A figure with a single body and two heads, one male and one female, often standing on a dragon or a globe, holding measuring instruments or planetary symbols. This is the Rebis, one of the strangest and deepest images in alchemy. At first sight it may look like a monster; in reality it represents the result of patient work, the moment when two opposite principles have stopped fighting and become one thing.
The name
Rebis comes from the Latin res bina, «double thing». The name already says it all: it is a single reality that contains a duality within itself. Not two beings side by side, but one being that carries both polarities.
In the texts the Rebis also appears under other names: hermaphrodite, androgyne, son of the philosophers. The echo of Hermaphroditus, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite who in myth merges with the nymph Salmacis, is not accidental: Hermes is the patron of alchemy, and Aphrodite represents the force that unites.
Where it comes from
The Rebis is the fruit of the coniunctio, the union of King and Queen, Sun and Moon, sulphur and mercury. In the illustrated sequences of the Work the two principles are first separated, then purified, and finally united. What is born of their union is neither the one nor the other, but a new reality that preserves both.
In the Rosarium Philosophorum, the alchemical collection printed in 1550, the Rebis appears several times: in one of the best-known woodcuts it is crowned and winged, standing on a crescent moon. Another famous image, linked to the writings attributed to Basil Valentine, shows the Rebis standing on a fire-breathing dragon while holding a compass and a square.
The attributes of the Rebis
The objects accompanying the figure are not decorative.
| Attribute | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Two heads | opposite polarities preserved, not cancelled |
| One body | the unity achieved |
| Compass and square | spirit and matter, circle and square |
| Dragon underfoot | raw matter mastered and overcome |
| Wings | the capacity to rise, the volatile made stable |
| Crown | the royalty of completion |
The compass draws the circle, figure of heaven and spirit; the square measures the square, figure of earth and matter. The Rebis holds both, a sign that it has integrated the two dimensions.
What it represents in the Work
In the alchemical sequence the Rebis indicates an advanced stage. It is not the starting point but the result of long preparation. Many authors link it to the stone itself, or to its immediate precursor. It is matter that has overcome the original division and reached a stability that neither part, on its own, could have.
An inner reading
On the inner plane the Rebis speaks of integration. Every person carries opposite tendencies: activity and receptivity, reason and intuition, drive and patience. Often one is cultivated and the other neglected or feared. The Rebis suggests another way: not choosing one half and repressing the other, but allowing both to live together in a single, broader identity.
It is important to note that the image does not speak of gender or sexuality in a literal sense. Masculine and feminine are, in alchemical language, names for two cosmic principles, like Sun and Moon, hot and cold, fixed and volatile.
Why the image unsettles
The Rebis disturbs because it unites what we usually keep apart. But that very unease is part of its teaching. Alchemy does not promise an easy harmony: the illustrations that precede the Rebis show battles, deaths and putrefactions. Unity comes after conflict, not instead of conflict.
An exercise in contemplation
- Choose a pair of opposite qualities you recognise in yourself, for example firmness and gentleness.
- Write two short portraits: how each shows itself, when it prevails, when it is missing.
- Imagine a concrete situation in which both are present at the same time.
- Note what changes when neither has to exclude the other.
The exercise is not meant to eliminate tensions, but to learn to hold them together, as the Rebis does with the compass and the square.
In short
- Rebis means «double thing» and indicates the single being born of the union of opposites.
- It is the fruit of the coniunctio between King and Queen, Sun and Moon.
- Its attributes, such as compass and square or the dragon underfoot, indicate the integration of spirit and matter.
- Inwardly it invites you to hold your polarities together, after having passed through them.
