Guided Pathway

However in this last figure, one has to notice that the cosmic signs of the universe are interiorized and held as if captive within the palm of the human hand; even if stars are still signs of man’s predetermined destiny, they could also be perceived as being progressively under his grip; the open hand is also a call to action. Remember that in his “Macrocosm and Microcosm” lecture, Saxl emphasized the increasingly anthropocentric character of the Renaissance by pointing out the active intervention of man’s hand daring to grab Fortuna by the hair in order to harness her previously whimsical influences. The image of the hand is also reminiscent of the well-known phrase at the conclusion of Warburg’s lecture on the snake rituals of Pueblo Indians: “Natural forces are no longer seen in anthropomorphic or biomorphic guise, but rather as infinite waves obedient to manual pressure (Handdruck).” (Warburg, Images, 54 translation modified). In the original typescript for his lecture, Warburg had inserted an almost illegible manuscript annotation next to this very phrase including the terms “smallest invisible particles –ma[i?]croscopic” which did not make it to printed text (Warburg Institute Archive, III.93.1, in Papapetros, 97). This minute juxtaposition between the micro and the macro levels in Warburg’s almost illegible handwriting might delineate a new macrocosmic perspective. However far we may proceed in the abstraction of physical agency, it is ultimately the tactile impression of the human hand that activates (yet never entirely controls) the forces of increasingly globalized technologies.