A very ancient and truly golden chymical treatise - Tractatus chymicus antiquissimus & vere aureus
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AN ANCIENT
AND TRULY
GOLDEN CHEMICAL TREATISE,
IN WHICH ONE MAY
OBSERVE
THE FOUNDATIONS
OF TRUE CHEMISTRY,
AS WELL AS THE MOST TRUE
HERMETIC FIGURE,
AND
THE EASIEST WAY TO THE
UNIVERSAL MEDICINE,
WITH FOUR CURIOUS
LETTERS
BY A CERTAIN ADEPT,
BROUGHT TO LIGHT BY A LOVER
OF TRUE CHEMISTRY.
AUGSBURG
Published by DAVID REYMUND MERTZ, and JOANN
JACOB MAYER, 1721.
Translated from the book:
Tractatus chymicus antiquissimus & vere aureus, Anonymous - 1721
DEDICATORY EPISTLE.
To the Venerable and by GOD
Enlightened Brotherhood of the Rose Cross.
Venerable and God-enlightened men, by a special divine direction, the following little chemical treatise, which is very ancient and truly golden, has come into my hands. I do not doubt that its author is one of your Brotherhood; for this reason I also send it to the press under your name and protection, before the eyes of the whole world.
As a symbol of true, sincere, and perpetual love, and as a testimony of my veneration, I dedicate, offer, and vow this work to you. I hope you will receive it with a gracious countenance. I hand it over to your most wise judgment, not so that you might learn anything from it, because you are otherwise adorned with all wisdom and the entire monarchy of secrets, but so that you may reveal your judgment regarding this little treatise.
In the meantime, I do not fear that anyone could easily grasp this art from such a clear little treatise. Because of our hidden subtleties during the work, it is a Great Secret. It will certainly remain a secret to all those to whom God, out of His divine foreknowledge, refuses this knowledge. For He alone, who knows the hearts and minds of men to their very marrow, grants and withholds this art from whom He wills.
As for those who mock this philosophy, let them value this little treatise as they wish. I publish it only for those who receive and venerate the secrets of God.
However, you, O Illuminated Brothers, if you should deign to open your judgment of this little treatise to me, you may write to me from anywhere in the world by post. Let the letters be directed only with the first initial letters of my name and surname, subscribed below, to Augsburg, to Mr. Oberberg, Secretary of the Post. He has instructions to transmit them to me wherever I may be.
Making an end to these things, I pray from the center of my heart that the most benign Father of Lights, from whom every good and perfect gift descends from heaven and is disposed wonderfully, or beyond our grasp, may keep you for the longest time to the praise of His name, and daily more and more adorn you with the increase of all happiness.
20 December in the Year
DeVs sIt VobIs oMnIbVs
fortIs proteCtor In Centro
The capitalized letters in this Latin phrase form a chronogram for the year 1721: D=500, V=5, I=1, V=5, I=1, V=5, M=1000, I=1, V=5, I=1, C=100, I=1, C=100. The sentence translates as: May God be a strong protector to you all in the Center.
Your Reverence's
Most Observant
M. I. D. M.
M. D.
Preface to the Reader.
Do not think, benevolent reader, that this little writing is merely pure speculation and contains no effect within itself. Not at all. Rather, it contains fundamental things. I myself have seen and experienced these with the eyes of my own experience, through chemical study both practical and theoretical over many years.
Nor was almost unheard-of, and even no small persecution, able to prevent me, by the grace of God, from finally attaining this profound science in the matter itself. Much less should you believe that I seek an occasion for making myself great before this wicked age. Let this be for the sole glory of God, and then for faithful physicians. These men also desire the benefit of the needy and miserably sick, and labor in this matter so that, with a safe conscience toward God and their neighbor, they might pass their lives honestly within their station.
Consider this a very useful instruction for returning from a misleading path to the right track. Carefully compare, if you please, Basil, Paracelsus, and van Helmont. You will find my subject, as well as the preparation of the menstruum, well explained. Be diligent, be patient, lest you be worn out by the usual weariness in these most divine labors. I especially warn you regarding your Christianity, lest you forget the power of prayers and good intention in transferring this gift, and then you will not go astray.
For the rest, if you think anything is lacking, I will assist you with some clarification. If God should wish to bless you with this His peculiar gift, since it is in His hand alone, I do not doubt that you will find it more easily than hoped. Farewell, and consider these brief pages of my mind in a broader and fairer way.
