Ash

The ash is what remains when the fire has gone out; according to one perspective, it represents what has been lost. It is a symbol of despair, sorrow, and regret, as expressed in the Bible (e.g., Job 42:6, "I am despised, and I repent in dust and ashes."). Ash and salt share the symbolism of bitterness - defeat and failure.

But the one is always connected to the other, and thus ash has been used by Christian monks, for example, to signify the resurrection of the dead or to consecrate a new church. This phenomenon can relate to the idea that ash is the memory of something that burned; it is what we should carry with us as something valuable but not seek to reignite. Cinderella could express this idea, as she lives in the ashes of her mother's burning love; it is an experience she cherishes and nurtures, not out of sentimentality or the desire to relight the flame, but as a link that enables her to transform from the "lowest" to the "highest."

Ash was highly valued by alchemists as the indestructible that survives fire; more specifically, it is what remains, or what stays below. They made a connection between the non-burnable substances ash, salt, and earth.

When the spirit is liberated through heat (calcinatio, sublimatio, etc.), ash remains; it was called Hermes' bird (avis Hermetis). The ash is the spirit in the enlightened body, the "glass body," the immortal ("that is to say, the Self," clarifies Edinger in Mysterium Lectures, p. 139); the glass pearl that is part of the ash is synonymous with salt. The white leafy ash was associated with the immaculate state of albedo and was referred to as "the crown of victory." This pure state gave the white ash a connection to pure water and, by some alchemists, to glass.

Ash is the ultimate reduction, the bare soul, the last truth, what remains when everything else has perished, Hillman (2026, p. 25) argues, citing the Tabula Chemica: "Burnt ash and the soul are the gold of the wise."

Ash is what remains after destruction, and the association that something will rise from it is close. It can thus symbolize rebirth, as in the myth of the Phoenix, for example.

Therefore, ash has a dual meaning, let’s say both negative and positive. "Do not despise the ash," say the alchemists, "for it is the crown of the heart." (Ibid.)"

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