Text transcribed and translated from Elias Zetzner - Teatrum Chemicum tom 4
ON THE MATTER AND PRACTICE
Of the Philosopher’s Stone
O my beloved, all you who love piety,
Whom it delights to pursue Virtue and Art,
An Art which is not opposed to God, nor to
Any part of mankind, but serves the public good.
Do you burn with a passion for learning? Behold, I shall teach you
A great treasure, which it is fitting to cultivate,
Yet always in accordance with the Word of the Lord and for salvation.
From here flows a silver fountain, and the Tagus becomes golden.
I myself am the one of whom I speak: all the kingdoms
And riches of the world cannot equal me:
Though I be a filthy worm, full of poison,
Roaring with a terrible throat like a lion.
All metals everywhere fear me,
For they fall to pieces at my touch.
Yet if the hand of a skilled artisan
Binds me and presses me with intricate knots,
The highest remedy will arise from me, by the gift of the gods,
However much I may first breathe deadly poisons.
I drive out every kind of disease; I prolong life;
Yet I can do nothing against the decrees of Heaven.
I am the unicorn of the ancients: he who knows how to cleave me,
And restore me again into an incorruptible body—
Indeed, he shall marvel greatly
At my power, and what I alone can accomplish,
Which is impossible for many others.
Therefore, if perhaps you wish to learn me better
And desire that I reveal myself to you more clearly,
It shall not fail by me: there shall be no delay.
Only sharpen your mind, delve into the innermost parts of your soul,
And see not only me outwardly, but also inwardly.
Nothing here is spoken in vain, nor is there
Anything written here that will be more or less than just.
I now assert in truth that at no time
Have these things been written more clearly for the wise.
But what cause impelled me—it would be long to tell—
I do not wish to distract your mind by further speech.
And first, what appearance and face I should be beheld with,
Now I will briefly speak.
I am clothed in a grey body, reader,
My body and garment are alike in color.
Yet I am neither male nor female, but both:
I possess both natures at once.
My flesh shows this, and my blood declares it:
The blood is wholly male, but the flesh is female.
Yet the power of both and a spiritual virtue are mine;
And that which I bear of male and female
Makes me called Hermaphrodite. I dwell in the earth,
Where metals, minerals, and their kindred things abide.
But I am not one of these, as many might think;
Rather, united of my own nature and will,
Into the proper appearance and form of a metal,
Moist and dry, cold and hot.
I am not ductile, but I melt when placed in fire;
Taken out, I am brittle, hardened by frost.
In me are contained twice two elements, and flow
Sulphurs together, and Mercury as well.
Savage, rough, deadly, full of poison,
Stable, unstable, fixed and volatile.
But neither blooming herb, nor animal, nor sweet butter,
Vitriol, arsenic, salt, nor alum,
Nor sulphur, nor any unkindred mineral, nor gold,
Nor the other five metals you may see,
Am I. But by my proper name and nature, to the wise
I am Mercury, my single root and twin shoot.
I am more vile than seaweed cast out by all,
Because I lack any powerful outward form.
My garment is grey, colorless: yet I am
That honey which kings and outcasts alike—
Rich and poor (for I make no distinctions)—
Trojan and redhead alike—have always sought once.
But though I be cast out and vile in the world,
No thing outside me can touch the truth.
I carry within me Mercury, pure and cooked,
Not mobile indeed, yet prone to flee.
And yet he is bright, shining with pure whiteness,
Outwardly dead, but inwardly alive.
The red king causes me to be formed, the gold of the wise—
Seek that within myself, within my very innards.
This red sulphur is everywhere called fixed;
Cast all other things far away besides me.
For I alone can do all things, though I be but one stone:
I desire not silver, I desire not gold.
I am hostile to Mercury in the beginning, middle,
And at the end of the work: I do all things alone.
Add nothing alien to me; but dissolve, then
Coagulate, join the head to the tail of my own.
This is the most complete summary of the entire Art.
He who can dissolve me without violence,
Has found both the Red and also the White within me.
Only work me without waters, without powders,
In a gently moist place at rest, and soon
A white vein will spring from me, like
The shining moon: but then a black crow is born,
Happy are they who may obtain the black.
Persist and do not cease, remember to keep
A constant fire, beware of haste or neglect.
Feed the lights continuously with varying color:
From this you may celebrate the White Fix.
For Mercury, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter
Shall turn the silver rod into ether.
Go on under good omens, until it reddens above the fire.
Then speak praises to the highest God by right.
For it can turn all metals into gold.
In all things, glorify God.
LATIN VERSION
DE MATERIA ET PRAXI
Lapidis Philosophorum.
O Mihi dilecti, quotquot pietatis amantes
Virtuti atque Arti vos studuisse juvat,
Arti, quaeque Deo non est adversa, nec ulli
Parti hominum publico servit at illa bono.
Discendi ardetis studio? vos ecce docebo
Thesaurum ingentem, quem coluisse decet,
Pospositum Verbo Domini tamen, atque saluti.
