The Staircase of the Wise - Book 4
Iucunde Generat Natura Ignea Solis
The Fiery Nature of the Sun Generates Pleasantly
In Gehenna Nostra Ignis Scientia
In Gehenna (Hell) Our Science of Fire
Aurifica Ego Regina
I am the golden queen
the staircase of the wise.
the fifth degree.
of the element of air
And of the air of the philosophers.
chapter I.
Of the qualities of the Air. May the Holy Spirit of God be poured out in the light and in the air. That Air is the matrix of light. Differing Degrees of Air. That the life of all things is in the Air. That Air is a conductor of Fire. That the wind is restless Air. That gunpowder operations are by means of the Air. That Air stirs the lower Elements. Let the Air cause changes to all Beings. That Air is continually lit with light. That Air is divided into three kinds of Air.
It is not without great reason that the prophet Moses makes very express mention at the beginning of his First chapter of Genesis with these words:
And the spirit of God was poured out over the waters.
When we dealt with the Element of Fire, we said that Almighty God has placed his tabernacle in the light or in the sun; we have also demonstrated how the divine Majesty engenders, how he composes and how he maintains all things in the world by means of his light: etc.
We will deal at this time with Air, and consider the qualities it possesses.
The Air is hot and humid, externally invisible, but internally visible, and although it is volatile, it can nevertheless be fixed by fire, and it is then that it makes all bodies penetrating.
It is the Air in which the spirit of God was poured out on the waters before the creation of the World, and it is the light and the Air in which this same Spirit is still poured out at present, and by which and with which it penetrates all things, and that it is everywhere present.
Air and the matrix of the light and the influences of the stars, which it attracts to itself by an amorous inclination, and carries them (as on a cart) to the places where the creator and director of the universe has ordered them.
It is the Air in which the vital Spirits of animals originate and are made, and hear of its purest substance which is nearest approaching to the light; and since light is the General Motor of everything, it comes to communicate its moving virtue to its closest relative and neighbour, which is the purest Air, and to shoot it as from the center) the circumference, to transport its virtues, by different degrees, like a faithful servant, to the plants, Animals, and Minerals created and to be created.
Air has many different degrees of purity, for the nearer it is to the sun, the more subtle and penetrating it is, but the farther it is from it, the grosser it is, because the sun suffers nothing gross about it, seeing that it pushes all compound things naturally behind it at the circumference.
All the purest substance of Air stands in its own sphere, and nearest to the Element of Light, or the Sun: but the grossest Air is that which is nearest and within my Elements of Water and Earth.
Air is the conductor of life and contains life within it, both that of the other Elements and of the three Kingdoms of Composed Beings, Vegetable, Animal and Mineral: for nothing could subsist, grow, or multiply in the world, if there were not a magnetine virtue in the air to attract to itself this universal, penetrating, altering and multiplying nutriment, as is to be seen in the attraction of water which it does, and to the iterative respiration of animals, which not only draw air to them to refresh the heart (according to the vulgar opinion) but chiefly to enjoy the nourishment and maintenance of life, of which the wise mother Nature provided it, rejecting the air part as useless when deprived of it.
Air is the conductor and governor of the Waters, and its magnetizing virtue is secretly hidden within all kinds of seeds to attract to them this universal nourishment, so that it can receive them from the menstruation of the World the radical humidity and the growth until the end of Nature's intention.
Air is not only a conductor and carrier of the Element of Fire, Water, and vegetable and sensitive spirits, but also even of reasonable and unreasonable souls, as appears in the seventh verse of Chapter Two. of Genesis, where it is written:
And the Lord God formed man of the powder of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man was made into a living soul.
And Hermes Trimegiste in his Emerald Table.
Ventus portavit illud in belly suo. That is to say: The Wind (or the Air) carried it in its belly.
You know that the wind is nothing else but agitated air, as is to be seen in the breathing of animals, which can blow wind by means of the air, and in the guns to the winds to which one can attract the wind. air by a pump and compress it there so tightly, that on releasing it, it causes such a strong wind and blast, that it can drive a lead bullet with such fury as if it were almost chased and thrown by the violence of gunpowder.
It is the Air also which causes gunpowder to perform such violent operations, because it is concentrated in the saltpeter which is the principal operator of the said powder, which being suddenly ignited by the common sulfur and by that of the coal, spreads its moist air concentrated with great vehemence in its sphere and produces there effects so violent, as it is known.
Our great God uses the Air as an instrument or a machine by which he can shake and move the lower Elements in such a way that it is surprising and amazing things when you think of it.
Isn't it by means of the Air that he overthrows and upsets forests, mountains, castles, cities, and even islands and entire countries?
Is it not by means of the turbulent Air that the Lord transports the clouds from one region to another? that it gently sends down the rain impregnated with the generally fertile rays of the sun? That he makes the clouds shake against each other by contrary winds, and that he thus makes them fall down with great violence? That it causes the hurricanes? That he excites lightning and thunder?
That it stirs the waters with such fury, that there is neither dike, nor walls, nor any defense sufficient to resist, but, that they break, shatter, ruin and upset entire Provinces, causing houses, villages, towns, ships and animals to be crushed and ruined with inexpressible loss.
The Air brings heat, cold, humidity, and dryness to the two lower Elements, and to the mixtures, which are above and within ice; either plants, animals or minerals, and in proportion to their concentrated or extended qualities he communicates to them fertility or sterility and all sorts of changes according to each one's temperament and naturalness. To some it increases life, to others it brings death near; and cause others to resolve entirely in their principles, the nature of Air being a middle nature between the superior and inferior bodies; this is why the Air very easily attracts to itself the qualities of the bodies which are closest to it. It is also for these reasons that the lower Air or the lowest strait of Air is tempered in various ways.
Air is very inconstant and very subject to changes, and its inconstancy comes from there, that it is either very close to the lower and coarse Elements or that it is far from them, hear Water and Earth, of which the temperaments are very easily changed by heat or by cold, seeing that the whole Air (called the Heaven of the Philosophers) in which the three other Elements, and all the other created things, and even the stars, have their dwelling, and their place of rest is like a sieve of Nature through which the virtues and influences of other bodies are conveyed.
Air is smoke or vapor that is kindled with celestial light, like an eternal flame.
The true Philosophers give the Air the name of Spirit when they speak of its mystery, because it is very close to the spiritual nature; that he is a most amiable and willing servant, and that he is indeed a receiver, but not a stubborn preserver of Light, Darkness, Day from Night, transparent things and almost all kinds of qualities and changes.
The Air is divided into some of three kinds in different ways, which are the Air below, the Air in the middle and the Air above. They take for the lowest Air the clouds, and that which is below them between the clouds and the Earth, in which storms, hail, snow and rain are formed, and where lightning and thunder are seen. and heard at the highest part. They rule for the Air in the middle that which is above the clouds, to which the nature of Water cannot rise because of its gravity; but to which the vapors and spiritual halaisons, which are caused by great heat or by conflagrations reach, seeing that they are discharged from the gravity of the aqueous vapors, and it is for these reasons that I believe that they can be there lit either by their own or by other foreign movements.
It is to be presumed that the region of the middle Air is often abundantly permeated, and filled with a moist, warm and spiritual grease, but not watery, as are some nutrients of the fire.
I judge that there must be in this region a very great tranquility and a great temperance, because the heavy, aqueous, and corporeal vapors cannot rise up to there, and that this Air, consequently, cannot be compressed there by the aforesaid vapours, as they compress the Air from below.
The highest Air is judged to be a very pure Air, which is neither infected nor charged with aqueous vapors, nor with sulphurous exhalations, but quite pure because it is so close to Heaven that it differs very little, and that it changes according to my belief little by little even in Light.
My very dear friend, you held in a few words a very airy speech, to my fancy, and which lights my spirit to retouch the air by my tongue, so that you can hear in the same way by your intellect, on the eardrums of your ears, a short story of how necessary the Element of Air is to our work of the Philosophers, and what operations it performs there: in what way it is attracted there by a magnetine virtue: what effects it has on the diet of exterior fire: and how it can be made visible, corporeal, palpable and resistant to fire.
chapter II.
How much Air is necessary for the work of the Philosophers. And for all chemical operations. That Air is the cause of the color Black. From the White. And the Red. Experience of the fixation of the invisible and impalpable Air.
Touching the necessity of Air for the work of the Philosophers: I can give assurances that our Mercurial sperm can just as little be prepared without Air, as the Animal sperm, and the seeds of vegetables; seeing that it is the Air which gives breath to our metallic man and woman, so that they can emit their sperm in the venereal conjunction.
It is the air which joins the sperms together, and causes them to flow in menstruation.
It is the Air that putrefies the metallic seed in its menstruation.
It is the Air which gives the operative virtue in due proportion to the material fire of wood, peats and coals to maintain the egg of the Philosophers in a heat required for its brooding.
It is the Air that blows and brings the rays of the sun to our Mercurial magnet, which give soul, spirit and growth to the fruit of the Philosophers, who keep it alive, and make it grow and grow. bloom to its full perfection.
The least chemical operation cannot be perfect without the help of Air.
How will you make the salts flow without adding any moist matter if you lack the air? and on the contrary, how will you evaporate the humidity, for lack of air?
How will you make the solutions, coagulations, sublimations, cohobation, fermentations, putrefactions, and other chemical operations necessary for the work of the Philosophers, and particularly in a single glass, with a single material without addition of any foreign thing, if air, which is a mediator between fire and water, did not here represent the principal person in the comedy of Nature?
The Air must move Putrefaction through Fermentation, and make the color Black appear.
He must sublimate and putrefy the black and stinking matter of its impurity for so long until the black, dirty and stinking crow turns into a swan which is beautiful, pleasant to the sight, and to the smell. , and white as snow.
The air must make this Swan fly, and beat the water with its wings by iterative cohobation and circulation so long, that it not only comes to change its white feathers into a citrine and yellow color, but also in a beautiful red color similar to its flesh.
You have generally mentioned that invisible and volatile Air can be made visible and fixed: What do you think of it? The rays of the sun in the air, as long as they are attracted by the magnet of the Philosophers, are they not invisible and volatile? you can only answer yes. And when one makes the rotations or the circulations of the Elements of the secret work of the Philosophers, do not the aforesaid colors the Black, the White and the Red come to appear successively?
Assuredly: for I have seen them as well as you.
But if this matter remains in such a state, that it does not come to attract the rays of the sun and the moon, by means of the air, could you well make appear the aforesaid capital colors successively by any other way? of the world, first the Black; secondly the White, and finally the very beautiful and very excellent color Red?
Not by any other way in the World.
You must believe that you therefore confess with me, that these colors and these other metamorphoses in our matter are produced visible, and made corporeal by means of the Air impregnated with the rays of the sun.
I confess very willingly with you; and would like with extreme passion to hear if someone could show the three capital colors, in the same material, and in the same glass, by any other way than by that which we have just said.
This cannot be: why marvel with me at the great marvels of God, and do not be ungrateful to the Lord, whom he has sent to you and who has made these three capital visions palpable to you by his celestial light and by his air divine.
See what an admirable Element that is Air, and how much my practice agrees with your Theory?
It is so as you say, and the effects of our words would not accord with our baptismal names otherwise, For we would be in continual contention together, after the way of today, which would quite against our inclination, whereas we love nothing more than a peaceful and respectful conversation, and a talk based on truths.
