OCCULTISM
ALCHEMY
Essays on alchemical and Hermetic
symbolism and philosophy.
What is Alchemy?
Alchemy could best be defined as proto-chemistry. Ancient, medieval, and early modern alchemists attempted to understand what things are made of, how they are made, and how one can make more of them. The primary goal of alchemy was to transmute common or “base” metals like lead and tin into precious metals like silver and gold. Out of this simple, albeit futile goal came an entire system of chemical procedures, symbology, art, and literature that centered around the production of a mythical substance called the Philosopher’s Stone, and it eventually evolved directly into modern chemistry. The Philosopher’s Stone is a hypothetical perfect substance that could supposedly transmute any substance into the most ideal form of itself. It could turn lead into gold, cure any disease, prolong life, encourage the fertile growth of plants, and other such miraculous feats. A simple way of describing it might be crystallized divinity — God in a bottle. It was desirable enough for most alchemists to relentlessly pursue its creation. The exact process of making it varies, sometimes drastically, between different authors — they may be operating on different theory, or they may create different subdivisions of the process with a different number of stages, or they may interpret the allegorical imagery in different ways. The process of making the Philosopher’s Stone, and the nature of the Stone itself, was also intentionally described in the most cryptic terms possible and layered with obfuscating metaphorical imagery. But it did usually follow a similar basic pattern: In order to produce the Stone, the starting material must be repeatedly purified by separating out the solid “fixed” parts of the substance from the liquid or gaseous “volatile” parts of it, and then recombining them in specific ways. The core components of the substance would be separated out and recombined over and over and over again, with slightly different chemical procedures each time, until the substance became as pure as it could possibly be. This cyclical pattern is summarized by the Latin phrase solve et coagula, “dissolve and coagulate,” or even more simply, “to split apart and bring together”. This process proceeded through color-coded stages: In the nigredo or black stage, the substance would be heated until it turned black and putrefied at the bottom of the flask. When the substance “dies” it’s “spirit” would leave its “body” in the form of vapor. This stage is identified with death, and alchemical artwork represents it with images of coffins, skulls, ravens or crows, and the death of a king that represents the material. Next was the brief “peacock’s tail” stage in which the substance was repeatedly heated until it turned many different colors, which reconcile into the albedo, the white stage. The material turns into a white powder that is already capable of transmuting base metals into silver, but not quite the Philosopher’s Stone. This stage is identified with the moon, white birds such as doves or swans, lilies, snow, silver, and the Queen. Sometimes the white stage is followed up by a yellow stage, citrinitas, but the final stage was always the rubedo, the red stage. When the material turns red, it has finally become the coveted Philosopher’s Stone. This stage is identified with the sun, the phoenix, roses, rubies, gold, and the King. Once the Stone is completed, the alchemist has to mix it with gold, and then “project” it by throwing a bit of its powder into a crucible of base metal, which will then turn into gold. The color-changes were a sign that the Great Work was preceding correctly — if they appeared out-of-order, then something had gone wrong. The basic theory behind alchemy was that all matter is made of the same stuff — not atoms in the sense that we would understand them now, but a kind of formless primordial ooze that anything and everything is ultimately made out of. This primordial substance was called prima materia, “first matter” Prima materia supposedly developed into different substances deep within the earth, so that metals “grew” in the ground like plants. They began as “base” or “impure” metals like lead, iron, or tin, and naturally evolved towards “noble” metals like silver or gold. Hypothetically, an alchemist could speed up this process by replicating it artificially in a laboratory. If a substance could be reduced down into the most primordial form of matter, called prima materia or “first matter,” it could be reconstructed as any other substance. Like gold, for example, which was considered to be the “perfect” metal (or metal in its most idealized state). The way to do this was to recombine the substance’s components in different ratios. Many European Alchemists subscribed to the Aristotelian doctrine that everything is made up of the four classical elements (earth, air, fire, and water) in different ratios. The notion that the whole world is composed of the four classical elements isn’t as wrong as it may sound; one could interpret the four classical elements as the four states of matter: solids are “earth,” liquids are “water,” gases are “air,” and plasma is “fire.” For example, alchemists used “water” as a generic term for any liquid, including acids and sulfides. Lawrence Principe writes in his book The Secrets of Alchemy, "The ‘fire’ distills off as a flammable and/or colored substance, the ‘air’ is an oily one, and the ‘water’ as a watery one; the ‘earth’ remains behind in the residue." — Lawrence M. Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy Each element had its own properties — earth is cold and dry, water is cold and wet, air is hot and wet, and fire is hot and dry. The balance of the four elements and their properties determined what kind of metal the prima materia evolved into. Once separated out, the different “elements” could be reduced further into prima materia by combining elements with opposite properties, which would then cancel each other out. When all four elements were in perfect balance, the result would be the Philosopher’s Stone. One of the other prevailing theories behind transmutation was that the “seeds” of the metals, from which they “grew,” are Sulfur and Mercury. These aren’t literal sulfur and mercury — they’re generic terms for the innate quality (for lack of a better word) of metals that could melt and appear like mercury, such as tin and lead, or metals that could burn like sulfur, such as copper and iron. Sulfur and Mercury represented two complimentary principles that had to be united and balanced out in order to produce the Philosopher’s Stone. Principe writes, "For chymical writers, Sulfur and Mercury represent a pairing of complementary principles: solid-liquid, dry-wet, coagulant-coagulated, form-matter, active-passive, and so on. Indeed, the terms Mercury and Sulfur must be seen as referring to two groups of substances (real or theoretical) identified by their reactivity toward each other." — Lawrence M. Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy Much like with the four elements, changing the proportion of Sulfur and Mercury in a substance would allow the alchemist to artificially construct any other substance. The properties of “Philosophical” Sulfur were hot, dry, active, fixed, and masculine. It is nearly always associated with the sun and the color red, as in the “Red King” or “Red Lion.” Over the course of the Great Work, the Red King would evolve from “base” and easily-combustible Sulfur into “noble” and incorruptible Gold. The properties of Mercury, also called quicksilver or argent vive, were cold, wet, passive, volatile, and feminine. “Philosophical” Mercury was almost always associated with the moon and with the color white, and the White Queen would evolve into Silver. The substances’ “reactivity towards each other” is represented by the “Chemical Wedding,” an image of a marriage between a Red King and White Queen that symbolizes the unification of these opposing principles in perfect proportion. Principe argues that sex is a natural and expected symbol for a chemical reaction: "…given that alchemy is fundamentally a generative and productive practice (that is, it makes stuff), comparisons to procreation are actually appropriate. Alchemy’s aim is to give rise to new substances or new properties by combining existing ones, just as parents give rise to new offspring through their union. Sex and sexuality are among the most universal and common experiences of human beings, and so provide a ready source of similitudes and easily intelligible, descriptive metaphors." — Lawrence M. Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy The Philosopher’s Stone is often depicted as the hermaphroditic “child” of this union, the offspring of Sulfur and Mercury that has perfectly balanced properties of both. If you’re wondering whether it’s the four elements that need to be in balance or Sulfur and Mercury that need to be in balance, or both, well… it’s exactly as confusing as it sounds. The mercury-sulfur theory and the four-elements theory have an “uneasy or unclear relationship to each other,” as Principe puts it, because of how these ideas evolved in early alchemical texts. It’s a popular idea among modern occultists that alchemy was never about making gold, that it was instead a purely mystical system designed to transmute the soul from a “base” or “leaden” state of spiritual impurity to a “gold” or purified state of divinity, with the chemical procedures of alchemy being an elaborate metaphor for psycho-spiritual development. This idea was popularized by Mircea Eliade, Carl Jung, and Mary Anne Atwood in the twentieth century. Their works on alchemy were so influential that their paradigm became "…the dominant mode by which alchemy was studied academically, and even more so, that was how it was known publicly." — Justin Sledge, “What is Spiritual Alchemy — The Historical Unification of Mysticism, the Philosopher’s Stone, and Heresy.” Sledge observes that the majority of his viewers are only familiar with alchemy in this context, evidenced by the number of comments he gets asking about “spiritual alchemy.” I am a fan of Jung and I still prefer to interpret alchemy metaphorically, however, the claim that alchemy was only ever a spiritual process is incorrect. Alchemy was absolutely a practical chemical procedure involving literal substances. The “new historiography” of alchemy seeks to interpret it not as mysticism or pseudoscience, but as proto-science. Two of the leading modern scholars on alchemy, Lawrence M. Principe and William R. Newman, put forward this new approach to studying alchemy in their article, “Alchemy vs. Chemistry: The Etymological Origins to a Historiographic Mistake.” The historiographic mistake that they refer to in the title is the idea that alchemy and chemistry are fundamentally different things that can be distinguished from each other with a clear line. Twentieth-century scholars characterized alchemy as “archaic, irrational, and even consciously fraudulent,” as opposed to chemistry, which is “modern, scientific, and rational.” Newman and Principe argue that this distinction is arbitrary and ahistorical, and that there is no meaningful distinction between alchemy and chemistry. They prove that the two terms were used interchangeably until the late seventeenth century and that only afterwards “alchemy” came to refer only to attempting to transmute base metals into gold, which is impossible, eventually rendering “alchemy” a term associated with pseudoscience. Principe writes in The Secrets of Alchemy, "…the focus on understanding matter and guiding its transformations towards practical ends establishes a commonality and continuity between ‘alchemy’ and ‘chemistry’." There was never any point where alchemy “died” or formally changed into chemistry. It gradually evolved as alchemists realized through experimentation that the underlying theory was wrong, and that chrysopoeia (turning metals into gold) would never work. The alchemists slowly invented chemistry by experimenting with substances, just as chemists today do, laying the foundations for the modern field: "For example, alchemy brought forth such principles as an emphasis on the determination and conservation of weight in chemical processes, well-developed and explanatory particulate matter theories, analysis and synthesis as tools for understanding nature, the power of human artifice to create new or improved products over natural ones, and perhaps even the notions of force key to Newton’s physics." — Lawrence M. Principe, Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism Therefore, many modern scholars prefer to examine alchemy in context of science. I admire the new historiographic approach for making alchemy a subject worthy of respect and academic interest, and also for correcting some of my own incorrect ahistorical notions about alchemy. But if alchemy isn’t mysticism, and is only magical because turning lead into gold was never going to work, then where does that leave occultists who are interested in alchemy? I am no chemist; I cannot reproduce alchemical recipes in a lab the way Principe does. So, how is alchemy relevant to me? Well, I still really like the modern mystical interpretation of alchemy, even if it’s not historically accurate. And there’s evidence that at least some alchemists interpreted alchemy in a mystical context in addition to a scientific one, like Roger Bacon, who believed that by perfecting the human body using alchemical medicine, one could “participate in God.” That sounds like mysticism to me. Medieval alchemists like Bacon believed that by physically perfecting things, one could spiritually perfect them at the same time: "Medieval alchemy was not a natural science in the modern sense but a doctrine of nature, which tried to discover and apply the laws of nature through theory and experiment. Its fundamental assumption was a holistic concept, which united the macrocosm of the stars and the microcosm of men and nature. […] The goal of the medieval alchemists was not just the exploration but the perfection of nature, regarded as a divine task or duty" — Herwig Buntz, Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism This “macrocosm/microcosm” idea is still very common in modern occultism. It is summarized by the occult maxim “as above, so below,” a phrase taken from a short alchemical poem called the Tabula Smaragdina or Emerald Tablet, which first appeared in early medieval Arabic texts. The phrase means that the workings of the universe at large directly correspond to the patterns of human life and the workings of the human body, and that by affecting one, you can affect the other. The point of medieval alchemy was not an overcomplicated get-rich-quick scheme, but rather, a divine mandate to help the world reach a perfect godlike state. To me, that sounds a lot like the Jungian interpretation of alchemy as a means of mystical self-actualization. The practical aspects of medieval alchemy were still there and were still important, but they were intertwined with this theory of improving and perfecting the world on both a physical and a spiritual level. Alchemy isn’t turning something into something else, it’s turning something into the best version of itself. One of the legendary founders of alchemy is the pseudo-historical figure Hermes Trismegistus, who was allegedly an incarnation of both the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. The Emerald Tablet is attributed to him. His epithet “Thrice-Greatest” is variously interpreted; I have heard it as a simple superlative, i.e. “great, great, great,” and I have also heard it as referring to Hermes Trismegistus’ three roles as the greatest philosopher, priest, and king. My personal interpretation, however, is that “Trismegistus” refers to him being the greatest scientist, priest, and wizard. I think that one must be all three in order to be a proper occultist. One must have knowledge of science to understand how the world works and why, knowledge of the divine and spiritual worlds (whether within the context of an established religion or not), and one must also have knowledge of magic, the secret third thing that is neither science nor religion, but somewhere in between the two. Works Cited Abraham, Lyndy. A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery. Cambridge University Press, 1998. Allen, Meagan S. Roger Bacon and the Incorruptible Human, 1220–1292: Alchemy, Pharmacology and the Desire to Prolong Life. Palgrave Macmillan, 2023. Hanegraaff, Wouter J., editor. Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism. Brill, 2006. Little, A.J., editor. Roger Bacon Essays: Contributed by Various Writers on the Occasion of the Commemoration of the Seventh Century of his Birth. Oxford University Press, 1914. Newman, William R. and Lawrence M. Principe. “Alchemy vs. Chemistry: The Etymological Origins to a Historiographic Mistake.” Early Science and Medicine, Vol. 3, №1. 1998. Principe, Lawrence M. The Secrets of Alchemy. University of Chicago Press, 2013. Sledge, Justin. “What is the Philosopher’s Stone? Introduction to Alchemy — History of Alchemical Theory and Practice.” YouTube, uploaded by ESOTERICA, 2 December 2022. Sledge, Justin. “What is Spiritual Alchemy — The Historical Unification of Mysticism, the Philosopher’s Stone, and Heresy.” YouTube, uploaded by ESOTERICA, 5 May 2023.
