ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLISM

Alchemy has always shown a very special fascination to people. At present, the new generation shows great curiosity and interest for this almost forgotten "science."

There have always existed individuals that penetrate the legendary and the strange, they venture to cross the entrance of the labyrinth that is alchemy.

Today, alchemy cohabits peacefully with science and it is not rare to see learned individuals in the branches of science, medicine and letters, who practice the Real Art.

There has been much writing about the alchemical symbolism found in cathedrals, palaces and even seigniorial houses. It is a fascinating work to try to unmask the secret contained in those figures sculpted in the stone by our ancestor artists, as testimony of their involvement in Hermes’ "science".

In the symbolism of alchemy, so far as we know, fixed rules don't exist. Everything was, and still is, left to the authors' imagination and their creativity. This often gives motive to "philosophical" speculations that, in general, have nothing to do with the reality of alchemy.

We said that, in alchemy, there are no fixed rules in its symbolism but, in respect to descriptive and practical alchemy, the old Masters used, frequently, a figurative language, almost always based on the Indo-European mythology, that can be interpreted by one who has the necessary knowledge, and verifies the results obtained in the described operations. Thus, it can be concluded with some certainty, which chemical substances, metals or minerals enter in those operations and the modus operandi.

To illustrate this conclusion, we will analyze syntactically what Philalethes author of Speculum Veritatis wanted to transmit to us, allegorically, in the First Illustration of this treatise.  

On the left side of the illustration we see a Wolf eating a young warrior, dropped to earth, with armour and helmet, holding a sword in the right hand. We see a tree covered with foliage. In the centre, another warrior, on foot, older and bearded, with a crippled leg, armour and helmet, holding in his right hand a blazing object that symbolizes fiery (burned) power (principle) and, in the left hand, a cruciferous Globe with a Star in the centre.

Above this globe, among the clouds, a Sheep has a Star marking on the shoulder, aimed at the globe. On the right side, there are two old men (alchemists) one of them receiving in his hands the cruciferous Globe, from the warrior. The other old man is attentively observing.

The symbolism is clear. The sagacious investigator and expert, easily can verify that this is an allegorical representation of the Philalethes’ First Work, dry Way that is to say, the Separation and Purifications, with a view to the obtaining of the starry martial Regulus as we will see later. But, so that there is not any doubt, we will explain in detail.

The Wolf represents, allegorically, the mineral Subject, also known as the black Dragon, Saturn’s son or royal "Saturnie". Basil Valentine, in the First key of its book The Twelve Keys of the Philosophy, refers to this grizzly hungry Wolf that eats every metal. Christophle Glaser also mentions it in its Chemistry Treatise. The warrior, that the wolf is to devour with the help of Volcano, God of fire, here represented by the older crippled warrior, symbolizes Mars.

The cruciferous globe, that Volcano holds in the left hand and is to give to one of the old alchemists, is the symbol of the earth or of the mineral subject, that the artist has to seek and to identify to begin the work. The star that we see in the centre of the globe symbolizes the starry martial regulus, proceeding from the separation and succeeding purifications, done by the fire and for the salt. Under the cruciferous globe a stream runs, which symbolizes our living water, that is to say the Mercury, that will be animated later.

The Sheep or Aries symbolizes, astrologically, the favourable season for the beginning of the works, also clearly identified by the foliage of the tree. Besides, the metallic correspondence of Aries is the same as Mars, the same generator of the starry sign of the martial regulus, that attests to this canonical operation.

The old alchemists utilized the fact that the astrological signs and the planets have their correspondence with the respective metals. Besides, a profusion of sparygical symbols exists, not always in agreement that makes the task of the investigator of the Hermes’ Art more difficult.

(Speculum Veritatis, XVII Century, Apostolic Vatican Library, Cod. Lat. 7286 folio 2)

The result of this alchemical operation symbologicaly described is the martial regulus that you will can to see in the image: Martial Regulus (dwregulus).

In A Grande Obra Alquímica, Rubellus Petrinus, Hugin Editores, Lda, Lisboa, 1997.

(Image with links)