Alchemical element symbols skin#
Alchemical element symbols code#

And when you consider the elements under the influence of the principles of heat, cold, expansion, contraction, dampness, and dry, the complexities and combinations become almost infinite.Īlchemists put long, hard work into identifying the elemental constructs of everything in the natural world - from plants and minerals to human temperament and characteristics. At first glance this seems simplistic, but considered in combinations and quantities, the possibilities become staggering. To the alchemist, everything on every plane, from the earthly to the subtle, is composed of the four elements - air, fire, earth, and water.

The symbols were rendered into allegorical writings and magical invocations which obscured the recipes that led to perfection, the Philosopher’s Stone.”

Alchemical element symbols code#

In an exhibit at the Brown University Library, “ Alchemical Symbols as a Secret Code ,” a manuscript descriptions reads, “ For centuries, mysticism and the occult were an integral part of alchemy and its secrets. The alchemical quest of transmuting lead to gold was, in the highest sense, a metaphor for transmuting the “lead” or “dross” of the unevolved human spirit to the “gold” of realization, represented by the philosopher’s stone.

In fact, alchemical symbols, operations, and results are metaphors for the spiritual transformation of the soul, reflecting the words of the original alchemist, Hermes Trismegistus : “As above, so below - as within, so without.” ” In Western hermetic alchemy, riddle-like instructions applied to both mundane and spiritual processes. The complex system of alchemical symbols and riddles was sometimes called “ the language of birds. In Asia, sophisticated alchemical practices evolved - both physical and esoteric. Other alchemical schools flourished throughout the Middle East, entering Europe through Moorish Spain. The abuses our hero endures correspond to the stages of planting, growing, harvesting, and milling barley and distilling whiskey. In John Barleycorn’s final incarnation, as distilled whiskey, he can lay low (intoxicate) any man who challenges him others depend on him to ease their existence. “There’s beer all in the barrel and brandy in the glassīut little Sir John, with his nut-brown bowl, proved the strongest man at last.Īnd the huntsman he can’t hunt the fox nor loudly blow his hornĪnd the tinker he can’t mend his pots without a little barleycorn.”

Alchemical element symbols skin#

Other verses describe John Barleycorn being cut off at the knees, tied around the waist, stabbed in the heart with forks, having his skin split from the bone and ground between two stones, and being drowned. “They ploughed, they sowed, they harrowed him in An example is the 17th Century British folk song, “John Barleycorn,” which tells the harrowing story of poor John Barleycorn, subjected to torture, abuse, death, and ultimately, triumph. Symbols and allegories were common parlance during the “ golden age ” of alchemy - the 17th and 18th centuries.