Mercury & Saturn: Fixing the Volatile

“Take therefore lead, which is Saturn, and mix it with the fume of Mercury, and you will have the medicine.” - Basil Valentine, The Twelve Keys

"Fixing the Volatile." In the alchemical arc, this is the moment where the elusive, fluid spirit (Mercury) is captured, weighted down, and slain by the heavy, leaden principle of time and death (Saturn) so that it may rot and be reborn.

“Prepare therefore the congealed Spirit, or ☿ of Saturn, congealed by the smoke.” - Anonymous (as printed in Johann Siebmacher / J. de Monte Hermetis), De Secretis Adeptorum (1704).

“Out of Saturn, Mercury, and Jupiter you may make Sol and Luna.” - Paracelsus, The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus

“By the Eagle the Philosophers understand mercurial water, and by salt they understand Saturn.” - Bacstrom anthology, Collectanea Chemica (1791)

Mercury (Hermes/Mercurius) represents volatility, mobility, mediation, and the “spirit” or “water” that dissolves and carries transformation.

Saturn (Chronos/Saturnus) represents heaviness, limit, duration, decay, and the “body” associated with lead and with the dark, slow phase of putrefaction.

The volatile must be fixed, and the fixed must be opened or softened so it can be transformed.

A youthful, winged figure wearing a short tunic, holding a caduceus (two serpents around a staff). This is Mercury (Latin: Mercurius), the alchemical principle of volatility, spirit, subtlety, transformation, and mediation. In alchemical diagrams Mercury is often winged, light, and mobile.

An older, bearded winged figure dressed in blue, holding a scythe.An hourglass stands on his head. This is Saturn (Latin: Saturnus), the alchemical principle of fixity, heaviness, limitation, time, decay, and dissolution. Saturn’s scythe and the hourglass are standard symbols.

They are shown in confrontation, but this is not literal combat. It depicts the chemical and spiritual tension between the volatile (Mercury) and the fixed (Saturn).

In alchemical theory, the Work cannot begin unless the fixed body is softened by the volatile spirit, and the volatile spirit is anchored and stabilized by the fixed body. The interaction of Saturn and Mercury is the first stage of the Great Work: the breaking down of raw matter.

matter (Saturn) must be dissolved, and spirit (Mercury) must be fixed.

“Mercury conquers Saturn, yet is also captured by him.” “The old king must die so a new king may arise.”

Prima congelatio fit per hunc Mercurium hoc est per purificationem. Si autem materia lapidis aquae gossii, aeris autem et caloris, nec frigore congelari potest… …qui vero hunc nostrum Mercurium hoc modo recte praeparaverit, is in hoc opere primam congelationem dignam inveniet.

Translation (literal):

“The first coagulation is made through this Mercury, that is, through purification. But if the material of the Stone is watery, airy, and hot, it cannot be congealed by cold… Yet whoever prepares our Mercury correctly in this manner will find in it the first worthy coagulation of the Work.”

The “first congelation” (coagulation, fixation) happens only when the purified Mercury acts upon the raw material to begin creating the Stone.

Latin:"Prima congelatio ☿ fit per ♄ hoc est, per putrefactionem."

English:"The first congelation [solidification/freezing] of Mercury is brought about by Saturn; that is, through putrefaction."

The smaller text below elaborates, quoting the great alchemist Eirenaeus Philalethes. It speaks of the "matter of the stone" being a "gross water" (thick water) and discusses the qualities of heat and cold. It confirms that Saturn (Lead) provides the necessary "cold" to freeze the running water of Mercury.

Saturn = the prima materia The base matter is heavy, dark, lead-like, and inert.

Mercury = the transformative agent Spirit, subtlety, dissolution, inner fire.

Their encounter = the beginning of the Work Mercury “strikes” Saturn, opening him, killing the “old king.”

The clouds = the “upper region” of the vessel Indicating sublimation, volatility, spiritualized operation.

Hourglass and scythe = Saturn as Time and Death Time must “stop” for transformation to begin; death precedes rebirth.

The Caduceus = union of opposites Mercury alone reconciles above and below, fire and water, body and spirit.

Mercury (The Volatile Spirit) The figure on the left is the Archetypal Mercury. He holds the Caduceus (the balanced currents of energy). He is young, winged, and energetic. He represents Quicksilver—the chaotic, fluid, living spirit that flies away in the fire. He is the "fugitive stag." If you do not capture him, the Work cannot begin.

Saturn (The Fixed Body) The figure on the right is Father Time (Chronos), the planetary ruler of Lead. He holds the Scythe (death/separation) and the Hourglass (time/patience). He is heavy, slow, and cold. He represents the body, the grave, and the limit.

The Combat in the Clouds Why are they fighting in the air? This represents the stage of Sublimation followed by Coagulation.

