The secret work of the philosophy of Hermès

The secret work of the philosophy of Hermès

Jean d'Espagnet

1
Exhortation.

The beginning of this divine Science is the fear and respect of God; its end is charity and love of neighbor. The gold mine that she makes us discover must be used to rent temples and hospital establishments (xenodochiis) and to found Masses, so that homage is rendered to God for what we hold of his liberality. One must still use this mine to succor one's country when it is the victim of some public calamity, to redeem prisoners and captives, and to relieve the misery of the poor.

2
The knowledge and the light of this science are a gift of God, which he reveals by a special grace to whomever he pleases. Let no one therefore embrace this study unless he has a pure heart, and if, freed from attachment to the things of this world and from all sinful desire, he has not entirely devoted himself to God.

3
The conditions of the Work.

The Science of making the Philosopher's Stone requires a perfect knowledge of the operations of Nature and Art in metals: its practice consists in seeking the principles of metals by resolution, and, when these principles are rendered much more perfect, they were not before, to bring them together again, so that there results a universal medicine, (at the same time) very clean and very effective to perfect the imperfect metals, and to restore health to the body indisposed of some kind of disease whether it be.

4
Those who occupy a high rank in offices and honours, like those who are continually embarrassed by their particular and necessary occupations, should not pretend to this science. She wants the whole man, being able to possess him on her own. And certainly, one no longer thinks of embarking seriously on long-term business, when one has acquired a taste for it: for it causes everything that is not it to be despised as a wisp of straw.

5
Let those who undertake to study this doctrine rid themselves of their bad morals, and particularly let them banish pride, which is the abomination of Heaven and the gate of Hell; let them address incessant prayers to God; that they multiply acts of charity; that they are little attached to the things of this world; let them avoid the conversation of other men; and that they apply themselves to enjoying perfect tranquility of mind, that their understanding may reason more freely in solitude, and place its efforts higher, for if they are not enlightened by a ray of divine light, they will never penetrate the mysteries of the truth of this science.

6
The Alchemists who only apply their thoughts to continual sublimations, distillations, resolutions, freezings: to extracting spirits and elixirs in different ways, and to many other operations more subtle than useful, which engage them in so many diverse errors, put themselves to the torture for their sole pleasure; they will never reflect by their own genius on the simple path taken by Nature, and never will a ray of Truth come to enlighten and guide them. This too laborious subtlety leads them away from the truth, and submerges their minds in embarrassments, similar to the Syrtes. All the hope that remains to them is to find a good guide and a faithful preceptor, who, having rescued them from this darkness, will make them perceive the pure light of the Sun of truth.

A beginner in this study, if he feels endowed with a clear-sighted mind, with solid and settled judgment, with an inclination to the study of philosophy, particularly that of physics; if he has, moreover, a pure heart, good morals, and if he is, moreover, closely united to God - even if he is not versed in Chemistry - let him nevertheless enter the royal road of Nature, that he read the books of the most famous authors in this science, that he seek a companion who has like him the right mind and is equally inclined to study, and then, that he does not despair of succeeding in his plan.

8
Let him who seeks this secret beware of the reading and conversation of false Philosophers. For there is nothing more dangerous to those who embrace any science than the commerce of an ignoramus, or a deceiver, who wants to pass off as authentic principles his false principles, by which a sincere and good mind faith becomes imbued with evil doctrine.

9
Let him who loves the truth have few books in his hands, but the best and the most faithful; let him suspect everything that is easy to understand, especially concerning names that are mysterious, and everything concerning covert operations. For the truth is hidden under these veils, and never do the Philosophers write more deceptively than when they seem to write too openly, nor more truly than when they hide what they mean in obscure terms.

10
Among the most famous authors who have written most subtly and most truthfully on the secrets of Nature and Occult Philosophy, Hermes (Trismegistus) and Morien among the Ancients seem, in my opinion, to hold the first rank; among the new ones, Bernard le Trevisan, and Raymond Lully, for whom I have a greater veneration than for all the others because, what this very subtle Doctor has omitted, no one else has said. Let us therefore explore and often read his First Testament, and also his Codicil, as if we were to draw from it a legacy of great value. That to these two volumes, one adds the two Practices of the same author, works from which one can draw all that one wishes, particularly the authenticity of the (raw) material, the degree of fire, and in general the whole scheme for the accomplishment of the Great Work; and this is (precisely) where the Ancients, with the intention of hiding the secret from us, were too obscure and too reticent.

Certainly, nowhere else will we find demonstrated more faithfully and more clearly the hidden causes of things, and the occult movements of Nature. He treats little, in his works, of the first water of the Philosophers; but the little he says about this mysterious water is very significant. He treats little, in his works, of the first water of the Philosophers; but the little he says about this mysterious water is very significant. He treats little, in his works, of the first water of the Philosophers; but the little he says about this mysterious water is very significant.

11
Touching then this limpid water which many seek, and which few encounter, although it is familiar, offering itself to everyone and serving everyone, which is the basis of the philosophical work, an anonymous Polish gentleman , no less full of erudition than of vivacity of mind, and whose name nevertheless has been indicated by two anagrams which have been made of it, spoke of it in his New Chemical Light, in his Enigmatic Parable, and even in his Treatise du Sulphur, quite long and very subtly: he said everything that could be said about it, so clearly that one cannot wish for anything more.

12
The philosophers express themselves more freely and more significantly by characters and enigmatic figures, as by a silent language, than by words: witness the table of Senior, the allegorical paintings of the Rosary, and, in Nicolas Flamel, the figures of Abraham Jew; and, among the modern works, the secret emblems of the very learned Michel Maier, in which the mysteries of the Ancients are so clearly revealed and unveiled that they are like new glasses, which would make us appear close to our eyes, and to the most luminous way, the truth ancient and remote by the interval of several years.

13
He who asserts that the secret of the Philosopher's Stone surpasses the forces of Nature and Art, he, I say, is entirely blind,

14
The Matter of Stone.

The philosophers, in various language, have nevertheless said the same thing in regard to the matter of this Stone; so that several, who are not alike in words, nevertheless agree on the thing itself. Their way of speaking, for being discordant, leaves no spot of falsity or ambiguity for our Science: since the same thing can be expressed in several languages, stated in various ways, represented by different effigies, and even, under various aspects, it can be named sometimes in one way, sometimes in another.

15
So let us beware of the various meanings of words. For the Philosophers are in the habit of explaining their mysteries by deceptive detours, and in doubtful terms, and even more often, apparently contradictory, in order to protect by embarrassments and veils the study of these truths, but not to falsify them or destroy them. It is for this reason that their writings are full of ambiguous words, the meaning of which is equivocal. Certainly, they take no greater care than to conceal their golden bough, which is hidden, as the Poet says,1 in the secret retreats of a gloomy forest, which is entirely surrounded by valleys which give eternal darkness; and which resists any force whatsoever. He lets himself be snatched away only from those who can recognize the maternal birds,

16
Whoever seeks the art of perfecting and multiplying the imperfect metals out of the metals themselves, walks in error. For we must seek in the nature of metals the metallic species, as in man that of man, and in the ox that of the ox.

17
Art and nature.

It must be confessed that the metals cannot be multiplied by instinct and by the forces of nature alone; that, however, the virtue of multiplying is hidden in the depth of their substance; and that it is manifested and brought to light by the help of art, which nature needs in this work. Because both are required to carry it out.

18
The most perfect bodies are also endowed with a more perfect seed; thus, under the hard shell of the most perfect metals is also hidden a more perfect seed.
If anyone knows how to draw it out, he can boast that he is on the right path: in gold is the seed of gold, though it is hidden in its root, and in the depth of its substance, more strongly than in the other metals.

19
Some Philosophers have said that their work was composed of the Sun and the Moon only; some others add Mercury to the Sun, others want it to be sulfur and mercury; some maintain that the salt of nature, mingled with the last two named, occupies no less rank in the work. Now, all these Philosophers, although they wrote that their Stone was produced, sometimes from a single thing, sometimes from two, from three, from four or from five, nevertheless in their various language all have only the same intention and the same goal.

