THE PHILOSOPHICAL MANSIONS VOLUME 2

BY

FULCANELLI

AND THE HERMETIC SYMBOLISM
IN ITS RELATIONS WITH SACRED ART
AND THE ESOTERISM OF THE GREAT WORK

Original plates by Julien Champagne


SECOND VOLUME


TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME


THE MARVELOUS GRIMOIRE OF THE CHÂTEAU DE DAMPIERRE
I – II – III – IV – V – VI – VII – VIII – IX – X – XI – XII

THE BODYGUARDS OF FRANCOIS II
I – II – III – IV – V – VI – VII

EDINBURGH'S HOLYROOD PALACE SUNDIAL

PARADOX OF THE UNLIMITED PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

THE REIGN OF MAN

THE FLOOD

ATLANTIS

IGNITION

GOLDEN AGE



THE MARVELOUS GRIMOIRE OF THE CHÂTEAU DE DAMPIERRE

I

In the Santone region to which Coulonges-sur-l'Autize belongs, — capital of the canton where once stood the beautiful residence of Louis d'Estissac, — the informed tourist can discover another castle, whose conservation and the importance of a singular decoration makes even more interesting, that of Dampierre-sur-Boutonne (Charente-Inférieure). Built at the end of the 15th century, and under François de Clermont, the Château de Dampierre is currently the property of Doctor Texier, from Saint-Jean-d'Angély. [ Collection of the Commission of Arts and Historic Monuments of Charente-Inférieure , t. XIV.Saintes, 1884.] By the abundance and the variety of the symbols which it offers, like so many enigmas, to the sagacity of the researcher, it deserves to be better known, and we are happy to point it out particularly to the attention of the disciples of Hermes.

Externally, its architecture, although elegant and in good taste, remains very simple and possesses nothing remarkable; it is with buildings as with certain men: their discreet dress, the modesty of their appearance often serve only to veil what is superior about them.

Between round towers, topped with conical roofs and equipped with battlements, extends a Renaissance main building whose facade opens to the outside through ten lowered arcades. Five of them form a colonnade on the ground floor, while the other five, directly superimposed on the previous ones, open up the first floor. These openings illuminate access galleries to the interior rooms, and the whole thus offers the appearance of a large loggia crowning a cloister ambulatory. Such is the humble cover of the magnificent album whose stone sheets adorn the vaults of the upper gallery (pl. XXIII).




Plate XXIII


But, if we know today who was the builder of the new buildings intended to replace the old feudal burg of Château-Gaillard, we still do not know to what mysterious stranger the Hermetic philosophers are indebted for the symbolic pieces they shelter. [“We once saw, above the front door of the Richard house, rebuilt about fifteen years ago, a stone of quite respectable size on which we read this Greek word, engraved in large characters: ΑΝΑΛΩΤΟΣ, that is to say impregnable. She came, it seems, from the old castle. This stone was later used to build a shed pillar. » Collection of the Commission des Arts et Monuments Historiques de la Charente-Inférieure, note from Mr. Serton senior, communicated by Mr. Fragnaud, former mayor of Dampierre.]

It is almost certain, and on this point we share the opinion of Léon Palustre, that the coffered ceiling of the upper gallery, where all the interest of Dampierre lies, was executed from 1545 or 1546 to 1550. What is less certain is the attribution that has been made of this work to characters, notorious no doubt, but who are completely foreign to it. Some authors have, in fact, claimed that the emblematic motifs emanated from Claude de Clermont, Baron de Dampierre, Governor of Ardres, Colonel of Graubünden and Gentleman of the King's Chamber. Now, in his Life of Illustrious Ladies, de Brantôme tells us that, during the war between the King of England and the King of France, Claude de Clermont fell into an "ambush" set up by the enemy, and died there in 1545.He could not therefore have had any part in the work carried out after his death. His wife, Jeanne de Vivonne, daughter of André de Vivonne, lord of Châteigneraye, Esnandes, Ardelay, councilor and chamberlain to the king, seneschal of Poitou, etc., and of Louise de Daillon du Lude, was born in 1520. She remained a widow at the age of twenty-five. Her wit, her distinction, her high virtue acquired such a reputation for her that, like Brantôme, praising the extent of her erudition, Léon Palustre did her the honor of being the instigator of the bas-reliefs at Dampierre: "It was there," he said, "that Jeanne de Vivonne amused herself by having sculptors of ordinary merit execute a whole series of compositions in a more or less clear sense." [Leon Palustre ,d'Esnandes, d'Ardelay, councilor and chamberlain to the king, seneschal of Poitou, etc., and of Louise de Daillon du Lude, was born in 1520. She remained a widow at the age of twenty-five. Her wit, her distinction, her high virtue acquired such a reputation for her that, like Brantôme, praising the extent of her erudition, Léon Palustre did her the honor of being the instigator of the bas-reliefs at Dampierre: "It was there," he said, "that Jeanne de Vivonne amused herself by having sculptors of ordinary merit execute a whole series of compositions in a more or less clear sense." [Leon Palustre, d'Esnandes, d'Arde lay, councilor and chamberlain to the king, seneschal of Poitou, etc., and of Louise de Daillon du Lude, was born in 1520 .Her wit, her distinction, her high virtue acquired such a reputation for her that, like Brantôme, praising the extent of her erudition, Léon Palustre did her the honor of being the instigator of the bas-reliefs at Dampierre: "It was there," he said, "that Jeanne de Vivonne amused herself by having sculptors of ordinary merit execute a whole series of compositions in a more or less clear sense." [Leon Palustre, Like Brantôme, praising the extent of her erudition, Léon Palustre does her the honor of being the instigator of the bas-reliefs of Dampierre: "It is there, he says, that Jeanne de Vivonne amused herself by having sculptors of ordinary merit execute a whole series of compositions in a more or less clear sense . » [Leon Palustre,Like Brantôme, praising the extent of her erudition, Léon Palustre does her the honor of being the instigator of the bas-reliefs of Dampierre: "It is there, he says, that Jeanne de Vivonne amused herself by having sculptors of ordinary merit execute a whole series of compositions in a more or less clear sense." [Leon Palustre, The Renaissance in France; Aunis and Saintonge , p  . 293. ]

Finally, a third attribution does not even deserve to be retained. [Abbé Noguès, Dampierre-sur-Boutonne. Historical and Archaeological Monograph . Saintes, 1883, p. 53.] Abbé Noguès, putting forward the name of Claude-Catherine de Clermont, daughter of Claude and Jeanne de Vivonne, expresses an absolutely unacceptable opinion, as Palustre says: “This future chatelaine of Dampierre, born in 1543, was a child when the work was completed. »

Thus, in order not to commit an anachronism, we are obliged to grant Jeanne de Vivonne alone the paternity of the symbolic decoration of the upper gallery. And yet, however plausible this hypothesis may appear, it is impossible for us to subscribe to it. We strenuously refuse to recognize a woman of twenty-five as the beneficiary of a science requiring more than twice as much sustained effort and persevering study. Even supposing that she could, in her early youth, and in defiance of all philosophical rules, receive oral initiation from some unknown artist, the fact remains that she would have had to control, by tenacious and personal labor, the truth of this teaching. Now, nothing is more painful, more repulsive, than to pursue, for many years, a series of experiments, trials,attempts demanding constant attendance, the abandonment of all business, of all relationships, of all external concerns. Voluntary seclusion, renunciation of the world are essential to observe if one wishes to obtain, with practical knowledge, the notions of this symbolic science, still more secret, which covers them and conceals them from the vulgar. Did Jeanne de Vivonne submit to the demands of an admirable mistress, prodigal of infinite treasures, but intransigent and despotic, wanting to be loved exclusively for herself and imposing on her adorers blind obedience, unfailing fidelity? We find nothing in her to justify such concern. On the contrary, his life is only worldly.Admitted to the court, writes de Brantôme, "from the age of eight years, she had been fed there, and had forgotten nothing; and made her good to hear talk, as well as I have seen our kings and queens take a singular pleasure in hearing there, for she knew everything both of her time and of the past; so much so that they spoke of her as of an oracle. Also, King Henry III and last, the queen's first lady-in-waiting, his wife. Living at court, she successively saw five monarch s succeed each other on the throne: François I, Henri II, François II, Charles IX and Henri III. His virtue is recognized and renowned to the point of being respected by the irreverent Tallemant des Réaux; as for his knowledge, it is exclusively historical .Facts, anecdotes, chronicles, biographies constitute the unique luggage. She was, after all, a woman gifted with an excellent memory, having listened to a great deal, remembered a great deal, to the point that de Brantôme, her nephew and historiographer, speaking of Madame de Dampierre, says that she "was a true record of the court. " The image is speaking; Jeanne de Vivonne was a register, pleasant, instructive to consult, we do not doubt it, but she was nothing else. Entering so young into the intimacy of the sovereigns of France, had she only more or less resided, thereafter, in the castle of Dampierre?This was the question we were asking ourselves while leafing through the beautiful collection of Jules Robuchon, when a note from Mr. Georges Musset, former student of the School of Charters and member of the Society of Antiquaries of the West, came to solve it and support our conviction. “But, writes G. Musset, now unpublished documents come to complicate the question and seem to create impossibilities. A confession by Dampierre is returned to the king, because of his chatel de Niort, August 9, 1547, on the accession of Henry II. The attorneys are Jacques de Clermont, usufructuary of the land, and François de Clermont, his emancipated son, for the bare ownership. The duty consists of a yew bow and a bosom without a tick.From this act, it seems to result: 1° that it is not Jeanne de Vivonne who enjoys Dampierre, nor her daughter Catherine who owns it; 2° that Claude de Clermont had a younger brother, François, a minor emancipated in 1547. There is no reason, in fact, to suppose that Claude and François would be the same character, since Claude died during the campaign of Boulogne, ended, as we know, by the treaty between François Ier and Henri VIII, on June 7, 1546. But then what became of François, who is not indicated by Anselme? What happened to this land from 1547 to 1558? How, From such a beautiful association of incapacities from the point of view of possession, usufructuaries or minors, could such a luxurious dwelling emerge? These are mysteries that we cannot solve.It is already a lot, we believe, to foresee the difficulties. » [Landscapes and Monuments of Poitou, photographed by Jules Robuchon. T. IX: Dampierre-sur-Boutonne, by Georges Musset. Paris, 1893, p. 9.]

Thus is confirmed the opinion that the philosopher to whom we owe all the embellishments of the chateau—paintings and sculptures—is unknown to us and will perhaps remain so forever.


II (The Marvelous Grimoire of the Chateau de Dampierre)

In a spacious room on the first floor, we particularly notice a large and very beautiful fireplace, gilded and covered with paintings. Unfortunately, the principal surface of the mantle has lost, under a hideous reddish whitewash, the subjects which decorated it. Only a few isolated letters remain visible in its lower part. On the other hand, the two sides have retained their decoration and cause us to deeply regret the loss of the major composition. On each of these sides the pattern is similar. We see there appear, at the top, a forearm whose hand holds a raised sword and a balance. Towards the middle of the sword, the central part of a floating phylactery rolls up, covered with the inscription:

DAT JVSTVS FRENA SVPERBIS.

[The righteous restrain the proud.]

Two golden chains, connected to the top of the scales, are fitted lower down, one to the collar of a mastiff, the other to the yoke of a dragon whose tongue sticks out through its open mouth. Both raise their heads and direct their gaze to the hand. The two pans of the balance carry rolls of gold coins. One of these scrolls is marked with the letter L surmounted by a crown; on another, it is a hand holding a small scale with, below it, the image of a threatening-looking dragon.

Above these large motifs, that is to say at the upper end of the side faces, are painted two medallions. The first shows a Maltese cross flanked, at the corners, by fleur-de-lys; the second bears the effigy of a graceful figurine.

Taken as a whole, this composition presents itself as a paradigm of hermetic science. Mastiff and dragon take the place of the two material principles, assembled and retained by the gold of the wise, according to the required proportion and the natural balance, as the image of the balance teaches us. The hand is that of the craftsman; firm to maneuver the sword, — hieroglyph of fire which penetrates, mortifies, changes the properties of things, — prudent in the distribution of materials according to the rules of philosophical weights and measures. As for the rolls of gold coins, they clearly indicate the nature of the final result and one of the objectives of the Work.The mark formed by a crowned L has always been the conventional sign charged, in the graphic notation, to designate the gold of projection, that is to say alchemically fabricated.

Equally expressive are the small medallions, one of which represents Nature, which must constantly serve as a guide and mentor to the artist, while the other proclaims the quality of the Rose-Croix acquired by the learned author of these varied symbols. The heraldic fleur-de-lis corresponds, in fact, to the hermetic rose. Attached to the cross, it serves, like the rose, as a sign and coat of arms for the practicing knight who, by divine grace, made the philosopher's stone. But, if this emblem brings us the proof of the knowledge possessed by the unknown Adept of Dampierre, it also serves to convince us of the vanity, of the uselessness of the attempts that we could make in the search for his true personality. We know why the Rosicrucians called themselves invisible;it is therefore probable that, during his lifetime, ours had to take the necessary precautions and take all the necessary measures to conceal its identity. He wanted man to step aside before science and for his lapidary work to contain no other signature than the lofty but anonymous title of Rosicrucianism and Adeptship.

On the ceiling of the same room where stands the large fireplace that we are reporting, there was once a beam decorated with this curious Latin inscription:

Factorum claritas fortis animus secundus famæ sine villa fine cursus modicæ opes bene partæ innocenter amplificatæ semper habita numera Dei sunt extra invidiæ injurias positæ æternum ornamento et exemplo apud suos futura.

“Illustrious deeds, a magnanimous heart, a glorious reputation that does not end in shame; a modest fortune well acquired, honorably increased and always regarded as a gift from God, that is what injustice and envy cannot attain, and which must be eternally, for the family, a glory and an example. »

About this text, which disappeared a long time ago, Dr. Texier was kind enough to provide us with some details: “The inscription you are talking about, he wrote to us, existed on a beam in a room on the first floor, which, falling from dilapidation, had to be changed sixty or eighty years ago. The inscription was exactly raised, but the fragment of beam, where it was painted in golden letters, has been lost. My father-in-law, who owned the castle, remembers seeing it very well. [We later found the board bearing the inscription that we reproduce, in the middle of other boards forming, in a sheep pen, a partition wall.]

Paraphrase of Solomon in Ecclesiastes, where it is said (ch. III, v. 13) that "everyone should eat and drink, and enjoy the product of all his work, for it is a gift from God", this piece positively determines and suffices to explain what was the mysterious occupation to which the enigmatic lord of Dampierre was engaged, under the cloak. The inscription reveals, in any case, in its author, an unusual wisdom. No labor whatsoever can procure a better acquired ease; the workman receives from nature itself the integral wage to which he is entitled, and this is calculated to him in proportion to his skill, his efforts, his perseverance. And as practical science has always been recognized as a true gift of God by all possessors of the Magisterium,the fact that this profession of faith considers the fortune acquired as a gift from God suffices to reveal its alchemical origin. Its regular and honorable growth cannot, under these conditions, surprise anyone.

Two other inscriptions emanating from the same residence deserve to be reported here. The first, painted on a mantelpiece, has a six figure dominated by a subject composed of the letter H, holding two intertwined Ds and adorned with human figures, seen in profile, one of an old man, the other of a young man. This little piece, cheerfully written, exalts the happy existence, imbued with calm and serenity, with benevolent hospitality, which led our philosophizing in his attractive home:

DOLVCE. EAST. THERE . LIFE. AT. THERE . GOOD. SVYVRE.
EMMY. SOYET. SPRINGS. SOYET. HYVERS .
SOVBS. WHITE . SNOW. OV. RAMEAVX. GREENS.
QVAND. VRAYS. FRIENDS. NOVS. THERE . MAKE. LIVE .
NSAIDs. LEVR . PLACE . AT. TOVS. EAST. HERE .
AS . AVX. VIEVLS. AVX. JEVNES. AVSI.

The second, which adorns a larger fireplace, adorned with ornaments of red, gray and gold, is a simple maxim of a beautiful moral character, but which the superficial and presumptuous humanity of our time is reluctant to practice:

SE. CIGNESTRE. BE. AND . NO. PARESTRE.

Our Adept is right; self-knowledge makes it possible to acquire science, the goal and raison d'etre of life, the basis of all real value; and this power, elevating the industrious man who can acquire it, encourages him to remain in a modest and noble simplicity, an eminent virtue of superior minds. It was an axiom which the masters repeated to their disciples, and by which they indicated to them the only means of attaining supreme knowledge: "If you want to know wisdom, they said to them, know yourself well and you will know it." »


III (The Marvelous Grimoire of the Chateau de Dampierre)

The high gallery, whose ceiling is so curiously ornamented, occupies the whole length of the building raised between the towers. It emerges, as we have said, through five bays separated by squat columns, provided, inside, with engaged supports receiving the fallout of arches. Two windows with straight mullions and straight lintels open at the ends of this gallery. Transversal ribs borrow the lowered shape of the bays and are cut by two longitudinal, parallel ribs, thus determining the framing of the caissons which are the subject of our study (pl. XXIV).




Plate XXIV


These were, well before us, described by Louis Audiat. [Louis Audiat, Santone and Aunisienne Epigraphy . Paris, J.-B. Dumoulin, and Niort, L. Clouzot, 1870.] But the author, ignorant of all the science to which they refer, and the essential reason which binds together so many bizarre images, has endowed his book with the character of incoherence which the figures themselves affect for the layman. To read the Epigraphy Santone , it would seem that caprice, fantasy and extravagance presided over their execution. Also, the least that can be said of this work is that it appears unserious, devoid of substance, baroque, with no other interest than an excessive singularity.Certain inexplicable errors still add to the unfavorable impression one receives from them. Thus, for example, the author takes a cubic stone, cut and placed on the water (series I, box 5), for “a ship agitated on the waves”; Elsewhere (series IV, box 7), a bent woman, planting pits near a tree, becomes in his home “a traveler making his way painfully through a desert”. In the first box of the fifth series—may our readers forgive him this involuntary comparison—he sees a woman instead of the devil in person, hairy, winged, horned,

According to Dr. Texier, to whose kindness we owe this information, the figures of Dampierre would never have been published in their entirety. However, there is a reproduction drawn from the original and kept in the museum of Saintes. It is to this drawing that, for certain imprecise reasons, we have had recourse, in order to make our description as complete as possible.

Almost all the emblematic compositions present, apart from a subject sculpted in bas-relief, an inscription engraved on a phylactery. But, while the image relates directly to the practical side of science, the epigraph above all offers a moral or philosophical meaning; it is addressed to the workman rather than to the work, and, sometimes employing the apophthegm, sometimes the parable, defines a quality, a virtue which the artist must possess, a point of doctrine which he cannot ignore. Now, for the very reason that they are provided with phylacteries, these figures reveal their secret import, their affectation in some hidden science.Indeed, the Greek φυλακτήριον, formed from φυλάσσω, to keep, to preserve, and from τηρέω, to preserve, indicates the function of this ornament, responsible for preserving, to preserve the occult and mysterious meaning hidden behind the natural expression of the compositions it accompanies. It is the sign, the seal of that Wisdom which stands on guard against the wicked, as Plato says: Σοφία η περὶ τοὺς πονηροὺς φυλακτική. Bearing or not an epigraph, it suffices to find the speech bubble on any subject to be sure that the image contains a hidden meaning, a secret meaning offered to the researcher and marked by its mother presence. And the truth of this meaning, the reality of this meaning is always found in hermetic science, qualified by the old masters as eternal wisdom.We should therefore not be surprised to find banners and parchments, abundantly represented among the attributes of religious scenes or secular compositions of our great cathedrals,

Arranged in three rows, perpendicular to the axis, the coffers of the upper gallery are 93 in number. Of this number, 61 relate to science, 24 offer monograms intended to separate them by series, 4 present only geometric ornaments, of later execution, and the last 4 show their empty and smooth table. The symbolic boxes, on which the interest of the Dampierre ceiling is concentrated, constitute a set of figures divided into seven series. Each series is isolated from the next by three boxes, arranged in a transverse line, decorated alternately with the monogram of Henri II and the intertwined crescents of Diane de Poitiers or Catherine de Médicis, numbers that can be seen on many buildings of the same period. However, we have made this finding, quite surprising,that most hotels or castles bearing the double D linked to the letter H and the triple crescent, have an undeniable alchemical character decoration. But why are these same dwellings qualified by the title of “castles of Diane de Poitiers” by the authors of monographs, and on the mere existence of the figure in question?

However, neither the residence of Louis d'Estissac, in Coulonges-sur-l'Autize, nor that of the Clermonts, both placed under the aegis of the too famous favourite, ever belonged to him. On the other hand, what reason could be given for the monogram and the crescents that was such as to justify their presence in the midst of hermetic emblems? What thought, what tradition would the initiates of the nobility have obeyed in placing under the fictitious protection of a monarch and his concubine—objects of general reprobation—their painted or sculpted hieroglyphic work? "Henry II," writes the Abbé de Montgaillard, "was a stupid prince, brutal and deeply reckless for the good of his people; this bad king was constantly dominated by his wife and by his old mistress;he abandoned the reins of the state to them, and did not recoil before any of the cruelties practiced against the Protestants. We can say of him that he continued the reign of François I, in terms of political despotism and religious intolerance. [Abbot of Montgaillard.History of France , vol. I, p. 186. Paris, Moutardier, 1827.] It is therefore impossible to admit that educated philosophers, people of study and high morality, thought of offering the homage of their work to the royal couple that debauchery was to make shamefully famous.

Different is the truth, because the crescent belongs neither to Diane de Poitiers nor to Catherine de Medici. It is a symbol of the highest antiquity, known to the Egyptians and the Greeks, used by the Arabs and the Saracens long before its introduction into our Western Middle Ages. It is the attribute of Isis, Artemis or Diana, of Selene, Phoebe or the Moon, the spagyric emblem of silver and the seal of the color white. Its meaning is threefold: alchemical, magical, cabalistic, and this triple hierarchy of meaning, synthesized in the image of intertwined crescents, embraces the scope of ancient and traditional knowledge. We will therefore be less surprised to see the symbolic triad figure alongside obscure signs,

As for the monogram, it is easily explainable and shows, once again, how the philosophers used emblems of known meaning, endowing them with a special meaning generally ignored. This is the surest way they have had of hiding from the layman a science exposed figuratively to all eyes: a renewed process of the Egyptians whose teaching, translated into hieroglyphics outside the temples, remained a dead letter for those who did not have the key. The historic monogram is made up of two Ds, intertwined and joined by the letter H, the initial of Henry II. Such, at least, is the ordinary expression of the cipher which veils, beneath its image, something quite different.

We know that alchemy is based on the physical metamorphoses operated by the spirit, a name given to the universal dynamism emanating from the divinity, which maintains life and movement, causes them to stop or die, evolves the substance and asserts itself as the sole animator of all that is. Now, in alchemical notation, the sign of the spirit does not differ from the letter H of the Latins and from the eta of the Greeks. We will give later, by studying one of the boxes where this character is represented crowned (series VII, 2), some of its symbolic applications. For the moment, it suffices to know that the spirit, universal agent, constitutes, in the realization of the Work, the principal unknown whose determination assures full success.But this, going beyond the bounds of human understanding, can only be acquired by divine revelation. “God, repeat the masters, gives wisdom to whomever he pleases and transmits it by the Holy Spirit, light of the world; this is why science is said to be a Gift of God, formerly reserved for his ministers, hence the name of Priestly Art which it originally bore. Let us add that in the Middle Ages the Gift of God applied to the Secretum secretorum, which amounts precisely to the secret par excellence, that of the universal spirit.

Thus, the Donum Dei, revealed knowledge of the science of the Great Work, key to the materializations of the spirit and of the light (Ἥλιος), appears incontestably under the monogram of the double D (Donum Dei) united to the sign of the spirit (H), Greek initial of the sun, father of the light, Ἥλιος. One could not better indicate the alchemical character of the figures of Dampierre, of which we will now undertake the study.


IV (The Marvelous Grimoire of the Chateau de Dampierre)

First series (pl. XXV).




Plate XXV


Panel 1. — Two trees of the same size and similar size appear side by side on the same ground; one is green and vigorous, the other inert and withered. [At the foot of this tree covered with foliage, the earth is dug in the shape of a basin, so that the water poured for its watering is better retained. In the same way, the metal, dead by reduction, will recover existence, in frequent imbibitions.] The banner which seems to unite them bears these words:

. SOR . NO. OMNIBVS. ÆQVE .

The fate is not equal for all … This truth, limited to the period of human existence, seems to us all the more relative as destiny, sad or smiling, calm or upset, leads us all, without distinction or privilege, towards death. But if we transpose it into the hermetic domain, it then takes on a clearly marked positive meaning which must have ensured its preference with our Adept.

According to the alchemical doctrine, the usual metals, torn from their shelter to meet the needs of industry, forced to comply with the demands of man, thus appear as the victims of a flagrant bad luck. Whereas in the state of ore they lived at the bottom of the rock, evolving slowly towards the perfection of native gold, they are condemned to die immediately after their extraction and perish under the harmful action of the reducing fire. The melting, by separating them from the nutritive elements, associated with the mineralizers in charge of maintaining their activity, kills them by fixing the temporary and transient form that they had acquired. This is the meaning of the two symbolic trees, one of which expresses mineral vitality and the other metallic inertia.

From this simple image, the intelligent investigator, sufficiently instructed in the principles of the art, will be able to draw a useful and profitable consequence. If he remembers that the old masters recommend beginning the work at the very point where nature completes hers; if he knows how to kill the living in order to raise the dead, he will certainly discover what metal he must take and what mineral he must choose in order to begin his first work. Then, reflecting on the operations of nature, he will learn from her how to unite the revivified body with another living body—for life desires life—and, if he has understood us, he will see with his eyes and touch with his hands the material testimony of a great truth…

These are too succinct words, no doubt, and we regret it; but our submission to the rules of traditional discipline does not allow us to specify them or develop them further.


Box 2 (pl. XXV).

— A fortress tower, raised on a glacis, crowned with crenellations and battlements, provided with loopholes and topped with a dome, is pierced by a narrow grilled window and a solidly locked door. This building, of powerful and forbidding aspect, receives from the clouds a downpour which the inscription designates as being a golden rain:

. AVRO. CLAVSA. PATENT.

Gold opens closed doors...Everyone knows it. But this proverb, the application of which is found at the base of privilege, favoritism and all privileges, could not have, in the mind of the philosopher, the figurative meaning that we know of it. It is not corrupting gold that is in question here, but the mytho-hermetic episode contained in the fable of Jupiter and Danae. The poets tell that this princess, daughter of the king of Argos, Acrisius, was locked up in a tower because an oracle had announced to her father that he would be killed by his grandson. Now, the walls of a prison, however thick they may be, cannot constitute a serious obstacle to the will of a god.Zeus, a great lover of adventure and metamorphosis, always preoccupied with deceiving Hera's vigilance and extending her offspring, noticed Danae. Little embarrassed about the choice of means, he entered her in the form of a shower of gold, and, at the expiration of the required term, the prisoner gave birth to a son who received the name of Perseus. Acrisius, very displeased with this news, had the mother and child locked up in a chest that was thrown into the sea. Carried by the currents to the island of Seriphe, fishermen collected the singular vessel, opened it and presented its contents to King Polydectus, who received Danae and Perseus with great hospitality.

Beneath this marvelous story hides an important secret, that of the preparation of the hermetic subject, or raw material of the Work, and of the obtaining of sulphur, the primum ens of the stone.

Danae represents our raw mineral, as it is extracted from the mine. It is the land of the wise which contains within it the active and hidden spirit, the only one capable, says Hermes, of realizing "by these things the miracles of a single thing". Danae comes, in fact, from the Dorian ∆ᾶν, earth, and from ἄη, breath, spirit. The philosophers teach that their raw material is a particle of the original chaos, and this is indeed what the Greek name of Acrisius, king of Argos and father of Danae asserts: Ἀκρισία means confusion, disorder; Ἀργός means raw, uncultivated, unfinished. Zeus, for his part, marks the sky, the air and the water; so much so that the Greeks, to express the action of raining, said: Υει ὸ Ζευς, Jupiter sends rain, or, more simply, it is raining . This god therefore appears as the personification of water, of water capable of penetrating bodies, of metallic water, since it is golden or at least gilded. This is exactly the case with the hermetic solvent, which, after fermentation in an oak barrel, takes on the appearance of liquid gold when decanted. The anonymous author of an unpublished manuscript from the 18th century writes on this subject: “If you let this water flow, you will see there with your own eyes gold shining in its first being, with all the colors of the rainbow. [ The key to the Cabinet Hermétique, “manuscript copied from the original belonging to Mr. Desaint, doctor, rue Hiacinthe in Paris”.] The very union of Zeus and Danae indicates the manner in which the dissolvent should be applied; the body, reduced to a fine powder, put into digestion with a small quantity of water, is then moistened, watered little by little, as it is absorbed, a technique that the sages have called imbibition. We thus obtain an increasingly soft paste, which becomes syrupy, oily, finally fluid and limpid. Subjected then, under certain conditions, to the action of fire, part of this liquor coagulates into a mass which falls to the bottom and is carefully collected. This is our precious sulphur, the newly born child, the little king and our dolphin, symbolic fish otherwise called echeneis, remora or pilot, Perseus or fish of the Red Sea (in Greek Περσεύς), etc.[The remora is famous for the tales of which it was the subject.


Panel 3 (pl. XXV). — Four blooming flowers erect on their stems are in contact with the edge of a bare sword. This little motif has the motto:

. NVTRI . ETIAM. RESPONSA . FERVNTVR .

Also develop the announced oracles… This is advice given to the artist, so that the latter, by practicing it, can be assured of properly directing the coction, or second operation of the Magisterium. Nutri etiam responsa feruntur , entrusts him with the spirit of our philosophy, through the petrified characters of his work.

These oracles, four in number, correspond to the four flowers or colors which appear during the evolution of the Rebis and externally reveal to the alchemist the successive phases of the internal work. These phases, variously colored, bear the name of Regimes or Reigns. There are usually seven of them. To each regime the philosophers have attributed one of the superior deities of Olympus, and also one of the celestial planets whose influence is exercised parallel to theirs, even during the time of their domination. According to the generally widespread idea, planets and divinities develop their simultaneous power according to an invariable hierarchy.The reign of Mercury (Ἑρμῆς, base, foundation), the first stage of the Work, is followed by that of Saturn (Κρόνος, the old man, the madman); Jupiter then governs (Ζεύς, union, marriage), then Diana, (Ἄρτεμις, whole, complete) or the Moon, whose sparkling dress is sometimes woven with white hair, sometimes made of snow crystals; Venus, doomed to green (Ἀφροδίτη, beauty, grace), then inherits the throne, but Mars soon drives her away (Ἄρης, adapted, fixed), and this belligerent prince, with clothes dyed with coagulated blood, is himself overthrown by Apollo (Ἀπόλλων, the triumphant), the Sun of the Magisterium, emperor dressed in brilliant scarves. late, which definitively establishes its sovereignty and its power on the ruins of its predecessors.[We will confine ourselves here to enumerating the successive stages of the second Work without making any special analysis of them. Great Adepts, and particularly Philalethes, in his doomed to green (Ἀφροδίτη, beauty, grace), then inherits the throne, but Mars soon drives her away (Ἄρης, adapted, fixed), and this bellicose prince, with clothes dyed with coagulated blood, is himself overthrown by Apollo (Ἀπόλλων, the triumphant), the Sun of the Magus rium, emperor dressed in brilliant scarlet, who definitively establishes his sovereignty and his power on the ruins of his predecessors. [We will confine ourselves here to enumerating the successive stages of the second Work without making any special analysis of them. Great Adepts, and particularly Philalethes, in hisdoomed to green (Ἀφροδίτη, beauty, grace), then inherits the throne, but Mars soon drives her away (Ἄρης, adapted, fixed), and this bellicose prince, with clothes dyed with coagulated blood, is himself overthrown by Apollo (Ἀπόλλων, the triumphant), the Sun of the Magisterium, emperor dressed in brilliant scarlet, who establishes definitively its sovereignty and its power on the ruins of its predecessors. [We will confine ourselves here to enumerating the successive stages of the second Work without making any special analysis of them. Great Adepts, and particularly Philalethes, in his emperor dressed in brilliant scarlet, who definitively established his sovereignty and power over the ruins of his predecessors.[We will confine ourselves here to enumerating the successive stages of the second Work without making any special analysis of them. Great Adepts, and particularly Philalethes, in his emperor dressed in brilliant scarlet, who definitively established his sovereignty and power over the ruins of his predecessors. [We will confine ourselves here to enumerating the successive stages of the second Work without making any special analysis of them. Great Adepts, and particularly Philalethes, in hisIntroitus , have pushed the study of it very far. Their descriptions reflect such awareness that it would be impossible for us to say more or say it better.]

Some authors, likening the colored phases of the coction to the seven days of creation, have designated the whole labor by the expression Hebdomas hebdomadum , the Week of weeks, or simply the Great Week, because the alchemist must follow as closely as possible, in his microcosmic realization, all the circumstances which accompanied the Great Work of the Creator.

But these various regimes are more or less frank and vary a great deal, both in duration and in intensity. Also the masters have limited themselves to pointing out only four colors, essential and preponderant, because they offer more clarity and permanence than the others, namely: black, white, yellow or citrine and red. These four flowers of the hermetic garden must be cut successively, in order and at the end of their flowering, which explains the presence of the weapon on our bas-relief. Therefore, we must be afraid of hastening too much, with the vain hope of shortening the time, which is sometimes very long, by going beyond the degree of fire required at the current regime. The old authors advise prudence and warn the apprentices against any prejudicial impatience;precipitation a diabolo , they tell them; because, by seeking to reach the goal too soon, they would only succeed in burning the flowers of the compost and would cause the irremediable loss of the work. It is therefore preferable, as the Adept of Dampierre teaches, to develop the oracles, which are the colored predictions or omens of regular operation, with patience and perseverance, as long as nature may require.


Panel 4 (pl. XXV). — An old dismantled tower, the door of which, torn from its hinges, leaves the entrance free: this is how the picture book depicted the open prison. Inside, we still see a shackles in place, as well as three stones indicated in the upper part. Two other obstacles, extracted from the jail, can be seen alongside the ruin. This composition marks the completion of the three stones or medicines of Géber, successively obtained, which are designated by the philosophers under the names of philosophical Sulfur for the first; Elixir or Potable Gold for the second; Philosopher's Stone, Absolute or Universal Medicine for the last.Each of these stones had to undergo coction in the Athanor, prison of the Great Work, and this is the reason why a final fetter is still sealed there.

The small bas-relief has as its motto the words of the apostle Peter ( Acts , ch. XII, v. 11), who was miraculously delivered from his prison by an angel:

. NV(N)C. SCIO. VERY.

Now I really know! … A word of lively joy, a surge of intimate satisfaction, a cry of joy that the Adept utters before the certainty of the prodigy. Until then, doubt could still attack him; but, in the presence of perfect and tangible realization, he no longer fears to err; he discovered the way, recognized the truth, inherited the Donum Dei . Nothing of the great secret is henceforth unknown to him… Alas! how many among the crowd of seekers can flatter themselves that they have arrived at the goal, of seeing with their own eyes the prison opening up, forever closed for the greatest number!

The prison still serves as an emblem of the imperfect body, the initial subject of the Work, in which the aqueous and metallic soul is strongly attached and restrained. “It is this imprisoned water, says Nicolas Valois, who cries incessantly: Ayde me, je t'ayderay, that is to say, free me from my prison, and if once you can get me out of it, I will make you master of the fortress where I am. The water therefore which is in this enclosed body is the same nature of water as that which we give it to drink, which is called Mercury Trismegistus, of which Parmenides hears when he says: Nature rejoices in Nature, Nature overcomes Nature and Nature contains Nature.For this enclosed water rejoices with its companion who comes to free it from its irons, mixes with iceluy and finally, converting the said prison into them, rejecting what is contrary to them, which is the preparation, are converted into mercurial and permanent water… It is therefore with good reason that our divine Water is called the Key, Light, Diana which illuminates in the darkness of the night . For it is the entrance to the whole Work and that which illuminates every man. » [Nicolas Valois. The Five Books. Book I: From the Key to the Secret of Secrets . Ms. quoted.]


Panel 5 (pl. XXV). – For having observed it experimentally, the philosophers certify that their stone is nothing other than a complete coagulation of mercurial water. This is reflected in our bas-relief, where we see the cubic stone of the ancient Freemasons floating on the sea waves. Although such an operation may appear impossible, it nevertheless remains natural, because our mercury carries within itself the dissolved sulphurous principle, to which it is indebted for its subsequent coagulation. It is regrettable however that the extreme slowness of action of this potential agent does not allow the observer to register the slightest sign of any reaction whatsoever, during the first stages of the work.This is the cause of the failure of many artists, who, quickly disappointed, give up painful work, which they deem vain, although they have followed the right path and operated on proper, canonically prepared materials. It is to these that the words of Jesus to Peter walking on the water are addressed, and which Saint Matthew relates (ch. XIV, 31):

. CHANGE. FIDEI. QVARE. DVBITASTI.

Why do you doubt, man of little faith?

In truth, we can know nothing without the help of faith, and whoever does not possess it can undertake nothing. We have never seen that skepticism and doubt have built anything stable, noble, lasting. We must often remember the Latin adage: Mens agitat molem , for it is the deep conviction of this truth that will lead the wise worker to the happy end of his labor. It is in her, in this robust faith, that he will draw the virtues essential to the resolution of this great mystery. The term is not exaggerated: we find ourselves, in fact, before a real mystery, as much by its development contrary to the chemical laws as by its obscure mechanism, a mystery that the best educated scientist and the most expert Adept could not explain.So true is it that nature, in its simplicity, seems to delight in offering us enigmas before which our logic recoils, our reason is troubled, our judgment is lost.

Now, this cubic stone, which industrious nature engenders from water alone — the universal material of peripateticism — and whose art must carve the six faces according to the rules of occult geometry, appears in the process of formation in a curious seventeenth-century bas-relief decorating the Vertbois fountain in Paris (pl. XXVI).




Plate XXVI


As the two subjects have a close correspondence between them, we will study here the Parisian emblem, more extended, hoping thus to throw some clarity in the too concise symbolic expression of the santone image.

Built in 1633 by the Benedictines of Saint-Martin-des-Champs, this fountain was originally erected inside the priory and leaned against the surrounding wall. In 1712, the monks offered it, for public use, to the city of Paris, with the site necessary for its reconstruction, under this condition "that the lookout would be established in one of the old towers of their convent, and that there would be an exterior door". [ Fountains of Paris, designed by Moisy. Notes by Amaury Duval . Paris, 1812.] The fountain was therefore placed against the so-called Vertbois tower, located rue Saint-Martin, and took the name of Saint-Martin fountain, which it retained for more than a century.

The small building, restored at state expense in 1832, has “a shallow rectangular niche, framed by two Doric pilasters, with vermiculated bosses, which support an architrave cornice. On the cornice remains a kind of armetin crowned by a cartouche with wings. A marine conch surmounts this cartridge. The upper part of the niche is occupied by a frame in the center of which is sculpted a vessel”. [ General Inventory of the Richnesses of Art of France. Paris. Civil monuments . Paris, Plon, 1879, vol. I.] This bas-relief, in stone, measures 0m80 high by 1m05 wide; its author is unknown.

Thus, all the descriptions relating to the fountain of Vertbois, probably copied one on the other, are limited to pointing out, without further defining it, a vessel as the main motif. Moisy's drawing, responsible for illustrating Amaury Duval's notice, does not tell us more. His ship, of pure fantasy, represented in profile, bears no trace of his singular cargo, and one would look in vain, among the windings of marine volutes, for the beautiful and large dolphin that accompanies him. Moreover, many people, careless of detail, see in this subject the heraldic nave of Paris, without suspecting that it offers the curious the enigma of a completely different truth and of a less vulgar order.

Certainly, one could question the accuracy of our observation and, where we recognize an enormous stone, secured to the building with which it forms part, only notice an ordinary bale of any merchandise. But, in this case, one would be very embarrassed to give the reason for the raised sail, incompletely furled on the yard of the mainmast, a particularity which highlights the unique and voluminous package, thus revealed on purpose. The intention of the creator of the work is therefore manifest; it is a hidden load, normally concealed from prying eyes, and not a bundle traveling on deck.

Moreover, the ship, seen from the rear, seems to move away from the viewer and shows that its movement is ensured by the mizzen sail, to the exclusion of the others. Alone, she receives the force of the wind, blowing at the stern; alone, it transmits its energy to the ship gliding on the waves. Now, the cabalists write mizzen and pronounce antemon or antimon , a word behind which they hide the name of the subject his sages. Ἄνθεμον, in Greek, means flower , and we know that the raw material is said to be the flower of all metals; it is the flower of flowers (flos florum);the root of this word, ἄνθος, also expresses youth, glory, beauty, the noblest part of things, all that possesses luster and shines like fire. It is not surprising, then, that Basil Valentine, in his Triumphant Chariot of Antimony , gave to the prime substance of the particular work he describes there the name of stone of fire .

As long as it remains fixed to the hermetic nave, this stone, as we have said, must be considered as being in process of elaboration. It is therefore absolutely necessary to help him to continue his crossing, so that neither the storms, nor the pitfalls, nor the thousand incidents on the road delay his arrival at the blessed haven towards which, little by little, nature is leading him. To facilitate his traveler, to foresee, to remove the possible causes of shipwreck, to keep the ship loaded with the precious burden in its direct line, such is the task of the craftsman.

This progressive and slow formation explains why the stone is represented here under the appearance of a rough-hewn block, destined to receive the definitive size which will make it our cubic stone. The cables that attach it to the building sufficiently indicate, by their crossing on its visible faces, the transitory state of its evolution. We know that the cross, in the speculative order, is the figuration of the spirit, a dynamic principle, while it serves, in the practical domain, as a graphic sign in the crucible. It is in it, in this vessel, that the concentration of the mercurial water takes place, by the bringing together of its constitutive molecules, under the will of the metallic spirit and thanks to the permanent aid of fire.For the spirit is the only force capable of transforming the dissolved bodies into new compact masses, just as it forces crystals from stock solutions to take on the specific, invariable form by which we can identify them. This is why philosophers have assimilated the molecular aggregation of the mercurial solid, under the secret action of the spirit, to that of a bag strongly compressed by intersecting ligatures. The stone seems bound like asecchina (from the Greek σηκάζω, to enclose, to close), and this corporification is made perceptible by the cross, image of the Passion, that is to say during the work in the crucible, each time that the heat is prudently applied in the required degree and following the suitable rhythm. Thus it is appropriate to specify the particular meaning of the cable, which the Greeks called κάλως, homonym of the adverb καλῶς, which means in a suitable and efficient manner.

It is the most delicate phase of the work when the first coagulation of the stone, unctuous and light, appears on the surface and floats on the waters. It is then necessary to redouble precaution and prudence in the application of fire, if one does not want to redden it before term and precipitate it. It appears at the beginning under the aspect of a thin film, very quickly broken, of which the fragments detached from the edges retract, then weld together, thicken, take the form of a flat islet, — the island of the Cosmopolitan and the mythical land of Delos, — animated by gyratory movements and subjected to continual displacements. This island is only another figure of the hermetic fish, born from the sea of ​​the Sages,—our mercury which Hermes calls mare patens., — the pilot of the Work, the first solid state of the embryonic stone. Some have named it Echeneis , others Dauphin , with as much reason; because if the echeneis passes, in the legend, to stop and fix the strongest ships, the dolphin, whose head we see emerging in our bas-relief, has an equally positive meaning. Its Greek name, δελφίς, designates the womb, and everyone knows that mercury is called by the philosophers the receptacle and the womb of the stone.

But, so that no one is mistaken, let us repeat again that there can be no question here of vulgar mercury, although its liquid quality can give the change and allow its assimilation to secret water, humid metallic radical. The powerful initiate that was Rabelais provides, in a few words, the true characteristics of the philosopher's mercury. [His works are signed with the pseudonym Alcofribas Nasier, an anagram of François Rabelais, followed by the title of quintessence abstractor, which in the Middle Ages was used to designate in popular language the alchemists of the time. The famous physician and philosopher thus declares himself, without question, Adept and Rose-Croix, and places his writings under the aegis of Sacred Art. Moreover, in the Prologue of Gargantua, Rabelais sufficiently shows that his work belongs to the category of closed, hermetic and acroamatic books, for the understanding of which strong symbolic knowledge is absolutely indispensable.]

In his description of the Underground Temple of the Dive Bottle ( Pantagruel , book. V, ch. XLII), he speaks of a circular fountain which occupies its center and the deepest part. Around this fountain stand seven columns “which are stones, says the author, by the ancient Chaldeans and Magi attributed to the seven planets of the sky. For which Minerva thing to hear, above the first sapphire was above the capital, in the lively and centric perpendicular line raised, in very precious elutian lead, the image of Saturn holding his scythe, having at his feet a golden crane artificially enameled according to the skill of colors naively due to the Saturnine bird.Above the second of hyacinth, turning to the left, was Jupiter in Jovietian pewter, above the breast an eagle Or enamelled according to the natural. On the third, Phoebus in obrized gold, in his dexter hand a white rooster. On the fourth,

[The attribution of brass to Mars proves that Rabelais knew perfectly the alchemical correspondence of planets and metals. In Greek, χαλκός, which designates copper or bronze, was used by the ancient Hellenic poets to define not copper or one of its compounds, but iron. The author is therefore right to assign it to the planet Mars. As for the bronze of Corinth, Pliny asserts that it appeared under three aspects. It had sometimes the brilliance of silver, sometimes that of gold and could be the result of an alloy in roughly equivalent proportions of gold, silver and copper. It is this last brass which was believed to have been produced fortuitously by the fusion of precious metals and copper, during the burning of Corinth by Mummius (146 BC).]

On the fifth, Venus in copper, of material similar to that of which Aristonides made the statue of Athamas,... a dove at her feet. On the sixth, Mercury in a fixed hydrargyre, malleable and immobile, at his feet a stork…” The text is formal and cannot lead to confusion. The mercury of the sages, all the authors certify, presents itself as a body of metallic appearance, of solid consistency, consequently immobile in relation to quicksilver, of mediocre volatility in fire, finally capable of fixing itself by simple coction in a closed vessel. As for the stork, which Rabelais attributes to mercury, it takes its meaning from the Greek word πελαργός, stork, formed from πελός, livid brown or black, and ἀργός, white, which are the two colors of the bird and those of philosophical mercury ;πελαργός also designates a pot made of white and black earth, emblem of the hermetic vase, that is to say mercury, whose water, living and white, loses its light, its brilliance, mortifies and becomes black, abandoning its soul to the embryo of the stone, which is born from its decomposition and feeds on its ashes.

In order to bear witness that the Vertbois fountain was originally dedicated to philosophical water, the mother of all metals and the basis of sacred art, the Benedictines of Saint-Martin-des-Champs had various attributes relating to this fundamental liquor carved on the cornice serving as a support for the bas-relief. Two crossed oars and a caduceus carry the petasus of Hermes, represented in the modern aspect of a winged armet, over which watches a small dog. A few cords, coming out of the visor, spread their coils over the oars and the winged rod of the god of the Work.

The Greek word πλάτη, by which we designate the oar, simultaneously offers the meaning of vessel and that of van. [In phonetic Kabbalah, oar, equivalent to rowing, also designates the philosopher's water. Ῥάµα, put for ῥάσμα, means sprinkling, watering, rac. ῥέω, to sink.] The latter is a sort of wicker shell attributed to mercury, and which the cabalists write wind. This is why the Emerald Tablet says allegorically, speaking of the stone, that “the wind carried it in its belly”. This van is nothing other than the womb, the vessel carrying the stone, emblem of mercury and principal subject of our bas-relief. As for the caduceus, it is well known that it belongs to the messenger of the gods, with the winged petasus and the heels. We will only say that the Greek word Κηρύκειον, caduceus, recalls by its etymology the rooster, Κῆρυξ, consecrated to Mercury as herald of light.All these symbols converge, as we can see, towards one and the same object, also indicated by the little dog, placed on the vault of the armet, whose special meaning (κράνος, head, top) marks the important part, in this case the culminating point of the art, the key to the Great Work. Christmas, in its Dictionary of Fable , writes that "the dog was consecrated to Mercury as the most watchful and cunning of all the gods". According to Pliny, the flesh of young dogs was reputed to be so pure that it was offered to the gods as a sacrifice, and that it was served in the meals prepared for them. The image of the dog posed on the protective helmet of the head constitutes, moreover, a true rebus still applicable to mercury.It is a figurative translation of the cynocephalus (κυνοκέφαλος, which has a dog's head), mystical form highly venerated by the Egyptians, who gave it to some superior deities, and particularly to the god Thoth, who later became the Hermes of the Greeks, the Trismegistus of the philosophers, the Mercury of the Latins.


