The Abbreviated (shortened) Rosary - Rosarii Abbreviati
Translated from the book called:
Theatrvm Chemicvm, Præcipvos Selectorvm Avctorvm Tractatvs De Chemiæ Et Lapidis Philosophici Antiqvitate, veritate, iure, præstantia, & operationibus, continens, by Mitko Janeski
1601
Contents:
Of The Abbreviated (shortened) Rosary
On the Philosopher’s Stone
On The Philosophical Mineral
Useful Compendium for believing in the experiment in meditation
ROSARIUM PHILOSOPHORUM - By the Great Toletan Philosopher
A Small Treatise on the Philosophical Mercury
Brief but Not Light On the Philosopher’s Stone
Rosarii Abbreviati - Latin Version
First Treatise
Of The Abbreviated (shortened) Rosary
From a very ancient manuscript.
Take heed, dearest one, that the things which follow are most true for those who understand.
The first preparation and foundation of the Art is solution, that is, the reduction of the body into water, that is, into quicksilver; and this they called solution, when they said: "Let that which is hidden in the body of the Magnesia be dissolved, so that it may be reduced to its first matter, to become sulfur and quicksilver" — not so that it may revert into water, because our solution is nothing other than that the body return to a moist state, and be resolved into the nature of quicksilver, and that its saltness of sulfur be diminished. For the divine sulfur, abstracted from the two sulfurs, is made when the spirit meets the body.
The second preparation is when the water passes into the body, and the one is not dissolved unless the other is coagulated, because the body, conceiving the quicksilver, coagulates it, and is coagulated by it, and becomes earth.
This is the word of opinion, of which the Philosophers say: “Water is begotten of earth,” because water becomes earth when it is overcome by the qualities of earth, and earth becomes water when it is overcome by the qualities of water; for the solution of the body and the coagulation of the spirit are one operation, and there is made a single brass, to which nothing foreign is added, except that in preparation the superfluities are removed with care.
The third preparation: the earth is ploughed and watered, and the work is carried out in fire and water by the will of God; and this is the third word of this work. For the Philosophers say: “Earth rots with water and is cleansed,” then with God’s help, the work must be continually pursued to completion, for the earth does not sprout without frequent watering, and without previous drying — and this is known to boys and to women as well, leading their female plants and fruits to perfection in gardens. Therefore the Philosophers have said: “The work of Nature is nothing other than the work of women and the play of children.” And so the body is imbibed as many times as it is dried, for all things must be done with proper weight, and measure, and method. And now the true putrefaction of the Philosophers follows, and their putrefaction is nothing other than the mortification of the moist by the dry, because moistness is restrained only by dryness. And although the cold moist flees fire, it is still held fast by dryness, which it cannot escape. For heavy things cannot be drawn upward except with the help of the light, nor can light things be cast down except by the companionship of the heavy — unless with a scorpion.
The fourth preparation: nature rejoices with nature, for when nature is gladdened, nature conquers nature — for nature contains nature, follows nature, and embraces it, and by the will of God the work is completed. And this is the fourth truth of this work, and it can be called sublimation or assumption, of which the Philosophers say: “That very water becomes aerial, when previously it was thickened and coagulated with earth,” and this is by the meeting of its like, namely its kin. And therefore nature rejoices and delights with nature, because its containment is its kinship. For the kinship between nature and nature is as great as between adamant and iron, or even greater, for their root is one and not many, and also in power — for the spirit is the mortification of the body, by an imperceptible death. And so nature conquers nature — by mortifying the body and vivifying that which came forth from it radically, and is converted into it, is increased and multiplied, and God draws many from one. And thus nature contains nature, and follows and is completed by nature through the will of Jesus Christ.
The fifth preparation: our spirit is the bearer of the soul's virtues, since our brass, like man, has spirit, body, and soul. And this is the fifth truth of this work, of which the Philosophers say: “Its spirit is water, its soul is tincture, its body is earth.” The spirit indeed is spirit, and just as the body is the bond of the soul, so the body is fixed, dry, containing spirit and soul. Therefore, the spirit penetrates the body, fixes the spirit into the body, unites the soul, whitens and tinges it.
The sixth preparation: it is varied and changed from color to color until it reaches the goal of whiteness and redness. And of this the Philosophers say: “It is often yellowed, often blackened, often dried and liquefied.”
Note that the Philosopher's Stone is composed of two natures, one of which is moist, the other dry. And when they are cooked, they become one, because neither leaves the other, and they are called one nature. And as long as the moisture lasts, it blackens, because heat acting on moisture first produces blackness, and acting on dryness produces whiteness, and from whiteness, yellowness — as seen in lead when we make minium.
Note that the moisture of our stone is a most sharp vinegar, from which great caution must be taken lest it be converted into vapor through too much fire, and the work be lost. For when the earth is dried, the blackness departs and is whitened. Then the darkness perishes and the moisture is diminished, and the dryness, approaching, takes over its governance, and the vapor penetrates its body, and the spirit is bound in the dry, and then the black will vanish, being deformed, and a bright clear white will result. Then the white woman, if she be wed to a red husband, immediately embraces and unites with him; and then the king crowned with a diadem exclaims: “I am the white son, black and red, and son of whiteness, and man of transformation.” And so the Philosophers say: “Cook them until they become black venom,” because the more they are cooked, the more they are dissolved and blackened. And the more they are cooked, the more they are dried and whitened.
Thirdly, the more they are cooked, the more they are reddened, until they are perfected.
In the dissolution, however, the fire should be gentle; in sublimation, moderate; in coagulation, tempered; in whitening, continuous; in reddening, strong.
But he who errs in these through ignorance will often lament the failure. The matter, then, whose head is red, feet white, and eyes black, is the magistery.
If the triangle is perfected within the quadrangle, then the stone is adorned with honor.
The seventh preparation: the blessed stone is multiplied and perfected, when the total of the fixed is fixed with it until it flows. And therefore the Philosophers said that the fixed stone should now be made volatile by the method of sublimation, by philosophically joining through the smallest parts, so that all the subtle may be lifted into the vessel, and then be fixed. If this does not happen, add a quantity of the unfixed part so that the sum of the volatile surpasses the fixed, until it is sufficient for its elevation. For if it surpasses the fixed, it will fly; and if it does not, it will flee with the thing.
Therefore, what has been lifted must be repeated in that total, again and again, until by this sublimation and congelation the whole is fixed. And when all has been fixed, then repeat the part not fixed, and imbibe as much quantity as before, through your skill, until the whole is elevated.
At last, let it again be fixed until it offers easy fusion like wax, and be altered in the completion of the Solar and Lunar tinctures.
Thus, from the repetition of this, as much as you prepare, so many degrees of medicinal transformation and quality result from multiplication, so that it converts any of the imperfect metals, even Mercury itself, infinitely into true gold or silver.
And therefore, in conclusion, the Philosophers ought to remain near their vessels and observe wonders, when it changes itself from color to better color, than can be described, until it reaches the goal of whiteness and redness.
Therefore the whole governance in the management of this work lies in the tempering of the fire. From there, cease the fire and let it cool, and find the stone, a pearl-like body in the color of wild poppy. And this thing is waxing, melting, and penetrating, and one weight of it can transmute a thousand times a thousand thousands, and two hundred times a thousand — immediately converting the whole body into the best gold or silver, according to the nature of the elixir.
This medicine will most swiftly melt in fire, and congeal in air, for when the vapor senses the air, it will penetrate into the body, and the spirit will be bound in the dry, and it will become one fixed, bright, white or red body, according to the nature of the medicine and ferment — incorruptible as long as the world stands. For conclusion: note that mercury, lead, brass, minium, sulfur are not the vulgar kinds, but our sulfur is divine sulfur, extracted from two sulfurs, and is called sulfur of sulfur, and quicksilver of quicksilver, called by the Philosophers "sharpest vinegar." And these two — sulfur and mercury — are really and essentially in the said vinegar, that is, in the aforementioned moisture of our stone is one nature of the stone itself. Truly, gold and silver, lead, minium, and brass, and the like, are essentially and really contained, and are in the common physical body — and its proper name you will find in the aforementioned seven doubled propositions.
Therefore, let him who has ears to hear, hear; and he who has eyes to see, see the stone known in the seven propositions — and let him praise God.
Here ends the Rosarium Abbreviatum of the unknown author.
TRACT THE SECOND
On the Philosopher’s Stone
By an Unknown Author
Let the practitioners of alchemy know that the species of metals truly cannot be changed, which is indeed true, because species themselves are not subject to sensible actions, since they are entirely incorruptible; but the subjects of the species can most certainly be changed, since they are corruptible.
However, the subjects of the species cannot be changed unless they are first, as follows from the teachings of Aristotle, reduced to the first matter, and thus they are changed into another form than they were before.
But against this, the reasoning does not hold, because when one form is destroyed, another is immediately introduced, as is evident in the works of countrymen, who make lime from stones and glass from ashes.
So much more strongly can a wise and studious man corrupt individual things of a species and introduce a new form to them, because the intention of his operation is only this: that Mercury be bound in said bodies, since the Elixir of the Philosophers consists only of them.
And of these operations, some are medicines of gold, which in some things agree with silver, and in some are different.
For in the first part of its composition, the work of gold and silver agree in all things; but in the last part, at the point of fermentation, they differ, since the ferment of gold is gold, and the ferment of silver is silver, and there are no other ferments upon the earth.
Other bodies indeed might be useful, but they will not be as good as those aforementioned, for the purity they lack, they cannot give.
And so the Philosopher says: Why do you need to use other bodies, when you can have in these what is of greater temperance and lesser impurity?
If, however, you are in need of their use, it is necessary that you first convert them into the likeness of the two said bodies, which can never be done until the Sun and Moon are cast upon them, reduced into one sought-for medicine. For Mercury, since it is by its nature transformable, becomes one with each of the bodies whose nature it embraces: if joined with lead, it becomes lead; if with iron, iron; but if it is united with these two rays, it becomes the perfect Elixir.
Therefore, one must work only with this noble matter, because things are made only according to their nature. Let no one then seek from nature what is not in her, for he will weary his soul in vain, gaining nothing from it but toil, and the loss of things and of time.
Our medicine then is not prepared in the bowels of the earth, but is perfected through art and operation, because from the said stones, nothing is useful without preparation and governance.
There are, however, four principal modes of governance: namely, to dissolve, to cleanse, to join, and to fix. To dissolve is to corrupt, to divide, and to reduce into the first matter. To cleanse is to bury, distill, and calcine. To join is to impregnate, to whiten, and to redden. But to fix is to ferment, to marry, and to incerate.
Dissolution converts the stone into its first matter, namely into water; cleansing into air; joining into fire; and fixing into earth. Hence Aristotle says: When you have water and air from fire, and fire from earth, then you shall have mastered the whole art, because then you have the four elements in one well-prepared part.
Now, of the elements, two are primary and two secondary: the stony are fire and earth; the watery are air and water. You will extract water from the moist substance, air and fire from the dry substance. As for the earth, we will say that it is from the fixed substance of the body. For earth and fire drink and retain, but fire and air—and water and air—cleanse, dye, and perfect earth and fire. Therefore, the water must be mild, and the oil unboiled, for the abundance of its infusion will be as great as the quantity of the oil. Thus, the stone is gradually dissolved, that it may be converted into Mercury and divided into the four elements, so that its first matter may wholly be obtained.
Then it is cleansed, that its impurity be taken away, and it returns to the color of quicksilver, just as it was at the beginning, and the saltness of its sulphur is lessened. Afterward, it is calcined, so that its matter is refined, and it can be turned from coarse to fine, and from thick to subtle. Then it is washed with the water of Mercury, that the matter might regain the moisture it lost in the lime.
Next, it is sublimed, so that its attenuated matter may be further purified, and in this act it is refined so that sulphur and quicksilver may be obtained in mode upon the earth, from that matter from which gold and silver were made under the earth.
Then the ferment is added to it, from that matter we wish to make—namely, if to silver, silver. Then the spirit is inserted with the body, it is made incorporeal, and fixed in it, in such a way that it is united with it, standing, penetrating deeply, dyeing and remaining, one part of which, according to its quantity, converts the body into a better part, whose body becomes into the truest gold or silver, according as its elixir shall have been prepared. Thus it also has a most effective power above all other medicines of the Philosophers to cure every infirmity; for if the illness has lasted one month, it cures it in a day; if it has lasted a year, it cures it in twelve days; but if it has been ancient and long-held, it cures it in a month.
And therefore this medicine is above all to be sought beyond the riches of this world. This ardent mastery makes us equal to kings and the highest of the world, for whoever possesses it endlessly possesses a treasure.
TREATISE THE THIRD
ON THE PHILOSOPHICAL MINERAL
By an unknown author
There is one stone, one medicine, in which the whole magistery of the art of Alchemy consists, to which we neither add any foreign thing, nor diminish it, except that in the preparation we remove the superfluous. For you do not need to use any other body in this work, except the purest Sun or the best Moon; but you must labor concerning their intimate solution and perfect subtilization. The first degree of their preparation is, that you make from them quicksilver, and when they have been made Mercurial, they will be of manifest liquefaction and occult subtilization. Thus you may understand that the work is directed in four ways: the first mode is the dissolution of the stone, the second purification, the third nourishment, the fourth espousal. Regarding the first, the stone is dissolved through frequent grinding and gentle roasting.
Therefore, with God’s help, take some Mercury washed with salt and vinegar, and then distill it through an alembic, and discard the residues you obtain. Do this a second time, and you will have a deadly poison.
Then place in different vials one part of the purest Sun and three of the aforementioned poison, and cook with a slow fire until it blackens on the surface.
Then wisely collect that blackness, and set aside the white poison collected through a most subtle linen cloth: and what you find not dissolved from the body, grind well in a glass vessel, in the philosophical manner, then put it to cook with its white poison; and when the blackness floats to the surface, collect it as previously described, until no blackness floats on the water. Do this often until the whole body is turned into blackness and completely dissolved.
Grind, cook, and repeat, and do not be weary. The grinding of the body and its resolution into water is to be done by the decoction of water and earth in a very slow fire over the space of forty days. The second work is the purification of the stone, which is done through the rectification of the elements, because it is capable of such a likeness. This rectification of the elements is done through the distillation of the signs of water and air, and the roasting of the earth.
Then take the water of the stone, and place it in a clean cucurbit or retort, and above it place the powder of one collected in the upper part, and close the alembic, and seal it with the clay of wisdom, and distill gently with a slow fire, so that you have the four elements separated, and place each element below. The rectification of the water by the earth is to be repeated by distilling it seven times from the earth, and each time before rectification discard the feculent earth, received by pressing through a linen cloth. Then take first the water and rectify it by distilling it seven times, and set aside the dregs you produce, and so you will have two elements well rectified, cleansed from all impurity. Then take the earth, water, and fire, and in the same way it will be sublimated seven times, collecting the elements above through the skin of a man who has only one testicle, and these two elements being mixed and well rectified are free from all their dross. The earth indeed in the bottom of the cucurbit is thus rectified: take it and calcine it, and wisely collect the air existing in it, and when the earth has been well calcined and emptied of all air, it will be of a pale color, fit for impregnation; and if the spirit remains in it, it will be like black earth and will receive the nourishment of its water, and by this you will know you have the four elements well rectified and purified.
The third work is nourishment, which is the tasting of the food through the imbibition of water. Then place the calcined earth in a vial, and pour upon it some of its rectified water, and cook with a gentle fire for one week, and then gently calcine it, and pour upon it more water as before, and cook again for another week; do this diligently until all the water has been imbibed. For it is necessary that the earth be fed little by little, and afterwards more abundantly, as is seen in the nourishment of an infant. Note that the washing is to be done through the distillation of water, and the coagulation of this water through the philosophical imbibitions of the water upon that earth. Therefore wash the earth with the philosophical method of earth, and also cook; it will drink of its water as much as it can, namely as much as it is itself. For it alone is sometimes inferior to itself and will no longer be complete, and cannot go further. And if it has not been completely nourished, it is not purified, nor will it return to its color. Note that you must have in separation as much air as you received of water, namely the first weight of the body, and the first and second weights of the water of the body, namely of Mercury, as at the beginning. Also wash the earth in the philosophical manner, and cook your work in air, so that it drinks of it in conformity as it did of its aforementioned water. Let this be done often until it drinks of the air an amount equal to the imbibed water, and always for eight days cook and calcine gently.
But if you wish to work toward redness, you may operate with a stronger fire so that the entire composition is embraced, until it returns to ashes, which you should not despise, because it is necessary to use them again in the work with the nourishment of their own fire. Therefore, place these aforesaid ashes in their fire until they are melted and drink their fire, and then your composition will be sweet, pleasant, and red like blood.
When indeed the earth becomes red with its final rubefaction, the red tincture will appear in the nature of the poison, which penetrates, and is, as it were, the first in color. Therefore, strengthen the operation as appropriate, balance the weights properly, and the composition will be red, in the color of coral, and this is the sign of complete digestion, perfection, and the fulfillment of the tincture in the operation, whose tincture can endure all other trials by fire infinitely.
Now concerning the manner of joining the elements together, Avicenna says: First place the water, because it is on the side of the furnace; then place the water (again), because it is on the side of the earth. Third, place the air, because it is on the side of the water; then you shall place fire in the work for whiteness, because the work of whiteness is made from three wheels—that is, from earth, water, and oil—where there shall be no fire.
However, the work of redness is made from four wheels, where fire cannot in any way be omitted. If first you place oil in the air and afterward the earth, the oil would be mortified in the earth when the water entered. But if you take the water and then the oil, the oil would be above the earth. And if then you place the water and afterward the earth, the water would be heavier because of the earth.
Now I will reveal the magistery plainly: Never make the fire, but make the place where the fire is. Open the gate of its fire, and around the air the fire will enter, and thus with the water and the earth, in such a way that they adhere. And know that if you destroy one of the four elements, all are dead; and if one has more soul than the other elements, your work is worthless. Understand what I say, for it is to be commended to God.
Note the fermentation of the Elixir: projecting it onto such a body as you took at the beginning, most excellently purified; and in the first projection let there be one part of the medicine to three parts of the body, and afterward, if you wish, one part of the medicine with two, three, or four parts—more usefully according to what you find to be the strength of the medicine. And this is the fourth work.
The fourth work, therefore, is to strip away through the mixing of its first body, because it has become substantial. To understand this: the Elixir must be fixed in its own body from which it was originally extracted. For when the spirit dissolves the soul, it dissolves the body also, that they may be reduced to its form. It shall not be fixed and shall not die unless you occupy it in its own court, for its occupation is its fixation, made through fermentation. That is, you must join it to its prepared body from the beginning, for it will be occupied in that on account of the suitability of the form of the aforementioned spirit to the essence of the body.
Do not join it to the body of any other thing, because it would change the nature of any other body; rather, join it to that body from which it drew its origin. If you do this, all will be Elixir that you join. Surely, for many who labor, their aim fails after the work is completed due to ignorance of this secret.
Note well these words: for if you project your work upon gold or silver, or any other body, it will not convert the nature of that body into the nature of the inner body, but rather that body will convert [the medicine] into its own nature. And if you project that body onto another body, the body onto which the projection is made will become Elixir, converting all into its own kind.
So understand that if you project it onto silver, it will not move silver from its form; but if you project that silver onto another imperfect body—such as copper, tin, or lead—you will convert it into silver. In the same way, if you project your work onto copper, it will render other bodies convertible into the substance of copper.
And therefore Plato the Philosopher says that the body in which the spirit is occupied during fixation is the thing from which the work is prepared. Mark well that you must not take any other body as ferment for the desponsation of the medicine except the purest Sun (gold) or the purest Moon (silver). And elsewhere Aristotle says: He who does not coagulate white quicksilver that withstands fire and does not join it with pure silver has no vein (path) to whiteness; and he who causes quicksilver to become red by fire and does not marry it with pure gold has no vein to redness. Mark well this precept of the Philosophers, very worthy of good memory.
Therefore, do not labor on any body, for you cannot come to perfection, but will come to nothing; nor will anyone discern for himself where he errs by straying: and this is one of the greatest secrets of the philosophers.
Note well the quantity of medicine to be projected upon the body in the desponsation. You must indeed know well that when you project your Elixir upon any body, beware that the Elixir does not exceed the quantity of the body. Instead, project a small amount of your work upon a great quantity of the body, and all will become spiritual powder. For if you project a large amount of your work upon a large amount of the body, then after some time it will become a powder similar in color to the body onto which it is projected.
And this completed Elixir converts all other bodies into its own kind. And when you have prepared such powder, project it onto other bodies, or even onto Mercury, by sight—and thus you will have Sun or Moon as much as you wish, better than what is extracted from the mine.
Finish of the short treatise on the Philosophical Mineral.
FOURTH TREATISE
which is called
A USEFUL COMPENDIUM FOR BELIEVING in the experiment of meditation
It testifies to the credibility of the meditation’s experiment that spirits are more akin to bodies, because they unite with bodies more than other things do—since they harmonize more subtly with them in nature. From this, therefore, our first discovery was this: that spirits are the true medicine for the alteration of bodies, namely, when investigating the other spirits we find no other spirit besides Mercury to be amicable to the nature of metallic bodies.
Therefore, through our work, investigating this, we discovered that it is indeed the true medicine for things subject to alteration when it comes to perfect transformation. And truly, what is lacking in imperfect bodies is the small amount of mercury present in them, and also its lack of inspissation (thickening), which would be the complete complement in those imperfect bodies, provided that the inspissation and fixation were of equal power and essence and were good. This, however, is perfected by the medicine created from it—namely, from mercury—which, through the benefit of its clarity and brightness, becomes a sufficient guardian (palladium) for them, and sustains and elevates them into splendor and transforms them into brilliance.
But since mercury is fluid and fugitive, it does not effect change unless its nature is properly administered. And therefore, we found it must necessarily be prepared so that its substance becomes such that it may remain hidden, penetrating to the very depth of the alterable body, without separation, forever.
This is not achieved except by subtle and final purification, certainly through many repetitions of sublimation, from dry things that burn and desiccate, but which are free of sulfur. And its ingress does not persist without form; nor does it give illumination except through a most shining substance extracted from there; nor does it provide fusion unless in fixation—and this requires the utmost caution.
Therefore, imitating nature as much as possible, we sublime it from the hottest and driest substances, and we sublime it again and again, until it is clothed in perfection by removal of its superfluities and assumes the whitest color—sometimes in a fortnight, sometimes in nine days, sometimes in a single day, completed in cycles.
When, therefore, you see it appearing almost dead, and adhering to the spondiles (collars or necks) of the aludel as white as snow, then we divide it into two parts—one of which we keep below, to sublime the stone with its earth, the other we throw into flowing water until it returns to mercury.
Then, from what was earlier reserved for the red work, we dissolve it in its red water and instantly coagulate it. Next, we add to it the red fire of the Stone, repeating upon it the entire work of grinding, imbibition, and roasting many times, until it is dry and red. By the method already described, we sublime it with sublimated and rubified Mercury—not fixed—joined again and again, until the whole has been lifted a second and third time, so red in color that it is useful. Afterward, we fix it by the same method so that it remains stable. From here, we dissolve and coagulate it by turns, and we reserve it for fermentation for the red work of the Sun.
Then we dissolve the white earth reserved for the white work, and to one part of it we add three parts of the purest Moon (silver), similarly dissolved. Joining both these solutions together, we grind and roast them until the whole becomes one body, to which we add enough of its own white oil, repeating many times the grinding, inceration, and roasting so that it may be better incorporated.
From here, we repeatedly sublime it, always returning what ascends to the part below that remains fixed, until all is fixed below. Sometimes this is completed in four, five, or even seven iterations, which is the ultimate number. Yet in every iteration, we fully incorporate everything through grinding, inceration, and roasting. Thus, in repeated steps, we sublime the unfixed until all has become fixed. Then we apply to it the strongest fire for a full day—and by the grace of God, the Elixir is complete: stable, tinging, penetrating, consolidating, and enduring, of which one part converts a thousand parts of any body into the truest Moon.
Furthermore, we again dissolve the whole in its own white oil and coagulate it; then we dissolve it once more and join it with the unfixed part, and sublime it in turns until all the fixed is completely lifted with the unfixed. When it has been lifted, we repeat its sublimation until, by repetition of this process, the whole is fixed. When it is fixed, we again dissolve it and again sublime it, until the whole is lifted once more. Then we fix it again by the continuous repetition of sublimation upon it, until it remains stable.
We repeat all preparations upon it until it gives an easy fusion as a certainty. Then it will work more abundantly and perfectly, because one part of it will convert a thousand thousand parts of any prepared body, and of washed Mercury, into the truest silver—and better than that extracted from the mine.
Likewise is the redification for the Sun, except that red things are applied more thickly and the work of the Sun is performed. That is, by the redifying hand, we join together with flowing calcined Gold, dissolved in its red oil, and sublime one with the other until all is fixed below. Again, we repeat upon it the dissolutions, sublimations, and fixations many times, until it becomes and alters each of the imperfect things into true and certain Gold.
However, the red work requires more sublimation in its steps than the white work. Therefore, it must be sublimed, dissolved, and coagulated more often. In the red work, nothing enters except what is red—just as in the white work, nothing enters except what is white. And the more often we dissolve, coagulate, and sublime, the more perfectly, abundantly, and excellently it will work—and it will increase beyond its own number, converting every imperfect thing into infinity, into true and certain Gold.
But just as a good master cannot know except with good reasons, so neither can a good master be unless he knows all the reasons of this art: therefore, you ought to know that when our stone is divided into the four elements, for if you cast a little of it upon a diminished body, it makes that body gold or silver; yet this could not be done without preparation and sublimation, because its imperfect parts lack the power to enter into the smallest parts of the body. Therefore, we divide the stone and its matter, which is barely fit at all, and we use the bare elements; and suppose we have a root.
Then we join them, because at that very hour it incorporates itself with the body, which before could not happen on account of its coarseness; and this is the one reason why we divide the stone into its elements. Afterwards, we calcine the earth to thin its matter, then dissolve it with its own water so that it recovers the moisture lost in its calcination; then we coagulate and incerate it, so that it can return from matter into matter, and be soft enough to be fused. Afterwards, we add to it dissolved Mercury and sublime the whole so that its matter may be more attenuated and well incorporated together.
And all this we do so that we have Mercury and Sulfur from that matter upon the earth from which gold and silver are made beneath the earth. Then we apply the fire of the Stone so that it may be well colored by the operation of the Sun and become red as is desired; and the fire of our Stone is dry and is gold. When it has been well prepared, dissolved, sublimed, and coagulated, we add to it the ferment from that matter which we want to make—namely, if it is to become gold, let it become gold; if silver, silver.
And thus we make peace between fire and water, air and earth, because we give to each element of the stone what it says it accomplishes, so that they no longer remain hostile in our masterwork.
Then, accordingly, we resolve, sublime, and coagulate the whole many times in repeated turns, until it flows and changes each imperfect metallic body into infinity, into true Gold-making or Silver-making according to every artificer’s judgment.
In this is completed the most precious secret which is above all the treasures of the world. To the Most High God be eternal and perpetual praises and thanks.
Fifth Treatise
which is called
ROSARIUM PHILOSOPHORUM
from the compilation of all Philosophers’ Books.
By the Great Toletan Philosopher.
A desirable desire, an imperishable price, set by all Philosophers, which is neither laid down nor supposed to have been badly proposed, here briefly collected in summary from the books of the ancients, so that the argument of truth may be most clearly and sufficiently revealed to you, proving that it belongs to the most excellent part of philosophy.
And indeed we call this summary the Rosary, because from the books of the Philosophers, like roses plucked from thorns, we present to you this very thing, in which by clear speech and correct order, and word for word, with all its sufficient causes, we succinctly deliver whatever we find necessary from their books for the completion of this work. And because whatever opposes reason harms the truth, therefore, using the sentences of truth in all respects, we will put nothing superfluous in it, nor anything diminished from the whole masterwork. May our Lord Jesus Christ grant us the spirit of His understanding.
All works of divine goodness are circular and perfect, revolving spherically toward Him from whom they came forth. From the beginning, before the origin of creation, God, preeminent over all nature, made four simple bodies, from which afterward He constituted all mixed bodies; of the mixed, some are intellectual, some sensitive and vegetative, some only intellectual, some made only from the rarity of the elements. Therefore our heart is restless until we return to Him, for the rarity of all elements ascends to the fire which is above the stars; thus also we, created from that, rightly tend upward to God as to the one principle.
All sensitive and also vegetative things, composed from the spirit and order of the elements, differ in species; therefore, when they dissolve by death, they rightly return to earth and water, as to their mother, since by nature the spirit of the elements tends downward to its center, namely the earth. However, the nature of all stable things has a definite limit of magnitude and growth, so that within its species it increases its like, and some of them are dissimilar in their parts, such as flesh, blood, and bones, or wood, bark, and leaves.
Some parts are similar, such as those which throughout are of one essence, as is seen in metals; but those whose parts are dissimilar nevertheless possess sensation, whereby the embedded earth multiplies and grows, as appears in trees and herbs.
But those whose parts are similar do not multiply unless their matter is first reduced to its first [original] form. Therefore the Philosopher Aristotle says: let the artisans of Alchemy know that the species of metals cannot be transmuted into perfection unless they first reduce them to the first matter, and then indeed they are transmuted and are true species if they are well moved and changed. Note the reason why the resolution of the body into the first matter, namely the living agent, must be done, and that because the corruption of one is the generation of another, both in artificials and in natural things.
Art imitates nature and in some respects corrects and surpasses it: just as nature is aided by the diligent skill of physicians; for nature itself neither builds a house nor makes a medicine, because it lacks within itself the motion to do so. Likewise, our stone, although it naturally contains tincture (for it is perfectly created in the earth), yet it does not possess the motion to make the perfect elixir unless it is moved by art. Therefore, one art accomplishes what nature alone cannot work by itself, while another art imitates and perfects to the extent that things are naturally born and perfected by nature.
Hence, art must assist nature in what nature cannot perfect by itself, because there is no difference between nature and art except that art acts externally, whereas nature acts internally; for art is like an instrument that administers motion, but nature itself acts by itself, since it strives toward its own perfection.
