Saint Thomas Aquinas TREATISE OF SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS
From the Order of Preachers
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THE PHILOSOPHICAL STONE
AND FIRST
SUPERCELESTIAL BODIES
Monitoring of the Treaty on
THE ART OF ALCHEMY
Translated from Latin for the first time, introduction and notes by
GRILLOT FROM GIVRY
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Contents:
1. THE PHILOSOPHICAL STONE AND FIRST SUPERCELESTIAL BODIES
2. TREATY OF SAINT THOMAS AQUIN ON THE ART OF ALCHEMY
3. UNPRECEDENTED NOTES FROM GRILLOT DE GIVRY
INTRODUCTION
By drawing from oblivion the old alchemical work which shines with the name of Saint Thomas, we are not unaware of the criticisms which will certainly be addressed to us. However, it is quite useless to formulate them once again, because they date back two centuries. We know them well and yet they did not stop us for a moment in our work. Neither are they irrefutable, for learned men have refuted them. We could therefore content ourselves with referring to their works, which are rare today, but no one would take the trouble to consult them and everyone would retain their preconceived opinion.
Since the spirit of routine obliges us to begin again the work of our ancestors, we will briefly recall the principal features of the controversy.
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The great, the only objection that can be made against the authenticity of the book of Saint Thomas, is not based on any fact, any act, any anachronism, any contradiction constituting valid proof in palaeography or in bibliography.
It can be summed up as follows: "Alchemy being (according to the opinion of modern critics) a work of the devil or at least a pitiful reverie, a saint, a powerful and strong genius like Saint Thomas Aquinas was able to believe in it”.
Such, in fact, is the puerile and specious substance of the interminable dissertation that Naudé wrote on this subject ( Apologie pour les grands hommes suspectez de Magie , par G. Naudé, Parisien, in-12, 1712.). Strictly, one could answer nothing to an author who wanted to prove in the same work that neither Zoroaster, nor Pythagoras, nor Plotinus, nor Porphyry, nor Jamblichus, nor Jérôme Cardan, nor Geber, nor Arnauld de Villeneuve, nor Roger Bacon, nor Trithemius, or even... the Magi had never been initiated into Magic. But since he well represents the state of a large number of minds who deserve to think better, we will seriously consider his criticism. It begins (chapter xvii) with this sentence in extraordinary language:
" I have no doubt that the so manifest falsity of these calumnies is an indubitable conjecture of the judgment that we must make on these books of Images of Necromancy, of the Metallic Art, of the secrets of Alchemy and of essentiis essentiarum , which are divulged and sold daily under the name of Saint Thomas Aquinas, dubbed with good reason by Picus, splendor Theologiae , by Erasmus, vir non sui saeculi , by Vives, Scriptor de schola omnium Sanissimus, and by the consent of all Authors, with that of the Church, the faithful interpreter of Aristotle and Holy Scripture, the basis and foundation of Scholastic Theology, and to put it in a word, the Angelic Doctor. For I beg you, what appearance would it be to be able to imagine that this great spirit who was canonized in the year 1322 and whose doctrine was approved by a decree of the University of Paris, the year 1333 and by three sovereign pontiffs, Innocent V, Urban VI and John XXII, amused themselves or at Magic, or at all the refueriës of the Alchemists!...”
Thus this verbiage can be summed up: “It displeases me to conceive of Saint Thomas as an alchemist. So he couldn't write an alchemical work. »
It is, as we see, the substitution of a personal appreciation for precise proofs, as the basis of reasoning. In other words, it is anarchy in matters of logic. We could use the same process and simply reverse the proposition by saying: "Occult science being the most sublime science, or rather the only science, it is quite natural that an extraordinary man like Saint Thomas should have known and practiced it, and the pope being a Magus or at least a man animated in his decisions by the spirit of magic, he could only approve of it. »
“But, continues Naudé, the Alchemists really forget only one thing to claim it for themselves, and to place it in their party: which is to cut off and corrupt as heretics do, this place of his Commentaries on the second book of the Maistre des Sentences ( Distinct. 7, quaest 3, art. 1, ad. 5 .) where he formally combats the possibility of their metallic transmutation. »
But Naudé took good care not to quote the text of this passage because one could see that it in no way favored his theories and that Saint Thomas did not “formally combat” the possibility of transmutation. More concerned with the truth we will give it in full here. It is found in the enormous tome entitled: Sancti Thomse Aquinatis in quatuor librosssentiarum Pétri Lombardi . Parisiis, 1659, folio. We open it Lib. II. Distinct. VII. West. III. Solution 6, p. 74, and we find the following words:
(Sicvit) Alchymistae faciunt aliquid simile auro quantum ad accidenta exteriores: sed tamen non faciunt verum aurum: Quia forma substantialis auri non est per calorem ignis, quo utuntur alchymistse SED PER CALOREM SOLIS, IN LOCO DETERMINATO UBI viget virtus numeralis: Et ideo tale aurum non habet operationem consequentem speciem: Et similiter in aliis, quae per eorum operationem fiunt . »
However, who will not notice on reading this passage that it attests to its author's deep knowledge of alchemical laws and theories? First of all, it is not a question of knowing whether Saint Thomas condemns alchemy, but whether he studied it. Now this passage is the proof of it; he knows what his practice consists of; he knows the intimate essence of metals; he even reveals the great secret in the words we have underlined, with the perfect language of an alchemist. These sentences could only have been written by a follower. Here, then, is a very specific point: Saint Thomas knows alchemy.
Does he condemn her formally? If Naudé had read some treatises on Alchemy with an impartial mind, he would have noted with astonishment that the adepts themselves often use similar language in their treatises. Insignium medicinarum nomina clangunt , says Weidenfeld, iis ipsis incognitis et cortices dantur pro nucleis (SEGERI WEIDENFELD. De Secretis adeptorum liber . Hamburg, 1555). He would have found it in Paracelsus, in Trévisan, in President d'Espagnet and also in the treatise that we are translating today, which is great proof of its authenticity.
What is the theory of Saint Thomas? That alchemists do not make gold, but only change the external accidents of metals. Is this condemning alchemy? It teaches that one cannot transmute matter or change its intimate nature. It is intransmutable, indeed, since it is one. But he recognizes that we only change the accidents, the species to speak the scholastic language. Did the alchemists ever teach anything else?
Saint Thomas is therefore attacking the blowers here as all the alchemists have done. By saying tale aurum non habetoperationem consequentem speciem , he designates the gold of the blowers, which they obtain by the heat of the fire, per calorem ignis . But since he himself says that real gold is obtained per calorem solis, in loco determinato , is it not obvious that whoever knows what he designates by the enigmatic words calor solis is that is to say the astral light and which will also know the locus determinatus ubi viget virtus mineralis , that is to say the athanor built according to the principle rules given by the great athanor of nature, isn't it not obvious that this one will be able to produce theverum aurum quod habebit operationem consequentem speciem ?
Allow me to quote and compare here Paracelsus ( PARACELSE : The XIV books of the paragraphs of Paracelsus Bombast , Paris, 1631, in-4, discourse on chemistry. Third foundation of Paracelsic medicine, page 13). "Now," he said, "the operation of the celestial course is admirable, for though the work of the artist is esteemed in itself marvelous, nevertheless it is worthy of great admiration that the HEAVEN cooks, digests, imbibes, dissolves and reverberates much better than the Alchemist, so that the course of heaven teaches the course and regime of fire in the arcana that one wishes to prepare. »
Is this not, with a different phraseology, the very thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas? This similarity between the Grand Master of Occult Medicine and the Grand Master of Scholastic Philosophy will greatly embarrass skeptics and unbelievers; for us it is a considerable support.
Dom Pernety ( Fables egyptiennes et grecs , t. I, p. 170. Paris, 1786.) quotes an anonymous author who says that, to know the matter of philosophical fire, it suffices to know how "elementary fire takes the form of celestial fire ”.
The hermetic dictionary attributed to Salmon (Paris, 1695, small in-8°.) teaches that it is the light of the sun accompanied by the vivifying heat which is the principle of all the movements of the world.
Without wishing to prolong these quotations, let us simply note that all the alchemists prohibited the use of ordinary fire and that Saint Thomas, attributing it to them, incontestably designates the blowers.
And Naudé adds, with his usual grace:
"Witness without embarrassing us in an infinity of proofs (he had already given none) that they make this great doctor speak so childishly in the book of Essentiis Essentiarum , that one should never have leafed through his works more than the Margajats and the Jerusalem Artichokes (?) to believe that conceptions "so low and so creeping can come" from a spirit so sublime and so exalted. »
Now, this is still only an appreciation, and what is worse, an appreciation of this seventeenth century, admirable in other respects, but which adapted bad Greek portals to Gothic cathedrals and could not, consequently, fully understand Saint Thomas who embodies the Middle Ages.
Also, the argument has no value; supposing that the difference between the alchemical work and the theological work of Saint Thomas Aquinas is so perceptible, would this be the first time that a contradiction of this kind would appear in a man of genius? It is enough to know a little about humanity not to make use of such arguments.
Let's not forget; an undisputed and indisputable point, moreover, is that Saint Thomas was the most illustrious disciple of Albert-le-Grand. Now it would be very difficult and very paradoxical to want to exculpate the latter of having practiced Magic and Alchemy, if however there is guilt. And it would perhaps be even more incredible to claim that a master who attached such great importance to the science of mystery did not teach his disciple at least a few notions of it. The book that we are translating today would therefore be the precious summary of these teachings that Saint Thomas would have collected from the very mouth of his master, with the veneration he always has for him. Nothing opposes the likelihood of this fact.
But, it will be said, this is a youthful work that Saint Thomas later disavowed! Besides the fact that he never wrote this disavowal anywhere, it is not up to the author himself to pass judgment on his work because he is almost infallibly mistaken. The experience acquired by long practice, the constant evolution of his mind always make him regard his first attempts as child's play, while these attempts still appear to be fine works to those who have evolved in a different direction.
The treatise De Lapide Philosophico , to whatever period of the life of St. Thomas it belongs, is therefore, in all probability, by this author, and when a constant tradition confirms this probability, it becomes a certainty.
Naudé strives to show us his inferiority, but we have nothing to do with his appreciation; what we ask of him are precise proofs of inauthenticity. These proofs he cannot give, nor can those who would adopt his opinion. But this observation is enough for us.
It is worth noting here what was really the role of alchemy in the Middle Ages. It is generally believed that she was an object of horror, anathema and curse, as well as hexes, poisonings and homicides. Nothing is less exact. “The philosopher's stone, as Bonaventure Des Périers commentator wisely observes (Edition Garnier, 1872), was almost an article of faith in the Middle Ages. »
We will not cite all the ecclesiastical authors who indeed speak of it with admiration; let us simply recall Marbode ( De Lapidum ); then Jacques de Voragine in the Legenda aurea , Pierre de Natalibus in the Catalogus Sanctorum , who say, in the life of Saint Margaret, that the Stone can chase away the evil genius.
