Magnesia Catholica of the Philosophers,
or a
highly necessary and evident Instruction in Alchemy,
how to obtain the hidden Catholic Magnesia of the secret Universal Stone of the true Philosophers.

By
Heinrich Khunrath,
Doctor of both Medicine and Philosophy.

Written thoroughly in the year 1599,
and published at Magdeburg.

New edition, cleansed of linguistic and printing errors.

Leipzig,
with Adam Friedrich Böhme,
1784.



Translated to English by Mitko Janeski from the book:
Magnesia catholica Philosophorum, oder eine in der Alchymie höchst nothwendige und ausgenscheinliche Anweisung, die verborgene catholische Magnesia des geheimen Universalsteins der ächten Philosophen zu erlangen / von Heinrich Khunrath im Jahr 1599 gründlich geschrieben und zu Magdeburg hrsg.

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Read, understand it, and only then judge.

“You will never torment the envious more than by serving virtue and glory.”

— Seneca, in the Epistles

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Preface of the Editor.

It would hardly be necessary to mention again here what I have already said in the edition of two of Khunrath’s treatises On the Philosophical Athanor and the Secret Fire of the Wise: namely, that it was highly necessary to bring the confused Latin-German style of writing of the author into a better order and connection, in order to understand his meaning all the more completely. I could have also published this work, On the Magnesia of the Philosophers, together with those at the same time.

I therefore repeat, that such a reworking could only have been undertaken by a true connoisseur of his writings, and moreover by one who must have read them at least fifty times. A very unappetizing labor, which—believe it or not—was much more difficult than translating from a foreign language; for one had to weigh, as it were, all his words on a gold balance, if one wished to exchange them with others that were more appropriate to the language, and yet express his meaning in a clearer light, so that the entire Khunrath—sometimes teaching, sometimes railing—might stand out in such a way that the readers, upon the most careful examination and comparison of the old and new editions, would not discover the slightest trace of a false sense smuggled in.

Unwearied diligence, caution, and attentiveness, together with many years of study of the best philosophical writings, were required in order to undertake this improvement without falsifying the meaning.

Thus everything has been said to those who might wish to display their hasty philosophical cleverness with the following remark: “In alchemical writings a falsification could easily occur.” For this can only happen in such treatises as are filled, with all diligence, with mere wordplay and letter-shuffling — but by no means in Khunrath’s writings, in which the secrets presented are repeated perhaps twenty times, almost to the point of weariness.

Such repetitions I would willingly forgive him, if only, as a theosopher, he had not railed and scolded on nearly every page, but had instead written down something more instructive. It is, to be sure, easy to imagine that he suffered much persecution in his time, and for that very reason defended himself so vehemently. His somewhat plain German language does not, of course, suit the sensitive world of Romance nations.

The inserted Latin and German remarks where the word Editor does not stand, stem from the author himself and his many marginal notes, and are for the most part only a repetition of what has already been said in the context. Whole Latin periods I have translated with great caution because of linguistic difficulties, but sometimes I have left Latin words with all care as they were, as for example: Magnesia sive Magnes-IAH, upon which the readers themselves may reflect; perhaps their effort will be rewarded, for the author undoubtedly wished to suggest much by it — and certainly more than with his often smudged woodcut illustration, which depicts an owl with spectacles and torches, accompanied by the heartbreaking rhyme:

What use are torches, lights, or spectacles,
When people do not wish to see?

From his treatise On the Philosophical Fire one may clearly perceive that by the torches, which are kindled from above, he means nothing other than the ignition of the philosophical fire by the solar fire he wished to indicate. Nevertheless, I could not bring myself to have that most beloved figure, printed only for the gentlemen sophists, re-engraved. If they are eager to see it, they may take into their hands the well-known Great Heart-strengthening for the Chemists, Berlin, 1771, 8vo, where they can view it very cleanly engraved.

The old Latin privilege granted to the author by Emperor Rudolph on June 1, 1598, which prohibited the reprinting of the treatise on the Magnesia as well as his other writings within ten years, I have suitably omitted, and have corrected the errata indicated at the end in proper order, so that this new edition, in contrast to the old confused and faulty edition, which is in any case very difficult to obtain, will undoubtedly have many advantages. Yet readers retain the liberty to read both the old and the new read them and compare them with one another, so that they may rightly be convinced and satisfied of all that I have said, without the slightest desire for fame.

The confession or declaration of the hylaeal or prime-material Chaos, so often cited in this treatise, shall likewise follow, revised accurately and properly, as soon as I shall have brought the candid and talkative Prugmayer to the press.

And now the editor makes a deep bow, and commends himself to those of the golden lineage, and to all true and genuine investigators of nature and friends of mankind.

1784

J. Y. R.

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Magnesia Catholica Philosophorum

Page 1

Truly, it remains always and everywhere true what the ancient sages have rightly said: A Jove, i.e. Jehovah, principium Musae — from God the Lord comes the beginning of the investigation of all things.

“All good gift, and every perfect gift, comes down from above, from the Father of Lights,” says the Apostle James (Chapter 1, v. 17).

Accordingly, the Philosopher’s Stone is the highest good of Nature, which through the aid of Art must be brought about and attained; and thus it is not unjustly acknowledged and called by the wise a particular great, threefold, universal gift of the Triune God — a triune, natural, and therefore catholic gift for catholic men (*).

(*) A catholic man is he who, in the pursuit of the Philosopher’s Stone, employs the catholicity of nature. Particularism is solecism.

Page 2

… bestowed upon men, from the triune hermaphroditic universal Son of the great world; in the threefold governance; for a general, useful, triune employment and ultimate purpose; as has also been reported in the Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae in the circumference of the third figure, and in other places.

For this unspeakably good gift one should praise and thank God the Lord; and all philosophers — that is, lovers of wisdom — should rightly investigate it with all diligence, as a mirror of the knowledge of God, of nature, and of ourselves (*).

All medicine, insofar as God’s and their own honor, as well as the welfare and benefit of their neighbors is concerned, is carried on with unwearied labor, chemical work, and cost, even though the devil with his retinue, arrogance, scorn, and derision would oppose it, and although foolish blockheads and blasphemous mouths, in their crude judgment and ignorance, may mutter or speak contemptuously of it.

The philosophers say: there are chiefly two secrets hidden within their Stone: the first, the knowledge of its true matter; the second, the proper preparation of its indicated matter.

(*) For the Philosopher’s Stone is a mirror of the knowledge of God, of nature, and of ourselves; and the supreme and universal medicine.

Page 3

… but nothing can be prepared unless one first knows what material is to be prepared; yet if one knows the same, and knows what kind of thing it is, then one can bring it forth, take it in hand, and work with it.

Let therefore every reasonable artist consider with himself how important it is that one should know clearly and undeniably, and not merely imagine, what in truth the lapidis philosophorum catholici materia catholica (the catholic matter of the Philosopher’s Stone) may be.

What now this, just before sufficiently indicated catholic Son of the great world (*), has to do with the true matter of the hidden catholic Philosopher’s Stone of the Wise, and what is thereby meant; likewise, how very much depends on the knowledge and understanding of the same in alchemy, in order to obtain from it the naturally alchemical, super-perfect Stone of the Philosophers — this I wish, with the help of Ruach Chochmah-El, the Spirit of God’s wisdom, so far as it is fitting to declare here, to discuss philosophically and soundly a little; reserving the rest to its proper person, time, and place, and disregarding altogether the usual venomous darts of slander from sophistical pseudo-alchemists and other mocking, scoffing birds, since I have the unconquerable truth as my strong support.

(*) Its philosophical name is Magnesia.

Page 4

“Many enemies of the truth, much honor among understanding men” — is an old German proverb.

To strengthen my undertaking all the more, what Bernard the Count adduces in the other part of his book on the Hermetic Stone from the Codex Turbae Veritatis serves well, where he speaks thus: “In vain does one seek in a thing that which is not in it.” (*)

Oh, how certainly true and irrefutable this is! As every reasonable man, even without my lengthy reminder, can easily judge for himself. Where in a thing there is nothing, from it nothing can be taken out.

He who errs in the proper matter is like a wanderer who does not travel the right road. If one, setting out from Nuremberg to travel to Venice, were to go over the Brocksberg toward the promontory of Tabin, how would he ever come to the right place? Or, if one wished to seek Rome, where the Pope dwells, not in Italy, but in Moscow or in Tartary — how would he find it? So also here: one must seek a thing where it is, not where one wills.

(*) Frustra quaeritur in eo, in quo quod quaesitum est, non continetur.
(It is sought in vain in that which does not contain what is sought.)

The German book has: Turba & Geber: Quaerere in re, quod in ea non est, hoc stulte proponitur.
(To seek in a thing what is not in it, this is foolishly proposed.)

Page 5

Therefore take good heed, all you seekers of the natural alchemical Universal Stone of the Wise, that above all things, before and prior to beginning your labor, you do not err in the proper hidden subject (subiecto debito) of the well-considered, hidden catholic Stone — which must be and is catholic (*). For such would truly not be a small error at the beginning, but an even greater one in the middle, and the greatest at the end; for one error leads to another.

Instead, according to the teaching of the divine light of nature, under Jehovah’s assistance and guidance, at the same time historical, physical, and theosophical, investigate the same most diligently, until you learn to know and also to recognize it by this light. (***) Then you have (and certainly not otherwise) that one secret and the true beginning of this high art: namely, the hidden prime-material universal Magnesia of the Wise, of the hidden, natural, alchemical Universal Stone; the catholic and highest medicine of the philosophers, the only right and true matter. And according to the true foundation and doctrine of genuine natural philosophy and of suchlike chemical philosophers, also the natural and …

(*) “Universale enim non nisi ex universali. Wie der Saame, also ist auch die Frucht.”
(The Universal comes only from the universal. As is the seed, so also is the fruit.)

(**) Either one errs in the matter, or in the improper preparation of the true matter.

Page 6

… and the true field for growth, regeneration, and perfecting of silver and gold; from it, by the will of God, flow transforming tinctures of the imperfect metals into the higher, both in essence and in form, exalted elixirs and other such true transformative particulars.

The unmistakable knowledge of the philosophical catholic Magnesia is half the art; whoever recognizes it may, in God’s name, begin at once to labor upon the Universal Stone of the Wise, where no various inconveniences — of which there are many, and which could be recounted in hundreds, and which might well occur contrary to expectation — should prevent him. Let each one consider for himself: in this true beginning, as has been sufficiently shown above, he already possesses half the art.

“A good beginning is half the work,” says the common proverb. The Lord God will then also further provide counsel for the proper preparation, so that the desired Stone of the Wise may today or tomorrow be employed philosophically, if the artist with diligent labor and good intention invokes Him in spirit and in truth, and is truly industrious, but not mammonishly importunate. God allows no time, goal, or measure to be prescribed to Him. One thing after another. If it is to be, it will happen. It must be sought from the merciful God with earnest prayer, diligently …

Page 7

… investigated, and with patience awaited until its proper time. God and Nature cannot be commanded or ordered about, as a nobleman commands his peasants. God, who helps in the beginning, will also, if He so wills, and if you yourself, as shown, rightly apply yourself to the matter, help to its middle and perfect end.

All things have their time. In this matter it depends not on your will, whether you are of high or low estate, but on the mercy and grace of God. This is certainly true.

That there is only a single Universal in Alchemy.

Before I proceed further in my intended philosophical discourse, it is highly necessary to remind at the outset that indeed some, thinking themselves very clever, but being inexperienced laborers in Nature, proceed unphilosophically enough, yet with vehement zeal and earnestness, as though in alchemy there were not only a single Universal of the Philosophers — to be understood as one single catholic or universal Stone of the Wise — but rather that there were many Universals, and not only a single one; (*) and thus that the work might be accomplished from more than a single thing.

(*) The laborers write: “He has a Universal; among all the Universals there is none better than this or that.”

Page 8

… bring forth; since, firstly, all material things have come from the materia prima catholica; and secondly, because the most universal spirit of the world, the nature, the soul of the world, is in all things.

Although this is not altogether foolishly concluded and spoken, yet it is such that to a true philosopher it would rightly appear almost laughable. On this point, I leave every well-learned naturalist to judge impartially.

How could there be a Universal if one were to assert that there are several of them in alchemy? Consider only what the word Catholicon or Universale means — that is, something all-embracing, in nature as well as in other sciences, having but one meaning! Reflect also on why the wondrous Stone of the Wise, prepared from the magnesia catholica, is called catholic or universal; that is, a general Stone of the Wise, and is also named so. Truly because it has been prepared from a primaterial, catholic, natural subject, as will be further explained in what follows; and also because from this very cause it possesses strength and power, catholic, that is, universal, natural, and naturally to act, artificially, upon all natural things — which, by God’s will, were taken from the materia prima catholica, that is, from the material origin of the world in the beginning, and thereafter also mediately by the co-working of nature…

Page 9

… Nature, from propagation, have naturally come to be.

The saying of the philosophers: “As many things as there are, so many philosophical stones can be made from them, and as many of them are present.” This is true; but since things are specific, each being of its own particular kind, so also must and can the stones prepared from them naturally and alchemically be none other than specific ones, not in any way universal.

According to the natural course, as is the seed, so also is the fruit; hence like brings forth like. A catholic seed produces a catholic fruit; a specified seed a specified fruit. Gold, according to nature, brings forth artificially a gold stone; silver, a silver stone; vitriol, a vitriolic stone; antimony, an antimonial stone; and so with the others.

But the Universal Magnesia of the Wise produces a philosophical Universal Stone.

Truly, all material things have in the beginning of the world come forth from the materia prima universali. So also is the incorruptible Spirit of the Lord in all. (*) Yet He is not in each one in a catholic…

(*) Reference: B. der Weißh. 12. p. 1: Er ist der allergeheimste Geist der Welt; die Natur; die Seele der Welt.
(“He is the most universal Spirit of the world; Nature; the Soul of the World.”)

Page 10.

… catholic. In no other does He dwell synoptically-catholic more than solely in the magnesia philosophorum catholica.

The particular fiery sparks of the catholic or most universal hidden fiery Spirit, the Soul of the World, have, according to their properties and kinds, shaped the materia prima universalis in all and every material particular thing into their specific forms.

By contrast, Nature has left the magnesia philosophorum catholicam catholic — knowing neither to specify it as vegetable, animal, or mineral, but rather, with its synoptically-catholic scintilla, that is, with the briefly-understood general spark, has universally animated and endowed it with a catholic nature. (*)

In short, it is a universal God; a universal great material world made by God; a universal first-created materia prima of the same; (**) a universal Savior of mankind.

(*) Forma dat esse rei. Qualis forma, tale formatum.
(The form gives being to the thing. As is the form, such is the thing formed.)

(**) This is nevertheless the first created being, material, catholicon, the first-material essence of all material things; the lime-stick sophister (Ardelio) may scoff according to his old custom at this as he wishes.

(†) The author has also placed the word “lime-stick” further below and at the end of this treatise, signifying the idea of birdlime, or a bird-catcher, in the chemical sense of a sophistical gold-maker; with which it is connected. — The Editor.

Page 11.

… of the human race; a universal Christian faith; a universal Christian Church; a universal head of this Church, Jesus Christ; a universal, naturally and artificially made Philosopher’s Stone, from the first universal, also catholically animated matter of the material world — which matter is presented solely in the magnesia philosophorum catholica by God, through Nature, to the natural philosophers as the Universal Stone (*).

