THE COMPEMDIUM HERMETICUM
VITRIOLUM HERMETICUM

FIEDRICH-HERBORT
(Theodore a Silva)

1764 - 1833

Vitrescibili - In - Terra - Regenerans - Illud - Oleum - Latet - Universalis - Medicina.

See pages 18. § 79.

Sirach, XXXVIII, 4:

The Lord causes medicinal plants to grow and come out of the earth, and a connoisseur does not despise them.

In the salt of the earth is the oil of mercy and the water of life.

V
Bring together fire and water,
Lord ! it is the work of yours,
For in Him is power and strength;
Knowing how to spurt out wisely
The light of dark darkness,
This is real mastery.

Eckhartshausen

COMPENDIUM HERMETICUM

or Precis of Hermetic Science drawn from many writings and clearly exposed by
Theodore a Silva

I, Corinthians , XII, 4.

There are many gifts, but there is only one Spirit, and there are many forces, but there is only one God who works all in all.

But intelligence is given only to the Elect for the preparation of work and days, to those who are blessed with sufficient fortune and good sense, not to those who have deserved indignity by the gravity of their faults.

Among the gifts of perfect Wisdom we must also count, in this life, the natural knowledge of High Chemistry. Thanks to it, one can bring forth light from darkness and the Immortal from putrescible matter; in doing so, we prepare the universal medicine, when we know how to transform the light into a soft drinkable oil which is then the true balm of Life.

The secret path of God is not to be found in the writings, it must be sought in nature, in what creatures testify to us of God. Something imperishable is hidden in putrescibility; if we eliminate this one, we will arrive at Solomon's secret garden, that is to say in paradise, and we will be able to draw water from the sealed fountain of God.


Various Sentences on the Hermetic or Chemical Art

1.- Know, wise men, that nothing has been hidden by the Adepts except the beginning and the secret of the Art, which is the most difficult and means nothing but this: to destroy the body and change it into spirit.

2.- Any error in the Art consists in the fact that one does not know how to obtain the suitable material.

3.- Admit in the first place that she made many mistakes; for the first work is to dissolve the reality of the Stone.

4.- The Stone is said to be mineral because it is made only of minerals.

5.- It is necessary to choose a metallic nature and that it is partly active and passive, otherwise you will not achieve anything .

6.- It is stupid to believe that spagyric matter should not be prepared and made subtle before it is ready for the Work.

7.- Until you have understood metallic matter according to its very principle, it will not be possible for you to understand true Alchemy and arrive at exact, true and natural transmutation.

8.- The Prime Matter of the bodies is a kind of unctuous and humid vapour; it is in such a vapor that bodies must be changed. And such a vapor is called Stone and principle of the operation which we carry out on the matter, it is the unctuous sulfur from which one still extracts the Fifth Essence [Quintessence].

9: A white smoke or a smoky substance has in it an unctuous humidity from which the alchemist separates the philosophical humidity which is suitable for the Work and which will be clear as a tear; in the first is the metallic essence and in the second the means of uniting the tinctures because it has the nature of sulfur and quicksilver.

10.- The aforesaid smoky and volatile substance is transformed and thus fixed in a stable and firm nature which resists fire.

11. The reason why the metal must be reduced to vapor is that we see all things generated by the mediation of the living Mercury which was itself generated by it. It is by the mercurial nature that we are nourished and nurtured. Indeed, without it, there is no animal or vegetable life, because whatever the thing from which it is separated, corruption and death immediately follow, since it is the leaven, the life and the existence of all things.

12.- Quicksilver is the germ of metals and their origin.

13. Quicksilver is a fire that burns bodies more than ordinary fire; it is our water which dissolves by a solution which is not vulgar but philosophical, in which the body returns to the first water from which it emerged; it is precisely this same water that transforms the body into ashes.

14.- In philosophical water lies the spirit of essence to which alone belongs the power to masterfully corrupt bodies and transmute them into raw matter.

15.- All our magisterium is made with our water, and indeed, it is the germ of metals and all metals are reduced to it.

16. The Stone is unique in the whole world and he who has deviated from this in the principle of the Work labors in vain.

17.- In our Stone are the Sun and the Moon, in potency and not in a visible way, but in power and essence.

18.- If you extract this Stone from the matter where it is and if you begin to work around it until perfection, starting where nature left it, you will find perfection in it and you will rejoice.

19.- The Stone is said to be all reality because it has within it everything necessary for its perfection. It is found everywhere because of its participation in the elements, it is called by all names because of the admirable variety of colors of its nature.

20. Our Stone is considered cold and damp on the outside, but in what is not seen it is hot and dry. It is therefore important to hide what is manifest and to make manifest what was hidden. But what is hidden is a hot, dry oil and that is what gives the color, nothing else.

21.- The first degree of our method or of our Work is the dissolution of the Stone in spiritual water, since the first mode of preparation has for its goal that the Stone becomes Mercury. For it is the first body operating in things to bring them back to its own mode.

22. The water which remains, or the fiery wine, is called corporeal water, that is to say when the body has been reduced to mercury; and out of the water that remains nothing is done; and what does not evaporate in water is called stone.

23.- Mercurial water is matter drawn from all metals and with it all metals are dissolved and cannot be reduced to anything else. If the metals were not dissolved in their matter by this mercurial water, what we want to do would not be possible.