Panel 6 (pl. XXV). — A dice is placed on a small garden table; in the foreground are three herbaceous plants. For any sign, this bas-relief bears the Latin adverb:

. VTCVMQVE .

In some way, that is to say in a similar way, which could suggest that the discovery of the stone would be due to chance, and that thus the knowledge of the Magisterium would remain dependent on a lucky roll of the dice. But we know full well that science, a true gift from God, spiritual light obtained by revelation, cannot be subject to such hazards. It is not that one cannot fortuitously find, there as elsewhere, the dexterity that the rebel operation demands; however, if alchemy were limited to the acquisition of a special technique, of some laboratory artifice, it would be reduced to very little and would not exceed the value of a simple formula. Now, science goes far beyond the synthetic manufacture of precious metals,and the philosopher's stone itself is only the first positive step allowing the Adept to rise to the most sublime knowledge. By remaining even in the physical domain, which is that of material manifestations and fundamental certainties, we can assure that the Work is not subject to the unexpected. It has its laws, its principles, its conditions, its secret agents and results from too many combined actions and diverse influences to obey empiricism. You have to discover it, understand the process, know its causes and its accidents well before moving on to its execution. And whoever cannot see it "in spirit" is wasting time and oil trying to find it by practice. “The wise have his eyes in his head, says Ecclesiastes (ch. II, 14), and the fool walks in darkness.By remaining even in the physical domain, which is that of material manifestations and fundamental certainties, we can assure that the Work is not subject to the unexpected. It has its laws, its principles, its conditions, its secret agents and results from too many combined actions and diverse influences to obey empiricism. You have to discover it, understand the process, know its causes and its accidents well before moving on to its execution. And whoever cannot see it "in spirit" is wasting time and oil trying to find it by practice. “The wise have his eyes in his head, says Ecclesiastes (ch. II, 14), and the fool walks in darkness. »By remaining even in the physical domain, which is that of material manifestations and fundamental certainties, we can assure that the Work is not subject to the unexpected. It has its laws, its principles, its conditions, its secret agents and results from too many combined actions and diverse influences to obey empiricism. You have to discover it, understand the process, know its causes and its accidents well before moving on to its execution. And whoever cannot see it "in spirit" is wasting time and oil trying to find it by practice. “The wise have his eyes in his head, says Ecclesiastes (ch. II, 14), and the fool walks in darkness. »It has its laws, its principles, its conditions, its secret agents and results from too many combined actions and diverse influences to obey empiricism. You have to discover it, understand the process, know its causes and its accidents well before moving on to its execution. And whoever cannot see it "in spirit" is wasting time and oil trying to find it by practice. “The wise have his eyes in his head, says Ecclesiastes (ch. II, 14), and the fool walks in darkness. It has its laws, its principles, its conditions, its secret agents and results from too many combined actions and diverse influences to obey empiricism. You have to discover it, understand the process, know its causes and its accidents well before moving on to its execution.And whoever cannot see it "in spirit" is wasting time and oil trying to find it by practice. “The wise have his eyes in his head, says Ecclesiastes (ch. II, 14), and the fool walks in darkness. And whoever cannot see it "in spirit" is wasting time and oil trying to find it by practice. “The wise have his eyes in his head, says Ecclesiastes (ch. II, 14), and the fool walks in darkness. And whoever cannot see it "in spirit" is wasting time and oil trying to find it by practice. “The wise have his eyes in his head, says Ecclesiastes (ch. II, 14), and the fool walks in darkness. »

The dice therefore has another esoteric meaning. Its figure, which is that of the cube (κύβος, dice, cube), designates the cubic or carved stone, our philosopher's stone and the cornerstone of the Church. But, to be regularly erected, this stone requires three successive repetitions of the same series of seven operations, which brings their total to twenty-one. This number corresponds exactly to the sum of the points marked on the six faces of the die, since by adding the first six numbers we obtain 21. And the three series of seven will still be found by totaling the same numbers of boustrophedon points:

1 2 3
6 5 4

Placed at the intersection of the sides of an inscribed hexagon, these figures will translate the circular movement specific to the interpretation of another figure, emblematic of the Great Work, that of the serpent Ouroboros, aut serpens qui caudam devoravit . In any case, this arithmetic particularity, in perfect harmony with the work, consecrates the attribution of the cube or the dice to the symbolic expression of our mineral quintessence. It is the Isiac table made by the cubic throne of the great goddess.

It is therefore enough, analogically, to throw the die three times on the table—which is equivalent, in practice, to redissolving the stone three times—to obtain it with all its qualities. It is these three vegetative phases that the artist has represented here by three plants. Finally, the reiterations indispensable to the perfection of hermetic labor provide the reason for the hieroglyphic book of Abraham the Jew, composed, Flamel tells us, of three times seven leaves. Similarly, a splendid illuminated manuscript, executed at the beginning of the 18th century, contains twenty-one painted figures, each adapted to the twenty-one operations of the Work. [ The Generation and Operation of the Great Work , ms. of the Bibleof the Palais des Arts, in Lyon, n°88 (Delandine, 899), folio.]


V (The Marvelous Grimoire of the Château de Dampierre)

Second series (pl. XXVII).




Plate XXVII


Panel 1. — Thick clouds intercept the light of the sun and cover with shadow a rustic flower which accompanies the motto:

. REVERTED. AND . REVERTAR .

Return, and I will return … This herbaceous plant, quite fabulous, was named, by the ancients, Baraas. It was found, it is said, on the flanks of Mount Lebanon, above the road which leads to Damascus (that is to say, cabalistically, with the mercury feminine principle: Δάμαρ, woman, spouse). It was only seen to appear in the month of May, when spring removes its shroud of snow from the earth.

As soon as night falls, Christmas tells us, “this plant begins to catch fire and give off light like a little torch; but as soon as day comes, this light disappears, and the grass becomes invisible; even the leaves that were wrapped in handkerchiefs are no longer there, which justifies the opinion of those who say that this plant is obsessed with demons, because it also has, according to them, an occult property for breaking charms and spells. Others assert that it is suitable for transmuting metals into gold, and it is for this reason that the Arabs call it the herb of gold;but they would not dare to pick it, or even approach it, for having, they say, experienced several times that this plant suddenly kills anyone who pulls it out of the ground without taking the necessary precautions, and, as they ignore these precautions, they leave it untouched . »

From this little subject emerges esoterically the artifice of the solution of sulfur by mercury, the plant expressing the vegetative virtue of this one, and the sun the igneous nature of that one. The operation is all the most important in that it leads to the acquisition of philosophical mercury, a living, animated substance, issued from pure sulfur radically united with primitive and celestial water. We said previously that the external character, allowing the certain identification of this water, is a starry and radiant figure which the coagulation caused to appear on its surface. Let us add that the astral signature of Mercury, as it is customary to name the imprint in question, asserts itself with all the more clarity and vigor as the animation progresses and proves to be more complete.

Now, the two paths of the Work require two different ways of operating the animation of the initial mercury. The first belongs to the short route and involves a single technique by which the fixed substance is moistened little by little—because all dry matter eagerly drinks up its humidity—until the repeated affusion of the volatile on the body causes the compound to swell and make it into a pasty or syrupy mass, as the case may be. The second method consists in digesting all the sulfur in three or four times its weight of water, then decanting the solution, then drying the residue and taking it up with a proportional quantity of new mercury. When the solution is complete, the faeces are separated, if there are any, and the liquors, collected, are subjected to a slow distillation in the bath.Superfluous moisture is thus released,

It is this second practice that our bas-relief symbolically expresses.

It is easy to understand that the star—external manifestation of the internal sun—represents itself each time that a new portion of mercury comes to bathe the undissolved sulphur, and that this immediately ceases to be visible to reappear at the decantation, that is to say at the departure of the astral matter. "Go back," the landline said, "and I'll be back." On seven successive occasions, the clouds hide from view, sometimes the star, sometimes the flower, depending on the phases of the operation, so that the artist can never, during the work, simultaneously perceive the two elements of the compound.And this truth is confirmed until the end of the Work, since the coction of philosophical mercury, - otherwise called star or star of the wise, - transforms it into fixed sulphur, fruit of our emblematic plant,


Panel 2 (pl.XXVII). — In the center of this box, a fruit, which is generally taken for a pear, but which can, with as much likelihood, be an apple or a pomegranate, takes its meaning from the legend under which it appears:

. DIGNA. THANKS. LABORE.

Work well rewarded. This symbolic fruit is none other than the hermetic gem, philosopher's stone of the Great Work or Medicine of the ancient sages also called Absolute, Little Coal or precious Carbuncle (carbunculus), the shining sun of our microcosm and the star of eternal sapience.

This fruit is double, because it is gathered both from the Tree of Life, reserving it especially for therapeutic uses, and from the Tree of Science, if one prefers to use it for metallic transmutation. These two faculties correspond to two states of the same product, the first of which characterizes the red stone, translucent and diaphanous, intended for medicine as drinking gold, and the second, the yellow stone, which its metallic orientation and its fermentation by natural gold have rendered opaque. For this reason, De Cyrano Bergerac gives two colors to the fruit of the Magisterium in his description of the emblematic tree at the foot of which it remains. “It was, he writes, open country, so open that my sight, from its longest range, did not meet there only a bush;and yet, when I awoke, I found myself under a tree, in comparison with which the highest cedars would appear only grass. Its trunk was of solid gold, its branches of silver and its leaves of emerald, which, above the dazzling greenness of their precious surface, represented, as in a mirror, the images of the fruit which hung round about. But judge if the fruit owes anything to the leaves! The fiery scarlet of a large carbuncle composed half of each, and the other was in suspense if it derived its matter from a chrysolite or a piece of golden amber; the blooming flowers were very large diamond roses, and the buds large pear-shaped pearls. [From Cyrano Bergerac,above the dazzling greenness of their precious surface, the images of the fruit hanging around were represented as in a mirror. But judge if the fruit owes anything to the leaves! The fiery scarlet of a large carbuncle composed half of each, and the other was in suspense if it derived its matter from a chrysolite or a piece of golden amber; the blooming flowers were very large diamond roses, and the buds large pear-shaped pearls. [From Cyrano Bergerac, above the dazzling greenness of their precious surface, the images of the fruit hanging around were represented as in a mirror. But judge if the fruit owes anything to the leaves!The fiery scarlet of a large carbuncle composed half of each, and the other was in suspense if it derived its matter from a chrysolite or a piece of golden amber; the blooming flowers were very large diamond roses, and the buds large pear-shaped pearls. [From Cyrano Bergerac, and the other was in suspense if it took its matter from a chrysolite or from a piece of golden amber; the blooming flowers were very large diamond roses, and the buds large pear-shaped pearls. [From Cyrano Bergerac, and the other was in suspense if it took its matter from a chrysolite or from a piece of golden amber; the blooming flowers were very large diamond roses, and the buds large pear-shaped pearls. [From Cyrano Bergerac,The other world. Comic History of the States and Empires of the Sun. Paris, Bauche, 1910, p. 42]

According to his skill, the care, the prudence of the craftsman, the philosophical fruit of the arbor scientiæbears witness to a more or less extensive virtue. For it is indisputable that the philosopher's stone, used in the transmutation of metals, is never endowed with the same power. Historical projections provide us with certain proof of this. In the operation carried out by J.-B. Van Helmont, in his laboratory at Vilvoorde, near Brussels, in 1618, the stone transformed into gold 18,740 times its weight of flowing mercury. Richtausen, using the product provided by Labujardière, obtained a result equivalent to 22.334 times unity. The projection realized by Sethon, in 1603, at the merchant Coch, of Frankfort-on-the-Main, was done on a proportion equal to 1,155 times.According to Dippel's report, the powder Lascaris gave Dierbach transmuted about 600 times its weight in quicksilver. However, another plot, provided by Lascaris, proved to be more effective; in the operation carried out in Vienna in 1716, in the presence of Councilor Pantzer of Hesse, Count Charles-Ernest de Rappach, Count Joseph of Würben and Freudentahl, brothers Count and Baron de Metternich, the coefficient reached a power close to ten thousand. Moreover, it is useful to know that the maximum production is achieved by the use of mercury, and that the same quality of stone provides variable results according to the nature of the metals serving as the basis for the projection.The author of the Letters of the Cosmopolitan affirms that if a part of Elixir converts into perfect gold one thousand parts of ordinary mercury, it will transform only twenty parts of lead, thirty of tin, fifty of copper and one hundred of silver. As for the white stone, it could not, at the same degree of multiplication,

But, if the philosophers spoke little about the variable yield of the chrysopée, on the other hand they showed themselves very prolific on the medical properties of the Elixir, as well as on the surprising effects which it makes it possible to obtain in the vegetable kingdom.

“The White Elixir, says Batsdorff, does wonders for the diseases of all animals and particularly for those of women…because it is the true drinking moon of the ancients. [Batsdorff, The Net of Ariadne, to enter with safety in the Labirinth of Hermetic Philosophy . Paris, Laurent d'Houry, 1695, p. 136.] The anonymous author of the Key to the Great Work , taking up Batsdorff's text, assures us that “this medicine has other even more incredible virtues. When she is at the Elixir au blanc, she has so much sympathy with the ladies, that she can renew and make their bodies as robust and vigorous as they were in their youth.then they enter a second bath without herbs, but in which one has dissolved, in a pint of spirit of wine, three grains of the Elixir to the white, which one then throws into the water. They remain a quarter of an hour in this bath; after which, drying without oneself, a great fire is prepared to dry up this precious liquor. They then feel so strong in themselves, and their body is rendered so white that they could not imagine it without having experienced it. Our good father Hermès remains in agreement with this operation, but he wants, in addition to these baths, that we take this Elixir at the same time, for seven consecutive days;and he adds: if a lady does the same thing every year, she will live free from all the diseases to which other ladies are subject, without feeling any inconvenience. [ without feeling any discomfort. [ without feeling any discomfort. » [ The Key to the Great Work, or Letters from Sancelrien Tourangeau . Paris, Cailleau, 1777, p. 54.]

Huginus a Barma certifies that "the stone fermented with gold can be used in medicine in this way: one will take a scruple or twenty-four grains of it, which one will dissolve according to the art in two ounces of spirit of wine, and one will give from two or three to four drops, according to the requirement of the disease, in a little wine or some other suitable vehicle". [Huginus a Barma, The Reign of Saturn Changed to the Golden Age . Paris, Pierre Derieu, 1780, p. 190.] According to the report of the old authors, all the affections would be radically cured in one day for those which date from one month; in twelve days if they are one year old; in one month if their origin dates back more than one year.

But in this, as in many other things, one must know how to guard oneself against the excesses of the imagination; too enthusiastic, the author of La Clef du Grand-Œuvre sees marvels even in the spiritual dissolution of the stone: “it must come out of it, claims this writer, ardent golden sparks, and appear in the vase an infinity of colors”. This is going a little far in the description of phenomena that no philosophizing points out. Moreover, he recognizes no bounds to the virtues of the Elixir: “leprosy, gout, paralysis, stone, decrepit illness, dropsy… cannot resist the virtue of this medicine. And as the cure of these reputedly incurable ills did not seem to him sufficient, he hastened to add even more admirable properties. “This medicine makes the deaf hear,see the blind, speak the dumb, walk the blade; it can renew the whole man, by making him change his skin, fall out old teeth, nails and white hair, in the place of which it causes new ones to grow, according to the color one desires. We are thus pouring into humor and buffoonery.

According to the majority of sages, the stone can give excellent results in the vegetable kingdom, especially for fruit trees. In the spring, if the soil near their roots is watered with a solution of the Elixir largely diluted with rainwater, they are made more resistant to all causes of dieback and sterility. They produce more and bear healthy and tasty fruits. Batsdorff even goes so far as to say that it would be possible, using this process, to cultivate exotic plants at our latitude. "Delicate plants," he writes, "which find it difficult to come into climates of a temperament contrary to that which is natural to them, by being watered, become as vigorous as if they were in their proper and orderly soil and soil of nature. "

Among the other marvelous properties attributed to the philosopher's stone, very old authors cite many examples of the transformation of crystal into ruby ​​and of quartz into diamond, using a kind of progressive tempering. They even consider the possibility of making the glass ductile and malleable, which, despite Cyliani's assertion, we will be careful not to certify, because the manner of acting specific to the Elixir, — contraction and hardening, — seems contrary to obtaining a similar effect.["I will not describe here very curious operations that I have carried out, to my great astonishment, in the vegetable and animal kingdoms, as well as the means of making malleable glass, pearls and precious stones more beautiful than those of nature ... not wishing to be perjured and appear here to go beyond the bounds of the human mind. Hermes unveiled . ]

Be that as it may, Christophe Merret cites this opinion and speaks of it thus in the Preface of his treatise: "As for the malleability of glass, he says, on which the alchymists base the possibility of their Elixir, it seems supported, but not solidly, on the following passage from Pliny, book. XXXVI, ch. XXVI: "It is said that in the time of Tiberius, a means was found to make glass flexible, and that the whole workshop of the worker who was its inventor was destroyed, lest this discovery take away the price of gold, silver and copper . But this rumor, although quite widespread, is not the most certain. »

“Other authors have related the same fact, after Pliny, but with some different circumstances. Dio Cassius, book. LVII, says: “At the time that the great Portico came to lean, an architect whose name is unknown (because the jealousy of the Emperor prevented it from being put in the registers), straightened it and strengthened its foundations. Tiberius, after paying him, banishes him from Rome. This workman returned under the pretext of asking for mercy from the Emperor, and dropped in his presence a glass which dented, and which he repaired on the spot with his hands, hoping thus to obtain what he asked for, but he was condemned to death. Isidore confirms the same thing;he only adds that the Emperor, indignant, threw the glass on the pavement, but that the workman having pulled a hammer and having mended it, Tiberius asked him if there was still anyone who knew this secret, and that the workman having assured by oath that no one but himself possessed it, the emperor had his head cut off for fear that, if he divulged himself, he would cause gold to fall into contempt, and deprive the metals of their value . [Néri, Merret and Kunckel, The Art of Glassware . Paris, Durand and Pissot, 1752.]

Allowing for exaggeration and legendary contributions, it remains no less true that the hermetic fruit carries in itself the highest reward that God, through nature, can grant here below to men of good will.


Panel 3 (pl.XXVII). — The effigy of the serpent Ouroboros stands on the capital of an elegant column. This curious bas-relief is distinguished by the axiom:

. NOSCE. YOU. IPSVM.

Latin translation of the Greek inscription that appeared on the pediment of the famous temple of Delphi:

ΓNΩΘI ΣEAΥTON

Know thyself… We have already encountered, on some ancient manuscripts, a paraphrase of this maxim thus conceived: “You who wanted to know the stone, know yourself well and you know it. Such is the affirmation of the analogical law which gives, in effect, the key to the mystery. However, what precisely characterizes our figure is that the column responsible for supporting the emblematic serpent is reversed in relation to the meaning of the inscription. Desired, thoughtful, premeditated arrangement, giving the whole the appearance of a key and that of the graphic sign with which the ancients used to note their mercury. Key and pillar of the Work are, moreover, epithets applied to mercury, for it is in him that the elements are assembled in their proper proportion and their natural quality;it is from him that everything comes, because, alone, it has the power to dissolve, mortify and destroy the bodies, to dissociate them, to separate the pure portions of them, to join them to the spirits and thus to generate new metallic beings different from their parents. The authors are therefore right to affirm that everything sought by the sages can be found in mercury alone, and this is what should lead the alchemist to direct his efforts towards the acquisition of this indispensable body.

But, in order to achieve this, we advise him to act methodically by studying, in a simple and rational way, the way in which nature operates, in living beings, to transform the absorbed food, rid of useless substances by digestion, into black blood, then into red blood, generator of organic tissues and vital energy. nosce te ipsum . He will thus recognize that the mineral producers of mercury, who are also the architects of its nutrition, its growth and its life, must first be chosen with discernment and worked with care.For, although, theoretically, all of them can be used for this composition, some nevertheless are too far removed from the active metallic nature to be really useful to us, either because of their impurities, or because their maturation was arrested or pushed beyond the required term. Rocks, stones, metalloids belong to the first category; gold and silver come in the second. To the metalloids, the agent we claim lacks vigor, and his weakness cannot be of any help to us; in gold and silver, on the contrary, one would seek it in vain:

In stating this truth, we do not mean to say that gold and silver must absolutely be banned, nor to claim that these metals are excluded from the Work by the masters of science. But we fraternally warn the disciple that neither gold nor silver, even modified, enters into the composition of mercury. And if we discovered, in the classical authors, some assertion to the contrary, we should believe that the Adept intends to speak, like Philalethes, Basil Valentine, Nicolas Flamel and the Trevisan, of philosophical gold or silver, and not of the precious metals with which they have and present nothing in common.


Box 4 (pl.XXVII). — Placed on the bottom of an overturned bushel, a candle burns. This rustic motif has as an epigraph:

. SIC LVCEAT. LVX. VESTRA .

Let your light so shine ... The flame indicates to us the metallic spirit, which is the purest, the clearest part of the body, its own soul and light, although this essential part is the least, in regard to quantity. We have often said that the quality of the spirit, being airy and volatile, always compels it to rise, and that its nature is to shine, as soon as it finds itself separated from the gross and corporeal opacity which envelops it. It is written that one does not light a candle to put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, so that it can illuminate all that surrounds it. [Matthew, ch. V, 15; mark, c. IV, 21; Luke, c. VIII, 16.]

Likewise, we see, in the Work, the need to make manifest this internal fire, this light or this soul, invisible under the hard shell of grave matter. The operation which served the old philosophers to realize this design was called by them sublimation, although it bears only a remote relation to the ordinary sublimation of spagyrists. For the spirit, quick to free itself as soon as it is provided with the means, cannot, however, completely abandon the body; but he makes for himself a garment closer to his nature, more supple to his will, of clean, refined particles that he can collect around himself, in order to use it as a new vehicle.He then gains the external surface of the brewed substance and continues to move on the waters, as it is said in Genesis (ch. I, 2), until the light appears.

Let us also learn, so that the student cannot be unaware of anything of the practice, that this separation, or sublimation of the body and manifestation of the spirit, must be done gradually and that it must be repeated as many times as one deems expedient. Each of these repetitions takes the name of an eagle, and Philalethes tells us that the fifth eagle resolves the moon, but that it is necessary to employ from seven to nine of them to reach the characteristic splendor of the sun. The Greek word αἴγλη, from which the sages derived their term eagle, signifies brightness, bright light, light, torch. To make the eagle fly, according to the Hermetic expression, is to make the light shine by uncovering it from its dark envelope and bringing it to the surface.But we will add that, unlike chemical sublimation, the spirit being in small quantity compared to the body, our operation furnishes little of the vivifying and organizing principle which we need. Thus, according to the advice of the philosopher of Dampierre, the prudent artist will have to strive to make the occult manifest, and to make "what is below is above", if he wishes to see the internal metallic light radiate outside.


Panel 5 (pl.XXVII). — A moving banner showed here the symbolic meaning of a design that no longer exists. If we are to believe the Epigraphy Santone , this figured "a hand holding a pike". Nothing currently remains except the speech bubble and its inscription, amputated by the last two letters:

. NO. HER. TALES . NVS. AMOR(ES) .

These are not our loves … But this Spanish sentence, solitary, in a vague sense, hardly allows serious comment. Rather than spreading an erroneous version, we prefer to remain silent on this incomplete motive.


Panel 6 (pl.XXVII). — The reasons of impossibility mentioned for the previous bas-relief are also valid for this one. A small quadruped, which the leprous state of the limestone does not allow to identify, seems locked up in a bird's cage. This pattern has suffered a lot. From his motto, we read barely two words:

LIBERTA. WORM

belonging to this sentence preserved by some authors:

. AMPANSA. LIBERTA. VERA. CAPI. INVS.

This is where the abuse of freedom leads ... It is probably a question, in this subject, of the spirit, first free, then imprisoned inside the body as in a very strong cage. But it also seems obvious that the animal, taking the ordinary place of a bird, brought, by its name or its species, a special meaning, precise, easy to situate in the work. These elements, essential for the exact interpretation, being lacking, we are forced to move on to the next box.


Panel 7 (pl.XXVII). — Lying on the ground, an unhooked lantern, the door of which opens ajar, shows its extinguished candle. The speech bubble that signs this subject contains a warning for the use of the impatient and versatile artist:

. SIC PERIT. INCO(N)STANS .

Thus perishes the inconstant ... Like the lantern without light, his faith ceases to shine: easily overcome, incapable of reacting, he falls and searches in vain, in the darkness which surrounds him, for that clarity which one can only find in oneself.

But, if the inscription offers nothing equivocal, the image, on the other hand, is much less transparent. This stems from the fact that the interpretation can be given in two ways, with regard to the method employed as well as the path followed. We first discover an allusion to the wheel light , which, under penalty of arrest resulting in the subsequent loss of materials, cannot cease its action for a single moment. Already, in the long way, a slowing down of its energy, the lowering of the temperature are accidents prejudicial to the regular progress of the operation; for, if nothing is lost, the time, already considerable, is further increased. An excess of fire spoils everything;however, if the philosophical amalgam is merely reddened, and not calcined, it may be regenerated by dissolving it again, as the Cosmopolitan advises, and resuming the coction with more caution. But the complete extinction of the hearth irremediably causes the ruin of the content, although the latter, on analysis, does not appear to have undergone any modification. Also, during the entire course of labor, should we remember the hermetic axiom reported by Linthaut, which teaches that “gold, resolves once in spirit, if it feels cold, is lost with all the Work”. Do not therefore activate the flame too much inside your lantern, and be careful not to let it go out: you would fall from Charybdis to Scylla.

Applied to the short path, the symbol of the lantern gives us another explanation of one of the essential points of the Great Work. It is no longer elementary fire, but potential fire—the secret flame of matter itself—that the authors conceal from the profane under this familiar image. What is this mysterious, natural, unknown fire that the artist must know how to introduce into his subject? This is a question that no philosopher has wanted to resolve, even by claiming the help of allegory. Artephius and Pontanus speak of it so obscurely that this important thing remains incomprehensible or goes unnoticed. Limojon de Saint-Didier assures us that this fire is of the nature of lime.Basile Valentin, usually more prolific, is content to write: "Light your lamp and look for the lost dram." Trismosin is hardly clearer: "Do, he said, a fire in your glass, or in the earth that keeps it locked up. Most of the others designate this internal light, hidden in the darkness of substance, under the epithet of lamp fire. Batsdorff describes the philosophical lamp as always having to be abundantly supplied with oil, and its flame fed by means of a wick of asbestos. Now, the Greek ἄσβεστος means inextinguishable, of unlimited duration, indefatigable, inexhaustible, qualities attributed to our secret fire, which, says Basil Valentin, “does not burn and is not burned”. As for the lamp, we find it in the Greek word λαμπτήρ, lantern, torch, torch, which designated the fire vase where wood was burned for lighting. Such is indeed our vase, dispenser of the fire of the sages, that is to say our matter and its spirit, or, to put it bluntly, the hermetic lantern. Finally, a term close to λαμπάς, lamp, the word λάμπη, expresses everything that rises and comes to the surface, foam, foam, slag, etc.And this indicates,

One more word for our brothers. Hermes, in his Emerald Tablet, pronounces these serious, true and consistent words: “You will separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the thick, gently, with great industry. He ascends from earth to heaven, and descends again from heaven to earth, and thus receives the virtue of higher things and those of lower things. Notice then that the philosopher recommends to separate, to divide, not to destroy, nor to sacrifice one to preserve the other. For if it were so, we ask you, from what body would the spirit arise, and to what land would the fire descend?

Pontanus affirms that all the superfluities of the stone are converted, under the action of fire, into a single essence, and that consequently whoever claims to separate the least thing from it understands nothing of our philosophy.


Panel 8 (pl.XXVII). — Two vases, one in the shape of an embossed and chiseled ewer, the other a common earthenware pot, are depicted in the same frame occupied by these words of Saint Paul:

. ALIVD. GO. IN . HONOREM. ALIVD. IN . CONTVMELIAM.

A vessel for honorable uses, another for vile employments ... “In a large house, says the Apostle, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, there are also some of wood and earth; some are reserved for honorable uses, and others for vile uses. [ Second Epistle of Saint Paul to Timothy, ch II, 20.]

Our two vases therefore appear well defined, clearly distinguished, and in absolute agreement with the precepts of the hermetic theory. One is nature's vessel, made of the same red clay that God used to form Adam's body; the other is the vase of art, whose whole matter is composed of pure gold, clear, red, incombustible, fixed, diaphanous and of incomparable brilliance. And these are our two vessels, which really represent only two distinct bodies containing the metallic spirits, the only agents we need.

If the reader is acquainted with the way of writing of the philosophers—a traditional way which we seek to imitate well, so that the ancients can be explained by us and controlled by them—it will be easy for him to understand what the Hermetists mean by their vessels. For these not only represent two matters—or rather one and the same matter in two states of its evolution—but they also symbolize our two paths, based on the use of these different bodies.

The first of these paths, which uses the vase of art, is long, laborious, thankless, accessible to wealthy people, but in great honor, despite the expense it requires, because it is this that the authors describe in preference. It serves as a support for their reasoning, as well as for the theoretical development of the Work, requires uninterrupted work of twelve to eighteen months, and starts from prepared natural gold, dissolved in philosophical mercury, which is then cooked in glass matrass. This is the honorable vessel, reserved for the noble use of those very precious substances, which are the exalted gold and the mercury of the sages.

The second way requires, from beginning to end, only the help of a base land, abundantly distributed, of such low price that in our time ten francs are enough to acquire a quantity superior to the needs. It is the land and the way of the poor, of the simple and modest, of those whom nature marvels even in its most humble manifestations. Extremely easy, it requires only the presence of the artist, because the mysterious work perfects itself and is completed in seven or nine days at most. This path, ignored by the majority of practicing alchemists, is developed entirely in a single crucible of refractory earth. This is what the great masters call a woman's work and a child's game  ; it is to her that they apply the old hermetic axiom:una re, una via, una dispositione . A single material, a single vessel, a single furnace. Such is our earthen vessel, a vessel despised, vulgar and of common use, "which everyone has before their eyes, which costs nothing and is found among all people, but which none the less can know without revelation".


Panel 9 (pl.XXVII). — Cut through the middle, a snake, despite the mortal character of its wound, nevertheless believes that it can live a long time in this state.

. DVM. SPIRO. SPERABO.

we tell him. As long as I breathe, I hope .

The snake, image of mercury, expresses, by its two sections, the two parts of the dissolved metal, which will be fixed later one by the other, and from the assembly of which it will take its new nature, its physical individuality, its effectiveness.

For the sulfur and mercury of the metals, extracted and isolated under the disintegrating energy of our first agent, or secret solvent, reduce themselves, by mere contact, into the form of viscous oil, greasy and coagulable unctuousness, which the ancients called moist metallic radical and mercury of the wise. From which it emerges that this liquor, despite its apparent homogeneity, is really composed of the two fundamental elements of all metallic bodies, and that it can be considered logically as representing a liquefied and reincrusted metal, that is to say, artificially restored to a state close to its original form.But these elements, finding themselves simply associated and not radically united, it seems reasonable that our symbolist thought of representing Mercury under the aspect of a severe reptile, whose two parts each retain their activity, their reciprocal virtues. And this is what justifies the exclamation of confidence attached to the lapidary emblem:As long as I breathe, I hope . In this state of simple mixture, the philosophical mercury preserves the balance, the stability, the energy of its constituents, although these are nevertheless doomed to mortification, to decomposition which prepares and realizes their mutual and perfect interpenetration. Also, as long as the mercury has not experienced the embrace of the igneous mediator, it is possible to preserve it indefinitely, provided care is taken to remove it from the combined action of air and light. This is what certain authors imply, when they assert that "philosophical mercury always retains its excellent qualities if it is held in a tightly stoppered bottle";and we know that in alchemical language any container whatsoever is said to be stopped, covered, obturated or lute, when it is kept in complete darkness.


VI (The Marvelous Grimoire of the Château de Dampierre)

Third series (pl. XXVIII).




Plate XXVIII


Panel 1. — Upright on its frame, and half plunging into the trough, a sandstone grinding wheel is only waiting for the grinder to put it into action. However, the epigraph of this subject, which should underline its meaning, seems, on the contrary, to have no connection with it; and it is with some surprise that we read this singular inscription:

. DISCIPLVVS. POTIOR . MAGISTRO.

Is the pupil superior to the master?

It will readily be agreed that no serious apprenticeship is needed to turn a millstone, and we have never heard that the most skilful of low-income earners, on his rudimentary machine, had acquired claims to fame. However useful and honorable it may be, the job of the grinder does not require the contribution of innate gifts, special knowledge, rare technique or the slightest certificate of mastery. It is therefore certain that the inscription and the image have another meaning, clearly esoteric, of which we will provide the interpretation.

[We can never blame enough those who, hidden and all-powerful, decided, in Paris, the inexplicable destruction of the very old rue des Nonnains-d'Hyères, which was in no way opposed to health and offered the remarkable harmony of its 18th century facades. This vandalism, perpetrated on a large scale, led to the loss of the curious sign which adorned, at the height of the first floor, the building above at n° 5, at the corner of the narrow rue de l'Hôtel-de-Ville, formerly of the mortuary. Freed from the stone, in the round, the large motif, which had kept its original colors, showed a grinder, in his period costume: black tricorn, red frock coat, and white stockings. The man applied himself to sharpening the iron, in front of his sturdy wheelbarrow, putting into activity the two major elements,

Considered in its various uses, the millstone is one of the philosophical emblems responsible for expressing the hermetic solvent, or this first mercury without which it is quite useless to undertake or to hope for anything profitable. It is our only matter capable of bringing to life, animating and revivifying the usual metals, because these are easily resolved in it, are divided and adapted to it under the effect of a mysterious affinity. And, although this primitive subject does not present the qualities nor the power of the philosophical mercury, it nevertheless possesses all that it needs to become one, and it becomes one, in fact, provided only that one adds to it the metallic seed which it lacks.Art thus comes to the aid of nature, by allowing this skilful and marvelous worker to perfect what, for lack of means, materials or favorable circumstances, she had to leave unfinished. Now, this initial mercury, subject of art and our true solvent, is precisely the substance that philosophers call the only matrix, the mother of the Work  ; without it, it would be impossible for us to achieve the preliminary decomposition of metals, nor, consequently, to obtain the humid radical or mercury of the sages, which is truly the stone of the philosophers. So those are in the truth who claim to make mercury or stone out of all the metals, as well as those who uphold the unity of prime matter and mention it as the only thing necessary.

It is not by chance that the hermetists chose the millstone as the hieroglyphic sign of the subject, and our Adept certainly obeyed the same traditions by giving it a place in the caissons of Dampierre. We know that millstones have a circular shape, and that the circle is the conventional signature of our solvent, as well as all the bodies likely to evolve by igneous rotation. We find mercury, indicated in this way, on three plates of the Potter's Art, that is to say under the aspect of a millstone, sometimes moved by a mule, - cabalistic image of the Greek word μύλη, millstone, - sometimes by a slave or a personage of condition, dressed like a prince. [Cyprian Piccolpassi.The Three Books of the Potter's Art, translated from Italian into the French language by Maistre Claudius Popelyn, Parisian . Paris, Librairie Internationale, 1861.] These engravings reflect the double power of the natural solvent, which acts on metals like millstone on grain or sandstone on steel: it divides them, grinds them, sharpens them. So much so that after having dissociated and partially digested them, it becomes acidified, takes on a caustic quality and becomes more penetrating than it was before.

The alchemists of the Middle Ages used the verb acuer to express the operation which gives the solvent its incisive properties. Now, acuer comes from the Latin acuo, to sharpen, sharpen, make sharp and penetrating , which not only corresponds to the new nature of the subject, but also accords with the role of the grinding wheel.

Who is the master of this work? Obviously, the one that sharpens and turns the wheel—this grinder absent from the bas-relief—that is to say, the active sulfur of the dissolved metal. As for the disciple, he represents the first mercury, of cold and passive quality, whom some call faithful and loyal servant , and others, in view of his volatility, servus fugitivus, the fugitive slave. . We can therefore answer the question of the philosopher, that given the very difference of their conditions, the pupil will never be able to rise above the master; but one can assure, on the other hand, that with time the disciple, past master in his turn, will become the alter ego of his tutor.For if the master lowers himself to the level of his inferior in dissolution, he will raise it with him in coagulation, and fixation will make them similar to each other, equal in virtue, valor and power.


Panel 2 (pl. XXVIII). — The head of Medusa, placed on a pedestal, shows her severe grin and her hair intertwined with snakes; it is decorated with the Latin inscription:

. CVSTOS. RERVM . PRVDENTIA .

Prudence is the guardian of things ... But the word prudentia has a wider meaning than prudence or foresight; it still designates science, wisdom, experience, knowledge. Epigram and figure come together to represent, in this bas-relief, the secret science concealed under the multiple and varied hieroglyphs of the caissons of Dampierre.

Indeed, the Greek name Μέδοισα, Medusa, has for root μῆδος and expresses the thought with which one deals, the favorite study; μῆδος formed μηδοσύνη, the meaning of which evokes prudence and wisdom. On the other hand, the mythologists teach us that Medusa was known to the Greeks under the name of Γοργώ, that is to say the Gorgon, which also served to qualify Minerva or Pallas, goddess of Wisdom. Perhaps we would discover, in this comparison, the secret reason for the aegis, Minerva's shield, covered with the skin of Amalthea, Jupiter's nurse goat, and decorated with the mask of Medusa Ophiotrix.Besides the comparison that can be established between the goat and the ram, - the latter carrying the golden fleece, the former provided with the cornucopia, - we know that the attribute of Athene had the petrifying power. Medusa, they say, turned to stone those whose gaze met his. Finally, the very names of Medusa's sisters, Euryale and Stheno, also bring their share of revelation. Euryale, in Greek Εὐρύαλος, means that whose area is wide, vast, spacious; Stheno comes from Σθένος, force, power, energy. This is how the three Gorgons symbolically express the idea of ​​power and extent proper to natural philosophy.

These convergent relations, which we are forbidden to expose more clearly, allow us to conclude that, apart from the precise but barely touched esoteric fact, our motive has the mission of indicating wisdom as the source and guardian of all our knowledge, the sure guide of the laborious to whom she discovers the secrets hidden in nature.


Panel 3 (pl. XXVIII). — Placed on the sacrificial altar, a forearm is consumed by fire. The sign of this igneous emblem can be summed up in two words:

. FELIX. INFORTVNIVM .

Happy misfortune! ... Although the subject seems, a priori, very obscure and unequaled in Hermetic literature and iconography, it nevertheless yields to analysis and fits perfectly with the technique of the Work.

The human forearm, which the Greeks simply called the arm, βραχίων, serves as a hieroglyph for the short and abbreviated way. Indeed, our Adept, playing on the words as an educated cabalist, conceals under the substantive βραχίων, arm, a comparative of βραχύς, which is written and pronounced in the same way. This means short, brief, of short duration, and forms several compounds, including βραχύτης, brevity. This is how the comparative βραχίων, brief, homonymous of βραχίων, arm, takes on the particular meaning of technical brief, ars brevis .

But the Greeks still used another expression to qualify the arm. When they evoked the hand, χείρ, they applied, by extension, the idea to the entire upper limb, and gave it the figurative value of an artistic, skilful production, of a special process, of a personal way of working, in summary of an acquired or revealed knock. All these acceptances characterize exactly the subtleties of the Great Work in its prompt, simple and direct realization, since it only requires the application of a very energetic fire, to which the knock in question is reduced. Now, this fire is not only represented, on our bas-relief, by the flames, it is also represented by the limb itself, which the hand indicates as being a dexter arm;and we know well enough that the proverbial phrase "to be the right arm" always refers to the agent responsible for executing the wishes of a superior—the fire in this case.

Alongside these reasons—necessarily abstract because they are veiled in the lapidary form of a concise image—there is another, concrete one, which supports and confirms, in the practical domain, the esoteric filiation of the first. We will state it by saying that whoever, ignorant of the knock of the operation, risks undertaking it, must fear everything from the fire; that one runs a real danger and can hardly escape the consequences of a thoughtless and reckless act. Why, therefore, we will be told, not to provide this means? We will reply to this that to reveal a manipulation of this order would be to reveal the secret of the short way, and that we have not received from God or from our brothers the authorization to discover such a mystery.It is already a lot that we push our solicitude and charity to the point of warning the beginner, that his lucky star would lead to the threshold of the cave, to be on his guard and redouble his prudence. A similar warning is rarely found in books, which are very succinct on everything concerning the Short Work, but which the Adept of Dampierre knew as perfectly as Ripley, Basil Valentin, Philalethes, Albert the Great, Huginus a Barma, Cyliani or Naxagoras.

However, and because we consider it useful to warn the neophyte, it would be wrong to conclude that we were trying to put him off. If he wants to risk the adventure, let it be for him the trial by fire, to which the future initiates of Thebes and Hermopolis had to submit, before receiving the sublime teachings. Isn't the flaming arm on the altar an expressive symbol of the sacrifice, of the renunciation that science demands? Everything is paid for here below, not with gold, but with pain, with suffering, often leaving behind a part of oneself; and one cannot pay too dearly for the possession of the smallest secret, of the smallest truth.If therefore the aspirant feels endowed with faith and armed with the necessary courage, we will fraternally wish him to come out safe and sound from this harsh experience, which most often ends with the explosion of the crucible and the projection of the furnace. Then can he exclaim, like our philosophizing: happy misfortune! Because the accident, forcing him to reflect on the committed fault, will undoubtedly make him discover the means of being able to avoid it, and the skill of the regular operation.


Panel 4 (pl. XXVIII). — Attached to a tree trunk covered with leaves and laden with fruit, an unrolled banner bears the inscription:

. MELIVS. SPE . LICEBAT.

Certainly, one could have hoped for better … This is an image of the solar tree that the Cosmopolitan points out in his allegory of the green forest, which he tells us belongs to the nymph Venus. About this metallic tree, the author, relating the way in which the old man Saturn works in the presence of the misguided prompter, says that he took the fruit of the solar tree, put it in ten parts of a certain water, - very rare and difficult to obtain, - and easily dissolved it.

Our Adept thus hears of the first sulphur, which is the gold of the wise, the green, unripe fruit of the arbor scientiæ . If the Latin phrase betrays some disappointment with a normal result, and which many artists would be glad to obtain, it is because by means of this sulfur one cannot yet operate a transmutation. The philosophical gold, in fact, is not the stone; Philalethes is careful to warn the student that this is only the first matter.And since this sulfur principle, according to the same author, requires an uninterrupted labor of about one hundred and fifty days, it is logical, and above all human, to think that such an apparently mediocre result could not satisfy the artist, who expected to reach the Elixir in one go, as it happens in the short way.

Having reached this point, the apprentice must recognize the impossibility of continuing the work, by pursuing the operation which provided him with the first sulphur. If he wants to go further, he must retrace his steps, undertake a second cycle of new trials, plow a year and sometimes more before arriving at the stone of the first order. But if discouragement does not reach him, let him follow the example of Saturn and redissolve in mercury, according to the proportions indicated, this green fruit that divine goodness has allowed him to pick, and he will then see, with his eyes, all the appearances of a progressive and perfect maturation. We cannot too often remind him, however, that he is on a long and painful road, strewn with brambles and hollowed out with potholes;than art, having more of a part in it than nature, opportunities for wandering, schools are also more numerous. Let him preferably direct his attention to mercury, which philosophers have sometimes called double, not without a cause, sometimes ardent or sharpened, and sharpened with its own salt. He must know, before effecting the solution of sulfur, that his first water—that which gave him philosophical gold—is too weak to serve as food for this solar seed. And in order to overcome the difficulty, let him try to understand the allegory of the Massacre of the Innocents, by Nicolas Flamel, as well as the explanation given by Limojon, as clearly as a master of the art can do. [Limojon of Saint-Didier. sometimes fiery or sharp, and sharp with its own salt.He must know, before effecting the solution of sulfur, that his first water—that which gave him philosophical gold—is too weak to serve as food for this solar seed. And in order to overcome the difficulty, let him try to understand the allegory of the Massacre of the Innocents, by Nicolas Flamel, as well as the explanation given by Limojon, as clearly as a master of the art can do. [Limojon of Saint-Didier. sometimes fiery or sharp, and sharp with its own salt. He must know, before effecting the solution of sulfur, that his first water—that which gave him philosophical gold—is too weak to serve as food for this solar seed.And in order to overcome the difficulty, let him try to understand the allegory of the Massacre of the Innocents, by Nicolas Flamel, as well as the explanation given by Limojon, as clearly as a master of the art can do. [Limojon of Saint-Didier. and Limojon's explanation of it, as clearly as a master of the art can. [Limojon of Saint-Didier. and Limojon's explanation of it, as clearly as a master of the art can. [Limojon of Saint-Didier. Letter to the True Disciples of Hermes , in the Hermetic Triumph .Amsterdam, Henry Wetstein, 1699.] As soon as he knows what are, metallically, these spirits of the bodies designated by the blood of innocents slaughtered, in what way the alchemist operates the differentiation of the two mercuries, he will have overcome the last obstacle and nothing, except his impatience, will be able to frustrate him from the hoped-for result.


Panel 5 (pl. XXVIII). — Two pilgrims, each provided with a rosary, meet near a building — church or chapel — which can be seen in the background. Of these very old men, bald, with long beards and the same clothes, one supports his walk with the aid of a stick; the other, whose skull is protected by a thick capuce, seems to show great surprise at the adventure, and exclaims:

. TOO MUCH. TART . COGNEV. TOO MUCH. TOST. LEAVE ALONE .

Word of a disappointed blower, happy to finally recognize, at the end of his long journey, this humid radical so ardently desired, but sorry to have lost, in vain labors, the physical vigor essential to the realization of the Work with this best companion. Because it is indeed our faithful servant, the mercury, who is represented here under the aspect of the first old man. A slight detail brings it to the attention of the shrewd observer: the rosary he is holding forms, with the staff, the image of the caduceus, a symbolic attribute of Hermes. On the other hand, we have frequently said that the dissolving matter is commonly recognised, among all philosophers, to be the old man, the pilgrim and the traveler of the great Art, as taught by Michel Maier, Stolcius and a number of other masters.

As for the old alchemist, so joyful at this encounter, if he has not known until now where to find the mercury, he shows enough how much the material is familiar to him, for his own rosary, a speaking hieroglyph, represents the circle surmounted by the cross, symbol of the terrestrial globe and signature of our little world. We then understand why the unfortunate artist regrets this too late knowledge, and his ignorance of a common substance, which he had within his reach, without ever thinking that it could provide him with the mysterious water vainly sought elsewhere...


Panel 6 (pl. XXVIII). — In this bas-relief are represented three neighboring trees of equal size; two of these show their withered trunks and branches, while the last, remaining healthy and vigorous, appears to be both the cause and the result of the death of the others. This motif is adorned with the motto:

. WHETHER . IN . VIRIDI. IN . ARIDO. QVID.

If it is so in green things, what will it be in dry ones?

Our philosophy thus lays down the principle of the analogical method, the only means, the only resource available to the hermetist for the resolution of natural secrets. We can therefore answer, according to this principle, that what happens in the vegetable kingdom must find its equivalence in the mineral kingdom. Consequently, if the dry and dead trees cede their share of nourishment and vitality to the survivor planted beside them, it is logical to consider the latter as their heir, the one to whom, in dying, they bequeathed the full enjoyment of the land from which they derived their subsistence. From this angle and from this point of view, he appears to us as their son or their descendant.The three trees thus constitute a transparent emblem of the way in which the stone of the philosophers is born, the first being or subject of the philosopher's stone.

