I AM THE VERY MODEL OF A MODERN ESOTERICIST
(with apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan)
by Bill Beattie
I am the very model of a modern esotericist,
A seasoned astral traveler and edifying exorcist,
A sparkling star astrologer, a dead adroit necromancer,
A dab hand as a palmist and a card as a tarotmancer.
I’ve folk tradition lineage—Celtic and Germanical;
I’ve channeled Dion Fortune, and I’ve busted cults satanical;
Elusively mysterious in Eleusinian Mysteries,
I’ve proven eighty-three per cent of Velikovsky’s histories.
I am the very model of a modern esotericist;
My mystic methodology’s inherently empiricist;
I’ve tread the Cretan labyrinth on pathways that I travel on;
I won’t deny the rumor that I ghostwrote Mists of Avalon.
A truly great Great Riter and a master of tantrickery,
I’m up the Shining Pathways till the Guardians are sick of me.
I dazzle neo-Pagans as I break-dance round the Wicca ring
And, miracle of miracles, I even stop them bickering.
I’ve raised the Ghost of Crowley in a Gnostic Mass invoking in
Sumerian, Bavarian, Etruscan and Enochian.
I’d sing another chorus, but I have to see my therapist;
I am the very model of a modern esotericist.
(This reworking of a song from The Pirates of Penzance is posted on several Web sites including http://www.turoks.net/Cabana/IAmTheVeryModelOfAModernEsoteriscist.htm)