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{{Quote|Now I want to go back to an example with wood. This wood is a body. When you burn it, what burns is sulphur, the smoke is mercury, and what becomes ashes is salt.| Paracelsus|''Opus Paramirum'', First Book, Ch. 2}}
{{Quote|Now I want to go back to an example with wood. This wood is a body. When you burn it, what burns is sulphur, the smoke is mercury, and what becomes ashes is salt.| Paracelsus|''Opus Paramirum'', First Book, Ch. 2}}
== Basic character of the three principles ==
The following is a tabular overview of the basic characteristics of the three principles, which is based - with some modifications and extensions - on the account of the [[chemist]]s and historian of chemistry [[w:John Read (chemist)|John Read]] (1884-1963)<ref>Read gives the following assignment going back to [[w:Paracelsus|Paracelsus]], in which ''Mercurius'' stands for the spirit and ''Sulphur'' for the soul mediating between spirit and body (salt):
{|align="center" width="650px"
|-
! Mercurius !! Sulphur !! Sal
|-
| metallic, fusible, volatile<br>
Volatile and unchanged in fire<br>
[[Soul]]<br>
[[Water]]
| combustible<br>
Volatile and changes in fire<br>
[[Spirit]]<br>
[[fire]]/[[air]]
| Incombustible, persistent<br>
contained in ash<br>
[[Body]]<br>
[[Earth (element)|Earth]]
|}
{{Lit|Read, p. 27}}</ref>:
{|align="center" width="600px"
|-
! Sulphur !! Mercurius !! Sal
|-
| fiery principle || liquid principle || solid principle
|-
| combustible, dissolving || metallic, melting || incombustible, resistant
|-
| oily, fatty || alcoholic || salty, earthy
|-
| [[fire|fire,]] [[air]] || [[water]] || [[earth]]
|-
|| [[spirit]] || [[soul]] || [[body]]
|-
| [[Metabolic-limb system]] || [[Rhythmic system]] || [[Nerve-sense system]]
|-
| [[Willing]] || [[Feeling]] || [[Thinking]]
|-
| [[Chaos]] || [[Movement]] || [[Form]]
|-
|| [[Capital]] || [[Labour]] || [[Goods]]
|}


== Literature ==
== Literature ==

Revision as of 15:09, 7 May 2021

The Tria Principia (Latin for the three principles), occasionally also referred to as the three philosophical elements, are an important basic concept of late medieval or early modern alchemy, which was derived from the four-element doctrine in a complementary and expanding manner, and can only be found in a clear, mature form in Paracelsus (1493 - 1541)[1][2]. The three philosophical principles or substances are: Sulphur (encompassing fire and air and therefore called "fire air" by the alchemists), Mercurius (water) and Sal (earth element). Sulphur stands for the combustible, Mercurius for the volatile-liquid and Sal for the solid, form-giving, stable principle. Strictly speaking, the Tria Principa are not substances but processes, i.e. the sulphur process, the mercury process and the salt process, whose material carriers can be different substances.

„Now I want to go back to an example with wood. This wood is a body. When you burn it, what burns is sulphur, the smoke is mercury, and what becomes ashes is salt.“

– Paracelsus: Opus Paramirum, First Book, Ch. 2

Basic character of the three principles

The following is a tabular overview of the basic characteristics of the three principles, which is based - with some modifications and extensions - on the account of the chemists and historian of chemistry John Read (1884-1963)[3]:


Sulphur Mercurius Sal
fiery principle liquid principle solid principle
combustible, dissolving metallic, melting incombustible, resistant
oily, fatty alcoholic salty, earthy
fire, air water earth
spirit soul body
Metabolic-limb system Rhythmic system Nerve-sense system
Willing Feeling Thinking
Chaos Movement Form
Capital Labour Goods

Literature
References to the work of Rudolf Steiner follow Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works (CW or GA), Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach/Switzerland, unless otherwise stated.
Email: verlag@steinerverlag.com URL: www.steinerverlag.com.
Index to the Complete Works of Rudolf Steiner - Aelzina Books
A complete list by Volume Number and a full list of known English translations you may also find at Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works
Rudolf Steiner Archive - The largest online collection of Rudolf Steiner's books, lectures and articles in English.
Rudolf Steiner Audio - Recorded and Read by Dale Brunsvold
steinerbooks.org - Anthroposophic Press Inc. (USA)
Rudolf Steiner Handbook - Christian Karl's proven standard work for orientation in Rudolf Steiner's Collected Works for free download as PDF.

References

  1. ↑ R. Hooykaas: Chemical Trichotomy before Paracelsus?, Arch. Internat. d’Hist. des Sciences, 1949, XXVIII, 1063 - 1074
  2. ↑ "A further significant example is the Tria Prima: Salt, Sulphur and Mercury which are supposed to be the principal constituents of all objects. This trichotomy is largely an original Paracelsian conception». At all events it was Paracelsus who inculcated and applied it in detail. His alchemist predecessors had preferred such dichotomic divisions as male-female, active-passive, Sulphur-Mercury. The Salia of metals had been discussed - but not in the Paracelsian sense of a third principle; they rather indicated a state of hardening which called for solution. It is also true that the Latin Geber speaks of the Tria Principia of metals, namely Sulphur, Argentum Vivum and Arsenic – but in this Arsenic occupied no position similar to that of Sal in the Paracelsian scheme.
    No chemical or alchemical predecessor of the Paracelsian scheme is therefore readily demonstrable. There is no doubt, however, that it is in accordance with neo-Platonic and Hermetic tradition. Paracelsus himself referred to Hermes who called the soul the intermediary between Spirit and Body. This soul Paracelsus identified with Sulphur : "the soul is the sulphur which reconciles two opposites and joins them together into one". Hermes rightly said, Paracelsus adds, that all seven metals, and also the "tinctures" and the Philosophers' Stone derive from three substances which he calls spirit, soul and body. These are indeed the Three Principles."
    Allen G. Debus: Alchemy and early modern chemistry: papers from Ambix, Jeremy Mills Publishing, 2004
  3. ↑ Read gives the following assignment going back to Paracelsus, in which Mercurius stands for the spirit and Sulphur for the soul mediating between spirit and body (salt):
    Mercurius Sulphur Sal
    metallic, fusible, volatile

    Volatile and unchanged in fire
    Soul
    Water

    		combustible

    Volatile and changes in fire
    Spirit
    fire/air

    		Incombustible, persistent

    contained in ash
    Body
    Earth

    (Lit.: Read, p. 27)

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