It must be so among all good Christians who are endowed with sincere honesty, to whom the Air must also serve particularly to execute the will of their creator, not only with the machines of their bodies, but they must besides that to seek to penetrate through the most subtle and Spiritual Air with their reasonable souls to try to show and approach the eternal and uncreated Light, and to make themselves partakers of the divine graces of their God and their Lord.
This being enough talk of the Air, let's stop talking more about the spiritual Elements and going down to the material and bodily Elements then let's see how the Element of Water will let itself be handled in the room of the Anatomy of Nature: I am going to begin this subject if it is not contrary to you.
Album Quae Vehit Aurum
The album(White color) that carries gold
All right: Begin in the name of God.
the staircase of the wise.
the sixth degree.
of the element of water.
And water of the philosophers.
chapter I.
That Water is a receptacle of the two superior Elements. Qualities of Water. That Water is the sperm of the World. Why salts attract moisture. How necessary is Water with the salts. After common salt. With Saltpetre and vitriol. With sulfur. That the sea is the center of Water. Great Powers of Water.
We have mentioned Air, that it is the receptacle of the moving and operative virtue of the sun and its vivifying rays, we will say and presently demonstrate here that the Element of Water has a virtue and an attractive faculty to attract and to receive the two active Elements, Air and Light, which is taken by most to be Fire, as we have said.
The property and the main quality of Water is to be humid, which seems enough by that, that it makes humid almost everything it touches, being of an average nature between Air and Earth , and between the subtle and the gross.
Water is a participant in humidity and coldness and more particularly in humidity, of which it is the base and the root, because it naturally wets by its flowing humidity, and the damp compounds are said to be damp. in proportion as they contain little or a lot of Water in them.
Water may rightly be said to be a Mercury or a Spirit of the other Elements because it sometimes accepts the nature of a spirit and sometimes that of a body; for when she has taken the form of a spirit, she not only takes with her the virtues and the nature of all that is in, above and around the Earth, but having ascended on high she also receives the virtues of the higher Elements, which come first to be changed into clouds, and then being metamorphosed into rain, they come to fall on the earth, and to assemble there, by iterative revolutions, in a bodily menstruation of all Nature.
Water is the semen of the world, to which the spiritual seed of all things is kept.
The Earth purifies itself and dissolves in water: the Air coagulates there: and the Fire stops there and binds itself very firmly with the others.
Water is the first subject of Nature in which she employs her first solicitude, care and labor, as is to be seen in the generation and multiplication of plants, animals and minerals.
She very willingly accepts all kinds of qualities of whatever smell or taste.
It is the Water that the spiritual gifts and virtues are first imparted; this is where they will stay, and where they begin to publish their first operations.
Salts naturally attract water because salts were moisture before they could become salts.
Water is also very necessarily required near the salts, since the salts could not procure without it the effects which they owe near the plants, Animals and Minerals.
For neither sugar nor honey could preserve the fruits against corruption, if they could not be dissolved by Water.
Common or sea salt could not keep meats, fish and other things from putrefaction, nor give them a pleasant and healthy taste, if it were not dissolved and treated with water beforehand.
Likewise metals and minerals could not be conveniently served from saltpetre, vitriol, alum, armoniac salt, common salt and others, if they were not reduced to humidities by which the anatomist of Nature could produce them and perfect them into better beings, if the salts could not be dissolved by means of Water, and thus the spirits could not be distilled from them.
Is it not Water which is necessarily required for the solution of common sulphur, and of all bituminous matters such as resin, wax, arcanson, asphalt, pitch, tallow, oils and others? please tell me how you could possibly join any of the above with the salts without the addition of water.
Water or humidity is of several kinds and of very different qualities, both in the Macrocosm and in the Microcosm.
We have not only the sea for the center and for the base or foundation of Water in the Macrocosm, from which all water has its origin, and from which it extends to the circumference, both in and out. above the Earth, from which come the fountains, the sweet, salty, bitter, sour, sulphurous, mineral, metallic, medicinal, poisonous waters, and many others: But it also does its operations in many ways according to the good pleasure of the author and mover of Nature, removing and destroying the Earth in places, and replacing it by making it increase in others: causing to sink and damage in places villages, cities, Countries and Provinces: and by causing others to grow again, and to raise whole Islands out of the Waters and out of the Sea itself.
It is impossible for Nature to subsist without Water, nor to perform any perfect operation without it.
How could the Earth subsist without Water, since Water is the one that mainly forms and gives body to the Earth?
How could Air be deprived of Water when one considers that Water is the support and foundation of Air? Would not the Air be continually inflamed? and would not the Earth be dried up to a dead head, and would it not be burned to glassy matter, if the Water should fail them?
chapter II.
That Nature produces all mixtures by viscous humidity. Like Animals. Plants. And Metals. How much necessarily Water is required for plants. And for animals. That Water is the main operator in the work of the Philosophers.
Nature forms its first principles of Water and Earth, to build their bodies, since these two are the two thickest natures among the Four Elements: for a glutinous matter is made of their perfect mixture, in which all the Elements are confusedly together, as in a chaos, and it is from such matter or from such moist silt that all the Animals have come.
The seeds of vegetables are likewise resolved into a loamy matter, and are established then afterwards by degrees in vegetable bodies.
And it is in the same way that metals are produced; for a greasy or silty water is made from sulfur and mercury perfectly well mixed together, which is digested by the length of time into hard, fluffy and metallic bodies.
How necessarily Water is required for the Microcosms and how little the Microcosms can subsist without Water: although this is quite well to see, from what we have just discussed of the Macrocosm, we will nevertheless treat a little more particularly of the necessity of Water for the mixed ones, and first of all for the vegetables.
Water is not only very necessarily required for vegetables, (as we have said) in order to reduce their seeds to a loamy matter, but mainly to make them ferment and vegetate, for it is impossible for nature to to move the vegetable spirit and to make it act, if it does not bring them by means of Water the salt of the earth, which gives the principal food to all vegetables, and that it does not make it ferment with them by an iterative circulation inside the fibers and channels of ice: That it does not change it into juice, into marrow, into straw, into wood, into bark, into stems, into leaves, into flowers, into fruits, into seeds; and not be caught and coagulated into herbs, trees, fruits and perfect seeds according to the quality and perfection that is required for each one in particular.
Water is no less required for Animals; and this not only in order to be able to preserve the seed or the Animal spirit which is in the sperm to make the transfusion in the womb: but also mainly to water the uterus, so that the subtle animal spirit being conceived there and enclosed, may begin to move therein, to increase therein, and to become operative therein to the perfection of its fruit; Water is not less afterwards necessary, since neither meat, nor drink, nor any food, nor chyle, nor blood, nor lymph, nor heart, nor brain, nor liver, neither lungs, nor spleen, nor veins, nor nerves, nor bones, nor muscles, nor ligaments, nor skin, nor hair, nor nails, nor urine, nor sweat, nor excrement,
How much Water is needed in the Mineral Kingdom, I will defer to your feeling and gladly hear your experiences.
I will tell you very well: but to tell you my opinion in a few words, it seems to me that there is no need to deal so extensively with the Element of Water as we would expect from the subject matter, because instead, where we will form our discourse in particular of the Three Kingdoms, the Water will also come to us very well in time to make the ink flow on the paper, since as much as we extend from the center to the circumference to write natural things so much more material than we will be furnished to move the pen, but since our intention is to be succinct and my purpose is chiefly to act by demonstrations, I will say here only the Water is not only the main material of the work of the Philosophers, but it is also the main operator, both at the beginning,only in the middle and at the end, since it is necessary that our Hermaphrodite be at the beginning washed long with it: that he be so purified by it that he be made clean and able to receive the seed of the Air and Light, to nourish and defend it until the perfect maturity of its fruit.
When our matter is produced by Nature to the point that the Artist must put his hand to it to help him achieve it in greater perfection, nature then presents it in the state of a moist matter, which contains a very pure Water.
When the said matter is in the state of fermentation and putrefaction, until the black color appears, this cannot be done by any other way than by that of water.
Likewise: when you intend to cause the white color to be seen: you have seen that it must be done and led by Water: and that the fair cow Io, and the white and swollen Swan cannot be produced without Water as little as a melon or a pumpkin without it.
We can not advance in any other way to the color yellow, because this work is only led to this degree of perfection by humidity, since a flower of crocus or water lily can have just as little its yellow color. than the matter of the Philosophers without the conduct of Water.
All this must be done to the color red, and as it is impossible that the white chyle of animals can be advanced without humidity to the perfection of a red blood; just as little is it possible for nature and the Artist, to help the white virginal milk without Water, to change it into the red blood of Dragon: and the Stone of the Philosophers itself being produced until its most high perfection must melt like wax on a small fire, and flow like still water, without giving off any vapor.
Water (in a word) is the Element, in which, by which and with which and with which it is necessary that the majority of the chemical operations are made, because it is necessary that the solutions, the coagulations, the fermentations, the putrefactions , distillations, cohobations and the like are procured by the aid of Water; and as you have demonstrated the qualities of water and how necessary it is in the course of Nature, so also do you find that its qualities are required in art, seeing that art is only to be considered a faithful and voluntary following of Nature: and it is necessary that, in case that art comes to stray from the order of Nature, that it produces some monster; but to give on our side a firm and solid foundation to the Element of Water and to the Art,
Trium Elementorum Receptaculum Recondo Auri*****
The Three Elements Receptacle Store(Keep) A*******
the staircase of the wise.
the seventh degree.
of the element of earth.
And from the land of the philosophers.
chapter I.
Of the qualities of the Earth. Why the Earth is cold. Why the Earth is porous. That the Earth receives the other three Elements. That the Earth was in the beginning united with Water, experienced by the Genesis of Moses. That the Earth was impregnated from the beginning. How it is to believe that the Earth will be transformed when the world perishes.
Earth is the heaviest, coarsest and strongest of the Four Elements.
The main quality of the Earth is to be cold and dry, but colder than dry, since the drought comes more by accident than naturally, because at the creation of the Earth Water was, according to the outer aspect, the main and first visible body from which the Earth was separated.
That the Earth possesses among its qualities the Coldness for the principal one comes from the fact that it contains the most of the obscure and opaque Nature of the First matter.
There is nothing thicker or less transparent than the Earth, because of its body or its very coarse and very thick matter, which does not allow light to pass except with great difficulty, and it is because of its very great coldness that it happens that the Earth is hard, coagulated and difficult to melt, as it appears to sand, marble, rocks, and other stony materials, which are of a cold quality and nature and made of an earthly substance.
Although the Earth is naturally cold and dry, our great God nevertheless created it in such a way that its body is very porous and spongy, as well to be able to serve as a receptacle for the other Elements as well as a mother and a nurse of all Beings who are composed of the Elements so that the cold and the , which is sterile because of its coldness and its dryness, could be rendered fertile by heat and humidity, which are the principal causes of all generations; and that she might comprehend and contain within herself the four qualities in such measure and of such weight, that she was able to produce in her womb, and to nourish with her breasts the vegetables as well as the Animals and the Minerals up to the limits given by God to Nature for their perfection. And this is in accordance with what the holy man of God and Prophet Moses says in the First chapter of Genesis vers. 2nd.
