#alchemy

P V T R E F A C T I O

Blacker than the blackest black.

Carl Jung: Psicología y Alquimia(Psychologie und Alchimie), 1944.

Circe Invidiosa by John William Waterhouse 

We’ve recently added a new “Alchemy” section to our Etsy shop. Here you can find various alchemy themed charts and jewelry, with more to come in the future.

mythicarticulations.etsy.com

♉Taurus

Taurus begins on the 19th of April, and ends on the 20th of May. This sign belongs to the cerebellum and neck, which controls the lymphatic system of the body; that is, the waters or fluids of life.

Such persons generate life forces very rapidly, and are very determined in whatever they undertake; they are characterized by the common phraseology of “stiff-necked”; they are very unyielding, and are natural conquerors. As a rule, they will have their own way and accomplish their own desires at all hazards. They are great lovers of literary pursuits, and inclined to be studious, but imitators rather than originators of thought. They adapt themselves readily to the customs of society, and are apt to become leaders through their adaptation to the demands of the people, and their great ability to commit to memory from books and authorities, and their powers of mental and physical endurance. They are governed by their sensations, and are influenced in their decisions by their feelings, appetites, and passions. They have fine intuitions in all that pertains to business. They are very sensitive to psychic influences, which makes them apparently more stubborn than they otherwise would be, because they realize intuitively that they are very easily led through their sympathies. Young people born in this sign are apt to be misled by their associates. They are very zealous and sanguine in every cause they espouse, and therefore are liable to extremes. Frequently they are very zealous church members and preachers; they are zealous friends or enemies, but easily turned aside or mollified in this respect. They have a very strong brain, and are apt to be hard students and make superior educational attainments. They feel the minds of others, and it is very difficult for them to distinguish the difference between their own mind and the mind of those associated with them. Because of this, persons born in the sign of Taurus should make all their decisions when entirely alone, and never decide any important business matter while in the midst of business excitement; for if they do, they are more apt to make the decisions from the influence of those around them than from their own mind. The early morning, when they first awake, is the best time for such persons to make their decisions and lay their plans for the day. Children of this date of birth are largely dependent on their education for their future position in life. They have strong appetites, and are apt to be inclined to epicurean habits. Their passions and sex nature are strong, and they are in danger of excesses in that direction. Women born in this sign are in great danger of being misled by their feelings and passions. When a person has gained their sympathies, they have gained control over them to a very great extent. Both sexes have a great deal of jealousy in their nature: they are somewhat in danger of great extremes. Yet, when they are well instructed in the right way, they are very tenacious to carry it out, and cannot be controlled against their will.

These persons are liable to dropsy, from two causes. First, from getting an over-amount of vitality through eating too much, and having what they eat too rich, and getting too fat; second, through strong appetites and over-indulgence of the sex passion. Remove the cause, and the cure is accomplished. They are, as a rule, best adapted to city life.

This nature comes from the parents being very potent in the sex life, and quite satisfied with each other and their surroundings; but this frequently is wholly on the part of the father.

[Source: Solar Biology, by Hiram E. Butler, (1887)]

♎Libra

This nature is born between the 23d of September and the 23d of October. It belongs to that part of the body called the reins, and is the head of the trinity of the reproductives; therefore it is a conservatory of the reproductive fluid, and as designated in the ancient mythology, represent the serpent, or psychic principle.

The leading characteristics of all persons born between these dates is centred in their foresight. They are very positive and decisive in everything they do; they are not prone to reason except from the standpoint of intuition and observation. It is advisable that they carry out their first decisions in all matters they undertake, unless they are acting for, or under the control of, another. They are very susceptible to the psychological influence of other minds, who act mainly upon their principle of intelligence: they thus take on the mental conditions and nature of others, and feel and act like them. Many of this class are found among the spiritualists, because of their great susceptibility to the psychic control, and their natural spiritual intuitions. As children they need a positive control by the parents; and in early life they should have a special drill in every department of their nature. There are three different types born within this period: the first has large perceptives and a receding forehead, and usually large organs of conscientiousness (according to phrenology); such persons are best adapted for speculators. If they will cultivate a moral habit of life, they need never be short of money; they should speculate in horses and cattle, or in any articles that can be bought and sold again quickly, and where there is not much stock kept on hand. These persons are guided very perfectly by their intuitions; for instance, in trading horses, if there is anything wrong in the horse, no matter what it may be, nor how obscure, they can point it out instantly. So long as they follow their own intuitions, they will rarely be deceived or cheated. They love excitement, which seems to be their natural sphere. These persons are apt, however, to be led into gambling instead of speculation, where they soon weaken their powers, and die a premature death, through drink, bad company, etc. This class is most liable to Bright’s disease. They are not susceptible to reason; they act on the spur of the moment, and from their intuitive perceptions.

