ALCHEMY - TWELVE KEYS - CORN - KEY - DEATH The Eighth Key of Basil Valentine, from Practica cum Duodecim Clavibus in the Tripus Aureus of Michael Maier, 1618. The sower in the foreground is a reference to the nonsensical-seeming parable of the corn. In John 12:24, we learn that, 'Verily, verily I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit'. In truth a corn of wheat does not die, in order to bring forth fruit, and the engraving is a commentary of the life which lies behind seeming death, or seeming disso
ALCHEMY - TWELVE KEYS - CORN - KEY - DEATH The Eighth Key of Basil Valentine, from Practica cum Duodecim Clavibus in the Tripus Aureus of Michael Maier, 1618. The sower in the foreground is a reference to the nonsensical-seeming parable of the corn. In John 12:24, we learn that, 'Verily, verily I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit'. In truth a corn of wheat does not die, in order to bring forth fruit, and the engraving is a commentary of the life which lies behind seeming death, or seeming dissolution. The conditions for future development is not death, but putrefaction. In alchemical terms, this engraving is a commentary on Putrefaction, on the necessary state prior to Resurrection. The Key (above the target) is important, for this sole appearance of the key that relates to the title of the entire series of twelve plates, stands upright, like the Death-image of an earlier plate. In this engraving, the image of Death is prone, but its skull rests upon corn, the symbol of resurrection, of rebirth. This is what the trump of the angel is sounding. It is no accident that the locking mechanism of the key forms a cross - it is the redeemed image of the grave-crosses set in the earth, below. The identity of Basil Valentine is not known, though he tells us in one of his works that he comes from the Rhineland, and spent some of his youth in England and Belgium. He was a Benedictine monk in the monastery of St. Peter at Erfurt - some records refer to him being in that monastery in 1413. His name is said to be a play on the Greek Basileus (King) and the Latin Valens (Powerful), which is in turn a play on one of the alchemical names for the Lapis, or Stone of the Philosophers, which is the powerful stone of kings.
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Photo credit: © Charles Walker Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, alchemy, archival, archive, art, artistic, artwork, basil, corn, death, eighth, esoterica, historic, historical, history, illustration, image, key, keys, mono, paranormal, twelve, valentine
