Basil Valentine

hello everybody and welcome to the second of the infinite fire webinar series um last time I spoke about Hinrich krat of leig The theosophy 0:2626 secondsAlchemist cabalist Magus um who was born in 1560 and Di died in 16005 today I'm speaking about someone a slightly 0:3333 secondsyounger contemporary of his Michael Meer Michael Meer like kunr was born in Germany this time in rensburg um in 0:4141 seconds1569 um like kunr he spent time studying philosophy and Medicine whereas krant studied in leig and then graduated in 0:4848 secondsBasel um Michael Meer studied in um Roso Frankfurt and Padu then like KRA graduated as Doctor of medicine in barel 0:5757 secondsthe difference is kunrath in 1588 was one of the um sort of radical new followers of paracelsus who quite 1:051 minute, 5 secondsbravely promoted paracelsian doctrines at his graduation Maya I have to say was more conventional he's much more in his 1:121 minute, 12 secondsWorks a follower of um Aristotle and galin um and more traditional more conservative medicine really at the same time he does have good things to say 1:211 minute, 21 secondsabout paracelsus he he condemns him as being a rogue really and overly pical but praises the fact that his chemical 1:281 minute, 28 secondsmedicines really do cure things that couldn't be cured by previous medicine so he comes across as a sort of more of a moderate in in many ways what he's 1:371 minute, 37 secondsmost famous for is his Publications on Alchemy and also as being one of the main Defenders or apologists for the Rosie crucians at the beginning of the 1:461 minute, 46 secondswhole publication of the rosik crucian manifestos so what else can I say about him um yeah he graduated in 1596 from 1:541 minute, 54 secondsbarel um university as a doctor of medicine then he went to practice um briefly um uh in various times towns in 2:032 minutes, 3 secondsGermany before spending time in 16008 arriving at the court of Rudolph II there he did extremely well for himself 2:112 minutes, 11 secondsand this picture shows that this was engraved when he was 49 years age and it shows him as Imperial count Palatine he 2:182 minutes, 18 secondswas um appointed The Physician personal physician to Rudolph and did so well that in September 1609 he was elevated 2:262 minutes, 26 secondsto the ranks of the nobility um and yes here he is he says actually that I have three titles for my schooling presumably 2:342 minutes, 34 secondsBachelor master and doctor and then three titles from the SE from um the emperor from Caesar and uh yes he's a 2:432 minutes, 43 secondsknight um he's a count and he's a member of the Imperial consist so he did incredibly well for himself I mean the 2:492 minutes, 49 secondsAlchemists sometimes do well uh and uh here what's very interesting is if you look closely at this and we'll give you 2:562 minutes, 56 secondsa close-up of it he actually petitions the emperor for for a coat of arms that is alchemical there's a letter that survives she writes to the emperor and 3:043 minutes, 4 secondssays um avisena the Arab Alchemist um H writes about um a pair of creatures an 3:123 minutes, 12 secondseagle that flies above and symbolizes um uh Mercury and um a toad that is 3:193 minutes, 19 secondscreeping along the ground these two creatures are connected by a Golden Chain and they symbolize the the majestry of alchemy and just to show you 3:273 minutes, 27 secondshow interested he was in one of um Maya's Publications this 3:343 minutes, 34 secondsone here fascinating publication um yeah the symbol the symbols of the golden table 3:413 minutes, 41 secondsof 12 Nations which is basically um a representation of one alchemical Adept from 12 different countries um who were 3:503 minutes, 50 secondsinvited to a banquet for the Virgin Alchemy it begins with the oldest um Alchemist as it were the the forefather 3:593 minutes, 59 secondsof everyone Hermes of Egypt goes through Maria um the Jews and various other figures we get to there we are Aisa the 4:074 minutes, 7 secondsArab so he's AIS is the representative of the Arabic Nation um he's very well known as um a writer of medical text 4:154 minutes, 15 secondsbooks and alchemical ones too and here we have the image of Aisa standing there 4:234 minutes, 23 secondswith the eagle and with the toad Bound by the golden chain and this is the image that Michael Meer actually takes to 4:314 minutes, 31 secondsrepresent himself on his coat of arms okay after um yes uh he serves at 4:394 minutes, 39 secondsthe court of Rudolph in the end um things aren't going very well for Rudolph who gets deposed in 162 in 1611 4:474 minutes, 47 secondsMichael Meer goes off to England and he spends time at the court of King James I first meeting well-known people possibly meeting Robert flood though we have no 4:564 minutes, 56 secondsevidence for that though it is interesting to know that the person who is the engraver of these images in Michael Myers's Atlanta fugan I'll 5:045 minutes, 4 secondsdiscuss some of them today Matias Maran is also um the engraver of a well-known 5:115 minutes, 11 secondscollection of alchemical Engravings by uh lams spring on the Phil philosophical Stone there's a title page and beautiful 5:195 minutes, 19 secondsEngravings here but he's also the engraver for Robert flood's um history of both microcosm and macrocosm so there 5:275 minutes, 27 secondsis some sort of connection there that flood and Maya both have the same engraver okay going back to Michael mea 5:375 minutes, 37 secondshe spend time in England one of the things he's interested in is finding more about the English alchemical tradition and in fact um he 5:465 minutes, 46 secondstranslates a text which some of you may know from the theatrum chemicum branum this is an English collection of um 5:555 minutes, 55 secondsalchemical poems um edited by Elias ashol the ashmolean Museum uh and published in London in 6:036 minutes, 3 seconds1652 I hope I'm remembering the date correctly um it's the title is lesson but everything else is English and in it 6:106 minutes, 10 secondswe find a very inspiring text one that fascinated John the about whom I'm speaking about next time um the orinal 6:186 minutes, 18 secondsof alchemy of um Thomas Norton of Bristol this is very interesting text for Maya Maya actually goes so far as to 6:266 minutes, 26 secondstranslate it into German uh the text is in sure because it connects Alchemy with the liberal arts so for example with 6:346 minutes, 34 secondsastronomy or astrology with music with mathematics with geometry and these are all themes that turn up in the Atlanta 6:416 minutes, 41 secondsfugan to give you an example uh in uh yes in Norton we even 6:476 minutes, 47 secondshave four astrological horoscopes uh and it's interesting that Maya practices is a form of alchemy which is aware at 6:556 minutes, 55 secondsleast of astrology sometimes it's only using it I think really as a metaphor sometimes there's a suggestion that he really is paying attention to 7:037 minutes, 3 secondsconfigurations in the heavens and the best time to do an old chemical experiment uh maybe a little bit more about Norton later 7:127 minutes, 12 secondsbut back to Michael Meer Meer in 1616 returns to Germany and 7:197 minutes, 19 secondshe ends up um no longer going to Prague Rudolf has been deposed uh and uh it's 7:277 minutes, 27 secondsno longer such a great place uh for for for the patronage of alemy and and magic and so forth the best place for Maya to 7:347 minutes, 34 secondsgo is in Germany and he ends up at the court of meritz of hen hen Castle um who 7:417 minutes, 41 secondsis basically the foremost patron of alchemy in the German states uh Moret the learnard um and his father before 7:487 minutes, 48 secondshim were patrons of Alchemists if you go to Castle nowadays the archives is incredible full of a lot of material Moritz ends up there as the um as the as 7:587 minutes, 58 secondsthe chemist and the physician of Moritz what some of you should know is that 8:048 minutes, 4 secondsMoritz was also um the the the lord of the city where the um rosyan manifestos 8:128 minutes, 12 secondsget published um we have um here the F fraternity Artis published in 1614 we have the confessio published in 1615 and 8:228 minutes, 22 secondsthen of course we have the chemical wedding published again the Ros crucian chemical wedding published