Kabbalah, Mirror of Art and Nature in Alchemy
Cabala, Speculum Artis Et Naturae In Alchymia

Spiegel der Kunst und Natur: in Alchymia

Stephan Michelspacher 1615





Next, what really is the very ancient Stone of the Sages, which is a triple stone and yet simple.

All things observed from a few different writings only, offered in homage, by God's permission, to all laborious lovers of art , and represented by four copper-engraved plates. By an unknown yet known, as evidenced by the engraved insignia of the first plate. Now translated from German into Latin by a devout worshiper of Wisdom. With, by a very eminent philosopher, an abridgment of this same question dedicated to the Fraternity of the Rose-Croix, so that in this matter nothing could be missing.

ADDRESS

To the very excellent and illustrious Master Johan Remmelin, citizen of Ulm, very famous doctor of medicine and philosophy, my master and protector worthy of honor and respect

Very excellent, illustrious and honorable Doctor,

Upon my many requests and prayers, Your Excellency, moved by the sincere and natural affection which you have for my person as well as for the most eminent and most esteemed arts and sciences, therefore in the first place for true medicine and the true philosophy (I will keep silent, for this time, as ignorant, of the exceptional knowledge and experience that your Excellency has of it, in what it surpasses everyone and which have been given to him by God), your Excellency , I say, once transmitted to me an anatomical pamphlet, dealing with the admirable manufacture and condition of the whole and of each of the parts of the body of man, the noblest of creatures, parts depicted with art and united together according to their mutual proportions, as if they putunder the eyes something alive. The booklet was written in Latin, entitled Microcosmic Mirror and accompanied by a brief and clear new description of these parts called Microcosmographic Table. No doubt your Excellency will remember it.

From that moment, I had the unceasing intention of publishing this opuscule, but I was for a very long time prevented by various obstacles from realizing my intention. In the end, however, obeying the urgent advice of numerous scholars who greatly liked the work of anatomy they had seen, with the consent, certainly difficult to win, of your Excellency, I brought it to light, less than a month only: I admired then, attributing this to your extreme modesty, that your Excellency would not allow this booklet to appear with the name of its author, although the portrait and the arms engraved on the frontispiece of the Mirror could inform and inform about him the one who examined them.

I had humbly dedicated this Mirror with the Painting to the very powerful and very noble Lord Philippe Heinhofer, very illustrious patrician of Augsburg, and had offered it to his protection as that of a very worthy patron. I had in fact considered how his noble Lordship is a remarkable and very skilful amateur and connoisseur of the arts of this kind; how also she knows how to recommend to greats and princes, who now all know her very famous virtues, so that she fully enjoys their deserved graces; that, moreover, she kindly honors me with her great benevolence. But both the very noble Heinhofer himself — moved by the sheer delight and affection, which cannot be praised enough, with which his powerful virtue burns with regard to this kind of ingenious artifices — than many other eminent and very learned technophiles, had demanded with insistence, with great insistence, with the most extreme insistence, the name of the author as the deserved trophy of the work. But the work and the treatise on anatomy mentioned had been printed before, by my solicitations, I had obtained the power to attach and notify this name. That is why, on this occasion which is offered to me, namely your acceptance of the present little treatise on the stone of the wise, drawn up by an author who is named therein in a hidden way, and who, in the judgment of the learned and the learned, far to be unwelcome, is very useful, I will endeavor, by offering it and humbly dedicating it to your Excellency, on the one hand, to respond to the desire of the many admirers of anatomy to know the author of the Microcosmic Mirror and its Microcosmographic Table, their repeated requests having finally succeeded; on the other hand, to satisfy to a certain extent measure the well-known passion and love that your Excellency has for true chemistry, which, by its very nature, was born, so to speak, in the midst of all the arts and sciences which are the ornament of noble minds; finally, to take advantage of what I have found, with the help of God, a very propitious opportunity to declare and show somewhat the gratitude that I owe to your Excellency for the many benefits with which you have so far showered me.

I also ask that your Excellency receive this little treaty with a serene brow, that you honor me in the future with your favor and your friendship and that with those who are very dear to you, you enjoy the entire and benevolent protection of the Almighty as I enjoy his.

