The Greater Summary of the Art of the Transmutation of Metals - Elucidarius artis transmutatoriae metallorum summa major
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Translated to English from the book:
Theatrum chemicum, praecipuos selectorum auctorum tractatus de chemiae et lapidis philosophici antiquitate, veritate, iure, praestantia, & operationibus, continens: in gratiam verae chemiae, et medicinae chemicae studiosorum ... congestum, et in sex partes seu volumina digestum; singulis voluminibus, suo auctorum et librorum catalogo primis pagellis: rerum vero & verborum indice postremis annexo. Volumen sextum.
Note from the translator:
Dear reader, to better understand the words and language used by Christophorus Parisiensis I would recommend you to read first the book called "THE KEY or EXPLANATION OF THE ALPHABET".
Christophorus Parisiensis, Elucidarius artis transmutatoriae metallorum summa major
Concerning the Vegetable and Mineral Work,
written by CHRISTOPHORUS PARISIENSIS,
a most ancient Philosopher, an imitator of Raymund Lullius.
Divided into the Theoretical and the Practical,
and enlarged with a most useful double appendix, never before published, taken from the author’s manuscript.
Contents:
1. Table Summary - Theory and Practice
2. THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ELUCIDARIUS
3. THEORETICAL APPENDIX for the better declaration of the preceding things
4. ELUCIDARIUM OF CHRISTOPHORUS OF PARIS The second book or THE PRACTICE OF THE SCIENCE OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL TREE
5. ELUCIDARII BOOK III - Or, the third part of the Elucidarium: On the order of medicines, together with a refutation of the sophistications of Geber.
6. An exact recapitulation of the three parts or books of the Elucidarium
of CHRISTOPHORUS OF PARIS
7. THE KEY or EXPLANATION OF THE ALPHABET
8. PRACTICAL APPENDIX
9. THE PERFECT MAGISTERY
10. A most exact little treatise On the composition of sulphur and the vegetable menstruum; or, on potable gold according to the intention of Raymund Lully
In the name of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, the living God, our Saviour, I begin to write the Elucidarius of this most noble art, whereby imperfect metals are transmuted, from their substance and form, into a better.
The mercy which the Lord hath shown unto me I will sing for ever; and from generation to generation with my mouth will I declare His truth.
From my manifold experience I have observed that this Philosophical art so high and so secret hath been enviously hidden from our predecessors in their books, by obscure words; and that many, besides those who cleave to the truth, are so stuffed with fraud and seduction, that this art for nine hundred years and more hath been almost altogether extinct, until the Wise, in those times, in which times the Roman Empire began to flourish, they began again to cultivate the arts. Yet nevertheless no famous man brought any singular thing of that (art) into the light, as if this matter were not in the nature of things, until the Son of the living God granted grace to certain of His servants, that they might again vindicate it from the hidden places.
Among these new Philosophers, the chief is Hortulanus, who expoundeth the dark sayings of Hermes, where he saith truly, without falsehood, certain and most true.
(Marginal note: Hortulanus’ commentary on the Emerald Table.)
Another is Arnold of Villanova, who hath left us the Greater Rosary and other treatises. A third is Raymund Lullius, who published many books concerning this art. The fourth is Albertus Magnus; in whose books (as some think) we find nothing fruitful, except that which he writeth concerning solution. The fifth is Thomas Aquinas, the theologian whom soon another followed, the master of the whole Art who published a book whose beginning is called the Florentine Study; whose doctrine, if it be understood, scarcely can err.
Besides these, many others wrote books, a part whereof we also have seen, where the Theory is treated. From all which we have gathered a certain epitome.
But above all we follow Raymund Lullius as the patron and father of our art; according to whose precepts we have laboured for many years.
Yet we will not open the art wholly; otherwise we should do wickedly. But we will so teach it, that not everyone of the basest sort of the common people may be able to imitate us therein seeing that in the acquiring of it we have been occupied almost all our life with much labour.
Therefore we institute our discourse in such manner, that the matter may remain obscure to the ignorant, but be manifest to the wise.
Of the things which are contained in this little work, that from the first view the Artificer may foresee the profit which he shall gain from it.
The whole little work consisteth of three books: whereof the first teacheth the Theory, and the other two teach the Practice.
In the first book are contained seven chapters:
I. It treateth of the Universal and Particular Tincture, or an explanation of the transmutation of metals.
II. Of the difference between the Hermetic Art and other arts.
III. Of the objections of those who are ignorant of this art.
IV. Of the truth of this art, by an answer to seven objections.
V. Of the possibility of the transmutation of imperfect metals.
VI. Of the special solution of seven objections of the ignorant.
VII. Of the manifestation of three secrets, the ignorance whereof is the cause of errors.
Although those who bend their backs to the diligent reading of books do not gain small progress from the chapters of this first book, yet we omit nothing of those things which are necessary in our course; but attention is required to our words: for we do likewise as a good pilot, who after he hath given sail to the winds, intermits nothing, but bestoweth all his labour, that he may carry the ship laden with merchandise unto the destined place. Therefore we commend ourselves unto thee with prudence joined with attention, that thou mayest understand us.
An APPENDIX is joined to this first book, which containeth much Philosophical instruction; for in it is contained a full declaration of those things which are handled in the sixth and seventh chapter.
(These things are plainly taught in the Second and Third book. Wherefore the Second book is called the Tree of the Wise, or the Tree of Philosophical Science, and is divided into fourteen chapters, whereof:)
I. It treateth of the first matter of our Philosophical Mercury; namely, of its finding, preparation, and first putrefaction.
II. Of its form or spirit.
III. Of the acquiring or subtilizing of this form, so that it may afford solution with fruitful multiplication.
IV. Of the Quintessence to be prepared from B. (or from purified fire).
V. Of the sublimation of our Mercury, with its properties and virtues.
VI. Of the calcination of bodies, why it was invented.
VII. Of the philosophical dissolution and separation of Mercury from metals.
VIII. Of the order of putrefaction and what is required thereto.
IX. Of the reduction of metallic bodies into spirits.
X. Of the putrefaction and preparation of the earth, for reducing metals into Philosophical sulphur.
XI. Of the sublimation of metals, to reduce them into a first matter, vegetable or animal.
XII. Of the soul increasing unto a flux upon the white; or, how all things must be waxed with oil, and made soft and fluid.
XIII. Of the oils by which the medicine is made soft and fluid, and why incERATION was invented and used in this art.
XIV. Of the separation of the Elements in general of vegetables, of animals, and of metals.
Although I have proposed to myself the order of Raymund Lullius, yet I follow it not alone in all things. For whatsoever our experience, besides those things which are extant in Hortulanus, Albertus Magnus, and others, hath supplied unto us, from that we have made our Elucidarius more perfect.
The Third book of this little work containeth three orders: whereof the first consisteth of four branches, which are useful for the Art. In this book is manifested the scandalous sophistry of Geber the Arabian, which, after his manner, he calleth the first order.
The second order hath five branches, among which are certain which, if thou follow them, thou mayest flee out of Asia Minor, like a Turk. In this second order is employed the mixture of imperfect bodies.
The third order containeth the Universal consisting of six operations or parts, which is the heart of the Philosophers. And by this order also all the other orders are made evident; and he who observeth it not shall more hardly be able to practise the rest.
1. The preparation of Mercurial water for the solution of the metal gold; so that from it not only potable gold is made, but also, by this shorter way, the very Work of the Philosophers.
2. Three orders of diverse particular operations, that the artificer may patiently await the fruit of his labour and the end of the principal work.
3. The calcination of metals.
4. A certain hidden and compendious Philosophical operation, called the Extraction of the Mauritanian Star, and Exuberation.
5. An admirable Elixir, made by the separation of the four Elements, having great power over the evil humours of the human body.
6. The Magistery of human blood, prepared in a singular manner, as a medicine almost universal.
7. A notable little treatise of the Philosopher Dela Brosse, of the year 1545: On the Composition of Sulphur, and of the Vegetable Menstruum, and of Potable Gold, according to the intention of Raymund Lullius.
Divided into Seven Chapters
Chapter I
(Marginal: The Author’s purpose.)
At the beginning of our discourse, my son, it is fitting to enlighten thy mind, that thou mayest know what degree of skill thy ship attaineth when it is plunged into the sea; that thou mayest learn how great a tempest ariseth in the trial of the sea, and in what port thou oughtest to be brought. Therefore it is first necessary that I reveal unto thee somewhat of the mastery of our Art, what its usefulness is, and in what manner the pure must be separated from the impure.
(Marginal: What Alchymy is.)
Know therefore that Alchemy is an art consisting in manual operation (as in cheiragogy), with manifest vessels, by a certain government of fire, for the adorning and exalting of our heaven. For by this means our Mercury is sublimed: while we lead it forth out of its mixed mass, and by a simple fire partly by circulating, partly by subliming we raise it unto a heavenly and permanent fire.
This we perform by natural means, which carry with them a celestial dignity. By this exaltation of our heaven or sublimation and elementation of our Mercury our Mercury is so brought to light, that it hath power both to transmute other imperfect metals into silver, and to coagulate common Mercury; and also to bestow perfect healing of the human body.
(Marginal: What the Elixir is.)
The Elixir is nothing else than the sublimation of metallic bodies, having their own Mercury properly within themselves; which hath the property that bodies, being calcined and dissolved, are converted into a new medicine. It is manifest and known by many operations and effects.
(Marginal: What the Philosophers’ Stone is.)
The Philosophers’ Stone is a most pure substance, of a most subtle and purified sulphur; chiefly taken from the Sun and the Moon, wholly fixed, and by fermentation inseparably conjoined with its proper elements: which out of a most pure body maketh a medicine, and by its heavenly virtue bringeth all substances unto perfection.
And it is called the Stone of the wise, because it hath power to deliver human bodies from every disease, and to convert imperfect metals and common Mercury into new gold and a new Moon (silver).
Chapter II
(Marginal: The first usefulness of chymistry is Medicine.)
This Magistery, or the aforesaid Art, is threefold.
The first is called the healing (sanative) (part) of the human body, which is done by the virtue of herbs, roots, flowers, seeds, and gums; whereof the ancient and modern Philosophers chiefly Hippocrates of Cos, Galen, Mesue, Neander, Rhasis and none in a better order than Avicenna, have written.
(Marginal: Another usefulness of chymistry is the colouring and vitrifying of colours for the theoretic art.)
The second is called the Mechanical or Manufacturing (art), which those exercise who make earthen (testaceous) vessels, and presently cover them with lead; whereby many changes arise among them, both by reason of the forms of the salts and of minerals, from which diverse colours appear in the work of glass-making. Likewise the industry of the glass-makers requireth this: that they turn metals and other minerals into ashes for the glass-painters, as they are wont to do at Murano, near Venice.
The inventors of these colours were Philosophers. But the inventor of the art of making glass was Master Paulus de Longalla; and the author of its practice was Master Angelo the Surgeon.
(Marginal: The third usefulness of chymistry is the transmutation of metals.)
The third part of the Art concerneth our Magistery, and is called the transmutation of metals, by which from simple and imperfect metals namely Venus, Jove, Mercury, Saturn, &c. good gold and silver are prepared. Of which art many judge that Hermes was the inventor.
Chapter III
1. Objection. Raymund Lullius, in his book Vade mecum, chapter 20, writeth that this art ought to be revealed not to pagans but to Christians. Yet nowhere do we read, in the Old Testament, that any deed was happily accomplished against tyrants. Hence it is a vain argument to say that by this art we may make such an immense quantity of metals into gold and silver (as the Philosophers of glass would have), and thereby make an immediate medicine of imperfect metals. Raymund Lullius also testifieth of this assertion in his Testament, in the practical chapter “Of Multiplication.”
2. Objection. If gold could be prepared in an immense abundance as was said, certainly it would sometimes have happened that some artificer should aspire to great dominion, and either the whole world, or some part of it should have subjected it to himself; which yet never was done, nor is anything of the like story read in the books of Chronicles. Whence ye labour in vain, and pound water in a mortar. So then it followeth, that those things which the glass-philosophers treat of this matter must be concluded (as are the Florentine Study, or the Method of the General Art, and the Compendium which beginneth “Studying at Florence”; and those marginal sayings: “Therefore for the poor,” and “This science is given to us by God,” and also Hortulanus saith: “He who hath this science, hath the treasure of the whole world.”)
3. Objection. If these alleged things were true, no poor man would remain; for the rich, who have superfluous riches, would have them for nothing, and the poor also would become rich. But the contrary is everywhere declared throughout the lands: for the rich are by this art deprived of their goods, and the poor, as is clear to all, are made miserable. Behold what a devastator of the goods of mankind this art is!
(Marginal 3.) Why there is no poor man.
4. Objection. Scarce in the Code that is made to be read do we find any mention of this; nay, even of the enchanters of the necromancers and of the sagae (witches), of which sort also were the magicians of Pharaoh: but of this Hermetic art there is not so much as a word. Therefore it is reputed for a human deceit.
(Marginal 4.) Holy Scripture maketh no mention of this art.
5. Objection. If thou examine the disagreements that are among masters and disciples about this art, it will appear clearer than I have said. For Arnold in his Rosary, in the chapter “Of Dissolution,” saith that Mercury, according to the doctrine of Avicenna, must first be sublimed, and then at length be reduced into the first matter; and that with this water bodies are to be dissolved: of which water, according to the aforesaid opinion, no otherwise may one judge than that it must be prepared from Mercury.
But the contrary is affirmed by Raymund Lullius and by Arnold of Villanova’s disciple, where he saith that common living Mercury ought not to come into the use of this work so also in his Quintessence, Distinction 3. There are certain persons who prepared it from the juices of three herbs by putrefaction; and persuaded themselves that they had found a great mystery; and they also sublimed it, yet in our Magistery it produced no effect.
But if anyone so useth common Mercury, that with some addition he reduceth it into water whether it can be made from the phlegm thereof, or whether it be put into its vessel and nine times distilled through an alembic then it will have the brightness of pearls; yet that is a part of its homogeneous body, which doth not happen in the Mercury of our Stone.
Moreover, Lullius admonisheth that from individual things Mercury is to be prepared, which are indivisible things such as spirit of wine and human blood; and that it sufficeth to make the artificer more attentive, (saying) that it is best to take Mercury from individuals. Whence it must be concluded that it is not Raymund’s opinion that the water, made from common Mercury, should be applied to the dissolution of metals: which nevertheless is affirmed by Arnold. Wherefore, miserable alchemists give your hands (i.e. set yourselves) to the principal masters of your art seeing they contradict one another whence it is more than clear enough that your art is full of fraud.
[Marginal 6.] An objection from ignorance of principles.
6. Objection. Raymund’s and Arnold’s books are indeed great and famous; yet, without them and without the sublimation of the wise, no true and perfect medicine can be had. But Raymund, in that place where he treateth of the Soul of his art, saith so. Therefore the ignorant grievously err: for although they know not the natural principles of any thing, yet they think they can exercise a true practice with metals, without separation of the elements. From these some, when they cannot divide the elements according to their wish, nor obtain Philosophical sulphur, institute a vain mixture, without any putrefaction, extraction, or sublimation, and find nothing.
The discrepancies and contrarieties of the Mercury of the whole art, with all its appendix, appear plainly from Lullius, chapter 52, where he thus argueth against the opinion conceived concerning it. There is in truth no reason to be had of the alchemists, nor any faith to be given to their sublimations and conjunctions. Again, chapter 55: from all that hath hitherto been said it plainly appeareth that there is nothing true, if one consider the matter rightly; because the body of our work, in the alembic, is not made, but lieth dead at the bottom whence a certain Philosopher said, “The bodies of the ignorant sit in the bottom.”
Therefore, since those writings hitherto alleged contradict one another, and the masters of this art are drawn into diverse opinions, and one contradicteth another, neither do they build upon any sure foundation; therefore their writings ought not only not to be made, but altogether to be reproved and wholly rejected especially as they are wicked, and altogether unworthy.
[Marginal 7.] An objection that Lullius contradicteth himself.
7. Objection. But not only the aforesaid authors are contrary to themselves; even Raymund Lullius himself, in his book On the Name of the Art, contradicteth himself, when he saith:
Many ignorant persons set upon common aqua fortis, and would reduce the work into the first matter; but if they read the books of the Philosophers, they will see that these things are contrary.
Yet in the practice of his Testament, chapter 9, he thus saith: “Take first one part of D. vitriol, and half a part of nitre, as appeareth by the alphabet; yet it is to be understood by all, that aqua fortis is made of these two ingredients.” Whence, from this chapter, it may be seen that he teacheth nothing else than the preparation of aqua fortis.
Chapter IV
The aforesaid objections are not only a contempt of the Hermetic art, but they trouble its cultivators by those dangers. Yet in common it is to be considered, what Arnold of Villanova, in his epistle written to Pope Boniface, saith and addeth: that all things that are created are manifest from trees, fruits, and animals. From one grain come a thousand grains; and from one tree a thousand boughs and branches; and from those again a thousand others innumerable. From one animal a multitude in number ariseth and is multiplied. Metals likewise are born in the earth and grow therein, and therefore also are increased unto infinity.
From which brief things it is manifest what is to be understood of the third order namely, that there is one only medicine, which is called the one true and certain, and the precious Stone of the wise, or the most noble and best medicine of the Philosophers.
Therefore, since the art is true and certain, its adversaries are ignorant. Aristotle, in his book Meteorology, chapter 1, saith: If living silver (quicksilver) were pure, the virtue of white sulphur would make it endure; for by this in Alchemy is prepared the Elixir for the white. He saith likewise of red sulphur, for making gold.
Hortulanus opposeth against the despisers of this art the words of Hermes: “True, without falsehood,” &c.
What Thomas Aquinas and Raymund Lullius have in their writings concerning this art would be too long here to recite and examine. It is easy to show that the wise can transmute imperfect metals into true gold and silver.
Chapter V
Certain things are called species as is the form of man; and thus men are said to be a species of a species. For the Africans are black, and the Europeans white who nevertheless differ in nothing but colour, for we are all born of Adam.
Metals likewise are metals by the same reason: for all species are of a species, because they have one origin from one matter Sulphur and Mercury not differing in substance but in colour, they differ only in colour, according to their greater or lesser purity or impurity, wherein, according to the degree of fire, Nature in the bowels of the earth hath cooked them.
By comparison of two men it may be perceived: whereof one is sound, of a joyful mind and good colour; the other sick and contrariwise disposed. Yet both are nothing the less men as touching their species; the disease is only an accident. Therefore, as it is possible to heal a sick man, so also it is possible that diseased metals such as are Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars may be restored, as being of the same family, unto gold and silver, their sound metals.
From our common mother, which is earth, all things in general are born, sick and sound, as a sick man may be made sound. Do not metals and other things that are born of the earth abound with impurity, from which man maketh bright and fair metals? Why then should it be less possible to raise metals unto a higher degree, and to equal Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars with purer metals gold and silver?
This indeed is hard to do, and seemeth impossible to Nature; but if one artificer can do it by the means above said, why may not another also? If imperfect metals remain long enough in the earth, at length they would become silver, and finally even gold. Good silver is not found which doth not contain gold also. This is the cause why the Philosophers say there is no gold which was not first silver, and afterwards by the coction of heat converted into gold. For when Nature generate a metal, then she hath an intention to perfect it into gold; but by shortness of time and by other obstacles she is hindered.
Wherefore silver is, by Nature, gold; for it is made such by coction in the bowels of the earth, where silver by degree is exalted unto gold. Hence it is that a mark of silver (or a pound) of twelve degrees is six carats, sometimes a whole quarter, and sometimes also containeth two lots more or less of gold.
Thus always one cometh from one, and a third from two, and so consequently. For a third cannot be made one, unless it first pass through two as through a mean.
Chapter VI
(Marginal: Answer to the first objection.)
Now we must answer the objections above alleged, among which mention is made of helping the poor and of fighting the Turk, if mention hath been made (of these things), it must be known that we are bound to have regard to the reason of the poor; although without the Hermetic art it is fitting that we show and establish our faith. For whatsoever the rich possess is not theirs alone, but (as Scripture saith) is the poor man’s not only money, but all substance above what is sufficient. This is to be understood.
Moreover, since poverty is the effect of our sins for because of sins adversities come we say, by occasion of the Turk being alleged, that it is manifest from Holy Scripture: if the people of God sin, then straightway the Divine chastisement with punishment falleth upon the people of God, so that they are not ignorant of God; and though they would be redeemed with silver and gold, yet the chastisement of the Lord ceaseth not.
But we, that we may have a mind to fight the Turk, must also enter upon another way, according to that saying, the cause being removed, the effect is removed. When the people see destruction and ruin ready to fall upon their land, they ought to abstain from sins, to humble themselves before God, to seek grace, to exercise justice, to forbid scotations (riotous feasts / revels). If this be done, then God will deliver us by His grace and in invisible ways. But to redeem punishment with silver and gold is impossible. God Almighty hath many other ways of deliverance, and needeth not the works of alchemists.
For although Raymund Lullius supplied King Edward with an immense sum of gold for that end, that he might go against the Barbarians and convert that whole kingdom to the Christian religion, yet it succeeded not as he desired, because God accepted not that, and the grace was rather to be sought in another manner.
For the said king, being prepared with a fleet of many ships, approached Gaul and would first subdue it to himself, and much Christian blood was shed. But Raymund, when he had returned home, promised to subdue Barbary and commanded that more gold should be made. Yet Raymund, being much grieved in mind at this, and angry, withdrew himself into England.
But as touching that objection which saith, “There is no example that any man possessing this art hath sought dominion over great parts of the world,” which yet he might easily have brought to effect: I answer, that it is proper to that man to whom God revealeth and granteth this mystery, that he pursue his neighbour with love, and abuse not God’s gift. For such a man who is made a true Adept God introduceth into an earthly and heavenly Paradise while he liveth in these lands.
God maketh not a tyrant or impious man partaker of this gift; it remaineth hidden from their eyes. But to whom God revealeth it, to him He also granteth that he be well placed and bestoweth grace. And if God bestow this gift even upon pagans (as is shown even now), (it is) that they may know God by His works, and (His) wonders that they may praise, each according to his measure, that wonderful giver (of benefits), and may give glory unto Him.
(Marginal: Answer to the third objection.)
Thirdly. Although there are some who walk in a right and Philosophical path (for I speak not of the ignorant), yet if they expend some money upon these labours, and through the error of one assistant or companion labour in vain for a whole year, there may nevertheless come to them, by God’s favour, an hour which may recompense all expenses. Add that ten measures of the oil of olives, and as many of carbon of copper (whose cost scarcely cometh to thirty florins), do not bring a man to extreme poverty.
But if a man, by indulging in drinking, play, and other unprofitable things, spend so much money yea much more in a year, besides the loss of his goods, why would he not rather spend the same costs upon this treasure of health and riches?
Besides the said initiates, there are found also very expert artificers, who by much study of wisdom and prayer have obtained this art from God (yet scarce one in a thousand). But those whom God hath enriched with this gift are moved by a certain secret instinct to hide it: for the dangers which would threaten them from men are not hidden from them. For he that hath a treasure, and confesseth it, is wont to desire to be plundered.
(Marginal: Answer to the fourth objection.)
Fourthly. That in the sacred writings there is no mention made of this magistery is true. For Holy Scripture is ordained only to the salvation of souls, not to gold and silver. Riches also are a general snare, which no man can wholly avoid. Hence CHRIST saith: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And in other places woe is pronounced upon them.
Yet these things are not spoken without distinction: they belong to the sons of doctrine; for if they use riches with moderation, and praise God, they render immortal thanks.
Not (that) thou alone shouldst reserve this treasure to thyself, but if thou desire to make others partakers of it, who have another intention of mind, he seeketh in vain for God certainly will not give it to him.
(Marginal: Answer to the fifth objection.)
Fifthly. Although Arnold commandeth that a solution with the water of common Mercury should be made, yet Raymund saith that this is not the true dissolving water; nevertheless they are not contrary to one another. It is not for us to compose this strife, nor to decide this saying of the Philosophers: for the discrepancy is not in the substance of the thing, but only in the words.
SOLUTION, whereof they speak, is twofold. The one is subtle, which maketh bodies very subtle; of which Raymund speaketh in his practice of the Testament. Afterward also he speaketh of it in his little book Vade mecum, beginning at chapter 20 unto chapter 33.
The other solution is conjunctive or copulative, this is when we take for our water a vegetable water, or the Quintessence, by the sublimation of common Mercury; by which copulative work of sublimation we obtain the conjunction of bodies: which yet in this our Philosophical work we do not use as the last (and finishing) means, because it requireth much time and many sublimations. Concerning which Raymund in the said little book Vade mecum saith: Take Mercury and sublime it.
SIXTHLY. The discrepancy of doctrine which is objected against us we deny not. For it may come to pass that one obtaineth the way of proceeding by one path, another by another. Great indeed and very laborious is the work, in whatever way thou shalt conclude thy work with what hath been said. One is the Stone, one the Medicine, to which nothing foreign is added, save only that which is superfluous is removed from it. And it is true that there is one Stone, which is Sun and Moon, as we make manifest in the three celestial ways.
ONE MEDICINE. This is that metals, out of their potency, are led into act; are vivified, and are brought, by the Quintessence, unto that (state). Moreover metals must be dissolved into their first matter: which is done by the separation of the Elements, and by the fixation of water upon earth, and by multiplication. Then, by a simple sublimation of metals, their souls are brought forth. A third way is, that by calcination and solution the body is separated and imbibed, by putrefaction and distillation. And thou repeatest this coction, until the greater and purer part ascendeth through the alembic, and the earthiness remaineth behind. This third way ye must understand as the reducing of bodies into first matter. For to reduce bodies into first matter is the magistery; hence depend the Law and the Prophets.
SEVENTHLY. Those (things) which are objected against us namely, that in the art they are useless are not at all to be received as Raymund Lullius teacheth, unless they be taken otherwise. For in this manner he maketh a difference between the strong waters of the wise and the common (vulgar) waters. For he saith, in the chapter Ignorantes (The Ignorant), and in chapter 5, “This distinction,” &c., in the same place. Therefore our sharp water is made from those three figures B. C. D.: namely, from purified fire, from the increased menstruum, and from the Quintessence. Purified fire signifieth form D, and the remaining two letters signify figuration. For salt-waters are common, without all form.
B. Purified fire in the beginning hath power to purify and vivify metals. Therefore Raymund, when he rejecteth sharp waters, understandeth the strong waters of separation, and not the waters of the wise.
Chapter VII
First, the Philosopher must well consider (as they say), that if among a thousand artificers only one attain unto the knowledge of the art, it is enough: the reason of which saying is, that in these times zeal in studying and labouring is less than it was among the ancients. For it never happens now, what did happen of old, that every student or writer is given to reading the books of the Philosophers, and to the labour of invention; nor that such as have once learned the art ever treat of studies.
For this matter pertaineth only unto those who are skilled in the Latin tongue, and are experienced in wisdom and the natural arts.
Some seek it in common living silver (quicksilver); some in marcasite; some in arsenic and sulphur; some in urine; in alum; in salt; and very many in nitre. Some in blood; some in dung; in eggs; and in the hooves of animals. Who can rehearse all these? yea it is troublesome even to point them out.
To refute all these absurdities, we plainly say that the true matter is nothing else than the fire of gold; because in other things one cannot find that seed: for in every genus the like begetteth the like. Hermes saith: The father thereof is the Sun, the mother thereof the Moon. Avicenna saith likewise.
No like sulphur is found, nor seed, which can make imperfect metals perfect, save that which gold and silver contain in themselves. All the wise testify this: Hortulanus, Rhasis, Geber, Avicenna, Arnold, and Raymund, who when they begin their practice always make the menstruum of gold and silver. Raymund in his Quintessence saith: As is the reason of fire and of its heat, so is the reason of gold to gild, and of silver to silver.
I. Secret. (Marginal: The secret of the matter of the Stone is common gold.)
1. The first secret of this art is the matter of the Stone namely common gold.
II. Secret. (Marginal: The second secret is the vegetable Quintessence.)
2. The second secret of this art is the vegetable Quintessence. From this some have been led to take in place of our water: common Mercury, nitre, cinnabar, and alum things which, although they are good and fit enough for making calcination, yet have not the power of vivifying the two luminaries (the Sun and the Moon).
For they are not that true agent which is here required, but the patient. Therefore no perfect action followeth much less multiplication or augmentation or penetration.
In like manner as man is the noblest of all animals, and uniteth himself only with his like: so also gold, the noblest of all minerals, is united permanently only with its like. For fire consumeth all other minerals but not gold. Hence our Quintessence is most like (to gold), and convenient to that with which it is united. For all other waters, how precious and rectified soever they be, destroy the form and seed of gold. But our Quintessence increaseth that in its virtue which it was; of which mention is made in the history following.
When I was at Rome, there was found in the earth a leaden box, and in it (as the history hath it) a glass vessel very well fenced and shut; which, when it was opened, yielded so sweet a smell that the bystanders were astonished; and from the vegetability thereof we made a conclusion of gilding. So we teach by this our secret, that gold alone vegetateth in our Quintessence, and not in any other water; in which gold is made worse. For other waters corrupt and destroy gold, but not our Quintessence; in which, the more it is cocted and distilled, the more perfect it is, and by its vegetative virtue is increased and multiplied. Therefore no water is better suited to gold than our Quintessence.
But lest I omit any of those things which are necessary in this art, because there are four elemental columns, the foundations of the art, I will briefly rehearse them.
The four elemental foundations (“columns”)
The First Column is our CHAOS, which is a certain heap of all elementary things namely of the vegetable, mineral, and animal. So that as yet there is no separation of the elements, but a conjunction of them all. Therefore the artificer must consider the end of this art namely what it is that begetteth gold and silver. He must also reckon in mind, that it is impossible to gild and silver without any other matter than gold and silver. These are the principles and end of this art.
And because it is impossible to gild and silver without vegetation and motion, it followeth that the vegetable menstruum is chiefly necessary being the mean between the beginning and the end. Thus thou mayest see, in this Chaos, the mixed (things), and in it the destroyed elements of golden and silver matter, and of our vegetable menstruum also. Yet believe not that this liquor wetteth the hands.
The Second Column. The first form is the artificer, who moveth the principal parts, or their forms, that they may pass from potency into act, whereby it worketh in the substance of another.
The Third Column. The first matter is the potency of any principle to work in another principle. Therefore the waters are those from which we make our resolving menstruum, which dissolveth metals; for it requireth perfect means and vegetable, which our menstruum taketh.
The Fourth Column. Here it must be observed that the menstruum is vegetable and mineral. For the vegetable menstruum is which, being burning, is rectified and made sharp from wine, and with which metals are naturally dissolved. Hence, in the juice of this vegetable menstruum, metals are extracted and dissolved.
All natural things existing in the earth are ruled by those things which are above us; hence Hermes saith: The superiors are as the inferiors. By the superiors understand the Quintessence; and by the inferiors, the Elements. Hence anyone may say that the Elements have no power by virtue, without the Quintessence which ruleth them. Which in our Stone is sufficiently manifest: for gold of itself hath no nobility, unless by the work and virtue of our Quintessence it be made such.
Here it is to be observed that all natural artifices call the work of this art a little world; and I would also show, that the same order which liveth in the great world is to be observed also in the small, that by these natural means we may come to the end of Nature.
Wherefore it is necessary that the element of the Sun (that is, of gold) be moved, if they will proceed according to the natural order. Hence it is that the wise say, that to make new the heavenly water which reduceth our body into spirit, is the chief mystery of the art.
Among all vegetables, one is prepared out of vegetables, most noble and best. Out of this our Quintessence the wise prepare that which is our hidden Stone.
God, the best and greatest, created three mines: the first is from mineral things, namely gold; the second silver; and the third from vegetable things, namely grain. And Arnold of Villanova, writing to Pope Boniface, saith that to true amalgamation much water of life must be added that is, to the simple amalgam of living Mercury, vegetations (should be added). Yet he seemeth to understand common Mercury, which nevertheless here is not to be received; for in the Rosary he expressly saith of sulphur, that the fattest sulphur and Mercury in this art are not fit.
Concerning this Raymund in his Questionary followeth these golden words: Our Magistery is our Stone is burning water, rectified, sprung from wine; by which our bodies are calcined, dissolved, putrefied, purified, purged, the elements separated, and by the wonderful attractive virtue of the Sun exalted.
But they who think of another water never attain a good end. But enough of these.
THE THIRD SECRET (of the art, chiefly necessary)
(Marginal: The third secret is wine-quintessence with gold, or with common silver.)
The third secret of the art, chiefly necessary, is how, namely, thou must join the spirit and power of this Quintessence which is as it were a mean between two magnets, the Sun and the Moon that is, how thou must conjoin it with gold and silver. For this I desire to know: the heavenly spirits with earthy and elemental bodies can never be joined without a mean, namely, one of their secrets: which is prepared from our sublimed Mercury, which must first be joined with its sweetness (i.e. made gentle) in itself, and so it receiveth the oil of two external things. The other (mean) is the middle or saline spirit, which, joining the body into one, is the mean; from which our Quintessence maketh a pleasant harmony, and this oil conferreth only the spirit celestial to it, as much as is due to it by its proper and natural union in the first principle of its birth; which also Hermes indicateth when he saith, The superiors are as the inferiors, for working miracles.
Wherefore this oil hath a great concord and friendship with the celestial spirit, and is very like to the four elements (so far as concerneth) the elements, such as are gold and silver. Therefore without it none can attain to the true perpetual medicine, neither in the first, second, nor third order.
Concerning this sublimed Mercury, or oil, no master of the art is allowed to speak except in most hidden speech, or by metaphoric figures; and if there be any more in it, he doth it by words. But we remit thee to the following chapter, which treateth of this, and to our Alphabet, from which its mine is taken by operations of distillation, purification, calcination, vivification, sublimation, and solution in its water and moisture. In these words the whole mode and entire labour is comprehended of leading the two luminaries from potency to act, and unto vegetation. Behold, now many mysteries have we revealed to thee, of which hitherto it was difficult; now it sufficeth.
THEORETICAL APPENDIX
Alchemy is an art of administration in this excellent magistery, by which, and by necessary means (as are furnaces, vessels, measures, and ordered fires), our vegetable and mineral heaven is perfected. And our glorious Mercury is sublimed, which we draw forth out of its earth or confused mass; and then by a simple fire we reduce it to the mean and to the celestial nature, by the work of circulation; and by a true mean by sublimation. So that by these natural and convenient means we make it proceed to celestial dignity.
By this heaven and sublimed Mercury the elements of the luminaries are exalted unto the truest vegetation so that afterwards, by these (means), the luminaries may actually begin to silver and gild imperfect metals, and to congeal common Mercury, with a perfect transmutation.
The Elixir is the substance of metallic bodies, which bodies, by Exuberation, contain their Mercuries within themselves. The Philosophers call it the Virgin’s milk. This Mercury, when it hath its soul, hath this property: to transmute bodies, calcined and dissolved, into a true medicine (and into the Philosophers’ Stone of all the Philosophers).
All the operations which were before are common; but after the composition of the Elixir they are called Philosophical.
The L. P. is a substance compounded of a most pure purified sulphur, chiefly drawn from the Sun and Moon, brought from potency into the true Philosophers’ Stone by the mixture of fermentation; and it bindeth its ferment indissolubly, with the reiteration of its proper elemental flowers.
DECLARATION
There are diverse ways of coming unto the scope of the Great Work namely, by the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal. So that if any artificer find the truth of this magistery by one of these ways, he persuadeth himself that no other way of proceeding is to be given, and he endeavoureth to confirm the saying of the Philosophers that there is one Stone, one Medicine, to which nothing strange is added, save only that which is superfluous is removed. We say this to be true: for the one Stone is Sun and Moon, as we said above in the revelation of the three Secrets.
The one medicine is those two metals brought from potency into act unto vegetation, and that by our first motions; namely, by our secret oil and by our sublimed Mercury.
That oil is our water and our vegetable heaven, exuberated from our mine and from black earth, hidden by the Philosophers. That oil or divine water partaketh of two extremities, and is called the Mediator and the soul of metals (as we said above). Without the work of this it is impossible to proceed to any general or particular composition, that we may attain the desired end.
How much and what it is, which addeth nothing foreign, we have in the chapter “Of the Revelation of the three Secrets” first we have proved: that the Quintessence and the Mercurial water (which is our vegetable heaven) is not a foreign thing, but agreeth with the Sun and Moon. Moreover all Philosophers agree in this text which saith: nothing but what is superfluous is removed. Yet it is possible for us, by many ways, to remove superfluities from the aforesaid metals, and to bring them to true vegetation, and to extract their fat earth from them.
So also we must do with our Mercury: the first composition of Nature namely with the mineral earth, the hidden (earth) of the Philosophers; and from it, by a secret exuberation, to extract the first matter, which is the Virgin’s milk, and its living vegetable water, otherwise by us called Mercury and the first mover; by which we may reduce metals unto true vegetation.
For a fuller declaration of this matter, it must be known that our Magistery is distinguished into three principal parts: Dissolution, Separation, and Union.
And it is of great necessity to reduce all the aforesaid bodies into first matter, namely into water, as the Philosopher in the end of his Meteorology commandeth: which reduction may be done naturally and physically, and in truth in three ways.
The threefold manner of reduction (chiefly by dissolution)
1. The first is the separation and rectification of the four Elements: by which we separate the first matter; or the divine water after the first mover hath first been exuberated; and also from all metals, perfect and imperfect; and then, proceeding by the fixation of water upon earth, calcined and separated, and by a secret sublimation, reducing the aforesaid metals into salt and into the most pure sulphur of Nature.
2. The second manner is: when, after the exuberation of the souls or Mercury of metals made by the physical menstruum, and after the calcination and preparation of their earths, by the union of the said souls and the fixation of them, and by this physical secret sublimation, we reduce the aforesaid body into salt and into the most pure sulphur of Nature, as we teach in the practice of the Tree of Philosophical Science.
3. The third manner, or mean, is a more useful and easier way: when, after calcination, the common and physical (bodies) are dissolved with vegetable and animal menstrua; by which, by the weight of two, the virtue and body of our first mover namely sublimed quicksilver is joined, whether it be vegetable, animal, or mineral. Likewise, when by the dissolution of metals made physical, we distil the said metals until, by the virtue of continual reiterations, the said bodies, wholly or for the greatest part of them, pass through the alembic in an homogeneous form, by an airy revolution, and by the said menstrua into most clear water; which bodies while the “damned earths” remain at the bottom. By this reasoning thou mayest understand the third manner of reducing metals into first matter namely into water and an homogeneous body.
Now, whereas it is manifest that it was the intention of all the ancient and modern Philosophers of the school of philosophy to bring their purpose to effect, it clearly appeareth unto us that there is no disagreement among them concerning the proper matter, but only concerning the first mover that is, concerning our Mercury rightly sublimed, which our Mediator produceth with the vegetable (way); and to which all Philosophers, whether mineral, vegetable, or animal, have come at last, each to one and the same desired scope.
Therefore every difference which, according to the opinion of all natural Philosophers, might be among them (as Plato, Aristotle, Avicenna, Rhasis, Geber, Arnold, Raymund L.) is none other than about the means of reducing metals into first matter.
Yet this reduction may be done by any of the above three ways so that there be a perfection of all physical means by which the first matter of metals may perform the most excellent Philosophers’ Magistery.
Here it is to be noted, that our Doctor Lullius, after he dissolveth the calcined and putrefied bodies of metals, calleth this operation the first part of dissolution. Afterward followeth the division and rectification of the Elements, by which he joineth that purified thing, the Philosophers’ Mercury (that is, the first element of all the separated elements aforesaid), with the purified and calcined earth of metals; and by the way of our secret sublimation he dissolveth metals in this manner and reduceth them into first matter, by the first manner, as it is said.
But if thou desire to reduce imperfect metals into first matter by the second manner, then thou shalt find that way of reducing imperfect metals described in the third part of this Elucidarius, in the medicines of the second order.
This reduction into first matter of the said imperfect metals is, according to Raymund Lullius, that which in his book On the Quintessence he concludeth by a fair sentence in the latter part of the chapters; and likewise in the first book of the said Vade mecum.
From the number of Philosophers and by resolving the conclusions of all both ours and of all who have written and do write of this faculty it is shown that there are many ways of conjunction and preparation unto one end and one effect, which thou mayest see through the whole latitude of the Magistery.
And according to those operations which we have given thee, thou mayest do many others at thy pleasure so thou understand the Magistery, namely how to reduce the aforesaid metals into their first matter; for from hence depend the Law and the Prophets.
QUESTION
That universal saying, which seizes all craftsmen with admiration, must be examined by us, when it is said: Out of a thousand not even one can attain the knowledge of this science. To this it is answered: that the men of this age do not have the mind for laboring in the sciences, as our forefathers once did. Then also we say: the secrets of this science are not made manifest to all; but chiefly indeed to those who possess exact knowledge and practice, such as very few are found to have at the present day.
On the three secrets, or causes, of the errors that are committed concerning the Magistery.
While we consider the secrets concerning which the ignorant have most grievously deceived themselves, we find three secret causes of this matter. The first is ignorance of the true first matter, from which the basic medicine called the First Elixir is composed. Certain unlearned men have believed that this true matter was to be found in common quicksilver. Although, however, in that glorious mineral and body the true matter of this composition lies hidden, proceeding minerally, with a medium in the abundance of the heavenly and divine water-content (which first water of this matter, for reducing it, they call the quintessence, as was said in another place in the Violeta), and it possesses the fifth mineral essence in most pure sulphur, as they say. Since that matter, which agrees well with the matter of metals, when united with the matter of quicksilver, we arrive at the end of so greatly desired a composition. Nevertheless, no one should hear us as if we were speaking of common quicksilver, but rather of a certain medium, which we understand, used in a hidden way. For that water is not of our consideration, nor is it the philosophical water approved by all the philosophers.
Some others have sought this first matter in certain marcasites of arsenic, sulphur; others in vitriol; others in various alum; others in nitre, common salt, human blood, urine, dung, and other such things. But we, with the judgment of all learned craftsmen, say that the matter of our blessed stone is the purest Sol and the purest Luna, than which nothing else is found more suitable; and in other individual things of this species it is found by experience that the species does not have its own seed within itself. For what is supposed cannot stand in the order of nature.
But Genesis teaches that this is the true foundation, namely, that one thing likewise brings forth its seed according to its own species. Hence Aristotle also wishes that the female should generate one similar to herself. Avicenna moreover says: such sulphur is not found upon the earth as is this seed for transmuting imperfect bodies, except that which is contained in Sol and Luna. After all these, nearly all the philosophers of authority embraced this opinion, such as Hortulanus, Rases, Geber, Arnoldus, and Raymond Lully. Since those doctors always say at the beginning of their practice and chapters: Take gold and silver. Look also at Raymundus, who in his Questionary proves this truth, saying: this indeed is the definition of the principle: For just as fire has it in heating to all things, so gold in making golden, and silver in making silver. Therefore we conclude our first part with these manifest arguments, by which we have made the first cause of the secret plain to ourselves, since you may be able to be physically certain of it, and by no means wander except with divine help.
The second secret that must be considered by us is that we may know and rightly understand the quintessence of heaven, drawn from wine, otherwise called by the philosophers the vegetable heaven. Certain ignorant men in this place have taken it to be the water of common quicksilver, of sal ammoniac, of saltpetre, of cinnabar, and of alum. Although such waters may indeed be good enough for certain calcinations, nevertheless waters vulgarly made in this way do not have the power of vivifying the two luminaries, Sol and Luna. We prove this foundation against the opinion of the ignorant. And therefore Mercury, or the waters with which the luminaries ought potentially and actually to be led toward vegetation, are nothing else but the heavenly quintessence drawn from wine, otherwise called the vegetable heaven of the philosophers. And this is proved by three arguments, of which the first is:
1. By the argument of corresponding truth.
2. By the argument of vegetation.
3. By the argument of the order of nature, so far as it concerns this admirable composition.
As to the first argument, which rests first upon this foundation, we see in natural things that an agent ought to have a patient suitable to itself. Otherwise it cannot follow that there is a perfect action between them. For example, if a man should carnally join with some brute animal, then from such a union no perfect action can follow, and it rarely happens that such an operation has place; and although nature might operate horribly, nevertheless a monster would thereby be generated, which happens because of the difference of species between rational and irrational animals.
Therefore concerning this divine composition we say that, since the metals, such as gold and silver, are naturally multiplied, it is necessary that in them the vegetative power be opened, which may lead that metallic nature from potency into act; and since among all minerals this matter is most fit for that, for the other metals are all consumed in the assay of fire, from this there follows a perfect action in the Composition, which must be carried out by us with those very things, so that it may be joined with our Quintessence, which is living wine; namely, a body corresponding in dignity and similar to gold. From this it is further known, which we commonly see in experience, that all artificial waters always tend toward the corruption of their form, and within a short space of time are corrupted with the destruction of their form; whereas our Quintessence brings forth effects plainly contrary, because it always multiplies in power, and in itself preserves every vegetative form placed in its womb, even of whatever individual thing.
For confirmation, let a certain history be set forth beyond our own experience. When at Rome we once, on the occasion of the destruction of some building, found a blessed glass vessel full of this substance, with the glass substance sealed shut. Its opening had been secured with a golden and leaden seal. This glass vessel had been enclosed in another leaden vessel. From the number engraved upon it, it appeared that it had lain hidden under the earth for 848 years. When it was opened, such a fragrance came forth from it that all the bystanders nearby were seized with the highest admiration. This clearly demonstrates that the aforesaid Quintessence is similar to gold, because it moves the vegetative virtue of gold and brings it from potency into act for vegetation, which with any other water is impossible. For just as no other metal can be immune from fire except only gold, so also among all vegetables none is immune from corruption except our Vegetable Quintessence.
The second argument by which we prove our truth is taken from vegetation, which is in this divine subject, concerning whose faculty neither the ancients nor the modern philosophers doubt, but all uphold this as a universal rule: that in gold and silver there is a vegetative power in potency. Raymundus says this in many places, but especially in his book on the Quintessence, where he says:
“The vegetative power of gold exists through all the parts of gold, so that the gold which was vegetative in potency, after it has been brought into act, exists actually.”
From this testimony it is clearly evident that in gold the true vegetative power is found in potency. Hence it follows necessarily that it ought to be brought into act through a vegetative medium, as the same Lull says. In the Definition of Principles, in the first question of his Questionary, the beginning of which is: Whether the end of Alchemy be a real being, or a fiction?
Answering this question, he says: For the end of Alchemy is to make gold and silver; and, according to the condition of that end, Alchemy is shown to be a real being and not a fiction, because it must be composed of gold, silver, and a vegetable menstruum, and little by little made more perfect. For this indeed agrees with the definition of the principle, since, just as fire is the principle of heating, so gold is the principle of making gold, and the vegetative principle of vegetation. Since therefore the end of Alchemy is to make gold and to vegetate, it must needs be composed of gold, silver, and a vegetative principle.