in 1616 these are all jur the time when Maya is still 8:318 minutes, 31 secondsum in England and we do know that actually at first he didn't pay much attention to the whole rosicrucian um uh 8:398 minutes, 39 secondsfuori afterwards though when he gets to Germany especially when he's spending time in the court of Moritz he becomes extremely fascinated by the whole um 8:488 minutes, 48 secondsrosik crusan uh enthusiasm and becomes basically one of of the main people who's trying to communicate contact The 8:558 minutes, 55 secondsRosy crucians and in the end becomes a major apologist for them defending them against uh criticizers who who are 9:039 minutes, 3 secondsputting down the whole movement um anyway he spends time at the court of of Moritz um publishes in the Years 1616 9:129 minutes, 12 seconds1617 and onwards an incredible number of books one of them being the Atlanta fugan uh one thing I should point out is 9:219 minutes, 21 secondsthat Moritz also is famous as the um patron of the first ever professor of chemical medicine um at the University 9:299 minutes, 29 secondsof MarBorg Johannes hartsman was appointed Professor there in 16009 and he stands as the first Professor the 9:369 minutes, 36 secondsfirst person recognized as a teacher officially of alchemy or chemistry uh at a university and again it's Moritz who's 9:449 minutes, 44 secondsuh founding that and supporting it um some of you I'm sure will know also one significant thing about the lands of 9:529 minutes, 52 secondsMoritz Castle being the place really um the location of the rosicrucian Publications um the first one of these 10:0010 minuteswas published in 1614 in and where is it there we are it was published in 1614 the F fraternity 10:0910 minutes, 9 secondstatis um the next the confessio was published in here we are there's the confessio as well published in 1615 and 10:1710 minutes, 17 secondsthen the chemical wedding uh the famous allegory um of Christian Rosen CS going on a journey um and and with many alchemical consequences to it was 10:2510 minutes, 25 secondspublished in 1616 now these uh this publication Endeavor started when Meer was still in England at the court of 10:3310 minutes, 33 secondsJames I and we know that at first um he didn't really pay that much attention to to the rosac Cru story but when he gets 10:4110 minutes, 41 secondsback to Germany and ends up at the court of Moritz the learnard his Fascination begins to develop and in fact Maya becomes one of 10:4910 minutes, 49 secondsthe main apologists for um the rosic crucian uh ideals uh and and publishes various works for example selenium post 10:5810 minutes, 58 secondspost clor a work called silence after the clamor after the hubub of the initial Publications gets published in 11:0611 minutes, 6 seconds1617 and this was sort of one of these wonderful years for Maya in that even though we know he was physically ill his 11:1311 minutes, 13 secondsliterary output was incredible one of the um Publications being this Atalanta fugiens which is uh here we are 16 well 11:2211 minutes, 22 seconds167 was the first edition this is 1618 uh the next Edition uh about which I will be FOC focusing on today although 11:3111 minutes, 31 secondsI'm not going to be talking about all of these today otherwise we'll be here forever I'm going to mention one or two of his Publications this is um yes the 11:4011 minutes, 40 secondsArana arima it's one of the first major Publications um yes the secret the most secret of Secrets um it's 11:4911 minutes, 49 secondsMaya's um interpretation his alchemical or chemical if you prefer interpretation of ancient mythology uh here Egyptian 11:5811 minutes, 58 secondsand Greek mythology and may also later on goes into into Roman mythology as well and actually he's become really the 12:0612 minutes, 6 secondsmain figurehead for what you'd call mytho Alchemy if you think that there's gold making Alchemy um the sort of practical laboratory Alchemy then you've 12:1412 minutes, 14 secondsgot chemical medicine there are other times there are sort of more literary types and mytho Alchemy is one of them um last week I talk about kunat he's a 12:2212 minutes, 22 secondslaboratary Alchemist but also described as a Theo Alchemist um this is an interesting text because actually manuscript survives in I think light 12:3112 minutes, 31 secondsfrom memory um where he calls it um a manuscript on the the theosophy of the Egyptians um he's fascinated by 12:3912 minutes, 39 secondshieroglyphs and he knows a hieroglyph means sacred writing and that theosophy is of course Divine wisdom and his 12:4812 minutes, 48 secondsbelief is that if you read myths literally you would be absolutely appalled by what's going on because it's 12:5612 minutes, 56 secondsoften stories of incest and rape and so forth and he said this can't be the real meaning you know if it were what who on Earth would want to read myth instead 13:0513 minutes, 5 secondsyou look fors the secrets and he says they are encoded alchemical Secrets some of that we're going to be looking at today anyway the Aran Arisa is actually 13:1313 minutes, 13 secondswhere he sort of sketches out some things he develops later other things which um are worth very much worth 13:2013 minutes, 20 secondslooking at is for example this um smaller text again beautiful title page this one um the seven planetary deities 13:3013 minutes, 30 secondswho are also of course seven Metals um that's that's how it is so much of so often in alchemy and here it's say yes 13:3713 minutes, 37 secondshis vorum that is um his sort of uh travel guide to the uh seven mountains or to the mountains of the seven planets 13:4513 minutes, 45 secondsor the seven Metals um very worthwhile good text to read and what else ah yeah this 13:5813 minutes, 58 secondsone 14:2814 minutes, 28 secondse 14:5814 minutes, 58 secondse 15:2315 minutes, 23 secondsin fact he translates it into German and into uh yeah into Latin sorry and um it 15:3015 minutes, 30 secondsappears um without Kat's name U published in the deutser Statum Chum um so thank you Michael Meer for promulgating krat even if you don't put 15:3815 minutes, 38 secondsKat's name on it other texts which are worthwhile looking at with Michael Meer in relation to atanta fugan are things 15:4615 minutes, 46 secondslike this okay reading upside down again the culo physico quad so on the physical 15:5215 minutes, 52 secondsCircle squared um by which he means gold and and this is a very sort of geometrical analysis of of gold he's using geometry 16:0216 minutes, 2 secondsas a metaphor again for ideas about alchemy this is a motif that turns up again in Atalanta fugan and I'll show you one very famous image which is all 16:1116 minutes, 11 secondsabout that um other things which I have to say are almost cute about Michael Meer he seems to have been an ornithologist he's fascinated by birds 16:2016 minutes, 20 secondsum he he's uh harrywood Tilton has written the book about um Michael Myer's quest for the Phoenix which symbolizes 16:2716 minutes, 27 secondsthe highest things in Al before him here we have the Phoenix acting as a judge in um yes a nasty argument between all of 16:3616 minutes, 36 secondsthe birds who are accusing the poor owl here is the owl the the the bird of Palace Athena the goddess of wisdom and they're all ganging up on the owl and uh 16:4516 minutes, 45 secondsapart from the hawk who acts there we are the hawk acts as her sort of Defender and the Phoenix as the judge 16:5316 minutes, 53 secondsand so you get the Raven for example kicking off the the squabble the court case against uh The Owl and then the 17:0017 minutesnting Gale and various other birds in the end the owl is Vindicated but what I'd like to point out is Maya has a singular fascination with birds I mean 17:0917 minutes, 9 secondsthey're part of his alchemical besty they always are I mean birds are always in alchemy U winged Birds which symbolize the volatile Spirits ascending 17:1717 minutes, 17 secondsin the alchemical flask or if you prefer the spiritual interpretation of alchemy the spiritual Soul ascending towards the Divine and wingless birds being the 17:2617 minutes, 26 secondsfixed those either earthy beings or or sediments in the flask uh but anyway M 17:3317 minutes, 33 secondsMichael me has more of an interest than most in in in alchemical birds so welcome then finally