VERY CURIOUS EXPLANATION
OF THE
ENIGMS AND HIEROGLIPHICAL, PHYSICAL FIGURES,
WHICH ARE AT THE GREAT GATE
OF THE CATHEDRAL AND METROPOLITAN CHURCH OF NOTRE-DAME DE PARIS

BY

THE SIEUR ESPRIT GOBINEAU DE MONTLUISANT

GENTILHOMME CHARTRAIN, FRIEND OF NATURAL AND ALCHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY AND OTHERS VERY ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS

On Wednesday, May 20, 1640, eve of the glorious Ascension of our Savior Jesus Christ, after having prayed to his most holy Virgin Mother in the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Paris, I left this beautiful and large church and carefully considering its rich and magnificent Portal, whose structure is very exquisite, from the foundation to the summit of its two high and admirable Towers, I made the remarks which I am going to explain.


I begin by observing that this Portal is triple, to form three main entrances into this superb Temple, the only body of the building, and to announce the Trinity of Persons in one God, under which by the operation of his Holy Spirit, his Word s He is incarnated for the salvation of the world in the flanks of the Holy Virgin;

Symbol of the three celestial principles in unity, which are the three main keys opening the principles, and all the doors, avenues and entrances of sublunary nature, that is to say, of the universal sap, and of all bodies that it forms, and produces, preserves or regenerates.

1° The figure placed in the first circle of the Portal, opposite the Hôtel-Dieu, represents at the highest, God the Father, Creator of the Universe, extending his arms, and holding in each of his hands a figure of man, in the shape of an Angel.

This represents, that Almighty God at the moment of the creation of all things which he made from nothing, separating light from darkness, made of them these noble Creatures which the Sages call Catholic Soul, Universal Spirit, or incombustible vital Suffering, and Mercury of life; that is to say, the humid general radical, which two principles are represented by these two Angels.

God the Father holds them in his two hands, to distinguish between the vital sulfur, his oil of life, which we call Soul, and the Mercury of life or first born moist, which we call Spirit, whatever these terms. synonyms, but only to make it understood that this Soul and this Spirit draw their principle and their origin from the supercelestial and archetypal world, where is the Seat and the Throne full of glory of the Most High; from which it emanates supernaturally and imperceptibly to communicate itself, as the first root, the first moving Soul and the source of life of all Beings in general, and of all sublunary Creatures, of which man is the head of predilection.

In the circle below the supercelestial and Archetypal world, is the firmamental, or astral, Heaven in which two Angels appear, with bowed heads,

The inclination of these two Angels, heads downwards, gives us to understand that the universal Soul, or the Catholic Spirit, or to better say the breath of the virtue of God. that is to say, the spiritual influences of the archetypal Heaven, descend from it, to the Astral Heaven, which is the second world, also celestial, called etipic, where the planets and the stars live and reign, which have their course, their strengths and virtues, for the accomplishment of their destination and their duties, according to the decrees of Providence which has thus ordered and subordinated them, in order to bring about through their ministry and their influences the birth and generation of all Spiritual Beings and of all sublunary things, participants of the Soul and the universal Spirit; and by the two angels with their heads down, and who are clothed, is designated to us, that the universal and spiritual Catholic seed does not ascend, but always descends; and the envelope with which it is veiled in the bodies, teaches us that this celestial seed is covered, that it does not show itself naked, but that it carefully hides itself from the eyes of the ignorant and the Sophists; and is not known to the vulgar.

3° Below the Firmament is the third Heaven, or the element of air; in which three children appear surrounded by clouds. These three children signify the first three elements of all things, called by the wise principles principians, from which the three lower principles, salt, sulfur, and mercury, take their origin, and which are called principiate principles, to distinguish them from the first, although all together, they descend from the archetypal Heaven, and start from the hands of God, who with his fecundity, fills all nature, but all spiritual and celestial influences seem to emanate from the first two Heavens, before uniting with any body sensitive; which means that any spiritual emanation from the first Heaven or the Archetypal, is called Soul, and that of the second Heaven, or Firmament is called Spirit.

It is therefore this Soul and this Spirit, invisible, and purely spiritual, which fill with their active and living virtues the third Heaven, called Elementary, or the typical Heaven, because it is the residence of the Elements, which moved, ordered and subordinated by the two superior worlds, act in turn, by commotion and movement, descending, ascending, progrediant, and circular, on all the lower Beings and on all the sublunary Creatures composed of their mixed qualities, which we call the four temperaments .

