Valentin Weigel - Alchemical themes in Weigel’s work
Alchemical themes in Weigel’s work
Although Weigel certainly was no practitioner of alchemy and his alchemical interests were very limited to say the least, as a matter of fact, general alchemical concepts of a Paracelsian bent can be found in his interpretations of the first chapters of the Book of Genesis. His interest in Genesis was more than cursory: he devoted four treatises to the topic,2 and he mentioned its importance also in his other works. So, for example, he describes the earth as the “ejecta and excrement of subtle elements and stars” and considers the world a “compressed, coagulated smoke”.3 Similarly to the pseudo-Paracelsian Philosophia ad Athenienses,4 he attributes the knowledge of the process of Creation, i.e. of the natural “separation” (Scheidung), to the “light of nature”. Weigel’s primary interest was in proving that the statement “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gn 1:1) in fact refers to the crea- tion of both the visible (elemental) and the invisible, i.e., also the creation of angels from the “upper waters” (the “waters above the irmament”). The irst created thing was a chaotic prima materia, which contained formless germs of both the visible and invisible worlds – the elemental, astral, and angelic. Equally important for Weigel is the interpretation of Gn 1:2: “The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” According to him, the “Spirit of God” in this verse does not refer to the Holy Spirit, i.e., the third Person of the Trinity, as the more common interpretation holds, but the “Spirit of the Lord” (Geist des Herrn), identified with Divine Wisdom,5 which is in turn believed to have created the primordial “matter of light and dark- ness”, i.e., the “waters that lied above the abyss”.6 The Spirit of the Lord is the only entity that remained out of the waters which gave birth to all things “eternal and non-eternal”, the “spirit of the image that Lucifer forfeited [upon his fall]”,7 that is, a divine spirit not affected by the fall, or a divine presence in the world.8
Besides these general observations, purely alchemical notions rarely appear in Weigel’s works. When he describes the prima materia as formless chaos containing the potentialities of all things, he employs a simple alchemical simile, saying that lead subjected to calcination contains, similarly, in an invisible form, all colours which are revealed in the process of “separation”.9
Weigel repeatedly mentions an “artist” (an alchemist), who is able to draw the quintum esse from plants and metals, and he likens Christ and his operation on a Christian to the separation of pure gold from “cinder”.10 In his late Dialogue on Christianity, a conversation between a layman, preacher, and Death, Weigel alludes to the idea that a common metal must die so that it can be transformed into a more precious metal. But at the same time, the “Death”, a representative of Christ, dismisses medical quests as well as the search for the “philosophers’ stone”.11 In each of these instances, the alchemical imagery is used only vaguely and figuratively.
That being said, it may be surprising to read that Weigel’s followers erected him a tombstone adorned with alchemical signs (as did Jacob Böhme’s at a later time).12 Moreover, Weigel was spoken of highly by at least two famous alchemical authors associated with the Prague of Rudolf II: Heinrich Khunrath (1560–1605) and Oswald Croll (1563–1609). The treatise Ovum Hermetico- Paracelsico-Trismegistum (1694) later describes Weigel as one of the links in the continuous chain of German adepts who reaped a “golden harvest”; and again, Weigel is the only one among authors like Bernard Trevisanus, Basilius Valentinus, Paracelsus, Trithemius, Heinrich Khunrath, and Michael Maier who actually did not practise laboratory alchemy.13 The court chemist in Dresden Benedict Hinckelmann is reported to have had over thirty of Weigel’s books.14 The Danzig physician Daniel Rudolph complained allegedly that all doctors relied on Weigel and his ilk instead of reading the Scripture.15
Weigel’s publications were also read by one of Jacob Böhme’s patrons, Kaspar of Fürstenau (1572–1649), also a practitioner of alchemy16 – and the list goes on. Even in the Histoire de la Chimie, published as late as 1869, Weigel is classified as a representative of the symbolic and spiritual alchemy because he “tried to explain the teaching of transubstantiation through the transmutation of metals”.17