20
For us, in order to remove all these snares and traps, and to speak sincerely in good faith, we assure that the whole work is accomplished perfectly thanks to only two bodies, namely the Sun and the Moon duly prepared. For Nature effects with these two bodies a veritable natural generation, with the help of art, by the intervention of the coupling between the male and the female, from which proceeds a lineage much more noble than its parents.

21
Now these (two) bodies must be virgin and uncorrupted, alive and animated, and not dead like those used by the vulgar: for how can one expect life from dead things! Things are called corrupt which have already suffered copulation, and dead those which, martyred by the violence of the fire, this tyrant of the World, have given up their soul with blood: flee then this fratricide which, in all the conduct of the work, ordinarily causes great evils.

22
The Sun is the male of the Great Work, because it is he who gives the active and informing seed; the Moon is the female, who is also called the womb and the vessel of Nature, because she receives the seed of the male within her, and foments it by means of her menses. Nevertheless it is not entirely deprived of active virtue; for it is she who first, furious and spurred on by love, assails the male, and mingles with him, until she has satisfied her amorous desires, and received the seed thereof. fruitful: and she does not refrain from embracing him, until, being pregnant, she withdraws very gently.

23
By the name of the Moon, the Philosophers do not mean the vulgar Moon, which in their work is male, and performs the function of male in coupling. Let us not be so misguided as to thus make a criminal and unnatural alliance of two males and let no lineage be expected from such a coupling. But let the adept join in a legitimate marriage, with the usual formula, Gabritius to Beia, brother and sister, so that a glorious son of the Sun may be born.

24
Those who say that sulfur and mercury are the matter of stone, understand by sulfur the Sun and the vulgar Moon, and by mercury the Moon of the philosophers. Thus the pious Lully, speaking openly and without disguise, advises his friend to operate for silver only with Mercury and the Moon, and for gold, with Mercury and the Sun.

25
Let there be no mistake, therefore, in adding a third to two, for love does not suffer from a companion or a third party, and marriage is accomplished only between two: the love that one seeks in beyond being no longer a marriage, but an adultery.

26
Nevertheless spiritual love does not pollute virginity: Beia could therefore without crime, before giving her faith to Gabritius, have contracted a spiritual love, in order to become more vigorous, whiter and more suitable for matters of marriage.

27
The procreation of children is the end of a legitimate marriage. Now, in order for the child to be born more robust and more generous, it is necessary that the two spouses be clean of all leprosy and of all stains, before entering the nuptial bed; and there must be nothing extraneous or superfluous in them, because from a pure seed proceeds an equally pure generation. By this means, the chaste marriage of the Sun and the Moon will be perfectly consummated when they have ascended the bed of love, and are mingled. She receives her soul from her husband by her caresses, and at the end of their coupling a very powerful King is born, whose father is the Sun, and the Moon, the mother.

28
He who seeks the philosophical tincture outside the Sun and the Moon, loses his oil and his pain: for the Sun furnishes a tincture very abundant in redness, like the Moon in whiteness. These two bodies are the only ones which are called perfect, because they are full of the substance of a very pure sulphur, perfectly earthed by the ingenious industry of nature. So tint your mercury with one or the other of these two luminaries, because it is necessary that it be tinted beforehand, so that it can tint itself.

29
The perfect metals.

The perfect metals contain within them two things which they can communicate to the imperfect ones, namely, tinting and fixing. For inasmuch as they are dyed with a pure sulphur, that is to say with a white sulphur, and with a (other) red, and that they are fixed, so far their tincture dyes perfectly, and they also fix perfectly being well prepared with their own sulfur and their own arsenic. Otherwise, they do not have the ability to multiply their tincture.

30
Among the perfect metals, mercury is the only one suitable for receiving the tincture of the Sun and the Moon and for becoming impregnated with them, in the work of the Philosopher's Stone; so that by being fully imbued they can stain other metals sufficiently. Nevertheless, he must first be impregnated and penetrated with their invisible sulphur, in order to be more abundantly imbued with the visible tincture of these perfect bodies, and to be able to communicate it with wear.

31
However, the crowd of philosophers sweats and tortures itself to extract the tincture from the gold itself. Indeed, they believe that the tincture separates from the Sun, and that once separated, one can increase its virtues: but “finally hope deceives the laborers with empty ears”.

For it cannot be that the tincture of the Sun is in any way separated from its natural body, because of the perfection of the latter — no elementary body more perfect than gold having been fashioned by nature — which proceeds from the strong and inseparable union of its sulfur, both pure and tincture, with its mercury, both being perfectly prepared for this by nature, which does not allow art to separate them from a true separation. If one draws by the violence of fire, or that of corrosive waters, a little permanent liquor from the Sun, one must believe that one obtains a portion of one's body liquefied by force, and not the separation of the tincture. For every tincture follows its body, and never separates from it. This is an illusion of art unknown to artisans themselves.

Even if one grants that the tincture is separable from its body, it must nevertheless be admitted that this separation cannot take place without the corruption of the body itself, and that of the tincture; since gold is violated either by the fire of fusion, that destroyer of Nature, or by strong waters, which gnaw rather than dissolve. This is why it is necessary that the body stripped of its dye and of its golden fleece should become in some way a base thing and like a useless weight for the despair of the artisan, his completely corrupted dye having less force to operate.

33
Let these philosophers therefore throw their tincture into mercury, or into any other imperfect body, and unite them as closely as the forces of art permit, yet they will be twice frustrated of their hope: first because they will experience that this tincture will not penetrate or tint this body, which would be beyond the forces and weight of nature; this is why they will not receive by this means any gain of which they can repair the expense and the abjection of the body thus stripped. As the saying goes, “Deadly poverty increases when labor fails”. Moreover, this foreign dye applied to a foreign body will not give it the perfect fixation and permanence necessary for it to be able to support the touch,

34
Let the students of alchemy, who have allowed themselves to be led hitherto by vagabonds and impostors, immediately change their way, and save their time and expense better; that they apply themselves with zeal to a truly philosophical work, so that they are not wise too late like the Phrygians, and are not forced to exclaim with the Prophet (Hosea, VII): "strangers have devoured the fruit of my strength.

35
More work and more time are employed in the philosophical work than are expended. For there remains little expense to bear to him who possesses the suitable material. This is why those who try to monopolize large sums of money, and place in the expenses the most difficult secret of the Work, show more confidence in the purse of others than in their own knowledge. Let the too credulous apprentice therefore beware of these thieves, for when they promise mountains of gold, they are only ambushes your gold: they claim that a Sun walks in front of them, because they themselves wander in the darkness.

36
The Philosophical Mercury.

Just as those who navigate between Charybdis and Scylla risk shipwreck both here and there, so they are not threatened with the least danger those who, aspiring to the conquest of the Golden Fleece, float between the ambiguities of the sulfur and mercury of the Philosophers, these two pitfalls. The more perspicacious, by the assiduous reading of the most serious and sincere authors, and by the light of a ray of the Sun, have acquired the knowledge of sulphur, but they have remained suspended on the threshold of the mercury of the Philosophers. For the authors have spoken of it with so many detours and meanderings, and have called it so many ambiguous names, that one discovers it rather by an impetuosity of mind, and without thinking about it, than when one looks for it strength of reason and sweat.

37
To immerse their mercury more deeply in the darkness, the philosophers have made it multiple, and in each part and each regime of the Great Work they bring the mercury, which however is always different. Thus will never obtain perfect knowledge of it whoever ignores one of the parts of the Work.

38
The philosophers have recognized principally three kinds of mercury: namely, after the preparation of the first degree is accomplished, and the philosophical sublimation, they then call this matter their mercury or sublimated mercury.

39
Secondly, in the second preparation, which the authors call the first (because they omit the first), the Sun having become raw again, and, dissolved in its first matter, they call this matter thus raw or dissolved, the mercury of the bodies. , or Philosophers. So this matter is (also) called Rebis or Chaos, or Whole World, because everything necessary for the work is there and it alone suffices to make the philosopher's stone.

