Bull. Ind. Inst. Hist. Med. Vol. XXI pp. 61 to 64

THE TERM TRIA PRIMA OF PARACELSUSEXPLAINED AND JUSTIFIED

S. MAHDIHASSAN*

ABSTRACT

Cosmology has been formulated with four cosmic elements Water,Earth, Air and Heat (Fire). They are really the raw materials of creation.

As final products in man there is Body, Spirit. and Soul. As ino-qanic

substances they would be Salt, Mercury and Sulphur. But these as forms

of matter would be Solid, Liquid and Gas (potentially). Thus the Tria Prima

of Paracelsus is justifiable as representing the final or end products of creation.

When man tried to study hisenvironment he realized that he wason dry land but the surface of theearth could be divided as covered bywater and dry land, better called herethe earth. And of these two, watercovered the larger portion of thesurface of globe. As result waterand earth became two cosmicelements. Then it was establishedthat air was everywhere on the surfaceof the globe. Accordingly Air becamethe third cosmic element. Finally theheat of the sun raised the temperatureof every thing on earth, Hence Heatbecame the fourth cosmic element.Now to convey these facts theyresorted to symbolism, as a concisemethod of expression.

The result was the symbol ofcosmology, Water Air and Earth beingforms of matter were tangible them-selves but Heat being energy had tobe symbolized by a tangible entity,Fire then was selected as the symbolof heat. Thus resutted four cosmicelements as Water, Air, Earth and Fire,By their homogeneous and extensivenature they were like raw materialsof creation from which later on arosethe final end products of creation.These however never appeared in anysymbol of cosmology. The one whomissed this most was the alchemist,Paracelsus (1). He took man as themodel of creation, and man wasconstituted of three items, Body, Souland Spirit. These were the Tria

.SD 34-Block-A, N. Nazimabad, Karachi-33.

62

Prima, the three principal constituentsof man. On that basis there mustcorrespondingly be three constituentseven the final inorganic forms ofcreation. In this case the Tria Primawould be of generic nature applicableto any substance as creation. Hetook spirit and projected it as Mercury.This because Mercury like gold iseverlasting and spirit would also besuch. Then it is sublimable whichfurther allies it to spirit. Brieflyspirit = Mercury. Body is materialand has a definite form. Here comescommon salt which has a crystallineshape of its own. Above all salt, as,present in solution in sea waterwould be the largest single substanceas creation on this globe. Salt thenwas selected as one of the Tria Primaby Paracelsus. Finally was left soulwhich was to find a correspondingentity among the inorganic substa-nces when cosmology was consideredas hsepinq to formulation of TriaPrima, Water = Mercury, Earth = Salt,then were left Heat and Air as theother two cosmic elements. In them-selves specially heat is nontangible.It was now possible to representHeat by an entity which would bepotentially Heat. Sulphur appeared tobe a substance which is ignitable andburns without leaving any residue.

Bull. Ind. Inst. Hist, Med. Vol. XXI

On this account it was conceived asbeing potentially Heat. FurtherSulphur on burning becomes the gas,sulphur dioxide and as such sulphurwould also be considered as potentialgas hence potential air. Sulphur thensymbolized potential Heat and poten-tial Air. Although the idea of soulcould not suggest sulphur butcosmology did help in finding sulphuras representing Air and Heat. Wethen have the following correspondingentities.

Body = Earth = SaltSpirit = Water = MercurySoul = Air + Heat = Sulphur

A critical consideration will indi-cate that according to their physicalproperties Salt is a solid, Mercury isliquid, and Sulphur potentially gas, asexplained above. Thus the tria primadoes represent the three forms ofmatter as solid, liquid and potentiallygas.

REFERENCE:

Mahdihassan, S. (1989). The ArabianOrigin of the term Alcool and TriaPrima used by Paracelsus.

SAT in Islamic world, Islamabad,Vol. 7, NO.2. Pp. 129-136.

The Term Tria Prima of Paracelsus-Mahdihassan 63

1. Symbol of Existence four cosmic efements as raw material of creation.and three entities as the final products. These as Salt = Solid,Mercury = liquid and Sulphur =Air + Heat (potentially) AE = A ether.

64 Bull. Ind. Inst. Hist. Med. Vol. XXI

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