Nature Unveiled For the Children of Science only, and not for the Ignorant Sophists

Nature Unveiled

For the Children of Science only, and not for the Ignorant Sophists

By

The Unknown Knight

Holy Scripture calls the first matter sometimes a vague and barren earth, and at other times Water. The division was made between the higher waters and the lower, by separating the subtle from the gross, and the light, like a spirit, from the material body. This work was accomplished by the Spirit of the luminous body; for light is a fiery spirit which, in separating the heterogeneous, drove downward the thick darkness of the neighboring region, while it became more eminent and more shining; and, gathering the homogeneous and subtle matter, it drew nearer to the Spirit and kindled it into immortal light, and, like an incombustible oil, becoming the throne of the Divine Majesty. This is the empyrean heaven, which is the intelligible world and the material world, like the horizon and the boundary of the two.

The Spirit and great Architect of the world began the work of Creation with two universal principles, namely: one formal and the other material, heaven and earth. By the name of earth is meant the mass of the abyss of waters which were not yet formed; and by heaven is meant the empyrean which, in the order of nature, is the formal principle, though distant. For the Spirit of God, which is the splendor of divinity, at the moment of creation having moved upon the waters, that is, having spread itself over the dark and humid surface of the abyss, light appeared immediately; that is to say, the most subtle and excellent light was formed. And thus the first day was made, and the part of darkness lacking light, the night, remained in it. And so the first matter was divided into day and night.

The Lord commanded this light to spread upon the nearest darkness, and having driven it away, enclosed and pressed it downwards towards the center, the second day appeared, the light at once embracing the whole upper celestial and airy region. And the same Spirit, after condensing the darkness, cast it down and plunged it into the center of the abyss; and thus the last expanse of the heavens, which is called air or the lower sky, received the light; and this is the third day. Thus the mass of darkness covering the whole mass of the abyss, having been compressed for the space of three days in the lower region by the light that appeared, became so thickened, because of the narrow space and the compression of cold, that it was changed into a very great mass and nature of water; and then the firmament was as it were balanced in the midst of the waters. And afterwards, from the thickest matter of the abyss was made the solid and coarse body of the earth, the center and core of the whole work, and like the pit and the tomb of the darkness.

Afterwards, by the motion of the Spirit, the waters withdrew from the surface of the earth to its sides, and it appeared wholly dry and arid, that it might bring forth plants and lodge animals and man; and thus all the earth and the water, on the third day, were stopped and determined into a globe, and the first created light was gathered into the globe of the celestial sun, so that the more it was confined, the more efficacious it might be for the good of nature, to awaken the fire of all the beings of the earth. And this is the work of the fourth day. On the fifth day, the birds and fishes were drawn from the waters, and on the sixth, all was finished in man, the masterpiece of Creation and the miracle of Nature. Thus the world was made as a womb in which the seeds of the celestial Sun and Moon being sent, are corrupted, cooked, and digested for the generation of all things.

From the bowels of the philosophical earth proceed two great operations: solution and coagulation. The first opens the body and entirely disposes it so as to produce at once the separation of the parts, and afterwards, by their mutual mixture, there is produced a new body, having, by dissolution, drawn out all the impurity which is always more or less in bodies. And in order that this may be done, one must note the center of nature or the central point which is hidden in the said body, which point is never found in vulgar metals, for they are dead because of the operation of external fire; therefore it is necessary to seek living ones, which still have their spirits when they are still together in their mines and not washed; and having found them, one must procure for them the conversion of their bodies into water, of which they were first made, namely into philosophical mercury, which is a living element and universal Spirit, wherefore it is defined as a reduction of a dry thing into water, which is made only by its fire and its blood, which the Philosophers call the Dragon’s Tail or Mercurial Water. For every body is dissolved by the spirit with which it is mingled, and thereby is made spiritual.

Coagulation is procured by the coldness of the surrounding air and by the solidity of the earth which encloses it with a great quantity of fire, that is to say of corporified universal spirit, and by continual movement, since imbibing only drop by drop, it must always be stirred so that it may penetrate everywhere, and above all with long patience and maturity of time.

The dissolution is accomplished by the heat of the celestial sun, by the rarefaction of air, the excessive quantity of moisture and rest, and by continual movement, until such time as nature, proceeding naturally, has herself completed her work; and it is perfected by a solution and coagulation often repeated, by which means water and air are made pure and without dregs or feces, and then they wash easily, dye more, and work more nobly. Nature and art remove from their operations what is external, impure, and superfluous.

The effect of solution is to render corporeal things spiritual, provided that the spirit, by too great a fire of the celestial sun, does not vanish away in smoke; for the fire must imitate the nature of the celestial sun in the month of July, so that the water remaining may thicken, by a gentle and slow decoction, into black earth, by the fire of putrefaction which takes place in the midst of the earth.

Solution makes a fixed body light, and coagulation makes a light body fixed; which dissolution is divided into two kinds, namely: natural and violent. The violent one exhausts the spirit of the thing that is to be dissolved, and the natural dissolution opens the pores of the solar body into celestial water, without wetting the hands, by which the prepared seed is sent into its matrix, which is the philosophers’ Moon or aerial water; and it must be governed by a philosophical fire of continual imbibitions for seven months, that is to say, seven imbibitions, and sometimes ten, until this water consumes three parts of itself and leaves one; and this afterwards is nourished double, from the milk of half its earth, or from the fat which is generated in the breasts of its said half, and is covered with putrefaction by the virtue of the salt of nature, and thus is made the generation of the Stone.

The solution is made from a crude body of philosophical earth, so that it may finally bring increase. To solution are reduced sublimation, dissolution, and putrefaction.

Sublimation and subsequent evaporation is the conversion of a heavy and moist nature into a light one. Its end and usefulness are threefold: the first, that the impure body may be insensibly purified of its filth; the second, that it may more largely receive the virtues of the superiors, which flow continually; the third, that by this kind of evacuation, it may be freed of a superfluous earth and the philosophical earth be put in condition to work.

In inhumation, the water contracts the heaviness of the lower things, so that it may remain in them; it is, however, a small thing to do, yet makes a thing of great value and incorruptible.

Philosophical mercury is sublimed by itself and not the philosophical earth, for being the lime of the body, it does not sublime itself, but it must be very well incorporated and united with mercury so that they may sublime together.

After sublimation comes fermentation, which the superiors exercise upon the inferior natures. The water, however, which cannot remain in one state, grows pregnant under the influences of heaven; for as the air is open to the vapor that rises, it receives it as into its palace, where, before it arrives, the body, being in some fashion converted into spirit, its moist nature is stripped of its weight, so that, having received lightness, it enjoys the privilege of diverse nature. Meanwhile the sun and the other stars, by a continual influence, send and distill the vivifying spirits, and the vapors being gathered in it as in a sponge, suck with eagerness this spiritual nectar and are filled with it; and then, falling back into the bosom of the earth, they produce infinite generations, according to the virtue of the seeds and the disposition of the matrices; and thus by the nature of water the other elements are fermented.

This leaven is that vivifying Spirit descending from the superior natures into the inferior, without which the earth would again be sterile and desert; it is the seed of all life by which man lives, namely of the air fermented with this vivifying Spirit descending from the stars. Thus fermentation is the multiplication of a lesser virtue into a greater. For this reason, three things must be distinguished in the Elixir: the soul, the body, and the spirit. The soul is the ferment or the form of the Elixir, being but one half of the vivifying spirit, corporified with the philosophical subject which is separated in order to be dissolved; the body is its paste or its matter, and is the other part which is kept to fix its dissolved part; and the spirit is the seat, the mediator and the chariot of the soul, which must dissolve it to serve for the nourishment of its body; which mediator or universal Spirit being taken away, there can no longer be any alliance between body and soul, since they are two extremes.

This spirit is nothing other than that vivifying liquor which attenuates the form and the matter, which is sometimes called Heaven, Mercury, Dissolvent, Menstruum, and Quintessence. And the soul is the union of these two beings, spirit and body, in their pure nature, which must be altered equally together in order to unite, and the third which is the soul is very secret; and it is the union of this first earth with its own vivifying water. For this reason, when the Lion is thirsty, which is your other reserved dry half, make him drink, lest your body be broken.

