Tycho Brahe and the Basilisk

By  OVE VON SPAETH
copyright © 1984  &  © 2004  -  www.moses-egypt.net
 

The old tale about the genie of the bottle is figurative language originating from the cultic initiations known in ancient Middle East. But did other conditions of mystical relations attach to the bottle/container?
Modern languages still have several expressions from these relations - the archetypal, symbolic expressions are re-echoed in the linguistic images from the ideas of those initiated, who were versed in astronomy and alchemy. This applies in particular for the Tycho Brahe records.



The Well In the Sky

In a letter dated on February 14, 1576, from Danish astronomer and alchymist Tycho Brahe in Scania to his friend, Johannes Pratensis in Copenhagen, was written about he (Brahe) was planning secretly to travel south to Basle in Switzerland. However, at the decisive moment the command of Danish King Frederik II to remain in Denmark, got in his way.

In that time Basle was a spiritual centre for many alchemists. In order to understand the circumstances, we have to look into some ancient tales or traditions from the Orient, in which the horrible basilisk is mentioned.
This terrible animal - a mixture of the head, wings, and claws of a cock, and the body of a dragon - living at the bottom of a well shaft, and was so cruel that a person died when looking at it, because its look had a lethal effect. However, it was possible to get at the culprit by lowering a mirror into the well to the brute. (A principle mythical Perseus used with Medusa).
 

Alchemist’s reagent bottle with
a ”little king” - a so-called homunculus.

 

According to old traditions there is a well in the sky. Its bottom is the Leo constellation, the main star of which is a so-called “royal star” Regulus or Basiliskos (is both in Latin and Greek ‘little king’, and in Greek also ‘a monster’). The upper opening of the well is the Aquarius constellation, named the Water Carrier, but originally the Well Pitcher or the Well Bucket.
 

The constellation of Aquarius, the Water Carrier, originally named
the Well Pitcher or the Well Bucket. From Bayer’s star atlas, 17th century..

 

Basle - and Basilisk

Among alchemists the widespread assumption was that terrestrial conditions were mirrored in the sky and vice versa. They considered the said starry well as a parallel to their retort (process container). The Draco constellation (the Dragon) which winds around the celestial well and bite himself in the tail, was understood as a reflection/figurative echo of the retort with its entwined radiator tubes.

At the bottom of this retort the alchemist started to develop a so-called “homunculus”, a tiny human being and looking like a king, in other words a “little king”, a “basiliskos”.

The old tale about the genie with the violent forces - trapped in a bottle sealed with seal of King Solomon, shows to be an allegory of the alchemist creature in the well/retort.

And similarly, the tale about a monster in a well
- an ugly toad, which eventually turns into a prince, a “little king” (e.g. by being kissed of the woman/princess who found him).

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance the name of the city, i.e. Basle, can be seen attached to the name expression ‘basilisk’, and the city arms presented a basilisk. Therefore, it is natural that many alchemists turned their eyes towards Basle (where books on alchemy were allowed to be printed), and which quickly became one of the centres of this occult science.

 
Basle’s original city arms presenting the mystical basilisk.
 

Uraniborg Founded On the Day Of the Basilisk

Tycho Brahe wrote, that during his life he spent as much time on alchemy as on astrology. When in 1576 he built the Uraniborg, his palace and observatory, he created towers for observations of the stars as well as a huge laboratory with as many as 16 alchemist ovens in operation, and 5 similar ovens in his house in Copenhagen. Thus, exactly like by his working with astronomy, he had a large-scale-operation of experiments and observations producing enormous amounts of data for use in a statistical and empirical research - the first in history - and he became the grand pioneer of modern science.

First, however, he made ample provisions for the foundation on August 8, at the time - early in the morning when the sun was passing Regulus-Basiliskos, the royal star. - Likewise, he chose the time when Moon and Mars were passing Regulus-Basiliskos, when on December 11, 1584, he founded an annex to the Uraniborg, i.e. the “Stjerneborg” (‘Star-castle’) placing the fundament stone in the deepest observation well of this, his demi-underground observatory.

99 years later, the Greenwich Observatory was founded by John Flamsteed, Britain’s Astronomer Royal, by being following the same original guide lines as presented by Tycho Brahe at the Uraniborg. Flamsteed took care that the foundation took place at a very particular time, that is at the time when the sun was passing Regulus-Basiliskos.
 

Ove von Spaeth

Writer, Historian, Independent Researcher: copyright © 1998 & © 2004.

- Partly from Ove von Spaeth’s “The Secret Religion”  the vol. 4 of his book-series, “Assassinating Moses”.
( C.A. Reitzel Publisher & Bookseller  -   phone  33 12 24 00  &  info@careitzel.com )

Additional information:  www.moses-egypt.net
 



Tycho Brahe’s armillary-instrument with the mythology figure Atlas (with the sky globe on
his shoulders), who purposely is pictured as a king at the bottom of the (observatory-) well.
 



Part of alchemistic laboratory with ovens and retorts as in the
Tycho Brahe’s own workshop in the cellar vaults of Uraniborg.

 

           

The Draco constellation shown as Ourobos. Right: Alchemists’ retort-oven.


 

        
 

 

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