ABSTRACT
The opposites and their symbols are so common in the texts that it is superfluous to cite evidence from the sources. On the other hand, in view of the ambiguity of the alchemists' language, which is "tarn ethice quam physice" (as much ethical as physical), it is worth while to go rather more closely into the manner in which the texts treat of the opposites. Very often the masculine-feminine opposition is personified as King and Queen (in the Rosarium philosophorum also as Emperor and Empress), or as servus (slave) or vir rubeus (red man) and mulier candida (white woman);5 in the "Visio Arislei" they appear as Gabricus (or Thabritius) and Beya, the King's son and daughter.6 Theriomorphic symbols are equally common and are often found in the illustrations.7 I would mention the eagle and toad ("the eagle flying through the air and the toad crawling on the ground"), which are the "emblem" of Avicenna in Michael Maier,8 the eagle representing Luna "or Juno, Venus, Beya, who is fugitive and winged like the eagle* which flies up to the clouds and receives the rays of the sun in his eyes." The toad "is the opposite of air, it is a contrary element, namely earth, whereon alone it moves by slow steps, and does not trust itself to another element. Its head is very heavy and gazes at the earth. For this reason it denotes the philosophic earth, which cannot fly [i.e., cannot be sublimated], as it is firm and solid. Upon it as a foundation the golden house 9 is to be built. Were it not for the
earth in our work the air would fly away, neither would the fire have its nourishment, nor the water its vessel." 10
s Another favourite theriomorphic image is that of the two birds or two dragons, one of them winged, the other wingless. This allegory comes from an ancient text, De Chemia Senioris antiquissimi philosophi libellus.11 The wingless bird or dragon prevents the other from flying. They stand for Sol and Luna, brother and sister, who are united by means of the art.12 In Lambspringk's "Symbols"13 they appear as the astrological Fishes which, swimming in opposite directions, symbolize the spirit / soul polarity. The water they swim in is mare nostrum (our sea) and is interpreted as the body.14 The fishes are "without bones and cortex." 15 From them is produced a mare immensum, which is the aqua permanens (permanent water). Another symbol is the stag and unicorn meeting in the "forest." 1β The stag signifies the soul, the unicorn spirit, and the forest the body. The next two pictures in Lambspringk's "Symbols" show the lion and lioness,17 or the wolf and dog, the latter white temple of marble. Berthelot, Collection des anciens alchimistes grecs, III,