to the Atlanta 17:4117 minutes, 41 secondsfugan this is the focus for today it's a beautiful work as I said the engraving is by mati Marian Marian um the design 17:4917 minutes, 49 secondsthough by Michael Meyer um and yes it's the Atlanta fugan fleeing Atlanta a Greek myth that you find in ID and and 17:5817 minutes, 58 secondsvarious other sorts sources and basically this is a collection of 50 alchemical 18:0418 minutes, 4 secondsEngravings um each of the Engravings is is um complemented by a piece of music a 18:1118 minutes, 11 secondsthree voice Fugue and and this is a play really Atlanta fugan um fleeing Atlanta is a play on the word Fugue she's 18:2018 minutes, 20 secondsfugitive and and so are the fugues um and uh it's it's described as an emblem 18:2818 minutes, 28 secondsbook okay here's the full title in English Atalanta fleeing that is new chemical emblems concerning the secrets 18:3618 minutes, 36 secondsof nature adapted partly for the eyes and intellect in figures engraved on copper with mottos epigrams and notes 18:4518 minutes, 45 secondsattached partly for the ears and for the Soul's Recreation with some 50 musical fugues in three voices of which two are 18:5418 minutes, 54 secondsset to a simple Melody suitable for singing in cutlets to be looked at read meditated on understood weighed sung and 19:0319 minutes, 3 secondslistened to not without a certain pleasure okay um of course a certain pleasure for what kind of audience uh 19:1119 minutes, 11 secondsimmediately I'd have to say an audience which has actually been as well educated as Michael Meyer at various universities it assumes that you have a knowledge of 19:1919 minutes, 19 secondstheology that you have a knowledge of Mythology um that you have a knowledge of astronomy geometry music arithmetic 19:2819 minutes, 28 secondsand I hope at least some knowledge or so of chemistry and I should point out here he's actually quite sort of adamant that 19:3619 minutes, 36 secondsit's chemical not alchemical in fact he has a sort of reluctance to actually describe anything he does as all chemical so we're getting into that sort 19:4419 minutes, 44 secondsof 17th century period of is it Alchemy or chemistry they are usually interchangeable as terms but he he's he 19:5219 minutes, 52 secondscertainly has a preference for chemical whereas KRA in his work in the amphitheatrum still has Alchemy there but he has physical chemistry so be 20:0020 minutesaware of that if you're interested in the history of alchemy this though is undoubtedly mytho Alchemy yeah we find 20:0720 minutes, 7 secondsum uh for example on the title page let's look at it yeah if you were to ask anyone who knows mythology especially 20:1520 minutes, 15 secondsGreek mythology for myths that have something to do with um gold and Alchemy then these are very good places to begin 20:2220 minutes, 22 secondsat the very top of the page we have the garden of the Hesperides now this is the garden of Jupiter's wife her it's in the west um the garden is often linked with 20:3220 minutes, 32 secondsVenus with um the the evening star um vasper for example and here we have got the three um daughters of hesperos of 20:4120 minutes, 41 secondsthe hes we've got igay we've got arathusa and here we've got hespera their three Charming young ladies who 20:4820 minutes, 48 secondsare there guarding um the trees um sometimes it's one tree sometimes it's many trees uh which have golden apples 20:5620 minutes, 56 secondsanyone who eats a golden apple get gains immortality um because the gods don't just trust three Charming young women 21:0521 minutes, 5 secondsthey also have um yes a a monster there um in in some stories it's aunde headed dragon um called Ladon uh here I don't 21:1421 minutes, 14 secondsthink actually Maran could cope with a 100 heads but it's certainly a multi multi-headed Dragon there guarding the garden who have we got here we've got 21:2321 minutes, 23 secondsHercules um with his um yes wearing the Nan Lion's skin on his back um I'm sure you know all about the the labors of 21:3221 minutes, 32 secondsHercules um maybe you don't remember but the 11th labor of Hercules was that he had to steal apples the golden apples 21:3921 minutes, 39 secondsfrom the garden of Hesperides so that's why he's here now um you might know the story that actually what he does is he 21:4621 minutes, 46 secondstricks AAS who's busy holding up the heavens and says if I hold up the Heavens For You will you go and get some of the golden apples from the garden 21:5521 minutes, 55 secondsalas is actually allowed to do that because well he's either the father or more often the uncle of the three women in the garden so Atlas goes and gets the 22:0422 minutes, 4 secondsgolden apples doesn't actually want to take back um carrying the heavens on his shoulders but he's tricked by Hercules 22:1222 minutes, 12 secondsum takes the heavens again Hercules gets the golden apples and goes off and there is the 11th labor done so here we have 22:1922 minutes, 19 secondsHercules and it's interesting in one of these Engravings Hercules is for Michael Meer one of the um I to say the 22:2622 minutes, 26 secondsarchetypes of The Alchemist IST or the chemist Hercules or ulyses or Jason for example with the Golden Fleece um they 22:3522 minutes, 35 secondsthey all represent The Alchemist so here we have The Alchemist on the other side we have um yes we have Venus labeled here or Aphrodite if you prefer but here 22:4422 minutes, 44 secondswe've got the Latin Venus and uh we have um hipomenes now then you might know another story to 22:5122 minutes, 51 secondsdo with golden apples the famous one where Paris um son of the the king of Troy has the sort of well unenviable 22:5922 minutes, 59 secondstask of choosing who is the most beautiful between three goddesses Hera and Palace Athena and Aphrodite and 23:0823 minutes, 8 secondsbeing a young man he chooses the most beautiful for him who is Venus um anyway that's another of the stories that again 23:1523 minutes, 15 secondsthe Alchemists know about this one is one that Michael Meer is particularly interested in it's the prince hipomenes he's in love with a young woman at 23:2423 minutes, 24 secondsatanta the only problem with atanta is that um she insists that she will only marry the person who will beat her in a 23:3123 minutes, 31 secondsfoot race Atlanta is incredibly Fleet of foot um if you don't beat in a foot race foot race you get killed so the poor H 23:4023 minutes, 40 secondshomines who is Lovick calls um Venus who says basically take three golden apples 23:4723 minutes, 47 secondsand when you're running around um uh drop an apple every so often when Atlanta seems like she's going to 23:5423 minutes, 54 secondsovertake you Atalanta will stoop pick up an apple and you will run for your life so that you you win the race um he drops 24:0224 minutes, 2 secondshis three golden apples one after the other here at the bottom of the page we have he pom is running uh like Fury he 24:0924 minutes, 9 secondsdropped one apple atalanta's stoop to pick it up anyway Atalanta wins he he's lost his golden apples but he certainly 24:1824 minutes, 18 secondshasn't lost his life instead he's won um the the devotion of Atlanta unfortunately the story doesn't end 24:2524 minutes, 25 secondsthere the two of them make out basically in a temple and the temple is of the goddess sibel who is not very thrilled 24:3424 minutes, 34 secondsat the fact that these two young people are sort of uh yes uh consummating their nuls in her temple temple so what does 24:4224 minutes, 42 secondsshe do she turns them both to lions and here we have two lions again if you're interested at all in the history of alchemy you know that lions are one of 24:5024 minutes, 50 secondsthe animals in the alchemical best yri um usually a winged lioness and a wingless lion uh again for volatile and 24:5924 minutes, 59 secondsfixed aspects of the uh the alchemical work it's very interesting that yes these two figures have been turned into 25:0625 minutes, 6 secondslions and also if you know your history of Arts you know that the Chariot of C is in fact pulled by two lions so there 25:1525 minutes, 15 secondsis a very quick introduction to the title page of the Atalanta fugan as I said there are 50 Engravings in this um 25:2325 minutes, 23 secondsbook I'm not going to talk about all the 50 all 