The seven sacred pillars of eternity and time. In clear symbols, for the benefit of all seekers of wisdom
Listen Audio Book Buy me CoffeeThe Seven Holy Pillars of Eternity and Time.
In clear emblems,
for the benefit
of all seekers of wisdom.
[Die sieben heiligen Grundsäulen der Ewigkeit und Zeit. In deutlichen Sinnbildern, zum Besten aller Weisheit Suchenden ... Nebst dem Brunnen der Weisheit und Erkenntniss der Natur. Den Grundsätzen der wahren Alchemie. Und vier merkwürdigen Briefen eines Adepten / Hrsg. von AdaMah Booz [A.M. Birkholz].]
"Igneus est ollis vigor, et coelestis origo seminibus."
— Virgil, Aeneid VI
("They have a fiery force and a heavenly origin in their seeds.")
Along with the
Fountain of Wisdom and Knowledge
of Nature.
The
Principles of True Alchemy
and
Four Remarkable Letters of an Adept.
Edited
by
Adamah Booz.
Leipzig,
with Paul Gotthelf Kummer. 1782.
Hermes in the Emerald Tablet:
Truly, without deceit, most certainly and assuredly I affirm: These lower creatures are set in place and mix their forces with the forces of the upper, and these again with them in return; in order to bring forth one of the most wondrous beings of all.
And, just as all things have arisen through the Word and from the breath and spirit of the one God, so too are all things continually reborn from this one being, according to the arrangement of Nature.
Introduction
The book of Nature, which the all-wise and almighty God has opened to the human race through the astonishing and wondrous work of creation, so that it may learn from it, as from the purest and clearest fountain of Nature, from which one would wish to draw true wisdom, is among all possible books to be regarded not only as the greatest, but also, with all right, as the most beautiful and most important.
But, alas! The perversity and blindness of mankind is so great that very few of them read and study this book—opened everywhere and laid out before everyone—and the very fewest understand it. Therefore, it can be compared most fittingly to that apocalyptic book sealed with seven seals, which no one, except one endowed with divine power and wisdom, could open and was permitted to open.
Now, on this tablet, a worthy and skillful reader has before him the Book of Nature, opened, which he may attentively examine in its seven lines, from which the whole book is composed, and carefully observe the descriptions contained therein, as well as the signs and illustrations, so that he can most precisely and diligently compare them with one another.
Through this knowledge of the things above and below, and their exact harmony and correspondence, one will then come to understand the truth which the Apostle sets forth in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Romans: that God’s invisible nature is to be seen and recognized from the visible works of creation.
As for the manifold other benefits and uses of this tablet, which I leave to the investigative spirit of the discerning reader to explore more deeply, I will make no further boast.
Table
which represents the
opened Book of Nature,
or
the seven holy pillars of Eternity and Time;
and, in order not to damage it by much folding and unfolding, it is included separately with each copy; for it is most fitting and convenient that the lover of it should place it for his use under glass in a frame, and hang it in his oratory and laboratory.
Marsil. Ficino in the commentary on Plato’s Symposium, Chapter 4.
From the highest to the lowest, everything descends by means and intermediate steps down the infinite ladder, in such a way that those images and impressions, as offspring of the divine mind, impart their gifts and emanations to humans through subordinate deities and demigods.
Of these, the foremost seven are: the spirit of inquiry, the capacity for governance and self-mastery, the bravest courage, the clarity of the senses, ardent love, acumen in the art of interpretation, and fruitful generative power.
All these operative forces God has in Himself first and originally. From Him they have been received by the seven spirits and deities who move and govern the seven planets, and who are called by us angels, so that each one of them presents his own particular share before the others the rest have received in particular. These they again distribute among the seven orders of demons subordinate to them, assigning them each in particular, and these they finally deliver to mankind.
Likewise, on the Philosopher’s Stone:
Two active causes exist in this world: nature and art. Nature daily brings forth new things, preserves them, and destroys them again; art comes to the aid of nature in its beneficent work, for improvement.
The true sages and physicians are those who investigate the powers and virtues of things under the lunar sphere, both from the properties of the elements as well as from heaven and the stars; likewise, they examine nature in animals, plants, minerals, metals, and precious stones — but even more so those who strive not only to study nature, but also its secrets and inner foundations.
All this, however, through God’s enlightenment.
God has created all things from a primal, formless essence; He governs, fills, and encompasses all; there is nothing where God is not present; He is in and outside of all things; He is not excluded from them, and contains them all within Himself, and with His all-encompassing greatness gathers all things together.
For He is the unfathomable abyss, immeasurable, inexpressible, inconceivable—indeed beyond the understanding of all rational creatures and beings—who is to be praised with silent adoration in spirit; the almighty, all-knowing, most gracious Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, incomprehensible, inseparable, triune; whose nature is immutable, whose image is the whole of nature, and in this, man; full of love, light, life, and all powers; who is bound up in all His creatures and surpasses them all; whose essence and name cannot be expressed; in short: He is so into all eternities. To Him be praise and glory.
Agrippa, De occulta philosophia I, 22.
It is a known and established fact that all lower things are subject to the higher, and in a certain way (as Proclus says) have their influences upon one another—namely, that in the lowest and deepest is found the highest and most exalted and in the highest and most exalted is to be found the lowest and deepest.
Thus, in heaven there are earthly things, but in a heavenly manner and form; and on earth there are heavenly things, but in an earthly manner and form — all according to power and effect. Hence it is also said that here there are certain solar and certain lunar beings, in which the sun and moon exert some influence according to their power and nature. And likewise, such things take on various effects and properties in themselves that are entirely similar to the effects and influences of the stars and constellations to which they are subject.
Likewise, III, 12.
Although the highest Creator, as the first cause, governs and orders all things, He has nevertheless entrusted the administration and execution to various well- and ill-disposed ministers, whom John in the Revelation calls good and evil angels; of whom, elsewhere, the prophet sings: The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, and delivers them; and in another place he recounts plagues and afflictions sent through evil angels.
But everything that God brings about through the angels, as through His servants, He also does through the heavens and through the stars — yet only as through instruments, so that in this way everything works together in His service; so that, just as each region of the heavens and each star holds a certain relationship to a particular region of the earth, or to a place and time, and affects and influences this or that individual creature, so too does the angelic power and effect of that region of the heavens and of that star rightly belong to that place, that time, and that manner.
Thus Augustine says: to each visible thing in this world an angelic power is appointed. And Origen says: the world has need of the ministry of the angels so that they may preside over the earthly powers, kingdoms, provinces, human beings, wild and tame animals in their birth and propagation, the trees and shrubs, plants, and all other things, granting them their power and influence — of which it is said that they are present in things according to a certain hidden manner and property.
Likewise, I, 70. On the power and effect of the peculiar names.
That the peculiar names of things are exceedingly necessary for magical operations is attested by almost all experts. For the natural power and influence of each thing comes first from the objects to the senses, from these then to the power of imagination and conception, and from this finally into the mind, in which it is, as it were, conceived, and then brought forth through words and expressions.
Therefore, the Platonists say that in an expression, in a voice or word, or in a name formed by its certain tones, the power of the thing itself — as its life — lies hidden under a significant image; which is first received, as it were, by the mind itself through the scattered seeds of things, then brought to birth through voices or words, and finally also preserved in writings.
The Magi therefore assert that the peculiar names of things are certain eternal emanations of the things themselves, which are constantly present and give the things their power and retain their property, insofar as the essence of the designated thing is expressed and recognized through them, and the objects and things themselves are distinguished through them as through their peculiar and living imprints and images.
For just as the supreme master craftsman, from the heavenly influences and elements, by means of the powers of the planets, brings forth various forms and particular kinds of things, so too, from the properties of these same influences and effects, arise the names peculiar to the things, and these have been assigned to them by Him who counts the multitude of the stars and calls them all by name; of which names Christ says elsewhere: Your names are written in heaven.
Likewise, III, 16. On intelligences and demons.
By an intelligence is understood an independent, rational being that is free from all coarse, perishable, corporeal matter, immortal and intangible; which can have an influence and effect upon all things and of this nature and quality are all intelligences, spirits, and demons. By demons here, however, are not meant those beings which are otherwise called devils, but rather, according to the proper meaning of the word, so-called intelligent, rational, and wise spirits.
According to the tradition of the ancient sages and magi, there are three kinds of them: the first are called supercelestial and entirely separated from all corporeal things, mental and, as it were, rational spheres, which worship the one God as their constant and immutable unity or center.
Therefore, they themselves are in some measure called gods or divine by them, because of a certain participation in divinity; for they are constantly permeated by God and overflowed with divine nectar.
These are entirely and constantly about God, and are not appointed over any world bodies; they are also not used for the administration of lower things, but only pour the light received and gathered from God into the lower orders and distribute it among all, fulfilling the duties appropriate to each and every one.
These are followed next, in the second order, by the celestial intelligences, which are called world-demons, because, besides divine worship, they also concern themselves with the world-sphere and its circles, and are appointed over all the heavens and stars; hence they are divided into as many orders as there are heavens in the world and stars in the heavens.
Thus it happens that some are called Saturnian because they are appointed over the heaven of Saturn and over Saturn himself; others are called Jovial because they preside over the heaven of Jupiter and over Jupiter himself. And so various demons are named according to the names and properties of the remaining stars.
The third kind of demons are regarded, as it were, as servants appointed to arrange the lower things here. Origen calls these certain invisible powers, to whom the governance of all things on earth is entrusted. For often they guide and direct, in an invisible manner, all our journeys and affairs; many times they are also present in assemblies and in battle, and by secret stratagems and assistance they secure for friends the desired outcome, to be able, at will, to bring about fortune and misfortune.
These are likewise divided into several orders, so that there are fiery, watery, airy, and earthly ones. And these four kinds of demons are assigned, according to the four powers of the heavenly souls of the mind, namely, reason, imagination, and the vital and motive force of nature.
Thus, the fiery follow the mind of the heavenly souls and contribute their part to the contemplation of noble and heavenly objects. The airy, on the other hand, follow reason and assist the faculty of reasoning; and since they separate it in a certain way from the purely sensual and vegetative, they are more helpful to an active and working life, just as the fiery are more helpful to a contemplative life.
The watery, however, which follow the power of imagination and the sensual impulses, are serviceable to a voluptuous life. The earthly follow mere natural impulses and are beneficial to plant and growth life and to their nature.
Likewise, III, 24.
Both the good and the evil spirits have their manifold and various names. But their proper and true names, as also those of the stars, are known to God alone, who alone counts the multitude of the stars and calls them all by name; of which none are known to us without divine revelation, and very few are mentioned in Holy Scripture.
The Jewish teachers indeed believe that even the spirits received their names from Adam; because it is written there: God brought all that He had made to Adam, that he might give them names; and as he named each thing, so it retained its name.
Therefore the Kabbalists among the Hebrews and the magi assert that it is within man’s power even to assign names to spirits; but certainly only in the power of one who has already been made worthy and elevated to this power through every divine exercise and operation, or holy preparation.
But since no human voice is able to form a name that corresponds to the nature of the Godhead or to any power of angelic being, the spirits are generally given names derived from their effects and functions, which indicate a certain service or office, such as might be required from this or that order of spirits; so that such names are to be regarded as consecrated and dedicated offerings brought to the gods, which thereby receive their power and efficacy to attract and draw to themselves a certain spiritual substance, for the accomplishment of a desired effect and operation from above downwards and from below upwards.
