Alberi-fungo
Ciao,
ecco l'articolo comparso su "Magister Botanicus Magische Blätter", n° 11 (2007) e due immagini:
Fig. 1: Mercurio, miniatura. Splendor Solis (o Il Toson d’Oro), S. Trismosin, 1532-1535
Fig. 2: ¬San Martino, affresco. Chiesa di Santa Maria ad Cryptas, parete meridionale, stile benedettino-cassinese, 1264-1283 (Fossa, L’Aquila)
AQUA PERMANENS IN ALCHEMY: AN ACTIVE SUBSTANCE ?
Gianluca Toro
Alchemy describes a chemical process of transmutation, for which authors provides a great number of indications, depending on how the final goal was represented. The real meaning of alchemy is a psychological one. Substantially, alchemy describes a series of psychological processes, expressed in a pseudo-chemical language, in which chemistry has a symbolical and not a practical role. From a strictly chemical point of view, the great part of the described processes don’t have any significance, even if there were surely some practical and useful discoveries.
Alchemists didn’t know the true nature of matter and in order to explain its mystery they involuntarily projected their unconscious on the matter itself, following the general phenomenon according to which all that is unknown is filled with a psychological projection. Such projection was a quality of the matter. Practically, during the completion of the alchemical work, psychical phenomena were experienced and interpreted as a behaviour of the chemical process. Thus, in the obscurity of an external fact it is possible to find one’s inner life, even if it is not recognized as such.
Among the various alchemical concepts, we find that of aqua permanens. It was known under different names, for example aqua vitae, aqua mercurialis, soul of the lapis and Mercury. It is contained in the prima materia, it is soul, spirit, wisdom, truth, supreme treasure, hidden source of the inner man, arcane substance, psychic substance, most secret numinous reality, what transforms and what is transformed.
In this article, we’ll give a limited contribution to the identification of aqua permanens, by taking in consideration two representative images.
In an illumination illustrating the work Splendor Solis by S. Trismosin (XVI century), we find Mercury represented as the Divine Hermaphrodite, as union of Sol (the conscience and the male part) and Luna (the unconscious and the female part). It is depicted with two heads, a red and a white wing. Mercury holds in hand what seems to be a mushroom. Taking in consideration the egg-like form of such mushroom, its white colour, the red and white colour of the wings and the woody environment with some trees, it is possible to identify the mushroom species as Amanita muscaria. Infact, in its first stages of development, A. muscaria is like a white egg and it grows in ecological association to some trees species, mostly birches, reaching its final characteristic appearance, that’s to say a red cap dotted with white spots. Moreover, Mercury hold in the other hand what seems to be the inferior part of a mushroom cap and he is standing on a single leg, symbolically representing the single “leg” (stalk) of a mushroom.
It seems that in this case the artist had intentionally represented a mushroom, A. muscaria in particular. This is also in accordance with the figure of Mercury as god of revelation, symbol of transformation, manifested as ouroboros that kills and bring back to life itself, all elements linked with the entheogenic experience. But Mercury is also aqua permanens, that in turn could be identified with an extract of A. muscaria.
According to alchemists, the union of Sol and Luna originates venomous animals, as salamanders and toads. Thus, it could be possible that aqua permanens, as Mercury the Divine Hermaphrodite, could be also represented by salamanders and toads. Salamander in alchemy is also considered as an attenuated form of toad. On the other hand, salamander is the spiritus mercurialis of prima materia, in which aqua permanens is contained. Thus, Mercury’s spirit (and salamander, as consequence) could be considered as aqua permanens itself. In the same way, also products obtained from toads could be identified with aqua permanens.
Salamander was principally a symbol of transformation and rejuvenation, death and rebirth and double life (perhaps for the black skin with yellow spots and for its metamorphosis) and represented sulphur.
In an illumination contained in a late-medieval manuscript (XIV century), we find a mushroom-tree with the characteristics of A. muscaria. On the right, a man in dancing attitude holds in hand what seems to be a mushroom, probably A. muscaria itself, while he covers himself the forehead with the other hand. Perhaps, the man staggers because of the mushroom effects, and the hand on the forehead would be in relation to inebriation or dizziness, typical of the first phase during the entheogenic experience with such mushroom species.
We find also a salamander (as the Latin text below tell us), depicted both near the mushroom-tree and on the fire. In this context, salamander would be a symbol of A. muscaria, maybe for its spotted skin remembering the dotted mushroom cap. Moreover, representing a salamander on fire would remember the fact that A. muscaria cap is generally dried before being ingested, in such a way to experiment the full effects.
Another element linking salamander and A. muscaria could be represented by the fact that the first could be psychoactive by itself.
