The Abandoned Word

by Bernard, Tale of the Marche Trevisane
Three Treatises of Natural Philosophy. Paris, 1618, 3 parts in 1 vol. in-8

The first thing required for the secret Science of the Transmutation of Metals, is the knowledge of Matter, from which come the Quicksilver of the Philosophers and their Sulphur, from which they make and constitute their divine Stone. The Matter, from which this sovereign Medicine is extracted, is Gold, very pure, Silver very fine, and our Mercury or Quicksilver, which you see daily altered and changed by artifice into Nature of a white and dry Matter. , in the manner of Stone, from which our Quicksilver and our Sulfur are raised and extracted with strong ignition, by a repeated destruction of this matter, by resolving and sublimating.

In this Quicksilver are Air and Fire, which cannot be seen with bodily eyes, so rare and spiritual are they: Which belies those who believe that the four Elements are really and visibly separated in the Work, each apart; but they have not well conceived the nature of Things; Because, one cannot give the simple Elements; we know them only by their operations and effects, which are in the lower Elements, namely in the Earth and in the Water, according as they are altered from closed and gross nature, by which they are changed from Nature into Nature. Gold and Silver, according to the Doctrine of all the Philosophers are the Matter of our Stone. Verily, says Hermes, his Father is the Sun, and his Mother is the Moon.

What embarrasses the most is to know what the Third Component is; that is, what is this Quicksilver, from which we make our Compost with Gold and Silver. To know this, it should be noted that the Work of the Philosophers is divided principally into two Parts. The Philosophers divide the second Part into the accomplished White Stone, and the equally accomplished Red Stone. But because the foundation of the Secret consists in the first Part, these Philosophers not wanting to divulge this Secret, they wrote very little of this first Part. And I believe that if it had not been to prevent this Science from appearing false in its Principles, they would have kept a profound silence on this first Part, and would have made no mention of it. If they had not spoken of it at all, this same Science would have been entirely ignored, and would have perished, or would pass for false. As this first Part is the Beginning, the Key and the Foundation of our Magisterium, if this Part is ignored, Science remains deceptive and false in experience. In order therefore that this very great Secret, which is the stone, to which nothing strange is added, may not be lost, in the future, I have resolved to write something certain and true about it, having seen this blessed Stone, and having held it, of which God is my witness, and I entrust the Secret of it to every sacred Soul, under pain of perishing, if it reveals it to the Wicked. This is why the Philosophers have called this Secret the Forsaken Word, or killed in this Art, which they have almost all carefully concealed, lest the unworthy should know of it. You must therefore know that the Philosopher's Stone is divided into three Degrees, namely: the Vegetable Stone, the Mineral and the Animal or which has Soul and Life. The Vegetable Stone, say the Philosophers, is properly and principally this first Part, which is the Stone of the first Degree, of which, Pierre de Villeneuve, brother of Arnaud of the same name, says at the end of his rosary: The beginning of our Stone is the Quicksilver, or its Sulfurity, which we must have of its gross corporeal Substance, before it can pass to the second degree.

The beginning therefore of our Stone, is that the Mercury, growing in the Tree, be compounded and sublimated by lightening it: for it is the Volatile germ, which is nourished, but which cannot grow without the fixed Tree, which retains it, as the nipple makes the life of the child. From there, it appears that this Stone is Vegetable, as being the sweet Spirit, growing from the Germ of the Vine, joined in the first work to the whitening fixed Body, as it is said in the Dream-Green, where the Practice of this Vegetable Stone is given, to those who know how to hear the Truth; which Practice, I would not put here for good reasons.

FIRST DEGREE

In the first degree of the Physical Stone, we must place our clean and pure Vegetable Mercury, which is called by the Philosophers White Sulphur, non urent, which serves as a means of conjoining the Sulfurs with the Bodies, And as this Mercury is truly of fixed, subtle and clear Nature, it unites with the Bodies, adheres to them, and joins in their depth, by means of its heat and its humidity. The Philosophers have said of it, that it is the means of conjoining the Tinctures, and not the Vulgar Quicksilver, which is too cold and phlegmatic, and consequently deprived of all operation of Life, which consists in heat. and in the dampness. But because it is partly volatile, it also serves as a means of mingling volatile Spirits, and of adhering to join with the fixed Substance of Bodies. We are going to touch on the triple cause of its necessity.

The first, as we have to join the two Seeds, namely of the Male and the Female, one must be mixed with the other by a natural love, and by a connatural sponginess, so that what there is more in one is attracted by the more of the other, and therefore one is mingled with the other, and they are conjoined together.

