the reign of Saturn changed into the golden century - Saturnia Regna

Huginus a barma

PREFACE FROM THE AUTHOR,

You will perhaps ask me, my dear friend, where will we find Water or the Magisterium of the Sages? Since we read in Geber; our Water is the Water of the clouds. In Aristotle: our Water is dry Water, In Hermes: we draw our Water from a sordid & stinking menstruation. At Danthin: our water is found in the old stables, latrines & cesspools, & at Morien: our water grows in the mountains & in the valleys.

Know that fools do not hear these words, they believe that this is Mercury. Note however that it is not Mercury that the Philosophers are talking about, but a dry water which brings together all the mineral spirits, the soul & the body, by making them penetrating, which after having brought them together, abandons them, separates from them & leaves them in a state of fixity. This Water is found in all things in the world; without it, all our efforts to reach the Stone of the Sages would be useless. Indeed, how could we, without its help, provide the ingredient for our prepared materials, that is to say, give them the ability to penetrate each other.

In the Pharmacy, several simple products are brought together and the juice is expressed. If we want to do a perfect work in the genre, whether vegetable, animal, or mineral, we will have to follow this example: also in all things there is a dry Water by which they perfect themselves; this is what made Galen say that all the mixed people in the three kingdoms have their own medicine to produce the stone that suits them, without adding any foreign thing. If we therefore want to make the stone or some fixation or some conjunction, we must make it with our dry Water.

The Dyers also present us with an example to follow; they take madder for the sheets which they want to dye red, & alum, (n, b.) The cloth is the body, the madder is the soul, & the alum is the spirit. In fact, without the alum the color would not penetrate the sheet and would not attach to it; it would fly away little by little, and the sheet would turn pale; because the color red is a spirit, and alum participates in the spirit and the body; hence it happens that when they are united, they penetrate each other.

Or again, take some rainwater, boil these three things in it, and when by boiling the alum and the color have penetrated the sheet; you hang it, the water will evaporate, and the color will remain fixed. It is the same with our stone. Although the bodies, soul and spirit have been properly prepared, if they do not penetrate each other by means of Water, they will never remain together. Hence this multitude of errors into which so many Artists fall, because they do not know nature.

Know moreover that the earth contains the seeds of all beings, their operations and their virtues: also it was the receptacle of all the rays and all the influences of heaven; it is also impregnated by the other elements and the other heavens; she is the center, the foundation, let us say better, she is the mother of all beings, since they all take birth in her womb; because we know that it is enough to expose it to the open air, after having sufficiently purified it, for it to be fertile and impregnated with celestial operations and virtues, to the point that it will then be able to produce by itself herbs of all kinds, worms, insects & metallic atoms or flakes. In it are found a large number of Arcana, & the spirit of life,

There is also in its center a virgin land composed of three principles; & the law of nature is that if you separate these three principles, and then rejoin them in the manner of the Philosophers, you will be possessor of the greatest of treasures. Let us speak more clearly: this earth contains within its bosom three sensitive principles.

The first is the nitre, philosophical that the earth has conceived through the influences of the sun, the moon and the other stars. For if the rays which emanate from the sun are hotter, there results a greater quantity of central nitre salt; which however (nb) must be understood not from the common nitre, but from the philosophical nitre. The second principle, which is hidden in this virgin earth, is the celestial & invisible spirit of nature, that is to say, the spirit of the world enclosed in a subtle salt. The third is a fixed salt which is like the receptacle of the two previous bodies that God placed and planted in his bosom: thus these three salts are contained and hidden in this earth.

Few words are enough for the Sage, moreover the explanations which follow will present nature to you in such a beautiful light, they will place it so clearly before your eyes, that nothing will be easier than to know it. Read, meditate, pray & be silent.

Your friend, HAB

---

THE REIGN OF SATURN,
changed to GOLDEN CENTURY

POSITIONS
of Hermetic Philosophy,

I.
Those who do not believe in the possibility of the divine work of Hermes, who are ignorant of its reality, or who despise it, have not yet adored the majesty of creative nature in one of its most beautiful works, & have not sufficiently reflected on the operations of created nature. The brightness of the sun and the moon strikes their eyes in vain; they are blind people on whom I am not saying natural light, but the splendor of divine grace, makes no impression.

Indeed, would the Philosophers have said that this work was a gift from God, and that it resembled the generation of animals, if they had not judged that the cooperation of celestial favor and of nature was necessary for its production? And if the simple peasant is not unaware that God and Nature, abhorring solitude, have placed in all beings a seed of their own, and by which they reproduce and perpetuate their species; how could Philosophers, Sages, who seek to deepen Nature and its secrets, form doubts about this object?

II.
But the Sophists who believed they had reached a perfect knowledge of this mystery without divine revelation, or without the advice of an experienced guide, plunged themselves into sterile darkness, and only recognized one of these two principles.

or even misunderstood them both; hence it happened that, not giving God the glory due to him, and ignoring the power of Nature, they shamefully profaned the alliance which unites man to both, they violated the laws of nature, they defiled the pure by mixing the impure, and only gave birth to monsters.

Whether they neglected or did not know the Electra of Paracelsus, they only followed their own feelings, gave themselves blindly to their crazy ideas, & ran with greed towards the possession of our work & its riches, without proposing the only goal that is worthy of it, that is to say, the glory of the Most High. But what happened to them? They spent their lives in chimeras, they gathered from their labors only smoke, and they had only bitter tears to shed over the dissipation of their goods, and over the shame with which they covered themselves.

III.
Other Artists of a more penetrating mind distinguished themselves a little from the Sophists, they knew the true philosophical material, but they did not know how to put it to use, because they read sometimes one Author, sometimes another , hoping to find a way to use it among them. But the Ancients did not all prepare this material in the same way, some resorted to long and even dangerous operations; others took a shorter & safer route.

This is why those who want to be guided by the Ancients believe they can learn from Raymond Lulle, weights; in Avicenna, fermentations, in Trevisan, fire & in Paracelsus, projections, etc. ; they are wrong, each of them has their own process, this is why if Geber seems to you to speak differently from Raymond Lulle; if you do not find in Morien what is in Arnaud de Villeneuve, nor in Paracelsus what is in the other Philosophers, do not accuse either of them of error: they all reached the goal by different means, although by operating on the same material.

IV.
If the destinies call you to this honor, if you carefully imitate Nature, everything will succeed for you according to your desires, you will walk under the auspices of the Divinity, and Nature, which is the servant of its infinite majesty, will hasten to help you favor in your work. So take her as your mistress and model, imitate her; follow his footsteps, & carefully examine the causes, the material, the movements & the purpose of the work. Whatever good thing happens to you, bring it to the glory of the Most High and to the benefit of your neighbor; because this is the true & unique view of Philosophers.

v.
But since I have proposed to indicate the shortest and most suitable means for Nature to drive away illnesses and poverty, I will speak in a few words of the universal Magisterium of Philosophers, which the Almighty, through a pure effect of his liberality, gave to mortals, & I will do it with so much sincerity, that none of those who preceded me in the same career, will have consecrated this gift of God to posterity with so much frankness than me, because what I learned without fiction, I will communicate without desire. Above all, chase from your mind the extravagances of the Sophists, all these fixations, sublimations, freezing, amalgamations, precipitations, distillations & preparations of mercury, antimonies, salts, tartars, herbs, animals; unnecessary operations,

Of the Mature or Philosophical Subject.

VI.
Having therefore to deal with the essential and integral parts of the Magisterium, I will begin with the material, the research of which has cost so much useless work to an infinity of Artists.

But those who, by a special grace of the Most High, have come to know it, some led by envy, and others guided by the fear they had that it might be abused, do not have spoken of it in their writings only by disguising it: all have transmitted it to posterity by hiding it under so many veils, that nothing less than the penetration of an Oedipus is required to recognize it, or even to discern his features.

Others have even made a vow to God and to Philosophy to keep it forever enclosed under the impenetrable seal of Hermes. However, I will offer you two maxims on this subject, one based on the authority of Hermes, and the other on reason. If you do not understand them, if they do not chase away the darkness that covers your eyes, you are still blind for a long time, perhaps forever.