• Mercury tries to fly upward (volatilize).
• Saturn cuts his wings with the scythe (fixes him).
• "Congelation" means to make the fluid solid. You are taking the restless mind (Mercury) and pinning it to the cross of matter (Saturn/Earth) so it can undergo transformation.

Putrefaction The text explicitly mentions putrefaction. In alchemy, "to rot" is to purify. The seed must die in the ground (Saturn's domain) before it can sprout wheat. Saturn "kills" Mercury to strip him of his volatility, turning the "Water" into "Earth."

The Inverted Text

The writing between their heads is upside down. It is a mirror script, often used to hide secrets or indicate that what is happening is a reflection of an inner reality. It appears to say (in a mix of Latin and French script common to the era): “Jam ille hic…” ("Now he is here..."). It suggests the moment of capture—the volatile spirit has finally been caught.

The fragmented, inverted text hovering between Mercury and Saturn suggests the exact moment of their conjunction or capture.

The smaller, denser text directly underneath the main caption elaborates on the nature of the matter, quoting and echoing standard Hermetic philosophy (particularly the ideas popularized by Eirenaeus Philalethes, whose works were well-known in this era).

The script is heavily abbreviated, but the content refers to the Materia Prima (First Matter) and the required duration of the process.

When the scene is staged in clouds or an upper region, that usually signals that the action is happening in the volatile regime of the vessel, associated with ascent and return (sublimation, distillation, circulation). In emblem books this is often visual rather than procedural: “up there” marks the domain where Mercury naturally escapes unless it is captured, and where capture is demonstrated by reversal, binding, weighing-down, or cutting (Saturn’s function in the allegory).

"At first, a youth was depicted who had wings on his heels and held a herald’s staff entwined with two snakes in his hand. He wore a kind of storm cap that covered his head, and judging by my simple understanding, this must have been the pagan god Mercury. Soon after, a large old man appeared, terribly grim and fearsome, either walking or rather flying with outstretched wings. On his head was a fixed hourglass, and he carried a scythe in his hand — like Death himself — with which, full of wrath and zeal, he seemed ready to cut off Mercury’s feet."

Saturn leads Mercury to the subterranean place of the secret fire…

Multiple dimensions of the idea…

Saturn can point to lead or a leaden stage of the matter, and Mercury can point to quicksilver or “our Mercury” as a prepared solvent/agent.

Mercury can stand for the active, penetrating, dissolving function in the work, while Saturn stands for the resisting, stabilizing, coagulating function, regardless of which physical materials are on the bench.

Saturn can mean duration, patience, and the slow work of digestion and putrefaction as a requirement for any genuine fixation, rather than merely “lead.”

Mercury/Saturn can symbolize changeability versus constraint, and transformation through enforced limitation.

“Fixing”is the turning of a substance that readily evaporates or flees the fire into a compound or state that endures heat, stays put, and can act as a stable agent in further operations. Progress is a reiterating cycles of volatilization and fixation, sometimes many times, until the matter behaves as required.

Mercury is especially suited to this symbolism because common quicksilver is visibly mobile and notoriously hard to “hold,” yet early modern chymists knew multiple ways to “fix” mercurial substances into more stable forms (for example, by converting mercury into mineral compounds rather than leaving it as free-flowing metal). At the same time, Saturn/lead is the emblem of the heavy, cold, and “dead” body that must undergo dissolution, rotting, and long digestion before it becomes capable of higher transformation.

how the volatile, universal principle is fixed and individualized so that it can operate as a medicine (circulatum) rather than remain an indeterminate spirit.

fixing the volatile without killing it.

 the fixation and determination of the volatile Mercury through union with a prepared Earth.

“The Determination of our Diana's Tears consists only in their perfect and indissoluble Union with the fixt Vegetable Earth, philosophically prepared, purified, and spiritualized: for the love of which they are forced to leave their first universal undetermined Property, and be clothed with a determined particular one, which is required to this our Circulatum Minus.”

• Circulatum Minus of Urbigerus

The volatile substance (Diana’s Tears) must be perfectly united with an Earth that has already been:

• philosophically prepared
• purified
• spiritualized
• fixed

The volatile Mercury naturally prefers universality. It is free, aerial, lunar, wandering. It resists limitation. Only through true love and affinity with its proper Earth does it willingly abandon its universal state.

spirit taking on body without losing its nature. Only when Mercury is determined and fixed can it circulate safely, repeatedly, and efficaciously without flying away or corrupting.

Spirit must descend into form • Universality must accept limitation • Freedom must choose incarnation • Volatility must marry Earth

Without this marriage, nothing durable is produced.

This is why the Earth must be:

• fixed (stable) • purified (free of corruption) • spiritualized (capable of union)