THE AQUEOUS STONE OF WISDOM
or
THE AQUARIUM OF SAGES
HYDROLITUS SOPHICUS
Musaeum Hermeticum
1625
Chemical pamphlet such as we have not yet seen, in which is shown the Way, named Matter and describes the Process, to arrive at Tincture Universal.
Printed for the benefit of all and in the general interest.
THE AQUARIUM OF SAGES
Brief explanation of the admirable and sovereign Aquarium of the Sages, also called Stone of the Philosophers.
FROM the beginning of the world, we see that many exceptional philosophers and sages, enlightened in the highest degree by God and very experienced, have manifested themselves among the pagans in every age, who have observed with the greatest attention the nature and the powers. lower creatures, and have endeavored to make a careful study of them. They searched with longing and hard work for that which in the nature of things could protect man's earthly body from destruction and death, and keep it in perpetual vigor and integrity.
Now, by a very particular divine influx and by the light of nature, they saw and they knew that there must be in this world a unique mystery, an admirable thing, established by Almighty God for the benefit of the human race. Thus all that is imperfect, incomplete and corrupt throughout the earth would surely be renovated and perfectly established in its entirety by this singular and secret thing.
They learned by experience through diligent and very precise research that absolutely nothing could be found in this world outside of this one thing, which was capable of freeing the earthly and corruptible body from death. Indeed, death was established and imposed as a punishment on the protoplasts, on the first created beings, Adam and Eve, and it never suffered to be separated from their posterity. God has arranged this unique thing, in itself by nature incorruptible, for the benefit of man, so that it will remove corruption, that it may restore health to all imperfect bodies, that it may deliver from old age, and prolong this short life as was the case for the Patriarchs who remained always young.
Virtuous and experienced philosophers have so sought this admirable and secret subject with the utmost diligence and application that they have found it and its noble use, whereby they have been cured and maintained in health throughout their lives. Before them, all the holy Patriarchs also really knew and possessed this great mystery, the object of all admiration. It was undoubtedly revealed and taught to our father Adam by God thrice great himself from the beginning, and all the Patriarchs thereafter received it from Adam by right of inheritance. Thanks to its properties, they acquired health of the body and a very long life, and obtained immense wealth. When the pagans of whom we have just spoken became adepts of this admirable, even more, divine thing, they considered it a singular gift from God and the greatest and most secret art. Then they also saw that it was only revealed to very few men by divine Providence, and that it remained hidden from the greater part of this world. This is why they always hid it from man with the greatest care.
But so that this secret would not fall back into oblivion after their disappearance, but that on the contrary it would be perpetuated and would henceforth be kept for posterity, they put it in writing. Thus they transmitted and left behind them to their most faithful disciples many instructions and very clear teachings thanks to such books. They however hid the thing and enveloped it in allegorical words, so that very few have found it to this day, who have been able to extract from it a sufficient and certain foundation. But it is not lightly but for good reasons that they did so. By this those who seek this wisdom will sooner and most passionately call on God for it, for in his hand are placed all things, and when it has been revealed to them, they will ascribe glory and honor to him alone. , by returning to him the thanksgiving due to him. It is also so that these very noble pearls are not thrown to swine. For if this were manifested to the ungodly world, it would desire only this one thing because of its extreme avarice, and there would eventually ensue a dissolute and bestial life, all work and activity being neglected.
Although all the philosophers of whom we speak have often expounded this eminent art in different ways and have described it, for the above reasons, by means of many peculiar names, parables, astonishing expressions in a foreign language and sophistics, however there is perfect agreement between them, and by all these different expressions they only wanted to lead to the unique goal and to show only the unique material necessary to art. Yet most seekers of the art have most often strayed from this secret matter, and thereby taken the wrong path. Indeed, at all times and even today there are men who yearn for this wisdom, not only uneducated people, but also many eminent people very experienced in philosophy. And it is not only by deep study but also with great labor and great expense that they seek it and try to obtain it, but they can never attain it much less participate in it. For certainly most of them allow themselves to be caught by the hook of gold, they often rush themselves into irreparable misfortunes and they see themselves constrained, with what derision, to abandon their research.
However, so that no one can doubt the validity of this secret art, and not take it for a pure fiction according to the habit and the practice of this world, I want to make known chronologically and by name the authentic philosophers and their successors who have really knew this art, possessed it and practiced it, with the exception of the messengers mentioned in the Holy Scriptures. They are: Hermes Trismegistus, Pythagoras, Jesus the Blessed, Alexander the Great, Plato, Theophrastus, Avicenna, Galen, Hippocrates, Lucian, Longanus, Rhazes, Archelaus, Rupescissa, the Author of the Great Rosary, Mary the Prophetess, Dionysius Zachaire, Haly, Morien, Calid, Constantius, Sérapion, Albert le Grand, Estrod, Arnaud de Villeneuve, Geber, Raymond Lully, Roger Bacon, Alanus, Thomas Aquinas, Marcel Palingène; contemporary authors are: Bernard le Trévisan, Brother Basile Valentin, Paracelsus and many others. There is indeed no doubt that even today we cannot find men who, by the grace of God, practice the art and enjoy it all the days of their lives in secrecy and silence. But while the philosophers I have listed have described with truth and without dissimulation this very great magisterium, and that they have derived their demonstration from the true foundation and the simple source of nature, on the other hand we find many pseudo-philosophers and impostors who wrongly boast of possessing the science of this art, and who also strive to teach it. To hide their fraud, they shamelessly and impiously misuse the writings of true philosophers and put a cover before the eyes of men, they make their mouths water and impose it to do their own desire.
Therefore both these imposters and those who have been deceived by the lie should carefully consider the warning that follows.
Alpha is a sign for the chemist. But for you, what is Beta? A Greek letter. The letter teaches and this is reported elsewhere. Remember it and do not deceive anyone under a false pretense. Be careful not to enclose the light with a moaning voice.
ALSO:
Don't trust the chemist who claims to distil air in a basket, if you're careful, beware!
If you do not want to suffer the painful prejudice of mockery, then flee all these men for their impudence.
Follow the simple-minded, the modest and the pious, and not the proud.
It is commendable to be able to do good and to enjoy it.
Say at least where to find such men!
Seek then those beloved men who marvelously did not die in this year.
They outweigh others in weight, work, and thing.
Finally, we have met in many places faithful artisans and disciples of this philosophical and secret art, who would willingly strive to reach it by a straight and sure path, without so many detours. But they are so troubled and so entangled in error, on account of the squawking and worthless pretensions of those dishonest and sophisticated imposters of which we have spoken, that many are quite ignorant whether they should go further in this art or backtrack.
This is why I made the decision to highlight and explain certainly little of this art, but true and well-founded things. I find myself unworthy to write a treatise on such a mystery, but as I have advanced to it by the grace of God thrice great (in order to speak here without desire for glory) and but little, if few among thousands succeed, lest also the talent which Almighty God has bestowed on me in His mercy remain buried with me, as given to those who do not deserve it, I will teach all chemical philosophers, of a faithful heart, as it will be fitting, an abridgment or exposition of all this art, together with a straight and very certain, nay, infallible way, that is to say, the method by which they can to access.
But this will only happen if the eyes of some are opened by divine grace, if these philosophers are brought back from their false and preconceived opinions on the right path, and finally if the wonders of God are more and more manifested to them. I will teach all chemical philosophers, with a faithful heart, as may be appropriate, an abbreviation or exposition of all this art, as well as a straight and very certain way, what am I saying infallible, that is- i.e. the method by which they can access it. But this will only happen if the eyes of some are opened by divine grace, if these philosophers are brought back from their false and preconceived opinions on the right path, and finally if the wonders of God are more and more manifested to them.
To make it easier to remember and understand, I have divided this treatise into four parts.
In the first part, I will teach the beginning or the entry of this art and the way in which the artist must prepare for it.
In the second part, I will indicate by a description and a philosophical teaching, the nature and the state of the matter, and I will give the knowledge of it as well as the mode of preparation and the mode.
In the third part, I will speak of the usefulness of art in all fields, and of the ineffable efficacy and virtue attributed to it.
In the fourth part, there will follow a spiritual allegory in every respect consistent with this magisterium which is the true archetype of the true, celestial, everlasting and blessed cornerstone of the Most High. I will also describe there briefly and simply, insofar as one does not allow oneself to be attracted by specious detours, the true and necessary way of working with the hands.
PART ONE
Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will show him the way he must choose.
Psalms XXV, 12
In the first place, let the pious God-fearing chemists and the philosophers of this art realize that such a secret must not only be kept for the highest and greatest art, but especially for a holy art. We find indeed imprinted and represented in him the supreme and holiest good of the Almighty. Whoever conceives the project of attaining this supreme and ineffable mystery, must know that such an art does not depend on the power of man but on the most merciful will of God, and that it is not our will or our desire, but the Mercy of the Almighty who brings it about. This is why you must above all be pious. Raise your heart to God alone and, without doubt, ask him for this gift with a true and most ardent prayer. God alone grants it; it is obtained only by him.
If Almighty God, who is the well-informed searcher of all hearts, recognizes in you an upright, faithful and unguileful soul, and if he sees that you strive to seek and study for the sole purpose of to praise him and to glorify him alone, he will answer you without a doubt, according to his promise.
He will lead you by his Holy Spirit, so that you can easily arrive, step by step, at a certain beginning that you could never have thought of with your reason. Certainly, you will feel at this moment in your very heart that God most merciful has very generously heard your prayer, that he has brought you to a happy beginning and has almost already made the revelation known to you.
Then get down on your knees and give thanks to God with a humble and contrite heart, praise him, glorify him and honor him, for your prayers have been answered. Do not stop asking him again that he deign to spread by his Holy Spirit this grace which flowers and which you have already perceived in your heart, and that he guides you. In this way, when this profound mystery has been perfectly revealed to you in its totality, you will be able to put it into practice, using it only for the glory and honor of the most holy name of God, and for the profit and the usefulness of your neighbor who is in need.
Moreover, remember that you cannot, under pain of losing your salvation and your eternal beatitude, even accidentally reveal this mystery to an unworthy or an impious, and still less communicate it to him and share it with him, make it somehow misuse it, and use it for your own fame rather than for the sole glory of God as we have said. Remember further that by not doing so and by taking the risk of transgressing these orders, you will not escape God's punishment. In that case, it would have been much better for you to have never heard of art and to know nothing about it.
Now that you have weighed these things well, that you have devoted yourself to God who does not allow to be laughed at, and that you have therefore fixed for yourself a goal and an end, first learn how the Tri-One God ordained universal nature from the beginning, what it becomes, what it can, how it operates daily in all things in a certain invisible way, how it consists of the will of God alone and finds its dwelling there. Without true knowledge of nature, you will indeed only be able to undertake this work with difficulty, and not without risks or dangers. But nature has the quality and property of being unique, true, simple, perfect in its essence, and of possessing, moreover, enclosed within it, a hidden spirit. If you want to know nature, then you must be made in her likeness, true, simple, patient, firm,
If you recognize such a disposition in yourself, nature will soon adapt and conform to nature, and you will immediately perceive in yourself an inestimable benefit both for body and soul.
The research and the contemplation of this art will be to you in the highest degree profitable and advantageous, because if you correctly learn the principles which govern it, these will lead you with violence, one can say, until the knowledge of the divine miracles. . You will then hold for nothing all these ephemeral things so esteemed by the world. But on the other hand, he who aspires to this art and strives to obtain it for wealth, and who tries to divert it from its object towards the pride and vanity of this world, must persuade himself that he will never achieve the desired goal. Also your soul, much more, all your thoughts which are turned towards earthly things, must be as it were recreated, and they must be dedicated to God alone. It is therefore well noticed that these three, namely, the body, the soul and the spirit, must be in harmony and work together.
You must therefore conform all your actions to it. The artist here does nothing but sow, plant, water, and God alone gives the increase. Therefore, if God opposes anyone, all nature is also an enemy to him. But to him who becomes a friend of God, heaven and earth and all the elements are impelled to help. If you take this into account and if you possess with your hands the knowledge of the true first matter of which we are going to speak later, you will be able to advance towards the practice and undertake the beginning of the work.
You must here once again implore the Almighty to obtain his grace and the way to follow in all your purpose. It is then with ease that your work will advance and will also arrive at the fortunate and happy end desired.
Who remains in the fear
of God and remains attached to his word, does not
implement, while waiting for his help,
neither black nor white. He composes silver and
gold from copper and tin,
and will have the means to prepare, with the help of God,
many other things. Thus, with
Jehovah's favor, he will happily make gold out
of mire and mud.
Ecclesiasticus II
PART TWO
Wherefore thus saith
the Lord God: Behold, I have laid in
Zion a foundation stone,
an approved, chief, precious
, well-established stone; whoever
possesses it will not be confounded.
Isaiah XXVIII, 16
THE philosophers could not sufficiently praise in their writings, before as after its perfection, this so high and so noble art of which we have already spoken so much, nor give it as much honor as was necessary by granting it the most eminent titles. Also they evoked it under the general name of Stone of the Philosophers, or Stone of the Sages very old, hidden, ignored, natural, incomprehensible, celestial also, blessed, beatified and universal tri-one. The main reasons, among many others, for which they called this thing a stone, or compared it to a stone, are the following: its matter is in the beginning really a stone, like an ore drawn from the earth; this material is hard and dry and can be crushed and polished like a stone; after being broken down into three principles, which nature itself had conjoined,
The philosophers whose memory I recalled could not sufficiently instill the idea and draw attention to the fact that it is essential for seekers of art to know the first and then the second matter of the philosophical stone. This matter, however, is one thing, by means of which this one and only stone must necessarily be prepared, without the addition of anything extraneous, although it is called by a thousand names.
They have admirably described the quality, the aspect as well as the property of this matter, and they have presented it in general in the following way. Made in the beginning by the conjunction of three things, however it is strictly speaking only one. Produced and made of one, two, three, four and five, it is found everywhere. They also call it Catholic magnesia or semen of the world, from which all natural things originate.