In the second class the forehead is comparatively straight and narrow. These persons are best adapted for mercantile pursuits, buying and selling goods; they have a keen intuition as to what they can and cannot dispose of successfully. Are apt to choose, in marriage, persons who are born in Pisces, whose nature is reason, and hence there is sure to be inharmony, from misunderstanding of each other’s motives, from the fact that Pisces always wants a reason, and is capable of giving one. Libra can never give a reason for anything; they know they are right from intuition, but they cannot tell how they know; and nothing excites or annoys them more than to require of them a reason for their decisions and actions. They are frequently quick and high-tempered, which greatly depletes and impairs their health.

In the third class the forehead is round, and broader through the temples. These persons are well fitted for book-keepers, and possess great intuitional aptitude for the languages. They are enthusiastic lovers of scientific knowledge, always ready to take hold of and examine any new thing. Are great students of books, and love to collect works relating to scientific and mystical subjects. They have the finest natural mechanical abilities of any of the twelve signs. They are best adapted to the higher branches of mathematics. Frequently they are found as public speakers and writers. Many of them are also good actors.

All persons belonging to Libra have great imitativeness; they are originators and inventors in mechanical matters, but imitators in other departments of life. They are naturally inclined to be religious, but have many sceptical and materialistic tendencies to overcome. They are affectionate and demonstrative in their love, active, industrious, and social, but dangers from licentiousness always lie around them. It is seldom that any great height is attained by those of this sign, except in the educational sphere. Being students rather than originators, they frequently spend a lifetime in study and research for knowledge, examining every new thing that comes up, carefully studying and weighing it in the balance of their intuitions; and if they can adapt it to the fine interior nature which they possess, they are apt to accept it verbatim et literatim.

They have very fine sensibilities, and are just and honest in their dealings. They have in their innermost selves a fine ideal world of love, order, harmony, and equity; and as they do not find this in the outer world, they are inclined to frequent periods of melancholy. They seldom like to push their way out into the combat of life, but rather seek a sphere of quiet, where they can act from their soul or intuitional nature. They are frequently writers and professional men, and their great imitativeness gives them fine mechanical, and sometimes artistic abilities.

Their liability to disease is through their excessive activity in all the departments of life, and especially through an excessive use of the perceptive faculties. They are apt to exhaust the vital forces from the reins, and therefore bring on pains across the small of the

back, and kidney difficulties. When the pain begins to be felt across the small of the back, the sex nature should be restrained, and quiet and rest secured, with plenty of wholesome food as their fitting medicine.

The parental conditions which produce a child in this sign are a strong, devoted love on the part of the positive parent, but frequently the opposite, or aversion and deception on the part of the negative one; so that persons thus born are like grand souls that have been confined in darkness, and who are searching with the spiritual eyes for light, and therefore the frequent seasons of melancholy.

[Source: Solar Biology, by Hiram E. Butler, (1887)]

IRON

Energy: Projective
Planet: Mars
Element: Fire
Deity: Selene
Associated Stones: Quartz Crystal, Holey Stones
Associated Metals: Lodestone, Meteorite
Powers: Protection, Defensive Magic, Strength, Healing, Grounding, Return of Stolen Goods

Magical/Ritual Lore:

Because iron is seldom found in pure form except in meteorites, the earliest iron available for use by humans was obtained from these strange celestial objects. Meteorites, which were observed falling from the heavens, were used to make simple tools, supplementing bone and stone implements by earlier humans.

Throughout most of the world, humans eventually learned how to remove iron from its ore, which made it available for wider use.

