ALCHEMY: The science by aid of which the chemical philosophers of
medieval times attempted to transmute the baser metals into gold or
silver. There is considerable divergence of opinion as to the etymology
of the word, but it would seem to be derived from the Arabic al=the, and
kimya=chemistry, which in turn derives from the late Greek
chemica=chemistry, from chumeia=a mingling, or cheein, `to pour out` or
`mix', Aryan root ghu, to pour, whence the word `gush'. Mr. A. Wallis
Budge in his "Egyptian Magic", however, states that it is possible that
it may be derived from the Egyptian word khemeia, that is to say 'the
preparation of the black ore', or `powder', which was regarded as the
active principle in the transmutation of metals. To this name the Arabs
affixed the article `al', thus giving al-khemeia, or alchemy.
HISTORY OF ALCHEMY: From an early period the Egyptians possessed the
reputation of being skillful workers in metals and, according to Greek
writers, they were conversant with their transmutation, employing
quicksilver in the process of separating gold and silver from the native
matrix. The resulting oxide was supposed to possess marvelous powers,
and it was thought that there resided within in the individualities of
the various metals, that in it their various substances were
incorporated. This black powder was mystically identified with the
underworld form of the god Osiris, and consequently was credited with
magical properties. Thus there grew up in Egypt the belief that
magical powers existed in fluxes and alloys. Probably such a belief
existed throughout Europe in connection with the bronze-working castes
of its several races. Its was probably in the Byzantium of the fourth
century, however, that alchemical science received embryonic form.
There is little doubt that Egyptian tradition, filtering through
Alexandrian Hellenic sources was the foundation upon which the infant
science was built, and this is borne out by the circumstance that the
art was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and supposed to be contained
in its entirety in his works.
The Arabs, after their conquest of Egypt in the seventh century,
carried on the researches of the Alexandrian school, and through their
instrumentality the art was brought to Morocco and thus in the eighth
century to Spain, where it flourished exceedingly. Indeed, Spain from
the ninth to the eleventh century became the repository of alchemic
science, and the colleges of Seville, Cordova and Granada were the
centers from which this science radiated throughout Europe.
The first practical alchemist may be said to have been the Arbian
Geber, who flourished 720-750. From his "Summa Perfectionis", we may be
justified in assuming that alchemical science was already matured in his
day, and that he drew his inspirations from a still older unbroken line
of adepts. He was followed by Avicenna, Mesna and Rhasis, and in France
by Alain of Lisle, Arnold de Villanova and Jean de Meung the troubadour;
in England by Roger Bacon and in Spain itself by Raymond Lully. Later,
in French alchemy the most illustrious names are those of Flamel (b. ca.
1330), and Bernard Trevisan (b. ca. 1460) after which the center of of
interest changes to Germany and in some measure to England, in which
countries Paracelsus, Khunrath (ca. 1550), Maier (ca. 1568), Norton,
Dalton, Charnock, and Fludd kept the alchemical flame burning brightly.
It is surprising how little alteration we find throughout the period
between the seventh and the seventeenth centuries, the heyday of
alchemy, in the theory and practice of the art. The same sentiments and
processes are found expressed in the later alchemical authorities as in
the earliest, and a wonderful unanimity as regards the basic canons of
the great art is evinced by the hermetic students of the time. On the
introduction of chemistry as a practical art, alchemical science fell
into desuetude and disrepute, owing chiefly to the number of charlatans
practicing it, and by the beginning of the eighteenth century, as a
school, it may be said to have become defunct. Here and there, however,
a solitary student of the art lingered, and in the department of this
article "Modern Alchemy" will demonstrate that the science has to a
grate extent revived during modern times, although it has never been
quite extinct.
THE QUESTS OF ALCHEMY: The grand objects of alchemy were (1) the
discovery of a process by which the baser metals might be transmuted
into gold or silver; (2) the discovery of an elixir by which life might
be prolonged indefinitely; and there may be added (3), the manufacture
of and artificial process of human life. (for the latter see Homunculus)
THE THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF ALCHEMY: The first objects were to be
achieved as follows: The transmutation of metals was to be accomplished
by a powder, stone or exilir often called the Philosopher`s Stone, the
application of which would effect the transmutation of the baser metals
into gold or silver, depending upon the length of time of its
application. Basing their conclusions on a profound examination of
natural processes and research into the secrets of nature, the
alchemists arrived at the axiom that nature was divided philosophically
into four principal regions, the dry, the moist, the warm, the cold,
whence all that exists must be derived. Nature is also divisible into
the male and the female. She is the divine breath, the central fire,
invisible yet ever active, and is typified by sulphur, which is the
mercury of the sages, which slowly fructifies under the genial warmth of
nature. The alchemist must be ingenuous, of a truthful disposition, and
gifted with patience and prudence, following nature in every alchemical
performance. He must recollect that like draws to like, and must know
how to obtain the seed of metals, which is produced by the four elements
through the will of the Supreme Being and the Imagination of Nature. We
are told the the original matter of metals is double in its essence,
being a dry heat combined with a warm moisture, and that air is water
coagulated by fir, capable of producing a universal dissolvent. These
terms the neophyte must be cautious of interpreting in their literal
sense. Great confusion exists in alchemical nomenclature, and the
gibberish employed by the scores of charlatans who in later times
pretended to a knowledge of alchemical matters did not tend to make
things any more clear. The beginner must also acquire a thorough
knowledge of the manner in which metals grow in the bowels of the earth.
These are engendered by sulphur, which is male, and mercury, which is
female, and the crux of alchemy is to obtain their seed - a process
which the alchemist philosophers have not described with any degree of
clarity.
The physical theory of transmutation is based on the composite
character of metals, and on the existence of a substance which, applied
to matter, exalts and perfects it. This, Eugenius Philalethes and
others call 'The Light'. The elements of all metals is similar,
differing only in purity and proportion. The entire trend of the
metallic kingdom is towards the natural manufacture of gold, and the
production of the baser metals is only accidental as the result of an
unfavorable environment. The Philosopher's Stone is the combination of
the male and female seeds which beget gold. The composition of these is
so veiled by symbolism as to make their identification a matter of
impossibility. Waite, summarizing the alchemical process once the
secret of the stone is unveiled, says: "Given the matter of the stone
and also the necessary vessel, the process which must be then undertaken
to accomplish the `magnum opus' are described with moderate perpicuity.
There is the calcination or purgation of the stone, in which kind is
worked with kind for the space of a philosophical year. There is
dissolution which prepares the way for congelation, and which is
performed during the black state of the mysterious matter. It is
accomplished by water which does not wet the hand. There is the
separation of the subtle and the gross, which is to be performed by
means of heat. In the conjunction which follows, the elements are duly
and scrupulously combined. Putrefaction afterwards takes place.
`Without which pole no seed may multiply.'
"Then, in the subsequent congelation the white colour appears, which
is one of the signs of success. It becomes more pronounced in cibation.
In sublimation the body is spiritualised, the spirit made corporeal,
and again a more glittering whiteness is apparent. Fermentation
afterwards fixes together the alchemical earth and water, and causes the
mystic medicines to flow like wax. The matter is then augmented with
the alchemical spirit of life, and the exaltation of the philosophic
earth is accomplished by the natural rectification of its elements.
When these processes have been successfully completed, the mystic stone
will have passed through the chief stages characterized by different
colours, black, white and red, after which it is capable of infinite
multication, and when projected on mercury, it will absolutely transmute
it, the resulting gold bearing every test. The base metals made use of
must be purified to insure the success of the operation. The process
for the manufacture of silver is essentially similar, but the resources
of the matter are not carried to so high a degree.
"According to the "Commentary on the Ancient War of the Knights" the
transmutations performed by the perfect stone are so absolute that no
trace remains of the original metal. It cannot, however, destroy gold,
nor exalt it into a more perfect metallic substance; it, therefore,
transmutes it into a medicine a thousand times superior to any virtues
which can be extracted from its vulgar state. This medicine becomes a
most potent agent in the exaltation of base metals."