Done at Augsburg, January 15, 1615.

From your Excellency
the very devoted

stephan michelspacher
of Tyrol


The author of this translation salutes the candid reader.

Benevolent reader, as it appears here and there in the plates a number of inscriptions in German language obviously likely to be a nuisance for other nations, and that certain passages of the exhibition can appear rather obscure to a man less experienced, I considered it essential to the author's work and text to precede them with the translation of these inscriptions placed opposite, and to add a more developed explanation of these passages by adding of a very brief speech by a very eminent, but anonymous, philosopher. May good spirits find this good!

Farewell.

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Translation of what in the plates is written in German language

PLATE I

First plate, constituting so to speak the title of this little treatise

Spiegel der Kunst und Natur.
Nature.
Kunst.
Cabala und die Alchimen/Geben dir die höchste Arknen/Darzu auch der Weisen
Stein/In dem das Fundament allein/Ligt, wie für Augen zusehen ist/In disen Figuren zu
der frist senn
Ach Gotthilss dass wir danckbar/Für dise Gab so hoch und rein/Wann du nun auffthust
Herz und sinn/Der da vollkommen ist hierinn/Zubereiten hie dises Werck/Dem se
gegeben alle Starck.
Heiss, Kalt, Trucken, Feucht, Erd, Wasser, Lufft, Fewer.

Translation
Mirror of art and nature
Nature
Art.

Kabbalah and alchemy give you supreme medicine, and also the Stone of the Sages in
which is a single foundation, as can be seen in these figures.
Praise God that we are grateful for this eminent and very great gift! Since,
God, when you open someone's mind and heart to be perfected for
prepare this work, you certainly give it all its strength.

PLATE II

Second Plate Figure

Anfang: Exaltation.
Natur, Salmiac, Tragant, Essig, Zinober, Ble, Drackenblut, Eissen, Farb der Werck, Grad
dess Fewer, Haupt dess Rabens, Kupffer.
Translation
Principle: Exalted

Nature, sal armoniac, adragant, vinegar, cinnabar, lead, dragon's blood, iron, color of
the work, degree of fire, raven's head,

PLATE III

Third Figure

Mittel: conjunction
Tincture, Coagulation, Distillation, Putrefaction, Solution, Sublimation, Calcination.

Medium: Conjunction
Tincture, coagulation, distillation, putrefaction, solution, sublimation, calcination.

PLATE IV

Fourth Figure

End: Multiply
The Brunn dess Lebens
Translation

4. End: Multiplication
Source of life.
This is followed by the exposition of the Author, that is to say the text itself.

ADDRESS TO THE READER OF THIS ART

It is rightly compared to a shadow on a wall who reads without intelligence, since he sees many things with his eyes, but knows nothing of them, and he is in any case more miserable than the blind man who understands without seeing. This is why, turning the mirror over, you will observe in a foreshortened form all that must be seen in the mirror, that certainly there is no detour or labyrinth below, but that a straight line completely crosses the circle, and that the ternary placed in the quaternary goes into the center through the unity, and reciprocally goes freely from the center in the ternary towards the circle through the quaternary. Then a whole mirror is formed in which a blind man sees the black, the white and the red, otherwise buried by filth. Thereby the mystery is revealed, and the gross is freed from elemental bonds and refined to be increased a hundred times and a thousand times and endlessly. Happy is he who does this! I offer to everyone as a gift this as being completely certain and the perfection of the art.

PROLOGUE

Benevolent reader, beloved in Christ, since all things, arts as well as talents , are in the hand of Almighty God and must be given according to his mercy to whomever he wills, God has thus showered me with his mercy and surrounded me with the greatest grace in this present work, I who am and his creature and a wretched man in this corruptible world, since he called me, the unworthy, to reveal his eminent mysteries . And this Almighty God could have granted and given all this to many other men who, in virtues, honor, knowledge and dignities of this world, surpass me by a great number of cubits.

Therefore, since God has given me light, that there may result from it glory for him and convenience for my neighbor, it will be fitting that I do not put it under the pew or the bushel, but that I lay it on the table, so that all who come and enter can see and understand what in this matter they must do or leave.

