Sympathy In Alchemy

The anthropomorphic perception of matter that assigned to the metal a human soul correlated with an occult system according to which the supposed affinity between substances expressed itself in a mutual attraction or rejection, that is, either “sympathy” or “antipathy.” Such a bond linked, in particular, our world “below” to the world “above,” the microcosm of man to the macrocosm of planetary divinities. The system of correspondences elaborated, for example, by the second-century astrologer Antiochus of Athens (Sheppard, Ambix 7, p. 46) embraced, in addition to “above” and “below,” also elements, metals, and colors. Already Maria Prophetissa (fl. early third century), also known as the “founding mother of alchemy,” heralded the principle of parallelism: “Just as man results [from the association] of liquids, of solids, and of spirit, so does copper.” Zosimos of Panopolis in Egypt (fl. c. 300), recognizing the identity between the behavior of matter and the events in his own (unconscious) psyche, condensed this complex insight into the formula “What is within is also without.”

Free eBooks (Can Be Downloaded):

Barbara Obrist - Visualization In Medieval Alchemy
Roger Bacon - The Mirror Of Alchemy
Arthur Edward Waite - What Is Alchemy