul Fiends!
There I can hear them now! And there! And there again! And there!
Let all your sperm spill at once that makes ungrateful Life!
Hark! The Foul Fiends off the Lake of Darkness flow through icy winds, huhm!
Away! The Foul Fiends wallow through the hawthorns, sharp!
And sharper still! May those Foul Fiends bite their backs!
O woe is a’me but that this Tempest in my soul should shake all feeling from my senses
Else save what beats there: Filial Ingratitude!
But I will wail no more. No, I will punish home!
In such a night to shut me out. Pour on! I will endure. In such a night as this!
O Regan, O Goneril! Your old kind father, whose frank heart gave all
O, that way madness lies, let me shun that. No more of that!
This Tempest will not give me leave to ponder on things would hurt me more
O Mad Fortune, turn your heavy wheel
I’ve spent my wrath…..I’ll sleep
THE MIRROR — GOLDEN FLOWERS — THE TRIAL — THE KILLING FIELDS — WHEEL OF FIRE
THE SPOKELESS WHEEL
Now shall I take the shadow of this Holy ancient tree for my good guard
For such as thee’s born witness to the ragings of this Universe
Hail Great Mother over All!
That age upon age births mortals, but to tear them limb from limb
To feed the flames that ever must be fed
O Mother fang’d, who births in blood
Who bleeds each month, whose maw consumes us living
For what begins in blood must end in blood
O Queen of Earth and Sky, may your shadow never be less
O Goddess, tis only you who know what unspeakable terrors the unseeable must hold
Mistress of Life, you try us! Mistress of Death, you tie the knots to teach us!
To you all crossed-roads lead us late or soon
O great Letter of the Law! Were all your letters suns. Still I couldn’t read the Fate I wrote, in blood red writ!
O Morrigan, Queen of the Battlefield, I forgot your other faces; Sacred Oil of Peace, freshest Dew o’th’ Sunrise
And sought but to destroy
So let fall your gaze upon this ruined piece of Nautre! Whose flesh and blood has grown so vile
Yes here I stand, the edge of your sharp Judgement ‘gainst my neck
And I am rightly doomed
So you Everlasting Power, hear my plea
And suck this fetid breath from out me
O Goddess, let loose your ravens dark, your hooting owls!
I prithee, set them to rend me up and spit me out
Beneath the cycling of your Spokeless Wheel, a’grinding all to dust
So deep, within your Nether Lands