Note on Semita semitae

The Path of the Path

Arnauld de Villeneuve



Here begins the Path of the Path treated short, brief, succinct, useful to whoever will understand it. Skilled seekers will find there some of the Vegetable Stone which the other Philosophers have carefully hidden.

Venerable Father, piously listen to me. Learn that Mercury is the cooked sperm of all metals; imperfect sperm, when it comes out of the earth, because of a certain sulphurous heat. According to its degree of sulfuration, it engenders the various metals in the bosom of the earth. There is therefore only one raw material of metals, following a more or less strong natural action, depending on the degree of cooking, it takes on different forms.

All philosophers agree on this point. Here is the demonstration: Each thing is composed of the elements into which it can be decomposed. Let's cite an example that is impossible to deny and easy to understand: ice with the help of heat resolves into water, therefore it is water, Now, all metals resolve into Mercury; therefore this Mercury is the prime matter of all metals.

I will later teach how to do this transmutation, thus destroying the opinion of those who claim that the form of metals cannot be changed. They would be right if metals could not be reduced to their prime matter, but I will show that this reduction to prime matter is easy and that transmutation is possible and feasible. For everything that is born, everything that grows, multiplies according to its kind, like trees, men, grasses. One seed can produce a thousand other seeds. So it is possible to multiply things ad infinitum.

From what precedes, whoever analyzes things will see that if the Philosophers spoke in an obscure way, at least they told the truth. They said indeed that our Stone has a soul, a body and a spirit, which is true. They compared his imperfect body to the body, because it is without power by itself; they called Water a vital spirit, because it gives to the body, imperfect in itself and inert, the life which it did not have before and because it perfects its form. They called the ferment soul, because as we will see later, it also gave life to the imperfect body, it perfects it and changes it into its own nature.

imperfect in itself and inert, the life which it had not before and that it perfects its form. They called the ferment soul, because as we will see later, it also gave life to the imperfect body, it perfects it and changes it into its own nature. imperfect in itself and inert, the life which it had not before and that it perfects its form. They called the ferment soul, because as we will see later, it also gave life to the imperfect body, it perfects it and changes it into its own nature.

The philosopher says: “Change natures and you will find what you are looking for. " This is true. For in our magisterium we draw first the subtle from the thick, the spirit from the body, and finally the dry from the wet, that is to say the earth from the Water, this is how we change natures; what was below we put above, so that the spirit becomes body, then the body becomes spirit.

The philosophers also say that we make our Stone from a single thing and with a single vessel; And they are right. All our magisterium is drawn from our Water and it is done with it. It dissolves the metals themselves, but it is not by changing into the water of the cloud, as the ignorant believe. It calcines and reduces to earth. She turns bodies to ashes, she incinerates, whitens and cleans, according to what Morien says: "The Azoth and the fire cleanse the Brass, that is to say wash it and completely remove its blackness. Brass is an impure body, azoth is quicksilver.

Our Water unites different bodies between them, if they have been prepared as it has just been said; this union is such that neither fire nor any other force can separate them by the combustion of their igneous principle. This transmutation subtilizes the bodies, but this is not the vulgar sublimation of the simple-minded, the inexperienced people, for whom to sublimate is to elevate. These people take calcined bodies, mix them with sublimable spirits, that is to say mercury, arsenic, sulfur etc., and they sublimate the whole with the help of strong heat.

The charred bodies are carried away by the spirits and they say they are sublimated. But what is their disappointment, when they find impure bodies with their spirits more impure than before! Our sublimation is not to elevate; the sublimation of the Philosophers is an operation which makes something vile and corrupted (by the earth) something purer, Likewise when it is commonly said: So and so was raised to the Episcopate... by " elevated” means that he has been exalted and placed in a more honorable position. In the same way we say that the bodies have changed in nature, that is to say that they have been exalted, that their essence has become purer; we see therefore that to sublimate is the same thing as to purify; this is what our Water does.

This is how we should understand our philosophical sublimation on which many have been mistaken.

Now, our Water mortifies, illuminates, cleanses and vivifies; it first causes black colors to appear during the mortification of the body, then come many and varied colors, and finally whiteness. In the mixture of Water and the ferment of the body, that is to say of the prepared body, an infinity of colors appear.
This is how our Magisterium is taken from one, is made with one, and it is made up of four and three are in one.

