Sibyl

Known historical context

In ancient Greece, sibyls were prophetesses. They spoke on behalf of God, Apollo, entered into a trance and could predict the future. Their messages were written in hexameters. The first known sibyl sang from a rock in Delphi eleven centuries before Christ. Several sibyls have been identified: the one from Cumae, the one from Eritrea, the one from Delphi, the one from Tibur, etc. They preached in the temples of Apollo. Mythologically, they were daughters of Zeus and, on occasions, 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 Judgement and the end of the world. This was a political strategy to facilitate the conversion of the pagans.

Over the following centuries, the texts of the Sibyls were translated into Latin and interpreted by various saints, and several musical versions were created. The first evidence of the interpretation of the Song of the Sibyl 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 banned the Song of the Sibyl as part of the liturgy. In Mallorca, the resolution was only obeyed for two years.

Interpretation

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

This is not about the worship of a goddess, but of real women who were recognised for their ability to channel. They had great political influence. One etymology suggests that sibyl means ‘divine counsel’, although this is not completely accepted.

These women did not appear in Greece 11 centuries before Christ, nor did they disappear when Constantine took all power away from Delphi and moved ‘the centre of the world’ to Constantinople. These women have always existed and are still here. Sometimes they are called witches, sometimes prophets, and sometimes artists.

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

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

The Sibyl, as a mythical figure, is a point of convergence between various symbolic and spiritual elements that intertwine ancestral wisdom and the connection with universal energy 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. She 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 her and into our hearts to transform reality.

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

The sibyls, as female prophets possibly heirs to a lineage, worked in temples and entered into trance and ecstasy to contact Apollo and the underworld, which connects them to Dionysian and tantric priestesses.

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

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)