To an Anonymous Philosopher, a Treatise on the Most Secret Arcanum of the Ancient Philosophers

TREATISE ON THE MOST SECRET ARCANUM OF THE ANCIENT PHILOSOPHERS

By which not only all the diseases of the whole human body are wonderfully healed; but also the unclean and leprous bodies of the metals are transmuted into perfect lunar and solar [forms].

For the benefit of the sons of the Hermetic doctrine, now first published.
By an Anonymous Philosopher.

Transcribed and Translated from Elias Zetzner - Teatrum Chemicum tom 4
Philosopho Anonymo, Tractatus de secretissimo antiquorum philosophorum arcano

Preface to the Reader

The most wise Hermes Trismegistus, when he was questioned by Pymander what he wished to hear and to learn, replied: “I desire,” said he, “to know God and the causes of things.” So innate is the love of knowing in noble minds that their highest consolation and pleasure is to roam in the field of contemplation of the most exalted matters. For that contemplation, drawing its origin from the fount of eternity and ever looking back to its own source, never finds rest in perishable and transitory things; by an inborn instinct it always longs to treat of what is more sublime and higher.

Hence the ancient sages, not content with the contemplation of the stars and heavenly spheres, and of other physical things which are contained in this sublunary world—things all of them perishable and corruptible—searched far more deeply into nature’s most hidden secrets and discovered a most precious gem, which by a very great interval surpasses all the elements, leaving behind all things generated and brought forth from the corruptible elements—so that it has rightly been regarded by all the wise as a miracle of nature. For it exists, as it were, as the very center of all created things; indeed, within it the powers and virtues of all the stars, plants, stones, animals, and minerals subsist essentially and really, fully and sufficiently. Hence among all the things created in this world nothing is more precious or more useful than this very Gem.

It not only has a marvelous sympathy with all created things, but it also possesses an efficacious power to remove corruption from all the aforesaid things, to recall them to their interior anatomy, and to restore them to a youthful and fresh state. Likewise it embraces integrally the essential anatomy of the human microcosm, and both in a human being and in the aforementioned things it wondrously removes and eradicates every corruption and every cause of diseases. From this it comes about that all illnesses which by other medicines are considered most difficult, indeed impossible, to cure are, by a very easy method, suddenly and as if miraculously healed by this remedy and are, as it were, torn up by the roots.

Thus that illustrious Count Bernhard attested with shining clarity from his own experience, when he cured so many difficult and desperate diseases—too many to recount here—as he himself reports: that he healed gouty sufferers, epileptics, the paralyzed, those with stones, dropsical patients, consumptives, maniacs, and the frenzied, in a stupendous and most rare manner—though he had never studied medicine in the academic fashion. Many other philosophers likewise, who by tireless effort procured this precious Gem for themselves, achieved the same.

And in our own age the incomparable man Theophrastus Paracelsus, throughout all Germany, very often confirmed these things by many experiments; and because of its immense and almost innumerable virtues this Gem has been called by the wise the Philosophers’ Arcanum. This arcanum indeed is not only powerful and sufficient for curing diseases, but also purges and cleanses all the diseased bodies of the metals from leprous foulness and corruption, and brings them back to the integral and perfect form of gold and silver. Although this very claim appears ridiculous to the unlearned, its possibility can nevertheless be shown by the most evident reasons.

And so this most precious arcanum can be of use to us not only for preserving and wholly maintaining the health of the human body, but also for acquiring abundant riches for the happiest support of this life. Nay, what is greater: since it is the brightest mirror of the whole light of nature, and, as it were, a copy of the heavenly light, there are drawn from it many most profound mysteries which otherwise it is most difficult for human ingenuity to investigate or attain. Thus the ancient Magi, through knowledge of this mystery—as Bonus of Ferrara reports—long beforehand recognized the Incarnation of the Son of God, who was to restore the lost human race to the heavenly kingdoms. Likewise they foresaw our regeneration, the resurrection of the dead, and many other matters that agree in every way with the Holy Scriptures.

Does not the human mind rightly rejoice and exult to behold, from visible created things, the hidden and invisible things of God, and to contemplate with present eyes the immeasurable power of God and nature’s most profound mysteries, which are invisible? Surely no greater happiness can befall a man in this corruptible world. Hence it is that the ancient wise held this arcanum as their highest treasure; nor did they value any riches of this world so greatly. They communicated it to one another by word of mouth, and hid it in deepest silence—for pearls do not suit swine. And although many wrote about it, yet they concealed it in such wrappings that no one understands their writings unless he is himself among the knowledgeable; or else, only after many labors and most profound meditations, by the singular kindness of God, does a faithful seeker attain knowledge of that arcanum for himself. Truly it is to be lamented that this splendid, noble, and most useful part of our Philosophy in our times lies so despised and held in contempt. Very few there are who understand its most profound mysteries; yet very many, with Cyclopean rashness, thrust themselves into these most lofty matters. Those who have been trained in good letters are frightened by the sublimity and difficulty of the subject, so that they dread and neglect to touch the most wholesome investigation of it. Meanwhile idiots, who have not a grain of salt, and who grasp not the least spark of what nature makes possible, like swine wallowing in a fertile field, rather devastate and tear everything to pieces than build up or erect even a little in this noble theater.

They rely only on wavering opinions; and when it comes to investigating the causes of hidden things they are utterly blind—or at least one-eyed—so that it is no wonder if, when only the subjects of this most excellent art are in question, myriads of dissenting opinions arise. What then will they say about the preparation, on which the hinge of the whole business turns, and which is the most hidden of all in this sacred art? Hence there ceases to be any cause for wonder that so few, out of so great a number of seekers, attain the desired goal. And from this is clear how faulty is the reasoning of those who, because of the small number of discoverers, carelessly deny the possibility of this most outstanding art.

Accordingly, since no one can acquire a fundamental understanding of this art except by assiduous intercourse with the wise—those who have consecrated this hidden art to posterity under many riddles and veiled figures—the best rule of all is to notice where they agree; for there the truth is, without ambiguity and without sophistry.

Moreover, each writer has used his own style according to his liking; what one has hidden, another has revealed and spoken openly. Therefore, just as bees gather honey from many flowers, so ought you also to choose pearls out of the sandy and muddy places, to distinguish the true from the false, to separate the grain from the chaff. Thus at last, by long, a well-grounded experience and a keen, mature judgment—by the mercy of God—will make the hidden and concealed things manifest and plain to us, and the difficult easy; and we shall be admitted into those long-desired inner shrines of nature’s most occult secrets, where with open eyes we shall see that men of such eminent authority did not prescribe to us old wives’ tales or empty dreams, but matters serious and most health-giving—worthy to be known by heroic minds and by great kings and monarchs. For if these goods could be made to flow forth to the whole world, they would surely find a most pious and trustworthy (recipient). On the contrary, many evils might occur if they were possessed by a tyrant or a man of very wicked will. Wherefore this science has always been kept hidden out of great care on account of the unworthy.

But to come briefly to the truth that bears on the matter—so that it may be clear that all which has hitherto been said about the wondrous powers of this most precious Arcanum is true, and so that the possibility of these things may be understood—I will point out what, so far as I remember, has been stated by only a very few. Just as in the heart of man there is a living spring of blood which irrigates all the members of the human body, pouring into them motion and life, so too the most high Creator ordained that in the Sun—which is as it were the heart of heaven—there should be hidden a power of manifold efficacy: namely, an invisible celestial fire and life-giving heat that permeates all created things; in it all things created, both heavenly and earthly, are quickened and preserved in their being. In the Sun are all the virtues of the heavenly stars, which through its fiery breathings are disseminated into this lower world. All herbs and all trees bud and blossom by its vigor and power; all metals and stones are brought into their being by its heat. As Aristotle says: “The Sun and Man generate man.” And there is nothing in the world which, in the absence of its life-giving heat, is brought forth into its being or grows. This celestial Phœbus has produced in this lower world a peculiar subject, to which, as to a son, he has imparted all properties and powers in a sensible form, which he himself possesses in a celestial form—yet wrapped round with a new and most strong body and, as it were, bound with adamantine chains. If you are wise enough to be able to loosen these bonds, it will appear to you clothed in a very fair and most delightful garment. Yet this does not suffice: it must be led to a new generation, it must die and rise again from death; then it will appear in a new and incorruptible body, with a truly royal countenance, and under its scepter will be subjected all things that are in the sublunary world; and to it will be possible all the things that are possible under the celestial Phoebus.

And what is more: the things which the heavenly Phoebus accomplishes by succession and intervals of time, our Phoebus brings to completion suddenly, as it were in a moment. Just as the Sun hardly in a thousand years leads gold in the mines to its perfection, so our Arcanum in a few hours restores perfect health to the sick, and within the space of half an hour converts the leprous bodies of metals into perfect lunar and solar [forms]. Although many hold this to be an empty figment, nevertheless its probability can be sufficiently shown. For the first matter of all metals is one and the same, and they differ only according to greater or lesser digestion; and because Nature left many superfluities in their first composition from very slight causes, they are leprous and corruptible. Yet these superfluities can easily be separated from one another by the fiery virtue of our Arcanum (whereas by other means this can in no way be done on account of the strong mixture of the same); then the pure substance of the metal in a moment is matured and digested into perfect lunificum and solificum. Thus all masters skilled in this art unanimously attest.

For our Phoebus, since he exists in a tangible body, contains his power in a sensible form, whereas the heavenly Phoebus holds it in a most subtle, airy, and insensible spiritual form—therefore he works slowly and almost imperceptibly. And this is that Gamahæa of the Magi, by which many wonders have been wrought by the wise in this world—about which much is written among astrologers and astronomers, though few have attained knowledge of it.

Therefore if anyone will weigh the matter prudently, he will easily understand both the excellence and the certainty of our most worthy art. And so that a lover of truth may, with little labor, see the most beautiful concord of all the wise and, as it were, touch truth itself with his hands—whence he will at once be able to beware of all sophistries—I have condensed into a very brief compendium all the things written by trustworthy philosophers, nor have I omitted any word that pertains to the matter; for such brevity wonderfully sharpens both memory and judgment. In this I have especially labored to instruct lovers of truth openly about the subjects underlying the most efficacious philosophical arcanum; for if these are unknown, let no one persuade himself that he understands even a little of our art. For what sense will he make of what follows, if he does not know these?

Here one must prudently note that the wise, in their writings, often set forth manifest riddles to deter the unlearned; or they have most often spoken by similitudes and without distinction. Thus when they say “our gold is not common gold, because our gold is living but the gold of the vulgar is dead,” both statements are true; but, if the distinction is not supplied, the unwary reader is deceived. For living gold descends from dead gold, as Raymond (Lull) also plainly attests. Therefore common gold is not excluded: just as fire is the principle of kindling fire, so also gold is the principle of making gold.

Accordingly, one must observe that there is a remote material and a proximate material. If you look to the latter, it is rightly said that common gold is not the material of our arcanum, because so long as that gold remains in its vulgar form and is dead, it is useless for the philosophical Work. But if by the industry of a skilled philosopher it is duly prepared, so that what was previously dead becomes living, then it is the truest and most immediate matter from which our most excellent Arcanum is generated. Thus they leave the distinction of things to the reader’s practiced judgment; if this be neglected, the unwary falls into an inextricable labyrinth. And if with like cautions you diligently take heed, you will proceed happily in what follows will be able to proceed.

