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Python, or the alchemical Mercurius

This is an unusual entry, even among the strange monsters and spirits that I usually write about.

In the 16th century, Giovanni Battista Nazari wrote the alchemical work ‘Il Metamorfosi metallico et humano’. In this book, the wandering protagonist travels through three dreams that teach him about alchemy, nature, and the transformation of the human being into the divine, and these subjects are brought to the reader in the form of allegories, some of them more cryptic than others.

In the third dream, the protagonist encounters a blessed damsel who shows him a wondrous device to watch the stars and the course of the sun through the constellations. Then she shows him a horrible, frightening monster, a winged and venomous beast that would have terrified the bravest men. The damsel manages to flatter the creature and it calms down. Then, it speaks to the protagonist and claims to be the hen, and the horrible ferocious dragon which has endured throughout time. It died once, but then revived itself and killed death.

The creature then describes itself with a series of riddles, such as “My parents have conceived me, but I had conceived them first. I am both father and son.’ and ‘If I bite someone, they will be bitten by death itself in the head, unless they bite me first. But to bite me, they must first bite themselves’.

So what does this creature represent? The key here is the three strange heads of the dragon: they represent the ‘tria prima’ which are three central elements of alchemical transmutation according to Paracelsus: mercury, salt and sulphur. Note that this does not refer to the literal, physical materials, but rather to their sophic counterparts, meaning the energy of the alchemical elements. These elements are further associated with certain celestial bodies and concepts, which are depicted in the different parts of the dragon’s weird body. And the bearded face might reference the ‘prima materia’, the fundamental source of these elements.

This creature reappeared in the ‘Alchemical and Rosicrucian Compendium’ written by an unknown author around 1760. It appears the allegorical creature was referred to as ‘Python’ in this book, perhaps in reference to the dragon from Greek mythology. I think it is also called ‘Mercurius’ here, but this could be a misunderstanding on my part. In my defense, the handwriting makes it really difficult to translate.

Nevertheless, the creature reappears in a handful of other alchemical works, as an allegory to Paracelcus’ tria prima.

Sources:

Nazari Giovanni Battista, 1564, Il Metamorfosi metallico et humano.

Unknown author, ca. 1760, Alchemical and Rosicrucian Compendium, which you can read here in the Yale University’s collection.

Greenberg, A., 2007, From Alchemy to Chemistry in Picture and Story, John Wiley & Sons, 688 pp., p. 81.

(image 1: ‘The Philosophers’ by Christopher Ulrich, a homage to Gustave Courbet’s 1854 painting ‘Bonjour Monsieur Courbet’)

(image source 2: Alchemical and Rosicrucian Compendium, 1760?)

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