The author of Le Triomphe Hermétique , correcting the erroneous assertion of his predecessor, Pierre-Jean Fabre, says bluntly that “our stone is born from the destruction of two bodies”. [Limojon de Saint Didier, The Hermetic Triumph . Amsterdam, Desbordes, 1710, p. A 4.] We will specify that, of these bodies, one is metallic, the other mineral, and that they both grow in the same earth. The tyrannical opposition of their contrary temperament keeps them from ever agreeing, except when the will of the artist obliges them to do so, by subjecting these resolute antagonists to the violent action of fire. After a long and hard fight, they perish exhausted;from their decomposition a third body is then generated, heir to the vital energy and mixed qualities of its deceased parents.

Such is the origin of our stone, provided from its birth with the double metallic disposition, which is dry and igneous, and with the double mineral virtue, the essence of which is to be cold and humid. Thus it achieves, in its state of perfect balance, the union of the four natural elements, which are found at the base of all experimental philosophy. The heat of the fire is tempered there by the frigidity of the air, and the dryness of the earth neutralized by the humidity of the water.


Panel 7 (pl. XXVIII). — The geometrical figure that we encounter here frequently adorned the frontispieces of alchemical manuscripts of the Middle Ages. It was commonly called Solomon's Labyrinth , and we have elsewhere pointed out that it was reproduced on the pavement of our great ogival churches. This figure bears the motto:

. FATA. VIAM. INVENT .

Fates will find their way ... Our bas-relief, characterizing only the long way, reveals the formal intention, expressed by the majority of Dampierre's motifs, to teach above all the Work of the Rich. Because this labyrinth offers us only one entrance, while the drawings of the same subject generally show three, which entrances correspond, moreover, to the three porches of the Gothic cathedrals placed under the invocation of the Virgin mother. One, absolutely straight, leads directly to the middle chamber—where Theseus kills the Minotaur—without encountering the slightest obstacle; it translates the short, simple, easy way of the Work of the poor. The second, which also leads to the center, only leads there after a series of detours, returns, convolutions;it is the hieroglyph of the long way, and we have said that it refers to the favorite esotericism of our Adept. Finally, a third gallery, whose opening is parallel to the previous ones, ends abruptly in a dead end, a short distance from the threshold, and leads nowhere. It causes the despair and the ruin of the wandering, of the presumptuous, of those who, without serious study, without solid principles, nevertheless set out and risk adventure.

Whatever their form, the complexity of their layout, the labyrinths are the speaking symbols of the Great Work considered in relation to its material realization. Also we see them responsible for expressing the two great difficulties involved in the work: 1° to gain access to the inner chamber; 2° to have the possibility of leaving it. Of these two points, the first concerns the knowledge of the material, — which assures the entry, — and that of its preparation, — which the artist accomplishes in the center of the maze. The second concerns the mutation, by the help of fire, of the prepared matter. The alchemist therefore redoes, in the opposite direction, but with caution, slowness, perseverance, the route quickly taken at the beginning of his work.In order not to get lost, the philosophers advise him to locate his route at the start, — for the operations that we could call analytical, — by employing this Ariadne's thread without which he would run the risk of not being able to come back, — that is, of getting lost in the work of synthetic unification. It is to this second phase or period of the Work that the Latin symbol of the labyrinth applies. Indeed, from the moment when the compost, formed of vitalized bodies, begins its evolution, the most impenetrable mystery then covers with its veil the order, the measure, the rhythm, the harmony and the progress of this admirable metamorphosis that man does not have the ability to understand or explain.Abandoned to its own fate, subjected to the pangs of fire in the darkness of its narrow prison, regenerated matter follows the secret path traced by destiny. — by using this Ariadne's thread without which he would run the risk of not being able to come back, — that is to say, of getting lost in the work of synthetic unification. It is to this second phase or period of the Work that the Latin symbol of the labyrinth applies. Indeed, from the moment when the compost, formed of vitalized bodies, begins its evolution, the most impenetrable mystery then covers with its veil the order, the measure, the rhythm, the harmony and the progress of this admirable metamorphosis that man does not have the ability to understand or explain.Abandoned to its own fate, subjected to the pangs of fire in the darkness of its narrow prison, regenerated matter follows the secret path traced by destiny. — by using this Ariadne's thread without which he would run the risk of not being able to come back, — that is to say, of getting lost in the work of synthetic unification. It is to this second phase or period of the Work that the Latin symbol of the labyrinth applies. Indeed, from the moment when the compost, formed of vitalized bodies, begins its evolution, the most impenetrable mystery then covers with its veil the order, the measure, the rhythm, the harmony and the progress of this admirable metamorphosis that man does not have the ability to understand or explain.Abandoned to its own fate, subjected to the pangs of fire in the darkness of its narrow prison, regenerated matter follows the secret path traced by destiny. It is to this second phase or period of the Work that the Latin symbol of the labyrinth applies. Indeed, from the moment when the compost, formed of vitalized bodies, begins its evolution, the most impenetrable mystery then covers with its veil the order, the measure, the rhythm, the harmony and the progress of this admirable metamorphosis that man does not have the ability to understand or explain. Abandoned to its own fate, subjected to the pangs of fire in the darkness of its narrow prison, regenerated matter follows the secret path traced by destiny.It is to this second phase or period of the Work that the Latin symbol of the labyrinth applies. Indeed, from the moment when the compost, formed of vitalized bodies, begins its evolution, the most impenetrable mystery then covers with its veil the order, the measure, the rhythm, the harmony and the progress of this admirable metamorphosis that man does not have the ability to understand or explain. Abandoned to its own fate, subjected to the pangs of fire in the darkness of its narrow prison, regenerated matter follows the secret path traced by destiny. the harmony and progress of this admirable metamorphosis which man has neither the ability to understand nor to explain.Abandoned to its own fate, subjected to the pangs of fire in the darkness of its narrow prison, regenerated matter follows the secret path traced by destiny. the harmony and progress of this admirable metamorphosis which man has neither the ability to understand nor to explain. Abandoned to its own fate, subjected to the pangs of fire in the darkness of its narrow prison, regenerated matter follows the secret path traced by destiny.


Panel 8 (pl. XXVIII). — Erased drawing, missing relief sculpture. Only the inscription remains, and the neatness of its engraving contrasts with the bare uniformity of the surrounding limestone; it reads:

. MICHI. CESM .

Heaven is mine! ...Exclamation of ardent enthusiasm, exuberant joy, cry of pride, one will say, of an Adept in possession of the Magisterium. Perhaps. But is this really what the author's thought wants to convey? We allow ourselves to doubt it, because, basing ourselves on so many serious and positive motives, of epigraphs in the weighted sense, we prefer to see there the expression of a radiant hope directed towards the knowledge of celestial things, rather than the presumptuous and baroque idea of ​​​​an illusory conquest of the empyrean.

It is obvious that the philosopher, having arrived at the tangible result of the hermetic labor, no longer ignores what is the power, the preponderance of the spirit, nor the truly prodigious action that it exercises on the inert substance. Force, will, even science belong to the mind; life is the consequence of its activity; movement, evolution, progress are the results. And since everything comes from him, everything is engendered and discovered by him, it is reasonable to believe that ultimately everything must necessarily return to him. It is therefore enough to observe its manifestations in the grave matter, to study the laws which it seems to obey, to know its directives to acquire some notion of the things and the primary laws of the universe.Also, can we keep the hope of obtaining, by the simple examination of spiritual labor in the hermetic work, the elements of a less vague conception of the divine Great Work, of the Creator and of created things. What is below is similar to what is above, said Hermes; and it is by the persevering study of all that is accessible to us that we can raise our intelligence to the understanding of the inaccessible. This is the nascent idea, in the ideal of the philosopher, of the fusion of the human spirit and the divine spirit, of the return of the creature to the Creator, to the ardent, unique and pure hearth from which the martyrdom, laborious, immortal spark had to, on the order of God, escape to associate with vile matter, until the bygone accomplishment of its earthly journey.of the Creator and created things. What is below is similar to what is above, said Hermes; and it is by the persevering study of all that is accessible to us that we can raise our intelligence to the understanding of the inaccessible. This is the nascent idea, in the ideal of the philosopher, of the fusion of the human spirit and the divine spirit, of the return of the creature to the Creator, to the ardent, unique and pure hearth from which the martyrdom, laborious, immortal spark had to, on the order of God, escape to associate with vile matter, until the bygone accomplishment of its earthly journey. of the Creator and created things. What is below is similar to what is above, said Hermes;and it is by the persevering study of all that is accessible to us that we can raise our intelligence to the understanding of the inaccessible. This is the nascent idea, in the ideal of the philosopher, of the fusion of the human spirit and the divine spirit, of the return of the creature to the Creator, to the ardent, unique and pure hearth from which the martyrdom, laborious, immortal spark had to, on the order of God, escape to associate with vile matter, until the bygone accomplishment of its earthly journey.


Box 9 (pl. XXVIII). – Our predecessors recognized, in this little subject, only the symbol attributed to the King of France Henry II. It consists of a simple lunar crescent, which this motto accompanies:

. THEREFORE. TOTVM. IMPLEAT . ORBEM.

Until it fills the whole earth ... We do not believe that the interpretation of this emblem, to which Diane de Poitiers remains completely foreign, can lend itself to the slightest ambiguity. The youngest of the "sons of science" is well aware that the moon, the spagyric hieroglyph of silver, marks the final goal of the Work in white and the period of transition from the Work in red. It is during the reign of the moon that the characteristic color of silver, that is to say white, appears. Artephius, Nicolas Flamel, Philalethes and a number of other masters teach that at this phase of the coction the rebis offers the appearance of fine and silky threads, of hair extended to the surface and progressing from the periphery towards the centre.Hence the name capillary whiteness which is used to designate this coloration. The moon, say the texts, is then in its first quarter. Under the influence of fire, the whiteness gains in depth, reaches the whole mass and turns, on the surface, to lemon-yellow. It is the full moon; the crescent swelled until it formed the perfect lunar disc: it completely filled the orb. The material is endowed with a certain degree of fixity and dryness, sure signs of the completion of the minor Magisterium. If the artist wishes not to go further or cannot lead the Work to red, all that remains is for him to multiply this stone, by beginning the same operations again, to increase it in power and in virtue.And these reiterations can be renewed as many times as the material will allow, that is to say as long as it is saturated with its spirit and this one "fills all the earth" with it. Beyond the saturation point, its properties change; too subtle, it can no longer be coagulated; it remains thus in thick oil, luminous in the darkness, henceforth without action on living beings as on metallic bodies.

What is true for the White Work is also true for the Grand Magisterium. In the latter, it suffices only to increase the temperature, as soon as the citrine color has been obtained, without, however, touching or opening the vessel, and on condition that, at the beginning, the red ferment has been substituted for the white sulphur. This, at least, is what Philalethes recommends and Flamel does not do, although their apparent disagreement is easily explained if one has the directives of the ways and operations.Be that as it may, by continuing the action of the fourth degree of fire, the compost will dissolve on its own, new colors will follow one another until a weak red, called peach blossom, becoming little by little more intense as the dryness extends, announces the success and perfection of the work. cooled, the matter offers a crystalline texture, made, it seems, of small agglomerated rubies, rarely free, always of high density and brilliant luster, frequently coated in an amorphous, opaque and russet mass, called by the ancients the damned earth of the stone. This easily separated residue is of no use and must be discarded.


VII (The Marvelous Grimoire of the Château de Dampierre)

Fourth series (pl. XXIX).




Plate XXIX


Panel 1. — This bas-relief presents us with a rock that the furious sea attacks and threatens to engulf; but two cherubim blow on the waves and calm the storm. The phylactery that accompanies this figure exalts constancy in perils :

. IN . PERICVLIS. CONSTANTIA.

… philosophical virtue that the artist must know how to keep during the course of the coction, and especially at the beginning of this one, when the unleashed elements collide and repel each other with violence. Later, despite the length of this thankless phase, the yoke is less painful to bear, because the effervescence calms down, and peace is finally born from the triumph of the spiritual elements – air and fire – symbolized by the cherubs, agents of our mysterious elementary conversion. But, in connection with this conversion, perhaps it is not superfluous to bring here some precise details on the way in which the phenomenon is accomplished, about which the ancients showed, in our opinion, an excessive reserve.

Every alchemist knows that the stone is composed of the four elements united, by a powerful cohesion, in a state of natural and perfect balance. What is less known is how these four elements resolve into three physical principles, which the artist prepares and assembles according to the rules of the art, taking into account the required conditions. However, these primary elements, represented in our box by the sea (water), the rock (earth), the sky (air), and the cherubim (light, spirit, fire), are reduced to salt, sulfur and mercury, material and tangible principles of our stone. Of these principles, two are reputed to be simple, sulfur and mercury, because they are found naturally combined in the body of metals;only one, salt, appears to consist partly of fixed substance, partly of volatile matter. We know, in chemistry, that salts, formed of an acid and a base, reveal, by their decomposition, the volatility of the one, as well as the fixity of the other. As salt participates both in the mercurial principle through its cold and volatile humidity (air), and in the sulphurous principle through its igneous and fixed dryness (fire), it therefore serves as a mediator between the sulfur and mercury components of our embryo. Thanks to its double quality, salt makes it possible to bring about the conjunction, which would be impossible without it, between one and the other of the antagonists, effective parents of the hermetic wren.Thus, the four primary elements are found assembled two by two in the stone being formed, because the salt possesses within it the fire and the air necessary for the assembly of sulphur-earth and mercury-water. the volatility of one, as well as the fixity of the other. As salt participates both in the mercurial principle through its cold and volatile humidity (air), and in the sulphurous principle through its igneous and fixed dryness (fire), it therefore serves as a mediator between the sulfur and mercury components of our embryo. Thanks to its double quality, salt makes it possible to bring about the conjunction, which would be impossible without it, between one and the other of the antagonists, effective parents of the hermetic wren.Thus, the four primary elements are found assembled two by two in the stone being formed, because the salt possesses within it the fire and the air necessary for the assembly of sulphur-earth and mercury-water. the volatility of one, as well as the fixity of the other. As salt participates both in the mercurial principle through its cold and volatile humidity (air), and in the sulphurous principle through its igneous and fixed dryness (fire), it therefore serves as a mediator between the sulfur and mercury components of our embryo. Thanks to its double quality, salt makes it possible to bring about the conjunction, which would be impossible without it, between one and the other of the antagonists, effective parents of the hermetic wren.Thus, the four primary elements are found assembled two by two in the stone being formed, because the salt possesses within it the fire and the air necessary for the assembly of sulphur-earth and mercury-water. and of the sulphurous principle by its igneous and fixed dryness (fire), it therefore serves as a mediator between the sulfur and mercury components of our embryo. Thanks to its double quality, salt makes it possible to bring about the conjunction, which would be impossible without it, between one and the other of the antagonists, effective parents of the hermetic wren. Thus, the four primary elements are found assembled two by two in the stone being formed, because the salt possesses within it the fire and the air necessary for the assembly of sulphur-earth and mercury-water.and of the sulphurous principle by its igneous and fixed dryness (fire), it therefore serves as a mediator between the sulfur and mercury components of our embryo. Thanks to its double quality, salt makes it possible to bring about the conjunction, which would be impossible without it, between one and the other of the antagonists, effective parents of the hermetic wren. Thus, the four primary elements are found assembled two by two in the stone being formed, because the salt possesses within it the fire and the air necessary for the assembly of sulphur-earth and mercury-water.

However, and although the saline components are close to the sulphurous and mercurial natures (because fire always seeks earthly nourishment and air willingly mixes with water), they do not have such an affinity for the material and ponderable principles of the Work, sulfur and mercury, that their presence alone, their catalysis, is capable of avoiding any disagreement in this philosophical marriage. On the contrary, it is only after long debates and multiple shocks that air and fire, breaking their saline association, act in concert to restore harmony between enemies separated by a simple difference in evolution.

Whence we must conclude, in the theoretical explanation of the conversion of the elements and their indissoluble union in the state of Elixir, that salt is the only instrument of a lasting harmony, the instigator of a stable peace and fruitful in happy results. And this peaceful mediator, not content with constantly intervening during the slow, tumultuous and chaotic elaboration of our mixture, still contributes, with its own substance, to nourishing and fortifying the newly formed body. Image of the Good Shepherd, who gives his life for his sheep, the philosophical salt, his role ended, dies so that our young monarch can live, grow, extend his sovereign will over all metallic nature.


Panel 2 (pl. XXIX). – The humidity has eaten away at the back table, depriving it of the relief it once had. The imprecise and rough roughnesses which still remain could belong to some plants. Registration has suffered greatly; only certain letters have been able to withstand the ravages of time:

. . Mr. RI. . . V.RV. _ .

It is impossible, with so few elements, to restore the sentence; however, according to the work entitled Landscapes and Monuments of Poitou , which we have already quoted, the plants would be ears of wheat and the inscription should read

. MIHI. MORI. LVCRVM.

Death is gain for me … It is an allusion to the necessity of mortification and the decay of our mineral seed. For just as the grain of wheat could not germinate, produce and multiply if putrefaction had not previously liquefied it in the earth, so it is essential to bring about the disintegration of the philosopher's rebis, in which the seed is included, to generate a new being, of a similar nature, but capable of increasing itself, as much in weight and volume as in power and virtue. At the center of the compound, the enclosed, living, immortal spirit, always ready to manifest its action, awaits only the decomposition of the body, the dislocation of its parts, to work on the purification and then on the repair of the substance mondified and clarified with the help of fire.

It is therefore the material, still coarse, of the philosophical mercury, which speaks in the epigraph Mihi mori lucrum . Not only does death assure her of the benefit of a bodily envelope much more noble than the first, but it grants her, in addition, a vital energy that she did not possess, and the generative faculty of which a bad constitution had hitherto deprived her.

This is the reason why our Adept, in order to give a sensitive image of hermetic regeneration by the death of compost, had ears sculpted under the parabolic motto of this little subject.


Panel 3 (pl.XXIX). – Issuing from thick clouds, a hand whose forearm is ulcerated, holds an olive branch. This coat of arms, of a morbid nature, has the sign:

. PRVDENTI . LINITVR. DOLOR.

The wise know how to soothe pain ... The olive branch, symbol of peace and harmony, marks the perfect union of the generator elements of the philosopher's stone. Now, this stone, by the certain knowledge which it brings, by the truths which it reveals to the philosopher, enables him to dominate the moral sufferings which affect the other men, and to overcome the physical pains by removing the cause and the effects of a great number of diseases.

The very elaboration of the Elixir shows him that death, a necessary transformation, but not a real annihilation, should not afflict him. On the contrary, the soul, freed from the bodily burden, enjoys, in full flight, a marvelous independence, completely bathed in this ineffable light, accessible only to pure spirits. He knows that the phases of material vitality and spiritual existence follow each other according to the laws which govern their rhythm and periods. The soul leaves its earthly body only to animate a new one. Yesterday's old man is tomorrow's child. The disappeared are reunited, the lost come closer, the dead are reborn.And the mysterious attraction which binds together beings and things of similar evolution, unwittingly unites those who are still living and those who are no more. There is no real, absolute separation for the initiate, and the mere absence cannot cause him grievance. His affections, he will easily recognize them, although covered with a different envelope, because the spirit, of immortal essence and endowed with eternal memory, will know how to make him discern them...

These certainties, materially controlled throughout the work of the Work, assure him an unfailing moral serenity, calm in the midst of human turmoil, contempt for worldly joys, resolute stoicism and, above all, this powerful comfort that gives him the secret knowledge of his origins and his destiny.

On the physical level, the medicinal properties of the Elixir protect its lucky owner from physiological defects and miseries. Thanks to him, the sage knows how to soothe his pain. Batsdorff certifies that it cures all external diseases of the body,…ulcers, scrofula, magnifying glass, paralysis, wounds and such other affections, being dissolved in a suitable liquor and applied to the disease, by means of a cloth soaked in the liquor. [ Ariadne's Net . Op.cit., p. 140.] For his part, the author of an illuminated alchemical manuscript also praises the high virtues of the medicine of the sages.“The Elixir, he writes, is a divine ash, more miraculous than otherwise, and starts, as we see, according to the necessity that presents itself, and refuses no one, as much for the health of the human body and the nourishment of this decrepit and transitory life, as for the resurrection of imperfect metallic bodies… In truth, it surpasses all the most excellent theriacs and medicines that men could make, however subtle. It makes the man who possesses it happy, serious, prosperous, notable, audacious, robust, magnanimous. [ The Generation and Operation of the Great Work . Bible. from Lyon. Ms. quoted.] Finally, Jacques Tesson gives new converts wise advice on the use of the universal balm.“We have spoken, says the author, addressing the subject of art, of the fruit of blessing coming out of the toy; now, we will say how you must apply; it is to relieve the poor, and not to worldly pump; it is to heal the needy cripples, not the great and mighty of the earth. For we must be careful to whom we give, and know whom we must relieve, in the infirmities and diseases which afflict the human species. Administer this powerful remedy only by an inspiration of God, who sees everything, knows everything, orders everything. » [Jacques Tesson. The Great and Excellent Work of the Sages, containing three treatises or dialogues. Dialogues du Lyon verd, du Grand Thériaque and du Régime . 17th century ms.Bible. of Lyons, no. 971 (900).]


Panel 4 (pl. XXIX). – Here is now one of the major symbols of the Great Work: the figure of the Gnostic circle, formed by the body of the serpent which devours its tail, with, for motto, the Latin word

. FRIENDSHIP.

Friendship… The circular image is, in fact, the geometric expression of unity, affinity, balance and harmony. All the points of the circumference being equidistant from the center and in close contact with each other, they realize a continuous and closed orb, which has no beginning and can have no end, like God in metaphysics, infinity in space and eternity in time.

The Greeks called this serpent the Ouroboros , from the words οὐρά, tail, and βορός, devouring. In the Middle Ages, it was assimilated to the dragon by imposing on it an attitude and an esoteric value similar to those of the Hellenic serpent. Such is the reason for the associations of reptiles, natural or fabulous, which one almost always meets with in old authors. Draco aut serpents who caudam devoured; serpens aut lacerta viridis quæ propriam caudam devoravit , etc., they frequently write. On the monuments, on the other hand, the dragon, allowing more movement and picturesqueness in the decorative composition, seems to appeal more to artists; it is he whom they preferably represent.It can be seen at the north portal of the Saint-Armel church, in Ploermel (Morbihan), where several dragons clinging to the crawling gables, cartwheel while biting their tails. The famous stalls of Amiens also offer a curious figure of a dragon with the head of a horse, with a winged body, ending in a decorative tail, the end of which the monster devours.

Given the importance of this emblem – it is, with the seal of Solomon, the distinctive sign of the Great Work – its meaning remains open to varied interpretations. Hieroglyph of absolute union, of indissolubility of the four elements and of the two principles brought back to unity in the philosopher's stone, this universality allows its use and attribution to the various phases of the Work, since all aim at the same goal and are oriented towards the assembly, the homogeneity of the first natures, the mutation of their native antipathy into solid and stable friendship. Generally, the head of the dragon or the Ouroboros marks the fixed part, and its tail the volatile part of the compound.This is how the commentator of Marc Fra Antonio understands it: "This earth, he says speaking of sulphur, by its igneous and innate dryness, draws its own moisture to itself and consumes it; and because of this, she is compared to the dragon that devours its tail. Moreover, it only attracts and assimilates its humidity to itself because it is of its same nature." d'Houry, 1687, p. 271.] Other philosophers make a different application of it, witness Linthaut, who relates it to the colored periods: “There are, he writes, three main colors which must be shown in the Work ,black, white, red.Blackness, the first color, is named from the ancient poisonous dragon, when they say: the dragon will devour its own tail. [Henry de Lintaut. Commentary on the Treasure of Treasures by Christophe de Gamon . Paris, Claude Morillon, 1610, p. 133.] Esotericism is equivalent in the Most Precious Gift of God , by Georges Aurach. David de Planis Campy, further removed from the doctrine, sees in it only a version of spagyric cohobations.

As for us, we have always understood the Ouroboros as a complete symbol of the alchemical work and its result. But, whatever the opinion of the scholars of our time on this figure, one can at least be certain that all the attributes of Dampierre, placed under the aegis of the serpent biting its tail, are exclusively relative to the Great Work and present a particular character, in conformity with the secret teaching of hermetic science.


Panel 5 (pl. XXIX). – Another missing subject from which nothing can be deciphered. A few inconsistent letters appear only on the disaggregated limestone:

. . . CO. PIA. . .


Panel 6 (pl. XXIX). – A great six-rayed star shines on the waves of a moving sea. Above her, the banner is engraved with this Latin motto, the first word of which is written in Spanish:

. LVZ. IN . TENEBRIS. LVCET .

The light shines in the darkness … It will no doubt be surprising that we take for waves what others think of as clouds. But, by studying the way in which the sculptor represents water and clouds elsewhere, we will quickly be convinced that there is no error, misunderstanding or bad faith on our part. By this marine star, however, the author of the image does not claim to represent the starfish, commonly called starfish. This one has only five radiating arms, while ours has six distinct branches. We must therefore see here the indication of a starry water, which is none other than our prepared mercury, our Virgin mother and her symbol, Stella maris , mercury obtained in the form of white and brilliant metallic water, which the philosophers still callstar (from the Greek ἀστήρ, brilliant, dazzling). Thus the work of art makes manifest and external what, before, was diffused in the dark, coarse and vile mass of the primitive subject. From the dark chaos, he brings forth light after gathering it, and that light now shines in the darkness, like a star in the night sky. All chemists have known and know this subject, although very few know how to extract from it the radiant quintessence, so strongly buried in the earthiness and opacity of the body. This is why Philalethess advises the student not to despise the astral signature, revealing the prepared mercury. “Take care,” he said to her, “to set your course by the North Star, which our magnet will show you. Then the wise will rejoice;the madman, however, will take that for little. He will not learn wisdom and will even look, without understanding its value, at this central pole made of intersecting lines, the marvelous mark of the Almighty. [Philalethes, Introitus apertus . Op. cit., ch. IV, 3.]

Strongly intrigued by this star, of which he could not explain the importance or the significance, Hoefer addressed himself to the Hebrew cabal. "Iesod ( יסןד ), he writes, signifies both foundation and mercury, because mercury is the foundation of the transmuting art. The nature of mercury is indicated by the names אל חי (living God), whose letters produce, by their summation, the number 49, which also gives the letters כוכב (cocaf), star. But what meaning should be attached to the word כוכב ? Let us listen to the Kabbalah: “The character of true mercury consists in being covered, by the action of heat, with a film approaching more or less the color of gold; and it can be done even in the space of a single night. This is the mystery indicated by the word כוכב , star. [Ferdinand Hoefer, History of Chemistry . Paris, Firmin Didot, 1866, p. 248.] This exegesis does not satisfy us. A film, of whatever color it may be, bears no resemblance to starry radiation, and our own work guarantees us an effective signature, which presents all the geometric and regular characters of a perfectly drawn star.Also, we prefer the language, less chemical but truer, of the old masters, to this kabbalistic description of the red oxide of the hydrargyre. “It is in the nature of light, says the author of a famous work, that it cannot appear to our eyes without being clothed with some body, and this body must also be suitable for receiving light; where the light is, there must also necessarily be the vehicle of this light. This is the easiest way not to wander. Seek therefore with the light of your mind, the light which is shrouded in darkness, and learn from there that the lowest subject of all according to the ignorant, is the noblest according to the wise. [ The Light emerging by itself from the Darkness . Op.cit.]

In an allegorical account concerning the preparation of mercury, Trismosin is still more categorical; he affirms, like us, the visual reality of the hermetic seal. "At daybreak," says our author, "a most resplendent star was seen to emerge above the king's person, and the light of day illuminated the darkness. [Salomon Trismosin, The Golden Toyson . Paris, Ch . Sevestre, 1612.] As for the mercurial nature of the support of the star (which is the sky of the philosophers), Nicolas Valois gives us a good understanding of it in the following passage:, because it is truly a sea, in which many wise sailors have been shipwrecked, not having this star as a guide, which will never fail those who have once known it. It is this star which led the Sages to the birth of the son of God, and this same which makes us see the birth of this young king. » [ The Five Books of Nicolas Valois . Ms. cited.] Finally, in his Catechism or Instruction for the grade of Adept , annexed to his work entitled the Flaming Star , Baron Tschoudy informs us that the star of the philosophers was thus named among the Freemasons."Nature," he said, "is not visible, although it acts visibly, for it is only a volatile spirit, which does its duty in bodies, and which is animated by the universal spirit, which we know, in vulgar Masonry, under the respectable emblem of the Blazing Star. "


Panel 7 (pl. XXIX). – At the foot of a fruit-laden tree, a woman plants several pits in the ground. On the phylactery, one end of which is attached to the trunk, and the other unrolls above the character, we read this Latin phrase:

. . BORN. CEDED. MALI.

Do not give in to errors ... It is an encouragement to persevere in the path followed and the method employed, which our philosophizing gives to the good artist, who takes pleasure in naively imitating simple nature, rather than pursuing vain chimeras.
The ancients often designated alchemy by the name of celestial agriculture, because it offers, in its laws, its circumstances and its conditions, the closest relation to earthly agriculture. There is hardly a classical author who does not take his examples and establish his demonstrations on field work. The hermetic analogy thus appears to be based on the art of the cultivator. Just as it takes a seed to get an ear, – nisi granum frumenti , – in the same way it is essential to have first of all the metallic seed, in order to multiply the metal. Now, each fruit bears its seed within itself, and every body, whatever it may be, possesses its own.The delicate point, which Philalethes calls the pivot of the art, consists in knowing how to extract from the metal or the mineral this primary seed. This is the reason why the artist must, at the beginning of his work, completely decompose what has been assembled by nature, because “whoever does not know the means of destroying metals, also does not know that of perfecting them”. Having obtained the ashes of the body, these will be subjected to calcination, which will burn the heterogeneous, edible parts, and will leave the central salt, an incombustible and pure seed that the flame cannot conquer. The sages applied to it the names of sulphur,

But any seed capable of germinating, growing and bearing fruit requires clean soil.

The alchemist also needs a ground appropriate to the species and the nature of his seed; here again, it is only to the mineral kingdom that he will have to ask it. Certainly, this second work will cost him more fatigue and time than the first. And that, too, fits in with the art of the cultivator. Do we not see all the care of the latter directed towards an exact and perfect preparation of the soil? While the sowing is done quickly and without great effort, the earth, on the contrary, requires several ploughings, a fair distribution of fertilizers, etc., painful and long-term work whose analogy is found in the Great Philosophical Work.

Let the true disciples of Hermes therefore study the simple and effective means of isolating metallic mercury, mother and nurse of this seed from which our embryo will be born; let them apply themselves to purifying this mercury and to exalting its faculties, following the example of the peasant who increases the fertility of the humus by aerating it frequently, by incorporating it into the necessary organic products. Above all, let them beware of sophisticated processes, capricious formulas used by the ignorant or the greedy. Let them question nature, observe how it operates, know how to discern what its means are and contrive to imitate it closely.If they do not allow themselves to be put off and do not give in to errors, which are profusely distributed in the very best books, they will no doubt finally see success crowning their efforts. All the art comes down to discovering the seed, sulfur or metallic core, throwing it into a specific earth, or mercury, then subjecting these elements to fire, according to a regime of four increasing temperatures, which constitute the four seasons of the Work. But the great secret is that of mercury, and it is in vain to seek its operation in the works of the most celebrated authors.It is therefore preferable to go from the known to the unknown, by the analogical method, if one wishes to approach the truth about an object which has caused despair and caused the ruin of so many more enthusiastic than profound investigators. But the great secret is that of mercury, and it is in vain to seek its operation in the works of the most celebrated authors. It is therefore preferable to go from the known to the unknown, by the analogical method, if one wishes to approach the truth about an object which has caused despair and caused the ruin of so many more enthusiastic than profound investigators. But the great secret is that of mercury, and it is in vain to seek its operation in the works of the most celebrated authors.It is therefore preferable to go from the known to the unknown, by the analogical method, if one wishes to approach the truth about an object which has caused despair and caused the ruin of so many more enthusiastic than profound investigators.


Panel 8 (pl. XXIX). – This bas-relief bears only the image of a circular shield, and the historic injunction of the Spartan mother:

. AVT. HVNC. AVT. PLEASE. HVNC.

Either with him, or on him … Nature is addressing here the son of science preparing to undertake the first operation. We have already said that this manipulation, very delicate, entails a real danger, since the artist must provoke the old dragon, guardian of the orchard of the Hesperides, force him to fight, then kill him without mercy if he does not want to be a victim. Conquer or die , such is the veiled meaning of the inscription. Our champion, despite his bravery, cannot therefore act with too much caution, because the future of the Work and his own destiny depend on this first success.

The figure of the shield – in Greek ἀσπίς, shelter, protection, defense – indicates to him the need for a defensive weapon. As for the weapon of attack, it is the spear, – λόγχη, fate, destiny, – or the thrust, – διάληψις, separation, – that he will have to use. Unless he prefers to resort to the means used by Bellerophon, riding Pegasus, to kill the Chimera. The poets claim that he drove deep into the monster's throat a wooden spear, hardened in the fire and lined with lead. The Chimera, irritated, vomited flames; the lead melted, flowed down to the animal's entrails, and this simple artifice quickly got the better of it.

We especially draw the beginner's attention to the spear and the shield, which are the best weapons that the expert and confident knight can use, those which will sign, if he emerges victorious from the fight, his symbolic shield, assuring him the possession of our crown.

Thus, from plowman, one becomes herald (Κῆρυξ, Greek root of Κηρυκιοφόρος, which carries the Caduceus). Others, of the same courage and ardent faith, more trusting in the divine mercy than sure of their own strength, abandoned the sword, the spear and the sword for the cross. These were victorious even better, for the dragon, material and demonic, never resisted the spiritual and all-powerful effigy of the Savior, the ineffable sign of the incarnate Spirit and Light: In hoc signo vinces .

To the wise, it is said, few words are enough, and we believe we have spoken enough for those who will take the trouble to understand us.


Panel 9 (pl. XXIX). – A field flower, having the appearance of a poppy, receives the light of the sun which shines above it. This bas-relief suffered from unfavorable atmospheric conditions, or, perhaps, from the poor quality of the stone; the inscription which decorated a banner of which one still sees the trace is completely erased. As we have previously analyzed a similar subject (series II, box I), and as this motif is susceptible to several very different interpretations, we will remain silent, for fear of a possible error, given the absence of its particular motto.


VIII (The Marvelous Grimoire of the Château de Dampierre)

Fifth series (pl. XXX).




Plate XXX


Panel 1. — A horned, hairy strygeus, provided with membranous, ribbed and clawed wings, feet and hands in the form of claws, is represented squatting. The inscription makes this nightmare character speak in Spanish verse:

. MAS . PENADO. MAS . PERDIDO .
. Y.MENOS . AREPANTIDO.

The more you have harmed me, the more you have lost me, and the less I have repented of it ... This devil, image of material coarseness opposed to spirituality, is the hieroglyph of the first mineral substance, such as it is found in the metalliferous deposits where the miners go to snatch it. She was formerly represented, under the figure of Satan, at Notre-Dame de Paris, and the faithful, in testimony of contempt and aversion, came to extinguish their candles by plunging them into her mouth, which he held open. It was, for the people, master Pierre du Coignet, the cornerstone, that is to say our cornerstone and the primitive block on which the whole Work is built.

It must be admitted that, to be thus symbolized under a deformed and monstrous exterior—dragon, serpent, vampire, devil, Tarascan, etc.—this unfortunate subject must be greatly disgraced by nature. In fact, its appearance is not attractive. Black, covered with scaly blades, often coated with red dots or yellow coating, crumbly and dull, strong and nauseating odor, which philosophers define toxicum and venenum , it stains the fingers when touched and seems to unite all that can displease. Yet it is he, this primitive subject of the wise, vile and despised by the ignorant, who is the one and only dispenser of celestial water, our first mercury and the great Alkaest.[The term alkaest, attributed sometimes to Van Helmont, sometimes to Paracelsus, would be the equivalent of the Latin alkali is and would give the reason for which many artists have worked to obtain it starting from alkalines. For us, alkaest derives from the Greek words ἀλκά, a Dorian term used for ἀλκή, force, vigor, and εἰς, the place or even ἑστία, hearth, the place or hearth of energy. taken from Vera. [Irene Hillel-Erlanger. Kaleidoscope Journeys . Paris, Georges Crès, 1919.] It has also been called the universal solvent, not because it is capable of dissolving all the bodies of nature – which many have mistakenly believed – but because it can do anything in this little universe that is the Great Work.In the seventeenth century, a time of heated discussions between chemists and alchemists on the principles of the old science, the universal solvent was the subject of fiery controversy. J.-H. Pott, who applied himself to taking note of the numerous formulas of menses and endeavored to give a reasoned analysis of them, brings us above all the proof that none of their inventors understood what the Adepts meant by their solvent. [J.-H. Pott. Chemical tests. TI Dissertation on the sulfurs of Metals, defended at Hall, in 1716 .Paris, Th. Hérissant, 1759.] Although they affirm that our mercury is metallic and homogeneous with metals, most researchers have persisted in extracting it from materials more or less remote from the mineral kingdom. Some thought they prepared it by saturating some urinary volatile spirit (ammonia) with any acid, and then circulated this mixture; others exposed thickened urine to the air, with the design of introducing the airy spirit into it, &c. Becker ( Physica subterranea , Francofurti, 1669) and Bohn ( Epistle on the insufficiency of acid and alkali) think that "alkaest is the purest mercurial principle which one withdraws either from mercury or sea salt, by particular processes". Zobel ( Margarita medicinalis) and the author of Lullius redivivus prepare their solvent by saturating the spirit of sal ammonia (hydrochloric acid) with the spirit of tartar (tartrate of potash) and raw tartar (impure potassium carbonate). Hoffmann and Poterius volatilize the salt of tartar by first dissolving it in water, exposing the liquor to putrefaction in a vessel of oak wood, and then subjecting the earth which has precipitated from it to sublimation. “One solvent that leaves all the others far behind,” Pott assures us, “is the precipitate which results from the mixture of corrosive sublimate and sal ammonia. Anyone who knows how to use it properly will be able to regard it as a real alkaest. [Hoffman. Notes on Poterius, in Opera omnia, 16 vol. Geneva, 1748 to 1754.] Le Fèvre, Agricola, Robert Fludd, de Nuysement, Le Breton, Etmuller and others still prefer the spirit of dew, as well as similar extracts prepared "with storm rain or with the fatty film which floats above mineral waters". Finally, according to Lenglet-Dufresnoy, Olaüs Borrichius ( De Origine Chemiæ et in conspectu Chemicorum celebriorum , num. XIV) “remarks that Captain Thomas Parry, English, saw this same science (alchemy) practiced in 1662 at Fez in Barbary, and that the great alkahest, the first material of all philosophers, has long been known in Africa by the most skilful Mohammedan artists". Hermetic Philosophy. Paris, Coustelier, 1742, vol. I , p . 442. ]

To sum up, all the recipes for alkaest proposed by authors having above all in view the liquid form attributed to the universal solvent, are useless, if not false, and good only for spagyrics. Our raw material is solid; the mercury it furnishes always presents itself under the saline aspect and with a hard consistency. And this metallic salt, as Bernard Trévisan rightly says, is extracted from Magnesia “by repeated destruction of it, by resolving and sublimating”. With each operation the body is fragmented, disintegrates little by little, without apparent reaction, leaving behind a quantity of impurities;the extract, purified by sublimations, also loses heterogeneous parts, so that its virtue is condensed at the end into a weak mass, of volume and weight much lower than those of the primitive mineral subject. This is exactly what the Spanish axiom justifies; for the more numerous the reiterations, the more harm is done to the broken and dissociated body, the less the quintessence which comes from it has reason to repent of it; on the contrary, it increases in strength, purity and activity. By this very fact, our vampire acquires the power to penetrate metallic bodies, to attract their sulfur, or their true blood, and allows the philosopher to assimilate it to the nocturnal stryge of oriental legends.


Box 2 (pl. XXX). – A wreath made of leaves and fruits: apples, pears, quinces, etc., is tied by ribbons whose knots also tighten four small laurel branches. The epigraph that frames it teaches us that no one will obtain it if he does not fulfill the laws of combat:

. NEMO. ACCEPT . QVI. NO. LEGAL. CERTAVERIT.

Mr. Louis Audiat sees in this subject a laurel wreath; this should not surprise us: his observation is often imperfect and the study of detail does not preoccupy him. In reality, it is neither the ivy with which the ancient poets were crowned, nor the sweet laurel on the forehead of the victors, nor the palm tree dear to the Christian martyrs, nor the myrtle, the vine or the olive tree of the gods, which are depicted here, but quite simply the fruitful crown of the sage. Its fruits mark the abundance of earthly goods, acquired by the skilful practice of celestial agriculture: so much for profit and utility; a few sprigs of laurel, so discrete in relief that they are barely distinguishable: that is for the honor of the laborious.And yet, this rustic garland, which wisdom offers to learned and virtuous investigators, not easily won. Our philosophizing tells us bluntly: hard is the fight that the artist must deliver to the elements, if he wants to triumph over the great test . Like the wandering knight, he must direct his walk towards the mysterious garden of the Hesperides and provoke the horrible monster which defends its entrance. Such is, to remain in tradition, the allegorical language by which the sages intend to reveal the first and most important of the operations of the Work.In truth, it is not the alchemist himself who defies and fights the hermetic dragon, but another beast, equally robust, responsible for representing it and which the artist, as a careful spectator, constantly ready to intervene, must encourage, help and protect. He is the fencing master of this strange and merciless duel.

Few authors have spoken of this first encounter and the danger it entails. To our knowledge, Cyliani is certainly the Adept who has pushed the furthest in the metaphorical description he gives of it. However, nowhere have we discovered a story so detailed, so exact in its images, so close to truth and reality as that of the great Hermetic philosopher of modern times: Cyrano Bergerac. We do not know enough about this brilliant man whose work, purposely mutilated, was undoubtedly to embrace the whole extent of science. As for us, we hardly need the testimony of M. de Sercy, affirming that de Cyrano "received from the Author of Light and from this Master of Sciences (Apollo), lights that nothing can obscure, knowledge where no one can arrive",to recognize in him a true and powerful initiate. [ Dedication of the Comic History of the States and Empires of the Sun, addressed by M. de Sercy to M. de Cyrano Mauvières, brother of the author . Paris, Bauche, 1910.]

De Cyrano Bergerac depicts two fantastic beings, representing the principles of Sulfur and Mercury, resulting from the four primary elements: the sulphurous Salamander, who likes the midst of flames, symbolizes air and fire whose sulfur possesses dryness and igneous ardor, and the Remore (today Remora), mercurial champion, heir to earth and water by its cold and humid qualities. These names are chosen on purpose and owe nothing to caprice or fantasy. Σαλαμάνδρα, in Greek, appears formed from σαλ, anagram of ἅλς, salt, and μάνδρα, stable; it is the stable salt, the urine salt of artificial nitrières, the saltpeter of old spagyrists, – sal petri , stone salt, – which they still designated under the epithet of Dragon.Remore, in Greek Ἐχενηΐς, is this famous fish which passed to stop (according to some) or to direct (according to others) the vessels navigating on the boreal seas, subjected to the influence of the North Star. It is the echeneis of which the Cosmopolitan speaks, the royal dolphin that the characters of the Mutus Liber strive to capture, the one represented by the alchemical stove of PF Pfau, in the Winterthur museum (canton of Zurich, Switzerland), the same who accompanies and pilots, on the bas-relief adorning the Vertbois fountain, the ship loaded with an enormous carved stone. The echeneis is the pilot of the living wave, our mercury, the faithful friend of the alchemist, the one who must absorb the secret fire, the igneous energy of the salamander, and, finally, remain stable, permanent,always victorious under the safeguard and with the protection of his master. These two principles, of contrary nature and tendencies, of opposite complexion, manifest for each other an irreducible antipathy, aversion. Face to face, they attack each other furiously, defend each other fiercely, and the fight, without truce or mercy, only ends with the death of one of the antagonists. Such is the esoteric duel, appalling but real, that the illustrious Cyrano tells us in these terms.

“I walked about the space of four hundred stadia, at the end of which I perceived, in the middle of a very wide country, like two balls which, after having rustled around each other for a long time, approached and then retreated. And I observed that, when the collision occurred, it was then that one heard these great blows; but by dint of walking further, I recognized that what, from afar, had seemed to me two balls, were two animals; one of which, although round at the bottom, formed a triangle in the middle, and its very high head, with its red hair which floated above it, was sharpened into a pyramid; his body was pierced like a sieve, and, through these slender openings which served him as pores, one perceived sliding little flames which seemed to cover him with a plume of fire.

“Walking around there, I met a very venerable old man who watched this famous fight with as much curiosity as I did. He beckoned me to come closer: I obeyed and we sat down next to each other...

“This is how he spoke to me. “We would see in this globe where we are, the very sparse woods, because of the great number of beasts of fire which desolate them, without the icy animals which, every day, at the prayer of the forests, their friends, come to heal the sick trees; I say cured, because hardly with their frozen mouths have they blown on the coals of this plague than they extinguish it.

“In the world of Earth where you are and where I am, the fire beast is called Salamander, and the icicle animal is known there as Remore. Now, you will know that the Remores live towards the extremity of the pole, in the depths of the Glacial Sea, and it is the evaporated coldness of these fish, through their scales, which causes the sea water, although salty, to freeze in these quarters...

“This stigiad water, with which the great Alexander was poisoned, and whose coldness petrified his entrails, was pissat from one of these animals… So much for the icicle animals.

“But as for the beasts of fire, they lodge in the earth, under mountains of lit bitumen, like Etna, Vesuvius and Cap Rouge. These pimples, which you see on this one's throat, which come from the inflammation of his liver, are…”

“We remained, after that, without speaking, to pay attention to this famous duel. The Salamander attacked with great ardor, but the Remore held impenetrably. Each collision they gave each other caused a clap of thunder, as it happens in the worlds around here, where the meeting of a hot cloud with a cold one excites the same noise. From the eyes of the Salamander there issued, with each glance of anger that she darted at her enemy, a red light whose air seemed to be lit: while flying, she was sweating boiling oil and pissing aquafortis. The Remore, for its part, big, heavy and square, showed a body all scaly with icicles. Her wide eyes looked like two crystal plates, whose gazes carried such a morfondant light,that I felt the winter shiver on each member of my body where she attached them. If I thought of putting my hand in front, my hand took the edge of it; the very air around her, affected by her harshness, thickened into snow; the earth hardened under his feet, and I could count the tracks of the beast by the number of chilblains that greeted me when I walked on it.

“At the beginning of the fight, the Salamander, because of the vigorous restraint of his first ardor, had made the Remore sweat; but, in the long run, this sweat having cooled, enamelled the whole plain with such slippery ice, that the Salamander could not reach the Remore without falling. We knew well, the Philosopher and I, that by dint of falling and getting up so many times, she was tired; for those peals of thunder, formerly so frightful, which gave birth to the shock with which she struck her enemy, were no more than the dull sound of those little blows which mark the end of a storm, and this dull sound, deadened little by little, degenerated into a tremor similar to that of a red-hot iron plunged into cold water.When the Remore knew that the fight was pulling hard by the weakening of the shock from which she felt barely shaken, she stood up on an angle of her cube and let herself fall with all her weight on the stomach of the Salamander, with such success that the heart of the poor Salamander, where all the rest of her ardor had been concentrated, burst into a burst so terrible that I know nothing in Nature to compare it. Thus died the fire beast under the lazy resistance of the icicle animal.

“Some time after the Remore had retired, we approached the field of battle, and the Old Man having then smeared his hands with the earth on which she had trod, as a preservative against the burn, he grasped the corpse of the Salamander. 'With the body of this animal,' he told me, 'I have nothing to do with a fire in my kitchen; for, provided it is hung on my rack, it will boil and roast all that I would have put on the hearth. eyes, I keep them carefully; if they were cleansed of the shadows of death, you would take them for two little suns. The Ancients of our World knew how to implement them well; this is what they called Burning Lamps, and they were only affixed to the pompous tombs of illustrious persons .Our moderns have encountered them while excavating some of these famous tombs; but their ignorant curiosity tormented them, thinking of finding, behind the ruptured membranes, that fire which they saw shining there. [From Cyrano Bergerac, History of the Birds, in the Other World. Comic History of the States and Empires of the Sun. Paris, Bauche, 1910, p. 79.]