And yet, as these two Bodies, Gold and Silver, are made moist by a digestive, dissolving, and subtilative heat, then they become first Matter and simple; and in this state, they take the name of Seed next to Generation, by the impression which they receive because of their simplicity and their obedience to the instrumental heat, equipollent and similar to the natural heat of this Mercury. And it is then that the Elixir of the Philosophers is made of it; the first Part of the Stone being ordinarily called by this name of Elixir.

This first Part therefore is a Means for conjoining the extremities of the Vessel of Nature, and in this Vessel the Spirits must be transmuted by fleeing from Nature to Nature. What we say shows the second cause of its necessity; for as the Stone must be impregnated with Spirits, it is fitting that there be in it some retentive Virtue, which embraces these Spirits, so that they may be more easily mingled with the very small Parts of Bodies.

This retentive Virtue is truly in this Physical Mercury; and as he is partly of spiritual Nature, he is a true Spirit, depurated and purified of all earthly starch or abode: Spirit, I say, true and fixed, and partly volatile: For it contains the Nature of one and from the other Fire; which manifests his ponticity or sourness, or acute compunction which one notices in his Operations, since by this mortified Mercury, the Vulgar Mercury, as the Text says, is easily congealed.

However it is not fixed by itself; because to become it, it is necessary that it is joined to the Sun and the Moon, and makes their Friend, so that what is in it volatile is fixed with these two Bodies; that is to say, that of this Thing which is composed of all these Things mingled together with the Collaterals, the vulgar Mercury can be directly fixed. This is the cause why new Bodies are put there, and they are fixed, so that the compound Fire, which is called sublimated Mercury, or first Matter, is so informed of the proper Ferment, that it obtains the force of long perseverance. in the battle of Fire, despite its great harshness.

On this subject, the Hortulain says, that what this Mercury must be joined to: that is to say, with what it must be fixed, must not be foreign to it. Speaking of this Mercury, Raymond Lully says, that Quicksilver, made by us, congeals the common, and is more common to men than the common of the least price; that it is of greater virtue, as also of stronger retention. Which makes Geber say, that it is a sign of perfection, because it is a more noble Gum than the Daisies, which converts and attracts all other Gum to its fixed, clear and pure Nature; always makes her last with her in the Fire, with which she rejoices. This is why, says the Text, alleging Morien: Those who believe they compose our blessed Peter, without this first Part, are similar to those who want to climb to the highest Pinnacles, without a ladder, who before arriving there, fall into down in miseries and pains.

This Mercury therefore is the beginning and the foundation of all this glorious Magisterium; for it contains within itself a Fire which must be fed and nourished with greater and stronger Fire, in the second Stone Regime.

Therefore, both the enclosed Fire of this Mercury by the first Regime, and that which must also be enclosed by the second, in the natural Things, is called proper Instrument, which is the second Thing required, and principally to be known in this high Magisterium. . In such a way that the Matter of which one must begin the Work being known, one must first enclose the Fire in the volatile and fixed Matter, by heating and coagulating with Dissolution of the Bodies. To make a Mystery of this inclusion or imprisonment of Fire, the Philosophers have called it Sublimation or Exaltation of Mercurial Matter.

What makes Arnaud de Villeneuve say, Let the Mercury be first sublimated, that is to say, the Mercury being of low nature, namely of Earth and Water, it must be brought back to a noble and high Nature , namely of Air and Fire, which are very near to this Mercury, according to the intention of Nature and Art. This is why, when this mercurial Stone is thus exalted and subtilized, it is sublimated with the first Sublimation, and it is still appropriate to sublimate it with its Vessel. Raymond Lully says on this subject: We hope in our Lord that our Mercury will be sublimated to greater Things, with the addition of the thing that colors him and his soul will be exalted in glory.

I therefore tell you, calling God to witness this Truth, that this Mercury having been sublimated, it appeared clothed with a whiteness as great as that of the snow of the high Mountains, under a very subtle and crystalline splendor, of which there issued, at the opening of the Vessel, such a sweet odor that there is none like it in this World. And I, who speak to you, know that this marvelous whiteness has appeared before my own eyes; that I touched with my hands this subtle crystallinity, and that I smelled by my sense of smell this marvelous sweetness, from which I wept with joy, being astonished at such an admirable thing. And for that, blessed be the eternal, high and glorious God who has placed so many marvelous Gifts in the secrets of Nature, who was kind enough to show them to a few Men. I know that when you know the Causes of this Disposition, you will ask yourself: What is this Nature, which, being given a corrupting Thing, nevertheless holds within itself an utterly Celestial Thing! No one can recount so many marvels. However, a time may come when I will tell you many special things of this Nature, of which I have not yet obtained permission from the Lord to instruct you in writing.