The form of True Chemistry for obtaining the Philosophers’ Stone, the Drinkable Gold, and the Universal Tincture itself, consists in the genuine and radical solution of the subjects and their coagulation. These contain the specific Mercury for reviving metals and the gold-making seed.
For these, two menstruums, namely the Most Universal and the Universal, are required.
The Most Universal itself resolves all minerals, metals, and vegetables into their first being and their astral essence. It does this without destroying the virtue of the vegetable things.
And although this solvent, by universal reasoning, resolves anything into its essence, it nevertheless always obtains equal strength in its operation. It does not take anything away from the dissolved thing in the process of drawing it out, nor does it leave any remainder in it, unless the industry of the operator permits it.
When this Most Universal Solvent dissolves that subject which has within it the specific concentrated Mercury for the Tinctures of Metals, it is resolved into its first being. From that, the Universal Metallic Solvent is made.
Afterward, this not only radically resolves metals, extracts the gold-making seed, leads it from potentiality into action, and vivifies it, but also unites with them even to the smallest degree. It regenerates and coagulates them so that it may lead them back, as it indeed does, to a higher state of perfection.
From this it is clear how enormously the common crowd of chemists has wandered until now. They do not accurately distinguish between the salts. They cannot do without the use of them, not indeed for tinting metals, since they are clearly invalid for producing this effect, but for dissolving them. Indeed, deviating from the legitimate preparation, they have led them into corrosive spirits, by which they clearly and falsely persuaded themselves that their solutions were effective.
But since each and every sharp and violent solution is harmful, because such solutions destroy the germinative seed, even if the things to be dissolved were reduced to water in their external appearance by their force, nevertheless, because the same things are again bodily precipitated by the addition of common water, spirit of wine, salt of tartar, common salt, or other metals, they must therefore be entirely removed from the Chemical Republic.
This shows itself more than enough through strong waters in the solutions of gold, silver, mercury, and antimony.
For when the corrosive is separated, the metals lie in their metallic form. But antimony appears before the eyes like a white powder, or the so-called Mercury of Life. This, with the application of tartar and nitre, can easily be changed into a regulus. However, the regulus, with sulfur, can be changed by melting into antimony, which is useful for all preceding labors.
Nor does it help at all that the substance was previously macerated and anxiously treated with sublimed mercury, common liquors of mercury, and other sharp materials.
Furthermore, that crowd of chemists wanders as far as the whole sky regarding particulars, while the generation of metals is unknown to them.
For the correction of metals consists in pure, fixed, solar or lunar sulfur in the metallic state. This is because it is required to be established in such a way, or to be more than perfect. Only then can it serve for a particular or universal benefit.
But you must believe me that with the help of sulfur from external or waste minerals, nothing will be achieved in the transmutations of metals without the Most Universal Menstruum or a universal one.
The generation of metals in the bowels of the earth happens by the action of a mercurial vapor. This vapor is cooked by the power of a mountain fire until it turns into a thick water. Once this is done, it is specifically determined to be this or that metal according to the quality of the attracted sulfur, whether pure or impure. In this way, metals are created.
However, it happens that this mercurial vapor, or mineral breath, is sometimes found to be impure. This is especially seen in Venus and Mars, that is, copper and iron. Even though their sulfur contains something of the Sun, that is, of gold, they are nevertheless reduced by its heat too quickly to a metallic form, making them impure and subject to destruction.
Now, once their solar metallic sulfur has been extracted and made fixed through union, this is done by both the universal way, which proceeds with the Universal Menstruum, and the particular way. This second method is entirely easy and is achieved in a short span of time. It is carried out quite gently, signaled by the appearance of various colors. Then the fruit can be harvested both particularly and universally. Indeed, the sulfurs of the Sun and Moon, that is, of gold and silver, prepared in this way extend their power far and wide.
The Most Universal Menstruum is extracted from a subject revealed sufficiently by Basil, Paracelsus, Helmont, and others. God has so disposed this subject, placed within common nature, that it is able to separate itself from all superfluities. It can ripen and raise itself to such solvent powers in itself and from itself, without any external help except fire alone.
For it contains the true Salt of Nature found in all natural beings. Yet it has no commerce with other salts, such as common nitre, alum, or vitriol, which it expels and renders specific.
It also contains within itself our Central Salt. This salt preserves all things and causes them to live, grow, increase, and germinate.
