The Esoteric Record [of the Thirteenth Working]

January 26, 1914. Began about 11:30, ended about 12:30.
      After the _Accendat_, O.S.V. did an inspired dance of the seductive-fugitive
order. After the _Haud secus_ the Brethren revelled in the Juppiterian atmosphere,
and then in talking about this O.S.V. remembered he had been a priestess in what
he thought was Greece of an orientalised type. L.T. recognized this as Crete.
O.S.V. agreed.
      L.T. saw a green figure constantly dancing around the Altar.
      The ceremony was of initiation; this dance was the temptation. Neophytes
were accepted if laughingly indifferent, or if, on the other hand, the refused
to be played with, and violated the woman no matter how she struggled. Half
measures were punished by having their testicles removed by a special instrument
on the principle of a candle-snuffer, but with a regular cup instead of a guard.
After the operation the instrument was thrust upon the brazier, and the man was
thrust into the earthquake fissure, where he perished miserably. When all the
flesh was gone, and the bones had dropped to the bottom, the next initiation
could take place. This Temple had pillars, a black floor shining like glass,
mirrors to render the chase difficult. There were three priests, the lion-mask,
the bull-mask, and the eagle-mask. The initiate himself was the Fourth Kerub.
These mysteries are the same, or very nearly the same -- as the Samothracian
mysteries.
      O.S.V. had 28 hand-maidens. She was dressed in silver tissues,
representing the way in which the Moon slips away from the Sun, and then falls
back into his embraces: that is the idea of the dance. O.S.V.'s name was Aia,
which is really Gaia.
      Twelve virgins were sacrificed annually, one a month. Released on
menstruation, because they became inpure, and so could not live in the Temple.
      This is the great idea of magicians in all times: -- to ogtain a Messiah
by some adaptation of the sexual process. In Assyria they tried incest; also in
Egypt; the Egyptians tried brothers and sisters, the Assyrians mothers and sons.
Phoenicians tried fathers and daughters; Greeks and Syrians mostly bestiality.
This idea came from India. The Jews sought to do this by invocation methods
(also by _paedicatio feminarum_). The Mohammedans tried homosexuality; mediaeval
philosophers tried to produce homunculi by making chemical experiments with
semen. But the root idea is that any form of procreation other than the normal
is likely to produce results of a magical character. Either the father of the
child should be a symbol of the Sun, or the mother a symbol of the Moon.