Freddy Mercury, Zoroastrianism, lies and wonder.

[1000ShadesofGrey]

Mods and admin, feel free to delete this thread if you consider it unimportant.

This is as a rant, or maybe not.

I often think that what brought me to magick was the sense of wonder at life. Life is full of secrets, mysteries, puzzlement, small and grand miracles, pain, joy, hate, love, flesh, spirit, creatures great and small…Life is wonderful… and magickal.

A lot of years ago, after Freddy’s death I was reading on a newspaper about his funeral. And all of a sudden I red it : “ Freddy Mercury’s funeral was according to the Zoroastrian rite”.

I remember thinking : Zoroastrian ? WOW !
I was taught in school that the Zoroastrians were extinct. Christians on one side, Muslims on the other, military and religious pressure, and all of them had to convert, or die. Funny how you’re lied at in school. Freddy become to me an icon, a symbol, not only of good music, but of a past refusing to die, a symbol of improbability manifested.

Latter I learned that Zoroastrianism is one of the 10 top religions on the world, and that further enhanced the sense of wonder. One of the top 10 ! I probably knew several, and didn’t knew about it. Funny how you’re lied …

I don’t know if this thread/post is important or significant for anybody else. Just felt the need to share it with you.

[Ðanisty]

I'm not certain if anyone intended to lie to you. I had never heard of Zoroastrianism until college, but that's because we didn't talk about religion in school and it's not like there are a lot of Zoroastrian temples around here or anything. It seems morely likely to me that the people who taught you this were just uninformed...

[Dragon]

Standby for one of the weirdest stories you've ever heard. I was going to post this account under Alchemy in the Field as a case example, but since you brought it up so directly I feel I must address it forthright.

After this you may think me mad, but that's ok, I'm used to it, and those that know of my workings in this world will verify that ...well, yes, I'm a bit off my kettle lol, but it's considered on of my assets...I'm willing to to walk right up to the line, and leap over it with a party hat and a bottle of red, but not without some serious magickal backing and background.....So....Give me until tonight to get to my notes, and I'll be back to tell you....

The Story of the Release of Farrokh Bulsara from the Dark Realms -
Starring - the Soul of Freddie Mercury and the Music of Queen
Hermes
Anubis
Ahura Mazda
Ahriman
The Priesthood of Zarathustra
The Avestas
10 Archangels
The Tetractys of the Decad
The Good People of Las Vegas, Nevada
The Manitou
Co-starring Dragon and his (then) partner Safire.
Special guest appearances by the Horse Skeleton
and the Phantom Storm.

A Quinn Martin Production.

(After I get this regurgitated, we shall go into the history and practices of the Zaroasterian sect.)

Please stand by.........

Fr. An

[Dragon]

It was a dark and stormy night....table for Edward Bulwer-Litton! Or was it Snoopy?:cool:

Actually it was a bright and sunny day when the whole thing started, but it did culminate on a proverbial dark and stormy night...as do many things of this nature I suppose.

It all began around Beltaine 2001 when Safire (Enter the brunette) asked me a question about a song. She had heard this song on the radio some years ago by Queen, but was not able to identify it. It wasn't one of their pop hits, and she did not know the lyrics or the tune....or the title, but remembers that it struck a chord within her. The question to me was " can you find it for me?" I responded that I would try, and immediately began my search for it. For days I brought her samples of off-beat and little known Queen songs
for her to listen to, in hopes one of them was the "one". No luck. But in the process, we began to hear something in the music, something that tickled at the soul that wasn't immediately apparent in the pop songs we always hear on the radio. So we decided to investigate further, After about 2 weeks I came across the song she was after, it was called "Time", and she knew it the second she heard it.

