Aurora Consurgens

Aurora Consurgens

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The above is one of 38 miniatures in watercolor from the Aurora consurgens (“Rising dawn”), an illuminated manuscript of the 15th century. It contains a medieval alchemical treatise, attributed to Thomas Aquinas in the past, now to an author known as “Pseudo Aquinas.” In 1966, Jungian protegé Marie-Louise von Franz published an edited version of the text with commentary under the title: “Aurora Consurgens: A Document Attributed to Thomas Aquinas on the Problem of Opposites” in Alchemy: A Companion Work to C.G. Jung’s Mysterium Conjunctionis. As is well known, Carl Jung took the alchemical aim of transmuting base metals into precious metals to be a powerful symbol for the psychical process of individuation.