![]() The idea is that one needs to be brought low before they are ready to be built back up to even greater heights. Symbolically this represents the breaking of the human spirit, undergoing great hardship and misery. Once you have that, the first step is called Nigredo, or “Blackening.” Physically, it involves putrefaction, decay, decomposing and breaking the Prima Materia down. alchemy mysticism gold lead transformation transmutation higher selfįirst up, the Magnum Opus requires an alchemist to have something called Prima Materia, or “First Matter,” which they believed to be the original form of matter that everything in the universe is a variation of. I will detail one of these processes, the Magnum Opus, in a future blog. ![]() Gold was considered the perfect metal, so it was the best symbol for the higher self. Many of the supposed alchemical processes to turn lead into gold are actually symbolic for the journey to transform someone from their base self to their higher self. Like many other branches of mysticism, alchemy has a concept of a “base self” and a “higher self”. However! There is another aspect to Transmutation that we can still learn from even in our modern day! For true historical Alchemists, Transmutation was not just about transforming metals, it was also about transforming themselves. Sadly, we also now know that to change one element into another requires an intense amount of energy, moreso than can be provided with a basic alchemy kit. These two concepts are precursors to the scientific concepts of fundamental particles and the Law of Conservation of Matter & Energy (matter/energy cannot be created or destroyed, just moved from one phase to another). They believed that all matter was just different forms of some base matter, which they called “Prima Materia.” They also believed in something called the Law of Equivalent Exchange, the idea that to create something with Alchemy, you must sacrifice something of equal value. But there is a certain logic to the alchemists’ belief in physical transmutation. To our modern society, this sounds like a pipe dream. But more than that, the Tria Prima also has a spiritual aspect. ![]() In a sense this can be thought of as an evolution of the four elements, transitioning toward the modern idea of elements (in fact, sulphur and mercury are still on the periodic table). ![]() It was thought that everything was made of these three: solid, permanent things were made of salt fluid and changeable things were made of mercury and combustible things were made of sulphur. The Tria Prima (latin for “Three Primes”) is a group of three materials which occupy a position of prominence in alchemy: Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. But the 16th Century Swiss alchemist Paracelsus had a different theory: the Tria Prima One of the more popular and well-known ones was the theory of four elements, and indeed those did play a role in Alchemy. But since the ancients didn’t have the technology to detect such things, they had many different theories. What is everything made of? Nowadays science tells us the answer is fundamental particles-quarks, photons, possibly even strings. ![]()
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