40
Finally they sometimes call Mercury of the Philosophers, the perfect elixir and the tincture medicine, although in an improper way, because the name of mercury only suits what is volatile (this is why everything that sublimates itself at any stage of whatever work, they also call it mercury): but the elixir, because it is very fixed, should not be called simply by the name of mercury. So they called it their mercury, unlike the volatile. The right way to study and discern so many mercuries of the Philosophers only really shows itself to those, " whom the just Jupiter cherishes, or whom an ardent virtue has elevated to both."

41
The elixir is called Mercury of the Philosophers, because of its resemblance and its great conformity with the celestial mercury; because this one, although deprived of elementary qualities, is nevertheless very suitable for influencing them: this versatile Proteus borrows and increases the nature and the genius of the various planets, by reason of the opposition, the conjunction, or the appearance. The ambiguous elixir operates in the same way, because having no particular quality, it embraces the quality and the nature of the thing with which it mixes, and multiplies its virtues and qualities in a marvelous way.

42
In the philosophical sublimation of mercury, or first preparation, a work of Hercules devolves (immediately) on the one who works. Indeed, without Alcide, Jason would have attempted his expedition to Colchis in vain; “To one of the princes to show the golden fleece of the famous ram, as if he could remove it; to the other to lift such a burden! For the threshold is guarded by furious horned beasts, which push aside, not without damage, those who approach recklessly. Only the insignia of Diana, and the doves of Venus will soften their ferocity, if the fates call you there.

43
The Poet seems to have wanted to describe the natural quality of the philosophical land and the way of cultivating it, when he sings of "a rich soil that strong bulls turn immediately, from the first months of the year" and "the disintegrated soil which dissolves thanks to the zephyr”.

44
Whoever will designate the Moon of the philosophers or the mercury of the Philosophers as being the vulgar mercury, either knowingly deceives (others), or deceives himself. Indeed Geber teaches us that the mercury of the Philosophers is indeed a quicksilver, not however the vulgar one, but that which is extracted from it by philosophical knowledge.

45
Experience confirms the opinion of the most serious philosophers, according to which their mercury is not in all its nature and in all its substance the vulgar quicksilver, but that it is its most central and most essential essence. pure that can derive its origin from it, and be created from it.

46
The Mercury of the Philosophers is called by different names; sometimes it is called earth, sometimes it is called water, for various reasons, and especially because it is naturally composed of one and the other. This earth is subtle, white, sulphurous: the elements are fixed there and the philosophical gold is there in the state of seed. Whereas water is an eau-de-vie, that is to say fiery, permanent, extremely clear, which is also called water of gold and silver. The mercury referred to here, because it still contains its sulfur, which is multiplied by means of art, may also be called quicksilver sulfur. Finally, this precious substance is the Venus of the ancients, the hermaphrodite endowed with both sexes.

47
Quicksilver is partly natural, and partly artificial: its intrinsic and occult part has its root in nature, and can only be extracted by a preliminary purification, and a sublimation done with science. The intrinsic part is foreign to nature and accidental. Separate therefore the pure from the impure, the substance from the accidents, and make manifest that which was hidden by the ways of nature, or desist altogether. For such is the first foundation of the art and of the whole work.

48
This dry and very precious liquor constitutes the humid radical of the metals; that is why some ancients called it glass. For glass draws itself from the radical humidity, which clings stubbornly to the ashes of things and yields only to the violence of an extreme fire; yet our natural and central mercury manifests through the very benign, though rather long, fire of nature.

49
Some by calcination, others by sublimation, some by means of vitrifying vases, others from vitriol and salt, as from among its natural vessels, wanted to obtain the philosophical earth and the tent. Others taught that lime and glass should be sublimated (for the same purpose).

But we, we have learned from the mouth of the Prophet 'that God in the beginning created the heaven and the earth, that the earth was barren and deserted, that darkness was on the face of the abyss and that the spirit of God was carried over the waters; and that God said there be light, and there was light; and that God saw the light, which was good, and that he separated the light from the darkness, etc. The blessing that was given to Joseph, reported by the same Prophet J, will be enough for the wise man: his land will draw its blessing from God, it will owe the homage of its fertility to the fruits of heaven, to the dew, and to the waters from the abyss; it is to the fruits of the Sun and the Moon, to the summits of the ancient mountains, to the fruits of the eternal hills that she will render tribute. So pray to God with all your heart, my son,

50
Quicksilver is so infected by the defect and the vice of its origin, that it retains two remarkable traces of it: the first, it contracted it by the impurity of the earth which mingled with its generation, and which continues to adhere to it by freezing. The other, similar to dropsy, is a water disease between flesh and leather, which comes from greasy and impure water mixed with limpid, and which nature has not been able to exhaust and separate by contraction: however because it is foreign it evaporates at the slightest heat. This leprosy which infests the body of mercury lies neither in its root nor in its substance, but it is accidental: that is why it is easily separated from it. Earth blemish goes away with a wet bath and wash. The watery imperfection goes away thanks to a dry bath, with the help of the benign fire of generation. Thus by a triple ablution and purgation, the dragon stripped of its old scales and its rough skin is renewed.

51
The philosophical sublimation of mercury is accomplished by two means, by bringing out what is superfluous, and by bringing in what was lacking; superfluous things are the external accidents which veil the sparkling Jupiter from the dark sphere of Saturn. Remove then this livid bark of Saturn, until the purple star of Jupiter shines in your eyes. Add to it the sulfur of nature, of which the mercury already has a grain, and like a ferment, of which it contains as much as it needs: but also make sure that there is as much as it needs. for the others. Multiply then this invisible sulfur of the philosophers, until the milk of the Virgin is expressed: then the first door opens to you.

52
A dragon worthy of the Hesperides guards the gate of the garden of the Philosophers, at the entrance of which a fountain of very clear water, springing from seven fissures, pours out all around. The dragon must be made to drink in this fountain up to the magic number of three times seven, and it must be made to drink until, having become drunk, it strips its scaly skin: may the divinities of luminous Venus and of Horned Diana.

53
Three species of very beautiful flowers must be sought and found at the bottom of this garden of the philosophers: bright red violets, a white lily and the purple and immortal amaranth. Not far from the fountain of the threshold, the spring violets will first present themselves to you, and being watered by the channels of a wide golden river, will take on the very clear color of a barely dark sapphire: the Sun will give omens. You will not pick these flowers so precious until you have composed the Stone, because, freshly picked, they have more juice and tincture: at that moment, tear them out carefully, with a dexterous hand. and ingenious: in fact, if the fates do not prevent it, they will easily follow, and a flower being uprooted, another will immediately be born in its place.

54
The philosophers also have their Sea, where small fat fish are produced, which shine in silver scales: if one knows how to catch them and wrap them in a slender net, one will be considered a very expert fisherman.

55
The Stone of the Philosophers' is found in very ancient mountains and flows with eternal streams. These mountains are of silver, and these streams are of gold.

This is where the gold and silver and all the treasures of kings come from.

56
Whoever wants to find the Stone of the Philosophers will have to undertake a long journey: it is indeed necessary for him to go and visit the two Indies, in order to bring back very precious stones, and very pure gold.

57
The philosophers draw their stone from seven other stones, the principal ones of which are of an opposite nature and virtue: one gives invisible sulphur, the other spiritual mercury;

the latter communicates heat and dryness, the other coldness and humidity. Thus, by their means, the forces of the elements are doubled and multiplied in the Stone. The first is found in the East, the second in the West; both have the ability to dye and multiply, and if the Philosopher's Stone does not draw its first tincture from it, it will neither dye nor multiply.

58
Practice.

Take the winged Virgin after she has been very well washed, purified and impregnated with the spiritual seed of a first male, yet still remaining virgin and unpolluted, although she is pregnant. You will discover it in her cheeks tinged with a vermilion color; marry her, and couple her to a second male (without her being suspected of adultery) from whose bodily seed she will conceive again. Then she will give birth to a venerable line, which will be of both sexes, and from which will originate an immortal race of very powerful Kings.