There are not wanting authorities who deny that the transmutations of
metals was the grand object of alchemy, and who infer from the
alchemistical writings that the end of the art was the spiritual
regeneration of man. Mrs. Atwood, author of "A Suggestive Inquiry into
the Hermetic Mystery", and an American writer named Hitchcock are
purhaps the chief protagonists of the belief the by spiritual processes
akin to those of the chemical process of alchemy, the soul of man may be
purified and exalted. But both commit the radical error of stating the
the alchemical writers did not aver that the transmutation of base metal
into gold was their grand end. None of the passages they quote, is
inconsistent with the physical object of alchemy, and in a work, "The
Marrow of Alchemy", stated to be by Eugenius Philaletes, it is laid down
that the real quest is for gold. It is constantly impressed upon the
reader, however, in the perusal of esteemed alchemical works, that only
those who are instructed by God can achieve the grand secret. Others,
again, state that a tyro may possibly stumble upon it, but that unless
he is guided by an adept he has small chance of achieving the grand
arcanum. It will be obvious to the tyro, however, that nothing can ever
be achieved by trusting to the allegories of the adepts or the many
charlatans who crowded the ranks of the art. Gold may be made, or it
may not, but the truth or fallacy of the alchemical method lies with
modern chemistry. The transcendental view of alchemy, however, is
rapidly gaining ground, and probably originated in the comprehensive
nature of Hermetic theory and the consciousness in the alchemical mind
that what might with success be applied to nature could also be applied
to man with similar results. Says Mr. Waite, "The gold of the
philosopher is not a metal, on the other hand, man is a being who
possesses within himself the seeds of a perfection which he has never
realized, and that he therefore corresponds to those metals which the
Hermetic theory supposes to be capable of developing the latent
possibilities in the subject man." At the same time, it must be
admitted that the cryptic character of alchemical language was probably
occasioned by a fear on the part of the alchemical mystic that he might
lay himself open through his magical opinions to the rigors of the law.
RECORDS OF ACTUAL TRANSMUTATIONS: Several records of alleged
transmutations of base metal into gold are in existence. These were
achieved by Nicholas Flamel, Van Helmont, Martini, Richthausen, and
Sethon. For a detailed account of the methods employed the reader is
referred to several articles on these hermetists. In nearly every case
the transmuting element was a mysterious powder or the "Philosopher's
Stone".
MODERN ALCHEMY That alchemy has been studied in modern times there
can be no doubt. M. figuier in his "L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes",
dealing with the subject of modern alchemy, as expressed by the
initiates of the first half of the nineteenth century, states that many
French alchemists of his time regarded the discoveries of modern science
as merely so many evidences of the truth of the doctrines they embraced.
Throughout Europe, he says, the positive alchemical doctrine had many
adherents at the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the
nineteenth. Thus a "vast association of alchemists", founded in
Westphalia in 1790, continued to flourish in the year 1819, under the
name of the "Hermetic Society". In 1837, an alchemist of Thuringia
presented to the Societe Industrielle of Weimar a tincture which he
averred would effect metallic transmutation. About the same time
several French journals announced a public course of lectures on
hermetic philosophy by a professor of the University of Munich. He
further states that many Honoverian and Bavarian families pursued in
common the search for the grand arcanum. Paris, however, was regarded
as the alchemical Mecca. There dwelt many theoretical alchemists and
"empirical adepts". The first pursued and arcanum through the medium of
books, the other engaged in practical efforts to effect transmutation.
M. Figuier states that in the forties of the last century he
frequented the laboratory of a certain Monsieur L., which was the
rendezvous of the alchemists in Paris. When Monsieur L`s pupils left
the laboratory for the day, the modern adepts dropped in one by one, and
Figuier relates how deeply impressed he was by the appearance and
costumes of these strange men. In the daytime, he frequently
encountered them in the public libraries, buried in gigantic folios, and
in the evening they might be seen pacing the solitary bridges with eyes
fixed in vague contemplation upon the first pale stars of night. A long
cloak usually covered the meager limbs, and their untrimmed beards and
matted locks lent them a wild appearance. They walked with a solemn and
measured gait, and used the figures of speech employed by the medieval
illumines. Their _expression was generally a mixture of the most ardent
hope and fixed despair. Among the adepts who sought the laboratory of
Monsieur L., Figuier remarked especially a young man, in whose habits
and language he could nothing in common with those of his strange
companions. He confounded the wisdom of the alchemical adept with the
tenets of the modern scientist in the most singular fashion, and meeting
him one day at the gate of the Observatory, M. Figuier renewed the
subject of their last discussion, deploring that " a man of his gifts
could pursue the semblance of a chimera." Without replying, the young
adept led him into the Observatory garden, and proceeded to reveal to
him the mysteries of modern alchemical science.
The young man proceeded to fix a limit to the researches of the modern
alchemists. Gold, he said, according to the ancient authors, as three
distinct properties: (1) that of resolving the baser metals into itself,
and interchanging and metamorphosing all metals into one another; (2)
the curing of afflictions and the prolongation of life; (3), as a
'spiritus mundi' to bring mankind into rapport with the supermundane
spheres. Modern alchemists, he continued, reject the greater part of
these ideas, especially those connected with spiritual contact. The
object of modern alchemy might be reduced to the search for a substance
having the power to transform and transmute all other substances into
one another - in short, to discover that medium so well known to the
alchemists of old and lost to us. This was a perfectly feasible
proposition. In the four principal substances of oxygen, hydrogen,
carbon, and azote, we have the tetractus of Pythagoras and the tetragram
of the Chaldeans and Egyptians. All the sixty elements are referable to
these original four. The ancient alchemical theory established the fact
that all the metals are the same in their composition, that all are
formed from sulphur and mercury, and that the difference between them is
according to the proportion of these substances in their composition.
Further, all the products of minerals present in their composition
complete identity with those substances most opposed to them. Thus
fulminating acid contains precisely the same quantity of carbon, oxygen,
and azote as cyanic acid, and "cyanhydric" acid does not differ from
formate ammoniac. This new property of matter is known as "isomerism".
M. Figuier's friend then proceeds to quote support of his thesis and
operations and experiments of M. Dumas, a celebrated French savant, as
is well known to thous of Prout, and other English chemists of standing.
Passing to consider the possibility of isomerism in elementary as well
as in compound substances, the points out to M. Figuier that id the
theory of isomerism can apply to such bodies, the transmutation of
metals ceases to be a wild, unpractical dream, and becomes a scientific
possibility, the transformation being brought about by a molecular
rearrangement. Isomerism can be established in the case of compound
substances by chemical analysis. showing the identity of their
constituent parts. In the case of metals it can be proved by the
comparison of the properties of isometric bodies with the properties of
metals, in order to discover whether they have any common
characteristics. Such experiments, he continued, had been conducted by
M. Dumas, with the result the isometric substances were to be found to
have equal equivalents, or equivalents which were exact multiples of one
another. This characteristic is also a feature of metals. Gold and
osmium have identical equivalents, as have platinum and iridium. The
equivalent of cobalt is almost the same as that of nickel, and the
semi-equivalent of tin is equal to the equivalent of the two preceding
metals.
M. Dumas. speaking before the British Association, had shown that when
three simple bodies displayed great analogies in their properties, such
as chlorine, bromide, and iodine, barium, strontium, and calcium, the
chemical equivalent of the intermediate body is represented by the
arithmetical mean between the equivalents of the other two. Such a
statement well showed the isomerism of elementary substances, and proved
that metals, however dissimilar in outward appearance, were composed of
the same matter differently arranged and proportioned. This theory
successfully demolishes the difficulties in the way of transmutation.
Again, Dr. Prout says that the chemical equivalents of nearly all
elemental substances are the multiples of one among them. Thus, if the
equivalent of hydrogen be taken for the unit, the equivalent of every
other substance will be an exact multiple of it - carbon will be
represented by six, axote by fourteen, oxygen by sixteen, zink by
thirty-two. But, pointed out M. Figuier's friend, if the molecular
masses in compound substances have so simple a connection, does it not
go to prove the all natural bodies are formed of one principle,
differently arranged and condensed to produce all known compounds?
If transmutation is thus theoretically possible, it only remains to
show by practical experiment that it is strictly in accordance with
chemical laws, and by no means inclines to the supernatural. At this
juncture the young alchemist proceeded to liken the action of the
Philosopher`s Stone on metals to that of a ferment on organic matter.
