Flos Florum - A Flower of Flowers

The most perfect Magisterium,
and the heartfelt joy Magistri,
Arnaldi de Villa Nova, wrote
to the
mighty King Arragoniæ :

Which then is a flower of all flowers, a treasure of all treasures and a noble pearl: In it the true elixir Composition, or composition of both to the white and to the red, namely on gold and silver, recently written and in good explanation . Flos Florvm, Arnaldi.

You, my most beloved, should know that in every thing under heaven the four elements are created not according to the external appearance but according to the internal power and effect. Therefore the philosophers have hidden and described this art under the cover of the knowledge of the elements.

Those who understand it only according to the letter and nothing else work in the blood in hair, egg, urine and many other things outside of the same, they have first extracted the four elements and drawn them out so that they would like to make their work from them, so that they first reported The water is separated from things through distillation, then the oil is separated in many ways, citrine-colored, which according to their opinion is supposed to hold the fire and air in it, but the black earth remains at the bottom. Afterwards they wash the soil and make it white by imbibing it with the water and boiling it until it appears white.

Then they bring the oil back over the fire to distill until the earth draws everything into itself, namely the water, oil and tincture. They project or apply the same earth or ash onto a body in the river, namely onto copper or something else, and find nothing because they do it with all the work after the philosophers have put their words in their books, so they fall into an error that they don't once meet at the beginning. But such an error comes from themselves, since it is actually certain that from a human being nothing other than a human being is born, from a horse nothing but a horse and therefore from all other animals nothing other than themselves is born. Since these things are completely contrary to metallic nature, it is also impossible for a metallic reproduction to arise from them can come from: Then the metals are born from nothing other than from their own seed:

So now the Argentum vivum of the metals is the seed and its origin as all philosophers speak about this, which experience testifies to together with the rational causes and I will give an explanation of this later do will.

However, the thing mentioned above, namely blood, hair, eggs and other vegetables, is not an Argentum vivum: for this reason it is also impossible that some metallic birth or transformation can come from them, which is why they are not our stone, even though they are sometimes used as an example.

Furthermore, there are others who use the four spirits, namely arsenic, sulfur, mercury and salmiac: which are then called spirits because they fly away from the fire and in the smoke. And they accept these instead of the four elements because they see that the philosophers state in their books that art is in the spirits; they sublimate them so that they are or should be of an airy nature? Afterwards they form these by calcination, so that they should have an earthly nature: then they dissolve them so that the earthly nature is changed into the watery nature: they distill these so that they should take on a fiery nature.

Then they compose or put them together after they find it described in the books and do not believe anything other than that they have now completely rejected the science of the elements, so they further set them against all reason and find nothing but are thereby like the first made a mistake . The causes of this error are many, of which I am only careful enough to mention two.

As previously stated, the metals are born from nothing other than their own seed. But such reported things are not the perfect metal seeds except the Argentum vivum. For this reason it is also impossible that some metallic birth or transformation could come from them.

So since the sulfur and arsenic burn so easily in the fire and thereby become coals and useless ashes, how can anything good be expected from them?

The same thing that burns so quickly and becomes coal, how can it expect the same benefit from water?

So that everyone looks at it with good sense to understand clearly that such things are neither in front of themselves nor when they are extracted and extracted with the oils from eggs, blood, hair, urine or other vegetables or mixed with each other, our stone or our medicine can be.

And because of such above-mentioned causes, no mixture of any single thing comes to the birth of a human animal or herb except their own seeds. For this reason, our magisterium does not need any mixing of a few foreign things.

Some people think they want to find the art in the salts or alums, solve them, calcine them, cast them and prepare them; some people also only project them onto the imperfect body. But others at the same time mix them with the spiritibus or spirits as recently reported. But they prepare or prepare them with bodies that have also been prepared and prepared, and yet they find nothing. The cause of their error is the same as the previous ones. Some people only think of drawing a medicine from the bodies and prepare it by calcination, solvate and congeal. When they then project and apply it onto a body, they find themselves deceived, whose error flows from the fact that in the beginning they did not have the seed of the body like he did in its nature is have taken.

