Alchemical symbol

Alchemical symbols, originally devised as part of alchemy, were used to denote some elements and some compounds until the 18th century. Although notation like this was mostly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists, so this page mainly lists the most common ones.

Alchemical symbols in Torbern Bergman's 1775 Dissertation on Elective Affinities
Alchemical symbols before Lavoisier
For the block of characters encoded in Unicode, see Alchemical Symbols (Unicode block).

Three primes

According to Paracelsus (1493โ€“1541), the three primes or tria prima โ€“ of which material substances are immediately composed โ€“ are:[1]

Four basic elements
Main article: Classical elements

Western alchemy makes use of the four classical elements. The symbols used for these are:[2]

Seven planetary metals
Main article: Classical planets in Western alchemy

The seven metals known since Classical times in Europe were associated with the seven classical planets; this figured heavily in alchemical symbolism. The exact correlation varied over time, and in early centuries bronze or electrum were sometimes found instead of mercury, or copper for Mars instead of iron, though gold, silver and lead had always been associated with the Sun, Moon and Saturn.[3] The associations below are attested from the 7th century and had definitely stabilized by the 15th. They started breaking down with the discovery of antimony, bismuth and zinc in the 16th century. Alchemists would typically call the metals by their planetary names, e.g. "Saturn" for lead and "Mars" for iron; compounds of tin, iron and silver continued to be called "jovial", "martial" and "lunar"; or "of Jupiter", "of Mars" and "of the moon", through the 17th century. The tradition remains today with the name of the element mercury, where chemists decided the planetary name was preferable to common names like "quicksilver", and in a few archaic terms such as lunar caustic (silver nitrate) and saturnism (lead poisoning).[4][5]

  • Lead, corresponding with Saturn โ™„ ()
  • Tin, corresponding with Jupiter โ™ƒ ()
  • Iron, corresponding with Mars โ™‚ ()
  • Gold, corresponding with the Sun โ˜‰ ๐Ÿœš โ˜ผ ()
  • Copper, corresponding with Venus โ™€ ()
  • Mercury (quicksilver), corresponding with Mercury โ˜ฟ ()
  • Silver, corresponding with the Moon โ˜ฝ or โ˜พ ( or )

Mundane elements and later metals
The squared circle: an alchemical symbol (17th century) illustrating the interplay of the four elements of matter symbolising the philosopher's stone

Alchemical compounds
A table of alchemical symbols from Basil Valentine's The Last Will and Testament, 1670

The following symbols, among others, have been adopted into Unicode.

Alchemical processes
An extract and symbol key from Kenelm Digby's A Choice Collection of Rare Secrets, 1682

The alchemical magnum opus was sometimes expressed as a series of chemical operations. In cases where these numbered twelve, each could be assigned one of the Zodiac signs as a form of cryptography. The following example can be found in Pernety's Dictionnaire mytho-hermรฉtique (1758):[11]

  1. Calcination (Aries ) โ™ˆ๏ธŽ
  2. Congelation (Taurus ) โ™‰๏ธŽ
  3. Fixation (Gemini ) โ™Š๏ธŽ
  4. Solution (Cancer ) โ™‹๏ธŽ
  5. Digestion (Leo ) โ™Œ๏ธŽ
  6. Distillation (Virgo ) โ™๏ธŽ
  7. Sublimation (Libra ) โ™Ž๏ธŽ
  8. Separation (Scorpio ) โ™๏ธŽ
  9. Ceration (Sagittarius ) โ™๏ธŽ
  10. Fermentation (Capricorn ) โ™‘๏ธŽ (Putrefaction)
  11. Multiplication (Aquarius ) โ™’๏ธŽ
  12. Projection (Pisces ) โ™“๏ธŽ

Units

Several symbols indicate units of volume, weight, or time.