Moreover, every body is either an element or composed of elements, and all generation of composites necessarily consists of the four simple elements. Therefore, our stone must necessarily be reduced to the first origin of its Mercury and sulfur, divided into elements; otherwise, it cannot be purified or joined together, because its smallest parts cannot enter except into the smallest parts of a body. But divided, it is purified and again joined, and the elixir we seek operates.
For experiment destroys its specific form: but before the division into elements, nothing is seen or touched except earth and water, because air and fire are nowhere visible nor are their virtues known except in the said prior elements; for they are altogether rare and simple, and therefore cannot be seen by the eyes in bodies; therefore you need not care for them, since it suffices for you to see the matter in its simple purity.
The elements, however, are four, also the modes are four, and the humors four, namely blood, choler, phlegm, and melancholy; the modes are hot, cold, moist, and dry. The elements are fire, air, water, and earth, of which two are active and two passive: fire and air are active, water and earth are passive; two ascend and two descend; one is hot, coming from the union of contraries except through a medium. Hot and cold do not unite except through the medium, namely moist and dry, because by themselves they will not remain together since one dulls the other because of their opposition; therefore hot and cold join and disperse by union, dissolution, and coagulation, but moist and dry aggregate and disperse by constricting and moistening.
The operation of the elements is also a simple and natural generation and permutation: for the hot fire overcomes the cold, binding the matter; but when the agents are overcome, it liquefies, because partly violence and indigestion happen; therefore, things universally are changed and varied by hot and cold, and simply generated and naturally permuted.
But from any determined thing arises one determined thing, because there is no generation except from things agreeing in nature: for man begets man, lion lion; thus each produces its like; none, however, being of different kinds, ever looks like itself nor begets its similar; likewise it is with all born of a different kind. Therefore it is necessary that the elements be of one kind, not diverse; otherwise, they will have no action or passion toward one another, since one does not touch the other.
Thus, doubt returns concerning the stone called the philosopher’s stone, what it is or what kind it is, since no philosopher openly names it: on this point different ones have declared different things, although the truth consists in one alone. We keep to that one, and teach to avoid all others; for it is clear from the writings of the philosophers that there is one thing, not different, which ought to be joined to itself; but nothing suits a thing except what is nearer and of its own nature, for they do not bring forth things except similar to themselves, nor do they bear fruit except their own fruits. Therefore, since things of one kind are the roots of their kind, their roots are of one kind.
The diversity of things is indeed caused by the diversity of their parts: therefore I know the world from impurity, because nothing gives what it does not have. The world is of one essence, free from impurities; the impure is diverse and made from diversities, belonging to the generated and the corruptible.
This is proven in the Sun and Saturn, because Saturn corrupts all things, but the Sun does so least. Therefore, knowledge of the body is from the clarity of bodies and the principle of their creation easily accomplishes this mastery, for impurities cling to impurities when they are of the same kind; but purity conquers the nature of the world, not assuming defects of mixture. Do not seek in nature what is not in it, since things only come to be according to their nature; and greater corruption is found in the passive thing than in the active. Use therefore the nobler and simpler member, and it will suffice for you; yet the member of the heart is from the body as is the member of the brain from the head, because in the heart is the power of the rational soul.
However, one of these has angles belonging to a nobler and simpler geometry close by, just as the triangle is closer in simplicity than the quadrangle, since it has fewer boundaries. A round body is simple, having no angle. Therefore, reject the composite and simply extract the simple, for it is the genus of genera and the form of forms, since it is the first and last in the planets as the Sun is in the stars. The Sun, then, is strong with homogeneous elements in its nature, for it has an easier passage in those having the symbol.
Therefore, since the sought thing is of the kind of both the world’s luminaries, it is necessary to choose that which best agrees with the nature of those very luminaries; and certainly, with this kind of light, much is known, because the work is not perfected except through it. Crowns are adorned with precious stones, whose beauty delights the sight, pleases the soul, ornaments dignity, and by their virtue expel the gravest diseases from bodies, without which all medicine is of little effect. Therefore, physicians use them in their medicines to expel the gravest illnesses.
Moreover, it is a most true argument of the learned that the best stone of all stones is best for expelling all infirmities. Know from this that the best stone of all stones is gold by intellect. Therefore, the best stone of all stones is that which is most cooked and closest to fire, which endures fire more and breaks more slowly by fire. Hence precious stones like rubies and sapphires are more effective than other stones, because they are generated in hotter places, nearer the Sun with greater heat.
Thus gold is more effective than silver because it is more cooked, and silver more than copper or other base metals; and just as the ruby has in itself the effect of all precious stones, so too gold has in itself the virtue of all metals for distillation, though not for coagulation. It dyes and vivifies them, since it is the noblest of all, and it is with this that you capture gold.
But the Ruby, because of the harmony of its elements, is more complexed, since for the most part it is from a shining substance, like from clear water, and it coagulates with dryness and great heat. Therefore, it neither sweetens nor is reduced to another state unless it is destroyed entirely, because it is opposed to fire on every side.
Gold, on the other hand, being from the substance of earth mixed with water in the smallest measure, is homogeneous with fire, being on one side of two extremes, and coagulates with cold after the action of heat in it. For this reason it is sweetened and improved by fire; it is proportioned to a better complexion, from which, a nobler composition is before all other precious stones.
Next immediately is silver, hence gold and silver together for the stone; the defect of other bodies is that in them heat is added or coldness diminished, as coldness is deficient in copper and iron, heat in tin and lead. But gold and silver are rightly and equally composed, and truly tempered, before all other stones, as if under the sky they belong to the species of natural stones.
And gold is certainly the lord of stones, the nobler of bodies, their king and best head; for it is not corrupted by air, nor by water, nor by earth, nor is it diminished by fire; indeed, fire adorns, decorates, and corrects its moisture, and things scorching do not burn it, nor corrupting things corrupt it, because its composition is tempered, and its nature directed in equal heat and cold, moisture and dryness, and in it nothing is superfluous nor diminished.
Therefore no stones, no matter how highly priced, prevail over gold, although some are dearer than gold, not because they exceed gold in price, but because they are rarer and found less frequently.
It should be noted deeply that there is no stone better than the Sun, and that the work is in no way accomplished without the Sun, for it is the ferment of the elixir. Therefore of all things in this age gold is more valuable, since it is the ferment of the Elixir, without which the work is by no means completed; gold rejoices, preserves youth, renews old age, and expels every infirmity of the body. It is like the ferment of dough, the coagulation of milk into cheese, and like moss in fine spices.
By merit gold surrounds the upper solar part, silver the lower lunar part; hence they say to see the Sun and Moon for their creation as more true, but because I see the Sun and Moon, I most certainly know that it is truer. For every thing in nature which is simple and admirable are herbs, as well as vegetables in nature.
The Sun therefore is the tincture of redness, which transforms every body.
The Moon is the tincture of whiteness, since it is the mistress of moisture; when the spirits are mixed with the Sun and follow through it the great ingenuity which does not reach the artificer of a hard neck — for spirits in nature, if changed, die, and when dead they appear similar — afterwards, breathed in, they come, multiply, and grow like the others.
Therefore unless a grain of wheat falling to the ground dies, it alone remains; if it is dead, it brings forth much fruit, and what seemed lost is restored; from this, an excellent destruction knows not its own construction, and by the act of nature it is necessary that it knows not.
It is calcined and dissolved with great labor but without profit; therefore, why should you use other bodies when you can have in these that which has greater temperance and less dross? If you need to use them, first they must be converted into the species of those mentioned above, and then begin the operation upon them; however, it is possible to work with them since all bodies contain science, but they will not be as good as those aforementioned, because in the greater work not all bodies are rightful to perfection, they are diminished, and they enter the work only until in the subtlety of composition they become like perfect bodies.
However, the white and the red sprout from one root without any other kind of intervening body; for the Moon in the silver work forms that whiteness which is the purest matter of the Sun; retaining nothing of its own color, it indicates it, yet the Sun, whitening the quicksilver, deprives it.
This is because the true generation of all things is from matter and form. Therefore all the benefit of this art lies in the Sun and Moon, if you are in need of labor around their solution; reduce them to their first matter, and their first matter is quicksilver (living silver), because when they are dissolved, all bodies turn into it. Certainly, all things are from what they are dissolved into, since it is resolved into water by moderate heating; it is therefore clear that the water existed first.
Without doubt, doubtful things can be resolved into quicksilver, therefore they were first quicksilver themselves. Here, then, note the resolution of bodies into quicksilver.
Blessed, therefore, be the sublimated lord of nature, by whom from one reason everything is discerned and reduced to its first matter and nature, that is, bodies prepared to their first origin, like the philosophers’ Mercury, so that from them gold may be generated in likeness of heaven from earth, which by natural operation under tension takes a thousand years only; hence if we did not have such benefit from quicksilver except that it makes bodies subtler to their nature, this itself ought to suffice us; for it is friendly and agreeable to metals, and the medium joining them in tinctures, since it receives in itself what is of its own nature, and rejects what is alien, because it is uniform in substance, homogeneous in all its parts. Indeed it is that which surpasses fire and is not surpassed by it, but in it it rests friendly rejoicing, because of the good adhesion of its parts and the strength of its mixture. If in any way its parts were heated by fire, it does not allow itself to be corrupted further, nor by the ingress of smoky flame does it permit itself to be raised higher, for it does not permit its rarefaction, because of its density and lack of burning.
Truly therefore, we say those bodies are of greater perfection which contain more quicksilver, and those are less perfect in those which contain less of it, and certainly imperfect in composites, and rarely few; from this arises the direct thickening, which tends toward abundance in them — this will be the multiplication of quicksilver, good thickening and permanent fixation.
Therefore apply yourself when you are in the work on them, so that through it alone you may perfect, you will be a seeker of the most precious and perfection, and you will rejoice in the highest perfection which conquers nature; for you will be able to purify inwardly that which nature does not reach, and so consequently from it you will be able to create a work which surpasses all nature.
There is no difference whether this is done in natural organs or in artificial ones. From these therefore extract the secret necessary for our medicine, taken from those substances which most closely adhere to quicksilver (argentum vivum) in its depths, and which are ground to the smallest particles before it flees; but quicksilver adheres more closely to quicksilver itself, and is more beloved by it, next comes gold, and then silver; other bodies, however, have less conformity to it, because their pure nature participates less.
Nothing fumes in it unless the Sun is immersed in it; therefore it is necessary that this medicine be extracted positively from those in which it mostly consists, and this is found both in bodies and in quicksilver itself according to nature. It is indeed more difficult to find in bodies, but closer, though not more perfect, in quicksilver. Consequently, the medicine is of the same kind both in bodies and in quicksilver itself, removed by impalation and subtlety, and reduced to the highest degree; for the tincture passes from the external to the external only through a medium, since the external is the colorant, and on the side is quicksilver, and from the other side, the perfect elixir.
The means between these are six bodies which extend away from the malleus (hammer?), some of which are more purified, decocted, and digested, and these are the nearest, as we Christianly believe, and not to be ignored.
Therefore do not err, because there is no true tincture except from our copper, that is, from the philosopher’s stone. Moreover, all gold is copper, but not all copper is gold, because genus does not imply species; thus all gold is red sulfur, but not all sulfur is gold, because nothing in gold comes from the corruption of sulfur. Therefore our stone, according to the diversity of its operation, can convert quicksilver into the most true silver, or even into purest gold, as will become clear below.
However, when it has been whitened in the work, it operates by the action of white sulfur, coagulating mercury into pure silver; and if it has had longer digestion, it will be the best black sulfur, converting mercury into dark gold. If this stage is lacking, seek another stone and foolishly do not waste your money or bring perpetual sadness to your spirit, for if you help these things, you will reap. Therefore do not put all your trust in yourself and the scarabs, nor eat of the son whose mother is corrupt, but eat a morsel of the fatter flesh; for it is folly to make your work from the worse when it can be done from the better.
Therefore diminish the dark plurality of names, because different names are imposed on this matter according to the various colors appearing in the work, since there is one sun, one moon, and one thing. So use nature reverently, because nature is not improved except in its own nature, lest you introduce alien things, neither dust, nor water, nor anything else.
Be constant in your will in the work, and do not attempt this or that arbitrarily, for in the multitude of things our art is not perfected. Our stone is therefore one, one medicine, one vessel, one regimen, and one disposition of the same, to which we add no foreign thing nor diminish it, except that in its preparation we remove the superfluous; for nothing enters it that does not originate from it, neither in part nor in whole. If anything foreign is added, it is immediately corrupted, and what is sought will not be made from it.
Therefore our stone is one, namely a permanent water, marvelous, bright, clear, having a celestial color; yet the true spirit in that water which perfects it—the thing you seek—cannot be made otherwise. Note therefore that this water cannot be perfected without the Sun; indeed, we honor the Sun, because our water is not perfected without it; for without the Sun and its shadow, no tincturing poison is generated, that is, prepared quicksilver (argentum vivum).
But whoever strives to make a tincturing poison without these proceeds to a witch’s folly and like a donkey to the feast; and this is because body does not act on body, nor spirit on spirit, since form does not receive impression from form, nor matter from matter. For the similar does not act upon its like, since neither is worthy of the other, and so none acts on another; because equal to equal has no dominion. Yet body does receive impression from spirit, as matter from form, because they are naturally suited to act and suffer each other.
Therefore, body dyes, but spirit penetrates; yet spirit does not dye the body unless it itself is dyed; because the earthly spirit does not enter due to its coarseness, but rather the subtle aerial spirit that enters and dyes, and this is the sulfur of the body extracted by nature. Therefore gold is not dyed except from that from which its hidden spirit is extracted from its womb, and all becomes spiritual.
Therefore our living water is fire, burning gold, killing and binding all elemental fatness; and the more it is mixed and ground by fire, the more it is broken down, and the living fiery water is refined. If gold has been ground and made into one thing, it has in itself all tincture bearing fire.
Therefore the body so colored by spirit colors, and has and gives all tincture in itself. Hence those who join the Sun and its shadow, that is the Moon, in a tincturing poison, perfect our stone. But unless the stone had action and passion mutually from both substances, the one would not tincture the other.
Therefore the stone and the wood have no operation between themselves, because they are from different matter, as is the case with all things of different matter. It is necessary that agent and patient be in general one and the same, but in species different and distinct; just as a woman differs from a man, for although they agree in genus and nature, yet between them there is distinction and distinct operation. The agent and the patient do not agree: matter desires form, and form acts upon matter; and form is like its own matter. Therefore, matter naturally desires form, as a woman desires a man, and the ugly desires the beautiful. Likewise, the spirit willingly desires the body, desiring perfection in itself.
Therefore know the knowledge of knowledge: let us call our work “our work” as much as we can; I cannot express it by another name nor call it by another name, but by its description from the root I name it here.
Rightly then is our stone called by the Philosophers “all things,” because it has in itself and from itself all things necessary for its perfection; it is called “all things” by all on account of the excellence of its nature, and because hidden within it is a diverse action; it is found everywhere by participation of the elements, and is most vile because of putrefaction, most precious because of virtue, black, white, and citrine according to the change of colors.
Therefore set aside the multitude of its diverse names, for whatever way it is named, it is always one and the same alone. Philosophers certainly do not care about names, but about the properties of names, because by one name the rest are understood; for the thing is not subject to speech, but speech to the thing.
Know intimately about the medicine that it cannot be red before it is white; therefore our medicine is similar both in existence and mode of action, and yet it is necessary that the same medicine be white before it becomes red, because it cannot proceed unless it was first white. No one can pass from the first to the third without passing through the second; thus there is no passage from black to citrine except through white, because citrine is composed of much white and little black. Therefore, do not try first to make this medicine red without whitening it; you will not succeed.
Hence the white and red medicine do not differ in essence, but in that the red medicine requires more subtilization and longer digestion with heat in fire under its regimen; and this because the end of the red operation, which is perfected in one, must be begun in the other; for the whole masterwork begins and ends in one way. The red work requires the red, just as the white work requires the white ferment.
Our stone’s vessel is one in which the whole masterwork is completed, and it is a certain cucurbit and alembic, or a single thick glass vessel closed all around, one cubit long, round below and above, without a flat foot, whose bottom is a small circumference with flat walls and the breadth of the head, so that sublimation may ascend freely through it; for when sudden rising is necessary, it may better place the fire beneath and above.
Indeed, no other material is less suitable than glass, unless perhaps it is similar in substance to it; for only glass and that which is like glass—whose body is clear, transparent, and lacking pores—is able to hold in fleeing spirits so that they are not destroyed by the fire, and to show the colors appearing in the work so that the operator does not err in the regimen. Other vessels do not, because their bodies are opaque—that is, dark and porous—through which spirits would gradually, little by little, vanish into smoke.
It is proper that the spirits rise as smoke and do not descend; therefore the cucurbit is joined to its alembic by its weak spirits up to the zone. The joint must be ingeniously made and well fitted so that nothing can enter or exit through it; it must also be sealed strongly and continuously so that nothing may escape or enter. For if air or any other moisture enters the process of corruption, its odor will flow out—that is, white smoke will escape and flee—and the entire work is deprived of its effect.
The regimen of our stone is one: to decoct continually and uninterruptedly in its vessel until you achieve the desired end. The philosophers have posited many artificial things—either as jests or veneration—such as continuation, occultation, and purification, so that nothing filthy or unclean is introduced; as well as to mix, cook, water, putrefy, whiten, and redden. These are many names, but their regimen is one, which is simply to cook; and therefore it is nothing other than a woman’s work and a child’s play.
Grind, cook, and repeat; do not cease to repeat this many times, because if the philosophers knew that one decoction and one grinding would suffice, they would not have repeated their sayings so often. Therefore they made and said this: the compound must be ground continually and cooked without interruption.
All its regimen depends on the temper of the fire, because the diversity of its regimens depends on the degrees of fire: in solution the fire is always gentle; in sublimation moderate; in coagulation temperate; in whitening continuous; in reddening strong and continuous. If you err ignorantly in these, you will often undo the work by your labor.
Therefore it is most prudent that you attend diligently to the work, and do not abandon a truncated work; for you will acquire neither knowledge nor profit from an abandoned work, but rather loss and despair.
You also need to be learned in natural philosophy and advanced in industry so that you can, in an instant, remedy error by knowledge; for by natural industry alone you cannot amend, since art is aided by ingenuity and ingenuity by art.
Similarly, it is expedient not to be ignorant of the principles of this art; for whoever ignores the end will not find it; nor will you find the sophistic goal of the work by imitation alone, but intend only the completion of the stone, lest God, in whose power our art is reserved, deny you its truth forever.
Know then intimately about the disposition of our stone, which is the entire work. The disposition of our stone is only one: that it be placed in its vessel and cooked continually in fire until the whole is dissolved and ascends; then the fire must be strengthened until it has exhausted its moisture, and it is dry and very white. Third, the fire must be further strengthened until it is citrine and very red.
But if you are negligent in these pains during the work, you will see nothing of them. Therefore be diligent when you are in the work to remember all the signs which appear in every decoction and to investigate their causes, because all these are necessary for the artificer and suitable for the completion of the entire work. Those ignorant of causes must also necessarily be ignorant of effects.
Know therefore about your vessel, and that the seed must be imposed once so that a good generation may occur and not many times. And although philosophers say many times “put into your vessel and likewise close it,” it suffices to impose and close once until you complete the entire masterwork; more is harmful, because if you impose many times, then gold will not turn red nor white.
Therefore all the residue of the art lies in the occultation, and certainly you have no material for generation except vegetable or animal if you have imposed the seed once in the matrix; but if it were imposed again, it would destroy the other seed because of the crudity of indigestion or the ingress of air or the excess of matter.
Therefore women expose themselves to many men and perish, for they conceive very rarely; and if they conceive quickly, those who miscarry rarely conceive again. Thus, raw things when cooked and undigested placed against digested things can oppose and destroy nourishment, because the fetus is nourished only from the blood of the mother and lives until it is brought forth into the light.
From this it is clear that our work does not require many things, nor does it demand great expense, although it is a stone, one vessel, one regimen, and one disposition, both for whitening and for reddening successively—that is, for making the palliative.
Therefore, if you truly and well direct the natures, and well couple their composition, and join kin to kin suitably, you will complete the whole work. For natures opposing their own natures follow and exalt them, for our nature governs, nature destroys nature, melts it, and reduces it to powder; then nature recreates nature, generates and renews it until the end of the work is reached.
However, because the form is given according to the merit of the matter, nothing can work properly with an unprepared nature. The best mode of preparation is to remove the superfluous and supply what is absent; thus both the whole and the corrupt are renewed to a perfect state.
And this is like dry trees, which are not suitable in any way until they have received the heavenly color of Mercury.
Take especial care in its change from privation of its virtue lest the active force be suffocated in any part. For the seeds of all earthly things do not multiply or grow if their generative force is removed by excessive heat from foreign causes. Likewise, this nature will not multiply if improperly prepared; but do not take the nature except pure, clean, raw, pleasant, flowing, sincere, and correct. If you have made a fetus, it will profit nothing; its addition is better purified by cement.
When you wish to make the intention, dissolve in it the lunar nature, for the first step of its preparation is to become Mercury; and this will not happen until you soften it by the domination of water and the continuous motion of heat.
There must be much water and much sky, because as great as the quantity of water is, so great is the tincture.
We dissolve gold that it may be reduced to its first matter—that is, that it truly becomes sulfur and living silver—because from this we can best make silver and gold when converted into the nature of sulfur, which must be washed and decocted to be true sulfur and silver, for according to the philosophers these are the first matter of all metals.
And certainly our solution is nothing else than that the body returns to moisture, and the nature of the living agent is revealed therein, and its saltiness of sulfur is diminished; it does not revert to water or cloud as some foolish ones thought, for if it reverted to such water, it would be without conversion by force of nature, like salts and alum.
And thus when the regular places would worthily turn into glass, that is false and their work is false.
Now the innermost note concerning the solution: our solution is that you give Gabricus to Beya and that conjugation is made; and without Beya, lying with her, it immediately dies and is transferred to its nature. Then after many days have passed, it rises upon Beya, transferring her into its body, and although Beya is female, Gabricus improves her because he is from her, and because the force of Gabricus is dearer than Beya.
Know, however, that there is no generation without her, for no generation is perfected without the male and seed.
Therefore join our red servant, sister of the fragrant one, and between them let art be begotten.
Placed then in its vessel, warmly and diligently, decoct continuously over gentle fire until they become a marked broth; for from natural principles it is clear that all things whose root is earth and water dissolve and become flowing.
And certainly according to the philosopher, earth is water when the qualities of water overcome it, and water is earth when the qualities of earth overcome it.
Thus the solution of the body is the freezing of the spirit, and the freezing of the spirit is the solution of the body, for they have one operation, that one is not dissolved unless the other is frozen.
Therefore add a poisonous leaf, as it is written to you in the beginning of the work; yet from the rotation of the heavens let it be fortunate and in the fortunate germinants of the earth.
Therefore, at the beginning of your work, unite the solution through the Sun, for the effect will appear thence, and that which is above is pressed down when it helps that which is below, or the higher things are enlivened if indeed the lower dominate the higher.
Therefore be patient in your regimen; firmly close the vessel and do not cease, because no generation or corruption of things occurs except through continuous motion, exclusion of air, and tempered heat. The example of this is the womb of a woman, which when she conceives is immediately closed, and by the warmth and moisture of the blood the fetus is generated; yet it never receives foreign states until the infant is born. Likewise, in the same way, our stone continually remains closed in the vessel until it has drunk its moisture and has been perfectly nourished by the heat of the fire. For then the white stone is born, and the aerial vapors do not harm it.
It is therefore most necessary to continue the operation, moderate the fire, exclude the air, and especially burn our copper with a gentle fire until it hardens, just as in beating eggs, until its body is hardened and the tincture extracted. But it is not extracted all at once; little by little it emerges every day until it is completed over a long time. What dissolves always comes out above, although the residue is greater below; therefore, always keep a strong fire so as not to reach the solution before the necessary time, for this leads the work to distant removals, depriving it of sense, operation, and motion.
Note therefore the beginning concerning gentle heat and philosophical grinding, which is to be done with fire alone and not by hands. Intense heat destroys the composition, cold drives away, but gentle heat nourishes and preserves. Therefore, having placed it in a tempered bath, rub it with fire and not with hands; wash it with the humidity of its water so that its fiery virtue is not burnt nor its sulphurous substance consumed, for that first which comes out by separation is milder and more worthy of operation than the virtues of the other elements.
Now note the signs of true dissolution. Therefore continue the tempered bath upon it until the impalpable matter dissolves in the water and the whole tincture emerges in the color of blackness, which is the sign of true dissolution. For the acting heat in moisture first generates blackness, and in dryness operates whiteness, and in whiteness yellowness, as is seen in lead when it becomes tin.
Therefore, govern it continually with fire in the moisture; do not hasten nor cease the work until it is entirely distilled and the powder is wholly spiritual. What is spiritual powder rises in the vessel, and what is thick and coarse remains below.
Note therefore the sign of true grinding of body with spirit, for unless you turn all into spiritual powder, you have not converted it. Therefore, afterward grind them until they are converted and all become powder, and note how this is done by fire and not by hands.
Grinding of the decoction is not by hands, which only has to be done by gentle decoction, moist pure cooling, and continual grinding by fire and not by hands; for hand grinding is unnecessary.
Certainly there is an Alkien in this, and through it the work is perfected; which Alkien is true, that is, which produces secret generation in the earth, just as Alkien in man, by its preparative virtue, always clarifies and divides as it knows, and rightly so, for nature is wise and self-sufficient in all it needs. Its work is indeed to convert earth into water and water into earth, according to the diverse composition.
First note how to dissolve earth with water; second, how earth coagulates water. This will occur within one hundred and forty days; for first, water tries to dissolve earth, that it may have the nature of its subtlety; second, earth coagulates water so as to sustain fire with itself. This is the solution of the body and the coagulation of the spirit by gentle decoction in one hundred and forty days, and perhaps whiteness will appear in forty days. But the first is better, since it signifies temperance of fire and goodness of preparation.
However, nothing acts in them except our sulfur, for our sulfur blackens itself, consumes and burns, and that which consists of its own nature, what is blackened is what is not fixed; it opened the gate and turning not fleeing with the fleeing: yet its torment does not torment nor harm nor corrupt but unites and benefits. For if its torment were harmful and unsuitable, I would not embrace it nor extract colors from it which we have diminished by the water of sulfur.
Therefore, the blackening which we say is the key of the work, since nothing is done without blackness, for it is the tincture we seek, by which we are known in every body, which before is hidden in its air like a soul in a human body.
Therefore, unless our copper is broken down, imbued, and extracted and carefully governed until it is extracted from its spirituality and turned into a thin impalpable spirit, and unless bodies are turned into non-bodies and non-bodies into bodies, no rule of the work is found. And that because we cannot extract that most subtle soul containing all tincture from its body unless first it is broken down and turned into a thin impalpable spirit, and the body dissolved having its parts ground by fire and water.
But our water is fire, burning bodies more than fire; and therefore it governs by itself and extracts all nature from it, overcoming nature.
And therefore, patiently continuing the decoction in all its states of operation until the whole tincture comes out above the water in the color of liquid fish, and when you see the blackness emerging, know then that the fire must be raised above it until the water receives the mist which produces darkness.
The intention of the philosophers is that the body already dissolved into its powder should enter the water and become entirely like powder and like the powder of water. Know that this powder is none other than the water of sulfur dissolved by the heat of fire; therefore, by merit it takes water as its own nature, and therefore unless it is turned into water, it never reaches perfection.
Note, however, that nothing should be added in the mixture nor in the entire regimen except its own proper water, because it is never appropriate to use anything else in the mixture, grinding, or the whole regimen except that single permanent water well known. For its power is a spiritual blood without which nothing is made.
Now this is converted into body, and the body by this same is turned into spirit; for thus mutually mixed and made one, they turn each other. So the body incorporates the spirit; note, however, that the spirit colors the body in the color of fire. Therefore the spirit turns the body tinctured in spirit, just as blood does; for whatever has spirit also has blood.
Wherefore it is necessary that the water be constantly occupied with gentle fire up to its imminent blackness, until it is reunited in its water, and water is made into water—that is, until the whole becomes one water. But when water is mixed with other water, then water fills water so that they cannot be separated from each other.
Those who are ignorant, hearing ‘water,’ might think it to be the water of clouds; but if they have reason and knowledge, they certainly know it is permanent water, which without its own body, with which it is dissolved and made one, cannot exist permanently. This water philosophers call the water of gold, the fiery poison, and the egg of many little names.
Therefore, when we have this sulfurous water, we must mix another with it so that its blackness is removed. Return therefore the charcoal to its own water so that it may be extinguished in it and conception of things be made, and the vessel be continually closed while it is congealing.
Note that here it speaks of conception, which must be made within three days; the time of its conception is the space of three days, which are the conception of species, the mixture of things, the copulation of form and generation; the seeds are mixed like milk when it appears mixed.
Therefore, whoever knows how to lead, impregnate, generate, mortify, revive, judge, and further change from blackness and darkness will be of greatest dignity for us crowned king, joining with the daughter of our ruby, and adhering to her in gentle fire, will conceive and give birth to a son; for the clouds which were upon her return into their own body just as they went out.
Therefore, tincturing what must be divided, that which is mixed with itself overcomes and turns its color into itself; and in a certain manner superficially it seems to be conquered, but inwardly it overcomes. Therefore, when mixed and contained with the body, so that the whole is turned with it into spirit and tinctured by spiritual nature, doubling occurs in the dreadful space of days again: the permanent water freed from blackness, which indeed if governed properly does not remain longer than forty-two days.
Therefore, governing it in its bath, subject it to fire until it becomes clear water and like true living quicksilver ascending into the air.
Now note the distillation of water. When therefore you see the nature of water becoming and sublimating into air, then all vapors are made; for the soul is separated from the body and carried into spirit by sublimation.
Both escaping are made: water has opened the door of flight not fleeing itself, turning it into spirit similar to itself; whence aerial spirits are made, ascending together into the air, where they receive life and are inspired by their own moisture just as man is by the air.
Therefore it grows and multiplies in its kind like other things.
By right, vapor contains vapor because both are joined together in decoction, that is the fleeing nature, although an essential flight, they relinquish the servitude of flight, because in sublimation they are joined to each other.
