The Rite of Venus by Sor. H.P., 1998
The Officers
Venus. Blue lingerie.
Taurus. Drag (orange items (like a feather boa) if possible).
Libra. As a leatherman; black leather vest, chaps, etc., flagged hunter green.
Pisces. Little Red Dress (tm).
Luna in Taurus. Silver bondage harness (with cock ring if we can talk him into it!).
Saturn in Libra. I haven't decided yet.
Editor's note: honestly, that's what it says in the script. S.i.L. may have been stark naked and painted blue with yellow stripes for all I know.
Probationers. Fetish gear a piacere.
Venus is throned, and on her right are
Libra and Saturn in Libra,
on her left Taurus and Luna in Taurus,
while at her feet lies Pisces (in bondage, as her footstool).
Before her throne, a veil. Without, an altar; and without the temple, a further veil.
The Rite of Venus
Prelude
Full light.
Venus, standing before altar,
Libra and Taurus kneeling at its sides.
Venus
7777777.
Libra
7777777.
Taurus
7777777.
Venus
Brother Libra, I command thee to declare the Secret of Venus.
Libra recites (the Readers' Digest condensed) Swinburne's Hertha.
Probationers are installed in various bonds ... St. Andrew's Cross, pillory, whatever.
Venus
Having ears they hear not. Brothers Taurus and Libra, let the veil be drawn.
They do so.
Part I
Twilight.
Venus is enthroned on high, swathed in masses of red hair and roses.
The altar is covered with roses; there is a small flame thereon.
Taurus and Libra draw the inner veil apart.
Libra returns and kneels.
Libra
Daughter of Glory, child Of Earth's Dione mild By the Father of all, the Ægis-bearing King! Spouse, daughter, mother of God, Queen of the blest abode In Cyprus' splendour singly glittering. Sweet sister unto me, I cry aloud to thee! I laugh upon thee laughing, O dew caught up from sea! Drawn by sharp sparrow and dove, And swan's wide plumes of love, And all the swallow's swifter vehemence, And, subtler than the Sphinx, The ineffable iynx Heralds thy splendour swooning into sense, When from the bluest bowers And greenest-hearted hours Of Heaven thou smil'st toward earth, a miracle of flowers! Down to the loveless sea Where lay Persephone Violate, where the shade of earth is black, Crystalline out of space Flames the immortal face! The glory of the comet-tailed track Blinds all black earth with tears. Silence awakes and hears The music of thy moving come over the starry spheres. Wrapped in rose, green, and gold, Blues many and manifold, A cloud of incense hides thy splendour of light; Hides from the prayer's distress Thy loftier loveliness, Till thy veil's glory shrouds the earth from night; And silence speaks indeed, Seeing the subtler speed Of its own thought than speech of the Pandean reed!
Libra returns.
Venus
7777777.
Saturn
Amen.
Venus
333-1-333.
Luna
Amen.
Venus
1-55555-1.
Libra and Pisces
Amen.
Venus
Brother Saturn, what is the hour?
Saturn
Twilight.
Venus
Sister Pisces, from whose house are we come out?
Pisces
From the House of Death.
Venus
Brother Taurus, what is stronger than death?
Taurus
Love.
Venus
Brother Libra, what is the place?
Libra
The Mountain of Venus, that hangeth from the navel of the Universe over the Great Abyss.
Venus
Let us celebrate the Rite of Venus.
Musicians play "Let Me In".
Probationers play with each other.
Venus
Children of Love, what is the hour?
All
A confused murmur.
It is the hour of love.
She cracks her whip;
All freeze in tableau.
The lights go out.
A long pause.
Part II
Venus pulls the knot to free Pisces, who now reclines out of the throw of the follow spot.
Venus
333-1-333.
Venus is brilliantly illuminated; the rest remain dark.
Venus
Little sister, what is the hour?
Pisces
The dawn is at hand.
Venus
Little brother, what is the place?
Taurus
It is the holy mountain of our Lady Venus.
Venus
Children, awake and rejoice.
Libra
Awake and rejoice.
Pisces
How shall we rejoice?
Taurus
As our Lady hath appointed.
Libra
As you like it.
Pisces
Wherein shall we rejoice?
Taurus
In our Lady Venus.
Libra
In what you will.
Taurus
Thy will, our lady, and not ours be done!
Pisces
Mistress, let the adorations be performed!
Venus
Children, array yourselves before me, and rejoice in the adorations of my beauty.
They form, each with his partner.
Libra disappears behind veil.
Taurus recites invocation.
Taurus
Hail Hathor, Lady of Emerald, Lady of Thebes. Hail Hathor, Lady of the West, Lady of the Sacred Land. Hail Hathor, Lady of Red Water, Lady of the turquoise land. Hail Hathor, Lady of Peace, Lady of the city of Sixteen. Eye of Re which is on his forehead; who gainest mastery over the fiends in thy name of "Sekhet" kindly of countenance in the Barque of Millions of Years; a resting-place for him who has done right within the boat of the blessed; who built the Great Barque of Osiris in order to cross the water of truth.
Returns to his throne.
Venus
Brother Libra, art thou silent?
A pause.
Brother Libra, where art thou?
Libra still hidden, recites (the Readers' Digest Condensed) Swinburne's Dolores:
Libra
Cold eyelids that hide like a jewel Hard eyes that grow soft for an hour; ...
