Facing pages present two very different pentacles: a Mars grid promised to protect its wearer and a portrait of the Eternal intended to command spirits and earthly creatures. Each drawing has a Latin rim and a French notice of its own. [1]
French manuscript, BnF Français 25314; digitized original
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Source reproduction The pentacle under Mars. Français 25314, p. 92.
On page 92, a three-by-three grid gathers nine characters within a circular verse. On page 93, a large human bust replaces the grid: curls and a beard frame the face, and rays spread behind it. Rectangular page borders surround the two compositions, with their French explanations placed below. [1]
The grid’s notice assigns it to Mars, specifies thin polished iron and promises invulnerability to its wearer. The portrait’s notice calls the image the Eternal and gives it power to constrain spirits and tame terrestrial creatures. [1]
Iron and lion skin
The Mars notice credits Charles V with long and successful use of its pentacle and says that it was long kept in Innsbruck. [1]
The portrait receives a more detailed timing and writing prescription: lion skin, the day and hour of the Sun around the first ten days of August, a swan feather, and gold or yellow colour. The text describes heaven and earth, angels and demons bending their knees before the Eternal. [1]
The two Latin rims
The grid is surrounded by a verse of dominion extending from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. The portrait’s inscription turns to a face through which all things were made and which all creatures obey. Both rims enclose the whole central image rather than placing a separate inscription inside every part. [1]
The same dominion verse accompanies Mathers’s second Saturn pentacle, a SATOR square. A countenance with a related obedience formula appears in his first Sun pentacle, where the notice names Shaddai and his note identifies Metatron. [1][2]
French manuscript, BnF Français 25314; digitized original. Manuscript pp. 92–93: both complete drawings, Latin rims and French notices; digitized scan 54.
The facing manuscript pages give distinct notices and prescriptions for the grid and portrait.
S. L. MacGregor Mathers, 1889; printed edition, including editorial restoration of Hebrew characters. Book I, chapter XVIII: second Saturn pentacle, printed p. 59 (facsimile PDF p. 68); first Sun pentacle, p. 65 (PDF p. 84). Notices and editorial notes.