Furthermore, the ferment, which is the soul, prepares the hard body and converts it into its liquid nature; and the ferment is nothing other than the Philosophical Sun or Moon; and the philosophical gold, which is a body, is never prepared save with the fire, which is our mercurial or vivifying water, for the leaven of gold is gold, and the ferment or leaven of iron is iron; for every agent acts according to its form, and alteration is always felt according to the nature of the agent. And thus he who cannot reduce two bodies into their first matter can have no ferment, since in order to have a ferment one must have a soul, and to have a soul one must have two first matters, pure and united together.

Putrefaction and nourishment almost act in the same way as solution; so that moisture, putrefaction, and darkness possess each other, and putrefaction is not accomplished until the nature of the body is entirely resolved into water. It is done by a very long fire, for if it were too sudden, a separation of the parts would occur, which must not be allowed, until the male and female are perfectly united; for otherwise, the spirit would be disturbed and pushed by the heat of the air, by the subtlety of the parts being composed, and by the lightness of the fire of the matter. But the spirits must fix themselves by a stability of rest, an equality of the mixtures, a long patience, and the maturity of time, nature proceeding naturally in all its works.

Finally, putrefaction is properly the corruption of the philosophers' matter in a secret fire; this operation is called darkness and the distillation of the raven's head, so that nature is perfected from potential into actuality. The body must be dissolved and separated from what is heterogenous to nature, purging it, and then the pure parts are united with the pure, the cooked with the cooked, and the raw with the raw, all according to the weight of nature and not the matter.

The central salt only takes the water it needs, whether pure or impure. The grease of the water is never pure, which is why the art purges it by a double heat, and then it is joined. One must seek a hidden thing, from which, by an admirable method, moisture and philosophical gold are made without violence or noise, as naturally and gently as ice is formed and dissolved by the means of hot water. And this moisture is the thing from which nature produces philosophical gold, and from it, all metals and other beings take their origin; and it has no greater friend than our water, and having no impurity, it serves as a sea to it.

Our composed philosophical body dissolves by heat, and before its composition by cold.

One must dissolve philosophical gold and silver in a water type; all governance is done only by water, to which must be mixed the body of the magnesia, and then cooked with a light fire until it liquefies and melts; for through the work of water, everything is easily reduced into water.

All that is to be dissolved must exceed in quantity what is to be dissolved; and the only spirit truly necessary to exceed the body when the body must be elevated; the body must exceed the spirit when the spirit must be fixed. For this purpose, it is the body that fixes the spirit, and it is the spirit that dissolves the body. Thus, one must mix with your half that you are dissolving, three parts of the moist against one of the dry, to make your dissolvent.

At the beginning, aid your work in solution by aerial Moon and in coagulation by the philosophical Sun. The first part of what we have said is to impregnate the Earth, finish it, and whiten it; the other two are reserved to rarify the white earth, ferment it, and whiten it for the last time.

A small mistake at the beginning leads to a great mistake later; this is why one must always place things in the equality of the first weights of each portion, so that equality exists in both, and as much as the water moistens, the water diminishes. If the water is equal in proportion with the Earth, by a measured heat, a new white germ appears, and then red. One must observe: first, the preparations which attract spirits onto the bodies, purging and cleansing them in their own waters of all impurities and then extracting them. Secondly, everything that speaks in the composition of the weight must be understood as referring to the philosophical earth and water, which are hidden under the names of the body and spirit of S, the philosophical Sun and Moon, Air, and finally under several other names. And from this know that there are three parts of water for one part of earth to form your dissolvent, or rather your soul.

The water is proportioned according to the nature of the body you wish to dissolve, so that the coldness of the water does not exceed the natural heat of the dry body, for all things corrupt when the natural heat of the body does not dominate.

One must reduce half of the body into water, which is called by the sages Water of Wisdom, for what comes out of the dissolved body is a very clear moisture and a virtue of the dissolving spirit. There are two waters, namely: one solar, which is the half of the coagulated, and the other lunar, which is the aerial water that dissolves the aforementioned half, from the union of which is formed the Mercury of Philosophers, their virgin milk, from which the white or red stone is made.

The third philosophical operation is multiplication, which is done by solution and completed by coagulation, which changes the Earth into water by extraction and the water into earth by gentle decoction, until a black color appears on the surface of the earth; this black earth is properly an earthly element.

Coagulation is varied by the object of solution; nevertheless, it is the same, for the spirit does not freeze unless the body is dissolved, nor does the body dissolve unless the spirit freezes, and it is the same work.

He who knows the solution of the body by the spirit of the same body, in the first matter, to the freezing of the spirit and in the same body, is nothing other than the aforementioned solution, that is to say, the conversion of the body into black earth, the whitening of that black earth, and the subtlety of the body in its change into air, and he knows nothing.

This preparation, or first work, is child’s play and unworthy of a man of letters, which is why it is commonly called a woman’s work and a child’s game. He who ignores it will not complete his purpose and will not enjoy the fruit of the art.

Coagulation is reduced to: fixation, cibation, exaltation, and conversion. For this action, both processes, namely solution and coagulation, are prepared and ordered by the attraction of the moist and the expulsion of phlegm and the damned dead earth.

There are two types of phlegm: one is an aqueous substance resembling water, and the other is a terrestrial substance like excrement, both material and mixed in the composition of the mixtures with salt, sulfur, and mercury. And it is in this first water that the philosophical sulfur is cooked, which does not generate or increase with it and does not enter into the water of mercury except as it moistens the parts. This is why they are not the principles but at most the links, the matrices, and the outer layers of the principles, without which the principles would be sterile because they have no activity in themselves.

The feces, therefore, or the terrestrial feces from the heat of the water, are destined for the damned earth, for the water fattens and, thickening by evaporation, turns into earth and precipitates to the bottom as impalpable earth. Hence, the crassest part of the remaining water, the thickest part, is the fire; so that the dead earth is the earth from which the moisture has been drawn and separated by inclination. It must then be calcined philosophically, so that a new crystalline earth may be drawn from it.

Thus, having drawn from the compound those superfluities as much as needed, and making a well-regulated mixture, nature happily performs its duty for these three operations: solution, coagulation, and by the expulsion of the dead earth and the phlegm, from these two effects arises the health of the bodies and the generation of the Stone.

In a word, three things belong to it and bring health and life: namely, the Sun, which is the central fire of the Universal Spirit; Air, Jupiter, or the wind, which carries it in its belly; and the Moon, which is the aerial water, the receptacle of the said Spirit. And just as the celestial sun sends its influences to the inferiors through the Moon, so too our solar and vital fire, or Universal Spirit, communicates through the said Moon, aerial water, the virtues it received from the superior Sun to the parts of the human body, our philosophical subject, that is to say, through a liquor or blood which is the ferment and bond of the fire, which is the Universal Spirit. Jupiter is the wind or air; like a medium, which the Ancients concealed under many riddles.

There is an external sky known by astrologers, and another external one known by the Philosophers. One is above, and the other is below; the sky below is the corporified Universal Spirit; but the liquor which generated the first life, otherwise the radical humor or the cosmic Moon, is above. The lower sky acts in some way spiritually through a vital heat which the Philosophers call natural heat or the microcosmic Sun, which is nourished by the superior Sun, just as our Moon is nourished by the celestial Moon; hence it is assured that all the principal parts of our human body or philosophical subject, and all the parts which serve them, have their sky, their stars, and their firmament. One must, however, note that the stars are hidden in the principles, in the elements, and in the matrices, in which, like in a medium, they appear, primarily in the air, from the bosom of which the temperature depends, both in the great and the small world.

However, know that from each simple, when it comes to its dissolution, there is oil and dregs, from which a very effective salt is generated; one must return the one to the other and let nature do its work.

The True Universal Medicine

Natural heat is a universal spirit enclosed in the radical moisture, that is, in the white or red stone, for in the soul, that is, the universal spirit which has dissolved half of the subject, are contained all the spiritual virtues; and in the body, that is, in the other half of the white or red stone, are contained the bodily virtues. Thus, he who knows the heaven and the earth of man, or the philosophical subject, namely the soul and the body, possesses universal knowledge. The radical moisture reduces the particular spirit to its natural point when it is not free in its functions, by the universal spirit it contains within itself, for like cures like.

In general, universal medicine, which is the true potable gold or Universal Spirit, or medicine for all things, is a certain remedy for all diseases. For just as all diseases that arise in man do not have as much moisture as the excrement and superfluity of blood, they must be healed by our potable gold, due to the natural sympathy it has with our radical moisture; and thus, it is the philosophical Azoth which cures all diseases, having the ability to heal any infirmity whatsoever.

