Alchemical symbol



Alchemical symbols were used to denote chemical elements and compounds, as well as alchemical apparatus and processes, until the 18th century. Although notation was partly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists. Lüdy-Tenger published an inventory of 3,695 symbols and variants, and that was not exhaustive, omitting for example many of the symbols used by Isaac Newton. This page therefore lists only the most common symbols.

Three primes
According to Paracelsus (1493–1541), the three primes or tria prima – of which material substances are immediately composed – are:
 * Sulfur or soul, the principle of combustibility: 🜍 ([[Image:Sulphur symbol (fixed width).svg|24px]])
 * Mercury or spirit, the principle of fusibility and volatility: ☿ ([[Image:Mercury symbol (fixed width).svg|24px]])
 * Salt or body, the principle of non-combustibility and non-volatility: 🜔 (Salt symbol (alchemical).svg)

Four basic elements
Western alchemy makes use of the four classical elements. The symbols used for these are:
 * Air 🜁 ([[Image:air symbol (alchemical).svg|24px]])
 * Earth 🜃 ([[Image:earth symbol (alchemical).svg|24px]])
 * Fire 🜂 ([[Image:fire symbol (alchemical).svg|24px]])
 * Water 🜄 ([[Image:water symbol (alchemical).svg|24px]])

Seven planetary metals
The seven metals known since Classical times in Europe were associated with the seven classical planets; this figured heavily in alchemical symbolism. The exact correlation varied over time, and in early centuries bronze or electrum were sometimes found instead of mercury, or copper for Mars instead of iron; however, gold, silver, and lead had always been associated with the Sun, Moon, and Saturn. The associations below are attested from the 7th century and had stabilized by the 15th. They started breaking down with the discovery of antimony, bismuth, and zinc in the 16th century. Alchemists would typically call the metals by their planetary names, e.g. "Saturn" for lead, "Mars" for iron; compounds of tin, iron, and silver continued to be called "jovial", "martial", and "lunar"; or "of Jupiter", "of Mars", and "of the moon", through the 17th century. The tradition remains today with the name of the element mercury, where chemists decided the planetary name was preferable to common names like "quicksilver", and in a few archaic terms such as lunar caustic (silver nitrate) and saturnism (lead poisoning).
 * Lead, corresponding with Saturn ♄ ([[Image:Saturn symbol (fixed width).svg|24px]])
 * Tin, corresponding with Jupiter ♃ ([[Image:Jupiter symbol (fixed width).svg|24px]])
 * Iron, corresponding with Mars ♂ ([[Image:Mars symbol (fixed width).svg|24px]])
 * Gold, corresponding with the Sun ☉ 🜚  ☼ ([[Image:Sun symbol (fixed width).svg|24px]] [[Image:Sun symbol (medieval).svg|24px]] [[Image:Sol symbol (fixed width).svg|24px]])
 * Copper, corresponding with Venus ♀ ([[Image:Venus symbol (fixed width).svg|24px]])
 * Quicksilver, corresponding with Mercury ☿ ([[Image:Mercury symbol (fixed width).svg|24px]])
 * Silver, corresponding with the Moon ☽ or ☾ ([[Image:Moon crescent symbol (fixed width).svg|24px]] or [[Image:Moon decrescent symbol (fixed width).svg|24px]]) [also 🜛 in Newton]

