Spatial Dimensions
Browsing
the net for her Goddess images, Selene came across the following statement:
“When the Divine Feminine asks a question, she does not go hunting for the
answer. Instead, she invites the answer to find her.” She felt sure that the
totality of experience was not as simple as that; there must be an element of
hunting in allure.
She had become an avid reader – of
mythology and poems relating to her dreams and aspirations. The connection had
not been spelled out to her in an earlier life. In her browsing, she stumbled on Selene, the poem by Anna Hempstead
Branch, described as America’s Robert Browning. At last a poem bearing her
name, which totally grabbed her, gave her a sense of her true depth being, made
her ache to be a personification and transcendence of a beautiful myth. Selene
spent a lot of her time in a dream world, and fantasised about her beautiful
lovers materialising and evaporating to enhance their tantalising allure, and
her sublime consummations straddling the bounds of mortality, flesh made
ethereal.
So many slender youths had she seen
sunbathing in the park, prone, seeming dreamily submissive to her pleasure.
Occasionally she reciprocated the revelation.
She tried to will herself into the mind
and sensations of Endymion, seeing him as an image of herself which broke the
barriers of gender. Yes; he sensed her pale, shadowy presence in the water. He
knew her elusive loveliness spanned millennia. Ever since he had caught a
glimpse of whom he thought she was, emanating from a cloud, he was in thrall to
her shadow, thereafter ever in quest of his full view.
She felt a surge of power, stronger than
all known Gods, ineffable and predatory. She must have her own sacred shrine to
enact her cosmic rituals. She would order her lover to kindle a fire – not of
sacrifice but of celebration. Even as she relished his fleshly totality, she
saw him melting with each outward breath into the fire’s smoke and the clouds’
vapour; each inward breath was a tide which swept him back to flesh. Such power
would she wield over him that he felt he had been swept off the earth to an
alien planet – Selene’s planet.
Her lover was that special one – one
supremely shy who overcame his fear, his shyness maybe due to his longing to
hold himself in reserve for the ultimate challenge; he would face her! She
would elicit eye contact. Her goddess robes would break the bounds of
chemistry. But her garments were also the trappings of mortality. His
undressing of her would create the supreme vision of the universe, his
ministering hands a fusion of flesh and spirit:
“Strip
from me
My mantle of the sun and moon and earth,
Seasons and earthquakes and fierce thunderbolts,
Heavy with deep mid ocean, soft with tears,
Sweet colored with rich buds and mellow fruit,
Aglow with mortal smiles and floating hair,
And flashing with innumerable eyes.
Rend it in twain. Lay hold on it, I say,
For what ye dream is solid and stout earth,
Is mine apparel, fluttering like smoke
About mine inner fire.”
My mantle of the sun and moon and earth,
Seasons and earthquakes and fierce thunderbolts,
Heavy with deep mid ocean, soft with tears,
Sweet colored with rich buds and mellow fruit,
Aglow with mortal smiles and floating hair,
And flashing with innumerable eyes.
Rend it in twain. Lay hold on it, I say,
For what ye dream is solid and stout earth,
Is mine apparel, fluttering like smoke
About mine inner fire.”
Selene would cleanse him, purify him with
her love. She ordered him to close his eyes, and be suffused with pure tactile
sensation. Through the depths of her surrender her spirit ruled him totally.
Their consummation made an explosion, seeming to ravage the earth – but only as
a transient vision. A fresh world appeared, even with cities, as burgeoning
flora after a forest fire. He returns to earth a God, blessed with eternal
youth.
Suffused with the essence of a perfect
union, she became the moon, going through the cycle of crescent and half-face,
anointing the world with the silvery blessings, in parallel with her periods.
At last she had swept aside the eclipse of inhibition (though it felt strangely
akin to the eclipse of love). Her new-found mirror self took sway over the
tides in which she so loved to be immersed, and she could rule the motions of
her own reflection. Now she was mistress of the clouds, her veiling and
revelation to humanity under her will. Distilled into a bodiless thought, she
relished the abandon of a thoughtless body. The supreme astronaut, she had
acquired all the knowledge intuitively, centuries before its ‘discovery’.
Robartes. All thought becomes an image
and the soul
Becomes a body: that body and that soul
Too perfect at the full to lie in a cradle,
Too lonely for the traffic of the world:
Body and soul cast out and cast away
Beyond the visible world.
Too perfect at the full to lie in a cradle,
Too lonely for the traffic of the world:
Body and soul cast out and cast away
Beyond the visible world.
Aherne. All dreams of the soul
End in a beautiful man's or woman's body.
End in a beautiful man's or woman's body.