Therefore, in addition to the reasons mentioned so far, it is clear that our art is neither to be found in the blood, hair, nor in the vegetables, nor in the above-mentioned spirits or spirits, nor in the salty atraments or the like . Some who have looked at it a little with keen eyes have considered that Argent is the beginning of the metals and that their origin is found in the warmth of sulfur. That's why they boiled the Argentum vivum before them, figiret and præpariret, and found nothing.

But the cause of their error is: Since the man's seed is of no use, nor does it bear fruit unless it is cast into the female mother: So also Mercurius, because he is the seed, cannot be of any use, he then becomes the mother of the body projected and thrown so that they could produce it.

Some have amalgamated and mixed it with a body and washed it with sweet water until it bit appeared to them according to their pleasure, since it had now become a pure body: they cooked it to the end and meant that the Argentum vivum should mix with such a body: but they found nothing but an impure body and the Argentum vivum disappeared but the body subsequently became purer than it was before.

The cause of this error of yours is: Then the seed does not unite with the body except through the Luna alone , since the soul is the medium between the spirit and the body so that it unites and connects them with each other.

But the soul is the ferment: then just as the soul makes the human body alive, so the ferment also makes the body alive, which has completely changed its nature.

Therefore the soul has the upper hand and uses its strengths: Therefore what the ferment is will also be said later.

Some people mix the imperfect bodies with the perfect ones, put them to the test, and remember that what is good and pure in the imperfect bodies remains with the perfect ones, and what is left over passes away.

But if they do not find this, they have deceived themselves and are overcome by melancholy thoughts. But the cause of their error is because that which corrupts the imperfect body and destroys it prevents them from reaching perfection.

And note that here one must have a two-fold power which separates the sulphurous, combustible earth from the mixed earth and which transforms what is now separated from it into its nature.

But a coarse body cannot have such power and effect.

Those who work according to common usage have tried all this, just as I tried it myself before, but they were all dismayed by it and, as it were, despaired of the art, so that they gave up the master's degree due to lack of understanding.

From this you should now know that the material of all metals and the same seeds is a boiled and thickened Mercurius, in the belly of the earth, which the sulphurous heat boils and according to the distinction and diversity of the same sulphur, different metals are also born in the earth: However is the material of all of them, according to her Being only one, without only that they are differentiated in accidental things, namely in a larger or smaller combustible or non-combustible decoction or boiling or that one is thereby held against the other.

And on this all philosophers agree with each other.

I want to explain this to you, my dear son, a little more clearly . It is certain, however, that every thing is outside or from that into which it is resolved and in turn is dissolved. I want to give you this apparent example: The egg or snow is transformed into water by means of heat, which is why it was water before it became egg or snow: but now all metals are transformed into an Argentum vivum, which is why they have to yes, it had also previously been an Argentum vivum. But I will tell you later about the way in which you transform it into an Argentum vivum.

But if this is taken as the basis that a metal can be resolved into an Argentum vivum and dissolved again, then the false delusion of those who say: that the spirits or spirits together with other matters are not transformed into the elements and nature of metals will be thwarted can: Then what they admit is not in accordance with the truth unless they are reduced or brought back into their primam material.

But now the reduction into the first material is easy and possible with metals . And here I also make it clear to you that multiplication or increase in metals is also possible. Then every thing that either grows or is born can be multiplied, as one sees in herbs and trees, namely that from one little grain many thousands of grains are produced. From one tree countless little branches grow from which from then on many different and innumerable trees grow and in such a way increase their number.

But the metals are born in the earth and grow because of this, and it is also possible that they can be augmented and multiplied to an infinite extent . Herewith, dear son of whiteness, if you have correctly understood what I have told you so far, I have clearly discovered the common and common errors of all workers, together with their well-founded causes, and have also proven that such things are true

So decide: Now, with God's help, we want to move on to practice.

Then I tell you, my dear son, that above all the bodies must be reduced and restored to their primary material, and this is done so that birth and reproduction can be awakened in them.

Therefore, pay close attention to what is described to you here:

Take a pound of copper, file it very cleanly and mix it with four pounds of mercury, rub it with a little salt and vinegar so that it amalgamates with each other.