This is the only primaterial Universal of the chemical philosophers, which without doubt has this name because, unlike all the different universals told of until now, it has been universally witnessed in and from the great world-book of God through the divine light of Nature, according to the highest counsel and inexpressible will of God, in a marvelous universal way. That we may thereby also physically and physically-chemically recognize how wonderful are the goodness, wisdom, and power of the Creator; for the testimonies of the wondrous God are themselves wondrous.

Therefore, conclude with good ground of truth from the light of Nature, that in alchemy there is no more than a single Universal; and that if the sophist speaks differently of it, and the talkative babbler — who in this matter makes much useless and presumptuous boasting — takes a contrary stand against it, his opposition is but vain.

(*) Concerning the philosophical Universal Stone, I say…

Page 12

… stubborn Beelzebub-like swarm of hornets, in the presence of nature-understanding men, ought henceforth rightly and justly to be silenced.

But should anyone absolutely wish to deny that the Philosopher’s Stone has ever existed in rerum natura, or that it might still be possible, through the natural and artistic mediation of God’s will and blessing, to obtain it, or should some wish, after the manner of Nicodemus, to doubt it — as indeed I well know that here and there some, especially at courts, in high schools, and otherwise among clergy and laity, though esteemed for their station, office, and profession, are nevertheless inexperienced in this secret — to such and the like the following two trumpets of truth shall be set straight against them: namely, first, the repeated experience even up to our own time, as has in truth been demonstrated in various places, by different people in Germany and elsewhere, by persons of high and low estate, many times proven and seen with the highest astonishment. I leave it to such people to answer for themselves, whence…

(*) I do not speak of all; for there are in those very places still secretly sons of the chemical science, though they dare not yet publicly make themselves known, just as Christ’s disciples, out of fear of the Jews, did not openly confess Him. They must, for the sake of avoiding persecution, keep silent, though they would gladly speak.

Page 13

… and how they obtained this high medicine: they nevertheless possessed such a powerful and wondrous thing (*), and employed it artfully; but much more often, in how they maintained and handled it, they misused it.

The persons and places could now be named, if they were not already well known in the land, or if they were not reserved until their time to be revealed in another place. Whoever has heard nothing of this should inquire among the honorable and truth-loving relatives of this art, and will surely receive trustworthy information about it. (**)

And although this indicated ens mirificum, or wondrous thing, is not always self-evident from each one who has possessed it…

(*) Lapis philosophorum ens physico artificiale mirificum.
(The Philosopher’s Stone, a wondrous artificial physical being.)

(**) The curious may read the following works on the subject: “Die edelgeborne Jungferschalchymie, oder Ehrrettung der Alchymie” (The Noble-born Virgin Alchemy, or The Vindication of Alchemy), 1730; “Sammlung der neuesten und merkwürdigsten Begebenheiten, die sich mit unterschiedlichen Adepten und ihrer philosophischen Tinctur zugetragen haben” (Collection of the Newest and Most Remarkable Events concerning Various Adepts and their Philosophical Tincture), Hildesheim, 1780; “Eine große Herzstärkung für die Chymisten nebst einer Dose voll gutes Niespulver für die Widersprecher der Verwandlungskunst der Metalle” (A Great Strengthening of the Heart for Chemists, together with a Box of Good Snuff Powder for the Opponents of the Art of Transmutation of Metals), Berlin, 1771; “Versuche mit Quecksilber, Silber und Gold angestellt zu Guildfort” (Experiments with Quicksilver, Silver, and Gold conducted at Guildford), 1782, by James Price, Doctor of Medicine; Dessau, 1783; “Die Richtigkeit der Verwandlung derer Metalle” (The Correctness of the Transmutation of Metals), Leipzig, with A. F. Böhme, 1783. — The Editor.

Page 14

… itself had been prepared, then still in rerum natura there must have been someone else beforehand who prepared it. It surely did not spring forth from the air!

Furthermore, there remain the manifold wondrous monumenta and natural writings of so many old and new truth-loving and truly philosophizing chemical philosophers, wherein they so clearly teach and testify about the subject and matter of the Philosopher’s Stone, its preparation, the marvelous events in the works, its use and benefits, that any reasonable man, who has carefully gone through these writings, diligently read them, and if not fully, yet at least in part understood them, ought rightly to bear in mind not to allow himself the least doubt, much less blasphemy and slander in this regard.

Though some inexperienced ones in the secrets of nature and sophistical school-foxes, who lack experience, may wish to object with their conclusions, yet one is accustomed willingly to ascribe credit in other matters to the indicated natural philosophers, wise and worthy men, especially since they are also written down; why then should one trust them less in this high matter, or refuse to believe them? It cannot be thought of a truly honest man that he would, from firm intention…

(*) Legere & non intelligere, est rem negligere.
(To read and not to understand is to neglect the matter.)

Page 15

Should one deliberately say an untruth, and even such a one that would bring harm to oneself and to the disadvantage of one’s neighbor. Dear sirs, even if you cannot immediately bring a single thought into your heads, do not therefore rush to condemn it at once as false; rather you should allow it to stand in its value and judge it modestly, also consider that you do not yet know everything, but rather, like the wise Socrates, must learn until you go to your grave. Do not imagine that what you do not know must not also be granted for others to know! The great world is a divine book of nature, which no man can completely study. A son of doctrine may philosophically prove himself wise, and become better through reflection.

If one does not wish to be satisfied with this, then I remain steadfast that it is more fitting to believe the truthful houses of genuine philosophers and physical-chemical workers than a handful of malicious slanderers, or also a crowd of ignorant deceivers. If a coarse blockhead will not let himself be taught, one would have much to do to make all fools wise; and it is a certain and unfailing sign that God, in his just judgment, has given such a man over to error, so that truth cannot dwell in him. May God graciously preserve us from this.

In short: whoever has read nothing of this in the writings of the true naturalists and chemical philosophers, nor with the hand...

Page 16

…nor with his own hand has practiced somewhat in alchemy and gained some experience therein, let him remain entirely silent on this matter. How can one rightly speak of a thing of which he has no proper grasp? Such a one cannot rightly praise nor blame it. Every artist must be granted faith in his own art, and experience cannot be contradicted at random.

So, thirdly, there is also the wonderful harmonia analogica, or corresponding harmony, of the marvelous Stone of the Wise with Jesus Christ, the wondrous Word of God the Father, which became flesh, and the concord of Jesus Christ with the Stone—of which more will be spoken in the following—that was not in vain shown and presented to us by God, nor should it be contemptuously dismissed or destroyed.

In my Book de veritate, antiquitate et praestantia lapidis philosophorum ac alchymiae, with the assistance of divine help, there shall be presented at greater length and with more than sufficient proof, in due time, that which is abundantly enough to prove that the Philosopher’s Stone truly exists (oti est), and what it is.

Page 17

Thanks and praise be to God, that He still has, even to this very day, His own who truly and infallibly recognize the universal subject of the philosophical universal stone; although they are very, very few—yet there are some among them, among whom I, without any pretended glory, am the least. However fiercely the old Beelzebub, the blasphemous devil, with his not kindly disposed, mocking and sneering, and unbearably slanderous drones, together with their clinging horseflies and devil’s heads, may oppose it.

God has, I say, His own, to whom He reveals the primaterial chaos of the Wise, or the catholic magnesia of the Philosophers, the universal subject of the universal stone of the Wise, according to His divine will, to be clearly and wonderfully recognized, distinguished from among many thousands of higher and lower ranks—since God shows no respect of persons. For this, again, praise and thanks be given to God, now and at all times. Amen.

But because this good is useful to very few, it is not given to all; and despite their diligent studying, restless scheming, endless laborious pondering and experimenting with great expense, it is withheld and hidden from them. The reason is, so that through shameful misuse they may not bring harm to themselves nor to others. Pray God that you too may be one of those few.

Page 18

Now and then there are many lovers of the chemical art from all sorts of estates—some good, who have a good intention, which is not to be blamed in this matter; but others who, filled with secret and even open envy and slander, have a wicked intent, and by manifold ways, through diligent, sometimes also cunning inquiries, are eager to know what the magnesia philosophorum catholica is, of which Doctor Khunrath teaches and writes. Some, however, are caught in their own delusion, and openly let it be heard, both by word of mouth and in writing, that they know it most certainly and infallibly; likewise where it is to be found and how to obtain it well. To the very hair, they claim to know how many hairs a cow’s tail has.

It would indeed be to be wished that their inquiries were pursued out of love for the truth and not merely out of pursuit of the same, after the example of Herod in Matthew 2, who indeed sought the little child Jesus—whose true image, drawn from the great divine book of nature, is the Magnesia—yet sought Him diligently, but not with the same intent as the Wise.

Now, if one asks certain learned know-it-alls what it may be, some say it is antimony; others say it is soot from chimney stones; still others speak of flints; with these it must be saltpeter; with those, common…

Page 19

…or else red earth, called Bolus; by others red hematite; quicklime; brickstone; vitriol; arsenic; meteorite; horn-colored flint; antimony ore; gold quartz; bloodstone; and many more such things. They busy themselves with these, to be laughed at, ridiculed, mocked, and finally come off in a most disgraceful manner.

If one further asks from what cause their imagined pieces, or other such things, should or should not be the magnesia of the philosophers and mine, they say: “We have heard it so.” Likewise some say, they have indeed handled it and worked therein; or that this or that one has shown them a certain trick therein. Yet they know nothing substantial on this or that path, nor can they give any proper account thereof. There they stand then, like deceived fools, whose statements are just as easy to overthrow as they themselves have been overthrown by them.

Dear people, it is not enough that you merely badly and baselessly say: you know it. No, not so; but you must, if one is to give you proper belief in your supposed knowledge, be certain of it from sufficient, truthful, irrefutable reasons and firm foundations of nature of a different form, and likewise prove such…

Footnote:
“O Father of Light, forgive them, that they thus blaspheme thee in thy mysteries, for they know not what they do!”

Page 20

…either in proving the assertion of the matter thoroughly, or else in strongly refuting the denial in opposition; for to know something means to be able to state the cause of a thing. And according to the testimony of Aristotle in the preface to his Metaphysics, only those are to be called teachers who teach from causes and certain grounds. For Plato says, nothing has arisen under the sun of which the proper cause has not preceded. Therefore, he who knows how to state the causes of things is to be called a knower or scholar, and thus exceedingly fortunate.

Otherwise, your pretense is nothing but mere delusion, and your groundless, vain thoughts remain so; and one believes you herein as little as in the nonsense of Amadis of France. Yes, even if you guessed rightly by chance, it is not credited to you—neither what you advise, nor what you imagine, counts for knowledge here. With a sufficient cause, therefore one should and must resolve oneself.

I have in my time worked with many different chemical substances; I have received many fine and good instructions from various laborants, which were useful to employ with all sorts of materials; but should I therefore have held and proclaimed each of those substances as my Magnesia? O, you are not right in your senses and need mugwort! Only one alone is the matter, and there is no other more; yes, one alone…

Page 21

Among the many countless [materials]. This one has been selected and presented to me by Nature! This one has been shown to me both mediately and immediately by Ruach Chochmah-El. Concerning this I say, from important and sufficient causes: You alone please me, you alone are agreeable to me. One must and shall therefore certainly conclude upon this one single thing. Upon the One, of which the Wise speak.

Is it not a miserable thing, to ridicule something and reject it as false, when one has never truly recognized from sufficient causes whether it is good or evil, useful or harmful? O thoughtlessness!

Therefore I hereby admonish, exhort, and sincerely remind all, of whatever rank or dignity they may be, that they should give neither complete belief to anyone, whoever he may be, nor hold anything contrary to our knowledge as if it were certain, until he gives correct and sufficient account of it, as has been indicated above. For he who easily believes, is easily deceived. Should some ignorant person excuse himself, saying he is a simple layman, that he has studied little or nothing, and therefore cannot formally, as he ought, speak rightly of the matters; nevertheless, he should know the matter quite certainly; one should simply believe him, or perhaps even attribute great [authority] to him…

Page 22

…trusting greatly in swearing. Indeed, if with a liar it comes to swearing, he would swear the devil a leg off. One should not allow oneself to be deceived or persuaded without a good foundation in the truth of Nature’s Magnesia; for in such manner many are led away from the light of truth.

Hear now, my dear gentlemen mockers and great friends, go somewhat more gently, else you might quite overturn yourselves; boast and triumph not before the victory! I advise you, keep your own self-invented opinions to yourselves against this present natural writing, as also against my others, and with double diligence and consideration weigh carefully whether in your imagined materials, forced and not truly drawn forth, you can find all — I say, all those properties, qualities, and conditions which I, from my and all true philosophers’ universal Magnesia, in this treatise for proof, teach, write, and indicate.

If, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, you find such an undeniable analogical harmony between your matter and our Magnesia, then it is good, and then may you at last firmly conclude that you are on the right path of truth, being herein united with us, and that you truly know the Catholic Magnesia of the philosophers.

Your vain boasting, false opinions, and mocking…

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…such blasphemy will afterwards well enough cease of itself; yes, with great shame and heartfelt repentance over your committed thoughtlessness, it will of itself fall away; just as it happened to Saul, who out of ignorance fiercely persecuted Christianity and its members with threats and murder (Acts 9). But when the Lord from heaven enlightened him, and appeared to him on his way, and he also, through Ananias, received the divine command to proclaim the name of the Lord, then the scales of blindness fell from his eyes, and the light of truth arose within him, so that he immediately preached Christ, that he is the Son of God.

So also you: if, through God’s mercy, the light of Nature will shine upon your minds, and through acceptance of my faithful and well-founded admonition in philosophical truth, the scales of blindness will likewise fall from the eyes of your proud spirit; then also you — I say, then also you will recognize and confess that the magnesia catholica, of which I teach and write, is the Son of the great world, and the only true subject of the Catholic Stone of the Philosophers, of the natural and naturally artificial servatoris.

(The footnote at the bottom reads:)

"I, who, without vain boasting, but in truth to say, have been faithfully instructed herein by God, Nature, and a most knowing Master, who in eternity surely lives, have in this matter been faithfully taught."

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…of the preserver of the great world; then you will also, together with me and all true philosophers, distinguish this [true Magnesia] from the false, fabricated Magnesias of the sophists, hold firmly to this doctrine, propagate it further as is fitting, and help to defend it as the only truthful one.

O Lord God, have mercy on them, and let Your countenance shine upon those who speak and act against this Your truth, that they may endeavor to learn to recognize the Magnesia.

But if you find disharmony in your opinions compared with this my philosophical doctrine, which is established by nature and by undeniable reasons, then conclude that you have erred and gone astray; and learn, as indicated, to investigate more carefully; otherwise you will, to your own harm, hold the false Magnesia for the true and genuine one.

What I have said here, let it be in this matter of Magnesia a touchstone for you, by which you may judge concerning your false Magnesias and the true Catholic Magnesia of the philosophers, and concerning your opinions.

Take heed!

1. If, through God’s grace, it could be shown from the first two chapters of the first book of Moses what the materia prima of the entire…

(The footnote reads:)

"Three presuppositions must be proven; from thesis to hypothesis by descending reasoning."