When metals are melted and brought to red heat, a molecular change may
be produced analogous to fermentation. Just as sugar, under the
influence of a ferment, may be changed into lactic acid without altering
its constituents, so metals can alter their character under the
influence of the Philosopher`s Stone. The explanation of the latter
case is no more difficult than that of the former. The ferment does not
take any part in the chemical changes it brings about, and no
satisfactory explanation of its effects can be found either in the laws
of affinity or in the forces of electricity, light, or heat. As with
the ferment, the required quantity of the Philosopher`s Stone is
infinitesimal. Medicine, philosophy, every modern science was at one
time a source of such errors and extravagances as are associated with
medieval alchemy, but they are not therefore neglected and despised.
Wherefore, then, should we be blind tot he scientific nature of
transmutation?
One of the foundations of alchemical theories was that minerals grew
and developed in the earth, like organic things. It was always the aim
of nature to produce gold, the most precious metal, but when
circumstances were not favorable the baser metals resulted. The desire
of the old alchemists was to surprise nature`s secrets, and thus attain
the ability to do in a short period what nature takes years to
accomplish. Nevertheless, the medieval alchemists appreciated the value
of time in their experiments as modern alchemists never do. M.
Figuier`s friend urged him not to condemn these exponents of the
hermetic philosophy for their metaphysical tendencies, for, he said,
there are facts in our sciences that can only be explained in that
light. If, for instance, copper be placed in air or water, there will
be no result, but if a touch of some acid be added, it will oxidize.
The explanation is that "the acid provokes oxidation of the metal
because it has an affinity for the oxide which tends to form." - a
material fact most metaphysical in its production, and only explicable
thereby.
He concluded his argument with an appeal for tolerance towards the
medieval alchemists, whose work is underrated because it is not properly
understood.
LITERATURE:
Atwood, A Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mastery, 1850
Hitchcock, Remarks on Alchemy and the Alchemists, Boston, 1857
Waite, Lives of the Alchemystical Philosophers, London, 1888
" The Occult Sciences, London, 1891
Bacon, Mirror of Alchemy, 1597
S. le Doux, Dictionnaire Hermetique, 1695
Langlet de fresnoy, Histoire de la Philosophie Hermetique, 1792
" " Theatrum Chemicum, 1662
Valentine, Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, 1656
Redgrove, Alchemy Ancient and Modern
Figuier, L'Alchimie et les Alchimistes, Paris, 1857
I am typing this treatise in from 'In Pursuit of Gold' by
'lapidus' (Neville Spearman Limited, 112 Whitfield Street,
London W1P 6DP, ISBN 0 85435 043 8), without permission.
This treatise describes the entire process of preparing the
philosopher's stone. There are three seperate operations
described here: the preperation of the 'secret fire' (the
catalyst or solvent which is used throughout the whole work,
without which nothing can be achieved, but which is seldom if
ever mentioned in any alchemical treatise), the preperation
of 'mercury' (a metallic vapor made from antimony and iron,
said to resemble vulgar mercury (Hg) in appearance, necessary
in the preparation of the stone) and the preperation of the
stone itself.
These operations are not presented in sequence. The reader will
note that the language is allusive and recondite, that several
names are used to refer to the same thing and that one name is
used to refer to several things. This is, however, an exceptionally
clear alchemical text.
Artephius is said to have written this in the 12th century. I don't
know (and lapidus doesn't say) who translated it (presumably from
the latin).
comments in [square brackets] are my own; typos are mine, and I have
americanized spellings (color for color etc).everything else has been
left as I found it, including the idiosyncratic punctuation.
__
The Secret Book
Artephius
(1) Antimony is a mineral participating of saturnine parts, and has
in all respects the nature thereof. This saturnine antimony agrees with
sol, and contains in itself argent vive, in which no metal is swallowed
up, except gold, and gold is truly swallowed up by this antimonial argent
vive. Without this argent vive no metal whatsoever can be whitened; it
whitens laton, i.e. gold; reduceth a perfect body into its prima materia,
or first matter, viz. into sulphur and argent vive, of a white color, and
outshining a looking glass. It dissolves, I say the perfect body, which is
so in its own nature; for this water is friendly and agreeable with the
metals, whitening sol, because it contains in itself white or pure argent
vive.
(2) And from both these you may draw a great arcanum, viz. a water of
saturnine antimony, mercurial and white; to the end that it may whiten sol,
not burning, but dissolving, and afterwards congealing to the consistence or
likeness of white cream. Therefore, saith the philosopher, this water makes
the body to be volatile; because after it has dissolved in it, and
infrigidated, it ascends above and swims upon the surface of the water.
Take, saith he, crude leaf gold, or calcined with mercury, and put it into
our vinegre, made of saturnine antimony, mercurial, and sal ammoniac, in
a broad glass vessel, and four inches high or more; put it into a gentle
heat, and in a short time you will see elevated a liquor, as it were oil
swimming atop, much like a scum. Gather this with a spoon or feather
dipping it in; and in doing so often times a day until nothing more arises;
evaporate the water with a gentle heat, i.e., the superfluous humidity of
the vinegre, and there will remain the quintessence, potestates or powers
of gold in the form of a white oil incombustible. In this oil the philosophers
have placed their greatest secrets; it is exceeding sweet, and of great virtue
for easing the pains of wounds.
(3) The whole, then, of this antimonial secret is, that we know how by it
to extract or draw forth argent vive, out of the body of Magnesia, not
burning, and this is antimony, and a mercurial sublimate. That is, you must
extract a living and incombustible water, and then congeal, or coagulate it
with the perfect body of sol, i.e. fine gold, without alloy; which is done
by dissolving it into a nature [sic? mature?] white substance of the
consistency of cream, and made thoroughly white. But first this sol by
putrefaction and resolution in this water, loseth all its light and
brightness, and will grow dark and black; afterwards it will ascend above
the water, and by little and little will swim upon it, in a substance of a
white color. And this is the whitening of red laton to sublimate it
philosophically, and to reduce it into its first matter; viz. into a white
incombustible sulphur, and into a fixed argent vive. Thus the perfect body
of sol, resumeth life in this water; it is revived, inspired, grows, and is
multiplied in its kind, as all other things are. For in this water, it so
happens, that the body compounded of two bodies, viz. sol and luna, is
puffed up, swells, putrefies, is raised up, and does increase by the
receiving from the vegetable and animated nature and substance.
(4) Our water also, or vinegar aforesaid, is the vinegar of the mountains,
i.e. of sol and luna; and therefore it is mixed with gold and silver, and
sticks close to them perpetually; and the body receiveth from this water a
white tincture, and shines with inestimable brightness. Who so knows how to
convert, or change the body into a medicinal white gold, may easily by the
same white gold change all imperfect metals into the best or finest silver.
And this white gold is called by the philosophers "luna alba philosophorum,
argentum vivum album fixum, aurum alchymiae, and fumus albus" [white phil-
osophical silver, white fixed mercury, alchemical gold and white (some-
thing)]: and therefore without this our antimonial vinegar, the aurum
album of the philosophers cannot be made. And because in our vinegar
there is a double substance of argentum vivum, the one from antimony, and
the other from mercury sublimated, it does give a double weight and
substance of fixed argent vive, and also augments therein the native
color, weight, substance and tincture thereof.
(5) Our dissolving water therefore carries with it a great tincture,
and a great melting or dissolving; because that when it feels the vulgar
fire, if there be in it the pure and fine bodies of sol or luna, it
immediately melts them, and converts them into its white substance such
s itself is, and gives to the body color, weight, and tincture. In it also
is a powder of liquefying or melting all things that can be
melted or dissolved; it is a water ponderous, viscous, precious, and worthy
to be esteemed, resolving all crude bodies into their prima materia, or
first matter, viz. earth and a viscous powder; that is into sulphur,
and argentum vivum. If therefore you put into this water, leaves, filings,
or calx of any metal, and set it in a gentle heat for a time, the whole will
be dissolved, and converted into a viscous water, or white oil as afore-
said. Thus it mollifies the body, and prepares for liquefaction; yea, it
makes all things fusible, viz. stones and metals, and after gives them
spirit and life. And it dissolves all things with an admirable solution,
transmuting the perfect body into a fusible medicine, melting, or liquefying,
moreover fixing, and augmenting the weight and color.
