THE BURNING STAR Catechism or instruction for the rank of Adept or Apprentice Philosopher sublime & unknown.
THE BURNING STAR Catechism or instruction for the rank of Adept or Apprentice Philosopher sublime & unknown.
Théodore-Henry de Tschoudy
1766
D.1
What is the first study of a Philosopher?
R.
It is the research of the operations of nature.
D.2
What is the term of nature?
R.
God, as he is the principle.
D.3
Where do all things come from?
R.
Of the one and only nature.
D.4
How many regions is nature divided into?
R.
into four main ones.
D.5
What are they?
R.
The dry, the humid, the hot, the cold, which are the four elementary qualities, from which all things derive.
D.6
How does nature change?
R.
In male & female.
D.7
What is she compared to?
R.
Mercury.
D.8
What idea will you give me of nature?
R.
It is not visible, although it acts visibly, for it is only a volatile spirit, which performs its function in bodies, and which is animated by the universal spirit, which we know in vulgar masonry, under the respectable emblem of the Blazing Star .
D.9
What does it positively represent?
R.
The divine breath, the central & universal fire, which vivifies all that exists.
D.10
What qualities should nature watchers have?
R.
They must be like nature itself, that is to say, true, simple, patient & constant; these are the essential characteristics which distinguish good Masons, and when these feelings are already inspired in the candidates in the first initiations, they are prepared in advance for the acquisition of the qualities necessary for the philosophical class.
D.11
What attention should they have then?
R.
Philosophers must consider exactly whether what they propose is according to nature, whether it is possible & feasible; for if they want to do something like nature, they must follow her in every way.
D.12
What road should we take to operate something more excellent than nature has made it?
R.
We must look at what & by what it improves; & we will find that it is always with its similar: for example, if we want to extend the intrinsic virtue of some metal beyond nature, we must then grasp the metallic nature itself, & know how to distinguish the male & the female in said nature.
D.13
Where does it contain its seeds?
R.
In the four elements.
D.14
With what can the Philosopher produce something?
R.
With the germ of the said thing, which is its elixir, or its quintessence, much better and more useful to the artist than nature itself; thus, first that the Philosopher will have obtained this seed or this germ, nature to second it will be ready to make its duty.
D.15
What is the germ or the seed of everything?
R.
It is the most accomplished & the most perfect decoction & digestion of the thing itself, or rather it is the balm of sulfur, which is the same thing as the radical humidity in the metals.
D.16
Who spawns this seed or this germ?
R.
The four elements, by the will of the Supreme Being, & the imagination of nature.
D.17
How do the four elements operate?
R.
By an indefatigable and continuous movement, each of them according to its quality, throwing their seed into the center of the earth, where it is annealed and digested, then pushed back outside by the laws of movement.
D.18
What do the Philosophers mean by the center of the earth?
R.
A certain empty place that they conceive, & where nothing can rest.
D.19
Where then do the four elements cast & rest their qualities or seeds?
R.
In the ex-center, or the margin & circumference of the center, which, after it has taken a due portion of it, rejects the surplus outside, whence are formed the excrements, the scoria, the fires & even the stones of nature, of this rough stone, emblem of the first Masonic state.
D.20
Explain this doctrine to me by an example?
R.
Given a well plain table, & on it, in the middle, duly seated & placed any vase, filled with water; that in its outline we then place several things of various colors, among other things that there is particularly salt, observing that each of these things are well divided & put separately, then after that we pour the water in the middle, we will see it flowing here and there: this little stream coming to meet the color red, will take on the red hue; the other passing through the salt, will contract salting; for it is certain that water does not change places, but the diversity of places changes the nature of water; likewise the seed, sown by the four elements in the center of the earth, contracts different modifications; because it passes through different places,branches, channels, or conduits; so that each thing is born according to the diversity of places, and the seed of the thing arriving at such a place, we would encounter pure earth and pure water, a pure thing will result, and so on the contrary.
D.21
How & in what way do the elements generate this seed?
R.
To understand this doctrine well, it should be noted that two elements are serious & heavy, & the other two light, two dry & two wet, however one extremely dry the other extremely wet, & moreover are masculine & feminine: or , each of them is very quick to produce things similar to itself in its sphere: these four elements never rest, but they continually act one & the other, & each pushes of itself & by itself what it has more subtle; they have their general rendezvous at the center, and in this very center of the Archaea , this servant of nature, where coming to mix their seeds there, they agitate them and then throw them outside. We can see this process of nature,
D.22
What is the real & first matter of metals?
R.
The first matter properly speaking is of double essence, or double by itself; nevertheless one without the competition of the other does not create a metal; the first and the principal is a humidity of the air, mixed with hot air, in the form of greasy water, adhering to everything, however pure or impure it may be.
D.23
What did philosophers name this humidity?
R.
Mercury.
D.24
By whom is it governed?
R.
By the rays of the Sun & the Moon.
D.25
What is the second subject?
R.
It is the heat of the earth, that is to say, a dry heat which the Philosophers call sulphur.
D.26
Is the whole body of matter converted into seed?
R.
No, but only the eight hundredth part which rests in the center of the same body, as can be seen in the example of a grain of wheat.
D.27
Of what use is the body of matter relative to the seed?
R.
To preserve it from any excessive heat, coldness, humidity or dryness, & generally any harmful bad weather, against which the material serves as an envelope.
D.28
Would the artist who claimed to reduce the whole body of matter to seed, supposing that he could succeed in doing so, in fact find some advantage in it?
R.
None, on the contrary his work would then become absolutely useless, because one cannot do anything good, as soon as one deviates from the process of nature.
D.29
So what should he do?
R.
He must free matter from all its impurities: for there is no metal, however pure it may be, that does not have its impurities, one however more or less than the other. .
D.30
How do we figure in Masonry the absolute & preparatory necessity of this depuration or purification?
R.
During the first initiation of the candidate to the grade of apprentice, when he is stripped of all metals & minerals, & that in a decent one way removes part of his clothes, which is analogous to superfluities, surfaces or slag, whose matter must be stripped to find the seed.
