ALCHEMY - MUTUS LIBER, OR SILENT BOOK - PLATE 2. The second plate in the series of 15 appropriately sets out the theme of division. Two angels hold a dew drop within which is an image of the sea-god Poseidon, on either side of which are images of the Sun and Moon. Dew (in Latin, Ros, which also means 'Rose') is symbol of the sacred liquid with which the alchemists of the Mutus work. This cosmic duality around the Dew is reflected below, in the image of a pair of kneeling humans - a man and a woman (the Sun and the Moon, on the earth plane), who marvel at an alchemical athanor. The pair seem to work in obscurity (this explains the heavy drapes behind them). The oven, or athanor, is of a three-fold nature, with three funnels. These levels symbolize the Salt, Mercury and Sulphur, which represent the three spritual centres, or impulses, of ordinary Mankind (Thinking, Feeling and Willing) and which represent the Matter of the Art: in other words, Man and Woman are the secret Matter of the alchemical process. The upper dew drop had seemed to drop from the Sun: the triangular top of the athanor seems to aspire upwards, in a return motion towards the Sun. This circulation is the secret process of the alchemical Art. The alchemical masterpiece, Mutus Liber (or Silent Book) first appeared in print during 1677 - probably brought into the light of day by the French alchemist, Jacob Saulat, as a book with 13 plates, which was later increased to one of 15 plates (as in the series available here). The book is almost without words, and such words as appear are rarely what they seem to be, and are certainly susceptible to more than one level of interpretation. The alchemical importance of the images resides in the subtle graphic symbolism. A clear exposition of this symbolism may be found in Adam McLean, A Commentary on the Mutus Liber, 1982.