But what is a symbol? My Tibetan teacher says that a symbol is like the skeleton of a human being, a structure onto which the flesh, nerves, arteries, veins, and so on, grow upon, and when we die, everything dissolves. The only thing that remains is our essence, the skeleton which is subtle in nature. In other words: our symbol. We cannot transport a tree or a forest with our bare hands but, yes, we can do so with a symbol. Symbols are like seeds that we can bring with us wherever we go, so with a dozen symbols an Initiate can carry a great amount of information with him. We cannot bring a whole liberary with us, but, with a few symbols in mind this becomes possible, because all the books it contains can be condensed into a handful of symbols. This is so true that alchemists can condense a concept till they reduce it to a simple phrase, to a tiny seed, or they can develop and enlargen that phrase until it embraces the whole of creation. If they want to, they can even create a forest from thin air! It is always the same formula you find everywhere in nature: solve et coagula. This is why alchemists exercise their powers mainly in these two directions. They condense and then they dilute, they crystallize and synthesize, then they introduce life and make it circulate and grow. If they want to see something in all its glory, in its simplest essence, they dilute it infinitely until it disappears, and it is “solve”. And if they want to make it reappear, then they condense it again and it is “coagula”. e face and the symbols which contain his essence. But what is a symbol? My Tibetan teacher says that a symbol is like the skeleton of a human being, a structure onto which the flesh, nerves, arteries, veins, etc, grew upon, and when we die everything dissolves. The only thing that remains is our essence: the skeleton which is subtle in nature. In other words: our symbol. Now let us try going a step deeper into this subject. We cannot transport a tree or a forest with our bare hands but, yes, we can do so with a symbol. Symbols are like seeds that we can bring with us wherever we go, so with a dozen symbols an Initiate can carry a great amount of information with him. We cannot bring a whole liberary with us, but with a few symbols in mind this becomes possible because all the books it contains can be condensed in just a few symbols. Alchemists can in fact condense a concept till they reduce it to a simple phrase, to a tiny seed. On the contrary, they can also develop that phrase until it embraces the whole of creation; they can even create a forest from thin air! It is always the same formula you find everywhere in nature: solve et coagula. This is why Wizards exercise their powers mainly in these two directions. They first condense and then they dilute, they crystallize and synthesize, then they introduce life and make it circulate and grow. If they want to see something in all its glory, in its purest essence, they dilute it infinitely until it disappears, and it is solve. And if they want to make it re-appear they condense it again, and it is coagula.