Likewise, III, 29. On spirit signs and sigils.
Spirit signs and characters are nothing other than certain unknown letters and writings, by which it is sought to prevent the holy names of the deities and spirits from being used and read by the profane. These letters the ancients called hieroglyphs, or sacred symbols, because they were dedicated solely to the service of the gods, for they considered it unlawful to preserve the holy divine mysteries in such signs and characters in which all profane and shameful unholy things of the common crowd might also be recorded.
Therefore Porphyry says that the ancients, in order to keep divinity and the divine qualities and powers secret and hidden, transmitted the great mysteries through sensory images and through the visible that signified the invisible, as if through sacred letters, and explained them through certain secret and significant figures.
For example, when they assigned everything that is round to the world, the sun, the moon, hope, and fortune; the circle to heaven; the parts of the circle to the moon; the pyramids and obelisks to fire and the celestial deities; the cylinder or roller to the sun and the earth; the male generative organ to propagation and to Juno; likewise the triangle, because of the female sex, they dedicated and assigned.
Thus this type of characters has no other basis and origin than the will and prestige of the founder and originator — I mean the one who has received the power and authority to invent such letters and to consecrate them — of whatever kind they may have been among the various nations and religious sects, these were the ones to whom the sacred treasures had been entrusted. Their inventions and arrangements, however, have not come down to us, except for the little that is found here and there, scattered and in fragments, preserved by various writers.
Likewise, II, 22.
The magi have also handed down to us certain numerical tablets or squares, which they assign to the seven planets and call sacred, consecrated planetary tablets. They ascribe to them many and great celestial effects, inasmuch as they represent a divine celestial numerical arrangement which, through the concepts of the divine mind, is imprinted upon the heavenly beings by means of the world-soul; and their most delightful harmony and agreement with the celestial radiations, according to the relations of the images and impressions which represent the supercelestial intelligences cannot be expressed in any other way than through numbers and character figures.
For material numbers and figures, by themselves, know nothing of the mysteries of hidden things, except that they prefigure and represent something through formal numbers and figures, insofar as they originate from and are inspired by intelligences and divine calculations, which connect the boundaries of matter and spirit with one another.
This occurs according to the inclination of the soul ascending upwards, through the intense attraction and appropriation of that which acts with heavenly power, by the power and authority granted by God, through the mediation of the universal world-soul and the observation of the heavenly constellations, in matter applied to the form for which it is intended, after having been previously prepared for this purpose through magical art and diligence, for the appropriate spheres of influence and means.
Likewise, I, 33. On the signs and characters of natural things.
All stars have their own natures, properties, and qualities; their impressions and markings they impart through their rays also produce in these lower things, such as in the elements, in stones, in plants and their parts, in animals and their limbs.
Thus every single thing, through its harmonious disposition and through the star by which it is irradiated, receives a certain special formed sign, or an impressed mark and distinguishing sign, which serves as proof or indication of a star or of a certain concord and harmony, and contains within itself a very special peculiar power, which differs from others according to kind, nature, and also according to the number of the present matter.
Therefore every single thing has its own character, by virtue of a particular effect, received as an impression from its star, and indeed most from that star which has the greatest dominion over it above all others.
And these impressions and characters of these stars have and retain their peculiar natures, powers, and fundamental qualities, and produce similar effects in other things upon which they reflect their rays, and awaken and promote the influences of their stars, planets or fixed stars, or also starry and celestial symbolic images; whenever they have been drawn from and fixed into the proper material, at the right time, and with the necessary solemnities.
In these considerations, the ancient sages, who devoted themselves most to the investigation of the hidden properties of things, observed the constellations, figures, signs, sigils, and characters which, through nature itself, mediated by the rays of the stars, have been imprinted into these lower things—whether in stones, or in plants and the knots and joints of their branches and twigs, or also in animals and their various parts and limbs.
Likewise, I, 30. That the whole world beneath the Moon and everything within it is distributed among the planets.
Whatever is to be found in the whole world is governed by the planets and thereby receives its properties. Thus, the life-giving light in fire comes from the Sun; warmth from Mars; the varied surface of the earth is attributed to the Moon water and the starry heaven; but the whole globe is subject to Saturn.
Among the elements, however, where moisture rules, the airy belongs to Jupiter, the watery to the Moon, and the mixed to Mercury and Venus.
In the same way, the causes active in nature depend on the Sun; matter, however, on the Moon; the fertility of the active causes on Jupiter; the fertility of matter on Venus; swift operation on Mars and Mercury — on the former because of its intensity and heat, on the latter because of its agility and manifold qualities; and finally, the constant persistence of all these is ascribed to Saturn.
Among plants and vegetation, all that bears fruit belongs to Jupiter, all that bears flowers to Venus; all seeds and all bark are from Mercury; all roots come from Saturn, all wood from Mars, and all leaves from the Moon.
Therefore everything that bears fruit but no flowers belongs to Saturn and Jupiter; whatever bears flowers and seeds but no fruit is under Venus and under Mercury; but whatever comes forth without seed, of itself, comes from the Moon and from Saturn.
For all beauty is from Venus, and all strength from Mars; and each of the planets governs and brings forth that which is similar to it.
It is the same with the mineral kingdom and with stones: all heaviness, all that contracts and binds, all hardness and severity is from Saturn; all balance and all benevolence from Jupiter; all hardness from Mars; all life from the Sun; all pleasantness and beauty from Venus; all hidden power and property from Mercury; and all communal usefulness from the Moon.
Likewise, I. 10. On the number seven and its scale of degrees.
The number seven is of various and manifold power and effect; for it consists of one and six, or of two and five, or of three and four, and always has unity in relation to the whole of the doubled Trinity. Therefore, when we consider its individual members, and the arrangement of their combinations, we must, without doubt, acknowledge that they, both in the connection of their individual parts and taken as a whole, are full of majesty and splendor.
The Pythagoreans call it the bond or means of union of human life, which they derive not so much from its individual parts, but rather from the peculiar right of its total sum; for it encompasses body and soul within itself.
For the body consists of the four elements and their four properties; and the number three has its relation to the soul, because of its threefold power and property, namely: the rational, the irascible, and the desirous.
The number seven, therefore, because it consists of three and four, unites the body with the soul. This number also has a powerful and strong influence on the procreation of human beings, and contributes to conception, formation, birth, nourishment, life, and, in general, to the preservation of mankind.
J. B. Theosoph. Sendbr. 47.
God is neither nature nor creature; what He is in Himself is neither this nor that, neither high nor low. He is the Ungrund and the ground of all beings; an eternal One, where His ground is stillness. He is to the creature, in its ability, a Nothing, and yet He is through all. Nature and creature are His Something, so that He makes Himself visible, perceptible, and tangible — both according to eternity and time.
All things have arisen through divine imagination and still stand in such birth and governance. Even the four elements have such a foundation from the imagination of the eternal One. Of this I wish to set a table here, showing how one proceeds from the other or exhales into the other.
In the attached table, the foundation of all the mystery of divine revelation is laid out, so as to contemplate it. This understanding does not come from the power of nature itself without God’s light; but those who stand in the light understand it well.
Ebenders. de Signatura rerum.
There is but a single character, in order that the Godhead may be mirrored in it, and with the same also all creatures designates, so that His presence may be in all things, and yet each creature has its own particular sign, figure, and form, so that it may appear as a special wonder of the heavenly or earthly mystery. This is the ✚ in its sphere and mercurial wheel of nature, which runs through all three principles, and in the third through all the realms of minerals, plants, and animals, through heaven and earth — whereby to the investigator of divine secrets the wondrous depths are shown.
Same author, Tabula Principiorum.
This table, in seven divisions, is the foundation of the angels and souls, as the mysterium magnum of transformation, in which all possibilities lie. According to the seven numbers, the outflow from one into seven is to be understood; and under each property is to be understood what kind of outflow comes from each property in cooperation with the others. It is not to be overlooked that a single property alone does not give such an outflow, but all seven give it; yet the first form rules therein and retains the upper dominion.
In this table one understands how the hidden spiritual world has made itself visible, and has given itself an image through the outbreathing, since the eternal principles have been enclosed, and the forces within have become material. For external nature is nothing other than an outflow or image of the eternal nature.
The four elements arose from the first four properties of eternal nature. Thus: the earth and the grossness of all beings from the dark desire, for all the other six properties have always become material, as one may understand from the metals and the forces of evil and good. But the dark desire has coagulated them all, as still happens today.
This table shows from what all beings of this world have sprung, and what the Creator is. Namely: that the Creator is the spiritual world of powers, which God has moved, that is, the divine will. But the separator or divider is the outflowing will from the spiritual world, which in such a way has flowed out from itself, and has given itself an image of its working; in such movement has always been a counterpart flowing from one into the other, down to the very outermost matter of the earths. This has been drawn into a mass through divine movement, and this same drawing or movement still stands thus. From this, all matters fall into the depth toward the earth, and this is the reason that the force of movement still stands today and until the end of this age.
The seven days and seven planets indicate the seven properties of the spiritual world. The three principles in the Spiritus Mundi, and in the materials and living beings, such as: salt, sulfur and oil, sulphur, mercury and salt, indicate the Trinity of divine revelation, as an ever-flowing fountain from which all our creatures have flowed, and will still flow until the end of this time. And the separator therein is understood with the seven properties, and we see in this table what has been concluded from the seven properties, and how the spiritual forces have been brought together into one materiality, as is to be seen in the seven spaces downward in the same; therein one can understand from what evil and good have sprung forth in this world.
For whichever property among the seven has the supreme rule, according to that a thing is formed and governed.
Same author: On the threefold life.
Every work, by its form, essence, and property, shows the understanding and the virtue of its maker. When one contemplates the great wondrous structure of the visible heavens and the earth, observes their movements, investigates the various workings of their powers, and considers the diversity of the creatures’ bodies—how they are hard, soft, coarse and subtle, dark and shining, thick and clear, heavy and light—one finds the twofold mother of God’s revelation: darkness and light. These have breathed themselves forth from all their powers and sealed wonders, and with the firmament, stars, elements, and all visible tangible creatures alike formed, since life and death, good and evil, are united in everything. This is the third of the two hidden lives and is called “time in the conflict of vanity.”
Here wisdom gazes, in which the Holy Spirit reveals the divine powers and images of the angels and men, everywhere, through sun, moon, and stars; through gold, silver, ore, gemstones; through beautiful colors and scents; indeed through every good part in all creatures—especially in man in understanding, love, justice, beneficence, gentleness, chastity, knowledge of God, discipline, art, and virtue.
Here also is revealed the property of hell and darkness through cold, hardness, earth, stones, blackness, poison, and stench in all creatures; in man through malice, hate, stubbornness, wrath, fornication, godlessness, frivolity, stupidity, and vice.
Thus this world stands in a mingled life of time between light and darkness, as a real mirror of both, wherein the wonders of eternity, in the form of time, will be revealed through the Word, as John reports: All things were made through the same, and without the same was nothing made that was made.
Robert de Fluct. Defense of the Rosicrucian Society, p. 81 f.
