All 50 Emblems + Frontispiece
Click any emblem for the comparative view with scholarly commentary.
F. The Fleeing Atalanta
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I. His nurse is the Earth NIGREDO
The wind carried it in its belly.
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II. Its nurse is the Earth NIGREDO
Its nurse is the Earth.
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III. Go to the woman who washes the sheets ALBEDO
Go to the woman who washes the sheets and do as she does.
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IV. Join brother and sister NIGREDO
Join brother and sister and give them the cup of love.
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V. Woman suckling the toad NIGREDO
Put a toad to the breasts of a woman, that she may suckle it, and the woman may ...
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VI. Sow your gold in the white foliated earth ALBEDO
Sow your gold in the white foliated earth.
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VII. Young bird flying from nest and falling back CITRINITAS
A young bird flies up from the nest and falls back into the nest again.
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VIII. Emblem VIII NIGREDO
Take the egg and pierce it with a fiery sword.
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IX. Emblem IX NIGREDO
Fix the old man to the tree in the garden of the dew, and the old man becomes yo...
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X. Emblem X CITRINITAS
Give fire to fire, Mercury to Mercury, and that is enough for you.
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XI. Emblem XI ALBEDO
Make Latona white and tear up the books.
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XII. Emblem XII ALBEDO
Make Latona white and tear up the books.
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XIII. Dropsical ore washed in Jordan ALBEDO
The ore of the philosophers is dropsical and wants to be washed seven times in t...
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XIV. Emblem XIV NIGREDO
This is the dragon that devours its own tail.
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XV. Emblem XV ALBEDO
Let the work of the potter, consisting of dry and wet, teach you.
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XVI. Winged and wingless lion CITRINITAS
The feathers one lion has not, the other has.
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XVII. Fourfold fire-ball CITRINITAS
A fourfold fire-ball controls this work.
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XVIII. Emblem XVIII CITRINITAS
Fire likes making things fiery, but not, like gold, making gold.
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XIX. Emblem XIX NIGREDO
If you kill one of the four, every body will be dead immediately.
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XX. Emblem XX ALBEDO
Nature teaches Nature, Nature conquers Nature, Nature rules Nature.
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XXI. Circle-square-triangle-circle formula RUBEDO
Make a circle out of a man and a woman, out of this a square, out of this a tria...
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XXII. Emblem XXII ALBEDO
When you have obtained the white lead, then do woman's work, that is to say: coo...
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XXIII. Emblem XXIII CITRINITAS
It rains gold when Pallas is born at Rhodes.
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XXIV. Alchemical King (garbed) NIGREDO
The wolf devoured the king, and after the wolf had been burnt, it returned the k...
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XXV. Emblem XXV NIGREDO
The Dragon does not die, if it is not killed by its brother and sister, that is ...
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XXVI. Lady Sapientia / Tree of Life RUBEDO
The fruit of human wisdom is the Tree of Life.
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XXVII. Companion to Sapientia sequence CITRINITAS
He who tries to enter the Philosophical Rose-garden without the key is like a ma...
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XXVIII. King Duenech in steam bath NIGREDO
The king is bathed, sitting in a steam-bath, and is freed from the black bile by...
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XXIX. Emblem XXIX CITRINITAS
Just as the Salamander lives in the fire, so also the Stone.
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XXX. Emblem XXX RUBEDO
The Hermaphrodite, lying in darkness like a dead man, needs fire.
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XXXI. King transformation continued RUBEDO
The king, swimming in the sea, calling in a loud voice: He who saves me will rec...
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XXXII. Emblem XXXII RUBEDO
As coral grows under water and, exposed to the air, gets hard, so also the Stone...
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XXXIII. Hermaphrodite lying in darkness needs fire NIGREDO
The Hermaphrodite, lying in darkness like a dead man, needs fire.
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XXXIV. Celestial conception / hierogamy RUBEDO
He is conceived in the bath and born in the air, but having become red he walks ...
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XXXV. Emblem XXXV ALBEDO
As Ceres accustomed Triptolemus, and Thetis Achilles, to endure fire, so the art...
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XXXVI. Emblem XXXVI NIGREDO
The Stone has been thrown on to the earth and lifted on to the mountains, and it...
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XXXVII. Emblem XXXVII CITRINITAS
Three things are sufficient for mastery: white smoke, that is water, the green L...
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XXXVIII. Standing hermaphrodite RUBEDO
The Hermaphrodite, born of two mountains, of Mercury and Venus.
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XXXIX. Emblem XXXIX ALBEDO
Oedipus, having conquered the Sphinx and having killed his father Laius, married...
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XL. Emblem XL RUBEDO
Make one water out of two waters, and it will be the water of holiness.
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XLI. Emblem XLI NIGREDO
Adonis is killed by a boar, and Venus, rushing up to him, painted the roses red ...
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XLII. Emblem XLII RUBEDO
What Nature, Reason, Experience and Reading teach you, let that be the fire, the...
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XLIII. Emblem XLIII ALBEDO
Listen to the screech owl's voice, which it produces it self, and the water and ...
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XLIV. Osiris killed and resurrected NIGREDO
Typhon kills Osiris by a ruse, and after that he scatters his limbs far and wide...
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XLV. Emblem XLV RUBEDO
Sol and his shadow complete the work.
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XLVI. Emblem XLVI CITRINITAS
Two eagles meet, the one from the East, the other from the West.
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XLVII. Emblem XLVII NIGREDO
The wolf coming from the East, and the Dog coming from the West, have bitten eac...
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XLVIII. King Duenech receives potion RUBEDO
The king, fallen ill from drinking, is restored to health by a physician.
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XLIX. Emblem XLIX CITRINITAS
The Philosophical Child acknowledges three fathers, just as Orion.
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L. The Dragon kills the woman NIGREDO
The Dragon kills the woman, and she kills it, and together they bathe in blood.
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