LIGHT OF LIGHT - LUMEN DE LUMINE

THOMAS VAUGHAM
Said Eugène Philalèthe

Presentation

We offer here a new translation of Lumen de Lumine, treatise by Eugène Philalèthe published in London in 1651. In fact, an adaptation appeared in French in 1787, more than a translation (thing then quite common in this field) of this text written in English, under the title of The Hermetic Art discovered or new magical light which contains various mysteries of the Egyptians, Hebrews and Chaldeans, today available in Gutenberg Reprint ( Paris, Editions J.-C. Bailly, 1989). As Mr. Didier Kahn rightly says in his Introduction, there is no shortage of alterations, misreadings committed by the 18th century editor, and even translation errors, so much so that this can justify a retranslation, too. faithful and literal as possible, a task not made easier by certain obscure passages. [286]

In his address to the reader, Philalethes confides that the wounds left the previous year by the attacks of Henry More (see The Man-Mouse) are still not healed. He also gives us important reading keys for understanding his work

"I had to debate with myself to know what arrangements to take concerning this text, its subject being contrary to the spirit of this era, which is both corrupt and melancholy. My desire was to keep it for myself, but the relationship it has with my previous treatises necessarily led it to be put into print. These are my last thoughts, and their first reflection not being complete, I added this to perfect their image and symmetry. (..)

I have only written what God has verified before my eyes in particular, and which He can justify before the world in general. I have known His secret light, His candle is my school teacher. (..) To conclude, this treatise is the last that I write and it is the only key to my first treatise (1). What I wrote previously is like the Arab's Halicali (2). It is a “sealed house”, a closed house, but here I give you the key to the lock... So I place my light in your hands. »

The title echoes the formula from the Nicene Creed (325): “Deum de Deo, Lumen de Lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero”, “God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God” (Missel daily, translation Abbaye du Barroux, ed. Sainte Madeleine). References to the theme of light are innumerable in the Scriptures and in [287] Hermetic philosophy; as for the “Light of Light”, light born or resulting from light, authors like Arnaud de Villeneuve or Rice de Chester also talk about it.

The Lumen of Lumine consists of thirteen chapters of very uneven length, some lasting only a few lines. The author talks about the Work by proposing a whole journey, which begins with “The Lower World” and ends with “Regeneration, Ascension and Glorification” and with “Descent and Metempsychosis. » [288]

The Lower World
The night had now passed its dark phase, and all
Its beautiful and glittering flames were growing sick and pale.
Its scene of shadow and silence fled, and the day
Dressed in roses the young East where each ray
Falling on the sands, brought the sun and the night
To embrace each other in a chessboard of mingled clouds and light (3).

I think it would be simpler, and to a certain extent more appropriate, if I expressed myself in our popular and vulgar dialect.

It was almost dawn, or daybreak, when overcome by a weary solitude and those pensive reveries which accompany it, after much effort and work, I suddenly fell asleep. It was then that, barely born, the day was strangled. I was reduced to a night of an even darker hue than the one I had spent before. My fantasy took me to a region of inexpressible darkness which, in my opinion, went beyond the natural, but without my feeling any terror. I was in a firm and serene mood, and although not reassured, I was not only determined, but also went as I pleased. I moved in all directions to discover something, always enveloped in darkness and silence, so much so that I believed myself transported to the land of desolation. Thus vainly preoccupied and tired by long efforts, I [290] resolved to rest and, seeing that I found nothing, I wondered what could possibly happen to me.

I had barely continued in this mood when I heard the whispers of a gentle wind moving towards me. Suddenly he came into the leaves of the trees, so that I concluded that I was in some wood or wilderness. With this gentle breath came a most fragrant and celestial air, resembling that of rosehips, but less strong and less clear. Once this scent had dissipated, it was succeeded by a pleasant buzzing of bees among the flowers, which perplexed me somewhat, because I judged that it was not in harmony with the appearance of the place, which was as dark as the middle of the night. While I was rather worried by these unexpected events, a new apparition distracted me from my apprehensions. Not far from me, to the right, I discovered a faint white light; it was not as bright as that of a candle, but misty and very vapor-like. In the center it was purple in color, like the Elysian sun, but in the expansion of its circumference it was milky, and if we consider the united hue of its parts, it was a colorful evening, a figure of splendor that the ancient Romans called Sun of the Dead. While I was absorbed in this strange scene, there appeared in the midst of the purple colors a sudden movement, and from their very center burst forth a certain light in the shape of a flower, similar to the flame of a candle. It was very lively, dazzling and sparkling like the daylight. The rays of this new planet, springing out in little skeins and rivulets, looked like silver threads which, reflected against the trees, revealed a curious green shadow. I found myself in a grove of laurels. The texture of the branches [291] was so even, the leaves so thick and in such conspiratorial order, that it was not a wood but a building.

I imagined that this was in fact Nature's Temple, the place where she had united discipline with her doctrine. In this darkness and in this screen lived numerous nightingales, which I recognized by their white throats. These, looking furtively through their leafy cages, rejoiced in this strange light and, after parading, made the tranquil air vibrate with their music. It was, I thought, very pretty, because the silence of the night, in harmony with the solitude of the place, made me consider it celestial. The ground, both near me and in the distance, presented a kind of pleasant chessboard, because this new star, upon encountering a few drops of dew, generated a multitude of dazzling refractions, as if the earth had been paved with diamonds. These accidents, rare and diverse, occupied my soul, but to interrupt my thoughts, as if I had illegitimately examined what I had seen, another accident, an even more admirable object, occurred.

I perceived between the light and me a very exquisite divine beauty, neither large nor small in size, but of slim and modest stature. She was dressed in fine loose silk, of a green such as I had never seen, for this color was not earthly. In places it was decorated with white and silver ribbons, like lilies in a field of grass. Her head was wrapped in a thin, floating gauze (4) which she held with one of her hands, and she looked as if from below. Her eyes were bright, cool and heavenly, but somewhat wide, as if she had been intrigued by one. sudden appearance. Her locks escaped from her black veil, like the rays of the sun through a mist. They fell in disorder on her breasts, then rose towards her cheeks in curls and rings [292] of gold. Behind, her hair was rolled into a curious globe, with a small, short tip decorated with purple and sky blue knots. Her rings were entirely stones, emeralds, for she did not value any metal, and her pendants were fiery carbuncles. In a word, his whole outfit was young and flowery, it had an oriental fragrance and was completely aired with rich Arabian perfumed powders. Such, then, was her appearance at that time, and while I was admiring her perfections and preparing to pay my respects, she came to me and with a determined air approached. I was actually expecting some speech from her here, but looking at me very seriously and silently, she took me by the hand and gently whispered to me to follow her. This, I confess, seemed strange, but I did not think it wrong to obey such a gentle order, especially an order that was very promising and could, in my opinion, go much further.

The light I had admired before, finally proved to be her servant, for it moved like a bailiff before her. This service added much to her glory, and I only took care to observe her who, although she did not really wander, did not follow any known direction. His path was green, thick with a little fine grass that looked like fluff, because it was very soft and everywhere dotted with daisies and primroses. When we came out of our trees and our grove of laurels, I noticed a strange clarity in the air, which did not resemble that of day; I cannot say either that it was night. In fact, the stars were perched above us and twinkling as it were on the tops of the high hills, for we were in a very deep hollow and the earth towered over us, so much so that I thought we were near its center . We had not gone very far [293] when I discovered certain thick white clouds - for that is how they appeared to me - which filled all that part of the valley which lay before us. In truth, it was a mistake on my part, but it did not last long, because as I approached I realized that they were firm and solid rocks, but shiny and dazzling like diamonds. This rare and remarkable sight greatly encouraged me and I had a great desire to listen to my mistress speak - for that is how I judged her from then on - so that, if possible, I could receive some information from her. How to bring him to this? I didn't really know, because she seemed to have an aversion to talking. Having, however, resolved to disturb her, I asked her if she would grant me the favor of telling me her name. To this, she responded very familiarly, as if she had known me forever.

“Eugene,” she said, “I have many names, but the one that is the best and dearest to me is Thalie (5), because I am always green and will never fade. In this place you contemplate the Mountains of the Moon, and I will show you the source of the Nile, for it springs from these invisible rocks. Raise your eyes and scrutinize the very tops of these pillars and these salt cliffs, for these are the true lunar and philosophical mountains. Have you ever seen anything so miraculous and incredible? »

This speech quickly made me look up towards these sparkling salt turrets where I saw a cataract, an astonishing waterfall. This flow was larger than any river at its widest course, and despite the height and violence of its fall, it flowed without any sound. The waters crashed against these salt rocks, their current was diverted, but in spite of all this, they descended in [294] dead silence, like the calm and sweet air. I took a little of this liquor, as it flowed near me, to see what a strange woolly substance it was, which fell thus furtively like snow. When I had it in my hands, it was not common water, but like a kind of oil with a damp appearance. It was viscous, oily, mineral in nature, sparkling like pearls and transparent like crystal. When I had examined it carefully and subjected it to my research, it appeared to me that it was in some way spermatic, and in truth, it was obscene to the sight and even more so to the touch. On this, Thalie replied to me that it was the First Matter, that it was the real sperm, the natural sperm of the great world. “It is,” she said, “invisible, and that is why there are only a few who find it. But many believe that it cannot be found. They actually believe that the world is a dead figure, like a body which at one time was made and shaped by that spirit which dwelt within it, but which retains that form and manner only for a brief moment after that spirit abandoned him. They would do better to consider that every frame, once the soul has left it, decomposes and can no longer retain its former figure, because the agent which preserved and held the parts together is gone. » I then found this speech very excellent which I had previously heard given by one of my students. “This world,” she said, “of parts so diverse and contrary, would not have achieved unity of form if there had not been the One who joined together such contrary things. But, once assembled, the very diversity of natures united, fighting against each other, would have decomposed and separated them if there had not been the One to maintain and preserve together these parts which He had united to the beginning. Indeed, the order of Nature would not proceed with such certainty, nor could Nature move with such regularity in [295] many places, times, effects, and qualities, if there were not Someone One who arranged and ordered these varieties of movements. This, whatever this thing may be, by which the world is preserved and governed, I call by the usual name of God. »

“That is why, Eugene, you must understand,” she said, “that all compositions are made by an Active Intelligent Life, because what was done in the composition of the great world in general, was likewise carried out in the generation of each creature and in its sperm in particular. I suppose you know that water can only be contained in a vessel. The natural vessel that God has provided for this purpose is the earth. In the earth, water can be thickened and made to take shape, whereas of itself, and without earth, it has an indefinite flow and is not subject to any form whatsoever. Air is also a fugitive and indeterminate substance, but water is its vessel, for just as water takes shape by means of earth, so air also thickens and takes shape in water. To rise higher, the air coagulates the liquid fire, and the incorporated fire envelops and traps the tenuous light. These are the means by which God unites and composes the elements into a sperm, because the earth modifies the texture of the water and makes it viscous and slimy. It is such water that those who would like to produce extraordinary magical effects must seek, because this spermatic water coagulates with the slightest heat, so that Nature concocts it and hardens it into metals. You see that egg whites thicken as soon as they smell of fire, because their humidity is tempered by a pure, subtle earth, and this subtle, animated earth is what binds their water.