Learn again, venerable Father, that the philosophers have multiplied the names of the Mixed Stone to hide it better. They said it is bodily and spiritual, and they didn't lie, the Sages will understand. For it has a spirit and a body; the body is spiritual only in solution and the spirit has become corporeal through its union with the body. Some call it ferment, others Brass.

Morien says: “The science of our Magisterium is comparable in everything to the procreation of man. First, coitus. Second, the design. Third, imbibition. Fourth, birth. Fifthly, nutrition or diet. I will explain these words to you. Our sperm, which is Mercury, unites with the earth, that is to say with the imperfect body, also called Mother-Earth (the earth being the mother of all the elements). This is what we mean by coitus.

Then when the earth has retained in itself a little Mercury, we say that there is conception. When we say that the male acts on the female, we must understand by that that the Mercury acts on the earth. This is why the Philosophers have said that our magisterium is male and female and that it results from the union of these two principles.

After the addition of Water, that is to say Mercury, the earth grows and increases while whitening, we then say that there is imbibition. Then the ferment coagulates, that is, it joins with the imperfect body, prepared as it has been said, until its color and appearance are uniform, this is birth, because that at this moment appears our Stone whom the Philosophers have called: the King, as it is said in the Peat “Honor our King coming out of the fire, crowned with a diadem of gold; obey him until he has reached the age of perfection, feed him until he is great. His father is the Sun, his mother is the Moon; the Moon is the imperfect body. The Sun is the perfect body. »

Fifth and last comes food, the more it is fed, the more it grows. Now, he feeds on his milk, that is to say on the sperm which engendered him in the beginning. it is therefore necessary to imbibe it with Mercury, until it has drunk two parts of it, or more if necessary.

NOW FOLLOWS PRACTICE

Now let's move on to practice, as I announced above. And first all bodies must be brought back to prime matter to make transmutation possible. Here I am going to show you everything that has been said above. I therefore beg you, O my son, not to disdain my Practice, because in it is hidden all our Magisterium, as I have seen it there in my occult faith.

Take a pound of Gold, reduce it to very shiny filings, mix it with four parts of our Purified Water, grinding it and incorporating it with a little salt and vinegar, until the everything is mixed together. The gold has therefore been well amalgamated, put it in a large quantity of Eau-de-vie, that is to say of Mercury and put it all in the Urinal on our purified center; make a very slow fire below for a whole day; then let it cool, and when it will be cold, take the Water and all that is with it, filter through a linen cloth, until the liquid part has passed through the Cloth.

Put aside what will remain on the cloth, collect it and having put it in a new quantity of Holy Water in the same vase as above, heat it for a whole day, then filter as before. Repeat this until the whole body is converted into Water, that is to say into the raw material which is our Water.

This done, take all this Water, put it in a glass vase and cook over a slow fire until you see blackness appear on its surface; you will skillfully remove the black particles. Continue until the whole body is changed into a pure land. The more you repeat this operation, the better it will be. Anneal then, removing the blackness, until the darkness has disappeared, and Water, that is to say our Mercury, appears bright. It is then that you will have Earth and Water.

Then take all this earth, that is to say the darkness that you have collected; put it in a glass vessel, pour Holy Water over it, so that nothing rises above the surface of the water, nothing floats; and heated over low heat for ten days; then crush and put back new Water; anneal the earth thus coagulated and thickened without adding water. Finally, cook over high heat, always in the same vase, until the clay becomes white and shiny.

Having therefore whitened and coagulated our earth, take the Water of Life which has been thickened with the aid of a slight heat by the coagulated earth, cook it over a violent fire in a good cucurbit equipped with its capital, until until all the water in the mixture has passed into the container and the calcined earth remains in the curcurbite. Then take three parts for four of a ferment, that is to say that if you have taken a pound of the imperfect body or of gold, you will take three pounds of ferment, that is to say of Sun or moon.

