Metals in Alchemy – (500)

Introduction

Alchemy as presented by the medieval Alchemists is something really very peculiar and interesting. Many of the terms are so peculiar and way out of line with what we commonly understand that we can so easily become confused and lost. On the other hand the Alchemy of Master Samael is very simple and clear, maybe even too simple we may think.

What is useful at times, is to understand what the Alchemists were actually referring to with their symbols and peculiar terminology. This verification gives light, understanding and more confidence or faith. This post is a little about that, looking at term of metals, which for me anyway was so very interesting, maybe because I am very stuck in my concept of a metal being the result of man taking ore from the Earth then moving that ore through a refining process to produce a very solid, hard and shiny bar or beam that if used wrongly can really hurt another person. Anyhow forgetting that let’s look at how the Alchemists saw metals.

Metals to the Alchemists

To the Alchemists the metals are values which can be either polarised to be egos or “I’s” or values, qualities or functions of the Being. Metals were or are also the colours of the Great Work. That is each metal symbolises a stage of the Great Work.

For example, if we take the metal iron, it is as a perfect metal the value of force and as an imperfect metal it is anger or the ego or “I’s” of anger. Roger Bacon said that “According to the purity or impurity of the Sulphur and Mercury, we shall obtain the perfect or imperfect metals.”

Therefore the more psychological death we have the more we create or produce in us the perfect metals, that is the free functions and values of the Being.

Oscar Uzcategui says in his book “The Mutus Liber Speaks”:

“Also a symbol of the colours of the Great Work. Alchemy says that in the Work, we should first see the silvery colour which represents the Mercury. Next we should see the black colour, Saturn. Later we will see the grey, related with Jupiter. Then we will have the white colour of the Moon and in progression there will appear the green colour of Venus; then the orange yellow colour of Mars. Finally the golden yellow colour of the Sun will appear.”

Conclusion

So then in conclusion the metals are really values, that can be trapped or free. As trapped values they are the egos that we know and when free they are the functions, qualities and virtues of the Being. Even as the colours of the Great Work they are still representing certain values or qualities. Gold is always in Alchemy the pinnacle or the perfect or the most refined.

End (500).