Alchemical Symbolism
and the Tarot
Chapter Overview
Alchemy has been linked to Qabala since time immemorial. In addition to Hermetic references, several Jewish alchemical texts exist, further strengthening the connection. The most famous of these is a treatise on mineral alchemy, the Aesch Mezareph, or “Purifying Fire.” However, for many, the link between Qabala and alchemy solidified in the fourteenth century, when Nicholas Flamel went to Spain in search of a Qabalistic rabbi to help him decode the strange engravings in the alchemical text that had dominated every waking hour of his and Perenelle’s life for twenty-two years—the hieroglyphs in the Book of Abraham the Jew. (See Appendix C for more about Flamel.) Later, this information would be transferred to the Paths of the Tree of Life, thereby offering us insight into deciphering alchemical practices and general information about the principal alchemical paths known as the “Wet Way” and the “Dry Way.”
However, it is only recently that tarot cards have been assimilated into Qabala, and as such, while offering us some alchemical information, the information is limited. For students with an affinity for the tarot, the images found in alchemical plates and texts will be a gold mine of symbolic opportunity. To help prepare you for working with these images in an alchemical fashion (rather than strictly Wiccan, Qabalistic, or as a fortune-telling device), we will briefly examine the tarot cards and interpret them according to the principles of physical and transcendental alchemy. In working with images that most students are already familiar with, we hope that their consciousness will be “seeded” with the process that is used in alchemical plates and engravings.
The Fool—This card represents the aspiring alchemist early in his or her journey, filled with visions of what is possible and completely ignorant of the reality of the inner and outer work that awaits.
The Magus—This card is the accomplished alchemist, creator of the Philosopher’s Stone, master of the elements. It is what we aspire to become.
The Priestess—This card reveals the secrets of Nature to us. Through a study and application of the divine laws manifesting in our perceptions of the visible and invisible worlds, the veil of ignorance is pulled back, and Nature stands revealed in the Empress. The Priestess is linked to the Prima Materia, or First Matter of the Wise, and needs to be studied in this light. The Prima Materia is everywhere and can be had cheaply if we just know where to look and how to harness it. The lunar forces influencing our world are a microcosmic reflection of the greater principles demonstrated by this trump.
The Empress—The Empress is the Queen of Nature in her full glory. This represents the invisible energies operating in the material body and life of the alchemist. As generator of forms and substance, she is the Celestial Waters as well, or the Queen of Heaven hidden in the Priestess.
The Emperor—The Emperor is Aries, action, the first phase of the work. He is often associated with sulphur, the self-realizing power within everything. This is the essential vital energy needed to initiate, sustain, and complete the Great Work.
The Pope—Often called the Hierophant, or Teacher of the Mysteries, the Pope is a form of Thoth. He is also the great animating force in life, as is mercury to the plant, mineral, or animal realms. The self-realizing powers of self are drawn to it, as sulphur is to mercury, drawing the latent energies of sulphur (or consciousness) into fruition and expression through the power of motion and activity.
The Lovers—This card represents the two great paths of alchemy: the Wet Way and the Dry Way. The angel is the Inner Alchemist, the Holy Guardian Angel, who through intuition and dreams helps aspiring alchemists make their choices and find their way. One way is slow and sure; the other is fast and dangerous.
The Chariot—The Chariot represents the oven of the alchemist and its need to be constantly watched, directed, and controlled through skillful operations of the head, heart, and hands.
Justice—Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The possible outcomes of every act must be understood to avoid error, accident, and disaster. The habits of mind, emotions, and action (karma) developed along the way are the sources of our balanced approach and keep us from being sidetracked.
The Hermit—The son of Hermes is an adept who is in, but not of, the world. He is seen but hidden from the eyes of the profane, or those who would seek to abuse the powers of Nature. The Hermit shuts himself off from the world, led by his inner light, relying on the staff of experience to create new and more perfect forms so that what is seeking expression in material life may be an improvement over what it replaces.
The Wheel of Fortune—The cycles of life are the source of misery and happiness in life. Through understanding and using them, the alchemist is able to stand outside the domain of fate and be master of life. Freedom from the Wheel is achieved by following the most propitious time for every act; in doing so, astrology is the friend and aid of the alchemist.
