guys - how do we get out of the rock
how do we escape the cave of the world
by the crooked sword the sickle and crock
can we break the ring where the stars are hurled
the beast is ridden down into the pit
and harrowed - then the torch is lowered
and our flood of life and evil is lit
those desires by which we’re empowered
we can save ourselves from time and its might
our god supped on the flesh of the bull
our souls will rise from the blood to the light
flesh has been pain and joy to the full
the problem’s always been with the cosmos
here in dark - light is embodied for us
Oxford
29 April 2018
I visited the Bloomberg Building in London on 25 April 2018. Underneath it lies a Mithraeum, discovered in 1954, removed to another site, then restored and reintegrated with further features of the structure unearthed later, when the Bloomberg Building was built.
Mithraism was a religion about which we know little and about which scholars constantly debate. No theology or scriptures have survived yet it was a popular soldiers’ religion favoured by the late 3rd century emperors, such as Diocletian. The objects mentioned in line 3 are symbols of some of the seven grades of initiation. It was a fairly gender-specific Rugby club-type religion though it is alleged women were admitted in some areas.
As for the burning blood, blood is largely water and doesn’t burn, unless mixed with an accelerant, but I have interpreted the imagery of the two figures of Cautes and Cautopates with their raised and lowered torches and of the caduceus lowered to the poured out sacrificial blood, for the purposes of the poem.