creative writing

The Transmutation Of Silver Into Mercury

The fifth transmutation of the Anabasis is from silver to mercury. This involves the mysterious process of quickening. Silver is quickened to become mercury and, in doing so, develops a divine spark. Thus, the transmutation of silver to mercury involves beginning (but not completing) the process of apotheosis.

In quickening, silver becomes liquid. This liquidity is the essence of the realm of mercury. The character of mercury displays the opposite of the rigid thinking found in the realm of iron. They are the quickest of thinkers, always a step ahead of everyone else. For this reason they evoke a wide range of reactions from other characters. Mercury is therefore unpredictable to the lower elements, hence the term mercurial.

The rigidity of silver means that it cannot flow into certain spaces. Mercury can. Hence characters of mercury can be explorers of the mind and soul as well as of physical or cultural space. A transmutation from silver to mercury might be motivated by a character who has achieved everything possible in their career or business, and started to wonder what else there is to life. For such people, the occult often beckons.

Psychologically, the character of mercury is beyond any character of the previous levels. They are intellectually superior to an extent that is awesome. But they don’t merely intellectualise. The character of mercury is capable of intuiting knowledge in a way that seems psychic to others. They seem to know things that could not possibly be known, as if they had access to another world.

It is said of the brilliant that they can hit targets no-one else can hit, but of the genius it is said that they can hit targets no-one else can see. The transition from silver to mercury is like this transition from brilliance to genius. A character who achieves it will not merely impress others – they will instill awe. Other characters will generally not understand how the transition has been made.

Aldous Huxley once said (maybe) that “an intellectual is someone who has discovered something more interesting than sex.” The character of mercury is entirely capable of having sex and enjoying it – but they are also capable of sublimating their sexual energy into incredible cultural, artistic, scientific or spiritual achievements. If they choose to attempt such a thing, and if they come to value this higher than sex, they will be seen as very strange by most others. Thus, the transition to mercury can only be attempted by those with superior will.

Socially, the transmutation from silver to mercury could see a character go from leading their clan to leading an empire. In some ancient cultures, the king was also the chief judge. If the judges of a nation are those who the villages nominate to resolve conflicts, the king would be the one who resolves conflicts among the judges themselves. A transition to mercury could be made by becoming a king of kings, or an emperor.

The character of mercury, then, is of the highest terrestrial rank. This might not necessarily be evident, especially at the beginning of the story. A transmutation from silver to mercury might occur very early in the life of a character, such that those around them don’t readily recognise the change. They might simply be too young for higher honours yet, despite being spiritually worthy.

Physically, a character of mercury could look like anything. If characters of lead are scrawny, those of tin fat, those of iron muscular, those of copper muscular and fat and those of silver slender, characters of mercury could look like any such phenotype plus others. For a character of mercury, who is beginning to apotheosise, the physical form is almost irrelevant. They may even start to move beyond physical form as they move away from silver.

The transmutation of silver to mercury is a challenge unlike any of the previous four stages, because it’s primarily a spiritual process, whereas the previous four stages deal with physical and mental processes. For the fifth transmutation of the Anabasis to begin, the spiritual realm has to be accessed. This makes the nature of the transmutation much more subtle than any of the previous four.

This can make a character of mercury a highly complex one. They are capable of anything that the lower levels are capable of. The difference is that the lower five elements are somewhat bound to their realm of frequency, whereas mercury can flow readily to any frequency. Thus the character of mercury can party as if tin, fight as if lead, make love as if copper and socialise as if silver. They are not specialised in any one aspect of life but are rather masters of life in a general sense. As such, the transition to mercury requires a certain depth of life experience.

Glory can transmute mere silver to mercury. A character who rises to become a general or warlord might discover, in the throes of victory, a glory that raises them to a place not previously possible. In the wake of a military triumph, a commander might attain realms of consciousness that had otherwise been inaccessible.

A near death experience can also do it. As mentioned above, the process of transmutation to mercury is, at one level, divine. In almost dying, a person sometimes realises that they are more than just their body and mind. When the physical senses are shut off, the soul can make itself present. Many a person has passed over to the other side only to then return and, imbued with occult knowledge from those shadow realms, risen to a position of social prominence.

A psychedelic experience might be another, similar way to achieve this. A character who undergoes a sufficiently powerful spiritual experience though use of a psychedelic might seem, to other characters, to have acquired superpowers. They may also seem to have gone insane: the transmutation to mercury implies that a character no longer cares as much about material concerns such as wealth or social status. This might not be understood or appreciated by characters of the lower levels.