VII.
The first is in Hermes (book 7 of his Treatises on Ferments & Fermentation), where we read that the ferment is of the same substance as its paste, and much better, that the ferment of Gold is Gold , & the leaven of the Moon is Moon.

The second is based on this natural axiom, that the substance we seek is the same as that from which we must draw it. Arnaud de Villeneuve assures the same thing in the first book of your Rosary, ch. 7, although he expresses it differently: "our medicine, he says, comes from the things in which it is."

VIII.
Hermes explains himself even more clearly elsewhere, to make it clear that it must be extracted from the substance of the terrestrial planets, that is to say, from perfect metals. The Sun & the Moon, he says, are the roots of our art; this is why the son of Hamuel teaches that the stone is water frozen in the Sun & the Moon.

Trevisan makes it consist of two mercurial substances which come from the same root. According to Geber, cited by Zachaire, it is a viscous water fertilized by the action of its metallic sulfur. Paracelsus (in the book of Metallic Transmutations, chap. 13), says that it is Electra or cinnabar, that is to say, a compound of two minerals, namely, sulfur and quicksilver, because Electra, adds this Philosopher, is it anything other than a mixture of two or more minerals, or two or more metals?

Why then would the sulfur of the Sun, joined by a philosophical artifice with the mercury of the Moon, not make Electra? Why wouldn't he make Cinnabar (1)? And certainly a lion begets a lion, "strong & robust people have children who resemble them, & generous eagles do not give birth to a weak & timid dove.

(1) I would be careful not to focus the Reader's eyes on this note, to point out to him that neither Paracelsus, nor our Author, certainly do not intend to speak here of ordinary cinnabar, if I did not know that this substance has even today its zealous supporters who take it for the true subject of the Stone, and who in fact make it the basis of their work.

They may well reassure themselves in their opinion, by quoting various passages from some Authors who favor it, and by telling us that this matter naturally contains sulfur and mercury, or rather that it is all sulfur or all mercury; that Nature, by the union of these two substances in the same subject, teaches the Artist the combination that he must make in his work, that is to say, that it thus reveals the solution to a great problem, that of weights. They are no less in error, and perhaps they will not come out of it, despite the advice that I dare to give them, because I know the force of prevention.

If they persist then, let them try to explain to us how ordinary cinnabar contains, just like that of which Paracelsus speaks, the sulfur of Gold joined to the mercury of the Moon by a philosophical artifice. But rather if they want to become wise, let them consider that the mercury and the sulfur which are in their cinnabar are only ordinary sulfur and mercury, two materials highly condemned by true Philosophers, even ridiculed by some. of them.

As for the Authors on whom they are pleased to rely, they must carefully examine whether these Coryphei, according to whom they think, have the support of the School of Hermes, whether they are generally regarded as Adepts, & if in this case their feeling must balance out everything that the Raymond Lulles, the Bazs. Valentin, the Cosmopolites, the Riplées & so many others, taught us sometimes clearly, sometimes under the veil of similarities & allegories, touching on the real philosophical subject or subject. This is all I have to say to the Cultists of common cinnabar.

But lovers of science who do not yet have a prejudiced mind will only form an opinion on this fundamental object according to the sound doctrine which is recorded in so many good books; they will try to unravel the enigmatic passages which skillfully touch on this point, & will compare them with those which speak about it openly; & above all they will not forget what matters are proscribed by the Philosophers.

I will not recall them here; but to show all the more that those who have entered the sanctuary of science, use a uniform language, I will report here some traits of an anonymous author, that of Trevisan, in two different places of his book of Philosophy natural of metals, counts in the number of Adepts; it's the truth, work which was never printed, and which I believed lost like several others which we find cited by ancient Authors; but I see, by a manuscript which fell into my hands, that chance has so far saved it from the injury of time.

And if any who prepare to do the work with gold and mercury, or sulfur with silver..., and put mercury with gold, or sulfur with silver, and ferment (place) it in the earth, and guard that what they think is true; these are full of great foolishness. Others want to fix mercury with sulfur, alum or water, by holding it for a long time in the fire; or by waste of metals, or other innumerable ways, which is impossible and against reason, etc.

The anonymous Author then comes across the Sophisticators; it would take too long to cite here everything that would be worth reporting; but he returns several times to the subject of the work; he repeats, according to Morien: How could you expect any good from something that is slightly spoiled and consumed in the heat of the fire?

But consider if you will be able to find any pure & clean matter; otherwise leave your work, for it will also have no effect.. ... Know therefore that this thing is of little value to those to whom it is unknown; & if it is a common thing, city & abundant; & in m can have both the poor and the rich, & is sold publicly for money & currency.

This is how the truth is expressed on this important subject. Further down he adds: “Take then the visible stone & the invisible stone, etc.”

Those who will be very happy to cast their eyes on the passages of Trévisan, where mention is made of the Véridique, need only open the second volume of the Bibliothèque des Philosophes Chimique (edition of 1741), on pages 334 & 384 .IX.

But just as man and woman can only generate children by means of their seeds; in the same way our male, who is the Sun, and our female, who is the Moon, will never conceive without the seed or sperm of both. From there the Philosophers concluded that it was necessary to add to these two a third animated being, namely, the seed of the chemical male and female, seed without which the work is absolutely useless and void. Now, there is no other sperm of this species than our mercury or Evestre (1); By this word I understand what the four elements of this world contain that is perpetual and eternal, and this invigorating and very pure spirit which spreads and wanders throughout the universe.

(l) Evestre, word of Paracelsus' invention. We see the meaning he gave it here, but in other places in his works he made it mean something else.

It is necessary to delete here in the Latin text, the period and the comma, which were inadvertently placed after aeternumque

From the Mercury of the Philosophers

X.
The Mercury of the Philosophers is produced by the flow and the anatic conjunction of the four elements acting either on the surface of the earth or in the air, although their effect is more perceptible for us on the entire surface of our globe, or rather his birth is determined by the conjunction of the elements, and he receives from the sky and the stars the complement of his existence: such is the origin of this son, let us say better, of this first born of nature, of this always active spirit, always in motion, which spreads everywhere, which penetrates everything, which unites, carries & reconciles in its bosom the germ & the principles of all beings.

It can only be stopped & tamed, so as to fall before our senses, by the links of the elements alone. And it is for this reason that Neptune intimately introduces it into the breast and the bowels of Saturn by means of rain, dew, snow, white frost, fog, lightning, etc. which serve externally as a vehicle (which led the Sophists to madly take the crystals of Saturn for the subject of their operations).

However, it never shows itself anywhere pure and naked, unless art radically removes from it the stains it has contracted through the impurity of the matrix of elements. (which led the Sophists to madly take the crystals of Saturn as the subject of their operations). However, it never shows itself anywhere pure and naked, unless art radically removes from it the stains it has contracted through the impurity of the matrix of elements. (which led the Sophists to madly take the crystals of Saturn as the subject of their operations). However, it never shows itself anywhere pure and naked, unless art radically removes from it the stains it has contracted through the impurity of the matrix of elements.

XI
It is not that the elements are not very pure in their center, but as they can only be made perceptible to us in their purity by means of their matrix, which serves as their shell, it is not surprising that the garment or envelope of our Mercury is soiled with so much filth which holds it in its fetters, is bound & garroted with so many chains, that it can only be seen by the light of the philosophical torch.

XII
Our Mercury is a very pure and unblemished being, he is white and red; Paracelsus & Isaac Hollandus rightly called it Water of Paradise, because it waters the entire surface of the earth; dividing itself into four sources, it spreads throughout all regions, and deploys its activity and its forces over the three kingdoms. If you understand this, you have everything. But if you need greater light about it; you will find it in the philosophical solution of all the individuals of Nature, where our Mercury manifests itself in a sensitive way; for the last operation of Nature, relative to us, is the first for Nature itself.

XIII
This philosophical Mercury is dry & humid, volatile & fixed, in a proportion so favorable to the union of its parts, that it is given only to the children of Hermes to distinguish these different qualities in it. Philosophers considering that its earthly envelope is extremely limpid & diaphanous, were surprised that the redness was hidden in such great whiteness.

