Answer
to the
philosophical epistle
on the
right and true
Philosophers’ Stone;
brought to light

by
Mrs. Theosophia Sternbucta.

Canticles, chap. V.

Berlin, 1779.
At Christian Ulrich Ringmacher’s.




Translated from the German book:
Antwort auf das philosophische Sendschreiben vom rechten und wahren Steine der Weisen

Wisdom VI, 13–19.

Wisdom is beautiful and imperishable, and gladly lets herself be seen by those who love her, and allows herself to be found by those who seek her.

Indeed, she comes to meet them and makes herself known to those who are fond of her.

Whoever would gladly have her soon need not take much trouble; he finds her waiting for him before his door.

For to strive after her, that is true prudence, and whoever keeps watch for her need not be anxious long.

For she goes about and seeks whom she may deem worthy of her, and gladly appears to him on his way, and pays heed to him, that she may meet him.

For whoever is willing to be guided, with him surely is the beginning of wisdom; and whoever regards her, willingly lets himself be guided.

Whoever willingly lets himself be guided keeps her commandment; and where the commandment is kept, there a holy life is assured.

---

Answer
to the
philosophical epistle
on the
right and true
Philosopher’s Stone.

Before your well-instructive epistle had yet come into my hands, the mercy of God had already stooped down to His most unworthy handmaid, and disclosed to me the following instruction as the rule of my work, as the entire sum of philosophical truth.

Form and matter are two substances which are our field and our magnet; for every agent requires a patient of like nature. Two, and yet only one; and these two are drawn out of one body, and, after their purification, are again brought into one body, but far nobler than before.

This agent or form has in itself something imperishable and indestructible, of which the philosophers write so much (the Mercury of the wise, their secret fire); but when this universal agent has become corporeal, then it is the salt of all things.

These two, form and matter, have among themselves contrary properties and yet have come forth from one root; therefore it is said: the one is mercurial, the other sulphurous; the one lunar, the other solar. Both come from heaven out of an airy root, yet are imprisoned in the earth. However, air is the field wherein their roots grow green.

Form and matter are man and woman, brother and sister, king and queen; yet the greatest enmity is between them; but whoever can reconcile them, and the metal to kindle the sulphur by their fiery spirit; then they are inseparably united and again made bodily anew.

Thereafter one is to keep the newly-born Apollinian son in a suitable warmth, to nourish and to water him, to wash him with the spirit of his father so much and so long that he can continually ascend and descend; for this spirit is a water of life, which causes the newborn child of Nature visibly to swell up, so that many different inner colours appear mingled upon his countenance. And this lasts as long as the dragon devours his wings and tail.

These colours are called the peacock’s tail, because these colours often change from one into another, as lemon-, orange-, green- and azure-colours; but the last green is retained longer than some of the others. In this last green the whole perfection is contained; for this same green proves especially that our Stone is endowed with a growing soul, being directed thereafter to bring forth innumerable little branches.

This is the Green Lion of Nature, who is inwardly blood-red; thereafter comes the redness, yet it goes before it as a sign of its true if, in the proper work, a colour like peach-blossom appears, he may be quite sure that it will not fail in vain.

To be used in medicine, this tincture is strong enough and needs no augmentation; rather, from the calcined work one can, with the fiery vegetable spirit, easily extract the white fixed salt, in order to use it for the restoration of human bodies and for the averting of all illnesses, with the greatest benefit.

When the pomegranate-red colour has lasted for a while, give the strongest fire of the ash-chapel, so that the matter opens itself out and wishes to separate from its dull impurity, and the noblest part draws itself together into the middle. Take this part especially out from the other useless matter, put it into a glass flask, give it fire gradually, as before, with imbibing and coagulating up to the highest degree; then there will still be found a black, worthless, burnt matter – separate from it the good red, for it is the multiplied Sulphur of the Sun (Sulphur Solis multiplicatum). Test whether it has an ingress in projection upon silver or gold; if it does not enter, then continue as before with dissolving and coagulating until it flows like wax, and yet outside the fire can be rubbed like a powder.

This is the multiplication in quality, by dissolving and coagulating with our mercurial water, or water of life.

The multiplication in quantity takes place thus: of this most perfect powder take one part, of the salt of the first nymphic body three parts; dissolve and coagulate as you please. This is done by imbibition and distillation; repeat this as often as you wish in a gentle ash-fire, until it remains clear and fixed, so that it does not rise upward at all, but in the fire flows like oil or wax, while in the cold, outside the fire, it stands like glass, which can be ground to a red powder.

