Zeno's Men (Eleanor!)

Ritual
entitled Zeno's Men
revised from the antiquity in 1717 by Edmund "Knuckletooth" DeLarnygylio
with commentary by Jackmond Gorgin, 1973
with secondary commentary by Sternfield Hauppage, 1912, responding to Larry Burkekis, 1884

Ritual:
performed in thirteen parts by three choruses

( I ) From A to Elea!
this cry the lords of the altar

( II ) From Elea to B!
respond the lords of the host

( III ) We are Zeno's men!
call out the lords of the altar and of the host as one

( IV ) She is not!
this cry the lords of the host, pointing to ELEANOR, emergent from the circle

( V ) Who then stands forward from the circle? Go you also to Elea?
cry the lords of the altar to ELEANOR, who is making an indentation in the east

( VI ) No, I am ELEANOR, traveling neither to ELEA NOR any place with a name.
this cry ELEANOR, carrying about her breast the emblems of her house and lineage

( VII ) Hail ELEANOR, Empress, Priestess, and Queen!
this respond the lords of the host, in recognition of their triune matron

( VIII ) Hail ELEANOR. Tell us how to travel to a place with no name!
this respond the lords of the altar, who draw their swords and hold them aloft so that the hilt is over the breast and the blade is no further away than one inch from the nose

( IX ) I cannot tell, I can only lead.
this cry ELEANOR, strong amidst the blades

( X ) We shall follow.
this cry lords of host and altar

( XI ) I shall not go to Elea.
this cries soberly ELEANOR

( XII ) Yet we shall follow.
this cry lords of host and altar

( XIII ) It is only by this virtue that we shall reach B!
this cry all, thus ends the ceremony, orgy optional, play safe kids

Gorgin's commentary:

You, as a human being, are not being defined by your destination. People do not judge you based on what you will become, or even what you have become. You are judged based on your journey. You are judged based on your actions and attitudes, which people see on a daily basis. Christ said we are judged by our judgments. Therefore, let not your heart be troubled about the destination of your journey, for men will not judge you of that and in the end all destinations are the grave. Instead, be mindful of your journey. You are walking through a strange life, not a Zeno's paradox where all progress goes nowhere, forever from A to Elea. Instead, we all readily reach our destinations, even when we strongly disagree with them. If we wish to make a difference, we should seek whenever possible to exhibit our benevolent, generous, charitable qualities on our journey, the one thing we can change.

Hauppage's commentary:
The three choruses of DeLarnygylio's rituals (altar, host, feminine mystery) are endlessly varied and fascinating. Notice how with no more than thirteen utterances he establishes and then subtly changes the tone for each of his principal characters, suggesting progression and change!

In one of his works for scholars, DeLarnygylio pointed out that the altar represents how things can remain the same generation after generation, while the host, the body, is a living organism, forced into constant change or else its life expended. A body that breathes stale air will eventually suffocate. but if we could not count on the seasons, we should all starve. So it is with host and altar.

The path of life has not changed for mankind since long before mankind existed. Man is born. He is instructed. He trusts, and then he learns not to trust. He flees. He conquers. He finds love. He reproduces himself. And then he ceases to be the focus, and the child, the new life, becomes the focus. The remainder of his days are spent instructing the child and trying to cope with a biome that has declared his body obsolete. This is the host and the altar. Always things are changing, and yet they are always the same.


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This post is an installment in a continuing series of content coordinated by theme or motif with posts from Enoch Allred of Chiltingham, John Allred of clol Town, Jon Fairbanks of Funkadelic Freestylings of Another Sort, Eli Z. McCormick and Miriam Allred of Modern Revelation!, John D. Moore of Whatnot Studios, Joseph Schlegel of Sour Mayonnaise, Sven Patrick Svensson of Sadness? Euphoria?, William C. Stewart of Chide, Chode, Chidden, and WiL Whitlark of The Real McJesus. This week's theme: 'Eleanor'.