Designation of chemical elements used by alchemists. Alchemy

In alchemy, symbols play a special, if not the main role:

1. The symbol served to hide sacred meaning mysteries from the uninitiated (and especially from the Inquisition).

2. The symbol is a means of knowledge and the Path of Truth; the symbol serves to directly convey mystical experience (experience).

Natura incipit, ars dirigit, usus perficit- Nature begins, art guides, experience perfects.

Ladder- the path to knowledge in alchemy.

Basilisk (cockatrice) - initiation into wisdom, knowledge.

Bear- chaos, primary matter, which alchemy is designed to bring into order.

Eagle soaring high - the liberated spiritual part of primary matter.

Alchemists use signs to indicate time primarily from astrology. With their help, you can designate almost any time period.

1 hour

2. Day

3. Time of day (day, night)

4. Week

5. Month (consists of 40 days)

6. Year

Additional signs:

Primary matter - for an alchemist, this is not matter itself, but rather its possibility, combining all the qualities and properties inherent in matter.

Black Sun- symbol of primary material.

Rose- a symbol of mystery, wisdom.

Sword Flamberge, salamander - secret fire - a reagent used to influence the primary substance.

Skeleton- symbol of ash. Some alchemists called ash the skeleton of a substance.

For alchemists, as a rule, 7 metals are involved in the initial processes, corresponding to the 7 days of the week, their gods, metals and correspondences, from which other compounds are obtained:

1) Moon, silver, Monday. Color - white, silver.

White flower- silver

2) Mars, iron, Tuesday. Color - red-pink, orange. (Warrior with a sword).

This is duality and opposition, sun and moon, gold and silver, compound of sulfur and mercury.

Toad, eagle, goat head - sulfur .

Fox- temporarily hardened red sulfur, the opposite of the rooster.

A lion,rooster- mercury,the volatile part of the stone substance is living, active dry water.

Sulfur and mercury are considered as the father and mother of metals. When they combine, various metals are formed. Sulfur determines the variability and flammability of metals, and mercury causes hardness, ductility and shine.

King and queen - this is gold and silver, which, according to some alchemists, were the primary substance.

The primal substance is a (male) substance that becomes One and Unique when combined with the female. All its components are both stable and changeable, the yin and yang of Chinese alchemy.

Katsudei -male sulfur and female mercury, transformation, dissolution, sometimes representing the symbol of Jupiter.

Key- (cognition), often in form not intended for discovery.

Bridge -transformation of one into another.

Hermetic vessel - obtaining a 3rd from 2 components.

Philosophical Mercury - the soul of matter (the body of matter), it is an ideal substance that connects the Spirit and the Body into a single whole by reconciling the opposites of the Spirit and the Body in itself, and serves as the principle of the unity of all three planes of Existence. Therefore, Philosophical Mercury was depicted as hermaphrodite, or male and female together.

Two rival birds, two eagles, a deer, an eagle and a lion - symbol of transformation, dual nature, philosophical mercury.

Two dragons or snakes biting each other (sulfur is a wingless snake, mercury is winged). If the alchemist managed to combine both principles, then he received primordial matter or primordial substance.

3) Mercury, Wednesday, mercury. Dark-blue colour.

But, first of all, this is the triad of alchemists - sulfur, mercury and salt. A feature of this theory was the idea of ​​macro and microcosm. Man was viewed as a world in miniature. Hence the meaning of the elements: Sulfur - Spirit, Mercury - Soul, Salt - body. The cosmos and man consist of the same elements - body, soul and spirit.

The spirit corresponds to the element of fire, the soul to the element of water and air, and the salt to the earth element.

Sulfur (sulfur) - immortal spirit/ something that disappears without a trace from matter when fired.

Mercury (mercury) is the soul, that which connects the body and spirit.

Salt is the body, the material that remains after firing.

From a chemical point of view, one of the components is a metal, the other is a mineral containing mercury, which gives philosophical mercury.

Dragonthey called saltpeter, mercuric chloride, and fire, all of which the experiments began with, and are often associated with Mercury - mercury.

4) Jupiter, Thursday, tin. Color - red-brown.

The Cosmos is like two pairs of basic states: hot and dry - cold and wet; the combination of these states gives rise to the elements that are at the base of the Cosmos. That. the transition of one element to another, by changing one of its qualities, served as the basis for the idea of ​​transmutation.

Rod- a symbol of transformation.

The basis for all alchemical theories is the theory of the 4 elements. Plato considered these elements as geometric solids from which all substances are built, The 4 elements are also represented in the four cherubs - man (earth), bull (water), eagle(air), lion (fire).

5) Venus, Friday, copper. Color - golden, red.

Aristotle defined the combination of 4 opposite qualities: cold, dryness, heat and moisture, and added to the four elements a fifth - quintessence, which was depicted by a 5-petalled flower, a cut apple or a pentagram.

6) Saturday, Saturn, lead. Black color.

Saturn salt is lead acetate.

Old man with a scythe, Chronos, skeleton - symbol of lead.

Green lion- arsenic and lead.

red lion- cinnabar, antimony cinnabar, kolkotar, lead litharge, red lead.

Wolf with open mouth - this is antimony.

7) Sunday, Sun, gold. Yellow color.

Basic principle: mercury and salt lead to alchemical gold.

Sun, red lion, knight in armor - gold

Red flower- gold.

The sun can also be symbolized by a winged snake, an eagle with a snake, a falcon, a swan.

Lion devouring the sun - the process of dissolving gold with mercury.

In their treatises, alchemists described substances differently, often in the same

treatise, the same substance was called differently.

The idea of ​​the unity of all things was symbolically depicted as ourobora- a snake/dragon devouring its own tail - a symbol of Eternity and the entire alchemical goal - the search for the philosopher's stone.

Crow- the original state of matter, the future philosopher's stone. Often depicted with a black sun and skeleton, as a symbol of lead, in the 1st stage of nigredo.

There are three main stages of the Work:

Nigredo(nigredo) - the black stage, when all the components were collected and fired, that is, fusion, mixing everything together and calcination.

Albedo(albedo) - white stage - lunar consciousness, light shed into darkness, but the light is reflected, cold. Albedo is a still unclear world with blurry forms, consciousness born from darkness. Like the wind on a full moon, Mercury rules the albedo, the metals are silver and mercury. Dissolution, mixing, hardening process.

Rubedo(rubedo) - red stage, its metal is gold, frozen solar flame. Boiling point.

These 3 stages are sometimes depicted like this:

The number of processes leading to these stages varies. Some associated them with the twelve signs of the zodiac, some with the seven days of creation, but still almost all alchemists mentioned them.

Woman with a raven in her hands - fermentation.

Raven on a shield- cleansing.

Motto: "Visita Interiora Terra Rectificanto Inveniens Occultum Lapidem" , which means “Visit the interior of the Earth and by purification (rectification) find the Stone.” In alchemical treatises, the abbreviation of the first letters is widely used - V.I.T.R.I.O.L

Phoenix is ​​a symbol of the philosopher's stone.

« To prepare the elixir of the sages, or the philosopher's stone, take, my son, philosophical mercury and heat it until it turns into a green lion. After that, heat it harder and it will turn into a red lion. Digest this red lion in a sand bath with sour grape spirit, evaporate the liquid, and the mercury will turn into a gummy substance that can be cut with a knife. Place it in a retort coated with clay and slowly distill it. Collect separately the liquids of different nature that appear. You will get tasteless phlegm, alcohol and red drops. The Cimmerian shadows will cover the retort with their dark veil, and you will find inside it true dragon because he eats his own tail. Take this black dragon, grind it on a stone and touch it with a hot coal. It will light up and, soon taking on a magnificent lemon color, will again reproduce the green lion. Make it eat its tail and distill the product again. Finally, my son, rectify carefully and you will see the appearance of flammable water and human blood» . -

This is a recipe for obtaining the philosopher's stone, which, according to legend, belongs to the Spanish thinker Raymond Lull (XIII-XIV centuries) and repeated by the English alchemist of the 15th century George Ripley in “The Book of the Twelve Gates” (ВСС, 2, pp. 275-284)

The 19th century French chemist Jean-Baptiste André Dumas calls philosophical mercury lead. Having calcined it, Ripley receives a massicot (yellow lead oxide) - this is a green lion, which, upon further calcination, turns into a red lion - red lead. The alchemist then heats the red lead with sour grape alcohol - wine vinegar, which dissolves the lead oxide. After evaporation, lead sugar remains. When it is gradually heated in solution, water of crystallization (reflux) is first distilled, then flammable water—“burnt acetic alcohol” (acetone) and, finally, a red-brown oily liquid. A black mass, or “black dragon”, remains in the retort - this is finely crushed lead. When it comes into contact with hot coal, it begins to smolder and turns into yellow lead oxide: “the black dragon devoured its tail and turned into a green lion.”

Alchemical symbols

In alchemy, symbols play a special, if not the main role:

1. The symbol served to hide the sacred meaning of the mystery from the uninitiated (and especially from the Inquisition).

2. The symbol is a means of knowledge and the Path of Truth; the symbol serves to directly convey mystical experience (experience).

