Introduction
The following information about The Book of Lambspring is given in Charles Nicholl’s recent book The Chemical Theatre : This book first made its appearance in an anthology of three alchemical texts called the Triga Chemica , published in 1599 by Nicolas Barnaus. Barnaud was a Frenchman who was a prominent figure in the alchemical circles surrounding King Rudolf II in Prague in the late 1500’s — a very important center of alchemical studies generally at this time. Barnaud presents himself as the editor rather than the author of the work, but Nicholl thinks that it was a common practice for alchemical writers to claim to have found their texts somewhere rather than to have written them, so Barnaud may well have been the author, or at least may have reworked to some degree and rendered into Latin verse the text that he found.
The book is also known by the title On the Philosophical Stone . “Lambspring”, and anglicized version of the original “Lambspringk”, is a reference to the author of the book, a supposed “Lord of Lambspringk”. K.K. Doberer, in The Goldmakers thinks the “Lambspringk” here is in fact the Benedictine convent of that name in Germany on the river Lamme. The “Lord of Lambspringk”, if there was such a person, was then in fact a nun.
As to the contents, this writing like most alchemical texts, has two kinds of meaning that have to be kept in mind. First of all, what are being described in the text are actual chemical operations, meant to be performed physically. But secondly, these operations are being interpreted in the light of certain ideas and models that are thought by alchemists to have wider meaning. Alchemists took the axiom “as above, so below” to mean that the laws which govern physical reality at its most basic level “below” — physico-chemical structure and dynamics — are the same laws that constitute “ultimate” reality in a religious or metaphysical sense, the “heavenly” reality “above”. In undertaking chemical experiments to discover the laws of chemical change by which “lesser” things such as lead could have changed into “noble” things like gold, one is at the same time discovering the laws by which one’s own imperfect human being could be brought to its full perfection. This analogy between the physical and the psycho-spiritual realm is largely responsible for the very colorful anthropomorphic imagery used in alchemical writings. In the gnostic spirituality underlying alchemical thought, the experiential character of certain feeling-states are very important as basic starting points, and so chemical processes are described as though the chemicals themselves have feelings corresponding to their appearances as one looks at them. When they “come apart” it is like a person psychologically “coming apart”, when they interact violently it is like two persons fighting, when they combine easily it is like two persons making love, etc.
The other feature one should keep in mind, beyond this basic anthropomorphism, is that alchemical endeavor is guided by two poles, one theoretical and the other empirical or experimental. On the experimental side, alchemists insist that learning alchemy is a matter of “hands-on” experience. An alchemical text cannot teach one genuine alchemy — it is only a guide for conducting one’s own experiments and so learning first hand the “secrets of nature”. This I believe is the principal reason for the obscure and suggestive, rather than straightforward, nature of alchemical writing. One is not supposed to be merely learning ideas, but really exploring the mysteries inherent in concrete physical reality by exploring physical reality itself.
On the theoretical side, there are certain standard ideas and images in terms of which one is trying to understand what one can observe about chemical interactions taking place in the laboratory. Many of the guiding fundamental ideas and images are in great part taken from the religious and philosophical speculations which found expression in the writings of the gnostics and neoplatonists of an earlier era. One can recognize in alchemical writings the image of raising material reality up to a spiritual level, of salvation by a heavenly redeemer, of death-and-resurrection, etc. These images are translated into chemical terms by means of another set of standard ideas proper to alchemy. The two chief of these are, first, that all matter is made up of two basic elements, “mercury” and “sulphur” (somewhat mysterious substances related to, but not identical with, the substances we now call by these names. Sometimes a third element, “salt” was added to these two.) A great many chemical reactions were interpreted as being the interactions of these two (or three) basic elements.
