Alchemical symbol

Short description: Symbols used in pre-19th-century chemistry

| This page contains Unicode alchemical symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of alchemical symbols.

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Alchemical symbols in Torbern Bergman's 1775 Dissertation on Elective Affinities

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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.

## Contents

* 1 Three primes
* 2 Four basic elements
* 3 Seven planetary metals
* 4 Mundane elements and later metals
* 5 Alchemical compounds
* 6 Alchemical processes
* 7 Units
* 8 Unicode
* 9 Other symbols commonly used in alchemy and related esoteric traditions
* 10 References
* 10.1 Works cited
* 11 External links

## Three primes

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

* Sulfur or soul, the principle of combustibility: 🜍 ()
* Mercury or spirit, the principle of fusibility and volatility: ☿ ()
* Salt or body, the principle of non-combustibility and non-volatility: 🜔 ()

## Four basic elements

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

* Air 🜁 ()
* Earth 🜃 ()
* Fire 🜂 ()
* Water 🜄 ()

## 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 ♄ ()
* Tin, corresponding with Jupiter ♃ ()
* Iron, corresponding with Mars ♂ ()
* Gold, corresponding with Sun ☉ 🜚 ☼ (24px)
* Copper, corresponding with Venus ♀ ()
* Mercury (quicksilver), corresponding with Mercury ☿ ()
* Silver, corresponding with Moon ☽ or ☾ ( or )

## 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 ♁ ()
* Arsenic 🜺 ()
* Bismuth 🜘 () (in Bergman)
* Cobalt (in Bergman)
* Magnesium ⊛
* Manganese (in Bergman)
* Nickel (in Bergman; previously used for regulus of sulfur)
* Oxygen (in Lavoisier)
* Phlogiston  (in Bergman)
* Phosphorus or
* Platinum or  (in Bergman et al.)
* Sulfur 🜍 ()
* Zinc (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 🜊 ()
* Sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) 🜹 (24px)[6]
* Aqua fortis (nitric acid) 🜅 (24px), A.F.[7]
* Aqua regia (nitro-hydrochloric acid) 🜆 (), 🜇 (24px), A.R.[8]
* Spirit of wine (concentrated ethanol; called aqua vitae or spiritus vini) 🜈 (24px ~ ), S.V. or 🜉 (24px)
* Amalgam (alloys of a metal and mercury) 🝛 (24px)
* Cinnabar (mercury sulfide) 🜓 ()
* Vinegar (distilled) 🜋 ()
* Vitriol (sulfates) 🜖 (24px)[9]
* Brimstone[10] (archaic name for sulfur) 🜏 (), 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-hermétique (1758):[11]

1. Calcination (Aries ) ♈︎
2. Congelation (Taurus ) ♉︎
3. Fixation (Gemini ) ♊︎
4. Solution (Cancer ) ♋︎
5. Digestion (Leo ) ♌︎
6. Distillation (Virgo ) ♍︎
7. Sublimation (Libra ) ♎︎
8. Separation (Scorpio ) ♏︎
9. Ceration (Sagittarius ) ♐︎
10. Fermentation (Capricorn ) ♑︎ (Putrefaction)
11. Multiplication (Aquarius ) ♒︎
12. Projection (Pisces ) ♓︎

## Units

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

* Month 🝱 (24px) or xXx
* Day 🝰 (24px)
* Hour 🝮 (24px)
* Dram ʒ; half-dram ʒß (🝲)
* Ounce ℥; half-ounce ℥ß (🝳)
* Scruple ℈
* Pound ℔

## 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. ↑ Holmyard 1957, p. 170; cf. Friedlander 1992, pp. 75–76. For the symbols, see Holmyard 1957, p. 149 and Bergman's table as shown above.
2. ↑ Holmyard 1957, p. 149.
3. ↑ For example, in Marcianus, Mercury was tin and Jupiter electrum (Crosland 2004: 236).
4. ↑ Maurice Crosland (2004) Historical Studies in the Language of Chemistry
5. ↑ Holmyard 1957, p. 149.
6. ↑ Holmyard 1957, p. 149
7. ↑ Holmyard 1957, p. 149
8. ↑ Holmyard 1957, p. 149
9. ↑ Holmyard 1957, p. 149
10. ↑ 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. ↑ See Holmyard 1957, p. 150.
12. ↑ "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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