"White" is the color of Natron nitricum sodium nitrate, Natron carbonicum sodium carbonate, and Acidum sulphuricum depuratum purified sulfuric acid. Shiva has three eyes. This refers to the philosophical number three. He sometimes has four arms like Brahma and Vishnu. This refers to the philosophical number four. Von Bohlen Peter von Bohlen was a nineteenth-century German orientalist who wrote about ancient India further says that Shiva signifies fire in the most general sense. This is not strictly true. However, Shiva is not entirely distant from fire regarding the caustic properties of sulfuric acid. As a symbol, he has a triangle with the point facing upward. A small symbol of an upward-pointing triangle is shown. Von Bohlen says this sign signifies flame. Here he relies on the modern chemical sign for fire. An upward-pointing triangle symbol is shown. He then says the followers of Shiva burn a phallus onto the hips of sacred bulls or wear one on their chests. This is very remarkable. It takes the shape of a handled cross an ankh. We still use this sign to designate the planet Venus, the creatress: The Venus symbol, a disk with a cross underneath, is shown.. This planetary sign used as a phallus is the reason von Bohlen looks at chemical symbols. He concludes that the downward triangle A downward-pointing triangle symbol is shown. relates to the water god Vishnu and the upward triangle An upward-pointing triangle symbol is shown. to the fire god Shiva. However, one should not think of water with the downward triangle symbol here. It concerns a triple figure for Vishnu for the sake of the philosophical number three. Likewise, one should not think of fire with the upward triangle. It is again a triple figure belonging to Shiva, just as the trident belongs to him. The fact that the point of the triangle faces down in one case A downward-pointing triangle symbol is shown. and up in the other An upward-pointing triangle symbol is shown. has no further purpose than to distinguish the sign of Vishnu from that of Shiva. In the handled cross The Venus symbol is shown., the penis in the vulva is meant to be indicated. The circle equals the vulva and the cross equals the penis. It is not only about the phallus but also about the yoni the female reproductive organ. The fact that the phallus sign matches the Venus symbol is not because they have an original relation to each other. It is because beautiful minds meet in all zones. The Arabs originated the Venus symbol. They symbolized Venus as a vulva with a circle. In searching for a sign for Venus, they happened upon this symbol. The chemical symbols for the elements are also independent of the Vishnu and Shiva signs. During the time when the signs for the four elements arose, people did not think of Indian mythology. These signs are A downward-pointing triangle signifies water., An upward-pointing triangle signifies fire., A downward-pointing triangle with a horizontal bar signifies earth., and An upward-pointing triangle with a horizontal bar signifies air.. This occurred during the era of Western alchemy. The entire field of Indology was dormant then. Where would they have gotten signs peculiar to Vishnu and Shiva? Furthermore, the situation is not as von Bohlen and his sources claim. It is not that the symbol of Vishnu is water and Shiva is fire. No, if one relies on these signs, one has nothing other than this: a symbol of Vishnu is the downward triangle and a symbol of Shiva is the upward triangle. One could further say the downward triangle equals Liquor hepatis a solution of sulfur and the upward triangle equals Acidum sulphuricum-Natron sulfuric acid mixed with sodium. But that would be the end of it. There is no relation between the modern signs for water and fire and the Indian signs for the gods. Finally, von Bohlen points out that Shiva's wife is also named Kali. This has a closer relationship to modern chemistry than those signs. This Kali is probably the basis for our modern Kali potash or potassium. In this case, it would not be a direct borrowing from Indian alchemy. It is a coincidence that the Indian name for sodium has been preserved. This provides the simplest explanation for why old chemists confuse potash and sodium. It is sodium, but it is called potash in reference to the Indian goddess. This makes the confusion of sodium and potash very likely.

Indian Philosophy of Numbers.

The first phase of Indian alchemy already follows a philosophy of numbers. We have seen that the philosophical numbers one and three are linked to cosmology. These numbers are expanded in the second phase. The philosophical numbers one, two, three, and four are added to the arcanological relating to the study of secret medicines view of alchemy. These numbers are the Indian philosophical numbers in the narrow sense. In the broader sense, the numbers are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 12. In the broader sense, the numbers six and twelve are added to the numbers of the arcanological phase. The situation with them is as follows: The Indian solar year has 365 days, 6 hours, 12 minutes, and 30 seconds. If one takes the right to change the 365 days into 360 days, one obtains the following numbers based on the days, hours, minutes, and seconds:

If one removes the zeros, which are assumed not to characterize the number but merely to accumulate it, one gets:

These latter numbers come out when one connects the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 through division or multiplication with the number 12:

So, if one takes the philosophical numbers and connects them with the number twelve, one obtains the days, hours, minutes, and seconds of the Indian solar year. This assumes that 360 days take the place of 365 days. Because twelve is the number that mediates this situation, we establish twelve as a philosophical number. We say we have the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, and the right to connect them with the number 12. Considering the table above:

We say this table gives us the numbers 12 and 6. Since 12 divided by 1 is 12, and 12 divided by 2 is 6, we have the philosophical numbers 6 and 12. Where does the 36 remain? It is offered by this table but is not an Indian philosophical number. The answer is that 36 does not need to be considered further. It does not enter the matter directly for two reasons. First, it comes out through multiplication, unlike the other ratios where division is used. We have 12 divided by 1, 2, and 4, but 12 multiplied by 3 as an exception. Second, the product 36, which is 360 with the added zero, has nothing to do with the Indian year. The year consists of 365 days, not 360. And what about the three that this table brings? We already have the number three. Does this cause offense? The answer is no. Three is the main number in both cosmological and arcanological philosophy. It is linked to Varuna, Agni, and Indra, as well as Brahma, Shiva, and Vishnu. It stands in the foreground. This prominence qualifies the number three to be emphasized twice. This happens when the number three is offered again through the division of 12 by 4, even though we already had it.

