COLLECTION OF WORKS RELATING
TO HERMETIC SCIENCES
ALBERT POISSON
THEORIES AND SYMBOLS OF THE ALCHEMISTS
THE GREAT
WORK

Followed by an essay on the bibliography of the Alchemists of the 19th century Work decorated with 15 plates representing 42 figures

LIBRARY CHACORNAC
11 Quai Saint-Michel Paris
1891

INTRODUCTION

Alchemy is the most nebulous science bequeathed to us by the Middle Ages. Scholasticism with its argumentation, Theology with its ambiguous phraseology, Astrology so vast and so complicated, are only child's games compared to Alchemy.

Open one of those venerable Hermetic treatises from the fifteenth or sixteenth century and read! If you have not made special studies on the subject, if you are not already initiated into alchemical terminology, if finally you do not have a certain knowledge of inorganic chemistry , you will soon close the volume disappointed and discouraged.

Some will say that these allegories are meaningless, that these mysterious symbols are figures made for pleasure. It's easy to disdain something you don't understand, but there are few people who are irritated by resistance and who love the struggle. These are the chosen ones of science, they have perseverance which is the first virtue of the scientist. That a problem arises present to them, they will work tirelessly to find the solution: the illustrious chemist Dumas, starting from a fact, took ten years to discover the law of substitutions!

The Hermetic treatises are obscure, it is true, but beneath this darkness lies light . Once the alchemical theory is known, having the key to the main symbols, you can boldly begin reading Raymond Lull, Paracelsus, Bernard the Trevisan, Flamel, Roger Bacon, Philalethes. What seemed meaningless to you, you will find logical, you will read as Marielle read the hieroglyphs, you will try to decipher it yourself, to spell out, so to speak, this unknown language, to walk step by step, but surely towards the light.

Like good. Another science, alchemy was born in ancient Egypt. Originally knowledge of it was reserved for priests and initiates who only operated with the greatest mystery in the silence of sanctuaries. Then came the Roman conquest, the Isiatic secrets passed to the Neo-Platonists and the Gnostics. It is from this period (2nd and 3rd century of the Christian era) that alchemy truly dates.

It was then that the first alchemical treatises were written . Some have reached us, we name them Ostanes, Pelagius, the pseudo-Democritus, Synesius, Zosine, Hermes, the anonymous Christian, Cleopatra.

studied and updated by Monsieur Berthelot in his "Introduction to the study of Chemistry" and especially in his "Collection of Greek alchemists". We can see that from then on alchemy is made up from scratch, its theories will cross the ages without changing, until our great Lavoisier.

Then the barbarians invaded Europe, sciences, arts, letters died in the West. It is in the east that we find them in the hands of the Arabs. Their chemists , patient observers and skillful operators, expanded the domain of science and rid it of its foreign elements, magic, cabalism and mysticism. The most famous among them is Geber who first speaks of azotic acid and aqua regia. Let us just mention a few names alongside him: Avicenna, Rhases, Alphidius, Calid, Morien, Avenzoar.

With the Arabs ended the beginnings of alchemy, it would now move towards its peak. In Europe freed from the terrors of the Year 1000, there was a sort of Renaissance (forgive us for this anachronism which captures the matter well). The Crusades had allowed the West to acquire glory and science. The most valuable things the Crusaders brought back were the works of Aristotle and the treatises of the Arab alchemists.

masters: Alain de Lille, Albert the Great, Roger Bacon, Saint-Thomas d'Aquin, Raymond Lulle! The way was now wide open, not only to Alchemy but to all the sciences of observation: had not Roger Bacon and Albert the Great substituted experience for the authority of the ancients?

Alchemists multiplied especially at the end of the 14th and 15th centuries, in England, Georges Riplée, Norton, Bartholomée, in France, Bernard le Trévisan, the famous Nicolas Flamel, in Germany Eck de Sultz bach, Ulsted, Tritheim, Basil Valentin, Isaac the Dutch,

III

With Basil Valentin we enter a new era, Alchemy tends towards mysticism, it allies himself again, as in his childhood, with the cabal and magic, at the same time chemistry itself appears and little by little separates from his mother.

The most famous representative of alchemy of the 16th century was Paracelsus. Never was a reformer more violent, never did a man have such enthusiastic friends and such bitter enemies . An entire volume would not be enough to list the works of his disciples and the pamphlets of his detractors. The best known Paracelsists were Thurmeysser, Croll, Dorn, Roche-le Baillis, Bernard Penot, Quercetanus and especially Libavius. The other alchemists of this period who did not belong to any school are the famous Denys Zachaire, Blaise de Vigenère, Barnauld, Grosparny, Vicol, Gaston Claves or Dalco, Kelley, Sendivogius or the Cosmopolite. We can place alongside them Jean-Baptiste Porta., the well-known author of “Natural Magic” and “Human Physiognomy”.

In the 17th century, Alchemy was in everything: its brilliance, followers crisscrossed Europe, demonstrating the truth of the science of Hermes through truly astonishing transmutations. True apostles, living poorly, hiding under a miserable appearance, they go through the big cities, addressing only the learned; their only desire is to demonstrate the truth of Alchemy with facts. This is how Van Helmont, Bàrigard de Pisa, Crosset de la Haumerie, Helvitius were converted to Alchemy. The result was achieved, the thirst for gold took hold of the whole world, all convents have a laboratory, princes and kings in the company of hired alchemists work on the Great Work, doctors especially and pharmacists indulge in hermeticism. At the same time, the famous Rose Croix society appeared, about which nothing very certain is still known today.

The alchemy treatises that emerged in the 17th century are innumerable, but there is no big name to cite except Philaletus, the President of Spain and Michel Mayer. In the second row we find: Chartier, Nuysement, Clleson, d'Atremont, Salmon, Helias, Barchusen, Planiscampi,

In the 18th century Alchemy was in full decline, chemistry had progressed on the contrary, it had become a science, discoveries followed one another, facts piled up. Alchemy still has supporters, but they are already hiding to work, they are considered insane . There are no more followers, we are content to reprint old treatises, or to produce compilations of no value. Few names to mention:

Pernety, Respour, Lengtet Dufresnoy, author of the history of hermetic philosophy, Libois, Saint-Germain. The history of Alchemy in the 18th century ends with two charlatans, Cagliostro and Elleila.

In our century Alchemy seems dead, it is nothing more than a curious science, interesting to know for the history of chemistry. Of alchemists attached to the ancient doctrine, we find only two Cyliani and Cambriel. As for Tiffereau and Louis Lucas, it is on modern chemistry that they rely on to arrive at the same conclusions as the alchemists themselves, because curiously enough, the latest discoveries of science tend to demonstrate the unity of matter. and therefore the possibility of transmutation. He is. true that Pythagoras had already said positively that the earth revolves around the sun, and after two thousand years of error Copernicus reestablished this old truth!

A few words now about this book. We have tried to make it as clear as possible, but all things being linked together rigorously as in a demonstration, it is necessary to read it with attention and method. The engravings have been reproduced by phototypical processes, so they leave nothing to be desired in terms of accuracy. The numerous quotations which were essential to support what we are putting forward have been faithfully translated or, if they were in Old French, reproduced with their spelling.

At the end of the volume we will find a dictionary summarizing the meaning of the most common Hermetic symbols, a list of authors cited in this volume and an essay on the alchemical bibliography of our century, finally a very detailed analytical table.

This work continues a series of studies on Alchemy, a series that we began with the publication of the Five Treatises on Alchemy. We propose to deliver successively, Alchemy from antiquity to the present day, then a study on the alchemical laboratories, the instruments and the chemical operations of the Hermetic philosophers.

Albert Poisson

THEORIES & SYMBOLS
OF THE ALCHEMISTS THE GREAT WORK

PART ONE
THE THEORIES

CHAPTER I

DEFINITION OF ALCHEMY. — VULGAR ALCHEMY AND HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY. — BLOWERS AND FOLLOWERS. — THE AIMS OF ALCHEMY: THE GREAT WORK, THE HOMUNGULUS, THE ALKAEST, PALINCENESIA, THE SPIRITUS MUNDI, THE QUINTESSENCE, DRINKING GOLD.

What is Alchemy? for us it is little more than a natural science, mother of Chemistry. But the Alchemists themselves, how did they define their science. “ Alchemy,” says Paracelsus, “is a science which learns to exchange the metals of one species into another species. » (The Heaven of the Philosophers). This is the definition given by most alchemists , thus Dénys Zachaire, in his “Paper on the natural philosophy of metals,” says: “It is a part of natural philosophy, which demonstrates the Way of perfect the metals on earth, imitating Nature in its operations, as closely as possible", Roger Bacon, exact mind, gives a more precise definition: "Alchemy is the science which teaches to prepare a certain medicine or elixir, which being projected onto imperfect metals communicates perfection to them, at the very moment of projection).

(Mirror of Alchemy.) Likewise “Argyropoeia and Chrysopeia is the art which teaches to give to the neighboring matter of gold and silver, the form of these metals” (G. Claves: Apologia Chrysopaiœ and Argyropœtiœ). In the 18th century when chemistry shone in all its splendor, it was necessary to differentiate the two sciences, and here is how Dom Pernety speaks of it: “Chymia vulgar is the art of destroying the compounds that nature has formed, and hermetic chymy is the art of working with nature to perfect them". (Greek and Egyptian fables).

But all these alchemists only considered the high Alchemy; there were in fact two species of alchemists: the blowers, people devoid of theory, working at random, they were indeed looking for the philosopher's stone, but empirically, in the meantime, they were doing industrial chemistry, making soaps, false precious stones, acids, alloys , colors; it was they who gave birth to chemists; it was they who sold for money the secret of making gold, charlatans and thieves, they made counterfeit money, more than one blower was hanged on the golden gallows, a torture reserved for this type of impostors; the Hermetic philosophers; on the contrary, disdaining these works which they scourged with the name of sophistication, devoted themselves to the search for the philosopher's stone not out of greed but for the love of science. They had special theories that did not allow them to deviate from certain limits in their research.

Thus, in the preparation of the philosopher's stone, they worked only on metals and generally on precious metals, while the blowers scrolled in their retorted the heterogeneous products of the plant, animal and mineral kingdom. So the Philosophers persevere in the path they have traced for themselves, their doctrines survive centuries intact, while the prompters gradually abandon costly and very long research to occupy themselves with prosaic but profitable things. , little by little Chemistry becomes a science and separates from Alchemy.

The question cannot be better summed up than by quoting a passage from Beccher's Physica Subterranea.

“False alchemists only seek to make gold, true philosophers only desire science , the first only make tinctures, sophistications, nonsense, the others inquire about principles of things.

We will now examine the problems that the alchemists set out to solve.

The first and main consisted in the preparation of a compound, called elixir, magisterium, medicine, philosophical or philosopher's stone, endowed with the property of transmuting ordinary metals into gold or silver. We recognized two elixirs, a white one transmuting metals into silver and a red transmuting them into gold. The Greek alchemists knew this distinction in two elixirs, the first whitening metals, λευζωσις, the second yellowing them, ξχνθωσις; (see Berthelot: Origins of alchemy). The philosopher's stone had no at first only a simple transmutatory power over metals, but later the Hermetic philosophers recognized a host of other properties: producing precious stones, diamonds , curing all illnesses, prolonging human life beyond the limits ordinary, giving to the one who possesses it infused knowledge and the power to command the celestial powers, etc. We will find this point, more developed in the second part of this work.

The first alchemists aimed only at the transmutation of metals, but later they set themselves several other problems. In their pride, they believed they could equal God and create animated beings from scratch. Already according to the Legend Albert the Great had built a wooden automaton, an android to which he had given life through powerful conjurations. Paracelsus went further and claimed to create a living being in flesh and blood, the homunculus. We find in his treatise: De natura rerum (Paracelsi opera omnia medico chimico chirurgica”, volume II) the way to proceed. In a container we place different animal products that we will not name and for good reason; the favorable influences of the planets and gentle warmth are necessary for the success of the operation. Soon a light vapor rises in the container, it gradually takes the human form, the little creature moves, it speaks, the homunculus is born Paracelsus very seriously indicates the party that what we can get from it and how to nourish it.

Alchemists were still searching for the alkaest or universal solvent. This liquid was to dissolve all the bodies that were immersed in it. Some believed they saw it in caustic potash, others in aqua regia, Glauber in his admirable salt (sulfate of soda). They had only forgotten one point, which was that the alkalis, dissolving everything, would have attacked the vase which contained it.

But as there is no hypothesis so false that it does not reveal some truth, in searching for the alkaest the alchemists found several new bodies.

Palingenesis, as a concept, can be compared to the homunculus. This word means resurrection, it was in fact an operation by which a shrub, a flower, was reconstituted with its ashes alone. Kircher in his Mundus subterraneus indicated the way to revive a flower from its ashes.

The alchemists also tried to collect the Spiritus mundit of the spirit of the world. This substance spread in the air, saturated with planetary influences, possessed a host of marvelous properties, notably dissolving gold. They were looking for it in the dew, in flos cœlis or nostoc, a sort of cryptogam, which appears after the great rains: “The rain of the equinox serves as an instrument for me to bring out from the earth the flos cœlis or manna universal that I am going to pick to corrupt it, in order to miraculously separate a water which is the true fountain of Youth which dissolves gold radically” (de Respour, Rare experiences on the mineral spirit).

The problem of Quintessence was more rational, it involved extracting from each body the most active parts: the immediate result was the improvement of distillatory processes.

Finally the alchemists were looking for drinkable gold. According to them, gold, being a perfect body, had to be an energetic remedy and impart to the body considerable resistance to all kinds of diseases. Some used a solution of gold chloride, as can be seen.

see from the following passage: “If water is poured abundantly into this solution and tin, lead, iron or bismuth is added, the gold being precipitated, has the habit of attaching itself to metal. And as soon as you stir the water, the precipitated gold which looks like cloudy silt collects in the water” (Glauber: Universal Medicine).

But generally the empiricists sold very dearly under the name of potable gold, any liquid offering a beautiful yellow color, notably the solution of iron perchloride.

As we see, the Alchemists did not lack subjects to exercise their patience: but the greatest number, abandoning secondary problems, only pursued the realization of the great work. Most of the Hermetic treatises only speak of the philosopher's stone, so we will only examine this point alone, without further worrying about second-order problems which, moreover, only appear very late in the history of Alchemy . , and which were subjected to a host of variations, each modifying the problem or giving it a different solution.

CHAPTER II

ALCHEMICAL THEORIES. — UNITY OF MATTER. — THE THREE PRINCIPLES: SULFUR, MERCURY, SALT OR ARSENIC. — THEORY OF ARTEPHIUS. — THE FOUR ELEMENTS.

It has often been repeated that alchemists worked blindly, this is a serious error, they had very rational theories which, put forward by the Greek philosophers of the second century of the Christian era, were maintained almost without alteration until the 18th century.

At the basis of Hermetic theory, we find a great law: the Unity of Matter. Matter is one, but it can take various forms and in these new forms combine with itself and produce new bodies in indefinite number. This raw material was still called seed, chaos, universal substance. Without going into further details, Basile Valentin posits the unity of matter in principle. “All things come from the same seed, they were all originally born by the same mother” (Char de triumph of antimony). Sendivogius, better known under the name of Cosmopolite, is more explicit in his “Letters” “Christians,” he says, “want that God first created a certain first matter... and that of this matter by way of separation , having been taken from simple bodies, which having then been mixed with each other, by way of composition served to make what we see...

There was in creation a kind of subordination, so that the beings the simplest ones served as principles for the composition of the following ones and these of the others,” he finally summarizes everything he has just said in these two propositions “ Savoir: 1° the production of a raw material that nothing has preceded; 2° The division of this matter into elements and finally through these elements the manufacture and composition of the Mixes ” (Letter XI°). By Mixed he means any kind of compound body.

D'Espagnet completes Sendivogius, by establishing the indestructibility of matter, he adds that it can only change form. “.... Everything that bears the character of being or substance can no longer leave it and by the laws of nature it is not permitted to pass into non-being. This is why Trismegistus rightly says in the Pimander that nothing dies in the world, but that all things pass and change” (Enchiridion phisicæ restitutæ).

Naturally he admits the existence of a raw material. “The Philosophers have believed,” he says, that there was a certain raw material, prior to the elements. » This hypothesis, he adds, is already found in Aristotle. He then examines the qualities that metaphysicians have attributed to matter. Barlet informs us on this point: “The universal substance is all everything internally without distinction of gender or sex, that is to say, large, fertile and imprinted with all sensitive things in the future” (Barlet: La teotechnie ergocosmique ). Which amounts to saying that primary matter does not contain any bodies in action and represents them all potentially. Generally it was accepted that the raw material is liquid, it is water which at the origin of the world was chaos.

potential forms... This uniform body was aquatic and called by the Greeks υλη, denoting by the same word water and matter. (Philosophical letter). Further it is said that it was fire which played the role of male in relation to female matter, thus giving birth to all the bodies which make up the universe. As we see, the hypothesis of raw material was the very basis of Alchemy, starting from this principle, it was rational to admit the transmutation of metals.

Matter first differentiated itself into sulfur and mercury, and these two principles united in various proportions to form all your bodies. “Everything is composed of sulphurous and mercurial materials” says the Christian Anonymous,

Later a third principle was added: salt or arsenic, but without giving it as much importance as sulfur and mercury. These three principles in no way designated vulgar bodies. They represented: certain qualities of matter, thus sulfur in a metal represents color, combustibility, the property of attacking other metals, hardness, on the contrary mercury represents brightness, volatility, fusibility, malleability. As for salt, it was simply a means of union between sulfur and mercury, like the vital spirit between the body and the soul.

Salt was introduced as a ternary principle, especially by Basil Valentin, Khunrath, Paracelsus, in a word by the mystical alchemists. Before them, Roger Bacon had spoken about it well, but incidentally without attributing any special qualities to it, without paying much attention to it; on the contrary,

Paracelsus raged against his predecessors who did not know salt. “They believed that Mercury and Sulfur were principles of all metals, and they did not mention even in a dream the third principle” (The Treasure of Treasures). But salt is of very little importance and even after Paracelsus, many alchemists passed it over in silence.

Sulfur, Mercury and Salt are therefore only abstractions, convenient to designate a set of properties, was a metal yellow or red, difficult to fuse, it was said that the Sulfur abounded in him. But we must not forget that Sulfur, Mercury and Salt derived from the First Matter: “O wonder, Sulfur, Mercury and Salt make me see three substances in a single matter” (Light emerging by oneself of Darkness Marc Antonio).

To eliminate certain properties in a body was to separate the Sulfur or Mercury, for example to make a metal infusible by transforming it into lime or oxide, it was to have volatilized its Mercury and extracted its Sulfur. Another example, ordinary Mercury contains foreign metals which remain in the retort when it is distilled, this fixed part was considered as the Sulfur of common Mercury by alchemists; transforming quicksilver or mercury into bichloride, they thus obtained a completely volatile body and believed that by this operation they had extracted the principle Mercury from the metal Mercury. We cannot leave the question of the three principles without mentioning the theory of Artphius, an 11th century alchemist. For whom Sulfur represents visible properties in metals, Mercury, occult or latent properties. In any body we must distinguish the visible properties: color, brightness, extent, it is Sulfur which represents this; then the occult properties which are only revealed by the intervention of an external force: fusibility, malleability, volatility, etc., properties due to Mercury. This explanation differs little from that given above.

Alongside Sulfur, Mercury and Salt, alchemists admitted four theoretical elements, Earth, Water, Air and Fire; these words were taken in a sense absolutely different from the vulgar sense. In alchemical theory, the four elements, no more than the three principles, do not represent particular bodies, they are simple states of matter, modalities. Water is synonymous with liquid, Earth is the solid state, air is the gaseous state. Fire is a very subtle gaseous state, such as that of a gas expanded by heat. The four elements therefore represent the states in which matter presents itself to us, we could therefore logically say that the elements make up the entire Universe. For an alchemist, all liquid is Water, all solid is Earth in the final analysis, all vapor is Air. This is why we find in your old physics treatises that ordinary water when heated changes into Air.