D.31
What should the Philosopher pay most attention to?
R.
At the point of nature, & this point, he must not seek it in vulgar metals, because having already left the hands of the formative, it is no longer in them.
D.32
What is the precise reason?
R.
It is because the metals of the vulgar, principally gold, are absolutely dead, whereas ours, on the contrary, are absolutely living and have spirit.
D.33
What is the life of metals?
R.
She is nothing but fire, when they are still lying in their mines.
D.34
What is their death?
R.
Their death & their life are the same principle, since they also die by fire, but a fire of fusion.
D.35
How are metals generated in the bowls of the earth?
R.
After the four elements have produced their strength or their virtue in the center of the earth, and they have deposited their seed there; the archaea of nature, by distilling them, sublimates them to the surface by heat and the action of a perpetual motion.
D.36
The wind , by distilling itself through the pores of the earth, into what is it resolved?
R.
It resolves into water from which all things are born, and it is then no more than a humid vapour, from which vapor is then formed the principal principle of each thing, and which serves as the first matter for the Philosophers.
D.37
What, then, is this principled principle, serving as first material for the children of science in the philosophical work?
R.
It will be this same matter, which as soon as it is conceived, can absolutely no longer change form.
D.38
Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Sun, Moon, etc. do they each have different seeds?
R.
They all have one seed; but the place of their birth has been the cause of this difference, even though nature has rather completed her work in the procreation of silver than in that of gold, as well as the others.
D.39
How is gold formed in the bowls of the earth?
R.
When this vapor that we have said is sublimated in the center of the earth, & it passes through hot & pure places, & where a certain grease of sulfur adheres to the walls, then this vapor that the Philosophers have called their mercury, adapts to & join this fat, which it sublimates afterwards with itself; & from this mixture results a certain smoothness, which leaving this name of steam, then takes that of fat, & coming then afterwards to sublimate itself in other places, which have been cleaned by the previous steam, & to which the earth is more subtle , pure & moist, it fills the pores of the earth, joins with it, & it is then what produces gold.
D.40
How Saturn is generated.
R.
When this unctuousness or grease reaches totally impure & cold places.
D.41
How is this definition found in the novitiate?
R.
By the explanation of the word Profane which supplements the name of Saturn, but which we apply effectively to all that resides in an impure & cold place, which is marked by the allegory of the world, of the century & of its imperfections.
D.42
How do we designate the work & the gold?
R.
By the image of a masterpiece of architecture, of which in detail we paint the magnificence all dazzling with gold and precious metals.
D.43
How is Venus generated?
R.
It is generated when the earth is pure, but mixed with impure sulphur.
D.44
What power does this vapor have in the center of the earth?
R.
To always steal by its continual progress, all that is raw and impure, successively attracting with itself what is pure.
D.45
What is the seed of the first matter of all things?
R.
The first matter of things, that is to say, the matter of the principiant principles, is born by nature without the aid of any seed, that is to say, nature receives the matter of the elements, of which she then engenders the seed.
D.46
What then is absolutely speaking the seed of things?
R.
The seed in a body is nothing but frozen air, or moist vapour, which, if not resolved by hot vapour, becomes quite useless.
D.47
How does the generation of the seed enclose itself in the metallic kingdom?
R.
By the artifice of the archaea , the four elements in the first generation of nature, distil in the center of the earth a ponderous vapor of water, which is the seed of the metals, and is called mercury, not because of its essence, but because of its fluidity & easy adherence to everything..
D.48
Why is this vapor compared to Sulfur?
R.
Because of its internal heat.
D.49
What happens to semen after freezing?
R.
It becomes the radical humidity of matter.
D.50
Of what mercury do we mean that metals are composed?
R.
This means absolutely the mercury of the Philosophers, and in no way common or vulgar mercury, which cannot be a seed, having itself the seed like the other metals.
D.51
What, then, should we take precisely as the subject of our matter?
R.
We must take the seed alone or fixed grain, and not the whole body, which is distinguished as a living male, that is to say, sulphur; & lively female, ie, mercury.
D.52
What operation should be done next?
R.
They must be conjoined together, so that they can form a germ, from which then they come to procreate a fruit of their nature.
D.53
So what does the artist intend to do in this operation?
R.
The artist does not intend to do anything else, except to separate what is subtle from what is thick.
D.54
To what is the whole philosophical combination consequently reduced?
R.
It is reduced to making one two & two one, & nothing more.
D.55
Is there any analogy in masonry which indicates this operation?
R.
It is sensitive enough to any mind that will want to reflect, stopping at the mysterious number of three, on which revolves essentially all Masonic science.
D.56
Where is the seed & life of metals & minerals.
R.
The seed of minerals is properly the water which is at the center & at the heart of the mineral.
D.57
How does nature operate with the help of art?
R.
Any seed, whatever it may be, is of no value, if by art or by nature it is not placed in a suitable matrix, where it receives its life by causing the germ to rot, and causing the point to freeze. pure or fixed grain.
D.58
How is the semen then nourished & stored?
R.
By the warmth of his body.
D.59
So what does the artist do in the mineral kingdom?
R.
He finishes what nature cannot finish, because of the rawness of the air, which by its violence has filled the pores of every body, not in the bowels of the earth, but on its surface.
D.60
What correspondence do the metals have with each other?
R.
To properly understand this correspondence, it is necessary to consider the position of the planets, & pay attention that Saturn is the highest of all, followed by Jupiter, then Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, & finally the Moon. It should be observed that the virtues of the planets do not rise, but that they descend, & experience teaches us that Mars is easily converted into Venus, & not Venus into Mars, as being lower by one sphere: Jupiter thus easily transmuted into Mercury ; because Jupiter is higher than Mercury, that one is the second after the firmament, this one is the second above the Earth, & Saturn the highest; the lower Moon: the Sun mingles with all, but is never improved by the lower ones.We clearly see that there is a great correspondence between Saturn & the Moon, in the middle of which is the Sun; but to all these changes the Philosopher must strive to administer from the Sun.
