The Philosopher's Egg

Here is our Dragon, swelling with the seed of the Sun, Which anyone may obtain for a small price. He reclines upon it above, and at the same time rests within it: From this it is called your Egg of the deep vessel. Why do so many shining crowns designate it? He prepares golden gifts for his brothers. - Viridarium chymicum figuris cupro incisis adornatum, c. 1624 by Stoltzius von Stoltzenberg, Daniel)

Philosophic egg - hermetically sealed vessel

"In alchemy the egg stands for the chaos apprehended by the artifex, the prima materia containing the captive world-soul. Out of the egg—symbolized by the round cooking-vessel—will rise the eagle or phoenix, the liberated soul, which is ultimately identical with the Anthropos who was imprisoned in the embrace of Physis."

— Collected Works of C.G. Jung, Volume 12

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)"

“The Philosophers take for example an Egg, for in this the four elements are joined together. The first or the shell is Earth, and the White is Water. but the skin between the shell and the White is Air, and separates the Earth from Water; the Yolk is Fire, and it too is enveloped in a subtle skin, representing our subtle air, which is more warm and subtle, as it is nearer to the Fire, and separates the Fire from the Water. In the middle of the Yolk there is the fifth element, out of which the young chicken bursts and grows. Thus we see in an Egg all the elements comvined with matter to form a source of perfect nature, just so as it is necessary in this noble art.”

"The Philosophers give to this Art two bodies, namely: Sun and Moon, which are Earth and Water, they also call them Man and Wife, and they bring forth four children, two boys, which are heat and cold, and two girls, as moisture and dryness. These are the Four Elements, constituting the Quintessence, that is the proper white Magnesia, wherein there is nothing false. In conclusion Senior remarks: "When these five are gathered together, they form One substance, whereof is made the natural Stone, while Avicena contends that: “if we may get at the Fifth, we shall have arrived at the end.”

So let us understand this meaning better. The Philosophers take for example an Egg, for in this the four elements are joined together. The first or the shell is Earth, and the White is Water, but the skin between the shell and the White is Air, and separates the Earth from the Water; the Yolk is Fire, and it too is enveloped in a subtle skin, representing our subtle air, which is more warm and subtle, as it is nearer to the Fire, and separates the Fire from the Water. In the middle of the Yolk there is the Fifth Element, out of which the young chicken bursts and grows.

Thus we see in an egg all the elements combined with matter to form a source of perfect nature, just so as it is necessary in this noble art."

— Splendor solis by Solomon Trismosin