The Earth was formless and empty, and darkness was over the depths: (at once joining it)
And the spirit of God was poured out over the Waters.
And in the 9th verse.
Let the waters that are under heaven be gathered together into one place, and the dry appear.
And in verse 10.
And God called the dry land Earth: he also called the assembly of the Waters Seas.
And in verse. 11th.
And God said, let the Earth bring forth greenery, procreative grass seed, and fruitful tree, bearing fruit after its kind, which had its seed in itself after its kind.
And in verse. 24.
Besides God says: let the Earth bring forth living creature after its kind, cattle and reptile and animals of the Earth according to its kind.
And in verse. 26.
And God says let us make man in our image, etc.
In Chap. 2. vers. 4, 5, 6, and 7th.
Such are the generations of Heaven and Earth when they were created on the day that the Lord God made Earth and Heaven. And every token of the field before it was in the earth, and every grass of the field before it sprouted: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to plow the earth : but a vapor rose from the Earth. And the Lord God had formed man of the powder of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man was made into a living soul, etc.
It is enough to know by these words that this cold, hard, opaque, obscure, infusible, spongy and porous Earth was united, at the beginning of creation, to Water, and that it was one and the same matter with it. , before which they were separated together; that the separation of the Earth from the Water was not made until the third day, that the Spirit of God was poured out from the beginning upon the Waters; and that the waters (in which the Earth was radically united) were so impregnated with this Spirit and its so penetrating Light, that the Waters were gathered into one place, according to the ordinance of God, and the dry appeared in the day, which he called earth, which having caused its humidity to dry up by the operative virtue of the Light, it retained near it the spiritual seeds of vegetables and Minerals, and was endowed with so great fertility, that she became pregnant like the virgin imbued with the Holy Ghost: so that she has been since, and yet is, and will be, (s 'it is the will of the Lord) as long as the World lasts, capable not only of multiplying or increasing in size by seeds, but of sustaining even the Animals, (which he created on the fifth and sixth day, ) and feed them; the great God having created and maintained the machine of the world since its beginning of such a temperance and in such a balance of the Elements, to which it still preserves it for the day of today in the same way, in such a way, that one does not overcome the other in virtue, since otherwise the Hermoniene could have existed, nor could it still exist today, because the perfect rotation of the Elements could not be done,
The Element of the Earth, which tells us to be cold and dry, has not only in it, but also above and around it several kinds of Earths of different natures; and even the mixed ones have their particular Lands in the Vegetable, Animal and Mineral Kingdoms.
chapter II.
That the Earth is nothing but a fixed sulphur. How that the ashes of the burning mountains are nothing but fixed sulphur. How the ash of the sulphurous mountains becomes Earth. That the Earth was not fixed at the beginning of creation. Chemical demonstration on this subject of common sulphur.
The Earth being considered narrowly, is nothing but a fixed and irreducible sulphur, which cannot only be made and drawn by our chemical art from all the compounds of the world, as you know, but also from the vulgar sulphur, from the spirits plants, and animal oils.
The most fixed and irreducible Earth in and above the Earth is found around the places where the mountains and the underground places of sulfur are, which being lit throw and vomit a very great quantity of ashes around them. , which are nothing else than fixed sulfur or earth, as we have said: it is necessary, however, to distinguish between the said fixed sulfur and the sulphurous mineral and metallic ashes, and also those which have become stony and vitreous, as are those which are changed in nature, either by salts, or by the aforesaid conjunction of water and fire, which are often foreign metamorphosed in proportion as one or the other comes to predominate; because these ashes,
I will not refuse to give satisfaction to your desires, and to release you from the trouble you might take in pursuing this discourse, being quite persuaded that you could have continued it as well as I.
You carry very well the words of the Prophet Moses in Genesis I. Chap. 2nd verse.
And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the depths, and the Spirit of God was poured out over the waters, etc.
It is to be maintained that the Earth was not yet fixed at the beginning of the creation of the Element of the Earth, because it was still united with Water, and that it was not yet separated by fixation, which is enough to know by these words:
The Earth was empty: for it had to be empty so long that it was not yet separated from the other Elements, and it is for this reason that these words immediately follow there: And darkness
was over the abysses.
It is to be maintained that one must understand by the Darkness on the abysses, that it was necessary that the putrefaction and the Black color showed itself first and before the separation of the combined Elements, before that the fixed Earth or the fixed sulfur could appear; what he says.
And the Spirit of God was poured out over the Waters.
The Spirit of God was the operator, from the time of creation, and he was the separator of the Elements by his powerful virtues and operations, as is to be seen in these words.
And God says:
Let the Waters under Heaven be gathered together in one place, and let the dry appear. And God called the dry land Earth: He also called the assembly of the waters seas.
If you want to have demonstrated at this hour that the Earth was a common and volatile sulfur before the separation of it from the Waters, according to my argument above, that it could not have been otherwise, and how the Earth or volatile Sulfur is reduced to a fixed Sulfur or Earth, I will set forth the following experiments for you to examine, and you will find that what we have just uttered will be found to conform to the truth.
Take some very fine vulgar sulphur, or flowers of sulphur, put it in a vial or in a glass retort, pour over it as much of a good lye made from the ashes of some vegetable, and digest them together until all the sulfur is dissolved in a very red liquor, pour this oil through a filter, so that you can be sure that nothing earthly remains there, put this liquor back in a retort, and distill the humidity very slowly, 'there remains in the retort only a dried salt, thus cement this sulphurous salt for the space of two or three times twenty-four hours by such a degree of fire that the sulfur cannot sublimate at the neck of the retort, gradually put out the fire to prevent the glass from breaking, which having cooled, you will clean it with a damp cloth,pouring as much common water over the matter as it can dissolve the salt which all the matter contains, and you will find at the bottom of the glass a good deal of the fixed sulphur, or earth which will make your lye cloudy, which being dulcified , dried and put on fire in a crucible, you will see that a part of your common sulfur will have become of such a fixed and irreducible nature, that it cannot be reduced by itself without the addition of other things, by the fire in no other body which it has, namely, in a fixed sulfur or earth, except that it may be prepared by the salts in such a manner, that it may become capable and proper to produce vegetables and minerals as good and just as fit to feed and care for the Animals as the general Earth can do.
It would be well enough demonstrated by this that the common Earth was only a common sulfur before the fixation and separation of it from Water, and that the seeds of all vegetables and minerals can be there. sown, nourished and produced to their perfection: but to show you, that a fixed sulfur or earth can be drawn and made of all vegetables, animals and minerals, you may take the trouble to consider the experiments which follow.
chapter III.
That the Earth contributes nothing to plants but a moist salt. Experiments on how a fixed sulfur can be obtained from plants. That there is a sulfur hidden within vegetables which is of the same nature as that of common sulfur. Experiments how one can make produce a fixed sulfur from the bodies of Animals. And also minerals.
It is known to few people, who research the secrets of Nature, that the Earth contributes nothing else for the growth of most plants (which come from seeds, or by the operations of the higher Elements, ) only a proportion of nitrous salt and moisture, and yet there is a large quantity of fixed sulfur or earth, (commonly called ashes) when burned. This earth (my dearest) cannot have been anything else, as you know, than a common sulphur, which was fixed, during its burning, in a fixed earth or sulphur, or ashes; and this by means of the salt or the acidity which has been near: And to show you that there can be no soil inside the vegetables, you have only to take some vegetable, wash it, pound it or finely chopped,
Here is a second separation of the earth which is made of the four Elements generally combined together.
I'll give you a third in another way.
Take common salt, which is used for salting meats and in cooking, 3 parts, and oil of sulfur or vitriol 2 parts, dissolve your salt with common water, add the oil to it aforesaid, distil in the humidity, take the salt which has remained at the bottom of the vase, pulverize it, mix in around the fourth part of charcoal in the form of a fine powder, according to the aspect and not according to the weight ) melt this material well together in a crucible at the smelting furnace, which being well melted you will give it pulverized charcoal from time to time with an iron spoon, until you see that the material stands at rest in the crucible, for it is then that the hungry wolf is satiated, this material being well melted pour it into a mortar or into some other heated copper vessel,let it cool, pound it into a fine powder, dissolve with common water what can be dissolved, filter out the salty moisture, which will turn a reddish color, evaporate the moisture to the consistency of salt by a retort, and cement your remanent very slowly for about five to six days, break your retort, plunder the very fine material and dulcify it with common water, and you will find a blackish powder, which is not nothing other than the sulfur that was in the coal, for when you redden your retort by degrees of heat, the volatile sulfur will sublimate at the neck of it, just like that which is drawn from the sulfur mines, also well in color than in all sorts of other qualities, and the one that has become fixed, it will remain at the bottom of the glass, like an earth,which cannot be remelted by any fire, unless salts are added to it, which reduce it to glass, as is done with earth and sand.
If you want an experience in the Animal Kingdom, how can a volatile and fixed sulfur be obtained, such as we have just said?
Take a piece of the heart, a part of the brain, of the liver, of the lung, of the flesh, of the bones, or of any part of the animal body which you please, put it in a retort, evaporate the moisture by the degrees of the fire, give at the end of the fire as long as the retort reddens, and the remanent matter becomes black coal, remove the coal, pound it, and treat it in the same way, as we We have amply said before about plants, and you will produce from this animal such a volatile vulgar sulfur as well as fixed and irreducible, as we have drawn from plants.
It is in the same way that you can proceed with minerals, and particularly with Antimony which will also give you two kinds of sulphur, one volatile, and the other fixed, but it will be necessary that the arrows and the spears, to shoot and kill this griffin, be fortified and sharpened a little further.
Touching the metals, my dearest, they want to be treated still in another way, seeing that their sulfur is much more fixed, than it is in the mixtures of the two preceding Kingdoms, and that it is linked there so strongly, that those who want to get involved in delivering him from the prison of metals, that they will have to implore the help of the greatest God, of Jupiter and his son Mercury, because without the help of them and without their assistance they will never have the least hope in the world of enjoying the aspect of the golden fleece, nor of the fire-resistant Salamander forever.
You have quite clearly demonstrated by your preceding remarks how common sulfur and a fixed or earth sulfur can be produced, sulfur from plants and animals, but it seems to me (under your correction) that you still said too little, in what way sulfur can be drawn from metals, and that it will be necessary for us to talk a little more about this matter.
It is very true what you say, and it is very easy to discuss it, but it is very difficult to demonstrate it: just have a little patience, and I will take the trouble and the labor on me, to teach you enough clearly how fixed sulfur separates from the metals.
chapter IV.
How fixed sulfur is separated from the bodies of metals. Expression of the earthquake by the handling of the work of the Philosophers. That the Mercury of the Philosophers is the key to the solid bodies of the Metals.
Take silver, copper, tin, iron, lead, which is very finely filed, or quicksilver, an ounce: put it near the Menstrue of the Philosophers, as far as you know that it is needed: pass the whole thing together through the Black color up to the White, and the aforesaid menstruation will cause the metal to alter so much, and change its nature, that it will gradually let its fixed metallic sulfur follow to the metallic sulfur which at the same time fixes itself in the menstruation, and that it will transform it by the help of the God Mercury into its own nature, so that the metal can never be drawn out of it into metallic form.