It is by nature and form admirable and unique, and it possesses a quality difficult to seek and little known, which is neither hot and dry like fire, nor cold and wet like water, nor cold and dry like the earth, but which is a certain perfect coupling of all the elements. She also has an incorruptible body which cannot be destroyed by any element, but which far surpasses in all its properties the four elements and the four qualities, as do heaven and the quintessence. From the bodily outward appearance, figure, form and species, it is a stone, and it is not.
It looks more like bright white gum or white water. They also call it ocean water, water of life, and again the purest and most blessed of waters. It is not, however, water from clouds or from some vulgar spring, but it is thick, permanent, salty water, dry in some respects and not wetting the hands, pituitary water, which comes out of the fat salt of the two lands (1). It is the double Mercury and Azoth, which is putrefied and preserved by the vapor or sweat of the upper and lower globe, the celestial and the terrestrial, and is consumed without fire. It is indeed the universal and sparkling fire of the light of nature, possessing in it the celestial spirit with which God animated it at the beginning, and which Avicenna called soul of the world because it penetrates all things. As the soul is found in all parts of the human body and moves there, this spirit is found in all elemental creatures and moves there. It is moreover the indissoluble bond of body and soul,
1. Variation: a certain pituitary water which comes out of the fat of a saline earth.
They attribute to it an infinite power and a divine virtue when they say: it is the Spirit of the Lord who fills the terrestrial orb and who floated in the beginning on the waters. They also call it the spirit of truth which is hidden from the world and which we can only understand by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit or by the instruction of those who know him.
What is potentially everywhere and in everything is assuredly found perfectly and fully only in this unique subject. In short, it is a spiritual substance which is neither celestial nor infernal, but which is an aerial body, pure and excellent, middle between the highest and the lowest, chosen and precious among all under heaven. At the opposite, this matter is held to be the vilest thing and, so to speak, the most abject by those who have no knowledge of it or who are at the beginning of their studies. Although sought after by many wise people, it is found by only a few. Observed from afar, perceived up close, it is seen by all, but it is known only to very few, as we see in the poem here.
This great good about which the world cares so little and which it takes for nothing is divided into three but is only one.
All have it in front of their eyes and hold it in their hands, but they do not know it. In their ignorance, they quickly pass over with a hurried step.
This is the greatest wealth. No one will be richer than he who knows the art and has a double meaning.
PHILOSOPHICAL ENIGMA divided
into three parts in which is updated
the primary subject of art, called
the Phoenix of the Philosophers.
FIRST PHILOSOPHICAL ENIGMA
If I tell you the three parts of this thing, there is no reason for you to complain: I am indeed presenting the truth to you, you need a grass with three leaves, so come praying and ask the Lord. Seek one in three, and out of three will come one. Would they be a thousand: the soul, the body and the spirit manifest themselves; Salt, Sulfur and heavy Mercury shine.
Trust in me: discern the three-leaved grass, know the word and the song; you are then wise in the art.
SECOND ENIGMA MUCH MORE EXPLICIT
There is one thing in this world that is found everywhere: I say this in case you lack zeal.
It is blue and green and of an admirable power to say!
This thing has in it a white color and also a red one.
Like water, here suddenly it flows and goes away like a river; it does not wet, it is very heavy and very light.
Would I give him a thousand names, a thousand people also don't know. Its appearance is common but it is important for the art.
Wise is he who will separate it in the middle and then reunite it three times; this upright man possesses the noble subject.
THIRD ENIGMA
This stone originates from everywhere; she is conceived underground (in inferno), born on earth, finds life in heaven, dies in time and finally obtains eternal bliss.
If the aforesaid matter, which is both celestial and terrestrial and which in the beginning is a pure mixture or a confused chaos without name or particular color, is, thanks to this quality to which we allude, at hand and that it is well known, knowledge that philosophers have always held for the main part of this work, then one must obtain with the greatest care all that it needs and what its preparation seems to require thereafter . Before undertaking with all this this remarkable work of the hands, every pious artist must however remember once more conscientiously the teaching which we have just exposed. We must give this warning as faithfully, that we do not concern ourselves with this secret work and the imperscrutable spirit which is hidden there, before having studied its qualities and its deep properties as well as its essential conformity with nature. A philosopher gives the following advice on this subject: Let there be no intercourse between this spirit and you until you have studied it perfectly and possessed the science.
God is indeed admirable in his works and his wisdom is priceless, he who, as we have said, does not allow anyone to laugh at him. A few examples of this could certainly be given here for everyone's benefit. Many embark very lightly on this work, but the dice being cast, the thing ends so badly for them, that some almost kill themselves in their laboratory, or are seriously injured in some other unfortunate circumstance. Indeed, the work is not of little weight as some imagine it, who deem it so unimportant because philosophers compare it to children's play and women's work. But the opinion of the philosophers is quite different, who understood by the practice of this work that it is in itself quite easy and requires little trouble, because it is only for those whom God has found worthy of being enriched by his knowledge that they said it so simple and so easy. Take heed, therefore, I say, take heed to thyself, and be watchful, lest thou here entangle thyself in danger too hastily. Rather, begin your whole project by addressing long prayers to God for divine help, as we faithfully reminded you at the beginning. Then you will no longer fear anything, and will no longer be exposed to any risk.
Now that you have meditated with the greatest zeal in your oratory, and that you have at hand the well-known material, you can without difficulty put into practice in your laboratory the fruit of your application and your study, undertake with your hands the proper work, and thus make the beginning.
You must now, first of all, very often dissolve the said first matter, or first Being, which the philosophers have also called the Supreme Good of Nature. It must then be purified of its watery, earthly quality. Indeed, at the beginning appears to the observers a heavy, coarse, pituitary and watery body resembling some mist. The shadow which obscures the first matter like a thick nebulous mist must be removed by you, so that by further sublimation the heart and inner soul which lie hidden in it may also be separated from it, and they are reduced to a sweet essence.
All this can be accomplished by our Pontic and Catholic water, which irrigates and fertilizes the universal orb of the earth by its alternating movement. It is soft, beautiful, luminous, limpid and resplendent, and prodigiously surpasses all the luster of gold and silver, carbuncle and diamond. Our aforesaid material also preserves in itself and keeps locked up this blessed water.
This body, soul and spirit which has been extracted (variant "That one extracts the body, the soul and the spirit, then it must be..."), must then be distilled again and frozen with its own salt in order to be further reduced to one thing. This salt, called by the philosophers Salt of Wisdom, is internally red in color when it is introduced into the form of the said matter, and it becomes after the preparation of a truly dazzling, brilliant and diaphanous white.
By the process which you have used, hitherto called preparatory work, you have therefore separated the pure from the impure, you have made the visible invisible and then the invisible again visible or palpable, and it is no longer as heavy, coarse and formless as at the beginning, but very luminous, with a sweet smell, a very penetrating taste, of an extremely subtle and ethereal nature, so much so that left to air it would escape and disappear by itself, although in that place it was fixed. This is why the sages called this subject Mercurial Water, Mercury of the Sun and also their Mercury.
If you wanted to use it as medicine, leaving it in this form, without further preparation, it would be of little use to you and would even be venom for you. You must therefore, if you want to enjoy its most opulent gift and its most varied use, go further and by other means and singular works try to do more. If you wanted to use it as medicine, leaving it in this form, without further preparation, it would be of little use to you and would even be venom for you. You must therefore, if you want to enjoy its most opulent gift and its most varied use, go further and by other means and singular works try to do more.
If you wanted to use it as medicine, leaving it in this form, without further preparation, it would be of little use to you and would even be venom for you. You must therefore, if you want to enjoy its most opulent gift and its most varied use, go further and by other means and singular works try to do more.
Then you are especially recommended to observe carefully the operations that Nature performs over time, and to endeavor to imitate them in your work. Knowing this, then take two parts and then three parts of the aqueous matter prepared as we have just said. Keep these first two parts separately. But add another material to the three parts. It is the very noble body of gold, filled with qualities by the Creator and which has the greatest affinity with the first matter and is friendly to it. Add by weight one part of it to twelve parts for the first fermentation. Indeed, on the one hand the watery matter which evidently became spiritual and celestial through the preparation and on the other hand this earthly body of the sun must be conjoined and coagulated into one body.
It should, however, be remarked here that vulgar gold is useless for this operation, and that it should even be considered as the least suitable and practically for dead. For, although it was proclaimed by Almighty God the finest and most precious of all metals, it was prevented from growing in perfection while it lay in the mines. Moreover, by daily use, his inner forces, which are the sulfur or the soul, are obviously weakened, and he finds himself always and more and more mixed and united with heterogeneous substances which defile him and do not suit him. absolutely not.
Thus it becomes less and less usable for this work. Seek therefore with the utmost care for yourself that pure gold which has in it a living spirit, which has not yet been weakened and which is not sophisticated in regard to its sulphur, as we just said. Let it be taken absolutely pure, which is the case if it has passed through Antimony or through the sky and the sphere of Saturn and there is purified of its filth. Moreover, another matter cannot enter into the preparation with its spirit and its virtue. This work indeed demands in all a pure body, and can never tolerate either in it or near or around it anything impure.
Now, if you have brought together in a dissolving dish unequal parts of water and gold (these two indeed differ greatly not only in quality but also in quantity, since one becomes after preparation easily malleable, tender, subtle and soft, and the other extremely heavy, solid and hard) and you have reduced them therein in a dry state, like a liquor or an amalgam, leave them first six or seven days in a gentle heat barely lukewarm.
Then take another of the three parts of the original water and pour it into a small round glass vase similar to a phial or an egg, put in the middle the temperate liquor, and leave the whole thing thus again for six or seven days. Then the body of the sun will gradually be dissolved by the water, and thereby the conjunction of these two will begin, one mingling with the other as gently and with as much finesse as ice in hot water.
Philosophers have indicated this in different ways; they compared him to a groom and a bride, as Solomon also describes him in his Song of Songs. This being done, add to the others the last of the three parts preserved from the beginning, but not in one time or in one day, but in seven times, otherwise the body which is there would become too humid and, finally, completely - if submerged, would corrupt.
Our work can be likened in this to the seed sown in the ground: if it has too much water, rain or dampness at the beginning, it produces no fruit and is choked, and the sown field of the farmer is ruined. . Now that this is done, seal or cement the vase with the greatest care, lest the compound lose its fragrance and fly away. Then place it in your stove and administer to it a light, continuous, airy, vaporous fire of the first degree, comparable to the heat of a hen brooding her eggs.
NOTICED
Philosophers have written many things about the vaporous fire which they call the Fire of Wisdom. They said that it is neither elementary nor material, but essential or preternatural, and that it is also called divine fire, that is to say, the water of Mercury set in motion by vulgar fire, by the help given to him and by art. In the beginning, digest and cook gently, and take care that no part of matter sublimates, or as the philosophers say in parables, that the wife does not command the man, or that the husband does not abuse not of his authority over his coast, etc. Matter then accomplishes its process by itself without interruption, needing no other work than the supervision of the fire and its conduct.
To begin with, therefore, this body is totally dissolved, crushed, destroyed, putrefied and stripped of all its strength to such an extent that at last its soul is taken away and led up, totally separated from it; then for a certain time, it adheres as dead and without any force to the bottom of the vessel, like ashes. But if afterwards you increase the fire and direct it without interruption, the soul imperceptibly descends drop by drop, it soaks, moistens, waters and preserves its body, so that it is not completely dried up and burned.
It goes up and down again, and that about seven times. You must then further increase the fire by one degree, without it reaching its maximum, as if you had to hurry with it, because the moderate regime of the fire (this is the main thing) must be handled with the utmost care and attention. In the meantime, many signs and varied colors will appear in the glass, or small vase, which must be carefully observed and noted. If you see them in order, it is the promising sign of a very happy result.
First appear grains resembling the eyes of fish, then a circle around this matter which successively becomes reddish, whitish and finally green and yellow like the tail of the peacock. It is then of a very pure white and to finish of the most beautiful red, when the ultimate degree of fire has been used and the soul and the spirit have united in an indissoluble essence and perfectly fixed to their body lying in the bottom of the vessel. This union or conjunction, through the ineffable admiration it arouses, cannot be viewed without terror or dread. Thus is seen and found the resurrected, living, perfect and glorified body. It has in it, like some scarlet stuff, a most delicate crimson red. Its tincture transforms, penetrates and heals all imperfect bodies.
Now that the work has been brought to a successful conclusion with the power and help of God thrice great, and the Phoenix of the Wise has been found, bend your knees again, pray in your heart and give thanks to God all powerful, the eminent rector of the whole work, for the eminent benefits and for the grace which he bestowed. Finally, do not abuse this gift, but use it for the glory and for the praise of God and for the benefit of the needy. Here, then, you have the exact description of the whole process by which this eminent work, that is to say the Philosophical Egg and the Stone of the Philosophers, can be discovered, then prepared and completed.
As this work is rarely accomplished without incident, let us say in conclusion that in the event of a fortuitous error or a bad operation, which happens easily and is a considerable obstacle to obtaining perfection, a remedy must to be in time sought and applied to evil.
Here are the very clear signs of a contrary disposition, bad diet or negligence:
1. If you see that something sublimates and rises before dissolution and darkness, or that a kind of red oil floats on matter, which is a bad indicator;
2. If the material begins to blush before or too soon after the whiteness;
3. If at the end the material does not appear well and does not want to coagulate;
4. If the material is transformed and altered by extreme heat, so that when it is removed, placed on incandescent iron, it does not melt immediately like wax, it does not tint and color the iron, and does not then remain fixed in the fire.
These faults and errors can easily be prevented and even corrected, if they do not become too significant and if they are detected in time. But this requires the greatest know-how, the most singular stratagems and the most skilful knacks, all things that an experienced artist must absolutely know.
