Current Mission,Kenny La Roche, alchemy, Cathedral, Kenny La Roche, Alchemy, Kenosis, rock art, Kenny La Roche, Athanorian Rose, Athanor

In the Work of Alchemy, the Athanor is the Sacred Furnace wherein the Opposites fuck, fart, and die. In the passionate heat of the Forge the elements of the world meet, merge, and then dissolve - giving form to the ancient Alchemical motto: "No Generation without previous Corruption."

"I'm dancing with the light!" Slag is screaming, just as my flash catches his naked foot in the groin of the first proto-petal of the Rose Window. Suddenly we can see the scale of the thing better. When it's finally hanging the entire structure is going to fill a 12' by 12' volume. We see it as a 12 petaled Rose with a single Athanor hanging in its center - the Punto Fijo/G-spot - and within the Circle of the Rose we see a Cross. Kind of Maltese, oddly resonant of Warrior Theologians & Mystic Brothers of the Rosy Cross. None of which we are pushing very hard. It's just that we love to tweek the harmonics of the metaphors we employ.

Such a Vas or Vessel is always seen in world mythology as a Perfected Uterus - a Grail - and is universally recognized as the Divine Archetype of the regenerative female power in Nature. The Hung Stone in the center of the Athanor is the "lifted" Seed and is itself recognized as the Divine Archetype of the regenerative male power in Nature. Kenny La Roche places them together within the matrix of the Sacred and the Profane.

That's Slag & the Captain holding up a 3-petal section of the bones of the Rose. The metal bones are made from ¼" by 2" Cold-Rolled Steel which Slag has heat-bent into a correct angularity - or so it seems. We won't really know until all 12 petals are made and we then try to bolt them together. So it's always Adventure Theology, even in the shop. We've decided to call this mission: Athanorian Rose. It's our 10th mission to build the Cathedral Our Lady of the Ligne - but since the Font of the Cathedral is itself composed of several parts - it may be closer to our 15th. We are planning the Rose's installation for early Autumn 2002.

Continue on to page 2 of Athanorian Rose Mission