The greater practical proposition proves this and it appears clearly necessary that, for something to be added by virtue of our Quintessence, it must be that thing which brings the potency of gold into act for vegetation, without which nothing is ever done. The lesser proposition, however, is proved because the vegetative power is only in the living vegetable Quintessence spoken of above, and in no way in other waters.
The proof is clear. The more other distilled waters are distilled, the worse they become, and they lose their power and are corrupted within a short space of time. But our Quintessence and the circulated vegetable heaven, the more it is distilled, the more perfect it becomes, and increases in strength and in the power and vigor of vegetative life, and becomes of a heavenly and incorruptible nature. Therefore it is impossible to make that divine composition from mineral waters without the vegetative power of our Quintessence, as Raymundus also says in tract 7 of the Rotarum, saying: In this the intellect may know that Alchemy is impossible without vegetables. And in the third book of the Quintessence, question 24, wishing to show that this divine medicine or stone must be composed of perfect bodies and a living vegetable menstruum, he says:
From this there is our fire, the fire of the blessed stone. And from the essential fire of the perfect metals, and from the essential fire of the living menstruum of our vegetables, there is composed the living fire, which in an instant converts all imperfect metals into perfect metals, being helped by a gentle fire, with living vegetative potency.
Therefore we conclude that no water better suits the true matter of gold than the living and heavenly Quintessence for vegetating it.
The third argument
The third argument of our assertion consists in the natural order. For this Quintessence promises human felicity with respect to this divine composition. First, all the philosophers say that the higher causes move the lower, as Plato, Aristotle, and Hermes do, who are unanimous in this judgment, namely, that the higher bodies move and govern the lower bodies. The prince of the philosophers also says: This world is ordered so that by necessity the lower things are subject to the actions of the higher, so that every power is governed from there. By the power of the higher things he understands the heavens; but our golden Quintessence is nothing other than the power of those higher things. And by the lower power they understood the four lower elements in relation to our medicine. Therefore, according to the philosophers, we conclude that the lower elements of our medicine are in the said gold, and likewise our first mover, whether it be mineral, animal, or vegetable, without which elements we would never have that mover. For if those elements were not moved, and the potential vegetative virtue were not stirred up through the quintessence, without the mediation of which and its help it is impossible for the craftsman to obtain any emolument.
Concerning this living heaven Raymundus says in the third book of the Quintessence, in the chapter Heaven and our Mercury: for, he says, our heaven has the property of an incorruptible spirit, which is as it were its soul, and has in itself the conditions of a body, generating and producing seed as a female; and in this it differs from the other principles. It is also feminine, because it is attained through the feminine, namely through wine, and sulphur and odor are said of it in the first distinction in the chapter which begins.
Moreover it is the principle of moving a body, namely a form; and a little further on, where he pursues the aforesaid living heaven, he says: And in this the intellect may know that our D. has the property of a vegetable, whose likeness it transmits into R. or S., namely into the nature of sulphur, which is the spirit of metals, or the stone, or the venom transformed according to the signification of Raymundus.
Hence, according to the signification of the Alphabet of the Figure of the Philosophical Tree assigned by Raymundus, and in that place concerning the figure of the Quintessence, he frequently says this sentence: Just as the vegetative power of the mother or nurse transmits its likeness into the son whom she generates, which property the son retains, so also does our Mercury. The intention of the philosopher is to show that sulphur or the philosophical stone or venom transformed receives all its vegetative benefit through the stirring up of the vegetative power that is in this divine vegetable heaven.
But it must be noted that by sulphur, venom, or stone he means nothing other than our Mercury secretly sublimed, namely our sulphureous earth, our heavenly water, our mercurial [thing], which by all the masters of Mercury is called sublimed Mercury. This is the mediator and composition of this medicine, reduced to the first matter and to the vegetable heaven. The same author, in the continuation of his doctrine, says: And the intellect may also know that the metals called R. or S. retain their property, since they extend their likenesses from substance to substance, transmuting the said substances into their own species; for this reason we call that Mercury vegetable, and also because it is extracted from vegetables. The same author again says at the end of the said chapter: And the intellect may also know that this principle is like a woman conceiving the male seed and bringing it forth in another form and power, as it was in the beginning.
This operation was called by all the philosophers the lesser world, as the son manifesting the father’s doctrine, because the philosophers wished that through the natural order the thing desired should be able to come to union. Hence we necessarily conclude that the elements of this stone, namely of gold, ought to be moved through the power of the living quintessence and the aforesaid vegetable heaven, which in the third argument we have sufficiently proved and demonstrated.
For a fuller confirmation, however, let us add the authority of the Prince of this art, who says in chapter 14 concerning this heavenly water. And indeed the secret of the art, which we have above called heavenly and glorious water, is not vile, since it turns our body into spirit; and in chapter 83 he further says: The most high heavenly Creator created three mines. Among minerals there is one, namely Sol and Luna. Among vegetables there is the vine. Among animals there is the bee.
Then Arnold also, in his epistle to Pope Boniface concerning this divine water, says: I take copper amalgamated with silver in great quantity, and living water into vegetable quicksilver, by reason of its vegetation. Although the ignorant may here be able to say that this is common quicksilver, Arnold nevertheless says in his Rosary that all incombustible sulphur from common quicksilver is foreign and does not enter into our work.
Raymund Lully, in question 6 of the third book of the Quintessence, concerning this heavenly water, by which he performs the calcination and dissolution of perfect bodies, thus says: The menstruum is a burning water perfectly rectified from wine, by whose power all bodies are calcined, dissolved, putrefied, purified, and their elements divided from them; and the earth is exalted into a marvelous salt, or into a foliated earth by its attractive virtue. But those who seek another water are ignorant and foolish, and they never come to the effect.
Meanwhile, I have demonstrated these four columns upon which the whole science rests.
Four Columns of Philosophical Science
1. The Column of Chaos
First of all, let it be known to you what that true and universal matter is, called Chaos, from which our divine stone is composed. But here it must be noted that by this Chaos all elemental things ought to be understood, namely both in mineral bodies and in vegetables and animals. For where the division of the elements does not yet intervene, the four elements are found confused in matter. This matter, because it is created, is deservedly called Chaos, that is, the matter of the elements confused and gathered together in one mass.
2. Let us consider the form of the aforesaid confused matters and elements.
3. We shall consider the matter of all things and of the aforesaid individual things.
4. And finally, we shall examine what the vegetable menstruum is, and what the mineral menstruum is, and by what reasoning this blessed composition depends on those aforesaid menstrua.
With regard, therefore, to the first proposition, this must be considered by you: to what end the science of L.P. was discovered by the alchemists. For then you will find it established that this was for the generating of gold and silver in any metallic body whatsoever. Once this has been considered, it must next also be considered that no other matter exists which can make gold and silver except gold and silver themselves; whence it follows that gold and silver are the principles and the end of Alchemy. But it is impossible to transmute the aforesaid bodies and render them subtle, and likewise to make gold and silver, without the medium of our living and vegetable silver, which therefore is necessary in the principle and end of this Alchemy. From this it clearly appears that in the matter of our living and vegetable silver, both gold and silver, and in their confused elements, consist the principle, the medium, and the end of this stone. But that this is so, read R. Lull in the third book of the Quintessence, in the first chapter of the Definitions of the Principles of the Philosophical Tree, where he says: Consider the end, and you will know that the menstruum is fitting to the end of Alchemy.
For the second column of the science of the Philosophical Stone, it is necessary that the artist should know what is the form of the aforesaid matters, for when he considers several forms, he will discover them. First, therefore, let him know that the true form of the artist is that which gives being to the other forms; for example, this may serve: the health of a sick man is present in potency, because he can be healed. And in vegetable individuals the form and life of such a sick thing are present potentially. The prudent physician, through his operations, which he practices by distilling and subtilizing, and likewise by conferring his principles with the individuals, composes a medicine, which when applied to the sick man restores his body actually to health; because the natural form and the principle of healing were in the medicine potentially by the art of the physician, and are brought into act, and that form which in the sick body existed in potency is reduced into act and brought back to its former health.
In a grain there lies hidden the vegetative and multiplicative form in potency. But unless it is moved by the artist and cast into the earth in due cultivation, it never comes, through the medium of the diverse determinate forms, to its own end, which had been enclosed and hidden in it, if its form had not first been stirred up in some way.
So too our artist performs beforehand, when with our living vegetable menstruum he moves, and with the potency of the quintessence of living vegetable silver secretly sublimed and exalted into the first matter.
Or if he proceeds by the vegetable way and with perfect bodies, by causing our white foliated vegetable earth to abound with this divine medium, gold passes from form into form through the medium of diverse forms, even unto the final form of the said individual. And so, after the virtue has been led from potency into act, one part of it makes and transmutes infinite parts of other imperfect metals into its own species, namely into gold or silver. Therefore Raymund Lully says in the third book of the Quintessence, in the second definition in the principle of the Philosophical Tree: The first form, etc., up to: because gold by itself cannot, etc.
Now let us pass to the third proposed consideration, that we may see what that first matter is which the artist seeks in the philosophical science. And first indeed it is apparent that this first matter is a passive thing, whatever of the aforesaid principles is under the action of another. We also say that this first matter is the substance and vegetable individual from which our vegetable menstruum is made for the dissolution of bodies; which menstruum is the first matter drawn from wine. Through this first matter all vegetables also are reduced into their first matter, and that which is first generated from it in this divine composition is called and is named the soul of the Philosophers’ Stone. This first matter is also the elements of vegetables, which give increase to our menstruum. The artist will find this principle in the third order of the alleged foundations, so that it may appear from what principles this magistery is composed, and that each matter may be declared by the artist according to its proper reasons. Hence Raymund Lully says in the third book of the Quintessence, in the definition of this first matter: For the first matter, etc., and elsewhere: The first matter is the being from which our dissolving menstruum is drawn, which is wine.
And elsewhere, defining matter, he says: Matter is metal without metal, which are the matter of the stone. Moreover, the first matter is that from which our growing vegetable menstruum takes increase. Therefore this also is known to be the principle and end in this art, when that from which our magistery is composed is known, and each matter is made known and manifest under its own account.
Now the fourth and last principle, or our foundation, must be examined, namely what our vegetable menstruum is, and what our mineral menstruum is, and how from those two menstrua, together with their ferments, we make the composition of the Philosophers’ Stone.
And this menstruum is the living vegetable liquor with which we dissolve the metals. That I may explain myself more clearly: our menstruum is a burning water drawn from rectified and subtilized wine, with which the natural dissolution of metals is made.
The mineral menstruum is the liquor of mineral Mercury existing in any resoluble metal, the subtlety of all the aforesaid bodies being reduced into act, in which our blessed Mercury existed potentially, namely in the aforesaid water. Mercury and quicksilver, which are in every elemental thing, are the conserving liquor of each species and of the spirits of all individual things. The definitions of these menstrua agree in one special way, just as generation and species are divided among individuals. Therefore our menstruum is both in minerals and in vegetables. The menstruum which is in vegetables is the liquor with which we dissolve metals. And the menstruum which is in metals is dissolved by the vegetable one.
The first menstruum is a living burning water. The second is quicksilver, which must be from metals or from sulphureous mineral earth. The menstruum that is in vegetables has the feminine nature, because its womb is conjunctive, and it is married to that mineral menstruum through dissolution; and in this dissolution it is artificially united and composed with it, as nature requires. Through such a natural union the menstruum acquires the power of transmuting and reducing matter into another subtle form, indeed into so great a subtlety, proximate and simple, that in a moment it is transmuted from metal into metal, namely from Mercury into the finest gold and silver according to the color of its ferment. From this living vegetable menstruum the mineral menstruum begins to be dissolved, with the preservation of its species; and it acquires the power of generating similar things from its own parts, or it acquires virtue, just as any precious stone does of its own species. For the mineral virtue is like a generative power for our stones and metals.
My sons, in these menstrua the greatest secrets lie hidden, and unless the artist knows them, he never arrives at the transmutation of metals. All these things we have gathered from Raymund Lully, with method and labor for your instruction, that you may see how faithful disciples we have been to that doctor. I place his sayings before your eyes.
See therefore in the third book of the Quintessence, in the definition of the principles of the Philosophical Tree. In the definition of the fourth epistle he gives one definition of these two menstrua as particular, and another as general. The first is: The menstruum is the vegetable liquor with which metals are dissolved. Likewise: The menstruum is a burning water, rectified and sharp, with which the natural dissolution of metals is made; or the menstruum is the heavenly quintessence drawn from red or white wine. But concerning the mineral menstruum he says: The menstruum is the liquor of Mercury existing in any resoluble metal, by which the resolutive menstruum is reduced to seed;
Likewise, our Mercury is quicksilver existing in every elemental thing, and it is the liquor in which the spirit of the individual is preserved.
My sons, all these definitions agree in one special way, according as genera are divided from species.
The philosophers extol with praises the menstruum and blessed sulphureous mineral water of quicksilver made with the vegetable medium. The aforesaid Doctor continues the above definitions generally and distinguishes these menstrua, saying: My sons, generally speaking, all the aforesaid definitions say that the menstruum is in minerals and in vegetables. The menstruum which is in minerals is dissolved by vegetables; and the menstruum which is in vegetables is the liquor with which metals are dissolved. And distinguishing the aforesaid menstrua, he says: The first is burning water; the second, quicksilver from the essence of metals. Then he demonstrates the aforesaid virtues of the menstrua, and the necessary union of these two, saying:
The vegetable menstruum has a nature like the menstruum of a woman, from which that which is in her womb is united with the mineral menstruum by dissolution, and with it is artificially joined together, as nature wills; from which the menstruum receives the power of transmuting and is led into another subtle matter in such near simplicity that in this way metal is generated from metal before your eyes.
Then the philosophers also demonstrate that this union of the two with bodies, by means of the dissolution of the vegetable menstruum, with preservation of the species of vegetable and mineral, acquires in them the power of generating similar things, saying: Moreover, from the said vegetable menstruum the mineral menstruum begins to undergo dissolution with preservation of its own species, when the mineral virtue becomes a common genus to precious stones and metals; and then he says the following marvelous thing: My sons, this is a great secret, that in these menstrua, so much depends that, if they are unknown, nothing can be done in the work of the transmutation of metals or of the stone. He who has well considered this doctrine will never be able to err.
The third secret cause is the means of joining with the proper matter of the luminaries, whence the spirit of the aforesaid vegetable Quintessence, which can never be joined with crude bodies, filled with crude and foreign earthiness, without the medium of this secret oil, namely sublimed Mercury. This oil partakes of two extremes, and is called the mediator or soul of the metals and also sal armoniac, because through its certain and hidden soul it joins and unites the aforesaid metals with the heavenly spirit of the quintessence; and in this union it makes them so excellently concordant that it would be impossible to express the infinite virtues which the bodies acquire in that union and conjunction through this excellence.
This divine oil shares in the heavenly spirit, which is symbolized by that natural union and in the principle of its origin. This Hermes the father promised, when he said: That which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above, for performing the miracles of one thing, namely of the unique Stone.
This liquor has the greatest agreement and concord with the heavenly spirit of the Quintessence, and moreover it fits excellently with bodily things, because it is Mercury, or the mercurial bodily water, extracted from our mineral Mercury or mineral quicksilver. And its oil is such an elemental matter as gold and silver are. We conclude therefore that without that body we can in no way proceed to the composition of the medicine, whether of the first, second, or third order.
The philosophers have indeed concealed this under countless figures and metaphors; nevertheless, in our Elucidarium we declare it here and there openly in different chapters.
Now therefore we have manifested this Mercury and blessed menstruum, or glorious mercurial water, which is extracted by the distillation of its mineral, and by purification, calcination, vivification, and sublimation. And when this secret sublimation has been completed, by dissolving it in its heavenly water, or in its own moisture (which is almost done by the same medium, by all those operations through which we lead the luminaries from potency into the act of vegetation), we make and prepare the same body as a glorious mineral.
ELUCIDARIUM
On Chaos, or the first philosophical matter. And on the place where the Mercury of the Philosophers is found, and on its diversity.
In the creation of the world, according to the universal opinion, chaos was its first matter, which was created through infinite divine wisdom, and which we signify by A. From the purest substance of the elements lying hidden in it in a confused state, God formed the heavens; and from the other, grosser part He separated and created the four elements, namely water, earth, air, and fire. We can place this likeness at the beginning of our magistery for the sake of your instruction, because this foundation is above all necessary.
But you ought to know the proper matter, vegetable, mineral, and animal, which by likeness we call chaos in this our principle, because it contains within itself the four elements. And because the intention is to pursue a vegetable and mineral work, we begin from vegetable matter, in which the aforesaid four substances of the elements are found confused in one, called Chaos. And imitating the doctrine of the wisdom of the first Mover, the Creator, with our own artifice we form our vegetable Chaos from a most pure substance, and from the principal part of the said chaos.
But do not persuade yourself that this most excellent matter is compounded by some artifice. For it is a most wise work of nature, in such a way that our intellect must direct itself to this work, so that the art of this operation, with the heavenly and burning spirit, may lead the heavenly quintessence and vegetable heaven to natural heat and into act, and may gather together the divine effects of that thing. In this aforesaid Chaos there exists potentially the said precious substance and nature in one mass of the elements in a confused mass of the elements.
Therefore human reason ought to apply itself to this, so that it may bring our heaven into act. And just as among all stones there is only one that draws iron, so also there is found one only precious substance among all mineral and vegetable individuals, which has the power of reducing metals to the first matter, while preserving their vegetative virtue uncorrupted; and this is the life of the aforesaid metals, with the preservation of their vegetation and their intrinsic forms, ordained beforehand for the purification and regeneration of metals.
This is that substance of ours which the philosophers, hiding it with words and enigmas, have given infinite names. Some call it the whitest quicksilver, and have spoken truly, because in it is found the power of enlivening metals and bringing them to living and true vegetation. Others have called it strong water, and have likewise spoken truly, because it has a marvelous power of dissolving the pure parts of metals from the impure. Some have designated it by the name of sulphur, for this reason: because in its proper substance it has two sulphureities, one indeed special, in the most pure sphere of its purest fire, from which we lead our quintessence into act and into the vegetable heaven of the philosophers.
But the other remains fixed and permanent in its earth, and that blessed earth by means of our magistery receives in itself the first simple, spiritual, living sulphureity; and that earth, through this strongest conjunction and union, fixes it inseparably in a sulphureous body, and by the natural way of sublimation, the pure part being separated from the impure, with the aid of the vegetable heaven, turns it into a spiritual and homogeneous body, as we shall declare in the branches, which we speak of in the third part of this Elucidarium.
To this divine vegetable substance, and to the glorious quicksilver sublimed in animal, mineral, and vegetable fashion, diverse names have been given, although it is but one single thing. We call it the Mercurial Tree, which bears the glorious fruits of the two luminaries.
But that you may have the surest understanding of these things, raise your mind toward the eastern heavenly pole; go out from the great city of the Venetians and walk toward the right side, until you find an elevated land of its plain. There you will find a most precious mineral earth, mineral, animal, and vegetable, although our heavenly Mercury is also found in many other similar places. From it take as much as you wish, and break its bone and all its flesh, and shut it in a certain vessel with a small vent, according to the usual custom, that it may be cooked and putrefied for eight days; then separate the blood from the aforesaid mixture, and keep it in a place where it can become cold. This is our substance and our first glorious Mercury, in which the elements are found confused in one mass; and from this, and from all the other remaining elements, we form our aforesaid vegetable heaven. And from it, since it is a sulphureous earth through the union of the elements, we prepare sublimed quicksilver, hidden from the common ignorant, but made manifest to the wise.
But note here: when we must dig up that Mercury and draw it out from its mineral pit, the thing is to be attempted at the third hour from the rising of the sun, when the sky is not cloudy but clear and serene. And because Mercury of a threefold kind is found in the minerals of our places namely white, red, and black of these each is good, but the red is more heavenly and has more of the fiery form. This should suffice for the knowledge of our heavenly, mineral, and vegetable Mercury, and that of the wise philosophers.
By what means the spirit and form are separated by simple distillation, which we signify by B, so that A may deserve to be called B.
Here we tell you openly and in plain words that the form of our physical stone is from the purest fire, which with little labor is brought to the nature of the heavenly quintessence; without this labor no other way, neither general nor particular, neither vegetable nor mineral, is given by which any artist may bring our stone into practice, and still less to our magistery; because this precious stone is formed by its heavenly influences and proper natural virtues. Hence, by making this preparation, you can know both learned and unlearned craftsmen alike both those, I say, who lived formerly and those who live in these times and who have said that they possessed the true perfection of the transmuting art. When you read them, and see that they speak openly of the divine mineral and vegetable Mercuries, and of its heavenly form, you should not at any moment make any account of them, save rather to mark their ignorance in this science.
Take our A. and place it in a vessel to be distilled through I, and in this distillation collect the temperate blood B. Continue this distillation in the same rule and manner until the signs shown in our aperture are seen, and until you know that the said B has been dissolved and separated from its elemental nature, continuing this magistery up to the fourth revolution. Then place that same heavenly fiery matter in a clean vessel and distill it slowly with the accustomed fire, and receive only the tenth part. In the second distillation receive the half part. And in the third, two parts out of three. And in the fourth receive four parts out of five, and more besides. Then take that same most noble heavenly water and distill it three or four times with the aforesaid rule, until at last, no further separation intervening, you have received the whole. In this way you will have drawn out from the earth the pure substance and form of A., which here we signify by B.
Take note of this, and understand the necessity of this second mystery and foundation, and marvel at the reason why ignorant and gross men of the mineral kind make the worst bread from beautiful and excellent flour, because they mix the gross part with the subtle. The same rashness happens to artists who persuade themselves that they can find the beauty of our quintessence when the spirit of A has been negligently purified, without any pure separation from the impure. Thus therefore in this chapter you have perceived in what way, without separation of the elements, you cannot acquire the form and virtue, namely the purest substance of A, while preserving all the other parts of the elements.
The method of subtilizing B to the point of solubility, in order to acquire it united with our flowers.
It is a great mystery and treasure which we teach you in this chapter: by what means you ought to make B sharp, which we signify by C, and I hardly know in what manner I ought to set forth this doctrine, lest this secret should become known to all. For all who have ever existed, the philosophers have concealed this secret under diverse figures, because beyond all doubt this is the principal key, or one of the principal keys, of this marvelous science. I wish you to hold this as certainly established: that B has no actual solvency in its nature, but only potential solvency; for if B were not made sharp for you by the means and method here revealed, you would never have any power of dissolving.
Some have sharpened it with vitriol, which method is good enough; some with nitre; some with cinnabar; some indeed with these two; and some with all three. Some also with their earth, which method displeases me, because by this means a gross unctuosity and heaviness is introduced. Some use vegetables, such as herbs, roots, flowers, and seeds known to you, which in themselves possess the powers of Mercuries in themselves. Hence it is that those who sharpen it in this way increase rather its vegetable form than render it soluble. Some have added united flowers to sharpen it, which method is the principal one and accords with our intention, and it is found in our Apertorial Alphabet. Certain ignorant men, not knowing the true method of sharpening this B, spend much time in preparing various sharp waters, before they can place any body into B, as happened to us in the beginning, when we sought the practice itself, which has now already been made manifest to you through the practice of our Sommetta, though indeed it succeeded only after much labor. The mystery of the dissolving part is difficult and wearisome; therefore we repeat it. For once you have made B sharp in the way which we now show, you will be certain that the solution of bodies is to be hoped for without delay and long lapse of time. Truly I confess to you that at the time when we first began the work of solution, we did not yet understand Raymund Lully in this dissolving part; but afterwards, when we returned to study and reread him while practicing, praying, and fasting, the illumination of mind was granted to us. Therefore I shall make that method manifest to you under a seal of silence.
Certainly the method of sharpening that B into a heavenly and burning thing is this, so that you may receive from the said substance as much as you wish. We extract from united flowers a substance which we place in a vessel for distilling away all its wateriness through Y. Then we pour three parts or more of B upon that substance thus prepared, closing the vessel with its own lid, called the antinotory, and we place it in putrefaction for one natural day. Then by three distillations through Z we distill it, until by that regimen we obtain every mercurial part together with the whole juice of the blessed substance, repeating thereafter the aforesaid magistery with a new substance of the flowers, and doing this regimen four times, at the end of which B, soluble in potency, is reduced into act through the power of the united mother of the flowers.
On the means of reducing C into D, and of recognizing when it has come to its perfection.
Among the greatest benefits which God has bestowed on us in these lands, not the least is this: that He has revealed to us the means by which we may reduce our vegetable C into the nature of the truest quintessence, which is so full of heavenly virtues that even the most presumptuous physician, if physicians knew the means of preparing this Q.E., and with certain other additions required, they could apply the modes according to the need of diseases to the body, they would perform marvelous things in our bodies and would thus in some measure satisfy their avarice. But because grace cannot coexist with sin, it follows that greedy physicians, to their greatest damage and endless loss, are deprived of so singular a divine gift: namely, that it has the power to reduce the bodies of metals from potency into act, and into true vegetation, multiplication, and new regeneration.
For just as a man is nourished in the womb of a woman by menstrual blood, so likewise our heaven, or D, nourishes the bodies of the aforesaid metals when they are placed in that heaven, or D, and are nourished by it, until they are first calcined, dissolved, and putrefied; and the other dependences of this Magistery will have been well administered, so that from the aforesaid metals through sublimation the more subtle part is placed upward, and the dregs likewise boil apart by themselves. This pure part which ascends on high is called by the most wise philosophers the first existing matter, since the true conjunction and concord with D and with the calcined bodies is instituted through it. This is one of the greatest secrets that can be found in this science.
There is also, in addition, another way of joining the Quintessence to the heaven by means of our sublimed Mercury with exalted bodies, as was said above. By these methods the natural operations of our Magistery are perfected; for without this heaven signified by D, or without C, nothing in this art can attain the desired end.
The best means of forming or preparing D is this: take a strong glass vessel, capable of holding as much water as a common urn can contain, and let it have a spithame-long neck with half its length; then another glass vessel containing only the fourth part of the urn, which is to be inserted with its own neck and well luted. Upon this vessel place 4 pounds of C, to be circulated in B.M. or in horse dung for 30 or 40 days, at the end of which term you will have C converted into D. The sign by which you may know whether that conversion has been accomplished is a certain hypostasis appearing in the bottom of the vessel, similar to that which appears in the urine of a healthy man.
Do not believe, however, that that great and most sweet odor can be smelled before the substance of the perfect body has first been dissolved in the aforesaid D, and its reduction to the first matter has been made, which is called Royal Mercury, because this belongs to the true intention and consideration of the wise alchemists, of which we also speak in this treatise.
But if an excellent odor of this composition, which by its sweetness surpasses all the other odors of the whole world, and you do not know it, we shall show it to you in our Apertorial Alphabet, in the chapter beginning: The royal and eternal majesty, etc. Of this we say nothing further in this place, because here we have undertaken to speak only of simple D.
To return therefore to the matter proposed: when the glorious body has lain for thirty days, and the term of perfection approaches, then you will see that Q.E. in greater clarity and splendor than any diamond (whose brightness, since it is a perfect thing, surpasses all precious gems), so that it is difficult for your judgment to decide whether that divine liquor is in the vessel, or whether it is truly outside the vessel. Then separate our heaven from its sediment with industry, keeping it in a well-secured vessel in a cool place, lest it evaporate from there.
The philosophers call the Quintessence a living spirit, because it bestows life upon human and metallic bodies. Likewise: water of quicksilver, water of life, heavenly water, divine water, the star of Diana, the soul, the spirit of our vegetable Mercury, smoke, wind, our heaven, menstrual blood, sublimed urine, the water of the sulphur of the blessed stone. In sum, innumerable names have been imposed upon it, though they all signify one thing. This variety of names was invented so that Q.E. might be hidden from the ignorant by them, and so that so precious a substance might be preserved for sons who would make themselves worthy through their labors, that they might receive the treasure of their fathers by inheritance. Wherefore you must have firm knowledge of these things, and a belief wholly free of doubt concerning the solution; for without that D, no medicine of any goodness can be made or compounded for the transmutation of metals.
On the sublimation of our Mercury, signified by D red.
The most excellent secret, and the marvelous principle of all the other principles of our sublimed vegetable Mercury, is signified by D red, which has the great property of increasing the physical calcination and dissolution of all mineral bodies, metals, and semi-minerals. For with the aid of the divine course of its fire, it reduces all perfect and imperfect bodies to true putrefaction; and in this way, as though it were the first element of water, before all the other matters of this Magistery it has this prerogative, namely that it truly increases the aforesaid bodies and reduces them into their first matter together with their powers and intrinsic forms.
Take note here. If you do not first understand our meaning, and above all our glorious Mercurium sublimed, you ought not attempt to labor at any work of the first, second, or third order, because without the aforesaid sublimed Mercury no medicine can be formed that offers a useful projection. But we have declared to you this most excellent foundation in our Apertorial Alphabet, in the chapter: If the school of tyrants; and in the second abbreviation and treatise of our Violeta, which is the complement of the Summetta. This is our first abbreviation in its last part, where we have treated of sublimation. Yet in this place we do not speak of vulgar sublimation, but of philosophical sublimation, lest the proud and ignorant artists raise their necks. We shall also treat and teach how to prepare that divine sublimed Mercury among the chapters of this Elucidarium. If all these foundations are well considered, I certainly promise myself that the understanding of it will be found there, and in those who have well grasped the practice of this chapter.
Take mercurial quicksilver extracted from its proper mineral, as we have declared in chapter A. This blessed Mercury, according to the chapters already made known to you, dissolve and putrefy by the heavenly way. Then separate its spirit or flower by means of distillation through the essential medium. When this separation of its heavenly spirit has been made, separate from it all watery phlegm by the fire suitable to it, lest its virtue be burned away; then continue the regimen of distillation, and separate all superfluous unctuosities, which, mixed and hidden in that vegetable matter, burn up the perfect and precious elements, and from that composition produce an alien smoke. This division or separation differs greatly from the other one, in which its phlegm is taken away.
Take therefore the earthy body, which is at the bottom of the vessel like thick honey, from which you will have separated all phlegm by B.M. Then pour upon it only so much of the superfluous moisture separated from it that it stands three fingers above it, and close your vessel with the glass called the antinotory; place it in B.M. to digest for 12 hours. Then you will find a citrine substance dissolved, with dregs remaining settled at the bottom of the vessel. Separate this colored water by inclining it away from that composition, and keep it apart. Repeat the same thing again with new water, as before, and repeat all that aforesaid dissolution, inhumation, and evacuation, until at length there remains in the bottom of the vessel a black earth which does not drink up any more of the aforesaid substance, but remains insoluble.
When you have this sign, then with a slow fire dry that glorious earth upon hot ashes; it will contain in itself the three perfect elements, and it will be like melted pitch in color, and it will have a somewhat sharper taste than grape juice. This physical operation must be done with a very slow fire, and with the root of the nature of this matter accepted and pleasing, lest its radical part, the essential substance of the elements and also its divine soul, its Mercury, be burned in such a regimen.
Otherwise the whole of this magistery would be done in vain, since we must obtain the aforesaid Mercury from this divine body and vegetable substance through the benefit of its heavenly spirit, when its calcined earth has been prepared, joined, and brought together. Thereupon there follows also the physical sublimation of the aforesaid mercurial body, so that it may be reduced into a most pure and glorious salt, into a sublimed white foliated earth of highest preciousness, as we have declared here and there in this book.
With this blessed sublimation, if you have well understood my meaning, you will pursue divine effects discovered by the ancient and recent philosophers and by me set forth. After the separation of the unctuosities and of the superfluous airy substance, which blackens and burns the other precious elements of this composition, its smoke pours into itself a burning and heavenly spirit, and at once the dead earth begins to be vivified into eternal life, and will no longer fear destruction and corruption.
Since the heavenly substance and matter, with its spirit prepared, abounds with the smoke of Mercury and the blessed soul, according to the doctrine of the aforesaid chapter H, as proposed, then make such a physical sublimation and exaltation. After the aforesaid earth has been calcined, place it in a glass vessel with its lid (called the antinotory), then proceed according to the order of chapter K, which is the eleventh of this Elucidarium. And when you see that the white and shining earth has been made, then according to the doctrine of the aforesaid eleventh chapter sublime it, and by this means you will have the vegetable Physical Mercury, with which you must make the union with perfect bodies, as we prescribe in the order of medicines in the third part of this abbreviation, or of this book.
If you are watchful and diligent, you will be able to work upon the aforesaid Mercury in countless other ways and test its usefulness. For the height and depth of our divine magistery are infinite. But that you may be able to navigate across this ocean at all, it is first of all necessary that you understand well the doctrine of the present tree; then at last you will be able to guide your ship to the longed-for harbor of health.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL TREE
On the calcination of all metals, signified by E, and why it was devised.
Everything would be ruined if we wished to dissolve the bodies of metals with our sharp vegetable menstruum, unless their calcination or preparation had first preceded, as those do who separate gold from silver when it has been beaten into thin plates and dissolved in common strong water. For the correction of this error we have undertaken to write the present Elucidarium, namely for the sure demonstration of this doctrine.
But this means of dissolving the aforesaid bodies by way of the vegetable menstruum is the shortest possible, and it proceeds far otherwise than that which is carried out with a menstruum contrary to nature, whose radical moist fire destroys the roots of the aforesaid bodies. Our dissolution, however, is vegetable and preserves the species and the vegetative virtue, having a nature far different from the other. Although indeed some at first institute dissolution with a fire contrary to nature, nevertheless afterwards, in place of that, they make the dissolution of those same bodies with our vegetable menstrua alone. Otherwise that whole magistery perishes, and the essential form of vegetative life of the aforesaid metals is destroyed.
Moreover, by this we say that our vegetable water produces in those metals the whole operation which the heavenly and natural course performs in the bowels of the earth. We see that nature, in the calcination of sulphur with quicksilver, according to the universal opinion, spends two hundred years to bring about the resolution in a certain most imperfect metal, and this for many reasons, which we now omit here. Therefore we know that nature does not proceed violently in its operations, but quietly, with due end and measure of time. In this manner too the fire of our glorious Mercury acts.
Wherefore it is necessary that we first establish the calcination of the aforesaid bodies, because in this way we dispose the matter better, just as most wise nature does, and we bring it more surely to its natural course. For this reason we take only a few days to accomplish what admirable nature does in so long a series of years in the bowels of the earth without any other help. Hence it is that many, because of the bad disposition and grossness of the matter, have not been able to attain the desired end of this science.
Take one ounce of the purest R., that is, of gold, and make an amalgam with common Mercury, and make it into a mass like butter; then place it in some vessel, and pour upon it enough strong water prepared from rock alum and nitre, and make it boil as often as with fresh similar water, until you see a citrine calx, calcined and reduced into a most subtle powder. Then wash it with warm and sweet common water, soaking and decanting it repeatedly in a glass vessel until sweet and clear water comes away. When it has thus been dried, place it in a urinal vessel and pour onto it a little spirit of wine. And after the drying is done, you will have the body of R., with its intrinsic forms and vegetative virtue more loosened apart, by means of which you will be able more easily to make the conjunction with our Quintessence, through the glorious oil of our Mercury. As in chapters 2 and 3 of the revelation of the aforesaid secrets of the luminaries it has been demonstrated.
Likewise take one ounce of T. or S., which you have hammered thin or drawn out; then dissolve it in water prepared from rock alum and nitre, which had been purified and refined over another S. Into this solution pour four parts of warm distilled common water. Then place a plate of copper over S., and that whole body will adhere to it in a very short time. When the separation has been made, sweeten it in the same manner as you did with R.; then pour on a little urine distilled over S., so that if there should be anything of copper in S., that urine may extract it all. Sweeten it with fresh water, and then also with spirit of wine. This calcination of the luminaries surpasses all the others, while preserving their vegetative virtue.
Secondly, you may also calcine S. by dissolving it in the aforesaid separating water; when this is done, take three parts or more of common salt, and dissolve it in sweet common water; then join these two decoctions, and immediately S., like a white calx or snow, settles to the bottom, which calx you shall wash and sweeten as I did above. Then make distilled vinegar boil upon your calx for two hours, and wash it with warm water; and when the excitation has been made, preserve it. But O. and P. calcine with common quicksilver and our custom. T., however, is calcined in strong water made from Roman vitriol and saltpetre, with extraction of the water and augmentation at the end, as you know; then separate well the spirits of those aforesaid things, the body being dried out. The calcination of Q. is done with vinegar and sulphur.
This calcination of all metals is safely practiced in our magistery, which we signify by E.
On the dissolution of calcined metallic bodies, denoted by F.
We desire this: that in the dissolution of metallic bodies, or in the separation of souls or Mercuries, the whole calcined body may be liquefied in the womb of the vegetable menstrua. This effect is easily attained when our B, made sharp, united, and endowed with the power of the species of vegetables (so that then the mercurial virtue of the metals is dissolved together with it), simply separates only the souls and quicksilver from the elements by exaltation. This operation of exalting the aforesaid souls or Mercuries is sufficient for the branches and medicines of the second order, whose effect is greater or less according to the perpetuated dissolution of the said bodies. But the first is more excellent, and is distinguished into two parts.
For first we make this dissolution with the liquor and oil of our white foliated earth. As it is in chapter L, you will see the enkindling oil, where I teach the method of preparing the oil of perfect bodies for the enkindling medicine of the second and third order. This dissolution certainly surpasses all others that you could imagine.
The other method is prior and similar, namely that this dissolution ought to be made with the earth of the aforesaid body, from which the three elements have simply been separated, while the earth itself has been calcined to whiteness and fixed; it ought to be dissolved in common water, freed from its gross dregs, and the separated feces gathered together and kept in liquid form for one natural day. This should be done four times more after the first time by dissolutions, coagulations, and fixations. Thus the vegetable salt is reduced to the nature of the quintessence, which has so much heat and power that with this blessed body it is able to dissolve all metallic bodies while preserving their vegetative virtue, just as with our vegetable heaven and with the white foliated earth you make through distillation a living Mercury and a prepared vegetable menstruum.
The second consideration is that which is done with C, namely with the burning water. The third consideration is done with D, namely with our quintessence, which method is the most excellent.
Take whatever metal you wish, calcined in the way stated in chapter E, but especially and principally gold or silver, and imbibe it little by little with the liquor or oil of the aforesaid earth of vegetables, in a glass mortar, by long trituration. Then
Then place this whole body in a vessel, and imbibe it, washing the mortar with a little distilled vinegar or common water, by B.M. Yet it is better to pour over all that washing a small quantity of C or D upon the aforesaid calx; then distill by B.M. with a fire moderated to the heat of the rising sun, all the moisture from the aforesaid body. Then dry it, and again imbibe it with fresh liquor and by long trituration; then dry it again as before, and repeat that imbibition and desiccation with fresh liquor or the aforesaid oil, until the calcined body has taken up three parts or more of the substance or liquor of the aforesaid earth. Then place this aforesaid body in some moist place, or in B.M. And within a short space of time either all of it, or the greatest part of it, will be dissolved. Keep separate that which has been dissolved. And that which has not been dissolved, dry it; and imbibe it with new earthy liquor, until the said matter has taken up three parts of the aforesaid substance or liquor of the vegetable earth. Then dry it and set it to dissolve, as you know, and repeat this as often as needed, until the whole calcined solar body is dissolved, together with the oil of the vegetable earth prepared above.
This dissolution is not made with cloudy water, but with permanent and fixed waters, that is Q.E. Therefore let it be held with certain conviction that this dissolution of the aforesaid calcined bodies is, above all others (which can scarcely be found in the workshop of our magistery), truer, surer, and more natural. No philosopher has ever existed who has treated this divine dissolution with such freedom of mind, except under great veils and very obscure figures. If you wish this dissolution, and all the aforesaid bodies liquefied by it, to be exalted by the airy resolution of the alembic, or the souls and Mercuries of the bodies to be separated, if you follow the method set forth in chapter K, you will obtain the contentment of certainty and the perfection of this secret mystery.
Here it must be noted that this dissolution does not differ much from that which we set forth in chapter L. For in truth we make that dissolution in the aforesaid chapter indicated, with the white foliated and sublimed earth, so that that earth may pass with the perfect bodies through the alembic, by means of the exaltation instituted through airy revolution. Thus from this divine mixture the vegetable and mineral essence is extracted, whereby prudent artists perform miracles upon earth.
Here we have explained to you the 24th question of Raymund Lully, in the third chapter of the Quintessence, where he says: From this is the fire of our blessed stone. And it is from the essential fire of the bodies of the perfect metals, and from the essential fire of our vegetable menstruum. From these is composed one fire, which in a moment converts all imperfect metals into perfect metal.
At this point it is fitting for you to reflect, we wished to explain the force of nature, which with this substance (through those degrees mentioned above) is not brought to so great an exaltation as the aforesaid white foliated earth. But here the matter is treated only to this extent: that the blessed vegetative virtue of this earth may be stirred up, through the removal of the superfluous elements by simple dissolution and fixation, which we do by our art, reducing that earth into the nature of the Quintessence, whereby we work miracles in mineral bodies upon the earth, as novices. The second dissolution is of that kind which is done with C, as regards the division of the dissolutions, of which it was spoken above. Likewise also you will make the third kind of dissolution with D, as was also said above, if through it you wish to obtain the quintessence of metals.
The universal method is this: take the calx of that metal which you wish to dissolve, and pour upon it only so much C or D that it stands three fingers’ breadth or more above it; then make the water boil over an ash-fire for one full natural day, or at least for half a day for bodies that are tenderer and softer, and that which has been reduced into F remove and keep in B.M. Then imbibe again that which has not been dissolved, and set it to dissolve, as you know. The repetition of this operation must be carried out as often as necessary, until all the calx, or the greater part of the aforesaid body, is dissolved.
Thus far, in six chapters, you have excellent instruction concerning the way in which the mercurial substance is to be extracted from all calcined bodies, both in general and in particular.
On the putrefaction of metals physically liquefied, signified by G.
Since in this Magistery nothing can be accomplished without the putrefaction of the liquefied bodies, we therefore wish to treat distinctly of this foundation and practice, so that the work of most wise nature may be understood. For since no regeneration can take place without the putrefaction and corruption of bodies physically calcined, liquefied, and dissolved, therefore no operation is to be omitted without this foundation of putrefaction.
Consider by way of example the stomach, in which the transformation of foods would never take place without the flow or aid of that corruption, putrefaction, and natural digestion. Likewise, human seed, once cast into the womb, cannot receive the heavenly spirit, which prepares the blood and makes the bodies fit for receiving the intellectual soul, except through putrefaction. The whole crowd of ancient and modern philosophers has said so much about putrefaction, and all have firmly concluded that without it nothing good can be done. To this end one philosopher from that company said: Nothing that was once animated, nor anything generated or growing by nature, can do without putrefaction and its nourishment, and Hermes [teaches the same]. Know therefore that the whole strength of this divine science in the magistery consists in putrefaction. In another place the same man says that he cannot come to putrefaction unless he be able, with that seed which God willed to perfect this operation, to reduce the body into Mercury.
A certain philosopher also says concerning the putrefaction of the elements in the crowd: The elements are directed into fire, they lie hidden when cooked, and are changed into another nature; and that which was liquefied becomes not-liquefied; the moist becomes dry and fixed; body becomes spirit, and spirit fights against fire. Therefore convert the elements, and you will find what you seek. This philosopher was content only to declare by this sentence, and so concludes: To convert the elements is to make the dry moist and the fixed fleeing. When this disposition has been accomplished, it is left in the fire until the spirit is attenuated, and the fleeing fixed and the permanent gold tinges. Thus I have demonstrated the necessity of this divine foundation from authorities.
Now let us see what the fourfold dissolution or putrefaction is in our magistery.
1. The first is made with simple and compounded vegetable menstrua, as it is in the doctrine of the present Philosophical Tree. This is sometimes called circulation, and then it happens when we wish to reduce bodies into the Quintessence by means of the aforesaid vegetable menstrua. Then we call that first dissolution, the bodies being reduced into their first matter, and by circulation converted into a homogeneous body.
2. The second dissolution is made in the branches of the second order upon R. or S., or when the aforesaid bodies are circulated with our Quintessence and vegetable heaven.
3. The third dissolution is made by the enkindling oil of R. or S. for projection, which we make from the first matter of imperfect metals themselves, by which we understand the Mercury or most pure and natural sulphur of the said imperfect metals, reduced by the benefit of sublimation into our true foliated earth, which belongs to all true philosophers.
4. The fourth dissolution is made in the medicines of the third order, as we have declared to you in many places, namely in dissolutions, digestions, and in the unique union of the Mercury of the philosophers with its earth, and in the enkindling and putrefaction of the medicines. When therefore by fire you have exalted the whole substance of the four elements, with one smoke or one separated body, and when you have prepared and calcined the earth of the aforesaid bodies and afterwards joined it with our philosophical Mercury by means of the dissolution spoken of above, then you will perform the aforesaid putrefaction of the said composition in the vessel described above, whereby you will not go astray.
You must have a copper vessel about three feet high, in the middle of which there is a bottom pierced with very many holes, like a kitchen strainer, which can be removed and replaced at your pleasure. Upon that bottom place your glass vessel, in which is your matter that you wish to putrefy, but close it well with another glass, the antinotory. The aforesaid copper vessel, with its lid C (which has two holes, one through which your glass passes), must be well covered. The water which is in the lower part of the vessel must not rise to the bottom of the vessel, but should leave an empty space of the breadth of two transverse fingers. It should also be noted that that bottom ought to be two fingers higher than the middle, toward the mouth of the vessel. Then apply fire for 40 days. And by this means you will be able to putrefy and decoct every work, in perfect order, according to our intention.
On the exaltation of the souls or Mercuries of metals.
This divine operation was necessarily invented by the philosophers as an evident and certain foundation and method of the transmuted depuration of each of the aforesaid metals, and of purging away their superfluous earthiness by this means: namely, by the quicksilver of the wise alchemists, and by coagulating it with its prepared and calcined sulphureous earths, reducing the aforesaid body to the utmost simplicity and to the true nature of sublimed sulphurated quicksilver, and separating the eternal and perfect from the corruptible and imperfect, as is seen in chapter K. These exalted bodies are called by the philosophers: the quicksilver of the wise alchemists, the milk of the virgin, the seed of metals, blood, the mineral spirit, the flying eagle, the dragon’s tail. The philosophers have also used these and many other names, lest the ignorant abuse the treasures of the philosophers. Certainly, unless this precious Mercury of metals, vegetables, and animals is extracted according to our custom, since it is one sole substance or first matter, it is impossible in this divine science to make a medicine of the first, second, and third order. Although indeed in the medicines of the third order we may proceed according to chapter N, yet there we proceed in a more sublime manner, and the work is prepared for a matter of greater moment.