Because nature performs its works and brings them to light in the most gentle way, and never by force or violence, this matter also requires a similarly friendly path for its preparation.
Nature does not hasten the birth of its fruits and offspring, whether inside or outside the earth, faster than the order measured by the most wise Divinity. Instead, it nourishes everything in its own time. Nature enjoys a pattern of slow, gentle movements. By the grace of this spiritual spirit, it does not abandon the heavenly steps of its slow modesty. If it did, it would plunge from the highest points into a state too hasty and immodest. It would overwhelm itself by the measure and weight of its own most wise and prudent delay. This little fire of divine freedom is most like its own golden power.
Putrefaction is the most powerful operation of this work, just as it is for all of nature, leading toward a new birth.
Once the union of the volatile with the fixed is completed, and that fixed thing has been made volatile through the volatile part, the Philosophical Rainwater is separated. Then the Most Universal Solvent appears at the right time. It is liquid under a volatile and gentle heat.
It is soluble in all liquids and, according to its order, is most gentle and free from all corrosion or salty acidity.
This way of preparation is as different from all other common chemical labors as day is from night.
It is a method that requires the highest degree of effort, study, and industry beyond all measure. Add to this a long stretch of time. Add also the special secret stratagems, such as the manual practice of operating. This is not easily grasped by the left or right hand of every supposed worker. For this reason, the first labor must rightfully be called the labor of Hercules.
Along with this, the seed or sulfur of gold used for ferment is drawn from the solar metallic body. It possesses a very pleasant sweetness and is reddish in color. It does not allow itself to be separated back into its original form. It is alive and volatile. If you tried to force it, it would rise together over the alembic. Finally, it is the essential substance itself made drinkable.
Just as the Salt of Nature, with the help of the Central Salt, gently refreshes, enlivens, and causes all beings to grow with which it is united, it also matures them. By the benefit of external natural fire, it promotes them to perfection.
In the same way, the Philosophical Salt resolves, purifies, separates, revives, and reduces all bodies—animal, mineral, metallic, and vegetable—into their essences. Not only this, but it makes them better. It improves each one according to its species and capacity as much as nature allows. Otherwise, the resuscitation of animals would follow, which God has reserved for His Omnipotence alone. It improves them so that it places them in a much worthier state, which is more than perfect.
Furthermore, it should be known that although this solvent resolves not only the essential sulfurs of the subjects, but also the subjects themselves into spiritual forms, it by no means unites itself to them for the tinting of metals in the smallest degree. Rather, after it has produced those essential substances, it separates itself again. Since it remains constantly in the power and vigor of its strength, it is easy to see that it can be used for many such labors. It joins nothing to the metals except what is mercurial at the root.
Since these things are so, the spiritual sulfur, or the seed of Gold, is required for the true Drinkable Gold, the Universal Medicine, and the Philosophers’ Stone itself. This is the Mercury that is essentially first, required in the correct proportion for union and fixation.
For as long as the subjects are not opened and reduced into their essences in a philosophical manner, they are dead, useless bodies. They can neither act upon each other nor possess the power to improve.
From this it follows that neither Drinkable Gold, the Azoth of Paracelsus, nor the Tincture of the Physicians can be acquired.
And because antimony is called the Prince of Minerals, it carries with it the most excellent mineral Mercury. A hundredth part of a grain of its mercurial spirit can provide a full purging. Because of the kindness of this solvent, the most desired Essential Oil of Antimony can be made. This itself, alongside Drinkable Gold and the already mentioned Tincture of the Philosophers, is the supreme medicine.
And while this solvent yields nothing in the power of its operation to the most noble liquor Alkaest of Paracelsus and Helmont, but is even similar to it, the Element of Fire of Venus, celebrated throughout the world, can also be obtained by its helping powers.
Furthermore, the immature Electrum of the minerals is the same as the first metal of Paracelsus. If it is first separated from its combustible mountain extreme and its internal immature metallic sulfur, which adapts itself to all metals, it is resolved into its first being by the aid of this same work.
Therefore, any Mercury, whether of the bodies or of the common kind, easily allows itself to be reduced without the destruction of its form and powers. It first turns into a pale color and a mucilaginous slime. Then it becomes a clear, heavy, and grave essential liquor, which also joins itself inseparably with all metals.
It is worthy of note that when the essences of metals and minerals are ready through this medium, they must first be applied to the tincture. The solvent must be separated from them again. Only the pure red blood of the Lion should be joined with the mercurial juice, which is the glue of the Eagle. This must then be coagulated and fixed through the whole physical process.
