Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 34: Conceived in the Bath, Born in the Air
A rocky coast and a calm bay fill the picture. On the right, a man with a blazing sun for a head holds a woman with a moon for a head, and the two stand in the water as in a bath.
In the sky above, a small nude figure reclines on a cloud. At the left, another small figure steps out onto the water. This is the thirty-fourth emblem of Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens, and its motto is a riddle: he is conceived in baths, born in the air, and when he has become red, he walks upon the waters.
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, loved a riddle that could be solved by looking.
The Motto
The Latin line follows a life in three steps: conception, birth and walking. The conception happens in baths, the birth in the air, and the walking on the water.
A single word links all three: he. The riddle describes one being, who passes through water, air and water again.
The Bath of the Sun and Moon
The pair at the right are the Sun and the Moon, the male and female principles of the Work. They stand in a bath, as in the old alchemical books where the king and queen are shown in a vessel of water. The bath was a symbol of the dissolving liquid in which the two are united.
Conception in baths means that the new thing begins in water. In the tradition, what is born of the union of the principles is first formed in a liquid state, hidden and quiet.
Born in the Air
The second line moves from water to sky. The figure on the cloud is the child once it has risen. In the tradition, the vapor that rises from the bath was called the spirit, and it carried the new form upward.
It is a gentle idea. A living thing is first formed in secret, and then it appears in the open, lifted by something lighter than itself.
Walking on the Water
The last phrase says that the red one walks upon the waters. Red was the color of the final stage in the Work, the rubedo, and the mark of completion. A being that walks on water has passed through the element that formed it and is no longer held down.
Readers of the time would have remembered the Gospel story of walking on the sea. Maier does not quote it. The echo gives the line an air of mastery.
A Reading for Today
The emblem is about development. A person is shaped in private, in the water of family, feeling and early life. Later comes a moment of birth into the open air, in work, speech or creation. Finally, there is the quiet confidence of someone who can move across the same depths that once held them.
The stages need not be hurried. Each has its element, and each prepares the next.
The Engraving
The right half of the picture is a rocky inlet. The man and woman rise to their waists in the water, and their embrace is tender. The sun above the man is drawn with rays, and the moon above the woman has a calm face.
The cloud above holds a reclining child in the manner of a classical putto. The figure at the left, shown from behind, has one foot on the shore and one touching the surface. In the middle distance, reeds stand along the water, and a castle rises on the hill.
The Fugue
Each emblem in the book has its own music. The fugue is written for three voices, and each voice follows the one before it, which is where the name comes from: fuga means flight or pursuit. The title recalls Atalanta, who raced her suitors until Hippomenes dropped golden apples in her path.
Maier used the old tale as a frame for fifty riddles. Modern singers have recorded the pieces, so anyone can hear them while looking at the engraving.
Contemplating the Emblem
For those who wish to work with this image:
- Look at the bath, the cloud and the figure on the water, in that order.
- Ask in which of the three stages you are now.
- Think of the place where you were first formed, and what it gave you.
- Imagine one step you could take across water that once stopped you.
Closing
A bath, a cloud, a step on the waves. Maier compressed a long process into one riddle and one picture. For the seeker, the teaching is clear: what is formed in the water rises into the air, and in time it learns to walk on the very depths that made it.
Related Esoteric Inquiries
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 49: The Philosophical Child with Three Fathers
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 48: The King Healed by the Waters
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 44: Typhon and the Alchemical Chaos
Lux Esoterica.
2026.
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