A bearded face looks outward from a halo of rays. The manuscript calls it the portrait of the Eternal and prescribes lion skin, solar timing and gold or yellow colour. [1]
French manuscript, BnF Français 25314; digitized original · BnF Français 25314, manuscript p. 93; digitized scan 54.
Pentacle profile
Tradition and Group
French Solomonic tradition · BnF Français 25314 [1]
Position within the Set
Manuscript p. 93, facing the Mars pentacle on p. 92. [1]
Attributed Purpose
To constrain spirits and tame earthly creatures. [1]
Design
A front-facing, bearded bust with long curled hair and radiating lines, enclosed by a cross and a Latin inscription. [1]
Source reproduction The portrait of the Eternal. Français 25314, p. 93.
The portrait and its solar prescription
The French notice names the image as the portrait of the Eternal. It gives the pentacle great power to constrain spirits and tame earthly creatures, declaring that heaven and earth, angels and demons will bend their knees before it. [1]
Its prescribed support is lion skin. The notice specifies the day and hour of the Sun around the first ten days of August, with a swan feather used to write it in gold or yellow colour. [1]
The face inside the circle
Long curls frame a front-facing head with a pointed beard. Fine rays extend behind it to the inner circle. Below the face, a mantle closes at the chest with an oval, flower-like clasp; the garment is shaded with short hatching. [1]
A small cross begins the inscription above the head. The Latin words run between concentric boundaries, leaving the face, rays and clothing in the central field. The image occupies most of the page above its separate French explanation. [1]
The Eternal, Shaddai and Metatron
The rim reads “Ecce faciem ejus per quam facta sunt & obediunt omnes Creaturæ”: behold his face, through which all things were made and which all creatures obey. [1]
A related countenance appears as the first pentacle of the Sun in Mathers’s 1889 edition. Its notice calls it the countenance of Shaddai the Almighty, before which creatures obey and angelic spirits kneel. Mathers’s editorial note identifies the head as Metatron, representative of Shaddai and Prince of Countenances. Français 25314 uses the title Eternal and gives its own lion-skin prescription. [1][2]
French manuscript, BnF Français 25314; digitized original. Manuscript p. 93: complete portrait, Latin rim and French notice, including “environ les dix premiers jours d’Août”. Digitized scan 54.
The manuscript page preserves the portrait with its Latin inscription and French prescription.
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, 1889; printed edition, including editorial restoration of Hebrew characters. Book I, chapter XVIII, first pentacle of the Sun: figure 32 and editorial note, printed p. 65; facsimile PDF p. 84.
