Sibila

Known Historical Context

In ancient Greece, the sibyls were prophetesses. They spoke in the name of God, Apollo, entered trance, and could predict the future. Their messages were written in hexameters. The earliest known sibyl sang from a rock at Delphi eleven centuries before Christ. Several sibyls have been identified: the one from Cumas, the one from Eritrea, the one from Delphi, the one from Tibur, etc. They prophesied in the temples of Apollo. Mythologically, they were daughters of Zeus and, at times, naiads, that is, nymphs of freshwater bodies. The sibyls lived in caves near rivers.

When Constantine converted the Empire to Christianity, he used the figure of the sibyls as a bridge, arguing that they had announced the coming of Jesus, the day of the final judgment and the end of the world. This was a political strategy to facilitate the conversion of pagans.

In the following centuries, the texts of the sibyls were translated into Latin and interpreted by various saints, and several musical versions were created. The earliest evidence of the interpretation of the Sibyl Song in Mallorca dates back to 1363.

The figure of the sibyl is so important that Michelangelo painted her in the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512).

A few decades later (1563), the Council of Trent prohibited the Sibyl Song as part of the liturgy. In Mallorca, the resolution was only observed for two years.

Interpretation

How could one worship women who spoke in the name of God, could read and write, were consulted to resolve state matters, and whose prophecies were so important that they were preserved in writing for centuries?

It is not about worshipping a goddess, but about flesh-and-blood women who were recognized for their ability to channel. With great political influence. An etymology suggests that sibyl means “divine counsel,” although it is not fully accepted.

These women did not appear in Greece eleven centuries before Christ nor disappeared when Constantine stripped all power from Delphi and moved “the center of the world” to Constantinople. These women have always existed and remain here. Sometimes they are called witches, other prophets, and other artists.

What was happening in Mallorca before the genocide of the conquest that allowed a female figure to have so much power that even the Council of Trent could not stop its worship or veneration?

In my research on art and magic, the sibyls have whispered to me a path that traverses between the natural and the ancestral, through water and trees. A path that is drawn on maps and, starting from Mallorca, where her song still resonates, has led me close to Tivoli and its forest. It seems to point toward Crete and Turkey. Crete, a possible origin of the cult of Dionysus, and Turkey, Anatolia, for its relation to the Sibyl of Eritrea, whose prophecies are the source of the Sibyl Song.

The Sibyl, as a mythical figure, is a convergence point between various symbolic and spiritual elements that intertwine ancestral wisdom and connection with universal energetic flows.

In my interpretation, the Sibyl acts as a catalyst similar to the heart chakra, reflecting the place where energies converge to transform, heal, and unify. It is not just a static symbol, but a living figure of transformation: intuition, ancestral knowledge, and connection with cosmic and earthly energy are integrated into it and into our hearts to transform reality.

Her techniques and language resonate with the cult of Dionysus, tantra, and Cherokee traditions.

The sibyls, as possibly hereditary prophetesses, worked in temples and entered trance and ecstasy to contact Apollo and the underworld, connecting them with Dionysian and tantric priestesses.

My research arises from the need to connect deeply and symbolically with the wisdom that traverses territories, time, and cultures.