D.61
When the Philosophers speak of gold or silver, whence they extract their matter, do they mean vulgar gold or silver?
R.
No: because vulgar gold and silver are dead, while those of the Philosophers are full of life.
D.62
What is the object of the search of the Masons?
R.
It is the knowledge of the art of perfecting what nature has left imperfect in the human race, and of arriving at the treasure of true morality.
D.63
What is the object of the search of the Philosophers?
R.
It is the knowledge of the art of perfecting what nature has left imperfect in the mineral genus, and of arriving at the treasure of the philosopher's stone.
D.64
What is this stone?
R.
The philosopher's stone is nothing but the radical humidity of the elements, perfectly purified & brought to a sovereign fixity, which makes it work such great things for health, life, residing only in the radical humidity. .
D.65
In what consists the secret of doing this admirable work?
R.
This secret consists in knowing how to draw from potency into action the innate heat, or the fire of nature contained in the center of the radical humidity.
D.66
What precautions should be taken so as not to miss the work?
R.
Great care must be taken to remove the excrement from the material, and think only of having the nucleus, or the center which contains all the virtue of the mixture.
D.67
Why does this medicine cure all kinds of foods?
R.
This medicine has the virtue of curing all sorts of ailments, not on account of its different qualities, but only in so far as it powerfully fortifies the natural heat, which it gently excites, instead of other remedies irritating it by a movement too violent.
D.68
How will you prove to me the truth of the art with regard to dyeing?
R.
This truth is founded first on the fact that the physical powder being made of the same matter, of which the metals are formed, viz., quicksilver; it has the faculty of mingling with them in fusion, one nature easily embracing another nature, which is similar to it; secondly, on the fact that the imperfect metals being such, only because their quicksilver is raw, the physical powder, which is a ripe & quickcookedsilver, & properly a pure fire, can easily communicate to them maturity, & the to transmute into its nature, after having made attraction of their raw humidity; that is to say, of their quicksilver, which is the only substance which is transmuted, the rest being only slag and excrement, which are rejected in the projection.
D.69
What road should the Philosopher follow to arrive at the knowledge & execution of the physical work?
R.
The same road the great Architect of the universe took in the creation of the world, watching how the chaos was unraveled.
D.70
What was the matter of chaos?
R.
It could not be anything other than a humid vapour, because there is only water among the created substances, which end in a foreign term, and which is a real subject to receive the forms.
D.71
Give me an example of what you just said?
R.
This example can be taken from the particular productions of mixtures, the seeds of which always begin by resolving into a certain mood, which is the particular chaos, from which then the whole form of the plant is drawn, as if by irradiation. Moreover, it should be observed that the writing does not mention in any place, that water for material subject, on which the spirit of God was carried, & the light for universal form.
D.72
What advantage can the Philosopher derive from this reflection, and what should he particularly notice in the way in which the Supreme Being created the world?
R.
First, he will observe the matter from which the world was created, he will see that from this confused mass, the sovereign Artist began by extracting the light, which in the same instant, dissipated the darkness which covered the surface of the earth, to serve as the universal form of matter. He will then easily conceive that in the generation of all mixtures, there is a kind of irradiation, and a separation of light from darkness, in which nature is perpetually imitating its creator. The Philosopher will likewise understand how by the action of this light the expanse was made, or otherwise the firmament separating the waters from the waters: the sky was then adorned with luminous bodies; but the superior things being too far from the inferior, it was necessary to create the moon,as an intermediary torch between the top and the bottom, which after having received the celestial influences, communicates them to the earth; the Creator then gathered the waters, brought forth the dry.
D.73
How many heavens are there?
R.
There is really only one; namely, the firmament separating the waters from the waters; however, three are allowed. The first, which is from above the clouds, where the rarefied waters stop, & fall back to the fixed stars, & in this space are the planets & the wandering stars. The second, which is the very place of the fixed stars. The third, which is the place of supercelestial waters.
D.74
Why does the depletion of the waters end in the first heaven; & does it not rise beyond?
R.
Because the rarefied nature of things is to always rise above, and because God, in his eternal laws, has assigned to each thing its own sphere.
D.75
Why does each celestial body invariably revolve as around an axis without declining?
R.
This only comes from the first movement imparted to it, just as a heavy mass balanced and attached to a single thread would always turn equally, if the movement were always equal.
D.76
Why don't the upper waters wet?
R.
Because of their extreme rarity; is it thus that a learned chemist can derive more advantage from the science of rarefaction, than from any other?
D.77
Of what matter is the firmament, or expanse, composed?
R.
The firmament is properly air, the nature of which is much more suitable to light than water.
D.78
After separating the waters from the dry and the earth, what did the Creator do to give rise to generations?
R.
He created a particular light intended for this office, which he placed in the central fire, & tempered this fire with the humidity of the water & the coldness of the earth, in order to suppress its action, & that its heat would be more suitable . for the purpose of its author.
D.79
What is the action of this central fire?
R.
It acts continuously on the moist matter which is closest to it, from which it causes a vapor to rise, which is the mercury of nature, and of the first matter of the three kingdoms.
D.80
How is nature's sulfur then formed?
R.
By the double action or rather reaction of this central fire, on the mercury vapor.
D.81
How is sea salt made?
R.
It is formed by the action of this same fire on aqueous humidity; when the air humidity which is enclosed there comes to be exhaled.
D.82
What should a truly wise Philosopher do, when once he has fully understood the foundation and the order observed by the great Architect of the universe, for the construction of all that exists in nature?
R.
He must be, as far as possible, a faithful copyist of his Creator; in his physical work, he must make his chaos such as it actually was; separate light from darkness; form its firmament separating the waters from the waters, & finally accomplish perfectly, by following the indicated course, all the work of creation.
D.83
With what do we perform this great and sublime operation?
R.