Take then, my Eugene, some water from these Mountains of the Moon, this water which is water and which is not water. Boil it in the fire of Nature into a double earth, [296] white and red, then nourish these earths with the air of fire and the fire of the air, and you will obtain the two magical luminaries. And since you have been my servant for a long time, and your patience has manifested the truth of your love, I will bring you to my school, and there I will show you what the world is not capable of. »

No sooner had she said this than she passed through these rocks of salt similar to diamonds and brought me to a diamond rock which had the exact and complete shape of a cube (6). It was the base of a pyramid of fire, a trine of pure pyrope (7) whose imprisoned flames stretched and soared towards the sky. To the quadrilateral frontispiece of this rock was annexed a small portal where a tablet was hung. It depicted a painted hedgehog, so coiled and enveloped in its shell that it could not easily be distinguished. Above it was a snarling dog with this inscription next to it: “Gently, otherwise it stings.” »

We entered it and, entering the rocks, we saw that the interior parts were of a celestial emerald color. Here they shone like leaves of pure gold, and there appeared a third shade of inexpressible purple. We had not gone very far when we came to an ancient and majestic altar. On the part where the sacrifices were offered, at the very top, was represented the trunk of an old rotten tree, torn off along with the roots. From it crawled out a white and green snake, moving slowly like a very weak snail, having only recently felt the sun above it. At the foot or base of this altar was an inscription in old Egyptian hieroglyphics which Thalie explained, and which reads: [297]

To the blessed gods

In the underground sky

N.L.

“t-a-n-ph” (8).

From there we walked straight ahead until we came to a cave in the earth. It was very dark and very damp, giving off a heavy odor like that of tombs. We did not stay there long and, passing this cemetery, we finally arrived at the Sanctuary where Thalie, turning towards me, made this brief and final speech:

“Eugene, here is the place that many have wanted to see, but have not seen. Preparations for their admission to this place were lacking (9). It is not me they loved, but what is mine. They have indeed coveted the riches of nature, but Nature itself they have neglected and corrupted. They would have had advantages in terms of assault, if they had only studied the opportunities. I was exposed in their hands, but they did not recognize me. I was subject to a certain point to their violence, but He who made me would not have allowed me to be shot dead with a gunshot. In a word, the ruin of these men was based on their disposition (10). When they spoke to me, they looked like those pitiful things some people call courtiers. They perform antics and antics as if they were monkeys. They curtsy - as someone has well said - in mathematical proportions, they circle their legs and make grimaces, following the expression of the same poet: "Their mouths vary, as if under a magic spell, into figures oval, square and triangular. » (11) [298]

“This is how these impudent sophists assailed me with their vain humors. When I looked into their hearts, I saw that there was no place for me. Their hearts were filled with proud thoughts, they dreamed of a certain noisy happiness which had to be maintained at my expense and by my treasures. Meanwhile, they didn't realize that I was simple and modest, someone who didn't like noise, but sweet, private contentment. I found you, Eugene, very in line with my disposition. I found you quite patient in your hopes. You can easily believe where you are right in the faith you have. All this time you have served without pay the time has now come for your reward. I give you my love freely, and with it these tokens: my key and my seal. One closes, the other opens: make sure you use them both discreetly. As for the mysteries of my school, you have the freedom to study them all; There is nothing here that I would not be happy to reveal to you. There is only one precept that I will recommend to you, and it is this: you must remain silent. In your writings, you will not go further than what I have allocated to you. Remember that I am your love, you will not make me a prostitute. Since I wish you to be of service to those who have your own disposition, I will give you here an emblematic representation of my Sanctuary with the full privilege of publishing it. That is all, and I will now leave for this invisible region which is the abode of the immortals (Iliad VIII, 456). May this proverb have no place in you: “Out of sight, out of mind.” Remember me and be happy. »

These were his instructions. Hardly had they been made to me when she led me towards a great and clear light. There, I experience these things that I must not talk about. Having thus discovered all the parts of this glorious labyrinth, she led me out again with her thread of sunbeam, her light [299] which moved shining before us (12). When we had passed the rocks of the Nile, she showed me a secret staircase by which we ascended from this deep and flowery valley to the surface of our common earth. There, Thalie stopped in silent ceremony, because I had to be left alone. She gave me a look, and silent smiles, mixed with a pretty air of sadness, because we hadn't decided to leave each other. But the hour of her departure had come, and taking her leave for the last time - or so I believed - she passed before my eyes towards the eternal ether of Nature.

I was then, to tell the truth, very tormented and quite disconcerted, but calming myself as best I could, I arrived at a myrtle bush where I rested on a flowered mound, and began to think about these things that I had seen. This solitary and melancholy study did not last long, for it was interrupted in a very pleasant manner. I saw Thalie practically at the end of a fairly distant landscape, but in an instant she found herself in the myrtles where she sat down very close to me, and I received from her this speech: "I would not want , Eugene, leave you ignorant of the unity and concentration of the sciences. In a more learned age of the world, when magic was better and more generally understood, the teachers of this art divided it into three parts: elemental, celestial and spiritual. The elemental part contained all the secrets of physics, the celestial those of astrology, and the spiritual those of the divine. Each of these parts in itself was only a branch, or member, but when all three united, they were the Pandects of science (13). But today, in these, no one can show you any real physics or astrology; moreover, they do not even have a language or a book concerning the divine.

The [300] reason is this: over time, these three sciences - which do not work miracles without mutual and essential union - were, through bad interpretation, dismembered and separated, so that each of them was considered a faculty in itself. Now God has united these three things in one natural subject, whereas man has separated them and placed them in no subject except in his own brain, where they have remained in the form of words and imagination, and not in substantial elements. and in truth. In this state, the sciences became dead and futile, producing nothing but noise since they were separated - as if you dismembered a man and expected a part to perform those actions that the whole did when he was alive (14). »

“You know from natural experience itself that from a specific root grow several different substances, such as leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds. Likewise, from a universal root, namely chaos, grow all specific natures and their individuals. Now there is no true science or knowledge which is not founded on sensitive, particular substances, or on the universal sensitive substance, from which all particulars are made. As for universals, in the abstract, such things do not exist, they are empty, imaginary caprices, because abstractions are so many fanciful suppositions. Consider now, Eugene, that all individuals, including man himself, have nothing material in them that they have not received from universal material Nature. Consider again that these same individuals are reducible into their first universal physical matter and that consequently this universal matter has in itself the secrets and mysteries of all particulars, because everything that includes the subject itself, includes the science of this subject.

In [301] First Matter the Divine Wisdom is captured in a general chaotic center, but in the particular facts of the First Matter it is dispersed and spread, as it were, towards a circumference. It therefore remains that chaos is the center of all sciences, towards which they can and should be reduced, because it is the Great Sensitive and Natural Mystery, and after God, it is the second Temple of Wisdom. Therefore, search and examine the parts of this chaos according to the rules and instructions received when I was with you in the mining region. Don't just focus on practice, because that's not the way to improve. Be sure to add reason to your experience and use your mind as well as your hands. Work to know all the causes and their effects: do not only study the recipe, as does this heated and bubbling generation who call themselves chemists, but who are not true philosophers. »

“This is all that I consider appropriate to add to my previous prescriptions, but what made me come back is something else, and you will now receive it. You have sometimes heard, I suppose, of the part of magic relating to beryl (15): take care to understand me and I will show you the basis. You must know that the stars cannot imprint any new influx into perfect, complete bodies; they only have and to a certain extent activate that influence which has been previously imprinted. It is very certain, Eugene, that no sideration (16) occurs without some prior corruption and alteration in the patient, because Nature does not work in disconnected, humid, decomposed elements. This disturbance does not come from the stars, but from the contrariety of the elements between them. Each time they quarrel and work towards their own dissolution, then the celestial fire intervenes to reconcile them and generate some [301] new form, seeing that the old one could no longer remain compatible and subsist. Observe then that the authentic moment of these impressions is when the principles are spermatic and virgin, but once they are coagulated into a perfect body, the time of stellification (17) is past. Now the ancient Magi in their books speak of strange astrological lamps, images, rings and strips of metal which, used at certain times, produce incredible and extraordinary effects. The vulgar astrologer takes a stone or a piece of metal, marks it with ridiculous characters and then exposes it to the planets, not in an "alkemusi" (18), but according to what he dreams, because he does not know how to proceed. When this is done, the result is in vain; but although they fail in their practice, they nevertheless believe that they understand the books of the Magi sufficiently well. Now, Eugene, that you are able to know what to do, I will teach you by example. Take a ripe grain of wheat that is hard and dry, expose it to the rays of the sun in a glass or any other vessel, and it will remain a dry grain forever. But if you bury it in the earth so that the nitrous and salty humidity of this element dissolves it, then the sun will work on it, it will make it grow and germinate into a new body. It is exactly the same with the vulgar astrologer: he exposes to the planets a perfect, compact body, and by this means thinks of carrying out the cameo (19) of the magician and marrying the lower world to the higher world. It must be a body reduced to sperm so that the celestial, feminine humidity, which receives and preserves the impression of the astral agent, can be free and immediately exposed to the masculine fire of Nature. This is the basis of beryl. But you must remember that nothing can be stellified without the joint magnetism of the three skies. What they are, I have told you elsewhere, and I will not bore you by repeating it. » [302]

When she had thus spoken, she took from her breast two miraculous medals, not metallic, but such as I had never seen; nor could I conceive that in Nature there were such pure and glorious substances. I judged that they were two magical astral pieces, but she called them sapphires (20) of the sun and the moon. She recommended these miracles to my study, apologizing, because she was sleepy, otherwise she would have explained them to me. I looked at them, admired them and lost myself in their contemplation. Their appearance was so celestial, their combination so mysterious that I didn't quite know what to do with them. I turned around to see if she was still giving, but she was gone, which disturbed me not a little. I hoped she would return until the day was completely over, but she did not appear. Finally, staring at the place where she had rested a moment ago, I discovered some gold coins that she had left behind, and nearby, a paper folded like a letter. I picked them up, and it was then that, the night approaching, the evening star blazing in the west, enveloping its flowered pillow with a last glance, I parted from them while reading these verses:

“Pretty green
mound , farewell, may you carry
Sunbeams, roses and lilies all year round.
She slept on you but did not need to pay
Her gold: it was enough to be her bed.
Your flowers are favorites, because on this darling day
They were my rivals and they played with her.
They found their paradise within reach, and in his eyes
They enjoyed a model of their absent skies.
Their pale color matched wonderfully, [304]
And mixed with her cheeks, composed a bouquet.
Its soft skin held back their pride,
And a silk screen divided the flowers in two.
They had harvested life from it, and from its warmth
They had borrowed a soul to make themselves complete.
O happy pillow! Although you were flattened
Under the powder, it almost raised you to paradise.
From her bosom rained spices, and each ring of amber
From her lively curls spread bracelets on you who are soft.
This land is not poor which contains such treasure,
But triple enriched by amber, spice and gold. »

Here is this emblematic and magical figure (see the reproduction) that Thalie gave me in invisible Guyana (21). The first upper part represents the Mountains of the Moon. Philosophers commonly call them the Mountains of India, at the top of which their secret and famous lunar tree grows (22). It is an easy herb to find, except for men who are blind, because it is uncovered and shines, after dark, like a pearl. The earth of these mountains is very red, and soft beyond all expression. It is full of crystalline rocks that philosophers call their glass and their stone. It is the birds and the fish, they say, that bring it to them. The Arab Hali, a very excellent and judicious author, speaks of these mountains: “Go, my son, to the Mountains of the Indies, to their quarries or caverns, and take there our precious stones, which dissolve or melt in the water when mixed with it. » Many things could be said concerning these mountains, if it were lawful to publish their mysteries. [305]

SCHOLAE MAGICAE TYPUS FIGURE FROM THE MAGIC SCHOOL

after Robert Vaughan [306]

Nevertheless, there is one thing that I will not refrain from telling you. These are very dangerous places after dark, for they are haunted by fires and other strange apparitions, occasioned, as the Magi tell me, by certain spirits who lasciviously fiddle with the sperm of the world and impress upon it their imaginations, often producing fantastic and monstrous begetting. The access and pilgrimage to this place, with the difficulties that accompany them, are faithfully and masterfully described by the Brothers of the Rose+Croix. Their language is indeed very simple, and cannot be despised by most men. But speaking with refinement was not part of their design: their knowledge lies, not in the turn of phrase, but in the meaning, and this is what I offer for the reader's consideration.

