ALCHEMY - TWELVE KEYS - SULPHUR - SALT The Fifth Key of Basil Valentine, from Practica cum Duodecim Clavibus in the Tripus Aureus of Michael Maier, 1618. Undoubtedly, t his is the most complex of the engravings in this series of Keys, and it is not possible, here, to explore the symbolism fully. The crowned lion standing beneath the brilliant Sun is symbol of the Sulphur of the Wise (this is Sulphur under control, tempered by wisdom - the redeemed Will). Issuing from the face - actually, from the eyes and mouth - of the Venus figure (who carries seven five-petalled flowers, symbol of the planets) is a curious dark receptacle, which some alchemists identify with the Salt of Christ, which is called Crystal, or Crysal, after the Greek Christou halas (Salt of Christ). This is the Salt of the Wise - the redeemed power of thinking, or visualization (hence the link with the head and eyes, as though the salt were an extension of vision). The identity of Basil Valentine is not known, though he tells us in one of his works that he comes from the Rhineland, and spent some of his youth in England and Belgium. He was a Benedictine monk in the monastery of St. Peter at Erfurt - some records refer to him being in that monastery in 1413. His name is said to be a play on the Greek Basileus (King) and the Latin Valens (Powerful), which is in turn a play on one of the alchemical names for the Lapis, or Stone of the Philosophers, which is the powerful stone of kings.