BY GEORGE RIPLEY
In the beginning God created all things from nothing, in a confused mass containing in itself all things indifferently, from which he made a clear distinction in six days.
Now it must be so in our Magisterium, for it has its source in a single thing; also the Philosophers call it small world, one and triple, Magnesia, Sulfur and Mercury, proportioned by Nature.
Some will marvel at such a wonderful thing, and ask what our Stone can be, because the Philosophers say that birds and fish bring it to us, that everyone has it, and that 'it is in all places, in you, in me, and in everything, and at all times.
To which I reply that it is certainly Mercury, not the vulgar one sold in shops, and which is called Quicksilver, but a Mercury without which nothing can be. In which all the Philosophers agree, this is why the Ignorant accuse us wrongly, when they say that we conceal it. But they are worthy of blame themselves, since being ignorant, they meddle in Philosophy.
This is why if you do not know our Mercury, and from where you must look for it, be careful not to undertake our Work. But if you believe me, I will teach you what this Mercury is, which is so hidden from you and so necessary, I will seal nothing of it to you, nor deceive you; but he is nearer in some things than in others. Take heed, therefore, what I write, for if you do not come to know it, I will not be the cause, since I will teach you the truth, which is: That there are three Mercurys, which are the Keys to this Science, which the great Raymond Lully calls his Menses, without which certainly nothing is done: two of which are superficial, and the third essential of Sun and Moon, and of which I will immediately declare the properties to you. But this Mercury, which is the essence of the other metals, is the principal foundation of our Stone.
Our Menses are not visible in the Sun nor in the Moon, and do not appear to sight, but to effect. This is the Stone we hear, and which will also be understood by those who know our Secrets well. It is a lucid and resplendent substance and soul of the Sun and Moon, and a subtle influence by which the Earth receives splendour.
For what are Gold and Silver, but something else than resplendent land, pure, white and red, from which, if the splendor be taken away, it will be of little esteem. We call the whole compound our Lead. These are in short all our Menses.
With the first we naturally calcine the Perfect Bodies, namely the Sun and the Moon. But no unclean body enters, except one, which the Philosophers vulgarly call their Green Lion, which is the means of conjoining the tinctures with perfection, between the Sun and the Moon, of which Geber bears good witness.
With the second, which is a moist vegetable, reviving what was previously dead, I see that in both material and formal principles, the perfect bodies must dissolve, otherwise few will profit. This is why it is necessary that you know these Menses, without which there can be neither true calcination nor natural dissolution.
With the third, which is very permanent moisture, incombustible and unctuous in its nature, the Tree of Hermes is burned to ashes. It is our very certain natural fire, our Mercury, our Sulphur, our World Tincture, our Soul, our Stone raised with the wind, and begotten in the earth. Print this well in your memory.
I would even dare to tell you, that this Stone is the pontifical vapor of metal; but you must be skilful to acquire it, because this Menstrue is invisible, so much so that with the second philosophical Water, by the separation of the Elements, it can appear to the sight in the form of clear Water.
From this same Menstruation by exuberant labor, it can be made the sulfur of Nature, provided that it is naturally charged and circulated in pure Spirit. Then with him you will be able to dissolve your mass by various manners, as by the practice I will make you hear hereafter, and will declare many things to you.
For the main foundation consider, what are these mercurial Waters; for you must have your calcination increasing and not diminishing the radical humidity, until your mass by frequent subtiliation flows slightly, like wax on metal. Then dissolve it with your vegetable Menstrue, until you draw from it a lucid colored oil and then this Menstrue will be visible.
From our subtle red Lead, there is obtained an oil of the color of Gold, or similar to it, which Raymond Lully, being very old, said was of greater value than Gold itself; which he made potable gold, which revived him entirely, as experience can show.
Because this oil and this vegetal Menstrue can circulate so much together, and so exuberate by Art, that it is made of it a celestial Stone of such an igneous nature, that coming out of it, we will call it our basil, and the great Elixir of life, priceless; which as the sight of the basilisk kills its object. Thus this one kills the Mercury crud, when it is thrown on him. So incontinent, and as if in the blink of an eye, this Menstrue tints all imperfect bodies with a stable and permanent dye, in real Sol or in real Moon. Thus you must govern your mass, both white and red.
Drinkable gold is also made in this manner, not of calcined vulgar gold, but of our only Tincture which does not vanish, drawn from our Mass with the circulated Menstrue. However, the natural calcination must be done before your gold can dissolve. This be told to you first of all.
I shall therefore divide this little Treatise into twelve chapters and two recapitulations, leaving all superfluous repetitions and studying myself only to give a true knowledge of Theory and Practice, so that whoever wishes to draw light from my writings may easily achieve his goal.
The first chapter will deal with Calcination, the second with Secret Dissolution, the third with our Elemental Separation, the fourth with Matrimonial Conjunction, the fifth with Putrefaction, the sixth with Albificative Freezing, the seventh with Cibation, the eighth will show the secret of Subtlety, the ninth will deal with Fermentation, the tenth with Ceration and Exaltation, the eleventh with our marvelous Multiplication, and the twelfth with Projection. After which will come the two recapitulations.
Praying God to grant me grace, that all those who are faithful to him, and who love this Science, may understand this Magisterium.
CALCINATION is purgation of our Stone, restoring it with its own natural heat, so that it nevertheless loses none of its radical mood. First of all, it will bring our Stone to natural solidity. I warn you to follow the Philosophers, and not to work as the Sophists ordinarily do, with sulfur and salts prepared in various ways.
For neither by corrosives, nor by burning alone, nor by vinegar, nor by burning waters, nor by the vapor of lead, you will never do anything. And whoever studies himself to calcine it thus, must boldly withdraw his hand from this Science, until he better understands our Calcination.
Because by such frivolous sophistications, the bodies are destroyed, and the humidity of our Stone is diminished; for when bodies are burnt to dry powder like ashes, or bones burnt, we do not account for such lime. But we multiply the humid radical in our Calcination, without diminishing anything; and by this means our Stone is Calcined, according to the intention of the Philosophers, and ours.
And for the foundation of our Calcination, we have to work only gender with gender, because gender with gender is palatable inclination. He who does not know this, is blind in this Science, and will wander uncertain, like the clouds of heaven agitated by the wind, because he will not have been able to understand our words.
We make a smooth, white and red lime; but before, conjoined gender with gender, for each gender responds to its seed. Man begets man, and beast another beast. Beware of one thing, if you want to obtain our Secret, which is that every Spirit freezes with the lime of its kind. If you retain this lesson well, you will make a great profit in our Science.