This led them to give it the name Heaven, not only because it embraces and contains the universality of all beings, and it receives in its bosom all their essences with their modifications, which means that it attracts to him the principle or the subject of all the changes which take place here below, that he gives him life again & flies away after that.

But also because everything like the sky, which is entirely diaphanous, contains in itself a spirit or a sulfur or a very purified quintessence, by means of which the stars move and spread their light; in the same way, our Mercury hides in the garment which serves as its envelope, an ethereal spirit, which is the true sulfur of nature. Which made the Philosophers say: “our Mercury contains its sulfur”.

XIV
Moreover all the stars of lower Astronomy shine in him, and become Spiritual or volatile by his means, because he purifies them and delivers them from their earthly and starchy nature, and changes them into a suitable and exactly pure seed .

It is therefore a true sky, let us say better, it is the spirit of the whole universe & its quintessence, “because it has the force of fire, & its origin is celestial. It only manifests itself when its grossest elements or parts have been removed and separated from it. It must therefore be purified, after which it needs nothing else in the world than to become ripe. Purify him, says Paracelsus, & lead him to maturity.”

Extraction & putrefaction of Mercury

XV
Receive this matter as it is emerging from its chaos, having the green color of plants, separate it by repeated calcinations & solutions, the salty, aluminous, nitrous, vitriolic & earthy parts. We call the operations which lead to this goal the first philosophical sublimations of Mercury.

When this is done, you will have a celestial body which will contain a very pure soul; since it will have stripped itself of its grossest elements, and especially its earthly elements, and it will have lost its viscosity and its saltiness; because salt is an entirely terrestrial matter.

XVI
Paracelsus gave to this body thus purified the name of Ostrich born in the earth, and to its spirit, that of Stomach of the ostrich which is born in the earth. To have this spirit, bring the Ostrich back into its chaos, into this chaos in which it was originally enclosed, and in which the elements kept hidden and imprisoned as in a secret lair, or in a cave, this admirable spirit of life, which is a true Protheus & the true Panurge or Universal Agent.

This spirit is the Lunar of Raymond Lulle, the Dragon's Blood of Albert the Great, the Saturnia of Basile Valentin, the Spirit of Wine by Arnaud de Villeneuve. But its own name is the Mercury of the Philosophers, the very sour Vinegar, the Milk of the Virgin, the Pontic Water, the dry Water that does not wet the hands.

XVII
This work, moreover, absolutely requires skilful handling on the part of the Artist, who must also know the vases, the instruments, the regime of fire, etc. Therefore, if you do not already know this work from your own experience, or if it has not been shown to you by someone, it will be very difficult for you to distinguish what you should separate, reject or collect.

If, however, you have the qualities that a true child of Hermes must have, sound philosophy will instruct you and be your guide. But to know if what you have reserved is good, put in whatever body you want; if this body is reduced to its first mercury while retaining its specific qualities & tinctures, be sure that you have found what you were looking for; st no, you missed your operation.

You will also observe that our Mercury hardens soft things, softens hard things, fixes volatile things, and volatilizes the most fixed; he gives death to living things, and vivifies and resurrects the dead: he is wet and dry, he dries wet things, and moistens dry things. The Sages know well that if he did not have all these properties, we would use him unnecessarily in our Magisterium.

The Sky produces the same effects, since sometimes it moistens the earth, and sometimes it dries it; sometimes he cools it, and sometimes he burns it, etc. This Mercury therefore acts in the same way on the materials to which it is attached: and thus the Sky travels in this lower world.

XIX
But to make its nature more clearly known to you, you only have to consider the figure of my stamp or seal, in which I have enclosed this entire work with all its parts. You see two pyramids which come together and embrace each other, and their conjunction shows the characters of the four elements in the same way as the Philosophers represent them.

The solar pyramid, which has this shape 🜂, designates fire, the lunar, 🜄 water.

The lunar pyramid cutting the solar in this way 🜁 represents air, and the solar crossing the lunar 🜃 in the same way is the sign of the earth.

You will conjecture from there that it is not without cause that Philosophers have invented these characters, which are as it were a result of the marriage or union of higher things with lower ones. Moreover, the ☉ (Sun/Gold) is the male, the (Moon, Luna/Silver) is the female, and the  which participates in the nature of both, binds and conjoins them one to the other; because, as I have already said, it is both volatile and fixed, and it is the center and the root of both.

What I have just said only relates to lower Astronomy, but in higher Astronomy, Mercury is the production of the great world, its father and mother are the Sun and the Moon, from whose womb it arises, that is why it generates & it is generated. This gives the explanation of what the Philosophers say: “our Mercury is generated by the parents, & it is older than them”. I would say more about you, if it were permitted to do so.

From the Male.

XX
The Sages give the name of Male in this work to the fixed parts, and that of Female to the volatile parts: the spagyric marriage is the result of their conjunction. It is not that there is in them any mark or any resemblance of our sex, but as between the male & female of each species, there is a certain magnetic relationship for the conservation & increase of the one & the other in its own species; in the same way between the fixed parts and the volatile parts of our work, which come from the same root, there is a magnet, an attractive virtue, which tends to preserve and increase both, and to perpetuate their species.

XXI
Paracelsus calls the fixed parts Adamic Earth, because just as God wanted to create the most beautiful of his works in the animal genre, that is to say Adam, used the noblest and purest red silt, in the same way he used the noblest red earth for the production of our Sun in the Mineral Kingdom. This is what authorized the Philosophers to say that God created nothing (except man) more noble than our Sun, that is to say, than gold, which is the most fixed of all mineral substances.

But do Philosophers use the gold of the vulgar or another more secret and hidden gold? You will be able to hesitate all the more on the decision of this point, since they exclude from the work the vulgar gold which they say is dead and lifeless, which is very true. However ; if from this cold and icy stone we draw flame and fire, we will perhaps recognize, as Augurell said: That the seed of gold is in the gold, although it is deeply hidden there, & that we can only extract it through long work.

XXII
Observe that with a piece of the flesh of animals, and that with the leaves of plants, it is impossible to reproduce the animal species or the vegetable species, it is the same with the matter of metals. You will conclude from this that to multiply the species of the different beings which exist in Nature, it is necessary to resort to their own seeds, and to separate the superfluities by preserving for them the forms which they originally received from the hands of the Creator, because we rejected the leaves, the trunks, the flesh, the marrow, the bones, the membranes, etc. although all these things served as an instrument to produce this central and vivifying star, which is the true preserver of the species, whether vegetable or animal. You must behave the same for metals.

XXIII
You will fully fulfill this object, if you reduce the Sun into Sulfur & Mercury, which are its first matter or substance, or what is the same thing, if by means of our Mercury & by a secret artifice, but known to Philosophers , you bring the Sun back to the state in which it was first put by Nature, that is to say, if you reduce it into a very brilliant and diaphanous body. To clarify this point further, I will cite the following two maxims which bring it into full focus. They are taken from the book of Paracelsus, Genealogy of Minerals, c.21. This Philosopher teaches the production of Gold, and explains the first material with more clarity than has been done to date; but although this matter is truly the first,

XXIV
Gold is generated from the purest Sulfur, perfectly sublimated by Nature, delivered from all your feces and all its filth, & raised to such great transparency that no body among metals can rise to a higher level. degree of purity. This Sulfur is part of the first material of Gold. The Alchemists would have the right to give themselves over to joy, if they had known how to obtain it as it can in fact be found, when we look for it in its own root or on the tree which bears it; because it is the true Sulfur of the Philosophers, from which Gold is made, and it should not be confused with this other sulfur which gives birth to iron and copper. This is only an infinitely small part of the other, which is its Universal.

XXIV
His Mercury is similarly separated and perfectly purged of all terrestrial and accidental superfluity by the care of Nature, which operates separately on the mercurial part, and covers it with extraordinary transparency and brilliance; this is the Mercury of the Philosophers, and the second part of the first matter of Gold; which, just as the seed of roses produces roses, must give birth to a Gold of extreme purity similar to that of crystal; to a Gold purified & freed from all acridity & harshness of such, from all sourness, aluminosity & vitriolity, in a word from all vice & all heterogeneous matter; to a Gold of dazzling transparency & all radiant with light.

