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← ExitThe Golden Chain of Homer

Reading language

Explanation of the Golden Chain of Homer

The chain of Homer shows itself in this way After chaos tears itself apart. A volatile spirit must forge it; Spirit of the world is its name. Frost, dew, snow, rain, and all that comes from above Pledge faithful companionship to it. Here lies the volatile seed of the world From the upper kingdom, when it falls into the lower. From this it takes on a body When it rises visibly before our eyes. Nitre is known to all the world; Who can recount all its powers? It is the one that can forge all kinds of things; The lower kingdom is subject to it. The upper kingdom cannot do without it either; It must bring forth the whole of nature. Here is the father of all things, Who can overcome all the world’s strongholds. Its power comes to it from the Creator; Its kingdom extends over heaven, earth, and sea. It is the Adam of all things; From it Eve too must spring.

Then the end will be attained When all the earth is called fruitful, When he becomes fixed and flashes no longer, And Eve sits there beside him. Sun and moon, sea and earth, Through constant motion turn him into Eve. Through heat and cold, through the sea’s continual course, Earth rises out of Adam, Called common salt and alkali, Which feeds the children of the whole world with its blood. For when man and woman come together, A perfect fruit is forged. The acid and alkaline salt Give every soup its richness.

The volatile kingdom of animals bears witness to this; Neither volatile nor fixed—mark that well. The vegetable hermaphrodite Also shows from what it has been forged. Fixed earth and stones bear witness That they belong to nitre and salt. Fire and air, water and earth, Seek their active share from it. When the noble seed of the world has been made fixed, Brought out of vapour and water into earth, Then that which all the world most highly prizes Has been made and accomplished. The volatile must become fixed, Must turn from water and vapour into earth; And when it becomes a red, dry blood, It is the world’s treasure and highest good: A perfect perfection That drives away all poverty and sickness.

33.The marginal signs in the original correspond to stages in the chain diagram. The diagram and translated key are reproduced with its translated labels in the preliminary matter. Nitrum is translated as nitre; its conceptual reach in the work extends beyond a single modern chemical identification. The Adam and Eve imagery presents generation through the union of opposed principles.

34.The change of grammatical gender and the transformation of Adam into Eve belong to the original’s account of an active principle becoming fixed and receptive. The homely image of fat or richness in soup illustrates the nourishing union of acid and alkali.

35.The poem’s sequence presents animal, vegetable, and mineral forms between volatile and fixed principles. Its final claim of universal benefit belongs to the historical text’s alchemical promise. “Hermaphrodite” here names a union of active and receptive properties.