(6) Work therefore with it, and you shall obtain from it what you desire,
for it is the spirit and soul of sol and luna; it is the oil, the dissolving
water, the fountain, the Balneum Mariae, the praeternatural fire, the moist
fire, the secret, hidden and invisible fire. It is also the most acrid
vinegar, concerning which an ancient philosopher saith, I besought the Lord,
and he showed me a pure clear water, which I knew to be the pure vinegar,
altering, penetrating, and digesting. I say a penetrating vinegar, and the
moving instrument for putrefying, resolving and reducing gold or silver into
their prima materia or first matter. And it is the only agent in the universe,
which in this art is able to reincrudate metallic bodies with the conservation
of their species. It is therefore the only apt and natural medium, by which we
ought to resolve the perfect bodies of sol and luna, by a wonderful and
solemn dissolution, with the conservation of the species, and without any
distruction, unless it be to a new, more noble, and better form or generation,
viz. into the perfect philosopher's stone, which is their wonderful secret or
arcanum.
(7) Now this water is a certain middle substance, clear as fine silver,
which ought to receive the tinctures of sol and luna, so as the may be
congealed, and changed into a white and living earth. For this water needs
the perfect bodies, that with them after the dissolution, it may be congealed,
fixed, and coagulated into a white earth. But if this solution is also their
coagulation, for they have one and the same operation, because one is not
dissolved, but the other is congealed, nor is there any other water which can
dissolve the bodies, but that which abideth with them in the matter and the
form. It cannot be permanent unless it be of the nature of other bodies, that
they may be made one. When therefore you see the water coagulate itself with
the bodies that be dissolved therein; be assured that thy knowledge, way of
working, and the work itself are true and philosophic, and that you have done
rightly according to art.
(8) Thus you see that nature has to be amended by its own like nature; that
is, gold and silver are to be exalted in our water, as our water also with
these bodies; which water is called the medium of the soul, without which
nothing has to be done in this art. It is a vegetable, mineral and animal
fire, which conserves the fixed spirits of sol and luna, but destroys and
conquers their bodies; for it destroys, overturns, and changes bodies and
metallic forms, making them to be no bodies but a fixed spirit. And it turns
them into a humid substance, soft and fluid, which hath ingression and power
to enter into other imperfect bodies, and to mix with them in their smallest
parts, and to tinge and make them perfect. But this they could not do while
they remained in their metallic forms or bodies, which were dry and hard,
whereby they could have no entrance into other things, so to tinge and make
perfect, what was before imperfect.
(9) It is necessary therefore to convert the bodies of metals into a fluid
substance; for that every tincture will tinge a thousand times more in a soft
and liquid substance, than when it is in a dry one, as is plainly apparent in
saffron. Therefore the transmutation of imperfect metals is impossible to be
done by perfect bodies, while they are dry and hard; for which cause sake they
must be brought back into their first matter, which is soft and fluid. It
appears therefore that the moisture must be reverted that the hidden treasure
may be revealed. And this is called the reincrudation of bodies, which is the
decocting and softening them, till they lose their hard and dry substance or
form; because that which is dry doth not enter into, nor tinge anything except
its own body, nor can it be tinged except it be tinged; because, as I said
before, a thick dry earthy matter does not penetrate nor tinge, and therefore,
because it cannot enter or penetrate, it can make no alteration in the matter
to be altered. For this reason it is, that gold coloreth not, until its
internal or hidden spirit is drawn forth out of its bowels by this, our white
water, and that it may be made altogether a spiritual substance, a white
vapor, a white spirit, and a wonderful soul.
(10) It behoves us therefore by this our water to attenuate, alter and soften
the perfect bodies, to wit sol and luna, that so they may be mixed other
perfect bodies. From whence, if we had no other benefit bu this our antimonial
water, than that it rendered bodies soft, more subtile, and fluid, according
to its own nature, it would be sufficient. But more than that, it brings back
bodies to their original of sulphur and mercury, that of them we may
afterwards in a little time, in less than an hour's time do that above ground
which nature was a thousand years doing underground, in the mines of the
earth, which is a work almost miraculous.
(11) And therefore our ultimate, or highest secret is, by this our water, to
make bodies volatile, spiritual, and a tincture, or tinging water, which may
have ingress or entrance into bodies; for it makes bodies to be merely spirit,
because it reduces hard and dry bodies, and prepares them for fusion, melting
and dissolving; that is, it converts them into a permanent or fixed water. And
so it makes of bodies a most precious and desirable oil, which is the true
tincture, and the permanent fixed white water, by nature hot and moist, or
rather temperate, subtile, fusible as wax, which does penetrate, sink, tinge,
and make perfect the work. And this our water immediately dissolves bodies
(as sol and luna) and makes them into an incombustible oil, which then may
be mixed with other imperfect bodies. It also converts other bodies into the
nature of a fusible salt which the philosophers call "sal alebrot philoso-
phorum", better and more noble than any other salt, being in its own nature
fixed and not subject to vanish in fire. It is an oil indeed by nature hot,
subtile, penetrating, sinking through and entering into other bodies; it is
called the perfect or great elixir, and the hidden secret of the wise
searchers of nature. He therefore that knows this salt of sol and luna, and
its generation and perfection, nd afterwards how go commix it, and make it
homogene with other perfect bodies, he in truth knows one of the greatest
secrets of nature, and the only way that leads to perfection.
(12) These bodies thus dissolved by our water are called argent vive, which
is not without its sulphur, nor sulphur without the fixedness of sol and luna;
because sol and luna are the particular means, or medium in the form through
which nature passes in the perfecting or completing thereof. And this argent
vive is called our esteemed and valuable salt, being animated and pregnant,
and our fire, for that is nothing but fire; yet not fire, but sulphur; and not
sulphur only, but also quicksilver drawn from sol and luna by our water, and
reduced to a stone of great price. That is to say it is a matter or substance
of sol nd luna, or silver and gold, altered from vileness to nobility. Now
you must note that this white sulphur is the father and mother of the metals;
it is our mercury, and the mineral of gold; also the soul, and the ferment;
yea, the mineral virtue, and the living body; our sulphur, and our
quicksilver; that is, sulphur of sulphur, quicksilver of quicksilver, and
mercury of mercury.
(13) The property therefore of our water is, that it melts or dissolves gold
and silver, and increases their native tincture or color. For it changes
their bodies from being corporeal, into a spirituality; and it is in this
water which turns the bodies, or corporeal substance into a white vapor, which
is a soul which is whiteness itself, subtile, hot and full of fire. This
water also called the tinging or blood-color-making stone, being the virtue
of the spiritual tincture, without which nothing can be done; and is the
subject of all things that can be melted, and of liquefaction itself, which
agrees perfectly nd unites closely with sol and luna from which it can never
be seperated. For it joined [joins?] in affinity to the gold and silver, but
more immediately to the gold than to the silver; which you are to take special
notice of. It is also called the medium of conjoining the tinctures of sol and
luna with the inferior or imperfect metals; for it turns the bodies into the
true tincture, to tinge the said imperfect metals, also it is the water that
whiteneth, as it is whiteness itself, which quickeneth, as it is a soul; and
therefore as the philosopher saith, quickly entereth into its body.
(14) For it is a living water which comes to moisten the earth, that it may
spring out, and in its due season bring forth much fruit; for all things
springing from the earth, are endued through dew and moisture. The earth
therefore springeth not forth without watering and moisture; it is the water
proceeding from May dew that cleanseth the body; and like rain it penetrates
them, and makes one body of two bodies. This aqua vite or water of life, being
rightly ordered and disposed with the body, it whitens it, and converts or
changes it into its white color, for this water is a white vapor, and there-
fore the body is whitened with it. It behoves you therefore to whiten the
body, and open its unfoldings, for between these two, that is between the body
and the water, there is desire and friendship, like as between male and
female, because of the propinquity and likeness of their natures.