Strength—The most sublime of all cards, this synthesizes alchemy, astrology, and Qabala through the tarot. The woman, Sophia (Wisdom), directs the energies of instincts (the Lion), and in doing so commands the most difficult, powerful, and dangerous aspects of the work—the blind forces of matter and the subconscious. By using what energy we have available to us wisely, we gain more, and what once could destroy us now willingly serves and assists us in our undertakings.
The Hanged Man—This is the sign of sulphur, or self-realizing energies brought to fruition. In this, however, the world as it was known is turned upside down. The bonds of material life must be loosened—and in some instances lost—so that the energies may flow from the feet to the head, and the sublime work realized.
Death—Constant change is constant renewal, and death is the loosening of energies of matter for release into spirit and eventual rebirth. The dead matter gives up its spirit, just as the corpse gives up the consciousness of friend, stranger, and foe alike. If the spirit, however, has no new form to enter into, or the old one is not resurrected, then its energies are lost and the work is a failure and must be restarted. This card should be studied in relation to the Hanged Man and the Last Judgement.
Temperance—Constant flux and reflux of the active and passive forces is how the universe expresses itself in and through us. We must understand the cycles within ourselves and balance them if we are to become the Magus. This constant flux allows for spiritual and physical renewal and regeneration. The fluids and their vases are the lunar and solar energies that are manipulated through the two alchemical paths: the Dry Way, or “the foot on land,” and the Wet Way, or “the foot in the water.” Both belong to the adept once the other has been mastered, as the Philosopher’s Stone belongs to both paths, and is one.
The Devil—“Solve et coagula” is a term you will hear often in alchemical work, and as was pointed out in chapter 2, it is the key to all occult work. Students of tarot see these words emblazoned on the arms of the Devil in the Oswald Wirth deck and other tarot decks derived from Qabala and alchemy. It is good to write this down on a card and place it where you can easily see it when you are doing your alchemical work. Just as the muscles of the human body grow stronger through the process of breaking down and building up, so do the powers of alchemical products grow more potent though an identical cycle of activity. This process is so fundamental to alchemy, and the plant experiments outlined here in particular, that a considerable amount of time should be spent meditating on this phrase. A copy of the fifteenth trump of the tarot can be used to assist in meditation, insofar as the typical descriptions given are ignored, and students seek to use it as a means of strictly alchemical insight into the hidden workings of Nature’s invisible forces. Nothing is wasted, or evil in the true sense, and matter is put to the use of spirit.
The Tower—This card is the first disaster: the wrong intention for undertaking the work, inappropriate attention to details, haste, pride, and materialism corrupting the work.
The Star—This represents the influences of the astral energies though the planetary hours, the influences of the zodiac on alchemical work, the power of seasons, and the ever-present reality of the magnetic powers of Nature, or natural magic.
The Moon—This is the symbol of the White Stone and the Wet Way.
The Sun—This is the symbol of the Red Stone and the Dry Way.
Judgement—This represents discretion, reasoning, and the power of traditions brought forward into the modern world.
The World/Universe—This is the accomplishment of the Great Work, the Stone made and multiplied. The ideals of Chesed are manifest on earth, and the Hermit’s journey is done.
The Fool—Whoso begins the journey and completes it. The seeker who began in ignorance has acquired wisdom. This is the Wise Man and the Fool in one. The alchemist at the beginning of the journey of the Path of Return completes it full of wisdom and grace. He is the Alpha and the Omega.
Symbolism: The Language of the Birds
Symbols are the gateway to the psychic realms. The currency we pay to enter these realms is consistency. Symbols are often called the “language of the soul,” and like any language of earth, symbols reflect a specific culture, history, and collective experience of the path they communicate. If you wish to be fluent in the use of symbols, you must treat them as you would any language or specialized area of study, and that means a consistent use of their meanings, colors, shapes, and forms.
The great strength of oriental iconography lies in its mathematical proportions and its use of color. Through a regular and repeated use of specific shapes, sizes, and colors, artists of different traditions pass on from generation to generation a symbolic language that connects them across the centuries. The same is true in any esoteric system, and no less so in alchemy.