But our Mass must be perfectly fusible, after it is drawn from our unctuous Lime, otherwise it would be of no use. But this only happens for a long time, as the Prophets write. Because we put one year, considering that in less time our Lime cannot be capable of fusion, with color which does not vanish. As for perfection, you must take care of it, because many have been mistaken in it: this is why, so that you do not spoil your work, cause the Bodies to be subtly washed before joining them, with Mercury by equal proportion, namely one part of Sun and two of Moon, until everything is reduced to a pulp.
So make your Mercury, of which you will join four parts to the Sun, and two to the Moon as it belongs. Thus you will begin your work as a figure of trinity, that is to say three parts and as much Spirit, and for the unity of the spiritual substance, a part more of spirit than of corporeal substance.
According to Raymond Lully's appertoire, this is the true proportion, and which was once shown to me by my Doctor. But Roger Bacon took three parts of the Spirit for one part of the Body, for which I watched several nights before seeing her. Both are true, take whichever you want.
If your Water is also equal in proportion with the earth, in measured heat, there will issue a new germ, both white and red, in pure Tincture; which will last in the fire perpetually, until the quick revives the dead, Facts therefore of Trinity Unity, without discussion or division.
And this is very certain and very good proportion, because the less there will be of the spiritual part, the more easily the dissolution will take place; rather than by so great abundance of Water you drowned the Earth, which spoils the whole work. For that, take care with the potter's lut, and never make the belly too liquid.
Look how this lut, which is the paste from which they make their pots, is tempered, and how they use to calcine it. And always remember that the Earth was never suffocated by Water. Seiches your humidity by strong temperate heat, helps your dissolution with the humidity of the Moon, and your Freezing with the Sun, and you have done.
In this way you will convert the four natures into the fifth, which is perfect and the most temperate of all. But it is a hard thing to resist barefoot against the spur of iron or steel, as many do, when they undertake things so great that they cannot understand them.
What do they think they find in blood, eggs and vitriol; if they understood well what Philosophy is, they would not be so blind as they are to seek Gold or Silver outside their species: for as fire is the beginning of making Fire, so Gold is the beginning to make Gold. If therefore you wish to make Gold or Silver by Philosophy, take neither eggs nor blood for that, but Gold and Silver, which you must calcine naturally and prudently, and then they will produce new generation of their kind; which they will increase, as all things naturally do.
And even if it were true that there was some profit in working on materials which are not metallic, in which there are pleasant colors, as in blood, eggs, urine, wine and mineral means drawn from mines; the elements would first have to be putrefied, separated, conjoined by marriage, with the elements of the perfect bodies, which cannot be.
First make the rotation of your Elements, and first of all convert the Earth into Water, and then you will make your Water air, by levigation, and your Air you will reduce it to Fire, and then you will be master of all our Magisterium, as long as big than small, because you will have already turned the wheel of the Elements around, having clearly perceived the meaning of our writings.
This turns the wheel back, and converts your fire into Air, Air into Water, and Water into Earth, otherwise you will labor in vain. But in this way you will lead our Temperament Stone, when of four contrary natures one is composed, after they have been circulated three times, and thus your base or Mass will be perfectly consumed.
This is why under the humidity of the Moon, and under the temperate grumbling of the Sun, your Elements are soon reduced to ashes; and then you will have obtained the whole Magisterium. Give thanks to God that your work has begun, for in this you will have the true sign which appears to you in darkness, which is called the head or the beak of the Raven. Others call it ash from the tree of Hermes, and some call it the toad that gets drunk on the Earth; by which the Spirit is imprisoned, mortified and infected with venom. Certainly there are almost infinite names, for from each average thing in sight it takes a name, until it begins to become white and lucid, and then it has more suitable names. So according to the white and red things it is given different names.
You have now entered into the first Gate of the work of the Philosophers, in which they dwell; advance cautiously to be able to enter the others, and come to the Second.
Dissolution brings forth that which before was hidden from sight, and by virtue of our first Menstrue, clear and lucid, which attenuated and subtleted the things, which were before specified, to which Menstrue our Bodies fade away and are subtleted from their cuttlefish and hard compaction, to be returned naturally to their raw material. They are one in kind, but not in number. So therefore the Sun is the father and the Moon the mother, and Mercury is the means. These three and not many are our Magnesia, our Adrop and no others, and there is nothing here but brother and sister, that is, agent and patient. Sulfur and Mercury, co-essential for our intention.
Between these two in contrary qualities is generated an admirable means, which is our unctuous Mercury and Menstrua, our secret Sulphur, which operates invisibly and burns the Bodies with greater violence than fire, until they are dissolved in Water. mineral: what we call Night, because of the darkness of the North.
But, possible do you not understand yet perfectly as I think the true Secret of the Dissolution of the Philosophers. Therefore I beg you to design my words wisely, for I will tell you what they are. Our Solution is the cause of our Freezing: for the dissolution of a bodily part is the cause of the freezing of the other part, which is spiritual.
We dissolve in Water which does not wet the hands, because when the Earth is entirely reduced to ashes, then the Water is congealed; because the Elements are so enchained, that when the Body is altered from its first form, immediately another new one is introduced, because in Nature there is nothing void of form.
I want to show you here a Secret, which is the foundation of all Secrets, which if you ignore, you will only waste your time, your trouble and your expense, which is that so much more Earth and less Water you will have, so much the better and rather the Solution you will see. Beware how ice resolves into water, for it was water before; by the same means again our Earth is reduced to Water, and the water by the Earth is frozen, forever, because according to the Philosophers any metallic Body was formerly mineral Water.
Therefore with Water they are all reduced to water, in which naturally there are repugnant qualities with diversity. It should therefore be known that substance is converted into substance, and one quality into the other, until the contrariety is reduced to perfect unity. For the Scripture testifies to us that when the Earth is troubled, the mountains will be thrown into the depths of the sea. Thus also in the end our Bodies will be converted into water.
For our Bodies which have taken their names from the Planets are not badly compared to the mountains; this is why so that you do not come to suffer damage, throw our Bodies in the depths of Mercury, then you will see a beautiful spectacle, because all will be converted into impalpable powder.
Then the Bodies have lost their first form, but another is immediately introduced to them: you may think that you have not wasted your time, like many, whatever Learned, have done, especially since they do not know the Secret of our Philosophy.
I will only say one more word, and that is that each Body has three dimensions, namely the height, the width, and the depth, by which our wheel is continually turned. Know that the entrances are in the West, continuing further to the North. If you are wise, there our Luminaries will completely lose their clarity, because they must remain 90 nights without light in the darkness of purgatory.
