The Heavens

A diagram of everything, drawn so that a person can be found inside it. Note where the human figure stands in the scheme.

Fifteen works here draw the heavens, and almost all of them are really drawing a correspondence.

Hall states it as a rule in the plate of the macrocosm and the microcosm: “As the universe is the reflection of the Ancient One, so the human body is the reflection, or inverted image, of man's spirit.” Once that is granted, a cosmology becomes a description of a person, and the plates behave accordingly. The chakras run up a spine rather than across a sky. The key to the Divine Comedy sets the soul climbing: “As the soul climbs the seven steps of Purgatory it is cleansed of the seven mortal sins, and it then ascends through the seven spheres of the Ptolemaic universe.” The Tree of the Sephiroth is a cosmos drawn as a plant, “ten globes of luminous splendor arranged in three vertical columns”.

The number that keeps returning is seven, and it is not always the same seven. Seven spheres in Dante. Seven wheels on the spine. Seven stars in the hand of the figure between the candlesticks, which the Apocalypse itself glosses without ambiguity: “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches.” The tarot puts eight rays on a star and then surrounds it with seven more, and Waite counts them precisely: “A great, radiant star of eight rays, surrounded by seven lesser stars--also of eight rays.”

What the archive can say is that these pictures use the sky as a way of arranging things that are not in the sky. What it cannot say is that any two of them mean the same seven.

1. 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.
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. The Apocalypse of Saint John, Douay Rheims, Challoner revision, : Quoted from the Challoner revision, the English text the archive uses for the Apocalypse throughout.
4. William Martin Conway, Literary Remains of Albrecht Durer, : Conway's translations and commentary. A nineteenth-century scholar reading the prints, not Durer explaining himself.

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  The Macrocosm and the Microcosm

  J. Augustus Knapp · colour plate, 1928
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  The Tree of the Sephiroth

  J. Augustus Knapp · colour plate, 1928
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  The Key to Dante's Divine Comedy

  J. Augustus Knapp · colour plate, 1928
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  The Star (XVII)

  Pamela Colman Smith · 1909
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  Christ Between Seven Candlesticks

  Denis Molinier after Nicolas Flamel, coloured etching · 1772

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 · 15

• The Macrocosm and the MicrocosmJ. Augustus Knapp, colour plate, 1928a crowned, bearded figure with arms spread inside a ring of rainbow colour, mirrored below by his own reflection, a red figure held between the two pairs of hands; a globe surmounted by a cross above and below; the Heavens as the central motif, the King and the Crown by eyeHall, 1928 “As the universe is the reflection of the Ancient One, so the human body is the reflection, or inverted image, of man's spirit.”
• The Seven Spinal ChakrasMihran K. Serailian, colour plate, 1928a seated figure in meditation, drawn in outline against concentric rings of blue, the seven chakras marked as coloured wheels up the spine, a point of light like a flame rising from the crown of the head; the Heavens as the central motif, by eyeHall, 1928 “This painting of the CHAKRAS is based upon a number of native drawings brought from India by Mr. Hall in 1924.”
• The Key to Dante's Divine ComedyJ. Augustus Knapp, colour plate, 1928the golden triangle with the rose over the spheres; the Triangle secondary, by eyeHall, 1928 “As the soul climbs the seven steps of Purgatory it is cleansed of the seven mortal sins, and it then ascends through the seven spheres of the Ptolemaic universe.”
• The Magi Sheltering in a CaveAfter the figures of Abraham the Jew, from Nicolas Flamel, date not recordedSun face top left, moon face top right, by eye.
• The Tree of the SephirothJ. Augustus Knapp, colour plate, 1928an inverted tree, its trunk rising into a white triangle where a crown sits upon the roots; the foliage spreads downward with nine sun-like globes among the leaves and a white radiant one at the heart; four overlapping circles of white, blue, red and green at the foot; the Heavens as the central motif, the Crown and the Triangle by eyeHall, 1928 “The tree has also been accepted as symbolic of the Microcosm, that is, man.”
• A Scholar in His Study ('Faust')Rembrandt (Rembrandt van Rijn), ca. 1652a scholar turns to a radiant disc lettered INRI with an anagram, a hand in it holding a mirror; the reading is contested, by eye
• Wheel of Fortune (X)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909a wheel lettered TARO and ROTA with alchemical signs, a sphinx with a sword seated on top, a serpent descending at the left and a jackal-headed figure rising at the right; the four living creatures with open books in the corners, on clouds; the Heavens as the central motif, the Angel, the Serpent and the Lion by eyeWaite, 1911 “Sometimes the sphinx is represented couchant on a pedestal above, which defrauds the symbolism by stultifying the essential idea of stability amidst movement.”
• The Star (XVII)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909a great yellow eight-pointed star with seven smaller white stars; a nude woman kneels at a pool, one knee on the land and one foot on the water, pouring from two ewers onto land and water; a tree with a bird behind her; the Heavens as the central motif, the Vessel by eyeWaite, 1911 “The female figure in the foreground is entirely naked. Her left knee is on the land and her right foot upon the water.”
• The World (XXI)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909a dancing figure wrapped in a purple sash, a wand in each hand, inside a green wreath bound with red ribbons; the four living creatures, a man, an eagle, a lion and a bull, in the corners; the Heavens as the central motif, the Angel and the Lion by eyeWaite, 1911 “She is in the act of dancing, and has a wand in either hand.”
• Nutrix ejus terra estMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the earth as a woman with the globe at her waist and the infant inside it, a goat suckling its kid and a she-wolf her twinsMichael Maier, 1618 “Nutrix ejus terra est.”
• Seminate aurum vestrum in terram albam foliatamMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618a sower scattering seed across a field, a town behind; the earth rather than the heavens, and the group is the nearest the archive hasMichael Maier, 1618 “Seminate aurum vestrum in terram albam foliatam.”
• 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.”
• Lapis projectus est in terras, & in montibus exaltatus, & in aëre habitat, & in flumine pascitur, id est, MercuriusMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the stones falling out of the sky over a river valley; the heavens are the nearest group the archive has for thisMichael Maier, 1618 “Lapis projectus est in terras, & in montibus exaltatus, & in aëre habitat, & in flumine pascitur, id est, Mercurius.”
• In Chymicis versanti Natura, Ratio, Experientia & lectio, sint Dux, scipio, perspicilia & lampasMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618Nature walking ahead with the globe, the old man following with the lanternMichael Maier, 1618 “In Chymicis versanti Natura, Ratio, Experientia & lectio, sint Dux, scipio, perspicilia & lampas.”
• Sol & ejus umbra perficiunt opusMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the great globe under the sun's rays with its own shadow thrown across the starsMichael Maier, 1618 “Sol & ejus umbra perficiunt opus.”