Natura incipit, ars dirigit, usus perficit- Nature begins, art guides, experience perfects.

Ladder- the path to knowledge in alchemy.

Basilisk (cockatrice) – initiation into wisdom, knowledge.

Bear- chaos, primary matter, which alchemy is designed to bring into order.

Eagle soaring high – the liberated spiritual part of primary matter.

Alchemists use signs to indicate time primarily from astrology. With their help, you can designate almost any time period.

1 hour

2. Day

3. Time of day (day, night)

4. Week

5. Month (consists of 40 days)

6. Year

Additional signs:

Primary matter - for an alchemist, this is not matter itself, but rather its possibility, combining all the qualities and properties inherent in matter.

Black Sun- symbol of primary material.

Rose- a symbol of mystery, wisdom.

Sword Flamberge, salamander - secret fire - a reagent used to influence the primary substance.

Skeleton- symbol of ash. Some alchemists called ash the skeleton of a substance.

For alchemists, as a rule, 7 metals are involved in the initial processes, corresponding to the 7 days of the week, their gods, metals and correspondences, from which other compounds are obtained:

1) Moon, silver, Monday. Color – white, silver.

White flower- silver

2) Mars, iron, Tuesday. Color – red-pink, orange. (Warrior with a sword).

This is duality and opposition, sun and moon, gold and silver, compound of sulfur and mercury.

Toad, eagle, goat's head - sulfur .

Fox- temporarily hardened red sulfur, the opposite of the rooster.

A lion,rooster- mercury,the volatile part of the stone substance is living, active dry water.

Sulfur and mercury are considered as the father and mother of metals. When they combine, various metals are formed. Sulfur determines the variability and flammability of metals, and mercury causes hardness, ductility and shine.

King and queen - this is gold and silver, which, according to some alchemists, were the primary substance.

The primal substance is a (male) substance that becomes One and Unique when combined with the female. All its components are both stable and changeable, the yin and yang of Chinese alchemy.

Katsudei –male sulfur and female mercury, transformation, dissolution, sometimes representing the symbol of Jupiter.

Key- (cognition), often in form not intended for discovery.

Bridge –transformation of one into another.

Hermetic vessel - obtaining a 3rd from 2 components.

Philosophical Mercury - the soul of matter (the body of matter), it is an ideal substance that connects the Spirit and the Body into a single whole by reconciling the opposites of the Spirit and the Body in itself, and serves as the principle of the unity of all three planes of Existence. Therefore, Philosophical Mercury was depicted as hermaphrodite, or male and female together.

Two rival birds, two eagles, a deer, an eagle and a lion – a symbol of transformation, dual nature, philosophical mercury.

Two dragons or snakes biting each other (sulfur is a wingless snake, mercury is winged). If the alchemist managed to combine both principles, then he received primordial matter or primordial substance.

3) Mercury, Wednesday, mercury. Dark-blue colour.

But, first of all, this is the triad of alchemists - sulfur, mercury and salt. A feature of this theory was the idea of ​​macro and microcosm. Man was viewed as a world in miniature. Hence the meaning of the elements: Sulfur - Spirit, Mercury - Soul, Salt - body. The cosmos and man consist of the same elements - body, soul and spirit.

The spirit corresponds to the element of fire, the soul to the element of water and air, and the salt to the earth element.

Sulfur (sulfur) is an immortal spirit / something that disappears from matter without a trace when fired.

Mercury (mercury) – the soul, is what connects the body and spirit.

Salt is the body, the material that remains after firing.

From a chemical point of view, one of the components is a metal, the other is a mineral containing mercury, which gives philosophical mercury.

Dragonthey called saltpeter, mercuric chloride, and fire, all of which the experiments began with, and are often associated with Mercury - mercury.

4) Jupiter, Thursday, tin. Color – red-brown.

The Cosmos is like two pairs of basic states: hot and dry - cold and wet; the combination of these states gives rise to the elements that are at the base of the Cosmos. That. the transition of one element to another, by changing one of its qualities, served as the basis for the idea of ​​transmutation.

Rod- a symbol of transformation.

The basis for all alchemical theories is the theory of the 4 elements. Plato considered these elements as geometric solids from which all substances are built, The 4 elements are also represented in the four cherubs - man (earth), bull (water), eagle(air), lion (fire).

5) Venus, Friday, copper. Color – golden, red.

Aristotle defined the combination of 4 opposite qualities: cold, dryness, heat and moisture, and added to the four elements a fifth - quintessence, which was depicted by a 5-petalled flower, a cut apple or a pentagram.

6) Saturday, Saturn, lead. Black color.

Saturn salt-lead acetate.

Old man with a scythe, Chronos, skeleton - symbol of lead.

Green lion– arsenic and lead.

red lion- cinnabar, antimony cinnabar, kolkotar, lead litharge, red lead.

Wolf with open mouth - this is antimony.

7) Sunday, Sun, gold. Yellow color.

Basic principle: mercury and salt lead to the production of alchemical gold.

Sun, red lion, knight in armor - gold

Red flower- gold.

The sun can also be symbolized by a winged snake, an eagle with a snake, a falcon, a swan.

Lion devouring the sun - the process of dissolving gold with mercury.

In their treatises, alchemists described substances differently, often in the same

treatise, the same substance was called differently.

The idea of ​​the unity of all things was symbolically depicted as ourobora- a snake/dragon devouring its own tail - a symbol of Eternity and the entire alchemical goal - the search for the philosopher's stone.

Crow- the original state of matter, the future philosopher's stone. Often depicted with a black sun and skeleton, as a symbol of lead, in the 1st stage of nigredo.

There are three main stages of the Work:

Nigredo(nigredo) - the black stage, when all the components were collected and fired, that is, fusion, mixing everything together and calcination.

Albedo(albedo) - white stage - lunar consciousness, light shed into darkness, but the light is reflected, cold. Albedo is a still unclear world with blurry forms, consciousness born from darkness. Like the wind on a full moon, Mercury rules the albedo, and the metals are silver and mercury. Dissolution, mixing, solidification process.

Rubedo(rubedo) – red stage, its metal is gold, frozen solar flame. Boiling point.

These 3 stages are sometimes depicted like this:

The number of processes leading to these stages varies. Some associated them with the twelve signs of the zodiac, some with the seven days of creation, but still almost all alchemists mentioned them.

Woman with a raven in her hands – fermentation.

Raven on a shield– cleansing.

Motto: "Visita Interiora Terra Rectificanto Inveniens Occultum Lapidem" , which means “Visit the interior of the Earth and by purification (rectification) find the Stone.” In alchemical treatises, the abbreviation of the first letters is widely used - V.I.T.R.I.O.L

Phoenix is ​​a symbol of the philosopher's stone.

« To prepare the elixir of the sages, or the philosopher's stone, take, my son, philosophical mercury and heat it until it turns into a green lion. After that, heat it harder and it will turn into a red lion. Digest this red lion in a sand bath with sour grape spirit, evaporate the liquid, and the mercury will turn into a gummy substance that can be cut with a knife. Place it in a retort coated with clay and slowly distill it. Collect separately the liquids of different nature that appear. You will get tasteless phlegm, alcohol and red drops. The Cimmerian shadows will cover the retort with their dark veil, and you will find a true dragon inside it, for it is devouring its own tail. Take this black dragon, grind it on a stone and touch it with a hot coal. It will light up and, soon taking on a magnificent lemon color, will again reproduce the green lion. Make it eat its tail and distill the product again. Finally, my son, rectify carefully and you will see the appearance of flammable water and human blood» . -

This is a recipe for obtaining the philosopher's stone, which, according to legend, belongs to the Spanish thinker Raymond Lull (XIII-XIV centuries) and repeated by the English alchemist of the 15th century George Ripley in “The Book of the Twelve Gates” (ВСС, 2, pp. 275-284)

The 19th century French chemist Jean-Baptiste André Dumas calls philosophical mercury lead. Having calcined it, Ripley receives a massikot (yellow lead oxide) - this is a green lion, which, upon further calcination, turns into a red lion - red minium. The alchemist then heats the red lead with sour grape spirit - wine vinegar, which dissolves the lead oxide. After evaporation, lead sugar remains. When it is gradually heated in solution, water of crystallization (reflux) is first distilled, then flammable water—“burnt acetic alcohol” (acetone) and, finally, a red-brown oily liquid. A black mass, or “black dragon”, remains in the retort - this is finely crushed lead. When it comes into contact with hot coal, it begins to smolder and turns into yellow lead oxide: “the black dragon devoured its tail and turned into a green lion.”

www.liveinternet.ru/users/1758119/post130704360/

Dedicated to all those interested in the phenomenon of ALCHEMY:
repost of an essay by Fyodor Gaivoronsky
[The text is more symbolic than scientific. But it gives an understanding of the categorical apparatus. What is important]

ALCHEMICAL GARDEN

...“If you had the misfortune to receive the attention of princes and kings, they will not stop
asking you: “Well, master, when will we finally see something worthwhile?”
In their impatience they will call you a swindler and a scoundrel and will harm you
every conceivable trouble. And if you don't come to a happy end,
you will feel the full force of their anger. If, on the contrary, you succeed,
they will keep you with them in eternal captivity,
intending to make you work for them all your life.”