With a single corpuscle or small body, which contains, so to speak, only faeces , filth, abominations, from which one extracts a certain tenebrous and mercurial humidity, which includes in itself all that is necessary for the Philosopher, because it does not indeed seeks only true mercury.
D.84
What mercury should he use for the work?
R.
Of a mercury which is not such on earth, but which is extracted from bodies, and in no way ordinary mercury, as has been said.
D.85
Why is the latter not the most appropriate to our work?
R.
Because the wise artist must take care that common mercury does not contain in itself the sufficient quantity of sulfur, and that consequently he must work on a body created by nature, in which she herself will have joined together the sulfur and the mercury, which the artist must separate.
D.86
What should he do next?
R.
Purify them & rejoin them again.
D.87
What do you call that body?
R.
Raw stone , or chaos, or illiaste, or hyle.
D.88
Is it the same rough stone whose symbol characterizes our first grades?
R.
Yes, it is the same that the Masons work to roughen up, and from which they seek to remove the superfluities; this rough stone is, so to speak, a portion of this first chaos, or confused mass known, but despised by everyone.
D.89
Since you tell me that mercury is the only thing that the Philosopher must know, so as not to be mistaken, give me a detailed description of it.
R.
Our Mercury, in view of its nature, is double, fixed & Volatile; with regard to its movement, it is also double, since it has a movement of ascent, and one of descension: by that of descension, it is the influence of the plants, by which it awakens the dormant fire of nature, & this is its first office before its freezing: by the movement of ascent, it rises to purify itself, & as it is after its freezing, it is then considered as the radical humidity of things, which under of the vile slags does not fail to preserve the nobility of its first origin.
D.90
How much moisture is there in each compound?
R.
There is three:
1°. the elementary , which is properly only the vase of the other elements;
2°. the radical , which is properly the oil, or the balm in which resides all the virtue of the subject;
3°. food is the true dissolvent of nature, exciting the internal fire, dormant, causing by its humidity corruption & blackness, & maintaining, & feeding the subject.
D.91
How many kinds of mercury do the Philosophers have?
R.
The Mercury of the Philosophers can be considered in four respects:
In the first, it is called the mercury of the bodies , it is precisely the hidden seed.
In the second, the mercury of nature ; it is the bath or the vase of the Philosophers, in other words the radical humidity.
In the third, the mercury of the Philosophers , because it is in their shop & in their mine; it is the sphere of Saturn; it is their Diana; it is the true salt of metals, after which, when it has been acquired, only the true philosophical work begins.
In the fourth respect, it is called the common mercury , not that of the vulgar, but that which is properly the true air of the Philosophers, the true middle substance of water, the true secret and hidden fire, called the common fire , because it is common to all mines, because in it consists the substance of metals, and because it is from it that they derive their quantity and quality.
D.92
Why do the Masons have the odd numbers, and specifically the septenary in veneration?
R.
Because nature, which delights in its own numbers, is satisfied with the mysterious number of seven , especially in subordinate things, or which depends on the lunar globe; the moon showing us sensibly an infinite number of alterations and vicissitudes in this septenary number.
D.93
How many operations are there in your work?
R.
There is only one, which is reduced to sublimation, which is nothing else, according to Geber , than the elevation of the dry thing, by means of fire, with adherence to its own vessel.
D.94
What precaution should one take when reading the Hermetic Philosophers?
R.
Above all, great care must be taken not to take what they say on this subject at face value, and according to the sound of the words: for the letter kills, and the spirit vivifies.
D.95
What book should we read to gain knowledge of our science?
R.
Among the old ones, it is necessary to read particularly all the works of Hermes, then a certain book, entitled: the Passage of the Red Sea , & another called the approach to the Promised Land . Among the ancients, it is necessary to read especially Paracelsus, and among others his Chemical Path or Manual of Paracelsus , which contains all the mysteries of demonstrative physics and the most secret cabala. This manuscript book, precious & original, is found only in the Vatican library; but Sendivogius had the good fortune to make a copy of it, which served to enlighten some of the sages of our order.
2°. It is necessary to read Raymond Lully , & especially his Vade mecum , his called dialogue, Lignum Vitoe , his testament & his codicil; but one will be on guard against these last two works, because like those of Geber , they are filled with false receipts, useless fictions, and errors without numbers, like the works of Arnauld de Villeneuve; their object in this having been, to all appearance, to further disguise the truth from the ignorant.
3. The Turba Philosophorum , which is only a collection of old authors, contains a fairly good part, although there are many things without value.
4° Among the authors of the Middle Ages, we must esteem Zacharie , Trevisan , Roger Bacon , & a certain anonymous, whose book is titled Philosophers . Among the modern authors, one must make case of Jean Fabre , François of nation, & of DEspagnet , or the author of the Physics restituted , although to tell the truth, he mixed in his book some false precepts, & erroneous feelings.
D.96
When can a Philosopher risk undertaking the work?
R.
When he knows by theory how to draw from a dissolved body by means of a crud spirit, a digestible spirit, which must once again be joined with the vital oil.
D.97
Explain this theory to me more clearly?
R.
To make the thing more sensible, here is the process: it will be when the Philosopher will know, by means of a vegetal menstruation united to the mineral, to dissolve a third essential menstruation, with which united it is necessary to wash the earth, & to exalt it. then in celestial quintessence, to compose their sulphurous lightning, which, in an instant, penetrates the bodies, and destroys their excrement.
D.98
How do we give in our Masonic elements, the rudiments of this celestial quintessence?
R.
By the symbol of the Blazing Star, which we say central & vivifying fire.
D.99
Those who claim to use common gold for the seed, and common mercury for the solvent, or for the soil in which it must be sown, do they have a perfect knowledge of nature?
R.
Not really, because neither of them has the external agent in them: the gold, for having been stripped of it by the decoction, and the mercury for never having had any.
D.100
By seeking this aurific seed elsewhere than in gold itself, do we not risk producing a kind of monster, since it seems that we are deviating from nature?
R.
