RASIS CESTRENSIS,
most acute philosopher and most excellent physician,
an excellent book, which is called
THE LIGHT OF LIGHTS - Lumen Luminum,
IN THE EXPOSITION OF THE COMPOSITION
OF ALCHEMY.
Translated from the book:
Syntagma harmoniae chymico-philosophicae, sive philosophorum antiquorum consentientium ... nondum in lucem publicam editorum, collectum et distributum in certas decades, studio et industria Johannis Rhenani ...
Note from the translator:
We have been warned by Bernard Trevisan about Rasis in his book of natural philosophy:
1. Of the Ancient Count of Trevirensis - Veridicus Taruisinus - Bernard Trevisan 1567
"Rather, they stray from the right path instead of wishing to follow the correct way, consuming their own and others' resources with so-called ‘recipes’ or deceptive particulars, and sophistical books such as those of Geber, Archelaus, Rasis, Semita Recta of Albertus Magnus, Tramita of Aristotle, Canon Pandora, Lumen Rasis, the letters of Democritus, the Magna Summa Textualis, and countless other volumes, errant and irrational, which lead people astray, waste time, vast amounts of money, and other resources.
Yet in the end, nothing useful is ever found."
2. Of the Ancient Count of Trevirensis - Veridicus Taruisinus - Bernard Trevisan 1567
"The first book I had was the book of Rasis, in the study of which I spent four years of my time, and it was well established with eight hundred crowns in the process of testing or experimenting."
CHAPTER I.
Since by the nature of the world you know generation,
and what the change of things is, and what I shall say,
do not be ignorant, as it were, of the labors of the Sun and Moon,
so that you may teach how much the praiseworthy holy thing is worth.
Of the substance of this first matter,
in secret verse, I myself teach what it is.
What it is, or what the material substance is,
whether many things also remain, or whether this thing is one;
From which the thing is fitted together, though it is thought not to exist.
For when, recalling the secrets of learned men,
you would know what the thing is, you could not discern what it is
My mind grows faint, since it does not know how to proceed.
Therefore, confused, I turn myself to the usual uses,
and what I do not know I labor to discover by study.
But he who, not knowing the meaning of the words and the series of the labors,
does not know, often labors to deceive himself.
From this evils are born; from this very many losses follow;
from this the wretched are thrown down, who are deceived.
From this one thing is judged; from this the wise man is held a fool,
because he cannot confess it openly to anyone under the light.
Ah me, how often, after reading through this many times,
have I gone through it again,
because my mind would not judge as clear
what had been made with it!
From this, as a certain man who speaks true things testifies,
error draws the mind from error into another madness.
Therefore what I do not know, I will likewise labor to see;
what lies hidden from many as uncertain and yet found,
what so many learned men know as the praiseworthy holy thing;
lest through sluggishness I seem to have feared the labor.
Explain it, if it please you; if not, put away your writings.
Let your mind rejoice with itself, and let mine weep with me.
CHAPTER II.
THE RESPONSE OF RASIS CESTRENSIS
TO HIS SON MERLIN
Glory of the sons born to me, my Merlin,
if you desire to know this one thing, what the praiseworthy holy thing is,
and through doctrine you may possess the one life,
learn often, part by part, the arts which we unfold.
For since now your age ends the bounds of childhood,
and you, made a pure man of God, consist in acts,
what you ask I shall explain to you,
nor shall I put away my writings.
So that, rejoicing together alike, and fearing God,
who formed the thing by the Word by which He created all things,
we may praise Him, and may always love Him also.
And what I have hidden until now, my son, I now reveal to you,
so that your strength may not grow faint, but your mind may rest in peace.
Whatever the thing is, reveal all things to faithful friends,
whom you have known sincerely to favor you with ready will.
For these pure, secret goods of noble nature
ought wholly to be confessed by the judgment of the true.
For thus the earlier teachers once acted,
who knew the secret things, but did not teach them.
Therefore let no one think it foolish, but very useful,
to give hidden words with the gifts of deception to deception.
For deception that is without experience does not know how to be held by true law;
deception, arranged in false color according to custom, deceives.
But because your mind has known what it has eagerly wished to sow,
now I shall make you a teacher by overcoming labor.
You will truly be able, and you will not be deceived,
to turn every kind of metal
into the kind of another, by the doctrine of this poem.
Believe rather one who is experienced than one found by proof only,
since experience of the truth is more useful in inquiry.
Therefore let God be praised, and let the thing be sanctified,
golden, worthy enough, granted only to the blessed.
