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Ripley Scroll: the Soul Drinks only Blood

by Iulia Millesima

Two different drinks. One for the Spirit and blood for the Soul. Gentle the first, unexpectedly cruel the second. The Ripley Scroll shows all the dripping.

Ripley Scroll Yale dragon blood
Ripley Scroll, Yale, dragon blood

“Of my blood and water I wish, Plenty in all the World there is, It runs in every place, Who it finds he has grace… “. It is not such a remarkable verse, but it names two very interesting tools: Blood and Water, or better, Water and Blood, since the first is the forerunner of the second.

The Mellon 41 is the Ripley Scroll of the university of Yale; in fact, it is known as the Ripley Yale ( turn the page to see a full image), and it is the version I prefer because of its three alchemical works or parts, so magnificently rendered. Not only, but the Ripley Scroll in general, is one of my favorite alchemical pictographic collections as well. I know that many serious ( in the very sense that they don’t easily smile) European researchers would turn up the corners of the mouth: the Ripley scroll is too simple to be complicated and too schematic to be misleading.

As a matter of fact, in the second part of the scroll, there are two kinds of “rains” that can confuse. Before getting down to trying an explication, we have to understand where we are and in what stage. For this purpose, an Opus magnum scheme can get helpful. Roughly a Mercurius Philosophorum has come out of pelican rotations (1), a Mercurius not more volatile but fixed in something more sulfurous (2). Then we start a Reincrudation (3) and make twice as a Mercurius Duplicatus (4). But that will be another article, what I’m interested in is the second part of the second and final scene or the two “Showers of rain”.

ripley scroll yale bird detail
Ripley Scroll, Yale, bird detail

Here we are in the main alchemical work. The first rain, as we can see on the left, is a kind of washing; in fact, it is, or Laton (5). Inside the vessel, a clear watering of Mercurius/Secret Fire washes from black putrefaction to get to whiteness through a stormy grey. The dark cloud in the upper part of the drawing is also inside the vessel. A real “golden” miraculous water is falling. Gold, because that is our Philosophers Gold or Mercurius/Secret Fire. The dark sphere is our first matter, or materia prima (already in the spiritual form of Mercurius Philosophorum), to be whitened and then reddened in a rotation of colors (6). The strange animal is winged because of its sublimating capacity. It is also crowned because it is married (duplicated and joined with metal) and is a Mercurius Philosophorum (bearded) of royal descent (7). Despite its male appearance, it is a queen and a goddess, Venus (8). Our Spirit of Life is coming out of the first putrefaction and now extracting the Soul (9). It is the white Sulfur to be fed ( a synonym of washing) on gently added Mercurius Philosophorum/Water. If you want to know more about those strange feathers, go to Ripley Scroll and the Art of Plucking a Bird King.

Many raindrops are expected to change and rotate colors (10). Six feathers, the seventh is pretty hidden. During this stage, we will have three different kinds of Mercuriii, three spheres, and a threefold Moon.

But there will be a time when we cannot go any further. The result will be the birthing of an absolute monster who partakes in volatile/dissolving and fixing/earthing virtues of all forerunner substances. It is the Soul, of course, but it partakes in the Spirit of Life and will become a body, a new alchemical body/Earth (11).

Nevertheless, our work has not come to an end yet. We have entered the last stage, and the baby monster is being born before us (12). Of course, this child has to be fed, but not with our Spirit/Mercurius/Milk. This monster is feeding on itself since red can only drink red. Drop by drop. It is a real dripping. This dragon/Soul/Sulphur is strangely bloodthirsty for its blood. Nothing extraneous.


full image of the Mellon 41, the Ripley Scroll


  1. See also Baro Urbigerus & the Circulatum Tree ;
  2. See also Basilius Valentinus, Azoth, Salt or Philosophers Gold? ;
  3. See also Atalanta Fugiens and the Golden Apples ;
  4. See also Atalanta Fugiens and Mercurius Duplicatus ;
  5. see also Kamala Jnana from Black to White , Dom Pernety, Laton & Putrefaction ;
  6. See also Kamala Jnana Introduction to a Live Secret , Artephius, Secret Book and Secret Fire ;
  7. See also Sargon Regulus and the Little Sun ;
  8. See also Botticelli, Venus Birth & Primaterialistic Subject ;
  9. See also Eros, Psyche & a New Alchemical Body ;
  10. See also Splendor Solis and Children Multiplication ;
  11. See also Dionysus, Universal Dissolvent and Kykeon ;
  12. See also Cabala Mineralis & the She Horse on Urine part 2 , Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit and Secret Iconography of the Wheel ;

Filed Under: Alchemic Pictures Tagged With: Ripley Scroll

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