Fire

Either a count or a catastrophe. Note whether the flames are arranged in a number or breaking something.

Six works here carry fire, and it does two jobs that have nothing to do with each other.

The first is counting. In the first chapter of the Apocalypse the flames are furniture, set out in a row and then explained: “And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks”, and a few verses later, “And the seven candlesticks are the seven churches.” That is fire as enumeration. Molinier's coloured etching of 1772 sets four at the left and three at the right, and the arithmetic survives the translation into paint.

The second job is destruction, and the tarot does it without ceremony. Waite on the Tower of 1909 declines to interpret at all: “It is idle to indicate that it depicts ruin in all its aspects, because it bears this evidence on the surface.” It is a rare moment in his key. The picture is doing the work and the commentator steps back.

Between the two sits the furnace, which is neither. In the plate of the Occultum Lapidem the flames are at the centre of the crystal, held rather than spreading, and Hall's caption reads the Stone as a whole and never names them. The archive records that silence rather than filling it. Fire in the alchemical plates is a tool with a setting, and what the setting means on this particular plate is not yet something anyone in the archive has written down.

1. The Apocalypse of Saint John, Douay Rheims, Challoner revision, : Quoted from the Challoner revision, the English text the archive uses for the Apocalypse throughout.
2. Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, : Waite commissioned the 1909 designs and wrote the key to them, so his account is the closest thing the deck has to an author's statement.
3. Manly P. Hall, The Secret Teachings of All Ages, : Hall's text and plate captions, 1928. Transcribed here, not yet read against a printed folio.

• 

  Christ Between Seven Candlesticks

  Denis Molinier after Nicolas Flamel, coloured etching · 1772
• 

  The Tower (XVI)

  Pamela Colman Smith · 1909
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  Occultum Lapidem, the Philosopher's Stone

  J. Augustus Knapp · colour plate, 1928

Plates that carry the symbol, tagged by eye and not yet decoded: first where it is the central motif, then where it plays a secondary part. Each opens in the viewer; the key and the notes come with the entry.

Central motif · 10

• Occultum Lapidem, the Philosopher's StoneJ. Augustus Knapp, colour plate, 1928a double-headed eagle stands in flames at the heart of a many-faceted white crystal, on a dark blue ground crossed by rays; Fire as the central motif, by eyeHall, 1928 “The Philosopher's Stone is an ancient symbol of the perfected and regenerated man whose divine nature shines forth through a chain of purified and unfolded vehicles.”
• A Body Consumed by the FurnaceAfter Nicolas Flamel, attributed, date not recordeda man in a wide hat stands by a furnace from which flames and a figure rise, a second furnace behind; a woman in white and a boy in blue beside them; roots under the ground, clouds with red figures above; Fire as the central motif, the Vessel by eye
• Christ Between Seven CandlesticksDenis Molinier after Nicolas Flamel, coloured etching, 1772a robed, bearded figure with his right hand raised stands among clouds between seven tall candlesticks, rays of light around him; Fire as the central motif, by eyeApocalypse 1:17, “And when I had seen him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying: Fear not. I am the First and the Last,”
• The Tower (XVI)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909a tower on a crag struck by lightning, its crown knocked from the top, flames at the windows, two figures falling head first, drops of fire in a black sky; Fire as the central motif, the Crown by eyeWaite, 1911 “I agree rather with Grand Orient that it is the ruin of the House of Life, when evil has prevailed therein, and above all that it is the rending of a House of Doctrine. I understand that the reference is, however, to a House of Falsehood.”
• Accipe ovum & igneo percute gladioMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the egg on a bench, the sword raised, the furnace burning at the leftMichael Maier, 1618 “Accipe ovum & igneo percute gladio.”
• Ignire ignis amat, non aurificare, sed aurumMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the furnace mouth open and burning, the workman turning the crucibleMichael Maier, 1618 “Ignire ignis amat, non aurificare, sed aurum:”
• Naturam natura docet, debellet ut ignemMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618a woman leading an armed figure toward the flamesMichael Maier, 1618 “Naturam natura docet, debellet ut ignem.”
• Ut Salamandra vivit igne sic lapisMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the salamander lying unharmed in the middle of the flamesMichael Maier, 1618 “Ut Salamandra vivit igne sic lapis:”
• Hermaphroditus mortuo similis, in tenebris jacens, igne indigetMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the two-headed body laid out on a bier over the fireMichael Maier, 1618 “Hermaphroditus mortuo similis, in tenebris jacens, igne indiget.”
• Ceres Triptolemum, Thetis Achillem, ut sub igne morari assuefecit, sic artifex lapidemMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the nurse with the child at her breast and, at the right, the child held over the flamesMichael Maier, 1618 “Ceres Triptolemum, Thetis Achillem, ut sub igne morari assuefecit, sic artifex lapidem.”

Secondary motif · 8

• Rivers in the Wilderness, with Serpents and FireFrom the figures attributed to Nicolas Flamel, hand-coloured, date not recordedrivers run down a wilderness in blue bands; serpents and flames between them; a small bush at the foot; the Serpent and the Dragon as the central motif, Fire by eyeCentral motif: the Serpent and the Dragon
• God Judging AdamWilliam Blake, ca. 1795an aged God seated in a disc of fire and light points down at Adam, who stands bowed before the flaming horses of the chariot; the Divine as the central motif, the Horse, the Sun and Fire by eyeCentral motif: the Divine
• Vade ad mulierem lavantem pannos, tu fac similiterMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618a woman pouring water into a great tub over a fire, linen on the groundMichael Maier, 1618 “Vade ad mulierem lavantem pannos, tu fac similiter.”Central motif: the Vessel
• Da ignem igni, Mercurium Mercurio, & sufficit tibiMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618Mercury with his caduceus led toward a furnace where a crowned figure sitsMichael Maier, 1618 “Da ignem igni, Mercurium Mercurio, & sufficit tibi.”Central motif: the Divine
• Opus figuli, consistens in sicco & humido, te doceatMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the potter at his wheel among his pots, the kiln burning beside himMichael Maier, 1618 “Opus figuli, consistens in sicco & humido, te doceat.”Central motif: the Vessel
• Orbita quadruplex hoc regit ignis opusMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618four spheres stacked in the sky over a river landscapeMichael Maier, 1618 “Orbita quadruplex hoc regit ignis opus.”Central motif: the Heavens
• Plumbo habito candido fac opus mulierum, hoc est, COQUEMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the kitchen, the cauldron on its chain over the fire, the woman at the benchMichael Maier, 1618 “Plumbo habito candido fac opus mulierum, hoc est, COQUE:”Central motif: the Vessel
• Rex balneatur in Laconico sedens, Atrâque bile liberatur à PharutMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the crowned figure inside the sweating box, the fire under itMichael Maier, 1618 “Rex balneatur in Laconico sedens, Atrâque bile liberatur à Pharut.”Central motif: the King and the Queen

• The Heavens
• The Crown