At this point it should have been mission-complete-all-clear-stand-down, but that was NOT the case. In exploring the Queen catalog we had found something extraordinary, not just in the music of the band, but in the lives of the people in it; Particulary Freddie Mercury.
we dove into the biographies and histories of the members and were quite impressed with the level of academic knowledge and personal achievement. Hey, I know the rush of finding new music, and getting into something new, and at first it was like that, but then it turned to a deeper space around the end of May with a series of small events - We watched the video Champions of the World, which left us in tears, We heard the final album by Queen titled Made in Heaven, which filled us with awe, and we saw a photo from his funeral where he was being carried out by the priests, which evoked an unforseen emotion in me ..Rage. Or more specifically - Outrage. There was something there in the energy that was screaming of energetic injustice, and a spooky feel that did not sit right at all!

from here we proceeded to purchase the ENTIRE Queen catalog, and began breaking it down by era, mood, flavor, and content. The house was filled with it, it was in our heads at work, it was in our dreams, it was in our hearts. for those of you that are going " oh great, a raging groupie fanatic" Let me assure you that I have dealt with rock stars, bands, heads of state, and corporate fat cats all of my career, and although I loved some of them and had immense respect for the work, I was (and am) A consummate professional; one does not get the inner circles of entertainment by being a drooling fanboy. I feel it was important to state this before my next sentence..because here we go.

In the middle of it all we began to hear a message. Especially in the later albums after he knew he was dying. Through all the years of the band, one word was used more then any in their lyrical themes- Love. Not just hedonism, but a real love, of life, of others, of the world. When it clicked that there was something going on, that's when things got super strange. But first a little background.

Freddie Mercury, born Farokh Bulsara, was raised on Zanzibar for the first years of his life by the Zoroasterian priesthood of which his father was a member. A purist sect, they practice Persian fire magick based in a dichotomous cosmogeny ruled by Ahura Mazda and his nemisis Ahriman, spirits of ultimate good and evil that struggled for domination of the world. Currently there are between 40,000 to 60,000 official practioners of this form of fire worship in the world. Farokh was being groomed to be a priest in this faith.

Freddie was raised without electricity, running water, or any of the other amenities of modern urban life. Then when he was a pre-teen adolescent his family moved to London
and Freddy fell in love with contemporary British urban culture. His faith in Zoroaster's teachings were still at the core of his beliefs, his was still the Fire. But in expanding his awareness of other cultures he did something that the priesthood, including his father, would curse him for not just during his life, but after it as well.

He rebelled.

Here ends chapter one. I will field questions specifically as we go. just after the commercial we return with Chapter Two - Death, Taxes, and a Drunk Indian.

[MythMath]

More Mercurial Memories...!

MM

[Alisa]

Dragon, that was a fascinating post about Freddy Mercury. I, like so many others, love Queen's music and I have watched a couple of documentaries on Freddy. He is utterly fascinating. I can also relate to the obsessive pulling you experienced and the need to investigate. I do hope you share more.

[Dragon]

So in the middle of all this mess...the research, the music, the feeling of the "otherness" surrounding the pending 10th anniversary of Freddie's death, a drunk indian came to my door. He was a member of the Cheyenne People, and I had met him at work. He was a classic lost soul, been drunk for years and was sleeping beside the river. He was looking for something - anything - medicine, healing, direction; and seemed to think it was at our house. We saw a light in him somewhere, and things were so synchronous in our lives at this point we did not question his presence, although Safire did lay out a few ground rules before he crossed our threshold - He was never to show up drunk, and he was to respect the energy around the two small girls we were raising. He agreed and entered. We gave him a shower and a warm meal then sat down to smoke a pipe with him as Safire made him a medicine bag. He put it on and went to sleep. he left the next morning with thanks and smiles.....

and promptly dropped of the face of he planet.

3 days after he left I was out on the porch looking at the stars and listening to the wind in the trees while I was mulling over this whole Queen thing. The girls were inside. Then, out of nowhere I heard a sound that chills me to this day. It was an animal. But not one I have ever heard before or since, and I know the animal world pretty well.. It hit me emotionally on so many levels it is still hard to describe it, but I will try. It was like a lost cub crying for it's mother, except the cry was more of a scream, and the sound that came out of the trees in the darkness was like a combination of a bear cub, a human baby, a fox, and a woman screaming - all at once. I came right the f*ck out of my skin - then promptly snapped back into it so I could track it. It was in the bushes about 75 yds to my front, moving along the treeline. I did not move and tracked it auditorily until it moved away from the house towards the river...fading out after some minutes.

