Her perfect face framed ‘round by ebony;
Since early on her dancing was an art –
Lithe hands and limbs in quaking ecstasy.
Not one to walk on eggshells, biting wit
And knife-blade tongue would often trouble make;
But unrelenting, in the face of it
She’d stand, too proud to let it see her break.
From featured player to forgotten star,
To author/critic, razor-edged and quick:
A sharpened, honey-coated scimitar,
A heady blend of sex and arsenic.
With such a life – complex beyond compare –
How strange her strongest legacy’s her hair.
Sophia! You of the whirling wings,
circling, encompassing energy of God:
you quicken the world in your clasp.
One wing soars in heaven,
one wing sweeps the earth,
and the third flies all around us.
Praise to Sophia!
Let all the earth praise her!
-Hildegard of Bingen
The Creed of the Holy Spirit
(by Unknown author. Please email if you know who wrote this!)
I believe in the Blessed Sophia.
I believe that she is Our Heavenly Father's Beloved Daughter.
I believe our souls dwelled with them in the Beginning, in harmony and love.
I believe that Sophia is the Divine Daughter.
That She lives in all women, and her strength and grace inspires all;
And she has sinned, learnt and is now strong and free.
I believe that Sophia is the Great Mother.
She is the Eema, the image of the hight of our strength;
And she has tutored me along Her Holy Path.
I believe that Sophia is the Holy Soul.
The Pneuma, the inner Crone of death and understanding within me;
And that She will bring completion in my waning days.
I believe that Sophia is the Spirit of God.
She is the Celestial Mother, and unites the Father and Child;
And She has given us knowledge of Their nurturing ways.
I believe in the Aeons, the Spirits, the gods of the Unknown God.
They are ruled by Sophia, they are Her children;
They all come from the Mother and to Her they shall return.
I believe in Reincarnation.
Her soul allows us to cycle throughout the prinsonhosue of matter;
Until we achieve the Liberation of the Light of Her Unknown Source.
I live in duty to restore honour to The Holy Spirit.
In prayer and reverence of all Her rituals;
From the masks of saints and goddesses, to restore honour to the True Queen.
***************** The Hail Sophia
Hail Sophia, filled with Light, the Christ is with thee. Blessed art thou among the Aeons and blessed is the liberator of thy Light, Jesus. Holy Sophia, Mother of all Gods, pray to the Light for us thy children, now and in the hour of our death, Amen.
***************** Prayer To The Holy Spirit
Most loving Father of the poor, send your light down from Heaven, your Gift of most splendid gifts, the Light that penetrates all, the Fountain of deep consolation. Come, O Divine Sophia.
Come, Sweet Host of the soul. Give everyone rest from their efforts, respite from their hard labor, be their gentle breeze in moments of fire, the joy that dries up their tears and comforts their sorrows.
Enter the deepest depth of their soul, Oh Divine Sophia, and enrich it. Look at the emptiness within when you are not presence. Look at the power of sin when you do not breathe within them. Water the dry earth of their soul, heal their wounded heart, wash them clean of all dirt, place the warmth of life back within their cold hearts, conquer their uncontrollable spirit, guide them when the way is confusing.
Pour out on your servants your seven gifts according to their faith. In your goodness and blessings give them the strength they need, save all who are looking for salvation, and bless us all with your eternal joy.
******************* Prayer to Sophia Top
Savior of the World, Sunny Lady,
Patroness of Powers, Sophia - Wisdom of God,
Invincible Almighty's Hand, Bless the World by the sign of Cross,
incinerate the Hearths of the world fundamentalism,
and erect the City of Saints by the Intercession of the Fiery Hierarchy
of the triumphant Church and crowd of angelic ranks,
save My Land and all the World!
