the “Chymic Choir” or “The Alchemical Choir in the Mountain”
The motto translated from Latin reads: 'The things that are in the realms above are also in the realms beneath; What heaven shews is often found on earth. Fire and flowing water are contrary one to other; Happy thou, if thou canst united them: let it suffice thee to know this!'
The 7 terrestrial metals & planets are symbolized by 7 figures sitting in the cavern. The six Muses=metals surround Apollo in the alchemical hells. Sun and Moon Fire and Water united in the Hexagram The Four Elements represented in the corners.
“Quae superius, sunt et inferius; Quod ostendit coelum, saepe invenies in terris. Ignis & Aqua fluens sibi contraria sunt; Foelix qui poteris coniungere illa: sufficit tibi hoc scire.”
“The things that are in the realms above are also in the realms beneath; What heaven shows is often found on earth. Fire and flowing water are contrary to one another; Happy are you if you can unite them: let it suffice you to know this.”
Correspondence: The macrocosm (heavens) and microcosm (earth) share a common structure. Analogy of metals and planets: Celestial bodies determine or correspond with terrestrial metals. Reconciliation of contraries: The Work depends on the union of opposites, here expressed as fire and water.
everything revealed in the heavens (macrocosm) is hidden in the earth (microcosm), and the adept must descend into “hell” (the nigredo, the subterranean laboratory, the prima materia) in order to rediscover and reunite them.
- Upper half: the celestial realm of stars and planets.
- Lower half (the cavern): the subterranean realm of metals and minerals.
the heavens are reflected in the mountains, the planets have fallen into the earth as metals, and the alchemist’s descends into the cavern to extract them
The Cavern
The cavern represents the “chthonic” or subterranean region where metals grow. Early alchemists treated the earth as a womb in which metals developed under the influence of the planets. The cavern is not an infernal realm in the later Christian sense; it is the metallurgical and formative zone of Nature.
The presence of Apollo and the Muses in this lower region indicates that: 1. Metals are not inert matter but expressions of divine order. 2. The classical mythic figures stand in for planetary archetypes. 3. Artistic, intellectual, and spiritual principles govern material formation.
The cavern = the Athanor or philosophical egg = the adept’s own body and soul (microcosm).
The descent into the mountain = the nigredo, putrefaction, the “hellish” stage where the old metallic bodies must die before they can be resurrected purified.
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Apollo and the Six Muses
Apollo represents Sol, the Sun, the central generative and harmonizing principle.
The six Muses around him represent the six remaining planets/metals in the traditional septenary: • Luna (Moon) – Silver • Mercury – Quicksilver • Venus – Copper • Mars – Iron • Jupiter – Tin • Saturn – Lead
Although the Muses have specific identities in Greek mythology, in alchemy they function as symbolic substitutes for the six planetary powers. Apollo governs them as the Sun governs the solar system and as gold governs the hierarchy of metals.
This reflects the classical doctrine of Sol as the root of the perfect metal, and the Muses signify the harmonics governing the transformations.
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The Choir of Seven Metals
Seven anthropomorphic figures sit in a semicircle inside the mountain cavern, forming a choir. They represent the seven planetary metals in their impure, “fallen” state:
Apollo (the Sun, gold) sits in the centre as choir-master; the six metallic “Muses” surround him. This is a deliberate inversion: in classical myth the Muses surround Apollo on Mount Parnassus (above); here they are imprisoned with him in the alchemical hell beneath the earth. The message is that the perfect cosmic harmony has been buried and must be redeemed by the adept’s art.
The seven seated figures represent the seven planetary intelligences or archetypal powers linked with the metals. Each embodies a distinct combination of qualities, temperaments, and chemical dispositions.
The sevenfold choir is a visual expression of the core maxim: Heavenly forces (planets) produce terrestrial metals (in the earth).
Sun–Moon Polarity
The image explicitly contains Sol and Luna, which express: • Fixed vs. volatile • Active vs. passive • Sulfur vs. Mercury • Conscious vs. reflective • Gold vs. silver
All alchemical images include this polarity because every stage of the Work involves their interaction. Their coniunctio forms the basis of the “chemical wedding.”
Fire and Water United in the Hexagram
The upward-pointing triangle = fire. The downward-pointing triangle = water. Their union in the hexagram indicates the reconciliation of contraries.
