Epistle
or
Letter of Sending
of Emperor Alexander,
who first ruled in Greece and Macedonia; and was also an emperor of the Persians.

Wherein
the Stone of the Wise is very amusingly and well described and explained through a likeness and parable. Now published, for the benefit of the lovers of chemistry (alchemists), in public print

by
Friederich Roth-Scholtz,
Herrenstadt, Silesia.

Nuremberg,
at Adam Jonathan Felsecker, A. C. 1731.



Book translated to English from:
Deutsches Theatrum chemicum, auf welchem der berühmtesten Philosophen und Alchymisten Schrifften 1728

Preface

Favourable reader, this epistle came to me under the name and title of the Emperor ALEXANDER, and thus—just as I have given it to you in print—it has been rendered into German. Which emperor, however (since several have ruled in Macedonia with that name), is to be understood here, I leave to your judgment: whether you wish to ascribe it to ALEXANDER THE GREAT, who otherwise greatly loved all the arts, or to some other—this may be free to you.

I have looked only to this, that it treats within, in parabolic fashion, of the Stone, and that the poem is not uniform, so that it may be read to advantage, especially on account of the meaning of the masters who are required to make the king well again. With this the art-loving reader will be entertained and will further reflect on the matters to which it points. For it is clearly to be gathered from this that this letter of sending was written by a learned and experienced philosopher and naturalist. Farewell.

Joachim Tanckius, D.

Epistle of the Emperor Alexander

Some say (not without reason) that the art is taken from the creation of man, in whom all things are contained. Just as the little world (the microcosm) is composed and made from four different forces, so too is this art, as we shall shortly show and see from the natures of woman, of which we will presently speak in brief.

Since the great world is fashioned—or, rather, put together—from four different gathered forces of nature, of which the first is the desiring one, the second the repelling/consuming one, the third the attractive one, and the fourth the expulsive one, which is therefore the purifying one; there is also a fifth, a foreign or different power, namely life, which joins these four powers together. I have named and described these and shown their order. It is like a key to a chest: when you unlock it with this key, it opens entirely; and it is like the staves of a barrel set together, which keep something enclosed within them.

This art is brought to completion only by the wakeful and diligent, and by their moderation.

Then, as I have said before, the beginning of their operation is from the four working powers, namely the desiring, the retaining, the turning-away/consuming, and the expelling, which purifies; the fifth, namely, is the noble one, from which the most-clear soul lives.

Now we will recount the disposition of these parts or forms; therefore we will set forth these powers and their might, and will say which is warm, which cold, which is male, and which is female, so that we do not stray because of various colours and the difference of their sex. For if there is a difference between warm and cold, and between male and female, the work will in no way be accomplished unless it be set upon the right path.

And you should know that no one is born otherwise than from a man and from a woman; nor does any fruit grow otherwise than through moisture and warmth.

Therefore it is fitting that we expound the powers.

For the desiring powers are dry and male, and are warm and dry, and are the Fire.

The retaining (or holding-to-itself) powers are likewise male, and are cold and dry, and are the Earth.

The purifying are the turning-away/altering powers; they are female, warm and moist, and correspond to the Air.

The expelling powers are female, cold and moist, and correspond to Water.

But the fifth is Life, which is of itself proper—neither warm nor moist, nor cold nor dry; neither male nor female.

Therefore, so that you do not go astray in the work—should you wish to seek these powers in running waters or streams—I will show you their proper place. And thus, when you wish to extinguish the force of cold water, you coagulate it and make it firmer; and when you wish to make a water cold, you may likewise make it firmer by (appropriate) warming. Unless you amend the nature of each several power according to what you are doing, you will ruin the work.

Accordingly, since the desiring powers are dry and colouring, that is, male, they are warm and dry, as has been said; they confirm the colour so that it is not separated or altered.

The preserving/retaining powers, however, are female and dry; they gather the colour into the bodies, make the bodies soft, and unite them with the colours.

But the turning-away, purifying power is male: it purifies the redness of the body and restrains the corrupting nature from within; it is warm and moist, and is the Air.

The expelling power, which purifies, is male; it drives the earth out from it, until it has been separated and divided, so that the defects that are in the body are worked out. Thus also does the art gather these same things and their natures and set them together; this one is cold and moist, and is the Water. But the true power that passes through the whole body is as much as a spirit of the body.

