SYMBOLS - FIRE DRAGON - SULPHUR - GRAVE Alchemical plate from Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens, 1618. This is the 21st emblem in the series. The Latin text deepens what at first appears to be a simple enough image, and translates, 'Make from the male and female a circle, then a square, then a triangle, and then a circle, and you will have the Stone of the Philosophers'. The imagery pertains partly to the mediaeval problem of squaring the circle, which was the geometric equivalent of relating matter to spirit. In his illustration, the operation recognizes that the union of spirit and matter is a fact of nature (the naked Man and Woman), linked with nourishment and sexuality. It is no accident that the shadow of the alchemist's compass falls from the centre of this geometrical proposition to the nipple of the woman's right breast. The squaring of the circle is itself a creative, or nourishing, act.