The Alchemy of Transmutation
Alchemy uses the code names salt, mercury, and sulphur to denote the different components of a substance.
• Salt denotes the physical component, the seat, base, matrix, anchor, or ark of the nonphysical aspects.
• Mercury is the etheric component and represents the dynamic, vital, transmutative, vivifying energy present within the substance.
• Sulphur denotes the archetypal identity or pure vibrational essence, analogous to the human astral body and spirit because it contains the “Idea” unique to that substance.
For example, in Alchemy an element like gold is seen to have three components: the salt of gold, mercury of gold, and sulphur of gold. These respectively denote the physical, etheric, and archetypal aspects of gold. Same goes for other materials employed in Alchemy, they also have their salt, mercury, and sulphur components.
The goal of transmutation is to impress the archetypal signature of one element upon another in order to change it to that element. By changing an element’s archetypal signature it cannot remain the same element.
What Alchemy does in the case of transmutation of lead into gold, is to
• extract mercury from etherically potent sources
• imbue it with the sulphur of gold
• store the combination in a suitable salt.
The result is then ready to impress its archetypal essence of “goldness” upon a different element responsive to transmutation.
This is the Philosopher’s Stone, or rather one form of it called the Red Stone because it is made with gold and assumes a red color.