XXVI
Do not, however, imagine that you must extract the tincture, or soul, or sulfur from gold, by an infinity of extractions, or rather illusions, in the manner of the Sophists, and falsely believe with them that it It is then necessary to combine this tincture or soul with the other imperfect bodies. Have even less confidence in those who use admirable means and operations to extract Mercury from Gold, which they then mix with Mercury from the Moon extracted in the same way, or with Sulfur from Gold, or simply with raw Gold; because the Sulfur & Mercury of Gold must remain together in the body which has been dissolved by our Mercury.

This is why the rose-colored dye announces and makes known the Sulfur of the Sun,

Of the Female

XXVII
We have said that the volatile parts of our work have the nature of the female. They are designated in our seal by the lunar character. For, as the Sun and the Moon contemplate each other mutually and ceaselessly, so that the Sun distills its influences into the bosom of the Moon before they descend into this lower world, so the fixed parts of our Mercury exercise a love or magnetic sympathy towards the volatile parts of the same root. They embrace them with benignity, receive into their womb the seminal virtues, warm and mature them to then pour them onto the sublunary bodies.

XXVIII
But before crowning the chastity of their love and admitting them to the marital bed, they must be carefully purged of all sin, both original and current, otherwise there would only be impure and leprous fruits from their union. So prepare a gentle bath for them, in which you will wash each one in particular, because the female, less strong and less vigorous, could not withstand the acrimony of a bath as violent as that of the male; it would infallibly be destroyed. It is with the Stibium that you will prepare the male's bath, because all the Poets have pretended that Vulcan washed Phoebus in the Stibium. As for the female's bath, Saturn will teach you what it should be.

XXIX
After the hand of the skillful Artist has thus purified each of these two principles, take them each separately, and arrange them for the propagation of their species. For this purpose, happily dissolve the male in the stomach of the Ostrich born in the ground, fortified by the pungent and penetrating virtue of the Eagle, & when the solution has made it return its flowers, do not forget to deliver it of the acrimony that he contracted in his junction with the Eagle, & of the impurities that it contains & that only the philosophical solution can bring out.

XXX
You only need, for the solution of the female, the simple stomach of an Ostrich, & & you know how to treat it by the circulations of its natural movement, it will change into a viscous water, which is the true matrix, the living and flaky earth, in which we must sow our Gold. This is why the Philosophers have rightly said that all that is necessary for our work is reduced to viscous water married to its sulfur. Of these two substances is composed of the Mercury of the Philosophers.

XXXI
Pay attention, however, to the weights of Nature; for divine Wisdom, by suspending the foundations of the earth in space, has given its laws to the waters, and to balance the fountains which supply these waters. Know that the elements, and in general the substances of this universe, far from being given over to contrariety, are rather endowed with a sympathy or concordance which attracts them towards each other. Without this the upper parts would soon rush over the lower; these would also rise up against the superiors, and there would no longer be any hope of seeing peace reborn. But all things would be in the case of awaiting a universal sabbath, if after having been deprived of their vital spirit, and the bonds of concord being broken, they were reduced or returned to their first chaos.

XXXII
We must give the most complete attention to the agreement or concordance of the elements to achieve the weight of Nature. Otherwise you will drown your materials with an overabundance of water, or you will leave them in extreme drought by adding too much soil; either the overabundance of sulfur or fire will cause excess in the dye, or the lack of air will cause its weakness. Let prudent Nature therefore be the mistress of the work; when she gives the weights herself, she distributes everything wisely, both in the making of the great world and in that of our secret work, which is only an imitation and a resemblance of the other.

XXXIII
The Sophists believed that the weight of Nature was indicated & determined by the quantity of matter that Mercury can dissolve; what is repugnant to Nature and to the work. Because in philosophical solutions; the Mercury which performs the functions of menstruation being a universal solvent, everything is dissolved, pure or impure, so that it is hardly possible to distinguish what has been dissolved well or badly, unless we know the weight of Nature, both in relation to the substance and in relation to its way of operating.

The best would therefore be to pay attention to the parts of the solvent, whether fixed or volatile, that the dissolved matter can retain with it in dissolution, and to try to properly appreciate the term of Nature, which consists in the fact that the solvent does not separate. more of the dissolved part.


XXXIV
In higher Astronomy, the house of the Sun is close to that of the Moon; because Nature wanted the house of the Moon to be in Cancer, and that of the Sun in Leo; that the exaltation of the Moon took place in Taurus, and the exaltation of the Sun in Aries (1). It undoubtedly seemed more appropriate to propagate and perpetuate one family and the other, by means of relatives or fellow citizens, than by the alliance of distant and foreign families, discordant among themselves if not in their species, at least in their morals, their inclinations and their qualities. Because the less distance there is in kinship, homeland and the air that these two beings breathe, and the more love there is between one and the other.

(l) Astrology, from which the ancient Alchemical Authors often borrowed the language, divided the Heaven into twelve parts to which it gave the name of Houses. It assigned two of these houses to each of the planets, except for the Sun and the Moon, which had only one each. And it supposed that the planets arriving at the house or houses which were particularly assigned to them, exerted their action more strongly on the sublunary bodies, and spread over them with more profusion their influences, whether good or bad. The house of the Sun was in the sign of Leo; the house of the Moon in that of Cancer; the first house of Saturn in Capricorn, the second in Aquarius; the first house of Mercury in Gemini, the second in Virgo, &c.

Astrology still supposed that there were certain degrees of the Zodiac where each planet acquired a dignity which gave it more influence, effectiveness and virtue, and this is what it called the Exaltation of the planet. . The opposite point of the zodiac was its Dejection. The exaltation of the Sun was in the nineteenth degree of Aries, and its dejection in Libra; the exaltation of the Moon was in Taurus, its excrement in Scorpio; the exaltation of Jupiter in the 45th degree of Cancer, &c.

XXXIV
The Sun & the Moon are therefore necessary for the composition of our Mercury: or rather let us say with Paracelsus that the composition of this sacred & Adamic Stone is made from the Adamic Mercury of the Sages & their Evene (l), which is the woman, by the marriage & union of a first & a second Mercury which produces a third. Let the Sophists come here, and let them answer me: I ask them why they implement a single and individual principle, and not two? Did not the Philosophers say that matter was one, that is to say, one in species, this is how man and woman, relative to their multiplication, are only one in species, but are really two, as to sex & individuality.

(1) Evene. This is undoubtedly the invention of Paracelsus, which could just as easily have been Eve as Evenne.

XXXVI
Two substances are therefore necessarily necessary (but two substances which are not contrary or repugnant in their species), so that through the intimate communication of their qualities, an action is established between them: because the work of generation cannot be 'accomplish that by means of an action: but there is no action in a single matter, since there is no agent which acts on itself or which can generate alone, & without the assistance of some other subject with which he needs to act in concert. It is for this reason that the Pythagoreans established the principle of discord in duality; because the dry acts on the humid, the cold on the hot, and reciprocally the humid acts against the dry, and the hot against the cold.

XXXVII
Although there are always two principles in the work, we must not conclude from this that this duality is always subject to dissension, and that our two principles will wage eternal war, (1) The internal Archaeum of Nature , carries, so to speak, within its bosom, a secret principle of union & concord which leads these two matters to another state, and in fact as a third being or a new substance. This is the change that takes place as soon as union and peace are re-established between them; and this is what made Raymond Lulle say, with great reason, that water ultimately came into favor and was in harmony with fire.

(1) Archaea. The ancient Chemists gave this name to a certain universal spirit widespread everywhere, which they believed to be the cause of all the effects of Nature, and which they called the soul of the world. Others called the Archaeus, the Vulcan & the heat of the earth, & they believed that it was a central fire intended by the Author of Nature, to cook metals & minerals, & to be the principle of plant life.

XXXVIII
But before these two principles are thus united in an effective and formal manner, they require a kind of material union, or rather a mixture which must be made with a certain weight. Moreover, it is not a question here of the weights of Nature, of which I spoke above, but of those of Art, and although the weight of Nature, relative to intention, precedes the weight of Art, however on the side of execution, it is posterior to it, because the first, in the intention, that is to say, that which we mainly have in view because of its importance, is the last in execution.