Letter from the Brothers of the R+C concerning the Invisible Mountain and the Treasure it contains:

Every man naturally desires superiority - to have treasures of gold and silver - to appear great in the eyes of the world. God truly created all things for the use of man, that he might reign over them and recognize in them the singular goodness and omnipotence of God, that he might thank Him for His blessings, and honor Him. and praise Him. But there is no one who seeks His things, and the days are allowed to pass by idly. People would like to enjoy these things, but without prior work and without danger. Neither do they seek them in that place where God has stored them up, who also expects them to be sought there, and to those who seek, He will give them. But there is not one who works for a possession in this place, and therefore these riches are not [307] found. For the path to this place - and the place itself - has long been unknown, and it is hidden from most of the world. But although it is difficult and laborious to find this way and this place, yet one should seek this place. It is not God's will to hide anything from those who are His, and therefore in this last age - before the final judgment comes - all these things will be made manifest to those who are in it. worthy. As He Himself, though obscurely, lest it should be made manifest to the unworthy, has said in a certain place: "There is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not be known" ( Matthew X, 26). Therefore, we who are moved by the Spirit of God declare to the world the will of God which we have already produced and published in several languages ​​(23). Most people either insult or despise our Manifesto, or, deviating from the Spirit of God, expect us to give them the propositions contained therein, supposing that we want to teach them directly how to do it. gold by means of art, or provide them with ample treasures by which they can live with pomp in the face of the world, show off, make war, become usurers, greedy and drunkards, live without chastity and defile all their lives from many other sins - all these things being contrary to the blessed will of God. These people should have learned the lesson from the story of the ten virgins (Matthew XXV, 1-13) five of whom were foolish and asked for oil for their lamps from the five who were wise, to learn how different their case is. It is expedient that each should work towards this treasure by means of God's assistance and by his own particular research and industry. We understand the perverse intentions of these people by reading their own writings, through the singular grace and revelation of God. We cover our ears and [308] drape ourselves, so to speak, in clouds, to avoid the bawls and howls of these people who in vain cry out for gold.

After we have learned well - although without your knowledge - and noted from your writings how diligent you are in the study of Sacred Scripture and the search for the true knowledge of God, we also consider that you are worthy , above many thousands of people, to obtain some answer, and we tell you this by the will of God and the warning of the Holy Spirit.

There is a Mountain located in the middle of the earth or in the center of the world, which is both small and large. It is soft, and also hard and stony beyond measure. It is distant and within reach, but by the providence of God, invisible. In it are hidden very ample treasures that the world is not capable of evaluating. This mountain, due to the envy of the devil who always opposes the glory of God and the happiness of man, is surrounded by very cruel beasts and other birds of prey, which make access difficult and dangerous. This is why until now - because the time had not yet come - the path leading there could neither be sought nor found. Now finally, the path can be found by those who are worthy, but by the personal work and efforts of each person.

To this Mountain you will go in a certain night, when it comes, very long and very dark; be sure to prepare yourself through prayer. Insist on finding the path that leads [309] to the Mountain, but ask no one where the path is. Follow only your Guide, who will offer himself to you and meet you along the way. But you won't recognize it. This Guide will take you to the Mountain at midnight, when all things are silent and dark. It is necessary that you arm yourself with resolute and heroic courage, lest you be frightened by these things which will happen, and so fall back. You do not need a sword or any other physical weapon: just invoke God sincerely and cordially. When you have discovered the Mountain, the first miracle that will appear is this: a very vehement and very great wind which will shake the Mountain and shatter the rocks. Lions, dragons and other terrible beasts will also come to meet you, but do not fear any of these things. Be resolute and take care not to turn around, because your Guide who has brought you this far will not allow any harm to come to you. As for the treasure, it has not yet been discovered, but it is very close. After this wind will come an earthquake which will overthrow all the things that the wind has left, and it will flatten them all. Make sure you don't fall. Once the earthquake has passed, a Fire will ensue which will consume the dirt of the earth and discover the treasure. You can't see it yet. After all these things and towards dawn, there will be a great calm, you will see the Day Star rising, the dawn will appear, and you will see a great treasure. The most important and perfect thing it contains is a certain exalted tincture, with which the world - provided it is in the service of God and worthy of such gifts - can be tinted and transformed into very pure gold.

This tincture, used as your guide will teach you, will rejuvenate you if you are old, and you will not feel any illness in any part of your body. [310]

By means of this dye, you will also find pearls of such excellence as one cannot imagine. Do not assume anything to yourself because of your present power: be content with what your Guide will communicate to you. Praise God perpetually for this gift He has given you, and be especially careful not to use it for worldly vanity; use it in works such that they are contrary to the world. Use it rightly, and enjoy it as if you didn't have it. Lead a temperate life, and guard yourself from all sin, otherwise your Guide will abandon you and you will be deprived of this happiness. Know that this is a truth: anyone who abuses this tincture and does not live in an exemplary, pure and devout manner before men will lose this benefit, and will have practically no chance of regaining it later.

This is how the Mount of God was described to us, the mystical and philosophical Horeb (Exodus III, 1), which is nothing other than the highest and purest part of the earth. For the upper, secret portion of this element is holy ground, and Aristotle says to his Peripatetics: “Where there is what is very high, there also is what is very divine. » It is the nursery of Eternal Nature, the immediate vessel and container of the heavens, where all minerals and plants have their roots, and whereby the animal kingdom is maintained. This philosophical black Saturn mortifies and coagulates the invisible Mercury of the stars, and conversely Mercury kills and dissolves this Saturn. From the corruption of both, the suns at the center and circumference generate a new body. Hence the fact that the philosophers describing their Stone tell us that it is a black, vile and fetid Stone. It is called the origin of the world, and it arises like things that germinate. As for the Epistle of the Fraternity, I have - for the satisfaction of the [311] common reader - translated it into English. I know some doctors will think this is not a benefit, but then they admit their ignorance. I can assure them that the subject is nowhere so clearly discovered. As for the first abstruse preparation, there is no particular author who has mentioned it, but here we have fully described it, and moreover, very faithfully. I admit in truth that their teaching wears a mask, but very simple and penetrable.

This we draw from these famous and very Christian philosophers, men who undoubtedly suffered greatly from their own discreet silence and solitude. All sophists despise them, because they do not appear in the world, and they conclude that such a Society does not exist, because they are not members of it. There are hardly any readers who are fair enough to think about the reasons why they hide and do not come on the scene every time a jester shouts "come in." No one cares for them except for worldly purposes, and to tell the truth, if the Art itself did not promise gold, I am convinced that it would find few disciples. How many in the world study Nature to know God? They are certainly studying a recipe to serve their wallets, not their souls, nor in any good way their bodies. It is therefore appropriate that they be left to their ignorance as treatment. It may be that the nullity of their hopes will reform them, but as long as they continue in this disposition, neither God nor good men will help them.

The lower part of this figure represents a dark circle, loaded with many strange chimeras and the tragelaph (24) of Aristotle, that metaphysical monster of academics. It signifies the innumerable vain caprices and [312] the vain and wandering imaginations of man. Indeed, before reaching the truth, we are subject to a thousand fantasies, fictions and apprehensions which - wrongly - we assume to be the truth itself and often propose as such.

This fantastic region is the true and original seminary of all sects and their dissensions. From there come the desperate skeptic, the dissolute Epicurean, the hypocritical stoic and the atheistic peripatetic; hence also their diatribes on Nature as to whether Prime Matter is fire, air, earth or water, or a collection of imaginary atoms - all these being false suppositions and fabrications. If we consider religion and its diversities, where have present heresies and schisms come from if not from the various erroneous apprehensions of men? In fact, as long as we follow our own fancies and build on baseless and baseless imaginations, we must necessarily wander and grope in the dark like the blind. On the contrary, if we delimit our thoughts and examine them by means of experience, we are on the path to infallibility, for we make our own this rule which God has proposed to guide us. It is in vain that He made Nature if we stick to our own conceptions and do not use its principles. It would be a happy necessity if our thoughts could not deviate from the ways of Nature. But surely to think that we can find the truth by mere reflection, without experience, is as great a folly as that of a man who would close his eyes so as not to see the sun and then believe that he could travel directly from London to Cairo by imagining yourself to be on the right path, without the assistance of light. No, no one enters the School of Magic without first wandering into the region of [313] chimeras, for the investigations we make before reaching experimental truths are for the most part erroneous. However, we should be rational and patient in our studies, and we should not impose and imperiously thrust them upon the world before we are able to verify them.

I have always approved this speech in order, and on sure ground, of Basil Valentinus (25): “Be advised, therefore, my wanderer, to seek with your own eyes, and even with your own hand, this first foundation which Nature is hidden within itself: only in this way will you be able to reason with judgment and sagacity, then to build on this impregnable rock. Otherwise you will necessarily remain a vain and fanciful tinkerer whose argument, in the absence of experience, will be rooted in sand alone. On the other hand, whoever would like to teach me anything by rhetorical figures and trifles, should know that he could not satisfy me in any way by empty words, because it is essential that proofs drawn from the fact experience are also at hand. “And elsewhere: “I do not value the tinkerer who speaks other than from his own experience, because his speech has the same foundation as the judgment of a blind man about colors. » Undoubtedly, all this was the breath of a true philosopher, of someone who studied not names, but the nature of things. I oppose it like a battery pointed at the academics if they necessarily want to beat the recall of their syllogisms, I also hope that they will confirm their noise by their experience. Inside this fantastic circle is a lamp, which represents the light of Nature, the Secret Candle of [314] God, which He cast in the elements: it burns without being seen because it shines in a dark place. Every natural body is a kind of dull lantern which contains this candle within itself, but whose light does not appear, because it is eclipsed by the grossness of the matter. The effects of this light are apparent in all things, but the light itself is denied, or it is not followed. The great world has the sun which is its life and its candle; according to the absence or presence of this fire, all things in the world flourish or decay. We know from experience - and this in our own bodies - that as long as life lasts, there is in us a continual coction, a certain effervescence or bubbling. This is what makes us perspire and expire in perpetual excretions through the pores, and if we place our hand on our skin, we feel our own heat, which must necessarily come from a fire or light locked within. from U.S. All plants grow and increase by themselves; they produce their fruits and their flowers, which could not exist if some heat did not stimulate and alter the matter. Furthermore, we see that in plants, this light is sometimes discovered by the eye, as it appears in rotten wood where the fire of the stars shines after dark. As for minerals, their raw material is coagulated by this spirit of fire and transformed into various consistencies, to which we can add this manifested truth: if the mineral principles are dissolved artificially - so that their fire and spirit can be released - then even metals can be changed into plants. This fire or this light is nowhere found in so much abundance and purity as in this subject which the Arabs call Halicali, from Hali (Summum) and Calop (Bonum), "the sovereign good", but the Latin authors write it of corrupt manner Sal Alkali. This substance is the Catholic receptacle of spirits. It is blessed and imbued [315] with the light from above and was therefore called by the magicians the “Sealed House, full of light and divinity.”

But let's progress in the presentation of our figure: not far from this lamp, you can observe the angel or genie of the place. In one hand he holds a sword to ward off the quarrelsome and the unworthy; in the other, a ball of thread to guide and introduce the humble and the innocent. Beneath the altar is the magician's green dragon or Mercury, which encircles a treasure of gold and pearls. It is neither a dream nor a fantasy, but a known, demonstrable, practical truth. This treasure is there to be found, infinitely rich and real. Truly, we must confess that it is enchanted, and by the very magic and art of Almighty God. It cannot be seen or touched, but the cassette that contains it lies beneath our feet every day. On this treasure sits a small child with this inscription “Except for one of these little children”.

It tells us how those who desire admission to this place should be qualified. They must be innocent and very humble, not impudent and proud declaimers, nor greedy and uncharitable misers. They must be affable, not quarrelsome; they must love the truth and also, to speak simply, they must, like children and like buffoons, speak the truth. In a word, they must be such as our Savior Himself said: “like one of these little children”. (26)

This is, in short, this magical emblem that Thalie communicated to me in the mineral region. I cannot say more, because I was not given anything more intended to be related for public and popular use. I will now proceed to discover some other mysteries which I have received from her, and such as are not commonly sought for. Their basis for [316] all is the visible, tangible quintessence, or first created unity, from which the physical teractys comes (27). I will speak of them not in a fixed and artificial discourse and method, but according to their natural, harmonious order, and first of all, starting with the First Matter.

