Images and enigmas

Two quicksilvers

duo argenta viva

In the dream Saturn takes two quicksilvers of different substance but one root and joins fixed with volatile.

From the book

A New Light of Alchemy

Michael Sendivogius · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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English renderings
two quicksilvers

Meaning

Phrase.

In the dream Saturn takes two quicksilvers of different substance but one root and joins fixed with volatile. This contrasts with the alchemist’s insistence on sulphur alone. The scene remains a veiled dream performance, not an independently identified pair of reagents. Its relation to the earlier two-mercuries language is significant, but the source does not permit a modern recipe to be extracted by names alone.

Places to read

  1. On Sulphur · Passage 20Latinduo argenta viva diversae substantiae, sed unius radicis.