It is beyond doubt that in gold the aurific seed is contained, and even more perfectly than in any other body: but that does not oblige us to use common gold, for this seed is likewise found in each of the other metals; & it is nothing other than this fixed grain, which nature has introduced into the first freezing of mercury, all metals having the same origin, & a common matter, as will be perfectly known to the grade following those who will go worthy of receiving it by their application & assiduous study.
D.101
What follows from this doctrine?
R.
It teaches us that, although the seed is more perfect in gold, nevertheless it can be extracted much more easily from another body than from gold itself: the reason is that the other bodies are much more open, c that is to say, less digested & their less finished moisture.
D.102
Give me an example taken from nature?
R.
Common gold resembles a fruit which, having reached perfect maturity, has been separated from the tree: & although there is in it a very perfect & very digestible seed, nevertheless if someone, to multiply it, put it in the ground, it would take a lot of time, trouble, care, to bring it to the vegetation: but if instead, we took a graft or a root of the same tree, and put it in the ground, we would see it in a short time, & without difficulty, vegetate & bring back many fruits.
D.103
Is it necessary for an amateur of this science to know the formation of metals in the bowels of the earth, to be able to form his work?
R.
This knowledge is so necessary that if before any other study, we did not apply ourselves to it, and we did not seek to imitate nature in every way, we would never be able to do anything good.
D.104
How, then, does nature form the metals in the bowels of the earth, and what does it compose them from?
R.
Nature composes them all of sulfur and mercury, and forms them by their double vapour.
D.105
What do you mean by this double vapor, and how by this double vapor can metals be formed?
R.
To understand this answer well, it is necessary to know first of all that the mercurial vapor united to the sulphurous vapor, in a cavernous place where there is salt water which serves as their matrix; there is formed first the vitriol of nature: secondly, from this vitriol of nature, by the concussion of the elements, rises a new vapor, which is neither mercurial nor sulphurous, but which is of both natures, which arrives in places where the grease of sulfur adheres, s units with it, & from their union is formed a glutinous substance, or formless mass, on which the vapor diffused in these cavernous places, acting by means of the sulfur which it contains in it, there results perfect metals, if the place & the vapor are pure; & imperfect, if on the contrary the place & the vapor are impure; they are said to be imperfect, or not perfect, for not having received their entire perfection by coction.
D.106
What does this vapor contain in itself?
R.
It contains a spirit of light & fire of the nature of celestial bodies, which must properly be regarded as the form of the universe.
D.107
What does this vapor represent?
R.
This vapor thus impregnated with the universal spirit, which is none other than the true Blazing Star, fairly well represents the first chaos, in which was contained all that was necessary for creation, that is to say, the matter & the universal form.
D.108
Can't one also use vulgar quicksilver in this process?
R.
No, because, as has already been said, vulgar quicksilver does not have the external agent with it.
D.109
How is this called in Masonry?
R.
By the word vulgar or profane; by naming such any subject which is not specific to Masonic work. It is in this sense that the verse should be understood: You who du vulgar stupid, &c. It is called stupid, because it has no life in itself.
D.110
How does it come about that vulgar quicksilver does not have its external silver with it?
R.
From what during the elevation of the double vapor, the commotion is so great & so subtle, that it evaporates the spirit or the agent, almost as it happens in the fusion of metals: so that the only mercurial part remains deprived of its male or sulphurous agent, so that it can never be transmuted into gold by nature.
D.111
How many kinds of gold distinguish the Philosophers?
R.
Three kinds: astral gold, elemental gold, & vulgar gold.
D.112
What is Astral Gold ?
R.
Astral gold has its center in the Sun, which communicates it by its rays, at the same time as its light, to all the beings which are inferior to it: it is an igneous substance, and which receives a continual emanation from the solar corpuscles . which penetrate all that is sensitive, vegetative & mineral.
D.113
Is it in this sense that we must consider the Sun painted in the table of the first degrees of the order?
R.
Without difficulty: all the other interpretations are veils to disguise from the candidate the philosophical truths that he must not perceive at first glance, and on which his mind and his meditations must be exercised.
D.114
What do you mean by elemental gold?
R.
It is the purest & the most fixed portion of the elements & of all the substances which are composed of them; so that all sublunary beings of the three genera contain in their center a precious grain of this elemental gold.
D.115
How is it figured among our Brothers the Masons?
R.
As the sun on the chart indicates astral gold, the moon signifies its reign over all the sublunar bodies beneath it, containing in their center the fixed grain of elemental gold.
D.116
Explain to me vulgar gold ?
R.
It is the most beautiful metal that we see, and that nature can produce, as perfect in itself as it is unalterable.
D.117
Where do we find its designation in the symbols of Royal Art?
R.
In the three medals, &c. the triangle, the compass & all other jewels or representative instruments, as of pure gold.
D.118
What kind of gold is the Stone of the Philosophers?
R.
It is of the second kind, as being the purest portion of all the metallic elements after its purification, & then it is called philosophical quick gold.
D.119
What does the number four adopted in the Great Scotsism of Saint Andrew of Scotland signify, the complement of the Masonic progressions?
R.
Besides the perfect balance, & the perfect equality of the four elements in physical stone, it signifies four things that must necessarily be done for the accomplishment of the work, which are, composition, alteration, mixing & union, which once made according to the rules of the art, will give birth to the legitimate son of the sun, and will produce the ever-rising phoenix from its ashes.
D.120
What exactly is the quick gold of the Philosophers?
R.
It is nothing other than the fire of mercury, or that igneous virtue, contained in the humid radical, to which it has already communicated the fixity and the nature of the sulfur from which it emanated: the sulfur of the Philosophers does not leaving not also to be called mercury, because all its substance is mercurial.
D.121
What other name do the Philosophers give to their quick gold?
R.
They also call it their living sulphur, or their true fire, and it is contained in every body, and no body can subsist without it.
D.122
Where should we look for our quick gold, or our quick sulfur, and our real fire?
R.
In the house of mercury.
D.123
What does this fire live on?
R.
Air.
D.124
Give me a comparison of the power of this fire?
R.
