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Alchemical allegories
Alchemical texts often use elaborate extended allegories as a means of communicating key philosophical points, or to illustrate a particular alchemical process. In these allegorical texts a figure, with which the reader is supposed to identify, goes on an journey in search of wisdom or understanding of the mysteries of alchemy. There this figure meets various archetypal characters, kings, queens, various alchemical birds and animals, and witnesses a process of transformation. This parallels the use of series of symbolic illustrations in various alchemical books and manuscripts - these allegories are in essence the working out in text of similar alchemical ideas and processes as are found in the sequences of emblematic symbols. Back to texts page The Allegory of John of the the Fountain The Fountain allegory of Bernard of Treviso The Parabola of Henricus Madathanus Lumen de lumine An adept's allegory to a certain scholar The Duenech allegory The Globe allegory The Golden Age Restored Greverus The allegory of Merlin Muller's allegory Ruland's allegory Sendivogius' Enigma of the Sages Thomas Vaughan's allegory of the Mountain Allegories of Zosimos of Panoplis Other related allegorical works:- Thomas Campanella's City of the Sun Francis Bacon's New Atlantis Jan Comenius The Labyrinth of the World The allegorical tale in Novalis' novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen The Mystic Tower from The Mystic Rose from the Garden of the King If you have problems understanding these alchemical texts, Adam McLean now provides a study course entitled How to read alchemical texts : a guide for the perplexed. |