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>> About the first watch
of the night I was aroused by sudden panic.
Looking up I saw the full orb of the moon shining
with peculiar luster and that very moment emerging
from the waves of the sea like the moon
with a strange glow that night.
Then the thought came to me this was the hour of silence
and loneliness, when my prayers might avail for I knew
that the moon was the primal goddess of supreme slay
and that all human beings are the creatures of her providence
that not only cattle and wild beasts
but even inorganic objects are vitalized
by the divine influence of her light, that all of the bodies
which are on earth or in the heavens or in the sea increase
when she waxes and decline when she wanes.
Consider this therefore and feeling
that fate was now satiated with my endless miseries
and at last license the hope of salvation.
I determined to implore the august image
of the risen goddess.
So what did Lucius decide to do,
to pray for salvation, to pray to what?
The moon, this is paganism.
This is nature religion.
The mystery of the moon that makes the tides move, right?
They can't look that up on Wikipedia.
That's the way that the gods mysteriously inhabit all
of nature and so he decides to pray in the hour
of his silence of loneliness.
He prays to the goddess and he first walks into the sea
to purify himself
and he immerses his head seven times in the water.
What's he doing?
It's a water ritual.
It's like a baptism.
He purifies himself and there he cries and looks to the heavens
and he says, "Oh, Queen
of Heaven whether your Ceres Demeter who gives all growth
or Venus who oversees creation, re-generation or Diana
or Persephone by whatever name, by whatever rites,
in whatever form you are save me.
Take my broken life and give me rest
and peace after my suffering.
Restore me to my true self Lucius."
And he prays to the goddess and he falls asleep on the sand,
then out of the sea he sees a goddess rising toward him.
He says, I cannot even describe it
in the poverty of human language.
But she says to him, "Lucius, I come to you.
I am the mother of nature and the mother of life, the Mistress
of the Elements, the first child of time, the supreme divinity,
the Queen of Heaven and Hell.
I am the one who is worshiped in many forms.
I am Minerva.
I am Venus.
I am Diana.
I am Demeter and Hera and among the Egyptians
who exceed all others in ancient matters I'm called
by my true name, Isis.
I come to you in your calamity.
I bring you salvation.
Tomorrow is the day when I am worshiped.
There will be a festival to honor me as the season
of seafaring begins and my priests will lead a procession
in a parade and he will carry a bundle of roses.
Approach him and eat thereof and you will be transformed.
I will save you but you must remember me
and dedicate yourself to me all the days of your life.
You will be blessed and live under my guidance
and when you die you will travel to paradise,
to the Alegian Fields, the realm of blessed souls
where you will adore me forever."
And she finishes speaking and she ebbs back into the sea.
The next day a beautiful sunlit day there's a parade,
a procession in worship of Isis and the crowds pour
in the people wearing white robes and dancing and singing.
A host of men and women, musicians playing instruments,
images of the god's follow and at the very last is a priest
of the god Isis, the high priest of the goddess Isis
and he's carrying a bundle of roses and he's walking
down the procession and he comes over and he sees Lucius
and he knows that it's Lucius.
And he walks over and he hands him a rose and he eats the rose
and he is transformed.
He becomes a man again as all watch.
The priest brings him a white robe and addresses him, "Lucius,
you've been brought home to your haven of peace.
Your birth, your homeland,
your learning achieved nothing for you.
You gave into the slavery of your body
and reaped the rewards of your curiosity.
You've suffered.
You've been a slave.
You've feared death.
But now rejoice and follow the goddess your savior
in steps of triumph."
And Lucius joins the procession.
The story tells how Lucius then goes on to become an initiate,
indeed a priest of Isis and her husband Osiris
and his journey is fulfilled as he becomes a priest
in the temple to the gods in Egypt in Rome.
Quite a story this deep spiritual allegory of salvation,
a story of salvation by a goddess,
a traditional pagan goddess but whose
in the Roman Empire becomes this goddess of salvation
who offers eternal life and who offers transformation,
who offers transformation a transformation so radical
that it's like being made from a slave into a free person,
like being made from an animal into a human.