XXXIX
This mixture of the two principles, this work composed and accomplished in all its numbers and all its weights, requires a dexterous hand and an industrious mind on the part of the Artist. If you go about it correctly, the red blood of the Lion and the glue of the Eagle will result in a viscous slime. This is how the seed thrown into suitable soil changes into silt by means of the corruption caused by the action that the superior heat of the stars and the inferior heat of the ether exert on the terrestrial humidity.

XL
This silt is a vile earth, but specified and of the greatest price; it is however abject & despised, because to achieve the admirable production of this great King, it is necessary that the principles which produced this slime, that is to say, its father & mother, die; which made the wise Hermes say that our Pierre was an orphan who survived his parents, in fact, if his peers did not die, this rare production would never see the light of day. It has been compared with enough reason to the phoenix, which is unique in its kind, or to put it better, it is the phoenix itself; whose ashes (all fables aside) give birth to a new chicken.

XLII
The matter set in motion by suitable heat begins to become black: this color is the key and the beginning of the work, it is in it that all the other colors, white, yellow and red are understood and are seen; it is from it that they take their origin. Paracelsus, in your Book of Images, has placed them all before the eyes of the Reader without any disguise.

XLII
Although there are, he says, some elementary colors, because the azure color particularly belongs to the earth, the green to water, the yellow to air, the red to fire, however the colors white and black are relate directly to spagyric art, in which we also find the four primitive colors, namely, black, white, yellow & red. Now black is the root and origin of the other colors, because all black matter can be reverberated for the time necessary for it, so that the three other colors will appear successively and each in turn. The white color follows black, yellow follows white, and red follows yellow. But all matter that has reached. the fourth color by means of reverberation, is the tincture of things of its kind,

X LIII
This is how a plant after winter and on the approach to spring does not yet show it, it has its root hidden in the heart of the earth, it is black, completely arid and shapeless. But as soon as the heat of the Sun has determined its vegetation, it takes on a slight increase, develops it imperceptibly, and soon through the reverberation that the heat of summer causes it to experience, it successively receives the four main colors. The root therefore first produces a tender herb, this herb gives a flower, finally from this flower it produces a seed: but it is the seed which is the tincture and the quintessence of this herb.

XLIV
Sometimes the vase will appear to you as golden, this is an indication of the mixing of the sperm of Sulfur with the menstruation of Mercury & of the mutual alteration that each of these two substances receives from the other. Moreover, when the philosophical garden is in flower, we see different colors shining there which have been compared to those of the peacock's tail, the variety and magnificence of which they imitate. This pleasant spectacle lasts as long as the wet parts are at war with the dry ones, and reciprocally the dry parts fight with the wet ones; because when whiteness has come, peace is already made between the elements.

XLIV
When whiteness has reached its degree of fixity & the sublimity or perfection that it acquires by a certain fermentation known to Philosophers, you have a tincture for the four lower bodies, & a medicine which will radically eradicate diseases of its kind, whatever fixity they have acquired in human bodies; because white and red come from the same Mercury; & Adam contains and encloses in his bosom his wife Evene, who emerges from his side and becomes visible by the virtue of the first Archaeus.

XLVI
Then this same whiteness, advancing little by little towards a subsequent excellence and perfection, clothes him in a yellow coat; she finally changes to a very perfect and very red color; after which it remains in this state without being able to ascend to a higher degree of perfection. It is then the sublimity of the work and of all Art, the perpetual balm, the incombustible oil, the incomparable treasure, the joy of Philosophy; he is the very perfect son of Nature, who prides himself on having given birth to him, not being able to produce anything more noble, let's say better, if we except the only reasonable soul, he cannot be born into the world. comparable to this substance which embraces and includes in itself the virtues and perfections of all superior and inferior beings.

When you have arrived at this redness and are in possession of Nature's most perfect production, do not forget and do not neglect to feed it often with its own milk. Then give him more solid food; Nature teaches you that we treat all living bodies in the same way, it is through these media or means that this marvelous production receives by degrees all the force of which its constitution is susceptible, until finally it is in state of subjugating the enemies who seek to destroy it, & of multiplying individuals of its species to infinity. For in everything that breathes, generation preserves the species just as nutrition preserves the individual. Fermentation & projection produce the same effect in our work:

XLVIII
Our stone must not take any food that is foreign to it, so we must feed it with its own milk, carefully preserving its temperament, both in terms of weight and in terms of the quality of the food that is right. to give it to her, and take care in all respects that she does not suffer any damage. We see in fact that woods, metals and other similar things, when they remain buried for a long time in the heart of the earth, petrify while retaining their first form externally, because they acquire another temperament or constitution, in this way. nourishing with a foreign food, a food in some way contrary to their Nature.

XLIX
Let us not forget, however, to observe that there are two types of fermentation. One looks at quality and the other at quantity. For the first, we must observe the geometric proportion; & in the second, the arithmetic proportion. This one is differently uniform, and this one uniformly deformed. One comes from the dissolved thing, and the other from the thing frozen by the way of Nature, finally in the first, if you do not observe exactly the proportion of the weights, you will try in vain to carry out the work ; your compost would experience the fate of those whose natural heat is absorbed and suffocated by an excess of food, or of those who, for lack of food, die of starvation.

L
Fermentation, depending on quantity, presupposes the other which acts on quality, and circumscribes it within certain limits. For example, if your medicine has acquired through fermentation the virtue of dyeing ten parts, or a hundred, or a thousand, the fermentation in quantity will be determined to the same degree, that is to say, it will only be able to dye ten, or a hundred, or a thousand parts of an inferior metal, no more, no less. However, all parts of the mass will become of the same strength and homogeneous to those of the dissolved tincture. Which gives a great advantage & a great profit.

LI
The space of time required for fermentation according to quality, is determined by the circulation suitable to the nature of its Mercury, in which & by which the repetition of the whole work is completed, which consists only in the solution & coagulation. So dissolve & coagulate as many times as you like, and you will have an accomplished & perfect medicine for both the animal and the plant species, it only requires that you observe the rules that I will give you below. Be careful to follow absolutely the same method for fermentation, whether with white or red, and feed each material separately with its own milk.

LII
The thing does not happen in the same way in fermentation, depending on the quantity, namely when the coagulated part joins with the solid body, because it only takes three circulations of its sulfur to complete and accomplish its movement, which is not not without mystery. In fact, man was not born in the womb of the earth until the third day after the creation of the Sun; because it was fitting that the Sun, as a precursor, embellished and filled with its invigorating heat and its salutary influences, the royal residence of man, before this governor and this inhabitant of the Universe emerged from the silt from which it was trained. This work (of which I have spoken sufficiently), & by which Mercury receives the dye, without which it would not dye, was called by the Ancients the work of three Days.

III
Let's come to the rules that I promised above on the use of Medicine,

1° We must purge the body of all obstructions, at least as much as we can, & then take this medicine in very small quantities, fear that this celestial fire, which is endowed with eminent activity, acts with too much impetuosity and force on the weak spark which animates us.

2° If the disease is at the circumference, it is necessary to precede some preparations, which having a natural tendency towards this circumference, can leave behind it some attractive virtues which call or attract medicine towards the sick part.

3° If the seat of the disease is in the center, it will be necessary to mix medicine with some suitable vehicle, because by this means it is more easily determined to move towards the affected part,

LIV
Among the preparative remedies which can place living bodies under the susception of this supreme medicine (because the introduction of the form supposes that the matter is suitably prepared); the coralline arcana easily wins the prize. This immortal remedy was not unknown to the Ancients, but its preparation, like that of the great work, was put in a better order, & shortened by Paracelsus.

And although several Authors have made it known to the Public, they have always truncated & mutilated the recipe, to the point that I do not know of any who have completely revealed it with sincerity. The frankness with which I have exposed the other secrets of our science, commits me to also consecrating to posterity this precious treasure without any detour & in clear words &: express; she will see that in all things I only listened to the voice of her interest.

CORALLINE ARCANE.

L.V.
Take native Mercury, purge it of its blackness with the spirit of wine, stirring it until it has taken on an azure color. On eight ounces of mercury, put as much spirit of niter rectified several times & freed from your phlegm; Prepare the solution in a flask which you will place in a sand fire until the mercury precipitates of its own accord into white crystals. Boil continuously until all the spirit has evaporated, and leave to cool for twenty-four hours.

