File:Bollingen Lapis2.jpg
TAmEn UBIQue REPerIOR, Unus Sum SeD MIHI
COnTRARIus, IUVEnis Et SEnEX
SimuL, NEC PATREm NeC MAT-
REm NOVI, Q[UI]A LEVAnDus Sum E
ProFunDO AD InSTAR PISCis, S-
EU DELABOR A COELO QU-
ASI CALCULus ALBus, NEMORIBus
MOnTIBusQue InERRO, In PEnITISSImO
AUTEm HOmInE DELITESCO,
MORTALis In UnUmQuoDQue CAPUT,
Non TAmEn TAnGor TEmPorUm MUTA-
TIOnE.
The inscription content is alchemical, translating to approximately
"I am an orphan, alone yet encountered everywhere, single yet opposed to myself, young and old at the same time, neither father nor mother did I know, for I am to be raised from the depth in likeness of the Fish, or I descend from heaven like the White Stone, through groves and mountains do I wander, yet I hide in innermost man, am mortal within every single head, and still am not touched by the changing of the seasons."
The speaker is the lapis philosophorum, among whose many allegories are Piscis (the astrological sign) and calculus albus "white stone".
"I am mortal within every head (i.e. individual)" is from Horace, Letters II.2.187f. in reference to the divine genius which is "mortal for (in the case of) each individual"[1]