Elias Dorn taught Tom an underlying precept of Greek thought, how all substances are in a constant state of change. A plant seed is created, it grows, flowers, withers, dies, and decays. The elements continually change in proportion, causing the earth element in the plant to change into water, the water to air, air to fire, and fire to earth. For a metal to become gold, first it must “die” in its present form, opening itself to be reborn in the re-proportioning of its elements—a process alchemists called Solve et Coagula, dissolve and bind.
Tom learned about alchemists such as Ortolanus, Arnaldus de Villa Nova, Paul of Taranto, and Hugh of Evesham, all who had contributed toward the advancement of alchemy, and Jean de Roquetaillade, who first developed the method for using a glass limbeck to create aqua vitae, the water of life, a reduction of heated wine to use once the Philosopher’s Stone was born.
Elias also taught Tom about Aristotle’s theory of prime matter and form, all things possessing both. The “form” was the particular structure which governed a substance and dictated the proportions of the elements. Tom’s “form” differed from that of a dog, as did that of lead from gold. The alchemist sought to change the form of a base metal into the form of gold by varying the amounts of the four elements and altering in the laboratorium what Nature did over a much longer period of time. The language of alchemy was a passionate one, with chemical reactions described in terms of love and hate. Metals underwent all the human experiences encompassing life and death.
Alchemists were very protective of their methods and findings, often writing in code, using metaphors and images to allude to what they were doing. Oftentimes, Sol (Sun, King) represented sulphur, and Luna (Moon, Queen) was mercury. It was the union of these two in the alembic chamber which would result in the birth of the Child, the Philosopher’s Stone.
These images are from many collections of alchemical works, dating from the 14th to the 17th century. The allegorical images portray, among other things, different steps of the alchemical process, such as calcination, fixation, dissolution, distillation, sublimation, and fermentation.