It was also one of the exact sciences of that time. Without however being part of the "seven arts" because of its initiatory teaching, it was nevertheless studied like arithmetic, cosmology, physics, music of those same times and of which we still have treatises by Albert the Great. , Saint Hildegarde, Hucbald of Saint-Amand and others. His invention was no more imputed to the devil than was that of the Trivium or the Quadrivium . To speak academically, it was the “chemistry” of that time. It was part of the stockpile of science of every truly learned man.
Is it admissible that a science, so important, so fertile in metaphysical points of comparison, cultivated by the most serious personages, escaped the study of Saint Thomas, and that he neglected to bring to it the powerful spirit of investigation that characterized it? And while he would have paid attention to the course of the stars, to the formation of meteors, to the phenomena of movement, the vast field of observation of the transformations of matter would have left him indifferent?
Saint Thomas also admits alchemy in several passages of his work: See Summa, Theologica . 2, 2, ques. 77, s. 2. And Lib. 4, Meteorum initiation .
In another work, he deals with judicial astrology, which he is far from expressly condemning, disapproving only of its abuses. (Opusculum XXVI: Dejudiciis astrorum , 1857, in-8°. Volume 3.)
This last work, whose authenticity no one disputes, is dedicated ad fratrem reginaldum ordinis prsedicatorum . Now, this brother Reinaldus or Renauld is precisely the same to whom the second treatise on Alchemy which will be found further on is dedicated.
Elsewhere ( Opuscul. de regimine principium . Lib. II, cap. VII), St. Thomas teaches that a king should possess a great deal of wealth in gold and silver.
A theory of high political significance, but which is very difficult to explain without assuming the tacit support of alchemy. "Without wealth it is very difficult to get rich," says Lao Tseu enigmatically. ( Tao, 3rd page). It would seem pleasant, in fact, to order a man to be rich without making it easier for him. And if we compare this assertion with the custom followed by the adepts of placing their secret in the hands of the powerful, kings or popes for the greater good of all, we will acquire the certainty that Saint Thomas designates the great Work by these mysterious words.
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Naudé's absurd denials could not go unanswered. Reverend Jacques d'Autun, a Capuchin preacher, published some time later: L'incrédulité savante et la crédulité ignorante, about magicians and sorcerers with the answer to a book entitled Apologie pour tous les grands personages qui s'est falsesupis de magic . Lyons. Jean Molin, 1671, in-4°.
This excellent book is unfortunately almost useless in the matter before us, despite what its title seems to promise. Indeed, Saint Thomas not being one of the authors most violently attacked by Naudé, Jacques d'Autun devoted only a few lines to his subject (page 1090) leaving alchemy completely aside.
A much more valuable support will be given to us by the RP de Castaigne, religious of the order of Saint-François, doctor of theology, abbot of Sou, adviser, ordinary chaplain to the king and appointed Bishop of Saluées by Louis XIII, of whom no will suspect orthodoxy. In his Works both medicinal and chemical (Paris, Jean d'Houry. Second edition, 1661), dedicated to François Favre, bishop of Amiens and grand master of the Oratory of Roy, we find (Part II, page 4 ) a warning for the philosophical Work of Jean Saunier, thus conceived: "But also what shall we say of this great Angelic Doctor Saint-Thomas d'Aquin, of the order of the Venerable Fathers Preachers, who himself was doing this holy work Potable gold.And I myself have in my hands his original written in his own hand in Latin and begins: Sicut lilium inter spinas . And if he helped the sick by doing the Holy Works of Mercy. Would it not be taken up by any envious doctors of this time? Yes: but he would say tanto dinaso to them . »
But Abbé Langlet du Fresnoy is the author who seems to have best understood the Alchemical Work of Saint Thomas and who has done it the most full justice ( History of Hermetic Philosophy , 3 vol in-12, 1742. Volume I, page 132). “I agree,” he said, “that an indiscreet zeal caused some treatises which are not by him to be placed under the name of this illustrious man; but there are a few others which it would be hard to dispute. That of the nature of minerals(de esse et essensia mineralium) is not worthy, in truth, of such a great philosopher, any more than the commentary on Peat which is "attributed to him." However, his treasure of Alchemy addressed to Brother Regnauld, his companion and friend, breathes only the practice of a singular and secret philosophy that he saw exercised at least by Albert-le-Grand whom he quotes in this Book. like his master in all genres and especially in this science...
“... This little treatise contains only eight pages and it is the best I have seen of its kind for those who know how to hear it . »
This opinion of one of the most learned historians of Hermeticism is precious. The little treatise to Brother Regnauld could indeed suffice for the accomplishment of the whole work without the help of any other master. It is therefore better to silence any objection, to accept a traditional authenticity similar to that of most ancient works, and which, far from tarnishing the glory of Saint Thomas, only adds to its brilliance by increasing with a small treatise admire the incomparable series of masterpieces he bequeathed to the Church.
To any possible dispute, we will oppose the example of the Liber eruditionis principium , printed for the first time in 1857, under the name of Saint Thomas ( Opuscules de saint Thomas , Paris, Vivès, 1857, volume IV) and which had just been discovered in the Vatican Library.
No one has questioned its authenticity: yet never mention of it had been made before and no proof could make it attributed to Saint Thomas except that the name of this man was written at the beginning of the work. great Doctor. This is precisely the case of the Treatise on the Stone. The name of Saint Thomas is inscribed there by tradition and if the proof seemed sufficient after six centuries to attribute to him an unknown manuscript, all the more so for his alchemical work which has other antecedents.
Let us add that none of the hermetic treatises of Saint Thomas is placed on the index of the Council of Trent.
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The two treatises of which we are giving a French adaptation for the first time are found together in Volume III of the Theatrum chemicum (Argentorati, in-8°, 1613), under the general title of: Secreta Alchemiae .
The first treatise is titled De Lapide Philosophico . It is still found in part in the following editions:
1° S. Thomas de Esse and Essentia mineralium , in-4°, Venetiis, 1488.
This edition, given a little more than two hundred years after the death of Saint Thomas and at the origin of the printing press, proves that the alchemical glory of this Doctor dates from a very long time ago and that the manuscripts of it must have been very widespread at that time.
2° Same , in-8°, 1592.
3° Idem , in Volume V of the Theatrum chemicum , page 806.
It is this treatise of Esse et Essentia mineralium or following others, of Esse et Essentia metallorum or even of Essentiis Essentiarum , whose authenticity Abbé Lenglet du Fresnoy casts doubt on as we have seen above. But it is probable that he only knew these last three editions which are visibly truncated and which only appear to be drafts of the first cited. In fact, these lack the first and the last three chapters found in Volume III of the Theatrum and which we have translated; moreover, there are many variations.
It is indisputable that this treatise bears numerous traces of revisions, as well as very large errors. The text sometimes becomes so obscure that one would think it was written cabalistically, although this is not the case. We have followed in this translation the text of Volume III by conferring it with that of the other editions and of some manuscripts offering more correct lessons, without however flattering ourselves to have settled all the difficulties.
To complete the bibliography of this first treatise, we know, from a very secret document, that there existed, in the seventeenth century, a French translation of the truncated part of this work, and which had been made on the Venice edition, but had never been printed. It was a folio manuscript which might perhaps be found today in some private library, if the vicissitudes of time have respected it.
As for the second treatise, which is also found in volume III of the Theatrum , entitled Thesaurus Alchemiae and dedicated to Brother Renauld, we know of the following editions:
1° Thomse aquinatis , secreta Alchimiae ; Colonizes, 1579.
2° Id., Secreta Alchimiae magnalia , in-8° Lugduni, no date.
3° Id., Lugduni Batavorum, 1598;
4° Thomae Aquinatis Alchimise magnalia , Item Thesaurus Alchimiae , in-8°, Lugduni, 1602.
We will not return to the praise Langlet du Fresnoy gave to this treatise.
There is still a work of Saint Thomas whose translation could not find a place here, and whose interest is less in truth. It is titled: Liber Lilii benedicti nuncupatum , etc. It is a commentary on an alchemical poem of 18 lines ( Theatrum chemicum , volume IV, page 959). It is perhaps this work of which the RP de Castaigne possessed the manuscript by the very hand of Saint Thomas. However, I rather believe that it is yet another lost work today.
Finally, let us point out the commentary on the Peat of the Philosophers of which Langlet du Fresnoy speaks, but which I do not know under the name of Doctor Angélique.
Before undertaking the reading of this treatise, let us remember that the followers recommend prayer and above all purity of heart. Let the unbelievers meditate on this word of Scripture: Altissimus DE TERRA creavit medicamentum quod sapiens non despiciet (Eccl. c. 38, v. 4) to which 3 one can only give an alchemical meaning. And this other: (Proverbs, chap. III, 16.) Wisdom has the length of days on her right, and on her left riches and glory! Admirable definition of the philosopher's stone, which is both, according to all authors, a medicine that prolongs life and an inexhaustible source of wealth, while the science that leads to it is wisdom par excellence.
The adept will also remember that the perfect knowledge of all the combinations of the Tarot is necessary for the accomplishment of the work. This secret, renewed here for the first time in three centuries, is implicitly contained in the work entitled: The Golden Fleece or the Flower of Treasures, in which is succinctly and methodically treated of the Stone of the Philosophers, by this great philosopher Salomon Trismosin, tutor to Paracelsus , Paris, 1613. There are twenty-two colored figures which represent the twenty-two phases of the seven main operations of transmutation.
We will also give to meditate the symbolic sentences which accompany the admirable plates of an almost unknown hermetic work, but the highest and the best inspired, perhaps (Staircase of the Sages or Treasure of the philosophy of the ancients, brought to light by Barent Coenders van Helpen, gentleman. Cologne, 1693, folio.), which exists.
A rs Laboriosa C onvertens H umiditate I gnea M etalla I n D . _
C aliditas H umiditas A lgor O cculta S ivitas.
C unctipotens A utor L ucis O mnia R egit.
A uthor M undi O mnipotens R ex.
I ucunde G enerat N atura I gnea S olis.
I u G ehenna N ostrae I gnis S cientiae.
A urifica E go R egina.
A lbum Q uœ V ehit A urum.
T rium E lementorum R eceptaculum R econdo A urifodinam.
S eparando V enerum L eniter P hilosophiis
H omogeneam V iscositatem R esuscitat.
M edicinam E go R ubeam C reo U niversalem R egiamque I n U tero S oli.
S olus A ltiora L aboro.
These sentences give, in a way, the absolute key to the Work, and we will end by wishing the reader, as all the Adepts have done, the most perfect success in their experiments, if they want to place their confidence and their hope only in God.
FIRST CHAPTER.
Aristotle, in the first book of Meteora, teaches that it is beautiful and praiseworthy to seek by profound investigations the first cause which directs the admirable concert of secondary causes, and the wise seeing effects in all things, manage to scrutinize their effects. occult causes.
We thus see the celestial bodies exerting a marked action on the elements and by the sole virtue of the matter of a single element, since from the matter of water, for example, they can extract the aeriform and igniform modalities.
Every natural principle of activity produces, in its duration of action, a multiplication of itself, like fire communicated to wood, extracts from this wood a greater quantity of fire.