This does not mean that water is transformed into the breathable mixture which constitutes the atmosphere, but rather that water, initially liquid, changes into an aeriform fluid, into a gas as it is later called.

The Elements represented not only physical states, but by extension qualities.

“Everything that was of hot quality was called by the ancients: fire; what. was dry and solid, earth; what was wet and fluid, water; cold and subtle, air” (Epistle of Alexander). Water being transformed into vapor as well as all liquids when heated, on the other hand solid bodies being generally combustible, Hermetic Philosophers had thought it necessary to reduce the number of Elements to two visible ones, Earth and Water, containing within them the invisible elements, Fire and Air.

The earth contains within itself Fire, and Water contains air in an invisible state. If an external cause comes to act, fire and air will manifest. Let's get closer this from the theory of Artephius mentioned above, Earth will correspond to Sulfur, Water to Mercury and vice versa. In short, the four elements with Sulfur and Mercury represented approximately the same modifications of the raw material, intended to compose the rest of the bodies. Only Sulfur and Mercury representing metallic qualities were more specially reserved for Metals and minerals while the four Elements applied to the plant and animal kingdom. When an alchemist distilled a wood and obtained a fixed residue, an essence or oil, and flammable products, he said he had decomposed this wood into Earth, Water and Fire. Later to the four Elements were added a fifth, the Quintessence: “We can name the most solid parts earth, the most humid water, the most delicate and spiritual air, natural heat, fire of nature and the other occult and essential ones are strongly called to about the celestial and astral natures or Quintessence.” (From Spanish: Enchiridion phisicæ restitutæ) This quintessence would correspond to Salt. We see how coherent the theories of the alchemists were.

While a Blower got lost in this maze, three principles, four elements, a universal Matter, a Philosopher easily reconciled these apparent differences. And now we will understand how these words of the monk Helias should be understood.

everything in this world was created by the omnipotence of God” (Helias: Mirror of Alchemy).

These theories existed from the origin of Alchemy. Among the Greeks, the alchemist Synesius in his Commentary on the book of Democritus points out to us that in the alchemical operation the artist does not create anything, he modifies the Matter, he changes its Form.

The Anonymous Christian that we have cited belongs to the same period. As for the four elements, they had been known for a long time. Zosima gives their group the name Tetrasomy or the Four Bodies.

Here is the summary of the General Alchemical Theory in tabular form.

Raw material Unique and Indestructible:
- 1 -> Sulfur Fixed principle
- a => Earth (visible, solid state)
- b => Fire (occult, subtle state)

- 2 -> Salt => Quintessence (state comparable to the Indestructible ether of physicists)

- 3 -> Mercury Volatile principle
- a => Water (visible, liquid state)
- b => Air (occult, gaseous state)

CHAPTER III

THE SEVEN METALS. — THEIR COMPOSITION. — THEIR GENESIS. — THE CENTRAL FIRE. — TRAINING CYCLE. — PLANETARY INFLUENCES.

The alchemists working mainly on metals, we understand that they dwelt a lot on the genesis and composition of metals, they recognized seven to which they attributed the name and I sign the seven planets:

Gold or Sun!, ☉
Silver or Moon ☾
Mercury ☿
Lead or Saturn ♄
Tin or Jupiter ♃
Iron or Mars ♂
Copper or Venus ♀

They divided into perfect, unalterable metals, which were gold and silver, and imperfect metals, changing into lime, (oxides) in fire or air, easily attacked by acids. “

The fire element corrupts imperfect metals and destroys them.

There are five ☿ ♄ ♃ ♂ ♀ of these metals.

Perfect metals are unalterable in fire” (Paracelsus: The Heaven of the Philosophers). Let's see how the hermetic theory applies to metals.

First of all, metals must all derive from the same source: Raw Material. The Hermetic philosophers are, moreover, unanimous on this point. “Metals are all similar in their essence, they only differ in their form” (Albert the Great: De Alchimia). “There is only one raw material of metals, it takes different forms depending on the degree of cooking, depending on the more or less powerful force of a certain natural agent”

(Arnauld de Villeneuve: Le Chemin du chemin). Incidentally, the theory is absolutely applicable to minerals: “There is only one matter for all metals and minerals”

(Basile Valentin) and finally: “The nature of stones is the same as that of other things.” » (Le Cosmopolite).

The passage from Albert the Great could not be more explicit: matter, one for all that exists, we would say today, differentiates itself from itself by form, it is that is to say that the atoms identical to each other, by grouping together, affect various geometric shapes and from there comes the differentiation between bodies. In chemistry, allotropy perfectly justifies this way of seeing.

It follows that Sulfur and Mercury, secondary principles (as opposed to Matter, first principle) represent only a set of qualities: "And thus you can see clearly that Sulfur is not a thing apart out of the substance of Mercury, and that it is not common Sulfur. Because if this were the case, the Matter of metals would not be of a homogeneous nature, which is against the words of the philosophers” (Bernard le Trévisan: Livre de la Natural philosophy of metals). In the same work, Bernard le Trévisan returns to this important subject: “Sulfur is not a thing which is divided from quicksilver, nor separated; but is only this heat and dryness which does not dominate the coldness and humidity of Mercury, which Sulfur after digested, dominates the two other qualities, that is to say, coldness and dampness and imprints its virtues there. And through these various degrees of decoctions the diversities of metals are made ” (Idem).

Sulfur, of hot nature, is active, Mercury of cold nature is passive: “I say: there are two natures, one active, the other passive. My master asked me what are these two natures? And I answered: one is of the nature of heat, the other of cold. What is the nature of heat? Hot is active and cold passive” (Artéphius: Clavis majoris sapientæ).

Sulfur or Mercury can dominate the composition of metals, in a word certain qualities can prevail over others. As for Salt, we have already explained that this principle, unknown to the first alchemists, later had only limited importance despite the Paracelsists. Salt or Arsenic was only the link which unites the two other principles: “Sulphur, Mercury and Arsenic are the component principles of the metals. Sulfur is the active principle, Mercury, the passive principle, Arsenic is the bond that unites them” (Roger Bacon: Breve breviarium de dono dei.) Roger Bacon himself attached so little importance to Salt that in another of his works he does not; not mentioned as a component principle. “Note,” he said, “that the principles of the metals are Mercury and. Sulfur . These two principles gave birth to all your metals and all the minerals of which there are, however, a large number of different species” (Alchime Mirror).

So we can say that all metals are composed of Sulfur and Mercury, both reducible to the raw material.

These are two sperms of metals. »
(Nicolas Flamel.: Summary).
Sulfur is the father (active principle) of metals, said the Alchemists, and Mercury (passive principle) is their mother.

“Mercurius is Quicksilver
Who has all the government
Of the seven metals, because it is their mother. »
(JEHAN de la FONTAINE: Fountain of science lovers)

We will only deal with Sulfur and Mercury and their role in the Genesis of metals. These two principles exist separately in the heart of the earth. Sulfur in the form of 'a solid, fixed, unctuous body, Mercury in the form of vapor. "The Sulfur is there. fat of the earth, thickened in the Mines by moderate cooking, until it hardens, then it constitutes Sulfur” (Albert the Great: De Alchimia.) Constantly attracted to each other, the two Principles combine in various proportions to form metals and minerals.

But there are still other circumstances which do not... .. of the two principles: the degree of cooking, purity, various accidents. THE. Alchemists admitted in fact the existence of a fire located in the bowels of the earth, the mixture of Sulfur and Mercury more or less cooked and digested, varied as a result properties: "It has been observed that the nature of metals, such as we know it, is to be generated by Sulfur and Mercury.

cooking and digestion produces variety in the metallic species” (Albert the Great: The Compound of Compounds). As for purity, we will cite the following passage: “ Depending on the purity or impurity of the component principles, Sulfur and Mercury, perfect or imperfect metals are produced”
(Roger Bacon: Mirror of Alchemy).

This leads us to say that imperfect metals are born first, thus iron is transformed into copper; then as copper becomes perfected it changes into lead, the latter in turn becoming tin, mercury, then silver and finally gold. The metals go through a sort of cycle: “We have in fact clearly demonstrated in our Treatise on Minerals that the generation of metals is circular: we easily passes from one to the other following a circle. Neighboring metals have similar properties; this is why silver is easily changed into gold” (Albert the Great: The Composite of Compounds). Glauber goes further, he expresses the singular opinion that metals, once arriving in the state of gold, travel the cycle in the opposite direction, becoming more and more imperfect up to iron, to then rise again to perfection and thus straight away indefinitely. “ By the virtue and force of the Elements, new metals are generated every day and the old ones, on the contrary, are corrupted at the same time” (Glauber: Mineral Work). The word Element is taken in the sense of mineralizing force.

Gold which is perfection is therefore the constant goal of nature; in addition to an insufficient degree of cooking or the impurity of Sulfur and Mercury, various accidents can hinder its action. “ I further say that Nature has as its goal and continually strives to achieve perfection, gold.

But as a result of accidents, which hinder its progress, metallic varieties are born” (Roger Bacon; Mirror of Alchemy). One of these accidents is that the mine where the metals are developed is opened. “For example, if a mine were torn open, one could find metals not yet completed, and because the opening of the mine would interrupt the action of nature, these metals would remain imperfect and would never be fulfilled, and all the metallic seed contained in this mine would lose its strength and its virtue” (Text of Alchemy). We cannot end this chapter without talking about the planetary influences that intervened in metallic genesis. In the Middle Ages an absolute relationship was accepted between everything that took place on earth and the Planets.

“Nothing occurs in earth or water that is not sown in heaven. The permanent relationship between these two large bodies could be represented by a pyramid whose summit rests on the Sun and the base on the Earth” (Blaise and Vigenère: Treatise on Fire and Salt). Likewise “Know therefore, O my son and the dearest of my children, that the Sun, Moon, and stars perpetually cast their influences into the center of the earth ” (Valois: Manuscript Works). We have already seen above that the seven metals were dedicated to the seven planets which gave birth to them. Planets and metals were confused under the same name and the same sign. These theories go back to the very origins of Alchemy. Proclus, neo-Platonic philosopher of the 5th century AD, in his Commentary on Plato's Timaeus explains that "natural gold, silver and each of the metals as well as other substances, are generated in the earth under the influence of celestial deities and their effluvia. The Sun produces gold, the Moon silver, Saturn lead and Mars iron” (See Berthelot: introduction to the study of chemistry). We can even go back further, among the Persians metals were also dedicated to the planets, but they did not correspond to the same stars as in the Middle Ages, thus tin was dedicated to Venus and iron to Mercury.

The Alchemists therefore unanimously recognized the action of the planets on metals;

Paracelsus goes further and specifies this action. According to him, each metal owes its birth to the planet whose name it bears; the six other planets, each united to two zodiacal constellations, give it various qualities. Thus “The Moon owes to its hardness and its pleasant sound. It owes to and its resistance to fusion and its malleability. Finally give it its density and a homogeneous body, etc. » (Paracelsus: The Heaven of the Philosophers).

In summary, metals and minerals, formed at the base, from the Raw Material are composed of Sulfur and Mercury. The degree of cooking, the variable purity of the components, various accidents, planetary influences, cause the differences which separate the metals from each other .

CHAPTER IV

MYSTICAL ALCHEMY. — FANCY THEORIES. — THE ALCHEMICAL CABAL. — TRIPLE ADAPTATION OF THE HERMETIC THEORY. - THE SANCTUARY.

Alchemy among the Greeks was, by reason of its origin, mixed with. magic and theurgy . Later, thanks to Arab philosophers, this science was purified and it was not until the 15th and in the 16th century it was once again allied with the occult sciences proper.

From then on, a large number of alchemists asked the Cabala, Magic, and Astrology for the key to the Great Work. Paracelsus only admitted among his disciples people versed in astrology, as he himself asserts: “But I must return to my subject to satisfy my disciples whom I willingly favor when they are equipped with natural enlightenment, when they know Astrology and especially when they are skilled in Philosophy which teaches us to know the matter of everything” (Paracelsus: The Treasure of Treasures).

While his predecessors or contemporaries, Calid, Valois, Blaise de Vigenère admitted simply the action of the stars in the generation of metals, Paracelsus went further and claimed to calculate when and how the planets influenced metals. Following this doctrine, some alchemists intimately combined astrology with hermeticism and they never began an operation without first ensuring that the planets were favorable.

It is again to Paracelsus that we owe the introduction of cabalistic data into Alchemy. He condensed his occult doctrines in his Treatise on Occult Philosophy and in his Magical Archidoxes.

This brings us to talking about the Cabala. This science consists of breaking down words into add the numerical value of the letters and draw all possible deductions according to special rules. Thus the number of gold in Hebrew is 209, it is the ornament of the mineral kingdom, it corresponds to Jehovah in the spirit world.

Hoeffer, in his History of Chemistry, devoted a few pages to cabala applied to metals. Alchemy, a science of observation, could not benefit in any way from its alliance with the Cabala, a purely speculative science. The addition of foreign elements would only make it more obscure, so Paracelsus was wrong on this point.

Before him B. Valentin had made some attempts in the same sense, he broke down the word Azoth in the following way “Azoth, beginning and end, for he is A and O, present in every place. The philosophers adorned me with the name Azoth, the Latins Α and Ζ, the Greeks α and ω the Hebrews! ת א aleph and thau, all of which signify and make Azoth" (The Azoth of the philosophers.)

After Paracelsus we find only two authors who have dealt specifically with alchemical Kabbalah. These are Pantheus, Venetian priest and John Dee, English alchemist and mathematician Pantheus wrote two treatises, one is Ars et Theoria transmutatiois metallicœ, and the other: Voarchadumia. We find there that the number of generation is 544, that of putrefaction 772 that mercury gold and 'silver corresponds to the Hebrew letters, seth, he, vau, similar daydreams. Jean Dee in his treatise: The Hieroglyphic Monad, tried to constitute a particular cabal using alchemical symbols. Thus for him the symbol of mercury ☿ represents the Moon ☾, the Sun ☉ and the four elements ✠ . Furthermore, the sign of the Sun represents the monad represented by the point around which the circle symbolizes the World.

This curious treatise is found printed in the second volume of the Theatrum chimicum.

These alchemists and some others such as Khunrath Mayer, Blaise de Vigenère introduced into Science a new interpretation of alchemical theory. While the exact and natural sciences proceed by Induction and deduction, the occult sciences proceed by analogy; they applied the method of analogy to alchemy. So they said: there are three worlds, the material, the human, the divine. In the human world, we have Sulfur, Mercury and Salt, principles of all things and a Matter; in the human world or microcosm the body, spirit and soul united in man, in the divine world three persons in one God. “So is Trinity in unity, and unity in Trinity, for there are body, spirit and soul. There is also Soulphre Mercury and Arsenic” (Bernard le Trévisan: the Abandoned Word).

The Great Work therefore has a triple goal in the material world: the transmutation of metals to make them arrive at gold, at perfection; in the microcosm, the perfection of the moral man; in the divine world the contemplation of your Divinity in its splendor.

According to the second meaning, man is the philosophical Athanor where the development of the virtues is accomplished; it is in this sense according to the mystics that these words must be understood:

“For the Work is with you and at home, so that finding it in yourself, where it is continually, you also always have it, wherever you are, on earth and on sea” (Hermes the Seven Chapters).

The mystical Alchemists understood by Sulfur, Mercury and Salt, Matter, Movement and Force. Mercury, passive and female principle, is matter; Sulfur active ingredient and male, it is the force, which shapes matter and gives it all kinds of forms by means of the movement which is Salt.

Salt is the middle term, it is the result of the application of force to your matter, symbolically it is the new being which takes birth by the union of the male and the female.

This high theory does not seem to contradict current science. Chemistry is not averse to the hypothesis of a unique Matter, a hypothesis long accepted by metaphysics as essential to the explanation of the World. The English scholar Crookes calls this unique Matter the Protyle; in his theory our current simple bodies are only protyl polymers. On the other hand it is very true that Matter only acts and has particular properties when it is in motion, all movement presupposes heat; consequently at 273 degrees below zero, at absolute caloric zero the chemical properties are zero, sulfuric acid has no action on caustic potash; finally, the unity of the Force also imposes itself on physicists. Who is the scientist who today makes a difference between the cause of magnetism, heat, electricity, light, sound; the fluids no longer exist, they are replaced by forces reducible to each other; what differentiates the Force of itself in our eyes, it is the number of vibrations that it gives to this or that body and even then there is no absolute limit, a vibrating or moving body which is the same thing, first produces a sound; As the vibrations become more numerous, the body heats up noticeably and soon luminous phenomena occur. where does Sound end, where does Heat and Light begin? There is no interval. Natura non facit saltus.

It must be added that the alchemists had only glimpsed this high theory; the state of science at their time did not allow them to give it the development that we have given it.

For them, as we have demonstrated, Matter was unique in principle; they called him Permer matter or Hyle; they also recognized a universal force. Baudoin calls it Universal Magnetism, Magnetic Breath, for mystics Force is the Breath of God, first principle of life, of movement. Paracelsus calls him Archaeus. Archaeus is the force, always active, which by applying itself to matter sets it in motion, gives it form. The terms Ares and Clissus have approximately the same meaning in Paracelsus.

As for movement, they likened it to fire, which is in fact the most perfect image of matter activated by your force.

This was the binding alchemical theory that few followers possessed: let us not be surprised of this admirable Synthesis; reasoning was enough here for the alchemists as it was once enough for Pvthagoras, Democritus and Plato to rise to the conception of the highest truths.

The alchemists represented this theory by a triangle, symbol of absolute balance, at the first angle the sign of Sulfur, symbol of Force; in the second the sign of Mercury, Matter; in the third the sign of Salt, Movement.

To conclude, here is the analogical table of the triple adaptation of the alchemical theory.

Sulfur	Male	Force	Cause
Mercury	Female	Matter	Subject
Salt	Child	Movement	Effect

And to summarize the whole theory: Matter, one in its essence, differentiates from itself by the Form, effect of the Movement communicated to it by the Force.

THE SYMBOLS

CHAPTER ONE

WHY THE TREATIES ON ALCHEMY ARE OBSCURE. — MEANS EMPLOYED BY ALCHEMISTS TO CONCEAL THE GREAT WORK. —SIGNS. —SYMBOI.ES.-— MYTHOLOGICAL NAMES . — FOREIGN WORDS. — ANAGRAMS. — FABLES. — ENIGMS. — ALLEGORIES. — CRYPTOGRAPHY.

The Hermetic treatises are obscure to the reader, firstly because the alchemical theories are generally not known, then and above all because philosophers have made them deliberately obscure. The Masters considered alchemy as the most precious of sciences. “Alchemy is the art of arts, it is science: par excellence! » exclaims Calid emphatically in the Book of Three Words. According to them, such a science should only be known to the few. Should we blame them for wanting to reserve science exclusively for themselves? This seems excessive to us today, but in antiquity what were mysteries, if not the transmission under the seal of oath, of some natural secrets, of some little-known points of high philosophy. In the Middle Ages, trade guilds had practical secrets that no member would have thought to divulge. The preparation of certain colors constituted a precious heritage that the great painters only bequeathed to their most cherished disciples. The scientists did not hesitate to sell the solution to embarrassing problems.

The Hermetic Philosophers, although they hid science, did not sell it; when they met a man worthy of initiation, they put you on the right path without ever revealing everything to him. The disciple had to work in turn to find what he was missing.

This is how they proceeded in their writings, one indicates the material of the great work, the other the degree of fire, this one the colors which appear during the operations, that one the device of the Athanor or philosophical furnace; but there is. no known example of a hermetic treaty, speaking openly at once of all parts of the Great Artwork. The alchemists would have believed that by acting in this way they were exposing themselves to celestial punishments; according to them the revealer would have been struck by sudden death. “I would not represent,” said Flamel, speaking of the book of Abraham the Jew, “what was written in beautiful and very intelligible Latin in all the other written folilets, because God would punish me” (Explanation of Figures by Nicolas Flamel).