Be that as it may, when you have sublimated this Mercury, take it fresh and recent with its Blood, lest it grow old, and present it to its Parents, namely to the Sun and the Moon, so that these three Things, Sun, Moon and Mercury, our Compost be made, and that begins the second Degree of our Stone, which is called Mineral.

SECOND DEGREE

If you want to have a good multiplication in very strong Mineral Qualities and Virtues by the Operations of the second Degree, by means of Nature, take the Bodies clean and united with them this Mercury, according to the known Weight of the Philosophers and spouses this dry Water, which has in itself the Sulfur of the Elements and which is called Oil of Nature and Mercury sublimated and subtilized, dissolved and hardened by the preparations of the first Degree, always separating and rejecting the residences or faeces which it makes in the Sublimation, as not being of 'no value.

In our Sublimation, the sublimated Thing must not remain at the height of the Vessel, as happens in the Sublimation of the Sophists. In ours, on the contrary, what is sublimated remains only a little high on the faeces of the Vessel; for the subtlest and purest Part always swims on these faeces, and joins the sides of the Vessel, which is impure remaining naturally at the bottom, because Nature, by this evacuation, wishes to be restored in better, by losing bad and impure parts to cover up purer and better ones. By all these things we see the third Cause of its necessity, which is that as the Mercury is clean, clear, white and incombustible, it illumines the whole Stone, defends it from adustion or burning, and tempers the ardor of the Fire against Nature, bringing it back to true temperament and in harmony with natural fire:

For this Philosophical Mercury contains par excellence the unnatural Fire, whose sovereign Virtue is tempering against the ardor of the Fire against Nature, and as an amicable aid of the naturalizing Fire, that is to say converting itself into Nature. , or making itself natural, by a gentle temperance with natural Fire, which is a very great Secret, known to few People, from which Mercury is said to be Mother Earth, as being the Germ, without which the Peter cannot grow or multiply. This is why Hermes says: The Earth is the nurse of our Stone, of which the Sun is the Father, and the Moon the Mother. It rises from Earth to Heaven, and again it descends to Earth: Its force is complete if it is turned towards Earth, from which Earth, with the two perfect Bodies, the right Composition of the Philosophers takes birth and beginning.

So let these two Bodies be sufficient for you, for they are similar to the Thing required and requested, as Arnauld de Villeneuve says; that is to say, that as the end of the Stone is to be perfect, it breads the vulgar Mercury, and the other imperfect Bodies, by transmuting them into Gold and Silver It is therefore necessary to seek this transmutative Virtue, where it is, and cannot be more suitably found, than in perfect bodies: vain would one seek this Virtue in Copper or in another imperfect Metal. I say the same thing of Silver; for in all the Genus of Metals, only Gold and Silver are perfect.

To have therefore this Mercurial Substance in which is this perfect Virtue of transmuting into Gold and Silver the imperfect Metals, it is necessary to have recourse to your two perfect Bodies, and not elsewhere. This is why you must know that the Conjunction of these two Bodies is the natural term of the last Subtlety and of Transmutation into the first Matter of regeneration; and for this reason, of this Conjunction, as of first and simple Matter, is made the Generation of the true Elixir.

The Moon reduced to first Matter, is passive Matter; for truly she is the Spouse of the Sun, and they are one and the other in very near affinity.

Such is the agreement between the Male and the Female of the Genus of the Art, from which is engendered the White and red Sulphur, conglutinating and congealing the Mercury: And certainly better Creation and nearer Transmutation is always made, when the proper Male is conjoined with his own Female in one nature: And the Male is that which delights most in the depths of passive Matter by his natural subtlety, and he transmutes and converts it into his sulfur nature. Which led Dastin, English, to say of this Conjunction: If the White Woman is married to the Red Husband, they will embrace each other immediately, will join, will couple together, and will form only one Body by their Dissolution.

This Copulation is the Philosophical Marriage, and the indissoluble Bond. This is why it is said; These Two become One by conversion, and hold by One, namely by our Mercury, which is the Ring of the sovereign Link; Also he is called The Daughter of Plato, who unites the Bodies assembled by love.

Compose therefore our very secret Stone of these three Things, and not of others; for the things required for this purpose are in themselves alone.

