Natural–Alchemical Symbol, or Brief Confession Concerning the Universal, Natural, Threefold, Wonderful, and Wonder-working most secret Chaos of the Natural Alchemists

Natural–Alchemical Symbol, or Brief Confession of Heinrich Khunrath of Leipzig, Doctor of Both Medicines.

Concerning the Universal, Natural, Threefold, Wonderful, and Wonder-working most secret Chaos of the Natural Alchemists.

Of the Philosophical Universal and Great Stone’s true Natural and proper Subject, or what its one and only Matter is.

Translated to English by Mitko Janeski from book:
Naturgemes-alchymisch symbolum, oder, gahr kurtze Bekentnus ... von allgemeinem, natürlichen, dreyeinigen, wunderbaren, und wunderthätigen, allergeheimbsten Chao der naturgemessen Alchymisten: desz philosophischen universal und grossen Steins rechten natürlichen unnd eigenen Subjecto, oder, waren und einiger Materia / [Heinrich Khunrath].

Against ignorance and envious malicious slander.

For the Reader’s benefit.

With Roman Imperial Majesty’s privilege, for ten years.

To the honor of the Eternal, All-wise, Best, Almighty, Boundless and Merciful JEHOVAH,
that is,
the LORD of Lords, the only GOD:

For the universal God-fearing benefit of his neighbor and of himself:

For the vexation and bitter contempt of the slanderers and enemies of divine truth, great and small worldly mockers, flatterers of the Devil together with their attempted followers; also for the edification of readers and for the mockers of the naturally-inclined, alchemically-catholic, immovable TRUTH, to eternal shame.

Henricus Khunrath of Leipzig,
Doctor of Both Medicines and lover of divine truth,
brought this Symbolum to light.

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Natural–Alchemical Symbol, or altogether brief Confession of Doctor Khunrath.

Whoever wishes to be a natural–chymical philosopher, that is, a true lover of divine wisdom — of that divine wisdom which God Himself has inscribed in the great world-book of Nature — must also attain to the naturally-artistic, catholic, that is, universal, Great Stone of the beings.

He must before all things recognize the true universal or must have the universal Mercury of the Beings.

Whoever does not recognize it completely and purely, nor prepare it with natural–alchemical wisdom, and employ it, will without all doubt lose the highest good of Nature and Art in Alchemy.

This, however, is the true philosophical doctrine concerning the universal Mercury of the Beings: that we have one natural and universal Chaos in three substances, namely body, spirit, and soul; and that these three substances are contained in one subject or thing and may have them at hand:

And not mix the substances one into another; nor separate their unity in one subject or thing.

One substance is the body; another, the spirit; another, the soul.

But body, spirit, and soul are one thing, wherein all three are together, equally necessary, equally present, at one and the same time.

Whatever kind the body is, such kind is also the spirit; such kind is also the soul.

For the body is not made through human art, the spirit is not made through human art; the soul is not made through human art.

The body is incomprehensible to us: not, indeed, because of its greatness, but because of its minuteness; for in its own way it is nothing, and yet nevertheless has at the same time the powers of vegetable, animal, and mineral (or metallic).

From the first matter of the body of the great world (catholic, that is, universal):

The spirit is incomprehensible to us, since it is from Schamajim, that is, from fiery spirit (spirit of fiery water, watery fiery spirit, or fiery spirit-water).

First–world–beginning universal, incomprehensible heaven
(marginal note a: “In the beginning God created Heaven.” Genesis 1:1)

The soul is incomprehensible to us, for it is a briefly definable universal spark of the incomprehensible souls of the entire structure of the great world.

The body is universal; the spirit is universal; the soul is universal
(marginal note b: “That is, of Nature”).

And yet they are not three universals separately or particularly divided; but it is one universal, united, visible, and understandable to all the senses
(marginal note: “In Catholico omnia” / “In the Catholic [Universal] are all things”).

O holy Universal! O blessed Unity!
(marginal exclamation: “O heilige Allgemeine! O seelige Einigkeit!”).

Just as they are not three made by human art, nor three incomprehensible to us, separate, and particularly divided;
but it is through no human art a single, not-made, and (according to its powers, not according to bodily greatness) incomprehensible to us.

Thus also the body is all-powerful; the spirit is all-powerful; the soul is all-powerful
(marginal note a: “Namely, in the state of its pure creation; otherwise it is the Almighty God’s almighty power.”).

And yet they are not three separately and particularly divided all-powerful beings; but it is one all-powerful, and united by nature.

Therefore, the body is Mercury;
the spirit is Mercury;
the soul is Mercury, of Mercury, but it is one Mercury.