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…the whole great structure of the material world, with all the material things therein, essentially is;
2) that one must have a single natural thing, also according to the teaching of the philosophical saying: Where nature ceases, there art begins; such a thing, to which human hands or artificial aids have never before come; and although the whole world has it before its eyes and knows it, also with its own name, which it publicly and generally has, to call it; yet it is nevertheless so held and governed by God, that they do not recognize it, because their eyes, senses, and understanding are just as those of the disciples who went with Christ to Emmaus, that they did not recognize Jesus, Luke 24:16.

O blindness! It is indeed well known, but recognized by very few; only these few recognize it, to whom God, out of His special goodness and mercy, wills it to be made known; yes, scarcely one among ten or even rather among thousands.

It is in the eyes of the foolish a mean and despicable thing, known by all, but recognized by very few; it is only a matter of knowledge.

Behold here, O man, the Magnesia, and open your eyes…

(Footnote:)
"This one single [thing] excludes all others; consequently, all and every particular and common artificially prepared thing is excluded."

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Open your eyes. In it dwells naturally and theosophically the treasure of true wisdom and good knowledge. When, I say, since the appearance of the whole world is testimony, evidently shown, truthfully laid out and clearly proven, that this same single thing (as all natural-knowledgeable, chemical true philosophers unanimously testify, that the universality of the philosophical universal stone should, must, and also be a single thing alone) contains everything in itself that belongs to the constitution of the universal stone of the philosophers, namely, that it exists, is necessary (as I have explained further below, where this sign ♄ stands).

If it were proven that in this single thing constitutively nothing goes or comes, which has not also previously gone out or come forth from it; only that the artist in the first or preliminary work, of which the philosophers have left almost nothing, or at least very little clear and bright information in their writings, should dissolve such a naturally artificial thing; thoroughly purify it; and separate from it the superfluities; afterward in the second or subsequent work, the pure parts in proper…

(Footnotes:)

*) Only this one thing is to be recognized.

**) Destructive has another opinion, namely: where one can also separate again the thing that causes the destruction together with the impurities of the magnesia, from it, pure.

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… unite again in the right measure of weight, coagulate, shape and cast: this is the Art. And this lies with God, who well knows, whether, to whom, to how many or if He will grant it.

If it were proven that this same single natural thing is indeed this matter from which God built the great edifice of the material world, and in the beginning of the world also made all material things therein; yet not in the manner that at the world’s beginning, according to God’s will, all and every plant, animal, mineral, and metal had already become from one single definite species or said natural kind specifically and distinctly fashioned at that time; but rather, as later, according to the will of God and the cooperation of Nature and the primordial natural motion, from the growths and animals, in turn the plants and animals always again and again, each from its own particular seed, became what they were according to their kind and property. Likewise also the minerals and metals, from the first catholic matter of the world, by the essential mineral and metallic seeds, distinct and peculiar, seminal powers of the universal nature or soul of the world, even until this day have sprung forth thus and so, specified in determined, to nature alone well-known weights and measures, mixed together with their certain properties, and united, have again arisen, arising…

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…and may come into being and exist: but likewise, I say, also in the general primordial material state, as the original world-beginning, first created by God out of nothing, and together with universal nature, with the most hidden, secret spirit or soul of the world, catholic animated or possessed first catholic matter at that time was; not in any vegetative, animal, mineral or metallic being, but in its own catholic animated catholic being with the brief-spark of fire from the fiery universal nature, catholic animated, presented by God Himself through nature to the philosopher as catholic: truly a particular secret and masterful art-piece of nature, a subtle catholic separation and composition of body, spirit, and soul out of the body, spirit, and soul of the great world, into a primordial-material own chaos; the chymical philosopher’s microcosm, macrocosmical, non-human, great-worldly, not human, small world; and therefore from the seed of the great world, a son of the great world, which in its first primordial essence or being and matter is entirely equal to its begetter; for that is properly called a son, which is generated from the seed and substance of the father.

It is therefore not a vegetable, animal, mineral, or metallic thing, but one such from which all minerals and metals in general are generated by nature, for which reason one…

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…with zinc, vitriol, antimony, mercury, and similar things, likewise also with all that has been prepared from them, one must not allow oneself to be confused or led astray.

3. If one were further to prove, beyond what has already been said, that in the indicated catholic natural thing or being above the earth there is, as it were, that general catholic matter, from which nature, according to its ordained course, has at all times been generated, and in general still generates all metals in the earth; *

If one now proves all this, which I have said in these three main points, ** then I hold it entirely to be sufficiently demonstrated, that this is the often-mentioned Ens, or else, that in this thing is contained the matter of the first and general primordial material things, and thus also the first and universal matter of all metals; and finally also the general primordial chaos of the natural philosopher and naturally alchemically laboring philosophers; magnesia, or magnes – IAH, & Saturn of the wise; minera artis; the true and only universal subject of the philosophical…

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…universal stone; *) likewise also the sole true, both natural **) and naturally artificial ***) regeneration-field of silver and gold, so that by God’s will they may become more than over-perfect metals, and thus transmutation tinctures for the lower metals into the higher, elixirs and particulars may be given. For this, besides this thing, by virtue of the immutable decree of God and the ordering through nature, there is nothing else; there should and can be nothing else in the entire nature of all things; because this thing, philosophically considered in all circumstances, has absolutely no equal; therein, namely ****) are naturally contained and catholically hidden the philosophers’ Ens, *****) namely the catholic and raw…

Footnotes:
*) Not the common leaden flowing bodily mercury, but this, as their Saturni mercurium viscosum, the wise mean, when they speak of the mercury of Saturn for the transmutation of metals. You idiots and sophists, take heed of this doctrine.

**) As it is in itself.

***) Understand, when it is resolved into prima-material water, and is either still azothically watery, or else azothically coagulated and fixed, as will be further shown below.

****) See the above sign.

*****) Philosophorum physico-chymicorum Monas; Unarius sive Unum.

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…the raw Mercury of the Philosophers; Two,* their Man and Woman; Acting and Suffering; Rebis; double Mercury, that is, Mercury with the philosophical Sulphur; animated Mercury; slimy moisture, that is, heavy Mercury; moist slimy vapor, the nearest matter of all metals; Three,** body, spirit, and soul; the spirit is as it were the essential carriage and nearest dwelling of the soul, and the bond which unites the soul with the body; Salt, Mercury, and Sulphur of nature, of wisdom, and of the wise; Four,*** earth, water, air, and fire, animated with the quintessence; all in a single natural subject, from which, through the way of dissolution and the composition belonging to the sufficient purification, through the help of Vulcan, may naturally and artfully produce their physical denarius;**** their over-perfect and through art accomplished highest good of nature, that is, the wondrous catholic…

Footnotes:
*) Dias, Binarius, Duo.
**) Trias; Ternario; Ternarius; Tria.
***) Tetractys; Quaternarius; Quaternario; Quatuor.
****) Denarium, Philo lib. de Decalogo, a number most familiar to God, perfect, and called by the wisest a comparison of wisdom. Note the mystery.

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…the Philosopher’s Stone, which is adorned with the most exalted crown, as the signature of the highest perfection.

Besides the properties related thus far, there are also many other qualities, characteristics, and attributes of the catholic subject of the Stone of the Wise, of which much is told in the philosophical writings. However, from certain sufficient causes, and especially because not all peasants should find themselves here, they have been deliberately omitted with diligence.

Added to this is the exceedingly wondrous natural counterfactual harmony or comparison of the true Magnesia, and of the Universal Stone of the Wise alchemically prepared therefrom according to nature — the natural and naturally-artificial universal preserver and medicinal healer of the great world. I say medicinal, together with the vegetable, animal, mineral, and metallic fruits of the same — with Jesus Christ, who was sent by God the Father into this universal world as the universal and only true Redeemer and Healer of the little world, that is, of mankind; the universal head of the universal Christian church and the foundation of its catholic faith. Likewise, with His doctrine, life, and miracles, and again the comparison of this Healer with the Magnesia. Concerning this, two great books of wonders could be written, one…

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…one, Apocalypse, that is, the Revelation of the catholic hidden Magnesia; the other, Analogical Harmony of the Philosophical Catholic Magnesia with Jesus Christ, and conversely, which I have in hand. God grant me to complete them. Amen.

They may, I say, be well-foundedly written in the great world-book of Nature as well as in the sacred biblical writings; yet they should also be explained, partly through the assistance of the Spirit of God’s Wisdom with philosophically correct clarity, partly in deed and in visible demonstration, so that a truth-loving person can be fully content with the highest admiration, while his own conscience that loves truth convinces him of it; as indeed the oft-tested and sufficiently confirmed truth has already attested.

I am certain, even if no other reason were present, than this wondrous harmonia analogica, it alone would be sufficient proof of the true Magnesia; not to mention when the other highly important testimonies indicated above are also added.

Now one may ask: Can this thing, of which so much has been spoken until now, indeed be possessed? Can it also be obtained? The answer: Yes, praise be to God, it can be possessed — and as much as is necessary for any son of the doctrine for the Stone of the Wise, according to…

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…ample opportunity may be found. There is good counsel for that.

Since now the first universal matter has such and no other quality, as has long enough been heard, and as it may indeed be possessed in such a manner as to be useful in alchemy through divine bestowal: let the artist not attempt or endeavor to extract the first catholic matter of the metals from the metals themselves, that is, from silver, gold, quicksilver, and the like, as many vainly strive, because all of these are specified; it is a futile labor if he imagines to achieve through his art the help which he believes he renders to nature, by attempting artificial separations in the metals with foreign waters, corrosive harmful spirits, and similar sophistical means.

For something metallic always remains, even if it is not true metal; whether it be in the form of running water, or of a moist body, or of a dry powder, or of a liquor, or of a spiritual water. The specification cannot be so easily separated as many suppose. It must indeed be considered, for it bears no weight in this play.

Quicksilver is likewise unfit, not only because it is a fugitive mercury, but also because it is the false mercury; for it is common mercury.

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…and separations of the same must not be attempted, for these I utterly reject on the most important and decisive grounds.

Therefore, such a praeparatum, however subtle it may be, is by no means the first catholic or universal matter of all metals; indeed, the so-called preparation of the Sun or Moon is likewise not the specific materia prima of silver or gold. For the metals cannot, in any way, be reduced or brought back to such by foreign substances, sophistical species, or suchlike preparations, purifications, and processes; for the reason that they are already perfect, whether melted in the fire, or solidified, hard coagulated, corporeal metallic fruits. Moreover, they are so qualified by nature itself that they can be reduced to the materia prima in no other way than through materia prima itself, according to nature, and must thus be reduced, regenerated, and elevated into the state of higher perfection, as will be shown in detail hereafter.

The artist ought rightly, with the highest gratitude towards God, to be content and satisfied with that which Nature, God’s viceroy in natural things, has especially ordained for this purpose…

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…constituted wise handmaid of Nature, who has presented it perfectly in its place; she alone, without the useless meddling or interference of the artist, in the universal laboratory of God, namely in the whole wide world, works therein always and without ceasing, through and through, ineffably wondrously. And whatever she brings forth from the great world, as was shown above, she has separated and composed universally, laying aside all specification. And also what she shows to the philosopher, as his natural due in summary form, the catholic synopticon, in which he is to labor chemically and universally upon the Philosopher’s Stone, and thereby to explore, contemplate, learn, and recognize the wondrous mysteries of God which He has hidden therein — all this, I say, she has perfectly presented in its place; namely, from such a thing above the earth, from which Nature, from the very beginning of the world, according to her unchangeable manner, has testified, and to this very day continues to testify universally — namely, that in the womb of the earth all metals are engendered, which the philosophers have called by countless names, to conceal it all the better from the unworthy.

This same Chaos, and no other, is and is rightly called materia metallorum prima universalis, the universal first matter of the metals, the minera artis, which the artist must use, in order, through its magnesian, azothic, watery preparation, to bring silver, gold, and other metals into materiam…

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…reduce to the materiam primam naturally and artificially. Yes, it remains so even before the swarm of sophists and drones; let them buzz, roar, scream, growl, murmur, curse, slander, and blaspheme as they will.

Dear ones, do not let yourselves be swayed by what Count Bernhard, in the other part of his little book on the Hermetic Stone, disputes concerning the bare elements of the materia prima. That concerns only you, otherwise you may grievously deceive yourselves. I am fully aware of all this, even without your reminder, and I have well considered it beforehand. It does no harm to the catholic Magnesia; rather, from the present treatise it is everywhere made sufficiently clear that I am by no means of the opinion which that well-intentioned Count has set down in the mentioned place.

For further clarity, and to make myself more readily understood, I will explain, with the Rosarium Philosophorum, that namely the raw Philosophical Mercury — by which I mean the Magnesia — is such as Nature has somewhat shaped, though only a little, (*) and brought into a metallic form (**), yet still left imperfect…

(*) That is, she has composed it from body, spirit, and soul, and figured it into a catholic mass, into the Minera of Art.
(**) Concerning the outward figure: it must indeed have an outward form or shape in itself; for it must assuredly not be entirely without form…

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…to leave it so; likewise, I also wish to explain myself with Valerandus Sylvanius and Dionysius Zacharias, who, as one who himself practiced the Art, did not interpret the cited saying of the Rosarium incorrectly, and for this reason is all the more to be believed on this point, when he says:

“This is our true Matter, which Nature has prepared for our Art, and with respect to the outward form or figure has brought into a certain shape or schema, which the true philosophers acknowledge, without its needing to be further transformed.”

Furthermore, the well-indicated Matter (in the aforementioned Universal Chaos) is that which lies above the earth, out of which Nature produces or generates metals in the earth. From this, namely through the path of rebirth and perfecting, according to the unanimous consent of all true and genuine philosophers, arises the catholic and highest…

Footnote:
(*) Coagulated philosophical Mercury. Hence comes the word: Solve, or “dissolve.”

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…the highest medicine is prepared.” With that, I will for this time conclude.

Now further. I know very well what manifold preparations of silver and gold have been undertaken again and again by many laborants, especially through previous dissolutions of the same metals in strong corrosive waters; further, after precipitation or separation, also proper leachings, through calcination and reverberation into subtle loose powders; then also through extraction, solution, and other preparations, either with volatile urine-spirit and urine-salt from boys and girls not more than ten years of age; or with volatile tartar-salt; also with the blood-red essence of the most purified tartar-salt and green stone melted with iron, in which indeed many wonders are hidden; with wine-spirit; likewise through other both bodily and spiritual salts, such as common sea-nitre and Armenian salt, etc.

Moreover, also with the use of different menstruums of dissolving and extracting kinds, so that silver and gold may be present, either in liquid form—blue, yellow, or red—bodily dissolved or extracted, but chiefly through the mediation of a menstruum suited thereto; likewise a spiritual water or watery spirit, or otherwise some subtle liquor, which cannot be brought back again into metal…

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…or else a loose, either easily flowing or not fluid powder or mass; or else in hydrargyric or watery form, that is, in the so-called shape of a flowing metallic mercury of bodies, namely, metals freed from their bonds of hardness by a certain essential fire, so that without elementary fire they remain always in flux and stand in a quicksilver-like state. Truly, well-prepared sal tartari and sal armeniacum are good salia resuscitativa. To this also belongs the oleum tartari, which strikes and beats when stirred at the wrong time; it is very subtle, so much so that one can soon revive it into the corporeal mercury of the sun, flowing, if one knows rightly how to handle it.

