Die Alchemie. Das ist die Lehre von den grossen Geheim-Mitteln der Alchemisten und den Speculationen, welche man an sie knüpfte

Sulfuric acid original: "Acid. sulphur." and soda original: "Natron" represent a arcanum a hidden chemical or medicinal secret. One might assume the right to simply throw them together into one vessel. If one does this, however, one no longer has sulfuric acid on one side and sodium carbonate original: "Natron carbon." on the other. Instead, one has something entirely new, namely sodium sulfate original: "Natron sulphuricum". Many aspects of the characterization of Siva Shiva are based on this. If it is true that Siva is called "The Growing One," we already see an attachment to this relationship. Siva is not just sulfuric acid and soda; he grows into a third thing, which is sodium sulfate.

Following this same relationship, he often carries a net as a symbol. It is then assumed that, viewed from one side, he is mainly sulfuric acid, and he catches the soda completely in his net. It is natural to view Siva primarily as sulfuric acid from one side because he is given a wife, and she represents the soda. The "All-sacrifice" attributed to Siva, in which he sacrifices all beings and mainly himself, also relates to the sodium sulfate relationship. By being understood as sulfuric acid, he sacrifices himself by giving himself to the soda. Siva ceases to be sulfuric acid and becomes sodium sulfate. From this same viewpoint, he is also the penitent, for the penitent chastises and sacrifices himself. But as the sulfuric acid sacrifices itself to the sodium carbonate, the sodium carbonate also acts as a penitent by sacrificing itself to the sulfuric acid. In Siva himself, the side of the sulfuric acid is emphasized more. Not only is he depicted as a penitent, but his wife is too, as she is understood as the soda.

Siva is also the god of the powerful procreative force of nature. This applies in several ways. The first relationship is that, when viewed as sulfuric acid, which is a hot liquid, he is compared to sperma virile male seed, which is also a hot moisture. The second relationship is that sulfuric acid is not just sulfuric acid alone, but also represents iron. In the sequence of arcana, sulfuric acid provides the general viewpoint for both sulfuric acid and iron. Sulfuric acid is produced from iron, specifically iron vitriol. It testifies to the great procreative power of nature that sulfuric acid emerges from iron through the mediation of fire alone, without adding any other ingredient.

The third relationship is again the sodium sulfate connection. Here, one starts with Siva as sulfuric acid. It proves his great procreative power that he not only draws the soda to himself as a partial secret remedy, but also procreates the sodium sulfate from it. The first relationship, the comparison of sulfuric acid with male seed, makes it natural to worship Siva under the emblem of the phallus the symbolic representation of the male generative organ. Even if the epic poems offer no starting point for this, it does not matter. It is far too obvious that the Phallus-Siva developed from the Seed-Siva.

Siva is also the god of death. As such, he wears a necklace of skulls. This refers to sulfuric acid as a caustic a substance that burns or corrodes organic tissue, which kills by developing its corrosive properties. Similarly, we have the relation to sulfuric acid as a caustic when Siva is the destroyer of evil spirits. Linked to Siva as the killer is the fact that he grants divine weapons and is invoked to grant victory. When a warrior goes into battle and begs God for victory, he begs the killing god. He begs him in an objective sense. That is, he does not beg the god to kill himself, the petitioner, but rather the enemy.

One can think of the Pulvis solaris Solar Powder, often referring to red mercuric oxide from the standpoint of duality. This is done by looking at red Solar Powder and black Solar Powder each on their own. One can even think of the Liquor hepatis liver of sulfur solution, usually sulfur dissolved in ammonia or lime from the standpoint of duality, if the preparation is thought of as a solution of sulfur in

ammonia water. In this case, ammonia water is one part and sulfur is the other. However, this duality does not come to the foreground in any of the three arcana as much as it does with the sulfuric acid and soda pair. For the Liquor hepatis, the duality is somewhat artificial. For the Solar Powder, it is not artificial, because the red and black versions are each a secret remedy on their own. With the sulfuric acid and soda pair, we not only have a secret remedy in the acid and one in the soda, but the acid further expands into acid and iron. The soda expands into sodium carbonate and sodium nitrate. Here, the duality is represented in a very special way. It is appropriate to the subject that this duality is marked so strongly in Siva.