Now this Soul emanated into the Elementary world, which it fills with its vivifying light is called suffering and the spirit emanating from the world, or firmamental Sky, which is in principle the humid radical of all things to which this suffering or luminous heat is attached and adhering, as to its first and last nutriment, is called Mercury, or the first-born humid, which is the humid radical of all things and, therefore indivisible from the sulfur or ethereal soul, which being a luminous celestial fire and hot, cannot exist without its intimate and indissoluble union with this spirit, its radical humidity; but this is beyond the reach of fools.

This Soul and this Spirit united, as one and the same essence, starting from the same principle, and doing, so to speak, only one thing, since they are only divisible by the spirit, cannot be seen nor touched, but only conceived and understood by the wise Investigators of the Science of God and Nature; this Soul and this Spirit only become perceptible to us through the indivisible bond which attaches them to each other: now this bond which we call salt, is the effect of their union and mutual love, and a spiritual body who hides them from us and wraps them in his bosom as one and the same thing of three; what people steeped in prejudice will not hear or understand.

This Salt is that of Sapience, that is to say the copula and the ligament of fire and water, of hot and humid in perfect Homogeneity, and which is the third principle; it is neither visible nor tangible in the air that we breathe, where it is subtle and fluid, and it only manifests its visible body by its stay and deposit as a residue in the mixed, or composed of elements that it fixes and encloses, by mingling intimately with Sulfur, Mercury and Salt, which are natural principles very analogous to it, and Constituents of Sublunary Creatures.

The celestial Salt is the principiant principle, which proceeds from the Soul and the Spirit, that is to say from their action or to better say, from ethereal sulfur and Mercury; it is the means and the environment, which unites them in their action, to be translated into fluid in sulfur, Mercury, and the Salt of nature under a visible and tangible body, then called by the Sages by all kinds of names sometimes Alkali Salt, Armoniac Salt, Saltpetre of the Philosophers, and sometimes a thousand symbolic nicknames, either to its origin or to its descent, or to its corporeal essence, to prove that being the Soul, the Spirit and the universal Body of Nature, he is susceptible to all kinds of determination, which it will please Nature or the Artist to give him according to the Art of Wisdom.

But we must not lose sight of the fact that it is from the supercelestial world that the source of the life of all things takes its origin and that this life is called Soul or Suffering; that from the celestial or firmamental world proceeds light, which is called Spirit, otherwise moist, or Mercury; and that this Soul and this Spirit filling with their vivific fecundity the third world called Elementary, their energetic and elastic action perpetually circular, carries and produces there the all-divine Fire, analogous to radical heat and humidity, but which is imperceptible and invisible , not vulgar or crude; and by which, as Fire of life, in essence nourishing, Restorative Preservative and not Destroyer, things become palpable and of bodily solidity. From which it must be concluded that these three substances, Suffer,

This is what made the Sages say that spiritual Salt, which serves as an envelope and link to celestial Sulfur and Mercury, was the one and only material from which the Philosophers' Stone is made; and that as these three substances identified by their union, made only one, the Stone was not made of several things, but of a single compound thing, triune in essence, unique in principle, and quadrangular in four qualities elemental; however this must be understood in certain respects, which can fall under the intelligence of the mind, and of the senses at the same time; that is to say, we must not imagine that the material of the triangular and quadrangular Stone of the Sages, must nor can take in its state of invisible air fluid; but it must be understood that it is necessary to seek and find this same matter of aerial fluid, infused and corporified in a Virgin Earth of the children of Nature, who are the best shared, the most highly and copiously favored and in whom the first and second United Agents have more dignity, excellence and virtue. For the root of the Sulfur of the Sages, of their Mercury and their Salt, is a celestial, Spiritual and supernatural Spirit, which by the vehicle of subtle air is carried and condensed into air, or thickened vapor and makes a universal matter and the only one of all procreation. the most highly and copiously favored and in whom the first and second united Agents have more dignity, excellence and virtue.

For the root of the Sulfur of the Sages, of their Mercury and their Salt, is a celestial, Spiritual and supernatural Spirit, which by the vehicle of subtle air is carried and condensed into air, or thickened vapor and makes a universal matter and the only one of all procreation. the most highly and copiously favored and in whom the first and second united Agents have more dignity, excellence and virtue.