(15) Now this our second and living water is called "Azoth", the water
washing the laton viz. the body compounded of sol and luna by our first
water; it is also called the soul of the dissolved bodies, which souls we
have even now tied together, for the use of the wise philosopher. How precious
then, and how great a thing is this water; for without it, the work could
never be done or perfected; it is also called the "vase naturae", the belly,
the womb, the receptacle of the tincture, the earth, the nurse. It is the
royal fountain in which the king and queen bathe themselves; and the mother
must be put into and sealed up within the belly of her infant; and that is
sol himself, who proceded from her, and whom she brought forth; and therefore
they have loved one another as mother and son, and are conjoined together,
because they come from one and the same root, and are of the same substance
and nature. And because this water is the water of the vegetable life, it
causes the dead body to vegetate, increase and spring forth, and to rise from
death to life, by being dissolved first and then sublimed. And in doing this
the body is converted into a spirit, and the spirit afterwards into a body;
and then is made the amity, the peace, the concord, and the union of
contraries, to wit, between the body and the spirit, which reciprocally, or
mutually change their natures which they receive, and communicate one to
another through their most minute parts, so that that which is hot is mixed
with that which is cold, the dry with the moist, and the hard with the soft;
by which means, there is a mixture made of contrary natures, viz. of cold
and hot, and moist with dry, even most admirable unity between enemies.
(16) Our dissolution then of bodies, which is made such in this first water,
is nothing else, but a destroying or overcoming of the moist with the dry,
for the moist is coagulated with the dry. For the moisture is contained under,
terminated with, and coagulated in the dry body, to wit, in that which is
earthy. Let therefore the hard and the dry bodies be put into our first water
in a vessel, which close well, and let them there abide till they be
dissolved, and ascend to the top; then may they be called a new body, the
white gold made by art, the white stone, the white sulphur, not inflammable,
the paradisical stone, viz. the stone transmuting imperfect metals into white
silver. Then we have also the body, soul and spirit altogether; of which
spirit and soul it is said, that they cannot be extracted from the perfect
bodies, but by the help or conjunction of our dissolving water. Because it is
certain, that the things fixed cannot be lifted up, or made to ascend, but by
the conjunction or help of that which is volatile.
(17) The spirit, therefore, by help of the water and the soul, is drawn forth
from the bodies themselves, and the body is thereby made spiritual; for that
at the same instant of time, the spirit, with the soul of the bodies, ascends
on high to the superior part, which is the perfection of the stone and is
called sublimation. This sublimation, is made by things acid, spiritual,
volatile, and which are in their own nature sulphureous nd viscous, which
dissolves bodies and makes them to ascend, and be changed into air and spirit.
and in this sublimation, a certain part of our said first water ascends with
the bodies, joining itself with them, ascending and subliming into one neutral
and complex substance, which contains the nature of the two, viz. the nature
of the two bodies and the water. and therefore it is called the corporeal and
spiritual compositum, corjufle, cambar, ethelia, zandarith, duenech, the good;
but properly it is called the permanent or fixed water only, because it flies
not in the fire. But it perpetually adheres to the commixed or compound
bodies, that is, the sol and luna, and communicates to them the living
tincture, incombustible and most fixed, much more noble and precious than the
former which these bodies had. Because from henceforth this tincture runs like
oil, running through and penetrating bodies, and giving to them its wonderful
fixity; nd this tincture is the spirit, and the spirit is the soul, and the
soul is the body. For in this operation, the body is made a spirit of a most
subtile nature; and again, the spirit is corporified and changed into the
nature of the body, with the bodies, whereby our stone consists of a body, a
soul, and a spirit.
(18) O God, how through nature, doth thou change a body into a spirit: which
could not be done, if the spirit were not incorporated with the bodies, and
the bodies made volatile with the spirit, nd afterwards permanent and fixed.
For this cause sake, they have passed over into one another, and by the
influence of wisdom, are converted into one another. O Wisdom: how thou makest
the most fixed gold to be volatile and fugitive, yeah, though by nature it is
the most fixed of all things in the world. It is necessary therefore, to
dissolve and liquefy these bodies by our water, and to make them a permanent
or fixed water, a pure, golden water leaving in the bottom the gross, earthy,
superfluous and dry matter. And in this subliming, making thin nd pure, the
fire ought to be gentle; but if in this subliming with soft fire, the bodies
be not purified, nd the gross and earthy parts thereof (note this well) be
not seperated from the impurities of the dead, you shall not be able to
perfect the work. For thou needest nothing but the thin and subtile part of
the dissolved bodies, which our water will give thee, if thou proceedest with
a slow or gentle fire, by seperating the things heterogene from the things
homogene.
(19) This compositum then has its mundification or cleaning, by our moist
fire, which by dissolving and subliming that which is pure and white, it cast
forth its feces or filth like a voluntary vomit, for in such a dissolution
and natural sublimation or lifting up, there is a loosening or untying of the
elements, and a cleansing and seperating of the pure from the impure. So that
the pure and white substance ascends upwards and the impure and earthy remains
fixed in the bottom of the water and the vessel. This must be taken away and
removed, because it is of no value, taking only the middle white substance,
flowing and melted or dissolved, rejecting the feculent earth, which remains
below in the bottom. These feces were seperated partly by the water, and are
the dross and terra damnata, which is of no value, nor can do any such service
as the clear, white, pure and clear matter, which is wholly and only to be
taken and made use of.
(20) And against this capharean rock, the ship of knowledge, or art of the
young philosopher is often, as it happened also to me sometimes, dashed
together in pieces, or destroyed, because the philosophers for the most part
speak by the contraries. That is to say that nothing must be removed or taken
away, except the moisture, which is the blackness; which notwithstanding they
speak and write only to the unwary, who, without a master, indefatigable
reading, or humble supplications to God Almighty, would ravish away the
golden fleece. It is therefore to be observed, that this seperation, division,
and sublimation, is without a doubt the key to the whole work.
[the first 20 chapters of this treatise were presented under the heading
'the secret book' (chapter 3 of 'in pursuit of gold'). at this point is
begun chapter 4, 'the wisdom of artephius', which contains the balance of the
treatise. I feel the division is significant, though I couldn't quite say
why]
(21) After the putrefaction, then, and dissolution of these bodies, our
bodies also ascend to the top, even to the surface of the dissolving water,
in a whiteness of color, which whiteness is life. And in this whiteness,
the antimonial and mercurial soul, is by natural compact infused into, and
joined with the spirits of sol and luna, which seperate the thin from the
thick, and the pure from the impure. That is, by lifting up, by little
and little, the thin and the pure part of the body, from the feces and
impurity, until all the pure parts are seperated and ascended. And in this
work is out natural and philosophical sublimation work completed. Now in
this whiteness is the soul infused into the body, to wit, the mineral virtue,
which is more subtile than fire, being indeed the true quintessence and life,
which desires or hungers to be born again, and to put off the defilements
and be spoiled of its gross and earthy feces, which it has taken from its
monstrous womb, and corrupt place of its original. And in this our philo-
sophical sublimation, not in the impure, corrupt, vulgar mercury, which has
no qualities or properties like to those, with which our mercury, drawn from
its vitriolic caverns is adorned. But let us return to our sublimation.
(22) It is most certain therefore in this art, that this soul extracted from
the bodies, cannot be made to ascend, but by adding to it a volatile matter,
which is of its own kind. By which the bodies will be made volatile and
spiritual, lifting themselves up, subtilizing and subliming themselves,
contrary to their own proper nature, which is corporeal, heavy and ponderous.
And by this means they are unbodied, or made no bodies, to wit, incorporeal,
and a quintessence of the nature of a spirit, which is called, "avis
hermetis", and "mercurius extractus", drawn from a red subject or matter. And
so the terrene or earthy parts remain below, or rather the grosser parts of
the bodies, which can by no industry or ingenuity of man be brought to a
perfect dissolution.
(23) And this white vapor, this white gold, to wit, this quintessence, is
called also the compound magnesia, which like a man does contain, or like a
man is composed of a body, soul and spirit. Now the body is the fixed solar
earth, exceeding the most subtile matter, which by the help of our divine
water is with difficulty lifted up or seperated. The soul is the tincture of
sol and luna, proceeding from the conjunction, or communication of these two,
to wit, the bodies of sol and luna, and our water, and the spirit is the
mineral power, or virtue of the bodies, and also out of the bodies like as
the tinctures or colors in dying cloth are by the water put upon, and diffused
in and through the cloth. And this mercurial spirit is the chain or band of
the solar soul; and the solar body is that body which contains the spirit and
soul, having the power of fixing in itself, being joined with luna. The
spirit therefore penetrates, the body fixes, and the soul joins together,
tinges and whitens. From these three bodies united together is our stone
made: to wit, sol, luna and mercury.
