Novum Lumen, or the New Light

A book Magistri Arnaldi de Villa Nova, which is called Novum Lumen, or the New Light.

The preface.

Venerable Lord and Father: Even though I do not have great experience and knowledge in the liberal arts and do not use constant diligence in my studies to the extent that I do not behave in my priestly state, the good and gracious God has still been in me He lets people feel that he wants to reveal and share this highly valuable secret, however undeservedly.

While your noble worthiness, piety, wisdom and gentle kindness not only asks me to do this, but also to investigate this high , excellent art with diligent, unremitting diligence, not allowing any effort, work or expense to be vexed.

So that it is also worthy of joy and that it also enjoys and shares in the rich fruits of the tree planted in the field of philosophy (which it faithfully helps to build) as a special gift and gift from God. For this reason, I want to present to your high, impressive whiteness the Philosophical Stone or the Elixir, as it was also revealed to me in secret trust by a pious man without a doubt from God himself, in addition to his natural work and regiment, as I saw with my eyes, made it with my hands and myself also had confidential discoveries in my power.

And I am sure when you will look at what I am writing correctly and understand that nothing will remain hidden from your astuteness but everything will be revealed, which I am aware that this, as the highest secret, will be known to few and will probably remain hidden to most .

Chapter I.

Use your understanding correctly in this philosophical saying: That the effects of those who work are in the order and power of the sufferer: So that it is then made clear that no elixir can be made except from such a material, which I have perfect arrangement and skill for this.

But I give you the testimony that such skill in the material comes from which In my hands, I saw this with my eyes, but through teaching and instruction from somewhere else, as previously reported, the elixir was made which transformed the lead into gold:

I have always called the same material that it was the philosopher Magnesia from which the philosophers have extracted and extracted the gold hidden in their bodies , and from which they have found the Argentum vivum from the Argento vivo, and the sulfur from the sulfur which is the stone in the likeness and effect but in nature it does not follow the nature of the stone.

Therefore it is said that it is a stone and not a stone.

Our Argentum vivum is also called not that it is an Argentum vivum in its own nature nor in the nature to which it has been brought by the minerals: but it is our Argentum vivum in nature into which our art guides and brings.

The same is our earth from which a real tincture is made from which the marital agreement of the Chabrici and Veya flows in which the king is with his husband. And those who improve are in the air as later on the work will be clearer in class.

This is the spirit with which we tingir and this is the body which is spoken of in the Turba. The Argentum vivum is not taken from the disintegrated bodies as they are melted and softened in the common way, but from the disintegration which lasts until the spouses are united and bound to one another through a true marital agreement, namely up to the whiteness.

This is the stone that was found on the top of the mountains and is called mineral, although it is also said to be animal-like because it has a soul. That is why it is said in the Turba: The earth has a body and a soul like a human being.

Item: Everything that has a spirit also has blood. Likewise it is also called a spirit, which is the sulfur of the body, and a heart, which is the magnesia, or the earths, which when they became spiritual is called the gold which was hidden in the body of the magnesia. In the Turba it is said: My son extracts his shadow from the Stral.

From this it is obvious that it can be so disturbing to the soul a number of powers of the soul are shown: Then it moves and is moved, it works and suffers. Therefore again in the Turba it says: O the wonderful nature?

how is it devoted to all things and how does it surpass everything?

It is the most sharp vinegar which causes the gold to become a pure spirit and when it is mixed with the body it will become one thing together and transforms it into a spirit.

If one now says it is an animal, it is understood that it is something that has a growing life and such. Then in its effect it will move vividly from one force to the other by making itself subtle and purifying itself and the colors in it improved so that it takes on the desired redness in which perfection stands and the penetrating and tingling power takes over. But this animal, which is called berbel, saffron or saffron-colored and a vegetable stone and is fed and preserved on the mountains, is known to many errant people not to go unnoticed and that it is sold at a low value.

Chapter II.

The stone is cleaned before it is inserted into the decoction.

This work, which I have designed for your understanding, appears to be purely lovely and fair and prepared in subtle lamellas because it is cleansed of its coarseness by the liquid that it receives in the fire and in that it then becomes sublimely subtle and delicate and contains a number of combustible and earthly superfluities otherwise very strong and firmly mixed with it and connected behind it, it also allows a number of destructive and perishable moistures to be smelled away.

The characteristics of such assumed subtlety are two: One is the uplifting citrine-colored spirit that has become a stone that has not become particularly hard and is somewhat transparent: but the other, which remains at the bottom of the vessel, is a delicate black earth.