For the root of the Sulfur of the Sages, of their Mercury and their Salt, is a celestial, Spiritual and supernatural Spirit, which by the vehicle of subtle air is carried and condensed into air, or thickened vapor and makes a universal matter and the only one of all procreation.

4° Below these three children placed in the element of air is the Globe of Water and Earth, on which animals like a sheep, a bull, etc. graze.

The Globe of Water and Earth designate the lower Elements, such as Water and Earth, into which the celestial Fire and the very subtle radical humidity, by means of the air, insinuate themselves. to the deep, and circulate there incessantly by their own virtue, in the invisible form of a supercelestial Spirit of life, which, according to David, Psalm 18, v. 6, 7, 8, has his Tabernacle in the Sun, from where by his energetic virtue, like a Bridegroom, who rises from his nuptial couch, he rushes to travel the path of the Elements like a superb Giant who measures its momentum and its forces in the vast expanse of the air; its exit is from the depths of Heaven; from there it proceeds, penetrates everywhere, and leaves nothing deprived of the warmth of his life-giving presence; from the very expression of Solomon in his Ecclesiastes, c. 1, v. 5, 6. It is this same divine Spirit which illuminates the immensity of the Universe, which pushes itself and pushes back by energetic and elastic virtue in circuit from the center to the eccenter and in the capacity of everything, returns ceaselessly and perpetually in the circles that it describes by its eternal and universal movement and course.

This is how this universal Spirit, through fire and humidity, nourishes the fish in the water, the animals on the earth, and the insects on the ground; that it causes Plants to vegetate, and produces Minerals and Metals in the Center and in the bowels of the Earth; why its circulating influence, like vital Fire united to the radical humidity by the Salt of Sapience, is the universal seed, which freezes, and whose vapor thickens at the center of all things: this spiritual seed operates in the different matrices , according to their dispositions, their nature, their genus, their species, and their particular form, to produce all generations, putting movement and life into them.

As for the two grazing animals, which are the sheep and the bull, this is to tell us that at the return of Spring, and in the first two months, which are March and April, in which these two animals dominate as Signs of Zodiac, the universal creative and recreational matter, being more in love with the celestial Virtue which copiously infuses it with its vital properties, is more abundant, virtuous and exalted, consequently also more qualified than in another time.

5° Below these two animals we see a body as if asleep and lying on its back, on which two bulbs descend from the air, neck down, one directed towards the brain, and the other towards the heart of this sleeping man.

This body thus represented is nothing other than the radical and seminal salt of all things, which by its magnetic virtue attracts to itself the Catholic soul and spirit, which are homogeneous with it, and which constantly insinuate itself and corporify in salt, which is represented by the two ampoules or vials, containing heat and natural and radical humidity; and this salt having thus attracted and corporified these two substances in itself, their spiritual union having acquired prodigious degrees of force, it pushes itself and penetrates into the central point of individuals; and from the universal that this salt was, it becomes particularized, corporified, determined, and becomes pink in the rosebush, gold in mineral quicksilver, gold in gold, plant in the vegetable, dew in the dew, man within man, whose brain represents the humid lunar radical, and the heart signifies the natural solar heat, conveyed in the first, as its matrix.

6 On the right side of the same three children, a little lower than the air, is a staircase, by which a man climbs on his knees with his hands clasped, and raised in the air from which element he descends an ampoule, or vial; and at the top of the stairs there is a table covered with a carpet, with a cup on it. The staircase teaches us that we must rise to God, pray to him on our knees, with heart, mind and soul, to have this gift, which is the Magisterium of the Sages, and truly a very great gift of God, a singular grace of his goodness; and that one does not have to be in low places to take the first universal matter which contains the vegetable and general form of the world; the bulb which descends from the air signifies the liquor, or celestial dew, which flows firstly from the supercelestial influence, then mixes with the property of the stars, and of these mixed together, it forms like a third between terrestrial and celestial; this is how the seed and principle of all things are formed.

For the cup, which is on the table, it represents the vase, with which one must receive the celestial liquor.

7° On the left side of this same door of this large portal, are four large figures of human size, each of which has a symbol under their feet. The first, closest to the door, has a flying dragon under its feet, which devours its tail. The second has under its feet a lion, whose head is turned towards the Sky, which makes it make an effort to contort its collar. The third, has under his feet the figure of a ridiculous person who laughs and mocks the figures he looks at, and which seem to present themselves to him. And the fourth tramples a dog and a female dog, who all bite each other vigorously and seem to want to devour each other.