The radical moisture and the philosophers’ heaven restore nature to its own forces; it is the heaven of the earth coming from the celestial sky, for what is according to its nature is preserved by its like. It is the unknown herb that gives life; it is this celestial palace, it is this medicinal oil of the sun.

There is in the human body, or rather the philosophical subject, a substance of celestial nature that many are ignorant of, which needs no medicine because it is medicine itself, and which, being oppressed by the corruption of the body, is delivered not by its opposite but by its like, and this by peace, expelling its contraries.

The essence of our gold drawn by vehicle is the philosophers' heaven, in which, as in the sky, all the stars are joined; in the body of man, it is what the Sun does inside the world. In this essence, nothing remains except the tincture of the philosophical gold, leaving the earth at the bottom of the vessel, although it is whiter than snow.

Moreover, this elixir of life has such virtue that, by its scent, the souls of the dying are stopped; thus, to find it, one should not stop in the external elements or universalities, but rather in the internal and in the nature of bodies, in which is found the internal spirit, which is the very foundation of life and medicine.

The body is not nourished by the body, but by the common life, which is the vital and universal spirit, like food. This is why man is not nourished by drinking or eating, but by this vital fire hidden within them, which easily joins with the natural, because it has homogeneity with the vital fire of the human body, as they are but one and the same.

The philosophical stone is nothing other than a certain quintessence, or celestial nature, or simple, and the fifth substance of the elements, which has various names, such as the incombustible oil of the philosophers, oil of talc, their sulfur, their elixir, their agents, sometimes originating from Saturn, Mars, the Sun, Venus, and the Moon. It is named by the names of the elements: Water, Wine, Blood, Milk, and Sperm. It is also called Green Lion, because it has the power to change the fixed into the volatile and the corporeal into the spiritual. It is also called Stinking Throat, due to the bad odor it exhales from the impure body in the first distillation, as also this philosophical stone is called a white smoke, which is condensed before the red tincture; hence it is called Virgin Milk.

It is also called a King, whose body is red, feet white, and eyes black. It is composed of two waters: one, the light stone, and the other, the fixed, which hardens it.

If you cannot cook it with the lively air of the Living Moon, you will certainly fail. You must take what is and what is unseen: this is called philosophical dew water, from which philosophical saltpeter is drawn, by which all things are known and grow. The matrix is the center of the Sun or Moon, both celestial and terrestrial; and to speak more clearly, it is our magnet, says Sendivogius, otherwise our Steel; and Hermes tells us that the Sun is its father and the Moon its mother, and that the wind carried it in its belly. The vulgar air generates and makes this magnet appear, and this magnet generates and makes the philosophical air appear, where the philosophers' mercury, who is the son of the Sun and Moon, by the force and attractive virtue of this philosophical magnet, or magnetic steel, is found everywhere and at all times. This is the alkali salt called Ammoniac salt and Vegetable salt, hidden in the belly of Magnesia, because by an magnet-like and occult virtue, it attracts the son of the Sun to itself at the same moment it wants to return and reclaim its natural existence.

It is also called being or the terrestrial center because the Earth being its nurse, it acquires the virtues and qualities imprinted by the earthly nature, and yet it is like a dust of the limy water, or rather like this non-viscous greenish sperm under which frogs brood, because the root of all things is green, says Razis. And Moses says that this occult secret Adamic Earth is this celestial virgin that appears to the eyes of all, disguised under an old and dirty cloak, but which has never been able to bear the gaze of men in its bodily nudity, except for the true Children of Science.

Know that the Sun and the Moon of the heavens, with the cooperation of the other stars, will greatly assist you in formally producing this Adamic Earth; but they will not do everything; thus, one must turn to these two celestial and sovereign directors of middle nature, which are the Sun, or spirit and universal, and the Moon, or aerial water. Thus, it is a middle thing that you must find, for it must hold both body and spirit, the visible and the invisible, the celestial and the terrestrial.

It is at this beginning that the greatest difficulties will be encountered, for one must seek something that is not and cannot be found in the three kingdoms of Nature, for it is not visible and is not formally found in the heavens, nor on the earth, nor beneath; it is diffused everywhere but exists in no particular place, nor in a determined subject; the craft of the Artist must serve as midwives to formally extract from the bowels of nature your Adamic Earth; for it is nature that makes this first philosophical matter; it is she who makes this viscous, celestial, and glorious water, and not our art, and it is our Adamic Earth which is this blessed nature naturing, which generates all things, in which alone lies the whole magisterium, and to which nothing foreign must be added; but only in the first operation must one remove from it all superfluous materials, for in this one matter, all things necessary for this art are contained, except for the solar or lunar ferment, which is the universal spirit drawn by the white or red Stone, which will be added only at the end of the white or red work. And consider that by the attraction and rarefaction of water and air, the heavens and the universal world were made. And this water necessary for this work is such that no one can live or generate without it, and of which no one can lack.

First, one must resolve half of the white or red earth into water, which is the philosophers' Mercury, and dissolve the other half of the body of the philosophical Sun or Moon; they consume themselves so much that only the tenth part remains of it (the body), with the other part already in the dissolvent; and this remaining subject will be your radical moisture of metals. Then, take the water of niter and half of our earth, which is our aforementioned philosophical Mercury, and which is a stream and a living wave once it has dissolved its subject; take from it clear water and add to it the other part from its radical moisture, whether white or red, dry and clean, to the fire of putrefaction, burying it in the earth, having imbibed it little by little and with great judgment, for one must never imbibe in unequal amounts, but only add our liquor one after the other; and our imbibitions of equality will last until the alterations and colors of the matter appear like the tail of a peacock. Govern its operations by preparing and digesting until this diversity of colors disappears, and the color green appears.

And when you see in the bottom of your vessel ashes of a brownish color tending towards red, open the vessel, take some on the tip of a knife, and place it on red-hot iron; and if it stains, take some of our aforementioned water or philosophical mercury, of which you will reserve as much as was used the first time in this present preparation; cook again once more in the first fire of putrefaction. And because you have nine imbibitions with our menstruum or universal spirit of the world on our ash, it increases with each imbibition. And yet, each time, the dissolvent must weigh as much as the dissoluble. Thus dissolve, distill, and rectify from the sphere of the Moon, the part of our white or red stone as many times as needed to provide enough philosophical Mercury to calcine nine times the philosophical Sun or Moon; by nine equalities each time.

There are two fires, the first, or the fire of the first operation, is a fire of a single, continuous degree that surrounds the matter, and it is the equal-weight imbibition of your said Mercury. The second is a natural fire, which is the very ardor of the white or red stone, which digests the liquid matter and fixes it; this is the governance of fire, so understand the nature of said fire, which is the central ardor of the universal spirit concentrated. There must be a vessel of nature, which is the fixed and non-fixed universal spirit. The vessel for the first work must be round, and the second should be slightly smaller, in the shape of an egg. But above all, know that there is only one fire of nature, that is, one universal spirit; and all that makes a difference is the different location of the places in which it works. There is also only one vessel of nature, to conceive the thing in its primal state or being, but to shorten it, two are needed, for otherwise, it would need seven years in the fire of interaction of a single matter, but prepared in different ways.

If you apply your spirit to penetrate something, always consider everything that has been created within it to make appear what is hidden in the shadow and remove the shadow that hides it.

Consider the simple cloud water and how it contains within itself what the world possesses, namely stones, salts, air, earth, fire, although it appears only as simple water.

Judge the same of all things, and what the eye cannot understand, the spirit of the Sage understands, considering a common matter but not in a common way. Take the very clear son and unite him with his white sister, and from this will form a third, half of which you will resolve into water and present it to drink, for it will be a drink of love for them, because through the goodwill of consent, it unites things with things; and pour them wine from the same breasts until the pure meet the pure, otherwise, they would produce things that are dissimilar to them, as from every preparation, one must dissolve half to imbibe the other half.

This Spirit of the World is an external spiritual emanation and a divine virtue, clothed in a celestial moisture that the Philosopher makes corporeal, condenses, and fixes into common gold, which is the center and core of every being, so that it is more perfect and more multiplying. And the gold, or general virtue concentrated in the particulars, attracts to itself its general, just as the magnet attracts iron, and each thing its like, so that through their union, you may have a happy outcome.

General Rules Regarding the Matter of the Stone

The first matter is found everywhere, fills everything, and multiplies everything; whatever name it is called by—whether lead, salt, arsenic, gold—it is always the same thing. Always mix natures with natures, and if something is contrary to nature, it is necessary to separate it, so that nature may be like nature. Do this with fire and not with the hand, and if you do not follow nature, you will work in vain.