To express this attraction of internal fire, one cannot give a better comparison than that of lightning, which is at first only a dry and terrestrial exhalation, united to a humid vapor, but which by dint of exalting, coming to take on the igneous nature , acts on the humidity which is inherent in it, which it attracts to itself, & transmutes into its nature, after which it rushes with rapidity towards the earth, where it is attracted by a nature fixed similar to his.
D.125
What must the Philosopher do after he has extracted his mercury?
R.
He must bring it about or reduce it in action.
D.126
Can't nature do it on its own?
R.
No, because after a first sublimation it stops; & from matter thus disposed, metals are engendered.
D.127
What do the Philosophers mean by their gold and their silver ?
R.
The Philosophers give the name of gold to their sulphur , and that of silver to their mercury .
D.128
Where do they get them from?
R.
I have already told you that they draw them from a homogeneous body where they are found in abundance, and from which they know how to extract them one and the other, by an admirable means, and quite philosophical.
D.129
As soon as this operation is duly done, what should be done next?
R.
One must make his philosophical amalgam with great industry, which however can only be executed after the sublimation of mercury, and its due preparation.
D.130
In what time do you unite your material with bright gold?
R.
It is only in time that we amalgamate it: that is to say, by means of this amalgamation, we introduce into it the sulphur, to make together only one single substance, & by the the addition of this sulphur, the work is abridged, and the tincture increased.
D.131
What does the moist radical center contain?
R.
It contains & hides sulphur, which is covered with a hard shell.
D.132
What must be done to apply it to the great work?
R.
It must be drawn out of its prisons with great art, and by way of putrefaction.
D.133
Does nature have in the mines a suitable menstruation, proper to dissolve, and to deliver this sulphur?
R.
No, because he doesn't have a local movement; for if it could again dissolve, putrefy & purify the metallic body, it would itself give us the physical stone, that is to say, a sulfur exalted & multiplied in virtue.
D.134
How would you explain to me, by an example, this doctrine?
R.
It is again by the comparison of a fruit or a grain, which is again placed in suitable soil to rot there, and then to multiply; however, the Philosopher who knows the good grain, draws it from his center, throws it into the earth which is proper to him, after having smoked it well and prepared it, and there it is so subtilized, that its prolific virtue extends multiplies ad infinite.
D.135
In what, then, is the whole secret for the seed?
R.
To know well the land which is proper to him.
D.136
What do you mean by the seed in the work of the Philosophers?
R.
I mean the innate heat, or the specific spirit enclosed in the radical humidity, or the middle substance of quicksilver, which is properly the sperm of the metals, which contains its seed within itself.
D.137
How do you free sulfur from its prisons?
R.
By putrefaction.
D.138
What is the land of minerals?
R.
It's their own period.
D.139
What care should the Philosopher take to derive the benefit he desires from it?
R.
He must take great care to purge it of its fetid vapors and impure sulphur, after which the seed is thrown into it.
D.140
What clue can the artist have that he is on the right path at the beginning of his work?
R.
When he sees that at the time of dissolution, the solvent and the dissolved thing remain together in the same form and matter.
D.141
How many solutions are there in the philosophical work?
R.
There is three; number for that reason mysterious & respectable to the Masons. The first is that of the crude & metallic body, by which it is reduced to its principles of sulfur & quicksilver; the second, that of the physical body; & the third, that of mineral earth.
D.142
How by the first solution can one reduce a metallic body into mercury, and then into sulphur?
R.
By artificial occult fire, or the Blazing Star.
D.143
How is this operation done?
R.
By first drawing from the subject the mercury, or the vapor of the elements, & after having purified it, using it to release the sulfur from its envelopes, by the way of corruption, the sign of which is blackness.
D.144
How is the second solution?
R.
When the physical body resolves with the above two substances, & acquires the celestial nature.
D.145
What name did the Philosophers give to matter at this time?
R.
They call it their physical chaos, & for then, it is the true first matter, which is properly so called only after the junction of the male, which is sulphur, & the female, which is mercury. , & not before.
D.146
What does the third solution refer to?
R.
It is the moistening of the mineral earth, and it has an entire relation to multiplication.
D.147
Is it in this sense that the multiplication used in Masonic numbers should be understood?
R.
Yes, namely that of the number three, to lead him to his cube, by the known progressions of 3, 9, 27, 81.
D.148
What fire should we use in our work?
R.
Of the fire that nature uses.
D.149
What power does this fire have?
R.
It dissolves all things in the world, because it is the principle of all dissolution & corruption.
D.150
Why is it also called Mercury?
R.
Because it is aerial in nature, and a very subtle nature, however, participating in sulphur, from which it has drawn some defilement.
D.151
Where is this fire hidden?
R.
It is hidden in the subject of art.
D.152
Who can know & form this fire?
R.
The Sage knows how to build & purify this fire.
D.153
What power & quality does this fire have in itself?
R.
It is very dry & in a continual movement, & only asks to corrupt & to draw things from power into action; it is finally this which, encountering solid places in the mines, circulates in the form of vapor over matter, and dissolves it.
D.154
How could we know this fire more easily?
R.
By the sulphurous excrements in which it is enclosed, and by the saline clothing with which it is clothed.
D.155
What does this fire need so that it can better insinuate itself into the feminine gender?
R.
Because of its extreme dryness it needs to be moistened.
D.156
How many philosophical fires are there?
R.
There are three kinds, which are the natural, the unnatural, and the unnatural.
D.157
Explain to me these three kinds of fires?
R.
The natural fire is the masculine fire, or the principal agent; the unnatural is the feminine, or the dissolvent of nature, nourishing & taking the form of white smoke, which vanishes easily, when it is in this form, if one is not careful, & it is almost incomprehensible, although by philosophical sublimation, it becomes corporeal & resplendent; fire against nature is that which corrupts the compound, and has the power to loosen what nature had strongly bound.
D.158
Where is our material?
R.
It is found everywhere, but it must be sought especially in metallic nature, where it is found more easily than elsewhere.