Yet another way might be getting chosen by a secret society for a special role, such as the harbinger of a new age of humanity. A character of silver who is chosen as a special representative by a secret society could begin the transmutation to mercury by way of ritual. Ancient rites intended to drive out weaknesses from lower frequencies could effect the transmutation to mercury.

The ultimate action that transmutes silver to mercury is application of will. It’s ultimately will that overcomes the rigidness of silver and transmutes into something quasi-divine. The rigidity of silver is testament to the extent to which it is programmed by circumstance. The application of will causes a character to rise above circumstance and to define themselves according to their own values. Even the stronghest, the smartest, the richest and the most handsome of men are subordinate to the most willing.

An example of the transmutation of silver to mercury in popular fiction is the film Braveheart. William Wallace starts as a well-respected villager, the son of a well-respected villager, and seemed destined for the realm of silver. But on account of being taught to use his brain properly, he was able to reshape the course of history.

This is an excerpt from Viktor Hellman’s The Alchemy of Character Development, the sixth book in VJM Publishing’s Writing With Psychology series. This book will show you how to use alchemy to create deep, realistic and engaging characters for your creative fiction.

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The Transmutation Of Copper Into Silver

The fifth stage of ascent up the Mithraic Ladder is silver. Alchemically speaking, copper brightens as it transmutes into silver. The colourful, ruddy copper becomes the white-grey silver as a person transcends a focus on materialist concerns such as nuclear family for (slightly) more abstract concerns.

This brightening reflects a broadening, and a raising, of horizons. The characters of lead, tin, iron and copper all look downward in a sense, because they’re most worried about dangers that arise from the Earth. But the character of silver looks over them all, to the distant horizons, and the rising and setting Sun.

A person of copper works to transmute themselves into silver when they start to take an interest in the welfare of those outside their immediate family. Once a person with a small family is asked to speak or act on behalf of a larger group, such as a village or clan, they start to raise their frequency of consciousness beyond that which is found in a state of Nature. They start to become actually civilised – not merely passive, but an active bearer of the light of civilisation.

A second method of transmutation is the accumulation of knowledge. The character of silver is traditionally the one that has taken an interest in history, geography and culture. They are able to look beyond their immediate environment and understand the context into which their family has been thrust by circumstance. As such, they are able to understand individuals much better than those who cannot take such a broad view.

They can also transmute by means of a third way: voluntary celibacy. Upon reaching the apex of the realm of copper, a person might find that they no longer feel they have much left to experience sexually. Perhaps they have lived out every fantasy they ever had by this time. They might then, rather than expending sexual energy in the pursuit of more offspring, sublimate it into something higher.

The decision to sublimate sexual energy into spiritual energy is one of the most powerful decisions a person can ever make. It is the key to attaining the level of silver (and above). The sexual energy is fundamental to physical life, and therefore fundamental to fighting and violence and the non-consensual assertion of will. By sublimating that energy into something higher, a person moves beyond the beast and towards the god.

Chronologically, when a person is in the copper stage, they tend to have children who are in the lead stage, i.e. just learning to survive. Of people who die, a high proportion of them die in the first twelve years of life, owing to all the survival challenges that have to be met and overcome for the first time.

When their children pass into the realm of tin, there’s no longer such a worry that they might immediately die. When it does, a person of copper might cast their mind to wider things than just their nuclear family – such as their extended family. In doing so, their horizons broaden from the home to the community, and a change can begin, from copper to silver. Deep knowledge can be attained by those who throw themselves into the task once they no longer need to worry about their children.

The character of silver is mostly concerned with the clan. They are the sort of person who would become a clan chieftain. Thus they must engage in politics to some extent. They will inevitably find themselves called to settle disputes between other family members.

Occupationally, silver is associated with jobs where a degree of brilliance is required, such as doctor or judge. If copper if the boss of the front-facing roles such as Army captain, silver is the major, a back-facing role in an important office. The transition to silver, then, is a kind of retirement, from the physical realm and its conflicts.

Silver is a precious metal. This reflects the fact that characters of silver play a precious role in maintaining civilisation. They are concerned with “the wider collective”. As such, a large number of the people involved in government bureaucracy tend to be characters of silver (even if their leaders tend to be characters of mercury).

A character of copper might discover that, thanks to the reputation they have developed from raising their children well, they are offered a position as an official in a government somewhere. Such a promotion might occupationally reflect an inner change from copper to silver.

Socially, the person of silver is much less preoccupied with sex. The person of copper is specifically trying to create a family, and so is obsessed with sex. The person of silver, by contrast, no longer feels an imperative to have children. Hence, the prime virtue that transmutes copper to silver is chastity.

