Question 1

1 Is it true that alchemists used the Sun-Moon pair to indicate in a cryptic way many of the dynamic - and apparently dichotomous - aspects of alchemical works?

Accepted Answer

Alchemists used the sun-moon pair to indicate in a veiled way the many “agent-patient”, “active-passive”, and “moisten-drying” aspects in alchemical works. In this sense, the sun indicated the active or drying role attributed to the male gender by the ancients. For example, Sun/Moon also expresses the Solve et Coagula phase (see Second-Main Work).

Question 2

2 The events of the Sun-Moon pair defined as “polarity” also include their astronomical aspect…

Accepted Answer

Even in an astronomical sense, the Sun-Moon pair takes on active-passive connotations. the alchemic zodiac places the Sun high up or at the summer solstice, and so the signs of the zodiac, or on the elliptical, rotate in a heliocentric or solar direction, that is, in the same direction as the earth which rotates around the sun. the entry-exit axis, centered on the Cancer-Capricorn dichotomy, transversally separates the zodiac/elliptical into two polar halves, in which one half - the right one - is solar and rotates heliocentrically, while the other - the left one - is lunar and rotates geocentrically in a clockwise direction.

Question 3

3 It is said that the Moon reflects the “cold” light of the Sun, not the warm one.

Accepted Answer

Actually, the ancients said that the moon borrows light from the sun. When we observe the moon we see the light with which the sun has illuminated it.

Question 4

4 Like the spring of a clock, the Sun actively winds and the Moon passively discharges…

Accepted Answer

IN CONSTRUCTION...

Question 5

5 The “fertilization” of the solar spark and the female ray in the earthly womb, for the alchemists, will become the origin of the “agent-patient” couple, active substance and passive substance…

Accepted Answer

Active/passive, agent/patient, are concepts ubiquitous throughout alchemical literature. Sometimes they are simply understood in a chemical sense (substance that moves and substance that is moved, see Concordances and Differences between Alchemy and Ancient Ordinary Chemistry), sometimes in an alchemical-esoteric sense of solar sparks and lunar rays (see also Palingenesis, Seeds in the Wind).

Question 6

6 The sunlight sinks into the Moon.

Accepted Answer

It is said that sunlight is not simply reflected, but sinks into the lunar substance which modifies it before reaching the earth.

Question 7

7 Yet the existence of a female seed was also admitted…

Accepted Answer

The agent that moistened and transformed the male spark into a ray was called, in fact, female seed. The uterus became a “sowing ground”.

Question 8

8 It seems that the Moon almost becomes an object next to the Sun.

Accepted Answer

To sunlight rather than to the Sun. In any case, the Moon is not the only "object" next to sunlight; there are also earth and air. So, to be precise, a triad composed of Moon-Earth-Air.

Question 9

9 Is it true that the Greek goddess closest to the concept of female seed is Athena?

Accepted Answer

True. Plutarch, in On the Face Appearing in the Moon Disk 24, says that Athena is the lunar aspect of “nourishment” and that every day the goddess causes Ambrosia to arise to nourish the gods and the world.

Question 10

10 Can we understand Athena's lunar Ambrosia as dew?

Accepted Answer

No. Athena's lunar Ambrosia is not the common dew. We can define Ambrosia as the ray swollen by the solar spark. This symbolic language can explain little, but the alchemists have left no more scientific explanations about it.

Question 11

11 The Moon as the hearth of Vesta/Hestia.

Accepted Answer

Hestia/Vesta, the goddess of inextinguishable and immovable fire, is Zeus's messenger on earth, or rather, Hera's. Hestia's fire is said to be lunar.

Question 12

12 By Lunar Alchemy we also mean the search for the right time for work...

Accepted Answer

If you are interested in the lunar phases suitable for the alchemical works you will find them in the various operating sections. See Before Preparatory Work, Magnetization, First-Preparatory Works, Eagle Wings or Volatilization, and Second-Main Work.

Question 13

13 Even the Moon phases are a Sun-Moon relationship.

Accepted Answer

The moon phases we see are actually the amount of sunlight that is reflected at different angles.

Question 14

14 The events of the Sun-Moon pair defined as “polarity” also include their astronomical aspect…

Accepted Answer

If you are interested in the lunar phases suitable for the alchemical works you will find them in the various operating sections. See Before Preparatory Work, Magnetization, First-Preparatory Works, Eagle Wings or Volatilization, and Second-Main Work.

