The Treasure of Philosophy - THESAURUS PHILOSOPHIÆ

by an Anonymous Author.



Translated to English from the book:
Jo. Jacobi Mangeti ... Bibliotheca chemica curiosa, seu rerum ad alchemiam pertinentium thesaurus instructissimus: quo non tantum artis auriferae ... verum etiam tractatus omnes virorum ... ad quorum omnium illustrationem additae sunt quamplurimae figurae aeneae. Tomus primus [-secundus]

He will be for us the author of salvation, whose are all things heaven, earth, and sea who was able to create all things from nothing, and who willed to bind together discordant things and decreed that grievous matters be cured by medicines from His goodness. The ancient wise men, fully understanding this method, set it down in their books in a twofold manner one true, the other indeed deviating.

They set forth the true method in obscure words, so that it might be fully understood by no one unless by sons. But they concealed it, lest the impious, abusing this knowledge, should be ready to commit profane deeds and be compelled to give account for their sins. Therefore beware, dearest one, that you do not make some unworthy person a sharer in this knowledge, but conceal it in a philosophical manner, until when by true experience you shall have known it, the love of it and your devotion will be increased within you.

But they set forth the false method in clear words; in what manner and with what causes its errors arise I omit to say. But listen, dearest, and understand, and God will enlighten your understanding. Know that our science is the science of the four elements, and of times, and of qualities, and of their mutual conversion; and in this all philosophers agree.

And know that in every thing under heaven there are four elements not according to appearance, but according to effect. Hence the philosophers, under the veil of the science of the elements, handed down this knowledge and worked thereby; but those not understanding the letter of the operation have attempted all these things in blood, hair, and eggs, and also in many other trifles and I too made trial and was reduced to astonishment. And therefore, as one despairing of the science, and therefore, as one despairing of the science, I abandoned the Work; moreover I blamed the weakness of my own understanding. Yet afterward, returning again to myself, I began to reflect with Avicenna: If this thing exists, how does it exist? And if it does not exist, how does it not exist? Therefore I came to know that the matter and seed of all metals is Mercury, cooked and thickened in the womb of the earth by sulphurous heat by its own decoction and according to the variety of the sulphur and the diversity of its multiplication, different metals are produced in the earth.

For their first matter is one and the same; they differ only by accidental action, and by a greater or lesser digestion, whether tempered or untempered, whether burning or not burning thus all the philosophers agree.

For it is certain that every thing comes to be from that into which it is resolved; for ice is converted into water by means of heat. Therefore it is clear that it was first water, and thus all metals are converted into Mercury; therefore they themselves were first from Mercury. But in what manner they are converted back into Mercury I shall show below.

This being supposed, the statement of Aristotle is resolved, who says in the 4th book of the Meteorologica:

“Let the practitioners of alchemy know that the species of metals cannot be changed.”

And this is true unless they (as follows) are reduced into their first matter. But the reduction of them into one another is easy and possible; for everything that grows and is born is multiplied, as is evident in all plants and trees and animals: for from one grain a thousand grains are produced; from one tree a thousand branches proceed; and from one man the whole race of men is propagated. As each thing is increased from its own species, so likewise a metal can consequently be increased from its own metal.

And there is no difference, as Aristotle says, whether these things happen in natural organs or artificial ones. All metals indeed are born and grow in the earth; therefore it is possible that in them augmentation and multiplication be made, and thus even unto infinity. But this cannot be done except through that which is most perfect in the line of metals: the perfection of their generation is the complete medicine of those metals, which is the Elixir of the Philosophers.

But it is not possible to arrive at this elixir except through its own medium. Consider the nature of the medium, in which there is always a containing of the extremes. Now the extremes are Sulphur and Mercury, and the completed elixir: from these, those parts which are more purified, more decocted, and more digested, are the better and more perfect, and also the nearer.

O dearest, do not go astray: for what a man has sown, that also shall he reap. Now it is plain enough what the Stone is, and what its medicine is to which nothing foreign is added, except that superfluous things are removed, because nothing suits the thing except what is by nature nearer to it.

Now therefore, dearest, I will explain the sayings of the Philosophers, and the words of the wise obscure and hidden in parables so that you may judge that I understand the words of the Philosophers, and affirm that they have spoken the truth.

Therefore the first thing is that which the Philosophers called Solution, which is the foundation of the Art:

Hence Maria says: Join gum with gum in a true marriage, and make it like running water.

Rosinus the Philosopher says: Unless you turn bodies into incorporeal things, you labour in vain.

Likewise Parmenides treats of this solution, saying in the Turba:

Some, hearing of this solution, suppose that it is done without its body; but when it is joined with its body, and one permanent thing is made: for the solution of the Philosophers is not the solution of water into cloud, but the solution of bodies into water.

Solution, or conversion, by which they were first created, namely into Mercury, just as ice is converted into liquid water from which it previously was. Behold, therefore, by the grace of God, one element, which is water, and the reduction of the same body into liquid water. According to the saying, it is necessary that from water there be made earth by gentle decoction, repeated so many times until blackness supervenes.

For, as Avicenna says in the treatise on Humors: Heat acting in a moist body first generates blackness, as is seen in lime which occurs among the common people.

Therefore Menabdes says: I command you to make bodies that are not bodies by dissolution, and incorporeal things into bodies by gentle decoction, in which smoke must be avoided, lest the spirits be converted into smoke and vanish through excessive fire.

Whence Maria says: Guard the vessel itself, and beware lest anything escape into smoke.

And there must be a measured heat of fire during the months of July, so that from gentle and long decoction the water thickens and black earth is made. Thus, therefore, you have another element, which is earth. The third precept is the purification of the earth.