Physically, the transition from copper to silver is marked by silver (or grey) hair. It can also be marked by becoming more slender. Characters of silver are most likely to have the long, willowy bodies typical of the upper classes. If the muscle man of the realm of iron first relaxes into the teddy bear of the realm of copper, upon then entering the realm of silver he might become neither muscular nor fat, but lean and slender.

It’s necessary to note here that merely getting old doesn’t guarantee a transition to silver. The nature of the alchemy here is spiritual and not material. A person can therefore have silver hair but still be stuck at an earlier level of spiritual development. For example, if a 55-year old is still mostly concerned with looking tough, they are stuck at the level of iron. If they are still mostly concerned with partying, they are stuck at the level of tin.

Neither is it necessary to be old to develop a frequency of silver. It’s generally true that, the higher the frequency of the consciousness, the later in life it comes to full fruition. However, a character of an unusually high frequency of consciousness can manifest aspects of silver at an early age. This is often seen intellectually through an interest in art.

An archetypal moment that is emblematic of the transition from copper to silver is when a parent starts caring more about paying for their child’s college tuition than they do about keeping them alive. Guiding the child towards life, rather than away from death, becomes the focus. In a way, then, they transition from the guardian of their offspring to an advisor of them.

Another such moment is when a person starts wondering if there’s more to life than just sex and children. Once a person doesn’t want any more children, they have to start asking some deep, existential questions that are typically postponed by the imperative to win territory and breeding partners. A character stops following instincts like a lower animal, and starts asking themselves questions about the meaning of life.

The essence of the transition from copper to silver is a brightening that hints at the presence of solar energy. The character of silver plays a minor role in upholding civilisation itself. As such, their lives are heroic in a subtler way than those of copper and iron. In the transition to mercury, the character of silver becomes less subtle.

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The Transmutation Of Lead Into Tin

The initial stage of the alchemist’s journey is the stage of lead. This is represented by the bottommost step of the Mithraic Ladder. It’s also represented by the colour black. The transmutation of lead into tin is the transmutation of a black metal into a grey one.

In the Roman pantheon, the stage of lead was represented by Saturn, the god who devoured his own offspring. Madness and death are two of the key themes of this lowest stage, which represents the unimproved consciousness. Overcoming madness and death are two of the main ways that a protagonist can transmute lead into tin.

The primary orientation of the stage of lead is survival. The drive for survival naturally creates a hardened, brutal, mirthless sort of person. This is why lead is the lowest level. The survival stage is the same one that all of the other creatures on this planet are born into. The man of lead is, to a major extent, a wild animal still. He might be able to to speak but his frequency is still one of brutality.

Diligence is the primary virtue through which a character at the level of lead can transmute themselves into tin. Through repeated and dedicated application of will, a person can achieve something and thereby overcome the resentment that characterises the level of lead. This repeated application builds the belief that there is something worth working towards in this life. This might only be a small amount of positivity, but it can be enough to get off the bottom of the Mithraic Ladder.

The survival pressures in your story don’t have to come from without. The character of lead can struggle with their own self-destructive impulses. At the lowest level of the Mithraic Ladder, struggles against addiction, self-destruction or suicide are common. That the energies of death flow from the inside as well as the outside is one of the lessons of the level of tin.

It’s not until the survival pressures start to relax that a character can develop above this lowest of the seven stages. A character who starts to pass their survival challenges easily will soon start to become joyful. This transformation into joyousness is the same as transmuting one’s consciousness to the frequency of tin. The joylessness of pure survival is replaced with something higher.

The alchemical process of transmuting lead into tin is a process of enlarging. Hence, the stage of tin is represented by the larger-than-life Zeus. The process of becoming like tin can be represented by enlargement. A skinny, starving man of lead indulges in food and thereby becomes much bigger: so could an author portray this change in caricature.

If a character in your story is met with repeated survival challenges of a similar type, such that after overcoming enough challenges they start to develop a sense of mastery, then that sense of mastery ought to bring joy with it. Being the master of previously terrifying survival challenges ought to bring a sense of playful relief, the essence of the level of tin.

Such a character will also stop taking themselves so seriously. A character at the level of lead will snap and snarl if someone jokes with them, but one at the level of tin will join in with the joking. As joviality is the primary emotion of the character of the level of tin, an ability to banter is indicative of the successful transmution of lead into that soft, light grey metal.

One of the areas in which this transformation will be the most noticable will be social. People tend to avoid the men of lead, because their desperation and suffering is frightening and intimidating. But as a character of lead transmutes their frequency into that of tin, they will find themselves making more friends as they become more approachable.

