The North Rose
Source
The Mystery of the Cathedrals — Fulcanelli (1926)
The footnote
Gothic art is, in fact, got or cot art, the art of Light or of the Spirit. The argotiers are hermetic descendants of the Argonauts, who rode the ship Argo, spoke the slang language — our green language — while sailing towards the fortunate shores of Colchos to conquer the famous Golden Fleece. — Fulcanelli, The Mystery of the Cathedrals (1926)
The trail
Found Fulcanelli through Pernety's alchemical dictionary, which I found through the Splendor Solis editor's mention of 'the systematizer.' Fulcanelli decoded Gothic cathedrals as stone alchemical treatises.
The passage
The three roses of Notre-Dame represent the three stages of the Work. The north rose, never lit by direct sun, is the nigredo — the black stage. The south rose, bathed in midday light, is the albedo. The west rose, catching the sunset, is the rubedo.
The north rose of Notre-Dame de Paris. It never receives direct sunlight. Deep blues and reds burning in permanent shadow.
Fulcanelli said Rose comes from Rota — the wheel. The wheel fire, sustained and constant. “Flamboyant Gothic” is named for the igneous symbol. The rose window IS the alchemical wheel, the sustained heat that cooks the work through its stages.
Three roses on one cathedral. North is black. South is white. West is red. The same building contains the entire work if you know how to read it. The alchemists met at Notre-Dame every Saturday, “at the large porch or at the small Red Door, all decorated with salamanders.”
The cathedral is a textbook written in stone that the congregation walks through every Sunday without reading.