Dictionary of Atalanta Fugiens
Key alchemical terms as they appear in Maier's text, with Latin originals. 140 terms across 6 categories.
CONCEPT 32
Alchemical Eucharist
1 emblems
Eucharistia Alchemica
The identification of alchemical transmutation with the Catholic Communion rite; Szulakowska's key argument about Maier's religious dimension.
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CONCEPT
Alchemical Rose / Rosa Philosophorum
2 emblems
Rosa Philosophorum
The philosophical rose—white and red—central to the iconography of the Rosarium Philosophorum and the alchemical garden.
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CONCEPT
Arbor Philosophica / Philosophical Tree
3 emblems
Arbor Philosophica
The alchemical tree of metals or tree of life whose branches bear the seven planetary metals and whose fruit is the Stone.
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CONCEPT
Balneum / Alchemical Bath
2 emblems
Balneum
The alchemical bath—balneum mariae or steam bath—in which the king is immersed for cure or the matter is gently heated.
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CONCEPT
Catena Aurea
1 emblems
Golden Chain linking Microcosm to Macrocosm; continuous thread of transmutation from base to divine.
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CONCEPT
Cauda Pavonis
3 emblems
The Peacock's Tail; an iridescent display of colors appearing in the vessel during the transitional stage between nigredo and albedo, signaling that transformation is underway.
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CONCEPT
Emblem Book
1 emblems
Liber Emblematum
A genre of illustrated books combining motto, image, and epigram in a tripartite structure; AF is the most complex example with added music.
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CONCEPT
Flaming Sword
1 emblems
Gladius Igneus
The fiery sword that pierces the philosophical egg, introducing controlled heat into the sealed vessel of the work.
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CONCEPT
Hierogamy / Sacred Marriage
7 emblems
Hieros Gamos
The sacred marriage of opposites—Sol and Luna, king and queen, heaven and earth—central to alchemical and Hermetic transformation.
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CONCEPT
Lapis
2 emblems
Shorthand for Lapis Philosophorum; the perfected Stone that transmutes base metals and heals all disease.
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CONCEPT
Lusus Serius
1 emblems
The 'serious game' — Maier's term for the playful-yet-profound engagement with alchemical wisdom through emblems, music, and riddles.
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CONCEPT
Musica Speculativa
2 emblems
The philosophical contemplation of musical harmony as a mirror of cosmic order; the tradition within which Maier's fugues operate.
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CONCEPT
Mytho-Alchemy
5 emblems
Mytho-Alchemia
The practice of reading classical mythology as encoded alchemical teaching; Maier is identified by Forshaw as its 'main figurehead.'
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CONCEPT
Opus Magnum
3 emblems
The Great Work; the entire alchemical project of transmutation from base matter to the perfected Stone.
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CONCEPT
Pelicanus
3 emblems
The Pelican vessel, a circulatory apparatus in which distillate flows back onto the matter below; also the symbol of self-sacrifice and self-nourishment.
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CONCEPT
Philosopher's Stone
3 emblems
Lapis Philosophorum
The perfected product of the Great Work; agent of transmutation. Achieved through union and fixation.
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CONCEPT
Philosophical Egg
1 emblems
Ovum Philosophicum
The sealed vessel containing prima materia; unity of opposites before differentiation.
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CONCEPT
Prisca Sapientia
2 emblems
The 'ancient wisdom' or perennial philosophy transmitted from Hermes Trismegistus through successive mystery schools to the modern age.
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CONCEPT
Quadrivium
3 emblems
The four mathematical disciplines of medieval university education: arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy.
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CONCEPT
Sapientia
2 emblems
Wisdom personified; alchemy as knowledge joined with practice. Central to Emblem XXVI.
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CONCEPT
Solve et Coagula
2 emblems
Dissolve and coagulate; the fundamental binary rhythm of the alchemical Work, alternating between breaking down and building up.
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CONCEPT
Steganography
4 emblems
Steganographia
The art of concealing messages within an apparently innocent cover text or image; Bilak argues AF contains a hidden magic square.
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CONCEPT
FIGURE 45
Adonis
1 emblems
Dying god of vegetation beloved by Venus; represents the philosophical Sun that must die seasonally and be reborn through love's restorative power.