B. Ogorevc has reported the preparation of a salamander brandy in Slovenia, particularly in the area of Ljubljana. Salamander would be identified with Salamandra salamandra. The use of such brandy would date back to some hundreds years ago; according to the oral tradition, it would have a medieval origin.
Such brandy is produced following 3 methods. The first consists in putting a pair of alive salamanders in a barrel along with apples, pears and plums, leaving the mixture to ferment for a couple of months. In the alcoholic environment, the salamanders produce a secretion as a defence, until they die. The mixture is then distilled. In the second method, 5 or 6 alive salamanders are put on a sieve upon which a yet distilled brandy is drained, in order to obtain the final product. In this case, the animals produce the secretion and then die. The last method consists in dropping a fresh distilled and still warm brandy on a salamander hung on a rope. The final product is gathered in a container and the dead animal is replaced with an alive one, until the end of the process. Normally absinthe (Artemisia absinthium) is added.
Even if there are some doubts on the efficacy of this preparation, the effects reported by the author are a pleasurable inebriation, distortion of reality and visual (coloured lightning) and auditive phenomena. Things seem new and strange and an intense erotic feeling is experienced. It is also possible to fall asleep. At the end of the experience, there can be partial amnesia; after-effects have not been reported. In general, the effect is more similar to that of strychnine, muscimol or ibogaine than to that of classic psychedelics such as mescaline, psilocybin and LSD. In particular, a consumer has affirmed that it is possible to experience a visionary state with contents similar to those of the works of the Flemish painter Hieronymus Bosch.
The secretion of salamander contains steroidal alkaloids such as cycloneosamandaridine, cycloneosamandione, samandaridine, samandarine, samandenone and samanine. Among other alkaloids, we find some histamine analogues such as spinaceamine and its homologue 5-methylspinaceamine, giving vivacity to the brandy.
Taking in consideration the above cited images, it seems sufficiently clear the intentional attitude of the artist in representing a psychoactive mushroom (A. muscaria in particular) and in putting it in relation to the salamander. Thus, in some ambient of Medieval alchemy, salamander could hide A. muscaria. As we have reported, the effects of entheogens are in relation to transformation and death and rebirth processes, and the salamander is a symbol of these latter. Given the relation of salamander to aqua permanens, this latter could be represented by a psychoactive substance, probably an A. muscaria extract.
The XIII century alchemist and astrologer M. Scot describes in his Liber luminus luminum the preparation of a powder “marvellous for transformation”, based on toads put in a container where they feed on various herbs juice added with vinegar. In the XV century, G. Ripley wrote a text titled Vision, a likely report of a visionary experience where we find also the toad, perhaps the direct cause of the same experience. According to the XVII century alchemist E. Philalethes, this text would be the description of a series of chemical operations. The fumes of the toad after its combustion are compared to the venomous ones of the “dragons”, that’s to say salamanders. Paracelsus cites the Zenexton, a golden container with a powdered toad inside, and his disciple O. Crollius, in the Bazilica Chymica, reports the preparation of a prophylactic medicine under the form of a talisman. This recipe consists in drying a toad under the sun, powdering it, adding “rose water” and “Zenith of virgin” (menstruations of young women). The final mixture is shaped in the form of a circular pentacle to be employed against venoms, pestilence and astral diseases, that’s to say disorders caused by the celestial bodies.
Probably, the toads correspond to some European species, as Bufo bufo, Bufo calamita and Bufo viridis, containing 5-hydroxy-N,N-dimehtyltryptamine (5-OH-DMT, bufotenine). Recently, J. Ott has carried out a series of personal psychonautic essays with bufotenine, reproducing the use of snuffling powder in shamanic contexts, where the bufotenine-rich seeds of Anadenanthera peregrina var. peregrina and Anadenanthera colubrina var. cebil are used for entheogenic purposes. Ott has consumed bufotenine by intranasal, sublingual, oral, intrarectal and pulmonary way, and according to him the compound would be psychoactive for all the experimented administration routes, according to certain doses.
Given the relation of salamander to toad, in the same way the toad secretion could represent aqua permanens.
It is probable that alchemists knew some psychoactive substances of different origin and employed them. If so, they weren’t directly represented in the alchemical works, but they were hidden under symbols that could be interpreted in multiple ways. The above discussed images could fall in such a case, in relation to the identification of aqua permanens. Surely, a better understanding of this subject requires an extensive research in the field of alchemical iconography and symbolism.
References
- Jung C.G., 1995, Psicologia ed alchimia, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino
- Samorini G., 2001, Funghi allucinogeni. Studi etnomicologici, Telesterion, Dozza
- Toro G., 2004, Animali psicoattivi. Stati di coscienza e sostanze di origine animale, Nautilus, Torino
- Toro G., 2006, “Maleficarum compositiones: the toad in European witchcraft”, Magister Botanicus Magische Blätter, 8: 7-16
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