The Foundations of Alchemical Symbolism, Unions, Embryos, and Births

Before a child, there must be a birth, and before that, there must be a couple, at least at the time the alchemical lexicon was written.

Luckily yes. In the alchemical lexicon, births are a symbol of transmutation, unions are a symbol of different aspects.

True. Marriage, or union, was a metaphor for the doubling of materials that after a separation had changed a lot. Only after a union, however strange, could a “child” be “born”, that is, a third material so different from the “parents” (often even more than two) that it could be considered a true transmutation. See Second-Main Work.

The ancients believed that the biological father deposited an invisible miniature individual in the woman’s womb. Thus, alchemically, the father represents an element that, although indispensable for the offspring, is invisible and destined to always have to be “amplified”. This practice was the considered as the release of the alchemical “seed”, which, at least in theory, should be an infinitesimal double of something. The father could be that “spark” that is unique and immortal in every individual. See also Palingenesis, Seeds in the Wind, Solar Alchemy and Fire Alchemy.

The ancients thought that the mother was the breeding ground where the father’s seed could be planted. The mother should be able to “develop” the paternal spark into a real ray, and in fact, the moon is responsible for this task. See also Lunar Alchemy and Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles.

Indeed, the alchemical father and mother seem incapable of bringing the “offspring” to maturity without the indispensable assistance of wind and earth. It is easy to think of earth as the embodiment and wind as the movement of air. See also Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles, Air Alchemy, the Fabric and Earth Alchemy.

The strange concept that a life is strengthened and amplified by its killing is truly disconcerting for us moderns, who are instead culturally inclined to its preservation and prolongation at all costs. Even the idea that a “signal” that is too weak can be amplified by being turned off and on again seems bizarre from an electromagnetic point of view – if the comparison is even apt. During alchemical works, metals are “killed” to be “amplified”. See also Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles, Palingenesis, Seeds in the Wind, Solar Alchemy, Lunar Alchemy and Fire Alchemy.

If, in the light of what has been said so far, it is easy to understand what an alchemical union could be, the same cannot be said for the concept of “birth”. Yet in alchemical treatises this latter concept is fundamental and means the result of a transmutation from which there is no turning back. The child is always different from the parents and unpredictable.

If the child represents a transmutation that is now irreversible, the embryo is the result of alchemical insemination. But an alchemist is not a physician, and will describe the “carrier” of life appearance and consistency in many different ways depending on the path chosen. Anyway, if it is an “embryo of light” we are talking about the Mercurius that comes out of the darkness, if instead we are talking about a “new body” here too the appearance is different depending on the methods undertaken. The embryo represents the alchemical border between the Second-Main Work and the Third Work.

Like a fruit that must generate another fruit, this one has a seed. Therefore, the ultimate matter of minerals is transformed into materia prima. The ultimate matter of nature is materia prima for humans.

We can better understand this concept if we imagine the seed that comes out of the Ultima Materia as something ineffable and flowing that will give life to the raw matter. Many alchemists have identified this water as an actually liquid material, such as the famous Guhr. Today, that we know the wave-particle properties of the electron, we can imagine a different “sea”.

True. Alchemical unions were often complex. See Second-Main Work.

It is said that Alchemy just eats, but that’s the first step. “Eating” and “swallowing” belong to the transmutative category. Greek mythology starts the creation of the world from the moment Zeus decided to swallow Phanes. He was no longer Zeus, he was no longer Phanes, he was another creation. Alchemists would say that they both took on the attributes of the other in a new substance. Ultimately, “nourishment” was a kind of banquet with the deities, in which the cosmos was obliged to participate, and from which chaos could not escape. Alchemical symbolism also describes the transmuting – because dissolving – power of Mercurius with the symbol of “swallowing”.

Greek mythology tells us that when a deity wanted to assume the “power” of someone or something, he swallowed it. Even alchemical symbolism describes the transmuting (because it dissolves) power of Mercurius with the symbol of “swallowing”. To explore the topic see also Alchemy and Modern Physics Particles.

Ultimately, “nourishment” was a kind of banquet with the deities, in which the cosmos was obliged to participate, and from which chaos could not escape.

Strange as it may seem, the ancient concept of “amplification” also had to do with the idea of sacrifice. Simply because “sacrifice” implied a “banquet” with the divinity, that is, a “common meal, or transmutation” in which both the divinity and the officiant could not avoid participating.