I went inside and informed Safire of what just happened. She threw up protection spells and we went to sleep. The next morning the 5 of us (Me, Safire, the two girls, and our cat) hit the trails so I could try to track this thing. After 10 minutes or so I found the trail. It was a track I had never seen. A quadraped With wicked long claws; not a cat, not a skunk, not a mink, not a bear. not a dog.. I drew a sketch and Safire and I agreed that the girls would not wander far from the house until we found the source.

every night for the next week this thing wandered up and down the trail by the river screaming its mournful cry. Safire had me on the porch with a shotgun for a couple days when it got too close to the house. I asked local trackers and hunters about it and they could not come up with anything either...although the sure wanted to know where it was at...HA! FAT CHANCE! I just let it ride.

Then it was gone. Just like that. We breathed a bit easier, and got back into our studies.

After another week, I was at work and Queen was humming in my head as usual. I was exhausted by this point and had gotten just about my fill. Along with all the music I was having mild halluciations/visions of faces and symbols and it was interfering with my daily routine. Finally after work, I went out to a little copse of trees by the worksite and looked up at the sky, With Freddie's songs in my head, I intentionally visualized the Caduceus and yelled -

What the F*CK do you want from me!! ....The singing in my head stopped.......?

A bird chirped. The wind blew through the trees in that timeless, earthly way and I got a seriously creepy feeling. I slowly looked down at the ground, and there under my feet, in full profile, half emerged from the soil, was the complete skeleton of a horse. I did not move. I took a breath. Then tried to divine the purpose of this sign. It took a minute then I got it on three levels. 1. I must travel to the land of the dead and free the trapped part of his soul. 2. I must help to perpetuate the work the he started just before he died, having something to to do with children. 3. I had to help get the last of his message out that was overlooked at his death.

ok...Headcheck. I've been in some strange shit before, but this was getting to the top of the heap. But I know to follow my instincts magickally so I shook my head, reached down and took the jawbone from the horse, left some tobacco, and went home.

I related to Safire what had happened, and we went through some readings. They reinforced my feelings on the skeleton, and we discussed options and tactics. After a while we walked into the kid's room (they were visiting Gramma) and two fleeting brown semi-transparent figures about a foot and a half in length shot out of the window. Safire stomped her foot and said "That's IT!" We put up spirit traps at the window and went outside. We were wondering about the rightness of our experiences when this fat rainbow shot out across the East from a storm moving across landscape, and we felt at peace and right with our Wills...."So be it" we said to ourselves. Then she turned to me and said -

"Oh yeah, the cat has disappeared."


Next episode...The Manitou and the Miracle.......stay tuned.

[Dragon]

"When?" I asked.

She replied that is was sometime during the day. I'm used to cats wandering in and out of my life, so I just shrugged and told her to just wait and see. Although in that particular household, cats were sacred guardians, so we both knew that underneath the plain conversation was a current of concern, especially considering current circumstances.

Life went on for some days in a kind of suspension, while I started to dig deeper into the history and practices of the Zaroasterian priesthood, Safire started to develop a model called "The Miracle" (After the title of a Queen album) for teaching parents through direct interaction with children in groups at public events; The girls played in the Colorado sun, and the cat remained missing.

Then, 3 or 4 days later, about 11:00 pm; I was having a smoke out on the porch when I heard another animal sound that I had never heard, except this one wasn't like the other one at all. In fact it was the diametric opposite. It was not lost, it was NOT scared, and it WAS hungry. It was a low and deep growl, to deep for a dog or a bear...I mean BIG.
You could hear the lung capacity....Massive. The it started walking, skirting along the back of the house, and my friends - it was bipedal. Based on the gait and acoustics I'd give it a mass of at least 500 lbs, and that's conservative. Way conservative.

All my hair stood right up, which is a freaky, visceral thing to have happen; my dna and my fight/flight circuits were alive! It's hard to really scare me, but there were children sleeping in the house, and this beast had my attention. I slowly walked into the house, locked the door, and took the safety off the shotgun.

Note: I am an ex-soldier, I have high protocols concerning weapons and have guarded children with firearms in my life. Homey clown doesn't just whip out a live weapon, especially around children, because my "tingle" went. This was real. Safire was calmly asking what it was...was it the creature from previous weeks, etc. And I almost said "no"...but in my gut I knew it was "yes".

"It's changed." I said. "It's bigger."

I told her to listen out from the porch after it had quieted down around the back of the house for a bit. She and I, and the shotgun, went out on the front porch. She listened around the house, and then it moved...it was shuffling and snuffling and growling. She gave me that "Oh sh*t!" look, and said "what the f*ck is that?", as we backstroked on the porch.