You ought to have this liquefaction of the dissolved mineral body, and liquefied according to the method declared in chapter F, for a sure and safe practice. But evaporate the liquefied body by B.M., and the aforesaid body will remain at the bottom of the vessel like thick honey. Upon this pour three parts of D, and place it in Y for 12 hours to putrefy; then place it upon ashes with a moderate fire to be distilled, and keep everything that can be distilled by this regimen. Then again pour upon the matter remaining at the bottom of the vessel three parts of D, or a little more, and put it in gentle B.M. for 12 hours, then upon ashes, as before, to distill. Proceed in this way, repeating it as often as needed, until the whole mercurial substance with the conjoined D is exalted. Distill all these distillations through Y, and at the bottom of the vessel there will remain a clear liquor, and somewhat gummy, which we call water and the Mercury of the aforesaid metals. This Mercury, or water, is one of the principal foundations and keys of our house, wherein the treasure of the philosophers is laid up.
On the preparation of the earth of metals, vegetables, and animals.
O mother of ignorance, queen and empress of arrogant and rash artists, who persuade themselves that they can attain the highest degree of our magistery through one simple dissolution which they possess. Against this false conclusion we firmly maintain and declare that unless they can reduce A into B, and B into C, and C into D, and D into D red, and D red into E, and I into G, they do not possess the necessary instrument for making dissolution and physical putrefaction.
Therefore those who cannot reduce mineral, vegetable, and animal bodies into E, F, G, H, will never be able to reach the second part of our magistery, which we call physical dissolution, without which we cannot have true understanding and chemical perfection.
But because in this tenth chapter, concerning the preparation and fiery calcination of all earths whose souls or exalted Mercuries have been, there are more things to be said by us, which we do not now add.
Take whatever earth you wish, and imbibe it with one part of its own water, and place it in Y for six hours. Then distill through ashes with a moderate heat, and at the end increase the fire a little, and preserve all the liquor, if it is from metallic earths. For that liquor serves for the enkindling of the later medicine, and is called the physical treasure of the philosophers. But if it is liquor from other earths, discard it, because it is their superfluity. And repeat these operations, imbibing, inhuming, and distilling through ashes as often as necessary, until the aforesaid earth distills no more liquor.
But that you may know whether they are well prepared, take a little plate of S. or T. glowing, and place upon it a little of the aforesaid earth; and if it does not smoke, it will have been well prepared. But if it gives off smoke, you must repeat the aforesaid preparation until the aforesaid sign. Then calcine it in your secret furnace, as we say in our Apertorial. If these earths are from vegetable and animal individuals, your calcination will be whiter or less white according to the color of the individuals. Likewise also with metals, according to their composition, as they were in the exaltation of their aforesaid Mercuries and souls, and also according to the proper color of the aforesaid metals. Then bodies thus prepared and calcined are fit to receive their soul. And for a new generation the aforesaid bodies are reduced by secret sublimation into the purest salt, and into sublimed quicksilver and sulphur of nature, as you will see in the following chapter.
On the union of the exalted souls with their calcined earths.
After, by the preceding instruction, you have understood the way of separation and solution by which metallic bodies can be reduced into quicksilver, it now remains, to complete our work, that we explain in what manner those bodies sufficiently prepared are to be converted into the sulphur of the wise. The Prince of the Philosophers demonstrates in the last part of the Meteors that this blessed sulphur ought to be drawn from quicksilver; but he makes no mention of the quicksilver declared by us above, and says only this much: If the quicksilver were pure, the power of the white, non-burning sulphur of the philosophers would coagulate it; that is the excellent thing which the alchemists receive, so that from it they make quicksilver, and from quicksilver the finest silver, etc.
He says the same of the red sulphur, because this divine body is generated from two fiery substances. The first is that which in its pure sphere was hidden in its fire, which heats and brings our vegetable Quintessence into act. The second is enclosed in its earth and is firm and fixed, which earth, after it has been calcined and purified by our medium, when it has received in Y its first sulphureity, which is united and fixed in perfect unity, then afterward by the way of secret sublimation we cause the aforesaid non-burning sulphur of the philosophers to ascend, as we have declared in chapter A and D red.
Although, however, in this aforesaid secret sublimation this precious sulphureous body ascends in the form of white shining alum, nevertheless in its deepest depth fiery white and red sulphureities, innumerable and non-burning, are found, which are the sulphur of the philosophers and ours, for receiving both tinctures, white and red, according to the color of the tinctures’ ferment, which is the soul of this blessed stone, as we shall presently say. And it is that which perfects the stone, after fermentation, because it changes all imperfect metals into perfect ones, that is, into the solar and lunar species, according to the color of its ferment.
This divine author then declares this foundation by describing this stone, saying that it supplies its Sol and Luna to all imperfect bodies as a perfect color, and advises the artist to ferment and unite the two aforesaid luminaries with the aforesaid sulphur and glorious quicksilver, and that consequently he ought to desire to attain composition, saying: For gold gives color to gold, and silver gives color to silver. But he who knows how to tinge quicksilver with Sol and Luna has come to the arcanum which is called the best white sulphur for silver; and when it is perfected with the red, it will be the best red for gold. Therefore from those bodies he has extracted the white and red sulphur, with which, in those same bodies, there is the purest genuine substance of sulphur and purified nature.
And because the ferment is understood to be that which truly perfects this admirable composition, in his letters written to the great Pontiff concerning this matter he says: Since the ferment becomes the soul of our stone (for just as the rational soul gives life to the human body, so also to a body dead by nature, through the alteration of ferment) the wise have called ferment the soul of our blessed stone. From quicksilver of the wise (which is a dead body), altered by the nature of ferment and prepared, the soul obtains dominion, exercises its powers, and therefore the ferment of our blessed stone is called its soul.
Plato also says of this matter that in every white sulphur, that is Luna, there is found pure quicksilver, just as in red sulphur, that is, in Sol. Avicenna also, upon this text, says that such sulphur is not found upon the earth, except that which exists in these bodies. Therefore in the foregoing chapters we have given you the perfect medium, with the surest knowledge and practice, by which with the greatest ease you may reduce all the aforesaid sulphureous bodies into quicksilver; and this is a certain consideration of the stones of the alchemists. Moreover, above we have shown you the medium by which, through the union of the said exalted quicksilver with its prepared and calcined earths, and through physical sublimation, the pure sulphur of those bodies is extracted. Believe me, it is plainly impossible to make that medicine especially and chiefly in the second or third order unless first you acquire the sulphur by the method and practice which we teach you in this chapter.
The artists of this age make mixed and confused operations; for they dissolve bodies by adding common quicksilver, and afterward, by such a solution, they seal up the Hermetic matter. Some add sal armoniac or human urine, but such beasts are without doubt deprived of all physical doctrine and of understanding of the divine magistery. Hence it is that by this confused way they do nothing but make confused minerals without any order; for one who cannot strip the old form from a metal cannot much less introduce a new form into it. Whoever does not understand this text is wholly deprived of the understanding of the physical sublimation of this divine and glorious sulphureous body.
Here we describe the true medium or way of obtaining by sublimation the first sulphureous matter in the form of sulphureous salt, and the sublimed quicksilver of minerals, vegetables, and animals. This first matter of the said individuals is one single substance, as we have proved above. Therefore take the aforesaid earths prepared and calcined, as was said in chapter 6, and place whichever of them you wish in a glass vessel, and imbibe it with its own spirit or exalted Mercury, namely with the eighth part; then the second time with the seventh, the third with the sixth, the fourth with the fifth, and the fifth with the fourth part. Nor should you continue this nourishment any further, but you must put it in Y for eight days with temperate heat, or for more or fewer days, as you will see, according as the nature of the earths has been prepared, since some earths are disposed sooner and others later to receive their exalted Mercuries.
When you see that the aforesaid earth has become dry, then evaporate through Z its small foreign and superfluous moisture, having the taste of spring water. And in this way continue your operation, namely by imbibing and drying, until the exalted spirit is clothed in its own sulphureous nature and is fixed. Thus, if you wish to understand me, when you see that the calcined and prepared dry earth has been converted into pure and natural sulphur and exalted quicksilver, and you see that the earth through the aforesaid operations is formed into one single white and pale color without any variation, and has then become spiritual, this is the proof.
Take a little of that earth and place it on a heated silver plate, and you will see the greatest part of it fly away from the bottom. Again nourish the earth three or four times with a part of the new exalted Mercury, drying it until you are able to obtain the aforesaid sign; and after you see it, sublime it with a strong fire. And in this physical sublimation you will have the first matter and the glorious sulphureous Mercury mineral, vegetable, and animal ascending to the sides of the vessel, which three Mercuries the philosophers take for one sole matter, while at the bottom of the vessel there remains a black earth damned through superfluous and foreign parts, from which the precious seed has been extracted, without which nothing can be done in this art.
You must embrace and practice this science by the natural and probable way, as we have explained through the keys of the Apertorial Alphabet. In this way, and with this abbreviation, you will have the triumph and treasure of this blessed science entire.
On the oils for enkindling every kind of medicines, signified by L, that they may become soft and fluid.
There are three ways of making the enkindling oil for enkindling medicines. The first is drawn from the earths of the medicines of the third order, which after the division or separation of the four elements we obtain in the preparation of the said earths, as we have declared in chapter I. There are, however, two kinds of this oil. The first is of the composition of R., the other of the composition of S.; for that one tends to redness, but this one to whiteness.
The second kind of excellent oil is that which serves for the enkindling of the medicines of the second order. And this second oil is most excellent, because it retains common Mercury, and digests it in its own nature and transforms it into white, or even red, according to the composition of R. or S.
But let no one be deceived in this text. It is necessary that the artist, when he wishes to make the oil of this second consideration, should carry out through all the proper means and all the necessary operations, if so admirable an effect is to follow upon the bodies of the perfect metals, which must follow, and which are the causes of the aforesaid oils, namely proceeding to the white and red through E, F, G, H, I, K. And then pour upon that D six parts or more of O., and fix it over it. Raymund Lully treated of this oil in the Epistola Accuratoria and in the Parva Magia, where he says: Take the foliated ferment of R. (this is our white vegetable foliated and sublimed earth), but by no means take gold extended by hammer into leaves, nor painted gold, as the vulgar ignorant understand.
The third consideration of our third oil is this. We make the simple oil from one of the two luminaries, when after its liquefactions (calcination and dissolution in chapters E and F) its soul or Mercury alone has been exalted from it by airy revolution, and by the composition of those souls or Mercuries with the six parts of D. This third oil is that with which we enkindle the medicines of the first and second order. Yet the truth is that, in the projection of medicines enkindled with the aforesaid second oil, one part falls upon a thousand, and that those who rightly institute enkindling with this third oil make one part fall upon a hundred and more. Concerning this third oil, we shall be silent here in this twelfth chapter.
Take therefore R. or S., and calcine it as was said in chapter E, and dissolve it with our mineral water made from Roman vitriol, rock alum, and nitre, according to its form by the first mode of dissolution, as we said in chapter VI. E, where we treated clearly of the calcination of all metals. It is not necessary to calcine the aforesaid bodies with the aforesaid mineral and sharp water, as we say in this place, but according to the first method described there, as was said in chapter 6. E.
After the aforesaid bodies, namely solar or lunar, have been calcined according to the first mode, then apply so much of the unctuosity of the earth dissolved in our elevating menstruum, namely in C and in D, as will be sufficient that by this means you may separate their spirit, namely the airy or oily one, so precious and glorious in those metals. After this application of the aforesaid composition of the menstruum upon the calcined body has been made, place that body well sealed in a vessel into putrefaction for eight days; then distill the water through Y. Then the solar or lunar substance remains corrupted at the bottom of the vessel like thick honey, upon which place six parts of the same elevating menstruum, as was said above, and then place it in Y for 12 hours, and distill through Z. At the end of the distillation increase the fire somewhat, as you know, and collect separately all the aforesaid distillations which in this manner you have made upon the aforesaid corrupted bodies.
Then repeat this process, and upon the aforesaid matter, which remains at the bottom of the vessel, place upon it of the said elevating menstruum an eighth part of the matter and of the unctuosity dissolved in it. For this has the property and power of causing the souls, Mercuries, or oils of the said metals to exhale. After that place it in Y for 12 hours, and distill through Z, as above. And in this manner repeat the said operation seven or eight times. When these are completed, take all the distillations made through Z, and distill them through Y; and at the bottom of the vessel there will remain a liquor which cannot ascend and be distilled through Y, unless you mingle with it some of our Quintessence, or else leave it as it is.
This is our simple oil for enkindling the medicines of the first and second order. Here it must be noted that the aforesaid oil is thus to be gummy, like syrups, with its own whiteness, which it imparts to the said bodies. Thus from it you will obtain the desired fruit. Therefore keep it carefully, because in its proper place we shall show you its composition with our medicines, together with its virtue and effect.
On the enkindling of medicines, and their use in this art.
Enkindling, or softening and liquefaction, was invented by the philosophers, our fathers and teachers, for two good reasons. For since medicines before liquefaction have a certain hardness of their own (which proceeds from the artist’s gathering together and union of the souls or exalted Mercuries with the good earths of the said disposed, calcined, prepared, and sulphurated bodies), therefore this truly physical union has so much delight in that conjunction of its own spiritual seed, that as soon as it is brought near to its glorified body, it is at once changed into its own connatural sulphureous earth, so that any part of its exalted spirit, through the reiteration which we make, is converted into the substance of dry earth.
There is also another foundation. Because the earth, when it has been disposed and prepared to receive its own soul and Mercury, and does not wish to be ungrateful toward it, inasmuch as it is a fixed and permanent body, is nevertheless changed and converted into its own proper spiritual nature, as may be done in the said spirit, according to its own nature, by subliming it with it into its most precious and dry salt, full of dryness, so that it becomes of a sulphureous nature, namely an earth disposed for liquefaction. This enkindling has the office of making solar and lunar bodies, and of fixing the said earths and effecting that they may become liquefied through the virtue of the oil of the two fixative luminaries.
But truly these oils have the property of making the said medicines flow like wax, as we have said. Hence it is that the ancients found the aforesaid enkindling for the perfection of our medicines.
Take a glass urinal and lute its middle part and above with strong lute; into it place your blessed sulphur, first reduced in a glass mortar to a most subtle powder. If that sulphur has been extracted from O. or P., then imbibe it with the twentieth part of the oil of S. But if it has been extracted from Q., or T., then imbibe it with the twelfth part of the oil of R. and place your vessel (in which you have put that divine operation or composition) sealed over the fire of a lamp, with its lid closed. And continue this regimen of the aforesaid tempered fire until you see that the sulphur has perfectly received in itself the oil of the aforesaid R. Then imbibe it a second time with the twelfth part, continuing the regimen of the said fire, imbibing and nourishing it until you see that your sulphur is no longer sublimed upward, but remains below.
For then it will be fixed and fusible like wax, which you may test upon a strongly heated plate of S. If that enkindled sulphur melts without smoke, you will have brought your magistery to perfect completion. But if it gives off smoke, then the repetition must be made as often as necessary, with fresh oil over the said weights, until the aforesaid sign appears.
On the division or separation of the elements of all metals, animals, and minerals in general.
Among us this sentence and conclusion stands firm: No medicine can be made in this divine magistery without the separation of the elements. At the very least we require the exaltation of the souls or Mercuries of metals, as we treated in A, and we especially prescribe the perfect medium of such exaltation. Hence it is that, when by H. from R. we draw according to the order of its chapter, that soul and solar Mercury, it repeats two elements, namely air and fire, in itself; but the water of the said air in the instrumental composition of the vegetable menstruum repeats the aforesaid soul or Mercury of the body of the exalted Sol, because that water is its first element.
There is no greater difference between the brief separations of the elements and the longer ones, which we describe in the present chapter, except that this operation is required only in the medicines of the third order, which is very lengthy, and is carried out with great preparation, because each oil must be gathered separately and distinctly, with long inhumations and many distillations, as you will see in the present chapter.
Take the putrefied composition, whichever you prefer, and set it to distillation through Y, until all the water has passed over, which is the elemental water; this keep carefully separated in a well-secured vessel.
And if you wish to undertake the separation of the second element, namely of air, pour upon the matter that remained in the vessel enough of its own proper water to stand to the height of four fingers, and, the vessel being closed with its glass (antinotory), place it in Y for three days; then distill gently through ashes until the matter remains well dry at the bottom of the vessel. Let the vessel cool, and then pour again its element, or its own water, upon the aforesaid matter to the breadth of four transverse fingers, as I did above, and place it again to digest in Y for three days; then distill gently through ashes, and repeat the aforesaid pourings-on, digestions, and distillations through Z, ten times.
If the instrumental water runs short, then place all the distillations made from ashes into a urinal vessel, and distill through Y. And the water which has distilled according to this regimen will be good, and you may use it for the aforesaid operations.
Keep and preserve also the air, which will remain at the bottom of the vessel, in another well-secured vessel. And it must be noted that the liquor which remains in the bottom of the vessel, when the final distillations have been made through Y, is the element of air, which, separated from the element of water, must be kept in a well-closed vessel.
This separation ought to be done by means of the aforesaid fire. But for your more perfect instruction we say that, when the element of water has passed over, the fire must be increased by one degree, so that the whole element of air, or part of it, may be able to distill; and in distilling it may enter and be joined with its distilled water. Afterwards, however, one element must again be separated from the other through B, as we said above.
Now as to the separation of the element of fire, from the matter or composition of the separated element of air, proceed in the same order and manner as you did in separating the air, by similar imbibitions, inhumations, and distillations, except that in the distillations through Z you must increase the fire one degree more than in the distillation made for air. Here it must be noted that where we said that the separation should be done in ten revolutions, you ought to do it in fifteen revolutions, and that all the distillations made through Z in this second magistery should be done through Y.
When all the water has been distilled through Y, then the element of fire remains in the bottom of the vessel will remain in a dry form, upon which place the element of air thus far preserved, and distill these two elements joined together in a retort through Z with a temperate heat, until you see the matter in the bottom of the retort corrupted like thick spittle of honey. Yet continue to distill the whole with a fire not too violent, until you see that the matter has become congealed; then the distillation ought to cease.
Or, for greater certainty, observe this: when the two elements are joined together and set in place for distillation, let three parts out of five pass over; then cease from distilling, and distill once more the air separated in this second regimen seven times by itself; then keep that which is understood to be of fire; but join the remainder, which is left from fire and air, with the earth. Distill therefore again, according to the aforesaid regimen, after three parts out of five of the composition of the element of air and fire have passed over; and at the bottom of the retort there will remain two parts of this divine composition like thick honey.
Then continue your distillation with a fire not too violent, until you see in the bottom of the retort the element of fire congealed. For then an end must be put to the operation. This is the second air, which we call our oil and the treasure of the physician for the enkindling of medicines. This oil partakes very greatly of the substance of the body, and for you it must be rectified by distilling it seven times through the alembic; and place with it the earths or feces which you obtained in the two rectifications of those two oils or airs with fire, in the manner stated above.
When those rectifications of the aforesaid two elements are finished, namely of the aforesaid air and water, take the water and distill it seven times more through Y; and place with it the earth or feces which in the two rectifications of those two oils or airs with the element of earth you will have obtained.
When this rectification of the element of water has been finished, which is accomplished through fifteen revolutions, and when by this method the element of fire has been separated from the calcined earth, this element of fire you shall distill seven times with five parts or more of its rectified water, as you know. In sum, for each weight of the element, namely of fire, take five parts or more of the aforesaid rectified water, and repeat it seven times.
In this way you have the calcination of the aforesaid element of fire. In like manner you will make the calcination of the element of earth, with its prepared and rectified water. And that earth and fire will agree in dryness and in like manner. The sign that the calcination of the earths has been reached, you will see in chapter K, and in chapter I likewise (or take five parts of fire more than the body is, digest and distill through Y). In this way you will have the full doctrine of the separation and rectification of the elements, which method is common and universal for minerals, vegetable plants, and animals.
In vegetables and animals as individuals, however, the work is not carried out with such lengthy preparations as in minerals, that is, in metallic bodies, because in vegetables and animals the elements by nature do not have so strong a union and binding together as in the aforesaid metals.
Here I have revealed to you a secret, indeed a most excellent secret, with which, if you are wise, you will not be able to go astray in the present doctrine and practice.
ELUCIDARII
After, by the grace of the eternal God, we have described the science of the transmutatory art, by which a prudent artist may easily understand the whole magistery, we now proceed to hand down the means of compounding our blessed medicines and stone. There are in truth three orders of the composition of medicines or of the stones of the philosophers. First we shall treat of the means of reducing the medicines of the first order to perfection, then of the second, and then also of the third.
Although Geber, in the Summa of the Perfect Mystery, observes the present order, yet we must reverently and honorably do justice to this divine science, which by all true philosophers of transmutation is called the King of minerals, formally and substantially. Therefore it is not our intention to follow the medicines of the said Geber written by him in his first order, because they are things full of scandalous sophistications and contrary to the office of faith. In no way do we deal with similar sophistications and deceits. The sophistic art was invented by the enemy of God, whose foes we have always been.
Therefore out of full faith and charity we have faithfully written to you, by grace, that infinite divine goodness has bestowed upon us, and made you a sharer in it, so that you may use it lawfully and holily; for we have been unwilling to write otherwise, lest we bring destruction upon our neighbors.
On the means of composing the first branch of the first order, which is prepared from the sulphur of Sol with our Quintessence, by circulation in the philosophical vessel.
Take three ounces of R. or S., according to the method contained and calcined in chapter E; then make their liquefaction and dissolution, as may be found in chapter F; and dissolve them by the first medium described in the chapters, namely with the liquor or oil of our earthy vegetable substance, white, permanent, and fixed, reduced into the nature of the Quintessence, or simply calcined and prepared. For by proceeding well and safely with these two media and the aforesaid liquors, this divine dissolution is effected for you. But acquire that dissolution first, which is declared in chapter F from the two aforesaid bodies with the oil of our vegetable sulphur.
It must be known that the excellence of our magistery is so great and so certain that it demonstrates the powers of living things in all possible medicines by suitably stirring up the nature of individuals through the artifice of the prudent artist. Meanwhile, however, you must proceed according to our second explanation, and you will by no means go astray. Yet this must not be omitted here: all those dissolutions which have been prepared more diligently and more excellently will impart a greater vegetative power in mineral bodies. And thus, as we have declared, you will have a greater effect of transmutation in the projection of this blessed composition. But when nature has produced its own effects, the artist ought to proceed at once to such a dissolution of the aforesaid bodies according to our declaration. For this reason this first way was invented by our fathers, that artists might be spared the multitude of time and expenses that were required for the medicines of the third order.
But to return to our purpose: after you have made the dissolution of the aforesaid bodies, then place that dissolved matter to putrefy for eight days according to the practice which you will find signified in the chapter by G. Then separate their souls or Mercuries by the doctrine described in chapter H, repeating the magistery until the matter has been deprived of its Mercury, or soul, by what is signified through H. Or do those operations according to chapter N, which indeed is the longer and slower way, because of the separation of the elements and the mode of its inhumations; but for the sake of brevity the longer practice is omitted.
You will rectify and purify your Mercury by seven airy revolutions, and when it has been glorified, keep it separately in a well-secured vessel. Then calcine the earth of the aforesaid luminaries, which remained in the bottom of the vessel after the separation and exaltation of the aforesaid soul or Mercury, and prepare it according to the medium signified in chapter I. Then continue that calcination and preparation to perfection, according to the order of chapter K. Then this body is reduced into the most precious salt and sulphur of nature, and into white and glorified quicksilver.
Then take this body thus disposed, and place it in one of our circulating vessels to circulate, with six parts of B or D, whichever is better, in Y for 20 days, then for another 20 days in Z. And when you see that the heavenly spirit has been fixed upon its ferment, then remove it from the vessel and keep it for your use.
From this medicine take one ounce, and place it in a long-necked glass, pouring upon it one hundred ounces of living common Mercury; and, the vessel being properly sealed, place it in Z, moderately, for 20 days, during which time the living common Mercury will be fixed, which you reduce into a body, and examine with the strongest fire in the chapter on the vessels of the book of Saturn. For the aforesaid Mercury requires such a reduction into a Saturnine body. For if you apply another reduction into a most excellent body, because of its subtlety, diminution would result. But the medicines of the second and third order do not need this, for they have a very hard bone.
On the second branch of the first order, which has a shorter way and is prepared from sublimed metals with the addition of Quintessence.
Take three ounces of one or other of the luminaries, namely of Sol or Luna (choose whichever you wish), and reduce it in E; then reduce it into F, exalting its Mercury or soul, or its soul with C, which is made sharp with simple things, because it does not greatly corrupt its virtue, as it does with C. We can exalt its soul or Mercury, namely of the said metal, through H, after you have made the higher preparation and calcination of its soul upon its own earth, as you have in chapter I. Then join these two substances into one, according to the order of chapter K, and make this glorious body sublime according to the practice of the aforesaid chapter.
Because the philosophers call the sublimed body the first matter of the aforesaid metals, and because that first matter can very easily be converted into medicines and into the stone of the philosophers, as we have said.
Take therefore one ounce of our sublimed vegetable Mercury, signified by D red; then take also one ounce of the said sulphur of the said luminaries, or of the first matter of the perfect body, and join them together in a glass mortar by long trituration. Then place them thus joined in one of our circulating vessels, containing six parts of our heavenly Quintessence, according to the practice of the chapter spoken of above. And use this medicine as we have said above.
On the third branch, or medicine of the first order, which is made by the art from common Mercury.
This branch is much easier than the others, but its projection is less.
Take therefore from our vegetable Mercury, which in this science is commonly spoken of, and separate from it its mother, that is, the earth, by way of dissolution and putrefaction, separating its four elements according to the order of chapter N, and gathering its first and heavenly spirit. Then rectify it until it arrives at its simple essence. Then prepare and calcine its earth by the medium and practice prescribed in chapter I, removing its superfluous elements, which are in the aforesaid first spirit; and have no care for the unctuous earth, because it is the superfluity of the whole glorious earth and composition.
After the soul or Mercury of the said unctuous earth and mother of the elements has been exalted, you must necessarily make the conjunction of the divine composition, namely of the exalted soul with its prepared and calcined earth, as was said in chapter K; then sublime this divine composition, and reduce it into the whitest salt and into the sulphur of nature, according to the practice of chapter K.
Ferment this sulphur with S. dissolved in B or in D, imbibing this body with the same B or D, whichever is better. And do this often with a small fire, imbibing, distilling, and drying the aforesaid glorious fermented body, and triturating it in a glass mortar, until the aforesaid ferment becomes one and the same thing with its vegetable sulphur in the highest appearance. At last place it to circulate in our vessel, with six parts of our Quintessence, according to the practice administered in the preceding chapters.
On the fourth branch, or the last medicine of the first order, which proceeds from the simple earth of common Mercury by the fixation of its own spirit, which is united with the ferment.
Take as much vegetable Mercury as you wish, and after its customary putrefaction, which will be sufficient for you, reduce it in N; gather only the element of fire, and keep it separated, because here we have no need of it. Then take its earth, physically calcined and prepared, upon which place an equal weight of calcined S.; and by grinding this composition for a long time in a glass mortar, reduce those two bodies into one. Then place this matter in a glass urinal upon the fire in Z, moderately or gently, with water amounting to half its weight, upon which administer the physical dissolution, until the ferment is well conjoined with the said earth. You will know this when, in the distillation, you see in them a green or lapis-lazuli color, or when in the greater part of the matter dissolution takes place. For then you will have the sure sign that the earth has received its ferment, and at last coagulate and fix that medicine by circulation, as was done in the preceding chapters.
Here it must be noted that whatever operation is instituted with S. can also be done with R. Then its operation will exercise its work toward the red. But R., once dissolved, is harder than S.; therefore three times more time must be allowed for it.
We shall speak no more about the medicines of the first order, because the height of our magistery is so great that the number of ways of proceeding is almost infinite.
If you are content to observe the doctrine in the single tree, namely in the reduction of bodies to the first matter by way of physical sublimation, or by the dissolution and exaltation made of the aforesaid bodies with the earth of our sublimed vegetable and with the first vegetative mover of the luminaries, then you will be able to avoid error. Or if you are able to reduce A into D, or at least into B, with the other means pertaining to the art, then in these sciences you will be able to practice in innumerable ways.
On the five branches, or modes, of the second order, in which the mixture of the bodies of imperfect metals is employed.
Take three ounces of O., and make E with sharp C, until it is reduced and united with its own matters, the individual vegetable applications, and until with it the distillation of the whole body of O. is easily made, which is reduced into F; putrefy for eight days. Then perform upon this body the operations described in chapter K, separating, namely, its air or spirit. Exercise this operation so often until you have the spirit or air by turns through the sharp menstruum. Then prepare and purify its earth according to chapter I; then make the conjunction of the aforesaid prepared spirit with its prepared and calcined earth according to the order of chapter K. In this way O. is reduced into salt, and into its first substance, which is a plant fit for producing glorious fruits.
Take the aforesaid salt and physically sublimed sulphur, and place it in one of our vessels, upon which you shall perform operation M with the simple oil of S., in the manner in which I taught it prepared in chapter 12, L, namely of this present Elucidarium.
Then make projection of one part upon one hundred of prepared common Mercury, or upon Saturn, and you will have 80 parts of the aforesaid body and perfect metal, according to the condition of its ferment.
The purer the matters are, the more fit they are for receiving their form. Since therefore Jupiter is purer than Saturn, for that reason we also make this medicine of the second order with Jove, and indeed with greater fruit than the first medicine. You will make the second medicine in the same way as the first, carrying out all the aforesaid operations, namely E, F, G, H, I, K, considering above all that P. is wholly dissolved, just as in the exaltation of its soul or Mercury, as was said above; according to the practice of chapter H, which is of the same value. Then you shall make the enkindling, fixation, and fermentation of the sulphur of the aforesaid P., according to the practice prescribed in chapter M, with the oil of S. And in this way common Mercury or P. is transmuted into pure silver, just as was said above concerning O.
The third and fourth branches of the second order, for the red.
Take three ounces of T., and reduce it into F, and into E with C. Then putrefy the aforesaid dissolved body for eight days, and afterwards withdraw from it its Mercury according to the order handed down in chapter H, and upon its earth make calcination and preparation, as was said in chapter I. Then make the conjunction of that Mercury with its earth according to the procedure contained in chapter M, with the simple oil of R.
Then you shall make projection, namely one part upon 200 of common Mercury or of T., and you will have the best Sol, constant in all assays. In the same way as you have done with T., do likewise with Q.
Here it must be noted that certain philosophers have taught a method of practicing these medicines by very difficult ways, namely: after the imperfect body has been calcined, it must first be dissolved in mercurial parts (which is difficult to do), and then exalted through the alembic. Although this could indeed be done in this way, it is nevertheless not the better course, because the whole body is not dissolved by the sharp menstruum. Therefore it seems much more convenient to us to dissolve the calcined body with that same well-sharpened vegetable, and in such a liquefaction to exalt the mercurial part of the aforesaid body, namely its Mercury, through H, according to the second order of chapter N. By this medium we abbreviate our way; yet by these two means you will obtain the desired scope and end.
The fifth and last branch of the second order, the best of all, which consists in the two luminaries, Sol and Luna, for making the tincture to the red and to the white, by the union of S. and R. with their proper spirit and soul.
Take one pound of saltpetre and two pounds of Roman vitriol, and putrefy them according to the order written in the Alphabet of our Summa written, then from them make a strong water by the ordinary method. From this water take four parts and one part of saltpetre, and rectify it by distillation, repeating these rectifications as often with the same salt, until you see that that water has the power of dissolving R., once it has first been reduced into E according to the practice stated in chapter E. Then dissolve S. in the aforesaid simple water, and then take two parts of the decoction of R. and join these two bodies or decoctions together, and at once those decoctions unite among themselves.
Then distill the water through the alembic until a fixed calx remains at the bottom of the vessel, which will be gray, dark, and almost black. If the two luminaries have thus been calcined, wash that which is in its blackness with a fire contrary to nature, as we said in chapter E. Now dissolve these bodies with sharply prepared C. If this calx should be somewhat hard, sweeten it a second time according to chapter E, as we said above, following chapter F in the first dissolution, which is made with the liquor or oil of our earthy vegetable physical substance, calcined white, permanent, and fixed. If you make this second dissolution according to this order, you will save much labor in dissolving through C, because the dissolution of bodies made with C is fierce and lengthy.
Here it must be noted that we hand down certain operations as being able to be done in two ways, according to the practice of this art well known to us; and we teach those ways here, that you may have both the theory and the practice of this art.
After therefore you have dissolved the aforesaid bodies, putrefy them for eight days; then exalt from them H. When this has been done, calcine and prepare the earth according to the tenor of chapter I. Then make the conjunction of H with I, reducing it into K according to the order of the chapter mentioned above; and thus you will reduce the two luminaries into a homogeneous body, because they have thus been reduced into their first matter and into the sulphur of nature.
Then separate the said K, making imbibitions and enkindlings with the fifth part of the simple oil of S. This magistery is almost similar in method of proceeding to that with M; and repeat all the imbibitions with the fifth part of the aforesaid oil, as I have said, by putrefaction, desiccation, and simple coagulation upon this composition, until the matter becomes fixed in perfect unity. And by this second operation you will have a crystalline stone, in some way transparent and partaking of a green color, by which any imperfect body is transmutable into true Luna, constant in every assay.
But if you wish to bring it to the red, then take it and add to it, by means of it, half its weight of the simple oil of R., nourishing this body in Y; and for the second time give it the fifth part of the oil of R., observing the same operation for the red as was observed for the white, repeating the aforesaid operations until you see your medicine red, transparent like ruby, fixed, and toward fusible with a small fire. This is our blessed stone and the first branch, which among the others I have described and treated more openly and simply, and which in this chapter, for your better understanding, we have handled expressly for the promoting of the glory of God.
ON THE MEDICINE OF THE THIRD ORDER,
which is the empress of all the other powers and is perfected by six operations.
Our purpose is to give you perfect doctrine, with a brief and lucid discourse, so that you may be able to understand the obscure sayings of the ancient philosophers, namely Hermes, Aristotle, Plato, Democritus, Avicenna, Rasis, Hippocrates, Origen, Galen, Geber, and others, who, although they were most wise in natural philosophy, were nevertheless envious of this science, and in their books treated it with such obscure terms that, in order to understand them, one would need the explanation of some angel.
I. The physical dissolution of the two luminaries for this third order.
Take three ounces of calcined R., then reduce it into F with C, which is made sharp with the best vegetable, but by a shortened way with minerals, although by this way the stone or medicine is not so useful for human bodies. (Make the dissolution according to chapter F.) Then take from our aforesaid sublimed Mercury, which R. Lull calls our Mercury, as you know, and reduce three ounces of the said Mercury likewise into F, according to the order of the said chapter B or C. Afterwards join these two liquefied bodies together, and seven times perform the operation of physical affusion upon them, namely imbibing and drying over a small fire; and at the end, when they have been dried, dissolve again the aforesaid bodies with C or D. Then, according to the order of the chapter in which the dissolution is taught, place it in G for 40 days. Take likewise S. and reduce it into E or F; then join this lunar body with its Mercury, and make the physical affusion of the said compounded body; then place it in putrefaction for 40 days, and thus you will have completed the first dissolving part of this dissolutive art.
II. The separation of the four elements.
Take the composition of R. and place it in putrefaction; then divide the four elements according to the order of chapter N, and in this way you will have completed the first principal part of this third order, which separation of the elements of dissolved and physically putrefied bodies.
III. The rectification of the four elements.
After the separation of the four elements of the said bodies has been made according to our order, the second way will be open to you, because no one can pass from extreme to extreme except through a middle. Therefore it is easy to come to the rectification of the elements, so that they may become more sublime and more penetrating in the transmutation of bodies.
Take therefore the element of water and distill it seven times through the alembic, and put the feces of each rectification upon its earth. If these feces have been from the red composition, put them to the fire as we said above. Then make your physical affusion seven times upon the said earth with its own element of water; and at the end of each dissolution this water ought to give a little of its oil, which keep together with the element of air, for preserving, and in rectification distill it simply seven times through the alembic; setting aside the feces which in whatever rectification you will have had, put them upon its earth.
Here it must be noted that from the composition of S. no element of fire is expected, because naturally it does not wholly contain it within itself. Keep the separated other elements of the said white composition in well-sealed vessels, with the inscription of the name of each of them, in the same manner as they were distinguished for the red composition. Finally, it must be known that all the operations which are performed upon the red composition must also be exercised upon the white composition, with the matters being changed accordingly.
IV. The union of the physical Mercury with its earth.
Now it remains for us to treat the union of the Mercury with the earth of the said luminaries, which were separated by the aforesaid medium. Therefore take the earth of R. and the earth of S., after their physical calcination and preparation, which you ought to join together in a glass mortar and then also unite in K, according to the order of the aforesaid chapter, proceeding to such a reduction with the water of S. for the white. In this way you will have reduced the matter of the two luminaries into true and natural physical sulphur.
V. Rubification.
Take the fire which has been dissolved with its own spirit or Mercury, and commit the K. of Sol or Luna to the operation denoted by M, with the fire dissolved. And repeat this labor so long until the sulphur becomes fixed and red like ruby. Although this labor is instituted for the red, yet it can be done in the same way for the white through the medium of enkindling.
VI. Fermentation and enkindling of the medicines.
Take the first element of R., and sharpen it as much as you can with R. simply dissolved with Mercury, or by exalted Mercury, according to chapter H. Then make an amalgam of common quicksilver with R., and squeeze it through leather, so that the aforesaid R. remains with three parts or more of the fleeing common Mercury. If this amalgam is of eight ounces, add to it two ounces of our sublimed and rubified sulphur, grinding for a long time in a glass mortar. When this has been done, place it in a urinal and imbibe it with a little of the first simple element, and dry it; this operation is to be done three times.
Then imbibe it a second time with the aforesaid element seven or eight times, which you will have sharpened with R.. But separate that which will have been sublimed from the matter and adhered to the sides of your vessel from the matter that is at the bottom. And continue these philosophical operations, sublimations and affusions, as often as needed, until everything at the bottom of the vessel has become one. And that you may complete that fixation, imbibe the aforesaid body a third time with its own air, and through two operations bring everything to perfection, fixing it in perfect unity with its sulphur, in such wise that the matter appears splendid and in its inner part colored like ruby.
Then add to it some of the element of fire, dissolved in its own simple element of water, making with it a physical affusion, which operation and affusion we now declare.
Now affusion in our Magistery is a gentle and moderate calcination of the dissolved bodies and of their separated menstrua, drying them under a subtle body with a small fire, which desiccation is almost a kind of gentle calcination. And we call it affusion, because it is very necessary at the beginning and at the end of the liquefaction of the said bodies, so that when all your physical operations have been completed, by the final affusion your medicine will become red like transparent ruby.
Nothing more must now be said here of this medicine, since enkindling for it is afterward done by the method prescribed in chapter M, with the oil of the red composition, after the division of the elements for enkindling. Here it must be observed that in the incorporation of this red medicine all the elements must be red; and in the composition of the white medicine, white. Therefore it is not necessary to rubify the white sulphur, but only to ferment it with the soul of Luna, through S., signified. And perform the whole aforesaid operation in this white medicine with the white elements, just as you did in the red medicine.
At last make the enkindling with the white composition, and observe the order of enkindling, as was said. Here in this place the multiplication and projection we do not append here, because in the treatise of the greater abbreviation they have been dealt with.
Recapitulation.
On the heavenly water and the vegetable menstruum of divine action.
After we have described and treated at length the science of the Philosophical Tree, and especially the vegetable menstrual waters by which all prudent artists can attain the desired goal and the determined knowledge, we now undertake a brief repetition of the aforesaid things for the benefit of the sons of the art.
Therefore, first it must be observed that sharp C, when reduced into D by circulation, increases its vegetable form immeasurably. This Quintessence (D) then impresses its power upon the elements of the metals, and by stirring up and exercising their vegetative virtue, introduces marvelous effects into the earth. With this heavenly water we perform wondrous operations, provided only that we know how to prepare it well.
If you wish to proceed in practice with this water, by converting C into D, you will be able to attempt the matter safely. None of the philosophers ever spoke of this divine vegetable water signified by B, except by figures and metaphors, save R. Lull in the third book of the Quintessence, in the figures of vegetable individuals; and although he mentions Mercury and the Water of Divine Action, he keeps the practice to himself, which you may establish in the following manner.
Take the blood without blood of that vegetable Mercury, which you know. Distill it through Y slowly, until the spirit has passed over into the receiving vessel, and in the bottom of the vessel there remains a body like thick honey. Distill this through light ashes until all its juice and mercurial part have passed over; then rectify it seven times, until no feces remain at the bottom of the vessel. This divine substance moves hard and earthy metals, and stirs up their vegetative power, bringing it from potency into act.
With this water is made the true and certain calcination and dissolution of metals, which reduces them into the purest quicksilver; this is the intention of the philosophers and wise alchemists. But that we may set before you the perfect practice of bringing this water into effect through the calcinations, washings, and dissolutions of the two luminaries and of all the other metals so far as the exaltation of souls or Mercuries of metals, and the division of the elements, is concerned, you ought to imitate the practice set forth in chapters H and N. Nevertheless, in this chapter of recapitulation we therefore describe the principles of the aforesaid operation.
Take therefore such a calcined body as you wish, according to the method prescribed in chapter E, and imbibe it with five parts or more of this secret water, dissolving, distilling, and drying it over Z with gentle ashes. Then make the final dissolution and desiccation of this body in a furnace of tempered ashes for 12 hours. Upon this physical and dissolved body (not yet wholly dissolved, but reduced into its first matter) pour on only so much of the secret water that it stands four fingers above it, then place it in Y for 15 days, and then follow the rule given in chapters H and N.
The artists of our time, when they hear the doctrines concerning the separations of the elements, and believe themselves very wise, think that by the dissolution of bodies alone the neglected spirits of metals can be increased, and afterward they attempt to compose medicines of great faith and expectation from these; but in the end they fail. For it is altogether impossible that any medicine can be made which brings in alteration without the separation of the elements and the physical sublimation of the earths.
We see this effect when we draw H from R. In that water there are two elements, namely air and fire. The first element, which is the water of the aforesaid Sol, is in the composition of its vegetable menstruum, nor is there any other difference between this brief separation and the greater or longer one which we administer in the medicine of the third order, except that the said operation is too lengthy, and that all the elements are more particularly distinguished from one another.
An exact recapitulation of the three parts or books of the Elucidarium
A.
Chaos, taken from the mines of our metals, or the elemental earth, is to be converted into a red fiery water, dripping with blood-red drops.
B.
When from A, that earth of it, the red fiery water is made, then it is called B.
C.
Since B does not yet wish to dissolve gold, it needs to be made sharp with C. And because it does not yet wish to reduce gold, therefore for 30 or 40 days its circulation must be instituted, that it may become Quintessence, which moves gold, vegetates it, and leads it into a plenary act, so that it may be increased and multiplied and be able to tinge imperfect metals.
Although indeed Chaos has been converted into Quintessence, nevertheless it is not yet received by gold, unless the earth of gold has first been sublimed according to chapter K, and then the Quintessence dissolves the gold.
After this Chaos has been dissolved according to chapter F, then it must be putrefied through G; and when this earth becomes white as snow and spiritual like Mercury, then sublime it with K; and although it is united with gold, not however simply so, but its body must first be distilled through E and dissolved through F.
Then at last this water will be the Mercury of gold, and thus you will have two Mercuries: one drawn from Chaos, and the other from gold, which can be mixed by fusion; yet that mixture must not yet be made, because the gold is not yet prepared.
Therefore this solution is to be purified according to chapter B. Yet it is better to unite those two Mercuries through digestion; and when this has been completed, from that conjunction of both make one soul and one body through H, so that from each a clear juice remains, like rich gum. This is the soul, spirit, and Mercury of each; and the key prepared for the treasury.
Whoever therefore knows how to convert our earth into B, and B into C, and then C into D red, is required for metallic bodies to be brought into E. Therefore it is necessary that all things be made from Chaos through A, B, C, D, and E. And Ab into F, and from there into G and H, must be carried over. All these things you must know, otherwise you will not attain this art. This is the second part of this art, namely when A is prepared through B, C, and D, and its solution follows.
Take your Chaos, and convert it into B, C, and D; then proceed further, as in K, until the chaotic earth has become dry. At last open the vessel and evaporate it over a slow fire.
Then begin again to imbibe and digest it without ceasing, until the spirit becomes fixed with its sulphureous earth, which is pale and white. This earth is plainly volatile and spiritual. Put a small quantity of it upon a heated plate, and a good part of it will vanish in smoke. When you see this sign, sublime it with a strong fire. And the first matter will be called this precious seed of metals, by which the metals are transmuted.
If your intention is to reduce the earth of your Chaos into water, you have its process in B, a stronger one in C, and the best in D. But if you wish to convert this water into a fixed earth or sulphur, so that it may become the first matter of metals, follow chapter K by sublimation; for there you will find both, earth and water, for the dissolution of metals.
Make an amalgam with common Mercury and gold, and dissolve it in strong water according to chapter L. Imbibe this subtle calx with D made from A, and proceed according to F; and you will obtain three times more gold than before, because it is increased by the power of this D.
Place this calx of gold in that, let it dissolve; what remains, imbibe again with A, to the height of four transverse fingers, and place it over hot ashes to dissolve.
This water is the Mercury of gold and its vivification, because it loosens it, makes it ascend into the vessel, and sets it in motion, although before it was fixed and immobile.
If your D, or Q.E., is strong and powerful, it will quickly dissolve the calx of gold; if not, the work will take you that much longer until at last you obtain a complete solution. Therefore the delay of the whole matter turns on this, that you handle your Chaos correctly, and from that which is of better note you draw forth the juices (for the German author already mentioned says this) and use it for the solution, rightly prepared waters. Once the solution has been made, putrefy your dissolved matter in B.M., for in this way each Mercury, namely the soul and the spirit, is united. Thus from two there is made one.
THE KEY
by which the operations of the Art are denoted through a certain abbreviation.
A.
It signifies CHAOS, that is, our vegetable Mercury, in which the four elements are found confused, by which our science and transmutatory art is supported. For just as Chaos in the creation of the world was the mixed and first matter, so also here in this place it is the first matter and our Mercury.
B.
It is the fire purified in form, or the heavenly spirit, when by the art it is made so, in the way that the heavenly and burning spirit ought to be separated by simple distillation. This spirit is the purified form of the aforesaid body, and of all the other elements except one. For when Chaos, namely the first matter of our subject, is distilled, then it has a blood-like color, like fire, by reason of which it receives another color, namely when A becomes B, as was shown above in its chapter. From this Chaos our Mercury is made, whose spirit is fire.
C.
From B comes C, by the labor of art, and it is called the sharp menstruum, because it is made sharp from the form of our Mercury. The manner, however, by which the artist ought to make our heavenly burning spirit sharp and more penetrating is this: let him take the substance of united flowers, that is, of fresh honey; and, the phlegm having been separated, let him distill the spirit and extract the salt from the remaining earth. By this salt B, which is capable of solution, is brought into act, and its form grows without end into infinity.
