The Cradle of the Philosophers Stone - Kinder-Bett Des Steins der Weisen

Kinder-Bett Des Steins der Weisen

The Cradle of the Philosopher's Stone

Wonder-Bed
of the
Stone of the Wise,

described in the French language
by an unknown chevalier,

and now translated from the French
into German

by
J. L. M. C.

Hermes and Geber.

Whoever once brings this art to completion,
even if he should live a thousand times
a thousand years, and every day had to feed
four thousand people,
he would still have enough left over.

Hamburg,
printed by Gottfried Liebernickel, 1692.

To the ingenious reader.

I take it upon myself, through this little treatise, beloved reader, to speak with you of a wonder which all human tongues, even the most eloquent, can never sufficiently praise. In truth, is it not almost an incredible wonder to have understanding of the highest and most secret operations of Nature and of Art, when one possesses the practice of the greatest and most excellent Work which middle Nature can bring forth in the whole world?

A Work which, more properly, ought to be wrought by angels than by men, if the infinite goodness of God had not inspired such a thing into Adam, as one of the rarest marks of His generous divine mercy, after the gift which He had imparted to him with the character of the rational soul.

This same goodness did not wish that this greatest generosity should cease with Adam alone, but willed that from one age to another it should extend itself to some of his wise and God-fearing successors, either through pure revelation, through unnoticed inspiration, or through communication from one person to another, or finally through long and laborious study and investigation; through which alone the artist would never more arrive at the aim of his undertaking, if the mercy and goodness of God did not come in between, according to the saying of St. James, that all good gifts come down from above, from the Father of Light.

The Christian philosophers are in this matter of one mind with the theologians: that God has called to the knowledge of this hidden and deep truth, that among all gifts of Nature, excepting the scholastic sciences and the peaceful and just possession of kingdoms according to the use of reason, there is no gift equal to this one of the practice and knowledge of the hidden root of all things.

Therefore, if you are guided by a good understanding, and desire to seek this root, from which are brought forth the wonderfully arranged labors and its wonderful effects, of which the sages have spoken to us, then do not believe that such a thing is truly to be found on earth among living beings, and much less in the entrails of the earth, although your task is to work in metallic Nature.

Seek therefore this root in its own roots, and not in its trunk, nor in its branches, nor in its leaves, nor in its flowers, nor in its fruits; for that would be life among the seekers of death, and the sun in darkness; much less among the shops of the materialists, for Nature buys nothing from them for the generation of metals, nor of other things.

I can tell you only this, if you will deem me worthy and believe me: that Nature has three brothers and three princes, who by means of their universal spirit rule and possess everything in this lower world. And I may tell you that you should not seek this universal root in the kingdom of the three greatest powers: the animal, vegetable, and mineral.

For although the same is already to be found radically in the middle point of all things, yet when it is specified into the genera and sorts, and into the individuals of Nature, which are its branches, its leaves, its flowers, and its fruits, then you can extract nothing from it except very difficultly, and perhaps much too scantily for your undertaking. For after this root of life has been specified in the mixed things, it takes on the properties and powers of them, even so far that you cannot wholly deprive it of those same properties, so as to bring it back into its first indifference.

Therefore take it before it has yet brought anything forth, and while it is still naturally in potentia, or in the power, to bring forth all things. And do not undertake to make Nature go backward again, with the intention of making the bodies raw again, which she has completed in her deepest entrails. Rather, seek this fruit-bearing root and the first seed, or the seminal spermatic matter of all things.

For this reason, beloved reader, be mindful that you do not seek it in the common metals; for you have sufficient cause to believe that it is not living there, considering that they are dead, because they have been torn away from their natural Minera.

The Cosmopolite reminds you best of this when he says in his fourth treatise: Hold this for a certain rule, that you should not seek this point of Nature, which is the multiplying seed, in the common metals; for it is not there. Rather they are, he says, dead; but ours are living, and these are what you must take.

I assure you also in another way, when he tells you that the seed which is necessary for you is almost a living soul, which will not be found in dead things; and for this reason he afterwards commands you to take the living man and set him together with the living woman.

For you must know that the metals of the sages are full of life, and are all comprehended in one subject, as Abbot Synesius clearly reports to you concerning this, when he says with express words: Note, in conclusion, that our gold and silver are much nobler than the common ones, since ours are living in their nature, and in one single subject, but the common ones are dead.

Therefore do not seek in the center of the common metals and minerals to find therein a living root, which is not living there. And hold it for an infallible rule that whenever the philosophers say to take metals as the ground-rule of the Work, one must not understand the common ones, but rather those which are far more powerful than the common ones, and which are not dead, nor separated from their natural Minera, and are all essentially and radically contained in one single subject, and hidden under one mantle.

For apart from our gold and silver, which are covered with the sphere of Saturn, everything else is useless, says the Cosmopolite.

Do you not yet see what this subtle genius teaches you in his treatise on Mercury, in order to warn you against seeking this living root in common metallic bodies? When he introduces common quicksilver speaking with the alchemists, he expressly lets it say to him: “It is in vain that you seek and visit me in my old age, since you could not recognize me in my youth.”