This Amalgam, or Physical Composition, being thus treated, one can truly say that the Stone is only one Thing. For all this Compost is a mixture or mixture whose price is of inestimable value; that is to say, the price of it is so great that one could not imagine it: For it is our Brass, of which it is said in the Peat: Know all that no true Tincture is made but of this Brass; that is to say, of our Confection, which is made only of the three Things, of which we have just spoken: And then begins the second part of our very noble Stone, and the Stone of the Second Degree which is called Mineral.

It must be remarked here that the Stone or the Mercury, which, by the first Operation, was born so clear and so resplendent, is by this second Operation mortified, blackened, and becomes deformed with all the Compost, so that it may rise again victorious. , clearer, purer and stronger than it was before. For this mortification is revivification because by mortifying him he revivifies himself and by revivifying himself he mortifies himself.

These two Operations are so linked with each other, that one cannot be without the other, as all the Philosophers teach; for the Generation of one is the Corruption of the other. All this, however, is nothing other than creating the Sulfur of Nature and reducing the Compost into the first Matter next to the Metallic Kind.

Know then that this Compost is this Substance, from which this Sulfur of Nature must withdraw by comfort and nourishment, by putting in this Substance the mineral Virtue, so that it is finally made a new Nature, devoid of all superfluous and corrupting earthiness. , and of all phlegmatic dampness, which hinders Digestion. Where it should be observed that according to the various alterations or mutations of the same Matter in its Digestion, various names are imposed on it by the Philosophers and according to different complexions, some have called this Coagulant or thickening Rennet Compost, others the have named Sulphur, Arsenic, Nitrogen, Alum, Tincture illuminating all Body, and The Philosopher's Egg: For as an Egg is composed of three things, namely, of the shell, of the white and of the yolk; in the same way our physical is composed of Body, Soul, Spirit, although in truth our Stone is the same thing, according to the body According to "Soul and According to the Spirit; but according to various reasons and intentions of the Philosophers, it is sometimes said to be a Thing, and sometimes another, which Plato makes us understand when he says that Matter flows ad infinitum, that is to say always, if the form does not stop its flow.

So it is a Trinity in Unity, and a Unity in Trinity; because there are Body, Soul and Spirit; there also are Sulphur, Mercury and Arsenic: For the spiring Sulphur, that is to say throwing its vapor into arsenic, operates by copulating the Mercury; and the Philosophers say that the property of Arsenic is to breathe and that the property of Sulfur is to coagulate, congeal and arrest Mercury. However this Sulphur, this Arsenic and this Mercury are not what the vulgar think; for it is not these venomous spirits that the Apothecaries sell; but it is the Spirits of the Philosophers who must give our Medicine; whereas the other Spirits can do nothing for the perfection of the Metals.

It is therefore in vain that the Sophists labor, who make their Elixir of such venomous and corrupting Spirits. For certainly the truth of the sovereign subtlety of Nature, is in no other thing, than in these three Things namely Sulphur, Arsenic and Philosophical Mercury in which only is the repair and the total perfection of the Bodies, which must be purged and purified The Philosophers have imposed several names on our Stone, and yet it is still only one Thing.

For this reason, leave the plurality of names, and you stop at this Compost, which must be put once in our secret Vessel, from which it must not be drawn, that the Elementary Wheel is not accomplished, so that the force and active virtue of Mercury which must be nourished, neither be suffocated or lost: for the Seeds of things, which are born from the Earth, do not grow or multiply if their force and generative virtue are taken from them by some foreign quality.

So likewise, this Nature will never multiply, nor be multiplied, unless it is prepared in the manner of water.

The womb of the woman, after she has conceived, remains closed and closed, so that no foreign air enters it, and the fruit is not lost: Likewise our Stone, must always remain closed in its Vessel, and nothing foreign should be added to it; it must only be nourished and informed by the informative Virtue of its nature, and multiplicative not only in quantity but also in very strong quality: is nourished, increased and multiplied.

After, therefore, our Compost is made, the first thing to which we must apply ourselves is to animate it by putting into it Heat or vivifying humidity or Soul or Air, or Life by Solution and Sublimation pathway with Coagulation; because without this Heat it would remain without action, and without Soul, would be deprived of its high virtues and would have no movement of Generation. The way to introduce Heat into matter is to convert it from disposition to disposition, and from nature to nature, that is to say, to raise it from a very low nature to a very noble, and very high.

This provision is done by its own Sublimation, Dissolution of Earth and Congealing of Water, or ingrossation or Mortification or resurrection and Sublimation in light Elements. So that the whole Circle of this Magisterium is nothing but a perfect Sublimation, which however has several particular operations linked together.

