The Head of John

“...the music of dulcimers swelled louder and the excited spectators roared their applause.

“The tetrarch called again, louder than before: ‘Come to me! Come! Thou shalt have Capernaum, the plains of Tiberias! my citadels! yea, the half of my kingdom!’

“Again the dancer paused; then, like a flash, she threw herself upon the palms of her hands, while her feet rose straight up into the air. In this bizarre pose she moved about upon the floor like a gigantic beetle; then stood motionless.

“The nape of her neck formed a right angle with her vertebrae. The full silken skirts of pale hues that enveloped her limbs when she stood erect, now fell to her shoulders and surrounded her face like a rainbow. Her lips were tinted a deep crimson, her arched eyebrows were black as jet, her glowing eyes had an almost terrible radiance; and the tiny drops of perspiration on her forehead looked like dew upon white marble.

“She made no sound; and the burning gaze of that multitude of men was concentrated upon her.

“A sound like the snapping of fingers came from the gallery over the pavilion. Instantly, with one of her movements of bird-like swiftness, Salome stood erect. The next moment she rapidly passed up a flight of steps leading to the gallery, and coming to the front of it she leaned over, smiled upon the tetrarch, and, with an air of almost childlike naivete, pronounced these words:

“‘I ask my lord to give me, placed upon a charger, the head of—’ She hesitated, as if not certain of the name; then said: ‘The head of Iaokanann [John]!’” —Gustave Flaubert, Herodias

Perhaps she was very angry with her beloved and so had him decapitated, but when she contemplated the beloved head upon the tray, she wept, went mad, and perished in an erotic frenzy.

A horrifying inner struggle in the psyche of Salome: a spiteful ego dragging other egos down in his abominable decadence, a loathsome triumph for the murderous devil... terrible... horrible...

Herod feared the multitude because they considered John to be a prophet. Chapter 11 of the Gospel of Matthew speaks of John the Baptist as a true jinn, a celestial man, a demigod, superior to the prophets. Jesus himself even stated the following about him:

“Yea, I say unto you, and one who is more than a prophet. For this is he, of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.’ Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater one than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.... And if ye will receive it, this is Elijah, who was to come. He that has ears, let him hear.” —Matthew 11:9-15

These words of the great Kabir Jesus link the two great Hebrew personages in one.

John the Baptist, decapitated by the lustful Salome, was in truth the living reincarnation of Elijah, the prophet of the Almighty.

At that time, the Nazarenes were known as the Baptists, Sabeans, and Christians of Saint John; their mistake consisted in the absurd belief that the Kabir Jesus was not the Son of God, but simply a prophet who wanted to follow John.

Origen (vol. II, page 150) observes,

“There are some people who say that John the Baptist was the Anointed One, (Christ).”

“When the concepts of the Gnostics, who saw in Jesus the Logos and the Anointed, began gaining ground, the early Christians left the Nazarenes, who unjustly accused the Hierophant Jesus of perverting the teachings of John and of changing for another the baptism in the Jordan.” —Codex Nazarenus II page 109

Salome, naked, intoxicated with wine and passion, dancing in front of King Herod with the innocent head of John the Baptist in her erotic arms, shook the lands of Tiberias, Jerusalem, Galilee, and Capernaum...

However, we must not be so outraged: Salome lives within the intimate psychological depths of many women... You know this... and no male must presume that he is perfect, because within each male a Herod is concealed.

To kill is obviously the most destructive and most corrupt act known on the planet Earth.

It is written in the book of all mysteries that you can kill not only with daggers, firearms, the gallows, or poison. There are many that kill with a contemptuous look, with an ironic smile or laugh, with ingratitude or libel or slander.

Truly I tell you that the world is full of uxoricides, matricides, patricides, fratricides, etc.

A lot of love and wise copulation with the one we love is necessary if we truly want to reduce the murderous devil to cosmic dust by means of the omnipotent spear of Eros.