Alchemical Timing & Astronomical Code

Modern astrology is commonly traced back to Ptolemy and his Baroque reformer, Jean-Baptiste Morin de Villefranche, where the former created and the latter destroyed. Ptolemy tells us of archetypal forces and forms that travel to the earth and to us. Morin cuts the aerial ropes and roots the celestial symbols in our individual historical destiny, transforming astrology into a divinatory art. From the abstract “sky” of the ancients, Morin introduces the systematic use of the topocentric displacement of the asters in the “local sphere”. In this way, everything becomes an event of our limited earthly history (and this from someone who has a personalized horoscope cast every year. For the curious among you, the writer is a Taurus Gemini cusp with Libra ascendant. Therefore with the Sun in the Eighth House, struck by squares from Pluto and Uranus, but supported by a Saturn Jupiter conjunction in trine. Moon is Mars conjunct and opposite Saturn Jupiter. Mercury in the ninth house is sextile Venus trine Uranus. Neptune squares all but sextiles Pluto).

The daily division then led to the “domification” of the astrological houses. Of which the cardinal ones are I, IV, VIII and X. Morin’s astrological system becomes a complex machinery of gears that resemble a clock more than the real situation in the sky.

In Morin’s system, the annual solar ecliptic is even used as a daily model for the domification of astrological houses. The segments of the sky that are divided into 12 parts enclose the cosmos almost casually, in fact the “zodiac animals” are artificially formed by stars that only visually seem to belong to the same “shape”. In reality, they can be very distant from each other and have totally different origins and history. Of course, they also have a different influence on the Earth’s atmosphere. What is used to build the zodiacal mechanism does not exist in the reality of the sky. Morin’s is a machine with imaginary gears that is never questioned, not even by the precession of the equinoxes. The energy of the movement of this wheel around the earth is supposed to be the Sun.

Stars such as the Big Dipper and Little Dipper, Sirius, Orion, the Pleiades, Arcturus etc. – which made up the ancient agricultural star calendars – have no place in Morin’s short-sighted wheel. I suppose Morin did not include these key stars in his calendars – after all, ephemera are calendars – perhaps because, I venture, they would have obscured the driving importance of the sun.

In theory, no, Morin’s system could not even be defined as “divinatory” in the classical sense, because his signs are artificial.

Mind I didn’t say “abstract”, which is different from artificial.

In fact, even a machine of human invention becomes part of analogies and synchronisms.

I understand that it is difficult for purists of the spirit to accept, but a cyclical machine becomes almost “breathing”. And it is not too delusional to say that it can be taken into account by forces, energies, spirits, souls. After all, the Egyptian “god-making” is not too distant a concept.

They almost began their works because they used to see the sky from earth, and additionally from the element earth. So not only was the universe conceived as inside a distilling apparatus, from Earth to Fire, but the alchemical concept of “densities”, also required the starting point from the densest in the earth to the thinnest in the sparse universe.

… for whom the innumerable gods honored in the temples revealed themselves as formulations, hierarchically organized within a very varied celestial Order, of aspects of a single Principle which in those divinities revealed itself in a multiplicity of different configurations: “forms” of a single celestial Reality, aspects of a single, primordial creative “power”. In short, Ptolemy’s view was “divinatory” in the sense of conferring power.

If astrology was placed within the framework of a general theory of the forces of Nature, we must admit that not only a spiritual universe, but also an elaborate cosmology and a universal doctrine of correspondences operating in the unity of the cosmos and the interdependence of all its constituents, were connected. Astrological aphorisms are based on the principle similia similibus. “Like with like” which we have passed on to homeopathy today, but which for the ancients had, rather, a subtle meaning of analogies and synchronisms.

In fact, some authors speak of the week of weeks in May, others speak of autumn, still others of the winter solstice, and even of the vernal equinox. Not wanting to mislead anyone with categorical statements, note that cycles exist. And here I mean cycles of stellar, planetary, solar, lunar, and anything else that has any consistency

This is a very intriguing aspect, indeed. And I can only answer with another question: can an alchemical phase be “put to sleep” and then suddenly awaken after decades to be brought to completion? I think it might be a possibility. Our life and our destiny prove it.

In the end we see how, for the alchemists, everything is reduced to movements in the air. It is undeniable, in fact, that movements in the air and the winds are governed by the changes of season.

Astrology is based on the ecliptic, that is, on the supposed “path of the sun around the earth”. The zodiacal constellations are pure groups of stars that have nothing between them except the fact of being seen together (perhaps belonging to galaxies distant millions of light years from each other). We can define a zodiacal constellation no more and no less than a tarot card. After all, this is what they have been reduced to by Morin de Villefranche (This is said by a person who also gets tarot readings. And to tell the truth, I love all cards, even gambling. But Alchemy and Theurgy are something else).

To answer the question, the precession of the equinoxes interests astronomers, but does not influence astrologers and alchemists.

