The
Text of Alchemy,
and the
Green Dream.
Le texte d'Alchimie et le songe verd.
Publication date : 1695
In Paris,
at Laurent d’Houry’s, Rue St. Jacques, opposite the Fountain of St. Severin, at the Sign of the Holy Spirit.
With the King’s Privilege.
Our Stone is vegetable, because it is the gentle spirit growing from the seed of the vine, joined in the first work to the fixed white-shining body, as is said in the Green Dream; to which, after the Text of Alchemy, the practice of this vegetable Stone is very notably given to those who wisely know how to understand the truth.
Trevisan, in his Parole délaissée.
EX UNO, PER UNUM, IN UNO.
From one, through one, in one.
OMNIA IN UNO
All in one.
PER ME TOTUM.
Through me, all.
Under the protection of
Ehéhie, Iod, Tetragrammaton, Elohim.
Who is, was, and will be.
Alpha & Omega, Beginning & End.
To the Lovers of the True Philosophy.
F. A. D. M.
TABLE OF CHAPTERS
Part I: On the Matter of the Philosopher’s Stone: Of what nature this Matter is, and of its Essence. — p. 29
Part II: How one may recognize the true Matter of the Stone; in what manner it must be sought, with the infallible means to find it. — p. 47
Part III: That the Matter described in the second part above is the only one upon which one must work to accomplish the Great Work. — p. 68
Part IV: Wherein the Songeverd, truthful and veritable, because it contains truth. — p. 100
I would be wrong (my dear Reader) after the eagerness that you have shown for the Green Dream, if, having fallen into my hands, I did not share it with you. I am not one of those sorts of people who hide the Light under a bushel, and who, fearing out of envy that someone might come to discover this incomparable treasure, take pleasure in speaking only among themselves in their cabinets with the books of the true Philosophers, which they hold more secret than if they actually possessed the treasure itself. Yet they would not trouble themselves to take even a single step to acquire it, as if at once of an eye one should be able to penetrate into the mysteries of Philosophy, which is nothing other than a gift from God, who reveals it to whom He pleases: Spiritus ubi vult, spirat (“The Spirit blows where it wills”).
Although it was not without difficulty that I discovered this manuscript, I will nonetheless not regret my effort if I learn that you receive it with as good a heart as I present it to you. I will even consider myself happy to have found the occasion to give pleasure to many curious persons of distinguished merit, and not to have been born only to for myself and for my relatives, but also for the Public, and for my Country, to whose service I am entirely devoted.
Since Medicine is my profession, although I am only the least of its disciples — Medicusque sim modicus — I do not believe I entirely waste my time when I devote myself to reading the books of Hermetic Philosophy. By the same principles remedies have been discovered which would have remained unknown to us, had we not precisely studied the Anatomy of Mixtures. I have already had the good fortune of succeeding with some. May it all be for the glory of God and the relief of the sick.
It is useless, it seems to me, to search for the origin of the Green Dream; it is enough to find within it the practice of the Vegetable Stone, as Trevisan cites it in his book The Abandoned Word. Nor is it necessary to praise it: let it suffice to say that Trevisan speaks of it in the most beautiful part of his Treatise, in order to clarify what he wishes to explain.
This Philosopher is an as suredly good guarantor, so that one may trust his word, by the common consent of learned persons who apply themselves to the secret Philosophy; to the point that it is even claimed that he is the author of this manuscript, and that the original was composed in German. Others maintain that it was printed in Italian.
Be that as it may, I have only ever been able to find it in our language. It is joined to the Text of Alchemy, because it forms its fourth part. Both are so clear to those who know well how to understand them, that no explanation is necessary.
However, since the principal aim of the Author in his Dream is only to speak in enigmas, particularly regarding the first operation, I dare to hope that the Reader will perhaps not be displeased if, in passing, I also give my opinion on what I have understood of the first part of the Work, following the light it pleased God to grant me by His grace to enlighten me.
I also hope that, if I have erred in any point, one will have the kindness to inform me of it, so that I may correct myself; and that if I lack something a true Scholar will have for me the same sentiments that I have had for those whom this Treatise may lead into the true path.
I say then that, from all the fruit I have been able to gather from reading the works of the true Philosophers, both manuscripts and printed, such as Moses in Genesis, the four Evangelists, Esdras, Hermes, Zadith, Albugazal, Calid, Aben-uatira, Rabbi Simeon, Aros, Morfrac, Galandinus, Morien, Senior, Bengerzid, Achomerben, Altiphat, R. Lulle, Alphidius, Cosmopolite, Arnaud de Villeneuve, Majerus, Flud de Fluctibus, the great and the lesser Albert, the great and the lesser Peasant (farmer), Basil Valentine, the Manuel and the Aurora of Paracelsus, and an infinity of others, for they are in great number.
It is that I have learned that the Almighty God, Jehovah, first principle of all things, having resolved to create the World, ab initio, from all eternity, for His own love and union of His will, drew from the infinite treasure of His Essence and from His divine Exemplar a Chaos first origin of all creations: an Earth, as Scripture says, Inanis & vacua, which was not yet reduced to essential form, and in which were enclosed all the things of the World; just as we see that in a seed is contained in all its substance and form a large and tall tree with its root, its trunk, its branches, its leaves, and its fruits: in which Earth, I say, were hidden for the future all sensible things, which in potency were to come into act, to grow, to flourish blossom, and produce according to their kinds.
The Creator, by His divine Providence, sent upon the waters a simple and invisible Spirit, Ruach Elohim, to warm and render all things fruitful: Spiritus Domini ferebatur super aquas. He began to give them life, to make them move; and finally He gave them perfection.
Then came forth the Light, which, of all created beings, is the purest; and, to speak in the language of the Philosopher, it is that vivifying and life-giving Spirit, which served as a channel for the Lord to draw from the Earth all its productions, which, obeying, it brought forth by means of the ardors with which it had been warmed.
It was then that this Light, joined with that of the Sun, cast its influences from the supercelestial world to the celestial, and from the celestial to the elemental. Then the Sun continued always to send forth its rays in all directions; and thus making its ordinary course, and rolling in its sphere, by its penetrating activity, it insinuated itself into the most hidden and secret parts of the World; and, penetrating even to the center of the Earth drawn by the magnet of each Mixt, it became embodied therein; and the Earth, retaining this heat which had passed through all its thickness, coagulated it in its center in the form of an aqueous fire and a burning water—that is to say, of a fusible salt, which, wishing to return, according to its Nature, towards its center, was retained in the matrices while rising. And because these matrices had a particular virtue in their species, in one it determined itself to one thing, and in another to another, always generating their like.
Thus from matrix to matrix, stopping in one that was suited to become stone, it became stone; if it remained in one that was destined in time to be made gold, it was made gold; and so with the others, continually from the center of the Earth toward the circumference, until the end of the ages.
But if this spiritual Essence is still more subtle, it passes to the surface of the Earth and causes seeds to sprout according to their kind. On the contrary, remaining in the center of the Earth, it finds there a fatty nature, to which it unites to form the body of mineral Nature, to which it assimilates itself: it is that body which appears like a certain vaporous and balsamic moisture, in which life and the preservation of individuals secretly dwell.