As for what has been said, that the Alchemists wrote in an obscure and symbolic way to protect themselves from the accusations that overzealous theologians could have brought against them, this seems absolutely false to us, given that nothing was more likely. to the accusation of magic, than the strange symbols and figures which clutter their treatises. Roger Bacon, Albert the Great, Arnauld de Villeneuve, have not escaped the accusation of magic. And yet the alchemists were very pious, we find invocations to God at every moment in their writings, they divided their time between study, work and prayer. Some claimed to have received from God himself the secret of the Philosophers' Stone l Before explaining the symbols relating to each part of the Great Work, we will indicate in a general way what were the means used by the Alchemists to steal from the profane the science of the blessed Stone.

And first come the signs. They were born with Alchemy. It was the Greeks who first used them. Taking their science from Egypt themselves, we see that alchemical signs take their direct origin from hieroglyphs. The sign of water used by alchemists is nothing other than the hieroglyph of water, and so of some others, such as the signs of Gold and Silver (See Hœffer: History of chemistry, volume I, and Berthelot:

Origins of Alchemy. The alchemical signs are very numerous in certain treatises (such as that of Khunrath entitled: Confessis de chao physico chimicorum, where they replace all the names of chemical materials and operations, so it is important to know them. In With this intention, we have reproduced the main alchemical signs in the attached plate.

The Symbols were also strongly used, this is how birds rising represented sublimation or a release of vapors, and birds falling to the ground represented, on the contrary, precipitation. The Phoenix was the symbol of the Perfect Stone, capable of transmuting metals into gold and silver. The raven symbolized the black color that the Material of the great work first takes on when heated. A singular hermetic book: the Liber Mutus or Wordless Book, does not in fact contain a line of text, it is simply made up of a series of engravings symbolizing the procedure to follow to accomplish the Great Work.

The mythological names were in great honor in your alchemical nomenclature, Mars designates iron, Venus copper, Apollo gold, Diana, Hecate or the Moon silver, Saturn lead ; The Golden Fleece is the Philosopher's Stone and Bacchus is the material of the stone. This is again a Greco-Egyptian tradition; in the Middle Ages, only or almost only the mythological names of metals were used, but from the end of the 16th century, their use took such an extension that the Benedictine Dom Joseph Pernety had to write two large volumes (Greek Fables and Egyptians revealed) to explain their meaning and origin.

The mythological names were joined by a large number of foreign words, Hebrew, Greeks, Arabs. Due to the very origin of alchemy, we must necessarily find Greek words there , here are a few: hylé, raw material; hypoclaptic, vase for separating essential oils ; hydraleum, oil and water emulsion, etc. Arabic words are by far the most numerous, some such as: elixir, alcohol, alkali, borax, have come down to us, others fallen into oblivion are found in Hermetic treatises such as: alcani, tin, alafar, matras; alcahal, vinegar; almizadir, green brass; zimax, green vitriol, etc., etc. As for Hebrew names , we rarely encounter them except in the treatises of the Cabalist Alchemists.

Johnson chemist.
We understand that already this special glossology must often have been enough to keep the laymen away, but the Alchemists still used other means to conceal the Great Work.

So very often they used the Anagram. At the end of the “Songe Verd”, we find several anagrams, here is the explanation of two of them: Seganissegède means: Genius of the wise, and Tripsarecopsena: spirit, body, soul.

They still proceeded by riddles. Here's an easy one to solve. “Everyone knows the stone, and I affirm it by the living God, everyone can have this material which I have clearly named in the book: “vitrium”, according to the ignorant, but we must add L and O, there The question is to know where these letters should be placed” (Helias: Mirror of Alchemy.). The word in the riddle is vitriol.

A curious enigma well known to alchemists is found in the third volume of Theatrum chimicum, page 744 accompanied by a ten- page commentary by Nicolas Barnauld. Here it is: Ælia Loelia Crispis is my name. I am neither man, nor woman, nor hermaphrodite, nor virgin, nor adolescent, nor old. I am neither a prostitute nor a virtuous person, but all of these together. I died neither of hunger, nor of iron, nor of poison, but of all these things at the same time. I rest neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor in water, but everywhere. Lucius Agatho Priscius who was neither my husband, nor my lover, nor my slave, without sorrow, without joy, without tears, made me raise, knowing and not knowing for whom, this monument which is neither a pyramid nor a sepulchre, but both. This is a tomb which does not contain a corpse; it is a corpse which is not enclosed in a sepulchre. The corpse and the tomb are one. » Barnauld establishes in his commentary that it is the stone of the philosophers.

Another no less famous riddle is the following, taken from the Greek alchemists: “I have nine letters and four syllables, remember me. — The first three each have two letters. — The others have the rest, there are five consonants. — Know me and you will have Wisdom. » The word of the enigma is, it seems, ARSENICON.

Another form of enigma, the acrostic, consisted of presenting a formula, where the first letters of each word combined, formed a word that the Hermetic Philosopher did not want to reveal directly. We have represented two of these formulas; the first taken from the works of Basile Valentin gives the word vitriol: Visitabis Interiora Terræ, Rectificando invenies 0ccultum Lapidem. The other means Sulfur Fixum, it adds as a complement: Sol est. It is taken from the second volume of “Mundus sublerraneus” by Father Kircher.

All the means previously listed only hid words, we will now see how the alchemists veiled ideas.

At the forefront are fables taken from Greek or Latin, or even Egyptian, mythology. They are only found among alchemists after the Renaissance. Not only were myths used to veil the Great Work, but admitting the converse, efforts were made to prove that Homer, Virgil, Hesiod, Ovid had been adepts and had taught the practice of the Stone in their works. This extravagant opinion is sister to that which gave Adam the knowledge of the Stone. Pernety in his Greek and Egyptian Fables does not hesitate to give the hermetic explanation of the Iliad and the Odyssey. No Fable escaped his fury to explain. His work is most curious, prolonged is indigestible. Let us say in Pernety's defense that he had been preceded on this path by Libois {Encyclopedia of the gods and heroes emerging from the four elements and their quintessence, according to hermetic science, 2 vols.)

The Alchemists have also always used the allegory. The Greek Zosimas made a fairly typical one, reported by Hœffer in his History of Chemistry. Here is a more modern one where the colors of Matter during the Great Work are indicated: black, gray, white, yellow, red. “Now, as I was going on a journey, I met myself between two mountains, where I admired a man from the fields, serious and modest in his demeanor, dressed in a gray coat, on his hat a black cord, around him a white scarf, surrounded by a yellow belt and wearing red boots” (Casselle of the little peasant, by Ph... Vr)... The allegory continues thus several pages. We will find several curious allegories, notably the allegory of Merlin, reported either in Hoeffer or in Figuier's Alchemy and the Alchemists . These two authors give very pleasing explanations, notably Hœffer who sees in the allegory of Merlin the indication of chemical analysis by dry and wet methods!

All that remains for us to do is to talk about cryptography, that is to say the art of writing secretly in using unknown signs or diverted from their original meaning. The alchemists used alphabets, sometimes composed of hermetic signs etc., sometimes of letters mixed with numbers, thus Mercury was written 729C592, borax B491X. Tritheme in his “Polygraphia” cites some Hermetic alphabets composed of particular signs.

Other times the alchemists wrote backwards: Zenerp al ereitam euq suov zevas, that is to say: take the material you know. Or they added unnecessary letters to the body of the words: “the azoth of the philosophers is their mercury” became: M. l'azothi adoespuphiloqsophesa lesati pleururi imeracuret. Others, on the contrary, deleted letters, Paracelsus truncates thus: “Aroma philosophorum is done: Aroph. D'Atremont in the "Tomb of Poverty" goes further, he replaces entire members of sentences with words coined at pleasure, thus: "The fifth quality is the purity and transparency of our Salt so that it penetrates better, and this is acquired ongra neligilluk eude firseigli, as will be said below.” Fortunately, at the end of the volume there is a key or translation of these baroque terms; those cited above mean: “by filtration after resolution into distilled vinegar. »

Raymond Lulle is fond of a particular type of cryptography, he designates the main operations, products, devices, with simple letters of the alphabet. Thus in his “: Compiendium ammœ transmutationis” we read “See, oh my son, if you take F and you put it in C and you put everything in H you have the first figure FCH, etc. » F means metals, C acidic water which dissolves metals and H first degree fire.

Each alchemist could use particular means of cryptography, this detailed study is useless and would take us too far. It is enough for us to have spoken of the most common ones.

Explanation of Plate III.

Figure I (Taken from B. Valentin’s Azoth of the Philosophers). The first letters of each word being united we find Vitriol: Visitabis Interiora Terræ, Rectificando invenies 0ccultum Lapidem. We also see the signs of the seven metals: the Eagle, symbol of the volatile and the Lion, symbol of the fixed.

[Beginning with the word VISITA and reading clockwise, the seven initial letters of the seven words inscribed in the outer circle read: VITRIOL. This is a very simple alchemical enigma, but is a reminder that those studying works on Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, alchemy, and Freemasonry should always be on the lookout for concealed meanings hidden either in Parables and allegories or in cryptic arrangements of numbers, letters, and words.]

Figure II (Taken from Father Kircher’s Mundus Subteraneus). For the first 2 concentric sentences, the reading process is the same as in the previous figure, we find: Sulfur Fixum. For the third sentence: Ergo Sic Tuos Lege Omnes Sophos.

The sentence must be divided into two parts, the first gives Est, the second read starting—with Sophos, gives Sol. The whole thing means: Fixed Sulfur is the Sun. That is to say, Sulfur or fixed principle is synonymous with Sun or Gold (see chapter III).

[The capital letters of the seven words in the outer circle read clockwise, form the word SVLPHVR. From the words in the second circle, when read in a similar manner, is derived FIXVM. The capitals of the six words in the inner circle, when properly arranged, also read ESTSOL. The following cipher is thus extracted: "Sulphur Fixum Est Sol," which when translated is: "Fixed sulphur is gold."

PICTURE CIPHER. Any picture or drawing that has meaning in addition to the obvious meaning can be considered a picture cryptogram. Examples of picture ciphers can be found in Egyptian symbolism and early religious art. The diagrams of the alchemists and Hermetic philosophers are, of course, picture ciphers. In addition to simple picture ciphers, there is a more complex form in which words or letters are expressed by the number of stones in a wall, the flapping of the wings of a bird in flight, ripples in water, and the length of hatched lines in pictures. Such cryptograms are not clear enough and must be decoded using an arbitrary measuring scale, the length of the lines in which the encrypted words are hidden. The shapes and proportions of the building, the height of the castle, the number of lintels in the window, details of clothing,

The initial letters of the names were hidden in architectural arches and vaults. An interesting example of this practice is the title page of Montaigne's Essays, third edition, where the initial letter "B" is formed by two arches, and the "F" is formed by a broken arch. Picture cryptograms were sometimes accompanied by the key needed to decipher them. The initial letter of the cipher may be indicated by a human figure holding a device in his hand that reveals the measurement system used to encrypt the text. There are many examples in which cryptograms were deliberately distorted or framed by a figure that had something wrong, for example, a hat not put on correctly, or a sword on the wrong side, or a shield in the wrong hand.]

For these two figures see chapter I.

NB — All the figures relate to the second part of this work: the Symbols.

The references will therefore be to the chapters of this second part .

Explanation of plate IV

Figure I (Taken from Liber singularis by Barchusen). The Alchemist in prayers in his Laboratory, begs God before beginning the Great Work, that he smooth out the difficulties for him and that he gives him the understanding of the works of the Philosophers (See chapter I).

Figure II (Taken from the Twelve Keys of Wisdom by B.Valentin). The Dragon symbolizes Raw Material . Two small circles surround it, one its wings, to indicate the Volatile, the other its paws to indicate Fixed. The three snakes and the triangle represent the three principles, all contained in the Philosophers' Egg (See chapter II).

CHAPTER II

SYMBOLS OF ALCHEMICAL THEORY. —THE MATTER. THE THREE PRINCIPLES, THE FOUR ELEMENTS, THE SEVEN METALS AND THEIR SYMBOLS.

We call pentacles symbolic figures, composed of the most varied elements and which summarize an entire theory in themselves. A pentacle makes you understand at a glance and more easily engraves in the memory what would otherwise be difficult to remember. It is a short and concise formula that can be developed at will. Pentacles are not rare in alchemy treatises. The works of Basil Valentin: The twelve keys, and the Azoth of the philosophers, mainly, contain a large number of them, as does the Amphitreatrum sapientiæ æternæ of Khunrath. Barchusen's “Elementa chimicæ” are followed by a treatise on the Philosopher's Stone where the sequence of operations is explained in seventy-eight pentacles. The four great figures of Janitor Pansophus summarize the entire Hermetic philosophy. We will have the opportunity to explain several of these figures and we will only do so briefly, their complete development sometimes requiring several pages.

The Greeks represented the raw material by a snake that bites its tail. It is the Ouroboros serpent of the Gnostics. In the center of the circle thus formed, they wrote the formula εν το παν: one the All. This figure is found in Cleopatra's Chrysopée (Berthelot: Origins of Alchemy). Subsequently, the unity of matter was always represented thus: a dragon or a serpent biting its own tail. Sometimes we were content to formulate this law by a simple circle.

The three principles had special signs except Mercury whose sign also designated ordinary quicksilver. The Sulfur of the philosophers was represented by a triangle subscribed to three arrows or a cross, Salt by a circle crossed by a line; Mercury by a circle surmounted by the lunar crescent and inscribed with a cross.

The three principles are symbolized in the figures of Lambsprinck by three characters: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They were also represented by three serpents, or by a serpent with three heads to indicate that they had only one root: Matter. They were readily compared to the Holy Trinity, three persons in one God, three principles in one matter. We have already seen that the principles were most of the time reduced to two: Sulfur and Mercury, they were then represented by two serpents forming a circle, one winged for indicate Mercury, female and volatile, the other without wings for Sulfur, male and fixed. The four elements had as their sign, Air a triangle with a higher vertex, crossed by a line parallel to its base, Water taken in the direction of the element: a triangle with a lower vertex, the:

fire: a triangle with a vertex superior, the Earth: a triangle with a lower apex crossed by a line parallel to the base. The pentacle summarizing the signs of the four elements is the six- pointed star.

We find these signs corresponding to the four elements in a figure of Vialorium spagyricum. The elements were still symbolized: Air by a bird; Water by a ship, a fish or a large body of water; Fire by a salamander, a dragon vomiting flames, a lit torch, the Earth by a mountain, a lion king of land animals, or a man. This is how we find them represented at the head of the Gloria mundi printed in the Museun hermeticum. The tree that occupies the center of the figure represents gold, silver and the other five metals. As for the seven smaller figures enclosed in circles, they symbolize various operations of the Great Work (see chapters VI and VII). Finally the square was the synthetic pentacle of the four elements.

We have already spoken about the signs of the seven metals, let us just say about the sign of mercury that some saw the representation of the caduceus, others an Egyptian god with the head of an ibis surmounted by the solar disk and horns, symbols of fertility. Alchemists often represent metals in the form of gods of Olympus, Saturn armed with his scythe is lead, Mars, helmet at the head and spear in hand is iron; Mercury, with its caduceus, its wings at the heels and at the head, is quicksilver, etc. This is what the figure taken from the Viatorium spagyricum represents. A woodcut of the Pretiosa margarita shows us the metals in the form of six young people kneeling at the feet of a King on his throne, which is the seventh and most perfect metal, Gold.

kingdom for each of them. After various episodes, symbolizing the Great Work, the King grants them what they ask for and a final figure represents them crowned, kings in their turn, that is to say changed into Gold; but this rather relates to the symbolism of the Great Work which we treat completely in the following chapters.

Explanation of plate V.

This figure is at the head of the Gloria mundi in the Museum hermeticum. First the Initiator and the Initiate, the old man and the young man. Then universal Matter symbolized by the metallic tree carrying the seven metals, gold and silver with their ordinary symbols, the other metals simply represented by stars. We also see the Elements, the Earth symbolized by the Man and the Lion, Fire symbolized by the Dragon, Water by the sea, the dolphin and the Woman, Air by the bird placed near the Woman. The Seven small accessory figures relate to operations and colors. The Raven and the Skull; Black, mortification. The two crows: distillation. The three crows: sublimation the two birds and the crown: white color, end of the small magisterium. The two birds and the tree, regime of Mars, the colors of the rainbow. The unicorn and the rose bush, red color. Finally, the child who is born indicates the end of the Work, it is the symbol of the perfect Stone (See chapters II, VI and VII.)

CHAPTER III

GENERAL THEORY OF THE GREAT WORK. — THE MATERIAL OF THE GREAT WORK. —.SULFUR AND MERCURY. —THEIR SYMBOLS. — THE DRAGONS OF FLAMEL. — LIST OF HERMETIC SYNONYMS OF SULFUR AND MERCURY.

The Great Work or preparation of the Philosopher's Stone, was as we have already said, the main goal of the alchemists, their treatises generally only focus on this single subject, so in the chapters which follow, we will speak exclusively of the Great Work . But before giving the key to the Hermetic symbols we will explain in a few months the procedure followed by the Alchemists for the preparation of the philosopher's stone, then we will take up each part separately.

The material of the Great Work was Gold and Silver, united with Mercury and prepared in a special way. Gold was taken as rich in Sulphur, Silver as containing very pure Mercury , as for quicksilver it represented Salt, a middle term of union. These three bodies prepared according to certain processes were enclosed in a glass matrass, the philosophical egg, carefully closed. Everything was heated in a furnace called Athanor. As soon as the fire was lit, the Great Work itself began; different phenomena occurred:

crystallizations, release of vapors which then condensed, etc., these constituted the operations. During these operations, Matter took on various colors, which we called the Colors of the Work. Finally the color red announced the end of the Work. We took the matter, we communicated to it a greater power of transmutation using an operation called fermentation and we finally had your Philosopher's Stone.

We will examine the theoretical composition of the Matter of the Great Work. According to alchemical theory, it was rational that the Matter of the philosophers' stone was composed of Sulfur, Mercury and Salt. These three principles taken in a state of absolute purity, united and fired according to the rules of the Art were to compose a new body, which without being a metal in itself could communicate metallic perfection to quicksilver, lead, 'tin.

The Alchemists, when speaking of the Matter of the Stone, sometimes considered it as one, referring to its invariable composition, sometimes as triple, referring to the principles which formed it, sometimes they called it quadruple, replacing the principles by the elements. “This is how our Magisterium is drawn from one, is made with one, and it is composed of four and three are in one” (Arnauld de Villeneuve: The Path of the Path.). One is the Matter of the stone considered as a whole, it is also the single universal Matter. Four: the four elements; three: Sulfur, Mercury and Salt. The four elements are reducible to the three principles, which emerges from another passage from Arnauld de Villeneuve:

composed of four natures: fire, air, water and earth. Mercury is the humid element of the stone, the other element is Magnesia, which is not commonly found. (Letter to the King of Naples). Cold and humid Mercury represents water and air, Magnesia or Sulfur, represents fire and earth, hot and dry. This explains what the Philosophers said enigmatically that the Matter of the stone has three angles in its substance (the three principles),

four angles in its virtue (the elements), two angles in its matter (fixed and volatile) one angle in its root (universal matter). Kabbalistically the number of matter is 10, because by translating this paragraph into numbers we find l+2 +3+4=10. They still said that Matter is vegetable, animal and mineral. Vegetable because it has a spirit, mineral because it has a body and animal because it has a soul; here we again find the trilogy: Sulfur, Mercury, Salt: “This Salt, this Sulfur, this Mercury, which are the body, the spirit and the soul, all three emerge from the chaos where they were in confusion or rather from the sea of philosophers” (Psalter of Hermophilus). This sea of philosophers, this chaos, designates the unity of Matter. This symbolic pitching has ruined many blowers, instead of working on metals, taking the words of the philosophers literally, they spent their lives distilling plants, urine, excrement, hair, milk, hoping to finally find the Matter of the stone of the wise.

