Rebis design 2.0/2.5 ??? (WIP) (Patreon)

made alternate versions, probably gonna go with the first one.

Continue reading if you want info about Rebis or this whole design/read my ramblings about alchemy ahah-

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'Rebis' is an allegory used in alchemy to sometimes refer to the Magnum Opus (the great work) or the Philosphers stone (which is on their upper chest in my design, there's a small ouroboros snake around it). Rebis is visualised as a divine hermaphrodite with two heads, the male head corresponding to the sun and the female head corresponding to the moon (shown pretty obviously in the design).

'Rebis' is also associated with the marriage of the Red King and the White Queen, often appearing as the child of the two. The King and Queen are often shown with a white bird between the two that is holding a rose (they themselves also hold roses usually. You can see the bird on the badge on their chest in my design).

Red King and White Queen are mostly an allegory for 'two halves/opposites creating unity/wholeness' or something like that. It can also represent the chemical reaction between mercury (female) and sulphur (male).

'Rebis' also sometimes represents 'filius philosophorum' (this can be their full name haha) which is latin for 'Philospher's child'. Other names for it are filius sapientiae ("child of wisdom"), infans noster ("our child"), infans solaris ("sun child"), infans lunaris ("moon child"), and infans solaris lunaris ("sun moon child"). 

Now, the Magnum Opus - the Magnum Opus, in alchemy, is used to describe the work/research to create the philospher's stone. The philospher's stone is said to turn any material into gold, but more importantly it can give immortality. The Magnum Opus has four stages - 

 nigredo, - the blackening or melanosis
albedo,  - the whitening or leucosis
citrinitas,  - the yellowing or xanthosis
rubedo, - the reddening, purpling, or iosis

(i kinda tried to inject those four colours in order in one of the design variations)

(maybe i can give it like one of those military badges (those strips of colours) and reference the process like that,,,)

(GOTTA GET ALL THE REFERENCES, IDK WHY)

You know, alchemy is just a branch of an entire topic called 'natural philosophy', which is a term we don't use as much anymore because these days we just call it, well , 'science'. 

And I find that kind of fascinating.

Anyways so the lore I kinda have so far is Rebis is a product of the Magnum Opus and is fuelled by the Philospher's Stone attached to their chest. They're a warrior/guardian of.... SOMETHING .... secret knowledge to immortality or godhood or something. They were created by these three Gods that I'll probably reveal later (I drew them for an art assignment haha).... might change stuff later but this is what ive got now

if you made it to the bottom of this, ayyyyyy nice see you on the alchemy quiz that will totally happen cuz all of this is just so relevant isnt it