The prima materia, materia prima or first matter of alchemy and philosophy is the omnipresent substance needed to create the Philosopher's Stone. It's the primitive formless base of all matter, similar to chaos, the quintessence or aether. See list of names.
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Aether ( æther, aither, and ether) is equated with the fifth element or quintessence. This material fills the part of the universe beyond the terrestrial sphere.
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In Homeric Greek aether (aithḗr) means "pure, fresh air" or "clear sky". In Greek mythology, aether is the pure essence breathed by the gods, as air is breathed by mortals. It's deified as Aether, the son of Erebus and Nyx in Greek mythology.
The origin of prima materia is attributed to Aristotle, although early threads of concept are found in the philosophy of Anaxagoras (c. 500 - 428 BCE). A pre-Socratic scholar, Anaxagoras describes the Nous or Cosmic Mind as a force of order in relation to chaos.
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The Sicilian philosopher Empedocles (c. 494 – c. 434 BCE) helps define the alchemical and environmental view of nature. He is the originator of the four elements Water, Air, Fire and Earth, a concept shaping civilizations and fundamental belief systems of humans.
He also suggests forces he calls Love and Strife. These mix (love) and separate (strife) the elements. Empedocles develops a doctrine of reincarnation, the alchemical transmigration of the soul in the quest for eternal life.
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Empedocles is considered the last Greek philosopher write his ideas in verse. He petitions against animal sacrifice and condemns killing animals for food. He's possibly influenced by Pythagoras (c. 570 - 490 BCE), the first documented vegetarian.
As alchemy develops in Greco-Roman Egypt on the bases of Greek philosophy, it centers around the concept of prima materia. According to physician Arnaldus de Villa Nova (c. 1240–1311):
"... That there abides in nature a certain pure matter, which, being discovered and brought by art to perfection, converts to itself proportionally all imperfect bodies that it touches."
Alchemical drawing above shows the omnipresence of philosophical matter. From Michael Maier's Atalanta Fugiens. 1617:
"The Stone that is Mercury, is cast upon the Earth, exalted on Mountains, resides in the Air, and is nourished in the Waters."
Although descriptions of the prima materia have changed throughout history, the concept has remained central to alchemic philosophy. Esoteric alchemists describe the prima materia using simile, and compare it to concepts like the anima mundi.
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The anima mundi (Latin) psychḕ kósmou (Greek), world soul, or soul of the world is an intrinsic connection among all living beings. Various systems of belief teach its relation to the world similar to the way animating force or immortal soul connects to the human body.
The anima mundi appears in the concept of the collective unconscious, a term coined by Carl Jung. The idea of a world soul originates in classical antiquity and has a great influence on progressive writers and thinkers.
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Alchemical authors use similes to describe the universal nature of the prima materia. With a tendency toward secrecy, alchemical writers conceal its true name.
Since the prima materia has the qualities and properties of elementary things, the names of all kinds of things were assigned to it. A similar account can be found in the Theatrum Chemicum:
"... They have compared the "prima materia" to everything, to male and female, to the hermaphroditic monster, to heaven and earth, to body and spirit, chaos, microcosm, and the confused mass; it contains in itself all colors and potentially all metals; there is nothing more wonderful in the world, for it begets itself, conceives itself, and gives birth to itself."
Comparisons have been made to Hyle (matter), the primal fire, Proteus (synonymous with first matter), Light, and Mercury.
By the Late Renaissance over fifty terms exist. According to compiler Martin Ruland the Elder,
"the philosophers have so greatly admired the Creature of God which is called the Primal Matter, especially concerning its efficacy and mystery, that they have given to it many names, and almost every possible description, for they have not known how to sufficiently praise it."
More are added later. Martin Ruland the Elder compiles the possible names for the Prima Materia in his 1612 alchemical dictionary, Lexicon alchemiae sive dictionarium alchemistarum:
A Spiritual Blood
Angel of Violet Light
Bath
Boiling Milk
Bride, Spouse, Mother, Eve
Chamber
Chaos
Clouds
Dew
Dissolved Refuse
Dragon
Dung
Eagle Stone
Fiery and Burning Water
Fog
Healer
Heart of the Sun
Heaven
Honey
Indian Gold
Lead
Lye
Magnesia
Magnet
Marble, Crystal, Glass
Matter of All Forms
Medicine
Mercury
Metallic Entity
Microcosmos
Milk of Fig
Milk of Virgin
Moon
Nebula
Ore
Permanent Water
Philosophical Stone
Poison
Pure & Uncontaminated Virgin
Rainbow
Salt of Niter and Saltpeter
Scottish Gem
Serpent
Shade
Soul and Heaven of the Elements
Spirit
Spittle of the Moon
Stella Signata and Lucifer
Sulphur of Nature
Tartar of the Philosophers
Tin
Urine
Venom
Venus
Vinegar
Water of Life
White Ethesia
White Moisture
White Smoke
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