Although this book itself is visible (namely the entire visible nature or material world, in which, as in a book, the creatures, instead of words, are contained), yet its signs, or letters, have been inscribed in a mystical and secret manner. And this book (if I am not mistaken) the Brothers understood, when they thought of the great Book of Nature, which lies open to all, and yet few are there who can read it.
The same author, p. 295, ch. 7. That there are many wonderful and important mysteries which lie hidden beneath the shell and outward form of things or creatures.
One must know: the great Book of Nature contains countless smaller ones within itself, each sealed with seals or signs which make up the visible form of the creature. For the outward form of the creature is like the shell or capsule of a special book of nature, which must be removed with wisdom, and the hidden must be revealed if possible, in order to discover its treasure and to read and understand the hidden signs of its nature.
v. Welling, Opus Mago-Cabbalisticum, p. 116.
The air is the great book of conscience, in which all people will one day find all their good and evil deeds will essentially be preserved therein; yes, even the smallest word will not be forgotten here. For tone or sound is an essential birth of the souls. Now if many good births have proceeded from a man’s soul, he will have his reward and joy; if not, what is written will befall him, namely, that men must give account, even for every idle word. And what is written stands in Revelation XIV, 12: For their works follow them. For truly the air is the great mother of testimony, in which is received and preserved all the doing and being of men.
The same author, p. 158.
We know that in the seventh number the fulfilment of all mysteries is contained. The seven great spirits before the throne of the glory of God (♄ Saturn, 🜩 Jupiter, ♂ Mars, ☉ Sol, ♀ Venus, ☿ Mercury, ☽ Luna) govern the course of the times of these great world-weeks.
Proverbs, ch. IX, v. 1:
Wisdom has built her house, and set up her seven pillars.
Fountain
of Wisdom and Knowledge of Nature.
By an incomparable philosopher, dug and opened
by
Anonymus von Schwarzfuß.
What use are torches, light, and spectacles,
When everyone, according to his will,
Anxiously seeks in chemistry,
So that his heart pounds in his chest!
He searches indeed, criss-cross,
Yet finds nothing at all;
He relies only on all the spectacles,
Because he acts only according to his own will;
Thus he will not strike the mark,
Nor find the truth that can bring joy.
Try it, and do it with understanding,
And do not grope blindly toward the wall.
Use torches, light, and spectacles rightly:
So God will fulfill your wish.
Volenti non fit iniuria
(To the willing, no injury is done.)
Psalm LXV, 10.
The river of Elohim is full of water.
Psalm XLVI, 5.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of Elohim.
1st Book of Moses II, 10.
A river went out of Eden to water the paradise.
First Chapter
What the Fountain of the Wise Is
1. The Fountain of Wisdom originates solely from God. For it is a universal outflow, a breath of divine power, a ray that enlightens the heavens, pours itself into all realms of this world, and nourishes and sustains them.
2. This fountain is conveyed by nature, especially to the astral realm, and gives all the stars their nourishment; without which they could neither exist nor be of benefit to the other creatures through their influence.
3. The astral realm is therefore likewise the first recipient of this fountain, which descends from the lofty height of the Most High.
4. From the stars, however, it moves into the air; from the air into the water; from the water it slips into the earth; from the earth it rises again toward heaven.
5. From this it can very well be concluded that heaven is the source and gathering place of this fountain; but air and water are, as it were, channels through which it is led to the earth, as to its mother, and from there again back to heaven, as to its father.
6. And although this fountain descends down to the center of the earth, it then rises again, as if evaporating, and moistens the entire surface of the earth.
7. If this fountain did not exist, the whole of creation would lie dead and barren. For all stars, animals, plants, minerals, and metals are nourished and sustained by it.
8. This fountain has no less power and dignity when it rests in the center of the earth than when it reigns in the heart of heaven, indeed ruling and governing over all heavens.
9. From this truth it is evident that what is above is just like what is below.
10. This fountain is sought by all people, but found by very few. He floats before all eyes, and yet is not recognized. All drink of him, but the fewest take flight.
11. This fountain, as it were, trades with the higher and the lower. For it leads souls into hell and out again.
12. He is the beginning of life and of death, the soul of the elements. For he adorns the world and distinguishes the species in nature, so that one can see what they truly are and what they can do; otherwise, the world would remain only a confused mass.
13. The wise have named this fountain with many names, yet have thereby covered it well—only so that this pearl would not come before the snout of swine.
14. Out of fear of God and through love, I declare that this fountain is nothing other than the humidum radicale primigenium of every single creature in the whole world.
15. This humidum radicale primigenium is the essence of all natural things. And when these are separated from the light or the astral influence - Informed by it, it brings forth all kinds of species, as may be seen from the following chapters.
Second Chapter.
Of how many kinds this Fountain is.
1. There are four general kinds in which our fountain lies hidden. For everything that is in the world is either astral, or animal, or vegetable, or mineral. These four kinds comprise everything.
2. The humidum radicale primigenium astrale comes solely from the outflow of the power of the Most High, surpasses, by reason of the supreme heavenly light, all other realms, and rules over them.
3. The animal humidum radicale primigenium consists of the fatty moisture of the elements and the subtle heavenly rays; indeed, it possesses more of the heavenly created light than of the fatty moisture of the lower elements.
4. Therefore all animals have more of the heavenly nature than plants and minerals and therefore their powers and abilities are far more wondrous; and all this is because of the light and heavenly spirit dwelling within them.
5. For heaven is far stronger and fuller of growth in animals. In contrast, the fatty moisture of the elements in them is rarer, subtler, and not as tough and viscous as in plants and minerals.
6. Plants generally have much fatty, airy, and watery first or original root moisture, which is impregnated with the heavenly subtle light; from this they derive their visible growth and known powers, through which they live, remain long, or endure, and from which all their powers come, and by which they are also distinguished.
7. For as many kinds of light as there are in heaven, so many different species are also found among animals, plants, and minerals.
8. The humidum radicale primigenium minerale is nothing other than that moist essence from which all minerals consist, continue to exist, endure, and by which they remain constant in fire.
9. This humidum radicale is composed more of very fatty, tough, viscous, earthy, and watery moisture than of airy components, and is afterwards united with the heavenly light or ray of the stars.
10. This mineral moisture is, by antonomasia, called a true and rightful Fountain of the Wise; because they alone seek it, and strive for it with all their powers, in order to accomplish wondrous things through it.
11. The fatty moisture, present everywhere and united with the heavenly light, of the elements, is the seed, or the purest part of each element, which you cast and lay into the center of the earth.
12. In this center or midpoint, the power of nature, which is called Archaeus, mingles these seeds with one another. And the heavenly light awakens the vapors and drives them up and down, so that, as they rise and fall, they become bodies. From the heavenly light, however, which in its center lies hidden and rests, they receive the true distinction.
13. From this seed naturally arise all fountains, but especially the Fountain of the Wise, which, as said, is of four kinds.
14. All creatures of the four kingdoms draw from this single and most high fountain all that they need. For from an Uncreated and Eternal One they arose, and by the same are nourished and preserved. For the Spirit of the Most High is in all things. If He takes it away, they perish.
Third Chapter
How the Fountain of the Wise becomes animal.
1. The Fountain of the Wise, in the beginning of its state, is the seed of heaven and of all elements; and therefore this seed is common to all four kingdoms of the world, so that everything can be made from it.
2. But if the light and the heavenly power that is in this seed has attenuated the seed and brought it to a certain subtle degree, then Nature produces from such seed and its own radical moisture an animal, which is called an insect. Such are: the fly, the mole cricket, the frog, the toad, and so forth.
3. For these insects are not generated in an orderly manner, but arise solely from the general seed, brought by the power of the implanted light of heaven to a certain degree of perfection.
4. And this does not prevent even the perfect animals from springing from the general seed; but this was so ordained by the almighty hand of God in the beginning of creation. And these animals have afterwards received from God the power to multiply through their own seed, which they will keep until the end of the world. And the divine blessing fits very well here: “Be fruitful, grow, and multiply!” For this word has given to all perfect animals the power to multiply themselves.
5. It is therefore impossible that perfect animals, distinguished into male and female, could be produced solely from the power of the heavenly general seed. For this cannot occur naturally; otherwise God the Lord would not have created man and woman, as is to be seen in all the species of animals.
6. Only man, because he is the last among all perfect animals, not only needed divine assistance to attain his perfection, but also required a specially created light, which was poured from without into his seed, specially prepared for this purpose; by the power of which he could attain so high a degree of perfection, and by which he was greatly distinguished from the other animals.
7. It is thus true that the Fountain of the Wise attains the animal degree: partly from a capacity implanted in itself, which it has received from the light and heavenly spirit; partly from divine omnipotence, implanted and imparted to it by God in the beginning of creation; partly because of a special created light, which he has received from without, and in creation through divine infusion, by virtue of which he is elevated to the last degree of a sensitive and rational soul.
Fourth Chapter
How the Fountain of the Wise becomes vegetable
1. Our fountain, or Humidum radicale mundi, can very easily attain the degree of vegetable perfection. For it is in itself and by itself vegetable.
2. For if it did not have the power to grow green, blossom, and increase, how could it impart such power to other things? For this fountain greens from itself, and brings forth all plants, and has no need whatsoever of anything else; for it moves itself to this operation of growth.
3. But the spirit of the heavenly light prepares and mixes the pure seeds of the elements together in a wondrous manner, in order to produce plants thereby. And through its peculiar influence, it adds something that causes the different plants to grow.
4. For from so many different stars our spring also receives so many various powers to bring forth this or that plant. And the astral influence, as it were, informs our spring.
5. For, as said, the difference of the stars causes the difference of the plants. Therefore no little herb is found on earth that does not have its star in the heavens.
6. For there are countless and remarkable stars in the heavens which bring forth, nourish, and preserve different and remarkable herbs. The more powerful now this particular astral force is, the more often this or that herb grows.
7. And thus it is no wonder that in this or that place a greater quantity of herbs grows than in another. For this comes from the astral spirit, which determines our spring to take on this or that form.
8. The stars thus specify our spring, which is the fat moisture of the elements, as that which materially constitutes and forms our spring.
9. But the heavenly and astral spirit is the form of this fat moisture of the elements, which brings to it the special determination.
10. But because this form is manifold, due to the so very different influences of the stars, our spring also brings forth, because of the many various forms imprinted upon it, so many different kinds of plants.
11. The seeds of the plants always retain the specification once received. Indeed, the seeds are, as it were, children of the stars; therefore they always keep the likeness of their father, together with his powers.
12. And there is no plant to be found that does not have its seed, whether not outwardly, yet inwardly. For even the farmers know how, by the rolled-together leaves of plants that otherwise bear no seed, to coax out their natural seed in wintertime.
13. As it is more than true that many herbs grow and thrive without having been previously sown or otherwise having pre-existing seed. For the radical moisture is only, in putrefaction, activated and informed by some spirit of a star, so that a new herb may grow forth.
14. Therefore we conclude that our spring, or the fat moisture of all the elements, is specified, impregnated, and truly determined to the production of many kinds of plants, by the heavenly spirit of light and the influence of the stars.
Fifth Chapter
How the Spring of the Wise becomes mineral
1. Our spring seems to become mineral of itself, because it is born in the center of the earth, and there rather takes on an earthly and mineral essence than anything else.