In a word, it is a substance produced by Nature, and which is generated in the mineral veins, in which one must take the trouble to seek it: Visita interiora Terrae, rectificando invenies occultum (VITRIOL).
Having thus known this true matter, Verumque centrum in trigono centri, I understood that it was necessary that it be purified by itself; that from this single matter, by the means of Vulcan, I should discover the double Mercury of Trevisan, extract the Sulphur from the Sulphur, and the Mercury from the Mercury.
Likewise, having extracted these two principles—the fixed and the volatile, the water and the fire from the center of the Sun—it was necessary to reduce the triangle into the circle, which, without seeking further, makes its quadrature, as is shown in the Figure at the beginning, page 4. Unitas est perfectionum origo; one matter, one furnace, one digestion. All comes from One, all returns to One: Ad unitatem fit regressus, quando ad denarium factus fuit progressus.
Such is the sphere of the Saturnian Heaven, which contains in its circle the true sign of unity in the Deity, and of the Deity in the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
It is then that the divine ternary, joined to the quaternary, gives perfection to the number seven. In a word, by a mysterious harmony, the point must be proportioned to the parallel, to the triangle, and to the square.
That is to say, by separating the pure from the impure, one must have a clear and perfect idea of the passionate love between the male and the female, who will embrace so closely that they can no longer thereafter be separated; and that, according to the just weight of Nature, the marriage be made for the new generation, that they be put in prison at the hour of their birth; and that, by adjusting the bodies properly to the capacity of the bed where they are to be laid, they may be maintained in a digestive warmth, conformable to that which will reside in the bed.
After having sealed the vessel with the Seal of Hermes, one must await the term of nine circulations, which, being completed, and the spirit and the body having each triumphed in their turn, becoming but one, will bring us to the Mercury of the Philosophers, which ends the first operation and gives entry to the second; yet only after Saturn has caused to appear that glorious Light, wherein the body, the soul, and the spirit will rise again, full of the glory of the first resurrection, which is that of which the Philosophers have spoken so little in their books, having only attached themselves to the second operation, upon which I also reserve to explain myself on another occasion.
This is the true Philosophy which I profess: without it I would never have learned to read in the great Book of Nature; I would never have known how the seven Planets influence the inferior bodies, and how the seven Metals reciprocally attract the rays of Light; without it I would never have known how to meditate upon on the state and movement of the stars, the harmony of the Elements with the elemental things.
In a word, it is that which makes one understand birth, life, and death; which enables one to find, in the course of this circulation, the defects and the perfections of things; which makes known the creation of the World, the cause of the darkness of Egypt, the light of Sinai, and the glory with which bodies must be clothed when they shall rise again on the day of the universal Judgment.
But since it is only through the Cross that they must be recognized as true Faithful, it is to you, Brothers of the true Rose-Cross, who possess all the treasures of the world, it is to you that I have recourse.
I submit myself entirely to your pious and wise counsels; I know they can only be good, because I know how greatly you are endowed with virtues beyond the rest of men. Since you are the dispensers of Science, and since, consequently, I owe to you what I know, if I may nevertheless say or see something, I wish (according to the institution that God has established in Nature) that things return to where they came from. Ad locum, says the Ecclesiastes, unde exeunt flumina revertuntur, ut iterum fluant. All is yours, all comes from you, all will therefore return to you.
Receive (Gentlemen) this Act of submission that I make to you today: if it can reach you, I do not doubt that you will regard it with a favorable eye, licet ab hominum viliori; and that, in gratitude on my part, I may go to bear witness to you, wherever in the world you may be, of the veneration that I have for your illustrious persons.
Given at Paris, in my Museum, in the year 1694, on the Ides of September, and on the day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
THE TEXT OF ALCHEMY, AND THE GREEN DREAM
FIRST PART
Of the matter of the Philosopher’s Stone: Of the nature of this Stone, and of its essence.
“In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth.”
“The Earth as yet brought forth nothing, and was not…”
“inhabited, because it was surrounded by darkness which covered the depths;”
“and the Spirit of God was borne upon the Waters.”
“God said, “Let there be light, and there was light.”
Whoever well understands these words of Genesis will see that from the very creation of the World there existed a matter, which can only be known by making a light to dispel the darkness that hides it from our eyes.
Man, being unable to make for himself a matter such as he pleases — for it belongs only to God to make something from nothing — can indeed make for himself a light which will illuminate his understanding, to discover the matter which is absolutely necessary for the accomplishment of his desires. But it is only through Science that he can acquire this light, and it will not be without labor that he will possess this Science.
Now, just as one should do nothing without having an aim and a purpose, so must one seek all the means to arrive at that aim and fulfill one’s desires. This being constant, the Philosopher who directs his intention to the Philosopher’s Stone must seek the means to succeed. What are these means, if not to first know the matter in order to govern it, then to guide it and bring it to its end? Aristotle teaches us that a learned man must not only know the things which come from the principles, but must also have a knowledge of the principles of principles.
It is therefore necessary that those who know that the universal Medicine is possible should also know also know the principles; therefore, the Philosopher must know the matter of the Philosopher’s Stone before beginning to undertake it. But this true matter is such a hidden treasure that all the Philosophers who have had it in their possession have made of it a great mystery; and if they have written of it, it has only been in terms so obscure that it is almost impossible to understand them.
For me, who write without envy, I wish (my Child) to make it known to you, and to render it entirely clear to you, provided that you be at least somewhat a Philosopher, and that your intention be upright.
Come, Child of Science, draw from me the treasures of wisdom which contain the true matter of the Stone of the Sages. Learn, first, that you must not seek our matter in that universal spirit which is comprised in all that has been created; it is impossible for mortals to attain to so elevated a point. And several grossly err, imagining that one can gather some portion of this universal spirit, which, containing all things, is not determined to any particular thing.
I have seen persons who seemed to have good sense, yet nevertheless indulged in these imaginings. They would expose to the air in very serene weather a glass vessel in the shape of a triangular cone; and at the bottom of this vessel was a dry, arid, and parched matter, so that after the space of five or six hours, they found in their vessel a few drops of water which this matter had attracted to itself. They would make this water evaporate in the sun, and there remained for them a red or reddish earth, which they imagined to be the true incombustible Sulphur of the Philosophers, or their male Mercury. But this was nothing other than the most purified terrestrial parts of the exhalations, baked and dried by the heat of the Sun, which, being sustained in the air by vapors that resisted their fall, had afterward fallen back together with those vapors. This is confirmed by the water with which this powder had entered into the vessel.
One must not go so far to seek our matter; reflect upon that for which you must intend it—it is, you say, to make the Philosopher’s Stone. What, then, is the virtue of this Philosopher’s Stone?
It is to purge all metals, by giving them the tincture and the fixity of gold. Learn then, if you do not know it, that Nature takes its pleasures with Nature, and Nature contains Nature, and Nature knows how to overcome Nature.
These words must be imprinted in your understanding. Be assured (says the true Turba) that one can only dye the metal by the metal itself. But just as one cannot give what one does not possess, and what is detached from itself, so too a metal whose tincture and fixity are intrinsic, and which has only as much as it needs to be perfect, cannot perfect another metal; for if this were done, the perfect would decline by as many degrees of its perfection as it had increased that of the imperfect metal, perfect; which cannot be, since tincture and fixity are so essentially tied to gold—the only perfect metal—that it cannot be stripped of them without ceasing to be gold. There is, therefore, only the sole powder of projection that can perfect metals, since it is recognized as possessing a virtue entirely superabundant, penetrating, and tinging.
