R – SIGILS – Alchemical Iconography

Dictionary of Occult – Hermetic and Alchemical Sigils

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RAIN WATER

Alc. SOMMERHOFF 1701 equates aqua pluvialis with ‘soft water’, and gives the sigils :

GESSNANN 1906

SCHNEIDER 1962

BERTHELOT 1895 records sigiis from the Greek tradition :

RAPHAEL

Mag. TRITHEMIUS 1503 records the mediaeval

for this Archangel who is within his system also one of the secundadeis or Intelligencies. BARRETT 1801 gives a variant form :

Tho mediaeval sigil recorded by SHEPHERD 1971

indicates that theoretically any of the sigils for the planet MERCURY may also be used to denote Raphael, who is variously called ‘the Angel of Mercury’ or ‘the Angel of Wednesday’ in popular occult texts.

See SPHERE OF MERCURY

RAUYIM

Demon – RAUYIM « demon of filth »

REALGAR

Alc. WORLIDGE 1651

CROLLIUS 1612

FRESNE 1698

VALENTINE 1671

SHELTON 17C

SIGNA 17C

SOMMERHOFF 1701

GESSMANN 1906

RECEIVER

Alc. The sigil is intended to denote a piece of alchemical apparatus, for which GESSMANN 1906 gives two forms :

SCHEFPERS 1775 contrasts the sigil for the recipiens

with that for the RETORT :

ALBERTUS 1974

RECIPE

Alc. ALCHEMICAL 17C

SOMMERHOFF 1701

GESSMANN 1906

SCHNEIDER 1962

RECTIFIED SPIRIT OF WINE

Alc. ALBERTUS 1974

RED ARSENIC

Alc. ALCHEMIC 1650

ALCHEMICAL 17C

SIGNA 17C

SHELTON 17C

RED DOLE

Alc. SIGNA 17C

RED IRON ORE

Alc GESSMANN 1906

RED LEAD See MINIUM

RED ORPIMENT

Alc. SOMMERHOFF 1701

GESSMANN 1906

SCHNEIDER 1962

RED PRECIPITATE OF MERCURY

Alc. GESSMANN 1906

RED SULPHUR

Alc. ALCHEMICAL 17C

RED SULPHURET OF ARSENIC

Alc. ALCHEMICAL 1650

GESSMANN 1906

REDUCTION

Alc. SOMMERHOFF 1701

RED VINEGAR

Alc. DIDEROT 1763

RED VITRIOL

Alc. DIDEROT 1763

RED WINE

Alc. DIDEROT 1763

REGULE OF ANTIMONY

Alc. DIDEROT 1763

REGULUS

Alc. WORDLIGE 1651

GESSMANN 1906

SCHNEIDER 1962 gives fcr Fegvlas antimonii medicinalis :

For the sigils usod to denote the fixed star commonly called Regulus, see the entry under COR LE0NIS. SOMMERHOFF 1701 gives a sigil which might well be taken as relating to the astrological usage, but it is more likely intended for the alchemical term :

REHAEL

Génie 39

vocale : réhael
évocation du 10° au 14°59′ de la balance,
domine les 8° taureau / 20° cancer / 2° balance / 14° sagittaire / 26° verseau
chaque jour durant 20′, 12h40′ aprés le lever du soleil.
Il règne sur le physique et les actes de ceux qui sont né du 4 au 8 octobre.

RELAH

Mag. sigil for spirit giver, by HEYD0N 1664 to represent the letter R in secret writing called the ‘Alphabet of Angels and Genii’ :

RENOVATIO METALLORUM

Alc. GESSMANN 1906

RESCH

Occ. The 20th letter of the Hebrew alphabet (see HEBRAIC SCRIPT) for which many derivative forms are given within the tradition of secret alphabets, notably those collected by BARTOLOZZI 1675 :

WIRTH 1927 equates Resell with the JUDGEMENT card of the Tarot pack, and gives the forms

as the graphic etymology for the letter, which he traces to the idea of ‘head’ of which it was in the Egyptian hieroglyphic the equivalent form.

RESINA

Alc. SIGNA 17C

SOMMERHOFF 1701

RETORT

Alc. WORLIDGE 1651

FRANCKLYN 1627

SIGNA 17C

SCHEFFERS 1775

DIDEROT 1763

CARRICHTERUS 19C

POISSON 1891

GESSMANN 1906

LUEDY 1928

RETROGRADE

Ast. All the recorded sigils for the retrograde motion of the planets appear to be based on the capital letter of the word.

