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The Gnostic Corpse (The Gibbet)

from The Durham Pilgrims by Hermione Harvestman

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The Gnostic Corpse / The Gibbet (5.19)

The Pilgrims come upon a gibbeted corpse on a bleak blasted foggy headland. Though severely decomposed, the corpse begins to speak, urging them to turn back from their journey and make the most of life, the aftermath of which is assured oblivion:

Pilgrims! Listen to one who knows!
There is no heaven, nor even God;
This life is all; and this earth is hell, or heaven
as you choose.
The Church is corrupt, unworthy of your time and devotion.
So go back to your loved ones e'er time slays them
The time you waste in devotion is far better spent in love.
Love is all that life allows. There is no greater joy
than the warmth of the living flesh.
So Husbands, go back to your Wives;
Mothers return to your Children
Least they be as I am when you return!
Ad mortem festinamus peccare desistamus!
As I am now, so you must be; as you are now so once was I!

Several are convinced by the corpse's pleas, and begin to turn back; seeing this The Priest insists they take the corpse down from the gallows and burn it as a heretic. As the pilgrims look on, the corpse howls in the flames: Ad mortem festinamus peccare desistamus! Ad mortem festinamus peccare desistamus! until all is consumed and silent once more whereupon the they go on their way - only now DEATH is one of their number...

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from The Durham Pilgrims, released July 31, 2013

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Hermione Harvestman UK

'I feel like Wainwright - we are both hermetic ramblers. He made his books for when he was no longer capable of rambling his beloved fells, and I made my music for when I'm no longer able to ramble the by-ways of Albion - but only to listen, and think "Was that really me? That solitary figure who stood in a landscape dreaming of ages past in dread fear of the future."

Hermione Harvestman
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