Rite of Spring Works Exactly As Nature Intended

      The Muses help Laura to her feet, wrap her in a doeskin and send her merrily on her way along the narrow wooded path back toward the cottage. Morgen, from his hiding place on the hillside, half-mad with lust, rises to stalk her! He knows nothing of her mysteries and cares less. His single-minded pursuit has only one objective, to possess her!

      Joseph Cambell pointed out, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, that ordinary people are more than content to stay within the rules and limitations that define their societies, but the hero must cross those boundaries to enter the realm of the mysteries. According to Campbell, "...Plutarch numbers the ecstasies of the orgiastic rites of Pan along with the ecstasy of Cybele, the frenzy of Dionysus, the poetic frenzy inspired by the Muses...and, fiercest of all, the frenzy of love, as illustrations of that divine 'enthusiasm' that overturns reason and releases the forces of the destructive-creative dark."

      The symbolism of Morgen's crossing the first threshold "initiation" is not terribly complex, but requires a complete reversal of ordinary understanding, which is as it should be, for here we enter the realm of the mysteries. Laura, Morgen's supernatural guide, deliberately seeks to break down his inhibitions and reconnect him with his primitive nature. To do so, she exploits her own "natural" gifts and, of course, she succeeds. As "Peeping Tom" suggests, Morgen has turned outlaw. His pursuit of her takes him beyond the pale, deepening the rift between him and the contemporary society that shaped him.

      In the center of the stone circle, the solitary standing stone is draped with a stag headdress and buckskin cloak, symbolic of the Man-sacrifice Nature demands. Morgen, a trespasser, is hidden on the hillside, witness to the procession of wanton choir girls. As Nature intended, Laura's erotic dance properly sends Morgen's blood racing, and by the time the orchestra and choir dash screaming and giggling into the night, our aroused "Peeping Tom" is far past any intellectual consideration of the symbolism in Laura's ritual, thinly disguised in the lyrics and performance of "Peeping Tom." The refrain is sung by the Furies, Fates and Muses . . . and the secret hidden in the hunt is that Laura is the huntress, and Morgen her prey! The song goes a way to making that clear, but disguised mysteries not only hide in the unconscious and are prone to misinterpretation.

Travis Edward Pike, 22 August 2021, Otherworld Cottage