[The burning lamps, also called perpetual or inextinguishable, are one of the most surprising achievements of hermetic science. They are made of liquid Elixir, brought to a radiant state and held in a high vacuum as far as possible. In his Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, (Paris, 1731), Thomas de Corneille says that in 1401, “a peasant unearthed near the Tiber, at some distance from Rome, a lamp of Pallas which had burned for more than two thousand years, as can be seen from the inscription, without anything having been able to extinguish it. The flame went out as soon as a small hole had been made in the ground”. We also discovered, under the pontificate of Paul III (1534-1549), in the tomb of Tullia, daughter of Cicero, a perpetual lamp, still burning and giving a bright light, although this tomb had not been opened for fifteen hundred and fifty years. The Reverend S. Mateer, of the London Missions, points out a lamp from the temple of Trevaudrum, kingdom of Travancore (southern India);this lamp, of gold, has been shining "in a hollow covered with a stone" for more than one hundred and twenty years, and is still burning today.]


Box 3 (pl. XXX). – A 16th century artillery piece is represented at the moment of the shot. It is surrounded by a speech bubble bearing this Latin phrase:

. WHETHER . NO. PERCVSSERO . TERREBO.

If I reach no one, at least I will frighten .

It is quite obvious that the creator of the subject intended to speak in the figurative sense. We understand that it is addressed directly to laymen, to instigators devoid of science, consequently incapable of understanding these compositions, but who will nevertheless be astonished by their number as much as by their singularity and their incoherence. The wise moderns will take this ancient labor for the work of the madman. And, just as the ill-adjusted cannon surprises only by its din, our philosopher rightly thinks that if it cannot be understood by all, all will be astonished at the enigmatic, strange and discordant character affected by so many symbols and inexplicable scenes.

So we believe that the curious and picturesque side of these figures retains the spectator above all, without enlightening him. This is what seduced M. Louis Audiat and all the authors who have dealt with Dampierre; their descriptions are basically only a noise of confused, vain and meaningless words. But, although null for the instruction of the curious, they nevertheless bring us the testimony that no observer, in our opinion, has been able to discover the general idea hidden behind these motifs, nor the high significance of the mysterious teaching which emerges from them.


Box 4 (pl. XXX). – Narcissus strives to sixteen, in the basin where he is mirrored, his own image, the cause of his metamorphosis into a flower, so that he can live again thanks to these waters which gave him death:

. VT. PER . QVAS. PERIIT . LIVE . POSSIT . AQVAS.

Narcissi are plants with white or yellow flowers, and it is these flowers that have made them distinguishable by mythologists and symbolists; they offer, in fact, the respective colorings of the two sulfurs responsible for orienting the two Magisteries. All alchemists know that white sulfur must be used exclusively for the Silver Work and yellow sulfur for the Solar Work, carefully avoiding mixing them, according to the excellent advice of Nicolas Flamel: the result would be a monstrous generation, without future and without virtue.

Narcissus is here the emblem of dissolved metal. Its Greek name, Νάρκισσος, comes from the root Νάρκη or Νάρκα, numbness, torpor . Now, the reduced metals, whose life is latent, concentrated, drowsy, seem thereby to remain in a state of inertia analogous to that of hibernating animals or of patients subjected to the influence of a narcotic (ναρκωτικός, rac. νάρκη). They are therefore said to be dead, in comparison with the alchemical metals that art has worked out and vitalized. As for the sulfur extracted by the solvent – ​​​​the mercurial water of the basin – it remains the only representative of Narcissus, that is to say dissociated and destroyed metal.But just as the image reflected by the mirror of the waters bears all the apparent characteristics of the real object, so the sulfur retains the specific properties and the metallic nature of the decomposed body. So that this sulfur principle, true seed of the metal, finding living and vivifying nutritive elements in mercury,

It is therefore with good reason that Narcissus, a metal transformed into a flower, or sulphur, – for sulphur, say the philosophers, is the flower of all metals – hopes to regain existence, thanks to the particular virtue of the waters which have caused its death. If he cannot extract his image from the wave that imprisons him, this will at least allow him to materialize it into a “double” in which he will find his essential characteristics preserved.

Thus, what causes the death of one of the principles gives life to the other, since the initial mercury, living metallic water, dies to supply the sulfur of the dissolved metal with the elements of its resurrection. This is why the ancients have always affirmed that it was necessary to kill the living in order to resuscitate the dead. Putting this axiom into practice assures the wise man of living sulphur, the main agent of the stone and of the transformations that can be expected from it. It also allows him to realize the second axiom of the Work: to join life to life, by uniting the first-born mercury of nature, to this active sulfur to obtain the mercury of the philosophers, a pure, subtle, sensitive and living substance.This is the operation that the sages have reserved under the expression of the chemical wedding, of the mystical marriage of brother and sister , – for they are both of the same blood and have the same origin, – of Gabritius and Beya, of the Sun and the Moon, of Apollo and Diana. This last term provided the cabalists with the famous sign of Apollonius of Tyana, under which he was believed to recognize a so-called philosopher, although the miracles of this fictitious character, of incontestably hermetic character, were, for the initiates, covered with the symbolic seal and devoted to alchemical esotericism.


Box 5 (pl. XXX). – Noah's ark floats on the waters of the Deluge, while near it a boat threatens to sink. In the sky of the subject are read the words

. VERITAS. VINCI.

The victorious truth… We believe we have already said that the ark represents the totality of the materials prepared and united under the various names of compound, rebis, amalgam, etc., which properly constitute the ark, igneous matter, the basis of the philosopher's stone. The Greek ἀρχή means beginning, principle, source, origin. Under the action of the external fire, exciting the internal fire of the archaea, the entire compost liquefies, takes on the appearance of water; and this liquid substance, which fermentation agitates and swells, takes on, among authors, the character of a diluvian inundation. At first yellowish and muddy, it is given the name of laton or brass, which is none other than that of the mother of Diana and Apollo, Latona.The Greeks called it Λητώ, from λῆτος put for λήϊτος, with the Ionian sense of common good, common house (τὸ λήϊτον), sign of the protective envelope common to the double embryo. Let us note , in passing, that the cabalists, by one of those puns to which they are accused , taught that fermentation should be carried out with the aid of a wooden vessel, or, better, in a barrel cut in two, to which they applied the epithet of a hollow oak.Latona, mythological princess, becomes, in the language of the Adepts, the barrel, the barrel, which explains why beginners find it so difficult to identify the secret vessel where our materials ferment.

At the end of the required time, we see rising to the surface, floating and constantly moving under the effect of boiling, a very thin film, in meniscus, which the sages have named the Philosophical Island [In particular the Cosmopolitan ( Traité du Sel, p. 78) and the author of Le Songe Verd.], the first manifestation of thickening and coagulation. It is the famous island of Delos, in Greek Δῆλος, that is to say apparent, clear, certain, which provides an unexpected refuge for Latona fleeing the persecution of Juno, and fills the heart of the artist with unmitigated joy. This floating island, which Poseidon, with a stroke of his trident, raised from the bottom of the sea, is also Noah's saving ark carried on the waters of the Flood. “Cum viderem quod aqua sensim crassior, Hermès tells us, duriorque fieri inciperet, gaudebam; certo enim sciebam, ut invenirem quod querebam.["When I saw this water gradually thickening, and beginning to harden, then I rejoiced, for I certainly knew that I would find what I was looking for." ]

Gradually, and under the continuous action of the internal fire, the film develops, thickens, gains in extent until it covers the entire surface of the melted mass. The moving island is then fixed, and this spectacle gives the alchemist the assurance that the time for Latona's work has arrived. At this moment, the mystery takes over. A Heavy, Dark, Livid Cloud Rises and Exhales from the warm and stabilized island, covers this parturitious land with darkness, envelopes and conceals all Things with its opacity, FILLS The Philosophical Sky with Cimerian Shadows (κιμμερικόν, Mourning Garment) of the Sun and the Moon, Conceals from the Eyes the Supernatural Birth Hermetic Twins, Future Parents of the Stone.

The Mosaic tradition reports that God, towards the end of the Flood, caused a hot wind to blow over the waters, which evaporated them and lowered their level. The top of the mountains emerges from the immense liquid sheet, and the ark then comes to rest on Mount Ararat, in Armenia. Noah, opening the window of the vessel, lets go of the crow, which is, for the alchemist and in his tiny Genesis, the replica of the Cimmerian shadows, of those dark clouds which accompany the hidden elaboration of new beings and regenerated bodies.

By these concordances, and the material testimony of labor itself, the truth asserts itself victorious, in spite of the deniers, the skeptics, men of little faith, always ready to reject, in the domain of illusion and of the marvelous, the positive reality which they cannot understand because it is not known and even less taught.


Panel 6 (pl. XXX). – A woman, kneeling at the foot of a tomb on which we read this strange word:

TAIACIS

affects the deepest despair. The banner adorning this figure bears the inscription:

. VICTA. JACET . VIRTVS.

Virtue lies defeated … Motto of André Chénier, Louis Audiat tells us, by way of explanation, and without taking into account the time that elapsed between the Renaissance and the Revolution. It is not a question here of the poet, but of the virtue of sulphur, or of the gold of the sages, which rests under the stone, awaiting the complete decomposition of its perishable body. For the sulphurous earth, dissolved in the mercurial water, prepares, by the death of the compound, the liberation of this virtue, which is properly the soul or the fire of sulphur. And this virtue, temporarily prisoner of the corporeal envelope, or this immortal spirit, will float on the chaotic waters, until the formation of the new body, as Moses teaches us in Genesis (ch. I, v. 2).

It is therefore the hieroglyph of mortification that we have before our eyes, and it is this which is also repeated in the engravings of the Pretiosa Margarita novellaof which Pierre Bon of Lombardy illustrated his drama of the Great Work. Many philosophers have adopted this mode of expression and veiled, under funereal or macabre subjects, the putrefaction specially applied to the second Work, that is to say to the operation responsible for decomposing and liquefying the philosophical sulfur, resulting from the first labor, into a perfect Elixir. Basil Valentine shows us a skeleton standing on his own coffin, in one of his Twelve Keys, and depicts a burial scene in another. Flamel not only places the humanized symbols of the Ars magna at the mass grave of the Innocents, but he decorates his tombstone, which can be seen on display in the chapel of the Cluny museum, with a worm-eaten corpse with this inscription:

From earth came and to earth returns .

Senior Zadith encloses, inside a transparent sphere, an emaciated dying person. Henri de Linthaut draws, on a leaf of the Aurore manuscript, the inanimate body of a crowned king, stretched out on the mortuary slab, while his spirit, in the figure of an angel, rises towards a lantern lost in the clouds. And we ourselves, after these great masters, have exploited the same theme in the frontispiece of the Mysteries of the Cathedrals .

As for the woman who, on the tomb of our box, translates her regrets into disorderly gestures, she represents the metallic mother of sulphur; it is to her that belongs the singular term engraved on the stone which covers her child: Taiacis . This baroque term, born no doubt from a whim of our Adept, is, in reality, only a Latin phrase with assembled words, and written backwards so as to be read from the end: Sic ai at, alas! so at least… (may he be reborn). Supreme hope in the depths of supreme pain. Jesus himself had to suffer in his flesh, die and stay three days in the sepulcher, in order to redeem men, and then to rise again in the glory of his human incarnation and the accomplishment of his divine mission.


Panel 7 (pl. XXX). – Represented in full flight, a dove holds an olive branch in its beak. This subject is distinguished by the inscription:

. WHETHER . YOU. FATA. VOCANT .

If the destinies call you there... The emblem of the dove with the green branch is given to us by Moses in his description of the universal Flood. It is said, in fact (Genesis, ch. VIII, v. 11), that Noah, having given flight to the dove, the latter returned towards evening bringing back a green olive branch. This is the sign par excellence of the true path and of the regular market of operations. Because the work of the Work being an abridgment and a reduction of Creation, all the circumstances of the divine work must be found in small in that of the alchemist. Consequently, when the patriarch makes the raven come out of the ark, we must understand that it is a question, for our Work, of the first lasting color, that is to say of the black color, because the death of the compound, having become effective,the materials putrefy and take on a very dark blue color that its metallic reflections make it possible to compare to the feathers of the crow. Moreover, the biblical account specifies that this bird, retained by the corpses, does not return to the ark. However, the analogical reason which causes the term raven to be attributed to the black color is not solely based on an identity of appearance; philosophers have also given compost that has reached decomposition the expressive name of is not solely based on appearance identity; philosophers have also given compost that has reached decomposition the expressive name of is not solely based on appearance identity;philosophers have also given compost that has reached decomposition the expressive name ofblue body (from which comes the old medieval oath), and the cabalists that of beautiful body, not that it is pleasant to see, but because it brings the first testimony of activity of the philosophical materials. However, despite the sign of a happy omen that the authors agree to recognize in the appearance of the color black, we recommend to welcome these demonstrations only with reserve, by not attributing to them more value than they have. We know how easy it is to obtain it, even within foreign substances, provided that these are treated according to the rules of the art. This criterion is therefore insufficient, although it justifies the known axiom, that all dry matter dissolves and becomes corrupted in the humidity which is natural and homogeneous to it. This is the reason why we warn the beginner and advise him, before indulging in transports of joy without a future,

Thus, brother, if heaven deigns to bless your labor and, according to the word of the Adept, if you fata vocant , you will obtain first the olive branch, symbol of peace and union of the elements, then the white dove which will have brought it to you. Only then can you be certain of possessing this admirable light, gift of the Holy Spirit, which Jesus sent, on the fiftieth day (Πεντηκοστή), upon his beloved apostles. Such is the material consecration of initiatory baptism and divine revelation. "And as Jesus was coming out of the water," St. Mark tells us (ch. I, v. 10), John suddenly saw the heavens half-open and the Holy Spirit descending upon him in the bodily form of a dove. »


Panel 8 (pl. XXX). – Two forearms whose hands are joined, come out of a cord of clouds. Their motto is:

. ACCIPE . DAQVE. FIDEM.

Receive my word and give me yours ... This motif is, in short, only a translation of the sign used by the alchemists to express the water element. Clouds and arms form a triangle with apex pointing downwards, the hieroglyph of water, opposed to fire, symbolized by a similar but upturned triangle.

It is certain that we cannot understand our first mercurial water under this emblem of union, since the two hands clasp in a pact of fidelity and attachment belong to two distinct individuals. We have said, and repeat here, that the initial mercury is a simple product, and the first agent responsible for extracting the sulphurous and igneous part of the metals. However, if the separation of sulfur by this solvent lets it retain some portions of mercury, or allows it to absorb a certain quantity of sulfur, although these combinations can receive the name of philosophical mercury, one should not however hope to create the stone by means of this single mixture. Experience demonstrates that philosophical mercury, subjected to distillation, easily abandons its fixed body,leaving the pure sulfur at the bottom of the retort. On the other hand, and despite the assurance of the authors who grant mercury the preponderance in the Work, we note that sulfur designates itself as being the essential agent, since it is ultimately it which remains, exalted under the name of Elixir or multiplied under that of philosopher's stone, in the final product of the work. Thus the mercury, whatever it is, remains subject to the sulphur, for it is the servant and the slave, which, letting itself be absorbed, disappears and merges with its master.Consequently, as universal medicine is a real generation, which no generation can be accomplished without the help of two factors, of similar species but of different sex, we must recognize that the philosophical mercury is powerless to produce the stone, and that because he is alone . It is he, however, who holds the role of female in the work, but this one, say d'Espagnet and Philalethe, must be united with a second male, if one wants to obtain the compound known under the name of Rebis, raw material of the Magisterium.

It is the mystery of the hidden word, or verbum demissum , which our Adept has received from his predecessors, which he transmits to us under the veil of the symbol, and for the preservation of which he asks us ours, that is to say the oath not to discover what he has seen fit to keep secret: accipe daque fidem .


Panel 9 (pl. XXX). – On rocky ground, two doves, unfortunately decapitated, facing each other. They carry as an epigraph the Latin adage:

. CONCORDIA. NVTRIT. AMOREM.

Concord nourishes love ... Eternal Truth, the application of which we find everywhere here below, and which the Great Work confirms by the most striking example that it is possible to encounter in the order of mineral things. The entire hermetic work is, in fact, only a perfect harmony, realized according to the natural tendencies of inorganic bodies between them, their chemical affinity and, if the word is not too excessive, their reciprocal love.

The two birds composing the subject of our bas-relief represent these famous Doves of Diana, object of despair of so many researchers, and famous enigma that Philalethes imagined to cover the artifice of the double mercury of the sages. In proposing this obscure allegory to the sagacity of aspirants, the great Adept did not dwell on the origin of these birds; he only teaches, in the briefest way, that "the Doves of Diana are enveloped inseparably in the eternal embraces of Venus." Now, the ancient alchemists placed under the protection of Diana "with lunar horns" this first mercury of which we have often spoken under the name of universal solvent. Its whiteness, its silvery brilliance also earned it the epithet of Moon of the Philosophers and ofStone Mother  ; it is in this sense that Hermes means it when he says, speaking of the Work: “The Sun is its father and the Moon its mother. Limojon de Saint-Didier, to help the investigator to decipher the enigma, writes in the Interview of Eudoxe and Pyrophile : “Finally consider by what means Geber teaches to make the sublimations required for this art; for me, I can do no more than make the same wish that another philosopher made: Sidera Veneris, et corniculatæ Dianæ tibi propitia sunto . [“May the star of Venus and the horns of Diana be favorable to you. »]

We can therefore consider the doves of Diana as two parts of dissolving mercury – the two points of the lunar crescent – ​​again one of Venus, who must hold her favorite doves closely embraced. The correspondence is confirmed by the double quality, volatile and aerial, of the initial mercury, the emblem of which has always been taken from among the birds, and by the very matter from which the mercury comes, the rocky, chaotic, sterile earth on which the doves rest.

When, according to the Scriptures, the Virgin Mary had accomplished, according to the law of Moses, the seven days of purification (Exodus, XIII, 2), Joseph accompanied her to the temple of Jerusalem, in order to present the Child there and offer the victim, in accordance with the law of the Lord (Leviticus, XII, 6, 8), namely: a couple of doves or two young doves. Thus appears, in the sacred text, the mystery of the Ornithogale, this famous milk of the birds, – Ὀρνίθιον γάλα, – which the Greeks spoke of as something extraordinary and very rare. "Milking the milk of birds" (Ὀρνίθιον γάλα ἀμέλγειν) was among them a proverb which was equivalent to success, to knowing the favor of fate and success in any undertaking. And we must agree that you have to be the chosen one of Providence to discover the doves of Diana and to possess the bird's-eye, hermetic synonym of Virgin's milk dear to Philalethes. Ὄρνις, in Greek, designates not only the bird in general, but more specifically the rooster and the hen, and it is perhaps from this that the term ὀρνίθιον γάλα derives, eggnog, obtained by mixing an egg yolk in hot milk.We will not insist on these reports, because they would reveal the secret operation hidden under the expression of thedoves of Diana . Let us say, however, that the plants called ornithogales are bulbous liliaceae, with beautiful white flowers, and we know that the lily is, par excellence, the emblematic flower of Mary.


IX (The Marvelous Grimoire of the Château de Dampierre)

Sixth series (pl. XXXI).




Plate XXXI


Panel 1. — Piercing the clouds, a man's hand throws seven balls against a rock, which bounce towards it. This bas-relief is decorated with the inscription:

. CONCVSSVS . SVRGO.

Struck, I rebound … Image of action and reaction, as well as the hermetic axiom Solve et coagula, dissolved and coagulate .

A similar subject can be seen on one of the coffers of the ceiling of the Lallemant chapel, in Bourges; but the balls are replaced by chestnuts. Now, this fruit, to which its spiny pericarp has given the vulgar name of hedgehog (in Greek ἐχῖνος, sea urchin, sea chestnut), is a fairly exact figuration of the philosopher's stone as it is obtained by the short way. It seems, in fact, to consist of a kind of crystalline and translucent nucleus, almost spherical, of a color similar to that of the broom ruby, enclosed in a capsule more or less thick, red, opaque, dry and covered with asperities, which, at the end of the work, is often cracked, sometimes even open, like the husk of walnuts and chestnuts.These are therefore the fruits of hermetic labor that the celestial hand throws against the rock, emblem of our mercurial substance. Whenever the stone, fixed and perfect, is taken up by mercury in order to dissolve there, to be nourished there again, to increase there not only in weight and volume, but also in energy, it returns by coction to its primitive state, color and aspect. We can say that after having touched the mercury it returns to its starting point. It is these phases of fall and ascent, of solution and coagulation which characterize the successive multiplications which give to each rebirth of the stone a theoretical power tenfold of the preceding one.However, and although many authors do not envisage any limit to this exaltation, we think with other philosophers that it would be imprudent, at least as far as transmutation and medicine are concerned, to exceed the seventh reiteration. This is the reason why Jean Lallemant and the Adept of Dampierre only represented seven balls or chestnuts on the motifs we are talking about.

Unlimited for speculative philosophers, the multiplication is however limited in the practical domain. The more the stone progresses, the more it becomes penetrating and of rapid elaboration: it requires, at each degree of increase, only one-eighth of the time required by the preceding operation. Generally—and here we are considering the long way—it is rare for the fourth iteration to take more than two hours; the fifth is therefore accomplished in a minute and a half, while twelve seconds would suffice to complete the sixth: the instantaneity of such an operation would make it impracticable.On the other hand, the intervention of the weight and the volume, constantly increased, would oblige to reserve a large part of the production, for lack of a proportional quantity of mercury, always long and tedious to prepare. Finally, the stone multiplied in the fifth and sixth degrees would require, given its igneous power, a large mass of pure gold to orient it towards the metal – otherwise one would risk losing it entirely. It is therefore preferable, from every point of view, not to push too far the subtlety of an agent already endowed with considerable energy, unless one wishes, leaving aside the order of metallic and medical possibilities, to possess this universal Mercury, shining and luminous in the darkness, in order to construct its perpetual lamp.But the passage from the solid state to the liquid state, which must be carried out in this place, being eminently dangerous, can only be attempted by a very learned master and of consummate skill... – otherwise we risk losing it entirely . It is therefore preferable, from every point of view, not to push too far the subtlety of an agent already endowed with considerable energy, unless one wishes, leaving aside the order of metallic and medical possibilities, to possess this universal Mercury, shining and luminous in the darkness, in order to construct its perpetual lamp. But the passage from the solid state to the liquid state, which must be carried out in this place, being eminently dangerous, can only be attempted by a very learned master and of consummate skill...– otherwise we risk losing it entirely. It is therefore preferable, from every point of view, not to push too far the subtlety of an agent already endowed with considerable energy, unless one wishes, leaving aside the order of metallic and medical possibilities, to possess this universal Mercury, shining and luminous in the darkness, in order to construct its perpetual lamp. But the passage from the solid state to the liquid state, which must be carried out in this place, being eminently dangerous, can only be attempted by a very learned master and of consummate skill... to possess this universal Mercury, shining and luminous in the darkness, in order to build its perpetual lamp .But the passage from the solid state to the liquid state, which must be carried out in this place, being eminently dangerous, can only be attempted by a very learned master and of consummate skill... to possess this universal Mercury, shining and luminous in the darkness, in order to build its perpetual lamp . But the passage from the solid state to the liquid state, which must be carried out in this place, being eminently dangerous, can only be attempted by a very learned master and of consummate skill...

From all that precedes, we must conclude that the material impossibilities pointed out in connection with transmutation, tend to ruin the thesis of an increasing and indefinite geometric progression, based on the number ten dear to pure theoreticians. Let us beware of rash enthusiasm, and never allow our judgment to be circumvented by the specious arguments, the brilliant but hollow theories of amateurs of the prodigious. Science and nature have enough marvels in store for us to satisfy us, without our feeling the need to add to them the vain fantasies of the imagination.


Box 2 (pl. XXXI). – It is a dead tree, with cut branches, bare roots, that this bas-relief presents to us. It bears no inscription, but only two signs of alchemical notation engraved on a cartouche; one, a schematic figure of the level, expresses Sulfur; the other, an equilateral triangle with a higher apex, designates Fire.

The withered tree is a symbol of the common metals reduced from their ores and molten, to which the high temperatures of the metallurgical furnaces have caused them to lose the activity which they possessed in their natural deposit. This is why the philosophers qualify them as dead and recognize them as unsuitable for the work of the Work, until they are revivified, or reincrudated according to the consecrated term, by this internal fire which never abandons them completely. For the metals, fixed in the industrial form that we know of them, still retain, in the depths of their substance, the soul that vulgar fire has compressed and condensed, but which it has not been able to destroy.And this soul, the sages have named it fire or sulphur, because it is truly the agent of all the mutations, of all the accidents observed in metallic matter, and this incombustible seed that nothing can completely ruin, neither the violence of strong acids, nor the heat of the furnace. This great principle of immortality, charged by God himself to ensure and maintain the perpetuity of the species and to reform the perishable body, subsists and is found even in the ashes of calcined metals, when these have suffered the disintegration of their parts and seen their corporeal envelope consumed.

The philosophers therefore judged, not without reason, that the refractory qualities of sulphur, its resistance to fire, could only belong to fire or to some spirit of an igneous nature. This is what led them to give it the name by which it is designated and which some artists believe comes from its aspect, although it bears no relation to common sulphur. In Greek, sulfur is called θεῖον, a word whose root is θεῖος, which means divine, wonderful, supernatural; τὸ θεῖον not only expresses divinity, but also the magical, extraordinary side of a thing. Now, the philosophical sulphur, considered as the god and the animator of the Great Work, reveals by its actions a formative energy comparable to that of the divine Spirit.Thus, and although it is necessary to attribute precedence to mercury,

Look therefore for sulfur in the dead trunk of vulgar metals, and you will obtain at the same time that natural and metallic fire which is the principal key of alchemical labour. “Therein, says Limojon de Saint-Didier, the great mystery of art, since all the others depend on the intelligence of this one. How satisfied I would be, adds the author, if I were allowed to explain this secret unequivocally to you; but I cannot do what no philosophizing has believed to be in his power. All you can reasonably expect from me is to tell you that natural fire is a fire in power, which does not burn the hands, but which makes its effectiveness appear as long as it is excited by the external fire. »


Panel 3 (pl. XXXI). – A hexagonal pyramid, made of riveted sheet metal plates, carries, hung on its walls, various emblems of chivalry and Hermeticism, pieces of armor and honorable pieces: shields, armet, armband, gauntlets, crown and garlands. Its epigraph is taken from a verse of Virgil ( Aeneid , XI, 641):

. SIC ITVR. AD. ASTRA.

This is how we immortalize ourselves ... This pyramidal construction, whose shape recalls that of the hieroglyph adopted to designate fire, is none other than the Athanor, the word by which the alchemists indicate the philosophical furnace essential to the maturation of the Work. Two side doors are provided and facing each other; they block glazed windows which allow the observation of the phases of the work. Another, located at the base, gives access to the hearth; finally, a small plate, near the top, serves as a register and outlet for the gases resulting from combustion.Inside, if we refer to the very detailed descriptions of Philalèthe, Le Tesson, Salmon and others, as well as to the reproductions of Rupescissa, Sgobbis, Pierre Vicot, Huginus à Barma, etc., the Athanor is arranged in such a way as to receive a bowl of earth or metal, called nest or arena, because the egg is incubated there in the hot sand (Latin, arena, sand) . As for the fuel used for heating, it seems quite variable, although many authors give their preference to thermogenic lamps.

At least that is what the masters teach about their stove. But the Athanor, abode of mysterious fire, claims a less vulgar design. By this secret oven, prison of an invisible flame, it seems to us more in conformity with the hermetic esotericism to understand the substance prepared, – amalgam or rebis, – serving as envelope and matrix to the central core where sleep these latent faculties that the common fire will soon make active. Matter alone being the vehicle of natural and secret fire, immortal agent of all our achievements, remains for us the unique and true Athanor (from the Greek Ἀθάνατος, which renews itself and never dies). Philalethes tells us, about the secret fire, which the sages cannot do without, since it is he who causes all the metamorphoses within the compound,that it is of metallic essence and of sulphurous origin. It is recognized as mineral because it arises from the prime mercurial substance, the sole source of metals; sulphurous, because this fire, in the extraction of metallic sulphur, has taken on the specific qualities of the “father of metals”. It is therefore a double fire – the double igneous man of Basil Valentine – which contains both the attractive, agglutinating and organizing virtues of mercury, and the siccative, coagulant and fixative properties of sulphur.As long as we have some tint of philosophy, we will easily understand that this double fire, animator of the rebis, needing only the aid of heat to pass from potential to actual, and to make its power effective, could not belong to the furnace, although it metaphorically represents our Athanor, that is to say the place of energy, of the principle of immortality enclosed in the philosophical compound . This double fire is the pivot of the art and, according to the expression of Philalethes, "the first agent which turns the wheel and moves the axle"; also it is often referred to by the epithet wheel fire, because it seems to develop its action according to a circular mode, the aim of which is the conversion of the molecular edifice, a rotation symbolized in the wheel of Fortune and in the Ouroboros.

Thus, the matter destroyed, mortified then recomposed in a new body, thanks to the secret fire that excites that of the furnace, rises gradually with the aid of multiplications, until the perfection of pure fire, veiled under the figure of the immortal Phoenix: sic itur ad astra . In the same way the workman, faithful servant of nature, acquires, with sublime knowledge, the high title of knight, the esteem of his peers, the recognition of his brothers and the honor, more enviable than all worldly glory, of appearing among the disciples of Elijah.


Panel 4 (pl. XXXI). – Closed by its narrow lid, its belly plump but split, a vulgar pot of earth fills, with its plebeian and cracked majesty, the surface of this box. Its inscription affirms that the vase of which we see the image must open of itself and make manifest, by its destruction, the completion of what it contains:

. INVS. SOLA. FIENT . MANIFESTA . RVINA.

Among so many diverse figures, emblems with which he fraternizes, our subject seems all the more original in that its symbolism relates to the dry way, also called the Work of Saturn, as rarely translated into iconography as described in the texts. Based on the use of solid and crystallized materials, the short route ( ars brevis) requires only the assistance of the crucible and the application of high temperatures. This truth, Henckel had glimpsed it when he remarked that “the artist Elias, quoted by Helvetius, claims that the preparation of the philosopher's stone begins and ends in four days time, and that he showed, in fact, this stone still adherent to the shards of the crucible; it seems to me, continue the author, that it would not be so absurd to question whether what the alchemists call great months would not be so many days – which would be a very limited space of time – and if there would not be a method in which the whole operation would consist only ofto hold the materials for a long time in the greatest degree of fluidity, which would be obtained by a violent fire, maintained by the action of the bellows; but this method cannot be carried out in all laboratories, and perhaps even everyone would not find it practicable. » [J.-F. Henkel. Treatise on Appropriation , in Pyritology or Natural History of Pyrite . Paris, J.-T. Hedgehog, 1760, p. 375, § 416.]

But, unlike the wet process, whose glass utensils allow easy control and accurate observation, the dry process cannot enlighten the operator, at any time of the work. Also, although the time factor, reduced to a minimum, constitutes a serious advantage in the practice of the ars brevis, on the other hand, the necessity of high temperatures presents the serious inconvenience of an absolute uncertainty as to the progress of the operation. Everything takes place in the deepest mystery inside the carefully closed crucible, buried in the center of incandescent coals. It is therefore important to be very experienced, to know well the direction and the power of the fire, since one cannot, from beginning to end, discover the slightest indication in it. All the characteristic reactions of the wet process being indicated in the classical authors, it is possible for the studious artist to acquire sufficiently precise points of reference to authorize him to undertake his long and painful work.Here, on the contrary, it is devoid of any guide that the traveller, bold to the point of temerity, undertakes this arid and scorched desert. No route traced, no clue, no milestone; nothing but the apparent inertia of the earth, the rock, the sand. The brilliant kaleidoscope of colored phases does not enliven its uncertain march; it is blind that he pursues his way, without any other certainty than that of his faith, without any other hope than his trust in divine mercy…

However, at the end of his career, the investigator will see a sign, the only one, the one whose appearance indicates success and confirms the perfection of sulfur by the total fixation of mercury; this sign consists in the spontaneous rupture of the vessel. When the time has expired, on uncovering part of its wall laterally, one notices, when the experiment is successful, one or more lines of dazzling clarity, clearly visible on the less dazzling background of the envelope. These are the revealing cracks of the happy birth of the young king. Just as at the end of incubation the hen's egg breaks under the effort of the chick, so the shell of our egg breaks as soon as the sulfur is finished.There is, between these effects, an obvious analogy, in spite of the diversity of the causes, because, in the Mineral Work, the rupture of the crucible can only logically be attributed to a chemical action, unfortunately impossible to conceive or explain. Let us note, however, that the well-known fact frequently occurs under the influence of certain combinations of lesser interest. It is thus, for example, that by abandoning new crucibles having been used only once for the fusion of metallic glasses, for the production of hepar sulphuris or diaphoretic antimony, and after having cleaned them well, they are found cracked after a few days, without it being possible to discover the obscure reason for this late phenomenon.The considerable separation of their belly shows that the fracture seems to be produced by the thrust of an expansive force, acting from the center towards the periphery, at ambient temperature and long after use of the vessels.

Finally, let us point out the remarkable concordance that exists between the motif of Dampierre and that of Bourges (Hôtel Lallemant, ceiling of the chapel). Among the hermetic boxes of this one, we also see an earthen pot, tilted, whose opening, flared and very wide, is closed with the aid of a parchment membrane bound on the edges. Its belly, perforated, lets out beautiful twins of different sizes. The indication of the crystalline form of sulphur, obtained by a dry process, is therefore very clear and comes to confirm, by specifying it, the esotericism of our bas-relief.


Panel 5 (pl. XXXI). – A celestial hand, whose arm is clad in iron, brandishes the sword and the spatula. On the phylactery we read these Latin words:

. PERCVTIAM. AND . SANABO.

I will wound and I will heal ... Jesus said the same: "I will kill and I will raise again." Esoteric thought of paramount importance in the capital execution of the Magisterium. “It is the first key, ensures Limojon de Saint-Didier, that which opens the obscure prisons in which the sulfur is contained; it is she who knows how to extract the seed from the body, and who forms the stone of the philosophers by the conjunction of the male with the female, of the spirit with the body, of sulfur with mercury. Hermes has clearly demonstrated the operation of this first key by these words: De cavernis metallorum occultus est, qui lapis est venerabilis, colore splendidus, mens sublimis et mare patens. [“It (sulphur) is hidden deep within the metals; it is he who is the venerable stone, of dazzling color, a lofty soul and a vast sea.”] [ The Hermetic Triumph. Letter to the True Disciples of Hermes . Op cit., p. 127.]

The cabalistic artifice, under which our Adept concealed the technique that Limojon tries to teach us, consists in the choice of the double instrument represented on our box. The sword that wounds, the spatula responsible for applying the healing balm, are in truth only one and the same agent endowed with the double power of killing and resurrecting, of mortifying and regenerating, of destroying and organizing. Spatula, in Greek, is said σπάθη; however, this word also means sword, sword , and derives its origin from σπά ω , to tear off, to extirpate, to extract . So here we have the exact indication of the hermetic sense provided by the spatula and the sword.From then on, the investigator in possession of the solvent, the only factor capable of acting on the bodies, of destroying them and of extracting the seed from them, will only have to look for the metallic subject which will seem to him to be the most appropriate to fulfill his purpose. Thus, the dissolved metal, crushed, "ripped to pieces", will leave it with this fixed and pure grain, spirit that it carries within itself, brilliant gem, adorned with magnificent color, first manifestation of the stone of the sages, nascent Phoebus and effective father of the great Elixir. In an allegorical dialogue between a monster withdrawn at the bottom of a dark cave, provided with "seven horns full of water", and thewandering alchemist, pressing this good-natured sphinx with questions, Jacques Tesson makes this fabulous representative of the seven vulgar metals speak thus: “You must hear, he said to him, that I descended from the celestial regions and fell here below, in these caverns of the earth, where I nourished myself for a space of time; but I desire nothing more than to return there; and the way to do this is that you kill me and then you resurrect me, and from the instrument that you will kill me, you will resuscitate me. For, as the white dove says, he who killed me will make me live again. » [Jacques Tesson, Le Lyon verd ou l'Œuvre des Sages . First treaty. Ms. quoted.]

We might make an interesting remark on the subject of the means, or instrument, expressly represented by the steel armband with which the celestial arm is provided, for no detail should be neglected in a study of this kind; but we consider that it is appropriate not to say everything, and prefer to leave to whoever wants to take the trouble to decipher this complementary hieroglyph. Alchemical science cannot be taught; everyone must learn it himself, not speculatively, but through persevering work, multiplying trials and attempts so as to always submit the productions of thought to the control of experience. He who fears manual labour, the heat of the furnaces, the dust of coal, the danger of unknown reactions and the insomnia of long vigils, he will never know anything.


Panel 6 (pl. XXXI). – An ivy is shown wrapped around a dead tree trunk, 264 all the branches of which have been cut by human hands. The phylactery which completes this bas-relief bears the words:

. INIMICA. FRIENDSHIP.

Enemy Friendship .

The anonymous author of the Ancient War of the Knights, in a dialogue between stone, gold and mercury, makes gold say that stone is a worm swollen with venom, and accuses it of being the enemy of men and metals. Nothing is more true; to such an extent that others accuse our subject of containing a formidable poison, the mere smell of which, they claim, would be enough to cause death. It is, however, of this toxic mineral that universal medicine is made, to which no human disease can resist, however incurable it may be recognized. But what gives it all its value and makes it infinitely precious in the eyes of the wise man is the admirable virtue it possesses of reviving reduced and molten metals, and of losing its poisonous properties by leaving them its own activity.Also it appears as the instrument of the resurrection and redemption of metallic bodies,

By what we have just said, the reader will have understood that the stone, that is to say our mineral subject, is represented on the present motif by the ivy, a perennial plant, with a strong, nauseating odor, while the metal is represented by the inert and mutilated tree. For it is not a dry tree, simply devoid of foliage and reduced to its skeleton, that we see here: it would then express, for the hermetist, sulfur in its igneous dryness; it is a trunk, voluntarily mutilated, which the saw has amputated from its major branches. The Greek verb πρίω also means to saw, to cut with the saw and to embrace, to tighten, to bind strongly.Our tree, being both sawn and embraced, we must think that the creator of these images wished to clearly indicate the metal and the dissolving action exerted against it. Ivy, embracing the trunk as if to smother it, translates well the dissolution by the prepared subject, full of vigor and vitality; but this dissolution, instead of being ardent, effervescent and rapid, seems slow, difficult, always imperfect. This is because the metal, although entirely attacked, is only partially dissolved; it is also recommended to frequently repeat the affusion of water on the body, to extract the sulfur or the seed "which makes all the energy of our stone". And metallic sulfur receives life from its very enemy, in reparation for his enmity and hatred.This operation, which the sages have called reincrudation or return to the primitive state, has as its main object the effervescent and fast, seems slow, difficult, always imperfect. This is because the metal, although entirely attacked, is only partially dissolved; it is also recommended to frequently repeat the affusion of water on the body, to extract the sulfur or the seed "which makes all the energy of our stone". And metallic sulfur receives life from its very enemy, in reparation for his enmity and hatred. This operation, which the sages have called reincrudation or return to the primitive state, has as its main object the effervescent and fast, seems slow, difficult, always imperfect.This is because the metal, although entirely attacked, is only partially dissolved; it is also recommended to frequently repeat the affusion of water on the body, to extract the sulfur or the seed "which makes all the energy of our stone". And metallic sulfur receives life from its very enemy, in reparation for his enmity and hatred. This operation, which the sages have called reincrudation or return to the primitive state, has as its main object the And metallic sulfur receives life from its very enemy, in reparation for his enmity and hatred. This operation, which the sages have called reincrudation or return to the primitive state, has as its main object the And metallic sulfur receives life from its very enemy, in reparation for his enmity and hatred.This operation, which the sages have called reincrudation or return to the primitive state, has as its main object the ' acquisition of sulfur and its revivification by the initial mercury. This return to the original material of the treated metal should therefore not be taken literally, since a large part of the body, made up of coarse, heterogeneous, sterile or mortified elements, is no longer susceptible to regeneration. Be that as it may, it suffices for the artist to obtain this principle sulphur, separated from the open metal and made alive, thanks to the incisive power of our first mercury. With this new body, where friendship and harmonyreplace aversion – for the respective virtues and properties of the two contrary natures are merged in it – he can hope to arrive first at the philosophical mercury, through the mediation of this essential agent, then at the Elixir, the object of his secret desires.


Panel 7 (pl. XXXI). – Where Louis Audiat recognizes the figure of God the Father, we simply see that of a centaur, which a banner, bearing the acronyms of the Senate and of the Roman people, half hides. The whole decorates a standard whose shaft is firmly stuck in the ground.

It is therefore indeed a Roman ensign, and we can conclude that the ground on which it floats is itself Roman. Moreover, the letters

. S.P.Q.R. _ _ _

abbreviations of the words Senatus Populusque Romanus , usually accompany the eagles and form, with the cross, the arms of the Eternal City.

This sign, placed expressly to indicate a Roman land, leads us to think that the philosopher of Dampierre was not unaware of the particular symbolism of Basil Valentin, Senior Zadith, Mynsicht, etc. For these authors call Roman earth and Roman vitriol the terrestrial substance which furnishes our solvent, without which it would be impossible to reduce metals to mercurial water, or, if one prefers, to philosophical vitriol. However, according to Valmont de Bomare, “Roman vitriol, also called vitriol of the Adepts, is not green rosacea, but a vitriolic double salt of iron and copper”. [Valmont de Bomaré. Mineralogy or New Exposition of the Mineral Kingdom .Paris, Vincent, 1774.] Chambon is of the same opinion and cites as its equivalent Salzburg vitriol, which is also a cupro-ferric sulphate. The Greeks called it Σῶρυ, and the Greek mineralogists describe it to us as being a salt with a strong and disagreeable odor, which, when crushed, turned black, taking on a spongy consistency and a greasy appearance.

In his Testament, Basil Valentin points out the excellent properties and the rare virtues of vitriol; but we will recognize the veracity of his words only if we know, beforehand, of which body he means to speak. “Vitriol, he writes, is a notable and important mineral to which no other in nature can be compared, and this because Vitriol becomes more familiar with all metals than with all other things; it is very soon allied to them, since, of all the metals, one can make a vitriol or crystal; for vitriol and crystal are recognized as one and the same thing. I therefore did not want to lazily delay its merit, as reason requires, seeing that Vitriol is preferable to other minerals, and first place after the metals must be given to it. Because,although all metals and minerals are endowed with great virtues, this one nevertheless, namely Vitriol, is alone sufficient to draw from it and make the wounded stone, which no other in the world could accomplish alone in its imitation. "Further on, our Adept returns to the same subject, specifying the dual nature of Roman vitriol: "I say here in this connection that you must imprint this argument vividly on your mind, that you devote your thoughts entirely to metallic vitriol, and that you remember that I have entrusted to you this knowledge that one can, from Mars and Venus, make a magnificent vitriol in which the three principles meet, which often serve to give birth to and produce our stone. »is alone sufficient to draw from it and make the wounded stone, which no other in the world could accomplish alone in imitation of him. "Further on, our Adept returns to the same subject, specifying the dual nature of Roman vitriol: "I say here in this connection that you must imprint this argument vividly on your mind, that you devote your thoughts entirely to metallic vitriol, and that you remember that I have entrusted to you this knowledge that one can, from Mars and Venus, make a magnificent vitriol in which the three principles meet, which often serve to give birth to and produce our stone. is alone sufficient to draw from it and make the wounded stone, which no other in the world could accomplish alone in imitation of him."Further on, our Adept returns to the same subject, specifying the dual nature of Roman vitriol: "I say here in this connection that you must imprint this argument vividly on your mind, that you devote your thoughts entirely to metallic vitriol, and that you remember that I have entrusted to you this knowledge that one can, from Mars and Venus, make a magnificent vitriol in which the three principles meet, which often serve to give birth to and produce our stone. that you must imprint this argument vividly on your mind, that you devote your thoughts entirely to metallic vitriol, and that you remember that I entrusted to you this knowledge that one can, from Mars and Venus, make a magnificent vitriol in which the three principles meet, which often serve for the birth and production of our stone.that you must imprint this argument vividly on your mind, that you devote your thoughts entirely to metallic vitriol, and that you remember that I entrusted to you this knowledge that one can, from Mars and Venus, make a magnificent vitriol in which the three principles meet, which often serve for the birth and production of our stone. »

Let's take another very important remark from Henckel about vitriol. "Among all the names which have been given to vitriol," says this author, "there is not a single one which relates to iron; it is always called chalcantum, chalcitis, cuperosa or cupri rosa , etc. And it is not only among the Greeks and the Latins that iron has been deprived of its part in vitriol; the same was done in Germany, and they still give to all vitriols in general, and especially to that which contains the most iron, the name of kupfer wass er, coppery water, or, what comes to the same thing, of couperose.” [J.-F. Henkel . Pyritology , ch VII , p . 184. Op.cit . ]


Panel 8 (pl. XXXI). – The subject of this bas-relief is rather singular; one sees there a young gladiator, almost a child, bent on slashing, with great blows of his sword, a hive filled with cakes of honey and of which he has removed the lid. Two words make up the sign:

. MELITVS. GLADIVS.

The honeyed sword ... This bizarre act of a fiery and fiery adolescent, giving battle to the bees like Don Quixote to his mills, is basically only the symbolic translation of our first work, an original variant of the theme so well known and so often exploited in hermeticism, the knocking of the rock. We know that after their departure from Egypt, the children of Israel had to camp at Rephidim (Exodus, XVII, I; Numbers, XXXIII, 14), “where there was no water for the people to drink”. On the advice of the Eternal (Exodus, XVII, 6), Moses, three times, struck the rock Horeb with his rod, and a spring of living water sprang from the arid stone. Mythology also offers us some replicas of the same prodigy. Callimachus ( Hymn to Jupiter, 31) says that the goddess Rhea, having struck the Arcadian mountain with her scepter, it split open and water flowed out in abundance. Appolonius of Alexandria ( Argonauts , 1146) relates the miracle of Mount Dindyma and assures that the rock had never before given rise to any spring. Pausanias attributes a similar fact to Atalanta, who, to quench her thirst, made a fountain gush by striking a rock near Cyphante, in Laconia, with her javelin.

In our bas-relief, the gladiator takes the place of the alchemist, figured elsewhere under the features of Hercules – hero of the twelve symbolic labors – or even under the aspect of a knight armed from head to toe, as can be seen on the portal of Notre-Dame de Paris. The youth of the character expresses this simplicity that one must be able to observe throughout the work, by imitating and closely following the example of nature. On the other hand, we must believe that if the Adept of Dampierre gives preference to the gladiator, it is to signify without any doubt that the artist must work or fight alone against matter. The Greek word μονόμαχος, which means gladiator, is indeed composed of μόνος, alone, and of μάχομαι, to fight. As for the winter,it owes the privilege of representing the stone to this cabalistic artifice which causes the hive to derive from rock by permutation of vowels. The philosophical subject, our first stone, – in Greek πέτρα, – is clearly reflected in the image of the hive or rock, because πέτρα also means rock, rock, terms used by the sages to designate the hermetic subject.