This is how I have proceeded with most of all metals in particular, and also with all metals together.
It is by this way of proceeding that all the chemical operations are carried out gently and gently, without any violence, in the same glass, that the solution is made without noise, that the coagulation is made magno cum igenio, that is to say to say, with great spirit, for in case one does not proceed very carefully with it, and that the central fire of our earth is only a little more moved than is necessary by the external fire , it happens in places in our earth such listening, trembling, and such astonishment, that they are not very dissimilar to the movements which are made in the Macrocosm: but learned with loss, that it is necessary to surround the metals with the Mercury of the Philosophers, as the stomach of animals makes meat, and to melt it there as ice is made in water,without the solution coming in any way to appear visibly.
Thus it is possible to putrefy, ferment and separate the pure from the impure, and the subtle particles from the gross; and it is by this way, and not by any other (that I know of), that fixed sulfur or earthiness can be discovered and produced out of solid metallic bodies in which it is very closely enclosed.
For when you dissolve metals, with Etching, with Royal Water, with the spirit of salt, with the spirit of sulphur, with the spirit of vitriol or by some other corrosive, the metals will not allow any sulfur or earthiness to follow or be separated from them, but they can always be reduced to metals such as they were when they were put there.
Paracelsus, (making mention of the destruction of metals).
Facilius is construere metalla quam destruere.
That is to say: It is easier to build metals than to destroy them.
For it is impossible to destroy the metals and reduce them to their principles, (to their Salt, Sulfur and Mercury) by any other way than by the Mercury of the Philosophers, which is the only key which can deliver the fixed sulfur from the bodies. metal to which it is enclosed and chained very tightly; it is he who possesses the Sulphur, the Mercury and the Salt of the Philosophers in just weight and measure, but not the Sulphur, the Mercury and the common Salt.
It is he who makes true the motto of the Philosophers which says: Natura gaudet; Nature naturam vincit; Natura naturam retinet.
That is to say: Nature pleases her nature; Nature overcomes Nature; Nature retains nature; since the Salt, the Sulfur and the Mercury, which are within the menses of the Philosophers, have the power to attack the Sulphur, the Salt and the Mercury which are within the metals, to unite amicably and radically with them, and so s between attracting and embracing each other as the magnet does the iron and the iron reciprocally the magnet, and uniting and incorporating each other so well, that in the end they change entirely into one same matter and that they become of the same nature; so that if it happens that the fixed sulphur, which is in the menses or in the Mercury of the Philosophers, comes to be separated from it, the sulfur or the earth, which has been in the metals; and which is fixed by the Mercury of the Philosophers, separates from it too; and that they are no longer to be known, nor to be distinguished, in color, nor in property, nor in quality from one another, but rainwater is to be distinguished from rainwater.
It is thus that with marriage, copulation and consumption of the Sulphur, Mercury and Salt, which are within the menstruation of the philosophers, take place with the Sulphur, Salt and Mercury which are within the metals, so that in the end it must (in my opinion) that by iterative conversions and transformations of the Elements, come from this matter of the Philosophers, which Trimegiste promises so confidently in his Emerald Tablet, by these words.
Portavit illud ventus in belly suo. Nutrix ejus is terra. Virtus ejus integra est si vera suerit in terram. Separabis terram ab igne, subtile a spisso suaviter and magno cum igenio. Ascendit a terra in coelum, iterumque descendit in terram, et recipit vim superiorum et inferiorum. Sic habebis gloriam totius mundi. Ideo a te sugiet omnis obscuritas. Hoec est totius fortitudinis fortitudo forti quiq vincet omnem rem subtilem omnemque solidam penetrabit. Sic Mundus creatus est, etc.
He carried that wind in his belly. His nurse is the earth. His power is complete if he sows truths into the ground. You will separate the earth from the fire, the fine from the thick, gently and with great skill. He ascends from earth to heaven, and descends again to earth, and receives the power of the higher and the lower. Thus you will have the glory of the whole world. Therefore all darkness will suck from you. This is the strength of all the strength of a strong man who conquers every subtle thing and penetrates every solid thing. Thus the world was created, etc.
the staircase of the wise.
fourth book.
number of three;
of the three principles:
sulphur, mercury and salt.
and sulfur, mercury and salt from the matter of the stone of the philosophers.
chapter I.
of the number of three. That the operations of Nature depend on the will of God. Of the birth of sulphur, mercury, and salt.
My very dear friend, we have said before, that all the operations of things, of which one must admire, descend from unity by the number of Two to the number of Three, but no rather, that they do not come to rise together in simplicity by the number of four.
We have dealt quite extensively, as it seems to me, with the three numbers, viz., unity, the number of Two, and the number of four, and we have also deduced the reasons why we judge that the number of four must be preferred to that of three, and this because the great God held this order himself to the creation and production of the great World, as I have learned on my side; and as you have similarly demonstrated that this order must be observed in the course of the work of the Philosophers: we will see at this time how the number of three, to know how the Three principles come to emerge from the world of four namely the four Elements following creation, and in what way the beings created and to be created receive from them their beginning, their growth, their perfection,
You know that the operative will depends on the will of our great God and that it was from the beginning, and that it is still the will of the very high, that the Elements above have had to, and must still operate incessantly within the Elements which are below, and that the Sulfur is produced by the operation that the Fire or the Sun performs in the Air.
That Mercury is engendered by the operation that Fire and Air perform in Water; and that the Salt comes by the operation that the Fire, the Air and the Water make in the Earth: so much so that these Three Principles, the Sulphur, the Mercury, and the Salt are medium beings between the Four Elements and the mixed, like second Elements, which are progenited from Nature by the operations of the higher Elements within the lower Elements, to expand through them and with them into three Kingdoms or Provinces so powerful as all that is comprehensible to the The spirit of man on earth, and all that is composed of these said Principles, is understood and reckoned under the jurisdiction of them.
These Three Kingdoms are called; The Kingdom of Plants, The Kingdom of Animals and the Kingdom of Minerals: But before we try to undertake our pilgrimage, until then, to visit them in particular, it will be necessary for us to deal beforehand a little more particularly with the Three Principles each apart, making our beginning from Sulphur.
Separando Venenum Lenister Philosophus Homogeneam Viscositatem Resuscitat
By Separating the Venom Lenister the Philosopher Raises a Homogeneous Viscosity
the staircase of the wise.
the eighth degree.
sulphur.
And the sulfur of the philosophers.
chapter I.
Sulfur considered in two ways. From the sulfur matrix. Sulfur from Meteora. Sulfur from plants. Sulfur of Animals. Of the Fusible and Volatile Sulfur of Animals. Fixed Sulfur of Animals.
Sulfur is not one of the least of the Three Principles, being esteemed by the ancient Sages as the principal of the Three, as being the very principal part of the Stone of the Philosophers.
Sulphur, (in my opinion) must be considered in two ways; first as moving and generating, and then as being progenerated.
The moving and progenerating Sulfur is the Light or else the Sun, which causes all sorts of Sulfur to be conceived and produced in perfection, by means of the other Elements, within their matrices, either in the air or in the water, in the earth, within Plants, Animals and Minerals; so that Sulfur is abundantly found within the three Kingdoms, as it is possible for art to bring forth spiritual as well as bodily Sulphur, in the same manner as wise Mother Nature engenders it.
The matrix, in which the sulfur generating from the sun comes to take up its abode is very different and comes from subtle or gross, spiritual or corporeal, in proportion to the qualities it possesses.
The matrix of the subtlest Sulfur is the nearest circumference around the sun, where the sulfur appears brightest, like an outgoing gleam of light, and like an aflame and eternal air, in which souls and souls subtle spirits have their residences in proportion to their subtlety and their dignity.
The matrix of the Sulfur of Meteors, of lightning, and of other vapors which easily conceive fire, is within the air which surrounds the Earth, which is subtle or coarse in proportion as the air is near or far from the earth. .
The matrix of Sulfur of Plants, Animals and Minerals is above and inside the water and the Earth, of which they make us deliver three kinds by the Anatomy of ice them, since part of it is spiritual and volatile , a corporeal and volatile part, and a fixed and fire-resistant part.
The spiritual and volatile particles of the Sulfur of Plants consist of the souls and spirits of them, as is to be seen and known by the examination of the spirit of wine and other plants.
The corporeal and volatile sulfur of vegetables consists of their fats, oils and of a matter which is easy to melt and burn, which is called common sulphur.
Affecting the fixed and incombustible bodily Sulfur: these are the particles which become fixed by the operations of the salts on the occasion that the plants come to be putrefied and burned, which remains at the bottom or inside the filter when the Salt has been dissolved.
The spiritual Sulfurs that we find in the Animals are the following.
The most spiritual and most volatile Sulfurs that there are within the Animals are the souls of them, which are the movers and operators of the animals in proportion to the goodness and excellence they possess. : and as they have received their beginning, their increase, and their perfection from the general mover, which is the sun, and as the soul is kept within the body of animals, and maintained there as in a reservoir; it also resumes the place of its refuge (when it comes to leave the dwelling which is its body) in the light of which it had its origin: The rational soul of man himself is obliged to approach or to away from the Light of the face of God in proportion to the graces it will have received from its creator, and in proportion to its behavior in this life.
The fusible and volatile sulphur, which we find by the chemical-anatomical separation of the bodies of Animals, is oil, grease, and other matters which readily receive fire, as is to be seen from the operation of Nature itself. which is made by putrefaction, or by that of Nature aided by art: as are the fat, and the tallow that Nature causes to grow in several places in the bodies of Animals: The oil of hair, nails and horns of ice; as also the Sulfur which we draw from the principal parts of the bodies of all kinds of Animals.
The fixed and incombustible corporeal Sulfur which is drawn from the bodies of Animals is that which is discovered either by the course of Nature, or by the chemical art. It is discovered naturally, and as if by itself, when the soul is separated from it (what is commonly called natural death) and a strange fermentation is excited within the humidity of the bodies of animals while they are still alive. and that these humidities incited by the higher Elements become to putrefy and thus to be reduced to the same Elements of which the bodies were composed: for it is in this way that the sulfur comes to be fixed by the long digestion which is done during the separation of the Elements from the bodies, and that the terrestrial matter becomes to be separated from it like a dead head.
chapter II.
Experiments to bring fixed Sulfur from the bodies of Animals. Sulfur of Minerals and Metals. That the minerals have less and the metals more fixed sulphur.
The corporeal and incombustible Sulfur of the bodies of the Animals comes to appear in two kinds of manners: and this by the chymic Art.
One is done by a wet way, and the other by the dry way: That which is done by the wet way, is done either by digestion with common water alone: or with water by the addition of salts: or by acidic and strong humidity.
When the greater part of animals is digested for a long time with common water, and particularly the most soluble parts, it happens that the viscous and salty humidity, which resides in the flesh, in the nerves, in the veins, and elsewhere, come gradually to dissolve, and to unite with the water, so that this water not only becomes in this way capable of rendering the flesh, the sinews and the like tender, but that it also becomes a menstruation which is proper to produce their composition at a separation, and to fix in time their soluble and volatile sulfur into a fixed and incombustible sulfur.
When we come to dissolve Salt in common water, and digest the aforesaid parts of the Animals with such menstruation, as we have just said of common water, you will see that this separation and fixation of Sulfur will take place much rather, because the menses is made stronger and more powerful to perform what is required of it.