We proceeded promptly into the house, where she poured coffee while I went on all night guard duty. For 3 nights this thing wandered around the back of the house which was up against a gravel pit entrance, which I might add, I avoided like the plague...
I came home from work on the 4th day, and Safire came out of the house and smiled.

"The cat's back."

"When?" I asked. "About 3 hours ago." she replied.

I breathed a sigh of relief, this was a good omen. I moved towards the door and pow! The cat shoots out the front door, whips around the side of the house and blazes for the mounds of dirt between us and the gravel pit that all these recent animal noises had been coming from. My first thought was for the safety of the cat, knowing that thing was out there, and although I figured it was nocturnal, I didn't want to risk the kitty.

I almost caught up with it, but The cat stopped, looked back, and shot down this hole in a mound of dirt with a tree stump coming out of it. Safire and I arrived at the stump and were immediately impressed by a sense of utter hostility, and I knew we had found it's lair, but it seemed impossible considering the size of the beast we heard, and the size of the den. But there it was...we could feel it down there, so we backed off quietly and returned to the house....we wondered about the cat's part in all this.

That evening we did not hear a peep. Only the crickets and the frogs. Nada. Zip.

The very next morning, we were having coffee on the porch, when a figure appeared on the road and started towards our house. Shuffling along he found his way to our door, and as he got closer we recognized him. It was the Cheyenne - back from the beyond.

We asked him what happened, and he laughed and said our medicine worked like a charm! He had left the house, gotten a bottle, and was promptly arrested for public drunkeness. He spent 30 days in jail, and came out dry as a bone. He laughed again.
"Haven't been sober in 2 years, it was the only way, thanks."

We invited him in and told him of the recent goings on over coffee. He was quiet for a few, then became super somber. Then he said the he was a medicine man, a shieldmaker from Manitou Springs, and proceeded to pull out a notebook with all these medicine shield designs in it. He had done them in jail, as his power came back to him. He looked at me and asked for my drawing of the footprint of the animal, which I then pulled out. He then flipped through his shields and landed on a plain white one with a pawprint on it.

My pawprint.

At this point we knew we were in another realm. He said that his ally was the manitou, and that for the past 2 years he had not been able to hear it because he was drunk. To which I replied that it was looking for him and was right pissed off! I at last had a bead on what I was dealing with - never in my anticipations had I thought I would actually encounter one of these legendary spirits. But here it was, and instead of wanting to feed it or pet it or worship it; I wanted it gone. Flat out. This was a dangerous and powerful spirit with no contract with my house. Prease to make go bye bye.

He said that he would camp by the river and wait for it there.....so off he went.

That night we heard it move towards the river, and then, not a peep more.
The Cheyenne came back the next day, and we're all like....WELL?

He indicated all was good, they were one again and they will leave this area and go home to the Springs to continue his life's work. We said our goodbyes, and he left. Just like that. The creature(s) never returned. The Cheyenne never returned.

The cat never returned.

My studies into the Avesta went deeper, as I searched for a counter attack on the priesthood that had dared to attempt to imprison one of our treasured symbols of freedom, voice, and love - Freddie Mercury.

One was through direct workings, social imprinting and paradigm shifting through this little experiment called The Miracle, and the other was a purely magickal working, meant to undo their incantations, and let them know that he was not theirs. Not then, not now.

Not ever.


Next - the Miracle grows, and the battlefield is chosen.:twisted:


~D~

[Ci Celli Ddu]

Im enjoying this. When's the next installment?

[Dragon]

Wow, somebody is actually reading this madness? Maybe tonight...I'm leaving for Fl in the am...I'll see if I can sneak in a bit of typing if my thumb will let me...I got it crushed a couple weeks ago and it still kinda hurts.

Stay tuned.

~D~

[Ci Celli Ddu]

Wow, somebody is actually reading this madness? Maybe tonight...I'm leaving for Fl in the am...I'll see if I can sneak in a bit of typing if my thumb will let me...I got it crushed a couple weeks ago and it still kinda hurts.

Stay tuned.

~D~

Wow, you type with your thumb? I'm a one finger typer myself :)

[Dragon]

Wow, you type with your thumb? I'm a one finger typer myself :)


IfIdon'tallthewordsjuststartrunningtogether....it' sthatstupidspacebarthingylol....

