Part II: First Day of Summer, Eve of May or Beltane:
The Chymical Wedding (Conjunction Part II)
April 30 or May 5 – 7, Noon
The Wedding: The players are dressed and properly stationed in the Inner Temple. Prime Minister walks the Alchymical Bride in procession from the Banquet Table to her place beside the Apprentice for the wedding vows. The Apprentice carries the Graal and gives it to the Alchymical Bride.
Prime Minister: Let us begin this celebration of marriage with a section of a poem from The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz by Johann Valentin Andrae, as translated by Edward Foxworth in 1690:
What was it that at first us made?
‘Twas Love.
And what hath grace a fresh conveigh’d?
‘Tis Love.
Whence was’t (pray tell us) we were born?
Of Love.
How came we then again forlorn?
Sans Love.
Who was it (say) that us conceived?
‘Twas Love.
Who suckled, nursed, and reliev’d?
‘Twas Love.
What is it we to our parents owe?
‘Tis Love.
What do they us such kindness show?
Of Love.
Who gets herein the victory?
‘Tis Love.
Can Love by search obtained be?
By Love.
How may a man good works perform?
Through Love.
Who into One can two transform?
‘Tis Love.
Groom, you may make your formal proposal.
Apprentice: I sacrifice my possessions, my love, my body, my thoughts to you, my Alchymical Bride. Will you marry me?
Alchymical Bride: I will.
Weddings vary among peoples and couples, the main element is the symbolic union of the bride and groom. A chymical wedding may use the Grail (a symbol of the feminine) and a staff (or other symbol of the masculine) as representations of the opposites, and, for example, touch implements or even dip the staff into the Grail as the symbolic act of union. There may be vows and the exchanging of rings.
Examples of Vows
I promise to respect you, support you and protect you. We work as a team and retain our individual freedoms; we are responsible only for our own personal choices.
I promise to love you for who you are, for the person you wish to become, and for the person you wish to be.
I promise to nurture your life, health and strength as my own, to share or support your life goals and ambitions.
I promise to ever seek to know you better and always pursue a deeper understanding.
I promise that your happiness makes me happy and your unhappiness makes me unhappy.
I promise to put family first, to be there for you when you need me, whether in misfortune or triumph.
I promise to work through the difficult times, to forgive and adapt, to plan for the long-term future and make my home with you. My love for you is eternal.
After the vows are said and the rings are exchanged, the Birth Ceremony celebrates the Birth of the Inner Guide, the Immortal Emperor, from the Union of the Bride and Groom of the Chymical Wedding. The Birth Ceremony is a short ritual inspired by the Christian rite of Baptism, which symbolizes the birth of the spiritual fetus, the Mercury from Sol and Luna.
Anyone may participate in this ceremony by blessing themselves or being blessed by the Bride and Groom or an officer from a vessel of water. The meaning of this ritual is spiritual purification and rebirth in the image of the Immortal Emperor/Empress.
When the wedding is over the participants form a procession to the Great Hall and take their appropriate stations about the Banquet Table. From their stations in the Inner Temple the BA leads MT and the High One around the North, and WA leads Apprentice and MC around the South, the two parties meet in the West to find positions at table. BA pulls out chair for MT as WA pulls out chair for Apprentice. Then BA pulls out chair for the High One as WA pulls out chair for MC. Assistants seat themselves.
The Wedding Feast or Chymical Banquet: The High One sits at the head of the Banquet Table in the East, the Apprentice sits at the end of the table in the West. The MT sits at the right hand of the High One, the BA sits to the left. The WA sits to the right of the Apprentice, the Chymical Bride to the left and the MC to the left of her. The centerpiece is an arrangement of plants and flowers. The serving dishes are placed at equal distances around the centerpiece. Candles sit at the four cardinal directions. Before seating himself, the WA lights the candles:
WA: I ignite the flame in the East… I ignite the flame in the South… I ignite the flame in the West… I ignite the flame in the North.
Upon the Banquet Table are four courses:
- Bread, cheese, soup, beer, oil, butter, salt, seasoning herbs.
- Salad (lettuce and fresh vegetables) with oil and vinegar, boiled or deviled eggs.
- Seafood and/or poultry and/or venison, steamed vegetables, a starch (corn, potatoes, rice, etc.)
- Fruit, pie, chocolate, tea, liquor.
Food is served in clay pottery, and eaten on wooden plates. Utensils are pewter. Cloth napkins in silver rings are provided with small, ceramic bowls of water. Dinner is served with water and wine. The wine may be diluted with water. Water is served in wooden goblets, wine is served in pewter goblets.
Apprentice stands and distributes half of the wine in the Graal among the Officers.
Apprentice: If I may, a toast.
Apprentice gives the Opening Toast:
We have a special place in the history of all time and space, throughout all dimensions, for we have united heaven and earth with true wills, and have sat in the holiest kingdom, and the holiest temple, in the place of the Most High. We are here now. It is our blessing, by the Grace of destiny, to serve as alchemists of the Royal Art Society. May our feast be blessed.
Now we eat the body of the living god, the flesh of the earth, and drink the blood of the same, in toast to the One, the Law and the Good. To health, strength, good harvests and universal peace.
Drink, brethren, and live. Cheers.
At the end of the Feast he shall give the Closing Toast:
Now it is time to Go, for as seasons cycle, so fluctuate the experiences of our lives. For every peak there is a trough; for every to, a fro; for every positive, a negative. As it is anciently said, “as above, so below.” Let us look upon the faces and persons of the sovereign and the ministers tonite.
Let us keep these good moments in our souls for all time and recall them in times of suffering to some relief. Remember our departed predecessors. Let us bless all the living and the dead. Let us pray for the healing of the world, good government and peace, that all may return to One. Let us Go in Peace. Drink, brethren, and live. So mote it be.
The Apprentice passes the Graal to his right, and each shall drink of it, and the Apprentice shall drink last. At the end of the meal, the players may take vaporizers, hookahs, pipes, cigars, or hand-wrapped cigarettes with tobacco, sheesha or cannabis. If desired, let there be a May Pole, costumes of beasts and creatures, piping, drumming and dancing, and let the revelry last thru the night. This has been the custom of celebration and feasting on earth since the beginning, yea, since the very beginning.
When the celebration is over the Chymical Bride makes the announcement.
CB: In the name of the Veiled One who says “Per Me Caeci Vident,” “Thru me the blind see,” the celebration is closed in memory of those who came before us, and those who stand with us now and forever.
Then the WA ritualistically extinguishes all the flames.
WA: I extinguish the flame in the North… I extinguish the flame in the West… I extinguish the flame in the South… I extinguish the flame in the East.
NEXT:
Part III. Harvest, Festival of the Dead, Samhain, Halloween
The Underworld Fast (Fermentation Part I)
October 31, Six O’clock Evening