It is thus certain that from any matter whatsoever (except the metallic) one cannot make the Medicine of Metals; for no nature is amended except in its own proper nature.
Therefore (my Child), if you seek our matter anywhere other than among the Minerals, never hope to find it. Take Nature for your model, this skilled worker; see how she separates the materials for each kind, as she knows how to observe the differences in species. Open the entrails of the Earth; you will find there a child who is not yet formed. If you do not understand me, be patient, for it is not yet time for me to explain myself more clearly. You will better understand all the Sages who have treated this matter. One says it is nothing other than quicksilver exalted by art upon imperfect quicksilver. Another, that the whole work of the Philosophers consists solely of quicksilver. Hermes teaches you that from our Earth are created all the other elements; and Alphidius says that only one matter is needed, but he adds that it should properly be called water. And Calid teaches you that at the beginning of our work we have only to work upon two matters only.
And Arnaud de Villeneuve forbids doing anything else except to digest and cook the mercurial substance.
What then can you conceive from all these expressions so different, which are nevertheless entirely true? When you are a little more advanced in the Sciences, you will understand us easily; for the mind is strengthened by labor and becomes penetrating through reading. It is necessary (as Aristotle says) that he who has a good mind understands all things by himself. However, it is not impossible to find minds lively enough and sufficiently penetrating to learn Science by themselves; and Galen says, regarding the beautiful discoveries he made in Medicine: I have discovered all these things by myself, having for guide only my sole natural light; seeing that if I had followed the Masters, I would have fallen into a thousand errors. The strength of so high an understanding is acquired through reflections made upon the meaning of the Books one has read.
That is why you must read and reflect on your reading by yourself: if you understand nothing, read the same Books again, then read others; for the last one you read may give you the understanding of all the others; just as those you read first may help you understand the later ones.
As for me, I intend to explain myself clearly in the continuation of this work of mine: I can do so, because I have made and accomplished our blessed Stone three times; and if I had not known from the first time our matter as perfectly as I know it now, I would not have been able to treat it as perfectly as I do, because one cannot be too wise to write of wisdom; but wisdom gives science.
Therefore you, who being a lover of wisdom wish to become perfectly wise, conduct yourself with moderation in seeking the matter of the Philosopher’s Stone. You must already possess some rays of that wisdom to which you aspire, in order to know our matter, which is not a conversion of elements, though it be composed of four elements; for the elements cannot truly be converted one into another, nor change perfectly among themselves—although Aristotle teaches us that if heat is overcome by the cold of the air will become water, because air is hot and moist, and water is cold and moist; and thus, the heat being changed, it will become water.
But this great Philosopher does not mean that this apparent change is a true transformation in the elements, since it is very certain that what appears to change from air into water is in no way air, but a water driven by solar heat.
For to believe that cold can be changed into heat, and heat into cold, is absolutely impossible; so that the Philosophers have often spoken of the elements from which the different substances were composed, in order to make known their qualities. And it is in this sense that Hippocrates says: “That when the four elements, but above all water and Fire, enter into the composition of the human body in equal weight and measure, the man is very wise and endowed with an excellent memory; but if Water surpasses Fire, he becomes stupid and dull.
Hippocrates did not mean, in speaking thus, that one could compose a man by means of a just proportion among the elements; rather, his intent was to make us understand that a man who does not yield to any of his dominant passions, which are contrary to wisdom, must be of a commendable temperament, in the composition of which the elements — that is to say, the qualities of cold, hot, dry, and moist — will have equally concurred.
To return then to our matter, it is very certain that one should not seek it in this universal spirit. It is indeed contained there, but art cannot possibly extract it. It is itself composed of four elements, and yet it cannot be extracted from them.
Do not therefore trouble your mind with making a thousand useless trials, such as sublimations, mortifications, attenuations, alterations, separations, conjunctions, putrefactions, solutions, digestions, calcinations, distillations, and so many other fruitless operations.
Do not, then, take this passage of Aristotle too literally; the alchemists can never change the form of metals unless they reduce them to their primary matter: this is very true. But I assure you that you must not attempt this reduction of metals to their first matter, because it cannot be done except by the true dissolvent.
For this dissolvent is an agent, which, being of metallic nature, opens the entrails of the metal, penetrates them without breaking, into all its parts; and, finding our first matter, it can perfect it and convert it into pure gold, without acting upon all the impure and foreign substances, rejecting them as useless and superfluous excrements.
It is therefore very evident that the matter of the Philosopher’s Stone is of pure metallic nature; and therefore one should not go to seek it in such distant subjects, such as in the universal spirit, nor in the elements. Nor can this matter be extracted from any metal, since it is enclosed within this metal as in a narrow and very strong prison.
Therefore, there is no other key except the great dissolvent that can open it to draw it out; and whoever possesses this dissolvent would have the whole work without needing any other matter. This is what the great Hermes means when he says that our matter is hidden in golden cabinets.
Thus, to extract it from a metal, it would be necessary to destroy this metal in all its simplest and most delicate parts; which is absolutely impossible, for these parts, being determined to be substance, can no longer become the subject of a new form. One must therefore seek the means of obtaining such a perfect knowledge of this matter that one may find it. This, with the help of the Lord, I shall teach in the second Part which follows.
End of the First Part.
SECOND PART.
How one can know the true matter of the Stone: In what manner it must be sought, with the infallible means of finding it all prepared, to be employed in the Great Work.
It would not be necessary to be a Philosopher to know our matter, if it were truly distinct; for although placed among all the different materials which Nature uses for her various works, it is so beautiful, so noble, so simple, so rare, and so perfect, that it would distinguish itself of its own accord, even to the most ignorant coarse: But one must not imagine that Nature presents it to us completely naked and in the simplicity required for it to be employed in the Great Work; for it is absolutely impossible to make this matter visible and tangible unless one already possesses it through Science. It is therefore useless to seek through experiments a science whose theory must be perfectly understood before one can put it into practice.
“Consider Nature well” (says a great Philosopher), “see what she uses in the mine to make Metals.” It is therefore in the mine that one must go to seek the metallic matter, since it is only in that place where the metal is formed that Nature has taken the care to produce it, you do not know what hides it, and in what it is enveloped; for if this rich matter were so easy to find where it is, among the many workers who continually labor in the mines, some might encounter it; and yet, one perceives that none of these people, who are rustic and ignorant, have had the fortune to make so fine a discovery.
But to gain this knowledge, it is not necessary to pierce the earth down to its center; that would be useless. Occupy yourself with instructing yourself, by seeing in what manner Nature works in everything that presents itself to your eyes; and it is not without reason that it is said, Nature makes skillful. Thus, by degrees, one deepens all things; and in this way one becomes capable of understanding the Philosophers.