I will enumerate here as briefly as possible these remedies, in order to be agreeable to novices and disciples. So, if you notice one or more of these errors, you can remove the whole compound from the vessel, dissolve it a second time, soak it, moisten it and restore its effectiveness with the aforesaid mercury water which the philosophers have also called virgin's milk or milk, blood and sweat of the first matter, and also indestructible fountain and water of life which however contains in itself the greatest of venoms.
You can then fire the material again long enough for nothing to sublimate and rise, or for the freezing and fixing to take place completely and properly in this work, according to our previous indications. As to the fermentation and multiplication which follow, and their use,
Finally, something more complete should be said here about the time required for the work, that is to say when and how long each phase takes place, although the duration cannot be specified here. . Indeed, the philosophers we have cited are of different opinions, since we can see from their writings that one always obtained the result later than the other. However, we have previously drawn attention to the fact that in all these things it is necessary to observe nature, for the reason that it manifests itself there. If someone acts like this, if he observes this conscientiously, and also keeps the happy medium in everything, then he can reach perfection with such a work more quickly.
But I urge you and warn you: you must not exceed in your calculation during the development of the first or the second work this sign X, middle or point of reference, but divide it exactly, and then retrograde with half of this sign X, that is to say V, in the composition of the work. This done, if you then put it back together and count its twentieth part exactly, you can reach the end of your work in that number or time, provided that no obstacle arises.
Satisfy yourself with such weather. It is foolhardy for you to want to seek an end even a little faster, because one is quickly mistaken, since a single hour can delay you by a whole month or make you gain just as much, if you arrive at the goal. However, you must be careful not to shorten the calculation too stubbornly but also not to exceed it altogether, as it has been said, for if you did so, you would produce an abortion. Many researchers indeed, by their precipitation due to a false calculation or by their inexperience, obtained instead of the hoped-for elixir only an elixir of nothing (Elixir Nihilixir).
I wanted to make known to the sons of wisdom, to a small number at least, that this magical science is not done in such a short time, so that they reflect and pass judgment more deeply on this subject.
ENIGMA
There are seven cities, traditionally seven metals, seven days, the number seven.
There are seven letters, seven words in order, seven times and as many places, seven herbs, seven arts and seven precious stones. You're smart if you know how to divide seven by three.
No one will then demand to rush half. In summary, in this number all things are at peace.
THE PROCESS OF THE WHOLE WORK IS HERE BRIEFLY INDICATED.
FIRST WORK
Dissolve the matter, similarly putrefy it, and then cause the distilled thing to coagulate.
SECOND WORK
Join two things, putrefy, then blacken and digest until everything whitens thanks to your art.
To finish, coagulate, redden and fix, because the thing is useful to art. Thus will you become an illustrious man.
And finally, ferment it in its orb, and you will happily complete the whole work of art.
If you then take just one part of it, it will immediately increase your wealth a thousandfold.
AND MORE CONCISELY
Seek three things in one, then seek one thing in three, dissolve and seal (your vessel) and you will be more certain of the art.
RIDDLE IN WHICH THE PROCESS IS ALSO INDICATED
The spirit is given for a time to the body, but this spirit, by rejoicing the soul, purifies it by art. If this spirit suddenly draws the soul to itself, nothing further distances or separates it. They then stand in threes and remain in one place, until the work which consists of this noble body is dissolved.
It putrefies, dies and separates from them: but as time passes, the spirit and the soul come together like the heavy one, by a great ardor or heat. That's all, perfection is reached, and the work is glorified to the height of joy.
My son, give me your heart,
and let your eyes
be pleased in my ways.
Proverb XXIII, 26
THIRD PART
Who could magnify it
as it is? We only see a small number
of his works, and many more
are hidden from us. The Lord has indeed made
all that is, and God gives knowledge
to those who fear him.
Ecclesiastic XLIII, 31 to 33
THE philosophers could not devote enough writings to this supreme art, to this stone of genius of the philosophers brought to the desired perfection which I have just described in full, nor to worthily praise it and proclaim its virtue, its effectiveness as well as its ineffable utility. They held it and celebrated it as the highest and greatest bliss on this earth, without which no one can attain perfection in this world. Morien says in effect: He who possesses this stone, possesses everything and needs no other help. It is that in it resides all temporal bliss, all bodily health and all fortune.
But they particularly praised this stone because the spirit and power hidden in it is the spirit of the quintessence which stands under the circle of the splendor of the moon; moreover, he supports the sky and gives movement to the sea. He is, moreover, before all the other celestial spirits, the chosen spirit, the most mobile, the noblest, the purest spirit, to which all the others obey like a king.
He grants salvation and prosperity to men, he heals all diseases, he lavishes temporal honors and very long life on the pious, but he condemns the wicked who abuse him to eternal punishment. It has proven itself in all these areas and has been found to be perfect and infallible. This is why Hermes and Aristotle call it true, without lies, absolute certainty, secret of all secrets, divine virtue hidden from fools, and better still, ultimate perfection visible under the sky, and admirable completion or conclusion of all philosophical works. This is why some pious philosophers have rightly maintained that it was revealed from above to Adam, the first man, and that afterwards all the holy Patriarchs sought it with exceptional desire.
It is said indeed that Noah who built the ark, and Moses who erected the tabernacle and made the vessels of gold, just like Solomon who built the temple in honor of God and accomplished many remarkable works, ornaments of all kinds and other considerable works, obtained thanks to the stone a long life and immense wealth.
The philosophers have also confessed that it is thanks to the stone that they discovered the seven liberal arts, and that they thus obtained the desired means of subsistence. And God gave them the benefit of this so that eventually they would not be stopped in their studies and in the search for wisdom by their poverty, and so that they would not be mocked or mocked by the rich and the impious of this world. , for having flattered them or for having revealed to them for money the art and its secrets as well as their wisdom, while they were driven to begging. Moreover, they peered through the stone into the great hidden mysteries of divine miracles, and knew the immense riches of divine glory. Thus God awakens and inflames certain hearts to lead them to knowledge.
Rather, they derived all their voluptuousness and all their joy from the contemplation of the miracles hidden in creatures. Certainly they examined and observed the wonderful works and creatures of the Almighty in quite a different way than, alas, men of the present age are wont to do. The latter are not accustomed to look at them otherwise than do cows and calves, and moreover they seek this very noble art out of avarice, lust, pride, for temporal honors and voluptuousness, which is the worst. delusions. Indeed, God does not communicate such gifts to the impious and to those who despise his word; but only to pious men who spend their lives in this wicked and impure world in honesty and peace, who are upright and extend a helping hand to their neighbor in need.
This is what the following verses of the poet say:
This art, which the world cannot acquire with gold, is given by God to the honest and the upright. The vulgar would know something, it is not a question of the work. The wicked seek the stone here in vain. He who silently guards this thing resides where he wills. He fears neither accident, nor thief, nor evil. But few are the men who can receive these sacred presents. God who holds them in his hands, will give them to whomever he pleases.
Much about the action, virtue and usefulness of this art has been written and made public by others. Thus they said how this stone, well prepared and made more than perfect, becomes the medicine of medicines and not only cures all diseases such as gout and leprosy, but also restores youth and restores lost strength and original vigor to decrepit people who make use of it, and recreates and vivifies those who are at the point of death. Nevertheless, I will not touch on this subject here in my treatise, so as not to seem to prescribe by such praise a remedy for physicians and their faculty, when I am by no means a physician. But to him who possesses the thing by the grace of God and who knows how to use it suitably, I leave the task of judging and pronouncing the sentence. However,
First, it is not possible for me to describe or express as much as it deserves what relates to the knowledge of God and the miracles of nature, which have been manifested through this art. Man will indeed be able to see in its details, as in a mirror, the image of the Holy Trinity in an indissoluble divine essence, how it is divided and nevertheless remains one God. He will see at the same time in the second person of the divinity what concerns the assumption of human flesh, the nativity, the passion, death and resurrection, as well as his exaltation and the eternal beatitude deserved by his death for us, men, his creatures.
He will also see what relates to the purification of original sin and the steps to be taken, without which the plans and actions of all men and all their works are done in vain and are nothing. Ultimately he will see all the articles of the Christian faith and the whole path that man must necessarily follow through tribulations and anguish, to finally be born into a new life, a subject that I will take up more extensively in the fourth part of this book.
Secondly, with regard to the bodily and natural usefulness which comes from the stone, I intend to indicate here briefly, in order to fulfill my promises, how all imperfect metals are transformed into perfect metals and shining gold and pure by its Tincture.
If the stone or elixir, of which so much is said, has been brought to the desired accomplishment and is now to be used, as I have just said, for dyeing, it is necessary to ferment it and increase further, otherwise it will only be possible with great difficulty a suitable projection on other metals and imperfect bodies with its tint, because of its subtlety.
This is why it is necessary in the first place to take a part of the medicine so often described, and to add to it three parts of the best gold, melted and purified by antimony and reduced to very small strips. Let them melt together in the crucible as usual. When this is done, the whole compound turns into a pure and effective tincture, so that one part of this tincture is then able to dye a thousand parts of simple metal and reduce them to pure gold.
Note: the more the metals are pure and close to matter, the more easily the dye receives them, the better the quality is the multiplication and the more easily it is accomplished. Indeed, all that is found here of impure and which does not have the required qualities, is separated and totally rejected like dross. The increase in quality and the transmutation can be done with the precious stones which present a defect, in the same way as with the imperfect metals.
The crystal can be dyed and can then be compared to the noblest and most precious stones. Many other things can still be accomplished by this means, but they must in no way be revealed to the ungodly world. The philosophers whom we have quoted several times, like all true Christians today, to whom God thrice good and great has given this art and whom he has gratified with his wealth, will hold in this magisterium such excellent things and others of the same kind, for what is most vile and lesser. They must indeed be counted for nothing with regard to the first knowledge of celestial marvels.
Know, to tell the truth, that he to whom the Most High has granted this gift in his great clemency, appreciates as much, in view of the celestial goods, all the money and all the riches on this earth as the filth and the mud which cover public squares. With all his heart and with all his desire he seeks to behold celestially and in all truth in eternal life what he has seen earthly and figuratively here below, and he strives to enjoy it.
Thus also testifies King Solomon, the wisest of kings, when he says, Wisdom VII, 8 and 9: I have esteemed more and I have preferred Wisdom to kingdoms and in the first place, she m was more precious than riches. I have not equaled her the precious stones, for all the gold with her is but a little sand, and the silver, with regard to her, must be esteemed as mud.
That is why those who seek this art for the temporal honours, the pleasures and the riches which must flow from it, are declared and considered crazier than crazier. Never can they get what they seek for so long, at great expense, with so much pain and inconvenience, and for which they torment their hearts, their souls and all their thoughts so much. This is why the philosophers had only contempt for temporal riches, not that they were bad in themselves, since they are greatly praised by Moses in chapter II of Genesis and in many other places. of the Holy Scriptures, as a precious thing and a most excellent gift from God, but because of the misuse that is made of it, so true that it raises a great obstacle for men who want to achieve the just and true good, and keeps in perverse confusion everything else that would otherwise be right in this world.
This is also gracefully exposed by the very famous Marcellus Palingenius Stellatus in the poem entitled The Zodiac of Life (Marcelli Palingenii Stellati Poetae doctissimi Zodiacus vitae. 1537). Under the sign of Sagittarius he depicted detestable avarice, and we want to refer the benevolent reader to it now.
We can see there and infer how much this illustrious man who really possessed this art, as appears from his Zodiac of Nature, considered nothing in comparison with virtue and despised gold and silver which are not than temporal goods.
This is why all, as we have recalled, placed wisdom and knowledge of heavenly things far above earthly and perishable things. During their existence, they had in view in all their actions only the result and the end, so that they could by this conduct make themselves an immortal name and receive perpetual praise. This is what the very wise Solomon teaches in his Proverbs when he says, Prov XVI, 16: Acquire wisdom for it is better than gold and intelligence is more precious than silver. And he further says, Prov XXII, 1: Good fame is better than great wealth, and art is better than silver and gold. Siracide, this wise man, launches the following exhortation, Eccl XLI, 12: Take care of your name, because there will remain more than a thousand great treasures of gold.
The philosophers have not been able, as I have already remarked, to praise and celebrate this stone enough for all its different virtues which spring out of this philosophy of the stone. This is why they gathered in their writings all that relates to study and practice, so that after them this art could be perpetuated, the wisdom transmitted, and henceforth one could conform one's life to it. But for the ignorant everything is dark, nebulous and difficult to understand, about which Solomon complains strongly in his Proverbs, from the beginning to chapter VI, he who exhorts men to seek wisdom with the greatest care, saying:
My son, keep a
humble attitude, because it's better than anything
the world covets. Make yourself as much
the more humble you are, and the Lord
will favor you, for the Lord is the Most
High, and he does great things
through the humble.
Ecclesiasticus III, 17
PART FOUR
I will open my mouth in parables
and tell the secrets hidden since the
beginning of the world.
Psalm LXXVIII, 2 and Matthew XIII, 34
WHEN the Almighty God wanted to reveal by his divine voice to the human race some very singular secret touching his admirable, sublime and celestial mysteries, he most often did so allegorically. These parables, known to us in the course of this earthly life, are daily before our eyes like proposed images. For example, when God, in chapter III of Genesis after the fall of Adam in Paradise wanted to indicate to him his mortal penalty, bodily death, he signified it to him by this teaching: If the earth by itself had not no life, however, he himself would be taken from it and formed and, for this reason, he would have to become like it again (1).
In the fifteenth and twenty-second chapters of Genesis (Gn III, 19) God wanting to show Abraham the multiplication of his seed and of his descendants, showed him as images the stars in the sky, the sand in the sea and the dust of the earth. . He did the same again when he wanted to announce something extraordinary to the Israelite people through the voice of the prophets; he commanded to offer and show them typical, pleasant and seductive prefigurations.
