Venus 2001

Inspired by the tale of the Miller's Daughter/Handless Maiden about the emotional wounding and healing of girls, corresponding to tale of the Fisher King for boys -- as explained by Robert Johnson in his book She. The invocations are from Crowley's poems "Venus" and "Venus Callipyge" from The Collected Works.

A copper metallic Venus symbol on a green banner hangs on one side of the stage. Around it are green cardboard pears with emotionally charged words painted on them. On the other side, behind the altar, is a banner entitled, "Praise the Whore."

The audience is purified with rose water prior to the beginning of the rite.

Act 1

Hierophant/Taurus (in black with red scarf) approaches the altar, smells the roses, lights a rose-scented candle floating in a glass bowl containing salt water, and lights the red candle. He begins the "First Invocation," gazing at a statue of Venus on the altar. As he reads, he takes up his lance from behind the altar and begins slowly stroking it and turning towards center stage.

Venus, with roses in her hair, clad in a long green slinky dress, takes up her perfumed dance veil, glides over to Taurus, encircling him, and caressing him. Full body contact. Non-verbal interaction. By dancing around Taurus and stroking him with her veil, she hopes to awaken his senses, and is delighted by every word and action of invocation and lamentation throughout the rite. All drama and sensation delight her.

First Invocation

Daughter of Lust by the foam of the sea!
Mother of flame!
Sister of shame!
Tiger that Sin nor her son cannot tame!
Worship to thee! Glory to thee!
Venus Callipyge, mother of me.

Thou art the fair, the wise, the divine!
Thou art our mother, our goddess, our life!
Thou art our passion, our sorrow, our strife!
Thou, on whose forehead no lights ever shine
Thou, our redeemer, our mistress, our wife
Thou barren sister of deathlier brine
Venus Callipyge, mother of mine

Give me the strength of a panther,
the tiger's sinuous strides
The lion's limbs that span there some thrice the turn of the tides
The mutinous frame, the terror of the royal Minotaur
That our loves may make a mirror of the dreadful soul of war

I am thine, I am thine indeed
For love is an equal soul and shares an equal breath
I am nought - And thou the whole?
Mistress and maiden and mother,
Immutable mutable soul!
My life is made as thine; my blessing and thy curse
Beget, as foam on wine, a different universe

Be thou my one desire
My soul in day as in night
My mind home of the Higher

Oh, what a beautiful sight!

Taurus succumbs to Venus. She takes the lance to help him wound his thigh, while holding him in a loving embrace and kissing him passionately.

Venus: [lovingly lowers Taurus to the floor and, circling him, provocatively hisses] Needs. Desires. Drives. Feelings. Moods. Emotions. Victory to each new desire! [Pause]

Taurus, crawling off-stage and dragging wounded leg, does not hear Venus.

Venus: [speaking to audience, smiling sweetly] Ahhhhh, sweet Love. [She slowly whirls off into the background, letting go of her scarf, taking up tree branches, becoming a pear tree.]

Pisces/Luna appears behind Venus.

Taurus discards red scarf and dons green scarf for next act.

Act 2

Venus, as Virgo/Pear Tree, stands holding branches laden with pears, representing orchard/abundance/nurturance.

Daughter, a little girl in a nightie, enters the orchard and sits cross-legged with coloring pencils/crayons/art pad under tree, drawing.

Venus/Tree bends to caress little girl.

Daughter responds with innocence, blissfully, to the loving caresses.

Orchard Owner/Dad enters with notepad/palm pilot, pen and cell phone. He talks into his cell phone, conducting business.

Daughter, still seated, tries to show her Dad the drawing.

Dad turns away, still talking into the cell phone.

Daughter stands, holding up her picture for her father to see.

Dad kisses his Daughter on the forehead and turns away from her as she tries to show him the picture. He continues talking on the phone as he exits.

Libra strolls to and fro across the stage with his scales tipping. He exits and dons his red scarf as Taurus in Act 4.

Daughter pouts, trying to hide her tears.

Venus/Tree bends to caress Daughter, offering Love.

Daughter hangs her head, then goes to the opposite side of the stage and exits.

Luna exits on her heels, gets ready to play music for Act 3.

Venus: [Laying down branches, picks up scarf and slowly, sensuously dances toward audience, smiling.] Ahhhh, serenity! tactfulness! Generosity! Self-sacrifice! Dutifulness! Sympathy! [Exits dancing.]

