82. MORE CURIOUS

May 25, 2026

Illustration by Moses Soyer. (Source: The First Book of the Ballet by Noel Streatfeild)

An Astrologer in the Ballet du Sérieux et du Grotesque, presented at the court of Louis XIII in 1627, wears the signs of the zodiac draped about his person: Sagittarius on his head, Cancer and Aries on his left arm, Pisces on his left hip, and so forth. (Source: Ballet and Modern Dance, Second edition, by Susan Au)

The spiritus mercurialis and his transformations represented as a monstrous dragon. It is a quaternity, in which the fourth is at the same time the unity of the three, the unity being symbolized by the mystagogue Hermes. The three (above) are (left to right): Luna, Sol, and coniunctio Solis et Lunae in Taurus, the House of Venus. Together they form ☿ = Mercurius. Illuminated drawing in a German alchemical ms., c. 1600 (Source: The Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 13, Alchemical Studies Translated by R.F.C. Hull)

Related: LOGIC, MYSTIC FAMILIAR, ASSURANCE, ON TRACK, DANCER, THE BIG FISH, DANCE LESSONS