At the same time, this should be taken into consideration with diligence so that even in this elevation, when it is properly spent, something permanent is found which one has to bring about by force, as it were, because it is extremely fleeting, it should be raised and elevated to such an extent that it is so on the ground for the part liget through the very thing that is so increased is in turn delivered to the point that everything become completely fleeting. And then the previously reported black earth remains from both sides and is now transformed into the imaginary hard stone which has the highest citrine color.

But because of the mentioned volatility, you should not worry until the entire mass of the stone that has been raised and raised by the fire, which is placed in its vessel by the same stone, immediately rises to the height so that nothing is either clean or unclean from it put on the ground.

When it is so completely exalted, everything that is fulfilled in the philosophical work will also be fulfilled, as the scripture commands and says: Everything should rise sweetly from the earth into heaven. Item you should know that when it mixes with the body, it becomes one with it and transforms it into a spirit. And this is exactly what Geber also reports about in the chapter on medicine, of the third order: This is also the biggest outcry among all philosophers and they call this work ablution or washing away . Then in the elevation they both rise up in smoke or in the shape of a smoke.

And since this material also becomes liquid as it rises, it can apparently be seen that it is of the nature of warm water, then it is dissolved and coagulated again by the cold and when its superfluities are removed from it, it is washed off and imbibed or soaked with her water, namely with the foreshadowed spirit which sprouted from her and from a variety of roots . And this is the philosophical dissolution and dissolution through fire.

Captain III.

Follow the first degree cooking until white.

Now when the round which the brass has been spiritually transformed into the four, go with it into a temperate bath through which the body is gently maintained and maintains such a gentle fire that consumes the pernicious moisture. Therefore, the oven should be prepared with such a compartment that a gentle fire can be kept in it and which cannot heat up too much nor multiply:

The vessel in which the material is should be made of glass and with a vessel of the same shape with an iron in the Cut in the middle of each other, covered be: The vessel of an elbow should also be long and narrow at the neck and not allow any smell of the spirit to be emitted :

This length should drive the smoke and vapors as they rise back down and consume the pernicious moisture underneath them.

Those who are looking for the oven and the vessel in this way should look at the lilies and not just at the mere letter: Then the heat should go around the vessel so that there is a uniformity of heat around and around it, otherwise it would be called a balneum or bath in vain.

At the very top of the oven there should be a hole through which a long round piece of glass comes out, with which the mouth of the burning vessel is closed, to which piece attacks can be felt and recognized whether the material is being cooked by a comfortable and correct heat or not. And even if one were to think that smoke was rising from below into the vessel, the arrangement described does not allow one to smell anything, even if the vessel were kept open.

Therefore it is said of the giver: One is never truly separated from the other, even though it appears to the face that they are separated and separated from one another.

So neither can be without the other, since their spirits are so tempered and evenly arranged together through the path of perfect nature that they are not separated from one another. In this degree of heat, however, the material becomes black and when the heat penetrates into the moisture, it causes blackness. That is why it is said in the Turba: When you see that the blackness appears, know that the body has now become soft and liquid.

Item At the beginning of the work everything turns black. This fruit is thought of so that one should know to beware of excessive fire: then when excessive heat is driven into it, it brings ruin and causes the composite or the assembled materia to separate from one another .

Therefore, a tempered and even fire should be used in it, since it is not cooked in any other way than the way one raises and nourishes a young child with milk. And this is also indicated in the Practica, by the differentiated colors to be included under the black color.

Chapter IV.

Of the degree of fire when the blackness appears.

But when everything is black, the degree of the same fire should always be stopped until the whiteness appears hidden in its belly: then the fixed substance feeds on such whiteness.

But it is worth noting that in and with the blackness many colors appear that the philosophers think of: then sometimes everything becomes green, sometimes a little blackish, sometimes it has a violet color: sometimes it is only green on one side and black on the other Black light on the inside and green on the outside, however, these colors are all considered black.

And since there is no essential perfection in them, the philosophers therefore only take three noble main colors among the other colors, which they then call the powers of the soul, namely the black, the white and the red.

It is said about this in the Turba: Honor the king and his husband and do not burn them or drive them away with excessive fire, then you don't know when you will need those who improve the king and his husband.

If it boils, it turns black, then white, and finally red , turning it into a tingling poison.