In alchemy, this language became known as the “language of the birds” or the “green language.” The symbolism is clear when we remember that the bird, or more specifically the dove, is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, the messenger of God, our intuition, and that green is the color of rebirth and vitality, one of the colors of the alchemist. The language’s artistic high point was during the construction of the great Gothic cathedrals across Europe. It is not surprising that many of these cathedrals were built upon pre-Christian (specifically Druidic) sites, as well as what dowsers call ley lines, or magnetically sensitive areas of the earth. In Points of Cosmic Energy, Blanche Merz details these various connecting points between the invisible and visible on the earth’s surface and demonstrates how current research has been able to identify the unique energetic qualities of them and their surrounding water supplies. In Cathedral of the Black Madonna, Jean Markale, a specialist in Celtic studies and author of over forty books, details the relationship between the early Druid priesthood of ancient France and the many architectural and spiritual mysteries surrounding Chartres, one of the greatest cathedrals of the High Middle Ages. However, it is the enigmatic alchemical author Fulcanelli that unites all of this information in a meaningful and practical manner for the aspiring alchemist.
Nothing is absolutely known about Fulcanelli. He is said to have been, or is, a French alchemist who wrote two books published in the early twentieth century: The Mystery of the Cathedrals and The Dwellings of the Philosophers. Both books discuss alchemical symbolism as it appears in architectural representations across France. Much speculation has grown up around Fulcanelli, including suggesting that he had completed the Great Work and lived in an alchemical retreat in Spain. Other suggestions are less dramatic, such as saying that Fulcanelli is the nom de plume for an author or group of authors seeking to preserve alchemical knowledge. Even his name—Fulcanelli—can be seen as a verbal symbol or play on words, combining “Vulcan,” the ancient god of the forge and fire, and “El,” a Hebrew word for God, thereby giving us the meaning “the forge of God.” Regardless, the tradition of authors of alchemical works desiring anonymity is well established, and Fulcanelli follows in this tradition. Of his two books, The Mystery of the Cathedrals is the most impressive and useful to the beginning student of alchemical symbolism.29
Alchemical symbolism and dreams often use a play on words, in which “sounds like” is the meaning rather than “looks like.” For example, in English, the third letter of the alphabet, a large body of salt water, and the act of vision all sound alike: C, sea, and see. According to Fulcanelli, this ability to play with words creates a “phonetic cabala” or symbolic language that could be found in art, song, poetry, dreams, and mystical experiences.
This kind of transposition of sounds, meaning, and images is important when we deal with psychic phenomena, as the astral world is synthetic. Images and sounds are our chief forms of obtaining information in the material world. In the psychic, additional methods come into play that can be chaotic and confusing by mundane standards.
This is why it is impossible to interpret dreams if they are taken literally. The very nature of a dream is to be nonliteral. Other forms of psychic communication are more direct; however, time, patience, and experience are needed to be able to recognize and use them reliably.
Lucid Dreaming: Gateway to the Astral
The only way to become an adept of any tradition is to become completely fluent in the symbolism of that tradition. The only way to become fluent in the symbolism of a tradition is to work with it. Just as we must practice our drills and conversation skills when learning a foreign language, the same applies to symbols.
Meditation and rituals are working aspects of symbols. Surrounding ourselves with esoteric art, making drawings, or copying and illuminating images in our notebooks is the process of imbibing, or immersing ourselves in a symbolic environment. Dreams and visions are the act of conversation and dialogue. It is here that we must learn to observe, listen, and remember so that we can interpret our dreams in a manner practical to our spiritual practice.
When interpreting dreams, four things are important:
1. Consistent symbolism.
2. Writing the dreams down.
3. Regular practice.
4. Using planetary hours to aid interpretation.
Consistent Symbolism
Consistent symbolism means giving the same meaning to a symbol, color, or sound and keeping it within its tradition, not seeking meaning elsewhere. This is difficult for many who seek to be eclectic and multicultural in their path. While it is fine to be broad-minded and tolerant on the intellectual level, at some point you have to make a decision about what you are going to do and how you are going to do it. This applies to the material domain as much as the psychic and the spiritual. If you choose to speak to someone using French vocabulary and Chinese grammar, with German conjugation thrown in, don’t be surprised when they don’t understand you. The same applies to our subconscious when it acts as the conduit between our mundane consciousness and our superconsciousness. The subconscious is synthetic. It does not rationalize. The more you fill it with, the more it will attempt to harmonize and make sense of the various disparate parts. If this is done as part of a specific system, then progress is made. If it is done haphazardly, then confusion results. Our ability to understand our dreams and the symbols they contain is a direct reflection of our personal integration. Consistency may be difficult—and boring at times—but it is the key to progress in this area.
