"The Heat causes earthly things to be penetrated by a Spiritual Force, of which it is said in the Turba : Spiritualize the bodies and make Volatile that which is Fixed. Of which Rhazes reminds in his " Light of Lights," as follows : "A heavy body cannot be made light without the help of a light body, nor can a light body be kept pressed down to the ground without the aid of a heavy body." — Splendor solis; alchemical treatises of Solomon Trismosin
"But by separating the subtil from the gross, is to be understood, the subtilizing of the Thick Matter, and Spagyrically to reduce that subtilized Matter into Aether or Spiritual Air."
- Salmon's Commentary on the Emerald Tablet
Volatile and Fixed Superior and inferior
“as a Woman desires a Husband, and a Vile thing a precious one, and an impure a pure one, so also Argent vive covers a Sulphur, as that which should make perfect which is imperfect: So also a Body freely desires a Spirit, whereby it may at length arrive at its perfection.” - Bernard Trevisan. Treatise of the Philosophers Stone
"And in the third degree the stone is administered in like sort which consists in the last accomplishment of the preparation, that is to say that you make the Stone which is now fixed with the means of Sublimation, to be volatile, and that which is volatile to be fixed, and the fixed dissolved, and the dissolved to be again volatile, and again to make the volatile fixed until it melt and alter in the sure accomplishment of Sol and Luna. Therefore the multiplication of the goodness of alteration rejoices at the reiteration of preparation of the third degree in the medicine. Therefore, of the diversity of the reiteration of the work upon the Stone in his degrees, the diversity of the multiplication of the goodness of alteration rejoices, that of the medicines some of them transmute sevenfold, some tenfold, some an hundred fold and some a thousand fold, yea, and some transmute infinitely into the true and perfect bodies of Sol and Luna. From hence, therefore, and lastly, let it be tried whether the magistery consists in perfection."
- Rosarium Philosophorum
"Ut tentes interiora terrae, rectificando invenies occultum lapidem veram Medicinam.": "That you may explore the inner parts of the Earth; by rectifying, you will find the hidden stone, the true medicine." "Confusa Materia sive Chaos Natura": "Confused Matter or the Chaos of Nature" "Omnia in Omnibus": “Everything in Everything" "Fixum si solves, faciesque volare solutum / Et volucrem figes, faciet te vivere tutum.": "If you dissolve the fixed and make the volatile fly, and fix the volatile, it will make you live safely."
The Volatile & The Fixed: Winged & Wingless Dragons
Winged Dragon: Represents the volatile, spiritual, or celestial principle. It signifies the "fixed" becoming "volatile," associated with the soul, spirit, or mercury in its purified, ascending state. It embodies transcendence, enlightenment, or the divine spark.
Wingless Dragon: Represents the fixed, material, or earthly principle. It symbolizes the "volatile" becoming "fixed," linked to the body, matter, or the prima materia (raw substance). It signifies grounding, stability, or the unrefined state.
Together, they illustrate the alchemical duality—spirit vs. matter, volatile vs. fixed—unified in the Great Work to achieve the transformation that creates the Philosophers’ Stone