Act 3

A recording of "Feelings" plays.

Dad and Daughter are behind the veil. A green spotlight pointed forward from behind the veil projects their shadows onto white draperies. Dad lifts the meat cleaver and chops, severing Daughter's hand. Daughter screams as Dad tosses fake bloody severed hand into audience.

Daughter changes into Catholic school uniform for Act 5.

Act 4

Hamadryads/Trees enter, arranging themselves in front of the veil behind Venus' "throne" (a step stool draped in green, since Venus is a pear tree in an orchard), their arms waving slowly so that people can read the words on the pears.

Taurus facing Venus, recites the "Second Invocation."

Second Invocation

Mistress and maiden and mother, immutable mutable soul!
Love, shalt thou turn to another?
Surely I give thee the whole
Light, shalt thou flicker or darken?
Thou and the lover are met.
Bend from thy heaven and hearken
Life, shalt thou fade or forget?

Surely my songs are gone down as leaves
in the dark that are blown:
Surely the laurel and crown have faded
and left me alone
Vainly I cry in the sunlight;
moon pities my passion in vain
Dark to my eyes is the one light,
aching in bosom
and brain

Surely, O Mother, thou knowest
Have I not followed thy star?
I have gone whither thou goest
Bitterly followed afar
Buried my heart in thy sorrow
Cast down my soul at thy knees
[Taurus falls to his knees before Venus]
Thou, thou hast left me no sorrow
Days and desires, what are these?

Nay, I have torn from my breast
passion and love and despair
Sought in thy palaces rest, sleep that awaited me there
Sleep that awaits me in vain
I have done with the hope of things
Passion and pleasure and pain have stung me
And lost their stings

Venus gleefully responds to all the words.

Venus and Taurus circle each other lovingly, then dance offstage from opposite sides.

Taurus removes red scarf, dons Libra's green scarf and holds scales for Act 5.

Act 5

Teenaged Daughter, in a Catholic school uniform, enters (strutting provocatively for audience) and talking on cell phone with a friend.

Daughter: He never has time for me.

Dad enters, annotating in his notebook/palm pilot. He looks up, sees his Daughter, then looks at his watch.

Libra crosses the stage twice carrying weighing scales. He pauses to allow the scales to tip. He exits, and dons red scarf for Act 6.

Dad tries to get Daughter's attention.

Dad: [into his phone] She never listens to me.

Daughter: [into her phone] Hang on a minute. [Looks at Dad, tapping foot testily.]

Dad crosses the stage, holds Daughter's shoulders, and while looking earnestly and pleadingly into her eyes, tries to embrace her.

Dad: Feelings.

Daughter responds with a cold glance, breaks free of the embrace, turns away, and continues her phone conversation.

Daughter: What-EVER!

Act 6

Taurus recites the "Third Invocation."

Third Invocation

Fruitless foam of a sterile sea
Wanton waves of a vain desire
Maddening billows flecked with fire
Storms that lash on the brine and flee
Dead delights, insatiate ire
Broke like a flower in the birth of thee
Venus Callipyge, mother of me

Few are thy sons, but as fierce as dawn
Sweet are the seconds, weary the days
Nights? Ah! Thine image a thousand ways
Is smitten and kissed on the fiery lawn
Where the wash of the waves of thy native bays
Laps weary limbs, that of thee have drawn
Laughter and fire for their souls in pawn

Thy strong sons! They are dark as night
Cruel and barren and false as the sea
They have cherished Hell for the love of thee
Filled with thy lust and abundant might
Filled with the phantom desire to free
Body and soul from the sound and sight
Of a world and a God that doth not right

Who like thyself shall command our ways?
Who has such pleasures and pains for hire?
Who can awake such a mortal fire
In the veins of a man, that deathly days
Have robbed of the masteries of desire?
Who can give garlands of fadeless bays
Unto the sorrow and pain we praise?

Yes, we must praise, though the deadly shade
Fall on the morrow, though fires of hell
Harrow our vitals; a miracle
Springs at thy kisses, for thou hast made
Anguish and sorrow desirable;
Torment of hell as the leaves that fade
Quickly forgotten, despised, decayed.

They are decayed, but thou springest again,
Mother of mystery, barren, who bearest
Flowers of most comeliest children, who wearest
Wounds for delight, whose desire shall stain
Star-space with blood as the price thou sharest
Sweet with thy lovers, whose passing pain
Ripens to marvelous after-gain.

