Tria principia
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.“
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
- John Read: Prelude to Chemistry: An Outline of Alchemy, Its Literature and Relationships, The Macmillan Company, New York 1937
- Manfred M. Junius: Praktisches Handbuch der Pflanzen-Alchemie. Wie man heilkräftige Essenzen, Tinkturen und Elixiere selbst zubereitet. Ansata-Verlag, Interlaken 1982, ISBN 978-3715700557
- Rudolf Steiner: Das Miterleben des Jahreslaufes in vier kosmischen Imaginationen, GA 229 (1999), ISBN 3-7274-2290-4 English: rsarchive.org German: pdf pdf(2) html mobi epub archive.org
- Beiträge zur Rudolf Steiner Gesamtausgabe, Heft Nr. 118/119, Rudolf Steiner-Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach 1997 Beiträge (Contributions) 118-119
 |
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
- ↑ R. Hooykaas: Chemical Trichotomy before Paracelsus?, Arch. Internat. d’Hist. des Sciences, 1949, XXVIII, 1063 - 1074
- ↑ "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 - ↑ 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
combustible
Incombustible, persistent
(Lit.: Read, p. 27)
