Gold & Alchemy, or Adorn with a Ray

In Alchemy, metallic gold is often used and is openly declared as metallic gold (or at most, with its symbols and synonyms). Alchemical gold is Mercurius (obtained from any raw starting material, even vegetal. Also metallic gold).

Metallic gold is believed to contain a special “spark” within itself; Alchemical gold or Mercurius is the product of extracting the “spark“ from any other starting matter. See also Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles and Palingenesis, Seeds in the Wind.

This Elixir “analogous to the substance of the stars” can be extracted from everything, but especially from gold. As we have already seen in Alchemy & Light, Known Authors, Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim speaks of a pure, lucid, subtle vapor that the heat of the heart generates from the purest blood: appropriately extracted from gold or other bodies, it was called Elixir by Arab astronomers, but it could also be called “sky”, “ether”, or “Quintessence”. This spirit, derived from the work of the four elements, “possessed a vital principle” and had a nature “analogous to the substance of the stars”: spirits and effluvia. See also Stellar and Planetary Alchemy, the Palace of the Fifth Essence and Air Alchemy, the Dust.

True. Gold is born for what it is meant to be, that is, agility, or the ability to go and return. Gold has an impressive ability to move in Alchemy, without being a “lifter”.

True. Thanks to this potential, metallic gold can also stabilize Mercurius, a substance that is so difficult to handle. See also Gold & Alchemy, Apples to Stop Atalanta.

Once “in” the Mercurius/Alkahest/Universal Solvent, gold has certainly lost its metallic structure, but this is precisely what the alchemist is looking for: extract the seed from the metallic gold and “enhance” the Mercurius/Dissolvent.

In fact, true alchemical jargon says: “Extract the seed of metallic gold and sow it in the Anima Mundi, soul of the world”.

“Extract the seed of metallic gold, or Sun, or the agent/active part, and sow it in the Anima Mundi, soul of the world, or Moon or patient/passive part”.

Certainly. A modern chemist might observe that gold does not respect the Aufbau principle due to irregularities in the sequence of energy values. The further away the orbitals are from the nucleus, the more the energy levels of the various types of orbitals get messed up – to the point of even messing up the order in which the orbitals are filled. See also Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles.

In their symbolic language, the ancient alchemists said that gold contained a balanced amount of Mercurius and Sulfur. For them, this noble metal was even the raw material with the highest concentration of native Mercurius. As we have already seen, modern chemists would probably instead attribute this property of gold to be considered almost pure alchemical Mercurius to the electrons in its electronic cloud that tend to change levels easily.

Very simply put, and without using symbolic language, I dare say yes: gold represents what an alchemist means by “light”. See also Alchemy & Light, Introduction and Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles.

We have already seen how some twentieth-century alchemists attributed to the electron many of the properties of Mercurius, to the point of identifying them with each other. So yes, a modern physicist could attribute the “spark” supposedly present in gold to the properties of the electron, or even the photon.

In fact, the spark must be enlarged to become a true “ray”, otherwise it is of no alchemical use.

In fact, in addition to the spark, metallic gold may also already contain within itself the possibility of the “ray”. An alchemist may suppose that this is the work of Sulfur and Mercurius.

As already seen in Solar Alchemy, the “spark” from the Sun needs the Moon to transform it into a real “ray”. We have seen how metallic gold contains Sulfur/spark and Mercurius/ray in balanced quantities. So, perhaps, metallic gold could already contain its own moon.

Stellar or solar magnet? It’s a difficult question to answer.

It is a very complex and articulated topic that cannot be summarized in a few words, both for the state of the art of physics and philosophy. But I think, at this point, that one can perceive an answer by intuition. See also Solar Alchemy.

As already seen in Solar Alchemy, there is a theory in Alchemy that recognizes an Inner Central Sun in every independent body, with a peculiar back-and-forth movement between the astronomical Sun Inner Center and the countless Inner Central Suns on and in the underground of the earth. For alchemists, no raw material on earth can more purely represent this concept than metallic gold.

Only those who are quite familiar with the recipes can understand whether it was metallic or alchemical gold. But, for example, when you read “lime of the Sun” it is clear that it is calcined metallic gold. Even more difficult is to understand whether the symbol of the Sun in the recipes is only alchemical gold. I could dare to say that an expert immediately realizes that the recipe is chemically impossible if it were calcined metallic gold. But, for example, when you read “the seminal virtue of gold” it is clear that gold must be reduced to its raw material, that is, to what it was before becoming gold.

As already seen in Solar Alchemy, that the sun, in its Apollonian version is the orchestra director between the most distant notes of the sky and the closest ones. I think the same can be said of metallic gold: the noble metal is the orchestra director between the closest notes of the sky and the most distant notes of the earth.

