Mary the Jewess appears on the scene in vibrant Alexandria on the sparkling Mediterranean in c. first century AD. Educated, well-spoken, witty and sometimes excitable, Maria makes herself known as the world's first true alchemist.
"'How is it "our lead" (1) produced?' said Maria. 'If you do not render the corporeal substances incorporeal, and the incorporeal substances corporeal, and if you do not make the two bodies one, nothing of the expected will be produced.' "
Olympiodorus of Thebes, 5th century AD
Mary the Jewess (or Maria the Prophetess, Maria Prophetissa after 16th century), is an iconic figure whose contributions to alchemy remain powerful today. A skilled alchemist, Mary is also a wise philosopher, blending science and spirituality in her teachings.
It's said Mary once in excitement "shrieks" the words which would become the Axiom of Maria:
"One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth."
The core of Maria's prescribed gold-making procedure lies in the belief there exist two types of substances: volatile and fixed, or incorporeal and corporeal. Metals like copper, lead, and zinc fall into the corporeal and fixed category.
The goldening process involves removing their corporeal nature by converting them into volatile and incorporeal substances, such as oxides (through exposure to air), sulfides (using sulfur or sulfides), or chlorides (with sea salt), among others.
Subsequently, these oxides, sulfides, or chlorides must be transformed back into metallic form with new characteristics and hues. This is done either by purifying them or by creating alloys.
When Mary speaks of uniting the male and female, she refers to metals and alloys. She applies genders and characteristics to metals which ultimately flower into the complex works of the Renaissance artists and philosophers, with the Red King & White Queen.
The Gold Process of Maria
Mary speaks to the philosopher Aros.
".. Maria said: "O Aros ... take the Allum of Spain, the white gumm and the red gumm, which is the Kibric [sulfur] of the Philosophers, and their Sol and the greater Tincture, and marry Gumm with Gumm together with a true Matrimony.
"Mary said, make them like a running Water, and vitrify this water which has been labored or wrought upon for one day, out of the two Lubechs, upon the fixed body, and liquefy them by the secret of Nature in the Vessel of Philosophy. Did you understand us?
"Yes, my Lady." Maria said: "Make it like unto running water, and vitrify this water, when a day has elapsed, by means of the two zubechs [from zlbaq, mercury] over the fixed body, and liquify it by the secret of the natures in the vessel of philosophy. Did you understand us?"
"[Yes,] O Lady." Surely Maria said: "Preserve the fume and take care lest any of it escape. And let your measure be with a gentle fire such as is the Measure of the heat of the Sun in the Month of June or July.
"Stay by your Vessel and behold it with care how it grows black, grows red, and grows white in less than three hours of the day, and the fume will penetrate the body, and the spirit will be condensed, and they will become like milk, wax-like, liquifying, and penetrating. And it is a secret."
Another process comes from the writings of Maria:
"Taking chrysocolla and cinnabar, dilute them with white litharge and make [the nature of the metal] disappear If copper is modified and brought to the state of a [metallic] body, project on it the color of gold, and you will have gold."
Religious doctrine is one of the factors driving Mary's alchemical quest. She believes the Jews are the chosen people and there exists a mystical stone for their use alone. She admonishes others, claiming they cannot touch the stone, saying, "You are not of our race."
Thus while Mary's contributions as a pioneer of alchemy are significant, even the earliest known alchemical works are tinted with dogmatic ideology. This contributes to secrecy and esoterica surrounding the practice of alchemy and such symbols as the yet-unnamed stone.
The first mention of a "philosophers' stone" or lapis philosophorum in terminology comes from Middle English poetry at the end of the 14th century. The Confessio Amantis mentions the "parfit Elixir Of thilke philosphres Ston".
Also during the late 14th century appears the first recorded the goal of alchemy:
"The philosophers stoon, Elixir clept, we sechen."
(The philosophers' stone, Elixir named, we seek).
"And Aros said: "Is that not the Stone of Truth?"
And Maria said: "It is. Truly, however, the people do not know this regimen because of their haste."
Aros said: "And what then?"
Mary said, "Vitrify upon it Kibric or Zibeic and there are the two fumes comprehending the two Lights, and project upon that the complement of the Tinctures of the Spirits, and the weights of Truth, and pound it all, and put it to the Fire, and you shall see wonderfull things from them."
According to Renaissance alchemist, physician and philosopher Michael Maier, Mary is one of four women who knows how to make the stone of the philosophers. By the Renaissance the stone has evolved to deeper meanings and translations of translations.
Mary is esteemed by philosophers and alchemists from Alexandrians to the Enlightenment. Her narrative too changes, as her assertion the "stone" is only for the Jews falls by the wayside.
Vague definitions of the mystic stone or substance are plucked out and examined like the livers of sheep. Based on the theories of Mary it assumes a true presence.
Mary continues:
"The whole government consists in the temper of the Fire, O how strange it is, how it will be moved from one color to another, in less than an hour of the Day, untill it arrive at the mark of redness and whiteness, and cast away the Fire and permit it to cool, and open it and you will find the clear pearly Body to be of the Color of the Poppy of the Wood mixt with whiteness and that is it which is incerating, liquefying and penetrating, and one golden piece thereof, the weight of a small golden Coin, falleth upon a thousand thousand and two hundred thousand. That is the hidden secret."
As time goes on, the stone itself has varying interpretations. It's considered to be made of the prima materia, the pure prime material. It isn't an end result, but a penultimate step. The stone is known for bestowing immortality and turning mundane metals to gold or silver.
The Stone can be an oil, ointment, elixir, powder, described as "a stone that is not a stone". The earliest known mention of an enigmatic stone is by the Greek philosopher Democritus (460 - 370 BCE), who says,
" ... The stone is not formed until it has gathered all the colors that exist in the universe, and until it has been colored with all the simple and complex colors."
In the 10th century, Kitāb al-Fihrist by Ibn al-Nadim mentions Mary as one of the 52 renowned alchemists. He says she's one of the few who know how to produce caput mortuum, a purple pigment.
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1. "Our lead" refers to four metals - copper, iron, lead, and zinc - which constitute the tetrasomia of Maria. They are "four in one" says Maria, according to Olympiodorus of Thebes. She calls this interchangeably "our copper" and "our lead".
It can also refer to "black lead" (molybdos melas) or antimony (molybdos hemeteros), whose melted state is called "black brew" or "black juice."
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