From the book
The Golden Chain of Homer
Anonymous (traditionally attributed to Anton Joseph Kirchweger) · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordComparatively stable, collected, and enduring when exposed to the conditions that release subtler portions.
- In the Golden ChainThe fixed is one pole of the great exchange and one source of the power to retain the volatile.
- TranslationThe adjective describes a relative condition, not a modern class of permanently immovable substances.
- A place to readB1C20S001, where the author explains why he calls alkali fixed.
Meaning
Fixed describes a material that persists where another portion passes off, rises, or disperses. The comparison is often made in relation to fire, but the wider sense includes bodily retention and the stability of an established condition. It is opposed to volatile without implying that either pole is wholly absent from a given subject.
A fixed thing need not be visibly dry. The author can speak of fixed liquid, spirituous, or coagulated material because its operative behaviour, rather than a simple liquid/solid division, determines the name. Nor does fixed mean incapable of change. Bringing fixed matter back toward a volatile condition is one of the book’s recurring demonstrations of its common origin.
Use in the book
The opening diagram places fixed at the lower pole opposite volatile (PRE00S002). In B1C05S002 earth and water sink as fixed while heaven and air rise as subtle and volatile. Yet B1C09S012 corrects an absolute reading of that opposition: heaven has an earthly stability, and earth has its own volatility. The same natural subject can be described differently depending on the comparison. Thus the poles organize a scale of relations rather than divide nature into two mutually exclusive substances.
B1C20S001 defines the more fixed third principle through endurance in fire and allows it several appearances. B1C20S002 goes further: ash is the most fixed part, followed by salt, while both enter the argument about glass. This ranking explains why the author resists treating a residue as automatically worthless. What remains can carry the ability to hold less enduring parts. B2C05S057’s defence of charcoal gives this material claim a polemical edge against practitioners who burn away or discard what he considers the fixed tincture.
The book also qualifies the value of fixity by purpose. B2C05S031 says a fixed spirit is concentrated and sleeping until like moisture awakens it. B2C10S024 argues that an excessively fixed medicine may pass through the body without the desired effect if the stomach’s Archeus cannot open it. These passages do not cancel the praise of stability; they distinguish permanence from accessibility. A careful reading asks fixed relative to which earlier portion, under which conditions, and for what intended use.
Places to read
- Title and Diagrams · §2The preliminary image places fixed opposite volatile.
- Book I · Ch. 9 · §12Each pole contains a comparative share of the other.
- Book I · Ch. 20 · §1Fixed alkali may appear in several physical conditions.
- Book I · Ch. 20 · §2Ash and salt are ranked by endurance.
- Book II · Ch. 10 · §24Excessive fixity can frustrate the proposed medical aim.
Translation in this edition
Fix, Fixum, and Fixität are attested source forms. Capitalized Fixum can serve substantivally as “the fixed,” a portion or condition considered opposite the volatile. That grammatical convenience should not become proof of an independent elementary entity detached from the body’s history.
“Fixed” can stand close to “alkaline” in the tripartite sequence, but the source also discusses volatile alkalis. B2C10S017 explicitly broadens alkali beyond fixed salts and earths. The two words therefore must not be equated mechanically wherever either occurs. The author’s own explanation of relative predominance should govern the reading.