What he says to you of common Mercury, he says also of all other metals, and of all mixed bodies which are in the three kingdoms of Nature. For if common Mercury, which is the youngest and least cooked among all metals, is nevertheless already too old for extracting this root of life from it, then how much less useful will the others be, since they are much older and much riper than it, and through their cooking Nature has taken far longer time with them, and has brought them to a much greater ripeness, and therefore they are much further removed from the root which she has brought forth?

Take the original radical beginning in its beginning, and the original source, and not when it has already come to its end; and do not spend long over the resolution of all determined mixed bodies, in order to draw out of their womb this noble matter which you desire.

But if you remain obstinate against my admonition, you will wander the whole time of your life, and in the end have nothing else from it except confusion, sorrow, and regret, because you did not follow the right opinion of him who, from the operation of Christian love, desires nothing else than that you may obtain the fulfillment of your wish.

If you seek it in the cabinets, in the boxes and treasures of common Nature, which are the four elements, you will find your satisfaction still less, and will be poor in the midst of your elemental treasures; for Nature has not shown you so far. It belongs to God alone to make something, or all things, out of the simple elements, just as it is not possible for man to make what God has prepared out of the simple elements.

But if you imagine that you have them in their simplicity, as some ignorant artists boast, who instead of the elements separate different substances from the subject, to which they falsely give the name of the simple elements, then such a thing is impossible for man, as all the more understanding men and the scholars confess in the secrets of Nature.

Nevertheless, it is not right to leave you merely stuck either in despair or in ignorance, and to give you at least some guidance according to the knowledge which I have been able to draw from the conversation and dealings of certain people, who were sufficiently fortunate to possess this science in all its comprehension, so that you, if you proceed patiently, may arrive at the aim of your undertaking, provided that divine wisdom finds it advisable; although among many millions, I say, of learned, clever, righteous, and holy men, God has not considered it good to give this science to more than only a few.

What can we say to this, except that the devout God has so willed it?

Now then, beloved reader, because God is righteous and the infallible giver, turn yourself to Him with an entirely simple conscience; I mean, direct that same conscience more toward God than toward yourself. For this is the property of the righteous and holy: to live less in themselves than in God.

The divine apostle assures us of this when he says: “I live, yet now not I who live, but Jesus, who lives in me.”

Therefore, if you have rightly ordered your will, and have directed your conduct in the way of righteousness and the fear of God, then call upon the Almighty for help and assistance, and say to Him, if it is His good will and pleasure to call you to such a high and excellent science, that He may lead you in this sandy wilderness, where no way is to be seen; in the darkness, where you truly recognize that no light shines upon you; and in the wandering where you will find no path to guide you, unless His goodness and mercy alone should wish to lead and guide you.

If you govern yourself in such a way, with a sound understanding and great simplicity of spirit, then read and study the learned men in this science. Enter into their secret and hidden understanding, and do not stop at the literal meaning of their words. Repeat, reason over, and consider this subject which you seek, which is only one single thing, as you will afterwards perceive, unless you believe otherwise, that I do not wish to mislead you, nor to mislead myself.

Hermes Trismegistus, the father and prince of this hidden philosophy, is the first who assures you that it is founded upon the unity of one single beginning, when he says that all things are made from one single thing, through the mediation of one single thing.

The divine Plato shows you this after him, when he says that all things have come forth from unity, and return again to unity.

And after him all the sages testify to this truth: that you need no more than one thing to prepare the great Magistery, when they say that the matter is one single thing.

Synesius explains it to you plainly when he says of it that God has created two stones with this universal thing: the white and the red, both of which are hidden in, or under, one subject.

Therefore remember that when you take this one thing, that you take it in its original Minera, and not when it has been separated from it.

I mean that you draw this one thing from its natural and fundamental source, and not at the end of the stream. Seek it at the end in the womb of Nature making things, and not in the bosom of Nature already made by Nature, which is every kind of determined thing.

Thus you must take it when its fatherly love lets it descend from above for its children, from its origin and heavenly and astral Minera, and when it lovingly spreads itself over the face of the earth, wrapped in a green mantle, and covered with a moist night, which is nothing other than a hidden light in an unfolded chaos, and a flowing matter clothed with darkness and mist.

Therefore consider well the secret words of Moses in the first book of Creation. Pray to the devout God that He may grant you the grace to understand the secret meaning of these beautiful words which this great prophet and lawgiver sets forth, when, since he is now at the point of death, he gives his last blessing to the children of Israel, and says to Joseph the son of Jacob:

“His land lies in the blessing of the Lord; there are noble fruits from heaven, from dew, and from the depths that lie beneath. There are noble fruits of the sun, and noble ripe fruits of the months, and of the high mountains toward the morning,” etc.

Deut. 33.

Ask Him also for grace, that you may understand what Isaac, when he was about to die, foretold for the advantage of his son Jacob, when he gave him the blessing with these words:

“God give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine.” Gen. 27.

But take good care that you do not fall with me into the error of those who believe that this is the common dew; nor, above all, anything of all that is clearly named in the books of the philosophers. For it is no other thing than this heavenly and spermatic water, over which the Spirit of God hovered and moved at the beginning of the world, as Basilius Valentinus teaches you in his Seventh Key.

For this reason, ask the Holy Spirit that He may grant you the knowledge of the spirit of the fire of the Lord, and of this seminal water, over which the fiery Spirit, occupied in the creation of the world, divided and spread itself out.

And know that what you must have is a bodily spirit, which is the root of the life of all things, which takes its nature from heaven, from the earth, and from the elements.

Finally, it is the earthly cave of which the same Basilius speaks in his report of words, where he wishes to give you to recognize this secret beginning of the Work, or this one spermatic matter of the sages, saying:

“As concerns the seminal powers of the metals, I wish you to recognize them thus: first, the heavenly influence descends, by God’s command, from on high, and mixes itself with the powers and properties of the stars, and from this combined mixture forms a third, earthly cave.”

Thus the beginning of our seed is made; and such is its first bringing-forth, by which it can give sufficient testimony of its own kind.

Beloved reader, pay attention here, and weigh these words well, and those of Hermes, when he says that the sun is the father of this subject which you seek, and that the moon is its mother; that the wind, or the air, has carried it in its belly; and that the earth is its nurse, its central point, and its mother-place.

This is the steel and the magnet of the Cosmopolite. The common air produces, or makes appear, this magnet; and this magnet produces, or makes appear, the air, or the Mercury of the Philosophers, which is the son of the sun and the moon, because it is drawn out from the rays of the sun and of the moon by the attracting power and force of this natural magnet, or this magnetic steel, which is found in all places and at all times.

But the best is that which is found in the belly of Aries and in the head of Taurus, when the sun makes its regular course between the signs of Aries and Taurus, and begins again its course obliquely through the first degrees of its exaltation in these two houses; and because at that time it borrows a part of a greater and more living warmth to make the lower nature of this hemisphere begin; so it also happens at that time that this steel, or Magnesia of the sages, sublimates itself and more frequently precipitates itself in the ascending and descending, from heaven to earth and from earth to heaven, through continual circulation in the great circle of the world.

It is called Magnesia, because through a multiplying and hidden power it draws to itself the son of the sun, at the very moment when it takes upon itself its possible existence.

It is also called an earthly cave, because the earth, which is its nurse, takes to itself the power and properties by which the earthly nature is impressed through the heavenly being and the properties of the stars, as Valentinus says.

In conclusion, it is the terra Adamica, the Adamic earth, which lies before the eyes of the whole world under an old and hateful mantle, but which can never suffer that men should look upon it in its bodily nakedness, except the children of the sages, to whom it reveals itself in all kinds of ways, when it seems good to it.

It is a hidden and deeply concealed thing in the bosom of Nature, and it does not appear visibly, nor formaliter that is, formally as when it pleases the artist to let it appear.

Know therefore, beloved reader, that the sun and the moon, with the cooperation of the other stars, will help you to bring it forth formaliter, formally; but they will not do everything. Take therefore, then, besides your refuge to these two heavenly and highest directors of Nature, there is also a middle thing which must be found, because it must have something of the body and of the spirit, of the visible and invisible, at one time, and of the heavenly and the earthly.

Nevertheless, at this beginning this will be the very greatest difficulty you must overcome: to seek a thing which is everywhere, and yet is not to be found in the three kingdoms of Nature. Does it not seem that one is thereby mocking the world? To seek an earthly cave which is neither visible nor formaliter formally neither in heaven nor upon earth, nor in the earth: does this not seem to be an unbelievable matter?

But is it not more probable that it might truly be found in the air, in water, or in fire? By no means, as I told you earlier. For you should know that although it is spiritually scattered everywhere in the world, and powerfully poured into all elementary bodies and elements, yet it is not individualiter individually and in true form in any special place, nor in a determined subject. Thus, although it is powerfully everywhere, nevertheless you will not find it everywhere in the state in which it can be drawn out for your use; and your understanding and industrious diligence must serve you as midwife to draw it formaliter out of the entrails of Nature.

The Cosmopolite gives firm testimony to this truth when he says in express words says: No one should imagine, nor persuade himself, that he wishes to make the first matter of the stone of the sages, for Nature alone is she who makes it and brings it forth by the help of Art.

The devout and loving Synesius also proves this clearly when he says, speaking of his viscous, heavenly, and beloved water, that it is impossible for us to make it by Art; rather, Nature alone is she who produces and gives birth to it, with the help of the clever artist.

And to let you see that it is an extraordinary, wonderful, and very hidden matter, he adds that it is precisely the blessed natura naturans Nature naturing which brings forth all things, in which alone the whole Magistery consists, and to which you must add nothing foreign. Rather, in its first preparation you must only remove from it all superfluous matter, since in this single matter all necessary things of this Art are contained, except its solar or lunar ferment, which you must add to it only at the end of the Work, as the twelfth key of Basilius Valentinus clearly teaches you.

But if you ask properly in what place, and especially in what subject, you are truly to make Nature bring forth this one thing through your diligence and understanding, I know nothing to say to this. It belongs to the highest Creator, who knows the ground of your soul down to the smallest and invisible corners, before the eye of your heart and of your understanding, and to give you what I cannot teach you.

I would indeed gladly wish that this Most High Majesty would give me the means to come to your aid in this, according to your desire. Therefore I ask you to believe that I strive, according to all my small ability, so far as the same extends, moved by divine love and by the stirring of a Christian, heartfelt desire, through my writing and through the sincerity of my declaration, to help you.

You may believe of me what you will; but you can be assured that from the bottom of my heart I would gladly wish that the true lovers of this science might have from it a full and complete knowledge.

Finally, dear reader, know that there is a special comparison and agreement between this great mystery of the sages, and the most worthy mystery of the Holy Trinity, and the mystery of the Incarnation, the Birth, and the Death of the Son of God.

For first, just as in the Holy Trinity there is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who are only one single God, one single Being, and one single divine Nature in three distinct Persons, among whom the Son and the Holy Spirit proceed from the eternal Father: so likewise it is in this Work of the sages. There is the heavenly Father, which is the Mercury of the Philosophers, and the universal spirit, which is the soul and life of the world. These three things, although they are distinct in deed, are nevertheless only one single being and solar nature, from which the Son and the Spirit proceed from the Sun, which is the father, the beginning, the Minera, and the original source.

Further, just as the eternal Father sent His only Son Jesus Christ, the Savior of mankind, to assume a human body in the holy body of the Virgin, so also here the Sun, which is the great father of the metals and of all middle Nature, sends its only son, Mercury, the Savior of the metals, to assume an earthly body in the entrails of the Virgin.

And in the same way that the Virgin conceived the Son of God in no other way than through the working of the Holy Spirit, so in like manner this secret Virgin conceives the son of the Sun in no other way than through the working of its life-spirit.

The Holy Virgin was a virgin before and after the birth; so also this Virgin preserves her virginity before, during, and after her childbed.

Finally, just as the Son of God, having been born of the Holy Virgin, at last wished to give His life for the renewal and salvation of human nature, with the blotting out of the sins of mankind through the shedding of His precious blood, so also in this Magistery the son of the Sun, who has been born of this Virgin, also gives the life for the renewal of metallic nature, in that He cleanses the metals from their imperfections and original impurities through the shedding of His royal blood.

Therefore call upon the Holy Virgin by your constant prayer for help, who bore Him who died for the blessedness of your soul, so that through her intercession you may come to the knowledge of this Virgin of the sages, who will bear you this Son, who is to die for the salvation of your body and for the lengthening of your life.

And consider that all the world, the poor as well as the rich, the nobleman as well as the ploughman, and the learned as well as the ignorant, have before their eyes the subjectum, from which you can draw this Virgin, who is necessary to you at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of your work.

The rays of the two upper lights are very powerful in this subjectum; but whether this subjectum is to be found in particular things, in the species and genera in one of the three kingdoms alone, or in all three together, or in each one separately, or whether it is to be found in the simple elements, or in mixed things, I cannot properly tell you.

Therefore you should hold it as certain that perhaps the other men will help you very little after me, since God very often does not permit that clearer or more comprehensible revelations should be made concerning it.

Therefore take, after this and according to the books of the sages your refuge only to God, who will completely give you the knowledge of this earthly cave, namely this Mother-Virgin I say, Mother-Virgin. For at the moment when she receives her being, she also receives her motherhood and her virginity together at once.

Where you do not believe that I am entirely on the right way, then consider, read, and repeat with all diligence all these discourses, from their beginning to the end. Perhaps through the mercy of God you will find a true and new light to guide you onto the right path of this splendid science.

If it is God’s pleasure, He will call you to the knowledge of this high and secret wisdom. The following discourse, which I have made to this end, will comfort you in your long and laborious works of body and mind, so that by this means, through me, in possession of the great and highest Work of human wisdom, you may praise God, and pray to God for me, that I have given you so beautiful a light.

The
Wonder-Bed
of the Stone of the Wise.

When one wishes to work the Work of Nature, it seems that, with the help of Vulcan, one must draw out a universal chaos from a universal or particular subjectum whether heavenly, earthly, airy, or watery either from the heavenly, or the earthly, or the accidental, or from one or two, or from all three at once, for a fairly long time, which I reckon at two or three months.

This work appears outwardly to be troublesome and laborious; but if it is done by the way and the lineage, and by a certain working of the sun and the moon, then it is very little; and if it is done through the working of the artist, it appears to be of the same form.

This operation, with and against one another, with the coming together of the upper, lower, and accidental causes, and not the government of a wise worker, will bring forth for you this chaos and mixture of natural, essential, and accidental, subtle or thick, hard or soft, heavenly or earthly matters.

In this chaos if heaven, earth, and the artist agree well together, then it seems that Nature will bring forth for you a virgin who is greatly stained in her birth with uncleanness and impurity.

A strange thing, that the father and mother of this virgin, who are indeed the brightest, noblest, purest, and most excellent creatures of the whole world, have brought forth their dear and noble birth with so much weakness, impurity, and imperfection.

Nevertheless, although this virgin has taken much impurity upon herself in her birth, yet her lovely and heavenly parents, who begot her, have given her the power to conceive and to beget, through the working of the understanding of life, a son who is filled with infinite, unspeakable, and unsurpassable perfections.

Moreover, it seems that she wishes to communicate a part of her loveliness to the wise investigator of this art, and to leave to his discretion, understanding, and mere knowledge, and to his entirely certain science, the means of destroying and drawing out from this chaos her noble and dear birth, as is necessary for this bringing-forth.

This wise worker, whether he possesses half-knowledge or perfect knowledge of this wonderful Work, however he may be, must nevertheless keep his heart and soul in a constant fear of God before the Most Holy Author of all things who made him, or still skillfully make these two bright-shining and wonderful parents his friends, who with such great goodness entrusted to him their heavenly daughter, in the hope that they have that he will raise her wisely, according to the station which her illustrious and noble lineage requires, and in this perform the office of an understanding regent and wise administrator, after he has performed the office of midwife in the mixing and careful drawing-out of the same from the belly of chaos.

A wonderful thing: this daughter, as soon as she is born, is also heavy in body and pregnant; and the more she grows, the more her pregnancy also increases. In this way, at its birth, one child conceives another child in itself, which is much greater and more excellent than its mother, even at the very moment of its birth. And this uncommon and cleverly foolish child has, as it were, unavoidably to say that it has begotten its mother.

It honestly testifies for truth rules in the mouth of children just as well as in the mouth of the righteous that it is a king, although it is still in its mother’s body. And although it is still in this innocent and maternal prison, yet all its subjects recognize it and confess and hold it for such a one, and honor its royal childhood in the womb of its mother because of the joy which they have through the advantage his rightful to enjoy rightful dominion upon earth, by means of righteousness, abundance, and glory; and so the government of their highest monarch will be imparted to them in the time of his majority.

If the wise man makes proper use of science and wisdom, he will draw from this chaos and from this disorderly mixture this Virgin-Mother. He will cleanse her from all her original defilement and take her out from all her monthly uncleanness. Yet he cannot prevent her body, in this first bringing-forth, from being surrounded with a poor and clear garment, which draws from the Minera and from a certain principle an odor which it does not seem to have.

In this condition she has brought it into the world in a manner and way that is like the perfections of its father and its mother, although they are hidden deep and invisibly in her own entrails.

The artist will therefore fall in love with this heavenly virgin when he marvels at her perfections in this tender, weak, and very imperfect age; and when he considers her poor and simple origin, he will lose his understanding in wonder that, with so few things, her father and mother have brought forth a daughter endowed with all the virtues and all the perfections of the whole world.

This knowledge will increase his courage, and will immovably strengthen his resolve to complete this Work, which seems to be more angelic than human. And so that he may come to a fortunate end in it, his heart must always be in the fear of God, in order to receive from His goodness all necessary help and understanding at the beginning of this supernatural, yet natural, Work, which is filled with such great and almost every kind of difficulty.

For in this way he will be assured that, strengthened by the grace of God and by heavenly powers, his heart will be filled. And when he sees this Virgin, his holy undertaking, for the honor of his God, and his just and God-pleasing task, for the consolation and benefit of the whole world according to the pound of wisdom which the infinite goodness has poured into his soul then he will courageously undertake to lay his hand to the Work, and to continue this strange and wonderful labor until the time of its perfection.

Besides this, at this time, and with the first, the wise seeker will prepare the childbed of this Virgin and the birth of this prince and monarch, who is almost unknown to the whole world. And in an incomprehensible way he will draw to himself his faithful friends and servants, who recognize only a part of his virtues in certain fruits which they bring before their eyes, while he communicates with no one except God Himself and the angels, through their co-operation to work, who through their cooperation give him signs by which they fully recognize him.

Under this divine help, the wise man lays hand to the Work, and with understanding prepares the childbed of this princess, who is pregnant with the greatest king of the world. For this he prepares all things, and without much knowledge; this whole matter consists only in a chamber and in a bed suitable to the rank of his queen, and in a cradle for her son, which is made of the same matter as the bed: very bright and transparent in all its parts, but of different form, as is fitting.

This young son, at the point of his birth, is filled with reverence and love toward his mother, although he is much mightier than she; and because she is the mother who has her origin from the child, he nevertheless wishes to be born and to see the daylight before her feet in his cradle, which is one with the cradle of his mother.

He honors and loves her so strongly that at his birth he has a strange trouble to go out of her body and free himself from her. And he would never come forth if a very powerful agent did not draw him out from there by force. This drawing-out is nothing other than a pure distillation.

This is the incomparable prince, who, as soon as he is born, gives certain signs of his infallible and future greatness who recognize his excellent nature and the almost divine virtues of his heavenly being; but they are unbelievable to those who are deprived of this supernatural light, although it is naturally supernatural.

For although he has indeed had his mother within himself in all his parts, nevertheless this child, when it goes out from the body of its mother, comes forth much greater than she herself is; and therefore it must have a much greater cradle than the bed of its mother is.

No one can believe these wonders or rather, so to speak, their apparent impossibilities except the one who has seen them worked out, or who sees it by imagination, and through this imagination sees the real understanding of this work.

And afterwards, just as it is said in the Gospel: “Out of the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks,” so also, from the fullness of knowledge and of real understanding, which the artist has formed in his understanding concerning this infallible, natural, and single matter, and concerning this entirely certain and wonderful work which he has not yet set into action, he works quite certainly outwardly what he had previously practiced inwardly in his understanding through his wise and truthful reflection.

This agrees with what the whole of natural wisdom has said: if you have not first made it in your head, you will never make it outside the same.

So now the artist must at this moment prepare a cradle, which is well suited to the great, almost spiritual body of his young prince. And this cradle also serves as the midwife herself for the Virgin lying in the childbed.

Do not consider this a lie when it is said that the child, when it is born, is greater than its mother, and that it must have a larger and wider cradle than its mother’s bed is. If you do not properly recognize this necessity, neither in practice nor in theory, then you are not on the path of truth, since this prince at the point of his birth has a great, very subtle, and very spiritual body. Therefore it is necessary that his cradle agree with the size of his body; otherwise you will lose him, and if you lose him, you will at the same time lose all rightful and reasonable hope.

Mark well what I say to you again: he is so subtle, so fleeting, and swift, that if you have not properly prepared his cradle together with the bed of his mother, then, as a very subtle and penetrating spirit although he is bodily he will fly away from it, and you will retain nothing.

This Virgin-Mother is not ashamed to lie in the childbed in the presence of her servant, her subject, and attendant, the child of wisdom; since she does not bear her child in the common manner of the women of this world, who, when they conceive and give birth, lose their virginity and lose it again.

This Mother-Virgin becomes, in her bearing, still more a virgin than before. She gives birth through the brain, through the feet, through the hands, and through all parts of her body. So great and so excellent is her child that it cannot come forth from one part alone.

She also gives birth in the same way as she conceived. She conceived through all parts of her body, and all her parts do what belongs to them, and serve for the passage of the birth of her son. This is enough to prove the fundamental rule that the place of birth is the same as that of conception.

The virginal body of this chaste mother increases her virginity, instead of losing the same, or being corrupted by this childbed, just as little as by the conception. For instead of widening herself and opening herself in all places, she closes and shuts herself together when she lies in the childbed with this, outwardly small, weak, and tender child, but in truth the very greatest prince of the whole world.

This illustrious son of the Sun, when at the time of his birth he begins to make the great extent of his cradle known, through the impression which he makes with his great purple-red wings upon the bright and transparent matter of the same, begins to give signs of his great power. And by a certain cry, or weeping of a child, which he lets resound at the going out of his childbed and the entering into his cradle, he makes known the love which he has: that he wishes to be drawn out with force from the body of his dear mother.

For because he has only part of his body outside, he begins to cry pitifully, as if he were very angry. Moreover, I say, he begins to give forth a kind of childish and unintelligible voice, according to the properties of his nature, and lets an unusual and extraordinary childish weeping break forth, which causes joy and wonder to the one who has opened his ears to hear attentively.

But it is no less wonderful for the artist to see that this heavenly son, when he is thus, as it were, angry, gives blows over the crystalline prison with his powerful hand, and gives box-like strokes upon his mouth, as if he wished to crush him, to fly at the eyes, and to kiss the feet and hands of his illustrious parents.

The fearful investigator will several times believe that he will break his cradle into pieces, in order to take his departure toward his fatherland. But if it is well proportioned and arranged according to his subtle and bodily nature, then he produces nothing but threatening without effect.

Therefore be well assured that, if the cradle is too small, then out of anger, displeasure, and wrath he will smash it into a hundred thousand pieces and fly away from it into the air.

O wonder above all wonders! One of my friends, who possesses the knowledge and the practica of this great and incomparable chief Work of Nature and Art, told me that when one day he wished to touch this newborn child with the tip of his tongue, he felt such a strong and biting sharpness so vividly that at first it seemed to him as though he had placed a fiercely consuming fire upon his tongue. But gradually this sharpness spread itself out and finally ended in a very pleasant sweetness.

Notwithstanding this, in order to recognize the nature of this heavenly son, he wished to touch it with his fingers, and he assured me as it is indeed true that it seemed to him he was dealing with melted fat; thus so that he began to say: “Oh, how great cause the sages had to call it a very sharp vinegar: mountain-vinegar, and antimonial vinegar, because it is so sharp and biting. And they have also, with all justice, given it the name of a heavenly and viscous water, because it is so beautiful, so fat, and so viscous.”

This very secret friend, who has now removed himself very far from here, further told me that when once, without due attention, he worked at the childbed of this Virgin and at the birth of this son, from lack of art and understanding he heated it too violently at the beginning, with an excessive warmth unbearable to the son and to the mother. Thus she unfortunately miscarried, through excessive anger and wrath; and in this irreparable premature birth, there arose fumes so very enraged that they tore apart their crystalline bed, and leapt out entirely wild and monstrous something definite, I know not what in the form of a red and very thick smoke, which spread through the whole chamber.

At first the chamber was filled with a certain foul, sweet, sour, and biting smell, which caused my friend no less wonder than the damage he had suffered caused him horror and displeasure.

You should nevertheless know that this Virgin, in her childbed, is subject to the custom of women. For she wants, like them, to have a warm place and no air; otherwise her childbed would not be successful.

Because she is heavenly and airy, she wants a bed that shares in both qualities, but so closed and guarded in all parts, and so properly united with the cradle of her son, that no cold and foreign airs can enter.

In all this work, the man of understanding does nothing other than surround the camp of this queen with a proportioned warmth, keep away the cold, and not frighten her in her painful and beloved labor of birth.

Yet at the beginning of this childbed the wealthy servant of this heavenly Virgin needs uncommon understanding and very clever and prudent conduct, which must be governed by a good and firm judgment. For in this operation the spirits of this Virgin are so movable, and her air-holes are so opened, that if he angers her imprudently at the beginning, she will immediately miscarry; she will become enraged, and in this motion will attack unseen the windows of her chamber, burst the roof, throw the walls over in a heap, and thereby go out as if through the door and thus, instead of a happy recovery or birth, one will have nothing other than a miscarriage or premature birth, upon which nothing else will follow except just and extreme regret that one did not apply all diligence, attention, and carefulness which are necessary in so important a work.

This Virgin of Heaven suffers far more in the labor of her birth than other women, because they commonly suffer only in one place of their person, but this one suffers in all places and in all parts of her body. Her fear and pains are so violent that at last she dies from them. She becomes pale, falls into a faint; her soul and spirit leave her. In this operation she remains dead, stretched out upon her bed, without pulse and without movement, and becomes white like alabaster.

She alone deserves the name of a pelican, since through mere necessity in her painful and deadly childbed she gives herself over to death; and while she gives life to her son, who takes his birth from all parts of his mother, he spreads out from all his members his wings, which are red as blood, as an essential mark of the purple of his royal majesty.

He flies about everywhere around the bed of his mother; and indeed, through an innocent feeling of childhood, he wounds and delights himself over the Wise One and over the death of the same one who gave him his being and his life.

He strives to the utmost, and gradually and, as it were, under compulsion, flies down into his cradle. And his wings take on the essential fire so strongly that they are colored with a red and purple color, like blood or like a ruby. And, which is hard to believe, his whole cradle itself seems to become like a true ruby, which lasts so long as the proportioned warmth of the mother’s bed preserves the old wings of this child outside his body, in the freedom of his childbed.

Dear one, marvel at the infallible, invisible, and silent instruction of Nature in the bringing-forth of our young prince, since she gives certain signs of his future and royal greatness through this scarlet and imperial purple, which accompanies him and covers him on all sides at his birth.

But the cold, the mortal enemy of this young prince, shows itself to him and lets him feel the cruelty of its weapons. And the still fearful, tender, and shy child almost loses by it his strength and signs of life, which compels it to draw together all the redness of its wings, which is in the inside of its cradle and in the bed of its mother; and he gathers them together and hides them in his own bosom, and in his heart, out of fear that his enemies might rob him of the splendid marks of his immovable royal majesty.

This fear covers him with a pale, clear color, somewhat mixed with green; thus, to appearance, there is a mark of his natural and vegetable birth. A fatty sweat covers his face and all the upper parts, according to appearance, with a thick little skin; and in truth, he is of a spiritual body, although he is bodily.

The worker, his faithful servant and regent, in this case and in a moment, undertakes the matter with a small sword of fire, and by understanding prevents the mortal enemy of the child, so that in his fainting he may not entirely lose his life if the mother’s death wished to come to his aid because the two highest lights of heaven have imparted to him this unbelievable and wonderful virtue: to give life back again to his mother, if he returns again into her body. This is impossible to believe for one who does not possess this special wisdom.

Therefore the wise regent of this prince will, with skill, courage, and diligence, loosen his cradle and save this child from his enemy, when he does this in a small crystalline tower, so that with his tender and small body he may well fit and lie within it. He will surround, enclose, and care for it in a place protected from cold and air, with a gentle and small warmth; lovingly bring the spirits back into this little dwelling; and see well that the door and entrance of this little chamber be very well stopped up and firmly closed with a white, fat, gentle, soft, and hard matter, very skillfully joined together, through suitable and sharp-minded artists.

These artists wall up this noble matter above all matters which is also the most beautiful, the tenderest, and the brightest thing in the world so that, when the door is thus well guarded, the enemy may by no means penetrate into the chamber. Therefore take good care here; for if even the slightest thing should enter, you would run the danger of losing everything: the mother and the child, the fruit and the work.

After the artist has laid this prince in this other cradle, or little chamber, which is suitable to his age and his royal greatness, he has no need to trouble himself over what kind of milk he is to receive. For since his good mother, when she bore him and died over it, left him the power to live of himself and of his own being, without any diminishing of his excellent and subtle, though still young, tender, and lovely body, although even if he slept four hundred years in his cradle.

All that he has to do in this cradle is nothing other than to sleep, since sleep is life in this state of simplicity and unity.

When the wise man has thus set him outside the danger and snares of his enemy, he judges it right and reasonable to perform the funeral rites of his Virgin and royal mother, whom he has left dead in her bed.

But an angel appeared through the infinite goodness of the Most High, who said to him: “Do not grieve. The princess has died in order to be awakened again. Since the almighty power of God has so ordained it, keep her funeral rites with honor, and observe the custom of your country in doing so. Wash her body well with a moisture which is suited to her virginity, which is pure, bright, and useful for this purpose, according to the knowledge which God has given of it.”

I believe that when you have drawn this princess out of the chaos, and separated her from all her old rags and her original defilements, and have allowed her to keep her childbed, I believe, you will have left her nothing for her clothing except only her shadow, which is her bodily nakedness, considering the weaknesses of her temperament and the virtue of her age; otherwise she would never have brought this great and small prince into the daylight, whom you have laid in his other cradle.

After you have now carefully observed this custom of the noble persons of your country, which is to wash the body before it is laid in the coffin, as I have then told you with special and useful waters, which are decent for each one, so after this washing you will find the body of this queen white like alabaster, clear almost like crystal, and her face shining like a polished marble-stone.

Do everything with due skillfulness. Lay her in a crystalline coffin, and wait until the time of resurrection comes. Keep this coffin in a warm and dry place.

I can still say to you for your comfort that this noble queen, in the first condition of her birth which is a state of simplicity must be awakened again. She must be laid again under the arms of her father and mother, the sun and the moon, at one time, in one place, and in a substance convenient for this. In doing so, pay attention to the universal rule of Nature: that warmth and moisture are the fathers of generation, and also of resurrection itself in the kingdom of this princess, and lay her again into the bath, and into a common place from which she had taken both her chaos and her own birth. And in a few months she will, through the power of her father and her mother, who breathe into her a spirit of life and a tender and pure soul, be awakened again.

And after you have taken her out of her moist bed, into which you had laid her so that her heavenly father and mother might visit her, embrace her, animate her again, and finally awaken her again, and desire to impregnate her with another son which they do from tender affection and natural love then, as a sign of her resurrection, she will be covered and adorned with a noble emerald-green mantle, which draws somewhat toward white, and is very different from the one she had in her first conception, which had a bad color, not noble, and inclined toward the color of dung.

Now this beautiful Virgin, at the moment of her resurrection, will conceive another son, who is equal to the first in every bodily, volatile, clear, and spiritual perfection. At the same time, the beauty of the lines of her face and of her whole body will be increased, in view of her first birth which she had from the chaos.

Here she appears nobly clothed, as I have said, in a garment of green, white, and shining velvet, although it is much greater and more adorned than the first time.

You must arrange that she bears this second son, who is much larger and stronger than his eldest brother, though not much more perfect, in exactly the same way and in exactly the same bed and proportioned cradle as the first. And because, through a boundless love toward her children, she gives herself over to death in order to give them life, her father and mother therefore also awaken her again easily and lovingly, through their wonderful and heavenly power, after she has given herself into death, so that she may come together with her divine children in the weeks.

Thus, if you wish to have children from this beautiful Virgin, you must lay her, as before, between the loving arms of her father and mother, which are their shining powers. And each time that you begin this Work again, you will see children from her virginal and noble body who are equal to the first in every perfection.

It is a wonderful thing in these children that one must lay them all at the same time in one and the same, yet different, cradle; for it is large and wide enough to contain them, with a little empty space, so that they draw only their own air and no foreign air to themselves.

But the highest wonder of these children in this is that, from the time when they are together, they embrace one another so lovingly and kindly, that one passes through the other and they mingle together inseparably, their tender, lovely, clear, greenish, and airy spirit and body into one another; so that from two, three, four, five, and more, nothing more appears and is made than only one.

Now, in order to make this child mighty in its kingdom, it must itself awaken its mother again, who gave herself into death when she gave it life. But in this operation the son must, after his order, give himself over to death in order to awaken his mother again. And this is as punishment for the innocent and unnatural bloodshed which he committed: to kiss and embrace his mother, to unite himself with her, and with the same to insert the childlike seed into the virginal body of his said mother from all parts, according to the proportion of reason and of Nature, so that it may be regulated through her womb, which the clever artist holds between the hands of his understanding and his knowledge.

To work these wonders, one must lay this young prince with the body of his dead mother in one place, so that the bed, house, and dwelling may be suited, and that it be animated by a proportioned and regulated warmth. And so that this child, composed of many, may perform the office of an old, perfect man, capable of begetting children, it must kiss and embrace her chastely and innocently, and with full desire according to the properties of its kingdom.

The cold and frozen mother feels in her own entrails the inward and living power and warmth of her son, of her father, and of her husband; and without injury to her virginity she is animated and becomes alive again.

And in the very same operation, and at the very same moment, she finally conceives, through her own embrace, from the white, clear, green-red seed of her son.

And to say to you a word which is incomprehensible to the rational and imperfect nature of the common man: this Virgin-Mother conceives her own son through her own seed.

In this second conception and rebirth, all wonders and the strangest things that occur in this whole world will be seen by her, none excepted. And from her conception until her glorious and triumphant bearing, many months pass by, entirely different from the first birth, which happens almost in an instant. I say: gradually, and in a few days, because the same is accomplished by mere power, and only through the rays of the sun and the moon as its parents.

In this second and long operation the son dies when he gives life to his mother; and his mother dies once more in her order, in a far nobler and much more perfect way than the first time, and gives up her spirit forever, so that she may obtain for her son, who reigns forever, and leave behind to him a kingdom full of age, perfection, riches, and blessedness.

This is, in every manner and way, like the Work of the incomprehensible Godhead, which needed only one single word in a short time and in moments to bring about the bringing-forth and first creation of man.

But in the rebirth of the same, although He is almighty, His wonderful wisdom considered it useful to employ days, months, and years for it.

In the same way, in this second bringing-forth, which is properly called the natural rebirth, you must employ a long time for it in view of the first, much care and vigilance and understanding, through a constant assistance of the Most High and adorable goodness of our God, whom you should unceasingly ask to fill you with the power and fullness of His graces, and to heap you over with wisdom and happiness.

So that you may accomplish so rare, so excellent, and to almost all the world unbelievable a Work, and one which seems that it must be worked and completed more by His angels than by men.

The End.