PRECEPTS AND INSTRUCTIONS

FROM FATHER ABRAHAM TO HIS SON

that contain true Hermetic Wisdom.

Treatise included in the "Bibliothéque des Philosophes Chimiques" by Guillaume Salomon. 1741.



Translated from Arabic

Omnia mecum

Nosce te ipsum

Everything with me

Know yourself

1. My dear son: as the ultimate destiny of the militant life of all men is death; in the hope that his body reduced to dust and ashes must one day return to take on a new glorious and immortal life, I want to remind you of this idea and convince you of the truth that our great God has transmitted to us through our great legislator to find in the Earth the foretaste of this triumphant life: This foretaste is found in Wisdom; who loves her he loves life.

2. It is necessary, therefore, that you place yourself in the path of the Lord if you wish to understand these wonders and attract upon yourself the dew of his graces, more precious than gold and silver, according to our great King-Prophet.

3. Raise, therefore, your heart to the Creator of all things and conceive, from the discourse that I give you, his power, his goodness and his infinite wisdom, which shines in the least of his creatures; but above all in the precious stones and in the philosophical metals that are above the Sun and the Moon, which, no matter how perfect they are, cannot be without blemish as our admirable Stones and Metals are, with which God compares his sacred word; which should make us esteem them infinitely more than all the celestial stars.

4. Having, therefore, initiated you, my dear son, into the healthiest Philosophy which consists of knowing God, his Word and his Holy Spirit, which are nothing but the same Essence, I want to make you adore his goodness in having given man the most vivid lights of its Creator in a mysterious Art that has revealed its true worshipers, called Magi, that is, Philosophers perfect in all aspects.

5. But beware of the erroneous opinions of these false Rabbis and vain Philosophers according to science and the worldly and vulgar elements or principles that have turned a divine science into a diabolical science, condemned everywhere in our sacred Books and by the great God humanized, dead and resurrected, to whom you must be linked until the last moment of your breath.

6. What I teach you will be clearly intelligible to you by having faith in all the miracles described by the Sages. Learn to revere this profound Mystery: Of three, one that must be truer for you than what art and Nature will give you. know by experience.

7. You will find, dear son, thousands of writings by Philosophers, from all periods, from all ages. from different countries, but stop only at the ones I will tell you about; take advantage of them for the glory of the Most High and the usefulness of your Neighbor. I will be as brief as I can so as not to disturb your spirit.

8. You must know that all bodies are composed of four Elements: Fire, Air, Water and Earth. They are always mixed in themselves and in the bodies they constitute. Depending on whether they dominate more or less in these bodies, their species is different; which goes to infinity.

9. Water is properly the first Element, which gives birth to every body created to produce or to be produced; Art with Nature can help in production, which makes Philosophers produce one that can perfect an imperfect metal into a perfect one. If Nature has not made gold what we call Saturn, Art can do it: for this we must compose a salt that has seven qualities and seven virtues. This salt is made with Gold or Silver combined with Argentine water. It is necessary to extract this primitive and celestial Water from the body where it is and which according to us is expressed by seven letters, which means the first seed of all beings, and not specified and determined in the House of Aries to engender its child.

10. Philosophers have given many names to this Water, calling it first Divine Essence, then Spirit of Life, Vinegar, Oil, Fire, Sulfur, Earth, Salt, Mercury, Living Silver; It is the universal solvent. the life and health of all flesh.

11. The Philosophers say that the Sun and the Moon bathe in this Water and that they themselves resolve their first origin in Water. Because of this resolution they are said to die, but their spirits are carried over the waters of this sea where they were buried.

12. Like a Phoenix reborn from its ashes, this spirit is clothed in a black, white and red body with the help of the elemental fire that acts continuously, but by degrees, on this primary matter, which, wishing to separate itself from corruption, It gathers at the top of the crystalline Sphere, from where it is forced to descend by the vapors of the putrefied bodies that, little by little. They take away its volatility and force it to take shape with them. Philosophers call it sublimation, crushing, ascension, distillation, imbibition, incineration. This dew waters the earth so that it produces precious fruit in due time.

13. This dew that circulates in the philosophical glass demonstrates the pleasant colors of the Iris through the different refractions of light on the vaporous clouds that rise from the earth. The eye and senses are overwhelmed with admiration at these phenomena.

14. Gold and Silver do not have. speaking properly, seed and when these Philosophers say that the seed must be extracted from their Gold and Silver, it should not be understood but that they must be reduced in the same way that the vegetables that carry seeds are reduced, which is resolved in the earth in the form of viscous water. This is what happens with your Sun and your Moon planted in our Water, which is like your earth and your womb.