Christ himself then, voice and foundation of the truth, did the same thing in his Testament: he proposed all things to us in parables, above all so that his doctrine might be better understood. To indicate to us the supreme beatitude, namely his divine Word and the Gospel, he used the symbol of the good and the bad seed, the tares, which the enemy had sown in the field and also the hidden treasure, the pearl, the grain of wheat, the mustard seed, the leaven, etc. (Lc III, 9, Mt XIII. Lc XIX, 11, Mt XX, 1).
Likewise, as a figure of the Kingdom of Heaven, he offered us the parable of the Great Supper and the King's wedding. He compared the Universal Christian Church, and its establishment, to a vineyard, to a King holding his minister accountable; he used the similarity of the noble lord distributing his goods to his ministers, of the lost sheep and ox, of the lost son and so on, for the other parables (See Mt XVIII, 23, Lk XVI, 1 and 19, Mti XXV, 1 and 24).
These symbols and similarities were given to us only to facilitate our understanding and imagination of celestial things, so difficult to grasp because of human imbecility. But, even more than all this, was not the eternal God to offer us in a certain bodily figure the greatest of goods, his Son, our Lord and Keeper, that is to say Jesus Christ who freed all mankind from eternal death, and by their obedience and merits restored the celestial kingdom? Is it not difficult to understand this great mystery of the Almighty GOD:
May the heavens send down the dew and the clouds rain down the righteous, may the earth open up, be covered with vegetation and bring forth the Savior (Is XLV, 8, Eph. III, 16, Col. I,)
This was signified to us in the Old Testament, and elsewhere also, by certain types, as in the sacrifice of Isaac, the ladder of Jacob, the sale and admirable establishment of Joseph, the serpent of brass, Samson, David and Jonah. But God Almighty has above all shown us beforehand to us, men, and abundantly, a good so high and so heavenly, by a certain thing admirable and yet hidden in the great book of Nature; something that he brought to light so that we can thus, with the rest, have an original representation and even a certain apprehension, visible and corporeal, of these heavenly goods and gifts.
He proposed to us in his Word a certain earthly and corporeal object when he said to us through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah (Is XXVIII, 16): on it does not leak. And David, the royal prophet tells us by the Spirit of God (Ps CXVIII, 22 and 23): The stone rejected by the architects has become a cornerstone, it is the work of the Lord and it is a marvel to our eyes. And Christ himself, now called Cornerstone, relates this figure to himself by saying (Mt XXI, 42 to 44): Have you never read in Scripture that the stone rejected by the architects has become angular stone ? It is the work of the Lord and it is a marvel in our eyes; whoever falls on her will be broken and whoever she falls on she will crush.
This is what Saint Peter in his epistle (Act. IV, 11.) and Saint Paul (Rm IX, 33.) repeat and describe, invariably, in the same way.
Already, since the beginning of the world, the Ancestors, the holy Patriarchs and after them, all the enlightened men of God, waited with all the strength of their desire for this proven, blessed and heavenly stone, JESUS CHRIST (Lk X, 23, 24.); all their most ardent prayers were for God to deign to communicate to them, to them too, Christ in his bodily and visible form. If, then, they knew him according to justice, in the Spirit, and if they followed him, they reveled in him all their lives and even, in all perils, they leaned on this pillar. invisible.
This celestial and blessed stone was given by God to all mankind, rich and poor alike, free of charge, without any merit on the part of anyone. Although few men, however, from the beginning until our days, have been able to discover and understand it in this world, it remains, even, at all times, always hidden like a heavy stumbling block and scandal for most of humans.
Did not Isaiah prophesy about him; saying: He will be a stumbling block and a rock of scandal, and a stumbling block and a snare into which many will throw themselves, fall, be broken, be entwined and caught. It is also her that the old father Simeon saw in the Spirit when he spoke in this way to Mary, mother, of the cornerstone of heaven: Verily, verily. This will be an occasion of fall and resurrection for many in Israel and it will be a sign of contradiction. Saint Paul also bears this same testimony, saying (Rom IX, 32, 33):
They have struck the stumbling block and the rock of scandal, but whoever believes in Him will not be confounded. And Saint Peter says the same in his epistle (I Pi II, 6 and 7): This stone, precious for believers, but for unbelievers, a stumbling block and a fall, and a rock of scandal for those who stumble on the word and do not believe in it in whom they are placed. but whoever believes in Him will not be confounded. And Saint Peter says the same in his epistle (I Pi II, 6 and 7):
This stone, precious for believers, but for unbelievers, a stumbling block and a fall, and a rock of scandal for those who stumble on the word and do not believe in it in whom they are placed. but whoever believes in Him will not be confounded. And Saint Peter says the same in his epistle (I Pi II, 6 and 7): This stone, precious for believers, but for unbelievers, a stumbling block and a fall, and a rock of scandal for those who stumble on the word and do not believe in it in whom they are placed.
How, then, would this stone, which we have called precious, blessed and celestial, harmonize with the corporeal and philosophical stone produced so artificially, this earthly stone of which we have so often spoken above? This will demonstrate that: we will parallel the description of each of the two and we will compare them with each other. We will thereby know in a convincing way and we will see how the true terrestrial philosophical stone becomes the type and harmonizes in some way with the true celestial and spiritual stone, Jesus Christ, who is proposed to us by God in a corporeal form. and shown beforehand in a visible aspect.
First, in the same way, in the true knowledge (1 Cor. II) of the first matter of the earthly philosophical stone of which we have spoken (and this first matter must be considered as the main and hidden in the greatest secrecy ), it matters above all to those who prepare it (Rm XI, 33) and strive thereby to attain in this temporal life all the happiness that God has prepared for us in the eternity of the ages, and who have at the same time research. of the eternal celestial stone (which is the tri-one indissoluble essence of the just, true and living GOD, creator of heaven and earth), it is important for these people to learn a great deal yet. This is why we advise to study well the first part of this treatise and to know the Universal Nature with its properties. Without this knowledge, moreover, it is in vain and recklessly that one would undertake this work.
The man, in fact, who wants to achieve this supreme good must rightly know, in addition to all the rest, first GOD, and then himself (Acts XVII, 28); that is: who we are, where we come from, why we were created and how close we are to God. This must be truly held and celebrated as the greatest of all wisdoms, without which it will be very difficult, even impossible, to achieve the aforesaid bliss. why we were created and how close neighbors we are to God. This must be truly held and celebrated as the greatest of all wisdoms, without which it will be very difficult, even impossible, to achieve the aforesaid bliss. why we were created and how close neighbors we are to God. This must be truly held and celebrated as the greatest of all wisdoms, without which it will be very difficult, even impossible, to achieve the aforesaid bliss.
But how and where can one find, recognize and receive the knowledge of such a great good? (Eccle XXIV, 3) As the philosophical earthly stone, according to its description, is in one and two, which are found everywhere, so this knowledge of the Celestial Stone must be in one, which, however, are two. It must be sought comparatively, that is to say, in the eternal Word of God and in divine Holy Scripture, the Old and New Testaments (Is VIII, 20). It is in them alone and only that the right, celestial, fundamental and corner stone must be sought and scrutinized. Thus, GOD the Father shows us his Word as if pointing at him in this glorification of Mount Tabor, saying (Mk IX, 7, Lk IX, 35): This is my beloved Son, listen to him , etc. Likewise also Christ, essential and eternal word of God relates this to himself, saying in Saint John (Jn XIV, 6,): I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except by me, c that is to say, to divine Sacred Scripture or infallible testimony to the divine word (Is XXXIV, 16). Isaiah says: To the law and to the testimony (Is VIII, 20. ).
And Christ, called himself the cornerstone, partially points out and accuses the same thing when he says: You search the scriptures because you believe you find life there and they are the ones that testify of me. And David also confessed the same thing long before, saying: I delight, Lord, in your testimonies, for they are my advisers; your word, Lord, is a lamp before my steps; I delight much more in the way of your testimonies than in all the riches. He adds: I consider your ways and I walk according to your testimonies.
Where then, in what place in Holy Scripture, was the raw material of this celestial stone or essence founded? This is what is expressly and fundamentally demonstrated to us in many places, and placed before our eyes, notably in Micah: And its origin comes from ancient times, from the days of eternity. And he himself, the cornerstone, bears the same witness. To the Jews asking him who he was, he replied: The principle that speaks to you. And a little further, he apostrophizes the Jews by saying: Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I was. It follows irrefutably from these testimonies that he never had any beginning but that his first Being is from all eternity, and that he must also remain eternally, without end.
Although this knowledge consists of nothing but the word of God, the Old and New Testaments, from which it comes and interprets itself, I will nevertheless indicate to the seeker that it requires extreme diligence. He, indeed, who should err in the knowledge of this principle or who should touch the thing sinisterly, it is in vain that he would then spend all his labor. This is why each must test himself rightly and study himself in justice to a right apprehension golden in separation from the Word. We must open our eyes (understand: those of the spirit and the soul), look with a piercing eye and recognize this by the internal light that GOD kindled in the beginning in nature and our heart.
He who strives to achieve it only by his external and bodily senses (i.e. following the literal sense) and without the internal eye and the divine light, that one would certainly confuse Saul and Paul, thus choosing to follow an erroneous path and sinister understanding. As this mystery hides for thousands of men in the description of the terrestrial stone, so also the knowledge of the celestial stone presents itself to us every day, alas! in its most sublime and powerful aspect. Our ignorance must not, however, be imputed to the obscurity of the word or the letter, for both are well founded, but rather to our eye, which in man is false. Christ himself says: The eye is the light of the body, if your eye is bad, your body also is dark and dark and if it becomes so, the light will become darkness in you. Likewise: Behold, saith he, the kingdom of heaven is within you. It therefore appears clearly that, in man, the knowledge of light must proceed not from without, but from within, as the Sacred Scripture so often quoted testifies.
The outer object, as we usually say, or the letter written, because of our imbecility, must be considered against the inner light of grace implanted and granted by God for the purpose of witnessing. Likewise, the verb perceived orally is an invitation, an intermediary aid to promote this light. If, for example, after having placed in front of you a white table and a black table, I asked you which is black and which is white, these tables being bare and dumb objects, you could only with great difficulty answer my question, if the knowledge of these different colors had not been in you first). This knowledge indeed draws its origin, not from these tables which are mute and dead and can know nothing by themselves, but from your own sciences, innate in you and exercised daily.
As we said above, objects, setting the senses in motion, offer a grip on knowledge, but yet they in no way give knowledge in itself; the exterior brings out the knowledge of the interior of the subject knowing and thus exercising his judgment in the science of colors. Likewise, if you were asked to extract material and external fire, or light, from a fire-stone in which this fire, or light is hidden, you would not have to introduce into the stone this occult light. and secret, but you should rather move and excite this hidden fire with a suitable lighter which you would necessarily have to possess.
You must therefore cause this fire to spring up and manifest out of the stone, which you must then spread and blow on a good inflammable material well prepared for this purpose, otherwise, he would be forced to shut down immediately and pass out again. After that, you will be able to have a brilliant fire with which it will be possible for you to accomplish whatever you please at your pleasure, as long as you tend and keep it. Likewise also, this divine and celestial light, hidden in man, must necessarily come, as we said above, not from the extrinsic inward, but manifest itself outwardly out of a certain thing.
So, from the beginning, it can therefore be inspired by God, light up and become radiant, by means of the true faith first, and then by the intermediaries, the aids which are brought to us like reading, the hearing, exhortation; finally, by the Holy Spirit whom Christ has restored for us and which he has promised to give us in a dark, nebulous, but candid heart, as in a certain inflammable matter. God can then work and operate in this heart because He desires to dwell in the hearts of believers and in an inaccessible light.
Although no man has ever seen God with his bodily and external eyes, nor can see Him, He can nevertheless be seen, discerned and recognized by the internal eyes of the heart. This clear light sends its splendor all over the world, it illuminates all men without any distinction, all the days of their life, but the world, however, because of its corrupt and depraved nature does not see it rightly and even wants to ignore it. That is why there are so many wrong ways and so many pernicious opinions in the world.
It is necessary to consider, note and observe this: it is not without reason and by chance that GOD gave to man, in the upper part of his body, eyes and also two ears. He wanted in fact to indicate to us by this that man must necessarily learn and observe by a double sight and a double hearing, that is to say, the external and the internal. He must therefore judge spiritual things by the internal sense, without neglecting to attribute to the external sense the part which belongs to it. This distinction must also be observed with the greatest care in the word of the Spirit and the letter.
That is why I too, by the way, wanted to point this out to the simpler ones so that they would be all the better informed and come to a better and easier knowledge of the tri-one stone, summit of these mysteries.
The material of the philosophical earthly stone is held for nothing before the world, it is valued at no price, it is even rejected almost universally. Christ too, Eternal Word of the Father, Most Noble Jewel and tri-one celestial stone, tested, is reviled by the majority of men in this world. It is rejected from our eyes, and indeed, to speak the truth of the matter, there is so to speak nothing more unworthy, more vile and more abject than the word of God, the Savior Himself. This is why the sages of this world especially, consider it madness.
And not only is it esteemed of no value and even totally despised, but also ostracized, proscribed and condemned as heresy; such blasphemy is the greatest sorrow for a pious man. Believers must also be tried in this way according to justice, and the testimonies of which we have spoken above must be confirmed as they should be. This is what John also bears witness to, saying: He, that is to say the Word, was in the world and the world did not recognize him; He came in his possessions and yet his people did not receive him.
The Philosophers have given a very large number of different names to this Aquarium of the Sages, corporeal and terrestrial, of unfathomable virtue and efficiency, as well as to its matter. They thus designated it by this unique expression: POWER AND LIGHT, Numen and Lumen, whose action and omnipotence cannot be traced. Sacred Scripture also gives him a very large number of different titles and names. We are going to list here, in order, the principal of these names, in one and the other of these two sources.
