FOI Online Liturgy
Urania, Ceremonial Magic of the Goddess
By: Olivia Robertson

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PRIESTESS: Wise Goddess Sarasvati, Mother of the Vedas, Deity of all arts and sciences, White Goddess, Tongue of Fire, The Golden Eye, inspire us with Your secret learning and esoteric wisdom. With You is the peacock with his spreading tail, whose golden eyes are the spheres of being shining in the curving tides of space. You ride upon the swan, who sees her reflection in Your river and who rises into the sky, white wings outspread in freedom. From Your river of creation come the lotus flowers of suns and planets, and You play the vina with the Rhythm of the Universe.

ORACLE: Well have you listed my attributes and gifts, so that it would appear that you have left Me little to add! However, not always in profound if obscure symbology nor in abstruse magical and occult practices are the inner mysteries of being to be found. It is as simple to experience the Cosmic Rhythm through the fast beating of one's heart at the unexpected arrival of a lover than to sit for hours in meditation counting the intake, holding and expulsion of one's breath! Admittedly such techniques produce revelation of other spheres, by inhibiting the intrusion of the senses. But you are invoking a Goddess, not Siva nor any other God! And the way of a Goddess is more likely to be the expansion of consciousness through the awareness of what is under one's nose, rather than by contemplating its tip for many hours! A pregnant woman aware of her unborn baby is as open to divine consciousness as much - or indeed more - than a Yogi in the Lotus position meditating on his navel. I say to you look, listen, hear, smell and touch with full attention during one day. If you clean a room, write a letter or dig in a garden with total attention, without the clouding of worries, hopes or fancies, you will, through awareness of the present, pass through seconds into Eternity. For Eternal Reality is experienced Now - not in the past or future. Through this doorway of "Now", the juxtaposition of your consciousness and time and space, you will gain not only full consciousness of your past and of your future: you will also gain some experience of greater spheres of Divine Being.

You are through your aura, centre of your own universe, if only you will allow yourself to enjoy it! However, do not permit any success in attaining wider consciousness make you selfish or spiritually proud. The true mystic becomes increasingly sensitive to the auras of others, whether human, animal or plant, and honours and loves them all as part of our universal family.

ON A WHITE COVERED ALTAR LET THERE BE SIX WHITE CANDLES, A SILVER WAND, A SMALL GONG, INCENSE, A CHALICE OF WATER. AT THE CORNERS THERE ARE 4 MANDALAS, THE SYMBOLS OF URANUS AND PISCES R. AND SIGNS OF YIN-YAN AND CANCER L. ALL PARTICIPANTS WEAR GREEN AND GREY ROBES. 2 ENCHANTRESSES HAVE SILVER CROWNS AND 2 MAGICIANS HAVE SILVER HEAD-DRESSES: ALL 4 USE SILVER WANDS. ON THE TEMPLE FLOOR ROUND ALTAR IS MARKED THE SIGIL OF URANUS, WITH THE TERMINALS OF THE H. AT THE 4 QUARTERS. 2 ENCH. STAND BY ALTAR N.W. AND S.E. 2 MAGIS. ARE AT THE TERMINALS OF THE VERTICAL LINE OF THE SYMBOL AND 6 PARTICIPANTS STAND AT THE SIX TERMINALS OF THE H.

1ST MAGI: Enchantresses and Magicians on the Quest for freedom of the will and the power to use it well, we are gathered in this holy temple to practise the planetary Magic of Uranus the Magician and of Sarasvati of the Cosmic Rhythm. Our Intention is to join in harmony two cycles, the waning sphere of the Iron Age and that of the incoming Space Age.

2ND MAGI: So that we may understand not only the outer but also the inner meaning of overlapping cycles, who will enact the role of the Neophyte?

1ST PART: I will enact that part.

1ST MAGI: So be it. Know that the Divine Language of Symbols is comprehended throughout all spheres. Symbols not only have power within themselves, but also are the keys that unlock each successive door that guards the inner spheres. Each object on a lesser plane is a symbol on a greater level. Reality increases with consciousness. Every bird and tree here is a symbol of its greater being in the world of eternity. So with ourselves. Our bodies are a symbol for our souls in heaven, and our souls symbolize our spirits in realms of everlasting beauty.

NEO: I observe this phenomenon in everyday life, but in an unpleasant direction, in reverse. As mankind deteriorates, humans resolve themselves, animals and plants into symbols such as statistics, and formulae. Hence a man is translated into a series of numbers in a computer, and a bird is a formula of molecules! I would learn the nobler use of symbols and so expand my consciousness.

