The Many Images of St Cyprian
Girolamo Menghi, leading exorcist of the Italian Renaissance,instructed exorcists to draw images of the demons that they were binding. Even if they could not perceive the demon, it would be bound to the image by the power of the priest. You see, the images of spirits are important. They are just as important as seals and sigils and can often be used in the same way.
Today is the feast of St Cyprian of Antioch, which, if you have been following my work, you know is an important day. As I wrote about in my last post, its a day of receiving as much as a day of doing. Before night sets and work begins in earnest I wanted to share a few images of St Cyprian and what they mean to me.
I was first introduced to our Sorcerer Saint through the gift of a Peruvian Amulet. These are often made from discarded vaccine vials, which I think is awesomely appropriate at the moment. In this vial is a small soapstone image of St Cyprian, which is how I was first introduced to the Saint.
The Bishop
This morning I saw a post from someone who said “despite being a Bishop, he was also a Sorcerer”. This, to my mind misses the point. The Sorceries of Cyprian are inexorably twined with his ecclesiatic and sacramental powers. The power that delivers last rites or commits a body to it’s final resting place can wake it again and conjure the spirits of the departed. The power that heals though the oil of the sick, can also curse. The power that binds a spirit to leave a possessed person or place, can also command it to appear at the edge of a circle or in the ostensorium.
So this image of St Cyprian as Bishop with his Crozier and Book is exceptionally important. We all know this image well, and its the most popular among Americans and most Eurpoeans too as far as I can tell. The first one I received is the one that you can get on Amazon. I love it. This is the first one that I ever used in the Novena, and the one that seems to come alive and move like a Harryhausen animation during contemplation. Years Later in New Orleans I purchased a statue that was made in Cuba, but which lacked a Crozier. I made a deal with him to help find and afford the house I currently live in and rolled it up and placed it in his hand instead of his crozier. When he made good on the deal I had Marcus McCoy make a black iron Crozier for him. You can find other variations of this image all over, from prayer cards such as the one here in my wallet, or variations of the Ikon from Ortodox Christianity.
The Pious Martyr
When I first started researching Saint Cyprian there was another statue that was popular, epecially in Brazil. This Cyprian is not the powerful Sorcerer Saint with staff and book, but a humble and kneeling pilgrim with bared chest. This Cyprian may be too pious and devout for most occultists….
Then again, I suppose the meaning changes depending upon who our good Saint is kneeling in front of…
Dark Cyprian
There are now also images of St Cyprian that are decidedly dark. At first we may be tempted to view this as Darke Fluff, but it’s not. St Cyprian has been shown as more Wizard than Bishop in many of the popular spellbooks. The Peruvian shaman Roberto Rojas Tacia has the statue of the Martyr on the Mesa Blanca to the right and a lead Wizard statue on the Mesa Negra to the left. Others represent his dual nature with a Chonta staff on the right and Dagger on the left. Below is my “Dark Cyprian”. If you google you can find other images that are decidedly un-saintly…
Seals, Tools, and Amulets
If you don’t have space to dedicate to an altar or statue, that is ok. You should be able to practice whatever magic you do if you were travelling or homeless or in prison even. There are Myriad medals now of Saint Cyprian, and sometimes other items take on special significance. In the photo below are a medal of Cyprian from the Order of Saint Cyprian and a talisman made for me by Fabeku Fatunmise. You can also see the bottom of a Nun’s cross. Funny story about that actually: I was in Quebec city, and in the oldest part of the town – still walled in stone in fact – there is a small Catholic gift shop run by the nuns of Monistary of the Magnificat. I went in and asked the Sister if she had any St Cyprian medals. She didn’t, but she looked me up and down and said “I have something for you though”. She then gave me this cross as a gift, it belonged to one of the nuns that had just passed and she had been hanging on to it waiting for the right person to give it to.
Here are a few other medals of Cyprian laid out on Cyprians Ponto from Quimbanda. The medal on the left and the Ponto is from Jesse Hathaway of Wolf and Goat. The Medal on the right from Aidan Watcher. The two medals in the center were sent by a friend in Argentina.
Holy or Profane? Piety or Power? Sainthood or Sorcery? Light of Dark? St Cyprian is seen by his Sorcerers as the mediator of these fields and more. He does this, not by playing sides against each other, or even by keeping a balance, but by seeing that te halves are just part of a whole. The borders are largely of our own making, and if you want to move freely between them, St Cyprian will gladly stamp your passport.