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FIGURE
Apocalyptic Woman / Turkish Madonna
2 emblems
Mulier Apocalyptica
The Woman of Revelation 12 — identified by Szulakowska as the Virgin Mary in Maier's alchemical Eucharist, connected to Ottoman war imagery.
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FIGURE
Atalanta
4 emblems
The fleeing maiden of the frontispiece; represents volatile Mercury that must be captured by the fixed principle.
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FIGURE
Boreas
1 emblems
Greek god of the North Wind who carries the philosophical embryo in his belly; central figure of Emblem I.
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FIGURE
Ceres
2 emblems
Earth goddess of grain and nourishment; represents the maternal, nourishing principle that sustains the philosophical child through the stages of the Work.
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FIGURE
Cybele
1 emblems
Phrygian mother goddess who transforms Atalanta and Hippomenes into lions as punishment for profaning her temple.
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FIGURE
Dragon
1 emblems
Draco
Volatile spirit, guardian of treasure, and ouroboric figure of self-consuming transformation in alchemical iconography.
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FIGURE
Dryad
2 emblems
Dryas
Tree-nymph of Greek mythology; Rozenrichter identifies hidden dryads in AF emblems as feminine guiding forces for the alchemist.
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FIGURE
Earth-Mother / Terra
2 emblems
Terra Mater
The massive globular female earth-figure depicted reclining on the landscape in Emblems I and II as nurse of the philosophical infant.
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FIGURE
Geryon
1 emblems
Three-bodied king of Spain whose cattle Hercules stole as his tenth labor; in AF, a figure for the composite nature of the prima materia.
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FIGURE
Hercules
1 emblems
Greek hero whose twelve labors include stealing the golden apples of the Hesperides; archetype of the alchemist in Maier's mytho-alchemy.
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FIGURE
Hermaphrodite
3 emblems
Hermaphroditus
The perfect union of male and female principles in one body. Represents the completed coniunctio.
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FIGURE
Hesperides
1 emblems
The three nymphs—Aegle, Arethusa, and Hespertusa—who guard the tree of golden apples in the far western garden.
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FIGURE
Hippomenes
4 emblems
The pursuer in the frontispiece race; represents fixed Sulphur pursuing volatile Mercury with golden apples as catalysts.
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FIGURE
Isis
1 emblems
Egyptian goddess who reassembles the dismembered Osiris; represents the lunar anima that restores the dissolved solar principle to wholeness.
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FIGURE
Jason
1 emblems
Iason
Greek hero who quests for the Golden Fleece, slaying the dragon that guards it; alchemical archetype of the seeker.
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FIGURE
King Duenech
2 emblems
Rex Duenech
Alchemical king figure suffering from melancholic disease. Cured through purification. Appears in XXVIII and XLVIII.
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FIGURE
Kronos / Saturn
3 emblems
Saturnus
Titan who devours his children and vomits the stone; alchemical figure for dissolution, nigredo, and the prima materia.
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FIGURE
Latona
1 emblems
Goddess identified with the impure base metal (laton/latten) that must be whitened; represents matter in its unworked, impure state.
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FIGURE
Medea
1 emblems
Sorceress of Greek mythology who rejuvenates old Aeson by boiling him in a cauldron; model for alchemical rejuvenation in Emblem IX.
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FIGURE
Naaman
2 emblems
Naaman Syrus
The Syrian military commander healed of leprosy by washing seven times in the Jordan River; alchemical figure for purification through repeated washing.
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FIGURE
Oedipus
1 emblems
Solver of the Sphinx's riddle; represents the alchemical adept who must decode nature's obscure language to proceed in the Work.
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FIGURE
Osiris
1 emblems
Egyptian god of death and resurrection; in alchemical allegory, represents the solar principle that must be dismembered and reconstituted.
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FIGURE
Pallas Athena
1 emblems
The Greek goddess of wisdom, born fully armed from the head of Zeus; in the AF, she emerges with the descent of golden rain.
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FIGURE
Philosophical Child / Puer Philosophicus
5 emblems
Puer Philosophicus
The infant figure—newborn, swaddled, or growing—who appears throughout the AF as the nascent Stone in personified form.
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FIGURE
Regina
2 emblems
The Queen figure representing Luna, silver, or the feminine volatile principle in alchemical allegory.
