Treatise on the Matter of the Stone of the Philosophers in general
Manuscript Library of the Arsenal dimension ms 3027
OF THE MATTER OF STONE IN GENERAL
The Matter first and remote from the Stone is threefold, namely Mercury, Silver and Gold, for all perfection consists of three, and all that is triune is perfect. There is only one sovereign and independent perfection which is God, but in his unity he contains the trinity of persons.
Spirits freed from all matter are of three kinds, there are good, bad and average in man, everything that is more perfect loves the trinity. The principal of its members are three, viz. the heart, the brain and the liver, from which spread throughout the body the arteries, the nerves and the veins, from which flow the natural vital and animal spirits, which maintain the natural vital and animal faculties.
And not to get out of our subject, in the human race you will find three sexes, the masculine, the feminine and the hermaphrodite. Now in our work, the Gold is the male, the Silver the female, and the androgyne is the Mercury, all three of which must contribute to the same work .
That if others assure the contrary, like those who say that the matter of the Stone is Tartar, vitriol, antimony, vinegar, urine, menstruation, semen, secondines, blood, celandine, lunar, salamander, and other similar things because, either they are ignorant of the Art or they understand something else, which will have, either the resemblance or the color, or the consistency, or finally some other similar qualities.
It is therefore in vain and uselessly that those who seek matter outside the metallic genus, and elsewhere than in metals, labor. Would to God that they had strongly imprinted on their minds this axiom of the Philosophers: like begets like.
Has an ox ever been seen to beget a lion? Does man engender a tree, a plant or a metal? It has always been a constant that a man begets a man, a horse a horse, or, what is the same thing, man is begotten from the seed of man, the horse from the seed of the horse, and that from the seed of Rhue is produced Rhue and not Sage. It is the same with Gold, which you will never produce without Gold, nor with Silver without Silver; and if anyone strays from this path he must be strongly persuaded that he will waste his time and his oil, and when he would employ all his wealth there and work all the time of his life. And because many people have been found who spend many years in this work with great expense,.
ON THE MERCURY OF THE PHILOSOPHERS
Now, as the principal part of our Work consists in knowing what our hermaphrodite is, namely Mercury, take great care not to think that it is the vulgar leper Mercury, which is by no means suitable for this subject.
But where do you want—you will tell me—that I look for him and take him? I answer you that he is imprisoned and bound by several chains, and only the Philosopher can deliver him and set him free. He sees him at all hours, although his house has neither doors nor windows; But the vulgar do not see it, nor do they know it, although at all times and in all places everyone has it, the poor as well as the rich, night and day. Everyone handles it, touches it and tramples it with their feet, and yet we do not know it, because, as has been said, its prison has neither doors nor windows.
Now, a certain cuidant, having heard that the vulgar handle it, trample it underfoot, spoil it, and soil it, took his way towards a mountain where he had heard that four men and two women were busy digging for minerals, and that each of them carried in his belly what he was looking for. Being therefore convinced of this, he enters the mountain, and having met the first personage who was busy working and digging the earth, he looks at him attentively and sees a strong and robust man in a soldier's uniform, of red color, who had returned from the war, and did not know any other trade to earn his living. Now, when he looked at this traveler, he spoke to him harshly and asked him what he was looking for,
The traveler, astonished at seeing himself looked askance and treated with such harsh words, replied very gently:
O very strong man, I have heard that you were four men and two women who worked in this mountain, and that by a long work you all possessed the material of the Stone of the Philosophers. And, because I burst with love for this blessed Peter, I did not fear to come to this place, to cross the waters, the mountains and the rocks; won't you give me this hope of obtaining from someone of you what I seek?
You have heard very well, said this strong man, that we are four men and two women, and that we indeed all possess as long as we are what you seek, and that we could give it to you, but I doubt if it will be, yet you can obtain it more easily from one than from the other. As for me, if you do not fight valiantly with me as with a very experienced soldier, and if you do not kill me, because I carry what you seek in the bottom of my heart, it is what makes my food and my life; and also of everyone as long as we are on this mountain.
The traveler answered him: O very strong man, you are hard and robust, I do not want to fight against you, I would be like a little Trojan against Achilles; and still I could do all that David did against Goliath.
I advise you - said this robust man - not to touch any more than my concubine and neighbor, who is also very strong in battle, and if I am a lion, certainly she is a lioness. Nor do I advise you to attack our Sovereign Captain with his wife, because she is the King and Queen; they have too much pomp and splendour; take care therefore not to attack them, although you may defeat them. But if you go beyond, you will find others, which if you overcome, you will come to the end of your wishes.