True. Frank Wilczek, Nobel Prize 2004, reports on a gold ions collision that does not sound incredible for alchemists.  We read: “… traces of particle produced by the collision of two high-energy ions of gold. The fireball that results and its subsequent expansion recreate the physical conditions of the Big Bang on a small scale and for a short time”. See Gold Ions Collisions and Genesis in Miniature.

There is much evidence to suggest that alchemists believed gold was the first metal created during Genesis. See also The Genesis on a Small Scale.

The stage of blackness made the gold “spiritual” – because it frees spirits – so to reach tye level of “sun on earth”.

Alchemical gold in its most effective form is metallic gold reduced to Mercurius through dispersions, volatilizations or sublimations. In its least effective form, alchemical gold is Mercurius obtained from non-gold-bearing matter. Weidenfeld’s recipes explain the concept well. See

If alchemical gold is Mercurius, then logically Mercurius should be “gold before it is gold from the mines”.

Logic would dictate that, in fact, “gold before it is gold from the mines” was seminal, in reality, for alchemists, seminal gold, the seed, is sulfur or perfect red. In short, the projection powder to transmute gold. See Transmutation of Metals.

True. Don’t modern chemists say that each metal has its own wavelength?

When you read about “Tincture/Dye” in Alchemy it is because metallic gold is almost certainly involved: metallic gold causes beautiful colors.

When you read about “Tincture/Dye”, and you for example know that you started from dew, or from cemetery earth, or from rust, or from antimony glass, it is because at a certain final point you decided to “adorn” with metallic gold.

Alchemists used the verb to adorn in the sense of decorate: just as one would wear a gold jewel to adorn oneself, at a certain point in the working process, to enhance the properties of a Mercurius perhaps obtained from non-metallic substances, calcined gold powder was added.

The symbol of the Black Sun symbolizes the stage of putrefaction, or Nigredo, or Blackness of gold (when metallic gold is added, everything turns black at the moment). See also First-Preparatory Works.

True. Metallic gold is the more generous raw matter when releasing the Spiritus Mundi/Secret Fire from within.

True. Alchemy needs materials with a bit of “garbage” to work better and build the philosopher’s egg. For example, Canseliet and Fulcanelli considered precious metals (silver too) too easy to “open” – because they have little waste – and therefore released Secret Fire very little.

It is not just a matter of having some wastes, but also of having some work to do (modern chemists would say to free some energy from work). In fact, the continuous changes of state are indispensable to “free” the Spiritus Mundi from its corporeal chains.

True. Gold dispersed in mixtures seems to have a power “freed” from the chains of corporeality. In the eyes of an alchemist, the compactness of gold appears unnatural and simply stored.

No way that gold nuggets can be of any use in Alchemy. The gold of the alchemists, and of the ancient pharmacists, was not the gold in compact form of the goldsmiths, but absolutely had to be in very thin leaf or calcined. And this is because alchemists and ancient pharmacists needed gold in dispersion.

True. In this way gold is used for enamels and in glassworks.

Evidently we are talking about ancient systems for making enamels and glass colors. Said that, the substances that the ancients used were so heterogeneous and the processes so bizarrely similar to those of other fields, that they had absolutely nothing in common with the modern science of pigments (a classic example is Prussian blue, see Concordances and Differences between Alchemy and Ancient Ordinary Chemistry). The use of the entire ancient pharmacopoeia, composed of alkalis, tartars, wines, vinegars, urine salts, aromatic resins, soot, bones and horns always had the aim of dispersing, liquefying and sublimating.

Because when gold, in leaf or calcined form, is extremely dispersed it takes on the color black. The black color does not indicate a dissolution (gold dissolutions in fact take on wonderful colors) but a real definitive dispersion, that is, the inability of the gold particles to reunite in a metallic form.

True. In Alchemy, black indicates the definitive and irretrievable death of the “body” of raw matter.

By calcination of gold the ancient chemists did not mean its oxidation, but rather its extreme dispersion, that is, the impossibility of returning to metallic gold.

The alchemical works on crude matter imply the death of matter, all alchemists agree on this point. Nonotheless, some say that, although Alchemy kills metals, just before the end, the signature is revealed. Alchemists know that metals killed in a certain way can germinate again as their forms endure over time in the materials that had made their graves. 

True. Some recipes call for cutting the gold into very thin sheets and then placing horn discs between them.

True. From a chemical point of view, since Alkahest/Mercurius is a powerful oxidizer, and from an alchemical point of view because Alkahest/Mercurius is a Spiritus Mundi that tends to bring everything to the level of Spiritus Mundi.

In de Secretis Adeptorum sive de usu Spiritus Vini Lulliani by Johannes Segerus Weidenfeld we read that Secret Fire/Mercurius/Universal Dissolvent can be extracted from everything on the earth since it is an indeterminate and indistinct Spirit of Life. The addition of calcined gold was then a common practice to enhance the obtained Mercurius.

