Sun and moon supply the seeds that are planted in the earth (= Mercurius), and presumably the four other planets form the trunk of the tree:
The four that are to be united into one refer to the tetrasomia of Greek alchemy, where, corresponding to the planets, they stand for lead, tin, iron, and copper. Hence in his process of henosis (unification or synthesis), as Michael Maier correctly understood it, what Greverus had in mind was not the three basic Paracelsan substances but the ancient tetrasomia, which at the end of his treatise he compares with the “union of persons in the Holy Trinity”
CW13 ¶ 357CONIUNCTIO TETRAPTIVA
For him the triad of sun, moon, and Mercurius was the starting point, the initial material as it were, in so far as it signified the seed of the tree and the earth in which it was sown. This is the so-called coniunctio triptativa. But here he is concerned with the coniunctio tetraptiva, whereby the four are joined in the “union of persons.” This is a characteristic example of the dilemma of three and four, which plays a great role in alchemy as the well-known axiom of Maria Prophetissa
CW13 ¶ 357THE AIM OF THE TETRASOMIA IS TO SYNTHESIZE
A QUATERNIO OF OPPOSITES INTO A UNITY
The aim of the tetrasomia is the reduction (or synthesis) of a quaternio of opposites to unity. The names of the planets themselves indicate two dyads, one benevolent (Jupiter and Venus), the other malefic (Saturn and Mars), and such dyads often constitute an alchemical quaternity. Zosimos gives the following description of the transformation process that is needed for the preparation of the tincture:
CW13 ¶ 358You have need of an earth formed from two bodies and a water formed from two natures to water it. When the water has been mingled with the earththe sun must act on this clay and transform it into stone. This stone must be burnt, and that burning will bring out the secret of this matter, that is to say its spirit, which is the tincture sought by the Philosophers ( Berthelot, La Chimie au moyen áge, III, p. 82 )
SYNTHESIS DEPENDS ON THE
UNIFICATION OF A DOUBLE DYAD
As the text shows, the synthesis depends on the unification of a double dyad. This is expressed particularly clearly in another archetypal form of the same idea: in the structure of the royal marriage, which follows that of the cross-cousin marriage
THE LAPIS IS SYNTHESIZED FROM
THE QUATERNITY OF THE ELEMENTS
As a rule, the lapis is synthesized from the quaternity of the elements or from the ogdoad of elements plus qualities (cold / warm, moist / dry). Similarly Mercurius, known from ancient times as quadratus, is the arcane substance through whose transformation the lapis, or goal of the opus, is produced
CW13 ¶ 359VITIS WAS THE NAME GIVEN
TO THE PHILOSOPHICAL TREE
Vitis was the name given to the philosophical tree in late antiquity, and the opus was called the “vintage” (vindemia)
CW13 ¶ 359THE FOURFOLD MERCURIUS
The fourfold Mercurius is also the tree or its spiritus vegetativus. The Hellenistic Hermes is on the one hand an all-encompassing deity, as the above attributes show, but on the other hand, as Hermes Trismegistus, he is the arch-authority of the alchemists
CW13 ¶ 360THE FOUR FORMS OF HERMES
The four forms of Hermes in Egyptian Hellenism are clearly derived from the four sons of Horus. A god with four faces is mentioned as early as the Pyramid Texts of the fourth and fifth dynasties. The faces obviously refer to the four quarters of heaventhat is, the god is all-seeing. Budge points out that in chapter CXII of the Egyptian Book of the Dead the same god appears as the ram of Mendes with four heads
CW13 ¶ 360HORUS WHO REPRESENTED THE FACE OF HEAVEN
The original Horus, who represented the face of heaven, had long hair hanging down over his face, and these strands of hair were associated with the four pillars of Shu, the air god, which supported the four-cornered plate of the sky. Later the four pillars became associated with the four sons of Horus, who replaced the old gods of the four quarters of heaven
CW13 ¶ 360THE QUATERNITY AS A LEITMOTIF
The quaternity is in fact a leitmotiv in the ritual for the dead:
CW13 ¶ 360Four men carry the coffin with the four Canopic jars
There are four sacrificial animals
All instruments and vessels are fourfold