Raw materials

When I seriously consider the system or texture of this world, I come to find that it is a certain series, a link or a chain that stretches from non-grade to non-grade, of that which is in below all apprehension towards that which is above all apprehension. That which is under all degrees of sense, consists of certain horrible and inexplicable darkness. Magicians call them active darkness, and their effect in nature is cold. For darkness is the face of cold - the complexion, body and womb of cold - even as light is the face, principle and fountain of heat. That which is above any degree of intelligence is a certain fire, or light, infinite and inaccessible. Dionysius the Areopagite calls them divine darkness (caligo divina), because they are invisible and incomprehensible. The Jew calls them Ayin (28), but in a relative sense or, as the academics say, out of respect for us. In simple terms, it is the unveiled Deity, without any clothing. The middle substance or chain between the two is what we commonly call Nature. This is the scale of the great Chaldean which extends from subnatural darkness to supernatural fire. These average natures came from a certain water, which was the sperm or First Matter of the great world. [317]

And we will now begin to describe it: understand who can.

In simple terms, it is dissolved, flowing water, or rather it is something molten, that is, a solution of earth, a certain plasticity of earth, excessively soft, moist earth, fuse, flowing - a waxy earth that is capable of taking on all shapes and impressions. He is the Son of Earth mixed with Water - and to speak as the nature of the thing requires - it is a mixed earth and a marriage of earth. The learned alchemist defines it as a living and divine silver, the union of spirit with matter. It is a divine, damaged mass, somewhat like silver in appearance, the union of the masculine spirit with the feminine spirit, the quintessence of the four, the ternary of the two and the tetractys of the one. These are its generations, physical and metaphysical. The thing itself is a world without form, it is neither a pure and simple power nor a perfect action, but a weak and virgin substance, a certain Venus, malleable and prolific, the very love and the seed, the mixture and humidity of heaven and earth. This moisture is the mother of all things in the world, and the masculine, sulphurous fire of the earth is their father. Now the Jews - who without controversy were the wisest of nations - when they discuss the generation of metals, tell us that it is carried out in this way. Mercury or mineral liquor, they say, is completely cold and passive, and lies in certain underground terrestrial caverns. But when the sun rises to the east, its rays and heat, falling on that hemisphere, stimulate and strengthen the internal heat of the earth. Thus we see in winter that the external heat of the sun excites the natural internal heat of our bodies, and invigorates the blood when it is almost cold and frozen. It is then that the central heat of the [318] earth, stimulated and favored by the heat at the circumference of the sun, acts on Mercury and sublimates it into a fine vapor, which rises into its cell or cavern. But towards evening, when the sun sets in the west, the heat of the earth - due to the absence of this great luminary - weakens, and the cold reigns, so that the vapors of Mercury, which were previously sublimated, then condense and distill into drops which fall to the bottom of their cavern. The night passed, the sun reappeared in the east and sublimated the humidity as before. This sublimation and condensation continues until the Mercury absorbs the subtle, sulfurous parts of the earth, and is incorporated therein, so that this sulfur coagulates the Mercury and finally fixes it, so that it does not sublimate, but lies motionless in a ponderous mass, and is concocted into a perfect metal.

Take care then that our Mercury cannot be coagulated without our sulfur, because the Dragon does not die without its companion. It is water that dissolves and putrefies the earth, and earth that thickens and putrefies the water. This is why you must take two principles to produce a third agent, according to this obscure principle of the Arabic Hali. “Take,” he said, “the dog of Corascene and the female dog of Armenia. Put them together, and they will give you a sky blue puppy. » (29) This sky blue puppy is this sovereign, admired and famous Mercury, known as the Mercury of the Philosophers. Now for my part, I advise you to take two living Mercurys, plant them in a purified mineral Saturn, wash them and feed them with vegetable salt water, and you will see this speech from the verified Adept : “The mother will generate a flower bud, which she will nourish with milk from her own breast, and with the help of the father, she will completely transform herself into food for him. » But the process or the recipe is not part of my design, and [319] therefore I return to the First Matter, and I say that it is no water of any kind whatsoever. Reader, if this is your desire to reach the truth, rely on my words, for I speak the truth, and I am not a deceiver. The mother or First Matter of metals is a certain watery substance, neither truly water nor truly earth, but a third thing composed of these two and retaining the consistency of neither. The scholar Basil Valentin agrees with this in his appropriate and authentic description of our sperm. “The First Matter,” he says, “is an aqueous substance found dry, or of such a consistency that it does not wet the hands, and does not resemble any other matter whatsoever. » Another excellent and well-experienced philosopher defines it thus: “It is,” he says, “earthly water and aqueous earth, mixed with earth in the belly of the earth, and the spirit and influences of the heavens are mixed therein. » In truth, this cannot be denied, but certain authors have named this substance with the names of all ordinary waters, not to deceive the simple, but to hide it from the people of the fanatics and the ill-intentioned. On the contrary, some have expressly and faithfully informed us that it is not common water, especially the revered Peat: “The ignorant,” said Agadmon, “when they hear us name water, think that it is the water of the clouds, but if they understood our books, they would know that it is a permanent or fixed water which, without its companion to which it has been united, cannot be permanent. "

The noble and learned Sendivogius tells us exactly the same thing: "Our water is heavenly water, which does not wet the hands, not that of common man, but almost, so to speak, rain water. » We must therefore consider the various analogies and similarities of things, otherwise we will never be able to understand philosophers. [320]

So this water does not wet the hands, a notion sufficient to persuade us that it cannot be common water. It is a metallic, bitter, slightly salty liqueur. It has a real mineral consistency. “It has,” says Raymond Lulle, “the appearance of the sun and the moon, and it is in such water that it appeared to us, not in a spring or rainwater. » But in another place he describes it more completely: “It is dry water, not the water of clouds or phlegmatic water, but angry water, hotter than fire. » It is more greenish to the sight, and this is what the same Lulle tells you. “She looks like a green lizard,” he said. » But the most dominant color is a certain inexpressible azure, like the body of the heavens on a clear day. It truly resembles the belly of a serpent, especially near the neck, where the scales have a dark blue tint, and therefore the philosophers have called it their serpent and their dragon. The predominant element in it is a certain subtle igneous earth, and it is from this dominant part that philosophers have named their entire compound. Paracelsus named it openly but in only one place, and he calls it slimy earth, silt or slimy part of the earth. Raymond Lulle describes the crase or constitution of it in these terms “The substance of our Stone,” he says, “is completely fatty or viscous, and impregnated with fire”; in view of what he calls it elsewhere: “not water but earth”. “Take our land,” he said, “which is impregnated or engrossed by the sun, because it is our precious stone which is found in abandoned houses where a great secret and an enchanted treasure is locked up. » And again, in a certain place, he confides thus: “My son, he says, the First Matter is a subtle, sulphurous earth, and this noble earth is called mercurial subject. » Know therefore for certain that this muddy, [321] moist semen, or earth, must be dissolved in water, and this is the Water of the Philosophers, and not some vulgar water of any kind. This is the great secret of Art, and Lulle discovered it with great honesty and charity.

“Our Mercury,” he said, “is not the vulgar Mercury or quicksilver. But our Mercury is a water which cannot be found on earth, for it is not made or manifested by the ordinary course of nature, but by the art and manual operations of man. » Do not therefore seek in nature what is an effect beyond its ordinary process. You must help it, so that it can go beyond its normal course, otherwise everything is in vain.

In a nutshell, you have to make this water before you can find it. In the meantime, you must allow philosophers to call their subject or chaos a water, for there is no name suitable for it, unless you call it semen, which is a watery substance, but certainly not water. Just don't be fooled, because they tell you what it is and what it isn't - that's all we can do. If I ask you what you call the sperm of a chicken, you will tell me that it is the white of an egg, and in truth, it is both the shell and the sperm it contains. But if you call it earth or water, you know very well that it is neither, and yet you cannot find a third name. Judge therefore as you would like to be judged, for this is the case even with philosophers. Certainly you must be very unreasonable if you hope to obtain this language from men to whom God has not given it.

Now that we can confirm as our own this theory and this discourse about the sperm, not only by experience but also by reason, it is necessary that we consider the qualities and temperament of the sperm. It is [322] therefore a loamy, sticky humidity which diffuses. But if we consider any perfect products, they are firm, compact, configured bodies; from this it follows that they must be made of something which is neither firm, nor compact, nor configured, but of a weak, trembling, changing substance. Undoubtedly it must be so, unless we arrange for the sperm to have the same consistency as this body, and therefore it must follow that generation is not an alteration. Again, it is obvious to everyone that nothing is as passive as humidity. The slightest heat transforms water into vapor, and the slightest cold transforms this vapor into water. Now let us consider what degree of heat acts in all generations, for by the agent we can guess the nature of the patient. We know that the sun is so far from us that its heat, as daily experience tells us, is very weak and lackadaisical. I then desire to know what subject there is in all nature, which can be transformed by such weak heat, if not humidity.

Certainly none, because all hard bodies, such as salts, stones and metals, preserve and maintain their consistency in the most violent and excessive fires. How then can we expect them to be transformed by a gentle and almost insensible heat? It is obvious then - and this by infallible inference from the proportion and power of the agent - that humidity must necessarily be the patient. For this degree of heat which nature uses in her generations, is so careless and feeble that it is impossible for her to change anything except that which is moist and watery. This truth appears in the animal family, where we know well that sperm are moist. In fact in plants, seeds are dry, but then nature generates nothing from them until they are first macerated or moistened with water. And here, my Peripatetic, it is [323] completely finished with you and your pure power, this fantastic chaos of the son of Nicomachean.

But I must advise my chemists to be careful of all common humidity, because it will never be transformed into anything other than vapor. So make sure that your humidity is well tempered with earth, otherwise you have nothing to dissolve and nothing to coagulate. Remember the practice and magic of Almighty God in His Creation, as manifested to you by Moses: “In the beginning,” he said, “God created the heaven and the earth. " But the original, if truly and rationally rendered, says this: "In the beginning God mixed, or tempered one with the other, the subtle and the thick. » For the sky and the earth in this text, as we told you in our Anima Magica, signify virgin Mercury and virgin Sulfur. This is what I will prove from the text itself, and this according to the commonly received translation which goes like this: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. » In the first part of this text, Moses mentions two created principles, not a perfect world, as we will prove later; and this he does in these general terms: heaven and earth. In the second part, he describes each of these principles in more particular terms, and he begins with the earth. “And the earth,” he said, “was without form and void. » From this I infer that the earth of which he speaks was a simple rudiment or principle of this earth which I now see, for this present earth is neither empty nor formless. I then concluded that the mosaic earth was virgin Sulphur, which is a formless earth, because it has no determinate figure. It is a loose, unstable, incomposed substance, with a porous, empty constitution, like sponge or soot. In a word, I saw it, but it is [324] impossible to describe it. After this, he then proceeds to describe this heaven or second principle in the following terms: “And darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. » Here he calls deep and waters what he previously called sky. It was in fact the celestial moisture or water of chaos, from which the separate sky, or habitation of the stars, was subsequently made. This is clear from the original, for hamaïm and hashamaïm are the same words, as aqua and ibi aqua; they mean one and the same substance, namely water. The text, then being rendered according to the primitive natural truth and the indubitable sense of the author, says this: “In the beginning, or according to the Targum of Jerusalem, in wisdom, God made water and earth. And the earth was without form and void, and there was darkness on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. » Here you should observe that God created two principles, earth and water, and that from these two He composed a third, namely semen or chaos. On the water, or wet part of this semen, the Spirit of God was indeed moving, and - says the Scripture - "there was darkness on the face of the deep". This is a very big secret, it is however not legitimate to publish it expressly nor as the nature of the thing requires; but in the magical work it can be seen, and I myself have been an eyewitness.