24.- The Water of the Philosophers is called Bronze of Hermes. Adepts have spoken of this in their writings. In our water all the transformations take place, namely sublimation, distillation, solution, coagulation, fixation.

25. They are all done in the aforesaid water, as in an artificial container, which is the big secret.

26.- The Adepts have given multiple and varied denominations of these operations which in reality are one and the same thing so that the Science remains obscure to the uninitiated.

27.- The permutation of the body into water is the tincture of any body. But we must observe what difference there is between the tincture of water and that of oil: the tincture of water washes and purifies, the tincture of oil tints and colors.

28.- The spirit of metals is the raw material of our Stone which must be extracted from the bodies of metals.

29. This spirit itself is the extractor and reducer of the soul, and the reformer of the whole Work and all that we seek is in it.

30.- If the spirit of metals were liberated as a result of the inertia of its body, it will exert its movements and its actions on any body that is subject to it.

31.- It is because of menstruation that the bodies undergo a natural dissolution and that their spirit passes from potentiality to the act and according to this definition, it is shown that the dissolution of metals should only be done from their principle.

32.- The spirit is double, namely preparing and tinting. The preparing spirit dissolves and extracts the bronze from the body of magnesia and again reduces it to itself. The tinting spirit is said to be the fifth essence, which is the penetrating force and energy.

33.- The Mercury of the Philosophers is the soul of any dissolved metal having the ability to best transform what is similar to it.

34 – Our mercury, ie the tincture, is extracted from the incorruptible salt [grain] created by divine power. This substance is an unctuous ether; it is in it that is the spirit of the fifth essence to which alone belongs the virtue of corrupting and transforming Gold into raw material. This is the greatest secret hidden by the Ancients.

35.- The gold extracted from this Stone is the philosophical Gold and it is tincture endowed with a soul.

36.- Our gold is not ordinary gold because it is spiritual; it dissolves imperfect bodies by separating the pure from the impure.

37.- The Bronze of the Philosophers is their Gold, and what is perfect in this bronze is the green color [viridity] that our Magisterium transforms into our Gold.

38.- O blessed viridity which regenerates all things! Hence we know that no vegetation, no fruit sprouts without the green color appearing in them; this is why the Adepts have named it germ because it has the virtue of making it germinate and cause it to grow.

39.- All truth that is found in the Alchemical Art is to join the wet to the dry. By moist, we mean the liquid spirit freed from all impurity; and by dry means the perfect body, pure and calcined. To dissolve is to transform the body into spiritual nature, but to coagulate is, on the contrary, to return the spirit to the corporeal nature so that what is fixed becomes volatile and what is volatile becomes fixed.

40.- The solution of the body and the coagulation of the spirit are two things, but they have only one operation; for the spirit does not coagulate without the body dissolving and the body does not dissolve without the spirit coagulating.

41.- With the humid radical is mixed a subtle and pure earth without which the spirit of the Stone could not be retained and would not possess the complement of its force.

42.- Philosophical putrefaction is nothing other than the corruption or destruction of bodies.

43.- Our putrefaction is neither dirty nor impure. But it is the mixing of water with earth and earth with water through minute particles until the body achieves unity.

44.- The earth with its water is putrefied and purified; when it has been purified, the whole Work will come to an end with the help of God.

45. The sublime quicksilver from our bronze, of which everything is made, is pure water and true tincture. For from our bronze comes the white sulfur in which the spirit is held so that it does not flee.

46: If you haven't made our bronze white first, you can't make it red, because no one can pass from one extreme to the other without going through a middle ground.

47.- Our magnesia, once made white, does not allow the spirit to escape nor any other trace of bronze to appear. It is she, in fact, who is the fixed white sulfur which tints and perfects all bodies.

48. Sulfur is the spirit of regenerating nature which acts in the humidity which suits it; its substance is incombustible and it gives color to its sons [those it engenders].

49.- The spouse of this sulfur is our mercury receiving the fetus by its impregnation, because its humidity is proper to the creation of metals.

50.- The best sulphur, called Apyron, is considered alive, resplendent, very brilliant.

51.- The Sulfur of the Sages burns to whiten and improve.

52.- The Dragon is the quicksilver extracted from the bodies; he has body, soul and spirit.

53.- His tail is his Salt, ashes in ashes. This magnified ash is the leaven of vulgar gold.

54.- Of all things one can make ashes and this ash salt, and from this salt comes water; from this water is made mercury and from this mercury, by various operations, the Sun.

55.- The root of the Art is the soap of the Philosophers which is the ore of all the salts, stronger in its kind than all the salts. With him, all bodies and minds are calcined, with him all solutions and coagulations are made.

56.- Many are mistaken in the extraction of Mercury from Gold and Silver; but if they read carefully what the Philosophers say, they would arrive at it very easily and with little work.

57.- The tincture is extracted from our gold, not from common gold; it may be called the soul of gold, for it is the oil of living sulphur.

58.- The oil of living sulfur is made with the first water of the metals by means of gentle heat; and you will see the oil float like the distilled liquor of Gold, incombustible. It is the true form and substance of living sulfur.

