The Three Primes or tria prima of alchemy come from renegade Renaissance physician Paracelsus. The tria prima are salt, sulfur and mercury. Each has a crucial role as it interacts with the others. The Primes exist in physical, metaphysical and psychological forms.
Paracelsus is a pioneer in several aspects of the medical revolution of the Renaissance, including the physical and spiritual realms. Emphasizing the value of observation in combination with received wisdom, he's also credited as the father of toxicology.
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Swiss physician Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim takes the name Paracelcus in the 16th century. Physician, alchemist and astrologer, he rebels against theology and medicine, is barred from teaching, and lays the groundwork of modern science.
His insights are gleaned from connection with a distant past, when the ancient Greeks define the elements of nature, and formulate the natural philosophies of elements such as sulfur and mercury. Islamic developments also have a profound effect on his writings.
After the conquest of Greco-Roman Alexandria and Egypt in 641 AD, the center of alchemy and philosophic thought moves to the Caliphate. Islamic alchemists are intrigued by the mercury-sulfur duality and develop the basis for the later tria prima of Paracelsus.
In context of the Classical Elements, Paracelsus sees fire as the Firmament between air and water in the heavens. Paracelsus often uses an egg to help describe the elements. In his early model, he says air surrounds the world like an egg shell.
The egg white below the shell is like fire because it embodies a type of chaos, allowing it hold up earth and water. Earth and water make up a globe which, in his egg analogy, is the yolk. The egg appears in the creation myths of ancient civilizations such as Egypt.
From his study of the elements, Paracelsus adopts the idea of tripartite alternatives to explain the nature of medicines, which he considers composed of the tria prima, the First Three.
Paracelsus establishes the mercury-sulfur-salt model in the West in his Opus paramirum dating to c.1530 AD. Followers, students and printers distribute the concept through the academic Western Renaissance world.
Paracelsus asserts the principles sulfur, mercury, and salt contain poisons contributing to all diseases. He sees each disease as having three separate cures depending on how it's afflicted, where each is caused by variant toxicity of sulfur, mercury, or salt.
Paracelsus draws the significance of sulfur, salt, and mercury from medieval alchemy, where they occupy prominent places. His theory is demonstrated by burning a piece of wood. He describes fire is the work of sulfur, the smoke as mercury and residual ash as salt.
According to Paracelsus, mercury, sulfur, and salt provide a good explanation for the nature of medicine as each of these properties exists in many physical forms. In spirituality and philosophy the tria prima defines the human identity.
mercury - the spirit (imagination, moral judgment, higher mental faculties, mutable)
sulfur - the soul (emotions and desires, combustible)
salt - the body (physicality, substance, solid)
Within this paradigm, by understanding the chemical nature of the tria prima, a physician can discover the means of curing disease. With every disease, the symptoms depend on which of the three principals cause the ailment.
Paracelsus theorizes materials which are poisonous in large doses may be curative in small doses. This theory is practiced in modern and traditional medicine. Elements of scorpion or snake venom, bee stings or plant toxicology are found in today's treatments.
Unconventional approaches by Paracelsus include the use of minerals and chemicals in medicine. The first to suggest this concept, he garners a reputation as both a visionary and heretic. His unorthodox style offends many and leads to banning of his lectures and work.
After the 16th century AD, progressive sciences swerve to follow the work of Paracelsus, but the Four Humors theory prevails. His theory of the tria prima is a foundational construct of alchemy and appears in the mysticism and medicine of today. He also invents gnomes.
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