Keep a notebook in which you write down symbols and their meanings. Use it as your personal dream dictionary. By doing this, you train your subconscious to use specific symbols in a specific manner so that they are meaningful to you.
To start the process, you can use some symbolic seed material. This includes:
A Dictionary of Symbolism, by J. E. Cirlot
The Mystery of the Cathedrals, by Fulcanelli, translated by Mary Sworder (The American edition is also known under the title Fulcanelli: Master Alchemist.)
The Alchemical Mandala, by Adam McLean
Godwin’s Cabalistic Encyclopedia, by David Godwin
The Tarot of the Magicians, by Oswald Wirth
The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century, by Stanislas Klossowski de Rola
Writing Them Down
If it is important enough to dream, it is important enough to write down. The act of writing down a dream, even a fragment, is a message to the subconscious that this information is important and to keep it coming. By writing down our dreams, we “fix” the “volatile” message that our Inner Mercury, or Messenger of the Gods, is bringing us.
Regular Practice
Dreams can be stimulated through a variety of practices that fall under the broad heading of dream yoga, or “Union through Dreams.” This union is with none other than our own Inner Self. Through repeated practice, we can come to communicate directly with this aspect of our self, transcending even dreams and symbols in direct language and experience.
Dream practices can be very simple and direct to be effective. The following method will assist in jump-starting your dreaming memory and even dream lucidity. Astral projection may also occur as a result of this practice. The nice thing about dream practices is that we must sleep, so spending a few minutes as we lie in bed directing our consciousness to assist us in our work is about as passive a practice as there is on the path to enlightenment.
Dream Practice
1. As you lie in bed, focus your attention on your throat, behind the Adam’s apple, where the thyroid gland is. Imagine a sphere of brilliant orange or red-orange light. This can be small, but it radiates a large sphere of influence in its aura. This sphere can extend from just above your sternum to below the bridge of your nose if you want to imagine it. Otherwise, simply stay with the brilliant sphere of light.
2. Verbally, silently, or in a whisper, recite the following affirmation: “Tonight I will dream, and I will remember my dreams.” This affirmation can be made more specific with experience to include the following: “Tonight I will dream, and I will become aware that I am dreaming.” Or it can be used to continue with a dream that left off from a previous night: “Tonight I will dream, and my dream will continue from this point [imagine the end of the dream you wish to use as a pickup point].” You may repeat this three or seven times with confidence that you will dream.
3. Write down any dream experiences you have during the night.
The process can be more complex and developed as dream practices begin to involve lucid dreaming, astral projection, and heightened states of consciousness. However, they all rely on this basic technique as their foundation.30
Planetary Hours
One of the most confusing aspects of dream interpretation occurs when dreams appear to be fragments of other dreams and we seek to link them together but don’t know how. We may have a dream on Monday, another on Tuesday, and a third on Friday. We write them down and line them up like chapters in a book, but instead of making any sense, it looks like we pulled three chapters at random from a book on history, a romance novel, and a physics textbook. We convince ourselves that it is hopeless and that we will never understand our dreams, and we go back to forgetting them. However, just as planetary energies affect our alchemical and meditative work, they also affect our dream work. If we took those three “chapters” and, instead of lining them up, put them back in the proper “books” in which they belong, we could begin to make sense of their messages. For this reason, when you write down your dreams, keep the planetary day and night in mind. Saturday at sunrise until Sunday at sunrise is ruled by Saturn. Therefore, all dreams on a Saturday night or early Sunday morning, before sunrise, are influenced by Saturn. Dreams in the morning—at or after sunrise—will be influenced by the new planetary energies. In summertime, in areas where daylight-savings time is used, the sun may rise at 5:00 a.m. If you sleep until 7:00 a.m. and know that your dream occurred just before waking, it is important to analyze it in relation to the new energies. However, many people dream sometime between 3:00 a.m. and 5:00 a.m., thereby eliminating this problem.
