Shrine of the Golden Hawk
by Florence Farr & Olivia Shakespear
Publisher: Ouroboros Press
Saddle-stitched pamphlet with stiff French flap jacket. 22 pp.
Limited printing keepsake for a performance of the play in Seattle 2010.
The Shrine of the Golden Hawk is a short one scene play written in 1900 and attributed to Florence Farr, a leading member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and Olivia Shakespear, but it is very much Florence's play. Set in a cave on Mount Bakhua about 4000BC, Gebuel, the magician of fire and metals, makes a talisman to Heru (Horus) in the hope of overwhelming Zozer, King of Egypt and builder of the step pyramid at Sakkara. Zozer discovers Gebuel's magical intentions and sends his daughter, Nectoris, skilled in the Mysteries of Isis, 'wise with the serpent wisdom' to win the golden hawk.
During the play, Nectoris is guided by her Ka, her 'sister-soul' and 'higher self'. Nectoris is, like the Isian High Priestess of the Tarot, listening to her inner voice.
After watching the Shrine of the Golden Hawk, William Butler Yeats described being "caught up with one final dramatic moment when a priestess, who has just been shaking in terror before her god, dances in ecstasy."
Caroline Wise first produced this play in the 90s at the Rudolf Steiner Theatre in London. The performance which raised money for breast cancer charity, sold out. This printed edition of the play was produced as part of the 2nd Esoteric Book Conference in Seattle, where the play made its first public US debut performance.
A limited supply of these pamphlets remain for sale.