[Dragon]

Safire and I were always into the Beatles, so we decided to take John's advise and think globally, act locally. Ok, our Western Colorado near broke butts were not going to save all the children in Africa, but we could contribute to the cause by donating money from a benefit concert on the 10th anniversary of Freddies death featuring cover bands, drag queens, speakers, et al to the foundation that was formed the night of his tribute concert at Wembley Stadium, and which was now based in the chalet on Lake Geneva where the band had recorded the vocals for their final album (at the time yet to be released) Made in Heaven. We got in contact with them and began a conversation.

But all that was months down the road, and we needed a test field for our vision of helping children by helping their parents; by teaching the parents how to be better parents of not only their children, but any child around them. Also we would teach children directly to demonstrate to others (children and adults) what we were talking about. So we took $50.00 and went down to Walmart...

(yes they are an evil empire, but our budget needed the biggest bang for it's buck, and we figured the positive to negative energy ratios were worth any karmic debt we might have incurred; I personally have a different view on Karma, but that is another story, and we had to work and play well with others).

...we had a number of puzzles and art supplies at the house but we needed coolers, squirt guns, balloons, face paints, water, juice, crackers, and a few other knick knacks. We bundled up the two girls and the stuff and went to a small town festival to lay out.

We surrounded a tree with blankets, and set out boxes with crayons and coloring books, story books, toys, yarn, bubbles...you name it. We then sent the girls into the immediate crowd to bring playmates. It trickled for about an hour and then it just roared to life! We expected what we got at first, kids that were wandering. and others that were being mildly neglected by parents eager to shop the stalls without a bored and whiny kid hanging on them until the big payoff of sugar and rides. They started to come and a line formed for face painting, then they noticed all the stuff..and that was it...all over - right there. I painted for ten hours straight both days for free, bringing out the inner animal of each child and painting on their face, kids were in a collected group of painted personas running around screaming happily with bubbles in the air and squirt gun fights everywhere (it was July). At first the reaction of the crowd was..."ok, harmless hippies want to give up free babysitting, and we know where the kids are" kind of mentality, hell, the word got out and in a few hours parents across the festival were looking for the spot where the kids are so they could have a respite from their little monster (with affection).

The point was this - In the center of the storm was Safire, myself and the girls helping to establish communication between the children, teaching them fair play and non violence, patience, and love through sharing and appreciation. And the children went along with it, because we did not shout in anger, and we were able to demonstrate through examples in the group dynamic the truth of the reasons for our advise. In line for facepainting, or sitting with books, or sharing water and snacks; there was this conversation occurring, and everyone involved was very exited about it, and the way it was offered...a fun way!

It turned into its own event within the festival, we were throwing visible light for 30 meters, and within our bubble of the world Camelot came to be for just a brief glipse of time. Parents were happier, children were happier - many thanks came from many different altitudes. It became its own attraction really, people would sit and just watch the children play and learn, and in turn began to learn how to teach (at some point this group of little old ladies came over and gave us the old pat on the head. We were golden at that point). It was a miniture world where magic and fun and balance were maintained. And it was so easy...so simple.

All through the festival we kept getting the same two questions from the parents when they came back or after it had dawned on them what we were doing, and it was the two questions we had hoped would arise above the others - "How did you do all this?" and "Why did you do this?" Our two answers were consistant and and brutal.

"How did you do this?" -

"we went to Walmart and spent 50 bucks."

"..."

"Why did you do this?" -

"Because this weekend it was our turn to watch the kids."


"...oooooh..."


:confused:........:confused: ....... . .:confused: .. ..:o ..



It completely nuked them. We changed the vibration in that whole town just a little those days...just enough to nudge. and we counted it a success, as we packed up at the end, and took it down the hill. Mind you this was all inspired by my vision of Mercury, and Safire's interperation of the message in the music. This was the first battle, and we had won - we were on the right track; Mercury had prevailed.

