THE PATH TO CHYMIC SKY

by Jacques TOLLIUS

AMSTERDAM 1688



Many people will accuse me of rashness and presumption, when they see that I dare to undertake to instruct here very learned men in the Chemical Art, by teaching them things which they have ignored until now, or pointing out to them those they may have heard: I, I say, who am far from perfect knowledge of this art.

But it matters little to me what judgment people make of me, as long as I can be useful to the Public. If scholars find anything here that is not to their liking, the sincerity with which I write ought much less to arouse my indignation than to serve as an excuse to them.

And certainly, whether error has blinded me like many others, or whether a more certain work has led me to truth, it is always very certain that many people will have this advantage, that at the in the future they will retire from the useless expenses they incur by fruitless labors, and from the waste of time which must be so precious and so dear to them.

The method that I proposed to myself to make such an excellent and beautiful work is quite different from that which the others have followed. In this slippery path, which leads so many people to the precipice, I have for guide the learned Paracelsus, and the famous Basil Valentine, still a thousand times more learned and more instructive than he.

I had already resolved to dispose of the ships; I had begun the preparation of mercury, following the doctrine of Philalethes, by several lotions and triturations; I was dissolving and purging the metals with vinegars and strong waters, when by an unexpected good fortune, a book entitled Le Cabinet Hermétique fell into my hands.

I read this book with extraordinary avidity, without understanding anything in it, but after having recognized that Paracelsus had not remembered the things that had been entrusted to his good faith, I begin to examine with more exactness the nature of Metals and to confer it with the experiences that others had already made of it. Finally, with a more enlightened mind than before, I realized that no one was following the true path, and that everyone was wasting their time and money.

I resolved to take a different route, and to follow that which this adept had uselessly recommended to our Paracelsus. So leaving aside all the different feelings, I proposed to myself this sure rule with which I can happily reach the end of my career.

That the Philosopher's Stone must be made in three or four days. That the expense should not exceed the sum of three or four florins. And that finally a single crucible or vessel of earth is enough.

I believe that all propositions that do not agree with these three Aphorisms should be rejected. Warned in this way, Basil Valentin was of great help to me, for after having represented a crucible in his first Keys, he orders to continue by this way, and to leave all other vessels there, the lamp fire, of horsehair, ashes, sand and flame, and to apply his spirit to the deepest mysteries of the Art.

After some slight trials I found myself more enlightened than before, and began to see more than I expected. Yes, I saw, but by quite extraordinary work and application of mind; I have seen, I say, things that I think no one has ever seen, even while sleeping and dreaming.

I explained a few things about it in my treatise entitled: Unforeseen and fortuitous events, which I will repeat here succinctly; and I will even add many others, to give some light to the curious. I said it was a work of three or four days; but if it is necessary to speak more exactly, there is one which is only three hours, because the work is double and divided in two, like the one called: The Philosopher's Stone And it is indeed a great error, and very frequent among chemists, to say that the Philosopher's Stone is such only when it is absolutely perfect; that is to say, when with the ferment of the Moon or the Sun, it is prepared for multiplication.

For there is another which is imperfect, which Basil Valentine calls all in all, and of which he gives the method in his first ten keys, in the eleventh and the means of increasing it, and in the twelfth its entire multiplication. I call it imperfect, if it has been compared with the other which is perfect in itself and in its nature: which I will easily prove by the authorities of Bernard le Trevisan and of the other followers who have written about it. to say that the Philosopher's Stone is such only when it is absolutely perfect; that is to say, when with the ferment of the Moon or the Sun, it is prepared for multiplication.

For there is another which is imperfect, which Basil Valentine calls all in all, and of which he gives the method in his first ten keys, in the eleventh and the means of increasing it, and in the twelfth its entire multiplication. I call it imperfect, if it has been compared with the other which is perfect in itself and in its nature: which I will easily prove by the authorities of Bernard le Trevisan and of the other followers who have written about it. to say that the Philosopher's Stone is such only when it is absolutely perfect; that is to say, when with the ferment of the Moon or the Sun, it is prepared for multiplication.

For there is another which is imperfect, which Basil Valentine calls all in all, and of which he gives the method in his first ten keys, in the eleventh and the means of increasing it, and in the twelfth its entire multiplication. I call it imperfect, if it has been compared with the other which is perfect in itself and in its nature: which I will easily prove by the authorities of Bernard le Trevisan and of the other followers who have written about it.