D.
It is the Quintessence in perfection, drawn from excellent wine, which is the form of that universal body reduced into B, and of B into C, and then made by circulation. This Quintessence is vegetable, because whereas all the other sharp waters destroy metals, this one alone by its power vegetates, increases, and multiplies them. Hence this water is the mystery of the art, because it is burning, and calcines and dissolves bodies, if it has been perfectly rectified.
D. red
Our foliated vegetable earth, physically sublimed, namely sulphur and quicksilver, which is the soul of metals, the vegetative [soul] of the metals, our first matter, and our first mover, proceeding by the vegetable way. Its composition is written at the end of the Violeta, and in the Apertorial Alphabet, and in the Revelation of the Three Secret Causes, and in the chapter on D red, as also in the chapter on the Exaltation of the Souls of Metals, and in the chapter on the Preparation of the Oil for Enkindling the Medicines of the First and Second Order.
E. Calcination.
F. Separation of the soul of Sol, or the solution or liquefaction of calcined bodies, when the body of Sol is reduced into oil or water.
G. Putrefaction.
H. Exaltation of the souls or Mercuries of metals, when a spirit is extracted from some metal, which is called the soul or Mercury, and has many other names.
I. The earth of the metals, or of those things from which the soul is separated, or the preparation of the earths of vegetable, animal, and mineral things.
K. From this matter of metals our Mercury is prepared, which is the first matter of metals; or, the union of the exalted souls with their calcined earths.
L. The method by which oil is to be prepared from metals, or the oil for enkindling medicines of every kind.
M. Enkindling. The softening and liquefaction of Sol and Luna like wax. The enkindling of medicines.
N. The division and separation of the elements in general.
O. Saturn.
P. Jupiter.
Q. Mars.
R. Sol.
S. Luna.
T. Venus.
V. Vessel.
X. That is, K-water secretly made. Separation of the elements.
Y. Bath of Mary.
Z. Ash-fire.
Never before seen
From the manuscripts of CHRISTOPHORUS OF PARIS, taken from the French:
And for the better understanding of the whole Elucidarium, most useful to the sons of the art because of its clarity.
Since, according to the saying of the wise philosophers, I consider that among all sciences this hidden part of philosophy, namely Alchemy, is called divine, I clearly perceive that they invented so many diverse names, words, and figures lest so noble a science and so great a mystery of nature should be profaned. But since it is granted to me to be a lover of truth and of this doctrine, I willingly explain it briefly to you.
Take therefore the first matter of the philosophers, which is called Chaos. Distill from it its spirit and watery element in a suitable vessel, as we shall teach in its place, until its body remains at the bottom like melted pitch. Wash it twice with its watery element by two distillations; then pour back upon it its own spirit to the height of four fingers above it, mixing the matter well until it is well united, and place the vessel to be distilled in B. with gentle heat. Then put it in putrefaction for six days in a suitable vessel, and distill it upon ashes.
Then take another spirit and, after pouring it over, place it again in putrefaction for six days, and thus repeat this magistery until you see that the spirit, the soul, has imbibed and extracted itself from the body. Its infallible sign will be when you see its earth hardened and dry. Then you may be certain that the body is dead for its own health, and that you will be able to vivify it and make it incorruptible. And it will no longer fear death nor corruption in this world.
Now take that aforesaid body, weigh it first, then place it in a suitable vessel, and pour upon it the eighth part of its spirit, which extracted its soul. Then place your vessel in the fire of digestion, of which we shall speak later, and continue the fire until you see that the earth has imbibed its liquor. Then open your vessel, set on the alembic, and collect a little of that moisture, which has the taste of warm water. Now for the second time imbibe your matter with the seventh part of the aforesaid spirit, which contains the soul, and then carry out the regimen of the aforesaid magistery. For the third time imbibe it with the sixth part. For the fourth time imbibe it with the fifth part. For the fifth time imbibe it with the fourth part. And do not increase the weight of the aforesaid spirit, but continue thus, observing the aforesaid regimen, until the matter becomes white, having drunk in its spirit, and its soul has again been united with it.
Take now the aforesaid earth and place it in a suitable sublimation, luting the lower part of the vessel below the matter, and make the pure part sublime from the impure, as you know. And thus you will have our sublimed Mercury, which will be clear and shining like a diamond. This is that which is called by the philosophers, under various metaphors, the first vegetable matter, Sal Armoniac, our Mercury, the sulphur of our nature; though it is one and the same thing.
Take the other simple spirit, which you first drew from your Chaos, which did not extract its soul and in the manner that follows renders it more subtle. Take from the vegetable first matter prepared as above one pound, and place it in a suitable vessel in B. until the matter is dissolved; then, the alembic having been set on, distill off the water above it. Then pour upon it three pounds of the aforesaid simple spirit, and close the vessel suitably, lest it escape, and place it in putrefaction for one natural day in the following manner:
Prepare for yourself a bronze vessel of about one span and a half in breadth, and three and a half spans in length, which toward the opening has a bronze bottom pierced with many holes, and its lid has one or two holes, through which the vessel enters and is well closed. The glass vessel that you wish to place in this bronze vessel ought to be suitably covered. In the lower part of these bronze vessels for putrefaction there is common water. Place these bronze vessels upon the furnace, applying a moderate fire, by whose force the smoke or vapor of the water rises and warms the vessels in which your matter is. In this way every work of the first part of our Magistery must be cherished and prepared.
Then it must fittingly be distilled on ashes with a heat not unlike the heat of the sun, until you draw off all its juice. Then dissolve the matter by pouring upon it three parts of the aforesaid simple spirit, in relation to the matter that remained in the vessel after the aforesaid juice had been removed from it. Repeat the magistery a fourth time, proceeding and observing in all things as above. Thus you will have the spirit of your Chaos, which is called by the philosophers the purified fire, brought from potency into act by the virtue of vegetable matter.
Take therefore a strong glass vessel, of the capacity of one common urn, pure and long, whose neck is strong and two and a half spans long, whose lid is another glass, placed above with its neck reversed into the aforesaid vessel, called the antinotory, which should have the capacity of the fourth part of a common urn. Into this circulating vessel place four pounds, and no more, of the purified spirit, which has been led from potency into act by the virtue of vegetable matter, as I taught you above, and set it to circulate in B.M. or in dung for sixty days.
And when the spirit, having been brought from potency into act through the first vegetable matter, has been made into a conversion, then you will know it from this: that in the bottom of the vessel there appears a sediment like the urine of a healthy man. Then you will see the Quintessence more shining and clearer than a diamond, which surpasses the brightness of the stars, so that it may be doubtful whether it is contained in the glass or not. Then you must separate it dexterously from its sediment and preserve it in a very well-closed vessel in a cool place.
O wonder of divine and heavenly power! This is that virtue which the envious concealed and darkened through innumerable metaphors, naming it only living spirit, water of quicksilver, water of life, heavenly water, water of Diana, the soul of the vegetable menstruum, smoke, wind, our heaven, menstrual blood, sublimed urine, the menstruum, the water of our sulphur, our blessed stone, giving it innumerable other names which we omit here; and by experience we have seen and known them all to be one and the same thing.
Now we shall also give you instruction for preparing the first metallic matter.
Take therefore our sal armoniac, of which we spoke above, and the calx of one of the two luminaries, and imbibe it little by little by long trituration in a glass mortar. Then place it in a suitable vessel, and wash the mortar with vinegar three times distilled through B., and pour those washings upon the said calx, and dry it with a gentle fire. Then reduce it into one powder with the aforesaid Mercury, continuing the aforesaid regimen ex A, as above, and repeat it as often with the aforesaid sulphur as long as necessary until the aforesaid body has acquired three parts of the aforesaid sulphur. Then place it in B. in the same way as was said above. The greatest part will be dissolved; preserve the dissolved part carefully, drying the remaining part, which has not been dissolved, in its vessel, and triturating it with fresh of the aforesaid sulphur, as was done above, until the body has acquired three parts of the aforesaid sulphur beyond its own weight, dissolving and putrefying, as above in B, in a copper vessel; and thus reiterating this magistery until the whole of this body is dissolved. This is the simple solution of the first and second order.
Take this body thus dissolved and digested, as I have said, and evaporate its watery part through B, and in the bottom of the vessel there will remain a matter like thick pitch, from which take one part, and three parts of Quintessence, which you shall preserve, and place it in a suitable vessel with its lid in B for 12 hours. Then place it in a copper vessel to digest, in the way I said above, for 24 hours; then put it upon sifted ashes and distill off as much as will come over.
Then pour upon that which remained behind three times its own weight of fresh Quintessence, and place it again in B as before; then put it in the copper vessel to digest, and distill on ashes, as you know. And repeat this magistery until the whole mercurial substance of the metals has passed over through the alembic with the Quintessence. Distill these distillations through B, and at the bottom of the vessel there will remain a thickish liquor, called by the philosophers the soul of the Mercury of the metals, which preserve in its place. But take that earth which remained, from which the Mercury of the metals has been withdrawn, and prepare it in this manner.
Take one part of the water which you drew through B from the soul of the Mercury of the metals, and with it imbibe the aforesaid earth, giving to it first the eighth part of the aforesaid water; the second time the seventh; the third the sixth; the fourth the fifth; the fifth the fourth part of the aforesaid water. Since the fourth part contains it well, there is no need to prepare the earth further, repeating this magistery in B and dissolving in the aforesaid copper vessel. The putrefaction ought to be done for about eight days, according as the earth is more or less fit and prepared to receive the soul of its Mercury of the metals, which you made above.
Here it must be noted that, while you are preparing the earth, from each distillation of its watery part through ashes some liquor will be produced, which you must preserve, because it is useful for the enkindlings of the medicines of the first, second, and third order, and is called by the philosophers our physical treasure, which of itself is sufficient for retaining Mercury. But lest this sentence deceive anyone, it is necessary that all these degrees be completed before one may obtain what is suitable for the retention of Mercury.
You will know the perfect preparation of the earth in this way. Take a well-heated silver plate, and sprinkle upon it some of the aforesaid earth. If it should flow away without smoke, then the preparation has been rightly made, and that earth is fit and suitable for receiving the soul of its own metallic Mercury. But if it gives off smoke, the aforesaid magistery must be repeated as often as necessary until it gives off smoke no more.
Then take this solar or lunar earth, place it in a suitable vessel, and imbibe it with the soul of its metallic Mercury, which I taught you above to prepare, and which Raymund Lully calls Mercury, as you know. Let the eighth part of the aforesaid Mercury’s soul be administered in the first place; in the second place, the seventh; in the third, the sixth; in the fourth place, the fifth; in the fifth, the fourth part of the aforesaid Mercury. And do not transgress that proportion. Do all this in B, temperately, dissolving and digesting in a copper vessel for eight days, as above.
And when the earth appears to have become dry, open the vessel and evaporate the superfluity over sifted ashes, and thus continue your magistery, as you know, until the spirit is fixed in its sulphureous earth, which by the philosophers is called the toad a most venomous poison, because its dryness is sufficient for converting its own metallic and natural Mercury into pure sulphur.
After you have thus perfected the operation of this magistery, you will see that earth reduced into one single pale white color, without variation of other colors. Then it will be volatile and spiritual, so that if it is placed upon a well-heated plate it will vanish in smoke. If not, you must enkindle or imbibe it with the fourth part of the soul of its own aforesaid Mercury, until it gives the aforesaid sign.
Then, as you know, sublime it with a strong fire, and you will have the first metallic matter on the sides and extremities of the vessel, while at the bottom of the vessel there remains a black earthy residue, which R. Lull calls the condemned and reprobate earth, saying: And it does not enter into our work.
First Particular
Take one ounce of this first metallic matter, and of the Quintessence reserved above six ounces, and place it in B to circulate for twenty days; then on ashes for as many days, and all will be fixed, which preserve for your use.
From the aforesaid medicine take one ounce, and join it with one hundred ounces of common Mercury in the vessel called the naffa, well luted; and give it the fire of a lamp, or a moderate ash-fire, for fifteen days. Then test it in a cupel with ten pounds of well-heated Saturn, and you will have thirty ounces of perfect metal.
Second Particular
In another and simpler way you can undertake that practice.
Take therefore one ounce of our Mercury, which you have prepared, together with one ounce of the first metallic matter, which you also prepare and grind in a glass mortar; then dissolve it in B. Then digest it in a copper vessel for one natural day, as you know, and circulate it for twenty days in B, and for another twenty days on ashes, as was said above, and all will be fixed.
Join one ounce of this with one hundred ounces of common Mercury in the vessel above called the naffa, properly prepared, and give it the fire of a lamp for fifteen days; then cupel it, as above, and you will have eighty ounces of perfect metal.
Third Particular, by the simple separation of the elements
Take as much of the first metallic matter as you wish, and make the simple preparation of the elements in this way.
Take the metallic matter spoken of above and place it in B to be dissolved; then place it in a copper vessel to digest for one day, then in the proper place in the aforesaid B. Apply the alembic and distill off all its water; and upon that which remains at the bottom of the vessel, pour only so much of its own distilled water that it stands four transverse fingers above it, and close the vessel with its other vessel called the antinotory, and place it in the aforesaid B for three days, and then distill it by light sifted ashes.
And after the matter has distilled off all its liquid humor, give it fire, so that air also may pass over and enter into the distilled water. Then, after the vessel has cooled, pour upon the matter remaining in the vessel only so much of its own water as you first drew off through B, and so that it rises to the height of four fingers, retaining and setting aside that which you drew off through ashes, which is the air. Then place it in digestion, as you know, for three days, and distill through light ashes, as you know.
And join this second distillation with the first, which contains the air, and thus repeat the magistery ten times, namely by imbibing, dissolving, digesting, and distilling through the fire of light ashes, as you know. Then collect all the distillations into one. If the instrumental water runs short, take all the aforesaid distillations and distill them through B, so that they may suffice for you. But that which remains after the distillations, distill it will remain to be preserved, for that air or oil is brought to the enkindling of medicines. And this is the simple separation of the elements for the medicines of the first and second order.
Then prepare the earth which remains with its own proper water, in the way spoken of above in the preparation of metallic earths, until it flows upon a heated plate like wax, as you know. Then take one ounce of this earth thus prepared, and one ounce of the calx of Luna or Sol, on account of the equal earth, from which the air was withdrawn by the aforesaid distillation, and grind them in a glass mortar. Then in an alembic over an ash-fire add so much of its own water, with which they prepared their earth, in such portion or quantity as may be half the quantity of the matter.
Then institute the preparation, as you know from what was said above, drying and imbibing until the ferment is joined with its earth. The infallible sign of this conjunction will be that, when in solution with its own water or feces the decoctions become slightly greenish, or of the color of the laurel stone, and the greater part of the matter is dissolved. Then the aforesaid mercurial earth will have received its ferment.
Afterward you may collect and coagulate this matter, and join it with its air, which you preserved above, adding to it the fifth part of the air, and triturate the two into one until the perfect mixture is absorbed. This imbibition and desiccation must be carried out with the fire of a lamp; then dissolve in the bath, and after this has been done circulate in the same B. for 20 days, and for as many other days on ashes, and a sure fixation will follow, so that with this medicine you will make a successful projection of one to one hundred.
First Particular upon Saturn
Take as much calx of Saturn as you wish and dissolve it in the spirit of sharp fire, and by the power of our sal armoniac, namely the first vegetable matter brought from potency into act, as you know. And when it has been well dissolved, place it in putrefaction for eight days in a copper vessel. Then separate the elements, namely water and air only, as you did in preparing the metallic matter of gold and silver. Then prepare the earth of the aforesaid Saturn as the earth of prepared gold and silver, until it flows like wax. Then imbibe it with its own air and proceed as above with sulphur and the first vegetable matter drawn from its earth, by imbibing, drying, subliming, and removing the sal armoniac. And thus you will have the first matter of Saturn in an admirable salt.
Take that salt and join it with the oil of Luna, which you have made simply from the metallic matter of Luna, separating from it the element of air in the manner you know, namely by placing upon the aforesaid sulphur of Saturn with the twelfth part of the aforesaid oil, and place it over the fire of a lamp in a glass vessel, until the aforesaid sulphur has been dried. Afterwards, for the second time, mix it with the twelfth part of the aforesaid oil, again using the same lamp-fire, until the aforesaid sulphur of Saturn has become fixed without any sublimation.
Then place one part of that medicine upon one hundred parts of common Mercury or Saturn, and you will have a perfect metal. If you wish to make it red, mix it with the oil of gold, observing the regimen and projection as above, and you will have a perfect red metal.
Second Particular, upon Jupiter
If your intention is to proceed with Jove, observe the method set forth above, namely by withdrawing the sulphur of Jupiter, as you withdrew it from Saturn, and by mixing it with the simple oil of Luna or Sol, and making the same projection upon common Mercury or upon Jove.
Third Particular, upon Venus
If you wish to proceed with Venus, do as follows. Withdraw the sulphur of Venus, mix it and fix it with the oil of Sol or Luna, and make the same projection upon Mercury or Venus.
Fourth Particular, upon Mars
If you wish to proceed with Mars, observe the same regimen in all the circumstances that you observed with Saturn, Jove, and Venus, and you will make a projection of one to 200 upon Mercury or Mars.
Fifth Particular, upon all imperfect bodies
Now there follows another medium or process for the medicine which falls upon all imperfect bodies, called by Raymund Lully the fifth matrimonial branch. Take therefore one pound of Roman vitriol, one pound of saltpetre, six ounces of calcined rock alum, and three ounces of cinnabar, and make from them strong water in the usual manner. From this take four parts, and of saltpetre one part, and rectify it as often, always adding a fourth part of nitre, until it dissolves the two perfect luminaries. Then take two parts of the decoction of Luna and one of Sol, and mix them, and immediately the water makes an aggregation. Distill through B until all the water has come over; then the matter remains dry at the bottom, of a gray color. Thus you will have the two perfect bodies calcined.
Take the common calx and dissolve it with our Mercury, which you made from the earth after the spirit of fire had been withdrawn, and mix and amalgamate it in the mortar, as above. Then, following the operation which you practiced with the first vegetable matter, remove the sulphur from the two bodies in the manner in which you made it from each of the other bodies, and thus you will have the first vegetable matter of those two luminaries united into one genus. Place it in a glass vessel, mixing with it the Quintessence and the simple oil of Luna, as you did above, until it is dried out; and thus continue the operation, always mixing, imbibing, and drying, namely with the fifth part of the aforesaid oil of Luna, until the matter is united into one slightly greenish crystalline mass. This transmutes every kind of imperfect metal into true Luna, at the rate of one to one hundred.
But if you wish to bring the work to the red, take that stone and mix it with half its weight of the simple oil of gold, and dry that matter in B. Then place it in a urinal, mixing it with the fifth part of the simple oil of gold, and dry it with the fire of a lamp, as you know. And thereafter always mix it with the fifth part of the aforesaid simple oil and dry it again, until you see your matter made red like a ruby. This transmutes any imperfect metal into true gold.
Thus far I have told you the method of preparing all the medicines of the first and second order and the simple dissolution of bodies. Now that which belongs to the third order follows.
Of Medicines
Take the perfect metals and place each one by itself in a suitable vessel for dissolution, well closed, and pour upon it the spirit of sharp fire, brought from potency into act by the virtue of vegetable matter, in such quantity that it stands four transverse fingers above the calx. Make it boil upon an ash-fire or in B for one natural day, and then prudently pour off the solution into another vessel; close it well and place it in moderate B. Then imbibe the calx, as you know, with the aforesaid sharp spirit, and make it boil on ashes or in B for one whole natural day, as you know, and preserve the dissolved matter with that which you had placed in B, repeating in this manner until those bodies are dissolved, namely each by itself, or the mercurial part of them.
And here it must also be noted that you ought to putrefy and digest in a copper vessel, as I said above.
Here likewise it must be observed that, after you have dissolved the calx of Luna or of Sol, each by itself, with the sharp spirit, and have drawn off the substance by dissolution, digestion, and desiccation, if then you take the solution of gold and make it circulate in B for 40 days, and afterward remove from it its watery part, you will have potable gold, which the philosophers call the simple resolution and restoration of human bodies.
But if you wish to prepare the metallic medicine of the third order, in no way shall you circulate the solution of gold. Rather, take the body which you dissolved and digested with the sharp spirit according to the aforesaid method, and evaporate all its watery part through B, and from each there will remain at the bottom a matter like thick honey. Take from that matter of each body one part, and of the Quintessence, as I showed you above, three parts for each that is, one part of the body and three parts of the separated Quintessence then cover the vessel with its alembic and place each separately to digest in a copper vessel for one day.
Then distill each vessel separately on ashes. Next pour upon each part of the aforesaid matters, which remained after dissolution, three parts of the aforesaid Quintessence; place it in B, as you know, to digest, as you know, and repeat this until all the substance of the aforesaid metals (which is their mercurial part) has passed over through the alembic with the aforesaid portion of Quintessence. Distill these distillations of each of those bodies separately through B. And at the bottom of each vessel you will find a clear liquor, and in some way gummy. Concerning this I said that it is called the soul of the Mercury of the metals.
Then take the earths of the aforesaid metals and prepare them each by itself, as you know, until they flow like wax and are made fit to receive their Mercuries. And after they have thus been prepared, place each one separately in a suitable vessel with the proper souls of the Mercury of its own metal, observing the same medium or regimen which you observed in making the metallic matter of the first and second orders, when you made from the dissolved body, by means of the prepared amalgam of Mercury with the calx in the mortar. In this way you have the metallic matters of those two bodies by the way of the better solution.
Now take each of them separately. And first indeed Luna, from which separate the elements in the same way as was said above regarding the oil, for the mixing with the medicines of the first and second orders, and keep each thing in its own place.
Then take the metallic matter of gold and make the separation of the elements by the same method that was stated above, up to the separation of the air; then also separate the fire together with the air of the metallic matter of gold itself, observing the same regimen that you observed in the separation of its air, namely the same imbibitions, digestions, distillations, and similar preparations and degrees of heat, except that in the distillation by the fire of ashes the fire ought to be increased by one degree more, and that 15 repetitions should be made in the aforesaid magistery.
Afterwards take all those aforesaid distillations made through ashes in this first magistery, and distill them through B; and when all the water has been distilled, take the air which remained, and set it over the fire that remains in the urinal; and when those two have been united, place them in a retort and distill with a very tempered ash-fire. And when you see a gummy matter at the bottom in the form of honey, put an end to the distillation. The sure sign, however, will be when, out of five parts, you have distilled three parts.
Keep your first air in the highest care, distilling it six or seven times; then continue the distillation over the fire, until there remains something like thick honey, and continue the fire moderately until you see in the bottom of the retort the fire congealed.
This is the second air of the philosophers: our philosophical oil, our physical treasure, and with that oil enkindle the medicine of the third order. For this oil greatly partakes of the physical substance, which is from the body seven times rectified; preserve it separately as often as you distill it.
But take the earth which the first and second aforesaid airs leave behind, after each of the airs has been distilled seven times, and join it with the aforesaid fire. Then take the water which you have obtained, and distill it through B seven times, and each time separately. But the earth or feces of the seventh distillation, together with the earth which remained for you from the said elements, or from the metallic matter of gold, from which water, air, and fire had been separated, join together. Then take the aforesaid separated fire and calcine it in the manner that follows.
Place it in a distilling vessel and pour upon it five parts of its own water, which you separated by the seventh distillation of the Bath; from this you drew off the earth or feces, which afterwards you joined with the earth of the aforesaid elements, and digest it in a copper vessel, as you know, and then distill. Do this seven times, each time always giving it the fifth part of its aforesaid water, as you know. By this method, the earth of the elements of the aforesaid gold with the same water you will calcine, doing this in such a way that they will agree in nature, because each of them is dry.
And when the calcined earths have been disposed to receive their own spirit, the sign of it will become known to you if you make the test with a heated plate, as was said above. Then take the earth separated from the elements of Luna and prepare it plainly in the same way by which you prepared the elements of gold with the proper water of Luna. Now take one ounce from each prepared thing, and finally place them together in the aforesaid water of Luna, in the same way as you did above by means of imbibitions, digestions, and desiccations. Note that the preparation of those hard earths joined together must be done through B, and through the aforesaid water of Luna: first with the eighth part of it, second with the seventh, third with the sixth, fourth with the fifth, and fifth with the fourth part, as you did above with them, preparing each thing separately in B for eight days with its own metallic waters, as you know. And thus you will have the first vegetable matter, or the sulphur of the two luminaries joined into one.
Take the fire which you separated, and dissolve it in its own Mercury or soul, just as you dissolved gold with the sharp spirit of our Mercury, dissolving and distilling. Then take the first vegetable matter made from the two luminaries, as much as you wish, and mix it with as much fire as with its dissolved soul, according to the order of mixing previously carried out, and thus repeat, giving it its due proportion, until the sulphur becomes fixed and red like a ruby, and administering its ferment in the following manner.
Take the first airy element, namely the water, and mix with it, as much as you can, the first vegetable matter of the two luminaries, which you made before, together with the sharpened fire with the soul of its own metal, and preserve it separately. Then take as much calcined gold as you please and make an amalgam with common Mercury. Then take eight ounces of the aforesaid amalgam, and two ounces of the aforesaid sulphur, which you had rubified above; make them one in a glass mortar, and then place the whole in a urinal, imbibing it with the oil of gold, namely with the element of air, imbibing, digesting, and drying it, as you know. And thus repeat the magistery seven times, and whatever will be sublimed each time, grind it in the mortar together with that which remained at the bottom of the vessel, and continue your operation seven or eight times.
Now take the aforesaid water, which you sharpened with the vegetable matter of the two luminaries, and dissolve or circulate it simply in B; and with it imbibe and circulate the matter which is in the vessel, seven or eight times, just as you did with the aforesaid air, until everything has become fixed.
Then mix it with the physical oil, and give it its own proportion, as you know, and proceed according to the aforesaid manner of enkindling upon the existing matters of gold and silver. By means of this second magistery, every thing will be fixed in perfect union with its sulphur. And the matter will be light and clear in certain parts or places of itself, like a ruby, yet not fully saturated with color.
Then take the fire, which you sharpened with its own water of gold, and again sharpen it with the proper water of its Mercury of gold, in the same way as you know, and sharpen it with the proper soul of its gold. And with this enkindle the aforesaid medicine, as you did with the physical oil, and it will become like a ruby, and one part falls upon a thousand of Mercury.
I wish to commend this to your memory, that you will be able by the same method and path to bring precious stones to multiplication, by which we have treated the medicine and method of the third order.
Thus far I have set before you the method of preparing the medicines of the first, second, and third orders. But since in this magistery the calcination of metals is required, I shall also explain that to you.
Take gold and amalgamate it with Mercury, until it becomes like butter. Put it in some vessel and pour upon it common strong water, and repeat the water as often as necessary until you see the calx of Mercury separated to one side. Then wash it with warm water in a glass mortar until the water comes off sweet and clear. Then dry the calx little by little, and place it in a small mortar, then put it in a urinal over a slight fire with a little water of life or spirit of wine for drying.
Take Luna, well cupelled and washed, and dissolve it in strong water rectified with another silver, and add three or four parts of common salt dissolved in warm water; and when Luna has let its sediment sink to the bottom, wash and sweeten it, as you know.
As for the other metals: calcine Saturn and Jupiter with Mercury and common salt, as you know. Venus with strong water, and dry it well. But Mercury calcines with sulphur and vinegar.
The virtues of the Star of Mauretania, after it has been brought from potency into act.
This star restores youthfulness to women in appearance, and preserves it even unto death, so that a woman of sixty years may seem to be fifteen years old. It makes the flesh soft and white like a pearl. It is so spiritual and penetrating that if a woman perfects herself with it every month, from it are born whiteness, splendor, and brightness, at least for six months of duration. It removes lentigines, spots, and the marks of smallpox from the face, and the redness of the face caused by an overheated liver, and the fissures of the body. It firms loose breasts and restores them like an apple. When it has been mixed with the quintessence of pine nuts from green and very tender pines, it is especially effective in the secret inward parts of women. Moreover, its efficacy is such that one marc may be increased, by the industry of the artist, to the value of five hundred ducats.
Take three pounds of the whitest and most beautiful star that you can find. Reduce it into a most subtle powder; then enclose this material in an iron capsule with its iron lid, and, well covered with the most perfect lute, place it in a reverberatory fire for 24 hours, increasing the fire as much as can be done. When this time is finished, place the glowing-hot material in a marble or pure stone mortar, while it is still warm, and reduce it into an impalpable powder.
When this has been done, place it in a clean iron spoon, and redden it in the fire until it is incandescent; and while thus heated cast it into a clean vitreous stone vessel with its proper fitted lid, in which you have beforehand placed ten times its amount of the purest white ruby, more philosophically distilled, so that the aforesaid star, being ignited and reduced into E, is wholly immersed in that liquor. Then pour off that liquor by inclination, until the star remains dry.
Repeat this ignition and extinction in the aforesaid ruby, or in another similar one if the former has been exhausted, as often as necessary until the whole of the said star, or at least nearly the whole, is converted into salt. Then collect all the aforesaid ruby and filter it for three or four hours until it becomes clear and bright. Then distill all the ruby through the alembic, and at the bottom of the vessel there will remain a glorious salt, which, spread upon a stone (or a glass plate) and placed in a moist place, is wholly converted into oil.
Take this oil and place it in D, to the amount of six parts of oil above it; then place it in G for 40 days. Then evaporate D by distillation, and at the bottom you will find your corrupted sulphur, upon which place four parts more of D, and distill, and H of your star will come forth. Then proceed by chapter H, and rectify by seven distillations. Thus you will have exalted the soul of your star from its earthiness. Proceed according to chapter I; then with Mercury make chapter K with its earth; then dissolve it separately, or in so much D or Q.E. that a few parts of the matter remain over. And you will have your intention. If you wish to fix it, proceed by chapter M. And you will possess the quintessence of the star, etc.
Take whatever you wish to distill, and place it in dung for a certain number of days to putrefy; then draw off all the water by distillation through B. Pour this water back upon the feces, and place it again in dung, but not so long a time as before. Then draw off the water again, first with a small ash-fire, then increase the fire until the end of the distillation, so that the air also may follow; this done, separate the water from the air by distillation through B.
Then pour the distilled water again upon the feces, and after the third time in dung, as was done above, if you wish, draw off the fire together with the aforesaid mixed water, just as you did with the air. Then separate the water from the fire through B. Distill the aforesaid waters, air, and fire seven times, or so long until they deposit no more feces. Afterwards join the feces of each of these distillations, which remained in the vessel, with the earth. And preserve each element separately in a well-secured vessel.
Then calcine the earth in a reverberatory fire for 24 hours; then pour on a little warm water, so that its salt may be dissolved. And what has not been dissolved, calcine and dissolve again as before, and filter the water again, and evaporate it over the fire. Thus you will have the four elements pure and clean.
The medium of joining them is this: take the salt, and over the fire sprinkle upon it the fourth part of its water; and after it has drunk that, sprinkle on again the same quantity of water, and continue thus until the salt has imbibed its own weight.
When this has been done, place it in a sublimation vessel to sublime, and what remains at the bottom of the vessel after the sublimation has been carried out, cast away as useless and superfluous. Having made this earth spiritual, place it over a slow and very moderate fire, and imbibe it little by little with its own air, then likewise with its own fire in the same manner. And thus you will have a wonderful Elixir, which does in the human body what the Elixir of perfect metals does upon imperfect metals against evil humors, etc.
from S.H., according to the philosophical method of distilling,
for preparing the highest and almost universal medicine for the human body, next after the stone of the philosophers, easily the chief.
Take a sufficient quantity of human blood, from those who are healthy, of good complexion, and in the flower of age. Distribute this blood into different vessels broad enough, filling only a third part of their capacity, and with another vessel, called the antinotory, cover them and lute them well; then place them in B.M. for ten days in putrefaction, until in the course of time the Dragon has devoured its own tail, that is, the earth has imbibed its own water, which you will know when no vapors any longer rise into your antinotory.
When you see this, let your vessel cool, and when the antinotory has been removed, you will find your matter congealed into a mass like liver. Divide this mass, having taken it out, into several pieces, and place it in the vessel in which it was before, and set on the alembic and the receiver, and by the same heat of the bath distill off all the watery element or phlegm. Pour this distilled water again upon its earth, and, the former antinotory having been put on, putrefy it again for ten days, as before, and then distill it again.
Repeat this putrefaction, distillation, and reaffusion four or five times. This operation should be completed in forty or forty-five days. When the final distillation has been carried out, keep the water, and let the vessel cool. Remove the material, place it in a suitable retort having a sufficiently wide neck, and with a fitting receiving vessel attached and the joints duly luted, distill from the ashes the element of air little by little; and when it has ceased to distill in clouds, increase the fire, and then the element of fire will come over in the form of red oil it will come forth in the form of red or purple, and toward the end a part of the volatile salt will be sublimed.
After the vessels have cooled, separate the spirit or air from the oil or fire by means of the bath or funnel. Then pour the spirit upon the aforesaid sublimed matter together with the feces that remained, and after a three-day digestion, distill it in a new retort, administering the fire of sublimation to the end, so that part or all of the volatile salt or spiritual earth may rise, be sublimed, and pass over with the spirit into the receiver.
Upon the earth that remains, pour a new spirit, digest and distill as often as necessary, until the earth has been entirely deprived of its soul or volatile salt. You will know this when, placed upon a heated plate, it gives off absolutely no smoke.
It must, however, be noted that before the spirit or air is poured upon the earth, it ought first to be rectified seven times, but the phlegm and feces should always be set apart.
Take the remaining black earth, and calcine it in a moderate reverberatory in a closed vessel for five or six days, through which it will pass through colors, namely black, white, yellow, and finally red like brick-powder, and thus it will be prepared for receiving its own spirit, now animated.
Some, by the benefit of the phlegm poured upon it, by repeated digestions, extract its pure salt; and after it has been dried, they gradually add to it the aforesaid animated spirit, and thus wish to restore the glorious earth. This is praiseworthy and worthy of imitation.
But to avoid so much trouble, take your calcined earth and pour upon it its own phlegm, and after a digestion of 24 hours upon ashes distill it to dryness; then pour on more, and repeat the same operation twice or thrice. When the earth has become well dried, pour upon it the tenth part of its animated spirit, and digest for two days in the bath, and by the same bath draw off the moisture. Then again pour on as much new spirit, and digest and distill. Afterwards add the eighth, the seventh, the sixth, the fifth, and the fourth part to it, and do not go beyond the fourth part, until your earth has doubled its weight, or, when placed on a heated plate, vanishes in smoke.
When your earth has reached this state, place it in a suitable vessel with the aforesaid long neck, and, an alembic being set on with its receiver attached so that it may receive a little moisture, place your vessel upon hot ashes for 40 or 50 hours. For in this way your earth will become glorious and ascend to the sides of the vessel in the form of pearls or beans, and you will have a most excellent Mercury, from which, if it be joined with its oil, a great Elixir for the healing of diseases, which you will obtain prepared in the following way.
Take one ounce of the aforesaid Mercury, and imbibe it with the eighth part of its rectified oil, and cook it in our furnace for eight days; this done, proceed in the same way with the seventh, sixth, fifth, and fourth part of the same oil, advancing thus to imbibition and cooking. And continue with the fourth part for as many days, until the matter ceases from imbibition, and in liquid form like butter or syrup appears, which in reddening and virtue surpasses the admirable stone that heals the grave diseases of the human body, when cooked in the philosophical manner for forty days. Its dose is one or two grains, to be given in a vehicle suitable to the diversity of diseases.
A most exact little treatise
Dedicated to a certain Magnate in the year 1545 by the most celebrated physician and philosopher, the Frenchman Dela Brosse.
Take reddish wine, if it can be found, the best possible, which is not sour, nor too deeply saturated in color, and place it in B. to putrefy for eight days, so that the elements may be dissolved and separated all the better. Although Raymund Lully in his book Lux Mercuriorum places this wine in putrefaction for twenty days, I have nevertheless tried it both ways, and I have found the putrefaction of ten days to be as perfect as that which was completed in twenty days. For without putrefaction, as I say, the elements cannot be dissolved and separated, as the Philosopher says: just as death is the cause of the glorification of eternal life, so also corruption is the cause of a new generation.
The putrefaction having therefore been completed, distill the water of life, and rectify it so far that it all burns away, with no phlegm remaining. After you have also separately distilled the water of life and the phlegm, the thick matter will stand like thick honey, which place in the cucurbit, and pour upon it some of its phlegm; then, with the alembic and receiver duly fitted, distill. Afterwards cook it over the ash-fire for two days, and you will see that the phlegm, whose oil or some part of it is tinged with color, by pouring it off through inclination repeat the pouring-on of the phlegm and the cooking as often as necessary, until the phlegm no longer becomes tinged, and you see a black matter remaining at the bottom, which Raymund calls Blacker than black.
Pour upon this black earth in the cucurbit so much of the water of life distilled through ashes as stands four transverse fingers above it. Repeat this affusion three more times with fresh water of life, so that the soul of the aforesaid earth, which is invisible, may be extracted. Preserve that water in a well-sealed vessel. Then take that earth and place it in a well-closed and sealed glass vessel, so that nothing can breathe out from it, and calcine it for ten days.
Now take the phlegm and place it in a cucurbit and mix with it the calcined earth, and make it boil for six hours, and pour off the liquor by inclination. Repeat this again and again with fresh phlegm, until the damned earth remains at the bottom of the vessel. Filter the phlegm thus poured off, and distill it through the bath and the salt in the cucurbit; at the bottom there remains something as white as snow.
Note well. Raymund wishes that, as soon as the earth has been calcined, its soul which is in the aforesaid spirit of wine ought at once to be joined to it, before the soul is extracted from the damned earth, so that afterwards both earth and soul may be sublimed together. But I have tried the procedure in both ways, and I found it to be better if the soul is joined to the earth after the earth has been purified, than while it is still impure. For in this way I obtained more salt and in greater quantity. Nevertheless, the other method is also good.
Take therefore now that purified earth, and in the same cucurbit pour upon it the water of life in which the soul is, either all of it or half of it, and distill over a slow ash-fire; and thus the animated salt will remain, unless you proceed with the other half of the water of life, and then you will have the animated earth.
Now take three pounds of fresh water, which has served no use, and put it in a retort with three ounces of animated salt, and, the retort being well luted, distill it from ashes with a moderate fire, and you will receive the body animated together with its spirit. But if some part of the earth remains at the bottom of the retort, weigh it and pour upon it another new water of life, for the reason stated above, and distill it over. For the spirit cannot be retained by the earth in its belly when it can be carried over by distillation.
This water is called the vegetable Quintessence. The menstruum of solution, dissolving and preserving both human and metallic nature. The philosophers call this composition by the likeness of the menstruum, because just as the seed of man and woman, joined together in the womb of the woman for generation, is not sufficient for the magnitude of its birth unless it be multiplied from the menstrual blood of the woman, which sufficiently multiplies and brings it to perfection; in exactly the same way it is with our glorious Mercury.
For when it dissolves gold, the gold is impregnated by the said menstruum, namely by this body, or by its salt glorified and dissolved. Then our operations are perfected, as shall afterward be said. Master Guilielmus Parisiensis, the fiery philosopher, pertinently says on this point: Woman dissolves man, and man fixes woman. Thus, just as the sperm of man coagulates the sperm of woman, and the sperm of woman dissolves the sperm of man, so also the menstruum, or vegetable Quintessence, dissolves gold; but the dissolved gold fixes the vegetable body, and once the gold has been dissolved by benefit of the spirit, the water of life thereafter remains altogether ineffective and deprived of all virtue.
For gold is fire overcoming all things, which in no way can be conquered by other fires; and therefore it has the power of fixing the other metallic bodies, because the fixed fixes. It is therefore a most certain thing that nothing perfect can be made without our Quintessence, in those matters which concern both the preservation of our health and the transmutation of metals.
For this cause all those who treat of strong waters and other sharp agents never produce anything worthy of praise, and are marked with the note of ignorance. For with Raymund, Arnold, Albert, and the master of the General Art, our dissolution is not made with corrosive waters, because that dissolution is not the one intended by nature.
Now let us also say something concerning the calcination of the metal gold, because since it is the most difficult of compounds, it cannot be dissolved without great labor unless it has first been calcined and made subtle, which is required in the sign of the art. In this we follow in part Aristotle and R. Lully, because this calcination is excellent and most natural, and without any corrosive, in the manner that follows.
Take mineral gold (or ducats of gold), and purify it by cement, or, better, that which is purified, which Raymund Lully in the book of the Quintessence calls the gold of God, because all alchemical gold that is made by corrosives is not good, which words he wishes to say that whatever is made by a mineral menstruum is corrosive; whence it is necessary to take mineral gold, or ducats, although Lully in several places seems to mean otherwise, where he asserts that philosophical gold prepared is better, more purified, and more highly colored.
Whatever the case, after your gold has been reduced to elements, cast it into scales; and if it is one ounce, make an amalgam with six ounces of common Mercury and one pound of prepared salt. Put the whole into a crucible, well luted and pierced with a small hole in the lid of the crucible, and keep it in a reverberatory with ash-fire for 24 hours; and the Mercury will go off in smoke together with the salt. Then, the Mercury being absent, calcine it again with an equal quantity of foliated salt for another 24 hours, and repeat this regimen five or six times. Otherwise the gold cannot be properly destroyed. When this has been done, reduce it in a marble or glass mortar into the finest powder, and mix it with common sulphur in a crucible among burning coals and dry it for twelve hours, adding fresh sulphur repeatedly, and thus you will have it perfectly calcined, which must be reduced into an impalpable powder and purified with phlegm of wine redistilled, by washing and drying.
Now take one ounce of this calcined gold and reduced into subtle powder, and in an oblong vessel with a neck of one span pour upon it six ounces of our Quintessence, and make it boil over ashes for one whole day; then commit it to B. for one night. Afterwards pour off by inclination what has become colored, and preserve it in the bath, and repeat this as often as necessary until the Quintessence is no longer colored. In this way you will have extracted the soul of gold.
Take this colored Quintessence, and through the bath draw off some portion of the Quintessence, and calcine the soul of gold for 40 days, although this calcination can also be done in 30 days. I have, however, found it spiritualized in the course of 20 days, and in every way perfected, so that the artist may proceed with it at his pleasure without delay although the philosophers, and rightly, have said that gold is so much the more glorified the more it is purified. The general term of the philosophers is 40 days, for all the things required in this dissolution.
This stone heals all infirmities that can happen to the human body. For that which is prepared with the mineral is corrosive and dangerous, because its digestion is difficult. The vegetable stone, however, is not of such great virtue for the transmutation of metals as the mineral one.
But to return to our purpose, take now the soul of gold joined with the Quintessence, and in B. putrefy and distill it, and the gold remaining at the bottom will be red, spiritual, and fragrant, which you can use for your secretion. In this way you will be able to make true potable gold according to the intention of all the philosophers.
Preserve carefully for your use the Quintessence withdrawn from your gold; for it has infinite virtue, since it is animated and impregnated by the virtue of gold. Here it must be noted, as Raymund says, that the Quintessence has no odor unless Sol has first been dissolved in it.
As for the earth which remains from the gold, take that golden earth and place it in a cucurbit, and pour upon it the remainder of your vegetable menstruum, which has as yet served no use at all, distilled through common ashes; and distill the vegetable menstruum ten or twelve times by cohobation. Then dry it, and place it in a moist place so that it may dissolve. You may use this, once dissolved, for health. Or in another way, etc.
It remains for me to say something concerning all the solutions of gold that can be made in this art of the aforesaid Quintessences. Raymund, in his book Lux Mercuriorum, mentions another perfect solution, which I have made and truly found: namely, that the whole body of gold is dissolved without any extraction of its soul or of anything else. Concerning this he says these words: If you mix gold into the Quintessence by the tenth distillation, as was said above, and then place the gold by itself in a moist place or in the bath, it will be dissolved in four days, and this is potable gold, having infinite virtues, as is written in the book on the preservation of human life.
I have tested the danger in both methods of dissolution, and therefore I can testify that each is good. Yet they are of such virtue and efficacy that, in my judgment, they can by no means be sufficiently praised. But this, moreover, must be observed: gold dissolved according to its substance is better suited for the transmutation of metals, because its earth retains in itself some portion of the mercurial spirit.
As for the method of applying the aforesaid Quintessences to gold and to our vegetable matter, R. Lull is to be read in the book of the Quintessence.
With the medicinal Elixir and the magistery from S.H., and the description of potable gold, written down in Gaul a few years ago received by us freely, therefore for the praise of God and the exercise of Christian charity, and so that physicians and sons of the art may not shrink from the fruitful labors of the chymical art, they are also freely and sincerely communicated from a Christian spirit. For these secrets, and for other arcana of nature, revealed in diverse ways to diverse men, and often wonderfully by divine prompting,
LET THERE BE
to GOD,
most high and wonderful in His works,
praise, honor, and everlasting glory,
through our Lord JESUS CHRIST.
Amen.
THE END.
Theatrum chemicum, praecipuos selectorum auctorum tractatus de chemiae et lapidis philosophici antiquitate, veritate, iure, praestantia, & operationibus, continens: in gratiam verae chemiae, et medicinae chemicae studiosorum ... congestum, et in sex partes seu volumina digestum; singulis voluminibus, suo auctorum et librorum catalogo primis pagellis: rerum vero & verborum indice postremis annexo. Volumen sextum.
Note from the translator:
Dear reader, to better understand the words and language used by Christophorus Parisiensis I would recommend you to read first the book called "THE KEY or EXPLANATION OF THE ALPHABET".
Christophorus Parisiensis, Elucidarius artis transmutatoriae metallorum summa major
ELUCIDARIUS
The Greater Summary of the Art of the Transmutation of Metals
Concerning the Vegetable and Mineral Work,
written by CHRISTOPHORUS PARISIENSIS,
a most ancient Philosopher, an imitator of Raymund Lullius.
Divided into the Theoretical and the Practical,
and enlarged with a most useful double appendix, never before published, taken from the author’s manuscript.
THE AUTHOR’S PREFACE
Contents:
1. Table Summary - Theory and Practice
2. THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ELUCIDARIUS
3. THEORETICAL APPENDIX for the better declaration of the preceding things
4. ELUCIDARIUM OF CHRISTOPHORUS OF PARIS The second book or THE PRACTICE OF THE SCIENCE OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL TREE
5. ELUCIDARII BOOK III - Or, the third part of the Elucidarium: On the order of medicines, together with a refutation of the sophistications of Geber.
6. An exact recapitulation of the three parts or books of the Elucidarium
of CHRISTOPHORUS OF PARIS
7. THE KEY or EXPLANATION OF THE ALPHABET
8. PRACTICAL APPENDIX
9. THE PERFECT MAGISTERY
10. A most exact little treatise On the composition of sulphur and the vegetable menstruum; or, on potable gold according to the intention of Raymund Lully
In the name of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, the living God, our Saviour, I begin to write the Elucidarius of this most noble art, whereby imperfect metals are transmuted, from their substance and form, into a better.