A Dictionary of Alchemical Symbolism
The majority of what is here is paraphrased directly from A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery by Lyndy Abraham, which is my main source for this. Most of this is a simplified paraphrasing of that book, based on my own understanding of it. This list of symbols is here as reference material for anyone who wants a quick and relatively simple rundown, for any reason. Abyss: Another name for Prima Materia, Chaos or the formless primordial matter from which the Stone is made. Air: The androgynous, volatile, combined masculine and feminine principles. Its properties are hot and wet. Alabaster: The White Stone, the material at the second stage of the work that can transmute metals into silver. It is purified and spiritual matter, body and soul (but not spirit yet). Amber: Considered synonymous with gold, the product of the philosophical tree that represents the Philosopher’s Stone. Androgyne: Mercurius and the Philosopher’s Stone, a union of male and female principles (i.e. Sun and Moon, sulfur and mercury, red and white), It is a synthesis of the hot, dry male aspect and the cold, wet female aspect. It represents the integration of male and female energies. It is therefore a union of opposites and a perfect being. It is sometimes represented by (red) roses and (white) lilies, which are symbols of the Red and White Tinctures. The symbol for Mercury (the planet) contains the symbols for both the sun and the moon, making it hermaphroditic. (Also called a rebis) Angel: The volatile, spiritual, subtle matter of the Stone during sublimation. Antimony: The substance of the Stone during the nigredo, black earth, the next stage up from lead. Apollo: Represents the Red Tincture. The masculine principle, hot and dry, the rubedo stage. Apple: The golden apple represents the fixing power of Sulphur on the elusive Mercury (represented by Atalanta). Aqua ardens: “Burning water,” the universal solvent that dissolves matter into prima materia. Represented by Mercury. Aqua regia: “Royal water,” a mixture of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid (sal ammoniac) that can dissolve gold and platinum. That makes it a form of the mercurial “burning water” that can reduce all metal to prima materia. Aqua vitae: Ethanol, specifically distilled wine. It’s also a name for Mercury and for Quintessence, the catalyst of the work that “washes” the matter of the Stone to purify and whiten it. It’s the “water of life” that resurrects the dead matter, the essence of love and forgiveness. Argent vive: Quicksilver, actual mercury (Hg), the feminine “seed” of metals that must be “married” to its masculine counterpart, sulfur. Ash: The remains of the body when the subtle self (the soul) is removed during calcination. It is the white powder that the body becomes during the white stage, which is washed in mercurial water and tempered with fire. A phoenix rises from the ashes. Autumn: The completion of the Great Work is symbolized by the philosophical tree bearing its gold and silver fruit. Trees bear fruit in autumn, making autumn the season of culmination. Balm: A term for the Philosopher’s Stone in the form of a panacea, a medicine that can purify anything and cure any disease (including spiritual ones) Basilisk: Mercury in its negative aspect, it represents endless hunger and self-absorption. It is the mercurial water in its destructive aspect, which “kills” base metal, reducing it to prima materia. Bath: The mercurial waters of purification, which dissolves, cleanses, and resurrects the matter of the Stone. The breaking down and washing away of an old state of being, leading to rebirth; baptism. Battles: Between a god and a dragon, or two dragons, or an eagle and a snake, a lion and a winged lioness, or similar; represent the alchemical lovers (Sol and Luna) in their impure state, as the “quarrelling couple.” Their fighting represents the violent chemical reactions that result of trying to force together the opposing forces of sulfur and mercury (or of the four elements), but eventually they reconcile and are married. Bed: The alchemical vessel during the “chemical wedding” stage. Bee: Another symbol of the “mercurial serpent,” universal solvent. Its sting is a version of “killing” metals, destroying the old state of being. (Bees also transmute base matter in their process of creating honey.) Beheading: The dismemberment of the King, the dissolution stage, leading to putrefaction and nigredo. It frees the soul from the body, so it can gain spiritual understanding. (The 8th engraving in The Ninth Gate.) Binding: Binding Mercurius with cords represents fixation of the volatile, controlling the elusive and wily spirit of Mercurius so that he will help the alchemist. Nailing a serpent to a cross means the same thing. Birds (flying): Represent volatile substances—vapors, fumes, spirits, souls, rising to the top of the alembic and falling as rain during the ablution stage. Birds of Prey: The “amorous” birds of prey are a particularly violent symbol of the Chemical Wedding, the uniting of substances. They simultaneously copulate and cannibalize each other. Consumption represents taking the essence of the consumed into oneself, such as in communion or in the ouroboros symbol. Bird of Hermes: A symbol of the Philosopher’s Stone, which must be hatched from an egg produced by the Chemical Wedding, raised, and tamed. It eats its own wings, representing the fixation of the volatile (i.e. it can no longer fly upwards). Its blood is the Elixir of Life. Black: The nigredo, the death of the old state of being and the mortification of the body that paves the way for renewal and resurrection. The matter of the Stone during the nigredo is called “black earth,” and it lies at the bottom of the alembic. The soul descends into the Underworld and experiences the Dark Night of the Soul, and all the difficulty and pain that come with it. Symbolized by the crow or raven, the grave or tomb, the eclipse, beheading, coal, lead, and Saturn. Blood: A symbol of the Red Tincture, the Philosopher’s Stone. If a “pure” being sheds blood, it cleanses “impure” beings of corruption. It is also the mercurial water that washes the matter of the Stone during ablution. The blood of the Green Lion nourishes the Stone during cibation. Staining white sheets with red blood (i.e. as in the loss of virginity, the gaining of sexual maturity) represents the rubedo following albedo. Bronze/Brass: Both represent “white gold” (gold + silver), the raw matter of the Stone which must be cleansed of impurities. Identified with Latona (Leto), the mother of Apollo and Artemis (i.e. the sun and moon), and also with the Green Lion. It must have its “stains” washed away to become Gold and Silver (respectively). Caduceus: The wand of Hermes, symbolizing the circulation of male and female energies (the serpents), and their reconciliation. The wand unifies them, and they entwine around it. Harmonizing unification of all opposites. Castle: The alchemical vessel, sealed to prevent the substance of the Stone from being contaminated by outside forces, and to keep the volatile part from escaping. Its towers represent the athanor (furnace). The castle can also represent “impure” matter (i.e. the Green Lion, Latona). Also represents withdrawing to the inner self. Chaos: The formless matter from which the world was made, the mass of prima materia at the beginning of the universe that contains all things, and from which all things come. The extremely dense ball of matter that was the universe until the Big Bang. Chaos is separated into the Four Elements, which are then united with each other in harmony. Chariot of Phaethon: A name for the Great Work. This is because the Opus is cyclical like the wheels of a chariot and the sun’s course through the heavens. When Phaethon dies, Helios mourns in the form of an eclipse, representing the nigredo. Chemical Wedding: The image of lovers, usually a king and queen representing the sun and moon, being married or having sex. One of the most important parts of the Work, the unification of opposites — sulfur and mercury, male and female, sun and moon, hot and cold, dry and moist, fixed and volatile, body and spirit. The lovers are wedded by Mercurius, the mediating principle who binds them together. The chemical wedding happens multiple times, becoming more “purified” each time – it begins as animals mating, and ends as the noble royal wedding of the King and Queen. The resulting Stone is the essence of pure divine love. Coagula is always followed by solve again, so often the lovers are shown in a coffin or grave, because the nigredo follows the chemical wedding. After that happens, soul and spirit unite in the albedo stage, and then they reunite with the now washed and purified body in the rubedo stage. Body dissolves into spirit, spirit coagulates into matter. Therefore, the knowledge gained from union with spirit (God) can be actively applied and made manifest in the physical world. Child: The Philosopher’s Stone when it is born from the chemical wedding of the Sun and Moon. He gestates in the belly of the wind, i.e. the soul in the volatile state. When he is brought to Earth and nourished, he grows up to be a spiritual tour-de-force that can raise the vibration of anything. Child’s play: Another metaphor for the Opus, because the process is subversive, and because it’s stupidly simple once you actually understand how it works. The Opus is compared to making mud pies by pouring water on dust and then making “solid” objects with the resulting mud. Cinnabar: Mercury sulfide (ore), which is bright red. Represents the color of the Stone in the final stages. Circle: Perfection and eternity, the spiritual realm, the completed Work. With a dot in the center, it symbolizes gold. Cloud: The vapor that rises to the top of the vessel during sublimation, the volatile state. The cloud is dark and made of argent vive (quicksilver), eclipsing the sun. During distillation, the cloud condenses into rain, which “washes” the stone during ablution. Coal: Represents the nigredo, the black stage, the dead matter of the Stone. Congelation: Fixation, crystallization, or freezing, the conversion of liquid into a solid state. Fixing the volatile spirit. Copper: Metal that is almost perfect, but not quite. The state of being nearest to Gold; gold that still has a bit of darkness on it. It is still impure and not quite fixed. Once it “becomes shadowless,” it is Gold. Symbolized by Venus. Coral: Represents the Red Stone, which grows in the mercurial water as coral lives in the ocean. Also represents the philosophical tree. Cream: The white stage, albedo. After the chemical wedding, the souls of the dead king and queen rise to the top of the vessel the same way cream rises to the top. Crocodile: The Mercurial Serpent in its most base and chthonic state, when it is dark and destructive. Cross: A combination of the “passive” (horizontal line) and “active” (vertical line) forces of the feminine and masculine (respectively). Therefore, the synthesis of the male and female principles and the resulting unity of the volatile and the fixed. Also the four elements (clockwise from top: fire, air, earth, water) and Quintessence, the central point. (The hexagram has identical symbolism, being a combination of the signs for all four elements.) Crow: The putrefaction stage, the nigredo or black stage that begins the work. The matter of the Stone is dissolved into prima materia and dies, so that it can be reborn. Crown: A symbol of the spiritual perfection of the completed Philosopher’s Stone, which is represented as a king. The crown is a representation of the halo of light around the head of an enlightened person. The loftiness of alchemy is presented in regal terms – alchemy is called “the royal art,” gold the “noble metal,” and the final union of the male and female principles is the “royal wedding” between the philosophical King and Queen. Crystal: A synonym for the Philosopher’s Stone at both the white and the red stage. Crystallization is also a word for coagulation, fixing the volatile. Cupid: Another name for Mercurius in the form of “secret fire” or “burning water.” Cupid’s arrows of passion represent the universal solvent that reduces all substances to prima materia. The essence of love in the arrows refers to the higher nature of the Stone/elixir. Also a symbol of Mercurius as the mediator in the Chemical Wedding, who marries Sol and Luna. Dawn: Represents the albedo stage, because the light of dawn is pale like moonlight, and it is followed by the blazing risen sun that represents the rubedo stage. Decoction: Heating an ore or mineral, also extraction of the liquid essence of a substance by boiling. Death: The nigredo stage of the Opus, during which soul is separated from the body and the body putrefies or is dissolved. Represents unenlightened consciousness and the rejection of the mundane self, being freed from the confines of one’s earthly body. An alchemist must metaphorically cast off the mortal coil without physically dying. Death is like a gate on a circlular path. You have to go through the gate, or you will never be able to continue around the circle. You’ll just stay stuck in place. To become immortal and continue forever around the circle, you must die, and cannot fear death. Deer: Represents the soul. The “fleeing hart” represents Mercurius, specifically the flightiness of Mercurius, and also his role as the messenger and mediator between body and spirit. He is both a faithful servant (i.e. “servus/cervus,” deer) and an elusive and deceptive enigma that must be captured by the alchemist. According to Paracelsus, its antlers heal wounds. Den: A word for the vessel during the nigredo — the serpent’s or dragon’s den, or spirits’ den. Devil: A symbol of sulfur. Devour: If animals or people devour each other, it usually represents an opposing state overcoming the other — such as the volatile (a winged creature) overcoming the fixed (the other animal), Saturn devouring the divine (mercurial) child, etc. Devouring is often a representation of solve, one substance or state being consumed by the other, but it’s also coagula in that it unites the fixed and volatile. The animals can also represent the earthly nature of man being destroyed. Something must die for a newer and purer thing to exist. Sometimes devouring is a metaphor for sex, a particularly violent rendition of the chemical wedding. It’s violent to symbolize the intense opposition of the substances. Dew/Rain: The healing aspect of mercurial water. The blackened, putrefied matter of the Stone is washed in the dew and turns white (ablution). The dew falls like rain from the celestial spheres and reanimates the dead matter. “It ascends from the earth to the heaven and again it descends to the earth.” Precedes the second chemical wedding, when the purified soul is reunited with the body. Diana: The matter of the Stone in the white stage, the White Tincture, the female principle, argent vive. Distillation and Sublimation: The process in which the volatile spirit is extracted from the impure body. It vaporizes (sublimates) and then condenses. Metaphysically, it’s katabasis, the necessary descent of the soul into base matter – “the way down is the way up.” You can’t ascend without having descended first. What Goes Down Must Come Up. Dog: A male dog represents sulfur while a female dog represents quicksilver. Two dogs having sex represents the most “primitive” form of the Chemical Wedding (which can also be represented by copulating dragons or lions). Dove: A symbol of the albedo, the white stage, and purity following corruption. Also a symbol of Mercurius as the mediating force in the Chemical Wedding, uniting the forces of sulfur and quicksilver. Dragon: Mercurius in his chthonic aspect as prima materia. Two dragons, one winged and one wingless, represent quicksilver and sulfur (respectively). They copulate, then kill and devour each other, then are entwined together around the caduceus in unity. Mercurial water is called “dragon’s blood” in its aspect as a universal solvent. It is the dragon that guards its horde of gold in the Abyss of a cave .The dragon represents the “base” self that the higher self must tame, represented by the dragon being slain by a solar hero (Apollo, Marduk, Siegfried, Beowulf, Harry Potter, etc.). Dregs: The impurities of the Stone that are left behind during dissolution and sublimation, that sink to the bottom of the vessel. Dust: The purified body of the Stone during the albedo stage, which collects on the sides of the vessel through sublimation. (Also called ash, snow, or white foliated earth.) Dye: A metaphor for the white stone turning red or purple. The Stone is “washed” in the Red Tincture, like dying cloth. Tyrian purple in particular is a metaphor for eternal spiritual perfection, because it is a permanent dye and rare. The Stone being stained with blood is the same metaphor. Eagle: The White Tincture, another symbol of Mercurius during the albedo stage after sublimation. When paired with the lion, the lion represents the fixed state and the eagle represents the volatile state — if the eagle devours the lion, it’s a symbol of solve. The lion is devoured by the eagle to make it spiritual, and the eagle’s wings are clipped to make it corporeal. Earth: Corporeality, the physical world, stagnation, fixation. The dense body of the Stone, represented by Saturn. (We live in the physical world, so the other elements are not their “true” selves, but perceived as correspondences that symbolize their true selves “through” the Earth element. It allows the other elements to “rest.”) Its properties are cold and dry. East and West: Respectively, sulfur and quicksilver. Sulfur is dry and hot, quicksilver is cold and moist. Eclipse: The solar eclipse represents the nigredo, when the impure matter of the Stone putrefies, death preceding rebirth. Described as a “black gate” that sulfur and quicksilver must pass through. The moon “dissolves” the sun. Symbolized by the Green Lion devouring the sun. (Also called sol niger. For the lunar eclipse, see sun and shadow.) Egg: The vessel. Hatching of an egg is a metaphor for the creation of the Stone. The fire of the athanor is like a mother bird incubating her eggs. Elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. The Philosopher’s Stone must be made of all four elements in the right amounts to produce the perfect fifth element, Quintessence. Earth is cold and dry, Water is cold and wet, Air is hot and wet, and Fire is hot and dry. Earth can be mixed with water because they are both cold, Water can mix with Air because they are both wet, and then Air can mix with Fire because they are both hot. Elysium: A name for the white stage, a pure and beautiful garden of symbolic plants that immediately follows death. Eyes: The rainbow “peacock’s tail” stage between nigredo and albedo. Feathers: A bird eating its feathers symbolizes the dissolution that occurs after the chemical wedding (also symbolized by a child playing in a bath), Also a symbol of the “peacock’s tail” stage. Field: Potential, the potential to “cultivate” the philosopher’s stone, in which the “seed” of the soul is sewn to be transformed into its realized potential, the flower. This happens through the course of the seasons—winter (black), spring (clear/white), summer (red), and autumn (gold). Fire: The element, the essence of divine love, which causes transmutation. It is hot and dry, and inherently spiritual, a sort of microcosm of the Sun. The “secret fire” is purifying and transformative. The heat and intensity of the fire in the athanor increases as the Work progresses through the stages. Also represents the Divine Masculine. Symbolized by the Sun and Gold. In its impure form, as sulfur, fire is also individualization and the ego, which becomes consuming and desirous. Often conflated with mercurial water/argent vive, which “burns” and dissolves things. Flood: Dissolution and putrefaction, with Noah’s Arc or a similar boat symbolizing the Vessel. The waters of the deluge drown and destroy everything, until they suddenly transform into the waters of life. The rainbow that follows the Flood is the Peacock’s Tail. Flowers: Fully realized potential, resurrection, exaltation, rising from the depths of the Earth. (The stem is virile, the flower itself is elemental.) The rose in particular has mostly the same symbolism as the cross. Also a word for the powdery version of the body that is a result of sublimation. Also a symbol of the Philosopher’s Stone, the perfect substance. Flowers bloom as a result of Earth, Water (rain), and Fire (sunlight). White roses or lilies symbolize the albedo, golden flowers symbolize citrinitas, and red roses symbolize the rubedo. Fountain: Purifying mercurial water, that generates all other metals. Same symbolism as the bath. Fruit: Raw gold before it is transmuted into the Philosopher’s Stone. If the fruit putrefies in the ground, then its seeds will sprout into new trees. The Philosophical Tree bears gold and silver fruit representing the Sun and Moon. Bearing the fruit is a symbol of increasing spiritual awareness, and eating the fruit represents gaining that spiritual knowledge. Sometimes the golden fruit is specifically the Apples of the Hesperides, guarded by the dragon. Furnace: The athanor in which the alembic or Vessel is heated. It contains “philosophical fire” (the soul), which purifies the matter in the Vessel. It causes suffering but also removes impurities. You have to suffer in the fire to be cleansed, and rise from it like the phoenix. Garden: The Vessel, in which the philosophical tree grows. Sometimes also a rose garden, with red and white roses. The blooming of the roses represents the attainment of spiritual wisdom. Glass: The Vessel. When the alchemical couple (Sol and Luna, or sulfur and quicksilver) die and enter the putrefaction stage, they are “shut in a glass.” The vessel can be symbolized as a glass house, glass prison, or glass coffin. Making glass is also a metaphor for the fixation process, because the volatile liquid crystallizes into hard glass. Glue: The medium by which Sol and Luna are joined together during conjunction, that which officiates their Chemical Wedding. A form of Mercurius, the mediating soul that unites the body and spirit. Usually symbolized as a dove. Also symbolized as gum or resin from the philosophical tree. Gold: A pure, condensed form of the solar force and the Divine Masculine, and the ultimate goal of alchemy, representing spiritual perfection. It is the microcosmic Sun. It can “endure the trials of fire” (i.e. it has a low boiling point). All metals were thought to contain the potential to “ripen” into it, under the right conditions. Figuratively, this means that all people have the potential to become pure spiritual beings. The golden soul is one that has died and been resurrected as a purer thing, whose spirit has become fixed, and who has therefore attained a kind of earthly divinity. Golden Fleece: A symbol of the Philosopher’s Stone. The quest for the golden fleece represents the alchemists’ quest for the Stone. Also a term for a supposed book made of sheep vellum that details all the secrets of the Great Work. Grain: A term for the “seed” of metals, which grows into Sol and Luna (gold and silver). The Stone is also compared to grain or corn that has to “die” before it can bear fruit. “Purple grain” is the Red Tincture. Grapes: Prima materia, the raw material of the Stone. Grape juice or wine represents the mercurial water of dissolution. A grapevine can also represent the philosophical tree, with the red fruit being the Philosopher’s Stone. Grave: The Vessel during the nigredo stage, when the matter of the stone dies and putrefies. The dead bodies of the alchemical lovers are shown in a tomb or coffin. Green: The color of the maturing Stone, after it has been born. It is the color of fertility and growth, so it represents the Stone’s capability to multiply itself and cause the “seeds” of metals to “mature” into gold and silver. It also represents the generation of the Stone after the Chemical Wedding. Green Lion: Raw antimony ore (stibnite), “unclean” or “impure” material of the Philosopher’s Stone. Prima materia at the earliest stage of the Opus. The volatile mercury (spirit) is extracted from it. Associated with Latona (Leto, from whom Apollo and Diana as the Sun and Moon are born). It is green because the vital essence of fecundity comes from it, but also because it is an early and “immature” form of the Stone (like unripe fruit). Represents Mercurius in its form as a solvent: the lion eats the Sun, causing the nigredo and dissolution. After it is dissolved into prima materia, the “seed” can grow. The Green Lion also represents Mercurius as the “glue” that marries the Sun and Moon. Griffin: A symbol of argent vive/quicksilver, the female principle. The feminine equivalent of the red lion. They fight each other, symbolizing the Chemical Wedding at its most early stage. (Combines the volatile eagle with the earthly lion.) Halcyon (Kingfisher): A symbol for philosophical mercury, which is supposed to be sky blue. It is a universal solvent, able to destroy and then revitalize anything. Harvest: The completion of the Opus and attainment of the Stone. The Great Work is often compared to the cultivation of a tree or a flower. Head: The vessel or alembic, also symbolized by a helm. The vessel itself is a metaphor for the human body, and the real transmutation takes place in one’s head (i.e. mind). A person with black feet, a white body, and a red head is a symbol of the Opus. A severed head is a symbol of nigredo and dissolution, the separation of the soul from the body. Heaven: The subtle matter of the Stone, the volatile vapor at the top of the alembic (as opposed to the “white foliated earth” at the bottom). “It ascends from the earth to the heaven and again it descends to the earth.” Quintessence is also called “heaven” because it is a perfect substance and it is bright blue. Hell: The black matter of the Stone during the putrefaction stage, which is destroyed by fire (or “secret fire,” mercurial water). This stage is the descent into the Underworld or Tartarus. Hermes’ Seal: The seal made of a special clay that keeps the alchemical vessel closed and airtight. The sealed vessel functions as an isolated cave or sanctuary in which one can seek enlightenment. Hermes’ Tree: The philosophical tree, which must be tended by the alchemist and nourished with mercurial waters and then harvested. Another symbol for the Philosopher’s Stone. Hermes Trismegistus: The legendary inventor of alchemy, said to be an incarnation of both Hermes and Thoth. Called “thrice-great” because he was a king, a mage, and a priest. Said to have written the Emerald Tablet and the Corpus Hermeticum. Hesperides: The garden in which the philosophical tree grows. The Golden Apples of the Hesperides are another symbol for the Philosopher’s Stone. Homunculus: An artificial human created in an alembic. Also a symbol