Albert the Great

The Garden of Philosophers is our everyday human world.

Knowledge, among which there are, among others, the basic concepts and principles of alchemy, is in it in the form of the fruits of the World Tree - the earthly symbol of Mother Nature, the World Soul, the Mother of God.

...Anyone can pick these fruits and eat them, but to do this you need to climb the Tree using a ladder.
The ladder is the instinct of truth, internal, personal, emanating from human nature itself, the sublime, sincere and pure desire of the seeking wanderer to find the highest truth of the World Soul, the earthly embodiment of which is the green Mother Nature, giving birth on her Tree to the fruits of knowledge of her mysteries.

If you are such a person, we invite you to our garden. Mother - Nature, from which every seeker can receive knowledge that is the consolation of his soul, just as love joys are the consolation of the flesh, archimist puffers compare with a woman who gives her love to everyone she meets, calling her Our Whore.
Stay away from puffers, because their goal is to get wild red gold. Evil is something.
Our gold is red and cannot be placed in a chest.
Also, stay away from amateurs, whose only job is to give empty advice on alchemy without understanding the essence of the subject.
Only your own voice can be the only prompter and advisor on the path of Doing. Listen and read what others say, but you should have the final say in choosing your next step on the Royal Road. If your morals are pure and do not pursue the goal of acquiring earthly worthless wealth, Mother Nature herself, in yourself, will show you the Way.

Part I The Great Work(lat. Magnum Opus)

The word “ALCHEMY” goes back through Arabic to the Greek Chemeia from cheo - pour, cast, which indicates the connection of the images and symbols of alchemy with the art of smelting and casting metals.

Ingredients for Making:

- Human- this is the earth(Latin Humus - humus, humus; consonant with the word “homo” - man and “humanus” - human), red clay (red earth) or simply clay (Adam), in which there are intangible minerals mineralized by the material world, in which contains particles of elements - air, fire, water; Man belongs to three kingdoms of nature at once - mineral (bones), plant (veins, nerves), animal (flesh).

The rude soul of a layman is symbolized by a wild (sometimes green) lion.

A lion with a flowing mane emphasizes “wildness,” unbridledness, primitiveness, closeness to the primitive, natural needs of the inhabitants of the animal kingdom of wild Nature.
Also a symbol of the rude soul is Pan, Faun, Greenman, monkey, Two-horned Jester.
Green color in general – the color of wild nature. And also - green is the color of immaturity.
A person (not an Adept) belongs to the element of Earth, the elementals (spirits) of which are gnomes.

- Salt (Greek - Hals, Latin - Sal, consonant with the word “sol” - gold) - the spirit of a person mineralized in the form of a compound of lead and sulfur (galena), whose nature is identical to the nature of the World Soul; belongs to the element of air, the elementals of which are sylphs.
Belongs to the mineral kingdom of Nature. Often, salt is symbolically represented by something that relates to minerals and their extraction (picks, miners, mines, etc.). Salt, free from earthly impurities, which is the Primary Substance, the original substance of the Work, is also designated by the White Phoenix.

– Sulfur (Greek -Theion, consonant with the word theos -divine; Latin -Sulfur) - fiery heat of the soul, an instinctive feeling of striving for the highest truth, the truth of the World Soul; belongs to the element of fire, the elementals of which are salamanders. The immaterial embodiment of the instinct of truth.
Refers to the animal kingdom of Nature.
Often, the participation of sulfur in the operation is symbolically reflected by what belongs (except for the lion) to the animal kingdom (but not by birds: as a rule, the stages of the Work are represented by birds - nigredo, albedo, citrinitas, rubedo). For example - a wolf, a bat.

– Mercury (Greek - Hydrargos, Latin - Mercurius, Hydrargyrum, consonant with the word “hydra”) - liquid silver, a universal solvent, the versatility of which lies in the fact that it can serve as a solvent for different metals at different stages of the Work.
Spiritual flowing substance-river connecting the human soul with the World Soul (Mother of God); belongs to the element of water, the elementals of which are mermaids-undines.
Belongs to the plant kingdom of Nature.
The participation of Mercury in the operation is often reflected in everything connected with plants, or the cold movement characteristic of water (snake, serpents, hydras).

Equipment for Making:

1. Glass flask(a Philosophical Egg is formed in it) - glass because it represents the fragile human soul. It has the shape of a woman’s uterus, since the Work takes place in this flask - the gestation of a new human being. It is placed inside the athanor - the alchemical furnace. Before the start of the Work, the glass flask (human soul) must be hermetically sealed (that is, hermetically, as Hermes Trismegistus taught) closed from the influence of all temptations, temptations, sins and conventions of the material world of people, so that during the entire Work nothing penetrates into the flask from the outside .

2. Athanor– an alchemical furnace, the human body, like a device, inside of which, in the soul (the soul is contained in the body), the Work takes place. A hermetically sealed glass flask is placed in the athanor. If the Work has stopped at an intermediate stage and cannot continue due to the individual personal characteristics of the neophyte, then the athanor turns into a Pelican - an alchemical device with hermetically sealed tubes for endless circular sublimation-distillation. The endless and meaningless distillation is depicted by one or two Ouroboros biting their own tails - winged and wingless, which will stop only when the neophyte finds in his soul the strength to break the ring and continue the Work.

3. Mortar And pestle– are necessary at the first stage of the Work. The mortar and pestle is the neophyte’s inevitable and furious desire to crush and grind everything old, wild, primitive forever and end it forever, turning it into dust. From the ashes crushed in a mortar a new Being is born. The best mortar - made of jade.
Because:
a) The word “jade” is consonant with the word “neophyte”,
b) The name jade, a mineral, comes from the Greek word nephros - kidney. Kidneys are organs in which salts dissolve in water and are excreted from a person with urine. Salts mean harmful impurities in the soul.
A remarkable feature of jade: exceptionally high viscosity - jade fragments are very difficult to split into pieces. The strength of jade is comparable to good grades of steel.
The color of the rock is as varied as mercurum - from almost white through all shades of green (yellowish, grassy, ​​emerald, marsh) to almost black. Red jade is also found, but it is both very valuable and very rare.
The color depends on the content of iron and impurities (salts) of chromium, manganese, and nickel. Samples with a uniform color are valued higher than those with an uneven color (striped, spotted, “cloudy”).
c) In order to crush your own fears, doubts and habits, you need a very hard mortar and pestle.

Colors of Doing operations
(not to be confused with the colors of the stages of the Work), metals, and planets of the Work.

Mercury slaying Argus
(Burgundian variation of the 15th century on an ancient plot. Color symbolism matters)

* 1. BLACK: Saturn, lead(lat. - plumbum) - the most important mineral (salt) of lead is its combination with sulfur - lead luster (galena) PbS - the main ore for lead smelting.
The animal is a wolf.
* 2. WHITE: Moon, silver(Latin - argentum) - silver is often understood as a compound of liquid silver, that is, mercury and some metal (for example, lead).
Animal - owl (instead of an owl there can be Athena-Pallas, Wisdom - Sophia)
* 3. BLUE: Jupiter, tin(lat. – stannum) – Sn – from lat. stannum, which was originally, in ancient times, understood as an alloy of lead and silver;
from the 4th century AD this word began to be called tin itself.
The animal is a dragon.
* 4. RED: Mars, iron(Latin – ferrum) – red rust appears from iron under the influence of water. In addition, to obtain steel, iron is hardened by immersion in water.
Gold ore is mined using an iron tool (pick).
The animal is a rooster.
* 5. GREEN: Venus, copper(Latin – cuprum) – red metal, on the surface of which green oxide spots appear.
The animal is a dove.
* 6. RAINBOW (multicolor): Mercury, mercury(Latin – argentums vivum, hydrargyrum), living silver, liquid silver. By combining gold ore with mercury, amalgamation, a gold amalgam is obtained, by calcination of which gold is obtained in pure form.
The animal is a peacock.
* 7. YELLOW: Sun, gold(Latin – sol, consonant with the word “salt”, “sal”) – gold is still obtained in the mines of South America by calcination (calcination) of gold amalgam;
The color of the Philosophers' Gold is red.
The animal is a horse.

Operations of the Great Work:

1. Saturn ==> Rotting (Decomposition) – lat. Caries.

Consonant with the word “canis” - wolf, which is why it is sometimes symbolized by the image wolf (or dog).

The process of decay, separation of flesh from bones, accompanied by the formation of pungent and unpleasant-smelling toxic substances contained in the body. The carnal, the earthly, rots. Only the mineral part of a person remains - salts, bones. Rotting occurs in nature with dead bodies and remains.

Oxidation (rotting) of the earth's salt of lead (galena PbS) with the participation of the sulfur contained in it (which gives the salt an internal heat, like manure is heated in a compost pit) to make the lead brittle (so that it is easier to crush and mix into a homogeneous gray dry mass - dust for dissolving mercury in it during the next operation. During decay, everything earthly is lost from the material earthly salt (natural lead-galena, a compound of lead with sulfur).