But to say more publicly about the Work that follows than the wise have said up to now seems ill-advised and not fitting. For enough has been said for those who understand, as to what is required for this art—since it is itself a gift of God, who grants it to no one without His singular grace—whose most holy name be blessed for all eternity.

Amen.

---

Here follows a catalogue of the authors contained in this little work

Rogerius Bacon;
Raymundus Lullius;
Rosarius Arnoldi;
Clangor Buccinae;
Rosarius Minor;
Richardus Anglicus;
Calid Rex;
Avicenna;
Bernhardus Comes;
Turba Philosophorum.

Roger Bacon, Book II
On the Mirror of Alchemy

The tincture is generated only from the Mercury of the Wise, which is called the First Matter, the Permanent Water, the Philosophers’ Vinegar, the Virgin’s Milk, corporeal Mercury— with which nothing foreign or alien is to be mixed, such as salts, alums, and vitriols— because from it alone the whole power of this magistery is produced. Every thing is therefore dissolved, in order that it may be multiplied.

The aforesaid Mercury is the root and the tree, from which infinite and many offspring arise and grow.

The first task in making the Elixir is sublimation, which is nothing else than the subliming/refining of our Stone, wherein it is cleansed of all its superfluities.

Fixed parts and volatile are not separated from one another, but remain united and are fixed together, so that both may have an easy fusion in the fire.

Take, then, the said Mercury; place it, in a sealed glass, upon its warm bed for a Philosophical month, until it begins in itself to putrefy and to coagulate, and all its moisture is consumed within it, even turned into a black earth. In this completed sublimation there is the true separation of the four elements: for the cold and watery element is changed into a hot and dry earth— which is the “head of the crow,” the mother of the remaining elements. Thus our work is nothing other than a transmutation of nature and a conversion of the elements: the spiritual becomes corporeal, the liquid becomes thick, the watery becomes igneous. Next let the black earth be imbibed with its own water in a gentle heat and dried, until it is sufficiently cleansed and brought to whiteness.

This is what is called the white foliated earth, the sulphur of the nature of the magnet; here a new conjunction of Sun and Moon is made, and the dead body is raised to life. When our fruitful earth is moistened with its own proper water in its thirst, it drinks it with great eagerness, until it becomes pregnant and thereafter bears fruit a hundredfold.

Now proceed further with the white earth; increase the fire for it until, by the motion of continuous heat, it is digested into an excellent redness, which is called red coral, red sulphur, blood, purple gold, burnt saffron. Repeat this very process three or four times with fresh matter, and you will have the most perfect red Stone, like blood, with which you will dye Mercury and all imperfect metals.

Moreover, you must take three parts of the aforesaid Sulphur, add one part of very pure gold reduced to a subtle calx, and two parts of its water. Mix these three things finely until from them there is made one inseparable thing; then digest these in their own furnace into a red stone.

Raymundus Lullius

The Sun is the father of all metals; the Moon is the mother, borrowing her light from the Sun. In these two the whole magistery consists. Gold must be reduced into fixed living silver (quicksilver), which is hot and dry.

Common quicksilver cannot be held in the fire except by another, bodily quicksilver, which is hot and dry and more digested than the common.

If, therefore, our corporeal quicksilver has been changed into “running” quicksilver that does not wet the fingers, the two embrace one another with a bond of love, such that they are never separated.

And thus they are essentially united; each enters the other. The phlegmatic moisture of vulgar quicksilver is dried up, its dampness destroyed, and it becomes black like coal. In this way the vulgar quicksilver is turned to a hot and well-tempered nature.

Accordingly, vulgar quicksilver cannot be perfectly mixed with bodies unless the bodies are reduced into the form and likeness of quicksilver. Therefore, when you wish to mingle gold with vulgar quicksilver, you must first reduce the very body of gold into the form of quicksilver; then by the bond of natural love the male is joined to the female. For the quicksilver of the body is actually hot and dry, but the vulgar quicksilver is cold and moist passively, like a little female kept in her chamber at a temperate heat until the eclipse—that is, blackness—which is the secret of our true dissolution; for then they cannot be separated, and they are changed into a powder whiter than snow.

Likewise, in the Testament on the matter of our Stone: one must know that we have introduced “foreign things” only by way of likenesses for this magistery, although in truth our Stone is a single thing to which we add nothing extraneous and from which we subtract nothing. We have described three stones—mineral, animal, and vegetable—although but one Stone of our art exists. For this composite consists of three: body, soul, and spirit. It is called “mineral” because it is a mineral; “animal” because it has a soul; “vegetable” because it grows and multiplies. In this lies the whole secret of our magistery—namely Sun, Moon, and the Water of Life. And because there is the life of the soul and the life of bodies, by which our Stone is quickened and sustained, we therefore call it “heaven” and “quintessence,” and “incombustible oil,” and by countless other names—something incorruptible, like heaven in the continual circulation of its motion. Moreover, many err who think that some single thing, produced by nature as an individual, has the power to transmute metals; this is false, for the principles of our art are set forth in the book On the Quintessence.

For Mercury extracted from gold, acting under the condition of the male and with the assisting form, is essential—it gives being to the Stone; it is dissolved in the belly of the female, which stands in the passive role. From these two, namely the mineral and the vegetable, the Philosophers’ Stone is composed; and nothing else ought to be mixed here but male and female. Hence arises our “heaven,” or vegetable Mercury, which is of the nature of heaven and is called the Quintessence, the Stone of Hermes.

The modes of preparation are many in the Philosophers: coagulation, sublimation, distillation, separation, calcination, imbibition/ceration, fixation—whose entire meaning is decoction, for in our decoction alone all these methods are perfected. And the manner of our decoction is this: compose the matter according to its proper measure; set it in its vessel, its furnace, and its fire; and cook it continually until it reaches the complement of maturity—which is completed in ten months—without manual operation, from the beginning to the end of the whole magistery. Yet by assigning these “methods” they wished to signify the subtlety of our art, so that the understanding of the unwise might be wrapped in a shadowy veil—lest the unworthy reach the summit of our secret hill—and be left in error, until the Sun and Moon are reduced into one globe, which, unless by the command of God, is impossible to be done.

Rosarius Arnoldi

Without Sun and Moon no tincting body is generated. From gold, then, and quicksilver you will extract the tincting Stone, because they are of one nature. For gold gives a golden color, silver a silvery color. Therefore whoever knows how to dye quicksilver with gold and with silver will have the art of the magistery.

Do not, then, work with anything except quicksilver and gold for (making) gold; for quicksilver is the father of all the metals, and into it all things are resolved. It is homogeneous and formless in nature, and by continual decoction it is purified and thickened, and by white and red sulfur it is coagulated into a perfect metal; moreover by its own nature it is convertible, and becomes each thing among those it embraces from the “planets” (i.e., the metals).

The first work, therefore, is that you take a body in which red and fixed sulfur is contained, and reduce it to the first matter, that is, into quicksilver. For bodies must be made incorporeal and volatile; thus they are brought back into the nature of spirit, so that the spirit may be sublimed together with them. For the solution of the body happens together with the coagulation of the spirit, and the coagulation of the spirit with the solution of the body, so that they become one and are never separated from each other. For then all things are reduced to their first homogeneous nature, which is quicksilver. When, therefore, they are dissolved in that very homogeneity, then they are joined together at once, because each acts upon its partner like itself. Thus the Elixir consists of those things only, and of no others. For if Mercury is joined with the roots of the Sun, a perfect elixir is made.

Therefore “eat of the fat flesh, not of the leprous ass,” and you will have gold and silver. The method, then, of converting a body into quicksilver is by quicksilver alone and by a conversion of natures, or of the elements, until they are converted into the nature of fire— which is the most precious arcanum of our quintessence.

For our operation is nothing other than a change of natures— that is, a friendly commixture of the cold with the hot, and of the moist with the dry.

The dry first becomes cold, then moist, and thereafter hot. Then our fire is kindled inextinguishably. The modes of regimen are four: to dissolve, to wash, to reduce, and to fix; and because quicksilver has in itself an earthy foulness and something combustible, and the substance of wateryness, it is necessary to remove the superfluities if you wish to produce from it a perfect medicine.

Clangor Buccinae (The Sound of the Trumpet)

The Sun does not warm the earth nor imprint his power upon it except through the mediation of the Moon, which, among the other stars, is more receptive of the Sun’s light and heat; so too the Sun by himself does not perfect the tincture without the mediation of the Moon, because he has not yet reached that subtlety by which he may tinge. Therefore the Moon is necessarily required there, to subtilize the Sun himself and make him rare and volatile. Hence Hermes says: “The Sun is its father, the Moon its mother, and the field in which the solar seed must be sown.” And thus we need nothing else from which our Stone may be made than Sun and Moon.

The Sun says: “In my sister the Moon the degree of our wisdom increases, and not with any other of my servants.” Moon: “I will give you my beauty—namely, the solar light—when by the least conjunctions you are exalted.” The Sun is hot and dry; the Moon is cold and moist. The Moon receives the soul from the Sun, and the lamp of solar light is poured into the lunar lamp, and a mingling of lights is made. When my body shall be coagulated, I shall be the rising Sun at my birth, and my body will be turned into solar splendor.

A proper, smoky, and most subtle substance of quicksilver and sulfur is generated by our art, in which the spirit of the Quintessence lies hidden and dwells—this is the Mercury of the Philosophers, and it is one thing composed from two: an unctuous vapor containing in itself the nature of both. The one cannot be fixed without the other; the other is the proper essential matter of our sulfur.

With mercurial water all metals are dissolved which cannot be dissolved in any other water. If, therefore, you seek a medicine that engenders metals, its origin will be from metals; for nothing suits a thing except what is nearest to it in nature.

The whole benefit of the art is in the Sun and Mercury. Joined into one, they constitute the Philosophers’ Stone and possess an infinite tincture. For in the body it acquires a color more ruddy than blood; indeed, a small amount of such color, infused into the Moon, turns a great quantity of white into a citrine hue. When, therefore, the Sun is composed with Mercury, there will be a pregnant seed. For the soul, spirit, and tincture can then be drawn from them by fire moderated—by a temperate heat administered from without—there is extracted from the metallic matter a certain unctuous moisture, mingled with subtle earth and most well purified, which is called the Elixir. This tempered heat ought not to exceed the internal heat, so that this internal heat may retain with itself its moisture which it naturally draws along.

For every elemented body has within itself a radical or formal heat by which it persists and by which its seed is multiplied; for this digests the matter to its due form and species. Then whatever is superfluous and unclean is by gentle decoction gradually purged, matured, and improved. But the seed in Mercury cannot be extracted except by means of a coagulant, which is the sulfur of gold.

The white and the red proceed from one root with no other body intervening.

Our whole magistery is accomplished with our water, which has the greatest power to alter and penetrate bodies. Therefore it dissolves bodies by a purely philosophical solution, so that they are converted into water as they were at first, and it draws the soul from perfect bodies and makes the dead thing alive. This water is at first unclean, gross, and sooty; but by the operation and sublimation of the art it is renewed, cleansed, thickened, and coagulated into white and red sulfur.

