Samhain, 2022; Leonora Carrington and the Philosophic Egg

The Chair, Daghda Tuatha de Danaan, 1955, Leonora Carrington.
Incidentally, the Internet Archive link presented here is a great source for
Carrington images, starting with this page.

"The “Ovum Philosophicum,” which can be translated as the Philosophical or Alchemical Egg, is the principal vessel used in alchemical operations. During the alchemical process, the material, Hermetically sealed in the Egg, is put through a symbolic death and rebirth. When the Egg is cracked, a new mystical substance emerges capable of improving any substance with which it comes in contact."

- An explanation of the Philosophic Egg found here.

"Rather than trying to use this painting to psychoanalyze the artist, it is more productive to see how many symbolic elements are combined within. There are alchemical elements including the large egg on the table, which represents the “Philosophic Egg,” or alchemical vessel. While this term is often used in alchemical texts, visual representations in alchemical texts of a large egg are less frequent. One exception is an engraving that first appeared in Michael Maier’s Atalanta fugiens of a soldier, representing the planet Mars, standing by a furnace about to attack a large egg on a square table with his sword. This illustration was reprinted in Seligmann’s History of Magic, as were two images of the alchemical rose, which in Carrington’s painting floats above, dripping milky white drops to the table below.  Throughout the painting Carrington incorporated the colors of black, white and red, which relate to the three major stages of the alchemical work. Grillot de Givry had included a color plate representing these three colors on hybrid creatures - black eagle/serpents and white eagle/lions or griffins - placed in a landscape below a small hill that contains a tree with red fruit."

"Many of these symbols lent their traditional esoteric meanings to her paintings, but the freedom with which she transformed and blended these symbols in her paintings reveal her very personal adaptations and combinations of found imagery. In her complex combinations of esoteric symbolism, her paintings reflect the structure of esoteric publications during the mid-twentieth century, which likewise presented a multitude of esoteric traditions, while pointing to deeper spiritual powers that could be unlocked through their contemplation. Her use of these symbols stemmed from her own ritual practices and reveal the power she infused into her work to activate the unconscious."

"Many things contributed to the changes in her work from the late 1940s and into the 1960s... Many new publications on esoteric subjects became available in those years. Earlier in Paris, she would have known E. A. Grillot de Givry’s Le Musée des sorciers, mages & alchimistes, a text that inspired many surrealists and was one of the first publications to reproduce images drawn from a myriad of occult paths, including scenes of monstrous devils, demons, witchcraft, alchemy, astrology, physiognomy, tarot, chiromancy or palmistry, divining rods and diagrams of talismans and magic circles."

- Three separate quotes from M. E. Warlick's excellent article: Leonora Carrington’s Esoteric Symbols and their Sources. the first quote cites Carrington's painting with the golden egg, Ab Eo Quod (1956) - inset right - but, thematically, the observations can also apply to The Chair... with the silver egg. Both feature a large egg on a table, a symbolic rose and a color palette of predominately white, black and red.

Inset left above is the enigmatic set of symbols - Carrington's E=MC2, 1969, found on this page. Directly below is Carrington's take on standard alchemical imagery; found at the afore-mentioned Internet Archive.

Black sun/ Sol Niger, 1975, Leonora Carrington.

"Sol niger (black sun) can refer to the first stage of the alchemical magnum opus, the nigredo (blackening). In a text ascribed to Marsilio Ficino three suns are described: black, white, and red, corresponding to the three most used alchemical color stages. Of the sol niger he writes:

The body must be dissolved in the subtlest middle air: The body is also dissolved by its own heat and humidity; where the soul, the middle nature holds the principality in the colour of blackness all in the glass: which blackness of Nature the ancient Philosophers called the crows head, or the black sun."

- Marsilius Ficinus, Liber de Arte Chemica

"Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington painted narrative scenes inhabited by mysterious people and spirits participating in curious rituals. Samhain Skin references the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, held on October 31 to celebrate summer’s end. Painting on an actual animal skin, Carrington presents animals, human hybrids, and reverse-handwritten references to tribes and deities from Gaelic history. The imagery also alludes to the Sidhe, fairy people from whom Carrington’s grandmother claimed their family had descended."

- Leonora Carrington created several Samhain paintings. The one cited - Samhain Skin (inset right)- can be found in the NMWA collection.

You'll note the central motif of a mermaid figure in the painting... the mermaid (or siren) appearing often in Carrington's work. An excellent example is this stunning triptych found here, which I have never seen before. Speaking of Carrington objects not-seen-before, here's an another outstanding collection.

***

Yes, the witching hours are almost upon us and who better to accompany us to the Land of the Dead then a true expert in the field, surrealist artist, Leonora Carrington, whom I have called on before... on just such a day as this.

This Halloween, however, a tricky time to be sure, we're closing in on one of the most life-affirming shapes there are in this world: the egg. Ah, yes... but, then - and, wouldn't you know it - Leonora Carrington was there before us.

Well, sort of... let us explore...

La chasse, 1942, Leonora Carrington.