Moreover, our swordsman, by striking the emblematic hive with redoubled blows and randomly cutting its combs, turns it into a shapeless, heterogeneous mass of wax, propolis and honey, an incoherent magma, a veritable hodgepodge, to use the language of the gods, from which the honey flows to the point of coating his sword, replacing the staff of Moses. This is the second chaos, the result of the primitive combat, which we cabalistically call hodgepodge, because it contains honey (μέλι), – viscous and glutinous water of metals, – always ready to flow (μέλλω). The masters of the art affirm to us that the whole work is a labor of Hercules, and that we must begin by striking the stone, rock or beehive, which is our raw material, with the magic sword of secret fire,in order to determine the flow of this precious water which it contains within it. Because the subject of the sages is hardly more than frozen water, which has led to him being given, for this reason, the name of Pegasus (from Πηγάς, rock, ice, frozen water or hard and dry earth). And the fable teaches us that Pegasus, among other actions, caused the Hippocrene fountain to spring up with a kick. Πήγασος, Pegasus, has for root πηγή, source, so that the winged steed of the poets merges with the hermetic source, of which it possesses the essential characteristics: the mobility of living waters and the volatility of spirits. kicked up the Hippocrene fountain.Πήγασος, Pegasus, has for root πηγή, source, so that the winged steed of the poets merges with the hermetic source, of which it possesses the essential characteristics: the mobility of living waters and the volatility of spirits. kicked up the Hippocrene fountain. Πήγασος, Pegasus, has for root πηγή, source, so that the winged steed of the poets merges with the hermetic source, of which it possesses the essential characteristics: the mobility of living waters and the volatility of spirits.

As an emblem of the raw material, the beehive is often found in decorations borrowing their elements from the science of Hermes. We saw it on the ceiling of the Hôtel Lallemant and among the panels of the alchemical stove in Winterthur. It still occupies one of the squares of the Game of the Goose, a popular labyrinth of Sacred Art, and collection of the main hieroglyphs of the Great Work.


Panel 9 (pl. XXXI). – The sun, piercing the clouds, darts its rays towards a nest of farlouse, containing a small egg and placed on a grassy mound. [The Meadow Meadow (Anthus pratensis) is a small bird related to larks. It makes its nest in the grass. It was called Ἄνθος among the Greeks: but this word has another meaning of a clearly esoteric character. Ἄνθος also designates the flower and the most perfect, the most distinguished part of a thing; it is also the efflorescence, foam or foam of solutions whose light parts rise and come to crystallize on the surface.This is enough to give a clear idea of ​​the birth of the little bird whose single egg must engender our Phoenix.] The phylactery, which gives the bas-relief its meaning, bears the inscription:

. NEC. YOU. NEC. SIN . YOU.

Not you, but nothing without you … Allusion to the sun, father of stone, following Hermes and the majority of hermetic philosophers. The symbolic star, depicted in its radiant splendour, takes the place of the metallic sun or sulphur, which many artists have believed to be natural gold. A serious error, all the less excusable since all the authors perfectly establish the difference between the gold of the sages and the precious metal. It is, in fact, of the sulfur of the metals that the masters mean when they describe the manner of extracting and preparing this first agent, which, moreover, offers no physico-chemical resemblance to ordinary gold.And it is also this sulphur, joined to mercury, which collaborates in the generation of our egg by giving it the vegetative faculty. This real father of the stone is therefore independent of it, since the stone comes from him,nec te  ; and as it is impossible to obtain anything without the aid of sulphur, the second proposition is justified: nec sine te . Now, what we say of sulfur is true of mercury. So that the egg, manifestation of the new metallic form emanating from the mercurial principle, if it owes its substance to mercury or the hermetic Moon, draws its vitality and its possibility of development from the sulfur or sun of the sages.

In summary, it is philosophically correct to assert that metals are composed of sulfur and mercury, as taught by Bernard Trevisan; that the stone, although formed from the same principles, does not give rise to a metal; that finally, sulfur and mercury, considered in an isolated state, are the only relatives of the stone, but cannot be confused with it. We take the liberty of drawing the reader's attention to the fact that the philosopher's coction of the rebis provides a sulphur, and not an irreducible assembly of its components, and that this sulphur, by complete assimilation of the mercury, takes on particular properties which tend to distance it from the metallic species. And it is on this constancy of effect that the technique of multiplication and increase is based,


X (The Marvelous Grimoire of the Château de Dampierre)

Seventh series (pl. XXXII).




Plate XXXII


Panel 1. — The tablets of the hermetic law, on which we read a French sentence, but so singularly presented that M. Louis Audiat was unable to discover its meaning:

. IN . NOTHING. GIST. TOVT.

Primordial motto that the ancient philosophers liked to repeat, and by which they meant to signify the absence of value, the vulgarity, the extreme abundance of the basic matter from which they drew everything they needed. "You will find everything in everything that is nothing but a styptic or astringent virtue of metals and minerals", writes Basil Valentine in the book of the Twelve Keys .

Thus, true wisdom teaches us not to judge things according to their price, the pleasure we receive from them, the beauty of their appearance. It leads us to value personal merit in man, not appearance or condition, and in bodies the spiritual quality which they hold hidden within.

In the eyes of the sage, iron, that pariah of human industry, is incomparably nobler than gold, gold more contemptible than lead; for this bright light, this ardent, active and pure water which common metals, minerals and stones have preserved, gold alone is devoid of it. This sovereign to whom so many people pay homage, for whom so many consciences base themselves in the hope of obtaining his favours, is rich and precious only in clothing. A sumptuously adorned king, gold is nevertheless only an inert but magnificent body, a brilliant corpse compared to copper, iron or lead. This usurper, whom an ignorant and greedy mob raises to the rank of gods, cannot even claim to belong to the old and powerful family of metals; stripped of his coat,

We thus see how vain it would be to work on gold, because he who has nothing can obviously give nothing. It is therefore to the rough and vile stone that we must address ourselves, without repugnance for its miserable aspect, its revolting smell, its black coloring, its sordid rags. Because it is precisely these unattractive characters that allow it to be recognized, and have made it look at all times as a primitive substance, issuing from the original chaos, and which God, during the Creation and organization of the universe, would have reserved for his servants and his chosen ones. Drawn from Nothingness, it bears its imprint and bears its name: Nothing .But the philosophers discovered that in its elemental and disordered nature, made up of darkness and light, of bad and good brought together in the worst confusion, this Nothing contained All that they could desire.


Panel 2 (pl. XXXII). – The capital letter H surmounted by a crown, which Mr. Louis Audiat presents as being the emblazoned signature of the King of France Henri II, today only offers a partly hammered inscription, but which once read:

. IN . YOU. OMNIS. DOMINATE. RECVMBIT.

In you lie all the power .

We previously had the opportunity to say that the letter H, or at least the graphic character which is related to it, had been chosen by philosophers to designate the spirit, the universal soul of things, or this active and all-powerful principle which we recognize to be, in nature, in perpetual motion, in active vibration. It is on the shape of the letter H that the builders of the Middle Ages built the facades of cathedrals, glorifying temples of the divine spirit, magnificent interpreters of the aspirations of the human soul in its flight towards the Creator. This character corresponds to eta (H), seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, initial of the solar verb, residence of the spirit, star dispenser of light: Ἥλιος, sun.It is also the head of the prophet Elijah, – in Greek Ἡλιάς solar, – whom the Scriptures say ascended to heaven, like a pure spirit, in a chariot of light and fire. It is still the center and the heart of one of the monograms of Christ: IHS, abbreviation of Iesus Hominum Salvator, Jesus Savior of Men. It is also this sign that the medieval Freemasons used to designate the two columns of the Temple of Solomon, at the foot of which the workers received their wages: Jakin and Bohas, columns of which the towers of the metropolitan churches are only the free translation, but bold and powerful. Finally, it is the indication of the first rung of the ladder of the wise,It is also this sign that the medieval Freemasons used to designate the two columns of the Temple of Solomon, at the foot of which the workers received their wages: Jakin and Bohas, columns of which the towers of the metropolitan churches are only the free translation, but bold and powerful. Finally, it is the indication of the first rung of the ladder of the wise, It is also this sign that the medieval Freemasons used to designate the two columns of the Temple of Solomon, at the foot of which the workers received their wages: Jakin and Bohas, columns of which the towers of the metropolitan churches are only the free translation, but bold and powerful. Finally, it is the indication of the first rung of the ladder of the wise, scala philosophorum, of the acquired knowledge of the hermetic agent, mysterious promoter of the transformations of mineral nature, and that of the rediscovered secret of the lost Word. This agent was formerly designated, among the Adepts, under the epithet of magnet or attractant. The body charged with this magnet was called itself Magnesia, and it was he, this body, which served as an intermediary between heaven and earth, nourishing itself with astral influences, or celestial dynamism, which it transmitted to the passive substance, attracting them like a real magnet. De Cyrano Bergerac, in one of his allegorical stories, thus speaks of the magnesian spirit, of which he seems very well informed, both in regard to the preparation and the use.

“You haven't forgotten, I think, writes our author, that my name is Hélie, because I told you so not long ago. You will therefore know that I was in your world and that I lived with Elisha, a Hebrew like me, on the pleasant banks of the Jordan, where I led, among the books, a life pleasant enough not to regret it, even though it passed. However, the more the lights of my mind grew, the more also grew the knowledge of those which I did not have. Never did our priests bring Adam back to me, unless the memory of that perfect Philosophy he had possessed made me sigh. I despaired of being able to acquire it, when one day, after having sacrificed for the atonement of the weaknesses of my mortal being, I fell asleep, and the Angel of the Lord appeared in a dream;as soon as I was awakened, I did not fail to work at the things he had prescribed for me: I took some magnet about two square feet, which I put in a furnace; then, when it was well purged, precipitated and dissolved, I drew the attractant from it; I calcined all that Elixir and reduced it to the size of about a mediocre bullet.

“Following these preparations, I had a very light iron cart built, and from there a few months later, all my engines being completed, I entered my industrial cart. You will possibly ask me what good is all this paraphernalia. Know that the Angel m 'had said in a dream that if I wanted to acquire a perfect science as I desired, I would ascend to the world of the Moon, where I would find before the Paradise of Adam, the Tree of Science, because as soon as I had tasted its fruit, my soul would be enlightened with all the truths of which a creature is capable; this, then, is the journey for which I had built my chariot. Finally, I climbed in and, when I was quite firm and well supported on the seat, I threw very high in the air this ball of magnet.Now, the iron machine, which I had forged on purpose more massive in the middle than at the ends, was removed immediately, and in perfect balance, as I arrived where the magnet had attracted me, and, as soon as I had jumped up to there, my hand made it start again... … When I have since reflected on this miraculous abduction, I well imagined that I could not have overcome, by the occult virtues of a simple natural body, the vigilance of the Seraphim whom God ordained for the guard of this paradise .But because he likes to use secondary causes, I thought he had inspired me with this means of entering into it, as he wanted to use Adam's ribs to make him a wife, although he could form her from earth as well as he. [From Cyrano Bergerac. that I believed myself to be carried away in a chariot of fire… When since I reflected on this miraculous abduction, I well imagined that I could not have overcome, by the occult virtues of a simple natural body, the vigilance of the Seraphim whom God ordained for the guard of this paradise. But because he likes to use secondary causes, I thought he had inspired me with this means of entering into it, as he wanted to use Adam's ribs to make him a wife, although he could form her from earth as well as he. [From Cyrano Bergerac.that I believed myself to be carried away in a chariot of fire… When since I reflected on this miraculous abduction, I well imagined that I could not have overcome, by the occult virtues of a simple natural body, the vigilance of the Seraphim whom God ordained for the guard of this paradise. But because he likes to use second causes, I thought he had inspired me with this means of entering into it, as he wanted to use Adam's ribs to make him a wife, although he could form her from earth as well as he. [From Cyrano Bergerac. But because he likes to use secondary causes, I thought he had inspired me with this means of entering into it, as he wanted to use Adam's ribs to make him a wife, although he could form her from earth as well as he. [From Cyrano Bergerac.But because he likes to use secondary causes, I thought he had inspired me with this means of entering into it, as he wanted to use Adam's ribs to make him a wife, although he could form her from earth as well as he. [From Cyrano Bergerac. The Other World, or Comic History of the States and Empires of the Moon . Paris, Bauche, 1910, p. 38.]

As for the crown that completes the important sign that we are studying, it is not that of the King of France Henry II, but the royal crown of the elect. It is she who we see adorning the forehead of the Redeemer on the crucifixes of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, in particular at Amiens (Byzantine Christ called Saint-Sauve) and at Notre-Dame de Trèves (top of the portal). The knight of the Apocalypse (ch. VI, v. 2), mounted on a white horse, emblem of purity, receives as distinctive attributes of his high virtues a bow and a crown, gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now, our crown – the initiates know what we hear of – is precisely the chosen domicile of the spirit. It is a miserable substance, as we have said, scarcely materialized, but containing it in abundance.corona radiata , decorated with projecting rays, which was attributed only to gods or deified heroes. Thus we will explain that this material, vehicle of mineral light, is revealed, thanks to the radiant signature of the spirit, as the promised land reserved for the chosen ones of Sapience.


Panel 3 (pl. XXXII). – It is an old and often exploited symbol that we encounter in this place: the dolphin twisted on the arm of a marine anchor. The Latin epigraph which serves as its sign gives the reason:

. SIC TRISTIS. AVRA . REEDIT.

Thus calms down this terrible storm... We have had several occasions to point out the important role played by the fish in the alchemical theater. Under the name of dolphin, echeneid or remora, it characterizes the wet and cold principle of the Work, which is our mercury, which coagulates little by little on contact and by the effect of sulphur, agent of desiccation and fixity. The latter is represented here by the marine anchor, stabilizing organ of the vessels, to which it provides a point of support and resistance to the effort of the waves. The long operation which makes it possible to carry out the progressive impasto and the final fixation of the mercury, offers a great analogy with the maritime crossings and the storms which welcome them.It is an agitated and stormy sea that the constant and regular boiling of hermetic compost presents in a small way. The bubbles burst on the surface and follow each other incessantly; heavy vapors fill the atmosphere of the vessel; cloudy, opaque, livid clouds darken the walls, condense into droplets streaming over the effervescent mass. Everything contributes to give the spectacle of a reduced storm. Lifted on all sides, tossed about by the winds, the ark nevertheless floats in the torrential rain. Astérie is preparing to form Delos, a hospitable and saving land for the children of Latona.The dolphin swims on the surface of the impetuous waves, and this agitation lasts until the remora, invisible guest of the deep waters, finally stops the drifting ship like a powerful anchor. Calm is then reborn, the air is purified, the water disappears, the vapors are absorbed. A film covers the whole surface, and, thickening, growing stronger each day marks the end of the flood, the landing stage of the ark, the birth of Diana and Apollo, the triumph of earth over water, of dry over wet, and the time of the new Phoenix. In the general upheaval and the combat of the elements, this permanent peace is acquired, the harmony resulting from the perfect balance of the principles, symbolized by the fish fixed on the anchor: sic tristis will have resedit .

This phenomenon of absorption and coagulation of mercury by a much lower proportion of sulfur seems to be the first cause of the fable of the remora, a small fish to which the popular imagination and the hermetic tradition attributed the ability to stop the largest ships in their progress. Here is what the philosopher René François says about it, in an allegorical and instructive speech: “The Emperor Caligula was enraged one day, returning to Rome with a powerful naval army. All the superb ships, so well armed and so well spurred, sing at will; the wind at the stern hoists all the sails; the waves and the sky seemed to be in favor of Caligula, seconding his designs, as for the most beautiful, here is the captain and imperial galley which is stopped at all.The others fly. The Emperor is angry, the pilot redoubles his whistle, four hundred espaliers and galliots who were at the oar, five on each bench, sweat from pushing; the wind picks up, the sea grows angry at this affront, everyone is astonished at this miracle, when the Emperor imagines that some sea monster arrested him on this spot. So many loons rush into the sea and, swimming between two waters, circle around this floating castle; they are going to find a wicked little fish, half a foot long, who, having attached himself to the tiller, took his pastime to stop the galley which was taming the universe.It seemed that he wanted to make fun of the emperor of the human race, who prances so much with his police worlds and his iron thunders which make him lord of the earth. Here, he said in his fishy language, a new Hannibal at the gates of Rome, which holds Rome and its emperor in a floating prison: Rome the princess will lead the captive kings on earth in her triumph, and I will lead in marine triumph, through the lands of the Ocean, the Prince of the Universe. Caesar will be king of men, and I will be the Caesar of Caesars; all the power of Rome is now my slave and can make all its last effort, because as long as I want, I will hold it in this royal concierge.By playing and joining this galleon, I will do more in an instant than they have done in eight hundred years, massacre the human race and depopulate the world. Poor emperor! how far you are from your tale, with all your hundred and fifty millions of income, and three hundred millions of men who are in your country: a bastard fish has made you his slave! May the sea be vexed, let the wind rage, let everyone become a convict, and all the trees oars, if they will not take a step without my passport and without my leave… Here is the true Archimedes of the fishes, because he alone arrests everyone; here is the animated magnet which captivates all the iron and arms of the first monarchy in the world;I don't know who calls Rome the golden anchor of the human race, but this fish is the anchor of anchors… O marvel of God! this piece of fish puts to shame, not only Roman greatness, but Aristotle, who loses his credit here, and philosophy, which goes bankrupt there, because they find no reason for this effort, that a mouth without teeth stops a ship pushed by the four elements, and makes it take port in the middle of the most cruel storms. Pliny says that all nature is hidden as a sentinel, and garrisoned in the smallest creatures; I believe it, and, as for me, I think that this little fish is the moving flag of nature and all its police; it is she who aggravates and arrests these galleys;she who bridles, with no other bridle than the snout of a fish, which cannot be bribed… Alas! Why don't we curb the horns of our vain arrogance, with such holy consideration; for if God playing with a little sea skimmer, and the pyrate of nature, he stops and hangs on all our designs, which fly away at full sail from one pole to another, if he uses his omnipotence there, to what point will he reduce our affairs? If for nothing he does everything, and with a fish, or rather with a little nothing, swimming and making fish, he overwhelms all our hopes, alas! when he employs all his power and all the armies of his justice, hey! where will we be? [Rene Francois. Essay of the Wonders of Nature and the noblest artifices.Lyon, J. Huguetan, 1642, c. XV, p. 125.]


Panel 4 (pl. XXXII). – Near the tree with golden fruits, a robust and stocky dragon exercises its vigilance at the entrance to the garden of the Hesperides. The particular phylactery on this subject bears, engraved, this inscription:

. AB. INSOMNI. NO. CVSTODITA. DRACONE.

Apart from the dragon watching over, things are not guarded … The myth of the dragon in charge of watching over the famous orchard and the legendary Golden Fleece is well known enough to save us the trouble of reproducing it. It suffices to indicate that the dragon is chosen as the hieroglyphic representative of the raw mineral matter with which the Work is to begin. That is to say what is its importance, the care that must be taken in the study of the external signs and the qualities likely to allow their identification , to make recognize and distinguish the hermetic subject among the multiple minerals that nature places at our disposal.

Charged with supervising the marvelous enclosure where the philosophers go to fetch their treasures, the dragon is said to never slumber. His fiery eyes remain constantly open. He knows neither rest nor weariness and cannot overcome the insomnia that characterizes him and assures him of his true raison d'etre. This is what the Greek name it bears express. Δράκων has as its root δέρκομαι, to look, to see, and, by extension, to live, a neighboring word itself to δερκευνής, which sleeps with its eyes open. The primitive language reveals to us, through the envelope of the symbol, the idea of ​​an intense activity, of a perpetual and latent vitality enclosed in the mineral body.Mythologists call our dragon Ladon, a word whose assonance is close to Laton and which can be assimilated to the Greek Λήθω, to be hidden, unknown, ignored,

The general aspect, the acknowledged ugliness of the dragon, its ferocity and its singular vital power corresponds exactly with the external peculiarities, the properties and the faculties of the subject. The special crystallization of the latter is clearly indicated by the scaly epidermis of the former. Similar are the colors, because the matter is black, punctuated with red or yellow, like the dragon which is its image. As for the volatile quality of our mineral, we see it translated by the membranous wings with which the monster is provided. And because he vomits, it is said, when attacked, fire and smoke, and his body ends in the tail of a serpent, the poets, for these reasons, have caused him to be born from Typhaon and Echidna.The Greek Τυφάων, poetic term of Τυφῶν or Τυφώς, - the Egyptian Typhoon, - means to fill with smoke, to light, to set ablaze. Ἔχιδνα is none other than the viper. From which we can conclude that the dragon takes its hot, fiery, sulphurous nature from Typhaon, while it owes its cold and humid complexion to its mother, with the characteristic form of ophidians.

Now, if philosophers have always concealed the vulgar name of their material under an infinity of epithets, on the other hand they have shown themselves to be very prolific with regard to its form, its virtues and, sometimes even, its preparation. By common accord, they affirm that the artist must not hope to discover or produce anything outside the subject, because he is the only body capable, in all of nature, of providing him with the indispensable elements. Excluding other minerals and other metals, it preserves the principles necessary for the development of the Great Work. By its monstrous but expressive figuration, this primitive subject clearly appears to us as the guardian and sole dispenser of the hermetic fruits. He is its depositary, its watchful curator,and our Adept speaks wisely when he teaches that outside of this solitary being philosophical things are not kept, since we would seek them in vain elsewhere. Also, it is about this first body, part of the original chaos and common mercury of the philosophers, that Geber exclaims: “Praise be to the Most High, who created our mercury and gave it a nature that nothing can resist; for without it the alchemists would do their best, all their labor would become useless. who created our mercury and gave it a nature that nothing resists; for without it the alchemists would do their best, all their labor would become useless. who created our mercury and gave it a nature that nothing resists;for without it the alchemists would do their best, all their labor would become useless. »

“But, asks another Adept, where is this aurific mercury which, resolved in salt and sigh, becomes the radical humidity of the metals and their animated seed? He is imprisoned in a prison so strong that nature itself would not be able to extricate him from it, if industrious art did not facilitate the means for him. [ The Light emerging by itself from the Darkness , ch. II, Canto V, p. 16. Op.cit.]


Panel 5 (pl. XXXII). – A swan, majestically resting on the calm water of a pond, has an arrow through its neck. And it is his ultimate complaint that the epigraph of this pleasantly executed little subject conveys to us:

OWN . PEREO. PENNIS.

I die by my own feathers ... The bird, indeed, furnishes one of the materials of the weapon which will be used to kill it; the fletching of the arrow, ensuring its direction, makes it precise, and the feathers of the swan, fulfilling this office, thus contributing to losing it. This beautiful bird, whose wings are emblematic of volatility, and whose snowy whiteness the expression of purity, possesses the two essential qualities of initial mercury or our dissolving water. We know that he must be vanquished by sulfur - from his substance and which he himself has engendered - in order to obtain after his death that philosophical mercury, partly fixed and partly volatile, which subsequent maturation will raise to the degree of perfection of the great Elixir. All authors teachthatone must kill the living if one wishes to resuscitate the dead; this is why the good artist will not hesitate to sacrifice the bird of Hermes, and to bring about the mutation of its mercurial properties into sulphurous qualities, since any transformation remains subject to prior decomposition and cannot be achieved without it.

Basil Valentin assures us that "one must feed a white swan to the double igneous man", and, he adds, "the roast swan will be for the king's table". No philosophizing, to our knowledge, has lifted the veil that covers this mystery, and we wonder if it is expedient to comment on such serious words. However, remembering the long years during which we ourselves parked in front of this door, we think that it would be charitable to help the worker, arrived thus far, to cross the threshold of it. Let us therefore extend a helping hand to him and discover, within the permitted limits, what the greatest masters have thought it prudent to reserve.

It is evident that Basil Valentine, in employing the expression double igneous man , means to speak of a second principle, resulting from a combination of two agents of hot and ardent complexion, having, consequently, the nature of metallic sulphur. D ' where one can conclude that, under the simple denomination of sulphur, the Adepts, at a given moment of the work, conceive two combined bodies, of similar properties but of different specificity, taken conventionally for only one. That said, what will be the substances capable of yielding these two products? Such a question has never been answered.However, if we consider that metals have their emblematic representatives represented by mythological divinities, sometimes masculine, sometimes feminine; that they derive these particular affectations from sulphurous qualities recognized experimentally, symbolism and fable will be capable of throwing some light on these obscure things.

Everyone knows that iron and lead are placed under the domination of Ares and Chronos, and that they receive the respective planetary influences of Mars and Saturn; tin and gold, subject to Zeus and Apollo, marry the vicissitudes of Jupiter and the Sun. But why do Aphrodite and Artemis dominate copper and silver, subjects of Venus and the Moon? Why does mercury owe its complexion to the messenger of Olympus, the god Hermes, although it is devoid of sulfur and fulfills the functions reserved for chemical-hermetic women? Must we accept these relations as true, and would there not be, in the distribution of the metallic divinities and their astral correspondences, a deliberate, premeditated confusion?If we were questioned on this point, we would answer without hesitation in the affirmative. Experience demonstrates, with certainty, that silver possesses a magnificent sulphur, as pure and brilliant as that of gold, without however having the fixity. Lead gives a mediocre product, of almost equal color, but not very stable and very impure. The sulfur of tin, clean and shiny, is white and would rather place this metal under the protection of a goddess than under the authority of a god. Iron, on the other hand, has a lot of fixed sulphur, dark red, dull, filthy and so defective that, despite its refractory quality, one really doesn't know what to use it for.And yet, with the exception of gold, one would seek in vain, in the other metals, for a more luminous, more penetrating, and more manageable mercury. As for the sulfur of copper, Basile Valentin describes it to us very precisely in the first book of his Twelve Keys: "The lascivious Venus, he says, is well colored, and its whole body is almost only tint and color like that of the Sun, which, because of its abundance, draws greatly on red. But, because his body is leprous and sick, the fixed tincture cannot dwell there, and, the body perishing, the tincture perishes with it, unless it is accompanied by a fixed body, where it can establish its seat and its dwelling in a stable and permanent way. ” [where it can establish its seat and its residence in a stable and permanent way. [ where it can establish its seat and its residence in a stable and permanent way. [ The Twelve Keys of Philosophy . Corrected text on the Frankfurt edition; Editions de Minuit, 1956, p. 86.]

If we have understood well what the famous Adept wants to teach, and if we carefully examine the existing relations between the metallic sulfurs and their respective symbols, we will experience little difficulty in re-establishing the esoteric order in conformity with the work. The enigma will be deciphered and the problem of the double sulfur will be easily solved.


Panel 6 (pl. XXXII). – Two cornucopias intersect on the caduceus of Mercury. Their epigraph is this Latin maxim:

. VIRTVTI. FORTUNA. COMES.

Fortune accompanies virtue … An exceptional axiom, a questionable truth in its application to true merit – where fortune so rarely rewards virtue – that it is appropriate to seek confirmation and rule elsewhere. Now, it is of the secret virtue of the philosophical mercury, represented by the image of the caduceus, that the author of these symbols intends to speak. The cornucopias reflect all the material wealth that the possession of mercury provides good artists. By their crossing in X, they indicate the spiritual quality of this noble and rare substance, whose energy shines like a pure fire, in the center of the body exactly sublimated.

The caduceus, attribute of the god Mercury, cannot leave room for the slightest ambiguity, both with regard to the secret meaning and from the point of view of the symbolic value. Hermes, father of hermetic science, is considered both creator and creature, master of philosophy and matter of philosophers. His winged scepter bears the explanation of the riddle he proposes, and the revelation of the mystery covering the compound of the compound, a masterpiece of nature and art, under the vulgar epithet of mercury of the wise.

Originally, the caduceus was only a simple wand, the primitive scepter of some sacred or fabulous characters belonging rather to tradition than to history. Moses, Atalanta, Cybele, Hermes use this instrument, endowed with a kind of magical power, under similar conditions and generating equivalent results. The Greek ῥάβδος is, indeed, a rod, a staff, a javelin shaft, a dart and the scepter of Hermes. This word derives from ῥάσσω, which means to strike, to share, to destroy. Moses strikes with his rod the arid rock which Atalanta, like Cybele, pierces with his javelin. Mercury separates and kills the two serpents engaged in a furious duel, by throwing at them the staff of the πτεροφόροι, that is to say, couriers and messengers, qualified as wingbearers because they had, as an insignia of their office, wings in their caps. The winged petasus of Hermes therefore justifies his function as messenger and mediator of the gods. The addition of the snakes to the wand, completed by the hat ( πέτασος ) and the heels (ταρσοὶ), gave the caduceus its final form, with the hieroglyphic expression of perfect mercury.

On the Dampierre box, the two snakes show canine heads, one of a dog, the other of a bitch, a pictorial version of the two opposing principles, active and passive, fixed and volatile, brought into contact with the mediator represented by the magic wand, which is our secret fire. Artephius names these principles dog of Corascene and bitch of Armenia , and these are the same serpents that the infant Hercules suffocates in his cradle, the only agents whose assembly, combat and death, carried out through the intermediary of the philosophical fire, give birth to the living and animated hermetic mercury.And as this double mercury has double volatility, the wings of the petasus, opposed to those of the heels on the caduceus, serve to express these two qualities united, in the clearest and most telling way.


Panel 7 (pl. XXXII). – In this bas-relief, Cupid, bow in one hand and an arrow in the other, wrinkles the Chimera on a mass of starry clouds. The phylactery which underlines this subject indicates that Eros is here the eternal master:

. AETERNVS. HIC. DOMINVS.

Nothing could be truer, moreover, and other boxes have taught us that. Eros, mythical personification of harmony and love, is, par excellence, the lord, the eternal master of the Work. He alone can achieve agreement between enemies that an implacable hatred constantly pushes to devour each other. He fulfills the pacific office of the priest whom we see uniting – on an engraving of the Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine – the hermetic king and queen. It is he again who darts, in the same work, an arrow towards a woman supporting an enormous matrass completely filled with misty water...

Mythology teaches us that the Chimera had three different heads on a lion's body ending in the tail of a serpent: a lion's head, the other of a goat and the third of a dragon. Of the constituent parts of the monster, two are preponderant, the lion and the dragon, because they bring into the assembly, one the head and the body, the other the head and the tail. In analyzing the symbol in the order of successive acquisitions, the first place belongs to the dragon, which is always confused with the serpent; we know that the Greeks called δράκων the dragon rather than the serpent. This is our initial material, the very subject of art, considered in its first being and in the state in which nature provides it to us.The lion comes next, and although he is the child of the subject of sages and of obsolete metal, he greatly surpasses his own parents in vigor and quickly becomes more robust than his father. His worthy of an old man and a very young woman, he shows from birth an inconceivable aversion for his mother. Unsociable, ferocious, aggressive, one could not hope for anything from this violent and cruel heir, if he were not brought back, thanks to a providential accident, to more calm and level-headedness. Encouraged by his mother Aphrodite, Eros, already dissatisfied with the character, shoots him a bronze arrow and seriously wounds him.Half-paralyzed, he is then brought back to his mother, who, to restore this ungrateful son, nevertheless gives him his own blood, even part of her flesh, and dies after having saved him. "Mother," said the from birth he shows an inconceivable aversion to his mother. Unsociable, ferocious, aggressive, one could not hope for anything from this violent and cruel heir, if he were not brought back, thanks to a providential accident, to more calm and level-headedness. Encouraged by his mother Aphrodite, Eros, already dissatisfied with the character, shoots him a bronze arrow and seriously wounds him.Half-paralyzed, he is then brought back to his mother, who, to restore this ungrateful son, nevertheless gives him his own blood, even part of her flesh, and dies after having saved him. "Mother," said the from birth he shows an inconceivable aversion to his mother. Unsociable, ferocious, aggressive, one could not hope for anything from this violent and cruel heir, if he were not brought back, thanks to a providential accident, to more calm and level-headedness. Encouraged by his mother Aphrodite, Eros, already dissatisfied with the character, shoots him a bronze arrow and seriously wounds him.Half-paralyzed, he is then brought back to his mother, who, to restore this ungrateful son, nevertheless gives him his own blood, even part of her flesh, and dies after having saved him. "Mother," said the Encouraged by his mother Aphrodite, Eros, already dissatisfied with the character, shoots him a bronze arrow and seriously wounds him. Half-paralyzed, he is then brought back to his mother, who, to restore this ungrateful son, nevertheless gives him his own blood, even part of her flesh, and dies after having saved him. "Mother," said the Encouraged by his mother Aphrodite, Eros, already dissatisfied with the character, shoots him a bronze arrow and seriously wounds him.Half-paralyzed, he is then brought back to his mother, who, to restore this ungrateful son, nevertheless gives him his own blood, even part of her flesh, and dies after having saved him. "Mother," said thePeat of the Philosophers , is always more pitiful to the child than the child to its mother. From this close and prolonged contact between the sulphur-lion and the solvent-dragon is formed a new being, regenerated in some way, with mixed qualities, represented symbolically by the goat, or, if one prefers, by the Chimera herself. The Greek word Χίμαιρα, Chimera, also means young goat (cab. Χ-μήτηρ). Now, this young goat, which owes its existence and its brilliant qualities to the opportune intervention of Eros, is none other than philosophical mercury, resulting from the alliance of sulfur and mercury principles, which possesses all the faculties required to become the famous ram with golden fleece, our Elixir and our stone.And it is the whole order of hermetic labor that the ancient Chimera discovers, and, as Philalethes says, it is also our whole philosophy.

The reader will kindly excuse us for having used allegory, in order to better situate the important points of the practice, but we have no other means and we continue the old literary tradition in this. And if we reserve, in the story, the essential part which belongs to little Cupid – master of the Work and lord of this place – it is only out of obedience to the discipline of the Order, and so as not to be perjured against ourselves. Moreover, the perspicacious reader will find, voluntarily disseminated in the pages of this book, additional indications on the role of the mediator, of which we should not speak further here.


Panel 8 (pl. XXXII). – We find here a pattern already encountered elsewhere and especially in Brittany. It is an ermine, depicted inside a small enclosure bordered by a circular hurdle, a particular symbol of Queen Anne, wife of Charles VIII and Louis XII. We see it appear, next to the emblematic porcupine of Louis XII, on the mantle of the large fireplace of the Lallemant hotel, in Bourges. Its epigraph contains the same meaning and uses almost the same words as the famous motto of the Order of the Ermine: Malo mori quam foedari, I prefer death to a scroll. This order of chivalry, first founded in 1381 by Jean V, Duke of Brittany, was to disappear in the 15th century. Restored then by the King of Naples, Ferdinand I, in the year 1483, the Order of the Ermine, having lost all its hermetic character, formed no more than an incoherent association of patrician chivalry.

The inscription engraved on the speech bubble of our box bears:

. MORI. POTIVS. QVAM. FEDARI.

Rather death than defilement ... Beautiful and noble maxim of Anne of Brittany; maxim of purity, applied to the small carnivore whose white fur is, it is said, the object of the eager care of its elegant and supple possessor. But, in the esotericism of the Sacred Art, the ermine, image of the philosophical mercury, indicates the absolute clarity of a sublimated product, which the addition of sulphur, or metallic fire, helps to make even more dazzling.

In Greek, ermine is said to be ποντικός, a word derived from πόντος or πόντιος, the abyss, the abyss, the sea, the ocean; it is the pontic water of the philosophers, our mercury, the sea purged with its sulphur, sometimes simply the water of our sea, what must be read water of our mother, that is to say primitive and chaotic matter called subject of the sages. The masters teach us that their second mercury, this pontic water of which we speak, is a permanent water, which, contrary to liquid bodies, “does not wet the hands”, and their source which flows in the hermetic sea. To obtain it, they say, it is necessary to strike the rock three times, in order to extract the pure wave mixed with the coarse and solidified water, generally represented by rocky blocks emerging from the ocean.The term πόντιος especially expresses everything that inhabits the sea; it awakens in the mind this hidden fish that mercury has captured and retains in the meshes of its net, the one that the ancient custom of the feast of Kings offers us sometimes in its form (sole, dolphin), sometimes in the aspect of the "bather" or the bean, hidden between the puff pastry strips of the traditional cake. [See Fulcanelli. The Mystery of the Cathedrals . Paris, J. Schemit, 1926, p. 126] ​​The pure and white ermine thus appears as an expressive emblem of the common mercury united with the sulphur-fish in the substance of the philosophical mercury.

As for the enclosure, it reveals to us what are these external signs which, according to the Adepts, constitute the best criterion of the secret product and furnish the testimony of a canonical preparation and in conformity with natural laws. The plaited palisade serving as an enclosure for the ermine and, really, as an envelope for the animated mercury, would suffice to explain the design of the stigmata in question. But our goal being to define them unequivocally, we will say that the Greek word χαράκωμα, palisade, derived from χαράσσω, to trace, engrave, mark with an imprint, thus has an origin similar to that of the term χαρακτήρ, that is to say engraved lineament, distinctive form, character.And the specific character of mercury is, precisely, to affect on its surface a network of intersecting lines, braided in the manner of wicker baskets (κάλαθος), baskets, baskets , gabions and baskets. These geometric figures, all the more apparent and better engraved as the material is purer, are an effect of the all-powerful will of the Spirit or of the Light. And this will imprints on the substance a cruciform external disposition (Χίασμα) and gives mercury its effective philosophical signature. This is the reason why this envelope is compared to the meshes of the net used to catch the symbolic fish; to the Eucharistic basket carried on his back by the Ἰχθύς of the Roman Catacombs;at the manger of Jesus, cradle of the Holy Spirit incarnate in the Savior of men; the cistus of Bacchus, which was said to contain who knows what mysterious object; to the cradle of the infant Hercules, smothering the two serpents sent by Juno, and to that of Moses saved from the waters; with king cake, bearer of the same characters; to the cake of Little Red Riding Hood, the most charming creation, perhaps, of those hermetic fables that are the Tales of Mother Goose , etc.

But the significant imprint of the animated mercury, the superficial mark of the work of the metallic spirit, can only be obtained after a series of operations, or purifications, which are long, thankless and repulsive. Also, one should not neglect any pain, any effort and fear neither time nor fatigue, if one wants to be assured of success. Whatever we do or want to try, the spirit will never remain stable in a filthy or insufficiently purified body. The motto, quite spiritual, which accompanies our ermine proclaims it: Rather death than defilement. May the artist remember one of the great labors of Hercules, the cleaning of the stables of Augeas; “we must pass through our land, say the sages, all the waters of the flood. These are expressive images of the labor required for perfect purification, a simple, easy work, but so tedious that it has discouraged a number of alchemists who are more avid than laborious, more enthusiastic than persevering.


Panel 9 (pl. XXXII). – Four horns from which flames escape, with the motto:

. FRVSTRA .

Vainly ... This is the pithy translation of the four fires of our coction. The authors who have spoken of them describe them to us as so many different and proportionate degrees of the elementary fire acting, within the Athanor, on the philosopher's rebis. At least this is the meaning suggested to beginners, and which they hasten to put into practice, without too much reflection.

However, the philosophers certify themselves that they never speak more obscurely than when they seem to express themselves with precision; also, their apparent clarity deceives those who allow themselves to be seduced by the literal meaning, and do not seek to ascertain whether or not it agrees with observation, reason and the possibility of nature. This is why we must warn the artists who will attempt to produce the Work according to this process, that is to say by subjecting the philosophical amalgam to the increasing temperatures of the four regimes of fire, that they will infallibly be victims of their ignorance and frustrated with the expected result.Let them first seek to discover what the ancients understood by the pictorial expression of fire, and that of the four successive degrees of its intensity. Because it is not a question in this place of the fire of the kitchens, our chimneys or the blast furnaces. “In our Work, says Philalethes, ordinary fire only serves to ward off the cold and the accidents it could cause. Elsewhere in his treatise, the same author says positively that our coction is linear, that is to say equal, constant, regular and uniform from one end of the work to the other. Almost all the philosophers have taken as an example the fire of coction or maturation, the incubation of the hen's egg, not with regard to the temperature to be adopted, but with regard to that of uniformity and permanence.Also, we strongly advise to consider first of all the relationship that the sages established between fire and sulfur, in order to obtain this essential notion that the four degrees of one must infallibly correspond to the four degrees of the other, which is saying a lot in a few words. Finally, in his minute description of the coction, Philalethes does not omit to point out how far the real operation is from his metaphorical analysis, because instead of being direct, as is generally believed, it involves several phases or regimes, simple reiterations of one and the same technique. In our opinion, these words represent the most sincere saying about the secret practice of the four degrees of fire.And, although the order and development of these works are reserved by philosophers and always shrouded in silence,

M. Louis Audiat, from whom we have picked up some rather pungent fantasies in the course of this study, did not ask ancient science for a plausible explanation of this curious chamber. “The pleasant, he writes, is also mixed with our texts. Here's a big mischief in a nutshell: Frustra . Flaming horns! It is in vain to keep one's wife! »

We do not believe that the author, moved by compassion in front of this “testimony” of the unhappy Adept, wanted to show the slightest irreverence for the memory of his companion… But ignorance is blind and misfortune bad counsellor. Mr. Louis Audiat should have known this and refrained from generalising...


XI (The Marvelous Grimoire of the Château de Dampierre)

The eighth and final series includes only one box devoted to the science of Hermès. It represents steep rocks whose wild silhouette stands in the middle of the waves. This lapidary painting bears the sign:

. THEREFORE. ERVNT. IGNES.

As long as the fire lasts ... Allusion to the possibilities of action that man derives from the igneous principle, spirit, soul or light of things, the sole factor of all material mutations. Of the four elements of ancient philosophy, only three appear here: the earth, represented by the rocks, the water by the sea wave, the air by the sky of the sculpted landscape. As for fire, animator and modifier of the other three, it only seems to be excluded from the subject in order to better underline its preponderance, its power and its necessity, as well as the impossibility of any action whatsoever on substance, without the help of this spiritual force capable of penetrating it, of moving it, of changing what it has of potential into actuality.

As long as the fire lasts, life will radiate in the universe; the bodies, subject to the laws of evolution of which he is the essential agent, will accomplish the different cycles of their metamorphoses, until their final transformation into spirit, light or fire. As long as the fire lasts, matter will continue its painful ascent towards complete purity, passing from the compact and solid form (earth) to the liquid form (water), then from the gaseous state (air) to the radiant state (fire). As long as the fire lasts, the man will be able to exert his industrious activity on the things which surround him and, thanks to the marvelous igneous instrument, subject them to his own will, bend them, subject them to his utility.So long as the fire lasts, science will enjoy extended possibilities in all realms of the physical plane and will see its scope of knowledge and achievement widen. As long as the fire lasts, man will be in direct contact with God, and the creature will know his Creator better...

No subject of meditation appears more profitable to the philosopher; none calls more for the exercise of his thought. The fire envelopes us and bathes us on all sides; it comes to us through the air, the water, the earth itself, which are its preservers and various vehicles; we encounter it in everything that approaches us; we feel it working in us for the entire duration of our earthly existence. Our birth is the result of his incarnation; our life, the effect of its dynamism; our death, the consequence of his disappearance. Prometheus steals fire from heaven to animate the man he had, as well as God, formed from the slime of the earth.Vulcan creates Pandora, the first woman, whom Minerva endows with movement by infusing her with vital fire. A mere mortal, the sculptor Pygmalion, eager to marry his own handiwork, implores Venus to animate, with celestial fire, her statue of Galatea. To seek to discover the nature and essence of fire is to seek to discover God, whose real presence has always revealed itself under the igneous appearance. The burning bush (Exodus, III, 2) and the burning of Sinai during the delivery of the decalogue (Exodus, XIX, 18) are two manifestations by which God appeared to Moses. And it is under the figure of a flame-colored being of jasper and sard, seated on an incandescent and dazzling throne, that Saint John describes the Master of the universe (Revelation, IV, 3, 5)."Our God is a consuming fire", writes Saint Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews (ch. XII, 29). It is therefore not without reason that all religions have considered fire as the clearest image and the most expressive emblem of divinity. “One of the oldest symbols, says Pluche, since it has become universal, is the fire that was perpetually kept up in the place of the assembly of peoples. Nothing was more apt to give them a sensible idea of ​​the power, the beauty, the purity and the eternity of the being they came to adore. This magnificent symbol has been in use throughout the Orient. The Persians regarded him as the most perfect image of divinity.Zoroaster did not introduce its use under Darius Histarpes, but he improved with new views on a practice established long before him. The prytaneia of the Greeks were a perpetual heart. The Vesta of the Etruscans, Sabines and Romans was nothing more. The same usage has been found in Peru and other parts of America. Moses kept the practice of perpetual fire in the holy place, among the ceremonies of which he fixed the choice and prescribed the details to the Israelites. And the same symbol, so expressive, so noble and so little capable of throwing man into illusion, still exists today in all our temples. » [Noël Pluche. History of Heaven . Paris, widow Estienne, 1739. Volume I, p. 24.]

To claim that fire comes from combustion is to point out a fact of current observation, without providing an explanation. The shortcomings of modern science stem for the most part from this indifference, intended or not, towards such an important and universally widespread agent. What to think of the strange obstinacy observed by certain scholars in ignoring the point of contact that it constitutes, the hyphen that it achieves between Science and Religion? If heat arises from motion, as is claimed, then who, we ask, generates and maintains motion, the producer of fire, if not fire itself? A vicious circle from which materialists and skeptics can never escape. For us, fire cannot be the result or the effect of combustion, but its true cause.It is by its release from grave matter, that kept him locked up, that the fire manifests and that the phenomenon known as combustion appears. And whether this release is spontaneous or induced, simple common sense compels us to admit and maintain that combustion is the result of the igneous release and not the primary cause of the fire.

Imponderable, elusive, always moving, fire possesses all the qualities that we recognize in spirits; it is nevertheless material, since we experience its clarity when it shines, and since, even when obscure, our sensibility reveals its presence to us by radiant heat. Now, is not the spiritual quality of fire revealed to us in the flame? Why does it constantly tend to rise, like a true spirit, despite our efforts to force it to lower itself to the ground? Isn't there a formal manifestation of this will which, by freeing her from material influence, distances her from the earth and brings her closer to her heavenly homeland? And what is the flame if not the visible form, the very signature and the proper effigy of fire?

But what we must above all remember, as having priority in the science which us interests, is the high purifying virtue possessed by fire. Pure principle par excellence, physical manifestation of purity itself, it thus signals its spiritual origin and discovers its divine filiation. Quite a singular finding, the Greek word πῦρ, which is used to designate fire, presents exactly the pronunciation of the pure French qualifier; also, the hermetic philosophers, by uniting the nominative with the genitive, created the term πῦρ-πυρός, the fire of the fire, or phonetically, the pure of the pure, and regarded the Latin purpura and the French purple as the seal of absolute perfection in the proper color of the philosopher's stone.


XII (The Marvelous Grimoire of the Chateau de Dampierre)

Our study of the Dampierre caissons is complete. It only remains for us to point out a few decorative motifs which, moreover, have no connection with the preceding ones; they show symmetrical ornaments – scrollwork, interlacing, arabesques, embellished or not with figures – whose craftsmanship denotes a later execution than that of the symbolic subjects. All are devoid of speech bubbles and inscriptions. Finally, the bottom slabs of a small number of caissons are still awaiting the hand of the sculptor.

It is to be presumed that the author of the marvelous grimoire, the leaves and signs of which we have undertaken to decipher, had to, as a result of unknown circumstances, interrupt a work that his successors could not continue or complete, for lack of understanding. Be that as it may, the number, the variety, the esoteric importance of the subjects of this superb collection make the upper gallery of the Château de Dampierre an admirable collection, a veritable museum of alchemical emblems, and rank our Adept among the best-informed unknown masters of the mysteries of Sacred Art.

But, before leaving this masterly ensemble, we will take the liberty of comparing its teaching with a curious stone painting that we see at the Jacques-Coeur palace, in Bourges, and which seems to us to be able to take the place of a conclusion and summary. This sculpted panel forms the tympanum of a door opening onto the main courtyard and represents three exotic trees – palm, date fig – growing among herbaceous plants; a frame of flowers, leaves and twigs surrounds this bas-relief (pl. XXXIII).




Plate XXXIII


The palm and the date palm, trees of the same family, were known to the Greeks under the name of Φοίνιξ (Latin Phoenix), which is our Hermetic Phoenix; they represent the two Magisteries and their result, the two white and red stones, which have only one and the same nature understood under the cabalistic denomination of Phoenix. As for the fig tree occupying the center of the composition, it indicates the mineral substance from which the philosophers draw the elements of the miraculous rebirth of the Phoenix, and it is the whole work of this rebirth which constitutes what is agreed to be called the Great Work.

