Rosicrucian portrait of Paracelsus; note the sword held by him. According to legend, Paracelsus kept a miracle material in the end-knob of his sword, which was called Azoth, which was believed to be able to cure every possible disease.

Portrait of Holy Roman emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612) painted as Vertumnus, Roman deity of the seasons, by Giuseppe Arcimboldo. This portrait encapsulates the balance and harmony with nature, arts, and science, all of which Rudolf II believed he represented during his reign.

Luna gives birth to the immaculate king: the red tincture, the universal medicine that can heal all afflictions. A state has been attained which abolishes the passage of time. The power of the planetary demons is thus broken. S. Trismosin, Splendor Solis, London, 16th century.

Twelve pagan astrologers (including the poet Virgil and the philosophers Seneca and Aristotle) immersed in the interpretation of the stars. Book of oracles in rhyming couplets, Central Germany, 14th century.

“The wind bears it in its belly.” The birth of the philosophers’ stone occurs in the air. M. Maier, Atalanta fugiens, Oppenheim, 1618

This disc from Apian’s Astronomicum Caesareum was used to calculate the position of the ascending lunar node on a particular date. It was used in classical astronomy, chiefly for the calculation of solar and lunar eclipses. P. Apian, Astronomicum Caesareum, Ingolstadt, 1540

The Coptic Period 395 – 642 CE

Happy Mother's Day!

Maria Prophetissa points towards the seedling that has fallen on the top of the Cosmic Mountain. The summit of the mountain is the location of the Philosopher's Stone. From Michael Maier’s Symbola Aurae Mensac, 1617

“The visible world, with its teeming creatures, is none other than the word transpired,” Jacob Bohme. All things arise out of combinations or rearrangements of these four letters.  Sephardi Bible, 1385

S. Trismosin, Splendor solis, London, 16th century