V · Operations & Magnum Opus

Calcination and sublimation are paired dry-heat operations that expel volatiles from a solid and refine its fixed residue.

An alembic still of cucurbit and headed beak separates volatile spirit from fixed residue by vapor and condensation.

Self-devouring serpent of chrysopoeia, the ouroboros figures the closed circuit of matter from prima materia to the red stone.

Mythic chymical agent, the Lapis Philosophorum, held to transmute base metals into gold or silver and to yield an elixir of life.

John Dee's 1564 Antwerp book expounding a hieroglyph that unites the seven planetary metals in a single chymical sign.

The Rebis is the hermaphroditic res bina of Sol and Luna, the coincidentia oppositorum marking coniunctio in the magnum opus.

The Hexagram of the Four Elements is the six-pointed Seal of Solomon marking the tempered union of fire and water.