50 of them because you'll probably get bored to tears but I'm going to go through a few um I'm going to begin with the first one partly 25:3225 minutes, 32 secondsbecause it's also one of my favorite um if you're wondering who the first sources that Meer um uses for his 25:4125 minutes, 41 secondsinspiration for this text um it's um surprise surprise it's herous Tris mistos the author of The Emerald Tablet 25:4825 minutes, 48 secondsum I've already mentioned the Emerald Tablet in the um webinar about har krat but for those of you who are watching for the first time it's the um uh the 25:5725 minutes, 57 secondsvery short text which basically begins with As Above So Below that which is above is like that which is below and that which is below is like that which 26:0626 minutes, 6 secondsis above there's another very famous line in there which says its father is the sun its mother the moon the wind 26:1326 minutes, 13 secondscarries it in its belly its nurse is the earth okay and there are so many different interpretations of that on one 26:2026 minutes, 20 secondslevel um its father is the sun is literally fire um the mother of the moon is water um the wind of course is air 26:2926 minutes, 29 secondsand the Earth is Earth so you've got the four elements here we have um yes an emblem and I want to say just a tiny bit 26:3726 minutes, 37 secondsbefore I begin in on the detail of the image talking about what emblem books are okay um so if we look emblems 26:4626 minutes, 46 secondsusually are um basically what can you say they're images they're texts which are there to entertain people yeah 26:5426 minutes, 54 secondseducate to a certain extent but therefore a learned audience who BAS basically see a text like this at the top it has a motto or an inscription 27:0327 minutes, 3 secondswhich gets your mind working uh then it has a picture which develops The Motto sometimes there's a tension there 27:1127 minutes, 11 secondsbetween them so that you have to figure out what the link is sometimes it utterly complement the motto and then below that you have a subscription or 27:1927 minutes, 19 secondshere entitles an epigram a short poem so three parts tripartite structure now 27:2527 minutes, 25 secondsthis um is something that became very popular in the uh 16th and 17th 27:3327 minutes, 33 secondscenturies the person who kicked it off is um yes Andrea alati um or alato um 27:4027 minutes, 40 secondswho developed this from um humanistic studies where he realized that people were very interested in uh mythology and 27:5027 minutes, 50 secondsuh yes he developed this whole series of Engravings where you've got for example here uh again the 27:5827 minutes, 58 secondsuh inscription image and subscription tying in with this which is nothing to do with Alchemy but is an 28:0628 minutes, 6 secondsintellectual game as it were is also was also hieroglyphic literature um the hieroglyphics of horror Apollo we 28:1528 minutes, 15 secondsdiscovered in the 15th century in the early Decades of the 15th century these claimed to be Greek interpretations of 28:2228 minutes, 22 secondsEgyptian hieroglyphs the truth be told they weren't but they kicked off a whole craze of Egyptian hieroglyphs um this is 28:3128 minutes, 31 secondsfrom mid-6th Century um but again what you see is 28:3828 minutes, 38 secondsbasically title and image and text underneath explaining what's going on um originally these actually only began 28:4628 minutes, 46 secondswith the uh text there was no image but it became um so interesting to people that um for example alre Dura was 28:5428 minutes, 54 secondscommissioned to interpret the text and actually draw IM which were presented to the emperor 29:0129 minutes, 1 secondmaximilan um in the the early 16th century as a gift um Michelle Nostradamus so someone you may also have 29:0929 minutes, 9 secondsheard of in esotericism not Nostradamus was so fascinated by them that he translated these hieroglyphics into French verse so that um readers could 29:1829 minutes, 18 secondssee them there why I am mentioning them now is that Michael Meyer undoubtedly draws some inspiration from the the um 29:2629 minutes, 26 secondshieroglyphics as well here is an image for example um representing impossibility it's a body walking 29:3329 minutes, 33 secondswithout a head or it's um uh here we have feet with no body and it it represents you know things which are 29:4029 minutes, 40 secondsimpossible one of the emblems in Michael Meer if I can find it is um a figure 29:4829 minutes, 48 secondsstanding outside a Rose Garden trying to get into the Rose Garden but the figure has no feet and again it represents 29:5529 minutes, 55 secondsimpossibility and I am looking for it here here for you you might need to sort of cut this 30:0330 minutes, 3 secondsoff I'm afraid I should have done this before and I forgot to do it I know it very well but I can't find it in your 30:1430 minutes, 14 secondsbook come on this is doing things in a rush 30:2430 minutes, 24 secondsthere so to show you here we have an epigram uh we have uh sorry um from Atlanta 30:3130 minutes, 31 secondsfugan we have the image of a man there standing there without Feet Again representing impossibility trying to get 30:3830 minutes, 38 secondsinto the Rose Garden of the philosophers those of you uh who know about the history of alchemy will know that the 30:4530 minutes, 45 secondsrosary of the philosophers the rosarian philosophorum published in 1550 is actually most likely the source that 30:5230 minutes, 52 secondsMichael Meer is using for his idea of motto image and um an epigram because in 30:5930 minutes, 59 seconds1550 the rosarian was presented in that way Kung of course is famous for for taking that sequence of images and giving them a psychological 31:0831 minutes, 8 secondsinterpretation Michael Meer isn't trying to be psychological about it he's interested in alchemical interpretation um and refers to the rosarium quite 31:1731 minutes, 17 secondsfrequently in these texts as one of his favorite sources here we actually though have literally a Rose Garden of the philosophers here we have the the Greek 31:2531 minutes, 25 secondspantheon of gods that also represent metals um lurking outside and we have this poor Alchemist clearly a rather misguided um 31:3431 minutes, 34 secondsfigure without feet no basis on which to enter the garden he has neither the lock nor the key well the Lock's there but he 31:4131 minutes, 41 secondshasn't got the key to get in the gardens so we have this sort of combination of emblem and um hieroglyph there as as 31:5031 minutes, 50 secondsstructures for the text okay returning to turning to the first 32:0032 minutesimage so if you look closely at it it's the image is it's entitled The Wind bore 32:0832 minutes, 8 secondsit in its belly so it's from the Emerald Tablet and if you look carefully you have this uh very dramatic figure of um 32:1632 minutes, 16 secondsa male figure uh with uh yes very windy hair coming out of his head it represents boreas the north wind and uh 32:2532 minutes, 25 secondsif you look extremely carefully you'll see that there is an embryo in the wind's belly Michael Meyer has okay his 32:3432 minutes, 34 secondsmusical tune he which um accompanies this three voices one of the first voice is Atalanta you could say as it were the 32:4232 minutes, 42 secondssoprano voice um and then ten of voice we have hipomenes the prince and then at the very bottom the sort of cantos fimos 32:5032 minutes, 50 secondsum we have um the Apple the golden apple and uh you always have these three voices at Atalanta homines and the Apple 32:5932 minutes, 59 secondsthey don't always have the same position actually um but they are the constant throughout for example here's another 33:0733 minutes, 7 secondsengraving and again it has well appal acant homines and the Apple other ones you'll find it's different Maya gives you this he gives 33:1633 minutes, 16 secondsyou um His Image he gives you his epigram and then he gives you a couple of pages of explanation what's going on 33:2533 minutes, 25 secondsuh this is not so standard in early emblem books but it becomes much more the case later and the format is that basically he first of all begins with a 33:3433 minutes, 34 secondsgeneral context of um for example boras who is boras boras is the god of the Winds he has two sons one with red hair 