I cast away the mortal
and I choose the tortured way
And I stand before thy portal
and my face is cold and grey

Thou lovest me with a love
more terrible than death
But thou art in the above
and my wings feel no wind's breath
Thou art all too fierce and calm,
too bitter and sweet, alas
Thou weavest a cruel charm
on my soul that is as glass

Taurus turns and is trapped in Venus' vice-like grip.

As Venus goes to the audience, the Hamadryads/Trees rush forth to different audience members, embrace them, sway them, hand them a pear and whisper the word on the pear in their ears. We don't need no stinkin' spectators. Everyone participates in this rite! When they are out of pears, they serve Bailey's Irish Cream and strawberry mochi ice cream (which look like mini pink breasts). Lastly, they hand out green condoms.

Venus responds with emotionally-charged words, whispered, screeched, growled, howled, moaned, running the gamut of verbal expression, while all the while grinning with delight and caressing herself.

Venus: Emotional, intuitive, aesthetic, non-rational
Thirst, hunger, sex, stimulation
Depression, misery, sadness, happiness, delight, bitterness, joy and
Lust, jealousy, self-pity, carnality, rage, bitterness, narcissism.
Selfishness... and unselfishness
Rapture, ecstasy, loathing, hate, dislike, affection, and LOVE!

Taurus recites DH Lawrence.

Taurus: [looking at audience]
What does she want, volcanic Venus,
As she goes fuming round?
What does she want?
She says she wants a lover,
She's seething like a volcano,
And volcanoes don't want lovers

Taurus winks and grins at audience, then breaks free from Venus' grip.

Venus circles Taurus. They both slowly whirl offstage from opposite sides.

Taurus changes into Mercury costume.

Act 7

Daughter, in a business suit, enters with a cell phone to her ear.

Dad enters with a notebook, counting pears on the trees.

Venus, trying to get Daughter's attention, circles her.

Daughter turns away, then nods a friendly hello at Dad.

Venus flings herself at Daughter's ankles and desperately clings to her leg, trying to get her attention.

Daughter ignores Venus and looks at the audience.

Daughter: [talking loudly into cell phone]
The mind is nobler than the body.
Friendship is holier than love.
Nature is overcome by wit and reason. [Exits]

Venus lies there for a moment.

Luna, in a crimson smoking jacket and silver turban with pipe in hand, steps over Venus, yawns, stretches, and recites Swinburne.

As Luna reads, Venus gets up and tries to seduce Luna, in vain.

Luna ignores her, yawns, stretches, and continues to recite poetry all the way down the long hallway to the back door.

Final Act

Mercury and Venus slowly whirl onstage from opposite sides, encircling and eyeing each other.

Mercury, circling, with caduceus in hand, prepares to leap upon Venus.

Mercury: Give me thy life and strength
Let us struggle for mastery
As the long shore's rugged length
That battles with the sea

Venus shrinks back with hands crossed over her face in a protective, frightened pose.

Mercury: I foam and live and leap!

Mercury leaps up in the air and down upon Venus, straddling her with caduceus in hand, then laying it down behind her so that audience cannot see it but it is readily available.

Mercury:

Thou laughest, fightest, diest
In agony swift as sleep
Thou hangest as the Christ
My nails are in thy flesh

My sweat is on thy brow
We are one, we are made afresh
We are Love and Nature, now

Thou art mine, thou art mine indeed
My form is vaster grown
And our limbs and lips have bled on the starry solar throne

I am swifter than the wind
I am wider than the sea
I am one with all mankind
And the earth is made as we

The stars are spangles bright
On the canopy of our bed
And the sun is a veil of light
For my lover's copper head

I have limbs of a God's to close thee in and hold
Too brief are any periods, and my hours are barren of gold
I am thewed as Mercury to kill thee in one caress!

He stabs with the caduceus. Venus curls up, holding upright caduceus in place.

Mercury: [on bent knee]

Not a golden shower is my love
But a child's tear of distress

[Mercury tenderly wipes a tear from Daughter's eye.]

I know thee who art fallen; to lie beneath my feet
Who hast called till my spirit ached with a pang too deathly sweet
Thou hast given thee to me dying
And made thy bed to me
I shiver, I shrink, and sighing,
lament it cannot be

For love is an equal soul
and shares an equal breath
Thou art nought -- And The Word the whole!

[turns to audience, with a grin]

Twas not love but death!

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