In my role as a volunteer fireman in this little hamlet, I went to a “vehicle extrication” class today in a nearby town. That meant learning to use the “Jaws of Life” (firemen just say “splitter”) and other hydraulic tools for ripping apart vehicles in order to remove injured occupants.

In that larger department’s classroom, the instructor had written on the board:

Welcome to Vehicle Extrication
Cut It. Split it. Ram it.

And all I could think of was Aleister Crowley‘s “Hymn to Pan.” (YouTube version here.)

Through solstice stubborn to equinox.
I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend
Everlasting, world without end,
Mannikin, maiden, maenad, man,
In the might of Pan.
Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! Io Pan

I’ll bet Uncle Aleister would have liked to see us ripping the roofs and doors off of motorcars.