Stellar Alchemy, the Signatures Palace

Because in ancient times a King was only a King if he had his palace. It was the palace that gave authority to a King.

No, becoming king meant having the power to “create the world”.

Star signature is the ability of an earthly being or object to absorb stellar influences. This topic has been extensively covered in Alchemy & Light, Known Authors.

In construction…

This is only partly true, as there is hardly any evidence of divisions of stellar influences on the Earth into “quadrants”, but there is evidence of binary north-south divisions. In fact, contrary to popular belief, the ancients had a precise plan for the stellar influences on the earth. A classic example being the precise location of the vents of the Cheops pyramid on the Giza plateau… IN CONSTRUCTION…

The Quintessence possesses a vital principle, and has a nature analogous to the element of which the stars are composed.

“E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle” (Inferno XXXIV, 139), is the last verse of the Inferno of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. If Hell is symbolically seen by alchemists as the first part of the works (see First-Preparatory Works, Introduction), the next stage, Second-Main Work, requires the intervention of the emanation of the Stars.

Alchemists give so much importance to the stars because they consider them capable of modifying the texture of atmospheric air and, through gases, also water and rocks.

A recent discovery is a giant current coming from the cosmos called the circumgalactic medium. Described as a conveyor belt, this immense reservoir of carbon and oxygen atoms carries the material ejected by supernovae out of galaxies and back in, where it is recycled to form stars and planets. Since the Milky Way is still forming stars, some percentage of the carbon and oxygen that surround us has probably undertaken this intergalactic odyssey at least once. It is very likely, then, that the same carbon in our bodies has spent a significant amount of time outside the host galaxy. In their symbolic language, the alchemists had already described their Mercurius’ journey from the cosmic abyssal distances to the earth. Actually, the stellar Mercurius, o Sideribus, is given a consistency much less material than real atoms and closer to the ineffable consistency of photons and electrons, alchemically called “cosmic waters”. See also Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles and Alchemy & Light, Introduction.

A historian of Alchemy would say that Stellar and Astral are not synonymous, while for an alchemist these two terms can instead be synonymous when the stars are understood as “agents of motion” in addition to their astronomical “corporeality”.

The concept of the inner star is basically the idea on which the alchemical light is based, that the inner stars of beings on earth differ from the original star forms only in shape and material and “analogous to the substance of stars”. This topic has been extensively covered in Alchemy & Light, Known Authors.

True. Also called “heaven” or “ether”, for Agrippa this spirit, or “fifth essence”, derived from the work of the four elements, and possessed a vital principle that had a nature analogous to the substance of the stars. See also Alchemy & Light, Known Authors.

Alchemists are not very familiar with the nomenclature of modern physics, but they would be intrigued to know that the highest energy photons, namely gamma rays, come from stars. For the importance of the photon in Alchemy see Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles.

True. But the interesting thing is that alchemists call the stellar rays that enter the karst systems through the sinkholes “lunar”. Perhaps because the moon is traditionally the alchemical stellar repeater on earth.

In construction… : The density differentiation theory of Mercurius leads to a whole range of densities, which the ancient astronomers rendered in their astronomical charts with various types of skies.

“Generative” in Alchemy is “that which gives the initial input”. That said, for the alchemists the stellar generative capacity may have been “personified” in earthly bodies, in places, in atmospheric phenomena, may have been lowered into the earthly recesses by means of the moon, or may finally have been “personified” in the alchemists’ Mercurius.

We have already seen in Alchemy & Light, Known Authors that J.Dee’s studies were oriented towards the construction of seals influenced by stellar radiations. Today we can think that Dee was only at the beginning and at the first step of studies that could prove extremely fruitful for Alchemy. Before making fun, let’s realize that much of the extraordinary theurgy of the ancient Egyptians could be based on this. It certainly remains to be understood what these stellar “radiations” are… and above all what is meant by “seal”. See also What is the Philosophers Stone?

In graphically rendering the art of Alchemy, Heinrich Khunrath in Amphiteatrum Sapientiae Aeternae arranges an extremely (even paroxysmal) elongated set, to indicate an important symbol: the long rays of the stellar calendar. See also Alchemy & Light, Known Authors.

True. In the third and sixth movements of the “philosophical sea” the stars act through the moon. In the sixth one, the major tides of the “philosophical sea” are called solstitial and occur mainly in December-January and, with a descending motion, in June-July. See Flow and Reflux.