If we analyze more deeply what kind of alchemical works we are talking about, we discover that they are spagyric works. In fact, astrology is used in spagyria. For example, we know that sometimes spagyrics used to cast accurate horoscopes for their operations: they claim the presence of Mars to get a rubefacient and fortifying product, or Venus to boost the cellular metamorphosis and relax, Saturn as anti-inflammatory and antipyretic, or as an Astro ruler for every matter, i.e., Saturn for Atropa Belladonna, Mars for Arnica Montana or Venus for Achillea Millefolium. 

This is said by a person who treats herself exclusively with spagyric products, so I hold spagyria in the highest regard. But Alchemy is something else.

Even the ecliptic of the astrologers does not strictly indicate the constellations that expand starting from given corners of the earth, but rather the path of “diversity” of each day in the various degrees. In addition to this, the ecliptic of the alchemists foresees that the center from which the “calculation” starts, that is the earth, has the same importance and dignity. The ecliptic of the alchemists therefore also foresees that in the various degrees one takes into account winds and tides, and lunar phases and positions of the sun not only in the sense of “luminaries”.

In this important aspect, alchemists refer to the Platonic myth of the spindles. According to Plato, the entire rotating machine involves two main rotary movements: one, the cosmic one, which drags the whole sky with it from east to west; the other, that of the seven spindles, which at different speeds participate in a rotation from west to east. It would be simple to say that it represents on a symbolic level the two exits from the world of the dead and the world of the living. But no one would take literally the idea of being sucked out of death in the West and brought back to life in the East. We can’t even say for sure that we are talking about night and day, winter and summer

This makes the planets a true “horizon”, that is, a visible boundary between the Sky and the Earth.

The Chaldeans not only observed planetary conjunctions, but also meticulously noted their heliacal risings, that is, when a planet first appears at dawn. It is likely that the astrological houses of late astrology arose from observing the heliacal risings of the planets at dawn.

In fact, it was the Chaldeans who created a system that could codify this connection between sky and earth. Thus were born the numbers, those that were considered above their common use as mere calculation symbols. Through sacred numbers, the Chaldeans measured energies, as we would say today. Or cosmic forces, as the ancients said.

Before becoming a tool for predicting the future, the concept of cosmic number was for the Chaldeans a means to understand what we today too roughly call the “energy flow” that crosses the universe, and which we could instead define as a number/line, visually translated into cosmic “ropes”.

Every day is different, every hour is different. Analyzing the concept, the recurring positions of some stars, as well as the positions of the Moon relative to the sun and the earth – and of course the positions of the earth relative to the sun – produce variations in the composition of atmospheric air. Ultimately, observing an astronomical code corresponds to the observation of atmospheric air. This is called “Astronomical Code” and determines the specificity of Earth’s years, months, days, and hours.

For the preliminary-first work, we should observe the Sun and Moon. While for the second and third works, we should also add planetary and stellar scrutiny.

The astronomical code has been secretly passed from master to apprentice. The reason is double: our matters, the starting raw matters, and the alchemical matters reduced to Mercurius and Sulphur work as “magnets” for celestial Mercurius and Sulphur coming from outside the atmosphere.

Often alchemists devoted themselves to the astronomical code as well as to the exact proportions’ one, which they searched for forever, thinking that these were the secret of some alchemical successes. Unlike chemistry, which led us after countless experiments to obtain the exact proportions or chemical weights, in alchemy this does not happen. It seems that something is triggered only with exact proportions that unfortunately cannot even be obtained with study and erudition (see The Subtlety of the Exact Proportions). They appear so casual, by nature. And often, they are accompanied by astronomical phenomena or cycles.

They should think like farmers when it comes to accepting and discovering the diversity of each day by following the sky rather than the earth; they should think like sailors to feel the sea and the wind and order the corners of the sky to find the way; they should think like water diviners to connect the recesses of the earth to the stars through the body; and finally they should think like mountain climbers to find and feel the place where the sky and the earth meet.

We know that the Assyrians already considered Polaris A a reference point for navigation. In fact, its fundamental role in orientation derives from its position, almost perfectly aligned with the Earth’s axis. While for theurgists, the path indicated by the North Star was valid for transcendent maps. The ancients in fact called some stars “pillars of the sky”, and even defined them as archetypes of ancient cities, or “cosmos”. For alchemists, the Pole Star is always in reference to the earth and represents a “pillar of light” to which the alchemists’ Mercurius is closely connected.

Prosaically, popular customs and legends are generous with clues about “special” nights and “weeks”, which always involve recurring positions of some stars and the weakness of the sun.

From what I, as an Italian, have been taught, in Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy (Hell deals with the first-preparatory work, Purgatory with the second-main work, and Heaven for the third work);

In Virgilius Maro, Bucolics, Georgics, Aeneid;

In ancient stellar agricultural calendars; In ancient religious calendars.

They are the seventeenth-eighteenth century Roseae Crucis and Roseae et Aureae Crucis.