D.159
Which should we prefer to all the others?
R.
One should prefer the ripest, cleanest & easiest; but it is necessary to take care above all that the metallic essence is there not only potentially, but also in act, and that there is a metallic splendor.
D.160
Is everything contained in this subject?
R.
Yes, but we must nevertheless help nature, so that the work is better & rather done, & that by the means that we know in the other grades.
D.161
Is this subject of great value?
R.
It is vile & at first has no elegance in itself, & if some say that it is salable, they have regard to the species, but basically it does not sell, because it does not is useful only for our work.
D.162
What does our matter contain?
R.
It contains salt, sulfur & mercury.
D.163
What is the operation that we must learn to do?
R.
You have to know how to extract the salt, sulfur & mercury one after the other.
D.164
How is it possible?
R.
By sole and complete sublimation.
D.165
What do we extract first?
R.
First the mercury is drawn in the form of white smoke.
D.166
What comes next?
R.
Igneous water, or sulphur.
D.167
What to do next?
R.
It must be dissolved with purified salt, first volatilizing the fixed, and then fixing the volatile in precious earth, which is the veritable vessel of the Philosophers and of all perfection.
D.168
Could you not suddenly put before your eyes, and unite as if in a single point, the principles, the forms, the truths and the essential characteristics of the science of the Philosophers, as well as of the methodical process of the work?
R.
A lyrical piece, composed by an ancient learned philosopher, who joined to the solidity of science, the pleasant talent of bantering with the Muses, can fulfill in all respects what you ask of me: no science being effectively foreign to the children of Science; this ode, although in the Italian language, the most suitable for depicting sublime ideas, finds its place here.
Ode
The Blazing Star
The dark chaos
Came out of nothing; misshapen mass;
At the first sound of the almighty lip
He seemed to have been born out of disorder,
Rather than Blacksmith it would have been from a god;
So formless was he;
In him all things were inactive
And without a discriminating spirit
Every element in him locked up was confused.
-----
But who could say
How were formed the Sky, the Earth, the Sea,
(so light in themselves and vast in mass)
Who can reveal how the Moon and the Sun
Had light and movement up there?
The state and form here below, as it seems:
Who would ever understand
How everything had a name,
Had the Spirit the quantity the Law and the measure
Of this disordered and impure mass.
-----
O of divine Hermes
The emulated sons, to whom the paternal art
Make nature appear without any veil
Only you, only you know how the eternal hand
Made Earth and Sky
Out of the indistinct chaos
Your great work
Shows itself clearly, whose god,
In the same way that is produced
The physical elixir, made it all up
-----
But I don't want to describe
With so weak a pen a comparison so vast
Me, his not yet an expert in the Art,
Even though I stutter
Is revealed to my eyes your cards
Even though the providential breath is known to me
Even though it's not hidden from me
The wonderful composition
By which you forcibly extracted
The purity of the elements in action.
-----
Even if you understand me
Than your unknown Mercury
Is none other than a lively innate Universal Spirit
who descends from the sun
In aerial vapor always agitated
To fill the empty center with earth
Who from here after spring
Between impure sulfur and grows
From volatile to fixed and has taken shape
Radical humidity, without forms.
-----
Even though I know, that without
Seal the oval vase with glass
Never stops in him the illustrious vapor
That if the prompt assistance
Doesn't have the lynx eye, the industrious hand
The candid child dies at birth,
That his first moods
Don't feed afterwards
Thus the man, who in the womb feeds
Of impure blood, and then in her diapers of milk.
-----
Even though I do so much,
And that today also I try
I dare not go out with you
Because even the mistakes of others
put me in doubt
But, if the enviable care
In your piety have no place
You take away the heart of doubt
If I distinctly show
Your Magisterium
In my leaves; do now
That only is read in response: work that is done
-----
How wrong are ignorant men
Hermetic Science
Who, at the sound of the word
Apply only miserly consent
So common names
Bright silver and gold getting ready to work
And with the slow-fired common gold
Believe to arrest the silver fugitive
-----
But if to the occult the senses open the mind
They obviously see
That this one and that one are missing
This universal fire which is active spirit
Spirit who in violent
Ample furnace flames
fleeting abandonment
All metal, which without sharp movement
Out of her mine is motionless body
Hermès adds mercury, adds gold
Wet and warm Mercury
On an even firmer fire
Now, which is all fire, and all life.
The infinite difference
Don't be that now manifests
That of the vulgar, for this one
These dead bodies are mindless
These, corporeal and still living spirits.
O our great mercury, in you assemble
Silver and gold mined
power in action
Mercury all Sol (eye), Sol(eil) all Moon
Three substances in one:
One that in three spreads
O great wonder
Mercury, sulfur, and salt, you teach me
That in three substances you make only one
But where is this haloed mercury
Which, dissolved in sulfur and salt
Wet radical
Metals become animated seed:
Ah how he is imprisoned in such a harsh prison,
That even nature cannot pull him out of the alpine prison
If the Great Art does not open the way
-----
The art that makes a wise minister
Industrial in nature
With wispy flame
Purge the path, and to the prison gate
Not without another escort
Not without the best way
With continuous heat
Helps nature; so that she can afterwards
To untie to our mercury his vines.
-----
If, if this mercury alone you must seek
Unlearned souls,
That in him alone you can find what
Challenge learned minds
In him already are reduced
In next power
And the Moon and the Sun; who without
Gold, and silver of the vulgar, united together
Are the true germ of Gold.
-----
Also, from every useless germ we see
If it is uncorrupted and has integrity
It doesn't spoil, and it turns black
Before generating corruption
Such nature provides
In his living works
And we, who are his supporters
If we do not want, in the end, to produce abortions
We must blacken first, rather than whiten
-----
O you who, to make Gold by art
Never get tired of extracting
Coal continues the incessant flames
And in so many ways,
You sometimes stop your mixtures, or dilute them,
And sometimes all diluted, and sometimes partially frozen:
Then, apart, a little further
smoky butterflies
and night and day
Watch out for those foolish lights around.
