The full moon of August – around the time of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary – is a highly potent time for womb shamans, and the knowledge about it goes back for thousands of years. In Italy, it is called Nemoralia after the sacred Lake Nemi in whose holy waters the high priestesses of Diana would bathe in the moonlight, and the Vestal Virgins would carry their holy flames in procession into its waters, which they understood to represent the firmamental birthing pool of the Milky Way.
These sacramental waters are the elixirs that flow within the womb shaman when the dove descends from the Most High and the serpent uncoils upwards. When these two meet at the climax of divine love making, a magical phenomenon occurs that’s known in alchemy as the Marriage of the Sun and the Moon, and the fruit of their honeymoon bed is a huge toroidal vortex of energies that explode and fertilise and heal all within the vicinity of the couple.
The sex alchemy of the dove and serpent is almost certainly the original meaning of the story about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before it was bastardised from its original Aramaic form to become a priestly morality tale. It would have been about the highest form of love alchemy, that fertilises all life that it touches.
The dove in alchemy was sometimes called the Hermes bird, after Hermes who was the Greek Mercury, without whose vital catalyst no alchemical operation can succeed.
The Christian church grafted the festival of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on to the rites of the Nemoralia, but as you can see below, whether they were just unwittingly copying or actually had the understanding, the artists of the church kept the right alchemical symbols for sacramental love magic in their right places.
The term “virgin” originally meant a woman who bestowed her pleasures on the Most High through her partner, her twin flame. The actual lovemaking would take place when the Sun was in Taurus and there was a full lunar eclipse in Scorpio. At this time, we can see the Virgo bride waiting for her Beloved (Ophiuchus) to conquer the serpent so that he can join her in the nuptial bed.
For Mary, the Most High, the man of god, was Gabriel. He was the Higher Self of her Earthly partner, Joseph. (For more on how this function works, see Twin Souls and Dream Lovers.)
The dove and the serpent were the focus of the rites of Mysteries of Eleusis that were held all around the Mediterranean around 4,000 years ago.
Those initiatory rites were two-fold. The Lesser Mysteries, which were held on the Spring Equinox, were about the water baptism of the dove … as appeared over the head of Jesus Christ at his water initiation in the river Jordan.
However, you may remember John the Baptist saying then that he only baptised with water, whereas “one will come who will baptise with fire”? This referred to the fire initiation of the Greater Mysteries of Eleusis, the serpent initiation, which always took place on the Autumn Equinox.
And perhaps Jesus was referring to these Mysteries when he said in Matthew 10:16. “Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves”.
There is no tantric, yogic or breathing technique that can achieve this ecstatic state. It is a natural outcome of twin souls meeting and entwining in pure love and adoration. Their love for one another is the open sesame key, and it cannot be faked any more than an orgasm can be faked.
Afterwards, the initiated human being speaks “with the tongue of serpents.” That doesn’t mean that his or her words are always liked or agreed with … but they are of a quality to make people listen!
Annie Dieu-Le-Veut 