So here we will talk about the most important agents that exist in nature.
The supercelestial bodies always present themselves to our eyes clothed in the material form of an element, but do not partake of the matter of this element, and these spheres are of a much simpler and subtler essence than the concretized appearances of themselves, which we only see ( 1 ).
And Rogerius has very well exposed this: Every principle of activity, he says, exerts its action by its own similarity, the latter being transformed at the same time into a receiving passive principle, but without differing specifically from the active principle which engendered it. ; for example the tow being placed close to the fire, without however touching it, this one will multiply its species ( 2) like any other principle of action, and this species will be multiplied and collected in the tow, as much by the natural and continuous action of the fire as by the ability of passivity which the tow possesses, then will vivify until the complete accomplishment of the act of fire.
Whereby it is manifest that the likeness of fire is not different from fire itself, in specie . But certain principles possess a specific intensive action, so that they can corroborate it by their own similarity by multiplying and reforming themselves unceasingly in all things; like fire. Others, on the contrary, cannot multiply their species by similarity and transmute each thing in themselves: such as man.
Indeed, man cannot act by the multiplication of his similarity as he acts by his own act, because the complexity of his being always obliges him to accomplish a plurality of actions. Wherefore, as Rogerius proves in the book of Influentiis , if man could, on the contrary, produce a mighty action by means of his likeness like fire, there is no doubt, that his species would truly be a man, from which it could not be inferred that the multiplied similarity of man would not be completely a man, being then placed above the species.
Therefore, when the supercelestial bodies exert their action on an element, they act by their similarity and, moreover, produce something similar to them and almost of the same species. Therefore, since they produce the element of the element and the elemental thing of the elemental thing, it necessarily follows that they themselves partake of the nature of the element. And, in order to better understand this, it must be observed that the sun produces fire from bodies saturated with urinary water and from spherical crystalline bodies.
You must know, moreover, that any principle of activity, as it is proved in the book of Influentiis, multiplies its similarity along a straight and strong perpendicular line, which is evidently seen in the example taken from tow and fire, which first join at a point taken on an ideal perpendicular line; what is also seen, when the urine or the crystal are exposed to the sun and receive the influence of the solar rays which are their similarity.
If we operate by means of a mirror, when the ray of the sun is projected perpendicularly, we will see it pass entirely through the water or the transparent body without breaking there because of the extreme coefficient of power of its action: if, on the contrary, it is projected in a non-perpendicular straight line it will break on the surface of the body, and a new ray will form in an oblique direction; the point of junction of these two rays being taken on the ideal perpendicular line. And it is the point of the maximum energy of the solar heat because if we place tow or any other combustible body there, it will ignite immediately.
It therefore follows from all this that when the likeness of the sun (that is, the rays of the sun) is corroborated by the continuous action of the sun itself, it engenders fire. The sun thus possesses the principle and the properties of fire, as is proved by the burning mirrors.
This sort of mirror is built, of perfectly polished steel, of such shape or arrangement that, uniting the beam of the solar rays, they project it along a single line of great incandescent force; the mirror is placed near the towns, cities or any other place, which are not long in igniting, as Athan says, in the book of Burning Mirrors .
It is manifest that the sun and the other supercelestial bodies partake in no way of Elemental matter and are therefore free from corruptibility, lightness and gravity.
Here it is necessary to make a distinction between the elements: some are simple and infinitely pure, not having the transmutative virtue necessary to evolve into another plane of modalisation, because the matter of which they are formed being delimited by the most perfect form which may suit it, they desire no other; and of these elements are probably formed the supercelestial bodies. For we actually place the water ( 3) above the firmament and the lens. In the same way we can say the same of the other elements, and it is of these elements that the supercelestial bodies are composed, by the divine power or by the intelligences in which it is ministered. By these elements neither heaviness nor lightness can be engendered, because they are accidents which only belong to coarse and heavy earths. However, they produce the phenomenon of coloring because the diversities in the light are due to a fluid of the imponderable series. These supercelestial bodies indeed appear golden in color and moreover sparkle as if they were themselves struck by a ray of light, just as a golden shield sparkles and sheds its brilliance when struck by the rays of the sun.Sensu , and since they are begotten from certain qualities of the elements it follows that it is in the elemental nature to possess them.
But as these elements are of their nature of infinite purity and never mixed with any inferior substance, it necessarily follows that in the celestial bodies they must be embodied and proportionalized in such a way that they cannot be separated. one another. And this should in no way come as a surprise because by cooperating with nature through the processes of the artist, I have myself separated the four elements from several lower bodies, so as to obtain them each separately, either water, fire or the earth; I purified as much as I could each of these elements one after another by a secret operation and this accomplished, I conjoined them together and obtained an admirable thing (quaedam admirabilis res ) which was not subject to any of the lower elements ( 4), for by leaving it as long as possible in the fire it was not consumed and experienced no change ( 5 ).
Let us therefore not be surprised if the celestial bodies are of an incorruptible nature, since they are composed entirely of elements, and it is without doubt that the substance which I had obtained shared much of the nature of these bodies. This is why Hermogenes, who was three times great ( triplex leaks ) in philosophy expresses himself thus: It was for me a great joy like no other to reach the perfection of my work and to see the quintessence without any mixture of the material of the lower elements.
One part of fire has more potential energy than one hundred parts of air, and therefore one part of fire can easily subdue one thousand parts of earth. We do not know according to what absolute weight proportions the mixing of these elements takes place; however by the practice of our art we observed that when the four elements are extracted from the bodies and purified each one separately, it is necessary to operate their conjunction to take by equal weight the air, the water and the ground, while one only adds the sixteenth part of fire. This composition is truly made up of all the elements, although the properties of fire still dominate over those of the others. Because by projecting a part on thousand of mercury one can notice that it coagulates and becomes red.6 ).
CHAPTER II.
OF THE LOWER BODIES: OF THE NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF MINERALS AND FIRST OF STONES.
We are now going to deal with the lower bodies. But since these divide into minerals, plants and animals, we will begin by studying the nature and properties of minerals. Minerals are divided into stones and metals. The latter are formed according to the same laws and according to the same quantitative ratios as the other creatures, except that their particular constitution results from a greater number of operations and transmutations than that of the elements or of the supercelestial bodies, for the composition of their matter is pluriform.
The material that makes up the stones is therefore of a very inferior nature, coarse and impure and possessing more or less earthiness depending on the degree of purity of the stone. As Aristotle says in his book Meteora (which some attribute to Avicenna), stone is not made of pure earth; it is rather an aqueous land ( 7 ) as we see certain stones forming in the rivers, and the salt being extracted by evaporation of the salt water. This water having a lot of earthiness, it coagulates in petrified form, by the heat of the sun or fire.
The matter of which the stones are composed is therefore coarse water; the active ingredient: heat or cold that coagulates water and extracts its lapidary essence ( 8 ). This constitution of stones is proved by the example of animals and plants which feel the properties of stones and produce them themselves, which deserves to be considered with the greatest attention.
Certain of these stones are in fact coagulated in animals by the effect of heat, and sometimes possess more energetic properties than those which do not come from animals and are formed in the ordinary way. Other stones are formed by nature itself, activated by virtue of other minerals. Because, says Aristote, one obtains by the mixture of two different waters, the water called Milk of the Virgin ( 9 ) and which one coagulates itself in stone.
For this, he says, we mix litharge dissolved in vinegar with a solution of alkali salt and although these two liquids are very clear, if we operate their conjunction, they do not fail to immediately form a thick and white water like milk ( 10). Soaked in this water, the bodies that we want to transform into stones, will coagulate immediately. Indeed, if silver lime or any other similar body is sprinkled with this water and then treated chemically by a gentle fire, it will coagulate. The Virgin's milk therefore truly has the property of transforming lime into stones. We also see in the blood, the eggs, the brain or through the hair and other parts of animals, forming stones ( 11 ), of admirable efficacy and virtue.
If one takes, for example, human blood, and lets it putrefy in the hot manure, then places it in the still, it will distill a white water like milk. We then increase the fire and it will distill a kind of oil. Finally, the residue is rectified ( foeces) that stays in the still and we make it white as snow. One mixes it with the oil that one pours on it and there is then formed a limpid and red stone, of an admirable efficiency and virtue, which stops ( stringit ) the flow of blood and which cures many infirmities ( 12). We also extracted one of the plants from it by the following method: We burn plants in the calcining furnace, then we convert this lime into water, we distill it and coagulate it; it is then transformed into a stone endowed with more or less great virtues, depending on the virtues of the plants used and their diversity. Some produce artificial stones, which, on closer examination, appear similar in all respects to natural stones, for artificial hyacinths are made which do not differ from natural hyacinths ( 13 ), as well as sapphires , by an identical process. .
It is said that the material of all precious stones is crystal, which is water with very little earthiness, and coagulated under the action of extreme cold ( 14 ). Crystal is pulverized on marble; it is soaked with strong waters and strong solvents, starting over several times, drying it and pulverizing it again to moisten it again with the solvents, until the mixture no longer forms a very homogeneous body ; it is then placed in the hot manure where it is converted after a certain time into water; this is distilled, which clarifies and partially evaporates. Another red liquid is then taken, made from charred red vitriol and children's urine ( 15 ).
These two liquors are mixed and distilled in the same manner a great number of times, according to the necessary weights and proportions; they are put in the manure so that they mix more intimately and then they are chemically coagulated ( in Kymia ) by a slow fire, which thus forms a stone similar in everything to Hyacinth. When one wants to make a sapphire, the second liquor is formed of urine and azure instead of red vitriol, and so on with the others according to the diversity of the colors, the water used having to be naturally of the same nature as the stone which is quarried. we want to produce.
The active principle is therefore heat or cold, and whether the heat is endowed or the cold is very intense, it is they who extract from matter the form of the stone which was only potentially and as if buried. (sepultam ) at the bottom of the water. We can distinguish in stones as in all things three attributes, namely: substance, virtue and action. We can judge of their virtues by the occult and very effective actions which they produce, as we judge of the actions of nature and of the supercelestial bodies.
There is therefore no doubt that they possess certain of the occult properties and virtues of the supercelestial bodies, and that they partake of their substance; which does not mean that they are composed of the very substance of the stars, but although they possess the sublimated virtues of the four elements, since certain stones participate a little in the complexion of the stars or supercelestial bodies, as I I touched a few words on the treatise of these bodies. Having isolated from some bodies, the four elements, I purified them and thus purified I combined them; I then collected a stone of such admirable efficiency and nature that the four elements, coarse and inferior to our sphere, had no action on it ( 16 ).
It is in speaking of this operation Hermogenes (the Father, as Aristotle calls him, who was three times great in philosophy, and who knows all the sciences both in their essence and in their applications), it is in speaking, I say, of this operation that he exclaims: It was for me the greatest happiness possible to see the fifth essence ( 17 ) devoid of the inferior qualities of the elements.
It therefore appears, obviously, that certain stones participate a little in the quintessence, which is certain and manifest by the operations of our art.
CHAPTER III.
OF THE CONSTITUTION AND ESSENCE OF METALS.
