Atalanta Fugiens.pdf

Atalanta Fugiens

The Flying Atalanta

Philosophical Emblems of the Secrets of Nature

Michael Majerus

Count of the Imperial Consistory

M...D... Eq: ex: &c

(Adobe PDF Version by V.H. Frater I)

EPIGRAMMA AUTHORIS.

Hesperii precium juvenis tulit impiger horti

Dante Deá pomum Cypride tergeminum:

Idque sequens fugientis humo glomeravit adora

Virginis, hinc tardas contrahit illa moras:

Mox micat is, micat haec mox ante fugacior Euris,

Alteratum spargens aurea dona solo,

Ille morabatur vestigia lenta puellae

Rursus at haec rursus dat sua terga fugae;

Tertia donec amans iterârit pondera, cessit

Victori merces hin ATALANTA suo.

Hippomenes virtus est sulphuris, illa fugacis

Mercurii, in cursu femina victa mare est.

Qui postquam cupido se complectuntur amore

In fano Cybeles corrigit ira Deam;

Pelle leonina vindex & vestiit ambos,

In de rubent posthac corpore, suntque feri.

Hujus ut exprimeret simulacra simillima cursus

Voce tibi ternâ dat mea Musa fugaes:

Una manet simplex pomúmque refert remorans vox,

Altera sed fugiens, tertia ritè sequens.

Auribus ista tuis, oculísque Emblemata prostent,

At ratio arcanas expetat inde notas:

Sensibus haec objecta tuli, intellectus ut illis

Illicibus caparet, quae preciosa latent.

Orbis quic quid opum, vel habet Medicina salutis,

Omne Leo geminus suppeditare potest.

The Author's Epigram

Three Golden Apples from the Hesperian grove.

A present Worthy of the Queen of Love.

Gave wise Hippomenes Eternal Fame.

And Atalanta's cruel Speed O'ercame.

In Vain he follows 'till with Radiant Light, }

One Rolling Apple captivates her Sight. }

And by its glittering charms retards her flight. }

She Soon Outruns him but fresh rays of Gold,

Her Longing Eyes & Slackened Footsteps Hold,

'Till with disdain She all his Art defies,

And Swifter then an Eastern Tempest flies.

Then his despair throws his last Hope away,

For she must Yield whom Love & Gold betray.

What is Hippomenes, true Wisdom knows.

And whence the Speed of Atalanta Flows.

She with Mercurial Swiftness is Endued,

Which Yields by Sulphur's prudent Strength pursued.

But when in Cybel's temple they would prove

The utmost joys of their Excessive Love,

The Matron Goddess thought herself disdained,

Her rites Unhallowed & her shrine profaned.

Then her Revenge makes Roughness o'er them rise,

And Hideous feireenesse Sparkle from their Eyes.

Still more Amazed to see themselves look red,

Whilst both to Lions changed Each Other dread.

He that can Cybell's Mystic change Explain,

And those two Lions with true Redness stain,

Commands that treasure plenteous Nature gives

And free from Pain in Wisdom's Splendor lives.

Emblem 1

Portavit eum ventus in ventre suo.

(The Wind carried him in his belly)

Epigramma 1

Embryo ventosâ BOREAE qui clauditur alvo

Vivus in hanc lucem si semel ortus erit;

Unus is Heroum cunctos superare labores

Arte, manu, forti corpore, mente, potest.

Ne tibi sit Coeso, nec abortus inutilis ille,

Non Agrippa, bono sydere sed genitus.

English'd thus:

If BOREAS can in his own Wind conceive

An offspring that can bear this light & live;

In art, Strength, Body, Mind He shall excell

All wonders men of Ancient Heroes tell.

Think him no Caeso nor Abortive brood,

Nor yet Agrippa, for his Star is good.

Discourse 1

Hermes, the most industrious searcher into all the secrets of Nature, doth in his Smaragdine Table

exquisitely thus succinctly describe the Natural Work when he says: 'Wind carried Him in his

belly,' as if he should have said that He whose father is Sol & mother is Luna must, before he can

be brought forth into the light, be carried by windy fumes, even as a Bird is carried in the Air

when it flies.