1ST ENCH: The magic has already begun in our souls through your true intent. Let us invoke the Deities. (1ST ENCH. MAKES SIGN OF PISCES, E.) I invoke the Divine Urania, immortal Muse, who teaches us magic.

MUSIC.

2ND ENCH. (TO NEO.): Open thy soul to true magic. Come thou, let us begin with the Muses who gladden Olympus with their songs, telling of things that are and that shall be, and that were aforetime. Unwearying flows the sweet sound from their lips, and Zeus the loud thunderer is glad at the lily-like voice of the Goddess as it spreads abroad, and the peaks of snowy Olympus resound, and the homes of the Immortals. And they uttering their immortal voice, celebrate in song first of all the reverend race of the Gods from the beginning, those whom Gaia and Uranus begot, and the Gods sprang from these, givers of good things. Come with Cleio and Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene and Terpsichore, and Erato and Polyhymnia and Calliope.

1ST MAGI. (MAKES SIGN OF URANUS, N.): I invoke the God Uranus!

2ND MAGI. (TO NEO.): Learn of our origin, veiled in myth. Gaia the Earth Goddess gave birth to Uranus the Sky God and together in marriage they ruled over the whole world. And they begot the Hundred- handed race; Briareus, Gyes, Cottus, who were unsurpassed in size and might. After these, Gaia bore Uranus the Cyclopes; Arges, Steropes, Brontes, of whom each had One Eye on his forehead. And then Gaia bore him the race of Titans: Oceanus, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, Iapetus and Cronus: and also the Titanides: Tethys, Rhea, Themis, Mnemonsyne, Phoebe, Dione and Thia. And from these were born the Olympians who brought forth the demigoddesses and demigods. These in their turn produced the race of humans, as well as many a tree and a waterfall, and bear and spider, such as Cassiopeia and Arachne. So all stem from Gaia and from her son Uranus.

1ST ENCH. (MAKES SIGN OF PISCES, W.): I invoke the Goddess Sarasvati!

2ND ENCH. (TO NEO.): Open your spirit to the Cosmic heart-beat.

“Nor aught nor naught existed; yon bring sky
Was not, nor heaven's broad woof outstretched above;
What covered all? what sheltered? what concealed?
Was it the waters' fathomless abyss?
There was not death, hence was there naught immortal,
There was no light of night, nor light of day.
Aditi breathed breathless in Herself;
Other than Her there nothing since has been.
Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled,
In gloom profound, an ocean without light;
The germ that still lay covered in the husk,
Burst forth, one Nature, from the mother's heat.
Then first came Love upon it, the new germ
of mind; yea, poets in their hearts discerned
Pondering this bond between created things
And uncreated. Came this ray from earth
Piercing and all-pervading, or from heaven?
The seeds were sown, and Mighty Powers arose,
Nature below, and Power and Will above.
The heart-beat of the Universe began.”

1ST MAGI. (MAKES SIGN OF YIN-YANG, S.): I invoke the God Brahma.

2ND MAGI. (TO NEO.): Learn of the Aeons of Brahma. The Goddess Sarasvati brings life to the universe through the heart-beat. Her Divine Consort the God Brahma bestows upon the universe measurement. He divides His eternity into periods of a hundred years of activity and a hundred years of recreation. These we call Manvantara and Mahapralaya. A hundred years of Brahma is on earth 4,320,000,000 years. He chooses to divide a hundred years into days and nights, which we call Kalpas, and these on earth last 4,320 million years each. Moreover he further segments his days into quarters and these we term Yugas. The Golden Age, Krita, lasts 1,728,000 years and the Dharma thereof is justice and has four legs and is white. And the second Yuga is called Treta-yuga and lasts 1,296,000 years and has for Dharma Virtue which is a quarter, and has three legs and is red. Virtue is halved. And the Third Yuga is called Dwapara-yuga and is 864,000 years long, and the Dharma thereof has 2 legs and is yellow. And Virtue is halved. And the fourth Yuga is our own and is termed the Kali-yuga and lasts 432,000 years. The Dharma is black and has 1 leg. The age is degenerate. Between each Kalpa water flows for a thousand years and upon the water floats the Golden Cosmic Egg.

1ST MAGI. (TO NEO.): What do these accounts of the Deities bring to your understanding?