But if you take only the path of books, although this way is very good, it is not nevertheless completely sure. How many people have spent their entire lives reading all the good Philosophers, yet have wasted their time and reaped no fruit from it. If art perfects Nature, one must also admit that Nature serves as a model for art. If you have not examined how plants are produced, will you be able to understand Mary the Prophetess in those words of hers, which are nevertheless quite unintelligible? Nature not only serves to make Metals by the heat and dryness that overcome the coldness and humidity of Mercury, nor that other Philosopher who says: that Nature uses in the mine only from a matter which is pure mercurial substance, and that this Mercury contains within itself the living and incombustible Sulphur, which alone can accomplish our work, without any other substance whatsoever.
You will be able to know nothing of these constant truths unless you conceive in what manner Nature makes use of heat and dryness to overcome coldness and moisture. Yet these operations are continually taking place before your eyes, and you cannot fail to notice them in Vegetables. When you understand what happens upon the Earth, you may then dig even to its center to seek the origin and matter of the Metals; then you will be able to read the Philosophers with profit and usefulness, you will learn in a short time how the matter closest to the Metals is purely metallic, since it is by it alone that all Metals are formed, and it cannot be determined to any other substance.
It may happen that Nature, which always tends toward the advancement of what it has once begun, being diverted from its course by some external cause, would produce Metals or Minerals that are formless. For example, if a mine were opened to the air, one might find Metals there not yet fully completed; and because the exposure of the mine interrupts the action of Nature, these Metals would remain imperfect, and would never be accomplished, and all the metallic seed contained in this mine would lose its strength and its virtue, so that it would become ungrateful and sterile.
But without a formal obstacle, this skillful Workwoman always tends to render her productions perfect. Thus, we see that monsters are produced only because some obstacle interrupts the course of Nature in her operations; for without some accident diverting her from her ordinary path, she would always complete her works and never fail.
If we take Nature as our guide (says Cicero), we will never go astray. Therefore, follow in the conduct of your works, and resolve to imitate her in your designs. Do not go faster than she does; nor be slower to act. Neglect nothing of what she uses, whether as instrument or as matter; for this wise Artist employs in his works only what is absolutely necessary to succeed in them.
If you wish to add some perfection to her productions—since this can be done easily imitate her, and use the same means she employed at the beginning to reach your end. Examine therefore carefully of what the metal is formed. I tell you in truth that in this consists the whole work of the Sages; for, to know the root of the Metals, you must run through the whole metallic kind, from its end back to its origin, and from its origin to its perfection; and by this speculation you will learn all the operations you must perform in the Great Work; you will know the Fire and the origin as soon as you know the matter.
When through your study and your labor you are certain of your matter, you will soon know the way to seek it; that is to say, you will not work in vain on the Metals and Minerals, where it is so deeply bound that it can only be extracted with long labor and great effort; and this matter would not even then be pure enough to be employed in the Great Work.
Seek therefore among the Minerals a matter prepared by Nature itself to compose the metal: this matter is still raw and is not congealed by any decoction; and it is only by a decoction of the true matter that the separation of the world from the unclean, of the pure from the impure, of the perfect from the imperfect, is made. Aristotle further teaches us that all things which are destined to be perfect, and which have remained imperfect for lack of digestion, can be perfected by continual digestion.
This is very easy to conceive; it is much better to cook and digest a crude matter to give it its full maturity, than to undertake to separate it from a body in which it is engaged through a very long coction, which has acquired for it all the qualities necessary to make it the basis and solid foundation of a metal.
Do we not always help Nature by enriching plants with manure, in which there is a vegetative virtue, giving nourishment to trees, advancing the fruits, and giving them a prompt maturity? We even see that by picking fruits while they are still entirely green we can make them ripen by exposing them to the Sun, or by enclosing them in a warm place; but we do not see that the most skillful gardener has yet been able to make a fruit that is too advanced and too ripe regain its first greenness, nor diminish anything of its maturity; such an operation would be contrary to Nature.
This is also why one will never succeed; for to resist Nature is to undertake that which cannot be accomplished. Is there anything more like the war that the Giants waged against the Gods than to fight against Nature, says Cicero?
Thus (my Child) observe carefully this wise Directress in all that she does; follow her everywhere, from the highest of the skies down to the depths of the abysses of the…
Earth, you will learn unheard-of marvels: You will be able to claim the right to be one of the Children of Wisdom and to be adopted as a Son of the great Hermes. You will be called, like him, Trismegistus; that is to say, thrice Mage, or thrice Great, because you will entirely possess the knowledge of the mineral, the vegetal, and the animal. It will then be yours to write and to disseminate your Science; for God does not wish that one should hide the light under a bushel.
It is a great fault not to write when one is knowledgeable, and not to share one’s doctrine with those who may have need of it — which is not the fault of those who write from too great a passion for appearing learned, though they be nothing but ignoramuses, punishment of the slothful Servant, for not having made use of the talents that the Lord had given him.
If you therefore have true knowledge, you must share it, and distribute it so as to make it profit a hundredfold, and even to infinity. Without profanation or irreverence for holy things, I may apply to my subject these divine words: Seek, and you shall find; Knock, and the door shall be opened to you. The knowledge of our Stone being a gift from God, I hold this science to be only by divine inspiration, said the great Hermes.
Thus then (my Child) you who are the investigator of wisdom, and who seek the truth in the true matter to attain natural and universal Philosophy, you must find this matter enclosed within a mineral, which you will easily recognize by its weight, for it has the same volume as gold; the truth of nature is one which it keeps hidden in its belly.
Open then its entrails with a blade of steel, and use a gentle tongue, insinuating, flattering, caressing, moist and burning. By this artifice you will make manifest what is hidden and occult. The father of all, the thelesma of all, is here.
I warn you again (my Child), so that you may not stray in so fine a path, never to go beyond the limits of the metallic kind; for none other improves except in its own nature. But also, in wishing to avoid making a false step, you may still err by seeking a mature and overly advanced matter, from which you could not disengage yourself without a confusion that would alter it and render it unfit for your use.
Holy Scripture says of Saul that he was a one-year-old child when he began to reign; it was taking up the Sceptre in good time and ruling his people at a very tender age. But it is also at this age that the soul easily becomes accustomed to the habit of all virtues. One cannot begin too soon to do good.
There is an age, which is that of youth, when one is susceptible to all the good impressions given; it is at that time that the spirit is docile, and that it willingly conforms to the noblest actions proposed to it, to serve as a model.
But once these young and tender years have passed, this spirit, once so docile, becomes turbulent and agitated by various passions that seek to dominate it. This is what compelled the Prophet King to make this prayer: Lord, do not call me back in the midst of the course of my days.
And does not the Sage teach us this truth when he says: From my childhood I had the gift of a good soul, and I later encountered a soiled and ill-tempered body?
The virtue and strength of a reasonable soul find their perfection when the body is infirm and weak. These words of Saint Paul can also be applied to tender youth.
Jesus Christ indeed said to his disciples: Unless you become like children, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
These passages, which are entirely spiritual, a meaning that has a connection with our matter; and the reader can derive a double benefit from it.
If you know this worthy and noble matter, you have only to seek it to find it, and you will unfailingly find it in the Earth and on the Earth; but the freshest and newest is always the best. The Earth is its nurse: you must tear the child from the breast of its mother; it must be deprived of its natural nourishment to give it an artificial one; and since it is impossible that this child has not absorbed with the milk some impurities from the temperament of the nurse, you must take care to wash it, clean it, and purge it, before accustoming it to another food than that on which it previously fed; and although the change of nourishment should require you to purge it, you must still facilitate the effect of this internal purgation by preparations from the outside.