59
Having perfectly purged the Eagle and the Lion, enclose them in their transparent enclosure, and couple them, having tightly closed the vestibule, and taking care carefully that their whale does not exhale from it or that a foreign air does not escape. insinuates it. In their projection, the eagle will tear and devour the lion and will then be seized with a long sleep, then become dropsical by the swelling of its stomach, it will be changed thanks to a marvelous metamorphosis into a very black crow, which unfolding small little by little its wings will begin to fly and in its flight will cause the water to fall from the clouds, until, having been wet several times, it leaves its feathers of its own accord, and falling back down changes into a very white swan . Let those who do not know the causes of things admire this in their astonishment, by considering that the world is nothing but a continual metamorphosis; let them admire how the seeds of things, when perfectly digested, change into perfect whiteness. And that the philosopher imitates Nature in his work.

60
Midpoints and extremes.

To give form and perfection to her works, Nature proceeds in such a way that she leads the thing from the beginning of generation to the last term of perfection by various mediums, as by various degrees. She thus arrives at her end and her goal little by little and by degrees rather than by interruptions and leaps, by limiting and enclosing her work between two distinct extremes, and separated by several mediums. Now, philosophical practice, which must imitate nature in the progress of its work, and in the search for the Stone, must not deviate from the way and the example of Nature: for everything that is done out of its way, constitutes an error or the approach to error.

61
The two extremes of the stone are the natural quicksilver, and the perfect elixir: and the mediums by which all the progress of the work is effected, are of three kinds; for either they look at matter, or at operations, or at demonstrative signs. On these extremes and these milieus revolves the whole accomplishment of the work.

62
As for the material environments, or which relate to the matter of the stone, there are various degrees of them; for the ones derive successively from the others. The first are mercury, philosophically sublimated, and the perfect metals. Although these are the last in the operation of nature, they take the place of middles in the philosophical operation. From these first are drawn the second, namely the four elements, which are by turns circular and fixed; from these second are also issued the third, namely the two kinds of sulphur, the multiplication of which is the term of the first regime of the work. The fourth and last mediums are the ferments and the ointments, with their correct weight and proportion, which are produced successively in

"Finally, from the perfect regimen of all these things, the perfect elixir is created, which is the last and final stage of the whole Work..." the work of the elixir by the mixture of the first. Finally, from the perfect regime of all these things is created the perfect elixir, which is the last stage and the end of the whole Work, where the Stone of the Philosophers rests as in its center, and whose multiplication is nothing. only a brief renewal of the aforementioned operations.

63
The mediums which concern the operation or the regime (and which are also called the keys of the work) are firstly the dissolution or liquefaction; second, ablution; third, reduction; fourth, fixation. By liquefaction, bodies are returned to their first matter, which is fluid; cooked things become raw again, and then (comes) the mating of male and female, from which the crow is engendered; and finally the Stone, by this same liquefaction, returns to its four elements, which is produced by the retrograde movement of the luminaries. Ablution teaches to whiten the crow, and to change Saturn into Jupiter, which is done by the conversion of body into spirit.

The function of the reduction is to restore the soul to the dead and inanimate Stone, and to nourish it with dew-milk, all spiritual, until it has gained vigor. In these last two operations, the Dragon does violence to itself, and devouring its tail, it is totally consumed and exhausted, and finally changes into Stone. Lastly, the operation of fixation fixes the two sulfurs in their bodies: these being fixed, it cooks gradually by means of the spirit which is the mediator of the tinctures, this fermentation; it ripens what is raw, and sweetens what is bitter.

Finally, the fluid elixir, by penetrating and licking, engenders, perfects, and brings the supreme degree of sublimity and excellence. and devouring its tail, it is totally consumed and exhausted, and finally changes into Stone. Lastly, the operation of fixation fixes the two sulfurs in their bodies: these being fixed, it cooks gradually by means of the spirit which is the mediator of the tinctures, this fermentation; it ripens what is raw, and sweetens what is bitter. Finally, the fluid elixir, by penetrating and licking, engenders, perfects, and brings the supreme degree of sublimity and excellence. and devouring its tail, it is totally consumed and exhausted, and finally changes into Stone.

Lastly, the operation of fixation fixes the two sulfurs in their bodies: these being fixed, it cooks gradually by means of the spirit which is the mediator of the tinctures, this fermentation; it ripens what is raw, and sweetens what is bitter. Finally, the fluid elixir, by penetrating and licking, engenders, perfects, and brings the supreme degree of sublimity and excellence.

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The environments which concern the demonstrative signs are the colors which appear successively and in order in matter, and which indicate its affections and passions, three of which are held to be the principal and critical (some admit a fourth).

The first is the black one, which is called the raven's head, because of the extreme blackness that comes with it in matter; its twilight and failing whiteness indicate the beginning of the action of nature's fire, or the beginning of dissolution; but its darkest night indicates the perfection of the liquefaction and confusion of the elements. Then the grain begins to rot and spoil, in order to be fitter for generation.

To the black color succeeds the white, where lies the perfection of the first degree, that of white sulphur: then, this is what is called the blessed stone: it is the white and leafy earth in which the Philosophers sow their gold. The third color is the citrine color, which is produced when the white turns to red, and which is like an intermediary between these two colors, being mixed with one and the other, and similar to the aurora with golden hair. , this forerunner of the Sun.

The fourth color, red or sanguine, is drawn from white by fire alone. Now, the whiteness, because it is easily altered by any other color, also begins to fade and pass as soon as the dawn begins to be born there. And the dark red does the work of the solar sulfur, which is called the male seed, the fire of the stone, the royal crown, the son of the Sun,

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Besides these essential and decisive signs, which adhere radically to matter, and indicate its most important changes, there are also an infinity of other apparent and deceptive colors, which are seen in vapors, such as the arc -in the sky in the clouds, and dissipate immediately, fading away to make way for others, which are more in the air than in the earth. The operator does not have to worry much about these, especially since they are not permanent, and do not come from the intrinsic disposition of matter, but from fire, which paints and colors in its own way. thanks to the subtle humidity, even by chance; although it is the effect of its heat.

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Nevertheless, some of these foreign colors, when they occur out of season, portend something sinister in the work. Thus, its reiterated blackness: one should never suffer that after the young crows have left their nests, they return to them. Or again, a redness that comes on too quickly, because that color must only appear once, and only at the end, because then it gives rise to a certain hope of harvest. If it rather reddens matter, it is a sign of great drought, which is not without danger that only Heaven, by spreading a sudden rain, can avert.

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The digestions of the Stone.

By successive digestions, as by degrees, the Philosopher's Stone acquires new strength, and finally its entire perfection. The work is accomplished by four digestions, which correspond and agree with the four operations and regimes aforesaid, of which the fire is the author, and the master: it is he who makes and introduces therein all the differences thanks to which we have distinguished.

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The first digestion operates the dissolution of the body, during which takes place the first coupling of the male and the female, the mixing of their two seeds, the putrefaction and the resolution of the elements in a homogeneous water, the eclipse of the Sun and of the Moon in the head of the Dragon. At last through it the world returns to the old chaos and to the dark abyss. This first digestion takes place like that which takes place in the stomach in a time of burning and debilitating heat, which is more suitable for corruption than for generation.

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During the second digestion, the spirit of God flies over the waters: the light begins to appear and the waters begin to separate from the waters. The Sun and the Moon are renewed, the elements are drawn from chaos, so that mixed in proportion by the virtue of the spirit which governs them, they can remake a new world; a new heaven and a new earth are formed. Then all bodies become spiritual; the young of the crows having changed their feathers begin to become doves; the eagle and the lion embrace each other with an eternal knot.

This regeneration of the world is done by means of a spirit of fire which descends in the form of water and erases the original sin: for the water of the philosophers is fire itself, when it is stirred and raised by the heat of the bath. . But take heed lest the waters be divided according to their weight and measure, lest those which remain under the sky drown the earth, or those which are carried away above the sky leave it arid. “Do not let water that is too miserly permeate the barren sand here! (Virgil.)