15. It is then said that their bodies are rotten and reduced to their first nature, just as they were at the beginning in the heart of the mine, due to a homogeneous composition impregnated with a certain salt and a certain sulfur, they become soft and docile solid bodies under the hand. of man, and can only be destroyed by Argentine water, which does not wet and which Nature produces within the universal mother of vegetables and minerals, from where, however, the artist extracts it by means of magical Steel. .

16. Whatever may be said, my son, there is no other way to resolve these bodies in their first matter. Pay attention to what I declare to you as I have known it through experience and as it has been transmitted to us by the ancients. For I am in no way of the opinion of these supposedly enlightened ones who want all the sentences of the Sages to refer to their chimerical matters and that they do not They conceive that parables can receive infinite explanations, although they have only one true meaning that secretly contains an inexhaustible secret.

17. You must conceive, therefore, that bodies can be destroyed, that is, changed in form, without ceasing to subsist that their parts can be joined with other bodies to make them more perfect. Hence it comes that an opaque body can become transparent like, you know, glass is made from stone, which is a body through which light cannot be seen. And a transparent and breakable body can become solid. resisting the hammer without breaking and even becoming ductile as our ancestors have taught us with glass made malleable.

18. It is true that it cannot be denied according to the reasoning of good Physics that Art can make a metal more perfect than it was by Nature. all the more so as experience has confirmed it for several centuries. But letting these skillful reasoners err in their sentiment, be content, my son, with exercising your admiration on what practice will show you. You need to be constant. gentle and patient following Nature.

19. When you start trading. Remember that the heat of the Ram's belly gently warms the King and Queen in their nuptial bed where they will sleep peacefully for at least forty days and sometimes fifty. At the end of this time a sulfurous vapor will emerge from their body and cover the surface of the Earth. This sulfur, thickening day by day, will form a cloud that is nothing but the resolutions of the real bodies in their first being. Seeing itself dazed, the spirit of the Earth, and wanting to triumph over the defeat of those who had engendered it in the bosom of Cybele, will rise to the roof of the Palace which it will travel until it itself is forced to descend on the precious ashes of the destroyed bodies that, due to the pungent vapors they exhale, attract with them the pure blood of their victors.

20. He will try to get up several times. but in the end he will be forced to expire with them; They will be nothing more than a putrid, blackish and fetid substance. Here the ancients have given the opportunity to exercise the subtlety of curious spirits who cannot understand the meaning of their enigmatic allusions. What makes them err is the lack of knowledge of the rich Nature.

21. Our Magicians call our Water Dragon, Lion, Toad, and Python, and they say that the poison it contains kills the King and then the dead body, similar to Apollo, kills the Python with its arrows; They give this putrefaction of the three bodies the name of the Raven's head.

22. Here, then, is the black color through which the Stone must pass and this occurs at the beginning of the fourth Sign. Let the heat act, which, having reduced the entire Compound to ashes, will calcine it little by little. Continue with the fire adding a third thread to your wick until everything turns white; which will happen after three more Signs, and this matter will erase the snow with its brilliance; You can then use it to make all the bodies of metals similar to Silver.

23. So, if you want to reach red, which will arrive after another three Signs, you must increase a fourth thread to acquire the celestial Ruby; observe that these threads of increase are those of the temperie of continuous cooking, which acquires strength and degrees through daily and future addition to those of the past. This is what happens with the Seasons and Four Times of the year; but above all remember that you have to be patient in the distribution.

24. When you possess this purple Stone, you will be able with it, if you are prudent, to prolong and preserve your days in perfect health and even transmute all these vile metals into the purest Gold; Finally, you will have in your hands the keys of Nature, its richest and most virtuous treasures: through them you will be able to unbind and open everything, bind and close everything.

25. If your white or red salt is not fuseable, add your essence and make everything soft like the first dough, passing it through all degrees of heat, as you did in the previous operation; and repeat until your salt is like wax; Praise God in your heart, infinitely begging Him to give you the necessary lights to use it wisely.

26. My son. By understanding this small compendium, you will be able to easily reconcile the Philosophers who, in fact, have possessed the same Wisdom; There is only one truth, but its garments are different: If one of us presents it pompously adorned with fine stones and the purest Gold, another as truthful one covers it with mud and rotted dung; another will exclaim: Oh happy Sages, whose divine Science finds in the invisible an indivisible point, the only one that can compose the miracle of art!