However, if you wish to use these essences in the practice of medicine, omitting the preceding coagulation and fixation, they can be left joined with great benefit. Indeed, in certain diseases, such as those of the liver and lungs, dropsy, melancholy, and all kinds of ulcers, a most excellent medicine emerges. This should certainly be recommended to all physicians who have a heart for faithful healing.
Whenever any Mercury, whether common or of the bodies, is resolved into a sweet and constant liquor by those salts that are closest to nature, in the legitimate proportion and with the true spirit of wine, it is no small part of chemistry. Each time this happens, the same solvent is obtained. By its power, it can bring about great things for effect and human use.
From these things reviewed here, any experienced artist can see with his own eyes the foundations of true chemistry, as opposed to the common and false kind. He can grasp how to aspire to the Universal Medicine, both for humans and for metals. I have revealed this instruction in such a way as the unworthiness of the unworthy allowed.
Use these things, benevolent reader, but do not abuse them for the foolish pride of the children of Eve, or for the forbidden splendor of palaces, the foul arrogance of haughty brows, the doubtful guide of the eyes, and those remaining terrors of a conquered conscience. Nor should you use them for the delights of that most beautiful Virgin, who is the beautiful but fascinating bride of Satan, along with all those things which the poor and wretched demon sought in her, found in her, doted upon, and perished by. I ask that you do not use more of these impure or unrefined things in a sinister way.
But on the contrary, enjoy them blessedly in a faith similar to the Art, that is, in true inward confidence in Christ, with fear and trembling: certain, beautiful, and moreover like a Lion trodden in the winepress for us, and this to the glory of God the inventor, and for the sweetest fruit of one’s infirm neighbor. Thus here, in casting out the pride of both ash and earthly dust, you will safely take up Christian humility upon the shoulders of the most submissive Cross with glory, which you will continue there in the beatific vision of the immaculate Lamb, tinted with His own blood, triumphing in an eternal motion.
Farewell, benevolent reader, and finally, with these benevolent liquors of celestial sweetnesses, while you live as earth upon the earth, for restored solace until your very last breath, by tasting beforehand the honey of life without the gall of the heart, may you be abundantly inebriated.
There are also other ways, among which the following is the easiest, for preparing the Universal Medicine. This is done namely by the Magnet, specifically by our Astral Steel, which is tartar, by dissolving, coagulating, and calcining it seven times. In its own kind, this is potentially our Sun and Moon in their virtue.
Through these external operations, it most excellently acquires magnetic attracting powers, bringing our most secret crystalline fire, that is, our earth, once the qualities of the Elements have been previously separated by nature. This occurs through the three apparent principles of Nature, which happens invisibly, through months, days, and hours, in heat and cold. Through continuous motion and alteration, these things acquire an invisible yet visible way within the matter itself, in a closed astral glass, and it can be perfected.
This can be done with tartar alone or with its own spirit, which nevertheless must not lack all phlegm, using three parts of spirit to one of salt. This Virgin Earth can eventually heal all metallic and human diseases in a wonderful way.
Note that the air is the vessel which contains all things, life and death. It is the very thing, all and universal, the most general genus. Fire first passes into air, air passes into water, water passes into earth, the most noble fifth essence, which is our congealed water sought by many but found by few. This is operated by the aerial fire alone through alteration, for by alteration the Elements are converted one into another.
Therefore, fix the earth and water as visible Elements, so that the air, as a most subtle crystalline spirit, can be fixed and rendered visible in the water. For our dry water, or our Virgin Earth, appears and is congealed in the Sun and Moon, that is, in the course of the Sun and Moon.
Our water is congealed potentially through the four seasons of the year and the contrary operations of the Elements and their qualities. For the perpetual heat existing in the matter and the air moves the water; the heat, that is, the motion of the air, moves our water, so that it becomes now cold, now hot, now lukewarm. And that motion and the regimen of fire through the seasons of the year, through months, days, and nights, through cold and warm, because it is the radical element and the spirit of the whole, contains within itself the most secret spiritual earthly fire.
This Virgin Earth can wonderfully cure all metallic and human diseases. The dose of it is very small, but its virtue is most excellent. You should hold this as the highest secret revealed by me, giving thanks to Almighty God.
Francisco F. R. C.
In the Year 1214 after the
divine Birth.
