RELATIONS OF DOMINANCE AND EQUALITY IN D. H. LAWRENCE

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a strip of black fur.
The interesting point here seems to be
the connection between this initiation and the horses in the
bullfight.
The horses have their eyes covered with black
stripes so as not to see their own death by the bulls.
And
although Ramon does not 'kill' Cipriano, he makes Huitzilopochtli
'swallow' Cipriano. In other words, the man Cipriano dives into
unconsciousness so that the God take possession of his body. It
is perhaps the death of the conscious man in Cipriano and the
birth of the unconscious and instinctive savage Huitzilopochtli.
Ramon induces Cipriano to feel he is surrounded by
darkness till he loses his own identity.
He forgets the 'I' of
his being and becomes a body without head and mind:
'Is it dark?'
'No, my Lord.'
Ramon knelt and pressed his arms close round
Cipriano's waist, pressing his black head against
his side. And Cipriano began to feel as if his
mind, his head were melting away in the darkness,
like a pearl in black wine, the other circle of
sleep began to swing, vast. And he was a man
without a head, moving like a dark wind over
the face of the dark waters.
'Is it perfect?'
'It is perfect.'
'Who lives?'
'Who - !'
Cipriano no longer knew (pp.403-4).
Ramon has reached the apex of Cipriano's initiation.
has lost his conscious self and gives in to Ramon.
Cipriano
And whan
this one touches his 'secret places' 'the marriage' between bird
and snake is done.
Both men fall unconscious: "Cipriano within
the womb of undisturbed creation and Ramon in the death sleep"
(p.404).
Later on, to complete the marriage, soul and body,
bird and snake "swam together, while the sun rose... They went
to the house to rub oil in their limbs..." (p.405).
It is the
closest Lawrence could get to his Blutbrtiderschaft where "there
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