By the flying dragon which devours its tail is represented the Philosophers' Stone, composed of two substances, or mercury from the same root, and extracted from the same material; one of which substances is the ethereal spirit, moist and volatile, and the other is sulfur, or salt of corporeal nature, dry and fixed, which by its nature and internal dryness devours its slippery dragon's tail, it is - that is to say dries up the humidity, and converts it into Stone aided by the constant fire in the concavity of the humid ethereal spirit, seat of the Catholic soul. The bent lion looking towards Heaven denotes the body, or animated salt, which eagerly desires to reclaim its soul and spirit.

The figure of ridicule represents the false, ignorant Philosophers and Sophists, who amuse themselves by working on heterogeneous matters, and come across nothing good, mock Hermetic Science, and say that it is not true, but purely illusory, in which they offend the Divine truth which has placed its richest treasures in the subject. The dog and the bitch, which devour each other, which the Sages call the dog of Armenia, and the female dog of Corascene, signify that the combat of the two substances of the Stone is of a single root; because the humid acts against the dry. dissolves, and then the dry acting against the wet, which previously had devoured the dry is swallowed up by the same dry. and reduced to dry water, and this is called taking dissolution of body and freezing of spirit; which is all the work of the Hermetic Work.

8º Below, of these large figures, in a pillar near the Portal, is the figure of a Bishop, loaded with his Miter, and his Crozier, in meditative posture. This Bishop represents Guillemus Parisiensis or the one who had this magnificent Portal built, and who had the Enigmas placed there.

9° On the pillar, which is in the middle, and which separates the two doors of this Portal, is still the figure of a Bishop, who places his Crozier in the mouth of a dragon, which is under his feet, and which seems to emerge from an undulating bath in which the waves appear the head of a King, with a triple crown who seems to drown in the waves, then to emerge again.

This bishop represents the wise Chemical Artist, who through his art freezes the volatile substance of the mercurial dragon which wants to launch itself and emerge from the vase which contains it; in the form of undulating water, that is to say that it is excited to this internal movement by a gentle external heat; and this crowned King is the sulfur of nature, which is made by the physical and eccentric union of the three homogeneous but separated substances by the Artist of the first Catholic matter, which three substances are the mercurial ethereal spirit, the sulphurous salt, or nitrous, and alkali or fixed salt, and which retains its name of salt between the three principian principles and the three principian principles, all three of which were contained in the humid chaos, in which this King drowns, and seems to ask for help , which he obtains from the alchemical Artist only after having dissolved in the solvent of his own substance, which is similar to him, after which he will have deserved to be satisfied in his request, that is to say that after it has been swallowed up, and milked by its water, it is frozen by its internal heat, excited by its salt, or its own earth; by which simple, natural, and unmixed operation, the Magisterium of the Sages is carried out, which is nothing other than dissolving the body, and freezing the spirit, after having placed in the crystalline egg the appropriate weight of one and the other substance, which are triple. and an; for the whole work of the Work is to ascend and descend successively, which we call ascension and descension, until of four contrary elemental qualities, homogenized, we make three constitutive and ordering principles; that from the three we make appear fire and water, dry and humid, that from these two we make a single perfect petrified in salt, which contains everything; Heaven and earth, purifying and cooking the heterogeneous.
10° On the Portal on the right hand, we see the twelve signs of the Zodiac, divided into two parts, in order, according to the science of God and nature.

In the first part of the right side, are the signs of the Pourer of water, and of the Fishes which are hors d'oeuvre; what to notice and note. Then in action are Aries, Taurus, and the Twins above each other.

And above the Twins is the sign of Leo, although this is not its rank, because it belongs to Crayfish, but this must be considered mysterious. The signs of Aquarius and Pisces are excluded; this is expressly to make it known that in the two months of January and February, we cannot have or collect universal matter.

For Aries and Taurus, as well as the Twins who are at work, One above the other, and which reign in the months of March, April and May, they learn that it is in this time that the wise Alchemical must go to meet matter, and take it at the moment that it descends from the Sky and the aerial fluid, where it only kisses the lips of the mixed ones, and passes over the belly of the Buds and the Vegetable leaves which are subject to it, to enter triumphantly under its three universal principles in the bodies, through their golden doors, and there become the seed of the celestial rose; what is meant by symbol. Then his love makes him shed tears which are nothing more than light, of which the Sun is the father, clothed in a humidity of which the Moon is the mother, and which the east wind brings in its belly; in this state you have it universal and not determined, especially since you will have taken it before it is attracted by the magnets of specific individuals, and it is specified in them.