Putrefaction is the Extraction (receipt) from rotten human salt, the Primary Substance, the Philosophical Salt, free from the human. By receiving the Philosophical salt, the Primary Substance, the lead of the Philosophers, filled with earthly greyness, rotting ends.

A compost pit (a grave where rotting occurs) is often represented as a kind of schematic Gothic structure with right angles and a sloping vault, usually topped rose- a symbol of the Philosopher's Stone.

The 1st operation of the Work belongs to the nigredo stage.

NIGREDO (nigredo) – Greek. MELANOSIS, Blackening. (Subject to the elements of Earth).
In tune with the word "melancholy". Therefore, melancholy is a symbol of Nigredo.

In addition, nigredo symbolizes the crow and everything associated with death and decay.
Typically symbolized animals (wolf, dog, ox, fox).

At the nigredo stage, as a result of the difficult experience of the deepest depression, KNOWLEDGE is acquired, the existence of which the neophyte does not yet suspect, but it is already in him and will be used in the future to compare and analyze subsequent stages of the Work with nigredo.

The lowest stage, the state of the Profane, is Ouroboros (dragon), or green lion.
At the lowest stage, a person goes in circles in personal development (a person who does not know how to draw conclusions from mistakes always ends up back where he started), gradually coming to disintegration, to degradation, to the swallowing of his other, winged half by Ouroboros.

The lowest stage is overcome through nigredo, that is, through the path of denial, when a person begins to deny his connection with the world and, as a rule, falls into deep depression, denying all values ​​previously acquired during life experience.

Nigredo often draws a person to the aesthetics of death, to the color black, suffering, and thoughts of suicide.

The highest point of Nigredo is mental suffering of such strength that things can no longer get worse, when only a thin thread remains that does not allow a person to die. In this case, a person only has to begin to contemplate suffering from the outside, renouncing it, and the suffering itself will stop and the nigredo stage will end.

After nigredo, a person feels empty, as if after a long, prolonged illness, accompanied by diarrhea, vomiting, dirt, exhaustion and suffering. As soon as the feeling of renewal and cleansing comes, and with it the feeling of victory over the disease, the albedo stage begins.

2. Moon ==> Dissolution - lat. – Solvere.
Treatment of gray lead with a universal solvent - mercury.
Dry dissolution of lead in mercury, amalgamation, which turns low-melting lead into more hard-melting silver.
Cold and liquid (like water) mercury (mercury) is absorbed by lead, like water with a sponge.
But mercury cold allows lead not to melt, but to remain solid, retaining its shape.
Therefore, the dissolution of lead in mercury is often depicted as dissolution in ice.

3. Jupiter ==> Sublimation / Sublimation - lat. Sublimo - I lift up
(not to be confused with sublimation of a liquid).
Sublimation is the transition of a solid into a dry (air) state without intermediate transformation into a liquid.
The liquid state is not permissible, since in this case the silver will melt and boil, which will lead to the explosion of the athanor and poisoning of the neophyte with mercury vapor. Therefore, sublimation is carried out extremely carefully to prevent the transformation of fusible silver into liquid - melting.

By sublimation the gray lead is transformed into white tin, the heavy, earthy gray of the lead is expelled from it and remains at the bottom of the flask. Obtaining in the process of Alchemical washing white air tin (tin Sn, from stannum - an alloy of lead and silver), bleached (washed) lead.

Sublimation is a protective mechanism of the psyche, which is a way of relieving internal tension by redirecting energy to achieve socially acceptable goals, to creativity (Freud’s definition).

Operations 2 and 3 of the Work belong to the albedo stage.

ALBEDO (albedo) – Greek. LEUKOSIS, Whitening (under the power of the element of Air).
Lead removal gray land. Alchemical washing, Bath, bathing in the Fountain of Philosophers.

Albedo symbol – white bird (dove, swan, White Phoenix), lump chalk.

At the albedo stage, the POWER spent in the nigredo stage is regained. Because sleep and good dreams always restore strength. But this is a force of a completely different nature than that which was wasted by man in the nigredo stage.

Albedo is a passive stage of contemplation, lunar dissolution, in which a person detachedly observes the world as if from the outside, in the moonlight, flickering light, pleasant for tired eyes, sees all the secret, previously hidden blurry colors - all sorts of shades of pale, lunar, sees beauty in everything that previously seemed ordinary, since moonlight reveals to human eyes the inner nature of things.
This - dive into the land of the elves, a kind of purification through creativity, through the positivity of archetypes, life inside inspiration, inside a child’s pure and good fairy tale when every object glows with an inner joyful radiance.

The danger of Albedo is that if the albedo is prolonged, if a person remains in this state for longer than the time required to regain the strength and vital energy lost in nigredo, numbness begins, similar to the sleep of a cold-blooded lizard, the person enters the Pelican stage when he feeds himself by himself, with his reflections and thoughts, gets stuck in an endless, like Ouroboros, circular sublimation-distillation.
This endless and meaningless distillation will stop only when the neophyte finds in his soul the strength to break out of the vicious circle and continue the Work ( pelican in the allegory he feeds his children with his meat, but the children are an extension of himself, his own flesh).

Otherwise, the athanor, which has temporarily become a pelican, will overheat, the lead will melt, boil and the Pelican will explode. Then the person will fall into nigredo again, but the fall will be very painful and may end real death.

That is why in the engravings the sublimation operation is depicted water is poured into the griffin's mouth(half-lion - half-bird), fanning the griffin's body with air.

Albedo ends when a person wakes up from the state of sleep of the lunar stage - numbness and returns to active life in a pure, white state, free from the grayness of mundane existence. This return is like waking up after a long time. have a nice dream in the twilight of the bedroom, well-rested, cheerful, you opened the door, went out onto the porch of the house, plunged your feet into the cool dew, and you would have been greeted by a beautiful, clean, fresh, clear morning of a May day that came after the night rain.

The rain washed away all the dust, all the ashes and made the air crystal clear and tasty, like living spring water, in which, unlike dead river water, no one drowned. Living spring water flows from the depths of Nature, this milk of Gaia.

4. Mars (Solar King) ==> and
5. Venus (Moon Queen) ==> Distillation – lat. distillatio - “dripping down” –
cooling and condensation of tin-stannum vapors (Dew of Philosophers, Alchemical Rain, Font of Philosophers).

In the stage of condensation formation under the influence of air (oxygen) and water-evaporation (May dew), a male component is released from the stannum - reddish rust, the Red Gold of the Philosophers.

It is red because it still contains yellow impurity salts from previous operations, like urine-urine, which on the one hand is water, but on the other hand is yellow because it contains too many salts and therefore cannot be drunk. Without rust-urine, further Work is impossible.
The division of the stannum into male and female halves is similar to the act of creation of the world in ancient myth, when Gaia-Earth separates from herself a male essence - Uranus-Sky (Uranus is consonant with the word Urina), who then becomes her husband.
Also, the act of releasing rust is similar to the act of giving birth to the Savior from the Mother of God, the World Soul, Anima Mundi, who is the eternal Virgin, who gave birth from herself and for herself - a son.

The distillation operation can be described as follows.
Gaia urinated and separated her second part from herself in the form of urine - Uranus. If a sexless being divides, a man and a woman are formed from its parts.
If a creature belonging to a certain sex divides (in nature only female creatures can divide), then a mother and a child are formed. Since in this case of distillation the child is male, he is both a son and a husband for the entity that gave birth to him.

In copper, after Mars urinates on it, green appears, symbolizing, in part, wild nature. This green is clearly visible on copper in the form of a green oxide film.
Green oxide stains on copper are similar to the stains that semen leaves when it dries.
But the green copper is no longer wild, it is a necessary component for further operation.

Sometimes Distillation is symbolized by a cockerel or hen with a yellow comb.

The apotheosis of distillation is the union of Mars and Venus with the formation of a single integrity (alchemical marriage, alchemical wedding).

Operations 4 and 5 of the Work belong to the citrinitas stage.

CITRINITAS (citrinitas) - Greek. XANTHOSIS: Yellowing (under the power of the element of Water),
the most secret stage of the Work, since marriage, lovemaking and conception are a very intimate topic.
In addition, yellowing refers to the formation of urine-rust.

The details of the description of citrinitas from the point of view of Christian, and not only Christian, morality can be considered as blasphemous and disgusting, therefore, the alchemists of the times of the Inquisition omitted the details of citrinitas in their books, passing them on orally. Then the tradition of oral transmission was lost, which is why (on the basis of books) the opinion was strengthened that citrinitas is an optional stage of the Work, and that after albedo rubedo immediately begins.
This is a big mistake.
Citrinitas is the most important, complex and subtle stage of the Work, without which it is impossible to obtain Philosophical Gold.

The symbol of citrinitas is the golden eagle, urine, urinating Cupid (Pissing Boy).
Some images feature a male entity (Cupid) urinating on his mother (Venus).

At the stage of citrinitis, the ability to DARE to do something is acquired, since a person in citrinitis acts confidently, he knows what is important and what is unnecessary and correctly chooses his goals (symbolized by shooting, hunting).

