Cleopatra Occult

by Swanson, Peter Joseph

  He raised a fist to her.

  She bowed.

  He retorted, “Never mind all that now! Cleopatra is still all mine!”

  “And mine, too. Whatever tricks she thinks she has, I will find them out.” The bald witch grinned and tapped the side of her nose.

  He asked her, “How will you stop my sister now? She has great magic and the favor of all the gods; Egyptian, Roman and Greek. She has Caesar.”

  Sorceress Thrace held out her arms. “I shall have to circumvent all the gods of all the farms and cities, then.”

  “Where else is there?”

  Sorceress Thrace answered, “In the wild places we will find our answer. As wild as the mountain bird nest of the phoenix!”

  ~

  Outside on the steps of the Palace of Alexandria, facing the seaside market plaza, Octavian stood with Phaedra. He said to her, “I’ll leave you with my ugly centurion while I visit with the pharaoh.”

  “An ugly centurion?”

  Octavian grinned ominously. “Then I won’t have to feel jealous thoughts about you while I visit with little Ptolemy.”

  Phaedra looked out over the busy plaza. “It looks so exciting. I’ve never seen such a big market like this before… and by the sea! Big, big, everything here is so big! Is it dangerous?”

  “Nope. Make yourself at home, the market here works just like in Rome. Here’s some denarius.” He handed her ten silver coins. “Buy a treat for me too. Just keep your centurion at the edge of the plaza at all times if you should go beyond it so I can find you again when I’m done.”

  “Why would I leave the plaza? By the gods why would I leave the centurion at the edge?”

  Octavian explained, “There’s a library just up the shore from the market if you’re so curious about that. It’s big too. It’s much bigger than the usual temple library. It’s a library to science. The libraries in Rome are better though, of course. This city is an unorganized mess.”

  She agreed with him that Rome is always best.

  Alexandria was the largest and most organized walled city in the world. It was laid out in a grid. Much of the city broke up into ethnic neighborhoods that were prosperous and had their own temples. The dominant Greek neighborhood was at the sea for the most monumental structures of the palace, forum, temples to Greek gods, library, public theater, public gymnasium, and tomb of Alexander the Great.

  He continued, “Alexandria is the only thing civilized this side of the sea, I suppose, so I should remember to appreciate it more for what it is.” He glared north to the sea, past the market plaza, to the harbor that was capable of holding twenty-four hundred ships at once. On a small nearby island, the lighthouse was over four hundred feet tall so could easily be seen from where they were.

  When Alexander the Great founded Alexandria it was a small port town called Rhakotis. He wanted to use it for strategic military reasons because it faced the Mediterranean Sea, a link to his many empires. He didn’t care about a town, beyond the harbor. The first Ptolemy decided to make it a Greek city to rival Athens. He especially wanted a library that would rival the great Library of Athens.

  Phaedra asked, “Anybody can walk into the library?”

  Octavian looked fierce. “If they think you’re from Rome they better let you walk all over it, anywhere on the grounds, and do as you damn well please over there. If anybody questions you anywhere, tell them you’ll report it to your host, Octavian, and they’ll bow fast enough to crack their skulls.”

  “I hope it doesn’t come to all that.”

  He grinned. “It never gets old seeing people bow so fast.”

  Phaedra said she’d prefer to see the market. A centurion was assigned to her who had a bad scar across his nose. A slave woman was also sent along. Phaedra walked from the palace steps to the market plaza that was set out in straight rows. She asked the maidservant, “I wonder where the interesting things are?”

  The maidservant shrugged.

  Phaedra pushed up on her rolled hair. “Just keep an eye out for my hairpins. I feel like I’m ready to fall apart. This land is so strange yet everything has been built to look familiar. Do you see that too?”

  The maidservant nodded.

  “But here, as I see everything so grand, organized and busy, I feel it all falling apart. I wonder why I feel that. I have such a feeling of danger.”

  The centurion assured her she was safe with him.