Item makes the stone white through combustion and moisture or softening and fluidization. It is said that the killing occurs through the water, which appears in the blackness. When this first appears, the spirits are united in the same killing and are dried. If the bodies are not dried, the colors of the souls, which are called the blackness and the clouds, do not appear. Item now when the magnesia begins to turn white so it does not let the spirit escape then nature preserves nature .

Therefore, the moisture that causes the blackness in the cooking now dries up completely and the white color begins to appear. Then in the transformation of the blackness, before it became completely white, I saw a brown-black white appear, which is commonly called a brown color, which tan later becomes a true white. But this is such a brown color Meanwhile, my master broke both the glass and stone and looked at it inside and out and found that it was brown on the outside and black on the inside.

He showed me the causes of this , namely that the parts of the matter were attached to the sides of the vessel or that the heat was felt better and stronger than that in the middle, which is why it began to change color and change all the more quickly and said that The same tan came out because the whites wanted to remove themselves from the blackness of their belly, as it is said in the Turba: When you see him born, know that his whiteness is hidden in the belly of the blackness as it initially appeared.

And then you must extract and strip these same whites of their most subtle blackness . But you shouldn't be surprised that I still call this material a stone. Then you should know that the whiteness lasts for so long, even when the redness is already present, it stands there hard for a long time and sits on the ground in the form of a hard lump, until it begins to die of itself due to the continuous boiling to crumble, crush and elevate.

Caput V.

Boil the other degree until it is red.

Therefore, when this stone loses its blackness in this way, the degree of fire is then also changed and placed in another oven, which is also prepared in the most orderly manner, in which a stronger cooking can be used and thereby both the vessel and the material are heated and cooked everywhere should: Once this one then takes on the real, true whiteness with which it is cooked there for so long that after the transformed whiteness it now also begins to take on the redness.

However, one must carefully ensure that this fire is not strengthened any more than is useful to the extent that it is useful, then in such a white color both the body and the spirit are truly united and connected with one another. But since in this cooking the appropriate degree was exceeded, those previously united would again be separated from one another and separated.

That is why it is said in the Turba: Cook and prevent them so that they do not flee away in the smoke and do not give birth.

But then the citrine color first appears when the white color is transformed into the red: then the citrine color is the middle between the white and the red, which is why it must precede the right red.

And the philosophers talked about this practice when they said: The spirit and the soul are not united with each other except only in the white color, because then all the colors that can be found in the world appear and are consolidated in the white color and then come together in one, namely in the white: Then the white color is the foundation and foundation of the whole work and from then on it is no longer changed into various colors, namely real colors, except for the red color in which the final goal and end is based: Then the citrine color that appears between the white and red should not be considered as a constant color. And through everything I have told so far, everything is demonstrated that experience has proven and will prove in the work itself and with deeds .

Chapter VI

The third degree cooking follows the calcination.

When it now begins to turn red, it is placed in another oven and a higher degree of fire so that it has acquired a real, true redness inside and out . Its sign is the foretold crushing and a very high exaltation of it is said in the Turba: According to the whiteness, one cannot err. Then when the fire is strengthened after the whiteness, you get to the citrine color before the redness.

When you see the very high whiteness, be sure that the redness is hidden in the same whiteness: Then you have to extract it and cook it for so long that everything becomes completely red. And if you have any doubts as to why the white is extracted from the belly of the black and the red is drawn out but is not extracted from the white even though it immediately becomes red through the boiling: I would explain to you in this way : While the black lasts so the materia remains in its state and is moist in its nature, but the moisture shows itself through the whiteness to such an extent that it begins to dry out.

So no whiteness ever appears until the pernicious moisture has been completely consumed.

Therefore, for these two reasons it can be said that the white is extracted from the black . But when it begins to turn red, nothing about it is destroyed but only boiled and through its strong boiling the unchanging red color appears in which the final perfection rests.

That is why it is said in the Turba: When the compositum or the assembled materia is transformed into a red spirit, the pure beginning arises. Item the tinging and vivifying spirit is then first sunk into this after the pernicious moisture has departed from it and does not need to be nourished any further because one has now come to the whiteness.

When this red color appears, nature reveals the perfection that was previously hidden within it.

Caput VII.

Calcination follows, in which the last degree of formation is fulfilled: then the spirit has remained firmly attached to a body and what is fleeing has become fleeting.

When this material, which now has a red color, begins to crush and rise, it is prepared for calcination by a reverberating flame in an earthen vessel in which degree of fire the fixation is accomplished and everything is brought to stability through the most perfect fixation .

That's why Iber says in the chapter on calcination that the spirits will be calcined so that the fixations can happen and they can then be dissolved and dissolved all the better.