The ignorant man, who does not understand these things,
criticizes them;
The learned man laughs at these
Great Mysteries;
Thus let both proceed: but one is a Fool and
the other a Simpleton.
To the Curious Reader!
The whole and genuine process from the matter of the aforementioned Antonius, as well as the clarification to the First Golden Treatise, together with the preparation of the Essential Oil of Antimony, along with other most ancient, most secret, and most excellent chemical and medical manuscripts, are in my hands.
Just as these came to me through great labors, travels, and expenses, so it is not permitted to reveal them to the unworthy as much as to the worthy. However, I will not neglect to communicate them to the true Sons of the Art and curious lovers under certain conditions.
To the most perfectly illustrious Lord, sworn advocate throughout the Kingdom of Hungary.
Since I have perceived that you have protected my friend in a difficult cause, and have fought with Herculean labor, and also that you, a son of the Art, are thinking of entering the labyrinth of Chemistry, and that you thirst for this inexhaustible sea and wish to drink, I wanted to repay the protection provided to my friend by giving you the thread of Ariadne, by which you may pass through this labyrinth, and to hold out a shell with which you may exhaust this sea, though not its rivers.
Some go to the sacred rites with unwashed hands, as Bernard says, by taking up chemical labors before they know the matter, which they should recognize as that red earth from the Garden of Eden, in which and from which the perfect Adam was created.
This matter, however, now defiled by Original Sin, grows black; therefore it must be purified by the Artist, cleansed, and brought back to the first redness.
Therefore, as a first token of our friendship, I advise you, noble Lord, to read thoroughly The Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King by Philalethes. Then I shall lead you to those things which the Most High has allowed me to see and to touch.
For what will those do who, like owls flapping at coals, consume themselves in ignorance of the true matter? Even Pontanus admitted to erring two hundred times regarding the true matter. Others squander their wealth instead of finding the Stone; instead of gold, they procure only smoke and hunger; and instead of health, they bring about their own death.
Sendivogius indeed says that in the air there is a spirit which, once coagulated, is superior to all the riches of the world.
The Emerald Tablet speaks even more clearly: its father is the Sun, its mother the Moon, the winds carried it in their belly, and the Earth is its nurse.
If, therefore, the winds carried this Archaeus, that is, this hidden formative spirit of nature, in their belly, this spirit did not produce the ores and mountains of gold in the open air. This spirit, begotten by the winds, was poured into the center of the earth.
While the earth acted as its nurse, Nature nourished this newborn offspring with the sulfurs of a golden nature, as if with milk. She raised it and brought it to maturity, and then that Hermaphrodite also generated metallic offspring. This is the way Nature works.
Imitate Nature, therefore, and let us not do violence to her. Nature begins the work, and Art perfects it.
A human being lives at first on the impure blood of the mother, and then on milk. This Archaeus is at first saturated with impure sulfurs until the volatile substance passes into a fixed state. It is born in summer while winter comes upon it; for unless this egg were sealed by winter to retain the precious vapor, this offspring would die at its very beginning.
Therefore, after the impure sulfurs, you must soak your work with philosophical milk; an egg that is even slightly cracked will never produce a new chick.
Greed binds the common people to the literal sense: they immediately want to dissolve common gold, or to fix common mercury, but the living spirit is not in those. Once metals are dug out from the mine, they are tortured by the fire of the furnaces, and immediately the active spirit departs from them. Thus, our metals are made into dead corpses.
Metals lose their soul when they are widowed of this active spirit. Our Mercury is a clever, moist thing, and it joins the Sun and Moon to these. It is entirely golden and silvery, one in three and three in one. It is the radical moisture and the animated seed of metals.
Even if it is closed by nature in the strongest prison, it must nevertheless be taken out from there by the industry of Art. Indeed, Art, by means of a vaporous fire, purifies the paths leading to the chamber. Thus, what nature itself could not do, it completes when aided by Art.
Then our Mercury breaks the chains by which it was bound. In this Mercury, the gold and the Moon of Philosophy are united, and thus it is the true seed of the Sun and the Moon.
However, every common seed is useless unless it putrefies, for corruption must precede generation. Putrefaction, moreover, consists in blackness. Thus, if we do not produce blackness before we whiten, we shall produce nothing but mere abortions, and we shall be “washing the Ethiopian white.”
Those who act otherwise are like moths around a candle. Hermes uses no burning coals.
