In view of the astrological symbolism of these metals, that gold should be masculine, silver feminine, does not surprise us, because the idea of the masculinity of the sun and the femininity of the moon is a bit of phallicism that still remains with us.  It was by the marriage of gold and silver that very many alchemists considered that the magnum opus was to be achieved.  Writes BERNARD of TREVISAN:  “The subject of this admired Science [alchemy] is Sol and Luna, or rather Male and Female, the Male is hot and dry, the Female cold and moyst.”  The aim of the work, he tells us, is the extraction of the spirit of gold, which alone can enter into bodies and tinge them.  Both Sol and Luna are absolutely necessary, and “whoever . . .shall think that a Tincture can be made without these two Bodyes,. . . he proceedeth to the Practice like one that is blind."[1]

[1] BERNARD, Earl of TREVISAN:  A Treatise, etc., Op. cit. pp. 83 and 87.

KELLY has teaching to the same effect, the Mercury of the Philosophers being for him the menstruum or medium wherein the copulation of Gold with Silver is to be accomplished.  Mercury, in fact, seems to have been everything and to have been capable of effecting everything in the eyes of the alchemists.  Concerning gold and silver, KELLY writes:  “Only one metal, viz. gold, is absolutely perfect and mature.  Hence it is called the perfect male body. . .  Silver is less bounded by aqueous immaturity than the rest of the metals, though it may indeed be regarded as to a certain extent impure, still its water is already covered with the congealing vesture of its earth, and it thus tends to perfection.  This condition is the reason why silver is everywhere called by the Sages the perfect female body.”  And later he writes:  “In short, our whole Magistery consists in the union of the male and female, or active and passive, elements through the mediation of our metallic water and a proper degree of heat.  Now, the male and female are two metallic bodies, and this I will again prove by irrefragable quotations from the Sages.”  Some of the quotations will be given:  “Avicenna:  `Purify husband and wife separately, in order that they may unite more intimately; for if you do not purify them, they cannot love each other.  By conjunction of the two natures you get a clear and lucid nature, which, when it ascends, becomes bright and serviceable.’ . . .  Senior:  `I, the Sun, am hot and dry, and thou, the Moon, are cold and moist; when we are wedded together in a closed chamber, I will gently steal away thy soul.’ . . .  Rosinus:  `When the Sun, my brother, for the love of me (silver) pours his sperm (i.e. his solar fatness) into the chamber (i.e. my Lunar body), namely, when we become one in a strong and complete complexion and union, the child of our wedded love will be born.. . . `Rosary’:  `The ferment of the Sun is the sperm of the man, the ferment of the Moon, the