of the Philosopher’s Stone in its infantile state. Represents the birth of the divine child inside one’s own soul. The Stone is figuratively a “baby” that must be gestated and raised, both in the alembic and spiritually in one’s soul. (i.e. You are reproducing God’s creation of yourself in a microcosm.) Honey: Another name of mercurial water, in its aspect as a healing agent instead of a “burning” solvent. A symbol of the Elixir of Life and the panacea, because it is a sweet gold liquid. House: The Vessel. It’s made of glass, shaped like the squared circle, and “sweats” (condensation). Inversion: Alchemy constantly involves reversal — flipping between states of matter, releasing the soul from the body and then bringing it back down into the body, dissolving a substance down into prima materia and then reforming it. Descend before you can ascend, go backwards to go forwards. As above, so below. This is why Mercurius is dual-natured. Inverted tree: The upside-down philosophical tree has its roots in heaven, which means that its nourishment comes from the Divine (Mercurius), and it “returns” to the earth. Iron: Represents Mars, action, virility, and violence. If one can separate the virile warrior component from its corporeality, it can become Gold. Iron is “fixed” Sulfur. When treated by Water (female principle) and Fire (male principle), it becomes “purer” Steel. The production of steel is therefore a microcosm of the Great Work. Jackdaw: Being a corvid, it’s another symbol for the nigredo stage, death and passage through hell. Jupiter: Represents the metal tin, and the color gray. Tin is “imperfect” but takes only a little bit of work to become perfect (i.e. turn to gold). Also represents fire as in actual fire (not “secret” or “philosophical” fire). Zeus bringing Ganymede to Olympus in the form of an eagle represents sublimation. He also turns into a shower of gold to visit Danae — Jupiter easily turns to gold. King: The matter of the Stone, as well as the hot and dry male principle — sulfur in its impure state, gold in its pure state. He is the Sun, and must be “married” to his female counterpart, who represents mercury and the Moon. He represents the conscience and the Divine Masculine. The King is both the philosophical child and its father (implied to be the same being). He dies and then is resurrected. His drowning in the ocean or a bath is a symbol of dissolution, followed by a gentler washing of his body, then he is married to the Queen. The resulting child is the Philosopher’s Stone, who also grows up to become a King. Labyrinth: The dangerous and confusing process of the Great Work. The labyrinth is full of illusions, and only with divine inspiration can one make one’s way through. Latona: An imperfect or impure version of the Philosopher’s Stone, represented by bronze or brass (or copper). Similar in nature to the Green Lion. The blackened body of the stone preceding the albedo stage, that must be washed to remove its impurities. She is both metallic ore and the bowels of the earth from which it comes. (The name “Latona” comes from Leto, the mother of Apollo and Artemis, i.e. the mother of gold and silver.) Laundry: Ablution, washing the Stone to cleanse it of its impurities during the white stage. The stained sheets represent the impure matter, which must be washed so that they will turn pure white. (When the sheets are later dyed red or purple, it represents the rubedo.) Lead: Prima materia, the raw material that is made into the Philosopher’s Stone and also transmuted by it. The former is “philosophical lead,” the matter of the Stone during the nigredo stage. Represented by Saturn, who can be interpreted as an “aged” Mercurius. White lead is “purified” lead in the albedo stage. Symbolizes the chaotic and melancholic state of the soul after having been separated from itself. (also called Adrop) Leprosy: The “imperfection” of metals, i.e. lead, copper, tin, and iron are just “diseased” gold and silver. They need “medicine” in the form of the panacea or Philosopher’s Stone. (also called rust) Lily: The White Tincture and White Stone, the matter of the Stone during the albedo stage. Symbol of purity, perfection, the Moon, and the female principle. Therefore it also represents silver, quicksilver, and Luna/the Queen. It’s paired with a red rose, which represents the male principle. (A white rose symbolizes the same things.) Lotus: A circular flower with a vertical stalk on horizontal water, therefore the same meaning as the ankh symbol—life, rebirth, resurrection, eternity. Lute: A kind of clay used to seal the vessel/alembic. It’s made of various things — glue, flower, herbs, honey, egg whites, wax, resin, vitriol… Magistery/Magisterium: A name for the Great Work. Means literally, “quality of mastery.” Magnesia: Refers to several substances, all symbols for Terra Alba, “white foliated earth.” Also a name for Mercurius in the form of Quintessence. Marble: A symbol of the White Stone, which is acquired during the albedo state. Mars: Represents the metal iron, and the color red. Follows Venus in the Opus, and is associated with the “peacock’s tail” stage. He symbolizes the violent, impure form of the Divine Masculine, symbolized by the Red Lion. Medicine: The Philosopher’s Stone in the form of a panacea. It can supposedly cure any disease, and also transmute “diseased” metals (copper, iron, tin, lead) into gold and silver. The idea of a panacea is more metaphorical, curing “diseases” of the soul and transforming human beings into enlightened and divine versions of themselves. In short, it raises the vibration of anything it comes in contact with. Melancholia: The state of mind that accompanies the suffering of the nigredo stage. It is the initial terror and sadness that you experience upon confronting your Shadow. You end up in the “nox profunda,” the deep night or dark night of the soul, a dark pit of the Underworld which it feels like you will never escape. Menstruum: Mercurial water, the universal solvent. Called the “blood of the green lion.” Mercurial water: The universal solvent, which dissolves metals and other matter into the prima materia. Symbolized by a lion or a serpent, and also by water (floods, dew, fountains, rain, tears, the ocean). It first “burns” and destroys everything to “kill” the old state of being, but then transforms into the water of life, washes and revitalizes it. (also called alkahest) Mercurius: The ultimate agent of transmutation, the purified prima materia and the divine spirit within matter. Both the Philosopher’s Stone, and the Opus that produces it. Sometimes Mercury is described as “philosophical water,” or as fire, or as air or vapor (spirit, soul). It is prima materia, the source of metals, and also their potential to turn to gold. It is the primordial “mother” of the Philosopher’s Stone and also the child, the Stone itself. It is self-begotten, self-generative, self-destroying (i.e. the ouroboros). It is the universal solvent of death, and the animating force of life. Hermes is dual-natured and a synthesis of all opposites. He is both light and dark (i.e. celestial and chthonic) and is not tainted or corrupted by his engagement with darkness. He dissolves and coagulates, creates and destroys, kills and revives. He is an elusive trickster, but also a helpful ally. Alchemical Mercury is also a hermaphrodite, both male and female. Mercury is the spirit that unites body and soul, and weds the Red King and White Queen. Since Hermes is the messenger god who transfers information between the human and the divine, and brings the soul between life and death, he is also a mediator between the mundane self and the Higher Self. Mercurius is also a summary of the entire alchemical process. “Binding Hermes” means making his volatile nature, fixed. First he is the dragon or serpent, then the green lion, then the white eagle. Finally, Hermes’ association with commerce relates to the alchemical production of gold. (Also called Azoth, aqua divina, aqua permanens, aqua regia, aqua ardens, aqua vitae) (Note: Mercurius represents the Stone, not actual mercury. For actual mercury, see quicksilver.) Metamorphosis: A word for transmutation, changing states of matter or states of being. Also, Ovid’s Metamorphoses were referred to as analogies for the Opus by alchemists. Milk: The pure and spiritual version of mercurial water, extracted from the green lion ore. The White Tincture, which can transmute metal into silver. It nourishes the baby Philosopher’s Stone during the cibation stage. Mirror: “Divine Spirit,” observing the self, becoming the most divine version of oneself through self-observation and Shadow work. Moon: Silver and quicksilver/argent vive (actual mercury), the female principle. Also the White Tincture and White Stone in the albedo stage. Luna is married to Sol, the King. Her properties are cold, moist, and receptive to his hot, dry, and active. She is the Divine Feminine, and represents, the imagination, dreams, emotions, intuition, the subconscious, the changeable and volatile, the energetic, the soul. The subconscious is “cleansed” during the white stage. Cold moonlight represents the half-enlightened conscience of the albedo stage. Associated with solve, dissolution, making the mundane spiritual. Mountains: A symbol for the source of prima materia. To obtain it, the alchemist must climb a mountain and extract the juice of a magic herb that grows on it. Sometimes there’s two mountains, one for the masculine “seed” and one for the feminine one. Going into the mountains can also be a metaphor for isolating oneself to gain spiritual awareness. Nest: The Vessel, as a container for the “egg” or “chick” of the Bird of Hermes. Night: The nigredo, the first stage of the Opus. It’s the Dark Night of the Soul in which the body dies and putrefies, and then is dissolved. The soul experiences a descent into the Underworld. Oak: The philosophical tree. Also the vessel or athanor, when hollow. Orphan: The Philosopher’s Stone, because its “parents” (the King and Queen. Sol and Luna) must die so it can be born. The alchemist becomes its foster parent and raises it in their place. “Our” [substance]: Alchemists use the word “our” to refer to spiritual/metaphysical symbols represented by substances. So, “our mercury” isn’t Hg, it’s the feminine principle of nature. “Our sulfur” is the masculine principle of nature. “Our gold” is the perfect state of being, and not actual gold, Au. “Our [symbol]” refers to the metaphorical thing the symbol represents, not the symbol itself. It was never about making actual gold. If you think it is, you’re missing the point. Ouroboros: The universe and the Great Work. The Ouroboros is and encircles all things, and thus represents the Principal of Mentalism. It is the circle of life — life returns to that which generated it, and supports other life. It creates itself, and also destroys itself (since it bites its own tail), and therefore is also primordial chaos and prima materia. All things come from it and return to it, and it continues in an eternal cycle. It represents the cyclical nature of the Opus, and also the eternal process of solve et coagula – killing itself, resurrecting itself. Paste: The whitened matter of the Stone. During the fermentation stage, another chemical wedding happens between the Stone’s purified soul and this white purified body, which is compared to making bread. The paste is bread dough. Peace: The state when the opposing forces of the Opus (male and female, sulfur and mercury, fixed and volatile, body and soul, etc.) stop fighting with each other and are united in the chemical wedding. This is why a dove officiates the wedding. Signified by the “peacock’s tail” stage. Peacock’s Tail: The stage between nigredo and albedo, when the stone is washed with mercurial water during ablution. As the blackness is washed away, it is replaced by the iridescent colors of the rainbow. Instead of white splitting into many colors as in a prism, the many colors coagulate into white. Eating the peacock’s flesh integrates the rainbow colors into the single white color, a state of purity and wholeness. Pearl: A symbol of the ablution stage, because the drops of condensation that result from distillation look like pearls. Also a symbol of the White Stone. Pelican: A symbol of the cibation and multiplication stage. The pelican bites her own chest to feed her hatchlings with her blood, like the Bird of Hermes feeding the baby Stone with the Red Tincture. (Pelicans don’t actually do this, but were believed to, and were considered symbols of Christ for their sacrifice of their own blood for their young.) Also a particular type of vessel. Philosopher: An alchemist. This alone is an indication that alchemy isn’t about science, but about attaining spiritual wisdom. Hence why alchemical substances or symbols are described as “philosophical” – it’s not the literal, physical thing that matters, but the metaphorical or spiritual thing. Alchemy really happens in the mind, not in the laboratory. The alchemists sought to discover how the world works on both a physical level and a spiritual level, simultaneously. Philosopher’s Stone: The ultimate goal of alchemy, substance that can supposedly perfect all imperfections (which I interpret to mean, it raises the vibration of anything it comes in contact with). It is the substance of divine love and creative power, a crystallization of the essence of life. It can supposedly turn lead into gold, heal all illnesses, and do various other miraculous things. It is created