#porphyry

all these elements come together neatly to confirm one another. Helios’ light is thrusted into the atmosphere and, through Leto receiving and cultivating Helios’ contribution, Apollon emerges. Helios, as an element that imposes a condition upon another, could be alchemically be described as masculine. Leto, as an element that takes another and diffuses it within herself, could be alchemically defined as feminine. together they dance, and the production of such is the glorious Apollon, who can be felt as the warmth against our skin. He surrounds us, like His mother. He illuminates and ushers life in, like His father.

Sir Reginald Mohun and Dorothy Mohun (née Chudleigh)

Artist: Unknown Artist

Date: ca. 1602

Medium: Oil on panel

Collection: Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, United States

Description

This striking portrait, painted to celebrate the marriage of Sir Reginald Mohun to Dorothy Chudleigh in 1602, marks an important moment in the history of British art. For the first time, both wife and husband were depicted together at full length. With their arms intertwined, the portrait also shows the close affection between the couple.

- Giuseppe Muscolino, Porphyry and Black Magic (emphasis in bold is my own)

Fragment 6

“Never among the immortal gods has a proclamation by the divine Hecate remained futile or unfulfilled for the wise interpreters of oracles; but descending from her father, the all-powerful intellect, she is ever shining with the light of truth, while around her feet wisdom remains firmly grounded, with unbreakable words. Bind me with fetters: for else I would be raptured by a divinity So powerful as to ensoul even the most remote parts of the world. And perhaps this is why the soul has three forms and parts, comprising an irascible and an appetitive part (which is also why she is invoked for erotic ends).”

Fragment 15

Hecate explains in this way how they [the Gods] have determined how their statues should be manufactured and what material should be used: “Carve a statue in a pure way, as I will teach you: With wild rue make its body and adorn it with Small animals, domestic lizards. Churn myrrh, storax, and incense into a mixture With those animals and go outside, under the crescent Moon, to complete this rite by praying the following prayer: And then she puts forth the prayer and teaches how many small lizards one should use: I order you to use the number of animals corresponding to my [threefold] form, And to complete this rite exactly. With sweet bay sprung from itself, Make my home a dwelling place for me. And if to that statue You pray frequently, you will be able to see me in your dreams.”

Fragment 17

And he quotes the following statements that Hecate made about herself:

"Put all this into execution: my statue should Resemble Demeter, giver of good fruits, White-robed, with golden sandals on her feet. Long serpents creep around the belt, Crawling stealthily, leaving only pure traces, hanging From my head to the tip of my feet, Adorning me, turning hither and thither in coils. As for the material, she states: Marble from Paros, or polished ivory.”

Fragment 18

And then the same author adds:

"The symbols of Hecate are a three-colored wax statue, composed of white, black, and red, bearing a whip, a torch, and a sword, and a serpent around it. Those of Ouranos are the sea-stars that are nailed on the doors. These are the things that the gods themselves revealed in the [oracles] Pan says:

Drive them away, Place wax in the flames of fire with speckled colors: It should be white and black, and the light-bringing fire should be like igneous charcoal that scares the hellhounds away, the terrifying figure of Hecate. It should bear a torch in its hands And a punishing sword, And a coiling serpent should Tame the maid with its knots, Restraining the terrifying head Like a glittering fetter. And, like its power over daemons, The whip should snap violently."

Oracle of Hecate (Fragment 27, translation not mine)

“For I am the maiden of many forms, roaming the Heavens, bull-faced, three-headed, implacable, with golden arrows, Unwedded Phoebe, Eileithyia who brings light to mortals, bearing three-tiered signs of a threefold nature, in the Aether appearing as flaming apparitions, in the Air my silvery motions reach their course, And Earth guides the dark race of my hounds.

misc. doodles of Porphyry.