This photo is of the Shrine of Scorpio, located in the Well Chapel of Brigid at the Temple of Isis, Clonegal Castle. The wooden panels are carved by William Morris, and the altar cloth has the FOI Cosmic Web of the Universe embroidered upon it.
Please also enjoy this audio clip of a past ritual meditation, recorded by Olivia Robertson:
(MP3 file - 1 MB - 5 minutes)
Audio transcript:
Visualize the Temple of all your dreams, surrounded by a rainbow of light .. . we enter through the southwest portal flanked by two mighty female sphinxes, wings reaching the glimmering roof. Now we notice four statues of a bull, a lion, an eagle and an angel! Let us approach the window of Scorpio in the West, overlooked by the golden eagle. We approach this window and seat ourselves before this stained glass surmounted by the sign of Scorpio. The picture shows a man in green robes holding aloft a wand entwined with a green and red cobra with raised hood. By him is a woman in purple robes, who is riding up on her tiger with her arms around his neck. Suddenly a wind rushes through the Temple, throwing open the window. Through it we see the brilliant ten stars of Scorpio shining above a mountain by the sea. You find yourself floating towards a red and emerald star, Antares. As you approach, you see a colour-filled land where fulfilled desires may be enjoyed. Think of this, enter this place - but beware! Do not lose yourself, caught by obsessive passions. Enter the paradise of fulfilled desire. Enjoy what you have longed for in your heart, and dared not feel. This divine within us - desire . . . love . . . but with it may come the desire of power over those we love. We face this in ourselves, to keep them safe within our own arms. With this comes jealousy, fear, hatred against a rival. . . there is the danger of total subservience, surrender to one person, one cause, one overriding desire. The cause for which we kill, for which we are manipulated. . .we are followers shouting slogans, filled with the obsessive passion for tribe . . . for ideal . . . for leader. And is the leader enslaved by passions?
Here is the place of alchemy, these passions must be realized to be transmuted into Love, Beauty, Truth. The Truth of the idea, the Love within the passion. All evil slips away, transmuted into good. The power of the passions is enjoyed. And so we are enabled to receive love as well as give it, to give it as well as to receive. We regret being called back. We leave Antares, slowly withdraw, back away from this wonderful star, and come back before the stars by the doorway, of the Temple of the Zodiac.
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Related links: Shrines of the Zodiac and the Audio Gallery
(Photo provided by Minette Quick. All rights reserved, additional cropping and enhancements made by this website.)