Now I will name for you their forms with their names and colours, for many have erred in many parts of this, putting useless things among them and leaving out the useful. Some, however, have worked here according to the right way as we have commanded, but then broke off from it and worked according to their own opinion, and therefore the work has been ruined and has turned into a stone.

I add for your sure knowledge that you should regard your work as I have instructed you. If it is your purpose to bring it to completion, know that you are working with nothing other than the things that are of a light nature, from which the little world is made—these I will name to you with their properties.

You should know that Sulphur is Fire, Magnesia is Earth, Sedum is Air, and Mercury is Water, which flows through the body; and Spirit is the fruitful water by which all things are nourished, so that each fruit may grow and increase, and each may rise up and bring all fruits with it.

Therefore, if you wish to accomplish your work and attain as well as possible what you seek, take these two natures—namely the man and the woman, the warm and the cold, the moist and the dry—then nourish them with the living water, which has the light and the spirit, and prepare the work evenly, with a fixed essence and composition, of the very substance from which it is compounded. For it is poured and put together from various natures: from melancholy comes the body and its bulk; to it is joined the fire which belongs to red choler; and thereafter the turning-away/expelling (ab-de-wung), which comes from the stomach and is a driven-out water into the liver; this is joined to it—the flowing blood in all the veins of the body—which, when warmth gains the upper hand, is turned into a red colour.

The water, however, which is phlegm, is set in the breast, and shows itself much in cold operations. Thereafter, by divine power, a natural body arises from these things that I have named to you.

Bring these natures together, mix them very well, and set each in its own house, with its like—or with its opposite—so that your undertaking may succeed and your work be accomplished, as I have, then, having by grace been given what I have taught you—how many the parts are that work in due order by degrees until they become a body and a spirit—then the art joins them together, so that nature is changed and converted into another nature, being guided by nature. Thereafter, by the accidental forces, join the two natures steadfastly together, as I shall teach you how to draw them together, in order that they become light and clear, whence it rises up, or shines and gives light; afterward raise it until it takes on colour.

And you should know that I have written this my book to none other than philosophers and lovers of wisdom, in which I have clearly described the disposition of the natures and their parts, or the differently shaped natures, and have indicated their number. You must carefully keep the work—or the things—which are to be made soft and fluid, and with these you must labour, so that you do not transgress the right method. Then all these secrets will be disclosed to you. For the making-soft/liquefaction is a change of all natures.

Therefore you should know that they are mixed from one nature into the other until they come into their substances, and that they neither flee nor pass away into such things, neither change nor turn back from that out of which they were driven; and the lesser part will be seen. And then you should know that one nature appears through the other, and that whatever of these natures remains constant whatever of these natures remains constant, make liquescent; thereafter prepare, or make apt for it, the hidden things that are tempered or moderated. For unless you render the natures subtle or thin and turn them into a water, they are not able to dye. Therefore you must, by imbibition, make the body moist. For the philosophers call this water a “water of wisdom.” And you should also know that wisdom lies in the union, and that the parts (species) are the fixed (things), and that one bites into the other and penetrates it. Hence it is necessary that you make these species or parts liquescent, and thereafter coagulate them; then you will strengthen your work all the more firmly.

If you wish to bring your work to completion, take care that you do not add to it any red species unless you have first prepared it and made it fit for the purpose. After that you shall boil the same prepared species, and cause them to rise up and to fall down beneath themselves. This order I will set forth clearly for you, so that you may come by a straight path or footbridge to the end of your work.

And yet you should also know thereafter that some bodies require dissolution, others elevation, so that they may colour and become light and illuminated—in that (water) wherein all bodies can be dissolved. And know that, according to nature, secrets are hidden in them, and it is a fact that they are ruled by the hidden nature; then the things will appear to you that are for the philosopher Hermes, and a white earth, properly silver, Percosfar.

Therefore dispose the bodies so, if it be a white earth, that they remain steadfast. Set it in such a manner that the flames of the fire do not burn it, but, like melting wax, make it liquescent. But that which men call an instrument or implement “water” is to be understood in thy arts wherein thou exercisest thyself.