2. Yet it is to be believed that, as long as it lies hidden in the center of the earth, it entirely indifferent and not yet specified, until it is activated by the heavenly spirit and informed or determined to this or that mineral.
3. But it is activated by this heavenly spirit when it is placed especially in such a condition as the metals have at their birth.
4. For each star has such power to inform and shape our spring so that it brings forth that for which it has been disposed. For example: the Sun has the power to dispose in all four kingdoms. But when it intends to generate an animal, it disposes in particular the animal’s moisture, and according to this disposition brings forth the animal form from the thus-disposed moisture.
5. In the growth of plants, however, it disposes indeed the same matter, but in quite a different way; yet all according to the necessity and form of that thing which it is busy producing from our fat moisture.
6. The same process also the Sun follows in the generation of metals and minerals. And thus the Sun and stars bring forth many kinds of things, all according to the different influence and disposition they introduce into our spring.
7. And it is to be noted that when the Sun strives to generate gold in the earth, it makes our Mercury — that is, our spring — more earthy and watery than airy and watery.
8. This disposed and with the first qualities impregnated substance is then purified to the highest degree by sublimation and continual coction in a closed stone, and gradually transforms the earthy part into an incombustible red sulphur.
9. This sulphur then boils away its moisture, fixes and hardens it completely, so that they can never again be separated from one another. And the moisture is thus colored by the redness of the sulphur, fixed, and transformed into constant gold, which has its greatest joy in the midst of fire.
10. Thus the stars, by their particular power, dispose our common spring into all sorts of kinds of metals and minerals.
11. For when they make our spring more earthy and watery than fiery and airy, then our spring is sufficiently specified for the generation of all kinds of minerals.
12. But the minerals vary and, as it were, alternate when the earthy and moist parts are adorned with particular, peculiar qualities; which happens through purification, coction, and fixation.
13. Finally, it is to be known that our spring becomes mineral when the seed of water and the seed of earth prevail over the seeds of the other elements. For thereby our spring is made fat, viscous, and heavy in weight.
Sixth Chapter
How the Spring of the Wise becomes Gold
1. The sun’s rays, penetrating to the very center of the earth, pervade with their subtle power the fat moisture of the elements which lies hidden there, making it alive, working, sublimating, and cleansing it from all excrements.
2. This purified, sublimated, and, as it were, enclosed in a rocky chamber, moist fatness of the elements is for a thousand years constant and continually cooked. Finally, however, it coagulates and fixes into an earthly sulphurous substance; it is beautifully red and incombustible, fixed and solid, emitting solar rays, which men dig up and, through fire, reduce into gold.
3. This fixed matter Nature cannot dissolve again with the purest Mercury, that is, our spring, much less cleanse it further from all impurity; otherwise, if it could do so, it would, by itself alone, bring forth the rarest treasure of Nature and Art.
4. Therefore, for this, the hand of a wise master is required, through which Nature can be assisted. And for this reason, Nature also cries without ceasing: Help me, so I will help you.
5. Nature can indeed generate gold, but it cannot regenerate gold and bring it to a state of supreme perfection, nor transform it into the Gold of the Wise. From which the difference between common and philosophical gold becomes clear.
6. For Nature, without any assistance from Art, makes natural gold; but the Wise take this very same matter of Nature and, through Art, lead it to a state of supreme perfection.
7. Therefore, there is found a twofold gold: one of Nature, the second of the Wise. Both are of one essence and origin, since they spring from one spring and grow; but in a different manner and for a different end. For natural gold is in need of the gold of the Wise, but not the other way around.
8. How and in what way Nature transforms our spring into natural gold has been sufficiently taught in the foregoing.
Seventh Chapter
How the Spring of the Wise becomes Silver
1. Our spring, made alive and active by the spirit of heavenly light, in which it is enclosed, digested, and cooked through its inner and innate warmth as well as the natural warmth of the earth and of the place, finally attains the perfection of a white, shining, and fusible earth.
2. Nature cooks this more and more, and fixes it until it is transformed into pure silver, with the separation of all excrements. This is the true making and composition of silver, produced by Nature through and from our spring.
3. Our spring actually and truly attains its full determination not from the influencing Moon; for this arises only through continual cooking. For if this matter were cooked longer, it would become pure gold. And at this point Nature rests, because it can go no further.
4. The influx or influence of the planets and stars, however, can do no more in this matter than to awaken the inner warmth of the matter and set it in motion, whereby it is cooked and brought to maturity.
5. A perfect and fully completed cooking produces gold; an imperfect one, however, silver.
6. Our spring has seven stages in its cooking, through which it must be led. In the first degree comes forth quicksilver; in the second, lead; in the third, tin; in the fourth, copper; the fifth gives iron; the sixth, silver; the seventh and last, as the most perfect degree, yields gold.
7. Yet it is not to be denied that the peculiar influence of the sun, the moon, and the stars should contribute something specific to balancing the powers of the metals. But this is a hidden and inner operation, and occurs in the first composition of our Mercury, though not in its cooking.
8. For in the cooking, all constellations come together and are mingled with the fat moisture of the elements. Then the strong and mighty spirit of light overcomes the matter and disposes it so that this or that metal must be produced from it.
9. But once the matter is disposed, it is daily transformed from one noble form into an even nobler one, until it reaches the last, which is gold.
10. A splendid example is given to us by the continuous cooking of our spring by the Wise, which is carried out in a closed vessel.
11. For the matter begins at first to turn black, and in this imitates, for five months, the raw fat moisture of Saturn; thereafter, with continued cooking, it becomes gray-white and resembles Jupiter; then it becomes green-red, and takes on various colors representing the qualities of Mars and Venus; finally, everything becomes snow-white, showing the purest essence and property of silver.
12. This white matter is the true, pure, and fluid natural sulphur, through whose aid Nature generates silver in the earth.
13. This sulphur, when it is repeatedly dissolved, coagulated, and cooked in our spring, attains a very high degree of perfection, so that one part of it can transform countless other parts of less perfect metals into the purest silver.
14. From this it is concluded that our spring, through mere cooking, attains the true perfection of the purest silver. And this cooking is nothing other than a drying out of the radical moisture, which thereby is transformed into a white, fluid, and fusible earth.
Eighth Chapter
How the Spring of the Wise becomes Iron
1. In the generation of iron, Nature employs no other way or manner than she does with other metals and minerals; just as she works with them, so also she does here with iron.
2. For she takes the fat moisture of all the elements, which is made active through the working of the heavenly [influence], and cooks it in a stony vessels, leading it through putrefaction, and because no proper separation of the impure, stinking, earthly sulphur takes place, an iron-like mass results with continued cooking.
3. Nature cannot separate this impure sulphur, nor much less other excrements, merely due to lack of time. For the cooking and purification of the more perfect metals requires a long time, because the warmth of the earth, as well as the inner warmth of the metals by which they are matured, is very gentle and mild.
4. Although Nature strives unceasingly to separate the sulphurous and combustible excrements, she is nevertheless hindered by humans from reaching her goal. For the necessity of iron compels men likewise to tear from the earth before its time the matter not yet perfectly elaborated, to smelt it, and to apply it to their use.
5. Thus, this impure metal also can in no way be cleansed and freed from its impurity, except only by the addition of the white and red sulphur of the Wise. For as soon as this is added, the iron is immediately transformed into gold or silver, which Nature could not accomplish in a thousand years.
6. From this it is evident that Art, which in all things imitates Nature, can complete such things much sooner through its work than Nature, when she is not assisted by Art. For Art transmutes this very matter into iron in five months, into silver in seven months, and into gold in nine months.
7. Yet these are not common metals, but those of the Wise, which have no kinship with the common. For the common metals are dead; those of the Wise, however, are living, full of power, and grow to the highest perfection.
8. Thus it is sufficiently shown in what way the iron is born from our spring, which is the father and true mother of all metals, and that this spring gives birth to, nourishes, and preserves them all.
Ninth Chapter
How the Spring of the Wise becomes Copper
1. Our spring, impregnated by the influence of the heavenly Venus, comes, after completed putrefaction, to be transformed into a dark green-blue earth, which, when it is strongly melted, yields copper.
2. In this copper there is always found some gold, and this because the fat metallic moisture, through natural digestion, is cooked, so that some particles are found so highly worked out that, when separated from the copper, they are good gold. And if this green earth were not dug out before its time, it would, after further continued digestion, be transformed into gold.
3. But the great desire of men to possess copper hinders Nature’s process, so that she cannot generate a perfect metal.
4. For the green and blue color are innate and inherent colors of the red and unripe sulphur. If this had completed its journey, then instead of copper, gold would have resulted.
5. This is clearly observable in the work of the Wise, as it hastens to perfection through cooking. For the matter of the Wise first becomes green and blue before it attains the final perfection and blood-red color.
6. In the same way, metals in the earth acquire all sorts of colors; but especially they become green and blue before they reach the perfection of the sulphur.
7. And it is a great marvel that Nature can accomplish in a glass the same work through the aid of Art as she accomplishes by her own power in the womb of the earth.
8. And thus it is to be known that all the effects which take place in the philosophical egg are to be ascribed not to Art but rather to Nature. They are, however, attributed to the Wise because, through their arrangement, Nature brings them to pass.
Tenth Chapter
How the Spring of the Wise becomes Tin
1. Tin has the same origin as the other metals. For when our spring, through continual natural cooking, has become a dark grayish-white and shining earth, which is still permeated with the sharp spirits of its mercury, and is taken and melted before its time, it yields a metal that grates between the teeth.
2. This grating is caused solely by the sharp and not sufficiently purified and boiled mercurial spirit.
3. Tin has much white but impure sulphur. For although it is already white, it still cannot reach the highest summit of perfection because of its crudity.
4. For in this crudity or raw condition lies the impurity, hidden as a sign of imperfection.
5. The grating of tin can by no art be eliminated, say what one will, for the crudity of tin can be overcome and improved by no understanding, except through the white sulphur of the Wise.
6. For this white sulphur devours all impurity and crudity of the tin, and makes from it the purest silver.
7. Nor should those be heeded who assert that one can make and extract the Mercury of the Wise from tin. For metals are rather generated from our spring or Mercury than that our Mercury should be born from them.
8. In general, it must be known that Nature brings forth our spring solely from the subtlest elements and the spirit of light. This she mixes very wisely to the end, from which Nature afterwards gives birth to animals, herbs, and minerals.
9. And surely, if from tin the Mercury of the Wise could be made, one would have to say that the cause would be produced from the effect, and that the son would exist before the father—which is absurd and unreasonable.
10. It thus remains true that the Mercury of the Wise can be made from no metal.
11. Likewise, little weight is to be given to the opinion of those who say that in gold and silver is found the Mercury of the Wise; for the Wise in their writings do not speak of common gold and silver, but of their own, which are not common.
12. And although in common metals the Mercury of the Wise may in a certain way be hidden, yet, as it is, and in the manner in which it is, it is not the Mercury of the Wise. For the latter is living, but the former is dead. And this is enough concerning the impossible reduction of the Mercury of the Wise from tin and other metals.