This matter is before the eyes of everyone; it is very cheap, and even the poor possess it. In it, the Sun and Moon are present philosophically in act, while in potentiality it contains common gold and silver. From it, the wise Artist knows how to draw out all seven metals.
So much for the Matter; next, more concerning the Philosophical Water.
The servant of the
Most Illustrious Lord,
Antonius a Terra.
Most Illustrious Lord,
Sworn Advocate, and most
Worshipful Friend.
I wrote a few things previously for your first acquaintance with the Primary Matter. If you had perceived my words well, I would have advanced my foot further and dipped my pen not into ink, but into Philosophical Water.
But it seems necessary to me that I still send this letter to you, Illustrious Lord, discussing the Primary Matter.
One kind of Matter is indeed everywhere, but it is “particular,” from which even a Universal Tincture can be made. But there is another Matter which is everywhere and is “Universal,” from which the Most Universal Tincture can be made.
Both Matters are everywhere, yet more in one region than in another, and more at one time than another. Therefore, I will always send letters to the Illustrious Lord. But after two years, I hope to see Vienna, so that, if there be peace, I may travel into Hungary, to see that fatherland in which the Archaeus especially flourishes, to be recognized because of the abundance of minerals, the excellence of the wine, and the fertility of the soil.
The “particular” matter is specific, but the “Universal” matter is not specified; rather, it is a species without a specific form—that is, it is generic or universal.
In a word, both Matters behave just as solar rays do. If those rays fall into the matrix or ferment of a vine, they make the vine grow, and those rays become “particularized,” or specified. If they fall into marjoram, they become marjoram and make it grow, and they will no longer animate any other vegetable.
If those solar rays fall into a mine of gold, they are also golden, but specified. If they fall into iron, they are Martial, that is, iron-like or belonging to Mars. In the air, these rays are Universal, the offspring of the Sun.
In the air resides the spirit of Sendivogius which, when coagulated, is worth more than all the riches of the world. It is the universal offspring of the Moon. From both of these comes the Mercury of the Philosophers, which I know how to attract from the air in three ways. This is the doubled, animated Mercury.
It is not necessary for a Philosopher to know these ways of making “Magnets” to attract this double spirit. It will be enough to know and recognize that natural Magnet, that Magnesia, that Adamic Earth from the Garden of Eden, which is not golden, not silvery, not metallic, nor vegetable. It is not specific but Universal.
Then the Philosopher will easily know how to draw out from this Universal Matter that double Universal Mercury, which is neither specific nor specified.
From Astrological Chemistry let the matter be made clear: God, by operating universally, created the entire Universe from Chaos within six days. Within six days He established the Planets, and on the seventh day God rested. Yet neither labor nor rest can properly be ascribed to God.
What then? Let us explain the Universal work of God through the specific work of the alchemical “Particularists.” These people take metals for their Chaos; from there they make a Regulus, which contains some seed of the metals. This is not Universal but specific, and from it, dross is produced naturally.
It is a pity, however, that they use this word “dross.” In their specific or particular labor, these philosopher-particularists should call these substances not dross, but the “flowers” or the “fifth essence” of the Regulus, just as the cream floats upon the milk.
These Particularists learned such terms from the apothecaries, who call the lees of wine “concentrated and crystallized substance of wine.” What a bad name! Why also do they not call white sugar the “dross of sugar”?
Therefore, if God created the world of the six planets within six days and rested on the seventh day, it was because the dross, to use this improper word, or the “Seventh Planet,” emerged of its own accord, which contains the Universal seed, not a specified one. From this Planet, the Philosopher will be able to draw out the double mercurial spirit.
One characteristic sign of this Magnesia, or “Seventh Planet,” is that, when dissolved in the Most Universal spirit, Azoth, it represents the six days of Creation in the glass before one’s eyes during the first solution.
Another characteristic sign is that if a few grains of the Stone thus made universally are projected upon a Regulus melted from seven metals, all the stars of the entire firmament appear on the upper surface of its vessel, whose image disappears after half an hour.
There are countless other true characteristics of the Universal Matter. Those who do not use this Seventh Planet enter upon their labor specifically or particularly; those who use this Magnesia imitate the example of the Almighty creating the World.
Those who begin the business with this Universal work do not immediately transform metals in the first operation, or their tincture only transforms fourteen parts for every one part of the tincture.