Metals are formed by nature, each according to the constitution of the Planet which corresponds to it and this is how the artist must operate. There are therefore seven metals, each of which partakes of a planet, namely: Gold, which comes from the Sun and bears its name; Silver, from the Moon; Iron, from Mars; Quicksilver, Mercury; Tin, from Jupiter; Lead, from Saturn; Copper and Brass, from Venus. These metals take, moreover, the name of their planet ( 18 ).
Of the Essential Matter of Metals.
The first matter of all metals is Mercury ( 19 ). In some, it is weakly frozen, and in others strongly ( 20 ). This is why we can establish a classification of metals based on the degree of action of their corresponding planet, on the perfection of their sulphur, on the degree of freezing of mercury and of earthiness that they possess, which assigns them a place relative to other metals.
Thus lead is nothing other than terrestrial mercury, that is to say partaker of the earth, weakly congealed and mixed with a subtle and not very abundant sulphur; and as the action of its planet ( V ) is weak and distant, it is inferior to tin, copper, iron, silver and gold ( 21 ).
Tin is subtle quick silver, slightly coagulated, mixed with a coarse and impure sulphur; that is why it is under the domination of copper, iron, silver and gold.
Iron ( 22 ) is formed of a coarse and terrestrial Mercury and of a terrestrial and very impure sulfur, but the action of its planet coagulates it strongly, this is why we find above it only Copper , silver and gold. Copper is formed of a powerful sulfur and a fairly coarse mercury.
Silver is formed of white, clear, subtle, non-burning sulfur and of a subtly coagulated, limpid and clear mercury, under the action of the planet the Moon; that is why it is only under the dominion of gold.
Gold, truly the most perfect of all metals, is composed of a red, clear, subtle, non-burning sulphur; and a subtle and clear Mercury ( 23 ) strongly activated by the Sun. This is why it cannot be burned by sulphur, which is possible for all other metals.
It is therefore evident that gold can be made of all these metals, and that of all, except gold, silver can be made. We can convince ourselves of this by the example of the gold and silver mines from which other metals are extracted, mixed with marcasites of gold and silver. And there is no doubt that these metals would have transformed themselves into gold and silver, if they had remained in the mine the time necessary for the action of nature to manifest itself.
As to whether one can make gold artificially with other metals by destroying the forms of their substance and in what way one operates, we will speak of it in the treatise of esse et essentiarerum sensibilium ( 24 ). But here we admit it as demonstrated truth.
CHAPTER IV.
OF THE TRANSMUTATION OF METALS AND FIRST OF THAT WHICH IS ACCOMPLISHED BY ARTIFICE.
The transmutation of metals can be accomplished artificially by changing the essence of one metal into the essence of another because, what is potentially can, obviously, be reduced to action, as Aristotle or Avicenna says: alchemists know that the species can never be truly transmuted, but only when the reduction into the first matter has been effected. Now, this raw material of all metals comes very close, as everyone admits, to the nature of mercury.
But although this reduction is largely the work of nature, it is none the less useful to aid it by means of art; but this is difficult, and it is in this operation that a great number of faults are made and that the majority dissipate in vain their youth and their forces and seduce kings and great men with vain promises which they cannot keep, not knowing how to discern the erroneous books, the impertinences, nor the false operations written by the ignorant, then finally get a completely null result. Having therefore considered that kings after minute operations had not been able to arrive at perfection, I believed that this science was false.
I reread the books of Aristotle or Avicenna, of Having therefore considered that kings after minute operations had not been able to arrive at perfection, I believed that this science was false. I reread the books of Aristotle or Avicenna, of Having therefore considered that kings after minute operations had not been able to arrive at perfection, I believed that this science was false. I reread the books of Aristotle or Avicenna, ofsecretis secretorum where I found the truth so veiled in riddles that they seemed meaningless; I read the books of their opponents and found similar follies in them.
Finally I considered the principles of NATURE, and I saw in them the WAY OF TRUTH . I observed indeed that the mercury penetrated and crossed the other metals, because if copper is dyed with lively silver mixed with as much blood and clay, this copper will be penetrated internally and externally and will become white, although this color is not durable ( 25).
We already know that quicksilver mixes with bodies and penetrates them. I therefore considered that if this mercury were retained it could no longer escape and that if I could find a means of fixing the arrangement of its molecules with the bodies, it would follow that the copper and the other bodies mixed with it would not would be more burned by those who, burning them ordinarily, have no action on mercury. Because this copper would then be similar to mercury and would possess the same qualities.
I therefore sublimated a quantity of mercury large enough for the fixing of its internal dispositions not to be altered, that is, for it not to be stolen in the fire; thus sublimated, I made it dissolve in water in order to operate the reduction in raw material, I soaked largely with this water of the lime of silver and sublimated and fixed arsenic; then I dissolved the whole thing in hot horse manure; I froze the solution and I obtained a clear stone like crystal having the property of dividing, of breaking the particles of the bodies, of penetrating them and of fixing themselves strongly in such a way that a little of this substance projected on a large quantity of copper immediately transformed it into a silver so pure that it was impossible to find better.
I wanted to test if I could also convert our red sulfur into gold; I boiled some in strong water over a slow fire; this water having become red, I distilled it in the still and I obtained as a result at the bottom of the curcurbite the pure red sulfur which I froze with the aforesaid white stone in order to also make it red. I projected part of it on a quantity of copper and I obtained very pure gold.
As for the occult process that I use, I only indicate it in its general lines and do not place it here so that no one begins to work unless he knows perfectly the modes of sublimation, distillation and freezing. and that he be expert in the form of vessels and furnaces and in the quantity and quality of fire.
I also operated by means of arsenic and I obtained very good silver but not of the most perfect purity; I also obtained the same result by the sublimated Orpiment, but this method is called the transmutation of one metal into another.
CHAPTER V.
OF NATURE AND THE PRODUCTION OF A NEW SUN AND A NEW MOON BY VIRTUE OF SULFUR EXTRACTED FROM THE MINERAL STONE.
There is, however, a more perfect mode of transmutation which consists in the change of mercury into gold or silver, by means of red or white sulfur, clear, simple, not burning, as Aristotle teaches, in secretis secretorum in a method very vague and very confused, for this is THE SECRET OF THE SAGES ( Absconditum sapientibus ); he therefore said to Alexander: Divine Providence advises you to hide your design and to accomplish the mystery that I will expose to you obscurely, by naming some of the things from which this truly powerful and noble principle can be extracted (26 ) .
These books are not published for the vulgar but for initiates ( propterprofectos ).
If anyone, presuming his strength, begins the work, I urge him not to do it, unless he is very expert and skilful in the knowledge of natural principles, and knows how to use with discerning the modes of distillation, dissolution, freezing and above all the various kinds and degrees of fire ( 27 ).
Moreover, the man who wants to carry out the work by avarice will not succeed, but only the one who works with wisdom and discernment.
The mineral stone used to produce this effect is precisely white or light red sulfur, which does not burn and which is obtained by the separation, purification and conjunction of the four elements (28 ) .
Enumeration of Mineral Works.
Take therefore, in the name of God, a pound of this sulphur; grind it hard on marble and soak it with a pound and a half of the very pure olive oil used by philosophers; reduce everything to a paste that you will put in a pan ( sartagin physica) and which you will thus dissolve in the fire. When you see a red foam rise, you will remove the material from the fire and let the foam go down without ceasing to stir with an iron spatula, then you will put it on the fire again and you will repeat this operation until you obtain the consistency of honey. Then put the matter back on the marble where it will immediately freeze like flesh or cooked liver; you will then cut it into several pieces of the size and shape of the fingernail, and with an equal weight of quintessence of oil of tartar, you will put them back on the fire for about two hours.
Then encloses the work in a well-lit glass amphora with the lute of sapience ( 29) that you will leave on the slow fire for three days and three nights. You will then put the amphora and the medicine in cold water for another three days; then you will cut the work again into pieces the size of your fingernail and you will put it in a glass gourd above the still. You will thus distill a white water like milk, which is the true milk of the virgin; when this water is distilled, you will increase the fire and pour it into another amphora. Now take air that is like the purest and most perfect air, because it is that which contains fire.
Calcine in the calcination furnace this black earth which remains at the bottom of the cucurbit, until it becomes white as snow; put it back in distilled water seven times, so that a blade of burning copper, extinguished three times, becomes perfectly white. Let it be the same for water as for air; at the third distillation you will find the oil and all the fire-like tincture at the bottom of the curcurbite.
You will then start again a second and a third time, and you will collect the oil; then you will take the fire which is at the bottom of the curcurbite and which is similar to black and soft blood; you will keep it to distil it and test it with the copper plate, as you did for water; and now you have the way to separate the four elements. But the way to unite them ( You will then start again a second and a third time, and you will collect the oil; then you will take the fire which is at the bottom of the curcurbite and which is similar to black and soft blood; you will keep it to distil it and test it with the copper plate, as you did for water; and now you have the way to separate the four elements.
But the way to unite them ( You will then start again a second and a third time, and you will collect the oil; then you will take the fire which is at the bottom of the curcurbite and which is similar to black and soft blood; you will keep it to distil it and test it with the copper plate, as you did for water; and now you have the way to separate the four elements. But the way to unite them (modum conjungendi ) is ignored by all.
So take the earth and grind it on a very clean glass or marble table; soak it with an equal weight of water until it forms a paste; place it in a still and distill it with its fire; soak again what you have left at the bottom of the curcurbite with the water you have distilled until it is completely absorbed.
Then imbibe it with an equal quantity of air using it as you used water, and you will obtain a crystallized stone, which projected in small quantity on a lot of mercury, converts this one. this in real silver, and this is the virtue of non-burning white sulphur, formed of three elements: earth, water and air. If, now, you take a seventeenth part of the fire and mix it with the above three elements, distilling and imbibing them as said, you will obtain a red, clear, simple, non-burning stone. , a small part of which projected upon much mercury will be converted into very pure gold obryzum.
This is the method to hone the mineral stone ( 30 ).
CHAPTER VI.
NATURAL ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE STONE.
There is another stone, which according to Aristotle is a stone and is not a stone. It is at the same time mineral, vegetable and animal; it is found in all places, in all men ( 31 ) and it is it that you must putrefy in the manure and place after this putrefaction in a gourd on the still; you will extract the elements from it in the aforesaid manner, you will operate their conjunction and you will obtain a stone which will have no less efficacy and virtue.
And don't be surprised that I said to putrefy it in hot horse manure as the artist should do, for if the wheaten bread is put there, after nine days it will be transformed into real flesh mixed with blood ( 32). It is for this reason, I believe, that God wanted to choose wheat bread in preference to any other material, because it is more particularly the food of the body than any other substance and one can easily extract from it the four elements and make it an excellent work ( 33 ).
From all that we have said, it emerges that any compound body can be reduced to a mineral, and that not only by nature but by art. Blessed be God who gave men such power, since, imitating nature, he can transmute natural species, which indolent nature only accomplishes after an immense time. Here are the other methods of transmutation of metals which one finds in the books of Roses, of Archelaus, in the seventh book of the Precepts and in many other treaties of Alchemy.