Now her disrobing would be proclaimed to
heaven and earth:
Luna
Too
soon the sunset comes; too soon
Opens the night its curious eyes,
Greedy to watch the maiden moon
Unloose her silver draperies
Opens the night its curious eyes,
Greedy to watch the maiden moon
Unloose her silver draperies
And
walk upon the star-flowered fields.
Her cloudy garments one by one
To waiting winds she slowly yields,
And now, her last disrobing done,
Her cloudy garments one by one
To waiting winds she slowly yields,
And now, her last disrobing done,
Flashes
lithe limbs across the sky
And flaunts the cold and slender grace
Of unconcerned virginity.
O now before her smiling grace
And flaunts the cold and slender grace
Of unconcerned virginity.
O now before her smiling grace
A
thousand rivers, lakes and seas
Hold up their mirrors to her gaze:
A thousand moonlets there she sees
Float on a thousand starry ways.
Hold up their mirrors to her gaze:
A thousand moonlets there she sees
Float on a thousand starry ways.
Beneath
her footfall light and free
The peeping star follows shake and fall;
Cold as her watery mirrors, she
Drinks admiration from them all.
The peeping star follows shake and fall;
Cold as her watery mirrors, she
Drinks admiration from them all.
In
them her nakedness she views,
In love with her own limbs displayed,
And through the wondering night pursues
Her strange unreasonable parade.
In love with her own limbs displayed,
And through the wondering night pursues
Her strange unreasonable parade.
-- Gerald Miller
A cusp still clasped him, a fluke yet
fanged him, entangled him, not quite utterly.
This was the prized, the desirable sight, unsought, presented so easily,
Parted me leaf and leaf, divided me, eyelid and eyelid of slumber.
This was the prized, the desirable sight, unsought, presented so easily,
Parted me leaf and leaf, divided me, eyelid and eyelid of slumber.
-- Gerard Manley
Hopkins
Selene would become herself,
attain the true essence of her name. To go further from her self-revelations in
the mirror, she enacted her Goddess ritual. Her apartment was safe from human
view, so she could open the curtains fully, and allow her full-moon reflection
to suffuse her and her room. She stood resplendent in flowing white robes. At
the ready, she had two slender white candles and a brass bell, a cup and a
glass full of water – The water lit in reflection by the moonlight, the water
translucently illuminated in the cup. She raised her arms and chanted:
“The earth is my body; it
shall fuse with the beauty of my facing self. My breath is the atmosphere,
stratosphere, ionosphere. Because my body is the earth, it will rise from the
earth. The moon and I shall gel in the hinterland. She felt her own, and her
other’s power, pulsing through her mind, spirit and emotions. Oh moon: the
power of the sun has honed your purity!”
Her body wafted out of the
breathy, chrysalis robes to proclaim her sensual splendour. She gave the bell a
tinkle as a signal, and lit the candles. Their pale flames made a brief
flicker.
Selene
mused, self satisfied: “I think I've established control over the earth's
surface and the atmosphere; now is the time to go beyond it.” Some observatory
visits had sharpened her curiosity. Looking at the sea, looking at the sky,
sometimes for hours on end, gave her a sense of being in a parallel universe.
How she ached to be one of those, her array of flowing robes embracing the
rainbow, fluttering in the breezes and ripples of all the known elements. Her
egotism embraced light years.
In
the course of a long browse of astrological and astronomical charts on the
Internet, she came across an advert: Be
true to yourself; expand into the cosmic dimension. Initially, it felt like
a scam, but then she was hypnotised by the accompanying picture; he was so
lithe, so toned – attired in a wetsuit-cum-spacesuit – he radiated Alpha
splendour, in excess of her favourite film stars.
The
actual meeting, in one of the trendiest of bars awash with translucent glass
was in no way an anti-climax; indeed there was a sense of premonition and
destiny about it. His name was Pertinax name of a Roman Emperor, not quite a
God, but personable enough – and he certainly seemed to radiate tenacity. They
met in a trendy bar, and then his Porsche took her to an equally friendly
flat.
“You’re
a fashion buff, aren’t you? You saw my picture. I’ve got a matching suit. Shall
we dress up and pose together?”
Wow:
a bit of surrogate catwalk session for Selene. Seeing them together in the
mirror was so sublime, made her think of an expedition to find sub-aquatic
treasure. He looked at her knowingly again.
“You
have always been an inveterate stargazer. Just name your favourite galaxy, and
my organisation will tailor things to your needs.”
Selene could not hesitate.
“It’s Andromeda, without reservation. I can see it with my naked eye; that spiral shape twists me into ecstasy, and part of me wants to re-enact Andromeda’s experience, provoking, facing peril, being rescued.”
