The Grave of False Theology

A white rectangular label or bookplate is pasted onto a marbled paper background. The background features a combed or peacock marbled pattern in shades of blue, red, brown, and white. A decorative gold-tooled border is visible along the left and bottom edges.

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original: "PHILOSOPHIA HERMETICA"

A circular emblem or bookplate appears in the center. An oval vignette depicts a pelican in her piety. This is a white bird wounding her own breast to feed her young with her blood, which symbolizes sacrifice. She is perched upon a golden platform or nest. Above her, golden rays shine from a source of light at the top of the oval. Below the bird, within the same oval, is a square heraldic device divided into four sections. Each section contains a red rose. The oval has a blue background and is framed by a green laurel wreath. The Latin text for Hermetic Philosophy is printed in a circular arrangement around the central wreath.

Hermetic Philosophy a spiritual and philosophical tradition based on writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, often involving alchemy and mysticism, pelican in her piety a traditional Christian and alchemical symbol where a mother pelican feeds her chicks with her own blood, representing self-sacrifice or the revitalizing power of the philosopher's stone, roses symbols of secrecy, the heart, or the final stage of the alchemical process, alchemy, Hermeticism