Matter and elements

One of seven

unus ex septem

Nature calls Mercury one of seven and the first before adding that he is all things, nothing and of a whole number.

From the book

A New Light of Alchemy

Michael Sendivogius · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →
English renderings
one of seven

Meaning

Phrase.

Nature calls Mercury one of seven and the first before adding that he is all things, nothing and of a whole number. The numeral belongs to a deliberately cumulative riddle. The source does not resolve each numerical predicate in the exchange itself. A reader may compare the corpus’s broader metallic and planetary vocabulary, but should not replace this local wording with an unsupported definitive code.

Places to read

  1. Dialogue of Mercury, the Alchemist and Nature · Passage 14Latinunus ex septem est et primus est.