No. Simply, adding gold improves the Mercurius. Weidenfeld provides many comprehensive cases.

We must necessarily firstly witness the putrefaction of the added gold.

31 And what if after adding gold to the Mercurius, no putrescence occurred?

True. The gold darkness is proof the material obtained is particularly rich in Spiritus Mundi.

In some paths, the peacock’s tail indicates the end of the Second-Main Work and the beginning of the Third Work and is caused by the immersion of calcined gold or thin leaf into the Mercurius/Dissolvent. The initial phase of the peacock’s tail is, and must be, black. The first color that the tail takes on is necessarily the black of the gold that disperses forever in the Mercurius.

This is a true alchemical dogma: every substance dispersed in Mercurius, if truly dispersed, must become Mercurius.

It can be visible to our eyes ( or, better, detectable to our brain) when the first Mercurius, in specific paths, shines into the vessel and even in a spectacular way when metallic gold is involved. See First-Preparatory Works.

The blackness of gold was valued by the iatrochemists of the Baroque age as the achievement of supreme digestibility: ready to be made into medicine.

There are several reasons that prevented gold from being used as the main raw material. We will analyze them later. For the moment, let it be known that few alchemists dared to directly go this path. In fact, the technique of “adornment” was preferred.

For such a path to exist, the gold would have to be reduced in purity to a vitreous substance and then dissolved in rectified vinegar (see Concordances and Differences between the Humid and Dry Path). But this does not appear to be in the characteristics of gold. While calcinated gold is not sensitive to vinegar (and this makes its dispersion difficult) it is sensitive to spirits of wine or alcohol and aromatic resins (but they are just lifter agents).

The “mechanical” dispersion of gold appears to be the opposite process of assaying: if assaying and refining are the reunification of gold in single agglomerates, their opposite can lead to dispersion instead.

Among the natural substances and those produced by ancient chemists were: Aqua Regia, Liver of Sulphur (potassium pentasulphide), mercury, silver, iron, lead, essential oils, spirit of wine, and ether.

Because it was rare, expensive and difficult to use.

No, refining gold was another operation, and it is the liberation of gold from other metals such as lead, silver or copper.

The basic principle of cupellation, which is a process of gold essaying, is based on the resistance that precious metals have to oxidation (a property that distinguishes them from common metals). In a small porous container, made of herbivore bone ash, a little lead is melted with a little gold. This container is able to absorb the lead and other metals oxidized by the heat, while the gold is deposited in the form of a ball. Any traces of silver are eliminated with a percentage of nitric acid. The gold will be reduced to a brown, spongy material. The cupel operation requires great expertise in the knowledge of weights and quantities.

True. They were substances used ubiquitously in many artisanal processes for tanning leather, preparing paints, medicines and other things.

Yes, and in ancient times it was also called “strong water from the wells”.

Yes, with the addition of water and brick powder, then the gold settled to the bottom of the solution. To make this water stronger, a small part of silver is dissolved in a part of freshly prepared acid, which is then added to eliminate impurities, such as chlorides, which could contaminate the gold. However, the system was quite complex due to the expertly alternating temperatures.

This system was not a true crucible metal assay, but rather a system for locating a gold vein mixed with other minerals. In this case, the assay was done in the open air with layers of wood and mineral and the addition of metallic lead or ore. Gold then tended to combine with lead.

Sulphur could be used to separate silver from gold.

The basic principle of cupellation, which is a process of gold essaying, is based on the resistance that precious metals have to oxidation (a property that distinguishes them from common metals). In a small porous container, made of herbivore bone ash, a little lead is melted with a little gold. This container is able to absorb the lead and other metals oxidized by the heat, while the gold is deposited in the form of a ball. Any traces of silver are eliminated with a percentage of nitric acid. The gold will be reduced to a brown, spongy material. The cupel operation requires great expertise in the knowledge of weights and quantities.

An alchemist would immediately recognize that the ingredients of a gold assaying are the same as those of some alchemical processes (see First-Preparatory Works).

The skill of the assayer lay in the perfect calibration of weights, measures, times and temperatures. A good assayer could transform an assaying process into an alchemical process, with only slight variations.

Because they were looking for a quick way to disperse the metallic gold.

Unfortunately, proceedings from Ammonium chloride and Saltpeter to obtain Aqua Regia through Hydrochloric Acid and Nitric Acid 3:1 contain Salts of Ammonia. Although Gold will dissolve in this acid, making the solution alkaline will produce Fulminating Gold. This real explosive, which caused considerable injuries and death among alchemists, could unexpectedly be just over the corner.

