ALCHEMY - MUTUS LIBER, OR SILENT BOOK - PLATE 8. In the eighth plate, the themes seem to change, harking back to the symbolism of plate 2: it may be accidental, but in some printed versions of the Mutus, this plate is represented in mirror image (the figure 8 is not itself visibly changed, but instead of appearing in the top right, it is in the top left. The essential symmetry of the design is not disturbed by this reversal. In this progressed image, Neptune (still in the pendant dew) is transformed into Mercury, standing in triumph over Sun and Moon. An important resolution has been affec

This image could have imperfections as it’s either historical or reportage.

ALCHEMY - MUTUS LIBER, OR SILENT BOOK - PLATE 8. In the eighth plate, the themes seem to change, harking back to the symbolism of plate 2: it may be accidental, but in some printed versions of the Mutus, this plate is represented in mirror image (the figure 8 is not itself visibly changed, but instead of appearing in the top right, it is in the top left. The essential symmetry of the design is not disturbed by this reversal. In this progressed image, Neptune (still in the pendant dew) is transformed into Mercury, standing in triumph over Sun and Moon. An important resolution has been affected by the previous experiments. The angels no longer stand upon the Waters, but fly in the air - the Separation of the Mercuric, from the lower levels of Earth, is complete. The ten birds, which fly freely in this upper register are probably the ten orifices, or portals, through which Mankind digests the worlds material and spiritual. From the beak of one bird dangles the symbol for Sulphur, from another bird's beak, one form of a symbol for Salt. Below, little has changed - the polarized alchemist (as Male-Female) still supplicates the spiritual world: the embryo-like form in the feed of the athanor has disappeared, and now takes the form of the child Mercury. The alchemical masterpiece, Mutus Liber (or Silent Book) first appeared in print during 1677 - probably brought into the light of day by the French alchemist, Jacob Saulat, as a book with 13 plates, which was later increased to one of 15 plates (as in the series available here). The book is almost without words, and such words as appear are rarely what they seem to be, and are certainly susceptible to more than one level of interpretation. The alchemical importance of the images resides in the subtle graphic symbolism. A clear exposition of this symbolism may be found in Adam McLean, A Commentary on the Mutus Liber, 1982.