Philosophic egg - hermetically sealed vessel
Many of the world’s creation myths describe how the world or the deities are born out of a cosmic primordial egg. From there our universe is created, whose shell is the limit of the divine, whose Heaven is the upper part of the egg and whose Earth is the lower part of the egg. The egg yolk is the embryo for our sun and the egg white for our moon. Shells, egg yolks and egg whites have therefore been used by alchemists throughout history as symbols for the three alchemical principles of salt, sulphur and mercury. Paracelsus further considered that the four elements are present in the egg: earth and water in the yolk, air and fire in the white. The British mathematician, court astrologer and magician John Dee (1527-1608) used the egg to demonstrate the elliptical motions of the planets in the etheric heavens. The symbolism of the egg thus extends from the macrocosmic to the microcosmic level.
- Alchemy – the divine work
"Mercurius in the “philosopher’s egg” (the alchemical vessel). As filius he stands on the sun and moon, tokens of his dual nature. The birds betoken spiritualization, while the scorching rays of the sun ripen the homunculus in the vessel.—Mutus liber (1702)"