Aurora Consurgens is a 15th century richly illuminated text in the alchemical tradition. Like a well-wrought puzzle it fuses Bible quotations with quotes from early alchemical texts to conjure up a beautiful rumination on the female figure of Wisdom. While described as beautiful, she wasn't flawless, weak, fearful, or subordinate. She was a strong, intelligent, free-willed, even fearsome creature who had all the knowledge of the world gathered inside. That Wisdom, that everything connected to knowledge and science is naturally a woman's domain appears to be an alien thought to us today. Yet, when we think of all the Wisdom deities like Athena, Saraswati, Benzaiten, Sga, etc. it once wasn't. The alchemists remind us of that in this magnificent text. This book combines an English translation of the Aurora with its traditional illustrations reimagined by artist Aviva Brueckner. In its color-in pages it leaves room to meditate upon the words while providing the world with its splendid shades.
Aurora Consurgens is a 15th century richly illuminated text in the alchemical tradition. Like a well-wrought puzzle it fuses Bible quotations with quotes from early alchemical texts to conjure up a beautiful rumination on the female figure of Wisdom. While described as beautiful, she wasn't flawless, weak, fearful, or subordinate. She was a strong, intelligent, free-willed, even fearsome creature who had all the knowledge of the world gathered inside. That Wisdom, that everything connected to knowledge and science is naturally a woman's domain appears to be an alien thought to us today. Yet, when we think of all the Wisdom deities like Athena, Saraswati, Benzaiten, Sga, etc. it once wasn't. The alchemists remind us of that in this magnificent text. This book combines an English translation of the Aurora with its traditional illustrations reimagined by artist Aviva Brueckner. In its color-in pages it leaves room to meditate upon the words while providing the world with its splendid shades.