CHAPTER III.
HERE BEGINS THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE WATERS
OF THE SECRET FOUNTAIN, OR STREAM.
Because there is not a clean washing from water,
such as can cleanse or purify those things.
Whiteness shall be within, although it cannot itself be seen;
when you come to white things, they shall shine again with serene bronze.
Then the things will be able to be mixed, and the filthy things will be seen
to be turned, so that they may be made better.
Therefore it is the clean wave of the secret stream,
which, stretching its arms by its own power, comes from the old man;
It washes, cleanses, renews, waters, unites, and amends,
so that it may germinate into a flower better than those, and breathe out fragrance.
Thus the reading of this poem gives its appearance:
the clean thing is cleansed in the unclean thing, without a second.
CHAPTER IV.
CONCERNING THE NAMES OF THE TWELVE SPECIES,
FROM WHICH THE TWELVE WATERS ARE MADE
FOR THE WASHING OF BODIES.
Pour the living spirit into the unclean wave;
white dregs from the clean wave of the living stream;
The spirit sent in, rising from the germ of the vine;
the saving gem, which is born circular;
The immortal thing, death-bringing, mercurial;
cleansing masses, the stock and Saturnian offspring;
Glory of whiteness, stock of the moon-bearing gleba;
the wave of Jove coming down in a living stream, like fire in olive oil;
The slippery dregs adorned with the clear hay of Mars;
the clean marsh of the fountain, Venus beneath the summit of the mountain;
The excellent mother of offspring, the royal stock of the Sun;
also the living thing, which is common to all,
making the clean wave of the secret stream.
CHAPTER V.
CONCERNING THE TWELVE VEINS, OR SANDS,
through which the twelve waters of the secret fountain,
or stream, are distilled in cleansing themselves.
The first vein of the fountain flows from the summit of the mountain;
earth vomiting forth a wave, salt unites the second high one.
The third shines, but with its own hardness it liquefies;
the fourth wave is born beneath an unclean boy.
The fifth fiery general power is born in you;
the sixth is found from the veins of the waters of the sea.
The seventh, staining, is found in earthly sands;
the eighth has known how to offer nothing of its own.
The ninth gleba, full of citron-color, gives from its veins;
the black earth first composes the tenth sand.
The eleventh grows, and from it the heavy weight of stones grows in the sand.
The twelfth vein of clefts shines serenely.
Therefore from these veins, or from these sands,
the wave of the fountain flows from the summit of the mountain.
CHAPTER VI.
CONCERNING THE DISTILLATION OF THE TWELVE WATERS
through the twelve veins or sands.
If the fountain dissolves these sands with these old men,
so that, first distilling the first, it may flow from the depths,
and thus through the veins, in order, dissolve the sands
The clean spirit-wave is born from the unclean one;
this clean spirit is made wholly fertile everywhere.
CHAPTER VII.
CONCERNING THE THIRD OPERATION
of this art.
The saving gem, which is born circular,
is found in the vein of blood, full of germ.
If this, conceiving, becomes pregnant from parent and germ,
if it gives birth to venom, it is worth a hundred weights of gold.
If it is not harmed, let it be cast forth without germ.
This stone, divided into three parts in the arts,
is turned into the clean wave of the secret stream.
Therefore let us fully teach these parts and arts,
so that you may see how much the praiseworthy holy thing is worth.
CHAPTER VIII.
CONCERNING THE NAMES OF THE THREE PARTS.
The first part is prepared, which afterwards is called earth;
the second clean part takes its name from the wave;
the third takes the name of their winds,
which blow gently and adorn the earth with flowers.
CHAPTER IX.
CONCERNING THE PREPARATION OF THE FIRST PART.
The fragments of gems are cleansed with living waters,
lest anything harmful, hidden in the little vessel, do damage.
The third light, cleansing, carries away things to be cast far off,
lest, if it should conceive, the conception become monstrous.
Let the white thing of the clean things, and the feeling/perception of the fountain’s waters,
be made within, full of waters, beneath the serene sun.
Let the dry things be broken, until they are made into powder,
which, that it may flow, let no taratantara sound be heard.
Then let it be shut up, lest the spirit go out;
the powder in the little vessel, than which no other is stronger.
Remember to bury this in triple cement,
so that it may burn only as much as the other watery part requires.
CHAPTER X.
CONCERNING THE PREPARATION
OF THE SECOND PART.
