PROCEDURE OF MR D'ANTWERP

CHEVREUL FONDS MANUSCRIPT
AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OF PARIS

1722
 
(Follow-up of the Swiss Ephemerides of the year 1641, for the astronomical evaluation of Coction)

PREAMBLE

The author of this manuscript (which can be consulted at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, Fonds Chevreul) underlines, from the third paragraph, the orientation of his remarks: it is a question of dealing with alchemy, and not with spagyrics. or archemy.

(…) “ likewise the lively Mercury when it is purified and heated physically, receives the soul of the Sun and the Moon, borrows their leaven, and naturally joins them as the man to the woman” (. ..)

The "symbolic encryption" of the text is, for its part, very usual. The interplay of "celestial influences" is concealed under cover of common chemistry operations. It would be easy to get lost, especially if we imagine that Nitre (for example), also called Saltpetre, is a common terrestrial element, rather than a properly celestial element, which Sigismond Bacstrom, in his translation towards English from Homer de Kirchweger's Chain of Gold (Chapter 2, How all things proceed therefrom ), states as follows:

Thus we say, not without good reason, that the Solar Rays of Light, are nothing else but a most subtil spiritual Spiritual Mundi, which gradually becomes more and more nitreous, as it approaches the Earth, but Sea Salt in the Ocean; animating the atmosphere with fire or Life, and thereby giving elasticity to the air, and Life and preservation to the water.

Extract of which a French version could be:

We say, not without good reason, that the rays of light from the Sun are nothing but a very subtle Spiritual Nitre which becomes more and more nitrous as it approaches the earth, ending up as salt of the sea. in the ocean ; then he can enliven the atmosphere with fire or Life, thus giving elasticity to the air, and life and preservation to the water.

The same goes for Antimony, often cited by the author, and of which Pernéty, in his Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermétique , says this:

The chymists are mistaken when they take vulgar antimony for the matter of the sages. The thing to which the Philosophers give the name of antimony is their permanent water, their celestial water, in a word, their mercury (…)

And so on.

The particular interest of this manuscript lies in its very precisely dated description of an operation that the author calls “coction”. We can compare this temporal unfolding with the indications given on this subject by a Gobineau de Montluisant ( Very curious explanation of the enigmas and hieroglyphic figures which are at the great portal of the cathedral and Metropolitan church of Notre-Dame de Paris) . We can also refer to the planetary positions at the time of this operation, of which I give the tables at the end of the document, noting that September 18, 1641 – end of the “coction” – is a full moon day.


LAT

PROCEDURE OF MR D'ANTWERP

The vulgar Mercury can become by an industrious preparation such Mercury as you please since it becomes Sun or Moon by projection, it is therefore capable of their heat, dryness and solidity in much more time by your preparations. The living Mercury is the fertile ground of the Sages after its due preparation, the first of which is to purify it well, without which physical preparation it cannot be homogenized with the perfect bodies being too cold and terrestrial.

The second is to heat it physically so that it has affinity with the average Mercury of the perfect bodies and mixes with it perfectly.

The third is to animate it well with a fixed and perfect soul and form, having none in itself, and receiving that of other metals as wax receives the impression of a stamp, and just as the earth receives in itself the rain from which it grows fat and imprints itself with the virtues of water to make productions of it, in the same way the living Mercury when it is purified and heated physically, receives the soul of the Sun and the Moon, borrows their ferment, and joins naturally with them as the man with the woman, and thereby really contains the virtue and property of these two perfect bodies.

Antimony as it is born from the mountains, being mixed with stones and excrement from its mining, is never pure. It is purified by digestion. Digestion by a sulphurous double metallic fire is the best and although the artists prepare it by a vegetable fire, that is to say with Tartar, this digestion is not natural. Now the reason why Tartar separates the regulus from the slag is that the impure Sulfur of Antimony is more vegetable than metallic; however you must purify it with the Sulfur taken out of the living Sulfur and not of the salts because this metallic Sulfur is reduced itself in lunar Mercury in the magic Mars and not elsewhere and is done thus:

Take 4 parts of Mars or marshal's nails and redden them in a crucible in a wind oven then throw 9 parts of Antimony into the crucible, put on a high fire until the Mars is melted like mercury water in the Antimony and for hasten the fusion, throw into the crucible with an iron spoon 2 parts of Nitre and let work together in the crucible, which must be large lest the matter spill out, until no more noise in the crucible.