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE MANNER OF OPERATING BY THE SPIRIT.
There is a mode of operation by the spirit and it is pertinent to know that there are four kinds of spirits, so called because they volatilize in fire, and which partake of the nature of the four elements, viz. : Sulphur, which possesses the nature of Fire, Salt Ammoniac, Mercury which possesses the properties of Water and which is also called fugitive servant (servus fugitivus ) and Orpiment or Arsenic which possesses the spirit of the Earth ( 34). Some have operated by means of one of these spirits, by sublimating it and converting it into water, by distilling it and congealing it; then, having projected it on copper, operated the transmutation.
Another used two of these spirits; another of three, finally another of all four; and here is his method: After having sublimated each of these elements separately, a great number of times until they are fixed, and having distilled them then dissolved in strong water and soaked with energetic solvents, one brings together all these waters ; you distill them and freeze them all together again and you get a stone. white as crystal which, projected in small quantities on any metal, changes it into a real Moon. It is generally said that this stone is composed of the four elements to a very high degree of purification. Others believe that it is composed of a spirit united with the bodies; but I do not believe that this method is true and I believe it is unknown to all, although Avicenna mentions a few words about it in his Epistle. I will test it when I have the necessary time and place.
CHAPTER VIII.
OF THE PREPARATION OF FERMENTS OF SATURN AND OTHER METALS.
So take two parts of Saturn (lead) if you want to accomplish the Work of the Sun, or two parts of Jupiter (tin) for the Work of the Moon. Add a third part of mercury in order to form an amalgam which will be a kind of very fragile stone which you will carefully grind on the marble, soaking it in very sour vinegar and water holding in solution the best prepared common salt, in soaking and drying alternately until the substance has absorbed its maximum amount of water; then soak this ingot with alum water in order to obtain a soft paste which you will dissolve in water. You will then distil this solution three or four times, you will freeze it and you will obtain a stone which converts Jupiter into Moon ( 35 ).
CHAPTER XI.
OF JUPITER'S REDUCTION PROCESS, IN OTHER WORDS, OF THE WORK OF THE SUN.
For the Work of the Sun, take well purified, red and well calcined vitriol, and dissolve it in the urine of the children. You distill everything and you renew this as many times as necessary to obtain very red water. Then you will mix this water with the aforesaid water before freezing; you will place these two bodies in the manure for a few days so that they incorporate better, and you will distill them and freeze them together. You will then obtain a red stone similar to Hyacinth, of which a part projected on seven parts of Mercury or of Saturn, well purified, will change into gold obryzum ( 36 ).
One finds in the other books a multitude of other operations confused and in infinite number, which can only induce the men in error and of which it is superfluous to speak. It is not out of cupidity that I have treated of science, but in order to observe the admirable effects of nature and to seek their causes, not only general but special and immediate, not only accidental but essential; I have dealt with it at length, as well as with the separation of the elements of bodies. This work is truly true and perfect, but it requires so much work, and I suffer so much from the imperfection of my body, that I will not attempt it, unless there is a pressing need. What I have said here about minerals is more than enough.
END.
TREATY OF SAINT THOMAS AQUIN ON THE ART OF ALCHEMY
Dedicated to Friar Reinaldus.
CHAPTER I
At your assiduous prayers, my very dear brother, I propose to describe to you in this brief treatise divided into eight chapters, certain simple and effective rules for our operations, as well as the secret of true dyes; but first I address three recommendations to you.
First: do not pay much attention to the words of modern or ancient Philosophers who have dealt with this science, because Alchemy consists entirely in the capacity of understanding and in experimental demonstration (37 ) . The Philosophers, wanting to hide the truth of the sciences, have almost always spoken figuratively.
Secondly: never appreciate nor esteem the plurality of things nor the compositions formed of heterogeneous substances ( 38 ), for nature produces nothing except by similar things, and although the horse and the donkey produce the mule, this does not It is nevertheless an imperfect generation, like that which can occur by chance exceptionally with several substances.
Third: don't be indiscreet, but watch your words, and like a prudent son, don't throw pearls to swine.
Always keep in mind the end for which you have undertaken the work. Be certain that if you constantly keep before your eyes these rules which were given to me by Albert-le-Grand, you will have nothing to beg from the Kings and the great, but, on the contrary, the Kings and the great will cover you with honors ( 39). You will be admired by all, by serving the Kings and Prelates by this art, because not only will you provide for their needs but also you will provide for those of all the needy, and what you thus give will be worth in eternity as much as a prayer. May these rules therefore be kept at the bottom of your heart under an inviolable triple seal, for in my other book, given to the vulgar, I spoke as a philosopher, while here, trusting in your discretion, I revealed the most hidden secrets.
CHAPTER II OPERATION
As Avicenna teaches in his epistle to King Assa, we seek to obtain a true substance by means of several intimately fixed, which substance being placed in the fire, maintains it and feeds it, and which is moreover penetrating and ingressive. , which dyes mercury and other bodies; very true tincture, having the required weight and surpassing in its excellence all the treasures of the world.
To make this substance, as Avicenna says, one must have patience, time and the necessary instruments.
Patience, because according to Geber, haste is the work of the devil; also he who has no patience must suspend all work.
Time, because in any natural action resulting from our art, the means and the time are rigorously determined ( 40 ).
Instruments, necessary not in great number as we will see later, since our work is accomplished by means of a thing, a vase, a single way and a single operation (in una re , uno vase, una via and una operatione ) as Hermès teaches.
It is permissible to form medicine from several agglomerated principles; however, only one substance is needed and nothing extraneous except white or red ferment. All the Work is purely natural; it suffices to observe the various colors according to the time when they appear.
The first day, you have to get up early in the morning and see if the vine is in bloom and turns into a crow's head; then it passes through various colors between which we must notice the intense white because it is that which we expect and which reveals our king, that is to say the elixir or the simple powder, has as much names as there are things in the world. But To end in a few words, our material or magnesia is called Terre d'Espagne or Antimony, but note well that I do not mean by this the common mercury used by the sophists and which only gives a mediocre result, despite the great expense it entails, and if it pleased you to work with him, you would unquestionably arrive at the truth, but after an interminable coction and digestion ( 41).
Rather, follow Blessed Albert the Great, my master, and work with quicksilver mineral, for in it alone is the secret of the work. Then, you will operate the conjunction of the two dyes, white and red, coming from the two perfect metals which, alone, give a perfect dye; mercury communicates this tincture only after having received it; that is why by mixing them both, they will mix better with him and will penetrate him more intimately.
ON THE COMPOSITION OF MERCURY AND ITS SEPARATION
And although our work is completed by means of our mercury alone, it nevertheless needs red or white ferment; it then mingles easily with the Sun and the Moon, for these two bodies partake much of its nature and are also more perfect than the others. The reason is that the bodies are more perfect according as they contain more mercury. Thus the Sun and the Moon, containing more than the others, mingle with the red and the white and are fixed ( 42 ) in the fire, because it is the mercury alone which completes the Work in it, we find everything what we lack for our work, without our needing to add anything to it.
The Sun and the Moon are not foreign to him, because they are reduced from the beginning of the Work, in their first matter, that is to say in mercury; they therefore take their origin from him. Some strive to complete the Work by means of mercury alone or simple magnesia, washing them in very sour vinegar, cooking them in oil, sublimating them, burning them, calcining them, distilling them;
extracting their quintessence, putting them to their torture by the elements and an infinity of other torments ( martyrizationibus ) believing that their operation will be of great benefit to them; and in the end, they get only a modest result.
But believe me, my son, all our mystery consists only in the regime and the distribution of the fire ( 43 ) and in the intelligent direction of the Work.
We have only a little to do, it is the virtue of the well-directed fire which operates on our work ( 44 ), without our having much work, nor great expense, because I suppose that when our stone was in its first state, that is to say First Water, or Milk of the Virgin, or Dragon's Tail, once it has been dissolved, it then calcines, sublimates, distills, reduces, washes, freezes itself. even ( 45), and by virtue of the well-proportioned fire ends alone in a single vase without any other manual operation.
Know then, my son, how the philosophers have spoken figuratively of manual operations, and so that you may be assured of the purgation of our mercury, I will teach you the simple preparation. Hang, therefore, mineral mercury or Spanish earth or antimony or black earth, which is the same thing and which has not been used before for any other work. Take twenty-five pounds or a little more and pass them through a thick linen sheet, and this is the real washing ( lotio vera ). Look well after the operation if there is no filth or slag left, because then the mercury could not be used for our work. If nothing appears, you can judge it excellent ( 46). Note well that it is not necessary to add anything to this mercury and that the work can thus be completed.
ON THE MANNER OF MAKING THE AMALGAM
Since our Work is accomplished by mercury alone without the addition of any other foreign matter, I will deal briefly with the manner of making the amalgamation. For this is very misunderstood by many philosophers who believe that the work can be accomplished by mercury alone without being united with its sister or its companion ( compar ejus ) ( 47).
I therefore tell you with assurance that you must work with mercury united with its companion, without adding any matter foreign to mercury, and know that Gold and Silver are not foreign to mercury, but on the contrary participate more of its nature than all other bodies. This is why reduced to their first nature, they are called sisters or companions of mercury, because from their composition and their fixation, results the milk of the Virgin. If you understand this clearly and if you add nothing foreign to the mercury, you will obtain the fulfillment of your wishes.
ON THE COMPOSITION OF THE SUN AND MERCURY
Take the common sun well purified, that is to say, heated with fire, which gives the red ferment; take two ounces and cut it into small pieces with the tongs; add fourteen ounces of mercury which you will expose to the fire in a hollow tile, then dissolve the gold by stirring it with a wooden stick. When it is well dissolved and mixed, place it all in clear water and in a bowl of glass or stone, wash it and clean it until the blackness leaves the water then if you are careful, you will hear the voice of the bird ( vox turturis) in our land.
And when it is well purified, place the amalgam in a piece of leather well linked to its upper part in the shape of a bag, then you will press strongly so that it passes through. When two have been thus pressed, the remaining fourteen are fit to be employed in our operation. Be careful not to extract more than two ounces, neither more nor less. If there were more, subtract; if there were less adds. And these 2 ounces thus expressed, and which are called Virgin's milk, you will reserve for the second operation.
Now transfer the matter into an earthen vase and put this vase in the furnace described above. Then having lit a lamp below, heats thus with ardor night and day without ever extinguishing ( 48 ). Let the flame be entirely enclosed and surround the athanor which will be well fixed on the bed of sapience.
If after a month or two you have observed the brilliant flowers and the main colors of the work, i.e. black, white, citrine and red, then without any other operation of your hands, by the direction of the one fire, what was manifest will be and what was hidden will be manifest. This is why our matter arrives by itself at the perfect elixir, converting itself into a very subtle powder called dead earth or dead man in the sepulcher or dry magnesia; this spirit is hidden in the sepulchre, and the soul is almost separated from it. When twenty-six weeks have elapsed from the beginning of the work, then what was gross will become subtle, what was rough will become soft, what was soft will become bitter, and by the occult virtue of fire the conversion of principles will be completed. . When your powders will be completely dry and you will have completed these operations, you will try the transmutation of mercury; then I will teach you the other two operations because part of our work can only transmute seven parts of well-purified mercury.