Once this occurred, it was soon limited to purely physical applications and was restricted in magic and religion. In ancient Greece, for example, no iron was brought into the temples. Roman priests could not be shaved or scraped with iron during bodily cleansing.

Ireland, Scotland, Finland, China, Korea, India, and other countries have severe taboos against iron. Again and again in ancient rituals fire was made without iron, altars built without its use, and magical rituals performed only after divesting the body of all traces of the metal.

Herbs were usually collected with non-iron knives, owing to the belief that the vibrations of this metal would “jam” or “confuse” the herb’s energies.

The Hindus once believed that the use of iron in buildings would spread epidemics, and, even to this day, a gift of iron in any form is thought by some to be unlucky.

However, iron did have its place in magic. Specifically, it was worn or used in protective rituals. Its powerful, projective vibrations were thought to be feared by demons, ghosts, fairies, genii and other fantastic creatures.

In China, dragons were thought to fear iron. When rain was needed, pieces of the metal were thrown into “dragon pools” to upset the creatures and send them into the sky in the form of rain clouds.

In old Scotland, iron was used to avert danger when a death had occurred in the house. Iron nails or knitting needles were thrust into every item of food-cheese, grain, meat and so on-to act as a lightning rod, attracting the confusing vibrations that death may arouse

within the living and thus sparing the food of possible contamination.

Classical Romans drove nails into their house walls to preserve their health, especially during times of plague.

Because of its protective effects iron was sometimes thought, conversely, to be sacred, and thieves in ancient Ireland wouldn’t dare to steal it.

Magical Uses:

Iron-pure projective power, active, seeking, blinding, confusing, guarding.

For heavy protection, place small pieces of iron in each room of the house or bury at the four comers of your property. In earlier times, iron fences were sometimes used to halt the flow of negativity into the home.

During protective or defensive magic, wear an iron ring engraved with the symbol of Mars. Or, obtain a three-inch thick white candle and eight old iron nails. Warm the nails by a fire (or in a red candle's flame), then thrust each into the white candle in a random pattern. Light the nail-studded candle and visualize yourself as guarded, protected, secure.

Wearing iron or carrying a small piece of this metal enhances physical strength and is an excellent talisman for athletes.

Iron is also used during healing rituals. A small piece is placed beneath the pillow at night. This was originally done to scare away the "demons" that had caused the disease but can be thought of as strengthening the body’s ability to heal itself.

Iron rings or bracelets are worn to draw out illnesses from the body. This dates back to at least ancient Roman times.

A curious ritual from Germany to cure toothache: Pour oil onto a piece of heated iron. The fumes which rise from the iron will act on the problem.

In old Scotland, healing stones-quartz crystals or holey stones were kept in iron boxes to guard against supernatural creatures who might steal them.

Iron is also worn for grounding, for closing down the psychic centers, and for impeding the flow of energy from the body. This, of course, isn’t the best during magical ritual but is fine when the subject is under psychic or emotional attack, is physically depleted or wishes to focus on physical matters.

Iron horseshoes and the nails that attach them to the hooves are ancient magical tools. They might have first been used in ancient Greece, where they were called seluna and were associated with the Moon and the goddess Selene.

A horseshoe hung in the home over the front door confers protection.

While theories differ as to the “proper” way to hang the horseshoe, I always place it points up. Ideally, it is to be nailed with three of its original nails.

An old iron horseshoe nail is sometimes bent into a ring (if you can find one long enough) and worn for luck and healing.

If you have had something stolen from you and have a fireplace handy, try this spell. Take a horseshoe nail that you’ve found by chance. Drive this into the fireplace, visualizing the stolen object returning to your home. It is done.

There are still magicians and Wiccans who remove all traces of iron from their bodies before working magic, but this custom is fading into oblivion.

Saturnalia

The sinister aspect of Saturn; the winter solstice; the death of the old year and birth of the new, dies natalis solis invicti, the birthday of the unconquerable sun; the passage from chaos to cosmos; the suspension of time.

The dead return during the twelve nights of the duration of Saturnalia.

It is also the time of the sacrifice of the old king, or his scapegoat, as waning fertility, and instigating the enthronement of the new king as virility.

The twelve days of chaos symbolize the patter of the coming months of the year.

