"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even dead may die" 

H. P. Lovecraft, poet, essayist, author, an appreciated and misunderstood genius of the cosmic horror novel. Pagan and creator of blasphemous stories of the wonderful and the ridiculous, his oniric dreams have drawn the worst of our nightmares and inspired in the form of worship the curious and daring who have come to read his chilling and delicious work full of outer beings, ancient gods and ancestral monsters ... Cthulhu, Shub-Niggurath, Nyarathotep, Azathoth, Yog-Sothoth .... As our friend said so well ... The oldest and strongest emotion of humankind is fear, and the most oldest and strongest kind of fears is fear of the unknown »

How to approach witchcraft and not fall into the imaginary that we have about it throughout history since its demonization as an independent woman, enemy of the people through inquisitorial texts such as that written by monks in the Malleus Maleficarum through the persecution of the Church, the witch hunt, the romantic corruption, the self-serving deformation of the Victorian bourgeois society fearful of women's liberation, the morbid, the superstition and the occultism of modernity to pop culture where we find that evil witch of covens with goats eater of children.

An ancestral look returns us to the primordial tradition, esotericism and occult sciences, to the sorceress as a woman of power, free and independent, connoisseur of magical wisdom, botanical and healing knowledge, who approaches the darkness to do the well, transmitted that knowledge from generation to generation as a closed circle through the three ages of women (the young, the mature and the old).

If we have to look for references, there we have the mothers of all the witches of pagan times such as Circe, Medea and Cassandra, those visionaries or women watchmen who accompanied the hero, endowed with magical knowledge, or the mysterious women of the medieval forest as priestesses and epicenter of knowledge, or the witchcraft manifestations of the 19th century (represented in certain pre-Raphaelite paintings) as the last vestiges of a magical and sapiential society.

The history of witchcraft is stained with blood, dark rites and crimes, terrible trials, persecutions, intolerance, scapegoats... Faced with black clichés and legends, let's stay with the true origin of witchcraft, a good time to remember and recover the lessons and virtues of ancient wisdom and magical thinking.

February 27, 380, the emperor Theodosius abolished the religion and festival of the Sun Invictus by the famous edict of Thessalonica. Until then the Romans worshiped the Sun god during the Republic, and with greater prominence in the Imperial era, since the gradual entry of different religions of salvation of monotheistic tendency, such as Christianity and Mithrism, was giving greater weight to the power of the star king, the one who conquered the darkness ...

Emperor Aurelian made it official on December 25 as the day of the birth of the Undefeated Sun (the main divinity of the Roman pantheon at that time) back in the year 274 and later Juliano the Apostate would declare Helios (Greek equivalent) as the only divinity, and would try to prevent the spread of growing Christianity.

Finally, during a long process of syncretism, both the Festival of the Birth of the Invincible Sun "Dies Natalis Solis Invicti" held after the Winter Solstice, when daylight increased, as well as many other acts and celebrations were gradually reconverted. Paganism would come to an end, a new stage would begin with a victorious sun reborn in the arms of a Galilean.

Matte poster made of matte, thick and resistant paper. Giclee printed on acid-free paper resulting in brilliant colors. The size is 70cm wide by 100cm high, with a paper thickness of 0.26mm

Matte poster made of matte, thick and resistant paper. Giclee printed on acid-free paper resulting in brilliant colors. The size is 70cm wide by 100cm high, with a paper thickness of 0.26mm

Detail of death on horseback: Work by Stefano della Bella entitled "Death on the battlefield" collected in "The five deaths" (1650-1664)

And I looked, and I saw a pale horse; Y. The one who rode it was called Death; and Hades followed him ', says Saint John in Revelation 6: 7-8

Death on the rostrum, from “Another Dance of Death”(1849) Artist: Alfred Rethel

Inseparables. Images of the works of George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle in "Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine" (1900), in the works of Lemery, Winslow, Morand, Petit, Bordelon and Vicq-D'Azir "Bound volume of 15 teratology offprints from the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences "(1693-1776) and in the work" Monstruosités "II (1833) on the Siamese Rita and Cristina.

Xilography by Andreas Vesalius. Dissection of the brain layer. In his work "De Humani Corporis Fabrica" ​​· brain anatomy. 1543

Stefano della Bella's work entitled “Death on the Battlefield” from “The Five Deaths” (1650-1664)

And I looked, and behold a pale horse. And his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him… says Saint John in The Apocalypse 6, 7-8

Xylography by hans wechtlin called "the man with the wound" (1517)

Engraving by Alfred Rethel called "Death as a Assassin” 1851.

Anonymous work entitled "The dance of death". Germany. Century XVI.

Grabado de Gustave Doré llamado "Apocalipsis: Visión de la muerte".

“Y miré, y vi un caballo amarillo (pálido); y el que lo montaba tenía por nombre Muerte, y el Hades lo seguía; y les fue dada potestad sobre la cuarta parte de la tierra, para matar con espada, con hambre, con mortandad y con las fieras de la tierra.”

(Apocalipsis 6:8)

Engraving by Bernardino Genga, which is included in his work on anatomy: "Anatomia per Uso et Intelligenza del Disegno" (1691)

Work by  Cornelis Anthonisz. 1537

Work by Albrecht Dürer entitled "Death and the Landsknecht" (1510)

Series of engravings made by Hans Holbein around 1523 and collected in his famous work "The Dance of Death" where he shows the conquering and equalizing power of death before all human beings.