Birth of the Dragon from the Fire

"This our stone is fire, created of fire, and turns into fire; its soul dwells in fire."

• Rosarium Philosophorum

The Dragon is born from the fire because it is fire. It is the volatile spirit of the Prima Materia — the raw, untamed mercury that writhes and burns in the alchemical vessel, consuming itself and generating itself in the same act. The adept does not create the Dragon. The Dragon is already there, coiled inside the crude matter, waiting for heat to rouse it.

In the language of the Art, the Dragon is the The Philosopher’s Mercury in its wild state — the serpentine fire that must be purified, fixed, and tamed before it can become the agent of transformation. It devours its own wings, passes through many colors, and finally whitens. This is the calcination and purification of the volatile principle: the burning away of impurity until only the essential fire remains.

"The dragon devours its wings and emits a variety of colors, shifting from one to another until it finally turns white. This creature is extremely self-sufficient — it should not be fed unless it experiences thirst or hunger; know that if it goes three days without food, it will perish. Thus is the Dragon born.

The son of the dead will live, the king will come from fire, and they will rejoice in their union; eyes will appear, and the maiden's womb will be whitened. Our son has already been tempered by fire, and the warrior surpasses all."

• Donum Dei, Recueil, Georges Aurach, 1601–1700, Bibliothèque nationale de France

The Dragon Shuns the Light

The Golden Tractate — attributed to Hermes Trismegistus himself — describes the same process in the language of resurrection. The Dragon hides from the sun. The dead son comes alive. The king emerges from fire. The occult treasures are opened. And then the son is clothed in red — the sign of the completed Rubedo, the tincture made perfect.

"The Dragon shuns the sunbeams which dart through the crevices, and our dead son lives; king comes forth from the fire and rejoins with his spouse, the occult treasures are laid open, and the virgin's milk is whitened. The Son, already vivified is become a warrior in the fire and of tincture super-excellent. For this Son is himself the treasury, even himself bearing the Philosophic Matter.

Approach, ye Sons of Wisdom, and rejoice; let us now rejoice together, for the reign of death is finished, and the Son doth rule. And now he is invested with the red garment, and the scarlet colour is put on."

• The Golden Tractate of Hermes Trismegistus

The Son is the treasury. The Son bears the Philosophic Matter. This is the essential teaching: the Dragon, once tamed, does not disappear — it becomes the Stone. The volatile fire, once fixed, is the medicine itself.

The Serpent in the Fire

The Splendor Solis image above shows the mercurial serpent burning inside the sealed retort — the Dragon in the act of its own birth, writhing in the alchemical fire. The flask is sealed. The fire is regulated. The serpent has nowhere to go but inward, consuming its own dross, generating its own purification.

The Rosarium Philosophorum: Rosary of the Philosophers puts it plainly:

"This our stone is fire, created of fire, and turns into fire; its soul dwells in fire."

• Rosarium Philosophorum

And the Allegoriae Sapientum repeats it almost word for word:

"Likewise this our stone, i.e., the flask of fire, is created out of fire and turns back into it."

• Allegoriae Sapientum, Bibl. chem. curiosa

The Stone is fire. It comes from fire and returns to fire. The Dragon is not an obstacle to the Work — it is the Work's living substance.

Purifying the Serpent

The first task of the Art is the purification of this Serpent — born from the slime of the earth, black with impurity, volatile and dangerous. The adept must whiten these "foul and black faeces," extracting from them the white sulphur, the Sal Amoniac of the Wise, the "Chaste Diana" who washes herself in the bath. This is nothing other than the extraction of the fixed salt of the compound — the stable, purified essence that holds the true energy of Mercury:

"So, in the Art, you can have no success if you do not in the first work purify the Serpent, born of the Slime of the earth; it you do not whiten these foul and black faeces, to separate from thence the white sulphur, which is the Sal Amoniac of the Wise, and their Chaste Diana, who washes herself in the bath; and all this mystery is but the extraction of the fixed salt of our compound, in which the whole energy of our Mercury consists."

The Blood of the Dragon

George Ripley speaks of feeding the infant Stone with the blood of the Green Dragon and the Red Dragon — the two mercuries, volatile and fixed, that nourish the Work from beginning to end. Without this blood, neither the white stone nor the red can be perfected:

"For until the Infant, that is, this our stone, be formed and leavened with its like, the Bloud of the green Dragon, and the red Bloud of the Red Dragon, whether it be the white Stone or the red, it will never do a perfect work. Know therefore, Son, that the first Water is that Water Rebar, which God made of Nature, and it is the cause of Generation, as I said before; but when after the conjunction which ariseth from the Marriage, it begets the Water of Life, and the Philosophers Milk, with one of which, or both, you must augment and feed your Stone perpetually."

• George Ripley, Treatise of Mercury and the Philosophers' Stone

The The Alchemical Dragon has two bloods — green and red — corresponding to the two stages of the mercury's purification. The green is the raw, living mercury before fixation. The red is the perfected tincture, the blood of the completed Stone. Both are needed. The Dragon feeds on itself.

The Ripley Scroll

The Ripley Scroll describes the same mercurial water as the Serpent of Life, the maiden's milk, the dew that renews the Work. It is at once the solvent that dissolves and the water that generates:

"Mark thou now in thy mind Acetome of philosophers men call this A water abiding so it is The maidens milk of the dew That all the work doth renew The Serpent of life it is called also And other names many more The which causeth generation Betwixt the man and the woman But looke thou no division Be there in the conjunction Of the moon and of sun After the marriage be begun"

• The Ripley Scroll

The Hidden Treasure

Thomas Vaughan, writing in his luminous Lumen de Lumine:

"Under the Altar lyes the Green Dragon or the Magician's Mercury involving in it self a Treasure of Gold and Pearl."

• Thomas Vaughan, Lumen de Lumine

The Dragon lies beneath the altar — hidden, coiled, guarding its treasure. The Gold and Pearl are already inside it. The adept does not create the treasure. The adept learns to see what the Dragon already contains, and through fire, patience, and art, brings it forth into the light.

Related Pages

• The Alchemical Dragon
• The Philosopher’s Mercury
• Prima Materia

Sources