You will first have to dissolve this ferment, reduce it to earth and repeat in a word the same operations as for the imperfect body. Only then will you unite them, soak them with the Water that has passed through the vessel, and cook for three days or more. Imbibe again, anneal and repeat this operation until these two bodies remain united, that is to say become one. You will weigh. Their color will not have changed. Then you will pour on them the already named Water, little by little, until they absorb no more. In this union of bodies, the Spirit becomes incorporated with them and as they have been purified, it changes into their own nature. This is how the germ is transformed in purified bodies, which would not have happened before because of their grossness and impurities. The spirit grows in them, it increases and multiplies.

RECAPITULATION

Now, venerable Father, I will return to what I have said by applying it to the preparations of the ancient Philosophers and to their teachings, so obscure, so incomprehensible. However weigh the words of the Philosophers, you will understand and you will confess that they have spoken the truth.

The first word of our Magisterium or of The Work is the reduction of Mercury (the body), that is, the reduction of copper or another metal into Mercury. This is what the Philosophers call solution, which is the foundation of the Art, as Franciscus says: "If you do not dissolve bodies, you labor in vain." It is this solution of which Parmenides speaks in the Peat of the Philosophers. On hearing the word solution, the ignorant immediately think of Cloud Water. But if they had read our books, if they had understood them, they would know that, our Water is permanent, and that separated from its body it therefore becomes immutable, Therefore the solution of the Philosophers is not the Water of the cloud, but it is the conversion of bodies into Water from which they were first procreated, that is, into Mercury. Likewise the ice changes into the water which first gave birth to it.
Behold then that by the grace of God you know the first element which is Water and the reduction of this same Body into prime matter.

The second word is "What is made of the earth". That's what the Philosophers said. “Water comes out of the earth. You will thus have the second element which is the earth.

The third word of the Philosophers is the purification of the Stone. Morien says on this subject: “This Water putrefies and purifies itself with the earth, etc. The Philosopher says: “Unite the dry with the moist; now, the dry is the earth, the humid is the water. You will already have the Water and the earth in itself and the earth whitened with the Water.

The fourth saying is that Water can evaporate by sublimation or ascension. It becomes aerial again by separating from the earth with which it was previously coagulated and joined; and thus you will have Earth, Air and Water. This is what the Philosopher says in the Peat: "Whiten it and sublimate it in a lively fire until it escapes a spirit which is the Mercury." That is why it is called bird of Hermes and chicken of Hermogenes. You will find at the bottom a calcined earth, it is an igneous force, that is to say of an igneous nature.

You will therefore have the four elements, earth, fire and this calcined earth which is the powder of which Morien speaks. “Do not despise the powder that is at the bottom because it is in a low place. It is the earth of the body, it is your sperm and in it is the crowning of the Work.

Then with the aforesaid earth put the ferment, this ferment that the Philosophers call the soul: and here is why: just as the body of man is nothing without his soul, in the same way the dead earth or filthy body is nothing without ferment, that is, without its soul.

For the ferment prepares the imperfect body, changes it into its own nature, as has been said. There are no other ferments than the Sun and the Moon, these two neighboring planets coming together in their natural properties. This is what makes Morien say: "If you don't cleanse, if you don't whiten the filthy body and don't give it a soul, you won't have done anything for the Magisterium." The spirit is then united with the soul and the body, it rejoices with them and settles down. Water alters, and what was thick becomes subtle. »

Here is what Astanus says in the Peat of the Philosophers : “The spirit joins the bodies only when the latter have been perfectly purified of their impurities. In this union appear the greatest miracles, because all the imaginable colors then show themselves and the imperfect body takes, according to Barsen, the color of the ferment, while the ferment itself remains unaltered,

O Father full of piety, may God increase in you the spirit of intelligence so that you weigh well what I am going to say: the elements can only be generated by their own sperm. Now this sperm is Mercury. Consider the man who can only be begotten by the aid of sperm, the plants which can only be born by a seed, as much as is necessary for generation and growth.

There are some who, believing they are doing for the best, sublimate the Mercury, fix it, unite it to other bodies, and yet they find nothing. Here is why: a sperm cannot change, it remains as it was; and it produces its effect only when it is carried into the woman's womb. This is why the Philosopher Mechardus says: “If our Stone is not put in the womb of the female, in order to be nourished there, it will not increase.

O my Father, here you are, according to your desire, in possession of the Stone of the Philosophers.

Glory to God.


Here ends the little treatise by Arnauld de Villeneuve, given to the Pope, Benedict XI, in the year 1303