Cupid & Psyche

There once lived the most beautiful girl in the world. She was born into a royal family, and had two elder sisters. Psyche was her name. She made her father’s city a pilgrim’s destination for her beauty was known far and wide, and many people came to see her. When they saw her and returned, they would come again to worship her divine beauty. This of course enraged Venus the Goddess of Beauty and Passionate Love. Because of Psyche, the Goddess’s favorite cities were abandoned to ruin, and her temples were filled with dust. Thus, Venus came to Cupid her son, the God of Love, to make Psyche fall in love with the most despicable and disgusting being in the living world. With his swift wings, the youthful God flew to Psyche, and beheld her beauty. And it came to past that Cupid, love itself, fell in love with Psyche.

Many years had past. Psyche’s both elder sisters were each married to a king. But Psyche was not desired by anyone, although her beauty commands the worship of all. Indeed, pilgrims still come, and were only satisfied to behold her beauty, and they would pass. The King and Queen were worried beyond measure. How could their most beautiful daughter has not attracted the love of any being? And so they went to Delphi the Oracle of Apollo to seek for counsel. Cupid had spoken to Apollo the God of Youth and Light, and acquired his aid in this matter. Hence, the priestess of Apollo told the King that her daughter must be dressed for mourning, and be sent to a mountain in the North. There a winged serpent will seek her and be her husband. Or else, Psyche is doomed to decay into old age without knowing what is love.

Reluctant they were, but still they dressed her as if for mourning, and made a procession for her funeral all the way to the mountain. Psyche made no resistance, and submitted willingly to her parents’ will, for she herself desired to end her life if that is indeed the fate of her being. They’d come to the mountain, left her, and cried to the last drop of moist in their eyes having losing their precious daughter. It was noon when she was left there at the horrible mountain all alone. At last, dusk came, and true darkness arrived. Suddenly, she heard voices around. The voices were bidding her to follow them. And so she followed, through a cave, across a valley and over a hill. At the end of her journey, she’d come to a handsome palace of gold, silver and gems. Psyche thought that no winged serpent lives in this stately mansion, but he must be a great king. The great doors opened, and she was bidden to enter although it was completely dark in there. When the doors were closed, the voices told her to eat, bathe, enjoy the music, and be ready to what she wills.

The food prepared was delicious beyond compare. All the while she ate, an angelic choir singing to a lyre was there to entertain her. She bathed in water that is most soothing to her skin, and pleasing to her nose. All these she done in darkness. She was then dressed for bed, and laid in the softest bed she’d ever lied on. As expected, her husband has come in the guise of darkness, and they bedded together. Indeed, there were feathers indicative of wings on his back, but his skin was the smoothest to her touch. A youth’s voice had whispered in her eyes throughout the night. The palace was well lit in the day, but when night comes, when her husband arrives, the chambers and halls were covered in deep darkness. At last, she had found love, but her joy did not last for doubts visit her from time to time. For how can a person be content with this half-and-half companionship?

She lived her life in this state for a year by now, and was nearly content with this companionship but for the dark-guise of her husband. One night, her husband warned her that trouble in the form of two women is coming. She must by all means not to meet them. But she was let to know they were her sisters, who had come to mourn at her grave. She begged and cried, and at last her husband gave in, and allowed Psyche to visit her sisters outside the palace. Happily she went out and greeted her sisters, and the women embraced and wept tears of joy for they had thought Psyche had surely died. It was morn, Psyche brought her sisters into the palace halls, despite the warning of her husband. The two women were immediately wrapped in envy and jealous rage. Not even their king-husbands might and wealth could compare with the glory and majesty of what their youngest sister owned now. The two of them immediately plot to ruin her life.

The queen-sisters whispered into Psyche’s ears that her husband must surely be the winged serpent. The serpent had used sorcery and the guise of night to cover his ugliness. Surely, one night the hideous beast will turn to her and gnaw her flesh. Psyche bent to her sisters’ will, and asked for counsel. The sisters told her that they will hide near their chamber, and she shall lit a lamp in order to behold his hideousness, and another hand hold a knife to be ready to stab her monstrous husband to death. After the murder was done, the sisters will safely bring her home.