FROM AMALGAM TO WHITE
The same method is followed to obtain the white ferment or ferment of the Moon. This white ferment is mixed with seven parts of well-purified mercury as was done for the red. For in the work with white there enters no other matter than white and in the work with red no other than red; in the same way our water becoming red or white according to the ferment added and the time employed in the work, we can dye mercury white as we did for red.
Note also that sheet silver is more useful here than ingot silver ( argentum massale ) because it binds more easily to mercury and must be amalgamated with cold rather than hot mercury. Here many have erred in dissolving their amalgam in etching the composition of etching, they recognize that it can only destroy it. Others, wanting to work with gold or silver according to the rules of this book, wander off saying that the sun has no humidity according to the rules, and have it dissolved in corrosive water and then the let digest in a well-closed glass vessel for a few months; but it is better on the contrary that the quintessence be extracted by virtue of the subtle fire, in a vessel of circulation called for that Pelican ( 49 ).
The mineral sun as well as the Moon are mixed with so much filth that their purification is necessary and is not a work of women nor a game of children; on the contrary, the dissolution, the calcination and the other operations for the completion of the great Work are the work of robust men ( 50 ).
OF THE SECOND AND THE THIRD OPERATION
This first, part, completed, let us proceed to the accomplishment of the second. It is necessary to add seven parts of mercury, to the body obtained in our first work and called Tail of, dragon or Milk of the Virgin. Pass the whole thing through the leather and retain seven parts; wash and put it all in the iron vessel, then in the furnace as you did the first time and you will use there the same time or thereabouts, until the powder is again formed. You will collect it and you will find it much finer and more subtle than the first because it is more digested.
Part of it dyes seven times seven in Elixir. Then proceed to the third operation as you did for the first and for the second; add to the weight of the powder obtained in the second operation seven parts of purified mercury and put it in the leather in such a way that seven parts of the whole remain, as above. Cook the whole again, reduced to a very subtle powder, which projected on the mercury will tint seven times forty-nine parts, which makes three hundred and forty-three parts. The reason is that the more our medicine is digested, the more subtle it becomes; the more subtle it is, the more penetrative it is; and the more penetrative it is, the more matter it transmutes. To finish, note well that if one does not have mineral mercury, one can indifferently work with common mercury; although the latter does not have the same value,
HOW TO WORK THE MATERIAL or MERCURY
Now let's move on to the tincture of mercury. Take a goldsmith's dish and coat the inside with a little grease and place our medicine in it according to the required proportion, all on slow fire, and when the mercury begins to smoke projects, the medicine enclosed in clean wax or in paper (papyrus) and take a big burning coal and specially prepared for this use which you will put on the bottom of the crucible; then give a violent fire, and when everything is liquefied, you will project it into a tube coated with grease and you will have very fine gold or silver depending on the ferment you have added.
If you want to multiply medicine, operate with horse manure according to the means that I have already taught you orally as you know, and that I do not want to write, because it is a sin to reveal this secret to men of the age who seek knowledge rather out of vanity than for the purpose of good and for the homage due to God, to whom glory and honor be forever and ever. Amen! Note that I have always seen Blessed Albert the Great accomplish this work which I have just described in vulgar style, by means of Hispanic earth or Antimony, but I advise you to undertake only the small Magisterium which I tell you. have briefly described, in which there is no error, and which is accomplished with little expense, little labor, and in a short time; then you will arrive at the desired end. But, my very dear brother, do not undertake the Grand Magisterium, because for your salvation and for the duty of preaching Christ,
Here ends the Treatise of Saint Thomas on alchemical multiplication, dedicated to his brother and friend, Brother Reinaldus for the Thesaurus secretissimus.
UNPRECEDENTED NOTES FROM GRILLOT DE GIVRY
1. For the understanding of this paragraph: Voy: The Light of Egypt. Part 2 , Ch. II “The stars and the planets are the magnetic instruments of the seven creative principles, etc. ".
2.S _pecies : This word must be taken in the sense of figure, form, appearance, as we say the species of bread and wine, as opposed to substance.
3.Or rather the aqueous sphere. For the understanding of this passage study the system of Ptolemy. The two crystallines, placed after the sky of the fixed stars, precede the first mobile and the Empyrean.
4. ...pBy this universal agent, nature makes a matter extracted from the four Elements, and from three universal principles, mixed in the fairest proportion for the work of Wisdom, and this natural extraction has been called universal mercury or mercury of Life. (The great enlightenment of the philosopher's stone for the transmutation of all metals, by nicolas flamel, Amsterdam, 1782, chap. 9).
5.Vay. jerome cardan, De Subtilitate, Liber VII, in paragraph, gemmae quae ignibus resistunt.
6. Evilthanks to the obvious gaps in the text, we can see that this chapter symbolically represents the Solution, which all alchemists admit is the key to the Work. We must remember to study it with fruit that the famous syntagm of the four Elements, so decried today does not mean that water, earth, air and fire are simple bodies, as chemistry believed. 17th and 18th centurycenturies, but it represents the four extreme stasis of the modality of matter: solid, liquid, aeriform and igniform which are themselves only accidents destined to mark the more or less inferior degree of negativity in the polarization of the substance, and also the coefficient of vibratory power which animates their constitutive molecules and determines these stasis. This is symbolized by the Sacred Quaternary of Pythagoras. (Cf. diogenes laerce, lib. VIII; porphyry: Vit. Pythag. plutarchus: De placitis philosophorum, lib. IV, Cap. 3) and this beautiful sentence of theodosiusunintelligible to the moderns: “From four become five, that is to say, from the intelligence of the four elements of which the world is formed, illuminate your five senses to give them Intelligence ( Sentences of Theodosius, § 57). Thus the word "water," which St. Thomas frequently employs in this chapter, is synonymous in its lower sense with "liquid in general." The follower therefore almost always generalizes; when he commands: Take the earth, distill the water, he designates the solid, the liquid in general, he thus evolves in a metaphysical plane where the accidental obstacles are erased and where he clearly perceives the main guiding lines of the invariable process which follow the transformations of matter; he then teaches reaction in general,the noumenon, that is to say what is accomplished whatever the liquids, gases, or solids brought into contact; as for the phenomena, these are the diversities which will be produced in practice when the substances are particularized. For the alchemist, there is only one reaction, a unique type on which all the others are calculated with simple accidental modifications, he therefore knows the absolute norm of the transformations of matter, that is to say the secret of these mysterious forces of affinity and cohesion that chemistry admits not knowing. Modern science, on the contrary, only sees according to the phenomenon,and it is the phenomenon which obscures and narrows its horizon of perceptivity: the modifications of proportions, weight, duration, color which are found between two reactions essentially absorb it and blind it; it only observes variety, where the alchemist goes back to unity, it will remain analytical without ever becoming synthetic. Now, synthesis is the path to the Absolute.
7.The raw material of minerals, says Albert the Great, is a moist smooth, subtle and strongly embedded in earthly matter. (From Minéral. Lib. 3, cap. II) (Note du Tr.)
8Dryness is an effect of both cold and heat, says pernety. (Fab. Egypt. Volume I, Water).
9. Virginis Lake. The philosopher's stone reached the color white. Note here that Saint Thomas Aquinas has already begun, unbeknownst to the reader, the description of stone operations. Compare this method of exposition with that used by Roger Bacon in his Speculum Alchemiae. Cap. VIII and following. The virginis lake is obtained without the immediate participation of the operator. After the four operations which lead to the crow's head between Fermentation and Fixation, we see this white color appear, called by other authors: alcaest, holy water, white essence, hermaphrodite, Eve, white sulphur, etc.
10. Litharge, name of the red stone Alkali salt, name of the white stone. Vinegar, the dissolving mercury of the Philosophers. Saint Thomas has just described the Fermentation of the first magisterium. Exoterically, litharge (or litharge, according to Saint Thomas) (from the Greek liuoV arguroV) is the lead found in the dross of silver when it is refined. It is called lead protoxide, PbO. The reaction given by litharge, vinegar and sal ammoniac produces a monochlorinated lead acetate whose formula remains problematic.
11. The most famous of these stones are the bezoars (see on this subject, bontius, seba, kempler, garcias, clusius, buffon, rumphius, monard, hernandès, cardan, aldrovande, and also andré lacuna, amatus lusitanus and tavern keeper 's journeys ). We never knew what animals the bezoars came from. rabbi moses claims that they form in the angle of gazelles' eyes. Galen mentions them as specific against venom. In the 17th century , they entered into the composition of all the cordials and sometimes of the theriac. Pearls are among these animal concretions. marcellinLib. XXIII, cap. VI), teaches that pearls are formed by the mixing of dew in oysters which split open to mate with the humidity of the night. solin (Polyhistor, LIV), also believes they are made from dew.
Let us mention chlorite, a green stone found in the intestines of waddletails, chelonia , which was the solidified eye of an Indian tortoise (see pliny, passim), the stone called Dracontas, which comes from the brain of the dragon (solin, Polyhistor, XXI). The celandine which is in the nest of swallows, the chelonite, in the toads (pliny). Finally, let us add that the Lynx's urine solidifies into precious stones (solin, Polyhistor, II).
See also in the Jamblic verses of manual phila the paragraph peri thV megalhV strouou and also De remediis contra fascinationes.
12. The magical virtues of stones are innumerable. "We hold that the hyacinth calms the sea and preserves the wearer from thunder", says robert de berquen {Les Merveilles des Indes Occidentales et Orientales, ou nouveau Traité des Pierres Precieux par robert de berquen, goldsmith merchant in Paris, 1669 , ch. 5). According to Jérôme Cardan, it protects against thunder and facilitates sleep (De subtilitate, Lib. 7, de Lapidibus). Agate, a remarkable stone, egregius lapis, found at the foot of Etna, had many properties (priscianus, Periegesis). Smaragdoprase or "emerald sperm", as it is calledrabelais (Pantagr., Liv. IV, ch. I), is no less salutary: "It is said that being carried, it prevents drunkenness" (boetius de boot, Le Parfait Joaillier, Lyon, 1649, Book II, ch. XXXIV). “Pearls correct the milk of women and make it come” (Id., Liv. II, ch. XXXVIII). Topaz restrains the ardor of lasciviousness, says the anonymous author of the book Horto di Sanita (Lib. V). The Emerald, says Boetius again , "by the common opinion of men is believed to preserve chastity and betray adultery because she cannot suffer the illegitimate acts of Venus" (Parf. Joaill., Liv. II, ch. III ). toll,physician of Leyden, in his annotations on boetius (Edit. 1644, pag. 255), adds: “it is said that the most beautiful emeralds break in the defloration of virgins. cardan teaches that, placed under the tongue, it makes known the future and preserves from venom, and frangi vero smaragdum in coitu (De subt., Lib. 7). "The sapphire worn by an impure, intemperate person given to the things of Venus becomes dirty and loses its luster...if you put a spider in a small vial and put a sapphire in your mouth, it will soon die" ( boet. de boot, Liv. II, ch. XLIII).
