Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth
In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.
The Osser Opens Like a Flower
The Osser Opens Like a Flower
The Osser opens like a flower.
Place the black bundle on the altar.
The outer cloth, which covered
the altar at the first Grand Sabbat
(which altar enthrones)
itself is black, but look
—here and here—
these two white ovoids:
prints of His sweet seat.
(And here, between, is where you kiss.)
Unfold the black. O shocking red!
Rich red silk, of course,
enwraps the witches' Hallow:
truly, what other color could it be?
Red petals unfold. Behold
the rose's heart: antler,
wood, the paint, the fur.
Animal, vegetable, mineral.
White, red, black.
How do you transport the sacred?
Do you not enfold: to hold in, to protect?
The Osser opens, opens like a flower.
Animal, vegetable, mineral.
White, red, black.
June 6, 2021
Minneapolis
In a Sabbatical Year
The Osser (or Ooser) is the carved wooden mask worn by the God of Witches during the Grand Sabbat and certain other ritual occasions.
It lives in a shrine in the Temple of the Moon, and receives twice-daily offerings.
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