It is called the Stone of the Philosophers, very ancient, occult or ignored, natural, incomprehensible, celestial, benevolent and the Stone of the Sages consecrated. It is said to be true, without lies, certain and very true, secret of all secrets, divine, hidden from fools, supreme and last virtue and efficacy that can be seen under heaven, admirable epilogue or conclusion of all philosophical works. It is also called suitable and perfect comparison of all the elements, incorruptible body which cannot be touched by any element. Above all, it is given the names of quintessence, double and vivifying Mercury possessing in it the celestial spirit, health of all sick and imperfect metals, eternal light, supreme Medicine of all diseases, noble Phoenix, supreme and most noble treasure, or supreme of Nature, tri-one universal stone, conjunction of three by nature and yet unique, though begotten and perfected from one, two, three, four and five.
Likewise, it is called Catholic Magnesia or sperm of the world, and of all the other names and titles of this kind that can be discovered among the Philosophers. All could be universally counted, certainly, quite appropriately, and included in the supreme and very perfect number, the number one thousand.
It is the same, I say, for this terrestrial Philosophical stone and for its matter which have many a thousand different names and which consequently are said to be admirable. But all these titles and all these names of which we have spoken can be, with all the more reason, attributed to Almighty God, and to the Supreme Good, because GOD with his Word, his righteous and precious eternal Son, is also a tested stone, angular and fundamental. It is the stone rejected and proscribed by architects. It is true, ancient, and even very ancient. It was from all eternity and long before the foundations of the world were laid. He is the just God, hidden, unknown, supernatural, incomprehensible, celestial, blessed, and object of all praise, only savior and even GOD of all Gods. He is certain and true, not being able to lie. He is certainty itself, doing what he pleases, according to his good pleasure; he alone is powerful, very secret and eternal, in whom lie hidden all the mysteries and treasures of Wisdom.
It is the only divine and all-powerful virtue, hidden and ignored by fools and sages alike in this world. It is the just, unique and sometimes agreement of all the elements; from him, through him and in him all things are and come into existence. His essence is incorruptible. It cannot be dissolved or separated by any element. He is quintessence, essence of all essences, while not being properly any of them in particular. It is the true and just double Mercury or Giant of a double substance.
As a hymn sings about him, he is at the same time and by his nature, God, man, hero, etc. He possesses within him the celestial spirit which vivifies everything, he is life itself. He is the unique and perfect Savior of imperfect bodies and men, the true celestial doctor of the soul, the eternal light which illumines all men. It is a supreme medicine for all diseases and the true spiritual panacea. It is the noble Phoenix who recreates and revivifies with his blood his little ones wounded and murdered by the old serpent, the Devil. Finally, it is the supreme treasure, the sovereign good in heaven and on earth.
It is a tri-one universal essence, called Jehova drawn from one, a divine essence, from two, God and man, from three, three persons, from four, three persons and a divine essence, from five, three persons and two essences, and it is divine and human.
God is also the true Catholic Magnesia or Catholic sperm of the world, from which, by which and in which all celestial and terrestrial creatures receive the essence, the movement and the origin. It is finally the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, as says the Lord who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.
But in truth, in philosophical work, it is not enough only to know matter, to know that it is a tri-one essence and to have learned its qualities and properties, it is also necessary to know how to acquire it. and use it.
This can only be done, as we said above, if we dissolve these three things; if we putrefy them to remove their smoky shade and their gross essence, which darken this matter and present it to us under a shapeless and inhuman aspect. We must then, by a subsequent sublimation, and by means of this marine water shining with fire, catholic and joyful, draw from this matter its heart and its hidden soul and reduce it into a certain corporeal essence. Likewise, we cannot know this divine tri-one essence called JEHOVA, unless we have first dissolved and putrefied it towards us, unless we stripped it of its mosaic veil and of its of anger which is for us a hindrance of nature and a scarecrow. We must then, by subsequent divine illumination, to draw from her his heart and his inner and hidden soul, that is, his Son who is Christ, and this is done by the operation and help of the purifying Holy Spirit our hearts like pure water, illuminating them like divine fire, filling and recreating them with a sweet and joyful consolation. Thus the God of wrath will appear to you appeased.
In the philosophical work, it is therefore necessary to dissolve matter in its three parts or principles, then to freeze it with its own salt, and to reduce it to a single essence, what is then called the Salt of Wisdom. Likewise, GOD and his own heart, which is the son of the father, must necessarily be united by their own salt, similarly implanted in God in an essential way, but they must be recognized as one God and not believed to be two or hold them for three different gods or essences.
If therefore, in this way, you have known God through his Son, if, after having separated them, you unite them again, if you join them together by the spirit of divine wisdom and by the bond of charity, then the Invisible and unknown God will henceforth be visible to you, knowable and intelligible. He won't be like he was before inhuman and angry; he will present himself to you in a very human and very gentle way, letting himself be touched, known and seen. God, then, before Christ his Son is formed and imagined in us, is a terrible God and even a consuming fire. But you must not consider this knowledge of the tri-one divine essence as sufficient and perfect, if you do not progress, if you do not grow in a deeper knowledge with regard to him, especially, of his heart.
We have already said that if in the philosophical work the preparation of the subject is not pushed further, it will be more harmful to you than profitable for bodily medicine. It is the same for Christ: if you do not know him better and more perfectly still, he will be of little use to you as spiritual medicine for your soul, and even, on the contrary, he could lead you to damnation. This is why, for you too, if you want to become partakers of himself, of his celestial gifts and of his treasures, to enjoy them and to use them in bliss, it is necessary for you to advance further in his knowledge. personal, not to recognize him nor to imagine him solely as God, but to wait for the perfect completion of the appointed time in which he receives that addition which makes him both God and man, and even son of man.
In the philosophical work, to carry it out and achieve the tint which perfects the other simple metals, it is necessary, to the first matter, to affix a certain metallic body very worthy, and, for that, very close to this first matter. , much desired and much loved by her, to unite them and reduce them into a single body. In theological work too, if we want to enjoy its fruit and become partakers of its nature, we must join to the divine nature of the son of God another quasi-metallic body, flesh and blood, humanity or nature. human, created in his image, highest peak in dignity among all the creatures of God, very close to this divine nature.
They must be united and reduced to a certain indissoluble body.
But in the foreshadowing of the Philosophical work, as we have noted and observed, the vulgar body of gold does not suit this work at all. His imperfection and his many other faults which taint him with guilt, render him quite useless. It must therefore be estimated and considered as dead. It is another body that must be taken, pure, clear, without mixture, without any impurity or defect, never having been falsified by the unique fraud nor debilitated by its internal sulphur.
Likewise, it is not the vulgar human nature, conceived in sins, defiled by original sin and by the sins committed daily, and moreover distorted and contaminated by all kinds of preternatural infirmities covering the human race, it is not it is not this nature that must be incorporated into the divine essence of the Son of God,
If, indeed, the terrestrial Adam before the fall, although he was only a creature, was nevertheless without sin, and even a holy and perfect man, what then to think of this celestial Adam who bears in Him the only Son? of God ?
Jesus Christ, eternal, fundamental and angular celestial stone, is therefore described in the same way as the Philosophical Stone, as to his two admirable natures, his conception, his birth, while also remaining unfathomable as to his natures and properties. . By his divinity, he is, from all eternity, issued from the sole divine essence of his celestial and eternal Father, true God or rather true son of God, from whom he issued according to the Scripture, from the beginning and eternity. But in his humanity he was born, a true and perfect man, with body and soul, without sin or blemish, when the time was fulfilled, as the scripture says, and becoming henceforth indissoluble, personal, of a Theandric essence, that's to say, true God and true man in a single and indissoluble person for eternity; he must therefore necessarily be recognized as Almighty God, and honored as such.
Let's hope that the eyes of these so-called doctors are opened, that they are rid of their smoky glasses and their sophisticated ghosts. Let's hope they recover, once and for all, the sight they had lost. I am thinking above all of the disciples of Aristotle, of all those sophists blind to the divine works, stirring up all sorts of endless disputes about the divine, according to a practice that is very unChristian.
There is never an end to these divisions and confusions engendered by the quarrel of the two natures and the communication of the virtues in Christ, an article, however very venerable and well founded in Holy Scripture. If they did not refuse to believe in God and his divine word, they could nevertheless know its essence and feel it as with the fingers, by the works called chemical today, where, as we have shown, this conjunction takes place by the union of the two waters, that of Mercury and that of the Sun. But their major, scholastic art of Gentile philosophy, not founded on Holy Scripture or Christian Theology, the vain and worthless foundations and precepts of Aristotle, about substance, accidents, and many other things , all this prevents them from pursuing such a work.
They do not consider much what the old Tertullian wrote, not wrongly: philosophers are the patriarchs of heretics. But it would be giving the work very little value to dwell on this subject any longer. not based on Sacred Scripture or Christian Theology, the vain and worthless foundations and precepts of Aristotle, about substance, accidents and many other things, all this prevents them from pursuing such a work. They do not consider much what the old Tertullian wrote, not wrongly: philosophers are the patriarchs of heretics. But it would be giving the work very little value to dwell on this subject any longer. not based on Sacred Scripture or Christian Theology, the vain and worthless foundations and precepts of Aristotle, about substance, accidents and many other things, all this prevents them from pursuing such a work. They do not consider much what the old Tertullian wrote, not wrongly: philosophers are the patriarchs of heretics. But it would be giving the work very little value to dwell on this subject any longer.
In the Philosophical work, the compost after the conjunction of the two essences must be placed in the fire to putrefy, be crushed there and well cooked. During this putrefaction and coction, until total perfection, varied movements, diverse colors intervene and manifest themselves; the greater part of it can be traced in the descriptions which are made of the earthly work. It is the same for the divine-human and human-divine person of Jesus Christ. God, his heavenly Father, willed that in this world he should be placed in the fiery furnace of tribulation to be well cooked there, that is to say, that he should be pushed into various trials by ignominy, cross and all kinds of pain. It has been changed in various aspects.
For example, he experienced Satan's hunger and temptation in the desert when, after his baptism, he dedicated himself, under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, to the holy ministry of preaching the divine Word. He was indeed to support this triple tournament there, in testimony to all Christians who have embraced Christianity and who henceforth, confessing Christ, are also forced to be tempted by the Devil, and solicited to defection by all sorts of temptations. varied. Likewise he was weary, he wept, he trembled, he wrestled with death, he sweated blood, he was taken and bound, struck in the face by a familiar of the high priest, derided, mocked, jeered, scourged, crowned, condemned to death and finally to the torture of the cross which he himself had to carry.
He was nailed between two thieves, drenched in gall and vinegar, he cried out with a loud voice, gave up his spirit in the hands of God his Father, finally he expired and died on the cross. He had to bear in his life and in his death many other agonies and tribulations, which can be read in detail in the holy evangelists.
As the Philosophers write for the earthly work of which we have spoken, this coction and putrefaction is usually perfected in forty days. By this same number, many miracles and marvelous facts have been described to us by God and recorded in Sacred Scripture. This is how the Israelite people remained forty years in the desert because they had to experience a harsh exile. It was the same with Moses on Mount Sinai, and with Elijah in his flight from Ahab.
Christ fasted in the desert for forty days and forty nights; he preached and publicly performed miracles on this earth for forty months; he remained concealed forty hours in the sepulchre; he showed himself alive to his disciples and circulated among them for forty days, between his resurrection from the dead and his ascension into heaven. Finally,
It is important to note also that the philosophers called this putrefaction crow's head because of its black color. Wasn't Christ also completely formless? : He had neither shape nor beauty to attract our eyes, nor appearance to excite our love. Quite vile, a man of sorrows and sorrows, despised to such an extent that in front of him people hid their faces and that he was esteemed absolutely for nothing. The Psalmist raises a similar complaint: It is a worm, there is nothing human about it, it is a mockery before men, an object of contempt for the populace. One can compare to it this body of the Sun lying at the bottom of the philosophical vase, dead and ineffective, putrefied, reduced to ashes, until by a stronger fire, its soul descends again in it drop by drop, imperceptibly,
The same indeed happened with Christ. On the Mount of Olives and on the Cross, roasted by the fire of divine wrath, he complained of being completely abandoned by his Heavenly Father. But nevertheless, it was always restored and fortified, as impregnated and moistened after having drunk the divine Nectar, as it also does for our terrestrial body which it preserves and restores by its assiduous care.
Likewise, when his forces with his spirit were entirely taken away from him in his most holy passion by the death of the mixed world, when he descended completely to the lower places, in the depths of the earth, he was however, again, preserved, restored, and by the virtue and power of the eternal Deity, it arose, quickened and glorified. Then indeed his spirit with his dead body in the sepulchre, were rightly united, perfect, indissoluble. By his blessed resurrection and victorious ascension into heaven, he was exalted in the Lord and Christ and set at the right hand of his Father with whom now, by the virtue and efficacy of the Holy Spirit, as true God and man, with equal power and glory, he reigns universally, dominates, preserves, possesses all by his almighty word, and even vivifies all things.
What an admirable union! How could it be seen by angels and men, this divine exaltation, how could it be contemplated without terror and trembling, in heaven, on earth, and even under the earth?. Its efficiency, its power, and its Tincture of dew color, can change, tint, heal more than perfectly and restore health now, in body and soul, to the imperfect and sinful men that we are. But we will say more about this topic.
We have therefore examined briefly and simply, Jesus Christ, the one, celestial, fundamental and corner stone; how it compares and unites with the earthly Philosophical Stone of the Sages, whose matter and preparation, as we have heard, is the excellent type and living replica of the incarnation of Christ. It therefore seems necessary to us now to examine and learn to know the efficacy of Christ, his virtue and Tincture as well as his fermentation and multiplication in us, men, deprived of efficacy and virtue like imperfect metals.
If God indeed, from the beginning, created man above all things, as the most noble and the most perfect creature made in his very image, if he inspired in him a living spirit and an immortal soul, this one however, by the fall, was transformed into a distorted, hostile and pernicious image:
But the Almighty God, by a pure movement of his mercy, willed, by a certain means, to restore so noble a creature to its primitive perfection. And this means, here it is; we have said that the stone or tincture, when it attains perfection, must still be made more than perfect, by fermentation, increase or multiplication, failing which it would not be of multiple effect and its efficacy or operation would remain useless. Christ also, this celestial and blessed Stone, having acquired his deo-human perfection, must still be fermented and multiplied with us as with his members, that is to say, we must be with him, purified and united, conformed and prepared by his rosy-colored saving Tincture into a pure and celestial body.