The traveler therefore continues on his way, until he meets a very handsome man, well dressed and quite splendid, to whom he speaks as before. This man answered him that he would not give him a thing from which he draws his food and his life, that it is not only about his death, but also that of the King and the Queen, if he granted him what he asks.
The traveler looks on all sides to see if no one sees him, for he had intended to kill him and pull from his belly what he had preserved so well. And because he had told him that his death also depended on the death of the King and the Queen, he was already rejoicing, in the hope of killing them too afterwards, in order to extract from them the treasure he wanted.
Seeing therefore that he did not appear to be anyone, he attacks this splendid man by taking him by the throat, who begs him for mercy, promising him that in return he will reveal to him the secret he is asking for.
The traveler having therefore released him , the latter replied: If you pass further, you will meet an old man who possesses more abundantly than I the treasure you seek, and you will easily overcome him because he is old. And especially since he is very close to our King and our Queen, like their doorman and the one who carries the keys, when you have defeated him you can easily approach the King and the Queen, to kill them too.
This traveler therefore continues on his way, and finally he meets a certain old man, a man of poor appearance and badly dressed, the most miserable and the most despised of all, for what he seemed sad and melancholy, to whom he held the same speech as in the previous ones. But the old man answered him:
O very good man who seeks here a thing that neither princes nor kings can obtain, it is very true that you can find it easily in me, and that you can also overcome me easily in the fight, because I am old and weak and do not carry what you seek in the bottom of my heart, like the first to whom you spoke, nor even his concubine. But I only keep it in the ventricle, so that my body and that of others always draw nourishment from it.
However, I must lose my life if you take away what you seek. But spare my life please, because I am old, poor and contemptible, and you can find a better treasure in my neighbor who is brilliant and superb and an ally of our Queen. If you had conquered him, you would have had a treasure more precious than from me who am poor, for you will never find beautiful and dazzling things among the poor and despised.
The traveler, having pity on the poor old man, whom he could easily kill, believed that it would be better to steal a more precious treasure from the old man's neighbor, even by force of arms if he did not want to give it voluntarily.
However, as he was leaving, the old man began to smile, especially since, possessing a rather precious treasure, he had deceived the traveler, who having noticed it when he turned around, he immediately retraced his steps, and all in anger: Is that so – he said to him – you wicked old man that you are making fun of me
? I know well now that you pretend to be poor, and that you possess the greatest treasure, as your neighbor told me. Therefore now bear the pain of your laughing stock and receive death from my hand. So the old man was killed.
It is easy to know by all that we have said above, where to take the Mercury. It would now be necessary to declare the manner of giving birth to it and leaving the corporeal belly where it is enclosed. This is what all the Philosophers give sufficiently to know and what all the chemical books relate to importunity. Whence comes this common saying of the Philosophers:
Make Mercury by Mercury; which being known to many, we will not stop here any further.
ON THE PREPARATION AND PURIFICATION OF MERCURY
Take your Mercury and purify it well by passing it through a cloth folded in three, which you will do several times, and until it appears pure like limpid and crystalline water.
We reject all other ways of purifying the Mercury, such as those which are done by vinegar, salt, urine, quicklime, vitriol and other corrosives which destroy the humidity of the Mercury, instead of exalting it, and which thus harm more than they serve.
OF THE SUN AND THE MOON AND THEIR PREPARATION
The second material of the Stone, called the female, is the Moon, which must be taken as it comes out of the mine, very pure, which has not been used for any purpose, and which has not experienced too much the violence of fire, which is not mixed with any foreign body which is easily malleable. In a word, which is the most excellent that can be found of its kind, which must be pounded into very fine leaves, although others only reduce it to lime; what I say of the Moon I also say of the Sun, that it is necessary to take as high in color as possible, because such will have been the seed which you will sow, such will be the harvest which you will gather from it.
BEGINNING OF THE WORK
What must first be noted here is that although to make the Stone either white or red, it is necessary to take a different material. Nevertheless, the way of operating in both is quite similar. Thus what will be said of the operation of white must also be understood of the operation of red.
We must first speak of the putrefaction of matter, which must be followed by resurrection and exaltation, which cannot happen until putrefaction has preceded, the corruption of one being the generation of the other. The seed of any herb, thrown into the ground, first putrefies and loses its form, after which the virtue which was hidden therein, favored by the heavenly heat, manifests itself, and the earth which contains this putrefied seed being moistened with the rains and dew of heaven. makes it take on a nobler and more perfect body, and then causes it to bear fruit in abundance.