A triangle or a square symbolized the Matter of the stone, depending on whether it was considered to be formed of principles or elements. Sometimes this triangle is enclosed in a square, such is the symbol at the top of this volume, it was taken from the treatise entitled: “The Great Work revealed in favor of the children of light. » The matter therefore had the same composition as the metals: “Examine carefully what the metal is made of. Truly I tell you that in this consists all the work of the wise” (Text of Alchymia).

But as we have seen, a large number of philosophers have passed over in silence Salt as the third principle of metals and they have barely concerned themselves with Sulfur and Mercury , they gave to the mixture of Sulfur and Mercury, prepared for the Work, the name of Rebis. Philippe Rouillac gives this word the following etymology: “This is why the Philosophers called the material of their blessed stone: Rebis, which is a Latin word formed from Res and Bis, which is as much as saying one thing two, wanting us induce to look for two things, which are not two, but only one thing, which they called Sulfur and Mercury” (Abridged of the great work by Ph. Rouillac, cordelier).

Sulfur and Mercury, male and female principles, were symbolized by a man and a woman, usually a king and a queen. This is how they are represented in the Great Rosary printed in volume II, page 243 of the Artis Aureferœ. It is again under the symbol of the king and the queen that they are represented in the first symbol of the twelve keys of Basil Valentin, page 393 of the Muséum hermeticum.

The union of king and queen constituted philosophical marriage. “Be warned, my son, that our work is a philosophical marriage which must be composed of male and female” (Ph. Rouillac: Abridged of the great work). It is strictly speaking after this marriage: or union, that the matter took the name of Rebis; Rebis was symbolized by a human body surmounted by two heads, one of a man, one of a woman. This chemical hermaphrodite is common in hermetic treatises. It is found in particular at the head of: De Alchimia opuscula complura, then in the Viatorium spagyricum. in the German translation of Northon's “Crede Mihi, etc.

In the Hermetic manuscript treatises the king is dressed in red, and the queen in white, because Sulfur is red and Mercury white. “This is our double Mercury, this matter that is white on the outside, red on the inside” (Text of Alchymia).

Sulfur and Mercury were also represented by the signs of gold and silver, this indicated that Sulfur must be taken from gold and Mercury from silver. We find the signs of gold and silver corresponding to those of Sulfur and Mercury in one of the pentacles of: “Liber singularis de Alchimia,” by Barchusen. This point will be developed in the following chapter.

Sulfur being fixed in its essence and Mercury volatile, the alchemists represented Sulfur by the lion, king of terrestrial animals and Mercury by the eagle, king of birds: “Mercury , of the philosophers, is the volatile part of their subject: the lion is the fixed part, the eagle the volatile part. Philosophers only talk about the fights of these two animals” (Pernety : Egyptian fables.) Consequently an eagle devouring a lion will signify the volatilization of the fixed; conversely, a lion slaying an eagle will mean the fixation of Mercury by Sulfur. Let us say in passing that the word eagle has a different meaning in Philalethes from that in us.

have just given, it is for him the symbol of sublimation as an operation, thus seven eagles, signified, Seven sublimations (see: Open entrance to the closed palace of the king.) We still used in the same sense the symbol of two serpents, one of which is winged and the other wingless, the winged serpent is the volatile principle, Mercury; the fixed principle. Sulphur, is represented by the wingless serpent.

two serpents, one winged, the other without wings, which signify the two spirits, fixed and volatile, united together. » (Lebreton; Keys to Spagyric Philosophy). The two serpents are sometimes united, as in the caduceus of Mercury, sometimes separated.

In the figures of Abraham the Jew there is represented a serpent nailed to a cross, which alchemically means that the volatile must be fixed.

Dragons have absolutely the same meaning as snakes. The wingless dragon found in the figures of Abraham the Jew and Nicolas Flamel is the fixed, male Sulfur , the winged dragon is the volatile and female Mercury. “Consider these two dragons, for this are the true principles of the philosophy of the wise... The one who is below without wings is the fixed or the male, the one who is above is the volatile or the black and obscure female who will take dominance for several months. The first is called Sulfur or calidity and dryness and the second Quick silver, or frigidity and humidity. They are the Sun and the Moon of mercurial source and sulphurous origin” (The book by Nicolas Flamel). Flamel 's dragons were famous among alchemists and often quoted: “Flamel wants them to be two dragons, one of which has wings and the other has none. He explains them himself, one is male, the other female, one is the fixed, the other the volatile one Sulfur, and the other Mercury, which are not the Sulfur and Mercury of the vulgar, but those of the philosophers. ( Ariadne's net.)

A single dragon can represent the three principles but then it has three heads: "The golden fleece is guarded by a dragon with three heads, one is water, the second is 'is the earth, the third is the air. These three heads must unite into one which will be strong and powerful enough to devour all the other dragons” (D’Espagnet: Arcana of the Philosophy of Hermes). Water is Mercuce, earth is Sulfur and air is Salt.

Three snakes in a chalice, indicate the three bodies composing the material of the stone, placed in the philosophical egg, this symbol generally accompanies the chemical Hermaphrodite.

Why did alchemists represent Sulfur and Mercury as dragons? Flamel will answer us: “The reason why I painted these two sperms in the shape of dragons is because their stench is very great like that of dragons” (Flamel's book).

We have spoken about the main symbols of Sulfur and Mercury, there are an infinite number of others which we will easily understand if we remember this rule: “Sulphur being fixed and male, Mercury volatile and female, we will represent them either by things naturally opposites (fixed and volatile), or by animals of different sexes (male and female). In Lambsprinck's figures, we find them in the form of two fish, then a lion and a lioness and a stag, a unicorn, finally two eagles. The most used symbol is that of two dogs, Sulfur was called the dog of Corascene and Mercury, the dog of Armenia: “ My son, take the male dog of the mountain of Corascene and the bitch of Armenia, join them together and will generate” (Calid: Secrets of Alquimie).

Sulfur and Mercury have a very large number of synonyms, the main ones of which it is essential to know. Synonyms for Sulfur: gum, oil, sun, fixity, red stone, curd, saffron, poppy, red brass, dry, tincture, fire, spirit, agent, blood, red man, living earth, Gabricius, king, husband, dragon without wings, male serpent, lion, dog of Corascene, brass, burnt, philosophical gold, etc. Synonyms of Mercury: female principle, white, Beïa, moon, silver, white gold, raw gold, azoth, water, milk, white covering, white manna, white urine, cold, humidity, body, womb, white woman, changing habit, volatile, patient, virginal milk, white lead, glass, white flower, fleur de sel, bark, veil, venom, alum, vitriol, air, wind, rainbow, cloud, etc.

Explanation of plate VI

Figure I (taken from Jamshaler's Viatoriun spagyricum). Symbols of the four elements, refer to plate II which will give the meaning of the triangles, signs of the elements (See chapter II).

Figure II (taken from the Azoth of the Philosophers, printed in volume II of the Biblioteca chimica Mangeli). The signs of the seven metals. In the middle Rebis, the chemical hermaphrodite, man and woman, fixed and volatile, Sulfur and Mercury, The winged globe, symbol of Matter, set in motion by the Force, the Archaeus. The Dragon, symbol of the unity of Matter. The Triangle: the three principles. The Square and the Cross, the four elements (See chapters II, III and IV).

Explanation of Plate VII

Figure I (Taken from Viatorium spagyricum).

The seven metals symbolized by the divinities of Pagan Olympus, Apollo, Diana, Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Mars, Venus (See chapter II).

Figure II (Taken from Margarta pretiosa).

The King represents Gold, the children kneeling at his feet represent the six other metals. They implore Gold to communicate its perfection to them (See Chapter II)

Explanation of Plate VIII

Figure I—(Taken from a German edition of Northon's Crede Mihi.) Rebis, the chemical hermaphrodite, Sulfur and Mercury , lying in a garden surrounded by walls which symbolize the triple vessel: Athanor, sand bath, philosophical egg. Mercury has the same meaning, placed near Rebis it indicates that the hermaphrodite is the Mercury of the philosophers taken in the sense of Matter of the Great Work (See chapters III and IV).

Figure II — (Taken from Viatorium spagyricum). We find Rebis. The raven, symbol of black, means that the philosophical marriage, the union of Sulfur and Mercury, of the male and the female takes place during the color black. The three snakes, symbols of the three principles. The crescent and the lunar tree mean that this is the White Stone, the small magisterium (See chapters II, III and IV).

CHAPTER IV

PRACTICE OF THE MATERIAL OR GRANB-ŒUVRK. THE TWO WAYS.—GOLD AND SILVER.—THEIR. PURIFICATION. — THE FOUNTAIN OF THE PHILOSOPHERS.—BATH OF THE KING AND QUEEN. — DISSOLUTION OF GOLD AND SILVER. — THE LITTLE MAGISTRY AND THE GREAT CEUVRE.

In the previous chapter we saw that alchemists took Sulfur, Mercury and Salt extracted from metals as the material for stone. But here they could use several methods which all led them to the same goal, this is how certain alchemists claimed to extract matter, from tin, from lead, from vitriol. We will come back to this point.

As for the general progress of the great work, the most illustrious masters of hermeticism recognized only one: “There is only one stone, only one way of operating, only one fire, only one way of cooking, to achieve white and red, and everything is perfected in a single vessel” (Avicenna: Declaratio lapidis physici). However, from the 17th century onwards, alchemists distinguished two paths, wet and dry. “They call the wet method, the following operation, the Sulfur and Mercury of the philosophers are cooked at a moderate fire in a closed vessel until the matter becomes black, we increase the fire and it finally becomes white a lighter fire violate the dye red......; the dry way consists of taking the celestial Salt, which is the Mercury of the philosophers, mixing it with an earthly metallic body and putting it in a crucible, over an open fire, in four days, the work is perfect.

the artist of whom Helvétius mentions in his: “Golden Calf” (Barchusen: Liber singularis de Alchimia).

But this dry way was very little honored and we do not know of any Special treatise on this subject; therefore we will only deal with the wet method universally recognized by followers of all countries and all centuries.

Sulfur, Mercury and Salt constitute the material of the stone, but all bodies contain these three principles. Where to extract them more specifically? It was here that the Blowers wandered, taking the words of the philosophers literally, they did not know how to distinguish the fact from its symbol.

Sulfur is called red flower, the material of the stone is still called vegetable, metal tree, the Blowers hastened to pound herbs; to collect juices, to distill flowers; elsewhere the material of the stone was called blood, menstruation, hair, dog, eagle, etc.; we also say that matter is a vile thing, that we find it everywhere; what causes of error! Generally the unfortunate prompters were surprised at not having succeeded and blamed everything except their ignorance and ineptitude; They thus paraded through their stills the most varied and bizarre products. “I collected a pound of snot, sputum, urine and fecal matter from each person, which I mixed together and put in a still to extract the essence, which being all extracted, I made a salt, which I tried in the transmutation of metals, but in vain, I did not succeed" (de la Martinière: The unknown chemical, or the imposture of the Philosopher's Stone.)

Hermetic philosophers are unanimous in saying that matter must be sought in metals; because the goal of the great work is to make gold, gold is a metal, we must therefore address the metals: “Nature takes its frolics with Nature and Nature contains nature, and Nature knows how to overcome Nature” ( Text of Alchymia). This famous axiom, which put Bernard the Trevisan on the path, is found in the Physics and Mystics of Democritus the mystagogue, Greek alchemist: “Nature triumphs over nature. » The followers kept repeating this formula in all its forms, thus Arnauld deVilleneuve in his: Flos florum, says the same thing. “Man only produces men, the horse only produces horses, likewise metals can only be produced by their own seed. » Here is another quote designed in the same spirit. “Now you, my son, go to the Farmer and ask him what is the seed and what is the harvest.

You will learn from him that he who sows wheat reaps wheat, and he who sows barley reaps barley. These things, my son, will lead you to the idea of creation and generation. Remember that man begets man, lion begets lion, and dog begets dog. This is how gold produces gold, that is the whole mystery” (Epistle of Isis on Sacred Art; Greek ms.; passage already cited by Hœffer). So matter must be drawn from metals, but from which metals? perfect metals , that is to say Gold and Silver, the Sun and the Moon. “The sun is his father, the moon is his mother” (Emeraude Table of Hermes). “The material from which the sovereign medicine of philosophers is extracted is only very pure gold and very fine silver and our quicksilver” (Bernard le Trévisan: The Abandoned Word). “Gold, Silver and Mercury constitute the material of the stone, paraphrasis Arnaldi).

The passages indicating gold, silver and mercury as materials are innumerable: the preceding ones are sufficiently explicit, especially that of Libavius. Here is a very interesting last one. “But I tell you, work with Mercury and its ilk, above all you will not add anything foreign; know, however, that gold and silver are not foreign to mercury”
(Saint Thomas Aquinas: Secrets of Alchemy). Which is to say: work with mercury, gold and silver.

But these three metals only constituted the material distant from the stone, the neighboring material is Sulfur, Mercury and Salt which are taken from it. From gold we get Sulfur, from silver Mercury, and common quicksilver Salt. According to the theorists of Alchemy (Roger Bacon in particular in his Mirror of Alchemy), gold contains a sulfur — very pure, fixed, red, non-combustible principle, and silver contains a Mercury — pure principle , more or less volatile , shiny, white. As for the Salt, it was supplied by quicksilver. The material of the stone therefore consisted of bodies extracted from gold and silver. “There are other philosophers who claim that we extract the stone of Mercury not from the vulgar, but from that which we can extract with the help of Art, from perfect metals like the Sun and the Moon” (Albert the Great : Concordance of Philosophers on the Great Work).

contradiction with what we said above, it is not at all, the philosophers often designated under the name of Mercury of the philosophers, the material of the stone considered as a whole; thus this word Mercury has four different meanings, it can designate: 1° the metal, 2° the principle, 3° the silver prepared for the Work, 4° the material of the stone. It is in this latter sense that it must be understood in this passage;

“It is the Mercury of Mercurys
“And many people take their cures
“To find it for their business
“For it is not vulgar Mercury”.
(Jehan De La Fontaine: The fountain of science lovers).

On the contrary, it is in the sense of silver prepared for the Work, of Mercury—a principle extracted from money—that we speak of it in this quotation:

“Could you fix the Quicksilver
“Cil that is volatile and vulgar
“And not the eyelash of which I make metal?
“Poor man, you are very mistaken!
“By this path you will do nothing
“If you do not walk, others will not”.
(JEAN DE MEUNG: Nature's lament to the wandering alchemist).

We have already said that Salt as the third principle is barely mentioned by the ancients? alchemists, so they often only speak of Sulfur and Mercury, gold and silver, sun and moon. To embarrass the vulgar they took pleasure in taking these terms one after the other for others., “The Sun is the father of all metals, the Moon is their mother, although the Moon receives its light from the Sun. The entire magisterium depends on these two planets” (R. Lulle: the Clavicle). In the first sentence. Sun and Moon are synonymous with Sulfur and Mercury, universal principles, in the second, they mean Sulfur and Mercury, matter of the Work. These four terms could therefore be taken two by two as absolute synonyms.

A Barchusen figure represents the sign of Sulfur corresponding to that of the Sun, gold, and that of Mercury to that of the Moon, silver. The symbols of Sulfur and Mercury principles are therefore applicable to those of Sulfur and Mercury, the material of stone, to Gold and to money (For these symbols, see chapters II and III of this second part).

The Gold and silver prepared for the work were called the gold and silver of the philosophers. They were first purified, which is why Rhases says: “The beginning of our work is to sublimate” (Book of Lights). Sublimate, that is to say, purify. This is how Grever says: “The gold of the common people is impure, soiled by the presence of foreign metals, sour, diseased, and for that reason even sterile, the same is common silver. On the contrary, the Sun and the Moon of the philosophers are the purest, they are not contaminated by any foreign mixture, healthy, valiant, more abundant in generative seed” (Grever: Secretum nobilissimum).

their perfection was increased, and they were thus given the faculty of growing in perfection during the great work. “Vulgar Gold is simply perfect by nature, that is to say, it only has as much perfection as it needs to be perfect, without it being able to share it with the metals . imperfect and therefore if we want the vulgar gold to introduce the form of vulgar Gold into the imperfect metals to perfect them, it is necessary that the vulgar gold be made more than perfect” (Colleson: perfect idea of hermetic philosophy) . It is this excess of perfection that gold and silver transmitted to base metals during the phenomenon of transmutation.

Gold was purified by cementation or by antimony and Silver by cupellation, that is to say by lead: “We ask if the perfect bodies or luminaries must be prepared before serving the work . Answer: gold must be purified by cementation and silver by cupellation. Then they must be reduced to filings or leaves similar to those used by painters” (Arnauld de Villeneuve: Quæstiones lam essentiales quam accidentales ad Bonifacium octavum).

All this applies to monetary or commercial Gold and silver, which are always alloyed with foreign metals; we could use native Gold directly, because it is sufficiently pure in itself: “Perfect Gold is found in the bowels of the earth, and it is sometimes found in small pieces and grains like sand. If you can recover some of it, as it is and without being mixed, it is pure enough; otherwise you will have to purge it and purify it with Antimony” (Philalethes: Open entrance to the closed palace of the king). There were, we said, two ways of purifying gold: "Pass the gold through royal cement or through Antimony" (Ph. Rouillac: Abrégé du Grand Œuvre.) The cement or royal cement consisted of , according to Macquer (Dictionary of chemistry.) of fourteen parts of crushed bricks, colcothar), and a part of common salt.

We formed a paste of the whole with water or urine, and put it in a crucible with the gold, superimposing layers of gold and cement alternately. For purification with antimony, we simply melted the gold with the antimony. The collection of money was done by the same processes as ours. To designate these operations, alchemists used a host of symbols. Gold and silver are generally represented by a king dressed in red and a queen in white. “The male is red, the female is white” (Isaac the Dutch: Opera mineralia), gold and silver are thus represented in the great Rosary.

impurities which contaminate them. The next figure of the Rosary represents them naked, that is to say purified, freed of their impurities, of their clothes. The alchemists still said that the king and queen had purified themselves in a bath: “But before crowning the chastity of their love and admitting them to the marital bed, they must be carefully purged of all sin, both original and current . .... So prepare a gentle bath for them, in which you will wash each one in particular, because the less strong and less vigorous female would not be able to withstand the acrimony of a bath as violent as that of the male. It would infallibly be destroyed. It is with the Stibium that you will prepare the male's bath.... will teach you what it should be” (Huginus a Barmâ: The reign of Saturn changed into golden sièlek). We find here allegorically designated the purification of gold by antimony (stibium, in Latin) and of silver by lead (Saturn).

Purification was symbolized by a fountain where the king and queen, the Sun and the Moon came to bathe, we find this symbol in the figures of Abraham the Jew and in the Rosary.

Antimony is symbolized by a wolf and lead by Saturn armed with his scythe. Thus in the first of the figures of Basil Valentin (the 12 keys of wisdom) which relates to purification, antimony symbolized by a wolf is placed on the side of the king, symbol of the Sun, or gold, the operation is carried out in a crucible: the lead symbolized by Saturn is placed on the side of the queen, moon or silver, on this same side is placed a cup. As for the three flowers held by the queen, they indicate that the purification must be repeated three times.

The first figure of Abraham the Jew representing Mercury pursued by Saturn relates to the purification of silver by lead. In fact, the common silver cup loses its weight, because of the foreign metals it contained, the oxides of which are absorbed by the walls of the cup. The alchemists seeing that in this operation the silver had lost its original weight, admitted that its volatile parts had evaporated. Saturn or lead pursues Mercury or money cuts off his legs, that is to say, makes him immobile, fixes him, in a word makes him unalterable. This is the true fixation of Mercury on which so many Blowers have been mistaken.