Therefore, the whole must be often raised by moderate fire into vapor, so that it may be inspired by air and able to live; for the life of all things that co-exist by nature consists in the inspiration of air.
Therefore the whole work consists in vapor and the sublimation of its water.
Yet be very cautious in all sublimation or liquefaction not to break or overturn your vessel, because if you ignite the fire only so much that the water rises to the top of the vessel, delighting in cooling, it will stick there, and thus will not perfect the sublimation of the elements.
For each of their wheels must be repeatedly depressed and raised in a spherical manner by itself; but what ascends violently without violence does not descend.
Therefore let the fire be slow so that throughout the work it may ascend and descend freely without adhering to the vessel.
Therefore, unless we attenuate body by fire and water until it ascends as spirit, we will do nothing; but when it ascends into air, it is born and turned into air, and life is made with life so that one is not separated from the other, just as water mixed with water.
Therefore, born in the air, it is wisely born because it is made altogether spiritual.
Understand furthermore that we perform sublimation for three reasons:
First, that the body may become spirit by the subtlety of nature;
Second, that the spirit may be incorporated with the body and be one with it;
Third, that all things may become white and pure, and the falsity of sulfur be diminished, for at sublimation whatever in the work is combustible is burned.
And certainly we are noble and it is necessary that the elements become simple and may be joined together; such great simplicities cannot be made unless they are separated into parts. Therefore, you must frequently apply the vapor to be sublimated, until the water descends by filtration.
We filter things seven times with a spherical sieve so that all become clear, pure water; for the body never lets go of the soul and be separated, which is proper to itself, being in simple proximity; and so we refine their sublimation so that nature is reduced to subtlety.
But some shrewdly suppose that separation is made into many species, about which do not trouble yourself, for you will hasten to reduce the operation to the equality of the simple and not that each individual thing is separated into the elements.
And certainly it is not difficult to reduce all things to the simple from which you must proceed. Its father is the Sun, and its mother the Moon; the wind carried it in its belly, and the earth was paved from it.
You have been deceived that water should be distilled from air, and air from fire, and fire from earth; for from much iteration of sublimation the soul ascending from water is purified, and its coarseness descending to the lowest is lunar in the earth.
If then from fire you make earth, and from air water, you reduce that over the earth, for its force meanwhile truly will have been in the earth: therefore turn earth into water, and water into fire, then truly fire into air, and hidden fire into the innermost of water, and earth truly into the belly of air; but the hot with the moist, and the dry with the cold.
In this manner therefore make the mixture, for there is no transition from the extreme to the extreme except through the middle.
The eagle therefore flying through the air and progressing upon the earth is the mastery; therefore you will separate earth from fire subtly from the dense, gently distilling with a great skill.
It ascends from the earth to the sky, and again descends into the earth; it receives the superior power of spirit and the inferior of body, because it conquers every subtle thing by freezing and penetrates every solid thing by altering: thus it rules over the higher and the lower because it works both in spirits and bodies.
Here note closely about spirit, soul, and body.
It is clear therefore that our bronze has spirit, body, and soul; the spirit is its water, the soul its tincture, but the body its earth.
The spirit is the revealer of the virtues of the soul over the body, just as the tincture is carried by the water over the cloth; but the soul is the bond of the spirit, just as the body is the bond of the soul; the body is fixed, dry, containing spirit and soul.
Therefore, the spirit penetrates, the body fixes, the soul joins, tinctures, and whitens; in these three is smoke, blackness, and death, which if not removed will not be perpetual.
Therefore it is necessary that blackness be taken away from the water, blackness from the soul, and death be expelled from the body by frequent dissolutions which do not separate them.
But concerning him who does not make two sulfurs from sulfur, he knows nothing of sulfur;
There are two sulfurs, sublimated from a mixed or joined stone to the tincture which indeed colors and flees, but is contained by the sulfur so that it cannot flee, for of all fixatives is connection.
Therefore, mix the eggs of black hens with air, and you will have gold and silver as much as you yourself desire.
For the vulture flying without wings over the mountain cries out, saying:
I am white, black, and red, the white and cyrrhine son of the red, truthful and not lying:
Therefore join me to my mother and to her breast, for I make her substance contain itself.
Do not introduce anything alien to us, nor cease from the work, for all nature is joined to its own partner and perfected through it.
My mother begot me, and through me she is born; for at first she ruled over me, but henceforth I will rule over her, because she pursues me that she may love me, and I was made from my mother before I received flight from her; yet she cherishes and nourishes the son she begot in the best manner she can, like a mother, until I arrive at perfect status.
Therefore place me in the moist fire continually; for the warmth of the moisture increases, and the burning of dryness does not prevent it until it brings the work to an end;
Then extract rust and shadow from me until the third part remains, for the decoction diminishes me; but the triturated increases, and what after fifteen days diminishes, after thirty increases—this is the beginning and the end.
Keep the living silver in its innermost chamber in which it is coagulated, for from repeated filtration unless by chance, white water ascends with the soul to the alembic and the body gradually descends to unity.
This is the living silver which is called the residual earth that receives water and drinks it, because it is the connection of tinctures.
Therefore preserve the vessel and its ligature, so that you may be powerful in the conservation of the spirit, for the water which was before in the air dwells now in the earth.
If it cannot flee, then return it to the upper regions and through its boundaries—not inappropriately—then join it to its previously chosen red body by you.
For wherever the body is, waters will be gathered, because if it rises without violence, it will descend without violence on it; if not, then it will not.
Bind therefore the hands of a nursing woman behind her back so that the Gabritium does not flee; although alive, she places her son whom she begot to nurse him; for when the woman is dead, a thick toad will be made from the milk, then cut the toad in half, placing a chicken to eat it.
Reduce the water to temperate earth administering to it as far as it makes a root in nature, knowing for certain that it must first be nourished with a little milk, as though you saw it even if it is a child to be nourished by a little milk and fire while it is small, and the more it grows, the more it needs food and heat until it drinks its moisture, for the first of the humors is cold, therefore the fire is needed which is hostile to the cold.
If you place the body on the fire without vinegar, it will burn and what is sought will not be made; for if the fire did not find moisture to dry, the body burns, but vinegar placed nearby prevents combustion by the fire, drying itself with the body so that it does not suffer injury.
And the more it is occupied by great flames, the more it is hidden in the innermost parts of the water so that it is not burned by the heat of the fire.
Here note the proportion and weight of water and body.
Therefore I command not to pour in at once the water in which the elixir is submerged, but to pour it little by little so that the body is separated and boiled with three parts of its own water: for if cast in without weight, death will happen to it, which when it happens will be considered evil; but if properly governed with its part, it will be made as if above the fire.
But because the body at first has little root, whose poison does not equally abound in all parts, just as the brightness of the Sun is not equal in the planets, therefore patience and delay are necessary: so that by length of cooking water may overcome the purgation of fire; for mild fire by cooking freezes water and extracts the corruptive humidity; the heat of the radical humor is increased, and the dryness of evaporation is prevented.
I therefore command that our fire at the beginning be gentle, until water coagulates into stone and the whole body becomes in the lower region. For forty days all the water will turn into earth;
Therefore, when you see the water coagulate on the seventh day, then consider that the knowledge is true, for the coagulated body retains its moisture in the dry, just as the coagulum of water coagulates milk into cheese.
Therefore cook the body slowly with the water of life by coagulating over the fire until it becomes thick and very dry, for when it is dry it quickly drinks the residue of its own moisture.
Then apply another water and gently cook over the fire; close the vessel carefully, do not hasten nor abandon the work.
Yet the water must be divided into its parts, of which one part coagulates the body, another putrefies and liquefies it;
To coagulate is to reduce the aqueous substance to earth; to putrefy is to dissolve the coagulated otherwise, for putrefaction is nothing but the mixing of moisture and dryness, thus the spirit penetrates the body and mingling is made through the smallest parts.
But the fire administered must be subtle and tempered; take care also that it is not extracted too hastily from its vessel, for it would die, as the infant will never obey going out until the aerial breaths are expelled;
Therefore keep the container closed with restraint, and do not wander about with others; above all be cautious lest its flowers be stolen in the smoke.
Cook, boil, repeat, and do not be wearied to repeat the same several times;
But in the work place yourself, and once apply all care, so that as often as the body is imbued, so often it dries.
Yet do not eat hastily, nor eat what you do not drink, nor drink what you do not eat; let the drinking be after custom, not custom after drinking; otherwise you will make the belly moist and it will not receive dryness.
Therefore eat and drink one after the other according to reason, I say one in three and six, up to twelve in the moon’s phases.
This number comes from the multiplication of three by four and will be twelve, and the number three comes from unity into three, and these are three leaps, each of which divides into three other leaps, and they will be twelve.
Therefore turn the square into a circle and you will have the mastery; and this indeed is if the square has in both its spatulas three equal angles.
Make a circle and in the middle of the circle a center, then in each space of the circle make three angles from the circle’s center;
Let the line from the first center to the other points be equal and uniform, and one be the measure of all ternaries; by compacting threes and twelves you will find, above which draw the compass and find what touches each ternary.
Through twelve triangles the circle will be round, thus the mastery is composed, because thus all spatulas meet at the center of the compass.
Thus the whole sought body must be reduced through its ternaries; if diminished by one, its power will diminish by one.
Hunt therefore the souls, for their dwelling is in the earth; if they cannot flee, be slow in the hunt; beware lest by too much fire they be turned upward;
If they flee, they will not be caught with a falcon; if confined and do not flee, then they return to the body whence they came, because the body attracts its moisture like a magnet attracts iron.
Grind the earth and boil with water and chalk in operation until one of the three ternaries turns beautiful, for if you kill one of the three, all are dead;
Because if one flees and the other constantly suffers, both joined suffer the fire.
Here note what it is that fixes the spirit. I say one contains the rest because of the nearness of its nature, and this is our analogy: every flying thing holding back from fleeing.
However, this is not done by hands, but nature operates circularly on it, for nature dissolves and coagulates itself, makes itself white and red and adorns itself, burns and dries itself and anoints itself, betroths itself and conceives from itself, until it brings the work to an end.
Although this custom is not manual operation, but the mutation of natures and their admirable connection of heat with cold, and moisture with dryness.
Therefore take the volatile flying submerged and manifest that it responds to you not by flying in the regions but by flight flying to you content, for what is below is as what is above, and what is above is as what is below.
Therefore our blessed water comes to the earth of water to cleanse the blackness and take away all evil odor, because between them is a desire like that of sea and woman.
Beware therefore that its moisture does not leave the vessel and perish; rather reduce it to earth by coagulating with gentle fire, just as semen coagulates in the womb; for the woman having embraced her husband passes more quickly into the body.
Therefore turn the water upon its own earth until it coagulates beautifully, for then more swiftly it is turned by nature into nature and in each step of its operations assumes a new nature.
Return its sweat to the ash, grind it, boil it, repeat and do not be wearied to repeat; for the earth does not germinate without frequent watering, nor without prior drying; therefore at every time after drying sprinkle the earth temperately with water, neither too much nor too little, because if too much there will be a sea of confusion; if too little, it will burn to embers—note this carefully.
Therefore in every weight keep the weight, in every measure keep the measure, and in every work keep the work, so that neither excessive dryness nor superfluous moisture corrupts it; but only by gentle heating may you boil off as much as dissolution has added and imbibition has set down.
Always be cautious lest the harshness of fire produce burning; and do not cease action until the whole takes on the form of a physical stone; however, nature has no motion except by the action of heat.
Note therefore the utility of measuring the fire.
If you measure the heat well, water and fire will suffice for you, for they cleanse the body, purify it, nourish it, and remove its obscurity; and certainly the whole work and regimen consists only in permanent water, containing all that it needs, for it liquefies and freezes, dissolves and whitens.
And you should never use anything else in the entire regimen except this permanent water.
Hold this water in your hand with its good operations, because it makes white to white and red to red.
Its effect, however, consists in the regimen of fire, for water is divided with it, volatile things are retained from flight, the soul is joined to the body with it, and our coagulation is made with it.
Beware, however, the intensity of the fire, because if you intensify before the time it becomes red, which does not benefit; this word of mine remember and truly commend and grasp.
Let the fire be slow up to whiteness.
Look many times how you make the spouses embrace, for the spirits are to be bound with strong bonds, so that strengthened they prick against the fire.
For if a wandering woman seeks exit, you seek embraces of strangers and she flees; if truly enclosed so that she cannot flee, then returning to the husband with whom she copulated, whom she killed; but that heated one consumes her moisture, making her stay with him.
For spirits taken away from bodies desire to be in them; they follow them, rejoice in possessing them, dwell in them, give them life, and never separate from them.
Therefore they do not contribute sperm to the vulva in vain, since one follows the rest as a bride follows the bridegroom, and one constitutes marriage.
Here note concerning the mortification of the living spirit and the revivification of the dead body.
Therefore, vivifying the dead—that is, the body—kill the living—that is, the spirit—and you will have mastery.
Extract from the ray its shadow and filth, and that which its overlying mist pollutes and retains from the light, by which it is constricted and detained by its rust.
Therefore, in the first part of this water our copper must burn and by cooking coagulate until it becomes red in its own nature, which then is called the ferment of gold and the coagulum of the coagulum, because it receives water and drinks it coagulated with it into the earth.
And in this is the end of the first operation and the beginning of the second, since it begins and ends in one way.
The mode of the reddening of the stone is the aforementioned one and that you must imbue its residual water many times to incorporate the coagulated, to purify the burnt, and to change the color, until all the water turns downward.
Therefore imbue it seven times one after another, cleansing the blackness, until it is dissolved and turned into earth, for in forty days the whole turns into earth.
Open and close, dissolve and note, extend and fold, wash and dry—do this continuously until it turns from square to round.
Thus similarly you will resolve the copper governed by the mode until it becomes water and true living silver.
After this, coagulate by the usual manner over the fire; we say coagulate by custom because before it was a dry red coagulum; therefore, when it is dry, dissolve what is soluble from it, and what is not soluble continue with what dissolves until you return to one.
Thus in this order by reiterating, repeat until its quantity is greater, then coagulate and gently roast under temperate fire, conserving it until the greater is administered according to its demand.
All these orders of preparation upon the fire must be abraded four times intimately by the knowledge of the hand of signs that signs and calcines, because thus the most precious earth of the stone sufficiently emerges.
And indeed calcination is nothing else but drying and turning into ash; therefore burn it without moisture until it becomes ash; it has mixed well, because that ash receives the spirit and drinks it and imbues itself with its moisture, until it changes to a color more beautiful than it was before.
Oh, how precious is the ash! Dearly beloved, do not despise this ash but give it again its sweat which it expelled, until the whole turns downward; for as often as the ash is imbued it is dried by turns, and holds itself mutually.
Therefore it is necessary to grind them, to imbue them many times with the water of life, and alternately dry them, until the whole has drunk the moisture.
I command then the living water to coagulate, to mix with its body, and wherever it may fail, then you will find all the living water coagulated by itself and contained in the earth.
Then the spirit is joined to the body, water to ash, and woman to man, because when it is properly governed, it is pacified with water and colored with white color.
Take good note about the washing of the body through the spirit.
Our whitening is made by decoction and freezing of the water, and the more often they are washed, the more intense the whiteness becomes.
Therefore, philosophers by repeated decoction and imbibing and grinding most frequently understood this.
If one decoction and one grinding had sufficed, they would not have repeated their sayings so often.
Therefore they made it so that it is ground continually and boiled without interruption.
Grind then, repeat, and wash; this must be done many times again and again; with its own air boil the cloud, wash the blackness with the water of life, roast widely until dried and made a new body, for the water of life governs and whitens every body, turning all into its own color.
For that smoke is white, therefore with it whatever is commanded to be whitened is whitened, because nature turns nature.
Therefore let it mingle with itself, cook and grind many times until it coagulates and is freed from its blackness.
And certainly the very wet dew water washes, which falls from the sky at the time of rain, penetrates and whitens.
That water dwelling in the air follows the earth just as nature follows things with a magnet.
Likewise there is indeed a society and desire, because of the closeness of their nature; for natures meeting their own natures rejoice in them.
Therefore impose the residual moisture by continual cooking until it coagulates and whitens enough.
You will certainly know if it is dry and strongly drinks the moisture of the dew likewise.
Consider then how the composition drinks water, and in each degree the color changes, while the thing which whitens thus grows above, from color to color nature operates and transfers.
Note about the union of spirit and soul with the body as symbolized by the stone:
The spirit and soul are not united with the body except in the white color, because as long as the blackness appears, the dark obscure woman dominates;
and indeed this is the first force of our stone, for unless it is black it will not become white nor red;
for red is composed of black and white.
However, tempered by heat acting in moisture it works the blackness, dries the moisture and removes corruption; on the contrary, increasing heat works the redness, drives away moisture, and generates causes and corruption.
Therefore it is clear that if the compound is governed more than it ought, it is immediately extinguished and what is sought will not come forth.
Therefore beware lest water turn to flight by too much fire and flee; therefore let there be a contest of water and fire in the proximity of cooking.
For just as water is dried by the heat of the sun, so by gentle cooking coagulated water keeps itself in the earth against the fight of fire.
Let water win the fight of fire by the prolongation of cooking, thickening, and coagulation;
for if you perfectly understood its nature, you would certainly endure prolonged cooking until you find your aim,
because the goodness of this venerable nature is proven especially in bodies, since for no cause of destruction it allows itself to be divided into parts of its composition,
because either it entirely withdraws its substance from fire, or it entirely remains in the fire standing, which is turned in it for the cause of perfection necessarily.
Here note the governance of the freezing of Mercury with the Sun, because it is said that it is pure water and true tincture, patiently governed ascending and descending until coagulated into white.
Therefore govern this nature patiently, gently coagulating the living silver which rains from our air upon it.
Bitter clouds rise and rains fall upon the earth, because every heavy and dense body always flows to its own center.
Certainly the living silver sublimated from our air, from which all things are made, is pure water and true tincture, which removes the shadow of the air.
It is similarly the white sulfur which alone whitens the copper, so that the spirit does not continually flee;
however that sulfur could not whiten unless it were whitened in the prior work,
because only sulfur whitens copper, which shows that the beauty of the air will be as great as the whiteness of the sulfur.
Therefore wishing to reach the true tincture, let him put upon himself gradual moisture which is expelled by constant cooking until it takes on a more beautiful color;
and as often as it is wetted, so often is it dried by turns, until it turns into the white sought;
for the uncertain contains drying within itself, and if one is fixed the other is fixed,
and if it is white externally it is white inside also: therefore never cease to imbue, cook, and gradually dry it, until it is imbued with moisture wholly.
Complete it with permanent water, and gently boil over fire until it enters and recedes.
Imbue it continually with water of life as you see enough by sight; roast and cook until the whole drinks the moisture.
Know that purple color is dyed only by cold, nor does white form except dry, nor red except by heat.
Therefore by roasting cook it with its moisture until it makes itself germinate, then dry it in the sun and also grind it until the whole turns downward.
Honor the king and his wife, and do not burn them, lest they flee by too much heat; for patience and long-suffering are needed, which amend the king and his wife in the regimen:
cook them until they become black, then white, then red; and then a poison is made dyeing into gold.
Our copper at first the more it is cooked the more it dissolves, and becomes a more spiritual water;
second, the more it is cooked the more it thickens, and thus powder of a whiter color;
third, the more it is cooked the more it colors and tinctures with greater redness;
and this whole operation is nothing but extraction of water from the earth and its remission above the earth.
Therefore all the water being exhausted and contained in the earth for some days, that is for sixty, let it be putrefied in its vessel over a gentle fire, until a more precious white color appears on top.
Let the heat be gentle until whiteness, because if the heat is intense it produces black vapor and white flees the compound, for that vapor is white;
therefore if it fixes with the air it whitens it inside and outside;
if it flees from it, it turns red which does not benefit.
And certainly in putrefaction spirits dry therein, since unless dried with air the colors of the soul do not appear;
for putrefaction is nothing but mortification of moisture with dryness, for moisture coagulates with dryness, cold then only putrefies moisture.
But our putrefaction is not without moisture and dryness, because moisture is contained by dryness only.
Although naturally cold moisture flees fire, yet it is retained by the body so that it cannot flee,
because heavy things cannot be raised except by the lighter consort above, nor light things be pushed down except by the consort of the heavy below.
And both are the beginning and end of the work.
Therefore diligent administration, continual abstinence, and patient expectation are present.
Let the law return from declaration, and thus one declaration will come forth.
Therefore govern the work continually, boil without interruption, do not hurry nor cease the work,
because moisture is the womb and heat is the continual coitus; the seed would not remain nor the fetus continue,
for when the mother dies the fetus dies too by the imminent cold.
Therefore God established that blood and color of the womb to nourish the fetus until the time of maturity;
thus the whole work must be governed by continual heat until whiteness,
for only in the white color are spirits conquered with the body so that they cannot flee.
There it begins to live, and alien winds do no harm to it, nor can it proceed worse toward redness.
Also note here about nourishment through very gentle fire, around which the heat of the fire is like eggs under the belly of hens.
Therefore, a bath of intense heat causes perish, cold drives away, but lukewarm heat nourishes and preserves;
therefore it is necessary to govern gently as for the hatching of eggs until everything is white.
Therefore it is commanded to whiten the laton [an alloy of copper and zinc] and to break the books, but let not hearts be broken.
But when earth with water putrefies and is purified, and when the blackness having been dried recedes and is whitened,
then the dark dominion of the woman will perish, and then the man ascending over the woman will take away her kingdom,
then the smoke will penetrate the body and the spirit be bound in dryness;
then the black which corrupts deformity will cease and it will become white, bright, and clear.
Because heat acting in moisture first produces blackness, thus acting in dryness produces whiteness, and in white [it produces] yellowness.
An example is in burning wood when it is made into charcoal; and thus the substance of our stone,
the more it is cooked the more it dissolves and blackens;
the more it is dried the more it whitens;
the more it is cooked the more it reddens until perfected.
Therefore the thing whose head is red, feet white, and eyes black is the mastery.
That the work must first be blackened is proven by this,
that the generation of one is only by the corruption of another;
and corruption is not made except by putrefaction and heat acting in moisture;
and heat acting in moisture makes the ingredient,
therefore it is clear that the beginning of our work is the head of the raven;
it is likewise necessary that it putrefies,
because nothing was ever born, nor grew, nor was animated unless it first went into putrefaction.
For if it were not putrid, it could not be founded nor dissolved.
If it were not dissolved, it would be reduced to nothing.
Therefore putrefaction is necessary to us for all generation.
However, our putrefaction is not foul and filthy, but a mixture of earth with water,
and with the earth by the smallest and gentlest cooking a poisonous body is made.
Therefore cook the male and wife together until both congeal into dryness,
because if it is not dry, bright colors will not appear at all, which will always be black while the moist dominates.
Therefore carefully closing the mouth of the vessel, cook over the fire until the whole turns downward,
then the dragon will eat its wings and emit various colors.
Often it will be moved by different ways and turns from color to color until it arrives at firm whiteness,
for all the colors of the world appear when the blackening moisture is dried,
but you should not care about those colors because they are not true colors.
For often it becomes yellowish and reddens, and often it dries and liquefies before the true whiteness.
However, the spirit is not fixed with the body except in the white color,
therefore it is clear that whitening must always be awaited,
because it is the completion of the whole work, and afterwards it does not vary into a true color except into redness.
In the work, therefore, observe the stages carefully, how water coagulates itself, and how the composition changes from one color to another,
because if the colors of the work are covered or concealed unknowingly, nothing will be seen,
and thus you will often abandon your labor, because you will not know at what stage the fire must be moderated,
which can only be known through the colors appearing in the work.
Therefore the colors will teach you what to do with the fire, for they show how long and how the first, second, and third fires are to be made;
thus, if you are diligent, the colors will teach you what ought to be done.
Therefore take good note of the fire and its proportions at its stages,
because fire is always gentle in solution and coagulation, moderate in sublimation, and strong in reddening;
but the more the colors vary, the gentler the fire must be continued until it reaches the goal of whiteness.
For to white we do not apply much fire, because it is cold, raw, and half-cooked.
Let the fire be gentle in whitening, so that the vapor be sealed with its body;
otherwise, if you intensify the fire, before the end it will become red, which is not beneficial,
because red is composed of much white and very little black with great heat.
If you have measured the fire well and governed the operation sparingly,
you will first reach the white color; and when the white is sufficiently white, then increase the fire stronger:
apply dry heat beneath and above it for several days so that the whole fixes downward,
and no sublimation of spirit ascends above, which is the sign of perfect drying.
Then the fleeing spirit will not escape from the non-fleeing body, as if inspired by fixation,
because when fixed, magnesia does not permit the spirit to flee, nor does the shadow of air appear — this is truth,
for it is fixed white sulfur that stains and perfects every body and converts it into true silver.
Therefore, if it be living pure silver, the power of this white sulfur coagulates it into silver,
and this is the best thing the practitioners of alchemy can receive, that it be converted into silver,
because then nature contains nature, and by true marriage they are joined together,
but it is only one single nature, which in one stage of its operations turns into another nature,
because nature rejoices, nature overcomes nature, and nature contains nature;
teaching it to battle against fire.
There are not then diverse putrefactions, but only one nature having within itself all natures and things sufficient to itself;
therefore the work begins and ends by one order.
Yet there is a twofold mode of composition, because one is moist, the other dry;
but when they coagulate, they become one, and one does not reject the other, and rightly so,
because the moist easily takes an impression and easily lets it go,
but the dry receives an impression heavily and lets it go heavily;
therefore, when moist and dry temper themselves mutually,
the dry will obtain the form of the impression from the moist,
and the moist acquires from the dry so as to firmly retain every impression sustaining the fire,
thus the moist prohibits the dry from its separation,
and the dry prohibits the moist from its fluidity.
An example is the work if someone cooks earth with water over the fire so that one does not reject the other: do likewise with our masterwork,
disposing the earthly substance by moisture and heat until they agree and are joined, and do not separate or divide.
Therefore note the two operative virtues of water and fire by which the work is completed:
then add to them two operative virtues, water and fire, and the mastery will be complete;
if you allow only water, it will whiten,
and if you add fire, it will redden.
Also note well that the white work is completed in three turns, in which there is no fire;
the red work, however, in four turns, in which fire cannot be delayed.
Therefore white is completed in three turns in which there is no fire,
red is turned four times, and also the elixir that stains with its tincture is joined with oil and fixed with lime.
Oil is what joins and aggregates between lime and water;
water is the bearer of the tincture over its lime;
and when the lime is fixed, the water will also be fixed because of the strength of their mixture.
The soul is the bond as the body is the bond of the soul;
and this is not in the compound if it is the bond of nature, but like a body outside the body it consists,
and nature exists by the ingress of opposites;
and our body is through the fixation of compounds,
then the body will also retain water, and water oil which does not burn upon fire,
and oil is the cause of holding the tincture,
and tincture is the cause of producing visible color,
and color is the cause of showing whiteness,
and whiteness is the cause of retaining every volatile and flight.
For when the body has been whitened, the spirit does not allow anything above it, nor does blackness appear further.
Therefore, whoever does not liquefy and coagulate properly errs greatly, because by blackening the earth and separating its soul,
he must afterward cause it to return by water upon the earth, whitening the whole, and then you have the mastery —
not the one who blackens the earth and dissolves and coagulates the white with fire until it is in a color like a naked sword and freed from darkness,
and who, with complete whitening, introduces the soul, and after all is liquefied, fixes it in rapid fire, deserves to be called fortunate and to be exalted above the circles of the world.
Now you have learned, most dear, to make the white work;
therefore, you will not be able to make the red yet, because no one can pass from the first to the third except he first be in the second.
Likewise, you cannot pass from black to yellow except through white, because yellow is composed of much white and very little black.
Just as the year is divided into four parts, so is our blessed work:
the first is winter, a humid and cold time;
the second is spring, dry and flowering;
the third is summer, a warm time;
the fourth is autumn, the time of fruits.
With this order, encompass the natures until nature brings forth fruit at the proper time:
but winter has now passed, the rain gone, night receded, and day approached:
for flowers appear in our earth at the time of spring,
but standing upon the white dew the Sun is sought,
because it alone produces the effect of turning every sick body into true silver.
Therefore, when you see that whiteness appear and surpass all others,
be assured that redness is hidden in that whiteness,
and you ought not to extract that whiteness until it coagulates into one
until it becomes red.
And certainly, the redder the red, the stronger it is,
and the more cooked it is, the redder it is, therefore the more cooked it is, the stronger it is,
and so by consequence, the strongest and indeed the greatest.
And certainly the red color is caused solely by the completion of digestion,
for blood is not generated in man unless first carefully cooked in the liver:
so in the morning when we see our urine white,
all expenses of the day having slept at home,
but when sleep has been received, digestion is completed, and our urine turns yellow;
by only decoction after whiteness you will arrive at redness,
and you err if you cannot, if you continue dry fire upon it.
Do you not see that sperm is not generated from blood unless first carefully cooked in the liver until it has an intense redness?
And if these things do not happen, nothing of sperm is generated.
Similarly, our white must be carefully cooked or it will not redden.
And certainly only the heat of the liver reddens the chyle of the liver,
and only the heat of burning fire reddens the white sulfur,
for the first digestion of the stomach whitens all,
but the second of the liver reddens all,
because in the liver alone heat thrives,
just as dryness thrives in the stomach.
Therefore, by dry fire and dry calcination, decoct dry until it becomes like cinnabar,
that is purple, to which from now on you will by no means add water or anything else until the red begun is cooked,
for at the time of summer and fruits, the flood of rains corrupts the masterwork,
therefore you must burn it with dry fire without fear,
until it is clothed with the most ruddy color.
Therefore do not cease, even if redness delays somewhat,
for after whiteness with increased fire from the first colors you will have redness;
in the meantime, between those colors, a yellow will appear,
but that color is not stable, because after it, red does not delay to come,
and when it arrives, be certain your work is complete,
because it will have taken the virgin woman into a man,
and the master into the perfect Sun.
Therefore the philosopher says:
If the true sulfur of the world, best and clear with redness,
has the power of simple fire and not burning,
that is the best thing that alchemical practitioners can receive,
so that with it they may make gold.
