Yliaster or Iliaster, a term coined by
Paracelsus, refers to "prime matter, consisting of body and soul".
Paracelsus described the Iliaster as the "completely healed human being who has burned away all the dross of his lower being and is free to fly as the Phoenix."
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Alchemy
/ref> It is most likely a portmanteau of the Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
'' hyle'' (matter) and Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''astrum'' (star). To Paracelsus, the Iliaster represented the two basic compounds of the cosmos, matter representing "below", and the stars representing "above". Paracelsus says this of the Yliaster while describing how fossils are trapped in wood:
In this sense, the Yliaster is the same as the Prima Materia. It is the formless base of all matter which is the raw material for the alchemical Great Work.
References
Alchemical substances
Mythological substances
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