Immediately take your course towards the East passing previously through various colors; and in this way Winter and Spring have passed. So try to go up to the East where the Sun rises with a clear Light; which will be done with great delight, because there your work is whitened in very lucid splendor.
Then from the East ascends to the South, where he rests in his igneous chair, for there is the harvest; that is to say the end of the work which is accomplished according to your desire; for after the eclipse the Sun shines with redness in its hemisphere, triumphing in its glory as King and Emperor, over Mercury and over the Metals.
All this must be done in a single glass vessel, similar in shape to an egg, and well sealed with the seal of Hermes.
Afterwards you must know the measure of the fire, which ignored all your work is lost; therefore make sure that your Glass is never hotter than you can hold it in your hand, as long as you want, and this during the Dissolution. And take good care never to open it, nor to move it from the beginning to the end. And if you do otherwise, your work will never be done. Therefore keep this doctrine well.
Now let's go to the third Gate, since this one is filled.
SEPARATION divides one thing from another, the subtle from the gross, the thick from the thin; but see that you set apart the manual Separation, because it is a madman's business to do so, since outside our Separation there is no profit. Also nature never ceases to make division of the elementary Qualities, up to the fifth degree, and that they are all transmuted.
The Earth passes into Water in black and livid color, and then Water into Air in true whiteness, and Air into Fire, and there are no more Elements. Hence our Stone is made by a delectable art. Of this Separation, I need to write that it is defined as follows: Separation is a quadruple dispersion of the four Elements.
Of this Separation I find a similar figure to the Book of Psalms of David: God drew from the Stone a river of living Water, and from a very hard Stone an abundance of oil. So will you do with our precious stone, if you are wise. Because you will find incombustible oil and water, and for that you must not blow the coal.
But well by slow heat, and feed it first by moist Fire, and after dry, pulling out the phlegm with patience, then after the other natures wisely. Dry the Earth until it is thirsty by calcining it, otherwise you will labor in vain. And then make her drink her moisture again.
Thus you will often have to make separation, dividing matter into two parts, so that you will separate the subtle from the gross, until the Earth remains at the bottom in livid color. This Earth is so fixed, that it can endure any violence of fire; the other part is volatile and spiritual, but all of these things must be converted into one. Then you will distil the oil and the Water by the Water, because by the help of it you will receive motion or movement; but take good care not to spoil your work, for lack of having closed your Glass well, that is why close it with the seal of Hermes, by melting the top of the vessel and then stopping it yourself.
The Water with which you must revitalize the Stone must be distilled often times, and by itself only, before you work with it. You will be able to know easily by sight when it will be purged of its filthy faeces, which some think multiply with Saturn and other substances that we reject.
So distill it until it is clean and slender as Water, as it belongs, and of a clear and lucid celestial color, retaining its figure and ponderousness. With it Hermès moistened his tree with his glass, and made flowers of various colors grow in height, delectable to see.
This Water can be compared to the venomous viper, of which one makes the Medicinal theriac, because it is a venom of very powerful fury, and one cannot imagine more harmful; this is why it is often sought after by apothecaries, but no one will be infested with this venom, after it has been made into our Medicine. Because then as powerful and true theriac, it is worth much to repel venoms, and by work shows marvelous things, preserving many Death for life, beware of mixing it with any corrosives. Choose the pure and fluent, if you want to do something profitable with it.
It is a marvelous thing of Nature, and without which nothing can be done. This is why Hermes calls it his wind, because of the easy flight it takes from the Sun and the Moon, making with it immediately our Volatile Stone reviving the dead and giving life to the Sun, and to the Moon, to the husband and to wife.
Which if they were not revived by Art, and their fat was not extracted with Water, and so that the subtle was not separated from the thick, you would never bring this work to effect. So if you want to make a certain profit, bring the birds out of their nest, and then put them back to rest in their nest.
Water agrees well with Water, and they rise together, and Spirits with Spirits, for they are of the same kind, and when they are ascended, cause them to descend. Thus you will divide what Nature had previously linked and united, by converting the essential Mercury into wind. Without which natural and subtle separation, perfect generation will never be accomplished.
Now so that by my help you open and enter this Door, I want you to declare the last Secret. It is necessary that your Water be seven times sublimated, otherwise there would be no natural dissolution, nor will you see any putrefaction, similar to liquid pitch; also the colors will not appear for lack of Fire acting in your Glass.
There are four kinds of Fires, which you must know, namely natural, unnatural, unnatural, and elemental, which burns the wood, of which we use and no more. The unnatural Fire must extract the Bodies, it is our Dragon burning more violently than the Hellfire. The Fire of nature is the third Menstrue, this Fire is naturally in all things. The natural Fire is called caused, as is the heat of the ashes which is worth to putrefy. Without these kinds of Fires you will not be able to lead anything to putrefaction, so that the matter can be separated, so that together everything is proportionate to a new conjunction.
This is why make Fire in your glass, which burns the Bodies more than the elemental Fire: if you want to take advantage of our Secrets. Then your seeds will rot and germinate with the help of the Fire caused, so that afterwards naturally they can be separated.
The Gate of Separation being thus won, you can proceed further towards the Gate of the Secret Conjunction, which you will keep well inside the fort. This Door is closed with a double lock, as you will understand by what follows.
AFTER the Separation by which the Elements of our Stone are separated, there follows the treatise of the secret Conjunction, which conjoins the repugnant natures in perfect Unity, and totally attunes and knots them together, so that one does not neither flees from the other when they are pressed by the Fire: so firm and stable is their Conjunction between them. This is why the Philosophers define it thus: The Conjunction is nothing other than a copulation of the separated qualities, or else a pregnation of the principles. But some people mix the Bodies with the vulgar Mercury, which is sold in apothecaries, from which it is impossible to divide the Elements, and thus they go astray and are mistaken.
For until the soul is purged and separated from its original sin with Water, and purely spiritualized, you cannot begin the true Conjunction. Divide therefore the soul from the body, and then it will cause a perpetual conjunction of the bodily part and the spiritual.
The Philosophers make mention of two Conjunctions, one large which embeds the Bodies with Mercury. But let's leave that there, and pass on to the second, in which the remaining parts are so bound and reduced to perfect temperature, that between them after that there is never any repugnance.
This is why the Separation thus made is the cause of the true conjunction of Water and Air, with Earth and Fire. So much so that each Element can be led into the other, and thus remain forever according to its desire. Do as the potters do with clay, and read it, temper the thick, not too liquid. In this way you will rather arrive at Desiccation.
