Athene

Athene Polymetis,

Fierce and crafty,

Full of guile and acumen,

She who threw down the flute

And took up the battle-trumpet!

Athene Glaukopis,

Snowy owl on a Palaelithic cave wall

In Provence,

Baleful eyes

That penetrate any soul,

Olive tree leaves in the zephyr,

The voice that says

Now I see…

She knows what is fated

And what can be changed by man;

Only a fool dares act without her counsel.

Without her foresight and discrimination,

Her measure and rule,

No transformation can prosper.

On the ruins of the Acropolis

Bloom feverfew,

The ancient parthenium,

Friend of wombs,

Regulator of menstruation,

Proof against melancholy and migraine.

Energy of air, earth, water, thunder,

Throbbing, pulsating,

Lady Bird,

Lady Snake,

Ivory figurine in red ochre peplos,

Round and pregnant,

Etched with triangles,

Zigzags,

Circles,

Spirals.

The Minoan goddess

Holds high a snake in each hand,

Triumphant.

On the Acropolis

Athene suckles the giant serpent

At her breast.

This is the Age of Kali:

Horror,

Strife,

The losing throw of the dice.

The third hand of the goddess

Gestures “Fear not!’

Power and intellect

Play through the vortex,

Intertwining;

So radiant this flaming,

It can kill.

Sarasvati plays the universe into being

On her vina,

Playing the sounds of the Sanskrit alphabet;

Kali’s garland of skulls

Is the number and notes

Of the Sanskrit letters…

Perseus brings to Athene

The Gorgon’s head

And two phials of her blood,

One drawn from the right arm,

The other from the left.

In the clefts of trees,

In rivers,

The Black Virgin shines,

Queen of the South,

Queen Sibylla,

Goose-footed high priestess,

Enthroned in Toulouse.

Gerbert of Aurillac

Watches the golden fleeces

In the river of his city,

He who will become

Pope Sylvester II

In the year 999.

He had met, in his studies,

A beautiful woman,

Meridiana,

Who offered him her body, wealth and wisdom,

If he would trust Hera,

And so he did;

Thus did he achieve the Magnum Opus,

Introduce Arab numbers to the West,

Invent the clock,

The astrolabe

And the hydraulic organ,

And in his darkened chambers

Conversed with a thaumaturgic talking head.