The mercy which the Lord hath shown unto me I will sing for ever; and from generation to generation with my mouth will I declare His truth.
From my manifold experience I have observed that this Philosophical art so high and so secret hath been enviously hidden from our predecessors in their books, by obscure words; and that many, besides those who cleave to the truth, are so stuffed with fraud and seduction, that this art for nine hundred years and more hath been almost altogether extinct, until the Wise, in those times, in which times the Roman Empire began to flourish, they began again to cultivate the arts. Yet nevertheless no famous man brought any singular thing of that (art) into the light, as if this matter were not in the nature of things, until the Son of the living God granted grace to certain of His servants, that they might again vindicate it from the hidden places.
Among these new Philosophers, the chief is Hortulanus, who expoundeth the dark sayings of Hermes, where he saith truly, without falsehood, certain and most true.
(Marginal note: Hortulanus’ commentary on the Emerald Table.)
Another is Arnold of Villanova, who hath left us the Greater Rosary and other treatises. A third is Raymund Lullius, who published many books concerning this art. The fourth is Albertus Magnus; in whose books (as some think) we find nothing fruitful, except that which he writeth concerning solution. The fifth is Thomas Aquinas, the theologian whom soon another followed, the master of the whole Art who published a book whose beginning is called the Florentine Study; whose doctrine, if it be understood, scarcely can err.
Besides these, many others wrote books, a part whereof we also have seen, where the Theory is treated. From all which we have gathered a certain epitome.
But above all we follow Raymund Lullius as the patron and father of our art; according to whose precepts we have laboured for many years.
Yet we will not open the art wholly; otherwise we should do wickedly. But we will so teach it, that not everyone of the basest sort of the common people may be able to imitate us therein seeing that in the acquiring of it we have been occupied almost all our life with much labour.
Therefore we institute our discourse in such manner, that the matter may remain obscure to the ignorant, but be manifest to the wise.
ELENCHUS (Table / Summary)
Of the things which are contained in this little work, that from the first view the Artificer may foresee the profit which he shall gain from it.
The whole little work consisteth of three books: whereof the first teacheth the Theory, and the other two teach the Practice.
THEORY
In the first book are contained seven chapters:
I. It treateth of the Universal and Particular Tincture, or an explanation of the transmutation of metals.
II. Of the difference between the Hermetic Art and other arts.
III. Of the objections of those who are ignorant of this art.
IV. Of the truth of this art, by an answer to seven objections.
V. Of the possibility of the transmutation of imperfect metals.
VI. Of the special solution of seven objections of the ignorant.
VII. Of the manifestation of three secrets, the ignorance whereof is the cause of errors.
Although those who bend their backs to the diligent reading of books do not gain small progress from the chapters of this first book, yet we omit nothing of those things which are necessary in our course; but attention is required to our words: for we do likewise as a good pilot, who after he hath given sail to the winds, intermits nothing, but bestoweth all his labour, that he may carry the ship laden with merchandise unto the destined place. Therefore we commend ourselves unto thee with prudence joined with attention, that thou mayest understand us.
An APPENDIX is joined to this first book, which containeth much Philosophical instruction; for in it is contained a full declaration of those things which are handled in the sixth and seventh chapter.
PRACTICE
(These things are plainly taught in the Second and Third book. Wherefore the Second book is called the Tree of the Wise, or the Tree of Philosophical Science, and is divided into fourteen chapters, whereof:)
I. It treateth of the first matter of our Philosophical Mercury; namely, of its finding, preparation, and first putrefaction.
II. Of its form or spirit.
III. Of the acquiring or subtilizing of this form, so that it may afford solution with fruitful multiplication.
IV. Of the Quintessence to be prepared from B. (or from purified fire).
V. Of the sublimation of our Mercury, with its properties and virtues.
VI. Of the calcination of bodies, why it was invented.
VII. Of the philosophical dissolution and separation of Mercury from metals.
VIII. Of the order of putrefaction and what is required thereto.
IX. Of the reduction of metallic bodies into spirits.
X. Of the putrefaction and preparation of the earth, for reducing metals into Philosophical sulphur.
XI. Of the sublimation of metals, to reduce them into a first matter, vegetable or animal.
XII. Of the soul increasing unto a flux upon the white; or, how all things must be waxed with oil, and made soft and fluid.
XIII. Of the oils by which the medicine is made soft and fluid, and why incERATION was invented and used in this art.
XIV. Of the separation of the Elements in general of vegetables, of animals, and of metals.
Although I have proposed to myself the order of Raymund Lullius, yet I follow it not alone in all things. For whatsoever our experience, besides those things which are extant in Hortulanus, Albertus Magnus, and others, hath supplied unto us, from that we have made our Elucidarius more perfect.
The Third book of this little work containeth three orders: whereof the first consisteth of four branches, which are useful for the Art. In this book is manifested the scandalous sophistry of Geber the Arabian, which, after his manner, he calleth the first order.
The second order hath five branches, among which are certain which, if thou follow them, thou mayest flee out of Asia Minor, like a Turk. In this second order is employed the mixture of imperfect bodies.
The third order containeth the Universal consisting of six operations or parts, which is the heart of the Philosophers. And by this order also all the other orders are made evident; and he who observeth it not shall more hardly be able to practise the rest.
Contents of the Practical Appendix
1. The preparation of Mercurial water for the solution of the metal gold; so that from it not only potable gold is made, but also, by this shorter way, the very Work of the Philosophers.
2. Three orders of diverse particular operations, that the artificer may patiently await the fruit of his labour and the end of the principal work.
3. The calcination of metals.
4. A certain hidden and compendious Philosophical operation, called the Extraction of the Mauritanian Star, and Exuberation.
5. An admirable Elixir, made by the separation of the four Elements, having great power over the evil humours of the human body.
6. The Magistery of human blood, prepared in a singular manner, as a medicine almost universal.
7. A notable little treatise of the Philosopher Dela Brosse, of the year 1545: On the Composition of Sulphur, and of the Vegetable Menstruum, and of Potable Gold, according to the intention of Raymund Lullius.
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE ELUCIDARIUS
Divided into Seven Chapters
Chapter I
On the Philosophers’ Stone, or the Tincture, by a twofold way
(Marginal: The Author’s purpose.)
At the beginning of our discourse, my son, it is fitting to enlighten thy mind, that thou mayest know what degree of skill thy ship attaineth when it is plunged into the sea; that thou mayest learn how great a tempest ariseth in the trial of the sea, and in what port thou oughtest to be brought. Therefore it is first necessary that I reveal unto thee somewhat of the mastery of our Art, what its usefulness is, and in what manner the pure must be separated from the impure.
(Marginal: What Alchymy is.)
Know therefore that Alchemy is an art consisting in manual operation (as in cheiragogy), with manifest vessels, by a certain government of fire, for the adorning and exalting of our heaven. For by this means our Mercury is sublimed: while we lead it forth out of its mixed mass, and by a simple fire partly by circulating, partly by subliming we raise it unto a heavenly and permanent fire.
This we perform by natural means, which carry with them a celestial dignity. By this exaltation of our heaven or sublimation and elementation of our Mercury our Mercury is so brought to light, that it hath power both to transmute other imperfect metals into silver, and to coagulate common Mercury; and also to bestow perfect healing of the human body.
(Marginal: What the Elixir is.)
The Elixir is nothing else than the sublimation of metallic bodies, having their own Mercury properly within themselves; which hath the property that bodies, being calcined and dissolved, are converted into a new medicine. It is manifest and known by many operations and effects.
(Marginal: What the Philosophers’ Stone is.)
The Philosophers’ Stone is a most pure substance, of a most subtle and purified sulphur; chiefly taken from the Sun and the Moon, wholly fixed, and by fermentation inseparably conjoined with its proper elements: which out of a most pure body maketh a medicine, and by its heavenly virtue bringeth all substances unto perfection.
And it is called the Stone of the wise, because it hath power to deliver human bodies from every disease, and to convert imperfect metals and common Mercury into new gold and a new Moon (silver).
Chapter II
Of the difference of the Philosophical Art from other arts, which consisteth in its threefold usefulness
(Marginal: The first usefulness of chymistry is Medicine.)
This Magistery, or the aforesaid Art, is threefold.
The first is called the healing (sanative) (part) of the human body, which is done by the virtue of herbs, roots, flowers, seeds, and gums; whereof the ancient and modern Philosophers chiefly Hippocrates of Cos, Galen, Mesue, Neander, Rhasis and none in a better order than Avicenna, have written.
(Marginal: Another usefulness of chymistry is the colouring and vitrifying of colours for the theoretic art.)
The second is called the Mechanical or Manufacturing (art), which those exercise who make earthen (testaceous) vessels, and presently cover them with lead; whereby many changes arise among them, both by reason of the forms of the salts and of minerals, from which diverse colours appear in the work of glass-making. Likewise the industry of the glass-makers requireth this: that they turn metals and other minerals into ashes for the glass-painters, as they are wont to do at Murano, near Venice.
The inventors of these colours were Philosophers. But the inventor of the art of making glass was Master Paulus de Longalla; and the author of its practice was Master Angelo the Surgeon.
(Marginal: The third usefulness of chymistry is the transmutation of metals.)
The third part of the Art concerneth our Magistery, and is called the transmutation of metals, by which from simple and imperfect metals namely Venus, Jove, Mercury, Saturn, &c. good gold and silver are prepared. Of which art many judge that Hermes was the inventor.
Chapter III
Seven objections set forth against the Hermetic Art
1. Objection. Raymund Lullius, in his book Vade mecum, chapter 20, writeth that this art ought to be revealed not to pagans but to Christians. Yet nowhere do we read, in the Old Testament, that any deed was happily accomplished against tyrants. Hence it is a vain argument to say that by this art we may make such an immense quantity of metals into gold and silver (as the Philosophers of glass would have), and thereby make an immediate medicine of imperfect metals. Raymund Lullius also testifieth of this assertion in his Testament, in the practical chapter “Of Multiplication.”
2. Objection. If gold could be prepared in an immense abundance as was said, certainly it would sometimes have happened that some artificer should aspire to great dominion, and either the whole world, or some part of it should have subjected it to himself; which yet never was done, nor is anything of the like story read in the books of Chronicles. Whence ye labour in vain, and pound water in a mortar. So then it followeth, that those things which the glass-philosophers treat of this matter must be concluded (as are the Florentine Study, or the Method of the General Art, and the Compendium which beginneth “Studying at Florence”; and those marginal sayings: “Therefore for the poor,” and “This science is given to us by God,” and also Hortulanus saith: “He who hath this science, hath the treasure of the whole world.”)
3. Objection. If these alleged things were true, no poor man would remain; for the rich, who have superfluous riches, would have them for nothing, and the poor also would become rich. But the contrary is everywhere declared throughout the lands: for the rich are by this art deprived of their goods, and the poor, as is clear to all, are made miserable. Behold what a devastator of the goods of mankind this art is!
(Marginal 3.) Why there is no poor man.
4. Objection. Scarce in the Code that is made to be read do we find any mention of this; nay, even of the enchanters of the necromancers and of the sagae (witches), of which sort also were the magicians of Pharaoh: but of this Hermetic art there is not so much as a word. Therefore it is reputed for a human deceit.
(Marginal 4.) Holy Scripture maketh no mention of this art.
5. Objection. If thou examine the disagreements that are among masters and disciples about this art, it will appear clearer than I have said. For Arnold in his Rosary, in the chapter “Of Dissolution,” saith that Mercury, according to the doctrine of Avicenna, must first be sublimed, and then at length be reduced into the first matter; and that with this water bodies are to be dissolved: of which water, according to the aforesaid opinion, no otherwise may one judge than that it must be prepared from Mercury.
But the contrary is affirmed by Raymund Lullius and by Arnold of Villanova’s disciple, where he saith that common living Mercury ought not to come into the use of this work so also in his Quintessence, Distinction 3. There are certain persons who prepared it from the juices of three herbs by putrefaction; and persuaded themselves that they had found a great mystery; and they also sublimed it, yet in our Magistery it produced no effect.
But if anyone so useth common Mercury, that with some addition he reduceth it into water whether it can be made from the phlegm thereof, or whether it be put into its vessel and nine times distilled through an alembic then it will have the brightness of pearls; yet that is a part of its homogeneous body, which doth not happen in the Mercury of our Stone.
Moreover, Lullius admonisheth that from individual things Mercury is to be prepared, which are indivisible things such as spirit of wine and human blood; and that it sufficeth to make the artificer more attentive, (saying) that it is best to take Mercury from individuals. Whence it must be concluded that it is not Raymund’s opinion that the water, made from common Mercury, should be applied to the dissolution of metals: which nevertheless is affirmed by Arnold. Wherefore, miserable alchemists give your hands (i.e. set yourselves) to the principal masters of your art seeing they contradict one another whence it is more than clear enough that your art is full of fraud.
[Marginal 6.] An objection from ignorance of principles.
6. Objection. Raymund’s and Arnold’s books are indeed great and famous; yet, without them and without the sublimation of the wise, no true and perfect medicine can be had. But Raymund, in that place where he treateth of the Soul of his art, saith so. Therefore the ignorant grievously err: for although they know not the natural principles of any thing, yet they think they can exercise a true practice with metals, without separation of the elements. From these some, when they cannot divide the elements according to their wish, nor obtain Philosophical sulphur, institute a vain mixture, without any putrefaction, extraction, or sublimation, and find nothing.
The discrepancies and contrarieties of the Mercury of the whole art, with all its appendix, appear plainly from Lullius, chapter 52, where he thus argueth against the opinion conceived concerning it. There is in truth no reason to be had of the alchemists, nor any faith to be given to their sublimations and conjunctions. Again, chapter 55: from all that hath hitherto been said it plainly appeareth that there is nothing true, if one consider the matter rightly; because the body of our work, in the alembic, is not made, but lieth dead at the bottom whence a certain Philosopher said, “The bodies of the ignorant sit in the bottom.”
Therefore, since those writings hitherto alleged contradict one another, and the masters of this art are drawn into diverse opinions, and one contradicteth another, neither do they build upon any sure foundation; therefore their writings ought not only not to be made, but altogether to be reproved and wholly rejected especially as they are wicked, and altogether unworthy.
[Marginal 7.] An objection that Lullius contradicteth himself.
7. Objection. But not only the aforesaid authors are contrary to themselves; even Raymund Lullius himself, in his book On the Name of the Art, contradicteth himself, when he saith:
Many ignorant persons set upon common aqua fortis, and would reduce the work into the first matter; but if they read the books of the Philosophers, they will see that these things are contrary.
Yet in the practice of his Testament, chapter 9, he thus saith: “Take first one part of D. vitriol, and half a part of nitre, as appeareth by the alphabet; yet it is to be understood by all, that aqua fortis is made of these two ingredients.” Whence, from this chapter, it may be seen that he teacheth nothing else than the preparation of aqua fortis.
Chapter IV
A speculative assertion of the truth of the Philosophical Work, and a general answer to the preceding objections
The aforesaid objections are not only a contempt of the Hermetic art, but they trouble its cultivators by those dangers. Yet in common it is to be considered, what Arnold of Villanova, in his epistle written to Pope Boniface, saith and addeth: that all things that are created are manifest from trees, fruits, and animals. From one grain come a thousand grains; and from one tree a thousand boughs and branches; and from those again a thousand others innumerable. From one animal a multitude in number ariseth and is multiplied. Metals likewise are born in the earth and grow therein, and therefore also are increased unto infinity.
From which brief things it is manifest what is to be understood of the third order namely, that there is one only medicine, which is called the one true and certain, and the precious Stone of the wise, or the most noble and best medicine of the Philosophers.
Therefore, since the art is true and certain, its adversaries are ignorant. Aristotle, in his book Meteorology, chapter 1, saith: If living silver (quicksilver) were pure, the virtue of white sulphur would make it endure; for by this in Alchemy is prepared the Elixir for the white. He saith likewise of red sulphur, for making gold.
Hortulanus opposeth against the despisers of this art the words of Hermes: “True, without falsehood,” &c.
What Thomas Aquinas and Raymund Lullius have in their writings concerning this art would be too long here to recite and examine. It is easy to show that the wise can transmute imperfect metals into true gold and silver.
Chapter V
A proof of the transmutation of metals from their birth from like, and from the work of nature in the bowels of the earth
Certain things are called species as is the form of man; and thus men are said to be a species of a species. For the Africans are black, and the Europeans white who nevertheless differ in nothing but colour, for we are all born of Adam.
Metals likewise are metals by the same reason: for all species are of a species, because they have one origin from one matter Sulphur and Mercury not differing in substance but in colour, they differ only in colour, according to their greater or lesser purity or impurity, wherein, according to the degree of fire, Nature in the bowels of the earth hath cooked them.
By comparison of two men it may be perceived: whereof one is sound, of a joyful mind and good colour; the other sick and contrariwise disposed. Yet both are nothing the less men as touching their species; the disease is only an accident. Therefore, as it is possible to heal a sick man, so also it is possible that diseased metals such as are Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars may be restored, as being of the same family, unto gold and silver, their sound metals.
From our common mother, which is earth, all things in general are born, sick and sound, as a sick man may be made sound. Do not metals and other things that are born of the earth abound with impurity, from which man maketh bright and fair metals? Why then should it be less possible to raise metals unto a higher degree, and to equal Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars with purer metals gold and silver?
This indeed is hard to do, and seemeth impossible to Nature; but if one artificer can do it by the means above said, why may not another also? If imperfect metals remain long enough in the earth, at length they would become silver, and finally even gold. Good silver is not found which doth not contain gold also. This is the cause why the Philosophers say there is no gold which was not first silver, and afterwards by the coction of heat converted into gold. For when Nature generate a metal, then she hath an intention to perfect it into gold; but by shortness of time and by other obstacles she is hindered.
Wherefore silver is, by Nature, gold; for it is made such by coction in the bowels of the earth, where silver by degree is exalted unto gold. Hence it is that a mark of silver (or a pound) of twelve degrees is six carats, sometimes a whole quarter, and sometimes also containeth two lots more or less of gold.
Thus always one cometh from one, and a third from two, and so consequently. For a third cannot be made one, unless it first pass through two as through a mean.
Chapter VI
A special refutation of seven arguments, in the third chapter, against the Hermetic Art of the Alchemists
(Marginal: Answer to the first objection.)
Now we must answer the objections above alleged, among which mention is made of helping the poor and of fighting the Turk, if mention hath been made (of these things), it must be known that we are bound to have regard to the reason of the poor; although without the Hermetic art it is fitting that we show and establish our faith. For whatsoever the rich possess is not theirs alone, but (as Scripture saith) is the poor man’s not only money, but all substance above what is sufficient. This is to be understood.
Moreover, since poverty is the effect of our sins for because of sins adversities come we say, by occasion of the Turk being alleged, that it is manifest from Holy Scripture: if the people of God sin, then straightway the Divine chastisement with punishment falleth upon the people of God, so that they are not ignorant of God; and though they would be redeemed with silver and gold, yet the chastisement of the Lord ceaseth not.
But we, that we may have a mind to fight the Turk, must also enter upon another way, according to that saying, the cause being removed, the effect is removed. When the people see destruction and ruin ready to fall upon their land, they ought to abstain from sins, to humble themselves before God, to seek grace, to exercise justice, to forbid scotations (riotous feasts / revels). If this be done, then God will deliver us by His grace and in invisible ways. But to redeem punishment with silver and gold is impossible. God Almighty hath many other ways of deliverance, and needeth not the works of alchemists.
For although Raymund Lullius supplied King Edward with an immense sum of gold for that end, that he might go against the Barbarians and convert that whole kingdom to the Christian religion, yet it succeeded not as he desired, because God accepted not that, and the grace was rather to be sought in another manner.
For the said king, being prepared with a fleet of many ships, approached Gaul and would first subdue it to himself, and much Christian blood was shed. But Raymund, when he had returned home, promised to subdue Barbary and commanded that more gold should be made. Yet Raymund, being much grieved in mind at this, and angry, withdrew himself into England.
But as touching that objection which saith, “There is no example that any man possessing this art hath sought dominion over great parts of the world,” which yet he might easily have brought to effect: I answer, that it is proper to that man to whom God revealeth and granteth this mystery, that he pursue his neighbour with love, and abuse not God’s gift. For such a man who is made a true Adept God introduceth into an earthly and heavenly Paradise while he liveth in these lands.
God maketh not a tyrant or impious man partaker of this gift; it remaineth hidden from their eyes. But to whom God revealeth it, to him He also granteth that he be well placed and bestoweth grace. And if God bestow this gift even upon pagans (as is shown even now), (it is) that they may know God by His works, and (His) wonders that they may praise, each according to his measure, that wonderful giver (of benefits), and may give glory unto Him.
(Marginal: Answer to the third objection.)
Thirdly. Although there are some who walk in a right and Philosophical path (for I speak not of the ignorant), yet if they expend some money upon these labours, and through the error of one assistant or companion labour in vain for a whole year, there may nevertheless come to them, by God’s favour, an hour which may recompense all expenses. Add that ten measures of the oil of olives, and as many of carbon of copper (whose cost scarcely cometh to thirty florins), do not bring a man to extreme poverty.
But if a man, by indulging in drinking, play, and other unprofitable things, spend so much money yea much more in a year, besides the loss of his goods, why would he not rather spend the same costs upon this treasure of health and riches?
Besides the said initiates, there are found also very expert artificers, who by much study of wisdom and prayer have obtained this art from God (yet scarce one in a thousand). But those whom God hath enriched with this gift are moved by a certain secret instinct to hide it: for the dangers which would threaten them from men are not hidden from them. For he that hath a treasure, and confesseth it, is wont to desire to be plundered.
(Marginal: Answer to the fourth objection.)
Fourthly. That in the sacred writings there is no mention made of this magistery is true. For Holy Scripture is ordained only to the salvation of souls, not to gold and silver. Riches also are a general snare, which no man can wholly avoid. Hence CHRIST saith: It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven. And in other places woe is pronounced upon them.
Yet these things are not spoken without distinction: they belong to the sons of doctrine; for if they use riches with moderation, and praise God, they render immortal thanks.
Not (that) thou alone shouldst reserve this treasure to thyself, but if thou desire to make others partakers of it, who have another intention of mind, he seeketh in vain for God certainly will not give it to him.
(Marginal: Answer to the fifth objection.)
Fifthly. Although Arnold commandeth that a solution with the water of common Mercury should be made, yet Raymund saith that this is not the true dissolving water; nevertheless they are not contrary to one another. It is not for us to compose this strife, nor to decide this saying of the Philosophers: for the discrepancy is not in the substance of the thing, but only in the words.
SOLUTION, whereof they speak, is twofold. The one is subtle, which maketh bodies very subtle; of which Raymund speaketh in his practice of the Testament. Afterward also he speaketh of it in his little book Vade mecum, beginning at chapter 20 unto chapter 33.
The other solution is conjunctive or copulative, this is when we take for our water a vegetable water, or the Quintessence, by the sublimation of common Mercury; by which copulative work of sublimation we obtain the conjunction of bodies: which yet in this our Philosophical work we do not use as the last (and finishing) means, because it requireth much time and many sublimations. Concerning which Raymund in the said little book Vade mecum saith: Take Mercury and sublime it.
SIXTHLY. The discrepancy of doctrine which is objected against us we deny not. For it may come to pass that one obtaineth the way of proceeding by one path, another by another. Great indeed and very laborious is the work, in whatever way thou shalt conclude thy work with what hath been said. One is the Stone, one the Medicine, to which nothing foreign is added, save only that which is superfluous is removed from it. And it is true that there is one Stone, which is Sun and Moon, as we make manifest in the three celestial ways.
ONE MEDICINE. This is that metals, out of their potency, are led into act; are vivified, and are brought, by the Quintessence, unto that (state). Moreover metals must be dissolved into their first matter: which is done by the separation of the Elements, and by the fixation of water upon earth, and by multiplication. Then, by a simple sublimation of metals, their souls are brought forth. A third way is, that by calcination and solution the body is separated and imbibed, by putrefaction and distillation. And thou repeatest this coction, until the greater and purer part ascendeth through the alembic, and the earthiness remaineth behind. This third way ye must understand as the reducing of bodies into first matter. For to reduce bodies into first matter is the magistery; hence depend the Law and the Prophets.
SEVENTHLY. Those (things) which are objected against us namely, that in the art they are useless are not at all to be received as Raymund Lullius teacheth, unless they be taken otherwise. For in this manner he maketh a difference between the strong waters of the wise and the common (vulgar) waters. For he saith, in the chapter Ignorantes (The Ignorant), and in chapter 5, “This distinction,” &c., in the same place. Therefore our sharp water is made from those three figures B. C. D.: namely, from purified fire, from the increased menstruum, and from the Quintessence. Purified fire signifieth form D, and the remaining two letters signify figuration. For salt-waters are common, without all form.
B. Purified fire in the beginning hath power to purify and vivify metals. Therefore Raymund, when he rejecteth sharp waters, understandeth the strong waters of separation, and not the waters of the wise.
Chapter VII
On the revelation of three secrets.
The wise must not despise these things.
First, the Philosopher must well consider (as they say), that if among a thousand artificers only one attain unto the knowledge of the art, it is enough: the reason of which saying is, that in these times zeal in studying and labouring is less than it was among the ancients. For it never happens now, what did happen of old, that every student or writer is given to reading the books of the Philosophers, and to the labour of invention; nor that such as have once learned the art ever treat of studies.
For this matter pertaineth only unto those who are skilled in the Latin tongue, and are experienced in wisdom and the natural arts.
Some seek it in common living silver (quicksilver); some in marcasite; some in arsenic and sulphur; some in urine; in alum; in salt; and very many in nitre. Some in blood; some in dung; in eggs; and in the hooves of animals. Who can rehearse all these? yea it is troublesome even to point them out.
To refute all these absurdities, we plainly say that the true matter is nothing else than the fire of gold; because in other things one cannot find that seed: for in every genus the like begetteth the like. Hermes saith: The father thereof is the Sun, the mother thereof the Moon. Avicenna saith likewise.
No like sulphur is found, nor seed, which can make imperfect metals perfect, save that which gold and silver contain in themselves. All the wise testify this: Hortulanus, Rhasis, Geber, Avicenna, Arnold, and Raymund, who when they begin their practice always make the menstruum of gold and silver. Raymund in his Quintessence saith: As is the reason of fire and of its heat, so is the reason of gold to gild, and of silver to silver.
I. Secret. (Marginal: The secret of the matter of the Stone is common gold.)
1. The first secret of this art is the matter of the Stone namely common gold.
II. Secret. (Marginal: The second secret is the vegetable Quintessence.)
2. The second secret of this art is the vegetable Quintessence. From this some have been led to take in place of our water: common Mercury, nitre, cinnabar, and alum things which, although they are good and fit enough for making calcination, yet have not the power of vivifying the two luminaries (the Sun and the Moon).
For they are not that true agent which is here required, but the patient. Therefore no perfect action followeth much less multiplication or augmentation or penetration.
In like manner as man is the noblest of all animals, and uniteth himself only with his like: so also gold, the noblest of all minerals, is united permanently only with its like. For fire consumeth all other minerals but not gold. Hence our Quintessence is most like (to gold), and convenient to that with which it is united. For all other waters, how precious and rectified soever they be, destroy the form and seed of gold. But our Quintessence increaseth that in its virtue which it was; of which mention is made in the history following.
When I was at Rome, there was found in the earth a leaden box, and in it (as the history hath it) a glass vessel very well fenced and shut; which, when it was opened, yielded so sweet a smell that the bystanders were astonished; and from the vegetability thereof we made a conclusion of gilding. So we teach by this our secret, that gold alone vegetateth in our Quintessence, and not in any other water; in which gold is made worse. For other waters corrupt and destroy gold, but not our Quintessence; in which, the more it is cocted and distilled, the more perfect it is, and by its vegetative virtue is increased and multiplied. Therefore no water is better suited to gold than our Quintessence.
But lest I omit any of those things which are necessary in this art, because there are four elemental columns, the foundations of the art, I will briefly rehearse them.
The four elemental foundations (“columns”)
The First Column is our CHAOS, which is a certain heap of all elementary things namely of the vegetable, mineral, and animal. So that as yet there is no separation of the elements, but a conjunction of them all. Therefore the artificer must consider the end of this art namely what it is that begetteth gold and silver. He must also reckon in mind, that it is impossible to gild and silver without any other matter than gold and silver. These are the principles and end of this art.
And because it is impossible to gild and silver without vegetation and motion, it followeth that the vegetable menstruum is chiefly necessary being the mean between the beginning and the end. Thus thou mayest see, in this Chaos, the mixed (things), and in it the destroyed elements of golden and silver matter, and of our vegetable menstruum also. Yet believe not that this liquor wetteth the hands.
The Second Column. The first form is the artificer, who moveth the principal parts, or their forms, that they may pass from potency into act, whereby it worketh in the substance of another.
The Third Column. The first matter is the potency of any principle to work in another principle. Therefore the waters are those from which we make our resolving menstruum, which dissolveth metals; for it requireth perfect means and vegetable, which our menstruum taketh.
The Fourth Column. Here it must be observed that the menstruum is vegetable and mineral. For the vegetable menstruum is which, being burning, is rectified and made sharp from wine, and with which metals are naturally dissolved. Hence, in the juice of this vegetable menstruum, metals are extracted and dissolved.
All natural things existing in the earth are ruled by those things which are above us; hence Hermes saith: The superiors are as the inferiors. By the superiors understand the Quintessence; and by the inferiors, the Elements. Hence anyone may say that the Elements have no power by virtue, without the Quintessence which ruleth them. Which in our Stone is sufficiently manifest: for gold of itself hath no nobility, unless by the work and virtue of our Quintessence it be made such.
Here it is to be observed that all natural artifices call the work of this art a little world; and I would also show, that the same order which liveth in the great world is to be observed also in the small, that by these natural means we may come to the end of Nature.
Wherefore it is necessary that the element of the Sun (that is, of gold) be moved, if they will proceed according to the natural order. Hence it is that the wise say, that to make new the heavenly water which reduceth our body into spirit, is the chief mystery of the art.
Among all vegetables, one is prepared out of vegetables, most noble and best. Out of this our Quintessence the wise prepare that which is our hidden Stone.
God, the best and greatest, created three mines: the first is from mineral things, namely gold; the second silver; and the third from vegetable things, namely grain. And Arnold of Villanova, writing to Pope Boniface, saith that to true amalgamation much water of life must be added that is, to the simple amalgam of living Mercury, vegetations (should be added). Yet he seemeth to understand common Mercury, which nevertheless here is not to be received; for in the Rosary he expressly saith of sulphur, that the fattest sulphur and Mercury in this art are not fit.
Concerning this Raymund in his Questionary followeth these golden words: Our Magistery is our Stone is burning water, rectified, sprung from wine; by which our bodies are calcined, dissolved, putrefied, purified, purged, the elements separated, and by the wonderful attractive virtue of the Sun exalted.
But they who think of another water never attain a good end. But enough of these.
THE THIRD SECRET (of the art, chiefly necessary)
(Marginal: The third secret is wine-quintessence with gold, or with common silver.)
The third secret of the art, chiefly necessary, is how, namely, thou must join the spirit and power of this Quintessence which is as it were a mean between two magnets, the Sun and the Moon that is, how thou must conjoin it with gold and silver. For this I desire to know: the heavenly spirits with earthy and elemental bodies can never be joined without a mean, namely, one of their secrets: which is prepared from our sublimed Mercury, which must first be joined with its sweetness (i.e. made gentle) in itself, and so it receiveth the oil of two external things. The other (mean) is the middle or saline spirit, which, joining the body into one, is the mean; from which our Quintessence maketh a pleasant harmony, and this oil conferreth only the spirit celestial to it, as much as is due to it by its proper and natural union in the first principle of its birth; which also Hermes indicateth when he saith, The superiors are as the inferiors, for working miracles.
Wherefore this oil hath a great concord and friendship with the celestial spirit, and is very like to the four elements (so far as concerneth) the elements, such as are gold and silver. Therefore without it none can attain to the true perpetual medicine, neither in the first, second, nor third order.
Concerning this sublimed Mercury, or oil, no master of the art is allowed to speak except in most hidden speech, or by metaphoric figures; and if there be any more in it, he doth it by words. But we remit thee to the following chapter, which treateth of this, and to our Alphabet, from which its mine is taken by operations of distillation, purification, calcination, vivification, sublimation, and solution in its water and moisture. In these words the whole mode and entire labour is comprehended of leading the two luminaries from potency to act, and unto vegetation. Behold, now many mysteries have we revealed to thee, of which hitherto it was difficult; now it sufficeth.
THEORETICAL APPENDIX
for the better declaration of the preceding things.
Definition of Alchemy
Alchemy is an art of administration in this excellent magistery, by which, and by necessary means (as are furnaces, vessels, measures, and ordered fires), our vegetable and mineral heaven is perfected. And our glorious Mercury is sublimed, which we draw forth out of its earth or confused mass; and then by a simple fire we reduce it to the mean and to the celestial nature, by the work of circulation; and by a true mean by sublimation. So that by these natural and convenient means we make it proceed to celestial dignity.
By this heaven and sublimed Mercury the elements of the luminaries are exalted unto the truest vegetation so that afterwards, by these (means), the luminaries may actually begin to silver and gild imperfect metals, and to congeal common Mercury, with a perfect transmutation.
Definition of the Elixir
The Elixir is the substance of metallic bodies, which bodies, by Exuberation, contain their Mercuries within themselves. The Philosophers call it the Virgin’s milk. This Mercury, when it hath its soul, hath this property: to transmute bodies, calcined and dissolved, into a true medicine (and into the Philosophers’ Stone of all the Philosophers).
All the operations which were before are common; but after the composition of the Elixir they are called Philosophical.
Definition of the Philosophers’ Stone (L. P.)
The L. P. is a substance compounded of a most pure purified sulphur, chiefly drawn from the Sun and Moon, brought from potency into the true Philosophers’ Stone by the mixture of fermentation; and it bindeth its ferment indissolubly, with the reiteration of its proper elemental flowers.
DECLARATION
Concerning the Philosophers’ Oil; of the threefold reduction of bodies into first matter; and of the disagreement thereof among the Philosophers
There are diverse ways of coming unto the scope of the Great Work namely, by the mineral, the vegetable, and the animal. So that if any artificer find the truth of this magistery by one of these ways, he persuadeth himself that no other way of proceeding is to be given, and he endeavoureth to confirm the saying of the Philosophers that there is one Stone, one Medicine, to which nothing strange is added, save only that which is superfluous is removed. We say this to be true: for the one Stone is Sun and Moon, as we said above in the revelation of the three Secrets.
The one medicine is those two metals brought from potency into act unto vegetation, and that by our first motions; namely, by our secret oil and by our sublimed Mercury.
That oil is our water and our vegetable heaven, exuberated from our mine and from black earth, hidden by the Philosophers. That oil or divine water partaketh of two extremities, and is called the Mediator and the soul of metals (as we said above). Without the work of this it is impossible to proceed to any general or particular composition, that we may attain the desired end.
How much and what it is, which addeth nothing foreign, we have in the chapter “Of the Revelation of the three Secrets” first we have proved: that the Quintessence and the Mercurial water (which is our vegetable heaven) is not a foreign thing, but agreeth with the Sun and Moon. Moreover all Philosophers agree in this text which saith: nothing but what is superfluous is removed. Yet it is possible for us, by many ways, to remove superfluities from the aforesaid metals, and to bring them to true vegetation, and to extract their fat earth from them.
So also we must do with our Mercury: the first composition of Nature namely with the mineral earth, the hidden (earth) of the Philosophers; and from it, by a secret exuberation, to extract the first matter, which is the Virgin’s milk, and its living vegetable water, otherwise by us called Mercury and the first mover; by which we may reduce metals unto true vegetation.
For a fuller declaration of this matter, it must be known that our Magistery is distinguished into three principal parts: Dissolution, Separation, and Union.
And it is of great necessity to reduce all the aforesaid bodies into first matter, namely into water, as the Philosopher in the end of his Meteorology commandeth: which reduction may be done naturally and physically, and in truth in three ways.
The threefold manner of reduction (chiefly by dissolution)
1. The first is the separation and rectification of the four Elements: by which we separate the first matter; or the divine water after the first mover hath first been exuberated; and also from all metals, perfect and imperfect; and then, proceeding by the fixation of water upon earth, calcined and separated, and by a secret sublimation, reducing the aforesaid metals into salt and into the most pure sulphur of Nature.
2. The second manner is: when, after the exuberation of the souls or Mercury of metals made by the physical menstruum, and after the calcination and preparation of their earths, by the union of the said souls and the fixation of them, and by this physical secret sublimation, we reduce the aforesaid body into salt and into the most pure sulphur of Nature, as we teach in the practice of the Tree of Philosophical Science.
3. The third manner, or mean, is a more useful and easier way: when, after calcination, the common and physical (bodies) are dissolved with vegetable and animal menstrua; by which, by the weight of two, the virtue and body of our first mover namely sublimed quicksilver is joined, whether it be vegetable, animal, or mineral. Likewise, when by the dissolution of metals made physical, we distil the said metals until, by the virtue of continual reiterations, the said bodies, wholly or for the greatest part of them, pass through the alembic in an homogeneous form, by an airy revolution, and by the said menstrua into most clear water; which bodies while the “damned earths” remain at the bottom. By this reasoning thou mayest understand the third manner of reducing metals into first matter namely into water and an homogeneous body.
Now, whereas it is manifest that it was the intention of all the ancient and modern Philosophers of the school of philosophy to bring their purpose to effect, it clearly appeareth unto us that there is no disagreement among them concerning the proper matter, but only concerning the first mover that is, concerning our Mercury rightly sublimed, which our Mediator produceth with the vegetable (way); and to which all Philosophers, whether mineral, vegetable, or animal, have come at last, each to one and the same desired scope.
Therefore every difference which, according to the opinion of all natural Philosophers, might be among them (as Plato, Aristotle, Avicenna, Rhasis, Geber, Arnold, Raymund L.) is none other than about the means of reducing metals into first matter.
Yet this reduction may be done by any of the above three ways so that there be a perfection of all physical means by which the first matter of metals may perform the most excellent Philosophers’ Magistery.
Here it is to be noted, that our Doctor Lullius, after he dissolveth the calcined and putrefied bodies of metals, calleth this operation the first part of dissolution. Afterward followeth the division and rectification of the Elements, by which he joineth that purified thing, the Philosophers’ Mercury (that is, the first element of all the separated elements aforesaid), with the purified and calcined earth of metals; and by the way of our secret sublimation he dissolveth metals in this manner and reduceth them into first matter, by the first manner, as it is said.
But if thou desire to reduce imperfect metals into first matter by the second manner, then thou shalt find that way of reducing imperfect metals described in the third part of this Elucidarius, in the medicines of the second order.
This reduction into first matter of the said imperfect metals is, according to Raymund Lullius, that which in his book On the Quintessence he concludeth by a fair sentence in the latter part of the chapters; and likewise in the first book of the said Vade mecum.
From the number of Philosophers and by resolving the conclusions of all both ours and of all who have written and do write of this faculty it is shown that there are many ways of conjunction and preparation unto one end and one effect, which thou mayest see through the whole latitude of the Magistery.
And according to those operations which we have given thee, thou mayest do many others at thy pleasure so thou understand the Magistery, namely how to reduce the aforesaid metals into their first matter; for from hence depend the Law and the Prophets.
QUESTION
Why out of a thousand not even one becomes an adept.
That universal saying, which seizes all craftsmen with admiration, must be examined by us, when it is said: Out of a thousand not even one can attain the knowledge of this science. To this it is answered: that the men of this age do not have the mind for laboring in the sciences, as our forefathers once did. Then also we say: the secrets of this science are not made manifest to all; but chiefly indeed to those who possess exact knowledge and practice, such as very few are found to have at the present day.
On the three secrets, or causes, of the errors that are committed concerning the Magistery.
While we consider the secrets concerning which the ignorant have most grievously deceived themselves, we find three secret causes of this matter. The first is ignorance of the true first matter, from which the basic medicine called the First Elixir is composed. Certain unlearned men have believed that this true matter was to be found in common quicksilver. Although, however, in that glorious mineral and body the true matter of this composition lies hidden, proceeding minerally, with a medium in the abundance of the heavenly and divine water-content (which first water of this matter, for reducing it, they call the quintessence, as was said in another place in the Violeta), and it possesses the fifth mineral essence in most pure sulphur, as they say. Since that matter, which agrees well with the matter of metals, when united with the matter of quicksilver, we arrive at the end of so greatly desired a composition. Nevertheless, no one should hear us as if we were speaking of common quicksilver, but rather of a certain medium, which we understand, used in a hidden way. For that water is not of our consideration, nor is it the philosophical water approved by all the philosophers.
Some others have sought this first matter in certain marcasites of arsenic, sulphur; others in vitriol; others in various alum; others in nitre, common salt, human blood, urine, dung, and other such things. But we, with the judgment of all learned craftsmen, say that the matter of our blessed stone is the purest Sol and the purest Luna, than which nothing else is found more suitable; and in other individual things of this species it is found by experience that the species does not have its own seed within itself. For what is supposed cannot stand in the order of nature.
But Genesis teaches that this is the true foundation, namely, that one thing likewise brings forth its seed according to its own species. Hence Aristotle also wishes that the female should generate one similar to herself. Avicenna moreover says: such sulphur is not found upon the earth as is this seed for transmuting imperfect bodies, except that which is contained in Sol and Luna. After all these, nearly all the philosophers of authority embraced this opinion, such as Hortulanus, Rases, Geber, Arnoldus, and Raymond Lully. Since those doctors always say at the beginning of their practice and chapters: Take gold and silver. Look also at Raymundus, who in his Questionary proves this truth, saying: this indeed is the definition of the principle: For just as fire has it in heating to all things, so gold in making golden, and silver in making silver. Therefore we conclude our first part with these manifest arguments, by which we have made the first cause of the secret plain to ourselves, since you may be able to be physically certain of it, and by no means wander except with divine help.
The second secret, or Q.E.
The second secret that must be considered by us is that we may know and rightly understand the quintessence of heaven, drawn from wine, otherwise called by the philosophers the vegetable heaven. Certain ignorant men in this place have taken it to be the water of common quicksilver, of sal ammoniac, of saltpetre, of cinnabar, and of alum. Although such waters may indeed be good enough for certain calcinations, nevertheless waters vulgarly made in this way do not have the power of vivifying the two luminaries, Sol and Luna. We prove this foundation against the opinion of the ignorant. And therefore Mercury, or the waters with which the luminaries ought potentially and actually to be led toward vegetation, are nothing else but the heavenly quintessence drawn from wine, otherwise called the vegetable heaven of the philosophers. And this is proved by three arguments, of which the first is:
1. By the argument of corresponding truth.
2. By the argument of vegetation.
3. By the argument of the order of nature, so far as it concerns this admirable composition.
As to the first argument, which rests first upon this foundation, we see in natural things that an agent ought to have a patient suitable to itself. Otherwise it cannot follow that there is a perfect action between them. For example, if a man should carnally join with some brute animal, then from such a union no perfect action can follow, and it rarely happens that such an operation has place; and although nature might operate horribly, nevertheless a monster would thereby be generated, which happens because of the difference of species between rational and irrational animals.
Therefore concerning this divine composition we say that, since the metals, such as gold and silver, are naturally multiplied, it is necessary that in them the vegetative power be opened, which may lead that metallic nature from potency into act; and since among all minerals this matter is most fit for that, for the other metals are all consumed in the assay of fire, from this there follows a perfect action in the Composition, which must be carried out by us with those very things, so that it may be joined with our Quintessence, which is living wine; namely, a body corresponding in dignity and similar to gold. From this it is further known, which we commonly see in experience, that all artificial waters always tend toward the corruption of their form, and within a short space of time are corrupted with the destruction of their form; whereas our Quintessence brings forth effects plainly contrary, because it always multiplies in power, and in itself preserves every vegetative form placed in its womb, even of whatever individual thing.
For confirmation, let a certain history be set forth beyond our own experience. When at Rome we once, on the occasion of the destruction of some building, found a blessed glass vessel full of this substance, with the glass substance sealed shut. Its opening had been secured with a golden and leaden seal. This glass vessel had been enclosed in another leaden vessel. From the number engraved upon it, it appeared that it had lain hidden under the earth for 848 years. When it was opened, such a fragrance came forth from it that all the bystanders nearby were seized with the highest admiration. This clearly demonstrates that the aforesaid Quintessence is similar to gold, because it moves the vegetative virtue of gold and brings it from potency into act for vegetation, which with any other water is impossible. For just as no other metal can be immune from fire except only gold, so also among all vegetables none is immune from corruption except our Vegetable Quintessence.
The second argument by which we prove our truth is taken from vegetation, which is in this divine subject, concerning whose faculty neither the ancients nor the modern philosophers doubt, but all uphold this as a universal rule: that in gold and silver there is a vegetative power in potency. Raymundus says this in many places, but especially in his book on the Quintessence, where he says:
“The vegetative power of gold exists through all the parts of gold, so that the gold which was vegetative in potency, after it has been brought into act, exists actually.”
From this testimony it is clearly evident that in gold the true vegetative power is found in potency. Hence it follows necessarily that it ought to be brought into act through a vegetative medium, as the same Lull says. In the Definition of Principles, in the first question of his Questionary, the beginning of which is: Whether the end of Alchemy be a real being, or a fiction?
Answering this question, he says: For the end of Alchemy is to make gold and silver; and, according to the condition of that end, Alchemy is shown to be a real being and not a fiction, because it must be composed of gold, silver, and a vegetable menstruum, and little by little made more perfect. For this indeed agrees with the definition of the principle, since, just as fire is the principle of heating, so gold is the principle of making gold, and the vegetative principle of vegetation. Since therefore the end of Alchemy is to make gold and to vegetate, it must needs be composed of gold, silver, and a vegetative principle.
The greater practical proposition proves this and it appears clearly necessary that, for something to be added by virtue of our Quintessence, it must be that thing which brings the potency of gold into act for vegetation, without which nothing is ever done. The lesser proposition, however, is proved because the vegetative power is only in the living vegetable Quintessence spoken of above, and in no way in other waters.
The proof is clear. The more other distilled waters are distilled, the worse they become, and they lose their power and are corrupted within a short space of time. But our Quintessence and the circulated vegetable heaven, the more it is distilled, the more perfect it becomes, and increases in strength and in the power and vigor of vegetative life, and becomes of a heavenly and incorruptible nature. Therefore it is impossible to make that divine composition from mineral waters without the vegetative power of our Quintessence, as Raymundus also says in tract 7 of the Rotarum, saying: In this the intellect may know that Alchemy is impossible without vegetables. And in the third book of the Quintessence, question 24, wishing to show that this divine medicine or stone must be composed of perfect bodies and a living vegetable menstruum, he says:
From this there is our fire, the fire of the blessed stone. And from the essential fire of the perfect metals, and from the essential fire of the living menstruum of our vegetables, there is composed the living fire, which in an instant converts all imperfect metals into perfect metals, being helped by a gentle fire, with living vegetative potency.