For there is another which is imperfect, which Basil Valentine calls all in all, and of which he gives the method in his first ten keys, in the eleventh and the means of increasing it, and in the twelfth its entire multiplication. I call it imperfect, if it has been compared with the other which is perfect in itself and in its nature: which I will easily prove by the authorities of Bernard le Trevisan and of the other followers who have written about it. For there is another which is imperfect, which Basil Valentine calls all in all, and of which he gives the method in his first ten keys, in the eleventh and the means of increasing it, and in the twelfth its entire multiplication. I call it imperfect, if it has been compared with the other which is perfect in itself and in its nature: which I will easily prove by the authorities of Bernard le Trevisan and of the other followers who have written about it.

This first work is therefore called the Work of three hours and three days also, but of three Philosophical days, as I will say later. The second work is completed in the space of three days or four natural days; and this immense treasure which is sought after by avaricious men, with so much work and expense, can be acquired in this short time, either in the white or in the red: for the difference of the ferment or, if you will, the addition of the sulfur of Gold or Silver to our first Stone, completes and perfects the second.

As far as time is concerned, what Paracelsus said about it is very true. "The Philosophers, he says, get along well when they talk about time". Everyone here finds themselves extremely embarrassed, and as if in the midst of darkness. Let us make our efforts to dissipate them, and to discover things which seem to be sunk in the impenetrable abysses. The year of the Philosophers is nothing other than the turn made by the Philosophical Sun, when by the Zodiac it traverses the Earth. The Philosophical Month is that of the Moon.

The Week, that of the seven Planets. The World is matter itself. The Zodiac which contains the twelve celestial Signs, represents the twelve labors of the Philosophical Hercules, which I have shown in my Treatise on Unforeseen Events, to be the Sun: i.e. acid, whose course completes the An Philosophical, While the matter is in fusion in the vessel. The Moon is the alkali, the course of which penetrates all molten matter, and joining with its brother the Sun, it completes the Sinodic Month. The week is explained by Basil Valentine in his first ten keys, except that he does not speak of Mercury, which Philalethes added on his own authority, and on his authority.

The first key designates Saturn, Water and Earth; the second, Jupiter, Air and Fire; the third Mars -, the fourth the Moon; the fifth Venus, the sixth the most perfect Sun; and the union of the four Elements. Our King, he says, in his first key, passes through six different houses and rests in the seventh. When, therefore, the matter is melted in the vessel, little by little by the force of its spirit, it purges itself entirely; it is from there that it becomes its own vinegar, in the same way as metals are wont to be formed in the mines: for first the Mercurial Spirit coagulates, tightens and hardens in Saturn.

Which makes our Author say elsewhere: Only Saturn fixes Mercury. Saturn being purged by another circulation, becomes Jupiter: from this becomes Mars, then the Moon, then Venus and finally the Sun; that is to say, the perfect work.

By this same circuit the Day of the Philosophers is seen: because what is written of the creation of the great World, "Darkness was on the Earth", is explained well throughout my Treatise of which I have already spoken above , as also this place where it is said: "the Light was made by the first Day". We must show the truth by some experience.

Grind some antimony in a philosophical mortar, and sieve it; that is to say, melt the antimony in a crucible, by stirring and striking the crucible, the regulus will fall to the bottom; and if you work properly, your spelter will be spangled from the first fusion. So first you will have Light after Darkness, and a celestial Light if by means of the little Commentary that I am giving you, and which will open the chemical Heaven to you, you can understand what Heaven is; for this extended Sky colors the countryside with purple and one recognizes there the Stars and the sun.

But far from being already at noon, day has barely begun to appear; for our Hercules hopes that after the darkness in which he is buried, will be dissipated, he will enjoy this dazzling Light of the South. It is there that the poets have called it their Cahos; for it is in antimony that all things being first confused, separate and divide by mere fusion: in such a way that you would easily believe that Ovid would have taken from there the subject of his metamorphoses.

