Thomas Taylor

The Greek Goddess Hecate was a mysterious figure in the ancient world. Hesiod gave her powers in earth, sea and heavens, but by the time of Euripides she was a goddess of black magic and nefarious acts. This paper examines how William Blake's Hecate/The Night of Enitharmon's Joy, can be seen as a break from the traditional portrayal of Hecate as an evil figure, which had survived from ancient Greece through to Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Rather than being seen as inspired by Shakespeare, this paper examines the many other references Blake's piece can be seen to be making. The paper then looks at Hecate's place within the modern Neopagan movement, and how Blake's Hecate/Night of Enitharmon's Joy can be seen as influential upon it.

In 1997 Dr Roger Sworder, presented an examination of Homer’s Smith God in Mathematical Cosmologies of Newton, Homer and Plato (Studies in Western Traditions Occasional Papers No.5, Bendigo: Dept of Arts La Trobe University). The current paper was written to support and expand upon Sworder's cosmological reading. I draw upon universal symbolisms and sacred geometry.

This paper was written some 10 years ago as a matter of personal interest. I have tidied it up to some extent, however, it still probably needs further development on the earrings and brooches. It is presented here for anyone who might be interested. I would be happy to receive any feedback.

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One by one, willy-nilly, members of each generation participate with greater or lesser consciousness of their true roles in a larger struggle enveloping Mankind and then disappear mysteriously over the horizon. Homer here is understood to comprehend the meaning of it all. A fragmentary, illustrated presentation to be concluded.

Surprisingly, perhaps, it turns out that the face is not only a finite object of art but also an infinite art object, yielding three inimitable standards of facial beauty, but what these really entail remains essentially unexplored. Surprising new research indicates a fundamental restriction on achievable aesthetic meaning within portraiture.

Readers interested in the latest findings on the face are advised that the present paper is part of a series of writings on this page attempting a total integration of the Visage of Man through theoretical comprehension, scientific investigation, and sensual appreciation of its place in actual life and within artistic conventions as ordinarily practiced.

Three other papers on this page should be read for an integrated and particularized approach to the context, the form (or plan), the neurophysiological underpinnings, and the exhibition of the Trifurcated Face of Man (namely, 'Prospectus of the Society for Faces,' 'The Soul of Life and the Spirit of War,' and 'Desiderata for Primary Exhibition of the Face').

A planned fifth paper ('The Human Face in Life and Death') in due course will, it is hoped, summarize, clarify, and strengthen the contributions to the theory of the face by the present author and form the basis for substantial new research on the idealist theory of the Visage of Man in the 21st century. The depth of the human face remains essentially unknown within idealism and is totally masked by the delusions of materialism.

Integral study of individual facial conformation at first maturity with the face in death (the Totenmask) in volunteers across the globe soon will be proposed, more or less as first envisioned in the 'Prospectus of the Society for Faces,' but with concrete reference to true (idealist) anthropology and its newfound insight into the profound psychophysical separation constituting Trifurcated Man.