The essence of citrinitas lies in the fact that a person who has gone through albedo - passive rest - tries to expel from himself all the values ​​​​previously acquired during life experience, which plunged him into nigredo and, after passing albedo, began to seem poisonous to him, just as urine is harmful to drink. A person throws everything past out of himself, as if he were urinating.
But a drop of urine falls on his body (which is inevitable in the process of urination) and the person unexpectedly discovers in his urine-past a lot of positive, necessary and eternal things.
So he, as it were, re-fertilizes himself with his urine, but at the same time is qualitatively transformed.
He understands that the most necessary, simple and eternal things (love for his wife, for children, kindness, firmness in choosing the right life guidelines) have always been with him, even in the green “wild life” and the state of nigredo.

In citrinitas, a person understands that he is still alive (he didn’t drink himself to death, didn’t become a drug addict, didn’t commit suicide out of grief, didn’t go crazy from the realities of “wild” green life) only thanks to real yellow earthly gold (earthly gold is yellow, whereas the gold of philosophers is red), the true earthly wealth that he always had, regardless of the number of coins in his chest.
This wealth is his beloved wife, family, loved ones, a correct, humane position in life, which he tried to follow as best he could. All the good that remains in a person from the times when he was “wild” is symbolized by the green of red copper.

Therefore, the man in citrinitas is often depicted pondering over his severed body and holding his golden head in his hands.

In citrinitas, a person becomes calm because he understands that everything he did before, he did correctly. In citrinitas, a person is reasonable, confident in himself and his position in life, positive, creative, does not live one day at a time, calculating in advance his possible future and the consequences of his actions. He is ready without hesitation to fight for the eternal ideals of goodness and justice, knowing that this will bring him nothing but benefit.

In citrinitas, a person has great creative potential, draws, writes, creates.
He treats his loved ones with patience, trepidation and quiet deep love, and graciously forgives others for their mistakes. A person does this not with detachment, as in a state of albedo, but with deep inner satisfaction and a firm understanding of the meaning of all the actions he performs.
A person acquires the ability to achieve his goal humanely, coordinating his desires and goals with the goals and desires of other people.

Citrinitas ends when all the good a person does in relation to other people becomes commonplace, a common thing, when a person stops taking any kind of payment for the good he does, and the fruits of his successes are given free of charge, without a shadow in the heart, without a drop of doubt. voluntarily gives to other people.

6. Mercury ==> Coagulation - lat. Coagulatio - coagulation, thickening.
Coagulation balances all the components of previous operations - copper greens, the full usefulness of which was shown by citrinitis, becomes part of the androgyne’s body on a par with parts of Mars and Venus.

The male essence of Mars, red urine, erupting from the stannum, which, left without its male half, became a woman (Venus), fertilizes the stannum and coagulation begins - compaction, just as after sperm enters the uterus, compaction of the sperm begins and the formation of an embryo (about the existence of an egg alchemists of the Middle Ages did not know).

The act of coagulation is similar to the coagulation of milk (the female essence of stannum) in a heated pan (Royal Bath) into curds (cheese), where the leaven is rust. Coagulation can also be compared to the formation of the fetal body from the female waters, where rust (sperm, sperm, virgin milk) coagulates the waters into the fetus.

The formation of a coagulate occurs through the mutual dissolution of rust, copper and copper greens into each other with the help of the Universal Solvent - mercury, which leads to the conception of the red body of Rebis, a new Being (RE-BIS - lat., repetition of the double, that is, repetition of the copulated Mars and Venus) .
Coagulation is both the conception and the transformation of the spouses, the consequence of which is the transformation of the parents themselves, that is, Venus and Mars, into their own child - into Rebis.

Rebis is balanced trinity,
he is at the same time like Mars - a man, Venus - a woman (like loving spouses in happy marriage are one flesh), and their child, copulated in itself with its parents (alchemical incest).

Rebis is perfect man, Adam-Kadmon, uniting both sexes, like the first man in the Garden of Eden before the division of man into man and woman.

Coagulative copulation is sometimes symbolized royal bird Peacock, whose luxurious tail has iridescent plumage, or cockerel and hen(dove with a dove), which are often (due to the androgyny of the mercurial operation) indistinguishable from each other.

It can be considered that androgyne was obtained by amalgamation - the dissolution of rust and stannum in the Universal solvent - mercury-mercury, just as silver was obtained in the second operation by dissolving mercury in lead. Rebis is a copper amalgam - an alloy of mercury and copper with admixtures of metals from all previous stages of the Work, collected in copper greenery.

Amalgamation method, is still used in metallurgy. It is based on the ability of mercury to form alloys - amalgams with various metals, including gold. In this method, moistened (citrinitas is moistening) crushed rock is mixed with mercury and subjected to additional grinding in mills - running bowls. The amalgam of gold (and associated metals) is recovered from the resulting sludge by washing, after which the mercury is removed from the collected amalgam (for example, by calcination) and reused.

The amalgamation method has been known since the 1st century BC.
Coagulation ends with the formation of a golden Philosophical egg inside the Flask with the Rebis born in it.

7. Sun ==> Calcination (calcination) – lat. calx – lime;
calcination, calcining - calcination - heating of coagulative androgyne.
The name is consonant with the word “calc” - copying, since the result of the final operation of the Work is the copying of macrocosmic processes in the microcosm of the human soul.

Rebis is perfect.
But he must be released from the Philosophical Egg in which he is located. This is why it is necessary calcination - calcination.
Heating of the Flask occurs in the fire of the Perfect mutual triple love of its parts (Marital love - the love of Mars and Venus for each other; parental love - the love of spouses, Mars and Venus, for their child - the rainbow androgyne; love for parents - the love of Rebis for Mars and Venus ).

Since copper is reddish, it already contains the red Gold of the Philosophers, which is extracted from copper amalgam by calcination. In this case, mercury vapor with sediments (traces of metals) of all previous stages of the Work ( hence the rainbow color of mercury, and its symbol - the peacock), which settled on the walls of the flask and were absorbed into it, evaporate from the flask along with mercury, drying out its walls, calcifying them, making them brittle.
Precipitates return in the body of the Universal solvent-mercury to their Source, to the World Soul, since all the metals of the Work, starting with the Philosophical lead, enclosed in salt and liberated from the salt through the heat of sulfur putrefaction, are particles of the World Soul.

The symbol of such eternal return is also Ouroboros biting its own tail.

The result of calcification is the desiccation of the mercury of the Flask until it completely evaporates, the collapse of its withered walls, the fall of the calcified white shell of the Philosophical Egg, dried to the state of ash, and the emergence from it (birth) of the Perfect Human Being.
Its perfection lies in the formation of an integral interdependent completeness in the human soul (microcosm), inextricably connected with the World Soul (macrocosm, the Mother of God), which is also an integral interdependent completeness.
In the solar operation of the Work the main Hermetic rule of the Emerald Tablet of Trismegistus is fulfilled: “that which is above is like that which is below.”

During a person’s lifetime, a connection occurs between his own soul and the World Soul into one single whole. The product of this compound goes by many names - Red Gold of the Philosophers, Philosopher's Stone, Scarlet Tincture, Magisterium, Our Gold, Vitriolvm, Panacea, Elixir of Life.

Operations 6 and 7 of the Work belong to the rubedo stage.

RUBEDO (rubedo) - Greek. IOSIS: Redness(under the power of the element of Fire).
The final stage of the Great Work, the Coronation, the Royal stage.

The symbol of rubedo is Perfect (Double Headed, Crowned) Eagle, or Red Phoenix.
At the rubedo stage the neophyte becomes an Adept.

The male, active, ebullient Martian (solar) third of the eternal soul of man ( red phoenix) is balanced by the calming and sobering feminine Venusian (lunar) third ( white phoenix) and that earthly (black) third ( black phoenix), which is the green of copper.
This balance with oneself, one's green Nature and the whole world is Rebis.

Immortality is acquired by the Adept with a clear awareness that already during his lifetime he is part of the eternal immortal Mother - the World Soul, is in harmonious balance with her, which means death as such is impossible if the World Soul exists forever.
Death is just a merger with the World Soul, but this merger has already occurred as a result of the Work.

The adept understands that everything in the world is one and complete.
Just as in the Rebis all its parts merge, and just as during Calcination the Universal Solvent returns the remnants of the metals of the previous operations of the Work to their original womb, the life of the Adept is an eternal return to the Womb of the Great Mother.

In rubedo, the Adept has the opportunity to perform any action, but he will never take advantage of this opportunity, since he always follows the voice and fulfills all the conditions of the Mother of All. These conditions limit his actions to strict limits, for the sake of maintaining the Highest Harmony in himself and the world around him.

Rubedo is true service of oneself, with all parts human nature Higher Harmony, such service as Christ served himself - to the point of red bloody sweat and, if necessary, to crucifixion on the cross, if this crucifixion will serve to preserve Harmony in the Universe.
Crucifixion in itself is a symbol of the struggle of the Adept (Christ) with the savagery of rough, down-to-earth souls (the cross is a symbol of the Earth). The Crucifixion is a Great Work, it is a denial of oneself, a denial of one’s “I” for the sake of accepting the world “I” into oneself as a particle of oneself, for the sake of helping the World Soul in establishing the Harmony of people with each other and with Nature.

