The Garden of Earthly Delights

A poem inspired by Eros that allegorises the penultimate stage in the process to birth the Philosopher's Stone, known to alchemists as the Marriage of the Sun and the Moon or the Peacock's Tail.

Words and vocals by Annie Dieu-Le-Veut
Music by maivana.film, @themaivana
Cover art: Ryan Kenneth Ford

LYRICS:

I know a dell where the willow mint grows,
Where bluebells chime in the midnight hallows,
And bowers of may and honeyed suckle
Curtain the congress of loving couples
As paired collard doves are cooing in swoon
At this, the Marriage of the Sun and the Moon.

The Peacock’s tail is a courtesan’s fan
As he dances a slow Bharatanatyam.
The rose on the throne folds back her calyx
And releases her nectars into the chalice
For the bee, so lustful ...and yet so tender
At her grace, at such sweet surrender.

Deep in this Garden of Earthly Delights
Sleeps Beauty, sometime of the night,
Her perfumed lap that poets eulogise.
All the Love of the world is in Her eyes.
And there, the Serpent is rising once more
To fire up the ways and open the doors.

© Annie Dieu-Le-Veut, October 2023