That night, her husband came as always. Knowing that her husband had slept, she stood and went for a lamp and the knife hidden in her wardrobe. When the lamp was lit, she cannot believe what she saw. Her husband was the prettiest creature she had ever seen. A youth at the edge of adulthood, his face so beautiful, and his glorious white wings shone under the lamplight. She trembled for the shock that had overwhelmed her, and burning oil from the lamp spilled onto the smooth-skinned shoulders of her husband. Cupid woke up in pain and disappointment.

“Love,” Cupid said, “cannot live where there is no trust!” He then flew out from the chamber window never to return again.

Psyche covered her face with her hands, and wept. Then she said, “He may no longer love me, but he can never stop me from loving him.” Hence, she started her search for Love, from the deepest valley to the highest peak, but he was nowhere to be seen, whilst she tired herself.

“Of course, he must be at his mother’s,” and she was right for all people wounded at heart will always seek for healing from their parents. But she cannot go straight to Venus for she will only woo her wrath upon her. So she went from shrine to shrine, from temple to temple, to seek gods and goddesses that will aid her in being with Cupid again but to no avail. For no god would ally with a mortal so to be an enemy of Venus one of the most powerful goddesses in the World, not even Zeus himself dare to anger this goddess. At last, Psyche had to go to her and face her wrath.

Indeed, Cupid was in his mother’s chamber, licking his burned shoulder and his wounded heart. Venus knew when Cupid had healed; he will surely realized he missed Psyche. Before he realizes anything, Venus barred the door to her chamber.

“You stole the hearts of my worshippers, and now my son. And you even wounded him!” Venus said to Psyche, “Here you are asking for my grace and the love of my son! Outrageous! I will smite you!”

“Hear me first, O great goddess, before you strike me!” Psyche said at her kneels, “Only then you smite me to dust. I will do whatever you ask me to do to gain your grace and to atone the wrong I’ve done upon Cupid. Please, let me this one chance to die without guilt.”

“Very well, then,” the Goddess said, “I have three tasks for you. If you could accomplish all these labors, then I will consider whether to forgive you or not.”

Venus conjured a mountain-high pile of mixed barley, wheat and millet grains, and she said, “ First, you must sort each grain to its kind by sunrise. If you can’t do this by then, I will surely smite you!”

Psyche was left with the pile, and she pondered. It was impossible to be done, and so she cried. At this hour, no being from high and low pity save the smallest of things, an ant came to her. The ant then said to his industrious friends, “O this fair maiden is worth our compassion. Let us help with this impossible task.” One by one, the ants came and each picked a little grain in their pinchers, and carefully placed each grain to its kind. Before sunrise, the first labor was accomplished.

“You are aided, for sure,” Venus said, “Very well, then. Here is your second task: See the golden wool on the golden rams in the valley below. Collect me a baleful of that, and I’ll be mighty glad.”

Psyche was left there again, and wept for the golden rams were ferocious creatures, which favored the flesh of men. They were impossible approach, and she wept most sorrowfully. The reeds of the river in the valley heard the lamentations of Psyche, and pitied her. The reeds said to Psyche, “The rams pass through the thorny bushes every night to drink and rest by the river. Go to the thorns when the rams are asleep.” Hence, she followed the directions happily, and very soon she collected a baleful of the golden wool dangling on the thorns.

“Again, you are aided,” Venus said, “But for the third task, no help can come to you, this I am fairly sure. See the black river there; find its source and use this jug to collect the black water from the dark spring.”

That river was the Great Styx, the river of the dead that encircles the Underworld. She spent a year searching all the borderlands of the Underworld, and found the horrible spring. It was high upon a cliff, and only a winged creature could reach this place. Tired and fatigued, she sat down and tried to cry, but no moist and voice came to her, for she was utterly drained from the very bottom of her spirit. Alas, an eagle came and snatched the jug in her hands, and flew to the spring. Carefully, the eagle collected the black water in the jug with his beak and returned it to Psyche.

