Between spagyric activity and hermetic art. Strindberg's “Inferno” and Blok's “Rose and cross”

This article compares the concepts of using alchemical symbolism in the novel “Inferno” by August Strindberg and in the drama “The Rose and the Cross” by Alexander Blok. Comprehensive approaches of the writers to a given topic revealed different code systems embodied in the text. Strindberg’s idea is comparable to a spagyric activity, while Blok’s - to a spiritual initiation. Both the novel and the drama are written based on the encryption of the mystical concept disclosed in the projection of alchemy. Variability of the initial system, occurring in different formal variants is reduced to a common symbolic method of text encoding. The system of symbols used by Strindberg leads directly to curt replacement of the designatum by the comparative object. In other words, spagyric activity (chemical experiments) became a comparative field for the character’s internal experiences. Unlike Strindberg, Blok introduces initial symbolic elements in pursuit of characters’ spiritual transformation, and through them - a change of the surrounding reality. Such approach is consistent with the concept of Vladimir Solov’yev.