This photo is of the Shrine of Scorpio, located in the Chapel of Brigid at Clonegal Castle's basement Temple. The chalice in the center sits on an altar cloth embroidery of the FOI's Cosmic Web of the Universe. Here is text from the ritual "Mystical Awakening of Scorpio and Kundalini", from the booklet "Sophia", written by Olivia Robertson:
"Our instructors on the Path, the Alchemists, taught that only when the Sun is in Scorpio may Iron be transmuted into Gold. For as the sun declines after the autumnal Equinox, so does the individual soul face the apparent extinction of her dream of separate existence, when faced by death. So does a candle fancy itself extinguished when the sun rises! Scorpio rises in the cold hours of the dawn. So be watchful and fall not into inertia, for who can tell when the Scorpion stings.
"Ponder on the fate of the giant Orion, stung by the Scorpion and so sinks into apparent death in the red Western sky. Was not even the Child God of Initiation, Son to Isis, Harporcrates, killed by a scorpion? He was revived by Isis, and shows himself to the wise as a naked child with his finger to his lips, enjoining silence. Was not the mighty Sun God Ra-Temu bitten by a snake, which Isis sent to him in the autumn? He suffered from the poisonous serpent power circling in every limb, until he fell through the flaming twilight into the watery abyss. Only when he had surrendered His Secret Name with all His magical Powers to Isis, did She restore Him as Ra-Horus, in the bright dawn when spring returned to earth. For though the Mysteries are preserved through silence, we must offer ourselves and all we have to the Goddess, that we may be reborn with knowledge of our immortality.
"Know that the Path of Scorpio provides a sudden shock! The cunning scorpion strikes at the foot, yet its poison courses throughout the body. Like the serpent it is called the One who Lurks. It is most potent through water and through the blood. Know that this very cruel sting, which seems to torture and to slay, is in verity the Awakener! Only through the sting may the stigmata of Initiation be gained. Yet this awakening may not be bargained for, nor induced, for only when the soul is ready may the Coming Forth by Day be achieved! Scorpio is also the sign of the Eagle and of the Winged Serpent. May we, with the Wings of the Goddess Selket, the Scorpion Goddess, rise above the Path and so learn to know its serpentine deviations, its pitfalls, its goal. Thus may we, with the aid of the presiding Deities, receive the onrush of the Fire Goddess, Kundalini, without loss of integrity or peace."
(Photo by Minette Quick, cropped and enhanced from original by this site. All rights reserved.)
Related links:
Fellowship of Isis Liturgy
Photos of Clonegal Castle