According to the apocryphal Gospels, it was a fig tree or sycamore (Pharaoh's fig tree) which had the honor of sheltering the Holy Family during its flight into Egypt, of nourishing it with its fruits and quenching its thirst, thanks to the clear and fresh water that the child Jesus caused to well up from between its roots. [See Gospel of the Childhood , c. XXIII, XXV, in Apocrypha of Migne, t. I, p. 995.] Gold, fig tree, in Greek, is said συκῆ, from σῦκον, fig, a word frequently used for κύσθος, root κύω, to bear in her womb, to contain: it is the Virgin mother who bears the Child, and the alchemical emblem of the passive substance, chaotic, aqueous and cold, matrix and vehicle of the incarnated spirit . Sozomene, author of the fourth century, affirms that the tree of Hermopolis, which bowed before the Child Jesus, is called Persea (Hist. Eccl., lib. V, cap. XXI). This is the name of Balanus (Balanites Ægyptiaca), a shrub from Egypt and Arabia, a kind of oak called by the Greeks βάλανος, acorn, a word by which they also designated myrobalan, the fruit of the myrobalan tree.These various elements relate perfectly to the subject of the sages and to the technique of brief art, which Jacques Coeur seems to have practiced.

Indeed, when the artist, witnessing the fight between the remora and the salamander, steals from the igneous monster, vanquished, his two eyes, he must then apply himself to reuniting them into one. This mysterious operation, easy however for those who know how to use the corpse of the salamander, yields a small mass quite similar to an oak acorn, sometimes to a chestnut, depending on whether it is more or less coated with the rough matrix from which it never appears to be entirely freed. This provides us with the explanation of the acorn and the oak, which are almost always encountered in Hermetic iconography; chestnuts, particular to the style of Jean Lallemant; heart, figs, fig tree from Jacques Coeur; the bell, an accessory for madmen's hobbies;pomegranates, pears and apples, frequent in the symbolic works of Dampierre and Coulonges, etc. On the other hand, if we take into account the magical and almost supernatural character of this production, we will understand why certain authors have designated the hermetic fruit under the epithet of myrobalan, and why this term has also remained in the popular mind as a synonym for something marvelous, surprising or extremely rare. [Today we write fabulous, but the etymology and pronunciation have not changed.]

The priests of Egypt, directors of the initiatory colleges, used to ask the layman, seeking access to sublime knowledge, this seemingly absurd question: "Do we sow, in your country, the seed of Halalidge and Myrobolan? A question which did not fail to embarrass the ignorant neophyte, but which the informed investigator knew how to answer. The seed of Halalidge and the Myrobolan are identical to the fig, to the fruit of the date palm, to the egg of the phoen ix which is our philosophical egg. It is he who reproduces the fabulous eagle of Hermes, with its plumage dyed in all the colors of the Work, but among which red dominates, as its Greek name would have it: φοίνιξ, crimson red. De Cyrano Bergerac does not omit to mention it ,in the course of an allegorical tale mingled with the language of birds that the great philosopher possessed admirably. "I was beginning to fall asleep in the shade," he said, when I saw in the air a marvelous bird hovering over my head; it was sustained by a movement so light and so imperceptible that I doubted several times if it was not still a small universe balanced by its own center. He descended little by little, however, and finally came so close to me that my relieved eyes were filled with his image. Its tail appeared green, its stomach azure enamelled, its wings incarnate, and its crimson head gleamed, waving, a crown of gold whose rays sprang from its eyes. He was a long time flying in the clouds; and I clung so much to everything he became,that my soul having withdrawn and as if shortened to the single operation of seeing, it scarcely reached that of hearing, to make me hear that the bird was speaking while singing. Thus, gradually disbanded from my ecstasy, I distinctly noticed the syllables, the words and the speech he articulated. Here then, to the best of my recollection, are the terms with which he arranged the fabric of his song:

"You are a stranger," the bird hoisted very pleasantly, "and were born in a World where I come from." However, this secret propensity with which we are moved for our compatriots, is the instinct that drives me to want you to know about my life...

“I can see that you are fat to learn who I am. It is I who among you is called Phoenix. In each World, there is only one at a time, which dwells there for the space of a hundred years; for, at the end of a century, when on some Arabian mountain he has unloaded a large egg in the middle of the coals of his pyre, from which he has sorted the material from aloes, cinnamon and incense, he takes flight and raises his flight to the Sun, like the fatherland where his heart has long aspired. He had made all his efforts beforehand for this trip; but the weight of her egg, the shells of which are so thick that it takes a century to hatch, always delayed the enterprise.

“I suspect that you will find it difficult to conceive of this miraculous production; that is why I want to explain it to you. The Phoenix is ​​hermaphroditic; but between the hermaphrodites, it is yet another very extraordinary Phoenix because… [The author thus interrupts, abruptly, his revelation.]

“He remained half an hour without speaking, and then he added: “I can see that you suspect that what I have just told you is false; but, if I am not telling the truth, I will never approach your globe without an eagle swooping down on me. [From Cyrano Bergerac. The other world. History of Birds . Paris, Bauche, 1910.]

Another author expands further on the mytho-hermetic bird and points out some peculiarities that would be difficult to find elsewhere. “The Cesar of the Birds, he says, is the miracle of nature [Hermetic expression devoted to the philosopher's stone.], which wanted to show in iceluy what it knows how to do, showing itself a Phoenix by forming the Phoenix. For she has enriched him marvelously, making him a head stamped with a royal pennache and imperial crests, a tuft of feathers and a crest so dazzling that it seems he wears either the silver crescent or a golden star on his head. The shirt and the duvet are of a changeable overgold which shows all the colors of the world; the large feathers are crimson and azure, gold, silver and flame;the collar is a jeweled carquan, and not a rainbow, but a phoenix bow. The tail is celestial in color with a gold sheen representing the stars. Its pinnae, and all its mantle, is like prime-vere, rich in all colors; he has two eyes in the head, brilliant and flamboyant, which look like two stars, the legs of gold and the nails of scarlet; all her bodice and her monster carriage that he has some sense of glory, that he knows how to maintain his rank and assert his imperial majesty. Even his meat has something royal about me, for he only makes his past with tears of incense and chresm of balsam. Being in the cradle, the sky, says Lactantius, distils him with nectar and ambrosia.He alone is witness to all the ages of the world, and has seen the gilded souls of the age metamorphosed from gold to silver, from silver to brass, from brass to iron. He alone never left heaven and the world behind; he alone defies death, and makes it his nurse and his mother, making him give birth to life. Luy has the privilege of time, of life and of death together. Because, when he feels burdened with years, heavy with a long old age, and dejected by so long a series of years that he has seen them slip away one after the other, he lets himself be carried away by a desire and just desire to renew himself by a miraculous death.Then he makes a heap which alone in the world has no name, for it is not a nest, or a cradle, or place of his birth, since he leaves his life there; therefore it is not a tomb, a coffin or a fatal urn, for from there it resumes its life; so that I don't know what is another inanimate phoenix, being nest and tomb, womb and sepulchre, the hostel of life and death together, which, in favor of the Phoenix, agree for this blow. However, whatever the case, there, on the trembling arms of a palm tree, he makes a heap of sprigs of cinnamon and incense; on cassia incense, on nard cassia; then, with a pitiful glance, commending himself to the Sun, his murderer and his father, perches or lies down on this pyre of balm, to rid himself of his troublesome years.

[Here we find the symbolic palm tree of Delos, against which Latona leaned when she gave birth to Apollo, as reported by Callimachus in the Hymn to Delos:
“To celebrate, O Delos! those lucky moments,
Pure gold shone to your foundations;
Gold covered your palm tree with a dazzling leaf;
Gold colored your lake with a dazzling wave;
And, for a whole day, from its deep chasms,
The Inopus vomited the pure gold in a big bubble. »]

“The Sun, favoring the just desires of this Bird, lights the pyre, and, reducing everything to ashes, with a musky breath, brings it back to life. Then, poor nature falls into a trance, and, with horrible pangs, fearing to lose the honor of this great world, also commands that everything remain coy in the world; the clouds would not dare to pour on the ashes nor on the earth a drop of water; the winds, however raging, would not dare to roam the countryside; the only Zephyr is master, and spring holds the upper hand, while the ashes are inanimate, and nature holds the hand that everything favors the return of her Phoenix. O great miracle of divine providence!almost at the same time this cold ash not wanting to leave poor nature in mourning for long and to give it terror, I don't know how, warmed by the fruitfulness of the golden rays of the Sun, changes into a little worm, then into an egg, finally into a bird ten times more beautiful than the other. You would say that all nature is resuscitated, because in fact, according to Pliny's writing, the sky once again begins its revolutions and its sweet music, and you would say properly that the four Elements, without saying a word, sing a motet at four with their flowering gayety, in praise of nature, and to well avenge the return of the miracle of the Birds and the world. [Rene Francois.and would say properly that the four Elements, without saying a word, sing a motet for four with their flowering gayety, in praise of nature, and to well avenge the return of the miracle of the Birds and the world. [Rene Francois. and would say properly that the four Elements, without saying a word, sing a motet for four with their flowering gayety, in praise of nature, and to well avenge the return of the miracle of the Birds and the world. [Rene Francois. Essay on the Wonders of Nature and the Noblest Artifices . Lyon, J. Huguetan, 1642, c. V, p. 69.] (pl. XXXIV)




Plate XXXIV


As well as the caissons of Dampierre, the panel with three sculpted trees of the palace of Bourges bears a motto. On the framing border decorated with flowering branches, the attentive observer discovers, in fact, isolated letters, very cleverly concealed. Their meeting composes one of the favorite maxims of the great artist that was Jacques Coeur:

OF. MY. JOY. SAY. OD. TO HUSH UP.

Now, the Adept's joy resides in his occupation. Work, which makes this marvel of nature perceptible and familiar to him – which so many ignoramuses qualify as chimerical – constitutes his best distraction, his noblest enjoyment. In Greek, the word χ αρά, joy, derived from χαίρω, to rejoice, to please oneself, to delight in, still means to love. The famous philosopher therefore clearly alludes to the work of the Work, his dearest task, of which so many symbols, moreover, come to enhance the brilliance of the sumptuous dwelling. But what to say, what to confess of this unique joy, pure and complete satisfaction, intimate joy of success? As little as possible, if one does not want to perjure oneself, stir up the envy of some, the greed of others, the jealousy of all, and risk becoming the prey of the powerful. What to do then with the result, which the artist, according to the rules of our discipline, undertakes for himself to use modestly?Use it constantly for good, dedicate its fruits to the exercise of charity, in accordance with philosophical precepts and Christian morality. What finally silence? Absolutely everything concerning the alchemical secret and its application; for revelation, remaining the exclusive privilege of God, the disclosure of procedures remains forbidden, not communicable in plain language, permitted only under the veil of parable, allegory, image or metaphor.

Jacques Coeur's motto, despite its brevity and its innuendo, appears to be in perfect harmony with the traditional teachings of eternal wisdom. No philosopher, really worthy of the name, would refuse to subscribe to the rules of conduct that it expresses and that can be translated as follows:

Of the Great Work to say little, to do a lot, to keep silent .



THE BODYGUARDS OF FRANCOIS II

DUKE OF BRITTANY

I

When, around the year 1502, Anne, Duchess of Brittany and twice Queen of France, formed the project of bringing together, in a mausoleum worthy of the veneration she had for them, the bodies of her deceased parents, she entrusted the execution to a Breton artist, of great talent, but about whom we have little information, Michel Colombe. She was then twenty-five years old. His father, Duke François II, had died in Couëron fourteen years earlier, on September 9, 1488, only surviving his second wife, Marguerite de Foix, mother of Queen Anne, by sixteen months. She had died, in fact, on May 15, 1487.

This mausoleum, begun in 1502, was not completed until 1507. The plan is the work of Jean Perréal. As for the sculptures, which make it one of the purest masterpieces of the Renaissance, they are by Michel Colombe, who was helped in this work by two of his students: Guillaume Regnauld, his nephew, and Jehan de Chartres, "his disciple and servant", although the collaboration of the latter is not absolutely certain. A letter, written on January 4, 1511, by Jean Perréal to the secretary of Marguerite de Bourgogne, on the occasion of the work that this princess had carried out in the chapel of Brou, tells us that “Michel Coulombe besongnoit au moiz and had for moiz XX. escus, the space of sinc years”.The work of sculpture was paid him 1,200 crowns, and the tomb cost a total of 560 pounds. [See Father G. Durville,Studies on Old Nantes . volume II. Vannes, Lafolye Brothers, 1915.]

According to the desire expressed by Marguerite de Bretagne and François II, to be buried in the Carmelite church of Nantes, Anne had the mausoleum built there, which took the name of Tomb of the Carmelites, under which it is generally known and designated. It remained in place until the Revolution, when the Carmelite church, having been sold as national property, was removed and kept secretly by an art lover anxious to protect the masterpiece from revolutionary vandalism. After the turmoil, it was rebuilt in 1819 in Saint-Pierre Cathedral in Nantes, where we can admire it today.The vaulted sepulchre, built under the ceremonial mausoleum, contained, when it was opened by order of the king, by Mellier, mayor of Nantes, on October 16 and 17, 1727, the three coffins of François II, Marguerite de Bretagne, his first wife, who died on September 25, 1449, and Marguerite de Foix, second wife of the Duke and mother of Queen Anne . A small box was also there; it contained a reliquary of "pure and worldly gold", in the shape of an egg, surmounted by the royal crown, covered with inscriptions in finely enamelled letters, and containing the heart of Anne of Brittany, whose body rests in the basilica of Saint-Denis.

[Mr. Canon G. Durville, from whose work we borrow these details, kindly sent us a picture of this curious room, empty, alas! of its contents, which is part of the collections of the Th. Dobrée museum, in Nantes, of which he is the curator. “I am sending you, he wrote to us, a small photograph of this precious reliquary. I placed it for a moment on the very spot where Queen Anne's heart was, thinking that this circumstance would make you attach more interest to this little souvenir. We ask Canon Durville to accept here the expression of our sincere thanks for his pious solicitude and his delicate attention.]

Among the descriptive accounts that various authors have left of the tomb of the Carmelites, there are very minute ones. We will preferably choose, to give an overview of the work, that of Brother Mathias de Saint-Jean, Carmelite of Nantes, who published it in the 17th century.

"But what seems to me most rare and worthy of admiration, says this writer, is the Tomb erected in the heart of the church of the Carmelite Fathers, which, by everyone's admission, is one of the most beautiful and magnificent that can be seen, which obliges me to make a particular description of it for the satisfaction of the curious.

"The devotion that the ancient Dukes of Brittany had long had for the Most Holy Virgin, Mother of God, patroness of the Order and of this Church of the Carmelite Fathers, and the affection they had for the Religious of this House, led them to choose the place of their burial there. And Queen Anne, by a unique testimony of her pity and affection for this place, wanted to have this beautiful monument erected there in memory of her father François Second and her mother Marguerite de Foye .

“It is built in square, eight feet wide by fourteen long: its material is all fine Italian marble, white and black, porphire and alabaster. The horn is raised on the plane (the floor) of the Church, six feet high. The two sides are adorned with six niches, each two feet high, the bottom of which is of well-worked porphyry, adorned around with pilasters of white marble, in all the right proportions and rules of architecture, enriched with moresque (arabesques) very delicately worked: and all these twelve niches are filled with figures of the twelve Apostles, of white marble, each having his different posture, and the instruments of his passion. The two ends of this horn are adorned with similar architecture, and each one is divided into two niches like the others.At the end towards the main Altar of the Church are placed in these niches the figures of Saint-François d'Assise and Saint Marguerite, patrons of the last Duke and Duchess who are buried there: and at the other end are similarly seen in niches the figures of S. Charlemagne and S. Louis King of France. Below the said sixteen niches which surround the horn of the Tomb, there are as many concavities made in a round fourteen inches in diameter, the bottom of which is of white marble cut in the form of a shell, and all are filled with figures of mourners in their mourning clothes, all in various postures, the work of which is considered by few, but it is admired by all who hear it. and at the other end are similarly seen in niches the figures of S. Charlemagne and S. Louis King of France.Below the said sixteen niches which surround the horn of the Tomb, there are as many concavities made in a round fourteen inches in diameter, the bottom of which is of white marble cut in the form of a shell, and all are filled with figures of mourners in their mourning clothes, all in various postures, the work of which is considered by few, but it is admired by all who hear it. and at the other end are similarly seen in niches the figures of S. Charlemagne and S. Louis King of France.Below the said sixteen niches which surround the horn of the Tomb, there are as many concavities made in a round fourteen inches in diameter, the bottom of which is of white marble cut in the form of a shell, and all are filled with figures of mourners in their mourning clothes, all in various postures, the work of which is considered by few, but it is admired by all who hear it.

“This horn is covered with a large table of black marble all in one piece, and which exceeds the solid (the mass of the tomb) by about eight inches, around it in the form of a cornice, to serve as an entablature and ornament for this horn. Upon this stone lie two large figures of white marble, each eight feet long, one of which represents the Duke, and the other the Duchess with their Ducal clothes and crowns. Three white marble figures of Angels, each three feet tall, hold tiles (cushions) under the heads of these figures, which seem to be sagging under the load, and the Angels are crying.At the feet of the figure of the Duke, there is a figure of Lying Lyon represented in the natural, which wears on its jube (mane) the shield of the arms of Brittany: and at the feet of the figure of the Duchess, there is the figure of a Greyhound,

“But what is most marvelous in this piece are the four figures of the Cardinal Virtues, placed at the four corners of this tomb, made of white marble, six feet high: they are so well cut, so well planted, and have so much natural connection, that natives and foreigners admit that nothing better can be seen, neither in the antiques of Rome, nor in the moderns of Italy, France and Germany. The figure of Justice is posed in the right corner as you enter, carrying a raised sword in the right hand, and a book with a balance in the left, the crown in the head, dressed in pannier and fur which are the marks of science, equity, severity and majesty which accompany this virtue.

“Opposite, on the left side, is the figure of Prudence, which has two faces opposite each other in the same head: one of an old man with a long beard, the other of a young youth; in her right (left) hand she holds a convex mirror which she gazes fixedly at, and in the other a compass: at her feet is a snake, and these things are symbols of the consideration and wisdom with which this virtue proceeds in its actions.

“At the right angle, on the side from above, is the figure of Force, dressed in chainmail (armour) and the helm of it; with her left hand she supports a tower, from the crevices of which emerges a serpent (a dragon) which she suffocates with her right hand, which marks the vigor which this virtue uses in the adversities of the world to prevent violence or to support its weight.

“On the opposite corner is the figure of Temperance dressed in a long dress, girded with a cord: with her right hand, she supports the machine of a clock, and with the other a bridle bit, hieroglific of the regulation and moderation that this virtue puts in human passions. [ Le Commerce honorable, etc., composed by an inhabitant of Nantes . Nantes, Guillaume Le Monnier, 1646, p. 308-312.]

The praise that Brother Mathias de Saint-Jean makes of these bodyguards of François II, represented by the Cardinal Virtues of Michel Colombe, seems to us perfectly deserved. [Michel Colombe, born in Saint-Pol-de-Léon in 1460, was about forty-five years old when he executed them.] “These four statues, says de Caumont, are admirable in their grace and simplicity. The draperies are rendered with rare perfection, and in each figure a very striking individuality is observed, though all four are equally noble and beautiful. [De Caumont, Course in Monumental Antiquities , 1841; 6th part, p. 445.]

It is these statues, imprinted with the purest symbolism, guardians of ancient tradition and science, that we are going to study in particular.


II (The bodyguards of François II, Duke of Brittany)

With the exception of Justice, the cardinal Virtues are no longer represented with the singular attributes that give ancient figures their enigmatic and mysterious character. Under the pressure of more realistic conceptions, the symbolism was transformed. Artists, abandoning all idealization of thought, prefer to obey naturalism; they closely hug the expression of the attributes and facilitate the identification of the allegorical characters. But, by perfecting their methods and drawing closer to modern formulas, they unconsciously dealt a mortal blow to traditional truth. For the ancient sciences, transmitted under the veil of various emblems, belong to Diplomacy and present themselves endowed witha double meaning, one apparent, understandable to all (exotericism), the other hidden, accessible only to initiates (esotericism). By specifying the symbol, limited to its positive, normal and definite function; by individualizing it to the point of excluding any related or relative idea, it is stripped of this double meaning, of the secondary expression which makes it precisely the didactic value and the essential scope. The ancients represented Justice, Fortune and Love, with blindfolded eyes. Did they claim to express only the blindness of one, the blindness of the others? Could we not discover, in the attribute of the blindfold, a special reason for this artificial and doubtless necessary obscurity?It would suffice to know that these figures, commonly subject to human vicissitudes, also belong to the scientific tradition, to easily recognize it. And one would even notice that the occult meaning reveals itself with a clarity superior to that which is obtained by direct analysis and superficial reading. When the poets tell that Saturn, father of the gods, devoured his children, we believe, with the Encyclopédie, that "such a metaphor serves to characterize an era, an institution, etc., whose circumstances or results become fatal to those who should have received only the benefits". But if we substitute for this general interpretation the positive and scientific reason which constitutes the basis of legends and myths, the truth immediately emerges, luminous and patent.Hermeticism teaches that Saturn, symbolic representative of the first terrestrial metal, generator of the others, is also their unique and natural solvent; now, as all dissolved metal is assimilated to the solvent and loses its characteristics, it is correct and logical to claim that the solvent “eats” the metal, and that the fabulous old man thus devours his offspring.

We could give many examples of this duality of meaning expressed by traditional symbolism. This alone suffices to demonstrate that, jointly with the moral and Christian interpretation of the Cardinal Virtues, there exists a second teaching, secret, profane, ordinarily misunderstood, which belongs to the material domain of acquisitions, of ancestral knowledge. Thus we find again, sealed in the form of the same emblems, the harmonious alliance of Science and Religion, so fertile in marvelous results, but which skepticism of our day refuses to wish to recognize and conspires always to set aside.

“The theme of the Virtues,” M. Paul Vitry rightly remarks, “was established in the 13th century in Gothic art. But, adds the author, while the series had remained quite variable among us as to number, order and attributes, it had settled early in Italy, and was limited either to the three theological Virtues: Faith, Hope, Charity, or more often perhaps still to the four cardinal Virtues: Prudence, Justice, Force, Temperance. She had also applied herself early to the ornamentation of funerary monuments.

“As for the way of characterizing these Virtues, it seems to have been more or less settled with Orcagna and his tabernacle of Or San Michele from the middle of the 14th century. Justice carries the sword and the scales and will never vary. The essential attribute of Prudence is the snake; sometimes one or more books are added, later a mirror. Almost from the beginning also, by an idea analogous to that of Dante, who had given three eyes to his Prudence, the image-makers gave two faces to this Virtue. Temperance sometimes sheaths her sword, but most often she holds two vases and seems to be mixing water and wine: it is the elementary symbol of sobriety. Finally, Force has the attributes of Samson; she is armed with shield and club;sometimes she has a lion's skin on her head and a disc depicting the world in her hands; at other times finally, and this will be its definitive attribute, in Italy at least, it carries the whole or broken column...

“In the absence of the rest of the great monuments, the manuscripts, the books, the engravings were responsible for spreading the type of Virtues in the Italian style and could even make it known to those who, like Colombe, had probably not made the trip to Italy. A series of Italian prints from the late 15th century, which is known as the Italian Playing Cards , shows us, in the middle of representations of the different social conditions, of the Muses, of the gods of antiquity, of the Liberal Arts, etc., a series of figures of Virtues;they have exactly the attributes that we have just described… We have here a very curious specimen of these documents which could be brought back by people such as Perréal, who had followed the expeditions, documents which could circulate in the workshops and provide themes while waiting for them to impose a new style.

“This symbolic language, moreover, had no difficulty in being understood among us; it was completely in keeping with the allegorical spirit of the fifteenth century. It suffices to think, to realize this, of the Roman de la Rose and all the literature that resulted from it. The miniaturists had abundantly illustrated these works and, even apart from these allegories of Nature, Deduction and False Semblant, French art was certainly not unaware of the series of Virtues, although it was not a theme as frequently employed as in Italy. » [Paul Vitry. Michel Colombe and the French sculpture of his time. Paris, E. Levy, 1901, p. 395 et seq.]

However, without absolutely denying, in the splendid figures of the Tomb of the Carmelites, some Italian influence, Paul Vitry points out the new character, essentially French, that Michel Colombe was going to give to the ultramontane elements reported by Jean Perréal. “Even admitting, continues the author, that they borrowed the first idea from the Italian tombs, Perréal and Colombe were not going to accept, without modification, this theme of the Cardinal Virtues. Indeed, “Temperance will carry in her hands a clock and a horsebit with its bridle instead of the two vases which the Italians had commonly given her. As for the Force, armed and helmeted, instead of its column, it will hold a tower, a sort of crenellated dungeon, from which it violently uproots a struggling dragon.Neither in Rome, nor in Florence, nor in Milan,

But if one can easily discern, in the cenotaph of Nantes, the respective part which belongs to the masters Perréal and Colombe, it is more difficult to discover how far the personal influence, the personal will of the foundress could extend. Because we cannot believe that she was, for five years, disinterested in a work that was particularly close to her heart. Queen Anne, this gracious sovereign whom the people, in her naive affection, familiarly called "the good duchess in wooden clogs", did she know the esoteric significance of the guardians of the mausoleum erected in memory of her parents? We would gladly answer this question in the affirmative. Her biographers assure us that she was highly educated, gifted with a keen intelligence and remarkable clairvoyance.Its library already seems important for the time.Index des Comptes de Expenses de 1498 ), there were manuscript and printed books in Latin, French, Italian, Greek and Hebrew. Eleven hundred and forty volumes, taken from Naples by Charles VIII, had been given to the queen… It may be surprising to see works in Greek and Hebrew appearing in the collection of the queen duchess; but it must not be forgotten that she had studied both scholarly languages ​​and that the character of her mind was above all serious. » [Le Roux de Lincy, Life of Queen Anne of Brittany, wife of the Kings of France Charles VIII and Louis XII . Paris, L. Curmer, 1860, vol. II, p.34.] We are depicted seeking the conversation of diplomats, to whom she liked to respond in their own language, which would justify a very careful polyglot education and probably also the possession of the hermetic cabal, of gay-knowledge or of double science. Did she frequent the renowned scholars of her time and, among them, contemporary alchemists? We lack information in this respect, although it seems difficult to explain why the large fireplace in the living room of the Hôtel Lallemant bears the ermine of Anne of Brittany and the porcupine of Louis XII, if we do not want to see there a testimony of their presence in the philosopher's residence of Bourges. Be that as it may, his personal fortune was considerable. Goldsmith's coins, gold ingots,the precious gems formed the mass of an almost inexhaustible treasure. The abundance of such wealth singularly facilitated the exercise of generosity which quickly became popular. The chroniclers inform us that she willingly rewarded, by the gift of a diamond, the poor minstrel who had distracted her for a few moments. As for her livery, it offered the hermetic colors chosen by her: black, yellow and red, before the death of Charles VIII, and only the two extremes of the Work, black and red, since that time. Finally, she was the first queen of France who, resolutely breaking with the custom established until then, wore mourning for her first husband in black, while custom obliged sovereigns to always wear him in white.The abundance of such wealth singularly facilitated the exercise of generosity which quickly became popular. The chroniclers inform us that she willingly rewarded, by the gift of a diamond, the poor minstrel who had distracted her for a few moments. As for her livery, it offered the hermetic colors chosen by her: black, yellow and red, before the death of Charles VIII, and only the two extremes of the Work, black and red, since that time. Finally, she was the first queen of France who, resolutely breaking with the custom established until then, wore mourning for her first husband in black, while custom obliged sovereigns to always wear him in white. The abundance of such wealth singularly facilitated the exercise of generosity which quickly became popular.The chroniclers inform us that she willingly rewarded, by the gift of a diamond, the poor minstrel who had distracted her for a few moments. As for her livery, it offered the hermetic colors chosen by her: black, yellow and red, before the death of Charles VIII, and only the two extremes of the Work, black and red, since that time. Finally, she was the first queen of France who, resolutely breaking with the custom established until then, wore mourning for her first husband in black, while custom obliged sovereigns to always wear him in white. by the gift of a diamond, the poor minstrel who had distracted her for a few moments.As for her livery, it offered the hermetic colors chosen by her: black, yellow and red, before the death of Charles VIII, and only the two extremes of the Work, black and red, since that time. Finally, she was the first queen of France who, resolutely breaking with the custom established until then, wore mourning for her first husband in black, while custom obliged sovereigns to always wear him in white. by the gift of a diamond, the poor minstrel who had distracted her for a few moments. As for her livery, it offered the hermetic colors chosen by her: black, yellow and red, before the death of Charles VIII, and only the two extremes of the Work, black and red, since that time.Finally, she was the first queen of France who, resolutely breaking with the custom established until then, wore mourning for her first husband in black, while custom obliged sovereigns to always wear him in white.


III (The bodyguards of François II, Duke of Brittany)

The first of the four statues that we are going to study is the one that offers us the various attributes responsible for specifying the allegorical expression of Justice: lion, scales, sword. But, in addition to the esoteric meaning, clearly different from the moral sense attributed to these attributes, the figure of Michel Colombe presents other revealing signs of his occult personality. There is no detail, however minute, that can be neglected in any analysis of this kind, without first having been seriously examined. Now, the ermine surcoat worn by Justice is bordered with roses and pearls. Our Virtue has her forehead crowned with a ducal crown, which could lead to believe that she reproduced the features of Anne of Brittany;the sword she holds in her right hand has its pommel adorned with a radiant sun; Finally, and this is what characterizes it in the first place, it appears here unveiled. The peplum that covered her entirely slipped down the body; retained by the protrusion of the arms, it doubles the coat in its lower part. The sword itself has left its brocade scabbard, which we now see hanging from the point of the blade (pl. XXXV).




Plate XXXV


As the very essence of justice and its raison d'etre demand that it should have nothing hidden, that the search and manifestation of truth compel it to show itself to all in the full light of fairness, the veil, half-removed, must necessarily reveal the secret individuality of a second figure, cleverly concealed under the form and attributes of the first. This second figure is none other than Philosophy.

In Roman antiquity, it was called peplum(in Greek πέπλος or πέπλα) a veil decorated with embroidery with which the statue of Minerva, daughter of Jupiter, the only goddess whose birth was marvelous, was dressed. The fable says, in fact, that she came fully armed from the brain of her father, whose head Vulcan, on the orders of the master of Olympus, had split open. Hence its Hellenic name of Athene, - Ἀθηνά, formed of ἀ, privative, and τιθήνη, nurse, mother, meaning born without a mother. Personification of Wisdom, or Knowledge of things, Minerva must be regarded as the divine and creative thought, materialized in all nature, latent in us as well as in all that surrounds us.But it is a feminine garment, a woman's veil (κάλυμμα), that is in question here, and this word provides us with another reason for the symbolic peplum. Κάλυμμα, comes from καλύπτω to cover, wrap, hide, which formed κάλυξ, rosebud, flower, and also Καλυψώ, Greek name of the nymph Calypso, queen of the mythical island of Ogyria, whom the Hellenes named Ὠγύγιος, a term close to Ὠγυγία, which has the meaning of ancient and great. We thus find the mystical rose, flower of the Great Work, better known as the philosopher's stone. So that it is easy to grasp the relationship between the expression of the veil and that of the roses and pearls adorning the fur surcoat, since this stone is still called a precious pearl (better known as the philosopher's stone.So that it is easy to grasp the relationship between the expression of the veil and that of the roses and pearls adorning the fur surcoat, since this stone is still called a precious pearl ( better known as the philosopher's stone. So that it is easy to grasp the relationship between the expression of the veil and that of the roses and pearls adorning the fur surcoat, since this stone is still called a precious pearl (Margarita pretiosa ). “Alciat, Fr. Noël tells us, represents Justice in the guise of a Virgin whose crown is of gold and whose tunic is white, covered with an ample drapery of purple. Her gaze is soft and her posture modest. She wears a rich jewel on her chest, a symbol of her priceless price, and places her left foot on a square stone. One could not better describe the double nature of the Magisterium, its colors, the high value of this cubic stone, which carries Philosophy in its entirety, masked, for the vulgar, under the features of Justice.

Philosophy confers on the wife a great power of investigation. It allows one to penetrate the intimate complexion of things, which it slices as with a sword, discovering there the presence of the spiritus mundi.of which the classical masters speak, which has its center in the sun and draws its virtues and its movement from the radiance of the star. It also gives knowledge of the general laws, rules, rhythm and measures that nature observes in the elaboration, evolution and perfection of created things (balance). Finally, it establishes the possibility of acquiring science on the basis of observation, meditation, faith and written teaching (book). By the same attributes, this image of Philosophy informs us, secondly, about the essential points of the work of the Adepts, and proclaims the necessity of manual work imposed on researchers wishing to acquire the positive notion, the indisputable proof of its reality. Without technical research, without frequent trials or repeated experiments,one can only get lost in a science whose best treatises carefully hide the physical principles, their application, the materials and the time. He therefore who dares to claim to be a philosopher and does not want to plow for fear of coal, fatigue or expense, he must be regarded as the most vain of ignoramuses or the most brazen of impostors. “I can give this testimony, said Augustin Thierry, who on my part will not be suspicious: there is something in the world that is worth more than material enjoyments, better than fortune, better than health itself, it is devotion to science. The activity of the sage is not measured by the results of speculative propaganda; it is controlled near the stove, in the solitude and silence of the laboratory, not elsewhere;it manifests itself without advertisement or verbiage, by attentive study, precise and persevering observation of reactions and phenomena. Whoever acts otherwise will verify, sooner or later, the maxim of Solomon (Prov., XXI, 25), saying that “the desire of the idler will make him perish, because his hands refuse to work”. The true scientist shrinks from no effort; he does not fear suffering, because he knows what the ransom of science is, and because science alone provides him with the means “to hear the sentences and their interpretation, the words of the wise and their profound discourses” (Prov., I, 6). The true scientist shrinks from no effort;he does not fear suffering, because he knows what the ransom of science is, and because science alone provides him with the means “to hear the sentences and their interpretation, the words of the wise and their profound discourses” (Prov., I, 6). The true scientist shrinks from no effort; he does not fear suffering, because he knows what the ransom of science is, and because science alone provides him with the means “to hear the sentences and their interpretation, the words of the wise and their profound discourses” (Prov., I, 6).

As to the practical value of the attributes assigned to Justice, which pertain to hermetic work, the student will find by experience that the energy of the universal spirit has its signature in the sword, and the sword has its correspondence in the sun, as being the perpetual animator and modifier of all bodily substances. He is the sole agent of the successive metamorphoses of the original matter, subject and foundation of the Magisterium. It is through it that mercury is changed into sulfur, sulfur into Elixir and the Elixir into Medicine, thus receiving the name of Crown of the Wise, because this triple mutation confirms the truth of the secret teaching and consecrates the glory of its happy maker. The possession of fiery and multiplied sulfur, masked under the term of philosopher's stone,

We have had, many times already, the opportunity to explain the meaning of the open book, characterized by the radical solution of the metallic body, which, having abandoned its impurities and yielded its sulfur, is then said to be open . But here a comment is in order. under the name of liber and under the image of the book, adopted to qualify the matter holding the solvent, the wise men intended to designate the closed book, general symbol of all the raw bodies, minerals or metals, such as nature provides them to us or that human industry delivers them to trade. Thus, the ores extracted from the deposit, the metals taken from the melting, are hermetically expressed by a closed or sealed book.Likewise, these bodies, subjected to alchemical work, modified by the application of occult processes, are translated into iconography with the help of the open book. It is therefore necessary, in practice, to extract the mercury from the closed book which is our primitive subject, in order to obtain it alive and open, if we want it to be able in its turn to open the metal and make alive the inert sulfur which it contains. The opening of the first book prepares for that of the second. For there are, hidden under the same emblem, two closed books (the raw subject and the metal) and two open books (the mercury and the sulphur), although these hieroglyphic books are really only one, since the metal comes from the initial matter and the sulfur takes its origin from mercury.

As for the balance, applied against the book, it would suffice to note that it translates the necessity of weights and proportions to believe oneself dispensed from talking about them further. However, this faithful image of the utensil used for weighing, and to which chemists assign an honorable place in their laboratories, nevertheless conceals a mystery of great importance. This is the reason which obliges us to take account of it and to indicate briefly what the balance conceals under the angular and symmetrical aspect of its form.

When philosophers consider the weight ratios of matters between them, they hear of one or the other part of a double esoteric knowledge: that of the weight of nature and that of the weights of art. [Until the moment when the lover, for the third time having renewed the weights, Atalanta granted the reward to his conqueror. ( Michaelis Maieri Atalanta Fugians. Oppenheimii, 1618. Epigramma authoris.)] Unfortunately, the wise, says Solomon, hide science; bound to remain within the narrow limits of their vow, and respectful of the accepted discipline, they are careful never to establish clearly in what these two secrets differ. We will make sure to go further than them and say, in all sincerity, that the weights of art are applicable exclusively to distinct bodies, capable of being weighed, while the weight of nature refers to the relative proportions of the components of a given body. So that, describing the reciprocal quantities of various materials, with a view to their regular and suitable mixture, the authors truly speak of the weights of art;on the contrary, if it is a question of quantitative values ​​within a synthetic and radical combination, – like that of sulfur and mercury principles united in the philosophical mercury, – it is the weight of nature which is then considered. And we will add, in order to remove any confusion in the mind of the reader, that if the weights of art are known to the artist and rigorously determined by him, on the other hand the weight of nature is always ignored, even by the greatest masters. This is a mystery which belongs to God alone and whose intelligence remains inaccessible to man.

The Work begins and ends with the weights of art; thus the alchemist, preparing the way, incites nature to begin and perfect this great work. But, between these extremities, the artist does not have to use the balance, the weight of nature intervening alone. To such an extent that the manufacture of common mercury, that of philosophical mercury, the operations known under the term of imbibitions, etc., are done without it being possible to know – even approximately – what are the quantities retained or decomposed, what is the assimilation coefficient of the base, as well as the proportion of spirits. This is what the Cosmopolitan implies when he says that mercury does not take up more sulfur than it can absorb and retain.In other words, the proportion of assimilable matter, directly dependent on its own metallic energy, always remains variable and cannot be evaluated. The whole work is therefore subject to the qualities, natural or acquired, both of the agent and of the initial subject. Now, even supposing the agent obtained with a maximum of virtue—which is rarely attained—basic matter, such as nature offers it to us, is very far from being constantly equal and similar to itself. We will say in this regard, having often checked the effect, that the assertion of the authors based on certain external particularities – yellow spots, efflorescences, patches or red dots – hardly deserves to be taken into consideration.The mining region could rather provide some indications on the quality sought, although several samples, taken from the mass of the same deposit,

Thus it will be explained, without resorting to abstract influences or mystical interventions, that the philosopher's stone, in spite of regular work, conforming to natural necessities, never leaves in the hands of the worker a body of equal power, of transmuting energy in direct and constant relation with the quantity of materials used.


IV (The bodyguards of Francis II, Duke of Brittany)

Here, in our opinion, is the masterpiece of Michel Colombe and the capital piece of the tomb of the Carmelites. “By itself, writes Léon Palustre, this statue of Force would be enough for the glory of a man, and one cannot defend oneself, by contemplating it, from a lively and deep emotion. » [Léon Palustre. French Sculptors of the Renaissance: Michel Colombe. Gazette des Beaux-Arts , 2nd period, t. XXIX, May-June 1884.] The majesty of the attitude, the nobility of the expression, the grace of the gesture – which one would wish to be more vigorous – are as many revealing characteristics of a consummate mastery, of an incomparable skill of craftsmanship.

The head covered with a flat morion, with the muzzle of a lion at the head, the bust covered with the finely chiseled halecret, the Force supports a tower with the left hand and, with the right, pulls out of it – not a snake as most descriptions have it – but a winged dragon, which it strangles by tightening its neck. An ample drapery with long fringes, the folds of which bear on the forearms, forms a loop through which passes one of its ends. This drapery, which, in the mind of the sculptor, was to cover the emblematic Virtue, confirms what we have said previously. Like Justice, Force appears unveiled (pl. XXXVI).




Plate XXXVI


Daughter of Jupiter and Themis, sister of Justice and Temperance, the ancients honored her as a divinity, without however adorning her images with the singular attributes that we see her presenting today. In Greek antiquity, the statues of Hercules, with the hero's club and the skin of the Nemean lion, personified both physical strength and moral strength. The Egyptians represented her as a woman of powerful complexion, with two bull's horns on her head and an elephant at her side. The moderns express it in very different ways. Botticelli sees her as a robust woman, simply seated on a throne; Rubens adds to it a shield with the figure of a lion, or has it followed by a lion. Gravelot shows her crushing vipers, a lion's skin thrown over her shoulders,the forehead girded with a branch of laurel and holding a bundle of arrows, while at his feet are crowns and scepters. Anguier, in a bas-relief from the tomb of Henri de Longueville (Louvre), uses, to define Force, a lion devouring a boar. Coysevox (balustrade of the marble court, at Versailles) dresses her in a lion's skin and makes her carry an oak branch in one hand, and the base of a column in the other. Finally, among the bas-reliefs that decorate the peristyle of the Saint-Sulpice church, Strength is depicted armed with the flaming sword and the shield of Faith. Coysevox (balustrade of the marble court, at Versailles) dresses her in a lion's skin and makes her carry an oak branch in one hand, and the base of a column in the other.Finally, among the bas-reliefs that decorate the peristyle of the Saint-Sulpice church, Strength is depicted armed with the flaming sword and the shield of Faith. Coysevox (balustrade of the marble court, at Versailles) dresses her in a lion's skin and makes her carry an oak branch in one hand, and the base of a column in the other. Finally, among the bas-reliefs that decorate the peristyle of the Saint-Sulpice church, Strength is depicted armed with the flaming sword and the shield of Faith.

In all these figures and in a number of others, the enumeration of which would be tedious, we find no analogy, in respect of attributes, with those of Michel Colombe and the sculptors of his time. The beautiful statue in the tomb of the Carmelites therefore takes on a special value and becomes for us the best translation of esoteric symbolism.

It cannot reasonably be denied that the tower, so important in medieval fortification, has a clearly defined meaning, although we have been unable to find any interpretation of it anywhere. As for the dragon, we know better its double expression; from the moral and religious point of view, it is the translation of the spirit of evil, demon, devil or Satan; for the philosopher and the alchemist, it has always served to represent the raw, volatile and dissolving matter, otherwise known as common mercury. Hermetically, we can therefore consider the tower as the envelope, the refuge, the protective asylum – the mineralogists would say the gangue or the mine – of the mercurial dragon. This is also the meaning of the Greek word πύργος, tower, asylum, refuge.The interpretation would be even more complete if we assimilated to the artist the woman who pulls the monster out of its lair, and her deadly gesture to the goal he must aim for in this painful and dangerous operation. Thus, at least, we could find a satisfactory and practically true explanation of the allegorical subject serving to reveal the esoteric side of the Force. But we would have to assume that the secret science to which these attributes refer is known. However, our statue is itself responsible for informing us both about its symbolic significance and about the related branches of this whole that is wisdom, represented by all the Cardinal Virtues. If one had asked the great initiate that was François Rabelais what his opinion was, he would certainly have replied,by the voice of Epistemon [The Greek word Ἐπιστήμων means scholar, who is instructed in, skilled in; root ἐπίσταμαι, to know, to know, to examine, to think.], that tower of fortification or fortified castle is as much to say as tower of force; and tour de force calls for “courage, sapience and power: courage, for what is in danger; sapience, for some knowledge is necessarily required; power, because he who can never undertake anything should not. On the other hand, the phonetic cabal, which makes the French word for some knowledge is necessarily required there; power, because he who can never undertake anything should not. On the other hand, the phonetic cabal, which makes the French wordfor some knowledge is necessarily required there; power, because he who can never undertake anything should not. On the other hand, the phonetic cabal, which makes the French wordtower the equivalent of the attic τοὐρος, completes the pantagruelic meaning of the tour de force .

[Rabelais' capital work, entitled Pantagruel, is entirely devoted to the burlesque and cabalistic exposition of alchemical secrets, of which Pantagruelism embraces the whole and constitutes the scientific doctrine. Pantagruel is made up of an assembly of three Greek words: παντᾷ, put for πάντῃ, completely, absolutely; γύη, path; ἕλη, solar light. Rabelais' gigantic hero thus expresses the perfect knowledge of the solar way, that is to say of the universal way.]

Indeed, τοὐρος is put and used for τὀ ὄρος; τὀ (which, what), ὄρος (goal, term, object that we propose) thus marking the thing to be achieved, which is the proposed goal. Nothing, we see, could better follow the figurative expression of the stone of the philosophers, a dragon enclosed in its fortress, the extraction of which was always considered a veritable tour de force. The image, moreover, speaks volumes; for if one experiences some difficulty in understanding how the dragon, robust and voluminous, could resist the compression exercised between the walls of its narrow prison, one does not grasp either by what miracle it passes entirely through a simple crack in the masonry. Here again we recognize the version of the prodigy, the supernatural and the marvelous.

Finally, let us point out that the Force still bears other imprints of the esotericism that it reflects. The braids of her hair, hieroglyphs of solar radiation, indicate that the Work, subject to the influence of the star, cannot be carried out without the dynamic collaboration of the Sun. The braid, named in Greek σειρά, is adopted to represent vibratory energy, because, among the ancient Hellenic peoples, the sun was called σείρ. The interlocking scales on the gorget of the halecret are those of the serpent, another emblem of the mercurial subject and a replica of the dragon, also scaly. Fish scales, arranged in a semicircle, decorate the abdomen and evoke the welding, to the human body, of a mermaid's tail.Now, the mermaid, fabulous monster and hermetic symbol, serves to characterize the union of nascent sulphur, which is our fish, and common mercury, called virgin, in the philosophical mercury or salt of wisdom. The same meaning is given to us by the galette des rois, to which the Greeks gave the same name as to the moon: σελήνη; this word, formed from the roots σέλας, radiance, and ἕλη, solar light, had been chosen by the initiates to show that the philosophical mercury draws its luster from sulphur, as the moon receives its light from the sun. A similar reason caused the name σειρήν, siren, to be attributed to the mythical monster resulting from the assembly of a woman and a fish;σειρήν, a term contracted from σείρ, sun, and from μήνη, moon, also indicates the lunar mercurial matter combined with the solar sulphurous substance. It is therefore a translation identical to that of the king cake, covered with the sign of light and spirituality, - the cross, and terra inanis et vacua of Scripture.


V (The bodyguards of Francis II, Duke of Brittany)

“Coiffed like a matron with the gorgial”, – thus expressed Dubuisson-Aubenay in his Itinerary in Brittany, in 1636 – Michel Colombe's Temperance is endowed with attributes similar to those assigned to it by Cochin. According to the latter, she is “dressed in simple clothes, a bit with its bridle in one hand, and, in the other, the pendulum of a clock or the pendulum of a watch”. Other figures show her holding a brake or a cup. “Quite often,” says Noel, “she appears leaning on an overturned vase, with a bit in her hand, or mixing wine with water.

The elephant, which passes for the most sober animal, is its symbol. Ripa gives two emblems: one, a woman with a tortoise on her head, holding a brake and money; the other, of a woman in the action of dipping, with pliers, a hot iron in a vase full of water. »

With his left hand, our statue supports the ornate case of a small weight clock, of the model used in the 16th century. We know that the dials of these devices had only one hand, as evidenced by this beautiful figure of the time. The clock, which serves to measure time, is taken for the hieroglyph of time itself and regarded, like the hourglass, as the principal emblem of old Saturn (pl. XXXVII).