-----
From these unhealthy fatigues now stop
No more blind hope
The gullible thought with the smoke ache(?)
Your works are useless sweatshirts:
Who in the sordid room
You only mark on your face tired hours.
Which flames do you insist on?
For the hermetic stone the sages do not use
Neither violent coal nor bed bundles
-----
With the fire, which underground does everything good,
Nature, art works
Because only art should imitate nature:
The fire that vaporous is not light
Who feeds and does not devour
Which is natural, and artifice finds it
Arid, and makes it rain
Wet, and sometimes parched, stagnant water,
Water that washes the body and does not wet the hand
-----
With such fire works partisan art
Of infallible nature
That where one is missing the other makes up
Nature begins, art ends
Because only art purifies
What nature was not able to purge
Art is always wise
Simple is nature, so therefore, if one, nimble,
Does not smooth the paths, the other stops
-----
So what's the use of so many substances
In twists, in stills
If matter is unique, fire is unique
Unique is matter, and in each place
The poor have it as well as the rich.
To all unknown and to all innate
Abject to the wandering vulgar
Who sells her for mud at a low price,
Precious to the philosopher, who knows about it.
-----
Wise minds seek
This "maria Sol"(?)so based
That in it as many challenges, as many units
In it are enclosed, united, Sun and Moon
Neither vulgar nor dead
In it is enclosed the fire from which they have life
She gives the igneous water, the fixed earth, she gives, finally, everything
What an educated intellect needs
-----
But you, without observing only one compost
enough for the philosophizing
You take more than one in hand Ignorant chemists
He cooks in a single vessel in the sun's rays
A steam that kneads.
You have exposed a thousand shares to the fire;
So while God made up the whole out of nothing,
You finally return in everything to the primitive nothing.
-----
No soft gums or hard droppings
No human blood or semen
No sour grapes or grassy quints
No sharp waters or corrosive salts
No Roman vitriol
No dry notches (?), impure gold antimony
No sulphur, no mercury
No metals of the vulgar, finally employs
An expert artifice to the great work
-----
So many mixtures, what's the point! high science
Restrictions our Magisterium to a single root:
This one, which I already clearly showed you,
Perhaps more than lawful,
Contains two substances, which have an essence
Substances, which potentially
are silver and gold,
Who will come next in deeds if we equalize their weight
-----
If in action we make silver and gold equal in weight
The volatile is fixed in haloed sulfur
Oh bright brimstone, lively gold
In you I adore the operative virtue of the lit sun!
Sulfur all treasure!
Foundation of art, where nature
Cooks gold & matures it in elixir
D.169
What time is it when the Philosopher begins his work?
R.
Daybreak, because he must never let go of his activity.
D.170
When does he stay?
R.
When the work is at its perfection.
D.171
What time is it at the end of the book?
R.
Noon full; that is to say, the moment when the sun is at its greatest strength, and the son of this star in its most brilliant splendour.
D.172
What is the word for magnesium?
R.
You know if I can & should answer the question, I keep the floor .
D.173
Give me the catchphrase of the Philosophers?
R.
Start, I will answer you.
D.174
Are you an apprentice philosophizing?
R.
My friends & the wise know me.
D.175
How old is a Philosopher?
R.
From the moment of his research, to that of his discoveries: he does not age.
NB - If all the catechisms of Masonry were as instructive as this one, & those of the other grades of this part that I hope to communicate one day to the Public, if it welcomes this draft; it is to be believed that we would apply ourselves more to remembering questions of order; but their aridity tires the memory, wastes time, and repels the mind.
Care has been taken to put in italics all the questions & answers which are absolutely direct to Masonry itself, or which emanate from it, for the ease of the intelligent in this part: given that the purely philosophical object contained in this degree or sublime unknown philosophy, can be equally useful to those who are not Masons, having many curious & lovers of science, who without being imbued with the principles of the Royal Art, apply themselves to the curious researches of nature: indeed, the fate of a good thing , is to be able to be so generally for everyone, without this or that quality taken from a particular society being able to exclude from its participation.The criticism that has always been made against Masonry being to say that, since by its regime it must make men better, it is absurd that its knowledge is absolutely reserved for a handful of beings, & their positive goal is the hermetic philosophy, such as we have just detailed it. I would not endorse this truth, supposing it to be true, because I have made it a rule never to present my particular opinion for a decision rule, & it befits the modesty of any person who mixes to write without pretending to form a system, to leave to each the freedom of the combinations, except to fix by solid reasoning, the irresolutions of those who would like to consult it.MasonsFor my personal taste, I would rather like the thing of the Masons to be effectively the discovery of the great work: I find great probabilities in it, and it is constant that by anatomizing several of what are called great grades, by dismissing the mysticism of some, the fabulous surroundings of the others, one would easily turn them to physical speculation, of which at bottom they seem to want to establish the principles;a single example proves it: the false schisms of Rose-Croix, treated with the pious, vague, lugubrious and brilliant apparatus with which they are overloaded in certain lodges, do not offer to the mind of the one being initiated, holy action, revered mysteries that may have been described in books that this degree copies, so to speak, and it is no longer very close to the true Rose-Croix as it was in its very ancient origin; however, whoever wanted to decompose it, following exactly the same surfaces, under philosophical analogies, would infallibly find the fixed grain there, if this term is permitted, elements of the science of Hermes; & the very signature of proud Masons of this grade, FRC signifies nothing but Brothers Roris Cocti .The grade of the Phoenix, which some appreciate much more than it is worth, belongs entirely to this part, the Tetragrammaton , the Stibium , the Pentacule , are precise emblems: false doctors add to them very false recipes, contained in a manner of procedure prescribed for the perfection of the Stibium ; these errors do not deceive the sage, it is up to him to rectify them: it is always very flattering for Masons to be able to aspire to this quality, & adorn themselves with a title that does honor to the spirit, announces purity from the heart, & brings together intelligent workers, whose aim is to help & enlighten humanity.