The former fountain, standing in the vein, full with black whirlwind,
is dissolved in the smoke of the tempered mountain below.
Here, with seven suns, it distills from the sands,
if, through sevens, you so often have mixed reins / controls.
Then the white dregs rise too much from the depths of the well,
and the green wave remains hidden beneath the unclean one.
Soon let the dregs be taken away and cast far off,
while the green wave is preserved, until it is made living.
Then the things must be mixed together and warmed alike,
until a wax flowing into wax is equaled with sand.
Of this living green water, as within an olive,
let these parts be joined with almost equal sand.
Therefore, whatever had been green in the tomb and in the womb,
will grow white, as much as the third light has given
Three times also, at night hours, as many times in different ways,
let what lies hidden in the mud be moved from the bottom by its little son.
Then let what is mixed be purified through a cloth,
and let it be preserved so that it may come forth more slowly.
This series of things, by the threefold reckoning of days,
as you repeat it nine times, will be pleasing.
Then, when the things have been mixed three times before the appointed days,
if the hair has been immersed, with the heat remitted,
the victor will rejoice for the sailor will hold the harbor
if, through the heat, the inner hair burns more.
So that first you may prepare the earth, which you will water with the fountain,
while through heat the inner hair burns more.
Then let the tried work, covered carefully with glass,
or the waves fully covered with the ashes or sands,
be kept warm with a temperate fire, lacking boiling heat.
Therefore let that which is raised be continued until the salt is completed,
for a hundred ages will praise the seasoning.
But where the fragments of gems are from their own fountain,
made very white in the depths of the valleys of the veins,
the gem will produce nothing, for it becomes the menstrual matter,
and whatever is ordered to be done will be corrupted.
CHAPTER XI.
CONCERNING THE PREPARATION OF THE THIRD PART.
Behold, beneath the unclean green wave lies the serpent,
which does not know how to run, for, hidden in the wall, it rests.
The cooked wall is shining, hard above all things,
so that the fountain may be preserved, which is held beneath the dregs.
Now the order of the matter bids, as the son himself said
let it be weighed, so that the weight may be known.
Therefore let the blood, the wall, and the serpent be weighed,
and let the unknown stone be known by its own weight.
From here let the wave of the fountain flow from the summit of the mountain,
and let the second fountain of this stream of the fountain
receive the foul mass with its own foulness,
and let the first fountain retain the clean wave of blood.
Then let the clean thing from here be weighed by nine veins,
so that one part, as before, may be joined to four parts,
and each one of its parts to one part of the ninths.
Let the second be made under the diverse parts of the fourth;
let the third part of it, giving the rewards of this gift,
soon be preserved, and the whole will be perfected.
For when the strong one is empty of blood, with captive blood,
and does not rise from the bottom in the fire and in the smoke of the mountain,
send as much common salt as agrees with the one itself
into the vial, than which no other is stronger.
From this let the stone be broken, with which each part is covered;
let the cold things from the blood not precede the fire and the serpent.
Remember to solidify the fragments with thin cement,
of lime and the unclean wave of the secret stream.
Let this also dry in clay, and let that harden,
the fervent power of the sun driving away the slippery mass.
When this has been covered with three parts of dung,
and with the fresh dung of a horse,
let the seventh light pass by while the decoction is made.
Let the force grow warm in the fire; then also let the tomb be opened.
Then let the serpent drink the blood and the clean wave;
from this, the second part of the salt-vein, the ninth fourth part.
Let the blood also be shut up in the wall, as before, hard;
nor less let the serpent and the blood be shut up in the wall,
so that alike the blood and the serpent may be buried in dung;
and let the law which was first made for the heat be the same also.
Let the serpent again drink the wave, so that the blood may be clean;
and as often as the wave is clean, let there be a small wave of blood.
This, therefore, is the order of the things; this is the goal of the sayings.
Let it not cease before the wave of blood has resisted.
From this, the blood thirsting is made equal to the water; the serpent is broken;
and the serpent seeks for itself the proper vessel of the fountain.
And then, with its thread, it moves all things from the vessel of the fountain.
Let the thing be fixed for you, provided that the watering is moderate;
otherwise the sea will disturb the thing, or the flame will burn it.
And what is mixed, then again let it be buried;
then let the wall be prepared, just as was taught before,
and let it be buried, as at first, at the bottom of the mountain.
And let it not be ruined, but let the thirsting fountain be made equal with water,
so that the change of the dung may be made as at first.
Then let whatever is prepared be left in the tomb;
let it not be taken away while the seventh light is rising.