*******************
Faith, Hope and Charity, Daughters of Sophia
O holy and most praiseworthy ones, Faith, Hope and Charity, and wise mother Sophia of these glorious daughters: to you do we now hasten in heartfelt prayer, for what better representation can we have than faith, hope and charity, the three cornerstone virtues, which, bearing their names, ye embodied in fact. We entreat you to shield us, save us and keep us in every sorrow and trouble, because you are good and loveth humankind. We pray that your Mother Sophia's glory, like a sun that never setteth, be with us in our humble prayers; may the Godhead forgive our sins (mistakes) and iniquities (transgressions), and have mercy on us who are forgetful of our Being-ness. Pray indeed for us, ye holy daughters, also unto our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of Man, and the Holy Bride Magdalene, to whom we practice to be present with, together with his Father and Mother, the All-holy, and Good, and Life-creating Sophia, who are from the Everlasting. We join our energy and our consciousness to the Everlasting the combined Godhead, merging with their presence now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen in the Now.
Pictured Left: Faith, Hope & Charity charm very popular charm in the Victorian era and today.
**********************
********************** Prayer to SophiaTop
Oh,
Great Light,
Hidden within this darkness,
Unlimited Fire,
Brilliant Emanation,
Sapientia Dei,
Beauty and wonder
that fills me like water to a sponge,
Sophia,
Holy Spirit,
Rising Dawn,
Lily of the Valleys,
Tree of Life,
Behold,
You Are Beautiful!
************* Hail, Lady of Light
Hail, Lady of Light,
Mystical Lover of my spirit.
Blessed are you, Woman of Wisdom,
and blessed are the gifts you bestow on us your children.
Holy Sophia, goddess who leads to the One God,
fill me with your emptiness,
and darken my spirit with your light,
Amen.
****************** Salve Regina (Sophia)
Hail, Queen of Heaven,
Mother most merciful,
our life, our sweetness, and our hope.
You lead us on this pilgrim journey,
and to you we cry when we seem mired,
in the pain of exile from our true home.
And, gentle Mother Sophia, you soothe our tears.
Turn then, most gracious Advocate, your eyes of mercy toward us,
and bring us into the unity of the Pleroma,
with your heavenly consort, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sé que eres bella, y no sé
mujer no vista y soñada,
no mirada y admirada,
qué flor dedicaré.
Sé que eres bellas, y no sé...
Para ti todas las flores.
y así el que prefieras tomas
entre todos sus aromas
y entre todos sus colores,
Para ti todas las flores...
para ti todo el amor:
el ardiente y el rendido,
el dulce y el encendido,
el mudo y el decidor.
para ti todo el amor! (Manuel Machado)
Muito cedo, porém, volve os olhos Orfeu
E de novo ela cai, e de novo morreu!
Como conseguirá as três Parcas domar?
Crime não houve teu, se não é crime amar.
E, agora, debruçado sobre os montes,
Junto à água das fontes
Ou onde o Hebro abre seu caminho
Orfeu chora sozinho
E, em luto e pranto, invoca a alma querida,
Para sempre perdida!
Agora, todo em fogo, clama, ardente,
Sobre a neve do Ródope imponente,
E ei-lo, furioso como o vento, voa
E, em torno, o ardor da bacanal ressoa.
Está morrendo, vede, e a amada canta,
Seu nome vem-lhe aos lábios, à garganta,
"Eurídice", a palavra derradeira.
"Eurídice", dizem as matas,
"Eurídice", as cascatas,
Repete o nome a natureza inteira
Orpheus and Eurydice - Robert Henryson
Heir begynnis the traitie of orpheus kyng and how he yeid
to hewyn and to hel to seik his quene and ane othir ballad
in the lattir end.
1: The nobilnes and grete magnificence
2: Off prince or lord quha list to magnify
3: His grete ancester and linyall descense
4: Suld first extoll and his genology
5: So that his hert he mycht enclyne thare by
6: The more to vertu and to worthynes
7: Herand reherse his eldirs gentilnes
8: It is contrair the lawis of nature
9: A gentill man to be degenerate
10: Noucht folowing of his progenitoure
11: The worthy reule and the lordly estate
12: A ryall renk for to be rusticate
13: Is bot a monster in comparison
14: Had in despyte and foule derision
15: I say this be the grete lordis of grewe
16: Quhilk sett thair hert and all thair hale curage
17: Thair fadirs steppis iustly to persewe
18: Eking the worschip of thair hye lynage
19: The ancient and sad wyse-men of age
20: War tendouris to the yong and insole
The Sonnets to Orpheusby Rainer Maria Rilke
Silent friend of many distances, feel
how space dilates with each breath of yours.