However there are two main ones, namely perfect Dissolution and perfect Congelation: Also the whole Magisterium is nothing other than perfectly dissolving and perfectly congealing the Spirit: and these operations have such a connection between them, that never the Body does not dissolve, that the Spirit does not freeze nor the Spirit does not freeze, that the Body does not dissolve. Which makes Raimond Lully say that all the Philosophers have declared that the entire work of the Magisterium is only Dissolution and Congelation. For having ignored these operations, great personages in other Sciences have been deceived; the Presumption of their knowledge made them presume that they understood the Circles of Nature and the way of circulating.

It is therefore important to know well the way of this Circulation which really is nothing else than to imbibe and water, or to make drink the Compost according to the right weight of our mercurial Water, which the Philosophers order to name permanent Water, because in this Imbibition the Compost is digested, dissolved, and frozen in an accomplished and natural way.

It is a real thing, that if an Earth Matter is to be made Fire it must be refined, prepared and made simpler than it was. It is the same with our Compost, attenuated and subtlety, in such a way that the Fire dominates in it and this subtiliation and preparation of earth is made with Subtle Waters, supremely sour and acute, which have no fetidity or bad smell. , such as Geber says in his Summa, which is the Water of our Argent-vivon sublimated and reduced to the nature of Fire, under the names of Vinegar, Salt, Alum and several other very sour liquors. By which Water the Bodies are subtilized, reduced and brought back to their first Matter, next, to the Stone or to the Elixir of the Philosophers. Notice that as the Child in the womb of his Mother must be nourished with his natural food which is the menstrual blood so that he can grow in quantity and stronger quality, so our Stone must be nourished with his fat, says Aristotle , and of its own nature and substance. But what is this fat which is the nourishment of the life, increase and multiplication of our Stone? the Philosophers have completely concealed it, as being the d Secret which they have sworn never to reveal or manifest to anyone, and they have given this Secret to God alone to reveal it OR inspire to whomever He pleases. However, this greasy and vivifying or life-giving moisture is called by some philosophers, Mercurial Water, Permanent Water, Water abiding in the fire, Divine Water, and it is the Key and the Foundation of the whole work.

Of this mercurial and permanent Water, it is said in the Peat, that it is necessary that the Body be occupied by the flame of the fire so that it is broken up, dismembered and debilitated; namely, with that water full of fire, in which the Body is washed until all is done Water, which is not the water of the Nude nor of the Fountain, as the Ignorant and the Sophists believe, but it is our Permanent Water; which however without the Body with which it is joined cannot be permanent, that is to say, it cannot remain in the fire, and that it immediately flees: and all the secret of our Stone is in this Permanent Water: for it is in this Water that it is perfected, because the Humidity, which vivifies it, is in it, as being its life and its resurrection.

About this very secret Water, it is said in the Peat: Water, by it alone does everything: for it dissolves everything; she freezes everything that can be frozen, she cuts up and breaks everything up without the help of others; in it is the thing that tints and is tinted: In short, our Work is nothing other than vapor and water, which is said to be mondifying, or cleansing, whitening, rubifying and throwing off the blackness of Bodies, and the Philosophers have named it Permanent water, Fixed and incombustible oil, or which cannot be burned. It is the Water which the Philosophers have divided into two parts, one of which dissolves the Body by calcining it, that is to say by reducing it to Lime and congealing it; and the other part cleanses the Body of all darkness, whitens and reddens it, and makes it flow or run by multiplying its parts. This Water in the Peat is called the Most Sour and Most Acute Vinegar: For it is a Warm Dampness in itself of vivifying heat, containing in itself an unchanging Tincture, which cannot be altered.

Alphidius named this Water Attrempance or measure of the Sages, and Urine of the Young Cholerics. In order not to make this Water known, the Philosophers have hidden it under different names and it is only known to very few people. Hermes knew it and touched it, Gerber knew it, Alphidius treated it, Morienus wrote it, Le Lis heard it, Arnaud de Villeneuve saw it clearly, Raymond Lully declared it feebly, the Text did not ignore it, Rasis, Avicenna, Galen, Hippocrates, Haly and supremely Albert wisely concealed it, and Dastin, Bernard de Grave, Pythagoras, Merlin the Elder and Aristotle understood it very well: In short this Water which triumphs over all, is named celestial, glorious, last and final Secret to nourish our honorable Peter, without which Water is never amended, nourished, increased, nor multiplied; and for this the Philosophers have concealed the manner of making this Water as the Key of their Magisterium. And certainly, I have read more than a hundred volumes of Books dealing with this Art, without having found in any the perfection of this Mercurial Water. I have also seen several learned men in this science without having found any who had this Secret, except for a great Physician who told me that he had sighed for thirty-six years before arriving at it.