Then when the copper has combined in the best way, put it in a good quantity of the aquæ vitæ, that is when the amalgama weighs a pound, then the water from the vine should be twelve parts and put it all together in a urinal in the ashes and Make a gentle fire under it one natural day: then let it cool down again and when it is cold enough, let your water with everything in it pass through a linen cloth so that everything that has dissolved and dissolved from the body passes through with the water at the same time If the cloth doesn't go through a felt then the resolution of the body wouldn't be able to go through the felt but the part can be put aside.

Then take what remained in the cloth and put it with the new water in the vessel provided over the fire again day and night as before: then wash it again in the manner now described and put the other water with the first aside as before.

Repeat this so often that the entire work is brought into water that is then brought into its first material, which is Mercurius.

When this happens, take everything together and put it in a glass vessel over a gentle fire until you see a blackness appear on top of the material, then take it down to the most subtle way possible and repeat it in this way With boiling and removing the blackness from the top, you can no longer see any of the blackness and the water remains clear: So you now have water and earth, the two most important elements.

Then take the same earth and blackness that you have collected, put it in a glass vessel and pour enough of the reserved water on it to go over it and boil it with a gentle fire Day long: Then put the water down and boil it and from then on so that the earth becomes white and clear. And this is what the philosophers said: This earth rots and is cleansed with water, then when it is cleansed, the entire magisterium will take place correctly through God's help .

Now when these have been purified clear and white by means of the water which has been coagulated and thickened with the named earth through the heat effect, then cook the same coagulated and thickened earth with its water without any other water by a strong fire in a glass cucurbit or On the piston there is also a glass helmet standing so long that whatever water is there rises up into the helmet and the earth remains calcined down.

Then take the fourth part of the ferment of which you want, which is one pound of the perfect body, take three ounces of the ferment.

But the ferment is either gold or silver: And the same ferment is fermented with the earth so that it is solvated and dissolved in the same way as happened with the earth: And when it is prepared in such a mass with the earth, put them together and wash them with reserved water and cook it for three days or more. Then moisten them again with your water and boil them as before: Repeat this so often that both of them are completely brought together into one:

You can remove the same when you see that the color no longer changes on them: Then pour the aforementioned Bite the water one part at a time carefully so that it absorbs as much of it as it can and always pours new water afterwards. Then in such a union of the spirit and the body the soul will be mixed with them together as one and the bodies will be transformed into their nature so that the green shoot will be compatible with their previously reported cleansed bodies - then previously it could not be because of that uncleanness and grossness In addition , now he unites with them and grows and multiplies in them.

Now, my dear son, I want to turn again to my previous speeches and to use them all the special sayings of the old philosophers, which they use in vague similes and thereby prove that you You may also understand that with my words I have referred to the sayings of philosophers and thereby understood them, since you yourself will have to confess that I used their own words.

The first word is that the bodies should be reduced and brought into an Argentum vivum: And this is what the philosophers have called a reduction or restoration , which is the foundation and basis of art. The philosopher's words are as follows : Unless you solvate or dissolve the bodies, you will work in vain.

Parmenides also spoke about this in the Book of Turbæ when he said: If they had read and understood this book, they would know without a doubt that it is a permanent and constant water, which without its body with which it then unites and together becomes a permanent one could not have been.

Therefore the water of the philosophical bodies is not such water as falls from the clouds, but rather they are transformed into the water from which they were initially created, namely into an Argentum vivum, just as an egg is transformed into clear water from which it first came. Behold, by the grace of God you have the one element which is water.

The other word is: That it should become an earth.

The same is what the philosophers have said: that out of the depths of water an earth will be born. Then the philosophers called the fæces, which remain at the bottom of the vessel, an earth. So you also have the other element which is earth.

The third word is: The purification of the earth from such purification says Morienus the Philosopher: This earth rots and is purified with water and when it is purified, through God's help the entire magisterium will reach a good end.

Pythen said of these in the Book of Turbæ: Add the dry to the wet, namely the earth to the water. Behold, now you both have the water in front of you and then also the earth, which has been made white with the water.

The fourth word is: The water which can evaporate or freshen up through distillation, through which sublimation or rising the earth becomes completely airy, since everything else, including the earth, was previously thick and coagulated.

