3, BASIC CONCEPTS OF ALCHEMY 481 Slowly, in the course of the eighteenth century, alchemy Perished in its own obscurity. Its method of explanation. “eh, Seurum per obscurius, ignotum per jgnotius” (the obseare by the more obscure, the unknown by the more unkhown)-was i compatible with the sprit of enlightenment and particulary with the dawning. science of chemistry towatds the end of the century. But these two new intellectual lotees only gave the coup de grice to alchemy. Ie inner decay had begun Kent a century ealicr, atthe time of Jakob Dulhme, when many a hemist deserted their slembics and melting pots and de aed emselves entirely to (Hermetic) philosophy. Ie was then that the chemist and the Hermetic: philosopher. parted company Chemistry became natural science, whercas Hermetic pinto Phy lose the empirical ground from under its feet and supared to bombastic allegories and inane speculations which were Rept alive only by memories of a better time.! This wan a tine Rae ne 27‘when the mind of the alchemist was still grappling with the problems of matter, when the exploring consciousness was con fronted by the dark void of the unknown, in which figures and Jaws were dimly perceived and attributed to matter although they really helonged to the psyche. Everything unknown and ‘empty i filled with psychological projection; itis 38 if the in vestigator’s own psychie background were mirored in the dark ness. What he sees in matter, or thinks he ean sce is chielly the data of his own unconscious which be is projecting into it. fy other words, he encounters in matter, as apparently belonging ‘o i, certain qualities and potential meanings of whose psychic ratute he is entirely unconscious. This is particularly tte of classical alchemy, when empirical science and mystical philoso phy were more or less undiflerentiated. The proces of fission which separated the guna from the jorvad set in atthe end of the sixtenth century and produced & quite fantastic species of Titeratare whose authors were, at last ro some extent, consciows of the paychic nature of thelr “alchemystical” transmutations, On this aspect of alchemy, especially as regards is psychological significance, Herbert Silberers book Problems of Mysichm and Tis Symbolism gives us abundant information, ‘The fantastic symbolism bound up with it graphically deseribed in a paper by R, Bernoulli? and a detailed aeconnt of Hermetic phil. phy isto be found in a study by J. Evola® But a comprehensive study of the ideas contained inthe texts, and of thet history, sill lacking, although we are indebted to Reitzenstein for in. portant preparatory workin this el. Alchemy, as is well known, describes a process of chemical transformation and gives numberless ditctions for its accom. plishment. Although hardly two authors are of the same opin ion regarding the exact course of the process and the seqpience ofits stages, the majority are agreed on the principal points at issue, and have been so from the earliest times, ie, since the be Sei lpn Rei a8 sinning of the Christian era. Four stages are distinguished (ig 11g) characterized by the original colours mentioned in Hera litus: melanosis (blackening), leukosis (whitening), aunthosts (ellowing), and sass (reddening) This division ofthe process Into four was called the seyaupciy rv guenebian, the quarter ing of the philosophy. Later, about the flteenth or sixteenth century, the colours were reduced to three. and the xanthos, ‘otherwise called the citrinias, gradually fell inco disse or was Dut seldom mentioned, Instead the viridias sometimes appen's alter the melanosis or migredo in exceptional case, though it ‘was never generally recognized. Whereat the otiginal etrameria corresponded exactly to the quaternity of elements, it was non frequently stresed.that although there were four. clements (carth, wate, fire, and ait) and four qualtis (hot, eld, dry, and ‘moist, there were only three colours: black, mite, and red