NEO: Incomprehension! What can these family lists of Uranus, of Mythical beings with a hundred arms, and one-eyed giants mean to anyone in this age? And the mathematics of the ages of Brahma could make no sense to the science of this age - how can an era have legs and a colour?

1ST MAGI: Have you put aside all knowledge of symbols? Look now on this astrological symbol for Uranus and relate it to the genealogical lists of Brahma and also to the mathematics of the Ages of Brahma.

NEO: My mind sees nothing but a capital H. with a vertical line terminating in a small circle, marked on a piece of wood on the altar, and chalked upon our temple floor! There can be no relevance. But if the Enchantresses can weave a rhythm upon the dancing floor, inspiration of divine correspondences may come to me, through the Muse Terpsichore!

MUSIC. VAUGHAN WILLIAMS’ “6TH SYMPHONY”, BACH'S “MINOR FUGUE” OR DEBUSSY'S "LA MER" ARE RELEVANT. ENCHANTRESSES AND MAGIS WEAVE A SERPENT DANCE AROUND THE SIGN ON THE FLOOR.

NEO: Realization comes to me! In vision I saw two spheres draw near and overlap, joined by a girdle of power. The power moved from point to point of the H. And the two uprights became the pillars of the Tree of Life. But as the Power girdled the pillars, they bent and were two half circles - and thus were transformed into the symbol of Pisces upon the Altar! And I myself was well represented by the little circle that moved up and down the vertical line, and in this way I was in harmony with both spheres, enabled to travel by the girdle of force. I contain and am contained by both worlds. And each successive Age of Brahma was represented by interlaced circles and these told me my own origin and the origin of us all. I saw how in prime simplicity we went on four legs, and how in this present age we have lost knowledge of our divinity. So we all of us are the Sudra, weary labourers. Finally the symbols of circles and the girdle of power were surrounded by the Golden Cosmic Egg which contains the seeds of all beings, travelling through the cycles of the spheres.

1ST MAGI: You have understood according to your need. Take this Magician's wand that you may delineate the language of symbols with the wisdom of the Magus. (HANDS NEO. WAND.)

1ST ENCH: You listened to the Invocations to the Goddesses and of their attributes. What did this mean to you?

NEO: Poetry pleases but does not explain. Beauty affects me because it suggests some other and better world, but that is all. May the Enchantresses lead the weaving of the Spiral Dance of Yin-Yang, so that I may learn more of the Goddesses.

MUSIC. ENCHANTRESSES BEGIN A SPIRAL DANCE WITH MAGIS. FIRST INWARDS AND THEN OUTWARDS AROUND THE FLOOR SYMBOL.

NEO: I receive true vision! I saw this enclosed sign of Yin-Yang on the altar, a black curved shape entwined with white form. And it became the embryo within the womb vibrating with a heart-beat. And as a child came forth from this womb - the Yin-Yang symbol burst open and became the Sign of Cancer beside it! No longer enclosed within the bonds of contained love, the child broke out into greater love and more splendid awareness. I realized that the Greater contains the Lesser, and that the soul obtains liberation through expanding into ever widening spheres of consciousness. In the centre of the widening spirals I saw the Goddess Sarasvati upon a lotus covered river, and she was holding a vina and was seated upon a swan. My soul flies with her...

1ST ENCH: Yet you are but gazing upon two symbols painted upon pieces of wood, which until now have meant nothing to you! You have attained awareness according to the divine will. Accept this gong so that when you strike it you will hear the heart-beat that brings life to all that is.

ENCH. HANDS NEO. GONG.

1ST MAGI: Let us perform the Spiral Dance of Urania to the music of Sarasvati.

INDIAN MUSIC. ALL DANCE IN SPIRAL MOVEMENT FROM POINT TO POINT OF THE FLOOR SYMBOL UNTIL POWER MAY BE FELT AS A SILVER TINGLING AND RAINBOW COLOURS OF PALE GREEN, SILVER AND SOFT VIOLET MAY BE SEEN FLOWING FROM DANCER TO DANCER.

1ST ENCH: Let us contemplate the Magic of Uranus and of Sarasvati.

2ND ENCH. PLACES WATER ON FOREHEAD OF EACH PRACTITIONER.

CIRCLE. CONTEMPLATION. REPORTS.

1ST MAGI: Fellow practitioners, let us give thanks to Urania and to Uranus: to Sarasvati and to Brahma.