Newton’s Dark Secrets Student Handout Keys to the Stone

Some Common Symbols in lion: raw matter and lead: Saturn, old man carrying a scythe Alchemical Texts and Images acid; red lion is the or hourglass, Capricorn the Goat and red acetate of lead Aquarius the Water Carrier, Saturday baths: cleansing; dissolving a solid in crystalline form; in a liquid green lion is the green acetate of Properties of the Alchemical black cow: black or purifying matter lead in liquid or crystal form; black Principles black raven/blackbird: a black mixture lion represents carbon; the winged sophic sulfur: symbolized by the red king bone of whale: a white mixture lion is mercury or sophic salt or red rose child: offspring of the king and queen, ouroboros (a serpent biting its tail): sophic mercury: symbolized by the white the result of their marriage or union; completion queen or white rose a naked child symbolizes the innocent queen: woman, lunar consciousness, soul; a child crowned or clothed in sophic salt: symbolized by the ouroboros, and silver; the white queen is sophic purple robes signifies salt or the the stone, and the astral body mercury (considered the quintessence Philosopher’s Stone of metals); the queen united with the crown: completion; king is the operation of conjunction perfection of a metal (the joining of two opposite natures) Alchemical Elements dragon/serpent: fire; the dragon in stag: the soul air: spirit into the manifested world; flames is a symbol of fire and calcination hot and wet; sanguine trees: the process of transformation (breaking down a earth: manifestation, birth, and material substance by heat- whale: water creation; cold and dry; melancholy ing or burning it); dragons with wolf, grey wolf: stibnite, an ore of fire: activity and trans- wings represent antimony formation; hot and dry; the volatile principle choleric (mercury); dragons without wings represent the fixed principle (sulfur); Metals Used by Alchemists water: cleansing and a dragon biting its own tail is the purification; cold and ouroboros and signifies the antimony: wolf, grey wolf wet; phlegmatic fundamental unity of all things gold: sun, king, eagle: volatilization and air perfect sphere, Leo the Lion, Sunday egg: the sealed vessel of creation silver: moon, queen, hermaphrodite (half man/half woman): white rose, crescent, conjunction; the union of two opposites rain cup, Cancer the Crab, Monday king: man, solar consciousness, and gold; iron: Mars, shield and spear, Scorpio the red king is sophic sulfur (considered the Scorpion and Aries the Ram, Tuesday the seed of gold); the king united with the queen symbolizes conjunction mercury: Mercury or Hermes, caduceus (the joining of two opposite natures) (twined serpents on a staff), Virgo the Virgin and Gemini the Twins, Wednesday

tin: Jupiter, lightning, Pisces the Fish and Sagittarius the Archer, Thursday

copper: Venus, hand mirror, Taurus the Bull and Libra the Scales, Friday © 2005 WGBH Educational Foundation