Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 37: Three Things Suffice: Smoke, Green Lion, Stinking Water
A lion with a thick mane and a wreath of laurel on his head stands in the middle of a wide landscape, looking straight at the viewer. On the left, a hill smokes like a small volcano, and to the right, more coils of smoke curl across a river valley.
Ruins and a lone obelisk stand on the far hills. This is the thirty-seventh emblem of Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens, and its motto counts to three: three things suffice for the mastery, white smoke, which is water, the green lion, which is the copper of Hermes, and stinking water.
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, liked a recipe written in riddles.
The Motto
The Latin line gives a list with a gloss. Three things are enough: white smoke, the green lion and a foul water. The text explains the first as water and the second as the copper of Hermes.
These are code names. The tradition used animals, colors and smells to speak of matter without naming it, and it left the reader to guess.
The Green Lion
The green lion is among the best-known figures of alchemical writing. It stands for a raw, strong and dangerous substance, the one that devours metals and later becomes the key to the Work. Green is the color of unripe things and of early growth.
The lion in the engraving wears a laurel wreath, the sign of a victor. That detail points to what the lion will become. The raw beast is already crowned, in hope.
White Smoke
The first item is a smoke that is also water. Alchemists thought of vapor as water in its lightest form, and they spoke of a spirit that rises from the vessel as white fumes.
The picture shows two kinds of smoke, one from the mountain on the left and one from the plain on the right. The rising clouds give a sense of a world in preparation, where something is being refined out of sight.
The Foul Water
The third thing is the least pleasant. The Latin says aqua foetida, stinking water. The old authors insisted that the beginning of the Work smells bad, and that a foul odor was a sign of progress, like fermentation in a cellar.
The tradition liked to turn the repulsive into a clue. What is disgusting may be the door to what is precious. The emblem asks the reader not to turn away from unpleasant stages.
Three Is Enough
The motto promises that three things suffice. In a book that fills fifty pages with symbols, this is a rare promise of simplicity. The Work needs no great apparatus, the tradition said, only the right three.
That is a claim from the alchemical books and cannot be confirmed. It does carry a useful human idea. When a task seems to demand a crowd of tools, it may need only a few well-chosen ones.
A Reading for Today
The emblem speaks to anyone who has to begin something unpleasant. The raw stage is crude, smells bad and gives no sign of the end. A laurel on the lion's head says that the end exists.
The Engraving
The lion is drawn from the front, head slightly lowered, a heavy beard of curls falling to his chest. His tail curls up behind him and ends in a small tuft. The wreath is neat and almost playful. Behind him, the land opens in layers: a ravine, bare trees, a plume of smoke, then a high ridge with a ruined tower and a slim obelisk. The sky is streaked with long, thin clouds.
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 lion and the wreath, and think of something raw in you that is already crowned in hope.
- Ask which unpleasant stage you have been avoiding.
- Write the three things you would keep if you had to simplify a project.
- Notice what smell, taste or feeling signals a beginning for you.
A Word of Care
The emblem is a riddle and not a recipe. Foul-smelling liquids, fumes and old preparations may be poisonous, and none of this should be tried at home. The tradition's claims cannot be confirmed.
Closing
A crowned lion, two clouds of smoke, a promise that three things suffice. Maier gave the Work its leanest list. For the seeker, the teaching is bracing: begin with the raw and unpleasant, trust the laurel, and keep only what you need.
Related Esoteric Inquiries
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 16: The Lion with Feathers and the Lion Without
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 49: The Philosophical Child with Three Fathers
- Atalanta Fugiens, Emblem 46: The Two Eagles of East and West
Lux Esoterica.
2026.
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