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Eye of Dawn: The Story of Mata Hari, Part II

© Andrea Janel Kirk

"My dance is a sacred poem in which each movement is a word and whose every word is underlined by music. The temple in which I dance can be vague or faithfully reproduced, as here today. For I am the temple. All true temple dances are religious in nature and all explain, in gestures and poses, the rules of the sacred texts."

So proclaiming she began the first sinuous supplication of herself before the seated statue of the Hindu god Siva. Dressed in diaphanous gowns, an ornate headdress and bejeweled brassiere she began her reign as the most sought after woman in all of Europe. She used her exotic beauty to captivate both her audience and her patrons, and, while she became famous for elevating the striptease to an art form, remained deeply unhappy.

As the applause grew more persistent, and the accolades and offers were showered upon her in abundance, Margarethe wanted nothing more than to see her daughter Non. In the eyes of the court she had abandoned her family by suing for divorce and so her former husband was entitled to withhold her maternal rights. He would not allow her to see their daughter.

From 1905-1912 she dominated society. She was both loathed and lavished, called a visionary and a harlot. When her age began to show in the thickening of her waist and the loss of elasticity in her muscles she was forced into retirement by her own better judgment. She made the swift transition from entertainer to courtesan and enjoyed the distinction of having her choice from a bevy of admiring patrons. Several sources indicate that she was exceptionally talented in the art of pleasing men and had perhaps studied the Kama Sutra.

She made an appearance in Germany on May 23, 1914. Her show was decried as indecent and the local police were summoned. The policeman sent to investigate the disturbance, Griebel, was also entranced by her performance. The accounts vary but it is obvious that Griebel approached Mata Hari and that through this connection she became acquainted Traugott von Jagow, rumored to have been in charge of German espionage. Some historians believe that Margarethe attended a school of espionage, located in Antwerp, Belgium, at the behest of von Jagow. Those who believe Mata Hari guilty of all the crimes she was accused of insist that it was at this school that she acquired the code name "H 21".

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