by reproducing God’s creation of the world in the microcosm of the alembic. It is supposed to be a perfect balance of all four elements, and is born from the divine union of the archetypal male and female forces of the universe. It is supposedly created by reproducing God’s creation of the world in the microcosm of the vessel, beginning with primordial first matter (prima materia) and shaping it into sulfur and mercury, which then “marry” and combine to produce the Stone. Honestly, seeking the Philosopher’s Stone is like going on a long Epic Quest for some magical unattainable object (like the Holy Grail or El Dorado), only to discover that It Was Inside Of You All Along, but the journey itself facilitated your character development to make you a better version of yourself. The point was always the journey; the Philosopher’s Stone is a natural result of having undertaken the Opus at all. Philosophical Child: The newborn Philosopher’s Stone, the result of the Chemical Wedding. The final part of the Opus is compared to raising a child, who is fed and nourished by the alchemist. He grows up into a king and a magician who has power to “vanquish every subtle thing and penetrate every solid thing,” cure all disease, transmute all metals. Philosophical Mercury: Prima materia or Mercurius. Not the same as “vulgar mercury” or quicksilver (Hg). Philosophical Tree: Represents the Philosopher’s Stone, the process of the Opus, and also the “expansion of consciousness” that results from it. The process of making the Stone is compared to the cultivation of a tree, and the Stone multiplies itself like a tree bearing fruit. The tree grows from a seed, the “seed” of metals within prima materia, is nourished by rain, and it finally bears gold and silver fruit that represent the Sun and Moon (as well as “perfect” metal). This is all a metaphor for the spiritual growth of the soul towards its ultimate divine form. Sometimes the tree is instead a flower (like the red roses and white lilies, representing the Red and White Tinctures), or a magic herb. Sometimes there are two trees, a gold solar tree and a silver lunar tree. Sometimes it has seven branches to represent the seven planets, making it a symbol for prima materia. Sometimes it grows on an island in a sea of mercurial water, sometimes it grows on a mountain of prima materia, and sometimes it grows in a magical garden of wisdom. Phoenix: Resurrection, the Philosopher’s Stone in the red stage. Fire in its purest and most spiritual form. Represents rubedo and the multiplication stage, when the Stone/elixir replicates itself. It has been resurrected, and has the power to resurrect itself and others indefinitely. Poppy: The rubedo, the red color of the Stone or Red Tincture in the final stage. Pot: The vessel, in this case described as being made of clay and filled with dung to act as a container for the first Chemical Wedding and the nigredo, becoming “pregnant” with the seed of the Stone. Prima materia: “First matter,” the primordial essence of all things. Alchemists believed that everything was made out of an original substance from which the world was made, and that if you could distill and refine matter (metal, for instance) all the way down into this original substance, you could reshape into whatever you wanted. i.e., reduce lead down to prima materia and then reform it as gold by putting a “seed” of gold into it. Hence “solve et coagula,” dissolve and reform. Symbolically, prima materia represents the soul in its original state. You have to be able to break down the person you think you are, until you are left with nothing but the true core of your being. In Jungian symbolism, it is also the subconscious mind, a dark and scary place that is also the source of inspiration and growth. Prima materia is compared to dirt or dung by alchemists, because it is supposed to something normal and mundane that is found everywhere, and dismissed as worthless by the uninitiated. There are so many symbols related to it, especially water, snakes, earth, seeds, blood, Saturn, chaos, and lead. Prison: The vessel during the putrefaction stage. The alchemical lovers, Sol and Luna, are imprisoned in it and left to die while their souls rise to the top of the vessel. Proteus: The shapeshifting sea god in Greek mythology, a symbol of Mercurius in its volatile state, which takes on many confusing forms and has to be held down until it is tamed and takes its original shape. The sea that Proteus lives in is pirma materia. Purple: Sometimes used to describe the Philosopher’s Stone and Tincture in its final rubedo state, instead of red. This is because Tyrian purple is very rare and hard to get, must be extracted from snails, and is only worn by royalty. It is the color of attainment, spirituality, and mastery. Queen: The matter of the Stone during the albedo. The cold and moist female principle — mercury (Hg) in its impure state, silver in its pure state. She is the Moon, and must be “married” to her male counterpart, who represents sulfur and the Sun. She is also mercurial water in its role as the replenishing water of life or nourishing milk, the White Tincture. She represents the subconscious, perception and the imagination, “higher” spiritual and moral faculties, and the Divine Feminine. Quicksilver: Mercury (Hg). The agent of the feminine principle, the “unripe” form of silver. Cold, moist, receptive feminine “seed” of metal that unites with Sulphur to form the Philosopher’s Stone. It is made of Earth and Water. Confusingly, it can also be a symbol for Mercurius in its “slippery” and elusive form. In Paracelsian alchemy, it represents the spirit, the animating force of life. Sometimes also a synonym for prima materia, represented by the dragon or serpent. It has the power to dissolve or vaporize fixed matter. (Also called argent vive.) Quintessence: (also called Azoth), the fifth element and the result of unifying the other four. It is what the Stone is made of, and in liquid form it is the Elixir of Life. It is purified prima materia, an inherently spiritual substance. Believed to be a panacea. (I interpret it as being able to raise the vibration of anything it comes in contact with.) Symbolized by a crowned maiden, or by Mercurius. Rainbow: The peacock’s tail stage, which occurs during ablution, when mercurial water falls like rain onto the black dregs. The many colors of the rainbow integrate into white, representing the calmness and receptiveness of the soul. Raven: Nigredo, when the impure matter of the Stone dissolves and putrefies in the bottom of the flask. It is the initial, death stage of the Opus. Red: The rubedo, the final stage of alchemy in which the white matter of the Stone turns crimson as the spirit merges with the body. It crystallizes and becomes fixed. Self-actualization and resurrection, the attainment of spiritual enlightenment. Symbolized by blood, red roses, rubies, coral, gold, the Sun, the phoenix, and the King. Red earth: A name for the base matter of the Philosopher’s Stone, which is dissolved into prima materia and then refined into the Red Stone and Red Elixir. Red Elixir: The Philosopher’s Stone in liquid form, as a panacea. It can cure all diseases, transmute metals into gold and silver, raise the dead, make old people young again, give strength to living beings, etc. It is “fed” to the baby Stone during the cibation stage, so that the Stone will be multiplied by itself and produce more of itself. (Also called the Red Tincture) Red Lion (or Dragon): Represents sulfur and the planet Mars. It’s Sol, the masculine principle, in its “impure” state at the start of the Opus: the wild, animalistic, instinctive part of the soul that needs to be “purified” by being defeated. It is “terrestrial man,” the King at his most mundane. It burns everything that it comes into contact with. Red powder: The Stone in powdered form. It’s cast over or mixed with metal to transmute it, and taken as a medicine. Red Sea: Another symbol for prima materia and mercurial water, the source of life and death that both dissolves everything and revitalizes it. The crossing of the Red Sea in Exodus is a symbol for how its waters will destroy the uninitiated and show the way forward to the enlightened. It also can be “parted” into four elements. Refine: Purifying a substance by repeatedly dissolving and coagulating it with water and fire, which slowly removes its defects. This is a metaphor for raising the “vibration” of the soul, from a lower, mundane state to a higher, spiritual state. The soul must endure many trials (fire and water) to reach this state of spiritual purity, until it is pure enough to permanently fuse with the spirit of God and become divine-in-human. Becoming “gold” is to be able to withstand the heat of any “fire” (gold has a very high melting point) and host the Sun within oneself. Return: The “process of return” is a name for the Great Work, because it is a cyclical process of repeated “solve et coagula.” The matter of the Stone must return to prima materia, the four elements to quintessence, the soul to the perfected state that it was in at the creation of the world, the world itself from the dismal “Iron Age” to the ideal “Golden Age” of the distant past. River: Another symbol of mercurial water. There are two rivers, one male and one female. The female one dissolves, and the male one coagulates. When the two rivers flow together into a single river, it represents the Chemical Wedding. When the rivers dry up, it represents the crystallization of the Stone in the dry, solar rubedo stage. Rock: A synonym for the Philosopher’s Stone, for the mountain of prima materia, and also for the vessel in which the Stone is made. Roots: The four elements are the “roots” of the philosophical tree, from which the Philosopher’s Stone grows. Rose: The rubedo and the Philosopher’s Stone, the completion of the Opus. A blooming rose represents attaining wisdom and enlightenment. If a red rose is paired with a white lily (or a white rose), it represents the Red Tincture and the King/Sol. Ruby: The Red Stone. The “celestial” ruby has the power to transmute all metals and make anyone enlightened. Sable robe: Black garments (mourning clothes) are another symbol of the nigredo, the dark night of the soul. Sal ammoniac: Ammonium chloride. It’s a symbol of the White Tincture, the matter of the Stone during sublimation, after it has been dissolved. It’s represented by the eagle. It’s also an ingredient in aqua regia, because it produces hydrochloric acid when dissolved. Salamander: Sulfur, the hot and dry male principle and the masculine “seed” of metals. Although salamanders are amphibious creatures, they were believed to be able to withstand flames, hence why they’re associated with fire. Paracelsus named them as fire elementals, implying that (in this context) salamanders are a type of spirit. Also represents the Philosopher’s Stone and Red Tincture, similarly to the phoenix. The salamander’s blood is the panacea. Salt: Represents the body and the state of fixation in Paracelsian alchemy, with mercury being the spirit and sulfur the mediating soul. Traditionally, though, it’s a synonym for ashes and white foliated earth, another symbol of matter of the Stone in the white stage. Sand: Another version of the bath, but the Vessel is placed in heated sand instead of water. Red sand is also a symbol of the raw matter of the Stone. Sapientia: Divine knowledge and wisdom, which is what the alchemist ultimately hopes to obtain. It is the divine feminine principle, represented by the Queen. Wisdom is personified as a beautiful woman who is an emanation of God. She is the active ingredient in the panacea. Saturn: Represents the metal lead, and the color black. Also a name for prima materia and for the matter of the stone during the putrefaction stage. In general, Saturn represents discipline, death, and melancholy, so he rules over the harsh nigredo stage. Sometimes he is portrayed as a Grim Reaper or Father Time figure, who destroys all old things to make way for new things. Sea: Mercurial water, prima materia, the source of all creation. Most creation stories begin with primordial waters of some kind, so of course, the ocean represents this primeval soup of prima materia that contains the potential for all things. (Modern science tells us that life on earth literally did begin in the ocean.) Drowning the King in the sea represents dissolution. Seed: The spark of life. All metals were thought to have a “seed” within them that could produce the Philosopher’s Stone, when the metal was dissolved into prima materia and the seed extracted from it. The hot and dry male seed is sulfur, and the cold and moist female seed is quicksilver. The seed could theoretically “grow” into gold, under the right conditions and with aid from the Philosopher’s Stone. Serpent: Prima materia. Mercurius in the form of primordial chaos, dark and destructive. The universal solvent is the serpent’s venom, which can reduce any metal to prima materia. Chthonic or cosmic serpents so often represent primordial creation in mythology — Apophis and Nehebkau in Egypt, Tiamat in Mesopotamia, Shesha in Hinduism, etc. Mercurius also manifests as two serpents that represent the male and female seeds of metals – the female one is winged, and therefore the volatile spirit hidden in the matter of the Stone, while the male one is fixed and does not have wings. They fight each other until Hermes places his wand between them, and they coil around it to form the caduceus. After these two serpents die