The period of chaos is governed by the Lord of Misrule, or the King of the Bean and the Queen of the Pea.

Transvestism is a feature of the time of chaos in Saturnalia, orgies carnivals, etc. and signifies a form of return to chaos.

Babylon held the twelve days of duel between Chaos and Cosmos; in Christianity these are the Twelve Days of Christmas.

Satyr

Male spirits of profane nature; followers of the nature gods Silvanus, Faunus, Pan, Dionysus/Bacchus.

They represent untamed nature, licence and lust, and have human heads with horns and goat beard, human hands and arms, but goats’ bodies from the waist downwards.

They may wear the crowns of ivy of Dionysus and can carry his thyros; other attributes are bunches of grapes, baskets of fruit, pitchers of wine, the cornucopia and the snake; their female counterparts in the Bacchanalia were the Maenads.

Hyssop

Purging; purification; an apotropiac. In Christianity, it signifies penitence; humility; its purgative properties depict innocence regained, hence baptism.

“Occult literature and teachers of the Lesser Mysteries often terrify the audiences with the horrors of the abyss, the void.

They talk of extinction and nonexistence.

And it is true that the abyss terrifies those who are still attached to individuality.

That is why it is the true function of the Mysteries is to prepare the mind for the plunge into the Divine Depths.”

Sphinx

The mysterious; the enigmatic; power; Ra, god of the rising sun; wisdom; royal dignity; vigilance; strength.

With the head of a man, or woman, body of a bull, feet of a lion and wings of an eagle, it represents the four elements and combination of physical and intellectual power, the natural and the spiritual power incarnate in the Pharaoh.

The androsphinx is human-headed and represents the union of intellectual and physical powers; the criosphinx has a ram’s head and depicts silence; the hieracosphinx is falcon-headed and is solar; an all-lion-bodied sphinx, without wings, signifies power.

The Theban sphinx is funerary, a protector of graves and denotes wanton destruction and is an enemy of mankind.

The Greek sphinx is female-headed; the Minoan sphinx wears the ‘lily crown’.

The human-headed sphinx is also suggested as human spirit overcoming animal instincts.

[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]

Night

Like darkness, the night signifies the pre-cosmogenic, pre-natal darkness preceding rebirth or initiation and illumination, but it is also chaos; death; madness; disintegration; reversion to the foetal state of the world.

Night is also, according to Hesiod, the ‘Mother of the Gods’, the enveloping, maternal aspect of the feminine power, usually symbolized by a female figure with a star-spangled veil, holding a child, one black (death) and one white (sleep), on either arm; or by the crescent moon, or poppies, or the owl, or black wings.

As all-devouring time, day and night can be depicted as a white and a black rat.

Going by night symbolism esotericism.

[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]

METEORITE

Folk Names: Aerolith, Aerolite
Energy: Projective
Planet: none, meteorites are associated with the Universe
Elements: Akasha, Fire
Deity: The Great Mother
Associated Stones: Peridot, Diamond
Powers: Protection, Astral Projection

Magical/Ritual Lore:

Meteorites have long been held in fascination by humans. They have been thought to be gifts from the gods and goddesses. Certain meteorites, such as the Kaaba stone in Mecca and a stone thought to represent the Great Mother Goddess of Phrygia, have been worshipped as symbols of divinity.

A four-ton stone has been revered in China as a holy object since the 1200’s. The stone, shaped like a crouching ox, resides in a Bhuddist shrine. Recently, however, a team of Chinese geologists studied

the stone and determined it to be a meteorite that landed about 1,300 years ago. The stone is no longer worshiped. In Babylon the meteorite was a powerful magical protectant. It was thought to remove all evils due to its strange appearance and the "roar of its awful might.“

Peridot is often found in meteorites. I held a small cut meteorite recently and studied the green peridot crystals that were packed inside it. The stone was worth about $3,000, so it didn’t go home with me. Recently, tiny diamonds were found inside meteorites that fell in Mexico in 1969-the first discovered that had formed off of our planet.

At one place or another on Earth, meteorites were used to explain the origin of life. If rocks fell to the earth from space, so too could plants, water, animals and people.