With regard to the sign of Leo, which is placed above Twins, where the Crayfish should be placed, it is to make it understood that there is some change, and an alteration of the Seasons, contained in manual work and physicality of the Stone, and which is not so suitable for receiving and taking matter, as at the time when Aries, Taurus, and the Twins reign; because in summer during the great heat, by the ardor and the pomp of the Sun which exhales a lot of radical humidity for its substance, its maintenance and its nourishment, there is a great dissipation and loss of spirits, and the greatest part incremental and nourishing matter of bodies is converted into aerial spirituality, from which it can only be removed by means of the physical and philosophical magnet which is homogeneous with it,

11° At the bottom, a little above Aquarius, and opposite Pisces, we see a flying Dragon which seems to only and fixedly look at Aries, Taurus and Gem1ni, that is to say the three figures of Spring, which are Aries, Taurus and the Twins. This flying Dragon which represents the universal spirit and which stares fixedly at the three figures, seems to tell us affirmatively that these three months are the only ones in which the we can fruitfully collect this celestial matter, which we call light of life, which is drawn from the rays of the Sun and the Moon, by the cooperation of nature, an admirable means, and an industrious art, but simple and natural .

12° Near and behind this flying Dragon, a Ridicul is depicted, and behind this Ridicul is a dog sitting on its back, on which a bird is placed. This Ridiculous person is a mocker of the Hermetic science in question, a contemptuous laugher of the operations of true Sages and Philosophers; and of all their Partisans whom he considers insane, blinded as he is in vulgar error.

The figure of this Dog placed on its back on which is a bird, makes us understand that this dog is the body, or the ground of universal matter, faithful to the Artist who knows how to work it, and the bird represents the spirit of the same matter which is placed there, this matter is commonly known under the names of sulfur and mercury, salt for third and copula or connection being included therein, as indivisible from both,

13° In the second part of this Portal, on the left side and at the very top, is the sign of the Crayfish, instead called Lion which is on the other side of the same Portal. On the same line of Crayfish, are Virgo, Libra and Scorpio, all four at work. And then Sagittarius and Capricorn who are out of the picture. By the Crawfish thus placed at the top, it is testified that the Lunar matter was very abundant, but that the abundance is no longer so great, because the Pleyades which are humid constellations, are returning.

Virgo, Libra and Scorpio are the last degrees of heat for the concoction of Philosophical work; because in this Autumn time, the maturity of the fruits is perfected by Sagittarius and Scorpio, which are hors d'oeuvre; which demonstrates their frigidity and dryness, and that these qualities, conceived by the intelligent mind, are nevertheless externally invisible in the matter of our Magisterium.14° To the right and left of these twelve Signs of the Zodiac, which represents the course of the year, are four figures representing the four Seasons, which are Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn.

By these four Seasons, it is given to understand that the Philosophical Compound must be maintained in the athanor, or cooking stove for a year and more, which makes ten months airtight, by the degrees of a heat, which is gentle , and proportionate at the beginning, and then a little stronger at the end, and yet linear as if to color and ripen the fruits which are harvested during three of these Seasons, namely, Spring, Summer, Autumn; by means of which the Artist acquires the White Medicine, Symbol of the Virgin Mother and Pascale, which he can stop and take from the citrine circle, as a perfect universal lunar Medicine, or continue without interruption of work, and just push to red perfect which is produced as a universal and sovereign solar medicine, accomplished at the time of its birth, solemnly marked by the Sages.

15° Below eight large Figures of the same Portal, of which there are four on each side, and at the very bottom, are demonstrated the true operations, to make and perfect universal Medicine, that the Curious apprentice of this divine Work can explain them, or have them explained to them, but never explain them in writing.


Thesaurus Desiderabilis
A desirable treasure
Solomon, Prov. C. 20, v. 21.



16° We see six Figures at the Middle Portal, on the right side. The first is an Eagle, the second a Caduceus twisted with two serpents, the third a Phoenix which shines, the fourth a Ram, the fifth a man who holds a Chalice, in which he receives something from the air; and the sixth is a Cross with a quartered line, where a tear can be seen on one side on the transverse line, and on the same line on the other side, a chalice in this shape.