But what are, I ask, all these and other such preparations, especially after their proper dissolution? What are the so-called mercuries after their precipitation, either by themselves, or by strange waters, or else by other preparations? What are they more than merely costly and very excellent medicines, to be used in many sicknesses of the human body, both inwardly and outwardly? From these corporeal mercuries you will never behold the true auroram or morning-redness of the philosophers, and though you may boast ten times as much as you please, you will not attain it. For such soluta, extracta, liquores and preparations…

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…no matter in what manner they may have been prepared, are in themselves not straightaway the prima materia, nor yet the specified form, of silver and gold, such that their primary material essence, or specific water or substance, might serve alone for their vegetation, regeneration, plusquam-perfection, and multiplication. They cannot, in and of themselves, suffice for this; nor would they, even if they were hydrargyric, mixed with additions of foreign waters, or liquorous and placed in digestion for many years. Why not? Because they have not been reduced by the first universal matter of metals into the first matter, nor can they in this way, as in and of themselves alone, be employed.

The blackness, to which some would also appeal, and various other peacock-like colors that arise in these preparations, and which in and of themselves are deceitful and seductive, and may appear upon the sides of the glasses in their processes, are by no means sufficient proof that one is on the true path of Nature, to the Philosopher’s Stone or to a tincture that transmutes the imperfect metals. A stronger and surer foundation from Nature itself is required for this. The colors alone are here very deceptive signs and prove in this matter nothing at all; for otherwise many other things would appear just so…

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…just as the Philosopher’s Stone wonderfully produces many colors, as experienced chemists well know! Twist yourself, turn, bend, and dispute it behind and before yourself as much as you will, yet it is not otherwise. Some otherwise good people are in the delusion that the Spirit of God gives, with the colorful sign of the rainbow, His extraordinary power—as they say—fiery from above, and that it remains in a figurative way as a seed of the same earthly kind upon the water, just as one magically sees it in the peacock’s tail, or chemically in steel, sulphur, and the like. Such a thing, they say, should be the catholic matter of the Philosophical Catholic Stone; but assuredly there is another opinion concerning the Universal Matter and the Peacock’s Tail of the Philosophers than what you let yourselves be persuaded by in this case. In this treatise you will find another and better ground.

Only such a solutum of silver or gold will be the true and desired goal, which has been accomplished through and with the first matter of the metals according to nature, and rightly brought forth. For according to the doctrine of all true Philosophers, the reduction of the metals into the first matter must and shall happen through the first matter itself. And there is nothing more natural, say the wise, than that a thing be dissolved into that whereby it has its composition. Does this mean, then, that all the Philosophers have written in riddles? O Cain, you lie excellently.

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I am indeed not opposed to the notion that some of the aforementioned or similar preparations of silver and gold, when, as has been recounted and indicated, nature is aided by subtle dissolutions, precipitations, separations, and other preparations, may well serve both for the transmutation tinctures of the lower metals into the higher, as well as for elixirs and similar particulars, being applied usefully and able to be employed quite well. But there remains still a strong condition. What kind of condition? Let us hear!

Without all doubt this: that they are not to be used so simply and by themselves, as if they were prepared without the assistance of the first universal matter of the metals; but rather in such a way that they are sown in their primaterial, natural, and naturally artificial destructive, vegetative, and regenerative watery earth, and must be sown therein, so that in this way they may be truly brought back into the first matter through the first matter, and as they properly putrefy, through the true destruction and dissolution in their mother’s womb, they may be led to a new birth, into the perfection and multiplication, proceeding naturally and artificially, into which they may be transferred.

In like manner, one will also find it to be so with the poisonous volatile materials in the self-born native gold; also with red-golden and glassy ores…

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…ores, which, through artful artificial manipulations, are tender, subtle, loose, and white, separated from them in an arsenical manner; likewise from gray silver-cobalt ores and similar wild silver ores or mineral species, are also no longer quite suitable. Arsenic and auripigment likewise fall away; also the bodily quicksilver, which you might wish to derive or separate from arsenic. Why so?

Because, 1) they are no longer in a specified primaterial and silver- or gold-receptive state, much less in the general primaterial state of all metals, but are already embryonic metals, either specified toward silver or gold, and already almost…

Footnotes:

*) From glass ores and reddish-golden ores, there should indeed be beautiful ablations of Venus.

**) Of these one could, if necessary, also give several reports, as perhaps many a mocker and nose-wise critic thinks.

***) By argentificas or aurificas naturae, i.e. souls of the world, catholic reasons of seminal ratios, special or specific, since the soul of the world is spiritus πολυτροπίλος, i.e. multiform, communicating to the first universal matter of metals argentosity or aureity, so that from it is made either silver or gold, specifying. All metals communicate in one matter, which is Mercurius duplex catholicus, that is, Mercury with its own sulphur, not the common one, but the philosophical one. How metals differ, see chap. 6 of my Confessions on the Hylaic Chaos, pp. 182–183, first edition.

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…almost very strongly dried or coagulated metallic bodily spirits and spiritual bodies.

2. One must also fear that they are not pure or genuine volatile silver or gold, but rather mixed with foreign mineral or metallic spirits, which, after the manner of the mountains, are accustomed to mingle with one another; for Morienus says: “In our work comes no Garip,” that is to say, nothing foreign.

Now from the related serious causes it is rightly concluded that all these, even though after their purification they may appear as a translucent clear water, nevertheless are not the specified matter of silver or gold, much less the catholic or universal first matter of all metals, nor that the soluta prepared therefrom, as is indicated, could be their primaterial juices; but rather they must be metallic embryos already considerably far removed from their primaterial condition, or premature births; and the juices derived therefrom are only unprimaterial soluta of such embryos.

Therefore, just as well as the ripe and perfectly complete metallic fruits, so also these premature and imperfect ones, do not require to be brought back again into the first matter by means of the first matter: for since they are not the general first mother and matter of metals, nor the specified mother and first matter of silver or gold, nor primaterial soluta or juices, neither are they the field or the earth for the rebirth of the metals, through which…

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…through which earth or field the metals are truly and naturally to be regenerated and made perfect; thus the conclusion is correct, that silver and gold, in order to be perfected, must not be sown into this earth or field unnaturally or artificially, and by no means is it to be expected or hoped that thereby a desired end of the regeneration and supreme perfection of silver and gold can be attained. Therefore guard yourselves against the leaven of the Argyropoëists.

Only that alone is what, according to the most azothic watery preparation from the primaterial natural, has the power, force, and might to reduce silver and gold into the first matter, so that they may thereafter enter into the act of vegetation and be regenerated to supreme perfection; which is treated of in this present discourse, namely, Mercurius philosophorum catholicus, in the primaterial catholic Magnesia of the Wise. Here much might be said to bring some to the recognition of magnesia in few words; but since everything has its time, person, and place, it is reserved until then.

I freely confess, however, that in the metallic embryonic things just previously spoken of, wonderful powers, virtues, and effects may indeed be contained in and upon the metals, I understand, when they are prepared and treated more subtly and wondrously for medicines and for other things…

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…prepared and treated; yet they are not that which all true and rightly nature-experienced philosophers, according to the immutable order of God and the unchangeable will of Nature, cannot at all dispense with—both for their general universal stone or great elixir, by and for itself alone, as well as for their particular silver- or gold-stones—when they use silver and gold, to regenerate them therein, so that such new or reborn, over-perfectly made metals may afterwards give forth special silver- or gold-transmuting tinctures, changing the lower metals into the higher. Likewise they yield smaller elixirs and particulars, as perhaps useful tin-preparations, the metallic Saturnian body, and the vulgar precipitations, fixations, and transmutations of mercury, in order to obtain augmentations of silver or gold. These must be made artificially according to nature.

The reason, then, why the metallic embryos cannot be the philosophers’ stone is this: because they are, as has already been said above, neither the universal nor the specifically determined right prime-material field or earth of the metals, in which, according to the will of nature and the unanimous agreeing doctrine of all nature-experienced philosophers, silver and gold are naturally regenerated and brought to plusquam-perfection.

Footnote:
*) Saturnus metallicus is something different from the Saturnus philosophorum catholicus.

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…must be artificially sown, they shall and must be sown.

Yes, even though bodily mercuries of the bodies—as I know some have dealt with them—may perhaps be artificially dissolved in water by themselves, yet such waters would by no means be the prime-material waters of the bodies, to bring them by themselves alone to rebirth and over-perfection. The reason is, because they, through the prime-material catholic font—wherein alone lies the mystery of the chemical philosophers—cause putrefaction in this work, into such a corruption, which is the mother of their destruction and breaking apart, from which a new generation and thus a regeneration or rebirth arises, have not yet been brought.

Thus one is also certain, from the very instructive testimony of Arnold of Villanova, that the prime-material water of the philosophers dissolves the metals, and according to the great concordance of nature brings them into the first matter. Likewise, from the Clangor buccinae of Clangor and from other testimonies, that in the prime-material water of the sages, in a natural way, lies hidden the spirit of the quintessence, which…

Footnote:
*) The wise will understand it.

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…only alone can masterfully destroy the metals and transform them into their first matter. And rightly so it remains.

Here it comes to my mind, and I must also remember, that some babbling dreamers speak of the swarm of the heavens, that one should and must first catch the most secret spirit of the world, for the philosopher’s stone, from the air, or from the firmament of the heavens, in certain matters especially prepared for this by the artificial arrangement of the Artist. Doctor Curious, will you catch with such things? O you fool! Sweet folly, has it even rained fools? It has already, without the hand or help of man, according to the ordinance of God, of itself been caught, as to how and wherein it is caught; and has chosen for itself a material dwelling place and prepared it, where it will and must dwell, either universally or particularly. You must not presume to treat it as a fluttering wandering spirit, like your humming-bird, to be shot from the air with a crossbow, still less from the firmament, yes, your swarming heaven, as you imagine, to attract it and bring it into your fantastically prepared matter or body. You also cannot by such means banish or bring it forth anew; for it already has its convenient and pleasant dwelling, wherein, as is better known by the natural philosophers, it resides—far better than if you were to force it unnaturally…

Page 50

…to force in; you must leave him well enough alone with your fantasies. He is already where he should and will be. Lord, your imperishable Spirit is in all things, says the wise man (Wisdom 12, v.1). Learn only to recognize rightly his catholic dwelling, wherein he abides universally, that is, the Magnesia philosophorum catholicam. And if it is to be useful to the aforementioned philosophical work, then seek it there, and nowhere else, as universally existing, and you are a philosopher. But if you do not understand its natural catholic dwelling, do not recognize the philosophical Magnesia, nor take it under the guidance of divine grace to work it chemically into your hands, but remain fixed in the errors of your imagination, then you remain assuredly a commissary of excessive wisdom—which is the highest folly.

But if someone were further to object and say: Yet one does find in the philosophical writings here and there so much report and teaching, from which one may perceive—yes, clearly and plainly see—that this art lies hidden in the metals, as in silver and gold, and therefore must certainly be sought and accomplished in, with, and through the metals! How is this to be understood? To this the answer must be given: He who rightly distinguishes, teaches rightly; a wise man distinguishes, a fool confuses. And herein also lies the difference between the wise man and the fool…

Page 51

…distinguishes.

Now, if in alchemy one looks only to the properties of silver or gold, and for that reason wishes to work the highest medicine—both to transform the lower metals into the higher, that is into silver or gold, as well as for human bodies, according to God’s will, to free or preserve them from diseases—then indeed such a medicine is the silver or gold made over-perfect. On the other hand, if one looks to the simple and pure catholic or universal philosophers’ stone, to the great Elixir, in and for itself, as well as to the benefits and all universal effects of the same, and does not at all look only to silver- or gold-making—then certainly it follows rightly that…

Notes at bottom of page:

*) EL-I-X-EIR actually means fortitude, strength, indeed a splendorous lightning or spark proceeding from the single Power the Strong, a bright shining, lightning and spark of the one Mighty and Strong. As I have also shown in the 2nd chapter of my Confession of the Hylaean Chaos, p. 54, first edition.

**) The use and effect of the catholic philosophers’ stone: see 4th figure of the Amphitheatrum and Confessionis, chap. 8.

***) As is rightly and chiefly to be done, one should principally not look only to silver- or gold-making, as it is called, though that indeed would also follow of itself, if the universal stone of the wise were present and rightly applied according to the law of art.

Page 52

…the higher metals, such as silver and gold, in all cases must be highly respected and used according to nature, though artificially; because Argenteitas and Aureitas—the silver-nature and gold-nature—are found nowhere else but in silver and gold, whether it be fully complete and metallic, or only embryonic; and because, according to God’s will and the course of nature, like is begotten from its like: therefore silver and gold must, each in their own manner, bring forth and generate silver and gold, namely in the philosophical projection, perfectly made silver and gold.

This has never been denied by me, nor is it now contradicted! I know very well without any master’s chatter or childish admonitions, that the art consists in imitating the beginnings and natural seeds of nature. But here the question arises: Should silver or gold—whether they are still metallic bodies, thinly laminated, or else previously prepared in whatever way one wishes—should they, I say, be turned either into corporeally flowing mercury, or else, through all kinds of corrosives or corrosive waters, be brought into liquors, or otherwise broken apart, so that they may be sublimed or even driven over the helm, purified again…

Footnote:
*) E squilla non nascitur rosa, i.e. “A rose does not grow from an onion.” (It means: there is no time to waste.)

Page 53

…sublimed, likewise precipitated with tartar salt, calcined or loosely reverberated, treated, etc., whatever name it may have, and both expressly indicated and signified beforehand: silver or gold, I say, must, in accordance with nature, be artificially perfected and become new reborn metals, so that they may be transmuting silver- and gold-tinctures, having power, might, and authority to show their like fruits in the philosophical projection. If they are to perform all this, it is most necessary, according to the demand of the order and course of nature, that they must, through regeneration or rebirth, as said, come forth and be advanced.

But how, I ask, can silver or gold be regenerated or newly born again…

Footnotes:

*) In their manner multiplying themselves by artifice, namely from the lower metals.

**) All true philosophers affirm this, indeed every truth-loving, nature-experienced artist affirms it, being also convinced by his own reason and senses, having seen it with his own eyes, that it must be so.

***) On this and no other natural foundation rests the Voarchadumia of the old sages. Whether it pleases the devil with his horns and scales or not, it remains so. If he only has the desire, he shall never find an answer outside of nature.

Page 54

…if they do not again enter into their mother’s womb, for it is precisely this which causes the true corruption and destruction, and thereby also the new birth. What, then, is their mother’s womb? Surely and without any doubt the first matter of the metals, the fontina, that is, the prime-material water, which also, as has been taught before, God has entrusted to the philosopher through nature into the chaos of the philosophical magnesia, and into its fitting vessel, laid and presented catholicly, out of pure goodness and grace. Thus, according to the doctrine of the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, many wonders of the one thing—which is chiefly the over-perfect work, and the exaltation into the state of glory of the physically and chemically most ennobled Son of the great World—are to be performed and undertaken.

Therefore, it is rightly and properly concluded, that silver and gold must be reduced into the first matter, that is, into a Mercury, which is water, through the first matter, through the prime-material or mercurial-philosophical water or font of the catholic Mercury, necessarily in such a way, if they are otherwise to enter into the act of vegetation and naturally…

Footnote:
*) In which lies the Quintessence; or the most secret Spirit of the World, which drives all things in their growth, and dwells briefly, catholicly, bodily, and naturally.

Page 55

…be regenerated according to nature. Therefore Aristotle says in the 4th Meteorology—which Avicenna also follows, and to which many other philosophers refer—that: “The alchemists, who wish to undertake the perfection of the metals, labor in vain if they do not reduce them to the first matter.”