Plate XXXVII


Some somewhat superficial observers thought they recognized a lantern in the Temperance clock, which was easily identifiable. The error would hardly change the deep meaning of the symbol, because the meaning of the lantern complements that of the clock. Indeed, if the lantern illuminates because it carries light, the clock appears as the dispenser of this light, which is not received in a single jet, but little by little, progressively, over the years and with the help of time. Experience, light, truth are philosophical synonyms; but nothing, except age, can enable one to acquire experience, light and truth. Also, we represent Time, sole master of wisdom, in the guise of an old man, and the philosophers in thesenile and weary attitude of men who have worked for a long time to obtain it. It is this need for time or experience that François Rabelais underlines, in his Addition to the last chapter of the fifth book of Pantagruel, when he writes: "When therefore your philosophers, God guiding, accompanying some clear lantern, devote themselves to carefully researching and investigating, as is the nature of humans (and of this quality are Herodotus and Homer called Alphestes, that is to say, researchers and inventors) [In Greek, ἀλφηστήρ or ἀλφηστής, means inventor, industrious, of ἀλ φή discovery, who gave the verb ἀλφάνω to imagine, to find by seeking.], will find true to be the answer made by the wise Thales to Amasis, king of the Egyptians, when, by him questioned in what thing was more prudent, answered: One time; for in time have been and in time will be all latent things invented; and this is the cause why the ancients called Saturn Time, father of Truth, and Truth daughter of Time .Infallibly also will find all the knowledge, and of them and of their predecessors, hardly being the minimum part of what is and does not know it. »

But the esoteric significance of Temperance lies entirely in the bridle she holds in her right hand. It is with the bridle that the horse is directed; by means of this part, the rider imposes on his mount the orientation which pleases him. We can also consider the bridle as the indispensable instrument, the mediator placed between the will of the rider and the march of the horse towards the proposed objective. This means, the image of which has been chosen from among the constituent parts of the harness, is designated in Hermeticism by the name of cabala. So that the special expressions of the bridle, that of brake and that of direction, make it possible to identify and recognize, in a single symbolic form, Temperance and Kabalistic Science.

About this science, a remark is in order, and we believe it all the more justified since the unprejudiced student readily assimilates the Hermetic Kabbalah to the system of allegorical interpretation which the Jews claim to have received by tradition, and which they call Kabbalah. In fact, there is nothing in common between the two terms, except their pronunciation. The Hebrew Kabbalah deals only with the Bible; it is therefore strictly limited to sacred exegesis and hermeneutics. The Hermetic Kabbala applies to books, texts and documents of the esoteric sciences of antiquity, the Middle Ages and modern times.While the Hebrew Kabbalah is only a process based on the decomposition and explanation of each word or each letter, the Hermetic Kabbalah, on the contrary, is a real language. And, as the great majority of didactic treatises on ancient sciences are written in Kabala, or use this language in their essential passages; that the great Art itself, by Artephius' own admission, is entirely cabalistic, the reader can grasp nothing of it unless he possesses at least the first elements of the secret idiom. In Hebrew Kabbalah, three meanings can be discovered in every sacred word; hence three different interpretations or Kabbalahs. The first, called Gematria, involves the analysis of the numeral or arithmetic value of the letters composing the word;the second, called Notarikon, establishes the meaning of each letter considered separately; the third, or Themurah (ie change, permutation), employs certain transpositions of letters. This latter system which appears to have been the most ancient, dates from the time when the school of Alexandria flourished, and was created by some Jewish philosophers anxious to accommodate the speculations of Greek and Eastern philosophy with the text of the holy books. We would not be otherwise surprised if the paternity of this method could go to the Jew Philo, whose reputation was great at the beginning of our era, because he was the first philosopher cited as having attempted to identify a true religion with philosophy.We know that he tried to reconcile the writings of Plato and the Hebrew texts, interpreting them allegorically, which is in perfect harmony with the goal pursued by the Hebrew Kabbalah. Be that as it may, according to the works of very serious authors, one cannot assign to the Jewish system a date much earlier than the Christian era, even going back the starting point of this interpretation to the Greek version of the Septuagint (238 BC). However, the hermetic cabal was used, long before this time, by the Pythagoreans and the disciples of Thales of Miletus (640-560), founder of the Ionian school: Anaximander, pherécyde de Syros, anaximène de Milet, heraclitis of Ephesus, Anaxagore de Clazomène, etc. GNE The Leiden papyrus.

What is also generally ignored is that the Kabbalah contains and preserves the essence of the mother tongue of the Pelasgians, a language deformed, but not destroyed, in primitive Greek; mother tongue of Western idioms, and particularly of French, whose pelasgic origin proves indisputably; an admirable language, which it suffices to know a little to easily find, in the various European dialects, the real meaning deviated, by time and the migrations of peoples, from the original language.

Unlike the Jewish Kabbalah, created from scratch in order to veil, without a doubt, what was too clear in the sacred text, the Hermetic Kabbalah is a precious key, allowing whoever possesses it to open the doors of the sanctuaries, of these closed books that are the works of traditional science, to extract their spirit, to grasp their secret meaning. Known to Jesus and his Apostles (it was unfortunately to cause the first denial of Saint Peter), the cabala was used in the Middle Ages by philosophers, scholars, writers, diplomats. Orderly knights and wandering knights, troubadours, trouvères and minstrels, student-tourists of the famous school of magic of Salamanca, which we call Venusbergs because they said they came from the mountain of Venus,discussed among themselves in the language of the gods, still called gaye-science or gay-scavoir, our hermetic cabal. [These Traveling Students Wore Around Their Necks, As A Sign of Recognition and Affiliation, A Yellow Net, of Wool or Knitted Silk, As Evidenced by the Liber Vagaborum, Published Around 1510, Awarded to Thomas Murner or Sebastian Brant, and the Schimpf und Ernst, Moreover, The Name and the Spirit of Chivalry, Whose True Character has been dream to us by the Mystical Works of Dante . The Latin caballus and the Greek καβάλλης both mean pack horse ; however, our cabal really supports the considerable weight, the sum of ancient knowledge and medieval chivalry or cabalism, heavy baggage of esoteric truths transmitted by it through the ages. It was the secret language of cabaliers, cavaliers or knights. Initiates and intellectuals of antiquity all knew about it. Both sides, in order to access the fullness of knowledge, metaphorically straddled the horse, a spiritual vehicle whose typical image is the winged Pegasus of the Hellenic poets. He alone made it easier for the elect to enter unknown regions;it offered them the possibility of seeing and understanding everything, through space and time, ether and light... Pegasus, in Greek Πήγασος, takes its name from the word πηγή, source, because it is said that it made kicking up the Hippocrene fountain ; but the truth is of another order. It is because the Kabbalah furnishes the cause, gives the principle, reveals the source of the sciences, that his animal hieroglyph has received the special and characteristic name which it bears. To know the cabal is to speak the language of Pegasus, the language of the horse, of which Swift expressly indicates, in one of his Allegorical Voyages, the effective value and the esoteric power.

Mysterious language of the philosophers and disciples of Hermes, the cabal dominates all the didactics of the Ars magna , as the symbolism embraces all the iconography. Art and literature thus offer hidden science the support of their own resources and their faculties of expression. In fact, and despite their particular character, their distinct technique, the Kabbalah and symbolism take different paths to arrive at the same goal and to merge in the same teaching. These are the two main columns, erected on the corner stones of the philosophical foundations, which support the alchemical pediment of the temple of wisdom.

All idioms can give asylum to the traditional meaning of cabalistic words, because the cabala, devoid of texture and syntax, adapts easily to any language, without altering its special genius. She brings to the established dialects the substance of her thought, with the original meaning of names and qualities. So that any language remains always capable of conveying it, of incorporating it and, consequently, of becoming cabalistic by the double acceptance that it takes on this head.

Apart from its pure alchemical role, the cabala has served as an intermediary in the elaboration of several literary masterpieces, which many dilettantes know how to appreciate, without however suspecting what treasures they hide under the approval, the charm or the nobility of the style. It is because the authors – whether they are called Homer, Virgil, Ovid, Plato, Dante or Goethe – were all great initiates. They wrote their immortal works not so much to leave to posterity imperishable monuments of human genius, as to instruct it in the sublime knowledge of which they were the custodians and which they had to transmit in their integrity.This is how we must judge, apart from the masters already mentioned, the marvelous artisans of the poems of chivalry, songs of gesture, etc., belonging to the cycle of Round Table and the Grail  ; the works of François Rabelais and those of Cyrano Bergerac; Don Quixote by Michel Cervantes; Gulliver's Travels , by Swift; the Dream of Poliphile , by Francisco Colonna; the Tales of Mother Goose , by Perrault; the Songs of the King of Navarre , by Thibault de Champagne; the Devil Predicator, a curious Spanish work of which we do not know the author, and a number of other works which, though less famous, are inferior to them neither in interest nor in science.

We will limit this exposition of the solar cabal there, not having received license to make a complete treatise of it nor to teach what are its rules. It suffices for us to have pointed out the important place occupied by it in the study of the "secrets of nature" and the need for the beginner to find the key to it. But, in order to be as useful to him as possible, we will give, by way of example, the plain language version of an original Kabalistic text from Naxagoras. Let's hope that the son of science discovers there the way to interpret the sealed books, and knows how to take advantage of such a less veiled teaching. In his allegory, the Adept endeavored to describe the ancient and simple path, the only one that the old master alchemists once followed.

This booklet is inserted at the end of the treatise of Naxagoras, entitled Alchymia denudata . We have made the version based on a handwritten French translation executed on the original work written in German.

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But in order to close, on a less austere note, this study of the secret language referred to as the hermetic or solar cabala, we will show how far historical credulity can go, when blind ignorance allows us to attribute to certain characters what has only ever belonged to allegory and legend. The historical facts which we offer for the reader's meditation are those of an ancient Roman monarch. We will hardly need to point out the absurd particularities, nor to underline all the cabalistic relations, so much these prove to be obvious and expressive.

The famous Roman emperor Varius Avitus Bassianus, hailed by the soldiers, - we do not really know why, - under the names of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus [Cabalistically, the assemblage of the raw material, Olympic or divine gold, and mercury. The latter, in the allegorical stories, always bears the name of Antoine, Antonin, Antolin, etc., with the epithet of pilgrim, messenger or traveler.], was nicknamed, – we do not know it either, – Élagable or Héliogabale [The Horse of the Sun, the one who carries science, the solar Cabal.]. “Born in 204, the Encyclopedia tells us, died in Rome in 222, he descended from a Syrian family [Συρία or σισύρα, ​​​​coarse skin covered with his hair: the future golden fleece.], dedicated to the worship of the Sun, to Emesa [Ἔμεσις, vomiting: this is the slag of the previous text.].He himself was, very young, high priest of this god, primum ens , formed by nature, from the philosopher's stone.] and under the name of Elagabalus. He was claimed to be the son of Caracalla. His mother, Sæmias…

[Some historians call her Semiamira, - half-wonderful. Both vile and precious, abject and sought after, she is the prostitute of the Work. Wisdom makes her say of herself Nigra sum sed formosa, I am black, but I am beautiful.]

… frequented court and was below slander. Be that as it may, the beauty of the young high priest seduced the legion of Emesa, who proclaimed him Augustus at the age of fourteen. Emperor Macrinus marched against him, but was defeated and killed.

“The reign of Heliogabalus was only the triumph of superstitions and oriental debauchery. There is no infamy or cruelty that this singular emperor with painted cheeks and trailing robe has not invented. He had brought his black stone to Rome, and forced the Senate and all the people to render him public worship. Having removed from Carthage the statue of Cælestis, which represented the Moon, he celebrated his nuptials with great pomp with his black stone, which represented the Sun. He created a senate of women, married four successive wives, including a Vestal, and one day gathered together in his palace all the prostitutes of Rome, to whom he addressed a speech on the duties of their state. The praetorians massacred Heliogabalus and threw his body into the Tiber.He was eighteen years old and had reigned four. »

If this is not history, it is at least a beautiful story, full of “pantagruelism”. Without failing in its esoteric mission, it would certainly have, under the alert pen, the warm and colorful style of Rabelais, enormously gained in flavor, in picturesqueness and in earthiness.


VI (The bodyguards of François II, Duke of Brittany)

Before being raised to the dignity of Cardinal Virtue, Prudence was for a long time an allegorical divinity to which the ancients gave a two-faced head – a formula which our statue reproduces exactly and in the happiest way. Its front face offers the physiognomy of a young woman with very pure curves, and its back face that of an old man whose face, full of nobility and gravity, extends into the silky waves of a river beard. A replica of Janus, son of Apollo and the nymph Creusa, this admirable figure does not yield to the other three either in majesty or interest.

Standing, she is represented with her shoulders covered in the ample philosopher's coat, which opens wide over the embossed herringbone bodice. A simple scarf protects her neck; formed as a headdress around the senile face, it is tied at the forehead, thus freeing the neck embellished with a pearl necklace. The skirt, with wide pleats, is held up by a cord with a tassel, heavy in appearance, but monastic in character. Her left hand embraces the base of a convex mirror, in which she seems to experience some pleasure in seeing her image, while her right hand holds apart the arms of a dry-point compass. A serpent, whose body appears huddled up on itself, expires at his feet (pl. XXXVIII).




Plate XXXVIII


This noble figure is for us a moving and suggestive personification of Nature, simple, fruitful, multiple and varied beneath the harmonious exterior, the elegance and perfection of the forms with which she adorns even her most humble productions. Its mirror, which is that of Truth, was always considered by classical authors as the hieroglyph of universal matter, and particularly recognized among them for the sign of the proper substance of the Great Work. Subject of the wise, Mirror of Art are hermetic synonyms which hide from the vulgar the true name of the secret mineral. It is in this mirror, say the masters, that man sees nature uncovered. It is thanks to him that he can know the ancient truth in its traditional realism. For nature never shows herself to the seeker,but only through this mirror which retains its reflected image. And to expressly show that this is indeed our microcosm and the small world of sapience, the sculptor has fashioned the mirror into a plano-convex lens, which has the property of reducing forms while preserving their respective proportions. The indication of the hermetic subject, containing in its tiny volume all that the immense universe contains, therefore appears deliberate, premeditated, imposed by an imperious esoteric necessity, and whose interpretation is not doubtful.So that by patiently studying this unique and primitive substance, chaotic parcel and reflection of the great world, the artist can acquire the elementary notions of an unknown science, penetrate into an unexplored domain, fertile in discoveries, abundant in revelations,

Thus appears, under the outer veil of Prudence, the mysterious image of the old alchemy, and we are, by the attributes of the first, initiated into the secrets of the second. Moreover, the practical symbolism of our science lies in the presentation of a formula comprising two terms, two essentially philosophical virtues: prudence and simplicity. Prudentia and Simplicitas , such is the favorite motto of Masters Basile Valentin and Senior Zadith. One of the woods in the Azoth treatise represents, in fact, at the feet of Atlas, supporting the cosmic sphere, a bust of Janus, – Prudentia , – and a young child spelling out the alphabet, – Simplicitas .But, while simplicity belongs above all to nature, as the first and most important of its appanages, man, on the contrary, seems endowed with the qualities grouped under the general denomination of prudence: foresight, circumspection, intelligence, sagacity, experience, etc. And although all require, to reach their perfection, the help and the support of time, some being innate, others acquired, it would be possible to provide in this sense a probable reason for the double mask of Prudence.

Truth, less abstract, seems more linked to the alchemical positivism of the attributes of our cardinal Virtue. It is generally recommended to unite "a healthy and vigorous old man with a young and beautiful virgin". In these chemical weddings, a metallic child must be born and receive the epithet of androgyne, because he is at the same time of the nature of sulfur, his father, and of that of mercury, his mother. But in this place lies a secret which we have not discovered in the best and most sincere authors. The operation, thus presented, appears simple and very natural. However, we found ourselves held up for several years by the impossibility of obtaining anything.It is because philosophers have skilfully welded two successive works into one, with all the more ease in that similar operations are involved. leading to parallel results. When the sages speak of their androgyne, they mean to designate by this term the artificially formed compound of sulfur and mercury, placed in close contact, or, according to the accepted chemical expression, simply combined. This therefore indicates the prior possession of a sulfur and a mercury previously isolated or extracted, and not of a body generated directly by nature, at the end of the conjunction of the old man and the young virgin. In practical alchemy, what is least known is the beginning.Also, this is the reason why we take every opportunity offered to us to speak of the beginning, preferably at the end of the Work. We follow in this the authorized advice of Basile Valentin, when he says that "he who has the material will always find a pot to cook it, and whoever has flour need not worry about being able to make bread”. same, and that is the virgin mother ;as for the old man, he must, his role completed, give way to someone younger than him. Thus, these two conjunctions will each generate an offspring of a different sex: sulfur, of a dry and igneous complexion, and mercury, of a “lymphatic and melancholic” temperament. This is what Philalethes and d'Espagnet want to teach by saying that “our virgin can be married twice without losing any of her virginity”. Others express themselves in a more obscure way, and content themselves with assuring that “the sun and the moon of the sky are not the stars of the philosophers”.We must understand by this that the artist will never find the parents of the stone, directly prepared in nature, and that he must first form the hermetic sun and moon, if he does not want to be defrauded of the precious fruit of their alliance. We believe we have said enough on this subject. Few words are enough for the sage, and those who have worked for a long time will know how to take advantage of our advice. We write for all, but all may not be called upon to hear us, because we are denied to speak more openly. Others express themselves in a more obscure way, and content themselves with assuring that “the sun and the moon of the sky are not the stars of the philosophers”.We must understand by this that the artist will never find the parents of the stone, directly prepared in nature, and that he must first form the hermetic sun and moon, if he does not want to be defrauded of the precious fruit of their alliance. We believe we have said enough on this subject. Few words are enough for the sage, and those who have worked for a long time will know how to take advantage of our advice. We write for all, but all may not be called upon to hear us, because we are denied to speak more openly. Others express themselves in a more obscure way, and content themselves with assuring that “the sun and the moon of the sky are not the stars of the philosophers”.We must understand by this that the artist will never find the parents of the stone, directly prepared in nature, and that he must first form the hermetic sun and moon, if he does not want to be defrauded of the precious fruit of their alliance. We believe we have said enough on this subject. Few words are enough for the sage, and those who have worked for a long time will know how to take advantage of our advice. We write for all, but all may not be called upon to hear us, because we are denied to speak more openly. We must understand by this that the artist will never find the parents of the stone, directly prepared in nature, and that he must first form the hermetic sun and moon, if he does not want to be defrauded of the precious fruit of their alliance.We believe we have said enough on this subject. Few words are enough for the sage, and those who have worked for a long time will know how to take advantage of our advice. We write for all, but all may not be called upon to hear us, because we are denied to speak more openly. We must understand by this that the artist will never find the parents of the stone, directly prepared in nature, and that he must first form the hermetic sun and moon, if he does not want to be defrauded of the precious fruit of their alliance. We believe we have said enough on this subject. Few words are enough for the sage, and those who have worked for a long time will know how to take advantage of our advice.We write for all, but all may not be called upon to hear us, because we are denied to speak more openly. and those who have worked for a long time will know how to take advantage of our advice. We write for all, but all may not be called upon to hear us, because we are denied to speak more openly. and those who have worked for a long time will know how to take advantage of our advice. We write for all, but all may not be called upon to hear us, because we are denied to speak more openly.

Folded in on itself, its head thrown back in the spasms of agony, the snake, which we see figuring at the foot of our statue, passes for being one of the attributes of Prudence; he is, he is said, of a very circumspect nature. We do not dispute this; but it will be agreed that this reptile, represented dying, must be so for the necessity of the symbolism, because its inertia does not allow it to exercise such a faculty. It is therefore reasonable to think that the emblem has another meaning, very distinct from that attributed to it. In hermeticism, its meaning is analogous to that of the dragon, which the sages adopted as one of the representatives of mercury.Let us recall the crucified serpent of Flamel, that of Notre-Dame de Paris, those of the caduceus, of the crucifixes of meditation (which come out of a human skull serving as a base for the divine cross), serpens qui caudam devours, – responsible for translating the closed circuit of the small universe that is the Work , etc. However, all these reptiles are dead or dying, from the Ouroboros who devours himself, to those of the caduceus, killed with a blow of his wand, passing by the tempter of Eve, whose head the posterity of the woman will crush (Genesis, III, 15). All express the same idea, contain the same doctrine, obey the same tradition.And the serpent, hieroglyph of the primordial alchemical principle, can justify the assertion of the sages, who ensure that everything they seek is contained in mercury. It is he, truly, the engine, the animator of the great work, because he begins it, maintains it, perfects it and completes it. It is the mystical circle whose sulfur, embryo of mercury, marks the central point around which it completes its rotation,

But, while the dragon represents the scaly and volatile mercury, product of the superficial purification of the subject, the serpent, devoid of wings, remains the hieroglyph of common mercury, pure and mundane, extracted from the body of Magnesia or prime matter. This is the reason why certain allegorical statues of Prudence have the snake fixed on a mirror as their attribute. And this mirror, signature of the raw mineral provided by nature, becomes luminous by reflecting the light, that is to say by manifesting its vitality in the serpent, or mercury, which it kept hidden under its coarse envelope. Thus, thanks to this primitive living and vivifying agent, it becomes possible to restore life to the sulfur of dead metals.In carrying out the operation, the mercury, dissolving the metal, seizes the sulphur, animates it and dies, yielding to it its own vitality. This is what the masters want to teach when they order to kill the living in order to raise the dead, to corporify the spirits and to reanimate the corporifications. Possessing this living and active sulfur, qualified as philosophical, in order to mark its regeneration, it will suffice to unite it, in suitable proportion, to the same living mercury, to obtain, by the interpenetration of these living principles, the philosophical or animated mercury, matter of the philosopher's stone. If we have understood what we have endeavored to translate above, and if we compare what is said here, the first two doors of the Work will be easily opened.Possessing this living and active sulfur, qualified as philosophical, in order to mark its regeneration, it will suffice to unite it, in suitable proportion, to the same living mercury, to obtain, by the interpenetration of these living principles, the philosophical or animated mercury, matter of the philosopher's stone. If we have understood what we have endeavored to translate above, and if we compare what is said here, the first two doors of the Work will be easily opened. Possessing this living and active sulfur, qualified as philosophical, in order to mark its regeneration, it will suffice to unite it, in suitable proportion, to the same living mercury, to obtain, by the interpenetration of these living principles, the philosophical or animated mercury, matter of the philosopher's stone.If we have understood what we have endeavored to translate above, and if we compare what is said here, the first two doors of the Work will be easily opened.

In summary, anyone who has a fairly extensive knowledge of the practice will notice that the main secret of the work lies in the artifice of dissolution. And as it is necessary to carry out several of these operations - different as to their aim, similar as to their technique - there exist so many secondary secrets, which, properly speaking, really form only one. All art is therefore reduced to dissolution, everything depends on it and on the manner in which it is carried out. This is the secretum secretorum , the key to the Magisterium hidden under the enigmatic axiom solve et coagula : dissolves (the body) and coagulates (the spirit).And this is done in a single operation involving two dissolutions, one violent, dangerous, unknown, the other easy, convenient, commonly used in the laboratory.

Having described elsewhere the first of these dissolutions and given, in veiled allegorical style, the essential details, we will not return to it.

[In order to illustrate these precious indications of the Master, we add, to the second volume of the Philosophical Residences , the beautiful and so telling composition of the Tres Precieux Don de Dieu , "written by Georges Aurach and painted with his own hand, the year of the Salvation of Redeemed Humanity, 1415" (pl. XXXIX).]




Plate XXXIX


But in order to specify its character, we will draw the attention of the worker to what distinguishes it from the chemical operations included under the same term. This indication may not be unnecessary.

We have said, and repeat it, that the object of philosophical dissolution is to obtain sulfur which, in the Magisterium, plays the role of formator by coagulating the mercury which is added to it, a property which it derives from its fiery, igneous and drying nature. “Every dry thing eagerly drinks up its moisture,” says an old alchemical axiom. But this sulphur, when first extracted, is never stripped of the metallic mercury with which it constitutes the central core of the metal, called essence or seed. Whence it follows that sulphur, preserving the specific qualities of the dissolved body, is in reality only the purest and most subtle portion of this body itself.Consequently, we are entitled to consider, with the plurality of masters, that philosophical dissolution achieves the absolute purification of imperfect metals. Gold, there is no example, spagyric or chemical, of an operation capable of giving such a result. All the purifications of metals treated by modern methods serve only to rid them of the least tenacious superficial impurities. And these, brought from the mine or driven to the reduction of the ore, are generally of little importance. On the contrary, the alchemical process, dissociating and destroying the mass of heterogeneous matter fixed on the nucleus, made up of very pure sulfur and mercury, ruins most of the body and makes it refractory to any subsequent reduction.It is thus, for example, that a kilogram of excellent iron from Sweden, or of electrolytic iron, furnishes a proportion of radical metal, of perfect homogeneity and purity, varying between 7 grams 24 and 7 grams 32. This body, very brilliant, is endowed with a magnificent violet coloration—which is the color of pure iron—analogous in brilliance and intensity to that of iodine vapors . It will be noticed that the sulfur of the iron, isolated, being crimson red, and its mercury colored light blue, the violet arising from their combination revealing the metal in its entirety. Subjected to philosophical dissolution, silver gives up few impurities, in relation to its volume, and gives a body of yellow color almost as beautiful as that of gold, of which it does not have the high density.Already, and we have taught it at the beginning of this book, the simple chemical dissolution of silver in nitric acid detaches from the metal a tiny fraction of pure silver, of the color of gold, which suffices to prove the possibility of a more energetic action and the certainty of the result that one can expect from it.

No one can dispute the importance and preponderance of dissolution, both in chemistry and in alchemy. It places itself in the first rank of laboratory operations, and it may be said that most of the chemical work is under its control. In alchemy, the entire Work comprises only a series of various solutions. We cannot therefore be surprised at the response that "the Spirit of Mercury" makes to "Brother Albert" in the dialogue that Basil Valentin gives us in the book of the Twelve Keys. . “How can I have this body? ask Albert; and the Spirit to reply: By dissolution. Whichever method is used, wet or dry, it is absolutely essential. What is fusion if not a solution of the metal in its own water?Likewise, the inquartation, as well as the obtaining of metallic alloys, are real chemical solutions of metals by each other. Mercury, liquid at ordinary temperature, is nothing but a molten or dissolved metal. All the distillations, extractions, purifications require a preliminary solution and are carried out only after completion of this one. And the discount? Is it not also the result of two successive solutions, that of the body and that of the reducer? If, in a primary solution of gold trichloride, we plunge a plate of zinc, a second solution, that of zinc, immediately enters, and the gold, reduced, precipitates in the state of an amorphous powder.Cupellation also demonstrates the need for a first solution, – that of the precious metal alloyed or impure, by lead, while a second, the fusion of the superficial oxides formed, eliminates them and completes the operation. As for the special, clearly alchemical manipulations – imbibitions, digestions, maturations, circulations, putrefactions, etc. – they depend on a previous solution and represent so many different effects of one and the same cause. the fusion of the superficial oxides formed, eliminates these and perfects the operation. As for the special, clearly alchemical manipulations – imbibitions, digestions, maturations, circulations, putrefactions, etc. – they depend on a previous solution and represent so many different effects of one and the same cause.the fusion of the superficial oxides formed, eliminates these and perfects the operation. As for the special, clearly alchemical manipulations – imbibitions, digestions, maturations, circulations, putrefactions, etc. – they depend on a previous solution and represent so many different effects of one and the same cause.

But what distinguishes the philosophical solution from all the others, and gives it at least a real originality, is that the solvent is not assimilated to the basic metal which is offered to it; it only separates the molecules, by breaking cohesion, seizes the particles of pure sulfur that they can retain and leaves the residue, formed of the major part of the body, inert, disaggregated, sterile and completely irreducible. We cannot, therefore, obtain with it a metallic salt, as we do with the aid of chemical acids. Moreover, known since antiquity, the philosophical solvent has never been used except in alchemy, by expert manipulators in the practice of the special knack required by its use. It is he whom the wise envisages when they say that the Work is made of a single thing.Unlike chemists and spagyrists, who have a collection of various acids, alchemists have only one agent, which has been given many different names, the latest of which is Alkaest. To mention the composition of liqueurs, simple or complex, qualified as alkaests, would take us too far, because the chemists of the 17th and 18th centuries each had their own particular formula. Among the best artists who have studied the mysterious solvent of Jean-Baptiste Van Helmont and Paracelsus at length, we will limit ourselves to mentioning: Thomson (qualified as alkaests, would lead us too far, because the chemists of the 17th and 18th centuries each had their own particular formula.Among the best artists who have studied the mysterious solvent of Jean-Baptiste Van Helmont and Paracelsus at length, we will limit ourselves to mentioning: Thomson ( qualified as alkaests, would lead us too far, because the chemists of the 17th and 18th centuries each had their own particular formula. Among the best artists who have studied the mysterious solvent of Jean-Baptiste Van Helmont and Paracelsus at length, we will limit ourselves to mentioning: Thomson (Epilogismi chimici , Leiden, 1673); Welling ( Opera cabalistica , Hamburg, 1735); Tackenius ( Hippocrates chimicus , Venice, 1666); Digby ( Secreta medica , Frankfurt, 1676); Starckey ( Pyrotechnia , Rouen 1706); Vigani ( Medulla chemiae , Danzig, 1682); Christian Langius ( Opera omnia , Frankfurt, 1688); Langelot ( Salamander , vid. Tillemann, Hamburg, 1673); Helbigius ( Introitus ad Physican inauditam , Hamburg, 1680); Frédéric Hoffmann ( From acid and viscido, Frankfurt, 1689); Baron Schroeder ( Pharmacopæa , Lyons, 1649); Blanckard ( Theatrum chimicum , Leipzig, 1700); Quercetanus ( Hermes medicinalis , Paris, 1604); Beguin ( Elemens de Chymie , Paris, 1615); J.-F. Henckel ( Flora Saturnisans , Paris, 1760).

Pott, a pupil of Stahl, also points out a solvent which, judging by its properties, would suggest its alchemical reality, if we were not better informed of its true nature. The way our chemist describes it; the care he takes to keep his composition secret; the desired generalization of qualities that he usually endeavors to specify more, would tend to prove it. "We have yet to speak," he said, "of an oily and anonymous solvent which no chemist that I know of has made clear mention of." It is a limpid, volatile, pure, oily liquor, flammable like the spirit of wine, acid like good vinegar, and which passes through distillation in the form of nebulous flakes. This liquor, digested and cohobed on metals, especially after they have been calcined,dissolve almost all of them; it extracts from the gold a very red tincture, and when it is removed from above the gold, there remains a resinous matter, entirely soluble in the spirit of wine, which acquires, by this means, a beautiful red color. The residue is totally irreducible, and I am sure that one could prepare the salt of gold from it. This solvent mixes indifferently with aqueous or fatty liquors; it converts the corals into a sea-green liquor which appears to be their first state. It is a liquor saturated with sal ammonia and greasy at the same time, and to say what I think of it, it is the true menstruation of Weidenfeld, or the spirit of philosophical wine, since one withdraws from the same material the white and red wines of Raymond Lully.This is what makes Henry Khunrath give, in his and when it is removed from above the gold, there remains a resinous matter, entirely soluble in the spirit of wine, which acquires, by this means, a beautiful red color. The residue is totally irreducible, and I am sure that one could prepare the salt of gold from it. This solvent mixes indifferently with aqueous or fatty liquors; it converts the corals into a sea-green liquor which appears to be their first state. It is a liquor saturated with sal ammonia and greasy at the same time, and to say what I think of it, it is the true menstruation of Weidenfeld, or the spirit of philosophical wine, since one withdraws from the same material the white and red wines of Raymond Lully.This is what makes Henry Khunrath give, in his and when it is removed from above the gold, there remains a resinous matter, entirely soluble in the spirit of wine, which acquires, by this means, a beautiful red color. The residue is totally irreducible, and I am sure that one could prepare the salt of gold from it. This solvent mixes indifferently with aqueous or fatty liquors; it converts the corals into a sea-green liquor which appears to be their first state. It is a liquor saturated with sal ammonia and greasy at the same time, and to say what I think of it, it is the true menstruation of Weidenfeld, or the spirit of philosophical wine, since one withdraws from the same material the white and red wines of Raymond Lully.This is what makes Henry Khunrath give, in his a beautiful red color. The residue is totally irreducible, and I am sure that one could prepare the salt of gold from it. This solvent mixes indifferently with aqueous or fatty liquors; it converts the corals into a sea-green liquor which appears to be their first state. It is a liquor saturated with sal ammonia and greasy at the same time, and to say what I think of it, it is the true menstruation of Weidenfeld, or the spirit of philosophical wine, since one withdraws from the same material the white and red wines of Raymond Lully. This is what makes Henry Khunrath give, in his a beautiful red color.The residue is totally irreducible, and I am sure that one could prepare the salt of gold from it. This solvent mixes indifferently with aqueous or fatty liquors; it converts the corals into a sea-green liquor which appears to be their first state. It is a liquor saturated with sal ammonia and greasy at the same time, and to say what I think of it, it is the true menstruation of Weidenfeld, or the spirit of philosophical wine, since one withdraws from the same material the white and red wines of Raymond Lully. This is what makes Henry Khunrath give, in his This solvent mixes indifferently with aqueous or fatty liquors; it converts the corals into a sea-green liquor which appears to be their first state.It is a liquor saturated with sal ammonia and greasy at the same time, and to say what I think of it, it is the true menstruation of Weidenfeld, or the spirit of philosophical wine, since one withdraws from the same material the white and red wines of Raymond Lully. This is what makes Henry Khunrath give, in his This solvent mixes indifferently with aqueous or fatty liquors; it converts the corals into a sea-green liquor which appears to be their first state. It is a liquor saturated with sal ammonia and greasy at the same time, and to say what I think of it, it is the true menstruation of Weidenfeld, or the spirit of philosophical wine, since one withdraws from the same material the white and red wines of Raymond Lully. This is what makes Henry Khunrath give, in hisAmphitheater, to his Lunar the name of his Fire-water and of his Water-fire, for it is certain that Juncken was gravely mistaken when he tried to persuade that it is in the spirit of wine that one must seek the anonymous solvent of which we speak. This solvent furnishes a urinary spirit of a singular nature, which appears in some points to differ entirely from ordinary urinary spirits; it still furnishes a kind of butter which has the consistency and whiteness of antimony butter; it is extremely bitter and of medium volatility; these two products are both very suitable for extracting metals. The preparation of our solvent, though obscure and hidden, is, however, very easy to do;I will be excused from saying more about this subject because, as I have only known it and worked on it for a very short time, I still have a large number of experiments to do to assure myself of all its properties. Besides, not to mention the book From Weidenfeld's Secretis Adeptorum , Dickenson seems to have discovered this menstruation in his treatise Chrysopoeia . » [J.-H. Pott. Dissertation on the Sulfur of Metals, defended in Halle, in 1716 . Paris, Th. Hérissant, 1759, t. I, p. 61.]

Without disputing the probity of Pott, nor doubting the veracity of his description, and still less that which Weidenfeld gives in cabalistic terms, it is indubitable that the solvent of which Pott speaks is not that of the sages. In fact, the chemical character of its reactions and the liquid state in which it appears, testify to this superabundantly. Those who are instructed in the qualities of the subject know that the universal solvent is a true mineral, of dry and fibrous aspect, of solid, hard consistency, of crystalline texture. It is therefore a salt, and not a liquid, nor a flowing mercury, but a stone or stony salt, hence its hermetic qualifiers of Saltpetre (sal petri, stone salt), wisdom salt or alembroth salt, – which some chemists believe to be the product of the simultaneous sublimation of mercury deutochloride and ammonium chloride. And that suffices to dismiss Pott's dissolvent as being too remote from a metallic nature to be advantageously employed in the work of the Magisterium. Besides, if our author had had in mind the fundamental principle of the art, he would have taken care not to assimilate his particular liquor to the universal solvent. This principle requires that:In metals, by metals, with metals, metals can be perfected . Anyone who strays from this primary truth will never discover anything useful for transmutation. Consequently, if the metal, according to philosophical teaching and traditional doctrine, must first be dissolved, it should only be done with the help of a metallic solvent, which will be appropriate to it and very close in nature. Similars alone act on their similars. Now, the best agent, extracted from our Magnesia or subject, takes on the aspect of a metallic body, charged with metallic spirits, although strictly speaking it is not a metal.This is what led the Adepts, the better to shield it from the greed of the greedy, to give it all the possible names of metals, minerals, petrifications and salts. Among these denominations, the most familiar is certainly that of Saturn, considered the metallic Adam. Also, we cannot better complete our instruction than by leaving the floor to the philosophers who have dealt specially with this matter. Here then is the translation of a highly suggestive chapter by Daniel Mylius, devoted to the study of Saturn, and which reproduces the teachings of two famous Adepts: Isaac the Dutchman and Theophrastus Paracelsus.

"No philosopher versed in hermetic writings is ignorant how elevated Saturn is, so much so that it must be preferred to common and natural gold, and is called the true Gold and the Matter Subject of the philosophers. We will transcribe on this point the approved testimony of the most remarkable philosophers .

“Isaac Hollandais says in his Vegetable Work : Know, my son, that the stone of the philosophers must be made by means of Saturn, and when it has been obtained in the perfect state, it makes the projection both in the human body – outside as well as inside – as in metals. Know also that in all vegetable works there is no greater secret than in Saturn, for we only find the putrefaction of gold in Saturn where it is hidden. Saturn contains in its interior the honest gold, which all philosophers agree on, provided that all its superfluities, that is to say the faeces, are withdrawn from it, and then it is purged. The outer is brought in, the inner manifested out, and that is its redness, and then that is the Probable Gold.

“Saturn, moreover, enters easily into solution and likewise coagulates; it lends itself willingly to let its mercury be extracted. It can be sublimated easily, so much so that it becomes the mercury of the sun. For Saturn contains within it the gold that Mercury needs, and its mercury is as pure as that of gold. It is for these reasons that I say that Saturn is, for our Work, much preferable to gold; for if you want to extract mercury from gold, it will take you more than a year to extract this body from the sun, while you can extract mercury from Saturn in twenty-seven days. Both metals are good, but you can affirm with even more certainty that Saturn is the stone that the philosophers do not want to name and whose name has, until today, been hidden.For if one knew his name, many would have found, who run after his research, and this Art would have become common and vulgar. This work would become brief and without great expense. Also, to avoid these drawbacks, the philosophers have hidden the name with great care. Some have wrapped it up in marvelous parables, saying that Saturn is the vessel to which nothing extraneous should be added, except that which comes from it; so that there is not a man, however poor, who cannot attend to this Work, since it does not require great expense, and it takes little work and a few days to obtain the Moon and, shortly after, the Sun. We therefore find in Saturn all that we need for the Work. In him is the perfect mercury;in him are all the colors of the world that can manifest themselves; in him is true blackness, whiteness, redness,

“I therefore entrust to you that one can understand, after this, that Saturn is our philosophical stone and the Brass, from which mercury and our stone can be extracted, in a short time and without great expense, by means of our Brief Art. And the stone that we receive from it is our Brass, and the sharp water that is in it is our stone. And this is the Stone and the Water on which the philosophers have written mountains of books.

“Theophrastus Paracelsus, in the Fifth Canon of Saturn , says:

“Saturn speaks thus of its nature: the six (metals) joined me and infused their spirit into my decrepit body; they added to it what they did not want and attributed it to me. But my brothers are spiritual and penetrate my body, which is fire, so that I am consumed by fire. So that they (the metals), except the two, Sun and Moon, are purged by my water. My spirit is the water that softens all the frozen sleeping bodies of my brothers. But my body conspires with the earth, so that what clings to this earth is made like it and brought back into its body. And I don't know nothing in the world that could produce it like I can. Chemists must therefore abandon all other processes and focus on the resources that can be drawn from me.

“The stone, which in me is cold, is my Water, by means of which one can coagulate the spirit of the seven metals and the essence of the seventh, of the Sun or of the Moon, and, with the grace of God, profit so much that after three weeks one can prepare the menstruation of Saturn which will immediately dissolve the pearls. If the spirits of Saturn are melted in solution, they immediately coagulate into a mass and tear the animated oil from the gold; then, by this means, all metals and gems can be dissolved in an instant, which the philosopher will reserve for himself as much as he deems fit. But I want to remain as obscure on this point as I have been clear so far. “” [Daniel Mylius. Basilica Philosophica .Francofurti, apud Lucam Jennis, 1618. Tenth Council. Philosophers' Stone Theory , Volume III, Book I, p. 67.]

To complete the study of Prudence and the symbolic attributes of our science, it remains for us to speak of the compass that the beautiful statue of Michel Colombe holds in his right hand. We will do so briefly. Already, the mirror has informed us on the subject of the art; the double figure, on the necessary alliance of the subject with the chosen metal; the serpent, on the fatal death and the glorious resurrection of the body resulting from this union. In turn, the compass will provide us with the essential complementary indications, which are those of the proportions. Without their knowledge, it would be impossible to conduct and perfect the Work in a normal, regular and precise way.This is what the compass expresses, whose branches serve not only for the proportional measurement of the distances between them as well as for their comparison, but also for the perfect geometric outline of the circumference, image of the hermetic cycle and of the Work accomplished. We have exposed, in another place of this work, what is to be understood by these terms of proportions or weight, - veiled secret in the form of the compass, – and we have shown that they contain a double notion, that of the weight of nature and those of the weight of art. We will not return to this and will simply say that the harmony resulting from natural proportions, and forever mysterious, is expressed by this adage by Linthaut: The virtue of sulfur extends only to a certain proportion of a term. On the contrary, the relationship between the weights of art, remaining subject to the will of the artist, is expressed by the aphorism of the Cosmopolitan: The weight of the body is singular and that of water plural. But, as the philosophers teach that sulfur is capable of absorbing up to ten and twelve times its weight of mercury, one immediately sees the birth of the need for additional operations, of which the authors are not very concerned: imbibitions and reiterations. We will act in the same direction and submit these details of practice to the beginner's own sagacity, because they are of easy execution and of secondary research.


VII (The bodyguards of Francis II, Duke of Brittany)

In the Nantes cathedral, the twilight gradually decreases.

Shadow invades the ogival vaults, fills the naves, bathes the petrified humanity of the majestic building. At our side, the columns, powerful and serious, rise towards the tangled arches, the crosspieces, the pendentives that the growing darkness now conceals from our eyes. A bell rings. An invisible priest recites the evening prayer in a low voice, and the death knell above answers the prayer below. Only the quiet flames of the candles sting the shadows of the sanctuary with sparkles of gold. Then, the office over, a sepulchral silence weighs on all these inert and cold things, witnesses of a distant past, heavy with mystery and the unknown...

The four stone guardians, in their fixed attitude, seem to emerge, imprecise and blurred, from within this half-light. Silent sentinels of ancient Tradition, these symbolic women, watching over the corners of the empty mausoleum, the rigid, marmoreal images of bodies scattered, buried no one knows where, move and lead to thought. O vanity of earthly things! Fragility of human wealth! What remains now of those whose glory you were to commemorate and recall their greatness? At cenotaph. Even less: a pretext for art, a support for science, a masterpiece devoid of utility and destination, a simple historical memory, but whose philosophical significance and moral teaching far exceed the sumptuous banality of its first assignment.

And, before these noble figures of the Cardinal Virtues, veiling the four knowledges of eternal Sapience, the words of Solomon (Prov., III, 13 to 19) come quite naturally to mind:

“Blessed is the man who has found Wisdom; happy is he who progresses in intelligence! For the traffic that can be made from it is better than that of silver, and the income that can be drawn from it is better than the finest gold. It is more precious than pearls, and all desirable things are not worth it. She has long days in her right hand and glory in her left. His ways are pleasant ways, and all his paths are full of prosperity. She is the tree of life for those who embrace her, and all who keep her are wounded. The Eternal founded the earth by Wisdom and arranged the heavens by Intelligence. »



EDINBURGH'S HOLYROOD PALACE SUNDIAL

It is a small building of extreme singularity. In vain do we question our memories: we find no image analogous to this original and so strongly characterized work. It is rather an erected crystal, a gem raised on a support, than a real monument. And this gigantic sample of mining productions would be better placed in a museum of mineralogy than in the middle of a park where the public is not allowed to enter.

Executed in 1633, on the order of Charles I, by John Milne, his master mason, with the collaboration of John Bartoun, it essentially consists of a geometric block, carved in regular icosahedron, with sides hollowed out with hemispheres and cavities with rectilinear walls, which is supported by a pedestal erected on a pentagonal base formed by three flat steps. This base alone, having suffered from bad weather, had to be restored. Such is the Sundial of Holyrood Palace (pl. XL).




Plate XL


Antiquity, which can still be fruitfully consulted, has left us a certain number of sundials of various shapes, found in the ruins of Castel-Nuovo, Pompeii, Tusculum, etc. Others are known to us from the descriptions of scientific writers, Vitruvius and Pliny in particular. Thus the so-called Hemicyclium dial, attributed to Berossus (around 280 BC), included a semi-circular surface “on which a style marked the hours, the days and even the months”. The One Called Scapheconsisted of a hollow block, provided in the center with a needle whose shadow was projected on the walls. It would have been made by Aristarchus of Samos (3rd century BC), as well as the Discus dial, made of a round, horizontal table, with slightly raised edges. Among the unknown forms, most of which have come down to us only the names, we quoted the dials: Arachne, where the hours were, it is said, engraved at the end of thin wires, which gave it the appearance of a spider (the invention would be due to Eudoxus of Cnidus, around 330 BC); Plinthium, horizontal disc traced on a square column base, would have had for author Scopus of Syracuse; Pelecinon, also horizontal dial of Patroclus; Conum, conical system of Dionysidore of Amisus, etc.

None of these forms or relations corresponds to that of the curious building in Edinburgh; none can serve as a prototype for it. And yet, its denomination, that which justifies its reason for being, is doubly exact. It is both a multiple sundial and a real hermetic clock. Thus this strange icosahedron represents for us a work of double gnomonics. The Greek word γνώμων, which has been entirely transmitted to the Latin and French languages ​​(gnomon), has another meaning than that of the needle responsible for indicating, by the shadow projected on a plane, the course of the sun. Γνώµων also designates the one who becomes aware, who learns; it defines the prudent, the sensible, the enlightened.This word has for root γιγνώσκω, which is still written γινώσκω, double orthographic form whose meaning is to know, to know, to understand, think, solve. From this comes Γνῶσις, knowledge, erudition, doctrine, whence our French word Gnosis, doctrine of the Gnostics and philosophy of the Magi. We know that Gnosis was the body of sacred knowledge which the Magi carefully kept secret and which was, for initiates only, the subject of esoteric teaching. But the Greek root from which come γνώμων and γνῶσις, also formed γν ώμη , corresponding to our word gnome , with the meaning of mind, of intelligence.Now, the gnomes, subterranean spirits entrusted with the custody of mineral treasures, constantly watching over the gold and silver mines, the deposits of precious stones, appear as symbolic representations, humanized figures of the metallic vital spirit and material activity. Tradition depicts them to us as being very ugly and of very small stature; on the other hand, their nature is gentle, their character beneficial, their commerce extremely favorable. We then easily understand the hidden reason of the legendary stories where the friendship of a gnome opens wide the doors of earthly riches...

The gnomonic icosahedron of Edinburgh is therefore, apart from its effective destination, a hidden translation of the Gnostic Work, or Great Work of the philosophers. For us, this little monument is not simply and solely intended to indicate the diurnal hour, but also the progress of the sun of the sages in the philosophical work. And this march is regulated by the icosahedron, which is this unknown crystal, the Salt of Sapience, incarnate spirit or fire, the familiar and helpful gnome, friend of good artists, which assures man of accession to the supreme knowledge of ancient Gnosis.

Moreover, was Chivalry completely foreign to the construction of this curious Sundial, or, at least, to its special decoration? We do not think so and believe we find the proof of it in the fact that, on several faces of the solid, the emblem of the thistle is repeated there with significant insistence. There are, in fact, six flower heads and two flower stems of the species known as serratula arvensis . Can we not recognize, in the obvious preponderance of the symbol, with the insignia specific to the Knights of the Order of the Thistle, the affirmation of a secret meaning imposed on the work and countersigned by them?

[The Order of the Thistle, created by James V, King of Scotland, in 1540, originally consisted of twelve knights, like all the fraternities derived from the Round Table. It was also called the Order of Saint Andrew, because a chapel in the cathedral, dedicated to the apostle, was specially assigned to them; that the decoration bore its effigy, and that finally the feast of the Order was celebrated on November 30, the feast day of Saint Andrew. Suppressed in 1587, it continued to exist secretly and was reinstated in 1687.]

Edinburgh, moreover, did it possess, alongside this royal Order whose hieroglyphic esotericism leaves no doubt, a hermetic initiation center placed under its dependence? We cannot say for sure. However, about thirty years before the construction of the sundial, fourteen after the "official" suppression of the Order, which had become a secret Brotherhood, we see appearing, in the immediate vicinity of Edinburgh, one of the most learned Adepts and the most fervent propagators of alchemical truth, Seton, famous under the pseudonym of the Cosmopolitan.“During the summer of the year 1601, writes Louis Figuier, a Dutch pilot, named Jacques Haussen, was assailed by a storm in the North Sea and thrown on the coast of Scotland, not far from Edinburgh, a short distance from the village of Seton or Seatoun. The castaways were rescued by an inhabitant of the region who owned a house and some land on this shore; he succeeded in saving several of these unfortunates, received the pilot with great humanity in his house, and provided him with the means to return to Holland. » [Cf. Louis Figuier. Alchemy and the Alchemists . Paris, Hachette et Cie, 1856.]