It is said that to this Nature is given a double Nature, namely of Gold and Silver in whose bowels, as in the womb of its Mother, Quicksilver is contained multiplied, purged and converted into white Sulphur, non urant, by the action of the heat of the fire, being therein regularly informed by Art. So this Mercurial Water is nothing other than the Spirit of the Bodies converted into the nature of Quintessence, giving virtue to the Stone and governing it. And this Stone or our Compost is a containing matrix and an expedient and suitable Link, namely Earth, Mother or Vessel of Nature, retaining the formative virtue of the Stone, in which the natural heat is put, which is this virtue issuant of the Vessel by the fifth Spirit. This is why this Vessel is called Mother and Nurse, because it gives a natural virtue to the Sulfur which it grazes and nourishes.

This, then, is our Compost in this natural Vessel, in which the Spirits are transmuted from nature to nature, and the more they flee, the more they alter in this Vessel and depart from their corruption and imperfection, until they achieve the attainment of Quintessence: which causes them to take on or clothe a new nature, which is clean, white, pure, devoid of all corrosivity and earthly superfluity, ardent or burning, and evaporable phlegmatic.

In this affinity of the Vessel, the humidity of the Spirit is by its viscosity or sticky nature, retained in adherence or natural and firm conjunction, and the Compost heats up there as in its radical humidity, mixed and mortified. After which the dead thing resurrects with the joyous Sublimation of childbirth, in itself totally of a salfuginous and bitter nature. But the Child has the power to sustain itself; and as it is still of a simple nature, it is advisable to nourish it with a little fat milk, namely with its vivifying Humidity, from which it was partly generated and which is our permanent Water, Virgin's Milk, or Water of life which does not come complaining of the vine, and nevertheless it is called Water of life, because it vivifies our Stone and makes it resuscitate. It is also called reincruded or redone blood, whitened menstruation, nourishment of the Child, Meat of the heart, Sea water, Venom of the Living, Meat of the Dead, and Quicksilver of the Philosophers, purified of its earthly starch by Philosophical sublimation. After, therefore, our Compost is made, we must put it in its secret vessel, cook over a very slow fire, either dry, or humid, and make it drink our Permanent Water, little by little, dissolving and freezing as many times as the Earth rises leafy, which then must be calcined and finally incised, fixing it with the same Water which is called incombustible and fixed Oil, until it quickly flows or melts like wax.

Raymond Lully says that Creation must be reiterated or started over so many times on the Stone, the Sublimation of the moist part reserved, that the Stone with its own Humidity, radically permanent and fixed and which never leaves its Body, gives a right fusion . This is why, adds this Philosopher, it is commanded to water our Stone with this permanent Humidity which makes its parts clear; for after its perfect mindation or purging of all corrupting things, and even of the two superfluous humours, the one greasy and edible, and the other phlegmatic and evaporable, the Stone is brought back into the proper nature and substance of unburning Sulphur; and without this Humidity, our Stone is never amended, nourished, increased, nor multiplied. It should be noted that during its digestion, our Stone takes alternately all kinds of Colors. Nevertheless, there are only three main ones of which we must take great care, without worrying about the others; the Black Color which is the first, the Key and the beginning of the Work; the White Color which is the second; and the Color red which is the third. This is why it is said that the Thing whose head is red, whose feet are white and whose eyes are black is the whole Magisterium.

Observe then that when our Compost begins to be watered with our permanent Water, then it is entirely turned into a manner of molten Pitch, and become black as coal; in this state it is called Black Pitch, Burned Salt, Molten Lead, Unclean Brass, Magnesia, and John's Blackbird; because, during this Operation, one sees like a black cloud flying by the middle Region of the Vessel at the bottom of which remains the Matter melted in the manner of Pitch which dissolves completely. Speaking of this cloud, Jacques du Bourg Saint Saturnin writes: O blessed cloud which flies you by our Vessel This is the Eclipse of the Sun, of which Raymond Lully speaks.

When this mass is thus blackened, it is said to be dead and deprived of its Form: The Body is also said to be dead and removed from its attraction, its Soul being separated from it. Then Humidity manifests itself in the color of Quicksilver, black and stinking, which before was dry, white, very fragrant, ardent, purified of Sulfur by the first Operation and it is necessary to start purifying it again by this second Operation. This Body finds itself deprived of its Soul which it has lost, of its splendor and of this marvelous lucidity which it first had and now it is black and ugly: which causes Gebert to name it for its property Stinking Spirit, Black White occultly and obviously red and still Water, living dry.