59.- This oil which binds the natures by giving them the appearance of wax and which brings the separated elements into medicine retains the color of the Spirit until it thickens and then takes on the yellow color and the appearance of metals.

60.- In the primordial Salt lies the lead of the Philosophers. Lead is the name of the male among the Philosophers and Azoth the name of the female. The male is hot and dry, the female cold and humid.

61.- Oil is the peat of all the metals swimming above the menses after their dissolution. It is, in fact, necessary that the bodies become oil. This oil is also called star of the Sun.

6 2.- The quicksilver which is extracted from perfect metals is said to be incombustible oil, soul and ether, splendor of bodies, because it confers immortal life on dead and imperfect metals.

63. All metals are reduced to mercuriality; therefore, they were mercury because everything participates in what it is reduced to. Thus vanishes the objection of those who say that the specificity of metals cannot be transmuted; which is true, as they assert, except that they can be reduced to their raw material. Then truly you will have the proper germ of the metals, from which they are artificially engendered. Indeed, just as metals have been generated naturally from the very germ of metals, so can they be generated from the same germ by proceeding artificially.

64.- Three forms are required and are sufficient for the whole magisterium, namely the white smoke, that is to say the celestial Water, the Lion viridity and the Bronze of Hermes. But these three elements properly form a whole, because all the magisterium is done with our water and it is by it and with it that all the necessary things are done. Only water does everything by itself, dissolves everything, coagulates everything, undoes everything without the help of anything. It is in it that pleasant colors usually appear.

65. The receptacle of the Philosophers is their water, but all would recognize that water itself must be contained in a certain receptacle.

66.- The full moon is the root of everything through it, water takes on its full meaning because it is dominated by all the moods; the aerial soul and the secret fire of our philosophy; [it's] our water. (aeschmayim of the Kabbalists).

67.- Just as the year is divided into 4 parts, so also our blessed Work; In effect :
First, it's winter, cold and damp.
Second spring, hot, humid and flowery.
Third summer, hot, dry and glowing weather.
Fourth autumn, cold and dry weather, conducive to collecting fruit.

68.- In the Work of the Stone four colors appear: black, white, yellow and red. This darkness in which the moisture is is changed into various colors and finally into whiteness.

69 - The bleaching is the beginning of the work and the support of the whole body, and this one does not then pass through various colors, except to the red which is at the end of the cooking of the dye. Yellow is what occurs between white and red and is not said to be a perfect color. Now, in the decoction, after the bleaching, you cannot be mistaken; because the amount of heat gradually increases. The reddish color is created as a result of additional assimilation, like blood which, in humans, does not regenerate if it is not assimilated beforehand by the liver.

70:- Natural fire alone, fortified by new natural fire, is our intention, because unnatural fire is harmful and natural fire contains active virtue in itself. Whatever the elemental celestial virtue does in the vessels of nature, it also does in the vessels of the alchemist, only in the way things are formed according to the natural vessels of nature. What nature does by means of the heat of the sun, the heat of the lamp also does; this one is however tempered so that it does not exceed the motor and formative virtue [of nature].

71.- When you see the white appear on the surface of your container, rejoice and be certain that in this white the red is hidden. And this reddish color, you must not extract it, but only subject it to fire until the red is completely done there.

72.- By putrefaction everything is digested and becomes part of the putrid; this one is fetid, but pure.

73. Heat acting in a moist body first produces black [nigreda]; make sure to get the color black at first and then you will be sure that you putrefy and that you are proceeding on the right path.

74. When the Philosophers saw the thing dissolved in this manner, they called sal ammoniac and when it was putrefied, then they said our Stone is vile and is revealed in the dunghill, and when it has been turned into water [they said] both rich and poor possess it and it is found everywhere ; and when it was white, they called it arsenic, and after all that is white, and virgin's milk; and when it has become red, they call it Sulphur, Hyacinth, Blood and the name of all that is red.

75. Many Adepts have called calcination fixation and they are right because all these ways of operating are in sublimation. Certainly, if someone sublimates perfectly, he does all the work and it is done in one oven and one vessel.

76.- The whole purpose of sublimation consists in this: once the earthiness of the spirits has been removed, once the most evanescent and vaporous part has been rejected from them, there must remain their median substance, that is, that equalized part which makes a simple fusion above the fire, without burning.

77. We cannot find any substance resistant to fire, except the only unctuous, perfect and non-burning moisture; and this, when it is duly prepared, leads all the bodies it touches to the most authentic solar complement and, above all bodies, above all the moon.

78.-The salt of metals is the Stone of the Philosophers. Indeed, our Stone is water frozen in gold and silver; it resists fire and dissolves in its own water, of which it is composed. Therefore, the reduction of bodies to their raw material is nothing other than the resolution of frozen matter.

79.- From all the metals can be drawn Vitriol, that is to say, the fused and pure salt which is the true Philosopher's Stone in which the Sun, the Moon and the Mercury are united and alive.

80.- This fusible salt, which the Arabs call Alembroth Salt, is a very noble, fixed, very fine salt, penetrating all the interior humors of the body, complete elixir, secret of secrets.

81. All fixed salt is considered as a body or as a residue, and such salt is extracted from calcined things; and our salt, which is tincture, is extracted from the lime of metals.