The tincting spirit is the Philosophers’ Mercury mixed with its white or red sulfur; this Mercury is the permanent tincture, which is extracted from perfect bodies by dissolution, distillation, sublimation, and subtiliation. And such Mercury is called incombustible oil, Soul, Air, the splendor of bodies—because it gives immortal life to dead bodies and illuminates them. Extract, therefore, this Mercury, or Stone, both from bodies and from quicksilver, because they are of one nature. For whatever of truth there is in this art consists only in joining the moist to the dry—that is, the liquid spirit to the perfect pure body. Their operation is solution and coagulation.

To dissolve is to turn the body into spirit; to coagulate is to make the spirit corporeal and fixed. Thus you will obtain the whole magistery. To extract the four elements is nothing other than to arouse the very seminal powers, that is, the active and passive qualities.

Therefore, to create the Stone, do not take from the first elements nor from the last—for the first are too gross—but from the middle ones.

Rosarius Minor

Mercury alone is the cause of perfection in metals; therefore let us choose it alone and strive to perfect it. For Mercury is the Stone which the Philosophers everywhere praise and honor. In it lies the whole of what we seek. Nor did God create any creature nobler than it, save the rational soul; for it contains within itself soul, body, and spirit. The soul gives life, the spirit tinges, the body fixes. These three exist in the single Mercury, which is congealed by the virtue of pure, non-burning sulfur. This Mercury is called “dry water,” which is uniformly thickened by the power of the said sulfur—and this is our Stone.

From Mercury all bodies have their origin, and from it they are generated, and into it they are again converted. Thus gold, which is generated from pure and living Mercury, is again converted into living Mercury; and only by living silver (quicksilver), and by no other thing, are all bodies converted into living silver. Yet that living silver which is made from gold is of far greater power: it fixes more quickly than that living silver which was never a body, because the latter is much surpassed by the former in sulfurous force. For living silver from gold is hot, masculine, and dry; and these two (i.e., gold and its mercury) differ in no respect as to matter, but only as to digestion, inasmuch as one of them has been cooked by natural heat in the bowels of the earth. Wherefore the tincture is nothing other than red sulfur extracted from gold, since the pure substance of Mercury is coagulated and tinged by the virtue of non-burning sulfur. Accordingly, all perfection is in pure and fixed living silver and in no other thing. If you know how to cleanse and fix the living silver of the metals, you will have your desire. For color in living silver is caused by sulfur. Consider the body of gold while it is melted in the raging flame of fire: weigh well the utmost violence and power of the fire; consider also the firm steadiness of the metallic body and its uncorrupted beauty, so that the human eye can hardly bear the sight of them both; and you will plainly see that all things which are easily burned up in the fire are of no account—things that would contribute not even a little to the art of our magistery.

Therefore remember: wherever you find Mercury that is pure and fixed, hold it as the highest Stone, to which nothing can be equal. When you make it endure the force of fire—being congealed with its own proper sulfur—then from it you will make a most noble and excellent tincture.

The truest solution and calcination of Sun and Moon is done with living Mercury and the Water of Life, in a hot and moist fire. By Mercury’s power the Sun and Moon are lifted up and sublimed, so that they may fix the Mercury so much the sooner. Thus the bodies become thin and are converted into spirit, and the spirits become bodies; all volatile things, by continual and long cooking and by the addition of a fixed thing, are given form. When spirits are sublimed together with things that by nature cling to them eagerly, then they are quickly fixed. But they must be sublimed with pure things, so that they themselves may come forth pure.

Richard The Englishman - Richardus Anglicus

The Sulfur of the Philosophers is a simple, living fire, quickening other bodies and maturing them so that it supplies nature’s defect—since it is of superabundant maturity—being a hot and dry vapor generated from the purest terrestrial dryness. In the Sun the most perfect sulfur is found, because it is more digested and cooked.

How, then, can those sulfurs be drawn from perfect bodies? It is answered: this can be done by dissolving the body and reducing it to the first matter, which is living silver (quicksilver), from which they were made in the beginning—and this without any admixture of foreign things; for such things do not amend our Stone, but rather corrupt it, because the medicine is a simple nature produced from the mercurial water. Therefore dissolve the body into Mercury with Mercury; otherwise you will not be able to obtain its hidden virtue. And thus our Stone is composed of a twofold thing—namely, body and spirit—which is called the Rebis, and yet is one. The unripe must be aided by the ripe, that they may be matured. With Mercury, or living silver, bodies are dissolved, their natures are laid open and disclosed, and they are reduced to the first matter.

But Mercury congealed from bodies cannot do this, because by congelation that sulfur has been altered in its nature, so that it does not corrode as the first (Mercury) does. Therefore dissolve the body in mercurial water—let the solution be through the putrefaction of body and spirit in moisture; for putrefaction is the solution and separation of all natures, or elements, bound together among themselves, which by conversion are again joined and more strongly united in nature than before. Thus Mercury in the higher air is changed and transformed into a higher form of nature than it had previously. Thus the Philosophers’ red sulfur is in gold, and the white sulfur in silver; and yet both sulfurs are in gold. Other things do not have this, therefore they cannot give it: the worse is not perfected with the better. Thus with this (sulfur) even imperfect metals are restored to soundness; diseased bodies contain within themselves a fetid and combustible sulfur. Therefore the unripe must be helped by the ripe to be led on to more-than-perfection, that they may be matured. One must not dye except with those things in which the power of dyeing resides. Dye, then, with gold and silver, for these impart the golden and the silvery color and nature.

Calid Rex - The King

This our Magistery of the Secret Stone, and the honored office, is the secret of the secrets of God, which He has hidden from His people, nor has He wished to reveal it to any save those who, as sons, have faithfully merited it and have recognized His goodness and greatness.

The composition in this Magistery is the conjunction, or marriage, of the congealed spirit with the dissolved body; but that is not completed except after putrefaction, for spirits are not congealed except with the solution of the body, and likewise the body is not dissolved except with the congelation of the spirit; and between the solution of the body and the congelation of the spirit there is no difference of time nor a different work: their end is one, and one and the same operation goes round upon the two together. The soul is not joined to the body unless by the change of each from its own virtue and property, and after the conversion of their natures. And this is the solution and congelation of the Philosophers. The spirit will not dwell in the body, nor remain with it at all, until that body shall have a subtlety and thinness such as the spirit has. When it has been attenuated and made subtle, and has gone forth from its density—from thickness and grossness and corporeity—into spirituality, then it will be mingled with the subtle spirits and be imbibed in them, and thus each will become one and the same, nor will they be separated, just as water mixed with water is not separated. He, therefore, who can subtilize and dissolve bodies, and also whiten and redden them, will attain the magistery.

But unless you subtilize the body until the whole becomes water, it will neither rust (take the stain) nor putrefy; for the subtle and the dense, when mixed, are one substance. For spirits are fugitive until bodies are mingled with them. He, therefore, who converts the soul into body and the body into soul will tinge every body. By decoction things are generated, and they are changed from their substances and colors into other substances and other colors.

Our Stone is manifestly cold and moist, and in secret it is hot and dry. We must, therefore, hide what is manifest; and in the hidden there is an oil hot and dry—and this tinges, and nothing else. But that which is manifest is cold and moist, and is a watery smoke that corrupts. Therefore this cold and moist must be coagulated with a substance. These infirmities must be destroyed in the fire, and by degrees of fire. Now heat and dryness destroy the cold and the watery and the burning (sooty) by divine power. And then this spirit is changed into a most noble body, and does not flee from the fire, and runs like oil, which is the living tincture and the Permanent Water which ever lives and remains, and the Philosophers’ Vinegar, which raises to life and enlightens all the dead. And this hidden thing is of the nature of the Sun and of Fire. But the perfect preparation of bodies and spirits is fulfilled by the exercise of four regimens: the first is resolution into water; the second, smoothing into air; the third, reduction into the nature of fire; the fourth, compression into earth. And this Hermes intimates when he says: “It ascends from earth into heaven gently, with great ingenuity. The wind bears it in its belly,” because by the wind, that is, by vapor, it is made airy. For unless our Stone shall have become airy, it is not joined with the permanent spirit; and again it descends into earth, when the spirit becomes body, so that over the fire it may have continuance forever and fusion without fuming.

Avicenna

Gold is the most perfect body, the king and lord of stones; it is neither diminished in the air nor burned in the fire—rather, it is improved in it—and in it nothing superfluous or deficient is found. For it is created from the most subtle and brightest substance of quicksilver (argentum vivum) and from pure, red, fixed, and clear sulfur, which tinges the very substance of quicksilver.

Gold is the body and the ferment of the Elixir, both white and red. Therefore the philosophers have magnified it. And as the Sun stands among the stars, so does gold among metallic bodies; for the Sun by his light and splendor perfects all plants, shoots, and fruits. Hence Hermes says: a true tincture never exists without the red stone. And when gold has been made more-than-perfect—in double, or quadruple, or a hundredfold, or a thousandfold—it so perfects the sick and imperfect bodies of the metals.

Quicksilver, however, is cold and moist and airy. And it alone is a living spirit; indeed, in the world there is nothing else such as it is, which could accomplish such operations as are accomplished through it. It penetrates all bodies, and it is the ferment of the bodies with which it is mixed; and then the whole will be an elixir for whiteness and for redness. It is the perennial water, the Water of Life, the Virgin’s Milk, the spring and the alum from which the one who drinks does not die. When it is living it has certain operations; when it is dead it has other operations; and when it is dissolved it has the greatest operations. The wise make it “look upon the fire,” and then it performs operations and changes; for as it is changed, so it changes; as it is tinged, so it tings; as it is coagulated, so it coagulates. Therefore, among all the “nominable” (workings) of quicksilver, generation is to be preserved. The water alone by itself does everything—dissolves all things, coagulates all things, destroys all things—without anyone’s aid.

The conversion of a body into water is the tincture of any body. And our intention should be nothing else than to choose the purest substance of Mercury from the bodies themselves.

Count Bernhard

The common metallic bodies which nature has merely completed in the mine are dead and cannot perfect the imperfect. But if by art we take them up and perfect them, ten or twelve times, they tend to infinity: for then they are penetrating, entering, tincting, and more-than-perfect, and are living with respect to the common ones. Therefore those common metals, while they are in the form of metal, are not our Stone, but their form must be changed and renewed—and this cannot be done unless they are first reduced to the First Matter.

Now the First Matter of the metals is sulfur and Mercury—that is, the masculine and feminine seed—which, when united together in power so that the one has within itself the virtue of the other, this union is called the First Matter.

Every thing has its own proper and principal seed, from which it has its root and by which it is multiplied. It also requires a thing like itself, that it may be generated and increased. For nature increases in its own species and nature, and not in another: thus metal multiplies metal. Let our medicine, therefore, be from two things of one essence—that is, from a mercurial union of the fixed and the not-fixed, the spiritual and the corporeal, the cold and the dry, the hot and the moist—and it can be made from no other thing.

And so, to make this precious Stone, we take only the substance of Mercury, by art most excellently purified and penetrating, tincting and enduring the test of fire, not separable into diverse parts, but only and always tenacious of the single mercurial essence alone. Then it is a thing that unites in the deep root of the metals, corrupting their imperfect form and introducing another new one, according to the power of the elixir or tincting medicine.

Nature of itself makes the seminal matters and creates them; afterward art joins them. Nor can our art by itself create the seeds, but when nature has created them, then art itself joins them, as the handmaid of nature. We therefore reduce metallic bodies to their principles, so that by that reduction there may be a conjunction of a new matter of the same root; and thus these two natures help one another mutually, and each communicates its virtue to the other, so that a matter may be made more worthy than it was before, when the two were separate. Thus, without this reduction, our Stone cannot be made.

In these two seeds are the four qualities of the elements according to their power. For in the ripe seed, as the more worthy, there are present in quality the two more worthy elements, which are fire and air; and in the other seed, raw and imperfect in its nature, there are present the other two qualities and two other, imperfect and less worthy, namely water and earth. And thus in this art there is nothing other than these two seminal natures of the same root, substance, and essence—of the single mercurial substance, viscous and dry—which joins itself to no thing in this world except its own body, as Morienus bears witness. “Make the aquatic hard”: that is, join the masculine seed (which is nothing other than Mercury cooked and matured, which holds within itself the element of fire) with the feminine seed, that is, the living water; and place them in a round little chamber, warmed with a gentle continuous heat, and leave them there so long until they are converted into the philosophical water, which then is the matter of the Stone. For it has within itself the nature of the fixed—which fixes it—and a spiritual nature which exalts it, making it a spiritual and worthy substance of the most noble Stone.

Turba Philosophorum:

1. Take a body, that is, earth, and beat it out into thin plates; mix this with “sea water,” which, when it is ruled, is called the permanent water.

2. Fit this composition together well, and join kindred to kindred; for the same nature that puts to death and reduces to nothing is also the one that quickens and renews. These natures complete one another, and after their enmity they, in a gentle fire, become reconciled and friendly. Therefore take quicksilver and congeal it in the body of the magnet, which turns gold into a red fire—this is done by boiling and roasting.

3. The secret of the work, then, consists of male and female, that is, of the agent and the patient. The male rejoices in receiving the female and is helped by her; the female receives from the male the tinging seed and is colored by him. Mix them together, and you will have the tinging spirit composed of male and female; and govern them according to the four seasons of the year. In winter, dissolve (for it is of a cold complexion); in spring, cook; in summer, coagulate (the flowers are produced); in autumn, fruits are matured. You cannot make red gold unless you have first made it white.

4. The foundation of this art is the most biting vinegar, which, when it is mixed with the body, is retained and becomes one with it, and it turns gold into pure spirit; and if you place the body upon the fire without the vinegar, it will be spoiled. Therefore do these things more gently, until the sulfur becomes incombustible; for at first the moisture is cold, to which immoderate fire is hostile. Vinegar burns the body and turns it into ashes, and destroys its spirituality.

5. When the male is joined to the female, let the female not be fleeing, and the whole compound becomes spiritual.

6. Gum is nothing other than the permanent water. Without gold the gum is not amended.

7. In the whole regimen, nourishment, and trituration you ought to use no other thing than that known permanent water. For its force is a spiritual blood, which, when ground together and incorporated with the body, turns it into spirit, and it (the water) is turned into body: for mixed with each other and reduced to one, they mutually convert each other.

8. This permanent water is called the Stone and is the pure Water of Life. Likewise it is called Gum, poison, vinegar. But no tinging poison is generated without the Sun and its shadow.

9. Between the Philosophers’ (Stone) and the permanent water there is the greatest kinship, because each is attracting of the other.

10. He who joins quicksilver to the body of the magnet, and the female to the male, draws out the hidden nature by which bodies are colored.

11. For quicksilver is a fire that burns bodies, puts them to death, and constricts them by its (single) regimen, which is but one.

12. And the more it is mixed with the body, the more the body is broken down, ground, and made subtle; and from this there results a tincture and an Ethelia that does not flee the fire, which constricts all bodies and retains and colors all spirits. A body cannot tinge itself unless the hidden spirit be drawn out from its belly and become body, soul, and spirit. For that thick, earthy (part) does not tinge, but the fine part of the nature tinges, which constricts the body itself. But when you govern the body of copper and draw from it the most subtle (part), that most subtle portion is turned into a tincture and tinges the dense; that is, the dry is joined to the moist, and from this an unchanging tincture is generated.

13. This tincture is life to those things to which it is joined.

14. Bear patiently, however, the length of the decoction, and you will have your desire.

15. The male, having embraced his female, quickly passes into her body, is melted, broken down, and restrained; and thereafter the redness does not die.

16. Because the nature of these two is one; otherwise they would not so quickly mingle, nor contain one another, nor become one.

17. Nature is not amended except by its own nature; therefore do not introduce to them anything foreign, neither powder nor any other thing, but let conception suffice for us, and the true son will be born. Cook gently.

18. Revere the king and his wife, and do not burn them with excessive fire, but govern them until they become black, then white, then red—last of all the tinging poison.

19. Corsuffle is the whole compound which must be roasted seven times; then it tinges every body and is called lead, tin, coin, flower of iron, flower of copper, flower of gold.

20. Body and spirit must be turned into earth and ashes. Copper, when it is burned, becomes better than it was before, because when its moisture is thickened it receives life and is increased, like other coppers. Therefore our work is by no means a tincture unless it be carefully cooked until it becomes powder and the seed has been spiritually effected through putrefaction. Thus, and not otherwise, is the color found.

21. Copper, falling into its own water, is called the ferment of Gold, and then the redness appears.

22. In the belly of the Corsuffle the true nature is hidden; and this true nature is that tinging Spirit which it had from the permanent water. Therefore grind the body, break it down, imbue it; and this makes a subtle and impalpable Spirit—namely when it is ground—until it becomes powder, which is not made except by a very strong decoction and continuous trituration.

23. For the art needs two natures, because the precious is not made without the vile, nor the vile without the precious. These two are united together in putrefaction and decoction, and the one contains the other lest it flee.

24. The work, then, is from two, and these two together they call the composite.

25. For the body which was not water must together with water become water, and water be mixed with water, and they become one; let each be turned into water until the whole becomes water.

26. For by the heat of the water the whole is easily made water.

27. As a human being is composed of soul and body, so must we join two things, whose conjunction is compared to spouses; from the embrace of whom there leaps forth the golden water. Therefore set up a war between copper and quicksilver until they come to destruction and are corrupted; then copper, conceiving the quicksilver, coagulates it, and the body of each is broken down and turned into powder by careful and abundant imbibition and decoction. By this grinding there is drawn from the body a spiritual, pure, and sublime soul which tinges every body and is the Sulfur of nature.

28. That hidden, tinging soul and sulfurous nature cannot be drawn forth unless bodies are made incorporeal—that is, a thin spirit—by the continuance of cooking. But all this is done by quicksilver, because it is igneous, burning every body more than fire, and putting bodies to death, since every body that is mixed with it is ground down and made to die.

29. Let each (of the two) be fugitive.

30. Becoming once more fugitive, through the intervention of fire they embrace and contain one another. Now when the four natures have ascended into heaven such that fire falls into air, air into water, water into earth—thus the earth is the container of them all; and the end of the whole work is powder and ashes.

31. Subtle spirits have made the very body a thin spirit, and have dyed the body into poison. Therefore let the things be attenuated by fire until those things ascend like spirits.

32. The science of this art is nothing other than quicksilver joined to the body and the magnet, and the sublimation of the water and the vapor. Let there be no sulfur without the lime of quicksilver and the water of sulfur.

33. One sulfur is made from many sulfurs by the mingling of that which fights with fire and that which does not. This arcanum proceeds from two compositions—sulfur and the magnet. This compound, reduced to one, is called water and the golden spirit. And if these are turned into quicksilver, they are called the water of sulfur and fiery venom, which, when it has been truly whitened, has cast off its dense and weighty bodies.

34. In a slow fire first the moisture is corrupted; and when all things have been made one, the bodies (are made) incorporeal. For every body is dissolved with the spirit with which it is mixed and becomes spiritual; and every spirit is altered and colored by bodies. When there is mixed with that spirit a coloring that endures against the fire, it becomes a fixed and incombustible sulfur, which previously was a fugitive sulfur. He who can make the fleeing spirit red in a body joined to it, and then can draw out from that body and spirit its own fine nature hidden in its belly—he will complete the work.

35. Quicksilver, when it is mixed with its own tincture, tinges. Vapor is contained by another quicksilver of its own kind lest it flee; this happens as soon as that quicksilver and copper are joined. Thus quicksilver is mixed with quicksilver until one and the same pure water is made from the two combined.

36. By the imbibition of water alone you will come to the true end of the work.

37. When copper has been ground and turned into water, it becomes fugitive and is changed into spirit; and the spirit (is changed) into body; and they are bound one to the other and are turned into a tinging soul.

38. Quicksilver appears white to the sight; but when smoke comes to it, it is turned red and becomes poison.

39. Therefore the quicksilver which is made from many (things) is far and wide (varied): as two are three, and four one, and two one.

40. The whole perfection of sulfur consists in decoction.

41. There are only these two living silvers: the moisture of the Sun and the spirit of the Moon.

Therefore join the dry to the moist—that is, earth and water—and cook by fire and air until the spirit is dried up in the soul, for the thin, tinging (thing) takes its power from the thinnest part of earth, water, and air. Bodies are tinged and sealed by bodies.

53. When the red composition appears, the regimen has been kept by which bodies are turned into spirit and are bound one to the other—(a regimen) which has a soul that tings and begets.

54. With three decoctions multiplied, our vinegar becomes glutinous and is coagulated by the fire, and its nature is converted into nature; the “spittle of the Moon,” joined to the light of the Sun, is frozen.

55. Take the white tree; build for it a house surrounded by dew; put into it a man of great age, a hundred years old; leave them in their house for eighty days. That old man does not cease to cook from the sweat of that tree, until his soul is transformed into a youthful body, and the father has been made a son.

56. The philosophers condemned to death that woman who killed her husband.

57. For the belly of that woman is full of poison. Therefore make a tomb for the dragon, and bury the woman with him; and the dragon, firmly joined to that woman—as he kills her the more and coils around her—the more his body, mixed in the woman’s limbs, inclines toward death and is wholly turned into blood. They set this in the sun until the blood is consumed and dries up. Then the poison appears and the hidden is made manifest; and thus no useful thing is made from the elements without the commixture of male and female.

58. This work, however, is governed by subtle meditation.

59. There is only one tincture of the Philosophers.

60. All our science is the nature of male and female. At the beginning of the mixing, the crude and sincere elements must be mixed over a gentle fire, and you must beware of kindling the fire, until in that mild fire they are dried. Liquefaction is the head of this art, because the moist becomes most thick, and the body itself becomes spirit, and the fleeing spirit becomes strong, fighting against the fire. Therefore convert the elements, and you will find what you seek. The compound begets itself, and without itself there does not sprout that which is sought.

61. To burn is nothing other than to make white; and to make red is to make alive.

62. The definition of this art is the liquefaction of the body and the separation of the soul from the body; for our copper has a soul and a body. Therefore the body must be broken and the soul separated from it. The subtle thing of nature penetrates the body and—being the very soul of quicksilver—by fiery virtue perfects and enlivens the body.