To conclude, remember that our subject is not common water, but thick, muddy, oily earth. This earth must be dissolved into water, and this water must be recoagulated into earth. This is done by a certain natural agent which philosophers call their Secret Fire. For if you work with common fire, it will dry up your semen and turn it into profitless red dust, the color of the wild poppy. Their Fire therefore is the Key to the Art, because it is a natural [325] agent, but which does not act naturally without the sun. I must admit that it is a tangled mystery, but we will clarify it, provided that you are neither weak nor dull in mind. It indeed requires a lively and clear apprehension, and that is why, readers, blow out your candles.

The Philosophical Fire

Fire, despite its diversities in this sublunary kitchen of the elements, is only one thing coming from a single root. Its effects are varied, depending on the distance and the nature of the subject where it resides, as it makes it vital or violent. It slumbers in most things, like in flint where it is silent and invisible. It is a kind of ambush sentinel, lurking nearby, like a spider in the receptacle of its web, to surprise everything that comes in its threads. She never appears without her prey in her paws. Wherever the fire finds something combustible, that is where it is discovered, for if we speak as it becomes, it is not generated but manifested. Some are of opinion that it generates nothing but devours everything, and that is why it is called "almost begetting fire." This is a quirk of grammar, because there is nothing in the world that is generated without fire. What a fine philosopher Aristotle was, who told us that this agent generates nothing other than his pyrausta (30), a certain fly that he found in his candle, but which could never be seen again. Truly, too much heat burns and destroys, and if we descend to other natures, too much water drowns, too much earth buries and stifles the seed, so that it cannot spring up. And it is true that in these conditions, there [326] is nothing in the world that generates. What a fool he was, the one who did not know how to distinguish, with all his logic, the excess of measure, the violent degrees from the vital degrees of heat, and who concluded that fire generated nothing because it consumed everything. . But let's let the mule pass - that's what Plato called it - and let's pursue our Secret Fire. This fire is at the root and around the root, I mean around the center, of all things visible and invisible. It is found in water, land and air. It is found in minerals, herbs and animals; it is found in men, stars and angels. But originally it is found in God Himself, for He is the fountain of heat and Fire, and it is from Him that it is derived towards the rest of the creatures in a certain flow or ray of sun. But magicians only grant us two notions by which we can know their fire. These are, according to their description, the humid and the invisible. That's why they called it horse's belly and horse dung, damp heat, but not visible fire. Now let us compare the vulgar Vulcan with this philosophical Vesta so that we can see how they differ. First of all, this philosophical fire is humid, and in truth, such is also that of the kitchen. We see the flames contract and expand, sometimes they are short, sometimes long, which cannot be without a certain humidity which maintains the flow and continuity of their parts. I know that Aristotle claims that fire is simply dry, perhaps because such are its effects. He does not really consider that in all compositions there are other qualities, besides the one that predominates. Certainly then, this dry matter is indeed this element specific to Aristotle, where he found his pyrausta! If our natural fire were simply dry, its flames would not be able to flow and spread as they do, they would instead fall into dust or, like their fuel, they would turn into ashes. [327]

Let me return to my earlier point. I declare that common fire is excessively hot, and humid to a very low degree, and therefore destructive, because it draws moisture from other things. On the contrary, the heat and humidity of the magical agent are equal; one tempers and satisfies the other. It is a damp, lukewarm fire or, according to our common expression, which has the heat of blood. This is the first and greatest difference in relation to the effect we desire. We now consider their second difference. The cooking fire, as we all know, is visible, but the philosophical fire is invisible, and therefore it is not the cooking fire. This, Almadir tells us expressly in these terms: “Our work,” he says, “cannot be accomplished by anything other than the invisible rays of our fire. » And again: “Our fire is a corrosive fire which causes a cloud above our glass or vessel, in which the rays of our fire are hidden. » In short, philosophers call this agent their bath, because it is humid as baths are; but in truth itself, it is not a bath at all, neither of sea nor of dew, but a very subtle and purely natural fire, even if its excitement is artificial. This excitement or preparation, as I told you in my Terrestrial Heaven, is a very vulgar, frivolous, ridiculous thing. Nevertheless, all the secrets of corruption and generation are contained therein. Finally, I think it is fair to inform you that many authors have falsely described this fire, and on purpose to deceive their readers. As for me, I added nothing nor omitted anything. Here you have the true and complete secret, in which all the Easterners agree - Alfir, Almadir, Belen, Geber, Hali, Shalmaneser and Zadig, as well as the three famous Jews, Abraham, Artephius and Kalid. If this time you don't understand, I can't do anything more for you, because I can't tell you [328] more. All I can do is teach you how to use it.

Take our two serpents, which are found everywhere on the surface of the earth. You need a live male and a live female. Tie them together in a lake of love and lock them in the Arab caraha (31). This is your first work; but your next work is more difficult. You need to set up camp against them with Nature Fire, and make sure you place your rope around it. Surround them and block all exits so they can't find any help. Continue this siege patiently, and they will become a toad, ugly, ugly, venomous, rotting at the bottom of its cave, without wings. Do not touch it under any circumstances, not even with your hands, because there is no such violent and extreme poison on earth. Continue as you have begun, and this dragon will transform into a swan whiter than the fluttering snow, when it is not yet soiled by the earth. From then on, I allow you to strengthen your fire until the phoenix appears. It is a red bird of a very dark color, with an igneous, brilliant shade. Feed this bird with the fire of its father and the ether of its mother, for the first is food, the second is drink, and without the latter it does not achieve its full glory. Make sure you understand this secret, for fire does not feed well unless it is first fed. It is in itself dry and angry, but adequate humidity tempers it, gives it a heavenly appearance and brings it to the desired exaltation. So feed this bird as I told you, and it will move in its nest, and rise like a star in the firmament. Do this (32) and you will have placed Nature “in the horizon of eternity”. You will have fulfilled this commandment of the Kabalist: “Unite the end to the beginning, like a flame to a coal, for God, he says, is superlatively one, and He has no second. » Now think about what you [329] are looking for: you are looking for a unifying, transmuting, miraculous, indissoluble union; but such a link cannot be without the First Unity. “To create, it is said, and to transmute essentially and naturally, or without any violence, is the only adequate office of the first Power, of the first Wisdom and of the first Love. » Without this love, the elements will never marry, they will never unite internally and essentially - which is the end and perfection of magic. Study therefore in order to understand this, and when you have realized, I will grant you this test of Mekubbalim (33): “You understood in wisdom, you were wise in understanding, you established this subject on its pure elements, and you placed the Creator on His throne. »

To conclude this section, I declare that it is impossible to generate in the patient without a vital and generative agent. This agent is the philosophical fire, a certain invisible, celestial, humid heat.

Let's listen to Raymond Lulle describe it "When we say that the Stone is generated by fire, men neither see nor believe that there is any fire other than common fire, nor other sulfur and mercury than sulfur and common mercury. So they are deceived by their own opinions, saying that we are the cause of their error, having led them to mistake one thing for another. But - with their permission - it is not so, as we will prove from the doctrine of the philosophers. We indeed call the sun a fire, and natural heat we call its substitute or deputy. What the heat of the sun achieves in a thousand years in the mines, the heat of Nature achieves on the surface of the earth in an hour. We and many other philosophers have called this heat the Son of the Sun, because originally it was generated naturally, under the influence of the [330] sun, without the aid of our Art or knowledge. . » And Lulle continues: “There is only one thing I must tell you, and make sure you, reader, remember it well. This very natural heat must be applied to the right degree, without being too fortified, because the sun itself does not generate but burns and grills where it is too hot. » “If you work with too strong a fire,” says the same Lull, “the specificity of our spirit, which is indifferent to life and death, will separate from the body, and the soul will leave towards the region of its own sphere . » Take with you therefore this brief but sound advice from the same author: “My Son,” he said, “let the power, or the celestial agent, be in the place of generation or mutation, such that it can transform spermatic moisture from its earthly aspect into a very subtle and transparent form or species. » (34)

Now here is the solution of this greasy and muddy earth into glorious and transparent Mercury. This Mercury, gentlemen, is the water we are looking for, but it is not common water of any kind. I have now spoken of everything, except what philosophers call the Secret of Art, something which was never published and without which you will never realize, even if you know fire as well as matter. An example of this we have in Flamel, who knew the matter well and had the fire and the furnace such as Abraham the Jew had depicted them to him, and nevertheless he wandered for three years, because he did not know the third secret. Henry Madathan (35), a very noble philosopher, practiced the subject for five consecutive years, but he did not know the right method, and therefore he found nothing. “Finally,” he said, “after the sixth year, the Key of Power was entrusted to me by a secret revelation from Almighty God. » This key to power, the third secret, was never put on paper by any philosopher whatsoever. In fact, Paracelsus alluded [331] to it, but in such an obscure way that it is no more useful than if he had said nothing. And now I guess I've done enough with the discovery and fire diet. If you think that's too little, it's a lot more than any author has done. So seek this fire, because whoever discovers it gains access to the true temperament. He will make a noble, deserving philosopher, and according to the expression of our Spaniard, “he will be worthy of taking a place at the table of twelve peers”.

The Pearl River

It is a decomposed substance, extremely heavy and moist, but does not wet the hands. It shines at nightfall, like a star, and illuminates any dark room. It is full of little sparkling eyes, like pearls or needles. It is quite the Demogorgon (36), but in fact animated by the manifestation of its own inner light. The father is a certain inviolable mass, because its parts are so firmly united that they can neither be reduced to dust nor separated by the violence of fire. It is the Philosophers' Stone. “It is said to be surrounded by darkness, clouds and blackness. It lies in the innermost bowels of the earth. When she is born, she is dressed in a certain green coat sprinkled with a certain moisture. It is not strictly speaking generated by anything natural, it is eternal and it is the parent of all things. » This description is very true and apt, but enigmatic; [332] however, do not forget the green coat. It is this substance that Gieberim Eben Haen or, as people call it, Geber calls "the Stone known in high places", a very subtle expression but which, if carefully examined, is the key to his entire book and the writings of ancient philosophers in general. Let us return to our River of Pearls and, for our additional information, let us listen to its description by a very excellent Adept (37), and this in the very act of its effusion, before the appearance of the Full Moon. Here we have depicted for ourselves the whole philosophical laboratory, the furnace, the fire and the matter with its mysterious germinations. As the terms are difficult and not to be understood by all except those who have seen the thing itself, I will, for the reader's benefit - for his satisfaction, I cannot say - translate them into English.

“Here is the work,” he said, “that I once saw near a singular and very dear friend who showed me large furnaces, these crowned with glass retorts. There were several vessels with, in addition to their tripods, their bases and their covers. Inside was a holy Oblation, a gift dedicated to the ternary. Why would I hide such a divine thing any longer? Inside this fabrication was a mass which moved circularly, turned in a circle, representing the very figure of the great world. There the earth was seen standing by itself in the midst of everything, surrounded by very clear waters, rising into many steep hills and rocks, bearing many kinds of fruit, as if it had been watered by showers. humid air. It also seemed to be very fertile in wine, oil and milk, as well as all kinds of precious stones and metals. The waters themselves, like those of the sea, were full of a transparent salt, sometimes white, sometimes red, then yellow and [333] purple, and, so to speak, decorated with various colors which swelled on the surface of the waters. . All these things were moved or stimulated by their own appropriate, but truly imperceptible and ethereal fire. One thing above all forced me to an incredible admiration, namely that so many things so diverse and, in terms of details, so perfect came from a single thing, and this with a very little help which, continued and strengthened by degrees , allowed the Artist to faithfully affirm to me that all these diversities would ultimately be resolved into a single body. I observed here that this species of fusible salt was in no way different from a pumice stone, and that this quicksilver that the ancient authors in this Art called Mercury, was the same thing as the lunar of Lulle, of which the water rises against the fire of Nature and shines at night, but has a viscous and slimy consistency during the day. »

This is the meaning of our learned Adept, and as for his analogy between Philosophical Salt and a pumice stone, it cannot be well understood without the light of experience. It is therefore a spongy, foamy, hollow, porous salt. Its consistency is like that of pumice stone, it is neither hard nor opaque. It is a fatty, viscous, thin substance, which is in appearance like saliva, but much clearer. Sometimes it looks like roses and rubies. Sometimes it is blue-violet, sometimes lily white, sometimes even greener than grass, but with a smaragdine transparency; sometimes it looks like polished gold and silver. The Pearl River takes its name from this substance, because there it is like the sperm of frogs in common water. Sometimes it moves and swims towards the surface of its bath, in thin sheets like wafers, with a thousand miraculous colors. This is enough and even too much, because it is not my place to dwell on [333] secrets which are so far removed from the reader's research that I dare say that they are beyond his hope.

