An Introduction to Alchemy
Sapphire Ravensong
Alchemy is a science full of with
mysterious symbols and ideas, which to the uninitiate seem far-fetched. Alchemy brings to mind the transmuting of
base metals into gold, the elixer of eternal youth, the ability to create life
from clay, and, of course, the mysterious Philosopher’s Stone. Alchemical
writings are replete with bewildering animals -- red lions, white eagles,
stags, unicorns, winged dragons and snakes (to name a few). What are we to make
of complex mass of symbolism which seems so torturous and confusing?
There is an inner coherence to these
symbols, which the ancient alchemists used in specific ways reflecting their
esoteric content. One of the first foundations of this great art is to understand
that the Philosopher’s Stone (the end result of the Great Work) consists of
five main stages: dissolution, maceration, sublimation, division, and
composition.
In alchemy each step or phase represents
not only an interior awakening (initiation), but also a physical, practical
technique performed in the laboratory. The physical, laboratory work becomes a
means of verifying spiritual and psychic expansions in consciousness. “Alchemy
is an initiatic system in which you have no delusions. It is the only initiatic
path where there is an objective control in the laboratory. So if your
experiment shows you've gone beyond the ordinary material laws of the universe,
it shows that you're an alchemist that has had an interior awakening, and that
corresponds to the rule which says, ‘You will transmute nothing if you have not
transmuted yourself first.' (Jean Dubuis, Romanticism On the Net 5, 1997)
According to Adam McLean these five stages
can be symbolized by five specific birds, which frequently appear in alchemical
symbolism. They are the Black Crow,
White Swan, Peacock, Pelican, and Phoenix. Each of these are descriptive of the
five stages in the alchemical process. He goes on to say that “it would be
wrong to suggest that there are fixed rigid meanings with regard to these
symbols. The alchemists always integrated the symbols they used, so that one
has to look at the total context, the background against which they stand, but
when the birds appear in this sequence it is almost certain that the following
interpretation can be applied.” (McLean, 1979)
A general understanding of the use of
symbolism is necessary. For example the
Sun is almost universally symbolic of the masculine (which is gold in alchemy)
and the moon of the feminine (which is silver). There are cultures, such as the Nordic, in which this symbolism
is reversed, but the goal is always to unite the two in perfect balance. So the
question become what did the alchemists wish to symbolise by birds? “The
essential thing about birds is that they, having as their domain the air
element, mediate between heaven and earth. The bird thus symbolises the human
soul aspiring upwards.” (McLean, 1979) So according to Mr. McLean these five
birds can symbolise the five stages of the Great Work thus:
The Black Crow (sometimes also the Raven)
is the beginning of the great work of soul alchemy. It is the initial stages of
the alchemist's encounter with his inner space, through withdrawing from the
outer world of the senses in meditation. This stage is also described in
alchemical texts as the blackening, the nigredo experience, and it is often
pictured as a death process, as some alchemical illustrations show, the
alchemist dying within a flask.
The next stage is often shown as The White
Swan. During this stage the alchemist begins to experience the inner world as
filled with light. This experience of
the ‘white light’ is often mistaken for true illumination, but is merely a
first conscious encounter with the etheric world. I remember my first experience
with the white light. It is a very
powerful experience to the noviate and easily mistaken as illumination. It is the step that opens the door to deeper
experiences and ordeals and as such is truly a most blessed state.
In the Peacock stage, the alchemist enters
into the inner experience of the astral world, which initially appears as ever
shifting patterns of color. This experience is often symbolised in alchemy by
the appropriate image of the peacock's tail with its splendid iridescence of
color. The Peacock’s Tail, beautiful though it may be, is merely a digestion of
the polarities of the black and white stage. These must be transformed further
into spiritual tinctures, if there is to be any permanent transformation within
the soul. At this point the alchemist must begin to work on his inner being.
This active working with the soul forces
is perfectly pictured in the Pelican. The Pelican is shown stabbing its breast
with its beak and nourishing its young with its own blood. The alchemist must enter
into a kind of sacrificial relationship with his inner being. One's image of
one's self must be transformed by sacrificed to the developing spiritual self.
This is almost always a deeply painful experience, which tests one's inner
resources. Make no mistake about it, you will be sorely tested. Many will not make it past this stage. Eventually the spiritual self will emerge,
reborn through the Pelican experience. Some of you may recall that the Pelican
feeds its young from its own breast symbolizes the act of sacrificing the lower
for the higher. Aaah, the Great Work is
complete, right? Guess again. After all this you get to start all over,
only this time it will be even harder...for all of eternity! You've been warned. (Diabolical Laughter)
The Phoenix completes this process of soul
development. The Phoenix bird builds its nest, which at the same time is its
funeral pyre, and then setting it alight cremates itself. But it arises anew
from the ashes transformed. Here we have captured the alchemists’ experience of
spiritualization. He has integrated his being so much, that he is no longer
dependent upon his physical body as a foundation for his being. He has in this
sense attained the Philosopher's Stone. The energy of Life manifests in two
forms, Fire and Air. While both are predominately active in nature, fire is the
more active of the two, with Air being slightly passive because of the partial
Water Element in its makeup. Potential Matter manifests its energy as Water and
Earth. Again it is important to understand that when alchemists refer to
material elements and substances, they are really referring to energy states.
In the physical world the elements also have preferred ways of interacting with
each other, and so it is also true in the spiritual world. As above so below. Thus we come to the Three Principles of alchemy.