Because the ancients did not have the concept of a straight line of radiation, but of a curved line deriving from the wave-like movement of the cosmic ocean. For the ancients everything was flow and rebound. But above all, they did not identify the “astral” light with the daytime sunlight or reflected by the moon at night.

In fact, it might seem that the ancients had an extremely modern idea of stellar influences, so much so that they could compare them to the movement of photons.

At a superficial reading it might seem that Renaissance had come to imagine the cosmos as an enormous architectural construction, while in fact it was a mathematical reconstruction.

Alchemical symbolism is subject to the law of three, whereby a symbol has at least three different meanings and, conversely, each meaning is expressed through at least three different symbols. Given these premises, we should not be surprised if the philosophical sea and the stellar movement were the same thing or at least analogous. In conclusion, we think that the two things are analogous. Where “analogous” could mean “archetype” towards which everything in Alchemy must aim.

True. Alchemists believe that many forces commonly attributed to the moon are actually reflections of stars and planets through the moon. See Lunar Alchemy

True. But when the stellar influences fell directly into the center of the earth it is not correct to say that from there they reach the surface crust, but they are “reflected” towards the surface.

Reflecting the stellar influences on the Earth’s crust are the various bodies along the path. But alchemists say that it is the influences of the cosmos that move these bodies.

Air and water are penetrable and fluid, and stellar influences penetrate them with the speed and force of a flash of lightning appearing and disappearing. See Air Alchemy, the Fabric and Water Alchemy. However, modern physicists today might say that there are actual “currents” of electrons inside crystals and quartz rocks.

The sun can act on behalf of the stars and planets in three cases: when it influences the lunar phases; when very important stars, such as the Pleiades for example, are operating in the sky; when it is in the role of “orchestra conductor”. See Solar Alchemy.

Yes, it is the second part of the sixth movement, when the influences of the Stars fall perpendicularly like plumb lines. See Flow and Reflux.

True. Unlike the movements of the sun, which “rhythmize” the philosophical sea, the stars and planets “modulate” the philosophical sea. Stars and planets represent the “exhalation” of the alchemical breath.

Alchemists have only a vague idea of the theories underlying their work, in fact they judge what they see as they go. Since there must be a theory, Mercurius behaves as if it “emits” or “receives” impulses from the astronomical cosmos, or from a symbolic cosmos beyond our understanding. This idea includes the existence of a “private channel” that alchemists know very vaguely about. An alchemist could only gain true certainty and full awareness if he reached the end of the third work, or last cooking. And then he/she could understand why the Philosophers’ Stone is also called a “little star”. Incidentally, the Philosophers’ Stone is the result of continuous “cookings” of Mercurius.

The north-south axis has a two-way south-north traffic. In fact, it seems like there is a constant coming and going.

The north-south axis is typically solstitial and is attributed to the stars that can, through the moon, take advantage of the temporary “fall” of the sun. In the periods of the solstices, in fact, the influences of the stars are extremely powerful and they can be said to be the true sun of the earth. Obviously these phenomena occur at night with the help of the moon. See Flow and Reflux.

A statement that seems to contradict events that we today commonly define as solar events.

True, to the point of thinking that the true cardinal axes on earth belong to the stars. In Alchemy, when we talk about cardinal solstitial axes, we talk about stars.

True, to the point that they can even make objects and living things on earth “sound”.

The attribute “rotating” was often applied by ancient scholars to define cosmic light, for example the stars were defined as rotating masses of air and fire. A definition that today may seem like a primitive attempt to understand the astronomical world – among other things, it is truly remarkable that the ancients understood that the stars rotated on their axis like the planets. But it is precisely this aspect that deceives modern scholars: they do not understand that “rotating” had for the ancients a different meaning from the astronomical rotation around its own axis. The ancient meaning of rotation is very controversial today: Plato talks about it in the myth of Er about the “spindles” that should collect and repeat the “upper light” on the earth through the “axis of the sky”. So it is clear that more than a proper motion of the star in question the ancients referred to the “field” of the closest star to the “northern field”, including what separated it from the earth. Among other things, for the ancients the cosmic void did not exist. See also Alchemy & Light, Known Authors and Air Alchemy.

From an alchemical point of view, the influence of the stars meets the obstacle of the sun. For this reason their influence seem to be carried into the Earth’s atmosphere by the moon.

True. For alchemists, in any case, Mercurius is “child of the stars”.

