The Water

Where a thing is taken apart rather than destroyed. Note whether the figure is in the water, on it, or pouring it.

Twenty works here carry water, more than carry any motif except the heavens and the wing, and it is almost never scenery.

In the alchemical plates water is a stage with a job: it dissolves. Maier sends the metal to be washed like a leper: “Æs Philosophorum hydropicum est, & vult lavari septies in fluvio, ut Naaman leprosus in Jordane.” He puts a king into the sea to drown or be saved: “Rex natans in mari, clamans altâ voce: Qui me eripiet, ingens præmium habebit.” He sits another in a sweating box over a fire. And the operation can be stated as pure arithmetic: “Ex duabus aquis, fac unam, & erit aqua sanctitatis.” Of two waters make one.

The striking thing is how often the picture puts a figure at the edge rather than in it. Waite describes the woman on the Star card: “Her left knee is on the land and her right foot upon the water.” Blake's angel is astride both, and the text says so: “And the angel whom I saw standing upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven.” Maier's coral fisher works from the bank with a line. Being at the boundary is the position these pictures keep returning to.

What water is not, in this material, is death. The king in the sea calls for rescue and is worth a reward. The metal comes out of the river clean. Where the archive holds a picture of something ending, the water is somewhere else in the frame.

1. Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens, 1618: The motto printed over each engraving, read off the 1618 Oppenheim printing rather than off the scan's machine reading.
2. Arthur Edward Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot, : Waite commissioned the 1909 designs and wrote the key to them.
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. 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.

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  Rex natans in mari, clamans altâ voce: Qui me eripiet, ingens præmium habebit

  Matthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier · 1618
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  Æs Philosophorum hydropicum est, & vult lavari septies in fluvio, ut Naaman leprosus in Jordane

  Matthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier · 1618
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  Ex duabus aquis, fac unam, & erit aqua sanctitatis

  Matthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier · 1618
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  Corallus sub aquis ut crescit & aëre induratur, sic lapis

  Matthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier · 1618
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  The Star (XVII)

  Pamela Colman Smith · 1909
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  Angel of the Revelation (Book of Revelation, chapter 10)

  William Blake · ca. 1803–5

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 · 4

• Æs Philosophorum hydropicum est, & vult lavari septies in fluvio, ut Naaman leprosus in JordaneMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the bather in the river, a walled town on the far bankMichael Maier, 1618 “Æs Philosophorum hydropicum est, & vult lavari septies in fluvio, ut Naaman leprosus in Jordane.”
• Rex natans in mari, clamans altâ voce: Qui me eripiet, ingens præmium habebitMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the crowned king swimming and calling, ships and a town on the shoreMichael Maier, 1618 “Rex natans in mari, clamans altâ voce: Qui me eripiet, ingens præmium habebit.”
• Corallus sub aquis ut crescit & aëre induratur, sic lapisMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the man lifting coral from the river on a line, the bridge and the town behindMichael Maier, 1618 “Corallus sub aquis ut crescit & aëre induratur, sic lapis.”
• Ex duabus aquis, fac unam, & erit aqua sanctitatisMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618two figures pouring from vessels into one basin before a templeMichael Maier, 1618 “Ex duabus aquis, fac unam, & erit aqua sanctitatis.”

Secondary motif · 16

• 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.”Central motif: the Heavens
• Two Peasants Hold a Red Robe, Mercury Rests on the Water BelowAfter Nicolas Flamel, attributed, date not recordedtwo figures in peasant dress hold up a red robe beneath a cloud from which a winged head looks down; below them a naked figure lies on the bank and another rests in the water; the Angel and the Wing as the central motif, by eyeCentral motif: the Angel and the Wing
• A Crowned Woman with a Rose-Topped Caduceus, in a Circle of WaterAfter Nicolas Flamel, attributed, date not recordeda crowned woman in red holds a caduceus topped with a rose, standing on a flower within a ring of water, a winged head in a cloud above her; the Crown as the central motif, the Serpent by eyeCentral motif: the Crown
• 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
• Death (XIII)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909an armoured skeleton on a white horse carries a black banner with a white rose; a king lies fallen with his crown beside him, a child and a maiden kneel, a bishop stands with clasped hands; the sun rises between two towers, a river with a boat behind; Death as the central motif, the Horse, the Sun and the Crown by eyeWaite, 1911 “The natural transit of man to the next stage of his being either is or may be one form of his progress, but the exotic and almost unknown entrance, while still in this life, into the state of mystical death is a change in the form of consciousness and the passage into a state to which ordinary death is neither the path nor gate.”Central motif: Death and the Skull
• Temperance (XIV)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909a winged angel in white, a sun sign on the brow and a triangle within a square on the breast, pours water between two cups, one foot on the land and one in the pool; irises at the water's edge; a path leads to mountains and a crown of light; the Angel as the central motif, the Vessel, the Triangle, the Sun and the Crown by eyeWaite, 1911 “All the conventional emblems are renounced herein. So also are the conventional meanings, which refer to changes in the seasons, perpetual movement of life and even the combination of ideas.”Central motif: the Angel and the Wing
• 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.”Central motif: the Heavens
• The Moon (XVIII)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909a crescent moon with a face in profile set within a full disc, rays and falling drops; a path between two towers; a dog and a wolf howling; a crayfish climbing from a pool; the Moon as the central motifWaite, 1911 “The card represents life of the imagination apart from life of the spirit. The path between the towers is the issue into the unknown.”Central motif: the Sun and the Moon
• Judgement (XX)Pamela Colman Smith, 1909an angel with red wings in the clouds sounds a trumpet hung with a banner bearing a red cross; grey figures rise from coffins on the sea with arms raised, a woman, a man and a child among them; the Angel as the central motifWaite, 1911 “The dead are rising from their tombs--a woman on the right, a man on the left hand, and between them their child, whose back is turned. But in this card there are more than three who are restored, and it has been thought worth while to make this variation as illustrating the insufficiency of current explanations.”Central motif: the Angel and the Wing
• Portavit eum ventus in ventre suoMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618Boreas the north wind strides through his own clouds with the child visible in his belly, a bay and a ruin behindMichael Maier, 1618 “Portavit eum ventus in ventre suo.”Central 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
• 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
• In balneis concipitur, & in aëre nascitur, rubeus verò factus graditur super aquasMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the sun-faced and moon-faced heads embracing in the cave mouth, the child carried above the waterMichael Maier, 1618 “In balneis concipitur, & in aëre nascitur, rubeus verò factus graditur super aquas.”Central motif: the Sun and the Moon
• 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.”Central motif: the Heavens
• Rex ab aquis potatis morbum, à medicis curatus sanitatem obtinetMatthaus Merian, attributed, for Michael Maier, 1618the crowned king taking the cup from the physician, the sick man in the bed behindMichael Maier, 1618 “Rex ab aquis potatis morbum, à medicis curatus sanitatem obtinet.”Central motif: the King and the Queen

• The Heavens
• The Angel and the Wing
• The Sun