If this child does not suit you, and you find it of too advanced an age to make it take another food than that which it was accustomed to feed on, open the breast of its mother with the blade of steel, search into her very entrails, and penetrate into her womb; it is there that you will find our pure matter, having not yet taken on any taint from the bad temperament of its nurse.
He who undertakes our divine work (said Haly) without knowing the hour of its birth, will reap only toil and affliction. Do not take this seed except in its first origin; remember never to attempt it without having the universal spirit or soul of the world, that Saul was one year old when he began to reign. The instrument of art adds nothing new to Nature in its origin.
Nature takes care of her works alone, to form them; and when they are thus formed, art can then assist and agree with this famous Workwoman, to perfect together what she began alone.
Thus the Philosopher, who would find our worthy matter in its source and in its first origin, could not undertake to use it without spoiling the work of Nature, far from giving it the perfection he intends; hence there are no true Philosophers who would wish to undertake it.
It is therefore necessary to take the child which will be formed from our matter when it will still be in the tender age which will give it that docility so necessary to receive the first tincture of a perfect metal.
You will be able easily to raise it, by feeding it with nourishment of the same nature as that with which it has always been fed. If this nourishment is more indigestible than what Nature provided, you must help it to digest these foods by increasing its natural heat with a foreign heat; then it will benefit from it, so that you will know you have taken the right path, and nothing will be able to turn you from it.
I assure you that this child will begin to reign sooner than Saul; for the more skillfully the work is conducted, the more Nature works by itself, and finds a greater ease in completing what it had begun, because art smooths the path for it and removes all the obstacles that could slow its progress.
It is for this reason that Nature, unable by itself to accomplish the Great Work, does not refuse to work together with art, and to go beyond the limits that were prescribed to it, because it no longer finds any difficulty that would cause it to remain at its ordinary end, the boundaries having been lifted.
Let us give thanks to Almighty God, without whose help these marvels could not be accomplished.
End of the second part.
THIRD PART
That the Matter declared in my Second Part is the only one upon which one must work to accomplish the Great Work.
My Child, I am not the only one who has declared to you the true matter; all the Philosophers have written it as well as I, but in terms more obscure and more shadowed. The reason you do not understand their writings is that they have not wished to observe in their books an order which might serve as a means to make them understood; some having begun their treatises at the end of the subject, others in the middle, others with the projection, others by multiplication; another, dealing with the middle and the end of the work, has purposely omitted the beginning. They have all affected a confusion, from which it is nonetheless not impossible to draw all truths; but before you can develop from this chaos, you must read few books, provided they are good; you must read and reread them without becoming discouraged; for if you do not understand them the first time, you will understand them the tenth.
I swear to you, by the faith of a Philosopher, that by this means you will be able to find what you desire: although this way may seem harmful to you, it is nevertheless the shortest, the safest, and the easiest; for all experiences and all practice, without true knowledge and without a perfect theory, will never render you not at all learned in our art. All possible sophistications will teach you nothing. Work according to the intentions of Nature; follow the path she has traced for you, and imitate her in all things. Nature makes one skillful.
Go, sluggard, (says the Sage) take the lesson of an ant; observe her work, and become wise by her example. See how, without having been instructed or taught by any Master, she makes her provision during the Summer for the Winter.
Likewise, go into the mine to examine and perform the anatomy of metal; consider from what matter it is produced, and from what it is formed; there is no seed more suitable for causing the tree of Wisdom to grow and for germinating the fruit of the Philosophers, must therefore be a good gardener who understands how to cultivate this plant.
For this matter should not properly be called seed, but rather root, which must be cultivated and well-tilled to bear fruit. Do not then seek any other matter than this mineral root, which is the true form of metals.
In the vegetable kingdom, every herb, every plant, and every fruit produces its seed, which, once placed in the earth that serves it as its own matrix, alters, decays, rots, and opens by a very gentle digestion produced by external heat, which, through the movement and influence of celestial bodies warming all bodies, causes in them an internal movement, arousing in them this natural heat which consumes the food that is introduced by this external movement, and makes them produce a germ which has the virtue to push forth, to grow, and to multiply.
Here is the true cause of the growth, maturity, and advancement of plants; here is the vegetative soul, and the manner in which Nature governs itself in its ordinary productions. Thus you will be able to know the sperms, the seeds, the roots, and the matters of all things; these sperms and seeds are each produced according to its kind; and each in its turn, being contained in a fertile matrix suited to it, reproduces its species. This takes place through a perpetual cycle and reproduction.
Thus it is that the masculine sperm, encountering in the female a sperm of its own nature, joins with it, incorporates, and unites inseparably together, although they have different qualities—one being warm and moist, and the other cold and dry; one being the agent, and the other the patient. The matrix that contains them is an earth of their nature.
Now, who does not know that nature delights in nature? Thus, this seed being retained in a place where it is pleased to be, it increases by a sanguine moisture, which is brought to it by a gentle and penetrating warmth to sustain it; and, serving it as nourishment, makes it swell and grow.
For this moisture, being digested by the internal warmth of the matrix and by that which it contains within itself, changes into a mean substance, which joins to the seed all the other sanguine humors which it attracts, and of which it makes use to swell and increase an embryo, which comes entirely from the substance of the mother. The male seed serves only to maintain internally the warmth, which, by a coction, renders this humor of its nature, separating and rejecting the heterogeneous humors, which then remain to serve as a warm bath, in which the matrix preserves and finds the warmth it needs for the formation of the animal it contains.
Thus every animal is formed, each having within itself a seed which it produces of itself. Instinct and reason give it the means to place it in a proper location where it can germinate, for the preservation of the species from which it is produced.
You see then, by this reasoning, that it would be in vain for an Artist to undertake to work on the seed of a plant to make an animal, and that he would be still less successful in using the seed of an animal to form a metal. Each kind has its own common matter, which is proper to it and cannot be suited to another kind. Each species has its own particular matter, which gives it a different form. One cannot, therefore, change one kind into another; from an animal one cannot make a metal.
But I do not believe it to be absolutely impossible to convert one species into another, because a seed, being altered by certain accidents, such as by some impurity contracted in the matrix, could well degenerate from the species from which it was produced, and change into another less perfect; and likewise, from the lesser to the greater, by some accident that might ennoble the seed. If this has sometimes occurred, as it is quite certain it has, then the thing is not impossible, but it is indeed very extraordinary.
The Puffers amuse themselves by making alterations, compositions, and mixtures, which they call transmutations. They congeal (so they say) quicksilver, either by amalgamating it with minerals or marcasites through coction, or with metals through fumigation, or by the juice of certain plants through digestion. But let us leave them to their doings; they will not deceive those who have read our books common silver which they have stopped in this manner, which cannot be made again as lively and as fluid as it was before they worked it; this is not true congelation—these are all sophistications, which amuse fools and the ignorant.
The true Children of Science aim only at the great work; that is the end of their desires and the fulfillment of their wishes. Do not amuse yourself with these trifles, my child; it is a waste of your time to extract Mercury from Metals, such as from Lead, Tin, etc. That from Antimony, of which I have seen great claims made, will succeed no better; I tell you this in good faith, and you should believe me, for before having acquired a perfect knowledge of the mineral matter.
