Icon of Pan
$55.00
The arcadian Pan of the Greeks, embodies the arcane spirit of natural freedom and fertility. Pan is a god of no temples, for he is all the universe as his name indicates ( Pan – Παν = Ολον – All). His horned figure has inspired poets and artists throughout history. This «symbol of immensity» as John Keats calls him in his famous Ode to Pan (1818), this «forester divine and satyr king» provided the famous icon for the Christian Devil in all of his negative aspects.
Pan however was the inspiration for yet another eminent symbol, the «pantheistic and magical figure of the absolute» known as Baphomet. Eliphas Levi writes in his Dogme et rituel (1854) that «Pan, the god of our schools of modern philosophy, the god of the theurgists of the School of Alexandria and of the Neoplatonic mystics of our days. […] the god of Spinoza and Plato, the god of the primitive Gnostic schools; even the Christ of the dissident priesthood; and this last qualification, ascribed to the goat of black magic, will not astonish those who study the religious antiquities and who are acquainted with the phases of the diverse transformations of the symbolism and dogma, be it in India, be it in Egypt, be it in Judea».
Pan declares the pluralism of nature, its many faces. Because in nature there is no good or evil, only change. Thus, he leads us with his flute through alternating states of exhilaration and sadness to a metaphysical transcendence. This is also the deeper meaning of Aleister Crowley’s widely read poem Hymn to Pan (1913) that is to surrender the soul to its original identity, not back to an animal state but to that which follows (because it is one with it) the Higher and the True.
For his way is to provide the experience of unification with the All through the ecstatic destruction of the ego-self. Pan is the giver and the taker of life, he is «all devourer, all begetter» Crowley writes. For his path is that where one transcends all limitations and experiences oneness with the universe.
Give me the sign of the Open Eye
And the token erect of thorny thigh
And the word of madness and mystery,
O pan! Io Pan!
Io Pan! Io Pan! Pan Pan! Pan,
I am a man:
Do as thou wilt, as a great god can.
Daemon Melissyios, the artisan of LOGOS 373, by faithfully following the teachings of the ancient tradition and the worldview of Thelema, offers the icon of the baphometic Pan (with his hands forming a swastika signing the continuous circle of things), as an object of meditation and a constant reminder of the secret spirit that animates the universe in its every state of existence.
Each copy of the original image is printed on high quality paper (Constellation Flandra 280gr | 28 X 36cm), stamped by the artist’s sigil and personalised with the holder’s name. In order to preserve the good condition of the paper, the print travels on a full handmade wooden case (as seen in pictures), with velvet interior, bearing LOGOS 373 artistic workshop’s logo, and sealed with wax to be broken only by the receiver, for experiencing «a thing of beauty is a joy for ever» (Keats, Endymion I).
