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| The Grey Pilgrim |
Matthew 3:11
King James Version 1611
Martin :
You got everything Money can buy --
Except what it can't.
It's Pride. Pride is what got your ass outta here, and losing it is what brought ya back.
But People Like You, they need to be Tested. They need A Challenge.
Mason 'The Line' Dixon :
But you know that ain't never gonna happen.
There ain't anybody out there, Martin.
Martin :
There's always somebody out there. Always.
And when that time comes
and you find Something standing in front of you, Something that ain't running
and ain't backing up and is hitting on you
and you're too damn tired to breathe --
You find That Situation on you --
That's good, 'cause that's
Baptism Under Fire!
Oh, you get through that and you find the only kind of respect that matters in this damn world: self-respect.
From the lowest dungeon to the highest peak I fought with the Balrog of Morgoth...
Until at last I threw down my enemy and smote his ruin upon the mountain side...
Darkness Took Me.
And I strayed away through Thought and Time.
Stars wheeled overhead, and every day was as long as a Life Age of The Earth...
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| The Grey Magickian |
But it was not The End.
I felt life in me again.
I've been sent back until my task is done.
"But this fiery Isis is also connected with initiation, magic, and healing. In Plutarch’s rendition of the Isis myth, Isis nurses the child of Queen Astarte during the day, but at night magically sets the child aflame, making him immortal. The Graeco-Egyptian magical papyri suggest an explanation for this fire magic Isis works on the queen’s son. The Charm of the Syrian Woman of Gadara says, “the most majestic Goddess’ child [Horus] was set aflame as an initiate.” Initiation is here seen as purification by fire so that the mortal parts of the initiate are burned away, allowing her or him to more fully understand the ways of the Deities.
Some scholars believe that this initiatory fire magic may have had its origins in Egyptian healing magic and what they call the “burning Horus” formula. This refers to an Egyptian convention that connects poisoning with fire. In the same way that the uraeus spits fire, when Horus is poisoned, he is also, in a sense, burned. Burn-healing formulae identify the sufferer with Horus and say that “a fire has fallen into” Horus, that is, the sufferer. They invoke Isis to put out the fire and heal the burn. The initiatory connection may come from the fact that the poison-burned Horus experiences near-death before being healed by Isis. Mystery initiates, too, regularly undergo symbolic near-death experiences before being saved by the Goddess or God of the Mystery Rite.
Isis is Iset Wosret and the fire-spitting Cobra Goddess. She is the Mistress of Light and Flame Who slays evil and protects us all. And She is the one Who not only initiates us by fire, but also warms us by Her illuminating flame."
I was born in a Crossfire Hurricane
And I howled at the Mourning, Driving Rain
I was raised by a Toothless, Bearded Hag
I was schooled with a strap right across my back
I was drowned, I was washed up and left for dead
I fell down to my feet and I saw that they bled
I frowned at the crumbs of a crust of bread
I was crowned with a spike right through my head
But its all right now
In fact its a gas
Isis was known also for being both the Mother of Life and the Crone of Death.
And I howled at the Mourning, Driving Rain
I was raised by a Toothless, Bearded Hag
I was schooled with a strap right across my back
I was drowned, I was washed up and left for dead
I fell down to my feet and I saw that they bled
I frowned at the crumbs of a crust of bread
I was crowned with a spike right through my head
But its all right now
In fact its a gas
Isis was known also for being both the Mother of Life and the Crone of Death.
Her immense powers earned her the titles of "The Giver of Life" and "Goddess of Magic".
Her best known story illustrates why she is simultaneously known as a creation goddess and as a destruction goddess.
Isis was the Goddess of the Earth in ancient Egypt and loved her brother Osiris. When they married, Osiris became the first King of Earth.
Their brother Set, immensely jealous of their powers, murdered Osiris so he could usurp the throne.
Set did this by tricking Osiris into stepping into a beautiful box made of cedar, ebony and ivory that he had ordered built to fit only Osiris.
Set then sealed it up to become a coffin and threw it into the river.
The river carried the box out to sea; it washed up in another country, resting in the upper boughs of a tamarisk tree when the waters receded.
As time passed, the branches covered the box, encapsulating the god in his coffin in the trunk of the tree.
In a state of inconsolable grief, Isis tore her robes to shreds and cut off her beautiful black hair.
"Buffy! You cut your hair!"
When she finally regained her emotional balance, Isis set out to search for the body of her beloved Osiris so that she might bury him properly.
The search took Isis to Phoenicia where she met Queen Astarte.
Astarte didn't recognize the goddess and hired her as a nursemaid to the infant prince.
Fond of the young boy, Isis decided to bestow immortality on him.
As she was holding the royal infant over the fire as part of the ritual, the Queen entered the room.
Seeing her son smoldering in the middle of the fire, Astarte instinctively (but naively) grabbed the child out of the flames, undoing the magic of Isis that would have made her son a god.
No second chances...?
No second attempt to complete the ritual...?
Would he have aged normally or will he be as Horus, an eternal infant godling...?
When the Queen demanded an explanation, Isis revealed her identity and told Astarte of her quest to recover her husband's body.
As she listened to the story, Astarte realized that the body was hidden in the fragrant tree in the center of the palace and told Isis where to find it.
Sheltering his broken body in her arms, the goddess Isis carried the body of Osiris back to Egypt for proper burial.
There she hid it in the swamps on the delta of the Nile river. Unfortunately, Set came across the box one night when he was out hunting.
Infuriated by this turn of events and determined not to be outdone, he murdered Osiris once again: this time hacking his body into 14 pieces and throwing them in different directions knowing that they would be eaten by the crocodiles.
This is where the Adventists, Watchtower Society, and Prince get their doctrine of the indivisibility of Body, Mind and Spirit.
The goddess Isis searched and searched, accompanied by seven scorpions who assisted and protected her.
Each time she found new pieces she rejoined them to re-form his body. But Isis could only recover thirteen of the pieces.
The fourteenth, his penis, had been swallowed by a crab so she fashioned one from gold and wax.
Then inventing the rites of embalming, and speaking some words of magic, Isis brought her husband back to life.
[ Kinda...But just for one last visit. ]
Magically, Isis then conceived a child with Osiris, and gave birth to Horus, who later became the Sun God.
Assured that having the infant would now relieve Isis' grief, Osiris was free to descend to become the King of the Underworld, ruling over the dead and the sleeping.
His spirit, however, frequently returned to be with Isis and the young Horus who both remained under his watchful and loving eye.