I have worked like the others on all these matters, although always against my intention; for I was associated with people who would follow only their own ideas and did not listen at all to mine, to their detriment. I could clearly see that they were in error, and that they were not working on the true matter; for it is not enough to take care not to work on a matter entirely foreign, one must also think of finding the matter that is the closest.
A gardener may well manage, for example, to have a pear tree produce apples and plums; but he will never be able, no matter how great his skill, to make a walnut tree produce pumpkins, a vine to yield cherries, or a fig tree to produce mulberries.
Aristotle assures us that the matter of metals is quicksilver, congealed and cooked by a certain manner of coction. This is still saying nothing; for this quicksilver is not the one sold in shops, though it be as common as water for the learned.
This is what made a great man say that the Philosopher knows our Stone even amidst the dung, and that the ignorant can neither believe nor understand that it is in gold. The Stone perfects itself, and is completed in the sole metallic matter. These words are very true; they are also taken from the Code of Truth.
Other Philosophers affirm that in all the work, one needs only Mercury and fire for the beginning, the middle, and the end.
These passages seem very clear; however, I, who understand them as the one who composed them, since I have three times held in my hands this matter so rare and so common, and have three times completed this blessed Stone, nevertheless do not let yourself be seduced by the apparent sense of these fine words. The truth is indeed contained therein, but in a way that does not allow one to follow these words to the letter.
I find that Avicenna has written more clearly when he says that our matter is gathered from the dung, filth, and rottenness of the Sun and the Moon. Weigh these words well, for in them is contained not only the true matter, but also the whole regimen of the work.
He speaks to a man lulled in deep sleep, who displays before the eyes of the fool the treasures of wisdom - said Solomon.
Therefore, he who will not understand either my words, which are very easy to understand and very true, nor those of all the Philosophers I have mentioned in this work of mine as the most intelligible and the most truthful—such a one, I say, should not hope to find elsewhere what he seeks. Yet let him not despair, for the time will come when the darkness that envelops his understanding will be dispelled through the continual and diligent reading of the true Philosophers.
It is therefore true, without any lie, very certain and most true, that the matter with which one must undertake the transmutation of metals is of pure metallic essence, and that with any other matter one cannot succeed in perfecting the great work therein.
Therefore, you must be persuaded that this quintessence of metals can only be found in their source, where is the pure mineral spirit, acting upon the moist and the dry, by a heat which drives it without ceasing and maintains within it a circular movement throughout all the parts of the dry and the moist. And it is this heat which causes the water to dry, by communicating part of its moisture to an arid and altered earth; it is also by this heat that this earth is moistened, not only outwardly, but it is also inwardly penetrated and watered in all its parts with a nourishing moisture, which enriches it, renders it fertile, and gives it the virtue to produce, to germinate, and to multiply.
Thus is formed the spirit vegetable; it is in this manner that it is maintained, that it is vivified, and that it gives the soul. Now this active, subtle, and rare spirit cannot be extracted in its purity nor in its simplicity; we can neither see nor handle it unless it is clothed in bodily form; but it is of such material forms that, far from resisting the activity of this spirit, they even excite its movement and its action, serving it as a subject to be reduced to the species from which they were produced.
Thus, this spirit, being found in the entrails of the Earth, surrounded by confused qualities of moisture and dryness, and being confined in a space beyond which it cannot pass, because of the metallic bodies, heavy, hard, and opaque, which surround it on all sides, is thus forced to turn back upon itself, and in its revolutions and circular reflections, it detaches and carries away with it some parts of a subtle earth, to which it communicates its movement by penetrating it with its heat.
It is this earth to which the Philosophers have given the name of incombustible Sulphur; and if you examine well its nature, you will find that it can in no way be subjected to the action of fire, since it is nothing but dryness and heat, which are the proper qualities of this element. But as this Sulphur contains within itself the spirit which has given it its quality, it increases its movement in such a way that it renders it violent and rapid, and carries away with it a matter coarser than itself — that which it was charged with, when it had not yet acquired so much strength, this matter is a humidity, which is at first clear and subtle; then there follows another which has soiled itself with some impurities in passing through the veins of metallic earth; this is what makes it thick and viscous.
Now this latter water, or rather this oil, composed of an earth and a water less pure than the first ones, joining with them and slowing the movement of the spirit which penetrates them, forms a thick, heavy, and dense matter, which contains in itself all the qualities proper to receive a metallic form, and which can be pushed and exalted to the supreme degree.
Such is the true Mercury of the Philosophers, which none of them has ever wished to declare openly; it is this matter that Nature gives us all ready to cook and digest, to rot and ferment, to bring it to the state of germinating, pushing, growing, and multiplying; there is in the world only this single matter. Therefore (my Child) you must not seek for any other than this.
This is our double Mercury, this matter white on the outside and red within; it is of this that the Philosophers have spoken when they said that one must whiten the red and redden the white, for the beginning and the end of the work consists only in that. It is in this Mercury that is enclosed the true and genuine Sulphur of the Philosophers, which aids the Artist in perfecting, and without which one would waste one’s time, effort, and his work.
Our Sulphur is not common (say the Philosophers), but it is fixed and does not fly away; it is of a mercurial nature, and of no other.
You see well then (my Child) that I have told you everything, when I have made you know in what manner our Sulphur is enclosed in the belly of Mercury; and that it is rightly called internal Sulphur, hidden Spirit, which is nothing else than heat and dryness, acting upon coldness and humidity; and pure mercurial substance, of which Sulphur is the soul, since it is he who vivifies and sustains the Mercury, which without our Sulphur would be nothing but dead earth, unfruitful and sterile. One is therefore quite right to say that Sulphur and Mercury are the proper and true matter of Metals; but it is not said that the Sulphur and the Mercury are the true matters of the Metals, because it is most certain that this Sulphur cannot be without Mercury, and that our Mercury cannot be without this Sulphur, which is infinitely united and incorporated with it, as the soul is with the body.
Thus, these two names of Mercury and Sulphur are but one and the same matter, which we know under the name of quicksilver, or Mercury. It is the only name that can perfectly suit it, since all the Philosophers have agreed on it. It is the work of the Wise to give names to things, because they knew their qualities, virtues, and properties; the name being (as Plato says) the instrument with which one teaches and discerns the substances of things.
Therefore, to give suitable names to things, one must know them very perfectly; and no one has this perfect knowledge unless he is truly a Philosopher.
Understand then at present that our true matter is not only of the essence of Mercury, but also that it is purely mercurial substance, and that it cannot have any other name suitable to it than that of Mercury.
Thus you see that the Philosophers were right in saying that their Mercury is not common Mercury; that no one can find it on Earth; that it is everywhere and in everything; and yet, nevertheless, it does not manifest itself. All the different expressions no longer need explanation; they do not contradict to anything I have just taught you. Therefore, make manifest what is hidden, and hide what is manifest; I tell you that in this alone consists the whole work of the Sages. Our gum curdles our milk, and our milk dissolves our gum, and they grow together in the Stone of Paradise, which Stone is of two contrary natures, that is to say, of fire and of water.