He also begins to calcinate the third order in the chapter on medicine . So it should also remain in the heat and embers of the calcining fire for so long that it becomes an incomprehensible powder which has the highest redness. It is said in the Turba: Know that when it is ashes it is mixed for the best because it is moisture now sealed in by the innermost fire, so that it could take on itself a dry saffron or a burnt blood or a grenade of Sijrup's color.

Item when the water has entered the body, it transforms it into a soil then into a powder or into an ashes and if you want to experience and know its perfection then take it in your hand: Then if you find an incomprehensible water like this If it's okay, repeat it.

But this reddest ash is incomprehensible in itself, so it rises and grows like leaven and the aforementioned black, most subtle and transparent earth is separated from it, which is at the bottom of the vessel and is found under the mentioned red powder. My master gave me this report about it: He apparently said that there is a perfect fixation here for two reasons:

One is that through the one fixation and through the fire calcination, a small quantity of this elixir is introduced into very many unstable parts of the body which when they then project confirms the fixity of the gold in them, which it would not do if there were not a superfluous fixity in it: But the other cause is:

Then the above-mentioned black earth is separated in the calcination from which it was mixed otherwise it was inseparable because of the strongest union and that is why it was necessary that it had to be separated from it by the strongest artifice.

Then if it remained mixed it would prevent the ingress and entry of the pure matter because of its impurity.

Caput VIII.

Follows the ash, which was made liquid by calcination and turned into a stone which is a perfect elixir.

This ash is neither liquid nor liquid, but if it is to perish and tinge, the liquid or sweat must be given back to it in the way described by the philosophers. But what is such a way?

So does it happen that it is solvated and dissolved in water ? Surely no, then the philosophers do not pay any attention to such water, which sticks to the hands of those who attack them and moistens them . It is said about this in the Turba: When beginners heard talk of water, they assumed it was common water. But if they had read our books diligently, they would know that such water must be permanent and constant water.

This is indeed the kind of water that does not stick to the hands of the person who touches it, but runs along the plain and does not wet anything, like an Argentum vivum: but who can make such water?

I say that the person who makes the glass can do it white. Then this material is nothing other than something that has been added to it by itself, since it has everything that it needs within it and if everything I have said so far is properly considered, you will turn these ashes into a red stone with a very high one Know how to make color which is not at all translucent, can be broken with a small stroke, is completely liquid, penetrating and deep and has a constant citrine color. One part of this can transform a hundred thousand parts or more of Saturni or Bleijes into the best gold.

However, a subtle and agile maneuver has to be used in the projection and if you don't know what it is, it may not be of any use to you when you already have the elixir.

Chapter IX.

Conclusion of this entire epistle.

For this reason, Venerable Father, you should not be surprised that so many people are mistaken in this work.

I can swear to you with the utmost confidence that I have never seen any of them, except for my master, who directed his work towards the right, appropriate material, but all of them overcome each other more impossible Things in completely useless matter as if they thought and believed that a human could or would be born from a dog .

So what wonder is it that they turn themselves into liars in their work? Then with the stone and the known things from which it comes, a lot of doubts are raised in the practical work of the work, some of them so subtle that one can hardly find one's way out of it: However, you should honestly believe that the philosophers put the pure truth in their books and have described.

But some of their writings first come here after their death, which then do not want to be properly understood by some people: but if one and the other of these philosophers were still alive so that he could obviously demonstrate the words he has described, he would be Werck would like to be able to present this with consistent truth.

So I have now explained the whole work to your wisdom through and through and in everything and tested it through a number of philosophical writings, although I have made little allegiances and appeals to them, and for this reason I am aware that you are already keeping all such philosophical writings in a shrine Closed to your heart, I carry you with you.

Therefore, have no doubt, you will all be able to compare these with my current writing through yourselves:

Inmass then, through the experience that I have seen with my eyes, I will understand the writings of the wise men which otherwise would have remained unknown to me. So I also wanted to keep this letter of mine in the shortest possible terms because I hope that you have created so much ground in these things that nothing where one or the other appears has been hidden from you.

I would also like to be satisfied with the fact that only my understanding is known to you and therefore cannot, based on this truth, depart from this world at the same time as me.

For this reason, for the sake of fatherly love and loyalty, I wanted to light this new light and then leave it behind I have singled you out from all in this world and considered you the most worthy of these things, whom GOD Almighty would grant and graciously grant to achieve the desired goal and end .

Amen!

END.