Plate 3: The Order of Creation (Mutus Liber)

An engraving organized into concentric spheres, with the god Jupiter sitting on an eagle in the clouds at the top. The inner circles depict varied scenes: a woman with a peacock, a figure holding a vase of flowers, and a boat occupied by two figures near a shoreline with a bull and trees. In the innermost circle, a bearded man in a boat holds a fishing line or instrument, interacting with sea monsters or fish, while two figures nearby operate fishing nets and poles; a merman or triton swims at the very base. To the left, a radiating sun face appears, and to the right, a crescent moon face, both emerging from the clouds. The entire composition is densely packed with symbolic representations of air, earth, and water elements, rendered in fine black-and-white hatching.

This image is Plate 3 from the 'Mutus Liber' ('Mute Book'), an influential 17th-century alchemical work that communicates the process of the Great Work through purely visual, wordless symbolism. The imagery synthesizes classical mythology with alchemical stages of transmutation, reflecting the Hermetic tradition's focus on the 'as above, so below' correspondence.