So you have the earth, the water and the air. And Philotis has this in him Book of Turbæ said: The whitened dry land burns with fire until the spirit comes out of it, which is found in it and the ashes are called Hermetis. So also the philosopher Mirêris: The calcined earth remains at the bottom of the vessel, which is of fiery nature. And in this way we have the four elements in the previously reported preparation : Is therefore the calcined earth this of which the philosopher Mirêris says: You should not despise the ashes which are at the lowest place of the vessel. Then in it is the crown of the heart, which remains there.

The ashes are later reported to the earth. The ferment is allowed because the philosophers call the soul a ferment: And this is the same as a human body without its ferment, or without its soul, is of no use, so it is with present things. Then the ferment is a body, as has been said, which transforms the others into its nature.

In addition, you should know that there is no other ferment than Sol and Luna, that is, gold and silver, which are appropriate for the same planets, and because of the fact that just as Sol and Luna rule over the other planets, these two bodies also have power over the others and transform them This is why most philosophers call them a ferment in their nature. Because of this you have to introduce the ferment into the body then it is their soul.

And this is what Morienus said: Unless you cleanse the unclean body and make it white and bring the soul into it, you have not yet completed anything of this Magisterio. That is why the ferment is combined with the purified body and then when the spirit is added to them, it rejoices with them and they have now been purified of their gross nature and become completely subtle.

Which is what Ascanius says in the Turba: The spirit does not unite with the body unless it is completely cleansed of its uncleanliness.

In the hour of assembly the greatest miracles of all appear. Then all the colors that may be conceived in the world can be seen in the work and the imperfect body is colored with a constant color by means of the ferment, which ferment is the soul:

The same spirit is colored by means of the souls with the body united and connected with it, it is also transformed into the color of the ferment and becomes one with them.

Anyone who astutely considers what has been told so far will know that the philosophers write the truth in their words, no matter how obscure they are .

Then the philosophers write in their books that our stone is made of the four elements, then they compared it to the elements. But it was explained in the beginning what the four elements are.

They also said that our stone was composed and put together from a body of a soul and a spirit, and they spoke truthfully about it.

Then they compared the imperfect body to a body that is weak and frail.

They said the water was a spirit and it really is a spirit. In the same way they called the ferment the soul then, as they thought above, it gives the imperfect body a perfect life which it did not have before and gives it a better form.

A number of philosophers have also said: If you do not bring the bodies to the point where they are no longer bodies, then you have not yet found the rules according to which you should work the bodies and they speak true about them. Then first of all it becomes water, which is an Argentum vivum, and therefore it becomes incorporeal. Afterwards, through the union of the spirit, namely the water, it becomes a body.

That's why some people said: Transform the natures so you will find what you are looking for and this is also in accordance with the truth. Then in our Magisterio we first make a rough thing into a supple one , which is a water from a body, and then from the same into a dry thing, that is, from the water which is moist, an earth, which is a dry thing , and in this way we transform natures and make them a physical becomes a spiritual and a spiritual becomes a physical as reported.

We do the same thing , that this is the highest, just as this is the lowest, and this is the lowest, which is the highest, that is, the spirit becomes a body and the body becomes a spirit, then such at the beginning of the work, namely in the solution or dissolution story: This is the lowest just as this is the highest and everything is finally transformed into an earth.

So it can now be clearly judged from what has now been stated that our stone is the four elements and these are the soul, the body and the spirit. And our stone, as many philosophers say, is only made from one thing with one thing and they really speak the truth about it. Then our entire magisterium is made solely with our water and from it and through it.

Because the same thing as above solvates and dissolves the bodies not through such a solution, as the ignorant people think, that it is transformed into such water as dripping from the clouds, but through a true philosophical solution, namely into the first water from which they initially came .

Then the same water calcines the bodies and makes them earth again: the same water also changes the bodies into a softened ashes, whitens and cleanses them, according to the words of Moriene, who says: That the Azoch and the fire wash away the Latonem and cleanse all darkness take away from him completely.

But Lato is the impure body: Azoch is the Argentum vivum, and this, when it has been prepared as described above, joins the different bodies together through such a union which no force of fire nor any kind of test can separate: it protects them from burning and guides them one into the other, it does not sublimate the bodies through a common sublimation, which idiots are wont to use and think that sublimating means going up through the fire.