Among the rafters of dark belfries peal
your own sweet tones. Your predators
will grow strong upon such fare.
Know transformation in its varied sign.
Which experience produces most despair?
If drinking offend, transform yourself to wine.
Be, in this immensity of night,
the magic force at your sense's crossroad;
the purpose of their mysterious plan.
And though you fade from earthly sight,
declare to the silent earth: I flow.
To the rushing water say: I am.
Romeus and Juliet: Lines 1-24
There is beyond the Alps, a town of ancient fame,
Whose bright renown yet shineth clear: Verona men it name;
Built in a happy time, built on a fertile soil
Maintained by the heavenly fates, and by the townish toil
The fruitful hills above, the pleasant vales below,
The silver stream with channel deep, that thro' the town doth flow,
The store of springs that serve for use, and eke for ease,
And other more commodities, which profit may and please,--
Eke many certain signs of things betid of old,
10
To fill the hungry eyes of those that curiously behold,
Do make this town to be preferred above the rest
Of Lombard towns, or at the least, compared with the best.
In which while Escalus as prince alone did reign,
To reach reward unto the good, to pay the lewd with pain,
Alas, I rue to think, an heavy hap befell:
Which Boccace scant, not my rude tongue, were able forth to tell.
Within my trembling hand, my pen doth shake for fear,
And, on my cold amazéd head, upright doth stand my hair.
But sith she doth command, whose hest I must obey,20
In mourning verse, a woeful chance to tell I will assay.
Help, learnéd Pallas, help, ye Muses with your art,
Help, all ye damnéd fiends to tell of joys returned to smart.
Help eke, ye sisters three, my skilless pen t'indite:
For you it caused which I, alas, unable am to write.
"Romeo
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
Juliet
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss."
—Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Scene V[31]
Romeo and Juliet is sometimes considered to have no unifying theme, save that of young love.[29] Romeo and Juliet have become
Come and see, you who are negligent,
Montagues and Capulets, Monaldi and Filippeschi:
One lot already grieving, the other in fear.
—Dante, Divine Comedy: Purgatorio, canto VI, ll. 106-8
"O brawling love, O loving hate,
O any thing of nothing first create!
O heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health,
Still-waking sleep, that is not what it is!"
—Romeo, Act I Scene
"Romeo and Juliet"
A love-struck Romeo sings the streets a serenade
Laying everybody low with a love song that he made.
Finds a streetlight, steps out of the shade
Says something like, "You and me babe, how about it?"
Juliet says, "Hey, it's Romeo, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"
He's underneath the window, she's singing, "Hey la, my boyfriend's back.
You shouldn't come around here singing up to people like that...
Anyway, what you gonna do about it?"
Juliet, the dice was loaded from the start
And I bet when you exploded into my heart
And I forget I forget the movie song.
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?
Come up on different streets, they're both the streets of shame.
Both dirty, both mean, yes, in the dream it was just the same
And I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real.
How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals?
When you can fall for chains of silver,
You can fall for chains of gold,
You can fall for pretty strangers
And the promises they hold.
You promised me everything, you promised me thick and thin, yeah!
Now you just say, "Oh Romeo? Yeah, you know I used to have a scene with him".
Juliet, when we made love, you used to cry.
You said, "I love you like the stars above, I'll love you 'til I die".
There's a place for us, you know the movie song.
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?
I can't do the talk, like the talk on TV
And I can't do a love song, like the way it's meant to be.
I can't do everything, but I'll do anything for you.
I can't do anything, 'cept be in love with you!
And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be.
All I do is keep the beat... and bad company.
Now all I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme,
Juliet, I'd do the stars with you any time!
Juliet, when we made love you used to cry.
You said, "I love you like the stars above, I'll love you 'til I die".
There's a place for us, you know the movie song.
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?
And a love-struck Romeo sings a street-suss serenade
Laying everybody low with a lovesong that he made
Finds a convenient streetlight, steps out of the shade
He says something like, "You and me babe, how about it?"