Calling the Philosophers’ Stone also the “celestial repeater” can certainly give us some more clues to understand the true role of Mercurius in general. However we can only grasp that Mercurius is such because it is always “traveling” by “doubling itself”. In this sense, yes, the Mercurius can be defined as the true repeater. However, it is not only for this reason that both Mercurius and the Philosophers’ Stone are considered “celestial repeaters”.

Many alchemists speak of the week of weeks to indicate those eight days in the second half of May where the Last Cooking supposedly takes place and which may seem peripheral to the solstices and equinoxes. On a stellar level, Orion appears so dominant in the sky that it manages to “silence” the Sun.

Stars belonging to ancient agricultural calendars, such as the Pleiades, Orion, Sirius, Arcturus, can dominate the sky even if in invisible aspects and in events that can traditionally be considered “solar” such as the equinoxes.

“Agricultural” stars can influence the consistency of the air, making it thinner or thicker, and this in a more decisive way than the sun can.

Because solstices and equinoxes were the only “graspable things” of the study of stars.

One night in the second half of May, the star Orion manages to “silence” the sun, influencing the atmospheric air to the point of inducing the trees to “sing”.

January 17th is a date present in many esoteric legends. Apparently a little distant from the solstitial “solstitial channel”, the night sky on that date appears dominated by the giant figure of Orion, the star Sirius and the asterism of the Winter Triangle.

It is not clear whether by polar star the ancients really meant α Ursae Minoris, since due to precession in the course of the earth’s history there have been several stars that have boasted the title of polar star, from Vega to Thuban via γ Cephei. Anyway, alchemists speak of a path on the north-south axis, a sort of correspondence from the earth to the astronomical sky. The same axis that many mythological tales make correspond to the path of life and death. Of course, the Mercurius is not an actual compass and does not orient itself towards a specific point on the northern cap of our planet, but, also in this case, it appears to act like a repeater/amplifier. Since we are not strictly dealing with electromagnetic frequencies, we just have to imagine a kind of “magic path” between sky and earth.

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. The role of the moon is highly exalted. See Lunar Alchemy.

Plato means some phenomenon that includes stars, especially northern stars (in the Northern Hemisphere), or other stars in the night sky. See also Alchemy & Light.

From Alchemy & Light, Known Authors, we have seen that the stellar rays, or stellar influences, are the bearers of everything, movement, form and matter. From an alchemical point of view, the stars influence Mercurius above all.

From a strictly laboratory point of view, an alchemist would not hesitate to answer that the Mercurius is the magnet par excellence of stellar influences, for the simple reason that in the humid path the Mercurius luminosity and candor make it explicitly “son of the stars”. More difficult to understand how the Mercurius that emerged from the metallurgical paths, which are very little visible on a visual level (while they are on a sonorous level), is also “son of the stars”.

Alchemists call Mercury the “star magnet” because their “starlight” Mercurius, in turn, attracts the rays of the stars towards itself.

A modern physicist knows that the cosmos is emitting a vast range of cosmic particles towards the the earth’s crust. Some of which are harmful to biological life, some indispensable such as photons, others only carriers of the “cosmos history” such as neutrinos (see also Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles).

That’s true, Mercurius was compared to the rod with which dowsers searched for water. And the comparison seems explanatory.

In fact, it is no coincidence that Hephaestus and Hestia/Vesta were among other characteristics also deities known as holders of the power of fire. They were considered true and proper “repeaters” of the celestial fire. If Vesta was the guardian of the water-fire mechanism, Hephaestus was considered the divine blacksmith initiator of many alchemical brotherhoods.

The ancient alchemists while imagining a continuous and non-empty cosmos, thought of a “density scale” of Mercurius.

For the alchemists nothing travels but everything doubles (or rather transmutes. See also Doubles, Resonances, Unions, Seeds, Embryos, Births, and Processions). the interesting thing is that the density stairway was formed by mirrored “blocks”: A Mercurius becomes Sulfur which becomes Body or Salt which then becomes Mercurius and so on. Everything of increasing density as a step approaches the earth.

True, we can assume with acceptable approximation that the alchemists did not make divisions between the material world and the spiritual world, since for them it was above all a matter of density.

Some alchemists define the “journey of the Mercurius from the stars to the earth” as a long series of Alchemical operations, although performed by “nature”. Thus the alchemists had an ineffable Mercurius which progressively became Sulfur, Salt or Body, then a Mercurius only slightly less ineffable than the first which again transformed into a Sulfur and so on up to the earth’s surface where the alchemists worked with their crude tools.