The Three Essentials are the alchemical
principles of Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt. Like the “Elements” these principle
concepts are to be thought of a “Philosophical” and not literally as chemical
elements or compounds. The Alchemical Sulphur, or Soul, of a thing predominates
in the animating principles of energy (Fire) and intelligence (Air); Alchemical
Salt, or the
physical body
of a thing, predominates in unconscious forces, psychic, and instinctual
intelligence (Water) and solid matter (Earth); Alchemical Mercury, or general
life force, predominates in intelligence (Air) and instinctual forces, and
psychic energy (Water), as such it is the bridge, between the higher forces of
Sulphur and the lower body of matter. (Stavish, 1998)
Those familiar with the Gnostic Mass may
recall that there are three principle roles: the Priestess behind the Veil
sitting on the supernal triad, the Deacon, who is the Magician (or alchemist)
working from the center of Tipareth, and the Initiate or Priest who emerges
from the darkness of Malkuth to experience the White Swan (spiritual
awakening). The Priest then proceeds to work his way up the tree of life until
he is united with the Priestess in Kether. The Deacon represents
the bridge or Tipareth, for it is only through perfect balance that this union
chan be achieved. We might liken the Priest at the first level as Salt and the
Priestess as Sulpher. It is interesting
to note that the Priestess, like Sophia, the Goddess of Wisdom, descends her
throne and comes to earth to join humanity. She guides him slowly to the throne
teaching him the sacraments and rituals as they go. His journey through life is
the alchemical process by which he is transformed into the King. The journey
itself is the transmutation of lead into gold and the final prize is the
Philosopher's stone.
The alchemist seeks to imitate nature.
Paracelsus writes "Everything external in nature points to something
Internal”, encapsulating the philosophical basis of alchemical practice - the
essential correspondence between the synthetic principles of Nature and the
inner impulse toward integration and wholeness. Alchemy is grounded in Nature such that Nature and human nature are
to be "conjoined, brought together, and estimated one by the other."
The alchemist "brings forth what is latent in Nature" such that
alchemy is "the true and sublime Art of Nature herself."
In the five vignettes from L’Azoth, ou le mouyen de faire l’or cache des philosophes, by Basil Valentin,
the first shows a man carrying the universe with the inscription “Visitia
Interiora Terrae, Recificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem” (“Visit the inner
parts of the earth; by rectification thou shalt find the occult stone”). (De
Givery, Emile,1991) If the initials of these seven words are put together they
form the hermetic phrase Vitriol. The
unititiate might imagine they could obtain the Philosopher’s Stone by means of
sulphuric acid, the vitriol of sages, however vitriol has a spiritual meaning
never revealed by alchemists. The green
lion often symbolizes vitriol.
Sulphuric acid (vitriol) was created by
distilling the green crystals of iron sulphate in a flask. Iron sulphate was
formed when iron ores rich in sulphides were left to oxidize in the air, so was
readily available to medieval alchemists. The sharp penetrating sulphuric acid
could create major chemical changes in many materials even to the extent of
dissolving metals like iron, and copper. The Green Lion could also be the
nitric acid formed from heating saltpeter or nitre and iron sulphate. Nitric
acid when mixed with the acid derived from common salt, hydrochloric acid,
produced aqua regia (Royal Water), a
greenish tinged liquid that could dissolve gold. The Green Lion devouring the
sun is a famous image in alchemy being depicted in many manuscripts and
engravings.
To alchemists who mainly worked with plant
matter and processes, the Green Lion symbolized the green raw energy of nature.
The Green Lion, which devours the sun, is the green pigment chlorophyll. The
green leaves of the plant are formed out of the energy of sunlight. Alchemists
often attempted to create living processes in their flasks and looked
especially for precipitates, which resembled leaves or plant forms. The
Gryphon, half-eagle and half-lion, was sometimes associated with the end of
this stage. The eagle nature of the Gryphon gave this hybrid being an ability
to ascend in the flask, so it represented the spiritualization of the Green
Lion. In the work with minerals, the metal antimony was referred to as the Grey
Wolf, because when molten it swallowed up a lot of other metals, such as
copper, tin and lead, by forming alloys. In the early 17th century the writings
of Basil Valentine increased the popularity of the Grey Wolf symbol because its
healing properties. (Stavish, 1997)
The Babylonian dragon in which all the
virtues of the metallic states are combined symbolizes philosopher’s
mercury. Philosopher’s mercury is put
into a glass egg and during digestion the egg is put into an anathor or vaulted
furnace. Mercury is the primitive
material of alchemy. The philosophic
egg is known as an aludel or the furnace, but they are one and the same thing.
The manuscript entitled Guide Charitabel
states that the egg must be “of good Lorraine glass, oval in shape or round,
clear, thick; it must have a neck eight inches long; it must hold four ounces
of distilled water; it must be hermetically sealed.” (De Givery, Emile, 1991)
The furnace is shaped like an egg because the world itself is shaped like an
egg. The orphic egg is found at the
basis of all initiations. The spirit of
Elohim moved the great waters and so must also float over the water of the
anathor, the spirit of life, which the alchemist must master. "Whoever has understood the mystery of
the creations of the heavens, the earth, the waters, light, animals, and man
knows the secret of the Philospher’s stone". (De Givery, Emile, 1991)
References:
De Givery,
Emile, Sorcery, Magic, and Alchemy,
Mallard Press, 1991.
Mc Lean,
Adam, The Birds in Alchemy, Hermetic
Journal No. 5, 1979.
Roberts,
Maureen B. "'Ethereal Chemicals':
Alchemy and the Romantic Imagination." Romanticism On the Net 5
(February 1997)
<http://users.ox.ac.uk/~scat0385/alchemy.html> Michael
Eberle-Sinatra 1997–2000.
Stavish, Mark. Secret Fire: The
Relationship Between Kundalini, Kabbalah, and Alchemy. 1998.
Stavish,
Mark, Alchemy, It's Not Just for the
Middle Ages Anymore
For: Atlantis
Rising Spring 1997.
Stavish,
Mark, The Animals of Alchemy, 1997.