The operation is repeated three times with 1 part of Nitre.

Melt it for the third time by adding another part of Nitre and when the Niter will float like an oil on a high fire, you will separate the regulus from the slag.

The fourth time we don't put Nitre, but the sign of the good operation is the golden color of the slag and the star. We will have 4 Crown shares at Trois Pointes and the operation can be done in 4.

Note that it is not the Niter which separates the Antimony from its dross in this way but the Antimony extracts the soul of Mars, that is to say its best Sulfur and reduces it to Mercury and this Mercury does not is that fire and the virtue of the Fire which in the Antimony digests the indigestible Mercury and separates the mine in this metal. You must also know that the Mercury of Mars is hidden in this purged Antimony under the whiteness of the Mercury of Antimony because the whiteness of the Moon that you see in this regulus is not of its Sulfur but of Mercury under which the Mercury is hidden of Mars which is nothing but the Sun. The Mercury of Mars is also in the Mercury of Antimony only a spirit or a lively air until it comes in body, that is to say in Sun separated then from the Mercury of Antimony.

If you therefore hear what is the Fire which purges the Antimony, you also hear what is which purges and digests the Antimony of the Sages, since you have now separated the Antimony from the dung and filth or burning Sulfur , which being separated from Antimony returns to its first being or first matter which is nothing but fire, being of Fire, is only the living Moon composed of the greatest mystery of nature.

The operation by which you will rejoice the Sulfur of the purged Antimony, that is to say of the regulus of Antimony, is admirable. The Moon is dead in Antimony and it must be revived by its own and only life and not by anything else.

Know then from all this that the Mercury of the regulus of Antimony must be revivified, that is to say, to become Mercury by the Mercury, which cannot be done without mixing and yet we see that the regulus does not mix with the Live Mercury causes combustible Mercury which is in the regulus because as this Sulfur is not metallic it therefore has no affinity with live Mercury and prevents mixing, this is why a middle term is needed between Antimony and the lively Mercury (the Moon).

So take 2 parts of very pure Moon, make it redden in a crucible and throw 1 part of your spelter into it and when everything is well melted, throw it into an ingot mold and find a lead-colored metallic mass that is easiest to crush. . Crush it into a very fine powder and throw it into a glass vase, throw 8 or 10 parts of very pure Mercury over it, put the body of XX in a bain-marie and leave it there for 24 hours. In which time the black powder will enter the Mercury shaking the vase and when the powder and the Mercury are well mixed together, you will draw the whole from the vase and grind it in a marble mortar and there will be an amalgam that you will put in the Bath -Marie to digest, and then to grind again in a marble mortar with very pure water. The water will turn black, pour this water apart and put another one and regrind until this water becomes black, repeat this work until the Moon is at its full, that is to say until the amalgam be stripped of all blackness (bad Sulfur of Antimony) and appear white as a fine Moon. For the better you can grind with the white and pure salt, the blackness will go away rather. The more darkness the amalgam renders, the more it resolves from Mercury to Antimony and the more the lively Mercury becomes philosophical. Thus the whole secret is to properly digest, wash, reiterate all these operations to heat, purify and animate the living Mercury, by a single operation which will be later of three kinds: living Mercury, Mercury of Antimony and Mercury of Mars in a single Mercury who will be able to dissolve Sun and Living Moon,

So you see your amalgam white and without darkness, put it in a retort and with great fire activate your Mercury of the Moon. If the lotion has been well made, you will find the Moon pure and white, otherwise it will still be the color of lead, which will be a sign that there is still Antimony.