Once you record a dream, make sure that you connect your dreams according to the planetary days. A dream on Saturday night should be followed by any dream that may occur on each succeeding Saturday. The same applies for each of the remaining days of the week.
These dreams should be read as chapters, then, in your personal “planetary dream book.” They should also be reviewed prior to sleep to stimulate your subconscious with the leaving-off point of the last dream as the starting point of the next dream in the series.
As an example of an alchemical dream interpretation, the following dream was experienced by a practitioner of alchemy while performing a specific operation. The dream occurred on a Sunday night in April, during a waxing Moon, with Mercury retrograde. The weather was very damp and chilly.
Dream
“I am in the basement of my house, distilling a product. It is not clear if it is red wine or another tincture, but the color is dark and rich. The basement is different from normal, in that it is all dirt; brown predominates, and the space is completely empty except for a small distillation setup before me and the stairs behind me. They are not directly behind me, but instead are at an angle and go up and to my (back-facing) left. To my (front-facing) left is a bare light bulb on a cord.
“I reach for the light bulb with some hesitation, as something doesn’t feel right. I realize that some force or energy is present with me. I turn and run up the stairs toward the exit. Just as the door is about to close, I force it open, and in doing so experience a sphere of energy around me of tremendous power. I stop and feel proud of my achievement—an almost ‘showed you’ attitude—then exit.”
Interpretation
Interpreting a dream is easy once we identify the key symbols and link them together like words in a sentence or ideas in a story. Here are the key symbols as identified by the dreamer in this dream.
Basement of my house—House is “Beth” in Hebrew, and also the Moon. The basement is the supporting structure, or foundation (Yesod). This is the dreamer’s subconscious.
Distilling a product whose color is dark and rich—A work of purification has reached a critical or possibly end stage.
All dirt; brown predominates—The place of “work” is the material world. This dream conveys a very concrete lesson.
Empty except for a small distillation setup before me—The lesson is simple and the teaching direct. There is nothing to distract the dreamer’s attention.
Stairs are behind me at an angle and go up and to my (back-facing) left—The dreamer is isolated. Leaving is not simple. Left is the direction of mercy, or divine grace. It could also be a symbolic direction in the language of the birds, that is, “left” as in past tense of “to leave.”
To my (front-facing) left is a bare light bulb on a cord—Light, similar to the tarot card of the Hermit when the dreamer reaches for it. The outer light is touched and left behind, and the inner light must be relied upon when the force of the dream is awakened.
Experience a sphere of energy around me of tremendous power—The energy aroused is absorbed, or assimilated in some fashion, but is more indirect than direct.
I stop and feel proud of my achievement—From fear to pride in a split second! Human folly.
Dream Summary
The dreamer is purifying a product that relates to the Inner Self, connection to the root of his being. Progress requires greater isolation and inward presence, but also a connection to the concrete and material. The work awakens great energy and potential, but also with it great fear of the very thing that is sought. The mind must cease to be afraid of the energies that give it life. Once aroused, these energies cannot be escaped but must be absorbed and assimilated. The absurdity of the dreamer’s ego is that it moves from fear of its own creation to pride over vanquishing it inside of an instant. This hints at the dangers of human activities in the esoteric realms. The greatest threat to all spiritual work is pride. The test must be repeated. Much of the symbolism hints at the tarot card for the Hermit: Yod, Virgo, Mercury, Earth, ascent, light before and above or at the level of the head, Mercury retrograde.
Alchemical Pathworking
The use of guided visualizations in Qabala is referred to as pathworking and consists of a series of interrelated symbols given in connection with a particular story. Each story is nearly identical in context, in that it has a beginning, an obstacle, the resolution of the obstacle, a reward for overcoming the obstacle, and completion or return. The content changes from pathworking to pathworking to reflect the various experiences one will encounter along the spiritual path. Alchemy has similar stories, both verbal and visual, in which the process of transmutation is detailed in the form of one or more interlocking stories. Short verses of poetry or prose may accompany each symbolic scene, as in Salomon Trismosin’s Splendor Solis, or, like in the Mutus Liber, there may be nothing except images. Regardless, the ability to imaginatively enter into a scene, bring it to life, and extract information psychically from it is critical to the alchemical process. The following exercise will assist in developing a sense of the similarity between alchemical images and Qabalistic pathworking, particularly those systems utilizing the images from the tarot trumps. It is important that the images be visualized in both the third person and first person. Look at the images and what they are doing, and then become the images and observe what you as the image or character are doing.