Through this solution and coagulation, which is really nothing else than soaking and calcining, we make our salt porous; therefore we calcine the earth in which the seed is to be sown, so that the earth becomes so thirsty that it is eager to drink, in order thereby to become impregnated and to multiply itself abundantly; yet you must not give it more to drink than it can draw into itself; this is the best proportion. Then the natural warmth increases and grows, and the fire increases; this is, properly speaking, the philosophical sublimation.

But time is needed for this, and this labor cannot well be completed in less than a year, and sometimes longer, so that our earth has a flux and a color that does not disappear; and this happens only in a long time, sometimes indeed up to two years.

Many an intelligent man who has followed the letter of the book has stopped just where he ought to have begun; for the Work will not allow itself in any way to be hurried, shortened, or brought forth with nimbleness.

Whoever wishes to operate somewhat fruitfully in this art must direct all his diligence, labor, and care to it, and be burdened with his business, otherwise he will be hindered.

Costs also belong to it. The reason is that the work cannot be accomplished with less matter, for the time is long; and if you are not sufficiently well-off that you can provide food for two years, food, drink, coal and other things that belong thereto, in order to maintain yourselves and your companion (for one man alone cannot well carry the work through) must be provided; whoever cannot do this should leave the matter alone.

For whoever would accomplish such a work must already have all things ready to hand, and at the very least, in the beginning, have four to six pounds of prepared matter, both on account of the composition and also for the maintenance of his fire.

Have also at hand your own book, pens and ink, in which you write down everything, whether great or small, and also all signs and colours and changes that you see, as well as the time in which it happens, and what degree of heat you give it.

You should also know that there is no other Particular than the philosophical one, since our Particularia spring from the root of the true universal subject; and since common silver can in no other way be improved than by the goodness of gold, the conjunction of the two must become bodily, that is, out of Mercur and Sulphur, each mixed together according to its proportion, so that they flow together in such a way that they remain indivisible and undivided. And they were both volatile, and they were both volatile and spiritual; from this the body is drawn (our gold and silver): this is truly the beginning of our true medicine.

On the other hand, in the sophistical processes and particulars nothing is to be found but baselessness. It is true that the ancient philosophers ordered that, at about the half of their work, something should be taken out, and, in order that one might thereby bring about a better use of the great work, they added the instruction to reduce from it a “particular” (by which is to be understood that the Luna has been transmuted into gold); from this the word particular has for the most part arisen. But this has been taken, by many persons of high and low station, in a quite perverted sense, so that they have imagined one could bring gold and silver out of other metals without the universal tincture – but it is an abominable deceit.

Whoever, however, has once rightly obtained his augmentation, him I assure that he possesses an infinite treasure and an imperishable, un-deceivable truth.

From this a true son of Hermes can well see how it is quite another matter, when it is a matter of the true philosophers’ fundamental maxims, and not of the sophists’ deceit and juggling processes. Therefore you, my dear disciple of our spiritual Diana, are asked diligently to observe what I have written, and rather to strive after this: how you may prudently prepare the philosophical subject (our gold and silver), keep it in the philosophical marriage-bed at the proper warmth, and learn to await the harvest with patience.

Let him avoid all great compositions, and let him imagine to himself no “particular,” for common silver can in no other way be improved than through the goodness of exalted gold.

Meanwhile let his prayer and patience be firm and constant, and let him fear God, love his neighbour, and always be ready to render an account to God in heaven.

It is and remains indisputably true that the fear of the Lord must be the beginning and the end in the investigation of all good sciences.

You, my well-intentioned friend, will now from my answer sufficiently understand whether our paths will separate from one another, or lead into one single way of temporal and eternal blessedness. There is only one way, one truth, and one life; with these three I remain, as long as I shall be.

Given in my solitude at the Bath Nestor, in 1779.

Your faithful friend and companion
Theosophia Sternbucta.

Here I seek it only; there I shall find it,
There I shall be holy and transfigured,
Feel virtue’s whole worth,
Its inexpressibly great worth.
The God of love I then shall see,
Love Him, and praise Him endlessly.

There the holy will of Providence
Shall be my good and my well-being;
And lovely beings, fulness of salvation,
Shall gladden me before God’s throne.
Then gain on gain shall ever let
Me feel that I am endless yet.

There shall I in the light discern
What here on earth I saw but dim.

Then shall I call wondrous and holy
What here on earth befell unfathomed;
Then will my spirit, with praise and thanks,
Consider providence in its full connection.

Then shall I press on to the throne
Where God reveals Himself my salvation;
A “Holy, holy, holy” will I sing
To the Lamb that was slain.

And Cherubim and Seraphim
And all the heavens exult in Him.

Gellert.