My next move was how to figure out how to move against the spells laid on the spirit of Mercury in the Zaroasterian rituals and incantations. Because they didn't just imprison a single soul; they were holding down an essential part of the "feel" of the Spirit of Mercury and the Godforms it manifests as. I possessed at this point the bulk of the tools that I possess now, I had been working the TwinStar for about 10 years at this point, and had a good grasp of Western Ceremonial and Hermetic disciplines; the Names of God, and The Word of Perfection, and the Word of Completion. With an array of pantheonistic and archetypical cosmogenies, and a strong grasp of elements in nature as laid out in the I Ching, The Tai Hsaun Ching, Witchcraft, Tibetan and Hindu worlds, and especially ancient Near and Middle East mythological/cultural and symbolic studies. So really to me a face was a face in terms of Dark Lords and Lords of Light once we strip to its essential spirit as a pattern in nature..(I have not forgotten the Ladies of Light and Dark, just in this particular scenario it was a God- Father/Son dynamic, although as always the Goddess had a hand in this in her own way by the end...natch...)..as I used primarily math, form, waves and particles at core; although being an artist as well I like to give them assigned morphogenic forms i.e. Angels, Jinn, Fey, Gods, Elementals, etc, etc, etc. to "Beguile with Style" :cool: . I could weave in almost if not anything at this point. Through the study of the history of the cult of Ahura Mazda and their worship of fire, and by pouring through the Avesta, I began to see what I wanted my approach to be.

So we knew we needed a bigger model to play with..like a city next time. We had a festival to throw, and I needed a worthy battleground. We did readings, skryings, pendulum work, etc, and came up with the same answer every time...

Las Vegas.

( I Groaned...I know Vegas)

Yup. Las freakin' Vegas. Not Prague, or London, or Greece, or Iran, or New York.

Vegas.

And then it made sense. Sin City baby! Of course! The Gates of Hell! Decadance and dreams!
Walk right up to the front door and fucking knock knock! If one is to do an underworld journey, it truly is more polite to use the front door. It shows integrety and courage...foolishness most times, but if caught trying to sneak in the cooks entrance it will be assumed one is a thief, and are to be dealt with accordingly....:twisted:
The irony is I intended to both "back door" and pull rank on the symbols and prayers of the Priesthood, but I'll get into that next time. It was based on an understanding of Mercury itself, and his relation to the Realm of the Dead. and his ability to interweave and move between different universes. Especially Greece and Egypt in this instance.

Please remember to keep breaking down the symbols and this whole process metaphysically, and to keep your eye on the quantum mechanics of this whole affair..no matter how odd the story gets. It has taken me a while for this installment, but I will try to be faster on the next one. My wrist hurts now, and I need to soak it...but I will be back.

I knew when she said Vegas that there was something to it, because I remembered three key things that seemed useful, but became intimately involved in the project at the symbolic level, both for Freddie, and us.

1. The Pyramid of Light that housed statues of the major Egyptian gods.
2. A place in the desert named The Valley of Fire.
3. And a statue of Hermes upon the New York New York building.

we mobilized and moved to Vegas at the end of the month. It was now August, 2001.


Next episode - The Bargain of the Gods and the Evil Vision.


~D~

[MythMath]

These installments are great...

Evocative like an old radio drama or
an ocassionally-recurring dream...
________

You're the Sultan of Serials... ;)

{I'm giving out nicknames tonight...nicknox}

[deviadah]

Despite reservations from the other members, Mercury chose the name "Queen" for the new band. He later said about the band's name, "I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it." At around this time, he also legally changed his name. - source (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Mercury)

Anahita is a goddess of the Zoroastrian religion... She is also called Nahid. In modern Persian, the name Nahid literally means Venus... Anahita has some parallels with the Near Eastern goddess referred to as the "Queen of Heaven". The Sumerians referred to that goddess as Inanna. Semitic peoples such as the Babylonians and Phoenicians called her Ishtar or Astarte. - source (http://www.infohub.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5582)

Queen = Ishtar = Isis = Ng
Mercury = Hermes = Thoth = Ng

Well, even if it is stretching it I still think, though, that all of this possess A Kind of Magic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9hqCCbl-2Q)!

:cool:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000000OE7.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[MythMath]

Next episode - The Bargain of the Gods and the Evil Vision.


~D~

More, dammit, please... :yes:

YouTube - queen - killer queen

[Dragon]

Ok, gimme a day or two and I'll put in the next section.

Nice to know someone actually cares about the story. ;)

Btw, nice work on your imagery lately MM, solid contributions to thr realm of mandala/sigil/mirror.

