Broken
Unwashed, unkingly
The mighty ego returns
To the city and temple
Unrecognised.
Ritual Four
Again I process into the temple, again it’s a huge leap through time and space.
Gilgamesh distraught at losing his brother finds himself outside the Temple of Ishtar.
Shamhat is there and full of vengeance she mocks him. Calling to him to take her and make her his own.
Gilgamesh is afronted. Why he wonders does she mock him so. The answer is blaring clear to all but the mighty ego.
He has let his brother, her lover, Enkidu, perish in the forest. She despises him. It lifts her to see him so broken. So she hits him where it hurts.
Revenge
So sweet but short lived
Shamhat taunts Gilgamesh
No more than he deserves.
Shamhat jubilant in her triumph turns and runs into the temple. She shimmers and glows Goddesses like. Gilgamesh truly riled follows her blindly into the labyrinth of tunnels under the temple.
Woman
Or Goddess
A blur a movement
Entices the fool
Soon he is hopelessly lost.
Driven by anger and pride Gilgamesh follows what he believes to be Shamhat. Totally fooled he does not realize he is in fact chasing the Goddess Ishtar. Deeper and deeper he descends , he knows he must be almost at the centre of the labyrinth of the temple.
Deeper
Into the womb
Of the temple
Of a sudden the way is blocked.
We dance
We are the fates
We twist and turn
And carry the mask
As Destiny demands.
As a fate I look upon Gilgamesh, I have seen him at his best with his brother,yet mostly I have seen him at his worst, selfish, self obsessed, huge of ego.
Dressed
For pureness
Of heart and soul
With white mask
Bull of Heaven.
Gilgamesh faces the Bull of Heaven. The Bull accucuses Gilgamesh of killing Hu-Wa-Wa, Watchman of the Cedar Forrest.
Gilgamesh does not take kindly to this he raises his weapon and rushes at the Bull of Heaven. As he brings his mighty weapon down to kill the beast he realises that it is Enidiku’s axe he is using.
Chopped
Severed to shoulder
Blood spurts
No raging Bull
Masked ripped from the face
What face
No! It is ENKIDU’S face.
With the other fates I look and hope that Gilgamesh will learn . We know he will not..
Gilgamesh stands to the left side of a portal. Enkidu rises from the dead and stands to the right of the Portal. We fates are lead one by one through this portal of inner learning and receive a blessing from Anu and Aruru.
Everyone in the Temple passes through the portal and receives a blessing except Gilgamesh and the dead, again Enkidu.
Three Days
Three endless days
Gilgamesh runs the tunnels
Of the temple.
Stumbling he falls
Into the holy of holies.
The Devine council
Give him audience.
The Devine Council point out Gilgamesh’s short fallings. I as a fate am amazed he accepts their words … I, for one do not believe him.
Gilgamesh
Humble King
He with Ego
The size of the moon
Returns to Uruk
He has determined
To travel to paradise
To bring back the herb
The herb of immortality.
And so Gilgamesh returns to the city and washed, and then meet his mother Ninsun.
He tells her that the Forrest monster is dead.
She asks where is Enkidu, her heart is saddened by the news that he is dead.
Gilgamesh tell her he is going to find the herb that will bestow immortal life on his people.
A mother
Torn with grief
A mother loves her son
Even when that son is not worthy.
Ninsun, mother, Goddess.
Sends Gilgamesh off with her blessing.
So Gilgamesh leaves on his new quest with his mother’s blessing. He professes to be changed,he says he is sorry. He says he is doing this deed selflessly. I do not believe my ears as I hear him say.
Who is the handsomest
Of men
The bravest of heroes
Who killed the Bull of Heaven
Obliterated the Forrest Demon
Who will find Utanpishtim
And bring back his herb of
Immortality for my people
Who?
As I listened, my heart sank. I was so tired as I left the temple.
Back
Through time
I stepped
Time and space
From the city of Uruk
To Buxton wet, windy and cold.
The photo of the Bull of Heaven is by Sue Vincent.
willowdot21 