Here’s another image from the Liber Azoth (1613), its title ‘Opus Universum Philosophorum’ (Universal Work of the Philosophers).
We see a large circle containing a seven-pointed star, all inside a triangle. In the triangle’s corners we see the Sun labelled as Anima (Soul), the Moon as Spiritus (Spirit) and a Cube labelled Corpus (Body), respectively relating to Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt. We see the face of an old man in the center of the circle, his feet at the bottom, and his hands stretched out to the side.
The hand on the left is holding a burning candle, linked with the Sun, Sulphur, and Fire. This message is emphasized by the Salamander in flames at the top left of the picture and the King with a fiery Solar halo, sitting on a Lion, with a fire-breathing dragon beneath him, emerging from a cave.
The old man’s other hand holds a vial of liquid, relating to Moon, Mercury, and Water. At the top we see an eagle, most likely a white eagle, which is often connected with Mercury. There is also a Lunar Queen, holding a bow, so clearly intended to represent the goddess Diana, sitting on either a whale or a dolphin, in lots of water.
Looking a the 7-pointed star, we see that each ray is numbered starting from a black ray at the bottom, which has the sign for the planet Saturn/metal Lead. The little square there means Salt, like the Cube below. From Saturn we move to 2. Jupiter, 3. Mars (which also has an alchemical symbol for Sulphur), 4. Sun, 5. Venus, 6. Mercury (which also shows the alchemical symbol for Quicksilver), and 7. Moon. So there we have all the planets/metals, in the sequence of the Ptolemaic cosmos, from the outermost planet to the one closest to the earth.
Around the circumference of the circle we read ‘Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem,’ i.e. the VITROL acrostic: ‘Visit the Interior of the Earth, by Rectification [repeat Distillation] you will find the hidden Stone.’
Here’s some of what the accompanying text says: ‘That Old Man is the first principle revealed by the hermetic art. He’s Sulphur, Salt, Mercury, the below like the above [an allusion to the Emerald Tablet], the star of the Sun, abounding in colors, fire, air, water, and earth, descended from the lineage of Diana and Apollo. It denotes virile fire and air, feminine earth and water, light and heavy in weight, stable, constant, and ‘fugitive’ [volatile].’
Here’s what it says about the seven small images in circles in the large circle:
‘The first bird is a black raven [perched on a skull, so a nigredo image]
it flies to a [bird’s] corpse
from which a white dove comes forth and
subsequently a red bird. Therefore first spiritually extinguish the raven, so that
The unicorn rests, the Moon existing in a bodily state, prepares the way to the King, a whitish silver emerges
The King follows this, red, solitary, so far, but most pure, which if you lead it with its mother through all the kingdoms [animal, vegetable, and mineral], its value will multiply tenfold, and with its siblings it will provide riches and infinite rewards’
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