Alchemical Symbol

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Short description: Symbols used in pre-19th-century chemistry
Alchemical symbols in Torbern Bergman's 1775 Dissertation on Elective Affinities
Part 1 Part 2
Alchemical symbols before Lavoisier

Alchemical symbols, originally devised as part of alchemy, were used to denote some elements and some compounds until the 18th century. Although notation like this was mostly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists, so this page mainly lists the most common ones.

Three primes

According to Paracelsus (1493โ€“1541), the three primes or tria prima โ€“ of which material substances are immediately composed โ€“ are:[1]

  • Sulfur or soul, the principle of combustibility: ๐Ÿœ (Sulphur symbol (fixed width).svg)
  • Mercury or spirit, the principle of fusibility and volatility: โ˜ฟ (Mercury symbol (fixed width).svg)
  • Salt or body, the principle of non-combustibility and non-volatility: ๐Ÿœ” (Salt symbol (alchemical).svg)

Four basic elements

Western alchemy makes use of the four classical elements. The symbols used for these are:[2]

  • Air ๐Ÿœ (Air symbol (alchemical).svg)
  • Earth ๐Ÿœƒ (Earth symbol (alchemical).svg)
  • Fire ๐Ÿœ‚ (Fire symbol (alchemical).svg)
  • Water ๐Ÿœ„ (Water symbol (alchemical).svg)

Seven planetary metals

The seven metals known since Classical times in Europe were associated with the seven classical planets; this figured heavily in alchemical symbolism. The exact correlation varied over time, and in early centuries bronze or electrum were sometimes found instead of mercury, or copper for Mars instead of iron, though gold, silver and lead had always been associated with the Sun, Moon and Saturn.[3] The associations below are attested from the 7th century and had definitely stabilized by the 15th. They started breaking down with the discovery of antimony, bismuth and zinc in the 16th century. Alchemists would typically call the metals by their planetary names, e.g. "Saturn" for lead and "Mars" for iron; compounds of tin, iron and silver continued to be called "jovial", "martial" and "lunar"; or "of Jupiter", "of Mars" and "of the moon", through the 17th century. The tradition remains today with the name of the element mercury, where chemists decided the planetary name was preferable to common names like "quicksilver", and in a few archaic terms such as lunar caustic (silver nitrate) and saturnism (lead poisoning).[4][5]

  • Lead, corresponding with Saturn โ™„ (Saturn symbol (fixed width).svg)
  • Tin, corresponding with Jupiter โ™ƒ (Jupiter symbol (fixed width).svg)
  • Iron, corresponding with Mars โ™‚ (Mars symbol (fixed width).svg)
  • Gold, corresponding with Sun โ˜‰ ๐Ÿœš โ˜ผ (Sun symbol (fixed width).svg24pxSol symbol (fixed width).svg)
  • Copper, corresponding with Venus โ™€ (Venus symbol (fixed width).svg)
  • Mercury (quicksilver), corresponding with Mercury โ˜ฟ (Mercury symbol (fixed width).svg)
  • Silver, corresponding with Moon โ˜ฝ or โ˜พ (Moon crescent symbol (fixed width).svg or Moon decrescent symbol (fixed width).svg)

Mundane elements and later metals

The squared circle: an alchemical symbol (17th century) illustrating the interplay of the four elements of matter symbolising the philosopher's stone
  • Antimony โ™ (Globus cruciger (fixed width).svg)
  • Arsenic ๐Ÿœบ (Arsenic symbol.svg)
  • Bismuth ๐Ÿœ˜ (Bismuth symbol.svg) (in Bergman)
  • Cobalt Alkali symbol.svg (in Bergman)
  • Magnesium โŠ›
  • Manganese Manganese symbol (Bergman).svg (in Bergman)
  • Nickel Nickel symbol.svg (in Bergman; previously used for regulus of sulfur)
  • Oxygen Oxygen symbol (Lavoisier).svg (in Lavoisier)
  • Phlogiston Phlogiston symbol.svg (in Bergman)
  • Phosphorus Phosphorus symbol.svg or Phosphorus symbol (inverted).svg
  • Platinum Platinum symbol.svg or Platinum symbol (simple).svg (in Bergman et al.)
  • Sulfur ๐Ÿœ (Sulphur symbol (fixed width).svg)
  • Zinc Zinc symbol (fixed width).svg (in Bergman)

Alchemical compounds

A table of alchemical symbols from Basil Valentine's The Last Will and Testament, 1670

The following symbols, among others, have been adopted into Unicode.

