Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Alchemical symbols were used to denote chemical elements and ... ☾ is silver but ☽ is mercury. Many of the 'symbols' are simply abbreviations of the Greek word or ...
Azoth was believed to be the essential agent of transformation in alchemy. It is the name given by ancient alchemists to mercury, which they believed to be the animating spirit hidden in all matter that makes transmutation possible. The word comes from the Arabic al-zā'būq which means "mercury".
The astrological symbol for the planet became one of the alchemical symbols for the metal, and Mercury became an alternative name for the metal. Mercury is the only metal for which the alchemical planetary name survives, as it was decided it was preferable to quicksilver as a chemical name. [28] [29]
Corrosive sublimate – mercuric chloride, formed by subliming mercury, calcined green vitriol, common salt, and nitre. Gum Arabic – gum from the acacia tree. Liver of sulfur – formed by fusing [clarification needed] potash and sulfur. Lunar caustic/ lapis infernalis – silver nitrate, formed by dissolving silver in aqua fortis and ...
For many centuries, it was the most sought-after goal in alchemy. The philosopher's stone was the central symbol of the mystical terminology of alchemy, symbolizing perfection at its finest, divine illumination, and heavenly bliss. Efforts to discover the philosopher's stone were known as the Magnum Opus ("Great Work"). [3]
Many more symbols were in at least sporadic use: one early 17th-century alchemical manuscript lists 22 symbols for mercury alone. [10] Planetary names and symbols for the metals – the seven planets and seven metals known since Classical times in Europe and the Mideast – was ubiquitous in alchemy.
In alchemy and philosophy, prima materia, materia prima or first matter (for a philosophical exposition refer to: Prime Matter), is the ubiquitous starting material required for the alchemical magnum opus and the creation of the philosopher's stone. It is the primitive formless base of all matter similar to chaos, the quintessence or aether.
An 1888 reproduction of a Venetian manuscript, from about the year 1100, listing medieval Greek alchemical symbols attributed to Zosimos. Of the planetary metals, ☿ is tin and ♃ electrum; ☾ is silver but ☽ is mercury. See the description of the file on Commons for translation.