An alchemical treatise notable for expounding the opus through the imagery and language of the biblical Song of Songs and Wisdom literature, portraying the work as a sacred marriage. Richly illustrated in some manuscripts, it fuses Christian mysticism with the stages of transmutation. It presents alchemy as much a spiritual as a laboratory pursuit.
Facts
Origins
Era of Composition Era of CompositionAquinas wrote no alchemical treatise 1Tradition: Latin alchemy Era of CompositionAttributed to Thomas Aquinas 1Tradition: Latin alchemy Era of CompositionThe ascription is not sustainable and the work is anonymous 1Tradition: Latin alchemy Origin of the NameIts Latin title, meaning the rising dawn, describes the allegorical figure of Wisdom the text presents rising to meet the alchemical adept, an image drawn from the biblical Song of Songs and Wisdom literature the author quotes extensively. 2 Attributed Author / CompilerAttributed to Thomas Aquinas (pseudonymous) 1 Scholarship and Forensics
Scholarly NoteMarie Louise von Franz's twentieth century edition and commentary, reading the text through Jungian psychology, did more than any other single study to bring the work to modern scholarly and popular attention. 1 Text
Literary Form Transmission
Manuscript TraditionLong attributed to Thomas Aquinas, an ascription scholarship does not sustain since Aquinas wrote no alchemical treatise; the work is transmitted anonymously. 1 Discipline (class) Tradition (class) Learn More
An Alchemical Song of Songs, Not by Aquinas
Aurora Consurgens ("Rising Dawn") is a fifteenth-century alchemical treatise remarkable for expounding the Great Work through the imagery and language of the biblical Song of Songs and the Wisdom literature, presenting the alchemical union as a sacred marriage; some manuscripts carry a striking cycle of illuminations. It has been attributed to Thomas Aquinas, and there is a tradition connecting it to the mystical experiences of his final days and his deathbed commentary on the Song of Songs.
Modern scholarship treats the attribution with caution and generally speaks of "Pseudo-Aquinas": the ascription is doubtful, and the text is more likely by an unknown later author writing in his name or spirit. The work is best known today through the edition and commentary of the Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz (1966), prepared as a companion to C. G. Jung's Mysterium Coniunctionis; von Franz argued, against the prevailing view, for a real connection to Aquinas, but her deeper interest, like Jung's, was in the text as evidence that the language of alchemy carries a psychology of the union of opposites.
An Alchemical Reading of the Song of Songs
Aurora Consurgens takes an unusual form for an alchemical work. It is structured as a series of parables and reads as a commentary on scripture, drawing most heavily on the Song of Songs and on the wisdom literature, and it applies that biblical language to the alchemical Work throughout. The bride and bridegroom of the Song become the two principles that must be joined; the language of longing, searching and union is read operationally.
Several manuscripts are illuminated, and the images are among the strangest in the alchemical corpus, including hermaphrodite figures and combats between animals that are read as the conjunction of opposites.
The text became widely known in the twentieth century through the edition and commentary of Marie-Louise von Franz, prepared in connection with C. G. Jung's work on alchemy. Jung read the alchemical corpus as a projection of psychic processes onto matter, and Aurora Consurgens, with its explicitly erotic and religious vocabulary applied to a laboratory operation, was an unusually good witness for that reading.
That modern reception is now inseparable from the text. A reader coming to it today is generally coming through Jung, and it is worth knowing that.
Connections
Associated With
Attributed To
Thomas Aquinas, Figures Why this is corrected. Ascribed in the manuscripts to Thomas Aquinas. The ascription is not accepted, and the treatise is generally placed a century or more after his death.
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)Encyclopaedia Britannica editors
Authored By
Source Aurora consurgens (Wikipedia)
Belongs To Discipline
In Language
Originates in Language
Source The Secrets of AlchemyLawrence M. Principe
Sources
1. The Secrets of Alchemy
Lawrence M. Principe, University of Chicago Press, 2013on Aurora Consurgens and the pseudo-Aquinas attributionView the Source 2. Psychology and Alchemy
C.G. Jung, Princeton University Press, 1968on the alchemical union of opposites (von Franz's frame)View the Source Encyclopaedia Britannica (online academic reference)
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2024View the Source Aurora consurgens (Wikipedia)
In Group: Alchemical Texts (Esoteric Texts), Lead sentence, class
The Aurora consurgens is an alchemical treatise of the 15th century famous for the rich illuminations that accompany it in some manuscripts.
Authored By: Thomas Aquinas, Lead section
While in the last century, the text has been more commonly referred to as "Pseudo-Aquinas", there are as well arguments in favour of Thomas Aquinas, to whom it has originally been attributed in some manuscripts.
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