Purified gold and silver constituted the material removed from the Stone. Sulfur extracted from gold, Mercury extracted from silver, were the next material. All philosophers agree on this last point: “Gold is the most perfect of all metals, it is the father of our Stone, and yet it is not its material: the material of the stone is the seed contained in Gold” (Philalethes: Fountain of chemical philosophy). Likewise: “That is why I advises, oh my friends, to operate on the sun and the moon only after having brought them back to their matter which is the Sulfur and Mercury of the philosophers” (R.. Lulle: the Clavicle). Huginus a Barma said positively “The Sulfur of Gold is the true Sulfur of the philosophers. »

The following procedure was used by the Alchemists to extract Sulfur or Mercury from Gold or Silver: they first dissolved these two metals, following their old axiom: Corpora non agunt nisi soluta. Then they froze these solutions, that is to say, made them crystallize; they then decomposed the salts thus obtained by heat, redissolved the pulverulent gold and silver residue, and after various treatments which varied slightly from one philosopher to another, they finally had Sulfur and Mercury for the stone.

As for Salt, it was generally a volatile mercury salt, such as mercury bichloride or, sublimated corrosive, which the Alchemists called sublimated mercury. Before being transformed into salt, mercury had to be purified by distillation.

We have seen that philosophers used acids to dissolve gold and silver. “ In our stone is hidden all the secret of the magisterium which is the sun, the moon and the brandy” (R. Lulle: Clarification of the will). Brandy refers to acidic liqueurs. “The body must first be dissolved and its pores opened, so that nature can operate” (Le Cosmopolite). It is especially this part of the Great Work that the Alchemists kept secret, it was according to them the most difficult operation to find.
“The hardest work, the entire effort,
is to perfectly prepare the material. »
(AUGUREL: Chrysopée).

Most of the adepts have even passed over this part of the work in silence, and they begin the description of the Great Work by assuming the preparation of the known material. This is what Colleson tells us: “They speak very little and still very obscurely about the first operation of the hermetic Magisterium, without which, however, nothing can be done in reality.

this transmutatory science” (Perfect Idea of Hermetic Philosophy). However we have managed to find some passages to clarify this question, it follows that gold was dissolved in aqua regia and silver in aquaforte or azotic acid, and sometimes in oil of vitriol ( sulfuric acid). Artephius dwells more than any other on the Water or acid used to dissolve gold, he calls it: first mercury, mountain vinegar. “

This water,” he said, “partially dissolves everything that can be melted and liquefied. It is a heavy, viscous, sticky water.... It resolves all bodies into their raw material, that is to say in Sulfur and Quicksilver. If you put any metal in this water, in filings or loose strips, and leave it there for some time at a gentle heat, the metal will completely dissolve and it will be entirely changed into viscous water. .. It increases in weight and color the body leaves” (Artéphius: Secret treatise on the stone of the philosophers). The last paragraph is very correct, the gold chloride obtained by the action of aqua regia on gold is bright yellow and naturally heavier than the metal used. The anonymous author of the Treatise on White and Red, who speaks very openly about the Great Work, operates on the salts obtained by the prior dissolution of Gold and Silver. Here is his recipe for “Water for Gold”.

It's simply aqua regia. “Take blue Hungarian vitriol, very dry, and saltpeter, plus a pound of ammoniac salt. Make an etching from it in a well-lit glass vase, fitted with a glass cover” (Treatise of White and Red). Finally, Riplée goes into detail about the experience. “The body being prepared, pour compound water over it, so that it is covered with a thickness of half an inch. The water will immediately begin to boil on the limes of the body, without any external fire. The body will dissolve and it will be raised to the form of ice by drying everything out (Riplée: MoëlIe d'Alchée).

to crystallize, this last operation was also called freezing or coagulation, “You will know that the whole magisterium consists only of a dissolution and a coagulation” (Albert the Great: The book of eight chapters).

The salts thus obtained were not directly used for the Work: “The salts have no transmutatory quality, they only serve as keys for the preparation of the Stone” (Basile Vatenlin: Triumphal Chariot of Antimony). But they underwent various manipulations after which they were transformed into oxides or back into salts.

Acids were symbolized by lions devouring the Sun or the Moon. Any figure representing the Sun or the Moon, Apollo or Diana, defeated and devoured by strong and courageous animals, such as the lion, the eagle, the tiger, etc., symbolizes the dissolution of precious metals.

Philaethes says: “Before doing the last work, we must find a liquor or humidity in which the gold melts like ice in water.” This acidic water is called Ostrich Stomach, just as the ostrich digests everything, so this liquid dissolves all metals. In the figures that Flamel had sculpted at the cemetery of the Innocents, dissolution is represented by a dragon devouring a man whom it has struck down.

The material prepared by a liquid enclosed in a vial was depicted as in the figure of title of this volume. Finally it was represented by the chemical hermaphrodite: “She is hermaphrodite and she gives growth to all things mingling indifferently with them, because she keeps enclosed within herself all the seeds of the ethereal globe” (Wenceslas Lavinius: Treatise on the Terrestrial Sky ). The hermaphrodite was represented by a body with two heads, he is called Rebis and symbolizes Sulfur and Mercury prepared for the Work. “Richard the English bears witness to me saying: the first material of our stone is called Rebis (twice thing), that is to say a thing which has received from nature a double occult property which makes it give the name of Hermaphrodite” (The Hermetic Triumph).

We cannot do wrong by repeating here what we have already said that the Mercury of the philosophers, when it is given as the only material of the Work, designates the set of bodies entering into the composition of matter. Taken in this sense, it is not a special body, it is the synonym of the material of the work, and this is what emerges perfectly from the following passage from Riplée: “Now, my son, to tell you something thing of the Mercury of the Philosophers, learn that when you have put your brandy with the red man (who is our Magnesia) and with the white woman, who is called albific, and that they will all be conjoined together, so that they are one body, you will have the Mercury of the philosophers” (Riplée: Treatise on Mercury.).

We will end this chapter with a few words on the little magisterium and the 1st Great Work or great Magisterium. The little work or little magisterium was done with Mercury (silver salts), but the philosopher's stone thus obtained was white and only transmuted metals into silver. The Great Work was done with a mixture of gold and silver salts, with Sulfur and Mercury , we obtained the true philosopher's stone, red, transmuting metals into gold.

The two stones and the two magisteriums were represented by trees; one, the lunar tree bears moons as fruit, it is the small work; the other, the polar tree bears suns, it is the symbol of the Great Work. This distinction between two works is old, all Alchemists knew it. “Philosophers expressly affirm that gold first passed through the state of silver. If therefore someone wanted to perfect the Work with silver alone, he could not advance beyond white, and he could only convert imperfect metals into silver, and never into gold” (Vogel: De Lapis physia condittoilibus). Geber recognized two philosopher's stones or elixirs, since he says: "The fermented Moon for the White Elixir is prepared by dissolving the Moon in its corrosive water" (Geber: Book of Furnaces),

The progress of the two works was identical, of the color white, while the great magisterium continued to the color red: the Treatise on white and red also distinguishes the two works, after having spoken throughout the Great Work or work of red, he is content to say that for the small work, it is enough to repeat the same operations working only on the silver dissolved in its special water.

Philosophers have barely dealt with anything other than the Great Work, so we will abandon the minor magisterium. It is however well understood that the furnace, the vessel, the fire, your operations, the colors are similar in both cases, but the Great Work is longer, because after the white color, end of the small work, other colors appear in the big one. In short, in speaking of one, we will implicitly speak of the other.

Explanation of plate IX

Figure I — (Taken from Liber singularis by Barchusen). It indicates that the Sulfur and Mercury of the philosophers are taken from Gold and Silver (See chapter IV).

Figure II — (This is the first of the twelve pentacles accompanying the twelve keys of wisdom of B. Valentin). Purification of gold, the King, by antimony, the wolf in a crucible and silver, the Queen, by lead Saturn, in a cup (See chapter IV).

Explanation of plate X

This figure is in the Museum Hermeticum. The athanor and the main symbolic animals of Hermeticism. This athanor has a somewhat fanciful shape, the main parts. The tower topped with the dome, the sand bath and the philosophical egg. The snake enclosed in the egg represents the material of the stone. The lion is the symbol of the fixed Sulfur, the eagle the symbol of the volatile, Mercury. The serpent and the dragon, symbols of Matter. The crow represents the color black, the swan the color white, the peacock the colors of the rainbow, finally the phoenix symbolizes the color red. (See chapters II, V and VI).

CHAPTER V

THE PHII.OSOPHICAL EGG AND ITS SYMBOLS. — THE SEAL OF HERMES. — THE ATHANOR. — THE FIRE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS. —THE DEGREES.

The material of the stone having been prepared, it was a question of giving it, through careful cooking, the property of transmuting metals. For this the material was enclosed in a small balloon or matra, decorated with the name of philosophical egg; everything was placed on a bowl full of ashes or sand, and the Athanor was heated according to certain rules in a kind of reverberated furnace. Alchemists are generally quite explicit about these incidental parts of the Work. The matras in which the material is placed is called the philosophers' egg, it is a fairly resistant glass balloon, sometimes it is made of terracotta, some used philosophical eggs made of metal, copper or iron. The glass balloon was the most philosophical egg employee. “The vase of Art is the philosophers' egg, which is made of very pure glass, having a neck of medium length; it is necessary that the upper part of the neck can be sealed hermetically and that the capacity of the egg is such that the material put into it only fills a quarter of it” (Huginus a Barma: the Reign of Saturn). Roger Bacon used a glass or earthen vessel indifferently.

“The vessel must be round, with a small neck. It must be made of glass or earth as strong as glass: the opening will be hermetically sealed with a lid and bitumen” (Roger Bacon: Mirror of Alchemy). Philalèthe especially insists on closure and capacity. “Have a ship of glass made in an oval, which is round and large enough to contain an ounce of distilled water in the entire capacity of its body.... It must be sealed at the top with the precaution that there is no crack or any hole, otherwise your work would be lost” (Philalethes: Open entrance to the closed palace of the king).

This vessel was called an egg first because of its shape, then because it, like an egg, had to come out after incubation in the Athanor, the philosopher's stone, the Child crowned and dressed in royal purple, as they said. the Alchemists. It is approximately in this sense that Rouillac gives the etymology of this word: "Everything as an egg has everything it needs." for the generation. From the chicken, nothing needs to be added and there is nothing superfluous that needs to be removed, in the same way, we must enclose in our egg everything that is necessary for the generation of the stone” (Rouillac; Abrégé du Grand Œuvre).

In the passages cited above, we see that the philosophers place great emphasis on the complete closure of the egg, some like Bacon used a lid which they fixed with a lint or with bitumen, but most used the seal of Hermes. Ariadne's Filet , an anonymous treatise, gives us very interesting details about this operation. He gives three ways of hermetically sealing a balloon: l°) the neck was placed on a very hot fire fiery, but separating it from the fire by a pierced tile so that the glass only softened at one point of the neck; when the glass was softened, the neck was cut at this point with a pair of scissors, the cut edges were welded together, just like when you cut a rubber tube; 2°) we softened the neck in the same way then we twisted the neck by pulling lightly, and with the flame of a candle, we melted the pointed end so as to produce a small glass bead; 3°) we heated the opening of the balloon and a glass stopper that could adapt to it, we closed the balloon: with its stopper and we poured glass over it, melted.

Some alchemists preferred to a simple glass flask an apparatus made up of two matras, the neck of one entering the neck of the other. “There are two vessels of the same shape, size and quantity at the top, where the nose of one enters the belly of the other, so that by the action of heat what is in one part, rises in the head of the vessel and then, through the action of coldness, it descends into the belly" (Raymond Lulle: Enlightenment of the will). Likewise "Some use round or oval glass vessels. others prefer the form of aludel, they take a vessel whose short neck penetrates another vessel which serves as a cover, they are read (Libavius: De lapide philosophorum).

They were sealed, either with a resistant lut, or by melting the neck of the first balloon onto the neck of the second. This arrangement offered the following advantages: the vapors condensed more easily on contact with the cold walls of the upper flask, then the interior capacity being greater, the device ran less risk of bursting.

Alchemists gave different names to the philosophical egg. According to Flamel they called it: sphere, green lion, prison, sepulchre, vial, cucurbit, chicken house, nuptial chamber. The names sphere, flask and cucurbit were given to it because of its shape; the expression chicken house is only a periphrasis: bridal chamber, prison, sepulchre, are very understandable images, if we remember that Sulfur and Mercury, the material of stone, were called red man, white woman; the egg was a prison because once the philosophical spouses (the king and queen, the red man and the white woman, Gabricius and Beia) entered it, they were held there until the end of the Artwork. Sepulchre: because the spouses died there, after having placed themselves, after their death their son was born (the stone, philosophical), because all generation proceeds from putrefaction, death generates life, according to a theory in vogue in the Middle Ages (See chapter VII).

This symbol of the sepulcher is quite common to designate the philosophical egg: his wife is only done after having removed their clothes and ornaments, both from the face and from all the rest of the body so that they enter the tomb as clean as when they came into the world” (Basil Valentin: The Twelve Keys of wisdom.) It is in the form of a tomb that he is symbolized in the figures which accompany the Rosary in the “Artis auriferœ quam chemiam vocant”. In the Vialorium spagyricum the egg with the matter is represented by a glass sepulcher in which the king and queen are enclosed. The egg is called the nuptial chamber, the nuptial bed, because it is in it that the conjunction of Sulfur and Mercury, the union of the king and the queen, took place .

In the Green Dream, he is spoken of a completely closed glass house, the spouses are introduced into it and the door is closed with the very material of which the house is made.

The egg was also called womb by analogy, because “The womb of the woman after she has conceived, remains closed and closed, so that no foreign air enters into it and the fruit is lost. Thus our stone must always remain closed in its vessel “(Bernard the Trevisan: the abandoned Word) and also because we enclose the two mineral sperm there.

Sulfur and Mercury from which the stone of the philosophers must be born.

The egg was finally called the mother's womb, mortar, sieve. Screen because the vapors which rise, after being condensed, fall drop by drop like a liquid passing through a sieve.

The filled and closed egg was placed in a bowl or basin containing ashes or fine sand. Helias in his Mirror of Alchemy recommends placing the egg in a cup containing packed ashes, so that the upper two thirds of the ball emerge alone. Some philosophers, instead of the sand bath, used the bain-marie, which they called wet fire.

The bowl and the egg were housed in a special furnace called Athanor, from the Greek word αθανατος, immortal, because the fire once lit, had to burn until the end of the Work. Some alchemists have included various models of Athanor in their works: one of the most curious is found in the “Chymic Bouquet” by Planiscampi. It consists of two adjacent furnaces, in one of the two a fire is made and the gases coming from the combustion, passing through a communication hole, will heat the other furnace. Barchusen's Athanor is an ordinary furnace. But the real Athanor, the one that was known to the first Western alchemists: Albert the Great, Roger Bacon, Arnauld de Villeneuve, is a kind of reverberator furnace that can be dismantled into three parts. The lower part contained the fire, it was pierced with holes to allow air access and presented a door. The middle part, also cylindrical, had three projections arranged in a triangle, on which rested the bowl containing the egg. This part was pierced along one of its diameters with two opposite holes, closed by crystal discs, which made it possible to observe what was happening in the egg. Finally the upper part, solid, spherical, constituted a dome or reflector, reverberating the heat. Such was the Athanor generally in use. The main provisions remained invariable and the changes that the alchemists personally made to them had no importance.

Thus we find figured in the Liber Mutus a fairly elegant athanor in the shape of a crenellated tower.

The symbol of the furnace is a hollow oak, we find it thus represented in your figures of Abraham the Jew.

We gave to the whole: stove, bowl, philosophical egg, the name of triple vessel. “ This earthen vessel is called by philosophers triple vessel because in its middle there is a bowl full of lukewarm ashes, in which the philosophical egg is placed” (The book by Nicolas Flamel).

The alchemists, so jealous of everything concerning the Great Work, were careful to be clear about fire or the degrees of heat necessary for the work. The knowledge of these degrees was considered by them as one of the most important keys to the Great Work “Many many alchemists are in error, because they do not know the disposition of the fire which is the key to the work, because it dissolves and coagulates at the same time what they cannot grasp, because they are blinded by their ignorance” (Raymond Lulle: Vade mecun seu de tincturis compendium). Indeed, once the material was prepared, cooking alone could transform it into a philosopher's stone. “I only command you to cook, cook at the beginning, cook in the middle, cook at the end, and do nothing else” (The Peat of the Philosophers).

Alchemists distinguished several species of fire: wet fire is the water bath which provides a constant temperature; supernatural or artificial fire designated acids, this comes from the fact that alchemists had noticed that acids produce a rise in temperature in their various reactions, and also that they have the same effect on bodies as fire , they disorganize them, quickly destroying their primitive appearance.

Finally, natural, ordinary fire .

In general, alchemists did not use coal or wood to heat the philosophical egg; it would have required continuous monitoring and it would also have been almost impossible to obtain a constant temperature. So Mare Antonio gets angry with the ignorant blowers who used coals; “What good are these violent flames, since the Sages do not use coals, fires, or flaming wood to do the hermetic work” (The light emerging by itself from darkness). The Hermetic philosophers used an oil lamp with an asbestos wick, which is easy to maintain and which provides approximately uniform heat, this is the fire that they hid so much and of which only a few speak openly.

They allowed several degrees of fire, depending on whether the work was more advanced or less advanced; they managed to regulate their fire by increasing the number of strands which made up the wick; “ First make a low fire, as if you had only four threads to your wick, until the material begins to blacken. Then increase, add fourteen threads, the material washes, it becomes gray, finally put twenty-four threads and you will have perfect whiteness” (Happetius, Aphorismi basiliani).

The first degree of fire, that of the beginning of the work, was approximately equivalent to 60 or 70 degrees centigrade: “Make your fire in proportion to the heat in the months of June and July” (Dialogue between Marie and Aros). We must not forget that it is an Egyptian who is speaking; Moreover, the first degree was still called Egyptian fire, precisely because it roughly equals the summer temperature of Egypt.

Some alchemists forgetting this point have indicated for the first degree an average that is too low, such as Ph. Rouillac: "Observe above all the fire and its degrees, that the first be febrile, that is to say, equal to the temperature of the sun at the time of the month of February” (Abstract of the Great Work). We made sure to the first degree that we had reached the desired temperature, by bringing our hand close to the egg, we should be able to touch it without burning ourselves, "You will never let the vessel get too hot, so that you can still touch it with your bare hand without burning yourself. This will last for the duration of the solution” (Riplée: Treatise on the Twelve Doors).

The other degrees are easily found by doubling, tripling, etc., approximately the temperature of the first degree. There were four in all. The second oscillates between the boiling temperature of water and the fusion temperature of ordinary sulfur, the third is a little lower than the fusion of tin and the fourth than that of lead.

The symbols of fire are: scissors, the sword, the spear, the scythe, the hammer, in a word all the instruments capable of producing a wound: “Open his bowels with a blade of steel” says the Text. of Alchemy, speaking of the mineral from which the oil of vitriol is extracted.

In the figures of Abraham the Jew, Saturn, armed with a scythe, indicates that silver must be purified by lead using heat. In the figures of Basil Valentin we also see a knight who fights with the sword two male and female lions, which indicates that it is with fire that the volatile must be fixed. Finally we also find the sword as a symbol of fire in Flamel's sculptures at the cemetery of the Innocents.

To conclude, according to Bernard le Trévisan, here are the qualities that the philosophical fire must have: “Make a vaporous, digesting, continual, non-violent, subtle, surrounded, airy, closed, incombustive, altering fire” (Bernard le Trévisan the Book of Philosophy natural metals).

Explanation of plate XI.

Figure I (German Edition of Crede Hihi).