Let the philosopher know the conversion of the elements, and make heavy things light and light things heavy, and let him imitate nature, which is entirely simple, in its course. That is why one must take more from imagination than from labor and deeds.

He who works outside the philosophers' salt, which is their Mercury, as in herbs, animals, stones, or other subjects not covered by the Sun and the Moon, which are within the sphere of Saturn, loses his time, his effort, and his trouble, because he works on a foreign matter.

Seek solitude to remain with Diogenes, hidden in his barrel. Learn in this solitude how to draw the marvelous water in which, if you place fruits from the solar tree, you will see them consumed and improved. It is a water of life that has an intrinsic fire, which, when aided by a continual fire, burns the three parts of its body. It is everything, and no one lives without it. And this one is very good, being drawn by the power of our heat, which is found in the belly of the ram. It is a great venom before it is well cooked, but after proper cooking, it becomes a great medicine. It gives 29 grains of blood, and each grain gives 864 fruits from the solar tree. It increases first to 10, then to 100, then to 1000, and then to 10,000, and so on.

Every creature uses it, but invisibly. All things are made of it in this world and live in it, in which there is properly nothing, but it is a thing that mixes with all things. And all generation happens in the male and female; but due to the distinction of the three kingdoms of nature, four-footed beasts are born in one way and worms in another. For although worms have sight and hearing, they reproduce through putrefaction, and their place is the Earth in which their seeds putrefy. Similarly, in our work, the mother of all things is our water, and everything that comes from it comes from putrefaction, just as the worms do.

This is why the philosophers say that there is a phoenix and a salamander, for if they were produced from the conception of two bodies, they would be subject to death. And because they are only revived, the first body being destroyed, another appears, for death is nothing more than the separation of one thing from another.

The water must be ten to one of the body, to make the stone, and mix the natures with the natures.

In this work, you must excite the fire that God has enclosed in the center of each thing, which nature sometimes does on its own, and sometimes with the aid of the craft of a good artist, purifying all impurity by fire.

The stone participates in the four elements, invisible but known by their effects. Yet it is one and the same thing, one and the same substance, one and the same root, and one and the same nature.

Metals are born in the earth from a sulfurous smoke that acts on the aqueous and aerial moisture, which is quicksilver, watering and nourishing it until it reaches the final purity, the preparation, and cooking of gold, and this takes a thousand years.

Mineral fire is a water and a fire that is not fire. Take the fire and measure the air, mortify the water, and resurrect the Earth. In the work of mastery, only one vessel, one furnace, one arrangement is necessary. If nature conceives when it has generated, it must nourish the child until it can endure the fire. Let no foreign nurse be given to this little child, but let it suckle from the breasts of its mother; for as it has been nourished in her womb by her blood, so must it be nourished by nature, with blood drawn from the mammary veins, circulated and rectified in proper proportion. Its limbs, once asleep, will be liquefied by sweat, and afterwards it will grow little by little, and then it will desire a royal feast and become a King stronger than the king and fight alone against a thousand.

He who knows how to destroy gold, so that it is no longer gold, that is, to destroy it and reduce it to its first matter, has reached the secret.

The Work of Various Preparations Being Completed, and the Sun Being Elevated in the Sign of Aries

Prepare your leavens, which require a great deal of preparation, because the philosophers' stone naturally introduces the qualities and form of gold into imperfect metals. Ordinary gold possesses, in the three families of nature, the uniformity and qualities of gold. Therefore, it must be drawn from it and not from another; and as it is, it is not perfect for itself, but must be perfected for others by something subtler, more active, and more spiritual than it, being homogeneous with it, containing eminently its form, or the power to receive it, or to be determined to it.

Beware that the universal spirit of the world is the first matter of the philosophers, which alone can multiply the seeds of particular natures, and even nourish common gold, animating vegetation; and it is this spirit that communicates and provides the seed of true generation.

Hermes calls this first and universal matter the Moon, and his followers have called it the bath of Diana, the hylial azotic and primordial water; and Hermes also calls it the first and universal form of the Sun, and his disciples call it Diana or Nature, combustible sulfur, the universal spirit of the world which, in the first creation of the world, was carried upon the waters.

The first matter and the first form are truly one substance, and in fact, inseparable from each other, and can only be separated by reason. That is why the invisible spirit, which is internal, of the hylial and azotic water, will be the form and the agent; the external of the same water, the humid and aerated substance, or Quintessence, which sometimes appears to the children of the Art as a vapor and sometimes as water, will be the matter and the patient, knowing both to be a humid substance. The spirit being covered by it, both are the universal soul of the world, which, in the form and matter, nourishes and multiplies all things when they are arrested in the seeds of individuals.

From this universal water, the forms of individuals have come, and after the consumption of the world, they will reunite there.

The soul of the world is a Mercury and a dissolvent with which one must dissolve gold without violence, and from their union will be born the Salamander and the son of the Sun.

Gold can never conceive and be vivified by the general soul of the world, except when it is resurrected from death to life, when it becomes vegetating and when the peacock's tail appears in all colors, with green predominating, followed by black-purple, not in the matter, but of the matter. This operation stops after animation, calcination, and dissolution of common gold in the philosophical water.

In the first operation, one finds the soul of the world through the separation of the elements, namely the fire of the earth, the light of the fixed, the subtle from the thick, the pure souls from the impure bodies. For in gold, there is a subtle spirit penetrating the soul of the world, the salt and the balm of the stars, which, when united together, make a single liquor and mercurial water.

In the second operation, the prudent artist fixes the universal soul of the world in common gold, and purifies the earthly and immobile soul. In this said operation, the putrefaction, which is called the head of the raven, is very long. It is followed by a third multiplication by adding the philosophical matter or the universal soul of the world.

The third operation is perfected by fermentation, which is a work of three days, as they call it.

The fourth operation is finished by the projection of the stone onto imperfect metals. Thus, if you have two parts or substances, one of which is material and can be determined, namely the soul of the world, the other part is determining and formal, namely common gold. And from these two, one composes the universal medicine, the panacea, or the philosophers' stone, whether in white or red.

All our operations consist of coagulation and dissolution; for it is necessary to dissolve the body of gold for the red work and of silver for the white work.

To dissolve gold is to spiritualize it and make it light. To coagulate the soul of the world is to fix the soul of the world in silver or in gold. The dissolvent of nature must always be coagulating. Water is the universal matter of all things, and the Spirit or fire of nature has been the general form, the union of which suffices for all.

Gold and silver are made alive when, having lost their outer forms, they are animated and vivified, and they lose the said forms through the Mercury of the philosophers, which vivifies their nature to active, or the natural humid of the little world, for gold is the principle of making gold, just as fire is the principle of making fire. The form or agent of this art is the seed of gold; the patient or matter is philosophical Mercury, or otherwise, nature itself, the soul of the world, or celestial water, solar and lunar, which cannot be drawn by any industry from any substance of the three families, but only by the rays of the sun, through an admirable philosophical industry.

Gold and silver are the magnet stones by which one draws mercury from the celestial bodies, and this vivifying liquor or air, so that the radical moisture of the individuals of nature is preserved and multiplied, for the particular seed attracts the general just as the magnet attracts iron, and each thing its like.

The Chemical Science

In the Book of Ezra, in the fourth book, it is said that gold is made into powder. The final object of chemistry is love, and the formal object is the just and equal mixture of the four elemental qualities, resolving and coagulating everything by means of fire, where two natures are needed, one red and the other white, one light and the other fixed. It is employed in this single point of joining the dry to the moist by coagulation and solution. The moist is a liquid spirit purified of all filth, the dry is the body of each thing and its prison, the virtues of all things are retained so that their natural spirits may freely imprint their forces and actions upon them; and thus, one must know how to release the natural spirit from their shackles, from their chains, by separating the pure from the impure and the spirit from the body, which is the same operation.

One must follow and imitate nature, which is simple, secret, patient, constant, and dedicated to one single thing, and align the way of acting in art with that of nature, always producing a being by its like, sometimes making separations as nature does. Thus, one will know that animal life depends on air, for there is a hidden meat of life, which we call night dew, and day rarefied water, whose invisible spirit frozen is worth more than the whole universal earth.