(24) Therefore with this our golden water, a natural substance is extracted,
exceeding all natural substances; and so, except the bodies be broken and
destroyed, imbibed, made subtile and fine, thriftily, and diligently managed,
till they are abstracted from, or lose their grossness or solid substance,
nd be changed into a subtile spirit, all our labor will be in vain. And
unless the bodies be made no bodies or incorporeal, that is converted into
the philosophers mercury, there is no rule of art yet found out to work by.
The reason is, because it is impossible to draw out of the bodies all that
most thin and subtile spirit, which has in itself the tincture, except it
first be resolved in our water. Dissolve then the bodies in this our golden
water, and boil them until all the tincture is brought forth by the water,
in a white color and a white oil; and when you see this whiteness upon the
water, then know that the bodies are melted, liquified or dissolved.
Continue then this boiling, till the dark, black, and white cloud is brought
forth, which they have conceived.
(25) Put therefore the perfect bodies of metals, to wit, sol and luna, into
our water in a vessel, hermetically sealed, upon a gentle fire, and digest
continually, till they are perfectly resolved into a most precious oil. Saith
Adfar, digest with a gentle fire, as it were for the hatching of chickens, so
long till the bodies are dissolved, and their perfectly conjoined tincture is
extracted, mark this well. But it is not extracted all at once, but it is
drawn out by little and little, day by day, and hour by hour, till after a
long time, the solution thereof is completed, and that which is dissolved
always swims atop. And while this dissolution is in hand, let the fire be
gentle and continual, till the bodies are dissolved into a viscous and most
subtile water, and the whole tincture be educed, in color first black, which
is the sign of a true dissolution.
(26) Then continue the digestion, till it become a white fixed water, for
being digested in balneo, it will afterwards become clear, and in the end
become like common argent vive, ascending by the spirit above the first
water. When there you see bodies dissolved in the first viscous water, then
know, that they are turned into a vapor, and the soul is seperated from the
dead body, and by sublimation, turned into the order of spirits. Whence both
of them, with a part of our water, are made spirits flying up in the air; and
there the compounded body, made of the male and female, viz. of sol and luna,
and of that most subtile nature, cleansed by sublimation, taketh life, and
is made spiritual by its own humidity. That is by its own water; like as a
man is sustained by the air, whereby from thenceforth it is multiplied, and
increases in its own kind, as do all other things. In such an ascention
therefore, and philosophical sublimation, all are joined one with another,
and the new body subtilized, or made living by the spirit, miraculously
liveth or springs like a vegetable.
(27) Wherefore, unless the bodies be attenuated, or made thin, by the fire
and water, till they ascend in a spirit, and are made or do become like water
and vapor or mercury, you labor wholly in vain. But when they arise or
ascend, they are born or brought forth in the air or spirit, and in the
same they are changed, and made life with life, so as they can never be
seperated, but are as water mixed with water. And therefore, it is wisely
said, that the stone is born of the spirit, because it is altogether
spiritual. For the vulture himself flying without wings cries upon the
top of the mountain, saying, I am the white brought forth from the black,
and the red brought forth from the white, the citrine son of the red; I
speak the truth and lie not.
(28) It sufficeth thee then to put the bodies in the vessel, and into
the water once nd for all, and to close the vessel well, until a true
seperation is made. This the obscure artist calls conjunction, sublimation,
assation, extraction, putrefaction, ligation, desponsation, subtilization,
generation, etc.
(29) Now the whole magistery may be perfected, work, as in the generation
of man, and of every vegetable; put the seed once into the womb, and shut
it up well. Thus you may see that you need not many things, and that this
our work requires no great charges, for that there is but one stone, there
is but one medicine, one vessel, one order of working, and one successive
disposition to the white and to the red. And although we say in many places,
take this, and take that, yet we understand, that it behoves us to take but
one thing, and put it once into the vessel, until the work be perfected.
But these things are so set down by obscure philosophers to deceive the
unwary, as we have before spoken; for is not this "ars cabalistica" or a
secret and a hidden art? Is it not an art full of secrets? And believest
thou O fool that we plainly teach this secret of secrets, taking our words
according to their literal signification? Truly, I tell thee, that as for
myself, I am no ways self seeking, or envious as others are; but he that
takes the words of the other philosophers according to their common signif-
ication, he even already, having lost Ariadne's clue of thread, wanders in
the midst of the labyrinth, multiplies errors, and casts away his money for
nought.
(30) nd I, Artephius, after I became an adept, and had attained to the
true and complete wisdom, by studying the books of the most faithful
Hermes, the speaker of truth, was sometimes obscure also as others were.
But when I had for the space of a thousand years, or thereabouts, which
has now passed over my head, since the time I was born to this day, through
the alone goodness of God Almighty, by the use of this wonderful quintessence.
When I say for so very long a time, I found no man had found out or obtained
this hermetic secret, because of the obscurity of the philosophers words.
Being moved with a generous mind, and the integrity of a good man, I have
determined in these latter days of my life, to declare all things truly and
sincerely, that you may not want anything for the perfecting of this stone
of the philosophers. Excepting one certain thing, which is not lawful for
me to discover to any, because it is either revealed or made known by God
himself, or taught by some master, which notwithstanding he that can bend
himself to the search thereof, by the help of a little experience, may
easily learn in this book.
(31) In this book I have therefore written the naked truth, though clothed
or disguised with few colors; yet so that every good and wise man may
happily have those desirable apples of the Hesperides from this our philo-
sophers tree. Wherefore praises be given to the most high God, who has
poured into our soul of his goodness; and through a good old age, even an
almost infinite number of years, has truly filled our hearts with his love,
in which, methinks, I embrace, cherish, and truly love all mankind
together. But to return to out business. Truly our work is perfectly per-
formed; for that which the heat of sun is a hundred years in doing, for the
generation of one metal in the bowels of the earth; our secret fire, that is,
our fiery and sulphureous water, which is called Balneum Mariae, doth as I
have often seen in a very short time.
(32) Now this operation or work is a thing of no great labor to him who knows
and understands it; nor is the matter so dear, consideration [sic, considering?]
how small a quantity does suffice, that it may cause any man to withdraw
his hand from it. It is indeed, a work so short and easy, that it may well be
called woman's work, and the play of children. Go to it then,, my son, put
up thy supplications to God almighty; be diligent in searching the books of
the learned in this science; for one book openeth another; think and med-
itate of these things profoundly; nd avoid all things which vanish in or
will not endure the fire, because from these adjustible, perishing or con-
suming things, you can never attain to the perfect matter, which is only
found in the digesting of your water, extracted from sol and luna. For by
this water, color, and ponderosity or weight, are infinitely given to the
matter; and this water is a white vapor, which like a soul flows through
the perfect bodies, taking wholly from them their blackness, and impurities,
uniting the two bodies in one, and increasing their water. Nor is there any
other thing than Azoth, to wit, this our water, which can take from the
perfect bodies of sol and luna, their natural color, making the red body
white, according to the disposition thereof.
(33) Now let us speak of the fire. Our fire is mineral, equal, continuous;
it fumes not, unless it be too much stirred up, participates of sulphur,
and is taken from other things than from the matter; it overturns all
things, dissolves, congeals, and calcines, and is to be found out by art,
or after an artificial manner. It is a compendious thing, got without cost
or charge, or at least without any great purchase; it is humid, vaporous,
digestive, altering, penetrating, subtile, spiritous, not violent, incom-
bustible, circumspective, continent, and one only thing. It is also a
fountain of living water, which circumvolveth and contains the place, in
which the king and queen bathe themselves; through the whole work this
moist fire is sufficient; in the beginning, middle and end, because in it,
the whole of the art does consist. This is the natural fire, which is yet
against nature, not natural and which burns not; lastly, this fire is hot,
cold, dry, moist; meditate on these things and proceed directly without
anything of a foreign nature. If you understand not these fires, give ear
to what I have yet to say, never as yet written in any book, but drawn
from the more abstruse and occult riddles of the ancients.