Ether, or the Air of Paradise

So far I have discussed the First Matter and the Fire of Nature, terms actually commonly known, but the things they mean are rarely understood. I will now come to more abstruse and particular principles, to things so secret and subtle that we do not even think about them - and that we seek even less. The common chemist dreams of gold and transmutations - very noble and celestial effects - but the means by which he would like to identify them are papers eaten away by worms, moldy, dusty. His study and his noggin are full of old recipes, he can tell us a hundred stories of sulfur and quicksilver, as well as numerous legends about arsenic and antimony, rock salt, ember salt (sal prunae), saltpeter and other prodigious alkalis, as he likes to call them. With such strange notions and charms he amazes and silences his listeners, just as bats are killed by thunder in their ears. In fact, if this noise prevails, that is enough, there is no need for artillery. But if you bring him onto the battlefield and force him to indulge in his polemics, if you appeal to his reason and reject his recipe, you deflate the bag. A rational and methodical discussion will bring about his defeat, because he does not study the whole body of philosophy. He would like to find a recipe in an old cassette or in an old book, as if [335] the knowledge of God and nature were a thing of chance and not of reason. This vain mood has surprised not only the rustic and illiterate quarrelsome one, where in truth there is necessity, but even great doctors and physicians. Deflate the swelling of their titles, and their knowledge will not be considerable. Hence it happens that so many men are defeated in the pursuit of this Art. They are so infatuated with old grimoires that they do not submit them to their judgment, and immediately put them in the fire.

Certainly, they believe in impossibilities so grotesque that even wild beasts, if they could speak, would condemn them. Sometimes they mistake their excrement for the Matter of which heaven and earth were made. From there they toil and labor in urine and things so disgusting and dirty that it is not proper to name them. And when the circle is closed and their mistake is botched, they renounce their filth, but not their mistake. They think of something more easily openable, and perhaps dream that God made the world out of eggshells or flints. In truth, these opinions come not only from simple people, but also - my goodness - from doctors and philosophers. My design is therefore to discover certain excellences of this Art and to make it appear to the student that what is glorious is also difficult. This can, I suppose, eliminate this blind and lazy credulity which prevents all ingenious research and makes men perhaps misuse this reason which God has given them for discoveries. I will not dwell on any details, I withdraw from the scene in all haste and return to my first solitudes. My speech will be very brief and - like the last syllables of the echo - imperfect. It has no other intention than to be only a hint and suggestion for the reader; it is not full light, but a glance that the reader must improve to be more satisfied. [336]

We will now speak of the ether of the small world, which is absolutely identical in nature and substance to the outer ether of the big world. So that you can better understand what it is, we will examine the concept before explaining the thing. Aristotle in his book On the World (392a-5) derives this word from “always in motion”, because the sky is in perpetual motion. It is a general, irregular whirling, because the stars too, just like the ether, are perpetually moving. The sea is subject to a continual ebb and flow, the blood of all animals to an incessant and tireless pulsation. The ancient philosophers - whose books this enemy burned - derived it from aithô (ardeo, I burn), but especially Anaxagoras, who had a better knowledge of the sky than Aristotle, as appears from his miraculous prediction and the the opinion he had of this place, namely that it was his land, and that he should return there after his death. In fact, this last etymology comes close to the nature of the thing, because it is a spirit that heals and revives, but in its true consistency, it does not burn. I cannot therefore approve this last derivation, any more than the previous one. I rather believe that ether is a compound of aei (always) and therô (I warm up) (38), this substance being called ether because of its effect and its office, as something which becomes always hotter. Supposing this to be the true interpretation, let us now see whether it bears a strict and adequate relation, more to this principle than to any other nature. Ether is a liquid, tenuous, humid substance, and its region is above the stars, in the circumference of the divine nature. It is the true and famous empyrean, which receives the warm influx of God, and directs it towards the visible heavens and all lower creatures. It is a pure essence, a thing which is not infected by any [337] material contagion; it is in this sense that it is qualified by Pythagoras as “free ether” (39), because, says Reuchlin, “it is freed from the prison of matter, and being preserved in its freedom, it is hot with the fire of God, and by an insensible movement, it heats all the lower natures.” In a word, because of its purity, it is placed near that Divine Fire which the Jews call "the garment of light", and it is the very first receptacle of the influences and derivations of the supernatural world - which sufficiently confirms our etymology.

In the beginning, the ether was generated by the reflection of the First Unit on the celestial cube, for the living emanations of God flowed like a stream flowing into the passive spring, and in this analogy the Samian calls it the Fountain of Perpetual Nature (40). You will understand that the ether is not one, but multiple; we will give you the reasons below. By this I do not mean a diversity of substances, but a chain of consistencies. There are other humidities, these too ethereal. They are also the Females of the masculine Divine Fire, and they are the Fountains of the Chaldean, which the oracle describes as “High Fountains”, superior, invisible sources of Nature. Of all the substances that come into our hands, the ether is the first that brings us news from another world and tells us that we live in a corrupt place. Sendivogius calls it the urine of Saturn (41), and it is what he waters his lunar and solar plants with. “From my sea,” said the Jew, “the clouds rise which carry the blessed waters, and these irrigate the lands and give rise to herbs and flowers. » In a word, this humidity is animated by a divine, blessed, vegetable fire, which made someone describe the mystery thus: “It is made of Nature, just as it is made of the Divine, it is truly divine because that, conjoined with the Divinity, it produces divine substances. » To conclude, [338] the ether is found in the lower source or fountain, namely in that substance which the Arabs call “the flower of white salt”. It is in fact born from salt, because salt is its root and is found especially “in certain salty places”. Here is the best way to discover it: philosophers call it their Mineral Tree, because it grows like all plants, it has leaves and fruits in the very hour it is born. That's enough. I now move on to another principle.

The Celestial Moon

This moon is the moon of the mine, a very strange, astonishing substance. It is not simple, but mixed. Ether and a subtle white earth are its components, and this makes it denser than ether. It appears in the form of an excessively white oil, but in truth it is a certain soft, soft, fluid, vegetable salt.

The Astral Soul

It is the true Star of the Sun, the Animal Spiritual Sun. It is composed of ether and fiery, igneous, sanguine earth. It appears in the consistency of a gum with a fiery, hot, glowing appearance. It is in substance a certain purple, animated, divine salt. [339]

The Prester of Zoroaster

It is a miracle to consider how the earth, which is a body of inexpressible weight and gravity, can be held in the air, a fleeting and weak substance, through which even foam and feathers pass. 'push in and make their way. I hope that no one is crazy enough to think that the earth is kept in balance there by some geometric trick, because that would be artificial; but the work of God is vital and natural. Certainly, if the animation of the world were denied, there must necessarily follow a precipitation of this element by its own corpulence and heaviness. We see that our bodies are maintained by this essence by which they are moved and animated; but when this essence leaves them, they fall to the earth, until the spirit returns there in the resurrection. I then conclude that the earth has within it a soul of fire which sustains it, just as the spirit sustains man. Raymond Lulle attests to this in the 76th chapter of his Theory: “The whole earth,” he says, “is full of intelligence, inclined to the discipline or operation of Nature, which intelligence is moved by Superior Nature, so that the lower intelligence is like the Higher. » This spirit or intelligence is the prester, notion of the admirable Zoroaster (42), as I find it described by Julian the Chaldean (43). Prester comes from loanhô (I burn), and means lightning, or burning agitation, or whirlwind. But in our Chaldean sense, it is the fire-spirit of life. It is an influence of God Almighty, and it comes from the Land of the Living, namely the Second Person, which the Kabbalists call the Supernatural Orient. For just as the natural light of the sun is first manifested to us in the East, so the Supernatural Light was first manifested in the Second Person, for it is the Principle of Alteration, the [340] Beginning of Ways of God, or the First Manifestation of His Father's Light in the Supernatural Generation. From this Land of the Living comes all life or all spirit, following this postulate of the Mekubbalim: “Every good soul is a new soul coming from the East” (44), that is to say from Hochmah or second sephirah, which is the Son of God.

Now, to better understand this descent of the soul, we must refer to another stipulation of the Kabalists, which says this: "Souls, they say, descend from the Third Light on the fourth day, then on the fifth day, 'where they exit to enter the night of the body' (45). To understand this maxim, you need to know that there are three Supreme Lights or sephiroth that the Kabbalists call “the throne where the Holy, Holy, Holy Lord of Hosts” sits. This third Light from which souls descend is Binah, the last of the three sephiroth, which means the Holy Spirit. Now, so that you know in what sense this descent proceeds from this Blessed Spirit, I will broaden my remarks somewhat, because the cabalists are very obscure on this point. “Breathing,” say the Jews, “is the property of the Holy Spirit. » Now we read that God breathed into Adam the breath of life and that he became a living soul. Here you must understand that the Third Person is the last of the three, not that there is any inequality between them, but it is so in the order of operation, because the Holy Spirit first applies to the creature, and from there, He finally works. The meaning of this is the following: the Holy Spirit could not breathe a soul into Adam without He having to either receive it or possess it of Himself. Now the truth is that He receives it, and what He receives, He breathes into Nature, hence the fact that this Most Holy Spirit is qualified by the Kabalists as “River flowing from Paradise”, because He [341] blows like a flowing river. She is also called Mother of Sons, because through this breath, She gives birth, so to speak, to those souls who were ideally conceived in the Second Person. Now the fact that the Holy Spirit receives all things from the Second Person is confirmed by Christ Himself “When he comes, the Spirit of Truth, he will guide you towards the total truth; for he will not speak of himself, but what he hears he will speak, and he will tell you what is to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine, and he will declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; that is why I said to you: It is what is mine that he must take” (John XVI, 13-15).