Based on this, Siva receives two horns. At least, that is the leading idea. In the practical realization of this idea, one avoids depicting Siva himself with two horns and instead gives him a horned animal as a symbol. Among horned animals, the bull comes to the foreground. This is because the bull is distinguished by its thrusting and the activity of its horns. Thus, the bull emerges as the symbol of Siva. To avoid taking the horns away from Siva himself entirely, he receives a moon on his head. This moon refers to the two tips of the crescent moon, which the Indians, like us, call the "horns of the moon." Siva carries a trident and has three eyes. Here, we have a movement toward the number three, similar to the Vedic Ashvins divine twin horsemen and the Vedic Vishnu.

Vishnu, as we mentioned, is understood as the wife of Siva. This wife of Siva is called Parvati the mountain-born or Durga the difficult to approach. This is again a mountain relation, as a rock is difficult to approach. This designation is very natural, since sodium carbonate effloresces out of the rocks. Out of love for his wife, Siva himself is called the Lord of the Mountains.

2. Vishnu, the representative of the Liquor hepatis liver of sulfur solution.
   Mainly, his Avataras incarnations or descents of a deity to earth come to the foreground, about which much has been fabled. The situation with them is as follows. When we have Siva and Vishnu, we have Brahma eo ipso by that very fact. In other words, if we have the sulfuric acid-soda and the Liquor hepatis, we have the Solar Powder by that very fact. In this relationship, the sulfuric acid-soda and Liquor hepatis move to the foreground, while the Solar Powder moves to the background.

The preparations that move to the foreground are considered in terms of how they are produced. One might say that for soda, if we view it as sodium carbonate, there is nothing further to produce, as it occurs naturally. It is similar with sulfuric acid. It occurs naturally if we view it not so much as acid but as iron. Even if we stick specifically to the acid and not the iron, the standpoint does not shift. Sulfuric acid is produced from iron vitriol without any addition, simply by applying fire. The Indians said this was not a chemical process, but merely a simple transmutation of iron into sulfuric acid. Where the actual chemical process begins, we are still on the ground of natural occurrence. From that point of view, we have the natural occurrence of sulfuric acid just as much as that of iron or soda.

In contrast, we have the production of Liquor hepatis. Unlike natural occurrence, this involves an actual chemical process. One takes sulfur, adds the chemical ingredients salmiak sal ammoniac or ammonium chloride and lime, and then distills it. There can be no talk of a natural occurrence here; the actual production process must occur. Accordingly, in the mind of the Indians, we have

a characteristic opposition between sulfuric acid-soda on one side and Liquor hepatis on the other. Liquor hepatis falls to the chemical process and must be manufactured; sulfuric acid-soda does not. The fact that Liquor hepatis must be manufactured is what is considered in the Avatars of Vishnu, at least originally. Avatara means "descent" and is the appearance of Vishnu in some embodiment in the world. Ten Avatars are assumed.

Originally, there was likely only one Avatar, namely the second one. This was then increased by nine others. These nine were created all at once, not successively. Therefore, the number ten must not be tampered with once one moves from the singular Avatar to the plural. The King of Ceylon with ten necks in the seventh Avatar also points to this. It most likely entered the matter because the Indians identified ten acts in the production of Liquor hepatis. We will encounter such an identification of a number of acts in the production of a preparation later in this book regarding red mercury oxide original: "Hydrargyr. oxyd. rubr.". Aside from the ten Avatars, some try to include apocryphal ones. This likely aims to replace the number ten with the number twelve, which we will learn is an important Indian philosophical number in the following section. The ten Avatars stand in a continuous series. Each of them is placed intentionally where it stands, and not earlier or later. Originally, as we saw, nothing else was considered in the Avatara but the production of Liquor hepatis, as opposed to the non-production of the sulfuric acid-soda. This original meaning is lost over time in the way the Avatars are presented. We want to discuss this after we have become acquainted with the individual Avatars. First, we will go through the ten Avatars. One should compare this with P. von Bohlen's Ancient India, a book which, we remind the reader, is generally less reliable than Lassen's book.