Therefore: the body is the lord of the art of alchemy; the spirit is the lord of the art of alchemy; the soul is the lady of the art of alchemy.

And yet they are not three lords of the art of alchemy; but it is one triune AZOTH consisting of body, spirit, and soul
(marginal note: “One triune Azoth. All three equally necessary.”),

that is, the catholic Mercury of the beings, the lord of the art of Alchemy.

For just as we must, according to philosophical truth, consider each essential part of our universal Chaos separately its substance, Mercury, and confess this art’s lord.

Thus, in universal philosophical truth, we cannot name three separately and particularly divided Mercuries or lords of this art.

The body is made by no man, neither produced elsewhere by human art, nor separated, nor prepared by hands or by instruments; but from the body of the great world — that is, from earth and water — it has naturally become, in and of itself.

The spirit is solely from the great world’s spirit, not made, nor drawn forth by human art, but only brought forth by the hand of Nature itself.
(marginal note: “Spirit of the world, Hebrew Schamajim.”)

The soul is not made from the body and spirit of the world, nor drawn forth, nor born; but from the very deepest womb of the same, a briefly definable, universal fiery spark of the soul of the world.

(marginal note: “A briefly definable catholic spark of the soul of the world; which is Ruach Elohim, that is, the Spirit of God: a light shining in the darkness.”)

That is, of Nature, as an entelechia — that is, so to speak, perfection or completeness, and perpetual motion of Nature, that is, unceasingly rising up of itself as natural mover.

So then there is one body, not three bodies; one spirit, not three spirits; one soul, not three souls.

And among these three of our Chaos (which the philosophers call their Magnesia) there is, by nature, neither a first, nor a last, neither one more nor one less necessary.

But all three substances exist together (by nature in the Chaos) equally, equally necessary.

So that therefore, as has been said, three are in one, and one in three, universally held and considered as the Mercury of the beings.

(marginal note left top: “Magnesia of the beings.”)
(marginal note left middle: “The most holy Trinity.”)
(marginal note left bottom: “As well in the crude as in the coagulated; as living, baptizing, and sublimated.”)

Whoever now wishes to be a true philosopher and attain the universal great natural–alchemical stone of the wise, must therefore hold the universal Chaos of the natural alchemists, the Magnesia, the Azoth — that is, the catholic Mercury of the philosophers, the true subject or matter of the philosophical universal and great stone — as its true, natural, and proper substance and only matter.

But it is further necessary for the universal alchemical salvation that one truly believe (indeed, knowingly understand) and firmly hold that the Ruach Elohim
(marginal note: “And the Spirit of God moved, Genesis 1:2”)…

Elohim, the Spirit of the Lord, which (Genesis 1:2) moved upon the waters, has truly become Body.

So then this is the God-wise philosophy of truth: that we know, believe, and confess that the Magnesia (the preserver and savior of the great world) is the Son of the great world, the Ruach Elohim, that is, the Spirit of the Lord, or the Breath of the Triune God, of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — a divine power, an outflow of divine power.

(marginal note a: “Naturally and naturally-artificially.”)
(marginal note b: “When God the Lord created heaven and earth, Genesis 1:1.”)

a great-worldly little world.

The Spirit of the Lord — He is, proceeding from the essence of the Spirit of the Lord (who also before the beginning of the world was with the Lord), that same Spirit which (Genesis 1:2) moved upon the waters; which (Wisdom 1:7) fills the circle of the world, and which (Wisdom 7:26) is in all things.

Also in the innermost virginal womb and center-point of the earth, the most hidden mother of the great world, corporally — that is, the bodily Salt of Wisdom has become: a great-worldly little world.

(marginal note a: “In all things that are: the imperishable essence and inexhaustible Spirit of God.”)
(marginal note b: “In the waste and void earth, Genesis 1:2.”)

Thus He is, from bodily substance or first matter — that is, earth and water, His mother — namely, of the great world, born into the world.

A perfect, briefly-definable, catholic spark of the aforesaid perfect Spirit of God.

A perfect great-worldly little world, from the seed of the great world, its Son;

From the briefly-definable universal spark of the divine soul of the great world, and from earth and water, the great-worldly body, mediated through Schamajim, subsisting triune.

(marginal note a: “A singular thing before the created world; yet among the beings a catholic one.”)

Just as He is like His begetter, according to essence, in body, spirit, and soul; smaller is He than His begetter, according to the individual, or, so to speak, according to His person.