And when acid and corrosive spirits are used instead of the said menses, you will find that you will have as much effect with them, and fix more of the soluble and volatile Sulfur of animals in a few days than could be done by the aforesaid in several months.
If, however, you desire to make all the Sulphur, which is within the bodies of animals, corporeal, palpable and incombustible; it will be necessary to dissolve the whole animal in a menstruation which is capable of this effect, to digest it its time with it, then to draw from it little by little the humidity, and to cement the remanent very gently, until all the Sulfur of the animal has become irreducible, and that after you have dissolved the Salt in it, that it can resist the greatest fire that you can give it; and that even you cannot make glass by the addition of fixed salts; here is the best method of fixing the volatile Sulphur, and of rendering it incombustible by the dry process.
After having discussed the Sulfur of plants and Animals, we will speak at this time of the Sulfur of Minerals.
Minerals and metals have as much volatile and fixed Sulfur as plants and Animals; some have less volatile Sulfur and more fixed, and others more volatile and less fixed.
Minerals which are on the way to the perfection of metals (not only to that of the lesser, but even to the most perfect, as to that of silver and gold) contain more volatile sulfur than fixed sulphur, but the metals have more fixed sulfur than volatile.
Neither minerals nor metals allow themselves to be dissolved by common water, so as to bring out and free the sulfur they contain (as we mentioned when discussing the fixation of the sulfur of plants and animals). since common water has no ingredient in minerals, and still less in metals, which is why their volatile sulfur cannot be produced by water to a better being, to a fixed sulfur, or to a best mineral or metal; and even though they have their Salt as well as the other two Kingdoms, and cannot be dissolved without the means of the salts, these salts of the minerals and metals are nevertheless of a firmer and more solid nature, cause that the sulfurs of ice, (which are the principal part of minerals and metals) embrace them so strongly,
chapter III.
The key to all Nature. That the menstruation of the Philosophers dissolves all metals noiselessly, as water makes ice? That the menstruation of the Philosophers makes the sulfur of minerals and metals fixed and volatile.
Dissolved Salts can do a little more with minerals, but very little with metals.
The spirits of the Salts have much more power, but cannot do nearly with minerals what they can with plants and Animals.
Here is needed the key of all Nature to open the closed cabinets of minerals and metals, and even of silver and gold, and to close them again, and to handle the treasures of this kingdom, according to her good pleasure, and to dispose of them in such a way, that the volatile sulfur which is in the minerals and in the imperfect metals comes to be made fixed and incombustible, and that on the contrary the fixed sulfur of the perfect metals is made volatile, and then afterwards let this volatilized fixed sulfur be refixed: according to the maxim of Sendivogius and several others who say: Fac fixum volatile et volatile fixum.
You know, my very dear, that our menstruation or Mercury of the Philosophers opens and closes all minerals and all metals indiscriminately, not with violence or noise, as happens when minerals or metals are dissolved by strong waters. , royal or other corrosive; but that he dissolves them gently, little by little being governed and led with great spirit, and that they come to melt there as ice or salt does in common water; salt and ice being of such convenience with water, that they accept each other and unite together without any annoyance: that our water of the philosophers is also of the same nature with minerals and metals , uniting radically and very amicably with them, without seeing the slightest mark of annoyance, without being able to hear the slightest noise, melting and dissolving them without any resistance; but all this must be done with great spirit, both in terms of the composition of the magnet and respect for the regime of mercury water, to bathe the metals and minerals in it, to wash them and to purge of their filth, to cause the volatile sulfur to fix there, and to cause the fixed things to fly, and to cause the same vulgar quicksilver to fix there and of the same weight as it is put there; so that it is impossible to reduce it to flowing quicksilver, by any means whatsoever, but that it remains irreducible as the most incombustible matter in the world, which you know as well as I, which is why we will cease to talk more about sulfur in this place,
Medicinam Ego Rubeam Creo Universalem Regia In Utero Soli
I Create The Red Medicine Universal Royal In The Womb Of The Sun
the staircase of the wise.
the ninth degree.
mercury.
And of the mercury of the philosophers.
chapter I.
That Mercury is the receptacle of spiritual Sulfur in general. That Mercury is a means of joining Sulfur with Salt. Spiritual Mercury. Corporeal Mercury. Inside the plants. Inside the Animals.
Mercury or spirit is the one to which belongs the rank after Sulfur among the three Principles, which have their origin from the Four Elements, since Mercury is generated and produced by the operation of spiritual Sulphur, and this by means of Light, Air and Water: and as the office of the male belongs to Sulphur, so also the office of the female, in the course of Nature, belongs to Mercury.
Mercury should be considered in two ways: Generally and Specially.
Considering the Mercury generally, it must be judged to be a preserver of the general spiritual sulphur, which flows from the general fountain of light, and who sees to rest at the sides of this spirit to impregnate it with all manner of forms, and it is from this impregnation or fattening, by means of the Principle of Salt, that all sorts of individuals, or different compounds come.
And as all sorts of particular sulphurs, of which we have made mention above in the treatise on sulphur, have their origin from the general sulphur, which is Light, so also have all sorts of Mercurys or spirits their profluences from this Mercury or this universal spirit aforesaid, as from an inexhaustible store, and come to appear within the three Kingdoms of compound beings, as well as does sulfur.
Mercury is a Medium cojungendi Sulfur cum Sale, that is to say, a medium being for conjoining Sulfur with Salt; and it is impossible to unite them in the composition of created things without the interposition of Mercury, as it is impossible to join Sulfur to Mercury without the medium of Salt.
Mercury is as well as sulphur, spiritual and corporeal.
The spiritual Mercury conceives the life of all creatures by the activity of the Light within the Air, and preserves it as a faithful nurse to give it, to nourish it, and to foment it naturally, and by a loving virtue, everything what is ordained and predestined from the infinite Wisdom of the great God to receive life.
Spiritual Mercury has its residence in the Element of Air, by which and with which it comes down, (as by degrees) from the top of the Light or the Sun to the circumference of the Planets and their satellites, (or guards who make them eclipse) and other innumerable bodies, known and unknown, visible and invisible, vulgarly called stars, and even to the circumference of the Earth; it comes there to penetrate the coarsest air by its spiritual form, to mingle with it, to compress the Element of Water with it around and within the Earth, and to impress life on the Elements of water as if with a breath. below, who are as if half dead and aspiring to take breath, thus becoming little by little corporeal with him and by him, and in the end merit by degrees the title of Mercury who is volatile, who is fixed,
Corporeal Mercury has its place of residence chiefly in moisture, and shows itself mostly in moist form in Plants, Animals, and Minerals, but more moist to Plants and Animals than to Minerals, though minerals cannot be produced without a moist mercury as we will say more fully when we talk about the generation of minerals.
The corporeal Mercury within the plants contains their sulfur and their volatile Salt, as we discover them very agreeably by the chemical anatomy of the plants, the separation of which can be done as well from their roots, as from the barks, from the marrow, as from the wood, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds; and this in a way, that the volatile sulfur and salt are found combined together in a moist substance, and also the salt and the sulfur fixed apart from itself, to have, that the oils and the volatile salts of the vegetables are united radically to their moisture, and that their fixed salt with fixed sulfur (or earth) be separated from them.
The Mercury which is within the Animals also contains their sulfurs and their volatile salts, but in quite another way, since their most subtle sulfurs, which are their souls, cannot be stopped or taken by any imaginable way when one makes the separation of them from their fixed sulfurs and salts, but that they return immediately, after this separation from their body, to the periphery; whereas the souls of vegetables can be arrested and made corporeal, as we have said.
We will here end our discourse on the souls of animals, to reason about them another time more at leisure, and we will consider here how the sulfurs and salts of animals, which are volatile and fixed, can be separated and united with Mercury.
The corporeal Mercury of animals contains in itself the souls of animals when they are still alive, which have their bases principally in the Mercury of the brain, and of the nerves, as appears from the prompt effects of the obedience of the limbs to perform the will of the soul.
Mercury includes in itself the animal senses, such as Intellect, Will, Memory, Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, and Feeling.
When the souls of animals are separated from their bodies, then the Mercury of these animals contains within itself the salts and sulfurs of their concreus bodies which are volatile, such as the sulfur and volatile salt of the brain, heart, liver, lung, nerves, blood, lymph, bile, hair, skin, nails, flesh, bones, fat, urine and excrement; and the fixed salt with the fixed sulfur separates from it like a dead head, either by a natural putrefaction; or by art by helping Nature, as we have said elsewhere, and as we will expand further, God helping, on this matter when we treat of the generation and corruption of Animals.
chapter II.
Mercury in Minerals and in Metals. That the proportion of Mercury is the cause of the hardness and fusibility of minerals and metals. That Mercury is fixed and resistant to fire in silver and gold. That vulgar quicksilver can be fixed by the Mercury of the Philosophers so heavy as a meat in it. That the Mercury of the Philosophers is the most admirable thing in the whole world.
Touching the Mercury of Minerals and Metals.
The Mercury which is within the Minerals and within the Metals is mostly corporeal, but of a very different fixity.
The presence of Mercury is the main cause of the fusibility of Minerals and Metals: and its absence causes the hardness of them, as it is to be seen, among minerals, with antimony, with marcasites, with zinc and others: and between the metals, to Saturn, Jupiter, and common Mercury; in which Mercury is abundantly, causing there a very great fusibility, or one finds, on the contrary, by its absence, a very great hardness in arsenic, in orpiment, in calamine stone, in magnet and others; and between metals mainly iron.
The Mercury of Minerals and Metals is of a very different nature, for it is less volatile or fixed to each other.
The Mercury of zinobre or vermilion, that of Antimony, arsenic, Orpiment, marcasites and other minerals is very volatile: like also that of metals and particularly the Mercury of Lead, Tin, and quicksilver: but it is much more fixed in Iron, in Copper, and in Silver; and in the Gold most resistant to the insults of fire of all metals; but you know that he who knows perfectly well how to prepare ordinary Mercury can easily render all the Mercurys of minerals and metals incombustible and of eternal duration.
It is so as you say: The Mercurys of minerals and metals cannot only be converted in this way, but also the vulgar Mercury, which is very naturally current and volatile, but it can be deprived by our art of its nature. flowing and flying, and made on the contrary fixed, incombustible and completely resistant to the insults of the Elements.
Mercury is the most admirable subject of all corporeal Nature, since being alive it lets itself be killed: being volatile it lets itself be fixed: being opaque it lets itself be prepared, that it is transparent like a crystal, and that it returns dark as earth: that it becomes soluble like salt, and then indissoluble like bone ash: it allows itself to be blackened, and then whitened again, and even accepts all the colors of everyone: it is sometimes the most great venom, and sometimes the greatest medicine: he is sometimes the husband, and then the wife, and sometimes the husband and the wife both together: he is body, and then spirit: he is visible, and then invisible: he is sometimes in the form of smoke, and then fire, and sometimes smoke and fire all together: sometimes it is fire: sometimes air: sometimes water:sometimes of the Earth: and when it is produced in its highest perfection, it is then fire, air, water and earth all together, and joined according to the right weight of Nature, fixed, fusible, and penetrable in all the compounds of the three Kingdoms, Vegetables, Animals, Minerals, and amending them, as such and a number of other extraordinary qualities are given by the Philosophers to the Mercury of the Philosophers, as we have said quite amply in the past, and among others when we discussed Menstrue des Philosophes.and amending them, as such, and a number of other extraordinary qualities are given by the Philosophers to the Mercury of the Philosophers, as we have said quite amply formerly, and among others when we have spoken of Menstrue of the Philosophers.and amending them, as such, and a number of other extraordinary qualities are given by the Philosophers to the Mercury of the Philosophers, as we have said quite amply formerly, and among others when we have spoken of Menstrue of the Philosophers.
