rainbow

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

                     [hi cat, i hope this time you're able to find out the 
                     pynchon-ref for yourself ...]


 "'a y i d a   w e d o!' someone called, his shout a whisper. it was true. mist 
 fell over the basin, and the water sprintered the sunlight, leaving a rainbow 
 arched across the entire face of the waterfall. it was the goddess of many 
 colors, delicate and ephemeral, come to rejoice with her mate. ayida wedo the 
 rainbow and damballah the serpent, the father of the falling waters and the 
 reservoir of all spiritual wisdom. just to bathe in the cold, thin waters was 
 to open oneself to damballah, and already at the base of the waterfall, in the 
 shadow of the rainbow, there were as many as hundred pilgrims, mounted by the 
 spirit, slithering across the wet rocks. (...) within its layered skin, the 
 serpent retained the spring of eternal life, and from the zenith it let go the 
 waters that filled the rivers upon which the people world nurse. as the water 
 struck the earth, the rainbow arose, and the serpent took her as a wife. their 
 love entwined them in a cosmic helix that arched across the heavens. in time 
 their fusion gave birth to the spirit that animated blood. women learned to 
 filter this divine substance through their breasts to produce milk, just as men 
 passed it through their testes to create semen. the serpent and the rainbow 
 instructed women to remember these blessings once each month, and they taught 
 men to damn the flow so that the belly might swell and bring forth new life. 
 then, as a final gift, they taught the people to partake of the blood as a 
 sacrament, that they might become the spirit and embrace the wisdom of the 
 serpent."

               ~~~ wade davis: the serpent and the rainbow. a harvard 
                      scientist's astonishing journey into the secret societies 
                        of haitian voodoo, zombis, and magic. nyc 1997: simon & 
                          schuster (touchstone), pp. 176f. ~~~    




kfl (wearing a black cat's bone)