The Beheading of the King and Queen (Aurora consurgens)

This illumination features a hybrid being with a blue human torso transitioning into a coiled snake-like tail, wearing a crown of radiant sun-spikes and wielding an axe over its shoulder. Beside it lie the headless, prone bodies of a king (in red) and a queen (in white), with their severed heads resting on the ground at their feet. To the right, a glass vessel sits within flames, containing three distinct spheres: a gold-leaf center flanked by two darker, blackened orbs. The background is a soft, muted red, and the floor is a brownish-green wash.

This image is a seminal representation of the alchemical 'coniunctio' or chemical wedding, illustrating the 'mortificatio' or putrefaction phase where the dualities of sun and moon (represented by the king and queen) are dismantled to facilitate transmutation. It appears in the 'Aurora consurgens', a manuscript traditionally associated with the alchemical tradition attributed to Thomas Aquinas.