At times, alchemical symbolism is not only obscure but also repulsive and irritating. For example, I’m baffled by all that explicit physiology. Couldn’t other metaphors have been used besides all those vernacular utterances about human bodily needs?
To tell the truth, I too was initially put off by all those images that we now consider—to put it mildly—sexist and gross. However, one must bear in mind that such imagery reflected the prevailing taste in European metaphors up until the Baroque era; it was only with the Enlightenment, in the 18th century, that sensibilities began to become more refined and intellectual.
In fact, in French cathedrals, it is not uncommon to see column bases and capitals—as well as friezes—depicting people defecating, urinating, or engaged in sexual acts so explicit that they recall scenes found in the brothels of ancient Rome. The French call it the popular culture of the Middle Ages. Apparently, even at the ecclesiastical level, everything was tolerated.
Nothing in the iconography of the French cathedrals of the late Middle Ages escaped the watchful eye of the ecclesiastical world. If bishops, abbots, and sculptors shared the same taste for metaphors, that today we call “Boccaccian”, it was because they came from the same cultural world, even among the upper classes. For instance, we would struggle today to endure a banquet at the princely courts of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, with our ears and minds assaulted by the explicitly sexual jokes and pranks that were in vogue back then—even in the presence of ladies. If such were the tastes of the upper classes, one can only imagine what they were like among the common people.
However, this conceptual framework did not apply to religion and philosophy, for instance. But to alchemy, it did. Is there a reason for this?
Yes, there is a reason, and it is by no means trivial: religion and philosophy belonged to the realm of the soul and the mind, whereas alchemy belonged to the realm of bodies. Alchemy was the sub-lunar realm—with all its earthly contingencies, of course.
Are you telling me that vulgarity was a way to perpetuate the ancient alchemical teachings, even among the more educated social classes?
I wouldn’t put it quite like that. It was a matter of drawing a line between the heavens—religion and philosophy—and laboratory alchemy. Between theurgy and work upon the earth. Indeed, the organic features depicted so openly masked pragmatic laboratory operations that were apparent only to those expert in the subject.
Would a historian be able to pinpoint the cultural area of origin for this extravagant imagery?
If this is important to you, then I can point to the origins of the vernacular imagery of alchemical symbolism in medieval France. However, we must bear in mind that ancient Rome was the capital of the gross—to which the Etruscans and Greeks contributed. Therefore, I would hesitate to claim that everything in France belonged exclusively to the Celtic world. I know the French do not like to be reminded of this, but Rome’s cultural influence on the province of Gaul was enormous. By the way, it is useful to remember that classical Greek mythology symbolically represented not only theurgic truths but also those of laboratory alchemy through the mundane exploits of its deities.
You didn’t mention the Babylonian, Persian and Egyptian symbolism…
For us today, it is very difficult to speak about the archaeology of vanished cultures.
What can you tell me about the symbolism associated with the world of agricultural labor?
Agriculture and animal husbandry were another major avenue for preserving ancient culture through metaphors and allegories that were easily understood by the common people, i.e., the working people. Over the millennia, the symbolism associated with the world of agricultural labor has proven highly illuminating regarding analogous alchemical processes.
For example, there was no longer any talk of the forbidden star calendar, but of the agricultural calendar in which the stars were mentioned a lot.
As is still the case today, everything can be banned and censored, but not work as a means of economic sustenance. Unless world governments manage to provide free livelihoods to all citizens, but at that point I believe censorship would be rampant: blocking the source of livelihood would be enough to eliminate any source of autonomy, even mental autonomy. The word “autonomy” itself would be subject to censorship.
Can you give me some clues about the meaning of the symbolism associated with bodily functions? For example, the act of urinating…
The act of urinating often concealed the alchemical use of the substance found in urine itself: the urine of adolescents, rich in certain compounds; or horse urine, used to produce a substance—derived from hippuric or benzoic acid—possessing high volatilizing power. Children’s urine could even be added as a “secret fire” at a later stage of the alchemical work. Other volatile substances from cattle urine were already widely used in general chemistry.
Now describe the act of defecation to me, given that—incredibly—we find it carved into certain French cathedrals.
Defecation, too, involves a great deal of operational activity. For instance, human feces can serve as the raw material with which to begin alchemical operations. Meanwhile, the feces of herbivores—specifically cattle—are used as “manure” mixed with soil (acting as a further raw material) or as a heat source for cooking processes: the famous “manure heat”.
Finally, sexist images of naked women or women engaged in sexual acts.
Today we would deem them offensively sexist images, but in collections of alchemical imagery, they signify specific states of Mercurius—since the female gender is often attributed to Mercurius. When these “Mercurial” women engage in sexual acts with an individual identifiable as male—and, above all, clothed or even clad in battle armor—an expert alchemist recognizes this as the “fixation” of Mercurius into a less volatile, more stable form. This process is often ideologically depicted through unlikely battles or duels between the volatile and the fixed.
Images of heterosexual couples at their wedding ceremony…
Volatile and fixed have reached a balance and are now uniting.
Images of naked heterosexual couples lying and sleeping in the nuptial bed…
After combining, the volatile and the fixed elements must “ferment” for a period that can last 40 to 50 days; this is the so-called “black phase” or Nigredo.
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Main Index: 7. The Foundation of Alchemical Symbolism