I will end this discourse of the Mercury here by saying with the Philosopher:
est in Mercurio quicquid quaerunt sapientes.
That is to say: All that the Sages seek is to be found in Mercury.
And that no compound can be perfect in the Kingdom of Plants, Animals or Minerals without Mercury.
Solus Altiora Laboro
I work higher alone
the staircase of the wise.
the tenth degree.
salt.
And the salt of the philosophers.
chapter I.
That Salt is the key to the Royal Palace. That there are several kinds of salts. That common Salt is the first Salt of Nature and that from it all other salts come. Like Saltpeter. The vitriol. Moon. Tartar. Sugar. The Salts which are within the Vegetables, Animals and Minerals.
Salt is the key which represents the third person between the second Elements, or between the three Principles: and it is he who gives free entry to the Royal Palace which is provided with all sorts of precious things.
Salt, although it has its first origin from the universal tincture of Light or the sun, as well as the two other principles, it nevertheless comes into being by the compression of Air and Water: it comes descend into the Air in spiritual form, and become corporeal therein in the Water, which carries and imbibes the salt into the spongy earth as a faithful conductor or carrier, so that the three masterpieces of God's nature, the Plants, Animals and Minerals can reach their predestined perfection by means of it.
We understand by the word Salt, (being generally taken) all kinds of salts which are soluble, and which give some taste on the tongue, of which the intellect gives after its judgment, to know, whether it is salty, or on, or sweet, or bitter, or what taste it is, salty, sour, sweet, bitter, or composed of them.
Under the word salt salt is understood the salt which one draws from sea water, either by means of the heat of the sun, or that it coagulates by the evaporation of the superfluous humidity, which made over the fire, and let it be purified by iterative solutions and coagulations in such a way that it becomes clean and useful for salting meats, fishes and other animals which serve as food for men , the use of which is almost known to all men on earth.
This salt here is found little or much in the water of the sea in proportion as the sun shines the rays of its light strongly or weakly into the sea as we have said formerly.
Mountain salt is also counted among salty salts, since it is of the same nature as salt; this salt is pulled in large pieces like stones out of the mountains, which is pounded fine, and purified by common water of its gravelly and earthly matter to let it coagulate into clear and white salt.
This same salt is also found in several places, such as lakes, rivers, in subterranean waters, in wells and in fountains, and can be purified in the same way as we have just said to make it useful for the use .
There are also many plants which grow in it and by the seashore which contain much of the aforesaid salt.
This same salt is the first with which Nature impregnated the Element of Water and made it bodily in the water, and it is from this salt that all the other salts have their origin and their sources like Saltpeter, sugar, vitriol, tartar, and other compound salts, such as armoniacal salt, borax, alum, urine salt, alkali salt or fixed salt, and the salts found in vegetables , inside the animals and inside the minerals; and as a Square allows itself to be formed first among the Regular Geometric figures that the Hexagon, and that the Hexagon successively follows the Square and then after the others: all the same is that all the other salts follow the signature of the common salt, which is cubical, and that they have their beginning and their source in common salt, and primarily saltpetre.
Saltpetre is made from sea salt naturally in this way.
Dissolve sea salt with common water, soak in bricks or tiles fresh from the furnace, form a heap of them, or build a wall of them, which is covered, and you will see that with the time it will come out of it a salt, in the form of a frost, which will be a salt quite similar to that of Saltpeter in any test; by which it is to be judged that the humidity being exhaled, the salt which remained in the bricks was changed into Saltpeter by the influences and by the operations of the superior Elements.
Sea salt is changed in another way into saltpetre in the following manner.
Take quicklime made of stones or scales, quench it in sea water or in water where you have dissolved common salt in it, use this lime to build walls; or whatever way you please, and you will find that in time it will come out like a frost of salt, which will be nothing but saltpetre: which is well enough known to those who are unfortunate enough to are used lime which has been slaked by salt water or who use sea sand, which has not been dulcified by rain or common water, as experience teaches in the countries Low and elsewhere, which are not far from the sea.
The sea salt is again changed from another kind into Saltpetre, and this in a few hours time.
Dissolve some sea-salt in a retort, add thereto the portion two of a spirit of nitre, draw out all the humidity by distillation, and the residue which remains in the retort will be completely changed into saltpetre, and will make all the the same operations that Saltpeter, from which the spirit was taken, could have done; by which one can clearly see that Saltpeter has its origin from the common salt of the sea, as I could well give you a number of demonstrations other than the above, which would take too much time to detail them here.
It is not only saltpeter which has its origin from common salt, but vitriol also has its source, which having several different species, is nothing else than a mineral or a metal which is dissolved by water or by a spirit of salt as is evident from his signature; for the vitriol being dissolved with common water and then evaporated to a cuticle, square corpuscles are formed in the form of pyramids pointing downwards, which rush to the bottom of the vase, when one continues the exaltation of the humidity of the vitriol solution; a very obvious sign that the signature of vitriol comes to descend from the signature of the Square, and of the cubic body, which is the true signature of purified sea salt, and that the vitriol will no doubt accept the cubic signature after it will be relieved of its mineral virtue.
Experience teaches us that vitriol has its source in common sea salt, since common salt being dissolved with common water, gradually dissolves copper, iron or other calcined or powdered metal or mineral. , when they are digested for some time with this solution; and when the solution is made, and the humidity evaporated, a salt coagulates, which is nothing but a vitriol of such a nature that it was the mineral or the mineral which the salt will have dissolved.
Vitriol is made even more easily by means of acid and corrosive spirits than by the solution of salts, as we will say in its place.
Alum may also be said, with good reason, to have its origin from common salt, and may also be reckoned among the species of vitriol, seeing that it is also endowed with a mineral astringent quality.
Tartar also has its source in common salt, because it came from mineral water which separated the tartar from the juice of the vine, primarily by the circulation that takes place inside the wine, since the Saltpeter was the first of common salt, which was changed by the rotation of the superior Elements into the nature of Saltpeter, which is a salt which is pleasant to plants and which increases them in quality and quantity.
Sugar, honey, and all other sweet salts also have their beginning generally from sea salt, since the acrimony of it is changed first, by the circulation of rainwater, and dew (which are impregnated with the universal tincture of the sun) into saltpeter, and that this nitrous humidity is then transformed, by the circulation it makes with the juice of sugar cane and other vegetables, by degrees, up to such a sweet matter which allows itself to be purified by art, and to coagulate into perfect sugar.
Similarly, it should be understood that all the salts found in plants, animals and minerals have their origin in the common salt of the sea, which (as we have said) comes to be metamorphosed (by varying degrees). of circulations that Nature always makes of humidity) into saltpetre and vitriol, which come to change with time, by the motion and by the continual fermentation that takes place with the humidity which is inside the plants, animals and minerals, into a salt, which is of such quality and taste, that the Creator endowed them with it, and that Nature entrusted to them to execute the holy will of God.
Salts should be considered in two ways: one as sour or corrosive, and the other as alkalis, which are also volatile and fixed.
The aforesaid salts, common salt, saltpeter, vitriol and alum are all acrid and corrosive salts, because we get great corrosives from them, because from common salt we get a spirit of salt which is strong acid or acrid: from saltpeter we draw a strong corrosive spirit commonly called strong water: and from vitriol and alum we distil a strong corrosive water commonly called oil of vitriol.
chapter II.
That all acids or corrosives can be changed into alkalis by sulphur. Experiment that Acids dissolve Sulphur. Dissolution of black sulfur by a corrosive. Other experiences.
From tartar it also derives a very subtle acid spirit, but its salt is changed by this operation into a salt completely contrary to its spirit because from an acid salt it becomes an alkali or fixed salt, since Sulfur vegetable, which is in the tartar, comes to kill its acrimony, and that the sulfur becomes to be fixed.
It is to be remarked here in passing, that all acids or corrosives can be changed into alkalis, and that all alkalis can be changed into acids by means of sulphur; and that all alkalis can be changed into acids by means of acids, as we will show here next.
I maintain the same thing with you, but you know, however, that the feeling of vulgar naturalists has usually been such that the alkalis or the fixed salts were found nowhere but in the ashes of burnt plants, which get away with it by common water to obtain the fixed salts after the evaporation of the humidity: But experience has taught us beyond this sustained, that the fixed salts are made by acids and acids themselves, and that acids can be prepared, that they are capable of dissolving sulfur more easily, and in much greater quantity, than the alkali salts can do, and that the alkalis are not prepared by other means than by means of the acids and sulphur, as I will make you understand very perfectly by the following experiment.
Take finely powdered common sulfur, or flowers of sulfur tt. 1. mix this sulfur with a salt, which is made and composed of a very subtle spirit of vitriol and common salt dissolved with rainwater, from which you will have drawn the humidity by the retort, pound the salt which remains at the bottom of your glass in a glass mortar, or else grind it on a porphyry stone with the aforesaid sulfur, so that you cannot distinguish the sulfur from the salt, but that the matter appears only one color: put this material in a good crucible as much as it is about half full, put it in a furnace to melt, cover your crucible with a lid, give fire little by little, melt your matter, and take care that it does not boil, let it melt its time, then pour the material into a heated copper basin, and let the crucible cool, and you will see that it will be covered at the bottom with a brown material like glass: put the material, which you have poured into the copper basin , in a heated copper mortar, loot it fine and put in a glass, pour rainwater over it so that it can dissolve the salt from it on a sand bath, strain into the solution, and your solution will not will not pass through paper of a common water color, as was the solution of your salt before conjunction with sulphur; neither will it be of a red color, such as is the color of sulfur dissolved by a fixed salt lye, but it will be black as writing ink according to the outward appearance; you will find in your paper a black matter like pulverized coal, which you will dulcify as long as the water passes as you poured it on it, and tasteless, and you will then see that this matter will be in all things like powdered coal of wood, as well with regard to its color as with respect to all its other qualities, and it is also indeed nothing other than a powder of coal mixed with a few ashes, since the material of charcoal is also nothing else than a matter composed of a common volatile sulfur mixed with a little fixed sulfur commonly called ashes or earth, without being separated from each other,
To verify even more what we have just dore, you can pay particular attention to these four things.
First: To the matter that remains within the crucible.
Secondly: To the matter which is poured out of the crucible.
Tiercement: To the material that has passed through the paper.
And in the fourth place: To the material that remained inside the paper.