In the aqua regia the gold was dissolved, not definitively dispersed. In fact, it could return to its metallic state. In short, when the salts of gold from Aqua Regia were washed in distilled water, this one, in its turn, was evaporated in order to remove the very caustic properties. It was at this point that a very real difficulty arose, for when these salts of gold lose their acidity, they slowly but surely tend to return to their metallic form again. 

The first step to obtain Aqua Regia is for Lemery to work urine, soot and marine salt. But his method is so little pure that he obtains substances far from the purity required in modern chemistry. The full method can be found step by step in Lemery & the Spirits of Salt Armoniac, Lemery & Aqua Regia First Step: Sal Armoniac and Aqua Regia and Fulminating Gold According to Lemery. In conclusion, it will be seen that the substances obtained from Lemery’s system are mostly extremely volatile. Which is ultimately the peculiarity that makes Lemery’s Aqua Regia closer to the alchemical Alkahest than to the modern Aqua Regia.

Cassius purple has to do with Aqua Regia, in which tin is dissolved and then diluted in water. Gold in the form of chloride tends to dissolve and precipitate in purple color. Through some particular processes (which can be found in the treatises of baroque chemistry) the Cassius powder can give a gold that can no longer return to the metallic state. This condition allows it to be used for alchemical purposes.

True. It has been noted that even highly ionized matter can disperse gold dust.

Von Tschirnhaus’ double lens is able to volatilize gold (which even sublimes before its melting point), but does not change its metallic nature. It is therefore not alchemically useful.

Ordinary and solar fires can not alter the nature of fire, but while the first preserves its mass through fusion, the second disperses it almost entirely through sublimation. Only the third fire, the electric one, is able to oxidize gold.

The fourth fire capable of completely dissolving gold is the Mercurius/Alkahest which came out of the first alchemical work (see First-Preparatory Works).

True. It is a peculiarity of gold, previously reduced to very thin sheets, to be dispersed by a powerful electric discharge.  In the British application patent 239,509 and the US 1,644,370 we can find “Process & Apparatus for Transforming Elementary Atoms from elementary atoms spontaneous disintegration through subjecting the metal vapor to the electrostatic or electrolytic effect”. See also my article Alois Gaschler & Electric Gold Dissipation. See also Alchemy and Electricity.

True. Most aromatic resins have the property of binding the particles of calcined or leaf gold to their own and thus dispersing the gold easily.

True. We can do Alchemy with Starkey’s pills. This recipe may qualify for First-Preparatory Works.

A legend tells of this use.

The biggest problem of these “natural” sublimations would then be the Secretum Artis par excellence: how to fix the obtained Mercurius in a manageable and scalable substance. See Second-Main Work.

True. It was the method of letting gold fall in drops from great heights to cause an extreme dispersion. In the Book of Osiris, the PER-EM-RA, there is a reference to this very ancient technique of gold granulation, with which gold microspheres are made perfect with ‘the ancient method of falling from the tower’ using only Gold, Incense and Myrrh as ingredients. The granulation effect is achieved by the free fall of tiny droplets of molten gold. During the fall, a modeling effect results from the rotation impressed on the spheres upon their detachment, the droplets are then cooled while falling into the final oil. But for the wise, this description was to be read in another way, according to the rules of secrecy.

Calcined Gold can be sublimated into benzoic or hippuric acid. Ancient European iatrochemists obtained it from horse urine.

True. The pelican was the tool mainly dedicated to the “digestion” of gold.

Gold is the richest raw material in Spiritus Mundi, so much so that it is considered Mercurius in an almost pure state, and therefore could be considered the ideal starting point for obtaining the powder of transmutation. However, gold is not such an easy material to work: its Mercurius is very difficult to be “fixed” in a stable way. For transmutation see Transmutation of Metals.

Among metals, gold is the one that resonates best. See Third Work and Alchemy Resounds.

We know that when light strikes a metal surface, it can extract some electrons from the metal, which then move away from the plate. As already said in Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles, there could certainly be a photoelectric path to easily extract Mercurius from a gold surface, but the problem would be in collecting this too elusive Mercurius. See First-Preparatory Works Second Part.

The power of the sun’s rays is crucial for gold. Furthermore, it is always close to the Earth’s surface, never at depth.

Gold is found in the human body around the heart, on the tops of high mountains, in the rushing streams of granite mountains flowing southwards (especially near whirlpools).

True. The ancients believed they could see in very sterile and rocky terrain a protective crust of abundant veins of gold-bearing metals. The proximity to the sun and the desertification of the land made it possible to locate the best gold mines on the rocky summits of high mountains.

True, gold would be found everywhere, even in the human body.

For the ancients, gold on the earth’s crust followed the sun’s maximum effort, that is, the south. Instead, gold from the mine expanded luxuriantly toward the morning sun, that is, the east.It is worth noting that many other minerals, such as silver, were believed to have flourishing “branches” towards the north.