33:4333 minutes, 43 secondsone with white hair which immediately for any Alchemist will mean ah okay the red substance and the white substance red substance is sulfur white substance 33:5133 minutes, 51 secondsis Quicksilver um and but then after giving you a sort of general idea of the myth he goes into more alchemical 33:5933 minutes, 59 secondsdetails and it's very interesting what he says um if we go back to the story of 34:0534 minutes, 5 secondsAtalanta and homines we're told Atalanta represents Quicksilver she's the one who's running fast and hipes is trying 34:1434 minutes, 14 secondsto stop her or slow her down so Atalanta the female figure is Quicksilver and hypomin is 34:2134 minutes, 21 secondssulfur that's fixing her yeah and um in alchemy certainly in medieval and early modern alch 34:2834 minutes, 28 secondsthe two major ingredients of the philosopher stone are Quicks silver and and sulfur people who are interested in paracelsus will immediately say well 34:3734 minutes, 37 secondswhere is salt because paracelsus in introduces a third principle which really fixes them fiery sulfur fixative 34:4534 minutes, 45 secondssalt and Quicksilver Mercury actually Michael Meer is not paracelsian um so you don't find that I mean you can argue perhaps that the apple is the thing that 34:5434 minutes, 54 secondsreally fixes Atlanta she stops dead to up the quick to pick up the Golden Apple so perhaps it's there tacitly but 35:0335 minutes, 3 secondsactually he he never really gives any paracelsian third principle all the way through the book it's Mercury and sulfur the the animals that you meet Mercury 35:1235 minutes, 12 secondsand sulfur and they they all represents that in different manifestations in um the first engraving 35:1935 minutes, 19 secondshere the um North Wind is there we are The North Wind 35:2635 minutes, 26 secondsrepresents quick silver it's quite unusual because it's a male instead of a female and um Michael Meer says it's 35:3435 minutes, 34 secondsAran viiv which usually French for quick silver and it's that's interesting because one of the major sources he cites as an authority for this is Ramon 35:4335 minutes, 43 secondslul um it's not the real Ramon lul it's what historians of Aly call pseudo lul but it's interesting that whoever 35:5135 minutes, 51 secondsproduced these medieval texts uh attributed to Ramon lul uses a lot of the same ideas as l in the way they 35:5835 minutes, 58 secondscommunicate ideas about alchemy and what I find very curious is that actually Ramon L's style of communication is sort 36:0536 minutes, 5 secondsof the opposite of Michael Meer Michael Meer uses pictures and poetry Raman lul or pseudo Lan texts use use Wheels which 36:1436 minutes, 14 secondsyou revolve and and letters it's it's extremely abstract and sort of mechanical in its way of communicating the ideas a Michael me is really the 36:2236 minutes, 22 secondsopposite but he's locating himself quite firmly in this sud Lan tradition um and 36:3036 minutes, 30 secondsand and yes aan viiv I should say in the pseudo Lan tradition is very interesting because it's the it's the matter it's 36:3836 minutes, 38 secondsthe Primal matter from which God creates everything God creates the universe so here we have yeah aan viiv there as the 36:4636 minutes, 46 secondsPrimal matter bearing the little seed the fiery sulfur in his belly and and this is what gets um explained in these 36:5536 minutes, 55 secondstwo pages um we also find other significant sources I've mentioned Hermes at the very beginning the first word mentioned is Hermes I've mentioned 37:0337 minutes, 3 secondslull and i' we should also mention actually George Ripley 15th century um I 37:1137 minutes, 11 secondsin many ways yes you could say the most important Alchemist in England uh Jenny rampling at the University of Cambridge would undoubtedly agree with that as 37:1937 minutes, 19 secondsshe's a specialist in George Ripley and uh I hope one day she's going to give one of these webinars but um yeah here 37:2637 minutes, 26 secondswe have um Ripley cited as another source for this combination of mercury and sulfur and uh another text actually 37:3337 minutes, 33 secondsthat Ripley is indebted to the Scala philosophorum the the ladder of the philosophers but also the fact is that George Ripley is the most famous 37:4337 minutes, 43 secondsrepresentative of English Alchemy um he traveled supposedly he traveled to Italy so he had influence on the continent um 37:5137 minutes, 51 secondsif you're interested Jenny rampling at the University of Cambridge can talk until the cows come home about George Ripley uh and I hope she does one of 37:5837 minutes, 58 secondsthese webinars um another person she could give you more information about is the well not the person but the text is the scalla philosophorum and the the 38:0738 minutes, 7 secondsladder of the philosophers a work that she has identified as being extremely influential on George Ripley both of 38:1338 minutes, 13 secondsthem are cited here um by Michael Meyer um there are some other things I should mention about this text which I have to 38:2138 minutes, 21 secondssay puzzle me but I find absolutely fascinating in explaining the picture he 38:2838 minutes, 28 secondssays okay on a physical level this represents here the wind carrying a 38:3538 minutes, 35 secondsfetus in its belly so it symbolizes the Gest gestation of the philosopher stone using the organic metaphor of conception 38:4538 minutes, 45 secondsand gestation and birth this is something that you find from very early on in the history of alchemy um the lium 38:5338 minutes, 53 secondsverborum the book of three words attributed to khid yazid um equates the development of the 39:0039 minutesphilosopher stone with the development of the human fetus so Michael Myers using that don't forget he's a physician he's a doctor he and many of his 39:0839 minutes, 8 secondsaudience who maybe don't know their Alchemy will know their medicine so he begins with that then it gets puzzling 39:1639 minutes, 16 secondsand I have to say I sometimes begin to feel very unqualified I haven't had the same rigorous education as a 17th 39:2239 minutes, 22 secondscentury um scholar would have had he says okay physically it's the fetus that will soon come into the light of day 39:3039 minutes, 30 secondswill soon be born arithmetically yeah it's the root of the cube so for example 39:3839 minutes, 38 secondsum yeah if you have a a cube number of eight then the root is two you know 2 two are four 2 four is are eight um so 39:4639 minutes, 46 secondsit's the root of the cube he's given you a geometrical sorry an arithmetical idea about it uh how to sort of conceptualize 39:5339 minutes, 53 secondsit um musically then he says okay if you think that the quadrivium uh the the four mathematical Sciences taught at 40:0240 minutes, 2 secondsUniversity uh were um okay arithmetic music geometry and astronomy he works 40:0940 minutes, 9 secondshis way through these he says arithmetically it's the root of the cube musically it's the I'm reading upside 40:1640 minutes, 16 secondsdown um it's the dis diapason um which is the double octave and and here okay he only gives you hints about that um 40:2540 minutes, 25 secondsbut don't forget you know music is importance there it's implicit in the whole text of the Atlanta fugan um 40:3340 minutes, 33 secondselsewhere he develops this in various texts for example in his texts I've mentioned on Geometry on the squared Circle um and also uh in in various 40:4340 minutes, 43 secondsothers he he links um music for example the text I've not mentioned so far which is the cantieni intellectual sort of 40:5040 minutes, 50 secondsintellectual songs uh on the Phoenix uh he returns to this sort of three voice structure that he has here later on in I 40:5940 minutes, 59 secondsthink 1622 um around then anyway just around his death um here though he's just intimating so musically it's the 41:0741 minutes, 7 secondsdouble octave and moving on from there we get geometrically um yeah it's a points it's a flowing point on a line 41:1641 minutes, 16 secondsyeah actually if I look at the Latin a generative point of a flowing line uh this might not mean a lot but if you go 41:2341 minutes, 23 secondsand read boetius his institutions of arithmetic it will all become clear to you um if you have um yes a