Share on ... Twitter Facebook Pinterest Song to Iao by Dionysos Thriambos Presented on 10 March, IV ix as the Discourse in a Liturgy of the Word of the Law at Circle of Stars Sanctuary, Austin, Texas We've done this ceremony a few times before. This time, though, I'm taking a different approach to this discourse I'm doing something that's new to me Although I've seen others do it And maybe you've seen or heard something similar But this is the first time for me And it's the first time for you to hear me this way So I'm asking you to just relax and listen Make yourself as comfortable as you can Close your eyes if you like Because I'm actually going to preach to you Some people think of preaching as lecturing Or as moralizing and pontificating And it can be those things But good preaching is poetry And a way for a preacher To share something from his spiritual experiences With his brothers and sisters And it can make a real magick Among the listeners and the preacher And give you more energy and ideas About your own work The goals that are unique to you And the real secrets that are invisible And ineffable And unutterable And you may already feel that magick Starting among us now In the noises and feelings in this room Not just what I'm saying But any sound or sensation That passes through this temple Is all a part of the magick “Deeper, ever deeper I fall; “Even as the whole Universe falls “Down the Abyss of Years. “For Eternity calls “The Overworld calls “The world of the Word is awaiting us.” And those last phrases Were from a sacred book A book that you may already know But a book of such power That you might feel like you had known it For a very long time Even the first time you read it The book is called the Book of Lapis Lazuli The Book of the Blue Stone It has seven chapters For the seven planets And the middle chapter In the heart of the book The chapter numbered four With three chapters on either side of it That one is the Sun Right in the middle Vast and hot and golden And right in the middle of that chapter In the Heart of the Sun In the Heart of the Heart of the Book Are some words that I want to share with you: “Worshipful are ye, O my lovers; “let us forward to the dimmest hollow! “There we will feast upon mandrake and upon moly! “There the lovely One shall spread us His holy banquet. “In the brown cakes of corn “we shall taste the food of the world, and be strong. “In the ruddy and awful cup of death “we shall drink the blood of the world, and be drunken! “Ohe! the song to Iao, “the song to Iao!” And this little passage That I just read for you Is addressed to “the wonderful company of the wood-gods” The “dimmest hollow” of some mystic forest Becomes a holy shrine Glistening with moonlight Where we eat the cakes and drink the wine Where we take a communion Like the communion of the Gnostic Mass So let's consider the Miracle of the Mass And the Song to IAO. “Forasmuch as meat and drink “Are transmuted in us daily “Into spiritual substance “I believe in the Miracle of the Mass.” That's the Mystery of Metabolism When food and drink become God Because the human is divine Sure, there's something mysterious and wonderful About the fact that our highest ideals Our wildest imaginations Our deepest feelings all are ultimately fueled By the food on our plates And the drink in our cups But we do that every day Often without even noticing the magick Although it's always there Maybe you take a minute to say “Will” And pay attention to how every meal Is an operation in your Great Work And that can be very powerful and enriching Why are we doing more? What is the goal of a Mass? Where it takes us an hour to say will? But just a minute to eat and drink? A holy feast of the Lovely One A brown cake of corn for the Life of Demeter A goblet of wine for the Death of Dionysos What is this song to IAO? IAO is a Greek Gnostic version Of the Hebrew Tetragrammaton. Now, the Hebrew has only consonants And the Greek name has only vowels And we can read in our occult literature About the letters of IAO As the Woman Isis, the Serpent Apophis, and the Man Osiris Or as the lingam and the yoni joined in the star of the microcosm But set that aside for now, let it go And just listen to the word And feel the word It is a whole song I - A - O I - A - O I - A - O Those sounds have natural places in the human body I'll say them again, and you can feel them As you think about them Or you might even try making them yourself I - The first sound Resonates mostly in the mouth, in the head I - A - The next sound Goes all the way down to the belly, Vibrating through the diaphragm A - O - The last sound Returns to the chest It centers there on the heart and expands O - And this is what happens to our food and drink We take it in at the mouth I - It goes down to the belly A - And our hearts use it for energy And send it to the rest or our bodies O - And the priest says, Hagios, Hagios, Hagios Holy, Holy, Holy Holy in the head Holy in the belly Holy in the heart I - A - O And we invoke the Saints of the True Church of Old Time in the name IAO I - Heirship of the saints in the head So when we baptize someone into our Church We put water and wine on the head And in confirmation and ordination We perform something called cheirotonia Where the hands of the officer of the Church Are placed on the head of the confirmand or ordinand Heirship of the saints in the head A - Communion of the saints in the belly Not only through our common use of food and drink Which is always sacred Whether we are noticing or not But communion in the belly of the Mother In the womb of Babalon Wherein we were each begotten And wherein we and all the saints shall rest Communion of the saints in the belly O - Benediction of the saints in the heart Where we balance between two abysses The abyss of height and the abyss of depth The heart with its muscular rhythm So much faster than the digestive and hormonal cycles So much slower than the neural patterns and pulses The heart in the center of the central column Of the seven wheels of energy in the body With three above and three below it That one is the Sun Right in the middle Vast and hot and golden Benediction of the saints in the heart Hagios, Hagios, Hagios I - A - O Deeper, ever deeper, I fall Into the heart of the sacrament In the heart of the heart of the heart of the book IO IO IO IAO SABAO! Lord ABRASAX Lord MEITHRAS Lord PHALLOS Holy Holy Holy I - A - O And when we join the Church As some of us will do next month In baptism or confirmation Or when we take holy orders As clergy of the church Like two of us did last week These are initiations for us And sacraments for the Church Since we are food for the Church She is nourished by our flesh Drunken on our blood When we are initiated into the Church We find ourselves in Her head There is new information for us New connections and evaluations to make Excitement to experience But eventually we pass into the belly of the Church We go into a dark stage Where we think our participation is unimportant Or we think our work is taken for granted Our experience may seem like a burden That we would give away if we could With persistence, we come to the heart of the Church We are comfortable and balanced Knowing that we are the life of the Church That together we animate something marvelous That we are the truth of the Church And we are partakers of the Magick of Membership And we are the way of the Church Giving out light and life, sustenance and joy To our brothers and sisters Without dimming or diminishing ourselves Each of us as a sovereign star Acquires the momentum of the whole universe The world is our food, it strengthens us! The world is our drink, it intoxicates us! Holy, holy, holy I - A - O In the dimmest hollow We shall feast upon magick herbs We shall be lovers, wonderful and worshipful We shall sing the Song to IAO. (make + on the people) IN NOMINE CHAOS, AUMGN AUMGN AUMGN. Sermons, Expatiations and Discourses Vigorous Food & Divine Madness — fileinfo: path: '../hermetic.com/dionysos/preach.htm' created: 2016-03-15 modified: 2016-03-15 … Last modified: 2016/03/16 01:28(external edit)