And that is why they take the calcined bodies and mix them with the sublimated spirits, namely with Mercurio, arsenic and salts drive the bodies up with the spirits through a strong and rapid fire and say that the bodies are then sublimated, but they are then deceived by it They later find them much uncleaner than they were before.

But you, my dear son, should know that our sublimation does not mean rising to the top, but the philosopher's sublimation is turning a lowly and despised thing into a high, great and delicious thing, that is a pure thing:

Just as we say: Iste homo sublimatus est, that is Man has achieved great dignity and dignity:

So we also use to say that bodies are and that sublimates is transformed into a delicate subtlety and into a different nature : So that in the case of philosophers, sublimating is just as much as making subtle and purifying, all of which our blessed water does. That's why you understand our sublimation, even though it has been deceived a lot in other respects.

Our water also kills and makes alive and causes a black color to appear in the death of the body by transforming it into earth: Afterwards, many and varied colors appear in front of the white, the end of which is the white color.

But in the combination of the prepared and fermented body, innumerable colors appear, as many as could ever be imagined by a human being. And in this way it can be found that our magisterium is in one and is made with one and also from four as reported, the same also from three as reported above.

Therefore, my dear son, you should know that the philosophers have multiplied and heaped up the names of our stone so that they would like to hide it even more deeply and have said that our stone is both physical and spiritual:

and in truth they have not said anything wrong about it, insofar as it is so wise People can probably understand. Then there is a body and a spirit and the body has become spiritual in the solution or dissolution as said: On the other hand, the spirit has become corporal or physical by being joined together with the perfect body and the ferment .

So a number of philosophers also call him an Ertz (like Eximenus in the book of Turbæ) and say: All you who investigate this art should know that there is no true tincture except with our Ertze alone: ​​And they have given it countless other names with it The unwise would not understand this in any way or way as they called it: However, it is no more than a single stone and a piece of work.

That is why Morienus says that the preparation and production of our Magisterii is compared to the proper formation and creation of man .

Then the first story is the carnal mixture, then the conception, followed by the impregnation, the fourth, the birth and finally the nutrition or renewal.

I want to open this word mind to you if you pay diligent attention you will have. Namely: our seed, which is the Argentum vivum, is joined together with the earth as the imperfect body, which is called our earth because the earth is the mother of all the elements: and then, according to the philosophers, this is called coitus, or marital intermingling.

But when the earth begins to retain some of the Argentum vivum with itself, it is called the conception and then the man works into the woman, which is the Argentum vivum, into the earth. And this is what the philosophers say, that our magisterium is nothing other than man and woman and the same combination. Water rules over the Argentum vivum, and the earth grows and multiplies.

But what happens at the time when the earth becomes white is then called impregnation and the earth is now impregnated.

Thereupon the ferment is joined together with the imperfect prepared body, as has been said, until they are one in color and appearance, and then it is called the birth: Since at the time our stone was born, the newborn is called a king by the philosophers .

As a philosopher in the book of Turbæ says:

Honor your king who comes from the fire and is adorned with a magnificent royal crown and honor him until he reaches full old age. His father is Sol, but his mother is Luna. But they take Lunam for the imperfect body and Solem for the perfect body.

Finally comes the nutriment, or food, so that it can be multiplied by a great increase. But his nutrition should be offered to him from his milk and from the seed from which he was originally, which is to be imbibed or soaked with the Argento vivo open times until he receives his full satisfaction, that is, up to his perfection, which is then the end of our entire work.

My dear son, through what has been told so far, you can easily understand all the vague and obfuscated words of the philosophers and you will clearly see that they are all in agreement with each other.

And our Magisterium is nothing different than what I told you in this letter . So through this, my dear son, you now have the solution and dissolution of the body and its own reduction and Return to the first material. Afterwards you will also have it transformed into the earth.

After its whitening and elevation into the air, it then becomes completely airy when the moisture in it is distilled .

Whatever sinks down and remains like a calcined earth is then of a fiery nature. So you also have, as they are united with each other, the mixing of the souls and the body: And also how at the same time the soul, the body and the spirit are united with each other and one is transformed into the other:

And then finally the augmentation or multiplication next to it whose usability is much greater than can or may be achieved with reason or some understanding.

End.