You and me babe, how about it?
"Romeo loved Juliet
Juliet felt the same
When he put his arms around her
He said Juliet, baby, you're my flame
Thou givest fever..."
—Peggy Lee's rendition of "Fever".
Poem For Josephine
Sizzling hot chocolate
and coffee with a dash of liquer.
A snowfall
winter in paris
chocolate chaux en hiver
ballet slippers hanging from
the ballet bars
a grammophone left playing
while no ones in the room.
See that lady in luxurious white fur
her coffee colored skin enchanting as she makes
her way down the boulevard
a leopard in diamonds
her voice rouses a nation
the swivel of her hips enchant the world.
See that star bursting open into the firmaments?
That
is
Josephine
Some say that Josephine Baker's life was "more French than the French." She lived in France for the rest of her life, often touring Europe, and during the height of the Jazz Age was know as the "Jazz Cleopatra." Her flamboyant style and patriotic nature made her an unforgettable phenomenon for the next 50 years.
The following is a poem by Josephine Baker written in 1930:
At the age of eight I was already working to calm the hunger of my family.
I have suffered: hunger, cold.
I have a family
They said I was homely
That I danced like an ape
Then I was less homely - Cosmetics
I was hooted
Then I was applauded - the crowd
I continued to dance - I loved jazz
I continued to sing - I loved sadness; my soul is sick
I had an opportunity - Destiny
I had a mascot - a panther - Ancestral superstition
I made a tour of the world - In third class and in Pullman
I am moral
They said I was the reverse
I do not smoke - I have white teeth
I do not drink - I am an American
I have a religion
I adore children
I love flowers
I aid the poor - I have suffered much
I love the animals - they are the sincerest
I sing and dance still - Perseverance
I earn much money - I do not love money
I save my money - for the time when I am no longer an attraction.
What shall we sing, my friends?
In what shall we rejoice?
There alone our song lives,
Where our ancestors were born.
On Earth, where they lived...
I suffer here on Earth...
He who gives life conceals
Men in a casket and in an ark....
But shall I see them? Shall my eyes see
The faces of my father and my mother?
Can they offer me their song,
Their words, which I search for?
Here is no one,
They have left us as orphans, here on Earth.
Canto Triste
(de Nezahualcoyotl)
Oye un canto en mi corazón:
me pongo a llorar,
me lleno de dolor:
nos vamos entre flores,
hemos de dejar esta Tierra:
¡estamos prestados unos a otros:
iremos a la casa del Sol!
¡Póngame yo un collar
de variadas flores:
en mis manos estén,
florezcan en mí guirnaldas.
Hemos de dejar esta Tierra:
estamos prestados unos a otros:
iremos a la casa del Sol!
Cuicatli Quicaqui
(de Nezahualcoyotl)
Cuicatli quicaqui
in noyol nichoca:
ye nicnotlamati
tiya xochitica
tic cauhtehuazque
tlalticpac ye nican
titotlanehuia
o tiyazque ichan.
Ma nicnocozcati
nepapan xochitl
ma nomac on mani
ma nocpacxochihui.
Tic cauhtehuazque
tlalticpac ye nican
zan titotlanehuia
o tiyazque ichan.
To Marisa...Mister Alberto, Lady Josefina, Tânia and Marcos...thanks.
The Taj, mayhap, to you may seem, a mark of love supreme
You may hold this beauteous vale in great esteem;
Yet, my love, meet me hence at some other place!
How odd for the poor folk to frequent royal resorts;
‘Tis strange that the amorous souls should tread the regal paths
Trodden once by mighty kings and their proud consorts.
Behind the facade of love my dear, you had better seen,
The marks of imperial might that herein lie screen’d
You who take delight in tombs of kings deceased,
Should have seen the hutments dark where you and I did wean.
Countless men in this world must have loved and gone,
Who would say their loves weren’t truthful or strong?
But in the name of their loves, no memorial is raised
For they too, like you and me, belonged to the common throng.
These structures and sepulchres, these ramparts and forts,
These relics of the mighty dead are, in fact, no more
Than the cancerous tumours on the face of earth,
Fattened on our ancestor’s very blood and bones.