The Particularists can indeed violently heal many diseases, but the Universalists can even renew their old age. Universalists, by their Stone, know how to make an “animated electrum” from the Stone, which is the work of light and the center of the Universe. From this, all people can, if they wish, easily learn the sciences, which the Particularists can in no way achieve.
Concerning the Philosophical Water: I received your letters sent to me at Nuremberg while I was at Augsburg, from where he writes in the year 1712, on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of May, that is, April 18, 1712.
Noble and Most Illustrious Lord,
Antonius a Terra 🜃.
Highly Illustrious Lord,
From Innsbruck, on the Nones
of June, 1712.
I have delayed writing these things, because before I wrote more clearly, I wished to test through the Cabala whether you would communicate my letters to anyone.
You showed my letters to a certain physician, who read them with disgust; because he considers chrysopoeia, that is, the making of gold, to be impossible, he prepares only medicines and neglects metallic works. But if this physician knew the favorable aspect of his planets, he would change his mind very quickly.
I knew that physician in Hamburg. You never gave him a copy of my letters, but you did give them to a certain Reverend Parish Priest, who read them greedily. He wished them to be clearer, as if I ought to write for apothecaries and not for the “sons of Art,” such as he is one. Yet he catches the birds of Hermes, not by the head, wings, or feet, but by the tail, which these birds leave in his hand while they themselves fly away.
I shall speak to one of these two gentlemen when I reach Vienna. The other, however, will be gravely ill when I am in Vienna, but I will give him medicine as an unknown person. Both were born under Jupiter.
You, however, Highly Illustrious Lord, I intend to take with me as my guide into Hungary by the “Blessed Stone,” which is the work of light. If you reject Chemistry, I will reveal to you the most fertile mines of Hungary, as yet untouched and unknown to you, and how to work them with very little effort and the greatest profit.
I truly intend to prepare the Stone for the seventh time in Hungary, for I have already worked it six times. Because Hungary is a most fertile region, as can be seen in its wines and minerals, there will be a greater abundance of the spirit of the world. For the Archaeus, that is, the hidden formative spirit of nature, is fewer and rarer the further regions recede from the temperate zones.
In Egypt, I could coagulate no Archaeus; in Spain, a little; in Italy and also in France, more; in two places in Germany, a sufficient amount; but it is most abundant in Switzerland. Nevertheless, I most desire to see Hungary through the minerals recently dug from the mines.
Note: having not yet passed through fire, I will exhibit wonders which the world would never believe.
Concerning Tokay wine: after I have concentrated it, I would even be willing to carry a hundred urns of it in my pouch. It will be the greatest pleasure for me in coagulating the Archaeus called forth from the air for the preparation of the Tincture.
Through the Tincture I have extended and prolonged my life beyond the power and virtue of the Elements, for I have reached and am born for several hundred years. But the Tincture cannot break or slow the force of the Stars. Therefore, when after thirty-five years the power and virtue of the Elements have grown faint, because the term of my Planets is already finished, my three principles will be dissolved by the Divine Chemist: the body will rot in the earth, the spirit will seek the Stars, and the immortal soul will pant for divinity.
Thinking on this, so that I do not bury everything in the earth, I will reveal many things to three “sons of Art” when I arrive in Vienna. Once the Stone is finished, I will visit the remaining parts of the Kingdom of Hungary until I am dissolved and am with Christ.
Let the physician inquire how to make the animal Alkaest from the “sea of the Microcosm,” and with that alone he will cure all diseases, even the plague itself.
Or let him inquire how to prepare the vegetable Alkaest from the three salts of tartar, and likewise he will not only be able to cure all diseases with it, but he will also be able to exalt the virtue of all his medicines to the highest degree by means of that Alkaest.
Let this be an example for him: let him dissolve crab’s eyes by the vegetable Alkaest, and it will dissolve all stones in the human body. In the vegetable Alkaest let him dissolve castoreum, and thus he will cure every cold apoplexy and paralysis.
If the Parish Priest prepares one of the above-mentioned Alkaests, let him make it mineral and metallic, or let him immediately prepare a metallic Alkaest, or at least a mineral one, and then he will dissolve the matter of the Stone into three principles, from which the Universal Tincture will be made.
There are, however, two matters for the Stone: one is “particular,” which never colors more than one part to fourteen parts; the other matter is “most universal,” and this, in its first operation, colors one part to one hundred parts.
