I want to be like Narcissus. To drown into the cold spring waters of the Mother. To the self, and ego dissolve. To be one with the streams of life. To surface, purest in yellow bright.
- “A desire” H. Gibaldi
Last Friday we had the first quarter Moon in Cancer, and to those who follow the modern Religion of Antinous, this moon is called the “Narcissus Moon”.
We all know the story of Narcissus, but it’s relation to Queerness in Art history and literature are not very well known.
The original myth of Narcissus can be seen as a cautionary tale about excessive vanity, but throughout history it was retold by many artists an writers as a tale of dying for the beauty of a forbidden love. A impossible desire that he can’t fulfill.
He is the source of inspiration for the work of many famous gay poets, such as García Lorca, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Oscar Wilde.
Poor Narcissus
Your dim fragrance
And the dim heart of the river
I want to stay at your edge
Flower of love
Poor Narcissus
Ripples and sleeping fish
Cross your white eyes
Songbirds and butterflies
I so tall beside you
Flower of love
Poor Narcissus
How wide-awake the frogs are
They won’t stay out of the surface
In which your madness and my madness
Mirrors itself
Poor Narcissus
My sorrow
Self of my sorrow
- “Narcissus” by Fernando García Lorca. Roughly translated to English.
The myth found a place for itself in the work of Aesthetic and Decadent artists, as a celebration of not only an idealized male beauty, but of a beauty and desire worthy dying for.
Or on a mystical sense, such as the Narcissus Moon of Antinous, an embrace of self-love. Removing distractions and focusing on the reflection you see in waters of your own consciousness.
It is forever gazing into its own reflection and whispering to itself: You are Divine! The reflection and the viewer are one and the same. The Spirit of Narcissus is the Divinity which holds a mirror up to ourselves.
God is Self, and Self is God, and God is a Person like Myself.
- Victor Anderson, poet and founder of the Anderson-Faery tradition of Witchcraft.