But there are four kinds of Conjunctions, the first is double, which consists of the Agent and the Patient, the Male and the Female, the Mercury and the lively Sulphur, the matter and the form, the thin and the thick united together. Certainly this instruction can help you a lot to make our Conjunction well.
The second way is called triple, because it is a conjunction made of three things, of Body, Soul and Spirit, until they are united; which trinity you must lead to unity, for as the Soul is the bond of the Spirit, so must the Body join the Soul to itself. Don't forget what I just told you.
The third Conjunction, which is the last, is to conjoin the Elements so that they remain together. The Philosophers called it quadruple, especially Guido de Montanos whose name is famous. Thus by the most convenient way, now in this our Conjunction, it is necessary to assemble the four Elements in due proportion, which before were separated one from the other.
As the Female has fifteen veins and the Male only five, necessary for the act of generation, so you must understand that in our Conjunction the Male, which is our Sun, has three parts of its Water, and the Female nine, which are three in front of him. Then like will rejoice with like, and they will always dwell together.
So I'm telling you to make only one big Conjunction. for they seldom bear children. Also you will not reach our Stone if you do not make the woman sleep alone in a bed, so much so that when she has conceived of the Male, her womb must then be closed to all others.
Because whoever adds crud over cooked, opens his vessel and lets his matter cool, he is far from nourishing the conceived sperm: on the contrary, he spoils his work and is mistaken. This is why if you want him to succeed well, close your womb well, and nourish your seed well with temperate and continual heat.
And when your vessel has remained five months, so that after the eclipses the light appears, then you will immediately increase the heat and continue it until the Stone shines with a perlucent color: and then you will be able to open your vessel and feed the child (which you are now born) of ever more and more milk and meat.
For now the humidity and the dryness are so temperate, that the Earth has received the impression of Water, so that they can never be separated, and the Water has given ingredients to the Earth, so willingly they remain together, and Water has acquired the restraining force of the Earth, the two of which become one and never oppose each other.
So our intention depends on two things, namely on humidity and dryness, which are two opposites. In the dryness which leads the humidity to Fixation, and in the humidity which gives liquefaction to the Earth, so that of the two thus tempered there may be a temperature, not so thick as the Body, nor so thin as the 'Water.
The Solution and the Conjunction are the two principles of this difficult Science, and are its main foundations. There are however other principles all excellent, which I will also show you below, but let us come to the fifth Door
WITHOUT Putrefaction neither Ferment nor Seed can multiply; it is done only by a continual action of Heat on the Body, not manual, however, like the grain of wheat, which according to the testimony of Jesus Christ himself, cannot multiply if after being thrown into the ground it does not die, and does not rot. Likewise, if our Matter does not rot, it cannot be altered in any way, nor can its Elements be divided, and consequently their Conjunction cannot be made. This is why, so that you do not waste your time, understand well the principles of our Putrefaction, before you undertake this Work.
Putrefaction can thus be defined, namely that it is the occision of the Bodies and the division of three things in our compound, leading to corruption the slain Bodies, and then afterwards making them fit for generation. For all things that are in the earth are generated by the continual rotation or motion of the Heavens.
And by so much mixing the Elements and equalizing them prudently, keeping them at temperate heat, and always taking care that by too much heat they are not incinerated into dry, red and useless powder: but into black powder similar to the Raven's beak, to the hot bath, or else in our dung, keeping them first of all in moist heat, until 90 nights have passed.
Incontinating after darkness will teach you that they hasten and prepare for Putrefaction, and from there onwards, after various colors, will lead to perfect whiteness and thus your seed will multiply in its nature.
Make them kiss and kiss each other, and like children play and tumble up and down; and when their shrouds are dirty, then the woman must take care to wash them, who often through debility will faint, and in the end will die with all her children, and will go to purgatory to purge the original sin
When they are there, little by little they will increase their sorrows with heat, always more and more of the continual Fire, which must never cease. The furnace for this must be properly made, which the Sages call Athanor, which keeps a temperate heat, as needed, with which Matter naturally putrefies.
Of this principle, Guido, a learned man, says: that by Putrefaction the body Compost dies, and according to Morien and others, resuscitates by new regeneration in simple and Spiritual Body, and that if the heat and the humidity were not in continual movement , the sperm would not remain in the womb, and thus there would be no generation.
Therefore in the beginning you will take our Stones and bury them each in the sepulcher of the other; and make a marriage between them, that they may lie together six weeks: then give them food for their conceived seeds, yet not rising from their sepulchres, which Secret ignored causes many to be deceived.
Await the time of this conception with gifted warmth, the darkness will tell you when they die, for at that time they will swell together, like liquid pitch, and bubble, stale and rot. There will appear to you resplendent colors similar to the rainbow, which will be marvelous to behold. And then the Water begins to dry up.
For in moist Bodies heat operating temperately engenders darkness above all things, which is the sign of true Conjunction and of a certain Putrefaction. Remember this, for then you cannot fail to come to perfect alteration. And thus agrees to enter by the Door of the blackness, if you want to gain the permanent light, ie the whiteness.
For the Sun at its rising is dark, and passing through the Waters of Noah's Flood upon the earth, which lasted 150 days before all the Waters had withdrawn. So our Waters as the Wise hear, shall pass away, so that you may say with David, the rivers have become dry. Take advantage of this.
After that Noah planted the vine which blossomed and bore clusters; But when you have obtained this you have nothing to fear, because in this way our Stone will germinate and blossom. And immediately after 30 days have passed, you will have clusters as red as Ruby, which is our Adrop, our Cinnabar, and our red Lead.
As the Souls after the passing pains of this life, are led into paradise, where there is always a joyful life; thus will be our Stone after having been purged in purgatory, of its obscurity, that is to say in very powerful whiteness of Elixir.
In order for you to arrive rather at Putrefaction, take this example as a conclusion, for all the Secrets of Putrefaction are hidden in this. The Oak which is continually under Water will not easily rot there (as I have experienced) for at the end of a hundred years you will find it as whole as before. But if you keep it ever moist and never dry, as we see from experience in buildings, you will see that over time the oak will rot. So in granting our intention, our tree need not be burnt with the Sun, and at the same time or immediately chilled with Water. And in this way you will lead it to rot; especially as being now dry, now damp, now in great heat, and now cold, will soon and very easily rot and cause your gold to rot. You will therefore treat the Body as I told you, but by puttingrefying it with heat do not be too hasty, lest you seek your gain in the ashes.