So that the Mercury is more heated and purified, it is necessary to take back the Moon which remains in the retort, to solve it with new regulates and to cohober again the Mercury which has passed and to redo from point to point up to 10 times, for then the Moon will have given up the ghost and you will be able to say in truth that you have Mercury and the dissolvent of the Philosophers.

See then how the lively Mercury is the fertile land of the Philosophers but incomplete, having in itself only the humidity of the Moon and to make it complete you must animate it with the hot Sulfur of the Sun, which you will do thus:

Take as many Sun as you have made Moon, put half its weight of regulus in it in a crucible when it is very hot, being melted, throw them in an ingot mold, pulverize this frangible and black mass and throw it in an [illegible] of XX [illegible] you will have put all your Lunar Mercury, put everything to digest for 24 hours in a Bain-Marie, after which remove your vessel from the Bain-Marie and mix well together in a marble mortar your Sun and Mercury, grinding them, and mix everything with salt. 'Water until there appears no more darkness, distilling after all as you did before, in a word proceed from point to point with the Sun as you did with the Moon and then boast of to have the true Triple Mercury of the Philosophers which they have so hidden.

This being the case, it is certain that you have 3 ways to arrive at the Stone of the Philosophers.

1 - The first is to take your Mercury and, according to the rules of prudence, put it in a philosophical egg or secret Fire of the sages, and cook and digest it at a fire of degree according to the requirement of the material, which being duly and wisely governed and as a true philosopher will give you the son of Sulfur dressed in his royal purple, which you will still imbibe with his Water putting back to the same regime as before, and repeating this operation 7 times for then you will have fully the treasures of the health. Notice that in your vessel and in the baked thing pass all the colors of which the Philosophers speak.

2 – The second way of the real Philosopher's Stone is to take 1 part, that is to say a weight of Moon Sulfur and incorporate it into 3 parts of his Philosopher's Mercury, then put the whole thing in the egg of the philosophers to the fire of the 1st degree, which is the heat of a brooding hen, and so continue this heat until the matter is black, and when this color begins to pass, you will increase your fire by 2 degrees which is again so much heat, continuing it as long as the gray matter is reduced to white powder, then you will have philosophical miningto the white which is the beginning of the work that you must necessarily multiply 7 times with your Mercury, reducing it each time to Mercury flowing by its own Mercury and reducing it each time until it is powder, it is then that you will have succeeded.



Symbol of "philosophical mining"
according to the manuscript.
(Used in the early 19th century to represent
the asteroid Pallas)


But having this precious matter, you will again reduce it to flowing Mercury from which you will take 3 parts with 1 part of the Sulfur Sun which you will incorporate into it perfectly, and put them in the philosophical egg giving fire of the 1st degree until the matter be reduced to red powder which can be multiplied to infinity, like white, but which you must at least multiply up to 7 times for your work by reducing this powder each time to Mercury flowing through its own Mercury and reducing it powder as many times.

The ancients named this powder Devouring Dragon, Ravishing Lion, Flying Serpent, but you, having reduced it to a fixed powder, fusible and penetrating like lightning by repeated sublimations, you must name it the Son of Sulphur.

This way is longer than the first and the third that I will teach you now.

3 - Third way to make the Philosopher's Stone, to first calcine the Sun.

Take 1 part of very fine Sun purified by Antimony as I have already said in my epistles speaking of the Hungry Wolf, and 10 parts of your philosopher's Mercury, amalgamate as is customary and that the amalgamation be well done, that the Sun neither appears nor feels under the fingers, and take care not to heat too much by the coals of fear (illegible) and when it will be well amalgamated, put it in a curcurbite covered with a vessel in the Bath- Marie during 5 or 6 days, because by the wet Fire the matters are strengthened more, then withdraw your vessel. Sublimate Mercury without addition or any matter contrary to the Sun. After that pull the Mercury out with a feather and revive it in boiling Water as usual and it will return to flowing Mercury.[illegible] which often happens in the 7th Sublimation.