  Phaedra viewed many piles of fish and vegetables. She finally saw six Egyptian men walking together. She could tell they were Egyptian by their brown skin that was dark enough to protect from the desert sun and light enough to contrast their black eye makeup. After three other Egyptian men passed by, ten minutes later, she commented to her maidservant, “They are as rare here as the streets of Rome. Those men have such beautiful eyes. But I suppose if they have to wear eye makeup like that then the women won’t want to sleep with the men who don’t look good in it. Babies with ugly eyes won’t get born. After thousands of years of eyes-for-makeup, only the most beautiful eyes are left. In Rome the women only look at thick arms and so we have so many ugly faces there.”

  The maidservant busted into laughter.

  Phaedra wandered to a tent full of crates. It sold scrolls. A Nubian man with a long white beard asked, “Do you study witchcraft?”

  Phaedra was surprised. “How could you tell? I’m just an amateur, of course.”

  “There is something wild about you.”

  Phaedra blushed. “Oh my Pegasus. No, no. No, I’m from Rome. And I went to a temple school that was very official. My witchcraft is just a small curiosity outside of that.”

  “Many Roman ladies these days are amateurs in the occult arts.”

  “Yes, that’s true. It’s a fashion. Have you ever been to Rome? It’s so crowded. The streets are so narrow. They have tried to put too many buildings within its walls. Someday they will be as tall as your lighthouse. I’m so nervous being so far from Rome. It’s nice to talk to someone who is so nice. I didn’t know what to expect…”

  He interrupted her nervous chattering, gesturing to a box, “I have a collection of the latest in Egyptian spells.”

  “How can they be new?”

  “Not new to time but new to this city.”

  Phaedra asked how.

  He grinned seductively and pointed opposite the waterfront. “I look south up the river for the ancient wisdom. Most people here in this city look north to the sea to bring them their new scrolls. The library is on the coast so that all ships entering the harbor can be searched. Every book is taken to the library where it’s decided whether to give it back or confiscate it and replace it with a copy.”

  Phaedra asked, “Where else could new books come from, if not from ships sailing in from the sea?”

  “The Nile takes you back into the real Egypt, and beyond, all the way up to Nubia where Egypt gets its gold. Nubia was Egypt’s first word for gold. The Nile was discovered to be a land of many magic ideas that became even more powerful when civilization wrote them down.” He gestured to his entire tent shop. “These copies are from Cairo and all the way south at Aswan, and even into Nubia south of Khartoum and even south of Juba.”

  She asked, “Egypt loves the foreign words from so far away into the south?”

  He frowned. “Love? No. Egypt has always mocked the Nubian tongue, thinking that what they don’t understand sounds like nonsense. But if you write it down in their own language the Egyptians see its value.”

  “I can’t read Egyptian.”

  “These scrolls are all in Latin, for all to see.”

  She looked suspicious. “Doesn’t translation ruin it all?”

  “Everything has always been in layers of translation. Egypt is a Greek word.”

  “What’s it really called here then?”

  “It first had four names; its upper and lower parts, its river or desert parts. They first called the land at the river, Kemet, which means black soil or soil of the riverbank. The desert
was Deshret. That means red land. Translation changes nothing and everything.”

  She argued, “That changes it all so much.”

  He replied, “Change adds such energy to anything. Touch this scroll—you can feel the new fuel. I’m sure your Roman neighbors haven’t heard of these spells. I’m sure they’ll gossip about this scroll for days.”

  She asked, “Are you a Nubian slave?”

  “I own this bookstore.”

  “I just thought…”

  He explained, “When a country loses a war they lose many of their people to slavery to the winner. And then they lose some more to tributes and taxes. Nubia and Egypt have always been at war. Nubia has paid many times to Egypt. But otherwise slavery here on this side of the sea works no different than anywhere else. There are otherwise free Nubians in Egypt and Egyptian slaves in Nubia.” He held the scroll out to her. “You didn’t offend at the assumption. The Nubian slave is a cliché in this land, after so many wars. But I, myself, am of the merchant class… as you.”

  “How could you tell?”

  “I just figured that out.” He smiled.