27. Well understood, these three tear your veil and reveal the kind truth in your sight. Following these precepts concerns you alone and therefore you will easily develop hieroglyphics and all fictions; You will see, not without surprise, this agitated Red Sea that opens a path for you towards the promised land; You will contemplate these Serpents, which swallow themselves. They will be destroyed before your frightened sight: and Mercury watering this fattened sand. He will make them reproduce to decorate his cock with which, hitting the helmet that covers his head, everything will be confused in the first land

28. You will be able to discover in the Philosophical Egg these two ancient Dragons of the race of the Gods: the secret fire will be manifested before your eyes. and the glacial Sea will suddenly appear to you. The golden Branch will be in your power: you will gather with your own hands the Lilies and the Roses, Calm possessor of the fruit of the Hesperides. You will be able to participate in the happiness of the Gods and drink large gulps of their nectar or ambrosia from their cup.

29. Look, without surprise, at this horrible Dragon. that he has no food but himself; this Phoenix that is reborn from his ashes and this Pelican charitable towards his children The famous mountains of Vulcan; just as the various Works of the Cyclopes will appear represented in the same painting; In it you will see the impotent Titans defeated by Apollo, luminiferous Son of the Sun.

30. Penetrating the dark Chaos that formed the Universe, he sees the Earth submerged by a horrible Flood, soon being reborn lucid and purified. The truth always defeated the lie. Remember that it is one and that it is naked and that it can only appear to the looks of the Wise, because the vulgar are blind.

31. Reflect on the story of Jason and Cadmium; Consider Aeneas in the Underworld, the beautiful Ganymede transported to the Heavens. See the Sea agitated by the Father of our Gods who, with a boiling foam, gives birth to the beautiful Venus before your eyes, who will later be the mother of Love.

32. Ah, remember, beloved son, our sacred Letters; penetrate its meaning: you will find life Yes, you will be able to explain, with inexpressible joy, the charming pictures of the genius of humans Take your pencil to draw a dot; He can only instruct you, since he contains everything.

33. Enraptured with supernatural admiration. Consider this point, conceive its center, look at its circumference; judge their extension that unites them; happy you, my son, if the Father of lights, by a ray of his divine Spirit and a radiant fire of intelligence, burning your heart. secretly reveals to you the multiplication of this point by its center.

34. This inseparable Triune that has procreated everything, eternal foundation. It is discovered in you. Image of your God; He meditates on his Works and follows Nature. observe the beginning of it. his progress and the end of it; over there. overwhelmed with admiration. worship the Almighty.

35. Review this simple operation in your memory. What did you do under my eyes? collecting a plant with its roots and its grain, which you putrified to extract its volatile salt; then, consuming the rest with the heat of the flames, you were left with a precious ash that gave you a fixed crystalline salt. Joining the two by a certain means, they only made one, which you made play with Vulcan; and removing this burning salt, oh amazing wonder! that the weight of a grain of millet planted in the ground would reproduce a large number of plants, which far surpassed in beauty the first one you destroyed. Doesn't this palingenesis demonstrate the resurrection of plants?

36. You admired with me in the game of Nature the indestructible germ of each creature. Seeing the miracle of vegetation, you understood that the same thing could happen in the other two kingdoms, and you also understood the mystery of the universal resurrection; You suddenly exclaimed: Ah! If the vile Creature performs this prodigy, could our faith deny the supreme Creator the sovereign power and virtue of regenerating us into the most perfect bodies, to enjoy eternal life forever? We, I say, soul of his soul, spirit of his spirit, that his paternal love has created as his most powerful and virtuous privileged children, in the Image and likeness of him.

37. You must be convinced, then, that the salt of all individuals contains within itself this true and lively germ, which can regenerate and multiply to infinity; This salt is the box that contains the balm of sulfur and the Mercurial liquor that we call Pisón, or river of living waters, which circulates throughout the land of life, where the Gold of Nature is born; According to the expression of our wise Legislator, the Gold of this land is very good, true, perfect and exquisite. Sulfur is a little more powerful than elemental fire; which means that the form it contains cannot be destroyed by it; Mercury is the good companion that provides everything necessary for multiplication.

38. Yes, this open door presents you with a happy step to reach the sanctuary of Nature, locked with three different keys; The first is of iron, the second of purest silver, and the third of dazzling gold; but, above all, remember to put each key in its lock, to be able to find the universal key to the wonders of the world.

39. If the divine Spirit grants you entrance, kneeling down, worship the Eternal; Immortal and Almighty; receives from the hands of Wisdom this sacred Ampoule, which calls the dead from the depths of their tombs and whose purple oil defeats the Demon to the depths of Hell and confuses in a moment the blind ignorance that kills humans.

40. Beloved son, remember your father's lessons, be sober and temperate in the midst of riches, helping your brothers in need with this Spirit of life. He understands that little is needed to preserve bodies and that they only have a living soul because of him. Giving you the knowledge of this truth, I obey the Mandate that the Lord God makes to us through the mouth of his prophet Isaiah c.38, v.19 Unicuique Deus mandavit de proximo suo (God commanded each one about his neighbor.).