Birth of the PEACOCK ANGEL
This performance was the conclusion of (and release from) the Voltage Bondage activities at New Year Earthcore 2000-2001 in the ELECTRIC EGGSTATIC EGG
This culminative performance was enacted at dawn on the last day of the festival (2nd Jan 2001), inwhich the egg was sundered and the Peacock Angel, Melek Taus/Shaitan released.
The cage/Electric Egg is made to open into three parts, like a blossoming lotus.
(None of the following photos have been digitally effected. This is how the performance actually looked live. Photos by Hiedi and Innana and stills from video by Lisa)
The performance was seen mostly only by our own crew, as at dawn most people still up tend to head for the main dance floor, so was somewhat more of an internal group ritual than pure theatre, although it was certainly spectacular visually. As Amordios freed the cage from some of its moorings, the HarleQuintet band began to play our epic 'Melek Taus' opus. I broke the opening Incan Qechua chant to strap into my harness inside the egg, where I sang and played violin into a microphone hanging from the top of the cage.
On the first chorus I tore a large crack in the fabric shell of the egg, revealing the first glimmers of the refractive turqoise holographic paper I had lined the inside of the egg with the night before. Painted irridescent blue, I spread my fan of peacock feather eyes behind me on cue.
The multitalented Amordios ran from the rigging over to his drum kit and hammered out some beats as we launched into the first rhythmical verse, a careening arabesque instrumental which was much more fast paced than usual to accomodate the dawn thunder of the main dancefloor next door.
Here are the Lyrics of the Song, originally written on my Journey to Macchu Pichu in Peru:
MELEK TAUS
This song has become a track on The CHORONZON MACHINE CD. A brief audio extract from the track is now loading/playing. Words and Music (c)02 The HarleQuintet. Use THIS LINK for more audio and art samples and/or to order the CD.
The song became the soundtrack for the EMPEROR and LOVERS Scenes of The CHORONZON MACHINE RITUAL OPERA
(Inca Linga 7-element Chant):
Wayda
P'ara
Nina
Orco
Mayu
C'ocha
Hanan Pacha
(chanted seven times)
Seven elements, Seven Rhymes, Seven Powers, Chanted Seven Times
In the Seven Hours of Kukulcan
Seven Powers, Seven Sevens, Seven wheels spinnning
Seven Reeds, Seven Notes, Seven Heavens singing
Seven Tones, Seven Colours, Seven glimmering Stars,
Seven Sisters, Sayhuas shimmering from afar...
From putrescence,
To Irridescence
Ia, refracted through Kia,
Io Ia, Io Ia
Peacock Angel
Feri Lord and Lady Bright
Lucif�r, O bringer of light
Illumine Shadows you created
Master-Mistress of duality
Crafter of Reality
You split the Spectrum, refract the light
From Nigri Solis
To Cauda Pavonis
Io Ia, Io Ia,
From Kali cum Kalas
The Colours of Cauda Pavonis
CHORUS
Melek Taus, Melek Taus
Lord of the Painted Fan (x2)
Peacock Angel,
Iris is the iris of your Peacock Eye withwhich to scry
Double-Chaliced One, She pours starlight into lunar sea
Queen of the Palace in the Sky
Hers the alchymic Art of Temperance
When the Tower CRASHES
She sifts embers from the Ashes...
Hail Shiva, Blue Fire
Hail Parvati, True Faith
I am your wild Child-Nath
Krishna Krishna -Om Gam Ganapati -Io Pan
Krishna Krishna -Om Gam GanaTahuti -Io Pan!
Melek Taus
Melek Taus
El Zati Shaitan!
'With the sword of Zain, I cleave the Egg in twain' I cried and ran its electrified blade in a Z shape of sparks and crackles along the metal frame before me.
We had been unsure how it would split open with all the new paraphernalia attached, and it was indeed a difficult birth. I shook and pushed the cage from within while others pulled from without. Finally it wrenched asunder, one segment stuck to another and tilting back dangerously, then finally ripping fully apart in a burst of irridescent colour. As the lyrics unveil, 'From Nigri Solis (black sun) to Cauda Pavonis (the colours)' the coloured fan of the dawn spread forth as the day began. Emergence from Daath into Tiphereth. The condensed energies within the egg from the intensities induced within its confines over the entire festival were now released and dissipated.
Spreading my own microcosmic fan, I cried, 'Aua uben kua em suht!' -ancient Egyptian for, 'I rise out of the egg' (from The Book of Coming Forth by Day) I rose up as the egg split wide, hoisted aloft on rope and pulley into the branches above of the acacia tree.
There I perched for a while, crowing and fanning my feathers in the dawn light, until plunging down into the net of webs below and catapulting myself with the stretchiest of these right out of our space and off onto the main floor, where I strutted and whirled in the thundering dawn.
Those who witnessed the hatching said it was a glorious release from the bondage of the egg cage, a spectacular celebration of freedom. I only really realized later that day how much of an expression of my work in the 11-star rite of the Horus-Maat Lodge the whole performance was - emergence (and convergence) from Daath into the light of Tiphereth, reenacted and celebrated publicly. The eclipse had also been somehow expressed. Har! Hru! Hail unto Nigri Solis
The day progressed wonderfully from there. After the music finished we put
on our purest regalia to attend the white teaparty put on by another
performance troup at the festival down by the river. Elegant butoh turned
into the most absurd slow-motion foodfight I have ever experienced. A
meringue in the face becomes even more comical than usual when you can see
it coming for several minutes before impact. Eventually, champagne-drenched
and sticky with whipped cream, we gracefully danced and careened our way
into the river, where the searing heat of the afternoon dissipated in white
drapery swirling and unfurling in the cooling rapids.
In the alchemical process, the White stage contains the colours of Cauda
Pavonis, emerging from the blackness of Nigredo.
Much refreshed, we returned to camp and began the long slow process of
ravelling our sprawling installations back into Amordios' Gobblyn bus. As I
began to pack up the shards of the sundered egg, I also performed less
physical banishings...
INCA LINGA LINGO(Glossary):
Wayda -Wind
P'ara -Rain
Nina -Fire
Orco -Mountain
Mayu -River
C'ocha -Ocean
Hanan Pacha -Milky Way (Hunab K'u)
Kia -MoonGoddess
Ia -Rainbow
Sayhuas -Pleiades constellation (Seven Sisters)
MELEK TAUS scenes in The CHORONZON MACHINE RITUAL OPERA:
EMPEROR SCENE and LOVERS Scene
COMING SOON: Extracts from the irridescent MELEK TAUS VIDEO CLIP
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