Two of Wands
Sacred Site – Alchemy Gate, Rome.
The Alchemy Gate, also known as the Porta Alchemica оr Magic Portal was built between 1678 and 1680 by Massimiliano Palombara, the Marquis of Pietraforte in his Villa in Rome. Іt іs located in the Piazza Vittorio, and adjacent to the ruins of a large 2,000-year-old nymphaeum built by Emperor Alexander Severus. There were five gates, but this is the only one that remains.
The story goes that in 1802 the alchemist Giustiniani Bono was staying in the villa as a guest, while there he searched the grounds for a herb that was an essential ingredient in his alchemical work of transmuting base metal into gold and gaining immortality. He may have found what he was looking for as the next morning he was seen to go through the doorway and disappear forever, (at least on this plain of existence). He did leave behind a few flakes of gold and a piece of paper covered with all the necessary formula for a successful alchemical transmutation, trouble is no one could translate the strange symbols. The Marquis had these symbols engraved on the doorway in the hopes that one day they would be translated.
Erm, maybe I should say here that I found a few different stories on-line and made this one up from bits of each of them. In one the symbols magically appeared on the doorway after Bono stepped through, all agree that flakes or pieces of gold were found and Giustiniani Bono did disappear. The engraving on the doorway has been dated at 1860, way after Bono’s disappearance, so there’s another mystery. The statues on either side of the doorway are actually nothing to do with the portal, they are of Bes – the Egyptian god of Humour and Childbirth and were found at an archaeological dig in another part of Rome. Some one must have thought they would look good “guarding” it.
Keywords: Option, decision, planning.
Possible deck specific interpretations: Plan, and then put yourself in a position whereupon you can act on said plans, (just try not to disappear 🙂 ).
I couldn’t find anything on YouTube (in English) for this card, so here’s a classic episode of the 60’s sci-fi tv show, The Time Tunnel, (there is a teensy connection… maybe)?¿!
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