This union represents: • Sulfur and Mercury • Coagulation and dissolution • Heat and coolness • The raising and lowering of matter • The first stage of producing the Philosophic Mercury • The method by which the prima materia is rectified
At the apex of the cavern hangs (or is formed by) a six-pointed star made of two interlocked triangles:
- Upper (red) triangle = Fire = Sun = Sulphur = masculine, fixed principle
- Lower (white/blue) triangle = Water = Moon = Mercury = feminine, volatile principle Their perfect union in the hexagram is the Rebis, the Philosophers’ Stone, the solved riddle of the motto (“Happy thou, if thou canst unite them”). The “marriage of Fire and Water”
The Four Elements in the Corners
The four elements—earth, water, air, fire—form the boundary of the image because: 1. All bodies in nature consist of the elements. 2. All chemical operations reduce to elemental manipulations. 3. The Great Work depends upon their purification and recombination.
Their placement on the perimeter indicates that the Work takes place within the elemental matrix of Nature.
- Top-left: Salamander in flames → Fire
- Top-right: Eagle or winged youth flying → Air
- Bottom-left: Mermaid or fish in waves → Water
- Bottom-right: Gnome or dwarf holding the earth → Earth
The planetary choir is itself composed out of the four elemental qualities, and that the entire operation takes place within the cosmic crucible of the elements.
Structural Meaning of the Complete Image
When the pieces are assembled, the plate expresses the following doctrinal structure: 1. Cosmos: The heavens exert influence on the earth. 2. Microcosm: Metals develop in the earth under planetary guidance. 3. Art: The alchemist imitates Nature and accelerates its processes. 4. Goal: Unite fire and water (active and passive, sulfur and mercury) to produce the Stone. 5. Method: Harmonize the seven planetary powers through correct operations. 6. Outcome: The restored unity of contraries, symbolized by the hexagram, produces the “One Thing” of Hermetic philosophy.
The image is therefore a visual condensation of the entire operative and cosmological theory of early modern alchemy.
The cavern also implies the athanor or hermetic furnace; the Work takes place in a sealed environment like the womb of the earth. Apollo’s presence indicates illumination and correct proportion, suggesting that without solar reason the Work becomes chaotic. The Muses signify the “harmonies” within matter, echoing Pythagorean influence on Renaissance alchemy.
Apollo conducting the choir = the restored cosmic harmony after the opus is finished; the seven dissonant metals now sing in unison under the Solar Spirit.
The entire image is therefore a snapshot of the whole Work: from the fallen state (planets as impure metals in the underworld) to the final redemption (the hexagram of perfect conjunction).
In many alchemical texts this fountain is called the Fons Perennis, Fons Signatus, or Puteus Hermetis (“Hermes’ Well”). It is the earthly counterpart of the celestial Fountain of Life described in Revelation 22 and in the visions of Khunrath, Fludd, and Jakob Böhme.
The fact that the choir of seven metals sits around this well indicates that they are now bathed in and purified by this philosophical fountain. Their voices have become harmonious only because they drink from the same circulating stream.
Water flowing from the lion’s mouth into the circular well shows that the Mercurial Water (the divine solvent) is being generated inside the earth itself. This is the moment when the artist has succeeded in making the “water that does not wet the hands” well up from the metallic matrix.
The well/cistern is the vas philosophorum itself — the alchemical vessel conceived as a fountain or inexhaustible spring.
The circular stone well (or cistern) with a spout
Their duplication (five above and five below) again stresses the core Emerald Tablet doctrine: the celestial quintessence has its perfect image and operative power in the subterranean, metallic realm.
In some commentaries (e.g., the anonymous 18th-century notes that accompany certain copies of the Musaeum Hermeticum) they are labelled Stellae Errantes Invisibiles (“invisible wandering stars”) and are said to be the spirits of Antimony, Vitriol, Salt, Mercury, and the Universal Dissolvent — the five auxiliary principles that allow the artist actually to perform the Sun–Moon conjunction.
In Paracelsian and post-Paracelsian alchemy they are explicitly identified as the five planetary “spirits” or “seeds” that are hidden within the seven metals and must be extracted and reunited during the Work.
The five stars stand for the quintessence or fifth essence (the pure celestial matter that mediates between the realm of the fixed stars and the seven planetary spheres).
They represent the five “invisible” or intermediary planets that were acknowledged in late-Renaissance Hermetic cosmology but are normally omitted from the usual list of seven visible planets/metals:
The five small stars