  • Acid ๐ŸœŠ (Vinegar symbol.svg)
  • Sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) ๐Ÿœน (24px)[6]
  • Aqua fortis (nitric acid) ๐Ÿœ… (24px), A.F.[7]
  • Aqua regia (nitro-hydrochloric acid) ๐Ÿœ† (Aqua regia (alchemical).svg), ๐Ÿœ‡ (24px), A.R.[8]
  • Spirit of wine (concentrated ethanol; called aqua vitae or spiritus vini) ๐Ÿœˆ (24px ~ Aqua vitae monogram (fixed width).svg), S.V. or ๐Ÿœ‰ (24px)
  • Amalgam (alloys of a metal and mercury) ๐Ÿ› (24px)
  • Cinnabar (mercury sulfide) ๐Ÿœ“ (Cinnabar symbol.svg)
  • Vinegar (distilled) ๐Ÿœ‹ (Distilled vinegar symbol.svg)
  • Vitriol (sulfates) ๐Ÿœ– (24px)[9]
  • Brimstone[10] (archaic name for sulfur) ๐Ÿœ (Black sulfur symbol (fixed width).svg), or Black sulphur (residue from sublimation of sulfur)

Alchemical processes

An extract and symbol key from Kenelm Digby's A Choice Collection of Rare Secrets, 1682

The alchemical magnum opus was sometimes expressed as a series of chemical operations. In cases where these numbered twelve, each could be assigned one of the Zodiac signs as a form of cryptography. The following example can be found in Pernety's Dictionnaire mytho-hermรฉtique (1758):[11]

  1. Calcination (Aries Aries symbol (fixed width).svg) โ™ˆ๏ธŽ
  2. Congelation (Taurus Taurus symbol (fixed width).svg) โ™‰๏ธŽ
  3. Fixation (Gemini Gemini symbol (fixed width).svg) โ™Š๏ธŽ
  4. Solution (Cancer Cancer symbol (fixed width).svg) โ™‹๏ธŽ
  5. Digestion (Leo Leo symbol (fixed width).svg) โ™Œ๏ธŽ
  6. Distillation (Virgo Virgo symbol (fixed width).svg) โ™๏ธŽ
  7. Sublimation (Libra Libra symbol (fixed width).svg) โ™Ž๏ธŽ
  8. Separation (Scorpio Scorpius symbol (fixed width).svg) โ™๏ธŽ
  9. Ceration (Sagittarius Sagittarius symbol (fixed width).svg) โ™๏ธŽ
  10. Fermentation (Capricorn Capricornus symbol (fixed width).svg) โ™‘๏ธŽ (Putrefaction)
  11. Multiplication (Aquarius Aquarius symbol (fixed width).svg) โ™’๏ธŽ
  12. Projection (Pisces Pisces symbol (fixed width).svg) โ™“๏ธŽ

Units

Several symbols indicate units of volume, weight, or time.

  • Month ๐Ÿฑ (24px) or xXx
  • Day ๐Ÿฐ (24px)
  • Hour ๐Ÿฎ (24px)
  • Dram ส’; half-dram ส’รŸ (๐Ÿฒ)
  • Ounce โ„ฅ; half-ounce โ„ฅรŸ (๐Ÿณ)
  • Scruple โ„ˆ
  • Pound โ„”

Unicode

The Alchemical Symbols block was added to Unicode in 2010 as part of Unicode 6.0.[12]

Other symbols commonly used in alchemy and related esoteric traditions

  • Astronomical symbols
    • Astrological symbols
    • Planet symbols
    • Suns in alchemy
      • Circled dot
  • Monas Hieroglyphica
  • Rub el Hizb
  • Seal of Solomon
  • Rosy Cross
  • Eye of Providence
  • Sigils, as used by Hermetic theurgists
    • Sigillum Dei

References

  1. โ†‘ Holmyard 1957, p. 170; cf. Friedlander 1992, pp. 75โ€“76. For the symbols, see Holmyard 1957, p. 149 and Bergman's table as shown above.
  2. โ†‘ Holmyard 1957, p. 149.
  3. โ†‘ For example, in Marcianus, Mercury was tin and Jupiter electrum (Crosland 2004: 236).
  4. โ†‘ Maurice Crosland (2004) Historical Studies in the Language of Chemistry
  5. โ†‘ Holmyard 1957, p. 149.
  6. โ†‘ Holmyard 1957, p. 149
  7. โ†‘ Holmyard 1957, p. 149
  8. โ†‘ Holmyard 1957, p. 149
  9. โ†‘ Holmyard 1957, p. 149
  10. โ†‘ Koch, Rudolf (1955). The book of signs : which contains all manner of symbols used from the earliest times to the Middle Ages by primitive peoples and early Christians. New York. p. 73. ISBN 0-486-20162-7. 
  11. โ†‘ See Holmyard 1957, p. 150.
  12. โ†‘ "Unicode 6.0.0". Unicode Consortium. 11 October 2010. https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode6.0.0/. 

Works cited

  • Friedlander, Walter J. (1992). The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine. Contributions in Medical Studies, 35. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-28023-1. 
  • Holmyard, Eric J. (1957). Alchemy. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. OCLC 2080637. 

External links

  • Alchemical symbols in Unicode 14.0



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