The double philosophical egg. The two birds indicate that a volatile matter has sublimated in the upper balloon (See chapter V).

Figure II (Viatorium spagyricum).

The King and Queen Sulfur and Mercury, locked in the philosophical sepulchre. The Skeleton indicates that we are during the operation called mortification.

The lame man or Vulcan, symbol of Fire, indicates that we must heat the philosophical egg (See chapter V).

Explanation of plate XII.

Figure I (Margarita pretiosa).

The gold material of the Stone is enclosed in the sepulcher or philosophical egg. But while he was locked up there, he fathered a son, that is to say, a new body was produced, the alchemist buried the father and the son (See chapter V).

Figure II and III (Liber singularis deBacchusen).

Two sealed philosophical eggs, containing the Matter of the Stone, gold and silver. In one there is sublimation, which is indicated by the bird rising. In the other, the sublimated matter has precipitated or condensed, which is indicated by the bird which descends (See chapter VI).

CHAPTER VI

OPERATIONS. — CAUSES OF DIFFERENCES AMONG CHEMISTS REGARDING OPERATIONS. — PUTREFACTION. — THE DIETS OF PHILALÈTBE. — FERMENTATION. — SCREENING. — OPERATIONS SYMBOLS.

The matter being enclosed in the Philosophical Egg and the fire lit, the bodies brought together immediately react on each other. Various chemical actions occurred: precipitation, sublimation, release of gases or vapors, crystallization, etc., at the same time Matter changed color several times. In this chapter we will deal with chemical phenomena called operations by alchemists and in the next we will deal with colors.

Alchemists differ notably from one to another regarding the number and naming of operations. This is understandable, let's take an example: the material emits vapors while becoming black, then the vapors condense and fall back in the form of liquid.

A first alchemist Reconsidering that the whole phenomenon, will give it the name of distillation, because in fact in any distillation we find two parts: vaporization, condensation. Another, distinguishing the phases of the phenomenon, will say that there was sublimation (vaporization) and precipitation (condensation)” a last one taking the black color into consideration will add a third phase: putrefaction. And yet all this will only designate one and the same phenomenon.

The same goes for all your other operations.

Also note your big differences from one philosopher to another. While Pernety establishes twelve operations: calcination, freezing, fixation, dissolution, digestion distillation, sublimation, separation, inceration, fermentation, multiplication, projection, Bernard the Trevisan only admits one.

“As much as philosophers divide the magisterium into several operations according to the degree of the forms and their diversities, however there is only one in the formation of the egg” (Bernard le Trévisan, De la nature de l 'egg ).

But this is a slightly paradoxical opinion, and other alchemists analyze it a little further. Helias counts seven operations: sublimation, calcination solution, ablution, ceration, coagulation, fixation" and Albert the Great four: purification, washing, reduction fixation"

What contributes not a little to confusing the question is that some count the operations from there preparation of Matter, while the others begin to count only from the moment when Matter is enclosed in the egg. But, in short, we can divide the Great Work into four parts: 1° Preparation of the Matter; 2° Cooking in the philosophical egg and appearance of the colors in the desired order; 3° Operations aimed at giving the Philosopher's Stone greater strength, these are fixation and fermentation . 4° Finally, the transmutation using the Stone of base metals into gold and silver is projection.

All the various operations which take place during the Great Work can be reduced to one , cooking, because everything is done by fire. This is, moreover, what Alain de Lille says: “The names of decoction, commixtion, mixture, sublimation, contrition, drying, ignition, dealbation, rubification and whatever other name we can call the operation, it is only one regime, which we simply call contrition, decoction". Basil Valentin admits only two operations, solution and coagulation, that is to say successive passages of Matter from the state of rest to the state of movement "The Spirit: Ignis et azoth tibi sufficiunt . Albert: O heavenly word, how should I do this. The spirit: Solve, coagula, dissolve and coagulate” (Colloquium of the Spirit of Mercury with Brother Albert).

Despite this great diversity of opinions, we will try to shed some light on this chaos. The first operation (the Matter being prepared), is the conjunction or coitus. It is the union of Sulfur and Mercury, of male and female. We heat up and the black color appears. It is then putrefaction. We will see later why the name putrefaction was given to all the phenomena which occur while matter is black.

Many names have been given to putrefaction. Here are its main synonyms: Death, destruction, perdition, calcination, denudation, separation, crushing, assation, extraction, commixtion, liquefaction, division, distillation, corruption, impregnation.

Following this putrefaction comes ablution. This operation consists of revealing the whiteness after blackness, to wash, so to speak, the stone, since from black it becomes white. Philosophers have symbolized ablution by the salamander which is purified in the fire, by asbestos or asbestos which the flame whitens without consuming it. “Ablution is nothing other than the abstraction of blackness, stain, defilement and filthiness, which is made by the continuation of the second degree of the fire of Egypt” (Rouillac the Abrégé du Grand Œuvre).

Ablution is also called: dealbation, abstersion, resurrection.

Finally comes rubification, characterized by the appearance of your red color indicating that the work is perfect. With this classification based on the succession of colors we can bring back all the operations that the alchemists imagined.

Philalethes himself links the operations to colors, he does not give them particular names, he is content to designate them by the names of the metals, which served as symbols for the colors (See, chapter VI l). Here is the summary of what he says on this subject in “The Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King”.

“1° Regime of Mercury: matter passes through various colors, stops a little at green and finally blackens. It lasts fifty days. Colored vapors which rise, condense and fall to the bottom on the solid matter.

2° Regime of Saturn. It's darkness. The matter is molten black, it boils, other times it solidifies. This regime lasts forty days, 3° Jupiter Diet. From black to the beginning of white. Vapors and condensation. “During this time all kinds of colors that one cannot imagine will appear, the rains will then be more abundant from day to day and finally, after all these things, which are (very pleasant to see), it appears on the side of the produces a whiteness in the form of small filaments or like hair." This regime lasts twenty-one days. 4° Regime of the Moon. It is perfect whiteness; the duration is three weeks, the matter solidifies and liquefies alternately several times a day. It is finally in the form of small white grains. 5° Regime of Venus. The material changes from white to green, blue livid, red-brown. It melts and expands. This lasts forty days. 6° Regime of Mars: The matter dries up, it is successively orange and yellow-brown, then it presents the colors of the iris, this lasts forty-five days. 7° Regime of the Sun: the matter changes from orange to red, it emits red vapors, then sags, becomes humid, dries up, flows and solidifies, this several times in a day, finally it begins to little red grains. Philalethes speaks here neither of fermentation nor of projection, he treats these two operations separately. The regimes only understand the phenomena which take place in the philosophical egg.

Fermentation is the operation which follows the appearance of the red color. Its purpose is to increase the power of the Stone and allow it to transmute metals more quickly. Generally the philosophical egg was broken, the red material was collected, it was mixed with molten gold, a friable red mass was obtained, which was subjected to treatments varying from one philosopher to another: according to the Alchemists , the Stone was thus increasing, not only in quantity but also in quality and this indefinitely, we can therefore understand the enthusiastic exclamation of Raymond Lulle “Mare lingerem, si mercurius esset!” » Most philosophers operated in the same way as we have just said. " If you want to use physical tincture to transmute, you will first project one pound in a thousand of molten sun. Only then will medicine be ready and capable of making metal leprosy disappear” (Paracelsus: T’inctura physicorum).

Eck. de Sultzbach describes the operation carefully: “Take two marks of pure gold, melt them in a crucible, throw in a quarter of a pound of the above-mentioned medicine, it will immediately be absorbed by the gold and will do nothing more than one with him; project there again a quarter of a pound of medicine to convert all the gold; grind, then expose to a violent fire and the whole will convert into a red powder like minium.

Project one part of it onto a hundred parts of pure Moon and you will obtain excellent gold” (Eck. of Sultzbach: Clavis philosophorum).

Some alchemists followed another method for fermentation; they took the material red and after having mixed it with sublimated mercury (bichloride of mercury) digested it at gentle heat in a mattress, but the result obtained was the same.

The material being fermented is therefore capable of transmuting metals. The operation by which base metals were changed into gold and silver was called projection. For this we took a metal, mercury, lead, tin, the first was strongly heated without reaching however its boiling point, the other two were simply melted, then into the crucible where the heated metal was located a piece of philosopher's stone wrapped in wax was projected .

We allowed it to cool and we found a gold ingot equal in weight to the metal used according to some, less according to others, which depended on the quality of the elixir or philosopher's stone used. The wax envelope was, it seems, essential, because it was for having neglected this precaution that Helvetius missed his first projection, as he recounts in his “Golden Calf”. He only succeeded in the second by wrapping his fragment of stone in a ball of wax.

We will now look at the symbols of the main operations. The first or conjunction was symbolized by the marriage of Sulfur and Mercury, of the king and your queen. The pentacle of the sixth key of Basil Valentin, which represents the King giving the nuptial ring to the Queen while a bishop blesses them, symbolizes the conjunction. Let's not forget that the conjunction was also called philosophical marriage. In the figures which accompany the great Rosary (printed in the Artis Auriferœ) the conjunction is represented more crudely by the carnal union of the king and the queen.

Putrefaction was symbolized by anything that could recall the idea of death or darkness, corpse, skeleton, crow, etc. This is how in the Viatorium spagiricum putrefaction is symbolized by a skeleton standing on a black sphere, he holds a raven in his right hand. The pentacle of the fourth key of Basil Valentin has the same meaning, it represents a skeleton standing on a catafalque.

Dealblation, an operation which followed putrefaction, was assimilated to resurrection following death , just as white (symbol of life) comes in the work after black (symbol of death ).

The eighth pentacle of Basil Valentin relates to this operation. We can comment on you thus in its double meaning, mystical and alchemical: All life proceeds from corruption and putrefaction. The grain placed in the ground spoils there (according to the ideas popular in the Middle Ages), then it is reborn in the form of wheat. Our body, placed in the ground, decomposes there, but on the day of judgment it will rise again. The matter put into the egg dies, it putrefies, then it is reborn, it loses its blackness, it whitens, it is resurrected.” Two men aim at the target, one hits the mark, he has grasped the meaning of the symbol, the other never reaches it; they are the fool and the wise man of the Tarot.

The dealbation was also called ablution because an internal distillation then took place in the egg, following which the material, washed, so to speak, by this continuous circulation of liquid, whitened.

Viatorium spagiricum: skeletons come out of their tombs, they come back to life, a crowd of birds flutter above, some rise, others descend, which indicates distillation .

Distillation was sometimes broken down into two stages or operations: 1° ascension of vapors or sublimation, symbolized by a bird which rises with its head directed towards the top of the figure; 2° condensation of vapors into liquid: precipitation or descent, symbolized by a bird descending, its head directed towards the bottom of the figure. In the Great Rosary, a child who leaps into the air emerging from the sepulcher where the chemical hermaphrodite is enclosed represents sublimation.

Fixation, the final operation during which the color red appears, is represented in the Vialorium by a newborn child and in Barchusen (Liber singularis de Alchimia), by a young crowned king enclosed in the philosophical egg. In Lambsprinck's figures, the father, the son and the Spirit reigning in their glory have the same meaning.

Explanation of plate XIII.

These two figures are taken from the Viatorium spagyricum.

Figure I.— End of putrefaction, symbolized by the skeletons and the crows, it gives off vapors which condense, the matter is very agitated, which is indicated by the crows flying in all directions (See chapters VI and VII).

Figure II. — Putrefaction symbolized by the skeleton, the black sphere, the raven (See chapters VI and VII).

Explanation of plate XIV.

Figure I. — (Liber singularis de Barchuecn).

The child enclosed in the egg symbolizes the color red which announces the end of the Great Work. (See chapter VII).

Figure II. — (This is the pentacle of the VI key of B. Valentin). Conjunction, union or marriage of the King and Queen, Sulfur and Mercury, Gold and Silver. The Sun and Moon relate to the king and queen. The distillation apparatus and the rain from the bottom indicate that during the operation of the conjunction, phenomena of vapor emission and condensation occur. This has place during the white color symbolized by the swan.

The priest, means of union is Salt. See chapter VI.

CHAPTER VII

THE COLORS OF THE WORK. — CONCORDANCE OF PHILOSOPHERS. — THE MAIN COLORS AND INTERMEDIATE COLORS. — BLACK, ROT, CROW’S HEAD . - THE WHITENESS. — THE IRIS. - THE RED.

During the Great Work, Matter changed color several times. These colors appeared one after the other in an invariable order; their regular succession indicated that the work was well underway. The Greek alchemists already mentioned the colors of matter during the Great Work. They recognized four of them that they assimilated to the four cardinal points. 1° North, metanosis, black; 2° sunset. leukosis, white; 3° midi, iosis, violet; 4° east, yellow or red (See Berthelot: Origins of Alchemy). Since the Greeks, all alchemists have spoken about colors, and they have always agreed among themselves on this point. Their apparent differences come from the fact that some people consider them important and cite colors that others pass over in silence, but these slight differences only concern secondary colors.

We can, in fact, divide the colors of the work into two classes: 1° the main colors, three in number, of which all alchemists speak, are black, white and red; 2° secondary or intermediate colors which serve as a transition from black to white and from white to red. So before black there is a rather confusing mixture of colors; between black and white is gray, between white and red, green and blue, the colors of the rainbow or the solar spectrum, then yellow, orange, and finally the red.

The main colors follow one another in the following order, black, white, red: “This is why the philosophers say: Our stone has three colors, it is black at the beginning, white in the middle, red at the end. » Albert the Great: The Composite of Compounds). Likewise: “This spirit like a phoenix: reborn from its ashes, takes on a black, white, red body” (Precepts of father Abraham to his son). Some philosophers added yellow or orange to the number of main colors, or the colors of the rainbow which they called iris or peacock tail, so that the number of main colors was increased to four, thus : “The critical colors are four in number, black, white, lemon and perfect red. Some philosophers have given them the name of elements” (Huginus a Barma: The Touchstone). But this number of four was never exceeded; only the intermediate colors between white and red were important; alchemists bet little on those which precede black and which are between black and white.

The color symbols are numerous, and very important to know. They only focus on the three or four main colors. They are quite often represented by four birds, the raven represents black, the swan white, the peacock the colors of the iris and the phoenix the redbird. We find them thus figured in the pentacle which accompanies the ninth key of Basil Valentin. Sometimes the phoenix is replaced by a king carrying the scepter, as in Northon's Crede mihi (German translation, at the start of the fifth chapter). The colors were symbolized by the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, winter (seventh key of Basil Valentine).

Colors were also allegorically designated by metals, thus Saturn or lead symbolizes blackness, silver or Moon represents whiteness, copper, redness, Mars or iron represents the Iris. Theobald of Hoghelande in his “Treatise on the Difficulties of Alchemy” says, speaking of the riddles of the philosophers: “At the beginning of the firing, when the stone is black and almost raw, it is called lead, when having lost the blackness it begins to whiten, it is called tin....: it is called gold when it has reached the perfect red.

" A handwritten note that we read in the margins of Geber's Summa in the Library of Chemical Philosophers states the same thing: "Blackness is called lead. This lead naturally changes into silver. » That is to say, after black comes white. Further on, the same hand allegorically indicated the succession of the three colors, in these signs: “ So whiten the lead which will become the moon, roligis the moon.”

Philalethes used the names of metals to designate colors, he speaks of all the colors that appear, main and intermediate.

Here are these “regimes” which we have already spoken about, but from the point of view of operations,

1° Regime of Mercury, as soon as the fire is lit for twenty days, a large number of colors appear, around the thirtieth day green dominates, and this is only on the fortieth day that true darkness appears,

2° Regime of Saturn, it is the color black.

3° Regime of Jupiter, matter takes on all the intermediate colors between black and white.

4° Regime of the Moon is the color white.

5° Regime of Venus where we see green, blue, livid, dark red,

6° Regime of Mars orange-yellow, then the colors of the iris and the peacock's tail .

7° Régime du Soleil is the perfect red.

It can not be any clearer; the reader will therefore easily understand the following passage already cited by Hœffer who heard nothing there:

“After comes black Saturn
“Let Jupiter from his manor
“Issant, rejects the empire
“To which the Moon aspires
“As well done lady Venus
“Who is the brass, I say no more
” Except that Mars ascended on her
“Will be iron the mortal age
“After which will appear
“The Sun when he is reborn”.
(THE GREAT OLYMPUS, philosophical poem).

The colors are mentioned in the desired order and have the same names as in Philalethes.

Let's finish by saying quests metal symbols applied to colors when we designated the colors by the names of the metals.

We also symbolized the colors by fruits; in the following passage, we are talking about the intermediate colors between white and red and red itself. “Then giving the third degree of fire, all kinds of excellent fruits came to grow and grow, like quinces, lemons and oranges pleasant to the sight, which transmuted in a short time into pleasant red apples” (Cassette du petit paysan).

Bernard the Trevisan speaks of colors in allegorical form. “For this, it is said that the thing whose head is red, whose feet are white and whose eyes are black, is the whole magisterium” (The Abandoned Word), and elsewhere “So, I asked him what color the King was? And he answered me that he was dressed in cloth of gold on the first floor. And then he had a black velvet doublet and a snow-white shirt and flesh as sanguine as blood.
(Bernard leTrévisan: the Book of the natural philosophy of metals).

Finally, the colors were assimilated to the four elements: “Four colors appear in the work.

Black: like coal; white: like the fleur-de-lis; yellow: like the feet of the bird called merillon; red: like ruby. We call blackness: air, whiteness: earth, yellow : water and red: fire” (David Lagneau: Harmonia chimica).

It must be added that the alchemists varied in the application of the names of the elements to the colors, one called the darkness air, and another called it earth, so the following passage differs notably in this respect from the preceding one. “In the first regime the stone is black, we calls it Saturn, earth, and names of all black things. Then, when it whitens, it is called living water and names of all waters, salts, white earth. Then when it yellows and sublimates , it is called air yellow oil and the names of all volatile things. Finally, when it turns red, we call it sky, red sulfur, gold, carbuncle and the names of all precious red things, whether mineral, animal or vegetable” (Changor buccinœ).

We will now look specifically at the three main colors, black, white and red. The first to appear is black, the alchemists have spent a lot of time on this color because it is what indicates that the work is on the right path: “The matter put moving in suitable heat begins to turn black. This color is the key and the beginning of the work. It is in it that all the other colors, white, yellow and red, are understood” (Huginus a Barma: The reign of Saturn).

The Hermetic philosophers gave several names to black. “It is blackness, a sign of putrefaction; philosophers called it west, darkness, eclipse, leprosy, raven's head, death “(Ariadne Net).

But its main symbol was the raven. “Know also that the raven which flies without wings in the darkness of the night and in the light of the day, is the head or the beginning of art” (Hermes; The Seven Chapters). It was also called crow's head. “The index of this fertilization is this Aleph or dark beginning which the ancients called a raven's head” (Huginus a Barma: The reign of Saturn). According to Rouillac (Abrégé du Grand Œuvre) black was symbolized by the crow, because, he says, crows are born white and their parents abandon them until they have black feathers like them, likewise the alchemist must abandon the work if darkness does not appear. This is then a sign that the work has been failed and that we must start again.

Raven's head, raven, black color, are absolutely synonymous among alchemists. Flamel calls black: “black raven teste of very black black. »

We have also seen that Saturn is the symbol of darkness, and when the philosophers say: “Saturn must overcome all the other planets”; this means that the black color precedes all others in the work.

Black was the indicator of the operation called putrefaction. These terms were often taken interchangeably. Here is the reason, according to a theory popular in the Middle Ages, nothing can be born without putrefaction, life proceeds from it. dead. “It is not possible for there to be any generation without conception” (Huginus a Barma: The Touchstone).