All that I have written above should have opened your mind to the understanding of the Philosophers; for I have explained everything clearly and have given you to understand what our Sulphur is, which the Philosophers have also called Gum, Oil, Sun, Fixity, Red Stone, Curdled, Saffron, Poppy, Red Laton, Dye, Tincture, Dry, Fire, Spirit, Agent, Soul, Blood, Burnt brass, red man, quicklime.
I have also given you the clear and plain explanation of what the Philosophers call Water, Milk, White covering, White manna, White urine, Cold, Moisture that does not wet, Body, Womb, Moon, White woman, Changing garment, Volatile, Patient, Virginal milk, Lead, Glass, White flower, Flower of salt, Bark, Veil, Poison, Alum, Vitriol, Air, Wind, Rainbow, Cloud, and so many other names, which serve only to make us conceive the qualities, properties, and the two natures of male and female enclosed in our matter, which is nothing other than animated quicksilver; it is that viscous moisture mingled with its earthly part, our Mercury, and the true foundation of all our Science.
It is in this great number of terms that the learned have taken pleasure in writing their opinion concerning our Science. All these names should convince you of the truth of our Science, since they all have but one meaning, and they all have the sole aim of showing us the hermaphroditic Mercury; it is feminine if one considers it as separated from the Sulphur it contains within itself, and of which it is the matter; but it is masculine when considered according to its Sulphur, with which it is so intimately united that it cannot be separated from it; and one can speak of their marriage as if they were both in one same flesh.
It is then that it has this double force which gives it active and passive virtues, and that it can perfect itself by itself. God has preferred (says Solomon) our true Sulphur to all things that are under the Sky. In our Mercury (says a great Philosopher) it is a living and incombustible Sulphur, which accomplishes our work alone, without any other substance than its own proper one.
If this matter is so powerful, why (you will say to me) does it not perfect itself by itself with Nature, seeing that it is in its own matrix, where it finds nourishment from its own substance, and a heat proper to aid the virtue it has to be driven to the last degree of perfection, which is the Philosopher’s Stone?
I am delighted (my Child) that you make me this objection, to instruct you; it is a sign that you are a lover of the Sciences, that you are curious to penetrate and deepen the secrets of Nature, and that you wish to go beyond the knowledge which the reading you have done up to now has given you. But learn that it is only by degrees, with long labor, and much patience, that one can reach the height of wisdom: he who loosens the reins to his desires is no longer master of them thereafter.
Tertullian teaches us that the end of one desire inevitably draws with it the beginning of another. Thus they crowd in when no limits are set to them; they blind the understanding and become entirely the masters of reason: they become disordered; one should then no longer hope for any good outcome.
And David teaches us that a desire of this nature cannot have than a bad end.
I nonetheless wish to satisfy the question you have put to me, which does not seem to me entirely out of place.
The sovereign Ruler of Heaven and Earth, by whose almighty power all things were created, has placed in everything here below virtues, qualities, and powers, such as it pleased infinite Wisdom to bestow, and as He found good; for it does not belong to us to penetrate the secrets of divine Providence, which are beyond the reach and conception of any human understanding. He has therefore prescribed bounds, rules, and limits to all created beings, and even to Nature itself; and it is not in their power to go beyond them.
Thus has the power been limited of Nature in the mineral realm, so that it could not push the seed of Metals beyond the accomplishment of gold, and not beyond that; the Lord having reserved the surplus to Himself, to reward the Just who will have applied themselves to cultivating the Sciences, and to achieving the Tree of Wisdom, whose fruits are the great Elixir, our blessed Stone, and the universal Medicine.
Now (my Child) that your curiosity is satisfied as to what you desired to know, do not burden your mind with Sciences beyond your reach. I have set you on the right path; follow it always, and do not set in your mind to take shortcuts or crossways, thinking to shorten your work and thereby sooner arrive at the end of your desires.
But you are greatly mistaken; for there is no other path than this great road to attain the Great Work. The beginning is a little rough, uneven, and difficult to follow; but the further one goes, the smoother it becomes, and the more beautiful discoveries one makes.
As long as you follow this road, if you cast your gaze to the right and to the left, you will see nothing but beauties and wonders; and if you look behind you, you will realize that the land where you are is a thousand times more pleasant than the one you have passed through. But if you fix your eyes ahead on a land far distant from that which you discover near you, take care not to lose sight, by straining to see things beyond your reach. Always continue to advance along your path, and with time your curiosity will be satisfied.
But if you take any other route, thinking to arrive by your own means at the place you intend to go, I assure you that you will go astray, and the more you advance along these paths, the further you will stray from the great and true road; so that you will find yourself completely lost, and you will no longer be able to resume the true path you had taken at first.
I believe I have explained myself sufficiently on our matter. I have strengthened my reasoning with the authority of the best Philosophers, to make known how the matter upon which one must work to achieve the Great Work is none other than animated Mercury; that there can be nothing else in the whole world but this alone and the unique matter that can serve as a medicine for metals, once it has been brought into operation by a skilled Artist, who, following Nature’s intention in the management of this matter, will lead it without any difficulty to the required perfection.
This is what (my dear Child) I wholeheartedly wish you to achieve. You would already in this life feel a foretaste of the happiness with which God will reward, after this life, those who have worthily fulfilled His divine Law, by worshiping Him in spirit and in truth, and by loving their neighbor as themselves; all Christian and moral virtues being contained in these two articles.
End of the third Part.
FOURTH PART, OR THE GREEN DREAM,
Truthful and veritable, because it contains truth.
In this Dream everything appears sublime; the apparent meaning is not unworthy of that which it hides from us; the truth shines within it with such brilliance that one has no difficulty in discovering it through the veil which was meant to disguise it from us.
The Green Dream
I was buried in a very deep sleep, when it seemed to me that I saw a statue about fifteen feet high, representing a venerable Old Man, beautiful and perfectly well proportioned in all the parts of his body. He had great silver hair all in curls; his eyes were of fine turquoise, in the middle of which were set garnet cabochons, whose brilliance was so dazzling that I could not bear the light. His lips were of gold, his teeth of oriental pearls, and all the rest of his body was made of a very bright ruby. He touched with his left foot an earthly globe, which seemed to support him; having his right arm raised and extended, he seemed to hold, with the tip of his finger, a celestial globe.
Above his head, and in his left hand, he held a key made of a large rough diamond.
This man, approaching me, said: “I am the Genius of the Sages; do not be afraid to follow me.”
Then, taking me by the hair with the hand in which he held the key, he carried me off and made me pass through the three regions of Air, that of Fire, and the Heavens of all the Planets.
He took me far beyond that; then, having wrapped me in a whirlwind, he disappeared, and I found myself on a floating island on a Sea of blood.
Surprised to be in such a distant land, I walked along the shore; and considering this Sea with great attention, I recognized that the blood of which it was composed was living and very warm. I even noticed that a very gentle wind stirred it ceaselessly, maintained its warmth, and caused in this Sea a bubbling that produced over the whole Island a movement almost imperceptible.
Enraptured with admiration at seeing such extraordinary things, I was reflecting upon so many marvels when I perceived several people on my side. At first, I imagined they might wish to mistreat me, and I slipped under a heap of jasmines to hide; but their scent having lulled me to sleep, they found me and seized me.