Secondary motif · 7

• The Opening of the Third EyeMihran K. Serailian, colour plate, 1928the head of a woman in profile in a winged helmet, the skull shown as if transparent, the brain and the glands in blue, red and yellow, a beam of light passing to the brow; a five-pointed star drawn over the head and a serpent above it, all within a pale oval on violet; the Eye as the central motif by Hall's title, the Heavens by eyeHall, 1928 “This painting of the head of Minerva shows, in part, the activities of the pineal gland and the pituitary body at the time of the phenomenon commonly termed the opening of the Third Eye.”Central motif: the Eye
• Grand Rosicrucian Alchemical FormulaUncredited, after the Musaeum Hermeticum, colour plate, 1928the Name in a triangle at the heart of the sun; the Triangle and the Divine secondary, by eyeCentral motif: the Sun and the Moon
• 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,”Central motif: Fire
• The Creation of the World and the Expulsion from ParadiseGiovanni di Paolo, 1445God the Father in the sky sets the cosmos turning with one hand, concentric spheres with the zodiac at their rim, the Expulsion at the right; the Divine as the central motif, the Hand and the Spheres by eyeCentral motif: the Divine
• Melencolia IAlbrecht Dürer, 1514a winged figure sits with her head on her hand, a wreath of leaves in her hair, wings folded behind her; instruments of geometry and building lie about her, a comet and a rainbow stand over the bay, and a bat carries the title across the sky. The square of numbers on the wall is four by four, every row, column and diagonal making thirty-four, with fifteen and fourteen, the year, in the middle of the bottom row; the reading that names that square is modern and is not the archive's to give, so it is recorded and left unreadConway, 1889 “Action implies contemplation, and contemplation is the subject of the 'Melencolia.'”Central motif: the Angel and the Wing
• Angel of the Revelation (Book of Revelation, chapter 10)William Blake, ca. 1803–5the mighty angel of Revelation 10 astride sea and land, the sun behind his head, the seven thunders as horsemen; by eyeApocalypse 10:5, “And the angel whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven.”Central motif: the Angel and the Wing
• Fac ex mare & fœmina circulum, inde quadrangulum, hinc triangulum, fac circulum & habebis lap. PhilosophorumMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the geometer setting his compass to the circle, the square and the triangle, the man and the woman inside them: the figure the site's mark is drawn fromMichael Maier, 1618 “Fac ex mare & fœmina circulum, inde quadrangulum, hinc triangulum, fac circulum & habebis lap. Philosophorum.”Central motif: the Triangle and the Pyramid

• The King and the Queen
• The Crown
• The Triangle and the Pyramid
• Fire