Atalanta Fugiens · 1618 · Emblem XXIII
Aurum pluit, dum nascitur Pallas Rhodi, et Sol concumbit Veneri.
Gold rains while Pallas is born at Rhodes, and the Sun lies with Venus.
Maier reads the myth of the birth of Pallas, wisdom, as an image of the work: when wisdom is born, gold falls like rain.
What would it mean for wisdom, not effort, to be what produces the result?
Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens (Oppenheim, 1618). Engraving in the public domain. Motto transcribed from the 1618 edition; translation and reading by The Hermetic School. All the emblems.