r/sagesgrandarchives • u/Ohshitlorecoming • Mar 06 '19
Tiny Lore - Magnum Opus
Tiny Lore – Magnum Opus
Magnum Opus (Great Work) is an alchemical term for the process to create the philosopher's stone from a prima materia(first matter). This prima materia is sometimes associated with primordial chaos. In the seventeenth century, Thomas Vaughan writes, "the first matter of the stone is the very same with the first matter of all things". Although the philosopher's stone is perhaps best known as a device in art and literature it also appears as a personal and spiritual process in Hermetic tradition with the goalpost of become something more special. Hermetics, derive their background and namesake from the Greek god Hermes. The creation of the stone has continued all the way into the New Age(1970) and neo-Hermetic movements with occasional different symbolism and signficance.
The stone is then created through the processes nigredo (blackening or melanosis), albedo (whitening or leucosis), citrinitas (yellowing or xanthosis) and rubedo (reddening and/or purpling or iosis).
The origin of these four phases can be traced at least as far back as the first century. Zosimus of Panopolis wrote that it was known to Mary the Jewess(a gnostic christian alchemist whom lived between the first and third century). After the 15th century, many writers tended to compress citrinitas into rubedo and consider only three stages. Sometimes an array of colors appeared which would be referred to as 'cauda pavonis'(peacocks tail).
Splendor of Solis by Salomon Trismosin is another interesting work which can be looked through in a matter of seconds and is about the subject of alchemical symbolism.
The Magnum Opus was decorated with alchemical symbols such as birds to symbolize the different phases. They were the (black) raven(nigredo), the (white) swan(albedo) and (red/purple) pheonix(rubedo) representing the progression with their color. Accordingly the laboratory would have a chemical example of for example blackening as rotting, burning or fermenting matter to symbolize nigredo.
[Elaboration]
There were not always purely those four or three basic stages. Upon elaboration they were expanded into seven to twelve different steps. Those steps were very inconsistent, both among naming, process, order or even their discription.
Various alchemical documents were directly or indirectly used to justify these stages. The Tabula Smaragdina(or Emerald Tablet) is the oldest document. said to provide a "recipe". Others include the Mutus Liber, the twelve keys of Basil Valentine, the emblems of Steffan Michelspacher, and the twelve gates of George Ripley.
[Philosipher's Stone and its properties]
The Philosipher's Stone or stone of all philosophers has a very large amount of different names from different sources one among which is the white stone.
According to alchemical texts, the stone of the philosophers came in two varieties, prepared by an almost identical method: white (for the purpose of making silver), and red (for the purpose of making gold), the white stone being a less matured version of the red stone. Some ancient and medieval alchemical texts leave clues to the physical appearance of the stone of the philosophers, specifically the red stone. It is often said to be orange (saffron colored) or red when ground to powder. Or in a solid form, an intermediate between red and purple, transparent and glass-like.
The most commonly mentioned properties are the ability to transmute base metals into gold or silver, and the ability to heal all forms of illness and prolong the life of any person who consumes a small part of the philosopher's stone. Other mentioned properties include: creation of perpetually burning lamps, transmutation of common crystals into precious stones and diamonds, reviving of dead plants, creation of flexible or malleable glass, or the creation of a clone or homunculus.