Question 15

15 The ancients did not consider the Moon an Earth satellite but rather an anteearth and an antecosmos...

Accepted Answer

For the ancients, the Moon was sometimes an offshoot of the Earth into the cosmos and other times an offshoot of the cosmos onto the Earth. Without the Moon, the Earth could not communicate with the cosmos and the cosmos with the earth. The Moon was the first step to climb towards the cosmos and the last step to descend towards the Earth.

Question 16

16 For some ancient cultures the nature of the Moon was entirely terrestrial...

Accepted Answer

We moderns make the Moon a star in the sky, but for the ancients the nature of the Moon was entirely terrestrial. Indeed, the Moon played roles for the Earth. For example, the Moon “gave voice” to the silent earth.

Question 17

17 Yet the Moon was also considered the extension of the Sky towards the Earth…

Accepted Answer

For the ancients, another of the moon's task was to “swell” the sky, which would otherwise be too weak to reach the earth.

Question 18

18 The moon has a specific role as an intermediary vehicle between the immaterial and the material...

Accepted Answer

We have already encountered the “middle world”, pneumatikon ochêma, as an intermediary vehicle between the immaterial and the material. In Palingenesis, Seeds in the Wind we have read of a “spark” contained within each individual that must be “swelled” to become a true ray. It is precisely the passage next to the Moon that increases the spark.

Question 19

19 Can we then say that the “ray” is gradually responsible for incorporation?

Accepted Answer

Alchemists say that incorporation is gradual and begins by passing by the Moon. The incorporporation follows the density it encounters. See also Air Alchemy, the Fabric and Air Alchemy, the Dust.

Question 20

20 I would not like to quote, but an image from Chymischer Monden-Schein 1744 shows the Sun sending its influence to the Moon, which in turn also picks up the influence of the breathing of a cloud. Then the moon takes charge of sending a unified influence to the earth…

Accepted Answer

This is a graphical example of what was stated above regarding... IN CONSTRUCTION... (page 200 D.S.)

Question 21

21 But the alchemists tell us that, before binding itself to a body, the pneumatikon ochêma is naturally hovering…

Accepted Answer

This intermediate vehicle, the pneumatikon ochêma, before binding itself to a body is naturally bound to the air it encounters.

Question 22

22 And the Moon does not rule the this middle world…

Accepted Answer

In fact, the middle world rises and falls following the stellar influences.

Question 23

23 If the Sun is defined as an amplifier of the Sky for the Earth, how is the Moon otherwise?

Accepted Answer

We have seen in Solar Alchemy how the Sun has the power, and the task, of amplifying the rays of the cosmos towards the earth, and with the rays also the “movements of the cosmic voices”. As for the moon, an alchemist would say that the moon is more terrestrial and humid, and has powers over the earth's air.

Question 24

24 Can the terrestrial and humid amplification of the Moon find a scientific explanation in the oxygen wind that hits her from the Earth?

Accepted Answer

The moon itself could hardly “humidify” cosmic influences if it were not bathed in oxygen from the Earth. Less known is that the earth has always been sent to the moon a kind of ‘breath of life, ie, a wind of charged particles of oxygen. The earth’s oxygen particles reach the moon when our planet, for five days every twenty-seven days, comes between the Sun and the Moon, shielding the latter from the wind of particles emitted by our star (the solar wind). During this period, the solar wind is deflected, and the particles trapped in most of Earth’s outer regions can reach the moon.

Question 25

25 In short, what might one suppose the Moon does with Earth's oxygen?

Accepted Answer

One might suppose that the Moon somehow “coated” with larger particles the “sparks” arriving from the cosmos. And, thus enlarged, these fell at night on the Earth’s crust. But, please note that these are just my conjectures on finding a scientific explanation, given the current state of physics.

Question 26

26 For alchemists the Moon acts on the air…

Accepted Answer

If we give the middle world between the immaterial and the material, the vehicle between heaven and earth, the consistency of air (in fact it is called pneumatic) then we can actually say that the Moon acts on the air. See Air Alchemy, the Dust.

Question 27

27 I imagine that, in the sense of “air thickener”, the Moon acts on the dusty air. What about the fabric of the air, instead?

Accepted Answer

If by “fabric” of the air we mean a sort of movement that “weaves” the air molecules, then we will see how the Moon is also in this case an amplifier of an almost “mute and deaf” Earth. See Air Alchemy, the Fabric.

Question 28

28 Similar to the operation with solar dust, alchemists believed that parallel methods could be employed with moonlight, but to embody the stellar light instead...

Accepted Answer

In fact, methods similar to those used to obtain solar dust were performed using the moon to incorporate stellar light, or rather influences, instead.