Although this dictum may not be found in Aristotle today, it nevertheless belongs there; otherwise Avicenna would not have cited it from him. Without doubt, he dealt with this passage as he did in certain places with the Jews, Arians, and others, in the Bible. But it is to be noted, that the generation and propagation of metals has a different constitution and meaning than that of the generation and propagation of animals and plants; and therefore the comparisons that are drawn from these two sources cannot properly hold, and thus seldom prove anything correct in this respect. Simile non est idem. One must remain within the proper terms—that is best.

For he who does not well know how to extract from this matter and point of the matrix, mother and sperm, will easily fall into a dangerous labyrinth.

Now, if these are to be reduced into the first matter through the first matter, that is, through the little fountain or prime-material water of the magnesia…

Page 56

…reduced metals, such as silver or gold, understand: seed and mother or field, into which they have been philosophically sown, both together and united in the philosophical athanor, naturally and artificially fully coagulated, fixed, and incerated—then, if God wills, there will be present reborn and perfected silver or gold, the most perfect lapis philosophorum—argentous, argentificus, or golden, aurificus; special or specified. The philosophical, either upon the nature of silver or gold specified and surely determined silver- or gold-stones, and from the lower metals transformed tinctures producing silver or gold, which twofold medicine is afterwards nothing else than according to their silver- or golden special kinds, both in human as well as in other animal bodies medicinal, in the lower metals transmutatory into silver or gold, and in vegetables instaurative or conservative, operative or effective.

Through this way it is also possible…

Footnotes:

*) Because otherwise, in the womb of the earth, the silver- or gold-seeded general mother of nature, sown with such special seeds, becomes itself the first matter of the metals unto fruit.

**) To this end, my athanor with its inextinguishable daughter (fire) is not without purpose.

***) From the properties and powers of such seeds.

Page 57

…also the prime catholic matter itself, likewise according to the properties of silver or gold, in its first-sided artificial composition and subsequent natural mixture and union, impregnated and specified by the philosopher; then they remain silverish*) or golden in perpetual unio hypostatica, inseparably and indivisibly united with one another, and also work together with one another.

But if the first catholic, the clearest and most purified matter, the animated, catholic, living Azoth or Mercury of the philosophers, the prime-material fontina*, in and for itself alone, without any or all silverish or golden admixture,***) from the very beginning until the final end, is conducted in the philosophical *athanor† through putrefaction…

Footnotes:

*) Idiomatibus naturarum utrarum hinc inde communicatis. (“With the idioms of both natures communicated to each other.”)

**) From which all metals in general take their origin.

***) Neither bodily nor spiritually prepared, nor unprepared.

†) Since the catholic chaos of the Magnesia of the wise (as mentioned above, where this sign ☿ stands) is said to have in itself everything that is catholic, in order to be naturally and artificially perfected into the universal stone of the wise.

††) See my treatise on the philosophical Athanor.

Page 58

…putrefaction, coagulation, fixation, and incineration, regenerated and brought to plusquam-perfection; so it becomes, if God wills, from the first catholic purified matter, in and of itself perfected, also present as the first catholic over-perfected matter, the Azoth—that is, the animated catholic, in and for itself renewed and perfected Mercury, the glorified universal stone of the wise, that great catholic elixir of the philosophers,* also with catholic powers, virtues, and effects—whose divine and miraculous workings, like those of a truly catholic medicine, extend universally, indeed, to vegetables, animals, stones, gems, and minerals,** in order to renovate them, to raise the essence of their powers and effects as high as by nature through art they can ever be brought; likewise to increase and preserve their strength, as also upon the metals…

Footnotes:

*) In consideration of the special or specified silver- or gold-making stones, which are rightly called the great stone of the wise; but these must be rightly and fairly called the little stones.

**) See H. C. Agrippa, De occulta philosophia, book 2, chapter 4, in the scale of unity; and the letters of Trithemius to Johannes of Westenburg, the Count.

Page 59

…through the philosophical fermentation, to perfect them, so that they then also have the power, might, and authority to multiply themselves inexhaustibly through philosophical projection upon the lower metals, and in such fashion to bring forth and bestow fruits of their own kind.

In this way, too, the first catholic over-perfected matter—that is, the perfected Stone of the Wise, after its perfect preparation—may be specified from those special seeds of nature of the metallic species, namely of silver and gold; or from the juices of other mineral, vegetable, and animal substances, specially purified and subtly prepared materials, etc., with which it is united in philosophical fermentation in an indissoluble union. And so they always remain inseparably together and united, and according to the property and manner of the united matter act together with one another.

It, the Universal Stone, also transforms and elevates, according to the teaching of all true chemical philosophers, in the philosophical fermentation, silver and gold in a moment and an instant into the state of…

Footnote:

*) For the Stone of the Wise is the Universal Ferment, the true Proteus of Nature’s secrets, which, by virtue of fermentation, represents itself in all manner of forms.

Page 60

…perfection, without the previously mentioned reduction into the first matter;*) so that silver and gold become a reborn and more than perfected silver and gold; hence both have power and might, from their over-perfection, to communicate to the lower metals, both in form and in essence, from the foundation, so that such can be transformed into the higher.

But whether one takes the regeneration and plusquam-perfection of silver and gold in this way or that way,**) it is nevertheless necessary that the first catholic matter of the metals, which has come forth from the catholic magnesia described in this treatise, be either watery, moist, and perfect, or else physically-chemically coagulated, purified and perfected, before all else, for a good beginning…

Footnotes:

*) With which transformation, symbolically to compare and to understand it naturally and artificially, is the mystery of the transformation of the deceased human bodies, which, according to the teaching of Paul (1 Corinthians 15:51–52), on the Last Day, at the time of the last trumpet, shall also suddenly, in a moment, be transformed into perfection and incorruptibility.

**) Via physico-chemica tertia, ad lapidem vel universalem, aut lapides argenti sive auri speciales, datur nulla.
(There is no third physico-chemical way, either to the universal stone, or to the special stones of silver or gold.)

Page 61

…better means and most necessary foundation for the desired end; since they [the metals] come forth from the prime-material foundation, and thus consequently all transmuting tinctures of the lower metals into the higher, elixirs and also true particulars must flow from such a foundation or ground of the philosophical universal, though each in its own manner and way.

It cannot be otherwise—you make of it also what you will. Spring up or sink down! Curse or pray! Thus you vainglorious calumniator, you will not be able to overturn this truth-ground of natural light with your lying chatter, but must let it stand. I have reason to set this down. The sons of the doctrine do not let themselves be deceived. Their well-meant, modest instances are altogether pleasant and dear to me.

All that in alchemy is said of the universal stone and also of the special silver- or gold-stones of the wise, as of the transmuting tinctures of the lower metals into the higher, elixirs with such useful particulars—outside and without this catholic truth of the first catholic matter being presupposed—runs contrary and astray, for it is not grounded upon the light of nature, and is vain and nothing more than errors.*

Footnote:
*) Bernardus, Count, De lapide philosophorum, book 2: “We knew,” he says, “that any work apart from the Stone is vain and fruitless.”

Page 62

Of the useful separation-arts of silver or gold from all sorts of minerals and metals—which are not transmutations or transformations, nor do they mean a bringing-into-being, but only an extraction—nothing shall be said here; likewise, of the figurings of an embryonic silver or gold, which is only a ripening, nothing shall be spoken of here. For such are not truly called particularia, since they are not true particulars of the universal. Philosophers speak according to nature and quite philosophically of philosophical matters, but not merely with a greed for gold.

Now, what and how much may lie in the knowledge and insight of the first catholic matter for a true chemical and nature-experienced philosopher*—and further, that he knows how to resolve and purify the same in the catholic watery philosophical mercury, naturally and artificially, so that the flowing prime-material fontina of the philosophers may be attained—this is best felt by him who, driven by God, tastes the truth of the ground of the philosophical stone in his theosophically purified heart and mind, free from sophistry.** For, as I have already rightly and well said before, in these two hidden things lies the art…

Footnotes:

*) Which God through nature in the magnesia catholic presented catholicly to the philosopher.

**) Lavamini, mundi estote (“Wash yourselves, be clean”).

Page 63

…the art, the foundation of the philosophical universal, also all the transmuting tinctures of the lower metals into the higher, elixirs and similar true particulars. You artists, seek above all the catholic magnesia of the philosophers and its natural solution, and everything else will be added to you.

It has often been lacking to even excellent and very diligent chemists, the first genuine and true matter of the metals. Had they proceeded from the aforementioned prime-material foundation of the magnesia with silver and gold also in an azothic manner, then their otherwise beautiful and deeply thought-out works might have turned out much more fruitful, according to their expectation, than has in fact happened; for the preceding preparations of the bodies of moon or sun (praeparationes corporum lunae vel solis), by means of suitable artifice of subtle dissolutions, are indeed very useful and beneficial, for the quicker attainment of the true prime-material solution, through the prime-material catholic fontina, to come fully thereto.

Only visit all the chemical process-books, and you will very seldom find therein the Chaos or Magnesia sapientum—namely the materiam metallorum primam, with its own name, which it has among the vulgar, as Hermes says—explicitly named, much less its true solution and use rightly and expressly described. I have seen many such examples…

Page 64

…I have searched through many well-written and printed books, but in them found almost nothing, or at least very little that was clear and bright on this matter. I have paid special attention to it. And precisely this—that so little is written about it—may well be a proof of the truth of our magnesia, namely that it is the secret subject of the catholic Stone of the Wise.

Now, what shall one do? Everything has its place and time. God knows well—why? when? where? and to whom? Therefore, let no artist despise the teachings and distinctions that have been set down until now, however dear the truth is to him; for he will not only easily find himself delivered out of the labyrinth of contradictory and opposing writings of the philosophers, in outward appearance so very disputatious, if God grants him the grace, but also with the saving of great costs, vain labor and work, he will know how to take the good from the old and overly-chemical processes, and to reject the evil.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit of Truth says to the children of the doctrine.

Quote and allegorize from the philosophical writings what you will—yet in this case the philosophical rule always holds true, namely that one must understand the sayings and writings of the philosophers…

Page 65

…the sayings and writings of the philosophers must always be understood according to the possibility of nature,* and not according to the mere sound of the words, nor superficially by what is indicated through the parables; as Rhasis says in the Book of the Perfect Magistery.

For the philosophers themselves say: “When we seem to speak the truth openly, then we have most concealed the art.” Therefore it is said in the Turba: The philosophers speak much, of which they do nothing. Thus it stands written in the Book of Saturn: The philosophers wrote their books only for their sons; and by “sons” I mean those who understand their words fully, but not according to the mere letter. For the labor according to the literal sense is nothing other than a wasting of goods and a loss of time.

Therefore Avicenna also condemns the dead and misleading letter and concludes with the words: “But when I adhered to the natural beginnings, then I recognized that the art was true.” In general, outside of nature in artificial-physical matters there is nothing…

Footnote:
*) Naturae possibilitas sit des Artifex Richtscheid, wornach er studieren und laborieren solle. Amicus Geber, amicus Ryplaeus, amicus Paracelsus; magis amica Naturae veritas.
(“The possibility of nature shall be the rule of the artist, according to which he should study and work. Friend to Geber, friend to Rupescissa, friend to Paracelsus; but more a friend to nature’s truth.”)

Page 66

…nothing is to be accomplished; and, in one word: the letter kills, but the Spirit makes alive.

One does not reject the books of the philosophers, but lets them all be good, yet only in the natural understanding, insofar as they agree with nature; just as also the writings of the Fathers and other distinguished theologians are held authentic, insofar as they accord with Holy Scripture, but not otherwise. You, my detractors, take heed also! One must not pay attention merely to what someone says, but rather to what he means thereby, and whether it is good or evil.

It is said: the written law has a waxen nose—it can be twisted whichever way one wills. *) This may also well be said of the writings of the chemical philosophers: since their sayings about the chaos or universal magnesia can seemingly be twisted and applied as proof to all matters in the world. For it is indeed wonderful, that from the universal magnesia everything can be said. Therefore it also has among the philosophers the name All, because it is that from which all materials spring.

Footnote:
*) Indeed, the same is also said of the Bible: quod biblia non dextre intellecta, nec rite interpretata, materia sint haereseos.
(“That the Bible, not rightly understood nor correctly interpreted, becomes the material of heresy.”)

Page 67

It is far safer and more certain to reason and philosophize from the possibilities of nature, than from the mere dead letters of books. According to this touchstone of nature, one must and ought to understand the writings of the philosophers naturally, not merely according to paper books or the dead letter.

But what if the philosophers, when they speak of metals, do not always mean the common ones, but often the philosophical metals, as of silver and gold—that is, of the Mercury and Sulphur of the philosophers, which lie hidden in the Magnesia as in the mine of art? Should they not then also be understood philosophically? And when they say: leave the metals aside, as well as that from them the entrance and the more inward matter is to be found—whether this meant either from silver or gold to their special silver or gold stones, upon which they worked at that time, yet nevertheless in truth would be understood according to the first matter of nature, as I have shown until now? Or whether they meant it only as the prime matter, namely the first catholic matter of the metals, but not the metallic, bodily, hard fruit, much less anything derived from it, when they spoke of their universal?

What do you say to this, my dear mere metal-seekers? Consider well.

Page 68

Some artists object and say: Do we not bring silver and gold back into their first matter, when we separate them into the three from which they are composed; then extract the sulphur, or the soul; make the mercury or spirit manifest in the form of a clear water, per se, pure, clear and clean without admixture of foreign water or moisture; likewise sow the sulphurs into their own mercuries and salts, each into its own, as into their sacks of regeneration; let them putrefy and dissolve in digestion; then finally coagulate and fix them; so that we may come to the silver- or gold-making stone of the philosophers and to the transformation tinctures.

Furthermore, they say that silver has its own silver seed, gold its own gold seed, within itself; and behaves just as with an apple: for if one cuts open the same, one finds in it its seed, namely the kernels; so it is also with silver and gold. Likewise, sulphur of silver is the seed of silver, sulphur of gold is the seed of gold; and the seed of silver is in silver, that of gold in gold, together and within one another, only that nature must be aided by the aforesaid natural and artificial preparations.

Page 69

Thus one would have silver- or gold-tinctures, which transform the lower metals into the higher. So they say. But to these objections I answer as follows:

1. That sulphur of the moon and of the sun can be artificially extracted, I willingly admit;

2. That, however, after the extraction of the two sulphurs, the mercurius of the moon or sun should also appear in the form of a clear water, per se, pure, clear and clean, without admixture of foreign water or spirit, already existing therein — this is very doubtful and almost untenable. For if one separates the waters, spirits, or liquids used in the preparation from it, one will find what kind of clear watery mercurius of the moon or sun per se remains.

3. As for the salt that can be obtained therefrom, I do not deny that one could indeed have it.

But what would it be more, my dear gentlemen, if one could truly have, as you say, those three mentioned things — sulphur, salt, and mercury — from metallic silver or gold, in the way you have indicated? Would these not still be only secondary fruits, namely, metallic fruits produced from the first matter of the metals, argentific or aurific specificated? That is, the unprimaterial or not truly primary matter of silver and gold, unprimaterial, or not in the primate—

Footnote:
Posito hoc, non tamen simpliciter concessio.
("Even if this be assumed, it is nevertheless not simply conceded.")