Someone undergoing the transformation from sullenness into joyfulness can be said to have ‘brightened’. This will be apparent in their aura, not just their face. They will smile when they used to frown. Their gait will appear lighter. Brightening is the fundamental change when lead changes into tin. As tin is brighter than lead, characters of tin will be happier than characters of lead.

In order to brighten, the character has to see the value in joy. They have to learn, whether through their own realisation or simply through experience, that joy and the attainment of joy have inherent value. Through repetitively doing something they enjoy, a character can overcome the pain and trauma of the level of lead and to manifest the joviality of the level of tin through their actions.

The transmutation will be complete when the character can look back on their old self and see something lesser. When they realise that joviality represents a higher level of being than the saturnine wild beast of the level of lead.

Physically, the transmutation from lead into tin can be represented by getting fat. The man of lead is scrawny and lean because he deals with the everyday presence of starvation. The man of tin, by contrast, lives on the level of feasting and merriment. His body can represents that by becoming portly and ruddy-cheeked.

Environmentally, the typical place of the level of tin is the tavern. The journey from the wilderness to the tavern is the archetypal expression of the journey of transmuting spiritual lead into spiritual tin. The unrestrained joy of partying at a tavern is a typical expression of the frequency of the level of tin. The phrase “feast or famine” captures the energies of the levels of tin and lead.

An example of the transmutation of lead into tin would be Benno Furmann’s character Bodo in the film Der Krieger und die Kaiserin. Bodo begins the story traumatised, frightened, angry, and ends it joyous, relaxed and confident. Although tin is still a relatively low level, it’s a lot better place to be than lead is.

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The Basics Of The Alchemy Of Character Development

Westerners are used to thinking in material terms, and we take the same approach to writing fiction. We tend to think our of characters as primarily material beings, who are challenged by emotions that are themselves evolutionary adaptations to survival challenges. As such, the life of a fictional character is mostly about the neurotransmitters that flow through their brain.

The fundamental viewpoint promoted by this book, instead, is that of viewing one’s characters as primarily frequencies – namely, the frequency of their consciousness. The higher a character’s frequency of consciousness, the lighter their soul, and vice-versa.

In this book, it will be explained, a character’s frequency of consciousness is the most important thing about them. It is the driving force that impels them to take action. It is the fundamental explanatory force that makes sense of the character’s station of birth, his basic motivations, intentions and aspirations.

Herein it is assumed that the reader understands the truth of the phrase ‘turn lead into gold’: namely that this phrase does not refer to physical lead and physical gold, but rather to the transmution of the soul, from spiritual lead to spiritual gold. The true alchemist is not interested in mere material wealth, but in much subtler forms of wealth. This includes the treasures of the world beyond as well as the more sublime emotions here on Earth.

To make a truly interesting story, the main character’s frequency of consciousness has to change. This tends to make for a gratifying reader experience, as long as the reader can identify with that main character. By the end of a good story, the reader ought to have an appreciation for the development that protagonist has undergone to make them what they now are.

In the most typical character arc, a low frequency of consciousness is transmuted into a higher one. This is the typical heroic character arc beloved of stories going all the way back to The Epic Of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh begins his story as a low-frequency hedonist, and ends it as a high-frequency man of his people.

Countless tales follow this same pattern. The protagonist begins the story as a more-or-less normal person, and, through various trials and tribulations, they become something special – stronger, smarter, wiser, better than before. It’s what Joseph Campbell called the Hero’s Journey and it’s been known about since the oral traditions that predated literature.

This character arc is very common, however, so skillful authors like to throw some twists into the story. Sometimes the protagonist has to lose to make the story interesting. As such, the development of a character’s frequency throughout the course of a story doesn’t usually follow a linear upwards progression.

The basics of the alchemy of character development, as described in this book, are the basics of telling an interesting story. It’s all about alchemy – and hence this book is all about alchemy too. The logic is that the Hero’s Journey is primarily an alchemical journey, and that the joy the reader gets from a story primarily comes from the alchemy of character development, and the ups and downs of that development over the course of that story.

There are three main parts to this book.

The first explains the Mithraic Ladder, and its seven steps. The Mithraic Ladder is the axis along which alchemical development occurs. The bottommost step is lead, and the alchemist ascends through tin, iron, copper, silver and mercury to reach the top step, which is gold.

The second explains how a character can move up from one step to the one above. This is keeping in accordance with the principle that people like to read about main characters who overcome challenges and transform themselves while doing so.

The third explains how a character can move down from one step to the one below. This is in keeping with the principle that stories of linear progression are not very interesting, and so readers prefer stories in which the protagonist suffers setbacks, withdrawing temporarily so that they can rise again (or even descend further, in the case of tragedies).

The totality of this book is about how a writer can understand the Hero’s Journey from an alchemical perspective.

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