The Devils

This is one of the creepier scenes from Ken Russell's 1971 film, The Devils. Set in the Spanish Inquisition, a convent of sexually repressed nuns share a moment of ecstasy and later, the suffrages of witch trial. It is based in the true history of Urbain Grandier, a philandering priest accused of seducing sisters of the cloth with his black magic.

Red Devil

Ophion

Peep Show

Coffin Joe

Midas

Midas had been a wealthy king of Phrygia, known more for his rose garden than for any desire for gold. One day the Satyr Silenus was found drunk in the garden. Midas entertained him for 10 days, then returned him to Dionysius, the god of wine and revelry, who, out of gratitude, granted Midas a single wish. Midas wished that everything he touched would turn to gold. At first he was pleased with the gift. On his way home he turned a twig, a stone, a piece of sod, and an apple into gold. Unfortunately, when he had a feast prepared on his return, he found that he could not control his new power - everything turned to gold - including the food he wanted to eat. Realizing that he would starve to death if he did not do something, he returned to Dionysius and asked him to take away the power. Dionysius granted his wish and told him to wash in the waters of the Pactolus, the river that flowed by the city Gordion, the capital of Phrygia. According to local legend the power washed into the river and the sands of the Pactolus began to produce gold from that day forward, earning it the name the Golden Pactolus. It would supply Greece with much of her gold between 650 and 550 B.C..

The legend of King Midas may have been embellished by Greek storytellers, but he was a real king. He was the last of the royal line of the Phrygians, who had settled in the region around 1200 B.C.. His reign ended around 695 B.C., when invaders from the Caucasus region, called Cimmerians, conquered the Phrygian kingdom. Midas is said to have committed suicide by drinking bull's blood. Archaeologists believe that his tomb and what remains of the city of Gordion are located at Yassihoyuk, to the east of the Sakarya River. The Cimmerians would be defeated by the Lydian king Alyattes in 600 B.C.. While the Lydians established their capital at Sardis, the Pactolus still served as the source of their silver and gold.

the Witchfinder

the Hellblazer

Thunderbird

This is a legend of long, long ago times. Two Indians desired to find the origin of thunder. They traveled north and came to a high mountain. These mountains performed magically. They drew apart, back and forth, then closed together very quickly.
One Indian said, “I will leap through the cleft before it closes. If I am caught, you continue to find the origin of thunder.” The first one succeeded in going through the cleft before it closed, but the second one was caught and squashed.
On the other side, the first Indian saw a large plain with a group of wigwams, and a number of Indians playing a ball game. After a little while, these players said to each other, “It is time to go.” They disappeared into their wigwams to put on wings, and came out with their bows and arrows and flew away over the mountains to the south. This was how the Passamaquoddy Indian discovered the homes of the thunderbirds.
The remaining old men of that tribe asked the Passamaquoddy Indian, “What do you want? Who are you?” He replied with the story of his mission. The old men deliberated how they could help him.
They decided to put the lone Indian into a large mortar, and they pounded him until all of his bones were broken. They molded him into a new body with wings like thunderbird, and gave him a bow and some arrows and sent him away in flight. They warned him not to fly close to trees, as he would fly so fast he could not stop in time to avoid them, and he would be killed.
The lone Indian could not reach his home because the huge enemy bird, Wochowsen, at that time made such a damaging wind. Thunderbird is an Indian and he or his lightning would never harm another Indian. But Wochowsen, great bird from the south, tried hard to rival Thunderbird. So Passamaquoddies feared Wochowsen, whose wings Glooscap once had broken, because he used too much power.
A result was that for a long time air became stagnant, the sea was full of slime, and all of the fish died. But Glooscap saw what was happening to his people and repaired the wings of Wochowsen to the extent of controlling and alternating strong winds with calm.
Legend tells us this is how the new Passamaquoddy thunderbird, the lone Indian who passed through the cleft, in time became the great and powerful Thunderbird, who always has kept a watchful eye upon the good Indians.

~~"The Origin of the Thunderbird" among the Passamaquoddy tribe.

The Plague Doctor

Sometime in the early 1300s, The Black Death arrived to Europe from the East. It had began a century before in the lungs of Chinese marmots and then spread out through fleas to others of the mammal population, including humans. It spread all over Europe very quickly with the help of medieval ships and their rat-swarming holds, preferring rodent-dwelling fleas as their means of travel. Hungry fleas subsequently transmitted the infection to humans. As a result, in short time the plague ravaged every single country of Western Europe; even Greenland was not left aside. Plague was moving at horse’s speed – the most common way of transportation of those times. No one was insured against plague. The disease killed French King Louis IX, the daughter of Louis X, Jeanne Navarre, and other outstanding figures. It claimed 30-60% of Europe's population during its reign.

Medieval doctors could not diagnose the disease properly at the times. Not seeing the relationship between plague and flea bites, they swiftly ordered the culling of all dogs and cats. This was a huge mistake since it left no predators to keep the rats in check, and the plague numbers exploded. At the time, it was generally believed that the disease was transmitted through a physical contact, via clothes and bed linen, even through the air itself.

The most infernal costume of the Middle Ages, the Plague Doctor costume, was constructed with these things in mind. Doctors were supposed to don these costumes to visit their plague patients. The mask of the plague doctor – the bird beak and the leather hat – was actually a protective device to save the doctor from the unbearable infected stench of rotting flesh. The beak was filled with medical herbs to ease the breathing process. The mask had two vent holes and glass inserts to protect the eyes. The doctor was also wearing a long waxed raincoat and leather or thick fabric clothes to help him avoid flea bites and physical contacts with patients.

Michel de Nostredame was probably the most renowned Plague Doctor – he is widely known as Nostradamus. He recommended his patients to drink only boiled water, to sleep in clean beds and to leave infected towns as soon as it was possible.

the Pierced Nymph

Jude

At Sea

(acrylic on index card)



AT SEA by Aleister Crowley, 1910-14

As night hath stars, more rare than ships
In ocean, faint from pole to pole,
So all the wonder of her lips
Hints her innavigable soul.

Such lights she gives as guide my bark;
But I am swallowed in the swell
Of her heart's ocean, sagely dark,
That holds my heaven and holds my hell.

In her I live, a mote minute
Dancing a moment in the sun:
In her I die, a sterile shoot
Of nightshade in oblivion.

In her my self dissolves, a grain
Of salt cast careless in the sea;
My passion purifies my pain
To peace past personality.

Love of my life,
God grant the years
Confirm the chrism --- rose to rood!
Anointing loves, asperging tears
In sanctifying solitude!

Man is so infinitely small
In all these stars, determinate.
Maker and moulder of them all,
Man is so infinitely great!

Birdcall

Swamp Thing