Page 70

…material state, the three essential parts* each separately, artificially divided and separated from one another? If these three are to be truly and properly the principia primaterialia tria, then they must also be primaterial; and therefore through the prima materia of the metals** the first matter must be set back and reduced even further to the first matter. For the first matter of the metals alone has the power, strength, and force to accomplish this, and otherwise no other thing, artificial method, or procedure whatsoever. Therefore, it also cannot, without applying the first matter of the metals, be done at all, much less can sufficient help be given to Nature for the regeneration and plusquamperfection of silver and gold.

Since, then, according to the course of Nature, and also according to the undeniable testimonies of all true philosophers, as well as according to natural reason—as I have told and shown until now—so the first catholic matter of all metals remains also entirely alone…

Footnotes

* Partes essentiales tres, non principia primaterialia tria, imo potius principiata tria.
(Three essential parts, not three primaterial principles, but rather three derived principles.)

** Welche etwas besonderes selbstständiges an und für sich außerhalb den Metallen ist, auch von diesen gar nicht herkommt, sondern diese von jenem.
(Which is something particular and independent in and of itself outside of the metals, and does not come from them at all, but rather they come from it.)

Page 71

…be the universal regeneration-soil of silver, gold, and all other metals. How then can mercurius and sal auri be the intended soil for gold, or argenti for silver? Dear laborants, consider well what kind of work you intend! Do you not wish, through natural artifice, to bring silver or gold to plusquamperfection? Yes. Are not sulphur, mercury, and salt, all three together, the essential parts of silver and gold? If, however, they were something external to them, then silver would not be silver, gold not gold. Nothing else.

Silver and gold, if they are to become new or reborn metals, must indeed return again into the womb of their mother, therein putrefy, and return again to the first matter. Yes, certainly. But their mother’s womb is nothing other than the materia metallorum prima catholica, the only and sole true regeneration-soil of all metals, as has been sufficiently proven in this present treatise. And what is well worth noting: the materia prima causes in this work the true putrefaction.

The living catholic primaterial Mercury is the secret horse-dung of the wise. He is wise who understands this.

If then silver and gold are to be sown artificially according to nature, it must be done in their here-to-appropriate soil; but in this work the seed is neither the soil, nor is the soil the seed. How then can silver and…

Page 72

…and gold be both seed and soil at the same time? Because silver has the seed of silver within itself, and gold has the seed of gold within itself. Yet argenteitas or aureitas lies not only in the sulphur of Luna or Sol, but at the same time also in the other parts thereof, that is, in mercury and salt, tota in toto. Therefore the entire silver or gold, whether united bodily in a single mass or separated, so that sulphur and mercury each be distinct and alone, or otherwise subtilized in some manner, must be sown.

But where? Or in what? Certainly not in themselves, but rather in that primaterial regeneration-soil destined for this purpose by nature, which is just as much another, single or double Mercury, as that which the sophists wish to take unprimaterially from the bodily metals. The one indicated here is the common mother of silver and gold; but not the unprimaterial one, which is in or from the metals.

Therefore it remains indisputably true, that even if the aforementioned artisans should persist until the end of the world with their above-mentioned method…

Footnote
(*) Thus must one also proceed with the corporeal mercuries of metals running about, if one wishes otherwise to behold the aurora of the philosophers arising therefrom.

Page 73

…have, and proceed in manner and way without the first catholic matter, yet by this method they would by no means attain the desired end they had proposed to themselves; for the reason that it is not possible to bring forth a truly natural work from a false and unnatural foundation.

Otherwise, one readily concedes that silver and gold have their own seeds within themselves; but this has a wholly different relation and meaning than your clumsy comparison with the apple has suggested. That is but a lame example, rhyming as poorly here as five fingers upon one eye. You bungling imagination ought surely to consider, that in gold, when it is broken into pieces, its seed is not especially encountered or found lying about, as the kernels in an apple. Furthermore, just as one does not sow the apple seeds back into the apple whence they came, but rather into the common earth of the great world from which the apple’s trunk and tree have grown forth, so must you, with your mismatched comparison, remain at home among your fellow pseudo-philosophers, and save it for your like-minded little physicists, where perhaps it may pass for as much as it can.

But in order that you may be set somewhat more rightly on the path, know that it is with the kernel of silver or gold thus constituted—if indeed one wishes to speak of kernels—that such a kernel is not…

Page 74

…not merely its sulphur, but rather—as I have rightly said above—the purest Totius, namely sulphur, mercurius, and sal; that is, the entirety of the metal together. This, so to speak, is, as you have now heard, the true kernel of silver or gold; and such a kernel is by no means to be sown back into silver or gold, or into something taken from them, any more than apple seeds are to be sown back into the apple or into something derived from it for rebirth. Rather, it must naturally and artificially be sown into its own, into such a primaterial field, from which silver and gold are by nature, in their manner, even to this day, naturally, catholically conceived and brought forth.

This nut, you clumsy bird with your especially sharp beak, you would do well to leave uncracked, even if you already carried your file to your foot.

For with the saying of the philosophers: sal metallorum est lapis philosophorum, the salt of metals is the stone of the philosophers, the philosophers who are experienced in nature understand it in an entirely different sense than those inexperienced, simple-minded laborants, who believe that metals, such as silver or gold, can be destroyed solely by long calcination and reverberation…

Footnote on page 74:

This lies in terra magnesiæ, in the land of the philosophical Magnesia. Blessed is he who can naturally cultivate and prepare it. God will provide.

Page 75

…afterwards through the frequent dissolving, extracting, cleansing with certain waters specially designated by them; and finally shooting the silver into blue, the gold into red saline stones; which, as noble medicines to be used inwardly and outwardly for human health, I gladly acknowledge and accept as very useful and excellent; or else those who, with the addition of strange harmful corrosive waters and poisonous materials, would sublimate them into subtle, very loose and light powders, and convert them into salts, as they say—yet these, because of the corrosives added, with which they have been cut and driven upward, are accustomed to be sharp, as the taste sufficiently shows; and therefore are brown or reddish, just as otherwise happens with the so-called silver and gold solutions prepared with aqua fortis and royal water, which also bite into wood and human flesh, tinging them in such a way that it is dyed, but still far, far removed from being tincturing silver or gold salts, which should transform the lower metals into the higher.

And so those who, by such and other unequal ways, without the adhesion of the first matter, as said, think to obtain the Philosopher’s Stone—ah, you inexperienced in nature! Sal metallorum is indeed good for your purpose, but only when, through the primaterial double catholic Mercury, it has been regenerated, perfected, attained, and truly brought forth.

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Rather transform, through God’s grace and blessing, the purest of the entire silver mass into a pure, smokeless, wax-like, sulphureous substance, and the gold mass into a likewise ruby-colored salt or salt-stone, through the primaterial doubled mercurial salt-sparkle of the salt of wisdom, of all metals in general, and of the philosophical universal stone, which must be found in the catholic Magnesia and from the same, according to God’s will, be naturally and artfully obtained; then you may, if it pleases the Almighty, come to the desired end by the infallible way of Nature.

Otherwise it is and remains blindness and error, wherever it may appear in similar silver or gold labors, except where the Azoth of the primaterial Magnesia seems best to be.

The philosophers also say: In salt consist all your works. One may ask: in what kind of salt? And where shall such salt be found or taken? To this I answer philosophically with a philosopher: It is the catholic sea-salt; and it is to be sought in the catholic ocean or sea of the wise, namely—

Footnote (bottom of page 76):
This gift of God is great; every physical chemist should thank God for it in his prayer. Whoever is to have it, God will indeed give it to him in due time. One must first learn to recognize the Magnesia, and then seek diligently within it. Seek, and you shall find, Christ teaches us.

Page 77

…is found in the Magnesia, which, according to the testimony of a wise man, namely Hamuel, son of Zadith, as the interpreter Senior says, is a coagulated, congealed water, which resists fire, and remains firm from the beginning to the end of the work. This is the broad, great, and good sea, whose goodness Hermes has recommended. There it rests.

One might raise the question: whence comes it, then, that one is now so firmly convinced of this oft- and much-indicated matter, that it is this and none other—whatever name it may bear—that God, through Nature, has presented to the philosopher as the most noble, infallible substance of the philosophical universal stone, and that it truly must be so? Has anyone ever prepared the Philosopher’s Stone from it? How can one know it so certainly, if it has never yet been made from it and brought to the desired end? Has not Doctor Khunrath himself still had nothing certain in this art? How then can he speak so certainly of the Magnesia? Let those speak of it who have already transmuted it. God help us! If no one had ever yet brought the catholic subject to the Philosopher’s Stone infallibly, so that one could or should be absolutely certain what it actually is, then surely the very first chemical philosopher who possessed the catholic Philosopher’s Stone would have been greatly mistaken, before he could have discerned all materials in the whole of nature…

Page 78

…of all material things in the fire, naturally and artfully, as is proper, had searched through, and worked out from beginning to end, and in such a manner had to find or must have found the one only right and true matter among so many countless false ones! It would have been impossible for him to find it so! What exceedingly long time, labor, and expenses would not have been required for this? Judge hereof, every artist well experienced in fire, for himself.

It must be, that Count Bernhard, though to believe his teaching from his son, who had reported it with honor, must have lied terribly, and not be the truthful Trevisanus, when he says: He had known this art two years before he had made and perfected the Philosopher’s Stone.

People say, yes, yes, he wrote this at the time when he had already perfected his work several times before, therefore his previous assumed knowledge would only then have been truly certain.

O you doves! I answer to this: Had his previous knowledge, which he had conceived in his brain from all kinds of inferred natural foundations, not been certain and true, and had he not worked according to it, then he would not have come to the desired good end, of which he afterward wrote.

It is therefore clear that the truth of his knowledge preceded the work of his operation. His own words also run thus: When I, he says, knew the art, I overcame…

Page 79

…knowledge and fellowship with fifteen good men who likewise knew the art of the Philosophical Stone, but especially with a certain Barbarus (for I knew nothing more certain than that I had known the art two years before, before I had accomplished and perfected it with manual work), who presumed, during endless disputations, to turn me away from the true way and right intention, since he had let slip that I myself had not yet performed the work with my own hands. Therefore I also left his company.” — Thus Bernhard.

If now the objection thrown in were to hold, then little or almost nothing could be believed of the author of the Rosarium Philosophorum**, because he expressly says that at the time when he wrote his philosophical book, he had not seen the philosophical work any further than up to the lion.

How would Bonus Lombardus Ferrariensis have been able to defend his precious little pearl, when in the 15th chapter he says: “I had seen many books of the Wise, and as many as I could, and according to my…

Footnotes (as in the text):

*) That is said plainly enough in German.
**) But mark well.
***) His many testimonies in this matter require many excellent men as witnesses to the truth.

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…little understanding, studied, as little as I had applied myself to the operation and the work itself.”
How is such a thing to be justified? Hear the author of the Rosarium: “I knew,” says he, “that the work must necessarily become so.”

But above all, true philosophers knew it. Whence, however? Either from God through the enthusiastic Cabala, that is, through special divine inspiration, secret visions, and good spiritual revelations; or else, according to God’s gracious will, from a well-meaning human teacher; or again, also according to God’s will and illumination,* from the light of Nature, through diligent reading and the sound understanding of truthful books of natural philosophers of chemistry; also through theosophical contemplation, meditation, and observation of the wonderful natural effects,** both in the great world here and there, and also in the chemical laboratory, in manifold and often very dangerous works.

Thus knowledge has come also to others even to this day; for even today the same roles are played which were once played, only with a change of persons.

Who told the very earliest philosophers, or whence did they know…

Footnotes (as in the text):

*) “Its governance is greater than reason perceives, unless it be given by divine inspiration,” says Balgus in the Turba.
**) Here belongs the signature of natural things.

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…that a Philosopher’s Stone exists in the nature of things? From where did he obtain this knowledge? He must indeed have possessed another kind of knowledge than many who are unskilled in the secrets of God, I think. On this matter I have written more extensively elsewhere. For the wise, enough has here been said.

Therefore I conclude further: As long as the main points set down in this treatise, and their indicated reasons,* cannot be refuted or overturned by the truth of nature, and no better or surer arguments can be brought forth against them,** then these points justly retain their place and triumph over all others; and the learned also reasonably conclude with the jurists: quod una ratio fortior vincat plures alias minus fortes. Nedum plures vincerent. — Zasius Consil. 15.

Footnotes:

* Which, in their place, when examined in attempts and tests by learned sons of the doctrine and nature-experienced trusted philosophers, have been thoroughly discussed and sufficiently tested, and, thank God, bravely endured.

** Doctor Khunrath’s Magnesia holds firm, because it proceeds from good foundations of nature, and can also be shown historically, physically, and theosophically in a most solid manner.

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No. 41. Book I. Since I have not yet found, nor do I find, any other thing in rerum natura which in all and every circumstance is so qualified, conditioned, and constituted as the chemists teach of the subject of their Stone, except my oft-mentioned magnesia; likewise, in the whole of rerum natura there is no matter in which the wondrous analogical harmony with the true and only salvation-bringing Jesus Christ, the Son of God and of the Virgin Mary, shines forth so clearly—to whom one must wholly cling with heart, faith, and life, and conversely, etc.—as in the oft and many times indicated magnesia catholica. Therefore I reject and reasonably dismiss all other materials as pseudo-magnesias, and remain steadfastly with this one alone, since the one explains and confirms the other in a wondrous way according to the marvelous and unfathomable will of God.

O ye lovers of wisdom, seek also according to nature, alchemically, in the divine Scripture of the great world-book: for the theosophers experienced in nature…

Footnote:
In which the analogical harmony with Jesus Christ—and conversely, I say—agrees so precisely as in this one. For indeed it bore in itself so much the prototype and image in nature, that in it such similarity or counterfeit likeness of both could exist as in this one.

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…theosophers believe they have within it the testimony of eternal life, and the medicine of temporal life; and the magnesia catholica in the great world-book of nature is that which naturally and universally bears witness of Christ: *) and will you not come to it, accept it, labor and search therein, so that you may truly obtain from it the testimony of eternal life and the salutary catholic medicine of this temporal life?

You gentlemen theologians, I beg you most earnestly to consider diligently how zealously venerable antiquity **) has also endeavored to explain and expound the articles or chief points of the Christian religion with parables drawn from natural things, with symbolic examples; before you, on this account, condemn me as a blasphemer, undeservedly and innocently, without sufficient reflection, and cry out against me. For I have it from the prophets and apostles of Christ, yes from the Lord Himself, out of holy biblical Scripture, as I, thanks be to God, can sufficiently prove—

*) John 5:39, in a symbolic sense.

**) Which indeed, as very well done, is justly praised by you; you also laudably imitate the same in public assemblies and in public writings.

***) As I also do here and there in my writings.

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…wished to prove it, thus learned. Moreover, I can also present to Papists, Lutherans, Calvinists, and others, each from his theologians’ writings, very, very much baggage of such parables, in case of need. What would you then dare, to accuse me much of error? It is disgraceful for a teacher, when fault rebukes him himself.

My proofs are not founded merely upon paper books of one or another writer, nor upon mere imagining; but rather reasonably *) upon the divine light of nature in the great and small world, also upon the analogical-harmonic agreement of biblical scriptures; **) since they now flow out of and from the very foundations of the same, they can everywhere well stand and hold. ***)

Behold, through much travel, great toil and expense, and not entirely without danger to my life, I have brought together a book, whose letters extend almost into the three hun—

Footnotes translated:

*) Just as also the very earliest philosophers, who never saw any inscribed bark, wax tablets, or other tabulas, nor ever saw a paper or parchment book, let alone read one.

