Albedo

Images of Alchemy: Mirror of the Philosophers

by Stephen Parker, Ph.D (Article Selection and Commentary) on January 12, 2011






Spiegel der Philosophen

Mirror of the Philosophers

from Aurei Velleris, (Hamburg: bei Christian Liebezeit, in der St. Joh. Kirch, 1708)


Whoever desires to know the highest and most true knowledge of the Art and Wisdom of the high Wisdom should study this little book diligently, earnestly reading it over so that it brings them their wished-for goal.

Our matter is a Virgin. Its mother has conceived nothing. Come here, my beloved above all; we will help one another and bear a new son, who is not like his parents This is a king with a red head, black eyes, and white feet. This is the magistery.

See, I come to you, and am wholly prepared to conceive a son whose like there is no other in the wide world.


We will go and seek the nature of the four elements, which the alchemists bring forth out of the belly of the earth.

Here see the solution of the wise, and therefrom, our quicksilver.

Our stone is unyielding, a light, long, and noble sound that kills and makes alive.













Source



After Nigredo: The Albedo

by Stephen Parker, Ph.D (Article Selection and Commentary) on October 4, 2010


Illustration 2 Rosarium Philosophorum

From the Four Stages of Alchemical Work
Jo Hedesan


Mixing other substances in the flask, the blackness of the matter eventually disappeared to make room for a whiteness called albedo. This sudden inversion of colors was a sign that the work was going in the right direction. Albedo was usually portrayed in the form of a White Eagle, Dove or Swan. It was also associated with silver, and the moon. The whitening was compared to the coming of dawn after a long night, and embodied as a white Virgin. This was a moment of rejoicing, of hope; it was a proof that darkness would not last forever.