Touching the First; to know the matter which remained in the crucible, and that it is a matter like a reddish glass, it appears by this that the acid spirits, which were concentrated in our aforementioned salt, did not attack only the common sulphur, that they dissolved it by having been melted with it, that they did not act only on the sulphur, but that the sulfur also acted in the same way on the acid spirits, and that the sulfur had so much power on the acidities that they had to stop near the sulphur; and that the acid spirits triumphed over the sulfur so much that he had to allow himself to be fixed by these spirits in this combat; so that a fixed and incombustible matter was made of these two volatiles, which were sulfur and concentrated acidity.
With regard to the second point: namely the reflection that one must take from matter when it is poured out of the crucible: it should be noted that this matter attracts humid air to itself with avidity (when it is cooled ) more than any salt of tartar or salt of alkali can do, and the matter is black in color, burning on the tongue, smelling and tasting like a rotten egg, or like lye from the gunpowder.
Touching the Third: It is to be observed that the matter which has passed through the paper is first black in color, and then secondarily of a taste like sulfur dissolved by an alkali.
As for the color, if this solution had been white when it passed through the paper, the sulfur would certainly not have been attacked by the salt, but since it was black with redness like pitch, it is a very sure and infallible sign that the acid has given a fatal blow to the sulphur, and has swallowed up his blood to exalt his body to be vitrified and incombustible.
As regards its taste: it is such as we have already said; namely burning on the tongue, and almost in all similar to the solutions which are made by the alkali or fixed salts which are known.
Touching the Fourth Reflection: It is to be remarked that the matter which remained in the paper, is nothing but a matter like the composition of charcoal, which being anatomized is nothing but volatile common sulfur mixed with a little ash or fixed sulfur or earth, which is fixed by the acidity during the fusion and dissolution of the sulfur with the corrosive salt, however little time they have suffered together in the fire, for all the matter of the sulfur could not be fixed in such a short time by salt, which would have been done if the conjunction of this sulfur with this corrosive salt had lasted and continued a long time in the fire.
The method of preparing fixed salt from the ashes of wood may serve you from another experience.
Another's salt of tartar.
The Nitre salt which is the fixed salt of the Saltpetre and the way of preparing it can serve you from another experience.
And you can still take another example of how to prepare the liquor of pebbles, and others, of which we will speak (God helping) more particularly, when we institute our subject of the generation and corruption of Plants, Animals and Minerals; let it suffice here, that we have palpably demonstrated, that sulfur and common sea-salt come to cause the alkali or fixed salts, notwithstanding that common sulfur and sea-salt are both volatile and corrosive.
You have demonstrated this as plain as day, and these experiments will not be used badly against those, who maintain that the Earth has been from all eternity as we shall undertake to refute at greater length in its place: those who cannot or will not believe what we have just said, they will be able to take the trouble to take the proofs of it as we have done, and as we can still demonstrate them at any time: but let us advance our subject, and examine a little if you please of what way that the salts must be considered the volatile as well as the fixed salts.
chapter III.
That salts are naturally volatile. And they become fixed by accident. That the salts are completely fixed in gold and silver. That one can make a beautiful comparison of the work of the Philosophers to the creation of the world. And also to the great mystery of Jesus Christ.
I will tell you: Salts are volatile or fixed in proportion as they are made volatile or fixed, either by Nature or by art.
All Salts are naturally volatile, since being purified of their silt or earthiness, they can be transformed and changed into spirits, as appears from the distillations of the spirit of salt, the spirit of vitriol, the the spirit of nitre, the spirit of tartar, the spirit of urine, and the other salts, of which we will not give the description here, seeing that Béginus and others have written quite well about them.
The salts and the spirits of them become fixed in proportion as they come to meet the sulfurs of Plants, Animals and Minerals, either by natural operations or by those of art, and in proportion as the solutions and coagulations often or infrequently take place in compound bodies, in proportion as the salts or spirits of them come to be bound and fixed near them; with some for a part as with Plants, Animals and Minerals, and with others entirely, as happens with metals, and principally with silver and gold, where the salts or their spirits are imprisoned and chained forever, or until the Lord wills to deliver them again from their prisons on the day of judgment,
You utter a few words there which make my soul descend into very deep thoughts, and which make me dream, how one could not only make a very beautiful comparison of our work of the Philosophers to the creation of the great World, but also even to the increase of it, to its maintenance, to its end (commonly believed and called annihilation) and to its resurrection or glorification: and what is more, that it could be made a very beautiful comparison to the beginning or transformation of Microcosms to better and glorious beings.
We could not only make the comparisons you say, but we could even approach quite plausibly, by the treatment of the work of the Philosophers, to the comparison of it with the supernatural mystery of the history of our Lord Jesus Christ, to his conception and birth of a virgin, to his passion, to his crucifixion, to his death, to his resurrection from death, and to his glorification or ascension into heaven.
You have already mentioned it at the beginning of this Treatise when you spoke of these three words Deus Jesus and Maria.
It is quite true what you like to say, I had for then my thoughts on the Signature of the letters of these three words, and this speculation was founded only on Geometric demonstrations of a point and lines; but what I will tell you at this hour will be reported by Stereometric demonstrations and by palpable bodies.
We have dealt quite extensively with the Creation of the Macrocosm above, although we might well have said more which might not have been disagreeable to the reader.
We will also say (God helping) more or less what the Treatise on Compounds needs, what it is about the beginnings and the exaltation or glorification of Microcosms or Mixts, but we will try to end this Treatise with a comparison that we will make of this great work of the Philosophers to the sanctifying history of our Saviour, and thus to close the number of ten and the door of the First part of the Staircase of the Sages by the key of Salt.
chapter IV
That the Prophets could predict the history of Jesus Christ by the knowledge of the work of the Philosophers. Design. Passion. The crucifixion. The death. The Resurrection and the Ascension.
Could not the Prophets and other elect of God have well known and predicted the great mysteries of the history of our Lord by the knowledge they had of the mystery of the work of the Philosophers?
Certainly they were able to know it for a large part: for, besides the influences they had from the Holy Spirit, they were able to know by this mystery his conception by a pure virgin, his passion, his crucifixion, his death, his resurrection and glorification, as I will teach you here by order.
You know that the Prophets and all those who possessed the secret of the ancient sages were able to know and understand the conception by the knowledge of this great mystery, seeing that they saw that the impregnation of their pure virgin, which is matter immaculate of the Philosophers, attracted the spiritual and invisible rays of the sun with greater greed than any person in the world of the female sex could be desirous of conceiving the virile seed: and before such conception could be conveniently done, they as well knew that their magnet had to be previously purified to the highest degree, and that she was unable to conceive and produce the perfect fruit of the Philosophers in case she was not very well cleansed from all impurity and black filth, and that this matter was not exalted and sublimated to a shining and white matter.
As it is with the conception or impregnation of the pure child of the Philosophers, so it was with the conception of the Son of God within the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary; for as the matrix of the Stone of the ancient Sages is purified of its impurities, before it could be clean and capable of attracting and conceiving the astral and spiritual seed of the sun: thus the Blessed Virgin went before clean and worthy by her humility, by her contrition, by a purification from her sins, and by her ardent prayers to her creator, to hear this Annunciation of the angel, whom she would draw, by a loving virtue, from the Holy Spirit the spiritual seed of God the Father, and that she would conceive it as it is written.
Spiritus Domini superveniet in te et virtus altissimi adumbrabit tibi.
That is to say: The Holy Spirit will arise in you, and the virtue of the Most High will overshadow you.
Now, the possessors of the great secret of the Philosophers have also well known that the Philosophical seed which is drawn from the general tincture of the sun by means of the air, must remain and remain for its time in its matrix, in order to be able to incorporate itself little by little. little with the mineral and metallic nature, and that they were able to judge by that how it was necessary that the spiritual divine seed had to remain within the womb of the virgin, so that the divine Nature could be united and as if grafted to the human, and that thus the human nature joined to the divine could be produced, at the time of the nativity, in the form of a human child.
But this aforesaid conception of the spiritual seed of the sun and the spiritual conception of the seed of God, could not have happened in an easier and more natural way, seeing that all the other compounds as well as the metals have their origin of the sun? and since all men are created of God; why could not the Philosophical child be produced by metals just as naturally as metals are? and the savior both of mankind and of men?
I will give you reasons on this which are very solid:
Firstly: for what concerns the Tincture of the Philosophers. Know, That the Tincture of the Philosophers could be produced from metals by the operation of Nature alone.
I answer you: that our great God has given such bounds to Nature, that she has many powers, that she can perfect sulphur, mercury and spiritual salt, not only in sulphur, mercury and bodily salt , and in bodies which are composed of these Principles to the Vegetable, Animal and Mineral Kingdoms, and to perfect even the metals, if not interrupted by accidents, up to the highest perfection of Gold; but having produced them to this degree of perfection, the great God caused his course to stop there, and willed that what Nature could not advance further, that it could be done with the help of art, and by the industry of those who are raised in spirit, in virtues, in science, and in wisdom, that what Nature can produce only to the perfection of gold, may be exalted by the 'art,
But before this gold can reach and rise to such a degree of perfection, it must be believed that this cannot be done without great encounters and difficulties:
Because it must suffer in Ponto, that is to say, say in death.
He must be crucified. He must die.
He must be buried.
He must descend into hell.
Let him be to rise from death unto life, that being glorified, and after his resurrection he may have power to modify his brethren, (the imperfect metals) from their stains and filth, and to transform them with him unto the perfection of eternally enduring beings.
I have just said, gold must come to suffer in Ponto: which is to say in front of the sea, hear the sea of the philosophers which is made or of the spirits of the salts; that is to say, that they must either be or be attacked from all sides by sulphurous or and imperfect and stinking and poisonous spirits, and that they are the greatest anxieties of the underworld.
He must be crucified:
Hear that when the salt of the sea is produced to such perfection, that these coagulating spirits come to represent a cubic Stereometric body, that gold must then be crucified, or else nailed to the cross., crowned with a crown of thorns; that they must be sprinkled with salt and vinegar.
That he must be pierced with a lance, that blood and water flow from his side: what you will be able to hear this way:
The crucifixion of gold is done by the conjunction of it with the spirits of the coagulated salts, (which come to form a cubic figure as we have said.)
Now you know that I demonstrated to you above by the lines of these three words Deus Jesus and Maria that when they are joined together in six squares there are six planes, that six planes are a cross, which, being folded together, come to form a cubic body, according to the external aspect, being composed only of lines and plane figures: but the gold here comes to be so really incorporated with the salt, that it really comes to to be crucified by him, seeing that he not only comes to surround him and crown him with needles and thorns the length of a finger, and more, but also comes to wound him in such a way, that blood and water come out, by wounds I mean phlegm and a red liquor, which is a radical solution of gold.
It is also necessary that the gold die: that is to say: that the gold melts in the menstruation of the Philosophers, as ice melts in common water, and that it unites itself so much with it , that they never again appear as corporeal gold.
The gold must be buried: That
is to say, it must be buried within the metallic earth of the Philosophers, and so that it is indistinguishable from the Philosopher's earth, which happens:
First: by Putrefaction in which the gold receives the black and truly dead color of the earth with it.
Then by the solution: in which the Gold comes to appear with the metallic earth of a white color like milk, and all the same like curdled milk.
And that after that the gold becomes the earth of the Philosophers, by coagulation, of a red color, like a red ash: but it is not enough that this Mediator, who must help the imperfect metals to reach the point of perfection of gold itself, come to suffer in the way, to be crucified, to die, and to be buried.