Question 29

29 Even in the case of moonlight - or, through our satellite, the stellar influences - concave mirrors were used…

Accepted Answer

Alchemists believed that lunar-stellar influences could be collected in the form of water by means of concave mirrors.

Question 30

30 You mentioned moonlight, so that leads us to think that the best time to collect moonlight was during the full moon phases…

Accepted Answer

You will be surprised to know that the moonlight of the full moon was considered by alchemists as “full of sunshine”, instead. So as to be useless for collecting the mysterious and dark influences of the stars.

Question 31

31 But with the full moon it was possible to collect the complementary principle to the sun…

Accepted Answer

In fact, with the full moon it was possible to collect the complementary principle to the sun, that is, the feminine one: the lunar humidity that gave “body” to the solar spark, so evanescent in himself.

Question 32

32 Are we to infer that the moon provides two, and different, principles?

Accepted Answer

That's right, the moon is alchemically indispensable in all its phases: full to collect the “swollen and humidified sun” and dark to collect the stars, usually so disturbed by the sun.

Question 33

33 Are the agricultural and maritime traditions on the Moon also valid in Alchemy?

Accepted Answer

It would be too easy if the agricultural and maritime traditions on the Moon were also valid in Alchemy. Well, no, it is not that simple. The moon, in Alchemy, has a mysterious role that could even contradict the agricultural uses of sowing and harvesting and the maritime uses of the tides. Especially when talking about the Moon in Alchemy, one should choose which of its aspects to observe: gravity, reflection of sunlight, reflection of rays from the cosmos, etc. The problem is that even today we know little about the moon, except that if it were not there, there would be no life on earth. But this is precisely the main enigma: what is the trigger for life?

Question 34

34 But is it also true that for the ancients the moon was the wedge of the sky in the earth?

Accepted Answer

True. As we will see later, the moon was often a link between heaven and earth. The moon has been commonly considered since time immemorial as a powerful solar, stellar and planetarian refraction/diffusion system to the earth and this was also from the alchemical point of view, as we will see in this section.

Question 35

35 Is the moon “lord” of the water element on which the earth is based?

Accepted Answer

Ancient legends say that the earth rests on a fish that sail through a primordial ocean. We know that alchemists define “water” as everything that flows. So the moon is the lord of the “flow” on which the earth floats. See Water Alchemy and The Four Alchemical Elements. If this aspect seems only poetic to us, perhaps it is a little less so if we interpret it with a “sonic” meaning. The ancients said that if the earth shakes it is because of the mobility of the water. The ancient Greeks were not surprised by this if they gave Poseidon, the deity of the sea par excellence, also attributes of earthquake.

Question 36

36 Is it true that the Spiritus Mundi descends to Earth through the Moon?

Accepted Answer

As we have already seen, but we repeat, the Spiritus Mundi during the day hovers in the upper parts of the atmosphere due to the power of the sun. Only at night, and by means of the moon, can it descend to the surface of the earth to penetrate the most secret recesses of the earth's crust.

Question 37

37 Is it true that the moon acts “in the name and on behalf” of the stars?

Accepted Answer

True. Here we are talking about the movements of the “philosophical sea”. As we have already seen in Flow and Reflux, the cycles and phases of the movement of the “philosophical sea” have many analogies with the cycles and phases of the ordinary movement of the ordinary tides. But, unlike the ordinary tides, in which the moon has a primary role, the movement of the “philosophical sea” is attributed by alchemists to the moon only in its role as intermediary of stars and planets.

Question 38

38 Is it true that the moon also acts “in the name and on behalf” of the Sun?

Accepted Answer

Truey. As we will see below, the Sun is the lord of individual sparks and uses the moon to make a true ray towards the earth.

Question 39

39 Is it true that the moon is considered by alchemists to be a kind of “clock” of the flows of the philosophical sea?

Accepted Answer

Today we tend to think of it as a clock because a timepiece, in our imagination, can be divided into quadrants. In reality, the moon has four “quarters” or lunar phases that make up its monthly cycle, precisely, circular. At the “strike” of each phase, or quadrant, the moon functions as an intermediary of the philosophical sea.

