I’ve written about the Royal Way in Prague – the path that the procession to a coronation would take through the city of Prague. I’ve also noted the connections to alchemy, like the White Peacock, and how some of these symbols were hidden along the Royal Way as well.

After the Powder Tower, the statue of Mercury and the Black Madonna, continue walking along Celetna street to follow the alchemists’ trail. There is a relief of a white peacock on the facade of the building at number 10. The peacock is a little the worse for wear and the building needs a facelift but the image of the bird is large and clearly visible.

The peacock is well-known as a royal bird; in ancient times it was associated with the Greek goddess Hera. She was the one who gave the peacock’s tail its eyes.

Alchemists value the peacock for symbolism but not related to Greek legends. In alchemical terms, the peacock’s tail is respected for being multi-coloured. It is a known scientific fact that combining all the colours of the rainbow produces white light.

(This mixture of genuine scientific fact with fantasy is what gave credence to the suggestion that you could convert any base material into gold)

You can see a pattern emerging in the alchemist’s trail here. The Black Madonna represents the darkness; the alchemist’s initial state of ‘unknown’ or ‘impurity’. Alchemists call this nigredo. The next stage is a purification to become clean, or white. Alchemists call this albedo and it is the second stage of the search for the philosopher’s stone.

These two stages let an alchemist confront ‘the shadow within’ and purify himself. The duality of these two aspects of being human will be later tackled in the last stage of alchemy, rubedo.

The peacock symbolises we are on the right track and heading towards whiteness – but that we haven’t really got there yet …