Suns in alchemy
Sun symbols have a variety of uses
In alchemical and Hermetic traditions, suns () are used to symbolize a variety of concepts, much like the Sun in astrology. Suns can correspond to gold, citrinitas, generative masculine principles, imagery of "the king", or Apollo, the fiery spirit or sulfur, the divine spark in man, nobility, or incorruptibility. Recurring images of specific solar motifs can be found in the form of a "dark" or "black sun", or a green lion devouring the Sun.
01Sol niger
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 color stages. Of the sol niger he writes:
The body must be dissolved in the subtlest middle air: The body is also dissolved by its own heat and humidity; where the soul, the middle nature holds the principality in the colour of blackness all in the glass: which blackness of Nature the ancient Philosophers called the crows head, or the black sun.
, Marsilius Ficinus, "Liber de Arte Chemica"
The black sun is used to illuminate the dissolution of the body, a blackening of matter, or putrefaction in Splendor Solis, and Johann Daniel Mylius’ Philosophia Reformata.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Suns in alchemy”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Green lion consuming the sun.jpg by Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain
- Philosophia Reformata Emblem 9 - Putrefactio..jpg by Johann Daniel Mylius (d. 1642), Balthazar Schwan (d. 1624), Public domain
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