82.- From such a salt, here is what an author says, first it becomes ashes, then salt, and from this salt, by various operations, is made the Mercury of the Philosophers.

83. You will know as a great and certain secret that there is no shorter way and means than to operate by the salt of metals, for in it no defect can arise.

84.- Whoever possesses fusible salt and incombustible oil would praise God.

85.- The salt of metals transmutes vulgar quicksilver into veritable Sun and Moon.

86.- To sublimate is to extract from the elementary residues the fifth essence (quintessence) or the oil which is the Heaven of the Philosophers or the ascending Nature; the elementary residues are the earth.

87.- From the Lead of the Philosophers is extracted a certain oil of the color of gold or almost; if you sublimate with it the mineral or vegetable or mixed Stone after the first fixing in three or four forms, that will exempt you from all work of solution and coagulation. The reason is that it is this hidden oil which allows the medicine to penetrate and join all the bodies and which will increase its effect extraordinarily. If you know how to prepare and adapt this oil well and if you work with the aforementioned mixture, you will be able to compose the Stone in thirty days.

88.- From all metals one can derive salt, and every salt of metal is the elixir. In the salt of the metal are hidden the element of earth and the element of fire. Fire and earth are the extreme elements; water and air the medium elements. The two extremes, fire and earth, are fixed; both media, water and air, are volatile. In all things that are combustible, their water and oil can be separated from the earth. But in the metals, the oil - or the fire - cannot be separated from the earth because the things which have been fixed in the fire remain united.

89.- All the Ancient Sages of Alchemy drew conclusions about the Salt which they say Soap of Wisdom and Key which closes and opens, and again: which closes so that no one opens.

SEVEN NECESSARY PROPERTIES IN STONE.

1° -Oleaginity [oily character], projecting universal fusion and openness to medicine. Because the first necessary step of medicine is the sustained and suitable fusion which is accomplished thanks to the natural oleaginity.

2° - Spiritual Subtlety , flowing in the fusion like water, penetrating into the depth of the thing susceptible to mutations because, after the fusion, necessary for medicine is its means of penetration.

3° - The Affinity between the elixir and the thing to be transmuted, giving the faculty to receive and to retain, because after the penetration the adhesion is necessary for the medicine.

4° - Radical, igneous Humidity , coagulating and consolidating the retained parts by means of the inseparable union of the co-similar parts.

5°- - Purity and Clarity, purifying, which gives a splendid radiance to the thing to be transmuted.

6° - The fixing Earth, tempered, subtle, incombustible, which gives a stable fixation.

7° - The Tincture, which gives the resplendent and perfect color.


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Just as those who desire to understand the marvels of God and earnestly ask the Father for the illumination of his lights, receive in the same measure the spirit of divine wisdom which leads them to all truth and by life-giving faith leads them to the conqueror, so this Lion of the tribe of Judah who alone unseals and opens the book of regeneration, closed with the seven seals, in every faithful man, so that there may be born in him that Lamb who from the beginning was slain and who is only Lord of Lords, and who by his cross of humility and meekness crucifies old Adam to death and regenerates the new man born from the seed of the Word of God; likewise a [typical] process is found in the philosophical work of regeneration, where the viridian Leo (Cf.

FROM PREPARATORY WORK TO THE HERMETIC WORK.

Nothing has been kept more secret by hermetic authors than the beginning of the Work, which is the most delicate operation; it consists in this: destroying raw matter by dissolution and transforming it into a spiritual liquid. No Adept has called raw matter by its true name, for they speak only of raw matter which is taken from raw matter.

The preparatory work therefore consists in separating the raw material from the raw material; indeed, it would be stupid to believe that hermetic matter does not have to undergo a preliminary preparation.

Consequently, the secret of the Alchemical Art is the knowledge of the material to be used in order to draw the raw material from it; it is the preparation of the Chaos of the Sages; it is the separation of true principles; it is knowing how to put them together naturally and submit them to an appropriate cooking process. There are many matters whose principles can be separated; and there are many paths in the Alchemical Art, but the shortest are the best. Let no one be misled by the multiple ways in which some, in the most painful way, have obtained the raw material.

The Adepts say that their Art consists in dissolving and coagulating, and they must be believed; for matter must first be dissolved, reduced to its constituents, which must then be united by coagulation.

Among the minerals one should choose those in which the light has reached a point of maximum concentration and in which the most fiery fire is also contained.

Nor is it necessary to use a naturally occurring mineral; because if you can't find it, you can also work on metals. But as these have too high a density due to the binding action of the underground Saturn, they cannot be dissolved properly before having previously reduced them to the mineral state, in order to make them permeable to hermetic solvents.

A certain author speaks of a particular element which he calls Electrum mineral immaturatum. He who comes to know this compound, knows the raw, yet already elaborate matter which the Adept must use to draw the radical moisture from it. It is extremely difficult for someone who seeks the secret without being guided by an experienced master, to find the optimal point which must be that of the real matter constituting the object of the philosophical Work. Most researchers are usually so confused by the abundance of recommendations that they cannot find or recognize salt [Korn]that resists fire or true radical humidity. It is precisely what many authors call thick and viscous humidity, it is the real raw material of metals which alone resists fire because it is mixed with a white earth.

To obtain this radical humidity, the minerals must be crushed and calcined, but they must be treated in a very special way.

Whoever wants to prepare medicine and prepare metals by freeing them of their impurities, must know how to make minerals and metals completely volatile, that is to say, to make of them a smoke or a vapor which rises, because this is the specific quality of the raw material of metals. But this vapor precipitates into water and this can be transformed into a fixed earth.

The reason for turning minerals and metals into a volatile white smoke or vapor is the same as for other created things: everything begins as an ethereal substance, the truly living mercury that condenses into a thick, viscous liquid . Of this liquid, all the Sages say that it is a thick, mercurial, sulphurous water; that it is the pure universal leaven of all things and contains the essence of life.

The Sages unanimously call this original water mercury and they say that it contains everything they seek.

In its state of extension and purity, mercury is the vital ether or the universal vital element. In the liquid state, it is the universal solvent and it offers many similarities with a pure phosphoric acid. In the solid state, it is the Central Salt which fixes the volatile.

Mercury, this astral spirit, is the raw material of all things; it is the life of all of us and we attract it by breathing in it. It is also the essential key to Art.

It is quite true that our material contains in itself all that is necessary for the Art and that it is necessary to avoid, while working it, all the superfluities; nevertheless, this remark applies not to the preparatory work, but after the work, for the latter is the work of nature alone, while the preparatory work is entirely artificial.

An author briefly defines the three principal operations of the philosophical Work in this way: in the first operation one makes clear water; in the second, it is precipitated into an earth called salt, moon or silver; by the third one obtains a blood-red sulphur. The work, therefore, by means of which this clear water is prepared, is the preliminary work.

From all the metals, but particularly from iron and copper, when they have been reduced to a kind of mineral, one can prepare a philosophical vitriol from which emanates, by distillation, a white smoke which precipitates into a clear water in which the three principles are contained.

The white smoke of mercury, expelled from the Electrum, is the real Chaos of the Sages where red and white mingle; it is first of all a dry water, or a coagulated air contained, invisible, in the raw material.

OF THE RAW MATERIAL.

The raw material is the seed of multiplication. This seed is coagulated air; in it are united in one liquid the two basic substances, that is to say, the sulfur of nature and the substance of nature. This is the incombustible element, or else the pure carbon in extension which has united with the vital ether. This liquid is nature's radical moisture; the Ancients called it Fountain of Life.

It is only in this matter that one can find the Mercury of the Sages which contains in itself all that the Adepts seek. They also call this matter Chaos, a quicksilver which contains within itself the essence of life. This Chaos has all the properties that can be found under the sun; it is cold and hot, wet and dry, and of all colors. But these qualities are so confusedly mingled that they cannot be differentiated from one another.

All the Hermetic Sages assert that insofar as one knows the raw material, one can take it for certain that he has discovered the sanctuary of nature; for one then possesses the igneous water, or the aqueous fire which the most ancient Sages call the Universal Mercury.

In the mist, or smoke which has arisen from chaotic matter and which has settled in the receptacle as mercurial liquor, are contained the three principles which will then develop from the liquor by distillation and separation.

First appears the white and subtle mind; with this one then obtains sulphur, or anima, living fire, a transparent oil of a beautiful ruby ​​red. Finally remains the salt that is also extracted with the spirit.

The three principles constitute the most immediate matter in view of the philosophical work; for the matter of metals is double; in its first state, it is the least immediately usable material, because it is made up of four elements that the artist can neither produce nor process; he must therefore concern himself with the immediate matter in which are found the three principles which can be drawn from all substances.

OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL STONE.

The word stone has different meanings which best apply to the three different stages of the Work. The stone of the first stage is the pure, spiritual and mercurial substance, or again the water of the beginning of the world, the radical humidum. The stone of the second stage is this same matter, cooked, digested and coagulated into an incombustible sulphur.

In the third stage, the same matter is brought to the perfection of the fixed and coloring dye. The Sages also called their Stone animal, vegetable and mineral; not because it must be taken from the three kingdoms, but because it is a regenerated body in which are included all the virtues and qualities of the three natural kingdoms, including the ether; these have been raised, by dissolution and artificial coagulation, to the highest degree of their previously paralyzed power.

The Stone is called vegetable because of its fertilizing virtue; but it is called animal when it has not yet received metallic seeding by fermentation with gold and it can be used as medicine. It is called mineral when it has been finished to projection. One calls preferably, and rightly, the Salt of nature Stone of the Sages because it is the true, incombustible and stable seed of metals and the Father of Gold.

PHILOSOPHICAL FIRE.

Our fire, as a being whose action is natural, is the key to our Art. He rests, invisible, in most things and remains quite inactive until the Art puts him in a state of action. It cannot be produced, because it is from all eternity and it engenders everything in the world.

This elemental fire is the light of the first day of creation which, separated from the other elements, produces a glow; but united with these, he is invisible and unknowable. Natural fire, because it is the principle of form, cannot be captured and separated in its purity by analytical destruction or by artificial intervention, for the senses cannot grasp forms, which are spiritual.

It is deep within the philosophical earth that the sacred fire has its strongest concentration; but it develops easily by the action of elements related to it in radical humidity when this penetrates into the depths of the earth.