**) It may also be well seen in this treatise, that I do not chiefly rest my proof of the magnesia upon the authorities of men.

***) A free philosopher ought thus to philosophize freely.

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…hundred, which Nature herself has written; it will be difficult enough for many a highly learned man, who is not also deeply learned, to recognize them; let alone, if he is no master of fire, to read them naturally and artfully; indeed, still much harder to discern and to know what kind of ink it is; *) out of which Nature composes such, and how wonderfully she has fashioned them, with which she has naturally inscribed those wondrously beautiful and manifoldly diverse letters, and presented them very wisely in the Macrocosm, for the physicist to read philosophically and rhythmically. It is truly a genuine wonder-book, which is most highly conducive to a more thorough knowledge and certain demonstration of the first matter of the metals and of the primaterial catholic magnesia. From this book I have, in this respect, studied more truth than from many unnaturally written books.

Therefore gnash your teeth, all you devil-heads and Beelzebub-like persecutors of the truth, who here and there with venomous serpent-tongues, out of pure envy and spite, rage against the knowledge and confession graciously granted me by God…

Footnote translated:

*) Because above only of determinate weights and measures of Nature, well known to her alone, it was spoken; thus this does not contradict that, nor that this.

Page 86

…knowledge of the catholic magnesia of the philosophers, who devilishly pursue me.

It is also, for the time being, not at all necessary that one publicly and before everyone, without distinction, should declare whether anyone, or who, has ever prepared or possessed the Philosopher’s Stone from the catholic magnesia, either universally or specifically with the same. *) The answer to such questions must rightly remain suspended until clearer proofs of the principal points I have previously set forth shall come to my well-founded and evident demonstrations; everything in its time, in its place, and with its person, according to ancient philosophical practice, under certain honorable and definite conditions previously required, which it is unnecessary to relate here. Time and occasion will surely provide them.

The secret of the knowledge of the magnesia is not to be made public before everyone without distinction; this cannot, shall not, and may not be at this time. For God, according to His unfathomable will, has since the beginning of the world until this very day always allowed it to happen thus, that at every time it has been known only to a few, especially chosen by Him, the sons of learning, **) as such…

Footnotes translated:

*) As I have explained above at length.

**) Those chosen by God for this will partake of such secret knowledge even today. He who endures to the end shall obtain the crown.

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…as experience testifies, and as is sufficiently evident from philosophical writings and also from various histories; just as I have shown in detail in the first chapter of my Confession concerning the Hyleal Chaos.

Here I also wish to give everyone a reminder: Whoever, having been granted by God the knowledge of the Magnesia, should deliberately despise it wickedly and arrogantly, or treat it contemptuously out of frivolity; and also whoever, contrary to the honorable and praiseworthy ancient philosophical usage and custom, does not faithfully keep, throughout his entire life, the free and voluntary pledge and duty he has undertaken as an honest and rightful matter before his teacher, but instead casts it aside carelessly and vainly — such a one God will not allow to go unpunished, but will in due time visit again with a dreadful curse and punishment shaking heart, body, and soul. He shall be devoured, according to the doctrine of the Hebrews, by Azazel, the avenger delegated by Jehovah, by virtue of justice, according to—

Footnotes translated:

*) These are not bonds of iniquity. In this case there is no iniquity, but rather the highest equity.

**) Let every one who is bound by duty examine his conscience.

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… according to the law of divine wrath and punishment. As attested by Pico della Mirandola, Capnion, Agrippa, and Scaliger. Therefore, so that you do not sin, *) write them upon the tablets of your heart, set them in the light before your face, and act steadfastly according to them; so you shall dwell in the tent of the Lord and remain upon His holy mountain; and also, according to God’s gracious will, at the proper time, you shall be further blessed by the Lord in this mystery. **) For Lilium says: If God finds a faithful heart, surely He reveals this art to him. He who swears to his neighbor and keeps it, he shall remain well, says the man after God’s will in the 15th Psalm. The excuse, that one has sworn only with the tongue, but not with the heart, that in the heart one did not mean it as sharply and strongly as the words sounded — this does not hold in the court of conscience; such evasion tends finally to end in misery and destruction.

To despise Christ, to blaspheme, to knowingly and deliberately mock Him, and out of improper selfishness to plot and seek how one might find an excuse in honest and rightful matters —

Footnotes translated:

*) We know that God does not hear sinners, John 9:31. It avails them nothing, even if they should lift up all their hands together.

**) In silence and in hope shall be your strength. Isaiah 30. And symbolically it shall be your Elixir.

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… to fail to keep a vowed duty are sins against the Holy Spirit, which shall never be forgiven. Certainly, it is no small matter, but a most punishable crime against God, against the Magnesia, against Christ’s natural and symbolic image in the great world; and against one’s teacher, who, according to the unanimous judgment of the wise, is to be honored as a father, to do or to commit such a thing. From the house of the ungrateful evil will not depart. All your life you should not forget such a benefaction. A Christian should reflect upon this matter theosophically. For the Lord will not leave unpunished the one who misuses His name, Exodus 20:7.

But however near or far one may be from the Philosopher’s Stone, let the slanderer be unconcerned with this, and rather see to it himself, that he may bring his intended work to the hoped-for end. What God has given to another, or still wills to give, the devil, without God’s will, cannot take from him.

Do you imagine, then, that to possess something certain in the Art means and is nothing else than merely to make silver or gold? Do you think that he who recognizes the Magnesia must at once be able to transmute and tincture? Oh, miser! Oh, fool for gold! how mistaken you are! *) If only you were a true lover of the genuine…

Footnote translated:

*) As if the Magnesia were given by God to the philosopher solely for the making of silver and gold.

Page 90

… of true wisdom, and an obedient child of the philosophers; surely you would draw the wondrous insights from the Universal Magnesia, namely of the eternal, almighty, benevolent Creator from His creation; and of Him whom He has sent, namely Jesus Christ; *) of the beginning of the great world and of natural things; of yourself, what you truly are; and of nature, which performs many wonders; from all of which the wisdom, omnipotence, and goodness of God **) may be richly learned, and for which to thank, praise, and glorify God; you would, I say, greatly prefer all this above the making of silver and gold.

Truly, the Magnesia is the most beautiful means of knowing and recognizing all these things. Rightly, therefore, it has been called by learned men a part of theology, in so far as physics in some way serves theology. Paul also teaches that the knowledge of God may be had from the things created and visible. Hence also Tertullian often wrote, that God is to be known from the workmanship of this world; but from His word, by its preaching, to be recognized. The knowledge of biblical and macrocosmic theology together constitutes theology in its entirety, i.e. in both ways divinely written and transmitted, say the Doctors.

Footnotes translated:

*) Read Paul in the 1st chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, verses 18, 19, 20. And also the 8th chapter of my Confession of the Hyleal Chaos.

**) For this reason you also have been placed in this world.

Page 91

You say: what use would the Magnesia be to me, if by it I could not at once make silver and gold? Do not the philosophers in their writings speak very much of the transmutation of the lower metals into silver and gold, through the Philosopher’s Stone, elixirs, and tinctures? Yes. You are right. But this pleasant bait they were obliged before God to set as a snare for the world, just as one lures children into school with sugar, apples, and pears; otherwise the wealthy, who prefer to run after usury, or to devote their money to other worldly things displeasing to God for themselves and their kin, rather than apply it to hidden good arts, would not be enticed nor persuaded to explore instead the manifold and wondrous mysteries of God in nature through fire, with great cost, toil, diligence, and labor, to the honor of God, for the benefit and good of themselves and their neighbor, but to the vexation of the devil and his company, alchemically *) to investigate, and to pursue the same, as it ought rightly to be done, with untiring perseverance.

O you who are rich in money, and very wealthy! Do you then think that God the Lord has given you so much money and goods only that you and yours should use them merely in money—

*) God has ordered it no otherwise.

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—and to exalt worldly matters? Truly not. You are set only as stewards by the great and merciful God over these things. To Him you must answer, and then your excuse will be required on the Day of Strict Judgment, when you must give account of the money-talent or pound entrusted and lent to you by Him—whether and how you have dealt with your neighbor, who was in need of money and other help, and with your own household, so that, Christianly *), and thereby serving God, you have truly practiced and sufficiently fulfilled that precept: “What you would have done unto you, do unto another.” Woe then unto you, worshippers of Mammon.

A philosopher is called, and is, a lover of wisdom, but not merely a lover of silver and gold. Therefore his labors are directed chiefly toward the knowledge of true wisdom, even from the Book of Nature; this he seeks especially through the art of fire **); all the rest, including also the transmutation of metals, will in due course fall to him, according to the will of God. Read my writings, learn to understand them, and then judge the bird by its song; so you shall see whether Doctor Khunrath possesses anything certain and philosophical in this art, or not.

*) Christianly, I say.
**) Fire is God’s ordinary professor of physics in the university of the mundane world; it expounds the Book of Nature most truly.

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Thus it does not follow at all that everyone—I say, everyone—who has performed a transmutation, or who can perhaps even today effect some transmutation, thereby knows the true Magnesia; nor that he certainly possesses the art of rightly preparing the Philosopher’s Stone; nor that such a one, because of a demonstrated proof, should be heard and regarded as an infallible oracle. For it is well known how, and also by what swift and strange means, certain people—who have often and many times tinctured in a manner of transformation—*) have stumbled upon such tinctures in an entirely unphilosophical way, and have chanced upon them. For as long as the tincture lasted, so long lasted also their art.

It has never been known that any one of these so-indicated tincturers ever again prepared the Philosopher’s Stone, as Count Bernhard in his old age did four times. Had they truly known the matter and its right preparation, and had they been true philosophers, as they wished to be considered and praised; then, in the long time and with such good opportunities as they had, they would surely have succeeded again in the work. But such a thing has never happened. Who will vouch that today the same may not again occur?

*) We are not here speaking of fraudulent and spurious projections, which some know well how to employ, and which, through the ignorance of many spectators, may be held as genuine.

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happen, could happen, or might happen? One must not only look at the demonstrated proof, and trust solely in that, but rather judge the bird by its song—whether it sings something according to nature, or something contrary to nature. If someone is anywhere to be found, it must be said: Speak, so that I may hear who you are! Then one can make a proper judgment and distinguish lies from the truth. In the chemical science, too, one must test the spirits upon the touchstone of nature. A true philosopher does not shun the light; therefore, with this reminder and the indicated insistence upon proof, nothing is spoken too harshly against him. His philosophy of the Magnesia, the ore of the Art, will not contradict this natural teaching, which I am treating in the present discourse; for truth is at all times and everywhere consistent: this is absolutely certain and infallible. Let such a one come forth, and then we shall hear what time it is.

Beloved, listen to me while I honorably declare a gross lie, which some people shamelessly bring forth, seriously asserting that they wish, as a strong proof of the true matter of the Philosopher’s Stone, with their still raw matter—which they claim to be the true matter of the Philosopher’s Stone—already to transmute the lower metals constantly into the higher, and thereby to perform already a proof of gold-making. Is that not a dreadful

Page 95

What a dreadful conclusion! Which philosopher who teaches according to nature has ever permitted such a claim to be made? Truly, none at all; for the reason that such a thing is entirely contrary to truth, to possibility, and to the will of nature, and is therefore thoroughly unphilosophical. Let every son of the doctrine consider this! How can the matter of the Philosopher’s Stone already be capable of continually tincturing by way of transformation, when no regeneration, no “more-than-perfection” and no other necessary qualification has yet taken place within it, as must naturally occur? Even if one could with such raw and unprepared matter tincture in a transmutatory way—why then did the philosophers *) require so much effort and labor, also such great diligence and subtlety in the preparation of their matter through calcination, dissolution, purification, composition, putrefaction, solution, coagulation, figuration, inceration, **) and metallic fermentation, in order to attain their miraculous Stone, with which projection onto the lower and transmutation into the higher metals should occur, and indeed has occurred with them, in an artificial manner according to nature?

But the wise, since such matters are worth preaching against, can easily discern what lies behind the new display of such pseudo-alchemists with regard to their—

* “Wie ihre viele und fast unzählbare Schriften naturgemäß genug bezeugen.”
→ “As their many, indeed almost innumerable, writings amply attest in a manner consistent with nature.”

** “Inceriren, heißt wachssäufig machen.”
→ “To incerate means to make wax-like (i.e., to render soft/fusible like wax).”

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…their supposed proof of transmutation must rest, especially with those inexperienced in Nature and the inquisitively gathered, whispering money-grubbers? Well then! Let everyone attempt his adventure. But be admonished: if the tincturer is to make and wishes to make his trial, then pay close attention to his hasty manipulations, and see that these, together with the instruments and all other tools he uses, are properly examined. Concerning this, good information may be given to you by the faithful warning admonition, which at the end of my German Confession of the Hyleal General Chaos of the Philosophers has been appended and printed. A warner is not yet a bad man.

From all that has been said thus far, those who declare: “I would have had to cease my writing concerning the Magnesia, until I had at last completely prepared from it the Philosopher’s Stone and thereby truly transmuted metals” — such men may now conclude for themselves the answer to such a speech. But let them also know this: even if I should never in my lifetime experience the complete preparation of the Philosopher’s Stone from it, and thereby attain to the transmutation of metals, still I would not, on that account, let a single gray hair grow on my head; for…

Footnote

(*) Because such a matter lies in God’s mighty hand and inscrutable will.

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…but rather for your sake, and for the sake of you slanderers and mockers, I will keep the true knowledge of the rightful Magnesia, and still be, and remain, a true philosopher, and allow myself to be abundantly satisfied with the gifts bestowed upon me by God (*). For indeed, it is not the philosopher’s sole task to make gold and silver. I thank God for my portion. Whatever may still be lacking in preparation, that God can and will, if I call upon Him in spirit and in truth and pray, and also labor diligently in the meantime, graciously bestow upon me in His own time and way, in full measure. Despite you, slanderer! God, who has wondrously taught me from my youth, will not forsake me even into old age, yes, into very old age, until I proclaim His arm — that is, His strength or His Elixir — to the coming generations, Psalm 71, verses 17–18.

If another has wished to wait with his writing until after the completion of the Stone, and only wanted to bring it forth after his death, what does that matter to me or to you? It is no divine command that one must act in the same way as another. If we all had one head, then we would all wear one hat. Eh, that would hardly be a fine, comfortable hat for everyone! For we do not all have the same impulse from God, nor the same task; each…

Footnote

(*) Also alchemy itself is to be understood in the matter of Magnesia, to be cleansed naturally from both its subtle and gross impurities.

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Each one contributes, in service of truth, that which is his own, to which God at His time endows him, and in which He strengthens him. Thus it is also said, as in Jeremiah 48, verse 10: Cursed is he who does the work of the Lord negligently. Who would wish to master God, that He should drive me so? As I daily call upon the Lord, that I may be as useful to Him as an artist’s hands are, He graciously hears me; for this I thank Him, and according to my ability, I carry out what He commands me. If, then, God wills to have it so, what can I do about it? Wherever inevitable fate may lead me, there I must go. Thank God that He allows you to deliver this.

Conclusion

Of the fruits and uses of the knowledge of the Catholic Magnesia.