Secondly, color played a very important part in alchemical theory. The only clue the alchemist often had as to what was taking place chemically is what she could see visually (frequently she was watching reactions in a sealed vessel), and in this the colors of the materials very often served as the most important indications as to the nature of the process, the stage which a given operation had reached, etc. This often went along with a theory that colors were in fact forces in themselves, lying hidden in the material, to be “brought out” by chemical operations. For example, when a material turns black it is a particular “black” (and evil) force, more or less identical with the black color, which is being drawn out of it. There were certain sequences of color which the alchemist watched for as indications that certain stages of the total work were happening in their due order. Redness in particular was a highly valued color and often marked the end, or the near end, of the work.
Finally, on the theoretical side, an underlying assumption behind almost all alchemy is that there is some substance which has miraculous powers to achieve almost anything, and that this the components of this substance lie hidden in almost all naturally occurring materials, and merely have to be drawn out, transformed, and synthesized in the proper way. Alchemical investigation was aimed then, not at discovering whatever structure it is that physical matter actually has — though this kind of information might be indirectly useful — but discovering how it is that this predetermined result could be brought about. The nature and possible existence of result itself was of course a matter of religious belief.
A few further theoretical elements in alchemic thinking will be explained in the course of the interpretation of the Book of Lambspring below. From our standpoint today, we can see that alchemical theories were for the most part a very bad guide to the chemical structure and dynamics of physical matter. It was only after there was a complete divorce between religious thought and physical science (a decisive step in which was R. Boyle’s The Sceptical Chemist published in 1661), that chemists were able to construct the highly successful chemical theory that exists today. Although alchemy did make a few valuable and enduring contributions to chemical theory, it is of interest today primarily because of the imaginative style with which alchemists approached issues of psycho-spiritual development.
In the following analysis of the Book of Lambspring, I will try to give (1) a general description of the chemical operations being referred to, (2) an account of the general symbolic models and ideas used to interpret these operations, and (3) an interpretation of the general relevance of these ideas to the psychology of spiritual development. Having very little knowledge of chemistry, my descriptions of the chemical operations will be somewhat general — I don’t have a very good idea of the actual substances that the author might have in mind, for example. (This issue is in fact one about which most alchemical texts are the least clear, and about which there is most debate in interpretative literature — evidently part of the empirical learning involves experimenting enough with materials to be able to guess correctly what materials would produce the results described.) Still I think enough can be made out about the general nature of the processes involved that a description sufficient for our purposes here can be given.
An Outline of the Processes Envisaged in the Text
A – Chemical operations.
Chemically, this book is a guide for the transformation of some relatively ordinary substance into “The Philosopher’s Stone”, a substance alchemists claimed to have marvelous powers (to heal human diseases, the change lead into gold, etc.) There are four basic stages to this process:
(1) Heating some original material (and perhaps corroding it with acid), and separating the vapors that are given off in this process from the remainder of the material (there are either two visibly different vapors involved here, or the alchemist imagines that the vapor contains two substances);
(2) The remaining non-vaporized material first turns black and gives off black smoke, and is then reduced to a white ash (probably by further prolonged heating).
(3) The vapors are placed separately in a; sealed glass vessel, and further heated, causing a continuous process in which they condense into liquid form on the sides of the glass near the top, flow down to the bottom, and are then converted to vapor again. The author imagines also that some combining reaction of the two vapors involved is happening, or a combining reaction between the vapor in its gaseous form and the condensed liquid on the glass sides of the vessel;
(4) When this latter reaction results in the formation of some kind of red substance, this red substance is removed from the vessel and recombined with the white ash form step 2 — after more vaporization and distillation of the resultant compound similar to that in step 3, some substance is formed which is “The Philosopher’s Stone”.
The text is given in 15 numbered sections, each section consisting of a picture with accompanying text. In this sequence, the first step mentioned above is described in section I. The second step is described in section II. Step three takes place primarily in four stages described in sections III-VI, section VII describing the very last stage in this process. Section VIII partially describes step four. Section IX gives symbolic interpretation of steps one and three, and section X give a symbolic interpretation of step three. Sections XI-XV tell a symbolic story which cover all four steps, giving special attention to the last par to step four, left out in section VIII.