The Mercurius Sideribus is said to love the depths, cavities and openings especially under the earth’s crust; it loves to join the raw materials in putrefaction; it also loves join the Mercurius already obtained and consequently with the so-called Alkahest.

However, if the Mercurius of the humid path can easily be linked to the whiteness and brightness of the stars, the Mercurius of the metallurgical paths is instead of a less direct stellar analogy, expressing itself rather with noises and creaks. This aspect generates confusion about the “composition” of Mercurius Sideribus – given that it should be valid for all alchemical paths. Many alchemists have emerged from this impasse by admitting that Mercurius “affects” the atmospheric air around.

The concept of collecting Mercury from the stars deep within the Earth’s crust was analogous to the theurgists’ idea that the various parts of the soul can gather downwards at certain times of the day.

The Mercurius Sideribus, or Stellar Mercurius, is said to love the depths, cavities and openings especially under the earth’s crust. Additionally, it loves to join the raw materials in putrefaction and, in a supreme way, with the Mercurius already obtained and consequently with the so-called Alkahest.

However, if the Mercurius of the humid path can easily be linked to the whiteness and brightness of the stars, the Mercurius of the metallurgical paths is instead of a less direct stellar analogy, expressing itself rather with noises and creaks. This aspect generates confusion about the “composition” of Mercurius Sideribus – given that it should be valid for all alchemical paths. Many alchemists have emerged from this impasse by admitting that Mercurius “affects” the atmospheric air around.

During the day, the star Mercurius hovers in the upper layers of the atmosphere and does not come close to the Earth’s crust because of the sun’s disturbance and turmoil. However, at night, thanks to the help of the moon, it can descend much lower. The Mercurius Sideribus is conveyed by the alchemical “tool” par excellence, that is, the moon. In fact, it is thought that only during the night and carried by our satellite can Mercurius reach the earth’s crust from the stars.

The hour of the night when the solar influence is weakest is the hour before dawn or blue hour or aurora.

The stellar Mercurius does not descend only into caves but into every crevice of the earth’s crust. It even wedges itself into the cracks of doors or tombstones or jars.

If we assume that the Mercurius of the stars always clings to something it finds in the surrounding environment during its journey, we can imagine that it immediately clings to material supports such as the air of a cave, rather than “penetrating” the rocks. The air thus loaded with mercurial element would then pass it on to the water present in the karst environment.

Alchemists have only a vague idea of what Mercurius might be. If modern alchemists identify it with the electron, they can imagine that it “ionizes” the atmospheric air; if they identify it with sound, they can imagine that it “strikes” the air.

The raw material the alchemists chose as the container of the Mercurius of the stars par excellence was air, not strictly the element air, but the common air. Which then, in turn, passes the “task” to the common water.

The descent of the Mercury of stars seems to follow the parameters of fluid dynamics to such an extent that it is often confused with an ineffable dew.

Gravity is an alchemical tool that is always present in the works. Gravity and anti-gravity of the lifting inside the vessels of the wet way are said to be able to unhinge the raw material so as to let the terrestrial Mercurius come out. In the metallurgical way there are only violent separations of metallic elements, therefore gravity and pressure are not evident and perhaps not even that crucial. Therefore gravity and pressure are indispensable when they contribute to the “opening” or molecular breakage.

In the ravines of the earth, gravity and pressure are instead crucial elements. In this case, the Stellar Mercurius seems linked to the movements of its containers par excellence, that is, air and water.

The time of year when it is most common to find stellar Mercurius in caves is the winter solstice. In fact, in this period the composition of gases inside karst systems is different, as well as the low radioactivity that can be measured in the same places.

As long as the ancient Alchemists imagined the ether as a “network” composed of the material of the surrounding environment, everything flowed logically. But when, in the Baroque age, they began to think of the ether as a “substance or element” per se, they got into a dead end.

It should be noted that the volatile and delicate Mercurius produced by alchemists usually comes from “fiery” works such as distillations in stills or even worse from metal separations with crucibles. So we must not think as chemists but as physicists: the substance obtained in alchemical works is not the Mercurius itself but its container. The true Mercurius “agent and subsistent” is a physical principle hidden within the matter obtained. If alchemists reasoned on the basis of electrons and electronic clouds, Mercurius’s strange situation would not appear so strange. Finally, let us keep in mind that Mercurius is nothing other than Spiritus Mundi in a more manageable format.