And although He is the Spirit of the Lord, and the great-worldly little world, the Son of the great world, yet He is not two, but with natural universality of the foreign One, naturally and universally the Anointed of Nature;

The catholic, natural, and (after His preparation and passion) also naturally-artificial Preserver and Savior of the great world.

(marginal note left: “Equal essence with beings, as with the great world.”)
(marginal note right: “And all things that spring forth from it.”)

One — not that the Spirit of God has been transformed into the first matter, but that the Spirit of God has taken the first matter unto Himself, mediated (as said before) through Schamajim.

He is one, not that the two natures are mingled, but that He is one individual, or, so to speak, one person.

For just as body and soul, mediated through spirit (Luke 1:47; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12), are one man, so is the Ruach Elohim Spirit of the Lord, and first-material seed of the great world, mediated through Schamajim, a universal natural–natural Anointed One; the Savior, preserver and redeemer of the great world, from its superfluities contrary to pure nature, to cleanse it; the same Son: Magnesia.

Who, when He has suffered naturally–alchemically, and has endured for the foretold salvation of the great world, has descended to the abyss of His natural-artificial tomb; in the third, often well-considered art or effect, risen again from the dead, without impurity and corruption.

(marginal note a: “Naturally, from earthly earth and watery water.”)
(marginal note b: “Christ Jesus, naturally the true corrective of nature.”)
(marginal note right: “Yes, also according to natural–alchemical, divine, magical, and Christian–cabalistic art of man: as I have drawn in another figure of my Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae etc.”)

He has ascended into heaven in His more-than-perfect fullness and transfiguration; sits at the right hand of the power and might of the great world, of His almighty Father; in crystalline transparency and carbuncular redness, without decay forever, whole in body, spirit, and soul, equally as quint-essential.

From thence He comes, naturally–artificially prepared, to heal both great- and small-worldly, the healthy and the sick.

And at His coming all the fruits of all the elements — namely plants, animals, ores, and metals — must be weighed, searched, and judged, in their bodies, spirits, and souls.

And each must give account of its essence, of its own goodness and wickedness.

And what is then found to be good in them goes into glorification; but what is evil, into the fire of consumption.

This is the true and universal teaching of the wise, of the catholic or universal…

(marginal note: “No one who does not recognize this catholic truth can come to the art.”)

…Mercury of the philosophers. Whoever, being a chymist, does not faithfully know, believe, and hold this, can be no true natural–chymical philosopher, nor ever attain the universal and great Stone of the wise.

God-willing, Doctor Khunrath has spoken it.

On the 12th of December, in the evening at 8 o’clock, Anno 1597.

Driven by Ruach Hhochmachel!

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

Defy the Devil!

Amen.

(marginal note a: “Not worldly-acosophically, but according to the wisdom that comes rightly from God, theosophically. See my German great natural–alchemical confession, chap. 2, for more detail.”)

The wise understand it;
the fool despises it:
Therefore
he will rightly again be despised
by Wisdom and her children.

Who can grasp it, let him grasp it.

A man must have much to do,
who would make every fool wise.

Who does not know it, let him learn it;
or keep his mouth shut;
or be gone.

It is said.

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A Philosophical Song, of the Salt-Bodying of the Spirit of the Lord: Genesis 1.2 “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”

Praise be unto Thee, Spirit of God,
that Thou hast become a Salt-Body,
in the Virgin’s womb of the world;
It is true! Before whom all wisdom bows.
Kyrie eleison.

Of the Eternal God’s
almighty power! Now one beholds in the work,
In gross-worldly flesh and blood
Such eternal good is clothed.
Kyrie eleison.

When all disorder first was bound,
And lay in the Chaos’ womb,
Then was a little body made,
All natural things are upheld thereby.
Kyrie eleison.

The Light of Nature commands the heavens,
It gives to the world a new radiance,
It shines indeed in the midst of the night,
And makes us children of Truth.
Kyrie eleison.

The Spirit of God also,
God from God,
Became a guest in the work,
And leads us out of the vale of error,
He makes us heirs of life in Nature’s hall!
Kyrie eleison.

He came upon the earth, poor,
that He might have mercy on us,
And with the treasures of Wisdom
make us rich,
Equal to the unfallen man.
Kyrie eleison.

This God has done for us all,
to show forth His great love;
Therefore all children of Wisdom
praise Him for this in eternity.
Kyrie eleison.

Fie upon the slanderer!

Doctor Khunrath composed this,
23 December, Anno 1597,
at the eighth hour of evening.

Printed in Hamburg,
by Heinrich Binder’s heirs,
through Philip von Ohr,
in the year 1598.