The double cross, in Alchemy, suggests an authentic compendium of all processes. Or at least it indicates those defining the Opus Magnum operative structure.
The best specimen I have ever seen is by an unknown German author, in “Tractatus Aureus de Philosophorum Lapide”, or Golden Treatise on Philosophers Stone. You can find it in Museum Hermeticum, Frankfurt 1677, page 1.
The first observation is that the Tractatus Aureus cross is unusually double-armed. Theologically pointless, the double-armed cross was instead a heraldic mark. The emblems of Slovakia and Lithuania, and that of the french dukes of Anjou, as well as the Lorraine cross, put in a display such a representation. In heraldry, the shorter arm was said to recall the epigram I.N.R.I. with Christ’s epitomes.
Today the double-armed crosses are known as Byzantine or patriarchal crosses. They were used in Byzantine religious-imperial rites as a reliquary of the True Cross. Below we can see the passage of the double-armed, in Byzantine culture, from a Christian veneration object to a reliquary. The reliquary form is known as “Staurotheke” ( from Greek stauros, “cross” and theke, “collection”. The staurotheques are often on the back epigrams in honor of the Cross and the customer’s name. From this tradition comes the use of whole texts in the shape of a cross.
In the case of the Tractatus Aureus cross, we are examining, in my opinion, we are before a real cross, not a mere text in the shape of a cross. We have already seen that Alchemy and Christendom share the cross symbol (1). In Alchemy, this was a genuine ancient sign representing different meanings. This variety of significations may not be unique since the “Rule of Three” ( every symbol means at least three different ideas) is an alchemical hinge.
So we have seen that the cross may be an allegory of something, or someone, to be hung (2). A cross requires a symbolic hanging through nails. Inside the vessel, it may require a “hanging” employing heat and distillation-sublimation tools.
One may be surprised by the blaspheme side by the side of religious and alchemical concepts. But they are very common in Alchemical imaginary and iconography. We can also have suspended Dionysus or Taurus horns in place of Christ. This symbolic imaginary shared numerous fields. In Tractatus Aureus, we are before the simplest case, that’s to say, a so-called “fixation” cross. Or a cross metaphor of something suspended in the superior part of vessels, not to fall to the bottom or fly away.
We know that our Secret Fire/Mercurius, or our First Matter-Universal Dissolvent, out of salts volatilization, is very volatile and needs a “Fixation” to be handled more. The methods to do so are various and depend on the very starting raw matter. But a common one was to push the volatile part with air currents or fumes till a powder-like substance is formed (3). So from a volatile Mercurius, we have a Mercurius Philosophorum, featuring the wonderful dissolving and generative Mercurius characteristics, but being no more volatile. The flowing Water has become a steady Earth.
This stage ended the preliminary works to achieve our Universal Dissolvent. But this first “fixation” shall not be unique in the alchemical works. The end of the third work ( see an Opus Magnum scheme) is the last cooking, with the last fixation on our perfect Red. In fact, during the so-called Main Work, we fed the alchemical baby with mercurial milk (4) and then directly with red drops (5). Of course, all these, which may seem heterogeneous substances, are instead the same Mercurius, become Mercurius Philosophorum, then divided (6) and used as Milk, then dried and become red drops, or Sulphur. All these operations are performed inside the great alchemical engine of the Solve et Coagula or to dissolve and fix.
So a double-cross for a double fixation.
We are ready to read the Latin mottos forming the Tractatus Aureus cross now. There is a vertical segment ending, at the bottom, with a Moon, and at the top, with a Sun. The inferior Moon is the female symbol of our Volatile Mercurius (7), to be fixed by the male operation of the Sun (8) during the Solve et Coagula process. The substance is always the same Mercurius to be transformed into Mercurius Philosophorum-Azoth-Salt-Sulphur. The vertical formula is: “Habet in se Omnia Lapis Benedici“, or the stone has everything. That’s to say, the substance is always the same despite its transformations.
The first arm from the top says: “Omne Decus“, or all the glory… and depicts the first operation to fix a volatile Mercurius. The second arm says: “Nisus in Arena” … relies on sand (powder). So, my not verbatim translation: The stone has everything in itself. All the glory relies on powder.
Continuous passages of states ( from Water-Moon to Earth-Sun) are the foundations of alchemical works. In this way, Secret Fire comes from power to the act. Every Sun-fixed substance retains the dissolving ability, and, in its turn, a dissolving Moon repeats all the processes.
With a preponderance of Suns, we end the first and the third part with two definitive male conversions or fixations. And Suns are metallic substances able to fix the dissolving Moons (9).
- See also Sun and Moon at the turn of the first Millennium ;
- See also Franz Kieser and the two Perceivable Lights ;
- See also Philosophia Reformata & the Angel with a Trumpet , Cabala Mineralis or the She Horse on Urine Work part 1 , Orthelius1 Commentary on Maria Prophitissa. Part 1 ;
- See also Kamala Jnana from Black to White , Cabala Mineralis or the She Horse on Urine Work part 1 ;
- See also Cabala Mineralis or the She Horse on Urine Work part 2 , Ripley Scroll/ the Soul Drinks only Blood ;
- See also Artephius and Antimonium est de Partibus Saturni ;
- See also Stoll, the Lacinius Translator on Male and Female ;
- See also Kriegsmann/ Sun, Moon, Wind and Earth in Tabula Smaragdina ;
- See also Atalanta Fugiens and the Golden Apples ;