Characteres are magical glyphs (generally with circles on the ends of the lines) based upon a Hebrew model. They often appear in magical contexts, as here, in this scroll, where they are placed in the border between two separate prayers.
Month: June 2012
While the uninitiated masses made offerings to and worshiped the exoteric face of individual deity(ies) and the Solar Hero(s) of the prevailing mythology in an attempt to gain worldly favors and a rewarding afterlife, the initiates of the Mysteries recognized in these mythological images and storylines symbolic concretions of greater esoteric truths.[27] Under the doctrine of Pythagorean Unity and the divinity of the human soul, the initiates of such traditions sought to achieve apathanatismos (‘deification of the Self’) by aligning themselves with – and becoming – the Solar Hero.[28] This was accomplished by a life-long devotion to the Mysteries and their teachings where the mythological narratives of the Solar Hero were revealed as parallel allegories to the spiritual development of man. These Mysteries were committed to instructing the initiate in the disciplinary techniques and practices to silence the desires of material orientation and to experience the subtle realities through awakening the Divine Seed of the Heart.[29] Via the magical and meditative practices of self-identification with the deity and the vibration of vowel mantras and other voce magicae as preserved in the P.G.M., the initiate learned to transform his/her perspective to one of transcendent Unity (read Alpha = Omega) and elevate their consciousness to a higher ontological level of experience …we may say, that such practices were intended to liberate the initiate from the confines of space-time and to evoke a transformation in the initiate’s sense of Self from mere mortal to living God.
Cult statue from Ephesus called the “Great Artemis” (2nd cent. AD).
Photo Andrys Basten.
The EphesianArtemis, the “great mother goddess” also mentioned in the New Testament (Acts, 19), was extremely popular in the ancient world, as we might deduce from the fact that copies of her cult statue have been excavated in many parts of the Roman Empire. The first photo on this page is a statue from the Amphitheater of Lepcis Magna and is now in the Archaeological Museum of Tripoli.
The goddess was originally, before her cult was taken over by the Greeks, called Artimus, and her temple -one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World- received gifts from the Lydianking Croesus(c.560-c.547). She is related to other Anatolian mother goddesses, like Cybele. The Ephesians believed that Artemis was born in Ephesus (and not on Delos, as was commonly assumed), and accepted the shrine as an asylum (Tacitus, Annals, 3.61). Later, the Persians patronized the cult; the high priest was called the Megabyxus, a Persian name that means “the one set free for the cult of the divinity”. The original cult statue was made of wood, but was probably lost after the great fire of 356 BCE.
The spell found on a lead tablet with the clay figurine, shown below, follows very closely the formula of a spell in the Greek Magical Papyri, specifically that in PGM IV.296-466. That particular PGM text is also known as the Great Magical Papyrus of Paris, and it is the same one from which the spell attributed to Pancrates/Pachrates for Hadrian is known, as well as the “Mithras Liturgy” and a number of other interesting pieces.
The spell itself invokes the deities Pluto, Kore (who is given the further epithets/syncretisms Persephone and Ereshkigal), Adonis, chthonic Hermes, Thoth, some figures unknown (including one that sounds Lovecraftian: “Misonktaik”!), and Anubis, as well as an invocation “to you chthonic divine demons, the boys and girls prematurely dead, the young men and women, year after year, month after month, day after day, hour after hour, night after night; I conjure all the demons in this place to assist this demon Antinous.” The spells is done to bind
Ptolemais whom Aias bore, the daughter of Horigenes, so that she should not be fucked, buggered or should not give any pleasure to another man, except to me alone Sarapammon, whom Area bore; and do not let her eat nor drink nor resist nor go out nor find sleep except with me Sarapammon, whom Area bore.
It then goes further thus:
I conjure you, Antinous spirit of the dead, in the name of the Terrible and the Fearsome, the name at whose sound the earth opens up, the name at whose sound the demons tremble in fear, the name at whose sound rivers and rocks burst asunder. I conjure you, Antinous spirit of the dead, by Barbaratham Cheloumbra Barouch Adonai and by Abrasax and by Iao Pakeptoth Pakebraoth Sabarbaphaei and by Marmaraouoth and by Marmarachtha Mamazagar. Do not disregard me, Antinous spirit of the dead, but rouse yourself for me and go to each place, to each neighbourhood, to each house and bring me Ptolemais, whom Aias bore, the daughter of Horigenes; prevent her from eating, from drinking, until she comes to me, Sarapammon, whom Area bore, and do not allow her to accept the advances of any man other than me alone Sarapammon. Drag her by the hair, the guts, until she does not reject me, Sarapammon, whom Area bore, and I have her, Ptolemais, whom Aias bore, the daughter of Horigenes, subject to me for the entire extent of my life, loving me, desiring me, telling me what she thinks. If you do this, I will release you.
It is very interesting that among the other deities invoked in the end of the spell, not only Abrasax/Abraxas–a syncretistic figure who became very associated with both magic and gnosticism–but also Iao, the Greek understanding of the Hebrew God, is also involved!