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The third digestion gives the earth which has just been renewed a milk of dew, and communicates to it all the spiritual virtues of the quintessence; it binds the vivifying soul to the body through the mediation of the spirit. Then the earth possesses within it a rich treasure, and first becomes like the dazzling Moon, then the glowing Sun: it is first called Moon-land, then Sun-land, for it is born, in one case as in the other, of the marriage of one and the other. Neither earth fears the rigors of fire any longer, for both are free from all stain, because they have been purified several times of their blemish by this (even) fire, and have suffered from it. grave martyrdom, until all the elements have been digested together.

The fourth digestion is the consummation of all the mysteries of the world: by it the earth being changed into a most excellent ferment, itself raises all the other bodies changed into a perfect body, because it has passed into the celestial nature. of the quintessence, so that its virtue inspired by the spirit of the universe is the panacea and the general medicine for all the diseases of all creatures. The secret furnace of the philosophers will discover to you this miracle of nature and art by renewed digestions of the first mode of the work. Be just in your works so that God will be favorable to you, otherwise the plowing of your land will be in vain, because “this harvest will not answer the wishes of the avaricious peasant”.

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The whole process of the philosophical work is nothing but solution and freezing. The solution is of the body, the freezing, of the spirit, but the operation of one and the other is one. Now the fixed and the volatile mingle and unite perfectly in the spirit, which could not be done if the fixed body had not first been dissolved and made volatile. By reduction the volatile body fixes itself into a permanent body, and the volatile nature passes into a fixed nature, just as the fixed had become volatile. But just as the natures wander confused even in the spirit, this spirit which is mixed with them is not pure and keeps a middle nature between the body and the spirit, the fixed and the volatile.

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The generation of the Stone follows the example of the creation of the world. Indeed, it must first have its chaos and its prime matter, in which the confused elements float until the spirit of fire separates them; that the lightest separate elements be carried above, and the heaviest below; that light once born, darkness recedes; finally let the waters gather, and let the dry land appear. Then two great luminaries emerge successively, and in the philosophical earth are produced the mineral, vegetable and animal virtues.

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God created Adam from the silt of the earth, into which were embedded the virtues of all the elements, principally those of the earth and of the water which constitute above all the sensible and bodily mass: into this mass God breathed a breath of life, and quickened her with the Sun of the Holy Spirit; to the male he gave Eve for wife, and blessing them, he gave them the precept and the faculty to multiply. The generation of the Philosopher's Stone is not dissimilar to the creation of Adam: for there is first formed a silt composed of a terrestrial and heavy body, dissolved by water, and which for this reason has deserved the name famous from Adamic land: all the qualities and virtues of the elements are found there. Then a celestial soul is infused into it by the spirit of the quintessence and the influx of the Sun, and finally,

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The great secret of the work lies in the way of operating, which consists entirely in the perfect regime of the elements. For the material of the stone must pass from one nature to another: the elements are drawn from it successively and reign in turn. Now each element is ceaselessly agitated by the circles of the wet and the dry, until all things, being digested by this circulation, rest and take their place.

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In the work of the Stone, the other elements circulate under the figure of water, because the earth is resolved into water, in which all the other elements are found: the water is sublimated into vapour, the vapor falls back into water. Thus the water is agitated by an indefatigable circle, until, having become fixed, it ceases its agitation, and takes its lower place. When it has become fixed, all the other elements become so with it. So they all mingle in it, they are attracted to it, they live with it, and die in it. The earth is therefore their common tomb and their last term.

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The order of nature demands that all generation begin with the moist and be done in the moist; therefore in the work of the Philosopher's Stone, Nature must be reduced to a quite similar order. So that the matter of the stone, which is terrestrial, compact and dry, must be dissolved before anything else, and that it flows into the element of water, which is nearest to her: and then Saturn will be generated by the Sun.

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To the water agitated by seven turns or revolutions, succeeds the air, which must also circulate by as many circles and reductions, until it is fixed and deposited, and that Saturn being driven out, Jupiter seize the insignia and government of the Kingdom. By his advent the philosophical child is formed and nurtured in the womb, and he then comes to light with a white face and a serene hue, like the splendor of the Moon.

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Finally the fire of Nature, which helps the elements in their functions, from being hidden becomes manifest, being excited and provoked by an internal fire (of itself). Then the Saffron tints the Lily, the redness mingles with the whiteness on the cheeks of the child who has become more robust, and a crown is prepared for the future King. Such is the consummation of the first regimen of the work, and the completion of the circulation of the elements, a sign of which appears when all things become dry, and the mindless body lies dejected, bereft of pulse and movement. Thus the Earth finally holds in rest all the other elements.

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The fire grafted on the Stone is the master who presides over Nature: he is the son of the Sun, and his lieutenant, who moves and digests matter. And it is he who, in it, completes and perfects everything, if he succeeds in obtaining freedom: for being hidden there under a hard shell, he has no strength. So give him freedom, so that he can serve you. But take care not to hurry him too much, because, unable to bear tyranny, he would escape without leaving you any hope of return. So attract it gently by flattering it, and after having attracted it, keep it very cautiously.

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The first motor of Nature is the external fire, moderator of the internal fire and of all the work. Let the Philosopher therefore know its regime well, let him observe its degrees and points, for on him depends the salvation or the ruin of the work. Thus art comes to the aid of nature, and the philosopher is the administrator of both.

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Through these two instruments of art and nature, the Stone rises gently with great skill, from Earth to Heaven, and from Heaven descends back to Earth, because the Earth is its nurse, and that, carried in its matrix, it receives at the same time the force of things superior and things inferior.

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Wheels and circles.

The circulation of the elements is done by two kinds of wheels, the major (or extended) and the minor (or narrow). The extended wheel fixes all the elements in the Earth, and its circle does not end without having come to the end of the entire work of sulphur. The revolution of the minor wheel ends with the extraction and preparation of each element. Now in this wheel there are three circles, which, by a certain unequal and confused movement, agitate matter incessantly and variously, and cause each element to turn several times, and at least seven. turn: and they are so well tuned to each other, that if one fails, it is in vain for the other two to work. These are the instruments of Nature by which the elements are prepared.

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Each circle has its own movement. The movements of these circles occur in the place of the wet and in the place of the dry, and they are so linked to each other that they all together produce only one operation, and only do a single concert with Nature. Two of them are opposed, as much by their terms as by reason of their causes, and their effects: for one, by drying, moves matter upwards by heat, the other, by moistening, casts her down by the cold. The third circle, which represents rest and sleep, causes the cessation of the other two, by digesting (matter) by a perfect temperature.

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Of these three circles, the first is evacuation, the role of which is to banish superfluous humidity from matter, and to separate the pure, the clean and the subtle from the fatty and earthly lees. Now, in the movement of this circle, great inconveniences and serious dangers can arise, because it concerns entirely spiritual things, and because it makes Nature exuberant.

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In moving this circle, there are two things to watch out for. The first, that it is not moved too harshly, and the other, that it is not moved longer than necessary. The hasty movement causes such confusion in matter that the thick, impure and indigestible portion, and the body which is not yet well dissolved, fly away with the spirit, and evaporate with that which is dissolved, pure. and subtle. By this hasty movement the terrestrial and celestial natures are confused, and the spirit of the quintessence, corrupted by the mixture of the earth, loses its point and becomes weak. While by too long a movement, the earth, too emptied of its spirit, becomes so languid and dry that it can no longer be easily repaired and returned to its temperature.

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The second circle is restoration, the role of which is to restore strength through drink to the panting and weak body. The first circle was an organ of sweat and work; this is an organ of refreshment and consolation. It works by kneading and softening the earth, like potters, so that it mixes better.

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The movement of this circle must be lighter than the movement of the first, especially in the beginning of its resolution and its turn: lest the young of the crows be overwhelmed in their nest by the overflowing of the waters, and that the nascent world is swallowed up by the flood. This circle is the one that weighs water and examines its measure, for it distributes it by reason and geometric proportion. In truth, there is hardly any greater secret in the whole practice of the work, than the just and balanced movement of this circle: for it is this which informs the philosophical child, and infuses him with the soul and life.

