#psalter

medieval parchment repairs

in a psalter, south-western germany, late 12th/early 13th c.

Cast your eyes upon this lovely little Psalter, copied in the Netherlands in the mid-15th century. It has an opening page featuring a large illuminated initial and decorated margins, and one large miniature of King David in prayer with his harp on the ground, God peeking at him out of a portal in the sky. It would originally have had seven more miniatures, but the others have been long since removed. Link in bio (UPenn Ms. Codex 2265)

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SILVER COVER FOR A PSALTER (Amsterdam, c. 1610-1620).

Decorated initial D with interlace and a mermaid, from Psalm 14 (folio 13v) 8th century. The Psalter of Charlemagne (shelfmark BN lat. 13159) She pulls her hair, and has a very long body that ends in two tails.

I found her when I was looking for the book La sirène dans la pensée et dans l'art de l'Antiquité et du Moyen Âge by Jacqueline Leclercq-Marx, which I’m still looking for. She’s interesting, as she’s a very early mermaid in a religious manuscript. Another early example of a two-tailed mermaid in a religious manuscript is from the Book of Kells:

A little pocket Psalm book. If you want to see the whole build and get the free printable file to make your own, all the info is in the video description on Youtube:

The Scorpionic Power of Psalm 91

Psalm 91 belongs to the tehilot segulot (תְּהִילוֹת סְגוּלוֹת), prayers of operative efficacy. When we recite it, we are declaring protection as being already a fact. This is the theurgic principle: the human word, pronounced in faith, reactivates the original Word, the Logos. This is why we find it in the tefillin, in protective scrolls, and in Jewish and Christian exorcistic rites.

Being the psalm of twilight, it vibrates on the same symbolic axis as the sign of Scorpio. It was recited in the Temple of Jerusalem precisely at dusk, when the Sun was sinking into the penumbra and the nocturnal forces began to stir. It is the hymn of magical trust and also the chant of inner turmoil and combat. It is a formula uttered on the threshold between the visible and the invisible, the quintessential Scorpionic moment.

Scorpio is the sign that follows Libra, the point where the Sun, having met the Other at the seventh house, the Descendant, plunges below the horizon. It rules the eighth house, the inactive, associated with the underworld, symbolic death, and the subterranean powers. When the Sun enters Scorpio, like now, it illuminates the poison: the attachment to ego, to forms, to identification with the transient.

It is the light descending into the depths to reveal what ferments in darkness. Being spoken at sunset, Psalm 91 fulfils the same function: to cast Light within the shadow.

More at The Mirror of Sienna.