For this living silver converts every imperfect body into gold,
therefore it is manifestly clear that this alone is our true sulfur, white and red, which we seek,
by which in any body we tint it into the truest silver, better than that produced from mineral.
Therefore, when you take each species from the parts of the work as we have shown and direct them,
then reduce the spirits to it and sublime all,
because it will be sublimed bright and clear, unmingled with elements.
And indeed it is as if you take the purest part of that known stone,
and by subtle ingenuity join the whole by smallest and lightest means,
which if it does not happen, add to it a quantity of unfixed part,
so that the sum of the volatile exceeds the sum of the fixed,
until it suffices for elevation.
For we have seen in those where there is a sense of experience,
that when it is mixed strongly and violently with that which it mixes with,
if the sum of volatile overcomes the sum of fixed,
the fixed will fly away with it;
therefore when elevated, truly it will be sublimation,
until by this reiteration of sublimation the whole is formed.
Therefore, when the fixed is with the non-fixed, repeat sparingly quantity after quantity,
mix with ingenuity known to you until the whole is repeatedly lifted,
thus let the whole be formed repeatedly until it provides easy fusion like wax;
and this indeed is the medicine that stands, stains, penetrates, consolidates, and perseveres,
one part of which converts a thousand parts of any body into the truest gold or silver,
according as the white or red elixir has been prepared.
However, the goodness of this multiplication does not depend except on the repeated reiteration of sublimation and fixation of this medicine,
because the more often the order of this complement is reiterated,
the more its abundance is multiplied and the goodness of that perfection greatly increased,
until every body is diminished from perfection and even living silver changes infinitely —
sol-silicium or lunisilicium truly.
For as many times as you sublime the perfect medicine and dissolve it in the usual manner,
so many times will you profit every time throwing out one over ten;
and if at first you cast over a thousand,
the second time it will fall over ten thousand,
the third over a hundred thousand,
the fourth over a million,
and the fifth over infinity.
How much more the elixir is refined, so much more it tinctures; therefore, to the extent that you elevate your work, to that extent it will be more potent, because it will work abundantly and convert a greater quantity. And this is certainly what Geber said, who was the master of masters in our art: "Work with your stone, and I will work with mine, and my stone will be worth more than yours, because if you cast one in a thousand, I will cast one in ten thousand, and it will all be good. But if you cast one in ten thousand, I will cast one in a hundred million, so my stone will be worth more than yours, because in the transmutation of many thousands, it surpasses your stone." However, Geber said this only to mislead us, because our stone and his are one and the same, it dissolves everything and sublimates multitudes, so that while it works its own operation, it surpasses ten times that of ours.
Therefore, the more sublimated it is, the more power it will have to convert, indeed, the very most power. Do not therefore neglect to refine your elixir as much as you can lighten it, and certainly the cause of its swift liquefaction is the subtle essential liquefaction of those parts by fire, which I call Mercury, drawn down to fixation in its proper nature: the more subtle it is, the more it dissolves, indeed, the very most. And so it is complete, certainly not yet rapidly fusible more than any metal; for it is nothing but the purest substance of living silver reduced to fixation, and from the most subtle and pure fixed matter, which it took its origin from living silver and was created from it.
And because, being figuratively living silver, it easily needs some medicine without inflammation which will cling closely before its flight, and be joined to it by the smallest bonds, and keep it fixed by its fixation and preserve it from fleeing in the fire, carrying everything by its benefit instantly to the true Sun or Moon, according to that for which the elixir was prepared. If it were not easily fusible, it would not melt before the flight of Mercury nor retain it. Know this secret well. If it did not have its own nature, it would not cling deeply nor join by the smallest bonds, for living silver only receives what is of its own nature and nothing else will fix it; and if it were not most pure, it would not convert Mercury or other bodies into gold and silver, because nothing gives what it does not have, as nothing is found in a thing that was not in it before.
Therefore it is clear that our medicine necessarily must be of the most subtle and pure substance adhering to living silver by its own nature, and of easiest and finest liquefaction, like water fixed upon the struggle of fire, for this coagulates it and converts it into the Solar or Lunar nature.
Now we complete our medicine, equally tempered in heat and cold, moisture and dryness, so that whatever is added to it if of the same complexion as it is added to, if you add water to it, all will dissolve in water; if fire, all will be fire. This is why the medicine can be multiplied infinitely. Therefore it is like fire in wood, and like moss in good aromatics, growing the more the more it is suffused with honey; therefore you must leave a part entirely for a time, because you have been enriched by it, as it was enriched benignly by itself.
Note therefore carefully about multiplication of the elixir. It is multiplied either by solution or fermentation, but by solution more slowly, by fermentation more quickly. For it does not work well dissolved unless it is first fixed in its ferment. Yet medicine works much more abundantly dissolved than fermented, because it is more subtle, although by fermentation alone it can be multiplied infinitely; but by solution it is much reduced to its own nature, color, and taste in every way; for it whitens the concoction, inhibits combustion, enables tincture to enter and join, which is the end of the operations, and without it the elixir is not completed, just as dough does not ferment without ferment.
Therefore, when you have fixed the elixir by sublimation, reduce a body upon it and mix and liquefy by the secret of natures in a philosophical vessel, for when they stand by delay of time, they will more strongly prevail, converting all into a spirit similar to itself, and it itself, being powerful over the bond, does not stand.
Here note about the separation of spirit from the body from which it was originally extracted. Therefore you will join it so that it generates a similar body, and do not join it with anything else to convert to itself, except with that from which it was originally. If you do this, the elixir will become that of others which was joined. The reason why it must be joined with its similar is because sulfurs contain sulfurs, and moist things with similar moisture; for the spirit converting sulfurs into a spirit similar to itself was made both fleeing, and the spirits of ether and air ascending together love one another. Seeing therefore the philosophers that it did not flee with the fleeing, it was made to flee to the similar of the body not fleeing, and entered into it from which it could least flee, because of the closeness of their nature’s agreement.
Note therefore this is true about the ingress of spirit into the body. The soul certainly quickly enters its body; but if sent into another, you labor in vain, because there will be no communication of darkness and light. Therefore the bodies return to bodies from which they were extracted and through which they were completed.
Because if the tincturer and the tinctured are made one tincture, do you not think that what tinctures and does not flee is the true tincture of the philosophers? Since sulfurated things tincture and do not flee if they are joined with similar living silver of their kind, therefore it is necessary to mix it with living silver, white or red, of its kind, and contain it so that it does not flee.
Therefore we will join living silver and mix it with living silver until they become one pure water composed of two living silvers. Truly in their conjunction putting little of the work upon much of the body, so that it has the power to convert it into medicine, otherwise it would all turn into a spirit similar to itself.
If however you cast little work upon much body, say one upon four, the other being in some delay of time a powder whose color will be white or red, according to what it was beneath what you cast upon it, and this powder indeed is the elixir completed.
And certainly, the elixir must be a simple powder, superior to the inferior things of this age, and the body and ferment that you put to it must be a subtle powder. Note here that it says one part of the work over four parts of the body, and the work will be dissolved similarly by itself before they are joined, because you will not at all hasten their mixture until each one is separately dissolved in water; for that which dries before moistening does not join by the smallest bonds nor does it become fully subtle. Indeed, it is easier to separate one from earth than from water.
Therefore note that when the body has been dissolved in water, which is never separated from its water, but when water is mixed with water, then water receives water which is never separated from each other. Therefore, if you are dropsical, drink much of this and you will be healed.
Note about saffron (croco) and the multiplication of the medicine. Each tincture in a thousandth part will tincture more in a liquid substance than in a dry one, as is evident with saffron when placed in liquids; if cast on dry matter, it would tincture little, but dissolved and joined with a little, and this little with much, it tinctures infinitely.
Thus you will make projection: first multiply ten by ten and it will be a hundred; and a hundred by a hundred and it will be ten thousand; and ten thousand by ten thousand and it will be a hundred million; and a thousand thousand by a thousand thousand and the number will be innumerable. That is to say, put one upon ten, and one of those upon a hundred, and one of those upon a thousand, and so on similarly.
Again, according to another philosopher, put one part upon ten parts of prepared metal, and of this one part upon a hundred, and it will be converted with a fixed and durable conversion, if God wills. But if you put one part upon a thousand parts at once and at first, beware lest it be consumed by too much heat and exhaled before it has penetrated and been perfected. But when you put one upon ten, it penetrates quickly and mixes, so it is not necessary to strengthen or continue the fire, but it must quickly be removed. When it is cooled, it then holds itself with it and adheres because of the agreement of nature; therefore, if then you cast one part upon a hundred, the substance of the lamp is retained by that with which it is mixed, adhering until it has fully transmuted.
Therefore, mix prepared living silver with oils, not because it is the matter of all metals as some affirm and many think, but because by coldness it holds the medicine over the fire until it is mixed so that it does not exhale; thus it guards it and you will be fortunate on earth.
The cause of all these things is threefold: goodness, necessity, and perfection. Goodness is that the perfect and very abundant tincture tints, so that it perfects for the better and converts many things; necessity is the cause that it is better colored, better fixed, and similar to itself by kind as gold or silver; and perfection is a perfect number: ten, one hundred, and one thousand.
Therefore, from the first to the last you will make the projection, for if something small were simply to fight against something large, it would be overcome by it because of its paucity.
Note in what follows about the foundations of the medicine. All the foundations of our medicine must be very refined and tincturing, because the more it is refined, the more the elixir tinctures and the more abundantly it works, therefore also the very most.
Therefore, for solution put solution, and to the solution add defunction (decomposition), and put the whole on the fire cautiously, warning against smoke lest something flee from it. The whole management is the tempering of the fire, so stay near the vessel and watch carefully how it moves from color to color in less than an hour of the day until it reaches the goal of whiteness or heat, that is yellowness; for it will melt more quickly in fire and freeze in the air, because when the smoke perceives the fire, it penetrates the body, and the spirit is contracted in the dry, and there will be one fixed clear body, white or red according as the medicine and ferment have been.
Then lower the fire, letting it cool, because one part of it cast will be enough for a thousand parts of any imperfect body to convert it into the best gold or silver according to the elixir that was cast.
True white medicine, white elixir, ferment, and likewise red medicine, red elixir, because in red work nothing will enter except red, just as in white work nothing will enter except white. Therefore what you do in white, do also in red, because the operation of both is one and the same, but complicating their tinctures and spirits is their ferment.
Hence it is clear that he who does not join living white silver enduring fire with pure silver, that is pure, has chosen no way to whiteness; and he who does not join living red silver enduring fire with pure gold has chosen no way to redness.
Therefore, do not weary your body with things it cannot attain, for it will benefit neither itself, nor another, nor the world, until the greater part in the sublime mobile nature rests incorruptibly, as if incorruptible.
Now we add a summary of the whole work. Since too much speech overwhelms the understanding of the mind and increases errors, therefore we pass over the entirety of this work briefly as a completion.
And it is as follows: take a sufficiently known stone, and with diligence apply the work’s effort upon it, the perfection of sublimation, so that the stone is changed inwardly and refined until it reaches the utmost purity of subtlety, and at last becomes volatile. This indeed is the first stage of the administration.
From here, when the mode of fixation is formed until it rests in the harshness of fire: thus the work of the Moon becomes very white, and the work of the Sun very red, where the white is the work of winter, and the red the work of summer. Therefore, it requires a greater sublimation of parts, carried out in its own modes through a greater digestion by decoction, until it takes on a very ruddy color; and in this alone consists the goal of the second degree of perfection.
But in the third degree lies the completion of the whole work, and it is that now the fixed stone by means of sublimation modes is made volatile, and the volatile fixed, and the fixed dissolved, and the dissolved fixed again, until it flows and changes in a certain perfecting alteration of Sun or Moon.
Because from the reiteration of the preparation of this third degree results the medicine of alteration and the multiplication of goodness, so that each imperfect body is converted into infinity, into the true Sun or Moon.
Moreover, it also has the effective power to heal every infirmity above all other medicines, for it gladdens the spirit, increases strength, preserves youth, and renews old age; because it does not allow blood to putrefy, nor phlegm to dominate, nor choler to burn, nor melancholy to be exalted excessively, indeed it multiplies blood beyond measure, purifies the contents of the spirits, and preserves all the limbs of the body.
And generally it cures both hot and cold infirmities better than all medicines: for if the sickness be of one month’s duration, it will heal it in one day; and if of one year, it heals it in twelve days; but if older and of long duration, it will heal it in one month, and will expel all bad humors and bring in good ones.
It will also bring love to those to whom it is offered, grant security to those who carry it, boldness, and victory in palaces.
In this is completed the greatest secret of secrets of nature, which is above all the precious and most precious things of this world.
Sixth Treatise
Title: A Small Treatise on the Philosophical Mercury
Know that the Mercury of the philosophers, made from two lead substances, performs great operations, namely one weight over sixty; and when it is extinguished and converted into powder, it works nobler operations, especially upon the fugitive Mercury, that is, over two hundred, and it is converted into pure Moon. And if the powder is reddened, it converts Mercury into pure Sun, and all metals.
Know that when the soul is joined to the body, the body is quickly consumed and changed into another form than it was before; because in the first sublimation, the body will be black, in the second more lucid, in the third more so, and so on up to the fifteenth time, by dissolving and freezing; and in every freezing be careful that the body feels no salt, and then wash it and do it again.
If our stone is whitened, it whitens; if it is tinged, it tinges; it itself has spirit and soul, and it also reddens itself, kills itself, and vivifies itself; and there is nothing more wondrous in this world, therefore the philosophers honored it; and when it is whitened, it whitens all bodies, and leads them to temperament, and spirit rubs spirit.
Know that our stone is a living thing, for it hardens the soft, and softens all hard things; it melts crystal, and likewise colors it; and first it reduces all bodies to the Moon, and afterward to the Sun.
Know that from every thing a salt can be made, and afterward from the salt Mercury is made by diverse operations. Dissolve and freeze and make every species with its species, and every kind with its kind, and you will rejoice, for nature delights in its own nature.
Know that oil distilled seven times renders Mercury into pure Moon, and so it is: place Mercury in some glass vessel over heat, which is quite warm, then add your powder and let it melt.
Also know that the stone dissolved thrice and coagulated again rectifies arsenic, sulfur, and Mercury.
Know that when sulfur is dissolved thrice, it dissolves everything and whatever it wills in one hour. And know that many secrets lie in living sulfur.
Note that you give the same weight to its soul and to its body in solution and coagulation, until it is fixed and powdery and does not smoke; and this is the best test of all, when the body does not smoke, hold this as certain.
Know that the Greeks greatly praised the work of the four spirits, and said it was the truest elixir, one weight over a hundred.
Know that each regimen must be preserved by itself in the regimen of the stone, namely water, oil, fire, and earth; and when all these are joined together at once, a certain tempered thing results, which performs various operations on imperfect bodies, and likewise on the human body, of which there is no doubt.
End of the Small Treatise on Philosophical Mercury.
Brief but Not Light
On the Philosopher’s Stone
I turned over the stone, and I sat upon it.
Into the pit of punishment be cast whoever, whether powerful or foolish, reveals this. But I reveal it to the good, because I have seen many perish in labor, since they could not arrive at the knowledge of the art.
In the name of the Lord, take Alkabrick, and human humor from a healthy vein, and mix them equally; then extract water through distillation, then air through fire; lastly burn the dregs, calcine, and mix equally with the urine of a boy; extract the salt — and you have all the stones of which the philosophers have experienced. For they tint wondrously and cook as much as the nature of fire can no longer do.
Likewise, this salt resists Mercury when it is imbibed and dried with the first stone; and thus is made the union of the fixed body upon a firm rock.
Let no one behold the face of God who, whether powerful or foolish, reveals this.
End of the brief and final treatise.
LATIN VERSION
Tractus Primus
Rosarii Abbreviati.
E manuscripto vetustibimo.
Adverte, carissime, quod que sequuntus verissima sunt intelligentibus.
Prima praeparatio & fundamentu artis est solutio, id est corporis in aquam reductio, hoc est in argentum vivum; & hoc vocarunt solutionem, cum dixerunt: Solvatur autem, quod in corpore Magnesiae est occultu, ut in sua primam materiam reducatur, ut fiat sulphur & argentum vivu, non ut revertatur in aquam; quia nostra solutio non est aliud nisi quod corpus revertatur humidum, & resolvatur in naturam argenti vivi, suique salsedo sulphuris minuatur, quod sulphur divinu a duobus sulphurib abstractum, fit cum spiritus obviat corpori.
Secunda praeparatio est cum aqua transit in corpus, quod unum non solvatur nisi alterum coaguletur, eo quod corpus argentum vivum concipiens coagulatipsum, & coagulatur ab ipso, & sit terra.
Istud est verbum opinionis, de quo dicunt Philosophi, Aqua de terra procreatur, quia aqua sit terra cum vincut eam terrae qualitates, & terra sit aqua cum vincut eam aquae qualitates; fit enim solutio corporis & coagulatio spiritus, ut unam habent operationem, & fit aes unum, cui nihil extraneum apponitur, nisi quod in praeparatione superflua removentur cum apparatu.
Tertia praeparatio: aratur terra & rigatur, & in igne & aqua nutu Dei peragitur, & istud est tertium verbum huius operis, dicunt enim Philosophi, Terra cum aqua putrescit, & mundificatur, tunc Dei auxilio magisterio relicto finite continuare, quia terra non germinat absque frequentiirrigatione, & absque praemissa exccatione, & hoc sciunt cum pueri tum & mulieres, femina & fructus suos in hortis ad perfectionem ducentes: ideo Philosophi dixerunt, Naturae operatio non est nisi opus mulierum, & ludus puerorum, & ideo toties corpus imbibitur, quoties pervices desiccatur, quia omnia ponderi pondus, & omnimensurae modus, & omni operi opus est adhibendum, & nunc recta putrefactio Philosophorum sequitur, & eorum putrefactio non est nisi mortificatio humidicum sicco, eo quod humiditas tantum siccitate detinetur, & quam vis humidum frigidum fugiat ignem, tamen retinetur a sicco, quod fugere nequit, quia non possunt gravia nisi levium adjutorio superis trahi, nec levia nisi gravium consortio detrudi nisi cum scorpione.
Quarta praeparatio: gaudet natura cum natura, nam cum natura laetatur, natura naturam vincit, nam naturam continet, nam naturam sequitur & amplectitur, & nutu Dei opus perficitur, & istud est quartum verum huius operis, & potest dici sublimatio seu assumptio, de qua dicunt Philosophi, Ipsa aqua efficitur aerea, cum prius esset inspissata & coagulata cum terra, & hoc obviatione sui scilicet propinqui, & ideo natura cum natura gaudet & letatur, quia continentia ipsius est eius propinquitas quia tanta est propinquitas inter naturam & naturam quanta est inter adamantem & ferrum, aque etiam major, quia radice sunt una & non plures, virtute quo que, quia spiritus est alterius corporis mortificatio, morte inperceptibili, & ideo natura vincit naturam, mortificando scilicet corpus & vivificando, quod ex ipso radicaliter suit, & in ipsum convertitur, augmentatur & multiplicatur, & extrahit Deus exuno plura, & ideo natura naturam continet, & naturam sequitur completurque nutu Iesu Christi.
Quinta praeparatio: noster spiritus est delator virtutum animae, eo quod aes nostrum ut homo habet spiritum, corpus, & animam, & istud est quintum veram hujus operis, de quo dicunt Philosophi, Spiritus enim ejus est aqua, anima ejus est tinctura, corpus ejus est terra, spiritus tamen est spiritus, & sicut corpus est vinculum ipsius animae, sic corpus est fixum siccum continens spiritum & animam, spiritus igitur penetrat corpus, figitque spiritum corpus, anima copulat, dealbat & tingit.
Sexta praeparatio: variatur & mutatur de colore in colorem, quousque perveniat ad metam albedinis & ruboris, && de hoc dicunt Philosophi pluries citrinatur, pluriesque nigrescit, & pluries desiccatur & liquescit.
Nota quod lapis philosophorum est compositus ex duabus naturis, quarum una est humida, altera vero sicca, & cu coquuntur fiunt unum, quia neutrum relinquitalterum, & dicuntur una natura, & quamdui humiditas durat nigrescit, quia calor agens in humido generat primo nigredinem, & agensin sicco generat albedinem, & in albo citrinitatem, sicut apparet in plumbo, quando facimus minium.
Nota quod humiditas nostri lapidis est acetum acerrimum, de quosumme est cavendum, ne convertatur in fumum propter nimium ignem & pereat magisterium: terra namque siccata recedit nigredo dealbatur, tunc perit tenebrosum & humiditas diminuitur, & siccitas accedens ausert sibisuum regimen, & fumus penetravitsuum corpus, & spiriutus stringitur in sicco, & tunc cassabit nigrum comperiens deformatum, & fiet album lucidum clarum: tunc candida mulier si rubeo sit nupta marito, mox eum amplectitur & complectitur; & tuncrex diademate coronatus elamat, Ego sum albus filius, niger & rubeus, & filius albedinis, & homo mutationis, & ido dicunt Philosophi, Coquite eos donec nigri fiant veneum, quia quanto magis conquuntur tanto magis dissolvuntur & denigrantur & quanto magis coquunturtanto magis desiccantur, & dealbantur.
Tertio quanto magis coquuntur, magis rubificantur, quousque perficiatur.
In dissolutione tamen ignis sit lenis, in sublimatione mediocris, in coagulatione temperatus, in dealbatione continuus, in rubificatione fortis.
Qui vero in istis nesciendo erra verit, casum saepissime deslebit, res ergo cujus caput est rubeum, pedasalbi, oculi vero nigri est magisterium.
Si triangulus in quadrangulo perficitur est tum lapis honore decoratus.
Septima praeparatio: multiplicatur & perficitur lapis benedictus, quando summa fixi fixatur cum eo quousque fluat, & ideo Philosophi dixerunt, quod jam fixum lapidem cum modo sublimationis volatilem facias, philosophice conjungendo per minima, ut elevetur totum subtile in vasis, deinde fixetur, quod si non eveniat, addatur ei non fixae partis quantitas, ut summa volatilis superet summam fixi, quousque ad elevationem ipsius sufficiat: nam si vincit summam fixi volabit; & si non vincit, fugiet cum re.
Igitur quod elevatum fuerit reiteretur illius summa tum pervicem, quousque per hanc sublimationem & congelationem figatur totum, cum autem fixum fuerit totum, tunc non fixi partem reitera &, quantam prius quantitatem imbibe, peringenium tibi totum quousque eleventur totum.
Ad ultimum iterato figatur quousque fusionem praestet facilem ad modum cerae, & altereturin complemento Solifico & Lunifico.
Ita quantum ex reiteratione ipsius praeparaveris tot gradus in medicinam resultant alterationis & bonitatis a multiplicatione, ut unum quod que imperfectorum corporum & ipsum quoque Mercurium convertat in infinitum in Lunificum & Solificum verum.
Et ideo concludendo debent Philosophi morari propevas, & intueri mira, quando se de colore transmutat in colorem meliorem, quam dici queat, quousque veniatad metam albedinis & ruboris.
Tota ergo gubernatio in regimine hujus operis est in temperamento ignis, Inde cessa ignem & dimitte refrigerari & inveniens lapidem, corpus margaritale in colore papaveris silv estris, & ista res est incerans, liquefaciens & penetrans, & cadit unum pondus supermille vices mille millia, & ducentas vices mille, continuo convertens totum corpus in optimum aurum vel argentum, secundum elixiris proprietatem.
Ista autem medicina citissime liquefiet in igne, & congelabitur in aere, quia fumus cum senseritaerem, penetrabit in corpus & spiritus constringetur in sicco, & fiet corpus unum fixum, clarum, album vel rubeum, sicut fuerit medicina & fermetum, quam diu mundus steterit incorruptibile. Pro conclusione: nota quod argentum vivum, plumbum, aes, minium, sulphur, non sunt vulgi, sed sulphur nostrum est sulphur divinum, a duobus sulphuribus extractum, quod dicitur sulphur de sulphure, & argentum vivum de argento vivo, a Philosophis appellatum acetum acerrimum: & ipsa duo, scilicet sulphur & argentum vivum, realiter & essentialiter sunt in praedicto aceto, id est, in praedicta humiditate nostri lapidis est una natura ipsius lapidis. Aurum vero & argentum, plumbum, minium & aes, & hujusmodi essentialiter & realiter continentur, & sunt in corpore physico vulgari, & proprium ejus nomen in praedictis septem propositionibus duplicatis reperies.
Ideo qui habet aures audiendi, audiat, & qui habet oculos, videndi videat lapidem in septem propositionib. notum, & laudet Deum.
Explicit Rosarium abbreviatum ignoti.
TRACT SECUNDUS.
DE LAPIDE PHILOSOPHICO.
Incogniti auctoris.
Sciant artifices Alchemiae, species metallorum vere permutari non posse, quod quide verum est, quia species per se non sunt subjectae actionibus sensibilibus, cu omnio sint incorruptibiles: sed subjecta specierum optime permutari possunt, quoniam corruptibilia sunt.
Attamen subjecta specierum permutari non possunt, nisi ipsa prius (ut sequitur ex dictis Aristotelis) ad primam reducantur materiam, & sic in aliam forma quam prius erant permutantur.
Contra haec autem ratio non stat, quia destructa una forma immediate introducituralia, ut patet in operibus rusticorum, qui de lapidibus faciunt calcem & de cineribus vitrum.
Sic multo fortius potest sapiens studiosus individua speciei corrumpere, & novam forma e is introducere, quia intentio suae operationis no est nisi ut ligetur Mercurius in dictis corporibus, quoniam elixir Philosophorum tantum ex ipsis consistit.
Et istarum operationum aliae sunt medicinae auri, quibus convenit participare in argento in aliquibus, & in aliquibus diversificari.
Nam in prima suae compositionis parte opus auri & argenti per omnia conveniunt, in ultima vero suae fermentationis disconveniunt, quoniam fermentum auri aurum est, & fermentum argenti argentum est, nec sunt alia fermenta super terram.
Alia quippe corpora possibile est, quod operantur, sed non erunt bona sicut illa praedicta, quia mundiciem quam non habent, dare non possunt.
Et ideo dicit Philosophus corporibus alijs quare indiges uti? cum possis habere in istis quod est majoris temperantiae & minoris faecis?
Si vero indigueris eorum usu, oportet ut primo ea convertas in simplitudinem duorum corporum dictorum, quod nunquam fiet, donec Sol & Luna in una medicina quaesita redacta, proijciantur super ipsa, quia Mercurius cum sit de natura sua conversivus, fit unumquodque cum singulis corporibus quorum complectitur naturam: si enim jungatur cum plumbo erit plumbum, si vero cum ferro erit ferrum, si autem cum istis duobus aptetur radiis, fit elixir perfectum.
Non ergo operandum nisi de ista materia nobili, quia res non fiunt nisi secundum earum naturam: nullus igitur quaerat a natura quod in ae non est, quoniam fatigabit animam suam in vanum, nihil inde reportans nisi laborem, ac rerum & temporis perditionem.
Medicina igitur haec nostra, non in visceribus terrae praeparatur, sed arte & operatione perficitur, eo quod à dictis lapidibus nihil sit utile sine praeparatione & regimine.
Modi vero regiminis sunt quatuor principales, puta solvere, abluere conjungere & figere. Solvere est corrumpere, dividere, & in materiam primam redigere. Abluere est inhumare, distillare, & calcinare. Conjungere est impraegnare, dealbare & rubificare. Figere vero est fermentare, desponfare & incerare.
Solutio, convertit lapidem in suam primam materiam, videlicet in aquam, ablutio in aerem, conjunctio in ignem, & fixio in terram. Unde Aristoteles, Quando habueris aquam & aerem ab igne, & ignem à terra, tunc totam artem bebis magisterium, quia tunc habes quatuor elementa in parte una bene praeparata.
Elementorum autem duo sunt principalia & duo secundaria, lapidea sunt ignis & terra, aquaticae vero aer & aqua: aqua autem extrahes ex substantia humida, aerem vero & ignem ex substantia sicca. De terra autem dicemus ex qua sit substantia corporis sit fixa, nam terra & ignem bibunt & retinent, ignis vero & aer, aqua vero & aer terram & ignem abluunt, tingunt & perficiunt. Idcirco oportet ut sit aqua mulsa & oleum inultum, quoniam multitudo infaturae tanta erit, quanta multitudo olei fuerit. Igitur paulatim solvitur lapis, ut in Mercurium convertatur, & in quatuor elementa dividatur, ut omnino sua materia prima habeatur.
Deinde abluitur, ut ejus immunditia auferatur; & redeat in colorem argenti vivi, sicut à principio fuit, & salsedo sui sulphuris minuatur. Postea calcinatur, ut ejus materia subtilietur, & possit converti de grosso in gracile, & de spisso in subtile, tunc lavatur cum aqua Mercurii, ut materiem reciperet humiditatem quam perdidit in calce.
Exinde sublimatur ut sua materia attenuata magis depuretur, & in hoc actu attenuatur ut sulphur & argentum vivum in moda habeantur super terram, de illa materia, de qua aurum & argentum efficiebantur subus terram.
Tunc addicitur sibi fermentum de illa materia, quam facere volumus, id est aurum aut argentum, fi ad argentum, argentum. Deinde inseratur spiritus cum corpore incorporeetur, & in eo figatur, quomodo fit unitum cum eo, stans, penetrans in profundum, tingens & permanens, cujus una pars secundum sui quantitatem corpus convertit meliora parte, cujus corpus in corpus verissimum aurum vel argentum, secundum quod elixir suum erit praeparatum. Sic etiam virtutem habet efficacem super omnes alias Philosophorum medicinas omnem sanendi infirmitatem, quia si aegritudo fuerit unius mensis sanat eam una die, si autem unius anni fuerit, sanat duodecim diebus; quae vero fuerit antiqua à longo tempore contracta sanat ea uno mense. Et ideo haec medicina ab omnibus super mundi huius divitias est oppido perquirenda. Hoc ardo magisteriū nos aequat regibus, & mundi altioribus, quia qui habet ipsam indeficientem habet thesaurum.
TRACTATUS TERTIUS
DE MINERA PHILOSOPHICA.
Ignoti auctoris.