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The laws of motion of this circle are that it turns slowly and by degrees, and that it pours out (the dampness) with restraint, lest if it be too hasty, it will stray from its proper measure, and that the fire, both natural and engrained, which is the architect of the whole work, once covered by the waters, does not lose its vigor, or even be extinguished. It is also necessary that the solid food and the liquid be taken in turn, so that digestion is done better, and that the proportion of the dry and the humid is more perfect, because their indissoluble bond is the end and the body of the work. Take care, therefore, to put as much moisture in when you water as is consumed in the heat of the drain, so that the restoration, which is corroborative,

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The third circle, which is digestion, acts by a tacit and insensible movement: this is why the philosophers say that it takes place in a secret furnace. It cooks the food it has received and changes it into homogeneous parts of the body; wherefore it is called putrefaction, because, like the food in the stomach, it is corrupted before it passes into the blood and the like parts: likewise this operation grinds the food with a burning and stomachic heat, and putrefies it in some way so that it becomes better fixed and passes from the nature of mercury to that of sulphur. It is also called inhumation, because the spirit is buried by it and buried like a dead person in the earth. Because it acts very slowly, it needs all the more time.

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The laws of this circle want it to be moved by a very slow and yet subtle heat of manure, so that the volatile elements do not flee and the spirit is not disturbed, at the moment of its very close conjunction. with the body: everything then happens in a perfectly quiet leisure. This is why it is especially necessary to take care that the earth is not disturbed by any wind or any rain. Finally, this third circle must succeed immediately and in its order always to the second, as the second to the first. Thus by interrupted works and by detours, these three wandering circles accomplish a single and entire circulation, which repeated several times converts everything into earth and brings peace between the enemies.

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Nature uses fire, just as art follows her example, as an instrument and a hammer to forge their works: therefore in the operations of both, fire is master and magistrate. This is why the knowledge of fires is above all necessary to a philosopher, otherwise, like another Ixion, he will turn in vain the wheel of nature to which he is attached.

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The name of fire is homonymous among the philosophers, because it is sometimes taken by metonymy for heat, and thus there are as many fires as heats. In the generation of metals and vegetables nature recognizes a triple fire, namely the celestial, the terrestrial and the grafted. The first flows from the Sun as from its source in the bosom of the earth: it stirs up the fumes or vapors of mercury and sulfur, from which the metals are created, and mingles with them; it excites the fire grafted into the seeds of vegetables, where it sleeps, and adds to it small fires like spurs, to develop the vegetation.

The second fire is hidden in the bowels of the earth: by its impulsion and action, the subterranean vapors are pushed upwards through pores and small pipes, and driven from the center to the surface of the ground, as well for the composition of metals where the earth is as it were swollen, as for the production of vegetables, by puttingrefying, softening, and preparing their seeds for generation.

As for the third, which is generated from the first, that is to say from the solar fire, in the vaporous smoke of the metals, having mingled in their menses, it forms a concretion with this moist matter and remains there as if held prisoner. by force, or rather it is attached to it like the form of the mixed. He remains there embedded in the seeds of vegetables, until being solicited and moved by the paternal rays, he agitates and informs the interior matter, and thus becomes the sculptor and the bursar of the whole mixture. But in the generation of animals, the celestial fire also co-operates insensibly with the animal, for he is the first agent in nature. The heat of the female responds to the terrestrial heat, when she putrefies, foments and prepares the seed: but the fire grafted into the seed is the son of the Sun, which disposes matter, and having disposed it, informs it.

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The triple fire.

The Philosophers have observed a triple fire in the matter of their Work: the natural fire, the unnatural, and the unnatural. They call natural fire that all-celestial fiery spirit which is engrafted and guarded in the depths of matter, and which is very closely attached to it: because of the force of the metal it becomes stupefied and inert, until excited. by philosophical artifice and an external heat, he obtains his freedom and at the same time recovers the faculty of movement. Because then, by penetrating, dilating and freezing, it finally informs the moist matter.

Now, in whatever mixture in which this natural fire is mixed, there is the principle of heat and motion. They call unnatural fire that which, attracted from elsewhere and arising from outside, has been introduced into matter by an admirable artifice, so that it increases and multiplies the forces of natural fire. But they call fire against nature that which putrefies compound bodies, and which corrupts the temperament of Nature.

This one is imperfect, because too weak and insufficient for the generation, it cannot cross the bounds of corruption. Such is the fire, or heat, of menstruation: nevertheless, it is improperly given the name fire against nature, since it is rather in some way conforming to nature, after the specific form: it indeed corrupts matter, but in such a way that it is disposed to generation. because too weak and insufficient for generation, it cannot cross the bounds of corruption.

Such is the fire, or heat, of menstruation: nevertheless, it is improperly given the name fire against nature, since it is rather in some way conforming to nature, after the specific form: it indeed corrupts matter, but in such a way that it is disposed to generation. because too weak and insufficient for generation, it cannot cross the bounds of corruption. Such is the fire, or heat, of menstruation: nevertheless, it is improperly given the name fire against nature, since it is rather in some way conforming to nature, after the specific form: it indeed corrupts matter, but in such a way that it is disposed to generation.

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However it is believable that the corrupting fire, which is called against nature, is none other than the natural fire, but only in the first degree of its heat, because the order of nature requires that corruption precede generation. Natural fire, therefore, in accordance with the laws of nature, does both, by exciting two sorts of movements alternately in matter. The first is a slow movement of corruption, stirred up by feeble heat, to soften and prepare the body. The other movement is that of generation, more vigorous and stronger, excited by a more violent heat, in order to fully animate and inform the body already disposed by the first. Two kinds of movements are therefore made, at two different degrees of heat, of the same fire.

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The unnatural fire is converted by successive degrees of digestion into the natural fire, which it increases and multiplies. The whole secret consists in the multiplication of natural fire, which cannot alone, by its own forces, either act or communicate a perfect tincture to imperfect bodies; for it is self-sufficient only, and has nothing to give of its own. But multiplied by the unnatural fire which marvelously abounds in virtue of multiplying, it agitates with much more force and extends far beyond the bounds of nature, tinting and perfecting foreign and imperfect bodies, by means of the tincture which he sucked, and of that precious fire which was added to him.

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The philosophers also call their water a fire, because it is supremely hot and full of a fiery spirit: therefore they also call it fire-water: for it burns and consumes the bodies of perfect metals more than ordinary fire. . This water dissolves them perfectly, even though they resist our fire, without in any way being able to be dissolved by it: for this reason, it is also called fiery water. Now this fire of tincture is hidden in the root and in the center of the water, where it manifests itself by two kinds of effect, namely by the dissolution of the body and by the multiplication.

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Nature uses two kinds of fire in the work of generation, one internal and one external. The first, or natural fire, which lies in the seeds of things and in the mixtures, is hidden in their center, whence it moves and vivifies the body, as the principle of movement and life. But the other, or foreign fire, whether it comes from heaven or from the earth, awakens the first, which is as if buried in sleep, and urges it to act; for the little vital fires which are imprinted in the seeds, need an external motor in order to be able to move and act themselves.

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It is the same in the philosophical work; for the matter of the stone possesses its inner and natural fire, which is in part augmented and heightened by an external and foreign fire, thanks to philosophical science. These two fires unite and combine very well internally, especially since they are consistent and homogeneous: the internal needs the external, which the philosopher adds to it according to the precepts of art and nature, this one provokes the other to movement. These fires are like two wheels, of which the hidden one moves faster or slower, according to how it is pushed and prompted by the manifest one. And so art comes to the aid of nature.

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The internal fire holds the medium between the external fire, its mover and its matter: from this it comes that, just as it is moved by that one, it likewise moves this one, and that if it is pushed by it with vehemently or with moderation, he operates in the same way in his matter. Finally, the information of the whole structure depends on the measurement of the external fire.

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He who ignores degrees and points in the regime of external fire, let him not undertake philosophical work. For it will never draw light from the darkness if it does not know how to conduct heat so well that it does not pass first through the averages, as happens in the elements, whose extremes are only converted. 'through the means.

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Because the whole work consists in the separation and in the perfect preparation of the four elements of the stone, it is necessary that there be as many degrees of fire there as there are elements, because each one is 'obtains through a degree of fire of its own.

