I’m remembering Easter 1983. “It was twenty years ago today…” That was when I was still in my Golden Dawn Magick phase, which I did from 1979 to 1984. At the beginning of 1983 I decided to make and consecrate a new set of magickal implements. First I did the Lotus Wand, which was used to conduct all the other rituals. I came up with a plan following the sequence of the astrological elements.
January: At the new moon in Capricorn, I consecrated the Earth Pentacle. I formed a disk of clay, and painted it, not with the traditional geometrical figures, but with the continents and oceans of the Earth with the Northern Hemisphere centered on the North Pole on side, and the South Pole on the other. This was to carry my Earth energy, stoked with planetary ecological consciousness.
February: At the new moon in Aquarius, I consecrated my Air Dagger.
March: At the new moon in Pisces, I consecrated my Water Cup.
April: At the new moon in Aries, I consecrated my Fire Wand. Now the four elements were all ready. What remained was the Spirit implement, the Rose Cross. Since it had definite Christian symbolism, I decided to hold its consecration ritual at dawn on Easter Sunday. For the other rituals, I had toked herb at the beginning, along with the purifying lustration by water and fiery consecration with frankincense. But for the Rose Cross ritual, I decided to add the entheogenic properties of LSD.
It went very, very beautifully. It was my most glorious, spiritual Easter ever. As I was beginning to trip, I was reciting verses from Genesis about the Garden of Eden: Pison, which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good. To me the gold symbolized spiritual wealth in the soul, and as I recited about the goodness of that gold I really felt it and the moment was deeply satisfying. At sunrise, as I reached the culmination of the ritual, I felt the Easter message of bringing back life from the dead, flowing with the old pagan mythos of the rebirth of the Sun God after winter, and I spontaneously dropped to the floor and prostrated my head in adoration, murmuring “Welcome back to the Lord of Life on his return from the land of the dead.” The ancient spiritual themes at that moment had become intensely vivid, living reality in me.
Well, I guess you had to be there. And the LSD of that land is good. Mmmm hmm.
After that, my then-wife and I went to breakfast at a Jewish friend’s house and then we all went to a movie theater to see Gandhi.
Oh…My…God… Imagine seeing that while tripping on acid. When the bullet went into Mahatma Gandhi’s chest, I fucking felt it in my own chest. It was a most brilliant cinematic experience. I have never been so thoroughly drawn into a movie as I was that day.
