Another thing about the Melusine: I don’t think we can do justice to her symbolism without taking into account Pisces. As with so much of the VMS, symbols or themes reverberate sometimes dozens of pages apart; they don’t tend to be isolated but the patterns can only be found in the most minute of details.
First all, the Pisces fish tail and the Melusine fish tail have an uncanny resemblance.
Secondly, in the inner ring of Pisces, the barrels are on their sides, as if the nymphs are swimming.
Thirdly, many of them are barely in their barrels, some are even wholly out, as if they’ve escaped.
Just like our Melusine escaping her tail (or a whole fish, but I think we’re still meant to equate the image with Melusine).
Fourthly, the barrels are green, just the prima materia pool.
In my Hermaphroditus post, I already stated my belief that the nymphs are basically substances or essences, in the Aristotelian sense, and while always symbols of life or being, that can be modified by their context, narrative or accoutrements. In the zodiac page, because of their containment in barrels as if they’re made of water, we can at least tentatively identify their substance as the water of life.
But now the barrels are green and the nymphs heavily identified with Melusine; I posit it’s the same principal but without the blatant religious context of the Melusine page.
The whole goal of alchemy at this time period, aside from creating gold, was to extract the water of life, a heavenly substance, from prima materia, an earthly substance, by distilling it many times over. Did the alchemists believe this elixir, or quintessence, could bestow immortality? Some undoubtedly did, but not all. Rupescissa himself, who experimented with it and then popularized the whole idea, noticed the preserving effects of distilled alcohol and believed he had hit upon the earthly equivalent to the heavenly water of life, but the goal was to prolong life(because, after all, biblical personages lived hundreds of years so this was eminently possible, a secret that was lost).
So once again, we have the heaven-like substance, the water of life nymphs, emerging from earthly prima materia. And thus, modern chemistry was born along with Rupescissa’s experiments.
I think I will post some of this content in the Images thread.
First all, the Pisces fish tail and the Melusine fish tail have an uncanny resemblance.
Secondly, in the inner ring of Pisces, the barrels are on their sides, as if the nymphs are swimming.
Thirdly, many of them are barely in their barrels, some are even wholly out, as if they’ve escaped.
Just like our Melusine escaping her tail (or a whole fish, but I think we’re still meant to equate the image with Melusine).
Fourthly, the barrels are green, just the prima materia pool.
In my Hermaphroditus post, I already stated my belief that the nymphs are basically substances or essences, in the Aristotelian sense, and while always symbols of life or being, that can be modified by their context, narrative or accoutrements. In the zodiac page, because of their containment in barrels as if they’re made of water, we can at least tentatively identify their substance as the water of life.
But now the barrels are green and the nymphs heavily identified with Melusine; I posit it’s the same principal but without the blatant religious context of the Melusine page.
The whole goal of alchemy at this time period, aside from creating gold, was to extract the water of life, a heavenly substance, from prima materia, an earthly substance, by distilling it many times over. Did the alchemists believe this elixir, or quintessence, could bestow immortality? Some undoubtedly did, but not all. Rupescissa himself, who experimented with it and then popularized the whole idea, noticed the preserving effects of distilled alcohol and believed he had hit upon the earthly equivalent to the heavenly water of life, but the goal was to prolong life(because, after all, biblical personages lived hundreds of years so this was eminently possible, a secret that was lost).
So once again, we have the heaven-like substance, the water of life nymphs, emerging from earthly prima materia. And thus, modern chemistry was born along with Rupescissa’s experiments.
I think I will post some of this content in the Images thread.