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These four degrees of fire are called the fire of the bath, the fire of the ashes, the fire of coal, and the fire of flame, which is also called the fire of reverberation (opteticus). Now each degree has its points, at least two, and sometimes three; for it is necessary to govern the fire little by little, and by points, either increasing it or decreasing it, so that, in imitation of nature, matter gradually and by degrees reaches its information and its fulfillment; for there is nothing so contrary to nature as that which is violent.

Let the philosopher therefore propose as the object of his consideration, the approach or the slow removal of the Sun, which pours out heat to us little by little according to the need of the seasons, and which thus tempers all things, in conformity with the laws of the Universe.

The first point of bath heat is called fever heat, or manure heat. The second point, simply heat from the bath. The first point of the second degree of fire is the simple heat of the ashes, the second point is the heat of the sand. But the points of the fire of coal and the fire of the flame have no particular name: they are distinguished thanks to the understanding, according to whether they are more or less violent or moderate.

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We sometimes only find three degrees of fire among the Philosophers, namely the fire of the bath, the fire of the ashes and the ardent fire, which includes the fire of coal and the fire of the flame. Manure fire is also sometimes distinguished in degree from bath fire. Thus the authors, by a different way of speaking, often shroud in darkness the light of the fire of the Philosophers, for the knowledge of fire passes among them as one of the chief secrets.

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In the white work, as only three elements are drawn, only the first three degrees of fire are needed, because the last, that is to say the fire of the flame, is reserved for the fourth element. which completes the work in red. By the first degree occurs the eclipse of the Sun and the Moon. At the second, the light of the Moon begins to be returned to him. By the third the Moon regains the fullness of its brightness, and by the fourth the Sun is raised to the supreme height of glory. Let fire therefore be given and administered to each of these parts according to reason and geometrical rule, so that the agent responds to the disposition of the patient, and their forces are equally in reciprocal balance.

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The Philosophers have always taken great care to hide the knowledge of their fire, so that they hardly ever speak of it openly, but indicate it to us rather by the description of its qualities and properties than by its name, l calling sometimes airy, vaporous and humid, sometimes dry and clear, and resembling the Nature of the Stars, all the better because it can easily increase or decrease by degree according to the will of the operator. Whoever wants to have a more perfect knowledge of fire will find it in the works of (Raymond) Lully, who reveals to sincere minds the secrets of the practice, with great ingenuity.

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The Proportion.

As for the conflict between the eagle and the lion, it is spoken of variously among the authors. As the lion is the most robust of all animals, it takes several eagles to overcome it. Some say that it takes at least three, or even more, and even up to ten. The less there are, the more the victory is disputed and delayed, but as there are many, the struggle lasts less, and the lion is torn to pieces sooner. But whether we take the number of seven eagles, which is the luckiest, according to Lully, or that of nine, following Senior.

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The vessels.
There are two sorts of vessels in which the Philosophers cook their work: one is the vessel of nature, the other that of art. The natural vessel, which is also called the philosophical vessel, is the very earth of the stone, which is like the female and the womb where the semen of the male is received, where it putrefies, and where it receives the preparation for the generation. As for the artificial vessels, there are three kinds, since the secret is cooked in as many vessels.

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The first artificial vessel is made of transparent stone, or petrified glass. Some philosophers have hidden its shape and figure under an enigmatic description, saying that it is sometimes composed of three and sometimes of two parts, that is to say, the still and the cucurbite, and so that if it is made up of three, they add a lid to it.

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Several authors have invented various names to express a multiplicity of vessels which would be necessary for the philosophical work, calling them in different ways according to the diversity of the operations, in order to hide their secret from us. For they have called some vessels to dissolve, others to putrefy, to distill, to sublimate, to calcine, and other similar denominations.

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But to speak of it frankly and without deception, a single artificial vessel suffices to draw and obtain the two kinds of sulphur, and one for the elixir: for the diversity of digestions does not require a diversity of vessels. We must even take great care that we do not change or open the vessels until the end of the first work.

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The shape of the glass vessel must be round in the curcurbite, or else oval. His collar must be at least a palm high, or more; let it be wide enough at the beginning, but let it narrow towards the opening, like a vial. It must have no roughness or unevenness, but must be of equal thickness everywhere, in order to be able to withstand a long and sharp fire. The curcurbite is called one-eyed because one mouths it and seals it exactly around its circumference with the hermetic seal, lest anything foreign enter into it, or the spirit escape from it.

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The second artificial vessel must be of wood, made of an oak trunk cut into two concave hemispheres, where the egg of the Philosophers must be fomented until it produces its chick: see on this subject the Fountain of Trevisan.

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Practitioners have called their furnace the third vessel, because it contains the other vessels, where all the material of their work is. The philosophers have also tried to hide the mystery and the secret from us.

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The Athanor.

This furnace, which is the guardian and depositary of all the mysteries of the work, has been called athanor or immortal, because of the perpetual fire which it preserves. For it is in him that one maintains a continual fire, although sometimes unequal, for the regime of the work. This fire must indeed be sometimes larger and sometimes smaller, according to the quantity of matter and the capacity of the stove.

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The material for the furnace is made of baked brick, or greasy earth like clay, perfectly crushed, and prepared with horse manure in which horsehair will be mixed, so that it does not burst or split under the effect of long heat. The side walls of this stove should be three or four fingers thick, so that they can retain the heat, and also resist him better.

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The shape of the stove should be round, and its interior height about two feet. We must place in the middle a blade of iron or brass, also round, the thickness of the back of a knife, which occupies almost the interior width of the furnace. Nevertheless it must be a little narrower, and must not touch the walls, but be supported on three or four iron pins joined to the walls. It must also have holes all around, so that the heat passes through, and between the sides of the stove and the edges of this grate.

And it is necessary to make in the sides, both below and above the grating, small doors, in order to be able to light the fire by the one below, and to know the temperature of the heat by the one above. In contrast to this, it is necessary to make a small window of rhomboid shape, furnished with a glass, so that by approaching it the eye, one can see the colors that the light placed in front will make see. Let us put on the middle of this grid a tripod carrying the ship. Finally, the stove must be completely covered and blocked, by building with tenons around its sides, a vault made of the same material of fired brick: the small door above must also be closed very well, lest the heat exhale.

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You have there all that is necessary for the first work, the end of which is the generation of the two sulfurs. Here is how you will arrive at their composition and their perfection.

(Rule.) Take a red Dragon, generous and belligerent, having all its native strength. Then take seven or nine generous and virgin eagles, whose vivacity of gaze does not dull in the rays of the Sun. Place these birds with the Dragon in a clear and well closed prison, under which it is necessary to light the bath, so that they are excited with the combat by this tepid vapor.

And soon they will fight a long and hard battle, until, about the fortieth day, the eagles begin to tear the beast, which in dying will defile the whole prison with a black and poisonous slime, of which the eagles, being contaminated, will be forced to die. From the putrefaction of these corpses, a crow will be engendered, which will gradually raise its head, and, once the heat of the bath has increased, will begin to spread its wings and to fly: it will prowl for a long time to try to find some peak, thanks to the winds and the clouds which will rise there, but take care that it finds none. Finally, whitened by a slow and long rain and by the dew of the sky, it will change into a sparkling swan (of whiteness).

May the birth of the Raven be for you the proof of the death of the Dragon.
Blanching the crow, draw out the elements from it, and distill them according to the form in the prescribed order, until they are fixed in their earth, and become a sort of very white, very subtle dust, and very slender. This done, you will have what you desire, as far as the white work is concerned. thanks to the winds and the clouds which will rise there, but take good care that he does not find any. Finally, whitened by a slow and long rain and by the dew of the sky, it will change into a sparkling swan (of whiteness).

May the birth of the Raven be for you the proof of the death of the Dragon. Blanching the crow, draw out the elements from it, and distill them according to the form in the prescribed order, until they are fixed in their earth, and become a sort of very white, very subtle dust, and very slender. This done, you will have what you desire, as far as the white work is concerned. thanks to the winds and the clouds which will rise there, but take good care that he does not find any. Finally, whitened by a slow and long rain and by the dew of the sky, it will change into a sparkling swan (of whiteness).

