PHILOSOPHICAL KEYS

by Arthur Sprecher



"The Planetary System", woodcut attributed to Hans Holbein
in the German translation of Bosthius' "Consolation of Philosophy"



I

DEW AND SALTS

The preparation of Salts is primordial in the Art of the Ancients. Know that there are various Salts which we must prepare and associate together. As far as I am concerned, I always prepare the Salts by the Dew. I consider this one as the sea of ​​my Salts, in the sense that it ennobles them and gives them qualities that without it they could never have. The Dew is in fact a real celestial fire and it is closely linked to the radiation of the stars...

Know that the rays of the Moon give it qualities that the rays of the Sun quickly take away from it. It has also been demonstrated that polarized rays and Ultraviolet act on the Dew by generating in it a kind of oxygenated water (H²O²). The rays of light thus act on the composition and structure of the water itself. Remember that the seasons when we harvest the Dew are also important in the results we want to expect. Generally the Philosophers speak of working during the months of April, May and June and it is true that it is during this period that the best Dew is harvested for the Salts.

The following experiment clearly shows that the Sun burns the Dew and deprives it of certain qualities: exposed to the rays of the Sun, it will be observed that this mixture is reduced to powder. On the other hand, if the Dew has been “burnt” by the Sun, this mixture will not be reduced to powder.

Besides, pure Dew tends to burn the hands, initiating a weak oxidation reaction of the tissues. It should be noted that one can also extract from Dew a kind of Salt Nitre, very beautiful, very white and very subtle. Nevertheless I prefer to purify and unite my Salts in it because they then acquire a quality as if they drew from the Dew all the secrets infused therein.

Through the Dew we can unite various Salts such as Tartar, Nitre, Salt Ammonia, Lime, Carbonate of Potash... or make various combinations that we can use for the Art.

We actually have to mix the Salts into the Dew, filter them and put them to crystallize and then we can get marvelous things. By successive purifications and iterations of the process we can obtain essential elements of our Art...


II

DEW AND ROT

The fact that Dew putrefies well when it has not been exposed to the rays of the Sun (as well as Urine) suggests that the Sun destroys micro-elements generating this putrefaction, or that it blocks or prevents the transformations that can be made in the Dew.

Some types of radiation are known to be bactericidal, while others induce proliferation. In addition, some bacteria (aerobic or anaerobic) carry out a whole process of transformation, even biological transmutation.

On the other hand, certain radiations are catalysts whereas others are acatalytic for a given reaction, that is to say that they accelerate and allow a reaction or can block it.

To return to the phenomena of putrefaction, we can affirm that the favorable conditions for its development are darkness as well as a gentle heat. Putrefaction is generally indicated by a blackening of the materials, by the descent into the liquids of a dark gray or black dust, and most often by a characteristic odor.

The expression cutting the Raven's Head (from Beautiful Body) indicates the separation of the Dragon into two parts. That is to say, the dark matter, putrefied, is separated in two. The Ancients could also speak of the Head and the Tail of the distillation because, once the head has completely evaporated, only a very beautiful white matter remains...


III

MERCURY

The Ancients named Mercury the various waters which soften metals and render them liquid. These waters are in the form of Acids, Alkaest, or various prepared substances which dissolve (or rather liquefy) the elements which are subjected to them. This name of Mercury is associated with the metal of the same name because, associated with other metals, it resolves them with it into a liquid structure.

The Ancients also called them Menses in relation to the red liquid obtained from the dissolution of the metal, or basic mineral. This color is thus reminiscent of the Menstrual Blood or even the Blood of the innocent metals that our Menstrual cuts the throat of.

Generally, one understands by Mercury the agent of dissolution which extirpates from the body, with which one works, the elements Sulfur and Mercury. In other words, from a simple base we obtain three key elements for the Alchemical work. Thus in the Body are the Soul and the Spirit remaining invisible, and all the Art consists in knowing how to extract from one these three separate ones then from three to reunite them in one and the same glorious body.