Eleventh Chapter
How the Spring of the Wise becomes Lead
1. Nature uses nothing else for the generation of lead than our spring, that is, our Mercury.
2. For it takes the fat moisture of all the elements, which is mixed with the heavenly, life-giving spirit of light, and mingles it with all sorts of heterogeneous, earthy, and sulphurous fats, and hastens it into the hollows of the earth; then cooks and digests the matter for a long time.
3. When, through putrefaction, everything has been united with one another, it cooks it without separating the impure until everything has become a black, shining, and heavy earth, from which, with a small fire, the lead is then melted.
4. But this earth of lead is not the true matter of the Stone of the Wise, by which the base metals may be transformed into gold and silver. For common lead has no such perfection that the white and red sulphur of the Wise could be prepared from it; because all this in lead is very crude and imperfect, so that it can be removed by nothing except by the tincture itself.
5. For our stone is made solely from our spring, from which common lead is far different, prepared. But our Mercury is not common lead, rather it is the father of the same.
6. Although our spring, or Mercury, is also called lead, yet the Wise always understand by it our spring, from which alone our Elixir is prepared. For our Saturn, or spring, when it dissolves its magnesia, or earth, from which it springs forth, again coagulates it through gentle fire, and has brought everything into one, so that a black, heavy earth has been formed from it—then this composition is called the lead of the Wise.
7. Whoever can make this lead has the whole of chemistry open to him. For therein lies hidden the gold and silver of the Wise, that is, the white and red sulphur, which transforms all base metals into gold and silver.
8. Concerning this lead, or Saturn, the white poets have written much. For they sing: Saturn devours all his children. Mark: the sulphur consumes everything that lies hidden in this matter, and swallows it into its belly, digests it, and cooks it until the end of its journey.
9. Jupiter, who sees this, cuts off the testicles of Saturn, his father, with a sharp sickle and throws them into the sea. For the white sulphur, which appears after the blackness in our cooking, removes through its penetrating power—called a sickle—the male power of the black sulphur, which is called Saturn, and casts it into the sea; that is, the black sulphur is dissolved and transformed into a sea, from which the beautiful Venus, which is the green color, is born.
10. This Jupiter, or white sulphur, Saturn seeks to devour. Instead, however, he swallows the stone laid before him, which he then spits out again upon Helicon, where it is set up as a token for mortals.
11. Our Saturn ventures to devour the whiteness that comes forth after the blackness, that is, to dissolve it; and thus it is transformed into a stone, which Saturn does indeed swallow, but must spit out again during continual cooking.
12. Our thus dissolved matter is coagulated into a white stone, which is again dissolved and in this way Saturn always swallows, instead of Jupiter, a stone, which he spits out again upon Helicon; that is, in the end our blessed stone is made from it, which is consecrated to wisdom.
13. From this our Jupiter and Latona are born Apollo and Diana; this is the final and perfect cooking, in which the white and red sulphur—that is, Apollo and Diana—attain the more-than-perfection.
14. From this one sees that our Saturn, or lead, is the father of all the gods, since all metals arise from it.
Twelfth Chapter
How the Spring of the Wise becomes Quicksilver
1. Between our spring and common quicksilver there is a great sympathy, indeed such that many take them to be one and the same thing. But they are mistaken. For our spring is a father of common quicksilver, which is very different from our spring.
2. For our spring generates everything and makes it alive; common quicksilver destroys, corrupts, and kills everything.
3. Our spring is fiery and warm; common quicksilver, however, is moist and cold.
4. Our spring, through gentle distillation, is transformed into a spirit, and also into a pure body; common quicksilver, however, is a pure spirit and cannot in distillation be transformed into any watery spirit, but rises bodily without changing.
5. The spirit extracted from our spring is fiery and pungent, penetrating, and so subtle that it dissolves and kills all metals. But common quicksilver cannot be made into such a spirit; therefore it also cannot dissolve and kill metals. It may indeed hide them at first in its belly, but with gentle fire leaves them behind unchanged.
6. Our spring dissolves, coagulates, and makes itself without the addition of other things; common quicksilver, however, does not do this, and coagulates itself not without the addition of other species.
7. Our spring has in its innermost a pure, white, and red salt; indeed, it is entirely a salt and wells up from a salty cavity. Common quicksilver, however, is nothing but a flowing metal; and if one wishes to make a salt from it, one must hasten with it to putrefaction and death.
8. Our spring is rich in gold and silver in its nearest potency (potentia proxima), and is brought to its ultimate act merely by simple cooking; which is not the case with common quicksilver.
9. Our spring, without addition, through simple cooking, becomes the Elixir or the Tincture of the Wise. From common quicksilver, however, this is neither to be expected nor obtained.
10. In our spring are potentially (that is, in potency) all metals to be found; for it is the closest seed from which the common metals and common quicksilver itself grow. This, however, cannot be said of common quicksilver.
11. Our spring produces in the earth all kinds of stones, both noble and base; whereas common quicksilver leaves them as they are.
12. Nature itself encloses our spring in the cavities of the earth and unites it with a very subtle and pure body, cooks and digests it, as with other metals, until a dark-black, red-glossy earth is formed, which is called mineral and natural cinnabar, from which, with gentle fire, the flowing quicksilver is distilled.
13. Indeed, from this mercurial ore, or cinnabar ore, natural warmth sublimates vapors, which condense in cold places and present and produce the flowing common quicksilver.
14. Thus, moreover, in all places on the surface of the earth common quicksilver is also found, which has been sublimated from the ore hidden in the earth, and through the nocturnal cold, as well as from the heavenly dew, is congealed and made to flow.
Thirteenth Chapter
How our Spring becomes known and revealed to the Wise
1. Our spring must be made from two saline substances, which, however, originate from one root; otherwise, it can by no means pass for ours and be recognized as such.
2. These two saline substances yield, over gentle fire, a very fiery spirit, which has innumerably many names.
3. When this spirit has been taken from them, they remain behind as a dead earth, having lost their spirit through distillation.
4. But if one gives this dead earth its spirit back, it dissolves again over the gentlest fire and becomes a blood-red liquor, which, with continuous cooking, becomes ever redder and redder, then entirely black, and finally thick and fatty.
5. This aforementioned dead earth, before it is recombined with its spirit, has received from the Wise very many names which can be sought out in their own writings.
6. When this spirit has once been united with its body through proper cooking, they can no longer be separated from each other, but remain always together.
7. For through longer continued cooking they finally become firm and fire-resistant; and even if they already flow in the fire, they do not evaporate from it.
8. Our matter therefore has a twofold name, yet comes from one root.
9. It is mineral, and has been brought by nature into a mineral form, but has been left incomplete; it is volatile and fiery. When these are properly combined, they putrefy and then become perfect.
10. For when they are cooked, they take on various colors, such as: black, white, and red; but after attaining redness they are no longer transformed again.
11. This matter, after it has become perfectly white, or has obtained a perfect redness and perfection has been attained: then it tinges all base metals into the best silver and gold.
12. By these signs our fountain has been made manifest; to which this must also be added: that the volatile part is of a very sour taste, of penetrating nature, and of pontic quality.
Fourteenth Chapter
Whether our fountain, to attain its perfection, requires common gold and silver
1. Without gold and silver our fountain cannot come to perfection. Gold and silver, however, are not common mined gold or silver; but it is something else, which nevertheless is neither foreign nor alien to our fountain.
2. For that gold and silver which contributes to the perfection of our fountain is born in the belly of our fountain, and is the fixed part of our fountain, of a double twofold nature, white and red. The white is called silver, the red is called gold.
3. It is therefore more than true that our fountain cannot attain perfection without gold and silver. For gold and silver are its fixed and permanent part, which can, shall, and must fix the volatile.
4. This is the part of which it is said:
Dissolve the fixed, and let it artfully fly,
Fix the volatile, that it must lie still.
5. For this is the gold that must be dissolved and transformed into a spirit through its own spirit.
6. Of common gold there is no need to speak. For how would you obtain the spirit of common gold, that you could with it dissolve the common gold and transform it into a spirit through its spirit? And the same is to be understood of common silver.
7. But when we speak of gold and silver, we always mean that which is innate to our fountain, and already planted within it.
8. When the heavenly solar spirit is united with the fatty moisture of the elements, it fixes and coagulates this fatty moisture by its warmth, and makes from it a peculiar kind of salt; which salt appropriates to itself the properties and powers of the heavenly light, and strives to become and to be like its father; hence the Wise call it gold, since in truth, according to its nature, it is salt, and also has the nature of salt.
9. Likewise, the silver in our fountain is not common silver, but the salt hidden in our fountain; for the sake of its strength and potential it is called silver.
10. And yet it is only one and the same, not a twofold salt, of which one would be gold and the other silver; no, rather this one salt is called gold or silver according to a certain appearance.
11. For when our salt has attained the highest whiteness, we call it silver. But when it has come to the highest redness, we call it gold. Without this gold and silver, our fountain cannot subsist common gold and silver, however, cannot, as has been said, be applied here in any way.
12. For although the Wise in the hermetic preparation of their Stone require some common gold, by which the Philosopher’s Stone is determined to the extent that it transforms base metals into gold, it does not follow from this that common gold perfects our Stone.
13. On the contrary, our Stone much more perfects the common gold and silver. For without our Stone, even otherwise perfect gold is imperfect and barren. But when it is combined with our Stone, it becomes living and fruitful, and can then impart something of its perfection to the other metals.
14. Many strive to dissolve the common gold and bring it into a true essence; but it is in vain, and not even necessary to think of such a thing.
15. However, there is another solution, which is truly natural and performed by its own parts. For the solvent and the dissolved are of one and the same substance; therefore they dissolve each other radically and unite naturally.
16. This solution one must seek, and not the common one. For our solvent, our gold, our silver — though they appear to be three — are yet one, and rest in a single essence.
17. No stubborn person understands this. For when such a one hears it, he at once falls into error, both regarding the preparation of the matter and the administration of the fire, the shaping of the furnace, the choice of the vessel in which the matter is to be cooked, and the division of the weight.
18. For the benevolent power and effect of our matter is itself our weight. Whoever does not know and understand all this will truly be in error.
Fifteenth Chapter
How much of its gold and silver our fountain needs for its perfection.
1. Nature, in the generation of metals, has no weight; for she has only one single matter upon which she works.
2. In the preparation of our fountain, however, each must take care to investigate the weight. For since our fountain consists of two materials, one of which is masculine, the other feminine, one must be concerned with their proportion when combining them. For from the conjunction of this little man and maiden our fountain is born.
3. But not every weight serves this purpose, only one that has its necessary determination.
4. Know, therefore, that equal parts of both materials must be taken at the celebration of our first matrimony; but in the second matrimony, since the volatile is added to the fixed, the weight must also be especially considered.
5. For the fixed part must be dissolved and the volatile turned into water. Therefore, there must be more of the volatile than of the fixed in this solution and conjunction.
6. Some take ten parts of the volatile to one part of the fixed; some seven; some three — so that herein the proportion varies. Only, it is enough that as much of the volatile water should be taken as is required for the solution of the fixed part.
7. Much water dissolves quickly; but the coagulation proceeds more slowly. Over this, the unknowing fall into despair, because they do not understand the nature of this work, and yet see that the work is not coagulated within the appointed time.
8. I have taken much water; but after the solution, I have abstracted the superfluous again, and God has richly blessed my work.