  “Oh, okay. Thanks for telling me so much about everything. I see this land isn’t really so mysterious after all—everywhere it’s all always the usual war.” Phaedra gently took the scroll. “The paper is new.”

  “It’s a copy, of course.”

  “May I see what’s inside?”

  The Nubian asked, “Will you recollect but not pay?”

  “I’m not witchy enough for that trick. My memory isn’t that good.” She laughed nervously.

  “I’ll show you a little.” He partly unrolled the papyrus.

  Phaedra leaned forward. “That’s for blocking a reflecting pool spell. That sounds too complicated for me. I wouldn’t ever need to do that—put a spell against another spell. Is that a mirror spell against a mirror spell? How many times can something reflect into itself to push something away? Oh my head spins wondering about that.”

  He spoke enticingly, “The neighbors will gossip.”

  She laughed again. “Oh by the gods yes they would.”

  “Fifty denarius.”

  “I only have ten.”

  “I’m not a charity for witches.”

  The centurion made up the difference, knowing he’d be reimbursed by Octavian. She bought the scroll then sat at the shore on a stone retaining wall and tried to read. She couldn’t focus. All she could think about was the library. From where she sat she could see it up the shore—several grand pillared buildings making up a campus that also included a large school, laboratory, gardens and dining areas. Smoke wafted from a kitchen. She said to herself, “I know what I must do. I must give this scroll to the library. This spell is all too complicated for me.” She walked to the edge of the plaza, left the centurion, and with the maidservant alongside, Phaedra walked down a wide stone path to the gates of the Library of Alexandria. She asked the maidservant to wait at the entrance.

  Past a deep shady colonnade, Phaedra timidly entered a hall that had under its door a large inscription that read, the place of the cure of the soul. The vast room contained tall shelves for the collections of the hundreds of thousands of papyrus scrolls. She smelled mint. She put her scroll on the first table and turned to leave.

  She heard a harp. It was inviting, playing the melody Into a Swan.

  Phaedra called out, “Mark Antony? Is that you? Are you playing games with me? You are alive? You did make it ashore!” Phaedra walked up a set of marble stairs as she found herself quietly singing along, “Into a swan, into a swan, love and terror is a god as a swan.”

  She turned and didn’t see anybody. She continued deeper into the colossal building, not seeing any harp. The smell of mint grew stronger. She walked down a hallway to a side room. A woman stepped out from between two sets of shelves. Phaedra yelped with surprise.

  “I am Cleopatra.” The music stopped.

  “But . . .”

  Cleopatra blinked. “But I’m dead?”

  Phaedra jolted with fear.

  Cleopatra nodded sadly. “That’s what they say, I know. No I’m not dead, here I am.” She rubbed her own arms.

  “Why are you here?”

  Cleopatra impatiently answered, “Waiting for you.”

  “You led me with here with witchcraft!”

  Cleopatra looked around. “There is magic fighting over us both, I fear. Yes, there is witchcraft but it isn’t mine.”

  “Oh by the gods… did good or bad lead me? Am I in trouble?”

  Cleopatra said she didn’t know.

  Phaedra trembled. “I must sit.”

  Cleopatra gestured for Phaedra to follow. “Yes, we will sit. And we must do it over here where we won’t be seen.” She took Phaedra past several rows of shelves to a small table and they sat facing each other. Cleopatra put her hand on a cloth that covered a tablet. “This spell requires two. Two witches.”

  “How did you know? But I am only... how did you know?”

  Cleopatra grinned at her. “Your arrival was foretold. You are my witch and you know that. As my witch you must compliment me, complete me and ground me.”

  “But I’m not much of a witch.”

  “And I’m not much of an outlaw, either. I’m a queen. We will have to do. Your power is intuitive and that’s the deepest, strongest and most lasting. You are like the ground that flowers bloom from.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Cleopatra nodded. “I can now smell the soil before a thunderstorm.”

  “I just smell mint.”

  Cleopatra said, “Your witchcraft is strong in you now. You have nothing with you from your past. You are wild and free.”