The choice of the raw material depends in particular on this, that is to say that there is a sufficient quantity of Body, Soul and Spirit. In certain Particular processes, one can take the Body from one element, the Soul from another and the Spirit from a third (or a combination of two).

Nevertheless, the result will not be the same as if we start from one and the same material. This is why your choice must be directed towards the quantities of Salt, Sulfur and Mercury contained in your raw material. Several materials can be suitable for this and lead to the realization of the Work...

By Mercury we also mean a kind of heavy water that is extracted from metals. Thus Mercury, agent of dissolution, makes it possible to obtain this heavy water or vital principle of the metal. For this, various means may be suitable for acquiring this water from the metal but, in fact, few make it possible to obtain both Mercury and Sulfur in a single operation...


IV

NATURAL TRANSMUTATIONS AND SALTS

Natural transmutations do not necessarily require considerable energy. They only require the simultaneous presence of various elements, in good conditions, as well as a weak energy in the form of heat, light, electro-telluric currents or others still... However, sometimes, Nature shows us vivid transmutations under the effect of the strength of its elements.

This is how, by lightning, Carbon is transmuted into Nitrogen. Thus, after the lightning strikes, the ground is rich in Nitre, thereby generating an area of ​​strong plant growth. Nevertheless, Nature offers gentler ways for the formation of Nitre. This is how the Lime found in the walls changes very slowly into Niter under the effect of electro-osmotic currents. We can say that Niter is a Salt-Key in the culmination of our Alchemical evolution.

Another Salt-Key is the Tartar which is deposited in the barrels of Wine. This salt is both mineral and vegetable. Indeed, as a stony concretion, it comes from grape juice which ferments (that is to say, it comes from the vegetable kingdom). The Ancients have always paid particular attention to Tartar, in particular Van Helmont who said that if you did not know how to prepare Alkaest, you had to know how to volatilize Tartar.

Basile Valentin affirms, as for him, that there exists another Salt of Tartar than that of the barrels. It is a salt that comes from vine shoots (or other plants), which are burned to extract the ashes. These salts from leaching and crystallization are essential to open metals...


V

TARTAR PREPARATION

Tartar is the Salt of Tartaric Acid. It comes from the walls of wine barrels and naturally contains calcium and potassium salts. Tartaric Acid has two Asymmetric Carbon atoms and it can be found in four forms:

- Dextrorotatory tartaric acid
- Levogyre tartaric acid
- Racemic Acid (which is an equimolecular mixture of the two previous ones)
- and Mesotartaric Acid (optically inactive).

Although the Ancients did not know these various forms of Tartaric Acid as we do, they knew how to transform Tartar into Potassium Bitartrate which they called Cream of Tartar. The transformation of "raw tartar" into cream of tartar, or "purified tartar", is done by heat and the addition of coal, clay or tile powder. We then obtain an almost pure Potassium Tartrate, containing no more Calcium Tartrate.

Subsequently, the Ancients calcined this Tartar until they obtained a kind of black mass which they called "purified and calcined Tartar". Then this tartar was dissolved in water, filtered and recrystallized many times until a white salt was found.

Finally, this Salt is Volatilized by various methods including, for example, the addition of Salt Ammoniac, volatile essential oils, or even rectified Wine Vinegar which, by several cohobations, give our Tartar wings (this is i.e. makes it totally volatile). Thus, our Flying Dragon which bites its tail means that after several repetitions of our sublimations, the head (of distillation) takes with it the tail. When the head and tail are as volatile as each other, we are in the presence of our Volatile Salt.


VII

A LIVE MINERAL AND A DEAD MINERAL

Although it seems impossible in the eyes of our contemporary scientists, the mineral has its own life at the bottom of its metalliferous deposit. Indeed, within the Earth-Mother, it evolves, it increases and is transformed little by little, according to its mineral progression. But what is the source of its life, what fundamentally differentiates it from a dead metal or mineral?