And, what better way to explore the Land of the Dead than in an Egyptian-style Solar Barge with its ties to the Underworld and modes of transportation regarding the afterlife? Note that, on the extreme right side of the painting, is the Gate of Capricorn, or Gate of the Gods.  Whereas, the Gate of Men - found in the constellation of Cancer - births men into world, Capricorn leads them to their heavenly abode.

Not that those trussed up bodies dangling from the boat appear to be on a joy-ride... But, what they almost appear to be, are the metamorphizing shapes certain butterflies take as they transmute into their final winged form. Inset left is a swallowtail chrysalis. And the dissolution of the metamorphizing worm - it literally dissolves itself - is comparable to alchemical nigredo.

Figures Carrying Still Life, 1957, Leonora Carrington.

Some of Carrington's images seem hand-picked for Halloween - like the one above - and I confess, only while researching this post did I realize what a smorgasbord of esoteric symbolism she served up during the long course of her career. But, one object that makes a number of repeat-performances in her paintings is the egg. And I've seen several explanations for this egg.

"Leonora Carrington: The Story of the Last Egg," derives its title from a play Carrington wrote in 1970 in which a profit-driven apocalypse has killed all the women except for one, a "colossally fat old lady of 80, the ex-madam of a brothel," who comes to possess the last hope, symbolized in the form of an egg. Throughout the exhibition the egg reoccurs as a symbol for fertility and the universe, which to Carrington were one and the same. 'The Egg is the macrocosm and the microcosm, the dividing line between the Big and the Small,' Carrington wrote in Down Below (1943), a memoir of her experience in a Spanish Sanitorium."

Well, that's one explanation (found here), and while it's true that Carrington was a feminist - and, while that one quote by Carrington (emphasized) speaks volumes* - I somehow tend to lean towards M.E. Warlick's Philosphic Egg, especially in the light of the paintings referenced at the beginning of the post... and the one (inset right) above:  Quería ser Pájaro (He/I Wanted to Be a Bird), 1960, (detail).

It is a strange painting. We are spectators in a kind of a dream-state - sleepwalkers - witnessing (but, not quite) an unusual scene in the early evening hours against a sky which is darkening; we have just begun to detect stars.

A man is painting a globe... in the process of marking meridians of  longitude & latitude - while spinning the object. Note, too, that the artist, in the tradition of the medieval magician/scientists, has inscribed a series of symbolic characters along the north sand south poles of the globe.

But, wait a minute, no, the object is not a wooden globe. It seems to be a massive egg... made of brass?  And, the artist - no, wait, it's a scientist (WRONG; it's a magician, fool) and is HE really a man?

What about a woman in men's clothing?

It gets complicated.

Then, there's that weird collection of birds and beasts. I may as well tell you right now that, no, I haven't a clue about them. They may merely be spectators; like us... or like the spectators (the insects, the shadow animals) to the golden egg in the Carrington painting inset left. Found here, it has no title. It needs no title... it, possibly, cannot have a tile.

Notice that, like the dream-egg we've just witnessed, it is also set on a stand (or, in this case, levitating above the stand). And, this stand also has the head of an animal/human hybrid fastened to it. Of that, I can hardly guess, although I feel like I should recognize it. Pan? The Green Man? Zeus? Ra? Krishna? Whatever.

But, as for the egg... ah, yes... well, we do have a few clues about that. Here's an interesting quote (sourced from an interesting page):

"The material prima: “The egg of nature they call me, known to all the philosophers (…) Quicksilver or Mercury fine I am called in general (…) An old dragon, an old man, I am everywhere near and far (…) I fly away, unless/one binds me with measure./I have much of form, colour and shape/I carry in me the force of men and women.”

- Theoria Philosophiae Hermeticae, Hanover, 1617.

Or, perhaps a quote from this source (Attention, there MIGHT be a quiz!):

"For the alchemists the vessel is something truly marvellous: a vas mirabile. Maria Prophetissa says that the whole secret lies in knowing about the Hermetic vessel. “Unum est vas” (the vessel is one) is emphasized again and again. It must be completely round, in imitation of the spherical cosmos, so that the influence of the stars may contribute to the success of the operation. It is a kind of matrix or uterus from which the filius philosophorum, the miraculous Stone, is to be born. Hence it is required that the vessel be not only round but egg-shaped."

Inset right is a Carrington painting - Mujeres conciencia, 1972 - used as a poster for the women's liberation movement in Mexico City. And, yes, it has a feminist message... but, did anyone ever do the geometry? The image contains 4 grand circles intercepted by a central 5th... creating 4 vesica piscis formations. Meanwhile, the tail of the serpent forms what may be a golden spiral... covered by a Templar cross. Lastly, observe that directly above the cross is a central egg.... and, within it appears to be a small five-petaled rose. This may be important.

Then, there's this enigmatic gem (found here):

"But what Bird’s Egg must it be? Moscus tells us in the same place: ‘Now I say that no instruments are made except of our white starry splendid powder, & of the white Stone, of which powder are made fit instruments for the Egg. But they have not named the Egg, nor what Bird’s Egg it must be.’"