This is why draw your Water from the Earth, and cause your Soul to rise with it; and then throw the stocking again to the Earth, so that it may often ascend and descend. But defend your Glass from violent heat, and from sudden cold: and make the Fire be so temperate, that your matter does not vitrify on the sides.
Be wise in choosing your material: do not worry and do not take salts, vulgar sulfur, or mineral means. For whatever the Artists say, our Sulfur and our Mercury are only Metals; which some call oils. Waters, Birds and Beasts, and many other names, so that literalists never hear our Stone.
Our Stone is called the food of this World, which led by Art as Nature requires it, will be very rich, and its growth will multiply in its kind, according to your design.
Several working according to their fancy in several subjects, in which there is the appearance of beautiful dyes, both white and red. But being put in the Fire they fly away: and such breakers of glasses and vessels, are made to die every day by poisons, spoil their eyes by the smoke and their long vigils, their clothes are dirty and worn, and smell of the sulfur everywhere; they get their hands dirty with the frequent corrosives they handle, they have bleary eyes and smudged faces. In a word, they suffer many evils, and uselessly spend their money, or rather that of others.
Some labor in urine and some in soot, and others in eggs, blood, egg scales, and droppings, and so waste their time in vain, breaking many vessels of different shapes, so many furnaces, so many salts and powders, Waters, Oils, and other kinds which they call raw material; divide and separate the Elements from it, without being able to understand that all things are only one, because their separation is no more valid than the other things mentioned above. However, they have the temerity to boast that they have found our Mercury and our living Sulphur, in which they are greatly mistaken. They talk about the red man and the white woman, and that it is a singular thing for the Elixir of the Quintessence; as also from the Elixir of Life drawn from honey, from menses, from celandine, of which they also divide the Elements, because they do not understand what natural Philosophy is.
But for yourselves, take care not to use anything that is very expensive, beware of great expense, and remember that each like produces his like, as God has commanded.
In a few words you will know if someone is aware of our Stone, if he says that only one thing is needed, only one Glass and no more. Be a good and God-fearing man, and above all do not reveal your secret to anyone when you know it, but be secretive and act as if you knew nothing.
FREEZING is a hardening of soft things in white color, and a confixation of Spirits which were volatile. You don't have to worry much about how you freeze, for the Elements are instantly knotted together, provided the Putrefaction has been naturally made.
The Freezing is done in various ways of Spirits and Bodies dissolved in lucid Water, or of Salts dissolved two or three times, and then Frozen into fluent matter, at which Freezings fools deride, as different from theirs. Because no dissolve manually dividing the Elements then freezing them in dry powder. But such freezing is not in our intention, because it is completely contrary to our Work; because ours is not afraid of Fire, and it remains unctuous there, it is abundant and tincture, and being frozen it does not liquefy in the air or in Water. Because if that happened our Work would then be destroyed.
Besides, we do not freeze our Stone into such a hard Stone as crystal or glass, which are only melted by the great violence of Fire; but as wax that melts instantly without blowing. This is why take care that you are not deceived, because such freezing does not agree with our intention, because it does not flow, and it returns again in Water as frozen Salts usually do. But such Congelations are suitable only for Sophists.
But know that your Medicine can never naturally flow, nor be congealed, until you first putrefy and purify it, and fix the Elements of our Stone until they are congealed together, and they flow easily. Because when Nature has become white, then the Spirits are congealed with the Bodies. But you have to wait a long time before a Freezing appears to you like pearls. Rejoice when you see such Freezing, for after that it will come as brains as red as blood. The rarest and richest thing in the world.
This is why having mortified the coarseness of the Earth, you will then know that blackness is generated from humidity or moistness, and no one can deny this principle, which known you must not doubt whiteness. And if you freeze it once to whiteness, then you will have the richest Stone of all the Stones in the world.
And as by the moistness or humidity which causes blackness, the dry has putrefied, so the humidity or moistness congealed by the dry engenders shining whiteness in the night, and very clear; and the dryness pursues the matter in whiteness, thus as in moisture the blackness shows itself by various colors always new.
The cause of all this is tempered heat continually moving the matter, so that it is substantially altered both outward and inward: and not sophistically in plain sight as madmen do, but that each part may endure the Fire. , fluent, fixed, stable and perfect dyeing. And as the first digestion of meats causes whiteness, namely chyle, by dryness in the stomach, and as the second, which occurs in the liver, causes complete redness, fixed by temperate heat: in the same way our Stone by dryness and temperate heat, is digested and complete to white and red.
But here you must know another Secret, it is that as the Child of the Philosophers was born in the Air, you are not very careful to blow the coals, and do not take what I tell you for play nor mockery; but believe me because your Work would be completely lost, if it is not that your Earth is entirely revivified by Water, you will never see our true Freezing.
One Soul being Heaven and Earth, rising from Earth, like Air with pure Water, causes life in every living thing, brooding incessantly upon our fourfold nature, striving to improve it with all its power . Which Air is the Fire of our Philosophy, called our Oil, and mystically our Water.
In that medium Air which we call oil, or Water, our Fire, our ointment, our Spirit, and our Stone, on which one thing all our Science is founded, never goes out alone nor enters alone into it, not by the Fire itself; but Water first leads it out and then brings it back in, as Water never separates from Water.
Thus Water can only move our Water, which movement causes both death and life: for Water naturally attaches itself to Water, in no vexation or repugnance, which Water is entirely unknown to fools, seeing that it is doubtless of the nature of the charred Spirit, and the one who leads out.
And Water is the Sun of life of all things that are subsisting in this world, because from Water each thing has its beginning, as is noticed in women who before giving birth deliver themselves by the Waters they return. , if all things go well, who are called Albron, which first flow from them before childbirth, not without great pain.
And certainly this is the main cause, for which the Philosophers commanded us to be patient until the Water was all dried into powder, nourishing it with continual and non-violent heat, for the qualities of each Element are contrary, until after darkness they are united in frozen whiteness, forever, without division.
All this conversion from one thing to another, and from one state to another, is done by discreet and natural operation of Nature, as does the Sperm of the man in the womb of the woman, For the Sperm and the heat are the brother and the sister, who convert by themselves and produce a perfect man, according to the operations of Nature to act or to suffer. Thus our Stone in its Glass, nourishing it with moderate heat, is converted into our Stone. The example of the egg which is converted into a chicken by temperate heat is a similarity which is also very suitable for our Work. Just like the example of the vegetable plants, which grow only by dampness and heat.
