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![[Picture: Naked angel with caduceus]](https://www.fromoldbooks.org/Various-MusaeumHermeticum/pages/396-naked-man-caduceus/396-naked-man-caduceus-q75-273x200.jpg "[Picture: Naked angel with caduceus]")
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Naked angel with caduceus more
nudity, mythological creatures, alchemy, occult, bare feet, sun, moon, symbols
The nakedness of the angel here might symbolize perfection and unworldliness. It can also represent the raw substance from which the Grand Transformation into the Philosopher’s Stone begins, because the alchemical journey is about the self as much as it is about the stone. It can also symbolie the revealing of hidden truths.
The angel, of course, is Mercury, with the symbols of mercury and with his wings (even though he does not have wings for his bare feet)
The caduceus is also associated with Mercury (Hermes), the messenger god.
Mercury itself, alongside sulphur and salt, was thought necessary for the Great Work.
The entwined serpents represent duality, as well as ascent into spiritual awareness.
We have the sun and moon here, as well as a bird or phœnix, a man with a crowned serpant on the left, a shed wing in the foreground.
The text does not obviously relate to the illustration:
Clavis.
In aulis magnatum & potentium reperiuntur varia genera potus, quorum tamen vix ullum alteri odore, calore ac sapore simile est: Nam præparatio illorum est multiplex: nihilominus omnia bibuntur, cum singula ad suum usum ordinata & ad œconomiam necessaria sint.
Which is,
Key.
In the courts of the great and powerful are found various kinds of drink, of which, however, scarcely any one is similar to another in smell, heat, and taste: For their preparation is manifold: nevertheless all are drunk, since each is ordered to its own use and necessary for economy.