line and you 41:3141 minutes, 31 secondshave a point and the point sort of moves along the line it generates a line uh the point moves and this line becomes 41:3941 minutes, 39 secondslarge bigger that one becomes smaller on a line um so he's he's intimating that this this point the fetus or the sulfur 41:4841 minutes, 48 secondsis like the fiery Point uh at the beginning of the whole um generation of the cosmos geometrically from a point to 41:5641 minutes, 56 secondsa line to to a surface to a solid and so forth um so we've gone through arithmetic we've gone through music 42:0342 minutes, 3 secondswe've gone through geometry then we get to astronomy and I have to say this is something that puzzles me I don't know enough about astronomy he says 42:1142 minutes, 11 secondsastronomically speaking it's the center of Saturn Jupiter and Mars um now then this is slightly puzzling because one 42:1942 minutes, 19 secondsthing is does what's his model of the cosmos is it toic Cosmos where the Earth is at the center or is it the cernic 42:2642 minutes, 26 secondscosmos in know cernus in 1543 publishes about the fact that the Earth is heliocentric not geocentric Michael Meer 42:3542 minutes, 35 secondsum according to harrywood Tilton anyway is um his his an image in one of his 42:4142 minutes, 41 secondsbooks yes if I show you there in the septim philosophica the the sort of philosophical week again connecting each 42:4942 minutes, 49 secondsday with um different metals and processes he has an image of the cosmos and um Tilton says that 42:5742 minutes, 57 secondsactually Michael Meer is neither geocentric nor heliocentric in some ways 43:0443 minutes, 4 secondsis like Tao or to BR um who was at the court of Rudolph at the same time as Maya um in that he has a sort of 43:1243 minutes, 12 secondscompromised system um Tilton says it's actually based on um someone called rman who was at the court of Moritz the 43:2043 minutes, 20 secondslearnard in fact was the mathematics um the the astronomer and mathematician for 43:2643 minutes, 26 secondsMor's father um villum and uh so it's interesting knowing that he has this sort of hybrid system doesn't really 43:3543 minutes, 35 secondshelp me though with my interpretation of you know the uh the fetus in the wind's belly is the center of Saturn Jupiter 43:4343 minutes, 43 secondsand Mars now does that mean that the very center is the Sun or does it mean the very center is the Earth or or for 43:5143 minutes, 51 secondsthose of us like me rather dumb the middle of Saturn Jupiter and Mars would surely be Jupiter if it's the middle 43:5743 minutes, 57 secondsbetween Saturn and Mars but anyway for the rest of this talk I'm going to take you quickly um reluctantly quickly I'd 44:0544 minutes, 5 secondslove to go through them slowly um through various other Engravings in the book in this first emblem though he set 44:1344 minutes, 13 secondsit up some of these Engravings Focus exclusively on the geometry of an image other ones focus on the best theory as I 44:2144 minutes, 21 secondsmentioned the Lions and dragons and serpents and so forth other ones are mythological so is appealing to different types of audience but 44:2944 minutes, 29 secondsUnderneath It All is always the Alchemy or the chemistry and the secrets of nature uh and um also the music which 44:3844 minutes, 38 secondscarries the audience on since I've introduced in the first emblem associations with geometry I thought it would be interesting to show you epig 44:4744 minutes, 47 secondswell emblem 21 this is um a very popular um phrase uh which you find for example 44:5544 minutes, 55 secondsin the rosary of the philosophers and the um yes the uh text at the top says 45:0145 minutes, 1 secondmake a circle out of a man and a woman derive from it a square and from the square a triangle make a square circle 45:1045 minutes, 10 secondsagain and you will have the philosopher stone so you've got a sequence of geometrical images you've got a square 45:1745 minutes, 17 secondsyou've got a triangle you've got a circle you've got the male and the female uh always with man and woman in alchemy you're talking about Mercury and 45:2645 minutes, 26 secondsS Al if you remember Atalanta It's usually the woman who's the one running away and it's the man who's in Pursuit um here we've got the male and female 45:3545 minutes, 35 secondsthere and um this fits into a sort of Fairly standard idea of conceiving things conceptualizing things on a 45:4345 minutes, 43 secondsgeometrical level circle is as the most simple of um of uh images represents 45:5145 minutes, 51 secondsSimplicity and also on that level Pur Purity so on one level it's um the Primal matter of alchemy but it's also 45:5945 minutes, 59 secondsthe ultimate matter the Ultima Materia which is the philosopher stone if any time you're talking about a square 46:0646 minutes, 6 secondsyou're talking about a four-sided um structure and that's the four elements of air Fire and Water um when you're talking about a triangle and Maya 46:1546 minutes, 15 secondsexplains this dutifully um in his discourses um it's Body Spirit and soul 46:2346 minutes, 23 secondsum so so there really in sort of in a nutshell you've got the idea of Primal matter um the four elements and the the 46:3146 minutes, 31 secondsthe uh what can you say the the underlying structures of elements the the the solidity of substances the body 46:3946 minutes, 39 secondsof them but then also the spirit and soul of course Maya as pretty much every Alchemist certainly those who are 46:4646 minutes, 46 secondstheosophical Alchemists has in the back of his mind also the body spirit and soul of man or of mankind I should say men and women so there it's maybe you 46:5546 minutes, 55 secondscould argue it's implicit there there are people who read Maya as as advocating a form of spiritual Alchemy or at least a parallel to his laboratory 47:0447 minutes, 4 secondsAlchemy I have to say though reading the text though do bear in mind these are always about the secrets of Nature and 47:1147 minutes, 11 secondsmost of the material in there can be read on a laboratory level of matter and what he's doing with matter um looking 47:1847 minutes, 18 secondsthrough to give you a little bit more information about this um in his discourses in the explanation he also 47:2547 minutes, 25 secondssays that there are four Elemental colors so when you see the square think of color as well um the triangle 47:3247 minutes, 32 secondsrepresents Body Spirit and soul um but what you have is the body or Earth is the Blackness of Saturn so there's the 47:4047 minutes, 40 secondsthe negredo the first stage of the alchemical process the spirit is the lunar whiteness as 47:4747 minutes, 47 secondswater and the Soul uh or the air is solar yellowness so you're getting a color sequence you're getting body Earth 47:5647 minutes, 56 secondsblackness or body Blackness Spirit whiteness and soul yellowness and then 48:0248 minutes, 2 secondsthe circle itself represents the redness of perfection the philosopher stone is always red in its final stage so a 48:1048 minutes, 10 secondssequence progression from black white yellow to red and uh again you know you do find colored versions of this one of 48:1948 minutes, 19 secondsthe most beautiful is at the gy there's a manuscript there 17th century French translation where you've got the images 48:2648 minutes, 26 secondsbrought in so you've got the sort of audio of the music but the visual there and ways suggestions that people can 48:3448 minutes, 34 secondsactually visualize on the page in color as well in an incredible production in the 17th 48:4148 minutes, 41 secondscentury Michael my returns to Geometry later on if we look at emblem 39 um you 48:4848 minutes, 48 secondsuh might recognize What's Happening Here uh if you know the the famous Riddle That the Sphinx asked edus and edus had to to solve what goes on four legs in 48:5748 minutes, 57 secondsthe morning two in the afternoon and 3 in the evening and usually the solution to that is it's a baby then an adult man 49:0549 minutes, 5 secondsand then an old man with a walking stick Michael Meer says yes that's what they say but actually it's nothing to do with that alchemically it's something totally 49:1349 minutes, 13 secondsdifferent the four in the morning you can guess it's the four elements and then he said the two