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The black sun as pictured in the Putrifaction emblem of Philosophia Reformata (Johann Daniel Mylius) Sol niger (black sun) can refer to the first stage of the alchemical magnum opus, the nigredo (blackness). In a text ascribed to Marsilio Ficino three suns are described: black, white, and red, corresponding to the three most used alchemical ...
A symbol invented by John Dee, alchemist and astrologer at the court of Elizabeth I of England. It represents (from top to bottom): the moon; the sun; the elements; and fire. Ouroboros: Ancient Egypt and Persia, Norse mythology: A serpent or dragon consuming its own tail, it is a symbol of infinity, unity, and the cycle of death and rebirth ...
Portrait identifying Schwarz as the "inventor of artillery" Berthold Schwarz O.F.M. (sometimes spelled Schwartz), also known as Berthold the Black and der Schwartzer, was a legendary German (or in some accounts Danish or Greek) alchemist of the late 14th century, credited with the invention of gunpowder by 15th- through 19th-century European literature.
The development of black, white, yellow, and red can also be found in the Physika kai Mystika of Pseudo-Democritus, which is often considered to be one of the oldest books on alchemy. [4] After the 15th century, many writers tended to compress citrinitas into rubedo and consider only three stages. [ 5 ]
For Carl Jung, "the rediscovery of the principles of alchemy came to be an important part of my work as a pioneer of psychology". [3] As a student of alchemy, he (and his followers) "compared the 'black work' of the alchemists (the nigredo) with the often highly critical involvement experienced by the ego, until it accepts the new equilibrium brought about by the creation of the self."
Alchemical symbols were used to denote chemical elements and compounds, as well as alchemical apparatus and processes, until the 18th century. Although notation was partly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists.
The Alchemist in Search of the Philosopher's Stone, by Joseph Wright, 1771. Nicolas Flamel is a well-known alchemist to the point where he had many pseudepigraphic imitators. Although the historical Flamel existed, the writings and legends assigned to him only appeared in 1612. [88] [89]
images made within the alchemical culture proper; genre images which portray alchemists and their environment; religious, mythological or genre images which appropriate alchemical ideas or motifs as a kind of Panofskian ‘disguised symbolism’; and; images which show structural affinities with alchemy without iconographically alluding to it. [1]