One also sees very clearly, that one cannot use a vessel of glass for the preparation of matter, but a crucible or an earthen vessel which resists fire; and that the Fire must be equal, not like that of the lamp, but like that which is found joined to Mercury, which is perfected and completed by an equal and continuous movement. And as for the other fires, they must be interpreted in a different way than the vulgar are wont to do. Thus one will begin to understand what Circulation, Sublimation, Trituration, Digestion, and all the other chemical operations are; how different they are from those of the vulgar, and how easily and very little time they can be executed.

We will also hear the meaning of the riddle of Hermes, when he commands to make higher things become lower, and lower things higher, likewise, what it is that the Wind carries in its belly and whose Sun is the father and the Moon the mother, and if you no longer ignore what is this dry Water which does not wet the hands. And finally you, whoever you are and who still doubts what I am telling you, just melt antimony, and apply yourself to just seeing exactly what is happening, you will see all these things there, you will see the Doves there. of Philalethes, you will hear there the Song of the Swans of Basil, and you will see there. This Sea of ​​Philosophers, which I explained more fully in my Treatise on Fortuitous and Unforeseen Events.

We must presently speak to you about the expense that should be made: For me, who would prefer the knowledge of the Philosopher's Stone without the spirit of profiting from it, to this same Stone that stings ad infinitum, I do not claim to suffer secret reproaches. of those who will want to believe me capable of profiting from the work of others. This is why, since the Divine Goodness has formed me, so that I am content with the little good that I have, I feel a much more perfect and greater joy, when in the entire sincerity of my confidence, I show others as if with my finger the way to get rich.

Melt, as I said, some antimony, and make it into a starry regulus, without mixing in Mars, because our King enters alone and without Satellites into the Fountain, then you will have all things, I have said a lot, you will have everything, and nothing. To make you see that the Mars should not enter into the composition of the regulus, here is an experiment that will convince you. Melt regulus of Antimony and Mars, throw in half its weight of Moon, and when all these things are well melted pour it all into Strong Water, then you will see a black powder which will rush to the bottom, such as Becker found in his sand mine.

And this powder, whatever industry you have, and whatever artifice you use, cannot be melted into gold, because it is pure Mars. Those, therefore, are grossly mistaken, who believe that in the composition of the regulus, there enters only the sulphurous Spirit of Mars. I tested it with very pure gold. I put in a dish twenty grains of gold, when they were melted I put there little by little the regulus of Mars, and I withdrew thirty grains of gold, and thus my Gold was increased by a third after having resisted the 'fireproof.

But I found my Gold frangible because of the Parts of Mars which had joined it and by a secret method I separated my very pure Gold from it at the same weight as I had put. when they were melted I put there little by little the regulus of Mars, and I withdrew thirty grains of gold, and thus my Gold was increased by a third after having resisted the test of fire. But I found my Gold frangible because of the Parts of Mars which had joined it and by a secret method I separated my very pure Gold from it at the same weight as I had put.

when they were melted I put there little by little the regulus of Mars, and I withdrew thirty grains of gold, and thus my Gold was increased by a third after having resisted the test of fire. But I found my Gold frangible because of the Parts of Mars which had joined it and by a secret method I separated my very pure Gold from it at the same weight as I had put.

But to return to the expense that must be made, is it such a great one as to take a pound of antimony, half a pound of tartar and nitre salt, and melt it all in a crucible, and the having purged until the star appears, add a part of Gold or Silver to it. That if someone imagines himself to remain in error, because I do not teach him the little that remains to reach the Philosopher's Stone, and without which in truth all that I have said is useless, that he thinks that we never teach all things at the same time, at the same time; a day will come when I will discover the whole mystery, and I will make it known that there is no other true way than ours, and which is done neither more quickly, nor at less expense. And to give some satisfaction to the eagerness one might have, I will add an experience which will facilitate the means of bringing his mind to the deeper search of this art. Make a ruler of Mars, and of Gold or Silver; take a part of either, and put that of Gold on a piece of Silver, and that of Silver on a piece of Copper.

Make these coins redden on a tile, the Antimony will exhale; you will then find your piece of Silver dyed and penetrated with a very high red color, and that of Copper also dyed and penetrated with a color of Silver. That if you place on a tile a silver coin, on which is the gold spelter and you put another silver coin a little above, so that it covers it without touching it, nor that ashes fall on it, the piece of Silver which will be the highest will become of the color of Gold, by means of the solar regulator, which in the fusion carries away gold and volatilizes it.