Thus we obtain the expanded Indian philosophical numbers as 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. The numbers five and seven are not represented among these. The situation with five is different from seven. Five is absolutely rejected. There is no Indian philosophical number five. Seven is only relatively rejected. The Indians recognize the seven but give it no place among the philosophical numbers. This is because they say philosophy and speculation seize upon numbers that are not already given. But where a number is already evident, such as the number seven, which is the real number of the arcana the secret medicines, speculation is no longer needed. So we have the expanded philosophical numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 12. These are linked to the Indian ages of the world. The four Indian world ages are:

First World Age: Krityayuga or Satyayuga, the Age of Truth.
Second World Age: Tretayuga, the Age of Piety or the three sacrificial fires.
Third World Age: Dvaparayuga, the Age of Doubt.
Fourth World Age: Kaliyuga, the Age of Sin.

The Indians interpret the doctrine of world ages as a general progression of the human race from good to evil. First, people were good and upright. Then they gradually became worse until they became as bad as they are now. This interpretation is entirely wrong. It entered the public consciousness because alchemists mystified the people. The doctrine of the world ages is purely alchemical. What the alchemists understood by it, they kept secret. By keeping it secret, they drove the public into the mystification that it described a moral decline. Let us look this doctrine in the face. It likely has its basis in judging the general from the individual. An old man often says that people were much better when he was young. He says the world has changed and corruption has come over it. This is generalized to say humans were good in past world ages. But is the old man right? No, he convinces himself of this. He looks at his youth through the glasses of fantasy. Anyone who claims past ages had a higher standard of morality also looks through fantasy. Human life changes through progressive culture. Sins change with these changes. But sin itself was always there. It did not need to enter the human race successively. The Bible describes this correctly. Even the first man, Adam, sins in Paradise. Murder occurs between his sons, Cain and Abel. What is missing from these sins? Do they need further progress? Is this not more accurate than the progress doctrine based on the fantasy of a childish old man? Let us look at the Greek world ages familiar to us all, as offered in the Metamorphoses of Ovid a classic Latin narrative poem by the poet Ovid

This is an imitation of the mystified interpretation of the four Indian world ages. What a flawed piece of work! First, the Golden Age ruled, then the Silver, then the Bronze, and finally the Iron. In the Golden Age, people were good. In the Silver, they became worse, and in the Iron, they were as bad as they are now. But the Golden Age ruled during the time of Saturn. This presents the flaw in the problem. Saturn was a Titan, a son of Uranus and Gaea. He pushed his father from the throne. To ensure the same fate did not happen to him, he devoured his own children. Through Rhea's trickery, Jupiter was not devoured. Jupiter and his brothers were vomited out by Saturn after he was given an emetic a substance that causes vomiting. Jupiter then overthrew his father and cast him into Tartarus. This is a fine chronique scandaleuse scandalous history! These are fine events for a time that is supposed to represent the Golden Age. If the gods were like that in the Golden Age, how must the humans have been! How does such a bundle of sins reconcile with a Golden Age? Does the doctrine of progress from good to evil not come into conflict with itself here? We must not ignore that another myth exists concerning Saturn. Saturn's antecedents reach to Italy. He lived on the Isles of the Blessed or in Italy. It was here that the Golden Age flourished under his rule. It is easy to see that this variant was created because people realized the standard myth was flawed. They took Saturn away from the old sink of sin and placed him in a happier land. In this land, nothing stands in the way of the Golden Age. It is a pity this does not solve the conflict. Saturn only reaches Italy after his expulsion. His history is enough to cancel out the Golden Age. We will not speak further of the similar flaws in the Silver and Bronze ages. The scandalous history of Saturn already places the iron stamp of "ironness" on the Golden Age. Thus the Silver and Iron ages are preoccupied from the start. This is how those who accept the problem of moral progression solve it! Now to the basis of the doctrine, the Indian world ages. How does the problem look for them? The answer is even worse than for the Greeks. For the Greeks, the progression is clear in terms of metals. Gold is better than silver. Silver is better than bronze. Bronze is better than iron. One can at least make a text out of that. Saturn ruins the work, but the work exists to be ruined. In contrast, the Indians do not even have this. No text can be found if one looks at how a progression from good to evil is given in the four Indian world ages. We have:

Age of Truth,
Age of the three sacrificial fires or Piety,
Age of Doubt,
Age of Sin.
The last three can be dealt with.