It was believed that flies were born from corrupted silt, and Van Helmont claimed to have seen old rotten linens give birth to mice. This theory applied to the three kingdoms of nature; the beginning of the work must therefore be corruption and putrefaction, after which the vivified matter evolved and perfected itself until it turned red. Furthermore, putrefaction is the symbol of death from which life will spring. Death is night, “black, life is light, white, so we understand why the alchemists called black putrefaction.

“Thus the first operation of our Stone was given the name of putrefaction, because then our Stone is black” (Roger Bacon: Mirror of Alchemy).

The black appears about forty days after we begin to heat the philosophical egg: “Heat the philosophical solution moderately in a hermetically sealed vessel for forty days, until black matter forms on the surface. , which is the head of the raven of philosophers” (Alain de Lille: Dicta Alani de lapidi philosophico).

During darkness, according to Philalèthe and Flamel, there is a strong odor that can be smelled if during this part of the work the vessel ruptures. » Before making, the material is very fetid, but afterward its smell is pleasant; therefore the wise man said: This water removes its odor from the dead and inanimate body” (Morien: De transmusatione metalorum).

The water spoken of here is the liquid formed by the condensation of vapors in the philosophical egg. Indeed, during the dark, yellow, red, green vapors are released (oxygenated compounds of chlorine, chlorine, hypoazotic acid) which fill the egg, these gases mixed with water vapor condense and fall back onto the matter finally no more gas is released , complete darkness arrives, everything is at rest.

The Alchemists dealt at much less length with the color white. After black comes gray “The gray color then appears black” (Handwritten note in the margin of the Library of Chemical Philosophers). Finally white appears but by degrees.

“The sign of perfect whiteness is a small circle? very thin which appears in the vessel at the periphery of matter, its color tends towards orange” (The Ladder of Philosophers). Then this circle grew, it emitted small white extensions, fine convenient hairs (hence the name sometimes: capillary whiteness) converging towards the center, these extensions multiplying , finally the whole mass became white.

Flamel in his book says that whiteness is the symbol of life, black the symbol of death , and that he therefore represented in his hieroglyphics of the cemetery of the Innocents, the body, the spirit and the soul or matter of the stone, like men and women dressed in white, and resurrected from among the tombs, to signify the life-giving whiteness which comes after death , black, putrefaction.

Philosophers have given several names to whiteness: nummus, ethelia, arena, boritis, corsulfe, cambar, albor œris, duenech, ronderic, kukul, thabitris, ebisemeth, ixir.

Finally, as for the allegories and symbols of whiteness, Pernety summarizes them perfectly in his Mytho-Hermetic Dictionary. » Philosophers say that when whiteness comes to the matter of the Great Work, life has conquered death, that their King is resurrected, that the earth and the water have become air, that it is the regime of the Moon, that their child is born, that the sky and the earth are married, because the whiteness indicates the union or marriage of the fixed and the volatile, the male and the female. »

As for the color red, alchemists talk little about it; it indicates the happy ending of the work. The material dries up completely and turns into a bright red powder, we heat it more strongly than we have done before, we break the egg and we have the Philosopher's Stone. “When the stone, having reached red, begins to crack and swell, it is calcined in a streetlight where it finishes setting completely and perfectly. » (Arnauld de Villeneuve: Novum lumen).

The symbol of the completed work is a triangle with a lower apex, the base of which is surmounted by a cross. It is found in the 12th card of the Tarot.

Now that the Great Work is known to us in its practice and in its symbols we can understand the following words which previously would have seemed meaningless to us , if not laughable. “Eximiganus says: Wet, dry, blacken, whiten, pulverize and redden, and you have all the secret of the Art in these few words. The first is black, the second is white, and the third is red, 80, 120, 280, two make them and they are made 120. Gum, milk, marble. Moon, 280, Brass, iron, saffron, blood, 80. Peach, pepper, nuts. If you hear me, you are blessed, otherwise seek nothing more, for everything is in my words “ (The Philosophers' Peat).

Wet, dry, it is the dissolution and crystallization in the preparation of the material (see chapter IV). Blacken, whiten, blush, indication of the three main colors. Pulverize, that is to say act with fire, any violent operation, any instrument capable of producing injury being the symbol of fire (see chapter V). Everything else is about colors. The first is black, etc., that is, the first operation is characterized by black, the second by white, the third by red. Gum, milk, marble, Moon, white symbols. Brass, saffron, iron, blood, symbols of red. Pocket, pepper, nuts, symbols of black and gray. The numbers 80, 120, 280 represent these three colors, and two make them, that is to say Sulfur and Mercury alone are sufficient to perfect the Work by passing successively through the three colors.

Fortunately, alchemy treatises are not all as obscure as the Philosophers' Peat, and we can very easily understand them and disentangle the truth from the falsehood with a little reflection. To those who would like to delve further into the study of hermeticism we recommend the treatises: Albert the Great, Roger Bacon, Bernard the Trévisan, d'Espagnet, Flaimel, Huginus a Barma, Khunrath, Raymond Lulle, Paracelsus, Philalethes, Riplée, Sendivogius, Basile Valentin, Arnauld de Villeneuve and Denis Zachaire, and among the anonymous treatises 'the Text of Alchymia and the Peat of the Philosophers.

Explanation of plate XV.

Figure I — (German edition of Crede Mihi).

The King and Queen, Gold, and Silver. The three-headed Serpent, the triune Matter, one in its essence, triple in its Form Sulfur, Salt and Mercury. The raven, symbol of black, the swan of white, the peacock of the colors of the rainbow and the king dressed in purple, symbol of red (See chapters II, IV and VII).

Figure II. — (Pentacle of the ninth key of B.Valentin.

The red man and the white woman. Fixed and Votatil, Sulfur and Mercury. The three serpents: the three principles. The black raven. The swan: white color. The peacock: color of the rainbow. The phoenix: red color (See chapters II, IV and VII).

CHAPTER VIII

THE PHILOSOPHAL STONE. — TEST OF THE STONE. — ITS PROPERTIES. — TRANSMUTATION OF METALS. — THE ELIXIR OF LONG LIFE. — ITS EFFECTS ON THE SOUL.

The Work having reached red, the matter having been fermented, we had the Philosopher's Stone or red elixir or great magisterium. We know, in fact, that the material that had reached white was called white elixir, small magisterium, but this small magisterium did not transmute the metals than silver, the great magisterium transmuted into gold and also possessed many other properties, we will only speak of the latter.

The Philosopher's Stone was in the form of a bright red powder, quite heavy.

However, these physical characteristics were not enough for the alchemists; to ensure the quality, they projected it onto a red-hot metal blade, the stone had to melt without spreading smoke: “Take a clean blade of brass, rub it and polish it, place a little your material and place it on glowing coals. If the material melts and spreads on the hot blade, your medicine is perfect; then give thanks to God” (Isaac the Dutch: Opera mineralia.).

Grever says almost the same thing: “Take a grain of your red material, place it on a blade of iron or copper and heat strongly until the blade whitens. If then no smoke arises, and the material removed from the fire has lost nothing either in weight or volume, it is of good quality” (Secretum nobilisimum). Calid adds some details: “When the stone is finished, we put a piece of it on a hot iron or on a strongly heated plate of brass or silver, if then it flows like wax, without smoking, adhering strongly to the metal, it is perfect” (Book of Three Words).

The happy alchemist who possessed the Philosopher's Stone took the name of adept, from then on use the marvelous properties of the Stone for his own benefit. Denis Zachaire in his Opuscule on the natural philosophy of metals and Philàlèthes in the Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King, recognize three properties: 1° Transmute metals into gold and silver. 2° Produce precious stones. 3° Maintain health.

The Greek alchemists only recognized in the Red Elixir the property of transmuting metals; it was only later that a host of other properties were assigned to it. Alchemists do not agree on the results of transmutations using the Stone. According to some, only a small ingot was obtained, only part of the metal was transformed into gold, according to others all the metal was changed into a mass of gold of the same weight. “From an ounce of this projection powder, white or red, you will make Suns in infinite number and you will transmute into Moon any kind of metal coming out of a mine” (R. Lulle: the Clavicle). and “You will project this matter onto a thousand parts of common mercury and it will be transmuted into fine gold” (Same work).

Roger Bacon states the same thing at the end of his Mirror of Alchemy. But the Stone could have a greater or lesser virtue depending on whether it had been fermented more or less times: “So that after an operation a part of the Elixir changes a hundred parts of any body into a Moon, after two operations: one thousand, after three: ten thousand, four: a hundred thousand, after five: a million, after six operations thousands of thousands and so on ad infinitum” (Albert the Great: the compound of compounds). Albert the Great was however surpassed by an alchemist who claimed that the gold produced by the Hermetic Art was in turn endowed with the property of transmuting metals into gold!

The Stone not only healed the base metals of their leprosy, that is to say their inferiority, but by analogy it cured man of all kinds of illnesses and infirmities; it even prolonged life, its infusion in alcohol constituted the Elixir of long life.

Artephius claims by his usage to have reached the age of over a thousand years. John of Lasnioro even insinuates that she resurrects the dead: “I tell you the truth if a half-dead man could contemplate the beauty and Goodness of our Stone, all kinds (infirmity would depart from him; were he even at agony, he would resurrect" (Jean de Lasnioro. Tractatus aureus de lapide pltilosophico).

Some philosophers have given details on the therapeutic action of the Philosopher's Stone. According to Arnauld de Villeneuve: "It preserves health, it increases courage She makes an old man a young man. She drives away all acridity, she removes poison from the heart, she moistens the arteries, strengthens the lungs, purifies the blood and heals wounds. If the illness is a month old, it is cured in a day, if it is a year old, it is cured in twelve days, and if it is several years old, in a month you are cured” (The Rosary ). The anonymous author of Aurora consurgens attributes even more special properties to it: “It restores spoiled, sour wine....it destroys the wisps; it makes wrinkles and freckles completely disappear , it gives women a youthful face, it helps with parturition; in the form of a plaster it expels the dead fetus; it makes you urinate; it excites and gives strength for the act of Venus; it dispels drunkenness; it restores memory...” (Aurora consurgens).

Khunrath admits its influence not only on the body, but also on the mind and soul. “If the stone is administered to a sick person, it expels all illnesses from both the soul and the body. It drives away leprosy, dropsy, epilepsy, apoplexy, deafness, blindness, madness, pride and ignorance (H. Khunrath: Confession of chao physo chemicorum).

Likewise “ With the help of Almighty God, this stone will deliver you and protect you from illnesses, however great they may be; it will preserve you from all sadness and affliction and from everything that could harm you in body and spirit” (Hermes: The Seven Chapters).

Not only did she heal the attacked motal, even gave the power to command nature and see God in his glory. “He further meditated that if for nine consecutive days I used nine drops or nine grains of the Stone, I would be gifted with angelic intelligence and that it would seem to me to be in Paradise” (Cassette du petit paysan).

Sperber goes more. far: "Finally it purifies and illuminates the body and soul so much that the one who possesses it, sees as in a mirror all the celestial movements of the constellations and the influences of the stars, even without looking at the firmament, with the windows closed, in its room” (Sperber: Isagoge de materia lapidis).

In a word, the adept can contemplate the invisible world closed to other men.

We saw that the Philosopher's Stone produced precious stones, that it united several small pearls into one, finally the last marvel: the "Clangor Buccinœ" tells us that it makes glass malleable!

We have now reached the end of our volume; we can affirm that the person who has read it carefully and who has retained the main features, is able to understand any treatise on alchemy, however allegorical it may be. Attached is a pentacle of B. Valentin whose meaning we leave to the reader to find.

DICTIONARY OF HERMETIC SYMBOLS

In the second part of this work we explained the hermetic symbols, but in taking a theory and relating its symbols to it. We are now going to do the opposite:

take the symbol and say what we can relate it to. One complements the other; we will be able to decipher an alchemical figure using this summary, then shed light on its meaning by referring to the different chapters of this second part.

Angel. — Sometimes symbolizes sublimation, the ascension of a volatile principle, as in the figures of Viatorium spagyricum.

Eagle. — Symbol of volatilization and also of the acids used in the work. An eagle devouring a lion signifies the volatilization of the fixed by the volatile. Two eagles fighting each other have the same meaning.

Animals. — General rule when we find represented two animals of the same species and of different sex like lion and lioness, dog and bitch, this means Sulfur and Mercury prepared for the Work, or even fixed and volatile. The male represents the fixed, Sulfur; the female represents the volatile, Mercury. These animals are united: conjunction (Figures by Lambsprinck), they fight each other: fixation of the volatile, or volatilization of the fixed, (figures by B. Valentin).

2° A terrestrial animal facing an aerial animal in the same figure: fixed and volatile.
3° Animals can finally symbolize the four elements: Earth (lion, bull), Air (eagle), Water (whale, fish), Fire (salamander, dragon).

Apollo. — Same meaning as the sun.

Trees. — A tree bearing moons signifies lunar work, small magisterium; if it bears suns it is the symbol of the Great Work, solar work: If it bears the signs of the seven metals, or the signs of the sun, the moon and five stars, it represents the unique matter from which are born all metals.

Bath. —Symbol: 1° of the dissolution of gold and silver: 2° of the purification of these two metals.

Square. — Symbol of the four elements.

Chaos. — Symbol of the unity of Matter and sometimes of the color black and putrefaction .

Bedroom. — Symbol of the philosophical egg, when the King and Queen are enclosed there.

Dog. — Symbol of Sulfur, gold. The dog devoured by a wolf signifies the purification of gold by antimony.

Dog and female dog: fixed and volatile.

Circumference. — Unity of matter, universal harmony.

Crow. — Symbol of black color and putrefaction.

Crown. — Symbol of chemical royalty, of metallic perfection. In the Margarita pretiosa, the six metals are first represented as slaves), bareheaded at the foot of the king, gold, but after their transmutation, they have a crown on their heads.

Swan. — Symbol of whiteness.

Diane. — Same meaning as the Moon.

Dragon. — A dragon dying its tail: unity of matter. A dragon in flames : symbol of fire. Several dragons fighting each other indicate rot. Wingless Dragon : Stares at him; winged dragon: the volatile.

Child. — Clothed in royal garb or simply crowned, it is the symbol of the philosopher's stone, sometimes in the color red.

Sword. — Symbol of fire.

Faulx. — Same meaning as the sword.

Flowery. — In general represent the colors of the Great Work.

Fountain. — Three fountains represent the three principles. Fountain where the king and queen come to bathe, see Bath.

Hermaphrodite. — Sulfur and Mercury after the conjunction; often has the word Rebis written on him.

Man and woman. — Sulfur and Mercury. Naked: impure gold and silver. Getting married: conjunction, locked in a sepulchre: Sulfur and Mercury in the philosophical egg.

Jupiter. — Tin symbol.

Lion. — Symbol of the fixed, of Sulfur, when it is alone. If it has wings, it represents the volatile, Mercury.

The lion still represents the mineral (green vitriol) from which the oil of vitriol (sulphuric acid) which was so useful to alchemists is extracted . The lion opposed to three other animals represents the Earth. Finally, it is the symbol of the philosopher's stone. The lioness is the symbol of the volatile.

Lil. — Symbol of the philosophical egg.

Wolf. — Symbol of Antimony.

Moon. — Volatile principle, female, philosophical Mercury, money prepared for the work.

Marriage. — Symbol of the conjunction, union of Sulfur and Mercury, of the king and the queen.

The officiating priest represents Salt, the means of union between the two other principles.

March. — Symbol of iron and the color orange.

Mercury. — Symbol of money(silver) prepared for the work.

Mountain. — Philosophers' Furnace. Top of the philosophical egg.

Neptune. — Symbolizes water.

Birds. — Rising into the sky, volatilization, ascension, sublimation; descending towards the earth, precipitation, condensation. These two symbols united in the same figure, distillation.
Birds opposed to terrestrial animals signify Air or the volatile principle.

Phoenix. — Symbol of the color red.

Rain. — Condensation, white color (albification).

King and Queen. — See man and woman.

Rosé.—The color red. A white rosé opposed to a red rosé: the fixed and the volatile.
Sulfur and Mercury.

Salamander. — Symbol of fire. Sometimes means the color red or white.

Saturn. — Lead symbol. Also figure is the color black, putrefaction.

Sepulcher. — Philosophical egg.

Skeleton. — Putrefaction, black color.

Snake. — In general the same meaning as the dragon. Three serpents, the three principles. The two serpents of the caduceus signify Sulfur and Mercury. Winged serpent, volatile principle; without wings, fixed principle. Crucified snake, fixation of the volatile.

Sun. — Ordinary gold or prepared for the Work, Philosophical Sulfur.

Sphere. — Unity of matter.

Triangle. — Symbol of the three principles.

Venus. — Copper symbol.

Vulcan. — Symbol of fire; usually represented in the form of a lame man.

TABLE OF TREATIES CITED IN THIS WORK.

Abraham. — Precepts and instructions of father Abraham to his son containing true hermetic wisdom.

Abraham the Jew. — Figures.

Alain de Lille. — Dicta Alani de lapide philosophico (Aphorisms on the philosopher's stone).

Albert the Great. — 1° De alchimica (Treatise on alchemy). 2° Concordantia philosophorum de lapide pliilosophico (Concordance of philosophers). ) 3° The Compound of compounds. 4° Liber octo capitulorum de lapide philosophorum (Book of Eight Chapters).

Anonymous. — 1° The Christian Anonymous. 2° Aurora consurgens (The rising of the Dawn), 3° Cassette of the little peasant or the open ark. 4° Clangor buccinae (The blast of the trumpet). 5° Scala philosophorum (The Ladder of Philosophers.) 6° Epistle of Alexander. 7° Epistle of Isis on Sacred Art. 8° Ariadne's net to enter with safety into the labyrinth of hermetic philosophy. 9° Gloria mundi (Glory of the universe), 10° The Great Olympus or poetic philosophy. 11° Janitor Pansophus. 12° Philosophical letter, 13° Altus Mutus liber (The silent book). 14° Psalter of Hermophilus. 15° The Green Dream. 16° The Text of Alchymia. 17° The Philosophers' Peat. 18° Philosophical treatise on white and red. 19° The hermetic triumph. 20° The Great Work revealed in favor of the children of light.

Artephius. — 1° Clavis majoris sapientiae (Key to high sciences). 2° Secret treatise on the philosopher's stone.

From Atremont. — The Tomb of Poverty.

Augurel. — The Avicerinne Crysopeia. — Declaratio lapidis physici (Revelation of the Stone).

Roger Bacon. — Brief breviarium de dono, Dei (Short treatise on the gift of God). 2° Mirror of Alchemy.

Barchusen. — 1° Elementa chemiae (Elements of chemistry). 2° Liber singularis de Alchimisae (Curious treatise on Alchemy).

Barlet. — Ergocosmic theotechnics.

Becher. — Physica subterranae (Underground physics).

Bernard and Trevisan. — 1° Of the nature of the egg. 2° The book of the natural philosophy of metals. 3° The abandoned word.

Berthelot. — l° Introduction to the study of ancient chemistry. 2° The Origins of Alchemy. Berlhetot and Ruelle. — Collection of Greek Alchemists.

Calid. — 1° The book of three words. 2° Secret of Alchemy.

G.Claves. — Apologia Chrysopœiœ et Argyropœiœ (Apology for the art of making gold and silver).

Cleopatra. — The Chrysopée.

Collections. — 1° De Alchimia opuscula complura (Collection of various alchemical pamphlets), 2° Auriferœ artis quam chemiam vocant (Collection of treatises on the science called chemistry). 3° Library of Alchemical Philosophers. 4° Five treatises on alchemy. 5° Muséum hermeticum (The Hermetic Museum). 6° Theatrum chimicum (The chemical theater). 7° Bibliotheca chemica Mangeti (Chemical Library of Manget).

Colleson.— Perfect idea of Hermetic philosophy.

J. Dee.— The hieroglyphic Monad.

Democritus. — Physics and mystics.

Sultzback Eck. — Clavis philosophorum (Philosophical key).

From Spain. — Arcana of the philosophy of Hermes. 2° Enchiridion physicœ restituœ (Enchiridion of physics restored).