... And the good shall die first, said thy prophet, Our Lady of Pain.
Libra appears and confronts her:
Did he lie? Did he laugh? does he know it, Now he lies out of reach, out of breath, ...
... And the joys of the seventy times seven, Our Lady of Pain.
Venus
Why chafest thou, brother? Thou art the chiefest of my chosen.
Libra
Alas.
Venus
Yea, brother: in the end all turn to me, and all return to me.
Star of the Morning, I arise with waxing sun, as darkness dies; Eos bears me to azure skies in coral palms. Then unto me, men raise their eyes and praiseful psalms. They sing me, gold-bright from the sea, giver and goal of ecstasy; they pray me for my clemency while they forget that both desire and agony weave passion's net. Star of the Evening, by force main I raise myself on high to reign; men wail, and say that I have slain Apollo's light, And pierced with countless shards of pain the modest night. But I am all the goad ye have, thus every man must be my slave, for in my absence, ye would crave no thing at all. Gracious, from the abyss I save mine every thrall. I crack the whip, and ye obey because it is the only way mankind has ever known to stay oblivion; and even pain is proof to say that ye live on. But we were lovers, Death and I, from even mankind's infancy. My little death's eternity in instants spent. So therefore, in my service, die — and be content!
Pisces performs a sleepy sinuous dance by herself, and returns to Venus' throne lapsed into herself, and as if exhausted.
Rise, rise, my knight! My king! My love, arise! See the grave avenues of Paradise, The dewy larches bending at my breath, Portentous cedars prophesying death!
She is interrupted by the unutterable melody. Luna recites a little snippet of Liber Israfel. Pisces manifests distress.
Venus
Brother Libra, what is this song?
Libra
My soul is an enchanted boat, Which, like a sleeping swan, doth float Upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing; And thine doth like an angel sit Beside a helm conducting it, Whilst all the winds with melody are ringing. It seems to float ever, for ever, Upon that many-winding river, Between mountains, woods, abysses, A paradise of wildernesses! Till, like one in slumber bound, Borne to the Ocean, I float down, around, Into a sea profound, of ever-spreading sound.
Meanwhile thy spirit lifts its pinions In music's most serene dominions; Catching the winds that fan that happy heaven. And we sail on, away, afar, Without a course, without a star, But by the instinct of sweet music driven; Till through Elysian garden islets By thee, most beautiful of pilots, Where never mortal pinnace glided, The boat of my desire is guided; Realms where the air we breathe is love, Which in the winds and on the waves doth move, Harmonising this earth with what we feel above.
We have past Age's icy caves, And Manhood's dark and tossing waves, And Youth's smooth ocean, smiling to betray; Beyond the glassy gulphs we flee Of shadow-peopled Infancy, Through Death and Birth, to a diviner day; A paradise of vaulted bowers, Lit by downward-gazing flowers, And watery paths that wind between Wildernesses calm and green, Peopled by shapes too bright to see, And rest, having beheld; somewhat like thee; Which walk upon the sea, and chant melodiously!
Venus manifests distress.
Pisces slips away to the throne of Luna.
Luna recites over the Conquering Melody: [something brief and flippant]
Venus
You insolent dog, come to heel and perhaps I'll only hurt you a little!
Luna ignores her.
Libra
Holier than pleasure is pain; nobler is abstinence than indulgence; from sloth and faith we turn to toil and science; from the tame victories of the body to the wild triumphs of the mind.
Venus
You lot are really starting to piss me off!
Libra
For from thee cometh the Utterance of the Present; but of the Future no word.
Venus
And thou wilt?
Libra
The Word.
Saturn comes out and dances his dance, and falls, clasping Libra's boot.
Venus
Who is this? These are not my dances; these footsteps tread not my measures; not me he worships by the paces and pauses of his feet!
Musicians play something wild and horrible as
Saturn drags Libra backwards into the dusk.
The Probationers group similarly; boys with boys and girls with girls.
Some, too, stand isolated.
Venus
Brother Taurus, art thou faithful, thou alone?
Taurus
Seductively yet ironically.
Knowest thou not me?
Venus
Yea, my best boy, and you'll get a reward for good behavior.
Taurus
Venus, my Mistress!
Venus
Come unto me!
She half rises and draws him to her.
Taurus
Within the veil?
Venus
There is no veil before my shrine!
As she reaches for him, he claps handcuffs on her;
all the Probationers jump up and put her in bondage while
Taurus slips out of his dress to reveal himself as Mercury, caduceus (which he gets from behind the throne) and all.
Taurus
In the Beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God; and the Word was God!
All come forward;
Saturn with Libra linked;
Luna and Pisces linked; and bow to him.
Luna
The Treason is accomplished.
Pisces
The mind is nobler than the body.
Saturn
Friendship is holier than love.
Libra
Nature is overcome by wit.
Pisces
How shall we adore thee?
Taurus
As you like it.
Saturn
What shall we sacrifice?
Taurus
What you will.
Musicians play a moto perpetuo (or something as near to it as possible)
All, bowing in adoration to Mercury.
Libra
Brother, what is the hour?
Pisces
Dawn.
Libra
Let us depart unto the work of the day.
All
Amen.