One of the main qualities that an Adept acquires in rubedo is the absence of any kind of asceticism. Rubedo is not a withdrawal into oneself and from the world.
Rubedo is about living in harmony with the instincts (dragon-like lions) and in peace among people.
The adept lives an ordinary life - he has a wife and children, he drinks and eats, defecates, has sexual intercourse, consumes wine, laughs, cries, swears.
But everything in his life has a certain measure.

For this reason, the fact that rubedo was achieved by the Adepts of antiquity reveals many interesting things. For example, the sensational Lately the question of the family of Christ and the place of Mary Magdalene in his life disappears by itself, if we take into account that Christ achieved rubedo.

Fulcanelli said best about the state of man in rubedo in the book “Secrets of the Councils,” therefore, in concluding our work, it would be most appropriate to cite a small excerpt from this work in its entirety:
“Finally, when success has crowned so many difficult years, when all desires have been fulfilled, the Sage, despising worldly vanity, will merge with the humiliated, the dispossessed, with everyone who works, suffers, struggles, despairs and cries here below. An unknown and silent follower of eternal Nature, an apostle of eternal Mercy, he will remain true to his vow of silence.

In the interests of science, in the interests of Good, the Adept must always... ...KEEP SILENT. ”

An important emphasis from the compiler -
Spiritual Alchemy from the fathers of modern psychoanalysis is certainly a reasoned and high-quality system. It contains the symbolic alchemical base. But it has nothing to do with the Great Work of five hundred years ago! In other words, those interested in the arguments and premises of medieval alchemists should abandon psychoanalytic interpretations and turn to the medieval Catholic mentality itself.

The situation at the turn of the 16th-17th centuries is already strikingly different. But it differs even more from the alchemical experiments of the 18th century and later. Only this is a completely different story...

The first transmutation was believed to have been carried out by the first known author of works on alchemy, Zosimas, in the 3rd century. In the 4th century, Geber developed the processes of distillation, sublimation and calcination. He said that the essential qualities of an alchemist were patience and perseverance, but he also perpetuated the myth that the key to transmutation was the combination of mercury and sulfur. It is now recognized that alchemists developed laboratory instruments, equipment and techniques, and also increased the volume of scientific knowledge, but, as school textbooks and science popularizers tell us, all this was for the chimerical goal of obtaining artificial gold.

What goals did alchemy actually pursue? In his book The History of Chemistry, James Brown states the goals that the alchemists wanted to achieve: “The general goal of the alchemists was to carry out in the laboratory, as far as possible, the processes that Nature was working on within the earth. Seven main problems occupied their attention:

1. Preparation of a complex substance, called the elixir, the universal medicine, or the "philosopher's stone," which had the property of transmuting base metals into gold and silver, and of performing many other splendid operations.

2. Creation of the "Homunculus", or living creature, about which many delightful but improbable stories have been told.

3. Preparation of universal solvent, which would dissolve any substance.

4. Palingenesis, or the restoration of plants from ashes. This would be the first step towards the art of raising the dead.

5. Preparation of spirifus mundi- a mystical substance with many properties, the main one of which was the ability to dissolve gold.

6. Extracting the "quintessence", or the active primary source of all matter.

7. Preparation of aurum polabile- liquid gold, the most perfect remedy for healing, because gold, perfect in itself, can produce the most perfect effect on human nature.”

Ancient Egypt

Esoterically, alchemy (the word itself was not uttered in vain, calling this activity “Great Work”) is associated with the transmutation of lead into gold. But this is not just a physical process: transmutation requires the alchemist to radically change his own consciousness. Through strong self-discipline, dreams and visions, he strives to transform himself into the philosopher's stone. Most descriptions of this process are ambiguous, equating the symbolic with the physical.

In old texts, the Sun (sulphur) and the Moon (mercury) were shown as a king and queen lying in the same dissolving bath.

In the cleansing heat of new growth, they chemically fused into a hermaphroditic form. The new creation (idea, body) manifested itself through warmth in whiteness (albedo) - the notorious “white stone”.

Thus, after many years of control over soul and body, psychokinetic transmutation of matter became possible for a true alchemist. There are legends that King Solomon and Pythagoras were alchemists and that the first of them obtained gold through alchemical means to decorate his own temple. Our pragmatic age has easily labeled alchemy as a pseudoscience.

But we must take into account that in the Ancient and Middle Ages the craft of a charlatan was very dangerous, and an attempt to deceive those in power was equated to a state crime and was punished with very cruel methods. Meanwhile, it is known that very often the friendship of alchemists was sought by sovereigns who, without a single tear, sent their wives, friends and relatives to the chopping block. It is logical to assume that if all the experiments of alchemists were unsuccessful, then they would be burned at the stake for this activity.

WITH alchemy symbols Europe

The last historically recorded transmutation occurred in England in 1782. A certain James Price invited a group of prominent people to his home in Surrey. They reported that before their eyes he turned mercury into silver by heating it with white powder, and into gold with red powder. The resulting bars turned out to be genuine - professional jewelers cannot be fooled. When Price was pressured to make even more powder, he stated that it would harm his health (apparently implying a psychokinetic aspect). Under extreme stress from the resulting altercation, Price committed suicide by drinking cyanide in front of three members of the Royal Society sent to examine his claims.

In their allegories, alchemists often also used human, animal and plant emblems, sometimes bizarre combinations of figures - such as a dragon, a winged serpent, a unicorn and a phoenix. Gold was almost always symbolized by a king with a crown on his head and a scepter in his hand.

Under the layer of so-called alchemy symbols hides an amazing concept - the triple key to the gate of eternal life. If we consider that alchemy is a mystery of three worlds - divine, human and elemental - then it becomes clear why sages and philosophers came up with and developed a system of subtle allegories that hide this wisdom.

This article examines in detail the basics of alchemy - the great counter-science of sciences, which, according to Carl Gustav Jung, was the forerunner of depth psychology. To understand alchemy, we first need to understand the historical context in which it existed.

The beginning of the Middle Ages. The Inquisition is raging throughout Europe, people are forcibly thrown into a state of schism (Christian dualism of spirit and matter is, in fact, a philosophy of schizophrenic schism, which has already shown its inferiority). Everything earthly, material, and sensual is given over to the devil’s competence and is postulated as an obstacle to salvation. All philosophical and religious teachings, holding other, healthier positions, are destroyed as heresies (see my article on the Ophites). However, “in the unconscious” the need to compensate for the one-sided collective attitude remained, and alchemy became its hidden expression.

Alchemy, in contrast to Christianity, rushes into matter, towards metals and primary elements, in order to achieve salvation through their transubstantiation, while a Christian strives to escape from matter. The Christian directs his soul to God beyond the material, while the alchemist seeks the God hidden in matter. The God of the Christian is perfect, and salvation is achieved through turning to perfection - the God of the alchemists needs man as a liberator from the shackles of the elements. A similar idea had already been found in some Gnostic views, as well as in the system of Kabbalists, and at that time it was reborn from the collective unconscious. Jung cites numerous alchemical parallels in the symbolism of Christ and the philosophers' stone (otherwise known as the "son of the philosophers"). Even the very name “philosopher’s STONE” points to Christ, who in the gospel allegories is called “the stone rejected by the builders, but which became the cornerstone.” Also common allegories of Christ and stone are the pelican, unicorn, etc. Anyone interested in this issue more deeply should read Jung's work Psychology and Alchemy.

However, there is an important difference: while Christ after the ascension is identified only with the spiritual world, the "philosopher's stone" is both spiritual and material, i.e. born from the lowest "prima matter". By the way, again, some alchemists drew a parallel between Christ, born in a manger in a very ignoble environment, with the philosopher’s stone, which is created from the lowest, primary matter, “the darkness of Egypt,” becoming, as a result of alchemical manipulations, the king of kings and the God of Gods. Such parallels, of course, are not accidental and have the deepest psychological significance. The unconscious, not being able to directly compensate for the one-sidedness of the Christian medieval myth, compensated for it indirectly through the rich and complex symbolic series of alchemy, the meaning of which the alchemists themselves, for the most part, had no idea!

The question arises: how is this possible? How can it be that a person, being the bearer of any ideas and views, does not know the meaning of what he preaches and does?

Jung stated more than once: “The trouble with the alchemists is that they did not know what they were saying.” This paradox can only be understood in the context of the teaching of archetypes, which are present whether we are aware of their meaning or not.

Not everyone is capable of directly perceiving psychic reality. For the vast majority, the mechanism of psychological projection works, when one’s own psychological process is attributed to an object whose properties are still unknown.

In alchemical problems, this mechanism is very complex, since there is a relation to a very deep layer of the “collective unconscious”, the eternal archetypal forces of which will always remain a secret of mysteries for a person. Archetypes are activated in special situations - this could be a spiritual crisis or psychotic break, intense spiritual practice or prolonged solitude. The alchemist in this regard was an ideal subject: having left society for his laboratory (where people, out of superstitious fear, preferred not to look), he found himself alone with his unconscious. There is no doubt that prolonged solitude contributed to its activation. Dealing with metals and elements, he did not have scientific knowledge about them, and therefore they turned out to be an ideal “screen” for the projection of the contents of the unconscious.

