Here is a detailed account of how, on June 7, 1780, Cagliostro made money in a Masonic lodge in Warsaw, as recorded by one of its members in a description of that experience.
Cagliostro made me weigh a pound of mercury which I possessed, already purified. Before that, he had ordered me to distill rainwater until all the liquid evaporated, leaving a deposit he called Virgin Earth or secunda materia. About 16 grains remained. On his instructions, I had also prepared a lead extract. After all these preparations were completed, he came to the lodge and entrusted me with the task of carrying out the whole operation with my own hands. I did this according to his instructions in the following order:
The Virgin Earth was placed in a balloon and half the mercury was added to it. I then added 30 drops of lead extract. When I shook the vial a little, the mercury appeared as dead or strongly frozen. I then poured the lead extract supplement over the remaining mercury, which remained unaltered. I then had to place the two portions of mercury together in a larger balloon. After shaking it, the whole contents somehow took on the same solid consistency. The color turned to dirty gray. The whole was then stirred in a half-filled vase. Cagliostro then gave me a small piece of paper that turned out to be just the wrapper for two more dumplings. They contained a shiny carmine-colored powder, probably weighing a tenth of a grain. The powder was mixed in the container and Cagliostro then swallowed the three wrapping papers. During this time, I covered the contents of the plaster of Paris vase previously prepared with hot water. As the vessel was filled, Cagliostro took it from my hands, adding still more plaster of Paris and pressing it firmly with his own hands. He gave it back to me to dry the whole thing over a charcoal fire. The vase was placed in a bed of ashes on the blower furnace. The fire was lit and the container left for half an hour. Then we took him out of the fire with a pair of tongs and carried him to the lodge. The vase was broken there and in the bottom lay a mass of silver weighing 14 and a half ounces.
END
Quote of the Day
“Now if afterwards you would multiply your tincture, you must again resolve that red, in new and fresh dissolving water, and then by decoctions first whiten, and then rubify it again, by the degrees of fire, reiterating the first method of operating in this work. Dissolve, coagulate, and reiterate the closing up, the opening and multiplying in quantity and quality at your own pleasure. For by a new corruption and generation, there is introduced a new motion. Thus we can never find an end if we do always work by reiterating the same thing over and over again, viz. by solution and coagulation, by the help of our dissolving water, by which we dissolve and congeal, as we have formerly said, in the beginning of the work. Thus also is the virtue thereof increased, and multiplied both in quantity and quality; so that if after the first course of the operation you obtain a hundred fold; by the second fold you will have a thousand fold; and by the third; ten thousand fold increase. And by pursuing your work, your projection will come to infinity, tinging truly and perfectly, and fixing the greatest quantity how much soever. Thus by a thing of small and easy price, you have both color, goodness, and weight.”
Artephius
The Secret Book of Artephius
Alchemical Books
Audio Books
Total visits