IBN EZRA 1485

HOROSCOPE 15C

GIUNTINI 1583

WELLING 1735

SIBLY 1790

ZADKIEL 1835

WEMYSS 1933

DEUTSCHE 1951

REVERBERATING FIRE

Alc. GESSMANN 1906

REVERBERATING FURNACE

Alc. SOMMERHOFF 1701

REVERBERATIO

Alc. ALCHEMY 1650

SIGNA 17C

SOMMERHOFF 1701

GESSMANN 1906

REYIEL

Génie 29

vocale : réyael
évocation du 20° au 24°59′ du lion,
domine les 28° bélier / 10° cancer / 22° vierge / 4° sagittaire / 16° verseau
chaque jour durant 20′, 9h20′ aprés le lever du soleil.
Il règne sur le physique et les actes de ceux qui sont né du 14 au 18 aout.

RIND OF POMEGRANATE

Alc. DIDEROT 1763

RISING

Ast. CROSLAND 1962 records a Greek sigil :

ROCHEL

Génie 69

RAHAEL vocale: rohael
évocation du 10° au 14°59′ des poissons,
domine les 8° gémeaux / 20° lion / 2° scorpion / 14° capricorne / 26° poissons
chaque jour durant 20′, 22h40′ aprés le lever du soleil.
Il règne sur le physique et les actes de ceux qui sont né du 1er au 5 mars.

ROMAN VITRIOL

Alc. SOMMERHOFF 1701

See VITRIOL.

RONOVE

Demon – RONOVE « the knowledge staff »

ROOT

Alc. GESSMANN 1906

ALBERTUS 1974

BERTHELOT 1885 gives a sigil derived from the Greek alchemical tradition :

ROSE COLOUR

Alc. GESSMANN 1906

ROSICRUCIAN SCRIPT

Occ. One of the numerous sscret cyphers attached to the Rosiccucian school has been recorded by BLAVATSKY 1877 under the name of The Sovereign Princes ‘Rose Cross’ cypher :

Amorc Rosucrucian Script

ROSY CROSS

Occ. WIRTH 1927 gives the sigil

as the union of the Rose and the Cross, the prime sioil of the Rosicrucian stream, ‘the great mystery of occult generation’.

ROYAL ARCH CYPHER

Occ. A secret script, which exists in several variant forms, constructed around the disposition of the Roman alphabet within the spaces of a basic figure :

In the example script below, discussed by BLAVATSKY 1877, the alphabet has been placed within the basic figure in concurrent adjacent pairs, though there are other niethods of allocating the letters to determine different variations as letter equivalents. The script is called The Royal Arch :

See SECRET SCRIPTS

RU

Occ. Sigil derived by MASSEY 1883 from the Egyptian hieroglyph, and said to be ‘the mouth or uterus of birth’ :

BLAVATSKY 1888 gives this sigil and a variant

for ‘floor, gate, mouth, place of outlet’ and ‘the place of birth’ at which the sun rises, or is reborn. Both occultists see the Ru as the top circle of the ANKH

and thus related to the basic sigil for CHRIST. BLAVATSKY 1888 says that it is ‘the feminine type of the birth-place, representing the North’, and sees it continued in the Cypriote

and the Coptic Ro :

RUBEUS

Geo. One of the sixteen goomantic sigils :

A multitude of variants (stars-, dots, floral devices, etc.) is used to denote the same four-fold arrangement. AGRIPPA 1531 links the sigil with the element of Fire, the pi arret Mars and the zodiacal sign Gemini. The sigils are also sometimes used to symbolise the planet Mars, as for example in TRITHEMIUS 1503.

AGRIPPA 1531

RUBY

Mag. SIGNA 17C

RUNES

Occ. The Nordic runes consist of a group of loosely connected alphabets which were probably designed for magical purposes (the word perhaps being derived from the Gothic runa, ‘secret’, and cognate with New High German raunen, ‘to whisper’, one or two of which have been used in occult texts, and collected by occultists as examples of secret alphabets. An example from the 12th century is given in OCCULTA 12C, in the form of two separate alphabets

The letters for which there is no European equivalent are set out alongside, to the right. JENSEN 1970 makes a careful Study of the runes, from which he selects variant forms, of which the Common German Runes, set out below, are a good example : the two variant forms may be compared instructively with the lower group of 9th and 10th century Danish runes, also given by JENSEN 1970

The runes have names which are acrophonic, and the following have benn called, with a small degree of necessary adjustment, from the list given by JENSEN 1970 – a list which has agreement with that list given alongside the runes reproduced in the twelfth century version In OCCULTA 12C :