Description
Venus – Fascinus Talisman, the secret Key to All Generation?
Did you know the Derveni Papyrus (the source of all that Zeus Stuff I am into as a way to explain why you’re a powerful magician) also has some cool stuff to say about Aphrodite Ouranos?
She’s apparently the same kind of Demiurgic all-spirit from a rival mystery tradition of the time, roughly 450 BC.
Her cult was popular enough for the Derveni Manuscript author to say she was the same spirit, the incandescent intelligent Fire that illumates and manifests as all. We don’t have the details of that particular Orphic Mystery Cult, but I think we can imagine well enough what it would have been.
The Fascinus is the active form of the genitals of Ouranos, severed by Kronus with his stone scythe, depicted winged and phallic itself, indicating not some lewd depiction, but the generative principle itself.
In Orphic mythologies, this creative force is represented by the Phallus of Ouranos, the Orphic Egg, Protogonos, and Phanes, among others, and in the various takes on existence, this generative force is consumed and transformed as it takes on the personal traits of whoever has most recently taken it into themselves.
Aphrodite herself, meanwhile is the emanation of that very Source of Generation itself, the feminine form of procreative manifestation that rose from the foam of the sea where the Fascinus landed, before sprouting wings and flying off to become the Sun. Her powers to attract the forces necessary to inseminate the world with your ideas are described in detail in her Orphic Hymn, controlling all with her sway, bringing unity, or driving mad with desire those she calls to bring about her decrees.
Combined, I think the images of Aphrodite and the Fascinus represent the ongoing emanation of the “Protoganos principle” hatched when Ananke and Kronos entwined around the Orphic Egg in the first place.
I found the Venus Victrix image on a 3rd century Roman ring, and she is depicted armed for war. This corresponds, imo, to the Aphrodite Areana epithet, Aphrodite Armed for War. She was the partner of Ares, and had five of his children long before she was shackled to Hephaestus.
In this image, I’ve put the Second Pentacle of Venus on her shield, “proper for obtaining grace and honor, and for all things which belong unto Venus.” On the back is the first pentacle of Venus, which will “serve to control the spirits of Venus, and especially those herein written.”
Combining the image of Venus Victrix with the Fascinus is a way to represent not only a sex talisman, but a charm representing the divine All in All in a feminine form echoing back to Orphic histories long passed from human memory, free to take on the forms and cult practices you receive from her yourself. I imagine her just getting home from the war, taking off her armor, and her faithful fascinus comes flying in to greet her, so happy to see her back in one piece.
DM me if you’re interested in purchasing a talisman with this combined image. I haven’t set up a link yet, but they will go for $79.