Your gold thus calcined philosophically, you must conjoin it with your philosopher's Mercury. This operation is very simple and nevertheless very mysterious, lucky who has been able to reach this point because by doing this operation he encloses the Sun and the Moon in his vessel and gives Fire to Fire, Mercury to Mercury.

Take 1 part of your philosophically calcined Sun amalgamated with 10 parts of your philosopher's Mercury, not heating it too much, fear that by too much heat some of the precious materials will go away, because the philosopher's Mercury maintains in him the soul of gold which is very subtle and very volatile.

When therefore your amalgam is made, you will pass it through the chamois to squeeze out the superfluous and then take what remains in the chamois and grind it in a glass mortar so long that the amalgam remains in a subtle powder, this makes pass through the chamois and do this so many times that nothing will pass, so you are sure that the weight of nature is respected. (1 part of Sun and 4 of Mercury). Then grind in the porphyry mortar and the glass mortar and when you have ground it well put it in a philosopher's egg after the conjunction of these materials; you will put this composition in a vessel to digest. The vessel is only a glass matrass, the bottom of which must not be round but rather oval like a hen's egg.

Mainly observe that it is neither too big nor too small, because if it is too big the Mercury will dissipate and its humidity will be lost and its radical will be sterile, and if it were too small your flowers would be suffocated and would not bear no fruit. So I warn you to choose a glass proportionate to the quantity of material, that is to say that the material must occupy only the 5th part of the glass by having 4 empty ones. Having therefore chosen the suitable philosopher's egg, in just proportion to the quantity of matter, you will seal it hermetically and place it in the secret oven of the philosophers, as you will see later.

The secret oven is a stove in the shape of those made for baking bread, which you must use with all the necessary preparations. For then you will put in the egg all the philosophical matters which must be contained, which you will put on a small bowl of earth which will be entirely filled with its mineral fire, put your bowl on a small tripod which you will place in the middle of the furnace so that the philosopher's egg which will be suspended in the air on its tripod can feel the heat of its fire equally from all places.

Thus having placed the philosopher's egg in the secret furnace, you will give it fire after having placed your vessel in the furnace. Control the fire in such a way that the external heat does not overcome the internal heat because otherwise if it is great the union of the materials could not be made nor extended consequently, because the too great heat would dissipate the materials and would burn them, that if also the external fire was less than it should be, the spirit of materials would remain unmoved and without acting with its humidity, without drying out and fixing because the spirits of metals are dead and as if drowsy and asleep without being able to work or operate. they are only excited and vivified by the lively fire. So take heed exactly to the fire, that you regulate it so that it is neither too big nor too small, but know that if you are not aware of our mineral fire, you will fall into error like many others who work blindly without understanding the meaning of our words. Learn then that we have 3 fires without the knowledge of which nothing can be done in this science.

The 1st fire is external which is made of coal or by the lamp ingeniously applied to the secret stove.

The 2nd is a mineral fire which is taken from elsewhere than matter which participates in the nature of Sulphur; it is digesting, altering, penetrating and fixing all the metallic spirits by its Martial spirit because the 2nd mineral fire is nothing other than fine iron filings that we put in a rather deep bowl of earth and in this filings we lay the egg.

The 3rd is also mineral and internal, it is contained in the deepest center of the Sun and the Moon and in Mercury and these are the 3 main different fires used by philosophers. 

From these three fires come the corruption and putrefaction of our precious matter because the blackness [illegible] of these three fires comes the virtue of corruption and putrefaction. Darkness usually occurs after 40 days. Then the elementary quality of the bodies begins to be transmuted into various colors and the dryness, acting on the humidity of the bodies, becomes spiritual [illegible]until this darkness and the change of colors is nothing other than the dissolution of the Sun by Mercury, which dissolution being perfect, the 4 elements unite, namely, water with air, and fire with the earth in due disposition; after all this, about 40 days after, when the moisture is lost and dried up, the flower of various colors goes away and determines, and the material begins to whiten, and then becomes a very beautiful white, lasting 20 days about during, or about the next 40 days it becomes somewhat red like a brick color; finally at the end that nature gives it and orders, in the other 40 days more or less, it finally ends in the color of very red blood. But be careful not to quit the job and rush too much, even though it could be completed in 6 months. Give it as much time as it will take and wait for the King for your happiness because the slower it dries, the more it is done in perfection and becomes more powerful and effective. So when you see the King take on his red color and clothed in glory, don't stop keeping him in the heat for 40 days so that the work receives its final perfection all at once.