By this means, one can have a drinking Gold much more perfect than the vulgar one: what one can call the true drinking Gold of the Philosophers. I showed my Friends two of these Silver and Copper pieces that I had, very beautiful and very perfect; and on my way to Italy, passing through Berlin, I presented it to the most serene Elector Frederic Guillaume, my sovereign Lord, who was very curious about rare things. I pass further, and I will say a thing which is no less remarkable. I melted lead, and I threw in a part of solar regulus; I saw, not without admiration, that this lead was not reduced to scoria, although I held it for a long time in the fire; on the contrary, it seemed to me as though purged of its impurities, and in some way changed or transmuted.

This well-prepared regulus therefore contains the true potable Gold of the Philosophers, which is greedily drunk, not by men like us, but by the Chemical Man and by the animals; and its Mercury intimately joined to Gold and Silver gives the Philosophical amalgam. One can still observe another mystery in the preparation, it is the Philosophical Antimony Butter. The comparison made by Basile Valentin in his Char Triom-phal de l'Antimoine, can justly be reported here, when he says the Philosopher's Stone is made the same way our villagers make milk, butter and cheese. Our cow is Antimony, whose milk which is the regulus being stirred like butter which is nothing but red sulphur; and sulfur is real Antimony butter. The rest can easily be explained.

But someone can tell me that Basil Valentin wants us to use vitrio1 to make the Stone and not Antimony. But what do you think (as he asks himself) that it is only vitriol, if not sulfur? What about Antimony, if not Mercury? At the present time it is well understood what Antimony and the vitriol of the Philosophers are; and this is a most important secret: that if you ignore it, all your work becomes useless. There are still many other things, but the entrance is difficult; I will help you as much as I can, and as the Sun in the Fable once did, we will warn our Phaeton to always fear and tremble, until the end of his career, in order therefore to enjoy one day the fruits Hesperides; I will start with the principle.

The very pure Antimony is the first material which is ardently desired and sought after, with so much care, by many people; that is to say, that in Antimony there is that aerial humidity, marvelously mixed with heat, of which I spoke at the beginning, and several times elsewhere in my Unforeseen Events. This matter is arranged and governed by the rays of the Sun and the Moon of the Philosophers in their Sea, and is conjoined with the dry heat of their Earth. This is what produces our fecund matter, our Chemical Man whose illnesses I promised to explain, and to restore to him his perfect health, by means of the remedies that Basil Valentin indicated to me in his Triumphal Chariot of Antimony. , if God grant me sufficient leisure.

Here you have the Egg which contains and encloses the white and the yolk, from which it must one day hatch a little rooster, which by its pleasant song will wake up the true amateurs of Chemistry in the morning. failed to observe that among the hieroglyphs of the gods of antiquity, the rooster is particularly consecrated to Mercury. Albrieus, in his little treatise on the Images of the Gods, says these few words speaking of Mercury: "There was before him a rooster, the King must enter his Philosophical Bath, and wash there; that he dies there; let him liven there, and being clothed in his purple cloak, he ascends his throne.

Hurry here then, you Mercurial Chemists, who incessantly break my ears with your fixations and coagulations of vulgar Mercury; learn from what I have told you what the philosophical Mercury is, its fixation, its coagulation, its precipitation, its sublimation, and its revivification, but first learn what the Philosophers mean by dying. You have no doubt sometimes seen the dead or the dying, have you not noticed that the volatile hot spirit which used to penetrate all the members of the body, and to vivify them, being once extinguished, the blood tightens and coagulates in the corpse. Likewise death, according to the Philosophers, is nothing else than the coagulation and fixation of volatile matter.

What, the regulus, isn't it volatile? Fix it, and it will be dead. But is a corpse fit to enter a new habitation? that by divine power he was resurrected? Likewise, nothing fixed enters the other metallic bodies. Bring these bodies back to life; that is to say, from fixed as it had become, make it become volatile all over again; then it will enter easily.

There is (says the Poet) a warmth and a vital spirit in the body which abandons us to death. Finally, what color are the dead bodies? According to the poets, death is purple or rather black. And isn't life a whiteness like light? So you know what the Philosophers mean by blackening and whitening. But what, is there anyone who does not know what the white facing of the Angels is? And children who barely have the use of reason know them well when they see them painted with wings. That if they have wings, these spirits are therefore volatile.