if you 49:2149 minutes, 21 secondslook very carefully at this engraving you can see um yeah on the forehead of this person you've got actually what looks like a semi semicircle or a sort 49:2949 minutes, 29 secondsof a moon not quite a crant moon but a half moon uh here you've got um yes on the old man a triangle what he says is 49:3849 minutes, 38 secondsthe four there's the baby is the four elements the uh the two is actually the half moon which is the white color of 49:4749 minutes, 47 secondsthe stone uh when it's in a sort of immature form and then the old is the triangle which again is the body spirit 49:5449 minutes, 54 secondsand soul so he's taking the geometries again but he's doing something different with it he's sort of explaining the geometry of alchemy now through a Greek 50:0350 minutes, 3 secondsmyth so appealing to a slightly different member of the audience so here we have an example of Michael Meer taking a text that many of 50:1150 minutes, 11 secondsyou audience probably are aware of the riddle of edus but doing something new with it to to stimulate them and and he 50:1850 minutes, 18 secondssays yes this interpretation of the the ages of man is mistaken instead um yes 50:2550 minutes, 25 secondswe have this tin in with an ancient myth with Greek with with Alchemy and as a 50:3150 minutes, 31 secondssort of support for this he mentions an Arabic um Alchemist raziz and says that raziz in his epistle says the stone is a 50:4050 minutes, 40 secondstriangle in essence and a quadrangle in quality so again we have the geometry of the triangle in essence here the 50:4750 minutes, 47 secondsquadrangle there reinforcing All chemical ideas one of the things I've mentioned with Michael Meer is that he has an 50:5650 minutes, 56 secondsalchem iCal besty um he he works through various kinds of creatures we have terrestrial creatures we have um sort of 51:0351 minutes, 3 secondssubterranean ones reptiles and so forth and we also have of birds his his Ornithology as it were his ornithological Alchemy here is a very 51:1151 minutes, 11 secondsnice example emem 16 um we've already mentioned the two lions um that Atalanta and homines become after they've been in 51:2051 minutes, 20 secondsthe temple of sibel well here are two lions again and as I mentioned we've got the uh lioness as a winged lion a 51:2851 minutes, 28 secondsvolatile substance that flies into the air and we have the male fixed lion and this is what Michael Meer explains 51:3551 minutes, 35 secondsactually in uh in the text we have other creatures we have a salamander there for example the creature that can live in 51:4351 minutes, 43 secondsfire um as as a representative of of substances that can survive fire and we have other Lions which turn up uh in the 51:5251 minutes, 52 secondstext here for example is a lovely image of the green lion um the blessed greenness that um the rosary of the 51:5951 minutes, 59 secondsphilosophers Praises uh in the alchemical um Pursuit so you've got many creatures um you've got Lions you've got 52:0852 minutes, 8 secondsum salamanders one of the most famous images um nowadays I have to say is 52:1552 minutes, 15 secondsimage 24 which is of the wolf okay if any of you have read 52:2452 minutes, 24 secondsThe Works of Lawrence prpe and I hope you have done um then you'll find that he uh has cracked basically one of the 52:3352 minutes, 33 secondsthe 12 keys of Basil Valentine which is a text don't forget that Michael Meyer um translates and publishes with with 52:4052 minutes, 40 secondsbeautiful new Engravings and um pipe has has shown people that um the wolf here 52:4752 minutes, 47 secondsthat is devouring the king actually is a symbol of the the mineral antimony which is used as a way of um separating gold 52:5752 minutes, 57 secondsfrom the dross of of whatever it's mixed up with and here we have a sort of fucious wolf they literally devouring 53:0453 minutes, 4 secondsthe king so we have got Lions which represent one different aspects of of the alchemical process we have a wolf there that represents the the mineral 53:1353 minutes, 13 secondsantimony uh we have a Sal salamander which represents the substance that is fixed uh in the fire and survives the 53:2053 minutes, 20 secondsheat of the fire what I'm going to go on to next is um some of the reptiles which um I particularly find fascinating 53:2953 minutes, 29 secondsyou've got the dragons you've got lions and serpents and so forth but also to point out that the very final engraving 53:3653 minutes, 36 secondsin this series engraving 50 in includes a dragon in it so it's something that I think is worth while looking 53:4453 minutes, 44 secondsat okay one figure that I've not given enough attention to on the title page is the dragon if you think in the history 53:5153 minutes, 51 secondsin in in mythology you've usually got dragons connected with gold you've got uh with the Golden Fleece um Jason has 53:5853 minutes, 58 secondsto battle a fiery Dragon you have the Dragon Here guarding the golden apples and of course in alchemy you have 54:0554 minutes, 5 secondsdragons you have the oror uroboric dragon swallowing in its own tail here we have a symbol of that and Michael 54:1254 minutes, 12 secondsMeer is always extremely clear the dragon or the serpent in fact a dragon is a serpent that has eaten another 54:2054 minutes, 20 secondsserpent it becomes a dragon um it's always Mercury yeah um that's what for 54:2654 minutes, 26 secondsMichael Meer it always symbolizes um so here for example we have a dragon swallowing its own tail which means it's 54:3354 minutes, 33 secondsdigesting its own poison um here we have um an image of another Dragon being 54:4154 minutes, 41 secondsbludgeoned by the Sun and the Moon which says that the dragon doesn't die except with its brother and sister here the 54:4854 minutes, 48 secondsdragon again is representing Mercury the brother and sister the the Sun and the Moon there actually represent extracted 54:5554 minutes, 55 secondssulfur so again you've got the two main uh ingredients of the philosopher stone in One image but they're all sort of 55:0355 minutes, 3 secondswell destroying each other in a way but it's all part of the alchemical process this is particularly dramatic when we 55:1055 minutes, 10 secondsget to the final engraving of the asant fugan where we have there we are yes a 55:1755 minutes, 17 secondsdragon entwined around a woman in a grave and Michael Meer again emphasizes that the dragon here is a Subterranean 55:2555 minutes, 25 secondscreature um and it represents Mercury again and here what it represents is the dragon 55:3255 minutes, 32 secondsrepresents the fiery and the earthy elements H whereas the woman represents the watery and the Airy elements of of 55:4255 minutes, 42 secondsof substances in fact what he says is that the dragon is the dragon the woman actually the alternative name for her is 55:4955 minutes, 49 secondsthe eagle and sometimes you get people like kunrath who talk about the fiery dragon and the the watery eagle or the white Eagle the red dragon and the White 55:5755 minutes, 57 secondsEagle so here we have in this rather MAA looking image we have a combination of substances which represents the sort of 56:0556 minutes, 5 secondscombat of the four elements um but United in in one deadly Embrace but an Embrace that is the necessary 56:1356 minutes, 13 secondsconjunction of the philosopher stone and it's quite curious I find it really fascinating that this is the final image 56:2056 minutes, 20 secondsin the text it's the philosopher stone but in a in a sort of bizarre sort of almost goth th way um you you have this 56:2856 minutes, 28 secondsthis sort of deadly embrace the Ritman library is very fortunate possess a a 17th century painting of some of the 56:3656 minutes, 36 secondsimages from the Atlanta fugan one of them has the first image and the last image it has the image of boreus as The 56:4456 minutes, 44 secondsNorth Wind um I as as mercury with sulfur in its belly here we have the um 56:5256 minutes, 52 secondsthe serpent or Dragon again as mercury looking I have to say as though it's trying to be a python and swallowing this poor woman and taking her into his 57:0157 minutes, 1 secondbelly in a slightly different way um so you've got sort of mirroring going on and what I find interesting in the ritm and painting that they've