COCTION OF MONSIEUR D'ANTWERP

Doing the same work, I put the matrass or egg on March 6, 1641 in a lamp-fired athanor with a lumillon of 3 cotton threads in a brass thread, in which posture it will remain without visible alteration until the 17th of March , on which day there appeared a smoke then a confusion of smoke which rose and fell being of several dark colors which remained thus 7 days, and on March 24 began to appear a dark color bordering on black which increased until it was black as ink and it lasted 10 days. On April 5, there appeared in the glass a small shining spark like a star which was always born for 8 days, and on the 13th of April the light pierced the clouds which increased for some 15 days and on the 30th the egg was like rain fire and it lasted 10 days. On May 1st a greenish color appeared like a rainbow which rolled in the glass like a snake and it lasted for 8 days, and on May 18th it changed to yellowish green and continued for 6 days without change. On May 25 the color turned red at the bottom and looked like a hot coal; on the 26th another 2 brass threads were added with a lumillon of 3 cotton threads each, and at the bottom of the vessel appeared a fiery color and the rest was everywhere a pale color and continued for 6 days; on June 6 the color increased in redness then turned red as blood thus continuing 14 days. Then it decreased as it had increased for 8 days. On the 23rd of June the glass was like water, all pale and swelled up and down and the background was a dark color. It appeared like red and yellow spots sometimes large sometimes small and continued like this for 15 days; on July 19 the yellow color gained the top and became lemon color and at the bottom more orange and lasted 35 days then rushed to the bottom like a shining fiery yellow; on August 8, 2 more brass threads were added to it with a light bulb of 3 cotton threads each, so that there were 5 brass threads and 15 cotton threads to fix (pull) the Oil.

On August 20th there was such splendor in the glass that it looked like a snake and lasted for 5 days or so, on August 26th the mass fell in pieces to the bottom and fell there scales the color of soil. When the mass broke, it looked the finest vermilion that had ever been seen. Around September 8 the whole thing was like boiling blood which changed to liver color, around the 18 we added another brass wire with 3 cotton threads and we gave great heat for 3 weeks during which we heard cracking the glass as if it had broken, which was only the perfection of the stone which was completed on October 18th.

When therefore your work is cooked, increase in virtue and in quantity in this manner:

Take 1 part of Sun lime and amalgamate with 2 parts of your philosopher's Mercury, and when the amalgam is done add 1 part of red projection powder and grind together so long that the whole thing forms one and the same body. Then put everything in a hermetically sealed matrass in the secret oven and give it fire, keeping the same order as the first time and in 12 days everything will change into red powder without going through the colors, which will project on the Moon a weight in a thousand, for the last time you repeat this process in your secret furnace with the golden lime, your double Mercury and your philosopher's Sulphur, and you will project on 10,000.

Experience and good books will teach you how you should use for the Glory of God, towards yourselves and the poor.

I warn you that having started from the Lunar Sulfur and the Solar Sulfur in the second Way, you must take the Sulfur-Sun which remains in the retort after the distillation of the philosopher's Mercury, because for then it is the Sun of the Sages and will be able to digest and cook your Mercury, which the ignorant do not believe that if you have purified, heated and animated your Mercury so much that neither gold nor silver has remained in the retort, but that the Mercury is impregnated and totally animated by their Mercury being only one, you will take new Moon and new Sun of which you will make Solar Sulfur and Lunar Sulfur with your philosopher's Mercury as you did with your Solar lime when you have it made tangy on the tongue and melting in the heat of a candle.

This is what could still cause you some difficulty.

Farewell. 

---

SWISS EPHEMERIDES FOR THE YEAR 1641

Established for 00h00' Universal Time