The largest of the group, who seemed to command the others, asked me with a proud air what had made me so bold as to come from the lowlands into this very high Empire. I told him in what manner I had been transported there.
Immediately this man changing suddenly his tone, air, and manners, said to me: “Welcome, you who were brought here by our most high and mighty Genius.” Then he saluted me, and all the others followed suit in the manner of their country, which is to lie flat on their backs, then turn onto their stomachs, and rise again. I returned their salute, but according to the custom of my own country.
He promised to present me to the Hagaceftaür, who is their Emperor. He asked me to excuse him for not having a carriage to take me to the city, from which we were about a good league distant. Along the way, he spoke to me of the power and greatness of their Hagaceftaür, saying that he possessed seven kingdoms, having chosen this one, which was in the middle of the other six, to make his ressidence.
As he noticed that I was having difficulty walking over lilies, roses, jasmines, carnations, tuberoses, and an extraordinary quantity of the most beautiful and curious flowers, which grew even in the paths, he asked me with a smile if I was afraid of harming these plants. I replied that I well knew they had no sensitive soul, but that, since they were very rare in my country, I felt a reluctance to tread on them.
Not seeing anywhere in the countryside any fields of flowers or fruits, I asked him where they sowed their grains. He replied that they did not sow them, but that, as they were found in abundance in the barren lands, the Hagacestaure had the greater part of it thrown into our lowlands to please us, and the animals ate what was left.
As for them, they made their bread from the most beautiful flowers, kneading them with the dew and baking them in the sun.
As I saw all around me such a prodigious quantity of very beautiful fruits, I was curious to pick some pears to taste them; but he tried to stop me, telling me that only the animals ate them.
However, I found them to have an admirable taste.
He then offered me peaches, melons, and figs; such as have never been seen in Provence, throughout Italy, nor in Greece — fruits of such exquisite flavor.
He swore to me by the Hagacestaure that these fruits came from themselves, and that they were in no way cultivated, assuring me that they ate nothing else with their bread.
I asked him how they could preserve these flowers and fruits during the winter. He told me that they knew nothing of winter; that their years had only three seasons, namely Spring, Summer, and that from these two seasons was formed the third, namely Autumn, which contained within the body of the fruits the spirit of Spring, and the soul of Summer; and that it was during this season that they harvested grapes and pomegranates, which were the best fruits of the country.
He seemed very surprised when I told him that we ate beef, mutton, game, fish, and other meats, animals.
He told me that we must surely have very dull minds, since we made use of such material foods.
It did not bother me at all to learn about such beautiful and curious things, and I listened to them with great attention; but being warned to look upon the appearance of the City, from which we were only about two hundred steps away, I had scarcely lifted my eyes to see it when I saw nothing more, and I became blind; at which my guide began to laugh, and his companions as well.
The vexation of seeing that these gentlemen amused themselves at my misfortune caused me more distress than the misfortune itself.
Perceiving then that their manners did not please me, the one who had always taken care to converse with me consoled me by telling me to have a little patience, and that I would see clearly again in a moment.
Then he went to fetch an herb with which he rubbed my eyes, and I immediately saw the light and brilliance of that superb City, all of whose houses were made of crystal so pure that the Sun shone through them continually; for in that Island it was never night.
They did not wish to allow me to enter any of these houses, but I could see what happened inside through the walls, which were transparent.
I examined the first house; they were all built to the same design. I noticed that their dwellings consisted of only a single floor, made up of three apartments, each apartment having several rooms and cabinets on the same level.
In the first apartment there appeared a hall adorned with a damask tapestry entirely interwoven with gold braid, bordered with a similar gold fringe; the background color of this fabric was a shimmering mix of red and green, enhanced with very fine silver, the whole covered with white gauze. Next were some cabinets adorned with jewels of various colors; then there was a room entirely furnished in beautiful black velvet, interwoven with several bands of very black and very glossy satin, all enhanced with work in jays, whose blackness shone and glittered greatly.
In the second apartment there was a room draped in white watered moire, enriched and embellished with seed pearls of the finest oriental quality. Then there were several cabinets.
adorned with furniture of various colors, such as blue satin, violet damask, citrine moire, and crimson taffeta.
In the third apartment there was a room decorated with a very dazzling fabric, of purple with a gold background, more beautiful and richer beyond comparison than all the other fabrics I had seen.
I inquired where the master and mistress of the house were: I was told they were hidden at the back of this room, and that they were to pass into another, more distant one, which was separated from this one only by some communicating cabinets, the furniture of these cabinets being of entirely different colors — some with a carpet of isabella color, others of citrine moire, and others of a brocade of gold, very pure and very fine.
I could not see the fourth apartment, because it was said to be separate from the main building; but I was told that it consisted only of a room whose furnishings were nothing but a fabric woven from the purest and most concentrated rays of the Sun, set into that purple fabric I had just been looking at.
After having seen all these curiosities, I was told how marriages were made among the inhabitants of this island. The Hagacestaure, having a perfect knowledge of the humors and temperament of all his subjects, from the greatest to the least, would gather the closest relatives and place together a young, pure, and clean girl with a good, healthy, and vigorous old man; then he would purge and purify the girl, washes and cleans the old man, who presents his hand to the girl, and the girl takes the old man’s hand.
Then they are led into one of these dwellings, whose door is sealed with the same materials with which the dwelling was built; and they must remain thus enclosed together for nine full months, during which time they make all those beautiful furnishings that I had been shown.
At the end of this term, they both come out united in a single body; and having now but one soul, they are nothing more than one being, whose power is very great upon the Earth. The Hagacestaure then uses them to convert all the wicked people who are in his seven kingdoms, others, where there are four statues as ancient as the world, the one placed in the middle being the powerful Seganissegede, who had transported me to this island.
The other three, forming a triangle around the first, are three women, namely Ellugaté, Linemalore, and Tripsarecopsem.
I had also been promised that I would be shown the temple where stands the image of their Divinity, which they call Eleselvassergusine. But as the roosters began to crow, the shepherds led their flocks to the fields, and the laborers, harnessing their carts, made such a great noise that I awoke, and my dream vanished entirely, hardly able to console myself, when I reflect on this celestial empire, where the Almighty appears seated upon His throne, surrounded by glory and accompanied by Angels, Archangels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Thrones, and Dominations.
It is there that we shall see what the eye has never seen, that we shall hear what the ear has never heard, for it is in this place that we must taste eternal happiness, which God Himself has promised to all those who strive to make themselves worthy of it, all having been created to partake of this glory. Let us therefore make all our efforts to deserve it.
Praised be God.
End of the Green Dream.
Extract from the Royal Privilege
By the Grace and Privilege of the King, granted at Saint Germain en Laye on the 2nd day of December 1672, signed Dalence: Permission is given to Sieur Charles Angot to print the books of Hermes, of Geber, of Artephius, of Trevisan, of Basile, of Arnaud de Villeneuve, and other alchemical treatises, for a period of nine years; with prohibition to all booksellers and others to print said books, under the penalties stated in the original of the present extract.
The said Sieur Angot has ceded his right of privilege to Laurent d’Houry, also bookseller in Paris.
Registered in the Book of the Community of Printers and Booksellers of Paris.
Signed, D. Thierry, Syndic.
Completed printing for the first time on the 4th of November 1694.