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FIGURE
Rex
4 emblems
The King figure representing Sol, gold, or the masculine fixed principle in alchemical allegory.
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FIGURE
Sphinx
1 emblems
Mythological guardian who poses riddles and destroys those who cannot answer; represents the obscurity of alchemical doctrine that tests the adept.
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FIGURE
Triptolemus / Achilles in the Fire
1 emblems
Triptolemus
The infant held over flames by Ceres (or Thetis) to make him immortal—a mythic figure of the philosophical child tempered in fire.
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FIGURE
Typhon
1 emblems
Egyptian destroyer who dismembers Osiris; represents the corrosive, fiery agent of dissolution that breaks down the old form.
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FIGURE
Ulysses / Odysseus
1 emblems
Ulysses
Greek hero of endurance and wisdom; Maier's self-identification in his final work, representing the alchemist who perseveres through shipwreck.
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FIGURE
MUSICAL 2
PROCESS 18
Albedo
2 emblems
The whitening; second stage involving washing, purification, removal of impurities.
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PROCESS
Calcination
1 emblems
Calcinatio
Heating to ash; burning away impurities. Part of the washing/purification complex.
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PROCESS
Circulatio
1 emblems
Circular distillation in which the volatile is repeatedly raised and returned, purifying the matter through cyclical repetition.
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PROCESS
Citrinitas
3 emblems
The yellowing; intermediate stage of vivification between whiteness and redness.
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PROCESS
Coagulation
1 emblems
Coagulatio
Solidification; fixing the volatile. One nature coagulates only through dissolution of another.
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PROCESS
Coniunctio
7 emblems
Coniunctio Oppositorum
Union of opposites (male/female, volatile/fixed, Sun/Moon). The central operation of the Great Work.
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PROCESS
Dissolution
2 emblems
Dissolutio
Breaking down solid form into liquid; releasing the fixed into the volatile.
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PROCESS
Distillatio
2 emblems
Separation of a substance by heating to vapor and condensing, purifying the volatile from the gross.
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PROCESS
Fermentatio
1 emblems
Fermentation; the penultimate operation that introduces the ferment completing the Stone's transformation.
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PROCESS
Fixatio
1 emblems
Fixing the volatile; rendering the mercurial spirit permanent and stable through repeated operations.
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PROCESS
Mortificatio
2 emblems
The killing or death of the old form; the destruction of existing structure as prerequisite for renewal. Closely related to putrefaction and nigredo.
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PROCESS
Multiplicatio
2 emblems
Multiplying the Stone's power; the final augmentation that increases the perfected product's transmutative capacity.
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PROCESS
Nigredo
2 emblems
The blackening; first stage of the Work involving putrefaction, decomposition, death of the old form.
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PROCESS
Projectio
1 emblems
The final application of the perfected Stone onto base metal to effect transmutation; the culminating act of the Great Work.
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PROCESS
Putrefaction
3 emblems
Putrefactio
Controlled decomposition; the death of old form that enables new creation. Associated with nigredo.
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PROCESS
Rubedo
1 emblems
The reddening; final stage of completion, perfection, achievement of the Philosopher's Stone.
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PROCESS
SOURCE_TEXT 25
Allegoria Merlini
1 emblems
Medieval alchemical narrative in which a king suffering from a wasting disease is cured through purgative operations encoding the stages of the Work.
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SOURCE_TEXT
Ars Magna
1 emblems
The combinatorial art attributed to Ramon Llull, adapted by pseudo-Lullian alchemists into a framework for understanding dissolution and coagulation as reciprocal operations.
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SOURCE_TEXT
Aurora Consurgens
2 emblems
Late medieval alchemical text attributed to Pseudo-Aquinas, fusing Solomonic wisdom literature with alchemical symbolism through a Christological lens.
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SOURCE_TEXT
De Lapide Philosophico
1 emblems
Alchemical emblem book by Lambsprinck pairing symbolic engravings with verse explanations, a key prototype for the visual emblem tradition Maier inherits.
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SOURCE_TEXT
De Veritate Artis Chemicae
1 emblems
De Veritate et Antiquitate Artis Chemicae
Sixteenth-century treatise by Robertus Vallensis defending the antiquity and legitimacy of alchemy, including an allegorical reading of the Atalanta myth.