Hmmm. Is this an egg as Philospher's Stone and/or egg as Philosopher's vessel kind of riddle? I dare say I don't know.

Lastly, there is one more quote that might interest us here, and it's a true story:

"To add to the intrigue, other recipes for the philosophers’ egg have been discovered in code. John Dee, a well-known alchemist, and his son wrote their recipe in cipher—which, fascinatingly, was cracked by a team of academics only last year. One reason for such encryption might be to protect against copycat rivals, not uncommon in alchemy as it was a practice shrouded in intrigue."

The snippet above was found in this article and references this discovery by the team of academics. Apparently, Dee's egg was more of a stone than a vessel.

As for the Carrington painting inset left above, well, it just works here, doesn't it?

But, as this a Samhain post, we cannot expect business as usual. So, I will only say this: while we may never consciously know the true nature of the Philosophic egg, there is one thing we do know about eggs in general (if only demonstrably)... the perimeter of an average egg (in 2 dimensions) is a pentagonal golden spiral. And there's one more thing, and this regards the symbolic rose... which often appeared with Carrington's eggs. As it happens, in the tradition of the masons and Rosicrucians - and, possibly the Templars - the mystic rose was emblematic and, in fact, interchangeable with just one geometric figure; no, not the cross, but the pentagram.*** Did she know any of this? Possibly. Coincidence? Maybe. ;-)

______________________________________________________________________

Several Carrington videos that might interest you:

Leonora Carrington The Lost Surrealist

Leonora Carrington: The Sorceress of Surrealism

... and she designed a Tarot! (Also, see this page.)

Lastly, is this article from the Paris Review.

______________________________________________________________________

Have a wonderful Samhain and a blessed Celtic New Year!**

Untitled, Leonora Carrington, 1959.

(Note the cat's whiskers... On one half lies a G-cleft and on the other lies a spiral... plus numerous little magical signs in between. If you - whoever you are - have been following the Golden Series, then, you must - mustn't you? - realize: this piece is to LOVE!)

__________________________________________________

* "The Egg is the macrocosm and the microcosm, the dividing line between the Big and the Small"

** From the Wiki entry for Samhain:

"During the late 19th and early 20th century Celtic Revival, there was an upswell of interest in Samhain and the other Celtic festivals. Sir John Rhys put forth that it had been the "Celtic New Year". He inferred it from contemporary folklore in Ireland and Wales, which he felt was "full of Hallowe'en customs associated with new beginnings". He visited Mann and found that the Manx sometimes called 31 October "New Year's Night" or Hog-unnaa. The Tochmarc Empire, written in the Middle Ages, reckoned the year around the four festivals at the beginning of the seasons, and put Samhain at the beginning of those. However, Hutton says that the evidence for it being the Celtic or Gaelic New Year's Day is flimsy. Rhys's theory was popularized by Sir James George Frazer, though at times he did acknowledge that the evidence is inconclusive. Frazer also put forth that Samhain had been the pagan Celtic festival of the dead and that it had been Christianized as All Saints and All Souls. Since then, Samhain has been popularly seen as the Celtic New Year and an ancient festival of the dead. The calendar of the Celtic League, for example, begins and ends at Samhain."

*** This bit of information regarding the rose and the pentagram was found in a curious tome, Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, written in 1871 by an American Freemason named Albert Pike. Now, you might as well know that Mr. Pike was both a white-supremacist and a male-supremacist - in other words, not the sort of man you want to sit next to on a long bus trip - but his ...Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is an encyclopedic treasure trove of esoteric bits of information which can be found on the internet in two places: here and here. Sadly, neither has an index... so, good luck finding anything because Pike was a sort of mad philosopher kind of author who utilized a stream-of-consciousness method for getting his voluminous catalogue of knowledge (and opinions) all in one place. Inset right is the emblem, embossed in gold, on early editions.

My copy is a 1940s edition - with the emblem (and a subject index!) - picked up in a thrift store for a few dollars, which I marked with little slips of paper in about 90 places. Sadly, I do not have it with me, so, despite combing the dense online editions, the rose/pentagram quote could not be found. There are, however three chapters that might interest the contemporary esotericist: one chapter devoted to the Templar Knights, and another to alchemy and (yet) another to the St. John mystery (neither of which I can find again!). That he was known to plagiarize other sources need not concern us as much as the fact that it's all in English, which may pose a problem for some people. Meanwhile, inset left is a pentagonal rose found online, on a site which just happens to be devoted to fencing. Go figure... moreover, it's a very comprehensive article!

From Pike's Templar Knight chapter: "The Rose was for the Initiates the living and blooming symbol of the revelation of the harmonies of being. It was the emblem of beauty, life, love, and pleasure. Flamel, or the Book of the Jew Abraham, made it the hieroglyphical sign of the accomplishment of the great Work. Such is the key of the Roman de la Rose."

And, another found here: "The Star which guided them is that same Blazing Star, the image whereof we find in all initiations. To the Alchemists it is the sign of the Quintessence; to the Magists, the Grand Arcanum; to the Kabalists, the Sacred Pentagram."