Nature acts in the same way in all animals; they feed first, then they take their increase and finally they beget. That if this is true in men, in animals and in plants, as one cannot doubt, one must be blind not to see that the same thing is done in minerals. You will tell me that the thing is very different in animals, being necessary for the production of an animal the seed of two, namely of the male and of the female. I answer that what the two seeds of male and female do, joined together, to produce an animal, one seed does in minerals. And why wouldn't she? since in vegetables the seed which produces them does not come from two plants, but from one only. For we must not imagine that the sex of male or female attributed to plants, because of their mutual love, contributes in no way to making them produce their fellows. But not to delay further, here it is.
FIRST PART OF THE WORK
Take very pure menses of a prostitute woman, 12 part, from the perfectly washed lower body l part, mix everything together well until all the matter is amalgamated, in a long-necked oval vessel. But it is necessary first to add to the body 2 or 4 parts of the menses, and to let the whole rest for 15 days or so, during which time the dissolution of the body takes place.
So take this matter, and squeeze it to bring out the menses that you will keep. On the body which will remain after the expression, you will put there one or two parts of new menses, and leave it another eight days, after which you will proceed as you did at the beginning, and continue in the same way until the whole body has passed in water.
All these operations will be done over a low ash fire, the vessel being well plugged with card.
SECOND PART OF THE WORK
Take all the water of life and put it in a blocked vessel as above, and at the same degree of fire of ashes which is the first degree, from 8 days to 8 days there will be formed a supernatant black skin, which is the raven's test which you will collect with the black powder which is below, having previously drawn the water of life by inclination.
You will return this water to the vessel and continue to do so until no more darkness forms.
THIRD PART OF THE WORK
Take the whole head of death that you have picked up, and put it in the Philosophical Egg on the fire of oak ashes, which you will seal hermetically in the orifice, but with a paste only at the joints of the two parts of the Egg, so that it can be opened more easily.
The first 8 days, more or less, you will not give your black and dead earth anything to drink, because it is still completely intoxicated with humidity. Afterwards, when it is dried up and altered, you will water it with brandy in equal weight. Opening the vessel for this purpose, mix well then close and leave it like this, until it is not completely dried out, but only well coagulated; likewise continue to soak until the material has drunk all the water.
FOURTH PART OF THE WORK
Now take this matter and put it in a Fire Egg of the second degree, and leave it there for some months until at last, after passing through various colors, it becomes white.
FIFTH PART OF THE WORK
The earth, being white, is in the near future to receive the seed, because of the fecundity it has acquired by the preceding operations. So take this earth after having weighed it, divide it into three parts. Take a part of ferment of equal weight to one of the three of your divided matter, four parts of the menses of the prostitute woman, amalgamate the ferment rolled up as before and the menses. and make the dissolution with slow heat during 14 days, until the body is reduced in subtle lime: because one does not seek here the water of life.
Now take the menstruation with the lime of the body, and the three parts of your white earth, amalgamate all this in a marble mortar, and put it in a glass vessel in the second degree fire, for a month.
Finally, give the fire of the third degree until the matter becomes very white, which will be like a mass, coarse and hard like pumice, but heavy.
So far it is the operation of the Pierre au blanc. To make the Pierre au rouge, it is necessary to operate in the same way, except that at the end it is necessary to give the fire of the third degree longer and more vehement than for the Pierre au blanc.
SIXTH PART OF THE WORK
ON THE PREPARATION OF THE STONE TO MAKE IT PROJECTED
Many have made the Stone without knowing how to prepare it to project it. Also, the Stone made and completed does not make any transmutation if it is not made to have been incorporated into the bodies. Therefore, break your Stone into pieces, grind it and put it in a vessel well fought up to the neck, so that it can suffer a strong fire like that of the fourth degree, give fire of coal so strong that the sand is so hot that by throwing on it a few drops of water there is a noise, and that one cannot touch with the hand the neck of the vessel which is on the sand, because of its great heat.
Hold your vessel in this degree of fire until your matter becomes a very subtle and very light powder; Which usually happens within a month and a half.
SEVENTH AND LAST PART OF THE WORK
OF THE INCREASE AND MULTIPLICATION OF THE STONE
You can multiply the Stone infinitely, when you have made it once, without having to make it again.
When you have the Stone made and completed by the fifth part of the operation, you will take half of it to use it and prepare it to make projection, the other half you will keep it to multiply it.
Weigh then this part, and if it weighs three parts, take a part not of the menses but of the brandy; you will have four parts which you will put in an Egg in the fire of the second degree for a month, after which you will give the fire of the third degree until the end, as we have taught above in the fifth part of the operation.
END