Mundane elements and later metals

 * Antimony ♁ ([[Image:Globus cruciger (fixed width).svg|24px]]) (in Newton), also [[file:Antimony psi symbol.svg|24px]]
 * Arsenic 🜺 ([[Image:Arsenic symbol.svg|24px]])
 * Bismuth ♆ (Bismuth trident symbol.svg) (in Newton), 🜘 (Bismuth symbol.svg) (in Bergman)
 * Cobalt Alkali symbol.svg (approximately 🜶) (in Bergman)
 * Manganese Manganese symbol (Bergman).svg (in Bergman)
 * Nickel Nickel symbol.svg (in Bergman; previously used for regulus of sulfur)
 * Oxygen Oxygen symbol (Lavoisier).svg (in Lavoisier)
 * Phlogiston Phlogiston symbol.svg (in Bergman)
 * Phosphorus [[Image:Phosphorus symbol.svg|24px]] or Phosphorus symbol (inverted).svg
 * Platinum [[Image:Platinum symbol.svg|24px]] or Platinum symbol (simple).svg (in Bergman et al.)
 * Sulfur 🜍 (Sulphur symbol (fixed width).svg) (in Newton)
 * Zinc Zinc symbol (fixed width).svg (in Bergman)

Alchemical compounds
The following symbols, among others, have been adopted into Unicode.
 * Acid (incl. vinegar) 🜊 (Acid symbol (alchemical).svg)
 * Sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) 🜹 ([[file:Sal ammoniac symbol.svg|24px]])
 * Aqua fortis (nitric acid) 🜅 ([[file:Aqua fortis.svg|24px]]), A.F.
 * Aqua regia (nitro-hydrochloric acid) 🜆 (Aqua regia (alchemical).svg), 🜇 ([[file:U+1F707.svg|24px]]), A.R.
 * Spirit of wine (concentrated ethanol; called aqua vitae or spiritus vini) 🜈 ([[file:U+1F708.svg|24px]]), S.V. or 🜉 ([[file:Aqua vitae symbol.svg|24px]])
 * Amalgam (alloys of a metal and mercury) 🝛 ([[file:U+1F75B.svg|24px]]) = a͞a͞a, ȧȧȧ (among other abbreviations).
 * Cinnabar (mercury sulfide) 🜓 (Cinnabar symbol.svg)
 * Vinegar (distilled) 🜋 (Distilled vinegar symbol.svg) (in Newton)
 * Vitriol (sulfates) 🜖 ([[file:Vitriol symbol.svg|24px]])
 * Black sulphur (residue from sublimation of sulfur) 🜏 (Black sulfur symbol (fixed width).svg)

Alchemical processes
The alchemical magnum opus was sometimes expressed as a series of chemical operations. In cases where these numbered twelve, each could be assigned one of the Zodiac signs as a form of cryptography. The following example can be found in Pernety's Dictionnaire mytho-hermétique (1758):


 * 1) Calcination (Aries [[Image:Aries symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]) ♈︎
 * 2) Congelation (Taurus [[Image:Taurus symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]) ♉︎
 * 3) Fixation (Gemini [[Image:Gemini symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]) ♊︎
 * 4) Solution (Cancer [[Image:Cancer symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]) ♋︎
 * 5) Digestion (Leo [[Image:Leo symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]) ♌︎
 * 6) Distillation (Virgo [[Image:Virgo symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]) ♍︎
 * 7) Sublimation (Libra [[Image:Libra symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]) ♎︎
 * 8) Separation (Scorpio [[Image:Scorpius symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]) ♏︎
 * 9) Ceration (Sagittarius [[Image:Sagittarius symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]) ♐︎
 * 10) Fermentation (Capricorn [[Image:Capricornus symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]) ♑︎ (Putrefaction)
 * 11) Multiplication (Aquarius [[Image:Aquarius symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]) ♒︎
 * 12) Projection (Pisces [[Image:Pisces symbol (fixed width).svg|16px]]) ♓︎

Units
Several symbols indicate units of time.
 * Month 🝱 ([[file:month symbol.svg|24px]]) or [[file:Month XXX symbol.svg|24px]] or xXx
 * Day-Night 🝰 ([[file:day-night symbol.svg|24px]])
 * Hour 🝮 ([[file:hour symbol.svg|24px]])

Gallery
A list of symbols published in 1931:

Unicode
The Alchemical Symbols block was added to Unicode in 2010 as part of Unicode 6.0.