“You’ve gained my grace,” the Goddess said, “save that you need to do me this one last favor. Cupid needed my soothing, and I’m weary, and my beauty slackens. Take this box and go to Persephone. Ask for some of her beauty for me, will you?”

Very wearied Psyche was, but she will not allow all her previous labors went in vain. She will do her last bidding, and finally gained the Goddess’s grace and the love of Cupid. But to enter the Underworld was no easy thing to do. The Great Styx, a foul river, needed to be crossed, and the Underworld gate was guarded by the three headed hound Cerberus, and to seek for the house of Persephone, one needed to go through the labyrinthine and ghostly roads and fields of the Underworld.

It was a journey that required great courage, and the road was not mapped. She didn’t know the way, and sat under a tree and wept. The tree pitied her, and taught her the way, for the tree’s roots drink from the well of the deep. The tree told her to take a coin to pay old Charon the bargeman of the Syx for the crossing, and a cake to feed Cerberus, and a spring bird so that it may show her the way to house of Lady Spring in the Underworld.

She followed exactly the tree’s directions; she paid Charon and crossed the river, she fed Cerberus and entered the gate unhindered, she let fly the spring bird and it flew to where Spring was, hiding in the Underworld in the month of winter. Persephone received her, and gladly gave a little bit of her beauty to Venus. Psyche then returned to the world of light quicker than her journey under. However, while she was running to the abode of Venus, Psyche realized she was all worn, dirtied and tired; not the best look to present herself before her darling she thought to herself. She pondered at the box, and thought that she could use a little of the beauty charm. Psyche opened it, and a sudden sleep overtook her body and mind.

Cupid was healed and his heart ached less. He realized how much he missed Psyche, and wanted to meet her again. The door was barred, but Love cannot be prison for he will always find a way to show up. With his swift wings, he flew out of Venus’s chamber window, and went looking for Psyche. He found Psyche left to wither in sleep. Cupid embraced Psyche in his arms, and picked one of his love arrows to prickle her hand. Psyche woke up with a yelp of pain, and beheld Love in her eyes. They embraced one another even harder for they had missed each other so much.

Cupid then carried Psyche in his arms, and flew to Olympus to ask Zeus the King of Gods and Men to bestow immortality upon his love. Then, Zeus said, “You, Cupid, had made me changed into a bull, a swan, and a myriad of things in chase of earthly maidens …but I will still grant you your wish.” Hence, Psyche was given ambrosia to eat, and she and Cupid lived their immortality together. Venus too was glad with this reunion, although previously she harbored great hatred for Psyche. For she perceived that Psyche would now be busy with her divine household chores, and could hardly appear on earth to contest with her for worshippers.

At last, this is a tale about Love and the Soul finding each other, for Psyche is indeed the latter.

© 2004 Tommy Ho

Lulu

Today is like a white sheet of paper
With no markings of semen whatsoever
I have no desire to quench the earth
For the earth is exploding with dazzles
And crumbling into dust
And the mites eat it.

Who is it that knocks at the door?
Isn't he who claim the crown
An elephant-footed man!
How disastorous!
How ridiculous!
To hell and let the red flame
Burn forever in water and flower ...

O how lovely is thy bossoms
Let me caress them
And I'll squeeze the blood out of it
Let me lick this elixir of life
So death can have another fun time
With his sickle and dick.

On A Wednesday of Strawberry Kings

A fish in a bowl of feathers with hay and fire.
A hailstorm has come,
what are you going to do but pee on a bushfire.
Kill yourself, kill me as well,
And you will get all the treasures of Troy
And toys and boys, and make love for ever and more.
Love me, love yourself not,
What is there to fell but reeds in the Nile,
And so many miles ahead to the Blue Mountains,
Where love-birds and song-birds burn with cream and sugar.
Laugh, laugh out loud, we are crazy, we are smart.
We know nothing and fear all things.
Come into the pool of lovelorn lovers,
Let a scarab crawl into your ear.
Count the flowers in the sky,
And smell the holes in the earth,
What you will get is only two pineapples eating a watermelon.
Love seeds inside beads of meat,
And balls of fire rowing down the factory lane.
Happily, joyously down the drain.

