Dearly beloved friends:
I take the pen to write you some words related to the present engraving that we found INTERESTING to reveal in order to increase our knowledge about ourselves.
First of all, I have to tell you that the present engraving by the author Hieronymus Jerome Wierix, belongs to the collection called “Four ages of man”, and is entitled…
THE ADULT AGE – THE TWILIGHT OF OUR LIFE
In truth, what we see reflected in it are nothing more than human miseries ─moral and psychological─ typical of the humanoids of the Earth.
There is a series of characters that make up the very structure of this engraving and each one with a nefarious peculiarity. So, for example, let us start by observing an old, horrible woman who has snakes on her head, instead of hair. It is, obviously, a MEDUSA that is accompanied by the word Discord. No doubt reference is made to the evil quality that likes to sow intrigues, hatreds, quarrels, antipathies between people, etc., etc. Discord does not allow peace, harmony, calm, joy, etc., etc., etc.
Near the aforementioned Medusa we can see another woman who does not stop filling sacks with coins that she empties from a barrel. She is accompanied by the Latin word Avaritia ─namely: ‘greed’─. Everyone knows that greed has no limits. The “I” of greed always wants more and more and more… This aggregate drives us to want to have money at all costs; furthermore, if we have a car then it will induce us to have three more ─even without needing them─; likewise, if we have a house it will move our psychological triggers to obtain ten houses, and so on.
This is very notorious among many men and many women. There are ladies who have closets full of clothes and shoes, many of which they do not even use, different jewelries of varied prices, and all this to show off in front of their friends. Greedy gentlemen want to change cars every year, they have in their personal trousseau a wide variety of watches, and, as always, they do not use them either…..
Note that above the greedy lady there is a globe that sometimes represents our world. This is to indicate, precisely, that greed is a psychological disease that knows no territorial limits and can be found everywhere.
Continuing our description, we can point to another lady who is on top of the carriage accompanied by the word Aegritudo, which means ‘discomfort‘, ‘anxiety‘, ‘illness’. It is important to note that many people are always complaining about everything, absolutely everything. This is what we call in Gnosis self-consideration ─psychological song─, and therefore the vessel that such a woman carries in her hands points to the fact that we always go around begging for compassion, for comfort, but in a vicious way. We do not want, in any way, to deny the pain of some people when they are really sick, and, obviously, this brings demoralization and sadness. But that is another thing.
Then, another female character appears before our eyes who in one hand carries a torch and in the other a jug of water that is emptied while the cart moves. The aforementioned female carries above her the word FRAVS or FRAUS in Latin language. This word refers to ‘fraud’. And what does this have to do with the torch and the jug? Well, quite simply, that the thing being offered is not real. Fraud always offers what is actually an illusion. That is why this woman on the one hand carries fire ─the torch─ and on the other she carries water ─the jug─.
Further on we can see another lady who carries many keys on one of her arms and on the crest of the horse she holds a box or chest. The accompanying Latin word is CVRA. This word translates into ‘anxiety‘, ‘eagerness’, and in her left hand she carries a bag full of things. This must be translated as the eagerness, the anxiety that the psychological aggregates produce in us, which encourage us to want to get rid of, no matter in what way, our problems, and that is why such a woman carries countless keys, because she yearns for a door to be opened to get rid of the weight of the bag that she carries in her left hand.
It is good to highlight a character who goes in front, covered with a black mantle that also serves as a cap or hood. The Latin term that points to him is LVCTVS and it has to be translated as ‘mourning’ for the death of a loved one or for something very dear that we have lost. Undoubtedly, patient reader, everything we have been analyzing refers to our weaknesses in life and, unfortunately, we drag such weaknesses all our lives. We are not able to overcome the death of someone very dear because we do not want to understand that EVERYTHING THAT IS BORN DIES…
It is good to add here the images of two old men that we see. One of them carries an open book and is close to the woman who represents greed. Such a character is the one who keeps the accounts of the money that the woman pours into her sacks. This old man refers to the misers who keep minute accounts down to the penny they spend and are extremely selfish.
The other old man, behind the first one, is reading the notes of the same to verify that everything is properly counted.
It is also good to point out that this carriage is our own disordered psyche, which carries all this psychological filth that makes us suffer, day by day, all our lives. Only through self-observation can we discover these mentaloid vermin and then free ourselves from them by the knife of self-analysis and self-comprehension.
It is also interesting to observe that the wheels of this pernicious carriage are destroying everything that is noble, such as a violin, a compass, some scrolls of wisdom, various values symbolized by wads of bills or money, etc., etc., etc.
And, finally, we will say that the man who marches with a banner or flag and has an amputated leg signals, points to or indicates, all the discomfort caused by these psychic clumsiness or undesirable psychological aggregates.
It is notorious that on the wood of the carriage is written in Latin the word VESPER, which has to be translated as ‘sunset‘, ‘beginning of the night’. This word is not put there by chance, no. This indicates that these psychological scourges will torment us more and more as we enter our old age…
I would now like to give you some sentences that have come to us to be reflected upon:
“Greed shrinks the heart.“
Chateaubriand
“The root of all evil is greed.”
Saint Paul
“The miser experiences at once all the worries of the rich and all the hardships of the poor.”
Albert Guinon
“The misers hoard as if they were to live eternally, and the prodigals dissipate the same as if they were going to die.”
Aristotle
“Greed is like a flame, whose violence increases in proportion to the fire that precedes it.”
Seneca
SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI.
─‘Thus passes the glory of the world’─.
KWEN KHAN KHU