Minerals are nourished by the administration of radical moisture which is their beginning, not exceeding their kind. So in one Glass we shall again change one thing into another, that is, into their mother which is Water, when they are transformed: which principle ignored you labor in vain. But then all is Sperm, and there is nothing but gender with gender, two in number, male and female, agent and patient, in the matrix of the most precious Earth, and they are turned from thing to thing, in a glass. And so from state to state, until Nature brings them into a regenerated substance. Thus the Sperm in its kind is altered, fit and capable in like kind, of multiplying its kind.
During the time of this natural progress, and the conceived Sperm grows, the substance is nourished with its own menses, which only by Water has been carried out of the Earth, whose color appears green, at first sight, and during this time the Sun hides its light, taking its night course from the North.
I tell you in Secret that the blood of this Menstruation is the blood of our Green Lion, and not vitriol. (Lady Venus will take care to teach you the truth of this Secret, if you take care to ask her advice from the beginning. This Secret is hidden by all the Philosophers. had perfect digestion.
And this blood is called our Secret Menstrue, from which our Sperm is temperamentally nourished, when it is turned into bodily faeces, duly white, and perfectly dry, congealed and fixed in its own body, then it may look good in sight ( in milk color). And this blood being twice cooked, this Work is called the very white Diadem.
Hear also now that our Igneous Water being thus watered, is called our Menstrual Water, in which our Earth is dissolved and naturally calcined by Freezing; so much that they can never separate. However you must not stop congealing more Water, and up to three parts of the said Aqueous Water, with the fourth part of the congealed Earth, and no more.
To this substance thus congealed put the fourth part of the crystalline Water, and cause them to be wedded together by congealing, by means of the Metal: which like a newly-honed sword, will shine after the darkness, which first will show itself. Then give him the fourth part of the new Water.
She must still have several imbibitions; give him the second, and after the third, always keeping the proportion, then give him the fourth imbibition, the fifth, and the sixth, and put two parts each time of these three, and the seventh must have five parts.
When you have done Imbibition seven times, you must turn the wheel again and rot all this matter without addition, waiting first for darkness if you want to do well; then freeze there all in whiteness and you will have brought your base to an end. And then rises to the redness by the South.
Thus your Water is divided into two parts: with the first the Bodies are putrefied, and with the second you made the Imbibitions of them, after which the matter becomes black, and immediately after it becomes white on a soft fire; and this is called by the Philosophers a Sun of celestial splendour. Then reduce it to redness and you will have conquered the difficulty that was encountered in entering the sixth Gate.
CIBATION is the nutrition or nourishment of our Seiche Matter, of milk then of meat, giving it moderately of each, until it is reduced to the third order. But never give it to her until you can suffocate her. Save her from dropsy and the flood of Noah; wherefore you shall give her meat little by little, and water her as much as she needs, lest the watery humors overcome the blood. That the drink is also so measured, that you never extinguish its natural appetite.
Because if she drinks too much she will have to vomit, or else she will be sick too long. So keep her belly from dropsy and flux, or it won't go well. But rather let her be thirsty to drink in between, and take care not to give her too much at once; for in her youth she must be dietted appropriately.
But order her to diet as Nature requires, that is to say very moderate, until she is of age, keeping her Water and nourishing her with Moist Fire, then she will grow and increase in courage. , and will give you more profit, because it will make the sick Bodies healthy and lucid, by cleansing their leprosy by its virtue.
You must turn the wheel around three times, keeping the rule of lukewarmness and Cibation, and when it smells of Fire it will be ready to liquefy like wax. I have told you the most suitable diet, after the Elements are made equipollent. I also said how you will reduce your Gold to whiteness, of a figure similar to the flower of the white thorn, called Magnesia, our incombustible white Sulphur, which will never fly away from the Fire. Thus we have arrived at sunrise.
TO sublimate well, you will not fail if you can first make the spiritual bodies, and (as I have shown you) the corporeal Spirits.
Some sublimate Mercury with Vitriol, Common Salt and other Spirits, and also with scales of iron and steel, scales of calcined eggs, and quicklime. And whatever in their own way they sublimate very well, nevertheless their Sublimation does not agree with ours. But we will now show you the true Sublimation.
In our Sublimation above all things, take care that you do not sublimate strongly to the edge of the ship, because by violence you will not make it descend, but will want to adhere and remain there, so refrigerated is it joined. Raise it then with moderate heat below, 40 whole days, until it is black and brown.
For then the Water begins to come out of its own veins, because what is subtle always wants to rise with the Spirit. Therefore have this in your memory, and consider how the Bodies are here vanished or eclipsed, and even as they decay, sublime more and more, until they are all lifted up with Water.
So when they have thrown their venom out, then the blackness shows itself in the Water, and in each of their parts, and becomes spiritual, easily sublimating them in our way with the Water, which carries it with it. Because it is thus necessary that our Child be again born in the Air by Water, as I have already told you.
But when these two by continual Sublimation are thus worked out by moist and temperate heat all together, so that all is white and made spiritual, then Heaven must be reiterated (over Earth) until the Soul be incorporated with the Body, so that all that before was Heaven becomes Earth: which thing will be done in seven Sublimations.
We do Sublimation for three causes; the first to make the spiritual Body, the second so that the Spirit may be corporeal and remain fixed with it, and of one substance, and the third is that the sulphurous Salt be diminished in it, which is fruitless.
So when they are purified together, they will sublimate above whiter than snow, the sight of which will be very pleasing to you, for then you will know very perfectly that the Spirit by this means will have remained below.
Fermentation takes place in two ways, by which our Medicine must be increased. One way is in Clear Water, dissolving the Sun and the Moon, and by their Medicine congealing them. But when this congealing is examined by the Fire it cannot endure it, for they do not alter completely; in this also this Fermentation is not according to our intention.
There are others who do the Fermentation much more naturally in this way: They dissolve the Sun and the Moon into Mercury, until they rise above with the Spirits, sublimating them together two or three time; so they make it their Fermentation. It is a path, but we reject it.
There are others happier since they choose in part the true Fermentation, because they amalgamate their Bodies with Mercury, as well as boiled. These have indeed some intelligence of our Secrets, but not true, nor with perfect complement.
But I want to teach you this Secret. It is that as you do with your imperfect bodies, you do the same with your perfect bodies in each degree; that is, you rot them first, destroying their qualities entirely. And this way is our intention, that is to say that you alter them before Fermenting them.
To your compost makes Ferment the fourth part (that is to say for a ferment weight three of compost), which Ferment is only of Sun and Moon. But if you are a good master, let the Fermentation be done like this.