(34) We have properly three fires, without which our art cannot be perfected;
and whosoever works without them takes a great deal of labor in vain. The
first fire is that of the lamp, which is continuous, humid, vaporous,
spiritous, and found out by art. This lamp ought to be proportioned to the
enclosure; wherein you must use great judgement, which none can attain to,
but he that can bend to the search thereof. For if this fire of the lamp
be not measured, or duly proportioned or fitted to the furnace, it will be,
that either for the want of heat you will not see the expected signs, in
their limited times, whereby you will lose your hopes and expectation by a
too long delay; or else, by reason of too much heat, you will burn the
"flores auri", the golden flowers, and so foolishly bewail your lost expense.
(35) The second fire is ignis cinerum, an ash heat, in which the vessel
hermetically sealed is recluded, or buried; or rather it is that most
sweet and gentle heat, which proceding from the temperate vapors of the
lamp, does equally surround your vessel. This fire is not violent or forcing,
except it be too much excited or stirred up; it is a fire digestive;
alterative, and taken from another body than the matter; being but one only,
moist also, and not natural.
(36) The third fire, is the natural fire of water, which is also called
the fire against nature, because it is water; and yet nevertheless, it makes
a mere spirit of gold, which common fire is not able to do. This fire is
mineral, equal, and participates of sulphur; it overturns or destroys,
congeals, dissolves, and calcines; it is penetrating, subtile, incombustible
and not burning, and is the fountain of living water, wherein the king and
queen bathe themselves, whose help we stand in need of through the whole
work, through the beginning, middle, and end. But the other two above
mentioned, we have not always occasion for, but only at sometimes. In reading
therefore the books of the philosophers, conjoin these three fires in your
judgement, and without doubt, you will understand whatever they have written
of them.
(37) Now sa to the colors, that which does not make black cannot make
white, because blackness is the beginning of whiteness, and a sign of
putrefaction and alteration, and that the body is now penetrated and
mortified. From the putrefaction therefore in this water, there first
appears blackness, like unto broth wherein some bloody thing is boiled.
Secondly, the black earth by continual digestion is whitened, because the
soul of the two bodies swims above upon the water, like white cream; and
in this only whiteness, all the spirits are so united, that they can never
fly one from another. And therefore the laton must be whitened, and its
leaves unfolded, i.e., its body broken or opened, lest we labor in vain;
for this whiteness is the perfect stone for the white work, and a body
ennobled to that end; even a tincture of a most exuberant glory, and
shining brightness, which never departs from the body it is once joined
with. Therefore you must note here, that the spirits are not fixed but in
the white color, which is more noble than the other colors, and is more
vehemently to be desired, for that as it were the complement or
perfection of the whole work.
(38) For our earth putrefies and becomes black, then it is putrefied
in lifting up or seperation; afterwards being dried, its blackness goes
away from it, and then it is whitened, and the feminine dominion of the
darkness and humidity perisheth; then also the white vapor penetrates
through the new body, and the spirits are bound up or fixed in the dryness.
And that which is corrupting, deformed and black through the moisture,
vanishes away; so the new body rises again clear, pure, white and immortal,
obtaining the victory over all its enemies. And as heat working upon that
which is moist, causeth or generates blackness, which is the prime or first
color, so always by decoction more and more heat working upon that which is
dry begats whiteness, which is the second color; and then working upon that
which is purely and perfectly dry, it produces citrinity and redness, thus
much for colors. WE must know therefore, that thing which has its head
red and white, but its feet white and afterwards red; and its eyes beforehand
black, that this thing, I say, is the only matter of our magistery.
(39) Dissolve then sol and luna in our dissolving water, which is
familiar and friendly, and next in nature to them; and is also sweet
and pleasant to them, and as it were a womb, a mother, an original, the
beginning and the end of their life. That is the reason why they are
meliorated or amended in this water, because like nature, rejoices in
like nature, a md like nature retains like nature, being joined the one
to the other, in a true marriage, by which they are made one nature, one
new body, raised again from the dead, and immortal. Thus it behoves you
to join consanguinity, or sameness of kind, by which these natures, will
meet and follow one another, purify themselves and generate, and make one
another rejoice; for that like nature now is disposed by like nature, even
that which is nearest, and most friendly to it.
(40) Our water then is the most beautiful, lovely, and clear fountain,
prepared only for the king, and queen whom it knows very well, and they
it. For it attracts them to itself, and they abide therein for two or
three days, to wit, two or three months, to wash themselves therewith,
whereby they are made young again and beautiful. And because sol and luna
have their original from this water their mother; it is necessary therefore
that they enter into it again, to wit, into their mothers womb, that they
may be regenerated and born again, and made more healthy, more noble and
more strong. If therefore these do not die and be converted to water, they
remain alone or as they were and without fruit; but if they die, and are
resolved in our water, they bring forth fruit of a hundred fold; and
from that very place in which they seem to perish, from thence shall they
appear to be that which they were not before.
(41) Let therefore the spirit of our living water be, with all care and
industry, fixed with sol and luna; for they being converted into the
nature of water become dead, and appear like to the dead; from thence
afterwards being revived, they increase and multiply, even as do all
sorts of vegetable substances; it suffices then to dispose the matter
sufficiently without, because that within, it sufficiently disposes
itself for the perfection of its work. For it has in itself a certain
and inherent motion, according to the true way and method, and a much
better order than it is possible for any man to invent or think of. For
this cause it is that you need only prepare the matter, nature herself
will perfect it; and if she be not hindered by some contrary thing, she
will not overpass her own certain motion, neither in conceiving or gen-
erting, nor in bringing forth.
(42) Wherefore, after the preperation of the matter, beware only lest
by too much heat or fire, you inflame the bath, or make it too hot;
secondly, take heed lest the spirit should exhale, lest it hurt the
operator, to wit, lest it destroy the work, and induce many informities,
as trouble, sadness, vexation, and discontent. From these things which
have been spoken, this axiom is manifest, to wit, that he can never know
the necessary course of nature, in the making ot generating of metals,
who is ignorant of the way of destroying them. You must therefore join
them together that are of one consanguinity or kindred; for like natures
do find out and join with their like natures, and by putrifying themselves,
and mix together and mortify themselves. It is needful therefore to know
this corruption and generation, and the natures themselves do embrace
one another, and are brought to a fixity in a slow and gentle fire; how
like natures rejoiceth with like natures; and how they retain one another
and are converted into a white consistency.
(43) This white substance, if you will make it red, you must continually
decoct it in a dry fire till it be rubified, or become red as blood, which
is nothing but water, fire, and true tincture. And so by a continual dry
fire, the whiteness is changed, removed, perfected, made citrine, and still
digested till it become to a true red and fixed color. And consequently by
how much more it is heightened in color, and made a true tincture of perfect
redness. Wherefore with a dry fire, and a dry calcination, without any
moisture, you must decoct this compositum, till it be invested with a most
perfect red color, and then it will be the true and perfect elixir.
(44) Now if afterwards you would multiply your tincture, you must again
resolve that red, in new and fresh dissolving water, and then by decoctions
first whiten, and then rubify it again, by the degrees of fire, reiterating
the first method of operating in this work. Dissolve, coagulate, and reiterate
the closing up, the opening and multiplying in quantity and quality at your
own pleasure. For by a new corruption and generation, there is introduced a
new motion. Thus we can never find an end if we do always work by reiterating
the same thing over and over again, viz. by solution and coagulation, by the
help of our dissolving water, by which we dissolve and congeal, as we have
formerly said, in the beginning of the work. Thus also is the virtue thereof
increased, and multiplied both in quantity and quality; so that if after the
first course of the operation you obtain a hundred fold; by the second fold
you will have a thousand fold; and by the third; ten thousand fold increase.
And by pursuing your work, your projection will come to infinity, tinging
truly and perfectly, and fixing the greatest quantity how much soever. Thus
by a thing of small and easy price, you have both color, goodness, and weight.
(45) Our fire then and azoth are sufficient for you: decoct, reiterate,
dissolve, congeal, and continue this course, according as you please,
multiplying it as you think good, until your medicine is made fusible as
wax, and has attained the quantity and goodness or fixity and color you
desire. This then is the compleating of the whole work of our second stone
(observe it well) that you take the perfect body, and put it into our
water in a glass vesica or body well closed, lest the air get in or the
enclosed humidity get out. Keep it in digestion in a gentle heat, as it
were of a balneum, and assiduously continue the operation or work upon
the fire, till the decoction and digestion is perfect. And keep it in this
digestion of a gentle heat, until it be purified and re-solved into
blackness, and be drawn up and sublimed by the water, and is thereby cleaned
from all blackness and impurity, that it may be white and subtile. Until
it comes to the ultimate or highest purity of sublimation, and utmost
volatility, and be made white both within and without: for the vulture
flying in the air without wings, cries out that it might get up upon the
mountain, that is upon the waters, upon which the "spiritus albus" or
spirit of whiteness is born. Continue still a fitting fire, and that spirit,
which is the subtile being of the body, and of the mercury will ascend upon
the top of the water, which quintessence is more white than the driven snow.