63. The sign of perfect decoction is first blackness, then whiteness, and last the highest redness.

64. The body must be broken down until it dies; then you can draw out its soul, which is the tinging spirit.

64 (again). The whole magistery is that the higher be made the lower and the lower the higher; and the composition is of a twofold complexion: one is moist, the other dry.

65. Let these, when they are cooked, be one. Seek out its companion, and bring nothing alien to it.

Conclusion

From the foregoing it is clearer than the noonday light how firm are the foundations of this most noble science; for there is in them nothing obscure or ambiguous—though, as is common with the writings of the Philosophers, they are not to be taken according to the bare sound of the words. I have at least gathered, as it were, the very kernel, and such things as consistently, according to the simple letter, convey the author’s genuine meaning, nor is any other interpretation to be sought.

What I have compressed into such brevity I know of no one who until now has either dared or attempted to achieve.

Although this little work, to the view, is slight and small, in reality it is rare and of great price. For it contains the greatest and most hidden secret of the ancient Philosophers: if we look for a medicine by which the human body might be freed from all infirmities and enjoy the happiest health, it can be sufficiently obtained from here. But if it be riches—things of great use in the weightiest affairs—these too, for those who seriously search into the mysteries of nature, are granted to be found here in abundance.

Although the chief secret, wherein the main aim of the whole matter especially consists, is kept in the hidden school, nevertheless the first beginnings and foundations have been set forth clearly enough. The rest is committed to the diligence of him who aspires to this greatest gift of God.

Farewell.

---

LATIN VERSION

Arcanum Philosoph.

SEQUITUR CATALOGUS AUTORUM QUI IN HOC OPVSCOLO CONTINENTVR.

Rogerius Baco.
Raymundus Lullius.
Rosarius Arnoldi.
Clamor Buccinae.
Rosarius Minor.
Richardus Anglicus.
Calid Rex.
Avicenna.
Bernhardus Comes.
Turba Philosophorum.


ROGERIVS BACO LIBRO II.
De speculo Alchimia.

Tinctura solumodo generatur ex Mercurio Sapientum, qui nominatur prima materia, aqua permannens, Acetum Philosophorum, lac virginis, Mercurius corporalis, cum quo nihil extranei vel alieni commisceatur, uti sunt salia, alumina, & vitriola, quia exipso solo tota virtus hujus Magisterii generatur. Quaelibet res ideo resolvitur, ut multiplicari possit.

Praedictus Mercurius radix est & arbor, ex qua infinita & multi fami oriuntur, & crescunt.

Primus labor ad faciendum elixir est sublimatio, quae nihil aliud / aluid est, quam sublitiatio nostri lapidis, in qua mundatur ab omnibus suis superfuitatibus.

Fixæ partes & volatiles non separantur ab invicem, sed unitæ manent & simul fixantur, ut utraque facilem habeant fusionem in igne.

Accipe igitur prædictum Mercurium, quem in vitro sigillato pone in suum lectum calidum, per mensem Philosophicum, donec in seipso incipiat putrescere & coagulari, omnisque sua humiditas in ipso sit consumpta, etiam in terram nigram conversa. In istâ sublimatione completa est vera separatio quatuor elementorum. Quia frigidum & aqueum elementum mutatur in terram calidam & siccam, quæ caput est corvi, mater reliquorum elementorum; sic opus nostrum nihil aliud est quàm transmutatio naturæ & conversio elementorum. Spirituale fit corporeum, liquidum fit spissum, aqueum fit igneum. Porro terra nigra suâ aquâ in lento calore imbibatur, & exiccetur, donec sufficienter mundata sit, & ad albedinem deducta.

Quæ tamen nominatur terra alba foliata, Sulphur naturæ Magnesiæ; ibi facta est nova conjunctio Solis & Lunæ, & resuscitatio mortui corporis. Quando nostra terra frugifera cum suâ propriâ aquâ humectatur in suâ siti, magnâ aviditate ipsam bibit, donec prægnans fiat ac deinde centuplum fructum ferat.

Jam ulterius procede cum terra albâ, cui augmentabis ignem, donec per motum continui caloris in rubedinem excellentissimam digeratur, quæ dicitur corallus rubeus, Sulphur rubeum, sanguis, aurum purpureum, crocus combustus. Hoc ipsum ter vel quater repete cum materiâ novâ, & habebis lapidem perfectissimum rubeum, uti sanguis est, quo tinges Mercurium & omnia imperfecta metalla.

Oportet autem ut accipias Sulphuris prædicti tres partes, adde auri purissimi partem in calcem subtilèm redacti, aquæ ejus duas partes. Hæc tria subtiliter misce, donec ex ipsis fiat una res inseparabilis: hæc igitur in suô furno digerantur in lapidem rubeum.



Raymundus Lullius.


Sol est pater omnium Metallorum, Luna est mater, quæ lumen suum à sole mutuatur. In his totum consistit magisterium. Aurum reduci debet in argentum vivum fixum, quod est calidum & siccum.

Argentum vivum vulgare non potest in igne detineri, nisi per alterum argentum vivum corporale, quod est calidum & siccum, & plus digestum quàm ipsum vulgare.

Si igitur nostrum corporeum argentum vivum mutatum fuerit in argentum vivum currens, non tangens digitos, amplexuntur se invicem vinculo amoris, quòd nunquam ab invicem separantur.

Et sic essentialiter invicem uniuntur, unumquodque ingreditur alterum, atque humiditas phlegmatica argenti vivi vulgi exsiccatur, ejusque humiditas destruitur, & fit nigrum sicut carbo. Et ita argentum vivum vulgi vertitur in naturam calidam & temperatam.

Itaque argentum vivum vulgi non potest perfecte cum corporibus misceri, nisi corpora in formam & speciem argenti vivi reducantur. Quapropter cum volueris aurum cum argento vivo vulgi commiscere, tunc oportet ipsum corpus auri in formam argenti vivi reducas; per vinculum amoris naturalis tunc unietur masculus cum fœmina, quia arg. vivum corporis est calidum & siccum actu, sed argentum vivum vulgi est frigidum & humidum passivè, sicut fœmella quæ detinetur in cubiculo suo in calore temperato usque ad eclipsin, id est nigredinem, quod est secretum nostræ veræ dissolutionis; quia tunc invicem separari non possunt, & convertuntur in pulverem albiorem nive.

Idem in testamento de materia nostri lapidis: sciendum est quod extraneas res per similitudines huic magisterio introduximus, cum tamen una sola res nostri lapidis existat, cui non addimus rem extraneam neque diminuimus. Tres etiam lapides, scilicet mineralem, animalem & vegetabilem, descripsimus, cum unus duntaxat sit lapis nostræ artis. Quia hoc compositum ex tribus consistit, licet corpore, anima, & spiritu, quod compositum dicitur minerale, quia minera; animale, quia animam habet; vegetabile, quia crescit & multiplicatur, in quo omne secretum nostri magisterii latet, quod est sol, luna, & aqua vitæ. Et quia vita est animæ & vita corporum, per quod noster lapis vivificatur, & supplantatur: ideo cœlum & quintam essentiam, ac oleum incombustibile, & alias infinitis nominibus eam nominamus, quædam incorruptibilis est ferè ut cœlum in continua sui motus circulatione. Porro multi sunt errantes, qui credunt, quod una res sit individua à natura producta, quæ habeat virtutem transmutandi metalla; quod falsum est, quia principia nostræ artis in lib. de quinta essentia demonstrata.

Mercurius enim extractus ab auro, habens se sub conditione masculi & adjuvante forma, est essentialis, qui dat esse lapidi; solvitur in ventre fœminæ, quæ se habet sub ratione passiva. Ex istis duobus, nempe minerali & vegetabili, componitur lapis Philosophorum: et nihil aliud hic misceri debet, quam masculus & fœmina. Hinc oritur cœlum nostrum sive Mercurius vegetabilis, qui est de natura cœli, & dicitur quinta essentia, lapis Hermetis.

Modi autem præparationis multiplices apud Philosophos recensentur: ut sunt coagulatio, sublimatio, distillatio, separatio, calcinatio, inceratio, fixio; quorum omnium significatio est decoctio: quia in solâ nostrâ decoctione omnes isti perficuntur modi. Ingenium verò hujus nostræ decoctionis est, ut materiam componas juxta suam mensuram in vas, furnum, & ignem suum ponas, ipsam continuè decoquendo, donec ad maturitatis complementum perveniat, quod in decem mensibus complebitur, sine manuali operatione, ab initio usque ad finem totius magisterii. Sed per istos modos adsignatos significare voluerunt subtilitatem nostræ artis, ut intellectus insipientum umbroso circumdetur velamine, ne indignus verticem collis nostri arcani attingat, sed in errore relinquatur, donec sol & luna in unum globum redigantur, quod, nisi jussu Dei, impossibile est fieri.



Rosarius Arnoldi.


Sine sole & luna nullum generatur corpus tingens. Ex auro igitur & argento vivo lapidem tingentem extrahes, quia unius sunt naturæ. Quia aurum aureum, argentum argenteum tribuit colorem. Qui ergo argentum vivum cum auro & argento tingere noverit, habebit artem magisterii.

Non ergo opereris nisi cum argento vivo & auro ad aurum, quia argentum vivum est pater omnium metallorum, & in ipsum omnia resolvuntur. Ipsum enim est homogeneum, & informe in naturâ, atque continuâ decoctione depuratur, inspissatur, & per sulphur album & rubeum in metallum perfectum coagulatur, & est de naturâ suâ conversivum, ac fit unumquodque de singulis quos amplexitur ex planetis.

Primum ergo opus est, ut accipias corpus, in quo sulphur rubeum & fixum continetur, & illud in primam materiam sive in argentum vivum reducas. Oportet enim ut corpora fiant incorporea & volatilia, sic enim in naturam spiritus reducuntur, ut spiritus cum ipsis sublimetur. Quia solutio corporis fit cum coagulatione spiritûs, & coagulatio spiritûs est cum solutione corporis, ut fiant unum & nunquam ab invicem separentur. Quia tunc omnia ad primam suam homogeneam naturam, quæ est argentum vivum, sunt reducta. Cum ergo in ipsâ homogeneitate solvuntur, tunc simul conjunguntur, quia utrumque agit in suum socium sibi similem. Sic ergo Elixir consistit ex illis tantum & non aliis. Mercurius enim si jungatur cum solis radicibus fit elixir perfectum.

Comede ergo de carne pingui, non de asino leproso, & habebis aurum & argentum. Modus ergo convertendi corpus in argentum vivum, sit per solum argentum vivum & per conversionem naturarum, sive elementorum, donec convertantur in naturam ignis, quod est arcanum pretiosissimum quintæ essentiæ nostræ.

Quia operatio nostra non est nisi naturarum mutatio, id est, frigidi cum calido, & humidi cum sicco amicalis commixtio.

Siccum primo fit frigidum, deinde humidum porrò calidum. Tunc ignis noster est accensus inextinguibiliter. Modi autem regiminis sunt quatuor:

Solvere, abluere, reducere, & figere; & quia argentum vivum habet in se foetulentiam terræam & adustibilem, & aquæitatis substantiam, necesse est superflua demere, si perfectam inde medicinam creare velis.



Clangor Buccinæ.


Sol non calefacit terram, neque virtutem suam terræ imprimit, nisi mediante Luna, quæ inter alia sidera magis luminis & caliditatis Solis est receptiva: ita Sol tincturam solam non perfecit, nisi mediante Luna, quia ad ipsam subtilitatem ut tingat nondum pervenit. Quare necessario ibi requiritur Luna, ut ipsum Solem subtiliet, rarum & volatilem faciat. Idcirco dicit Hermes: Sol pater ejus est, Luna mater est, & ager in quo solare semen seminari debet. Et sic non indigemus alio, ex quo noster lapis fiat, quàm Sole & Lunâ.

Sol inquit, in sorore mea Luna crescit gradus sapientiæ nostræ, & non cum alio alio ex servis meis. Luna, dabo tibi pulchritudinem meam, lumen scilicet solare, quando per minimas conjunctiones cœlituris. Sol calidus est & siccus, Luna frigida & humida. Luna accipit animam à Sole, & lucerna lucis solaris infunditur lucernæ lunari, & fit commixtio luminum. Quando coagulabitur corpus meum ero Sol oriens in nativitate mea, & convertetur corpus meum in decorem solarem.

Substantia propria argenti vivi & sulphuris fumosa & subtilissima, per nostrum artificium, generatur, in qua latet & habitat spiritus quintæ essentiæ, est Mercurius Philosophorum, & est una res ex duabus composita: vapor unctuosus utriusque naturæ in se continens, unum non potest fixari sine alio, alia est propria materia essentialis sulphuris nostri.

Cum aquâ mercuriali solvuntur omnia metalla, quæ non possunt in aliâ aquâ solvi. Si ergo quæris medicinam metalla generantem, de metallis erit ejus origo: quia nihil convenit rei, nisi quod propinquius est illi in naturâ.

Totum beneficium artis est in Sole & Mercurio. Ipsa enim in unum conjuncta lapidem philosophorum constituunt, & tincturam habent infinitam. Nam in corpore acquirit colorem sanguine rubicundiorem. Modicum quippe talis coloris, in Lunâ infusum, convertit albi magni quantitatem in citrinum colorem. Cum ergo Sol cum Mercurio componitur, erit germen prægnans. Nam anima, spiritus, & tinctura possunt tunc ab ipsis per ignem temperat— per calorem temperatum extrinsecè administratum, extrahitur a materia metallica quoddam humidum unctuosum, subtili terreo mixtum & optime purgatum, quod Elixir dicitur: iste calor temperatus non debet excedere calorem intrinsecum, quo calor iste intrinsecus secum retineat suum humidum, quod naturaliter secum trahit.

Quia omne corpus elementatum habet in se calorem radicalem seu formalem, quo persistit, suumque semen multiplicatur, quia iste digerit materiam ad formam & speciem debitam. Deinde quicquid est superfluum & immundum per decoctionem lenitam paulatim purgatur, maturatur, melioratur. Semen autem in Mercurio non potest extrahi nisi mediante coagulo, quod est sulphur auri.

Album & rubeum ex una radice procedunt nullo alio corpore interveniente.

Totum magisterium nostrum fit cum aquâ nostrâ, quæ virtute habet maximâ alterandi & penetrandi corpora. Idcirco ipsa solvit corpora solutione merâ philosophicâ, ut convertantur in aquam, uti prius fuerunt, & extrahit animam a corporibus perfectis, & de mortuo facit vivum. Hæc aqua primo est immunda, grossa, & fœtiginosa, sed operatione & sublimatione artis renovatur, mundatur, inspissatur, ac in sulphur album & rubeum coagulatur.

Spiritus tingens est Mercurius Philosophorum cum suo sulphure albo vel rubeo commixtus; iste Mercurius est tinctura permanens, qui a corporibus perfectis extrahitur per dissolutionem, distillationem, sublimationem, & subtiliationem. Et talis Mercurius dicitur oleum incombustibile, Anima, Aer, splendor corporum, quia corporibus mortuis vitam præbet immortalem, & ea illuminat. Extrahè igitur hunc Mercurium seu lapidem, tam e corporibus quam ab argento vivo, quia unius sunt naturæ. Nam quid veritatis consistit in hâc arte, non est nisi conjungere humidum sicco, id est, spiritum liquidum cum corpore perfecto puro. Ipsorum operatio est solutio & coagulatio.

Solvere est corpus in spiritum vertere; coagulare est spiritum efficere corporeum & fixum, sic obtinebis totum magisterium. Quatuor elementa extrahere nihil aliud est quam ipsas seminarias virtutes, id est, qualitates activas & passivas excitare.

Ad creandum ergo lapidem non accipe de primis elementis, nec de ultimis: quia prima sunt nimis grossa, sed de mediis.



Rosarius Minor.


Solus Mercurius est causa perfectionis in metallis: ipsum solum igitur eligamus, & perficere studeamus. Quia Mercurius est lapis, quem Philosophi ubique laudant ac honorant. In ipso totum est quod quærimus. Nec Deus creaturam nobiliorem ipso creavit præter animam rationalem, ipse enim in se continet animam, corpus & spiritum. Anima vivificat, spiritus tingit, corpus figit. Hæc tria in unico Mercurio existunt, qui congelatus est ex virtute puri sulphuris non urentis. Iste Mercurius dicitur aqua sicca qui uniformiter inspissatus est per virtutem dicti sulphuris, & iste est lapis noster.

Ex Mercurio omnia corpora suam originem habent, & ex ipso generantur, & iterum in eum convertuntur. Sicut aurum quod ex puro & vivo Mercurio generatur, & iterum in Mercurium vivum convertitur, ac solummodo per argentum vivum, & per nullâ aliâ rem, omnia corpora in arg. vivum convertuntur. Atamen hoc arg. vivum quod factum est ex auro longe majoris virtutis est, figit citius, quam illud arg. vivum quod nunquam fuit corpus, quia hoc ab isto multum superatur, quantum ad vim sulphuream, quia arg. vivum ex auro calidum est, masculinum & siccum, atque ista duo quoad materiam nullam habent differentiam, saltem secundum digestionem differunt, in quantum alterum istorum per calorem naturalem in visceribus terræ decoctum est. Quapropter tinctura nihil aliud est quam sulphur rubeum ex auro extractum, quia pura substantia Mercurii coagulatur & tingitur per virtutem sulphuris non urentis. Quapropter omnis perfectio est in puro & fixo argento vivo & aliâ nullâ re. Si argentum vivum metallorum mundare & figere sciveris, habebis tuum optatum. Quia color in argento vivo causatur a sulphure. Aspice corpus auri dum funditur ad furiosam ignis flammam: considera maximam ignis violentiam & potestatem: perpendè quoque; firmam consistentiam corporis metallici, ejusque pulchritudinem incorruptam, ita quod oculus humanus vix aspectum utriusque sustinere valeat, & apertè videbis omnia ea quæ facile in igne comburuntur nullius esse momenti, quæ vel tantillum facerent ad artem nostri magisterii.

Quapropter memento ubicunque inveneris Mercurium purum & fixum, hunc tene pro summo lapide, cui nihil æquale esse potest. Quando ipsum vim ignis sustinere feceris, quod sit cum suo proprio sulphure congelato, tunc facies ex ipso nobilissimam & præstantissimam tincturam.

Rectissima solutio & calcinatio solis & lunæ fit cum Mercurio vivo & aquâ vitæ, in igne calido & humido. Sol & luna virtute Mercurii sursum elevantur, ac sublimantur, ut Mercurium tantò citius figant. Sic ergo corpora fiunt tenuia, & in spiritum convertuntur, atque spiritus fiunt corpora: omnia volatilia per continuam & diuturnam concoctionem, & per appositionem rei fixæ figurantur. Quando spiritus sublimantur cum rebus quæ sibi avidè à naturâ adhærent, tunc cito fixantur. Oportet autem ut cum rebus puris sublimementur, sic & ipsi veniunt puri.



Richardus Anglicus.


Sulphur Philosophorum est ignis simplex, vivus, alia corpora vivificans, & maturans ita, quod naturæ defectum supplet, cum ipsum sit superfluae maturitatis, quia vapor calidus & siccus, generatus ex purissima siccitate terrestri. In sole autem perfectissimum sulphur reperitur, quia magis est digestum & decoctum.

Quomodo autem illa sulphura ex corporibus perfectis duci possunt? Respondetur hoc fieri posse per solutionem corporis, & redactionem ejus in primam materiam, quæ est argentum vivum, ex quo facta sunt ab initio, & hoc absque ulla admistione rerum extranearum; quia ista lapidem nostrum non emendant, sed potius corrumpunt: quia medicina est natura simplex ex aquâ mercuriali producta. Itaque corpus solve in Mercurium cum Mercurio, alias occultam virtutem ex eo habere non poteris. Et sic lapis noster ex binâ re componitur; scilicet corpore & spiritu quod dicitur Rebis, & tamen unum est. Immaturis succurrendum est cum maturis ut maturentur. Cum Mercurio seu argento vivo dissolvuntur corpora, earumque naturæ referantur, & aperiuntur, & in primam materiam reducuntur.

Mercurius autem ex corporibus congelatus hoc facere non potest, quia per congelationem illud sulphur alteratum est in naturâ, quod non corrodit sicut primum. Itaque solve corpus in aquam mercurialem, quæ solutio sit per putrefactionem corporis & spiritûs in humido: quia putrefactio est omnium naturarum seu elementorum ad invicem ligatorum solutio & separatio; quæ per conversionem denuo conjunguntur & fortius in naturâ uniuntur quàm antea. Sic ergo Mercurius in sublimiori aëre altiorem formam naturæ convertitur ac transmutatur quàm erat antea. Sic ergo sulphur rubeum Philosophorum consistit in auro, & sulphur album in argento, & tamen utrumque sulphur consistit in auro: hoc aliæ res non habent, ideo dare non possunt: cum meliore pejus perficitur. Sic cum isto & imperfecta metalla sanitati restituuntur; ægra corpora continent in se sulphur fœtidum & adustibile. Immaturis ergo succurrendum est cum maturis ad plusquam perfectionem deducendis, ut maturentur. Non est tingendum nisi cum illis quibus inest virtus tingendi. Tinge ergo cum auro & argento, quia isti aureum & argenteum tribuunt colorem & naturam.



Calid Rex.


Hoc nostrum Magisterium de Lapide Secreto, & officium honoratum est secretum secretorum Dei, quod cælavit suo populo, nec voluit ullis revelare, nisi illis qui fideliter tanquam filii meruerunt, & qui ejus bonitatem ac magnitudinem cognoverunt.

Compositio in hoc Magisterio est conjunctio sive matrimonium congelati spiritus cum corpore soluto, illa autem non completur nisi post putrefactionem: quia spiritus non congelantur nisi cum solutione corporis. Et similiter corpus non solvitur nisi cum congelatione spiritus, atque inter solutionem corporis & congelationem spiritus non est differentia temporis, neque opus diversum. Sed eorum unus est terminus, & una & eadem operatio circuit super ipsa duo simul. Anima non conjungitur cum corpore, nisi per mutationem utriusque à suâ virtute & proprietate, & post conversionem suarum naturarum. Et hæc est solutio & congelatio Philosophorum. Non morabitur spiritus in corpore, nec cum eo ullatenus remanebit, quo ipsum corpus habeat ex subtilitate & tenuitate ut habeat spiritus. Quod cum attenuatum fuerit & subtiliatum, & à suâ densitate exierit à spissitudine & grossitie & corporeitate ad spiritualitatem, tunc commiscebitur spiritibus subtilibus, & imbibetur in eis, & sic uterque evadet unum & idem, & non separabuntur, sicut nec aqua mixta aquæ. Qui ergo corpora subtiliare ac solvere poterit, eæque dealbare ac rubrificare, consequetur magisterium.

Nisi autem subtiliaveris corpus quousque fiat aqua totum, non rubiginabitur, nec putrefiet: quia subtile cum spisso mixta sunt res illæ una substantia. Quia spiritus sunt fugaces, quousque corpora cum eis commisceantur. Qui ergo animam convertit in corpus, & corpus in animam, tinget omne corpus. Decoctione generat res, easque mutat à suis substantiis & coloribus, ad alias substantias, & ad alios colores.

Lapis noster in manifesto est frigidus & humidus, & in occulto est calidus & siccus. Oportet ergo nos occultare manifestum, & in occulto est oleum calidum & siccum. Et hoc tingit & non aliud. Illud autem quod est in manifesto, est frigidum & humidum, & est fumus aquosus corrumpens. Oportet ergo hoc frigidum & humidum coagulare cum substantia. Istas ergo infirmitates oportet destruere in igne, & per gradus ignis. Caliditas autem & siccitas destruit frigidum & humidum aquosum & adustivum, virtute divina. Et tunc mutatur iste spiritus in nobilissimum corpus, & non fugit ab igne, & currit sit oleum, quod est tinctura viva & aquæ permanens, quæ semper vivit & permanet; & acetum Philosophorum quod resuscitat & illuminat omnes mortuos. Et istud occultum est de natura solis & ignis. Perfecta autem corporum & spirituum præparatio exercitio quatuor regiminum adimpletur: Primum est in aquam resolutio. Secundum in aerem levigatio. Tertium ad naturam ignis reductio. Quartum ad terram compressio. Et hoc innuit Hermes dum inquit: Ascendit de terrâ in cœlum suaviter cum ingenio magno. Portavit illud ventus in ventre suo, quia per ventum, id est, fumum in aerem levigatur. Nisi enim lapis noster fuerit aereus, non conjungitur cum spiritu permanente; et iterum descendit in terram, quando spiritus sit corpus ut super ignem perpetuam habeat perseverantiam & fusionem sine fumigatione.



AVICENNA.


Aurum est corpus perfectissimum, Rex & dominus Lapidum, quod nec in aëre minuitur, nec in igne comburitur, sed in eo melioratur, nec in eo aliquid superfluum nec diminutum invenitur. Est enim creatum ex subtilissima & clarissima substantia argenti vivi & ex sulphure puro, rubeo, fixo, & claro, tingens ipsam substantiam argenti vivi.

Aurum est corpus & fermentum Elixiris & albi & rubei. Ideo Philosophi magnificaverunt ipsum. Quod sicut Sol se habet inter stellas, sic quoque aurum inter corpora metallica: Sol enim suo lumine & splendore omnia vegetabilia & germina omnesque fructus perficit. Ideo dicit Hermes: nunquam sit tinctura vera absque rubeo lapide. Sitaque aurum factum fuerit plusquam perfectum, in duplo, vel quadruplo, vel centuplo, vel millecuplo, in tantum perficit & ægra & imperfecta corpora metallorum.

Argentum vero vivum est frigidum & humidum atque aëreum. Et ipsum solum est spiritus vivus, etiam in mundo non est tale quale ipsum est, quod talia possit operari, qualia per ipsum operantur. Ipsum penetrat omnia corpora, ipsique est fermentum corporum, cum quibus miscetur, & tunc erit totum elixir ad albedinem & rubedinem, ipsum est aqua perennis, Aqua vitæ, lac virginis, fons & alumen de quo bibens non moritur. Cum vivum fuerit, habet quædam opera; cum mortuum fuerit, habet alia opera; & cum solutum fuerit habet opera maxima. Sapientes faciunt ipsum spectare ignem, & tunc facit opera & mutationes: quia sicut mutatur sic mutat, & sicut tingitur sic tingit, & sicut coagulatur sic coagulat: itaque inter omnia nominalia argenti vivi perseveranda est generatio. Sola aqua per seipsam omnia facit, omnia solvit, omnia coagulat, omnia diruit sine alicujus adminiculo.

Permutatio corporis in aquam est tinctura cujuslibet corporis. Et nostrum intentum non sit aliud quam ut eligamus purissimam substantiam Mercurii ex ipsis corporibus.



BERNHARDUS COMES.


Corpora metallica vulgaria quæ natura solum in minera complevit sunt mortua, neque possunt imperfecta perficere: sed si arte ea nos capiamus, eaque perficiamus, decies vel duodecies, in tantum tendunt illud ad infinitum, quia tunc sunt intrantia, penetrantia, tingentia & plusquam perfecta, & viva sunt respectu vulgarium. Ipsa itaque metalla vulgaria dum sunt in forma metallica, non


non sunt lapis noster, sed oportet formam ipsorum mutare ac renovare, quod ipsum fieri non potest, nisi primo reducantur ad primam materiam.

Prima autem materia metallorum sunt sulphur & Mercurius sive sperma masculinum & fœmininum, quæ cum simul unita fuerint in virtute, ita ut unum in se habeat virtutem alterius, ista unio dicitur prima materia.

Res quælibet habet proprium suum & principale semen, ex quo sua radix sit, & multiplicatur. Requirit etiam rem sibi similem, ut generetur & augmentetur.

Natura enim augetur in suâ propriâ specie & naturâ, & non in aliâ: ita metallum multiplicat metallum. Nostra igitur medicina sit ex duabus rebus unius essentiæ, id est ex unione Mercuriali fixâ & non fixâ, spirituali & corporali, frigidâ & siccâ, calidâ & humidâ, neque ex aliâ re fieri potest.

Et sic ad faciendum hunc pretiosum lapidem accipimus solam substantiam Mercurii per artem optimè mundificatam & penetrantem, tingentem & consistentem in ignis examine, nec separabilem in diversas partes, sed solum semper tenacis soliùs essentiæ Mercurialis. Tunc est res conjungens in profundo radicali metallorum, imperfectam ipsorum formam corrumpens, aliamque novam introducens, secundum virtutem elixiris aut medicinæ tingentis.

Natura ex seipsâ facit materias spermaticas, easque creat, postea ars eas conjungit. Neque ars nostra ex se solâ spermata creare potest, sed quando natura ea creavit, tunc ars ipsa conjungit, tanquam ministra naturæ. Nos ergo corpora metallica reducimus in suâ principia ut per eam reductionem fiat conjunctio novæ materiæ, ejusdem radicis, & ita hæ duæ naturæ sibi invicem auxiliantur, & quælibet alteri suam virtutem communicat, ut fiat dignior materia quàm erat antea, dum utraque separata essent. Sic igitur absque istâ reductione non potest fieri lapis noster.

In istis duobus spermatibus sunt quatuor qualitates elementorum, secundum virtutem. Nam in spermate maturò tanquam digniori duo digniora elementa insunt qualitate, quæ sunt ignis & aer, & in alio spermâte crudo & imperfecto in suâ naturâ insunt duæ aliæ qualitates, & duo alia imperfecta & minus digna, videlicet aqua & terra. Et sic in arte istâ non est aliud quàm istæ duæ naturæ spermaticæ ejusdem radicis, substantiæ & essentiæ, solius substantiæ Mercurialis viscosæ & siccæ, quæ non jungitur alicui rei hujus mundi, quàm suo corpori, uti Morienus testatur. Fac durum aquatile, id est, conjunge sperma masculinum (quod non est aliud quàm Mercurius coctus & maturus, qui in se tenet elementi ignis) cum spermâte fœminino, id est aquâ vivâ, eaq; pone in cubiculo rotundo, calefacto cuique parvo continuò, & tam diuibi relinque, quoad convertentur in aquam philosophicam, quæ tunc est materia lapidis. Nam habet in se naturam fixi, quæ eam figit, & naturam spiritualem quæ ipsam exaltat, faciendo ipsam spiritualem & dignam substantiam nobilissimi lapidis.



TVRBA PHILOSOPHORVM.


1. Accipe corpus sive terram, ac in tabulas tenues coapta; quod cum aqua maris misce, quæ, dum regitur, aqua permanens dicitur.

2. Istud compositionem bene coaptate, & consanguineam consanguineis jungite, quia natura quæ mortificat & in nihilum convertit, eadem etiam vivificat & renovat; istæ naturæ se invicem complentur, & post inimicitiam in igne lento concordes & amicæ fiunt. Accipe igitur argentum vivum, & congela illud in corpore magnesiæ, qua aurum vertit in rubeum ignem, quod fit coquendo & assando.

3. Secretum ergo operis ex mare & fœmina constat, hoc est agente & paciente; masculus gaudet susceptâ fœminâ, & juvatur ab eâ: fœmina suscipit a masculo sperma tingens, & coloratur ab eo. Miscete ea insimul, & habebitis spiritum tingentem, compositum ex masculo & fœmina, & regite ea secundum quatuor anni tempora. In Hyeme solvite, quia est frigidæ complexionis: Vere coquite: Æstate coaguláte (flores producuntur): Autumno fructus maturantur. Non potestis aurum rubrum facere, nisi primo dealbaveritis.

4. Fundamentum hujus artis est acetum acerrimum, quod cum corpori miscetur, continetur, & fit unum cum eo, vertitque aurum in merum spiritum, & si corpus absque aceto super ignem posueris, corrumpetur. Suavius ergo ista perage, donec sulphur fuerit incremabile, quia humor primo frigidus est, cui ignis immoderatus inimicus est; acetum comburit corpus & in cinerem vertit, ejusque spiritualitatem diruit.

6. Quando masculus fœminæ conjungitur sit ipsa fœmina non fugiens, & totum compositum fit spirituale.

7. Gummi nihil aliud est, quam aqua permanens. Sine auro Gumma non emendatur.

8. Non oportet re aliâ uti in toto regimine, nutritione & contritione nisi illa notâ aquâ permanenti. Quia vis ejus est spiritualis sanguis, quæ cum corpore contrita & incorporata vertit illud in spiritum, & ipsa in corpus vertitur: quia sibi invicem commixta & in unum redacta se invicem convertiunt.

10. Ista aqua permanens dicitur lapis & est aqua vitæ munda. Item Gummi, venenum, acetum. Nullum autem venenum tingens generatur absque sole & suâ umbrâ.

13. Inter eas Philosophorum & aquam permanentem est maxima propinquitas, quia utrumque est attractivum alterius.

12. Qui argentum vivum corpori Magnesiæ jungit, & fœminam viro, naturam extrahit occultam, per quam corpora colorantur.

13. Quia argentum vivum est ignis corpora comburens, mortificans, & constringens suo regimine, quod unum tantum est.

14. Et quanto magis corpori miscetur, tantò magis corpus diruitur, teritur & attenuatur, & hinc resultat tinctura, & Ethelia ignem non fugiens, quæ omnia corpora constringit, & omnes spiritus retinet & colorat. Corpus non potest se ipsum tingere, nisi spiritus occultus extrahatur e ventre ejus, & fiat corpus, anima, & spiritus. Spissum enim illud terreum non tingit, sed ipsum tenue naturæ tingit, quod ipsum corpus perstringit. Cum autem corpus eris regitis, & ex eo tenuissimum extrahitis, vertitur id tenuissimum in tincturam & tingit condensum, id est, siccum jungitur humido, & hinc generatur tinctura invariabilis.

15. Hæc tinctura est vita iis quibus jungitur.

16. Prolixitatem autem decoctionis patienter feras, & habebis optatum.

17. Masculus suam fœminam amplexatus velociter transit in corpus ejus, liquescit, diruitur & constringitur, & deinceps rubor non moritur.

18. Quia horum duorum est una natura, aliter non ita citò commisceantur, nec continent se invicem, nec unum fiunt.

19. Natura non emendatur, nisi suâ naturâ, ideoque nolite ipsis inducere alienum nec pulverem nec aliam rem, sed sufficiat nobis conceptio, & verus filius nascetur: leniter coquite.

20. Veneramini regem & suam uxorem, & nolite eas comburere nimio igne, sed regite eos donec nigri fiant, deinde albi, deinde rubri, ultimo venenum tingens.

21. Corsuffee est totum compositum quod oportet septies assari, & tunc omne corpus tingit & vocatur plumbum, stannum, nummus, flos ferri, flos aeris, flos auri.

22. Corpus & spiritus in terram & cinerem verti debent; ǽs, quando comburitur, fit melius quàm ante fuerat, quia humore inspissato vitam suscipit, & augmentatur, ut aliæ ǽs. Opus ergo nostrum nequaquam tinctura est, nisi diligenter coquetur, quousque pulvis fiat atque sperma per putrefactionem spiritualiter effectum sit. Sic enim & non aliter color invenitur.

23. Ǽs incidens in aquam suam dicitur fermentum Auri, & tunc apparet rubedo.

24. In ventre Corsuffee vera natura occulta est, & hæc vera natura est ille Spiritus tingens quem habuit ab aquâ permanenti. Idcirco corpus tere, dirue, imbue, idque facit Spiritum tenue & impalpabilem, quod sit quando teritur, donec fiat pulvis, qui non fit nisi fortissimâ decoctione & contritione continuâ.

25. Ars enim duabus eget naturis, quia non fit pretiosum absque vili, neque vile absque pretioso. Hæc duo in putrefactione & decoctione simul unita sunt, & unum alterum continet, ne fugiat.

26. Opus ergo ex duobus est, & hæc duo conjuncte vocant compositum.

27. Oportet enim corpus, quod non erat aqua, simul cum aquâ fiat aqua, & aqua aquæ misceatur, & fiant unum, utrumque in aquam vertatur, donec totum fiat aqua.

28. Calore enim aquæ facile totum fit aqua.

29. Ut homo compositus est ex animâ & corpore, sic oportet nos duo conjungere, quæ conjunctio comparatur conjugibus, ex quorum complexu exultat aqua aurea. Idcirco igitur bellinum inter ǽs & argentum vivum, donec ad interitum veniant & corrumpantur, tunc ǽs arg. viv. concipiens, coagulât ipsum, atque corpus utriusque diruitur, & in pulverem vertitur diligenti & multâ imbibitione & decoctione. Ista namque contritio ex corpore spiritualis, mundâ, & sublimis anima extrahitur, quæ omne corpus tingit, & est Sulphur naturæ.

30. Illa occulta anima tingens & sulphurea natura non potest extrahi, nisi corpora fiant incorporea, id est, Spiritus tenuis, coquendi continuitate. Hoc autem totum fit per argentum vivum, quia ipsum est igneum, omne corpus comburens magis quàm ignis, & corpora mortificans, quia omne corpus quod ei commiscetur, teritur, & mori datur.

37. Uterque sit fugiens.

38. Fiunt iterum fugientes, per ignis intercessionem se invicem amplexantur & continent. Quando n. 4. naturæ in cœlum ascenderunt, ita ut ignis in aërem, aër in aquam, aqua in terram incidat, sic continens omnium eorum terra est, atque finis totius operis pulvis & cinis.

39. Subtiles spiritus ipsum corpus tenueum spiritum fecerunt, & corpus in venenum tinxerunt. Igne igitur res attenuatæ, donec illæ res ut spiritus ascendant.

40. Hujus artis scientia nihil aliud est quàm arg. vivum corpori magnesiæque conjunctum, & aquæ sublimatio, & vapor. Nullum Sulphur sit absque calce argenti vivi & sulphuris aquâ.

41. Unum sulphur factum est ex pluribus sulphuribus per mixtionem pugnantis cum igne, & non pugnantis. Hoc arcanum ex duabus procedit compositionibus, sulphure & magnesiâ. Hoc compositum in unum redactum vocatur aqua & spiritum aurum. Quæ si in argentum vivum versa sunt, aqua sulphuris nominantur & igneum venenum, quod ubi verè dealbatum est, dimisit sua corpora spissa & ponderosa.

43. Lento igne primum humiditas corrumpitur, & quando omnia unum facta sunt corpora incorporea. Omne enim corpus dissolvitur cum spiritu, cui mixtum est, & fit spirituale. Et omnis spiritus à corporibus alteratur & coloratur. Cui spiritui color tingens & contra ignem constans miscetur, & fit sulphur fixum & incombustibile, quod prius erat sulphur fugiens. Qui potest spiritum fugientem rubeum facere corpori sibi conjuncto, deinde ex illo corpore & spiritu suam tenuem naturam in suo ventre occultam extrahere opus perficiet.

44. Argentum vivum cum suâ miscetur tincturâ, tingit. Vapor alio arg. vivo sui generis continetur, ne fugiat, quod fit quam primum ipsum arg. vivum & ǽs conjunguntur. Itaque Arg. vivum argento vivo miscetur, quousque una eademque aqua fiat munda ex duabus composita.

46. Sola imbibitione aquæ ad verum operis finem pervenies.

47. Quando ǽs contritum & in aquam versum est, fit fugiens & in spiritum vertitur, spiritusque in corpus, & invicem nectuntur, & vertuntur in animam tingentem.

48. Argentum vivum ad visum album est, quando autem fumus ei advenit, vertitur in rubeum, & fit venenum.

49. Argentum ergo vivum, quod ex pluribus est confectum, longe latè, ut duo tria sunt, & quatuor unum ac duo unum.

50. Tota perfectio sulphuris in decoctione consistit.

52. Non sunt nisi hæc duo Argenta viva; Solis humor & spiritus Lunæ.

Jungite ergo siccum humido, id est, terram & aquam, & coque igne & aere quousque spiritus in animâ desiccetur, quia tenue tingens sumit virtutem ex tenuissimâ terræ, aquæ, & aëris parte. Corpora corporibus tinguntur & signuntur.

53. Quando compositio rubea apparet, servatum est illud regimen quo corpora in spiritum vertuntur, & ad se invicem nectuntur, quæ habet animam tingentem & germinantem.

54. Tribus decoctionibus multiplicatis, acetum nostrum conglutinatur & ab igne coagulatûr, ejusque natura convertitur in naturam; sputum Lunæ Solis lumini junctum congelatur.

55. Accipe arborem albam, ædificâ ei domum rore circumdatam, impone ei magnæ ætatis hominem centum annorum, dimitte eos in suâ domo octuaginta diebus, ille senex non cessat coquere de sudore arboris illius, donec anima illius in corpus juvenîle transformatur, & Pater filius factus est.

56. Illam mulierem quæ suum interfecit maritum, Philosophi neci dederunt.

57. Illius enim mulieris venter est plenus veneno. Fac ergo sepulchrum Draconi, & mulierem sepeli cum eo, qui illi mulieri fortiter junctus, quo magis eam necat, ac circum eam volvit, tantò magis corpus ejus in mulieris artubus mixtum, ad mortem declinat, & totus vertitur in sanguinem, quem ponunt ad solem, quousque sanguis consumitur & arescat. Tunc apparet venenum & occultum manifestatur, & sic ex elementis non fit utile absque maris & fœminæ commixtione.

58. Hoc opus autem subtili meditatione regitur.

59. Una tantummodo est Philosophorum tinctura.

60. Omnis nostra scientia est natura masculi & fœminæ. In principio miscendi, oportet elementa cruda & sincera super ignem lentum commiscere, & cavere ignis incensionem, quousque in illo leni igne desiccuntur. Liquefactio est caput hujus artis, quia humidum sit spississimum, & ipsum corpus fit spiritus, & spiritus fugiens sit fortis contra ignem pugnans: Converte ergo elementa, & quod quæris invenies. Compositum generat seipsum, & nisi ipso germinat id quod quæritur.

61. Comburere non est nisi dealbare, & rubeum facere est vivificare.

62. Definitio hujus artis est corporis liquefactio, & animæ à corpore separatio, quia ǽs nostrum habet animam & corpus: Oportet igitur dirui corpus & animam ab eo separari. Subtile naturæ corpus penetrat, & est anima ipsa argenti vivi, in virtute igneâ corpus perficit & vivificat.

63. Signum perfectæ decoctionis primum est nigredo, deinde albedo, ultimo rubedo altissima.

64. Oportet corpus dirui quousque moriatur, tunc poteris animam suam extrahere, quæ est spiritus tingens.

64. Totum magisterium est, ut superius fiat inferius, & inferius superius, compositio autem duplicis est complexionis: Una est humida, altera est sicca.

65. Ista, quando coquitur, unum sit. Investiga ejus socium, & alienum nihil ei inferas.



Conclusio.


Ex prædictis igitur luce meridiana clarius patet, quàm firma sint fundamenta hujus nobilissimæ scientiæ, nihil enim obscuri vel ambigui in ipsis continentur, cum plerunque scripta Philosophorum id commune habeant, quod non secundum nudum verborum sonum accipienda sunt. Collegì saltem quasi ipsum nucleum, & talia quæ considenter, secundum simplicem literam genuinum autoris sensum referunt, nec alia interpretatio est quaerenda.

Quæ in ejusmodi brevitatem congessi, ut neminem sciam qui hactenus id præstare vel ausus vel conatus sit.

Quod opusculum licet aspectu tenue & exiguum, re ipsa tamen rarum est & magni pretii. Quia secretum maximum & occultissimum antiquorum Philosophorum continet: si enim medicinam, quæ corpusculum humanum ab omnibus infirmitatibus liberari, atque felicissima valetudine frui possit, spectamus, sufficienter hinc haberi potest. Si autem divitias, quæ in rebus maximè gerendis magno usui esse possunt, illas & hic, seriò naturæ mysteria indagantibus, abundanter inveniri concessum est.

Quamvis secretum præcipuum, in quo scopus totius rei potissimum consistit, in scholâ occultâ servatur. Attamen prima initia & fundamenta sat perspicuè posita sunt. Reliqua diligentiæ ejus committuntur, qui ad hoc maximum Dei donum aspirat.

Vale.