Atalanta Unveiled: Decoding the Atalanta Fugiens and its path to self-initiation

Dubbed ‘the most prominent alchemical physician in Germany since Paracelsus,’ Michael Maier was Royal Physician and Count Palatine to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. A doctor, diplomat and alchemist, Maier spent much of his life in a poignant, fruitless quest for the elusive Rosicrucian Brotherhood; visionaries and intellectuals whose Manifestos proclaiming a “universal reformation of mankind” had caused an immense impact on European culture in the wake of decades of religious warfare. Maier produced a variety of works synthesising his interests in healing, alchemy, and esoteric philosophy. His Atalanta fugiens (1617) was designed to simultaneously stimulate the senses, the intellect, and the spirit through engagement with the emblems, music, and text, to lead the reader on a path to self-initiation through the secrets of alchemical knowledge.

In this richly illustrated lecture based on her new book, "Atalanta Unveiled" (2020) Dr Sasha Chaitow traces this path through the structure and content of the Atalanta fugiens together with a number of Maier’s other works. She explores the coded mythical references in the images and provides evidence that the emblems need to be rearranged to decode Maier’s full message.