B – Symbolic Interpretation of the Process. [This is missing pictures and original commentary, coming later.]
These visible chemical processes are interpreted by means of several ideas, most of which are standard in alchemical writings, though combined in different ways and in different sequences in different writings. The fundamental idea is that ordinary substances are imperfect because the basic elements of which they are composed are imperfect and bound together in the wrong way. Alchemy is aimed at dissolving some ordinary substance into its constituent elements, perfecting each separately, and then recombining them. An interesting alchemical motto related to this basic model is “nothing from the outside”: Everything necessary for a thing’s perfection is supposed to reside within it — and the same could be applied to people.
There are several different basic models as to what constitutes the “perfecting” of each of the separate elements.
One of the easiest models to understand rests on the common ancient association which saw air and gases as more ethereal and so more “spiritual”, and conversely saw solids and heavy liquids as more “gross” and “material” in a negative sense. It was also known that one could purify (“sublime”) certain substances by distillation, and this physical purification was understood by analogy with spiritual/moral “purification”. Hence our text directs the alchemist to separate the “spirit and soul” from the original gross matter (the vapors arising from it), and then to subject these vapors to further purification by a repeated process of further heating, vaporizing, and distilling. Note, however, that the purifying of the “spiritual” part is not by itself enough –it needs to be recombined with the “matter” from which it was separated in order to finally produce the Stone.
A further idea is that there is some kind of corrupting “evil” force hidden in the basic elements making up the material. In order to be expelled, this evil force has first to be caused to manifest itself. This occurs in our text when the original material turns black — the blackness is thought of as itself being the corrupting force latent in the material before. And when the black smoke arises out of the material and then it turns white this is imagined to be the expelling of the corrupting force (“cutting off its head”), and hence the purification of the matter as a fitting receptacle for the separately purified “spirit”>
The text pictures an evil force latent also in the spiritual vapors as well. Subjected to increasing heat, these eventually produce a poisonous gas (possibly poisonous mercury vapor) — and this is probably understood also as a coming into manifestation of the “evil” force that was hidden in the vapors all the time, preventing them from coming to their perfection. In this case, the overcoming of the evil force comes about through a combination of two elements — either a combination of two vapors, or a combination of the vapor with its liquid distillate on the glass walls of the vessel. The combination involves also the idea of sacrifice: each of the two elements loses its previous identity in the combination — each “kills” the other. This is actually the end of the process of the purifying of the vapors — by means of this combination the poison turns into a marvelous medicine which will finally perfect the purified matter awaiting it.
A third model of what perfecting consists in is connected with “fixing” the material, i.e. making it very stable, resistant to dissolution by fire or acid. (Gold is in this sense one of the most stable materials, and this is one reason it was thought to be the most perfect metal.) But one has to distinguish here: the relative “fixity” of the original material to be worked on is a constriction, a holding captive of the potential forces for perfection hidden in the material. Hence the first stage of the alchemical process is dissolution, breaking these good forces free of their prison. One alchemical formula is then “solve et coagula”, “dissolve and coagulate”. The process by which something is led to perfection consists first in breaking down the present, ordinary synthesis which holds it together, and leading it eventually to a final, more perfect and more “incorruptible” stability.
A final image of the “perfecting” of the elements is that of the “spiritual” vapors becoming a medium of heavenly influences for the matter to which they are reunited. This image occurs twice in the final parable (sections XI-XV). In one instance the purpose of the separation of the vapors from the material is that one of the vapors (“soul”) might guide another one (“Spirit”) and initiate it into heavenly mysteries. In the other instance the distilled and condensed liquid running down the sides of the glass in the final stage of the process (step 4 above) is said to be rain sent down from heaven and from the heavenly stars by God.
Several more symbolic ideas related to this text will be explained as they arise in the course of detailed interpretation.
