Sol & Luna: Sun - Moon
Yang - Yin
2 Polarities (Celestial Salt, Celestial Niter)
Sun & Moon
- Lunar and Solar aspects of life/creation
- Sun King & Moon Queen
"Each thing is multiplied and augmented by means of a male and female principle. Matter produces nothing unless penetrated by power. Nature creates nothing unless impregnated by Spirit. Thought remains unproductive unless rendered active by Will." — Axiomata Hermetica
Sun
- Male
- Positive pole
- Active
- Day
- Yang
Moon
- Female
- Negative pole
- Passive
- Receptive
- Night
- Yin
"Alchemical generation occurs when heat and moisture are perfectly balanced. The Sun and Moon, male and female, fire and water, are united into one body. From this union arises the living spirit and the true work of Nature."
Two figures: one with a Sun-head riding a lion (Sulfur/King) and another riding a griffin (Mercury/Queen). They are engaged in a symbolic struggle or "dialectic" that leads to their eventual union.
The Marriage of the Sun & Moon
"It is well for the student to realize that the alchemy of life produces in natural sequence all of the states of progression which are explained in the writings of the alchemist, until finally the sun and the moon are united as described in the Hermetic Marriage, which is, in truth, the marriage of the body and the spirit for the mutual development of each other." — Initiates of the Flame by Manly P. Hall
"A soaring eagle with heart aflame, with the Sun and Moon at the threshold of its wings, bears tokens of dominion: the crown of influence, the sceptre of the king, and the globe of the empress. Its buoyancy in flight and its flaming heart show the etherial nature of this eagle: wet outside, fire inside. It is our Liquid Mercury. The Sun and Moon seek solace under the shadow of these wings, basking in the pleasing radiation from the flaming heart. To win the Crown of the Earth, fuse the power of the sceptre and the globe using the Dry Fire of Mars and the Wet Fire of Venus."
“This work is the work of the sun and the moon, and whoever understands this properly will bring about wondrous things. When the red and the white are united and become a single being, then great power arises in the art. Therefore keep these two together so that they do not separate from one another. For if they remain united, then the whole Mastery (the Work) is accomplished.” - Vera scientia alchimiae, (German MS 1), The John Rylands Library
“This Stone is but one stone in the whole world, and he that in the beginning of his work shall err from this one, doth altogether lose his labour. In the whole world there is not any other thing necessary in our work but only this Stone. Arnoldus says Sol and Luna are in our Stone in virtue and power and in all nature, if this were not so neither Sol nor Luna would be made thereof, because the Sol and Luna in our Stone are better than the common in the nature of them, and because Sol and Luna are alone in Our Stone, and the vulgar are dead in respect of Sol and Luna. Therefore the Philosophers have named that Stone, Sol and Luna by course, because they are in it potentially and not visibly, but in virtue and essence. Wherefore Hermes says, "Our Stone crieth saying, 'Son, help me and I will help thee.’"”
- Rosarium Philosophorum
"This living gold is "that which is, but does not appear till it pleases the Artist, and in the knowledge of which is the secret of all perfection." Mercury is our field, in which the Sun rises and sets; let the two be inseparably united on the bed of love, till from this (regenerate) Mercury there comes forth a quickening virtue, which is able to raise the dead. Then there will appear the royal child, whose father is the Sun, whose mother is the Moon"
- The Fount of Chemical Truth (third treatise within The Three Treatises of Philalethes)
“I advise you, my friends, to operate on nothing but the Sun and Moon; but these you should resolve into their elementary substances, viz., our quicksilver and our sulphur.” - Raymond Lully
“Therefore the Moon is necessarily required to make the Sun subtle and thin and recede and to secrete its impurities.” - Anonymous Clangor Buccinae - The Sound of Trumpets
“you must join the husband and wife together that each may feed upon the other's flesh and blood, and that so they may propagate their species a thousandfold.” - Basil Valentine. Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine
"This is the Stone of which we speak, if anyone understand our books aright. It is the soul and shining substance of the Sun and Moon, that subtile influence from which the earth derives its splendour."
- The Golden Tract Concerning the Stone of the Philosophers
The Sun
"And know ye that no body is more precious or purer than the Sun, and that no tingeing venom: is generated without the Sun and its shadow. He, therefore, who attempts to make the venom of the Philosophers without these, already errs, and has fallen into that pit wherein his sadness remains. But he who has tinged the venom of the wise out of the Sun and its shadow has arrived at the highest Arcanum." - The Turba Philosophorum
"Hereupon Says Hermes, My Son! take from the ray its shadow, that is, see that you bring your Sun round about the primum mobile, of which Vulcan is made overseer, that even that part of your Earth, which is now covered with a shady night, may obtain the clear light of the Sun"
- Michael Maier, Atalanta fugiens (Emblem 45)
"The Sun enters into all, but it is never ameliorated by its inferiors." - Alchemical Catechism
"The philosophers say that in this art there are two bodies, namely the Sun and the Moon, which are also called earth and water, and they call them the Man and the Woman. From them are born four children: two sons and two daughters. The sons represent heat and cold, and the daughters represent dryness and moisture. These are the four elements, and from them the fifth essence is perfected — this is the white magnesia, which does not deceive. The wise man concludes that when these things are gathered together they become one single thing. Then the natural stone is made. Avicenna says that if we understand this fifth thing, then the end of our work will be near. Thus the philosophers describe this likeness, showing that four things must be joined together. The first is earth. The second is water. The third is air. The fourth is fire. From these is produced the subtle spirit which lies hidden within them. This subtle spirit separates fire from water and unites them again in the center. Then a new powder is formed, in which all virtues are gathered together with the matter. Thus nature is renewed, and this must happen in this noble art." Traduction latine du t. I de l'oeuvre de Salomon Trismosin, publié en allemand à Rorschach, 1598