Caput Mortuum

The official Unicode name is “ALCHEMICAL SYMBOL FOR CAPUT MORTUUM” (U+1F74E). The sign was used, or preserves the tradition of signs used, for substances, materials, instruments, time, or operations in European alchemy and early chemistry. Form and usage could vary between authors, so it should be read in the context of a manuscript, recipe, and neighboring signs rather than as a universal modern chemical formula. Occult reading: beyond its laboratory meaning, alchemical tradition allows the sign to be read as a stage of the Great Work—inner purification, the union of opposites, and the spiritual transformation of the practitioner. Its precise correspondence follows the substance or operation named in this entry.