“Evoe”

In anticipation of our Earth leaving the shape-shifting-musing of Gemini, entering the enduring family of humankind in Cancer, and dancing in celestial syncopation with Venus and Mars fused as one in the earthly delights of Taurus I thought to share with you this evocative telling of the incarnating of spirit into matter.

“Zeus stretched out on Semele’s bed in the form of a bull with human limbs. Then he was a panther. Then a young man with vine shoots in his curls. Finally he settled into that most perfect of shapes: the serpent. Zeus prolonged their union like some story without end, a rehearsal of the life of the god about to be generated. The snake slithered over Semele’s trembling body and gently licked her neck. Then, gripping her bust in one of his coils, wrapping her breasts in a scaly sash, he sprinkled her not with poison but with liquid honey. The snake was pressing his mouth against Semele’s mouth, a dribble of nectar trickling down onto her lips intoxicated her, and all the while vine leaves were sprouting up on the bed and there was a sound of drums beating in the darkness. The earth laughed. Dionysus was conceived just as Zeus shouted the name with which for centuries he was to be evoked: “Evoe!’”

Roberto Calasso The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony