Hermann Fictuld
Soul! See how the world mocks God’s wondrous works, And those who are full of wine, whom He makes full of spirit. Selah! He will be truly satiated who is drunk in spirit.
To the lovers of chemical wisdom,
After many have dared to write about the famous, world-renowned name, AVREUM VELLUS, or the golden fleece, but none of them have sufficiently explained what it is about; rather, as they began and were inclined to speak of it, they hesitated, broke off, and remained silent, which benefited no one except to double the desires and increase the search: So we have deemed it good to present a discourse on this well-renowned, but nonetheless unknown name, what it is about, how it originated, why the alchemists have used it, and how it rose to great fame.
When formerly those world-famous, highly wise, indeed most learned and eloquent men, such as Plato, who was bewildered by the tumult of the people; Cicero, who delivered his words with trembling and stammering; Isocrates, who out of fear and terror could not open his mouth; Socrates, who knew not what words to bring forth; And a Greek Theophrastus stood dumbfounded: When they had to present or propose something to a community. What should we think, who possess not the least equality of wisdom, sciences, scholarship, and eloquence; and what is more: as today’s world far surpasses the old world in scholarship, languages, and eloquence, we should not only fall silent in consideration, but with Erasmus Morieni and Archilochio throw away our weapons and shields, and flee the world in fear and terror. As such a history of antiquities endures much contradiction and is exposed to powerful critics; Nevertheless, we have endeavored, sufficiently assured by both the literal understanding and the symbolism, and the traditions of the ancients, to extract the high truth from the foundations, under the oldest veils and rudder, and lay it before the truthloving: as the law and gospel oblige us: to serve our neighbor.
We have nothing to do with the lofty and proud spirits of this world, nor with all their scholarship, unless, as the Lord said about Shimei: Curse David. Therefore, we give the assurance that we will not respond to it with a jot. However, those should be mindful of the instruction, which King David gave to his son Solomon, when he said: You know what Shimei did to me, and what Mephibosheth did to me on the day of my persecution when I fled from Absalom, and I swore not to harm them, but you act according to your wisdom. The same may also follow from a faithful Solomon.
Thus, we present to you again, and indeed as an appendix to our Test Stone, a very special history under the name, Aureum Vellus or Golden Fleece, and under the same - the matter and practice of the Philosopher’s Stone. We assure you that this is not new news, a tale, or a never-before-heard history, nor a phantasy or romance, but a very old history about a high, noble, and precious truth that is firmly founded in the writings of the wise, pious, and godly teachers, so that the power of darkness may never overthrow it.
This high truth and noble science has been revealed by God the Almighty, who created heaven and earth, who has life and death in His hand, who made man from dust and returns him to dust, to the first man, the poor fallen Adam, as a consolation after the sad fall of sin; For when he was seduced by the serpent and Eve and acted against the heavy prohibition of God, he fell into remorse as he said: I hear your voice in the garden, and I am afraid. The poor Adam recognized his fault, his disobedience, and the burden of God’s wrath, therefore he said: I am afraid because I am naked; that is, he was already touched in his inner being and felt as a naked one the fire, the wrath of God which he had drawn upon himself and all his descendants. This remorse, this repentance, and great sorrow held God the Lord as it were captive; So that, although He pronounced the harsh curse, He yet graciously had mercy on him when He said: Cursed is the ground for your sake; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head, in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground from which you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust, you shall return.
Here, God the Lord promised Adam a threefold consolation, so that he would not languish or despair in his great misery, in his sorrow and sadness. For 1) Adam saw nothing before him but temporal and eternal death. 2) He saw a weakness, frailty, and all inconvenience in their bodies. 3) He also saw the hunger and want of his animalized body. Yes, he saw that the ground of fertility was cursed by God, that instead of bearing fruits for sustenance, it would henceforth bring forth only thorns and thistles. He saw that where before the fruits were balsamic, noble, flavorful, and healthy, preserving their bodies from all corruption; henceforth, they would be bitter, harsh, sour, tasteless, unhealthy, and deadly.
Yes, he finally saw that the ground would no longer yield fruit unless he worked it, with toil and burden making the earth fruitful; which, however, compared to the former had no equality; and which fruits, along with the heavy labor, as well as his anxious care would make his body unhealthy, sickly, weak, and feeble, from which he would have to die, and not only physically, where body, soul, and spirit separate from each other, but also that he would die the eternal death.
Thus God comforted Adam first with spiritual consolation; and said: The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head, that is, the eternal word of the Father, which from eternity is with God, will incarnate in flesh and blood, take on a human nature and become like you in all things except sin; He shall and will, through His obedience, with His blood and death, become an eternal, fully valid sacrifice, who pays what He has not taken, who will atone for my wrath with His blood and death again, and will deliver you from eternal death, yes, He will be a Lord and King over the whole circle of the earth, He will reign from the rising of the sun to its setting, He will make all His enemies a footstool for His feet, He will bring back all who have strayed from Him and disobeyed, He will acquire a congregation from those who believe in Him through my word, yes, He will bring everything back to its first state: whether through true repentance in this time of grace or through sufferings in their painful eternities; He will, through His divine power and childlike obedience, by means of the power given to Him by the heavenly Father, bruise the serpent’s head, restrict his power and might, and bring him under His feet, that he may no longer deceive the Gentiles or nations. This is now the spiritual consolation, or the consolation of the soul of Adam and all his heirs.
The second consolation consists in; that when God the Lord created Adam, He provided him with special spiritual sustenance; as Christ Himself testifies when He says: Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God, so Adam could eat well in the garden of paradise from all the fruits of the trees in the garden, for they were spiritual and heavenly; but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was physical, earthly, and corporeal; hence its fruit was also beautiful and pleasing to the eye. The serpent is said, according to many of the ancients, to have been like humans, capable of speech, having hands and feet, and therefore walked upright, leaned on the tree, broke off the fruit, and handed it to Eve. As soon as humans ate of the corporeal, earthly fruit, their natural inclination opened, they became animalistic, bound themselves to animal sustenance, and also had to maintain themselves with it. So that the fruits of the garden, as well as the garden itself, which was a spiritual and holy being, were no longer suitable for them, but they had to go out onto the earth, to till and plant the ground, so that they might have sustenance and maintenance for their animalized bodies; therefore, God the Lord said: Since you have done this, you shall eat your bread in the sweat of your face, and with sorrow sustain yourself from the ground. For since you could not be content with the sustenance that flowed to you without care, and were disobedient to the commandment, you may and must now look after yourself and plant sustenance, that you may fill your animal body with chaff. But know this also, that the ground will not bring forth the fruits of paradise for you, but it is cursed, it will bear you thorns and thistles, i.e. chaff and husks, sour and bitter husks, which you will plant with toil and labor, with sorrow and care, eat in the sweat of your face, and sustain yourself from it; So you will indeed, although you are driven out of paradise and can no longer enjoy its spiritual fruits, nonetheless not perish or die of hunger and sorrow; But you shall live and sustain yourself from the earth, and this as long as nature has consumed the spirit of your implanted powers and juices in you, then you will become weak and powerless and gladly die, and wish to be dissolved. This is thus the second consolation of Adam.
The third consolation of Adam was a very special comfort; for just as God the Lord encouraged Adam with His first consolation, that although he had sinned against Him and according to His justice deserved to be punished temporally and eternally, He would not deal with him according to the zeal of His wrath, but according to His eternal grace and mercy; As he would not die the eternal death, but He wanted to give His Son, the seed of the woman, into death for him, which is thus a comfort for the soul. The second consolation is a comfort for the body; that it should not immediately die of hunger, but be sustained by earthly sustenance as long as its natural powers are consumed. The third consolation, however, is a comfort of the spirits of life, That is, of the powers and juices of life, which sustain the natural spirit that maintains the human in his movements and actions, strengthen and preserve it, until its appointed death.
For when Adam, through the sad fall of sin, subjected himself to the curse, the sidereal impressions, as well as the exhalations of the subterranean elements, the arsenical and phlegmatic spirits obtained their free influence in him; so that he thereby became frail, weak, sickly, and mortal, which misery he drew and planted upon all his descendants; that, if God the Lord had not still particularly had mercy on this human being, it would be impossible otherwise (as the age of the world reaches its highest peak, its powers are exhausted, and the severity and bitterness of the subterranean powers take over, infecting the constellations, so that these also have adverse effects.) for a single human to be healthy and perform his tasks, but everything would have to succumb to the adverse impression of the constellation and await its fate. However, God the merciful Creator had mercy both in general and particularly over this human: and indeed, first in general, He had mercy therein: that although He cursed the earth, He nonetheless left a blessing, namely a remedy in all plants and minerals against all sorts of incidental weaknesses and ailments, to strengthen the weakened and exhausted spirit of life, and to free it from its sufferings.
Specifically, however, God had mercy on this human therein, that He opened to him a remedy and universal medicine for all incurable diseases of humans as well as metals, to support himself in his time of need and procure enlightenment. This revelation and comfort consisted when God said: In the sweat of your face, you shall eat your bread until you return to the ground, from which you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust, you shall return. That is: See Adam, as you did not obey my voice, but rejected it, but instead followed Satan and ate the fruit of which I commanded you not to eat or even touch, thereby you became frail;
So now you shall know that you were my noblest creation, which I made and wanted to elevate you to something special. Therefore, I did not take you from the earth like the other animals, but from the earth as an extract and essence from the earth, which is nothing else but a fiery and light-filled property that should be sustained and fed by the divine emanations. Since you could not comprehend and be content within it, but ate chaff and husks; so you may now also sustain yourself with it, and you shall therefore eat your bread in sweat and sorrow until you return to the earth, from which you were taken, for you are dust, and to dust, you shall return. This is thus the third consolation of Adam.
There is no doubt that this great secret will still remain hidden to many readers, as this discourse must be grasped in a very broad understanding; For had Adam not had the implanted knowledge, that as soon as he looked at something, he also immediately recognized it by its signature and judged it by its central powers?
So, when he heard these words from God, he encouraged himself and was content. For he needed no interpreter or textual expositor, but they were to him as if he saw them in a mirror, and knew where to apply them. However, those who do not have the nature of Adam or a trusted friend will hardly find the meaning of the words. Therefore, if many cannot comprehend the meaning of these words, they should not despise or reject this high precious truth, but rather search and consider why God the Lord said: See, Adam has become like one of us, and knows what is good and evil; now, lest he stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. For Adam, through obtaining this divine comfort, as through the universal medicine and treasure of remedies, became as it were immortal. He thus became a physician to himself, a healer and doctor; He had the knowledge that he was an extraction of the great world, a conglomerate of all powers, a center of all properties, yes he had the knowledge that he had within himself a fire through which all sustenance in him was cooked, and that his spirits of life had a hunger to consume it and lead it into its particular parts, from which he was sustained; From which he could conclude: Since he is such a noble creation, that has no equal in the world, he must also carry his noblest medicine within himself, seek it within himself, and find it within himself, in which he certainly did not deceive himself. For if man does not find the greatest and highest medicine within himself for the most dangerous and burdensome ailments, he only needs to conclude that he will also not find anything outside of himself. With this, we have said enough about this belief, and just remind you of the conclusion.
Therefore it is said that Adam carried this high knowledge with him from paradise and communicated it to his children. As the histories indicate, all the patriarchs up to Noah, who built the ark and sailed with it from the first world, through the flood, into the other world, and shared the secret with his three sons. And Japheth, who chose the part towards the west, and whose descendants we are, shared it with his fourth son, Javan, who turned towards Thessaly and settled there. This Javan had four sons, one of whom was named Hesper;
And when their estate grew large, he separated from his father’s house, chose the region of Italy, and moved there. There are still many marks to show that he possessed and walked in the high art of his fathers. As he was honored, deified, set in the seven stars of heaven, and worshipped by his descendants, and his land was named after him Hesper, he himself, like his fathers, was called Hermes, that is, a possessor of the Mercurial arts and knowledge, about which more follows.
These high sciences and secrets of God are forbidden under curse and ban to be taught openly and to write about them for posterity, to prevent them from falling into unwashed hands and the measure of sins from being filled at once through the exercise of all kinds of evil and abominations and the judgments of God breaking loose. But so that posterity, that is, those chosen by God, would not be deprived of this noble treasure, some have been found at times who, as chroniclers, have done their part and presented the truth under all sorts of allegories and figures, so that some traces and footprints might be seen, followed, and the set center achieved.
Therefore, we have also endeavored to write to the children of wisdom chosen by God about these great Hermetic sciences, as the arts of the dear old fathers, and in such a way that we do not exceed the bounds of art and nature, nor violate the well-ordered rule of the wise. Since this great science comes from antiquity, we have sought to present it with the ancient royal garment in which it was once clothed, under the noble title: AVREUM VELLUS or Golden Fleece. You know that according to the laws of the kingdom it is not allowed to dress and crown the king at his coronation otherwise than the laws, statutes, and ceremonies permit, so that the old established laws and rights are preserved. Even if the old dress and ceremonies differ greatly from today’s, and may seem contemptible or ridiculous; they are nevertheless a thousand times more thoughtful, more reasonable, more natural than today’s. For the old statutes and ceremonies, both in attire and armor as well as in coronation, have as their foundation the honor and fear of God, the law of love and justice, freedom, protection, and preservation of rights. In summary, the old laws and ceremonies present us with the honor of God and the salvation of man. However, all these statutes are, in today’s world, an old unknown fashion that is no longer loved or respected, but entirely new ones are chosen in their place, which have no other purpose than pomp and pride. Therefore, there is no longer any fear of God in the land, as the world, instead of the kernel, uses husks and chaff. We do not want to say that such ceremonies are abolished everywhere, and the old laws entirely repealed. No, not at all, since we are aware that in many places they are still preserved, highly venerated, and respected.
So we also wanted to dress and present this high science and royal art with a royal honor garment anew. This honor garment is called AUREUM VELLUS, that is, golden fleece, which was already fashioned several hundred, yes, a thousand years ago by the royal prince, Phrixus, the son of the king of Thebes.
Then conquered by the royal prince Jason of Thessaly, and brought home as a rich booty, high treasure, and precious jewel with great pomp and splendor, deified and immortalized.
After this follows the third royal prince namely Philip III, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, from the Bourbon house of the kings of France, called the Good: who then had this precious and royal treasure made into a public, grand and magnificent pyramid, or column of honor and memory, namely the high knightly order of the golden fleece.
Thus, we wanted to dress and present this royal honor garment, which according to the laws of the empire and the golden bull, lies preserved in the archives and treasuries, and adorn the old kings, that is, the Hermetic artists with it, which should in no way surprise you, so that you do not think that I am the first to have conceived this world-renowned name, or borrowed it from the high knightly order and incorporated it into my work; but we have only shown how and by whom this name originated, who and which author wrote about it, and which alchemical writers have rightly used this name. Therefore, I believe I am no less entitled than they, and that you will grant us the same right and favor, namely, that the name of the alchemists is their property. Which the high founders of this name, as well as the high order itself, have also done, as they were both experienced chemists and Hermetic adepts, as more follows.
Herewith we have wanted to show in a preface, firstly, that this high royal science or art was established by God, the eternal Creator, from whom everything has its beginning and origin, as He revealed it to the first man, Adam, in the garden of paradise after the sad fall of sin and gave it to him as a third consolation to support himself in his death state. Secondly, how this high science was passed down from Adam to his heirs until Noah, and Noah also revealed it to his sons, from whom they were called Hermes, that is, possessor of the heavenly Mercury. Thirdly, that the son of Japheth moved from Mount Ararat to the west, and his son Javan, who chose the region of Thessaly, from whose descendants the kings of Thebes and Thessaly originated, established the Aureum Vellus, brought it to Colchis, and then brought it back again. Fourthly, and as this jewel in its royal honor garment seemed almost forgotten, God the Lord raised a pious and godly royal prince among the Christians, who at once had to raise and glorify the art lying in the dust of contempt, so that it received a new shine. Fifthly, we have yet to show how this glorious sun did not shine for long, but set again in his son Charles. However, the high knightly order was preserved, but the central reason, the driving cause, remained hidden. Sixthly, that after this, as after the death of the great Charles, Duke of Burgundy and Flanders, the possessors of this great secret kept their high knowledge and art entirely secret and withdrawn, as this ducal line extinguished, and its land and high order fell into other hands. Seventhly, and how against this a completely new order of the possessors of the Hermetic knowledge was established under the title of a society or brotherhood of the golden Rosicrucians, which name they still retain to this day, although under the doubt of the world scholars and opposing minds, which shall remain with them until their death.
There is no doubt that misguided people will be found who will oppose these high and precious truths; But it will remain in our conclusion. To which we only add that they should not hasten and believe, as if this our undertaking or discourse would be prejudicial or diminishing to the high knightly order, Aureum Vellus or golden fleece. Oh! no, not at all; we ask this respectfully and assure much more the opposite, and prove first, that this high wisdom, art, and science, which we deal with, is a divine secret: for 1) God the Lord is the supreme founder, origin, or beginning of it. 2) He Himself revealed it to the first man, Adam. 3) He daily keeps watch over it, so that it does not fall into unwashed hands. 4) He is Himself the protector and administrator of it and gives it to whom He wills, and conceals it from whom He wills. 5) In former times it was the property of the patriarchs, judges, priests, kings, princes, and lords of the land; so that they might live in their state without the burden of the subjects, as at that time the law and command of God were known to the highest of the people, that they are men, and that men should not come and rule over men, as all men, without distinction, are the image of God and children of Adam; but that men should rule over the earth, over the fish, over the birds, and over all the animals that creep on the earth. Secondly, even a few centuries ago, the kings, princes, and lords, also the cardinals, bishops, prelates, and others of the clergy, engaged in alchemy, attended to this high study, and it was their sole pastime, if they could spend their idle time with it; instead of which today one spends it with such works that could be called burdens of conscience.
Thirdly, today there would still be no doubt that if not all, yet the majority of such aforementioned people, or according to today’s world fashion, gentlemen, if they were to hear how a transformation of metals might occur, would not be curious to see it, or to speak with the artist about it and learn the reason and cause, if not to learn it at all. Who should then be so crude and unreasonable to believe that this discourse would be harmful to the gentlemen interested in this high order, the knighthood of the golden fleece, even less so since this high order was established for the sake of the Hermetic art, and we thus present the pure truth.
Know, however, that there is a great difference between truth and lies; If it is that the devil has stirred up some minds through cunning and deceit, to deceive and mislead other well-meaning souls, who are too credulous, for a piece of money, also for some time no public projections have taken place: yet all this takes nothing away from the high truth, that it should not be true and remain so.
Or, as so many brave, highly learned, and wise men of the Hermetic art have spent 10, 20, 30, 40, up to 50 years, have researched it with all diligence but could not find any ground, and some even became mad and furious about it, that they broke out into a rage, denounced the truth and wisdom’s art as lies, as if it had never been, could not be, and could not happen, but only thought up by wicked people, like the romances and other learned amusements, and what else there is of such loose pretenses. Alas, what foolishness, what a shame for Christendom over such childish men! But all this is also harmless to the high truth. For the scripture says: they err and will err. They have missed the right path, therefore we say, let no one hasten to blame us as long as he does not thoroughly examine the high truth and natural possibility. If he follows this our advice, we are sure not to be opposed and the blaming will well be omitted.
Our intention is by no means to regard this our discourse as a necessary or compulsory law, to believe and accept it; No, not even that, but it is an alchemical discourse where everyone has the freedom to accept and allow it according to his will.
It is also not a recruitment or invitation of more lovers to alchemy. No, not that either, but we want to repeat here what we thought in the preface of the Cabala Nat., (although this has been sensitive to some and we have been reproached for it) where we said that the high knowledge is not everyone’s doing, and although God the Lord has made no distinction among men, nor set a privilege, yet you know that the rich have many advantages for it over the poor.
Although the Prima Materia Lapidis Philosophorum can be gathered by anyone without the slightest expense: also, the practice does not exceed the cost of a minor value, yet we say that it does not belong to everyone, and that he who does not have ample sustenance and means should completely renounce and abandon this art and science. For, who is burdened with cares of sustenance cannot possibly attend to this high science, as the cares of sustenance bind an honest man to keep his hand to his profession; How then can he seek this art without detriment to the same, which are two things, which are contrary and opposed to each other.
One of the greatest follies under the sun that we see and is common is that there are people who, when their temporal means are declining, and they notice a scarcity or market, they turn to alchemy, as if they had the assurance that they would regain what was lost, or as if long-established riches were waiting for them, where in fact, all such find their entire possessions sacrificed and consumed and come to the beggar’s staff.
Another great folly under the sun that we see is that there are people, and indeed highly learned ones, who do not seek the straight path to the great universal, but want to make themselves first a master of a particular, either of cements, augmentations, one thing and another, which they think is the most direct path, and believe that they can make the great universal easier by starting with a particular. They are mistaken in this, and we advise them against it. The great universal can only be achieved by following the correct and direct path, and by the correct application of knowledge and diligence. It is a folly to think that starting with a particular will make the great universal easier. We have therefore endeavored to follow the correct and direct path, and have presented the work of the ancient wise in our experience, which we recommend to you with love, and which is intended to serve all righteous sons of wisdom.
Given on the 7th of March as on my birthday 1747
HERMAN FICTULD.
About the authors from whom the history of the Golden Fleece is taken.
Golden Fleece, or Aureum Vellus, was a term and a particular idiom that is very old and has been known and used since ancient times among the earliest peoples and cultures. It was used among scholars, magicians, Kabbalists, poets, and also among writers, chronologists, historians, and geographers. It is an idiom that signifies something special and wondrous. It seems to call out to travelers: ”Dear wanderer! Take the time to stand here for a while and consider me. Yes, take the time, and investigate me, and you will be richly rewarded for your effort. My shape will show you what is hidden behind this curtain and will fill you with a wonder you never expected. Indeed, you will be grasped by a light and brilliance that opens the treasure chamber of all nature and reveals the mysterious images of sacred bodies that the highest wisdom has buried and kept in this crypt.”
It is an idiom that requires deep and far-reaching contemplation, stemming from a single center but having two abysses or extremes, whose ends our reason can never fully grasp: firstly, what it is in and of itself, and secondly, what it signifies. This idiom is a depth and abyss of all wisdom; it is the focal point for the true center of all wise men, both of the prime substance and the practice of the Philosophers’ Stone.
The philosophical writers, who were aware of the foundation of this idiom and possessed the main work, have testamentarily described and left behind the art of gold-making to their sons and disciples of wisdom and out of love for posterity. Others, who had no certainty of this, judged by their speculations and imaginations, saw that something great, mysterious, and golden was hidden within, but what exactly was meant remained hidden from them. Therefore, they speculated in various ways, especially on metallurgy and the rich gold veins in mines, as well as on a book or scrolls made of ram or lamb skins, on which the Mysteria Dei, the old magical secrets, or the high Hermetic art itself were described, which had been preserved by the patriarchs, kings, and priests of all times and left as a legacy to their descendants.
However, as mentioned, they lacked the foundation of truth, and yet they saw that it signified something great. We must acknowledge this to their credit, especially since alchemy was not as commonly known among the general public in those days as it is today, when every loose and drunken rogue wants to be a philosopher and adept, even though they have never heard what an adept is, let alone seen adept works. For the name alchemy was kept as secret among the ancients as the high art itself. Therefore, it was not in such bad repute, nor were there so many deceptive writings and starving, twisted sophists as there are today. The art was secret and known only to the highest ranks of the people.
The following authors have written about the royal princes Phrixus, who brought the Golden Fleece to Colchis, and Jason, who retrieved the Golden Fleece from Colchis and brought it back to Thessaly:
Polybius, Apollonius of Rhodes and Apollodorus around 300 years before Christ Diodorus Siculus, around 500 years before Christ Hyginus, Ovid and Virgil, who lived shortly before the birth of Christ Valerius Maximus, who lived around the time of Christ Seneca, Pliny and Valerius Flaccus around 60 years after Christ Plutarch, around 80 years after Christ Eusebius, around the time of Constantine Suidas, who lived around 1000 years after Christ and publicly interpreted the Golden Fleece as alchemy.
We find many other authors, both old and new, as well as chemists, who mention these stories, but for brevity, we will pass over them, as we already have enough and more witnesses than required in the greatest tribunals. All of these are authentic witnesses used in the most important matters. With this, we believe we have demonstrated that the term ”Aureum Vellus” or ”Golden Fleece” originates from antiquity. And so we conclude this chapter.
Deals with the authors who published chemical treatises under the name ”Aureum Vellus” or ”Golden Fleece.”
To prove that we are not the first to come up with the idea that the term, the idiom, and also the high, world-renowned noble order of Burgundy and Flanders Knights of the Golden Fleece is an alchemical term and that this high order was founded in honor of alchemy and Hermetic science, we will list the authors found in our chemical library who were alchemists and bear the title ”Golden Fleece.” So you can see that in truth, more people than us had the boldness to ponder, look back, research, and discover what ”Golden Fleece” actually means and where the inventors or founders of this term aimed. They believed they had the assurance that this term belonged to alchemists, especially since Suidas, already 600 years before the high order was established in Burgundy, publicly showed that the term ”Aureum Vellus” pertains to alchemy.
Hence, they could rightfully give such a title to their writings. These are: Apollonius of Rhodes, from Alexandria, a famous poet and great philosopher, who described the Golden Fleece that was kept in Colchis and retrieved by Jason and his companions.
Aloisius Martianus, a poet and philosopher, wrote a treatise titled ”Aureum Vellus,” concerning both alchemy and poetry.
Aurelius Johannes, a renowned poet and chemist, who described the story of Jason and his journey under the title ”Aureum Vellus,” comparing it to alchemy.
”Aureum Vellus,” a treatise printed in 4to in 1598 in Rospach on Lake Constance, where the author treats alchemy and provides a considerable foundation for this story.
”Golden Fleece,” written in 8vo in 1607 and first printed in Leipzig in 1736, where the author depicts the high order of knights in a copperplate engraving.
”Aureum Vellus,” a Latin treatise written by Dr. Criling in T¨ubingen, dealing with alchemy.
”Aureum Vellus” or ”Golden Fleece,” a chemical treatise by the world-renowned Sophist Maxagoras, printed in 1730.
”Aureum Vellus” by Johann de Monte, called Hermeticus, which deals with alchemy and was printed in 1680.
Another treatise on alchemy, titled ”Aureum Vellus,” is mentioned in a small treatise on the philosophical work of the Philosopher’s Stone by a maiden E. H., written in 1574, but which we have not seen and thus cannot say more about.
Yet another treatise on alchemy titled ”Aureum Vellus” is mentioned, whose author Suidas, a Greek, is said to have written in the tenth century, but which no one has seen. Whether it agrees with any of the above, we leave to rest, as we already have enough witnesses for our purpose. And as much as has come into our hands to date, whether there are more is not to be doubted. Thus, we have proven that this term has long been known among Hermetic scholars and that they believed it to be a word and idiom that belonged to them alone and rightfully. Hence, they also understood by it the Prima Materia or Matter, the Praxis, the region where it is found, and the Philosopher’s Stone itself.
Whoever finds the primary matter of the Philosopher’s Stone, and hears of this name, can only believe that the inventors of this name and founders of the high order were true adepts, and that they wanted to reveal the high Hermetic Art to their descendants through this framework, as a compendious word. If anyone does not have enough of these attached witnesses, let them open the alchemical writings themselves, and more will be discovered to them.
On the First Beginning and Origin of the Renowned and World-Famous Word, Golden Fleece
In the times of the Israelite Judges, about twelve hundred years before the grace14 filled birth or incarnation of our most dear Savior Jesus Christ, who wished to appear in the flesh through the Virgin Mary, from the royal line, race, and blood of David, but from and after the creation of the world, the great and mighty wonder of the heavens and earth, it was about twenty-seven hundred years. Already at that time, powerful and mighty nations and kingdoms existed in the western and northern lands, far removed from the holy land of Canaan, including particularly the Greek monarchy. At that time, the mighty king and prince Athamas, who ruled over a vast territory called Thebes, reigned.
His wife or queen was Nephele, a very wise lady, from whom the king had two children, a prince and a princess. The prince was named Phrixus, and the princess Helle. King Athamas was a very strict, sharp, jealous, and hottempered ruler, typical of the Greek nation, before whom everything had to tremble at his person, word, and command. Conversely, Nephele was a subtle, fragile, sickly, and fearful person of melancholic complexion who did not harmonize well with her husband. She perceived from all circumstances that she would not live long but would die within a few years. Consequently, her husband, the king, would remarry and bring a stepmother for these children dear to her heart, who would likely treat them harshly, causing them much suffering and poor upbringing.
Therefore, she deliberated with her children on how they should behave in the event of her death and their father’s changing affections. She entrusted them with a golden book or rolls, presumably made from sheep or lamb skins stitched together into a long scroll, similar to how the Mosaic Law, the prophets, and psalms are written among the Jews to this day. On it, according to the old tradition, the high art and science of the ancestors were inscribed and marked with gold letters, characters, figures, and images; not only the art of gold-making but also all seven sciences of high wisdom, magic, cabala, and astronomy (which today are nearly forgotten and only fragments or husks of them remain in memory, often denied or considered devilish arts by many unreasonable people. So far has our Europe, especially Christianity, come. It is lamentable that so few righteous people strive to master natural, forbidden, and God-honoring arts and sciences). This testamentary gift, kept in the royal cabinet, they were to take and either flee to a remote desert land or to their cousins, the mother’s brother, the king in Colchis, in Georgia, Mingrelia, now called Odysseus, a place beyond the Black Sea, their former homeland, where they would find safe and happy refuge and sustenance.
When this happened, Nephele, the queen, who was a prophetess and seer for her children, died. Athamas, the king, remarried to Ino, a daughter of a priest named Cadmus, who was not only a priest but also from the lineage and rank of priests. This new wicked one of the world’s opinion, a high priest or even higher, as priests were believed to be at that time, was very harsh toward these royal children, as is typical of stepmothers. She could not bear to have them at the royal court, so she devised a plan to remove them. She consulted with her relatives and friends, a malicious, deceitful, and lying crew, and arranged for what should be done. Namely, on a high feast day when the king had come to the temple with great pomp and splendor to perform his devotions, the oracle began to prophesy, stating that the gods held a special regard and desire for the king’s children from Nephele, and demanded that the king hold a feast and sacrifice them to the gods, through which they would be elevated to the rank of gods. The king, filled with joy and delight that his children would be deified, arranged a grand celebration to sacrifice his innocent children. However, this was done in the utmost secrecy to prevent the children from knowing. At that time, per custom, the king was the priests’ slave and money servant, who had to believe whatever the godless priests, the unholy holy ones, the godless and perverse priesthood, prophesied through the oracle or law. For it was their Urim & Thummim and the divine voice.
But God had his holy hand over these, and led them wonderfully. This plan and conspiracy were discovered by a relative or a good friend of the children, who revealed and warned them about it in the highest confidence. These innocent children took the warning to heart, remembered their mother Nephele’s advice and suggestion, brought the book, the golden scrolls, and secretly and unknown to everyone, left the court at Thebes for the Black Sea and the kingdom of Colchis. However, what happened? Misfortune pursued the innocent children and did not leave them but followed them with all kinds of adversities. The delicate and young princess Helle, full of fear, anxiety, and distress, as well as weakness and other conditions, fell ill and died on the ship called the Golden Ram on the Black Sea, to the greatest sorrow and heartache of her beloved brother Phrixus. According to the rough boatmen or sailors’ custom, she was thrown into the Black Sea and buried as an unknown and lowly person. However, the spot was noted by the grieving prince, who later erected a memorial column there, named Hellespont, which is near a narrow but significant passage through which one travels from Europe to Asia or vice versa, annually crossed by thousands of people. This place retains the name to this day.
Despite his great sorrow, Phrixus continued his journey hastily so as not to be betrayed and hunted, finally arriving safely at his cousin, the king of Colchis, who received and welcomed him with great joy. Since the king had no son, only a single daughter, Phrixus was accepted as a son-in-law, given the royal title, and after the king, his father-in-law’s death, proclaimed and hailed as king and lord of the land. Phrixus, now king of Colchis, had with his wife or queen, two children, a prince, and a princess. The prince was named Aethalides, who, after his father’s death, became king of Colchis. Phrixus, through his high knowledge and wisdom, became highly esteemed and admired. He particularly honored his magnificent book or golden scroll by placing it in the temple dedicated to Mars, where the royal and kingdom treasures, under the priesthood’s supervision as Baal’s priests and Mammon’s servants, were kept.
Aethalides, after his father’s death, became king in his place, ruling the king16 dom and lands, having among other children a daughter named Medea. More on this later.
How the Golden Fleece in Colchis was Reclaimed by Jason, the Prince of the King of Thessaly.
Approximately a century after the aforementioned story of Phrixus, his sister, and the Golden Fleece, which had been brought to Colchis, and in the first century before the birth of Christ, or in the 28th century from the creation of the world, there was a province in the region of Macedonia called Thessaly, where a great king and lord named Aeson ruled. He had a single prince or heir to all his states and dominions, named Jason. However, King Aeson died during the minority of the prince. Therefore, due to the ongoing minority of the prince, the court council and blood relatives discussed appointing a guardian, regent, and administrator of the kingdom, and the deceased king’s brother was chosen for this role.
The chosen brother, however, was a very ambitious and selfish man, who aimed to hang onto the kingdom and the government for himself and seize the crown.
Therefore, as the prince approached maturity, he arranged, as an administrator, for the prince to marry the daughter of a distant king, who was in Colchis. The prince had to fetch her in person, according to the custom of that time.
Jason, a young prince and a mighty hero, accepted the proposal and advice of the administrator. The contracts were made, preparations were organized, and everything necessary for a long and arduous journey by water and land was gathered. The departure took place with forty-nine persons, who, as young heroes and state companions, had to accompany him under the names of courtiers, masters of ceremonies, marshals, and other esteemed officials. These were given the name Hercules, which means brave heroes or Argonauts. With this strong and notable retinue or company, Jason finally arrived in Colchis after enduring long hardships and adversities, especially since they suffered a shipwreck on the Aegean Sea.
When they arrived in Colchis, things had changed during their slow journey.
The king’s advisors and priests, as household officials, had persuaded the king to promise his daughter to another and to disregard the previous contracts.
Jason, who made his public entrance in Colchis and paid his respects to the king and his bride, was one of the most handsome men in the world and greatly pleased his princess bride, so much so that she constantly inclined her heart toward him. She revealed to him the conspiracy that had been devised by the court advisors and priests (symbolized by two fire-breathing dragons) to remove the Greek guests. However, Jason, with the help of his bride and his heroes, anticipated all these plans, pretending to be unaware and believing that they were very welcome guests. They quickly arranged for a ball and a sumptuous banquet, where the king, his court officials, and the priests had to attend. Jason prepared a costly drink, partly brought with them, which they gave to their enemies (consisting of two factions, the secular and the clerical), causing them to burst and die. After this successful plot, Jason received permission from the king to marry, and after a considerable stay in Colchis, he finally started the return journey, bringing with him, besides his bride, a valuable treasure, among which was the book or golden roll made of sheep or lambskin, on which the art of gold production, along with other great secrets, was described. It was believed that this was only a copy brought from Thebes to Colchis by King Phrixus as part of the marriage dowry and taken back to Thessaly.
Upon their safe return, the administrator was dismissed, and Jason was proclaimed, crowned, and seated on the throne as the king and lord of the land.
He then ruled his land and people with great wisdom, so much so that the land loved him and he loved the land. Especially since he possessed a royal treasure from which he could live without taxing the subjects.
This is the brief history and fate of the Golden Fleece. Now, we must consider what the poets have written about it and what their understanding might be.
Of the Poetic Description of the Golden Fleece.
They say that when Athamas, king of Thebes, was ordered by the oracle to sacrifice his son Phrixus and his daughter Helle, their deceased mother Nephele, who was among the gods and had transformed into a cloud, took them into her lap and sent them a ram with golden wool, on which they rode across the Black Sea to Colchis. Although Helle fell and drowned, leading to the place being named Hellespont, Phrixus arrived in Colchis, where he sacrificed the ram and hung the golden fleece or skin in the temple there. This golden fleece became an object of desire for all who traveled to Colchis. However, the king safeguarded it by placing it under the protection of fire-breathing dragons. Eventually, Prince Jason of Thessaly came and, through great cunning, seized the golden fleece and brought it back to Greece, where it was greatly praised.
These are the words of the poets about the Golden Fleece, which, however, have a different meaning according to chronological history. This shows how this phrase originated and what it was meant to signify. Now, we lack the philosophical sense, in which it is supposed to have its true meaning and understanding.
Phrixus and Jason were poets and philosophers who described their own works and the high Hermetic art and science under the name of the Golden Fleece.
They used this term to represent the prima materia and the process of the philosopher’s stone. This terminus and phrase is an ancient, well-known, and practiced expression that poets and philosophers have used for their benefit and incorporated into their writings. Later writers borrowed and adopted it, and we will let it rest here, as no one else has the right or authority to believe that this phrase belongs to anyone other than these poets and philosophers from ancient times. The younger and newer philosophers, following the same path as the older ones, have inherited this term and used it in their writings as a Hermetic alphabet or guide, and it will continue to be used.
The Second Part of Our Undertaking.
On the Origin of the High Order of Knights of the Golden Fleece, Founded by the Dukes of Burgundy and Flanders.
The great and mighty sovereign prince and Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, Philip III, also known as the Good, was a son of John the Fearless, who was a son of Philip II, also known as the Bold. This Philip was a son of John II, called the Pious, and King of France. This Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, was born on June 29, 1396, came to power in 1419, and died on July 15, 1467, at the age of 73.
At the marriage of his third wife, a princess named Isabella, daughter of King John of Portugal, on the day of their wedding, held in Bruges, Flanders, in 1430, he founded an eternal memorial, both in honor and love of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Andrew the Apostle, and the esteemed wedding guests, as well as to elevate the long-neglected high Hermetic art. He used the pretext of undertaking a crusade to the Holy Land of Canaan against the Saracens and reclaiming the holy grave held by the Turks, to establish a new order of knights with the commemorative name ”Order of the Golden Fleece.” He initially appointed and signified 24 knights and was himself the 25th and the Grand Master or head of the order. This is the beginning and origin of the high order of knights of the Golden Fleece, about which more will be said later.
On the Insignia with which the High Members of this High Order of the Golden Fleece are Signified and Marked.
After the great prince and Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, Philip III, founded and established the high order of the Golden Fleece, and appointed and incorporated its members, he did not rest until he had also provided them with a particular and marvelous habit or knightly attire, along with a previously unseen and uniquely designed chain of massive gold. This was so that anyone seeing these high knights from afar would immediately recognize and respect them, as this order was meant to be exceptional and unrivaled in the world.
The habit of these high knights consisted of an undercoat in the style of pageboys’ coats, worn by consuls or mayors in some places when they appear in the state council or by pastors when they perform their duties in the churches, and resembled the clothing of the papal guard in Rome. They were made of cloth, velvet, or silk of various colors, bordered or trimmed with gold lace, with a front breastplate like a cuirass, from which a pleated skirt or round part hung down to the knees or boots. The upper part had open, slit sleeves through which various other colors of silk played. This habit was very splendid and had to be worn daily. However, after the death of this duke, the habit of the order was changed.
The order’s chain or insignia was a chain of massive gold, worn around the neck, consisting of eleven links, each representing two fire steels with a firestone in the center, from which sparks of fire flashed. This was magnificent to see.
The chain also had two additional links hanging down, on which the insignia of the order was attached, namely a medallion presenting the golden lamb or fleece, adorned with golden wool, with the inscription: ”PRETIUM NON VILE LABORIS” (The Reward is Not Mean for the Labor).
On the Successor in the Government of the Duchy of Burgundy and Brabant, and in the High Order of Knights of the Golden Fleece.
When the great prince and Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, Philip III, passed away in old age, his only son, Charles the Bold or the Warlike, succeeded him in all his possessions as the rightful heir. Charles was a very generous lord who loved justice, but with a very fiery and fierce temperament, who did not forgive or forget his enemies and wrongdoers without seeking revenge to the utmost.
This Charles was the only son and rightful heir to all the states, provinces, principalities, and dominions of the duchy of Burgundy and Brabant, as well as the Grand Master of the high order of knights of the Golden Fleece.
Charles, born on October 10, 1433, was the son of Isabella, daughter of King John of Portugal. In 1467, after his father’s death, he came to power. He was always intent on expanding his lands and borders, purchasing some principalities, counties, and provinces, and conquering others through war with neighboring dominions. Thus, he became one of the most powerful princes and dukes, which led him to claim the old title of King of Burgundy. This caused unrest and war with Emperor Frederick V, but it was secretly mediated, and the title of king was granted to him, with the condition that he give his only daughter and heiress to all his lands to the Emperor’s son, Archduke Maximilian of Austria, as his wife.
However, during these negotiations, a conflict arose with the Swiss Confederation, known today as the Swiss, who, according to old alliances and treaties, aided the emperor against this duke. When the emperor made peace without the knowledge and agreement of the Swiss Confederation, which had no issue with the duke but had only acted to please the emperor, the duke believed he was strong enough to take revenge on them. Consequently, he attacked them with a strong army in the same year but suffered a fatal and unfortunate outcome, losing all his power and splendor in the first campaign, his power again in the second, and finally his life in the third, which occurred on January 5, 1477, at the siege of Nancy.
This Duke Charles had three wives but left only one daughter, Mary, as the heiress to his states and dominions. She was promised to the Archduke of Austria, who later became the emperor, during his lifetime, and the marriage was concluded after his death.
The unexpected and unanticipated death led to a peculiar division of his remaining states. The Archduke of Austria believed that through his marriage, his wife, the sole heiress of this great duke, should inherit all his dominions, especially Burgundy, which was an absolute apanage, inherited by King John II of France in 1361 and given to his son Philip as a recompense for eternity and ownership, including the female line. However, despite this, attempts were made to deprive the Archduke Maximilian of this beautiful land, and the Swiss Confederation claimed inheritance in a certain manner, having defeated Duke Charles in battle. Consequently, the cities of Burgundy submitted to the Swiss, seeking ransom and forming a republic with them. Similarly, King Louis XI of France claimed the duchy and demanded it be surrendered to him, which was done. The details of this condition were not deemed necessary to record in chronicles, as it would have been a lasting shame for them to let such a great duchy slip from their hands. France took possession, leaving the title to the Archduke of Austria, along with the Flemish and Brabantian provinces and the high order of knights of the Golden Fleece, known today as Toison.
Thus, the Burgundian lands, the seventeen Flemish provinces, and the high order of knights of the Golden Fleece came to the Archducal House of Austria through the duke’s daughter, Mary, as the sole heiress. Archduke Maximilian of Austria, later emperor, became Duke of Burgundy, Flanders, and Brabant, as well as Grand Master of the high order of knights of the Golden Fleece.
However, this did not last long, as his Burgundian wife, Mary, died soon after, leaving him with a son named Philip, Prince of Habsburg, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, as well as Archduke of Austria. When the Spanish crown unexpectedly became vacant, Philip became King of Spain. After the death of his father, Emperor Maximilian, he inherited his mother’s lands, along with the knightly order, and thus the Flemish and Brabantian lands, along with the high order of knights of the Golden Fleece, came to Spain. Philip I was the first king of Spain and the fourth Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, Archduke of Austria, and Grand Master of the high order of knights of the Golden Fleece.
This high knightly order was highly esteemed and respected in Spain, so much so that it was always mentioned in the highest regard, and its members were given special respect. The high order’s chain could be seen on all Spanish coins and coats of arms, surrounding and framing the Spanish coat of arms.
This high knightly order of the Golden Fleece remained with the Spanish crown from 1496 to 1700. When King Charles II died without heirs, the Spanish lands rightfully fell to Emperor Leopold, who, however, ceded his inheritance rights to his second son, the Archduke of Austria. When his first son, Joseph, became emperor after the death of Leopold, and died without male heirs in 1711, the second son, Charles, was elected emperor. Peace was made with France regarding the succession war, granting the emperor the title of King of Spain, along with the Flemish lands and the Grand Master position of the high order of knights of the Golden Fleece. Thus, this high order of knights of the Golden Fleece returned to the Archducal House of Austria.
In 1712, on January 6, the newly elected Emperor Charles, of glorious memory, appointed twenty-two new knights of the order and increased their number to forty-five within the same year.
On January 6, 1744, Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Brabant, also Grand Master of the high order of knights of the Golden Fleece, held a chapter and elected sixteen new knights of the order, who had earned their positions through merit, replenishing the order and making up for the members lost to death.
It is noteworthy that the daughter of Charles, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, named Mary, through whom the Burgundian and Flemish lands, along with the high order of knights of the Golden Fleece, came to the House of Austria, is an ancestor of the current Maria Theresa, who is also the sole heiress. This Mary was a precursor and must have been a forerunner, having the same fate and similarities with the present Maria Theresa. For 1) she was the daughter of a great prince; 2) her father was named Charles; 3) he died prematurely and had to leave this world blessed; 4) she was named Mary; 5) her rightful inheritance was attacked by King Louis XV of France; 6) she was guaranteed protection by him in the holiest manner; 7) she lived nobly and victoriously over her enemies until now; and 8) she is also now the Grand Master of the high order of knights of the Golden Fleece.
Thus ends the history of the high order of knights of the Golden Fleece, detailing its origins, how it passed from the House of Burgundy to Austria, and from there to Spain, and then back again to the House of Austria. Here it has remained and been preserved to this day. This thus constitutes the second part of our undertaking.
The Third Part of Our Undertaking
On Evidence That This Noble Order of the Golden Fleece Has a Deeper Foundation or Meaning Than One Might Perceive with the Outer Eye.
Since we have already explained that the term ”Golden Fleece” is an ancient term and expression that originated from ancient pagan and Greek traditions, conceived and used by poets, philosophers, alchemists, magi, and Kabbalists, as an inherited expression unique to them, we now must show that Duke Philip of Burgundy and Brabant, the founder of this noble order, had far more significant and substantial intentions than merely establishing this noble order for state honors.
Why did he establish this noble order on the day of his wedding, in honor of his wife and the wedding guests, the wedding itself, the Holy Virgin Mary, and the Holy Apostle Andrew?
Why did he intend to honor the apostolic patrons, the first evangelical teachers, and at the same time plan a war against the Saracens or a campaign against the infidels?
These three questions lead us to investigate the reasons why these contradictory matters were combined. How can it harmonize for a devout Christian to have Christian works and pagan concepts, a Christian walk, intentions, and works, under a pagan guise and pretense? If he founded this noble order as a memorial to his wedding, the wedding guests, the Holy Virgin Mary, and the Holy Apostle Andrew, it would be seen as something substantial. However, the pagan name, which holds no substantial meaning, appears contrary to the Gospel.
Christians are not to fight with the sword but to overcome and conquer their enemies with the living Word of God, not with murderous weapons. Therefore, these are mutually exclusive things. Additionally, all potentates, kings, and princes have never named their orders after such ancient pagan histories or traditions but always based them on a grounded reality that aligns with nature.
For example:
King Canute IV of Denmark founded the Elephant Order in 1190.
Valdemar II of Denmark founded the Dannebrog Order in 1219.
Uladislaus in Poland founded the Order of the White Eagle in 1325.
Augustus in Poland renewed the Order of the White Eagle in 1705.
King Edward III of England founded the Order of the Garter in 1345.
The Duke of Bourbon founded the Order of the Thistle.
Orleans founded the Order of the Porcupine.
Burgundy founded the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1430.
Savoy founded the Order of the Most Holy Annunciation in 1355.
Kings in France founded the Order of Saint Michael in 1469.
In Portugal, the Order of Christ was founded in 1320.
In Sicily, the Order of the Crescent was founded in 1464.
In France, the Order of the Holy Spirit was founded in 1579.
In Prussia, the Order of the Black Eagle was founded in 1701.
In Austria, the Order of Saint George was founded in 1470.
Also in 1535, the Teutonic Order and later the Order of the White Eagle were
founded.
In Savoy, the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus was founded in 1440.
In Venice, the Order of the Golden Stole was founded in 1332.
In Britain, the Order of the Hermit and the Corn Ears was founded in 1450.
In Rome, Pope Alexander VI founded the Order of Saint George.
Many others, for brevity, are omitted, all of which were based on something substantial and grounded, either in divinity or in noble creations and creatures.
In contrast, the Order of the Golden Fleece has no substantial or grounded foundation, either in itself or surrounding it, other than an old pagan fable, a story that is more laughable than credible, more ambiguous than straightforward, and more foolish than wise.
Thus, we must understand the term ”Golden Fleece” in its full, perfect, and natural meaning. It refers to flowing gold or astral gold, which descends from the heavens and is a solar, astral, and fiery substance—the true philosophical and metallic gold, which flows down from the goodness of God into the essential things, expands and divides, giving life and growth. Hence, the philosopher’s stone is said to be present in all things in the world, coming forth through secret, wise, and golden paths, known as the Golden Path.
This great Duke Philip III of Burgundy and Brabant could rightly give no other name to this high order than the Golden Fleece or flowing gold, a name deservedly earned. It signifies both a flowing, magical gold and the hermetic philosopher’s gold.
Therefore, it is impossible to believe that this great Duke founded his noble order on such a trivial and foolish fable. Instead, he based it on a substantial foundation in line with reason and nature. Few people know that Duke Philip III of Burgundy and Brabant and his son Charles were hermetic adepts. We have aimed to show what the term ”Golden Fleece” means and its origin.
No one should think that we seek to glorify alchemy or the hermetic art by claiming this great Duke as an alchemist. Rather, we aim to present authentic evidence of his achievements. The highest duty required and the love of truth compelled the hermetic philosophers to support this noble Duke and protect the high art of alchemy from discredit and sophistical deceit.
Had the hermetic philosophers followed and supported this noble Duke, alchemy would never have fallen into such disrepute. We aim to support and protect the high hermetic art, freeing it from suppression and sophistical smears, a task that can only be accomplished with genuine dedication to the truth.
These, however, cannot justify or legitimize themselves on the grounds of truth, although they would like to and will attack us with their partisans; but be assured, we have also resolved to face the Alerophilian war storms, the sound of physical trumpets, the tumultuous number spirits, and Lady Calumny’s advances, and even to await Vizlipuzli, so that we may see whether the highly boasted lies or the truth following from afar will prevail in the land. With this, this chapter may also be concluded.
Evidence and Witnesses that Philip III and his son Charles, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, were true chemists and Hermetic philosophers.
The first foundation and witness we have hereof is a very extensive chronological history concerning the immense and unspeakable wealth that Duke Philip and his son Charles possessed one after another, but Charles lost a part of it along with his noble life. Although this history is very extensive and exhaustive, it is particularly useful for our purpose to refute and convince the disbelievers.
The history of the great prince and duke of Burgundy and Brabant, who was of royal blood and descent from the kings of France, we have already mentioned something about in the sixth chapter. But, so that you may have a proper account of it, we will narrate the entire history from the beginning and start with John II, king of France, as the great-grandfather of Duke Philip III of Burgundy and Brabant, and the founder of the high knightly order of the Golden Fleece.
John II, called the Good, King of France, succeeded his father, Philip IV, in the government and kingdom, in the year 1350. He had the daughter of King Charles of Navarre as his wife and was obliged to continue the war that his father had against England, so that he himself went to the field. And in the year 1356, he attended the Battle of Poitiers, along with his 15-year-old prince, named Philip, was captured, and brought to England. Where they were imprisoned for four years, during which time France was miserably ruined and devastated, with everything filled with robbery and murder. The citizens claimed that the nobility was the sole cause of the war and the king’s capture. Therefore, they persecuted them heavily and played the master in the land, making significant changes in the state, so that at that time, besides the external war, there was also an internal war and unrest, giving England the occasion to seize most of the provinces of France in 1358 and force it to make peace according to England’s conditions. Whereupon the king was released in 1360 along with his son.
However, when the king made his public entry into Paris in 1360, the royal treasury was so poor and exhausted that not even a silver plate could be seen at the king’s table. Therefore, at that time, Jews were allowed to live in France against the payment of a certain amount of money because money was very scarce, and instead, one saw nothing but leather coins. The king was also very displeased about many things that he could not change, which prompted him, under the pretext of making a visit, to travel back to England, where he also died in 1364.
Philip, a son of King John of France, mentioned earlier, was born in 1341. He accompanied his father on the campaign against the English but was captured with his father, the king, at the Battle of Poitiers, despite being only 15 years old. He nevertheless laid down remarkable proofs of his heroic courage during his father’s capture, which moved his father so much that when they returned from the captivity of the English and Duke Philip I of Burgundy died in 1361 without leaving any legitimate heirs, even though the duchy of Burgundy was a fief of France, which the king inherited, he immediately transferred it to his son Philip, not as an apanage but as property, as a reward for his loyal services, with such complete freedom and ownership rights that if the male line were to fail, the female line would still be capable of inheriting it without any contradiction.
Hence, he was given the title of Philip II, known as the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.
In 1368, he married the widow of the late Duke Philip I of Burgundy, who was a daughter and sole heir of Count Louis III of Flanders, bringing the Flemish provinces and title to the house of Burgundy. He was a good lord but very unfortunate with his Flemish subjects as they constantly rebelled against him and sought to overthrow his rule. Likewise, he was in a constant feud with his blood relatives and friends in France, so that he had to maintain a strong army continually. He died in 1404, leaving not only his treasury entirely depleted but also a significant debt burden, which prompted his widow to publicly renounce all movable and transportable goods at his funeral and place the belt, pouch, and keys on the grave to indicate the poor state in which the entire duchy found itself.
John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, was a son of Philip I, born in Dijon in 1371, a brave lord and general, who commanded the 2000 noblemen that the king of France sent to help the king of Hungary against the Turks in 1396. After his father’s death in 1404, he came to power and continued the war against his father’s enemies, namely against the Dauphin, the court party, and the Duke of Orleans, so that at this time France was in a poor state, and the king was not master of himself. He, the Duke of Burgundy, had the Duke of Orleans, his declared enemy, murdered in a most treacherous manner. However, as God promised and his word is true, this Duke of Burgundy was also killed in the same manner in 1419 by the people of the young Duke of Orleans, thus paying for his evil deed. The Duke of Burgundy had no better luck than his father, as the Flemish provinces rebelled against him, and he had to retain them by force of war, while he had a constant war against the court party. Therefore, after his death, a large debt was left behind, and nobody knew how to advise or help.
Philip III, called the Good, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, from whom our purpose is derived, was a son of John, born in Dijon in 1396. He was present at the campaign against the English in 1415. After his father’s death in 1419, he came to power and avenged his father’s death on his enemies, the then Dauphin and Duke of Orleans. To this end, he sided with the English party and managed to exclude the Dauphin from the crown of France. In 1423, he founded the University of Tull. In 1425, he went to war against the Duke of Bedford and the English. In 1430, he married his third wife and founded the high knightly order of the Golden Fleece. In 1433, he inherited part of the Flemish provinces and provided a number of troops and war expenses against the Saracens or Turks.
In 1443 and 1444, he voluntarily undertook a major military campaign by sea against the Saracens at his own expense. In the same year, he made peace with the Duke of Orleans and gave him 200,000 thalers of cash as a present and a token of friendship. In 1449, he again waged war against the English and drove them out of Normandy. In 1456, he held an order’s chapter and added some members to it. In 1467, he died at the age of 73.
Charles, called the Bold or the Warrior, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, and the last who ruled the great duchy in person. He was a son of Philip III, born in Dijon in 1453. He attended the battle of Rupelmonde in 1452, and in 1453 the battle of Morbeque and Gavre. In 1467, the battle of Monterei, and in the same year, he succeeded his father in all his states and honors as the only legitimate son and heir. He also married his third wife in this year, who was the sister of King Edward of England. The splendor on the wedding day was indescribable, so much so that it was said to rival the times of King Solomon. In 1469, he gave 80,000 guilders as a loan on the lands of Sundgau, Breisgau, and the Black Forest. In 1473, he purchased the duchy of Gelderland and the county of Zutphen.
He waged war against the bishop of Cologne, the Duke of Lorraine, the emperor Frederick, and the Helvetic Confederation, known today as the Swiss. In 1471, he helped his brother-in-law, King Edward, regain the throne of England, from which he had been deposed by parliament and exiled from the kingdom. In 1473, he held an oral conference or discussion with the emperor and concluded a peace treaty without the knowledge of the Duke of Lorraine and the Helvetic Confederation, which took place in Trier. Through this, the emperor’s son, Archduke Maximilian of Austria, was to marry the Duke of Burgundy’s only daughter and inherit his entire states and lands. In return, the emperor promised to bestow upon the duke the royal title of the ancient kings of Burgundy. However, during these negotiations, the first stone of his unfortunate downfall and death was laid.
When this Duke of Burgundy appeared in Trier, he had his court, which was already royal, newly and splendidly arranged and made a royal entry there, with 5000 of his own horses present. Additionally, 4000 noblemen and servants, making the state, all dressed in gold cloth, velvet, and scarlet. He himself wore a cuirass and a coat over it, said to have cost 80,000 guilders, excluding his other clothes, which were said to be worth over 100,000 guilders. His treasure credence or princely, indeed royal, pyramid, which he had erected and was on display every day, was said to be 20 spans long and 10 levels high, displaying:
• 24 large and small bottles, most of gold, others of silver and gilded.
• 70 pitchers, large and small, of gold and silver.
• 100 cups with lids of gold, adorned with stones.
• 40 dozen bowls, large and small, of gold and silver.
• 6 warships, large and small, of pure silver.
• 24 large plates of gold and silver.
• 6 unicorns of silver, one of which was three ells long.
• 1 alms or blessing horn of silver, three ells long.
• 6 silver basins, each holding 24 measures.
• 800 silver kitchen plates.
• Of other table and kitchen services, not to be mentioned.
• The church there was also thus furnished:
• The church was adorned inside with very precious tapestries, the choir
with gold, velvet, and silk pieces, and the altar with:
• 4 Evangelists, 12 Apostles and 24 images of saints of silver and gilded,
each one and a half ells long or tall.
• 10 crosses, each one grander and more splendid than the other, of gold
and set with precious stones.
• 6 candlesticks, two of gold, two of silver and gilded, and two of pure silver.
• 4 angels with lights, of pure gold, each an ell high.
• 1 reliquary of pure gold, set with precious stones.
• 1 lily of gold, adorned with precious stones.
• 1 nail from the cross of Christ, as a great relic.
• 1 diamond, two thumbs long, of great value.
The court was daily supplied and regulated with provisions as follows: 36 oxen, 10 pigs, 6 hundredweight of bacon, 1 hundredweight of beef marrow, 250 sheep, 250 lambs, 250 piglets, 100 hares, 800 rabbits, 300 pheasants, 200 waterfowl, 800 other birds, 400 pigeons, 200 swans, 400 hens, 500 capons, 1000 young chickens, and all other things such as bread, wine, beer, and whatever else was needed, not even mentioned. Thus, this royal court was luxuriously regulated in Trier. Not only in Trier but also in Dijon and other places, it was maintained throughout the year very expensively, splendidly, and royally, which is mentioned here only in passing.
Since, as mentioned, the Duke of Burgundy made peace with the emperor in Trier without the knowledge of his allies, the Duke of Lorraine and the Helvetic Confederation, and withdrew the emperor from his allies, hoping to defeat them and conquer their lands, he already celebrated his triumph, having killed the bear: some even believed that the emperor himself had a part in this undertaking because there was a secret jealousy since this Helvetic Confederation had thrown off the yoke of Austrian servitude and could not be forced into obedience by any means but had become its own province.
Therefore, this Duke Charles of Burgundy, with a force of 50,000 men, marched over Nancy to Neuchˆatel and Grandson; he besieged the latter town and castle, frequently storming it but in vain, as the garrison was persuaded by a false message that the expected relief had been defeated and could not arrive. Consequently, they agreed to a free withdrawal with the besiegers. These good people believed the pretense, received the agreement of free withdrawal, and handed over the town and castle. However, instead of the promised free withdrawal, they were treacherously, partly hanged on a long rope by the lake, and partly hung on the castle, and all were deprived of their lives. This wonderful and treacherous event was learned by the Swiss, who hurried with strong steps to Grandson on the same day, attacked the ducal camp with all fury, with fervent prayers, tears, and sighs over the great treachery, pride, and wickedness, encouraging each other to protect their freedom, wives, and children, fought like lions, and drove the ducal camp into flight so that the Burgundians had no time to take anything with them but had to leave everything behind for the Swiss to seize.
Many thousands were counted who remained on the battlefield from the Burgundians and were killed in the pursuit. If the Swiss had not been so exhausted from the long march they made that day, they would have chased the Burgundians entirely; however, they returned to the battlefield, thanked God for the victory, buried their treacherously executed brothers, and divided the spoils among themselves.
For they had captured the entire field artillery, the war chariots, the war chest, all magazines, the ducal treasury he had with him, a large number of merchant goods; further, the ducal camp more resembled a trade fair than a war camp; all the tents and many other things. However, everything was divided, namely:
• 420 pieces of artillery.
• 300 barrels of powder.
• 600 banners.
• 400 supply wagons.
• 2000 army wagons.
• 400 precious tents, including the duke’s, all lined inside with velvet and
silk, adorned with shields of gold and precious stones, bearing the ducal
coat of arms.
• 3000 sabers.
• 2000 barrels of herring.
• 3 wagons with crossbows.
• 2 wagons with ropes to hang the heads of the Swiss.
• Many wagons with English arrows.
• Wagons with salt.
• A large quantity of barrels with dried meat.
• A large quantity of sacks with barley and wheat.
• Hens, ducks, geese, pheasants, lambs, pigs, oxen, and calves were all uncounted.
• Provisions, spices, stockfish, and other foodstuffs without number.
• 800 maces, iron-tipped.
• The entire royal treasury and credence as described above.
• A large quantity of silver service, plates, spoons, knives, forks, and more.
• A large quantity of all kinds of kitchenware of metal and copper.
• A chair of silver and gilded.
• His, the duke’s, seal of gold, weighing a pound.
• His brother’s seal, of Anthony, otherwise called the Great Bastard of Burgundy.
• His father’s rosary, entirely of gold, with the 12 apostles of gold set with
precious stones.
• His sword, whose pommel and hilt were set with seven diamonds.
• A little box filled with many relics.
• Many precious portraits and other jewels.
• The great diamond mentioned above.
• The aforementioned church ornaments with all images.
• His entire collection of documents and archive.
• Merchant goods of silk, velvet, damask, gold cloth, and similar precious
items without number.
The money was so plentiful that it was not counted but divided with hats, his guards’ muskets, very artfully inlaid with ivory, in sum, all sorts of things that seem incredible to the reader if the chronicles and histories did not unanimously testify, and also many other things not to mention, which at that time, partly out of great joy over the victory, partly out of sadness over the treachery committed against their brothers in Granson. Not to mention that, according to the simplicity and honesty of the time, not everything was described; rather, each member of the allied federation wrote it down in their memory registers as best as they understood and found it true, so much that even much has not appeared in the public chronicle because otherwise, an even greater result would come out.
Despite the heavy defeat and loss that the duke had suffered, he came back the following year with a force of 100,000 men into Switzerland, blockaded and besieged the town of Murten by the lake, intending to take revenge on his enemies and recover the lost treasure. He stormed the town several times but in vain. During this time, the Helvetic Confederation itself, along with its allies from Strasbourg and Rothwell, hastened there with a strong cavalry, made great efforts upon their arrival, called upon God for his assistance, power, and victory, attacked the ducal Burgundian army with heroic courage and killed over 30,000 on the battlefield, not counting those drowned in the lake and otherwise perished with the capture of a great booty, though not comparable to the previous one.
For firstly, they seized all the artillery, all the pieces and wagons they had, the war chests, the war coffers, 1,000 precious tents, a number of foreign horses, six mules loaded with gold, which had not yet arrived at the camp, the entire magazine with all provisions for the large army to sustain them, so that this loss must have been more painful for the duke than the previous one. As can be seen, he fled to Geneva, where he locked himself up for three days and would not allow anyone to come before him, nor did he want to eat anything, and when the Duke of Savoy, along with others, wanted to console him, he refused and sent them away.
Despite his painful loss, he nevertheless returned the same year with 40,000 men before Nancy, a city belonging at that time to the Duke of Lorraine, and since he was allied with the Swiss Confederacy, they had to come to his aid, and they arrived with a force at Nancy, attacked the Burgundians and defeated them, so that the dead outnumbered the living, and they captured all the artillery, 130 pieces of artillery, along with many wagons, armor, flags, cannons, weapons, provisions, war chests, and war supplies, as well as a large quantity of all kinds of war equipment; in this battle, Duke Charles of Burgundy himself also lost his life.
Dear reader, do not become impatient over this extensive war description and chronological history, which contains nothing Hermetic but is still very useful for our purpose and to achieve the intended end. We rather ask you to remain a little longer with patience and with an unbiased and impartial mind to consider whether it is possible that a king, prince, or lord, whose ancestors 1) stood in a great debt burden, whose coffers and treasuries were exhausted, and whose movable means and transportable goods were handed over to creditors. 2) Whose father and grandfather were involved and entangled in a war that lasted over 100 years and never ceased. Besides this ordinary war, they also had 3) other wars and major expenditures against the Turks. Although he had a large but not populous land, he still had an abundance of money. 5) Furthermore, he was able to give a sum of 200,000 thalers (which was a large sum at that time) to the Duke of Orleans as a gift. He distributed rich alms daily and supported an entire order of knights of Malta when they were still in Rhodes. He assisted the Hungarians against the Turks by sea and land, all at his own expense. 6) He bought principalities, counties, and other lordships. 7) Lent 80,000 guilders at interest, yet filled his treasuries with such wealth and rarities that nothing like it had been heard before. 9) Not to mention his costly household and the splendor of his clothes, and 10) when he died, and his daughter still wanted to hold a wedding with the Archduke of Austria in Flanders that same year, the emperor had his son, though sparing, but it is easy to imagine, dressed costly along with his entourage, which the bride heard and sent her fianc´e 100,000 guilders to dress more splendidly. If such a sum could be spared, then it is easy to imagine that even greater treasures lay in the coffers.
If all these considerations are made, it is unlikely that this great duke could have obtained his indescribable wealth from his subjects. We say, who would not fall to the thoughts that such revenues and great treasures must have flowed from elsewhere? For anyone who has looked into the financial chambers of the courts and knows what their incomes and expenses are will admit that only a court that is not run with too much state of the domestics requires large expenses; let alone such a royal court, where many thousands of nobles and servants are present, where daily open table is held, and more than a royal state is maintained, there it requires mighty kings’ interests. How could it then be possible for a duke to maintain such, along with an army that at times numbered 100,000 men, for fifty years and yet enrich his treasuries and expand his lands without ruining himself and his entire country? One sees from the mightiest potentates of our times that when they have 20 to 30 years of peace, how they fill their coffers with money and accumulate a large reserve, and yet when they fall into war, they cannot sustain it for even two or three years, their reserve chambers and coffers are already emptied again, and they must burden their subjects with all kinds of new taxes, thereby draining and impoverishing the country and placing it in debt. They must then borrow money on interest. How could this be possible for the two dukes of Burgundy to sustain for fifty years and yet increase their wealth? This is said for further reflection.
The second evidence is:
An author named MENING, in his treatise attached to the Theatro Chymico, published in Strasbourg in 1623, says in the second chapter: ”There are also some who believe that the Holy Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, known as the Good, also possessed this noble and commendable art and science. Which he left to his son, Charles, called the Bold, an immeasurable treasure, almost like that of King Solomon. Which Charles, due to his wealth and power, as well as his bold courage, bravery, and successful military expeditions, was feared and honored by all princes of Christendom and was a terror to all his enemies.
The aforementioned Philip founded the Order of the Golden Fleece in honor of God, the Holy Virgin Mary, and the Holy Apostle Andrew, and included in it the most prominent nobles from his great lands, numbering 31 if I am not mistaken, who all appeared in a purple mantle on the first day of the great order festival, which was conducted with royal majestic splendor in the temple. On the second day, in a black mantle, and on the third day in a white garment, to signify the astonishing mysteries of the great art with these colors.” So far, Mening’s words.
The third evidence is:
Cornelius Agrippa, a man hated by the clergy because of his leading pious life and revealing their errors, but nevertheless a godly man, writes in 1509 from Dˆole in Lower Burgundy, where he was a professor, to the Abbot of Spanheim, Johann Trithemius, as follows: ”The past days have been fortunate, producing valiant men who possessed divine secrets, among whom was Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, who also in honor of this great secret founded his knightly order, the Golden Fleece. Item, Johannes Picus of Mirandola, Cosimo de’ Medici, the great Duke of Florence, who was known throughout Christendom for his wisdom and wealth. Item, Theodorus Gaza, a Greek who lived a while in Rome, was a wonder man and many others who all had intimate dealings with Philip of Burgundy because of this great science. Following this came his son, Charles, who also had part in these divine secrets and was said to be a very wise man.
I myself have seen the laboratory and the furnaces in the ducal castle in Dijon, and some chemical writings and characters on the walls, said to be the handwriting of the two dukes themselves.” So far Cornelius Agrippa.
Item. Another author in print also testifies to the same, but his name escapes us.
Item. Friends known to us, who were once in Dijon, testify that it can be sufficiently learned from the old citizens that the former dukes dealt with alchemy and acquired their wealth through it.
The fourth evidence is:
That the Golden Fleece, taken from paganism, is a term peculiar to alchemists and Hermetic philosophers, deriving its foundation and origin from the materia prima of the philosopher’s stone, as well as from the solar sulfur produced and born in the stars, partly from the magnet of the celestial mercury, which in the Hermetic mountains and their gold veins are formed and made into a tangible substance, which is then boiled out and made perfect through the macro- and microcosmic fire, as mentioned above and will be further shown in the following.
Thus, this great Duke borrowed the term Golden Fleece from both the pagan and Christian Hermeticists and alchemists, to whom it is an inherited and innate property and a saying peculiar to them. Hence, the author Artephius, Nicolas Flamel, and others who lived in this time also used this saying.
The fifth evidence is:
The high knightly order of the Golden Fleece itself, which the Hermetic philosophers have given this term. It is indeed noteworthy what the histories report that the great Duke founded the order of the Golden Fleece on the day of his wedding, in honor of the Virgin Mary and the Holy Apostle Andrew, under the pretext of undertaking a campaign against the Saracens. The esteemed reader is asked to compare this a little, and there is no doubt he will find the slightest agreement. For 1) it is known that not all guests present at the wedding were made knights. 2) Others who were not at the wedding were still made knights.
Therefore, not in honor of the wedding guests. 3) It has always been sufficient to choose only one patron and not two; as the scripture says: No man can serve two masters. 4) Under the pretext of undertaking a campaign against the Saracens, not all who participated in these campaigns were made knights, as there were only 24 to 30 in number. Therefore, in honor of the term borrowed from the chemists: Golden Fleece.
The sixth evidence is:
The habit or order’s attire that the high knights wear, especially at the great festival: on the first day, as stated by Schifletius, the order’s grand chancellor, and Mening, of crimson velvet, on the second day black, and on the third day white, indicating the astonishing mysteries of the great art.
The seventh evidence is:
Again, the habit or order’s attire, which, according to the first grand chancellor of the order, Germanicus, and another chancellor of the order, Schifletius, consisted of a long robe of crimson cloth, lined and faced with fine fur. This robe had a broad border with the Duke’s device, namely fire steel and sparks of fire, embroidered in gold, along with the Duke’s motto: AUTRE N’AURAI. Or: NON HABEO ALIUD. I will have no other. Which words were changed by Duke Charles and replaced with: JE L’AY EMPRIS: ILLUD SUSCEPI. I have already taken it.
By these clothes, especially the crimson robe, which they had to wear daily and especially on the first day of the festival, was meant the complete enjoyment and possession of the high art and science of the highest medicine, the gold of God and the wise, which, as Basil Valentine attests, presents itself in his purple mantle and makes the high possessors thereof triumphant heroes, that is, knights of the high order of Jason and Philip of Burgundy, of the Golden Fleece. They can shout Hosanna and Hallelujah! Glory be to the thrice holy God and thanks for his goodness forever! Amen.
Thus, the first over-garment, which they had to wear daily and especially on the first day of the festival, was a purple or crimson robe; thereby, as mentioned above, the high founder indicated partly the complete enjoyment and satisfaction in possessing the high art-science and its ultimate purpose, and partly the prima materia of the philosopher’s stone, as it appears at its beginning as a purple or crimson, like a translucent gold or thickened blood. As Geberus attests, it looks like burnt blood. However, this is not yet a permanent color or tincture but must be brought to plusquam perfection through long-time cooking and purification with the highest hidden fire of the philosophers, from one transformation to another, until it reaches its perfection.
Therefore, the high knights had to take off the red over-garment after the first day, that is, the matter, viewed as the high knight, which is thus dressed in its original royal under-garment, but by the subsequent curse of God, transformed and taken on an over-garment of fig leaves or feces terræ, covered and transformed therein so that it may appear before God according to the external corrupt reason. This sinful red over-garment, colored by God’s wrath and curse, was not an original and primary being of the first creation from God; therefore, it was also not eternally enduring and permanent, but had come in, penetrated, and impregnated by reason of Adam’s disobedience and fall, and thus had to be taken away again through the passions of the great Redeemer and world’s Savior, through the repentance of the time of grace, or through God’s wrath-fire in the eternal torments, in the anxious waiting of pain and suffering so that this cursed over-garment could be taken off and the high knight could appear in his pure garment of innocence before the throne of grace. Thus, the red crimson over-garment had to be taken off.
The other over-garment, which the high knights wore on the second day of the festival, was a long black mantle or Oriental robe, which could not be worn throughout the year except on this single day. With this, the high founder indicated the progress of the great work when it is brought to perfection through the passions. As all philosophers unanimously attest, the black color is the beginning of the high art and the gates or entrance to the royal palace. For as soon as the radiant light, which is hidden in the center of the over-garment, no longer has the freedom to extend, it withdraws its activity and works in itself, thereby causing the adhering parts, made from the fierce elements, to decay and rot, become black and turn, but it is not a permanent color or tincture, only a transient operative color, rooted in the curse, and therefore becomes black. For the curse is a passion and punishment of sin; thus, if this curse, passion, black color, the black mantle, or as the philosophers say, the raven’s head, is to be removed, it must be purified and softened with the washing of tears or the tearwater, cleansed and made white with the precious blood of the great Redeemer, the blood of justice and satisfaction, so that the soul, the pure seed, the divine tincture, the noble knight, may appear in its pure garment of innocence before the throne of grace. Therefore, the high knights had to wrap themselves in a black mantle, celebrate the festival of remembrance of their deceased members, who had been subjected to the passions of purgatory to pray for them and at the same time remember their own mortality, to weave themselves through true repentance in this time of grace, so that they may not be kept in the eternal fires of purification but be set in the steps of paradise. Therefore, the festival of remembrance of sin, the curse, death, and rebirth, washing and cleansing of the souls captured by the passions, was held in a black mantle.
The high founder thus had a beautiful and glorious memorial of the high art, presenting it vividly and essentially in all its parts, but also pointing the high knights to their nothingness, that is, their mortality and curse before God, so that they may find their something, i.e., Jesus, their Redeemer, and Savior, as the only head of all knighthoods.
The third over-garment, which the high order’s knights had to wear on the third day of the festival, was a white mantle or white robe of white damask, which, like the black over-garment, could only be worn on this single day, with which the high founder indicated the happy completion of the great work when it is freed from the clinging bands of passions, persecution, and tribulations.
For then the whole band of the wise attests that the white color is the way and path to perfect redness, and without white, the red can never be found. For white is the perfect light, the seed, the soul, the life, and the activity of all things, especially the center of all wisdom, that is, the chaos where the prima materia of the philosopher’s stone is found. When the light is to become manifest, it was first upon the abyss. For without the darkness, the light could not be manifest, since the darkness was the receptacle of the light. Therefore, God said: Let there be light, and the light came forth from the darkness and was manifest. For the true being, the bright light, the seed of perfection, could not separate and divide from the darkness unless the wise Creator commanded it, and with his will and intention, as a divine command, which is a fiery and light essence, it descended, the darkness sank into the depth, and the light of clarity flew upwards. Thus, from evening and morning, the first day was made.
Thus, the light of clarity, the radiant light, the seed of perfection, the soul, or life, by means of the fiery and light essence, had worked itself through the clinging bands of passions, had woven and penetrated through, so that it had freed and thrown off these bonds and appeared in its first garment of natural innocence and presented itself thankfully to its Creator. For the true white must be boiled out of the black through the philosopher’s secret fire or fiery water, which is a watery fire, and then the noble knight is clothed in the white mantle or robe. However, it is not yet the expected tincture of perfection, only a seed thereof; therefore, the high knights had to wear this white robe or damask (not silver piece) only for one day, then lay it aside and put on the daily garment, the high red-purple or scarlet robe, as the mantle and garment of perfection.
For the white color here, though otherwise perfect, is only a passing color.
Thus, the high founder intended to lead his noble knighthood to understand themselves well and celebrate the high festival of remembrance and thanksgiving for the merciful love of God, for the souls purified, refined, and washed with the fire of purification, now redeemed from the fires of purgatory and set in the place of paradise, with the highest solemnity, and thank him heartily for the gracious redemption. Therefore, they must not approach God in the red mantle of sin nor in the black mantle of despair and wavering but in the white mantle of freedom and celebrate the high festival; thus, it is said of the white garment.
The emblem or symbol on the changing over-garment embroidered with fire steel and fire stones, with springing and flashing fire sparks, embroidered with gold, we will mention at its place, namely by the order’s chain, but here only of the mottoes or life-sayings embroidered on the broad border of the garment: AUTRE N’AURAI. I will have no other. Or as later Duke Charles changed it and set instead: JE L’AY EMPRIS: ILLUD SUSCEPI. I have already done it.
As Duke Philip would say, I want nothing else, I acknowledge nothing else, and let me hear of nothing else: for I, although a duke, yet as a mortal man and sinner before God, unworthy of his grace and mercy, have been drawn by his precious grace to learn who I am, and have been further guided by this knowledge through faithful friends to the highest and greatest, yes to the divine science in the realm of nature and grace, so that I not only recognize the prima materia of the philosopher’s stone and am powerful of it, but also present it through this present garment, symbol, and motto. And since this high knowledge or secret is entrusted to me and I know what this subject can or can do, I will stay by this high knowledge and eternal truth, and nothing or no thing in the whole world compares to this one thing, nor will I prefer it. For I know that there is nothing to which the great God has given such powers and properties, wherein some satisfaction may be found, as in this; therefore, I acknowledge no other, I want no other, I seek no other, I respect and venerate no other, but the only thing, the only subject, the only chaos revealed to me by God and good friends. For I know and have it from experience what it can and can do. For what I have seen with my eyes surpasses all talking, washing, and wind making. Therefore, I stay with my experience and high knowledge and consider the whole world nothing; they may say or hold of me what they will; I want nothing else, or I want no other. This is briefly the meaning of Duke Philip’s motto.
But Duke Charles changed this motto, which his father made and wore, and instead had his own motto: I have already done it. Which are two entirely different mottoes and seem impossible to reconcile in the eyes of the world but are in a certain way aligned in one sense, as can be seen from the explanation when he says: I, Charles, the great Duke of Burgundy, Flanders, and Brabant, I, the grand master and co-founder of this high order, even though one of the greatest princes in Europe, yet I acknowledge after my high office entrusted to me by God, as a judicial office, that I am a prince and should behave princely; but I also acknowledge that after my name, Charles, I am a man like all other men, and have my human weaknesses, which I seek to pray to God to change in me. Therefore, we also established this high knightly order with mottoes, symbols, and memorial columns to remind us, and especially myself, of my human weaknesses and mortality. This particularly obliges me to the treatment of the prima materia of the philosopher’s stone, which I have examined with the help of my beloved father and other dear friends and found the high science, the Hermetic art, the philosopher’s stone within, as to which formerly my beloved father founded the high knightly order, the Golden Fleece, and this examination, along with the high art itself, I have not from hearsay, opinion, or belief but from my own experience. For I have done it in person, partly out of curiosity, partly also to be assured of the certainty, and to be able to boast as a co-master of the art. I can say, I have already done it. Thus, this evidence is concluded.
The Eighth Reason Is:
The golden order chain, worn by these high order knights, which was a firesteel, that is a fire steel and firestone, and from it sprang fire rays. This peculiar design and form of the chain must have a special reason, as it cannot be compared to the golden fleece, the campaign against the Saracens, or the wedding matters.
History reports that the great Persian prophet, king and lawgiver Zoroaster, handed down to his people a law, along with his great sciences and arts, engraved in a book of copper plates in the form of a firesteel, of fire steel and firestone, with fire-sprinkling rays, which is named ”Zent,” or ”Zenta vesta,” meaning a law of fire art. This Zoroaster, according to many, lived at the time of Abraham and was called the great Hermes, if not Abraham himself, who, after the flood, was the first to find the iron and copper plates of the seven ancient world’s arts, cut by the master Tubalcain. These tablets were later translated into Arabic by Zoroaster and written in the aforementioned book, which had the same content as the title of the book, and the shape of a firesteel. This book is said to be kept by the Persian priests to this day as a great ancient relic, and from this book, this great prince was presumably informed, and therefore had his knights’ order chain made exactly according to the model of Zentavesta, where at each link of these chains, the book, that is, two opposing fire steels, with fire rays and fire-sprinkling sparks, should be seen. And thus, as he saw the history of Jason in the order called Golden Fleece, he also saw Zoroaster and his book, as the great Hermes’ art and science, so that he always kept the ancient science in his memory and praised God for it.
In this eighth reason, as an additional reason, it is also necessary to mention the golden fleece or lamb’s fleece, which hangs at the bottom of the chain and is the symbol of the Greek princes, Phrixus and Jason’s, golden ram, or the book made of ram and lamb skins, or, according to the usage of the ancients, the scroll on which the gold-producing art, along with other high sciences, was written in gold colors; so that this great prince here, with this order chain, referred to two ancient and traditional passages, founded himself on them, and accepted them as teaching: which deserves to be noted.
Furthermore, as an additional reason in this eighth proof, serve the very thoughtful words, written around the lamb or golden fleece on this order chain as a motto, namely: PRETIVM NON VILE LABORIS. As if the great prince and duke Philip, or rather this golden order chain, wanted to say, and to call out to those passing by: Dear people, who look at me, see my praiseworthy and wisdom-filled form, and consider it well. Then I ask you, take the trouble and stand here for a while, free yourselves from all foreign thoughts; instead, double your attention, grasp me with a deep mind, and seek with great desire the reason for my presentation, for I am worthy that you bestow this honor upon me.
Yes, I tell you, put all your strength, senses, and desires into considering me in my two centers of outer and inner essence.
For, first, the gold, the metallic gold nugget that you see here with your eyes, is not such gold that is mined or dug from the mountains of the great world, nor washed from the sand; but such is made from the true gold of the wise, as the gold of God, made from the sun’s rays of heavenly forces, which has its origin in God, and brought down from him into the essences of the upper elements and their workings, as well as the stars, into the etheric, into the lower working elements; from where it is brought out and made into a perfect metal, that is, gold, by the high and noble art of alchemy or fire art, as my form and shape indicate to you. Although I am gold, and indeed much nobler than that which comes from the world’s mountains; here, because of my high value, my high dignity, and my high powers, the costs incurred are not worth mentioning. Then such do not deserve to be mentioned; therefore, dear viewer, who has taken the trouble to consider me in my praiseworthy form, do not let me disappear from your devotion so soon, for, secondly, my form should still teach you something special. You may have seen many order jewels, but none like this: for although I am gold, of very high value, I present only a simple firesteel, which can be obtained with little money. From which you can conclude what this golden firesteel wants to show you. Namely, that through a secret but simple art, golden fire rays, fire sparks can be struck from a stone with a steel, which, when collected, are nothing else but such metallic gold, as you see here before your eyes. And thirdly: See, that I am a very precious metal, artistically shaped by the hand of the goldsmith into this chain, to honor this knight and instruct posterity, how I say it to all, but only to the worthy, what I have wanted to teach with it.
Namely, just as I am a precious metal, artistically made, and honor people, so I am here to show you the simplicity and transience; and that although gold is a fine metal, yet it and its artistic form can be destroyed, and how it presents a lamb, or fleece, a simple stone, a fire steel, and tinder, all of which are perishable and wither away; so also the honor of man, so that we people understand and learn from it, how although man is the most glorious, highest, and greatest wonder-creature on earth, who, through his possessions, arts, and sciences, is capable of accomplishing the most astonishing things, that will be remembered into old age, yet is mortal, and that his life extinguishes and his body decays.
Therefore, we should always remember God, to gain his grace in Christ, so that our soul may be received into the eternal dwellings. May the merciful love of the triune God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, help us all to do so. Amen!
The Ninth Reason Is:
The star, the signature of the order knights, which is worn on the chest, stitched and pinned to the garment: as we see, such is not the signature of a star of the heavenly zodiac, but represents the figure of the two characters with which the ancient wise men designated fire and water, as the two principal beginnings of the philosopher’s stone, or as the wise themselves say, the AZOTH & IGNIS.
(We have written a separate treatise on this.) These two characters of fire and water, when drawn through each other, form a character of a star, through which they want to indicate the four elements, and thus the true subject, the philosophical chaos, the real and true element treasure, the great treasure chamber of nature, or the first matter of the philosopher’s stone, the true golden fleece, along with its perfect power, ability, and effect, have designated. For this is the true and rightful signature star, which nature itself forms and shapes; but not the one shown on the regulus of antimony, as Stella Martis, but the one seen on our antimony, which was born of the heavenly influence, and seen by the wise, over which they rejoiced. For it is the one from which the heavenly light comes forth, and from it the golden rays flow. Yes, from which the fire of the wise itself has its beginning. Who will now believe otherwise, than that this signature star, which has no other reason and origin, but the elements fire and water, and which can only be applied to alchemy, or otherwise represent the philosophical subject, and that the high knights of the order to the true golden fleece thereby recognize each other, who they are. Thus, this signature star, which is proper to the philosophers, partly indicates the subject, and partly the possessors of this high science themselves.
The Tenth Reason Is:
That Duke Philip and his son Charles had painted on all their banners and flags the same figure and signature as the order chain and their habit present, namely a firestone, with fire steels and from it flaming fire rays along with the inscription: ANTE FERIT QUAM FLAMMA MICET. This figure and motto were not placed on the flags just to frighten people, nor merely to honor the outward appearance of the high order knight, but meant something entirely different.
The Eleventh Reason Is:
A silver medal, struck by Duke Charles, where on one side is the bust of Duke Charles. On the other side, however, the golden fleece, with the inscription: JE L’AI EMPRINS BIEN EN AVIEGNE. Which indeed proves to us, that such ` was set for further reflection.
The twelfth reason can serve us:
The great diamond, which was one thumb thick, and two thumbs long, as all historians agree. Jewelers and naturalists must admit here that they have never seen such, and that it is impossible for nature to produce such. Consequently, it was made by art; which for this reason was publicly displayed on his credenza for the world to see and think about; but also lost in the battle at Grandson, found by a soldier, sold for a florin the first time, the second time for 2 florins, the third time in Lyon for 7000 florins; also, it was sold to Duke Louis of Milan for 11000 florins, and the last time to Pope Julius for 20000 ducats.
The Thirteenth Reason Is:
The fortunate and blessed Adepticum century, where at that time many famous men, philosophers, and possessors of the philosopher’s stone lived: 1) Johannes Picus, Lord of Mirandola, 2) Cosmus de Medices, from Florence; 3) Theodorus Gaza; 4) Thomas Kempis; 5) Georg Riplæus; 6) Isaac Hollandus; 7) Salomon Trismonius, 8) Basil Valentine; 9) Nicholas Flamel, who founded so many churches and hospitals in Paris, 10) Count Bernardus, 11) Thomas de Bononia, who corresponded with each other, along with fifteen others, who Count Bernardus knew, who lived in one place; without those he knew otherwise in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and other places. Item 12) Raymond Lullius, with King Edward IV of England. Item 13) Arnoldus de Villa Nova, who was in contact with the kings of Aragon, Navarre, and Naples, and many others who undoubtedly corresponded together, were in secret alliance, and held gatherings, who in number secretly, as the noble knights were openly, namely brothers and members of a body, with the name, Golden Fleece, as many marks there, and they as conscientious witnesses testify against us, that these great dukes Philip and Charles, along with the open knights, of the golden fleece, also maintained a secret and hidden society. And furthermore, if the matters discussed among them had taken their proper course, it would then have shown who the true knights of the golden fleece were. But God did not allow it, but ended this secret alliance through the death of Duke Charles, who was taken from the world too early and unexpectedly in his flourishing years, so that this secret society and brotherhood hid, remained hidden, and left the outer world the shell and cover of the true essence. As the following reason will sufficiently convince us of what we have said here.
The Fourteenth Reason of Proof Is:
In the news of Mr. SCHIFFLETII, Grand Chancellor of the high order of the golden fleece, when he says: That after the death of Philip and Charles, no one knew the real purpose for which this high order was directed at the fable of Jason. The news about the name and denomination of the order, initially taken from the golden fleece of Jason, and later borrowed from the fleece of Gideon, is not clearer and better from any author than from the only mentioned Olivario Marcano, in his still unprinted detailed relation and report to King Philip I of Castile and Duke Philip I’s founder of this order. He was already 76 years old when he wrote this letter, and his words are as follows: Next, I must also report to Your Majesty what your great-grandfather, Duke Philip the Good, actually had in mind when he originally named this world-renowned knightly order, the Golden Fleece. Initially, his intention was indeed on the well-known fable of Jason and Jason’s golden fleece, who, as the fable goes, with his comrades, undertook and dared the important and long sea voyage to the island of Colchis, to procure and capture the great ram, whose fleece and skin were entirely golden, etc. It happened, however, that the order’s chancellor, named Johannes Germanus, who was also the Bishop of Chalon in Burgundy, a famous and excellent orator, and one of those esteemed men who stood in special high regard at the court, thought of the fable of Gideon’s fleece, and thus induced a change in the previous thoughts, abandoning the initial purpose, and instead took the biblical story of Gideon and the fleece of Gideon as the model and example.
We see from the quoted history of Schiffletii, Olivarii Marcani, and Johannes Germani that, except for Duke Philip, and perhaps his sons, as the rightful heir Charles, and the two sons, Antonio the Great and Baldwin, who were also knights of the high order, the purpose and cause must have been known to no one, or very few of the high knights; therefore, everything else that has been mentioned about the causes was just a speculation. And it is quite ridiculous that Duke Philip only long after, when Johannes Germanus read the story of Gideon and the well-known fleece and reminded the Duke of it, accepted Gideon’s fleece as a model and example. But the high order had to remain on the foundation that the Duke laid, namely on the fable of Jason, from the golden fleece. For if the fable or history of Jason’s golden fleece was to be done away with, and instead the story of Gideon’s fleece was accepted, then the entire order’s name had to be changed and abolished, along with the fleece itself, since these three are connected and cannot exist without each other. So the word, fleece, must mean something more than just a skin. And thus Germanus’ claim is just an unfounded speculation.
It is also worth noting that there are so many knightly orders in the world, and almost every court chooses such; yet among all, none, like this one, which was initially only a ducal knightly order, but has risen to such an admission that the mightiest emperors, kings, and princes found joy and pleasure in accepting and wearing it. From this, it can be concluded that something special, pleasing to God and nature, is hidden beneath it, which makes this order not only pleasing and agreeable but also that the high possessors venerate and respect it so much, which certainly deserves further reflection. And it is by no means either the Jasonian or Gideonian story, nor the campaign against the Saracens, but rather the good intent, the sincere mind, and goodwill towards God, as this great duke did not seek his own but God’s honor, and praised God, offering the talent entrusted to him, along with his mental powers, to God and his beloved church, which was also very close to his heart, to do so and to stand by the oppressed Christians among the Greeks and Mohammedans, to free them from their yoke. Therefore, this high knightly order remained blessed. While others may have been started with good intentions, they did not come to such glory and esteem.
The Fifteenth Reason Is:
To consider why God the Lord allowed this high knightly order to fall back to the Archducal House of Austria with the late His Roman Imperial Majesty, Charles VI, and indeed upon assuming their glorious government; and whether it was not then a high prediction that his descendants would need such a blessed order, wherein princely knightly heroes would be found, who, like the heroes of King David, would bravely earn the princely knighthood with their lives and then seek to bring these heirlooms of their lord to their natural descendants without violating their conscience.
Whoever is not satisfied with the aforementioned proofs, more will also be too little, and he will remain as blind as an owl, even if all the glasses of the world were put on him, and all the torches lit for him.
And now we come to the fourth part of our undertaking.
In this part, we will show how the ancient philosophers presented their high hermetic science through poetic verses and hidden speeches, partly to conceal it from the unworthy and uncalled, and partly to reveal it to the disciples.
The benevolent truth shows us from nature and its daily practice how, for the completion of God’s ultimate purpose in the multiplication of creatures in the animal kingdom and also in man, the great animal itself is necessary that for the generation and creation of a new being there must always be two materials, substances, and forms present: one as the agent or active, and the other as the patient or passive, which according to the command of the great God are called a man and a woman, Adam and Eve, or after birth, father and mother. For to produce a fruit, one alone is completely powerless, useless, and dead, or just like a half-body that can do nothing, nor has any power. Therefore, if a fruit is to result, these beings or subjects grounded in nature must come together, that is, heaven with earth, seed with matter, sulphur with mercury, the active with the passive, the man with the woman, and thus in all creatures, two subjects must come together to generate a third, which is a fruit.
Therefore, to come closer to our project, we must take a step back and look into the archives of antiquity, where the wonderful, excellent, and glorious book is kept; namely, the comprehensive and well-written handbook, the Emerald Tablet, which is the great golden A.B.C. The great philosophical law book in which all hypotheses and the end of the law are contained, which was written by the great and world-renowned Hermes Trismegistus, the great grandfather of all philosophers and true alchemists, the possessor of the highly praised philosopher’s stone, who, according to many opinions, was either Toa, the patriarch, or one of his sons, or the ancestor of Abraham, if not Zoroaster himself. He wrote it to honor his children until the end of the world, as a pyramid and memorial pillar, thus immortalizing or deifying himself; for in it, as with a testament, he revealed the hidden treasures of the whole of nature and handed them over, along with his high knowledge, to the disciples of true wisdom. Therefore, we will take it before us and explain its literal meaning, and then, in conclusion, lay out the truth completely.