In Nature, we observe that all life is related to electromagnetic forces. If, for example, we take an Egg and put it in contact with the positive and negative terminals of a battery, along its longitudinal axis, we will observe around the Egg the distribution of a very tenuous electromagnetic field. On the other hand, if we cook the Egg, our hard-boiled Egg will not produce an electromagnetic field. In fact, for the mineral, it's the same thing.

The natural mineral is piezoelectric and through it flows an electric micro-current and around it results an electromagnetic field. In fact, one could almost say that this electromagnetism and this piezoelectricity determine the vital quality of the mineral itself. This life is related to the crystallization of the mineral.

When you are faced with a dead mineral, you have to know how to give it back a special crystallization (in the mass), as well as various intrinsic qualities (electromagnetism for example) to bring it back to life.

Certainly, the secret fire helps a lot with these applications, and a slow crystallization, or in a particular state of superfusion, brings results which are not to be neglected; but it is also necessary to take into consideration, to a certain extent, the magnetic fields of the Earth and the Universe in order to obtain, in certain cases, an exceptional state of crystallization.

To this, we must note that in the month of May the magnetic field of the Earth is superimposed on the magnetic field of our solar system, and this conjunction produces a quite astonishing effect on the degrees of crystallization that we can obtain...

Like other minerals, Sulfur is alive. Also the electrotelluric currents of the Earth act on the Sulfur and induce the formation of its particular isotopic state. Likewise, through various modes of ionization of the sulfur element, we can speed up the process of obtaining our sulfur.


VII

MINERAL PROGRESSION IN METAL DEPOSITS

Sulfur is the food of metals and minerals. It is he who allows the evolution of metallic bodies in order to bring them to an ever greater degree of perfection. The Elders give us the following order of progression:

Saturn - Jupiter - Mars - Sun - Venus - Mercury – Moon

In reality we see, in metalliferous deposits, that elements such as Lead, Tin and Iron (Saturn, Jupiter and Mars) are very rarely found in Nature in their native state (except in special cases: for example for iron in "starstones" or meteorites). It is only from Mercury that we begin to find this element in its native state, but it is still in an intermediate state because we can see that it is still an immature metal since we find it bound to Cinnabar (its natural sulphide). Then comes native Copper, native Silver and native Gold. We can therefore see in this progression that Sulfur nourishes simple bodies and transmutes them little by little to perfect them according to Nature.

When we speak of Sulphur, it is not the Sulfur that we know but a kind of isotope of it which is created within the Sulphide over time. It is not a Yellow Sulfur as one can generally have in Nature, but a Violet colored Sulfur which is a little more resistant to fire than the natural.

Ordinarily, this Sulfur is so diluted in the mass that it seems almost impossible to obtain even one gram of it; but with Art and patience, and knowing how to gradually increase the internal and secret fire of our Sulphide, we can obtain a little.

Keep preciously this little King in our Chemical Art because it will be of great use to you. Moreover, the simple demonstration of his strength is seen by the transmutations he is capable of producing. Through these transmutations, he shows the way of mineral progression and therefore the reality of our Art.

Our Art is in fact only to know how to assist Nature, and to lead the mineral progression into a state which is beyond that of Gold. As if, somewhere, we had reached a state where this Sulfur was concentrated and pushed to a purer and deeper degree than Gold...

To reach this state, it is enough to see a mineral in the course of its evolution and to push it beyond. Also it is not necessarily necessary to pull our Violette out of the body that we are working on, because all the operations can be done internally...

Observe, for example, metallic Sulphides such as Galena (Lead Sulphide), Martial or Venusian Vitriols or both (Iron and Copper Sulphate) and Cinnabar (Mercury Sulphide), and note how much of the mineral evolution they are. The difficulty is then to hoist them to the Imperial Rank, which is a higher rank than the Royal Rank, the King of the mineral world being the Sun, that is to say Gold...