The founders of the oldest priesthood did not say in vain that Heaven is in the Earth, but in an earthly way, and that the Earth is in Heaven, but in a heavenly way; they are therefore close relatives.

But the original fire is never without a link with the earth, and this link which unites the expansive force and the contractive force is radical humidity, which is the universal balm, the precious elixir of nature. It is not under the domination of vulgar fire, for it neither diminishes nor evaporates under the action of the latter.

The natural fire is called by some the Green Lion, not because of the color, but because of its fertilizing virtue; it is hidden in the philosophical Salt and perhaps considered the blood of nature. When an artist, separating the philosophical matter, sees a luminous substance, subtle, clear, incandescent and shining like a ruby, he can be sure that he has seen the secret of the Sages.

This subtle and luminous liquid is called by some the Heaven of the Philosophers and it constitutes the finest and clearest part of living sulphur. The Sky of the Philosophers is a subtle oil which is of a very igneous nature and which constitutes the true radical humidity; this is incombustible and it can coagulate in such a way that no action of fire is able to drive it away.

In their enigmatic writings, the hermetists still speak of three different fires: natural fire, unnatural fire and anti-natural fire. They call natural fire the igneous spirit which is hidden in matter and which can be awakened by suitable stimulation.

They call unnatural fire that which must be added and artificially introduced into matter as a stimulant in order to increase the power of natural fire.

They call unnatural fire that which corrupts the [alchemical] composition and destroys its "temperament", but it is truly the same which then opens the way to generation .

Under the denomination of horse manure, the Philosophers mean not so much an exterior heat as that, interior, of the red sulfur which contains the natural fire. They also mean by horse manure the moist fire of the raw material water. This is why an author writes: "take the earth and calcine it to make a moist dung, until it becomes white and greasy, then you will have fixed and incombustible sulphur".

In nature, one loves the other, that is to say that each element loves that which is related to it. This sympathy consists of a magnetic force; but sympathy cannot be found elsewhere than in a hermaphroditic substance which has the magnet at its center. He who knows how to unite Heaven and Earth will find the magnet just as easily. Magnetism, that is to say the reciprocal attraction of the Salt and the Spirit of all things, as well as their union, produces the matter of the tincture; and if, by uniting a spiritual mineral oil and the earth, that is to say the Salt, we have obtained a greasy and heavy liquid, then we possess the seed of all the metals.

The inner fire that was discussed is the one that causes the Stone to "ripen" in time and coagulate; the outer fire, which is absolutely necessary in the operation, only stimulates and sets in motion the inner. But of common external fire, which can only be the fire of a lamp, it is said that it must be quite moderate and not exceed the natural internal heat; that is why those who make special mention of it, compare the heat necessary for the maturation of our tincture to that of a brooding hen.

And when several authors strongly recommend against bringing vulgar fire to the sanctuary, this is only one of their quarrels, and it is true that vulgar fire should not be added to matter, for fear of corrupting it; but that does not exclude the exterior heat which must be put under the glass.

PURE LAND.

The white earth, the innermost element of material nature, is the basic substance in which the three principles are contained. She is nature subject to variations, the first visible and intelligible being that God created; it always appears in a white form. The Ancients said: "omnia in manu Dei alba sunt, ut ab ipso tingi possint" .

The white earth lies deep within all things; it is the tabernacle of the sun; it is not necessary to manufacture it. When we have the universal key of nature, we can open each body and extract what is most intimate. The philosophical earth is alive, greening, it is a veritable balm that preserves the body; this is why some call it the Green Lion, which really characterizes this force, contained in it, which engenders, fertilizes and multiplies. This force is the soul of the world which Solomon calls the flame of the Lord which never goes out.

The primitive earth, in its total purity, is of divine origin, like man, and like him it is endowed with a celestial spirit. She is the Salt that our Savior calls the only good. She is the crystalline sea from which flows the water of life which is mixed with the fire of love.

The Ancients spoke of three kinds of lands which are necessary for the Work and which follow one another or arise from one another; but there is only one land which, according to the degree of its purity, is called differently; the first is the land of pearls; the second the land of leaves, and the third the land of Gold.

The pure earth which is necessary for our Work must be truly crystal clear; it has nothing in common with anything except the pure vital ether; the latter attracts her to herself and she becomes pregnant with her works. The Ancients called this magnetic and crystalline earth nitrum et uitrum. For Pythagoras, it was fixation of the rays of the sun. Hermetists call this fixing of the solar rays the Seal of Hermes, because the light in extension has concentrated in the Work and has, so to speak, sealed it.Man and earth, with their mysteries, are alike entangled in the nets of curse and death, and they both need to be regenerated. It is by water and the Spirit that the regeneration of all the things of this world takes place, particularly that of the earth; the latter takes place through the intervention of an aqueous spirit which has been drawn from a hermaphroditic seed.

The earth is the receptacle of all the other elements; when it has been transformed by moist fire and by pure fire, it becomes the fourth principle which is to be considered as a celestial tincture.

The earth dissolves little by little under the action of the volatile spirit which it has attracted to itself; it is then liquid and crystalline.

EXPLANATION OF SOME EXPRESSIONS USED IN THE HERMETIC WRITINGS.