This one, indeed, according to the testimony of Paul is the eldest of many brothers and even the eldest of all other creatures, by whom all that is created in heaven and on earth was reconciled to God . We who are naturally impure, mortal and imperfect, if we wish therefore to be reborn in purity, to become immortal and perfect again, it can only be done by this means alone, by this unique, celestial, fundamental and angular Stone, Jesus Christ, only holy and even most holy, newly born, resurrected glorified heavenly King, God and man in one person and eternally abiding.
If the Stone of the Philosophers, this chemical King, can have by its tincture such utility, if it contains by its perfect action this virtue and efficacy of dyeing and transmuting into pure gold the other imperfect, simple and less esteemed metals, how much more yet this heavenly King, this fundamental cornerstone, this one and only Jesus Christ, can he not purify us, we, sinful and imperfect men, from our innate filth, from our Adamic faeces, by his blessed Tincture, his blood color of rose, and even heal and cure us more than perfectly. Much more, as the Scripture tells us, no other salvation, no means is given to us, neither in heaven nor on earth, to attain eternal beatitude and perfection, if not in the sole name of Jesus.
Although the blind and foolish world, deceived by Satan's imposture and illusion, has sought in many ways, by frenzied work, the means of attaining eternal bliss and the modes of perfection, it does not Nevertheless, Jesus Christ, unique Savior and Mediator, is and remains the One in whom and through whom we become just and blessed before God, purified again from the spiritual leprosy of sin; likewise as the only earthly Savior and Chemical King, it is to him that all imperfect metals seek their perfection, it is through him that they attain it and are healed of all their diseases, above all and in the first place, of their incurable bodily leprosy.
All other means and arts invented by men themselves, brought among us by Jews, Turks, Gentiles or other heretics, all these means that we are still represented as necessary, are therefore, to tell the truth, devoid of the Spirit, it is a false and sophistical alchemy: Take care that no one deceives you. By these means we are not purified but bound, we are not quickened but weakened and even put to death completely. This false alchemy, better called Malchemy (Malchymia), invented all sorts of dyes and colors, which contribute not only to mislead men, but also, alas, as daily experience sufficiently shows us, to precipitate them into the greatest perils for their possessions and their bodily life. Be careful that no one deceives you.
By these means we are not purified but bound, we are not quickened but weakened and even put to death completely. This false alchemy, better called Malchemy (Malchymia), invented all sorts of dyes and colors, which contribute not only to mislead men, but also, alas, as daily experience sufficiently shows us, to precipitate them into the greatest perils for their possessions and their bodily life. Be careful that no one deceives you. By these means we are not purified but bound, we are not quickened but weakened and even put to death completely. This false alchemy, better called Malchemy (Malchymia), invented all sorts of dyes and colors, which contribute not only to mislead men, but also, alas, as daily experience sufficiently shows us, to precipitate them into the greatest perils for their possessions and their bodily life.
But if men want to be purified again from their filth, from their impure faeces, as from the original Adamic sin by which human nature was corrupted from the beginning by a pernicious venom inspired in our first parents by the Cacodemon, and in which we were all conceived and born, if they want to find bliss and perfection, this can only be done by a new generation of the Holy Spirit, that is to say in water and spirit.
If the Chemical King can only be made perfect when he is regenerated of water and spirit, this same bliss and perfection can only be attained for man by a new and spiritual generation. In holy baptism, by water and the spirit from above, we are washed with the blood of Christ and purified to the point of being made one body with him and putting on him as a robe, as Paul said to the Colossians and Ephesians.
As the Philosophical Stone is united by its tincture to the other metals, to become with them one perfect and indissoluble body, so Christ our head is united to us, his members, by his rosy tint; he restores and completes us into a perfect body and edifice, created after God in true righteousness, justice, and holiness.
by its rose-colored dye; he restores and completes us into a perfect body and edifice, created after God in true righteousness, justice, and holiness. by its rose-colored dye; he restores and completes us into a perfect body and edifice, created after God in true righteousness, justice, and holiness.
This regeneration accomplished in Holy Baptism by the Holy Spirit is really nothing other than an internal spiritual renewal of fallen man, with God and Christ. Whereas before, in the carnal generation, we were made naturally by our fathers and mothers, enemies of God and sons of wrath, the second and spiritual generation makes us become friends, sons and even heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ in Holy Baptism, by which, in fact, Christ died, rose again, lived again. By this process which is his passion, his death, his resurrection and his ascension, he enters the Holy of Holies which is not made by hands of man and prepares for us the way of return to the eternal Fatherland. And we too, his brothers and his sisters, we must follow him in his passion,
This spiritual exhortation, this Christian imitation in life and in act of our heavenly King is not done by our personal dignity, nor by our merit, nor by our own will, because the natural man, with all his powers, is blind, deaf and dead to spiritual things. This can only be done by the sole efficacy and power in us of the Holy Spirit, by the blissful bath of baptismal regeneration. Minerals and metals too are in themselves rusty and as if dead, without being able to purify themselves or correct themselves by their own forces, but it is by the effective aid of the spagyric spirit that they are purified, renovated, dissolved and made perfect.
After being, as we have heard, regenerated of water and of the spirit by holy baptism, in the red flood dyed by Christ Our Lord and Heavenly King, washed by his blood and purified from our sins, hereditary, after having been made capable and partakers of the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit, we still need, according to Saint Peter, to be nourished insensibly from that beginning and to drink pure and wholesome milk like infants, like little children in Christ, until at last we are made like living stones and adults, edified and made fit for the priesthood supreme in order to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God and accepted by Jesus Christ.
The Christian, the regenerated man of water and spirit, does not understand all these things at once. It is little by little and day by day that he must grow and develop in the knowledge of God and of Christ. washed by his blood and purified from our hereditary sins, after having been made capable and partakers of the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit, we still need, according to Saint Peter, to be nourished insensibly from this beginning and to drink a pure and salutary milk as infants, like little children in Christ until at last we are made like living stones and adults, edified and made fit for the supreme priesthood in order to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God and accepted by Jesus Christ. The Christian, the regenerated man of water and spirit, does not understand all these things at once.
It is little by little and day by day that he must grow and develop in the knowledge of God and of Christ. washed by his blood and purified from our hereditary sins, after having been made capable and partakers of the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit, we still need, according to Saint Peter, to be nourished insensibly from this beginning and to drink a pure and salutary milk as infants, like little children in Christ until at last we are made like living stones and adults, edified and made fit for the supreme priesthood in order to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God and accepted by Jesus Christ.
The Christian, the regenerated man of water and spirit, does not understand all these things at once. It is little by little and day by day that he must grow and develop in the knowledge of God and of Christ. after having been made capable and partakers of the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit, we still need, according to Saint Peter, to be nourished insensibly from this beginning and to drink pure and wholesome milk like infants, like little children in Christ. until at last we are made as living and adult stones, edified and made fit for the supreme priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God and accepted by Jesus Christ. The Christian, the regenerated man of water and spirit, does not understand all these things at once.
It is little by little and day by day that he must grow and develop in the knowledge of God and of Christ. after having been made capable and partakers of the firstfruits of the Holy Spirit, we still need, according to Saint Peter, to be nourished insensibly from this beginning and to drink pure and wholesome milk like infants, like little children in Christ. until at last we are made as living and adult stones, edified and made fit for the supreme priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God and accepted by Jesus Christ.
The Christian, the regenerated man of water and spirit, does not understand all these things at once. It is little by little and day by day that he must grow and develop in the knowledge of God and of Christ. as little children in Christ until at last we are made as living stones and adults, edified and made fit for the supreme priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God and accepted by Jesus Christ. The Christian, the regenerated man of water and spirit, does not understand all these things at once. It is little by little and day by day that he must grow and develop in the knowledge of God and of Christ. as little children in Christ until at last we are made as living stones and adults, edified and made fit for the supreme priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices pleasing to God and accepted by Jesus Christ.
The Christian, the regenerated man of water and spirit, does not understand all these things at once. It is little by little and day by day that he must grow and develop in the knowledge of God and of Christ.
As we can again see in the philosophical work, from the conjunction of the two Essences, that is to say, from the conjunction of terrestrial gold and aqueous matter prepared in a quasi-celestial manner, after these two materials have been reduced in a certain vase of dissolution, into a dry liquor and an amalgam, the whole compound is not made at once, but the parts join one by one and little by little according to a marked time.
It is the same and much more in this Theological work. As soon as in Holy Baptism the conjunction and spiritual union of man with Christ has taken place, as soon as he has been reduced, as we have said above, into one body with him, we must so necessarily that this man learns to know the Christian faith, to assimilate each article of it one after the other,
The Christian faith is like this earthly and moist matter ready prepared. As we have said, it is to be distinguished or divided into twelve parts or small articles, like the number of the twelve Apostles, and then, into three main articles, namely: I - of our creation, II - of our redemption, III - of our sanctification. Man must therefore propose to learn them one after the other and to assimilate them. He can only do so little by little, at various times, for fear that he will be burdened with it beyond his strength and that by learning everything at once, he will be buried, which would risk to provoke in him aversion and disgust and to separate him altogether from faith. For this same reason, the third article,
After having completely assimilated the faith, part by part, man must still very carefully preserve within him this knowledge acquired by divine grace, guard it diligently from all corruption and loss. In the Philosophical work of which we have already spoken so often, we said that to make the fermentation and multiplication of the only earthly King or unique and pure Tincture, it was necessary to take and project on three parts of gold the best, pure and even completely purified by treatment with antimony; not because of any lack of the Stone or any imperfection of the Tincture, but because of the impotence or weakness of the metals themselves.
To explain to me more clearly, although this Tincture or Stone was perfectly prepared in itself, the filthy imperfect metals cannot, however, attract to themselves and apprehend this subtlety, so to speak angelic, of the Stone or Tincture, because of their infirmity or their natural weakness; it is therefore necessary to take a means which is at hand and by which they can be all the more easily transmuted.
We must bring to the Theological work the same assiduous care as to the chemical work of which we have just spoken; for it is then a question of the spiritual renewal and the celestial regeneration of man. Although Jesus Christ, our heavenly King, can perfectly free us from all impurity by the perfect obedience he rendered in our place to his heavenly father and can make us sons and heirs of God, all however cannot receive from Him this life-giving and altogether divine Tincture and contain it within themselves with all its other treasures and riches. Our infirmity and our weakness prevent us from joining firmly with her. But if we want to become its partakers in all fairness,
These are: first, his Holy Word, whose purity exceeds that of gold and silver tested seven times in a crucible, and which must be sought after more than thousands of masses of gold; secondly, the saving faith which is a particular gift of God: it is born by the word of God, it unites the hearts of men, it is tested in the fire of tribulation; finally, and thirdly, the true love towards God and the neighbor: it is also a gift of God and by which the whole law is fulfilled, much more, it is God himself because he is thus named.
By each of these three parts, the word, faith and charity, if we exercise them and if we use them habitually, Christ the Lord can then rightly operate in us the projection of his celestial tincture and anointing: in us, men or simple and imperfect metals,
But it is here that this terrible Satan presents himself, a lying chemist. Every day and secretly he lies in wait for new men, those who are regenerated and sons of God, who, above all things, have made a covenant with Christ through baptism. Faithful to the command of Saint Paul, they lead the good tournament, keeping the faith and the good conscience. Satan strives to draw them into his pernicious trap, to lead them to the precipice with the help of his faithful coadjutors, our sinful flesh and the seduction of the ungodly world.
Often, alas! he causes many to fall into it, by God's permission. Besides, the righteous himself falls seven times a day. Did he not in fact set out to plot snares for Christ our Lord, our head and our guide, to tempt him with violence immediately after his baptism, when he was penetrated by the holy ministry? He still carries out today, as always, his clandestine, skilful and deceptive machinations in the Christian Church. By poverty, tribulations and all kinds of trials, he endeavored to shake the faith of Christ, to make him doubt the word of God and his most merciful promise, representing to him that God was not his no friend since he let him starve for so long in the desert.
If this temptation proves ineffective with Christians, the enemy attacks them from another side and by another tactic. He then wishes them to trust in God more than he commanded in his word: wherefore he strove to persuade Christ to rush down from the highest peak of the temple, if God , however, was to be an effective protection for him. Failing again, he did not blush to tempt him for the third time with the promise of riches, hoping thus to distance him from God and his divine word, to make him idolatry with money and temporal goods and to bring him to invoke him, Satan, to worship him as to God. He was therefore not ashamed to extort his free consent from Christ and push him into the fall.
The faithful God and Father in heaven has sometimes allowed this to happen in his own, and this, by a particular counsel of his wisdom and for a specific purpose, so that they may grow and develop in faith, hope , patience by a just and true invocation to God. It is by this kind of jousting or tournament of the cross, necessarily imposed on the old man until the last combat of death, that they will be able to prepare the way well and obtain eternal victory against this enemy. If they want to obtain the power to resist it effectively and courageously with the help of divine grace, they will first have to know all its techniques and all its very ancient pitfalls.
It is not, moreover, with flesh and blood that we must fight and fight against the princes of this world, dominating in the darkness and against the evil spirits which are under heaven but, according to Saint Paul, with the Principalities and Dominions. We cannot, in our own strength, resist these spiritual attacks and temptations. We must, following the example of our leader Jesus Christ, take up spiritual weapons, and with them the word of God as the sword of the spirit. This is how we will strike down and overcome our spiritual enemies in faith. Following the advice given to the Ephesians by the holy apostle Paul, that Christian knight, we must provide ourselves with the arsenal of the Holy Spirit. This is where we must take the divine iron breastplate and put it on.