VIII

SALTS AND SECRET FIRES

The Salamander is fed by fire. In reality, there are several basic types of lights. There is the fire that burns, like that of the fireplace, and the heat of which induces various chemical reactions. There are solid or dry fires, which are used in dry ways in the form of fluxes, salts and sulphur. There are liquid or humid fires, which are used in the humid ways in the form of Mercurys. There are also fires of an electromagnetic nature (which are fires of neither of the other two natures).

An element that is said to be open is made sensitive to this third type of fire. Thus, for example, the best known of the Open Salts is Silver Nitrate, whose sensitivity to light shows its sensitivity to electromagnetic fires. Among the influence of these electromagnetic fires, we take into account the Stellar, Lunar, Solar and Terrestrial lights (ie the electromagnetic radiation of the Earth), which vary throughout the year.

This particular Type of Fire thus acts on mineral evolution by working on the secret fire infused in matter. This Secret Fire is actually a kind of natural Radioactivity being contained within a living mineral. The Salts are generally carriers of this Secret Fire and thus enrich, by transposition, the Secret Fire included in the mineral.

Thus an element made open is an element which, through the intermediary of the Secret Fire, takes part in the evolution of this one through the radiations of the Universe. We generally observe a kind of natural and complementary polarity through the Lunar or Solar radiations, which go in one direction or the other of the natural mineral evolution.


IX

METALLIC REINCRUDATION

Metallic re-incrustation is a method that sometimes seems essential to bring metal back to life. Indeed, isolated from its ore, the metal has lost its electromagnetic property as well as its natural radioactivity, and this is due to too much heat which attacked it and therefore deprives it, thereafter, of its mineral evolution. Bringing the metal back to the mineral state allows it to help it find an evolutionary structure.

Through the Secret Fire, and crystallization, the metal is then given back its life potential, via the newly acquired mineral structure. Indeed, the mineral base then transfers part of its life potential to the metal. So, instead of extirpating the Salamander, we seek to reintroduce it (reincorporate it) into the metal so that it resumes the course of its natural evolution.

Conversely, to extirpate the Salamander, we observe that the fusion of the ore releases an element whose melting point is slightly higher than our basic ore and, if we have the misfortune to go beyond this degree of fire, all our work then vanishes. The Art then is to know how to extricate our remore from our ore and catch it in our nets.

All of these various paths could be suitable to help us capture the much-desired Secret. Here again, we find the aspect of the dry or wet process where the first, using fluxes, allows us to lower the melting point and the second, using solvents, reduces the compound to a liquid and leaves our Salamander solid. ...


X

CONCLUSION

As you will have understood, what is ordinarily called "path" in Alchemy comes out of the Wet Path/Dry Path aspect. The various routes are rather related to the different starting materials that are used, which gradually ascending the metallic line arrive at the same goal.

To this, the Ancients would tell us that several different materials are suitable for the Work, and it seems obvious that, according to the countries and the traditions, the starting material was certainly not the same.

Nevertheless the Ancients, understanding and following the ways of Nature, succeeded in obtaining masterly Elixirs for the secrets of the three kingdoms. What is then commonly called Wet Way or Dry Way are only means to achieve the expected result.

The Wet Way simply uses liquids called Mercurys or solvents, and generally uses a relatively low temperature. The Dry Way, on the other hand, goes through higher temperatures associated with fluxes, salts and our Particular Sulphur. The two Ways can be combined according to the various results that one wants to obtain, but also according to the understanding that one has of the Work.

Indeed, one can pass by various paths borrowing the two Ways which, definitively, return to the same result (or almost). Also, the differentiation Dry Way/Way/Wet Way can be done during the preparation of our Secret Fires. Thus, at a certain moment, from two elements, we only make one. The Flying Dragon has become the bird that seeks to take its mate away.

Here we see two elements purifying each other in a magnificent combat. It is necessary, by a cohobation of these two matters, to purify them in order, either to obtain a Spirit which dissolves all matter (an Alkaest), or a snow-white body which is a flux containing a powerful Secret Fire. If we obtain a Spirit, we will tend towards the wet path, if we obtain a snow-white body we will tend towards the dry path.

In this Circulé, the proportion of materials determines the result...