The Art as the Servant of Nature
Alchemists often depict Art (the alchemist’s work) as the dutiful servant or apprentice of Nature. As Michael Maier wrote in Atalanta Fugiens: “Art, therefore, and Nature do mutually join hands… Nevertheless, Nature is always the Mistress and art the Handmaid.” – Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens (1618)
Art Imitates Nature
Alchemists believed that Art (human skill) should imitate and assist Nature, not try to dominate it.
An oft-cited maxim declares: “Art imitates Nature”.
In the Philosophers’ poem on the Azoth (attributed to Basil Valentine), this principle is made explicit: “Art, imitating Nature, accomplishes the whole work, by the same practice, and the same material.” – Basil Valentine
Art holds a mirror up to nature
"Nature comprehends the visible and invisible Creatures of the Whole universe. What we call Nature especially, is the universal fire or Anima Mundi, filling the whole system of the Universe, and therefore is a Universal Agent, omnipresent, and endowed with an unerring instinct, and manifests itself in fire and Light. It is the First creature of Divine Omnipotence."
— Golden Chain of Homer
"Know nature, universally, and particularly; from the book of the most holy Scripture: Of the nature itself, which is, and the greater world, the whole: and the lesser world, this is man, for example, according to both his body and his spirit."
— The Amphitheater of Eternal Wisdom, c. 1595 by Heinrich Khunrath
"Nature, being the Universe, is one, and its origin can only be one eternal Unity.
It is an organism in which all natural things harmonize and sympathize with each other. It is the Macrocosm.
Everything is the product of one universal creative effort; the Macrocosm and man (the Microcosm) are one. They are one constellation, one influence, one breath, one harmony, one time, one metal, one fruit."
— Paracelsus (Philosophia ad Athenienses)