For those of you wondering about the symbolism behind the logo for The Alchemists’ Council, I direct you to another WordPress site: The Four Elements. The six-pointed star combines the alchemical symbols for earth, air, water, and fire. Conjoined, they represent Quintessence which, according to the alchemists of Council dimension, is “the fifth and most sublime element, the very breath of life and life everlasting” (vii).
As to the bee, according to Lyndy Abraham in A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, alchemists use the bee “an image of the mercurial serpent, the universal solvent which is said to ‘poison’ and kill metals (i.e. dissolve them into the prima materia from which the philosopher’s stone is made). The sting of the bee…signif[ies] the secret fire, the mercurial solvent which destroys the old metal or outmoded state of being” (20). In that sense, the bees of Council dimension and Lapidarian manuscripts symbolize alchemical transformation.
As Abraham also notes, “Honey is an epithet for the elixir because it is both sweet and gold” (103). As explained in the opening prima materia section of The Alchemists’ Council, “Together the alchemists of the Alchemists’ Council transmute Quintessence into life-enhancing Elixir and Lapidarian ink — an immeasurably powerful substance that, when used to inscribe Musurgia Universalis by an alchemist equipped with pen and Lapis-forged nib, can construct or deconstruct the elemental foundation — the eco-systems, the environment — of the outside world” (xiii).
[For more on pens and inks, see my April 16, 2016, post: “From Pen to Parchment.”]
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