Arcana Magazine

Starting in the 1780s after Prince George of Wales sent a marriage proposal to Maria Anne Fitzherbert as a token of his love, eye miniatures began cropping up around Britain. Among the mundane population, small eyes were painted on jewelry and trinkets to be shared between lovers, friends, and family. Although full portraits had been shared, these miniatures were about capturing one’s gaze and giving the recipient a way to gaze back.

The exchanges would become more elaborate, with the type of jewelry, additional gemstones, or other embellishments carrying more and more meaning. By 1830, the exchanges had mostly disappeared, most likely due to the simple changes in society, and eventually to be compeltely replaced by the new technology of photographs and tintypes.

Still, this brooch was never a casual token, it was much more.

David Parton is at ease in his Glendale home in Southern California. He lives modestly in the Adam’s Hill area, where just behind his own home, the final resting place of Walt Disney gives the neighborhood a macabre air.

He’s a gracious host, but his delight becomes palpable as he takes me into his personal office. All around, I see items and artwork that illustrates his appreciation and deep interest in true arcana. On his bookshelf, I spot a Greek copy of Moru Raven Press’ Akaa’ Et Nuon Ta in the limited edition. A true Arcanist!

He cautiously takes out the brooch from the wrapping, sure to remind me of its value and his committment to the metaphysical.

It feels heavier in my hand than I expect. The hairs on my arms stand up and I feel like someone stepped on my own grave. The eye, even though it is a painting inside a crystal dome, seems to follow my eyes. I immediately get the sense that someone else is in the room. I wrap the eye back in its cloth and look up at David, who is smiling at me. “It’s enough to make you shit your pants,” he says. My pants are still clean, but I agree.

The legends surrounding the eye is as straight forward as it is tragic. The names change and there are no historical documents to prove any of it. Whether a woman named Violet Penwith gave her name to the Eye or whether the story gave its name to her, is one that I’m unable to determine in my research.

It is said that the Eye originally was enchanted by the woman to allow her and her lover to communicate across the distance, she in London, and he in Edinburgh. Her spellcraft didn’t prevent her from an early death, with the causes attributed to dysentery, typhoid, or even murder.

Even after death, the brooch allowed them to communicate, but for whatever reason, the gentleman eventually stopped those interactions, moving on in life and love. He would eventually marry another young socialite, but the spirit of Ms Penwith would not lay to rest and she actively haunted her former love and his new wife-to-be.

Whatever came of them and the Eye at the time, there is nothing to say. The Eye has popped up here and there over the past 200 years, but for the most part, has kept itself from the eyes of the public. Even Parton has little to add on the matter.

After the Eye is put away, he offers me coffee and we begin to talk about the way he started looking for anything that would scratch his itch for the supernatural while on a UK tour for Knights of Angst.

While in Cardiff, he was approached by a woman who had heard he was looking for such a prize. From there, the [end]