There shall also be brought together into one: the one of the sun or gold, the other of the moon or silver; and thereafter, according to these two, there are likewise two kinds of order, to be sharply apprehended by the eyes and by the heart.

Behold, I have now related to thee and made manifest the heavenly hidden thing, and have explained the hard and secret art, and have made sure the right ways and manner to govern the art. And therefore I swear that I have kept back nothing, nor altered for the sexes their place; therefore take exactly what I have written, and thou shalt attain to that which I have described.

An Example or Parable of our Art

There lies an age even unto death, in which the natures are perfectly fitted together and united—the earth, the water, its fire, and the air, and these all in the lead; with the same the gates of the arts are opened, as Hermes and his forefathers say.

Take the stone that is hung over the sea—like old white wax, a child of Hypocistidos; its name is Victor (in German, “Überwinder,” the Conqueror). With the same, kill the living, and revive the things that have been killed; for it has life and death, and this and that—from rising and setting. With this you will possess the art in which the Arabians have become sluggish and wearied.

I have told you the truth—by the Creator of the Stone, of Paradise, of the Light of Life. In it two contrary things are joined together, namely fire and water: this makes that one alive, and that one kills this; and this and that are joined in the Lion, in whom there is life and death. I do not lie; I have told you the truth: our gum coagulates our milk, and our milk dissolves our gum; thereafter there appears an Oriental redness, a blood-red hue.

This stone, clean and without stench, is found in the highest places or sites, with which the philosophers have made themselves great above all others, have been exalted, and have prophesied things to come. I have told the truth—by the power of the heavens—that I have not knowingly lied.

Our old man is our dragon; this one sits with his head and with his tail; and the head and the tail are the soul and the spirit, and the soul and the spirit are made of one glue/binding, and this, and that which is of rising and setting, at the ascent of harmful things, I do not lie.

For what I have said I have seen in a city. Make the Raven white—if you wish to make it white: first it becomes white with the Nile of Egypt, and afterwards with Persia in the secret places; and with this and with that there will appear a redness, like a store-house in the deserts, at the East, which gives life to all creatures. I do not lie: our water washes away uncleanness.

You must cleanse away all its blackness and darkness; then it will laugh mockingly, saying: “Who has washed me?” Whoever has seen it has said it, laughing; and I have told the truth and do not lie. The earths in the work are three—rising and setting—and above them sits white Saturn, that is lead, arisen and brought forth; and of these three, the soul is the fire. I have told you the truth: I will, without envy, disclose what the former have kept hidden—our earth turns your copper first into silver and at last into gold; and thus you shall have the art over which the Arabians have become slothful.

You blacken with our Egypt, and not with Persia; and you dry it with Persia, for it is a house of dryness; and with Egypt you moisten it, for it is a house of moisture—and this is a whitening and a reddening, like the redness of the mulberry, or like the blood of noble women.

The Stone of our art is at first an old man, and in the end a child; for its whiteness is in the beginning, and the redness at the last. This is the Stone at which all have grasped, and on account of which many have died—many with pain and grief—because they abandoned the path of wisdom and turned themselves to the path of evil. The horse’s covering is our white-silver garment, and our horse is a strong lion hidden under the garment; and above this and that stands our old man, who has a twofold nature in himself.

This Stone is triangular (three-cornered) in its essence, and square (four-cornered) in its quality. I have spoken the truth by the master of the work, who makes all things white and red: they are not separate or single things, but mixed things, rising and setting joined together, above all souls. He joins together and separates from one another, and joins again whenever he wills.

Our wolf is found in the east, and the dog in the west; this one has bitten that one and that one this, and both become enraged and kill one another, until from them there comes a poison and a theriac (antidote).

Our white camel is the seventh in number among the great philosophers—the Sun with the Moon, Jupiter, Mars and Venus—our Venus in our Mercury, and Saturn the seventh among them, in which they are all joined together; this is a sword and knife, and a cutting-tool for the building, and the present enemy, and a juice with the help of wine—our bishop or overseer—like the colour of the veins (or of the little kernels), and the soul yellow of the Narges or Hypocistidos; and then cast the Stone into a swift-running pour. At the death of all creatures—I do not lie—this is our example or pattern with the whitening of nature. The fire and the light, in the essence and being of clarity—the fire and the light—are our spark and our glowing brand; and with this and that you will find the art. I have told the truth, by Him who unites all things.