Thus, in studying alchemy, we first explore the unconscious archetypal aspects of the psyche that were projected onto them. In this respect, alchemy is related to astrology. Just as an astrologer projects his mental processes not into the stars, and, having good contact with the collective unconscious, can quite accurately predict the future (sincerely thinking that he is reading the stars), the alchemist projects archetypes onto metals and elements, being completely convinced that works with pure matter, but in fact manipulates aspects of his own psyche, projected onto the same matter.

Conclusion? Being the least dependent on the collective myth and the most open to the influences of the collective unconscious, the alchemist turned out to be an ideal object for perceiving the need for healing compensation for a one-sided religious myth. Alchemy, without knowing it, becomes the sole heir of Gnosticism and the forerunner of depth psychology. By postulating the creation of God through a great work from ignoble primordial matter (which ultimately becomes the stone of stones, the “third son”, resolving the age-old conflict of spirit and matter), alchemy turns, if you like, into the noble queen of all heresies, prudently masquerading as a banal gold miner ! Few people paid attention to G. Dorn’s statement that “... our gold is not the gold of the mob,” although this statement hides the true truth of alchemy.
Below is a rough interpretation of alchemical symbolism in the context of depth psychology.

LEAD

An ignoble primary matter, it, as the heaviest of metals, became a symbol of powerful inertia, and the danger of being poisoned by lead fumes during smelting created the belief that a demon was certainly present in lead. (Such thinking is quite natural for medieval mystical participation, when the line between external and internal was not drawn). Psychologically, lead corresponds to initial uroboric unconsciousness or a state of severe depression. Even in modern language there are expressions such as “lead fatigue” or “lead melancholy” - extreme degrees of negativity. For an alchemist, as for anyone dealing with archetypal energies, there was a serious danger of going crazy, becoming possessed by an archetype, which in the language of alchemical allegories meant “falling into the power of demonic lead.”

However, it is from this worst substance that the master, through complex manipulations, creates the “philosopher’s stone” - the essence, the ultimate, highest integrity, the self. Jung viewed neurosis as an opportunity for potential growth, following the alchemical thesis "...where there is disease, there is a cure." The Christian thesis that God is revealed through suffering is filled with a special, secret meaning in alchemy.

MERCURY

For a person of medieval mentality, mercury was the exponent of Mercury - the highest and lowest God at the same time. Why? For alchemists, mercury is the embodiment of a paradox: it simultaneously behaves like a metal and like water. In addition, the ability of mercury to evaporate on its own made it, in the eyes of an initiated adept, a material embodiment of the spirit. For a modern developed personality, such analogies look somewhat strange, but we should not forget the fact that medieval man did not have scientific knowledge, and therefore metals, being something completely incomprehensible, were also an ideal screen for any psychological projections. Here are the psycho-properties of mercury:

“-it consists of all conceivable opposites. A pronounced duality, which is constantly called unity;

It is material and spiritual;

She personifies the process of transforming the lower into the higher and vice versa;

She is, one might say, the devil, a savior and a psychopomp, an elusive trickster; finally, the reflection of God in mother nature;

She is also mirror image the mystical experience of the alchemist, which coincides with the opus alchymicum; “...as such an experience it represents, on the one hand, the Self, on the other, the individuation process, and also (due to the unlimitedness of its definitions) the collective unconscious.” (C. Jung "The Spirit of Mercury")

Considering the above quoted text, we must understand that the mercury aspect of Mercury is very contradictory and often manifests itself in any metal. This creates considerable confusion for the interpreter, however, speaking directly about mercury, most often the paradoxicality, inconsistency, and creative irrationality of the unconscious itself are emphasized. Mercury begins to literally flood our dreams like a river and turns on a special imagination when we are required to abandon our rationalism and hear what is called “the clap of one palm,” the sound of which will open the soul for healing transformation.

In addition, Mercury has an androgynous nature and in the male psyche, as a rule, manifests itself from the feminine side, as an anima, and in the female psyche it is the bearer of the male (masculine) principle as an animus.

In addition, mercury is chemically related to silver, and Mercury is equally related to the Moon, the great Goddess. Mercury (aka Hermes) is the essence, the basis of all alchemical art. Mercury paradoxically embodies the beginning and end of a great undertaking, a mentor, a guide and at the same time a trickster, an adversary and a fugitive. “We can equate the concept of Mercury with the concept of the unconscious,” Jung wrote. It is no coincidence that in alchemical texts there are a huge number of obvious and hidden parallels between Christ and Mercury, each of which represents the archetype of the Self.

SULFUR

Sulfur in alchemy symbolizes the active male substance embodied in matter. She is a pure type of dynamism. Like any substrate, in alchemy it has ambivalent properties: in the positive aspect it represents the fire of the sun, the light of consciousness, in the negative it is identified with the devil, hellish brimstone, with passions and lusts of all stripes. Marie-Louise von Franz suggests that the association of sulfur with the Devil and hell first arose with a monk who was experiencing sexual temptation and experiencing unbridled energy that seemed to burn to the ground - such a person could easily draw an analogy with highly flammable sulfur!

Sulfur is also associated with the substance of the Solar "redness" and therefore represents the principle of consciousness. "Sulfur represents the active substance of the sun, or, in psychological terms, the factor of motive in consciousness - on the one hand, will, which is best considered as dynamism subordinate to consciousness, and on the other hand, irresistible attraction, involuntary motivation or impulse, starting with simple interest and ending with real obsession." (Jung, MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS, par no. 151).

SALT

Salt represents the opposite of sulfur and is associated with the feminine, static principle. Like any object in alchemy, it has dual properties, forming a dialectical pair. Salt has long been associated with wisdom. This analogy of comparing the feminine principle with the deep mind is as old as the world - even among the Gnostics, Sophia was identified with the wisdom of God. Parallels can be found in Vajrayana Buddhism, where the feminine principle is associated with wisdom, and the masculine principle with mastery.

The opposite property of salt for alchemists was its bitterness, which once again confirms the paradoxical nature of alchemical thinking, for “...where there is bitterness, there is no wisdom, and where there is wisdom, there can be no bitterness” (Jung, MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS, par No. 330 ). In addition, salt, as having the property of a preservative, is correlated with the acquisition of immortality, since “salting the body” is a metaphor for acquiring an incorruptible body. However, salt at the same time defines the body as ordinary, perishable matter. Jung explained such contradictions by the fact that, unlike the “ego”, which clearly knows its limits, “the boundaries of the archetype are blurred and can be violated by other archetypes, so that there can be an exchange of certain qualities” (Jung, “MS”, par No. 660).

Jung identifies the alchemical triad (salt, mercury, sulfur) as an archetypal trinity found in Egyptian culture. Thus, sulfur represents the masculine principle, salt the feminine, and mercury the androgynous, uniting opposites together.

STAGES OF A GREAT WORK

PRIMARY SEPARATION, the first stage of the great work begins with initial unconsciousness, when consciousness is at a very low, primitive level (the mystery of unification cannot arise unless separation occurs). The spirit (sulfur), soul (mercury) and body (salt) at the first stage are in a state of undivided unity, where the spirit is subordinate to the soul, and the soul to the body.

Hence, the first priority is the liberation of the soul from the power of matter: “...separation means the extraction of the soul and its projections from the carnal sphere and from all conditions of the environment surrounding the body. In other words, it means introversion, introspection, meditation and a careful examination of desires and their motives” (Jung , MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS, par. No. 673). That is, psychologically, the stage of liberation of the soul from the shackles of matter corresponds to the withdrawal of projections from the external world and their recognition as internal content.

Alchemists advise placing "Mercury in a sealed vessel and heating until transformation occurs." Psychologically, heating corresponds to close attention and observation, and sealing in a vessel corresponds to the extraction of projections from the object. Since we initially equated the concept of Mercury with the concept of the unconscious, the prescription is: "Take the unconscious in its most appropriate form (say, in the form of a spontaneous fantasy, a dream, a strong emotion) and operate with it. Give it special attention, concentrate on it and keep an objective eye on it." the changes taking place. Dedicate all your strength to solving this problem, carefully observe the process of transformation of spontaneous fantasy. The most important thing: do not allow anything from the outside world to get into it, because it already has everything it needs" (Jung, MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS, par. No. 749).

This short passage contains the whole principle of psychotherapy, the whole secret of healing and liberation. The psychologist does not bring anything new, he only teaches the analysand to see his mental complexes and not project them outside. And the change, if all necessary conditions are met, will not keep you waiting long. In dreams at this stage there are motives of struggle, confrontation, persecution, visions of fire may appear, which marks a strong tension of consciousness. Therefore, the main task is not to slip back into an unconscious state of unconscious opposites and learn to understand your projections.

CONIUNCTIO, the second stage is the process of merging consciousness and unconsciousness. If at first the main object of recognition were the shadow parts, which must be observed as if from the outside, impartially monitoring their transformation in a sealed flask, then this stage implies a meeting with the anima.