True. Alchemists often consider the recesses of the Earth’s crust a stellar place more suited to the nature of terrestrial workings.

Certainly, Mercurius Sideribus of cloudless nights is an indispensable factor of exposure in preparatory works.

Greek mythology tells us about the phenomenon, known as the forest of Apollo, which occurs in conjunction with a strong presence of the star Orion in a particular week in May in which the trees were “shaken” by the oscillations of the air and were consequently said to “sing”. The musical tones would be reversed compared to what happens in the earth’s atmosphere: on earth the smaller the source of the sound the higher the tone, in the cosmos (beyond the moon) the wider the orbit (for example the planet Saturn) the higher the tone, until the octaves are increased in the moon which has the lowest sounds.

Only in part, because the concept of music as it is traditionally understood does not work in Alchemy, which is instead the art of “movements”. It might seem the same thing, but it is profoundly different.

The physics of sound transmission, i.e. the oscillation of gas, liquid and solid particles, can certainly be so sensitive that it reaches the atmosphere, the earth’s crust and beyond. Obviously, not to the awareness of our ears.

It is difficult to find an alchemist who does not affirm that the higher octave is, in fact, of stellar derivation. I, for my part, believe that the stars are a little too far away to respond promptly. But I’m not a physicist, and the “far away” could instead be next to us. See also Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles . Concerning the higher octave during the final phase of the Last Cooking, see Alchemy Resounds.

The geographical arrangements, or “paths”, following stellar parameters is a legend very present in Alchemy: lying along a particular line or in its intersections is a factor that has always been taken into account in alchemical works. However, many of what the ancients called stars were in reality star clusters or stars that appeared as if they belonged to the same point but in reality much further away or much closer. Anyway, the alignments do not count as lines but as aligned points, in the sense that they appear to interfere with each other.

It can certainly be said that stellar alignments with things, people or places on earth are actually in the past with respect to when we could have considered them “alignment material”, nevertheless, they are still considered in a given terrestrial alignment. This statement would however lead us to also consider things, people or places on earth that have existed only in the past as still valid earthly “scorecards”. In fact, this assumption has always been considered valid, see the cult of ancestors for example.

The aligned points appear to interfere with each other through precise numbers, such as three or four.

Yes, we can say that Gematria, that is, the ancient system of prediction based on highlights on the ground, was taken into account by alchemists.

The only clear revelation in this regard is that the earth had to equally be present in the alignments and formations.

Archaeologists have long investigated whether a unique arrangement practice existed, but it was discovered that orientations varied greatly even within the same cultures. It was therefore assumed that the ancient builders had the intention of “repeating” the moments of “birth” of the buildings, as if they were in fact mysterious cycles.

The study of cosmic cycles is a grand “mathematical” subject that should be treated separately from the physics part of Alchemy. It exists, but in my opinion, the scholars of this field have gone too far into modern astronomy. This discipline, however, had an enormous importance in ancient times, just think that all the cities of the past had a star as an archetype. It is therefore useless, if not harmful, to make calculations of large stellar and planetary cycles just for the sake of calculation and to obtain figures (such as the famous 666) that remain only in the realm of symbolism. Mere symbolism has only an effect on our psyche, but not on the forces of nature. Alchemists do not consider mere symbolic figures, but the interactions between cosmic and terrestrial objects.

Classical alchemical authors have always mixed very ambiguously (and often in the same chapter) planets understood as phases of alchemical works (to name one, Saturn for the black phases), planets of the solar ecliptic (which represents the path of the astronomical sun in the sky and therefore indicates months and seasons in which to practice the works), and the direct influence of the actual planets orbiting the sun (that, like the moon, could have a direct influence on the works).

Sure, we can read it that way. After all, the North Star is traditionally considered the pillar of the universe.

Sure, but also back and forth, and by routes other than this “divine” axis: no one really leaves to the North and no one really returns to the South. It is more traditional to exit to the West and return to the East. The various books of the dead of various traditions are very comprehensive on the various rotational directions.

Indeed, it seems that the important moments of alchemical work are essentially moments of solar weakness: whether they are performed at night, or when the sun is far from the earth, or when some stars forcefully burst into the night sky (for example Orion).

No, I believe both aspects must be present in the sky.