Alchemical Principles: The Three Sacred Elements and Planetary Correspondences

is not and thus perceives outside itself as exterior. Until this separation of consciousness from the primordial state of unity occurs, the external world as such does not exist. The life of all men was therefore perceived as a phenomenon of interior character. At the beginning everything derives from a single spiritual reality from which everything originated.

At first the dark Chaos emerged from nothing,
Formless mass at the first sound of Omnipotent Lip:
It seemed that Disorder had given birth to it,
That a God had been its Maker; so shapeless it was
All things lay idle within it
And without Dividing Spirit confused
Every element was enclosed within it
- Fra' Marcantonio Crassellame Chinese, Lux Obnubilata

Therefore at the base of all alchemical conceptions is the identification of a single matter from which everything derives, called in this context hylé. This conception is fundamental throughout alchemical thought because if everything did not derive from a single substance, then it would be impossible to transform one element into another. Conversely, since everything that exists in the world derives from a single substance, every element can be transformed into another element by human industry provided it is reduced to the state before its specialization by dissolving it and then recoagulating it according to one's intention.

In this process of dissolution and recoagulation, three principles or aspects of this primordial matter that had then produced its specialization became important: sulfur, mercury, and salt.

• Sulfur principle: a solar, projective, affirmative aspect of this unique substance that makes form appear from the depths of matter
• Mercury principle: a receptive aspect of this unique substance capable of assuming the forms and inspirations projected by sulfur
• Salt principle: the capacity for substantiation, the product of the action of mercury and sulfur that result in salt or matter

Knowing therefore how to make metals crude again and return to the first mercury, how to liberate sulfur from metals and how to re-obtain salt, the alchemist thus had the possibility to return to the original state preceding identification in matter and reconstitute the body by operating the required transmutation.

Thanks to the three principles acting on matter, the first polarization of it occurs according to the 4 constituent elements of matter which are Earth, Water, Air and Fire. Clearly these four elements are not simply the 4 physical elements as we are accustomed to seeing them by observing exterior nature, but are conceived in hermetic philosophy as universal organizing and shaping forces or powers that manifest their action in various ways and whose symbols or maximum expressions in the physical world are represented by the 4 elements.

First the Iliastro was divided, which disappeared, giving and making and coordinating the four elements, seed from which the trunk of the tree grows. The element must be framed according to its tendency and not according to its body or substance because what is visible is only the framework, and the element is a spirit that lives in things like the soul in the body - Paracelsus, Treasure of Treasures

As you can see, the symbols associated with these elements are typical symbols of the Zodiac. Indeed, in alchemical cosmogonies, the first formation of the Universe occurs with the formation of the Signs of the Zodiac simultaneously with the formation of the planets related to them. The 12 signs of the zodiac were nothing other than a different modulation of the 4 elements with respect to the three principles sulfur, salt and mercury that form the cardinal, fixed and mobile signs.

Nature is completely renewed by Fire

The passage from one element to another occurs through the fire principle. From the original will coming from God and which gave origin to everything, seven fundamental rays were specialized, associated with the 7 colors of the rainbow that manifested in seven types of fire whose first sensible manifestation was represented by the 7 main planets.

This is the most important part for us: the creative will that gave origin to everything and whose symbol in the cosmos was represented by the Sun assumed for the alchemists 7 aspects or fundamental qualities whose first sensible manifestation was represented by the 7 planets which in turn reverberating on earth gave origin to the birth of minerals and metals.

Having then spoken of the simple fire that lives and subsists by itself, it now remains to speak of a multiple spirit or fire that is the cause of the variety or diversity of creatures, such that none can be found exactly equal to another in every part. This can be seen in metals where none has another exactly equal to itself. The Sun produces Gold, the Moon another and largely different metal called silver; Mars another called iron; Jupiter tin...

Planet	Metal	Organ	Color
Sun	Gold	Heart	Yellow
Moon	Silver	Brain	Mother-of-pearl
Mercury	Mercury	Lungs	Orange
Venus	Copper	Kidneys	Green
Mars	Iron	Gallbladder	Red
Jupiter	Tin	Liver	Blue
Saturn	Lead	Spleen	Black