You will find in your matra a white mass, which you will reduce to a very fine powder; & you will repeat this operation up to three times. The last time it will be necessary to remove all the spirit so that the matter remains dry; you will have mercury in the bottom, which will have the color of the country poppy, and you can calcine it gently. You will reduce this red mercury into an excellent oil, very sweet, and with an admirable perfume; in the following manner:

Have spirit of wine perfectly purified of all phlegm, & soak in the material, which will take the form of a paste, pour it until the spirit of wine floats three fingers. Enclose this mixture in a hermetically sealed earthenware vessel, and let it putrefy for a philosophical month in the horse's belly or in its vicar (1). At the end of this time, the material will change into a mucilaginous liquor or oil.

When you see this sign, gently decant the wine spirit, filter the oil through a paper, & when you have driven out all the phlegm with a very moderate bath fire, you will have at the bottom a very white oil & very sweet. Put it in a retorte which you will push with a graduated sand fire, this oil will rise in the form of a white and milky liquor, it will not all come out however; but there will be some parts of mercury which will sublimate, and which you will join with oil; & you will distill in the same way in the sand bath. The whole thing will thus be converted into a very heavy, very sweet oil with an extremely fragrant smell.

Take five ounces of this oil, & half an ounce of gold perfectly purified by cinnabar & mercury. Mix them in a hermetically sealed matrass, which you will place for eight days in the heat of putrefaction or in a bath of ashes. You will then extract from it by distillation a tincture of the sun, red like blood, and you will ultimately be left with the body of the Sun, completely white, (that is to say, a white and fixed Moon, which will take on the color of or if you treat it with antimony).

This sulfur of the Sun enclosed in a hermetically sealed vase & placed in the athanor at a gentle & continual heat, will coagulate in the form of red stone, which will resolve again into oil by deliquescence. Remove the feces, coagulate this oil again in the same way,

The dowry is from half a grain to a grain, which will be taken in a suitable vehicle, such as theriac extract with licorice powder, to give it the consistency of pills, and will be drunk. over a splash of either wine or some specific water. We will repeat the same dose as many times as the disease requires it, the best however will be to rely on the prudence of some skilful Doctor.

I have just declared to the Disciples of Science, in precise and very clear terms, this great arcana, the merit of which is such that we can never celebrate it enough. It was known by serious and very learned people who, I don't know for what reason, did not want to share it with the public. Paracelsus used to call it Elixir of life, Theriac of metals, Mercurial or metallic laudanum. But let's return to our subject.

(l) The Horse's Belly is the temperate heat of the dung, and by its vicar, we must understand nothing other than a furnace in which a heat similar to that of the dung is maintained, or which constantly supports the thermometer of M. from Réaumur to around 32 degrees. This same degree is approximately that of animal heat, it is that of the brooding hen, it is that which hatches the eggs of almost all birds.

LVI
We have just seen that living bodies must be prepared before taking this medicine, when it has been determined for their use. It is the same with metallic bodies, when medicine has been determined for them; they require preliminary preparation before it can be used for their improvement. For the Philosophers want us to animate the lower metals beforehand, lest if the effect of the tincture experiences some delay, the body is burned and consumed entirely or at least in part, or that the tincture does not flies away before having penetrated it.

Now metals are animated by mixing them with the Moon, because as in higher astronomy the Moon receives the rays and influences of the Sun before reflecting them in the elementary bodies, likewise in lower Astronomy the tincture of the Sun only has the influence, that is to say, the faculty of penetrating bodies, by means of the Moon; which caused many Artists to be deceived into wanting to do the projection.

This mixture of the Moon produces the same effect on the lower metals as the fertilizer on the earth, which according to the degree of its goodness, returns the seed entrusted to it, some tenfold, others a hundredfold, &vs. So examine what kind of Moon you should use, will it be the metallic Moon, or should we take the word Moon metaphorically here? You will learn from the Philosophers the aforementioned quantity which must enter into the mixture, or rather Philosophy itself will teach it to you. that is to say, the faculty of penetrating bodies only by means of the Moon; which caused many Artists to be deceived into wanting to do the projection.

This mixture of the Moon produces the same effect on the lower metals as the fertilizer on the earth, which according to the degree of its goodness, returns the seed entrusted to it, some tenfold, others a hundredfold, &vs. So examine what kind of Moon you should use, will it be the metallic Moon, or should we take the word Moon metaphorically here? You will learn from the Philosophers the aforementioned quantity which must enter into the mixture, or rather Philosophy itself will teach it to you. that is to say, the faculty of penetrating bodies only by means of the Moon; which caused many Artists to be deceived into wanting to do the projection.

This mixture of the Moon produces the same effect on the lower metals as the fertilizer on the earth, which according to the degree of its goodness, returns the seed entrusted to it, some tenfold, others a hundredfold, &vs. So examine what kind of Moon you should use, will it be the metallic Moon, or should we take the word Moon metaphorically here? You will learn from the Philosophers the aforementioned quantity which must enter into the mixture, or rather Philosophy itself will teach it to you. only by means of the Moon; which caused many Artists to be deceived into wanting to do the projection.

This mixture of the Moon produces the same effect on the lower metals as the fertilizer on the earth, which according to the degree of its goodness, returns the seed entrusted to it, some tenfold, others a hundredfold, &vs. So examine what kind of Moon you should use, will it be the metallic Moon, or should we take the word Moon metaphorically here? You will learn from the Philosophers the aforementioned quantity which must enter into the mixture, or rather Philosophy itself will teach it to you. only by means of the Moon; which caused many Artists to be deceived into wanting to do the projection.

This mixture of the Moon produces the same effect on the lower metals as the fertilizer on the earth, which according to the degree of its goodness, returns the seed entrusted to it, some tenfold, others a hundredfold, &vs. So examine what kind of Moon you should use, will it be the metallic Moon, or should we take the word Moon metaphorically here? You will learn from the Philosophers the aforementioned quantity which must enter into the mixture, or rather Philosophy itself will teach it to you. return the seed entrusted to them, some tenfold, others a hundredfold, etc.

So examine what kind of Moon you should use, will it be the metallic Moon, or should we take the word Moon metaphorically here? You will learn from the Philosophers the aforementioned quantity which must enter into the mixture, or rather Philosophy itself will teach it to you. return the seed entrusted to them, some tenfold, others a hundredfold, etc.

So examine what kind of Moon you should use, will it be the metallic Moon, or should we take the word Moon metaphorically here? You will learn from the Philosophers the aforementioned quantity which must enter into the mixture, or rather Philosophy itself will teach it to you.

Fire.

LVII
Our work requires two kinds of fire, one internal and the other external. They must correspond to each other in such a way that the external does not overpower the internal. The internal fire is an ethereal liquor, or a mercurial nectar which vivifies, preserves & nourishes the matter in the vessel, & which leads it to the complete end of its perfection. It is only set in motion by the external fire, and if this is slow and too weak, the internal fire remains inactive and produces nothing, as we see in the seeds that we throw into the ground. earth during the winter, they cannot germinate, because the external heat of the Sun does not awaken their internal heat. But if this external fire is too strong, the vase breaks, or the matter burns,

LVIII
It is thus that this external fire, the engine of all our work, performs the functions of the Sun of the Macrocosm or great world, and operates in the same way as it. It incites and sets in motion the metallic spirits that our earth contains within its bosom, and when once they are in action, the woman dissolves the husband, and she is impregnated by him in her turn. The clue to this fertilization is this Aleph or dark beginning that the Ancients called a raven's head. When the woman subsequently became more robust, she did not fear to fight with her husband, it was then that the soil of the Philosophers' garden began to flower. Here Nature produces an extremely white rose, which afterward takes on the color of marigold, and ultimately changes into everlasting amaranth.