Est lapis unus, medicina una, in quo totum magisterium artis Alchemiae consistit, cui non adjungimus aliam rem extraneam, neque minui mus, nisi quod in praeparatione superflua removemus. Non enim indiges uti alio corpore in isto opere, nisi Sole purissimo vel Luna optima, sed oportet quod labores circa ipsorum solutionem intimam & subtiliationem perfectam. Primus igitur gradus praeparationis corū est, quod tu facias ex eis argentum vivum, & cum Mercurisati fuerint, erunt manifestae liquefactionis & occultae subtiliationis. Sicq; intelligas quod 4. modis dirigitur opus, primus modus est lapidis dissolutio, secundus depuratio, tertius cibatio, quartus desponsatio: quod ad primam attinet, dissolvitur lapis per frequentem contritionem & lenem assationem.
Accipe ergo Deo juvante de Mercurio aliquantulum loto sale & aceto, & postea destilla per alembicum, & projice faces quas facies, fiat hoc secundo, & habebis venenum mortale.
Deinde pone in diversis phialis unam partem Solis purissimi & tres veneni ante dicti, & coque lento igne, quousque nigrescat in superficie.
Collige tunc sapienter illam nigredinem, & pone ad partem album venenum collectum per pannum lineum subtilissimum: & hoc quod non invenies non solutum de corpore tere bene in vase vitreo, modo videlicet philosopho, deinde impone ad coquendum cum suo veneno albo, & quando nigredo supernatabit recollige sicut praedictum est, quousq; nulla nigredo aquam supernatet: fiat hoc saepe quousq; totum corpus vertatur in nigredinem & omnio dissolvatur.
Tere, coque, & reitera, & non te taedeat. Cotrito igitur corporis & ejus in aquam resolutio sit per decoctionem aquæ & terræ in lentissimo igne per spacium quatuoraginta dierum. Secundum opus est depuratio lapidis, quæ sit per elementorum rectificationem, eo quod sit capax istius similitudinis. Ista autem rectificatio elementorum fiata est, per aquæ, aeris signis distillationem, & per terræ assationem. Accipe tunc aquam lapidis, & pone in una cucurbita sive retorta munda, & pone superius pulverem unius collectum in parte superiore, & claude tum alembicum, & sigilla cum luto sapientiæ, & distilla suaviter cum lento igne, ita quod habeas quatuor elementa divisa, & quodlibet elementum pone deorsum. Rectificationem autem aquæ per terram septies distillando à terra repete, & omni vice ante rectificationem abijce terram fæculentam, per pannum lineum exprimendo receptam. Accipe tunc primo aquam & rectifica eam distillando septies, & fæces quas fæcies pone ad partem, & ita habebis duo elementa bene rectificata mundata ab omni spurcitie. Tunc accipe terram, aquæ & ignis, & eodem modo sublimata erit septies, colligendo elementa per superius pellem hominis non habentis nisi unum testiculum, & hæc duo elementa commixta & bene rectificata sunt omnem fæce sua. Terra vero in fundo cucurbitæ sic rectificatur. Accipe eam & calcina, & colligæ sapienter aerem in ea existentem, & quando terra bene fuerit calcinata, & a toto ære evacuata, erit coloris pallidi, habilis ad impregnationem, & si spiritus in eo remaneret, erit sicut terra nigra & recipiet nutrimentum suæ aquæ, & cum hoc scieris habebis quatuor elementa bene rectificata & depurata. Tertium opus est cibatio, quod est cibum degustare per aquæ imbibitionem. Pone tunc terram calcinatam in una phiala, & projice desuper de aqua sua rectificata, & coque cum lento igne per unam septimanam, & postea calcina leniter, & projice desuper de alia aqua sicut prius, & recoque per aliam septimanam, fiat hoc diligentius quousque tota aqua fuerit inhumata. Quoniam oportet imponi terram nutrire paulatè, & postea maiori sicut videtur in infantis nutrimento. Nota ablutionem remanere fieri per distillationem aquæ, & ejus aquæ coagulationem per philosophicas imbibitiones aquæ super illam terram. Lava igitur terram terræ modo philosophico, & coque quoque; bibet de aqua sua quantum plus poterit, videlicet quantum ipsa est. Quoniam sola aliquoties suis inferior & non amplius fuerit tota, & amplius non potest. Et si non bene fuerit tota non sit mundata, nec revertetur ad suum colorem. Nota quod habeas in separatione tantum de aere quantum recepisti de aqua, videlicet pondus primum de corpore, & pondus primum & secundum de aqua corporis scilicet & Mercurii, ut in principio. Item lava terram more philosophico, & coque opus tuum in aere, ita quod bibat de illo conformiter sicut fecit de aqua sua praedicta. Fiat hoc sæpe quousque biberit de aere quantitatem aquæ humatæ, & semper per octo dies coque & calcina suaviter.
Si vero volueris operari ad rubedinem, operare poterit fortiori igne totam compositionem implecti, ita quod redeat in cineres quos non habebis in contemptu, quoniam oportet eos iterum ad opus replicare nutrimento sui ignis. Pone ergo praedictos cineres ad ignem suum quousque fundantur & bibant suum ignem, & tunc erit compositio tua dulcis, suavis, & rubea sicut sanguis. Cum vero rubeescet terra sua ultima rubificatione, apparebit tinctura rubea in natura veneni, quæ penetrat, & sicut puta prima in colore. Ita{que} operatio perforta sicut convenit, ungue pondera pondus & erit compositio rubetantia in colore coralli, & hoc est signum completæ digestionis perfectionis & complementi tincturæ in operatione, et cujus tinctura omnes alii testes igni possunt in infinitum.
De modo autem conjungendi elementa invicem dicit Avicenna, Pone primo aquam, quoniam ipsa est a latere furni, postea pone aquam quoniam ipsa est a latere terræ. Tertio pone aerem, quoniam ipse est a latere aquæ, deinde pones ignem in opere ad albedinem, quoniam opus albedinis fit de tribus rotis, id est, de terra, aqua & oleo, ubi nihil erit ignis.
Opus vero rubedinis fit de quatuor rotis, ubi ignis minime differri potest, si primo ponas oleum in aërem & postea terram, oleum foret mortificatum in terra quum aqua intraret. Sin vero accipias aquam & postea oleum, erat oleum super terrâ, & sit tunc ponas aquam & postea terram, aqua foret ponderosior quia terra. Nunc modo manifestabo magistrium. Nunquam facies ignem, sed facies locum ubi ignis sit, aperi ostium suis ignis, & circa aer intrat ignis, sicque aquam cum terrâ, ita quod sit adhaeret. Et scias quod si occidis unum elementum de quatuor, omnia mortua sunt, & si unum plus habeat de anima quam alia elementa tua sunt, & si unum plus habeat de anima quam alia elementa tua sunt, & si unum plus habeat de anima quam alia elementa, nihil valebit opus. Intellige quod dico, quia Deo est commendando. Nota fermentationem Elixir, projiciendo super tale corpus quale acceperisit in principio optime purgatum, & in prima depositione sit unus medicinae quota de corpore, et tres partes medicinae & quatuor de corpore, & postea si volueris partem unam de medicina, cum duabus, tribus quatuor, vel utilius secundum quod inveneris potentiam medicinæ, & hoc est opus quartum. Quartum igitur opus est de-spoliare per commixtionem sui primi corporis, pro eo quod factum est substantiale, ad istius intellectum, videlicet quod elixir sit fixamen in suo corpore unde extrahatur in principio, quia cum spiritus solvit animam pateret solvit & corpus, ut reducantur ad ejus formam. Non figatur & non mo-riatur nisi in ejus curia ipsum occupaveris, quia occupatio ejus est fixio ejus per fermentationem facta, quod tu eum jungas corpori suo præparato in principio, quoniam in illo occupabitur propter convenientiam formæ spiritus prædicti ad essentiam corporis, & non jungas eum cuiuscumque aliæ corpori, eo quod converterat naturam cuiuscumque corporis, sed conjungas eum illi corpori de quo traxit originem, sed si hoc facies totum erit elixir quod conjunges. Pluribus certe operatis deficit eorum propositum post operis complementum propter ignorantiam istius secreti.
Nota ergo verba, quia si tu projicias opus tuum super aurum vel argentum, vel aliud aliquod corpus, non convertet naturam illius corporis ad naturam interius corporis, sed illud corpus convertet ad naturam propriam. Et si tu projicias illud corpus super aliud corpus, illud corpus super quo sit projectio erit elixir movens totum ad suum genus. Sic & intelligas quod si projicias illud super argentum, non movebit illud de sua forma, sed si projicias illud argentum super aliud corpus imperfectum, ut cuprum, stannum vel plumbum, conver- teris illud in argentum. Eodem modo si tu projicias opus tuum super æs, erit convertibile aliorum corporum ad substantiam æris: & ideo dicit Plato Philosophus, quod illud corpus de quo spiritus occupatur in fixione, est res de quo opus est præparatum. Nota bene quod non accipias aliud corpus pro fermento ad desponationem medicinea quam Solem purissimum, vel Lunam purissimam, & alibi dicit Aristoteles, Qui non coagulat argentum vivum album sustinet ignem, & non jungit illud cum puro argento, nulla habet vena ad albedinem, & qui argentum vivum facit rubem facies ignem, & non allociet illud cum puro auro, nullam habet vena ad rubedinem. Nota bene hoc præceptum Philosophorum valde commendandum bonæ memoriæ. Non labores igitur in corpore aliqua, quoniam non potes venire ad perfectionem, sed ad nihilum deveniet, nec quisquam sibi perspiciet quis sit errat deviando: & hoc est unum de maximis secretis philosophorum.
Nota bene quantitatem medicinae proijciendae super corpus in desponsatione, bene igitur debes seire quod quando proijcies elixir tuum super corpus aliquod, cave ne elixir excedat quantitatem corporis, sed proijce modicum operis tui super multum corporis de corpore, & erit totum pulvis spiritualis, quoniam si projeceris multum operis tui super multum decorpore, in ali qua hora temporis, erit pulvis consimilis colori corporis super quo fit projectio, Et istud elixir completum convertit omnia alia corpora ad suum genus: & cum sic dictum pulverem praeparaveris, poijce super alia corpora, vel super Mercurium ad oculum & sic habebis Solem vel Lunam quantum volueris ipse, meliorem quam extractum de minera.
Finish parvi tractatus de Minera Philosophica.
TRACTATUS QUARTUS
qui dicitur
COMPENDIUM UTILE AD CREdendum Meditationum experimentum.
Testificatur ad credendum meditationem experimentū id, quoniam spiritus corporibus magis assimilantur, per hoc quod corporibus magis uniuntur, quoniāma micabilius quam alia illis conveniunt in natura. Per hoc igitur inventum est nobis inventione prima hoc, spiritus esse alterationis corporum medicinam veram, cum scilicet in spiritibus caeteris exquirenties non videmus spiritum alium quā Mercurium corporum metallicorum naturis amicari.
Ideo per hoc opus nostrum in illo inquirentes, reperimus ipsum esse veram alterabilium medicinam in complemento cum alteratione perfecta. Et certe diminutum in imperfectis corporibus et paucitas argenti vivi in ipsis exsistens, & non etiam inspissatio ejusdem quae completum complementum in ipsis corporibus scilicet imperfectis erit aequali virtute & essetia & bona inspissatio & fixatio permans: hoc autem per medicinam ex ipso, id est argento vivo, creatam perficitur, quae quidem per beneficium suae luciditatis & splendoris, illorum sufficiens palladium calat, & eget, & in splendorem adducit, ac in fulgorem convertit. Verum cum argentum vivum sit fluens & fugitivum, non mutat sine alterationis naturae illius administratione, & ideo invenimus ipsum necessario prepararari debere, ut talis fiat illius substantia, quod permaneat in occulto, usque ad profundum corporis alterabilis, sine separatione in aeternum.
Hoc autem non fit nisi subtiliter ultimae reparatione certa per multa sublimationis reiterationem, a rebus siccis adurentibus & desiccantibus, sulphureis autem non habetibus, & non permanet ejus ingressio sine figura; nec illustrat nisi fulgidissima ex illic elicitae substantia; & non praestat fusionem etiam nisi in fixione et illius maximae adhibeatur cautela. Imitantes ergo naturam in quantum est possibile ipsum a calidissimis & desiccantissimis sublimamus, et sublimamus, donec perfectionem a suis induerit superfluitatibus, & albissimum assumat colore quod quandoque inferetem, quandoque in novem, quandoque in diem completur vicibus. Cum ergo videris ipsum quasi mortuum, et ut nive albissimam aludel spondilib. adhaerere, tunc ipsum dividimus in duas partes, quarum unam deorsum reservamus, ut cum ea terra lapidem sublimemus, alteram projiciimus in fluentem aquam, donec redeat in argentum vivum, in quo ut docti semel distillantes purissimum dissolvimus separationis, id est, aurum, sulphur, argentum, arsenicum leniter decoquendo, quousque fuerint omnino dissoluta, & eorum ignietas fuerit egressa in colore nigredinis. Nam calor agens in humido generat nigredinem, & in sicco operatur albedinem, & albedo citrinitatem. Cum ergo solutum fuerit & putrefactum, tunc ipsum dividimus in balneo aqueo primo suaviter distillando, postea destillatur aerigine mixtus, quae fixiora sunt ignendo, tunc terram nigram in fundo aludelli remanentem velociter citò igne comburimus, id est, calcinamus quoadusque munda sit & sublata. Dehinc rectificamus aquam & aerem, id est, utrumque per septies distillando. Postea eorum ignem ad partem semper collectum tenemus & cum aquis sua imbibimus, & suaviter assamus, iterato in se multoties quousque exicceatur & rubedine et urina coloreetur, tunc praedicta elementa bene praeparata ad partem reservamus, veruntamen conjungimus terram calcinatam cum argento vivo sublimato albi jugiter terendo, & cum aqua sua inibendo, & suaviter assando quousque incorporeentur, & innum permisceantur. Cum autem humiditas fuerit egressa accensione ignis tenui ecce sublimamus quousque terra cum argento vivo sublimato albo levetur totaliter, si vero aliquid insublimatum remanserit, addimus sibi vicissim argenti vivi sublimati quantitatem, primo eam quantitatem ut summa volatilissuperet summam fixi, donec ad elevationem illius sufficiat: & sic vice post vicem iteramus super ipsum sublimationem, donec secundo & tertio totaliter elevetur: postea reiteramus illius sublimationem, donec per hanc administrationis reiterationem figatur deorsum. Abhinc autem reiteramus super totum opus calcinationis, solutionis & coagulationis, ad minus quatuor vicibus, & ultimo figimus donec in ignis asperitate quiescat, & sic pretiosissimam lapidis terram sufficienter igne administrando praeparamus ad opus album & rubeum, quoniam ipsa est terra foliata ab illis ad fermentandum, & ideo in duas dividimus partes, quarum unam reservamus pro opere albo, & aliam pro opere rubeo.
Porro de antea reservata pro opere rubeo dissolvimus in aqua sua rubea & instanter coagualmus, deinde apponimus sibi ignem lapidis rubeum iterantes super ipsum totum opus contritionis, imbibitionis & assationis multoties, quousque siccum sit & rubeum, quod per ingenium jam dictum cum Mercurio sublimato & rubificato, non fixo conjuncto vicissim sublimamus, quousque totum secundo & tertio fuerit elevatum tam rubeum in colore ut usitur. Postea per eundem modum figimus ipsum ut stet; hinc vero solvimus & coagualamus vice post vicem, & reservamus ad fermentandum pro Solis opere rubeo. Tunc terram albam reservatam pro opere albo resolvimus, & ad unam partem ipsius conjungimus tres partes purissimae Lunae similiter resolutae, & ambas has solutiones insimul conjungentes terimus & assamus quousque totum fiat corpus unum, cui apponimus de oleo suo albo quod sufficit, iterantes super ipsum multoties contritionem, incerationem, & assationem ut incorporetur melius. Hinc iterata vice continuamus super ipsum sublimationem, reducendō semper quod superius ascendit super illud quod inferius remanebit fixum, quousque totum figatur deorsum, quod quandoque in quatuor, quinque, velseptem, quod est ultimum completur vicibus. Omni tamen vice totum incorporamus per contritionem, incerationem & assationem, & sic iterata vice non fixum sublimamus assidue, donec totum fuerit fixum, & tunc accendimus super ipsum ignem fortissimum per diem integrum, & est per Dei gratiam elixir completum, stans, tingens, penetrans, consolidians, & perseverans, cujus una pars convertit mille partes cujuscunque corporis ad verissimam Lunam. Adhuc vero totum resolvimus in oleo suo albo, & coagualamus: deinde iterum resolvimus, & cum non fixa parte conjungimus, & vicissim sublimamus quousque totum fixum cum non fixo levetur totaliter. Cum ergo fuerit elevatum, iteramus illius sublimationem, quousque per iterationis administrationem figatur totum, & cum fixum fuerit iterato solvimus & iterato sublimamus, quousque iterato totum elevetur; tunc iterato figimus, per continuam sublimationis iterationem super ipsum quousque stet. Omnes ergo praeparationes super ipsum reiteramus; quousque facilem dederit fusionem ut certa, tunc abundantia & perfectius operabitur, quoniam una pars ejus convertet mille millia partium cujuscunque corporis praeparati, & argenti vivi abluti in verissimum argentum, & melius quam de miniera productum. Eodem etiam modo de rubificatione ad Solem, nisi quod per obtusalibus res rubéas apponimus et opera Soleis. Et est ut per manum rubificantiam cum fluente Sole calcinato & soluto in oleo suo rubeo similiter in simul coniungamus sublimando unum cum alio qu usque totum figatur deorsum. Adhuc iteramus super ipsius solutiones, sublimationes & fixationes multis vices quoque fiat & alteret unumquodq; imperfectorum in solum verum.
Opus tamen rubeum maiore indiget in suis partibus sublima tione quam opus album, ideo pluries est sublimandum solvendum & coagulandum. In opere rubeo nihil intrat nisi rubeum, sicut & in opere albo nihil intrabit aliud nisi album: & quanto pluries solvimus, coagulamus & sublimamus, tanto perfectius, abundantius, & melius operabitur, & augebitur super numerum suum, convertens vnumquodque diminutum in infinitum, in solificum verum & certum.
Sed cum bonum magistrum scire non possit nisi cum bonis rationibus, ita nec bonus magister poterit esse nisi omnes huius artis noscat rationes: ideo oportet vos scire cum lapis noster dividitur in quatuor elementa, nam fi proiicinus parum de eo super corpus diminutum facit ipsum aurum vel argentum, hoc tamen non poterat facere sine praeparatione & sublimatione, quia suae partes imperfectae, potentiam ingredi in minimis partibus corporis, ideoque dividimus lapidem & materiam suam, parum omnino habilem, usfaciamus elementa nuda, & puta habemus radicem.
Tunc ea coniungimus, quoniam in ipsa hora incorporat se cum corpore, quod ante non poterat propter suam grossitiem, & haec una est ratio qua lapidem dividimus in sua elementa. Abhinc calcinamus terram ut attenuemus ejus materiam, deinde cum aqua sua solvimus ipsam, ut recuperet humiditatem quam perdidit in sua calcinatione, hinc coagulamus & inceramus, ut possit reverti de materia in materiam, & sit lenis ad fundendum. Postea conjungimus sibi argentum vivum solutum & sublimamus totum ut magis attenuetur materia ejus, & bene incorporentur ad invicem.
Et totum hoc facimus ut argentum vivum & sulphur de illa materia habeamus super terram de qua aurum & argentum efficiuntur subtus terram. Deinde apponimus ei ignem lapidis ut bene colororetur Op? Solis, & fiat rubeum ut visitur, ings autem nostri lapidis est siccus & est aurum. Cum ergo bene fuerit praeparatum, solutum, sublimatum, & coagulatum apponimus fermentum sibi de illa materia quam facere volumus, videlicet si fiat aurum, fiad argentum argentum.
Et sic facimus pacem inter ignem & aquam, aerem & terram, quoniam damus unicuiq; elementorum de lapide qui dicit, efficimus; ut non amplius funt inimica in magisterio nostro.
Tunc itaq; totum resoluimus, sublimamus & coagulamus iterata vice multoties, quousq; fluat & alteret unumquodq; imperfectiorum corporum metallicorum in infinitum, in Solificium vel Lunaficium verum ad omne artificis judicium. In hoc completur arcanum pretiosissimum quod est super omnem mundi thesaurum. Deo altissimo soli sint laudes & gratiae perpetuae & perennes.
TRACTATUS QUINTUS
qui dicitur
ROSARIUM PHILOSOPHORUM
ex compilatione omnium Philosophicorum Librorum.
Per Toletanum Philosophum Maximum.
Desiderabile desiderium imperitabile pretium, à cunctis Philosophis positum, quod non deponitur nec male propositum fuisse supponitur, ex libris antiquorum hic in summa una breviter adunabimus, ut tibi clarissime sufficienter pateat veritatis argumentum, tam excellentissimae partis philosophiae esse probatissimum.
Atque hanc quidem summam vocitamus Rosarium, eo quod ex Philosophorum libris tanquam rosas à spinis evulsimus tibi ipsum, in quo quidem claro sermone et rectoque ordine, ac de verbo ad verbum, cum omnibus suis causis sufficientibus succinctum trademus quicquid ex illorum libris reperimus necessarium ad operis hujus complementum. Et quia nocet veritati quicquid contrariatur rationi, ideo sententiis veritatis per omnia utentes nihil ponemus in eo superfluum, nihilque diminutum ad totum magisterium. Placeat Domino nostro Iesu Christo nobis immittere spiritum suae intelligentiae.
Universa divinae bonitatis opera circularia sunt & perfecta, ad ipsum à quo prodierunt spherice rotata. Ab initio ante creationis primordium naturam cunctis praeponens, Deus quatuor fecit corpora simplicia, ex quibus postea constituit corpora quaeque mixta, mixtorum vero quaedam fecit intellectiva, quaedam sensitiva & vegetabilia, quaedam tantum intellectiva, quaedam tantum ex raritate elementorum creavit. Ideo inquieti est cor nostrum donec redeamus ad ipsum, omnium namque elementorum raritas ascendit ad ignem qui est super stellas; ideo & nos ab illa creati merito sursum tendimus ad Deum tanquam ad unum principium.
Sensitiva vero cuncta nec non & vegetabilia ex spiritu, ordine elementorum composita, in specie distinguuntur diversâ, unde cum dissolvuntur per mortem non immerito revertuntur ad terram & aquam, velut ad suam matrem, nam spiritu elementorum naturaliter tendit deorsum ad suum centrum videlicet terram. Omnium tamen natura constantium certus est terminus magnitudinis & augmenti, ut in sua specie augmentum suum simile, & eorum quaedam ex partibus sunt dissimilibus, ut a carne, sanguine & ossibus, seu a lignis, cortice & foliis.
Quaedam ex partibus sunt consimilibus, ut ea quae per totum sunt unius essentiae, sicut est videre in metallis: quae autem ex partibus sunt dissimilibus in se tamen possident sensum, unde terra infixa multiplicantur & crescunt, ut videtur in arbusis & herbis.
Quae vero ex partibus sunt consimilibus non multiplicantur, nisi ad suam primam reducatur materiam, quare dicit Philosophus Aristoteles, Sciant artifices Alchemiae species metallorum non posse transmutari in perfectionem, nisi prius in primam reducant materiam & tunc quidem transmutentur, & sint verae species, si moveantur bene permutantur. Nota rationem quare oporteat fieri corporis resolutionem in primam materiam scilicet agentem vivum, & illud ideo quia corruptio unius est generatio alterius, tam quidem in artificialibus quam naturalibus.
Ars enim imitatur naturam & in quibusdam corrigit & superat eam: sicut & juvatur natura in firma medicorum industria, natura siquidem non construit domum nec conficit elecuiarium, quoniam de se ipsa non habet motum ad hoc faciendum. Sic etiam lapis noster quamvis in se tincturam naturaliter contineat (nam in terra perfecte creatus est) perfecte tamen non habet motum ut faciat elixir completum nisi moveatur per artem. Alia ergo ars perficit quae natura non potest sola per se operari, alia vero imitatur & perficit in quantum nata sunt atque perfici per naturam.
Ideo succurrendum est naturae per artem in eo, quod per naturam omnino non perficitur, quia non est differentia inter naturam & artem nisi quod ars agit exterius, natura vero interius; ars enim tanquam organum administrat motum, natura autem ipsa per se agit, quoniam ad suam nititur perfectionem. Omne porro corpus aut est elementum, aut ex elementis compositum, sed omnis compositi generatio ex quatuor elementis simplicibus habet consistere, quare oportet necessario ut lapis noster reductus ad primam originem sui Mercurii & sulphuris, dividatur in elementa, alias depurari non potest nec conjungi, quia suae partes minimae non possunt ingredi, nisi in minimis partibus corporis; divisus autem depuratur ac iterum conjungitur, & elixir quod quaerimus operatur.
Nam experimentum destruit formam ejus specificam: verum ante elementorum divisionem non videtur ex eis quicquam nec tangitur nisi terra & aqua, quia aer & ignis nusquam videntur, nec virtutes eorum sciuntur, nisi in dictis prioribus elementis, rarae quippe sunt omnino & simplicia, quare ab oculis videri corporibus penitus non possunt, ideo de illone cures, quoniam sufficit tibi videre rem ad simplicem puritatem.
Elementa tamen sunt quatuor, modis item quatuor, & humores quatuor, puta sanguis, cholera, slegma, & melancholia; modi sunt calidum, frigidum, humidum, & siccum. Elementa sunt ignis, aer, aqua & terra, quorum duo sunt activa, & duo passiva, ignis & aer sunt activa, aqua & terra sunt passiva; duo ascendunt, & duo descendunt; unum est calidum ex contrariorum coadunatur nisi per medium; calidum cum frigido non coadunatur, nisi per medium videlicet humidum siccum, quoniam per se nolunt simul stare cum unum obtundat alteru propter suam contrarietatem, ideoque calidum & frigidum congergant & dispergant unione & dissolutione & coagulando, sed humidum & siccum aggregantur & dispergant constringendo & humectando.
Simplex etiam generatio & naturalis permutatio est elementorum operatio, nam ignitum calidum frigidum vincens materiam, cum vero vincuntur agentia liquet, quia secundum partem violentia & indigestion fit, quare liquet res universas variabiles per calidum & frigidum, & simpliciter generari & naturaliter permutari.
Verum ex quolibet determinato fit unum determinatum, quia nulla est generatio nisi ex convenientibus in natura, homo quippe generat hominem leo leonem, sic unumquodque generat sibi simile, nullus vero cum sit ex diversis generibus nunquam respicit se ipsum nec generat sibi similem; sic etiam est de omnibus ex diverso genere procreatis. Necessarium ergo est quod elementa sint unius generis non diversi, alias actionem & passionem non habebunt ad invicem cum unum non tanget alterum.
In dubium igitur revocatur de lapide, qui dicitur philosophorum, quis sit vel qualis, cum nunquam ab aliquo philosophorum nominetur aperte: in hoc ergo diversi diversa sanxerunt, cum in uno solo consistat veritas, ipsum chare servamus, & omnia alia docemus evitare, nam patet per philosophorum scripta rem unam esse, nec alienam qui sibi iungi debere, sed nihil convenit rei nisi quod propinquius est ei & ex sua natura, non enim proferunt res nisi sibi similia, nec fructificant nisi fructus suos: igitur cum res unius sunt generis radices earum sunt unius generis.
Diversitas vero rerum ex diversitate partium suarum causatur: cognosco ergo mundum ab immunditia, quia nihil dat quod non habet. Mundus est unius essentiae, vacuum ab immunditiis, immundus est diversum & ex diversis, generatorum est diversum, & corruptibilium.
Horum probatum in Sole est & Saturno, quia Saturnus omnia corrumpit, Sol vero minime. Cognitio ergo corporis ex claritate est corporum & suae creationis principium facile facit hoc magisterium, nam sordibus adhaerent sordes cum sint de genere earundem; sed mundum vincit naturam mundi, non ponentes commixtionis defectus. Non quaeras ergo in natura quod in ea non est, quoniam res non fiunt nisi secundum suam naturam, & major corruptio est in re passiva quam in activa: utiere ergo membro nobiliori & simpliciore, & sufficit tibi; membrum tamen cordis ex corpore est sicut membrum cerebri ex capite, quia in corde est vis animae rationalis.
Horum tamen unus habet de angulis est geometria nobiliori & simpliciori propinqui, sicut propinquo est simplicitio triangulus quam quadrangulus, quoniam terminum habet pauciores. Rofusdum est corpus simplicum nullum habens angulum. Dimittere ergo conjunctum & extrae simpliciter, quia illud est genus generum, & forma formarum, nam ipsum est prius & posterius in planetis sicut Sol in stellis. Sol enim ergo elementa homogenea in natura sibi sunt fortia, nam in habentibus symbolum facilius est transitus.
Igitur cum quaesitum suum sit de genere amborum mundi luminarium, oportet eligium quod magis convenit naturae eorum ipsorum, & certe cum hoc genus appropriatum lumini multum scimus, quoniam non perficitur opus nisi per ipsum. Decorantur ergo diademata lapidibus pretiosis, quorum pulchritudine visus iuvatur, animus delectatur, dignitas ornatur, & eorum virtute aegritudines gravissimae a corporibus expelluntur, sine quibus parum est efficax omnis medicina: quare iis utuntur medici in suis medicinis ad gravissimos morbos expellendos.
Est autem ad doctorum verissimum argumentum, quod melior lapis omnium lapidum melius valet ad expulsionem omnium infirmitatum, nota hinc de meliore lapide omnium lapidum quod est aurum per intellectum. Melior ergo lapis omnium lapidum est ille qui magis est coctus, & igni est proximus, qui plus sustinet ignem, & tardius frangitur ab igne. Ideo magis valent lapides pretiosi ut Rubini & Saphyri, quam lapides alii, quoniam generantur in locis calidioribus, propinquius soli cum maiori calore.
Sic enim magis valet aurum quam argentum, quoniam magis est coctum, & argento magis quam cuprum vel alia metalla viliora, & sicut Rubinus habet in se effectum omnium lapidum pretiosorum, sic habet & aurum in se virtutem omnium metallorum ad distillandum, non tamen ad coagulationem, tingit ea & vivificat, cum omnium illorum sit nobilitus, & eo aurum capias.