9. There is, however, another proportion which is used in multiplication, for the moistening of the white and red work, which it draws through our highly rectified fountain; and in this case one must be very careful with the measure. It should therefore be poured over only the thickness of a sheet of paper; which is to be repeated as often until the stone has drunk its fill, and has become completely white and red.
10. In this operation, art does not follow nature. For art needs a certain known measure; but nature itself is the measure. For it takes as much as is necessary; the rest it rejects and keeps it or uses it for other works. For nature has nothing useless or superfluous. What does not serve this is good for something else.
11. In conclusion, you should know that you must concern yourself with nothing more than attaining our Fountain; (for which this treatise gives you sufficient, indeed ample, guidance and explanation) for this Fountain contains the entire sophic work within itself, completes it, corrects and improves also every error that may have been committed. Therefore this Fountain is so highly esteemed; because one needs neither fire, nor oven, nor vessel. For our Fountain is all this, if you otherwise understand it correctly.
12. If you now attain this Fountain, you have all of nature in your power, and nothing is lacking to you; but everything you desire, you already have in your hands.
For this, praise Jehovah without end.
The lanterns, light and spectacles are of no use in this work,
If in your head you have dark owl’s eyes;
If the true light does not illuminate your mind,
You will have only harm for your labor instead of gain.
Principles of True Alchemy
The truest Hermetic figure.
The divine natural fire is hidden; without light and without coal; this is the time; time must reveal the truth.
Fire
Warm opposite qualities
Cold properties
Air
"Reverse the elements and you will find the quintessence."
Straight line
"What you seek"
The element Water is the matrix of all things
Kabalistic
Dry element
Earth
The quintessence is the ensouled salt.
Preface
The reader should by no means believe that this small writing consists merely of empty, learned imaginings, and has nothing real as its foundation. No, certainly not; rather, it contains nothing but solid grounds and facts, which I myself, through my own experience, have recognized and accomplished, by means of many years of both theoretical and practical chemistry, so that not even the greatest and an almost unheard-of persecution could deter or prevent me—by God’s grace—from finally attaining, in this deep science, the possession of the thing itself.
Least of all should anyone imagine that I am seeking thereby to make myself famous and great before the world. It happens solely and exclusively for the promotion of the glory of God, and to provide a most useful instruction to those faithful and diligent physicians who, out of desire and for the good of their poor sick fellow human beings, are willing to become just as earnest in this matter — so that they may, with a good conscience toward God as well as toward their fellow men, diligently and properly fulfill the vocation entrusted to them, and be able to turn back from crooked errors onto the straight and right path.
On this matter, one may consult and compare Basil Valentine, Paracelsus, and Helmont; and one will find both my subject and the preparation of the menstruum to be correct. Diligence, patience, and tireless perseverance are absolutely necessary in these divine remedies. Above all, however, one should observe one’s Christian duties, so that through earnest prayer, with good intentions, one may make oneself worthy of this gift of grace without straying into error.
1. The manner and method by which one can obtain, through true chemistry, the Philosopher’s Stone, potable gold, and the Universal Tincture itself, consists in the true and radical dissolution and subsequent recombination of those substances that contain the specific Mercury and the gold-making seed for the revival of metals.
2. For this, two menstruums are required: namely the Universalissimum and the Universal.
3. The Universalissimum itself dissolves all minerals, metals, and vegetables, without destroying their growth and growth-promoting power and property, into their first essence and astrum.
4. And although this menstruum dissolves all and every thing into its essence and being in a general manner, nevertheless it always performs its operation with equally balancing forces, so that it causes not the slightest foaming when poured, nor during distillation with, takes anything from it, nor leaves anything in it, unless it is done with diligence and intent.
5. Through the most universal solvent, that substance which contains the concentrated specific Mercury for the tincture of metals is dissolved into its first essence, and from it a general menstruum for the metals is prepared.
6. This now not only dissolves the metals radically, extracts their gold-making seed, brings it from potentiality into actuality, and revives it; but it also mixes and unites with it in the most intimate way, bringing them to rebirth, to coagulation, and finally also restoring them to a higher state of perfection.
7. From this it becomes clear what dreadful errors the common chemists have hitherto harbored, when they, although indeed unable to use salts for the tinging of metals (for which they are entirely clumsy and ineffective), could nonetheless not do without them for dissolutions of the same, yet have not better and more precisely distinguished them; but rather have deviated from their proper and legitimate preparation, and have fallen into corrosive spirits, whereby their dissolutions have been found to be of an entirely false nature.
8. Since, in general, all and every sharp and violent dissolution is harmful and detrimental—because they destroy the germinating and growth-promoting seed power—and although, in outward appearance, the substances and bodies to be dissolved have been brought back into a water through their violent effect, nevertheless, by adding common water, wine spirit, cream of tartar, common salt, or even other metals, they can be precipitated again into bodily form, such methods are to be entirely and completely banned from the chemical republic.
9. This is made more than clear by the separation waters in the dissolutions of gold, silver, mercury, and antimony glass.
10. For as soon as the corrosive has been separated from it, the metals lie in their metallic form and shape; antimony, however, appears as a white powder, or falsely called life-mercury (mercurius vitae), which, even with cream of tartar and saltpeter, can very easily into a regulus; this, however, can be transformed by melting it with sulfur (note well) into an antimony useful for all the aforementioned works.
11. It is also of no use to have previously macerated and laboriously corroded it with sublimated mercury, with common mercurial fluids (note well), and with other sharp substances.
12. Moreover, the entire mass of common chemists is completely mistaken also with regard to the particular processes, because the generation of metals is unknown to them.
13. For since the perfection of metals consists in a pure, fixed, solar or lunar metallic sulfur, one expects that, when it is thus constituted or brought to supreme perfection, it will then be able—partly in a particular, partly in a universal way—to yield the hoped-for benefit and gain.
14. But without the most universal or universal menstruum, one will, by means of the external or selected mineral sulfur, in metallic transmutations, most certainly achieve nothing—not even the slightest.
15. The generation of metals takes place in the bowels of the earth, by means of a mercurial vapor or steam, which, through the power and effect of subterranean fire, is distilled there until it passes into a thick water; whereupon, according to the nature of the drawn sulfur—whether pure or impure—it becomes specifically determined and adapted either to this or that metal. And thus metals come into being.
16. At times, however, it happens that this mercurial vapor or mineral sulfur is found impure; as can especially be seen in Venus and in Mars; and although their sulfur contains something of Sol, they are nevertheless, all too early and quickly, through their heat, brought into a metallic form and shape which is indeed metallic, but also impure and destructible.
17. Now, if one has extracted from them their metallic, solar sulfur, and has made it common and shared; which can be done both in the general way with the universal menstruum, and also in the particular, special ways, in an exceedingly easy manner, within a short time, by bringing forth the different colors (which can occur naturally and gently), the fruit can be harvested both particularly and universally. For the solar and lunar sulfur prepared in this way extend far and wide in their effect.
18. The most universal menstruum (universalisissimum) is extracted from a subject sufficiently well discovered by Basilius, Paracelsus, Helmont, and others; which God has entrusted to the general nature, and endowed with such a constitution and disposition that it can, in and from itself, without any external aid except for the single fire, separate itself from all superfluities, ripen, mature, and increase its dissolving powers to the highest degree.
19. For it contains the true natural salt found in all natural things; yet without having the least in common with the other salts, such as common saltpeter, alum, vitriol, which it expels and specifies.
20. It also contains our central salt, which preserves, enlivens, causes growth, multiplication, and flourishing in all things.
21. But since Nature does nothing in a forced or violent manner, and performs and brings forth all her works in the gentlest and most loving way, this matter likewise requires, for its preparation, a similar and friendly mode of treatment.
22. Likewise, she does not hasten either her inner or outer natural fruits and creatures with a speed greater than the most wise Being has once measured out in proper order; rather, she carries and nourishes each to its time. She also makes in her undertakings and productions no undue haste, but rather takes slow steps, and leaves it, through the grace of the original Spirit, to the heavenly degrees and stages—not only out of her own moderation and modesty, but also, next to God, to the higher powers—so that, as a spark most similar to the divine golden freedom and power, she neither exhausts herself on one side by too great haste, nor, on the other side, by an excessive measure of her wise and prudent delay and restraint in their force and burden, stifles and suppresses.
23. The inclination toward new conception and generation is, as in the whole of general Nature, so also in this work, the most important task and preparation.
24. Now, when the union of the volatile with the fixed has taken place, and this fixed by the volatile is often again made volatile, and the philosophical rainwater has been separated: then, at the proper time, there appears the most universal dissolving agent (Solvens universalissimum), which is half-volatile in nature and, with moderate warmth, liquid, and soluble in all juices, possessing the most pleasant fragrance, and free from all sharpness and salty acidity.
25. But this manner of preparation is, from all other common chemical works, as different as day and night.
26. It is also of such a nature and quality that it requires unspeakable diligence and effort, a considerable persistence of time, and wholly special secret artifices and manipulations
NB. in its practice, which certainly does not so easily fall into the hands of just any laboratory worker; hence also the first work has rightly been called the Herculean, or the work of Hercules.
27. With this is also at the same time the seed or gold-sulfur for the ferment obtained from the solar metallic body, of an exceedingly delightful sweetness and redness, which cannot be separated in any harmful way, which is living and volatile (for if one wishes to bind and fix it, it at once rises together with the upper helm), finally having itself become the drinkable essence.
28. Just as natural salt, with the help of the central salt, unites with all things with which it is combined, in a pleasant and unforced way opens them, enlivens them, makes them grow, and, through the aid of external natural fire, matures them in due time and brings them to perfection.
29. In the same way, the same philosophical salt dissolves all bodies: animals, minerals, metals, and vegetables; purifies them, cleanses them, separates them, enlivens them, and brings them back into their essences; and not only that, but it also improves them, each according to its kind, receptivity and skill, namely insofar as nature allows it; (otherwise, even a resurrection of animals would occur, which God has reserved to His omnipotence alone.) Yet it improves them in such a way that they are placed in a far more dignified state, which is much more perfect, indeed completely perfected.
30. Furthermore, one must know that although this solvent, or dissolving agent, not only completely extracts and spiritually elevates the essential sulfur of the subjects, but also the subjects themselves, it nevertheless does not unite with them in the most intimate way until the tinging of the metals, but rather, after it has made them essentially, separates itself again from them; and since it constantly retains its power and strength, it is quite clear and evident from this that it can be applied to several similar works without anything of it being diminished, except that the mercurial base remains with the metals.
31. Since this is the case, the spiritually prepared sulfur itself, or the gold seed from the solar body, becomes true potable gold, the universal menstruum, and the Philosopher’s Stone original essential mercury, in the proper proportion, demands union and fixation.
32. For as long as the subjects have not been opened and brought back into their essences in a philosophical manner, they are to be regarded as dead and useless bodies, which neither mingle with one another within themselves, nor possess any powers of improvement or ennoblement.
33. Hence it follows that one can obtain neither potable gold, nor the Azoth of Paracelsus, nor the physical tincture.
34. And since antimony is the foremost among all minerals, and carries within it the purest mineral mercury (for the hundredth part of a single grain of its mercurial spirit yields a complete purification), through the good operation and power of this menstruum, the so ardently desired essential oil of antimony can be perfected, which, next to potable gold and the physical tincture, is the highest medicine.
