It is the close of the sixteenth century; Giordano Bruno travels from city to city all over Europe, hunted by the Inquisition for his heretical system of memory and signification. In less than one year, the inquisition will burn him alive for his Ideas.


"You, Egypt, brought forth as sacred the hidden signs,
Famed before in song and story, of gods and people;
With them, with nature as our guide, what we perceive can be more scrupulously noted
Than by our shifting sense, experiences, and ordering of these same things.
Through these very sins the ancient mysteries remain in plain view,
While Nature unfolds herself in her numbers; through signs, oracles of the gods have come before mens’ eyes.
Therefore, when a thing stands signified by its own figure
A chariot is admitted for a chariot, a fire for a fire,
But when an image not invisible in itself is signed,
Let a better sense, a better skill step forth."

Alchemy is the most divine art, given to mankind by God as the ability to create gold from lead, as God created the world by naming it. God has ordained that only the most pure of heart, mind, body and soul can complete this work. We call this divine work the “idea.” The idea is God; the idea is a divine act of mind and of divine will commanded. It is a holy work that alchemists do, but in our time, when old widows are burned at the stake as witches for their petty neighbours, they must work in secret unless they are friendly with the crown.

Therefore, a work of signification is useful. When using images or words, one must keep in mind the audience. Images do not receive their names from the explanations of the things they signify, but rather from the condition of those things that do the signifying. When communicating Alchemy to the wider audience, the imagery and wording chosen will make two separate impressions. One will see a series illustrating the evolution of a strange marriage, filled with hermaphrodites and wild animals. The Alchemist, however, will see the metallic elements joined and the divine work completed.

When contemplating the creation of an alchemical allegory in order to hide its true meaning, one begins to have the trace [vestigium] of the idea of the chemical marriage. A trace is given to us only a subtle form, only the hint of an idea. The trace is something that hints at us that there is some form of substance, but will not allow it to be made manifest. The trace the way we see God, we see nature and contemplate god through its traces. We cannot truly understand God, but we can begin to contemplate him as we contemplate his trace through nature.

When one is given the divine will of god to begin to commit to the chemical marriage in his name, he has been communicated the divine will of God, and must accept the Idea.
The theory of the documentation of the chemical marriage begins to be understood, now. How could one possibly corrupt the divine will of God to paper, or through furtive discussion in alleyways? They only way we have found to communicate the divine alchemical ideals to one another is through the creation of a species, a shadow [umbra] of the Idea. The shadow is all art, being only a shadow of the trace. It is only the most crude manifestation of the form or the Idea. For this reason, we must always contemplate all early acts as mere shadow of the inspired divine. This world we live in, outside heaven, is the artificial world, where men strive to understand earth and heaven through rationalisation. The rational world is an artificial world, only a construct, a shadow of the idea, a mutant of the form. Therefore, when creating a way of communicating on this earthly plane, one must accept it will be a shadow of the Idea, and not as the Idea itself.

I believe that ideas, concepts and objects are all symbols, and if they can be remembered, they can be understood. One cannot understand anything when still contemplating oneself. Signs are understood by composition, combination, plurality of terms, by means of discourse and reflection. So those different words, that when seen by the grammarian’s eye are synonymous, for us signify one thing at one time and another at another. For example, "Luna," "Sol" and "Mercury" are not the same things as "our Silver," "our Gold" and "our Mercury." The chemical marriage, however, could not and should not be represented differently. The Analogy of the Idea of the chemical marriage is required in understanding- these are not mere Indications of a Sign or a Shadow, but are a way of understanding the Divine embodied in chemical change that must be first established in the mind before it will occur within the Philosopher’s Egg.

There are three principles that must be understood in order to contemplate Signification. This trinity is a natural system seen everywhere in nature, and so we follow nature’s form.

The first is the concept of the initial composition of all things as being God, nature, or art. Nothing can be more than one of these. The divine, the natural and the artificial can be applied to all things. The Trace is always a natural thing, a distillation of the Divine into something Natural. It becomes a trace of the Idea. The Shadow, or the rational world is the place of the Shadow of Ideas. The only purity is the Idea, which man cannot wholly contemplate without revelations. The Shadows are divided into primary, secondary etc. These Ideas are the cause of things before the things exist, the vestiges of the idea are the things themselves or what vestiges are in things, the shadows of the things are from the things themselves, or exist after the things which are said to exist. Beings are distinguished into those which are things, and into those things which are their signs or indications. The Image of a thing is separate and different from its substance.

One must also not forget the inherent limitations of the senses. In order to understand the divine Idea, one should use the sense of sight, as it is the most spiritual. I will explain more about this later. Touch conceives only those things that linger, surrendering themselves to our skin. We can only perceive the sense of smell from the body of things conspicuously placed near us, in time or distance. We can hear those things from near through distance places within our time, but the quality of hearing is such that it is only in the now.

Only sight comprehends the most remotes things and associates them with other things apprehended by that sense, and also retain them more effectively than by the other senses. Therefore, it is wise to signify the objects of all the appetites and the cognitive facilities in the same way that we describe and reveal all things by means of visible letters and shapes, the Mark.

Alchemical symbols follow historical fact or precedent. The most common method of communicating the chemical marriage is the “marriage” Signification. Based on these Signs from the historical precedent, we infer "Sol" with copper, "Luna" with silver and the character Hermes or “Mercury” with the metallic element, mercury. When something is composed sensibly, this nonsensical division arises. Certain allusion we intuit to which allusion is made; denotations of the roles of the various characters are signified in other ways via Shadow. From the tool, we perceive the skill, as for example the astrologer by the astrolabe or sphere in his hand.

