Extract
FROM THE GOLDEN CYMBAL, A MOST ANCIENT
MANUSCRIPT BOOK,
concerning our subject.
Cimbalo Aureo - Cymbali Aurei
I have added this so that those eager for philosophy may not refuse to proceed with keen spirit in its pursuit.
There is only one thing in our art, to which from the beginning to the end nothing foreign is added, nothing alien to its nature: and that is the nature of the purest quicksilver, from whose smoky resolution — both in the bowels of the earth and in the philosophical vessel — an unctuous vapor is generated, from which, through the action of heat at the end of digestion, perfect metal is generated.
From this, further through the resolution of the art aiding nature, the Philosopher’s Stone is generated.
To abbreviate the work, join the crude digested metal, indeed the most digested, so that the matured helps the immature, and element is excited from element.
Unless God had made this mine, our study would be in vain. In all degrees the fire must always be one and equal — such, however, that the matter is not lifted up, but rather cooked with feverish heat at the bottom of the vessel, and no flame touches the bottom; it must nevertheless be equally distributed to all parts, and the vessel must hang at the top of the furnace, not be set in ashes or tiles, so it may better circulate.
Let the vessel be as you know, of which three parts — or at least two — must be empty. It suffices to place the Stone once in the vessel, sealing it firmly, until it has drunk its moisture.
Let there be one part of body and nine of spirit — that is, nine eagles, and a tenth part of air — in the first composition. See what you are doing, for another says: if there are twenty-four parts of fire, extinguish that heat with eight ounces of vinegar until it dries: then moisture must be added and dried again.
Hermes wants a fourth part of fire added to the fire, and this not all at once, but in four quarters: and over four days, one for each quarter.
But those who have tried poured water to the depth of three fingers, as seemed good to them.
But note: with nine parts of vinegar the Rebis is quickly dissolved into water, but is slowly dried and fixed.
Nature at once absorbs and needs the crushing of hands.
If all things are prepared at once and cooked, it is good according to the experienced.
Seven modes of operation are described by the philosophers: sublimation, distillation, calcination, solution, coagulation, fixation, excretion.
Yet the stone is one, the medicine one, the vessel one, the furnace one, the labor and the work one — and so the philosophers have always spoken of one thing, commending unity and rejecting diversity.
For since life is spent in wandering, this happens — that one has many lodgings, but no friendships.
A plant that is too often transplanted does not thrive, a wound where too many medicines are tried does not scar.
When our body is placed in water to be dissolved, it is immediately blackened: and immediately also separated into the smallest parts, and immediately calcined, and immediately dissolved, and sublimed, and by dissolving and subliming is joined with the spirit: and if anything foreign is mixed into the body, it is not dissolved, but will remain at the bottom of the vessel — all this should happen within one hour.
At the end of the work, the soul arises, and leaves its body, which remains totally dead at the bottom.
If you do not return the soul to the body through the spirit and the will of the artist, and if you do not know this key, then you are in despair and the whole work is hidden from you.
When you see whiteness, cool your work, for by cooling you will find the heat of the Sun in the Moon.
Linger near the vessel and observe wonders, for it whitens and its whiteness appears outwardly within three hours of the day; yet the generation of this thing is green. If you see this suddenly, astonishment, fear, and terror will come upon you: for there will appear at last a whiteness which surpasses all whitenesses of the world.
The Whole Art
Therefore, in the name of the Lord, take our Copper, which with nine eagles you shall join and grind until it becomes completely spiritual without residue of dregs, and put it in its vessel, place it in the furnace, and fasten it immovably there: blackness of putrefaction will appear, which will remain for a long time.
After the blackness, whatever color appears is praiseworthy: without ceasing, stir and cook, and do the work of women, until it begins to sprout in green color, and return the fleeing soul, through the spirit, to its body from which it first exited, so that it may be joined again in the whitest color — and once joined, let it be cooled.
Now you have the perfect Stone, fearing neither fire nor air, which being formed and fixed, with leaven drawn from both sides, becomes fixed in volatile, and volatile in fixed.
Therefore, govern it until it turns to ashes and reddens, having the color of burnt blood, or of a dragon, or of aloes, or of liver.
Then cast it upon the body whose generation you desire to possess, and cast that upon other imperfect bodies.
Therefore, in our work, the body must become spirit through dissolution, and the spirit vice versa become body through coagulation, whereby the body, by the power of the spirit, acquires flexibility, and the spirit by the power of the body acquires fixity — and in this lies the perfection of the art.
Dissolve, coagulate, and tincture, and you will have what you desire.
Our Stone has spirit, soul, and body — not a stone — which, if you dissolve it, is dissolved; if you coagulate it, it is coagulated; if you make it fly, it flies.
It is volatile, white, hollow, salty, hairless, which no one can touch with their tongue: and if you say it is water, you speak the truth.
If you say it is not water, you lie.
In the philosophical work, the mineral spirit is joined raw — like water — with its body, dissolving it in the first decoction.
Then it is called Rebis.
LATIN VERSION
Extractum
EX CIMBALO AUREO, ANTIQUISSIMO
LIBRO MANUSCRIPTO, AD
rem nostram faciens.
Quod ideo addidi, ut eo magis philosophiae studiosi alatri animo in ea perquirenda pergere non recusent.