  • Month ๐Ÿฑ () or xXx
  • Day ๐Ÿฐ ()
  • Hour ๐Ÿฎ ()
  • Dram ส’; half-dram ส’รŸ (๐Ÿฒ)
  • Ounce โ„ฅ; half-ounce โ„ฅรŸ (๐Ÿณ)
  • Scruple โ„ˆ
  • Pound โ„”

Unicode

The Alchemical Symbols block was added to Unicode in 2010 as part of Unicode 6.0.[12]

Alchemical Symbols[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+1F70x ๐Ÿœ€ ๐Ÿœ ๐Ÿœ‚ ๐Ÿœƒ ๐Ÿœ„ ๐Ÿœ… ๐Ÿœ† ๐Ÿœ‡ ๐Ÿœˆ ๐Ÿœ‰ ๐ŸœŠ ๐Ÿœ‹ ๐ŸœŒ ๐Ÿœ ๐ŸœŽ ๐Ÿœ
U+1F71x ๐Ÿœ ๐Ÿœ‘ ๐Ÿœ’ ๐Ÿœ“ ๐Ÿœ” ๐Ÿœ• ๐Ÿœ– ๐Ÿœ— ๐Ÿœ˜ ๐Ÿœ™ ๐Ÿœš ๐Ÿœ› ๐Ÿœœ ๐Ÿœ ๐Ÿœž ๐ŸœŸ
U+1F72x ๐Ÿœ  ๐Ÿœก ๐Ÿœข ๐Ÿœฃ ๐Ÿœค ๐Ÿœฅ ๐Ÿœฆ ๐Ÿœง ๐Ÿœจ ๐Ÿœฉ ๐Ÿœช ๐Ÿœซ ๐Ÿœฌ ๐Ÿœญ ๐Ÿœฎ ๐Ÿœฏ
U+1F73x ๐Ÿœฐ ๐Ÿœฑ ๐Ÿœฒ ๐Ÿœณ ๐Ÿœด ๐Ÿœต ๐Ÿœถ ๐Ÿœท ๐Ÿœธ ๐Ÿœน ๐Ÿœบ ๐Ÿœป ๐Ÿœผ ๐Ÿœฝ ๐Ÿœพ ๐Ÿœฟ
U+1F74x ๐Ÿ€ ๐Ÿ ๐Ÿ‚ ๐Ÿƒ ๐Ÿ„ ๐Ÿ… ๐Ÿ† ๐Ÿ‡ ๐Ÿˆ ๐Ÿ‰ ๐ŸŠ ๐Ÿ‹ ๐ŸŒ ๐Ÿ ๐ŸŽ ๐Ÿ
U+1F75x ๐Ÿ ๐Ÿ‘ ๐Ÿ’ ๐Ÿ“ ๐Ÿ” ๐Ÿ• ๐Ÿ– ๐Ÿ— ๐Ÿ˜ ๐Ÿ™ ๐Ÿš ๐Ÿ› ๐Ÿœ ๐Ÿ ๐Ÿž ๐ŸŸ
U+1F76x ๐Ÿ  ๐Ÿก ๐Ÿข ๐Ÿฃ ๐Ÿค ๐Ÿฅ ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿง ๐Ÿจ ๐Ÿฉ ๐Ÿช ๐Ÿซ ๐Ÿฌ ๐Ÿญ ๐Ÿฎ ๐Ÿฏ
U+1F77x ๐Ÿฐ ๐Ÿฑ ๐Ÿฒ ๐Ÿณ
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 14.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

References
  1. Holmyard 1957, p. 170; cf. Friedlander 1992, pp. 75โ€“76. For the symbols, see Holmyard 1957, p. 149 and Bergman's table as shown above.
  2. Holmyard 1957, p. 149.
  3. For example, in Marcianus, Mercury was tin and Jupiter electrum (Crosland 2004: 236).
  4. Maurice Crosland (2004) Historical Studies in the Language of Chemistry
  5. Holmyard 1957, p. 149.
  6. Holmyard 1957, p. 149
  7. Holmyard 1957, p. 149
  8. Holmyard 1957, p. 149
  9. Holmyard 1957, p. 149
  10. Koch, Rudolf (1955). The book of signs : which contains all manner of symbols used from the earliest times to the Middle Ages by primitive peoples and early Christians. New York. p. 73. ISBN 0-486-20162-7.
  11. See Holmyard 1957, p. 150.
  12. "Unicode 6.0.0". Unicode Consortium. 11 October 2010. Retrieved 21 October 2019.

Works cited
  • Friedlander, Walter J. (1992). The Golden Wand of Medicine: A History of the Caduceus Symbol in Medicine. Contributions in Medical Studies, 35. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-28023-1.
  • Holmyard, Eric J. (1957). Alchemy. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. OCLC 2080637.

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