We see here clearly that there is a certain subsequent order or method in the operations of the Blessed Trinity, by Christ telling us that it is He who receives from His Father, and that the Holy Spirit receives from Him . Again, the fact that all things are ideally designed or, as we commonly say, created by the Second Person, is confirmed by the word of God: "He was in the world, and through Him the world was appeared, and the world did not recognize Him. He came to Him, and His own did not welcome Him” (John I, 10-11). This may be sufficient for those who love the truth; and as for what the kabbalists say of the fourth and fifth day, this does not correspond to my current point, and I must therefore not insist on it. It is therefore clear that the Land of the Living or Eternal Earth-Fire buds and grows, that it has its igneous spiritual flowers which we call souls, just as this natural earth has its natural plants. It is in this mysterious sense that the prester is defined in the Oracle, as “flower of tenuous fire”. [342]

To come finally to the point in question, I think that it is not out of place to instruct you in this handling. You know that a craftsman cannot build without the earth being the foundation of his building, because without this base, his brick and mortar cannot stand. In creation, when God created, there was no such place on which to build. So I ask the following question: where did He place his matter, and on what? Certainly, He built and founded Nature on His own supernatural center. He is in it and through it, and with His eternal Spirit He maintains heaven and earth, just as our bodies are maintained by our spirits. This is confirmed by the oracle of the apostle: “He maintains all things by the word of His power” (Hebrews I, 3). It is because of this power that He is rightly called “a mighty power, infinitely powerful and all-powerful”. I therefore declare that Fire and Spirit are the pillars of Nature, the guardians on which all its texture rests and without which it could not last a minute. This Fire or Prester is the throne of the Quintessential Light; from there He expands into generation, as we see in the outpouring of the sun's rays into the great world. It is in this expansion of light that the joy or pleasure of the passive spirit consists, and in its contraction, its melancholy or sorrow. We see in the great body of nature that in turbulent weather, when the sun is obscured and clouded, the air is thick and numb, and our minds, through secret compassion with the spirit of the air, are numb also. On the contrary, in a clear and strong sun, the air is crisp and loose, and the minds of all animals are in the same rarefied and active disposition. It is obvious then that our joys and our sorrows proceed from the expansion and contraction of our quintessential inner light. This appears in desperate lovers, who are subject to a violent and extraordinary palpitation of the heart, to a timid pulsation, [343] trembling, which comes from the apprehension and fear of the mind in relation to its failure. Be that as it may, it desires to be dilated, as appears by its pulsation or agitation, by which it discharges itself; but his despair again thwarts him and brings him to a sudden retreat or contraction. Hence it happens that we are subject to the sighs which are occasioned by the sudden pause of the mind, for when it stops, the breath stops, but when it gives way to an external movement, we emit two or three breaths, which have previously been held, in one long exhalation, and this is what we call a sigh. This passion has led many courageous men to very sad ends. It is originally occasioned by the spirit of the mistress or affectionate party, for her spirit ferments or leavens the spirit of the lover, so that he desires a union as much as Nature permits. This makes us experience even smiles and frowns as happiness or unhappiness. Our thoughts are never serene, following this well-founded observation: “The soul does not reside where it lives, but where it loves. “We employ ourselves in perpetual contemplation of absent beauty, our very joys and sorrows are in its power. She can put us in the mood she wants, just as Campion was changed by the music of his mistress:

“When Corinne sings with her lute,
Her voice revives the lead strings,
But when she speaks of sorrows,
Even with sighs the strings break.
And just as her lute lives or dies,
Led by her passions, so it is with me. » (46) [344]

This sympathy and many others, more miraculous, proceed from the attractive nature of the Prester. It is a spirit that can perform wonders. And now let's see if there is any possibility of reaching it.

Suppose, then, that we deface or demolish an artificial structure, stone by stone, we would undoubtedly come ultimately to the earth on which it is founded. It is exactly the same in magic: if we open a natural body and separate all the natural parts from it and from each other, we would ultimately come to the Prester, which is the Candle or Secret Light of God. . We would know the hidden Intelligence and see the Unspeakable Face which gives the external form of the body. This is the syllogism we should seek, for he who has once crossed the Equator enters the world of fire and sees what is both invisible and incredible to common man. He will know the secret love of heaven and earth, and the meaning of this profound cabal: “There is no plant here below that does not have its star in the sky above, and the star there strikes with his ray and says to him: push. » He will know how the spirit of fire has its root in the earth of spiritual fire, and how it receives from it a secret influx from which it feeds, as plants feed on this juice and this liquor which they receive. in their roots of this vulgar earth.

This is what Our Lord says: “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew IV, 4). He did not mean ink and paper, nor the dead letter: it is a mystery, which Saint Paul partly revealed. He told the Athenians that God made man so that “he would seek the Lord, if fortunately he gropes after Him and finds Him” (Acts XVII, 27). Here is a strange expression, you will say, which makes a man grope after God or [345] seek Him with his hands. But he goes on and tells you where he will find Him. He is “not far,” he says, “from each of us: for it is in him that we live, we move, and have our being” (Acts XVII, 28). To better understand this passage, I invite you to read Paracelsus, his Philosophy to the Athenians, a glorious and incomparable speech, which you will soon find in English. Again, whoever enters the center will know why every influx of fire descends - contrary to the nature of fire - and comes from the sky descending. He will also know why the same fire, having found a body, rises again to the sky and rises.

To conclude, I declare that the great supreme mystery of magic consists in multiplying the Prester and placing it in the serene, humid ether, which God created on purpose to make fire suitable. Because I would like you to know that this spirit can be heated in this way, and this in the most temperate bodies, to the point of suddenly annihilating you. This you can guess for yourself from the “flaming gold” (47), as the chemist calls it. Arrange it then as God has arranged the stars in the condensed ether of his chaos, for that is where it shines, without burning. He will be vital and calm, not furious and angry. This secret, I admit, goes beyond common analysis, and I dare not tell you more. Therefore he must remain as a light in a dark place, but consider how he can be discovered.

Green Salt

It is a tincture of the sapphire mine, and to define it substantially, it is the air of our little world of invisible [346] fire. Green Salt produces two noble effects - youth and hope. Wherever it appears, it is a sure sign of life, as you see in spring when everything is green. The sight of it revives and invigorates beyond imagination. It comes from the celestial earth, for sapphire is like sperm which injects its tinctures into the ether, where they are carried and manifested to the eye. This sapphire is in itself equal to the entire compound, because it is triple: it has three different essences within it. I saw them all, not in imaginary and fanciful suppositions, but with my bodily eyes. And here we have the solution to Apollodorus' mathematical problem (48), namely that Pythagoras had to sacrifice a hundred oxen when he discovered that "the hypotenuse of a right triangle was equivalent to the parts which contained it".

Scent Powder or Magic Perfume

Magic Perfume is composed of sapphire earth and ether. If it is brought to its full exaltation, it will shine like the star of the day in its first oriental glories. It has a fascinating, attractive ability, because if you expose it to the open air, it attracts birds and animals.

Regeneration, Ascension and Glorification

I have now sufficiently and fully exposed the principles of our chaos. Below I will show you [347] how you should use them. You must unite them into new life, and they will be regenerated by water and the Spirit. These two principles are found in all things. They are disposed there by God himself, according to what Trismegistus says: “Each thing, whatever it may be, contains within itself the seed of its own regeneration. » So proceed with patience, but not with your hands. The work is carried out by an invisible &cist, because there is a secret incubation of the Spirit of God on Nature. You only have to take care that there is no lack of external warmth, but as for the subject itself, you have nothing more to do than what the mother does with the child in her womb. It is the two preceding principles which achieve everything. The Spirit uses the water to purge and cleanse his body, and ultimately brings him to an immortal and heavenly constitution. Don't think it's impossible. Remember that in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the quaternary - or the four elements, as They are called - was united with his Eternal Unity and the Ternary. Three and four make seven. This septenary is the true Sabbath, the rest of God, into which the creature will enter. This is the best and greatest handling I can tell you. In a word, salvation is in itself nothing other than transmutation. “Yes, I will tell you a mystery: we will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed. In an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last blast of the trumpet” (I Cor XV, 51-52). God, by his great mercy, prepares us for this, so that from the hard and refractory flints that we call in this world, we may prove to be chrysolites and jaspers (Revelation XXI, 19-20) in the new eternal foundations. , so that we can rise from this present Church in distress, which is in captivity with her children, to the Free Jerusalem above, which is the mother of us all (Galatians IV, 26). [348]

The Descent and Metempsychosis

There is in this world a generation of malicious writers, who only write to gain public notoriety, and do so by surprising their readers with eccentric and fanciful ideas of their own. They commonly call themselves chemists and give the Great Mystery of Nature the absurd name of Chemical Stone. I cannot find a single one among them who has not confused this descent with ascension or fermentation. So I think it is necessary to inform the reader that there is a double fermentation, one spiritual and one corporeal. Spiritual fermentation is carried out by multiplying tinctures, which is not done by vulgar gold and silver, which are not tinctures, but compact gross bodies. Philosophical gold and silver are a soul and a spirit, they are the living ferments and living principles of bodies, while the two common metals - whether you take them in their raw composition or after a philosophical preparation - are not in no way relevant to our purpose. Bodily fermentation is what I strictly call descent, and it is about it that we will now speak.

When you have made the Stone or Magic Medicine, it will be a spiritual substance, igneous, liquid, glowing like the sun. In this state, if you wanted to project, you would have difficulty finding the right proportion, so intensive and powerful is the virtue of the Medicine. This is why the philosophers took a single part of their Stone and threw it on ten parts of pure molten gold. This single small grain changed all the gold into blood powder, and conversely, the raw body of the gold diminished the spiritual force of the projected grain. [349]

This descent or incorporation some authors have called fermentation, but the philosophers did not use common gold to make their stone, as some scribblers have written. They only used it to accommodate the intensive power of it when it is made, so that they can the more easily find out how much base metal to throw on it. By this means, they reduced their Medicine to powder, and this powder is the Arab Elixir. Philosophers could carry this elixir with them, but not the Medicine itself, because it is such a subtle, humid fire that only glass can contain it. Let us now come to their metempsychosis: it has, in truth, caused many errors concerning the soul, but Pythagoras applied it only to the secret achievements of magic. It signifies their last transmutation, which is done with the Elixir or the Appropriate Medicine. So take a part of it, throw it on a thousand times greater proportion of quicksilver, and it will be nothing but pure gold, which will pass the royal test without any reduction.

Now, reader, I have finished, and by way of farewell, I will reveal to you a very noble, secret, sacred truth. Chaos itself, in its very first analysis, is threefold; likewise, the sapphire of chaos is threefold. You have here six parts, which Pythagoras calls the Senary or Number of the Wife. In these six parts the influx of Metaphysical Unity is the sole monarch, and constitutes the seventh number or Sabbath, in which, at the end, with the assistance of God, the body will rest. Again, each of these six parts is double, and these duplicities are contrary. So here you have twelve things, six against six, in desperate division, the unity of peace being among them. These duplicities consist of contrary natures: one part is good, one part bad; one corrupt, one uncorrupt; and - [350] in Zoroaster's terms - one rational, one irrational. These bad, corrupt, irrational seeds are the defects and after-effects of the curse. Now, reader, I have solved for you the riddle of the great and mysterious problem of the cabalist.

“In the seven parts,” he said, “there are two triplicities, and in the middle is one thing. Twelve things are in battle order: three friends, three enemies; three warriors give life, three likewise kill. And God the Faithful King reigns over all from the Seat of His Holiness. One out of three, three out of seven, and seven out of twelve, all in pitched battle, one against the other. »

It is this - and nothing else - which constitutes the truth of this science which I have pursued for a long time, through serious and frequent efforts. It is my firmly resolved not to write further on the subject; and if someone wants to misuse what is written, that's their problem. In doing so, he will not harm me, because I am already satisfied: my reward is a light that will not abandon me. “The sun cannot fail to be attentive to its traveling companion. » I will now put a final point with the formula of a very excellent and renowned Philocryphus (49)

To God alone be Praise and Power!