Now from fumes or winds (which are nothing else but Air in Motion) being coagulated, Water is

produced, & from Water mixed with earth all minerals & metals do proceed. And even these last

are said to consist of & be immediately coagulated from fumes, so that whether He be placed in

Water or fume the thing is the same; for one as well as the other is the master of Wind. The same

the more remotely may be said of Minerals & Metals, but the Question is: Who is He that ought

to be carried by Winds? I answer: Chymically it is Sulphur which is carried in Argent Vive

(contained in quicksilver), as Lully in his Codicill cap. 32 & all other Authors attest. [Marginal

note: "Lully ibid: 'The wind carries him in his belly;' That is, sulphur is carried by Argent Vive; &

Ch. 47: 'The Stone is Fire carried in the Belly of Air.'"] Physically it is the Embryo, which in a

little time ought to be borne into the light. I say also that Arithmetically it is the Root of a Cube;

Musically it is the Disdiapason; Geometrically it is a point, the beginning of a continued running

line; Astronomically it is the Center of the Planets Saturn, Jupiter & Mars.

Now although these are different Subjects, Yet if they be well compared together they will easily

demonstrate what the offspring of Wind must be. But this enquiry must be left to every man's

own Industry, be it remembered. But I shall point out the matter more plainly thus: All Mercury is

composed of fumes, that is of Water elevating Earth together with itself into an aerial rarity or

thinness, & of Earth forcing Air to return into Watery Earth or Earthy Water; for when the

Elements are in it altogether & mixed throughout & mutually blended, subdued & reduced to a

certain Viscous Nature, they do not easily recede from one another, but either follow the Volatile

flying upwards, or remain below with those that are fixed.

Nor is it indeed without reason that Mercury is called the Messenger or Interpreter & as it were

the running intermediate Minister of the other Gods & has Wings fitted to his head & feet; for He

is Windy & flies through the air as wind itself, which many Persons are really & experimentally

convinced of, to their great damage. But because he carries a Rod or Caduceus about which two

serpents are twined across one the other, by which he can draw souls out of bodies & bring them

back again & effect many such contrarities, He is a most Excellent figure or representation of the

Philosophical Mercury. Mercury, therefore, is Wind, which takes Sulphur, or Dionysius, or (if

You please so to call it) Asculepius, being yet an imperfect Embryo out of the Mother's belly or

out of the Ashes of the Mother's body burned, & carries it thither where it may be brought to

maturity.

And the Embryo is Sulphur, which by the celestial Sun is infused into the Wind of Boreas, that he

may bring it forth in maturity. Who, after the complete time of his Teeming, does bring forth

twins, one with white Hair, Called Calais, the other with Red, named Zethes. These Sons of

Boreas (as Orpheus the Chymick Poet writes) were Companions to Jason amongst the set of the

Argonauts when he went to fetch the Golden Fleece from Colchis, for Phineas the blind Prophet,

being infested by the Harpies, could not be freed from them but by these Sons of Boreas, & for so

great a benefit obtained by their means, He out of gratitude showed the whole course of their way

to the Argonauts. These Harpies are nothing else but corrupting Sulphur which is driven away by

the Sons of Boreas when they come to full age, & from a thing imperfect and molested with

noxious and hurtful Volatiles becomes perfect & not subject to that Evil, & afterwards shows

Jason its Physician the way how to obtain the Golden Fleece.

Basil [Valentine] as well as other Authors takes Notice of these Winds & in his sixth Key says

thus: "For there ought to come a double Wind named Vulturnus & a single Wind called Notus

which will blow impetuously from the East & the South, upon the cessation of whose motion so

that Water is made of their Air. You may confidently believe that a Corporeal thing will be made

of a Spiritual." & Ripley, Gate 8th, says that our infant ought to be born again in Air, that is, in

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: