Book of the Greatest Secret of the Whole worldly glory - Liber Secreti Maximi Totius Mundanae Gloriae

Of an Ancient French Philosopher

of the Dauphiné, anonymous

Book of the Greatest Secret of the Whole worldly glory

Translated to English from the book:
Theatrum chemicum, praecipuos selectorum auctorum tractatus de chemiae et lapidis philosophici antiquitate, veritate, iure, praestantia, & operationibus, continens: in gratiam verae chemiae, et medicinae chemicae studiosorum ... congestum, et in sex partes seu volumina digestum; singulis voluminibus, suo auctorum et librorum catalogo primis pagellis: rerum vero & verborum indice postremis annexo. Volumen tertium.

In the smallest things the divine aid must be implored. What therefore, dearest son, ought we to do in the difficult and greater matters of this world? And since it is so that our intention is directed toward the greatest and highest mysteries of the world, as will be shown below syllogistically, therefore, invoking the goodness of God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, immense in himself and in the name of the Holy Spirit our protector, let us proceed under his favor.

In the year 1447, on the second day of the month of January, in the dawn of little moisture, it was our custom in our realm to rejoice, in memory of those faithful kings who with glad heart adored our Lord and Savior in one place from diverse regions. I resolved to describe with my pen, and to make manifest the secrets which they had been accustomed to hand down under a veil and, as it were, in a desperate form. In such a way, indeed, that men of talent, and those introduced to these matters, might profit in this little work and acquire the glory of the whole world.

But I urge you not to eternal glory, for things that lightly pass away, should be abandoned by you; knowing that all corruptible things ought to be left behind for incorruptible ones.

This having been said, for the benefit of all the faithful Christians, especially of our lord King Louis, of the most serene lady the Queen, his consort, and of their son, the lord Dauphin, their firstborn, we say that there are seven planets, seven days, and seven metals; although, to speak exactly, these touch the matter only by number, and in the least degree insofar as they are extended by the hammer.

These things and those signs are so named, and also by other names, according to their influence and participation among themselves. Mercury, however, is not properly a metal, but the principle of metal; and that which is the principle of something is not itself the whole of that thing. Mercury serves them as matter, while sulphur serves as form.

Now we have seen metallic bodies, by ocular faith, resolved into Mercury and multiplied in it; but Mercury is never metal unless you have coagulated it by the virtue of sulphur. By sulphur, however, we understand every natural heat. But whether there comes to that Mercury another sulphur besides its own proper one, from which it was from the beginning, so that from it a metal may be made, is not a matter of present speculation.

Note, however, my son, that he who undertakes to perfect a metal ought to conceive the metal; and this said, note and revolve it again and again, for in this lies the consideration of the matter. But our stone is generated from father and mother, and its sperm is a clear water not wetting. Over a long time the male ascends above the female in a black color, and that black body receives water of the same nature, and by process of time it flees and flows and heals the sick from every infirmity.

Given in the chamber of the parliament of Hermes.

Recipe: Take one part by weight of the red, three parts of the white in its subtlety, and four parts of clear water. The stone is composed from fire and fire by heat, and from the cooked and the raw, and from red and white fire, and from fire flowing and firm, or compact, and from sulphur and Mercury, and from incombustible water; or from air and fire; or from fire, air, water, and earth together; and it can be spoken of in many other infinite ways.

Yet I do not tell you falsehood as others have done, who have spoken of arsenic, orpiment, alums, salts, or animals, inks, and infinitely many other fanciful things, which are fully known to be false and vain.

Meditate, son of wisdom, and you will find the truth. I have concealed from you the common name for two reasons. One is this: that if anyone should misuse this little book of mine, I may be able to excuse myself before God and say that I did not reveal the secret except to the wise and the truly worthy. The other reason is that certain philosophers, naming enough in their books, still conceal the regimen. I shall make the regimen manifest to you, and sufficient for you.

He who does not understand the stone itself through natural reasons, and through the words of the philosophers, omitting all things that are contrary to nature, is not worthy to be called a philosopher, nor ought not philosophize with us. Woe to you who labor at fantastical things in this art, who wish to sow beans and gather balsam oil, and from dung make potable gold! Woe to you thick heads who wish from eggs, and blood, and a thousand other tricks to generate gold!

Gold speaks and says: Let those be cursed who despise my most noble form. I am the most noble sun, and all the influences of heaven came together for my generation by the command of almighty God; and I am the perfect work of nature, and I was born without adultery. And these fantasists and newly deluded men call me bastard and ignoble.

I am incorruptible, and the son of the sun, and the smallest part of my substance contains my whole; nor can anything corruptible be found in me. And yet they, from corruptible things, wish to multiply me and my substance. How can they create sons like mine without my counsel and design? It can never be; even if I were to cast my fiery seed into my flowing blood, white and fiery.

Yet I confess that I am a sinner, because I lay with my mother, who had first carried me in her womb, to multiply my sons, and with her I delighted to lie and lovingly embrace, so that from her and through her I might augment and multiply my like, according to that saying: Father is Sol, mother Luna.

And Arnald says: Receive the mother and place her in the bed with her sons, that she may delight there; and when she begins to delight somewhat, extinguish her in cold water.

In the disputation of Sol with Mercury, Sol says to Mercury: Will you dispute with me? I am lord of the stones and patient in the fire. Mercury said: You speak truly. But I begot you, and you are miserly in regard to me, and unwilling to give anything of your own because of your hardness. I, however, am spiritual, and in me hidden wisdom lies concealed; and he who shall join me to my son or my brother shall live and rejoice, and shall have an everlasting treasure, although he should do every day what a thousand men could not accomplish, not understanding. And I am that which vivifies and mortifies, and in me are all marvelous cleansings.

But Sol said: It is necessary that my substance be multiplied in the womb of my mother. My mother is living Luna, living silver, according to that saying: The wind carried him in its belly; wind, that is, air; air, that is, Mercury, because it is airy. So says Hermes.

Nor should such sons be reproved, because they are generated from mother and son; for this is permitted to them by almighty God. And gold itself is the sole active principle, and its mother the sole passive principle, fitted for the multiplication of their individuals in their own species.

For if the son alone existed in human nature, and the mother alone, without that by which he might generate offspring like himself, it would be necessary for the human race to be multiplied otherwise, or else the whole world would perish.

Honor our king and his mother, and do not in their bed fall into vile ruin. O you impious ones who despise this secret, who without any delay or patience burn us with violent fire and think to annihilate us! But surely we do not fear your severity, nor do we fear fire, because we are of its own nature.

Sol likewise said to his mother: These sophists separate us from one another and hinder our generation; for you, mother, have certain wings and marvelous, subtle feathers, and with a light fire you let me go, lest your feathers be burned. Yet you gradually cause your substance to grow firm little by little. But I am gross and weighty, just as lead is, and I cannot run well, nor do I have wings for flying, because I am compact, and therefore I do not fear fire.

But it must be noted as a greatest and incredible secret, that if for a long time I were to lie with my mother in the bed of delight, that is, in the heat of fire, surely she would carry me wholly in her womb, and nothing of my substance could afterward be found if violence were done to it, because she is very strong and terrible when she is in the ardor of love. Therefore she is called the sharpest vinegar, strong water, tinging poison, virgin’s milk, fountain of life, and a fire burning more than fire. And by the violence of our conjunction the body and spirit become volatile, and I return wholly to my first nature. And then is fulfilled what is said: Let the alchemists know that the species of things cannot be transmuted unless they first return to the first nature.

And indeed, my son, in this precious work, as Morienus says, if goldsmiths knew what they have in their hands when they gild, they would profit much.

Meditate, son, and understand that we cannot speak otherwise of this work than in parables. The things that have been said were often seen by me, and therefore I know that they are true. The immediate matter of the stone is sulphur and Mercury, not such as is found where nature created gold, but that which is now in it; for art imitates nature as far as it can.

I say greater things than I think I ought to say, but it does not repent me, because I speak not except to my friends and to the sons of knowledge.

The philosophers say that our gold is not common gold; and they speak very well, though they are ill understood by the readers. Likewise concerning Mercury the philosophers say that it is not common Mercury.

Open, son, the little chamber of your understanding, and note that our sulphur is pure gold, true, sincere, and right, and is called among us cooked quicksilver, and is the son of fire, and had its origin from the purest substance of Mercury. And though its virtue is seen, it is not understood except by us from the matter whence it is generated.

A man is not this man, nor does the fruit of a man generate men; but it is a certain active power of this or that man, and such a power is invisible. Therefore they said that the matter of our stone is not common gold, namely that which is seen, the first whole golden mass, that golden coin, or those accidents which are seen, do not perfect our stone; but a certain virtue existing in them does perfect it. Nor would it ever have been possible, nor would it be so otherwise, as Avicenna says, if that matter were found in those things in which it is.

Likewise he says that if we did not see Sol and Mercury, we would say that this science is false; just as if there were no grain of wheat in the world, we would say that the multiplication of grain is false. And yet you do not understand that this grain of wheat which is seen namely that grossness, or hardness, or those accidents which are seen generates grains; rather the hidden virtue in the said grain does this, which, unless having fallen into the earth it had died, would remain alone.

Understand all these things in your intellect as separated and not in a gross manner, as the letter says. It remains therefore that the intrinsic substance is that which operates, and consequently it follows that the words of philosophy are true when it says that our gold is not common gold, that is, that which is seen and handled; but it is a more subtle substance which is extracted from it and lies hidden in it.

Therefore our stone is made from fixed sulphur, red, weighty, and incombustible, and from the substance of fresh, raw, pure Mercury. And likewise the philosophers say that that quicksilver is also taken for our sulphur; and although it is called sulphur, yet it is not sulphur, but is so called because of the active property which it has. Nevertheless it is nothing other than quicksilver cooked and thickened by nature. And in such thickening the sulphur of nature occurs to itself, which sulphur is called golden substance, that is, golden virtue, and makes from Mercury mere gold by the command of nature.

Nor does that sulphureity diminish the substance of Mercury, nor is it burned up by fire; rather, parts of the same homogeneous thing, by such a fiery sulphureous virtue, are more and more coagulated, one after another, and in the course of a long time a hard and compact body is produced. Such a body can be called sulphur and Mercury, and because such cooked quicksilver is necessary for us, therefore we often say that it is not common Mercury.

It must also be considered, son, that such quicksilver, or sulphur, does not work by itself, because like does not act upon like, and an equal has no dominion over an equal. Therefore it is necessary that it be helped by another quicksilver, raw, pure, airy, because that is for it what our fixed sulphur is; and our cooked quicksilver naturally superabounds over each other, so that from there they are multiplied in their radical moisture unto infinity, according to that saying: To that whose nature is hot, dry, and cooked, if cold, moist, and raw should come, it will not harm; because just as the smallest parts of dry earth are overcome by the addition of water and by a good mixing, as is clear in the work of pottery, similarly our earth, or our sulphur, is divided into the smallest particles, into the least parts, when it is thickened by the addition of its water, namely Mercury, raw, pure, and extracted from the mine; for that quicksilver is more piercing and penetrating unto infinity than the strong waters of the sophists, from whom you must beware.

The second reason why Mercury is not common Mercury is this, and similar to what we said of common gold: that what is seen is not properly the matter of the stone. Likewise quicksilver, as it appears to the common people, is most volatile, mobile, cold and moist, and white; yet in its hidden nature it is hot, sharp, terrible, and is proved to redden, because, as was said above, it is white fire, and metallic bodies are melted and liquefied by it much more quickly than by the fire of fusion, as experience shows. Likewise it is converted into red by our regimen; likewise it is fixed by its own virtue with the help of our sulphur, that is, of our fire. The same thing is the work of nature, and its powers are not seen; therefore they are not known to the common people.

What sort of furnace there ought to be

The house or place should be in a certain chamber set apart for this secret, lest wind, air, and rain be able to annihilate the magistery; in a place not too high, but level, or moderate. Let there be a sufficiently large window above the furnace, so that in time of need you may be able to see your operations and recognize the colors appearing in the work. And the furnace suited for this should be in a fitting place; and the base, or foundation of the furnace, should be four feet square, and in height one foot or more.

Let there be in the middle a round iron grate, and four ventilating passages in the form of a cross, corresponding to the said furnace, extending from the extremities to the said grate. And in one corner of the said furnace there shall be a channel, rather large, always filled with coals, rising to the measure of one cane, or fifteen feet, or more or less corresponding to the grate. And around the circumference of the grate there shall be four earthen caps in the form of alembics. And in the middle there shall be one cap, fashioned indeed in the manner of the others, but standing in the air; and the other four shall be upon the foundation, and let the fire be arranged as has been said. And the mouth of the furnace shall be opposite the channel, namely in the corner. And there shall be iron instruments necessary for cleaning the grate and for drawing out the ashes.

And there is but one regimen, namely that it be placed in its vessel and in its furnace, and be cooked continuously without interruption.

Recipe: Take one pound of excellent Mercury, and place it in a mortar with coarse salt and vinegar of the best kind, and incorporate it to the consistency of a paste. Then, by pouring on hot water, wash it and vivify it, and make its blackness pass away; finally make it pass through leather, and it will pass in the manner of milk. Then to one ounce of our sulphur add four ounces of Mercury in a glass vessel sealed with the seal of Hermes. Then let it be placed in its secret furnace, and let the fire be kindled there, and it is multiplied, and increases, and becomes the flowing fountain of wisdom.

O well said! The sea of wisdom flows and ebbs, seethes and rests. And if you wish to act safely, always proceed with patience and continuity, and do not grow weary, nor hasten the work, until the whole has assumed the mode of the dry stone. For fixed sulphur, when it is with the coagulated thing, coagulating, naturally coagulates its Mercury through a long and frequent sublimation over it.

Therefore preserve these, namely earth and water; because when the water is mixed with the earth, it absorbs its dryness by its own dryness and thickens it by its tenacity, and makes it like itself in its own grossness, because every dry thing naturally desires its own moisture. Therefore delay and tempering are said to be in the magistery of the philosophers, and nature cannot pass by its own movement unless it is hindered by haste. Therefore let all things dissolve, and beware lest the spirits flee by the violence of fire, because you would utterly destroy the magistery.

Know, dearest son, that our whole magistery is nothing other than to make a right solution and a perfect coagulation: dissolve our stone, afterwards congeal it, and nothing more is sought. The moisture of our stone is dried little by little and by assuefaction in its own fire.

In our stone there are only two things, and they are of one nature: one is dry and firm and incombustible; the other is moist, volatile, and incorruptible. Therefore it is necessary that these two be tempered with one another, so that one does not let go of the other. For if you wish to apply heat in proportion to the fixed thing, the volatile thing will in no way be able to withstand it; and if you wish to apply heat in proportion to the volatile thing, the fixed thing would always be held in too much coldness and the work would never be perfected.

It is necessary, therefore, to apply heat in proportion to the moving thing, namely of the whole compound, so that all may be dissolved and become one permanent water. Therefore cook, cook, and cook again; and let not the long decoction weary you. Be long-suffering, patient, and continuous, and insist only upon the completion of the work, letting the rest go.

The first color of our stone after proper continuation, when it begins to coagulate, will be black, and it will last for forty days. Then it becomes white, and then Sol will work with its white sulphur, Mercury being converted into pure Luna. And if it shall have had a greater digestion, it will work with its red sulphur, Mercury being converted into the best gold.

And from this you ought to understand that Sol is a hermaphroditic body, that is, in itself containing two virtues, the lunary and the solar; because gold was first silver before it was gold.

Note, however, that when our fixed matter is white, it can never be destroyed by fire; and therefore you may give it as much fire as you wish, because its tincture in the furnace is always improved and becomes most red, like shed blood or the grains of pomegranates. If you wish to multiply it with the ferment from which it was at the beginning; and the whole will be converted within thirty days into a pure medicine, white or red according to what the ferment was.

Then you will take one ounce of its powder and cast it upon ten [ounces] of any metal whatever, and it will become pure gold or pure silver. Again you will take one ounce and cast it upon that now converted, and it will be a pure medicine; and as often as the medicine flows, like wax or oil, so often repeat [the operation]. And then it is called oil of gold, potable gold, balsam, fountain of life, and the river of paradise, the treasure of the whole world, and the hidden secret.

The End.