Let us gird our loins with the belt of truth; let us put on the breastplate of righteousness, let us put on jambarts, as an outfit to exercise the gospel of peace; let us also arm ourselves with the sword of peace, that is to say, as we have said, with the word of God. Above all things, let us take the shield of faith by which we can destroy and quench all the fiery darts of the devil. Faith in Jesus is a very firm shield, indeed, and that same Caco-demon can never pierce it to hurt our hearts. let's take the shield of faith by which we can destroy and quench all the fiery darts of the devil. Faith in Jesus is a very firm shield, indeed, and that same Caco-demon can never pierce it to hurt our hearts. let's take the shield of faith by which we can destroy and quench all the fiery darts of the devil. Faith in Jesus is a very firm shield, indeed, and that same Caco-demon can never pierce it to hurt our hearts.
In the Philosophical Work, it is also necessary to observe very carefully the regime of fire. To cook the material, it must be administered continuously. We have already spoken briefly of the philosophical fire, the principal agent of the whole work: we call it essential, preternatural, latent divine fire in the compost, to which must be added the aid and the spur of the material earthly fire. So it is, in the very first place, with the pure Word of God, or, what is the same thing, with the Spirit of God.
It is also associated with a certain "fire", because it is given this name. This fire implanted by nature is hidden within us, but it has been ruined and obscured by the corruption of this same nature. There too and in the same way, we must help it and feed it with another fire, outside. Without laziness or relaxation, we must excite it with our breath: by the daily and assiduous exercise of piety and Christian virtues, in joy as in sadness, and also, by an attentive contemplation of the pure word of God, if, on the other hand, the light of the grace which has been conceded to us within, and the Spirit of God, must operate in us and not be completely extinguished.
It is the same with earthly things: iron is cold, but the artisan who files it warms it by this continuous movement; the light of a lamp, when it is not continually nourished with oil, ends up flickering and being completely extinguished. So it is with the internal fire of man: If, as we have said, he does not exercise it assiduously, without laziness and without indolence, it will decrease little by little until complete deprivation. We have often warned you of this, and it seems that it is a pressing necessity to remind you constantly, you must listen diligently to the Word of God, contemplate it well, cultivate it without ceasing.
It is necessary to understand this hearing as the vision which is done by the internal eyes of the soul, and not only by those of our animal body. I am also speaking, so that people understand me correctly, of the pure and truthful Word of God, and not of human glosses, whether they come from the ancients or from the moderns, this Pharisaic ferment of the scribes preferred every day, alas, by our time, to the pure divine word. The least that can be said of these glosses is that, like mouse droppings mixed with pepper, they strive to be taken and listened to instead of the pure word of God.
All of this is worthless. I take for nothing these nonsense which nevertheless fill men's ears and I don't want to talk about them. But, as we said in its place, what I speak of, it is glorified Divine Word passing through the mouth of God and now still proclaimed and preached by the Holy Spirit. It is certainly not an empty and vain sound like those who speak of it ignominiously and coarsely, it is the spirit of life, the saving power of God for all who believe in him. The royal prophet David also speaks, in these terms, of the hearing of the Word I will listen to what the Lord will do in me by his word. From this internal and divine hearing of the Word of God, true life-giving faith, made effective by charity, draws its origin as from a source.
As Paul said to the Romans: Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God. it is the spirit of life, the saving power of God for all who believe in him. The royal prophet David also speaks, in these terms, of the hearing of the Word I will listen to what the Lord will do in me by his word. From this internal and divine hearing of the Word of God, true life-giving faith, made effective by charity, draws its origin as from a source. As Paul said to the Romans: Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God. it is the spirit of life, the saving power of God for all who believe in him. The royal prophet David also speaks, in these terms, of the hearing of the Word I will listen to what the Lord will do in me by his word. From this internal and divine hearing of the Word of God, true life-giving faith, made effective by charity, draws its origin as from a source. As Paul said to the Romans: Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the word of God.
May the word of God therefore be, from now on, pure and clear so that we can hear it in all purity and clarity; that thus also, the faith, which flows in some way from this hearing, be pure and without corruption; that faith which becomes efficacious by charity towards God, by humbly serving his holy precept and his will, by praying, praising, giving thanks; let it manifest itself towards one's neighbor in a beneficial manifestation of all kinds of good works, for charity should not be the smallest, but, as Paul says, the greatest of all virtues.
Christ too, moreover, himself exhorts us with the greatest care, to the exercise of this charity in this last discourse which he leaves us by way of farewell, saying: This is my commandment, that you you loved each other as I loved you, so everyone will recognize that you are my disciples. Likewise: He who says he knows God and does not keep his commandments, that one is a liar and there is no truth in him; but he who keeps his word, it is in him that the love of God is perfected; and further: God is charity, and he who dwells in it is in God and God in him.
So we see how charity becomes the true bond of perfection by which we incorporate ourselves into Christ himself to such an extent that he is in us and we in him, he in his Father and his Father in him.
This is what Christ testifies to in this passage quoted above when he says: He who keeps my word is he who loves me and whom I love and we will come to him and we will do things to him. our home. John said: If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my charity. And of this charity which also concerns our neighbor it is also written with grace: If someone says he loves God and yet hates his brother, he is a liar. He, indeed, who does not love his brother whom he can see, how can he love God whom he does not see? And we take from him this precept that he who loves God will love his brother. Saint Paul explains to us the property of this direction: Direction, he says, is patient and human, it is neither agitated with untimely zeal, nor inconsiderate, nor puffed up; when she exercises herself towards her neighbour, she does not seek her own good.
One can therefore easily see from this and judge that there can be no right and true dilection which does not pass through devotion in good works towards one's neighbour. There are, however, many among Christians who boast of it recklessly. It also follows from all this that good works pleasing to God do not precede faith, but are like fruits coming after the root and the tree, which, if they are good, also bear good fruit. This is why works do not make faith but it is faith that makes works good, pleasant and acceptable. For this reason, as a result of all of this, it is by faith alone that we are justified and can attain eternal life.
And now, the regenerated man in the above manner, if he exercises this Christian and godly way of life, in all his doings, will not then be deprived of his fruit. It becomes like compost in earthly work: put by God into the furnace of tribulation to be there, meanwhile, tormented with all sorts of anguish, with various calamities and anxieties, until it is become as dead to old Adam and to the flesh, until he rises again, a new man, created by God in true and upright righteousness and holiness. This is what Saint Paul testifies to the Romans: With Christ we were buried in death by baptism, and as Christ was raised from the dead, so we walk towards a new life.
Under these conditions, and if man ceases to sin every day so that sin no longer commands him, then, in him, begins the solution of the body of added gold as in the earthly work; it is the putrefaction of which we have already spoken; it must be completely dissolved spiritually, crushed, destroyed, putrefied. This solution and putrefaction takes place earlier in one than in another, but it must necessarily occur during this temporal life. In other words, such a man must be so well digested, cooked and melted in the fire of tribulation that he even comes to despair completely of all the forces that are in him and to seek as only help, grace. and the mercy of God.
Thus, in the furnace of the tribulation and by continual fire, man, like the earthly body of gold, partakes of the black head of the raven, that is to say, he is made entirely deformed and mocked before the world. And this is not done exactly for forty days and forty nights or even forty years, but often for the whole time of his life, so that during it he must necessarily experience more often pain than consolation and joy, despondency than rejoicing. His soul, finally, is entirely delivered by this spiritual death as if it were led to the heights, that is to say, his body being still in the earth, he nevertheless turns upwards, towards eternal life and the Fatherland, with its spirit and its heart, which henceforth
All his acts are directed in such a way that they are no longer earthly, but become celestial, insofar as this is possible from this world. He must therefore already live, no longer according to the flesh but according to the spirit, no longer in the sterile works of darkness, but in the light of day, in works that suffer trial. This separation of the body and the soul of man must be done by dying spiritually. Such a solution indeed, of body and soul, is made in the regenerated Gold in such a way that the body and the soul, being as if separated from each other, are none the less very strongly united in the vessel and conjoined, the soul, from above daily recreating the body and preserving it from final destruction until the appointed time when they shall remain together inseparable.
The body of man, subjected to this languor and to this school of the cross, finds itself dead but his soul, however, does not desert it entirely: when the ardor of the fire of the tribulation exceeds the measure, it is irrigated, comforted and preserved by the spirit which flows from the dew of the upper sky and the divine Nectar. It is a celestial refreshment and a recreation of the dead earthly body in men. As for our temporal death, which is the wages of sin, it is not a true death, but a natural solution of body and soul, and much rather a kind of light sleep; it is even an indissoluble and permanent conjunction of the Spirit of God and of the soul: but you must understand that I am speaking of the saints.
It is also compared to that admirable ascent and descent which usually takes place seven times in succession in earthly work.
We can find here the six thousand years of tribulations and temporal afflictions which will last so long in the world. In this number, we also see men of all times, desolate, tested in the cross, by all kinds of various calamities and anxieties, and who were abundantly, by the Holy Spirit, comforted, consoled and confirmed. For this reason let us give praise and glory to God, now and in the future, until the beginning of the great universal Sabbath and the day of rest in the year of the seventh vintage. Then this recreation or spiritual refreshment will cease at once, having reached its long-hoped-for end, and instead of it will begin the joy of eternal duration, when God will be all in all.
But actually, as long as this digestion and spiritual coction of the dead body lasts in man, one can observe there, as in the earthly work, the manifestation of various colors and signs: these are all kinds of miseries, anxieties and tribulations, the main one being that temptation already mentioned, caused by the Devil, the world and our flesh. They are all, however, a good omen, because the man, so tormented, will one day finally reach the blessed outcome so long hoped for. And moreover, Sacred Scripture bears the same witness.
There we read that all who desire the blessed life in Christ Jesus will be forced to suffer persecution, which is necessary for us also, in order to enter the kingdom of heaven through the many tribulations of the narrow way. And to finish, here is how Saint Augustine speaks: Do not be surprised, my brother, to be exposed everywhere, after having become a Christian, to thousands of tribulations.
If the head of our faith is Christ, we are his members. This is why it is not only him that we must follow, but it is also his life that we must imitate. The life of Christ was surrounded by all kinds of tribulations: it was spent in the greatest poverty, it was derided by the scribes and Pharisees, and finally delivered to the most humiliating death for us, poor sinners. but it is also his life that we must imitate.
The life of Christ was surrounded by all kinds of tribulations: it was spent in the greatest poverty, it was derided by the scribes and Pharisees, and finally delivered to the most humiliating death for us, poor sinners. but it is also his life that we must imitate. The life of Christ was surrounded by all kinds of tribulations: it was spent in the greatest poverty, it was derided by the scribes and Pharisees, and finally delivered to the most humiliating death for us, poor sinners.
You can therefore easily conclude that if God judges you worthy of such a life and if he similarly chastises you in persecution, it is because he wishes to place you among his chosen ones. It is indeed quite impossible for us to reach God without these persecutions and tribulations.
Those who strive to reach God must therefore necessarily pass through fire and water, either to become Peter, who has been given the keys of heaven, or Paul, chosen vessel and armor of God, or John, to whom all the secrets of God were revealed. Everyone, in fact, must have admitted it: it is through all kinds of tribulations that we must enter the kingdom of God.
We must also, for this reason, note this: the chemical philosophers have signified to us and given us to understand, by this same character Antimony, by which (as we said when treating of the chemical preparation) we must make ferment matter before conjoining it with the Elixir or Chemical King or before it wants to come to the sweat bath with old white-haired Saturn. Surely we must regard this as a miracle and keep it as a mystery. This image, moreover, this representation, is also found among us Christians. It is used and placed clearly before our eyes, although in an equally occult manner, in the ceremony in which the apple surmounted by a small cross is placed in the hands of the supreme head, emperor of all Christendom. We give him to understand by this,
It is perhaps not by chance and without reason that these ancient philosophers wanted to give us a figure and a sign for the chemical work itself, which also requires a similar process. All of this can certainly be related to the school of the already declared cross, because the tribulations and persecutions of Christians are a sign to us that assuredly, before entering into eternal rest and joy, they must first go through the crushing and difficult path of this world, to put oneself in the exercise of the combat, and to undergo the bath of perspiration with the hostile Saturn with white hair, that is to say, the old Adam and Satan.
With all these tribulations and calamities, it will be necessary to observe, consider and carefully weigh all kinds of signs, miracles, and also the great changes that will occur at the same time in this world. We will indeed remember the wars and warlike rumours, the multiplication of sects, the plague, the high cost of harvests; all these signs will be true announcers and precursors of the imminent proximity of our Redemption.
In short, at the general resurrection of the dead (because the first new generation which is made by holy baptism is only the beginning of this second, this truly perfect regeneration, in eternal life), the men who will be victorious by the blood of the lamb will be resurrected and straightened up to a new life, now permanent; they will be united again in soul, spirit, and body, and restored to an indissoluble, eternally lasting union. We must therefore be glorified in this way by the pure, spiritual and admirable virtue, by the strength, the lightness, the glory, the excellence, the vigor of Christ, the heavenly almighty king; much more, to be made transparent, beautiful and in a more than perfect state of bliss.
It is a wonderful copulation or union of body, soul and spirit, a divine flowering and exaltation of the elect. We can already, from this life, see it and observe it, but not without fear or trembling, in earthly work. It is also by this that the angels are delighted with admiration who take care to see all these things, and there finally, we will dominate and reign forever and ever, with Christ our eternal prince of heaven, with all the angels and ministering spirits, in endless joy and glory of majesty over all things .
To conclude finally, and to discover all the process, the means and the successions of the work, a corrective, brief, but necessary, was added from the beginning, in the chemical-philosophical work, to the contemptible and imperfect compost, in order to to help him in time.
