reanimating the corporifications Giving life to dead metals
"The alchemists are alluding to this operation, when they speak of reanimating the corporifications, that is to say giving life to the dead metals. It is Philalethes’ Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King and Ripley’s and Basil Valentine’s first door, which one must know how to open. The old man is none other than our Mercury, the secret agent, whose nature, method of action, materials and time of preparation have been revealed to us in several bas-reliefs. As for the Palace, it represents the living, philosophic or base gold, despised by the ignorant and hidden under the rags, which conceal it from our eyes, although it is extremely precious to one who knows its value. In this motif, we see a variation of the allegory of the green and red lions, of the solvent and the body to be dissolved. Indeed the old man, whom the texts indentify with Saturn—who, it is said, ate his children—was formerly painted green, while the interior of the palace showed a purple colouring. I shall say later to what source one may refer, in order to re-establish the meaning of all these figures, by means of the original colours. It should also be noted that the hieroglyph of Saturn, considered as a solvent, is very ancient. On a sarcophagus at the Louvre, which had contained the mummy of a hierophant priest of Thebes named Poeris, the god Shu can be seen on the left hand side, holding up the sky, with the aid of the god Chnouphis (the soul of the world), while at their feet crouches the god Ser (Saturn), whose skin is green in colour." — The Mystery of Cathedrals, c. 1926 by Fulcanelli