Continue yet still, and towards the end, increase the fire, till the
whole spiritual substance ascend to the top. And know well, that whatsoever
is clear, white-pure and spiritual, ascends in the air to the top of the
water in the substance of a white vapor, which the philosophers call their
virgin milk.
(46) It ought to be, therefore, as one of the Sybills said, that the son
of the virgin be exalted from the earth, and that the white quintessence
after its rising out of the dead earth, be raised up towards heaven; the
gross and thick remaining in the bottom, of the vessel and the water.
Afterwards, the vessel being cooled, you will find in the bottom the black
feces, scorched and burnt, which seperate from the spirit and quintessence
of whiteness, and cast them away. Then will the argent vive fall down from
our air and spirit, upon the new earth, which is called argent vive sublimed
by the air or spirit, whereof is made a viscous water, pure and white. This
water is the true tincture seperated from all its black feces, and our
brass or latten is prepared with our water, purified and brought to a white
color. Which white color is not obtained but by decoction and coagulation of
the water; decoct, therefore, continually, wash away the blackness from the
latten, not with your hands, but with the stone, or the fire, or our second
mercurial water which is the true tincture. This seperation of the pure
from the impure is not done with hands, but nature herself does it, and
brings it to perfection by a circular operation.
(47) It appears then, that this composition is not a work of hands, but a
change of the natures; because nature dissolves and joins itself, sublimes
and lifts itself up, and grows white, being seperated from the feces. And
in such a sublimation the more subtile, pure, and essential parts are
conjoined; for that with the fiery nature or property lifts up the subtile
parts, it seperates always the more pure, leaving the grosser at the
bottom. Wherefore your fire ought to be gentle and a continual vapor, with
which you sublime, that the matter may be filled with spirit from the air,
and live. For naturally all things take life from the inbreathing of the
air; and so also our magistery receives in the vapor or spirit, by the
sublimation of the water.
(48) Our brass or latten then, is to be made to ascend by the degrees of
fire, but of its own accord, freely, and without violence; except the
body therefore be by the fire and water broken, or dissolved, and
attenuated, until it ascends as a spirit, or climbs like argent vive,
or rather as the white soul, seperated from the body, and by sublimation
diluted or brought into a spirit, nothing is or can be done. But when it
ascends on high, it is born in the air or spirit, and is changed into
spirit; and becomes life with life, being only spiritual and incorruptible.
And by such an operation it is that the body is made spirit, of a subtile
nature, and the spirit is incorporated with the body, and made one with it;
and by such a sublimation, conjunction, and raising up, the whole, both body
and spirit are made white.
(49) This philosophical and natural sublimation therefore is necessary
which makes peace between, or fixes the body and spirit, which is impossible
to be done otherwise, than in the seperation of these parts. Therefore it
behoves you to sublime both, that the pure may ascend, and the impure may
descend, or be left at the bottom, in the perplexity of a troubled sea.
And for this reason it must be continually decocted, that it may be brought
to a subtile property, and the body may assume, and draw to itself the
white mercurial soul, which it naturally holds, and suffers not to be
seperated from it, because it is like to it in the nearness of the first
pure and simple nature. From these things it is necessary, to make a
seperation by decoction, till no more remains of the purity of the soul,
which is not ascended and exalted to the higher part, whereby they will both
be reduced to an equality of properties, and a simple pure whiteness.
(50) The vulture flying through the air, and the toad creeping upon the
ground, re the emblems of our magistery. When therefore gently and with
much care, you seperate the earth from the water, that is from the fire,
and the thin from the thick, then that which is pure will seperate itself
from the earth, and ascend to the upper part, as it were into heaven, and
the impure will descend beneath, as to the earth. And the more subtile
part in the superior place will take upon it the nature of a spirit, and
that in the lower place, the nature of an earthy body. Wherefore, let the
white property with the more subtile part of the body, be by this operation,
made to ascend leaving the feces behind, which is done in a short time. For
the soul is aided by her associate and fellow, and perfected by it. My
mother, saith the body, has begotten me, and by me she herself is begotten;
now after I have taken from her, her flying she after an admirable manner
becomes kind and nourishing, and cherishing the son whom she has begotten
till he come to a ripe or perfect age.
(51) Hear now this secret: keep the body in our mercurial water, till
it ascends with the white soul, and the earthy part descends to the
bottom, which is called the residing earth. Then you shall see the water
coagulate itself with the body, and be assured the art is true; because
the body coagulates the moisture into dryness, like as the rennet of a
lamb or calf turns milk into cheese. In the same manner the spirit
penetrates the body, and is perfectly comixed with it in its smallest
atoms, and the body draws to itself his moisture, to wit, its white
soul, like as the loadstone draws iron, because of the nearness and
likeness of its nature; and then one contains the other. And this is
the sublimation and coagulation, which retaineth every volatile thing,
making it fixed for ever.
(52) This compositum then is not a mechanical thing, or a work of the
hands,, but as I said, a changing of natures; and a wonderful
connection of their cold with hot, and the moist with the dry; the hot
is mixed with the cold, and the dry with the moist: By this means is
made the mixture and conjunction of body nd spirit, which is called a
conversion of contrary spirits and natures, because by such a dissolution
and sublimation, the spirit is converted into a body and body in a spirit.
So that the natures being mixed together, and reduced into one, do change
one another: and as the body corporifies the spirit, or changes it into
a body, so also does the spirit convert the body into a tinging and white
spirit.
(53) Wherefore as the last time I say, decoct the body in our white
water, viz. mercury, till it is dissolved into blackness, and then by
continual decoction, let it be deprived of the same blackness, and the
body so dissolved, will at length ascend or rise with a white soul. And
then the one will be mixed with the other, and so embrace one another that
it shall not be possible any more to seperate them, but the spirit, with
a real agreement, will be unified with the body, and make one permanent or
fixed substance. And this is the solution of the body, and coagulation of
the spirit which have one and the same operation. Who therefore knows
how to conjoin the principles, or direct the work, to impregnate, to
mortify, to putrefy, to generate, to quicken the species, to make white,
to cleanse the culture from its blackness and darkness, till he is purged
by the fire and tinged, and purified from all his spots, shall be the
possessor of a treasure so great that even kings themselves shall venerate
him.
(54) Wherefore, let our body remain in the water till it is dissolved into
a subtile powder in the bottom of the vessel and the water, which is called
the black ashes; this is the corruption of the body which is called by
the philosophers or wise men, "Saturnus plumbum philosophorum", and pulvis
discontinuatus, viz. saturn, latten or brass, the lead of the philosophers
the disguised powder. And in this putrefaction and resolution of the body,
three signs appear, viz, a black color, a discontinuity of parts, and a
stinking smell, not much unlike to the smell of a vault where dead bodies
are buried. These ashes then are those of which the philosophers have spoken
so much which remained in the lower part of the vessel, which we ought not
to undervalue or despise; in them is the royal diadem, and the black and
unclean argent vive, which ought to be cleansed from its blackness, by a
continual digestion in our water, till it be elevated above in a white color,
which is called the gander, and the bird of Hermes. He therefore that
maketh the red earth black, and then renders it white, has obtained the
magistery. So also he who kills the living, and revives the dead. Therefore
make the black white, and the white black, and you perfect the work.
(55) And when you see the true whiteness appear, which shineth like a
bright sword, or polished silver, know that in that whiteness there is
redness hidden. But then beware that you take not that whiteness out of the
vessel, but only digest it to the end, that with heat and dryness, it may
assume a citron color, and a most beautiful redness. Which when you see,
render praises and thanksgiving to the most great and good God, who gives
wisdom and riches to whomsoever He pleases, and takes them away according
to the wickedness of a person. To Him, I say, the most wise and almighty
God, be glory for ages and ages. AMEN.
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