Consequently, I proposed to expose to my similar in figures or images, as by means of a mirror, this very pure light, and, by the cabala and the art of alchemy, to communicate it to all lovers of nature and art and to those who are experienced in spagyric work. With it, I hope, they will have before their eyes a perfect knowledge of the mirror, in order thereby to collect at will and according to their good pleasure fruits and profits, in the first place of course those which are useful for life and health of the human body, and then to obtain a decent Christian temporal sustenance both of the body and of the soul for the very fruitful eternal life.

O principle, consider the end, soon, O end, consider the principle. Because me. Steel and Mirror, I only give art lovers what has been so long, but rightly, sought after.

Because from now on everyone will know concisely the way and the way to reach the true place. Also, take advantage of my advice, and visit, the blacksmiths' workshops if you want to make your wish come true, because in quite wrathful Mars you will find a precious sugar. Indeed, he knows nothing about art who refuses to work in Mars, and he does not find the end of time as he will discover it by struggling, because his Balm balsamizes all things, and shows everyone the ease of science or art. In fact, a point enters the circle which is in the quadrangle and in the triangle. If you reach this point, you reach perfection and escape all tribulation, misery and danger. With that, you own the whole art: if you don't understand it, what I have written will be in vain, but lay the blame on yourself and stay away.

EXPLANATION OF ART

In this celestial mirror, with the truth of art and nature, and, by the co-operation of a celestial fire, through the force and power of the ray, drawn from steel into three distinct forms and found very clear and diaphanous, I was able to see every thing that the eye could grasp, much more, the sky and the earth.

Indeed, I found a first mirror of a beautiful sapphire color, of igneous property, sprinkled with a lot of white, thanks to which I saw the mercury and the salt of the sages as clearly as if they were in my hand. .

From it I obtained, by the strength and virtue of pure steel, a second mirror, in which I saw the sulfur of the sages similar to the flower called celandine, so rich in salt of vegetable nature, which in a way grows and increases, that in this place I could not pick flowers to my sufficiency, so fruitful it appeared to me in this mirror.

The third mirror emerged perfect from these two mirrors, with an igneous redness similar to fire, for, having been stirred for a brief moment, it warmed up and immediately ignited like pure fire, so that I was not to take it by hand without fear, because, I proclaim it, I saw that within were hidden the divine power and a very great mystery. In fact I found there the fire of the sages, thanks to which everything in everything is brought to maturity, by means of the elemental visible fire, a fire which has been sought by many but found by few.

Now, with careful application, by means of spagyric art, I have enclosed these three mirrors together in one mirror, in which, at all times, I see very perfectly both God and all things with the treasures of the poor; this is why it rightly deserves to be named “treasure of treasures”. I keep it with care at home so that it is not stolen from me, nor that with it any harm is done to others.

I confidently hope that this brief discourse will sufficiently acquaint the wise with how these figures produce fruit for lovers of the spagyric art. Provided they are reconciled with God and nature, then in this mirror they will draw from what is now described and offered, and signified in these figures to teach, much more than I or others will describe.

In truth these things concern only the students of the spagyric art and of the true and solid alchemy and experts in chemical works, to whom also the smallest secrets and mysteries of nature will be revealed, by means of the degrees or ladders which must be kept in order in the work. For example, figure number 1 indicates the degree of calcination, under which again we mean reverberation and gumming. The second figure shows the degree of exaltation, which includes sublimation and elevation with distillation. The third figure indicates conjunction at the same time as putrefaction, solution, dissolution, resolution, digestion, circulation. The fourth figure contains in itself the multiplication, under which hides the fact of raising, washing, inhibiting, cohobering as well as coagulating, fixing, increasing, coloring.