got is that 57:0957 minutes, 9 secondsactually um you'd expect it to begin you know reading from um here to here you'd expect Hermes to be here sorry the uh 57:1957 minutes, 19 secondsthe Emerald Tablet first image to be here and the serpents devouring the woman to be on this side in fact it's the other way around it's reversed it's 57:2757 minutes, 27 secondsas though this is a circular process that you can begin again here and return there as though again like the 57:3657 minutes, 36 secondsserpent swallowing its tail the Alchemy is a process that you repeat again and again like repeated distillations or sublimations of things and distillations 57:4557 minutes, 45 secondsagain very interesting indeed um looking at another of the images that the Ritman has here we've got two other of the 57:5357 minutes, 53 secondsimages um this one is all about read Rejuvenation it's an old man in um a glass house Glass House symbolizing the 58:0258 minutes, 2 secondsalchemical vessel on one level eating apples um not golden apples here but lovely Lush red apples but thinking of 58:0958 minutes, 9 secondsthe apples of the Hesperides on the uh title page of the book these rejuvenate him this is a very interesting image uh 58:1758 minutes, 17 secondsin the uh book um one of the sources theara's uh uh inspiration for Michael Meer is actually marcelio ficino the 58:2458 minutes, 24 secondsRenaissance platonist who writes um uh in his book um three books on life he writes about um Melancholy and how to 58:3358 minutes, 33 secondscope with that on an astral magical level so using astral energies uh in talismans and in in foods that relate to 58:4358 minutes, 43 secondsum the different planets Maya seems to be implying that something similar can be going on with the alchemical process um after all he's making alchemical 58:5158 minutes, 51 secondsmedicine Michael and and so is marcelia ficino they both talk about possible gold for example that The Alchemist make 58:5958 minutes, 59 secondsto cure things so that's a very interesting image this one I have to say is one of my favorite it's a symbol of nature guiding The Alchemist and there 59:0959 minutes, 9 secondsyou have the the The Alchemist who actually this one um yes it seems a slightly younger Alchemist he's not wearing glasses um whereas in in Michael 59:1759 minutes, 17 secondsMyer's original engraving he's got his spectacles which he needs to see clearly he's got his lamp to lighten the way he's got his staff to make make sure 59:2659 minutes, 26 secondsthat he doesn't um you know misplace his steps and nature is guiding him he's following Nature's footsteps Maya has U 59:3559 minutes, 35 secondsvery nice sort of um concordance between the actual image and the sort of things that you you need to be aware of um in 59:4459 minutes, 44 secondsthe uh the study of of of any sort of applied art whether you're a physician or whether you're an alchemist for 59:5159 minutes, 51 secondsexample you have to have reason and experience assist in you and this is implied here with with the lamp and with 59:5959 minutes, 59 secondsthe staff and so forth so it's a very nice image and also to a certain extent a sign of humility your following nature 1:00:071 hour, 7 secondsuh if you think of Francis Bacon um in the 17th century writing about relation with nature you have man raping nature 1:00:151 hour, 15 secondsexploiting nature this is a very different mindset it's it's nature is there as the guide and you are following and presumably yes in a respectful 1:00:241 hour, 24 secondsapproach so uh looking we've looked at some of the Engravings of Michael Maya there are many I've not discussed I've not discussed the birds I've not 1:00:331 hour, 33 secondsdiscussed the images of her aphrodites uh I've not discussed images for example of Saturn vomiting up the stone uh from 1:00:411 hour, 41 secondsmythology um which in theory Kronos had swallowed his son Jupiter and the alchemical interpretations to do with all of these things um but what I would 1:00:501 hour, 50 secondslike to say one question is okay what kind of alchemy are we talking about um is Michael Meer propounding a form of 1:00:581 hour, 58 secondsspiritual Alchemy here we know that he becomes um a supporter of the rosic crucian ideals H we know that the rosicrucians are not particularly into 1:01:071 hour, 1 minute, 7 secondsgold making uh in fact the the manifestos the rosicrucian manifestos condemn gold making at the same time um paracelsus is praised by them as someone 1:01:161 hour, 1 minute, 16 secondswho knows what he's doing with chemical medicine Michael Meer is into chemical medicine people have argued for a sort of spiritual Dimension to Michael Meer 1:01:241 hour, 1 minute, 24 secondsand I think that there is some justice to that there's at least a sort of parallel processing going on where he's seeing Alchemy as a mirror to his own 1:01:321 hour, 1 minute, 32 secondslife um like ficino he seems to have suffered from Melancholy and whereas ficino sees astral magic as a way of 1:01:401 hour, 1 minute, 40 secondscoping with his Melancholy uh Michael Meers sees some of the um the the purification uh the the sublimation of 1:01:491 hour, 1 minute, 49 secondsthe the gross human being to to more refined moral and spiritual States as perhaps mired in his Alchemy at the same 1:01:571 hour, 1 minute, 57 secondstime it's resoundingly of laboratory Alchemy this is a book written by someone who works in the laboratory he's 1:02:031 hour, 2 minutes, 3 secondsa chemist um he's a physician for both an emperor and and a land grave Moritz 1:02:101 hour, 2 minutes, 10 secondsin in Castle um and and he makes that clear in some of his interpretations for example one of these is he talks about 1:02:191 hour, 2 minutes, 19 secondsthe mountains and and you know on one level you can think oh the mountain is the ascent of the soul to the Divine but he says the mountain actually should be 1:02:271 hour, 2 minutes, 27 secondsread as the uh laboratory equipment when we talk about the snow in the mountains or the clouds in the mountains that's 1:02:341 hour, 2 minutes, 34 secondsthe almic on the top of the alchemical curbit um the glass vessels on the furnace and when we talk about the 1:02:411 hour, 2 minutes, 41 secondswhitness ascending up there it is the clouds it's it's things being sublimated or evaporated in the OIC and he's really 1:02:481 hour, 2 minutes, 48 secondsexplicit about that so um if you bear in mind that he says these are chemical emblems of nature you cannot sort of uh 1:02:571 hour, 2 minutes, 57 secondsignore the fact that there's a sort of natural element to this and he actually again explicitly says this is natural it's not Supernatural so even though 1:03:061 hour, 3 minutes, 6 secondslater people have taken Maya and done other readings with it which is perfectly legitimate as far as I'm concerned Maya himself here is 1:03:141 hour, 3 minutes, 14 secondsultimately being very natural in what he's he's discussing and what he's propounding okay so there is a quick 1:03:231 hour, 3 minutes, 23 secondsWhirlwind tour of a few images from Michael Myers Atalanta fugan so much more could be said um we're going to be 1:03:311 hour, 3 minutes, 31 secondsproviding um a reading list for anyone who's interested I haven't talked about uh the music um if anyone is interested 1:03:381 hour, 3 minutes, 38 secondsplease go and check out an article which you of mine which you can find online called laboratorium Auditorium oratorium 1:03:461 hour, 3 minutes, 46 secondsthere I discussed various um types of alchemical music um hry kunat some of his uh songs alchemical songs but 1:03:541 hour, 3 minutes, 54 secondsparticularly Mich Meer and one or two examples of how the music is developed in his fugues um there are also recordings you can find of performances 1:04:031 hour, 4 minutes, 3 secondsof the music some beautiful ones so I hope you enjoy those okay that's Michael Meer um the end of the the second 1:04:101 hour, 4 minutes, 10 secondswebinar the following one will be um on John D on his Mona hieroglyphica and generally John D's worldview and I hope 1:04:191 hour, 4 minutes, 19 secondsyou um enjoy it look forward to hearing from you thank you 1:04:311 hour, 4 minutes, 31 secondsGlory 1:04:331 hour, 4 minutes, 33 secondsMusic 1:04:541 hour, 4 minutes, 54 secondsGL Source: Forshaw_Maier_Exegesis