They too must have loved, my love, whose hands had made,
This marble monument, nicely chiselled and shaped
But their dear ones lived and died, unhonoured, unknown,
None burnt even a taper on their lowly graves.
This bank of Jamuna, this edifice, these groves and lawns,
These carved walls and doors, arches and alcoves,
An emperor on the strength of wealth, Has played with us a cruel joke.
Meet me hence, my love, at some other place.
Welcome the goddess of the moon and the night,
Bless us with wisdom, bless us with might.
Give us tonight, the power to heal,
The power to release the magick so real.
Surround us with light, the light of divine,
Embrace us with love of perfection so fine.
Give us the music, so we can dance,
And chant a song to enter a trance.
Welcome the god of the sun and the day,
To you we do turn in times of dismay.
Give us today, the power to bind,
All the unloving, all the unkind.
Surround us with light, the light of divine,
Embrace us with love of perfection so fine.
Give us the music, so we can dance,
And chant a song to enter a trance.
You arise beauteous in the horizon of the heavens
Oh living Aten who creates life.
When you shine forth in the Eastern horizon you fill every land with your beauty.
You are so beautiful: you are great; gleaming and high over every land.
Your rays embrace the lands and all you have created;
You are Re and reach out to all your creations, and hold them for your beloved Son.
You are afar, but your rays touch the earth;
Men see you, but know not your ways.
When you set in the Western horizon of the sky
The earth is in darkness like the dead.
People sleep in their rooms with covered heads;
They do not see each other.
If all their possessions were stolen
They would know it not.
Every lion leaves its lair;
All snakes bite;
Darkness covers all.
The world is silent
For the creator rests in his horizon.
When you rise from the horizon the earth grows bright;
You shine as the Aten in the sky and drive away the darkness;
When your rays gleam forth, the whole of Egypt is festive.
People wake and stand on their feet
For you have lifted them up.
They wash their limbs and take up their clothes and dress;
They raise their arms to you in adoration.
Then the whole of the land does its work;
All cattle enjoy their pastures,
Trees and plants grow green,
Birds fly up from their nests
And raise their wings in praise of your spirit.
Goats frisk on their feet,
And all fluttering and flying things come alive
Because you shine on them.
Boats sail up and downstream,
All ways are opened because you have appeared.
The fish in the river leap up to you
Your rays are in the deep of the sea.
You are the creator of the issue in woman,
The seed in men;
You give life to the son in his mother's womb
Soothing him so he does not cry
Oh nurse within the womb.
You give the breath of life to all your creations
From the day they are born.
You open their mouths and give them sustenance.
To the chick that cries "tweet" while still in the egg
You give breath in the shell to let him live,
And make the time for him to break the shell
And come out of the egg at the moment for him to chirp
And patter on his two feet.
How manifold are your works: they are secret from our sight
Oh unique god, no other is like you.
You made the earth after your own heart
When you were alone. All men, herds
And flocks, all on the earth that goes on its feet;
and all that is in the sky and flies with its wings.
The land of Egypt, the foreign lands of Syria and Nubia too -
You put every man in his place and fulfil his needs;
Each one with his sustenance and the days of his life counted,
Their language is different,
And they look different;
Their complexions are different,
For you have distinguished the nations.
You make the seasons to bring into being all your creatures;
Winter to cool them,
And the heat of summer to come from you.
You have made the sky afar off
So when you rise you can see all you have made.
You alone rise in the form of the living Aten
Shining afar, yet close at hand.
You make millions of forms out of you alone,
Towns and villages, fields, roads and river.
All eyes see you before them
For you are the Aten of the day, over all the earth.
You are in my heart and none other knows thee
But your son "Akhenaten";
You have given him understanding of your designs and your power.
The people of the world are in your hand
Just as you have created them.
All men since you have made the earth you have raised for your son
Who came forth from your body,
The King of Egypt who lives in truth,
Lord of Diadems, Akhenaten, whose life is long:
And for his beloved wife
Mistress of Two Lands, NefernefruatenNefertiti
May she live and flourish in eternity.
The Hail Sophia 