Question 40

40 What do alchemists say about the lunar cycles of the “philosophical sea”?

Accepted Answer

The cycle of a large oscillating mass of philosophical sea corresponds to a lunar cycle and is equivalent to two cycles of oscillating masses which are about half as many, and which correspond to the maximum and minimum levels of the sea. The maximum of the philosophical sea is on the north-south axis and coincides with the full moon in the south and the absence of moon in the north. The minimum of the sea instead corresponds to the first quarter in the east and the last quarter in the west. Two cycles of the philosophical sea correspond to one cycle of the moon, but not exactly. The Moon, at each quarter phase change, receives influences from the Stars. Thus the Moon contributes to the flow and reflux of the philosophical sea in conjunction with the other Planets, and not individually, as one might imagine. This happens in the so called third movement. See Flow and Reflux.

Question 41

41 Could the increased gamma-ray radiation from the Moon be an explanation for its role in acting on “behalf” of the stars?

Accepted Answer

It’s a recent discovery that the Moon is brighter than the Sun in the gamma spectrum, radiation generated by cosmic rays hitting the lunar surface. Gammas are also emitted during nuclear reactions, so much so that – together with neutrons – they are practically their “signature”. That could be an explanation, of course.

Question 42

42 Is it true that sinkholes in the Earth's crust appear to be swallowing up descending long-wave radiation?

Accepted Answer

Günther Zängl's model for the downward longwave radiation in sinkholes has indeed demonstrated how massive their presence was in the vicinity of sinkholes.

Question 43

43 The ancients said that the quality of the rays hollows out the moon.

Accepted Answer

Indeed, Plutarch writes an entire work on the face of the moon and says that the quality of the refraction of the rays that would reach the moon engraves and shapes it like a sculptor.

Question 44

44 What is this quality of rays?

Accepted Answer

The moon is the star par excellence of the rhythms of life. Indeed, there is a realm of the dead and a realm of births, since the moon is said to dissolve and regenerate bodies. The moon is therefore a rhythmic meeting place between the sun and the earth.

Question 45

45 Perhaps this is why it is also said that the Moon determines the bodies?

Accepted Answer

Neoplatonic philosophers said that it was the Nous that determined bodies. Now the question is: is the moon closer to the intellect or to the Nous? For an alchemist, it's more daring to speak of the Nous than of lunar influences.

Question 46

46 Hecate, the goddess who gets between, especially at night, is said to be lunar.

Accepted Answer

Plutarch says that Hecate is the night, rather than the moon.

Question 47

47 So maybe Persephone is the Moon.

Accepted Answer

Not entirely, it is the earth that gives Persephone her lunar appearance: The side of the moon that faces the earth was called the anti-earth. This was Persephone.

Question 48

47 Does the Moon go the way of the demons or do the demons go the way of the Moon?

Accepted Answer

If one believes in a swarming of entities, i.e., in a continuum without void, the moon has the property of forming and dividing entities in the air through all its sections. This action is known as the “lunar chain”.

Question 49

48 In the description of Achilles' shield, what role does Homer give to the moon?

Accepted Answer

Describing Achilles’ shield ( XVII, 482-486), Homer places the sun in a point where it “does not set”, between the Hyades and the Plèiades, and the Chariot of the Bear and the Pole (among the stars the only one that does not immerse itself in the ocean). The planets remain absent, so all the subsequent calendrical notation systems are centered on the moon and its phases.

Question 50

49 Is it true that in some cases dew is mistakenly attributed to the Moon?

Accepted Answer

True. Although the moon is commonly imagined as the producer and regulator of the movement of liquids on the earth, alchemists think differently and attribute to the moon properties mainly of amplification and reflection of the stars, planets and the sun. In the specific case of dew, alchemists attribute the main cause to the sun through the moon. See Flow and Reflux.

Question 51

50 The Moon can act as a polarizer of sunlight. Is it also in Alchemy?

Accepted Answer

When the moon is in the first and last quarter phases, the sunlight spreads at 90 degrees, in fact, we know that in the blue sky, at 90 degrees, we have an almost completely polarized light. Thus, even the moon in its quarters presents a polarization of its radiation, which depends on the time and the weather conditions.

Question 52

51 Can we extract and/or condense the Spiritus Mundi from the Moon?

Accepted Answer

As we cannot extract and/or condense Spiritus Mundi directly from the Sun, we also cannot extract it directly from the Moon. Nevertheless, in the same way, the lunar beams can strike and affect the surrounding airborne and watery particles and produce chemical reactions, which may improve these matters’ magnetization, allowing the Spiritus Mundi to come out. When medieval alchemists claimed to gather the lunar beams as a liquid, they instead gathered the airborne, aerosol, and water particles with improved magnetization.