Fix the Water and the Earth together, and when the Medicine will flow and flow like wax, then throw it on your amalgam. And when the whole is mixed together make your Fire in your Glass, and let it be well closed and sealed: and so continue as long as all is fixed and well fermented according to your desire. Then you will project at your pleasure, because this Medicine will be entirely perfect. So you can ferment both white and red
For as the wheat flower put into dough requires the leaven which we call leaven, so that it can have its natural taste of bread to be used for the food of man. So you will ferment your Medicine so that it can taste like pure Ferment, to perpetually endure every examination, like the Ferment that is golden.
Know also that there are three kinds of Fermentations, two are Bodies in pure nature, which are altered as I said. The third, very Secret, of which we make a case, is the first Earth with its green Water. Therefore, when the Lion is thirsty, give him drink, as long as his body is dying.
The true Fermentation is therefore, as I told you, an incorporation of Water with the Body, restoring to it the natural heat and smell, with taste and color, by reintegration of which the Bodies take impression by the Spirits, and that one help the other to have intrusion. For, like bodies in their natural composition, the effects of their qualities cannot be seen outside until they have become spirits or are spiritual. Thus the spirits cannot remain firmly with the bodies, unless they are first proportionally confixed. For the Bodies teach the Spirits to endure the Fire and to remain there, and the Spirits to enter the Bodies, according to your desire.
This is why it is necessary for you with Or to ferment your gold with its own Water, I mean the purged Earth, which is nothing else than element with Element, the Spirit of life going only between two; for as one sees the magnet stone attract iron to itself, so our Earth by nature draws down to itself its Soul carried high with the wind.
So with the wind lead your Soul out, and bring it back in, mix Gold with Gold, that is to say, make element run with Element, until all can endure the Fire; for the Earth is the Ferment of the Water without contradiction, and the Water is of the Earth likewise. Fermentation must be in this manner.
The Earth too is Gold and Water, not the common one, but our elemental one, and yet the Sun must go there so that by our Water it can be altered and prepared, and can be deeply joined with other natures as I tell you. said.
All that I have said of Gold, it must also be understood of silver, and for that you must putrefy and alter it before you ferment your Medicine for the white.
Remember well all that I have said to you: and renew the Sun and the Moon, that they may hold quintessence and nature, and then their tincture shall ever renew.
There is one more excellent way which has another operation. We make a very good-smelling Water with which we bring the whole Body into oil, which also makes fluent Medicine. We call this Water the Quintessence, which heals any disease in man. But with the base prepared according to my doctrine, which is our lime, this must be done. For when our Bodies are thus calcined, this Water will immediately dissolve them into oil. This is why Sun and Moon oil is made, which is a very fragrant ferment to smell.
I assure you that I never found a man in England who could teach me this way of fermenting, which I teach you in this chapter.
EXALTATION differs little from Sublimation, and on this subject we relate what our Lord Jesus Christ says in his Gospel. If I am exalted I will draw all things after me. If we exalt our Medicine in this way, it will be thereby ennobled, which must be done in two ways, since the parties are married, examined, crucified and buried, both male and female, and then revived by the Spirit of life. Then it is necessary that the Body be exalted high in Heaven, to be glorified there with its Soul; for you must bring the Body to such subtlety, that it rises with the Spirit to be eternalized in the clouds of clarity and associated with the Angels. Then he will draw all other bodies, as you will see to his own dignity.
This is why if you want to exalt the Body, first increase with the Spirit of life, until the Earth is well refined by the natural rectification of each Element, exalting it high up to the firmament (it is i.e. to the top of the Glass, or vessel in which it is). Then it will be much more precious than Gold because of the Quintessence from which it holds.
For when the cold has overcome the hot the Air will then be turned into Water, and so two opposites relate together, until one relates to the other. Thus the Water will be converted by the Art of our Circulation into Air, when the heat will have dominated the cold.
Then from Fire you will have Air by Solution, Putrefaction and Sublimation, and if you have Fire from the material Earth, thus separating the Elements, travel mainly by calcining the Earth well, and when each of them is made pure, then they are Quinte Nature. Make then that in this way they are circulated by exalting one and the other immediately; and in one sealed Glass, do all this only, and not with the hands but naturally. So boldly first convert your Fire into Water, for Fire is in Air, which is existent in Water, and such conversion is suitable for our purpose. Then turn the wheel further, that Air be converted into Earth, which can easily be; for the Air is in the Water being in the Earth; Then, I say, you will convert into their qualities, Water into Fire, because Water is in the Earth being on fire. And this is the true Conversion.
The wheel is now turned around, converting Water into Earth, which is the first nest of the other Elements; for the earth is of Fire which rests in the Air. You must begin this circulation in the West, then further south, until they are exalted, proceeding duly as the figure teaches you.
So you can clearly see that one can pass from one extreme to the other only by one means, since they are contrary in qualities, and reason wants them to be so; like hot into cold with several opposites, without the means, (like the moistness between hot and cold) cannot be brought to temperature.
I thus taught you to make a perfect rotation and circulation of all the Elements. And take example in the figure, how you must make this Exaltation, and the graduation of your Medicine es Elements, until you brought it in temperate country. And then you knew the tenth Gate.
THE Multiplication is an increase of the perfect Elixir, in virtue and quantity, both white and red: and is the thing which increases the Medicine in every degree, in color, smell, quantity and virtue.
The cause why you can increase your Medicine indefinitely, is because it is a Fire which when kindled never goes out, remaining with you like the Fire in the houses, (or like the musk in the confections) of which Fire a spark can do infinitely. So it is with our Medicine, in virtue multiplied.
That one is rich in Fire, which has more or less of it, because he can multiply it at his pleasure. So he is rich who has some part of our Medicine in reserve, which Medicine and Elixir can multiply infinitely. The first way of Multiplying is that you often dissolve our dry powder, and often also Freeze it. And then you will increase it in virtue and goodness.
The second way to multiply both in virtue and in quality, is by repeated Fermentation, and as I also showed you in the chapter of the Cibation, where you can know the way to multiply your Medicine infinitely with Mercury.
But if you want to dissolve and ferment together, your Medicine will be better in goodness and in quantity, and you can multiply and increase it in such a way, that it will grow in your Glass like a tree, (which is properly that of Hermes ), of which one grain can multiply a thousand if you know how to do the Projection wisely.
And like Saffron when it is pulverized if it is gradually tempered with liquor, and then added in greater quantities, than being in its coarse nature. Thus the more our Elixir will be Multiplied, the more its Medicine will extend. Always multiply it in your Glass, more and more, nourishing it with Mercury until the end of your days and you will always be rich.