Symbolically, meteorites can be viewed as the spiritual penetrating the physical, as astral power, divine order or whim, though a friend of mine says they’re the melted remains of spaceships from distant galaxies!

Magical Uses:

Meteorites are unearthly things, literally. They possess the powers of intergalactic flight, of movement, of speed, and of energy unhindered by gravity.

Use them in rituals of protection. Place one on the altar near white candles; or carry in the hand.

They are also called upon to promote astral projection. A small meteorite or a fragment of one is placed beneath the pillow during attempts at conscious astral projection.

Yes, they are available for sale at reasonable prices. I visited the Reuben H. Fleet Space Theatre’s gift shop in San Diego a few days ago and found small meteorites for $3.00.

[Source: Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem, & Metal Magic by Scott Cunningham]

Cherubim

‘The cherubim are winged creatures, but the form of them does not resemble that of any living creature seen by man’ (Josephus).

They signify presence of divinity and are guardians of the sacred and of the threshold.

As tetramorphs cherubim are the quaternary of elemental powers guarding the centre of Paradise which is inaccessible to the unregenerate man.

They combine the bull (Taurus), lion (Leo), eagle (Scorpio), and man (Aquarius), symbolizing the four elements, the four corners of the earth and, in Christianity, the four Evangelists.

After the Seraphim they are the highest of the nine orders of angels.

In heraldry a cherub is depicted as a child’s head (purity and innocence) between a pair of wings (spiritual nature).

Yahweh is 'enthroned’ upon the cherbuim’ (I Sam. 4,4).

The throne of the Temple of Jerusalem in the Holy of Holies was flanked by two cherubim and the throne was formed by their wings.

[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]

Lily

Purity; peace; resurrection; royalty.

Sacred to all Virgin Goddesses, the Mother and Maid, the One and the Many.

The lily also represents the fertility of the Earth Goddess and later of the sky gods.

The lily in the West shares the symbolism of the lotus in the East.

A branch of lilies depicts virginity, also regeneration and immortality.

Alchemic: The white lily is the feminine principle

Christian: Purity; innocence; the Virgin Mary; its straight stalk is her godly mind, its pendant leaves her humility, its fragrance is divinity, its whiteness is purity; it is also a symbol of the Annunciation and of virgin saints, as chastity; it is the flower of Easter. Dante calls it the ‘lily of faith’. The lily among thorns depicts the Immaculate Conception as purity in the midst of sins of the world. In art a lily on one side and a sword on the other depict innocence and guilt.

Egyptian: Fruitfulness, but the lotus is more frequently used in Egyptian symbolism.

Graeco-Roman: Purity; it sprang from the milk of Hera and is an emblem of Hera/Juno and of Diana as chastity.

Hebrew: Trust in God; emblem of the tribe of Judah.

Islamic: Its symbolism can be taken by the hyacinth.

Minoan: Chief attribute of the goddess Britomartis.

Sumero-Semitic: Fruitfulness; fecundity.

[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]

Plants

Like trees and flowers, plants symbolize death and resurrection; the life-force; the cycle of life.

Plant and flower symbolism is closely connected with the Great Mother, goddess of the earth, of fertility and vegetation; it is also associated with the fertility of the life-giving waters; the sap-filled plant is motherhood.

Plants and trees are often regarded as mythical ancestors and usually associated with the moon cult.

Plants or flowers which grow from the spilled blood of a god or hero represent the mystic union between man and plant and the birth of life from death, life flowing from one state to another, e.g. violets grew from the blood of Attis; wheat and herbs grew from the body of Osiris; and pomegranate from the blood of Dionysus, anemones from the blood of Adonis and red roses from the blood of Christ.

In Chinese symbolism the plant Polyporus lucidus is the plant of immortality and is the food of the Taoist genii or immortals.

[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]

Lovely alchemist Meruru from Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland will be released as a colourful figure in May 2013, baring her silky bloomers rather flagrantly.

Hello everyone! This is my latest work, a miniature factory created inside a watch case. Most of it has been built by using tiny watch parts. It is a factory which turns stone into gold. The stones are fed into the  machinery on the top right, to go through a process of complex transformation inside the factory and come out as gold in the bottom right. The bits of gold I used are actual 9K gold. Enjoy!