Laters,

~D~

[Dragon]

We arrived in Vegas on a warm July morning, after driving all night through Utah we were glad to see our destination. we were very tired people, but a lot needed to happen in short order. I work in entertainment, and had hubbed out of Vegas for a while, so getting full time work, although challenging on such short notice, would come with time; in the short term - I had cash, and some part time work lined up - we would survive financially (although the heat is murder there...).


It took me a couple of hours to line up an apartment with A.C. near the airport ( I flew to a lot of my gigs at that time)and boom - we had a command center for our endeavors. We started pulling readings and exploring the town immediately. I kinda knew my way around from working there so much, but it is an intricate place for so few square acres, so there was much to learn.
Safire began mounting a campaign with the local radio stations for the festival, and I started cruising the iconography.

I found myself inside the Luxor Hotel. A giant glass and steel pyramid with statues of Egyptian gods and symbols everywhere. I decided that I would do my offerings and trance work here, using the Egyptian pantheon for my symbolic language. Anubis in particular was my target. As an agent/extension/embodiment of the Cosmic Dark/Earth Lord he would frame my thought and intent in a clean fashion. So I returned one night with flowers fully aware that I was about to throw down in public. I was discreet, yet thorough, security never approached me once, and I never gambled, although I did buy a drink. I dropped a flower and a plea for patience and understanding at the feet of the gods I thought were relevant to the situation, and the approached the twin statues of Anubis. They are beautiful, large, and well crafted. At first there was a riddle, which statue was the real Anubis? I was standing in the House of the Moon, while my mind swung back and forth - jackal/dog/jackal/dog/jackel... and then it struck me - who am I? What do I stand by? Well the answers would be that I am The Magus, and I believe that all things collect and synergize through Will. So I chose all and laid flowers at the feet of both statues and unfolded my focus. I had preset some of my safeguards before approaching the hotel that night, so I was able to enter into a mild to medium trance state to lower the filters between my conscious and subconscious mind.

When one is speaking with the gods, it is a little different then being ridden by them, although there are strong similarities in how the mind engages the godform...it's like looking at yourself/it looking at itself from both sides of the mirror. So although the conversation was pulsing back and forth in waves of energy, the people swirled around me like I wasn't even there. I was on the path to the Dark Lord in the/of the Underworld. A modern day Orpheus looking to free a soul.

the English translation went kind of like this -

Ah. The Jeff that is Dragon's/good to see you Dragon/You are you (Jeff/human/being in time - That was the correct choice. why are you/am I here?

Thank you. I am here on an errand, with wings at my feet and life in my hands.
I have a request/would like an opportunity.

Speak/be/(curiousity)/ you have my attention/ you don't usually do this, so it might be interesting.

I am here for justice, all men fall, but few men rise in death. One did, but was imprisoned into the earth when by right of his work he should be in ascension. I do not seek resurrection, but freedom for the dead and the proper placement of his frequency/disposition/chord in the progressions of karma/balance.

Continue.

I have come for the soul of Mercury/a missing/not missing piece of the archetype/ godform. Farroukh Bulsara, known to people as Freddie Mercury.

I should kill you/what you want is rarely granted/how strong is your position?

Strong.

You are not alone. Is there integrity in the circle/who is with you?

Safire. The young girls are innocent.

But involved.

Yes. But I will bear full responsibility if it fucks up.

For you and for Safire?

Yes.

Can you trust her?

I love her/

Can you trust her?

I have to.

So be it. I see far/you might have a small chance of success - even if you fall. But if the circle breaks, I will have my way with you.

Yes.

What do you intend to do/what is it specifically you ask of me?

Please. It is important for my friend Freddie/for peace/for justice.
I will do all the work, just leave the gate open enough to allow me to do my work, and if I get a handle on the spiral/his chord/invoke the right combination of energies not to actively impede me.

Stand here human/other/small me for a short span - I will ask permission/for harmony/the part of me that is bigger.

...ask? Ask whom/what?

She. She has been watching through me. You had forgotten perhaps that your invocations attract attention far up the ladder (At this point I could have sworn I heard a chuckle, and an Anubis chuckle is NOT funny when you are the chucklee).

So I stood there and sipped my drink..waving like wheat in the winds of time, and awaited the presence to return/refocus. It did.

