Samhain Cabaret

This little rite was performed at the start of the Cheth House Samhain/Beast Bay .666 Anniversary Party on November 6, 2000 e.v. For cabaret music, we played "Ungarwein" by Barnabas von Geezy & His Orchestra (1935) and "Schones Wetter Heute" by Helmut Zacharias (1941), both included on the album Berlin by Night (Various Artists. EMI, 1991).

[Altar in the west, with the image of a pentagram superimposed with a Latin cross. Before the altar are Eve and Lilith (in suggestive dress), and the Master of Ceremonies. Once the people are assembled, the MC inverts the cross & pentagram. E & L serve each guest with a full glass of Port (and instructions to prepare for 7 toasts).]

MC: Ladies and gentlemen, we dwell
In the fiery core that is the heart of Hell,
Where the serpents hiss and the hell-hounds bay
And desire is freed from the scowl of day,
Where madness may shake of its fetters and leap
Into darkness to answer the thrust of the deep.
But why do we meet at the fulcrum of Fall,
With its lingering nights in the Scorpion's hall?
To bear the glad tidings that God, the great dread
Of man's free-loving spirit, is thankfully dead.
Let the blasphemous tidings enkindle the blood
Of the kin who know love beyond evil and good!

L: No commandment may sully the sensual shiver
That curious glances and hands may deliver.

E: This evening we honor and conjure and treasure
This flooding of feeling, the summit of pleasure,

L: The passioned commingling of sister and brother,
The fevered caresses from one to another,

E: The flash which extinguishes woman and man
In the moment of merging that summons forth PAN!

The Toasts

(All drink at the conclusion of each toast.)

E: To raise yourself up above all other things,
To know you are right in the manner of kings:
These buttress the soul and steady our sights
On the star as we struggle to surmount the heights.
To Pride!

L: To answer the call of the glittering gold,
Seek rubies and em'ralds to have and to hold
That our nests may be feathered, our appetites sated,
In a river of riches that flows unabated.
To Greed!

MC: Pray, where does our charm come from? How do we grow?
By wishing that we were the people we know!
How better our sense of perfection to hone,
Than to covet their stations and make them our own?
To Envy!

E: The thundering might of the bilious yell
That shatters the bolts at the doorway to hell;
The strength of the vengeance that flares from the wronged
And flings the wrong-doers back where they belonged.
To Wrath!

L: The ease that falls gently from high point to low
And settles contentedly, languorous, slow,
In the meadows of evening, the moonlight serene;
No callow ambition to spoil the scene.
To Sloth!

MC: A feast for the senses, the feast of the gullet --
Submit to our ravening hunger and dull it
With flavors of paradise, thrills from perdition:
To swallow the cosmos shall be our ambition.
To Gluttony!

E & L: To feel the deep stirrings of urgent desire
And throw ourselves into the maddening fire;
The reaping of beauty, fulfillment of dreams:
At the touch of a feather we burst at the seams.
To Lust!

[MC recites the "Hymn to Pan." E & L dance invitingly. After a few minutes, they induce everyone to dance. Dissolve into chaos.]

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