DiotimosReading Desk

Potter and clay as maternal-imagination analogy

figuli; argilla; format; manu; figulus

The potter and clay image presents the forming fetus as receptive to the mother’s alleged imaginative power.

From the book

Nine Books on the Nature of Things

Attributed to Paracelsus · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Meaning

The potter and clay image presents the forming fetus as receptive to the mother’s alleged imaginative power. The comparison emphasizes shaping agency: the potter fashions what is desired, and the text attributes an analogous capacity to maternal imagination and inner stars. It does not prove that the analogy holds biologically. Argilla elsewhere belongs among mineral materials capable of growth, so its figurative function here should remain distinct.

Places to read

  1. Book 1 · Generation · Passage 5Latin“sicut argilla in manu figuli”