Although Weigel certainly was no practitioner of alchemy and his alchemical interests were very limited to say the least, as a matter of fact, general alchemical concepts of a Paracelsian bent can be found in his interpretations of the first chapters of the Book of Genesis. His interest in Genesis was more than cursory: he devoted four treatises to the topic,2 and he mentioned its importance also in his other works. So, for example, he describes the earth as the “ejecta and excrement of subtle elements and stars” and considers the world a “compressed, coagulated smoke”.3 Similarly to the pseudo-Paracelsian Philosophia ad Athenienses,4 he attributes the knowledge of the process of Creation, i.e. of the natural “separation” (Scheidung), to the “light of nature”. Weigel’s primary interest was in proving that the statement “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gn 1:1) in fact refers to the crea- tion of both the visible (elemental) and the invisible, i.e., also the creation of angels from the “upper waters” (the “waters above the irmament”). The irst created thing was a chaotic prima materia, which contained formless germs of both the visible and invisible worlds – the elemental, astral, and angelic. Equally important for Weigel is the interpretation of Gn 1:2: “The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” According to him, the “Spirit of God” in this verse does not refer to the Holy Spirit, i.e., the third Person of the Trinity, as the more common interpretation holds, but the “Spirit of the Lord” (Geist des Herrn), identified with Divine Wisdom,5 which is in turn believed to have created the primordial “matter of light and dark- ness”, i.e., the “waters that lied above the abyss”.6 The Spirit of the Lord is the only entity that remained out of the waters which gave birth to all things “eternal and non-eternal”, the “spirit of the image that Lucifer forfeited [upon his fall]”,7 that is, a divine spirit not affected by the fall, or a divine presence in the world.8
Besides these general observations, purely alchemical notions rarely appear in Weigel’s works. When he describes the prima materia as formless chaos containing the potentialities of all things, he employs a simple alchemical simile, saying that lead subjected to calcination contains, similarly, in an invisible form, all colours which are revealed in the process of “separation”.9
Weigel repeatedly mentions an “artist” (an alchemist), who is able to draw the quintum esse from plants and metals, and he likens Christ and his operation on a Christian to the separation of pure gold from “cinder”.10 In his late Dialogue on Christianity, a conversation between a layman, preacher, and Death, Weigel alludes to the idea that a common metal must die so that it can be transformed into a more precious metal. But at the same time, the “Death”, a representative of Christ, dismisses medical quests as well as the search for the “philosophers’ stone”.11 In each of these instances, the alchemical imagery is used only vaguely and figuratively.
That being said, it may be surprising to read that Weigel’s followers erected him a tombstone adorned with alchemical signs (as did Jacob Böhme’s at a later time).12 Moreover, Weigel was spoken of highly by at least two famous alchemical authors associated with the Prague of Rudolf II: Heinrich Khunrath (1560–1605) and Oswald Croll (1563–1609). The treatise Ovum Hermetico- Paracelsico-Trismegistum (1694) later describes Weigel as one of the links in the continuous chain of German adepts who reaped a “golden harvest”; and again, Weigel is the only one among authors like Bernard Trevisanus, Basilius Valentinus, Paracelsus, Trithemius, Heinrich Khunrath, and Michael Maier who actually did not practise laboratory alchemy.13 The court chemist in Dresden Benedict Hinckelmann is reported to have had over thirty of Weigel’s books.14 The Danzig physician Daniel Rudolph complained allegedly that all doctors relied on Weigel and his ilk instead of reading the Scripture.15
Weigel’s publications were also read by one of Jacob Böhme’s patrons, Kaspar of Fürstenau (1572–1649), also a practitioner of alchemy16 – and the list goes on. Even in the Histoire de la Chimie, published as late as 1869, Weigel is classified as a representative of the symbolic and spiritual alchemy because he “tried to explain the teaching of transubstantiation through the transmutation of metals”.17
The text is from : Valentin Weigel and alchemy By Martin Žemla
The photos from : http://hdslibrary.tumblr.com/post/145963154139/light-and-dark-arm-branches-star-sun-and-eye
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