Commentary on the text and pictures.
I.
The sea is the original material (“body”) to be worked on. Two elements (soul and spirit, “mercury” and “sulphur”) are in it. In a more fundamental sense, body soul and spirit are only different aspects of “the one thing”. (The fact that soul and spirit particularly are thought to be in some way aspects of the same thing probably shows verbally in the confusion sometimes as to whether there are two elements involved here, or two versions of the same element.) The sould and spirit will come out as vapors when the body is heated. Later these vapors should be cooked (in a separate vessel) in “their own water”, the liquid condensed from them. For now the three should all be cooked together.
All minerals were thought to be composed of some form of “sulphur” combined with some form of “mercury”. Here the vapor called “spirit” is probably thought to be sulphur, and that called “soul” is probably thought to be mercury. In this text, contrary to prevalent gnostic/neoplatonic usage, “spirit” is the lower reality — probably life-energy is the analogy in humans — while “soul” is the higher, more “spiritual” element. This is made evident in the parable in XI-XV, in which the spirit is the son, while the soul is the guide.
“Cooking the sulphur with the sulphur” may mean using sulphuric acid (“oil of vitriol”), in addition to heat, to draw the imagined “sulphur”/spirit, in vapor form, out of the original material. However, sulphur was sometimes thought of as something itself closely related to fire (the “combustible” element in things), and so the “sulphur” doing the cooking here may have been the fire itself heating the material. (In X some material is pictured as being perfected by “feeding” on the fire.)
II.
The operation here described probably happens to the material left over when the two vapors are separated and put in a different vessel. The wild beast in the forest is an “evil” force in the material. The material turns black, and this is thought to be the evil force coming out. Then black smoke arises, and the alchemist lets the smoke ou, “cutting off the head of the raven”. The material then turns white (probably ashes, under heat) a sign of its “purificaiton”.
The caption under Figure VIII, probably referring to this stage, says “let the body be placed in horse dung or a warm bath”. Fermenting cattle manure was used by alchemists as a source of prolonged low heat. (Some important elements in the work were thought to be in danger of being “killed” in the process if too much heat was used too fast.) Possibly then the blackening/whitening described here in II takes place through slow heating over a long period of time.
III.
“Snaring and capturing” the unicorn and deer probably refers to capturing the vapors arising out of the material, getting them into another glass vessel and then sealing it. The two vapors are imagined to be combining with each other (the coupling of the deer and the unicorn). The forest which they are to be “led in and out of” is perhaps not the original vessel through the condensationof the vapors (the “other mountain of India” of the caption over Fig. XII). “Led in and out” refers to the continuous process by which the liquid vaporizes and the vapor condenses and flows back down to the bottom.
The animals roam about in “forests” which is only one forest. This probably means that the same spirit/soul (mercury/sulphur) exist in all minerals (all forests), which are again thought of as various forms of “the one thing”.
Note that the ability to “tame and master” the elements in this process is thought to be a sign of the attainment of gnosis, a deep understanding of the mysteries of being which qualifies one as an enlightened master. In the process of discovering the nature of “The Philosopher’s Stone” by chemical experiment, one is discovering the ultimate religious ground of meaning in life.
IV.
The animals in the four sections, III, IV, V, and VI become progressively more fierce: deer/unicorn, lions, fighting dogs, and finally a poisonous dragon. This probaboy indicates that heat under the sealed glass vessel is to be progressively increased, making the boiiling more “furious” and the gasses more volitale. (This suggestion is confirmed, I think, by the mention of “four fires” of increasing intensity in X.) Note here also that the forest has become “a dark and rugged valley”. This increasing wildness, leading to the poisonous dragon, is probably imagined to be a drawqing out of the poison still hidden in the vapors, keeping them form reaching their perfection — comparable to the drawing of the “black” poison out of the material in II.
V.
