I am Maxine Culpa. Along with my late daughter Mia, I first became aquainted with Saint Sybian through our husband, Composer Felix Sebastian Culpa. He was born and raised in Calabria, Italia, near the site of the ancient Greek settlement of Sybaris, in the last century. When he was thirteen, Sybian began to appear to him, initiating him into her spiritual and sensual world. Felix, who was forced to disappear after unfortunate and definitely unsaintlike events , told us of Sybian's devotion to the pleasures of the father's creation: food, drink, the arts (particularly music and dance) all nature ---especially the body!! With the help of American Musicologist Patrick Lockwood, I have written these entries. Now, He also has been taken from us. Our new Scribe is Daniel Pierce, and our new Goddesss is Esperanza, whom Sybian herself has ordained. I hope that all who view this site will be encouraged to let their minds and senses wander to discover the voluptuous gifts the father freely gives us. Newcomers are urged to go to the earliest postings.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

The Grotto


The grotto, “il Bucco Glorioso”, at Gioia del Colle, is hard to locate even if you have been there before. It’s never how you remember it.
Sometimes the fragrance of the bergamot orange, so unique it is used in the finest teas and perfumes, leads one directly to the entrance. Other times, the winds shift and only the musty smell of sea salt laces the air.

When Felix was thirteen and working for his Uncle Milo in the bergamot orange industry, as he was fetching a half keg of the essence from the cave, Sybian made the first of her apparitions. This began her initiation of Felix: slowly, gently singing songs with strange melodies and swaying to an intoxicating syncopation, she revealed to him the door to the VIA VOLUPTA. Then taking him in her arms, she led him across the threshold. He described it later as every part of his young body waking up. But along with his body, his soul was waking up, and it was his soul that was the reservoir of the melody and movement that became a gift to his people and a bane to those in authority who sought to rob the people of their con brio roots.

Mia and I used the grotto as a hideaway for two months after the “MALOCCIO del AMORE” pageant/police riot.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)