This concerns an Indian flood original: "Sündfluth". The human race had been corrupted by wild giants. One of them, Hyagriva, had even stolen the holy Vedas. The earth must therefore perish in the flood. The pious Manu (also Manu Vishnu [Brahma]) appears to him in the form of a fish and gives him the command to build a ship (ark). He is to board it with seven holy men (representing the seven arcana) and seeds of all kinds original: "vijâni sarvâni", including the animal world. The ship then glides along. Just as Noah lands on Mount Ararat, Manu lands on a peak of the Himalayas. In this Avatar, the world is contrasted as water against the liquid Liquor hepatis. One can take the standpoint that the production of the liquid preparation is being considered. However, one can also take another standpoint and, ignoring the chemical process, simply focus on the fact that Liquor hepatis is liquid. This is in contrast to the Solar Powder, which is solid, and the sulfuric acid-soda, in which we have both solid and liquid standpoints. Vishnu embodies himself in this Avatar as a fish. (We point out here in passing that just as the Indian flood is contrasted here with the Liquor hepatis, the Mosaic flood in the first book of the *Sibylline Oracles* is contrasted with mercury. We will learn about this later.) The heavenly beings begin to realize their mortality. They deliberate on how to produce a drink, Amrita the nectar of immortality, which will grant them constant youth and immortality. Thus, the gods want to make the Liquor hepatis. Consequently, they decide to churn the Milk Ocean. (This concept, as found in the *Ramayana*, is more

specific than the general concept of "ocean" for "Milk Ocean"). An isolated mountain, Mandara, is brought to the sea. The great serpent, Vasuki, is coiled around the mountain. The gods grasp the tail of the serpent and the demons grasp the head. Thus, with terrible efforts, it is shaken for a thousand years.
The Milk Ocean that is being stirred is the solution of sulfur in lime water. The mountain brought to the sea is salmiak sal ammoniac. The serpent is the distillation vessel. The shaking is meant to designate the process of distilling.

Now the fiery poison appears and threatens to destroy the whole world. The gods turn to Siva so that he may take it as his inheritance. Yes, but the poison would have spread with the speed of lightning. Siva could only swallow a part of it, and thereby received a blue neck.
The fiery poison is hydrogen sulfide gas original: "Hyprothiongas" or ammonia. If one creates a vent, anyone who breathes it in is in danger of suffocation. This suffocation suggests the "closure," and the breathing in on the part of Siva. The reason Siva is brought in to breathe the hydrogen-ammonia gas is that sulfuric acid is represented in him. The smoke of fuming sulfuric acid involves the danger of suffocation just as much as sulfur smoke or ammonia smoke. Siva, who possesses the nature of sulfuric acid, understands how to breathe in a poisonous vapor. If it were to harm him, he would not be qualified to represent sulfuric acid. The fact that Siva gets a blue neck from the inhalation refers to the fiery poison being an air. The air, or the ether, is blue. (Compare also below.)

The gods were already tired. Then the helper in need, Vishnu, comes in the form of a tortoise. He places himself under the mountain and helps with the stirring for a thousand years. And that helps.
The reason the gods cannot finish is that they are bunglers in the art of making Amrita. They do not know how to fit the neck of the retort and the receiver together properly. They do not understand luting sealing the joints of chemical apparatus with paste. Therefore, the gases escape into the air. Vishnu as a tortoise knows what to do because the tortoise has a horny shell. He has a lute sealant that hardens like tortoiseshell. Perhaps a main ingredient of his lute original: "Lutum" is even tortoise. Where Vishnu applies his lute and helps with the shaking, the old distress comes to an end.

As the shakers reach their goal, great treasures emerge one by one: the Apsaras or sea-born nymphs of incomparable beauty; Varuni, also called Sura; a white horse; a precious jewel that Vishnu chose for his ornament; the cow of abundance, the primal mother of all later cows; the moon, and other objects.
All of these are different names for the Liquor hepatis. The Apsaras show the liquid nature of the preparation. We will learn about the white horse in the tenth Avatar. The jewel of Vishnu is very natural because Liquor hepatis is the secret remedy of Vishnu. The Mother-Cow refers to milk, and the milk refers back to the Milk Ocean. The smoke of the Liquor hepatis comes from the Milk Ocean, so nothing stands in the way of regarding it generally as a Milk Ocean. The moon is borrowed from Siva. Siva is a refuge for the shakers when the gases escape, and for that he may receive the honor of having his moon represented in the Liquor hepatis.

Finally, the physician of the gods, Dhanvantari, appears with the help of Vishnu. But immediately quarrel and discord arise because the Asuras demons sought to take possession of it. One of them had already secretly drunk from it when the moon god cut off his head. However, the effect of the drink could no longer be paralyzed. With a terrible crash, the body and head separated, flying immortally up to heaven. Since then, they live in enmity with the moon and cause the eclipses. Vishnu completely deceived the Asuras by only giving the drink to the Suras gods, whereby the former were deprived of immortality. It be...