Amen in the name of MERCURY, this WATER

Which runs without feet

And operates metallically

Wherever it is. [351]

---

Notes on the Lumen of Lumine

(1) This first treatise is Theomagic Anthroposophy.
(2) This Arab author is not identified by the publishers Waite and Rudrum. As for the Halicali, Philalethes speaks of it further in the Lumen of Lumine in terms of Summum Bonum, Sovereign Good.
(3) This poem, unidentified, is given in English by Philalethes. It could be a translation from Latin, because immediately afterwards, he specifies that he prefers to express himself in the vulgar language.
(4) Gauze: in English tiffany. Rudrum points out that tiffany is derived from theophany. So this is indeed a theophanic apparition. As is often the case, Philalèthe consciously makes play on words, loaded with meaning.
(5) Thalia comes from the Greek thalia, literally a young shoot; thallô means to grow, to grow, to flower, to become green, to abound in goods. Grimal's Mythological Dictionary indicates that Thalia, one of the three Graces, presides over vegetation with her sisters. Thalie is also one of the nine Muses, that of comedy and light poetry, the Muse having the function, according to the meaning of the verb mousoô, to instruct according to the rules of art.
It is therefore no coincidence that, at the start of his adventure, Philalèthe meets this guide. The treatise begins by evoking the mystery of vegetation and growth. Green Thalia will make her chosen one green, by the greenness of her persuasive word; she will instruct him, according to the rules, in “the hermetic [352] art in the open, or the light of light.” She will teach the mystery of the green spring renewal, true regeneration.
Philalethes later noted in his Aqua Vitae, dated April 9, 1659, that when his deceased wife appeared to him in a dream, it was "clad in green silks reaching down to the earth."
At the beginning of the Message Found, the title of the right column of the First Book is precisely “The Green Sprout”. Don’t we also say that it’s “green” stories that bring people back to life?
(6) Reuchlin speaks of the cube in Book H of his De Arte Cabalistica (Archè, Milan, 1995, p. 177).
(7) The term pyrope was formerly applied imprecisely to a red or igneous gemstone, such as ruby ​​or carbuncle. It is also an alloy of copper and gold. At the beginning of Book II (1-2) of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Phaethon ascends to the palace of the sun: "The palace of the Sun rose on high hills, sparkling with the brilliance of gold and pyrope, like to the flame. »
(8) The various editors were unable to explain this inscription, in particular the mysterious formula “t-a-n-ph”, written in Greek characters. Note that on the reverse of the gold medal mentioned in the seventh day of the Noces Chymiques by Christian Rosencreutz (Editions Traditionnelles, 1994, p. 127) is the formula “tem-na-f”, which means “temporis natura filia », “nature is the daughter of time”.
(9) On this place, see The Message Found: “In the hidden place, the luminous jewel currently lives. » (XI, 6') [353]
“The ignorant torture nature by all means and in all areas. He who is instructed discovers it in one way and in one place. » (V, 39)
(10) Even in the quest for God's salvation, which must not be neglected, there are risks, which can lead to ruin "He who attaches himself to three things, when two are enough and one alone is truly necessary, prepares for all disorder and ruin. » (The Message Found IX, 29') “Those who neglect the quest for God's salvation commit a crime against themselves. » (XXXVII, 45')
(11) Compare Philalethes: "They have truly coveted the riches of nature" and "assailed me"; and Emmanuel d'Hooghvorst (Le Fil de Pénélope, p. 20): “assailed by the assiduities of the suitors (..) installed in the house whose riches they dissipate (..), (they) plunder the house of Nature, - in their blind greed.
(12) Allusion to Ariadne's thread
(13) The pandects are collections of decisions of ancient Roman jurisconsults, made by order of the emperor Justinian. The Greek word pandektês means: who receives (contains) everything.
(14) Philalèthe analyzes the true scientific approach, which does not seem very different from that indicated in Le Message Retrouvé: “When we have separated everything, everything classified, everything labeled and everything stuffed, we will finally have to bring everything together and unify everything in life, under penalty of remaining sealed in the letter and in the number of death. » (XIII, 40) And elsewhere: “False science is this scaffolding of delusional thoughts, built in ignorance of natural laws, and which [354] constantly collapses into despair, madness and death. » (1.53)
(15) Beryl is also called aquamarine. Pliny speaks of it in his Natural History (VII, 76): “Many attribute to beryls the same nature as to emeralds; the most esteemed are those which imitate the green of the serene sea. »
(16) Sideration or astrobolism is the disastrous action of the stars, especially the sun (insolation). It is a sudden annihilation of vital forces, a nervous shock which results from a sudden variation in electrical potential.
(17) Stellification is an astral impression, an influence that a star (stella) imprints on a body. Rudrum provides additional information, quoting Hugh Prat (The Garden of Eden, 1653): “The physical use of this fire is to separate an earthly sky, then to stellify it with an animal or vegetable star, by which finally it can become quintessence. »
(18) Alkemusi: word not identified by the editors. In Greek, khumeia means fusion. Alkemusi could be a rough transliteration from Arabic. Some claim that al-kumia, meaning fusion, gave alchemy.
(19) The cameo was once considered a talisman, like a signature. In his Hieroglyphic Monad, John Dee specifies that the cameo indicates "the land of marriage, or earthly sign of a union achieved in the realm of astral influences." The cameo is sometimes referred to in its ancient form of “gamaheu”.
Paracelsus says: “The art of celestial impression consisted of attracting celestial power [355] into an elementary body, in which celestial efficiency could be accomplished (..). The celestial seeds are the same; the art of magic sows them and plants them in the stones called gamaheu (..). The ancient Egyptians and ancient Persians were the first to recognize the power of the firmament and its influence, and they thought of it as a seed that was buried in the earth or in a stone. » (De la Magie, Presses Universitaires, Strasbourg, 1998, p. 104)
(20) Rudrum suggests that Philalethes may have associated the Word “sapphire” with “sephirah”. In Hebrew, saphar means “to count”, sepher “letter, book”. These two medals, says Rudrum, would communicate the virtues of the sun and the moon, as the sephiroth convey cosmic influences in the macrocosm.
(21) Guyana is known to be fertile and rich in minerals and precious stones.
(22) In his Dictionary, Dom Pernety declares: “The Philosophers gave the name Lunar Juice to their mercury which they also called Spit of the Moon, Son of the Sun and the Moon, not that this mercury is in effect the juice of a plant called Lunar, of which botanists recognize two species, the large and the small; but because they name their mercury Moon; which Mary, sister of Moses, says are two white plants which are gathered on the small mountains, and which Philalethes calls Saturnian Grass. »
The moonflower takes its name from its fruit, which is a shiny silver, and from the crescent shape of its seeds. The biennial lunar is better known under the names of white satin, medal, and papal coin. [355]
(23) The publisher Waite states that the Fama Fraternitatis would have appeared almost simultaneously in Latin, German, Dutch, English and French. Ferguson (Bibliotheca Chemica, t. 1, p. 27) writes: “The Fama Fraternitatis in English, by Eugenius Philalethes, was published at London in 1652”.
In his Introduction (p. 17) to The Hermetic Art in the Open, Mr. Didier Kahn says: “(Philalèthe) had already included in his Lumen de Lumine “a letter from the Brothers of the R+C” where A. Rudrum, after AE Waite, recognized the Latin translation of a German Rosicrucian writing from the beginning of the 17th century.
(24) In his Physics (208a-30), Aristotle points out that if one asks the question of where the tragelaph and the sphinx reside, the answer must be "nowhere." According to Gaffiot's dictionary, the tragelaph is a kind of ibex (see in the Vulgate, Deuteronomy XIV, 5). In his Etymologies, XII, I, 20, Isidore of Seville specifies that it is a goat-deer (from tragos, goat, and elaphos, deer). Identifications are insecure; according to Cuvier, it would be “Aristotle’s deer”, “Rusa or Cervus Aristotelis”.
(25) Quote from unidentified Basile Valentin.
(26) According to Saint Jerome, Comm. in Esaiam, III, 8, 18, these “little children” (Matt. XVIII, 3) represent the prophets.
(27) Regarding the tetractys, Philalethes often refers to Reuchlin's work De Arte Cabalistica. Cf. Book II, ed. Archè, Milan, 1995, pp. 129-130, 164-178 et passim. In Le Fil de Pénélope, t. II, p. 294, E. d'Hooghvorst writes: "This same number 10 which brings us back to unity, it is also the summit of the [357] Pythagorean Tetractys where Apollo, the fixed one, the male, and his nine sisters unite , the Muses: the volatile, the woman. The union of the two produces the volatilization of the fixed (or spiritualization of the body) and the fixation of the volatile (or corporification of the spirit), that is to say the Stone. »
(28) In Hebrew, ayin means nothing.
(29) On the dog of Corascene and the bitch of Armenia, see Calid, The Book of Secrets of the Art, introduction and translation by Mr. Stéphane Feye, in Le Fil d'Ariane n° 57-58, p. 125.
(30) The editor Waite points out that pyraustes designates “a fly which burns its wings on a lamp or candle, and thus perishes”.
(31) A caraha is a retort.
(32) This brings to mind the famous Hebrew formula ko-taasé which means thus you will do.
(33) In Hebrew, mekubbalim means kabbalists.
(34) This passage, as well as the following, are taken from Raymond Lulle's Theory, chapters 10, 67 and 83.
(35) Henry Madathan is the author of L'Age d'Or Restauré, which appears in the first edition of the Museum Hermeticum (Frankfurt, 1625). The passage cited is found in the Preface to the treatise (see also The Hermeticum Museum, ed. AE Waite, 1953, first ed. 1893; vol. I, p. 54). [358]
(36) In his Dictionary, Dom Pernety defines Demogorgon or Daimorgon as “the igneous and invigorating spirit of the land of the Sages, which acts throughout the course of the operations of the Great Work. Some have named him Démorgon. Raymond Lulle wrote a treatise on the operations of stone which he entitled Démorgon”.
According to Rudrum, Philalethes could have found a description of the Demogorgon in Robert de Valle (On the Truth and the Antiquity of the Chemical Art, I, 17). This treatise appeared in French in numbers 46-47 and 48-49 of Le Fil d'Ariane, translated by Mr. Stéphane Feye.
(37) According to Rudrum, it is Johannes Chrysippus Fanianus, author of De Arte Metallicae Metamorphoseos (Basel, 1576).
(38) Cf. Reuchlin, op. cit., pp. 168-169: “The ether burns with the ardor of God, and heats inferior things by an insensible movement. The ether is in fact called by the term “aei therein”, which always warms. »
(39) Reuchlin, id. : “Ether is called the radiance of eternity, where there is neither body, nor place, nor void, nor time, nor old age, nor transmutation. But there are the unalterable and impassive beings, who lead an excellent life which they enjoy throughout the eon, that is to say during eternity or the aevum. (..) Pythagoras wrote in his Golden Verses: “And if you succeed, after having abandoned your body, in the free ether, you will dwell with the immortal gods and mortal men. » He elegantly uses the term “sustasin”, holding together. He thereby teaches us three properties of the average world, which he calls the free ether. » [359]
(40) The “Samien” designates Pythagoras, who said: “I swear by him who transmitted to our soul the sacred Quaternary, source of Nature whose course is eternal. » (Les Vers d'Or, trans. Mario Meunier, Ed. de la Maisnie, Paris, 1979, p. 31) (41) Cf
Sendivogius, Nouvelle Lumière Chimique, Bibliotheca Hermetica, p. 212: “Then Saturn said to him, watch me do it, and learn. He took two quicksilvers of different substances, but from the same root, which Saturn java with his urine, and called them the Sulfurs of Sulfurs. »
(42) Rudrum points out that Zoroaster speaks of this prester in his Oracles (1st section, fol. 8). According to Bailly's dictionary, prester means that which burns, and designates either a hurricane accompanied by lightning, a violent blast, or a snake whose bite produces inflammation or swelling. According to Gaffiot's dictionary, it is an igneous meteor, a column or whirlwind of fire, or even a species of snake whose bite causes burning thirst.
(43) Julian the Chaldean is the presumed author of the Chaldaic Oracles (Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 1971).
(44) Cf. Pic de la Mirandole, Conclusion n° 41.
(45) Cf. Pic de la Mirandole, Conclusion n° 8.
(46) Thomas Campion (1567-1620), English doctor, musician and poet, author in particular from the Book of Airs, which Philalethes cites here imprecisely.
(47) “Fulminant” refers to gold which suddenly becomes bright and uniform in color. [360]
(48) Reuchlin, op. cit., p. 157: “Apollodorus the logistician testifies that Pythagoras sacrificed a slaughter when he discovered that in a right triangle the square of the hypotenuse was equal to the sum of the squares of the two other sides. »
(49) Rudrum points out that these verses are adapted from Aureliae Occultae Philosophorum Declaratio Adolphi. According to Ferguson (Bibliotheca Chemica, vol. 1, p. 57), this treatise is attributed by some to Basil Valentin, who would therefore be this “Philocryph”. [361]