The astronomical code, whose knowledge is lost at dawn, appears to be ubiquitous in archaeological sites worldwide. As we assume that Alchemy’s history might have its origin in the earliest times, it becomes crucial to study these aspects.
Nevertheless, it should not be underestimated that the exact astronomical conditions at the time of the architectural project remained fixed for eternity. It could seem like the deliberate repetition of a celestial archetype.

The north-south solstitial axis indicates the “pillar” of the alchemical world, the channel of flow of the “philosophical sea”, where life comes from and where death goes, the coming and going of the alchemical breath. The east-west equinoctial axis indicates the strength of the sun, the gates of life and death. See Flow and Reflux and Solar Alchemy.

From an alchemical point of view, the solstitial and equinoctial dates are not to be considered exact since the solstitial and equinoctial cycles last 14 days: 7 days before and 7 days after (but better seven days before).

It is enough to know that solstitial orientation – north/south – is almost Polar and Stellar, while equinoctial – east/west – follows the Sun. So it is easy to deduce the profound implications from the alchemical point of view.

Recently I was asked about the possibility of avoiding alchemical works during solar high peaks – at least from the perspective of various potential unexpected phenomena that affect everything – and instead getting the works to coincide with the lowest sun activity. I answered I don’t think a lower solar activity is a prerequisite as an alchemist should always and only work at night and with clear sky conditions. In fact, at night, the hemisphere is sun-free. Additionally, raw matters could get a lower magnetization during a solar low peak with a consequent lower content in Secret Fire. Not to mention the lunar influx could proportionally decrease. Nevertheless, this question is worth more profound research.

Not only the choice, judgment, or control of when something should be done according to the astronomical code, but also the choice, judgment, or control of when something should not be done, or pause, or break. Pauses in Alchemy are as crucial as the astronomical code and occur in every stage of work. They can range from one hundred eighty to forty-three, four, five, six, ten, and twelve days. Timing can also be seen as the duration of alchemical phases (in days and even in hours) and the repetitions of the same operation in the same phase, which sometimes is what may differ an ancient chemistry operation from an alchemical first preparatory work process.

Usually, faqs should cover only well-documented answers. Unfortunately, there is much debating about philosophical months’ definition: every alchemical school has its encryption systems. Said that, the most modern decryption is to equalize one philosophical month to one common day. Dom Pernety defines “Philosophical Month” as the period of 40 days during which the matter undergoes its putrefaction. Anyway, he recommends not to take the days as literal solar days. Other philosophers say it is a period marked by the movements of the Moon. But I don’t want to contribute to confusion. So I can only warn readers not to take what they might find in modern treatises for granted.

It is a tradition still observed: the alchemical works should be performed from an hour after sunset to an hour before dawn. The spiritus mundi/secret fire seems to suffer sunstroke, so the operations should always be performed. Or maybe it’s helped by the stronger Earth’s electromagnetic field in the non-affected by sunlight hemisphere.

True. Ancient agricultural calendars were based on the stars Orion, Arcturus, Sirius, the Pleiades, and Polaris.

Star calendars had more power at night, when they were not disturbed by the sun.

The element of nature through which the stellar-agricultural calendars most manifested their power on earth was atmospheric air and, through gases, also water and rocks.

They are exact aspects concerning the sun, like in astrology. However, we must not overlook that gusts of terrestrial particles, such as gas and air hit the moon.

The Moon reflects the Solar beams, so its distance from the Sun determines the stream strength. The full Moon is when the Moon is weaker, as it is farthest from the Sun. At the same time, the Moon, beginning to appear as a crescent, is the strongest.

The Phases of the Moon are essential for the operations that should be strictly performed at night (practically almost all).

Because when stellar aspects are involved, the sky should be as dark as possible. The composition of the air is decisive when working on Mercurius and Spiritus Mundi.

Equinoxes have special operational significance. The raw material was collected, especially the nostoc, from the sky during the two equinoxes. The two harvested nostoc will then be made to interact with each other.

In this regard, it should be noted that astronomical and cosmic are not synonymous adjectives in alchemy. When we speak of the philosophers’ stone as a cosmic resonator, we do not necessarily mean an astronomical resonator. The word Cosmos implies, in Alchemy, the differentiation between macrocosm and microcosm.

In fact, these are always moments of the day or year when the sun is “silenced” by the stars, often through the moon.

True. For example, Pluto represents the submerged sun, i.e., the sun of the winter solstice. And the lunar goddesses are three, like the phases, i.e., Selene, Artemis, and Hecate.

Apollo rules the whole solar year; Zeus, Aphrodite, Juno, and Saturn/Kronos the seasons.

Saturn/Kronos also represents the agricultural star calendar.

We know that mythology is assigned to divinities such as Hephaestus or Vesta/Hestia; the task was to amplify the weak emissions from the remote celestial regions. For example, Hephaestus repeated Zeus and Vesta Hera.