  “I lost everything at sea. Wild and free? I feel like nothing. But you!” Phaedra marveled, “I’m with the queen! I mean Isis, by the gods!”

  “Keep your voice down. Close your mouth before your soul leaks out. We’re now to act as equals, as two witches, and that’s all for the moment.”

  “You and me? Equals? How?”

  Cleopatra asked, “Did you ever play on a teeter-totter? The forces that rock it don’t care who is peasant and who is king.”

  “I would still notice.”

  Cleopatra continued, “The wheel of fortune spins and there is no top or bottom. O Fortuna, like the moon you are changeable, ever waxing and waning. Poverty and power, the goddess melts them both in her mouth like the same piece of ice.”

  “But… you are Isis.”

  “Between you and me in this room at this grim hour we must only be two witches on a teeter-totter of one balance. Later, in the palace, we will resume our respective societal roles. Naturally.” Cleopatra took an impatient breath and glared commandingly.

  Phaedra nodded that she understood, saying, “The balance of shadow and light, sky above and earth below, planting and harvest.”

  “To make old magic new again. On the teeter-totter you can’t just stay up in the air. You must take your turn coming back down to the ground. I feel that is hard for you to stay grounded for long.”

  Phaedra asked, “How did you make the music play just now?”

  Cleopatra looked toward the door. “What music?”

  “You didn’t hear any?”

  “No.” Cleopatra shook her head. “I haven’t heard a thing, other than the waves of the sea… and something else I just forgot…”

  “You can’t hear the waves from here.”

  Cleopatra looked to the far windows in confusion.

  Phaedra asked, “How did you know I was coming?”

  Cleopatra glanced in the direction of the harbor. “Outside, a raven came to me. I was afraid, fearing it was coming to tell me of my death.” She looked down at her hands and wiggled her fingers. “For a moment I feared I was dead. But the raven flew into this building and so I followed. Then I was assured I wasn’t dead because I was walking.”

  Phaedra tensely nodded. “By the gods the dead don’t walk.”

  Cleopatra continued, �
�I found magic tablets. I saw you. I realized the raven was leading me to you. And there was some other occurrence that escapes me now. It clouds my mind with its magic. It was shocking to me. Somebody else was there… like a ghost… I think I saw a ghost but I’m not sure!” She blinked as if that would help her see into clouded memory.

  Phaedra shivered.

  “Don’t be afraid. Just repeat after me.” Cleopatra removed a cloth from a silver tablet that was on the table. “I pray this spell will work best. Repeat after me.” Cleopatra read it.

  Phaedra asked, “What was that spell? It didn’t seem to make sense to you—I could tell how you struggled to read it.”

  “You could tell?” Cleopatra looked nervous.

  “Yes, you didn’t seem to know what you were doing at all.”

  “I don’t know this type of Egyptian language. It’s so old. I only know modern Egyptian.”

  Phaedra asked, “How do you know what you read?”

  “It’s hard to say. I only know it was a spell to protect me and destroy my enemies. I could tell that it talked about fire. Fire is always a very ancient word. And there were stars.” Cleopatra looked off in a trance.

  “Are you going to faint?”

  Cleopatra said, “Stars brought them to me. But my star has fallen from the sky, the star that I’d chosen to pray to. Has it done this just to terrify…”

  “I don’t understand! What are you talking about?”

  Cleopatra’s eyes widened. “I just remembered who led me into the library… my long lost mother!”

  “Your mother may have left you and abandoned you but I’m sure she still loved you very much anyway. She comes in love!”

  “She had no choice but abandon me. She was killed.” Cleopatra shivered and rubbed her own arms. “Though killed, I remember her presence and her great love. I have memories of a ghost. And she was here, just now…”

  ~

  Inside the palace’s baths, Sorceress Thrace stood at the edge of a pool and threw strontium and lithium salts over the water. The top of the water flashed with blood red flames. She smiled and shouted, “The mirror pool has saved the pharaoh! We have sent the danger back to where it was sent!”