It is the same in theological work where it is necessary to consider the spiritual correction of the sinner and his recovery. In man, indeed, one or the other defect can reappear to cause him to fall into sins, with the permission of God, and under the impulse of this horrible Satan, of the impious world and of his flesh. ; he may fall into the haughtiness and arrogance innate in us, which are represented in the chemical-philosophical work, by the pernicious sublimation and the premature redness which are the first and the second error; he can still despair of divine mercy, because of the enormity of his bodily sins, or, in too great a trial, rebel against God his creator and impatiently carry his cross.
Man, so miserable and contagious, like earthly and soiled compost, must therefore first return to dissolution, that is to say, he must be absolved and purified after the recognition of his deviations, by the dissolving key of the holy solution, whenever he needs it, because of his daily sins and faults. He must finally eat and drink, in order to be recreated and comforted by it, in the Sunday Lord's Supper, the pure milk of Heaven, the true sweat of the heavenly Lamb. It is the blood and the water and even the water of the source of life, it is the unctuous banquet of pure wine and marrow, it is the fountain of life opened liberally, but, like the Mercurial water in the chemical work, it is also the greatest of poisons for the unworthy and the impious.
It will thus arrive, finally, like the terrestrial body, at the
final congealing, at the fixed plenitude, that is to say at the
total and constant perfection of eternal beatitude. These two
very salutary means of cure and healing for the
miserable sinner, we mean holy absolution and the holy
supper, God, faithful and almighty, to help
man, entrusts them as a deposit to his Beloved Church
, for the time of need, with the charge of
administering them. It is by this, in fact, by this
aforesaid absolution, that we are declared free and safe. It
is also called the office of the keys, the true penance
which prepares the way. But he who remains
impenitent, who perseveres insolently
in sin, is bound to it by the Christian key
of banishment and excommunication
, which relates to this
same office; he is entrusted to
Satan for the death of the
flesh so that his spirit
may be saved in the day of the
Lord.
EPILOGUE
Behold, then, you have, friend and benevolent reader, a brief description, a simple exposition, an infallible type and an allegorical comparison of the earthly and chemical stone and the true celestial stone, Jesus Christ, by which you may arrive at bliss and perfection assured, not only here below in this earthly way, but also in eternal life. This double subject could have been exposed with less detours and with more details in the theological work which precedes: you must however know that I do not teach the Holy Scriptures and that I am not an Aristotelian theologian in the fashion of the day, but a simple citizen without public office.
Indeed, this knowledge that God granted me, I did not acquire it by my studies in a famous academy, but I learned it in the universal school of nature and in the great book of miracles thanks to which all knowers of God have received their training for centuries. That is why I gave my description a simple form, as I said, and not one of elegant writing and excessive length. Besides, it was not my task to undertake here a more complete and extensive treatise on theology. This was my goal;
I wanted to draw as a quick sketch for those who may not have made enough progress yet, to enable them to research the thing more deeply, since it seems good that every lover of truth should not omit in no way the miracles of God, and do not bury them in perpetual silence, but on the contrary celebrate them, magnify and glorify them. So I wanted, me too, to make my confession publicly and at the same time to say what I think and what I believe of the articles of faith of the Christian religion, in this time, oh pain, when there are clashes such as during trials hasty, the most lying of slanderers treacherously proclaim heretical and suspect many pious Christians who will not sing their song. But the ungodly blasphemies of the world and rash judgments do not offend the true Christian insulted by slanders of this kind, since it has always been the habit of the devil and his scaly sons to do the same thing to Christ and to all its imitators and that they still act today in the same way.
I won't say more now, Further, I want that in regard to the first working of the earth stone, the amateur of the chemical art be referred for the details to the teaching which I gave in the first place, and that the one this is once again faithfully instilled in him in this epilogue. Indeed, just as in a song a good refrain is repeated more than once, so we will do about it according to our habit.
One should certainly not direct his will and his thoughts towards the earthly philosophical stone, nor undertake the beginning of such a work, without knowing and having exactly prepared the heavenly stone thanks to which the earthly stone is given by God, or at least without having, in fact, begun with great care the preparation of the two stones together, namely the spiritual and the corporal. As for me,
I agree with all true philosophers that it is surely foolhardy, especially at this stage, to undertake such lofty work and work on it without knowledge of nature. Moreover, I point out here and expressly declare that, in my opinion, without the true knowledge of Christ, the celestial cornerstone, it is only difficult but really impossible to prepare the philosophical stone, since in this celestial stone all the nature consists perfectly. If one does not want to suffer a shameful failure, one must therefore properly examine this point and not aspire to this supreme art greedily and thoughtlessly, as many do, when they are most of the time absolutely not ready to undertake, don't have the skills, and have not practiced the least bit in approaching this knowledge so often recalled. Indeed, the end most often corresponds to the beginning, just as the thing speaks, alas, for itself with many. However, the failure should only be attributed to a premature project and ignorance.
What must truly be admired most is that men are still to be found not only who seek this supreme art, but also who strive to put their hands to work and accomplish it, and who nevertheless wonder if the art is natural, or magic, if it is preternatural or if it is a question of necromancy, if it is acquired thanks to a spirit and by illegitimate and forbidden means. Not at all, my good sir!
The devil and all the more reason all the impious do not have, without divine permission, the power to touch the least thing in this art, even less to undertake it on their own initiative and to practice it according to their whim. Not at all ; I say, because this art remains in the hand and the only power of God who grants it and also takes it away from whom he wills. Indeed, this art which draws its origin by God and from God admits absolutely no voluptuous spirit and even less of the fatal and infernal spirits, but on the contrary this spirit which is simple, right, true, constant and of a pure and pious essence.
But the world of today, indifferent and ungodly, no longer knows such a spirit, and that is why most men are also ignorant of its essence, and its supreme mystery. Indeed, as soon as something of this mystery strikes the ears of these worldly people, immediately they want to be able to understand it, otherwise they call it foolishness. Also this spirit will be perpetually hidden from them because of their blindness, and it will finally be completely taken away from them. but on the contrary that spirit which is simple, upright, true, constant and of a pure and pious essence. But the world of today, indifferent and ungodly, no longer knows such a spirit, and that is why most men are also ignorant of its essence, and its supreme mystery.
Indeed, as soon as something of this mystery strikes the ears of these worldly people, immediately they want to be able to understand it, otherwise they call it foolishness. Also this spirit will be perpetually hidden from them because of their blindness, and it will finally be completely taken away from them. but on the contrary that spirit which is simple, upright, true, constant and of a pure and pious essence. But the world of today, indifferent and ungodly, no longer knows such a spirit, and that is why most men are also ignorant of its essence, and its supreme mystery.
Indeed, as soon as something of this mystery strikes the ears of these worldly people, immediately they want to be able to understand it, otherwise they call it foolishness. Also this spirit will be perpetually hidden from them because of their blindness, and it will finally be completely taken away from them. as soon as something of this mystery strikes the ears of these worldly people, immediately they want to be able to understand it, otherwise they call it foolishness. Also this spirit will be perpetually hidden from them because of their blindness, and it will finally be completely taken away from them. as soon as something of this mystery strikes the ears of these worldly people, immediately they want to be able to understand it, otherwise they call it foolishness. Also this spirit will be perpetually hidden from them because of their blindness, and it will finally be completely taken away from them.
However, in order not to possibly go further than intended in this reminder, but to take up my subject again and bring it to a successful conclusion, I want to faithfully let the pious artists know the following in the form of a friendly exhortation: it is to the extent that someone directs his heart and his soul towards God, much more, all his life and his actions, that he will feel every day and even at every moment, in the advancement of the stone and his work, this insignia usefulness. I myself have complied with this all the days of my life with the utmost application and with the greatest devotion, and this is how I have learned it by experience. This is why he must, from the beginning, regulate all his actions and prepare himself in such a way that he will have the strength to bring both works to a good end thereafter.
Perhaps it could be objected here that assuredly there were men who really possessed this philosophical stone or tincture, and who by it changed the simple metals into gold and silver. Yet they were not very capable nor had such a good knowledge of the celestial stone, and moreover, they devoted their time to the vain and frivolous things of life. I reply to this that I certainly leave them as they are, and that I will not enter into any discussion here to find out where and how they got their tincture.
But no one will really convince me that they have made and prepared the true and exact tincture of which I have spoken in all the treatise here, and I believe even less that it is possible to be mistaken on this subject. The tragic end of these lighthearted men, towards which they rushed themselves with their tincture, attests to this sufficiency, and the examples of this are by no means lacking even today, alas!
Shall I say now that the chemical art, with the things that are necessary for it, is not unique but varied? Indeed, just as in other disciplines there are followers of different opinions and of various colors, so it is also in this art: although they are all generally called chemists, they are nevertheless not instructed in the same thing and they do not act with the same intention.
I speak here only of the true alchemy, full of art and conforming to nature, which teaches that above all it is necessary to discern and know among all things, the difference between the good and the bad, the pure and the impure. .. Through it can come just progress, after the weakness and corruption of nature has been remedied. This then proceeds to increase the metals just as if you were striving to bring help to some fruit which could not reach a just maturity because prevented by some fortuitous event, or to obtain from a seed or a seed an increase in number, which can be undertaken and achieved at little cost.
As for the other art, which is sophistical and pseudo-alchemical, I don't understand it nor do I want to learn it because the masters of it promise in vain to follow paths not too twisted, and to provide mountains of pure gold, while they are certainly very distant. Furthermore, this false art brings absolutely nothing concrete, but only entails enormous expense, requires careless work, and often takes the very body and life.
Therefore, if one or more such chemists came to you, boasting of possessing the true and natural art of chemistry, and endeavored to teach it to you for money or otherwise, and pretended not to not be able to provide for the expense and the required fees, then be faithfully warned that you must absolutely not trust them. The serpent indeed stands, most of the time,
I can moreover truly affirm that the expense to be made for all the universal work does not exceed the price of three florins in all, except the daily food and the maintenance of the fire the matter is indeed partly vile, as we we have implied above, it is found everywhere in sufficient quantity and well beyond without great difficulty, and the work is also easy and simple. In short, all this art is very simply and very easily understood by the pious men whom God has chosen for this purpose, but the thing is really very difficult and almost impossible for the impious and the wicked.
To finally end my conclusion, I wanted to add the following for you by way of farewell: if Almighty God lavished his grace on you by the revelation of this pious and holy art, thou ought indeed to use it rightly, to keep the silence which has been commanded thee, and to that end put a strong bolt upon thy mouth, and keep it tightly shut, lest arrogance and pride, both towards See God that men, be a danger to you and bring you damage and a temporary and eternal misfortune. This is why you must also carefully examine what follows.
Who seeks wealth by this sacred art must be
Pious and simple, honest and discreet. Whoever does not act
thus thwarts his destiny. He is forced into poverty
, destitution, nudity and misery.
All this, dear reader, I didn't want to keep hidden from you, so much as a warning or to say goodbye. I have the firm conviction that you have understood me sufficiently in everything, unless God has closed your eyes and ears, for I could not have shown it to you more faithfully and more clearly nor the describe more plainly, as far as a good conscience permits. Therefore, if you have not been able to perceive or learn the thing by my teaching, I am very much afraid that you will understand it only with great difficulty by another instruction.
APPENDIX
Should you begin to take pride in the gift God has bestowed on you, or show greed under the pretext of a certain prudent and well-ordered economy, and in doing so, if you gradually move away from God, then truth be told, this art would vanish from your hands, and you wouldn't be able to know how it was made for you, which happened to many against all hope and expectation.
SUMMARY OF SUMMARIES
If you follow my teaching and show yourself pious, and at the same time take the matter that I have presented before you, and prepare it in the usual way, you will possess all the riches of the universe.
May Almighty God
grant you, in his great mercy, his
grace and his divine blessing for
your project, if you make it the object of
your care. This is the prayer that
I want to address from the
bottom of my
heart for you
to God.
PRAY
Almighty and eternal God, father of the celestial light, from whom also come all the goods and all the perfect gifts, we implore your infinite mercy so that you allow us to know perfectly your eternal wisdom which dwells continually around your throne, by which all things were created and made, and are now still governed and preserved.
Send her to us from your holy heaven and from the throne of your glory, so that she may be made one with us and at the same time work, since she is the mistress of all the celestial and occult arts, which she knows and that she also understands everything. Make her accompany us without haste in all our works, so that we will acquire certainly and without any error by her spirit the true intelligence and the infallible practice of this very noble art, the miraculous stone of the wise, which you have hidden from the world but which you are at least accustomed to reveal to your chosen ones.
Let us begin well and properly, from the beginning, the supreme work which must be finished here by us. May we progress with constancy in him by his work, and may at last we finish it happily and enjoy it with joy forever, by this celestial, angular and miraculous stone, founded from all eternity, Jesus Christ, who commands and reigns with You, O God the Father, one with the Holy Spirit, true God in one and indissoluble divine essence, Tri-One God, praised to the highest forever and ever. Amen.
the supreme work to be completed here by us. May we progress with constancy in him by his work, and may at last we finish it happily and enjoy it with joy forever, by this celestial, angular and miraculous stone, founded from all eternity, Jesus Christ, who commands and reigns with You, O God the Father, one with the Holy Spirit, true God in one and indissoluble divine essence, Tri-One God, praised to the highest forever and ever. Amen.
the supreme work to be completed here by us. May we progress with constancy in him by his work, and may at last we finish it happily and enjoy it with joy forever, by this celestial, angular and miraculous stone, founded from all eternity, Jesus Christ, who commands and reigns with You, O God the Father, one with the Holy Spirit, true God in one and indissoluble divine essence, Tri-One God, praised to the highest forever and ever. Amen. true God in one and indissoluble divine essence, Tri-One God, praised to the highest forever and ever. Amen. true God in one and indissoluble divine essence, Tri-One God, praised to the highest forever and ever. Amen.
Thus the Lord gave to Israel
all the land which he had promised to give to their
fathers, and nothing was wanting of all the
good which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel,
all things being evident.
Joshua XXI, 41 to 45
GIVE GLORY
TO OUR ONE GOD
AMEN.
Deuteronomy XXXII, 3 * * *