At the level of "Coniunctio" there is a flight into the unconscious (catalyzed by anima) and merging with shadow energies. The coniunctio in alchemy is symbolized by the sacred marriage of the royal couple of the Sun and Moon, Christ and the church. Also among the symbols of coniunctio are the motives of consuming or eating like like: “An individual must come to the Last Supper with himself; this means that he recognizes in himself the existence of another person. But if he persists in his one-sidedness, then two lions will tear each other to pieces."

This stage poses a certain danger for the “ego”, since consciousness is threatened with complete disappearance, dissolution in the sea of ​​the unconscious. An incorrect, unsuccessful coniunctio threatens madness. Therefore, the greatest caution is necessary during the passage of this stage. The main task of the analyst is to prepare the individual for a decisive and complete transformation. Here dreams abound with motifs of marriage, dissolution, flights into darkness, identification with unacceptable parts. Conclusion: you need to be able to “let go” of yourself and not interfere with the natural process of transformation.

NIGREDO. The Nigredo stage, as a rule, follows coniuctio, when the fusion of the ego with unconscious complexes has occurred; now both of them in their former form die and disintegrate. Nigredo is the level of death, decay and complete loss of any support; he is characterized by severe depression, sometimes with suicidal desires. It seems as if, where the “I” used to be, a black hole has opened, which absorbs everything and everyone. Any attempts to hold on to the old cause even greater suffering.

The worst thing here is the subjective feeling that now this will never end. Hence, assurance is necessary that such a state is temporary and is a necessary step on the path to higher self-awareness. "Disintegration is the precondition of redemption. The participant in the mystery must experience figurative death in order to achieve transformation" (Jung, MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS, par. no. 381). In Tibetan Buddhism, at high levels, the practice of "ched" was taught, the essence of which is that the practitioner went to the cemetery at night and imagined that hungry ghosts were flying from everywhere and dismembering the adept." As far as I know, this practice is considered the most dangerous of all the practices of Tibet and is recommended only for very well prepared individuals. It can be said that the practitioner of "ched" consciously induces in himself the most powerful state of Nigredo in order to speed up the process of transformation.

As for dreams, they abound with gloomy motives of decay; Claustrophobic locked rooms, dismemberment, crucifixion, castration, falling into the mud are typical. The completion of Nigredo usually marks the appearance in dreams of the mandala motif of quaternary, holistic structures, the experience of which is perceived as sacred.

NEW BIRTH (ANDROGYN), completion stage. The opposites are united in a new “I”, which carries within itself the features of each of the conflicting substances, but is neither one nor the other. This is the level of completion of the great work, corresponding to contact with the unus mundus (one mind). There is an experience of total unity: “...if such opposites as spirit and matter, consciousness and the unconscious, light and darkness, and so on are to unite, then the union will occur in a third thing, which is not a compromise, but a new transcendental being that can be described only through paradoxes" (Jung, MYSTERIUM CONIUNCTIONIS, par. No. 765).

Mercury here becomes the embodiment of the Self, ultimate integrity, unity with being. Now latent parapsychological abilities can be activated, many synchronistic coincidences occur: "...if the symbolism of the mandala is the psychological equivalent of the unus mundus, then synchronicity is its parapsychological equivalent. Although synchronistic phenomena occur in time and space, they demonstrate a remarkable independence from both of these indispensable determinants of physical existence and therefore do not obey the law of causality" (ibid., par. No. 662).

Dreams during this period are associated with the birth of a child, symbols of the fourfold and mandala. The final task: accept changes with gratitude and try, if possible, to avoid identification with the Self, because any inflationary tendencies subsequently bring serious problems.

A FEW GENERAL REMARKS
Since development has a cyclical form, the same stages can be played out many times, and on different scales. Above, an archetypal process was described that captures the entire conscious and unconscious psyche (in such conditions, the process, as a rule, occurs in the “mid-crisis”, that is, from 35 to 40 years). However, we must not forget about small coordinates, for example, if we are talking about the integration of a relatively weakly energetically charged autonomous mental complex. The very structure of the stages of integration will remain approximately the same, but, say, Nigredo will not be an all-consuming melancholy, but a mild depression, and the finale will, accordingly, not be a cosmic ecstasy of unity, but simply a pleasant experience. Here we can see most clearly how knowledge of alchemy helps in dream analysis.

MAIN POINTS

1) Alchemy represented a compensation for the one-sided Christian position, turning its attention to matter, looking for the spirit in it. Christianity, on the contrary, tries to discard matter in the name of spirit;

2) The substances with which the alchemist works are different components of the “psyche”;

3) The main theme of the alchemical quest is the creation of the “philosopher’s stone,” which is the unshakable Self, Christ-Mercury, where opposites are united;

4) Opposites in need of unification were symbolized chemically (salt-sulfur); zoomorphic (snake-bird; winged and wingless bird); anthropomorphic (king and queen, Adam and Eve); astrologically (Sun-Moon); in connection with the elements (fire-water, air-earth). Psychologically, this corresponds to the unification of consciousness and unconsciousness in the Self - “a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.”

5) The unification of opposites, contrary to the Christian “ascent to heaven,” among alchemists always began with a descent into matter, where annihilation and disintegration into atoms occurred, followed by albedo i.e. cleansing and resurrection in a new quality.

6) The complexity and inconsistency of alchemical texts is due to the fact that the alchemists themselves did not know what they were talking about, and were objects, not subjects, of the “Great Work”. No person of medieval mentality could withstand the conscious perception of the idea of ​​​​the dark side of God.

7) Symbols of alchemy are often found in the dreams and fantasies of people who are not familiar with our subject, which is why knowledge of alchemy is necessary when working analytically with dreams. Alchemical stages on different scales occur throughout human existence, but are especially relevant in the “midlife crisis”.

ILLUSTRATION No. 1. Below are two illustrations of how alchemical symbols are produced in the "unconscious" modern people. The first example I give is from my own experience. In early childhood (at about 13 years old) I had a dream that I always remembered and only much later learned that it had to do with the collective unconscious and was directly related to alchemical symbolism. Here is his description:

"I'm walking around Moscow and go to a cinema. They're showing a film about God. I enter the hall - the action immediately begins on the screen. Instantly, I kind of stop being myself and become this action. Its essence is this: some ideal God is in his in a world where he can do everything. He can only do one thing - play with the crow, which is in the center of the world. God changes the whole world with the power of thought, but does not touch the crow. Then, feeling that he is missing something, he begins. to feel sorry for this crow, “unchangeable in the changing.” God finally turns his thoughts to her, and just at that moment something happens that He is sucked into the crow, and I see (or does he?) - unfortunately, this is not an adequate way to describe it. impossible) - how this ideal God disintegrates into molecules and atoms. Certain levels pass in succession before my eyes, I realize that perfection has collapsed “below the level of hell,” and in some incomprehensible way I am “him” and “not-him” at the same time. A click before my eyes - I again find myself in the cinema. Leaving the theater, a dying world appears before me - and at the same time, everything seems to remain the same. I am overcome with sadness and sorrow. I tell myself: the main thing is not to cry! Then a friend of mine comes up and asks: “Have you seen the film?” I answer in the affirmative, to which she remarks: “It’s strange that you don’t cry - after all, the whole world is crying after seeing this tragedy!” This is where the dream ends.

AMPLIFIATION. The beginning and end of a dream are related to the personal unconscious, so they need not be touched upon. The main part is important, the action that takes place in the cinema, because this is a rather complex archetypal drama. The archetype of “violation of a sacred prohibition” exists in almost all myths, but here it appears from a somewhat unusual perspective - the main one actor It turns out that it is not man, but God. Which directly points to the ancient alchemical wisdom: “As above, so below.” Here there is a direct parallel with the Gnostic view of “the spark of God flying into matter and dissolving in it.” In this dream, the alchemical myth of Gabritius, rushing into the arms of Beya and dissolving in her, is played out almost verbatim. Beyya in this myth represented primary matter that underwent transformation. The Crow (one of the most popular allegories of the Devil in medieval scholasticism) among the alchemists symbolized the same primary matter and the stage of Nigredo. Anyone who has carefully read the article will easily recognize in the above dream the stage of Coniunctio, which smoothly and naturally turns into Nigredo. An attentive reader may ask: if such scales are characteristic, first of all, of a midlife crisis, then why was such a process activated in a 13-year-old child, and in all its archetypal grandeur? However, we should not forget that in psychology (unlike other sciences) there are no immutable laws, but only trends. And in this case we are dealing with an exception that occurs from time to time. Such rare archetypal breakthroughs occur if the psyche is for some reason very unbalanced and therefore open to all the “winds” of the collective unconscious. In its endless reserve, the individual ego finds solutions to problems that cannot be solved by conscious effort alone.

ILLUSTRATION No. 2. The following short dream belongs to a woman who has been undergoing psychological analysis for a long time. Its main problem is perfectionism and hyper-rationalism, the strict criteria of which did not allow one to experience the unconscious in all its paradoxical and antinomy. The dream marked a key turning point in the analysis. “I’m at home, I see my son breaking a thermometer and mercury spilling all over the floor. There’s more and more mercury.” I guess, that this dream It is quite clear to anyone who has read this article, so I will not repeat myself on amplification.