Fig tree. — Alchemy and the alchemists.

N. Flamel.— 1° Explanation of the figures of the cemetery of the Innocents. 2° Flamel’s book. 3° The summary.

Geber. — 1° The sum of perfection. 2° The book of furnaces.

Strive. — Secretum nobilissimum (The Most High Secret).

Glauber. — l° The Mineral Work. 2" Universal medicine.

Happelius. — Aphorismi basiliani.

Helias. — The Mirror of Alchemy.

Helvetius. — Vitulus aureus (The Golden Calf).

Hermes. — 1° The Emerald Table. 2° The seven chapters .

Hœffer. — History of chemistry.

Th. de Hoghelande. — De difficultatibus alchimiœ (Difficulties of alchemy). Huginus a Barma.— 1° The touchstone. 2° The reign of Saturn changed into a golden age .

Isaac the Dutch. — Opera mineralia (Mineral works).

Jamsthaler. — Viatorium spagyricum (The spagyric baggage).

Jean de Meung.— Nature's complaint to the wandering alchemist.

Jehan de la Fontaine. — The fountain of science lovers.

Johnson.— Lexicon chimicum (Dictionary of Chemistry).

Kircher. — Mundus subterraneus (The underworld).

Khunrath. — 1° Amphitheater sapientiœ aeternae (Amphitheater of eternal wisdom). 2° Confessio de chao physîco chimicorum (Confession of chaos of physico-chemists).

Laciniusi. — Pretiosa margarita (The precious stone)

Lagneau. — Chemical harmony.

Lambspring. — Libellus de lapide philosophico (Little treatise on the philosopher's stone).

J. deLasnioro.— Traclatus aureus de lapide philosophorum (Golden Treatise on the Stone of Philosophers).

Lavimus Wenceslas. — Treatise on the terrestrial sky.

Lebrelon. — Keys to spagyric philosophy.

Libavius. — 1° De lapide philosophorum (Treatise on stone). 2° Paraphrasis Amaldi (Comments on Arn.de Villeneuve).

Libois. — Encyclopedia of gods and heroes.

A. Lulle. — 1° The clavicle. 2° Compendium animae transmutationis (summary of the spirit of transmutation). 3° Clarification of the will. 4° Vade mecum seu de tincturis compendium (Vade mecum or summary of tinctures).

Macquer. — Dictionary of Chemistry.

Mark Antonio. — Light emerging from darkness by itself.

Mary the Jew. — Dialogue between Mary and Aros.

From Martinière. — The unknown chemical.

Morien. — De transmutatione metallorum (Treatise on the transmutation of metals).

Northon. — Crede Mihi (Believe me).

Panthea. — 1° Ars et theoria transmutationis metallicae (Theory and practice of metallic transmutation). 2° Voarchadumia.

Paracelsus. — 1° The heaven of the philosophers; 2° De natura rerum (Treatise on natural history or the nature of things). 3° Tinctura physicorum (Tincture of physicists); 4° The treasure of treasures.

Pernety. —1° Mytho-Hermetic Dictionary. 2° Greek and Egyptian fables revealed.

Planiscampi. — The chymic bouquet.

Philatethes. — l° The entrance opened to the closed palace of the king. 2° The fountain of chemical philosophy.

Porta. — 1° Magia naturalis (Natural magic). 2° Physiognomia humana (Physiognomy of man).

From Respour. — Rare experiments on the mineral spirit.

Phases. — The Book of Lights.

Rippled. — 1° Marrow of Alchemy. 2° Treatise on the Twelve Gates. 3° Mercury Treaty. Ph. Rouillac. — Abridged from the Great Work.

Sendwoginus. — 1° The cosmopolitan or the new chemical light. 2° Letters.

Sperber. — Isagoge de materia lapidis (Summary on the matter of stone).

Synesius. — Commentaries on the book of Democritus.

St. Thomas Aquinas. — Secrets of alchemy.

Tritheme. — Polygraphia.

Basil Valentin. — 1° The azoth of the philosophers. 2° Triumphal chariot of antimony. 3° Conference of the spirit of Mercury with Brother Albert. 4° The twelve keys of wisdom. 5° De naturalibus et supernaturalibus (Treatise on natural and supernatural things).

N. Valois. — Works.

Blaise de Vigenère. — Treatise on fire and salt.

Arnauld de Villeneuve. — 1° The path of the path. 2° Flos florum (The Flower of Flowers). 3° Letter to the King of Naples. 4° Novum lumen (New light). 5° Rosarium (The rosary). 6° Quoestiones tam essentiales quam accidentales ad Bonifacium octavum (Questions on essence and accident, addressed to Pope Boniface).

Vogel. — De lapidis physici conditionibus (On the properties of the philosopher's stone).

O.Zachaire. —Pamphlet on the natural philosophy of metals.

ALCHEMICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE 19TH CENTURY.

We have included in this short presentation not only the purely hermetic treatises, but also the historical works, the biographies and the literary productions which have appeared since the year 1800 on this subject, as much in France as in Germany and in England.

AMONYM. — Popular legends: Nicolas Flamel. Paris, brochure in 4°.

BALZAC. — The Search for the Absolute. Paris, 1 vol. in-18.

BARRETT. — Lives of the alchemystical philosophers with a catalog of books in occult chemistry, London, 1815, 1 vol. in-8.

BAUER. — Chimie und Alchymie in Oesterreich bis zum commencenenden XIX Jahrhundert. Vienna, 1883.

BERTHELOT. — 1° The origins of Alchemy, 1 vol. in-8. Paris, 1885; 2° Introduction to the study of ancient and medieval chemistry. Paris, 1880, 1 vol. in-4. Numerous figures of devices, reproductions of texts by collotype.

BERTHELOT and RUELLE. — Collection of ancient Greek alchemists. Text and translation. Paris 1887 to 1888, )vol. in-4°. In these various works, Mr. Berthelot made known a period in the history of chemistry that was barely mentioned before him and very obscure.

E. BERTHET. — The last alchemist.

CAMBRIEL. — Course in hermetic philosophy or alchemy in 19 lessons. Paris, 1843, in8°, Plate. Curious and very rare work.

E. CHARLES. —Roger Bacon. His life, his works, his doctrines. Paris, 1861, in-8. Written mainly from a philosophical point of view.

CRUVEILHIER. — Paracelsus, his life and his doctrine. Medical Gazette, May 7, 1842.

CYLIANI. — Hermes revealed. Paris 1832. Rare brochure. The author claims to have carried out the transmutation of metals by ordinary alchemical processes.

DELECLUZE.—Raymond' Lulle. Revue des Deux Mondes, November 15, 1840. Excellent article in many respects, except one, the author assures that Lulle, Bacon, etc., noted not alchemists, but chemists!

A. DUMAS. —The Alchemist, drama.

ESCODECA OF WOOD. — The Alchemists of the 19th century. Epistle to Nicolas Flamel. Brochure. Paris, 1860.

L. FIGUIER. — 1° Alchemy and alchemists. Paris, 1854, 1855, 1860, vol. in-12 Accurate for everything that is historical, but the author completely ignores hermetic theories , and when he cites, it is to mock what he does not understand; 2° Lives of famous scholars. Paris, 1870 to 1875, 3 vols.in-8.Engravings and portraits. We only cite three volumes : Middle Ages, Renaissance, 17th century, because of the interesting biographies of: Geber, Avicenna, Albert the Great, Roger Bacon, Raymond Lulle, Van Helmont, etc., relating to the subject that concerns us .

FRANK. — Paracelsus and alchemy in the 16th century. Printed at the head of Tiffereau's Gold and Transmutation.

E.HALM Der Adept, trauespiel.

VON HARLEPS.—-Jacob Bohme and the Bichyaiisteft. Berlin, 1870.

HŒFFER. — History of Chemistry from the most ancient times to our time. Paris, 1842, 2 vols. in-8, — The first volume and part of the second deal with alchemy.

HOFFMANN. — Berliner Alchemist and Chemiker. Berlin, 1882.

HORTENSIUS FLAMEL. — Summary of magism, occult sciences and hermetic philosophy , Paris, 1842, in-i8.

JACOB (bibliophile). — Curiosities of the occult sciences. - Paris, 1885, 1 vol. in-12. About half the volume deals with alchemy .

JACQUEMAR. — The philosopher's stone and phlogiston. Paris 1876. 8° brochure.

JEHAN DE LA FONTAINE. — The Fountain of Science Lovers, hermetic poem from the 15th century century. Paris 1861. Quite rare.

KOPP. — Die alchemie in alterer und neuerer Zeit. Heidelberg, 1886, 2 vols. in-8°. Conscientious work , full of interesting documents.

LEBRUN DE VIRLOY. — Notice on the increase of metallic matter. Paris, 1888. Brochurein in-12

LEWIHSTEIN. —- Die alchemie uad die.alcheœisteir. Berlin, 1870. Brochure in-12.

LOUIS LUCAS. — 1° New chemistry. Paris, 1 vol. in-12. Rare, 2° The alchemical novel. Paris, 1857, I vol. in-12. Rare.

MANDOS. — Van Helmont, biography, critical history of his works. Brussels, 1868, in-4°.

MARCOS DEVEZE. — Alain de Lille. Number 10 of the Initiation. July 1889.

MANDON.— Essay on the life and works of Van-Helmont. Brussels, 1857, in-18.

L. MEMARD— Hermès Trimégistes. Paris, in-8.

MICHEA.—Sludia auctoris. Translation of Van-Helmont's autobiography. Medical Gaztte, 1843.

VON MURR.—Literarischen Nachrichten zu der Geschichte des Gotdmachens. Braunschweig, 1844.

NENTER.—Bericht von der alchymie. Nuremberg 1827. PAPUS octavo pamphlet.

— The philosopher's stone, irrefutable proof of its existence. Paris, 1889. Brochure in-8”. . Plank. The author logically establishes the existence of the Stone through the analysis of historical transmutations.

ALBERT POISSON. — Five treatises on alchemy by the greatest philosophers. Paris, 1890 in-8. Figures.— Treatises by Arnauld de Villeneuve, R. Lulle, Albert the Great, Roger Bacon, Parecelsus, translated from Latin.

POUCHET. — Albert, the Great and his era... Paris 1843, in-8.

RAGON. —- Masonic Orthodoxy, followed by Hermetic initiation.

RHEINHART OF LIETCHY. — Albert the Great and Saint Thomas Aquinas l vol. in-12.

ROMMLAERE.— Memoir on Van Helmont, presented to the Belgian Academy of Medicine. Brussels, 1867. -

SCHMIEDER. — Geschichte der Alchemie. Halle, 1832.

DE SAINT-GERMAN. — Conservation of man drawn from hermetic science. Brochure.

SIGHART. — Albert the Great, his life and his science. Paris, 1862, in-12. Portrait.

SOLITAIRE.— Diana diaphana oder die Gesclichte der Alchimisten imbecil Kaztlein Nordhausen, 1863.

THOMSON. — History of chemistry. London, 1830.

TIFPEREAU.— 1° Metals are compound bodies, 1855, in-12; 2° Gold and the transmutation of metals, Paris, 1889, in-8; 3° Letter to senators and deputies on the artificial production of gold. Paris, 1888. Brochure, in-12. — Very curious works by “ the Alchemist of the 19th century”. OF VIRIVILLE. — Notice on some works attributed to Nicolas Flamel.

Theories and Symbols of the Alchemists The Great Work

COLLECTION OF WORKS RELATING
TO HERMETIC SCIENCES
ALBERT POISSON
THEORIES AND SYMBOLS OF THE ALCHEMISTS
THE GREAT
WORK

INTRODUCTION

THEORIES & SYMBOLS
OF THE ALCHEMISTS THE GREAT WORK

PART ONE
THE THEORIES

CHAPTER I

DEFINITION OF ALCHEMY. — VULGAR ALCHEMY AND HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY. — BLOWERS AND FOLLOWERS. — THE AIMS OF ALCHEMY: THE GREAT WORK, THE HOMUNGULUS, THE ALKAEST, PALINCENESIA, THE SPIRITUS MUNDI, THE QUINTESSENCE, DRINKING GOLD.

CHAPTER II

ALCHEMICAL THEORIES. — UNITY OF MATTER. — THE THREE PRINCIPLES: SULFUR, MERCURY, SALT OR ARSENIC. — THEORY OF ARTEPHIUS. — THE FOUR ELEMENTS.

CHAPTER III

THE SEVEN METALS. — THEIR COMPOSITION. — THEIR GENESIS. — THE CENTRAL FIRE. — TRAINING CYCLE. — PLANETARY INFLUENCES.

CHAPTER IV

MYSTICAL ALCHEMY. — FANCY THEORIES. — THE ALCHEMICAL CABAL. — TRIPLE ADAPTATION OF THE HERMETIC THEORY. - THE SANCTUARY.

THE SYMBOLS

CHAPTER ONE

WHY THE TREATIES ON ALCHEMY ARE OBSCURE. — MEANS EMPLOYED BY ALCHEMISTS TO CONCEAL THE GREAT WORK. —SIGNS. —SYMBOI.ES.-— MYTHOLOGICAL NAMES . — FOREIGN WORDS. — ANAGRAMS. — FABLES. — ENIGMS. — ALLEGORIES. — CRYPTOGRAPHY.

CHAPTER II

SYMBOLS OF ALCHEMICAL THEORY. —THE MATTER. THE THREE PRINCIPLES, THE FOUR ELEMENTS, THE SEVEN METALS AND THEIR SYMBOLS.

CHAPTER III

GENERAL THEORY OF THE GREAT WORK. — THE MATERIAL OF THE GREAT WORK. —.SULFUR AND MERCURY. —THEIR SYMBOLS. — THE DRAGONS OF FLAMEL. — LIST OF HERMETIC SYNONYMS OF SULFUR AND MERCURY.

CHAPTER IV

PRACTICE OF THE MATERIAL OR GRANB-ŒUVRK. THE TWO WAYS.—GOLD AND SILVER.—THEIR. PURIFICATION. — THE FOUNTAIN OF THE PHILOSOPHERS.—BATH OF THE KING AND QUEEN. — DISSOLUTION OF GOLD AND SILVER. — THE LITTLE MAGISTRY AND THE GREAT CEUVRE.

CHAPTER V

THE PHII.OSOPHICAL EGG AND ITS SYMBOLS. — THE SEAL OF HERMES. — THE ATHANOR. — THE FIRE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS. —THE DEGREES.

CHAPTER VI

OPERATIONS. — CAUSES OF DIFFERENCES AMONG CHEMISTS REGARDING OPERATIONS. — PUTREFACTION. — THE DIETS OF PHILALÈTBE. — FERMENTATION. — SCREENING. — OPERATIONS SYMBOLS.

CHAPTER VII

THE COLORS OF THE WORK. — CONCORDANCE OF PHILOSOPHERS. — THE MAIN COLORS AND INTERMEDIATE COLORS. — BLACK, ROT, CROW’S HEAD . - THE WHITENESS. — THE IRIS. - THE RED.

CHAPTER VIII

THE PHILOSOPHAL STONE. — TEST OF THE STONE. — ITS PROPERTIES. — TRANSMUTATION OF METALS. — THE ELIXIR OF LONG LIFE. — ITS EFFECTS ON THE SOUL.

DICTIONARY OF HERMETIC SYMBOLS

TABLE OF TREATIES CITED IN THIS WORK.

ALCHEMICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE 19TH CENTURY.

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Theories and Symbols of the Alchemists The Great Work

COLLECTION OF WORKS RELATING TO HERMETIC SCIENCES ALBERT POISSON THEORIES AND SYMBOLS OF THE ALCHEMISTS THE GREAT WORK

INTRODUCTION

THEORIES & SYMBOLS OF THE ALCHEMISTS THE GREAT WORK

PART ONE THE THEORIES

CHAPTER I

DEFINITION OF ALCHEMY. — VULGAR ALCHEMY AND HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY. — BLOWERS AND FOLLOWERS. — THE AIMS OF ALCHEMY: THE GREAT WORK, THE HOMUNGULUS, THE ALKAEST, PALINCENESIA, THE SPIRITUS MUNDI, THE QUINTESSENCE, DRINKING GOLD.

CHAPTER II

ALCHEMICAL THEORIES. — UNITY OF MATTER. — THE THREE PRINCIPLES: SULFUR, MERCURY, SALT OR ARSENIC. — THEORY OF ARTEPHIUS. — THE FOUR ELEMENTS.

CHAPTER III

THE SEVEN METALS. — THEIR COMPOSITION. — THEIR GENESIS. — THE CENTRAL FIRE. — TRAINING CYCLE. — PLANETARY INFLUENCES.

CHAPTER IV

MYSTICAL ALCHEMY. — FANCY THEORIES. — THE ALCHEMICAL CABAL. — TRIPLE ADAPTATION OF THE HERMETIC THEORY. - THE SANCTUARY.

THE SYMBOLS

CHAPTER ONE

WHY THE TREATIES ON ALCHEMY ARE OBSCURE. — MEANS EMPLOYED BY ALCHEMISTS TO CONCEAL THE GREAT WORK. —SIGNS. —SYMBOI.ES.-— MYTHOLOGICAL NAMES . — FOREIGN WORDS. — ANAGRAMS. — FABLES. — ENIGMS. — ALLEGORIES. — CRYPTOGRAPHY.

CHAPTER II

SYMBOLS OF ALCHEMICAL THEORY. —THE MATTER. THE THREE PRINCIPLES, THE FOUR ELEMENTS, THE SEVEN METALS AND THEIR SYMBOLS.

CHAPTER III

GENERAL THEORY OF THE GREAT WORK. — THE MATERIAL OF THE GREAT WORK. —.SULFUR AND MERCURY. —THEIR SYMBOLS. — THE DRAGONS OF FLAMEL. — LIST OF HERMETIC SYNONYMS OF SULFUR AND MERCURY.

CHAPTER IV

PRACTICE OF THE MATERIAL OR GRANB-ŒUVRK. THE TWO WAYS.—GOLD AND SILVER.—THEIR. PURIFICATION. — THE FOUNTAIN OF THE PHILOSOPHERS.—BATH OF THE KING AND QUEEN. — DISSOLUTION OF GOLD AND SILVER. — THE LITTLE MAGISTRY AND THE GREAT CEUVRE.

CHAPTER V

THE PHII.OSOPHICAL EGG AND ITS SYMBOLS. — THE SEAL OF HERMES. — THE ATHANOR. — THE FIRE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS. —THE DEGREES.

CHAPTER VI

OPERATIONS. — CAUSES OF DIFFERENCES AMONG CHEMISTS REGARDING OPERATIONS. — PUTREFACTION. — THE DIETS OF PHILALÈTBE. — FERMENTATION. — SCREENING. — OPERATIONS SYMBOLS.

CHAPTER VII

THE COLORS OF THE WORK. — CONCORDANCE OF PHILOSOPHERS. — THE MAIN COLORS AND INTERMEDIATE COLORS. — BLACK, ROT, CROW’S HEAD . - THE WHITENESS. — THE IRIS. - THE RED.

CHAPTER VIII

THE PHILOSOPHAL STONE. — TEST OF THE STONE. — ITS PROPERTIES. — TRANSMUTATION OF METALS. — THE ELIXIR OF LONG LIFE. — ITS EFFECTS ON THE SOUL.

DICTIONARY OF HERMETIC SYMBOLS

TABLE OF TREATIES CITED IN THIS WORK.

ALCHEMICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE 19TH CENTURY.

Quote of the Day

Arnold de Villa Nova

1,086

187

513,201

COLLECTION OF WORKS RELATING
TO HERMETIC SCIENCES
ALBERT POISSON
THEORIES AND SYMBOLS OF THE ALCHEMISTS
THE GREAT
WORK

THEORIES & SYMBOLS
OF THE ALCHEMISTS THE GREAT WORK

PART ONE
THE THEORIES