in the nigredo stage, the primordial serpent becomes the river serpent who cleanses and resurrects them with the water of life. Finally, it becomes the representation of the Philosopher’s Stone. Ship: The vessel, during nigredo and the dissolution that follows. If dissolution is symbolized by a flood, then the alchemical vessel is the ship. Same symbolism as a coffin. Silver: The symbol of the albedo stage, the Whtie Stone, and the White Elixir, as well as the Moon and the Queen. A pure, condensed form of the lunar force and the Divine Feminine. Snow: The matter of the Stone during the albedo, the same as white foliated earth. The dust that collects on the side of the vessel during sublimation. Throwing snow in Saturn’s face is a symbol of turning the blackened matter of the stone white, as the Work progresses into the albedo stage. Seven: Creative power, transcendence. Three creative principles (sulfur, mercury, salt) + four elements, nature creating nature. Transitioning to “nonhuman” consciousness. Soul: The vapor that results from dissolution, because it is volatile and therefore the spiritual part of a living being. The divine or “higher self.” When the matter of the Stone is dissolved into prima materia, the soul is released and floats upward. It unites with the spirit in the Chemical Wedding, during the albedo stage. Spirit: The spark of life, the spiritual essence of a person or substance, mediating between the dead body and the soul. Symbolized by flying birds in the flask, and represented by mercury (quicksilver) in Paracelsan alchemy Square and Circle: A symbol of the Philosopher’s Stone. The square represents the four elements, and “squaring the circle” means uniting those four elements into one Quintessence. The four-sided square is the material world, and the eternal circle is the spiritual world. It’s also a symbol of sacred geometry and harmony, the proportionality of the microcosm to the macrocosm. Stain: The impurities in the matter of the Stone that have to be filtered out through the continued process of refinement, solve et coagula. Ablution is the stage of washing the stains away, following death and dissolution. Washing away the stains is a metaphor for acknowledging one’s own shortcomings, and working through one’s faults to become a better person, Star: Another symbol of Mercurius. A six-pointed star represents Mercurius’ ability to unite opposites (the upward- and downward-facing triangles; as above, so below), If it has a sun and moon in the middle, it represents the Chemical Wedding. A six-pointed star also contains the triangular symbols for all four elements. Stars also symbolize the Stone as the perfected human being. The “milk” that the baby Stone is nourished with comes from the stars. (Also a symbol of antimony, because antimony crystallizes in a star pattern when reduced with iron.) Sulfur: An “impure” (physical) agent of the masculine principle, the “unripe” form of gold, Hot, dry, active masculine “seed” of metals that has to combine with feminine mercury (quicksilver) to form the Philosopher’s Stone. It is made of Air and Fire. It is not literal sulfur, but the mundane mind or consciousness. It is combustive and violent, but it is able to fix the volatile. It is symbolized by a red lion or the Devil. In Paracelsian alchemy, it represents the soul, and is the force of structure, stability, substance, and growth. Sun: Represents the metal and color gold, and “philosophical gold.” He is the Divine Masculine, represented by gold, or sulfur (in an impure state). Sol is married to Luna, the Queen. His properties are hot, dry, and active to her cold, moist, and receptive. He represents individualization, completion and perfection to the point of centrality, stability, equilibrium, and order. The state of being divine. Also represents the illumination of consciousness, the Red Tincture, and Red Stone during the rubedo, at the completion of the Opus. It represents the state of being the Philosopher’s Stone, the “perfect incarnation.” Its rays have the power to transmute metal and give life. Associated with coagula, congelation, the giving of form and physicality to the subtle or spiritual. Sun and Shadow: A strange symbol of the projection, the final stage of the Opus. The Sun shines, and casts a shadow, which is a symbol of the Philosopher’s Stone being cast over other metals to turn them to gold. The Shadow is part of what makes the Sun what it is, because wherever there is light, there is shadow. Sometimes the Shadow itself is the Philospher’s Stone, because it is a microcosm of the Sun, which is the macrocosm. It is like a reflection or impression of the Sun. Sometimes the Moon is the Shadow, because it reflects the Sun’s light, so the lunar eclipse is the Chemical Wedding – the integration of conscious and subconscious. During the lunar eclipse, the moon turns red, like the Philosopher’s Stone. The solar eclipse symbolizes the beginning of the Great Work, while the lunar eclipse symbolizes the end, though both could be interpreted as symbols of the Dark Night of the Soul and the integration of the Shadow self. Swan: The albedo, the White Tincture and the White Stone. It swims in the mercurial water, It is feminine and lunar, and able to transmute metals into silver, and represents spiritual purity. Sweat: The dew or condensation on the side of the vessel during the distillation phase, and is used to wash the dead body of the King during ablution. It’s also the King’s own sweat as he dies, therefore Mercurius as the waters of both life and death. Sword: Represents “philosophical fire,” the destructive force of Mars and the Red Lion/Dragon. It kills the King (the matter of the Stone), which results in the nigredo stage. (An axe, a knife, Saturn’s scythe, or animal teeth and claws all have the same symbolism) Tartarus: The dregs or sediment of wine. The Underworld, that which is left behind by the once-living world. Tears: Mercurial water in the form of the water of life that washes the dead matter of the Stone and cleanses it of impurities. Same symbolism as sweat and dew/rain, the condensation on the sides of the alembic during distillation. In this context, the tears come from grief over the dead King, bird, or lovers. Temple: Another name for the Vessel, containing all the secrets of alchemy and generation. Theatre: Alchemical treatises call themselves “theatres,” because they provide a view of the Opus. The Opus itself is compared to a theatrical performance taking place on a stage, and watched by an audience, with all the apparatus being the set and the individual stages being acts and scenes. The theatre is therefore another symbol of the Vessel or alembic. Tincture: A liquid that is able to tint or color other things. The Stone in liquid form is called a “tincture” because it is able to “color” metals when poured on them to turn them into gold and silver. Toad: The matter of the Stone during the putrefaction stage, which is black, ugly, and swollen. Also a symbol of prima materia – hardened, earthy primordial matter that’s poisonous but that can be made into the Stone. Means the same thing as the snake or dragon, the crow or raven, and the Green Lion. If paired with a volatile eagle, it represents sublimation. Torture: Calcination, reducing a metal to ashes and prima materia during the nigredo stage. This requires being burned in purifying fire. Beheading the king, chopping down a tree, or the bird eating its wings all represent the same thing. This is a symbol of the psychological torment that one must go through during the nigredo, to become self-aware and spiritually pure. Trees: Prima materia — the force of manifestation, wisdom, the Divine, alternately a creative and destructive force. Yggdrasil provides wisdom to Odin at the cost of his suffering. The Tree of Paradise provides divine knowledge at the cost of sin, etc. Also, “As above, so below,” since the tree’s roots spread beneath it and the branches spread above it. It can also represent the dual nature of mankind, being both divine and mortal, connected to the Astral world and the terrestrial world. Twins: Sometimes the Red King (sulfur) and White Queen (quicksilver) are interpreted as twins, the two principal forces of nature that are born from prima materia and united with each other. They seem to be opposites, but they’re of the same stock. Sometimes they’re conjoined into a two-headed hermaphrodite. Unicorn: The masculine aspect of Mercurius, which can penetrate with its horn. Represents the spirit, while the deer represents the soul. The deer and unicorn must both be captured and tamed by the alchemist, so that they will mate with each other, representing the second Chemical Wedding between soul and spirit (during the albedo stage). The unicorn can only be tamed by the Virgin, who represents the feminine aspect of Mercurius. Urine: Mercurial water during the putrefaction stage, the universal solvent. Venom: Alkahest — mercurial water at the beginning of the Opus, as a universal solvent that burns and destroys everything it comes into contact with. It “kills” the matter of the Stone during the nigredo stage, reducing it to prima materia. It is symbolized by venomous animals (or animals thought to be venomous) like snakes and toads. Also symbolized by the blood of the dragon or Green Lion. The venom is then transmuted into the water of life. Spiritually, this is a symbol of the psychological turmoil that you go through when you first become aware of your Shadow or lower self, which becomes a blessing once you overcome it. Self-awareness is painful at first, but is a means towards divine knowledge and purity. (also called vinegar) Venus: Represents the metal copper, and the color green. She is the impure version of the Divine Feminine, just as Mars is the impure version of the Divine Masculine. She first appears as a “whore,” representing the impure matter of the Stone that quicksilver (a purer version of the Divine Feminine) must be extracted from. Mars and Venus are the alchemical couple before they become Sol and Luna. Sometimes she also presides over the Chemical Wedding and its results, wearing green. The matter of the Stone turns green just after the black nigredo and just before the rainbow Peacock’s Tail. Vessel: The flask or alembic in which the Philosopher’s Stone is made. Spiritually, it represents you – your body and consciousness. Your microcosm, in which the Great Work takes place. Viper: The impure matter of the Stone at the beginning of the Opus, and also the mercurial spirit that is released from it when it is dissolved. It is poisonous and violent, because it has not been refined yet. Virgin: The feminine aspect of Mercurius. Prima materia, which was “impregnated” by God to create the world, and generates all things. Also a symbol of argent vive (quicksilver), the cold and moist feminine principle. Represented by Diana (Artemis), the virgin huntress, who is also a symbol of the Moon (i.e. the Queen). Sapientia (wisdom) is also a form of the Virgin, this time representing the Philosopher’s Stone. In this aspect, she is a cosmic world-soul (similar to Hecate in the Chaldean Oracles). “Virgin’s milk” is the purifying and transforming form of mercurial water, and the White Tincture. Vitriol: Sulfate, or sulfuric acid. “Green vitriol” (iron sulfate) is the impure matter of the Stone (i.e. the Green Lion), while “red vitriol” is purified sulfur. Vulcan: Hephaestus, the smith of the gods, who is the archetypal alchemist in Paracelsian alchemy. This is probably because he works with metal and makes things out of gold. He also represents the “secret fire,” the purifying divine fire. Vulture: The Bird of Hermes and a symbol for the entire alchemical process, because it is black, white, and red. Water: The element, the essence of peace. Prima materia, primordial creation, chaos, darkness/the Abyss, philosophical mercury. It is cold and moist, and contains infinite possibility and creative potential, as well as volatile destruction. Also represents the Divine Feminine (i.e. the womb of creation). Symbolized by the Moon and quicksilver (mercury). In its destructive form, mercurial water is the universal solvent that reduces everything to prima materia, and then it transmutes into the purifying and revitalizing water of life. Watering [plants]: Watering the philosophical tree symbolizes distillation and ablution, imbuing the body of the Stone with its spiritual essence. Well: The vessel during dissolution, the container for the mercurial water. Another symbol for the baptismal bath or fountain. White: The albedo, the second stage of alchemy, when the vapor from the dying matter of the Stone rises to the top of the alembic, and the dead body of the Stone is washed in the mercurial waters. The human soul is washed clean of its sins and sorrows at this stage, and is capable of receiving divine love and inspiration. It represents purity and the giving of new life. Symbolized by milk, white roses, lilies, silver, snow, the water of life, the Moon, the swan, the dove, and the Queen. White Elixir: The White Stone in liquid form, an elixir with the power to transmute base metal into silver, obtained at the albedo stage. It can cleanse anything of its stains and purify matter into a near-perfect state. It is the milk that is “fed” to the baby Philosopher’s Stone during cibation. (Also called the White Tincture). White Foliated Earth: The matter of the Stone in the albedo stage, which has decomposed, been purified, and become white fertile soil. The seed of gold is “planted” in it, so that the Stone will be able to transmute base metal into gold. The white earth is watered when the soul reunites with the body. Symbolized by ash, dust, salt, or snow, and Luna/the Queen. White Stone: The matter of the Stone as it is during the albedo stage, able to transmute base metal into silver. It is the mundane body having become pure and spiritual through repeated refinement (distillation/sublimation). Symbolized by Luna, the White Queen. Wind: The vapor at the top of the flask, Mercurius during the sublimation stage. It is the soul that contains the life-spark, “the wind shall carry it in its belly.” The Stone at its most subtle. Eventually, it condenses and turns to water, then falls back to Earth again. (Also called zephyr) Wolf: Antimony. It devours the body of the King when he dies during the nigredo stage, symbolizing his destruction by the mercurial waters. Similar symbol to the Green Lion. Womb: The vessel, in which the Stone is conceived. Also a symbol for the bath or fountain that cleanses the matter of the Stone, and a symbol for the white foliated earth in which the “seed” of metals grows. The earth is “impregnated” by the spiritualized soul, which condenses and falls to the earth. When this happens, the Stone is born. Worm: Another symbol for the mercurial water and secret fire, that destroys and then revitalizes matter. Interchangeable with the serpent or dragon. It decomposes the dead body of the Stone during the putrefaction, eating away all corruption.