Ezra admired a trinity in two things: it is this golden chain that binds not only the entire universe but also all the animals and every number of them, in length, width, and depth, weight, numbers, and measures. And all three kingdoms are bound by Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury. But he who does not understand the weight knows nothing. That is why man is obliged to worship God according to the ternary number. One must know the internal, external, and essential. The summary of each is the fixed male and acting Sun, and the constant, female and patient Moon, by which, through the seed of air, everything is perfected in this world for the benefit of man, not only externally but also internally, by the first man created from the four elements, who is like the summary, hence it is said Microcosm.

From here it follows that man has affinity with the elements and with all their fruits, without which he cannot live. For what man can live without air, water, earth, and fire? Thus, they must use them until the end of the world. So, gold, being the fruit of the seed and its element, follows that gold and its seed were created for man, not to eat as coarse and daily food, but to use in medicine, to acquire long health while living. And since God has granted medicinal virtues and distinguished them in imperfect metals and minerals, it is very certain that He would not have refused the same virtues, and even more excellent ones, to the more perfect metals, namely gold and silver. Physicians agree that gold gladdens the heart, which should not be understood of ordinary gold but of the philosophical gold and its seed, which is alive, while vulgar gold is a dead body.

Thus, if someone wants to prepare this medicine to preserve the human body from all decay and corruption, it must be prepared from the most perfect creation; and since nothing is more perfect than the seed of gold, because it has not yet obtained the metallic force, gold is not yet a body, it must prepare a universal medicine from it. Now, if this seed of gold is to become a medicine useful to man, and to metals for changing them into gold or silver and restoring their health, it must be made by a generation more sublime than the natural state, as we have said previously, and its essence must be more powerful, purer, more perfect, more constant, more fusible, and more subtle than gold itself, to be luminous like a glowing garnet in the night, and it should dissolve gold in all foods and drinks, making white wine turn red, sweet like sugar, and spreading through all the members of man, expelling all infirmities by sweat, purging the blood mass, and rejuvenating the man, that is to say, giving him a new nature, stronger than before.

For if man can only resurrect after returning to his first matter, which is the earth from which he came, then he will emerge clothed in a celestial body, transparent, penetrating, and piercing. Likewise, gold cannot be multiplied without being regenerated, in which regeneration it multiplies; and each multiplied part, by regenerating itself as the other, multiplies infinitely just like the seeds of all beings. One must only acquire this seed and command the celestial soul and spirit.

Actions and Mysteries of the Art

Light and darkness, form and matter, male and female, the Sun and the Moon, the agent and the patient are one and the same thing.

Form and spirit, the soul of the world taken abstractly, is the first matter of the world and the chaos before all form. The Spirit of the world, taken concretely, includes the soul of the world and the first matter after it has been formed.

The fire of the universe, the arche of the world, the Spirit of the world and of nature, is one and the same thing. The natural heat of each mixture, or fire, the particular spirit taken abstractly, is a ray of fire from nature or the celestial Sun, from the soul of the world taken abstractly. The radical moisture is the subtlest part of the first matter made active by the form of the universe. The first nature is of two kinds. The pure is active, like that which is made active by the soul and draws out the filth; and the impure is the mud or phlegm. The radical moisture is a balm of the mixture containing the balm of nature, composed of heat, fire, or specific spirits, with a small part of the subtle first matter, and is purified.

This moisture contains three principles of the mixture: Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt, which are known by solution and not by composition, for this belongs only to God. In the solution of the mixture, if a fire is too large, it will evaporate the sulfur and mercury; only the salt will remain, which is found in the ashes, and when taken again, if placed in a suitable matrix, it will be volatile when fixed. Therefore, in the mixtures, there are three things: the body that is seen, the spirit, the most subtle part of the first matter reduced to act, and the soul which is composed of both, namely the fixed and the volatile. The body in regard to the conservation of the mixture and its augmentation; the spirit in regard to the man for whom everything has been made, and it is a ray of the aerial light already contracted by the Sun, which was created from the beginning.

Water and Earth are the matrices of things; there are two kinds of seeds: the entry and the exit. The entry is that substance which has been cooked several times, which changes into our substance. The exit is purer and is reserved in a vessel for generation.

The seed dissolves by the Sun of the menstruum. The mixture is more impure if it retains from its matrix, which is the source of impurities.

The common Sun and Moon are common gold and silver. One serves for the work of the red and the other for the white. The Sun and the Moon taken in this sense are active and masculine, which determine the nature, or the Moon of the philosophers, as passive; this Moon, which is the woman of nature, is truly the Spirit of the world, which, because it is united by the spirit of the gold and silver, is said to be female or patient, dissolving the spirit of the gold, as the woman does with the seed of the man.

Food is made of the spirit in the food, or by the radical moisture and the natural fire, which together form the balm of nature.

Air is the chariot of the Spirit of the world, and it is called the sustenance of fire because it requires a spacious place suitable for its rarer and more spiritual nature.

Living gold is red Sulfur.

Living silver or the Living Moon is called white Sulfur.

Driftwood has no good ashes because its salt, which by its nature is purifying, has been too dissolved by the water.

God created all things from the first matter; nature creates and multiplies things from the second matter, which the philosophers know.

Each element is in its sphere, and one cannot exist without the other.

Movement causes heat; heat moves water, the movement of water causes air, which is the life of all living things.

There are two principles that are the beginnings of all things: the patient water, and the active heat, which is mixed in the seeds and with the same humor, which, with the specific idea, gave the beginning to the generation of all things.

The operations of nature are like the shadow in many things, and even though it is not visible, it acts visibly; for it is a light spirit that performs its duty in the body and through the bodily organs. Its knowledge serves to know the proper and closest places, so that things may join according to nature, and so that similarity may act in its like, and nature may do its duty as well.

The agent and the patient, properly proportioned in generation, are nature loving nature, and the male and female joined together, Mercury and Sulfur drawn from the same root, conspiring towards the same end.

Nature is a universal mother, whose breasts are full of the milk of the general spirit, which accomplishes the entire magisterium through one path, one thing, one dissolution, and one act.

Everything that is opposite in the circumference of the circle is also found in the center of the same circle, gathered in potential; for example, Light, which is extended everywhere, is unified in the Sun. Everything joins with its like and flees from its opposite like an enemy.

The separation of the pure from the impure is the separation of the spirit from the body; it is certain that God has created nothing visible that has not been invisibly gathered by some creatures, so that, by what is gathered into one, we can reach what is separated infinitely into many.

Thus, everything calls gold the Sun, because the rays of the Sun, which are extended infinitely, are gathered into one in the body of gold.

When you hear about the three circles in this Science, you must understand three principles: Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury, the Body, the Soul, and the Spirit, and the three kingdoms of nature: the vegetable, the animal, and the mineral.

When they speak of the nine eagles, this refers to the celestial globes which send their influences to the Earth, like arrows, so that the spirits returning above are made fertile once more.

The semen of metals is not different from the semen of other things, namely a moist vapor.

Let the artist avoid all circulations, calcination, and reiterations of no value, useless in a thing of hardness, as it is everywhere soft.

Do not seek the first matter, but only the second, such that once it is conceived, it cannot change, but in such a way that where nature ceases in perfect metals, art begins.

Gold is ordinarily engendered by nature because of the humidity of places, which has such a vapor and embraces it, that the Sun of the sky, preparing, makes a greasy clay from which potters work, and from which gold is engendered.

Every water freezes by heat if it is with spirit; it is frozen by cold if it has no spirit. He who knows how to freeze water by heat and unite spirit with it can boast of having found a treasure more precious than gold.

Thus, let the spirit separate from the water and let it rot, and a grain will appear afterward having rejected the filth. Bring the spirit from above into the water and unite them together, and it will grow a branch and a form dissimilar to its parents.

Those who dissolve and gnaw by strong waters Saturn, the Moon, and the Sun, and then unite them with heterogeneous bodies, are mistaken; it is like a man being conceived from a dissected and corrupted human body, in which the seed is spoiled.

Everything multiplies in male and female, not by the division of the sex, but by their natural conjunction, provided they are alive and have seed, whole bodies, and not dissected.

No one has ever been able to know the first matter. Place the second matter in a suitable place, and nature, acting easily, will be generated; it will be a thing made from the form of the seed.

As the thing begins, so it ends. From one, two make a third, and no more. This is seen in God, who is unitrine; and thus, the world is made and thus it will end.

Nothing is created except by God. Let it suffice for man to produce something useful to him.
Semen is therefore multiplicative, not by the second matter, but by the first matter, which is not visible, hidden in nature within the Elements, the second appearing sometimes to the children of Nature and Art.

The first matter of the Elements is a central point that it is impossible to multiply without it; but the second nature, which is the female of metals, is known only to the children of Science.