The vapors were seen earlier “coupling” (III), and were “bound” together (IV), but these probably seemed to be impermanent unions — upon being condensed and reheated, they arise separately. The purpose of the increased heating, which makes the vapors more and more “wild”, seems to be to get them to combine in such a way that they will no longer separate under heat (Fig. VII caption: “the mercury … is at length fixed and becomes capable of resisting fire”). This “fixed” mercury is probably at least imagined to be a form of cinnabar, which in its ordinary form is mercury sulphide, a bright red compound of mercury and sulphur. (The caption under Fig. VIII mentions that the spirit [here including both soul and spirit in opposition to body] has become red.)
Here in V, having beomce more “fierce” under increased heat, spirit and soul “kill” each other. This means they are imagined to be at least on the way to losing their separate identies in a permanent combination.
Mercury vapor was known to be poisonous, and the alchemist watching the events in the glass vessel probably at least imagines some visual by-product of the union of the vapors to be this poisonous mercury vapor.
The fact that the wolf and the dog are from different parts of the world (East vs. West) probably foreshadows an idea made more explicit in the parable in XI-XV): “Soul” (mercury) is a much more “heavenly” reality than “spirit” (sulphur). (I would guess that the dog is soul and the wolf is spirit, but I don’t know the symbolic value of East and West here. “East” may be related to the “India” mentioned in several places.)
The caption under this picture in V doesn’t describe this particular process, but refers to the overall plan of the operation whose details are described in II-VIII.
VI.
Here the vapors “fly up” very fiercely under the increased “bright fire”. They are showing many colors — a stage known as “the rainbow”, watched for the by the alchemist as a sign that the end is close. If one takes the statement that the dragon swallows his tail in conjunction with the caption under the picture stating that the mercury is “dissolved in its own proper water”, this could mean that the two elements (imagined to be) combining are the vapors and the condensed liquid from the vapors on the side of the glass.
Here the poison that is drawn out is not simply done away with as in II, but is transformed into a marvelous medicine by being combined with another element.
VII.
The “fixing” of the mercury so that it will not vaporize under further heat is probably not yet complete in V and VI. What is represented here in VII then is the final stages of this fixing. There is a liquid in the vessel from wich vapor rises just above the surface, then falls back and is reabsorbed. The liquid “mercury”/eagle is imagined to be holding down the vaporous mercury — a sign to be rejoiced at because it means that fixation has almost been attained. (The eagle is a common alchemical symbol for mercury. Note too that “Hermes” mentioned here is also the Greek god equivalent to the Roman god “Mercury”.)
VIII.
VII marked the end of the process of the perfecting of the soul and spirit. This process has yielded a red substance — probably imagined to be a form of cinnabar, mercury sulphide — which is very stable, resisting vaporization under heat. (This stability is a sign of its perfection.) This red substance (called “spirit” in the caption underneath the picture), is now recombined with the original material from which it was taken, which has since itself been reduced to white ash. The redness disappears (though perhaps not entirely, see XV), “killed” by the white ash. Probably under further heating, sublimation abnd distillation (see XIV), a new substance is imagined to be formed from this white compound, the Phoenix which is the final “Philosopher’s Stone”.
IX.
The king here is probably the “fixed” mercury. The “tincture” mentioned in the bottom caption is its redness, thought of as an actual force that has now been brought to its perfection. This picture then traces the career of this now perfect substance from its “lowly” origins pictured in I, through its progressive “sublimation” in III-VII. The smiling and frowning fortune in the top caption reminds the alchemist that success in this art is partly a matter of luck.
X.
The salamander here (or rather the salamander’s blood) is probably again the fixed mercury. Salamders were thought in the middle ages to be born out of fire (because they sometimes hang out in fireplaces), and here the mercury is said to come to its perfection through “feeding” and taking its “life” from the fire that helped bring it to a fixed state. I take the four fires to be the four increasing degrees of heat applied to the glass vessel in III-VI. For some reason such successive fire must be smaller, though more intense, than its predecessor. Perhaps the salamder going back to the cave is the condensed vapor in the glas sflowing down to the bottom again — before it gets there it is imagined to combine with the vapor in the vessel to produce the red substance (here the “salamder’s blood”, produced by a “killing” as in V and VI).