Hermes, the thrice-great philosopher, says: ”1) True, without a lie, 2) certain, and the most true, that what is below is like what is above; and what is above is like what is below to accomplish the miracles of one thing. 4) And as all things have been created from one, 5) by the will and command of the one who meditated upon it; 6) so all things arose and came from this one thing through a single act of adaptation. 7) The sun is its father; the moon its mother, the wind carried it in its belly; its nurse is the earth. 8) This is the father of all perfection in the whole world. Its power is complete when it is turned into the earth. 9) You shall separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, gently and with great skill. 10) It ascends from the earth to heaven and descends again to the earth, and receives the power of the upper and the lower. 11) Thus you will have the glory of the whole world, 12) and all obscurity will flee from you. 13) This is of all power the strongest power, for it overcomes all subtle things, and penetrates all that is solid. 14) Thus the world was created. 15) Hence proceed wonders, which are here shown. 16) Therefore I am called Hermes Trismegistus, having three parts of the philosophy of the whole world. 17) What I have said concerning the operation of the sun is accomplished and finished.”
In this emerald tablet, there are essentially three main statements: first, the truth and certainty of the art; second, the high art itself; and third, its power and effect. We will go through and examine these piece by piece, for which the esteemed reader should have attentive ears.
Hermes says: 1.) Truly and without lying, the high art of the ancient sages, which I have learned from my fathers themselves, and which was given as a consolation to Adam by God at the beginning of the sad fall, has been revealed and bestowed, which he then trusted again to his descendants in the same way, and which has thus also come down to me, and I seek to plant it further into the late world. It is truly true, it is a dear and eternal truth, of which you can be as certain as you are of the life you have received from God. Therefore, do not mock it as if it were lies and falsehoods, no, rather they are truths upon which God has imprinted his seal and placed his hand. If you mock this art, this high truth, know that you are mocking God.
2.) For it is certain and true that what is below is like what is above, and what is above is like what is below. Hermes says thus, that the high art of preparing a universal medicine for humans and metals is a high and precious truth, which the gates of hell, with all its hordes and followers, cannot overcome nor overthrow a single heap. Likewise, and just as surely, it is true that the material of our stone, which is here below on earth, in the subterranean elements, parts, regions, containers, treasure chambers, the land, and kingdom of Colchis, is like that which is above, in the heavenly elements, the sidereal parts of the upper regions, circles, and spheres, in the land and kingdom of Thebes; so that these two great monarchies and worlds, these two types of elements, principles, and offsprings, in the true center and original ground, are only one, and make up only one thing, namely man and woman, the active and passive, the seed and the field, hence they, by their united and effective power and penetrating properties, bear many children. For they are very closely related and united, they have one beginning and origin, one birth and parents, namely from the spoken word of the eternal father and creator of all things, therefore their active power is also only one.
Our great Hermes further says: 3.) Thus can wonders be performed with one thing. This faithful father, Hermes, means to say: if you only knew that one thing from which the sages prepare their stone, how would you rejoice, and would be able to perform incomparable wonders with it. For behold, the beginning of our work is only one thing, and in this one thing, all the things of the world are enclosed, namely a mercurial sulphur and a sulphurous mercury, that is, a fiery water and a watery fire: if you therefore separate this one thing into two parts, as into earth and water, with the water being volatile and the earth fixed, and then rejoin them, so that the water becomes a body, and the body becomes water, then you have the whole art. But if you cannot thus separate this earth and reunite its water with it, so that the water becomes fixed and the earth volatile, then you have still achieved nothing in the high art. Therefore, Hermes says, what is below is like what is above, and what is above is like what is below: if these two elements, which seem to be one thing, are separated from each other, so that the water ascends to the heights of the upper regions, and the earth, which is fixed, dead, and remains lying in the lower parts, are reunited, then wonders can be performed and achieved with it. For after this reunion and coagulation, you will never again be able to separate them from each other, neither by fire nor by water, therefore everything can be achieved with such a single thing.
Further, our great Hermes says: 4.) And just as all things have been created from one thing alone, 5.) by the will and command of the one who has considered it. Hermes says: just as all things in the world, all creatures and beings, all substances and entities, all bodies and subjects have arisen from one and from one thing, from one matter, from one chaos or primal being, as the breathing and speaking word of God, from which water has become (as we have written in a separate treatise, AZOTH & IGNIS), and have come forth, but not for themselves alone, as a nut in a shell, but by the will and command of God, the only creator, who has so wisely considered it. So from one thing, from one lump or mass, heaven and earth have been created by the will and command of Jehovah, the thrice-holy God and father, by whom, through whom, and from whom all things have arisen and been made, which have been made, and also have their origin and center in him, as in the one who has considered and created it.
And just as all things have been created from one, so all the actions of the philosopher’s stone are made from one, and indeed from a very simple, almost despised thing, which contains within itself all four elements, which are also created by God, and therefore called the prima materia. For it is the nature of each thing that it is thus related and pleasing to all things in the world, and the parts separated from it seek to reunite very eagerly, which conjunction, however, can only happen through the artisan, who wisely arranges and prepares it with art and knowledge, otherwise his undertaking will be in vain. You should also know that if you want to strive for this high art, you must not, like the fanatics, quench your thirsty throats at the leaky, smelly cisterns of bitter and deadly waters, but rather approach the true, right source, which contains the water of life, otherwise, you drink death and curse. A true Christian does not seek false and sophistic teachings but always longs for his center, his home, and his resting place; he finds no satisfaction and pleasure except in his rest, which is in God. Therefore, if we want to be successful in all our undertakings, we must sink ourselves into God as the only true source of rest and leave everything to Him.
A rogue or sophist, however, is like the raven that the patriarch Noah sent out from the ark; he finds pleasure in all things and places, and flits from one stinking and decaying corpse to another until his time is up; thereby losing two noble advantages: namely, earthly and eternal happiness, which would have been very little for him to obtain if he had only followed the simple understanding of the teaching of our most blessed patriarch Hermes. He continues: 6) Thus all things arise and come from this one thing alone through one way and suitable arrangement. The good man was not satisfied with what he had said in his 4th and 5th sentences, but was concerned that it might not be well understood and therefore repeats it in this 6th sentence and says: listen, thus all things arise and come from this one thing alone, for God has made this simple and despised thing perfect, lacking nothing and without defect; it has nothing superfluous about it, except the despised outer shell, the feces of the earth, and is not lacking in anything that needs to be added; it has everything it should have: And therefore it requires nothing else but a wise distribution of the things into the essences, into the elements, colors, wet and dry parts, through one single way (hear, you fools) and suitable arrangement, not through all sorts of self-chosen, speculative ways, according to each one’s fancy, nor in the way of chance! or luck! No; but through the single path laid by God into nature, where everything presents itself very neatly in the most beautiful order, follows and aligns. Just as you can see and should take as an example the creation of the great world.
Further with our great Hermes, when he says: 7) The sun is its father; the moon its mother; the wind carried it in its belly; its nurse is the earth. Hermes comes here with a completely new setup and brings us even closer to the goal, showing us 1) how this material is conceived in the upper kingdom, 2) brought down to earth and born there, 3) what this material is, and 4) how it must be treated and brought to perfection. Therefore he speaks: note me well, do not fall for other vain and useless things. The sun Athamas, the fiery solar sulfur, is the father of this noble child. For from the sun, Athamas, flows out the fiery martial seed, the noble fire life, the tincture of the sun, the tinging spirit, the astral spirit of the upper elements and emanations, which descends into its matrix and containers of the subterranean regions through the moon, the Tephelem of the watery lunar outflows, and the passions, into its mother.
For from the moon flows out the watery but very fiery venereal seed of the gentle love fire life, the wise lunar mercury, the seed of the woman, the astral wise spirit, the wise water, the dry, non-wetting hands water, the great solvent, the wise Alkahest, in which the wise gold is radically dissolved and made volatile, which no other thing in the world can achieve. As if Hermes wanted to say, you should know that the sun is a great and mighty planet in the orbit of heaven, and, according to astronomical calculation, 140 times larger than the earth’s globe, and moreover of a completely fiery nature, as if it were a great sea full of molten metal, which emits its rays like gold standing in flux; so that if its rays were to descend straight down to earth, everything would have to burn to dust and ashes. But the loving God has created nothing that serves for destruction but has made everything wisely and well, as he has created this great planet for the warming of the cold, wet earth.
For the warming of the cold mercurial parts, he has placed opposite the cold moon, a cold, wet planet, which hovers as a third party between the sun and the earth, and is 42 times smaller than the earth’s globe, in which the fiery rays of the sun concentrate and are extinguished, and which then sends the imbued and impregnated seed back to the earth when they are moderated; so that Athamas and Tephelem, through their royal bond, gave birth to two royal children, Phrixus and Helle, that is, a solar sulfur and a lunar mercury, in the kingdom of Thebes of the upper elements and regions, which then could not remain there but had to be cast out and sent down from their father’s kingdom and monarchy. For: Tephelem, the moon, the mother, due to its weak or fragile constitution and excessive coldness, was not able to retain the seeds and births of the sun, but had to let go of them, as if she were dead, upon which the other stars, especially Jupiter, allowed their adverse influences, like stepmothers and priestly factions, to infuse their arsenical mercury and sulfur, thereby causing these children to leave their upper region and, like in a blessed rain with the golden fleece, the great golden ram, descend through the region of the air into the ethereal earthly cold, onto the earth, and in their principles and elements, in the kingdom of Colchis, they were gloriously received Ino, the side consort of Athamas, symbolized the adverse aspects and impressions of the stars, which have their origin from Jupiter. Jupiter, however, is a patron of the priestly order. Therefore, it is said that Ino, as a priest’s daughter, would have been very bearable and advantageous for the two children, but it was not so from the beginning of things but only after the fall of Lucifer and Adam, through the dreadful curse pronounced by God, as a secondary matter, crept in and infiltrated: that is, the arsenical spirits, the adverse impressions are to be seen as a second thing, and considered as a stepmother: and indeed, as known, that everything that comes from the priestly order and lineage is of a particular nature, malicious, perverted, despicable, deceitful, hypocritical, and lying, yes, high-handed and proud. As the dear Savior Christ Jesus himself laments when he says, and repeats often: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you serpents, you brood of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell.
Matthew 23. Therefore, the stepmothers also have a particularly bad reputation, which follows them throughout the world, that they are envious, deceitful, thieving, and wicked, who do not grant their stepchildren a good bite but pursue them and seek to take away their rightful inheritance. Here, the situation has hit doubly, and the spiteful fortune has taken its wide plague, so that through the curse of God, this noble mass was clothed in a desolate and despicable garment in the feces of the earth, the sulfuric and arsenical spirits. For first, they were persecuted from the upper region where they were born and sent down to the lowest regions; therefore Hermes says: The wind carried it in its belly, or as said above, on the golden ram, the golden fleece, the good weather, he came down, from which everything has received its life and growth. And secondly, these noble principles were covered and disfigured by the curse of the earth, so that one does not recognize them, except for a son of wisdom, although they are common and can be found everywhere. For it is, as Hermes says: A metal or metallic mineral, whose father is the sun, the mother the moon, the nurse the earth; it is a true mineral of Saturn, from which the wise mercury, sulfur, gold, and silver are made. Yes, it is a mother of all metals of the wise: yet it is not a metal of the great world, but of the philosophers. Hermes means to say: the natural parents of our stone are the sun and the moon; when they pour their seed into the earth, the earth takes the seeds, impregnates itself with them, and nourishes them, so that they grow, become perfect and timely, as a perfect fruit, as a beautiful precious stone, and wise pearl, yes as a wise hyacinth, which then lays itself before the loving eye, for its endured effort, to the day, and at the same time opens a gate of all treasures of nature. Not to speak further of this, but we continue to listen to our great Hermes, what he further says: 8.) This is the father of all perfection in the whole world; its power is perfect when it is turned into the earth. As if he wanted to say: when its power, which has gone out from it, has returned into it and has been turned into the earth, it is a father of the whole world. For the prima materia lapidis philosophorum is actually compared to the whole world, in which all four elements are contained and are separated through the work. The water rises, and with it, the fire of the sun, as the father, ascends into heaven, and the earth remains at the bottom of the vessel; when then the earth is added to the fire of the sun and the moon, and these take it upon themselves, a new body is born, just like a new fruit in the womb of the mother, which you must then nourish for a long time, so it will grow, become large and strong, discard its unsightly feces, stench, and weight, and appear in its first garment, the pure paradisiacal innocence. This is then the father of perfection, the father of the whole world: and when its power, which has gone out from it, its spirit and soul, its blood and life, has been transformed back into it and has returned to its earth, it makes it perfect, as the father of perfection.
But one could also explain the words of the great Hermes in a completely different way, namely, if one wanted to understand them to the end of the previous words, to mean the prima materia when it is still in its spiritual form and has not yet descended from the upper region; or has already become a tangible being and could thus be said with the words previously mentioned, a new transformation of the prima materia which the spagyric first takes in hand and draws the prima materia from it, along with the entire practice of the philosopher’s stone.
What we want to mention in passing here is, namely, when Hermes says: this is the father of perfection. So one may understand it: Asson, the great king, the philosophical root, the mineral of the wise, the metal of the ancient philosophers, the magical or magnetic earth, the primum mobile & primum ens, the substantial center of the entire circumference of the upper and lower region, the extension of the breadth and depth of all powers, the combination of the great and small world, the chaos, subject, element, treasure, or treasure chamber of nature, the great and secret one thing, in which the life, rain, and movement of all things, both in time and eternity, can be seen, as in a mirror. This great king Asson is the father of perfection of the whole world. For the great thrice-holy God and creator has placed all powers, virtues, and properties in it, so that it may be a king, to whom neither wealth nor power lacks, but who is a lord, and reigns from the rising of the sun to its setting, and thus over the whole earth.
It is not enough to know that such a mighty king exists and reigns in the world, but also necessary to know where, at what place, and in what region he is to be found. And for that, the fable and tradition say: in Thessaly, in the Greek dominions. As if they wanted to say, his dwelling is in the earth, as the dust of the great world.
After God the Lord created the great world, with all its parts and creatures so that nothing was lacking for the fulfillment of God’s ultimate purpose, namely for the inhabitants, the lord of the world, who was to possess and rule it: So God the Lord began a completely new creation, and indeed in a completely different and extraordinary way than the first one. As the book of creation reports, that previously God said: Let there be. In this case, however, when it was about the lord of the world, he seemed to ask for advice and said: Let us make man, a figure that is like us. All previous creatures were formed from the will, desire, breath, and spirit of God; but man from the quintessence of all powers and juices of the great world, and indeed so that all creatures would recognize, honor, and obey him, and he would have perfect knowledge of all things in the world.
Therefore, God took a mass, a tangible substance, an extraction of the great world, an essence of all creatures, yes, he took dust from the earth, says Moses in Genesis 1, and formed from it man, the image of God, and named him Adam.
This Adam, this man, this image of God, this little-great world or great-little world, this Thessalia, is a dust or solar sulfur and the love fire life, full of balsamic fragrant powers, divine light, and fiery essential properties. Therefore, he was immortal, indestructible, and imperishable, so that no element could harm him. But when Lucifer, the son of the morning, the former grand prince of the heavenly choirs, who, like all angels, was created from the pure fiery waters of the first separation, had risen above himself, he, along with the heaven-heavens and all its creatures, created so that if Lucifer had not been of such a fiery nature and working substance, he would never have been able to tempt, try, and bring to fall man, Adam or Eve (who were not created from the earth like other animals, but from the essence of the world, and consequently had a part in the same from which the angels themselves were created), and thus bring them into the curse.
For we say that man, Adam, whom God the Lord formed from dust, was not just an image of other animals, but a pure essence and extraction of the entire great world, a light essence, fire essence, solar sulfuric extract, and fire-life, full of balsamic powers, and divine properties; therefore, the great creator wanted this his image, the formed man, Adam, not to be left to the elements of the great world, to breathe life into him like other animals, but the great creator, the thrice-holy God, the majestic, almighty, and all-righteous God himself, breathed his divine breath, spirit, life, fire, light, will, and desire into this still-dead lump of earth or body; then he became a living soul, the image of God, the lord, and king of the whole world.
Dear, beloved, and Christian-minded reader! Whoever you may be, when you come on your Christian pilgrimage to the place of Edom, where there is a great crossroad, and between it a theater or stage is erected, upon which the image of God, Adam, the man, is set for display and attention, as he was before and after the fall; when you come to this place, you are asked, for the love of God, yes, for the temporal and eternal salvation of your poor soul, to stay a little and consider with us this man Adam, the image of God, and look at him from his origin to his end, namely who his creator was, how he was made from a limbo or dust of the earth, how God breathed his breath into him, how he made him the lord of the whole world, then placed him in paradise, how he was tempted and brought to fall by the devil, how God the Lord then raised and comforted him again there, and how God promised his eternal word, the word of life, through which all things were made, that are made in heaven and on earth, to this fallen Adam, that in the fullness of time it would come to suffer, die, and with its blood and righteousness become an eternal and fully sufficient sacrifice to atone for the righteous wrath of his heavenly father against sin, disobedience, and to pay for it, so that all who believed in him through his word would be eternally holy and blessed.
And finally, how in the fullness of time this great redeemer, the eternal word of the father, came from heaven, became incarnate through the pure virgin Mary, lived humbly, conducted his teaching office, was captured, tormented, crucified, mocked, and buried; how he descended into the lower parts of the earth, preached the gospel to the prisoners who had not repented in the time of Noah; how he rose again and explained the scriptures to his disciples, which were written about him, how he ascended into heaven, sat at the right hand of his heavenly father, how all power in heaven and on earth was given to him, until he had made his heavenly father’s enemies his footstool, until he had brought everything back to its original state, and God the heavenly father would be all in all; and finally, that man, through his fall, had caused all this scattering, that God had to take such a wide detour, just like with the ancient Israelites through the wilderness, before he brings us back to where he had originally placed Adam. Let us consider all this well, and we will find that man is of a very noble lineage and nobility, and far more than we can grasp with all our reason.
Now, back to our great Hermes, where we left off, when he says: 9) You shall separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the gross, gently, with great understanding and art. 10) It ascends from the earth to heaven and descends again to the earth, and thus receives the power of the upper and lower. Hermes begins anew here to describe the practice of the high work and to lay it out for the children of art, when he says: You shall separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the dense, the earth from the water, and the water from the earth.
For the subtle fire of the elements is hidden in the element of water, therefore this fire rises first with the water from the earth. Through great understanding of the art, gently, not violently or hastily, but slowly, gently, with understanding and art. This fiery water rises from the earth to heaven, into the alembic and the receivers; but it should not stay there, but must descend again into the earth: The separated fiery water, or watery fire, must be given back to the earth, for the water is the life or soul of the earth.