Formulas and prayers are repeated four times, etc. It is evident from this that the quaternity was of special importance for the dead man: the four sons of Horus had to see to it that the four parts (i.e., the wholeness) of the body were preserved. Horus begot his sons with his mother Isis. The incest motif, which was continued in Christian tradition and extended into late medieval alchemy, thus begins far back in Egyptian antiquity. The four sons of Horus are often shown standing on a lotus before their grandfather Osiris:
CW13 ¶ 360Mestha, having a human head
Hapi the head of an ape
Tuamutef the head of a jackal
Qebhsennuf the head of a hawk
FOUR CHERUBIM HAD `THE LIKENESS OF A MAN'
The analogy with the vision of Ezekiel (chapters 1 and 10) is at once apparent. There the four cherubim had “the likeness of a man.” Each of them had four faces, a man's, a lion's, an ox's, and an eagle's, so that, as with the four sons of Horus, one quarter was human and three quarters animal. In the love-magic of Astrampsychos, on the other hand, all four forms are animal, probably because of the magic purport of the incantation
CW13 ¶ 361HUMAN HEAD INDICATES CONSCIOUSNESS
The one human head would indicate consciousness of an aspect or function of the individual psyche. Horus as the rising sun is the enlightener, just as the vision of Ezekiel signifies enlightenment. On the other hand magic, if it is to be effective, always presupposes unconsciousness. This would explain the absence of the human face
CW13 ¶ 361PREDILECTION FOR MULTIPLES OF FOUR
In keeping with the Egyptian predilection for multiples of four, there are 4 x 4 faces in the vision of Ezekiel. Moreover each of the cherubim has a wheel. In later commentaries the four wheels were interpreted as Merkabah, the chariot. Corresponding to the four pillars of Shu and the four sons of Horus as gods of the four quarters, who bear up the floor of the sky, there was “a firmament as the colour of terrible crystal, stretched forth over the heads” of the cherubim. On it stood the throne of him who had “the appearance of a man,” the counterpart of Osiris, who with the help of the older Horus and of Set had climbed up to heaven
CW13 ¶ 362THE WINGED FEMALE GENIES
The four wings of the cherubim recall the winged female genies who protect the coffin of Pharaoh. Each of the Horus sons had a female counterpart who fulfilled this same tutelary function. The cherubim, too, were protective genies, as is apparent from Ezekiel 28 : 14 and 16. The apotropaic significance of the quaternity is borne out by Ezekiel 9 : 4, where the prophet, at the behest of the Lord, sets a cross on the foreheads of the righteous to protect them from punishment. It is evidently the sign of God, who himself has the attribute of quaternity. The cross is the mark of his protégés. As attributes of God and also symbols in their own right, the quaternity and the cross signify wholeness
CW13 ¶ 363THE HEALING EFFECT OF WHOLENESS
In the spontaneous symbolism of the unconscious the cross as quaternity refers to the Self, to man's wholeness. The sign of the cross is thus an indication of the healing effect of wholeness, or of becoming whole
CW13 ¶ 364THE QUATERNITY OF GOD'S SONS PENETRATED
VERY EARLY INTO CHRISTIAN IDEOLOGY
Via Daniel and Enoch, the quaternity of God's sons penetrated very early into Christian ideology. There are the three synoptic gospels and the one gospel of St. John, to which were assigned as emblems the symbols of the cherubim. The four gospels are as it were the pillars of Christ's throne, and in the Middle Ages the tetramorph became the riding animal of the Church. But it was Gnostic speculation in particular that appropriated the quaternity. This theme is so far-reaching that it cannot be dealt with more closely here. I would only draw attention to the synonymity of Christ, Logos, and Hermes, and the derivation of Jesus from the so-called “second tetrad” among the Valentinians. “Thus our Lord in his fourfoldness preserves the form of the tetraktys and is composed of”:
CW13 ¶ 366The spiritual, which comes from Achamoth
The psychic, which comes from the world-creator
The body prepared with ineffable art
The divine, the saviour
THE ALCHEMICAL TETRASOMIA
AND ITS REDUCTION TO UNITY
The alchemical tetrasomia and its reduction to unity therefore have a long prehistory which reaches back far beyond the Pythagorean tetraktys into Egyptian antiquity. From all this we can see without difficulty that we are confronted with the archetype of a totality image divided into four. The resultant conceptions are always of a central nature, characterize divine figures, and carry over those qualities to the arcane substances of alchemy
CW13 ¶ 367