Solomon, Prov. C. 20, v. 21.
These six Figures are, so to speak, only the repetition of what has already been said so many times under different figures and different terms, which are inexhaustible, due to the little work and the simplicity of the material, which cannot be nevertheless makes known that to true Philosophers, and not to ignorant Sophists, whatever research they make of it, because their intention is evil and proud and this divine Gift is only granted to the simple and humble of heart, despised by the rest of the insane world, and unfortunate enough in its blindness, to feast only on transitory fables.

1° The eagle, for example, signifies nothing other than the universal Spirit of the world; and it is the Bird of Hermes, and the perpetual movement of the Sages.

2° The Caduceus twisted by two serpents, teaches that the Stone is composed of two substances, although taken from the same body, and extracted from the same root; these two substances nevertheless seem to be contrary in appearance, one being humid and the other dry, one volatile and the other fixed; but they are similar in essence and effects, because they are two in nature, coming from a single principle, although they are really only one.

3° The Phoenix which burns itself, and is reborn from its own ashes, teaches us that these two substances, after having been placed in the philosophical egg in the Athanor, act for a long time and naturally against each other, that they engage in furious battles before embracing and uniting; that the war is long before receiving the kiss of peace; that the waves of the Philosophical Sea are agitated for a long time by the ebb and flow, before peace and calm can succeed and reign; finally that the work is very great before these two substances are finally reduced to powder or incombustible sulfur; for this can only be done after the humid Mercurial has been consumed, or rather dried up by the great activity of the hot and dry interior of the bodily substance of the Salt of nature, and that all compost is made similar. It is after these burnings, or philosophical calcinations, that this powder, the true Phoenix of the Sages, for there is no other Phoenix in the world than this one, being dissolved again in its virginal milk, returns to take birth again by oneself, and from one's own ashes, and thus continue to be reborn and die, as many times as the well-experienced Artist pleases.

4° Aries always signifies the beginning of the Season, in which matter must be taken, especially since in this time of effervescence the igneous humidity of the universal Spirit begins to rise from Earth to Heaven; and to descend from Heaven to earth, much more copiously than in any other season, and with more virtue, especially in the mines, where the Sun has made at least thirty revolutions, and not more than thirty-five, where Nature mineral begins to retrograde, tending towards its depravity and decline.

5° The man who holds a Chalice, in which he receives something from the air, shows us that we must know what the Magnet made by the man is which has the power to attract Sky, of the Sun and the Moon by its magnetic virtue, the invisible Catholic Spirit, coated with the pure humid ethereal substance, quintessencified influence, to make of these two a third substance participating in the two others individually, and which each contains in itself indivisibly the universal Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury, all three of which congeal and unite at the center of all things.

6° When on the Cross, or on the transverse lines, on the sides of it are placed a tear and a Chalice, it is to make us understand, that it is only elementary Nature, that is to say - say the four crossed Elements, represented by the four lines of the Cross: in fact, it is by means of the four Elements that the virtues and celestial energies descend and incessantly insinuate themselves on all visible and sublunary Bodies. two lines, high and low, represent the celestial Fire, and the other two crossing lines signify air and water.

The tear, which means the humidity of the air, full of vital fire, and placed on the line of air and water, must be received in the Chalice, which means the container, and not in the lower valleys, although it is everywhere,but on places which extend into the air, where it will not be taken in quantity by those who do not have the knowledge of the physical and philosophical magnet.

7° Close to the right Door, there are on one side five wise Virgins, who hold out their Chalice, or cup towards Heaven, and receive what is poured to them from above by a hand coming out of a cloud; and below are seen and noted the true Alchemical and Philosophical operations.

These five Virgins represent the true Hermetic Philosophers friends of nature, and who have knowledge of the unique matter, which it uses, to work in the magnesia of the three kingdoms, animal, mineral, vegetable, receive from Heaven this same and unique material in suitable vases; and following the operations of the same nature, they work physically, and after having made the Mercury, or Catholic solvent, or the Salt of nature, which contains its sulfur, unite them to the required weight, cook them in the Athanor,

8° On the other side of said left portal, we see five other Virgins, but mad, in that they hold this Cup upside down against the ground, so they cannot, nor do they want to receive the Lunar that nature presents to them, and which is so copious, that after having largely satisfied the whole Universe, there is still more left over than used; and this is done in everything, and is distributed at all times, and incessantly, because this is how the Most High has ordered it, willed it and wills it, to whom immortal, ineffable glory be given on earth and in Heaven.