Verum Rubinus propter concordantiam elementis est complexionatior, cum pro maiore parte sit ex substantia lucida, ut ex aqua clara, & coagulat cum sicco & calore magno, ideo nec dulcitur, nec ad alium statum reducitur nisi ex toto destruatur, quoniam igni ex omni parte contrariatur. Aurum vero cum sit ex substantia terrae mixta cum aqua per minima est homo homogenici igni ex una parte duarum extremitatum, & coagular cum frigore post actionem caloris in ipso, ipsum ideo dulcitur & in igne melioratur, est enim proportionatum meliori complexioni, ex quali, nobiliori compositioni prae omnibus aliis lapidibus pretiosis.
Post illud immediate est argentum, ergo summe & argentum pro lapide: defectus vero aliorum corporum est quod in eis est caliditas addita aut frigiditas diminuta, sicut deficit frigiditas cupro & ferro, caliditas autem stano & plumbo, aurum enim & argentum iuste & equaliter sunt composita, & vere sunt temperata, prae omnibus lapidibus aliis quasi sub caelo sunt, ad speciem notrial lapidibus pertinentia.
Et certus aurum est dominus lapidum, nobilitus corporum, Rex & caput optimum eorum, non enim corrumpitur ab aere, nec ab aqua neque a terra, nec ignis minuit ipsum, imo ignis eius humiditatem, decorat & rectificat, & rescoerentes non comburunt illud, nec corrumpentes corrumpunt, eo quod eius complexio est temperata, & natura directa in aequali caliditate & frigiditate, humiditate & siccitate, nec in eo superfluum quicquam est nec diminutum. Nulli ergo lapides quantumvis magno vendantur auro praevalent, tametsi auro quidam cariores sint, non quia pretium auri excedunt, sed quia rariores & pauciores inveniuntur.
Notatu igitur intime quod non est lapis melior quam Sol, & quod opus absq; Sole nullo modo peragitur, quia est fermentum elixiri. De omnibus ergo rebus huius saeculi magis valet aurum, quoniam est fermentum Elixir, sine quo nequaquam opus peragitur, laetificat aurum, & iuventutem conservat, renovat senectutem & omnem corporis depellit infirmitatem, est enim sicut fermentum pastae, coagulum lactis in caseo, & sicut muscus in aromatibus bonis.
Merito autem aurum circumdat partem superiorem Solarem, argentum inferiorem Lunarem, unde dicunt Solem & Lunam videre pro creatione eorum quod magis sit verum, sed quia Solem & Lunam video, certissime scio quod magis sit verum: nam quaelibet res in natura, quod est simplex & admirans sunt herbes sicut & vegetabilia in natura. Sol ergo est tinctura rubedinis, quae transformat omne corpus.
Luna vero tinctura est albedinis, quoniam est domina humiditatis: cum Sole commiscentur spiritus, & sequiuntur per ipsum ingenio magno quod non pervenit ad artificem durae cervicis, spiritus namque in natura sinam conversus moritur, & mortuo similis videtur, inde postea inspiratus venit, multiplicatur, & crescit ut ceterae. Ideo nisi granum frumenti cadens in terram mortuum fuerit, ipsum solum manet, si autem mortuum fuerit, multum fructum adfert, & unde videbatur perdisse quod erat, inde incipit apparere quod non erat, quia egregius destructioem ignorat constructionem eius, ex actu naturae necessaria habet ignorare.
Calcinatur & solvitut maximo labore, absq; utilitate: igitur quare aliis corporibus utres? cum possis habere in istis illud quod est maioris temperantiae & minoris fescis? Si indigeris usu eorum oportet primo ut convertantur in speciem aliorum praedictorum, & tunc deumane incipere operationem in eis; possibile tamen est quod operentur cum eis, cum in omnibus corporibus insit scientia: sed non erunt bona sicut praedicta, quia in maiori opere non ius perfectionis sunt omnia corpora diminuta, & ingrediuntur opus donec in compositionis subtilitate fuerint sicut corpora perfecta.
Album tamen & rubeum ex una radice nullo alterius generis corpore interveniente pullulant; nam Luna in argentei opere ipsum candidum quod est purissimum Solis materia formatur; nihil tamen ipsius coloris retinens designat, ipse tamen Sol albescente argento vivo privatur.
Est autem, quia ex materia & forma sit omnium generatio vera. Totu igitur beneficium huius artis in Sole & Luna existit, si indiges quod circa eorum solutionem labores, redige eas ad suam primam materiam, prima autem materia eorum est argentum vivum, quia cum liquantur, omnia corpora vertuntur ad ipsum: certum quippe est omnem rem esse ex eo in quod dissolvitur, quia resolvitur in aquam mediae calefactione, clarum est ergo ipsam aquam prius fuisse.
Sine dubio dubitabilia resolvi possunt in argentum vivum, ergo ipsa prius fuerunt argentum vivum. Hic igitur nota de resolutione corporum in argentum vivum.
Benedictus ergo sit sublimatus naturae dominus, quibus ab una ratione discernendi, & reducendi omnem rem ad primam suam materiam & naturam, puta corpora praeparata ad primam originem, sicut philosophis & Mercurii, ut ex eis possit generari aurum in caeli similitudine ex terra, quod naturali operatione sub tensura in mille tantum modo annis, unde si talium beneficium non haberemus ab argento vivo, nisi quod corpora reddat subtiliora ad suam naturam, hoc ipsum satis nobis debet sufficere; ipsum enim est amicale & metallis placabile, ac medium coniungens eas in tincturas, quoniam in se recipit quod suae naturae est, a alienum vero respuit, quia est uniformis substantiae, in omnibus suis partibus homogeneum, ipsum quidem est quod ignem superat & ab eo non superatur, sed in eo amicaliter quiescit eo gaudens, propter enim suam bonam partium adhaerentiam et suam mixtionis fortitudinem, si quo modo partes illius inspissentur per ignem, ulterius non permittit se corrumpi, neq; per ingressiones fumosae flammae se in summum ulterius sinit elevavi, quoniam rarificationem sui non patitur, propter sui densitatem & adustionis carentiam.
Veridice ergo innumus corpora ea maioris esse perfectionis, quae plus argenti vivi sunt continentia, & quae minus in iisdem & certe in compositis imperfectis, et paucis rarissime sunt, ex inde recta inspissatio contingere potest, quae copiam tendit in illis erit argenti vivi multiplicatio, bona inspissatio & fixio permanens. Studeas igitur cum in opere fueris in eos, ut per illud solum perficere poteris, pretiosissima & perfectionis indagator eris, & eius perfectionis summa lætaberis, quæ natura vincit opus, mundare enim intime poteris ad quod natura non pervenit, & sic per consequens opus ex illo poteris creare quod omnem superabit naturam.
Quia non est differentia utrum hoc fiat in organis naturalibus, an in artificialibus. Ex iis ergo elicias secretum, mediciæ nostræ necessarium ex iisde esse assumenta quæ argento vivo maxime adhaerent in profundo ejus, & per minima comminuentur ante illius fugam; argentum autem vivum argento vivo magis adhaeret, & eidem magis amæatur, post illud vero aurum, & postea argentum; alia vero corpora non habent tantum conformitatem ad ipsum, quia minus de sua pura participant natura.
Fumet enim nihil in illo demergitur nisi Sol, necessarium est ergo, quod hæc medicina ex iis positivum elici debeat in quibus maxime consistit, est autem tam in corporibus quam in ipso argento vivo secundum naturam, quæ omnia sunt reperta naturæ, in corporibus quidem difficilius, in argento autem vivo propinquius non tamen perfectius. Consequens, igitur generis est medicina tam in corporibus, quam in ipso argento sublata impalatione et subtiliatione, & ad summum reducatur, est quia extra tinctus de externo ad externum nisi per medium, externum enim est coloratorum, & in latere est argentum vivum, & ex alio elixir completum. media vero istorum sunt sex corpora quæ se elongant ab malleum, quorum alia alias magis sunt depurata, decocta & digesta atque illa sunt propinquiora ut re christiane credimus non ignorare.
Non ergo oberres, quia nulla est tinctura vera nisi ex ære nostro, id est, ex lapide philosophico. Omne porro aurum est æs sed non omne æs est aurum, quia de genere ad speciem non est consequentia, sic omne aurum est sulphur rubeum, sed non omne sulphur est aurum, quia nihil est in auro ex corruptione sulphuris. Lapis ergo noster secundum diversitatem suæ operationis habet convertere argentum vivum in verissimum argentum, vel etiam in aurum purissimum ut patebit in sequentibus.
Verum cum in opere fuerit dealbatum, operatur operatione sulphuris albi, Mercurium coagulans in argentum purum, & si major tem habuerit digestionem, erit sulphur optimum nigrum, Mercurium convertens in aurum obscurum. Hic iste gradum desitens alium quære iter lapidem, & stulteque tuam consu mere pecuniam, & animo tristitiam indicere perpetuam, quia quæ iuveris hæc & metes: non ponas ergo omnip te tuam scis & scarabeos, nec comedas de filio cujus mater est corrupta, sed frustum de pinguiori carne comede, quoniam futilitas est magna opus tuum facere de peiore tum potest fieri de meliore.
Tenebrosum ergo nominum diminutas pluralitatem, quia huic rei diversa imponuntur nomina, idque secundum diversos colores in opere apparentes, quoniam et una solæ eadem de eadem. Venerabili ergo utimini natura, quia natura non emendatur nisi in sua natura, ne non introducas alienum, nec pulverem, nec aquam, nec aliam rem.
Constantis igitur esto voluntatis in opere, ne modo hoc modo illud præsumas attentare, quia in rerum multitudine ars nostra non perficitur. Est ergo lapis noster unus, medicina una, vas unum, unum regimen, & una dispositio ejusdem, cui non addimus rem aliquam extraneam, nec minuimus, nisi quod in præparatione ejus superflua removemus, non enim ingreditur in eo quod non sit ortum ab eo, nec in ejus parte nec in toto. Si vero aliquid extraneum ei apponitur statim corrumpitur, nec fiet ex eo quod quæritur.
Est itaque lapis noster unus aqua videlicet permanens, mirabilis, lucida, clara, cælestinem habens colorem, verum spiritus in illa aqua quod ipsam emendat, quod quæritis non fiet. Notate igitur quod ista aqua non potest emendari absque Sole, Sole sane honoramus, eo quod aqua nostra emendatur absque ipso, nam absque Sole & ejus umbra nullum tingens generatur venenum, id est argentum vivum praeparatum.
Qui vero sine his venenum tingens facere nititur, procedit ad præsticam stultitiæ & asinus ad coenam; & illud ideo quia corpus non agit in corpus, nec spiritus in spiritum, eo quod forma non recipit impressionem a forma, nec materia a materia, nam simile non agit in suum simile, cum neutrum eorum sit dignius altero, nullum ergo eo rum agit in alterum, quia par in parem non habet imperium: veruntamen corpus suscipit impressionem a spiritu, sicut & materia a forma, eo quod apta nata sunt ad invicem agere & pati.
Corpus itaque tingit, spiritus vero penetrat, non tamen tingit corpus nisi tingatur, quia spiritum terrenum non ingreditur propter suam grossitiem, verum tenue aereum est id quod ingreditur & tingit, & hoc est sulphur corporis extractum per naturam. Non ergo tingit aurum nisi ipsum unde spiritus ejus occultus extrahatur de ventre ejus, fiatque omnis spiritualis. Aqua igitur nostra viva, est ignis aurum comburens, mortificans, & constringens omnis pinguedinis elementalis, & quanto magis illi miscebitur & teritur per ignem, tanto magis diruitur, aquaque viva ignea attenuatur: cu aurum fuerit trita & unum quid facta, habet in se omnem tincturam ignem patientem.
Corpore ergo spiritu sic colorato, colorat, & omnem tincturam in se habet & donat: ideo qui è Sole & ejus umbra, id est Luna venenum tingens coniungunt, nostrum lapidem perficiunt, verum nisi lapis habueret, tam ex substantia una, quam altera, non haberent actionem & passionem ad invicem, & unum non tingeret alterum.
Lapis ergo & lignum nullam habent inter se operationem, quod sint ex diversa materia, sicut & in omnibus est materia differentiibus: deest est necessarium ut agens & patiens sint in genere una & eadem, in specie vero altera & diversa; secundum quod est mulier diversificatur ab homine, quia licet in uno genere & natura conveniant, tamen inter se habent distinctionem & operationem distinctam, nec conveniunt inter agentem & patientem, materia naturam formam ationem, forma vero agit, & similis sibi materiam. Ideo materia naturaliter appetit formam, sicut mulier appetit virum, & turpe pulcrum; sic etiam spiritus lubens appetit corpus, ad se ipsius desiderans perfectionem.
Cognosce ergo cognitionem cognitionis, faciamus opus sic opus nostrum quantum possimus id appellandum nostrum alio modo non possum nomine exprimere, nec ipsum alio nomine nominare, sed per descriptionem suam radicem a parte nominamus ipsum. Merito ergo lapis noster à Philosophis dicitur omnis res, quia habet in se & de se, omnem rem necessariam ad sui perfectionem, omnibus nominatur omnibus propter naturæ suæ excellentiam, & abscondita in ea diversam actionem, ubique invenitur propter elementorum participationem, et vilissimus propter putrefactionem, carissimus propter virtutem, niger, albus & citrinus secundum colorum mutationem.
Diversorum ergo suorum nominum post pone multitudinem, quia quocunque modo nominetur semper tamen est una solæ & eadem. Philosophi certe non curant de nominibus, sed de nominum proprietatibus, eo quod per unum dat intelligere reliquum, non enim sermoni res sed rei est sermo subjectus. Nota intime de medicina quod rubra fieri non potest antequam alba fuerit, medicina igitur nostra et in existentia & in agendi modo similis est, et tamen necessarium ut illa eadem medicina sit alba antequam rubea fiat, quia non potest derivari nisi prius fuerit alba, eo quod nemo potest transire de primo ad tertium, nisi per secundum, sic non est transitus de nigro ad citrinum nisi per album, quia citrinum ex multo albo & paucissimo nigro est compositum, ideoque
nihil hanc medicinam primo de albaveris verum rubeum facere nequibis. Non ergo differt inter se medicina alba &
rubea in essentia ulla, sed in hoc quod medicina rubea majore indiget subtilatione & longiore digestionae calore in
igne in suo regimine: & illud ideo quia finis operationis
rubei & quod completum est in una, incipiendum est in alia,
nam totum magisterium uno modo incipit & finitur: opus rubeum indiget rubeo sicut opus albi albo indiget fermento. Nostri porro lapidis vas est unum in quo totum cópletur magisterium, & est quaedam cucurbita & alembicum,
sive vas unum solum vitreum spissum undique clausum, unius
cubiti longum, subtus & supra rotundum sine pedis planum,
cujus fundus parvae sit circuitus cum parietibus planis
& amplitudine capitis, ut sublimandum per illud ascéndat liberius, sic enim cum necesse fuerit surgens subitus & supra ut melius accendipositet.
De alia quidem materia non viletquam de vitro, nisi fortassis similis esset substantiae cum illo, quia solum vitrum & vitro simile cujus corpus sit lucidum transparens, & poris carens, potens est spiritus fugases tenere, ne exterminentur ab igne, & colores in opere
apparentes ostendere nec operator erret in regimine, alia vero
vasa non, quia corpora habent opaca, id est obscura & porosa, per quos spiritus successive, id est parum & parum transiens in fumum evanesceret. Proprium sane est fumorum spirituum ascendere & non descendere, ideo cucurbita spiritibus debilibus suis usque ad zonam subiungitur alembicum
suum. Sit autem junctura ingeniosa, bene conveniens ut nihil per illam possit incidere, claudatur etiam fortiter & continue ne quid possit exire vel intrare, quia si aer vel alius
humor intraverit ad administrationem corruptionis, effluet odor
ejus, id est fumus albus, egredietur & fugiat, totum opus
privatur effectu. Regimen autem nostri lapidis est unum,
& est ipsa decoquere jugiter & continue, in suo vase sine intermissione, donec finem consequaris optatum. Philosophi autem multa posuerunt artificialia, ad risus sive venerationes, velut, continuationem, occultationem, & mundificationem
ne sordidum quid introducatur vel immundum, ut item sun
commisceré, coquere, adaquare, putrefacere, dealbare & rubifcare, haec sunt nomina plurima, quorum tamen regimen
unum est, quod est coquere tantum, & ideo non est aliud qua
opus mulierum & ludus puerorum. Contere ergo, coque, reitera & ne te de at hoc pluries reiterare, quia si sciret philosophi quod una decoctio & una contritio sibi sufficeret, non toties sua dicta reiterarent, ideo quidem ista fecerunt & dixerunt, compositum teratur continue, & coquatur sine intermissione. Totum porro regimen ejus est in temperie ignis,
quia diversitas suorum regiminum est ab ignis graduum diversitate, nam in solutione ignis semper erit lenis, in sublimatione mediocris, in coagulatione temperatus, in dealbatione
continuus, in rubificatione fortis & continuus. Si vero in istis
nescienter erraveris, casum labore saepissime deslehes. Confultissimum est ergo ut sedulus operi instes, neque opus detruncatum dimittas: quia scientiam nec proficuum ex opere
dimisso acquires, sed potius damnum & desperationem. Necesse quoque habes in scientia naturalis philosophiae eruditum esse, & industria provectum, ut in puncto errori subvenire queas per scientiam, quia per solam naturalem industriam
emendare non posses, ars enim ab ingenio juvatur & ingenium ab arte. Similiter expediret etiam hujus artis principia
non ignorare, nam quis illa ignorat finem non inveniet: non
etiam imitariis sophisticam operis metam invenire, sed solivèro lapidis complementum intendas, ne forte Deus in cujus potentia reservatur ars nostra, ejus veritatem tibi deneget in eternum. Nota ergo intime de lapidis nostri dispositione
quod est totum opus. Dispositio itaque nostri lapidis est una
tantum, & est ut ponatur in suo vase, jugiterque coquatur in
igne quousque; totum ascendat solutum, deinde fortificandus
est ignis donec suum exhauserit humorem, sitaque siccum &
multum album. Tertio fortificandus est ignis, quousque, citrinum sit & multum rubeum: verum si in operando negligens
fueris istorum dolorum nihil videbis, studeas igitur cum in
opere fueris omnia signa, quae in qualibet decoctione apparent in mente recordere, & illorum causas investigare, quia
haec omnia necessaria sunt artifici, & idonea ad totius operis complementum, eo quod ignorantes causam necesse habent ignorare & causarum. Nota igitur de suo vase, & quod
semel semen imponendum est, ut generatio bona fiat &
non pluries; & quamvis multoties dicatur a philosophis
pone in tuo vase & similter claude, sufficit tamen semel imponere & claudere quousque totum compleveris magisterium, quod amplius est à malo est, quia si pluries aliquid imposueris, tunc aurum non vertitur in rubeum neque set album. Totum igitur residuum artis positum est in occultatione,
& certe ad generationem non habes materiam nisi vegetabilis
aut animal nisi semel matricium imposueris semen, si autem alias imponeretur, tunc illud destrueret aliud semen propter indigestionis cruditatem, aut aeris ingressiionem, vel materiae superabundantiam.
Ideo enim mulieres multis se viris exponere perant, tam rario enim concipiunt, ac si concipere cito, atque abortivantes rarissime concipiunt, ac si concipere cito, atque abortivantes rarissime concipiunt, ac si concipere cito, atque abortivantes rarissime concipiunt, ac si concipere cito, atque abortivantes rarissime concipiunt, ac si concipere cito, atque abortivantes rarissime concipiunt. Sic crudis cocta, & indigesta digestis apponentes opponi possunt nutriment sed occidunt, quia de illo matris sanguine tantum nutritur foetus, & vivit quousque producatur in lucem. Ex his ergo patet quod pluribus rebus non indiget opus nostrum, neque etiam magnas requirit expensas, quamvis sit lapis, unum vas, & unum regimen, & una dispositio ejusdem tam ad album quam ad rubeum succedens, id est palliative faciendum. Igitur si vere & pulchre naturas direxeris, ejusque compositionem bene coaptaveris, & consanguineas suis consanguineis convenienter junxeris, totum opus perficies, quia naturae suis obviantes naturis, sequuntur eas & exaltantur in eis, putrescunt namque & gignunt eo quod natura nostra regitur, natura naturam diruit, liquefacit, & in pulverem vertit, deinde natura naturam recreat, gignit & innovat, quousque finem operis inducat.
Verum quod secundum meritum materiae datur formae, ideo cum natura non praeparata minime convenit aliquid operari: optimus autem praeparationis modus est superflua demere, & absentia supplere, sic enim tam integra quam corrupta ad perfectum renovatur statum, & illud quidem est ut arbores siccis sibi in nullo convenientibus valde sublimies Mercurium, quousque caelestem acceperit colorem. Caveas tamen praecipue in ejus mutatione a privatione virtutis suae ne vis activa suffocetur in aliquo. Omnia namque terrae nascentium semina non multiplicantur nec crescunt, si per nimium calorem vis eorum generativa tollatur extraneis: sic certe nec ista multiplicatur natura si modo praeparetur indebite, non autem assumas ipsam naturam nisi puram, mundam, crudam, amoenam, currentem, synceram, & rectam, si vero foetcus feceris, no proderit quidpiam, ejus additamenti melius per cementum depuratur. Cum igitur volueris intentionem facere solvens in eo lunaturam, nam primus gradus suae praeparationis est ut fiat Mercurius, nec fiet hoc donec lenifices per aquae dominationem, & caloris motum continuatum. Opportet itaque sit aqua multae & coelum multum, quia quanta fuerit multitudo aquae, tanta est illud quod tincturae. Solvimus autem aurum ut in suam primam redigatur materiam, hoc est ut vere fiat sulphur & arg. vivum, quia tuc possumus optime argentu inde facere & aurum cum fuerit conversum in naturas sorit, idque debeat lavari & decoqui, ut sit veru sulphur & argenti, nam secundum philosophos sunt materia prima omnium metallorum. Et certe nostra solutio non est aliud nisi quod corpus revertatur humidum, & reveletur in eo natura agentis vivi, suaque salsedines sulphuris minuatur, non autem revertitur in aquam nubes, ut stulti quidam putaverunt, nam si reverteretur in talem aquam, esset tunc sine conversione per vim per naturam, ad modum salium & aluminis. Et sic cum loca regularia dignem converterentur in vitrum, sed illud falsum est ergo & opus eorum. Nunc intima nota de solutione. Est ergo solutio nostra ut tradas Gabricum Beyae & conjugium fiat, & sine cum Beya concumbens statim moriatur, & in suam transferatur natura; deinde transactis diebus multis ascendit super Beyam, transferens eam in corpus suum, & quamvis Beya sit femina, Gabricus tamen emendat, eo quod ex ipsa est, & quia vis Gabricus sit carior Beyae, sciendum tamen quod non sit generatio absque ea, quia nulla fit generatio coequatur nisi ex masculo & semina. Ideo conjunge servum nostrum rubeum, sororem suæ odoriferae & inter se artem gignent. Positis igitur in suo vase calide diligentissime, decoques continue ad ignem lene, donec brodium fiant signatam, nam ex principiis naturalibus est planum, ut omnis res, cujus radix est terra & aqua, solvatur & fiat currens, & certe secundum philosophum terra sit aqua, cum vincant eam aquae qualitates, & aqua sit terra, cum vincant eam terrae qualitates. Sic solutio corporis est congelatio spiritus, & congelatio spiritus est solutio corporis, nam habent unam operationem, quod unum non solvatur nisi alterum cogelettur. Injunge ergo toxico folium tutum, ut scribacitur tibi in eo operis principium, ex rotatu tamen caelorum sit felix, & in felicia germinantia terrestris, ideo in principio operis tui aduna solutionem per Solem, nam effectus inde apparebit, & quod superi deprimuntur cum juvat inferior, sive vivacant superiora, si quidem inferioribus dominantur.
Esto ergo longanimus in regimine, vas firmiter claude, ac noli cessare, quia nulla fit generatio & corruptio rerum nisi per motum continuum, & aerem excludum, & calorem temperatum, & hujus exemplum est uterus mulieris, quae cum conceperit immediate clauditur matrix, & caliditate & humiditate sanguinis generatur foetus; nunquam tamen status extraneos recipit nisi cum infans fuerit: sic & eodem modo noster lapis in vase jugiter manet clausus, donec suam biberit humiditatem, & calore ignis perfecte nutritus sit, albus enim tunc nascitur lapis, nec sibi nocent aerei flatus. Est ergo summè necessarium continuare operationem, moderari ignem, excludere aereum, & maximè usque ad albedinem comburere ergo æs nostrum leni igne, sicut in ovorum pulsificatione, donec duretur corpus ejus & tinctura extrahatur. Non autem extrahitur tota simul, sed parum & parum egreditur omni die, donec in longo compleatur tempore, & quod dissolvitur semper exi-dit superius, licet residens sit majus: ideo ignem semper accende magnum, ne pervenias ad solutionem ante tempus necessarium, quia hoc perducit opus ad remotiones remotas, privans illud sensu, operatione & motu. Nota igitur initium de calore leni, & de contritione philosophica quæ sit igne solo & non manibus. Calor itaque intensus compositionem perimit, frigiditas fugat, sed calor lenis nutrit & conservat, postitum ergo in balneo temperato conterge igne, & non manibus, abluas humiditate suæ aquæ, ut non aduratur virtus ejus ignea, nec comburatur sua substantia sulphurea, nam ipsa primo egreditur separatione est sit lenior, & dignior operatione quam virtutes aliorum elementorum. Nunc nota de signis veræ dissolutionis. Continua ergo super eam balneum temperatum donec in aqua solvatur impalpabilem & tota egrediatur tinctura in colore nigredinis, quod est signum veræ solutionis: nam calor agens in humido generat primo nigredinem, & in sicco operatur albedinem, & in albo citrinitatem, sicut est videre in plumbo cum ex eo fit stannum. In humido ergo igne rege ipsum continue, noli festinare nec ab opere cessare, quousque totus distillatus & pulvis fiat omnino spiritualis: id autem quod pulvis fuerit spiritualis in vase sursum ascendit, quod vero spissum & grossium in vase remanet deorsum. Nota itaque de signo veræ contritionis corporis cum spiritu, quia nisi omnia in pulverem verteris spiritualem, non eam convertisti, igitur deinceps tere eos quousque convertantur & omnia pulvis fiant, & nota qualiter id igne fiat non manibus. Contritio igitur decoctionis est non manuum, quæ tantum habet fieri leni decoctione, humida puræ resfactione, continua contritione igne & non manibus, nam manuum contritione non egemus. Alkien certe est hoc & per eam perficitur, qua Alkien verae, id est quæ dam generatio secreta in terra, & est sicut Alkien in homine, illud virtute sua praeparativa clarificat semper & dividit sicut scit, & merito natura namque sagax est & sibi sufficiens in omnibus quibus indiget, ex opere quidem suo est ut convertat terram in aquam, & aquam in terram, secundum compositionem divertam. Nota primo ad solvendum terram cum aqua, secundo ut terra coagulabit aquam. Et hoc erit intra centum & quadraginta dies; primo siquidem conatur aqua solvere terram, ut ad modum sui subtiliem habeat naturam, secundo autem terra coagulabit aquam ut secum sustineat ignem, & hoc est solutio corporis & coagulatio spiritus lenis, per decoctionem in centum & quadraginta diebus, & forte apparebit albedo in quadraginta diebus, sed primum est meluis, quoniam significat temperantiam ignis & bonitatem praeparationis. Nihil tamen nisi sulphur nostrum agit in eorum, nostrum enim sulphur ipsum denigrat, consumit & exurit, eique quod de sua consistit natura, quod vero denigratur est quod non figitur; januam aperuit, & non fugiens cum fugientibus vertitur: crucians tamen non cruciat nocentive nec corruptionem, verù coadunatione & utilitate, si enim ejus cruciatus esset noxius & inconveniens, non amplecterer ab illo nec sculos extraherem colores, quos aqua sulphuris minucipavimus. Quod ergo primo denigrat clavem operis esse dicimus, quoniam non fit absque nigredine, nam ipsa est tinctura quam quaerimus, qua in quolibet corpore innotamus, quae quidem prius occulta est in suo aere sicut anima in humano corpore. Ideo nisi aes nostrum diruatur, imbuatur, & extrahatur, ac per se & diligenter regatur donec à sua spiritualitate extrahatur, & in tenue spiritum impalpabilem vertatur, & nisi corpora vertantur in non corpora, & non corpora in corpora, non ibi operis regula invenitur, & illud ideo quia non possimus illam tenuissimam animam omnem tincturam in se habentem à suo corpore extrahere nisi prius diruatur, & in tenuem spiritum impalpabilem vertatur, ac corpus solvatur partes habens contritas per ignem & aquam. Sed aqua nostra est ignis, comburens corpora magis quam ignis, & ideo per se ea regit, & extrahit ex eo naturam omnem superante naturam. Et ergo affinis operationis in omnibus statibus suis, patienter continuando decoctione, quousq; tota egrediatur tinctura super aquam in colore piscis liquidae & cum videris nigredine illa quae eminere, scias tunc oportet ignem coëlevare super ipsum, donec aqua perceperit nebulam quae peperit tenebrosa. Intentio ergo philosophorum est, ut corpus jam solutum in pulverem suam ingrediatur aquam & fiat totum ut pulvis & fiat sicut est pulvis aquae: scias quod iste pulvis non est nisi aqua sulphuris, soluta calore ignis, de merito ergo aqua suscipit aquam sicut naturam propriam, ideo nisi quod libet vertatur in aquam nullatenus perveniens ad perfectionem.