According to Albert the Great (passim) and Cardan (loco cit.), sapphire heals nails and carbuncles. According to Marbode, (De Gemmarum lapidumque pretiosorum formis, naturis atque viribus opusculuni), it heals ulcers, but “Porter se volt mut chiastement. The sapphire protects against the bite of the scorpion, says the admirable cleandre arnobe (II tesoro délie gioie, trattato maraviglioso intorno alle vertuti e property più rare di tutte le gioie, Vinetia, 1602, cap. V, dei Saffiri). The diamond can recognize the fidelity of women and is reputed against bewitchment and venom, although it has been written that it is poisonous itself. scaler andarnobe report that he preserves incubi and succubi. “The diamond gets wet in the presence of venom, says boetius: it nourishes and foments the love of the married couple”. (Par. Joail., Liv. II, ch. VII).
Goat's blood softens the diamond (theophylactes, berquen, ch. II and cl. arnobe, Tesoro, capo VI). Turquoise dulls in the venereal act (berquen, ch. XI); it preserves falls from horseback, poisoning, adversus veneficia and lymphaticos (Cardan, De subt., Lib. VII). Let us mention Vapsyctos of Pliny, a precious stone which, when heated, retains its heat for seven days. Oetite, also called eagle stone, is very remarkable, but has nothing in common with modern aetite, iron trioxide. Zoroaster placed this stone above all others (solin, Polyhistor.XXXVIII). dioscorides ( medical WORKS ), claims that it is used to discover thieves. See. also p. lebrun, (Hist. critique of superstition practices. Paris, 1752 volume I, p. 219). One mixed the powder of aetite in a bread which one made eat with the defendants: the thief could not swallow it (See on this subject the old historian belon, the glossary of lindenbrok, in leges antiquas and the council of Auxerre (year 586), collection of Fr. Labbé, Volume V) “The Oetite stone,” says Fr. of castaigne, is taught to us from the Eagles, which makes women give birth without pain” (Le Paradis Terrestre, 1661, page 7). Finally the most perfect of all, the carbuncle whose properties have been known from all antiquity. "With its clarity the night shines", says Bishop Marbodein his book of Gems. According to an anonymous author cited by Berquen, Hildegarde, wife of Theodric of Holland, owned a chrysoprase which lit up a chapel at night. It should be added that certain stones have this property; thus the diamond rubbed with cloth in the dark becomes luminous (buffon, Hisf. miner., art. Diamant). Herodotus says he saw in the temple of Tire in Phoenicia a column of pure green jasper, which shed a vivid brilliancy during the night (Lib. II. XLIV). As for the mystical properties of the Carbuncle, Camille Léonard in his Speculum Lapidum,teaches us that it purifies the air, curbs lust, appeases quarrels between friends and increases property. “Finally, according to Cléandre Arnobe (Tesoro. Dei rubini carbonchi, etc., cap. III), “ it symbolizes the face of God. »
13. For these processes, consult boetius de , boot, jérôme cardan who indicates (Lib. 7) a process of transmutation of sapphire into carbuncle, and benvenuto cellini (Trattato dell'ore-ficeria. Capitolo I). All these processes were forbidden to goldsmiths, by royal decrees:
“No one can dye amatistes, any false stones, by which it must show itself other than it is of its nature”, says article IV of the ordinance of king Philippes de Valois, in his house of Saint -Ouen, since confirmed by King John, his successor, containing the first statutes, ordinances, and privileges granted to merchant goldsmiths, for the month of August 1345 . .
14.Claudian looks at diamonds and crystals as mysteriously solidified water (Eidylla, de crystallo et seq.) On the concordance of stones with the colors of the elements, see. benvenuto cellini, Oreficeria, cap. I.
15. Red vitriol, one of the names of the red stone. Children's urine, stone to white. Saint Thomas comments here on the description of the elixirs of the work, the red elixir and the white elixir. The order of operations is deliberately reversed entirely.
16. Cf. Aristotle, Element. (ocellus lucanus, De Natura Universi. Pars physica, cap. 2, tex. IV Elementorum numerus, and Jérôme cardan, De subtil., Lib. de Elementis.
17. Quinta essentia , dit Paracelsus ( De vita longa , cap. II), nihil aliud est quam bonitas natures ita ut tota natura in spagiricam mixturam et tem-peramentum abeat, in qua nihil corruptible, nihil que contrarium fit invenibile .
“The fifth essence, says pernety (Fab. Egypt., 1786, t. I, p. 195), is an extraction of the most spiritual and radical substance of matter: it is made by the separation of the elements which end in a celestial and incorruptible essence freed from all heterogeneities”. aristotle calls it a very pure substance... heraclitus calls it a celestial essence, which takes the name of the place where it takes its origin, paracelsus says it, the being of our centric sky; Pliny, a corporeal essence separated nevertheless from all materiality and freed from the commerce of matter”.
18.The white elephant is well supported on seven limbs; he has the top of his head adorned with GOLD; he has a standard of GOLD, he is covered with adornments of GOLD, wrapped in a network of GOLD, he is endowed with supernatural powers; he goes through the heavens AND KNOWS WELL THE LAW OF TRANSFORMATIONS. (Rgya Tch'er king pa Lalitavistara. Chap. III. One of the nine dharmas, 2nd volume of the 5th section of the Bkah hgyur, in the sacred books of Tibet).
19. Mercurius est fons et origo omnium metallorum... (Philosophical work of Jehan Saunier. Chapter IX).
20.geber in the Somme de la perfection (Bibl. phil., chim., t. I, p. 379) expresses a similar idea: had a lot of quicksilver were the most perfect ... and it is certain, therefore, that the bodies which receive and drink quicksilver most eagerly approach perfection, etc. »
Elsewhere, Liv. II, Part I, chap. 10, he adds: “It is therefore quicksilver and fixed sulfur which give hardness to metals, and what makes them soft are the two causes opposed to these, that is to say, say volatile quicksilver and combustible sulphur. »
21. Here is the nature of the planets: Saturn comes from the earth: dry and cold; Jupiter, from the air: humid and warm; Mars holds fire: hot and dry; Venus, of water: cold and humid: the Sun and the Moon are principles of universality (N. d. Tr.).
22. St. Thomas omits copper from his enumeration because the mystery of E is not to be revealed.
23. "Sons of philosophers," says Hermes, "there are seven bodies or metals, among which gold holds the first rank as being the most perfect of all... Water neither alters nor changes it... it also contains all the metals in perfection, it is he who vivifies them because he is the ferment of the elixir and without him the elixir cannot be perfect. ( The seven chapters of Hermes Trismegistus. Chap. VII, § 1,2,3).
"Gold is a perfect body, says jehan de meung, generated from a lively, pure, fixed, clear, red silver, and from a clean, fixed, red, non-burning sulfur and no fault has in it. . ( The mirror of Alquimie by Jean de Mehun, a very excellent philosopher. Paris, 1612. Chap. II). “Money is also an almost perfect, feminine body. ( Id. ibid., chap. III).
24. This treatise is now lost, or else was not produced by the Master; we have not been able to find any document testifying to its existence.
25. Quicksilver easily attaches to Saturn, Jupiter and the Sun; more difficult at the Moon and even more difficult at Venus than at the Moon. (geber, Sum of Perfection).
26.See in the Douze Clefs de la Philosophie de frere basil valentin, Paris, 1650, the hermetic seal that we cannot reproduce here (plate of the seventh key) and especially the explanatory plate of the key IX, which is the most frightening pentacle that we knew and which symbolizes the great secret of the Work.
27. There are five fires, says Zoroaster: the Voh freiami fire which is found in the body of men and animals; the Orouazescht fire , in the trees, the Vazecht fire in the mountains, the Speenescht fire, in the world, ordinary fire which provides for the needs of men and the Berezesengh fire, which stands before Ormuzd (zend avesta, Boun Dehesch, ch. XVII).
This must be of the greatest utility in the discovery of the philosophical fire: nevertheless, it is still the point which will present the most difficulty to the practicing alchemist. artephius (Bibl. de phil. chem.)speaks of it thus: “Our fire is mineral, it is equal, it is continual, it does not evaporate, if it is not too strongly excited; it partakes of sulphur; it is taken from something other than matter; it destroys everything; it dissolves, freezes and calcines; there is artifice in finding it and doing it; it costs nothing, or at least very little. Moreover, it is moist, vaporous, digesting, altering, penetrating, subtle, airy, non-violent, incombustible, or non-burning, surrounding, containing and unique. This moist fire suffices in the whole work, at the beginning, in the middle and at the end, because all art consists of this fire. There is still a natural fire, a fire against nature and an unnatural fire which does not burn; finally, as a complement, there is a warm fire,dry, wet, cold. Think carefully about what I have just told you and work straight, without using any foreign material. »
Manuscript no. 3012 from the Library of the Arsenal, which contains several treatises from the Trevisan, from the Little Peasant, with The Hermetic Triumph and the Six Principal Keys to Secret Philosophy, under the title: The Appearances of Truths and True Practice of Alchemy, all taken from a manuscript book by me Garchaole Lenfeit, merchant goldsmith of paris, study in hermetic and natural philosophy, 1756. We read: page 82, 2 ndkey: “He who knows how to philosophically sublimate stone rightly deserves the name of philosopher, since he knows the fire of the sages which is the only instrument that can bring about this sublimation. No philosopher has ever openly revealed this secret fire, and this powerful agent which operates all the marvels of art; whoever does not understand it and who will not know how to distinguish it from the characters with which I have tried to depict it, must stop here and pray to God that he enlighten it, because the knowledge of this great secret is rather a a gift from heaven than a light acquired by the force of reasoning. »
This fire is so important that a special treatise has been written about it: Arte del fuoco per la pietra filosofica, printed in Italian in Geneva. Consult also the magnificent chapter: Des Feux, in the work of Prestre Vicot, Arsenal, ms. not. 2516, third part of this manuscript, book. II, § 188 to 195 and also n. 3005, the Charitable Guide which reaches out to those curious about Alchemy by the author of Thesaurus medico-chimicus (Lubeck, 1638), chap. XIV, p. 60: Of the different ways of making the philosophical fire. And finally the ms. 5020, without author's name, having belonged to M. Hellot, decorated with curious pen drawings, pag. 38; Fire practice, etc.
28. The Son asked Hermes: “Are the sulfurs that are suitable for our Work celestial or terrestrial? And Hermes answered: "There are celestial ones and there are also some which are terrestrial". {The seven chapters of Hermes Trismegistus, chap. II, 7.).
29. The philosophical vessel in which the Work is accomplished is still a great mystery: in most manuscripts its figure is missing from the place reserved for it; according to philalete, it is an aludel, not of glass, but of earth; it is the receptacle of the tinctures and must contain (the first year of the Chaldeans) twenty-four full measures of Florence, neither more nor less (Bibl. phil. chem.). roger bacon ( Epistola de secretis operibus artis, cap. IX) calls it a pyramid. "The egg," said the charitable Guide,already quoted ms. not. 3005, must be of a good Lorraine glass, oval or round, clear and thick...; he must have the long neck eight to nine inches; it must be able to hold four ounces of distilled water” (page 57).
