Borborites is the pejorative name given by Epiphanius to a supposed Gnostic sect that practiced the most unclean rituals. The Agape was a ritual banquet practiced by ancient Christians, attested in several catacomb paintings.
Epiphanius’ Panarion is probably the most defamatory document about the Gnostics that has come down to us. Their liturgy, involving fetuses, semen and menstrual blood has most likely influenced the fervid imagination of Christians, when it comes to imagining antichristian rituals. We say ‘antichristian’ because certainly such an imagination could only perceive other religions as a distortion or inversion of their own. We are not particularly interested in the gross graphic details of this model for the Witches’ Sabbath, instead, it is interesting to highlight that the Borborites, whatever their real name might have been, put a a very important role on the female aspects of the divine, so much so as to include a lost Gospel of Eve among their sacred texts. The importance of Eve as an almost messianic figure is also key for the system of the Ophites.
Here we include many of such rumors and try to boil them down, so to speak, into a dignified image, as the idea that some sects held female priestesses. Our priestess blesses with the left hand, and is clothed with the flammeum, the nuptial veil, inspired in a figure from the Catacombs of St Priscila in Rome. The “cubiculum of the veiled woman” has been interpreted as depicting three stages of the life of the woman that was buried there. This scene would be the glorification and beatitude of her soul. Thus, in our image, she blesses her own sepulcher, her own flesh, doomed to decay, serves as the altar, for its transient nature does not hinder its sacredness. Such was the belief attributed by Clement of Alexandria to some Gnostics he called the Antitaxas, the belief that God created all things good. Her nuptial act is the Hieros gamos with her own deity. Such intense “libertineGnostic” interpretations would reappear in later heretical currents such as the Adamites, and is wonderfully expressed in Blake’s verses:
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
—William Blake, Proverbs of Hell, 22-25.
Both the corpse and the female body are a purposeful inversion of the Old Testament’s idea of purity, for is it is said that: And I find more bitter than death the woman (Ecclesiastes 7:26)
*Sales protocol for these original pieces will be unique in that, after a purchase is made on our website, we will personally reach out to each customer to arrange a customized shipping plan, ensuring both parties are aligned on what can and cannot be done to guarantee safe and smooth delivery of the items.
Borborites is the pejorative name given by Epiphanius to a supposed Gnostic sect that practiced the most unclean rituals. The Agape was a ritual banquet practiced by ancient Christians, attested in several catacomb paintings.
Epiphanius’ Panarion is probably the most defamatory document about the Gnostics that has come down to us. Their liturgy, involving fetuses, semen and menstrual blood has most likely influenced the fervid imagination of Christians, when it comes to imagining antichristian rituals. We say ‘antichristian’ because certainly such an imagination could only perceive other religions as a distortion or inversion of their own. We are not particularly interested in the gross graphic details of this model for the Witches’ Sabbath, instead, it is interesting to highlight that the Borborites, whatever their real name might have been, put a a very important role on the female aspects of the divine, so much so as to include a lost Gospel of Eve among their sacred texts. The importance of Eve as an almost messianic figure is also key for the system of the Ophites.
Here we include many of such rumors and try to boil them down, so to speak, into a dignified image, as the idea that some sects held female priestesses. Our priestess blesses with the left hand, and is clothed with the flammeum, the nuptial veil, inspired in a figure from the Catacombs of St Priscila in Rome. The “cubiculum of the veiled woman” has been interpreted as depicting three stages of the life of the woman that was buried there. This scene would be the glorification and beatitude of her soul. Thus, in our image, she blesses her own sepulcher, her own flesh, doomed to decay, serves as the altar, for its transient nature does not hinder its sacredness. Such was the belief attributed by Clement of Alexandria to some Gnostics he called the Antitaxas, the belief that God created all things good. Her nuptial act is the Hieros gamos with her own deity. Such intense “libertineGnostic” interpretations would reappear in later heretical currents such as the Adamites, and is wonderfully expressed in Blake’s verses:
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God.
The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
—William Blake, Proverbs of Hell, 22-25.
Both the corpse and the female body are a purposeful inversion of the Old Testament’s idea of purity, for is it is said that: And I find more bitter than death the woman (Ecclesiastes 7:26)
*Sales protocol for these original pieces will be unique in that, after a purchase is made on our website, we will personally reach out to each customer to arrange a customized shipping plan, ensuring both parties are aligned on what can and cannot be done to guarantee safe and smooth delivery of the items.
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