Nota tamen quod nihil debet apponi in commixtione, neque in toto regimine, nisi sua aqua propria, quia non oportet unquam aliquid aliud uti in commixtione, contritione, nec in toto regimine nisi illa sola aqua permanente satis nota, vis enim ejus est spiritualis sanguis sine quo nihil fit. Convertitur autem in corpus, & corpus per id ipsum vertitur in spiritum, sic enim ad invicem mixta & unum reddata se invicem vertunt, ita corpus incorporat ipsi, nota tamen quod spiritus colorat corpus in colore ignis. Spiritus ergo corpus in spiritu tinctum vertit prout sanguis, quia omne quod habet spiritum, habet & sanguinem, quare oportet usque ad nigredinem aquae suae imminentem, igne leni iugiter occupari donec in sua rejungatur aqua, fiatque aqua in aqua, id est donec totum fiat aqua una, cum autem aqua alteri aquae miscetur, tunc aqua impletetur aqua, ita quod non poterunt separari ab invicem. Ignari autem aquam audientes putent eam esse aqua nubis, sed si rationem habent scient utique eam esse aquam permanentem, quae tamen absque suo corpore cum quo soluta & facta unum est permanens esse non potest: hanc autem aquam philosophi dixerunt aquam auri, igneum venenum, & ovum multorum nominuli, ideo nos oportet cum hanc aquam possiderimus sulphuream, altero nostro admiscere ut ejus nigredo deleatur, redde ergo carbonem suae aquae ut in ea exstinguatur, & rerum conceptio fiat, & vas claudatur jugiter dum consificatur. Nota quod hic loquitur de conceptione quae debet fieri infra tres dies, tempus ergo suae conceptionis, est spatium trium dierum, quae tres dies sunt conceptio specierum, rerum mixturam coitus notae & sgenerationum, semina miscentur quasi lac qua mixta videtur. Qui ergo noverit ducere, praegnantes facere, generare, mortificare, revivificare, iudicare, & mutare ulterius a nigredine & tenebris erit maximo dignitatis, nobis in regem coronatus filiae nostrae rubeae conjungentibus, & eius in leni igne adhaerenti, concipiet & filium gignet, nam suae nubes quae super eam fuerunt reverterunt in suo corpore, sicut exierunt. Tingens ergo suum quod necesse est diuere, ipsum enim quod sibi miscetur superat & in suum vertit colorem: & quendam modum apud visum superficialiter vincit, sic intima superat, ideo cum corpore miscetur & continetur, ut universum sit cum eo verti ipsum in spiritum, & spirituali tingit natura, geminatio est in diraigenta dierum spatio sit iterum, aqua permanens liberata a nigredine, quae quidem nigredo si debito modo regatur no permanet nisi quadraginta duobus diebus, ideo in suo eam regens balneo, subice ignem quousque fiat aqua clara, & ut verum argentum vivum scandens in aërem. Nunc nota de distillatione aquae. Cum ergo videris naturas aquam fieri & in aërem sublimari, tunc omnia vapor facta sunt, nam anima a corpore separata, & in spiritum sublimatione delata. factum est utrumque fugiens, aqua enim reseravit januam fugae non fugienti, convertens ipsum in spiritum sibi simile; unde facti sunt aerei spiritus in aëra simul scandentes, ibique accipientes vitam inspirantur a suo humore, sicut homo ab aëre, quare crescit & multiplicatur in sua specie sicut res caeterae. De jure igitur vapor continet vaporem, eo quod simul utrumque in decoctione est junctum, id est fugiens natura, quamvis sit et fuga essentialis, dimittant se fugae servitutem, eo quod in sublimatione jungitur ad invicem: quare debebit totum igne mediocri in vaporem multoties elevari, ut inspiratur ab aëre & possit vivere; nam omnium coaetantium vita natura, ex aëris consistit inspiratione, quare totum opus consistit in vapore & sublimatione suae aquae. Summopere tamen caveas in omni sublimatione seu liquefactione, ne aut fractione, aut versicatione tui vasis, quia sin tantum accenderis ignem ut aqua ad vasis summitatem ascendat, gaudens refrigerio adhaerebit tunc ibidem, & sic non poterit elementorum perficere sublimationem, eo quod oportet uniuoque que eorum rota ut sphaerico per se pluries deprimii & elevavi, sed quod per violentia ascendit, absque violentia non descendit. Sit ergo ignis lentus, ita ut per totum opus ascendat & descendat libere, absque vasis adhaesione, ideo nisi corpus igne & aqua attenuemus, quousque ascendat ut spiritus nihil faciemus, eo autem scandente in aëre nascitur, & in aërem vertitur, fitque vita cum vita ut una non separetur ab altera, sicut nec aqua mixta aquae, ideo natus in aëre sapienter nascitur, quonia[m] spiritualis omnino efficitur.
Intellige porro quod tribus de causis sublimationem facimus, prima est ut corpus fiat spiritus de subtili naturae secunda est ut spiritus incorporetur cum corpore & sit unum cum eo, tertia est ut omnia fiant alba & munda, & falsedo sulphuris minuatur, nam apud sublimationem comburitur quicquid ex opere fuerit combustibile. Et certe sumus nobiles et necessarium ut elementa fiant simplicia, & possint conjungi ad invicem, fieri tanta simplicia non possunt nisi in partes separentur, ideo oportet ut imungas vaporem pluries sublimare, donec aqua descendat cribratione. Cribramus ergo res cribratorio sphaerico septies, ut omnia fiant aqua limpida clara, quoniam corpus nunquam dimittit animam & se separari quae sibi comparet est in propinquitate simplici, & ideo reiremamus eorum sublimationem, ut ad subtilen reducatur natura. Verum quidam sagaciter opinantur separationem fieri multis speciebus, de quo non cures, quia properabis in eo quod reducas operationem ad aequalitatem simplicis, & non in eo quod separatur unum quodque singulariter in elementis. Et certe non est difficile omnia reducere ad simplex ex quibus debinis. Pater ejus est Sol, & mater ejus Luna, portavit illud ventus in ventre suo, terra pavata est ex eo. Idq; quod aquam habere, & aerem ab igne, & ignem à terra distillandum decepisti, ex multam enim sublimationis iteratione anima ex aqua ascendens depuratur, & ejus grossities ad ima descendens in terrâ lunatur. Si ergo de igne facies terram, de aere aquam, quam reduces super terram, nam vis ejus interea erit reverà fuerit in terram: verte ergo terram in aquam, & aquam in ignem, tunc vero ignem in aerem, & occulatas ignem in intimis aquae, terram vero in aeris ventre; calidum autem mitiesca humido, & siccum vero frigido. Isto igitur modo facias mixtionem, quoniam non est transitus de extremo ad extremum nisi per medium. Aquila ergo volans per aerem & subeo gradiens super terram est magisterium, ideo separabis terram ab igne subtilé à spisso, suaviter destillando cum mago ingenio. Ascendit à terrâ in caelum, iterumq; descendit in terram, recipit vim superiorem spiritus, & inferiorem corporis, quia vincit omnem rem subtilem congelando, omnemq; rem solidam penetrabit alterando: sic enim dominatur superioribus, & inferioribus, quia operatur tam in spiritibus, quam corporibus. Hic nota intime de spiritu, anima, & corpore. Liquet ergo quod aes nostrum habet spiritu, corpus & animam; spiritus est aqua ejus, anima ejus est tinctura, corpus vero est ejus terra, spiritus tam est delator virtutum animæ super corpus, sicut portatur tinctura tinctorem per aquam super pannum; anima autem est vinculum spiritus, sicut corpus est vinculum animae, corpus vero est fixum, siccum, continens spiritum & animam. Spiritus ergo penetrat, corpus figit, anima copulat tingit & dealbat, in his tribus est fumus nigredo & mors, quae nisi ablata fuerint perpetua non erunt. Oportet ergo ab aqua auferri, ab anima nigredinem, & à corpore mortem expellere frequentibus dissolutiones quae non disiunt.
In his autem qui non fecerint duo sulphura de sulphure nihil noverit; duo sulphura sunt ex lapide mixto vel juncto sublimatum ad tincturam quae quidem tingit & fugiunt, sed à sulphure continetur quod fugere non possint, quoniam omnium figentium est connexio. Commiscere ergo ova gallinarum nigrarum cum aere, & habebis aurum & argentum quanti ipse volueris, vultur namque sine alis volans super montem clamat dicens: Ego sum albus, niger & rubens, albi & cyrrinus rubei filius, veridicus & non mentiens: me igitur meae matri & suo pectori junge, quia suam substantiam facio continere. Noli ergo alienum nobis introducere, nec ab opere cessare, nam omnis natura cum sua adunatur socia & per eam perficitur. Mater me genuit, & per me gignitur ipsa, ipsa enim primo dominabatur mihi, de cetero autem dominabor illi, quia persequitur me ut me amet, & matris meae factus sum, prius quam ab ipsa accepi volatum, ipsa tamen meliori quo potest modo sicut mater, pia fovet & nutrit filium quem genuit, donec ad statum pervenero perfectum.
Ponas ergo me in humido igne continue; quiniem humoris calorem auget, & siccitatis combustio nem vetat, quousq; finem operis inducat; deinde rubiginem & umbram meā extrahē perse, quousq; tertia parte persistat, decoctio namq; me minuit; tritum vero augmentat, & quod post quindecim dies diminuitur, post triginta augmentatur, hoc est initium & finis. Custodi ergo argentum vivum in intimo thalamo suo, in quo coagulatum est, nam ex iterata cribraio nisi vice, aqua ascendit alba cum anima ad alembicum & corpus paulatim descendit ad unam. Ipsum est argentum vivum quod dicitur terra residua quae aquam recipit & bibit eam, quoniam connexio est tincturarum. Conserva igitur vas & ligaturam ejus, ut sis potens in conservatione spiritus, nam aqua quae prius erat in aere habitat in terra. Si fugere nequeibit redde eam tunc ad superiora, & per suos terminos non inepte eam deinde suo corpori rubeo priori electo per te conjunge. Nam ubicumq; fuerit corpus, congregabuntur & aquae, quia si sine violentia ascenderit, sine violentia descendet super ipsum, si vero non, non. Liga ergo mulieris lactantis manus post tergum ut non fugiat Gabritium, etsi vivat, apponit sibi filium quem genuit ut lactet eum, quoniam cum mulier mortua fuerit, erit bufo grossus de lacte, tunc scinde bufonesm per medium, apponens gallinacei ut comedat ipsum.
Reducas aquam ad terram temperatam administrans ipsi sicut quousq; in natura radicem fecerit, sciens pro certo quod oportet ipsum primo nutri pauco lacte, sicut videret etsi infans esciendam, nam pauco lacte nutritur & igne dum parvulus est, & quato magis crescit, tanto magis indiget cibo & calore, quousque suum biberit humorem, nam humorum primus est frigidus, ideo capiedus est ignis qui frigori est inimicus. Si corpus posueris super ignem absque aceto, comburitur nec fiet ex eo quod quaeritur, quia si ignis non inveniret humiditatem quam desiccet, comburit corpus, sed acetum sibi appositum prohibet ignis combustionem, desiccans se cum corpore ne patiatur laesionem. Et quanto magis flammis magnis occupatur, tanto magis in aquae intimis absconditur, ne calore ignis comburatur. Hic nota de proportione, et pondere aque & corporis. Iubeo igitur non simul infundere aquam quae in elixir submergatur, verùm paulatim infundere ut separetur corpus cum tribus partib. suae aquae decoquatur: nam si coniiciatur absq. pondere, mors sibi eveniet, quae eveniente malum esse putabitur, si vero convenienter regitur cum sua parte, efficiatur qua super ignem: verum quia corpus parum primò habet radicis, cuius virus nō aequaliter abundat in omnibus partibus, sicut nec splendor Solis in planetis; ideo patientia & mora sunt necessaria: ut prolixitate coquendi vincat aqua purgationem ignis, leniam namque ignis decoctione aqua congelatur, & humiditas extrahitur corruptiva, humoris radicalis calor augetur, & siccatis ebbitudo prohibetur.
Iubeo igitur igne nostrum in principio esse lenem, donec coaguletur in lapide aqua & tota fiat corpus in ima spatium quadraginta dierum tota aqua vertetur in terram: ideo cùm videris aquam coagulare septimam, tunc ratus esto scientiam esse veram, nam corpus coagulatum suum humorem in sicco, sicut coagulum aquae coagulat lac in caseum. Corpus igitur coque cum aqua vitae lente coagulando ad ignem, quousque fiat spissum & multum siccum, quia cum fuerit siccu velociter bibit sui humoris residuum: impone tunc aliam aquam leniter coque ad ignem vas diligenter claude, noli festinare nec ab opere cessare. Aqua tamen in suas partes dividenda est, quarum una parte corpus coagulatur, altera putrescit & liquescit, coagulare autem est aquaeam substantiam in terram redigere, putrefacere est coagulatum alias resolvere, nam putrefactio non sit nisi ex humido & sicco sic enim spiritus penetrabit in corpus, & commixtio fiet per minimas. Ignis autem administratus subtilus temperatus sit, cave etiam ne nimis festinanter extrahatur suo vase forte namque moreretur, quoniam infantī nunquā parebit egressus, quousq; aeros flatus exhauriatur: ideoq; custodias et continentia clausum, nec circumambules cum aliis, omnino praecaveas ne flores eius erediatur in fumum, coctere, coque, iterare, & nec teadeat hoc ipsum pluries reiterare; verum tamen in opere ponere & semel cura cuncta eges, ut quoties corpus imbutus toties & desiccetur. Non tamen comedas festinanter, nec comedas quod non bibas, nec bibas quod non comedas, sit autem potus post consuetionem non consuetio post potum; aliquin facies ventrem humidum, nec recipiet siccitatem: comede ergo & bibe unum post aliud secundum rationem, unum dico tria, & sextu, ad duodecim facies Lunae. Currit hic numerus ex multiplicatione ternarii in quatuor, & erunt duodecim, & numerus ternarius sit ex unitas in tria, & sunt tres saltaturae, quarum quaelibet in alias tres dividitur saltaturas, & erunt duodecim. Verte ergo quadrangulum in rotundum & habebis magisterium: & illud quidem sit, si quadrangulus in utraque suarum spatularum tres habeat angulos aequales. Fac circulum, & in medio circuli centrum, deinde in utraque spatia circuli fac tres angulos de circulo centri, sit autem linea aequalis de primo centro ad caeteros punctos, & aequalis, & una sit omnium ternariorum mensura, compata ternarios & duodecim invenies, desuper quos ducas compassum & invenies quod tanget unumquemque ternarium. Per duodecim ergo triangulos circulus eveniet rotundus, sic componitur magisterium, quia sic omnes spatulae concurrunt ad centrum compassi. Sic tota quaeciditur situm corpus per suos ternarios reducenda, si autem diminutum fuerit uno diminuetur potentia ejus. Venare ergo animas, quoniam in terra est mansio earum, si fugere nequeant non sis in venatione nisi lentus, praecaves ne igne nimio vertantur in summum; si autem fugient non capientur cum fallcone, si vero includantur nec fugiunt, tunc revertuntur ad corpus unde exierunt, eo quod corpus attrahit sibi suum humorem sicut magnes attrahit ferrum. Contere ergo terram decoque aqua, & cretirae operationem, quousque unus ex tribus ternarius vertatur decorum, nam si unum ex trib. occidisti omnes mortui sunt; quia si unum sit fugiens alterum vero iugue patiens, utrumque junctum patitur ignem. Hic nota quid sit quod spiritum figit. Dico quod unum continet reliquum propter naturae suae propinquitatem, & haec quidem est & analogia nostra, omne volatile retinens a fuga. Veruntamen non efficitur hoc manibus, sed natura ad ipsum circulariter operatur, quia natura seipsam dissolvit & coagulat, seipsam alba facit & rubea & decorat, seipsam combust et exsiccat & ungit, seipsam desponat & a seipsa concipit, quousque finis operationis inducat, quae licet quod haec consuetio non sit manualis operatio, sed naturarum mutatio, & earum calidi cum frigido, ac humidi cum sicco admirabilis connexio. Accipe ergo volatile volans submersum & manisfa ut tibi respondeat non volando in regionibus, sed volatu evolans ad te contentum, nam quod est inferius est sicut superius & quod est superius, est sicut id quod est inferius; ideo aqua nostra benedicta suam venit ad aquae terram, mundare nigredinem; & omnem malum auferre odorem, eo quod inter eos est libido sicut maris & feminae: caveas ergo ne a vase exeat sua humiditas & pereat, verum ipsam reducens ad terram coagula leni igne, sicut coagulat sperma in matrice, femina namque suum amplexata conjugem velocius transit in corpus. Verte ergo aquam super terram suam quousque; coaguletur decorum, tunc enim citius a natura in naturam convertitur, & in unoquoque, gradu suarum operationum novam assumit naturam. Redde cineri sudorem suum, conterere, coque, reitera, nec te taedeat reiterare, terra enim non germinat sine frequenti irrigatione, nec absq; praemissâ desiccatione, ideo omni vice post desiccationem terrae superfunde aquam temperate, nec multum nec parum, quia si multum fuerit, fiet pelagus conturbationis, si vero parum comburetur in favillâ, & hoc nota intime.
Ideo in omni pondere pondus, in omni mensurâ modus servetur, & in omni opere opus est ne nimia siccitas aut superflus humor administratus corrumpat, sed tandum assando decoquas, quantum dissolutio adjecit & imbibendo desiecit: semper autem cavendum ne ignis asperitas exustionem generet, nec ab actione cessandum donec totum ad unum fisicalipidis formam assumat; veruntamen natura non habet motum nisi per caloris actionem. Nota igitur de utilitate mensurae ignis. Si ergo calorem bene mensuraveris aqua & ignis tibi sufficient, nam corpus abluunt, mundant, nutriunt & ejus obscuritatem auferunt, & certe totum opus & regimen non est nisi aqua permanens, omnia in se habens quibus indiget, nam liquefacit & congelat, diruit & dealbat; nec oportet alio unquam uti in toto regimine, nisi hac aqua permanenti. Manu tenere ergo hanc aquam cum suis bonis operationibus, quoniam faciat album ad album, & rubrum ad rubrum: effectus tamen ejus consistit in regimine ignis, nam cum eo dividitur aqua, cum eo retinetur volatile à fuga, cum eo corpori jungitur anima, cum eo fit coagulatia nostra, caveas tamen ignis intensionem, quia si intenderis ante terminum fit rubedum quod non prodest, hoc autem verbum meum memoriza verè comenda & percipiendu. Sit ergo ignis lentus usq; ad albedinem, inspice ergo multoties, quo modo facias amplexari conjuges, nam fortibus nexibus vinciendi sunt spiritus, ut roborati pungent contra ignem, quia si mulieri vagae petitur egressus, alienos quaeris amplexus fugit, si vere recludatur ut fugere non possit, tunc rediens ad virum concubitum eo, quem occidit: at ille calefactus eius consumit humiditatem faciens ipsam morari secum, nam spiritus ablati à corporibus, desiderant eis inesse, sequuntur ea, gaudent ipsis habitis, habitant in ipsis, vivificant ea, nec unquam separantur ab eis. ideo non frustra conferunt sperma vulvae, quoniam unum consequitur reliquum tanquam sponsa paranymphum, & unum constituit matrimonium. Hic igitur nota de mortificatione vivi spiritus, & de revivificatione corporis mortui. Vivificans ergo mortuum, id est corpus; occide vivum, id est spiritum, & habebis magisterium. Extrahe à radio suam umbram & sordidum, & quod nebula eius superveniens coinquinat, & à luce retinet, quare angustatur & à sua rubigine detinetur: ideo oportet prima parte eius aquæ aes nostrum comburere & coquando coagulare, quousque in sua fiat rubidine, quae quidem tunc dicitur fermentum auri & coagulum coaguli, quia aquam recipit & bibit coagulata eam secum in terra. & in hoc est finis primae operationis & principium secundae, quoniam uno modo incipitur & finitur. Modus autem rubificationis lapidis est praedicti et quod oportet residua aqua sua multoties imbuer e ad incardinandum coagulatum, ad mundandum combustum, & ad colorem immutandum, donec tota aqua fiat deorsum: imbue ergo ipsum septies vice post vicem, emundans nigredinem, quousque; diruatur & in terram vertatur, nam in quadraginta diebus totum vertitur in terram. Aperi & claude, solve & nota, extende & plica, ablue & desicca, hoc facito continue donec in quadrangulum vertatur & in rotundum. Modo ergo simili aes gubernatum resolues, quousque fiat ut aqua, & ut verum argentum vivum: post haec secundum consuetudinem coagula ad ignem; dicimus quidem coagula secundum consuetudinem, eo quod prius fuerit coagulum in siccum rubrum; ideo cum siccum fuerit, solve, quod ex illo fuerit solubile, quod vero non soluitur continue eo que quousque dissolvatur & in unum redeas. Sic igitur isto ordine reiterando iteretur, quousque; illius maior fuerit quantitas, deinde coagula, & leniter assando in ignis temperamento conserva, quousque illi maior ad illius exigentiam iis administrari praestet. Omnes igitur hos ordines praeparationis super ipsius ignem quatuor vicibus abradere debes intime scientia per manum signorum signentem & calcinentem, quoniam sic pretiosissimum lapidis terram sufficienter administrando exiit. & certe caidane, nihil aliud est quam desiccare & in cinerem vertere; ideo comburens ipsum absque humore donec cinis fuerit, optime miscuisit, eo quod cinis ille spiritum recipit ac bibit, & suo imbuit humore, donec in colore vertatur pulcriorem quam prius fuerat. O quam pretiosus est cinis! Charissime hunc cinerem ne vilipendas, sed redde sibi iterum sudorem suum quem ejecit, quousque totum vertatur deorsum: quoties enim cinis imbuitur toties per vices desiccatur, & seipsum invicem continet.
Quare oportet eas conterere, aqua vite pluries imbuere, & vice post vicem desiccare, quousque totum biberit humorem. Iubeo ergo aquam viva coagulari, corpori suo misceri, & quocunque quovis deficietur, tunc enim inuenies totam aquam vivam a se ipsa coagulatam, & in terra contentam, tunc corpori jungitur spiritus, aqua cineri, ac femina viro, quoniam quando es convenienter regitur, cum aqua pacificatur, & albo colore coloratur. Nota bene de ablutione corporis per spiritum. De albatione nostra fit decoctione & aquae congelatione, & quanto pluries eas abluitur tanto intensioris efficitur albedinis. Ideo philosophi decoquendo & Etheliam imbuendo & terendo frequentissime perceperunt. Si autem erri sufficiat quod una decoctio & una contritio sibi sufficere potuissent, non toties sua dicta reiterassent, ideo ergo id fecerunt ut teratur continue, & coquatur sine intermissione. Contere ergo, reitera, & netadeat hoc pluries reiterare; cum suo aere decoque nubem, ablue nigredinem aqua vite, assa late non donec excicetur & fiat corpus novum, nam aqua vite gubernat, & omne corpus dealbat, vertens totum in suum colorem. Ille namq[ue] fumus albus est, ideo cum illo dealbatur quicquid dealbari praecipitur, quoniam natura naturam convertit, illum ergo illum se faciat admiscens, coque & terete multoties donec coaguleter, & a sua nigredine privetur. Et certe aqua roris madidissimum abluit, quam dat descendens de coelo tempore pluviae, penetrat & dealbat, ipsa enim aqua habitans in aere, consequitur terram sicut rerum consequitur natura magnete, item eos sane est societas & libido, propter naturae suae propinquitatem: nam naturae suis obviantes naturis laetantur in eis. residuum ergo humorem impone coquendo continue donec coaguleter, & nimis dealbeter, scies profecto si fuerit sicca, & vehementer bibit humorem roris eidem, & spice ergo qualiter compositio potat aquam, & in unoquoque gradu coloris alteratur, dum res quae albet igitur insuperunitur, de colore ad colore multiplicie natura operatur e transfertur. Nota de unione spiritus & animae cum corpore per q[m] figurat lapis Spiritus ergo & anima non uniuntur cum corpore nisi in albo colore, quia quam diu apparuerit nigredo obscura dominatur femina, & ipsa quidem est prior vis nostri lapidis, quoniam nisi fuerit nigrum non fiet album nec rubeum, rubeum enim ex nigro & albo est compositum: veruntamen calore temperatus in humido agens operatur nigredinem, desiccat humiditatem & tollit corruptionem; e contrario calor invaleſcens operatur rubedinem, humiditatem fugat, & generat causas; corruptionemque: quare liquet quod si compositum plusquam oportet regatur, statim extinguitur nec fiet ex eo quod quaeritur. Cavendum est ergo ne aqua per nimium ignem vertatur in fugam & fugiat, ideoque sit pugna aquae & ignis proxilitate coquendi, nam ut calore Solis aqua desiccatur, sic leniginis decoctione aqua coagulata in terram continet seipsam contra ignis pugnam. Vincat ergo aqua pugnam ignis prolixitate coquendi, inspissandi & coagulationis ipsam, nam si eius naturam perfecte scires, utique prolixitatem coquendi sustineres donec propositum invenires, quoniam bonitas huius naturae venerabilis, probatur in corporibus maxime, quod propter nullas exterminationis causas, se in partes suae compositionis dividi permittit, quia aut cum tota sui substantia ab igne recedit, aut cum tota in igne permanet stans, quae rotatur in ea perfectionis causa necessario. Hic nota de regimine congelationis Mercurii cum Sole, quia dicitur quod ipse sit aqua munda, & tinctura vera, cum patienter regitur ascendendo & descendendo donec coaguletur in album. Hanc igitur patienter rege naturam, suaviter coagulando argentum vivum quod ex aere nostro pluit super ipsum, amarae ascendunt nubes, & pluunt pluviae super terram, quia omne corpus grave & densum semper ad suum labitur centrum Argentum certe vivum ex aere nostro sublimatum ex quo omnia fiunt, est aqua munda & tinctura vera, quae aeris umbram delet, ipsum similiter est sulphur album, quod solum aes dealbat, quo spiritus continenter ne fugiat, illud tamen sulphurum non poterat dealbare, nisi in priori opere esset dealbatum, eo quod solum sulphur aes dealbat, quae liquet quod tanta erit pulchritudo aeris, quanta fuerit albedo sulphuris. Volens ergo ad veram pervenire tincturam, imponat sibi paulatinam humiditatem quam ejicit coquendo assidue donec colorem induerit pulchriorem, & quoties imbitur toties per vices desicccatur, quousque vertatur in albi quod quaeritur; nam incertum cum desiccatio contineat inter seipsum, & si unum est fixum figitur & reliquum, & si sit album extrius album est & interius: ideo nō desistas ipsum imbuere, coquere & paulatim desiccare; donec toto suo imbuatur humore. Confice ipsum aqua permanente, & leni decoque igne donec ingrediatur & recedat, imbu e ipsum continue aqua vitae prout videris eius sufficere apud visum, assa & coque donec totum bibit humorem. Scias quod purpureus color non tingitur nisi frigido, nec fit albus nisi sicco, nec rubeus nisi calido. Hoc igitur assando coque reddito suo humore donec seipsum faciat germinare, deinde in Sole desiccando tere quoque usque totum vertatur deorsum. Venerare regem & suam uxorem, & noli eos comburere, ne nimio fugiant calore, quoniam indigēs patientia & longanimitate, quae regem & suam uxore emendant in regimine: coque eos donec fiant nigri, deinde albi, postea rubei & tunc fit venenum tingens in aurum. Aes enim nostrum primo quo magis coquitur magis solvitur, & fit aqua magis spiritualis; secundo quo magis coquitur magis inspissatur, & sic pulvis albioris coloris; tertio quo magis coquitur magis coloratur, & tinctura majoris rubedinis, & tota haec operatio non est nisi extractio aquae à terra, & eiusdem super terram remissio. Igitur aqua tota exhausta & in terra contenta per quosdam dies id est per sexaginta, in suo vase super lentem ignem dimitte putrescere, donec pretiosissimius color albis desuper appareat: sit autem calor lenis usque ad albedinem, quia si calor intensus irreperit vaporem nigrum facit & album fugit compositum, nam vapor ille albus est, igitur si figitur cum aere dealbat ipsum intus & extra, Si vero fugit ab ipso vertitur in rubeum quod non prodest. Et certe in putrefactione spiritus desiccantur in illo, quandoquidem nisi se siccetur cum aere non apparebunt colores animae, quia putrefactio non est nisi mortificatio humidi cum sicco, humidu namque cum coagulatur per siccum, algor tum solum humidum putrefacit, sed nostra putrefactio non sit absque humido & sicco, eo quod humiditas siccitate tantum continetur.
Quamvis autem humidum frigidum in naturaliter fugiat ignem, à corpore tamen retinetur quod fugere nequeat, quoniam non possunt gravia non nisi leviùm consortio superius elevari, nec levia nisi gravium consortio detrudi in ferius. & utrumque est initium operis & finis. Adest ergo diligens administratio, abstinentia continua exspectatio, revertatur lex à declaratione & sic eveniet una declaratio. Rege ergo opus continue, coque fine intermissione, noli festinare, nec ab opere cessare, nisi quia humiditas uterè & calor est coitus continuus, sperma non maneret nec scætus pergeretur, nam moriente matre moritur & foetus propter imminens frigus. Deus igitur illum sanguinem & colorem uteri constituit ad nutriendum foetum usque ad tempus maturitatis; sic oportet totum continuo calore opus regere usque ad albedinem, nam in albo tantum colore spiritus vinciuntur cum corpore quod fugere no possint, quare incipit tunc vivere, nec sibi nocent alieni flatus, nec deterius ad rubedinem possit procedere. Nota hic item de nutritura per ignem suavem valde, circa quod sit calor ignis sicut ovorum sub ventre gallinarum. Balneum igitur intensi caloris perire facit, frigidum vero fugat, sed teperatum fouet & conservat, ideoque oportet suaviter regere sicut pro ovorum exclusion e usquequ totum fuerit album: quare praecipitur dealbare latone & rumpere libros nec corda rumpantur, terra autem cum aqua putrescit & mundatur & quae cum desiccata fuerit nigredo recedit & dealbatur. Tunc peribit tenebrosum mulieris dominium, & tunc vir ascendens super mulierem auferet ipseregnum, tunc fumus penetrabi in corpus, & spiritus constringetur in sicco, tunc cessabit nigrum corrumpens deformatiuit & fiet album, lucidum, clarum; quia calor agens in humido generat primo nigredinem, sic agens in sicco generat albedinem, & in albo citrinitatem; exemplum sit in ligno accenso cum faciunt eum carbonem, & sic & lapidis nostri substantia, primo quo magis coquitur eo & magis solvitur & denigratur, secundo quo magis desiccatur eo & magis dealbatur, tertio quo magis coquitur tato magis rubiciscatur quousque perficiatur. Res ergo cuius caput est rubeum, pedes albi, oculi vero nigri est magisterium. Quod autem sit necessarium opus primo denigrari, probatur per hoc quod generatio unius non sit nisi per corruptionem alterius, & corruptio non fit nisi per putrefactionem & calorem in humido agentem, & calor agens in humido efficit ingredientem, quare liquet quod principium operis nostri est caput corui; ipsum similiter putrefieri est necessarium, quia nihil unquam fuit natum, nec crescens, nec animatum, nisi primo in putredinem abierit. Si enim putridum non fuerit, fundi non poterit, necq; solvetur. Si vero solutum non fuerit ad nihilum redigetur, liquet ergo quod necessaria est nobis putrefactio ad omnem generationem. nostra tamen putrefactio non est foetda & immunda, sed est commixtio terrae cum aqua, &a quae cum terra per minimas et tenues coctionis fiat veneni corpus. Coque ergo masculi & uxorem simul quousque utrumque congeluetur in siccum, quia nisi fuerit siccum, colores clari non minime apparebunt, quod erit semper nigrum dum humidum dû dominatur. Ideo orificii vasis diligenter claudens, coque
ad igne donec totû vertatur deorsum, tunc sit draco alas suas
comedës, & tunc diversos emittit colores. Multis siquî de modis vicibus, diversis movebitur de colore in colorem, donec
ad firmam deveniat albedinem, nam omnes mundi colores
apparent cum denigrans humiditas fuerit desiccata, verû
de illis coloribus non cures, quoniam non sunt veri colores,
nam pluries citrinit & rubescit, pluriesq; desiccatur & liquescit ante veram albedinem. Spiritus tamen non figitur
cum corpore nisi in albo colore; quare liquet quod dealbatio
expectanda est semper, cù ipsa sit totius operis complementtu, nec variatur postea in colore verum praeterquam in rubetâ.
