RULES OF THE PHILALETHES FOR BEHAVIOR IN THE HERMETIC WORK
Philalethes (Georges Starkey)
First Rule
Whoever tells you, or wants to suggest to you; though you may read in the books of the Sophists, never deviate from this principle; that as the goal you are aiming for is gold, so gold must be the only subject on which you have to work.
Second Rule
Take care that you are not deceived by telling you that our gold is not vulgar gold, but physical gold; vulgar gold is dead in truth; but as we prepare it, it comes alive again just as a grain of seed, which is dead in the garner, comes alive in the ground. Thus after six weeks the gold, which was dead, becomes in our egg alive, alive and spermatic, as soon as it is put in the earth, which is proper to it, that is to say in our compound. It may therefore be called our gold, because it is joined with an agent, who will certainly restore it to life; as by a contrary denomination, a man condemned to death is called a dead man, because he is destined to die soon, although he is still alive.
Third Rule
Besides the gold, which is the body, and which takes the place of the male in our work, you will still need another sperm, which is the spirit, the soul or the female; and it is the Fluid Mercury similar in form to common quicksilver; but which is nevertheless both clearer and purer. Many instead of Mercury use all sorts of waters and liquors, which they call Philosopher's Mercury: do not be surprised by their words, one can only reap what one has sown; if you therefore sow your body, which is gold in an earth or in a Mercury, which is not metallic, and which is not Homogeneous with metals, instead of a metallic Elixir, you will only reap a lime useless and without virtue.
Fourth Rule
Our Mercury is but the same thing in substance with the common quicksilver; but it is different in form; for he has a celestial and igneous form and he is of excellent virtue: such is the nature and the quality, which he receives by our Art and our preparation.
Fifth Rule
The whole secret of our preparation consists in taking a mineral, which is close to the genus of gold and Mercury. It must be impregnated with the volatile gold which is found in the loins of Mars, and this is with what it is necessary to purify the Mercury at least up to seven times; which being done, this Mercury is prepared for the King's bath.
Sixth Rule
Know also that from seven times up to ten, the Mercury purifies itself more and more and becomes more active, being at each preparation acuated by our true sulfur; and if it exceeds this number of preparations or sublimations, it becomes too fiery; to manage that instead of dissolving the body, it coagulates itself.
Seventh Rule
This Mercury thus sharpened or animated must still be distilled into a retort of glass two or three times; especially since it may have remained some Atoms of the body, at the time of preparation, and then it must be washed with vinegar and salt Ammoniac, then it is prepared for our work.
Eighth Rule
Choose for this work a pure and clean gold, without any mixture: and if it is not such, when you buy it, purify it yourself by suitable means. Then you will put it into a fine powder, either by filing it, or by reducing it, or having it reduced to sheets, or by calcining it with Corrosives, or finally by any other way whatsoever, provided it is very subtle, anything.
Ninth Rule
Let us now come to the mixture: and for that take from the aforesaid body, thus chosen and prepared one ounce, and two or three ounces at the most of animated Mercury, as it has been said above: mix them in a marble mortar, which will have previously been heated as hot as boiling water will make it; grind and grind them together until incorporated; then put vinegar and salt on it until it is very pure, and lastly you will dulcirate it with hot water, and dry it exactly.
Tenth Rule
Know now that in everything we mark, we speak candidly; our way is also only what we teach, and we always protest that neither we nor any ancient Philosopher knew any other way; being impossible that our secrecy can be produced by any other provision than by these.
Our Sophism is only in the two kinds of fires employed in our work.
The internal secret fire is the instrument of God, and its qualities are imperceptible to men: we will often speak of this fire, although it seems that we mean the external heat; it is from this that many errors arise among the imprudent. It is this fire, which is our graduated fire, because for the external heat it is almost linear, that is to say equal and uniform throughout the work; if only in white; it is one without any alteration, except in the first seven days, when we keep this heat a little low for more safety; but the experienced Philosopher does not need this advice.
For the conduct of the internal fire, it is imperceptibly graduated from hour to hour, and as it is awakened daily following the firing, the colors are altered, and the compound dies. I have untied an extremely embarrassed knot for you; beware of being caught there again.
Eleventh Rule
You must be provided with a glass vessel or matrass, with which you can complete your work, and without which it would be impossible for you to do anything: it must have an oval or spherical shape, of a size suitable for your compound; so that it can hold about twelve times as much matter in its capacity as you will put into it. The glass must be thick, strong and transparent, without any defect; its neck should be a palm, or at most a foot long; you will put your matter in this egg, sealing the neck with great care; so that there are no faults, cracks or holes; for the slightest wind would cause the most subtle spirit to evaporate and the work to be lost: You can be certain of the exact sigil of your vessel in this way. When it is cold put the end of the collar in your mouth where it is sealed, suck strongly, and if there is the slightest opening you will draw the air which is in the matrass into your mouth, and when you remove the neck of the vessel from your mouth, the air will immediately enter the matrass with a kind of hissing, so that your ear will be able to hear the noise; this experience is unmissable. so that your ear can hear its sound; this experience is unmissable. so that your ear can hear its sound; this experience is unmissable.
Twelfth Rule
You must also have for a furnace what the Sages call Athanor, in which you can accomplish all your work. In the first work that which you need must be arranged in such a way that it can give a heat of a dark red, or less at your will, and that in its highest degree of heat it can be maintained there. equal at least twelve hours: if you have such.