Magecraft

Power is everywhere. How do one come to tap it? How do one come to use it? Is it rightful to use it for obscene and petty reasons?

Power is everywhere: from above, below, around, inside you and others. To tap Power, one must be capable of sincere faith and complete knowing of his thoughts and actions. One often hear that believing is what makes Power real. I say not. Believe is merely believing. Can you believe that a stone is hard? No. One experiences the hardness of a stone. One believing in a stone being hard, does not make a stone hard. One must KNOW a stone is hard, than the experience of the hardness of the stone becomes reality! To acquire Power, one must know the 'hardness' before one experiences it. In conclusion, one experiences Power before the result is manifested. It is that simple. But the difficulty remains in sincere believing (knowing).

This also works with drawing Power from deities. But are deities real? One only need to know it, and it will become real. But I tell you this, to draw Power from another being, is to be indebted. Power is everywhere. Why bound oneself to one or a few choices? The only thing we own in this World is Free Will. Do not lightly give your freedom to another. That is the only thing one have. One becomes the poorest without Free Will. Free Will is Freedom in action, one must know this.

The solution is for one to Will the knowing. One must have the Will to acquire Power. Where there is a Will, there is a Way, hear this before? Will is sincere believing (knowing) that one can work things out. One Wills Power to be yours, and one will have what one Wills. This is Willpower. Many call it Magick.

After one Wills Power into one's grasp, one Wills it to do one's wills. It is only that. Rituals are for reinforcing beliefs. If one's Willpower attained a high degree, rituals become redundant.

Is it right to use Willpower to do wrongs? I tell you this, all there is are cause and effect. Just like when one burns one's finger purposefully, one feels pain. Do one call this cause-effect a wrong? It is just a cause-effect. So do what one wills but be ready for the burn upon one's finger.

One's finger is also one's most Powerful wand. There is no wand better than one's finger. Point at the direction, the object and/or the replication of one's goal, and direct all one's Willpower upon it. Close one's eyes, and experience what one Wills even before the result is manifested. Sincerely believe (know) that it is happening. It is only that simple. But it is also so difficult. But practise makes perfect, though. Meditation also hones one's Willpower.

(C) GT 2004

Divine Knowledge

Who can tell me things
That one thing is right
And the other wrong?
Who can tell me these
And I deem he blasphemer
For how can there be a right
How can there be a wrong
When all things are Absolute
When all things come from One Source
When all things are made
Have been made before
Have been thought of
Have been loved?

If all things were loved
Are loved
Will be loved
Then how can we not love
All things of this World
For have not the One
Made all things clear
In His Words
In His Actions
In His Emotions
That all things of His making
Is His love?

For all things are His making
Things that are not His
Cannot arise in this World
So take solace in this knowledge
For all things right and wrong
Good or bad
Light or Dark
Are His infinite expression
His show of love
For us.

Have peace in you
Have love in you
Have knowing in you
For believing is not enough
For believing is not substance
It is in knowing an idea takes form
Know that the One is real
Just like knowing a rock is hard
For He is real
For this World cannot take form
Without His Will
All things are His Will
For things not of this World
Cannot arise without His love
His making
His Will

He allow many things to happen
Because He loves all
Who can understand Him?
I tell you this secret:
It is only through knowing
Not believing.

Believing is not substance
Knowledge is great
It is divinely His.

(='.'=)
GT

Three Sticks

sometimes i think i'm going crazee ...
from time to time, i'll have a crush on tis guy and that
and sometimes i'll have a crush on two guys at the same time
i guess i'm the living embodiment of love that lasts forever ...
becoz i'm always in love with so many people ...

or izzit that i have a hyper sex drive?

but i always have tis urge to care, to be concerned, to worry
to notice, to be aware of the person that i have a crush on ...

is this the kinda feeling that a highly sex-drived person would feel
for his object of desire?

but i'm already attached?

anyhow, so far i just put tis feelings aside
and ignore them

true enough ignoring them doesn't encourage tis feelings
to grow any further

i am still peacefully in love with my current bf
and that is enough for me

i don't like to play three sticks!
but the thought of it tickles me from time to time ...