Phosphorus

phosphorus and sulphur point to a quality of the soul of things, and that quality is warmth. Because of modern physics and chemistry, heat is now considered to be not a quality but an increase in the average distance between molecules

Sardello argues that phosphorus, as a substance of pure levity that bursts into fire, discloses the warmth-quality of ensouled things, a perception suppressed by mechanistic science’s reduction of heat to molecular motion.

Sardello, Robert, Facing the World with Soul: The Reimagination of Modern Life, 1992thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

technology must also harness magnetism. Magnetism is a natural phenomenon of the earth, connected with the poles. The earth’s magnetic field is so arranged that the majority of land mass lies to the north

In the same chapter where phosphorus is analysed, Sardello contextualises technology’s distortion of natural forces, providing the cosmological framework within which phosphorus’s soul-quality is opposed to mechanical imitation.

Sardello, Robert, Facing the World with Soul: The Reimagination of Modern Life, 1992supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

sulphur is a spiritual or psychic substance of universal import, of which nearly everything may be said that is said of Mercurius. Thus sulphur is the soul not only of metals but of all living things

Jung’s treatment of sulphur as the universal soul-substance of alchemy provides the immediate alchemical parallel through which phosphorus’s role as a levity-bearing, soul-disclosing mineral can be read within depth psychology.

Jung, Carl Gustav, Mysterium Coniunctionis: An Inquiry into the Separation and Synthesis of Psychic Opposites in Alchemy, 1955supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

cpWT-lVoe; ‘glowing, light, bright’; cpWT-[uw [v.] ‘to (en)lighten, brighten, reveal, instruct’; -lme; ‘enlightenment’

Beekes documents the Greek φωτ- root (light, shining, enlightenment) that underlies the compound φωσφόρος, anchoring phosphorus’s name within the semantic field of luminous revelation and psychic manifestation.

Beekes, Robert, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2010supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

PIE root *bheh2- ‘speak’ may be identical in origin with *bheh2- ‘to shine’ in Skt. bha-ti ‘to light, shine’

Beekes notes the potential etymological identity of the Indo-European roots for speaking and shining, a convergence that bears on the symbolic register in which phosphorus as light-bearer resonates with disclosure and revelation.

Beekes, Robert, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, 2010aside

Dig deeper with Sebastian →