Infinite alchemy. Al-Kimya: Notes on Arabic Alchemy. Terence McKenna-- Lectures on Alchemy. The Alchemy Web Site. 9-2 (2003): Visualization in Medieval Alchemy. Barbara Obrist* Abstract: This paper explores major trends in visualization of medieval theories of natural and artificial transformation of substances in relation to their philosophical and theological bases. The function of pictorial forms is analyzed in terms of the prevailing conceptions of science and methods of transmitting knowledge. The documents under examination date from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century. In these, pictorial representations include lists and tables, geometrical figures, depictions of furnaces and apparatus, and figurative elements mainly from the vegetable and animal realms.
An effort is made to trace the earliest evidence of these differing pictorial types. Keywords: visualization in alchemy, science and craft, transformation, analogy, metaphor. 1. Visualization in medieval alchemy is a relatively late phenomenon. The notion of visualization includes a large spectrum of possible pictorial forms, both verbal and non-verbal. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Notes. Symbols in books of alchemy. Sources: Wd1426, Wd1421A, Wv149, Ws2541A Wd1426, a book of alchemical recipes, has caused us to add some additional symbols to our inventory of character entities: signs for substances antimony and sal armoniac; the elements fire and water; and the syllabics "subli-" and "precipi-" (found in sublimate, precipitate, etc.).
We've also gone ahead and added the elemental symbol for earth, on the assumption that it will eventually appear in our books as well. The new symbols will soon (March 2002) appear in the latest online version of the primary keying instructions as reproduced below. (Examples of the symbols in context follow further on below.) Addendum, June 2002: Wd1421A employs the same set of symbols. Addendum, February 2003: Wv149 adds symbols for sulphur, oil, and ?
Addendum, December 2003: added two symbols found in a strange non-chemical book Ws2541A, viz. salt and saltpetre Addendum, Sept 2011: added some symbols from a chart of abbreviations from WB1088 Some sample transcriptions. The Birds in Alchemy by Adam McLean. The Alchemy web site on Levity.com This article written in 1979 was first published in the Hermetic Journal No. 5. In alchemical writings we meet a seemingly bewildering multiplicity of animal symbols - red lions, white eagles, stags, unicorns, winged dragons and snakes. Although at first glance all this complex mass of symbolism seems tortured and confused there is an inner coherence to these symbols, which the ancient alchemists used in specific ways reflecting their esoteric content. In this article I wish to consider a particularly tight knit group of these animal symbols, the birds of alchemy - the Black Crow, White Swan, Peacock, Pelican, and Phoenix - which are descriptive of certain stages of the alchemical process.
Of course it would be wrong to suggest that there are fixed rigid meanings with regard to these symbols. The Black Crow sometimes also the Raven is the beginning of the great work of soul alchemy. The next stage, is often shown as The White Swan.