Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem XXIX

Atalanta Fugiens · 1618 · Emblem XXIX

Ut Salamandra vivit igne, sic lapis.

As the salamander lives in fire, so does the stone.

The finished stone is not destroyed by heat; it lives in it. What is fixed can bear what would dissolve the unfinished.

What could you now bear that would once have undone you?

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.

The Inner Circle

A letter with each new episode: the sources behind it, a passage from the primary text, and the question to work with. Nothing else.