Alchemical Symbols

Book excerpt: This is the fourth edition of Alchemical Symbols. The purpose of this revision is to add more symbols, correct a small number of errors, and improve the overall layout of the text. We believe this to be the most comprehensive presentation of alchemical symbols available. Portions of the following symbol tables appeared in the "Last Will and Testament" of Basilius Valentinus in the seventeenth century. That table has been augmented with symbols from other sources including the "Alchemist's Handbook" by Frater Albertus, Dom Antoine Joseph Pernety's "The Great Art," Stanislas Klossowski de Rola's "Alchemy: The Secret Art," information taken from the works of Agrippa and John Read, symbols from the Bacstrom Manuscripts, and many other sources. For details please see the References section. The second part of this work is a dictionary of basic Gematria. For those desirous of seeking possible hidden meaning in the alchemistical writings through the Qabalah, the Hebrew of key alchemically-oriented words is presented along with the numerical equivalences. Following that is a short Glossary of Latin Terms of interest to students of alchemy, tables of common conversion factors, and a list of abbreviations.