Our ladder is our tower from the slimy earth; and the slimiest earth is our glue, and cerate or plaster made of wax and tallow; and this, and our ship in our sea, full of sluices, I have opened—those things which our forefathers hid. I am not envious as they were; I do not lie, by Him who enlightens all things, who has set the earth before our eyes—the rising and the setting—and this and that: Narcissus with our lilies, and this and that with our old man. And our old man and our flask are our body, and our body is our stone—sought by many, but found by few. And this have I, out of compassion, set forth and explained—by the praised GOD. Amen.

Parable

Once a king armed himself for war and wished to overcome other mighty rulers. When he was about to mount his horse, he ordered one of his servants to give him a drink of the water that he loved. The servant said to him: “Lord, which is the water that you love?” The king said: “It is the water I love, which loves me above all others.”

The servant quickly understood and brought it to him. The king drank—and drank again—until all his limbs and all his veins were filled; then the king was almost suffocated.

The warriors said: “Look to the horse—mount!”

The king answered: “I cannot.”

The warriors said: “Why can you not?”

He answered: “I feel oppressed; my head pains me, and it seems to me as if all my limbs were forsaking me. I beg you to lay me in my inner chamber, in a warm and tempered place; then I shall sweat awhile, and the water I have drunk will dry out; I shall be relieved and become well.”

It was done as he commanded; afterwards they opened [the chamber] and found him nearly dead. But his parents sent for the Egyptians and the people of Alexandria, renowned before all others, and brought them to him, and told them the whole matter of the king, and said: “Do you think that he, from this grievous distress might be delivered from this distress.”

They all answered: “Yes.” And they further asked them: “Which of you is the master?”

The Alexandrians answered: “We—if it please you.”

And the Egyptians said: “Truly, we will be the masters in this matter, because we are the older, though we seem younger than you.”

The Alexandrians answered: “It pleases us well.”

Then those aforesaid masters took him and divided him into the smallest members, and ground him up with their moistening medicines, and thus ground laid him in his chamber, in a warm and moist place as before, and likewise for one day and one night together.

Thereafter they drew him out, like a dead man who yet still had something of his voice. Then all his parents cried out: “Alas, alas! he is dead!”

But the physicians said: “He is not dead, but sleepeth, and has not yet slept it out.”

They took him again and washed him with a sweet water until the taste of the medicine departed, and laid him down with just as much of the same medicine, and did to him as before; and when they took him out, his parents found him dead.

Then the parents said: “Why have you killed the king, since you were such good masters?”

They answered: “We have therefore killed him, that on the Day of Judgment he might be the better and stronger.”

Then the parents thought them to be deceivers, took away their medicines, and drove them out.

But the Alexandrian masters promised to give him back to them again. Then the parents began to laugh mockingly and said: “You want to deceive us, as the others deceived us; know, then, without doubt that you will not escape our hands, as the others escaped.”

The masters answered: “So we desire it; yes, kill us too, if we do not do exactly as we have said.”

Then the Alexandrian masters took the king’s body and washed it and cleansed it very well, until nothing of the other physicians’ medicine remained. After that they dried him, and took one part of Adeß (adeps/tallow) and two parts of the Alexandrian glass, and with a little linseed oil made it into a paste. This they applied to the dead body and laid him in a three-cornered chamber, like a melting crucible, and left him for an hour at moderate warmth; then they covered him with fire and blew (the bellows) until he rose up through a hole into another vessel.

Thereupon the king stood up crowned with a royal crown, and began to cry out: “Where are the enemies?

Let them know that I will give them all to death—unless they obey me!”

When they heard that, they said at once: “Lord, command us what you will; we will do it immediately.”

From that hour the mighty kings submitted to him; and when they wished to see some of his wonders, they would take two ounces of washed Mercury two ounces of washed mercury into a melting crucible, and upon it they laid a piece the size of a millet-grain of his nail, or of his hair, or of his blood, and blew the fire until it thickened. Then they covered it with coals, let it cool, and found such a body as I well know.

Printed at Eisleben by Jacob(us) Glaubisch.

Published by Jacob Apel, bookseller in Leipzig.

Anno 1608.