Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 40: The Union of the Two Waters
Two stone fountains stand at either side of a town square, each topped with a child-like statue that spouts a thin arc of water from its mouth. Men crowd between them. One bends to catch the water in a dish, another reaches toward the basin with a rod, and others look on with their backs to us.
Behind them, a pointed obelisk and a round temple rise over a distant bridge and rooftops. This is the fortieth emblem of Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens, and its motto gives an order: from two waters make one, and it will be the water of holiness.
The book was printed in 1617 at Oppenheim. It has fifty emblems, and each one joins an engraving, a Latin verse, a prose discourse and a fugue for three voices. The engravings are attributed to the workshop of Matthäus Merian. Maier, a physician at the court of Emperor Rudolf II, set many of his scenes in places where people gather.
The Motto
The Latin line is a plain recipe: take two waters, make them one, and the result will be a holy water. Nothing is said of what the two waters are.
The picture follows the words closely. Two fountains pour into two basins, and the people at the center are gathering from both.
The Two Waters
Alchemical books named the two waters in many ways. Some spoke of a water of the sun and a water of the moon. Others spoke of the water that dissolves and the water that coagulates, or of a mercurial water and a second liquid that matches it.
The tradition was never fixed about which two they were. The emblem's lesson is the pairing itself. Two different liquids are poured together, and a third thing comes of them.
A Water of Holiness
The phrase water of holiness is the most surprising part of the line. A plain liquid, mixed from two others, is called holy. The old books used the word to mean pure and complete, a substance that has been made whole.
Readers of the time knew holy water from church, where it was blessed and used for cleansing. The comparison gave the alchemical liquid a note of reverence. The tradition claimed no more than that. It cannot be confirmed that such a water exists.
The Fountains
Public fountains in a seventeenth-century town were gathering places. People filled jugs, washed, traded news and met neighbors. Here the fountains are fed by statues of children, in the manner of fountains in Italian squares.
The choice of a public square suggests that the Work is not a hidden affair of a single person. Water belongs to the community, and the emblem makes its teaching part of everyday life.
The Crowd
The figures at the center face away from us, with their hoods and caps hiding their faces. They look at the water together. One uses a dish and another a rod, each with his own way of handling the stream.
The picture says that no single method has a monopoly. Several people gather around two sources and find different ways to draw from them.
A Reading for Today
Most of us are fed by two streams: what we inherit and what we choose, the lessons of the past and the demands of the present, the mind and the heart. The emblem suggests that the best water is a blend.
The Engraving
The fountains are drawn as plain stone troughs with a stand in the middle, one at each edge of the picture. The statue on the left is a stocky child with a round belly, and the one on the right is slim and turned slightly sideways.
Both send an arc of water into the basin. The men at the front lean into the scene, and their cloaks are drawn with heavy folds. The obelisk in the background is thin and sharp against the pale sky.
The Fugue
Each emblem has its own fugue for three voices, and each voice follows the one before it. The name of the book recalls Atalanta, the swift huntress of Greek myth who stopped to pick up golden apples. Recordings of the fugues are available, and they pair well with this picture.
Contemplating the Emblem
For those who wish to work with this image:
- Look at the two fountains and the single stream gathered at the center.
- Name two sources that feed your life and ask how they might be blended.
- Think of a place where you gather with other people around something shared.
- Drink a glass of water slowly and notice how plain a gift it is.
A Word of Care
The emblem speaks of symbolic water. Mixing unknown liquids is hazardous, and drinking them can be deadly. Only clean, safe water should be drunk. The tradition's claims about a holy water cannot be confirmed.
Closing
Two fountains, one dish, a crowd drawing water together. Maier made the oldest need of a town into a lesson of the Work. For the seeker, the teaching is cooperative: let the two streams meet, and the water will be holy.
Related Esoteric Inquiries
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 38: The Rebis and the Absolute Union
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 33: The Alchemical Hermaphrodite
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 47: The Wolf and the Dog
Lux Esoterica.
2026.
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