The following exercise is taken from the images found in the Splendor Solis, an alchemical manuscript dating to at least the mid-sixteenth century. The Splendor Solis is one of the most famous alchemical manuscripts because of its twenty-two beautiful color plates, which are fully reproduced in Art and Symbols of the Occult: Images of Power and Wisdom, by James Wasserman. The Splendor Solis was a document much studied by some of the key figures in the early Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Reverend W. A. Ayton’s pupil, Julius Kohn, was responsible for its first modern publication and translation in 1920, and S. L. MacGregor Mathers valued it highly enough to work on a translation reportedly published in 1907. Unfortunately, copies of Mathers’s limited edition have not surfaced. The most recent edition of the Splendor Solis was translated by Joscelyn Godwin with commentary by Adam McLean and published by Phanes Press; however, its plates are in black and white. Copies of the color images can also be found on McLean’s alchemy website.
Exercise
1. Prepare yourself for meditation.
2. Imagine a glass egg or retort before you. Carefully build the image in detail.
3. Imagine yourself passing through the glass and entering the egg. There, in the center of the egg, you hover above the dark waters filling the lower third of the vessel.
4. Imagine that you are a small, naked child, like the cherubim often portrayed in Renaissance art. You hold a pair of bellows and are pumping them. Before you is a yellow dragon, and your bellows are pointed at its chest. As you pump the bellows, the dragon goes from yellow to a bright red.
5. The red dragon now transforms into three birds: one red, one white, and one black. They are intertwined and are pecking at each other.
6. The heat increases, and the three birds become one body and three heads, colored white. Each head bears a golden crown.
7. Again the heat increases, and the bird is transformed into a yellow dragon with three heads: one white, one black, and one red.
8. The heat increases, transforming the dragon into a peacock with its tail in full bloom.
9. The peacock transforms into a queen in a white dress, breasts bare, a crown upon her head and facing to her right. She holds a golden wand in her left hand and an orb in her right hand. The orb is before her belly, and she is surrounded by an aura of yellow edged with an equal amount of light blue. She stands upon a crescent moon, horns upturned (Tail of the Dragon).
10. For a final time, the heat increases, and the queen is transformed into a king in a red cape and robes. He wears a golden crown and holds an orb topped with a small equal-armed cross (the symbol of terrestrial victory, also antimony) in his left hand and a golden wand in his right. He stands upon an inverted crescent moon, horns turned down (Head of the Dragon), and he is surrounded by a brilliant golden aura.
11. After a period of time, exit the egg.
12. Write down your experiences, the date and time of the meditation, and the lunar cycle.
Key Points
General Assignments for Chapter Ten
1. Obtain a deck of tarot cards. The Oswald Wirth deck is preferred; however, the Tarot of Marseille or the Rider-Waite deck will also do. Examine the cards in light of the brief alchemical notation given them in this chapter. Use only traditional decks for this exercise. Write, draw, or photocopy and paste these cards and the information in your notebook.
2. Obtain one or more of the books or courses mentioned in this chapter and begin the construction of your personal dictionary of symbols.
3. Pick a recent dream that you have experienced and, using the example in this chapter, write it down, using bullet points to note the key ideas. Interpret the events in as few words as possible and then synthesize the ideas into one or two sentences (or words if possible). Distill the meaning of dreams; obtain their essence.
4. Begin recording your dreams in the manner outlined in this chapter.
Meditation Practices for Chapter Ten
1. Begin a nightly dream practice as outlined in this chapter.
2. Meditate with the various tarot cards and the alchemical descriptions given in this chapter, and notice your reaction to the ideas presented.
29. Much of this symbolism can be found in cathedrals in the United States, as they were copied from the European originals. It is suggested that entire cities have been built on esoteric symbolism, including Washington, D.C.
30. For more information, see: “A Qabalistic Guide to Lucid Dreaming,” by Mark Stavish, at www.hermeticinstitute.org (look for the link to online articles under Hermetic Resources).