Alchemical Symbolism in the VMS

[Barbrey]

It should also be noted that the alchemical process can be divided into different stages. For example, there is a division into 4, 7 or 12 stages.

That is when stages are mentioned at all. In most books the process is not so neatly organized. George Ripley's 'Twelve Gates' are based on You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.'s Scala Philosophorum it seems. You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

Yes, there was no true system - each alchemist had his/her own steps. When you try to match the steps to the four stages, scholars just say it would vary. What does hold true in alchemical imagery is the four stages, including rainbow/peacock sub-stage.  It will sometimes be missing the citrinadas stage as time went on, but for the most part the stages had sticking power. 

One thing that is very much missing from the balneoligical pages in general is heat or heat sources. Alchemists are associated with fire for a reason. At almost every stage they were heating or boiling or distilling their substances, over and over and over again. So either there’s no alchemy or heating/fire is hidden for a reason, represented by pipes as processes. The problem here is the hermetic secrecy of alchemists, who talked about “secret” fire, and if you look at emblem imagery, none of the alchemists use much explicit imagery of fire. So for me, the absence of it could as well prove alchemy’s existence as non-existence. I often have imagined all the pipes coming out of the central sphere of the rosette pages representing stove pipes from all the secret fires of alchemists. Fanciful, but as fair a guess as any other I’ve read.