"Birth of a Princess"
August 8, 2021
To: Mary Ann
From: George Nicolas El-Hage
A long time ago
When the gods still lived among humans
On this beautiful globe,
When the sun, the moon, and the planets
Still maintained
Their human forms and characteristics,
When rivers flowed with milk and honey,
When the lion and the lamb walked together,
And the Tree of Knowledge was available to all
Because the serpent was chained and dormant
In the abyss of karma,
When heroes and enchantresses
Roamed this vast earth
Creating civilizations and forming families,
It was during that blessed time
And on a special and foretold night,
That a princess was born in the ancient land of Phoenicia,
In the Sacred Valley of Qadisha,
A stone’s throw from the Valley of the Saints
And from the Holy Forest of the Cedars,
A day’s travel from the peak of lofty Sannine,
And another day’s travel from the sacred river of al-Kalb.
This was a long time ago,
Long before Adonis graced the valley with his sacred feet,
And Astarte perfumed her hallowed body
With the scent of pine
And the fragrance from wildflowers and myrrh,
Before Apollo drove the chariot of the sun
Across the horizon,
And long before Hannoun sailed
To discover Amerika
And Cadmus chased Jupiter,
The god of gods
Who metamorphosed himself as a white bull
And lured the young Phoenician maiden
To ride his back
Cadmus sailed to recover his sister Europa
And eventually bestow her name
On an entire continent
After he populated it
With mighty men
A new race of creatures
Sprung from the dragon’s talons
This was also before Hannibal the Great
Crossed the forbidden Alps,
And the uncommon red dye
Known as “Orjouane”
Was discovered on the shores of Tyre,
And even before Gilgamesh
Made his way to do battle
In the Holy Forest of the Cedars
And then dive into the sacred river
To retrieve the flower of immortality,
Long before all this came to pass
And in a special cycle of rebirth and re-creation
On the Eighth Day of the holy month
Named after the Great Augustus Caesar,
That a Princess was born in the ancient land of Phoenicia
To unknown parents
But in a miraculous way
She was delivered from the womb
Of a unique Lotus flower
And readily given to her old grandmother
To raise and protect her
And to educate her with ancient wisdom
And books of learning and knowledge
Orally transmitted
But never written in words
The Princess was endowed
With graciousness and insight,
With uncommon intelligence,
And deep and penetrating foresight
Into the heart of life and spiritual realities
She knew things beyond her age
And was chosen by divine will
To be betrothed
During her seventh reincarnation
To a man from across the oceans,
From the land of her birth
Where the Alphabet was invented
And the first ship sailed the open seas.
That would be the time
When she was to be reborn and to live
In the farmland near the island of Ithaca
From where Odysseus sailed to Troy
And devised the Trojan horse
That brought down the demise of King Priam
And his magnificent reign.
The sailor whom she was destined to marry
Would someday sail from the shores of Byblos,
And he was to cross foreign lands
And fight many dragons and beasts
In order to secure her hand in a marriage
That would be blessed
Not by all the people in the kingdom
But only by those who are good and virtuous.
Today, this princess
Has reached a milestone in her life’s journey,
Sixty-five cycles
The moon has crossed the sky
Sixty-five times the seasons changed,
And sixty-five times the earth
Has turned around the sun
However, this precious and loved princess
Has not aged one single day
Because she is made of love and love is ageless,
She is made of fragrance,
And her scent is everlasting.
She is made of faith
And faith is eternal.
She is made of light
And light is changeless,
And she is made of beauty
And beauty is timeless.
Today this princess lives on a beautiful peninsula
In a peaceful castle on a Rise in a Green Wood spot
With her lover who adores her
And they both wait for the right time
To return to their sacred home
Built of enduring stones
On a hill in the land of Metn
In the heart of Mount Lebanon
Overlooking the Mediterranean
Where the story of Genesis began…
When the gods still lived among humans
On this beautiful globe,
When the sun, the moon, and the planets
Still maintained
Their human forms and characteristics,
When rivers flowed with milk and honey,
When the lion and the lamb walked together,
And the Tree of Knowledge was available to all
Because the serpent was chained and dormant
In the abyss of karma,
When heroes and enchantresses
Roamed this vast earth
Creating civilizations and forming families,
It was during that blessed time
And on a special and foretold night,
That a princess was born in the ancient land of Phoenicia,
In the Sacred Valley of Qadisha,
A stone’s throw from the Valley of the Saints
And from the Holy Forest of the Cedars,
A day’s travel from the peak of lofty Sannine,
And another day’s travel from the sacred river of al-Kalb.
This was a long time ago,
Long before Adonis graced the valley with his sacred feet,
And Astarte perfumed her hallowed body
With the scent of pine
And the fragrance from wildflowers and myrrh,
Before Apollo drove the chariot of the sun
Across the horizon,
And long before Hannoun sailed
To discover Amerika
And Cadmus chased Jupiter,
The god of gods
Who metamorphosed himself as a white bull
And lured the young Phoenician maiden
To ride his back
Cadmus sailed to recover his sister Europa
And eventually bestow her name
On an entire continent
After he populated it
With mighty men
A new race of creatures
Sprung from the dragon’s talons
This was also before Hannibal the Great
Crossed the forbidden Alps,
And the uncommon red dye
Known as “Orjouane”
Was discovered on the shores of Tyre,
And even before Gilgamesh
Made his way to do battle
In the Holy Forest of the Cedars
And then dive into the sacred river
To retrieve the flower of immortality,
Long before all this came to pass
And in a special cycle of rebirth and re-creation
On the Eighth Day of the holy month
Named after the Great Augustus Caesar,
That a Princess was born in the ancient land of Phoenicia
To unknown parents
But in a miraculous way
She was delivered from the womb
Of a unique Lotus flower
And readily given to her old grandmother
To raise and protect her
And to educate her with ancient wisdom
And books of learning and knowledge
Orally transmitted
But never written in words
The Princess was endowed
With graciousness and insight,
With uncommon intelligence,
And deep and penetrating foresight
Into the heart of life and spiritual realities
She knew things beyond her age
And was chosen by divine will
To be betrothed
During her seventh reincarnation
To a man from across the oceans,
From the land of her birth
Where the Alphabet was invented
And the first ship sailed the open seas.
That would be the time
When she was to be reborn and to live
In the farmland near the island of Ithaca
From where Odysseus sailed to Troy
And devised the Trojan horse
That brought down the demise of King Priam
And his magnificent reign.
The sailor whom she was destined to marry
Would someday sail from the shores of Byblos,
And he was to cross foreign lands
And fight many dragons and beasts
In order to secure her hand in a marriage
That would be blessed
Not by all the people in the kingdom
But only by those who are good and virtuous.
Today, this princess
Has reached a milestone in her life’s journey,
Sixty-five cycles
The moon has crossed the sky
Sixty-five times the seasons changed,
And sixty-five times the earth
Has turned around the sun
However, this precious and loved princess
Has not aged one single day
Because she is made of love and love is ageless,
She is made of fragrance,
And her scent is everlasting.
She is made of faith
And faith is eternal.
She is made of light
And light is changeless,
And she is made of beauty
And beauty is timeless.
Today this princess lives on a beautiful peninsula
In a peaceful castle on a Rise in a Green Wood spot
With her lover who adores her
And they both wait for the right time
To return to their sacred home
Built of enduring stones
On a hill in the land of Metn
In the heart of Mount Lebanon
Overlooking the Mediterranean
Where the story of Genesis began…