This man was called Sethon or Sethonius Scotus.

[We find this name variously spelled according to the authors. Seton or Sethon is also called Sitonius, Sidonius, Suthoneus, Suehtonius and Seethonius. All these denominations are accompanied by the epithet Scotus, which designates a Scot by birth. As for the palace of Sethon, in the former parish of Haddingtonshire, annexed to Tranent in 1580, it was destroyed for the first time by the English in 1544. Rebuilt, Marie Stuart and Darnley stopped there on March 11, 1566, the day after Rizzio's assassination; the queen returned there, accompanied by Bothwell, in 1567, after the murder of Darnley. James VI (James VI of Scotland) stayed there in April 1603, when he came to take possession of the crown of England.At the funeral of the first Earl of Winton, he watched the procession parade, seated on a park bench. In 1617, this same monarch spent his second night at Seton, after crossing the Twed. Charles I and his court were received there twice in 1633. Currently, there is no longer any vestige of this palace, completely destroyed in 1790. Let us add that the Seton family had received their charter of ownership of the Seton and Winton lands in the 12th century.]

The Englishman Campden, in his Britannia , reports, in fact, very close to the place on the coast where the pilot Haussen was shipwrecked, a dwelling which he calls Sethon Houseand said to be the residence of the Earl of Winton. It is therefore probable that our Adept belonged to this noble family of Scotland, which would provide an argument of some value to the hypothesis of possible relations between Sethon and the knights of the Order of the Thistle. Perhaps man was formed in the very place where we see him practicing those works of mercy and high morality which characterize elevated souls and true philosophers. Be that as it may, this fact marks the beginning of a new existence, consecrated to the hermetic apostolate, a wandering, eventful, brilliant existence, sometimes full of vicissitudes, lived entirely abroad, and which martyrdom was to tragically crown two years later (December 1603 or January 1604).It therefore seems that the Cosmopolitan, solely preoccupied with his mission, never returned to his country of origin and that he left it, in 1601, only after having acquired perfect mastery of the art. It is these reasons, or rather these conjectures, which have led us to associate the Knights of the Thistle with the famous alchemist, by invoking the hermetic testimony of the Edinburgh Sundial.

In our view, the Scottish Sundial is a modern, more concise and scholarly replica of the ancient Smaragdine Table. This consisted of two columns of green marble, according to some, or a plate of artificial emerald, according to others, on which the Solar Work was engraved in cabalistic terms. Tradition attributes it to the Father of philosophers, Hermes Trismegistus, who claims to be his author, although his personality, very obscure, does not allow us to know whether the man belongs to fable or history. Some claim that this testimony to sacred science, originally written in Greek, was discovered after the Flood in a rocky cave in the Hebron Valley. This detail, devoid even of authenticity, helps us to better understand the secret meaning of this famous Table, which may well have never existed elsewhere than in the subtle and mischievous imagination of the old masters.We are told that it is green,Emerald of the philosophers , – first analogy with the saline matter of the sages; that it was written by Hermes, a second analogy, since this material bears the name of Mercury , a Roman divinity corresponding to the Hermes of the Greeks. Finally, a third analogy, this green mercury serving for the three Works, it is called triple, hence the epithet Trismegistus (Τρισμέγιστος, three times great or sublime) added to the name of Hermes. The Emerald Tablet thus takes on the character of a speech delivered by the mercury of the sages on the way in which the philosophical Work is elaborated. It is not Hermes, the Egyptian Thoth who speaks, but the Emerald of the philosophers or the Isiac Table itself.

The text of the Emerald Table, well known to the disciples of Hermes, may be ignored by some readers. Here is the most accurate version of these famous words:

“It is true, without lie, certain and very true:

“As below is as above, and as above is as below; by these things are done the miracles of a single thing. And as all things are and come from ONE, through the mediation of ONE, so all things are born of this one thing by adaptation.

“The Sun is the father, and the Moon the mother. The wind carried it in its belly. The Earth is its nurse and its receptacle. The Father of all, the Thelema of the universal world is here. Its force or power remains whole, if it is converted into earth. You will separate the earth from the fire, the subtle from the thick, gently, with great industry. It rises from the earth and descends from the sky, and receives the force from higher things and from lower things. By this means you will have the glory of the world, and all darkness will flee from you.

“It is strength, strong with all strength, for it will conquer all subtle things and penetrate all solid things. Thus the world was created. From this will come admirable adaptations, the means of which are given here.

“That is why I was called Hermes Trismegistus, having the three parts of universal philosophy.

“What I have said of the Solar Work is complete. »

We find the Emerald Table reproduced on a rock, in Latin translation, in one of the beautiful plates illustrating the Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Æternæ , of Kunrath (1610). Joannes Grasseus, under the pseudonym of Hortulanus, gave a Commentary on it in the 15th century, translated by J. Girard de Tournus, in the Miroir d'Alquimie . Paris, Sevestre, 1613.

The generative idea of ​​the Edinburgh sundial reflects a similar concern. However, apart from the fact that he limits his teaching to alchemical practice alone, it is no longer matter, in its qualities and in its nature, that he expresses, but only its form or physical structure. It is a crystalline structure whose chemical composition remains unknown. Its geometric configuration only allows to recognize the mineralogical characteristics of saline bodies in general. He teaches us that mercury is a salt – which we already knew – and that this salt originates from the mineral world.This, moreover, is what Claveus, the Cosmopolitan, Limojon de Saint-Didier, Basile Valentin, Huginus a Barma, Batsdorff, etc., affirm and repeat at will when they teach that the salt of metals is the stone of the philosophers. [“Draw salt from metals, says the Cosmopolitan, without any corrosion or violence, and this salt will produce for you the white and the red stone. The whole secret lies in the salt, from which our perfect Elixir is made. »]

We can therefore, reasonably, regard this sundial as a monument raised to philosophical Vitriol, the initial subject and first being of the philosopher's stone. Now, all the metals are only salts, which their texture proves, and which the facility with which they form crystallized compounds demonstrates; in the fire, these salts melt into their water of crystallization and take on the appearance of oil or mercury. Our Vitriol obeys the same law, and, as it leads to success the artist happy enough to discover it and prepare it, it received from our predecessors the name of Victory Oil.Others, considering its color, and deliberately playing on assonance, have called it Oil of glass (vitri oleum), which marks its vitreous appearance, its oily fluidity in the fire and its green coloring ( viridis ) . It is this frank color that has given it all the epithets that hide its true nature from the profane. It has been endowed, Arnaud de Villeneuve tells us, with the names of trees, leaves, herbs, everything that has a green color, “in order to deceive the insane”. The metallic compounds, giving green salts, contributed to a large extent to the extension of this nomenclature.Moreover, the philosophers, reversing the order, took pleasure in designating green things by hermetic qualifiers, to recall no doubt the importance that this color takes on in alchemy. The mercuryau, for example, or little mercury, which has become our mackerel, still serves to disguise, on the first day of April, the personality of the sender. It is a mystical fish, object of mystifications. It owes its name and reputation to its brilliant green coloration, cut with black bands, similar to that of the mercury of the sages. Bescherelle points out that in the year 1430 mackerel was the only sea fish that reached Paris, where, according to a very ancient custom, it was prepared with green currants. [Cabalistically:coarse green salt .] Do we know why cuttlefish got the name they bear? Quite simply because they lay green eggs, grouped in bunches of grapes. Our green mercury, agent of putrefaction and regeneration, caused the cuttlefish to be called σηπία, in the primitive language; the root of this word is σήπω, which means to putrefy, to putrefy. Thanks to its green eggs, the cuttlefish has a cabalistic name, just like the moth of the pear tree (Saturnia pyri), a large butterfly with emerald eggs.

The Greek alchemists used, in their formulas, to translate the hermetic solvent by indicating its color. They assembled, to make their symbol, two consonants of the word ΧΛΩΡΟΣ, green, the Χ and the Ρ juxtaposed. Now, this typical figure reproduces exactly the Greek monogram of Christ, extracted from his name ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ. Should we see, in this similarity, the effect of a simple coincidence, or that of a reasoned will? The philosophical mercury is born of a pure substance, Jesus is born of a spotless mother; the Son of Man and the child of Hermes both lead the life of pilgrims; both die prematurely, as martyrs, one on the cross, the other in the crucible;they resuscitate in the same way, one and the other, on the third day… Here are curious correspondences, certainly,

On the other hand, would it be pushing boldness to the point of temerity to refer to the esotericism of our science such practice of the Christian Church, which took place on May 1st? On that day, in many towns, the clergy went in procession – the Green Procession – to cut the shrubs and branches with which the churches were decorated, those in particular which were placed under the patronage of Our Lady. These processions are abandoned today; only the use of corn, which comes from it, has been preserved and is still perpetuated in our villages. Symbolists will easily discover the reason for these obscure rites, if they remember that Maia was mother of Hermes. We know, moreover, that the dew of May, or Emerald of the philosophers, is green, and Adept Cyliani declares, metaphorically, this indispensable vehicle for work. Also, we do not claim to insinuate that it is necessary to collect, following the example of certain spagyrists and the characters of Mutus Liber , the nocturnal dew of the month of Mary, by attributing to it qualities of which we know it devoid. The dew of the sages is a salt, not a water, but it is the proper coloring of this water which serves to designate our subject.

Among the ancient Hindus, the philosophical matter was represented by the goddess Moudévi (Μύδησις, humidity, rot; rac. μυδάω, to rot). Born, it is said, of the Sea of ​​Milk, she was represented painted green, mounted on an ass, and carrying in her hand a banner in the middle of which was seen a crow.

Hermetic also, no doubt, the origin of this Festival of the Green Wolf, a popular rejoicing whose use has long been maintained in Jumièges, and which was celebrated on June 24, day of solar exaltation, in honor of Saint Austreberthe. A legend tells us that the saint washed the laundry of the famous abbey, where a donkey transported her. One day, the wolf strangled the donkey. Saint Austreberthe condemned the culprit to do the service of his victim, and the wolf acquitted himself wonderfully until his death. It is the memory of this legend that the festival perpetuates. However, we are not given the reason why the color green was attributed to the wolf.But we can say with absolute certainty that it is by strangling and devouring the donkey that the wolf turns green, and that is enough.Twelve Keys . This wolf (λύκος) is gray at first and does not allow one to suspect the ardent fire, the bright light that it keeps hidden in its coarse body. His encounter with the donkey makes this light manifest: λύκος becomes λύκη, the first light of morning, the dawn. The gray wolf is dyed into a green wolf, and it is then our secret fire, the nascent Apollo, Λυκηγενής, the father of light.

Since we gather in this place everything that can help the investigator to discover the mysterious agent of the Great Work, we will give him again the Legend of the Green Candles . This relates to the famous Marseille black Madonna, Notre-Dame-de-Confession, housed in the crypts of the old abbey of Saint-Victor. This legend contains, behind the allegorical veil, the description of the work that the alchemist must perform to extract, from the coarse mineral, the living and luminous spirit, the secret fire which it contains, in the form of a translucent crystal, green, fusible like wax, and which the wise call their Vitriol.

Here is this naive and precious hermetic tradition:

A young girl from ancient Massilia, named Marthe, a simple little worker, and long since orphaned, had devoted a special cult to the Black Virgin of the Crypts. She offered him all the flowers she went to pick on the hillsides – thyme, sage, lavender, rosemary – and never failed, whatever the weather, to attend daily mass.

On the eve of Candlemas, the feast of the Purification, Marthe was awakened in the middle of the night by a secret voice inviting her to go to the cloister to hear the morning service there. Fearing that she had slept more than usual, she hastily dressed, went out, and, like the snow, spreading her cloak on the ground, reflecting a certain light, believed the approaching dawn. She quickly reached the threshold of the monastery, the door of which was open. There, meeting a clerk, she begged him to say a mass in her name; but, destitute of money, she slipped from her finger a modest gold ring—her only fortune—and placed it, as an offering, under an altar candlestick.

As soon as mass began, what was the surprise of the young girl when she saw the white wax of the candles turn green, a celestial green, unknown, diaphanous green and more dazzling than the most beautiful emeralds or the rare malachites! She couldn't believe it or take her eyes off...

When the Ite missa est finally came to snatch her from the ecstasy of the prodigy, when she rediscovered, outside, the sense of familiar realities, she realized that the night was not over: the first hour of the day was ringing only at the belfry of Saint-Victor.

Not knowing what to think of the adventure, she returned to her home, but returned early in the morning to the abbey. There was already a great crowd of people in the holy place. Anxious and troubled, she inquired; he was told that no mass had been said since the day before. Marthe, at the risk of sounding like a visionary, then recounted in detail the miracle she had just witnessed a few hours earlier, and the faithful, in droves, followed her to the grotto. The orphan had told the truth; the ring was still in the same place, under the candlestick, and the candles still shone, on the altar, with their incomparable green brilliance… [Cf. the small versified piece entitled The Legend of the Green Candles, by Hippolyte Matabon. Marseilles, J. Cayer, 1889.]

In his Notice sur l'Antique Abbaye de Saint-Victor de Marseille , Abbé Laurin speaks of the custom, still observed by the people, of carrying green candles to the processions of the Black Virgin. These candles are blessed on February 2, the day of Purification, commonly called the feast of Candlemas. The author adds that “the candles of Candlemas must be green, without the reason being well known. The documents tell us that green candles were in use in other places, in the monastery of the nuns of Saint-Sauveur, in Marseilles, in 1479, and in the metropolis of Saint-Sauveur, in Aix-en-Provence, until 1620. Elsewhere, this use was lost, while it was preserved in Saint-Victor. »

These are the essential points of the symbolism specific to the Edinburgh Sundial, which we wanted to point out.

In the special decoration of the emblematic icosahedron, the visitor powerful enough to be able to approach it – because without a relevant reason he will never obtain authorization – will notice, in addition to the hieroglyphic thistles of the Order, the respective monograms of Charles I, beheaded in 1649, and of his wife, Marie-Henriette of France. The letters CR (Carolus Rex) apply to the first; MR (Maria Regina) designates the second. Their son, Charles II, born in 1630, – he was three years old when the construction of the monument, – is characterized on the faces of the stone crystal by the initials CP (Carolus Princeps), each surmounted by a crown, as well as those of his father.He will still see there, alongside the arms of England, Scotland and the harp of Ireland, five roses and as many fleur-de-lys, detached and independent, emblems of wisdom and chivalry, the latter underlined by the plume, formed of three ostrich feathers, which once adorned the helmet of the knights. Finally, other symbols, which we have analyzed during these studies, will complete the clarification of the hermetic nature of the curious building: the crowned lion, holding a sword in one paw and a scepter in the other; the angel, represented with outstretched wings; Saint George slaying the dragon and Saint Andrew offering the instrument of his martyrdom, – the cross in X;the two rose bushes by Nicolas Flamel, next to the scallop shell and the three hearts of the famous alchemist of Bourges, grand treasurer of Charles VII.

Here we will end our visits to the old philosopher's residences.

Certainly, it would be easy for us to multiply these studies, because the decorative examples of hermetic symbolism applied to civil constructions are still numerous today; we have preferred to limit our teaching to the most typical and best characterized problems.

But before taking leave of our reader, thanking him for his benevolent attention, we will take a last look at the whole of secret science. And, just as the old man, willingly evoking his memories, lingers over the salient hours of the past, so we hope to discover, in this retrospective examination, the capital fact, object of the essential concerns of the true son of Hermes.

This important point, where the elements and principles of the highest knowledge are concentrated, could not be sought or encountered in life, since life is in us, it radiates around us, it is familiar to us and it is enough for us to know how to observe to grasp its varied manifestations. It is in death that we can recognize it, in this invisible domain of pure spirituality, where the soul, freed from its bonds, takes refuge at the end of its earthly journey; it is in nothingness, this mysterious nothing which contains everything, absence where all presence reigns, that it is appropriate to find the causes of which life shows us the multiple effects.

Also, it is at the moment when bodily inertia is declared, at the very hour when nature finishes its work, that the sage begins his. Let us therefore lean over the abyss, let us scrutinize its depths, let us search the darkness that fills it, and nothingness will instruct us. Birth teaches little, but death, from which life is born, can reveal everything to us. She alone holds the keys to nature's laboratory; it alone frees the spirit, imprisoned in the center of the material body. Shadow dispenser of light, sanctuary of truth, inviolate asylum of wisdom, it jealously hides and steals its treasures from timorous mortals, from the undecided, from the skeptics, from all those who ignore it or dare not confront it.

For the philosopher, death is simply the linchpin that joins the material plane to the divine plane. It is the earthly door open to heaven, the link between nature and divinity; it is the chain linking those who are still to those who are no more. And, if human evolution, in its physical activity, can at will dispose of the past and the present, on the other hand it is to death alone that the future belongs.

Consequently, far from inspiring the sage with a feeling of horror or repulsion, death, an instrument of salvation, appears to him desirable because it is useful and necessary. And if we are not permitted to shorten ourselves the time fixed by our own destiny, at least we have received license from the Eternal to provoke it in serious matter, subject, according to the orders of God, to the will of man.

We thus understand why philosophers insist so much on the absolute necessity of material death. It is through it that the spirit, imperishable and always acting, mixes, sifts, separates, cleans and purifies the body. It is from her that he derives the possibility of assembling the hushed parts, of building his new home with them, of finally transmitting to the regenerated form an energy that he did not possess.

Considered from the point of view of its chemical action on the substances of the three kingdoms, death is clearly characterized by the intimate, profound and radical dissolution of bodies. This is why dissolution, called death by the old authors, asserts itself as being the first and most important of the operations of the Work, the one that the artist must strive to achieve before any other. He who discovers the artifice of true dissolution and sees the consequent putrefaction take place, will have in his power the greatest secret in the world. He will also possess a sure means of accessing the sublime knowledge.Such is the important point, this pivot of the art, according to the very expression of Philalethes, which we wished to point out to men of good faith, to benevolent and disinterested seekers.

Now, by the fact that they are doomed to final dissolution, all beings must necessarily derive a similar benefit from them. Our globe itself cannot escape this inexorable law. He has his scheduled time, as we have ours. The duration of its evolution is ordered, regulated in advance and strictly limited. Reason demonstrates it, common sense foresees it, analogy teaches it, Scripture certifies it to us: In the noise of a terrible storm, heaven and earth will pass away...

For a time, times and half a time [Daniel, ch. VII, 25, and XII, 7. Apocal., ch. XII, 14.], Death will extend its domination over the ruins of the world, over the vestiges of annihilated civilizations. And our earth, after the convulsions of a long agony, will resume the confused state of the original chaos. But the Spirit of God will float on the waters. And all things will be covered with darkness and plunged into the deep silence of the tombs.


(End of the original 1930 version of Les Demeures Philosophales . The following chapters were introduced in later editions of this work – Note from LAT)



PARADOX OF THE UNLIMITED PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

To all philosophers, to educated people whatever they may be, to specialized scholars as well as to simple observers, we allow ourselves to ask this question:

“Have you considered the fatal consequences that will result from unlimited progress? »

Already, because of the multiplicity of scientific acquisitions, man only manages to live by dint of energy and endurance, in an atmosphere of hectic, feverish and unhealthy activity. He created the machine which increased his means and his power of action a hundredfold, but he became his slave and victim: slave in peace, victim in war. Distance is no longer an obstacle for him; it travels rapidly from one point of the globe to another by air, sea and land. We do not see, however, that these ease of movement made him better or happier; for if the adage has it that travel trains youth, it hardly seems to contribute to strengthening the bonds of concord and fraternity which should unite peoples. Never have borders been better guarded than today.Man possesses the marvelous faculty of expressing his thoughts and of making his voice heard even in the most distant lands, and yet these very means impose on him new needs. He can emit and record light and sound vibrations, without gaining anything other than a vain satisfaction of curiosity, if not a subjugation rather unfavorable to his intellectual elevation. Opaque bodies have become permeable to his gaze, and if it is possible for him to fathom grave matter, on the other hand what does he know of himself, that is to say of his origin, of his essence and of his destiny? He can emit and record light and sound vibrations, without gaining anything other than a vain satisfaction of curiosity, if not a subjugation rather unfavorable to his intellectual elevation.Opaque bodies have become permeable to his gaze, and if it is possible for him to fathom grave matter, on the other hand what does he know of himself, that is to say of his origin, of his essence and of his destiny? He can emit and record light and sound vibrations, without gaining anything other than a vain satisfaction of curiosity, if not a subjugation rather unfavorable to his intellectual elevation. Opaque bodies have become permeable to his gaze, and if it is possible for him to fathom grave matter, on the other hand what does he know of himself, that is to say of his origin, of his essence and of his destiny?

Satisfied desires are succeeded by other unfulfilled desires. We insist on it, man wants to go fast, always faster, and this agitation makes insufficient the possibilities at his disposal. Carried away by his passions, his desires and his phobias, the horizon of his hopes recedes indefinitely. It is the frantic race towards the abyss, the constant wear and tear, the impatient, frenzied activity, applied without respite or rest. “In our century, said Jules Simon quite rightly, you have to walk or run: whoever stops is lost. At this pace, at this regime, physical health declines.In spite of the dissemination and observance of the rules of hygiene, of prophylactic measures, in spite of innumerable therapeutic procedures and the accumulation of chemical drugs, the disease continues its ravages with untiring perseverance.

Nature itself gives unequivocal signs of weariness: it becomes lazy. It is by dint of chemical fertilizers that the cultivator now obtains crops of average value. Ask a peasant, he will tell you that "the earth is dying", that the seasons are troubled and the climate modified. Everything that plants lacks sap and resistance. The plants die off—this is an officially confirmed fact—and prove incapable of reacting against the invasion of parasitic insects or the attack of diseases with mycelium.

Finally, we shall learn nothing by saying that most of the discoveries, directed at first towards the increase of human well-being, are quickly diverted from their aim and specially applied to destruction. The instruments of peace change into engines of war, and we are well aware of the preponderant role that science plays in modern conflagrations. Such is, alas! the final objective, the culmination of the scientific investigation; and such is also the reason why the man, who pursues it with this criminal intention, calls upon him divine justice and sees himself necessarily condemned by it.

In order to avoid the reproach, which one would not have failed to address to them, of perverting the people, the Philosophers always refused to teach clearly the truths which they had acquired or received from antiquity. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre shows that he knew this rule of wisdom when he declares, at the end of his Chaumière Indienne : “One must seek the truth with a simple heart; it will be found in nature; it should only be said to good people. Out of ignorance or contempt for this primary condition, exotericism has thrown humanity into disorder.



THE REIGN OF MAN

The Reign of Man, prelude to the Last Judgment and the advent of the New Cycle, is expressed symbolically in a curious carved wooden painting, preserved in the Saint-Sauveur church, in other words the Chapter church, in Figeac (Lot). Beneath the religious conception, barely veiling its obvious esotericism, it shows the infant Christ sleeping on the cross and surrounded by the instruments of the Passion (pl. XLI).




Plate XLI


Among these attributes of divine martyrdom, six have been purposely joined together in an X, as has the cross where the little Jesus rests and which has been tilted so that it gives this shape by perspective. Thus, recalling the four ages, we have four Greek X (chi) whose numerical value of 600 gives us, as a product, the 2400 years of the world. We therefore see the lance of Longinus (John, XIX, 34) assembled with the reed (Matthew, XXVII, 48; Mark, XV, 36) or hyssop rod supporting the sponge impregnated with oxycrat (John, XIX, 34); then the crisscrossed fasciculus and flagellum (John, XIX, I; Matt., XXVII, 26; Mark, XV, 15); finally, the hammer which was used to drive in the nails of the crucifixion and the pincers used to pull them out after the death of the Savior.

Triple image of the last radiance, graphic formula of declining spiritualism, these Xs mark with their imprint the second cyclical period, at the end of which humanity struggles in darkness and confusion, until the day of the great earthly revolution and liberating death. If we unite these three crosses in saltire and if we place the point of intersection of their branches on a common axis, we will obtain a geometric figure with twelve rays, symbolizing the twelve centuries which constitute the Reign of the Son of Man and which succeed the previous twelve of the Reign of God.



THE FLOOD

When the people speak of the end of the world , they generally evoke and translate the idea of ​​a universal cataclysm, involving both the total ruin of the globe and the extermination of its inhabitants. According to this opinion, the earth, erased from the number of planets, would cease to exist. Its debris, projected into sidereal space, would fall like aerolites on worlds close to ours.

Some more logical thinkers take the term in a less extended sense. In their opinion, the disturbance can only affect humanity alone. It seems impossible for them to admit that our planet disappears, although everything that lives, moves and gravitates on its surface is condemned to perish. Platonic thesis which could be acceptable if it did not include the irrational introduction of a prodigious factor: the renewed man born directly from the ground, like a simple vegetable and without prior seed.

This is not the way to understand the end of the world, as it is announced to us by Scripture and as attributed to us by primitive traditions, to whatever races they belong. When, to punish mankind for their crimes, God resolved to bury them under the waters of the flood, not only was the earth only superficially affected, but a number of righteous and chosen men, having found favor with Him, survived the flood.

Although presented under a symbolic guise, this teaching rests on a positive basis. We recognize there the physical necessity of an animal and terrestrial regeneration, which cannot thus involve the total annihilation of the creatures, nor remove any of the conditions essential to the life of the safeguarded core. Consequently, in spite of the terrifying and long mixing of the unleashed elements, we are assured that the immense catastrophe will not act equally everywhere, nor on all the extent of the continents and the seas. Certain privileged regions, veritable rocky arches, will shelter the men who have taken refuge there.There, for a day, the length of two centuries, generations will be present — anguished spectators of the effects of divine power — at the gigantic duel of water and fire; there, in relative calm,of a new land ...

For us, who have never retained the arguments of rationalism, we believe that the Mosaic flood is indisputable and real. We know, moreover, how much the Bible is superior to other books, how much it remains the eternal, immutable Book, the cyclical Book par excellence, in which, under the parabolic veil, the revelation of human history is sealed, on this side and even beyond the own annals of peoples. It is the in-extenso account of the journey accomplished by each great cyclical generation. And as history is a perpetual recommencement, the Bible, which describes the figurative process, will forever remain the sole source, the true collection of historical events and human revolutions, both for past periods and for those which will succeed one another in the future.

It is not our intention here to undertake a refutation of the arguments by which the adversaries of the tradition of Moses have disputed the accuracy of his testimony, nor to give those by which the defenders of revealed religion have established the authenticity and divine inspiration of his books. We will only attempt to show that the fact of the deluge is attested by the particular traditions of all the peoples, both of the old and of the new continent.

The sacred books of the Hindus and Iranians mention the flood. In India, Noah is called Vaivaswata or Satyavrata. Greek legends speak of Ogyges and Deucalion; those of Chaldea, Xixouthros or Sisuthros; those of the Peruvians, of Bochica. According to the Assyro-Chaldean cosmogony, men, created by Marduk, having become wicked, the council of the gods decides to punish them. Only one man is just and, therefore, he is loved by the god Ea: he is Utmapishtim, king of Babylon. Also, Ea reveals in a dream to Utmapishtim, the imminent coming of the cataclysm and the way to escape the wrath of the gods.The Babylonian Noah therefore builds an ark and locks himself in it with all his family, his servants, the craftsmen who build the nave and a whole herd of cattle. Immediately, darkness invades the sky. The waters of the abyss fall and cover the earth. Utmapishtim's ark sails for seven days and finally stops on the top of a mountain. The just saved releases a dove and a swallow, which return to the boat, then a crow which does not return. So he comes out of the ark and offers a sacrifice to the gods. For the Aztecs and other tribes who inhabited the plateau of Mexico, it was Coxcox or Tezpi who held the role of the biblical Noah...

The Mosaic flood had the same importance, the same extent, the same repercussions as all the floods that preceded it. It is, in a way, the typical description of the periodic catastrophes caused by the reversal of the poles. It is therefore the simplified interpretation of the successive deluges of which Moses was undoubtedly aware, either because he was an eyewitness to one of them—which would justify his own name—or because he obtained it by divine revelation. The saving arch seems to us to represent the geographical place where the elect gather at the approach of the great disturbance, rather than a man-made nave. By its shape, the ark is already revealed as a cyclical figure and not as a real vessel.In a text where we must above all, according to the word of Scripture, taking the spirit in preference to the letter, it is impossible for us to literally take the construction of the ship, the search for “all clean and unclean animals” and their reuniting in pairs. A calamity which imposes for two centuries, on living and free beings, living conditions so different, so contrary to their needs, exceeds the limits of our reason. We must not forget that, throughout the race, the hemisphere, delivered to the influx of water, is plunged into total darkness. It should be known, in fact, that Moses speaks of cyclic days, whose secret value is equivalent to current years.Let us specify: it is written that the torrential rain lasts forty days and that the waters cover the earth for one hundred and fifty days, that is to say one hundred and ninety days in total. God then causes a hot wind to blow, and the level of the liquid layer drops. The ark lands on Mount Ararat [In GreekArara or Arhra , perfect from ararjsci , means to be attached, fixed, stopped, firm, immutable], in Armenia. Noah opens the window (the return of light) and releases a crow which, held back by the corpses, does not return. He then gives flight to the dove, which immediately enters the ark, because at this time the trees were still submerged. The patriarch therefore waits seven days and brings out the bird again, which returns towards evening bringing back a green olive branch. The flood was over. It had lasted one hundred and ninety-seven cyclical days, or, to within three years, two real centuries.

Can we admit that a ship, exposed for so long to the storm, is able to resist it? And what to think, on the other hand, of its cargo? Despite everything, these implausibilities cannot shake our conviction. We therefore hold the Mosaic relationship to be true and positive in substance, that is to say in the very fact of the deluge; but most of the circumstances which accompany it, those especially which have to do with Noah, the ark, the entry and exit of the animals, are clearly allegorical. The text contains an esoteric teaching of considerable scope. Let us simply note that Noah, which has the cabalistic value of Christmas (in Greek Nie ), is a contraction of Neow-Hljow , the new sun.The arch, Arch, indicates the beginning of a new era. The rainbow marks the covenant that God makes with man in the cycle that opens; it is the reborn or renewed symphony: S υμφωνία, consent, agreement, union, pact. It is also the Belt of Iris ( Zinh ), the privileged zone…

The Apocalypse of Esdras informs us about the symbolic value of the books of Moses: “On the third day, while I was under a tree, a voice came to me from the side of this tree, saying to me: Esdras, Esdras ! I answered: Here am I ; I got up and stood up. The voice continued: I appeared to Moses and spoke to him from the bush, when my people were slaves in Egypt, I led them to Mount Sinai and established them a long time near me. I told him many wonders; I taught him the mystery of the days; I made known to him the last times, and I gave him this order: Tell this, hide that . [Rene Basset, Ethiopian Apocrypha .Paris, Library of High Science, 1899, c. XIV, c. 1 to 6.]

But, if we consider only the fact of the deluge, we will be led to recognize that such a cataclysm must have left deep traces of its passage, and somewhat modified the topography of the continents and the seas. It would be a serious mistake to believe that the geographical profile of these and those, their reciprocal situation, their distribution on the surface of the globe, were similar twenty-five centuries ago at most to what they are today. Also, despite our respect for the work of scholars who have dealt with prehistoric times, we must only accept with the greatest reserve the maps of the Quaternary period reproducing the present configuration of the globe. It is obvious, for example, that part of the French soil was submerged for a long time, covered with sea sand,abundantly provided with shells, limestone with imprints of ammonites. It should also be remembered that the island of Jersey was still welded to the Cotentin in 709, the year when the waters of the English Channel invaded the vast forest which stretched as far as Ouessant and served as shelter for many villages.

History relates that the Gauls, questioned with regard to what was capable of inspiring them with the most terror, used to answer: “We fear only one thing, that is that the sky is falling on our heads. But this quip, which is given as a pledge of boldness and bravery, does it not hide a completely different reason? Instead of a simple bravado, wouldn't it rather be a persistent memory of a real event? Who would dare to affirm that our ancestors were not the horrified victims of the sky collapsing in formidable cataracts, among the darkness of a long night of several generations?



ATLANTIS

This mysterious island of which Plato left us the enigmatic description, did it exist? Difficult question to solve, given the weakness of the means that science possesses to penetrate the secret of the abyss. However, certain observations seem to give reason to the partisans of the Atlantean reality. Indeed, soundings carried out in the Atlantic Ocean have brought to the surface fragments of lava whose structure irrefutably proves that it crystallized in the air. It therefore seems that the volcanoes ejecting this lava then rose on land not yet submerged.It has also been believed to have discovered an argument proper to justify the assertion of the Egyptian priests and the account of Plato, in this particularity that the flora of Central America is shown to be similar to that of Portugal; the same plant species, transmitted through the soil, would indicate a close continental relationship between the old and the new world. We see nothing impossible, as for us, that Atlantis could have held an important place among the inhabited regions, nor that civilization developed there until it reached that high degree which God seems to have fixed as the end of human progress: "Thou shalt go no further".Limit beyond which the symptoms of decadence appear, the fall is accentuated, when the ruin is not precipitated by the sudden eruption of an unforeseen plague. nor that civilization has developed there until it has reached that high degree which God seems to have fixed as the term of human progress: "You will go no further." Limit beyond which the symptoms of decadence appear, the fall is accentuated, when the ruin is not precipitated by the sudden eruption of an unforeseen plague. nor that civilization has developed there until it has reached that high degree which God seems to have fixed as the term of human progress: "You will go no further."Limit beyond which the symptoms of decadence appear, the fall is accentuated, when the ruin is not precipitated by the sudden eruption of an unforeseen plague.

Faith in the veracity of Plato's works entails belief in the reality of periodic upheavals of which the Mosaic Flood, as we have said, remains the written symbol and the sacred prototype. To the deniers of the confidence which the priests of Egypt made to Solon, we would only ask to kindly explain to us what the master of Aristotle intends to reveal, by this fiction of a sinister character. We think, in fact, that it is beyond doubt that Plato made himself the propagator of ancient truths, and that, consequently, his books contain a whole set, a body of hidden knowledge. His Geometric Number, his Cave have their significance; why shouldn't the myth of Atlantis have its own?

Atlantis had to suffer the common fate, and the catastrophe which submerged it obviously stemmed from a cause identical to that which buried, forty-eight centuries later, under a deep sheet of water, Egypt, the Sahara and the regions of northern Africa. But more favored than the land of the Atlanteans, Egypt benefited from a raising of the seabed and came back to life, after a certain time of immersion. Because Algeria and Tunisia, with their dry chotts covered with a thick layer of salt; the Sahara and Egypt, with their soil made up mostly of sea sand, show that the waves have invaded and covered vast areas of the African continent. The columns of pharaonic temples bear undeniable traces of immersion; in the hypostyle rooms, the slabs, still existing,which form the ceilings, have been lifted and moved under the oscillatory influence of the waves; the disappearance of the external coating of the pyramids and, in general, that of the joints of stones (colossi of Memnon, formerly singing); the obvious traces of corrosion by the waters that one notices on the sphinx of Giza, as well as on a number of other works of Egyptian statuary, have no other origin. It is probable, moreover, that the priestly caste was not unaware of the fate which was reserved for their country. This may be the reason why the royal hypogea were cut deep into the rock and their openings hermetically sealed.Could we not even recognize the effect of this belief in a future deluge, in the obligatory crossing that the soul of the deceased had to accomplish after bodily death,

However, the text of Ezekiel [Ch. XXXII, Lamentation over Egypt (v. 7, 8, 9 and 15)], which announces the disappearance of Egypt, is formal and cannot lend itself to any ambiguity:

“…I will cover the sun with clouds, and the moon will no longer give its light. I will cause all the stars that give light in the heavens to be darkened on you, and I will put darkness on your land, says the Lord GOD. And I will cause the hearts of many peoples to tremble, when I bring the news of your ruin among the nations, in the lands which you have not known… When I have desolated the land of Egypt, and the land has been stripped of what it was full of, when I have struck down all those who dwell therein, then they shall know that I am the Lord. »



IGNITION

Cyclical history opens, in the sixth chapter of Genesis, with the story of the Deluge; it ends, in the twentieth of the Apocalypse, in the burning flames of the Last Judgment. Moses, saved from the waters, writes first; Saint John, sacred figure of solar exaltation, closes the book with the seals of fire and sulfur.

One can admire at Melle (Deux-Sèvres), the mystical knight of whom the visionary of Pathmos speaks, who must come in the fullness of light and emerge from the fire, like a pure spirit (pl. XLII).




Plate XLII


Under a semicircular arcade, in the Saint-Hilaire church, it is a grave and noble statue which, above the north porch, will be implacably roasted, by the sun stopped in its course, during the interminable days of the great anger. The bow and the crown are given to him in the midst of the ineffable divine glory, whose dazzling brilliance consumes all that it illuminates. If our horseman does not show the symbolic weapon, he is wearing, nevertheless, the sign of all royalty. His rigid attitude, his tall stature announces power, but the expression of his face seems imbued with some sadness.His features bring him singularly closer to Christ, to the King of kings, to the Lord of lords, to this Son of Man whom, according to Lentulus, we never saw laughing, although we had often seen him cry. And we understand that it is not without melancholy that he returns here below, to the places of his Passion, he, the eternal envoy of his Father, to impose, on the perverted world, the ultimate test and to "harvest", ruthlessly, shameful humanity. This humanity, ripe for the supreme punishment, is represented by the character that the horse knocks down and tramples, without the driver showing the slightest concern [The equestrian statue, which Julien Champagne designed at the beginning of the summer of 1919, is now partly mutilated.The rider lost his right foot, while the horse, no doubt under the same shock, found himself amputated, also on the dexter, of his fore leg which he was lifting while prancing]. the ultimate test and to ruthlessly "harvest" shameful humanity. This humanity, ripe for the supreme punishment, is represented by the character that the horse knocks down and tramples, without the driver showing the slightest concern [The equestrian statue, which Julien Champagne designed at the beginning of the summer of 1919, is now partly mutilated. The rider lost his right foot, while the horse, no doubt under the same shock, found himself amputated, also on the dexter, of his fore leg which he was lifting while prancing]. the ultimate test and to ruthlessly "harvest" shameful humanity.This humanity, ripe for the supreme punishment, is represented by the character that the horse knocks down and tramples, without the driver showing the slightest concern [The equestrian statue, which Julien Champagne designed at the beginning of the summer of 1919, is now partly mutilated. The rider lost his right foot, while the horse, no doubt under the same shock, found himself amputated, also on the dexter, of his fore leg which he was lifting while prancing]. is now partly mutilated. The rider lost his right foot, while the horse, no doubt under the same shock, found himself amputated, also on the dexter, of his fore leg which he was lifting while prancing]. is now partly mutilated.The rider lost his right foot, while the horse, no doubt under the same shock, found himself amputated, also on the dexter, of his fore leg which he was lifting while prancing].

Each period of twelve hundred years begins and ends with a catastrophe; human evolution extends and develops between two plagues. Water and fire, agents of all material mutations, operate together, during the same time and each on an opposite terrestrial region. And, as the solar displacement—that is to say, the ascent of the star to the zenith of the pole—remains the great motor of this elementary conflagration, it follows that the same hemisphere is alternately submerged at the end of one cycle and calcined at the end of the following cycle. While the south is subjected to the combined heat of the sun and earthly fire, the north undergoes the constant affusion of southern waters, vaporized within the furnace, then condensed into enormous clouds, constantly driven back.However, in the previous cycle,

We must calmly await the supreme hour; that of punishment for many, of martyrdom for some.

Succinctly, but very clearly, the great Christian initiate Saint Peter points out exactly the difference offered by the two cataclysms succeeding each other on the same hemisphere, that is to say on ours, for the present case: For since our fathers died, all things remain as from the beginning of creation . But it is by willful ignorance that they do not consider that the heavens were first made by the word of God, as well as the earth which came out of the bosom of the water, and which remains in the midst of the water; and that it was by these very things that the world then perished, being submerged by the deluge of the waters. Gold,the heavens and the earth from now on are guarded with care by the same word, and are reserved to be burned with fire, in the day of judgment and the ruin of the ungodly. and then, with the sound of an awful storm, the heavens shall pass away, the elements ablaze shall dissolve, and the earth shall be scorched with all that it contains.... For we await, according to the promise, new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness shall dwell [Second Epistle, III.]. in the sound of an awful tempest the heavens shall pass away, the elements ablaze shall dissolve, and the earth shall be scorched with all that is in it...For we await, according to the promise, new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness shall dwell [Second Epistle, III.] . »in the sound of an awful tempest the heavens shall pass away, the elements ablaze shall dissolve, and the earth shall be scorched with all that is in it...For we await, according to the promise, new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness shall dwell [Second Epistle, III.]. »

The obelisk of Dammartin-sous-Tigeaux (Seine-et-Marne) is the sensitive, expressive image, absolutely in keeping with tradition, of the double earthly calamity, the conflagration and the deluge, on the terrible day of the Last Judgment (pl. XLIII).




Plate XLIII


Erected on a mound, at the highest point of the forest of Crécy (altitude: 134 meters), the obelisk dominates the surroundings, and, through the gap in the forest paths, can be seen from afar. Its location was also admirably chosen. It occupies the center of a geometrically regular crossroads, formed by the intersection of three roads which give it the radiant appearance of a six-pointed star [The pleasant decoration which surrounds the obelisk and which is now bristling with posts and plates, offers itself as a striking example of the fantasies of an urbanism that is too often absurd and annoying].

Thus this monument appears to be built on the plan of the ancient hexagram; figure composed of the triangle of water and that of fire, which serves as the signature of the physical Great Work and its result, the Philosopher's Stone.

The work, of beautiful appearance, is made up of three distinct parts: a robust, oblong base, with a square section and rounded corners; a shaft consisting of a quadrangular pyramid with chamfered edges; finally, an amortization in which is concentrated all the interest of the construction. It shows, in fact, the terrestrial globe delivered to the united forces of water and fire. Resting on the waves of the raging sea, the sphere of the world, struck at the upper pole by the sun in its helicoidal reversal, bursts into flames and projects lightning and lightning. This is, as we have said, the striking figuration of the immense conflagration and flood, both purifiers and justices.

Two faces of the pyramid are oriented exactly along the north-south axis of the national road. On the southern side, we notice the image of an old oak carved in bas-relief. According to M. Pignard-Péguet [ Illustrated General History of the Departments. Seine-et-Marne . Orleans, Auguste Goût et Cie, 1911, p. 249.], this oak surmounted “a Latin inscription” today hammered. The other sides bore, hollow engraved, a scepter on one, a hand of justice on the other, a medallion with the arms of the king on the last.

If we question the stone oak, it can tell us that the times are near, because it is the figurative omen. It is the eloquent symbol of our period of decadence and perversion; and the initiate, to whom we owe the obelisk, was careful to choose the oak tree as the frontispiece of his work, in the manner of a cabalistic prologue charged with situating, in time, the fatal epoch of the end of the world. This era, which is ours, has its characteristics clearly indicated in the twenty-fourth chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, that is to say according to Science: “We will hear of wars and rumors of wars… There will be earthquakes, pestilences, famines… But this will only be the beginning of pain. “These frequent geological shocks, accompanied by inexplicable climatic changes,whose consequences are propagated in the peoples they move and among the societies they trouble, are symbolically expressed by the oak tree. This word, hoisted in its French pronunciation, corresponds phonetically to the Greek Cen , Khen, and designates the common goose. The old oak therefore takes on the same value as the expression old goose and the secret meaning of the old law, heralding the return of the old Covenant or of the Reign of God.

The Tales of Mother Goose (mother law, first law) are hermetic stories where esoteric truth blends with the marvelous and legendary setting of Saturnalia, Paradise or the Golden Age.



GOLDEN AGE

In the period of the golden age, man, renovated, ignores all religion. He only gives thanks to the Creator, whose sun, his most sublime creation, seems to him to reflect the ardent, luminous and beneficent image. He respects, honors and venerates God in this radiant globe which is the heart and brain of nature and the giver of earthly goods. Visible representative of the Eternal, the sun is also the tangible testimony of his power, his greatness and his goodness. Within the radiance of the star, under the pure sky of a rejuvenated earth, man admires the divine works, without external manifestations, without rites and without veils.Contemplative, ignoring the need, the desire and the suffering, he keeps to the Master of the universe this moved and deep gratitude which the simple hearts possess, and that boundless affection binding the son to his Father. The golden age, the solar age par excellence, has as its cyclical symbol the very image of the star, a hieroglyph used from time immemorial by the ancient alchemists to express metallic gold or mineral sun. On the spiritual level, the golden age is personified by the evangelist Saint Luke. Greek Lo u caw , light, lamp, torch (Latin lux, lucis), leads us to consider the Gospel according to Saint Luke as the Gospel according to light.It is the solar Gospel which translates, esoterically, the path of the star and that of its rays, returned to their first state of splendor. It marks the beginning of a new era, the exaltation of radiant power on the regenerated earth and the recommencement of the annual and cyclical orb ( L u cabaw , in Greek inscriptions, means year). Saint Luke has as an attribute the bull or winged ox, spiritualized solar figure, emblem of vibratory movement, luminous and brought back to the possible conditions of existence and development of animated beings.

This happy and blessed time of the golden age, during which Adam and Eve lived in the state of simplicity and innocence, is designated as the earthly Paradise . The Greek word Paradejsow , paradise, seems to come from the Persian or Chaldaic root PardesAccording to them, it would be appropriate to understand in the allegorical sense all that Holy Scripture relates to it., which means delicious garden. At least it is in this sense that we find it used by Greek authors—Xenophorus and Diodorus of Sicily in particular—to describe the magnificent gardens possessed by the kings of Persia. The same meaning is applied by the Septuagint, in their translation of Genesis (ch. II, v. 8), to the marvelous abode of our first parents. We wanted to find out on which geographical portion of the globe, God had placed this Eden in an enchanting setting. The hypotheses hardly agree on this point; also, certain writers, like Philo the Jew and Origen, settle the debate by claiming that the terrestrial Paradise, such as Moses describes it, never had a real existence.

Moreover, we consider as exact all the descriptions which have been made of the terrestrial Paradise, or, if one prefers, of the golden age; but we will not stop at the various theses aimed at proving that the space of refuge, inhabited by our ancestors, was located in a well-defined region. If, on purpose, we do not specify where it was located, it is only for the reason that, during each cyclic revolution, there is only a thin belt which is respected and which remains habitable on its terrestrial parts. We insist on it however, the zone of salvation and mercy is sometimes in the northern hemisphere, at the beginning of a cycle, sometimes in the southern hemisphere, at the beginning of the following cycle.

Let's summarize. The earth, like everything that lives from it, in it and by it, has its foreseen and determined time, its evolutionary epochs rigorously fixed, established, separated by as many inactive periods. She is thus condemned to die, in order to be reborn, and these temporary existences comprised between her regeneration, or birth, and her mutation, or death, have been called Cycles. by the majority of ancient philosophers. The cycle is therefore the space of time which separates two terrestrial convulsions of the same order, which are accomplished at the end of a complete revolution of this Great Circular Period, divided into four epochs of equal duration, which are the four ages of the world.These four divisions of the existence of the earth follow one another according to the rhythm of those which make up the solar year: spring, summer, autumn, winter. Thus, the cyclic ages correspond to the seasons of the annual solar movement, and their whole has received the denominations of Great Period, Great Year , and, more frequently still, of Solar Cycle .


END OF THE WORK



TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME


THE MARVELOUS GRIMOIRE OF THE CHÂTEAU DE DAMPIERRE
I – II – III – IV – V – VI – VII – VIII – IX – X – XI – XII

THE BODYGUARDS OF FRANCOIS II
I – II – III – IV – V – VI – VII

EDINBURGH'S HOLYROOD PALACE SUNDIAL

PARADOX OF THE UNLIMITED PROGRESS OF SCIENCE

THE REIGN OF MAN

THE FLOOD

ATLANTIS

IGNITION


GOLDEN AGE