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The ouroboros in a Greek Byzantine alchemical manuscript
The works of Greco-Egyptian alchemy are preserved in Medieval Greek manuscripts (10th-15th centuries). The original sources were composed in Egypt in the early centuries CE, in the era of the Roman Empire, and they reflect a syncretism of Greek and Egyptian ideas.
Osiris, the god of rebirth (natural and human), with his consort, Isis; in his typical depiction as mummiform King, bearing the regalia of royal office. In the natural cosmos, the power of Osiris was latent in the black soil of the Nile valley, which gave rise to all forms of life. His green skin here suggests fertility.
The Work began with the dissolution of the base metals into a blackened mass or primal matter. In Greek alchemy this is called “melanosis” (‘blackening); in the later Medieval Latin tradition it is called “nigredo,” or “putrefaction”
The ancient alchemical ‘kerotakis’, devised by the Jewish alchemist Maria (2nd cen. ce), was a circulatory apparatus in which metals were decomposed and transmuted by the application of vapours of sulphur and mercury. The vapours would rise from the base and condense in the cooler regions above, gradually breaking down the metals, which were suspended on some kind of ledge beneath the covering dome.
Gold was a solar icon, a symbol of spiritual rebirth, the transformation of the corruptible self into an incorruptible being, sharing in the luminous substance of the heavens. It represented the ‘flesh of the gods’
These pink-tinted gold buttons of from the tomb of Tutankhamen were created by a chemical treatment of gold with iron sulphides or sulphates. They are evidence of experimentation with ‘cementation’ techniques in the temples of Egypt as early as the 15th century bce.
Ra as KHEPERA , the self-created one
The mehen serpent, from the Book Am-Tuat
Early representations of the ouroboros
(“self-devouring” serpent)
The corrosive power of mercury was often likened to the venom of the serpent: the metals had to be destroyed in order to be reborn. But properly handled and “tamed”, it could yield a powerful medicine, the “stone” of the Wise. The serpent represented death and dissolution, but also the possibility of rebirth.
“In the poison of the dragon lies the highest medicine: Mercury, properly and chemically precipitated or sublimated, resolved into its proper water, and again coagulated”
Arabic alchemy introduced the key concept of the al-iksir, which later became the elixir or philosopher’s stone of the European tradition.
This elixir was projected onto base metals, driving off their earthy impurities—spiritualizing them. It was crucial that the ‘stone’ was stable enough to resist the fire, but volatile enough to penetrate the molten metal and transform its deep structure.
From the tomb of Tut-ankh-amon
Early representations of the ouroboros
(“self-devouring” serpent)
The celestial ‘ba’ (soul) visiting the body in its tomb
‘The Opening of the Mouth’
Book of the Dead, c.1500 BCE
Kiosk on the roof of the temple of Dendara, where the statue of Hathor, the daughter of Ra, was united with the sun disk and ritually animated.
- If it says of a god that the material is wood and gold, without indicating the name of the wood, this means that it is juniper gilded with fine gold”
- “if it says of a god that the material is copper, this means black bronze”
Statues of the god Anubis, the god of mummification, were made of a blackened bronze, created by treating silver or copper with sulphur
“By trickery Typhon (i.e. Set) murders Osiris, and scatters his members far and wide, but the renowned Isis collects them” (M. Maier, Atalanta Fugiens, 1617). Still in the 17th century, alchemists had a dim awareness that their Work was some kind of survival of Egyptian funerary rites.
Cinnabar ore (mercury sulphide)
Cinnabar ore (mercury sulphide)
The red elixir or stone was typically a mercury-sulphide compound similar to the native ore cinnabar, but reduced to a non-metallic state.
True it is, without falsehood, certain and most true. That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above, to accomplish the miracles of the one thing (Emerald Tablet)
Mercury seemed to the alchemists to mirror the mystery of Divine Oneness: being at once solid (earthy), liquid (watery), corrosive (fiery), and volatile (airy). Mercury was understood as the elemental reflection of God: as above, so below.
The Greek magical papyri: spell books composed
by Greek speaking priests in the early centuries CE.
Alchemy evolved out of the temples through a similar process of cultural translation in the twilight of Egyptian religious culture. The Pythagorean Bolos of Mendes (c. 200 BCE) seems to have been a key figure in the dissemination of the traditional priestly lore.
Cupellation
•This is a method for purifying an unrefined ore of gold or silver. An alloy containing gold, silver and base metals (like copper or tin) is placed in a cupel—a porous vessel of clay or bone ash—and heated strongly in the open air. Lead is added. The inferior metals in the alloy oxidize along with the lead. The oxides are either absorbed into the cupel or blown away, leaving a pure gold-silver alloy. The silver can then be removed from the gold by the addition of salt (causing the silver to form into its chloride) leaving a pure button of gold.
The mysteries of Isis & Osiris (fresco, Pompeii)
The rites of the mystery cults were typically framed in terms of death and resurrection, often in imitation of one of the gods of rebirth, like the Egyptian god Osiris, or Jesus Christ.
A subterranean ‘grotto’, in which initiations were performed into the mysteries of the Persian god Mithras; Christian churches were sometimes built over the remains of these chambers (this one lies beneath the basilica of St. Clement in Rome).
The Persian magi were regarded, like the priests of Egypt, as masters of the occult sciences. So deeply entrenched was this connection that the Greek terms Mageia, ‘magic’, and magos, ‘magician,’ derive from the Persian word maguš, the title of a Zoroastrian priest.