But be a good man, fearing and serving God, and do not offend and sin as little as you can. Above all, remember the poor and help them, so that God may have mercy on you.
THE Projection is that which proves if our practice is true, making known if the tincture of our Art or Secret is permanent: You will know it if you throw a little of your Medicine on vulgar Mercury; for it will cling to it like pitch, and dye it, and enter it of itself, and endure all Fire.
But many by ignorance spoil what they have done, when they make Projection on an impure metal; for because of corruption their tincture vanishes, which corruption they have not removed from the Bodies, which after the Projection are brittle, blue and black.
So that your tincture may be permanent on them, first throw your Medicine on the Ferment, and then it will be brittle as glass, and then throw this brittle matter on the mundified and truly pure Bodies, and you will see that they will be abundantly colored , which will forever endure all scrutiny.
Project, three, four or five times, until your Medicine begins to diminish, and then you have to stop. But remember to throw the lesser on the more, always increasing the number as the Sages do and say. Because if we join the Elixir with the impure bodies, we don't know what Projection is.
If you first multiply by ten you will make a hundred, and a hundred again by ten you will make a thousand, and a thousand by ten will make ten thousand, then by ten again will make a hundred thousand, and thus always by ten you will go to infinity.
Continue to hold your Glass in the Fire by multiplying more and more, because the Sages say that reserve brings no damage. And here end our twelve Gates, after which follows a brief Recapitulation of all our Secrets, if you understand Theory and practice, figures and colors. Then you can call yourself a scholar.
CONSIDER first the latitude of the Stone, and begin at the side which is noted westward, where the red Male and the white Female are, make a bride with the Spirit of life to live a love; Earth and Water perfectly proportioned is the best, and one part Earth to three of the Spirit is also a good proportion, which are twelve of the Spirit to four of the Earth.
It is then necessary that you take three parts of the woman, for a part of the man, and so much the less there will be of the Spirit in this marriage or nuptials, and rather you will make the Calcination. Then proceeds forward by the North and obscuration of the red man and his wife, called eclipse; altering and dissolving them between winter and spring, encircling the dark and lightless Earth (126).
From there rises in the East by various colors, there will be the Full Moon appearing by day; so she has passed purgatory and her body is at its end, for the Sun rises appearing white and lucid. There is Summer after Winter, and day after night. Then Earth and Water after darkness are turned into Air, and clouds and darkness are passed away, and all things are in perlucid candor.
And as the West was the beginning of this practice, and the North the perfect means of this alteration, so the East is soon after the beginning of the speculative, but immediately it makes the consummation of its course towards the South. And then the Elements are there by circulation found in Fire. This is why there is no doubt that you will achieve your desire, for you turn around the wheel of our Philosophy.
But you must again turn twice, in which are comprised the Secrets of our Philosophy, declared in the preceding twelve chapters. If you understand well how you must calcine, and perfectly dissolve, divide and putrefy them, you will infallibly know all the Secrets of our inferior Astronomy, with a perfect knowledge of the poles which are in our shining Heaven, with colors which have never been seen.
Pale and black, and false citrine, imperfect white and red, the feathers of the gay-colored peacock, the rainbow, the speckled panther, the green lion, and the raven's beak. All colors appear before perfect whiteness, and many more. After which appears the gray and false citrine, and finally will appear the invariable red blood. And then you will have your medicine of the third order, multiplied in its own kind.
Know also this infallible Secret that our red man does not dye, nor his wife, until they are dyed. This is why if you want them to prevail by this advice, hide the height of your Bodies and show their depth in each of your Bodies or Metals: destroy the first quality and immediately repair in them the more excellent seconds, and let the whole be made in one Glass, and by diet converts the four natures into one.
AFTER all that I do said above of the Stone, I want to inform you by a pure movement of Christian charity, of the vain experiments which I made, and of the false matters on which I worked. So I will tell you that cinnabar or sublimated Mercury are worth nothing in our Work. Because I made several Sublimations of Spirits, Ferments, Salts, iron, steel; but I wasted my time there. I made corrosive waters and ardent waters, which I opened in various ways. I calcined Eggs two or three times, I made the lime oil rise to separate the Elements from each other; but all are worth nothing.
I worked in Sulfur and in Vitriol, which fools call the Green Lion, in orpiment, in debili principio, was my beginning, in Salt of glass. Alkali salt. Albrot salt, Very light rock salt, Tartar salt, Common salt, Attincar salt, Saltpeter, Soda salt. But I spoiled my stomach and my money; Beware of all these things, and above all stay away from the smell of quicksilver, do not mingle either with precipitated Mercury, or with rubified Imperfect Metals.
I have experienced the eggs and the blood, the Soul of Saturn, the marcasites, dander or scales of iron which the marshals knock off by beating it, the litharge, the antimony. But all of them were worth nothing; however, I got beautiful red and white dyes from it, which were nevertheless false.
I made Moon Oil with great labor, calcining it with Common Salt prepared and by oneself, with violent heat, grinding it with Vinegar while I was weary of it, and also with Water of Life charged with spies on marble. But all was lost.
I made several amalgams thinking to fix them with profit, and for that I took tartar, sulphur, egg whites, snail oil. But also unnecessarily.
I made oil and milk, rennet, wine, silt, celandine, stars falling to earth, spondines and many others. I lost several pounds of Mercury, and made Crystal Stones. But it was all worth nothing.
Flee then such tasks and the like, for nothing but evil can come of them. Try as much as you want, and you will find it as I tell you; your purse empty and your health diminished by bad smells and pernicious fumes.
Certainly I have never seen a true Work other than that of which I have shown you the truth in this treatise. So study well to do it, and you will gain gold, silver and health.
Remember that man, who elsewhere is called the Male, is the most perfect earthly creature that God has created; to which there is a neutrality of the four Elements proportioned by Nature, which costs nothing at all, which is carried out of its mine by Art. Certainly our Metals are nothing other than our two mines of our Sun and our Moon. Raymond Lully thus says that it follows.
The brightness of the Moon and of the Sun, so lucid, in these two Mines has descended; yet clarity is hidden from view, and if by Art you can make it plain. This is why putrefy this hidden Stone - this only thing -, put it back in its own liquor, until it becomes white, to ferment it wisely. That is all.
END
Quote of the Day
“The body disguises everything in its own nature. What we want to give him serves as food. Our work thus makes them imperfect metals That it is equal to the equal of its more perfect kings.”
Salomon Trismosin
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