Therefore we conclude that no water better suits the true matter of gold than the living and heavenly Quintessence for vegetating it.
The third argument
The third argument of our assertion consists in the natural order. For this Quintessence promises human felicity with respect to this divine composition. First, all the philosophers say that the higher causes move the lower, as Plato, Aristotle, and Hermes do, who are unanimous in this judgment, namely, that the higher bodies move and govern the lower bodies. The prince of the philosophers also says: This world is ordered so that by necessity the lower things are subject to the actions of the higher, so that every power is governed from there. By the power of the higher things he understands the heavens; but our golden Quintessence is nothing other than the power of those higher things. And by the lower power they understood the four lower elements in relation to our medicine. Therefore, according to the philosophers, we conclude that the lower elements of our medicine are in the said gold, and likewise our first mover, whether it be mineral, animal, or vegetable, without which elements we would never have that mover. For if those elements were not moved, and the potential vegetative virtue were not stirred up through the quintessence, without the mediation of which and its help it is impossible for the craftsman to obtain any emolument.
Concerning this living heaven Raymundus says in the third book of the Quintessence, in the chapter Heaven and our Mercury: for, he says, our heaven has the property of an incorruptible spirit, which is as it were its soul, and has in itself the conditions of a body, generating and producing seed as a female; and in this it differs from the other principles. It is also feminine, because it is attained through the feminine, namely through wine, and sulphur and odor are said of it in the first distinction in the chapter which begins.
Moreover it is the principle of moving a body, namely a form; and a little further on, where he pursues the aforesaid living heaven, he says: And in this the intellect may know that our D. has the property of a vegetable, whose likeness it transmits into R. or S., namely into the nature of sulphur, which is the spirit of metals, or the stone, or the venom transformed according to the signification of Raymundus.
Hence, according to the signification of the Alphabet of the Figure of the Philosophical Tree assigned by Raymundus, and in that place concerning the figure of the Quintessence, he frequently says this sentence: Just as the vegetative power of the mother or nurse transmits its likeness into the son whom she generates, which property the son retains, so also does our Mercury. The intention of the philosopher is to show that sulphur or the philosophical stone or venom transformed receives all its vegetative benefit through the stirring up of the vegetative power that is in this divine vegetable heaven.
But it must be noted that by sulphur, venom, or stone he means nothing other than our Mercury secretly sublimed, namely our sulphureous earth, our heavenly water, our mercurial [thing], which by all the masters of Mercury is called sublimed Mercury. This is the mediator and composition of this medicine, reduced to the first matter and to the vegetable heaven. The same author, in the continuation of his doctrine, says: And the intellect may also know that the metals called R. or S. retain their property, since they extend their likenesses from substance to substance, transmuting the said substances into their own species; for this reason we call that Mercury vegetable, and also because it is extracted from vegetables. The same author again says at the end of the said chapter: And the intellect may also know that this principle is like a woman conceiving the male seed and bringing it forth in another form and power, as it was in the beginning.
This operation was called by all the philosophers the lesser world, as the son manifesting the father’s doctrine, because the philosophers wished that through the natural order the thing desired should be able to come to union. Hence we necessarily conclude that the elements of this stone, namely of gold, ought to be moved through the power of the living quintessence and the aforesaid vegetable heaven, which in the third argument we have sufficiently proved and demonstrated.
For a fuller confirmation, however, let us add the authority of the Prince of this art, who says in chapter 14 concerning this heavenly water. And indeed the secret of the art, which we have above called heavenly and glorious water, is not vile, since it turns our body into spirit; and in chapter 83 he further says: The most high heavenly Creator created three mines. Among minerals there is one, namely Sol and Luna. Among vegetables there is the vine. Among animals there is the bee.
Then Arnold also, in his epistle to Pope Boniface concerning this divine water, says: I take copper amalgamated with silver in great quantity, and living water into vegetable quicksilver, by reason of its vegetation. Although the ignorant may here be able to say that this is common quicksilver, Arnold nevertheless says in his Rosary that all incombustible sulphur from common quicksilver is foreign and does not enter into our work.
Raymund Lully, in question 6 of the third book of the Quintessence, concerning this heavenly water, by which he performs the calcination and dissolution of perfect bodies, thus says: The menstruum is a burning water perfectly rectified from wine, by whose power all bodies are calcined, dissolved, putrefied, purified, and their elements divided from them; and the earth is exalted into a marvelous salt, or into a foliated earth by its attractive virtue. But those who seek another water are ignorant and foolish, and they never come to the effect.
Meanwhile, I have demonstrated these four columns upon which the whole science rests.
Four Columns of Philosophical Science
1. The Column of Chaos
First of all, let it be known to you what that true and universal matter is, called Chaos, from which our divine stone is composed. But here it must be noted that by this Chaos all elemental things ought to be understood, namely both in mineral bodies and in vegetables and animals. For where the division of the elements does not yet intervene, the four elements are found confused in matter. This matter, because it is created, is deservedly called Chaos, that is, the matter of the elements confused and gathered together in one mass.
2. Let us consider the form of the aforesaid confused matters and elements.
3. We shall consider the matter of all things and of the aforesaid individual things.
4. And finally, we shall examine what the vegetable menstruum is, and what the mineral menstruum is, and by what reasoning this blessed composition depends on those aforesaid menstrua.
With regard, therefore, to the first proposition, this must be considered by you: to what end the science of L.P. was discovered by the alchemists. For then you will find it established that this was for the generating of gold and silver in any metallic body whatsoever. Once this has been considered, it must next also be considered that no other matter exists which can make gold and silver except gold and silver themselves; whence it follows that gold and silver are the principles and the end of Alchemy. But it is impossible to transmute the aforesaid bodies and render them subtle, and likewise to make gold and silver, without the medium of our living and vegetable silver, which therefore is necessary in the principle and end of this Alchemy. From this it clearly appears that in the matter of our living and vegetable silver, both gold and silver, and in their confused elements, consist the principle, the medium, and the end of this stone. But that this is so, read R. Lull in the third book of the Quintessence, in the first chapter of the Definitions of the Principles of the Philosophical Tree, where he says: Consider the end, and you will know that the menstruum is fitting to the end of Alchemy.
For the second column of the science of the Philosophical Stone, it is necessary that the artist should know what is the form of the aforesaid matters, for when he considers several forms, he will discover them. First, therefore, let him know that the true form of the artist is that which gives being to the other forms; for example, this may serve: the health of a sick man is present in potency, because he can be healed. And in vegetable individuals the form and life of such a sick thing are present potentially. The prudent physician, through his operations, which he practices by distilling and subtilizing, and likewise by conferring his principles with the individuals, composes a medicine, which when applied to the sick man restores his body actually to health; because the natural form and the principle of healing were in the medicine potentially by the art of the physician, and are brought into act, and that form which in the sick body existed in potency is reduced into act and brought back to its former health.
In a grain there lies hidden the vegetative and multiplicative form in potency. But unless it is moved by the artist and cast into the earth in due cultivation, it never comes, through the medium of the diverse determinate forms, to its own end, which had been enclosed and hidden in it, if its form had not first been stirred up in some way.
So too our artist performs beforehand, when with our living vegetable menstruum he moves, and with the potency of the quintessence of living vegetable silver secretly sublimed and exalted into the first matter.
Or if he proceeds by the vegetable way and with perfect bodies, by causing our white foliated vegetable earth to abound with this divine medium, gold passes from form into form through the medium of diverse forms, even unto the final form of the said individual. And so, after the virtue has been led from potency into act, one part of it makes and transmutes infinite parts of other imperfect metals into its own species, namely into gold or silver. Therefore Raymund Lully says in the third book of the Quintessence, in the second definition in the principle of the Philosophical Tree: The first form, etc., up to: because gold by itself cannot, etc.
Now let us pass to the third proposed consideration, that we may see what that first matter is which the artist seeks in the philosophical science. And first indeed it is apparent that this first matter is a passive thing, whatever of the aforesaid principles is under the action of another. We also say that this first matter is the substance and vegetable individual from which our vegetable menstruum is made for the dissolution of bodies; which menstruum is the first matter drawn from wine. Through this first matter all vegetables also are reduced into their first matter, and that which is first generated from it in this divine composition is called and is named the soul of the Philosophers’ Stone. This first matter is also the elements of vegetables, which give increase to our menstruum. The artist will find this principle in the third order of the alleged foundations, so that it may appear from what principles this magistery is composed, and that each matter may be declared by the artist according to its proper reasons. Hence Raymund Lully says in the third book of the Quintessence, in the definition of this first matter: For the first matter, etc., and elsewhere: The first matter is the being from which our dissolving menstruum is drawn, which is wine.
And elsewhere, defining matter, he says: Matter is metal without metal, which are the matter of the stone. Moreover, the first matter is that from which our growing vegetable menstruum takes increase. Therefore this also is known to be the principle and end in this art, when that from which our magistery is composed is known, and each matter is made known and manifest under its own account.
Now the fourth and last principle, or our foundation, must be examined, namely what our vegetable menstruum is, and what our mineral menstruum is, and how from those two menstrua, together with their ferments, we make the composition of the Philosophers’ Stone.
And this menstruum is the living vegetable liquor with which we dissolve the metals. That I may explain myself more clearly: our menstruum is a burning water drawn from rectified and subtilized wine, with which the natural dissolution of metals is made.
The mineral menstruum is the liquor of mineral Mercury existing in any resoluble metal, the subtlety of all the aforesaid bodies being reduced into act, in which our blessed Mercury existed potentially, namely in the aforesaid water. Mercury and quicksilver, which are in every elemental thing, are the conserving liquor of each species and of the spirits of all individual things. The definitions of these menstrua agree in one special way, just as generation and species are divided among individuals. Therefore our menstruum is both in minerals and in vegetables. The menstruum which is in vegetables is the liquor with which we dissolve metals. And the menstruum which is in metals is dissolved by the vegetable one.
The first menstruum is a living burning water. The second is quicksilver, which must be from metals or from sulphureous mineral earth. The menstruum that is in vegetables has the feminine nature, because its womb is conjunctive, and it is married to that mineral menstruum through dissolution; and in this dissolution it is artificially united and composed with it, as nature requires. Through such a natural union the menstruum acquires the power of transmuting and reducing matter into another subtle form, indeed into so great a subtlety, proximate and simple, that in a moment it is transmuted from metal into metal, namely from Mercury into the finest gold and silver according to the color of its ferment. From this living vegetable menstruum the mineral menstruum begins to be dissolved, with the preservation of its species; and it acquires the power of generating similar things from its own parts, or it acquires virtue, just as any precious stone does of its own species. For the mineral virtue is like a generative power for our stones and metals.
My sons, in these menstrua the greatest secrets lie hidden, and unless the artist knows them, he never arrives at the transmutation of metals. All these things we have gathered from Raymund Lully, with method and labor for your instruction, that you may see how faithful disciples we have been to that doctor. I place his sayings before your eyes.
See therefore in the third book of the Quintessence, in the definition of the principles of the Philosophical Tree. In the definition of the fourth epistle he gives one definition of these two menstrua as particular, and another as general. The first is: The menstruum is the vegetable liquor with which metals are dissolved. Likewise: The menstruum is a burning water, rectified and sharp, with which the natural dissolution of metals is made; or the menstruum is the heavenly quintessence drawn from red or white wine. But concerning the mineral menstruum he says: The menstruum is the liquor of Mercury existing in any resoluble metal, by which the resolutive menstruum is reduced to seed;
Likewise, our Mercury is quicksilver existing in every elemental thing, and it is the liquor in which the spirit of the individual is preserved.
My sons, all these definitions agree in one special way, according as genera are divided from species.
The philosophers extol with praises the menstruum and blessed sulphureous mineral water of quicksilver made with the vegetable medium. The aforesaid Doctor continues the above definitions generally and distinguishes these menstrua, saying: My sons, generally speaking, all the aforesaid definitions say that the menstruum is in minerals and in vegetables. The menstruum which is in minerals is dissolved by vegetables; and the menstruum which is in vegetables is the liquor with which metals are dissolved. And distinguishing the aforesaid menstrua, he says: The first is burning water; the second, quicksilver from the essence of metals. Then he demonstrates the aforesaid virtues of the menstrua, and the necessary union of these two, saying:
The vegetable menstruum has a nature like the menstruum of a woman, from which that which is in her womb is united with the mineral menstruum by dissolution, and with it is artificially joined together, as nature wills; from which the menstruum receives the power of transmuting and is led into another subtle matter in such near simplicity that in this way metal is generated from metal before your eyes.
Then the philosophers also demonstrate that this union of the two with bodies, by means of the dissolution of the vegetable menstruum, with preservation of the species of vegetable and mineral, acquires in them the power of generating similar things, saying: Moreover, from the said vegetable menstruum the mineral menstruum begins to undergo dissolution with preservation of its own species, when the mineral virtue becomes a common genus to precious stones and metals; and then he says the following marvelous thing: My sons, this is a great secret, that in these menstrua, so much depends that, if they are unknown, nothing can be done in the work of the transmutation of metals or of the stone. He who has well considered this doctrine will never be able to err.
The revelation of the third secret, or the secret cause, is the union of the Quintessence: namely, in what manner, or by what means, the spirit of the Quintessence must be joined with suitable matter and with the proper matter of the metals.
The third secret cause is the means of joining with the proper matter of the luminaries, whence the spirit of the aforesaid vegetable Quintessence, which can never be joined with crude bodies, filled with crude and foreign earthiness, without the medium of this secret oil, namely sublimed Mercury. This oil partakes of two extremes, and is called the mediator or soul of the metals and also sal armoniac, because through its certain and hidden soul it joins and unites the aforesaid metals with the heavenly spirit of the quintessence; and in this union it makes them so excellently concordant that it would be impossible to express the infinite virtues which the bodies acquire in that union and conjunction through this excellence.
This divine oil shares in the heavenly spirit, which is symbolized by that natural union and in the principle of its origin. This Hermes the father promised, when he said: That which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above, for performing the miracles of one thing, namely of the unique Stone.
This liquor has the greatest agreement and concord with the heavenly spirit of the Quintessence, and moreover it fits excellently with bodily things, because it is Mercury, or the mercurial bodily water, extracted from our mineral Mercury or mineral quicksilver. And its oil is such an elemental matter as gold and silver are. We conclude therefore that without that body we can in no way proceed to the composition of the medicine, whether of the first, second, or third order.
The philosophers have indeed concealed this under countless figures and metaphors; nevertheless, in our Elucidarium we declare it here and there openly in different chapters.
Now therefore we have manifested this Mercury and blessed menstruum, or glorious mercurial water, which is extracted by the distillation of its mineral, and by purification, calcination, vivification, and sublimation. And when this secret sublimation has been completed, by dissolving it in its heavenly water, or in its own moisture (which is almost done by the same medium, by all those operations through which we lead the luminaries from potency into the act of vegetation), we make and prepare the same body as a glorious mineral.
ELUCIDARIUM
OF CHRISTOPHORUS OF PARIS
The second book
or
THE PRACTICE OF THE SCIENCE
OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL TREE
Chapter I.A.
On Chaos, or the first philosophical matter. And on the place where the Mercury of the Philosophers is found, and on its diversity.
In the creation of the world, according to the universal opinion, chaos was its first matter, which was created through infinite divine wisdom, and which we signify by A. From the purest substance of the elements lying hidden in it in a confused state, God formed the heavens; and from the other, grosser part He separated and created the four elements, namely water, earth, air, and fire. We can place this likeness at the beginning of our magistery for the sake of your instruction, because this foundation is above all necessary.
But you ought to know the proper matter, vegetable, mineral, and animal, which by likeness we call chaos in this our principle, because it contains within itself the four elements. And because the intention is to pursue a vegetable and mineral work, we begin from vegetable matter, in which the aforesaid four substances of the elements are found confused in one, called Chaos. And imitating the doctrine of the wisdom of the first Mover, the Creator, with our own artifice we form our vegetable Chaos from a most pure substance, and from the principal part of the said chaos.
But do not persuade yourself that this most excellent matter is compounded by some artifice. For it is a most wise work of nature, in such a way that our intellect must direct itself to this work, so that the art of this operation, with the heavenly and burning spirit, may lead the heavenly quintessence and vegetable heaven to natural heat and into act, and may gather together the divine effects of that thing. In this aforesaid Chaos there exists potentially the said precious substance and nature in one mass of the elements in a confused mass of the elements.
Therefore human reason ought to apply itself to this, so that it may bring our heaven into act. And just as among all stones there is only one that draws iron, so also there is found one only precious substance among all mineral and vegetable individuals, which has the power of reducing metals to the first matter, while preserving their vegetative virtue uncorrupted; and this is the life of the aforesaid metals, with the preservation of their vegetation and their intrinsic forms, ordained beforehand for the purification and regeneration of metals.
This is that substance of ours which the philosophers, hiding it with words and enigmas, have given infinite names. Some call it the whitest quicksilver, and have spoken truly, because in it is found the power of enlivening metals and bringing them to living and true vegetation. Others have called it strong water, and have likewise spoken truly, because it has a marvelous power of dissolving the pure parts of metals from the impure. Some have designated it by the name of sulphur, for this reason: because in its proper substance it has two sulphureities, one indeed special, in the most pure sphere of its purest fire, from which we lead our quintessence into act and into the vegetable heaven of the philosophers.
But the other remains fixed and permanent in its earth, and that blessed earth by means of our magistery receives in itself the first simple, spiritual, living sulphureity; and that earth, through this strongest conjunction and union, fixes it inseparably in a sulphureous body, and by the natural way of sublimation, the pure part being separated from the impure, with the aid of the vegetable heaven, turns it into a spiritual and homogeneous body, as we shall declare in the branches, which we speak of in the third part of this Elucidarium.
To this divine vegetable substance, and to the glorious quicksilver sublimed in animal, mineral, and vegetable fashion, diverse names have been given, although it is but one single thing. We call it the Mercurial Tree, which bears the glorious fruits of the two luminaries.
Practice of the first chapter. A.
But that you may have the surest understanding of these things, raise your mind toward the eastern heavenly pole; go out from the great city of the Venetians and walk toward the right side, until you find an elevated land of its plain. There you will find a most precious mineral earth, mineral, animal, and vegetable, although our heavenly Mercury is also found in many other similar places. From it take as much as you wish, and break its bone and all its flesh, and shut it in a certain vessel with a small vent, according to the usual custom, that it may be cooked and putrefied for eight days; then separate the blood from the aforesaid mixture, and keep it in a place where it can become cold. This is our substance and our first glorious Mercury, in which the elements are found confused in one mass; and from this, and from all the other remaining elements, we form our aforesaid vegetable heaven. And from it, since it is a sulphureous earth through the union of the elements, we prepare sublimed quicksilver, hidden from the common ignorant, but made manifest to the wise.
But note here: when we must dig up that Mercury and draw it out from its mineral pit, the thing is to be attempted at the third hour from the rising of the sun, when the sky is not cloudy but clear and serene. And because Mercury of a threefold kind is found in the minerals of our places namely white, red, and black of these each is good, but the red is more heavenly and has more of the fiery form. This should suffice for the knowledge of our heavenly, mineral, and vegetable Mercury, and that of the wise philosophers.
Chapter II
By what means the spirit and form are separated by simple distillation, which we signify by B, so that A may deserve to be called B.
Here we tell you openly and in plain words that the form of our physical stone is from the purest fire, which with little labor is brought to the nature of the heavenly quintessence; without this labor no other way, neither general nor particular, neither vegetable nor mineral, is given by which any artist may bring our stone into practice, and still less to our magistery; because this precious stone is formed by its heavenly influences and proper natural virtues. Hence, by making this preparation, you can know both learned and unlearned craftsmen alike both those, I say, who lived formerly and those who live in these times and who have said that they possessed the true perfection of the transmuting art. When you read them, and see that they speak openly of the divine mineral and vegetable Mercuries, and of its heavenly form, you should not at any moment make any account of them, save rather to mark their ignorance in this science.
Practice of this second chapter. B.
Take our A. and place it in a vessel to be distilled through I, and in this distillation collect the temperate blood B. Continue this distillation in the same rule and manner until the signs shown in our aperture are seen, and until you know that the said B has been dissolved and separated from its elemental nature, continuing this magistery up to the fourth revolution. Then place that same heavenly fiery matter in a clean vessel and distill it slowly with the accustomed fire, and receive only the tenth part. In the second distillation receive the half part. And in the third, two parts out of three. And in the fourth receive four parts out of five, and more besides. Then take that same most noble heavenly water and distill it three or four times with the aforesaid rule, until at last, no further separation intervening, you have received the whole. In this way you will have drawn out from the earth the pure substance and form of A., which here we signify by B.
Take note of this, and understand the necessity of this second mystery and foundation, and marvel at the reason why ignorant and gross men of the mineral kind make the worst bread from beautiful and excellent flour, because they mix the gross part with the subtle. The same rashness happens to artists who persuade themselves that they can find the beauty of our quintessence when the spirit of A has been negligently purified, without any pure separation from the impure. Thus therefore in this chapter you have perceived in what way, without separation of the elements, you cannot acquire the form and virtue, namely the purest substance of A, while preserving all the other parts of the elements.
Chapter III. C.
The method of subtilizing B to the point of solubility, in order to acquire it united with our flowers.
It is a great mystery and treasure which we teach you in this chapter: by what means you ought to make B sharp, which we signify by C, and I hardly know in what manner I ought to set forth this doctrine, lest this secret should become known to all. For all who have ever existed, the philosophers have concealed this secret under diverse figures, because beyond all doubt this is the principal key, or one of the principal keys, of this marvelous science. I wish you to hold this as certainly established: that B has no actual solvency in its nature, but only potential solvency; for if B were not made sharp for you by the means and method here revealed, you would never have any power of dissolving.
Some have sharpened it with vitriol, which method is good enough; some with nitre; some with cinnabar; some indeed with these two; and some with all three. Some also with their earth, which method displeases me, because by this means a gross unctuosity and heaviness is introduced. Some use vegetables, such as herbs, roots, flowers, and seeds known to you, which in themselves possess the powers of Mercuries in themselves. Hence it is that those who sharpen it in this way increase rather its vegetable form than render it soluble. Some have added united flowers to sharpen it, which method is the principal one and accords with our intention, and it is found in our Apertorial Alphabet. Certain ignorant men, not knowing the true method of sharpening this B, spend much time in preparing various sharp waters, before they can place any body into B, as happened to us in the beginning, when we sought the practice itself, which has now already been made manifest to you through the practice of our Sommetta, though indeed it succeeded only after much labor. The mystery of the dissolving part is difficult and wearisome; therefore we repeat it. For once you have made B sharp in the way which we now show, you will be certain that the solution of bodies is to be hoped for without delay and long lapse of time. Truly I confess to you that at the time when we first began the work of solution, we did not yet understand Raymund Lully in this dissolving part; but afterwards, when we returned to study and reread him while practicing, praying, and fasting, the illumination of mind was granted to us. Therefore I shall make that method manifest to you under a seal of silence.
Practice of this third chapter. C.
Certainly the method of sharpening that B into a heavenly and burning thing is this, so that you may receive from the said substance as much as you wish. We extract from united flowers a substance which we place in a vessel for distilling away all its wateriness through Y. Then we pour three parts or more of B upon that substance thus prepared, closing the vessel with its own lid, called the antinotory, and we place it in putrefaction for one natural day. Then by three distillations through Z we distill it, until by that regimen we obtain every mercurial part together with the whole juice of the blessed substance, repeating thereafter the aforesaid magistery with a new substance of the flowers, and doing this regimen four times, at the end of which B, soluble in potency, is reduced into act through the power of the united mother of the flowers.
Chapter IV. D.
On the means of reducing C into D, and of recognizing when it has come to its perfection.
Among the greatest benefits which God has bestowed on us in these lands, not the least is this: that He has revealed to us the means by which we may reduce our vegetable C into the nature of the truest quintessence, which is so full of heavenly virtues that even the most presumptuous physician, if physicians knew the means of preparing this Q.E., and with certain other additions required, they could apply the modes according to the need of diseases to the body, they would perform marvelous things in our bodies and would thus in some measure satisfy their avarice. But because grace cannot coexist with sin, it follows that greedy physicians, to their greatest damage and endless loss, are deprived of so singular a divine gift: namely, that it has the power to reduce the bodies of metals from potency into act, and into true vegetation, multiplication, and new regeneration.
For just as a man is nourished in the womb of a woman by menstrual blood, so likewise our heaven, or D, nourishes the bodies of the aforesaid metals when they are placed in that heaven, or D, and are nourished by it, until they are first calcined, dissolved, and putrefied; and the other dependences of this Magistery will have been well administered, so that from the aforesaid metals through sublimation the more subtle part is placed upward, and the dregs likewise boil apart by themselves. This pure part which ascends on high is called by the most wise philosophers the first existing matter, since the true conjunction and concord with D and with the calcined bodies is instituted through it. This is one of the greatest secrets that can be found in this science.
There is also, in addition, another way of joining the Quintessence to the heaven by means of our sublimed Mercury with exalted bodies, as was said above. By these methods the natural operations of our Magistery are perfected; for without this heaven signified by D, or without C, nothing in this art can attain the desired end.
Practice of the fourth chapter. D.
The best means of forming or preparing D is this: take a strong glass vessel, capable of holding as much water as a common urn can contain, and let it have a spithame-long neck with half its length; then another glass vessel containing only the fourth part of the urn, which is to be inserted with its own neck and well luted. Upon this vessel place 4 pounds of C, to be circulated in B.M. or in horse dung for 30 or 40 days, at the end of which term you will have C converted into D. The sign by which you may know whether that conversion has been accomplished is a certain hypostasis appearing in the bottom of the vessel, similar to that which appears in the urine of a healthy man.
Do not believe, however, that that great and most sweet odor can be smelled before the substance of the perfect body has first been dissolved in the aforesaid D, and its reduction to the first matter has been made, which is called Royal Mercury, because this belongs to the true intention and consideration of the wise alchemists, of which we also speak in this treatise.
But if an excellent odor of this composition, which by its sweetness surpasses all the other odors of the whole world, and you do not know it, we shall show it to you in our Apertorial Alphabet, in the chapter beginning: The royal and eternal majesty, etc. Of this we say nothing further in this place, because here we have undertaken to speak only of simple D.
To return therefore to the matter proposed: when the glorious body has lain for thirty days, and the term of perfection approaches, then you will see that Q.E. in greater clarity and splendor than any diamond (whose brightness, since it is a perfect thing, surpasses all precious gems), so that it is difficult for your judgment to decide whether that divine liquor is in the vessel, or whether it is truly outside the vessel. Then separate our heaven from its sediment with industry, keeping it in a well-secured vessel in a cool place, lest it evaporate from there.
The philosophers call the Quintessence a living spirit, because it bestows life upon human and metallic bodies. Likewise: water of quicksilver, water of life, heavenly water, divine water, the star of Diana, the soul, the spirit of our vegetable Mercury, smoke, wind, our heaven, menstrual blood, sublimed urine, the water of the sulphur of the blessed stone. In sum, innumerable names have been imposed upon it, though they all signify one thing. This variety of names was invented so that Q.E. might be hidden from the ignorant by them, and so that so precious a substance might be preserved for sons who would make themselves worthy through their labors, that they might receive the treasure of their fathers by inheritance. Wherefore you must have firm knowledge of these things, and a belief wholly free of doubt concerning the solution; for without that D, no medicine of any goodness can be made or compounded for the transmutation of metals.
Chapter V. D. rub.
On the sublimation of our Mercury, signified by D red.
The most excellent secret, and the marvelous principle of all the other principles of our sublimed vegetable Mercury, is signified by D red, which has the great property of increasing the physical calcination and dissolution of all mineral bodies, metals, and semi-minerals. For with the aid of the divine course of its fire, it reduces all perfect and imperfect bodies to true putrefaction; and in this way, as though it were the first element of water, before all the other matters of this Magistery it has this prerogative, namely that it truly increases the aforesaid bodies and reduces them into their first matter together with their powers and intrinsic forms.
Take note here. If you do not first understand our meaning, and above all our glorious Mercurium sublimed, you ought not attempt to labor at any work of the first, second, or third order, because without the aforesaid sublimed Mercury no medicine can be formed that offers a useful projection. But we have declared to you this most excellent foundation in our Apertorial Alphabet, in the chapter: If the school of tyrants; and in the second abbreviation and treatise of our Violeta, which is the complement of the Summetta. This is our first abbreviation in its last part, where we have treated of sublimation. Yet in this place we do not speak of vulgar sublimation, but of philosophical sublimation, lest the proud and ignorant artists raise their necks. We shall also treat and teach how to prepare that divine sublimed Mercury among the chapters of this Elucidarium. If all these foundations are well considered, I certainly promise myself that the understanding of it will be found there, and in those who have well grasped the practice of this chapter.
Practice of the fifth chapter. D. Red.
Take mercurial quicksilver extracted from its proper mineral, as we have declared in chapter A. This blessed Mercury, according to the chapters already made known to you, dissolve and putrefy by the heavenly way. Then separate its spirit or flower by means of distillation through the essential medium. When this separation of its heavenly spirit has been made, separate from it all watery phlegm by the fire suitable to it, lest its virtue be burned away; then continue the regimen of distillation, and separate all superfluous unctuosities, which, mixed and hidden in that vegetable matter, burn up the perfect and precious elements, and from that composition produce an alien smoke. This division or separation differs greatly from the other one, in which its phlegm is taken away.
Take therefore the earthy body, which is at the bottom of the vessel like thick honey, from which you will have separated all phlegm by B.M. Then pour upon it only so much of the superfluous moisture separated from it that it stands three fingers above it, and close your vessel with the glass called the antinotory; place it in B.M. to digest for 12 hours. Then you will find a citrine substance dissolved, with dregs remaining settled at the bottom of the vessel. Separate this colored water by inclining it away from that composition, and keep it apart. Repeat the same thing again with new water, as before, and repeat all that aforesaid dissolution, inhumation, and evacuation, until at length there remains in the bottom of the vessel a black earth which does not drink up any more of the aforesaid substance, but remains insoluble.
When you have this sign, then with a slow fire dry that glorious earth upon hot ashes; it will contain in itself the three perfect elements, and it will be like melted pitch in color, and it will have a somewhat sharper taste than grape juice. This physical operation must be done with a very slow fire, and with the root of the nature of this matter accepted and pleasing, lest its radical part, the essential substance of the elements and also its divine soul, its Mercury, be burned in such a regimen.
Otherwise the whole of this magistery would be done in vain, since we must obtain the aforesaid Mercury from this divine body and vegetable substance through the benefit of its heavenly spirit, when its calcined earth has been prepared, joined, and brought together. Thereupon there follows also the physical sublimation of the aforesaid mercurial body, so that it may be reduced into a most pure and glorious salt, into a sublimed white foliated earth of highest preciousness, as we have declared here and there in this book.
With this blessed sublimation, if you have well understood my meaning, you will pursue divine effects discovered by the ancient and recent philosophers and by me set forth. After the separation of the unctuosities and of the superfluous airy substance, which blackens and burns the other precious elements of this composition, its smoke pours into itself a burning and heavenly spirit, and at once the dead earth begins to be vivified into eternal life, and will no longer fear destruction and corruption.
Since the heavenly substance and matter, with its spirit prepared, abounds with the smoke of Mercury and the blessed soul, according to the doctrine of the aforesaid chapter H, as proposed, then make such a physical sublimation and exaltation. After the aforesaid earth has been calcined, place it in a glass vessel with its lid (called the antinotory), then proceed according to the order of chapter K, which is the eleventh of this Elucidarium. And when you see that the white and shining earth has been made, then according to the doctrine of the aforesaid eleventh chapter sublime it, and by this means you will have the vegetable Physical Mercury, with which you must make the union with perfect bodies, as we prescribe in the order of medicines in the third part of this abbreviation, or of this book.
If you are watchful and diligent, you will be able to work upon the aforesaid Mercury in countless other ways and test its usefulness. For the height and depth of our divine magistery are infinite. But that you may be able to navigate across this ocean at all, it is first of all necessary that you understand well the doctrine of the present tree; then at last you will be able to guide your ship to the longed-for harbor of health.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL TREE
Chapter VI. E.
On the calcination of all metals, signified by E, and why it was devised.
Everything would be ruined if we wished to dissolve the bodies of metals with our sharp vegetable menstruum, unless their calcination or preparation had first preceded, as those do who separate gold from silver when it has been beaten into thin plates and dissolved in common strong water. For the correction of this error we have undertaken to write the present Elucidarium, namely for the sure demonstration of this doctrine.
But this means of dissolving the aforesaid bodies by way of the vegetable menstruum is the shortest possible, and it proceeds far otherwise than that which is carried out with a menstruum contrary to nature, whose radical moist fire destroys the roots of the aforesaid bodies. Our dissolution, however, is vegetable and preserves the species and the vegetative virtue, having a nature far different from the other. Although indeed some at first institute dissolution with a fire contrary to nature, nevertheless afterwards, in place of that, they make the dissolution of those same bodies with our vegetable menstrua alone. Otherwise that whole magistery perishes, and the essential form of vegetative life of the aforesaid metals is destroyed.
Moreover, by this we say that our vegetable water produces in those metals the whole operation which the heavenly and natural course performs in the bowels of the earth. We see that nature, in the calcination of sulphur with quicksilver, according to the universal opinion, spends two hundred years to bring about the resolution in a certain most imperfect metal, and this for many reasons, which we now omit here. Therefore we know that nature does not proceed violently in its operations, but quietly, with due end and measure of time. In this manner too the fire of our glorious Mercury acts.
Wherefore it is necessary that we first establish the calcination of the aforesaid bodies, because in this way we dispose the matter better, just as most wise nature does, and we bring it more surely to its natural course. For this reason we take only a few days to accomplish what admirable nature does in so long a series of years in the bowels of the earth without any other help. Hence it is that many, because of the bad disposition and grossness of the matter, have not been able to attain the desired end of this science.
Practice of this sixth chapter. E.
Take one ounce of the purest R., that is, of gold, and make an amalgam with common Mercury, and make it into a mass like butter; then place it in some vessel, and pour upon it enough strong water prepared from rock alum and nitre, and make it boil as often as with fresh similar water, until you see a citrine calx, calcined and reduced into a most subtle powder. Then wash it with warm and sweet common water, soaking and decanting it repeatedly in a glass vessel until sweet and clear water comes away. When it has thus been dried, place it in a urinal vessel and pour onto it a little spirit of wine. And after the drying is done, you will have the body of R., with its intrinsic forms and vegetative virtue more loosened apart, by means of which you will be able more easily to make the conjunction with our Quintessence, through the glorious oil of our Mercury. As in chapters 2 and 3 of the revelation of the aforesaid secrets of the luminaries it has been demonstrated.
Likewise take one ounce of T. or S., which you have hammered thin or drawn out; then dissolve it in water prepared from rock alum and nitre, which had been purified and refined over another S. Into this solution pour four parts of warm distilled common water. Then place a plate of copper over S., and that whole body will adhere to it in a very short time. When the separation has been made, sweeten it in the same manner as you did with R.; then pour on a little urine distilled over S., so that if there should be anything of copper in S., that urine may extract it all. Sweeten it with fresh water, and then also with spirit of wine. This calcination of the luminaries surpasses all the others, while preserving their vegetative virtue.
Secondly, you may also calcine S. by dissolving it in the aforesaid separating water; when this is done, take three parts or more of common salt, and dissolve it in sweet common water; then join these two decoctions, and immediately S., like a white calx or snow, settles to the bottom, which calx you shall wash and sweeten as I did above. Then make distilled vinegar boil upon your calx for two hours, and wash it with warm water; and when the excitation has been made, preserve it. But O. and P. calcine with common quicksilver and our custom. T., however, is calcined in strong water made from Roman vitriol and saltpetre, with extraction of the water and augmentation at the end, as you know; then separate well the spirits of those aforesaid things, the body being dried out. The calcination of Q. is done with vinegar and sulphur.
This calcination of all metals is safely practiced in our magistery, which we signify by E.
Chapter VII. F.
On the dissolution of calcined metallic bodies, denoted by F.
We desire this: that in the dissolution of metallic bodies, or in the separation of souls or Mercuries, the whole calcined body may be liquefied in the womb of the vegetable menstrua. This effect is easily attained when our B, made sharp, united, and endowed with the power of the species of vegetables (so that then the mercurial virtue of the metals is dissolved together with it), simply separates only the souls and quicksilver from the elements by exaltation. This operation of exalting the aforesaid souls or Mercuries is sufficient for the branches and medicines of the second order, whose effect is greater or less according to the perpetuated dissolution of the said bodies. But the first is more excellent, and is distinguished into two parts.
For first we make this dissolution with the liquor and oil of our white foliated earth. As it is in chapter L, you will see the enkindling oil, where I teach the method of preparing the oil of perfect bodies for the enkindling medicine of the second and third order. This dissolution certainly surpasses all others that you could imagine.
The other method is prior and similar, namely that this dissolution ought to be made with the earth of the aforesaid body, from which the three elements have simply been separated, while the earth itself has been calcined to whiteness and fixed; it ought to be dissolved in common water, freed from its gross dregs, and the separated feces gathered together and kept in liquid form for one natural day. This should be done four times more after the first time by dissolutions, coagulations, and fixations. Thus the vegetable salt is reduced to the nature of the quintessence, which has so much heat and power that with this blessed body it is able to dissolve all metallic bodies while preserving their vegetative virtue, just as with our vegetable heaven and with the white foliated earth you make through distillation a living Mercury and a prepared vegetable menstruum.
The second consideration is that which is done with C, namely with the burning water. The third consideration is done with D, namely with our quintessence, which method is the most excellent.
Practice of the seventh chapter. F.
Take whatever metal you wish, calcined in the way stated in chapter E, but especially and principally gold or silver, and imbibe it little by little with the liquor or oil of the aforesaid earth of vegetables, in a glass mortar, by long trituration. Then
Then place this whole body in a vessel, and imbibe it, washing the mortar with a little distilled vinegar or common water, by B.M. Yet it is better to pour over all that washing a small quantity of C or D upon the aforesaid calx; then distill by B.M. with a fire moderated to the heat of the rising sun, all the moisture from the aforesaid body. Then dry it, and again imbibe it with fresh liquor and by long trituration; then dry it again as before, and repeat that imbibition and desiccation with fresh liquor or the aforesaid oil, until the calcined body has taken up three parts or more of the substance or liquor of the aforesaid earth. Then place this aforesaid body in some moist place, or in B.M. And within a short space of time either all of it, or the greatest part of it, will be dissolved. Keep separate that which has been dissolved. And that which has not been dissolved, dry it; and imbibe it with new earthy liquor, until the said matter has taken up three parts of the aforesaid substance or liquor of the vegetable earth. Then dry it and set it to dissolve, as you know, and repeat this as often as needed, until the whole calcined solar body is dissolved, together with the oil of the vegetable earth prepared above.
This dissolution is not made with cloudy water, but with permanent and fixed waters, that is Q.E. Therefore let it be held with certain conviction that this dissolution of the aforesaid calcined bodies is, above all others (which can scarcely be found in the workshop of our magistery), truer, surer, and more natural. No philosopher has ever existed who has treated this divine dissolution with such freedom of mind, except under great veils and very obscure figures. If you wish this dissolution, and all the aforesaid bodies liquefied by it, to be exalted by the airy resolution of the alembic, or the souls and Mercuries of the bodies to be separated, if you follow the method set forth in chapter K, you will obtain the contentment of certainty and the perfection of this secret mystery.
Here it must be noted that this dissolution does not differ much from that which we set forth in chapter L. For in truth we make that dissolution in the aforesaid chapter indicated, with the white foliated and sublimed earth, so that that earth may pass with the perfect bodies through the alembic, by means of the exaltation instituted through airy revolution. Thus from this divine mixture the vegetable and mineral essence is extracted, whereby prudent artists perform miracles upon earth.
Here we have explained to you the 24th question of Raymund Lully, in the third chapter of the Quintessence, where he says: From this is the fire of our blessed stone. And it is from the essential fire of the bodies of the perfect metals, and from the essential fire of our vegetable menstruum. From these is composed one fire, which in a moment converts all imperfect metals into perfect metal.
At this point it is fitting for you to reflect, we wished to explain the force of nature, which with this substance (through those degrees mentioned above) is not brought to so great an exaltation as the aforesaid white foliated earth. But here the matter is treated only to this extent: that the blessed vegetative virtue of this earth may be stirred up, through the removal of the superfluous elements by simple dissolution and fixation, which we do by our art, reducing that earth into the nature of the Quintessence, whereby we work miracles in mineral bodies upon the earth, as novices. The second dissolution is of that kind which is done with C, as regards the division of the dissolutions, of which it was spoken above. Likewise also you will make the third kind of dissolution with D, as was also said above, if through it you wish to obtain the quintessence of metals.
A shorter practice of the same chapter.
The universal method is this: take the calx of that metal which you wish to dissolve, and pour upon it only so much C or D that it stands three fingers’ breadth or more above it; then make the water boil over an ash-fire for one full natural day, or at least for half a day for bodies that are tenderer and softer, and that which has been reduced into F remove and keep in B.M. Then imbibe again that which has not been dissolved, and set it to dissolve, as you know. The repetition of this operation must be carried out as often as necessary, until all the calx, or the greater part of the aforesaid body, is dissolved.
Thus far, in six chapters, you have excellent instruction concerning the way in which the mercurial substance is to be extracted from all calcined bodies, both in general and in particular.
Chapter VIII. G.
On the putrefaction of metals physically liquefied, signified by G.
Since in this Magistery nothing can be accomplished without the putrefaction of the liquefied bodies, we therefore wish to treat distinctly of this foundation and practice, so that the work of most wise nature may be understood. For since no regeneration can take place without the putrefaction and corruption of bodies physically calcined, liquefied, and dissolved, therefore no operation is to be omitted without this foundation of putrefaction.
Consider by way of example the stomach, in which the transformation of foods would never take place without the flow or aid of that corruption, putrefaction, and natural digestion. Likewise, human seed, once cast into the womb, cannot receive the heavenly spirit, which prepares the blood and makes the bodies fit for receiving the intellectual soul, except through putrefaction. The whole crowd of ancient and modern philosophers has said so much about putrefaction, and all have firmly concluded that without it nothing good can be done. To this end one philosopher from that company said: Nothing that was once animated, nor anything generated or growing by nature, can do without putrefaction and its nourishment, and Hermes [teaches the same]. Know therefore that the whole strength of this divine science in the magistery consists in putrefaction. In another place the same man says that he cannot come to putrefaction unless he be able, with that seed which God willed to perfect this operation, to reduce the body into Mercury.
A certain philosopher also says concerning the putrefaction of the elements in the crowd: The elements are directed into fire, they lie hidden when cooked, and are changed into another nature; and that which was liquefied becomes not-liquefied; the moist becomes dry and fixed; body becomes spirit, and spirit fights against fire. Therefore convert the elements, and you will find what you seek. This philosopher was content only to declare by this sentence, and so concludes: To convert the elements is to make the dry moist and the fixed fleeing. When this disposition has been accomplished, it is left in the fire until the spirit is attenuated, and the fleeing fixed and the permanent gold tinges. Thus I have demonstrated the necessity of this divine foundation from authorities.
Now let us see what the fourfold dissolution or putrefaction is in our magistery.
1. The first is made with simple and compounded vegetable menstrua, as it is in the doctrine of the present Philosophical Tree. This is sometimes called circulation, and then it happens when we wish to reduce bodies into the Quintessence by means of the aforesaid vegetable menstrua. Then we call that first dissolution, the bodies being reduced into their first matter, and by circulation converted into a homogeneous body.
2. The second dissolution is made in the branches of the second order upon R. or S., or when the aforesaid bodies are circulated with our Quintessence and vegetable heaven.
3. The third dissolution is made by the enkindling oil of R. or S. for projection, which we make from the first matter of imperfect metals themselves, by which we understand the Mercury or most pure and natural sulphur of the said imperfect metals, reduced by the benefit of sublimation into our true foliated earth, which belongs to all true philosophers.
4. The fourth dissolution is made in the medicines of the third order, as we have declared to you in many places, namely in dissolutions, digestions, and in the unique union of the Mercury of the philosophers with its earth, and in the enkindling and putrefaction of the medicines. When therefore by fire you have exalted the whole substance of the four elements, with one smoke or one separated body, and when you have prepared and calcined the earth of the aforesaid bodies and afterwards joined it with our philosophical Mercury by means of the dissolution spoken of above, then you will perform the aforesaid putrefaction of the said composition in the vessel described above, whereby you will not go astray.
Practice of Chapter VIII. G.
You must have a copper vessel about three feet high, in the middle of which there is a bottom pierced with very many holes, like a kitchen strainer, which can be removed and replaced at your pleasure. Upon that bottom place your glass vessel, in which is your matter that you wish to putrefy, but close it well with another glass, the antinotory. The aforesaid copper vessel, with its lid C (which has two holes, one through which your glass passes), must be well covered. The water which is in the lower part of the vessel must not rise to the bottom of the vessel, but should leave an empty space of the breadth of two transverse fingers. It should also be noted that that bottom ought to be two fingers higher than the middle, toward the mouth of the vessel. Then apply fire for 40 days. And by this means you will be able to putrefy and decoct every work, in perfect order, according to our intention.
Chapter IX. H.
On the exaltation of the souls or Mercuries of metals.
This divine operation was necessarily invented by the philosophers as an evident and certain foundation and method of the transmuted depuration of each of the aforesaid metals, and of purging away their superfluous earthiness by this means: namely, by the quicksilver of the wise alchemists, and by coagulating it with its prepared and calcined sulphureous earths, reducing the aforesaid body to the utmost simplicity and to the true nature of sublimed sulphurated quicksilver, and separating the eternal and perfect from the corruptible and imperfect, as is seen in chapter K. These exalted bodies are called by the philosophers: the quicksilver of the wise alchemists, the milk of the virgin, the seed of metals, blood, the mineral spirit, the flying eagle, the dragon’s tail. The philosophers have also used these and many other names, lest the ignorant abuse the treasures of the philosophers. Certainly, unless this precious Mercury of metals, vegetables, and animals is extracted according to our custom, since it is one sole substance or first matter, it is impossible in this divine science to make a medicine of the first, second, and third order. Although indeed in the medicines of the third order we may proceed according to chapter N, yet there we proceed in a more sublime manner, and the work is prepared for a matter of greater moment.
Practice of Chapter IX. H.
You ought to have this liquefaction of the dissolved mineral body, and liquefied according to the method declared in chapter F, for a sure and safe practice. But evaporate the liquefied body by B.M., and the aforesaid body will remain at the bottom of the vessel like thick honey. Upon this pour three parts of D, and place it in Y for 12 hours to putrefy; then place it upon ashes with a moderate fire to be distilled, and keep everything that can be distilled by this regimen. Then again pour upon the matter remaining at the bottom of the vessel three parts of D, or a little more, and put it in gentle B.M. for 12 hours, then upon ashes, as before, to distill. Proceed in this way, repeating it as often as needed, until the whole mercurial substance with the conjoined D is exalted. Distill all these distillations through Y, and at the bottom of the vessel there will remain a clear liquor, and somewhat gummy, which we call water and the Mercury of the aforesaid metals. This Mercury, or water, is one of the principal foundations and keys of our house, wherein the treasure of the philosophers is laid up.
Chapter X. I.
On the preparation of the earth of metals, vegetables, and animals.
O mother of ignorance, queen and empress of arrogant and rash artists, who persuade themselves that they can attain the highest degree of our magistery through one simple dissolution which they possess. Against this false conclusion we firmly maintain and declare that unless they can reduce A into B, and B into C, and C into D, and D into D red, and D red into E, and I into G, they do not possess the necessary instrument for making dissolution and physical putrefaction.
Therefore those who cannot reduce mineral, vegetable, and animal bodies into E, F, G, H, will never be able to reach the second part of our magistery, which we call physical dissolution, without which we cannot have true understanding and chemical perfection.
But because in this tenth chapter, concerning the preparation and fiery calcination of all earths whose souls or exalted Mercuries have been, there are more things to be said by us, which we do not now add.
Practice of Chapter X. I.
Take whatever earth you wish, and imbibe it with one part of its own water, and place it in Y for six hours. Then distill through ashes with a moderate heat, and at the end increase the fire a little, and preserve all the liquor, if it is from metallic earths. For that liquor serves for the enkindling of the later medicine, and is called the physical treasure of the philosophers. But if it is liquor from other earths, discard it, because it is their superfluity. And repeat these operations, imbibing, inhuming, and distilling through ashes as often as necessary, until the aforesaid earth distills no more liquor.
But that you may know whether they are well prepared, take a little plate of S. or T. glowing, and place upon it a little of the aforesaid earth; and if it does not smoke, it will have been well prepared. But if it gives off smoke, you must repeat the aforesaid preparation until the aforesaid sign. Then calcine it in your secret furnace, as we say in our Apertorial. If these earths are from vegetable and animal individuals, your calcination will be whiter or less white according to the color of the individuals. Likewise also with metals, according to their composition, as they were in the exaltation of their aforesaid Mercuries and souls, and also according to the proper color of the aforesaid metals. Then bodies thus prepared and calcined are fit to receive their soul. And for a new generation the aforesaid bodies are reduced by secret sublimation into the purest salt, and into sublimed quicksilver and sulphur of nature, as you will see in the following chapter.
Chapter XI. K.
On the union of the exalted souls with their calcined earths.
After, by the preceding instruction, you have understood the way of separation and solution by which metallic bodies can be reduced into quicksilver, it now remains, to complete our work, that we explain in what manner those bodies sufficiently prepared are to be converted into the sulphur of the wise. The Prince of the Philosophers demonstrates in the last part of the Meteors that this blessed sulphur ought to be drawn from quicksilver; but he makes no mention of the quicksilver declared by us above, and says only this much: If the quicksilver were pure, the power of the white, non-burning sulphur of the philosophers would coagulate it; that is the excellent thing which the alchemists receive, so that from it they make quicksilver, and from quicksilver the finest silver, etc.
He says the same of the red sulphur, because this divine body is generated from two fiery substances. The first is that which in its pure sphere was hidden in its fire, which heats and brings our vegetable Quintessence into act. The second is enclosed in its earth and is firm and fixed, which earth, after it has been calcined and purified by our medium, when it has received in Y its first sulphureity, which is united and fixed in perfect unity, then afterward by the way of secret sublimation we cause the aforesaid non-burning sulphur of the philosophers to ascend, as we have declared in chapter A and D red.
Although, however, in this aforesaid secret sublimation this precious sulphureous body ascends in the form of white shining alum, nevertheless in its deepest depth fiery white and red sulphureities, innumerable and non-burning, are found, which are the sulphur of the philosophers and ours, for receiving both tinctures, white and red, according to the color of the tinctures’ ferment, which is the soul of this blessed stone, as we shall presently say. And it is that which perfects the stone, after fermentation, because it changes all imperfect metals into perfect ones, that is, into the solar and lunar species, according to the color of its ferment.
This divine author then declares this foundation by describing this stone, saying that it supplies its Sol and Luna to all imperfect bodies as a perfect color, and advises the artist to ferment and unite the two aforesaid luminaries with the aforesaid sulphur and glorious quicksilver, and that consequently he ought to desire to attain composition, saying: For gold gives color to gold, and silver gives color to silver. But he who knows how to tinge quicksilver with Sol and Luna has come to the arcanum which is called the best white sulphur for silver; and when it is perfected with the red, it will be the best red for gold. Therefore from those bodies he has extracted the white and red sulphur, with which, in those same bodies, there is the purest genuine substance of sulphur and purified nature.
And because the ferment is understood to be that which truly perfects this admirable composition, in his letters written to the great Pontiff concerning this matter he says: Since the ferment becomes the soul of our stone (for just as the rational soul gives life to the human body, so also to a body dead by nature, through the alteration of ferment) the wise have called ferment the soul of our blessed stone. From quicksilver of the wise (which is a dead body), altered by the nature of ferment and prepared, the soul obtains dominion, exercises its powers, and therefore the ferment of our blessed stone is called its soul.
Plato also says of this matter that in every white sulphur, that is Luna, there is found pure quicksilver, just as in red sulphur, that is, in Sol. Avicenna also, upon this text, says that such sulphur is not found upon the earth, except that which exists in these bodies. Therefore in the foregoing chapters we have given you the perfect medium, with the surest knowledge and practice, by which with the greatest ease you may reduce all the aforesaid sulphureous bodies into quicksilver; and this is a certain consideration of the stones of the alchemists. Moreover, above we have shown you the medium by which, through the union of the said exalted quicksilver with its prepared and calcined earths, and through physical sublimation, the pure sulphur of those bodies is extracted. Believe me, it is plainly impossible to make that medicine especially and chiefly in the second or third order unless first you acquire the sulphur by the method and practice which we teach you in this chapter.
The artists of this age make mixed and confused operations; for they dissolve bodies by adding common quicksilver, and afterward, by such a solution, they seal up the Hermetic matter. Some add sal armoniac or human urine, but such beasts are without doubt deprived of all physical doctrine and of understanding of the divine magistery. Hence it is that by this confused way they do nothing but make confused minerals without any order; for one who cannot strip the old form from a metal cannot much less introduce a new form into it. Whoever does not understand this text is wholly deprived of the understanding of the physical sublimation of this divine and glorious sulphureous body.
Practice of Chapter XI. K.
Here we describe the true medium or way of obtaining by sublimation the first sulphureous matter in the form of sulphureous salt, and the sublimed quicksilver of minerals, vegetables, and animals. This first matter of the said individuals is one single substance, as we have proved above. Therefore take the aforesaid earths prepared and calcined, as was said in chapter 6, and place whichever of them you wish in a glass vessel, and imbibe it with its own spirit or exalted Mercury, namely with the eighth part; then the second time with the seventh, the third with the sixth, the fourth with the fifth, and the fifth with the fourth part. Nor should you continue this nourishment any further, but you must put it in Y for eight days with temperate heat, or for more or fewer days, as you will see, according as the nature of the earths has been prepared, since some earths are disposed sooner and others later to receive their exalted Mercuries.
When you see that the aforesaid earth has become dry, then evaporate through Z its small foreign and superfluous moisture, having the taste of spring water. And in this way continue your operation, namely by imbibing and drying, until the exalted spirit is clothed in its own sulphureous nature and is fixed. Thus, if you wish to understand me, when you see that the calcined and prepared dry earth has been converted into pure and natural sulphur and exalted quicksilver, and you see that the earth through the aforesaid operations is formed into one single white and pale color without any variation, and has then become spiritual, this is the proof.
Take a little of that earth and place it on a heated silver plate, and you will see the greatest part of it fly away from the bottom. Again nourish the earth three or four times with a part of the new exalted Mercury, drying it until you are able to obtain the aforesaid sign; and after you see it, sublime it with a strong fire. And in this physical sublimation you will have the first matter and the glorious sulphureous Mercury mineral, vegetable, and animal ascending to the sides of the vessel, which three Mercuries the philosophers take for one sole matter, while at the bottom of the vessel there remains a black earth damned through superfluous and foreign parts, from which the precious seed has been extracted, without which nothing can be done in this art.
You must embrace and practice this science by the natural and probable way, as we have explained through the keys of the Apertorial Alphabet. In this way, and with this abbreviation, you will have the triumph and treasure of this blessed science entire.
Chapter XII. L.
On the oils for enkindling every kind of medicines, signified by L, that they may become soft and fluid.
There are three ways of making the enkindling oil for enkindling medicines. The first is drawn from the earths of the medicines of the third order, which after the division or separation of the four elements we obtain in the preparation of the said earths, as we have declared in chapter I. There are, however, two kinds of this oil. The first is of the composition of R., the other of the composition of S.; for that one tends to redness, but this one to whiteness.
The second kind of excellent oil is that which serves for the enkindling of the medicines of the second order. And this second oil is most excellent, because it retains common Mercury, and digests it in its own nature and transforms it into white, or even red, according to the composition of R. or S.
But let no one be deceived in this text. It is necessary that the artist, when he wishes to make the oil of this second consideration, should carry out through all the proper means and all the necessary operations, if so admirable an effect is to follow upon the bodies of the perfect metals, which must follow, and which are the causes of the aforesaid oils, namely proceeding to the white and red through E, F, G, H, I, K. And then pour upon that D six parts or more of O., and fix it over it. Raymund Lully treated of this oil in the Epistola Accuratoria and in the Parva Magia, where he says: Take the foliated ferment of R. (this is our white vegetable foliated and sublimed earth), but by no means take gold extended by hammer into leaves, nor painted gold, as the vulgar ignorant understand.
The third consideration of our third oil is this. We make the simple oil from one of the two luminaries, when after its liquefactions (calcination and dissolution in chapters E and F) its soul or Mercury alone has been exalted from it by airy revolution, and by the composition of those souls or Mercuries with the six parts of D. This third oil is that with which we enkindle the medicines of the first and second order. Yet the truth is that, in the projection of medicines enkindled with the aforesaid second oil, one part falls upon a thousand, and that those who rightly institute enkindling with this third oil make one part fall upon a hundred and more. Concerning this third oil, we shall be silent here in this twelfth chapter.
Practice of Chapter XII. L.
Take therefore R. or S., and calcine it as was said in chapter E, and dissolve it with our mineral water made from Roman vitriol, rock alum, and nitre, according to its form by the first mode of dissolution, as we said in chapter VI. E, where we treated clearly of the calcination of all metals. It is not necessary to calcine the aforesaid bodies with the aforesaid mineral and sharp water, as we say in this place, but according to the first method described there, as was said in chapter 6. E.
After the aforesaid bodies, namely solar or lunar, have been calcined according to the first mode, then apply so much of the unctuosity of the earth dissolved in our elevating menstruum, namely in C and in D, as will be sufficient that by this means you may separate their spirit, namely the airy or oily one, so precious and glorious in those metals. After this application of the aforesaid composition of the menstruum upon the calcined body has been made, place that body well sealed in a vessel into putrefaction for eight days; then distill the water through Y. Then the solar or lunar substance remains corrupted at the bottom of the vessel like thick honey, upon which place six parts of the same elevating menstruum, as was said above, and then place it in Y for 12 hours, and distill through Z. At the end of the distillation increase the fire somewhat, as you know, and collect separately all the aforesaid distillations which in this manner you have made upon the aforesaid corrupted bodies.
Then repeat this process, and upon the aforesaid matter, which remains at the bottom of the vessel, place upon it of the said elevating menstruum an eighth part of the matter and of the unctuosity dissolved in it. For this has the property and power of causing the souls, Mercuries, or oils of the said metals to exhale. After that place it in Y for 12 hours, and distill through Z, as above. And in this manner repeat the said operation seven or eight times. When these are completed, take all the distillations made through Z, and distill them through Y; and at the bottom of the vessel there will remain a liquor which cannot ascend and be distilled through Y, unless you mingle with it some of our Quintessence, or else leave it as it is.
This is our simple oil for enkindling the medicines of the first and second order. Here it must be noted that the aforesaid oil is thus to be gummy, like syrups, with its own whiteness, which it imparts to the said bodies. Thus from it you will obtain the desired fruit. Therefore keep it carefully, because in its proper place we shall show you its composition with our medicines, together with its virtue and effect.
Chapter XIII. M.
On the enkindling of medicines, and their use in this art.
Enkindling, or softening and liquefaction, was invented by the philosophers, our fathers and teachers, for two good reasons. For since medicines before liquefaction have a certain hardness of their own (which proceeds from the artist’s gathering together and union of the souls or exalted Mercuries with the good earths of the said disposed, calcined, prepared, and sulphurated bodies), therefore this truly physical union has so much delight in that conjunction of its own spiritual seed, that as soon as it is brought near to its glorified body, it is at once changed into its own connatural sulphureous earth, so that any part of its exalted spirit, through the reiteration which we make, is converted into the substance of dry earth.
There is also another foundation. Because the earth, when it has been disposed and prepared to receive its own soul and Mercury, and does not wish to be ungrateful toward it, inasmuch as it is a fixed and permanent body, is nevertheless changed and converted into its own proper spiritual nature, as may be done in the said spirit, according to its own nature, by subliming it with it into its most precious and dry salt, full of dryness, so that it becomes of a sulphureous nature, namely an earth disposed for liquefaction. This enkindling has the office of making solar and lunar bodies, and of fixing the said earths and effecting that they may become liquefied through the virtue of the oil of the two fixative luminaries.
But truly these oils have the property of making the said medicines flow like wax, as we have said. Hence it is that the ancients found the aforesaid enkindling for the perfection of our medicines.
Practice of Chapter XIII. M.
Take a glass urinal and lute its middle part and above with strong lute; into it place your blessed sulphur, first reduced in a glass mortar to a most subtle powder. If that sulphur has been extracted from O. or P., then imbibe it with the twentieth part of the oil of S. But if it has been extracted from Q., or T., then imbibe it with the twelfth part of the oil of R. and place your vessel (in which you have put that divine operation or composition) sealed over the fire of a lamp, with its lid closed. And continue this regimen of the aforesaid tempered fire until you see that the sulphur has perfectly received in itself the oil of the aforesaid R. Then imbibe it a second time with the twelfth part, continuing the regimen of the said fire, imbibing and nourishing it until you see that your sulphur is no longer sublimed upward, but remains below.
For then it will be fixed and fusible like wax, which you may test upon a strongly heated plate of S. If that enkindled sulphur melts without smoke, you will have brought your magistery to perfect completion. But if it gives off smoke, then the repetition must be made as often as necessary, with fresh oil over the said weights, until the aforesaid sign appears.
Chapter XIV. N.
On the division or separation of the elements of all metals, animals, and minerals in general.
Among us this sentence and conclusion stands firm: No medicine can be made in this divine magistery without the separation of the elements. At the very least we require the exaltation of the souls or Mercuries of metals, as we treated in A, and we especially prescribe the perfect medium of such exaltation. Hence it is that, when by H. from R. we draw according to the order of its chapter, that soul and solar Mercury, it repeats two elements, namely air and fire, in itself; but the water of the said air in the instrumental composition of the vegetable menstruum repeats the aforesaid soul or Mercury of the body of the exalted Sol, because that water is its first element.
There is no greater difference between the brief separations of the elements and the longer ones, which we describe in the present chapter, except that this operation is required only in the medicines of the third order, which is very lengthy, and is carried out with great preparation, because each oil must be gathered separately and distinctly, with long inhumations and many distillations, as you will see in the present chapter.
Practice of Chapter XIV. M.
Take the putrefied composition, whichever you prefer, and set it to distillation through Y, until all the water has passed over, which is the elemental water; this keep carefully separated in a well-secured vessel.
And if you wish to undertake the separation of the second element, namely of air, pour upon the matter that remained in the vessel enough of its own proper water to stand to the height of four fingers, and, the vessel being closed with its glass (antinotory), place it in Y for three days; then distill gently through ashes until the matter remains well dry at the bottom of the vessel. Let the vessel cool, and then pour again its element, or its own water, upon the aforesaid matter to the breadth of four transverse fingers, as I did above, and place it again to digest in Y for three days; then distill gently through ashes, and repeat the aforesaid pourings-on, digestions, and distillations through Z, ten times.
If the instrumental water runs short, then place all the distillations made from ashes into a urinal vessel, and distill through Y. And the water which has distilled according to this regimen will be good, and you may use it for the aforesaid operations.
Keep and preserve also the air, which will remain at the bottom of the vessel, in another well-secured vessel. And it must be noted that the liquor which remains in the bottom of the vessel, when the final distillations have been made through Y, is the element of air, which, separated from the element of water, must be kept in a well-closed vessel.
This separation ought to be done by means of the aforesaid fire. But for your more perfect instruction we say that, when the element of water has passed over, the fire must be increased by one degree, so that the whole element of air, or part of it, may be able to distill; and in distilling it may enter and be joined with its distilled water. Afterwards, however, one element must again be separated from the other through B, as we said above.
Now as to the separation of the element of fire, from the matter or composition of the separated element of air, proceed in the same order and manner as you did in separating the air, by similar imbibitions, inhumations, and distillations, except that in the distillations through Z you must increase the fire one degree more than in the distillation made for air. Here it must be noted that where we said that the separation should be done in ten revolutions, you ought to do it in fifteen revolutions, and that all the distillations made through Z in this second magistery should be done through Y.
When all the water has been distilled through Y, then the element of fire remains in the bottom of the vessel will remain in a dry form, upon which place the element of air thus far preserved, and distill these two elements joined together in a retort through Z with a temperate heat, until you see the matter in the bottom of the retort corrupted like thick spittle of honey. Yet continue to distill the whole with a fire not too violent, until you see that the matter has become congealed; then the distillation ought to cease.
Or, for greater certainty, observe this: when the two elements are joined together and set in place for distillation, let three parts out of five pass over; then cease from distilling, and distill once more the air separated in this second regimen seven times by itself; then keep that which is understood to be of fire; but join the remainder, which is left from fire and air, with the earth. Distill therefore again, according to the aforesaid regimen, after three parts out of five of the composition of the element of air and fire have passed over; and at the bottom of the retort there will remain two parts of this divine composition like thick honey.
Then continue your distillation with a fire not too violent, until you see in the bottom of the retort the element of fire congealed. For then an end must be put to the operation. This is the second air, which we call our oil and the treasure of the physician for the enkindling of medicines. This oil partakes very greatly of the substance of the body, and for you it must be rectified by distilling it seven times through the alembic; and place with it the earths or feces which you obtained in the two rectifications of those two oils or airs with fire, in the manner stated above.
When those rectifications of the aforesaid two elements are finished, namely of the aforesaid air and water, take the water and distill it seven times more through Y; and place with it the earth or feces which in the two rectifications of those two oils or airs with the element of earth you will have obtained.
When this rectification of the element of water has been finished, which is accomplished through fifteen revolutions, and when by this method the element of fire has been separated from the calcined earth, this element of fire you shall distill seven times with five parts or more of its rectified water, as you know. In sum, for each weight of the element, namely of fire, take five parts or more of the aforesaid rectified water, and repeat it seven times.
In this way you have the calcination of the aforesaid element of fire. In like manner you will make the calcination of the element of earth, with its prepared and rectified water. And that earth and fire will agree in dryness and in like manner. The sign that the calcination of the earths has been reached, you will see in chapter K, and in chapter I likewise (or take five parts of fire more than the body is, digest and distill through Y). In this way you will have the full doctrine of the separation and rectification of the elements, which method is common and universal for minerals, vegetable plants, and animals.
In vegetables and animals as individuals, however, the work is not carried out with such lengthy preparations as in minerals, that is, in metallic bodies, because in vegetables and animals the elements by nature do not have so strong a union and binding together as in the aforesaid metals.
Here I have revealed to you a secret, indeed a most excellent secret, with which, if you are wise, you will not be able to go astray in the present doctrine and practice.
ELUCIDARII
BOOK III
Or, the third part of the Elucidarium: On the order of medicines, together with a refutation of the sophistications of Geber.
After, by the grace of the eternal God, we have described the science of the transmutatory art, by which a prudent artist may easily understand the whole magistery, we now proceed to hand down the means of compounding our blessed medicines and stone. There are in truth three orders of the composition of medicines or of the stones of the philosophers. First we shall treat of the means of reducing the medicines of the first order to perfection, then of the second, and then also of the third.
Although Geber, in the Summa of the Perfect Mystery, observes the present order, yet we must reverently and honorably do justice to this divine science, which by all true philosophers of transmutation is called the King of minerals, formally and substantially. Therefore it is not our intention to follow the medicines of the said Geber written by him in his first order, because they are things full of scandalous sophistications and contrary to the office of faith. In no way do we deal with similar sophistications and deceits. The sophistic art was invented by the enemy of God, whose foes we have always been.
Therefore out of full faith and charity we have faithfully written to you, by grace, that infinite divine goodness has bestowed upon us, and made you a sharer in it, so that you may use it lawfully and holily; for we have been unwilling to write otherwise, lest we bring destruction upon our neighbors.
Chapter I
On the means of composing the first branch of the first order, which is prepared from the sulphur of Sol with our Quintessence, by circulation in the philosophical vessel.
Take three ounces of R. or S., according to the method contained and calcined in chapter E; then make their liquefaction and dissolution, as may be found in chapter F; and dissolve them by the first medium described in the chapters, namely with the liquor or oil of our earthy vegetable substance, white, permanent, and fixed, reduced into the nature of the Quintessence, or simply calcined and prepared. For by proceeding well and safely with these two media and the aforesaid liquors, this divine dissolution is effected for you. But acquire that dissolution first, which is declared in chapter F from the two aforesaid bodies with the oil of our vegetable sulphur.
It must be known that the excellence of our magistery is so great and so certain that it demonstrates the powers of living things in all possible medicines by suitably stirring up the nature of individuals through the artifice of the prudent artist. Meanwhile, however, you must proceed according to our second explanation, and you will by no means go astray. Yet this must not be omitted here: all those dissolutions which have been prepared more diligently and more excellently will impart a greater vegetative power in mineral bodies. And thus, as we have declared, you will have a greater effect of transmutation in the projection of this blessed composition. But when nature has produced its own effects, the artist ought to proceed at once to such a dissolution of the aforesaid bodies according to our declaration. For this reason this first way was invented by our fathers, that artists might be spared the multitude of time and expenses that were required for the medicines of the third order.
But to return to our purpose: after you have made the dissolution of the aforesaid bodies, then place that dissolved matter to putrefy for eight days according to the practice which you will find signified in the chapter by G. Then separate their souls or Mercuries by the doctrine described in chapter H, repeating the magistery until the matter has been deprived of its Mercury, or soul, by what is signified through H. Or do those operations according to chapter N, which indeed is the longer and slower way, because of the separation of the elements and the mode of its inhumations; but for the sake of brevity the longer practice is omitted.
You will rectify and purify your Mercury by seven airy revolutions, and when it has been glorified, keep it separately in a well-secured vessel. Then calcine the earth of the aforesaid luminaries, which remained in the bottom of the vessel after the separation and exaltation of the aforesaid soul or Mercury, and prepare it according to the medium signified in chapter I. Then continue that calcination and preparation to perfection, according to the order of chapter K. Then this body is reduced into the most precious salt and sulphur of nature, and into white and glorified quicksilver.
Then take this body thus disposed, and place it in one of our circulating vessels to circulate, with six parts of B or D, whichever is better, in Y for 20 days, then for another 20 days in Z. And when you see that the heavenly spirit has been fixed upon its ferment, then remove it from the vessel and keep it for your use.
From this medicine take one ounce, and place it in a long-necked glass, pouring upon it one hundred ounces of living common Mercury; and, the vessel being properly sealed, place it in Z, moderately, for 20 days, during which time the living common Mercury will be fixed, which you reduce into a body, and examine with the strongest fire in the chapter on the vessels of the book of Saturn. For the aforesaid Mercury requires such a reduction into a Saturnine body. For if you apply another reduction into a most excellent body, because of its subtlety, diminution would result. But the medicines of the second and third order do not need this, for they have a very hard bone.
Chapter II
On the second branch of the first order, which has a shorter way and is prepared from sublimed metals with the addition of Quintessence.
Take three ounces of one or other of the luminaries, namely of Sol or Luna (choose whichever you wish), and reduce it in E; then reduce it into F, exalting its Mercury or soul, or its soul with C, which is made sharp with simple things, because it does not greatly corrupt its virtue, as it does with C. We can exalt its soul or Mercury, namely of the said metal, through H, after you have made the higher preparation and calcination of its soul upon its own earth, as you have in chapter I. Then join these two substances into one, according to the order of chapter K, and make this glorious body sublime according to the practice of the aforesaid chapter.
Because the philosophers call the sublimed body the first matter of the aforesaid metals, and because that first matter can very easily be converted into medicines and into the stone of the philosophers, as we have said.
Take therefore one ounce of our sublimed vegetable Mercury, signified by D red; then take also one ounce of the said sulphur of the said luminaries, or of the first matter of the perfect body, and join them together in a glass mortar by long trituration. Then place them thus joined in one of our circulating vessels, containing six parts of our heavenly Quintessence, according to the practice of the chapter spoken of above. And use this medicine as we have said above.
Chapter III
On the third branch, or medicine of the first order, which is made by the art from common Mercury.
This branch is much easier than the others, but its projection is less.
Take therefore from our vegetable Mercury, which in this science is commonly spoken of, and separate from it its mother, that is, the earth, by way of dissolution and putrefaction, separating its four elements according to the order of chapter N, and gathering its first and heavenly spirit. Then rectify it until it arrives at its simple essence. Then prepare and calcine its earth by the medium and practice prescribed in chapter I, removing its superfluous elements, which are in the aforesaid first spirit; and have no care for the unctuous earth, because it is the superfluity of the whole glorious earth and composition.
After the soul or Mercury of the said unctuous earth and mother of the elements has been exalted, you must necessarily make the conjunction of the divine composition, namely of the exalted soul with its prepared and calcined earth, as was said in chapter K; then sublime this divine composition, and reduce it into the whitest salt and into the sulphur of nature, according to the practice of chapter K.
Ferment this sulphur with S. dissolved in B or in D, imbibing this body with the same B or D, whichever is better. And do this often with a small fire, imbibing, distilling, and drying the aforesaid glorious fermented body, and triturating it in a glass mortar, until the aforesaid ferment becomes one and the same thing with its vegetable sulphur in the highest appearance. At last place it to circulate in our vessel, with six parts of our Quintessence, according to the practice administered in the preceding chapters.
Chapter IV
On the fourth branch, or the last medicine of the first order, which proceeds from the simple earth of common Mercury by the fixation of its own spirit, which is united with the ferment.
Take as much vegetable Mercury as you wish, and after its customary putrefaction, which will be sufficient for you, reduce it in N; gather only the element of fire, and keep it separated, because here we have no need of it. Then take its earth, physically calcined and prepared, upon which place an equal weight of calcined S.; and by grinding this composition for a long time in a glass mortar, reduce those two bodies into one. Then place this matter in a glass urinal upon the fire in Z, moderately or gently, with water amounting to half its weight, upon which administer the physical dissolution, until the ferment is well conjoined with the said earth. You will know this when, in the distillation, you see in them a green or lapis-lazuli color, or when in the greater part of the matter dissolution takes place. For then you will have the sure sign that the earth has received its ferment, and at last coagulate and fix that medicine by circulation, as was done in the preceding chapters.
Here it must be noted that whatever operation is instituted with S. can also be done with R. Then its operation will exercise its work toward the red. But R., once dissolved, is harder than S.; therefore three times more time must be allowed for it.
We shall speak no more about the medicines of the first order, because the height of our magistery is so great that the number of ways of proceeding is almost infinite.
If you are content to observe the doctrine in the single tree, namely in the reduction of bodies to the first matter by way of physical sublimation, or by the dissolution and exaltation made of the aforesaid bodies with the earth of our sublimed vegetable and with the first vegetative mover of the luminaries, then you will be able to avoid error. Or if you are able to reduce A into D, or at least into B, with the other means pertaining to the art, then in these sciences you will be able to practice in innumerable ways.
Chapter V
On the five branches, or modes, of the second order, in which the mixture of the bodies of imperfect metals is employed.
The First Branch of the Medicine of the Second Order
Take three ounces of O., and make E with sharp C, until it is reduced and united with its own matters, the individual vegetable applications, and until with it the distillation of the whole body of O. is easily made, which is reduced into F; putrefy for eight days. Then perform upon this body the operations described in chapter K, separating, namely, its air or spirit. Exercise this operation so often until you have the spirit or air by turns through the sharp menstruum. Then prepare and purify its earth according to chapter I; then make the conjunction of the aforesaid prepared spirit with its prepared and calcined earth according to the order of chapter K. In this way O. is reduced into salt, and into its first substance, which is a plant fit for producing glorious fruits.
Take the aforesaid salt and physically sublimed sulphur, and place it in one of our vessels, upon which you shall perform operation M with the simple oil of S., in the manner in which I taught it prepared in chapter 12, L, namely of this present Elucidarium.
Then make projection of one part upon one hundred of prepared common Mercury, or upon Saturn, and you will have 80 parts of the aforesaid body and perfect metal, according to the condition of its ferment.
The Second Branch of the Medicine of the Second Order, more useful than the former
The purer the matters are, the more fit they are for receiving their form. Since therefore Jupiter is purer than Saturn, for that reason we also make this medicine of the second order with Jove, and indeed with greater fruit than the first medicine. You will make the second medicine in the same way as the first, carrying out all the aforesaid operations, namely E, F, G, H, I, K, considering above all that P. is wholly dissolved, just as in the exaltation of its soul or Mercury, as was said above; according to the practice of chapter H, which is of the same value. Then you shall make the enkindling, fixation, and fermentation of the sulphur of the aforesaid P., according to the practice prescribed in chapter M, with the oil of S. And in this way common Mercury or P. is transmuted into pure silver, just as was said above concerning O.
Chapter VI
The third and fourth branches of the second order, for the red.
Take three ounces of T., and reduce it into F, and into E with C. Then putrefy the aforesaid dissolved body for eight days, and afterwards withdraw from it its Mercury according to the order handed down in chapter H, and upon its earth make calcination and preparation, as was said in chapter I. Then make the conjunction of that Mercury with its earth according to the procedure contained in chapter M, with the simple oil of R.
Then you shall make projection, namely one part upon 200 of common Mercury or of T., and you will have the best Sol, constant in all assays. In the same way as you have done with T., do likewise with Q.
Here it must be noted that certain philosophers have taught a method of practicing these medicines by very difficult ways, namely: after the imperfect body has been calcined, it must first be dissolved in mercurial parts (which is difficult to do), and then exalted through the alembic. Although this could indeed be done in this way, it is nevertheless not the better course, because the whole body is not dissolved by the sharp menstruum. Therefore it seems much more convenient to us to dissolve the calcined body with that same well-sharpened vegetable, and in such a liquefaction to exalt the mercurial part of the aforesaid body, namely its Mercury, through H, according to the second order of chapter N. By this medium we abbreviate our way; yet by these two means you will obtain the desired scope and end.
Chapter VII
The fifth and last branch of the second order, the best of all, which consists in the two luminaries, Sol and Luna, for making the tincture to the red and to the white, by the union of S. and R. with their proper spirit and soul.
Take one pound of saltpetre and two pounds of Roman vitriol, and putrefy them according to the order written in the Alphabet of our Summa written, then from them make a strong water by the ordinary method. From this water take four parts and one part of saltpetre, and rectify it by distillation, repeating these rectifications as often with the same salt, until you see that that water has the power of dissolving R., once it has first been reduced into E according to the practice stated in chapter E. Then dissolve S. in the aforesaid simple water, and then take two parts of the decoction of R. and join these two bodies or decoctions together, and at once those decoctions unite among themselves.
Then distill the water through the alembic until a fixed calx remains at the bottom of the vessel, which will be gray, dark, and almost black. If the two luminaries have thus been calcined, wash that which is in its blackness with a fire contrary to nature, as we said in chapter E. Now dissolve these bodies with sharply prepared C. If this calx should be somewhat hard, sweeten it a second time according to chapter E, as we said above, following chapter F in the first dissolution, which is made with the liquor or oil of our earthy vegetable physical substance, calcined white, permanent, and fixed. If you make this second dissolution according to this order, you will save much labor in dissolving through C, because the dissolution of bodies made with C is fierce and lengthy.
Here it must be noted that we hand down certain operations as being able to be done in two ways, according to the practice of this art well known to us; and we teach those ways here, that you may have both the theory and the practice of this art.
After therefore you have dissolved the aforesaid bodies, putrefy them for eight days; then exalt from them H. When this has been done, calcine and prepare the earth according to the tenor of chapter I. Then make the conjunction of H with I, reducing it into K according to the order of the chapter mentioned above; and thus you will reduce the two luminaries into a homogeneous body, because they have thus been reduced into their first matter and into the sulphur of nature.
Then separate the said K, making imbibitions and enkindlings with the fifth part of the simple oil of S. This magistery is almost similar in method of proceeding to that with M; and repeat all the imbibitions with the fifth part of the aforesaid oil, as I have said, by putrefaction, desiccation, and simple coagulation upon this composition, until the matter becomes fixed in perfect unity. And by this second operation you will have a crystalline stone, in some way transparent and partaking of a green color, by which any imperfect body is transmutable into true Luna, constant in every assay.
But if you wish to bring it to the red, then take it and add to it, by means of it, half its weight of the simple oil of R., nourishing this body in Y; and for the second time give it the fifth part of the oil of R., observing the same operation for the red as was observed for the white, repeating the aforesaid operations until you see your medicine red, transparent like ruby, fixed, and toward fusible with a small fire. This is our blessed stone and the first branch, which among the others I have described and treated more openly and simply, and which in this chapter, for your better understanding, we have handled expressly for the promoting of the glory of God.
Chapter VIII
ON THE MEDICINE OF THE THIRD ORDER,
which is the empress of all the other powers and is perfected by six operations.
Our purpose is to give you perfect doctrine, with a brief and lucid discourse, so that you may be able to understand the obscure sayings of the ancient philosophers, namely Hermes, Aristotle, Plato, Democritus, Avicenna, Rasis, Hippocrates, Origen, Galen, Geber, and others, who, although they were most wise in natural philosophy, were nevertheless envious of this science, and in their books treated it with such obscure terms that, in order to understand them, one would need the explanation of some angel.
I. The physical dissolution of the two luminaries for this third order.
Take three ounces of calcined R., then reduce it into F with C, which is made sharp with the best vegetable, but by a shortened way with minerals, although by this way the stone or medicine is not so useful for human bodies. (Make the dissolution according to chapter F.) Then take from our aforesaid sublimed Mercury, which R. Lull calls our Mercury, as you know, and reduce three ounces of the said Mercury likewise into F, according to the order of the said chapter B or C. Afterwards join these two liquefied bodies together, and seven times perform the operation of physical affusion upon them, namely imbibing and drying over a small fire; and at the end, when they have been dried, dissolve again the aforesaid bodies with C or D. Then, according to the order of the chapter in which the dissolution is taught, place it in G for 40 days. Take likewise S. and reduce it into E or F; then join this lunar body with its Mercury, and make the physical affusion of the said compounded body; then place it in putrefaction for 40 days, and thus you will have completed the first dissolving part of this dissolutive art.
II. The separation of the four elements.
Take the composition of R. and place it in putrefaction; then divide the four elements according to the order of chapter N, and in this way you will have completed the first principal part of this third order, which separation of the elements of dissolved and physically putrefied bodies.
III. The rectification of the four elements.
After the separation of the four elements of the said bodies has been made according to our order, the second way will be open to you, because no one can pass from extreme to extreme except through a middle. Therefore it is easy to come to the rectification of the elements, so that they may become more sublime and more penetrating in the transmutation of bodies.
Take therefore the element of water and distill it seven times through the alembic, and put the feces of each rectification upon its earth. If these feces have been from the red composition, put them to the fire as we said above. Then make your physical affusion seven times upon the said earth with its own element of water; and at the end of each dissolution this water ought to give a little of its oil, which keep together with the element of air, for preserving, and in rectification distill it simply seven times through the alembic; setting aside the feces which in whatever rectification you will have had, put them upon its earth.
Here it must be noted that from the composition of S. no element of fire is expected, because naturally it does not wholly contain it within itself. Keep the separated other elements of the said white composition in well-sealed vessels, with the inscription of the name of each of them, in the same manner as they were distinguished for the red composition. Finally, it must be known that all the operations which are performed upon the red composition must also be exercised upon the white composition, with the matters being changed accordingly.
IV. The union of the physical Mercury with its earth.
Now it remains for us to treat the union of the Mercury with the earth of the said luminaries, which were separated by the aforesaid medium. Therefore take the earth of R. and the earth of S., after their physical calcination and preparation, which you ought to join together in a glass mortar and then also unite in K, according to the order of the aforesaid chapter, proceeding to such a reduction with the water of S. for the white. In this way you will have reduced the matter of the two luminaries into true and natural physical sulphur.
V. Rubification.
Take the fire which has been dissolved with its own spirit or Mercury, and commit the K. of Sol or Luna to the operation denoted by M, with the fire dissolved. And repeat this labor so long until the sulphur becomes fixed and red like ruby. Although this labor is instituted for the red, yet it can be done in the same way for the white through the medium of enkindling.
VI. Fermentation and enkindling of the medicines.
Take the first element of R., and sharpen it as much as you can with R. simply dissolved with Mercury, or by exalted Mercury, according to chapter H. Then make an amalgam of common quicksilver with R., and squeeze it through leather, so that the aforesaid R. remains with three parts or more of the fleeing common Mercury. If this amalgam is of eight ounces, add to it two ounces of our sublimed and rubified sulphur, grinding for a long time in a glass mortar. When this has been done, place it in a urinal and imbibe it with a little of the first simple element, and dry it; this operation is to be done three times.
Then imbibe it a second time with the aforesaid element seven or eight times, which you will have sharpened with R.. But separate that which will have been sublimed from the matter and adhered to the sides of your vessel from the matter that is at the bottom. And continue these philosophical operations, sublimations and affusions, as often as needed, until everything at the bottom of the vessel has become one. And that you may complete that fixation, imbibe the aforesaid body a third time with its own air, and through two operations bring everything to perfection, fixing it in perfect unity with its sulphur, in such wise that the matter appears splendid and in its inner part colored like ruby.
Then add to it some of the element of fire, dissolved in its own simple element of water, making with it a physical affusion, which operation and affusion we now declare.
Now affusion in our Magistery is a gentle and moderate calcination of the dissolved bodies and of their separated menstrua, drying them under a subtle body with a small fire, which desiccation is almost a kind of gentle calcination. And we call it affusion, because it is very necessary at the beginning and at the end of the liquefaction of the said bodies, so that when all your physical operations have been completed, by the final affusion your medicine will become red like transparent ruby.
Nothing more must now be said here of this medicine, since enkindling for it is afterward done by the method prescribed in chapter M, with the oil of the red composition, after the division of the elements for enkindling. Here it must be observed that in the incorporation of this red medicine all the elements must be red; and in the composition of the white medicine, white. Therefore it is not necessary to rubify the white sulphur, but only to ferment it with the soul of Luna, through S., signified. And perform the whole aforesaid operation in this white medicine with the white elements, just as you did in the red medicine.
At last make the enkindling with the white composition, and observe the order of enkindling, as was said. Here in this place the multiplication and projection we do not append here, because in the treatise of the greater abbreviation they have been dealt with.
Chapter IX
Recapitulation.
On the heavenly water and the vegetable menstruum of divine action.
After we have described and treated at length the science of the Philosophical Tree, and especially the vegetable menstrual waters by which all prudent artists can attain the desired goal and the determined knowledge, we now undertake a brief repetition of the aforesaid things for the benefit of the sons of the art.
Therefore, first it must be observed that sharp C, when reduced into D by circulation, increases its vegetable form immeasurably. This Quintessence (D) then impresses its power upon the elements of the metals, and by stirring up and exercising their vegetative virtue, introduces marvelous effects into the earth. With this heavenly water we perform wondrous operations, provided only that we know how to prepare it well.
If you wish to proceed in practice with this water, by converting C into D, you will be able to attempt the matter safely. None of the philosophers ever spoke of this divine vegetable water signified by B, except by figures and metaphors, save R. Lull in the third book of the Quintessence, in the figures of vegetable individuals; and although he mentions Mercury and the Water of Divine Action, he keeps the practice to himself, which you may establish in the following manner.
Take the blood without blood of that vegetable Mercury, which you know. Distill it through Y slowly, until the spirit has passed over into the receiving vessel, and in the bottom of the vessel there remains a body like thick honey. Distill this through light ashes until all its juice and mercurial part have passed over; then rectify it seven times, until no feces remain at the bottom of the vessel. This divine substance moves hard and earthy metals, and stirs up their vegetative power, bringing it from potency into act.
With this water is made the true and certain calcination and dissolution of metals, which reduces them into the purest quicksilver; this is the intention of the philosophers and wise alchemists. But that we may set before you the perfect practice of bringing this water into effect through the calcinations, washings, and dissolutions of the two luminaries and of all the other metals so far as the exaltation of souls or Mercuries of metals, and the division of the elements, is concerned, you ought to imitate the practice set forth in chapters H and N. Nevertheless, in this chapter of recapitulation we therefore describe the principles of the aforesaid operation.
Practice of this last chapter.
Take therefore such a calcined body as you wish, according to the method prescribed in chapter E, and imbibe it with five parts or more of this secret water, dissolving, distilling, and drying it over Z with gentle ashes. Then make the final dissolution and desiccation of this body in a furnace of tempered ashes for 12 hours. Upon this physical and dissolved body (not yet wholly dissolved, but reduced into its first matter) pour on only so much of the secret water that it stands four fingers above it, then place it in Y for 15 days, and then follow the rule given in chapters H and N.
The artists of our time, when they hear the doctrines concerning the separations of the elements, and believe themselves very wise, think that by the dissolution of bodies alone the neglected spirits of metals can be increased, and afterward they attempt to compose medicines of great faith and expectation from these; but in the end they fail. For it is altogether impossible that any medicine can be made which brings in alteration without the separation of the elements and the physical sublimation of the earths.
We see this effect when we draw H from R. In that water there are two elements, namely air and fire. The first element, which is the water of the aforesaid Sol, is in the composition of its vegetable menstruum, nor is there any other difference between this brief separation and the greater or longer one which we administer in the medicine of the third order, except that the said operation is too lengthy, and that all the elements are more particularly distinguished from one another.
An exact recapitulation of the three parts or books of the Elucidarium
of CHRISTOPHORUS OF PARIS, etc.
A.
Chaos, taken from the mines of our metals, or the elemental earth, is to be converted into a red fiery water, dripping with blood-red drops.
B.
When from A, that earth of it, the red fiery water is made, then it is called B.
C.
Since B does not yet wish to dissolve gold, it needs to be made sharp with C. And because it does not yet wish to reduce gold, therefore for 30 or 40 days its circulation must be instituted, that it may become Quintessence, which moves gold, vegetates it, and leads it into a plenary act, so that it may be increased and multiplied and be able to tinge imperfect metals.
Although indeed Chaos has been converted into Quintessence, nevertheless it is not yet received by gold, unless the earth of gold has first been sublimed according to chapter K, and then the Quintessence dissolves the gold.
After this Chaos has been dissolved according to chapter F, then it must be putrefied through G; and when this earth becomes white as snow and spiritual like Mercury, then sublime it with K; and although it is united with gold, not however simply so, but its body must first be distilled through E and dissolved through F.
Then at last this water will be the Mercury of gold, and thus you will have two Mercuries: one drawn from Chaos, and the other from gold, which can be mixed by fusion; yet that mixture must not yet be made, because the gold is not yet prepared.
Therefore this solution is to be purified according to chapter B. Yet it is better to unite those two Mercuries through digestion; and when this has been completed, from that conjunction of both make one soul and one body through H, so that from each a clear juice remains, like rich gum. This is the soul, spirit, and Mercury of each; and the key prepared for the treasury.
Whoever therefore knows how to convert our earth into B, and B into C, and then C into D red, is required for metallic bodies to be brought into E. Therefore it is necessary that all things be made from Chaos through A, B, C, D, and E. And Ab into F, and from there into G and H, must be carried over. All these things you must know, otherwise you will not attain this art. This is the second part of this art, namely when A is prepared through B, C, and D, and its solution follows.
The process of the two bodies of Mercury, namely of Chaos and of Sol, is this.
Take your Chaos, and convert it into B, C, and D; then proceed further, as in K, until the chaotic earth has become dry. At last open the vessel and evaporate it over a slow fire.
Then begin again to imbibe and digest it without ceasing, until the spirit becomes fixed with its sulphureous earth, which is pale and white. This earth is plainly volatile and spiritual. Put a small quantity of it upon a heated plate, and a good part of it will vanish in smoke. When you see this sign, sublime it with a strong fire. And the first matter will be called this precious seed of metals, by which the metals are transmuted.
If your intention is to reduce the earth of your Chaos into water, you have its process in B, a stronger one in C, and the best in D. But if you wish to convert this water into a fixed earth or sulphur, so that it may become the first matter of metals, follow chapter K by sublimation; for there you will find both, earth and water, for the dissolution of metals.
Thus you shall prepare gold:
Make an amalgam with common Mercury and gold, and dissolve it in strong water according to chapter L. Imbibe this subtle calx with D made from A, and proceed according to F; and you will obtain three times more gold than before, because it is increased by the power of this D.
Place this calx of gold in that, let it dissolve; what remains, imbibe again with A, to the height of four transverse fingers, and place it over hot ashes to dissolve.
This water is the Mercury of gold and its vivification, because it loosens it, makes it ascend into the vessel, and sets it in motion, although before it was fixed and immobile.
If your D, or Q.E., is strong and powerful, it will quickly dissolve the calx of gold; if not, the work will take you that much longer until at last you obtain a complete solution. Therefore the delay of the whole matter turns on this, that you handle your Chaos correctly, and from that which is of better note you draw forth the juices (for the German author already mentioned says this) and use it for the solution, rightly prepared waters. Once the solution has been made, putrefy your dissolved matter in B.M., for in this way each Mercury, namely the soul and the spirit, is united. Thus from two there is made one.
THE KEY
or
EXPLANATION OF THE ALPHABET,
by which the operations of the Art are denoted through a certain abbreviation.
A.
It signifies CHAOS, that is, our vegetable Mercury, in which the four elements are found confused, by which our science and transmutatory art is supported. For just as Chaos in the creation of the world was the mixed and first matter, so also here in this place it is the first matter and our Mercury.