LIX
But if you want a sure method to force this external fire to set matter in motion without any danger, do not believe that all furnaces, whatever their form, are suitable for this fire, it needs one which resembles its structure, to this Universe, so that it can all the better imitate the action & effect of the Sun, whose functions it must fulfill, as we have already said. Indulge as much as you like in beautiful speculations, if the action of your fire does not pass through some ethereal medium, that is to say, vaporous, you will not reach the goal of your desires. This is why the Trevisan complains of having tried at the very beginning to operate with the heat of the dung, etc. but that the defect of an environment had made his attempt useless.

To provide our work with the degree of heat that it requires, and which is capable of exciting the internal fire, many have used the oil lamp, others only hot ashes, and others have immediately placed their vase on the coals. We have also seen some who enclosed it in a wooden capsule made in the shape of an egg, and thus exposed it to the steam of hot water. Others, finally, giving themselves over to their ideas and the whims of their brain, have imagined to their own detriment other means full of art and just as dangerous as they are expensive. They understood neither the fountain nor the method of Trevisan, which we must indeed follow, but although thirsty, although burning with thirst, they moved away from its true source, which they did not have the sense to recognize.

LXI
The doctrine which I have explained quite clearly in the preceding canons, requires a further explanation of the vases. It will be all the less out of place since the good or bad outcome of his work may depend on the good or bad use that the Artist will be able to make of it. So passing over in silence the vases of the first operation, which requires a real Herculean work, I can assure you that only two vases are needed, it is these two vases of which the Philosophers have spoken so much, & with which they are accustomed to completing this work. The first is called the vase of Art, and the second, the vase of Nature.

XLII
The vase of Art is the philosophical egg, which is made of very pure glass, oval in shape, having a neck of medium length; it is necessary that the upper part of the neck can be sealed hermetically, and that the capacity of the egg is such that the material put in it only fills a quarter of it; because this matter must have enough space to circulate freely, because this mercurial dew, animated and set in motion by the external heat, rises and falls successively, and it is by means of this oblique revolution that the sublimations, imbibitions, waterings, precipitations, cohobations, separations of the elements, digestions, etc. on which the Philosophers have written particular chapters,

LXIII
However, we must be careful that the vase is not larger than it is suitable, because the balsamic Mercury which rises and rises in the vase to convert into an extremely sweet dew, would then have a movement that is too slow. , would lose many of its spirits, & would not water our land sufficiently, which would cause this same land, arid, degraded, bursting with drought, would not have the strength to make its germ bloom. If the vase, on the contrary, were too small, the spirits and matter would not be able to sufficiently extend, flourish, expand, and finding themselves confined in too narrow a prison, they would burst the vase, but it would still resist to their efforts, Nature constrained and as if chained, would refuse vegetation to our mineral plant,

LXIV
Furthermore, take great care that the vase is so well sealed that the outside air cannot penetrate it in any way, and that the interior spirits of the stone, which are extremely subtle, find no escape; otherwise the virtues enclosed and hidden in matter, finding themselves deprived of their own spirit, will remain without action at the bottom of the vessel, similar to soulless and lifeless corpses. Take the egg for example; if its shell is damaged by the slightest hole, by the slightest crack, it will be in vain that the hen will communicate to it this gentle and continuous heat, which is so suitable for the development of its germ; no chicken will ever come out of it. Likewise, if your vase is broken, if the air finds the slightest passage through it, you have no hope of success for your work.

As for the internal vase or vase of nature, which some call the matrix of our Sulfur, it is a mercurial, humid fat, which by its viscosity retains, binds and tempers the interior heat of the Sulfur, preventing it from being burned, & gives it a very soft fluidity, without which it would harden too much, because of the natural fixity of its body. We see in fact that seeds thrown on rocks not only produce nothing, but harden and dry out, because they lack a matrix which provides them with this viscous and mercurial humidity; which is so necessary for the development of their virtues.

LXVI
After all this has been done according to custom, you will only have to reap the philosophical harvest. I hear of the projections whose method the Philosophers have described in such a clear manner, that I believe I must pass them over here in silence, as presenting no difficulty. Let us put it better, do not the harvests and their fruits, when they have reached their autumn, fall as if of their own accord into the hands of their owner?

Although their collection or harvest in general presupposes the preparation of the land, fertilizers, harrowing and other plowing which must precede sowing, However, it should not be counted among the labors of the farmer to whose care it is abandoned; we can truly say that he gives himself up to rest as soon as he has once entrusted his seed to the bosom of the earth. When you have therefore come to the end of the principal and greatest works, happily read and enjoy this eternal and immortal fruit of Philosophy, which is a kind of expression or extract of divine wisdom, and the fruit of life of Earthly paradise, etc.

“This first golden branch being torn off, another will infallibly take its place, and the stem will sprout new shoots of the same metal.”

When you possess this treasure, you will rightly persuade yourself that after the intuitive knowledge of the divine essence, which is reserved for our soul in the other life, like the seal of our faith, human intelligence cannot imagine anything more precious, nothing more noble than this gift of God, which contains and encloses within itself the majesty of all Nature.

---

TO THE READER

To protect myself from the criticism of the Sophists, and lest anyone imagine that I have advanced without any foundation the Positions that we have just read,

THE TOUCHSTONE or PRINCIPLES OF THE PHILOSOPHERS,
Which must serve as a rule for the work.

I
Nature has left some imperfect beings, since she did not form the stone, but only its matter, which truly cannot do what the Stone does after its preparation, because it is prevented from doing so by obstacles accidental.

II
The substance we seek is the same thing as that from which we must draw it.

III
This identity is specific, that is to say, it is only relative to the species; it is not particular or numerical.

IV
From unity, draw the ternary number, & bring the ternary back to unity.

V
Everything dry drinks its wet.

VI
There is no permanent water except that which is dry and which adheres to bodies, so that if it leaks, the bodies flee with it, and it follows them if they flee.

VII
Whoever ignores the means of destroying bodies, also ignores the means of producing them.

VIII
All things that are resolved by heat coagulate in cold, and vice versa.

IX
Nature rejoices in her nature; Nature improves nature, & leads it to its perfection.

X
It is necessary, for the conservation of the Universe, that each thing desires and demands the perpetuity of its species.

XI
In perfect physical productions, the effects are similar and conform to the particular cause which produces them.


It is not possible for any generation to take place without corruption, and in our work, corruption and generation are impossible in the philosophical Heaven.

XIII
Unless you invert the order of Nature, you will not generate gold unless it was previously silver.

XIV
The solution of bodies is the same thing as their freezing, if we only consider the menstruation and the moment of the solution.

XV
If you have dissipated & lost the greenness of Mercury & the redness of Sulfur, you have lost the soul of the Stone.

XVI
Nothing foreign enters our work, it neither admits nor receives anything that comes from elsewhere.

XVII
Philosophical solutions remove from the dissolved body its natural impurities, which cannot be made sensible by any other Way.

XVIII
Every agent requires prepared matter, which is why a man cannot procreate with a dead woman.

XIX
In the work, the female dissolves the male, and the male coagulates the female.

XX
The Mercury of the Philosophers is their very secret compound, or their Adam, who carries & hides in his body Eve his wife, who is invisible, but when she arrives at white, she becomes male.

XXI
The Philosophers have wisely said that Mercury contains everything that is the subject of the research of the Sages.

XXII
Let your heat be continuous, vaporous, digesting, surrounding, & let it be carried through a medium.

XXIII
Pay attention to the order in which the critical colors appear, that one does not precede the other, and that each of them presents itself in turn.

XXIV
These critical colors are four in number; the perfect black, white, lemon & red. Some Philosophers have given them the name of elements.

X XV
If the white color precedes the black, you have failed in the regime of fire; & if the red appears before the black or the white, it is an indication of the excessive dryness of the material.

XXVI
Take the greatest care that the darkness does not appear twice; when the little crows have once flown from their nest, they must not return there again.

XXVII
Take care also that the shell of the egg does not break, that it does not crack, that it does not allow air to pass through, otherwise you will do no good.

XXVIII
The ferment is only composed of its own paste: so do not mix white with red, nor red with white.

XXIX
If you don't dye Mercury, it won't dye.

XXX
The lower bodies or metals that we want to transmute into gold or silver by projection must be lively and animated.

XXXI
The more perfect the bodies are, the more they will receive and take care of the dye.

XXXII
If the stone has not been fermented at least twice, it will not be able to master or subjugate the Mercury of bodies, & change it into its nature.

