En: Ouroboros
Ouroboros
Source: Phoenixmasonry
The same relationships are represented in alchemy. The circle of mercury is no different dall'uroboro, the snake biting its tail.
In many Gnostic representations, it surrounds the world of creation, and at the Gnostics Ophites. The term greek ophis means snake. The mystic Jacob Boehme describes how the devil has deceived the soul chain her to the fire wheel foundation of nature. This wheel ardent wish is an image of the devil to the soul that says: "You're such a fiery mercury if you dedicate yourself to this art. But you have to eat the fruit in which the four elements reign over each other, each for themselves and are therefore in conflict "So, in this soul awaken all the features of nature, so that the lusts and desires become the wildest family. In alchemic sense, the state is expressed by the formula: the nature enjoying nature.
The human microcosm thus ends with the negatively impacted by mercury unstable. The words of Jacob Bohme above evoke the relationship between the principles of alchemy and biblical expulsion from Paradise. In the Bible, it also tells the serpent that seduced Eve. When Jacob Bohme speaks of mercury of fire, shows its effect on the human being. For him, the mercury is water burning that, in its lower aspect, is the astral fire of desire. We must learn to dominate this force and transform it into the mercury higher. If the mercurial water is not stabilized, the human being may still suffer the fatal force of the fall. This corresponds to the triangle in which one of the corners is oriented downwards, the symbol of water in chemistry. The energy dissolving acts of indiscriminate and chaotic as it is stable for this, the snake biting its tail. The alchemist, knows how to direct if he can use that activity dissolving in its own process of transmutation. The process always begins with the dissolution, followed by coagulation: solve et coagula. Many ancient myths tell symbolically the uncontrollable force of mercury that must be overcome, so it can not cause more damage. Thus, the serpent is the dragon that must be fought. The dragon and the bull are sealed figures, representations of heroes basically rebels as Mithra, Jason, Apollo, Horus and other warriors.
The dragons are considered green and without direction by the alchemists, I have not yet gone through the process of maturation, ie they are still subject to the power of transformation that will lead them to a higher order. In many illustrations, the circle is formed by two serpents or dragons that they bite the tail.
One of the two has the wings. The famous alchemist Nicolas Flamel (1330 - 1418) wrote about it: "Look closely at these two dragons, they represent the true beginning of philosophy, to the wise men were not allowed to reveal it to their children. One on the bottom, without wings, represents what is fixed and stable: what is called man. The snake is above the woman, dark, dark and moody. The first is sulfur, or hot and dry, the other is the quicksilver (mercury), or the cold and wet. When the two come together becoming the quintessence, are capable of overcoming all that is hard, solid and metallic."
Gallery
London Brompton cemetery
Georg Witters 1635
Theodor Galle, Joan Galle, und Johan Wierix. "Veridicus Christianus" 1601
