Secret of Alchemy

The winged Mercurius in a glass flask.
By the alchemists, the forces that are active in material nature were still experienced as astral appearances. The homunculus is also an astral entity experienced in this way.
Source: Cabala Mineralis

The Secret of Alchemy is the third of the seven secrets of life. This can be understood, for example, through the works of Paracelsus and Jakob Böhme. It is the secret of elective affinity (German: Wahlverwandtschaft) through which the two basic forces of the astral world - sympathy and antipathy - are to be brought into the right balance. A physical reflection of this secret is shown in the chemical affinity of the substances. Of the seven great cosmic stages of world evolution, the third stage, the Old Moon, corresponds to it.

„On the third planet a third thing developed in addition to the number: the law of elective affinity. It consists in the fact that people develop sympathy and antipathy for each other. This law is found in all realms, for example in chemistry, in the mineral kingdom. This also made it possible for a new kingdom to form. The animal kingdom, the plant kingdom, the mineral kingdom were formed. Man, as we see him today, did not exist at that time. He was then still a kind of animal, on the kamic stage. The spirit had not yet entered the body.“ (Lit.:GA 89, p. 145)

Literature

• Rudolf Steiner: Bewußtsein – Leben – Form , GA 89 (2001), ISBN 3-7274-0890-1 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org

References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated. Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com. Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English. Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA) Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.