Question 53

52 Is it true that the Moon is a supreme “destroyer,” much more so than the Sun?

Accepted Answer

As we will see in First-Preparatory Works, magnetization is a phase of exposure mostly at night during which the raw material should absorb and release as much Spiritus Mundi as possible. Alchemists know that the moon “does its job” much more than the sun, in fact magnetizing exposures are mostly performed at night.

Question 54

53 Is it true that also the moon was a bridge between the Sky and Earth for the alchemists?

Accepted Answer

The moon is commonly known as a powerful solar refraction/diffusion system and a regulator of the earth’s tides and saps. But the alchemists knew that the moon acted in the “name and on behalf” of the stars and planets.

Less known is that the earth has always been sent to the moon a kind of ‘breath of life, ie, a wind of charged particles of oxygen. The earth’s oxygen particles reach the moon when our planet, for five days every twenty-seven days, comes between the Sun and the Moon, shielding the latter from the wind of particles emitted by our star (the solar wind). During this period, the solar wind is deflected, and the particles trapped in most of Earth’s outer regions can reach the moon.

Secondly, it’s a recent discovery that the moon is brighter than the sun in the gamma spectrum, radiation generated by cosmic rays hitting the lunar surface. Gammas are also emitted during nuclear reactions, so much so that – together with neutrons – they are practically their “signature”.

Secondly, the moon may dismember more effectively than the sun. Third, the moon acts on the part of Spiritus Mundi, which is known to behave like a fluid. So the composition of the air is decisive when working the Mercurius.

The laboratory alchemist must admit that they behave similarly without necessarily wanting to compare Spiritus Mundi and the etheric or subtle body surrounding and interpenetrating all bodies. The moon symbolically represents Hekate, the mysterious three-headed goddess ubiquitous in heaven, earth, and the underworld.

In alchemical symbolism, the moon is principally the Mercurius of the wet path due to its whitish and translucent aspect. But all polar aspects of sulfur are also called lunar.

Lastly, the ancients considered the moon a repeater in every sense.

Question 55

54 Is it true that in Alchemy, the Moon is not only an astronomical cosmic repeater but also a repeater of “repetitions”?

Accepted Answer

This is due to the short cycles of its phases. The Druids were known to place the utmost importance on natural “repetition” repeaters.

Question 56

55 Is it true that, for the alchemists, the Moon was also a sonic repeater?

Accepted Answer

In this aspect, the lunar symbol represents Mercurius and, as such, also the sonic force. Alchemists say that the lunar essence can preferably arrive undisturbed on Earth at night.

Question 57

56 Is it true that the earth's humidity influences the behavior of the moon towards the earth?

Accepted Answer

Earth's humidity somehow affects the moon, and modifies its return influences.

Question 58

57 What are atmospheric chemical compounds more likely to undergo reactions when affected by moonlight?

Accepted Answer

Nitrogen compounds, same as for the sunlight. And in addition, all aerosol and watery particles. But moonlight would affect compounds and cause reactions mildly and differently than sunlight.

Question 59

58 What phase of the Moon is the most powerful when reflecting the solar beams?

Accepted Answer

The answer already given in Alchemical Timing & Astronomical Code: 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. In contrast, the Moon, beginning to appear as a crescent, is the strongest.

Question 60

59 What phase of the Moon is the most powerful in influencing the terrestrial waters? As well as the ascent of the Mercurius?

Accepted Answer

The answer is already given in Alchemical Timing & Astronomical Code: When the Moon is closest to the Earth—the onset of the crescent moon.

Question 61

60 When are the Phases of the Moon critical?

Accepted Answer

The answer already given in Alchemical Timing & Astronomical Code: The Phases of the Moon are essential for the operations that should be strictly performed at night. In any case, when it comes to handling and managing Mercurius.

Question 62

61 Is it true that the aspects of the Moon with the solar revolution are also important?

Accepted Answer

True. For instance, the Greek deity Pluto/Hades represents the submerged sun during the winter solstice, and Persephone/another-aspect-of-Demeter is the phase of the moon during this period.

Question 63

62 What about the positions of the so-called “three bodies” or interactions between the three astronomical sun-earth-moon bodies?

Accepted Answer

In Alchemy the lunar phases are actually a cover name to allude to the interactions between the three bodies sun-earth-moon.

Question 64

63 In the case of the three astronomical bodies, which of these is the determinant of the interaction?

Accepted Answer

The astronomical body that at any given moment acts as an interaction between the two. Sometimes the earth, sometimes the moon, sometimes the sun.

Lunar Alchemy

1 Is it true that alchemists used the Sun-Moon pair to indicate in a cryptic way many of the dynamic – and apparently dichotomous – aspects of alchemical works?