Closing the Seal of Hermes does not mean that the opening of the glass retort in which the material is contained must be sealed or closed by fusion; it is done by means of the coagulating and fixing quality of the Central Salt or of the pure transparent earth which retains the other two principles in such a way that no igneous force can separate them if they have been united according to the precepts of the Art.

Greek word athanatos which means immortal. The athanor is then this imputrescible and incombustible earth in which the forces from above coagulate and which, subjected to the calorific action of digestion, come to maturity and dry up as in an oven until the tincture is ready. The Vase of Hermes, or the Natural Vase of the Sages, is the water of this same tincture; it is a menstrual substance and the womb of nature. In this vase are accomplished all the degrees of the Work and when the Sages speak of their vase, it is necessary to understand by that their first water. That the matter must be contained in an artificial container, in a retort of suitable shape, is obvious.

When the Sages speak of a double way, that is to say of the wet way and the dry way, they only want to imply that the Stone, in the first period of its cooking, is liquid, that is to say wet; but that when it has rid itself of its superfluous humidity and has purified itself, dryness then appears. This is why they also say that it must first be fired because the Stone is damp, and then it must be calcined because it is dry.

The different denominations of the Work are not to be taken literally, and it is the unique water of the Philosophers which accomplishes the different operations of solution, coagulation, putrefaction, calcination, sublimation and fixation.

The first dissolution is the beginning of the Work; this beginning has most often been kept hidden by the Philosophers; it is indeed the most delicate part of the Work. It consists in destroying the body to transform it into a spiritual liquid.

Coagulation takes place at the same time as dissolution; because when the raw matter is transformed into water by dissolution, the spirit and the body are reunited, the body becomes liquid and the spirit becomes fixed.

Washing must be understood in the symbolic sense, because it is the purification of the earth which is accomplished by the action of the interior fire.

Thus reverberation is only the action of the inner fire.

Calcination is not an exhalation of our substance, but a reintegration of the radical moisture into the mineral body after all spirit has been extracted from it. The Sages calcine by means of their water full of celestial fire. Calcination is only the effect of imbibition, because it is thanks to this liquid penetration that the interior fire increases in the earth.

Putrefaction is the purification of radical moisture by natural fermentation. Putrefaction is a slow [quiet] combustion; the bodies are radically dissolved and at the end only their pure principles remain.

The sublimation of the Sages is to make a small thing into something noble, precious. Accordingly, the Sages say bodies are sublimated when they are brought into a delicate, spiritual form. The true meaning of the word sublimate is therefore: to make perfect. The tincture must be carried to its highest degree of perfection, so that it ascends to heaven and, after having passed through the dark tomb of putrefaction, it once again knows the resurrection.

When Hermes said that the matter of the Stone should rise to heaven and come down to earth again, that does not mean that the matter should rise to the upper part of the vase, but only that it should be given back to it a little of the spiritual part which must be sufficient - after it has been coagulated as much as possible, so that this impregnation dissolves it and makes it spiritual .

The repeated operation of dissolution and coagulation gives the tincture virtues, as well as the ability to penetrate bodies to make them noble.

The fermentation of the Stone cannot occur before it is completed; then, it is itself the ferment that is used to melt a certain portion of gold and make the coloring powder.

The incineration of the Stone is the preparation by which it is made as fusible as wax. This operation is done by soaking the red powder with Azoth, whose subtle oleaginity gives it qualities of meltability and strong penetration. But this imbibition must be done gradually and under the effect of very gentle heat.

The Red Globe of the Sages is the Phoenix born of fire, the Gold of the Sages, their cinnabar.

The Aqueous Stone of the Sages is their crystal, it is the glass-like Azoth, the Palace of Stone that the king can go to to reside.

Sometimes lead is called gold, sometimes gold called lead; but this is philosophical lead which is not known in the secular world. It is the fiery golden sulfur, the red lion, the blood of the basilisk.

The igneous and fixed substance of nature is the inner force of the seed of substances. The Ancients called it Astrum.

The dye with which nature colors gold is undoubtedly an extremely subtle, pure, fixed and incombustible sulphur. If gold is to become a colorant, it must necessarily be enhanced by this incombustible sulfur and become pure tincture.

The Spirit of Life or, according to Hermetic language, potable Gold, that subtle and oleaginous substance which constitutes the innermost nucleus of bodies, such is, to tell the truth, the most ineffable secret of the Art; it is around him that revolves everything that is found in the hermetic writings.

Because Wisdom is a Light and from this Light is constituted the life of all creatures; and because life is a tincture, and it is not found in any kingdom so stable and constant as in the mineral kingdom, men illumined by the Spirit of God have followed this light which proceeds from hidden wisdom, step by step, into the compact kingdom of metals. It was because they had reflected on the fact that light can nowhere have a more brilliant life than in those substances which are least subject to decomposition. And since they found her, thanks to their work, in a dark body with an unattractive aspect where one does not easily seek her, they freed her; by means of the light from above, its origin,they colored it, multiplied it and then used it as a medicine to prolong life and to make imperfect metals noble.

AN EXTRACT FROM THE PEAT OF THE PHILOSOPHERS.