Then whatever green little lump remains in the vial,
if it is sufficiently whitened, and the wave of the stream does not swell,
let the dry thing grow white under the dung at the bottom of the fountain.
You will rejoice as victor, for as sailor you will hold the harbor.
This, therefore, is the order of things and the goal of the days,
thus it is brought to completion, while the white gem is washed.
But do not delay at all, if you wish to hasten salvation,
which before, in the tomb and womb, we washed.
When the fire has been kindled, let there be a very strong fire,
or let the ray of the sun drive away the slippery mass,
while your day gives contrary signs of the raven.
This, so decocted, gives one part to eight parts,
or from eight, one clear part is owed from there,
white, when it makes the veins serene with whiteness.
When these things have been born and completed with a joyful end,
know the difficult signs and the figures of things.
When the fountain, empty of blood, has taken up the serpent,
and the serpent has been sent into its own vessel,
the salt first received, found by the weight of the balance,
is dried by weight through the veins, as before, ninefold.
From this salt, taken from the vein, one ninth part is taken,
another part of it, or the third of this weight.
Let the blood be shut up in the wall, as before, hard.
From this returns the order of things; from this the goal of days.
Here again let the serpent drink the clean wave of blood,
and as often as the clean wave of blood is saffron-colored,
let the fountain, like the first, be empty at the bottom of the mountain,
receiving the clean wave of citron-colored blood.
Let the rest be handled and done as it itself is ordered,
until they grow white and all shine with white brightness.
Therefore, the reddening wave, with the blood purified and cleansed,
being golden and sufficiently pure, renewed with snowy whiteness
Thus let it be infused, so that it may be wholly drunk by them.
And if it removes the whiteness and gives redness,
then let it be dried, as it was ordered before.
And let it be preserved; for the powder is perfected.
From this, let one part from eight be joined to the serene things,
of the powder of the unclean Saturnian wave of the stream.
If the tomb of many pits pleases you,
take from the common salt what agrees with one.
But what still remains to be done will give joys beforehand.
For, breaking delays, if you labor to know the whole,
so that first, from the vein, the weights taken by nines,
let the unclean part of salt be placed in the bloody wave.
From this let it be dissolved, and what is clear be completed;
the living calx preserving the clean wave of the stream.
CHAPTER XII.
CONCLUSION.
Therefore the fountain, soon with an alien flow of mud,
being enclosed with gypsum in the wall, let it be dried in it.
Then let the very dry calx of the mountain be sublimed below,
while it is warmed three times by seven suns.
And let redness, more honey-like, work joyful things in its uses.
Therefore let the reddening vein, or the sand of the red fountain,
still full of dew, be made beneath the serene sun;
or let it be dried with flames, as was taught before.
Now this gathering of matter is already summed up;
from certain hope follows the law of the series.
From this mixture follows the birth of the union
Of this nature all things brought forth by Omnibus are given.
Therefore, what I shall explain in order, I shall put back in writing;
the rest, which follows, without which nothing is opened to you,
if you compare all things with the writings mentioned above,
your mind will rejoice, for the whole thing will be open to you,
so that you may see how much the praiseworthy holy thing is worth.
Let pure, living alembrot and sal ammoniac
be arranged by parts and received.
Therefore make cylindrical glass lamps,
in which the species may be placed and received.
Also close the mouth of the cylinder with fused glass,
lest the enclosed heat loosen various things in its uses.
Then let the clay-covered lamp be placed in an urn,
with powder, or with sand, surrounded by tartar.
Remember to cover the urn thus with cement,
lest through boiling heat it breathe back the heat.
You must commit this to Saturn beneath the oven.
After the digested bread has been decocted in its heat,
this space, cooked through all nights in order,
which you have cooked under Saturn, draw away from the smoke.
Let the species be extracted, and, as before, ground on marble,
so that first you may prepare forms mixed in the lamp.
And if you see anything gradually tending upward,
by the usual rubbing make it descend downward.
This therefore warns that the decoction of things must be repeated,
until the limit of the days of cooking has passed.
The times of cooking are seven days for you,
in which the contrary force of the species is united.
Thus the species are dissolved and joined together,
and thus they come together, nor do they return separated.
If you have joined one equal part of this mixture
to shining bronze, the whole will be turned into white.
Of these also, the greater things taken are more useful;
what you have made before from the lesser will suffice for the greater.
Here ends the book of Rasis the Philosopher,
concerning the holy, praiseworthy art
in alchemy.