When the water is separated from the earth, the earth is a dead body and completely incapable of bearing fruit; if this earth is to bear fruit, its spouse, its husband, its anima, its life, its spirit, its water must be given back to it, and indeed with great understanding, like a ferment of two opposing things, so that they gently conjoin, unite, mix, coagulate, purify, wash, and make white in themselves. For here it is a double work, a double marriage; The water makes the earth thin, flowing, volatile, and subtle: on the other hand, the earth makes the water thick, firm, fixed, and corporal.
Which indeed requires great wisdom to understand this double marriage and conjunction properly, and surely more is hidden behind it than just children playing with earth and water making a slurry, etc. Truly, here Hermes has described the whole art in these few words, which is otherwise distributed in so many books: Whoever can grasp it, let him grasp it! When the water is separated from the earth and the same is returned to the earth, so that it has descended back into the earth, the earth has taken on the power of the upper and lower regions, and has thus become a center of all powers.
We also want to note the second understanding of these words when Hermes says: You, artful one, shall, according to natural wisdom, separate the earth, the tangible elements, the corporeal parts, the kingdom of Colchis, the firm, heavy, and incombustible, the earthy, salty, and sulfuric parts, so that on the other hand the volatile, thin, and humid parts, the moistures and sticky greases, which are held by the coarse and dense parts and hinder them from flowing together or uniting into one, are separated by the fire of nature and against nature, so that the true essential fire, the heavenly mercury, along with the heavenly sulfur, the golden fleece, or the pure gold, the gold of God, the wise queen Solomon, the astral wonder balm, the essence of fire and light.
And the SUBTILE, the heavenly Mercury, the royal Princess, the bride of Jason, the lunar Sulphur, the female seed, the pure silver, the wise dove Diana, the royal precious life-water, the true Aquam Vitae, the Queen of Solomon from whom he draws, one is my dove, my pious one, one is her mother the dearest, and the chosen of her mother, when they saw the daughters, they praised the blessed one; the queens and the concubines praised her: who is she that emerges, like the dawn beautiful like the moon, chosen like the sun, terrible like the host of spears? From the THICK or coarse from the black yeasty earth, the royal palace to Raven Hill, the patriarch Father of Edom, the unclean frog, the dark earth, which never was earth from the beginning, nor seen as earth, which has never touched common earth, nor been shone upon by the sun, the black dark dungeon, where the souls of the unrepentant lie in curse and banishment, there with fetters and bonds of darkness and the wrath of God held, preserved with fire, sulfur, and pitch for the day of judgment, and from thence shall not come out until the last penny is paid.
But at the time of the sad and painful suffering and death of our crucified Jesus as the great Redeemer and World Saviour went down into the underground prisons and there also preached repentance and atonement for sins, so many saints rose up, went into the city, and were seen, but from there into Paradise, the place of longing, into the bosom of Abraham, as a place of waiting, were set so that through the parting of the Subtle from the Thick or Coarse, that is, from the sins of sinful impurities and defilements in the clamor bonds of grim darkness, the people who here in this time of grace have not repented, and freed themselves from sins, or as those striving thereafter, are not able to weave through, they will in the throes of death with the wrath fire of God which burns more terrifyingly, than a broth of sulfur and pitch, must burn until they are completely burned out and washed away, as white and bright as a translucent diamond. Which truly, truly requires a long time and many days, and will also continue until the third Person of the Godhead fulfills His great work and office in His own person, and the great Sabbath begins. Consider this well, you who read it, and still seek to obtain in this time of grace, what you will never find there, where God does not grant it to you out of grace.
Hermes further says: that the separation occurs entirely pleasantly with great whiteness and artistry. The fable of Jason indicates that they did not intend to rob or steal the royal princess of Colchis, much less abduct her, but with all lovely caresses, ceremonies, and royal dignity, with great caution, wisdom, and propriety, they fetched her and accompanied her, not intending anything evil, nor allowing anything adverse that might arise on the way.
However, when they perceived the secret plot of the bride’s escorts who eagerly followed her bridegroom, they dealt with it very cautiously, with great wisdom and artistry; (the two fire-spewing dragons, the Saturnian and Arsenical influences, that is, cold and dryness, the house-guards the keepers of the dark dungeon, which are partly dry, but partly of a colder nature, very poisonous, inflammable, and harmful, hence they are called infernal dragons or Cerberi,) so they, I say, with and through the help of the bride, prepared a Hermetic TRAITOR, a philosophical soup, a broth emerging from bread and experienced in great courts, an adventurous salve against the poisonous dragons: Which a hellish fiery swallower bites into a fiery substance prepared liqueur, a bitter nectar or godly drink, and the milk of virgins, prepared and same with great art over these fire-spewing dragons, former courtiers and state ministers who out of their own interest and advantage advised and whispered into the king’s ears, poured out, or poured into them, which these people, since they were already inflamed and ignited with fiery drink, swallowed as a pleasant and tasty acid from philosophical vinegar with great zeal and desire:
But they had to burst forth immediately like a fiery rocket when warm spiritus vini is poured upon them, with great fear and anguish. For by means of this pepper broth, or morning broth, such Cerberi were not only killed and slaughtered, but even themselves, together with the royal nectar, were made into a high ingredient of the Philosopher’s Stone. Just as a splendid Theriac is made from the Hydra of the serpent. Thus these fire-spewing dragons and infernal Cerberi must also be transformed into a high medicine.
Our great Hermes says further: 11) So you will have the glory of the whole world. 12) and therefore all ignorance and darkness will depart from you. Hermes says: So, when you will arrange things with prudence and wisdom, and take the effort and time to care for, attend, cook, and ensure that you do not exceed it in any way, do not scorn its greenness, nor sublime it all the way to sublimate it, but take the warmth of a hen during the incubation of eggs as an example; so the upper will unite pleasantly with the lower and you will then have a thing that holds the glory, the splendor, the riches, the honor, the favor, and everything that is in the whole world: therefore all ignorance and vain and frivolous thoughts that you previously had will depart from you.
Moreover, Hermes says: 13) This is the strongest strength of all, because it surpasses all subtle things and penetrates everything that is firm and solid.
This is this thing, this noble tincture, this great philosopher’s stone is from all powers, from all essences and properties of the whole world; therefore, since all these are thrown together and united in one center, it is the strength of all strengths, indeed the strongest force, that surpasses everything. For it binds everything that is volatile, makes solid what is subtle, penetrates everything that is firm or hard, like an oil even stronger and more compact, or dissolves it and makes it volatile, as the artist desires, so that this thing is the only key to all things in the world and is at the disposal of the artist to use.
Further, our great Hermes says: 14) Thus the world is created, 15) then one can accomplish wonderful things if one knows how to use it properly, in the manner indicated. Hermes wants to say: Whoever has brought things thus far, has prepared a work that is called the small world, and an image of the great world, and can see whenever and as often as he wants, how the great world was created, and many other things that cannot be told openly to all ears of the world.
As Moses described in his first book how the world was created, not all at once, but in in different days’ works of God. In the beginning, it was a mixed lump, or as we have shown in our treatise, Azoth & Ignis, a water that has entered into its coagulation, and at the separation of which the days’ works began. For 1) light was created, 2) a firmament between the waters, 3) the separation of waters and earth, 4) the great lights in the sky were created, 5) all kinds of birds and creatures in the water, and 6) all kinds of animals, along with humans, were created. Thus, and in the same way, it proceeds from stage to stage in the preparation of the philosopher’s stone. For first, the glorious light of wisdom and reason, the light of all life and the soul of all things, was created.
This light, which no reason is yet able to grasp or comprehend. This light is the seed of the whole nature, from this light everything is preserved, moved, and animated, this great unbounded and incomprehensible light begets other bodies of light, sends itself into the darkness, and has a secret access with the light still retained in the darkness. It joins with the same, gives it life, and seeks to free it, so that it raises itself with it to the higher regions and leaves the eternal darkness.
This is thus only briefly thought of the property of light. Secondly, God made a firmament in the sky, so that a part of the water rises above and a part remains with the earth. The firmament was an expanse or heaven, the region of the air where the clouds are born, which are the water hoses, water chambers, and water containers, a very splendid miracle creation through which God, the Lord, has taken up part of the water to give the thirsty earth to drink or to water as needed; a water collection that gives birth to the noble wind, through which everything lives, moves, and is moved. For where there is water, there is wind, and where there is wind, there is also water, as a hidden nourishment and drink of the hot exhalations of all creatures. For if God, the Lord, had not made this firmament, these water containers, no creature, no creation, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, could exist. For they are like nourishment for the whole nature, that sinks into all creatures, preserves them from the heat of the sun and the drought of the north winds, yes, protects them until their perfection.
Thirdly, the separation of water and earth, where the waters were brought into special collections and the earth into a mass or lump, so that it appears as the dry land. For without this separation, no creature could be created and also not dwell in the world, since the water was still thick and the earth still thin, so the air region was not yet formed or regulated. For the water had to be separated from the earth so that it might be capable of being seeded; and the earth from the water so that it might be usable for our daily use. However, the earth could not remain without water, otherwise, it could never produce any fruits; rather, the water had to be added to it again, and indeed not all at once, otherwise, it would be ruined by the flood of Noah, but according to measure and weight, according to the number and time of the days, the earth will take its water back to itself, and drink it eagerly, thereby becoming richer and more capable of bearing many fruits. Fourthly, two great lights were made, the sun and the moon, along with many stars, the sun was made to light up the day, and the moon the night, the sun is a very mighty great light, 140 times larger than the earth’s globe, thus its fiery rays must also be tremendously powerful and emit a fiery sulfur. Just as solar sulfur is nothing other than a fire, it is therefore also characterized by the ancients with the symbol of fire, with a cross hanging on it, to indicate silence or a cross over the mouth. Hence they have also called it: the gold of God, the holy gold, the liquid gold, the Golden Fleece the seed of man, that is, of the sun, which shines like a carbuncle, and therefore it is the light of the day, while the moon, the light of the night, is 42 times smaller than the earth’s globe; it is not so fiery and burning in nature, but cold and moist in properties, and thus its sulfur is quite stagnant. Therefore, it is compared to Mercury, and in their composition, a greater quantity of it is always used than of the former so that the former can condense its fiery rays in the latter.
For through this, this lunar light, this white-glittered earth, the fountain of the Count of Treviso, in which the king bathes, is properly concentrated, firm and solid, and must then be animated, rectified, and penetrated with the blood of the innocently murdered children of Bethlehem so that its virtue is perfect. For the lunar light, although it is indeed 182 times smaller than the solar light, is nevertheless the main key to all wisdom and requires more time for its preparation.
Fifthly, all kinds of feathered creatures or birds that fly through the air were created, as well as all kinds of fish and animals according to their kind, which have their dwelling in the waters. There are all kinds of feathered creatures, some very splendid, such as the noble and colorful pheasants and others, which are also useful. Then there are also those that are poisonous and deadly. The same goes for the fish and animals in the waters, for all kinds of animals in the waters are a counterpart to the philosophical metals, which are firm and enduring; whereas the feathered creatures are a representation of the volatile spirits, both medicinal and arsenical, which are driven from their nests by the science of nature and art. Sixthly, finally, all kinds of animals of the earth, along with humans, were created. All kinds of animals, which all together, besides humans, have only one form and shape, although one differs somewhat from the other, it is still essentially only one form, and all meet in the image of man, hence man is called the small world, since the beginning of creation was the great world, and the end of it was man, so that everything came together in man and became a summary of what was widely scattered and specified in the great world.
Whoever does not find these specified day’s works in hermetic philosophy is truly still far from true wisdom and will not soon learn to understand how the world was created, whether the great or the small; much less the philosophical world. Now follows in our great Hermes furthermore: 16) Therefore I am called the threefold Hermes, because I have three parts of the wisdom of the whole world. Hermes says: Therefore, besides my ordinary name, which I received from my parents in my youth, I was called the threefold Hermes or Hermes Trismegistus because I am a possessor of the great art, which was then all designated by the name Hermes, that is, a possessor of the heavenly Mercury, or the philosopher’s stone, which, after the times of Philip the Great, Duke of Burgundy, was also called Knights of the Golden Fleece, and after his and his son’s death, Brothers or Fratres of the high order of the Golden Rosy Cross, which last name they have retained to this day, so that when this name is mentioned, even children on the street know that it refers to a goldmaker. Only they do not know, and it is hidden from their reason, where, in what place, land, and kingdom they have their residence. Only, as little as they, namely the world, are capable of speculating the high art, just as little are they capable of inquiring about this place, since God himself holds his hand over it and strikes such speculators, like the citizens of Sodom, with blindness, so that they may not find Lot’s door.
Hermes says: He is called Mercury because, besides the high art, he possesses three parts of the wisdom of the whole world; or, as Solomon, the wise king, says in his book of wisdom in chapter VII: ”God has given me the ability to speak wisely and to think according to the gift of wisdom. For he is the one who leads on the path of wisdom and governs the wise. For in his hand are both we ourselves and our words and all understanding and skill in various tasks. For he has given me sure knowledge of all things, so that I know how the world is made, and the working of the elements, the beginning, end, and middle of times, how the day grows and declines, how the seasons change, and how the year passes, how the stars are set, the nature of tame and wild animals, how the wind storms, and what people have in mind; the varieties of plants and the power of roots; I know everything that is hidden; for wisdom, the master of all arts, taught me.” So far the words of King Solomon.
With which the same specifies what the great Hermes has given to understand above in few words, namely, that he has three parts of the wisdom of the whole world. But Hermes says: That he was called the threefold Mercurius, that is, a possessor of three Mercuries, which by some have been interpreted to mean the three Mercuries of the three stones, namely the animal, vegetable, and mineral, but it could with much better reason be said to be the three Mercuries, from which the great ancient universal philosopher’s stone is made. However, whoever knows the former three cannot be ignorant of the latter three.
Now, to conclude the Emerald Tablet, Hermes says: 17) All is fulfilled that I have said concerning the work of the sun. Yes, dear Hermes, you have spoken so clearly in this work that it cannot be desired to be more clearly from you, for which we heartily thank you until our end.
The fifth part, or the discussion of our proposal, about the two patrons of the new covenant, which the great Duke Philip of Burgundy presented to his new order of knights and founded to honor them, along with the conclusion of this small work.
Presently, it is no longer a question of why and for what reasons the great Duke Philip of Burgundy and Brabant dedicated and founded the high order of knights to the Golden Fleece, in honor of the Holy Virgin Mary and also the Holy Apostle Andrew, since this has already been partly discussed; rather, our proposal, according to the promise, requires us to show here how the Duke, with good reason, well-considered advice, and approved foundation, as with a certainty, dedicated and assigned this new order of knights to the two patrons of the New Testament. Namely:
1) Mary, the bearer of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, our only Redeemer and Savior, as our Lord, who with his precious blood and holy life has purchased us as his own property and reconciled us with God his heavenly Father; we, who because of Adam’s sin, were enemies of God, lay in his wrath, curse, and death, as in eternal damnation, and stood removed from God.
This Mary was a daughter and princess from the royal house and lineage of David, the great king in Israel, but her father was Joachim, otherwise a well-off man; and she was betrothed to a man named Joseph, by profession a carpenter, who, like her, had descended from the powerful kings in Israel and Judah, but at that time had come down to such a state that they had little to boast of their royal nobility, but had to live very poor and contemptible lives.
This Mary was a pure chaste maiden, aged 16 years, who lived devoutly and godly and had been consecrated to the Lord from her birth, who offered her life to the Lord, who walked in all humility according to the law when the angel Gabriel came to her and overshadowed her with the Holy Spirit.
This Mary, who was chosen by the Lord, was the first person of the new covenant, the new testament, the first apostle of the new apostolic kingdom; the first proclaimer of the gospel of the Lord Messiah, and of the same new covenant of grace, and the only one chosen, called, and found worthy by God among many thousands to bear the Lord Messiah; and through whom the Shiloh, the hero in Israel, the great redeemer and savior of the world was to be born: through whom he wanted to take on his human body, flesh, and blood, and the tangible body subject to human weaknesses. Although all men are born and come from Adam, who was the image and handiwork of God, indeed God’s masterpiece, and the highest nobility of man, yet the Lord God especially wanted his Son to be born of the royal blood and lineage of the righteous, because of the covenant he had established with Abraham and confirmed with David his servant. For David was a man after God’s own heart and God had promised David, almost with an oath, that in his lineage all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
Thus the Lord Messiah took his human body from the royal blood and lineage of David; the spiritual body, however, the soul or spirit (as he himself says) was not from the earth, but came from heaven, and proceeded from God, and flowed from the unity of God, as from the essential image of God; as he also says and testifies again: Whoever sees me sees the Father. Likewise, I came from God and entered this world and will leave the world again and return to God. Therefore, He is of the same essence as the Father and the Holy Spirit: So, by means of this human birth, when he wanted to clothe himself in the flesh, he took on human nature, becoming God and man in one person, so closely bound together that they can never be separated for eternity. (See our Cabala on this) just as the Lord Messiah, by taking on human nature, sanctified it, so that in his blood and death all men can find forgiveness of sins if they only seek it with all their hearts.
This then has been said about Mary and the beginning, birth, and lineage of the Lord Messiah. Now we also want to look at Mary from her other side, as she was in her nature and complexion. Also, in what sense the great Duke foresaw her for his high order.
Mary was by birth, and by name, a person of the female gender, by her strict lifestyle, a somewhat weakened person in her natural powers and subject to sufferings, by her dignity, delicate, but by her divine qualities, a strong nature, she was of sublunar properties, cold and moist complexion, earthly and elemental humor, but also connected with an innate central fire, which lay hidden in the innermost parts of her body. Likewise, with an astral fire, which awakened, moved, and enlivened the central fire, warmed her, and kept her alive. She not only had these two fires in her, but also a lunar magnet that attracted the emissions and effluences of the stars and the light of the upper activities as essential forces, which sustained or nourished her in her state of health: as the dear Savior himself says: Man does not live by bread alone. In sum, Mary was, by her birth, status, nobility, and devout lifestyle, a delicate and suffering person.
Thus, this Mary was also a symbol of Eve, represented by the Mirjam. A symbol of water that springs forth in Marah, a symbol of the prima materia, of Mercury and the philosopher’s stone; a symbol of lunar sulfur, a symbol of lunar seed, she is the symbol of the fountain of the Count of Trevisan, in which the king bathes, she is the symbol of water mixed with fire, the symbol of water mixed with salt, she is the symbol of the earth, which bears fruit from all that is sown in it. Yes, she is an image of the matrix, which receives the celestial astral effluences and directs them to the earth, thereby enlivening the earth.
We say further, she is a symbol of Eve. For just as Eve, according to the purpose and end of God, bore the children of the kingdom so Mary bore the children of heaven. For although Mary only bore the Lord Jesus as her only child, through his suffering and death, all people who draw near to God through him are accepted as his brothers and sisters and are born in such a manner. 2) That through Mirjam, who is Mary, represented before, we know that she was a great prophetess in Israel, who was born from the lineage of the patriarchs: so Mary is a prophetess of the new covenant, born from the lineage of David.
