Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit and Secret Iconography of the Wheel

Das Buch der heiligen Dreifaltigkeit, or Book of Holy Trinity, puts on display a strange wheel. The iconographic theme of our Secret Fire, or Sun in the Earth.

This series of manuscripts, scattered from an original by frater Ulmannus ( Germany, early fifteenth century), describes the alchemical process in terms of Christian mythology, that’s to say, the analogy of the passion, death, and resurrection of the Christ with the alchemical processes of the Opus Magnum, or Great Work.

As you can imagine, this topic makes the Book of the Holy Trinity take on huge importance in the alchemical environment. The image on the top belongs to the first cycle of the Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit, but I’m presently unable to provide the right reference of the manuscript I took it from; the date of publication is likely to be from 1410 to 1419. The similar one we can see on the left is a part of the Munich manuscript at Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, CGM. 598 (1). The similarity of the two drawings lies in the same allegory of the wheel, which we have already encountered in my article Cesare Ripa: Wheels, Spindles and Celestial Pointers. There we have seen how this allegory might have been linked to the Sun, I mean the physical one in the sky, with the assumption of a derivation of the pre-socratic Anaximander’s thought from a common Akkadian-Sumerian matrix (2) and what’s more with the assumption that a part of the ancient greek thought had affected the European alchemical symbolism.

But we already know that, because of the rule of three, every symbol and allegory may stand for at least three different meanings, and the allegory of the wheel does not make an exception. Is Canseliet, in his “Etudes diverses de Symbolisme hermétique et de Pratique Philosophale,” Paris 1964, ignores the symbolism of the Sun and instead suggests a sense of “rotation” to the alchemical wheel, which, in his opinion, represents the “Wheel Fire”? Let’s set aside a while for Canseliet’s point of view and get back to thoroughly examine the first mentioned ancient signification of the Wheel corresponding to the Sun. Here below are two summaries of Anaximander’s thoughts by other ancient authors, talking about the astronomical Sun and its supposed appearance:

AËT. II 13, 7 [Dox. 342]: ” Anaximander states that (the stars) are thick casings of air in the form of a wheel, full of fire, in which a part of the openings blow flames”.

ACHILL. isag. I 19 p. 46, 20 [by Posidonius]: ” Some, among them also Anaximander, say that (the sun) sends light and is wheel-shaped. In fact, like in a wheel, the hub is hollow but keeps the rays from it toward the wheel’s outer circumference, so the sun, sending light from a cavity, produces its rays shining outside around”.

We will see that the idea of Canseliet, together with Eireneus Philalethe and Fulcanelli, even though it could seem so different and too substantial, is not at all foreign to the concept of the Sun. Even better, according to them, we are before the Sun on Earth. And in this case, they don’t intend metallic gold, but Philosophers Gold (3). But let’s hear from Canseliet now. This chapter is an essay from 1934 dedicated to the ” Alchemical Tree”. At the end of the chapter, we find a comparison of the Tree with the Wheel Fire: ” As in mechanics, the crankshaft is the piece of iron or wood which causes the transmission to the wheel, so the alchemical tree and the tree of the world are: the first the axis around which the fire of wheel ( spiritual and material in the Great Work/Opus magnum) develops; the second the axis which causes the huge cyclic rotation”. This is Canseliet Style: have Alchemy in both material and spiritual sides. The paragraph is not so easy to understand indeed. To support, or better explain, he quotes Philalethe’s Introitus Apertus, chapter ten: “Patet proinde, quod sulphur hoc spirituale metallicum sit revera movens primum, quod rotam vertit, axempque volvit in gyrum”, or “So it is evident that only this spiritual sulfur is the first agent to shift the wheel and causes it pivoting on its axis, by a circular movement”. Canseliet also mentions Fulcanelli scrutinizing a low relief in the Amiens Cathedral, which, being a bit more complicated, will be worth a fully dedicated coming article. So let’s take only Eireneus Philalethe’s words as a guide. These words focus our attention on circular movement. So we have a Sulphur exerting a force to make the wheel spin. There we are; let’s try to understand what kind of Sulphur and circular movement could be.

Sulfur is made from Mercurius, which is made from Secret Fire, made from salts volatilization out of Preliminary Works ( See an Opus magnum scheme). We have learned that this Mercurius has to be fixed ( if not, it would be too much volatile), then doubled, and, what’s more, to be fed on Mercurius with Washings (4) and successively on Imbibitions with red Sulphur (5). The effects of these processes lead to a “rotation” of colors (6) which we also call “Transmutation stairs”.

Let’s content ourselves, for the moment, with the transmutation stairs performed inside a vessel. Let’s notice how the two drawings in the Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit may suit the case. The wheel on the top is sulfurous red, and fourteen labels are attached, which is not a chance occurrence. Here we are above and beyond the Main Work. Imbibitions are performed with red Sulphur indeed. Fourteen is two times seven. And seven is a reasonable number for sublimations to be performed in the Preliminary Works and subsequent imbibitions. Two times seven are two different works, one following the other. Describing the alchemical process in terms of Christian mythology, the Buch der Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit red wheel labels represent stations of the Christ passion, Transmutation stairs, or planets (8).

Fourteen labels also frame the Munich manuscript’s wheel, which puts alternate red and white spokes on display, while the hub is a green Sun, or vegetative Sun, the Alchemical Tree of Canseliet (8). Supposedly we are before the imbibitions of the Main Work, those represented by Abraham the Jew Molinier “Rota”, that’s to say, where red is after white. Not in that simple sequence, but enough to get the concept. The symbol of the Sun in the hub seems to fit those mentioned above pre-socratic philosophical ideas of the Sun as a wheel in which a part of the openings blows flames, namely the hub.

Thus, what kind of wheel have we taken to fulfill our alchemical needs? The one representing the alchemical rotations of colors or the Anaximander’s solar wheel? Both, because the “agent”, as Canseliet calls it, is always our Secret Fire, or the Sun in the Earth, the Philosophers Gold, real crankshaft. No wonder Secret Fire is said to come from Suns and Stars and still dwells in the bodies.

A meaning of wheel in the sense of a solar “time wheel”, can be found at Trisulti Carthusian Monastery and the Yearbook Wheel . In sense of rotational events inside a vessel at Amiens Cathedral, Fulcanelli and Two Paradoxical Wheels .

1. The picture has been taken from AlchemyWebSite, where you can find the whole series at imagery_buch_der_heiligen_dreifaltigkeit ;
2. See also Anaximander, Apeiron and Earthy Sea ; Cesare Ripa: Wheels, Spindles and Celestial Pointers ;
3. See also Basilius Valentinus, Azoth, Salt or Philosophers gold? ;
4. See also Kamala Jnana from Black to White ;
5. See also Cabala Mineralis & the She Horse on urine Wok, part 2 ;
6. See also Kamala Jnana, Introduction to a Live Secret , Artephius, Secret Book and Secret Fire , Splendor Solis and Children Multiplication ;
7. See also Pietro Perugino and the Black Horned Motherhood ;
8. See also Guido Montanor & Regimens of Fire ;
9. See also Ripley Scroll: the Souls Drinks only Blood ;