By means of a moderate heat, one extracts from the metallic matter a certain fatty humidity, mixed with a subtle earth and purified to the maximum which is called elixir and thanks to which one transmutes the metals. But it is required that this external heat, that is to say this artificial fire, be moderated, so that it does not exceed the natural intrinsic heat, obviously so that this intrinsic heat retains its own humidity; for if the external heat is excessive, the fatty humidity mixed with the subtle earth evaporates under the action of a burning fire and cannot remain in the body.

The sulfur of gold, or Astrum solis, is not only found in gold, but also in other metals such as copper and iron, since the color red is obtained from these and the latter is artificially prepared by making the tincture from it by means of the spiritus mercurii.

The brightest red-golden sulfurs are found in iron and copper when these have been reduced to true vitriol, in which the three principles are contained. When one has such vitriol, one puts it in a good retort and first brings out, gently, then stronger, the white spirit in the form of vapour; which rushes into a clear liquor which is the primordial water. This liquor is distilled again from another very clean retort. First appears a subtle, white spirit, which must be kept in a well-closed glass container. At the bottom of the retort remain the red oil and the philosophical salt. The red oil, because of its density, is called lead, or gold; it is very thick and of very igneous quality; it is extracted by means of the mercurial clear spirit. Finally there remains the white and transparent salt of magnificence, the base of the Stone; it is extracted with the aid of a highly rectified spirit of wine; after which one filters this liquid which one then makes evaporate gently until it takes firm, consistency.

The diversity of colors which appear in the course of the Philosophical Work comes from the interior sulphur, the true author of all tinctures and their diversity, which is noticed in all subjects, whether natural or produced by Art. These shades can be perceived very clearly when firing the first universal subject. But as soon as the white appears, the natural sulfur shows itself immediately. This one, while continuing its maturation, becomes red, because the white finally succeeds the red, only by means of the heat which it is necessary to continue to maintain and to reinforce to obtain the red.

The salt water of the raw material is the magnet which attracts in abundance the solar rays; by its action they can coagulate so strongly that it forms like an incandescent coal.

If one holds this first salt water enclosed in a glass ball, and makes the sun's rays concentrate there, it gradually turns red and one can draw from it the red solar powder or the sulfur Aphar, the dry earth.

If the spiritual water imbibes and assimilates the red sulfur, one obtains double mercury or truly drinkable gold, a miraculous medicine. This soul of gold is not perfect if it is not sufficiently digested until it looks like a thick red oil. We take one part for ten of a well-prepared golden lime which we soak and mix until the two bodies are well assimilated. This imbibition and digestion must be carried out three times so that three parts of anima are added to ten parts of golden lime and they unite intimately under the action of a gentle heat. Finally, this mass is melted in a small crucible, resulting in a vitrified red product, which,

But if you put even more anima auri, the gold and the silver are transformed into a fatty mass which finally becomes an oil: it is the elixir.

The Fixed Blood Stone, or Universal Stone, is this oil, coagulated on a lamp fire using gold lime, until it becomes a dark red powder.

If you want to increase the color, you soak a part of it with three parts of Azoth (igneous oil of the Philosophers). If we put this compound, tightly closed, in the heat, it begins to blacken, and after six to seven days it will be completely dried out.

The dissolution and coagulation operations can be repeated until the Stone becomes a shiny oil which cannot coagulate any longer. This is the eternal fire of the Philosophers, which is scarlet red and can multiply itself thousands of times. Such an oil has amazing virtues; if applied to the root of an almost dead tree, it begins to flower and bear fruit again. If you mix it under the oil of the lamp, it burns constantly, without stopping; of any crystal she makes the most beautiful precious stone. We find in this oil the influence of all the celestial bodies and it exceeds all that there is good that is known on this earth.

If you want to make a coloring, you take a crucible such as goldsmiths use and put in it a suitable portion of purified quicksilver; put the crucible on a soft charcoal fire, and when the quicksilver begins to crackle, pour into it the proper portion of tincture wrapped in a small sheet of wax. We put a large piece of incandescent coal at the top of the crucible and we make a good fire. After some time, the metal is poured into the still previously heated and coated with soap. This must have a shape such that the metal comes out easily in the form of a serpentine.

But it is more appropriate to add a portion of tincture completed ten times its weight of silver in fusion, which is also transformed into pure tincture which one can again add proportionally to another silver in quantity ten times greater; half an ounce of this tinctorial mass added to one hundred half ounces of a metal of lesser quality transforms it into pure gold.

PRESCRIPTIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS FOR THE PALINGENESIS OF PLANTS.

The plants of the Philosophers are calcined, that is to say that one evaporates in a closed container, mixed with fiery water (igneous water / aqueous fire) a volatile salt in which is hidden a resurgent virtue. It is then necessary to gather the ashes and mix them with the fixed salt using a philosophical May dew (mercurial spirit). The container once well closed, it must be turned for some time under the action of a moderate fire so that the principles unite well.

Only the mercurial spirit has the key to the prisons, that is to say the material bonds of souls, the key which allows them to be delivered and to bring them to magnificence. Its constituents are a natural sulfur and a natural acid. By means of the initial water, the plants are dissolved to make a white earth. With the help of the mercurial spirit, that is to say a soft oil, this earth is reduced to the state of a viscous and greasy paste which is dried little by little under the action of gentle heat until the material has become a grey-blue ash.