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Scene
Twenty-Five:
Picking
Up the Pieces
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NILE MAPs appear on the walls of the Space. On them green points and city names appear as temples
to Osiris
are built. LIGHTS up on ANUBIS. As he and NEPHTHYS speak, the ENSEMBLE actors prepare
ISIS' BOAT. The boat is large enough to accommodate several Neters on the
deck, and has doors at the bow and stern ends of the windowless chamber in the
middle of the boat. The ENSEMBLE extend ropes from the front of
the boat toward the CELEBRANTS. He is Born music fades.
ANUBIS enters onto the boat's front deck as ENSEMBLE take their places on the ropes.
ISIS enters and sits at the rear of the boat.
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We need some able-bodied, generous people to help pull the boat of Queen Isis. All hands
please stand by. (Pause.) And Pull!
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ENSEMBLE and AUDIENCE repeat this in rhythm as The Rain is Free music begins, and the BOAT moves.
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NEPHTHYS:
No one but Isis and a few others knew that inside each of the
enamel and gold-covered boxes that were placed in the new temples was not a
part of Osiris' body, but a replica of it, made so well by
the art of Isis and Anubis that no one could have imagined it wasn't
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really the King's own flesh. The coffin was placed inside the temple sanctuary, where it was guarded; and, in an outer shrine where all the people could see it, we consecrated a beautiful art image of the part of Osiris that had been found in that part of the river.
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Commotion as the ENSEMBLE find, covered by river weeds, a part of OSIRIS' body. The BOAT stops. ENSEMBLE pass the body part, still covered, to ANUBIS, who looks under the vegetation, turns and reports to ISIS by gesturing at part of his own body. The regal front that ISIS has maintained until now crumples with the news, then she recovers herself. ANUBIS takes the body part and goes through the bow door into the BOAT. THOTH KHU
appears, circling above the Space. Fade The Rain is Free MUSIC.
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NEPHTHYS:
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Of course, Isis wasn't leaving the real body parts of Osiris under
any of these temples, Anubis was hiding them in a casket inside
the boat, and preserving them. Isis was determined to find them all, and not just so she could finally honor and entomb the whole body in one place. It was absolutely necessary that she and Osiris do the act of love with all their power of intention one more time, because, in their last union
-- (To ISIS:) -- is it permissible to talk about these things?
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ISIS:
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Yes, certainly. They must find out everything in time. (To CELEBRANTS:)
Please put down those ropes and listen for a while. I want to say something
to those among you who don't believe Osiris. I
tell you heart to hearts that I didn't believe him either! Were my fragrance
and my song and what he called the face to melt the eyes of him worth so little that when Set came Osiris didn't resist at all, but even angled his neck up toward the blade? Would I have been pleased if Osiris had fought for one more night with me? Would I have shouted and smiled if instead
of tapping Set with his heqa, he'd used it
to crack him a good one across the brow, and knock him down?
Yes. Yes! As long as I'm in this density of desire, yes!
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If I were Osiris, I would have done something.
As a woman, I do not understand what makes men play catch with death the way they do, and when the ball hits them they wear wood
faces that say Nothing Is Wrong. Where is their respect for death? Their
reverence for time?
Why do I still have no child? Why has his seed not grown within me, even though he was inside me from the moment of our birth, even though he's flowed into me like a river for all these years, even though our intentions were so perfectly joined that when he saw and sang his life into
me,
and I felt the flood of his manhood, the seed shooting and growing in my field, why did the body of our manchild not take flesh and grow to fill what we saw?
I understand the grand mechanics. Thoth can tell you more about this, about how Osiris was the passive male principle and Isis the active female. It's all true, and deep, but below where my eyes are, I don't care. How hollow it feels when we see, as the world begins to see now, what the other in my life can never give, can never do. Not even the gods are free of this sorrow. We know how much is possible, we see how much less is there. It all began with Osiris
and me. The cold yawn in the pit of the stomach. It's time to
move.
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ENSEMBLE:
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He is born! (Repeated work chant, elongated
on "born".)
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NEPHTHYS:
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Thoth?
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NEPHTHYS boards the boat as ENSEMBLE and CELEBRANTS
begin to pull it across the Space. THOTH KHU now
descends to the area above the boat, and GRAPHICs
of OSIRIS' chakra column appear as THOTH's narration
begins.
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THOTH:
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You remember that
when you saw the love union of Isis
and Osiris, there were flashes of red,
orange, yellow and green as Isis awaken-
ed her mate's four lower energy centers.
But Osiris had no strength to go higher,
so his passion burst in the green ray
of the heart. Isis and Osiris had planted
their son Horus as a physical and emotional
being, so Horus is growing inside Isis
now and he will be born only as a physical
body a few months from now. But for
Horus to be mind and soul also, his
parents must open his centers of speech,
vision and wisdom. The process of bringing
Horus in, of activating him completely
on the earth plane, requires another
act of spiritual love.
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THOTH KHU vanishes and THOTH enters from inside
the boat. ENSEMBLE actor passes a small papyrus
scroll to ANUBIS, who scans it and hands it to THOTH.
ANUBIS jumps from the boat and exits. THOTH moves
forward in the boat, touches NEPHTHYS' arm and nods
to her. She goes to the back of the boat to engage
ISIS in silent conversation. THOTH's next speech
is addressed to the CELEBRANTS, yet he keeps looking
THOTH astern, to make sure that ISIS is well distracted.
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THOTH:
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We have gathered 12 of the 14
pieces of the King's body. We have all
of him except the most important part,
and one other part. We know where the
most important piece is. This is it,
and right now we're
heading toward it (SACRUM KHU appears
above ISIS, where she can't see it):
it's the djed, the sacrum of Osiris,
which joins the legs to the torso and
anchors the whole energy column of the
body. We have to find it. Nothing else
happens without it.
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ISIS looks at the DJED KHU behind her.
It vanishes before she can see it. She then moves
toward the front of the BOAT, unnoticed by THOTH
as he speaks to the CELEBRANTS:
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THOTH:
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Anubis is sniffing out the other missing
piece, the mystery part. Can you guess which one
it is? I'll give you a hint. It's the one that makes
some people giggle. Don't be shy. The two lovers
aren't--
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ISIS:
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The two lovers aren't what? What are you talking
about up here?
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THOTH:
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Lines that keep coming to me, perhaps a poem
looking for a voice.
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ISIS:
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May we hear it?
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THOTH:
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Certainly. It's not much, but I'll be happy
to tell it to you as I take off. I can aid the search
better from the air. (To ENSEMBLE:) Pull in here, where
people are already gathering to greet us, and make ready to build the temple. Here.
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THOTH dives behind BOAT, exits. THOTH KHU
appears, flying above the boat. THOTH KHU speaks
as he ascends:
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THOTH:
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The lovers live in rings and falls of water
As each pours liquid kisses to the other,
Tears and love's juices, sweat and seeds,
The fire breath that passion needs.
Beyond, within the flow that bodies feel,
A stream of purest light completes the seal
That
can be seen when the aim of love is real.
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During the following THOTH KHU guides the
ENSEMBLE to find the sacrum of OSIRIS. They bring
it toward the BOAT and hand it to ANUBIS, who looks
at ISIS, then takes the sacrum inside the boat.
ISIS is calm, no longer reacting in wild grief.
ENSEMBLE and CELEBRANTS pull the BOAT to a stop
at the wall of stone BLOCKS, coil the ropes and
fold down the stairs that ISIS and NEPHTHYS use
to disembark. ENSEMBLE now begin to build the temple
pylon from the stone BLOCKS, and may engage CELEBRANTS
to assist them.
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