Permission granted. Conditionally. First, Safire must remain true to you, this is a sealed circle so far, and if she proves unfaithful, be it on your head. ( I was chilled by this knowing that the Goddess had cut to our weakest point.) Second, you must see it through to whatever end - if you stop, not only will the operation/feat fail, I will take your life. Are we clear/of one accord/what is your reply?

We are/I will/so be it.
Thank you.

We'll see.

I could feel the other icons I had laid flowers at rumbling in the Boardroom, and knew I was now on the razors edge. I drew myself back down to Earth, poured the last of my drink at the foot of the statue, and walked out.

I reported back to Safire all that had transpired, and she was both elated and a little vexed the Goddess had singled her out in all this (it had to do with her past and her karma, it was not the first time she had been tested like this), but stuck by her promises to me, and said she was on board for it all, knowing this was serious shit, and when missions like this popped, the first place you’re going to get kicked is the weakest spot you have, in the case of Safire ..her word. In my case, the ability to complete things regardless of feeling.



So back at the apt. Safire continued to establish connections in media and talent, and I started to do some site surveys for the fest, as well as working the arcane shit after the kids were in bed. I would establish a circle of 10 quartz crystals and invoke the 10 archangels of the Tree into them, then sealing the whole thing in with the word of completion and the TOtD. This set protections and filters up to protect Safire and the little ones while I sorted through various Persian rights, incantations, ans exorcisms.



I was determined to turn their own magick against them by postulating that what they had done was was wrong by their hierarchy/cosmogony/world structure. Backed with the connection I have with the Triumvirate I felt I could re-ignite this section of the Sphere of Mercury, and cancel out the Qlippothic imbalance present in the situation. I was dealing with the machinery of Daath/Malkuth itself in symbolic forms, and was looking to undo a schism.



We were rumbling right along until we woke up one morning and pulled a reading that was by any standard prophetic. Massive darkness and death in the future and the below. You could literally see the fucker rising up in the path. we checked and rechecked and came to a quick decision, we had to get the girls out of Vegas, something very bad was about to happen in a week or two, no more, and we needed them tucked safely into the Rocky Mountains. So in a few days we packed Safire and the girls back to Colorado, until whatever it was passed. I would remain in the trenches and continue with the mission on the ground, and Safire would continue to work her end from CO.



About a week later I was up with a friend having a drink, I had finally landed a full time job and was going out on my first tour with the new company in two days, so we were celebrating a little. I had gotten off the phone with Safire a few hours ago, and all was well and on schedule, but for the vision of shadows that loomed from below and afore....

..on the wall there was this really ugly oil on canvas done all in burnt oranges, mud browns, scarred blacks, and sickly yellows. It was a painting of New York City in the future; some hundreds of years had passed and the city was rotting away in industrial decay and smoking ruins; you could see one of the twin towers half gone, and the other mostly destroyed. I looked over to the man I was with, a Druj no less, and said -




"It will probably look like that someday if we don't change our ways."

"Maybe." he said, " I would hate to live in that world though - could you imagine?"



we talked a bit more about the painting and other things before he left, and then I went to sleep.




It was just before midnight, September 10th, 2001.






Next - long departures and sudden returns.


~D~

[sethur]

When it was first announced that Freddy was to be buried according to Zoroastrian rites I was confused, since Zoroastrians don't bury their dead, they leave them atop Towers of Silnce and let the vultures at them. However, in Europe this is illegal so they have adjusted.

Several newspapers knew nothing about Zoroastrianism so just printed that it was a religon that he had converted to (which you can't do) like "just another weirdo rock star joining some cult". They never apologised.

However, I knew Zoroastrianism hadn't died out, since the Parsees of India are descended from Iranian refugees, and I have been to a service at their centre in Hampstead in London. Odd, half the congregation were from Iran, the other half from India. The young men were divided into very meek looking Indian boys dressed in white, and young, sharp Iranians dressed in trendy suits.

The religion that some people thought had died out "Christians on one side, Moslems on the other" is Mandeanism, the last surviving gnostic faith, but they are still around, I helped them establish their first UK charity.

[Wolfman]

Freddy Mercury was one of the most talented artists of all time in my opinion. Every time I hear 'The Show Must Go On' I think about him and the iron will he must've had to endure as he did in his last days.

More than once have I raised a glass to Freddy.

Wolfman