11-11-2017, 07:46 PM
There is an old alchemical idea that form is symbolic of essence and it is essence that evolves which thus produces changing outer forms. One of the ancient ideas about the metals was the idea that they were living and of a certain grade of consciousness. It was seen that the essence or intelligence behind the metals progressed from a grosser state, such as lead, to a finer state as gold. The process of this happening in nature was seen to take millions and millions of years. However, the idea of the alchemical art was to accelerate this evolution and "produce in a moment what takes nature a thousand years".