35. And as this solvent, in its strength, imparts its virtue to the most precious juice, the alkahest of Paracelsus and of Helmont yields nothing, but is to be valued as equal to them: thus through its virtues one can also attain the so-called, world-famous Element of the Ignis Veneris.
36. Likewise, the raw mineral Electrum, which is the same as the first metal of Paracelsus, (after it has been freed from its outer earthly combustible and from its inner raw metallic sulfur, which clings to all metals), can through this very same operation be opened into its purest Ens and essence.
37. Thus every Mercury—whether common or the body of some other—can, without losing its form and powers, be transformed first into a pearl-colored and mucilaginous glue, and then into a clear, heavy, essential juice (which, when united with all metals in an inseparable way, is also combined with them), with extraordinary ease.
38. It is, however, remarkable that after the essences of metals and minerals—which must first be prepared for the tincture—have been worked out by this agent, this agent itself is again separated from them, leaving behind only the pure red blood of the lion with the mercurial juice, which is the gluten of the eagle, united, and through the whole physical art coagulated and fixed must be.
39. But if someone would rather use these essences, without the preceding otherwise customary coagulation and fixation, in the practice of medicine, it can with great advantage be left combined. For in certain illnesses, such as: in afflictions of the lungs and the liver, in dropsy, in melancholy, and in all kinds of ulcers, it yields the most excellent remedy, which can reliably be recommended to all physicians who value loyalty and assistance at heart.
40. And whenever anyone dissolves Mercury—be it the common, or the body’s own Mercury—together with those salts which come closest to nature itself, in the proper measure and proportion, along with a true wine spirit, as one of the foremost achievements of chemistry, to produce a sweet and stable juice, they will always obtain a menstruum, by its power and effect, he will be able to accomplish exceedingly great things for human use.
41. In what has thus far been conducted with due consideration, every experienced and practiced artist has before his eyes the principles of the true, and not the common, chemistry; from which he can recognize and understand how he may attain the universal medicine, both for men and for metals. The instruction for this has been made known in such a way as the unworthiness of the unworthy has permitted it to be revealed.
The prudent reader should make use of these things; but he should not misuse them for the foolish pride of Eve’s children, or for the forbidden splendor of peacocks, for abominable arrogance, for seductive pleasures of the eyes, and other such matters of conscience and concern; nor for the mostly impure and unclean amusements and lusts of that finely formed and adorned (though thoroughly beautiful, yet also bewitching) bride of Satan—the maiden of the world—whom the poor wretched demon sought, found, fell mortally in love with, and embraced. I repeat it once again: it must not be misused!
Enjoy and use it, on the other hand, much more amidst pure happiness and blessing in the art, with due loyalty and faith — that is: in true inner trust in Christ, with fear and trembling; and indeed for the honor of God, the Creator, and for the sweetest welfare and benefit of your poor, weak fellow man. Then you shall here, after casting off the pride of earthly dust and ashes, take up the Christian humility with honor and glory upon the shoulders of the humbled Cross; and there, in the blessed contemplation of the spotless Lamb, stained with His own blood, triumph forever in eternity.
I wish you, dear reader, well-being, and that you may finally be abundantly intoxicated by these blessed juices of heavenly sweetness, so long as you live as earth upon the earth, until the last comfort and breath, through the foretaste of the honey of Lebanon, without all bitterness of heart.
There are also other ways to prepare the universal medicine, among which the following is the easiest: namely, by means of a magnet — our astral steel — as the sevenfold - seven times coagulated and calcined tartar or cream of tartar, which, in its nature, according to its power and capacity, is our Sun and Moon; through whose external preparations it receives, in a most excellent manner, magnetic attractive powers, as it, after having first absorbed and drawn down the elemental qualities separated by nature, our most secret crystalline fire, which is our Earth. This introduction occurs, after the appearance of the three principles of nature, in an invisible manner, over months, days, and hours, in warmth and cold, through constant alteration of continuous movements, upon and within itself in the matter, in a sealed glass, in a certain astral invisible manner, yet with sure success.
And this can be done either with the tartar alone, or at the same time with its spirit — which, however, must be freed from all phlegm: three parts spirit to one part salt. This virgin earth is finally able, in a wondrous way, to heal all metallic and human diseases.
One should well note: the air is the vessel which contains all things, life and death, a universal and most common thing itself; the universal main genus. Fire first passes into air; the air into water; the water passes into earth, as the noblest quintessence, which is our congealed or frozen water, sought by many but found by few, and produced only by the airy, altering fire. For through alteration or change, the elements are transformed into one another.
Thus fix the earth and the water, as the visible elements, so that the air, as the finest crystalline spirit, may be fixed and made visible in the water. For our dry water, or our virgin earth, appears and is congealed in the sun and moon, that is, in the course of the sun and the moon.
Our water is potentiated, or according to its capacity, congealed through the four seasons (here one sees what is meant by a tartar [R.]) and through the mutually opposing operations and properties of the elements. For the warmth constantly present in matter and air moves the water; the warmth, that is, the motion of the air, moves our water so that it soon becomes cold, sometimes warm, sometimes lukewarm; and this movement and governance of the fire takes place according to the seasons, according to months, days, and nights, through cold and warmth; because this root element and spirit of the whole contains the most secret spiritual earth-fire, which virgin or virginal earth can in a wondrous way drive out and heal all the illnesses of humans and metals.
The dose of the same for ingestion is exceedingly small, but of exceedingly glorious power and effect. You are to regard this as the highest secret revealed to me, and to thank Almighty God for it.
Written down and delivered by me, Franciscus F. R. C., in the year 1214, according to God's will.
Four Remarkable Letters of an Adept.
The ignorant reproaches what he does not understand;
The learned scoffs at these great mysteries;
Both have their free will: but neither of the two is wise.
First Letter.
I have heard that you assisted my friend in an important matter and defended him with Herculean bravery; furthermore, that you, as a son of the art, intend to enter the labyrinth of chemistry and to quench your thirst from this inexhaustible sea.
Therefore, in recompense for the protection you rendered to my friend, I am resolved to give you the thread of Ariadne, so that you may pass through this labyrinth and to hand you the cup with which you may draw from this sea (though not exhaust its rivers).
Some, as Bernhardus says, approach the sanctuary with unwashed hands and undertake chemical works without knowing their material — namely, that red earth from the Garden of Eden, in and from which the perfect Adam was created. But this material, as soon as it was stained with original sin, turned black; therefore, the artist must purify it and restore it to its original redness.
Then I advise you, my dear sir, to look through the entrance opened by Philalethes into the king’s locked palace, and afterwards I will lead you to those things which the Most High has granted me to see with my eyes and to grasp with my hands. For what can blind night-owls, who waste coal and do not even know the true matter, achieve? Even Pontanus erred two hundred times in the right and true matter.
Others, instead of obtaining the Philosopher’s Stone, throw their treasures out the window like stones; instead of gold they reap smoke and famine, and instead of health they bring death upon themselves. Sendivogius says that in the air there is a spirit which, according to its condensation and coagulation, is worth more than all the treasures of the world.
Still more clearly speaks the Emerald Tablet: the Sun is its father; the Moon its mother; the wind has carried it in its belly; the Earth is its nurse. If then the winds have carried this Archæus in their belly, has not this Archæus therefore brought forth in the air gold mines and mountains.
This spirit produced by the winds has been brought and injected into the center of the Earth, and since the Earth is its nurse, she has nourished, reared, and brought this newborn fruit to maturity with golden natural sulfurs, as if with her milk; whereupon this Hermaphrodite has also produced metallic fruits. And thus nature works.
Let us therefore imitate nature and do no violence to her. Nature begins the work, and art completes it. Man lives at first from the impure blood of the mother, then from the milk; so also this Archæus is at first fed with impure sulfurs, until he passes from the volatile into the fixed. Throughout the summer he is nourished until winter sets in. For unless this egg is sealed by winter, to retain the precious vapor, this fruit would perish in its first origin.
Therefore, after the impure sulfurs, the work must be imbibed and nourished with the philosophical milk. The egg must not have the slightest crack if a new fruit is to proceed from it.
Greed binds common chemists and laborants to the literal sense: now they wish to dissolve common gold, now to fix the common mercury; yet in these there is no living spirit. For as soon as the metals are torn from the mines and subdued by furnace and smelting fire, they are at once deprived of the working spirit itself, and thus our metals become dead bodies. The metals have lost life and soul when they have been robbed of this active spirit.
Our mercury is warm and moist, and thereby unites at once sun and moon; it is throughout golden and silvery; simple in the triad, and threefold in unity; it is the root substance and the seed of metals. And although it may be shut up in the strongest prison by nature, yet through diligent and laborious art it can again be freed and delivered from the same. For art purifies, through a warming and penetrating fire, the paths leading to the chamber and prison where it resides. And what nature alone and by itself could not effect, that it accomplishes through the aid of art, in that our Mercury breaks the bonds that held him bound. And in this Mercury, gold and silver are united in a philosophical manner, so that he is the true seed of common gold and silver. But no seed is useful or suitable for anything unless it goes into putrefaction. For decay must precede generation. But this putrefaction consists in blackness. Therefore, if we do not blacken before we whiten, we shall produce nothing but premature births and vain labor.
Those who act otherwise flutter about the light like butterflies. Hermes does not make use of glowing coals. This matter is before everyone’s eyes; it is so common that even the poor may possess it. In it is the efficacy of the sun and moon according to philosophical art; in potential, however, it contains common gold and silver. All seven metals the skilled artist knows how to draw forth from it.
Let this suffice concerning the matter. Next time, more will be said about the philosophical water.
Nuremberg, 17 January 1710
Antonius a Terra.
Second Letter
For the first message, I have written to you something useful concerning the prima materia. If you had understood my words well, I could now proceed at once and dip my pen, not in ink, but into the philosophical water.
But it seems necessary, my dear sir, that I send you yet another letter on the prima materia. There is a matter which, though found everywhere, is yet particular, from which a universal tincture can be prepared. But there is also a matter which, likewise found everywhere, is universal, from which the most universal tincture (Tinctura universalissima) can be prepared.
Both matters are everywhere, yet in one region more than in another, and at one time more abundant than at another. You shall indeed, gracious sir, constantly receive letters from me; but in two years I hope to be in Vienna, for I intend (in the hope that peace will come) to travel to Hungary and to visit that famous water-land, in which the Archæus, amount of minerals, quality of the wine, and fertility of the soil, is considered the strongest. The particular matter is specified; but the universal matter is not specified—rather, it is a kind without its equal, that is to say, it is generic or universal.
In a word, both matters relate to the sun’s rays. For note well: as long as these are in the air, they are universal and not specified. But when these rays fall into the vine’s mother (matrix) or ferment, they cause the vine to grow, and these rays are then particularized or specified. If they fall upon marjoram, they become marjoram and cause the marjoram to grow, without influencing any other plant species. If these sun rays fall into a gold mine, they are also golden, but specified. If they fall into Saturn, they are antimonial.