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SOURCE_TEXT
Divinae Institutiones
1 emblems
Patristic work by Lactantius on divine wisdom and the nourishment of the soul, providing Christian authority for the identification of alchemy with sacred knowledge.
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SOURCE_TEXT
Fama Fraternitatis
3 emblems
First Rosicrucian manifesto (1614), announcing the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross and calling for a universal reformation of knowledge through alchemy and spiritual illumination.
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SOURCE_TEXT
Liber Sapientiae
2 emblems
The biblical Book of Wisdom (Wisdom of Solomon), part of the Solomonic tradition linking divine wisdom to alchemical knowledge.
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SOURCE_TEXT
Metamorphoses
3 emblems
Ovid's Latin epic poem of mythological transformations, providing the Atalanta-Hippomenes narrative that Maier adopts as the overarching frame story for AF.
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SOURCE_TEXT
Rosarium Philosophorum
4 emblems
Rose Garden of Philosophers; major alchemical compilation. Source for geometric, sapiential, and washing themes.
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SOURCE_TEXT
Secretum Nobilissimorum
1 emblems
Sixteenth-century alchemical text by Jodocus Greverus containing allegorical readings of classical myths as encoded alchemical teachings.
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SOURCE_TEXT
Tabula Chimica
1 emblems
Latin translation of an alchemical work by Muhammad ibn Umail (Senior Zadith), containing visionary imagery of volatile and fixed principles as paired birds.
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SOURCE_TEXT
Tabula Smaragdina
2 emblems
The Emerald Tablet; foundational Hermetic text attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. 'As above, so below' cosmology.
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SOURCE_TEXT
Tractatulus de Practica Lapidis
2 emblems
Tractatulus de Practica Lapidis Philosophici
Short Latin alchemical treatise falsely attributed to Aristotle, transmitted through the Artis Auriferae compilation. Source for elemental union imagery.
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SOURCE_TEXT
Turba Philosophorum
4 emblems
Assembly of Philosophers; major alchemical compilation of Arabic origin. Source for 9 AF mottos per De Jong.
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SOURCE_TEXT
SUBSTANCE 18
Aqua Regia
3 emblems
Royal water; the only solvent capable of dissolving gold, composed of nitric and hydrochloric acids. Symbol of the power to dissolve the noblest metal.
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SUBSTANCE
Aqua Vitae
2 emblems
The water of life; the purified mercurial water that dissolves impure matter and vivifies the dead body of the Work.
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SUBSTANCE
Aurum Philosophicum
2 emblems
Philosophical gold; not common gold but the perfected substance produced by the Work, embodying the solar principle in its highest form.
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SUBSTANCE
Aurum Potabile
2 emblems
Drinkable gold — the supreme alchemical medicine; Maier devoted his De Circulo Physico Quadrato (1616) to this concept.
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SUBSTANCE
Celestial Dew / Ros Coelestis
3 emblems
Ros Coelestis
The dew that falls from heaven, gathered as a privileged solvent and nourishing principle for the alchemical work.
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SUBSTANCE
Elixir
1 emblems
The perfected medicine capable of healing all disease and transmuting metals; synonymous with the Philosopher's Stone in its medicinal aspect.
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SUBSTANCE
Lac Virginis
1 emblems
Virgin's milk — a volatile alchemical spirit considered a form of the quintessence, used in the first stage of creating the philosopher's stone.
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SUBSTANCE
Luna
2 emblems
Silver; the lunar principle; the feminine receptive agent in alchemical transmutation.
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SUBSTANCE
Mercurius
2 emblems
Mercurius Philosophorum
Mercury; the volatile, feminine, lunar principle. Liquid primary matter, primordial water, water of destruction and resurrection.
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SUBSTANCE
Prima Materia
3 emblems
The first matter from which all metals arise; the undifferentiated starting material of the Work.
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SUBSTANCE
Rebis
3 emblems
The 'two-thing' (res bina); the reunited opposites in a single substance, combining masculine and feminine, fixed and volatile in stable union.
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SUBSTANCE
Sol
2 emblems
Gold; the solar principle; the masculine active agent in alchemical transmutation.
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SUBSTANCE
Sulphur
2 emblems
The fixed, masculine, solar principle. Paired with Mercury as the two fundamental alchemical substances.
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SUBSTANCE