The Alchemical Process
Alchemy is complicated. The exact stages of alchemy is one aspect of it that I still have not been able to parse out. The processes vary drastically between different sources. On top of that, alchemists’ work was heavily coded and layered in arcane symbolism, specifically so that no one but the initiated would be able to understand it. Each alchemical source varies on what the names of the stages are, how many they are, and what order they’re in. There’s usually many more than seven. Alchemy is also a cyclical process, not a linear process, so certain stages repeat over and over and over again, or show up later under different names. Alchemy is deliberately obfuscating. The color stages are the most straightforward. There are four color stages: nigredo, albedo, citrinitas, and rubedo. By my reckoning, these are more important to remember and internalize than all the specific chemical processes. But, in most of my content related to alchemy, I’ve been ignoring citrinitas entirely because I don’t really know what it is. In the Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, Lyndy Abraham doesn’t even bother to actually define citrinitas, instead just naming symbols of it (golden flowers, for example) and explaining how most alchemists dropped it. Wikipedia of all things gave me a clearer definition of citrinitas as the “dawn” immediately preceding the rubedo, and that Jung associated it with the mentor archetype. I understand the other three color stages well enough: Nigredo is the matter in the flask turning black through burning or putrefying, and it symbolizes spiritual death. Albedo is the matter in the flask vaporizing or and being washed in the resulting condensation. It represents ascension to higher planes and unifying one’s soul with the spirit of God, the fixed becoming volatile. Rubedo is the crystallization of this purified matter into a red stone, the volatile becoming fixed, representing the spiritualized self being born anew into one’s body. This color process is cyclical, and each color stage shows up multiple times. As for the process stages, I keep getting stuck there, so I might as well use this answer as an excuse to try to make sense of them again. Here’s Richard Cavendish’s description of them from The Black Arts: "Some alchemists said there were seven processes in the work, others said there were twelve. The seven processes corresponded to the seven days of creation and also to the seven planets, because the influence of each planet was supposed to generate its own metal on earth. The metals varied in degree of perfection from lead, the most impure, up through gold. The alchemist began with his raw material in its most impure “leaden” state and gradually improved it till it had become the perfect gold, the steps in the work corresponding to the soul’s ascent through the planetary spheres. (This is one reason why Saturn, the ruler of the lead, corresponds to The World in the Tarot, the card which marks the beginning of the cabalist’s upward process.) The twelve processes were connected with the signs of the zodiac. The work was intended to copy the processes of Nature and the twelve months or zodiac signs make up the complete cycle of the year, in which Nature moves from birth to growth to decay, death, and rebirth. The English alchemist George Ripley gave a list of twelve processes in his Compound of Alchemy, written in 1470, and a very similar list was provided by another adept, Josephus Quercetanus, in 1576. The processes are calcination, solution, separation, conjunction, putrefaction, coagulation, cibation, sublimation, fermentation, exaltation, multiplication, and projection." So, this is at least a good place to start. Cavendish has his own description of each stage, and my own notes about them were based on that. But now, I think I’ll take it a step further and seek out the primary sources that he names, which is super easy to do on alchemywebsite.com. The Compound of Alchemy is a poem, written in an archaic form of English (sort of in-between Middle and Early Modern). It’s pretty difficult to make sense of, but this is what I’ve got: Calcination: Removing the moisture from the Stone (the matter in the flask) by heating it, which makes it easier to dissolve. Ripley emphasizes “like attracts like” in this section — “Every thyng ys fyrst Calcyned in hys own kynd.” To be honest I’m not really sure what that means in this context. Also in this section is a description of how the elements must be converted into each other, becoming progressively more volatile: Earth -> Water -> Air -> Fire. Then backwards, fire into water and air into earth. This section ends with the nigredo stage. You separate the spiritual self (i.e. the moisture) from the body, and the body dies. Solution (Dissolution): Ripley says that solve on the corporeal side causes coagula on the spiritual side, which is an interesting interpretation that I haven’t thought of before. Rather than simply cycling into each other, solve and coagula happen concurrently, on each “side” of the fixed-volatile divide. I guess that makes sense. By dissolving your physical body, you coagulate into the greater spiritual current of All, like a drop in the ocean of prima materia. And vice-versa. After the Earth (the matter) is incinerated (calcified?), mercurial water condenses, and the matter is dissolved into this water “which wetteth no hand” (i.e. it’s not actual water). This section constitutes the peacock’s tail stage. Separation: This is separating the subtle from the gross. The physical body was just dissolved into the grand spiritual whole, and now you need to separate it out again. Solve et coagula, over and over and over. This section mentions the formation of mercurial water, called the “Tryacle,” which is described as the airy mediator between Sun and Moon (i.e. the white dove in Chemical Wedding pictures). This section is mostly about water, but it also mentions four Fires: Natural, Unnatural, “against Nature,” and Elemental. Conjunction: The physical and spiritual parts of the Stone that you have just separated out need to come back together again. The conjunction brings together the duality of male and female, Sun and Moon, sulfur and mercury. It brings together the triplicity of body, soul, and spirit. It brings together the quadruplicity of the elements. The new Stone is conceived, and you have to tend it as it “gestates” in the Vessel. A sub-stage of this section is cibation, feeding the newborn Stone “milk and meat” (the Red and White Tincture). The Stone is white, so we’re in the albedo stage. Putrefaction: Now that the Stone has been born, it’s time to kill it again. Once again, the matter is heated, but it’s moist heat, so this time the matter rots instead of roasting. This goes on for ninety days, until the matter completely blackens. The King and Queen are buried together in a tomb. We’re back at the nigredo stage. After Putrefaction proceeds another “peacock’s tail” stage, to be followed by another albedo. This section makes mention of the repetitive process of distillation and sublimation, in which the matter repeatedly vaporizes and condenses: "Therfore thy Water out of the Erth thow draw, And make the soule therwyth for to assend; Then downe agayne into the Erth hyt throw, That they oft tymes so assend and dessend, From vyolent hete and sodayne [sudden] cold defend" This is essentially a rapid-fire repetition of the first few stages, converting the matter back and forth between vapor and solid, volatile and fixed. It gets a little more purified each time. Congelation (Coagulation): The spirit and body once again congeal, and the matter hardens into a white stone. So far, we’ve had a dry nigredo (calcination) become a wet albedo (solution), and now a wet nigredo (putrefaction) becomes a dry albedo (congelation). Though this section also says a lot about Water, clearly as an allegory for prima materia — the source of all things, the womb of the divine mother. The dry white stone is “nourished” with this water, which is also described as “menstruum” and “the blood of the Green Lion,” which is the “seed” of prima materia or the universal solvent. It’s described as “fiery water” (i.e. acid). Cibation: You feed the stone “milk and meat,” which refers to the White and Red Tinctures. I assume this means washing the matter in this acid that has been extracted from it. You have to repeatedly dry it out so as to avoid “dropsy” (which is when the Stone becomes too sodden). Sublimation: And once again, converting the matter of the Stone between fixed and volatile. Almost a repeat of the Putrefaction stage. The body becomes spiritual, the spirit corporeal. Just keep doing this until you purify the material more and more and more. By doing this, you bring the heavens down to earth within your flask. This is an albedo stage again. Fermentation: So, we’ve cycled through several versions of the nigredo by now. First there’s calcination, in which the matter burns into ashes. Then there’s putrefaction, in which the matter decays like a corpse in the ground. And now we’ve got fermentation, which is similarly a type of decay, but on a much “higher,” more spiritual level. Fermentation doesn’t result in rot; instead, it results in alcohol, which is a preservative. Fermentation reintroduces the spirit to the body, and permanently merges them. From what I can gather, fermentation must be performed separately for both the Red and White, the King and the Queen. Exaltation: Ripley describes this stage as very similar to sublimation, so it involves vaporization of the matter. After the body and spirit have been merged, the body can now be brought up to heaven instead of dying. The King and Queen are crowned on their thrones in the sky. The final Chemical Wedding happens at this stage, and the result is the complete Philosopher’s Stone — finally, the rubedo. Multiplication: You now have both a Red and a White Tincture. Repeat the process of dissolution and congelation several more times until you have an increased quantity of both. Projection: You have a Philosopher’s Stone. Now the thing to do with it is use it to transmute stuff. I interpret the Philosopher’s Stone as a “substance” that instantaneously raises the vibration of anything it comes in contact with. That’s what this is. Put a material in contact with the Stone, and it will instantly become a perfect spiritualized version of itself (i.e. “gold”). So, that’s the Great Work. It remains pretty cryptic and difficult to figure out (even without taking the archaic English into account), but I definitely think I’ve got a better understanding of it now. It’s a cyclical process. It’s doing the same thing over and over and over again, and you can theoretically divide that into any number of stages. Another alchemical text called The Crowning of Nature divides the process into even more specific stages, resulting in a much longer list: Distillation, preparation, division, actuation, conjunction, calcination, sublimation, solution, putrefaction, conception, impregnation, generation, fermentation, various different versions of separation and conjunction (to represent each individual repeat of this process), purgation, exaltation, fixation, projection, multiplication, imbibition, and a bunch more repeats. (This text has some cool artwork to go with it, so I might do an analysis of it after I’m done with the Basil Valentine one.) Because you’re just repeating the same thing, with a greater degree of purity each time, the marks of the different “stages” are a bit arbitrary; just as a gradient eventually turns from black to gray to white to pink to red, you can’t quite label the exact moment at which one color becomes another. As the Stone becomes more and more purified, you need to change the method used to “kill” it, because it will have fewer impurities to remove. Eventually, if you repeat the process enough times with enough little shifts to accommodate the changes, you’ll eventually end up with the Philosopher’s Stone.