Observe first that the capacity of your nest is no larger than to contain your pelvis, with about an inch of space all around, so that the fire, which comes from the vent of the tower, may circulate around the vessel.
Second, your basin should contain only a vessel or matrass, with about an inch of ash between the basin, the bottom, and the side of the vessel; remembering what the Philosopher says: One vessel, one matter, and one furnace.
This basin must be located so that it is precisely on the opening of the basement from which comes the fire; and this ventilator should have a single opening about three inches in diameter, which slanting and rising will conduct a tongue of fire, which will always strike at the top of the vessel, and surround the bottom, keeping it continually in an equally brilliant heat.
Thirdly, if your pool is larger than necessary, as the cavity of your furnace must be three or four times its diameter, then the vessel can never be heated exactly or continuously as it should.
Fourthly, if your tower is not six inches or thereabouts at the place of fire, you are out of proportion, and you would never come to the right point of heat; for if you exceed this measure, and if you make your fire burn too much, it will be too weak.
Lastly, the front of your stove should close exactly with a hole, which should only be of the size necessary to introduce the coal, like about an inch in diameter, so that it can more strongly collect the heat at the bottom. .
Thirteenth Rule
Things being thus arranged, put the vessel where your matter is in this furnace and give it the heat that nature requires, starting where nature left off.
Know now that nature has left your materials in the mineral kingdom; this is why even though we draw our comparisons from plants and animals, it is nevertheless necessary that you conceive a suitable relation to the kingdom, where is placed the matter, which you want to treat. If, for example, I make a comparison between the generation of a man and the vegetation of a plant; you must not believe that my thought is such that the heat, which is proper for one, is also proper for the other, because we know that in the earth where plants grow, there is heat that plants smell, and even from the beginning of Spring.
Yet an egg could not hatch in this heat, and man could perceive no feeling of it; on the contrary, it would seem to him a cold numbness. But since you know that your work is entirely in the mineral kingdom, you must know what heat is proper to minerals, and what is to be called small or violent.
Consider now that nature has left you not only in the mineral kingdom, but also that you have to work with gold and mercury, both of which are incombustible.
That Mercury is tender and that it can rupture the vessels which contain it, if the fire is too strong; that it is incombustible and that no fire can harm it; but however that it must be retained with the male sperm in the same glass vessel, which cannot be done if the fire is too violent; and therefore one could not accomplish the work.
Thus the degree of heat, which can hold lead or tin in fusion, and even stronger, that is to say such that the vessels can withstand it without breaking, must be estimated as temperate heat. From there you will begin your own degree of heat for the reign, where nature left you.
Fourteenth Rule
Know that all the progress of this work, which is a cohobation of the moon on the ground, is to rise in clouds and fall in rain; this is why I mark you to sublimate in continual vapors, so that the stone takes air and can live.
Fifteenth Rule
It is still not enough; but to obtain our permanent dye, the water of our lake must boil with the ashes of the tree of Hermes; I urge you to boil night and day without ceasing, that in the works of our tempestuous sea the celestial nature may ascend and the terrestrial descend. For I assure you that if we do not boil we can never call our work a cooking, but a digestion, especially since when the spirits circulate only in silence, and the compound, which is below, does not move. by boiling, this is properly called digestion.
Sixteenth Rule
Do not hasten in the hope of having the harvest or the end of the work immediately after its beginning; for if you watch patiently for not more than 50 days, you will see the crow's beak.
Many, says the Philosopher, imagine that our solution is a very easy thing; but only those who have tried it & experienced it can say how difficult it is.
Don't you see that if you sow a grain of wheat, three days later you will simply see it swollen; that if you dry it it will become as before. However one cannot say that one did not put it in a suitable matrix; for the earth is its true & proper place; but he only lacked the necessary time for vegetation.
Consider that the hardest seeds need to be in the ground longer, like nuts & plum pits, everything having its season; & it is a certain mark of a natural operation, when without haste it remains the time necessary for its action.
Do you think then that gold, which is the most solid body in the world, can change its form in such a short time. We must remain in expectation until about the fortieth day when the beginning of darkness is seen. When you see this then conclude that your body is destroyed; that is to say, he is reduced to a living soul, and your spirit is dead; that is to say, it is coagulated with the body. But until this darkness, the gold and the mercury each retain their form and their nature.
Seventeenth Rule
Take care that your fire is not extinguished, not even for a moment; because if once the material becomes cold, the loss of the work will inevitably follow.
You can gather from all that we have said, that all our work is nothing else than boiling our compound in the first degree of a liquefying heat, which is found in the metallic kingdom, where the internal vapor circulates around the matter, and in this smoke one and the other will die and be resuscitated.
Eighteenth Rule
Then continue your fire until the colors appear, and you will finally see the whiteness. Know that when the whiteness appears (which will happen towards the end of the fifth month) the fulfillment of the white Stone draws near. Rejoice then, for the King has conquered death, and appears in the East with great glory.
Nineteenth Rule
Continue your fire again, until the colors appear again, and you will finally see the beautiful vermilion and the country poppy. So glorify God and be thankful.
Twentieth Rule
Finally it is necessary that you boil (or rather cook this Stone) again in the same water, with the same proportion and according to the same diet. Your fire must be only a little weaker, and by this means you will increase it in quantity and virtue according to your desire.
May God, the Father of Lights, make you see this regeneration of Light, and make you one day a partaker of eternal life. So be it.