11-07-2021, 05:22 PM
I have a somewhat different conception of the rosettes page in that I believe it is primarily based on natural philosophy but layered with religious imagery (or vice versa). To me, the outer circles are details - or spheres - of the inner middle circle, the cosmos. The top row is celestial, the bottom row underworld, and the left and right second row is terrestrial.
The conception of Hades is key here to the bottom row for me. The Greeks perceived plants and minerals as well as the land of the dead as being part of the underworld. So at least on one level, you could read the bottom from left to right as Hades or death/judgment, vegetabilis, mineralis.
So the bottom right corner to me is mineralis first, consisting of a literal field of gold, the 4 elements, pillars of the earth/mine shafts. These "hidden" stones and minerals reach the surface through shafts but also through water.
But in terms of the Church, Ecclesia, etc., this might also be another iteration of that one page of "religious evolution" I pointed out on Koen's blog. We have pillars of the earth, which is biblical, but I also like that 4 part elemental structure as a tent, or Solomon's Temple - in other words, there is a lot here that might suggest the word "foundation". My interpretation works alchemically, of course, but also religiously I think, if one can pull out the strands.
The conception of Hades is key here to the bottom row for me. The Greeks perceived plants and minerals as well as the land of the dead as being part of the underworld. So at least on one level, you could read the bottom from left to right as Hades or death/judgment, vegetabilis, mineralis.
So the bottom right corner to me is mineralis first, consisting of a literal field of gold, the 4 elements, pillars of the earth/mine shafts. These "hidden" stones and minerals reach the surface through shafts but also through water.
But in terms of the Church, Ecclesia, etc., this might also be another iteration of that one page of "religious evolution" I pointed out on Koen's blog. We have pillars of the earth, which is biblical, but I also like that 4 part elemental structure as a tent, or Solomon's Temple - in other words, there is a lot here that might suggest the word "foundation". My interpretation works alchemically, of course, but also religiously I think, if one can pull out the strands.