SUN (GOLD) – APOLLON
$400
size: 8'x8" (24"x24" with frame)

APOLLON (or Apollo) was the great Olympian god of prophecy and oracles, healing, plague and disease, music, song and poetry, archery, and the protection of the young. He was depicted as a handsome, beardless youth with long hair and various attributes including:--a wreath and branch of laurel; bow and quiver; raven; and lyre.

SUN–The ancient alchemy symbol of gold. Worshipped in many cultures, specifically Egypt where Amon-Ra was personified by the evening sun setting at the end of the creative process. Alchemists understood the process of creation, and utilized the symbol of the sun to focus on creating desired effects in their practice – both physically and philosophically.

GOLD
The attainment of rubedo, or redness, is symbolized by the transmutation into gold. The alchemists often talk about ‘living gold’. The ‘living gold of the philosophers’ is the pure fire that is in the philosopher’s stone, or in quicksilver, or in the root humidity of nature which is completely penetrated by the fire. The living gold is the fixated seed that vivifies the philosopher’s quicksilver and the matter of the stone, that is the root humidity of metals. It is a light that is clothed by a perfect, pure ethereal body. It all sounds mystifying, but read it again and know that the living gold is actually pure consciousness, or pure awareness.

The alchemist has been reborn as the Sun which is equal to Gold. He has been enlightened, he has become light himself, and now he rules over the three kingdoms of nature.

A description of what alchemists understood by the term gold is found in a manuscript, called ‘La Lumiere sortant des Tenebres’ (The Light coming forth from the Darkness) (remember that sulphur and gold are always about consciousness, awareness): " The philosophers have given sulfur, or fire, the name gold not for nothing, because it is truly gold both in essence and in substance, but much more perfect than common gold. It is a gold that is completely sulfur, or rather a true sulfur of gold, a gold that is entirely fire, or the true fire of gold that develops; in philosophical caves and mines; a gold that cannot be changed or surpassed by any element, because it is itself the master of elements; a very fixed gold in which is only fixity; a very pure gold, because it is purity itself; a very powerful gold because without it everything else pines away; a balsamy gold, because it preserves all bodies against decomposition; an animal gold because it is the soul of elements of the entire lower nature; a vegetable gold, because it is the principle of the entire vegetation; a mineral gold, because it is sulfury, quicksilvery, and salty; an ethereal gold, because it is of heavenly nature and it is a true earthly heaven that is veiled by another heaven; finally it is a solar gold, because it is the rightful son of the Sun and the true Sun of Nature; its power gives force to the elements of which the warmth vivifies the souls and of which the movement of the entire Nature is brought into movement; from its influence the power of things arises, because it is the influence of the light, a part of the heavens, the lower Sun and the Light of Nature, without which even science would be blind; without its warmth reason would be stupid; without its rays imagination would be dead; without its influences spirit is sterile; and without its light intellect renaming in eternal darkness."

Sometimes the alchemists talk about three kinds of gold. The first one is an astral gold, the center of which is in the Sun, it transfers this gold by its rays and with its light at the same time to all the lower planets. It is a fiery substance and it is a constant emanation from the stellar bodies, which permeates the entire universe. Space, the atmosphere on the planets, and the planetary bodies themselves are completely filled with it. We constantly absorb this astral gold by our breath. The astral gold particles then spread themselves all over our bodies. This alchemical description corresponds very well with what is called ‘prana’ in the eastern philosophies.

The second kind is the elementary gold. It is the purest and most fixated part of the elements, and of all substances that are made thereof. All living beings of the three nature realms have this priceless elementary gold within themselves. It is also called the central fire of the earth.

The third kind is the common metal gold.

The alchemists also say that the elementary gold (pure consciousness) is the philosopher’s stone made pure and perfect by the Great Work.

Gerhard Dorn (16th century) describes the alchemical gold as the divine, creative influence present in all matter. "Gold is the medicine that in its original workings is tempered by the art of alchemy, and therefore it can influence all other earthly and material things in a positive way…Gold is the form that has been separated or taken away from its exterior body, and it is so penetrating that by its heavenly form, it influences every exterior thing. Gold is the divine seed that is concealed in all things, not only in metals, but in all material things, and it can be made visible by heating. And just like in the beginning, when God created the world and had a creative influence on matter, with this gold (that you have obtained from matter) you have that which repeats Gods' creative work - with that you have a little bit in your own hand. With this, from God derived power, one can create and transform things. Gold has its power because it has the virtue of being one. Even vegetable things can bring forth a medicine that one can use in this manner.