Eleven

THE FOUR ELEMENTS AND SULFUR

In another of its aspects, however, the cross also leads us from the "Two" to the "Four" by way of the beams and quarters that result from the intersection. The cross, then, is the cross of the four Elements: Fire above, Earth below, Air to the right, and Water to the left.¹ The state of arrest and petrification, which is the mystery of Salt, leads us beyond itself from Fire and Water to the signs that give the hermetic sense of the other two Elements.· Earth is a stoppage or syncope in the direction of the "fall" that is characteristic of the waters ; and analogously, Air is a stoppage or break in the ascending direction of fire . So that from the Two, through the Third (Salt), proceed the Four: the tetrad of the Elements.²

According to this aspect of the symbol, the central point of the cross expresses the point of unity of the four Elements, the originating superior and anterior to their four differentiations given by the four directions. Thereby it expresses the Quintessence, the incorruptible and simple principle that, according to the tradition, is the substratum, the principle of life and the nexus of reciprocal union formed by the four elements.

Here we must point out that, like the elements, the hermetic Quintessence—the equivalent of the Pythagorean ὁλκάς, the Hindu ākāsha, the Qabalistic avir, Taoist ch’i, etc.—is not considered a speculative abstraction or some contrivance of the "physics" of yesteryear, but a reality to which corresponds a specific spiritual experience. And the symbolic central point of the cross, as soon as it is "known to the magical hero and understood," says Della Riviera,³ "becomes the root and origin of all magical marvels."

In accord with the more operative than speculative orientation of hermetic alchemy, the sign is rarely encountered in isolation. More often it forms part of other symbols expressing the principles and powers that stand over the four Elements, although it also enters into elemental combinations. Thus, for example:

This Mercury must not be confused, of course, with Original Mercury. It is a Mercury that is still impure and "terrestrial." Its symbol expresses the state of the elements in a nature subject to the lunar law of transformations (superior position of the Moon with respect to the symbol of undifferentiated substance ).

The symbol for Sulfur gives us, on the contrary, the condition of a Fire in domination over the elements ( over ). Sulfur should not be confused, however, with Sulfur in a pure or "native" state, which in the beginnings of alchemy was given a different symbol , the same as Aries, symbol of the masculine principle of every generation and direct manifestation of the power of Gold. Only to such a principle are expressions referred like this of Zacharias: "The Agent, whose nature shows the power and strength over matter to that which it is united, is Sulfur";⁴ or again, "Sulfur is the principle that gives form."⁵ The true Sulfur "of the wise" is an incombustible Sulfur. And another impressive alchemical expression that indicates the unalterable quality of "not catching fire" is this celestial and royal barrier: "Our sulfur is a sulfur that does not burn and that Fire [understood as an equivalent of "Poison"] cannot devour."⁶ The expression " θεîον ἄπυρον" is seen in Pseudo-Democritus in connection with the formula: "Nature dominates nature,"⁷ and the Syrian texts also speak of a noncombustible sulfur that "arrests the fugitive";⁸ it is a dominating activity, exempt from every instinctive element or inner principle (spiritual Sulfur, says Philalethes) of action and life, but proceeding from the superiority and fixity of the solar center. On the other hand, when Sulfur is designated by , it expresses, strictly speaking, the same power, but already in an impure state, because it is chained to matter and a form that it still animates and in which it constitutes potentially the "divine" principle (the double meaning of θεîον, "Sulfur" and "divine"). And in addition, it is the teaching of the whole tradition that "the perfection or imperfection of metals [that is, of the individualized essences extracted from the symbolic 'mineral’ or Earth] is determined by the withdrawal or [by the state of] participation of their Agent, that is, the Sulfur."⁹