The female does not differ from the male; she originates from the same seed, and both are born in the same womb, and nothing has been missing except digestion. And just as the matter is purer in blood and salt, in the same way, the Moon comes from the same seed and womb as the Sun, but the womb contained more water than cooked and digested blood, according to the time of the celestial Moon.

In the sky, the virtues of the planets do not ascend but descend. And experience shows us that Venus cannot be changed into Mars. For the same reason, Jupiter can easily change into Mercury; the Sun mixes with all, but it is never increased or advantaged by the inferiors. It is easy to change iron into copper, Jupiter into Mercury, Saturn into Moon; and he who knows how to make these changes according to nature has found a great treasure.

Moreover, there is a certain metal that has the power to consume other metals, and it is almost like water to them and their mother, to which only the radical moisture of the Sun and Moon resists, to make them better: it is called Steel, and if gold is united eleven times with it, it sends back its seed and weakens it almost to death; then it conceives and engenders a son clearer than its father.

Finally, when the Sun's seed, already born, is placed in its womb, it purges it and makes it much purer to conceive invaluable fruits.

There is another Steel similar, which is created by nature itself, and this Steel is the true principle of the Work that so many people seek and so few find.

Let the Artist move Nature, and let him know that gold can give the seed and the fruit in which it will multiply. Let him attempt nothing without nature, which must be helped and followed: this is the safest and best path, and it is everything.

The medium to help nature is fire, the heat exciting the spirits frozen in the bodies, so that nature may operate; this is done by solution.

Gold submits to all things, that is, the very pure substance of sulfur, mercury, and salt, like a balm or liquor following the example of the same gold.

Christian Chemistry

The center of the universe, which constantly gives movement and remains immobile, represents the image of God.

The desire that nature has to perfect itself infinitely is not in vain. It will always be imperfect in itself and will receive its perfection in its center, which is God, who represents the unity of God.
Thus, when the virtue of natural heat produces the radical moisture that is of the same nature with it, it is joined and united by an indissoluble bond. This admirable productive power within creatures shows the infinite generative power of God, by which the Father begets His Son, who is equal to Him in everything, except in paternity.

The universal world, like God, whose mirror it is, produces in another all its essence, as if it were the Word of His understanding, namely the natural heat and the moisture whose name is found in the salt of nature, producing in this salt a certain dry through a mutual love that unites them together in a unity of essence; and this bond is not different from the two, although distinct.

The radical dry precedes the action of natural fiery heat in the moist, which is only pure love, the true bond of both. The fiery heat in the source of nature represents God the Father; the first moisture engendered by the heat can be compared to the sons of the eternal Father; and the radical dry, which is the bond of the two, is the Holy Spirit, who is the love of the Father and the Son.

These three things are different and yet are one. For the salt of nature is trine and one.

In the matter of the salt or Mercury of the world, the heat is the first origin; the moisture is not created after, but it takes its beginning from the heat as its origin, and the salt is called the third because it is produced and emanated from both.
Hence, the salt or Mercury of the world is called by the Ancients: traitors and worldly, whose virtue, considered while still in the air, was called Jupiter, in water Neptune, and in the Earth Pluto. Thus, the sulfur of the philosophers is our fiery heat, their Mercury is our moist, and their salt is our dry, which are our first productions, just as our three divine persons are the first principle of all created beings.

All these things are one, and three, and these three are distinct from one, as it is one of three. Thus, each comes from three, and by a mixture, the ternary takes its origin from one. These three and one created do not establish multiple forms, for they would be three in titles, but they only constitute one Mercury of life, which is the foundation of all nature: thus, in all our work, we have a Father, who is the Sun, a Son, who is the philosophers' Mercury and the universal spirit, which is the soul. And the life of the world is the love and bond of both, which three things, though really distinct, are yet one and the same essence and solar nature, from which the Son and the Spirit proceed from the Sun, who is the Father, the true mine and original source, the Mercury finally of the philosophers.

The first matter, Mercury, can be said in some way to be all-powerful, because everything in the order of nature takes its origin from it. Matter is corruptible, and thus, in its own way, from there salt, according to the language of almost all nations, is written in three letters and was considered holy and sacred by the Ancients. And no sacrifices were made without salt: this is why every victim is sprinkled with salt and fire in the Gospels.

The world is full of the vital Spirit, which is called the energetic Force of all nature, and the seed of the heavens, the stars, and the elements; and yet it is clothed in the form of elementary bodies. However, the light of the heavens and the stars does not lose its species, so that it may act; but it descends from the Sun to the earth, in the idea of the Son of God in the womb of Mary, to take an elementary body without leaving the company of the heat, which is its father, nor the Spirit of the world that it fills; it only receives an inferior nature in the center of salt, as in the womb of a virgin earth, and after giving birth, it does not lose its virginity.

The salt of the world is produced from the fiery heat of the Spirit of the world, and in its production, it is free from all kinds of elemental corruption. Salt is the mother and daughter of the Spirit of the world, which preserves the world.

Salt is said to be virgin in some way before and after its birthing from the Spirit of the world, which receives no foreign seed for the generation of its Son, except for the virtue of the spirit that fills it, so that it produces and introduces the nourishing substance to all of nature.
The Son of salt is the Spirit and the Body, which participate in the celestial and elementary nature, and thus holds both natures, like Jesus Christ.

Likewise, the Sun, which is the great Father of metals and nature, sends His only Son Mercury, the savior of metals, to take an earthly body in the bowels of a virgin earth, which only conceives the Son of the Sun by the operation of His Spirit and Life.

The death of Jesus Christ seems to be represented in the death of the Spirit, and it is when it corporifies; for then, the Son of the Sun gives his life for the restoration of metals, purging them of their original imperfections and impurities through the admission of his royal blood.

Death is not the annihilation of the body, but its purification. It is the stripping off of the old body and the renewal of nature. Thus, the death of men is the path to arrive at a life happier than the first.

In the death of the mixtures, the hot and moist, which are the first, are not separated from the heterogeneous excrements with their radical dry.

The Spirit of the world dies every day when it loses a body, and immediately triumphs over death.
The celestial influences descend into us through the resurrection of the Spirit of the world.

The Spirit of the world rises from the earth to the heavens, and then descends again, bringing with it, like the Holy Spirit, all powers.

There are three things in the Mercury of the world: the fiery heat, which is called Sulfur; the first-born moisture, which is called Moon or Mercury; and the radical dry, which is called the Sun, the bond and love of the Sun and Moon; and the latter, because of its fineness, deserves to be called the Spirit of the world, which descends from the sky in the form of Sulfur and fire, which is the natural life by which it maintains its spouse.

This spirit renews nature and the face of the earth; it is depicted by the character S, which has a Moon at the top, a Sun at the bottom, and a cross for its foundation.

They place the original heat in the center, which is the source of the life of the world, which is in the center of each thing, and even makes its dwelling in the center of the world, so that it can more easily communicate with everything, being the heart of the world and its continuous source of life.

This crescent is the idea of the radical moisture of the world and nature, which is the matrix of all things. And because the heat deserves the name of the Father of all things, so the half-circle marks this floating moisture at the said center, and is only an essential part of the moisture, being the true female and half of its male, which is useless for generation unless it is joined with the male, which is its Sun, and with which it forms a true and perfect circle, and at the same time a Sun.

The Father of the heat is the Sun, and the mother of the moisture is the Moon, the celestial influences being nothing other than the fiery heat of the world with its moisture; and the radical dry, which perfects and completes the entire essence of the heat of Mercury, is represented by the cross.

The cross below represents and signifies to us the idea of nature and the elementary, or the descending celestial influence, and the salt is the goal of all transformations. That is why they placed the cross in the lowest parts as the patient, through which one ascends to all the highest perfections.

We all took our origin from the center of the void cast upon the surface of the earth, in which there are all sorts of contrarieties, and through the cross, we are all united to the divine center, in which there is true peace.

The Sun and the Moon are supported in this character of S, by the Cross through which they receive all power.

The cross represents the world through connected and disconnected lines. The upper line represents fire, which is the most worthy of all elements; the lateral lines represent the elements of air and water; and the lower line represents earth. These four lines, when united in a circle above their center, will form a new, perfect, and very complete world, in which the squaring of the circle will be perfect.

Angels are pure Spirits and, in a way, recognizable by the fiery spirits or Mercury of the world, which, although corporeal, are still the purest of the other parts of the body; and they are created to serve God and Him in the created nature. But man alone was created for God alone, and all the rest is made for the service of man. His body was formed from the purest part of mud and Mercury, called salt, and from this very matter from which gold and silver arise.

