1.1.4 The Symbols and their Meanings
“The excellence of the soul is understanding;
for the man who understands is conscious,
devoted, and already godlike.”
This chapter explores how alchemical symbolism serves as a specialised language for understanding spiritual transformation. We’ll examine how symbols evolved as tools to convey complex spiritual concepts while safeguarding esoteric knowledge, exploring their role in personal development and consciousness evolution. Understanding these symbols provides a foundation for working with the transformative processes described in later chapters.
Words are perceptual symbols. Each word is a perception that the mind learns to recognise and associate with a certain set of meanings. These meanings are not fixed but evolve through our experience and understanding, much like the alchemical process itself.
Alchemy employs symbols to communicate complex or abstract ideas. There was a need to keep the lessons secret during times of possible misinterpretation or persecution. The downside of using obscure symbols is there often has to be an oral tradition of masters, teaching students, the precise meaning of these symbols. This tradition ensures the authentic transmission of knowledge while protecting its deeper significance.
The Bible is a book on alchemy.
What does this mean?
The Bible is a book that details the evolution of human consciousness. The concepts we use are necessarily abstract, so we used symbolic language. This is why as an adult reading the Bible it doesn’t make sense until you understand that terms and names are symbolic. For instance, the Garden of Eden represents a state of original consciousness, while the serpent symbolises the awakening of discriminative wisdom.
During this course we will touch on some of the symbols we find in alchemy. However, I won’t tend to depend on them, for a number of reasons. Firstly, unless anybody knows any better, we can only guess at what these symbols mean. We can spend and waste time arguing about this. My premise is that there is a process that is common to all mystery schools. Different religions have differing approaches. Often, these symbols are highly personal, and you will learn to develop your own understanding.
These symbols represent what can often not be described adequately. They are labels of types of experience that is deeply personal. Consciousness needs to be dissected, and its constituent parts analysed. These symbols represent markers or labels that help us do this. Like signposts on a journey, they guide us but are not the destination themselves.
Ultimately, one must learn to transcend symbols—yet they remain necessary when discussing or expressing these experiences. You will need to gain a certain fluency in a pretty obscure type of language. This language speaks to the soul rather than the intellect.
Practically this is a problem for the aspiring alchemist. Often there are no shortages of clues or inspiration, the answers really are sitting there for all to see. But we habitually look past them, into the world of things and people and fail to see the nose on our faces. Our conditioning blinds us to the obvious.
On my journey I found that as a non-classically educated, native English speaker, that Buddhism offers the most complete access to a system of spiritual enlightenment. However, for a Hebrew speaker or Mandarin speaker, other systems might be more accessible. There is no point re-inventing the wheel, so the backbone of this course will use Buddhist terminology, which is generally pretty accessible for those who wish to deepen their understanding.
We begin by examining a few key symbols in alchemy:
The Retort.
This is the apparatus in which we place the raw material for transformation. It is a sealed, refluxing device, upon which we apply a carefully controlled and very prolonged heat. The alchemical process during which the alchemist transmutes their substance of being (the raw material) is called the Great Work, or work for short. This retort or vessel is a metaphor for the alchemist themselves. They take their current experience of being, and through a certain separation or hermitage, focus inwards with the aim of understanding. The raw substance is subjected to an increasing level of observation and analysis, and through this heat (Wisdom or insight) breaks down into its elemental parts. The retort’s sealed nature symbolises the focused containment of energy required for transformation.
The Raw Substance.
This is the conditionality that the alchemist suffers. It is an accumulation of perceptions that the alchemist, on some level, is aware of and wishes to purify. This Raw Substance is the starting ingredient of what will become the stone of the philosophers — a metaphysical ground of being that is transmuted through a number of steps to a substance of increasing refined purity. It encompasses all our psychological material: our thoughts, emotions, memories, and habitual patterns of behaviour.
The Secret Alchemist’s Fire.
This intellectual curiosity begins as a faint spark but strengthens with faith and later wisdom. It manifests initially as curiosity and doubt, with doubt eventually turning inwards and corroding inner (delusional) structures of self. This doubt is transformed into faith and hope, which later transforms into a certain confidence and deep sense of knowing (Gnosis). This fire is the transformative power of awareness itself, burning away illusion to reveal truth.
The Crow or any dark bird.
This represents Nigredo or darkness, the dross that is part of the raw substance that one must initially work with. It symbolises the Dark Night of the Soul, the period of confusion and despair that precedes spiritual awakening. The blackness signifies both the decay of old patterns and the fertile ground for new understanding.
Planetary figures.
Each planet was associated with a metal, with different metals representing various aspects of consciousness or temperament. Mercury represents fluidity of mind, Mars represents will and determination, Venus represents harmony and beauty, Jupiter represents expansion and wisdom, Saturn represents discipline and limitation, while the Sun and Moon represent consciousness and unconsciousness respectively.
The Rebis.
This represents unified duality, the reconsolidating of opposites. In order to reach the awareness we associate with the Garden, the path is a narrowly balanced one. It points to the transcendence of apparent contradictions and the discovery of underlying unity. The Rebis is often depicted as a composite symbol uniting multiple elements into a single harmonious form.
The Lion (or sun).
Generally this represents the self, or purified self. We will explore this much deeper later on. The lion symbolises both the raw power of the ego and, when tamed, the noble strength of the transformed consciousness. Its golden colour connects it to solar consciousness and spiritual illumination.
The Moon.
The moon has no light of its own, but is reflective. It appears to change in a cyclical manner and represents natural rhythms such as seasons especially with regards to fertility. It symbolises the unconscious mind, intuition, and the feminine principle of receptivity. Its phases represent the cycles of spiritual transformation.
This is certainly enough to start with. Don’t focus too much on this archaic symbology — it is interesting but also tends to confuse. I’ll point out any correspondences between systems, or at least those that I think correspond. Remember that these symbols are tools for understanding, not the understanding itself.
This text is excerpted from the book Nigredo: A Course in Modern Alchemy. The complete book includes additional study guides, resources, and appendices. View the full book here.