In alchemical and Hermetic traditions, suns () are used to symbolize a variety of concepts, much like the Sun in astrology. Suns can correspond to gold, citrinitas, generative masculine principles, imagery of "the king", or Apollo, the fiery spirit or sulfur,Pamela Smith. Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe. Routledge. 2001. p. 41. the divine spark in man,Titus Burckhardt. Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul. Penguin. 1967. p. 91. nobility, or incorruptibility. Recurring images of specific solar motifs can be found in the form of a "dark" or "black sun", or a green lion devouring the Sun.
Sol niger
Sol niger (black sun) can refer to the first stage of the alchemical magnum opus, the nigredo (blackness). In a text ascribed to Marsilio Ficino three suns are described: black, white, and red, corresponding to the three most used alchemical color stages. Of the sol niger he writes:
The black sun is used to illuminate the dissolution of the body, a blackening of matter, or putrefaction in Splendor Solis,Splendor Solis. 1582. Retrieved 2012-10-17. and Johann Daniel Mylius’ Philosophia Reformata.Stanislas Klossowski de Rola. The Golden Game: Alchemical Engravings of the Seventeenth Century. 1988. p. 170, 180.
See also
Alchemical symbol Classical planets in Western alchemy Solar symbol
References