La pradera

“O, night of stars that coruscate Like semen spated in the womb of night- O, serpent woman smiling sinister- O, lovely dancer at the feast to be.”⁣

Marjorie Cameron Parsons Kimmel (1922–1995)

illustration from the private manuscript “Songs for the Witch Woman”

ink on paper, 1955 — source

Ella Fitzgerald at the Downbeat, with Dizzy Gillespie making like a faun in the background, ca. September 1947.

The four virgins below represent the elements or purified substances. The upward movement through darkness (Nigredo) and the "peacock's tail" leads to the "red flower" (Rubedo—the completion of the work) and the final triumph of the philosophical Mercury, which is identified here with supreme wisdom and divine light.

Art: Odoardus Scotus, Late 17th century, MS.4471

Loyalty (1869)