Fons argenteus hinc, aurifer itque Tagus.
Ipse ego sum, de quo sermocinor: omnia Mundi
Non mihi regna & opes se similare queunt:
Sim licet immundus vermis, plenusque veneni,
Gutture dissento terrisicúsque Leo.
Omnia me metuunt, quae sunt ubique metalla,
Namque in frusta abeunt quae tetigisse datur.
Si tamen artificis solertia docta manusque
Me liget, & nodis urgeat implicitis.
Summa medela ex me nascetur, munere Divûm,
Quantùmvis spiro dira venena priùs.
Omne genus morbi depello: prorogo vitam:
Nil tamen adversùs caelica fata queo.
Sum veterum unicornu: qui me findere novit,
Atque iterum in corpus restituisse potest
Irrecolubile, næ nimium mirabitur ille
Vimque meam, nec non quid queo solus ego,
Quod reliquis impossibile est compluribus. Ergo
Si me fors melius perdidicisse velis
Utque patefaciam tibi me distinctius optas,
Per me non stabit: non erit ulla mora.
Tu modo mentem acuas, animi pulséque recessus,
Nec tantùm exterius me, sed & interius
Pervideas. Nil hic memoratur inane, nec est hic
Quod scriptum justo plusve minusve fiet.
Assero veridicé nunc ullo tempore multis
Haec adeò clare scripta fuisse sophis.
Sed quae me impulerit, longum esset dicere, causa,
Distinuísse animum nolo loquendo tuum,
Et primum quâ sim specie spectandus & ore,
Nunc intervallo proloquar exiguo.
Natura indutus gryseo sum corpore, lector
Corpus & est vestis concolor una mihi.
Nec tamen aut mas sum, nec foemina: sum sed utrumque,
Naturas geminas possideoque simul.
Id caro demonstrat mea sanguis & indicat: iste
Masculus totus, sed caro foeminea.
Vis tamen amborum, virtusque est spiritualis;
Quodque virile geram, foemineumque geram,
Hermaphrodita vocor: moror in tellure, metalla,
Et mineralia, & his sunt ubi syngenea.
Nec tamen unum ex his, ut multi forte putabunt,
Sum; verùm unitus sponte meaeque physi
In speciem propriam proprii formamque metalli,
Humidus & siccus, frigidus, & calidus.
Non sum ductilis, impositus sum fusilis igni,
Exemptus fragilis conglaciore gelu.
In me clauduntur bis bina elementa fluuntque
Sulphura juxta simul, Mercuriusque simul.
Efferus, asper, lethalis, plenusque veneno,
Constans, inconstans, fixus & aerius.
Sed neque florens herba, animalve, aut dulce butyrum,
Vitriolum, Arsenicum, Sal, nec Alumen, adhaec
Sulphur, & his non syngeneum minerale, nec aurum,
Nec quae praeterea quinque metalla vides.
Infecta: at proprio sum nomine, reque sophorum
Mercurius, radix una duplexque mihi
Surculus: abjecta cunctis sum vilior alga,
Exterius quia non est mihi forma potens.
Veste mea grysea sum decolor: & tamen illud
Mel sum quod Reges, degeneresque simul
Dives egens (nullo mihi sunt discrimine cuncti)
Tros, Rutilusque solent expetiisse semel.
Sed licet abjectus sim, nec non vilis in Orbe;
Res tamen extra me tangere nulla potest.
Mercurium gesto intra me purum, atque coctum,
Mobilis haud equidem, sed solet esse fugax.
Et tamen est clarus, puraque albedine splendens,
Mortuus exterius, vivus at interius.
Rex rubeus constare facit me, aurumque sophorum,
Id quaere in meipso, visceribusque meis.
Hoc sulphur rubeum fixum vocitatur ubique:
Caetera praeter me cuncta repelle procul.
Omnia nam possum solus, quantumlibet unus
Sum lapis: Argentum nolo ego, nolo Chryson.
Mercurio infestus sum principio, medioque
Atque in fine operis: Cuncta ego solus ago.
Imbibe nil alieni in me: sed solve, deinde
Coge, caput caudae junge simulque meae.
Totius haec Artis consummatissima summa est.
Qui sine vi me ulla dissolvisse potest,
Invenit & Rubeum, sed & Album repperit in me,
Tu modo me sine aquis, tu sine pulveribus,
In statione loca tepide humescente, subinde
Ex me prosiliet candida vena, velut
Luna micans: Corvus sed porrò innascitur ater,
Felices atrum quotquot habere queant.
Insta ne cesses, ignemque tenere memento
Assiduum, ne quá praecipitesve cave.
Lumina continue pasces variante colore:
Hinc niveam Fixam concelebrare potes.
Mercurium, Venerem, Saturnum quippe, Jovemque
Argenti virgam vertet in aetheream.
Perge bonis avibus, donec super igne rubescat.
Tunc laudes summo dicito jure Deo.
Omnia namque metalla potest traducere in aurum.
Omnibus in rebus glorificato Deum.