Unusual orientation parameters in a statuette representing pharaoh Pepi I with a falcon may show the breaking of the inflexible Egyptian ritual rules related to sacred geography.
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Hans Memling’s Altarpiece with Boar and January 17
Is the presence of St Anthony the Abbot enough to hint at the date of January 17 in the scene? And why Hans Memling turns the saint’s pet pig into a bristly boar?
[Read more…] about Hans Memling’s Altarpiece with Boar and January 17The Secret Night Chant of a Stradivarius Tree
Stradivari offered a glass of wine to a lumberjack one day, the price for a secret code in the Roman calendar. A night when the Moon is unusually not involved.
[Read more…] about The Secret Night Chant of a Stradivarius TreeTrisulti Carthusian Monastery and the Yearbook Wheel
The eight spokes wheel on a Trisulti pillar means more than a yearbook. An archeo-astronomical chart for Equinoxes, Solstices, heliacal and acronic stars. [Read more…] about Trisulti Carthusian Monastery and the Yearbook Wheel
Two Stars in a Venetian Geocentric Sky
In this woodcut from Tetragonismus idest circuli quadratura we will see how the geocentric alchemical world was not just a world of light. But Densities. It presents motionless earth with two stars and four elements. Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Moon, Sun. Till Empyrean. A complete explication of what Ptolemaic Astronomy did profess to be back at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Moreover, in Venice.
[Read more…] about Two Stars in a Venetian Geocentric SkySan Miniato Sun Path or the Sky as Seen from Earth
Every day is a peculiar day in Alchemy. To Make the difference is the Sun orbiting the Earth: we alchemists still consider the sun as seen from the earth. [Read more…] about San Miniato Sun Path or the Sky as Seen from Earth
The Pythagorean Thigh in the Northern Sky
At a superficial reading, Iamblichus wrote a “Life of Pythagoras”, putting nothing more than anecdotes. Among these, the legend of the golden thigh reveals much more than notions for ancient navigators and travelers. And Pythagoras’ secret thigh wounds make the detail even more significant for an alchemist.
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