The Emerald Tablet
The Emerald Tablet is a short poem about alchemy, which first appeared in medieval Arabic texts. It is attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary founder of alchemy, who was supposedly a syncretic incarnation of the gods Hermes and Thoth. As far as we know, there was never any actual tablet of emerald on which it was inscribed. Its earliest known source is an medieval Arabic book called the Book of Causes, which is a philosophical work attributed to Aristotle, but not actually written by him. Another early source is a work called Kitab Sirr al-Asrar, which is a letter of advice to Alexander the Great also attributed to Aristotle. Neither text is actually by Aristotle, so we have no idea who originally wrote the Tablet. As for what it means, here’s my own line-by-line interpretation of it. I’m using Isaac Newton’s translation. "Tis true without lying, certain and most true. That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below." This is the ultimate source of the famous occult maxim “As above, so below,” sometimes called the Principle of Correspondence. It is the idea that the “macrocosm” of the universe at large reflects the “microcosm” of the human body and the workings of human society, and vice-versa. This is an important idea, because if you can recognize the patterns of nature on a massive scale, you can use them to influence things in your actual life. Also vice-versa — if you want to change something on a massive scale, you can change something symbolically on the small scale (this is generally how sympathetic magic works). In a more abstract sense, the physical and spiritual worlds work in tandem with each other. Any action has ripple effects throughout the many “layers” of the universe. The goal of the alchemist is to be at the fulcrum between the physical world and the spiritual world, to work within both. To quote Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, everything is “caught up in a great unseen flow,” and all we tiny humans are parts of the grand whole of the universe. It influences us, and we influence it in turn. "to do the miracle of one only thing" Referring to the alchemical Great Work. "And as all things have been and arose from one by the mediation of one: so all things have their birth from this one thing by adaptation." This is a summation of the idea that all of the universe is of the mind of God, sometimes called the Principle of Mentalism. It’s the explanation for why everything is connected. The entire universe emanated from God, exists within God, and consists of God. Pantheism, basically. God is All. All is God. "Who am I? One name you might have for me is The World. Or you might call me The Universe. Or perhaps “God.” Or perhaps “The Truth.” I am All, and I am One. So of course, this also means that I am you. —Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, “The Other Side of the Gate.” "The Sun is its father, the moon its mother, the wind hath carried it in its belly, the earth is its nurse." The “it” being referred to here is the Philosopher’s Stone. In alchemy, the Sun and Moon represent the divine masculine and divine feminine principles of nature, which combine with each other to produce their “child,” the Philosopher’s Stone. The mention of wind and earth refers to the process of solve et coagula, dissolution and coagulation, which converts the matter of the Stone from a solid “fixed” state to a gaseous “volatile” state and vice-versa. The volatile Stone represents the soul or the spiritual part of a person, and the fixed Stone represents the body or the material part of the person. Through the alchemical process, the earthly becomes spiritual and the spiritual becomes earthly. "The father of all perfection in the whole world is here." Referring to the Philosopher’s Stone, or else to God. "Its force or power is entire if it be converted into earth." If you can take the perfect spiritual being and bring it down to Earth, giving it a corporeal form and the ability to act within the physical world, you will be able to do anything. "Separate thou the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross sweetly with great industry." The alchemical process consists of repeating solve et coagula. This line refers to solve, separation. The first thing you need to do is to separate the spiritual “subtle” nature from the earthly “gross” nature. This is represented by the death of the King who represents the Stone, which separates his spiritual soul from his body. "It ascends from the earth to the heaven and again it descends to the earth" When the soul of the King reaches the heavens (the vapor rises to the top of the flask) it is spiritually purified through union with the Divine, and then it descends back into the body to resurrect it (condensation falls like rain onto the blackened matter at the bottom of the flask). The part about descending to the earth is critical. So many spiritual systems stop at the separation phase — they emphasize permanent detachment from “the world,” with the ultimate goal being to unify with the Divine. Alchemy takes that a step further. After you unify with the Divine, you come back to the world and become apart of it as a purified divine being. "and receives the force of things superior and inferior." Reiterating “as above, so below.” If you manage to accomplish this process, you will be able to utilize and be apart of both the spiritual (“superior”) world and the mundane (“inferior”) world. "By this means you shall have the glory of the whole world and thereby all obscurity shall fly from you." If you complete the Opus, you will be a divine and spiritual being within a human body, with all the human capability of interacting with the mundane world. You will be able to manifest higher ideas and desires here, in the real world. You’ll have the power and knowledge of a god, whilst still being able to live on earth as a human. "Its force is above all force, for it vanquishes every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing." The Philosopher’s Stone is able to make every spiritual thing physical, and every physical thing spiritual. That’s transmutation — the ability to bring out the divinity in other things and people, and take the divine and bring it down to earth so that it can be applied. "So was the world created." The alchemical Opus is meant to mimic God’s creation of the world. The Emerald Tablet outright states that God created the world using this transmutation process. If you successfully complete the Opus, then you will gain the creative powers of God. "From this are and do come admirable adaptations where of the means is here in this." This is very weirdly worded but essentially it means, “by using this method, you will be able to perform miracles.” "For this reason I am called Hermes Trismegistus, because I hold three parts of the wisdom of the whole world." In my opinion, these three parts are 1. Wizard, 2. Scientist, 3. Priest. In some cultures, the same people performed all three of these roles — shamans and druids, for example, and cunning folk to a lesser extent. It is my personal opinion that modern occultists should strive to be all three on some level. "That which I have said of the operation of the Sun is accomplished and ended." And that’s the Emerald Tablet.
The Symbolism of Baphomet
Baphomet is simultaneously one of the most iconic and esoteric occult symbols, practically synonymous with occultism itself. What exactly does Baphomet represent? Well, first, it’s important to point out that Baphomet originates from a conspiracy involving the Knights Templar in the eleventh century. The Knights Templar were getting too rich and too powerful, so for a number of complicated political reasons, they were accused of worshipping an idol called “Baphomet.” “Baphomet” is likely a corruption of “Mahamut,” Muhammed, which means that the Knights Templar were not being accused of being Satanists, but rather, Muslims! (Which, to Christians in the eleventh century, may as well have been same thing.) Baphomet is more familiar as an image of an androgynous goat-headed entity, drawn by Eliphas Levi. Levi's image is packed with occult symbolism. Here's how he interprets his drawing: "The goat which is represented in our frontispiece bears upon its forehead the Sign of the Pentagram with one point in the ascendant, which is sufficient to distinguish it as a symbol of the light. Moreover, the sign of occultism is made with both hands, pointing upward to the white moon of Chesed, and downward to the black moon of Geburah. This sign expresses the perfect concord between mercy and justice. One of the arms is feminine and the other masculine, as in the androgyne of Khunrath, those attributes we have combined with those of our goat, since they are one and the same symbol. The torch of intelligence burning between the horns is the magical light of universal equilibrium; it is also the type of the soul, exalted above matter, even while cleaving to matter, as the flame cleaves to the torch. The monstrous head of the animal expresses horror of sin, for which the material agent, alone responsible, must alone and for ever bear the penalty, because the soul is impassible in its nature and can suffer only by materializing. The caduceus, which, replaces the generative organ, represents eternal life; the scale-covered belly typifies water; the circle above it is the atmosphere, the feathers still higher up signify the volatile; lastly, humanity is depicted by the two breasts and the androgyne arms of this sphinx of the occult sciences. Behold the shadows of the infernal sanctuary dissipated! Behold the sphinx of mediaeval terrors unveiled and cast from his throne! Quomodo cedidisti, Lucifer!" Let me see if I can summarize this: Baphomet is obviously androgynous, with female breasts and the very phallic caduceus, representing the union of male and female. The wings represent spirituality and ascension while the goat’s head represents sin and the animalistic nature of humans. The wings represent Air and birds, the scales on its belly represent Water and fish, and its hooves represent Earth and mammals. The torch represents Fire. The gesture that Baphomet is making with its hands represents the Hermetic Principle of Correspondence, “That which is above is like that which is below.” The “above” is the macrocosm, either the literal universe at large or the divine realms. The “below” is the microcosm, life on earth or the human body itself. And if you affect one, you affect the other. The words on its arms, “solve” and “coagula,” mean “to separate” and “to bring together.” They summarize the alchemical process. The torch on its head represents intelligence, divine knowledge, and enlightenment, the soul over the body. The pentagram on its head is upright, putting spirit above matter. The white and black moon represent the sephiroth Chesed and Gevurah (respectively), therefore the qualities of mercy and severity (respectively). The caduceus in its lap, in addition to being a phallic symbol, is representative of magical power, healing, and bringing together of opposites. (Apparently also eternal life.) The circle behind the caduceus is reminiscent of the Ouroboros, representing the Principle of Mentalism — all of the universe is in the mind of God. It also apparently represents the atmosphere, probably the “cosmic Void,” prima materia. So in short, that image — the goat-headed person — is a symbolic representation of the entire alchemical process. This Baphomet isn’t necessarily supposed to be a god, the Devil, or any entity at all, but rather a representation of alchemy and the union of opposites. You can also see the entire Kabbalistic Tree of Life in this image (the torch is Kether, the horns Binah and Chokmah, the pentagram Da’ath, the hands Chesed and Gevurah, the breasts Tiphereth, the legs Hod and Netzach, the caduceus Yesod, and the feet Malkuth). Levi’s Baphomet was very likely inspired by depictions of XV The Devil in the Tarot, but functionally, it is much more similar to I The Magician or XIV Temperance; Baphomet is a personification of the process of magic. And yet for some reason, all people seem to remember is the goat’s head. I’m not sure Levi succeeded in “casting the sphinx of medieval terrors from his throne.” If anything… he kind of achieved the exact opposite. Sources: The Doctrine and Ritual of Transcendental Magic by Eliphas Levi Esoteric Empathy by Raven Digitalis "Baphomet: Truth and Explanations" by The Nemeton.