He must also descend into hell; Understand: that it is necessary that the combustible and volatile sulfur and Mercury, which are added to gold to torment it and to conquer it, that it is necessary, I say, that they are reduced by the spiritual salt of the Philosophers, to a being incombustible with gold, so that having left together their volatile, combustible, and corruptible nature, they come to receive a glorious, eternal, and all-pervading body, whereby the glorious and triumphant resurrection is enough to comprehend. .
Finally: The possessors of this so-called high mystery were also able to foresee by this, that it was necessary, that the glorious Ascension of the Lord took place: and this by the exaltation and by the infinite multiplication which is made of the quality and of the perfection of the Stone of the Philosophers: as also of the metamorphosis of corruptible bodies into incorruptible bodies, which is made the projection of their tincture or the powder of projection on the imperfect metals which being prepared and rendered worthy for the reception of the tincture, come to be transmuted in a moment, either into Gold, or into a tincture approaching the universal in virtue.
chapter V.
That Nature cannot pass the limits that the Creator has given it. That God has given limits to both man and gold. What should be the Mediator between God and man? Of the fragility of man who is created to carry out the will of his creator.
So you have heard, my very dear, in what way our great God has given limits to Nature, how Nature is not allowed to exceed these limits, as also, how and when those, who are gifted of God to know it of God and its Nature, must come to help in the course of Nature, and in what degree of perfection, in the Mineral Kingdom, that gold can be produced by art serving Nature, and what marvelous operations can be effected by this being so exalted and glorious.
Touching your second request; If the Savior of the human race could not have been produced as well from the human seed as from the seed of God himself;
I answer you that it cannot be at all;
Because God the Almighty has given to man as well as to gold limits which he cannot pass either: for human nature has indeed been endowed, from the beginning, with the knowledge of good and evil, but he has strayed so far from good by his disobedience, that he is driven by a fiery sword from Paradise, where there was only eternity and bliss, and is so deeply chastened by this sword of his creator, that instead of having been able to possess eternal beatitude, he was so wounded by corruptibility, that he had to make himself subject to the changes of the Elements, and let himself be reduced to a state so miserable, that it was necessary to obey with all his posterity the solution and the separation of his body in the changing Elements, as his successors will be subject to it as long as the World will last.
Those wretched men who have strayed so far from the knowledge of good from evil, and who are so bastardized, that they hardly know themselves anymore, who hardly know what Gods are, or Devil, whether it is Heaven or Hell, if there will be eternal happiness or unhappiness after this life: those men who sometimes do not know from the front why they are alive from behind, and whose those are esteemed many learned men who know how to reduce compounds to their principles and thereby acquire some knowledge of the Divinity, for they must seek the rest of their science outside of books, and believe what the others believed and wrote before them, which is still very difficult for them to understand, so that whatever the most learned, wisest and most perfect man can do,consists in this, that he can learn to know God his Creator, and himself, who is his creature, and that he come to make himself in some way worthy and partaking of the graces of Jesus Christ: How do I say a could such a man help other people to attain eternal bliss, where he cannot help himself.
Adam (translated) is as much as Red Earth. If the descendants of Adam have all inherited this earthly macula from their first father, and if they must retain it as long as the world lasts; by what man can such a stain be blotted out, and changed into a glorious and celestial nature? it is impossible for man to do it and the corruptible seed of man cannot: but it must be a man without a spot who is begotten of God himself, and such must be the mediator to reconcile man with God: for it is necessary that a man, who has God himself for his father, and a pure virgin for his mother, be partakers of the divine nature as well as of the human, and such a double nature is proper and sufficient to be able to go under Pontius Pilate (like Gold in Ponto) so that the human race can see and know, that men must suffer alike, and that it is necessary that they strive to follow his example in everything, for the kingdom of heaven or eternal beatitude must suffer violence, and the violent must occupy it; namely the violent in penance; in humility, in goodness, and in prayers; and it is so remote that man can approach God without sufferings and without good works, as it is impossible that a volatile and flaming sulfur can be transformed into a fixed and incombustible earth without salts, or without spirits. of them: for if anyone could have hope of attaining eternal happiness without suffering and without good works, it would be of necessitating necessity that he be without sin, but since there was not born a man in the world without sin, he cannot may come to the Divine Majesty, that he will not be purified by his pastures, by mortifications of his sins, by penances, by ardent prayers and by good works, and that he will not prepare himself to become partakers of the tincture of Jesus Christ by the help of his grace and mercy; and this in proportion as he comes to obey the doctrine, and follow the example of the life and passion of our Savior and Lord. that he does not purify himself by his sufferings, by mortifications for his sins, by penances, by ardent prayers and by good works, and that he does not prepare himself to become partakers of the tincture of Jesus Christ by the help of his grace and mercy; and this in proportion as he comes to obey the doctrine, and follow the example of the life and passion of our Savior and Lord. that he does not purify himself by his sufferings, by mortifications for his sins, by penances, by ardent prayers and by good works, and that he does not prepare himself to become partakers of the tincture of Jesus Christ by the help of his grace and mercy; and this in proportion as he comes to obey the doctrine, and follow the example of the life and passion of our Savior and Lord.
Did not Jesus Christ himself say to his disciples going to Emmaus after the resurrection:
Did you not know that this Jesus had to suffer before he could enter into his glory?
If necessary, that Jesus Christ, who was born, who lived and who died without sin, suffered before being able to enter into his glory: to know how to acquire his glorious body in this way, and to thus transform, by his passion and by his death at the tree of the cross, his corruptible body, human and composed of the Elements, into a celestial and divine body? How much more must we poor sinners suffer, seeing that we are conceived and born in sin, that we live and die in sin, and that we are created only to obey and to carry out the will of our creator, how much say -I, shall we not therefore have to suffer more before we can become partakers of eternal glory, seeing that the difference between our bodies and that of our Lord Jesus Christ is greater than is that of the imperfect body of sulfur common to that of the most perfect and glorious of the Stone of the Philosophers; so much so that it is just as impossible for us to enjoy the clarification and eternal glory of our bodies without the grace and mercy of God as it is impossible that imperfect metals can be turned into gold, or gold into tincture without the wise guidance of a good artist, and without the projection of the tincture, which consists in the power and grace of him who possesses it.
See, my dearest, in few words supported me how the ancient Philosophers, like Trimegistus, Moses, Maria Prophetissa, the Prophets and many other holy and wise men were able to know and predict mysteries of the Savior to come, and this by the knowledge and by the handling of the great secret of the Sages: and consider also, if you please, how acceptable is the comparison, which I have just made between the conception, the life, the passion, the crucifixion, the death and glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the story of the conception, passion, death and glorious resurrection of the Gold of the Philosophers.
chapter VI.
Difference between the dyeing virtue of Jesus Christ and that of the Stone of the Philosophers. Confession of man's annihilation and admonition for virtue. Author's wish.
All is very well, my friend, and it seems to me that you would be quite capable of furnishing quite good material for the confirmation of the building of our religion and of our Christian faith: but it also seems to me (under your correction) that the speech , which you have made of the tincture of the Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ, is a little too material, seeing that you compare it to the bodily tincture of the Philosophers, which, in my opinion, must cease with its transmuting virtue, yet may it be exalted or heightened in its quality and quantity as much as it can be, and that the transforming graces and virtues of Jesus Christ are at this hour and will be infinite and unceasing on the Day of Judgment.
You admonish very well: for the graces and the transmuting virtues of Jesus Christ are and always will be of such a nature and of such a property, that he is and will be in all eternity the same glorified Christ without being subject at the slightest change in the world: and as the sun continually spreads around it its virtues and its shining, warming, and generating qualities without diminishing in any way in its grandeur; all the same is this to be understood of the profluent virtue of the Savior of men, who makes sharers of these graces all those who make their soul a magnet who can attract to themselves his beatifying virtues, without which they in no way diminish: and virtue and the property of Jesus Christ will be such on the day of judgment,
You must also know, if you please, that the virtue and operations of the Creator of all are quite different from those of creatures, which can be expressed with the pen and with the tongue, instead of the hundred thousandth part of the others cannot be understood by the minds of all the living creatures of the Earth, although they were all assembled and fused together.
This is why, considering our lowliness, let us humble ourselves like earthworms, let us learn by the ten steps of this Staircase of the Sages to know our God, our Savior and ourselves, let us study to do the will of God and to obey his commandments, and strive to strengthen and sharpen the magnet of our minds and our souls by such ardent prayers, that we are not only attracted and sublimated by the powerful virtues of the Holy Spirit, but that we are even entirely transformed and glorified by him and in him.
This, my dearest, is the zealous desire of my soul, which be opened and conducted with the double number of ten, and with the tenth degree of sapience of the Ancient Sages, namely with the key of Salt, to the foot of the Throne of the Divine Majesty, and this same wish be closed by the key of the Unity of God: from whom, in whom, by whom and to whom are all things.
seeing that sulfur would not be bad compared to the person of God the Father; Salt to the person of God the Son, and Mercury to that of the Holy Spirit, for God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are consubstantially one and the same God in Three Persons, like Sulphur, Mercury and Salt. are consubstantially a composite in Three Principles, which comprise a Soul, a Spirit and a body.
You will excuse me, if you please: have not forgotten the plan we have undertaken to make a journey through the three Kingdoms of all Nature, and what I have said of the salt key and of Unity, I did it for this intention and because the salt comes to represent and finish the tenth and last degree of our Staircase, and that it gives us opening and entrance to approach the treasures of the said Kingdoms, so that, having contemplated them well and well anatomized, we strive at the end to return to the Unity of God.
It is very well done: and in order to arrive happily at our intention, and in order that we may obtain the happiness of being able to usefully employ the little time of our life in the contemplation of the marvels of our great God, I will make a wish of the depth of my soul:
May our intellect be illuminated for this end with the Light of the divine Majesty!
May our will be done entirely in accordance with the Most Holy Will of God!
May our memory be fortified to be able to retain everything that can tend to increase the glory of our creator.
May our eyes be enlightened, that we may look upon creatures, and compounds, with an eye of knowledge and sapience, and therein to regard their First Being, the Two Qualities contrary, the Four Elements, and the Three Principles or Second Elements.
May the ears of our souls be purified so that we may hear attentively the sound of the voices of holy and wise men by which they come to give us a perfect knowledge of God and his creatures.
May the sensitive members of our bodies be relieved of all the obstacles that could prevent us from touching, holding, handling and anatomizing the compounds of Plants, Animals and Minerals, to anatomize them, to admire them and to exclaim out loud;
O Lord who art one God, one eternal, one good, one great, one almighty, one wise, one incomprehensible, one infinite, one all-in-all, and the radical Principle of all beings! help us who are only miserable creatures made up, created in your image, who cannot subsist for a moment without the light of your graces, but who are by means of it instruments and machines suitable for making your holy and divine will! please make us quick to do them and to execute them by such obedience, as a hand or other part of the members of our body is ready to obey the commands of our souls, so that we may come to know you through your creatures as our God and our creator; that we may learn to approach you by the knowledge of the generation and resolution of these, and that by the Ascension of the ten degrees of sapience we may be fully resolved and transformed into you our Eternal First Being. Amen.
Si tantum valemus ab UNO est.
If we can only get away from UNO.