THE MIDKNIGHT GARDEN: Home to The Serpent Priesthood & Knights of the Red Order.

The vine was full.

I supped the wine little knowing the fruit wasn’t mine.

I lay down in the sun; felt the warmth, a lifetime lived and never a thought.

In the warmth of the sun my soul awoke, my body bathed in the golden glow.

All sins and sinners turned aside; the sun caressed like a holy tide.

Dreams and desire I knew to be mine so I allowed my body to ride on the tide.

Lost in a wave of human desire; drinking the wine from the chalice of fire.

I spilled a drop, just a tiny drop, a tiny drop of the blood-red wine.

Splashed on my thigh it reflected the sun

Yet the ruby rose just shone and shone.

Confliction and confusion in the name of the rose.

Dark and seductive but torn by the thorn; a tear upon my lily-white thigh.

A herald of winter.

A dawning of desire.

I sank in the silk of a silent night; satin and velvet cradled me tight

But the rose still pierced and the blood still flowed;

And the vine and the wine were never mine.

The sun an illusion; desire was just dust.

For I had supped the blood from the holy vine;

I’d emptied the chalice as though it was mine.

Though the ruby within had never been mine,

Yet I was drunk on the blood from the holy shrine.

Eyes from the past stared out from the dark.

I had crossed the void in the holy name,

I had dared to sup from the holy cup.

I had taken a stride to be by the side of those who guarded in the ancient name.

I saw the blood, fresh on the chapel floor, the dreams were real, illusion no more.

Dare I bathe in the blood of an ancient past; tend to his needs as She once did?

Dare I awaken, confront the truth, cross the line, to be transformed?

The chapel is dark and a lone candle flickers.

Dare I take the step, grasp the hidden thorn,

Cross the divide to be reborn?