In the air these rays are universal, a child of the sun; in the air, according to Sendivogius, is found the ruling spirit of the air, which, after its coagulation, is worth more than all the treasures of the world. The fruit of the moon is also universal. From these two arises the white Mercury. Both I know how to draw forth in a threefold manner from the air. This is the twice-ensouled Mercury.
A philosopher has no need to know the various preparation methods of magnets in order to attract this double spirit. It is sufficient if a philosopher knows and understands that natural magnet, that magnesia, that Adamic earth from the Garden of Eden, which is neither golden nor silver in nature, not antimonial, not vegetable, not specified, but universal. From this, a philosopher can easily draw forth this double, common Mercury from this general matter, which is unspecified and universal.
From astrological chemistry, the matter will be made clear in the following way: God created, in a general, all-effective manner, from the Chaos within six days the whole world; within six days the planets, and on the seventh day He rested. Yet in truth, neither work nor rest can be properly attributed to God. How then is this to be understood? We must explain the divine universal work by means of the chemists’ particularized, specified work.
This their Chaos is the antimony, from which this they make a regulus, which has a certain metallic seed, and is not universal, but specified; from this, slag naturally arises. Yet this name “slag” is to be regretted.
The particularists and philosophers, in their specified or particular work, should not call this slag “slag,” but rather “flowers” or the quintessence of the regulus, just as the film floating on milk is called the “milk flower” (flos lactis). Such expressions these particularists have learned from the apothecaries, who call the concentrated and crystallized substance of wine “wine yeast.” What an unseemly designation! I am surprised they do not also call sugar candy “sugar yeast.”
Thus, when God created within six days the six planets, He rested on the seventh day because the slag (if I may use this improper word) had formed of itself—or, in other words, the seventh planet, which contains the unspecified universal seed. From this planet, the philosopher can entice forth and obtain a double mercurial spirit.
The characteristic sign of this magnesia or seventh planet is this: that, after its dissolution in the most universal spirit Azoth, it visibly represents in the first dissolution the six days of creation in the glass; another characteristic sign is that the stone prepared in this universal manner, when a few grains of it are thrown onto a regulus fused together from the seven metals, causes all the stars of the entire firmament to appear above in the crucible, their appearance disappearing again after midnight.
There are yet countless other signs of the true universal matter. Those who do not make use of this seventh planet begin their work specified or particularized. But those who make use of this magnesia imitate the example of the almighty Creator of the world. Whoever begins the matter with this universal work does not tinge immediately after the first preparation, or one part of his tincture tinges only fourteen parts.
The particularists can indeed heal many severe illnesses; but the universalists can even make themselves young again. The universalists know, through their stone, how to make the electrum imbued with the stone to produce, which is a work of light and the center point of the whole; hence they can easily learn all sciences at will, whereas the particularists must remain far behind.
Next time, about the philosophical water.
Your letters to me in Nuremberg I have received in Augsburg, where I am now writing to you.
May 14, 1712.
Antonius a Terra.
Third Letter.
Innsbruck, June 9, 1712.
I have hesitated to write letters, because before writing something more clearly, I wanted to first learn through the cabala whether you might possibly share my letters with someone else? You have shown my letters to a single physician, who read them with disgust and aversion, because he considers gold-making impossible, dealing only with medicinal preparations, and neglecting metallic work.
If this physician knew even a little about the favorable aspect of his planets, he would soon change his mind. I met this physician in Hamburg; but he never learned anything from me.
You gave the Reverend D. Plebanus a copy of my letters, which he read with eagerness, only wishing that they had been written more clearly; as if I must write for apothecaries, and not for sons of the art. Though he himself is one, he catches the birds of Hermes not by the head, by the wings, or by the feet, but by the tail, which these birds leave behind in the hand, while they themselves (the doves of Diana) fly away.
One of these two gentlemen I will speak to when I arrive in Vienna. The other, however, according to my knowledge, will be lying in Vienna with a serious illness, brought about by them; but I will give him an unknown remedy. Both were born under Jupiter.
But you, gracious sir, I wish to accompany me to Hungary, by virtue of the blessed stone, which is a work of light. Should you find no pleasure in chemistry, I shall lead you to the richest, as yet untouched, and unknown mines in Hungary, and learn to work them with the greatest ease and utmost care.
But I am determined to make the Stone in Hungary for the seventeenth time; for I have already worked it six times. For since Hungary, in regard to the production of wines and minerals, is the most fruitful land, the World-Spirit must be found there in the greatest abundance. For the farther the countries are removed and distant from the temperate zones, the rarer and lesser is the Archæus.
In Egypt I could bring no Archæus to coagulation; in Spain, a small amount; in Italy and also in France somewhat more; in two places in Germany, a sufficient quantity; but most often in Switzerland. Yet I am very eager to see Hungary, because of the freshly dug minerals from the mountain mines, which, note well, have not been touched by fire. I will accomplish marvelous things that the world will never believe.
From Tokay wine, after its concentration, I would easily carry in my pocket the equivalent of a hundred urns in volume.
But I will take pleasure in the coagulation of the Archæus, brought forth from the air, for the preparation of the tincture.
Through the tincture I have prolonged my life and protected myself against the power and influences of the elements; for I am several hundred years old.
But the tincture cannot resist or weaken the influence of the stars.
Therefore, after thirty-five years, when the power and effect of the elements will have grown weak (as Jac. Böhme says), then, because the course of my planets will have been completed, my three fundamental forces will be dissolved by the divine Chemist, the body will decay in the earth, the spirit will return to the stars, and the immortal soul will draw nearer to the Godhead.
In this reflection, so that not everything is buried in the earth, I will reveal much to three sons of the art, when I come to Vienna. After completing the working of the Stone, however, I intend to visit the remaining parts of the Kingdom of Hungary until I am dissolved and with Christ.
Doctor Medifus strives to extract the animal ultimates from the microcosmic sea, with which alone he will cure all diseases, even the plague; or he attempts to prepare the vegetable Alkahest from three salts of tartar, with which he will likewise not only cure all diseases, but also, by means of this Alkahest, raise the power of all his medicines to the highest degree. For example: he dissolves cancerous growths through the vegetable Alkahest, and with this remedy will dissolve all stones in the human body. He dissolves beaver’s secretion in the vegetable Alkahest, and thereby will cure all cold strokes and paralyses.
If, however, D. Parochus has prepared one of the above-mentioned Alkahests, then he must render it mineral and metallic; or he prepares immediately a metallic or at least mineral Alkahest, and then he will be able to dissolve the matter of the Stone into its three principles, from which the universal tincture will be made. But there are two materials for the Stone: a particular one, which never tinges more than one part into fourteen parts. The second, however, is the universal one, from which this tinges, after the first operation, one part into a thousand parts. The first matter can be dissolved through the indicated Alkahests; the latter matter, when dissolved by the metallic Alkahest according to its nature, can tinge one part into a thousand parts. But if one sets aside all these Alkahests themselves and dissolves the latter matter through the Azoth itself, then one will at once behold God’s miracles in the dissolution, namely: the work of the six days of Creation of the world, as I have already recently noted in my letter. This work is far more remarkable than the Stone itself. D. Parochus acts as if he knows this Azoth. More I cannot say, and still less write, than this: there is in the air a spirit, which after its coagulation is worth more than all the treasures of the world. This is claimed by Sendivogius.
In Hungary, however, I would in a single day be able to coagulate ten pots of this spirit. And what would I make from it? Nothing further than a good remedy against vertigo. I have never revealed anything about this orally which I now even entrust to this innocent paper. This coagulated spirit, being produced in the air, since the winds have carried it in their bosom and it has its origin from the stars, must, I say, be purified seven times, so that it may obtain the powers of all seven planets, and only then will it surpass all the treasures of the world. This is a property of this Azoth which no one will learn without divine revelation or the communication of an Adept. This Azoth possesses six other properties, which likewise no mortal will ever know without divine or human revelation from an Adept. The next of these properties I will either write about, or speak of more in your presence, regarding the many properties of this Azoth.
In the meantime, I remain,
Antonius a Terra ad Terram et in Terra.
Fourth Letter
From the Neighborhood
You have been led by my letters to apply yourself greatly to the reading of chemical books, without in the least putting your own hand to the work or, as it were, laying your hand to the plow. I therefore also wish to write to you nothing further about chemical matters, but rather about the Cabala. This word Cabala, קבל, means as much as: he has heard; because this science was never committed to writing and left behind, but was always communicated by the father to that one of his sons to whom he gave his blessing, whispered into his ear. Through this knowledge Moses brought forth water from the rock and parted the seas. Gideon thereby put the enemies to flight. For since the faith of the Hebrews was merely a natural one, he also did not perform purely supernatural miracles; but for the support of the natural faith they availed themselves only of natural cabalistic secrets, the Hebrews, who lived in shadow and under images, had this Cabala; how much more, then, can we attain to it, we who live under the law of grace itself, who have the grain, whereas the Hebrews had only the stalks and the chaff. Whoever wishes to acquire the first knowledge of this science should obtain the Hamburg edition of Basilius Valentinus and read the content of (if I am not mistaken) the 173rd page, concerning the secret philosophy, but with the most attentive diligence, and read over and ponder all the precious words repeatedly. One should also by no means confuse this text of Basilius with the smuggled-in false philosophies, which claim that soul and spirit are one and the same. The spirit is Mercury; the soul is Sulphur. The spirit comes from the stars; the immortal soul is a particle of divinity.
Therefore, Basilius says at the cited place: the dissolved and freed spirit can be of service to another; the dissolved soul goes to God and is subject to no one service. Why did Christ say on the cross: “Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit”?
He did not commend the soul united with the Godhead. For Aristotle, a chimera was the fox-goose, the goat-stag; it is impossible for a fox to be at the same time a goose. Our theologians instructed through faith claim: in Christ there is a God-man and man-God. According to Aristotle, it would have been a far greater chimera that there could be a God-man than a fox-goose. Our theologians asserted from a certain conviction of faith that there is a God-man, and that this indeed happens and is possible, because of the union of the substances. If one asked them what substance is, they, misled by Aristotelian errors, answered: substance is a property. But I ask: what then is a property? That is Aristotle’s unknown animal. I wish that all theologians would learn and note well: that properties are nothing but accidents found in perishable, mixed bodies.
How then can they ascribe to God, the infinite, eternal Being, a property? But assuming that one thing is the spirit and another thing the soul, then one will be able, with a truly correct understanding, to explain what substance is. Furthermore, read Jacob Böhme, and in him you will not only find what the Cabala is, but also all the dispositions and qualities necessary for its practice.
Who is this Jacob Böhme, understood by few and despised by all? I will tell you: he was a Lutheran and thus a baptized shoemaker; at baptism all gifts of grace were, as it were, poured into him and remained his constant possession throughout his whole life, as is most clearly evident from his works, but especially from his Apology. He never stained his soul through any sin committed against the laws of nature. Why then should God the Lord not equip a baptized Lutheran, living according to the laws of nature, with the same gifts of grace with which He even, the heathen, unbaptized Sibyls, solely on account of their preserved and guarded virginity and chastity, has endowed with grace? The lack of paper and the shortness of time compel me to conclude. You can, without much labor and effort, solely through diligence and a godly life, learn this science, through which you could become the monarch of the whole world. I, as it were, a resident of heaven, a member of the angels and citizen of heaven, am
Yours, etc.
Ant. a Terra.