This Mass thus black or blackened is the Key, the beginning, and the sign of a perfect way of operating in the second Regime of our precious Stone. So Hermes, he said, seeing this blackness: Believe that you have operated in the right way.

So this Blackness shows the true way of operating, for the Mass being made deformed, and corrupted with true natural corruption, there follows from this Corruption a Generation of new real disposition in this Matter; namely, acquisition of a new Form, lucid, clear, pure, resplendent and of a sweet and sweet smell.

The work of blackening having been accomplished, it is necessary to come to the work of whitening which is one of the Roses of this physical Rosebush, which is desired by many, required and expected. However, as we have already said, before the perfect whiteness appears, all the Colors that one could imagine are seen and perceived in the Work, of which one should not bother oneself, except only for the White one that one must wait with constant patience.

Observe that the way of operating with the Black, the White and the Red is always the same, namely to cook the Compost by feeding it with our permanent Water, that is to say the White of white Water, and the Red of red water, by which Nourishment or Imbibitions and Digestions, one extracts from the Stone this middle Substance of Mercury which is all the perfection of our double Magisterium. So that the Stone must be purged not only of sulphurites, but also of all earthiness by Sublimation of Waters, by Calcinations of Earth, by Burials and Decoctions of these superfluities and by Reductions between Distillations and Calcinations, and then this middle Substance of this Mercury you will conjoin with a Sulfur which is proper to it and cook the whole thing together so long that it is congealed and deprived of all superfluous Humidity, by the way of a natural heat which corresponds to it; after which it is sublimated into Sulfur white as snow. By all this we see that our Stone contains in itself two substances of the same nature, one volatile and the other fixed, and the Philosophers call these united Substances their Silver- lively. By our Operation, the Stone must therefore be perfectly separated from all burning and corrupting superfluities, and there must remain only the only and pure subtlety, or medium Substance of Quicksilver congealed and purified of all sulphurous, foreign or corrupting. This Purification is perfected when the Body turns into Spirit and the Spirit turns back into Body by reiteration of Calcination, reduction and sublimation, by which the Dissolution of the Bodies is made with the Freezing or Thickening of the Spirit, and the Freezing of this Spirit is done with the Dissolution of the Bodies.

It is therefore by a single Operation that all things are made, namely Solution of Quicksilver, with Freezing of certain weight of volatile Quicksilver, and their ablution is done with measured Water, as well as Coagulation of this Water, in Stone is made by means of the heat of the Male which operates through the Female. The Stone is therefore truly born after the first Conjunction of these two Mercurys, as of Man and Woman and it cannot be born otherwise.

By this Operation the Body is carved up, destroyed and carefully governed until its subtle Soul being extracted from its thickness, has turned into an impalpable Spirit. Then the Body is turned into a non-Body; which is the true Rule to operate well.

Remember that this whole Body is dissolved by the acute Spirit and that it becomes spiritual by mingling with it.

And as this Spirit is sublimated it is called Water, which washes itself and cleanses itself, as we have already said, rising with its very subtle Substance and leaving its corrupting parts; and the Philosophers have called this Ascension, Distillation, Ablution and Sublimation.

THIRD DEGREE

When the Sublimation is found to be perfectly accomplished, the Stone is then vivified with its vivifying Spirit, a natural Soul, of which it had been deprived by blackening; she is inspired, animated, resuscitated and carried to the last end of all subtlety and purity, and reduced to crystalline Stone, white as snow, she is raised a little in the Vessel, at the bottom of which dwell the residences.

This crystalline Stone being separated from its residences, set it apart, and sublimate it without these residences: because if you try to sublimate it with these same residences, you will never separate them together and your work will become useless to you.

By sublimating therefore without these residences we have the leafy white Earth, the non-burning white Sulphur, congealing and fixing the Mercury afterward perfectly, cleansing all impure Body, and perfecting the imperfect by reducing it into true Silver.

This Sulfur being thus sublimated there is no whiteness in the world which exceeds its own, for it is devoid of all corrupting things, and is a new Nature, a Quintessence coming from the purest parts of the four Elements; it is the Sulfur of Nature, the non-urinating Arsenic, the incomparable Treasure, the Joy of the Philosophers, their so desired Delight, the leafy and clear white Earth, the Bird of Hermes, the daughter of Plato, the Alum sublimated, the Ammoniac Salt, and again the White Blackbird whose feathers exceed in lucidity the crystal, and it is of great splendor, of very sweet odor and of sovereign purity, neatness, subtlety and agility.