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If, going further, you want to obtain the work in red, add to it the element of fire, which is lacking in the work in white, without in any way moving the vessel, and, the fire being gradually reinforced by its points, presses matter until what was hidden becomes manifest. A clue to this is when the citrine color begins to appear. React the fire of the fourth degree by its points, until with the help of Vulcan it is born from the Lily of the crimson roses, and finally the amaranth tinged with a dark redness of blood. But don't stop awakening the fire with the fire, until you see matter end in very red and impalpable ashes. May this red stone exalt your spirit to continue even further, under the auspices of the Holy Trinity.

Those who are ignorant of the secrets of Nature and Art, believing that they have carried out their work to the end and have accomplished all the precepts of the secret, when they have found the sulphur, are greatly mistaken. In vain will they attempt projection: for the practice of the Stone can only be achieved by two operations, the first of which is the creation of sulphur; but the second is the making of the elixir.

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The sulfur of the Philosophers is a very subtle, very hot and very dry earth, in the root and center of which the natural fire hides and multiplies marvelously. It is for this reason that this sulfur or this earth has been called the fire of the stone. For he has in him the virtue of opening and penetrating the bodies of metals, and of converting them into his temperament, and of producing his like: hence it is that he is taken for the Father, and the masculine seed.

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So that we leave nothing behind without talking about it, so that it is known that from this first sulfur, a second is generated, and so it multiplies until the end. May the wise therefore keep this eternal mine of celestial fire well: for from the same matter from which sulfur is generated, it also multiplies with the same, by adding a small portion of the aforesaid sulfur in the matter which one wishes to multiply. , provided, however, that this is done with consideration and moderation. Let us read the rest in Lully, and let it suffice here to have indicated it.

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The elixir is composed of three kinds of matter, namely a metallic water, or a sublimated mercury, as has been said, a white or red ferment according to the intention of the operator, and matter of the second sulphur, all taken with consideration and measure.

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In the perfect elixir meet five particular and necessary qualities, which are to be fusible, permanent, penetrating, coloring and (multiplying). It borrows the quality of dyeing and fixing from the ferment, that of penetrating from the sulphur, that of being fusible from the quicksilver, which is a medium by which the tinctures, namely those of the ferment and those of the sulphur, join and unite. As for the virtue of multiplying, it is poured out and communicated to him by the Spirit of the quintessence.

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The two perfect metals also give a perfect tincture, because they are tinted with the pure sulfur of nature. Let no one therefore look for other ferments of metals elsewhere than in these two bodies. Dye therefore your elixir white and red with the Moon and the Sun, for mercury is the first to receive the tincture, and having received it, communicates it.

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In composing the elixir, take care not to confuse the ferments, and not to mix them one for the other, because each elixir wants to be with its special and particular ferment, and with its own elements. For naturally the two luminaries have their different sulphur, and their distinct tinctures.

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The second work is baked in a similar or identical vessel, in the same furnace, and with the same degrees of fire as the first, but it is completed in much less time than the first.

129
There are three humors in the stone, which must be extracted successively: namely the aqueous, the aerial and the radical. All the care and all the work of the operator concern the temper, and in the work of the stone no other element circulates: for it is necessary above all that the earth be resolved into temper, and that she liquefies. As for the radical humor, which passes for a fire, it is the most sticky and the most obstinate of all, because it is as if tied up, at the center of Nature and of substance, from which it does not easily separate. . Thus pulls these three humors by their wheels, little by little and successively, by dissolution and congealing. By the reiteration of dissolution and congealing, alternating and successive, the extended wheel is in fact accomplished (cf. above, ch.

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The perfection of the elixir consists in the close union and the indissoluble marriage of the dry and the humid, so that they never separate: so much so that the dry must flow into a matter moist by the slightest heat, and become unalterable to all the violence of the fire. It is a mark of its perfection if, by throwing even a little of it on a blade of iron or brass heated red-hot, it flows there without smoking.

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Take three pounds of red earth, or red ferment, water and air, as much of one as the other double, mix well and grind all these things, reducing them into an amalgam which becomes like butter , or as a metallic paste so that the earth is so softened that it does not feel under the fingers. Add to it a pound and a half of fire, and digest these things in their well-stoppered vessel with a fire of the first degree, as much as is necessary. It is then necessary to draw the elements with order each by their degrees of fire, which by a slow movement will finally be digested and fixed in their earth, so that nothing volatile will be able to escape from them. Finally the matter will become like a clear, red and diaphanous rock, of which you will take pleasure in a part that, thrown into a crucible over a slow fire, you will drink its red oil drop by drop, until it melts completely and flows out, without smoking. Don't be afraid that she will run away, because the earth, softened by this sweet beverage, will hold her in her bowels. And then keep and retain this perfect elixir at home, rejoice in God, and be discreet.

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In the same order and by the same method, one makes the white elixir, provided that one uses only in its composition the white elements. For his body being cooked and finished, will likewise become like a white rock, resplendent and like crystal, which, being quenched and impregnated with its white oil, will become fusible. Throw from either elixir a pound out of ten of washed quicksilver, and you will admire the effect.

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As in the elixir the forces of the natural fire are marvelously multiplied and redoubled, because of the spirit of the quintessence which is breathed into it, and as the vicious and clinging accidents to the bodies, which tarnished their purity, thus enveloping in the darkness the true light of Nature, are banished from it by long and various sublimations and digestions.

It is for this reason that the natural fire, being there freed from its bonds, and aided by the help of the celestial forces, acts very powerfully, enclosed as it is in the fifth element. It should not therefore be thought strange if he possesses the virtue, not only of perfecting imperfect things, but also if he has the faculty of multiplying and perfecting himself. Now the source of multiplication is in the Prince of Lights,

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The method and way of multiplying the elixir is threefold. For the first take a pound of the red elixir, which you will mix in nine of its red water, and put it all to dissolve in a suitable vessel. This matter being perfectly dissolved and mixed, coagulate it by cooking it with a slow fire, until it becomes firm and similar to a ruby ​​or to a red (metallic) blade, which must then be watered with red oil in the above manner, until it runs out. Thus you will obtain a medicine ten times stronger than the first, and which is nevertheless easily made, and in a short time.

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For the second way, take a portion of your elixir at will, mix it with its water observing the weight and the proportion and place it in a tightly stoppered reduction vessel, and dissolve it in the bath by burial. Once it is dissolved, distill it, separating the elements one after another by their own fire, making them settle at the end as in the first and second works, — until what she petrifies. Soak it in oil then, and project. This path is the longest but the richest, because the virtue of the elixir increases a hundredfold, since the more subtle it becomes by repeated operations, the more it receives celestial and inferior forces and virtues, and operates more powerfully.

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For the third manner, take an ounce of the elixir whose virtues have thus been multiplied, and throw it on a hundred of washed mercury. In a short time, the mercury heated on the embers will change into a pure elixir from which, if you throw in the same way one ounce on a hundred others of the same mercury, a very pure Sun will be born from it immediately. The multiplication of the white elixir must be done in the same way. Also look for the virtues of this medicine to cure all illnesses and preserve health, as well as its other uses, in Arnaud de Villeneuve, Raymond Lully and other Philosophers.

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The Zodiac of the Philosophers will teach you to look for the times of the Stone. Because the first operation, and the regime to obtain the white, must begin in the house of the Moon, and the second must end in the second house of Mercury. But the first operation to achieve red begins in the second house of Venus, and the last ends in the second royal court of Jupiter, from whom our very powerful King will receive a crown braided with very precious rubies. This is how the year, retracing its own tracks, begins its revolutions again.

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A Three-Headed Dragon guards this Golden Fleece. The first head came from the waters, the second from the earth, the third from the air. Nevertheless, these three heads must form a very powerful one, which will devour all the other Dragons, and then the path will be cleared for you to access the Golden Fleece. Farewell, studious reader! As you read the above, invoke the Spirit of eternal light, speak little, reason much, and judge righteously.