Go and retire now, you who seek with extreme diligence your various colors in your vessels of glass. You who tire my ears with your black Raven, you are as mad as that man of antiquity, who used to applaud at the theater, although he was alone, because he always imagined having before his eyes some new spectacle. So do you, when shedding tears of joy, you imagine seeing in your vessels your white Dove, your yellow Eagle, and your red Pheasant.

Go away, I say, and withdraw far from me, if you seek the Philosophical Stone there in a fixed thing; for it will no more penetrate metallic bodies than the body of a man in the world would penetrate the most solid walls. We read in Sacred Scripture that the Angel opened the doors of the prison when he wanted to pull Saint Peter out; but it was not necessary for him to open them to enter them. We also read that Jesus Christ entered the Assembly of the Apostles with the doors of the place closed, but it was after the glorious Resurrection.

Learn, then, from these examples, what reasoning has hitherto failed to persuade you. Do you want something more?. Why, pray, do you wrap your powder in wax, when you want to make your projection? Why do you heat your Mercury, or melt your lead, before throwing your gunpowder into it? Why do you give your crucible a good suppressing fire, while the fire is very soft from below? And why, finally, do you continue with a bellow to maintain this fire quite strongly for half an hour, if it is not so that the volatile matter quickly penetrates Mercury or Saturn, and does not fly away before the transmutation? This is what I have to tell you about the Colors, so that in future you will quit your useless work, to which I will add a word concerning the smell.

The Earth is black, the Water is white, the Air, the closer it approaches the Sun, the more it yellows; ether is quite red. Death likewise (as it is said) is black, life is full of light: the purer the light, the nearer it approaches to the Angelic Nature, and the Angels are pure spirits of fire. Now the smell of a dead person or a corpse, isn't it annoying and disagreeable to the sense of smell? Thus the stinking odor in the Philosophers denotes fixation: on the contrary, the pleasant odor marks volatility, because it approaches life and warmth. Plutarch reports in a certain place, that the smell which came out of the clothes of Alexander the Great when he had done some violent exercise, was very pleasant. Thus, the purer and warmer the air in a country, the more fragrant the herbs that grow there.

Happy Arabia furnishes us with certain proofs of this: art imitates nature so much that the most stinking excrement of the human body becomes a very agreeable perfume, by simple digestion and the help of a proportionate fire. What is civet? So we need the help of fire. Basil and the other Adepts have several kinds of fires: for there is a celestial fire, and an earthly fire, this one is the volatile spirit, that one the fixed body; one from the upper Sun, the other from the lower Sun, as Sendivogius speaks, and as Cicero says, such is that which is enclosed in the body of animals, and which is called vital and salutary fire, which preserves all things, nourishes them, augments them, sustains them, and makes them capable of feeling.

But what you probably admire is that there is a cold fire as well as a hot fire. This cold fire is mercurial, volatile and feminine. The hot fire is sulphurous, fixed and male. There are still fires other than these, these are those which are hidden in matter, which vulgar chemists believe to be external and this is what deceives them. Basil talks about it at length. There are also external fires, between which there is the fire of the last judgment; That is to say, the fire of the test which is made by the Saturn in the cup: it is for this that Basil calls him, the Sovereign judges, as he is in Heaven the most distant planet and the higher over our heads.

There is still the fire of Etna or infernal which I will tell you about elsewhere, lest you tire yourself by reading too long. And to refresh you a little, I offer you a vinegar, but very sour distilled vinegar, with which you can (when it seems good to you) prepare the tincture of the coral, that is to say the acid or the fixed sulphur; or else you will prepare the pearls, that is to say the alkali and you will drink to fortify yourself with wine or Spirit of Antimonial Wine.

If you prefer this to Universal Medicine, you can take it with the Philosophical Balm; there is no other alcaest liquor, dissolving all things without loss or diminution of its strength: it is the Alcaest of Paracelsus, all spirit, Celestial Water and our Strong Water, etc. On the end of autumn we will drink nectar and ambrosia enclosed in the Chemical Heaven, but philosophically, and of which the first foundations have hardly been laid. Whoever you are reading this, I want you to enjoy it, bidding farewell.

amsterdam

The day after the September Kalends of the year 1688