Whichever chemist, through enlightenment and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, receives into his hands the Catholic Magnesia and comes to recognize it — he may, from the depths of his heart, with theosophical joy, rightly say: Lord, now let Your servant labor upon the Stone of the Philosophical Chemists in peace, as You will have it; for my eyes have seen Your medicinal Savior of the great world, a true symbolic image, and natural counterpart of the Savior of mankind, Jesus Christ, of the human race, in divine greatness…

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…in the great world-book of Nature, which You, through Nature, have prepared for all peoples; a supernatural light, to illuminate naturally and in accordance with nature, those wandering and ignorant in the natural and supernatural — that is, theosophical — mysteries; and to be a praise of Your people, who, as they highly value the works of the Lord in Nature, indeed hold them steadfastly in high esteem, and with true theosophical renunciation of all perishable vain vanities of this world, take delight in their heart’s desire therein.

You scoffer and devil’s hireling, take heed also of the following: Although the aged Simeon had not yet seen the child Jesus Christ perform any miracle, Luke 2, v. 29, yet he knew with certainty, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, according to the Holy Scripture, that he held the true Savior of mankind in his arms; thus also, although a true chemical philosopher has not yet attained from the Catholic Magnesia, from which the Catholic Philosopher’s Stone must be prepared, the fine transmutation of metals**, yet he has…

Footnotes

*) Perseverantes coronabuntur. — One must persevere steadfastly, not falling into new opinions every day, week, month, or year.

**) Only the money-greedy world regards this; far higher theosophical, also medicinal applications and uses are completely disregarded.

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…to see it; yet he knows physically, historically, and theosophically, through inspiration and teaching of the Holy Spirit, also from the macrocosmic book, the light of Nature, and according to sound reason, also quite surely and infallibly, that he holds in his hands the true medicinal Savior of the great world, namely the Philosopher’s Stone, even if not yet in the state of completion or reduction.

It is no otherwise, and I know — praise be to God — well what I speak and write here; the babbler and the ignorant may chatter and scribble against it whatever they will. If they wished to speak the truth, or understood it better, then they would also speak more reasonably, better, and more modestly about it.

Yet I let myself be little or not at all disturbed by the many useless clamors against this; and that is no more than fair, especially when I consider what sort of men these are, who for the most part are called philosophers. They might rather be called pseudo-sophists. For certainly, the majority*) are wretched, perverse, misguided, and unphilosophical. Of this the 8th chapter of my Confession on the Hylaic Chaos may be consulted.

Footnotes

*) Except for a very few highly learned men, sometimes even in alchemy not entirely unexperienced; but alas, arrogant spirits, who wish to be the only rooster in the basket, to shoot the bird, and to ride beside the brewer’s wagon —

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…house of all sorts of vagabonds*), who, contrary to their otherwise orderly occupations and trades — yes, contrary even to God’s and Nature’s calling — intrude into this art; driven by greed for money and by the laziness of sloth into idleness, they become degraded common laboratory workers. Likewise, because of their lack of understanding, being coarse, arrogant, and often brutishly stubborn and obstinate fellows, who yet understand as much of the mysteries of God in Nature**) as crows do of Sunday, or as a Swiss cow of dancing.

So certain are they of their case, and so assured, that nearly every month, yes sometimes several times in one week, they come forth with a new opinion about the matter of the Philosopher’s Stone — namely, what it is supposed to be. As soon as a new bird is set loose, or a golden beetle of their kind comes flying in, buzzing and humming loudly with much noise of silver- or gold-making, then they, filled with diabolical envy and malice, begrudge other diligent men the gifts of God, and, because they themselves do not possess them, they frivolously slander and malign all that is good.

Footnotes

*) Among them also many of Hudelmann’s rabble, levis armaturae grex (a band of light-armed rabble).

**) If one engages with them, one will soon hear what a fine philosophy they claim to pursue.

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…and [they think] that silver and gold can be driven out in such a way without worm-seed*), they plunge into it without any philosophical reflection, like a fly into buttermilk, or a pig into the swill trough. O wretched birds, who from nature have no better foundation for their matter than that any twig smeared with birdlime can easily catch them! Should one present them with sound objections (which in their heads are nothing but Bohemian villages), then they thunder and boast of their artificial tricks, their many laborious works, great exercises, and so-called excellent experiences in alchemy, coming in with great force; they revile and boast all the more when one does not wish to approve of them or believe them; they want to strike wounds, who knows how great.

Oh, dear coarse friends, I have encountered such herbs before! Your boiling, coal-burning, yes even the wasting of much silver, gold, and many other good materials, will bring you little or nothing toward the knowledge of the Magnesia, unless there be a natural foundation, reasonable observations in the works, which produce such [results] and teach you, while at the same time true philosophical reflection is also present therein.

But what is to be done? I must confess that, out of Christian compassion, it is almost more reasonable to deal with such wretched, coarse, foolish animals…

Footnote

*) Yes, if they could at least still make good brandy, then at least they might pass for something.

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…to have compassion with such confused heads, rather than to quarrel violently with them and scold them much.*) Where shall I flee to escape their tongues? Yet a courageous horse does not regard the barking of a pursuing little dog. In the same way I also will do so, in the name of the Lord.

Such an artist, who labors in and with the catholical Magnesia of the philosophers, certainly seeks the Universal Stone upon the most good and assured foundation of nature.**) For he seeks it where God has placed it, and consequently in that wherein God and nature have willed it to be sought by the artist. Such a one labors more than sufficiently in the catholic subject of this art.

But now, it is above all also most necessary that for this he call upon the Father of Lights, God, the true giver, in spirit and in truth, in the oratory, to enlighten him with enthusiastic wisdom;***) in the mirror of the soul, † or else in another way,

Footnotes

*) Est hominum ignara rerum & ignava fex.
("It is the ignorant and lazy dregs of men.")

**) Und auch nebst philosophischer naturgemäßer Anwendung den Silber- oder Goldmachenden Specialstein.
("And also, along with the philosophically natural application, the silver- or gold-making special stone.")

***) So jemand Weisheit mangelt, der bitte Gott, so wird sie ihm gegeben werden. Jacob 1. v. 5.
("If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, and it shall be given him.")

† Ein Gemüth, das mit Gott vereinigt ist, erlangt alles, was es begehrt. 2 Timoth. 2. v. 7.
("A soul that is united with God attains all that it desires. For the Lord will give you understanding in all things.")

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…to let it be shown to him; and in the reading of the philosophical books to remind him, that he not only take note of and understand where the truth of the preparation is written, but also that through a good spirit right inspirations may be given to him, and that he be governed in such a way, that in the laboratory he may rightly and physically-chemically govern the Magnesia, so that he may reach the usual end and outcome, and, as Morienus says, may obtain the knowledge of this secret in a straight way, without any deviation, successfully.

It would be better for some, had they never in all their life heard anything of the Philosopher’s Stone, than that they puff themselves up with proud, defiant words, as my adversaries do, boasting of the Magnesia as of the true matter of the catholic Stone of the Wise, and yet go astray both theoretically and practically; and, with nothing but fantasies and erroneous matters, labor away, instead of recognizing the one only true matter.

For they, who do not have the right and true matter, have also not the true foundation of the Philosopher’s Stone; and so they work, like all sophists or erring ones, without the foundation of truth. And because their false magnesias are erroneous and not powerful for this, therefore also the work, which they hope thereby to achieve, is vain, false, and useless, even if they still…

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…no matter how great the costs, diligence, toil, and labor expended. It is all in vain; for how should anything come out, where there is nothing within? Just as if one would tap Rhine wine from a cask that contained nothing but roses or water. It is therefore impossible that a man, by wholly false magnesias, should ever attain the Universal Stone, Tincture, Elixir, or any other forceful particular.

Thus, all those who trust in the false magnesias remain in vanity and error, unless they be converted to the true Magnesia. He who does not have the true Magnesia, also does not have its powers and virtues, and therefore cannot come to the desired end.

Footnote:
“Extra magnesiam philosophorum catholicam in Bono Naturae, per artem summo adipiscendo, hoc est Lapide Philosophorum, nulla salus. Sicut nec in pertinentibus ad salutem aeternam, extra ecclesiam est salus.”
(“Outside of the catholic Magnesia of the philosophers, in the Good of Nature, attained through the highest art, that is, the Philosopher’s Stone, there is no salvation. Just as, in matters pertaining to eternal salvation, there is no salvation outside the Church.”)

But on the other hand, he who is a true son of doctrine, who recognizes the catholic Magnesia of the Philosophers, has this benefit: that, when he lays his foundation upon this primal, material, firm ground, and upon this rock of nature—out of which alone, naturally and artfully, the abiding water of the Philosophers flows—he sets his foundation and builds…

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…builds, the gates of the bunglers and pseudo-chemists, with their sophistical and seductive materials—whether they speculated upon vegetable, or merely mineral and metallic kinds, which by no means belong to the catholic Stone of the Wise—cannot deceive or seduce him and his works any longer with false magnesias. For the truth of the Lord endures forever (Psalm 117, v. 2).

Moreover, if God were to send him a good man, as has sometimes happened and may yet again happen, as it has also occurred with me by the grace of God—someone who labored, or is still laboring, upon the right matter, and thus is on the true path of the beginning of the art, perhaps even of true preparation, or is at least close to it—so that by hearing him, receiving good news from him, and learning something from him, he might guard himself against the leaven of pseudo-chemists and sophists with their seductive errors, avoid them, cast them off, and utterly forsake them. He would then not concern himself at all with how powerful and great a multitude of blind ignoramuses might rise against him—though they be such as might easily rout the Turks from Hungary—who defend their fundamentally false magnesias, and with stubborn obstinacy cling to them, to their final ruin and destruction. For this he would rightly thank God, that by His mercy…

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His mercy has so accompanied him, that he may come out of the labyrinth of error or not fall into it.

I hope, with God’s help, through this my faithful warning — for this is chiefly the purpose of my present writing — still to bring many truth-loving hearts, who feel a true philosophical hunger and thirst for the highest good in nature through alchemy, back from the path of error onto the right road of the recognition of a sure beginning thereto, namely the true matter, of which mention was made also at the beginning of this treatise. In this way, I reveal to them a proper philosophical instruction, how they may distinguish the only true, the universal Magnesia of all pure philosophers, in which lies the foundation of the Philosopher’s Stone, according to the will of God, from natural light and the harmonious analogy with Jesus Christ, from the fundamentally false Magnesias; so that nothing may be imposed upon them as quid pro quo, dung instead of balm. Blessed are all the chemists who build upon the universal Magnesia, in order to attain the Philosopher’s Stone! Blessed is he who chooses this good part with all his heart, which no man shall take from him.

Footnote (*):

I well know how I felt, before I learned to recognize the Magnesia.

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If also perhaps some Zedekiah should presume to strike Micaiah on the cheek (1 Kings 22:24), and loftily with haughty contempt should say: “What? Has the Spirit of Truth departed from me, that he speaks with you? Have you alone devoured the art? Should Doctor Khunrath first instruct me what the magnesia philosophorum is? I have already mixed it so many years ago, and so forth.” — I commend this to God and to time, and let it rest there. If you know it, then give your natural and rightful testimony of it; otherwise no one will believe you. Yet it is and remains nevertheless the truth which I teach in this treatise concerning the magnesia. And let such a one know that, as he cries or speaks into the forest, so again the echo shall resound back to him; and thus each may be judged accordingly. If the greeting is good, so too is the reply good.

The common proverb is indeed true: “He is a good friend who warns one.” Yet I already know well that, because of this my confession concerning the magnesia, as of the symbolic and natural counterpart of Jesus Christ in the Book of the Great World, the same reward of ingratitude will befall me as befell Christ, His Apostles, and all confessors of the truth. For it is still said to this day: merces Doctorum, Ingratitude - The reward of the teachers is ingratitude.

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Thanks in their labors. Truth begets hatred,
truth has ingratitude as its reward.

What? Should one therefore remain silent? Should one bury the truth with the talent God has entrusted, and not come to its aid according to one’s ability? Should sophistry gain the upper hand? Should one not silence the liar and slanderer, and be like a mute dog? Far be it from a truth-loving philosopher! Rather, with David I will say, Psalm 40:10: I will proclaim the truth in the great assembly; behold, I will not restrain my mouth, Lord, you know it.

I know and recognize the Magnesia, therefore I speak and write about it. Should the world and its prince, the devil with his scales, resist the truth, and rage and burst against it ever so much, still—because I know and recognize the Universal Magnesia (praise be to God)—so I can and may well write of it; and no one shall therefore bind my mouth.

Who knows what God has resolved, through this my public confession and teaching about the Son of the great world, to bring forth good in this last quarrelsome age! Perhaps it will confirm for many doubters the doctrine of His Son even from nature itself. Behold, the time will yet come when theology from the great world-book of nature will be made manifest together with biblical theology.

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… proof will be provided, and it will also be of great use against many contentious and stubborn obstinate heads. If I were to teach according to the liking of sophists and the ignorant, as they wish to hear, and not according to Nature, then I would not be a servant of the truth. Truly, I say unto you: whoever does not enter by the right door into this art, but climbs in some other way, he is a sophist and deceiver.

The Catholic Magnesia is the primal material door of Nature, the highest good of Nature, to be obtained by means of chymical art and through the blessing of the Lord. If a philosopher enters blessedly in a natural alchemical manner, he will be fortunate and blessed, and he will open and shut, and find Vorach Beth Adamoth, yes, all that his philosophical heart desires. He will dissolve, coagulate, and figure.

With this Magnesia, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, and Mary’s Son of Man is a symbolic counterpart and undeniable comparison from Nature, which is unique and singular; and this must be the true Catholic Magnesia of the philosophers, but no other or foreign one. For of this, symbolically, the holy biblical writings testify, together with the bright light of Nature and all philosophers experienced in Nature — namely, where the truth is written without falsehood and addition, that it is their catholic…

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catholic Chaos and Universal Magnesia, from which all who labor therein according to nature in an alchemical manner should, with God’s grace and blessing, obtain the Philosopher’s Stone. With this Magnesia, I say once again: O Lord God, according to Thy grace, grant us steadfastly to obtain this highest good of Nature through art. Amen.

For this Magnesia sets Nature before our eyes; this has been given to us by God; all philosophers teaching according to Nature have commanded us to use it. No other are we to know, recognize, and accept; never in any other is the highest medicine of the great world, along with its fruits, to be found.

If a philosopher, once he has recognized and acknowledged this truth of the first catholic matter, which is to be found in the said Magnesia or Chaos of the philosophers, remains firm, steadfast, and unmoved therein, then he will not be shaken in the trials of doubters and in the assaults of disputers concerning the Philosopher’s Stone. That is most certainly true.

Tanto namque Chaos cum Fructu discitur ingens!
(For so great a Chaos with fruit immense is learned!)

Naturally alchemical and truly philosophical have I spoken, through theosophical assistance.

RVACH

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RVACH HHOCH MAHEL!
Hallelu-IAH! Hallelu-IAH! Hallelu-IAH! Hallelu-IAH!
Fie on the devil.
Amen.

Henricus Khunrath, of Leipzig, lover of Theosophy and Doctor of both Medicines.
In the year of Christ 1599.

Let it flourish, let it flourish, let it flourish —
the Magnesia of the Philosophers, catholic,
of which I have spoken in this my treatise!

The End