In unguo; igitur gradû inspicias qualiter aqua coa gulat seipsam, & quomodo de colore in colorem mittetur compositû,
quia si tegatur nescienter suorum colorû nihil videbitur, &
sic saepissime deseries laborem tuû, eo quod minime scire poteris in quo gradu moderandus sit ignis, qui sciri nequit nisi
per colores in opere apparentes. Colores itaque te docebunt
quid facias de igne, ipsi namq; ostendunt quanto tempore &
quomodo ignis primus, secundus & tertius est faciendus, vnde si diligens fueris colores te docebunt quid fieri oporteat.
Nota igitur bene de igne & suis proportionibus in suis gradibus, quia semper ignis in solutione & coaguatione erit lenis,
in sublimatione mediocris, & in rubificatione fortis; verum
quanto magis variantur colores, tanto magis ignis lenis est
continuandus, donec ad metam deveniat albedinis: nam ad
album nõ mittimus ignem multû, eo quod ipsum est frigidû,
crudum & semicoctû. Sit ergo ignis lenis in dealbando, vt sigatur vapor cum suo corpore, alioqui si intenderis ignem, ante terminum fit rubeum quod non prodest, eo quod rubeum,
ex multo albo & paucissimo nigro cum calore magno est côpositum. Si igitur ignem bene mensuraueris, & operationem
parce rexeris, ad colorem album primo devenies, & cù sucrit album, tunc ignem accendens fortiorem: afferto auté super ipsum subtus, & supra calorem siccum per spatium aliquot
dierum vt totû figatur deorsum, & nihil exaltationis spiritus
ascendat superius, quod est signum perfectae siccitationis, tunc fugiens nõ auolabit à nõ fugiente quasi fixioni inspiratus, quia
magnesia cù dealbatur spiritus figere nõ permittit, nec aeris
umbram apparere non veritas, nam ipsum est sulphur fixum
album quod omne corpus tingit & perficit ac in verum convertit argentû. Unde si fuerit argentum vivum purum coagulauit illud vis istius sulphuris albi in argentum, & istud est res optima quam recipere possunt operantes alchymiam, ut
convertatur illud in argentum, quia natura tunc continet naturam, & vero matrimonio copulantur ad invicem, verum
non est nisi una sola natura, quae in uno gradu suarum operationum in aliam vertitur naturam, eo quod natura natura
laetatur, natura naturam superat & natura naturam continet; docens ipsam praeliari contra ignem, nec sunt tunc diversae putis, verum est una tantum natura, habens in se naturas & res omnes quibus sibi sufficit, ideo uno ordine incipit opus & finitur. Duplex tamen modus compositionis,
quia unum est humidum, alterum vero siccum, cum autem
coaguntur fiunt unum, & unum non dimittit alterum, & bene quidem, quia humidum faciliter impressionem suscipit &
facile dimittit, siccum vero graviter impressionem recipit, &
graviter dimittit, ideo cum humidum & siccum contemperaverunt se ad invicem, adipiscet siccum ab humido faciem
impressionem, & acquirit humidum a sicco ut firmiter retineat impressionem omnem sustinens ignem, unde propter
humidum prohibetur siccum a sua separatione, & propter
siccum prohibetur humidum a sua fluxibilitate. Exemplum
est opus si quis liquigans terram cum aqua coquit ad ignem ut una non dimittat alteram: sic facito & magisterium nostrum, disponens substantiam terrenam per humiditatem & caliditatem donec conveniant & conjungantur, & no
discerpent nec dividantur. Nota ergo de duabus virtutibus operativis de aqua, scilicet & igne in quibus completur opus:
tunc ergo adjunge eis duas virtutes operativas, aqua videlicet & ignem, & complebitur magisterium, quasi si permiseris
aquam solam, dealbabit, & si adjunxeris ignem rubificabit.
Nota etiam bene quod opus album in tribus colitur rotis, in
quibus non est ignis; rubeum vero in quatuor, in quibus ignis
minime differri potest. Album igitur tribus completur rotis
in quibus non est ignis, rubeum vero quatuor rotatur rotis &
quoque elixir quod tingit tinctura sua, conjungitur oleo
& figitur calce fixa, & oleum quidem est quod conjungens & aggregans inter calcem & aquam, aqua tamen est deferens tincturam super calcem suam, & quando figitur calx figetur & aqua eo propter vehementiam comixionis. Anima est vinculum sicut corpus est vinculum animae; nec est hoc in
composito si naturae vinculum, sed veluti corpus extra corpus consistit & natura est per ingressum contrariorum, & corporea nostra est per fixationem compositorum, ex tunc corpus etiam retinebit aquam, & aqua oleum quod non incenditur super ignem, & oleum est causa tenendi tinctura, & tinctura
est causa faciendi apparere colore, & color est causa demonstrandi albedinem, & albedo est causa retinendi omne volatile & fuga.
Nam corpus cum dealbatum fuerit spiritus super
non permittit, nec nigredinem ulterius apparere. Qui igitur
non liquefacit & coagulat multipliciter errat, quare denigra terram separando ejus animam, postea fac reverti aquā
super terram dealbando totum & habes magisterium, non
qui terram denigrat, & album igne dissolvit & coagulat, donec fuerit in colore sicut gladius denudatus, & tenebris liberabitur, & qui dealbatione completa animam inducit, totumque post liquefactum fuerit, & in rapido igne figit, felix dici
meretur & supra mundi circulos exaltari. Iam didicisti,
charissime, album opus facere, nunc ergo rubeum facere nequibis, quia nemo potest devenire a primo ad tertii nisi prius
fuerit in secundo. Sic de nigro non poteris devenire ad citrinum nisi per album, eo quod citrinum ex multo albo & paucissimo nigro est compositum; quoniam sicut annus dividitur in quatuor partes sic & opus nostrum benedictum: primū
enim est hyems, tempus humidum & frigidum, secundum est
ver, siccum & floridum, tertium est æstas tempus calidum,
quartum est autumnus tempus fructuum. Hac dispositione
cingentes rege naturas, donec natura fructum adferat ad
libitum: verum hyems jam transiit imber abiit, nox recessit,
dies autem appropinquavit: nam flores apparuerunt in terra nostra tempore veris, sed super albam rosam stantes Solem quæritur, quoniam ipsa tantum sortitur effectum corpora quæque ægra in verum convertendi argentum. Cum igitur videris illam albedinem apparentē & in omnibus superaeminet, ratus esto quod rubor in illa albedine occultus est,
& tunc non oportet illam albedinem extrahere, unū coqvere
quousque fiat rubeum. Et certe rubeum quo magis est rubeum, eo magis valet, & quod magis est coctum, magis est rubeum, ergo quod magis est coctum magis valet, & sic per cosequens quod maxime, & jam maxime. Et certe color rubens
causatur solum ex complemento digestionis, nam sanguis
non generatur in homine nisi prius diligenter coquatur in
hepate: sic de mane cum nos videmus urinam nostram albā
omnis par domi dormivisse sumptus ad lectum, somno autem recepto completur digestio, & urina nostra citrinatur;
per solam decoctionem post albedinem devenies ad rubedinem, erras, si quidem non poteris, si ignem siccum continuaveris super ipsam. Nonne vides quod sperma non generetur
ex sanguine, nisi coquatur prius diligenter in hepate quousque intensum habeat ruborem, & nisi ista fierent nihil ex illo generatur spermae. Similiter & ex nostro album nisi diligenter
coquatur non rubificatur, & certe solus calor hepatis rubificat chylum hepatis, & solus calor ignis accensus rubificat sulphur album, nam prima digestio stomachi omnia dealbat,
secunda vero hepatis omnia rubificat, quia in solo hepate viget calor, sicut in stomacho viget siccitas. Igne igitur sicco
& calcinatione sicca decoque siccu donec fiat ut cinabrium,
id est purpureum, cui de cetero nequaquam impones aquam
nec aliam rem usquequo ad coeptum decoquatur rubeum,
nam tempore aestatis & fructuum inundatio pluviarum corrumpit magisterium, quare oportet sicco igne ipsum comburere absque timore, donec rubicundissimo vestietur colore.
Noli ergo cessare quamvis rubor aliquamdiu tardaverit apparere, nam igne augmentato post albedinem ex primis coloribus habebis rubedinem, medio tamen tempore inter illos
colores apparebit citrinus, sed ille color non est stabilis, quia
post illum non moratur rubeum venire, quo eveniente certus esto opus tuum esse completum, quoniam habebit unco de
verere mulierem in masculum, & dominem in completum in Solem verum. Quare dicit philosophus: Si verum sulphurum mundi
optimum cum rubore clarum in se habens vim ignietatis simplicis & non urentis, illud est res optima quae recipere possunt
operantes alchymiam, ut cum ea faciant aurum. Hoc enim
argenteum vivum omne corpus imperfectum convertit in aurum, quare manifeste liquet, quod istud solum est verum sulphur nostrum album & rubeum quod quaerimus, quo in quolibet corpore tingimus in verissimum argentum melius quam
de minera productum. Cum ergo duxeris unamquamque speciem ex partibus operis, sicut ostendimus ea dirigere, tunc reduc spiritus ad illud & sublima totum, quoniam sublimabitur
lucidum clarum inpermixtibile elementis. Et illud quidem
est ut accipias partem illius noti lapidis purissimam, & per ingeniorum subtilen coniunge eundem per minima & leveut
totum, quod si non eveniat addatur ei non fixae partis quantitas, ut summa volatilis superet summam fixi, quousque ad
elevationem illius sufficiat. Nam vidimus in eis quibus est
sensus experientiae modus, quod ad cum ea quae commiscetur vehementer et fortiter, si summa volatilis vincat
summam fixi quod fixum volabit cum ea, igitur cum elevatum fuerit vere erit illius sublimatio, quousque per hanc sublimationis reiterationem figuretur totum. Cum ergo fixum fuerit cum non fixo, iterato parce quantitatem post
quantitatem, combibe per ingenium tibi notum quousque
iterato levetur totum, igitur iterato sit figur totum quousque
fusionem praestet facilem sicut cera: & haec quidem est medicina stans, tingens, penetrans, consolidans, & perseverans, cujus una pars convertit mille, cujuscunque corporis in verissimum aurum vel argentum, secundum quod elixir album
vel rubeum fuerit praeparatum. Non autem dependet hujus
bonitas multiplicationis, nisi ex multiplicata reiteratione
sublimationis & fixationis medicinae hujus, quoniam quanto hujus complementi ordo reiteratur pluries, tanto & ipsius
exuberantia multiplicatur magis, & augmentatur bonitas
perfectionis illius maxime, quousque omne corpus a perfectione diminuunt atque etiam argentum vivum mutet in
infinitum. Solisicium vel Lunisicium verum. Nam quoties
more solito sublimaveris medicinam perfectam & solveris,
toties lucraberis omni vice projiciendum unum super decem; & si primo ceciderunt super mille, secundo cadet super
decem millia, tertio super centum millia, & quarto super mille millia, ac quinto super infinitum.
Quanto igitur elixir magis subtiliatur tanto plus tingit, ideo in quantum elevaveris
tuum opus, in tantum plus valebit, quia abundantus operabitur & majorem quantitatem converet, & hoc certe est
quod dixit Geber, qui fuit magister magistrorum in nostro magisterio, Operare cum lapide tuo & ego operabor cum meo,
& plus valebit lapis meus quam tuus, quia si tu projeceris unū
super mille, ego projiciam unum super decem millia, & erit totum bonum, si autem tu projeceris unum super decem millia,
ego projiciam unum super decies centies mille millia, quare plus valebit lapis meus quam lapis tuus, quonia in transmutatione
multorum millium transcendit lapidem tuum, hoc autem et
non dicit Geber nisi ut nos seduceret, quia lapis noster & suus
unus & idem est, se solvebat totum & sublimabat multitudines,
ita quod dum de opere suo, transcendit decem de nostro.
Ideo quanto magis sublimatus fuerit, tanto magis convertendi virtutem habebit, ergo & quod maxime maxime. Non
ergo omittas elixiri tuum subtiliare, & in quantum poteris
alleviare, & certe causa suae velocis liquefactionis est ex illis
partium ab igne liquefactio subtilis essentialis, quam dico Mercurii in natura propria ad fixationem deductum magis subtiliatur, magis solvitur, ita quod & maxime maxime. Et sic est
completum, ad certe necdum citissimam ad fusionem, magis quam aliquod metallorum, ipsum enim est nisi ex purissima argenti vivi substantia in fixionem deducta, & ex subtilissima materia & mundissima fixa, quae ab argento vivo sumpsit originem, & ab illo est creata: & ideo quia cum figuratim sit argentum vivum de facili absq; inflammatione aliqua medicina eget, quae subito ante ejus fugam illini in profundo adhaereat. & ei perminina conjungatur, illudque inspisset sua fixione & à fuga in igne conservet, convectus totum per suum beneficium in momento in Solem vel Lunam veram, secundum illud ad quod elixir fuerit praeparatu. Si ergo facilis non esset fusionis, no funderetur ante fugam Mercurii, nec retineret ipsum. Hoc igitur secretum nota. Si aute de sua non esset naturam non adhaereret illi in profundo nec; conjungeretur per minima, nam argentum vivum in se non recipit nisi quod suae fuerit naturae, neque aliud eum figet, & si mundissimum non esset, non converteret Mercurium neque cetera corpora in aurum & argentum, quia nihil dat quod non habet, cùm non inveniatur in re q in ea non fuerit ante. Liquet igitur medicinam nostram necessario debere esse substantiae subtilissimae & purissimae, adhaerentis argento vivo ex natura sua, & facillime & tenuissimae liquefactionis, ad modum aquae fixa super ignis pugnam, quia haec ipsum coagulabit & in naturam Solarem vel Lunarem convertet. Iam ergo nostram complevimus medicinam, in caliditate & frigiditate, humiditate & siccitate aequaliter temperatum, unde quicquid illi apponitur si ejusdem cum eo complexionis cui apponitur, ut si aquam illi apposueris totum solventur in aquam, Si vero ignam totum erit ignis: & haec est causa quare multiplicari potest medicina in infinitum. Propterea est sicut ignis in lignis, & sicut muscus in aromaticus bonis, eo magis crescens quo magis suffusuerit conelatus: quare oportet te partem relinquere omnino temporè quoniam ditatus es ab illa, sicut illa benignem ditatus est ab ipso. Nota ergo intime de multiplicatione elixiri. Multiplicatur autem sive per solutionem, sive per fermentationem, sed per solutionem tardius, per fermentationem vero citius nostra augmentatur medicina, eo quod solutam nondum bene operatur nisi prius in suo figatur fermento. Abundantia tamen multo operatur medicina soluta quam fermentata, quoniam magis subtilis est, licet etiam per solam fermentationem potest multiplicari in infinitum: sed per solutionem multo reducitur: sibi appositum in suam naturam, colorem, & saporem per omnem modum; nam confectionem dealbat, combustionem inhibet, tincturam ingredi facit & conjungit, quod finis est operum, & sine illo elixir non peragitur, quemadmodum nec pasta absque fermento fermentatur. Idcirco cum elixir sublimando fixaveris, reducas super ipsum apparatum corpus & commisceas ac liquefas per secretum naturarum in vase philosophico, nam cum steterint per moram temporis vincet fortius illorum, convertens totum in spiritum sibi similem, & ipse cum potens sit super vinculo non stat. Hic nota de descæpatione spiritus cum corpore à quo extrahabatur in principio suo. Conjunges ergo ipsum ut generet sibi simile corpus, nec conjungas eum cum quovis alio ut convertat ad se, nisi cum eo de quo fuit in principio. Si feceris hoc fiet elixir aliorum id quod fuerit conjunctum. Ratio autem quare debeat conjungi cum suo simili est, quia sulphura sulphuribus continentur, & humida simili humiditate, nam spiritus convertens sulphura in spiritum sibi similem factus est uterque fugiens, & spiritus aetherii aëra simul scandentes se diligunt. Videntes igitur philosophi quod illud non fugiebat cum fugientibus, fugiens factum iteraverunt ad simile corporis non fugientis, & intravit in ipsum à quo fugere minime poterat, propter propinquam naturae suae convenientiam. Nota ergo hoc esse verum de ingressione spiritus in corpus. Anima certe corpus suum citus ingreditur qua si in aliud mitteretur: quod si immittere studueris, in vanum laboraveris, quoniam non erit communicatio tenebrae & lucis, ad corpus ergo simile corporibus ex quibus extracta sunt ipsa reveruntur & peracta sunt. Quia si tingens & tingendum una tinctura facta sunt, non putas ergo illud quod tingit & non fugit veram esse tincturam philosophorum? Quia autem sulphurata tingunt & non fugiunt si simili argento vivo sui generis juncta sint, ideo oportet ipsum admisceri argento vivo albo vel rubeo sui generis & continere ne fugiant, quare jungemus argentum vivum commiscere argento vivo, quousque una munda aqua fiant ex duobus argentis vivis composita, verum in conjunctione eorum ponens parum de opere super multum de corpore, ita quod habeat potentiam convertendi illud in medicinam, alias totum verteretur in spiritum sibi similem. Si autem projeceris parum operis super multum corporis, puta unum super quatuor alterius sit in aliqua mora temporis pulvis, cujus color erit albus vel rubeus, secundum quod fuerit inferius in super quod projecisti, & hic quidem pulvis elixir est completum.
Et certe, elixir debet esse pulvis simplex, & demelioribus hujus seculi, & corpus ac fermenti quod sibi mittes debet esse pulvis subtilis. Nota hic quod dicit unum de opere super quatuor de corpore, & erit opus simili solutum per se & antequam sint jungantur, quia non facies omnino dam eorum commixtionem, donec unum quodq; separatìm solvatur in aquam, eo quod qui desiccat antequam imbuat non conjungit per minima, nec omnino subtiliat; plenius quippe est separare unum a terra quam ab aqua. Nota igitur quod quando corpus solutum fuerit in aqua, quod nunquam disjungitur ab aqua sua, sed quando aqua misceatur cum aqua, tunc aqua recipit aquam quae nunquam separantur ab invicem. Ideo si fueris hydropicus bibe multùm de dicto isto & sanaberis. Nota de croco & de multiplicatione medicinae. Vnaquaeque tinctura in millesima parte plus tinget in liquida substantia quàm in sicca, ut patet de croco cum ponitur in liquoribus, si in siccis projiceretur parum tingeret, sed solutus cum pauco jungatur, & hoc paucum cum multo tinget in infinitum. Sic ergo facies projectionem, primo multiplica decem in decem & erunt centum, & centum in centum, & erunt millia decem, & decem millia in decem millia, & erunt centum millia, & mille millia in mille millia, & erit numerus innumerabilis. hoc est dicere, pone unum super decem, & unum eorum super centum, & unum eorum super mille & sic de ceteris similiter. Iterum secundum alterum philosophum, pone partem unam super decem metalli praeparati, & hujus unam partem super centum, & convertetur conversione fixa atque durabili, si Deus voluerit. Si autem una vice & prima ponas unam partem super mille partes, timendum est ne præ nimio calore consumetur & exhalaret antequam penetrasset & confectum esset, cum autem ponis unam super decem, cito penetrat & misceatur, unde non est necesse fortificare ignem, neque continuare, sed cito debet deponi: cum autem infrigidatum est, jam illud se tenet cum illo & adhaeret ei propter convenientiam naturae, quare si dehinc partem unam super centum projicias, retinetur substantia lampadis ab eo cui mixtum est, adhaerens ei donec totum transmutaverit. Cum oleis ergo misce argentum vivum praeparatum, non quod sit materia omnium metallorum, sicut quidam affirmant & multi putant, sed quod per frigiditatem retinet medicinam super ignem donec misceatur ne exhalet, custodit ergo illud & eris fortunatus in terra. Causa autem eorum omnium est triplex, bonitas, necessitas, & perfectio, bonitas est quia perfectus & abundantissimus tingat, ut in melius perficiat, & plurima convertat; necessitatis causa ut
melius coloretur, ut melius figatur, ut sibi simile genere taurum vel argentum; perfectionis autem numerus perfectus est
denarius, centenarius & millesius. Ideo de primo ad ultimum
facies projectionem, nam si ita parvus simpliciter dimicaret
contra ita magnum superaretur ab eo propter sui paucitatem. Nota in sequenti de fundamentis medicinae. Omnia
medicinae nostrae fundamenta sunt multum subtilianda &
tingenda, quia quato plus subtiliatur tanto plus elixir tingitur,
tantoque abundantius operatur, ergo & quod maxime. Ideo
ad solutionem pone solutionem, & solutioni immite defunctionem, & pones totum ad ignem, caute si fumum praecavense ne fugiat aliquid ex illo. Regimen autem totum est
intemperie ignis, itaque morare prope vas & intuere mira,
quomodo movebitur de colore in colorem in minus quam
in hora diei, quousque perveniat ad metam albedinis vel caloris, id est citrinitatis, quoniam citius fine liquefiet in igne,
& congelabitur in aere, quia fumus cum senserit ignem, penetrabit in corpus, & spiritus constringetur in sicco, eritque
corpus unum fixum clarum, album vel rubeum secundum
quod fuerit medicina & fermentum. Tunc de igne demit dimittens refrigerari, quia unum ipsius pondus projectum suffiper mille, cujusvis corporis imperfecti habet illud convertere in optimum aurum vel argentum, secundum elixir quod
fuerit projectum. Verum medicina alba, album elixir fermentum, sicut rubea, rubeum, quia in opere rubeo nihil intrabii nisi rubeum, sicut in opere albo nihil intrabit nisi album: ideo quod facis in albo, fac & in rubeo quia una & eadem est operatio amborum, sed complifcans tincturarum
& spirituum est illorum fermentum. hinc liquet quod qui argentum vivum albuni ignem patiens & argentum mero, id est
puro non conjungit, nullam elegit viam ad albedinem, qui
vero argentum vivum rubeum ignem sustinens non conjungit, auro mero, id est puro, nullam viam elegit ad rubedinę.
Non ergo fatiget corpus suum in his ad quas pervenire non
potest, quia nec sibi, nec alteri, nec mundo proderit, donec
major in sublimi naturae mobili quieverit in incorruptum
quasi non corruptum. Nunc totius operis recapitulatioens
subnectimus. Quia igitur nimis sermo intellectum mentis
obruit & errores augetant, ideo sub brevitate sermonis totius hujus complementum operis transimus. Et est, ut sumatur lapis sufficienter notus, & cum opus instantia assiduetur super ipsum perfectio sublimationis, ut mudetur per hoc intime, & subtilietur lapis donec in ultimam subtilitatis puritatem deveniat, & ultimo volatilis fiat, & hic quidem est
primus gradus administrationis. Ab hinc vero cum fixionis
modus figatur donec in ignis asperitate quiescat: fit autem
opus Lunae nimis album, opus vero Solis nimis rubeum, qua
album est opus hyemis, & rubeum aestatis, ideo majori partium sublimatione indiget, per modos proprios in majori
decoctione digestos, donec rubicundissimum assumat colorem, & in hoc uno secundi gradus perfectionis meta consistit. Sed in tertio gradu est totius operis complementum, &
est ut jam fixum lapidem cum modis sublimationis volatillem facias, & volatilem fixum, & fixum solutum, & solutum
iterato fixum quousque fluat & alteret in complemento Solifico vel Lunifico certo, quoniam ex reiteratione praeparationis hujus tertii gradus, in medicinam resultat alterationis ac bonitatis multiplicatio, ut unum quodq; imperfectorum corporum convertat in infinitum, in Solem vel Lunam
veram. Praeterea etiam virtutem habet efficacem omnem sanandini infirmitatem super omnes alias medicinas, nam laetificat animum, virtutem auget, conservat juventutem,
& renovat senectutem, quoniam non permittit sanguinem
putrefieri, neque phlegma dominari, neque choleram aduri,
nec melancholiam superexaltari, imo sanguinem supra modum multiplicat, contenta in spiritualibus purgat, & omnia
corporis membra conservat, & generaliter tam calidas quam
frigidas maxime curat infirmitates pra omnibus medicinis:
quoniam si aegritudo fuerit unius mensis, eam uno sanabit die,
& si unius anni, sanat diebus duodecim, si vero antiquior &
multi temporis, sanabit uno mense, & omnes malos expellet
humores, bonosque inducet. Conferet & amorem eorum quibus offertur. Deferentibus securitatem, audaciam, & in palatiis victoriam. In hoc completur secretum secretorum naturae maximum, quod est super omne hujus mundi pretiosum
pretiosissimum.
TRACTATUS SEXTUS
cui titulus,
PARUUS TRACTATUS DE MERCURIO Philosophico.
Scias quod Mercurius philosophorum de duobus plumbis, facit magnas operationes, videlicet pondus unum super sexaginta, & quum extinguitur & in pulverem convertitur vertitur facit nobiliores operationes, & praecipue super Mercurium fugitivum scilicet super ducentas, & convertitur in
puram Lunam. Et si pulvis fuerit rubificatus convertit Mercurium in purum Solem, & omnia metalla. Scias quod cum
anima jungitur corpori, corpus cito consumitur & mutatur
in formam aliam quam prius erat, quia in prima sublimatione corpus erit nigrum, in 2. magis lucidum, in 3. plus, & sic
usq; ad 15. vices, solvendo & congelando: & in qualibet congelatione cave ne corpus sentiat aliquid de sale, & tunc lava
terum & iterum. Si lapis noster dealbatus est, dealbat, si tinctus est tingit, ipse habet spiritum & animam, & ipse etiam
seipsum rubificat, ac seipsum interficit & seipsum vivificat, &
non est res mirabilior in hoc mundo, propterea philosophi
honoraverunt ipsum & quando dealbatus est, dealbat omnia corpora, & ducit ea ad temperamentum, & spiritus spiritum trinet. Scias hoc quod lapis noster est de re animata, ipse enim mollia indurat, & omnia dura mollificat, ipse fundit
crystallum & similiter colorat ipsum, & omnia corpora reducit primò in Lunam, & postea in Solem. Scias quod de omni re potest fieri sal, postea de ipso sale fit Mercurius per operationes diversas. solve & congela & fac qualibet speciem
cum sua specie, & omne genus cum suo genere & gaudebis,
natura enim cum sua natura delectatur. Scias quod oleum
septies destillatum reddit Mercurium in puram Lunam quod
ita sit: pone Mercurium in aliqua testa vitrea supra ignem,
quod sit bene calidius, & post pone de pulvere tuo & fundetur. Scias etiam quod lapis ter solutus & rursum coagulatus,
rectificat arsenicum, sulphur & Mercurium. Scias quod cum
sulphur ter solutum est solvit omnia & quicquid vult in una
hora. & scias quod multa secreta sunt in sulphure vivo. Nota
quod des idem pondus suae animae & suo corpori in solutione & coagulatione, donec sit fixum & sit pulvis & non fumet; & haec est melior probatio omnium, quum corpus non
fumet, idq; pro certo teneas. Scias quod Graeci multum laudaverunt opus quatuor spirituum, & dicebant esse verissimum elixir, unum pondus super centum. Scias quod quodlibet regimen debet servari per se in regimine lapidis, scilicet aqua, oleum, ignis & terra, & quum omnia ista in simul
conjunguntur resultat inde quaedam res temperata, quae facit
operationes diversas in corporibus imperfectis, & similiter
in corpore humano de quo non est dubium.
Finish tractatus parvi de Mercurio Philosophico.
BREVIS SED NON LEVIS
De LAPIDE PHILOSOPHICO.
Revolvi lapidem, & sedebam super ipsum. In puteum poenae detrudatur qui potenti vel fatuo istud revelaverit: ego autem id revelo bonis, quia vidi multos in labore perire, quia non poterant ad scientiam artis per venire. In nomine domini sume Alkabrick, & humorem humanum de sana vena & misce aequaliter, & extra he aquam per sumum, postea aerem per ignem, ultimo faeces combure, calcina, & misce aequaliter cum urina pueri & extrahe salem & habes omnes lapides de quibus philosophi experti sunt, tingunt enim mirabiliter: & coquunt ut natura ignis plus facere non queat. Item istud sal resistit Mercurio, cum imbibitur & desiccatur cum primo lapide, & sic fit fixi corporis unio supra firmam petram. Non videat faciem Dei qui potenti vel fatuo istud revelaverit.
Finish brevis Tractatus & Ultimi.