The Tree of Life was the source and center of all nature. Fire, by purifying the heterogeneous, clearly represents Purgatory. And fire, at the Judgment, by purifying the excrement of nature, through universal calcination, is the very fire of Hell. And the purity of our stone relates to our immortality.

There are seven Sacraments that represent, in chemistry, the seven instruments by which bodies are purified:

1. Baptism corresponds to calcination, in which both water and fire are necessary.

2. Confirmation corresponds to fixation, making the spirits firm in their subjects as in their doctrine.

3. Penance represents putrefaction, by which the mixtures are purified.

4. Eucharist represents the Blessed Stone, by which we live a life prepared by a universal medicine.

5. Extreme Unction is represented by the Oil of the Wise, which is the virtue of ashes or the salt dissolved to purify all things.

6. Orders, like oil, by which, with the ashes of a very perfect salt, the Soap of the Wise is made, from which emerge marvelous rays, representing the Sun and the Salt of the universe.

7. Marriage is represented when the red husband marries the white wife, for the multiplication of the son of the Sun and the Moon.

Thus, the creation of the world and the institution of the sacraments are very closely related.

And the eternity of the Blessed is represented in the Divine Spirit, which waits for virtue and efficacy, as it preserves the human body from all corruption and decay.

Poetic Chemistry

Jupiter changed into a rain of gold is the first work. The four sons of Saturn are the four elements: Jupiter represents fire; Juno, air; Neptune, the mother of water; and Pluto, earth.

The parts of the generation of Saturn, cut by Jupiter, signify the Spirit or the Essence of Sulfur, which descends from the sky into the sea; from these two emerged Venus or Vitriol, the principle of philosophical gold and the radical Sulfur of all metals that freeze quicksilver. The scythe of Saturn is the philosophical water that separates the spirit of gold from its body. The Hercules of the ancients is Mercury purging and vivifying the Earth, that is, the imprisoned Sulfur, and overcoming Antaeus.

Daedalus is the fixed sulfur; his son is the light sulfur, both emerging from the Labyrinth, that is, from captivity, for nature, embracing its like, becomes free and only flies when it is sublimated. And Icarus, flying high, that is, too sublimated, with his wings burned by the sun, falls into the sea, that is, loses his volatility; he is fixed, buried by his father in the sand, meaning that he is fixed with him.

Midas signifies the powder of projection. Bacchus had taught him this, for the water that dissolves is called wine, and thus wine is made from water, which, when well cooked in the clusters, does everything. And wine is called the blood of the earth.

Python is slain by Phoebus with arrows, for the internal acting excites the external; the overabundant moisture is destroyed. This also signifies the philosophical Sun, the universal medicine that has power over everything and against all poisons.
Typhon is the dry and hot exhalation of the stone in its bowels, which is the form and the agent.

The Gorgon is a moist vapor that is the matter and the matrix; the first, namely Typhon, is a virtue similar to that of mineral Vitriol, which freezes the Mercuries or the moist vapors, which they have called Gorgons.

Perseus is an acting fire that, through a dissolving liquid, cuts off the head of the Gorgon, from whose blood fixed Sulfur is generated, but not the common one. The volatile Sulfur is called Pegasus, winged or flying through the air; these two fixed and light substances, which we have already mentioned, are called by Hermes the Heavens and the Earth, the Superior and the Inferior, which, being uniform and contemplated together, heal metals and men.

Esculapius is taught by Chiron to take the blood of the Gorgons.

Cerberus, with three heads, son of Typhon and the Gorgons, represents the three substances or principles in which, through the heat of the sun, all things resolve.

The Hydra with seven heads, and Scylla with six dogs, represent the seven metals, between which Mercury is the Dragon guarding the golden apple.

The Naïads are the living waters.

The theft of Mercury signifies both the scepter of Jupiter, and this is the absolute power it acquires through the necessary stages to its perfection.

The trident of Neptune is the permanent union of the three principles in their subject, which is in its perfection.

The arrows of Apollo are the rays of the Sun that tint.

The sword of Mars is the first color that appears after corruption, like a bare sword.

The belt of Venus is the circle diversified with all colors that ends in red.

The Sun, or the salt of the earth, is made fertile by the life of the Spirit of the world, casting its rays upon the earth, causing the generation and maintenance of all things.

The blood that flowed from the right side of the head of Medusa, and revived Hippolytus, who had been torn apart and dragged to the Underworld by the horses of Medusa, is also good for all kinds of diseases; but the blood that flowed from the left side of the head of Medusa is a very pernicious poison.

The twelve labors of Hercules are the figures, stages, and operations of the Art, which are:
First, Calcination;
Second, Congealing;
Third, Fixation;
Fourth, Dissolution;
Fifth, Digestion;
Sixth, Distillation;
Seventh, Subtilization;
Eighth, Separation;
Ninth, Incorporation;
Tenth, Fermentation;
Eleventh, Multiplication;
Twelfth, Projection.

Hercules is the son of Jupiter. He is the Artist born under a good constellation.

Alcmene, the mother of Hercules, which is Prudence, and Minerva, which is dexterity, had him suckled by Juno to obtain immortality. Juno is the aerial nature from which proceeds the nectar that makes everything immortal. He strikes her in the breast with a trident, meaning that he separates the principles of this aerial humor to begin his work, from which two serpents are born who make war on him in his cradle, that is, at the beginning of his work, one of which is winged and the other without wings. These are the Mercury and Sulfur of the philosophers, the male and the female, the Sun and the Moon, both of the same origin, of the same nature, and mercurial source, which, through the stages of the Art, must be converted into quintessence. These are the dragons, whose tails the Egyptians used to make bite each other to teach us that they must unite in one subject. This is from Gabritius and Beya, whose matrimonial conjunction engenders Latona, who, impregnated by Jupiter, that is, by the celestial influences, will give birth to Diana, the whiteness of the philosophers, who then serves as a midwife to her mother, making her give birth to Apollo, which is the red color.

This aerial matter is also the winged doe with bronze feet and golden horns, which Eurystheus commanded Hercules to catch in a race, meaning that the matter must be volatile, but still contains the nature of the fixed, which fixes it. These are the golden horns, meaning the rays of his Sulfur, which fix the liveliness of his Mercury.

The river Alphée is the mercurial water that Hercules uses to remove the corruption of the stables of Augeas, meaning that it removes the blackness of the matter.

The Stymphalian birds, defeated by Hercules, are the volatile spirits of the matter, which fix themselves on their land by the continuation of the fire.

The bulls and horses of Diomedes, who vomit fire, are the hidden Sulfur of the mineral earth that makes the belt of Hippolyte subtle. Hippolyte, Queen of the Amazons, whom Eurystheus commanded to bring to him, is the capillary circle diversified with all colors that appears during the decoction of the Elixir.

Antaeus is the son of the Earth. Hercules carried him three times to the ground, but his mother, by touching him, doubled his strength. He wanted to make the head of Hercules the capital of a column in the temple of Neptune, his brother. Finally, Hercules raised him into the air, and, thus deprived of his mother's help, he suffocated him in his arms. Antaeus is the giant who took his origin from the Mercury rotted by the mixture of water and philosophical Earth.

The defeat of the Pygmies, who only make war on the cranes and wanted to avenge the death of Antaeus, their father, are the colors that emerge after having circulated for a long time.

The river Achelous is the matter of the Elixir, purged of its hydropsy and its leprosy or phthisis, meaning its foreign water and its earth. It is the mercurial water of the philosophers, which continuously changes nature and form, ultimately reducing into earth, represented by the bull that Hercules conquered and from which he drew a horn of abundance, meaning an Elixir that he gave to the Nymphs to multiply.

The Nymphs and Hesperides had in their garden a pomegranate tree, the golden apples of which were the dowry that Jupiter assigned to Juno upon marrying her; and a dragon, always vigilant, was its guardian. Hercules was commanded to take them, but he didn’t know where to find them. He consulted the Nymphs, who are the sweet waters, to find the entrance. They sent him to Nereus, the sea god, who is water completely impregnated with fire and light; and by means of Prometheus, who is the assistance of the heavens, he reveals to him the place and the secret to put the dragon to sleep, meaning to fix it, in order to carry away the fruits. This dragon is the mercurial water that guards the Hesperides apples, meaning it hides in itself the true gold of the philosophers, and their true Sun, which, when well conducted, stops its liveliness, puts it to sleep, and fixes it.

