ALCHEMY - TWELVE KEYS - DEATH - SKELETON - CANDLE The Fourth Key of Basil Valentine, from Practica cum Duodecim Clavibus in the Tripus Aureus of Michael Maier, 1618. In alchemy (as in the Tarot cards, related in some respects to the alchemical symbolism) the image of Death is not meant to represent the death process - it is, rather, the process of Dissolution, by means of which matter is purified, to the benefit of Spirit. In this respect, the simple image of the burning candle is symbolic of this process of purification. The dead tree represents Death that produces no fission, no offshoot of light (as does the candle) - the tree (as symbol of man, or Man's spine, with the roots the brain) is a convenient symbol of the dead body, of the physical dissolution of things. The spirit is still inherent in the leafy tree growing alongside the church. We note that the skeleton, or Death, is standing upright of its own volition, and must therefore have a life of its own. The identity of Basil Valentine is not known, though he tells us in one of his works that he comes from the Rhineland, and spent some of his youth in England and Belgium. He was a Benedictine monk in the monastery of St. Peter at Erfurt - some records refer to him being in that monastery in 1413. His name is said to be a play on the Greek Basileus (King) and the Latin Valens (Powerful), which is in turn a play on one of the alchemical names for the Lapis, or Stone of the Philosophers, which is the powerful stone of kings.