Even Osiris needed a ladder to
get up to the floor of heaven. The
floor of heaven is an immense iron
plate. The floor will not permit you
to tread upon it until you say its
name, and the mystical names of the
legs with which you tread. No afterlife
until the gods utter your name.
Physical body, shadow, double, soul,
heart, spirit, power, name, spiritual
body. Our nine elements. A scarab
will protect the dead physical heart.
An idea old before the pyramids. With
words of magical power Isis raised
the dead body of Osiris. With his magic
bowl Nectanebus ruled Egypt. After
his kingdom fell he fled to Macedonia
and became a soothsayer. You are
accused of making wax figures, and
causing the people represented to become
paralyzed. Is the heart of wax stuck full
of magique needles? Is this amulet
meant to protect the living or the dead?
Khepera is the force that propels the sun
across the sky. Osiris has thirty-six forms.
In the future life you will be able to
assume any form you wish. I am
the mighty soul of saffron-coloured form.
As the frog is to resurrection. Life in
the crocodilopolis. The swamp country.
Wood frog in the musk egg. Larger
in a boggy situation. The sacred fish
with the golden brow. The divine lynx
is the standard of young flowers. The
shrike impales a tarantula on a wild
mustard stalk. Sharp-eyed shrike. The
punctured eyes of young swallows were
restored to sight with the juice of
celandine. The juice of rue for sore eyes.
Cumin and rue are good for the eyes.
Milton mentions eyebright in his epic,
but he still went blind. Don’t cut your
hand splitting cumin. Cumin on
unleavened bread. The Swiss Lake
Dwellers made fish nets from flax, and
flaxseed flavored their bread. By law
Egyptian priests wore linen. The dead
were wrapped in the finest linen.
Without flax there would be no pyramids.
The Druid priest saw Ceres in the leek.
As leeks are the badge of the Welsh. The
Druids gathered vervain at the rise of the
dog star. Vervain to signal truce, to
symbolize death. Druids didn’t eat
eggs. Caesar found the Britons dyed
blue. Textile dying among the Swiss
Lake Dwellers. Woad can be grown where
indigo cannot. Whin and woad for green,
weld for yellow. Broom was used for
green in Rome. Broom ash in wine for
liver trouble. Borage in wine brings pleasant
forgetfulness. Carmelite from the
stalks of lavender. Apricot yellow from
the bark of black willow. Intense olive
yellow from herb Robert. Golden yellow
aurora from the trifid water-hemp
agrimony. Musk from the ripe stalks
of agrimony, from the shoots of sweet
gale. Beautiful from fresh pimpernel.
Same in the same bath half spent. Cinnamon
from the shoots of the apricot tree,
from the branches of three year old pear.
The finest blue galls were imported from
Aleppo. The Dutch attempted to grow
indigo in Albany. Cotton replaced indigo
in Carolina. Colonists planted sorrel around
Salem. New Jersey tea on the eve of battle.
Oswego tea, bergamot, bee balm. Virgil grew
balm exclusively for his bees. Bees love the
savories. Winter savory flourished on
Mount Atlas. Similar would be the sight
of an Atlas with a small mule to match him,
or a black elephant carrying a Libyan of
the same hue. The Romans used horehound
to repel snakes and scorpions. The Greeks
made a plaster of crushed balm leaves for
scorpion stings. When it was thought basil
bred scorpions. Galen thought basil unfit
for consumption. Galen’s life was changed
because his father had a dream. A tea
of thyme will cure one of nightmares. Galen
prescribed caraway. Byron traveled with
scurvy grass and coconuts. Byron’s daughter,
Ada Lovelace, was the first computer programmer.
Tax on anise funded London Bridge repair.
Pythagoras used anise to treat epilepsy. Our
apothecary’s shop is our garden and our doctor
a good clove of garlic. Garlic is the poor man’s
treacle. Garlic to Egypt by way of Syria. As
Homer deified garlic. As Venus to sweet
marjoram. Basil for Vishnu and Krishna.
Basil as passport to Paradise. The dead travel
in one boat until noon and another until
sunset. Funeral wreaths of safflowers in
Egyptian tombs. As safflower heads to red tape.
Unscrupulous merchants selling safflower as
saffron. Beautiful boys sprinkle the guests
with saffron. I feel that I am in the best
society when I am with lettuce. As witches
ate dill. As Thessalian witches tear the flesh
from the faces of the dead. Corn soaked in
hellebore is safe from crows. As jays are
never seen on Fridays. As jays take kindling
to the devil. The 26th day of the month
Thoth is wholly unlucky, being the day of
the fight between Horus and Set. Sandals
were made from the skin of two gods,
opponents of Horus. May Anubis make firm
your thighs. I will make him bring back
this book soon, with a knife and a rod in
his hand and a vessel of fire upon his head.
Aaron’s rod, Jupiter’s staff. Juno’s tears,
herb of the cross. The simpler’s joy.
Thunder plant, the healing blade. The
serpent will look for fennel when casting off
its skin. Fennel on the slopes of the Himalayas,
fennel with your conger eel, with your mackerel.
Fennel is the emblem of flatterers. For five
hundred years heroes of the Nemean games
were wreathed in parsley. Parsley goes
thrice to the devil before it comes up. Charlemagne
grew leeks at Aix-la-Chapelle. The Romans
took leeks to Britain. Romans carried nettles
to Britain, to chafe their skin against the
north wind. After Strabo, agrimony was lost
until the Saxons. As the Saxons practiced
leechcraft. As the plantain was thought to
heal broken bones. To allow the wounded to
rest, a drink of henbane, lettuce seeds and
opium was administered. Valerian when
opium fails. Chamomile in the temple gardens
of Thessaly. Lavender and rosemary for virgin
sacrifices. Lavender to scent the desert and
the dead. How can a man die who has sage
in his garden? Chickadees in the orchard.
A kinglet upside down. As the wind god gave
the kingfisher the power to quell storms.
Where it is said the sky is a solid vault of
blue stone. Whatever lies above the moon is
eternal. What is beneath the mist is unknown.
In the house of the Moon the king met foreign
ambassadors, travelers, and poets. Hittite,
Chaldean or Hindu, the thrones have beasts
on either hand. The veil of Herod’s temple was
embroidered with the constellations. The
Druids tore down and rebuilt the temple roof
every year. When the temple and tree were
convertible words. The cave Zoroaster consecrated
to Mithra, with symbols symmetrically arranged.
Violets and parsley in the nymph’s cave. The
dance and the story. The dancing place
built by Daedalus. The box over which
Aristotle taught Alexander to recite magical
formulae. The court box maker. Mosque
cut, Prussian Cap cut, Scallop cut, Reverse
Queen Anne. The Bulgarians tried to convert
the Czar to Islam. The Templars invented
letters of credit. A.M.F.J. Palisot de Beauvois
saw the resemblance to the hedgehog in the
entire head of the grass.