This “tincture” is the esential ingredient in the Philosopher’s Stone. To it is attributed the power to heal diseases, including the “disease” of metals, which prevents lead for example from becoming gold.
XI.
Here begins a parable that recapitulates the entire process already described in I-X, giving a somewhat different symbolic interpretation to the whole. The father is the original body who sorrowfully “suffers” from the heat applied in section I, and consigns his son (the spirit-element in the vapor, probably the “sulphur”, the vital life-energy of the body) to further “suffering” in the heat under the sealed glass vessel. Here the second, soul-element in the vapor is a more “heavenly” being, a guide who is able to initiate the spirit-element into heavenly mysteries. As a god, Mercury is the message-bearer between the gods and men, and this element of Greek mythology is probably part of the background for the idea of mercury/soul as the heavenly “guide” here for the spirit/sulphur. In some alchemical texts the vapors that ascend to the top of the glass were thought to be symbolically ascending to heaven to absorb heavenly influences, to be brought back into the body when the vapors condense and flow back down. This idea is probably implied here, except that there is a double mediation — the soul imparts heavenly gnosis to the spirit, who then imparts it to the body (when the father “eats” the son in XII).
XII.
The picture here shows the spirit and soul having climbed to the top of the glass vessel, and there learning “all wisdom” about the heavens and the earth. The mention in the caption of “another” mountain lying in the vessel I take as an indication that there is a “body” in the bottom of this vessel that is not the same as the original body mentioned in section I. It is probably some residue formed at the bottom of the sealed glass vessel when the vapors taken from the initial operaiton are condensed in the sealed glass vessel and flow to the bottom. (I believe it is this second “body” which forms the forest, valley, nest, etc. which the animals go in and out of in III-VII.) As I interpret the text, the motif in this story of the son rejoining the father collapses into one image two different chemical operations: (1) the condensed liquid flowing down the sides of the glass vessel to the residue at the bottom, and (2) the recombining of the red substance obtained in III-VII with the white ash produced in II. If I am right about this, then we have to imagine more vaporizing, condensing, and recombining happening after the joining of the red substance with the white ash — described as the father’s “sweating” in XIII-XIV, and the heavenly “rain” in XIV. If I am wrong, then we have to imagine the process described in seciton VIII as happening after that described in XV.
XIII.
The rejoining of the marvelous red substance with the white ash brings the later to life after it had lain completely “dead”. In my interpretation the caption over the picture here refers to the fact that, after this is done, further heat is applied, causing vapors again to arise out of the “revivified” body. Probably the purpose of this, chemically, is to get the red substance, which is probably a liquid, to mix completely with the white ash so that it too becomes a liquid. (XIV speaks of the father’s body being softened, and the first lines of XV speak of the father being turned in to “limpid water”.)
XIV.
Here we have again the son arising from the body in the form of vapor, which condenses at the top of the vessel and then falls again as heavenly “silver” (mercury) rain. As in XII, the parable emphasizes the image of distillation as a means of drawing down “heavenly” influences — here the rain sent by God “from the shining stars”. This latter phrase suggests a common connection of alchemy with astrological ideas — that heavenly influences are mediated to us through the stars and planets. (Some alchemical texts include instructions as to what chemical operations should be performed during what astrological times, in order that the celestial influences sympathetic to the particular operations could further the work.)
XV.
Here the father and the son are finally completely joined in a liquid that is the Philospher’s Stone. In VIII the rejoining of the spirit and the body resulted in the loss of the red color (the red substance became a “white dove”). The last lines of this seciton suggest that the red is not completely gone — there is a small particle left visible, or perhaps a hinto of pink in the liquid “stone”.
Leave a Reply