Images and enigmas

Key

clavis

Salt is the key that opens gates of justice and infernal prisons in which sulphur lies bound.

From the book

A New Light of Alchemy

Michael Sendivogius · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →
English renderings
key

Meaning

Lemma.

Salt is the key that opens gates of justice and infernal prisons in which sulphur lies bound. The image stresses access and release rather than making salt a dispensable third ingredient. It also connects doctrinal exposition with the later prison dialogue. Since the promised salt treatise is absent, the text’s key metaphor does not disclose a definitive modern material identification.

Places to read

  1. Sulphur · The Three Principles · Passage 4Latinillud est clavis et principium.