Calus was a thief who had three heads; he was the son of Vulcan. He had three heads, meaning he supported the three families, the union of Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury, which takes all forms. He is the son of Vulcan, meaning fire, because he must be extracted from another Mercury by fire. Hercules sums him up with his club, meaning the fixed. Hercules pulls the wild boar alive from the snow of Erimont, mountains of Arcadia, and carries it to Eurystheus, meaning the work passes from blackness to whiteness; but before that, Hercules was forced to bring Cerberus from the Underworld, and as soon as he saw the light, he vomited Laconite, meaning that he changed from corruption into a more perfect nature.

The Nemean lion was the support of the works and the summit of Hercules’ glory.

The Hydra serpent, born of mercurial water, made the beginning and continuation of the works through these changes. After this victory, his club became useless: the only spoils were enough for him.

The Hydra with seven heads is the multiplication of his work. Our child, born in the waters, is this mercurial water which is all our secret. It is the vessel of Hermes that contains all that is necessary for it.

Eurydice is this mercurial earth that fulfills the wishes of the wise philosophers. She is the daughter of the Ocean, from which she was born, meaning from the waters. Orpheus is the skilled artist of the waters, but he was too hasty, which led him back.

The Styx is the muddy marsh that arises from the tenth part of the Ocean, and from which the Hydra that Hercules fought was born. The serpent that wounded Eurydice is the water that dissolves her and takes her into the Underworld, meaning that it led her into darkness. Charon is time. The four dark rivers that Orpheus crosses are dissolutions. Night, in her chariot, is the dark matter in her chaos; these three dogs are the three principles, and Pluto is the god of wealth.

The chaste Diana, sister of the Sun, is this layered earth that Actaeon, another rash one, tried to uncover in her bath before it was dried and fixed, and she avenged herself by giving him the horns of a stag, which caused his confusion and led to his death.

The Elysian Fields are the leafed lands. Eurydice, who is among the myrtles and laurel trees, represents that vegetative soul that the sky infuses into matter, which grows every day through the addition of mercurial water that whitens it until its perfection.

Orpheus captivates Pluto and the gods, who represent the different colors that succeed black and only perfect themselves through red. He would have drawn Eurydice from the Underworld, if his impatience hadn’t hastened his work: the excess of his love caused the excess of his fire. Wisdom is time, and Prudence is patience.

Daphne, the nymph daughter of the river Peneus, is the daughter of water and is nothing but ice: she is the mercurial water of the philosophers. Due to the pursuit of the Sun, she is transformed into a laurel tree, that is, into the color green, which marks the entry into her perfection.

Saturn, cutting the genitals of the Sky, made them fall into the sea, from which foam emerged that gave birth to Venus. The nymphs raised this nascent deity in a sea shell. No sooner had she emerged than she wiped her eyes and hands to appear more beautiful upon her arrival in the island of Cyprus. The earth caused lilies and roses to bloom under her feet, which the Graces made into a crown for her; the Hours gave her a robe adorned with all colors. Mercury was the first of the gods to impregnate her, and from her, she bore Cupid. Mars also wanted to do the same but was chained and troubled by her husband Vulcan.

Venus is the mercurial water that, descending from the sky, brings everything she needs. The nymphs who raise her are the sweet waters that cleanse and nourish the earth in a sea shell, that is, a philosophical egg. The hair she wets after her birth is the moisture that dries by freezing. The flowers that the island of Colchis makes bloom upon her arrival are the three mysterious colors—black, white, and red—that, successively, burst forth to her glory. The robe given to her by the Hours is the purple, which she receives through time. Mercury joins with her, and they become one water that produces Love: this is the Elixir. Mars, who wished to enjoy it, is an imperfect color between red and black, discovered by the Sun through the nets of Vulcan, that is, through the perfection that culminates in the philosophical Sun through the force of fire.

The muddy waters of the Deluge gave birth to the venomous serpent Python. Apollo, who alone was destined for its ruin, broke his quiver without harming it; but finally, the venomous streams filling the monster, flowing through its wounds, left the body motionless, taking its life.

The serpent Python is the matter; it is born of the corruption of the waters; it contains everything necessary for it and is even the vessel of its perfection. Apollo is the heat of the mineral sulfur, whose virtue is to kill and freeze its humidity.

The Egyptians show the necessity of the perfection of the circle in the conjunction of these two ends—the head and the tail.

Medea had her chariot drawn by two serpents.

Cadmus kills the serpent in a fountain that had devoured his companions, and from its teeth, scattered and cultivated in their land, men were born, who eventually destroyed each other, except for five, who helped him build the city of Thebes, which is the quintessence.

Asclepius, to come from Epidaurus to Rome, took no other form than that of a serpent. The mercurial water is this serpent devouring itself, growing and giving birth to another of itself.

Narcissus was the son of the river Cephissus and a marine nymph. The prophet Tiresias predicted to him that he would live long if he did not fall in love with himself; and since they came from a father who was nothing but water, as soon as he consulted his face in the crystal of a fountain, he wished for its union with his principle, and, like a dying man in the waters, he was transformed into a flower that bears his name: and this is the matter of the Elixir.

The hermaphrodite is the son of Venus and Mercury; he was male, and his diversion was the waters; and as he bathed, a naiad surprised him, kissed him, held him, and transformed him into herself; their two bodies became one, carrying both their sexes and having only one face.

The Matter of the Elixir is male and female; it is the Sun and the Moon, Gabritius and Beya, brothers and sisters, children of a king from an island who become one body, and a king’s son much more powerful than their father.

Atalanta, who was also the daughter of a king from an island in Arcadia, surpassed all in strength and speed, especially those who challenged her in a race. Being ready to marry, she consulted Apollo to know which husband she should take, and the oracle responded: “Avoid the union of men, for your husband will cause you to lose your face without dying.” Hippomenes, the grandson of Neptune, asked Venus for help in his plan: she gave him three golden apples, picked from the Hesperides' garden. So they both raced with unmatched speed, but the beauty of the apple, thrown during the race, prompted Atalanta to stop and pick it up; she did the same with the other two, which allowed Hippomenes to reach the end first and make Atalanta the prize of his victory. But their eagerness proved the truth of the oracle, for in an instant, they were both transformed into lions. This signifies that the liveliness of the Mercury of the philosophers is fixed by the action of its Sulfur, which is of the same nature and origin as it, and both, converted into the Elixir, form the Red Lion of the philosophers.

Climene was also the son of the Ocean and Thetis, who, impregnated by the rays of the Sun, gave birth to Phaethon, who, riding in his father’s chariot, that is, on the mercurial water, was struck down by a lightning bolt, that is, blackened. He was given to the nymphs to purge and wash him by the imbibitions, and he was transformed into a poplar tree, that is, he was fixed with them.

Cygnus succeeds this metamorphosis; the past blackness and obscurity gone, this king, relative of Phaethon, newly whitened, rises from the waters and sings the glory of his death as he is ready to transition into a more perfect and unchangeable nature.

Medea, consumed by the fires of her new conqueror, destroys her own enchantments with opposing charms. By a soup of honey, she closes the eyes of the dragon who had not closed his eyelids, and by the strength of her spells, the bulls with iron feet who vomited flames lowered their necks, submitted to the yoke, and plowed the field of Mars, where no plow had ever entered. And finally, after so many labors, Medea became the prize of her victory and the glory of these endeavors. Learn to know the Soul of the World to know the subject of all wonders.

Zoroaster taught that the souls of men, being in the heavens, had wings, and with old age, their feathers would fall off, and they would plunge here below into bodies. After returning, they would fly back to the heavens. Then his disciples, eager to ascend to the realm of beatitude, asked him one day what they could use to quickly bring about their rebirth. "By soaking them," he told them, "in the water that flows from the four rivers that irrigate the Earthly Paradise." The mixture of water and earth makes salt, and the mixture of earth and air makes mercury. Mercury is the spirit and vehicle of nourishment, and Sulfur is the form and the soul that gives odor and flavor to the subject.

The Universal Salt forms the body of the Universal Spirit, whose life-giving force is called Phœbus, which is the salt of the air; by the force of the sun’s rays, Jupiter; and that which is in the earth, Pluto.

My dear brother, read, meditate, and pray to the Almighty God, who is the true author of nature, that he make it known to you as well as its effects, and when you know it, it will not be difficult for you to reach the desired end.

Praise be to God.

Amen.

The End.