By the mad Virgins, the inverted Cup, are represented an infinity, and almost innumerable, false operations of the Sophists, the Chemists, the ignorant and desperate, as well as the pitiless Blowers and Charlatans. These five crazy Virgins mean these false Philosophers, who only ask for Sophistic hercelets, like rubifications, dealbations, cohobations, amalgamations, etc. who despise the reading of good Authors, and who for this reason cannot have knowledge of the true matter, although it is true to say, that they always carry it with them even in their bosom, on them, around them , under their feet, and they breathe it continually; but their too presumptuous pride makes them despise meditation and research, stupidly imagining in their crude Sophistications and their false prejudices, to find it without the knowledge of the beautiful and pure nature interpreter of the divine Mysteries. cohobbations, amalgamations, etc. who despise the reading of good Authors, and who for this reason cannot have knowledge of the true matter, although it is true to say, that they always carry it with them even in their bosom, on them, around them , under their feet, and they breathe it continually; but their too presumptuous pride makes them despise meditation and research, stupidly imagining in their crude Sophistications and their false prejudices, to find it without the knowledge of the beautiful and pure nature interpreter of the divine Mysteries. cohobbations, amalgamations, etc. who despise the reading of good Authors, and who for this reason cannot have knowledge of the true matter, although it is true to say, that they always carry it with them even in their bosom, on them, around them , under their feet, and they breathe it continually; but their too presumptuous pride makes them despise meditation and research, stupidly imagining in their crude Sophistications and their false prejudices, to find it without the knowledge of the beautiful and pure nature interpreter of the divine Mysteries.

on them, around them, under their feet, and let them breathe it continually; but their too presumptuous pride makes them despise meditation and research, stupidly imagining in their crude Sophistications and their false prejudices, to find it without the knowledge of the beautiful and pure nature interpreter of the divine Mysteries. on them, around them, under their feet, and let them breathe it continually; but their too presumptuous pride makes them despise meditation and research, stupidly imagining in their crude Sophistications and their false prejudices, to find it without the knowledge of the beautiful and pure nature interpreter of the divine Mysteries.

In fact, this material is so common, and so cheap, that the poor have as much of it as the rich, and it is nevertheless so precious that everyone needs it, and cannot do without it; Because we cannot be, live, and act without it.

All that I have noticed in this triple Portal is, in truth, beautiful and ravishing, but these are closed letters, Enigmas and Hieroglifs full of mysteries for the ignorant, and mystical things for the learned for whom I have given this Explanation which they must, like Curious, consider exactly, by lifting the veils which hide from them the entrance to the secret Cabinets of the chaste Diana Hermetic. I have not read in the ancient maps of Paris, nor of this Cathedral, to know the name of the one who was the Founder of this marvelous Portal; but I believe nevertheless, that the one who provided these Hermetic Enigmas, these symbols and these mystical Hieroglifs of our Religion, was this great Learned and pious Character Guillaume Bishop of Paris, whose profound Science has always been rightly admired by the most learned Hermetic Philosophers of the Antiquity, and particularly of the good Bernard Count of Trevisan, learned follower Hermetic Philosopher; because it is certain that this Bishop has made and perfected the magisterium of the Sages.

Now, as it pleased divine Providence to give me the grace to give me some light and knowledge of Philosophy, Physics and Hermetics, I worked so much that after a long time, much care, reading the right Books, and having carried out a number of beautiful and good operations, I finally found the triple key by its essence, to open the sanctuary of the Sages, or rather of wise Nature so that I can faithfully explain the parabolic and enigmatic Writings of ancient and modern Philosophers, as I have explained quite clearly the Enigmas, Parables and Hieroglifs of this triple Portal; which I do very willingly, to give satisfaction to the learned amateurs of this divine Art, and to excite the curiosity of the new Candidates, who aspire to the knowledge of natural and hermetic Science; of whom God be praised and exalted forever.

So be it. to give satisfaction to learned amateurs of this divine Art, and excite the curiosity of new Candidates, who aspire to the knowledge of natural and hermetic Science; of whom God be praised and exalted forever. So be it. to give satisfaction to learned amateurs of this divine Art, and excite the curiosity of new Candidates, who aspire to the knowledge of natural and hermetic Science; of whom God be praised and exalted forever. So be it.

END