B.
It is the fire purified in form, or the heavenly spirit, when by the art it is made so, in the way that the heavenly and burning spirit ought to be separated by simple distillation. This spirit is the purified form of the aforesaid body, and of all the other elements except one. For when Chaos, namely the first matter of our subject, is distilled, then it has a blood-like color, like fire, by reason of which it receives another color, namely when A becomes B, as was shown above in its chapter. From this Chaos our Mercury is made, whose spirit is fire.
C.
From B comes C, by the labor of art, and it is called the sharp menstruum, because it is made sharp from the form of our Mercury. The manner, however, by which the artist ought to make our heavenly burning spirit sharp and more penetrating is this: let him take the substance of united flowers, that is, of fresh honey; and, the phlegm having been separated, let him distill the spirit and extract the salt from the remaining earth. By this salt B, which is capable of solution, is brought into act, and its form grows without end into infinity.
D.
It is the Quintessence in perfection, drawn from excellent wine, which is the form of that universal body reduced into B, and of B into C, and then made by circulation. This Quintessence is vegetable, because whereas all the other sharp waters destroy metals, this one alone by its power vegetates, increases, and multiplies them. Hence this water is the mystery of the art, because it is burning, and calcines and dissolves bodies, if it has been perfectly rectified.
D. red
Our foliated vegetable earth, physically sublimed, namely sulphur and quicksilver, which is the soul of metals, the vegetative [soul] of the metals, our first matter, and our first mover, proceeding by the vegetable way. Its composition is written at the end of the Violeta, and in the Apertorial Alphabet, and in the Revelation of the Three Secret Causes, and in the chapter on D red, as also in the chapter on the Exaltation of the Souls of Metals, and in the chapter on the Preparation of the Oil for Enkindling the Medicines of the First and Second Order.
E. Calcination.
F. Separation of the soul of Sol, or the solution or liquefaction of calcined bodies, when the body of Sol is reduced into oil or water.
G. Putrefaction.
H. Exaltation of the souls or Mercuries of metals, when a spirit is extracted from some metal, which is called the soul or Mercury, and has many other names.
I. The earth of the metals, or of those things from which the soul is separated, or the preparation of the earths of vegetable, animal, and mineral things.
K. From this matter of metals our Mercury is prepared, which is the first matter of metals; or, the union of the exalted souls with their calcined earths.
L. The method by which oil is to be prepared from metals, or the oil for enkindling medicines of every kind.
M. Enkindling. The softening and liquefaction of Sol and Luna like wax. The enkindling of medicines.
N. The division and separation of the elements in general.
O. Saturn.
P. Jupiter.
Q. Mars.
R. Sol.
S. Luna.
T. Venus.
V. Vessel.
X. That is, K-water secretly made. Separation of the elements.
Y. Bath of Mary.
Z. Ash-fire.
PRACTICAL APPENDIX
Never before seen
From the manuscripts of CHRISTOPHORUS OF PARIS, taken from the French:
And for the better understanding of the whole Elucidarium, most useful to the sons of the art because of its clarity.
Since, according to the saying of the wise philosophers, I consider that among all sciences this hidden part of philosophy, namely Alchemy, is called divine, I clearly perceive that they invented so many diverse names, words, and figures lest so noble a science and so great a mystery of nature should be profaned. But since it is granted to me to be a lover of truth and of this doctrine, I willingly explain it briefly to you.
Take therefore the first matter of the philosophers, which is called Chaos. Distill from it its spirit and watery element in a suitable vessel, as we shall teach in its place, until its body remains at the bottom like melted pitch. Wash it twice with its watery element by two distillations; then pour back upon it its own spirit to the height of four fingers above it, mixing the matter well until it is well united, and place the vessel to be distilled in B. with gentle heat. Then put it in putrefaction for six days in a suitable vessel, and distill it upon ashes.
Then take another spirit and, after pouring it over, place it again in putrefaction for six days, and thus repeat this magistery until you see that the spirit, the soul, has imbibed and extracted itself from the body. Its infallible sign will be when you see its earth hardened and dry. Then you may be certain that the body is dead for its own health, and that you will be able to vivify it and make it incorruptible. And it will no longer fear death nor corruption in this world.
Now take that aforesaid body, weigh it first, then place it in a suitable vessel, and pour upon it the eighth part of its spirit, which extracted its soul. Then place your vessel in the fire of digestion, of which we shall speak later, and continue the fire until you see that the earth has imbibed its liquor. Then open your vessel, set on the alembic, and collect a little of that moisture, which has the taste of warm water. Now for the second time imbibe your matter with the seventh part of the aforesaid spirit, which contains the soul, and then carry out the regimen of the aforesaid magistery. For the third time imbibe it with the sixth part. For the fourth time imbibe it with the fifth part. For the fifth time imbibe it with the fourth part. And do not increase the weight of the aforesaid spirit, but continue thus, observing the aforesaid regimen, until the matter becomes white, having drunk in its spirit, and its soul has again been united with it.
Take now the aforesaid earth and place it in a suitable sublimation, luting the lower part of the vessel below the matter, and make the pure part sublime from the impure, as you know. And thus you will have our sublimed Mercury, which will be clear and shining like a diamond. This is that which is called by the philosophers, under various metaphors, the first vegetable matter, Sal Armoniac, our Mercury, the sulphur of our nature; though it is one and the same thing.
Take the other simple spirit, which you first drew from your Chaos, which did not extract its soul and in the manner that follows renders it more subtle. Take from the vegetable first matter prepared as above one pound, and place it in a suitable vessel in B. until the matter is dissolved; then, the alembic having been set on, distill off the water above it. Then pour upon it three pounds of the aforesaid simple spirit, and close the vessel suitably, lest it escape, and place it in putrefaction for one natural day in the following manner:
Prepare for yourself a bronze vessel of about one span and a half in breadth, and three and a half spans in length, which toward the opening has a bronze bottom pierced with many holes, and its lid has one or two holes, through which the vessel enters and is well closed. The glass vessel that you wish to place in this bronze vessel ought to be suitably covered. In the lower part of these bronze vessels for putrefaction there is common water. Place these bronze vessels upon the furnace, applying a moderate fire, by whose force the smoke or vapor of the water rises and warms the vessels in which your matter is. In this way every work of the first part of our Magistery must be cherished and prepared.
Then it must fittingly be distilled on ashes with a heat not unlike the heat of the sun, until you draw off all its juice. Then dissolve the matter by pouring upon it three parts of the aforesaid simple spirit, in relation to the matter that remained in the vessel after the aforesaid juice had been removed from it. Repeat the magistery a fourth time, proceeding and observing in all things as above. Thus you will have the spirit of your Chaos, which is called by the philosophers the purified fire, brought from potency into act by the virtue of vegetable matter.
Take therefore a strong glass vessel, of the capacity of one common urn, pure and long, whose neck is strong and two and a half spans long, whose lid is another glass, placed above with its neck reversed into the aforesaid vessel, called the antinotory, which should have the capacity of the fourth part of a common urn. Into this circulating vessel place four pounds, and no more, of the purified spirit, which has been led from potency into act by the virtue of vegetable matter, as I taught you above, and set it to circulate in B.M. or in dung for sixty days.
And when the spirit, having been brought from potency into act through the first vegetable matter, has been made into a conversion, then you will know it from this: that in the bottom of the vessel there appears a sediment like the urine of a healthy man. Then you will see the Quintessence more shining and clearer than a diamond, which surpasses the brightness of the stars, so that it may be doubtful whether it is contained in the glass or not. Then you must separate it dexterously from its sediment and preserve it in a very well-closed vessel in a cool place.
O wonder of divine and heavenly power! This is that virtue which the envious concealed and darkened through innumerable metaphors, naming it only living spirit, water of quicksilver, water of life, heavenly water, water of Diana, the soul of the vegetable menstruum, smoke, wind, our heaven, menstrual blood, sublimed urine, the menstruum, the water of our sulphur, our blessed stone, giving it innumerable other names which we omit here; and by experience we have seen and known them all to be one and the same thing.
Now we shall also give you instruction for preparing the first metallic matter.
On the first metallic matter for the solution of gold
Take therefore our sal armoniac, of which we spoke above, and the calx of one of the two luminaries, and imbibe it little by little by long trituration in a glass mortar. Then place it in a suitable vessel, and wash the mortar with vinegar three times distilled through B., and pour those washings upon the said calx, and dry it with a gentle fire. Then reduce it into one powder with the aforesaid Mercury, continuing the aforesaid regimen ex A, as above, and repeat it as often with the aforesaid sulphur as long as necessary until the aforesaid body has acquired three parts of the aforesaid sulphur. Then place it in B. in the same way as was said above. The greatest part will be dissolved; preserve the dissolved part carefully, drying the remaining part, which has not been dissolved, in its vessel, and triturating it with fresh of the aforesaid sulphur, as was done above, until the body has acquired three parts of the aforesaid sulphur beyond its own weight, dissolving and putrefying, as above in B, in a copper vessel; and thus reiterating this magistery until the whole of this body is dissolved. This is the simple solution of the first and second order.
On the extraction of the soul or Mercury of metals
Take this body thus dissolved and digested, as I have said, and evaporate its watery part through B, and in the bottom of the vessel there will remain a matter like thick pitch, from which take one part, and three parts of Quintessence, which you shall preserve, and place it in a suitable vessel with its lid in B for 12 hours. Then place it in a copper vessel to digest, in the way I said above, for 24 hours; then put it upon sifted ashes and distill off as much as will come over.
Then pour upon that which remained behind three times its own weight of fresh Quintessence, and place it again in B as before; then put it in the copper vessel to digest, and distill on ashes, as you know. And repeat this magistery until the whole mercurial substance of the metals has passed over through the alembic with the Quintessence. Distill these distillations through B, and at the bottom of the vessel there will remain a thickish liquor, called by the philosophers the soul of the Mercury of the metals, which preserve in its place. But take that earth which remained, from which the Mercury of the metals has been withdrawn, and prepare it in this manner.
Take one part of the water which you drew through B from the soul of the Mercury of the metals, and with it imbibe the aforesaid earth, giving to it first the eighth part of the aforesaid water; the second time the seventh; the third the sixth; the fourth the fifth; the fifth the fourth part of the aforesaid water. Since the fourth part contains it well, there is no need to prepare the earth further, repeating this magistery in B and dissolving in the aforesaid copper vessel. The putrefaction ought to be done for about eight days, according as the earth is more or less fit and prepared to receive the soul of its Mercury of the metals, which you made above.
Here it must be noted that, while you are preparing the earth, from each distillation of its watery part through ashes some liquor will be produced, which you must preserve, because it is useful for the enkindlings of the medicines of the first, second, and third order, and is called by the philosophers our physical treasure, which of itself is sufficient for retaining Mercury. But lest this sentence deceive anyone, it is necessary that all these degrees be completed before one may obtain what is suitable for the retention of Mercury.
You will know the perfect preparation of the earth in this way. Take a well-heated silver plate, and sprinkle upon it some of the aforesaid earth. If it should flow away without smoke, then the preparation has been rightly made, and that earth is fit and suitable for receiving the soul of its own metallic Mercury. But if it gives off smoke, the aforesaid magistery must be repeated as often as necessary until it gives off smoke no more.
Then take this solar or lunar earth, place it in a suitable vessel, and imbibe it with the soul of its metallic Mercury, which I taught you above to prepare, and which Raymund Lully calls Mercury, as you know. Let the eighth part of the aforesaid Mercury’s soul be administered in the first place; in the second place, the seventh; in the third, the sixth; in the fourth place, the fifth; in the fifth, the fourth part of the aforesaid Mercury. And do not transgress that proportion. Do all this in B, temperately, dissolving and digesting in a copper vessel for eight days, as above.
And when the earth appears to have become dry, open the vessel and evaporate the superfluity over sifted ashes, and thus continue your magistery, as you know, until the spirit is fixed in its sulphureous earth, which by the philosophers is called the toad a most venomous poison, because its dryness is sufficient for converting its own metallic and natural Mercury into pure sulphur.
After you have thus perfected the operation of this magistery, you will see that earth reduced into one single pale white color, without variation of other colors. Then it will be volatile and spiritual, so that if it is placed upon a well-heated plate it will vanish in smoke. If not, you must enkindle or imbibe it with the fourth part of the soul of its own aforesaid Mercury, until it gives the aforesaid sign.
Then, as you know, sublime it with a strong fire, and you will have the first metallic matter on the sides and extremities of the vessel, while at the bottom of the vessel there remains a black earthy residue, which R. Lull calls the condemned and reprobate earth, saying: And it does not enter into our work.
FIRST ORDER
First Particular
Take one ounce of this first metallic matter, and of the Quintessence reserved above six ounces, and place it in B to circulate for twenty days; then on ashes for as many days, and all will be fixed, which preserve for your use.
From the aforesaid medicine take one ounce, and join it with one hundred ounces of common Mercury in the vessel called the naffa, well luted; and give it the fire of a lamp, or a moderate ash-fire, for fifteen days. Then test it in a cupel with ten pounds of well-heated Saturn, and you will have thirty ounces of perfect metal.
OF THE FIRST ORDER
Second Particular
In another and simpler way you can undertake that practice.
Take therefore one ounce of our Mercury, which you have prepared, together with one ounce of the first metallic matter, which you also prepare and grind in a glass mortar; then dissolve it in B. Then digest it in a copper vessel for one natural day, as you know, and circulate it for twenty days in B, and for another twenty days on ashes, as was said above, and all will be fixed.
Join one ounce of this with one hundred ounces of common Mercury in the vessel above called the naffa, properly prepared, and give it the fire of a lamp for fifteen days; then cupel it, as above, and you will have eighty ounces of perfect metal.
OF THE FIRST ORDER
Third Particular, by the simple separation of the elements
Take as much of the first metallic matter as you wish, and make the simple preparation of the elements in this way.
Take the metallic matter spoken of above and place it in B to be dissolved; then place it in a copper vessel to digest for one day, then in the proper place in the aforesaid B. Apply the alembic and distill off all its water; and upon that which remains at the bottom of the vessel, pour only so much of its own distilled water that it stands four transverse fingers above it, and close the vessel with its other vessel called the antinotory, and place it in the aforesaid B for three days, and then distill it by light sifted ashes.
And after the matter has distilled off all its liquid humor, give it fire, so that air also may pass over and enter into the distilled water. Then, after the vessel has cooled, pour upon the matter remaining in the vessel only so much of its own water as you first drew off through B, and so that it rises to the height of four fingers, retaining and setting aside that which you drew off through ashes, which is the air. Then place it in digestion, as you know, for three days, and distill through light ashes, as you know.
And join this second distillation with the first, which contains the air, and thus repeat the magistery ten times, namely by imbibing, dissolving, digesting, and distilling through the fire of light ashes, as you know. Then collect all the distillations into one. If the instrumental water runs short, take all the aforesaid distillations and distill them through B, so that they may suffice for you. But that which remains after the distillations, distill it will remain to be preserved, for that air or oil is brought to the enkindling of medicines. And this is the simple separation of the elements for the medicines of the first and second order.
Then prepare the earth which remains with its own proper water, in the way spoken of above in the preparation of metallic earths, until it flows upon a heated plate like wax, as you know. Then take one ounce of this earth thus prepared, and one ounce of the calx of Luna or Sol, on account of the equal earth, from which the air was withdrawn by the aforesaid distillation, and grind them in a glass mortar. Then in an alembic over an ash-fire add so much of its own water, with which they prepared their earth, in such portion or quantity as may be half the quantity of the matter.
Then institute the preparation, as you know from what was said above, drying and imbibing until the ferment is joined with its earth. The infallible sign of this conjunction will be that, when in solution with its own water or feces the decoctions become slightly greenish, or of the color of the laurel stone, and the greater part of the matter is dissolved. Then the aforesaid mercurial earth will have received its ferment.
Afterward you may collect and coagulate this matter, and join it with its air, which you preserved above, adding to it the fifth part of the air, and triturate the two into one until the perfect mixture is absorbed. This imbibition and desiccation must be carried out with the fire of a lamp; then dissolve in the bath, and after this has been done circulate in the same B. for 20 days, and for as many other days on ashes, and a sure fixation will follow, so that with this medicine you will make a successful projection of one to one hundred.
OF THE SECOND ORDER
First Particular upon Saturn
Take as much calx of Saturn as you wish and dissolve it in the spirit of sharp fire, and by the power of our sal armoniac, namely the first vegetable matter brought from potency into act, as you know. And when it has been well dissolved, place it in putrefaction for eight days in a copper vessel. Then separate the elements, namely water and air only, as you did in preparing the metallic matter of gold and silver. Then prepare the earth of the aforesaid Saturn as the earth of prepared gold and silver, until it flows like wax. Then imbibe it with its own air and proceed as above with sulphur and the first vegetable matter drawn from its earth, by imbibing, drying, subliming, and removing the sal armoniac. And thus you will have the first matter of Saturn in an admirable salt.
Take that salt and join it with the oil of Luna, which you have made simply from the metallic matter of Luna, separating from it the element of air in the manner you know, namely by placing upon the aforesaid sulphur of Saturn with the twelfth part of the aforesaid oil, and place it over the fire of a lamp in a glass vessel, until the aforesaid sulphur has been dried. Afterwards, for the second time, mix it with the twelfth part of the aforesaid oil, again using the same lamp-fire, until the aforesaid sulphur of Saturn has become fixed without any sublimation.
Then place one part of that medicine upon one hundred parts of common Mercury or Saturn, and you will have a perfect metal. If you wish to make it red, mix it with the oil of gold, observing the regimen and projection as above, and you will have a perfect red metal.
OF THE SECOND ORDER
Second Particular, upon Jupiter
If your intention is to proceed with Jove, observe the method set forth above, namely by withdrawing the sulphur of Jupiter, as you withdrew it from Saturn, and by mixing it with the simple oil of Luna or Sol, and making the same projection upon common Mercury or upon Jove.
OF THE SECOND ORDER
Third Particular, upon Venus
If you wish to proceed with Venus, do as follows. Withdraw the sulphur of Venus, mix it and fix it with the oil of Sol or Luna, and make the same projection upon Mercury or Venus.
OF THE SECOND ORDER
Fourth Particular, upon Mars
If you wish to proceed with Mars, observe the same regimen in all the circumstances that you observed with Saturn, Jove, and Venus, and you will make a projection of one to 200 upon Mercury or Mars.
OF THE SECOND ORDER
Fifth Particular, upon all imperfect bodies
Now there follows another medium or process for the medicine which falls upon all imperfect bodies, called by Raymund Lully the fifth matrimonial branch. Take therefore one pound of Roman vitriol, one pound of saltpetre, six ounces of calcined rock alum, and three ounces of cinnabar, and make from them strong water in the usual manner. From this take four parts, and of saltpetre one part, and rectify it as often, always adding a fourth part of nitre, until it dissolves the two perfect luminaries. Then take two parts of the decoction of Luna and one of Sol, and mix them, and immediately the water makes an aggregation. Distill through B until all the water has come over; then the matter remains dry at the bottom, of a gray color. Thus you will have the two perfect bodies calcined.
Take the common calx and dissolve it with our Mercury, which you made from the earth after the spirit of fire had been withdrawn, and mix and amalgamate it in the mortar, as above. Then, following the operation which you practiced with the first vegetable matter, remove the sulphur from the two bodies in the manner in which you made it from each of the other bodies, and thus you will have the first vegetable matter of those two luminaries united into one genus. Place it in a glass vessel, mixing with it the Quintessence and the simple oil of Luna, as you did above, until it is dried out; and thus continue the operation, always mixing, imbibing, and drying, namely with the fifth part of the aforesaid oil of Luna, until the matter is united into one slightly greenish crystalline mass. This transmutes every kind of imperfect metal into true Luna, at the rate of one to one hundred.
But if you wish to bring the work to the red, take that stone and mix it with half its weight of the simple oil of gold, and dry that matter in B. Then place it in a urinal, mixing it with the fifth part of the simple oil of gold, and dry it with the fire of a lamp, as you know. And thereafter always mix it with the fifth part of the aforesaid simple oil and dry it again, until you see your matter made red like a ruby. This transmutes any imperfect metal into true gold.
Thus far I have told you the method of preparing all the medicines of the first and second order and the simple dissolution of bodies. Now that which belongs to the third order follows.
THE THIRD ORDER
Of Medicines
Take the perfect metals and place each one by itself in a suitable vessel for dissolution, well closed, and pour upon it the spirit of sharp fire, brought from potency into act by the virtue of vegetable matter, in such quantity that it stands four transverse fingers above the calx. Make it boil upon an ash-fire or in B for one natural day, and then prudently pour off the solution into another vessel; close it well and place it in moderate B. Then imbibe the calx, as you know, with the aforesaid sharp spirit, and make it boil on ashes or in B for one whole natural day, as you know, and preserve the dissolved matter with that which you had placed in B, repeating in this manner until those bodies are dissolved, namely each by itself, or the mercurial part of them.
And here it must also be noted that you ought to putrefy and digest in a copper vessel, as I said above.
On preparing potable gold
Here likewise it must be observed that, after you have dissolved the calx of Luna or of Sol, each by itself, with the sharp spirit, and have drawn off the substance by dissolution, digestion, and desiccation, if then you take the solution of gold and make it circulate in B for 40 days, and afterward remove from it its watery part, you will have potable gold, which the philosophers call the simple resolution and restoration of human bodies.
But if you wish to prepare the metallic medicine of the third order, in no way shall you circulate the solution of gold. Rather, take the body which you dissolved and digested with the sharp spirit according to the aforesaid method, and evaporate all its watery part through B, and from each there will remain at the bottom a matter like thick honey. Take from that matter of each body one part, and of the Quintessence, as I showed you above, three parts for each that is, one part of the body and three parts of the separated Quintessence then cover the vessel with its alembic and place each separately to digest in a copper vessel for one day.
Then distill each vessel separately on ashes. Next pour upon each part of the aforesaid matters, which remained after dissolution, three parts of the aforesaid Quintessence; place it in B, as you know, to digest, as you know, and repeat this until all the substance of the aforesaid metals (which is their mercurial part) has passed over through the alembic with the aforesaid portion of Quintessence. Distill these distillations of each of those bodies separately through B. And at the bottom of each vessel you will find a clear liquor, and in some way gummy. Concerning this I said that it is called the soul of the Mercury of the metals.
Then take the earths of the aforesaid metals and prepare them each by itself, as you know, until they flow like wax and are made fit to receive their Mercuries. And after they have thus been prepared, place each one separately in a suitable vessel with the proper souls of the Mercury of its own metal, observing the same medium or regimen which you observed in making the metallic matter of the first and second orders, when you made from the dissolved body, by means of the prepared amalgam of Mercury with the calx in the mortar. In this way you have the metallic matters of those two bodies by the way of the better solution.
Now take each of them separately. And first indeed Luna, from which separate the elements in the same way as was said above regarding the oil, for the mixing with the medicines of the first and second orders, and keep each thing in its own place.
Then take the metallic matter of gold and make the separation of the elements by the same method that was stated above, up to the separation of the air; then also separate the fire together with the air of the metallic matter of gold itself, observing the same regimen that you observed in the separation of its air, namely the same imbibitions, digestions, distillations, and similar preparations and degrees of heat, except that in the distillation by the fire of ashes the fire ought to be increased by one degree more, and that 15 repetitions should be made in the aforesaid magistery.
Afterwards take all those aforesaid distillations made through ashes in this first magistery, and distill them through B; and when all the water has been distilled, take the air which remained, and set it over the fire that remains in the urinal; and when those two have been united, place them in a retort and distill with a very tempered ash-fire. And when you see a gummy matter at the bottom in the form of honey, put an end to the distillation. The sure sign, however, will be when, out of five parts, you have distilled three parts.
Keep your first air in the highest care, distilling it six or seven times; then continue the distillation over the fire, until there remains something like thick honey, and continue the fire moderately until you see in the bottom of the retort the fire congealed.
This is the second air of the philosophers: our philosophical oil, our physical treasure, and with that oil enkindle the medicine of the third order. For this oil greatly partakes of the physical substance, which is from the body seven times rectified; preserve it separately as often as you distill it.
But take the earth which the first and second aforesaid airs leave behind, after each of the airs has been distilled seven times, and join it with the aforesaid fire. Then take the water which you have obtained, and distill it through B seven times, and each time separately. But the earth or feces of the seventh distillation, together with the earth which remained for you from the said elements, or from the metallic matter of gold, from which water, air, and fire had been separated, join together. Then take the aforesaid separated fire and calcine it in the manner that follows.
Place it in a distilling vessel and pour upon it five parts of its own water, which you separated by the seventh distillation of the Bath; from this you drew off the earth or feces, which afterwards you joined with the earth of the aforesaid elements, and digest it in a copper vessel, as you know, and then distill. Do this seven times, each time always giving it the fifth part of its aforesaid water, as you know. By this method, the earth of the elements of the aforesaid gold with the same water you will calcine, doing this in such a way that they will agree in nature, because each of them is dry.
And when the calcined earths have been disposed to receive their own spirit, the sign of it will become known to you if you make the test with a heated plate, as was said above. Then take the earth separated from the elements of Luna and prepare it plainly in the same way by which you prepared the elements of gold with the proper water of Luna. Now take one ounce from each prepared thing, and finally place them together in the aforesaid water of Luna, in the same way as you did above by means of imbibitions, digestions, and desiccations. Note that the preparation of those hard earths joined together must be done through B, and through the aforesaid water of Luna: first with the eighth part of it, second with the seventh, third with the sixth, fourth with the fifth, and fifth with the fourth part, as you did above with them, preparing each thing separately in B for eight days with its own metallic waters, as you know. And thus you will have the first vegetable matter, or the sulphur of the two luminaries joined into one.
Composition of the medicine of the third order
Take the fire which you separated, and dissolve it in its own Mercury or soul, just as you dissolved gold with the sharp spirit of our Mercury, dissolving and distilling. Then take the first vegetable matter made from the two luminaries, as much as you wish, and mix it with as much fire as with its dissolved soul, according to the order of mixing previously carried out, and thus repeat, giving it its due proportion, until the sulphur becomes fixed and red like a ruby, and administering its ferment in the following manner.
Take the first airy element, namely the water, and mix with it, as much as you can, the first vegetable matter of the two luminaries, which you made before, together with the sharpened fire with the soul of its own metal, and preserve it separately. Then take as much calcined gold as you please and make an amalgam with common Mercury. Then take eight ounces of the aforesaid amalgam, and two ounces of the aforesaid sulphur, which you had rubified above; make them one in a glass mortar, and then place the whole in a urinal, imbibing it with the oil of gold, namely with the element of air, imbibing, digesting, and drying it, as you know. And thus repeat the magistery seven times, and whatever will be sublimed each time, grind it in the mortar together with that which remained at the bottom of the vessel, and continue your operation seven or eight times.
Now take the aforesaid water, which you sharpened with the vegetable matter of the two luminaries, and dissolve or circulate it simply in B; and with it imbibe and circulate the matter which is in the vessel, seven or eight times, just as you did with the aforesaid air, until everything has become fixed.
Then mix it with the physical oil, and give it its own proportion, as you know, and proceed according to the aforesaid manner of enkindling upon the existing matters of gold and silver. By means of this second magistery, every thing will be fixed in perfect union with its sulphur. And the matter will be light and clear in certain parts or places of itself, like a ruby, yet not fully saturated with color.
Then take the fire, which you sharpened with its own water of gold, and again sharpen it with the proper water of its Mercury of gold, in the same way as you know, and sharpen it with the proper soul of its gold. And with this enkindle the aforesaid medicine, as you did with the physical oil, and it will become like a ruby, and one part falls upon a thousand of Mercury.
I wish to commend this to your memory, that you will be able by the same method and path to bring precious stones to multiplication, by which we have treated the medicine and method of the third order.
Thus far I have set before you the method of preparing the medicines of the first, second, and third orders. But since in this magistery the calcination of metals is required, I shall also explain that to you.
On the calcination of metals
Take gold and amalgamate it with Mercury, until it becomes like butter. Put it in some vessel and pour upon it common strong water, and repeat the water as often as necessary until you see the calx of Mercury separated to one side. Then wash it with warm water in a glass mortar until the water comes off sweet and clear. Then dry the calx little by little, and place it in a small mortar, then put it in a urinal over a slight fire with a little water of life or spirit of wine for drying.
Take Luna, well cupelled and washed, and dissolve it in strong water rectified with another silver, and add three or four parts of common salt dissolved in warm water; and when Luna has let its sediment sink to the bottom, wash and sweeten it, as you know.
As for the other metals: calcine Saturn and Jupiter with Mercury and common salt, as you know. Venus with strong water, and dry it well. But Mercury calcines with sulphur and vinegar.
The extraction and exaltation of the most excellent ancient Star of Mauretania.
The virtues of the Star of Mauretania, after it has been brought from potency into act.
This star restores youthfulness to women in appearance, and preserves it even unto death, so that a woman of sixty years may seem to be fifteen years old. It makes the flesh soft and white like a pearl. It is so spiritual and penetrating that if a woman perfects herself with it every month, from it are born whiteness, splendor, and brightness, at least for six months of duration. It removes lentigines, spots, and the marks of smallpox from the face, and the redness of the face caused by an overheated liver, and the fissures of the body. It firms loose breasts and restores them like an apple. When it has been mixed with the quintessence of pine nuts from green and very tender pines, it is especially effective in the secret inward parts of women. Moreover, its efficacy is such that one marc may be increased, by the industry of the artist, to the value of five hundred ducats.
The practice of the Star of Mauretania.
Take three pounds of the whitest and most beautiful star that you can find. Reduce it into a most subtle powder; then enclose this material in an iron capsule with its iron lid, and, well covered with the most perfect lute, place it in a reverberatory fire for 24 hours, increasing the fire as much as can be done. When this time is finished, place the glowing-hot material in a marble or pure stone mortar, while it is still warm, and reduce it into an impalpable powder.
When this has been done, place it in a clean iron spoon, and redden it in the fire until it is incandescent; and while thus heated cast it into a clean vitreous stone vessel with its proper fitted lid, in which you have beforehand placed ten times its amount of the purest white ruby, more philosophically distilled, so that the aforesaid star, being ignited and reduced into E, is wholly immersed in that liquor. Then pour off that liquor by inclination, until the star remains dry.
Repeat this ignition and extinction in the aforesaid ruby, or in another similar one if the former has been exhausted, as often as necessary until the whole of the said star, or at least nearly the whole, is converted into salt. Then collect all the aforesaid ruby and filter it for three or four hours until it becomes clear and bright. Then distill all the ruby through the alembic, and at the bottom of the vessel there will remain a glorious salt, which, spread upon a stone (or a glass plate) and placed in a moist place, is wholly converted into oil.
Take this oil and place it in D, to the amount of six parts of oil above it; then place it in G for 40 days. Then evaporate D by distillation, and at the bottom you will find your corrupted sulphur, upon which place four parts more of D, and distill, and H of your star will come forth. Then proceed by chapter H, and rectify by seven distillations. Thus you will have exalted the soul of your star from its earthiness. Proceed according to chapter I; then with Mercury make chapter K with its earth; then dissolve it separately, or in so much D or Q.E. that a few parts of the matter remain over. And you will have your intention. If you wish to fix it, proceed by chapter M. And you will possess the quintessence of the star, etc.
A WONDERFUL MEDICINAL ELIXIR
By the separation of the four elements from all things, for medicinal use, having the greatest power over evil humors in bodies, the like of which has not hitherto been made known.
Take whatever you wish to distill, and place it in dung for a certain number of days to putrefy; then draw off all the water by distillation through B. Pour this water back upon the feces, and place it again in dung, but not so long a time as before. Then draw off the water again, first with a small ash-fire, then increase the fire until the end of the distillation, so that the air also may follow; this done, separate the water from the air by distillation through B.
Then pour the distilled water again upon the feces, and after the third time in dung, as was done above, if you wish, draw off the fire together with the aforesaid mixed water, just as you did with the air. Then separate the water from the fire through B. Distill the aforesaid waters, air, and fire seven times, or so long until they deposit no more feces. Afterwards join the feces of each of these distillations, which remained in the vessel, with the earth. And preserve each element separately in a well-secured vessel.
Then calcine the earth in a reverberatory fire for 24 hours; then pour on a little warm water, so that its salt may be dissolved. And what has not been dissolved, calcine and dissolve again as before, and filter the water again, and evaporate it over the fire. Thus you will have the four elements pure and clean.
The medium of joining them is this: take the salt, and over the fire sprinkle upon it the fourth part of its water; and after it has drunk that, sprinkle on again the same quantity of water, and continue thus until the salt has imbibed its own weight.
When this has been done, place it in a sublimation vessel to sublime, and what remains at the bottom of the vessel after the sublimation has been carried out, cast away as useless and superfluous. Having made this earth spiritual, place it over a slow and very moderate fire, and imbibe it little by little with its own air, then likewise with its own fire in the same manner. And thus you will have a wonderful Elixir, which does in the human body what the Elixir of perfect metals does upon imperfect metals against evil humors, etc.
THE PERFECT MAGISTERY
from S.H., according to the philosophical method of distilling,
for preparing the highest and almost universal medicine for the human body, next after the stone of the philosophers, easily the chief.
Take a sufficient quantity of human blood, from those who are healthy, of good complexion, and in the flower of age. Distribute this blood into different vessels broad enough, filling only a third part of their capacity, and with another vessel, called the antinotory, cover them and lute them well; then place them in B.M. for ten days in putrefaction, until in the course of time the Dragon has devoured its own tail, that is, the earth has imbibed its own water, which you will know when no vapors any longer rise into your antinotory.
When you see this, let your vessel cool, and when the antinotory has been removed, you will find your matter congealed into a mass like liver. Divide this mass, having taken it out, into several pieces, and place it in the vessel in which it was before, and set on the alembic and the receiver, and by the same heat of the bath distill off all the watery element or phlegm. Pour this distilled water again upon its earth, and, the former antinotory having been put on, putrefy it again for ten days, as before, and then distill it again.
Repeat this putrefaction, distillation, and reaffusion four or five times. This operation should be completed in forty or forty-five days. When the final distillation has been carried out, keep the water, and let the vessel cool. Remove the material, place it in a suitable retort having a sufficiently wide neck, and with a fitting receiving vessel attached and the joints duly luted, distill from the ashes the element of air little by little; and when it has ceased to distill in clouds, increase the fire, and then the element of fire will come over in the form of red oil it will come forth in the form of red or purple, and toward the end a part of the volatile salt will be sublimed.
After the vessels have cooled, separate the spirit or air from the oil or fire by means of the bath or funnel. Then pour the spirit upon the aforesaid sublimed matter together with the feces that remained, and after a three-day digestion, distill it in a new retort, administering the fire of sublimation to the end, so that part or all of the volatile salt or spiritual earth may rise, be sublimed, and pass over with the spirit into the receiver.
Upon the earth that remains, pour a new spirit, digest and distill as often as necessary, until the earth has been entirely deprived of its soul or volatile salt. You will know this when, placed upon a heated plate, it gives off absolutely no smoke.
It must, however, be noted that before the spirit or air is poured upon the earth, it ought first to be rectified seven times, but the phlegm and feces should always be set apart.
Take the remaining black earth, and calcine it in a moderate reverberatory in a closed vessel for five or six days, through which it will pass through colors, namely black, white, yellow, and finally red like brick-powder, and thus it will be prepared for receiving its own spirit, now animated.
Some, by the benefit of the phlegm poured upon it, by repeated digestions, extract its pure salt; and after it has been dried, they gradually add to it the aforesaid animated spirit, and thus wish to restore the glorious earth. This is praiseworthy and worthy of imitation.
But to avoid so much trouble, take your calcined earth and pour upon it its own phlegm, and after a digestion of 24 hours upon ashes distill it to dryness; then pour on more, and repeat the same operation twice or thrice. When the earth has become well dried, pour upon it the tenth part of its animated spirit, and digest for two days in the bath, and by the same bath draw off the moisture. Then again pour on as much new spirit, and digest and distill. Afterwards add the eighth, the seventh, the sixth, the fifth, and the fourth part to it, and do not go beyond the fourth part, until your earth has doubled its weight, or, when placed on a heated plate, vanishes in smoke.
When your earth has reached this state, place it in a suitable vessel with the aforesaid long neck, and, an alembic being set on with its receiver attached so that it may receive a little moisture, place your vessel upon hot ashes for 40 or 50 hours. For in this way your earth will become glorious and ascend to the sides of the vessel in the form of pearls or beans, and you will have a most excellent Mercury, from which, if it be joined with its oil, a great Elixir for the healing of diseases, which you will obtain prepared in the following way.
Take one ounce of the aforesaid Mercury, and imbibe it with the eighth part of its rectified oil, and cook it in our furnace for eight days; this done, proceed in the same way with the seventh, sixth, fifth, and fourth part of the same oil, advancing thus to imbibition and cooking. And continue with the fourth part for as many days, until the matter ceases from imbibition, and in liquid form like butter or syrup appears, which in reddening and virtue surpasses the admirable stone that heals the grave diseases of the human body, when cooked in the philosophical manner for forty days. Its dose is one or two grains, to be given in a vehicle suitable to the diversity of diseases.
A most exact little treatise
On the composition of sulphur and the vegetable menstruum;
or, on potable gold according to the intention of Raymund Lully;
Dedicated to a certain Magnate in the year 1545 by the most celebrated physician and philosopher, the Frenchman Dela Brosse.
PRACTICE
Take reddish wine, if it can be found, the best possible, which is not sour, nor too deeply saturated in color, and place it in B. to putrefy for eight days, so that the elements may be dissolved and separated all the better. Although Raymund Lully in his book Lux Mercuriorum places this wine in putrefaction for twenty days, I have nevertheless tried it both ways, and I have found the putrefaction of ten days to be as perfect as that which was completed in twenty days. For without putrefaction, as I say, the elements cannot be dissolved and separated, as the Philosopher says: just as death is the cause of the glorification of eternal life, so also corruption is the cause of a new generation.
The putrefaction having therefore been completed, distill the water of life, and rectify it so far that it all burns away, with no phlegm remaining. After you have also separately distilled the water of life and the phlegm, the thick matter will stand like thick honey, which place in the cucurbit, and pour upon it some of its phlegm; then, with the alembic and receiver duly fitted, distill. Afterwards cook it over the ash-fire for two days, and you will see that the phlegm, whose oil or some part of it is tinged with color, by pouring it off through inclination repeat the pouring-on of the phlegm and the cooking as often as necessary, until the phlegm no longer becomes tinged, and you see a black matter remaining at the bottom, which Raymund calls Blacker than black.
Pour upon this black earth in the cucurbit so much of the water of life distilled through ashes as stands four transverse fingers above it. Repeat this affusion three more times with fresh water of life, so that the soul of the aforesaid earth, which is invisible, may be extracted. Preserve that water in a well-sealed vessel. Then take that earth and place it in a well-closed and sealed glass vessel, so that nothing can breathe out from it, and calcine it for ten days.
Now take the phlegm and place it in a cucurbit and mix with it the calcined earth, and make it boil for six hours, and pour off the liquor by inclination. Repeat this again and again with fresh phlegm, until the damned earth remains at the bottom of the vessel. Filter the phlegm thus poured off, and distill it through the bath and the salt in the cucurbit; at the bottom there remains something as white as snow.
Note well. Raymund wishes that, as soon as the earth has been calcined, its soul which is in the aforesaid spirit of wine ought at once to be joined to it, before the soul is extracted from the damned earth, so that afterwards both earth and soul may be sublimed together. But I have tried the procedure in both ways, and I found it to be better if the soul is joined to the earth after the earth has been purified, than while it is still impure. For in this way I obtained more salt and in greater quantity. Nevertheless, the other method is also good.
Take therefore now that purified earth, and in the same cucurbit pour upon it the water of life in which the soul is, either all of it or half of it, and distill over a slow ash-fire; and thus the animated salt will remain, unless you proceed with the other half of the water of life, and then you will have the animated earth.
Now take three pounds of fresh water, which has served no use, and put it in a retort with three ounces of animated salt, and, the retort being well luted, distill it from ashes with a moderate fire, and you will receive the body animated together with its spirit. But if some part of the earth remains at the bottom of the retort, weigh it and pour upon it another new water of life, for the reason stated above, and distill it over. For the spirit cannot be retained by the earth in its belly when it can be carried over by distillation.
This water is called the vegetable Quintessence. The menstruum of solution, dissolving and preserving both human and metallic nature. The philosophers call this composition by the likeness of the menstruum, because just as the seed of man and woman, joined together in the womb of the woman for generation, is not sufficient for the magnitude of its birth unless it be multiplied from the menstrual blood of the woman, which sufficiently multiplies and brings it to perfection; in exactly the same way it is with our glorious Mercury.
For when it dissolves gold, the gold is impregnated by the said menstruum, namely by this body, or by its salt glorified and dissolved. Then our operations are perfected, as shall afterward be said. Master Guilielmus Parisiensis, the fiery philosopher, pertinently says on this point: Woman dissolves man, and man fixes woman. Thus, just as the sperm of man coagulates the sperm of woman, and the sperm of woman dissolves the sperm of man, so also the menstruum, or vegetable Quintessence, dissolves gold; but the dissolved gold fixes the vegetable body, and once the gold has been dissolved by benefit of the spirit, the water of life thereafter remains altogether ineffective and deprived of all virtue.
For gold is fire overcoming all things, which in no way can be conquered by other fires; and therefore it has the power of fixing the other metallic bodies, because the fixed fixes. It is therefore a most certain thing that nothing perfect can be made without our Quintessence, in those matters which concern both the preservation of our health and the transmutation of metals.
For this cause all those who treat of strong waters and other sharp agents never produce anything worthy of praise, and are marked with the note of ignorance. For with Raymund, Arnold, Albert, and the master of the General Art, our dissolution is not made with corrosive waters, because that dissolution is not the one intended by nature.
Now let us also say something concerning the calcination of the metal gold, because since it is the most difficult of compounds, it cannot be dissolved without great labor unless it has first been calcined and made subtle, which is required in the sign of the art. In this we follow in part Aristotle and R. Lully, because this calcination is excellent and most natural, and without any corrosive, in the manner that follows.
On the calcination of the metal gold according to R. Lully and Aristotle, the Hermetic philosopher
Take mineral gold (or ducats of gold), and purify it by cement, or, better, that which is purified, which Raymund Lully in the book of the Quintessence calls the gold of God, because all alchemical gold that is made by corrosives is not good, which words he wishes to say that whatever is made by a mineral menstruum is corrosive; whence it is necessary to take mineral gold, or ducats, although Lully in several places seems to mean otherwise, where he asserts that philosophical gold prepared is better, more purified, and more highly colored.
Whatever the case, after your gold has been reduced to elements, cast it into scales; and if it is one ounce, make an amalgam with six ounces of common Mercury and one pound of prepared salt. Put the whole into a crucible, well luted and pierced with a small hole in the lid of the crucible, and keep it in a reverberatory with ash-fire for 24 hours; and the Mercury will go off in smoke together with the salt. Then, the Mercury being absent, calcine it again with an equal quantity of foliated salt for another 24 hours, and repeat this regimen five or six times. Otherwise the gold cannot be properly destroyed. When this has been done, reduce it in a marble or glass mortar into the finest powder, and mix it with common sulphur in a crucible among burning coals and dry it for twelve hours, adding fresh sulphur repeatedly, and thus you will have it perfectly calcined, which must be reduced into an impalpable powder and purified with phlegm of wine redistilled, by washing and drying.
Now take one ounce of this calcined gold and reduced into subtle powder, and in an oblong vessel with a neck of one span pour upon it six ounces of our Quintessence, and make it boil over ashes for one whole day; then commit it to B. for one night. Afterwards pour off by inclination what has become colored, and preserve it in the bath, and repeat this as often as necessary until the Quintessence is no longer colored. In this way you will have extracted the soul of gold.
Take this colored Quintessence, and through the bath draw off some portion of the Quintessence, and calcine the soul of gold for 40 days, although this calcination can also be done in 30 days. I have, however, found it spiritualized in the course of 20 days, and in every way perfected, so that the artist may proceed with it at his pleasure without delay although the philosophers, and rightly, have said that gold is so much the more glorified the more it is purified. The general term of the philosophers is 40 days, for all the things required in this dissolution.
This stone heals all infirmities that can happen to the human body. For that which is prepared with the mineral is corrosive and dangerous, because its digestion is difficult. The vegetable stone, however, is not of such great virtue for the transmutation of metals as the mineral one.
But to return to our purpose, take now the soul of gold joined with the Quintessence, and in B. putrefy and distill it, and the gold remaining at the bottom will be red, spiritual, and fragrant, which you can use for your secretion. In this way you will be able to make true potable gold according to the intention of all the philosophers.
Preserve carefully for your use the Quintessence withdrawn from your gold; for it has infinite virtue, since it is animated and impregnated by the virtue of gold. Here it must be noted, as Raymund says, that the Quintessence has no odor unless Sol has first been dissolved in it.
As for the earth which remains from the gold, take that golden earth and place it in a cucurbit, and pour upon it the remainder of your vegetable menstruum, which has as yet served no use at all, distilled through common ashes; and distill the vegetable menstruum ten or twelve times by cohobation. Then dry it, and place it in a moist place so that it may dissolve. You may use this, once dissolved, for health. Or in another way, etc.
On the solution of gold
It remains for me to say something concerning all the solutions of gold that can be made in this art of the aforesaid Quintessences. Raymund, in his book Lux Mercuriorum, mentions another perfect solution, which I have made and truly found: namely, that the whole body of gold is dissolved without any extraction of its soul or of anything else. Concerning this he says these words: If you mix gold into the Quintessence by the tenth distillation, as was said above, and then place the gold by itself in a moist place or in the bath, it will be dissolved in four days, and this is potable gold, having infinite virtues, as is written in the book on the preservation of human life.
I have tested the danger in both methods of dissolution, and therefore I can testify that each is good. Yet they are of such virtue and efficacy that, in my judgment, they can by no means be sufficiently praised. But this, moreover, must be observed: gold dissolved according to its substance is better suited for the transmutation of metals, because its earth retains in itself some portion of the mercurial spirit.
As for the method of applying the aforesaid Quintessences to gold and to our vegetable matter, R. Lull is to be read in the book of the Quintessence.
Thus therefore the Appendix to both parts of this Elucidarium.
With the medicinal Elixir and the magistery from S.H., and the description of potable gold, written down in Gaul a few years ago received by us freely, therefore for the praise of God and the exercise of Christian charity, and so that physicians and sons of the art may not shrink from the fruitful labors of the chymical art, they are also freely and sincerely communicated from a Christian spirit. For these secrets, and for other arcana of nature, revealed in diverse ways to diverse men, and often wonderfully by divine prompting,
to GOD,
most high and wonderful in His works,
praise, honor, and everlasting glory,
through our Lord JESUS CHRIST.
Amen.
THE END.