Artis nostrae una tantum exsistat res, cui tam in principio quam in fine nil extranei additur, quod sit suae naturae alienum: & est natura argenti vivi purissimi, ex fumosa cujus resolutione, tam in visceribus terrae, quam in alveolo philosophico generatur vapor unctuosus, ex quo per actionem caloris in sine digestionis generatur metallum perfectum, ex quo ulterius per resolutionem artis, naturam adjuvantis, generatur lapis philosophicus. Ut artis fiat abbreviatio, conjunge crudum digestum, imo digestissimum metallum, ut naturum immaturo succurrat, & excitetur elementum de elemento. Nisi hanc mineram Deus fecisset, vanum esset studium nostrum. In omnibus gradibus ignis unus & aequalis semper esse debet. Talis autem quo materia non elevetur, imo verius calore febrili cocta in fundo vasis quiescat, nec flamma ulla tangat in fundo: aequaliter tamen ad omnes partes deferatur, sitque vas appensum in summitate furni: non autem cineri aut testae imponatur, quo melius circumire possit. Sit autem vas ut nosti, cujus tres partes aut minimum duae sint vacuae. Lapidem sufficit semel in vase ponere firmiter claudendo, donec suam biberit humiditatem. Sit pars una corporis & novem spiritus, id est, novem aquilae & aeris pars decima, in prima scilicet compositione. Vide quid facias, nam ait alter: Si fuerint viginti quatuor partes ignis, extinguito calorem illum cum octo unciis de aceto donec siccetur: Tum deinde humor addi debet & exsicari. Hermes vult quartam partem ignis igni addi, & hoc non simul, sed in quatuor quartas: & in quatuor diebus, pro qualibet quarta. Experti vero superfuderunt aquam tribus digitis, secundum quod eis videbatur bonum. Sed nota, quod cum novem partibus aceti citus solvitur Rebis
Rebis in aquam: sed prolixus exsiccat & figitur. Natura simul imbibit & eget manuum contritione. Si praeparentur omnia simul & coquantur, bonum est apud expertos. Septem modi operationem describuntur à philosophis, videlicet: sublimatio, destillatio, calcinatio, solutio, coagulatio, fixio, excretio. Tamen lapis est unus, medicina una, vas unum, furnus unus, labor & operatio una: & sic philosophi semper unum dixerunt, unitatem commendantes, diversitatem vero abnuentes. Quia vitam in peregrinatione agestibus hoc contingit, ut hospitia multa habeant, amicitias nullas. Non convalescit planta, quae saepius plantatur, non venit vulnus ad cicatricem in quo medicamenta crebra tentantur. Cum corpus nostrum ad solvendum ponitur in aqua, statim denigratur: & etiam statim per minima separatur & statim calcinatur, & statim solvitur, & sublimatur, & solvendo & sublimando conjungitur cum spiritu: & si fuerit aliquid aliud extranei in corpore mixtum, illud non solvitur: sed remanebit in fundo vasis, hoc autem totum sit in una hora. In fine magisterii anima oritur, & derelinquit corpus suum, ipsumque totaliter mortuum manet in fundo. Si ibi mediante spiritu, & voluntate artificis, eam corpori non reddas, & hunc clavem ignores, jam es in desperatione & totum magisterium te latet. Visa albedine, infrigida opus tuum, infrigidando enim Lunam invenies calorem Solis. Morare prope vas, & intueare mira, quoniam albescit & extrinsecit eius albedo in tribus horis diei; hujus tamen rei generatio est viridis. Hoc subito si videris: admiratio, timor & terror tibi evenient: nam apparebit tandem in albedine, quae omnes albedines mundi vincit.
Ars tota.
Recipe igitur in nomine Domini Aes nostrum quod cum aquilis novem conjunge, & tere ut totaliter spirituale fiat sine residentia faecum, & vasque suo impone, in furnum locaque eidem immobiliter adhaereat, nigredoque putrefactionis apparebit, quae diutius dominabitur: post vero nigredinem, quicumque color apparevit, laudabilis est: sine intermissione rogo coque, & opus mulierum fac, usquequo incipiat germinare in viridi colore, animamque evolantem, mediante spiritu, redde corpori suo à quo primo exivit, ut conjungatur eidem in albissimo colore, conjuncta infrigideutur. Jam habes perfectum lapidem ignem non timentem nec aerem, quem informatum & fixum fermenta utrinque deducendo fixum in volatile, & volatile in fixum. Rege igitur eundem tamdiu quousq; incineretur & rubescat, habeatque colorem sanguinis combusti, vel draconis, seu aloes vel epatis. Et prolicé ipsum super corpus cujus generationem vis habere, hocque projice super alia corpora imperfecta. Corpus ergo in opere nostro debet fieri spiritus per modum dissolutionis, & spiritus vice versa corpus, per modum coagulationis, quo corpus ex potestate spiritus acquirat sibi flexibilitatem, & spiritus ex corporis potestate acquirat sibi fixationem, & in hoc est perfectio artis. Solve, coagula, & tinge, & habebis quod optas. Spiritum animam & corpus habet lapis noster, non lapis, quem si dissolvas, dissolvitur, si coagulas, coagulator, si volare facis, volat. Est autem volatilis, albus, concavus, salsus, pilis carens, quem nemo sua lingua tangere potest: quem si aquam dixeris esse, verum dicis. Si dixeris aquam non esse, mentieris. In opere philosophico conjungitur spiritus mineralis, crudus, tanquam aqua cum corpore suo, ipsum prima decoctione solvendo. Tunc Rebis vocatur.