Turin and the Gates of Hell

No-one believes in Hell any more,

Except the exorcists.

And no-one but his demons believes in the Devil.


Walking narrow streets beneath anguished stone heads,

On the Forty-fifth Parallel,

I hold in my hands the two triangles, black and white,

The intersections of occult cities,

The benignity of Turin-Lyon-Prague,

The malignity of Turin-London-San Francisco.


Two-hearted city, battlefield of angels and demons:

I am walking over the grasping hands of the dead,

Hearing the white heart of Piazza Castello beating,

And the black heart of Piazza Statuto.


So you come to Satan’s Door,

Brass goat’s head two-tongued with intertwining snakes;

Baroque bank of ill thoughts and intentions.

“Money,” comes a whisper, “is the rubbish of the Devil.”


Between two rivers, the Po and the Dora Riparia,

The male and the female,

A son of Isis founded this city,

Temple of the sun.


In Piazza Statuto,

I am in the black heart,

The vallis occisorum

Sacred to executions and burials,

Baleful west of the setting sun,

Gallows of the soul;

Here -the entrance to the sewers,

The Gate of Hell….


In Piazza Solferino –

You come to the Fontana Angelica,

Said to be the Gate of Infinity:

In the space between the two male figures

Is a magical door

To an unknown dimension,

A realm that holds the solutions

To the alchemical mysteries of the world.


Piazza Castello, white heart of the city,

Empowered by the Holy Shroud,

In whose linen the four elements are mingled--

Grail of enlightenment,

Baphomet of the Templars!

Give proof of God,

We need miracles and signs,

Cry the faithful,

Desperate for the spectre

Of divine man,

Their Christian cult demanding

Both too little and too much,

Bewildered into sophistry

By a child’s questions.


Lucifer,prince of this world,

Most beautiful of the angels,

Has fallen past the Alps

Into a Turin square.

Devils are coming out of the walls,

Straining their chains to break free.

They are everywhere, the possessed,

Spewing curses and ancient tongues,

Levitating and falling back.

While Satanists rob churches of the Host

And hallowed bones,

To desecrate in Black Masses.


At the foot of the steps

Of Gran Madre di Dio church

The statue of Faith stands holding

A chalice in her hand,

As she gazes towards the hidden location

Of the Holy Grail.