“It’s Andromeda, without reservation. I can see it with my naked eye; that spiral shape twists me into ecstasy, and part of me wants to re-enact Andromeda’s experience, provoking, facing peril, being rescued.”
The
galaxy was named after her. But could there have been two-way traffic? Could
the galaxy have projected a concentrated beam onto an earthly woman, to make a
total godhead?” Selene felt desperate to push herself back through time, take
over and assume Andromeda’s being.
“We
are the cosmic ambassadors and would love to welcome you to our midst. There is
so much you can do to enrich our culture.”
“Firstly
we will fulfil each other as geocentric God and Goddess, then we will be
mirrored and aggrandised as cosmic deities. There are many galactic cultures
needing the selfsame focus.”
To become on of us, you must go through
our transformational flotation tank. You’ve probably read about them causing
self-abnegation and self-fulfilment, annihilation and restoration. The
customary ones can only travel a short distance in that direction; but ours can
go the whole way.”
He sounded convincing. Now his claim had to be put to the
test. The tank was located in an underground chamber, which had some of the
feeling of a worked-out mine.
Selene’s
sensations were totally delicious; the temperature ricocheted up and down the
thermometer. The overhead light phased through the entire colour spectrum,
echoed in the myriad bubbles that arose around her. Her health and fitness
routines had made her eminently suitable for flotation. She felt that her quota
of dross was minimal. But here was the supreme facility for exquisite
fine-tuning.
The
water tongue lapped over her, and receded. His silhouette appeared in the glass
doorway, in his trunks. He joined her on the raft. It rocked, and threw them
both overboard. They went to the bottom, and resurfaced. The two bathing suits,
removed with deft hands bobbed and rocked beside them. The couple mounted each
other, alternately, at the centre of the raft, and held it stable. They fused
with each other, and then, melted into the water. So-called sensory deprivation
was sensory satiation. Bodies were simultaneously diffused and purified,
restored. She knew the flotation method was used to purify metallic ores. At
the end of the process, she felt her body was a fusion of precious metal and
resilient flesh, hard and durable but retaining its suppleness.
“You
have experienced the totality in microcosm. You will ultimately magnify it to
fill the cosmic canvas. You will now be transformed into particles, to be
reassembled many light years from here. We’ll go to our laboratory.”
They
drove through the dark, until they came to a sunbed parlour front. He motioned
her towards the bed. “This is where you will be totally transformed. But the
process will only be initiated with your full knowledge and consent; you are
free to leave now.”
Selene
nodded in quivering agreement. With all this ecstasy, she could not pull out
now.
“Instead
of an anaesthetic, we will assemble for you the man of your dreams, with whom
you will make transcendental love. As you drift off into your post-orgasmic
serenity, the process will begin.”
“You can preconceptualise your perfect man. We've got a
fully-equipped studio, with art materials and writing materials. There's also
the computer, from which you can download any gorgeous photograph, any fabulous
artwork reproductions you can think of. Then you can weld all their luscious
components into your ideal composite. We will transmute him into vital flesh.”
What grace, what magnanimity, for such a ravishing man to make
this offer; he had transcended vanity and egotism too!
Her ideal man simply had to be called Perseus, for an Emperor must
usher her to a god. All of Selene’s most deep-seated desires now welled up to
refine to an exquisite pitch her artistic struggles, sustained quietly over
several years. There was an abundance of materials, so she could do sketches,
water colours, oil paintings – and then go on to composite retouchings of all
the most beautiful model photos she could download. She summoned Pertinax and
made a dramatic wave of her mass of artwork: “I know who and what I want!” she
cried, “and there is an art exhibition to prove it.”
“You have achieved immortality through anticipation. Perseus will
be made for you, from areas just beyond your reach, but not too far. Through me
you have completed your first stage, through Perseus you will complete your
second, and there will be more.”
For their encounter, Selene decided to wear white robes, with
chains hanging over her shoulders and round her waist. For the grand
revelation, her underwear was the deepest Roman Imperial purple. In this attire
she greeted Perseus. They beamed into each other’s eyes.
“There’s something I need to reconcile” said Selene. “I am a free,
independent woman, and will not be subjugated. But I am hooked on the glamour
of the ancient world. So I’ll loosely drape these chains around me because I
find them sexy; the sensation of the metal turns me on, and I feel a sense of
power as I rattle them. And they are something which can be taken gracefully
off, half way between jewellery and other items of attire.”
Selene had a costume designer friend, and often fantasized about
dressing and undressing the various wearers. Perseus’ outfit was totally
laundered, and he had the fragrance of the pines. She really relished the
texture of the fabrics she removed. Purple and tan radiated rainbow splendour
as a flurry of white graced the carpet.
Happiness drifted imperceptibly into sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Join the conversation! What is your reaction to the post?