Amalgamation

## Amalgamation Amalgamation

**Amalgamation** is the operation of combining mercury with metals to form amalgams—alloys of mercury with other metals. In alchemical practice, amalgamation was used to purify metals (particularly gold and silver), to prepare metals for further operations, and as a stage in attempting transmutation. Mercury's ability to dissolve many metals and form amalgams made it central to alchemical operations. The amalgam could then be heated to drive off the mercury (which would vaporize), leaving the metal behind in purified or transformed form. Amalgamation was both a practical metallurgical technique and a symbolic operation representing the union of the volatile mercury with fixed metals.

Amalgamation could be performed by grinding or mixing mercury with the metal (often in powdered or granulated form) until the metal dissolved in the mercury, forming a soft, pasty amalgam. Heat could be applied to speed the process. Gold and silver amalgamated readily with mercury, while other metals required more effort or special preparation. The amalgam could be used directly, or the mercury could be removed by heating (the mercury would vaporize and could be condensed and recovered) or by squeezing through leather or cloth (the mercury would pass through, leaving the metal behind). Amalgamation was used in gold refining, in gilding (applying gold to surfaces), and in various alchemical operations.

In alchemical symbolism, amalgamation represented the union of the volatile mercury (the feminine, lunar principle) with the fixed metal (the masculine, solar principle), the marriage of opposites that was necessary for generating the Stone. The operation embodied the principle that transformation required the union of mercury and sulfur, the volatile and the fixed. Amalgamation was associated with the chemical marriage, with the conjunction of opposites, and with the theme of union and generation. The soft, workable amalgam represented an intermediate state between the liquid mercury and the solid metal, a state where transformation could occur. Amalgamation thus represents both the practical operation of forming mercury-metal alloys and the symbolic operation of uniting volatile and fixed principles.

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