This Philosophical White Blackbird is of an inexpressible virtue, for it is the Substance of the purest Sulfur in the world, which is the simple Soul of the Stone, clean and noble, and separated from all bodily thickness. It is necessary to calcine this white Sulfur by dry Decoction until it becomes an impalpable and very subtle powder, and deprived of all superfluous Humidity. After which it must be impregnated with the White Oil of the Philosophers, little by little until it bares quickly like Wax. This accomplished increation, which is nothing other than reduction to fusion, or to melting of the thing which cannot melt, our glorious Stone of the White Philosophers is perfect, flowing and melting, whiter than snow, participating in some Greenness; persevering in fire; retaining and freezing Mercury and then fixing it; dyeing and transmuting all imperfect Metal into true Moon. And if you cast a weight upon a thousand of Quicksilver or some other imperfect Metal it will convert them into Silver finer, purer and whiter than that of the Mines.

The way of Projection and Multiplication in white and red is similar. However Multiplication is done in two ways; one by projection throwing a weight on a hundred, and everything will be Medicine from which a weight will convert another hundred weights, also into perfect Medicine; and a weight of these hundred, makes a hundred weights of pure Silver, or pure Gold.

There are other more profitable and more secret ways of multiplying Medicine by projection, of which I am silent now; but by Multiplication the Stone is endlessly increased; that is, by its Digestions, Animations or Imbibitions of Mercurial Oil, which Oil is of the nature of Metals; And this Multiplication is done only by soaking or watering the Stone with this permanent Oil and by dissolving and congealing as many times as one wishes: For the more the Stone is digested, the more perfect it will be, and the more weight it will convert, because that it will be more subtle. In what is accomplished the white Rose, celestial, sweet and so dear to the Philosophers. After the White Stone is accomplished, it is necessary to dissolve a part of it, and so much to calcine it, according to some Philosophers want it, that by virtue of long Decoction, it is turned into impalpable ash, and that it becomes colored in citrinity. . It must then be watered with its red Water until it remains red as coral In his Codicile, in the Chapter of the Calcination of the Earth, Raymond Lully says: Do not forget to calcine matter of the foreknown Earth of the Stone with reiteration of Destruction of Water Distillation and Calcination of Bodies, until the Earth remains white and devoid of all moisture; And then continue by greater force of fire and imbibition of Water until it becomes red, like Hyacinth, in impalpable Powder and without tact. The Sign of perfection is manifestly shown, when at its last Calcination, Matter remains deprived of all moisture, speaking of the second Process and principally of the second Regime, which is to make the red Stone. Geber says, that it is not made without adding the something that colors it, that Nature knows well; namely, without being watered and dyed with this Celestial Water, of which the Lily of the Philosophers is said: O Celestial Nature! how do you turn our Bodies into Spirit. O what marvelous and mighty Nature! She is above all, she overcomes all, and she is the Vinegar that makes Gold true Spirit, as well as Silver. Without it neither Blackness, nor Whiteness, nor Redness can ever be made in our Work; Therefore, when this Nature is joined to the Body, it turns it into Spirit, and from its spiritual Fire, the complexion of an invariable Tincture which cannot be effaced.

Hermes calls this Celestial Nature Eau des Eaux; and Alphidius calls it Water of the Indian, Babylonian, and Egyptian Philosophers. Without this Water, by which the Bodies are made Spirits and reduced to their first Nature or Matter, our Stone is never amended, the White without the white Water and the Red without the red Water.

Let the Red Stone be watered with Red Water, so that finally both by long Decoction or Cooking and by long Imbibition or continual Watering; it be made red like Blood Hyacinth, Scarlet, or Ruby, and glistening like Burning Coal, put in a dark place. And finally that our Stone is adorned with a red Tiara. Which makes Diomedes say: Your King coming from the Fire with his Wife, take care not to burn them by too great a fire: Cook them gently, so that they are made first Black, then White, then Lemon and Red and eventually dyeing Venom.

For, as Aegistus says, these Things must be made by dividing the Waters. I command you not to put all the Water together, but little by little and cook gently until the Work is done.

We see by this that the Stone remains red with true redness, luminous, clear and vivid, melting like Wax, by the tinting of which vulgar Quicksilver and all imperfect Metals can be dyed and perfected into very true and very good Gold. much better than that of the Mines. In what is accomplished this precious Stone surmounting every precious Stone which is an infinite treasure to the glory of God who lives and reigns eternally.

END