The former matter can be dissolved by those Alkaests which I have indicated. If the latter matter is dissolved by the metallic Alkaest of its own nature, one part will color a thousand parts. But omitting all these Alkaests, if the latter matter is dissolved by its own Azoth, you will immediately see the wonders of God in that solution.
This is the work of the six days of the Creation of the world, just as I wrote in my recent letters; this work is far more curious than the Stone itself.
The Reverend Parish Priest desires to know that Azoth. I cannot say more, much less write more than this: “There is a spirit in the air, which when coagulated is worth more than all the riches of the world,” so says Sendivogius.
In one day in Hungary, I would wish to coagulate ten pints of this spirit daily. What would I make from it? Nothing but a good medicine against hectic fever.
But I have never revealed these things by word of mouth, which I now trust even to this innocent paper. That coagulated spirit, since it is born in the air and the winds have carried it in their belly, must originate from the Stars.
I say it must be purified seven times so that it acquires the virtue of all seven planets, and only then does it surpass the riches of the world. This is one quality of Azoth itself, which no one will learn unless God reveals it or an adept communicates it.
There are six other qualities of Azoth which no mortal shall touch, except by divine revelation or the human revelation of an Adept. I shall write of more qualities of Azoth very soon, or I will speak more when I am present.
The Highly Illustrious Lord's
Servant from the Earth,
Antonius to the Earth & in the Earth.
Highly Illustrious Lord,
from the Neighborhood.
Since my letters have moved you to give yourself much to the reading of chemical books, though you do not yet put your hand to the work or to the plow, I wished to write to you no more about Chemistry, but about the Cabala.
The Cabala is called by this word, קַבָּלָה, because this science was never committed to writing, but a father communicated it into the ear of his son to whom he gave his blessing. By this science, Moses drew water from the rock and divided the seas. By this, Gideon routed the enemies.
For since the faith of the Hebrews was only natural, it did not merit mere miracles, which are supernatural; rather, they had only natural Cabalistic secrets for the assistance of their faith. If the Hebrews had this Cabala, which was in shadow and in enigma, we also can have it—we who are in the law of grace itself, who have the grain while the Hebrews had only the stalk and the chaff.
So that you may procure for yourself the first knowledge of this science, seek out Basilius Valentinus in the Hamburg edition, and on page 173, under the title “On Occult Philosophy,” you will read. But read this text of Basilius with a most attentive mind, weighing all the golden words.
And in a second reading, by no means suppose, as false philosophers do, that Spirit and Soul are the same. Spirit is Mercury; Soul is Sulfur. Spirit is from the Stars; the immortal Soul is a particle of divinity.
Hence Basilius says in the cited place: the spirit, when released, can serve another; the soul, when released, tends toward God and serves no one.
Why did Christ say on the Cross: “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”? He did not commend the Soul, which was united to divinity.
In Aristotle, there was the Chimera, the fox-goose, and the goat-stag; it was impossible for a fox to be a goose. Our theologians, taught by faith, say that in Christ there is a God-Man and a Man-God. According to Aristotle, it would have been more “chimerical” for there to be a God-Man than a fox-goose.
Our theologians, taught by certain faith, said that there is a God-Man, and that this is possible and exists because of “subsistence.” When asked what subsistence is, they responded by falling into Aristotelian errors, saying that subsistence is a quality.
I ask: what is a quality? It is a beast unknown to Aristotle. I would gladly warn all theologians that qualities are “accidents,” and accidents belong to corruptible, mixed bodies. How then can they imagine a quality for God, an Infinite and Eternal Being?
Therefore, you should suppose that Spirit is one thing and Soul is another, and in the true sense you will explain what subsistence is.
Thirdly, you will read Jacob Böhme, and there you will find not only what the Cabala is, but all the dispositions for practicing it.
Who is this Jacob Böhme, understood by few and rejected by all? I will say: he was a Lutheran shoemaker, therefore baptized. In baptism, he received all infused and habitual graces throughout his life, as is most clearly seen from his works, but especially from his Apology. He never defiled his soul by sin committed against the laws of nature.
Why then would the Lord God not gift a baptized Lutheran, living according to the laws of nature, with such graces as He gave to the pagan Sibyls, who were not baptized, solely on account of their virginity, endowment, and preserved virtue?
The paper is ending and time presses upon me. Without toils, through study alone and a good life, you can learn this science, by which you will be a monarch of the whole world and its inhabitant.
Of the Most Illustrious Lord,
the Devoted Servant,
Antonius a Terra 🜃.