XXXIII
If too much tincture is used in the projection, the lower body will become too fixed and will not be able to melt; if there is too little, it will only be dyed weakly.

XXXIV
Our Stone, before being able to dye metals, chases away diseases of its kind, proportionate to the degree of perfection it has acquired.

XXXIV
When it has achieved a fixed & permanent whiteness, it cures Lunar illnesses; & when it is red, Solar diseases. But although it is prepared in one way or the other, Astral illnesses resist it, because they are absolutely subject to fate.

(*) This distinction of Diseases into Solar, Lunar, Astral, Tartarous, etc. introduced or accredited by Paracelsus, was rightly proscribed by modern Medicine. So I will not stop at giving definitions; that would take me too far. The curious can consult the works of Paracelsus on this subject.

XXXVI
The Sages keeping away the Profane will only admit the Elect to their sacred mysteries, as soon as they possess this rare gift of divine Wisdom, they will give thanks to the Supreme Being, and will place themselves under the standard of Harpocrates.

PRACTICAL.

Take real earth sufficiently impregnated with the rays of the Sun, the Moon and the other stars. Make two equal parts; the aim of this is to give back to Nature its weight, because on one side we extract the philosophical nitre, and on the other the volatile & fixed salt. I will say a few words about each of them in particular. If we work carefully in this way with the appropriate weight, it will not be easy to make a mistake, which would happen very easily if we extracted these salts from one side only, that is to say , of one or the other of these parts only.

Philosophical Nitre.

It is necessary that the material of the Stone be purified to the supreme degree by coction, filtration, evaporation & coagulation; because Art must make it so diaphanous that it surpasses crystal in transparency and brilliance. This done, we will calcine in a very strong fire this almost dead earth, from which we took this crystal by elixivation.

Take a pound and a half of crystalline nitre, and four pounds and a half of this calcined earth mentioned above. Distill, according to the rules of the Art, with a mixture of well-treated earth, the container of which is sufficiently large, and in which you have placed two pounds of fountain water, you will distill by gradation until the drops spirits rush into the water in the form of sparks. Take care that all openings are well blocked, lest anything leaks out; When the distillation is completed, let the furnace cool completely before removing the container, & carry out as many such distillations as the quantity of your material requires.

Rectify all these spirits in a bain-marie, until you have removed all the phlegm, that is to say, the two pounds of water that you had put in the container to receive the spirits. Then place the still on the ashes, distill all the spirits according to the art, and keep them in a glass vase which is only half filled, lest it break.

Volatile Salt.

Take six pounds of calcined earth, put them in a well-treated sublimatory vase, there will rise a volatile salt & a spirit similar to a cloudy vapor. If any white part of the subtle salt attaches to the neck of the vase, detach it with a stick or some wooden instrument, and join it to the other parts of the spirit already sublimated. There is no need to put water in the container here, because our earth contains a sufficient amount of moisture into which the spirits will rush. Continue the distillations until all the earth is consumed; but reserve the caput mortuum to extract the fixed salt in the following manner:

Take all the distillations from this earth in a glass cucurbit, and expel the phlegm in a bain-marie. Then adapt a container to the cucurbit, put it in the ash bath, & distill the spirits, which you can keep if you want, but they are not used for this work. As for the earth which remains at the bottom of the cucurbit, you will adapt a blind still, you will sublimate it with skill & according to the rules of the Art, & you will obtain a very subtle salt & similar to snow, you will rectify this salt by repeated sublimations, & you will keep it in a well-stoppered glass vase, because otherwise the air resolves it into water.

Fixed salt.

Take the remaining earth, calcine it over an open fire on the ashes for twelve hours; then draw out the salt according to the rules of the Art, by washing it, cooking it, dissolving it, evaporating it & repeating this work until you have a salt as diaphanous as crystal.

Conjunction of the three Salts.

Join the fixed salt and the volatile salt, pour over the spirit of nitre, they will embrace each other reciprocally and resolve into water. This water is the triumphant Mercury of the Philosophers and the universal Menstruum. It has the power to dissolve metals & precious stones, because it is pure fire.

Composition of the universal work.

Take ten parts of the universal menstruum & one part of very pure leaf gold, put them in a cucurbit, the menstruum will not take long to dissolve the gold. When it is completely dissolved, a kind of earth coming from this metal will fall to the bottom of the vase. Leave things in this state for the space of one night, and then filter the solution according to the Art, in a flask which you will seal tightly, and which you will place in the interior globe of the Athanor.

Use of the Athanor for this work.

There are three globes in the Athanor, the first is very large and is whole, the middle is pierced in its upper part, so that the water vapor can escape, the third is made of oak wood, and it is the one in which putrefaction takes place by means of the fire of vapors. There must be a sufficient quantity of water in this last globe, and if it evaporates, new hot water must be added.

This putrefaction ends in 40 or 45 days, and it is then that the blackness which has been called Crow's Head usually appears. When the rotting is finished, remove the globe of wood, because there is no longer any need for water for the rest of the work. You will therefore put the vase in the pierced globe, which you will fill with ashes. Your fire must be gentle, & such that the hand can support it without any difficulty; & in 50 days, you will see the colors known under the name of the peacock's tail appear, of which only the green color will finally remain.

Then remove the vase, and put it in the first globe, which is the largest, and which must be full of sand, in order to be able to easily cover the vase which contains the material and which must be well blocked. Open the Athanor, increase the fire so that the hand cannot withstand its heat, after 50 days the material will be white Continue the same level of fire until it turns yellow, which will happen in 30 days , or at the latest in 50.

Finally put the vase at the bottom of the furnace, & apply fourth degree fire to it, until the powder appears red; you will see in the middle of this powder a grain of a more dazzling redness and the size of a weight, which you will keep carefully, because it is the seed of gold. You will remove the red powder that is all around, because it is of no use in this work. As for this grain itself, here is the use you will make of it.

This precious grain is the gold of the Philosophers, weigh it exactly, and put it precisely with ten parts of the menstruum, in a small matras, two thirds of which must remain empty. Seal hermetically, & first put the vase in the first globe, which is made of wood. Operate according to the different degrees of fire, and for the number of days of which we have just spoken, until the powder finally acquires a brilliant redness, after which you will test it using a blade of silver reddened in the fire, on which you will throw a very small part; it must flow like wax without smoking, but if it still smokes, put it back in the sand, where it will later settle and take on the quality of fire.

Multiplication.

The Multiplication is done in this way: take a part of your fixed red powder, & ten parts of the menstruum, put them in a vase or matras; they will kiss on the spot. Seal the vase hermetically, & put it in the Athanor. Conduct yourself in everything as was said above, until you have blackness in the wooden globe, the varied colors of the peacock's tail in the second globe, and the color red in the first. You can, if you want, multiply a second & a third time by proceeding in the same way.

In the first operation, part of the powder will dye ten metals, in the second, part will dye a hundred, and in the third, a thousand. But lest you fear the tedium of this work, you will know that it always takes less time for the last operations than for the first, because by putting the vase with the oak globe in the Athanor only for three days, you will see the color black appear. Likewise with the pierced globe where the vase is placed in the ashes, all the colors, up to the green, will also pass in the space of three days; finally in the first globe where the vase is covered with sand, three more days will be enough for you to bring the red color.

Fermentation & preparation for screening.

Take one part of the red powder & ten parts of very pure gold. When the gold is molten in the crucible, throw in the powder: this is the rule of the Art. Gold by this means will become friable, and one of its parts will dye ten parts of mercury into very good gold. But there are three main things to observe here.

1°. After screening, this spawn can no longer multiply, so store it carefully.

2°. The powder fermented with gold is called Pierre, and can be used in medicine in this way: we will take one scruple or twenty-four grains, which we will dissolve according to the art in two ounces of spirit of wine , and we will give from two or three to four drops, depending on the requirement of the disease,

3°. After fermentation, the powder is called tincture, and it can no longer be multiplied. It is therefore advisable to have a part of the stone in reserve, since it is very easily multiplied by putting one part with ten of the menstruation.

Glory, honor, praise be to the Most High, forever and ever. So be it.

O. A. M. D. G. 1780.

END.