Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

Alchemy accepted the division of all matter into

four Elements—Earth, Water, Air, and Fire (what mod-

ern scientists call the four states of matter—solid, liq-

uid, gas, and plasma). To this, they added four natural

“qualities”—dry, wet, hot, cold—any two of which

defined that Element. If these qualities are changed,

then the Element itself can be changed. Water is cold

and wet. Make it hot and wet, and it becomes Air (va-

por). Fire is hot and dry. When it loses its heat and

dies, it becomes Earth (ashes)—cold and dry.

Alchemists believed that everything that exists

was formed from one original substance called “first

matter.” By eliminating its non-essential qualities

(color, size, weight, shape) they believed that they

could reduce any substance to that fundamental first

matter, and then rebuild it into something else by add-

ing the desired attributes.

Alchemy taught that everything in Nature was

alive and contained a Divine spark or vital force (called

pneuma—“breath”) within it. The soul of all Nature

was called Anima Mundi (“Spirit of the Earth”). The

pneuma was the same as the soul of any living crea-

ture. If a piece of wood was burned, for example, the

ash was considered the corpse (or nigredo), and the

smoke was the “soul” being released to Heaven.

Metals were also “alive” with a desire to evolve to

their highest state. Alchemists saw the planetary corre-

spondences as a chain of evolution, leading from lead

(Saturn) up through tin (Jupiter), iron (Mars), copper

(Venus), quicksilver (Mercury), to silver (Moon) and

finally, gold (Sun). In their laboratories, they tried to

help base metals “ripen” from one stage to the next

until they reached the highest, purest stage of gold.

The three primary substances of alchemy were

sulfur, mercury, and salt—called the Tria Prima, or

Three Principles. These represented Soul, Spirit, and

Body. The various physical and metaphysical pro-

cesses of alchemy focused on identifying and purify-

ing these substances, in both senses. The key sol-

vent used in the purification of the Tria Prima was

dew, considered to be the precipitation of the Cosmic

Fire and the distilled essence of Heaven above and

Earth below.

The esoteric (secret) purpose of alchemy was mys-

tical and concerned the spiritual regeneration and evo-

lution of man—the refinement and perfection of the hu-

man spirit and achieving union with the Divine. There-

fore, all the actual laboratory processes were also sym-

bolic of the processes the alchemist himself underwent

in his own personal inner work. So the alchemist would

strive to strip and reduce himself to “first matter,” and

then restore and evolve his soul upwards through vari-

ous stages of refinement to become purest gold.

From Alchemy to Chemistry

A favorite maxim of alchemy was Solve et coagula

(“dissolve and coagulate”). In other words, break it

down and then build it up. The esoteric significance

of that phrase implied “dissolve the body and coagu-

late the spirit.” Most of the processes of alchemy in-

volved treating various substances in every conceiv-

able manner: dissolving, mixing, distilling, burning,

melting, filtering, refining, condensing, and precipitat-

ing. Through centuries of such experiments, Alche-

mists made a number of important discoveries that

Alchemical Tree of Life (from Gloria Mundi) advanced the science of chemistry. Here are a few:

Correspondences of human body to signs of the Zodiac

(Martyrologium der Heiligen nach dem Kalender, 1484)

Course Five: Spectrum, Part 1 245

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