The Seba library treats Dye in 8 passages, across 4 authors (including Abraham, Lyndy, Marvin W. Meyer, Cicero, Marcus Tullius).
The reddening of the white matter is also frequently likened to staining with blood (see dye). Theophrastus compared the reddening of the slain, white Mercurius in its own blood to the dyeing of a white garment in *Tyrian purple
Abraham identifies dyeing—specifically the Tyrian purple staining of white cloth in blood—as the canonical alchemical image for the rubedo’s transformation of the whitened matter.
, A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, 1998thesis
The master went into the dye works of Levi, took seventy-two colored cloths, and threw them into a vat. He drew them out and they all were white. He said, ‘So the child of humankind has come as a dyer.’
The Gospel of Philip presents Jesus as a cosmic dyer whose vat unifies multiplicity into whiteness, inverting but structurally paralleling the alchemical tincture process.
, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus: The Definitive Collection of Mystical Gospels and Secret Books about Jesus of Nazareth, 2005thesis
The congelation is synonymous with the alchemical processes of fixing, freezing and dyeing. It is the fixation of the volatile spirit, the hardening of that which is soft, the bringing of the dissolved matter of the Stone in the alembic to the dry white stage
Abraham equates dyeing with congelation—the fixation and hardening of volatile spirit into white, formed matter—establishing dye as a technical synonym for a specific alchemical stage.
, A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, 1998thesis
in an Egyptian papyrus from the late third or early fourth century ad, known as the Stockholm Papyrus, the succession of operations applied to the dyeing of fabrics (washing, mordanting and colouring) is also applied to the transmutation of metals (see dye)
Abraham traces the alchemical use of dye to the Stockholm Papyrus, demonstrating that fabric-dyeing operations were the direct structural template for metallic transmutation.
, A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, 1998thesis
George Sandys wrote about the ‘invention’ of the purple dye of Tyre and its distillation in a ‘Limbeck’ or alembic. One of the most frequently occurring images symbolizing the attainment of the purple tincture is that of the king putting on the purple robe.
The Tyrian purple dye, produced in an alembic, becomes the dominant image of the achieved purple tincture and the king’s investiture with the red stone.
, A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, 1998supporting
his power, strength, and purple tincture, changes us imperfect men and sinners in body and soul, and is marvellous medicine for all our diseases
The purple tincture—associated with dyeing—is invoked as a Christological medicine that transforms the impure, linking dye symbolism to redemptive alchemical theology.
, A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery, 1998supporting
when its water is struck by oars it purples, and indeed a sort of dye and stain having come to the water’s . . .
Cicero records a classical observation of sea-water as a natural site of dyeing and staining, preserving the antique material grounding of the dye metaphor.
, De Natura Deorum (On the Nature of the Gods), -45supporting
A vivid blue hue is not a pigment, not a dye, but a reflection of light that bounces off the thin opaque covering of the black physical feather. The blue we see is not materially there, purely a reflection
Hillman distinguishes dye (material pigment) from structural colour, using the contrast to argue that certain psychic qualities, like blue, are phenomenal rather than substantial.
, Alchemical Psychology, 2010aside