When the chemical marriage is committed to a painting, to a concrete image, it becomes a sign [nota]. When a Form or an Idea is committed as a Shadow into the shape of a Sign, it does not receive its name from the explanation of the things it signifies, but rather from the condition of those things that do the signifying. The only reason a man would have to commit an Idea to a Shadow is to communicate it, and in this commitment, perhaps he would allow other men that have not received the Idea from God, to contemplate his great work. The Sign therefore has many meanings beyond the primary Idea; it denotes everything which in any way displays or indicates another thing either its primary, secondary proximate or remote, immediate or mediate reason or meaning. The alchemical painting becomes a way to communicate a trace of the Idea through a shadow.

The painting therefore is a Sign, signifying the elements of the Idea of the chemical marriage. It signifies through a fixed drawing of lines committed to paper, or the stroke of a brush- this is called the Character. The Character denotes a signification through the fixed lines, or a setting of points in order to intentionally point at one thing. However, the art of the Alchemist must be hidden, as not all men are worthy of the Idea. Therefore, the Sign’s primary, and secondary meanings shall have a Character that signifies on levels other than the intended primary. When considering the imagery of the chemical marriage, there are many different forms of imagery that are generally used to communicate the Idea, while leading the uninitiated to believe this is a story involving the actual players depicted. In the rosarium philosophorum (Rosary of the Philosophers), we see a story that to those only able to see the Shadow, therefore the secondary Sign, and therefore, a completely different character of a king and a queen marrying and indulging on sexual acts that modern scholarship doesn’t appreciate being educated about. The man in possession of the Idea, however, sees beyond the Shadow and to the primary Sign as the chemical marriage of Mercury being added as a solvent for gold and silver; thereby creating the Elixir of Life, as God has granted, and with the second part of the process, the Philosopher’s Stone, the realisation of the Idea of the Form.

The Mark [signum] of the chemical marriage is then understood as a part of its genus, the common attribute portrayed that has signification, either as an Idea or Trace or Shadow or otherwise. The person that understands the secondary or proximate Sign of the Character would then have a different interpretation of the Mark of the image. Someone recognising the primary Sign would understand the Mark as the recipe of the chemical marriage; the Mark understood by one with only a proximate Sign would see the chemical marriage as a record of actual people and events.

The Seal [sigillum] is the diminutive of Mark, and signifies the more notable part of the sign or the sign as it is generally accepted, as for example, when we signify a person or his action by his head alone or only by his hand. In the chemical marriage, a Seal is from the primary Sign could be a specific act, such as the act of copulation signifying the combining of mercury and gold together. In the Seal of copulation, the Seal signifies the diminutive of just the practise of alchemy, but distils something specific from the whole enterprise. The Seal is a specificity of the essence of images, and the power they have to effect change. Change and movement are a sign of life, and nothing in the world, least of all the world itself is inanimate.

The Indication [indicium], like Mark and Seal, of the chemical marriage is extant in the image’s existence and elicits internal or external contemplation of what it signifies. Just as one who points does not pre se signify the thing that is being indicated, but rather he invites or summons it to his inner or outer contemplation. The Indication of the chemical marriage is the understanding of the Sign via the Shadow, a fable of sexuality, death and resurrection for one man is the Philosopher’s Stone for another.

Different from all preceding terms, Figure [figura] are composed of Ideas, Traces and Shadows, as much related to the intrinsic as to the extrinsic aspect of things; “Figure” however pertains only to the extrinsic. The Figure of the alchemical imagery exists only of the initial impression, of the basic form without any inner contemplation of the deeper meaning; the Figure of a thing is only the superficial. Those that only see the secondary or tertiary meanings of the Sign related would only be sensing a Figure, and not the deeper meaning.

With the chemical marriage, the Analogy [similitudo] is well utilised. When a person is signified in letters and characters as well as in marks, indications and signs, less will be signified than with a simile or a likeness, as in a painting or a statue or its appearance as received by the senses and presented in the imagination. The analogy is a translation from one’s Idea into a kind of Shadow Sign. The quality of the Analogy is determined by the kind of Signification used. While in some cases, as in a philosophy, the message is best served with letters and characters in order to relate the message as fully as possible. With the alchemical Analogy, the exact likeness of the work is not related with intention, and images are made so that they can be synthesised and understood only by the initiated. The analogy presents the solemn and serious Godly work that Alchemists do, and clearly state the method of the science, while those that can see only the Figure will see only gross copulation and death.

The Proportion [proportio] is father from the Idea than the trace, and is the understanding of Proportion between more than two terminal points. Where a simple connection of Sign and the Trace, Idea or Shadow would be a connection between two terminal points, the Proportion is the connection between three or more. Just as Aleph is for the Hebrews, so is Alpha to the Greeks. Here we have four terminal points of Proportion, 1. Aleph, 2. Hebrew, 3. Alpha, 4. Greeks. Just as Sol is to Luna, so too is Luna to Mercury, which is three terminal points, Sol, Luna, Mercury. This is the understanding of the Proportion of an Idea’s being.

The Image [imago] embraces a greater energy, emphasis and universality, for there is more being for Image than for Analogy. Image tends more to unequivocally than does Analogy, and it is the same for things not only when they are in the same genus, but also when they are outside their own genus. Just as one artifice is said to be similar to a certain artifice, nonetheless it is not called an Analogy in relation to its Image or in its Image unless it is in a very close genus or the same species. The Image of the King swimming in the ocean for his bath is not an Image, but an Analogy. An Image is a visual representation that is almost an exact likeness