Jean Saunier, after having said that it can be built from several materials, adds: “Therefore, I advise you that the vessels be made of steel, so that we can be out of danger. »
The first of the aforementioned vessels will be sealed precisely to the furnace and to this furnace there will be four pipes by in top in cross...; the second enters a little into the mouth of the other about four fingers deep ... and the first vessel which is sealed in the furnace must have a duck neck, that is to say a funnel, and that 'there's four fingers of space between the water and the ship that has its ass pierced. ( Philosophical work, chap. XVI).
According to flamel (the Book of figs. hieroglyph., ch. VII, it is "a vessel of earth called by the philosophers the triple vessel, because in it there is a floor in the middle and on it a bowl full of warm ashes, in which sits the philosophy egg which is a glass matrass... The triple vessel, the envious have called it Athanor. Sieve, Manure, Bain-Marie, Furnace, Sphere, Green Lyon. Prison, Sepulchre, Urinal, Philole, Cucurbite." d'Espagnet expresses itself differently:
“To tell the truth, only one vase is needed to perfect the two sulfurs, a second is needed for the elixir... The first will be of glass... The second will be formed of two hemispheres oak hollow in which the egg will be placed. (Arcan. Herm. Philosophiae opus, Can. 112 et seq.) In reality, there is only one vase, the philosophical egg . The preliminary depurations are done in ordinary matras. One can successfully use the mercury matrass, formerly called Boyle's inferno , and, for the conjunction of the first work, the retort called the two brothers. It is soldered to the lamp after having introduced the material.
30. Obrisum, obrysum, or obryzon, from the Greek obruzon , an old term for refined gold that has experienced the highest degree of fire. The fortunate bishop says: Omnes obryso ornati super astra coruscant (VIII, 5, 275).
31. This universal agent of the works of nature is Yod of the Hebrews and of the Knight of Reichenbach, it is the astral light of the Martinists (eliphas levi, Hist. de la Magie, 19). This substance is what Hermes Trismegistus calls the great Thelesma. When it produces splendor it is called light (eliphas levi, Keys to the Great Mysteries, 117), according to albert fish, it is the Spiritus or portion of life that the adept projects onto matter to animate it. See also the symbolic drawing of leonardo da vincion the philosopher's stone. “Let it be remembered, says geber in The Sum of Perfection (Book I. Part I, ch. III) that the greatest impediment to the great Work comes from the natural impotence of the Artist or of his organs, who are weak or corrupt, or it comes from his mind which cannot act freely. See also this treatise, ch. IX, last paragraph.
The projection of the astral light on the philosophical WORK is one of the great mysteries of alchemy.
32. The homunculus, which the illustrious disciple of Albert the Great could not fail to know.
33. This paragraph, one of the most important and decisive of the work, would require a long explanation, but we cannot yet lift the veil of the great mystery which it covers. This mystery is accomplished every day in us and in the Society. In the mineral plane it was accomplished on Easter Day, 1895, by a Jew from Baghdad.
34.Not all alchemists advocate this method and we ourselves will not recommend it. Here is what (grosparmy) says about it ( The work or FIRST treatise of Nicolas Grosparmy de Normandie. Ms, Arsen., n. 2516, pag. 28): none of the four materials under which the art is figured, namely: quicksilver, similar to the common kind, and sulfur and armoniacal salt and stonecrop, which flee at the cutter of the vessel when they smell the 'hardness of fire and then say that their matter is well sublimated.' Saint Thomas himself seems to share this opinion at the end of the chapter.
35. This is the lesser magisterium (N. du Tr.).
36. This is the Grand Magisterium (N. du Tr.).
37. This is the language of all alchemists. "He who transmuted the first, says valois, had no book, but followed nature, watching how and with what she works" (The Five Books of Nicolas Valois, Companion of Lord Grosparmy, ms. bibl. Arsen, n. 2 , 5, 16, page 174).
38. Alchemists unanimously agree on this point. “For Hermes says of this science: Alchemy is corporeal science, one and by one simply composed, conjoining together, things more precious by knowledge and effect, and transmuted into a better kind, by the same and similar natural commixtion. ( The Mirror of Alquimie by jehan de mehun.Paris, 1612, c. I).
"In short, know that no animal can extend its species and engender its like, if it does not do so by means of similar things and of the same nature, that is why I do not want you to bother to seek our Stone elsewhere, nor on the other side than in the seed of its own nature from which nature first produced it... think in yourself for what end and use you want to make the Stone, then you will know that it is only extracted from metallic roots. (The Twelve Keys of Brother Basil Valentine, Religious of the Order of Saint Benedict, dealing with True Metallic Medicine. Paris, 1650, Book I, Foreword).
We know the famous paragraph of bernard le trévisan: “Leave alums, vitriols, salts and all attramens, borax, etc. ".
39. Kings have not always rewarded alchemists according to their merits; richard the english placed his secret in the hands of the king of england, who put him to death in the tower of london. Edward of England did not keep his promises to Raymond Lully. Jacques Coeur, although having delivered his secret to Charles VI, had only death for reward. See the Opening of the School of Transmutatory Philosophy, by david de planis-campy. Paris, 1633, in 8°.
40. Sufficient attention has not been paid to the astrological concordance of the time necessary for the great work and this has nullified the efforts of many modern alchemists: "The times of the stone are specified by the Water Philosophical and Astronomical,” says d'Espagnet (Arcan. Herm.). The first white work must be completed in the house of the Moon; the second in the second house of Mercury; the first works red, in the second house of Venus; and the second or last in red, in the house of exaltation of Jupiter. »
Easter is the day par excellence to complete the WORK because of the analogy with the feast of the resurrection of the Savior, which the Church celebrates on this day. Because the artist can profit for his work from the immense sum of potential energy which was emitted in the whole universe during Lent and especially during Holy Week. The forces which are projected by the mass of the faithful in the desire for the resurrection of the Messiah after the night of the tomb, are centralized and form an intense fluidic current. The alchemist who also awaits the resurrection of the philosophical King who is in the athanor will divert this current, seize it and direct it to his work. rabbi schelomoh operated the transmutation on Easter day 1550 (cf.Very excellent pamphlet of true philosophy, by D. zacharie, Lyon, 1612).
However, Nicolas Flamel accomplished the Work on Monday, January 17, 1582, around noon and the same year on April 25, at five o'clock in the evening. (Le liv. des figs hieroglyph., Avant-Propos) and Jean Saunier, May 7, 1432 (The Great Miracle of Metallic Nature, page 10).
41. It is this process that the chemists Gromberg and Gayot followed, when the Duc d'Orléans made them work at the Palais-Royal to try to find by modern chemistry the secret of the philosopher's stone; they say “having found clues of possibility, but after a long and boring work for almost four years. (See handwritten note on the cover of ms. n. 3.021 of the Arsenal which contains the Twelve Gates, by Ripley).
One can, in truth, use mercuric and mercurous chlorides, commonly called corrosive sublimate and calomel, instead of true philosophical sulphur, but the result is less.
42. Aditya (the sun), is really life; the moon is matter. ( Prasna Upanishad. Prasna
I, § 5.).
43. See. the Rig Veda (First Ashtaka, First Adhyaya, Anuvaka I, Sukta I.)
"I. I glorify Agni (the fire), the high priest of sacrifice, the diviner, the officiant, he who presents the offering to the gods and who is the purveyor of great wealth".
II. “May this Agni, which both ancient and modern sages must celebrate, lead the gods hither”.
III. “It is by means of Agni that he who worships obtains that abundance which increases daily, which is the source of fame and which causes the human race to multiply. IV. Agni, the sacrifice which is carried out without obstacles and which you protect on all sides, easily reaches the gods. »
44. "The seven pure rivers flowing from heaven are ruled by you, O Agni." (Rig-Veda. Ashtaka I, Adhyaya V, Anuvaka IX, Sukta VIII, § 8.).
45. As can be seen, prior dissolution is an absolute necessity, as is said in chapter IX of the Great Enlightenment of the Philosopher's Stone, by Nicolas Flamel. Now, as by the succession of times, certain secrets are revealed at the right time, we can lift a little here the mysterious veil of the magisterium. According to Albert Poisson, auric chloride must be crystallized in a water bath. But it would be better to perform the operation which Saint Thomas described in chapter VIII of the first treatise, and which is the immediate reduction of auric chloride by stannous chloride, and which gives a purple precipitate which is still called Cassius purple, but who was known long before this chemist. H 2 O + Au2 O (SnO 2 ) 3. We have also obtained the beautiful precipitate of metallic gold by oxalic acid or other precipitates by phosphorous, sulphurous, hydrophosphorous acids, and especially by phosphorus. But there is a process which gives an extraordinary result which consists in replacing auric chloride by auric fluoride which will be obtained with an aqua regia much more powerful than ordinary aqua regia, and composed of hydrofluoric acid and nitric acid. . But the experiment offers great dangers because of the corrosiveness of hydrofluoric acid. Since it is necessary to dissolve gold, and treatises usually teach that aqua regia has this property, it will not be superfluous to indicate here that the simple dissolution of chlorine gas in the nascent state produces this effect; that iodic acid mixed with nitric acid in excess, also dissolves gold. We also experimented with para-tartaric acid with the addition of acetic acid, a process taught by Viscount de Lapasse, then a mixture of heated sulfuric acid and acetic acid. Moreover, alcohol dissolves gold by a secret process. (SeeManusc. of the Bible. of the Vatican, n. 4095, fol. 9). And also Castaigne, Le Paradis Terrestre, 1661, page 32.). We have experimented several times with this absolutely exact procedure. Finally, gastric juices recently extracted from the body of man or animals dissolve gold and all metals (Sèvres experiment).
guyton de morveau has also made an observation of the highest importance and well forgotten: "Gold, he says, (Elements of chymie, tome II, p. 85) is also calcined and reduced to purple lime, by a strong electric discharge... But the same discharge revivifies gold into lime, as it reduces lead lime. »
46. Thus metals could be made who would know how to milk. Et tolir as ors lor junk And meter them in pure form (jehan de meung, Roman de la Rosé, circa 17049)
47. Study here the properties of the mixture of gold and silver called electra. (Cf. Pausanias, Lib. Elida. Cap. XII).
48. An old anonymous author naively describes this operation as follows: "The artist puts the material in a matrass, and having well blocked the vessel, he gives slow fire for thirty days and nights, and twice a week it is dark below with a hare's paw. ( Ms. Arsen. n. 18: bis. Tome I, p. 67).
49. See. first treatise of Saint Thomas, chapter V, note 29. Let it be remembered that the first kind of fire must be administered clibanically, the second geometrically, following flamel and artephius.
50. According to d'Espagnet, (opus cit. can. 42), it is a work of Hercules. See on this subject rupescissa, pic de la mirandole, isaac, guy de montanor and northon in their alchemical works, maier, (Arcana arcamssima). albert the great (De Al-chymia) and raymond lully (Theorica Testam).