3) She was a symbol of the waters of Mara, that is, she endured much bitterness in her life and shed many tears. 4) A symbol of the prima materia of the philosopher’s stone: she had to bring her life through many sufferings before she became a noble tincture that could endure all tests. 5) A symbol of the Mercury of the philosophers, which weaves its sufferings through the dark realm by means of love and the merciful grace of God, and is made into a pure, yes, through the blood of the Lamb, washed white and clarified body. 6) She was also a symbol of lunar sulfur and lunar seed, and indeed for the reason that she was purified and justified through the sufferings, she was prepared for the purpose for which she was to be used, namely for the multiplication of her kind; 7) The symbol of the fountain, the water in which there is fire and salt. This indicates the lunar complexion of her properties, how they are capable of dissolving the solar forces, refining them and making them perfect. 8) She is a symbol of the earth and its matrix, which bears the fruits of whatever kind of seed is sown in it.
These and other properties and symbols of Mary gave the great Duke of Burgundy and Brabant cause to dedicate his high order of knights to the Golden Fleece to Mary, in honor of her, and to celebrate the third day of the high festival in her honor, in a white garment.
Further, 2) Andrew, a brother of Simon who is otherwise called Peter, was a son of Jonas, a poor citizen and fisherman from Bethsaida, who was called by the dear Savior Jesus Christ to be a follower, disciple, and apostle, to be a witness of his life, teachings, and miracles and to proclaim this to the world, what he had heard and seen; which he then did with great zeal as a faithful follower and witness of the truth. And therefore, under the governor Egeas at Patras, he received the royal crown of martyrdom.
Andrew means and signifies an emerald stone green in color, this holy Andrew was, in number, the fourth to be called by Christ in the new covenant, but in the old genealogical or Israelite covenant, he was prefigured by Zebulon, the son of the patriarch Jacob from Leah, who was signified on the high priest Aaron’s breastplate by the noble ruby, which was a bright red stone, and during the 40-year journey or wandering in the wilderness, his camp was always positioned towards the north. This was a prefiguration for the apostle that he would teach and proclaim his evangelical teachings of the new covenant of grace to the peoples of the northern lands: which he indeed did in truth, having received his instructions right after the Holy Pentecost, traveling to the Scythian lands; where he traveled through Syria, Cappadocia, Galatia, Bithynia along the Black Sea, and even into Europe to Scythia; from there to Samosata and into the Asiatic Scythia, to Constantinople, through Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly, until he reached Achaia, where he was captured by the Roman governor and taken to martyrdom. In all these places, he preached, sowed, and planted the gospel so that people accepted it with great zeal and, driven by the Holy Spirit, reached a glorious germination, greening, and growth. Andrew was, by his birth and name, a male person of very low status and origin, yet a zealous adherent to the law and a lover of the good, who, due to his profession, was accustomed from youth to a rough and hard life. But he was also inclined to the impressions of fiery solar and martial properties.
And because the solar fire and martial sulfur seized him in their ascent and the Venusian effluences in their descent, he was a very beloved person, both by appearance and by disposition, and therefore his vocation and office were successful.
Andrew was also a symbol of the prima materia of the philosopher’s stone, which has incorporated itself in the dark northern parts and has, through the innate fire of activity and the accidental fire of external sufferings, gone into corruption, putrefaction, and decomposition, which becomes black, like the huts of Kedar, or like the remote lands that stand distant from the sun when it has moved back from the Tropic of Cancer.
Andrew was also a symbol of everything that is black and can be called black.
For a smaragd and a ruby at night are not recognized otherwise than as black, and Zebulon in his camp always points to the dark region. Moreover, Andrew had the spread of the evangelical teachings in the northern lands, particularly in the region of Colchis Odisey, Georgia, Mingrelia, or Scythia, where the worldfamous Jason, along with his heroes, the Argonauts, or knights, retrieved the Golden Fleece; which may have motivated the great Duke of Burgundy to also establish his high order of knights in honor of this blessed apostle, and to celebrate the second day of the festival in a black garment: Since the black or the black color, both in theology and theosophy, has much to say, which has been extensively dealt with in our other writings, which we do not want to repeat here, but refer the reader to the same.
So that we come to the conclusion, after we have sufficiently shown the fundamental reasons why the great Duke of Burgundy founded his high order of knights in honor of the two godly patrons of the new testament, and to commemorate them, ordered two days to be celebrated expressly, and not according to the fashion of the world, but in certain expressly made garments; so that they may see, remember, and celebrate this high festival on both the day and the garment itself according to the given command; we still have to discuss the 8th thesis, about the symbol of Mary, what it actually wants to say according to Hermetic philosophy, namely 1) Eve, Mirjam, Mary, and Isabella. These four female symbols have their four counterparts: Adam the first world, Eve. The law under Moses, Mirjam. The evangelical kingdom of grace of the new covenant, Mary. And the high order of knights, along with its association, Isabella. Adam and Eve were the first humans, the prima materia, through which the whole human race was to be and had to be planted, to fill the great world crown of the earth with people; they had received the seed from God and it was planted in them to generate the fruits of their race.
For Adam was made the progenitor and she, Eve, the progenitress, who prefigured the corporality of two substances, through which a spiritual power or seed, coming from one of them, produces a third, that is, a fruit; since without such a seed there can never be any fruit. For from Adam and Eve, the prima materia, a spiritual seed is pressed out through activity, that is, a water, which water was divided into the whole nature of the body, and therefore the heterogeneous parts must be separated by the fire of activity so that the homogeneous, the flowing life juices, flow together: which water, however, from one substance or essential part is not yet a seed if it does not meet the other part, so that one embraces the other, dissolves it and penetrates into its center. For the seed or water of one is only a body, therefore it still lacks the astral soul, that is, the seed of the other part or essence; and therefore, two must always be present for the generation of a fruit. Adam is Mars and Eve is Venus, they must come together in the marriage bed; Mars must embrace and surround his Venus with kindness, so they will embrace each other in love, fall into a gentle sleep, and almost be reanimated. For Mars will consume all impurities of the noble Venus with his fiery spirit, so that she can rise from her marriage bed completely changed, transformed, pure, glorious, and shining like the moon; since Mars has consumed all impure feces of the darkness on her during the long active night; so that now no curse or death can be seen in her anymore, but only clarity and lovely being. Whoever does not know the true male seed, the solar fiery sulfur, the gold of God, the gold of the wise, the liquid gold, the Golden Fleece, and has with it the female seed, the lunar watery mercury, the silver of the wise, the dove Diana, the true aqua vitae, or as Hermes says, the white-glittered earth, and combines these in their matrix, the birthing mother, and in their nourishing chamber, where they are sustained and nurtured by the inflowing activities, will truly fail to prepare the philosopher’s stone properly. For here no believing or guessing helps, but only science and experience.
So Eve is the mother, and Adam the father of the philosopher’s stone, who give the seed for this noble fruit; from which the whole earth must be filled later.
2) Mirjam; one, and indeed the first patroness and prophetess of the Old Testament and a philosopher among the Israelites, prefiguring the whole worship of God by the children of Israel in the Old Testament covenant, which had to be handled through the merit of works, ceremonies, and sacrifices, that is, through material fire. For Mirjam means a burdensome servitude and bondage, which was bound by the strictness of the law to do the works of the law, namely by offering bulls, cows, sheep, goats, doves, oil, and flour; which were prepared by the hands of the priests and burned with fire so that the smoke might ascend before God as a sweet aroma to atone for Israel and make God gracious to them. Thus, Mirjam is the strictness of the Old Testament covenant of the old Israelite children of the law that had to be handled with fire. For in the entire covenant, we see nothing but fire, so that fire was almost a sacrament, and they could not appear before God without fire; In the same way, it behaves here in the hermetic work: for one sees nothing but the strictness of the law of fire, both in the temple and in the courtyards, that is, the high work is handled with fire from the outside and from the inside. From the outside, it was done either to burn and consume the sacrifices or to prepare the priests’ portion for a meal and sustenance. From the inside, it was done with the holy fire to make a sweet aroma; for the holy fire was an incomprehensible fire, a fire that burns and does not consume, as the holy man of God Moses says, a fire that needed no material sustenance; but a fire in which God himself burns, with which all impurities were consumed, which united with the fire that God, the Lord, left in the center of the earth as a necessary light at the great creation and transformed into one so that they can never be separated again, but now burns as a clarified, eternal and inextinguishable fire in the consecrated temple. This fire was the same one that, at the destruction of the temple, was buried in the earth by the priests, and later was found no longer as fire but as a thick water. This fire is also the fire in which the sun bathes and refines its rays, so that it gives a bright shine. Yes, this fire is the fire after which so many snap in vain, since they do not even know its beginning, let alone its end. O a glorious fire, O! a blessed fire. Therefore, Mirjam also has her name from it and has been presented by us under this symbol of the old worship service.
3) Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, the great Redeemer and Savior of the world, prefiguring the new covenant, the evangelical age of grace, the new testament, the church of Jesus Christ, where one is no longer sanctified and saved by the sacrifices and ceremonies of the law through the blood of bulls and calves, but by the precious merit of Jesus Christ, who through his blood and death has made full satisfaction and payment so that we might be holy and blessed: so that we will no longer be justified by the merit of good works, nor by the intercession of the deceased, but solely by the merit of Jesus Christ, and through his precious blood, receive forgiveness of sins and be saved by grace. For Christ, the true high priest, has appeared before God in the Most Holy Place with his own blood and has made an eternal redemption, and reconciled God’s wrath with his blood and death. Therefore, he has ordered the apostles to proclaim to all creatures in the whole world that we should have forgiveness of sins and eternal life through true repentance and faith: so that one is no longer saved by the strictness of the law but by baptism with the water of grace. For Mary prefigured the water baptism; but not this one, which is held in the external church with the element of water by the current world instead of the true baptism; but the one of which the scripture says: that unless one is baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire, or, not with water alone, but with water and blood, he is no follower of Jesus Christ: this baptism is the true and proper baptism, and without it, no one can enter the kingdom of God. For just as Mirjam represented a watery fire, in contrast, Mary represents a fiery water, where we are first led through sufferings by the former and then withdrawn from them by the latter. For by the former, we are purified according to the strictness of the law, but by the latter, through the sweet voice of the gospel, we are equipped and made capable of purity and holiness of faith’s works; so, not by water alone but by water and blood must the washing away of the cursed and damned filth of sins happen if we want to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire. This was prefigured by Mary, the first apostle of the new covenant. As her root word says: Mara, the bitter water in the wilderness of Mara. Exodus XV. 23. which the children of Israel could not drink, therefore the great man of God Moses, by God’s command, had to cut down a tree and throw it into it, thereby making the water sweet and drinkable. Thus, Mary is a bitter-sweet water, which has a measurement from the water of the prophet Ezekiel, which he saw flowing out from under the threshold of the temple, and became so great that he could no longer fathom it. Ezekiel XLVII. Therefore, Mary has been indicated by the Kabbalists as a patroness of the waters.
Mary’s name has truly become a bitter-sweet water when she, immediately after the birth of her child, had to go on a pilgrimage and travel to Egypt to save her child from the bloodthirsty Herod, whose beginning of the cross followed her to the grave, and she was in an almost incessant movement that as soon as one cross had not yet left her, two more had already grasped her again, as the whole passion of the Lord Jesus shows, so that she was never without a cross, but the cross awaited her everywhere, and she constantly had to drink a double draught of the bitter-sweet water from the cross cup. Therefore, the ancients have attributed and compared the character of the cross to vinegar, which in truth harmonizes very well. For what is sharp vinegar but a bitter and sour drink, which increases sufferings and, on the other hand, brings all other discomforts into oblivion. Therefore, the ancients gave vinegar to the malefactors to drink at their execution so that they, by the torment and bitterness caused by the vinegar, might forget their grief, anxiety, and fear of death. This has also been said about Mary.
4) Isabella, the newly betrothed bride and wife of the Duke, who was to become a pattern for the newly established order of knights and the sons, members, or knights of the high order of the Golden Fleece incorporated therein and made partakers of the high order’s secret. For she represented the perfection or the fulfillment of everything that could be. She was a royal princess of royal blood and who also married a royal prince, who together were to bear royal children, as indeed happened. Isabella is, according to the root word, a truly sweet full beauty or perfection, which is in truth also the Aureum Vellus, the golden fleece, the liquid gold, the philosopher’s stone: which has an origin or root of royal dignity, which has a wonderful sweetness and beauty in its preparation, and in its completeness, it is the highest thing and the greatest treasure. It is like a perfect seed, brought to perfection over time, so much for Isabella.
5) Further, Maria was compared to the Luna, Mercury, water, and earth. She was compared to the moon or Luna because she was a large cold body. For the moon is a great mighty planet set against the sun, very cold, and of such penetrating coldness that it makes everything freeze, turning water into ice and rain into snow, so that everything would perish from its cold and frost if the glorious sun did not send down its warm rays. Thus, the moon is compared to the female gender as the seed of the man must be received by it, coagulated, and thus turned into flesh and bone. For although the male seed is of a fiery substance, the female gender has such a cold nature that it makes the seed stick and coagulate, turning into a body. It is the same with the philosophical work: if the solar seed, the red gold of the wise, is not inserted into the female lunar seed or body, it cannot become a tincture. The male seed, the philosophical gold, the golden fleece, must first dissolve in the lunar seed and then coagulate, thicken, and become a permanent body.
6) Similarly, Mercury is opposed to Sulphur, for it is cold and moist, while Sulphur is hot and dry. When they are combined like quicksilver and sulphur, they give birth to cinnabar. Mercury has its principle from earth and water, and Sulphur from earth and fire; hence they are partly related and partly opposed, but can be united through external fire: turning black first, then white, and finally into perfect purple-red.
7) Water is opposed to fire; water and fire are two essential elements that have their center from the same root, as we have discussed in a separate treatise, Azoth & Ignis, and will not repeat here; but we will mention 8) the earth, which is opposed to heaven. The earth, as a cold and dry element, has heaven as its husband, sustainer, and provider, which is hot and moist. Therefore, the earth, as a hungry magnet, stretches and expands its desires to receive these fiery outflows from heaven to nourish and impregnate itself, producing fruits according to the nature of the received seed.
For although the earth seems to be a dry and dead element, it is not dead, but as soon as it receives the seed from its husband, it brings forth fruits. Thus, it is only about the seed, that the right male seed, the astral seed, the seed of the upper stars, should be brought to it, so that it may be impregnated and produce fruits of paradisiacal innocence and purity. This is enough to say about Maria and her symbols.
Finally, a word about the Apostle Andreas, whose name derives from a whitegreen gemstone, the magnificent emerald, which is pale or white-green on the outside but ruby-red in its center. When found, it is encased in black slate stone, sour in taste, but sweet as honey inside, full of balsamic powers and heavenly virtues. This must have influenced the great Hermes to write his testamentary provisions and natural laws on such a precious stone, so that the children of wisdom could see both the description and the material itself and understand what the first substance or Prima Materia is.
Thus, Philippus the III, Duke of Burgundy and Brabant, established this high order of knights of the golden fleece, to honor the Virgin Mary, the Apostle Andreas, and also his marriage, with the pretext of a campaign against the Saracens, though all these claims are merely apparent reasons without any real basis or foundation. The true reason, the fundamental cause and the unshakable foundation, is that the great duke was a true Adeptus Hermeticus, who possessed the Philosopher’s Stone, as can be seen from many reasons brought forward, and therefore, to honor God for this high grace and talent bestowed upon him, he wanted to use and dedicate it back to Him. He also pledged to elevate this art to the highest honor and to free it from the jaws of lions and leopards, and to name the victors of this high art and science with a title so that they may be respected above all others. This is what the great duke began to accomplish. He took as a guide and example the great Hermes, who was called Hermes because he possessed the great secret. Whether Hermes himself introduced this name and applied it to a certain society, or whether it was already in use before, we leave undetermined; but Hermes says that he was called Hermes for certain reasons.
Secondly, the great duke took the example of Jason, who, with a society of heroes, knights, or Argonauts, fetched the golden fleece from Colchis. The great duke did not take a new name for his high order but was content with the history of Jason, renewing only this order, which Jason had established, well knowing what Jason had hidden under it; and therefore, since he stood on the same level and rank as Jason, he did not want to despise antiquity but to honor Jason and his then existing order of knights by renewing the order of the golden fleece, making it active again and bringing it back to memory, as it indeed happened.
Thirdly, to honor the Virgin Mary and the Apostle Andreas. He chose these two as the foundation because in this high work, according to the state of glorification, there are only brothers and sisters; no man or woman; for such are like the transfigured angels of God. Thus, he could name these two persons of the same faith and way of life for a good reason, especially the Apostle Andreas, who means a cross and also traveled to the land of Colchis, where Jason fetched the golden fleece. Maria, because she was the blessed one, and the clarification of the purified and sanctified ones, who were presented in a white garment; thus, through these two patrons, the perfection of colors is indicated.
Fourthly, the great duke, for the sake of Jason and his Argonauts, adopted the oriental clothing so that the high knights would always remember the great gifts of God’s grace and find reason to thank and praise Him. For if it were not truly for Jason’s great knowledge, one would never have adopted this type of clothing, as at that time, the Saracens, who were disguised in such clothes and persecutors of the Christian religion, would have been despised.
Fifthly, the high order’s emblem, which was a lamb or ram with a golden fleece, which Jason with his Argonauts fetched from Colchis, and later carried this image on their chest in memory, was also adopted by the great duke of Burgundy to honor Jason and to signify that he, as a Christian, accepted, loved, and highly venerated the teaching of the Lamb, who was slaughtered and shed His precious blood; and also that he possessed the golden lamb, or the golden ram, which is the high golden art, and in honor of this, carried the golden fleece on his chest for life.
Sixthly, the golden chain, which the great duke took from Zoroaster, considered the great Hermes, signifying a secret art of fire, in a double sense according to its image.
Seventhly, the number of Argonauts, which were 49, and with Jason 50. The great duke followed this meaning and in his first foundation or renewal appointed 24 members, making 25 people including himself, and, as already mentioned, openly named these high knights, but also had 25 in secret, who were true Adepti, to maintain the perfect number, which is a mysterious number, as seven times seven makes forty-nine, and Jason or Philippus was the fiftieth person. This number was also a mysterious number in the law of Moses, where every seventh year was a free year, and after seven free years, that is, forty-nine years, the fiftieth year, as the great jubilee year, appeared, in which everyone was free again and returned to their original possession. Therefore, this mysterious number was loved and maintained by this great duke.
We believe now that we have sufficiently proven and shown that this great duke Philippus III and his son Carolus I of Burgundy and Flanders were true Adepti Hermeticus, possessors of the high art of alchemy and the philosopher’s stone; and that he established and set up his newly founded high order of knights of the golden fleece to honor this high art, so that it may be remembered in the world, and all his actions and conduct may be well considered, and finally understood and grasped. We commend the esteemed reader to also recognize our inclination in this way, with the reservation that we seriously impose or force this on no one to believe, but leave it to everyone’s discretion, aiming only to bring to light the sense and experience of the ancients for the eager disciples.
We will then take joy and pleasure in serving each one according to his rank and circumstances, until our blessed END.
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