It is necessary to climb through these steps, for those who must walk this way, so that the three mirrors are united into one, by means of the four main columns - these are philosophy, astronomy, alchemy and the virtues -, and by the alphabet of the second figure, in the circumference of the circle of letter by letter clearly and clearly revealing the true matter of this Art. Therefore, when A, B, C and (all) the characters are known in order, you will easily see here what is to be seen, just as also in the first and third figures are the four qualities — these are the elements: hot, dry, cold and moist — which teach the true first and last matter, through which you attain all things, as I briefly described, but I stop adding many things, since before me very excellent,

In fact, an abundant writing is of little use, since, I hope, everything is sufficiently discovered by these four figures. But when I have understood that the lovers of this Art have not been satisfied here, but are looking for things beyond, it is not forbidden for my pen to dress in a better order and foundation these very things, proven by experience. Indeed a short little book will follow, if God and time allow it, which point by point, will be divided into four parts according to the norm of the two columns visible in the first figure about Nature and Art.

In the meantime, be satisfied with this simple plan and prodrome that is this mirror of mine, and remember that sublimities are offered rather to the humble than to the proud. Since high strong eyes do not need narrow intelligence. This is why the proposed text and mirror are effective only for those who are expert in the art and spagyric works.

Declaration of the very ancient stone as an epilogue

With this I conclude. The foundation in the chemical art is the supreme medicine, which appears as a most precious little compound flower, created and made by God, viscous water, the first being, as taught by the sages. In fact from our art is born, like the supreme tincture, a nature in which are three principles, because of which our stone is also triple: mineral, animal and vegetable, that is to say body, soul and spirit, thus produced by nature itself like sweet honey, wet salt, lunar, liquid like butter, solar, green lion, hidden sulphur, profit of the wise, noble soul of the body, quintessence, our fire, the flower producing generation, above which no other fire can operate.

The fire of the wise is Art, since without it all work is vain: when you would work hundreds of thousands of years, without it you would do everything in vain and you would not reach any perfection, but with your time you would also waste your money. Therefore, apply yourself diligently to your studies and seek with certainty the fire without light or coal, and use the quickening spirit which resurrects dead metals. For this fire is supernatural, hidden in quicklime and horse manure. You will note, however, that though by these you are delivered from many inconveniences, yet the end cannot be attained by them, and for that there is nothing to be sought in horse manure, since it is unreasonable to deal with amusements of this kind which would deserve the mockery of all. That is why, WISH will be granted. A thousand times happy who has received this gift from God!

Author's text
There follows an abridgment, dedicated to the Fraternity by an anonymous philosopher
Very brief speech, or example of simplicity
of sacred philosophy and supreme medicine

JEHOVA TRI-ONE
All things from nothing
The spirit of God was carried over the waters
chaos :
First Hyle of the Elders; all things were created out of nothing
Firmament, Minerals, Plants, Animals
MACROCOSM
from the center and from the Fifth Being
MICROCOSM
Of all that is created the most perfect Creature
MALE
Image of the Most High God
Immortal Soul, Invisible Celestial Fire
Disappear the fall: Behold the MESSIAH
Light of Grace and Nature
LII.I: first Matter of the perfect body,
Mother of the Intermediate World,
Balm and Mumie
and matchless Magic Magnet in the Microcosm
Water of the wise, by whom and in whom are all things; who governs all things, in whom he is
erred, and in whom error itself is corrected
Healthy mind in a healthy body
Tireless prayers:
Patience and Delay
Matter, Vase. Furnace, Fire, Coction, it is only one Thing it is unique,
One and in itself one and only. Beginning, middle and end
It does not admit anything foreign, and without anything foreign is accomplished,
HERE in Mercury is what the wise seek
SMALL DIAPHANE FOUNTAIN
Double Mercury
Rotation of the Sphere of all the Planets.
And be for a moment smoking the Darkness from the
LUMINOUS
DEATH AND LIFE
Regeneration with Renophation
Start of fixation, Middle and End
Sum and Foundation of all Magical Secret
R. of the Fifth Being of the Macro and the Microcosm, that is to say
of the Philosophical Mercury
living celestial invisible fire
Salt of Metals ana qs
Arrives by magico-philosophical art by circulating, dissolving,
coagulating and fixing
SUPREME MEDICINE
in whom are
Greater Wisdom, Perfect Health, and Wealth
more than enough:
All things from one, and all going to one
Haste and ostentation towards Death.
Enough talk,
simple and obvious; all malice rejected,
Pathmos is a small obstacle.
JEHOVA's will be done
Glory to God alone