Hence Morienus says: This earth, together with its water, putrefies and is purified; which, when it has been cleansed, by the help of God is directed toward the whole magistery.

Hermes also says: Azoth and the hidden fire wash away the laton, and remove blackness from it.

Therefore the philosopher says: Whiten the laton, and set the books aside, lest your hearts be broken. For this indeed is the composition of all wisdom, and even the third part of the whole work. Join therefore, as it is said in the Turba, the dry with the moist, that is, the black earth with its water, and cook it until it becomes white. Thus you will have water and earth perfected, and earth whitened with water. The fourth precept is that water, which when the earth has been thickened and coagulated, let sublimation be undertaken. Thus you have earth, water, and air.

And this is what the Philosopher says: whiten it itself, and quickly sublime it by fire, until from it there comes forth a spirit which you find within it, which is called the bird, or the ash of Hermes.

Hence also Morienus says: Do not despise the ash, for it is the diadem of your heart and the permanence of the ash. And in the book of the Turba it is said: Increase the governance of the fire; and through albedo one comes to incineration, which is called calcined earth, which is of an igneous nature. And in the aforesaid proportions you have the four elements, namely water dissolved, earth whitened, air sublimed, fire calcined. Concerning these four elements Aristotle also speaks in the book On the Regimen of Princes addressed to Alexander: when you shall have water from air, and air from fire, and fire from earth, then you will have the complete art of philosophy. And this is the end of the first composition, as Morienus says.

Now let us pass on to the second composition, which has to inspire, to tinge, and to vivify the first composition.

Hence the philosopher Calindus says: No one ever could, or ever will be able, to tinge foliated earth except with gold. Therefore Hermes commands, saying: Sow your gold in white foliated earth, which through calcination has been made fiery, subtle, and aerial. Into such earth, therefore, we sow gold and impose upon it the tincture of gold itself. But gold can never perfectly tinge another body than itself; certainly this cannot be unless it is perfected by art.

Hence Raymundus says: Although our stone here already naturally contains the tincture within itself, for it is created perfectly in the body of magnesia, yet it nevertheless does not possess it unless it be perfected by art; for it is created perfectly in the body of magnesia, yet of itself it does not possess it unless it is perfected by art and operation.

Geber says in the Operation of Roots: To this end the operation is performed, so that the tincture of gold may be improved in gold beyond what it is in its own nature; and likewise that the Elixir may be made according to the allegory of the sages, that is, the composition, from the species of a clear condiment of the ancients, and the medicine for curing, purging, and transforming all bodies into the lunar and solar truth. But do we not require leaf-gold, and no other body?

Hear Hermes saying: Its father, that is, of the first composition, is the Sun; its mother is the Moon. The father is hot and dry, generating the tincture; its mother is cold and moist, nourishing the offspring. Therefore the Sun by itself, and the Moon by itself, are most difficult of fusion. And when they are joined together in such a manner that foliation to gold occurs, they are melted most swiftly.

Therefore Maria says: Take the projected body, or the clear little mound, which is not seized by putrefaction, and grind it with the elixirs which contain the tincture of the spirits, and bring it near to the fire, and let it all liquefy quickly, as if you had cast upon it its wife, the Moon. Therefore, if in our stone there were only one of them, it would never easily be a medicine, nor would it give a tincture. And if it did give one, it would not tinge except insofar as it itself existed; and the remainder, like Mercury, would fly off in smoke, because there would be no receptacle of the tincture in it. But our final secret is to have a medicine which remains before the flight of Mercury. Now the conjunction of those two is necessary in our work.

For Geber says: In the perfect Magistery, the precious one of the metals is gold; for it is itself the tincture of redness, transforming every body. It is itself the ferment converting the whole mass to its own nature. It is also the soul joining the spirit with the body; for just as the human body without the soul is dead and immobile, so also an impure body without the ferment, which is its soul, is weak and without vigor.

For the ferment of the prepared body converts the whole mass to its own nature. And there is no ferment except that which is appropriated to the planets Sun and Moon. For just as the Sun and Moon dominate the other planets, so these two bodies dominate the other bodies of the metals, which, in their nature, are converted in conformity with the aforesaid two; and therefore it is called ferment. For without it, grains are not improved.

For Raymundus says: But this cannot be amended unless it is first subtilized by art and operation.

Wherefore Hermes says: My son, draw forth its shadow from its ray. Therefore the preparation and subtilization of the ferment is necessary for us, just as it is in the fountain; for although it is born perfectly with respect to creation, yet it is not so with respect to operation, unless it is first nourished with a little milk and afterward with more, then with very much, as happens throughout our stone. Take therefore its fourth part, that is, one part of ferment, and three parts of imperfect body; dissolve the ferment in its water, which is the water of Mercury. Cook them together with very gentle fire, and coagulate that ferment, so that it becomes like an imperfect body; and with the mouth of the vessel closed, in the same manner and order as has been said, let it be prepared. This moreover Hermes commands, saying: Dearest one, at the beginning of the work, mix together equal parts of the recent permission, and grind until it sinks down, and nourish it so that conception may occur in them at the bottom of the vessel, and that generations of the offspring may be produced in the air.

Morienus also says: Do this at the beginning, so that the red smoke may take hold of the white smoke in a strong vessel, with firm conjunction, without exhalation of the spirits; and this is the fifth precept. The sixth precept is that you join the fourth part of the subtilized ferment with three parts of the whitened earth, and imbibe it with its water, and so that the whitened earth, and imbue it with its water, and at first cook this repeatedly and reiterate it, until the two bodies become one without diversity of color.

Hence Morienus says: When the white body has been calcined, put into it its fourth part of the ferment of gold.

For gold is like the ferment of bread, which converts the whole mass of dough into its own nature. Therefore cook it in its water until the thing becomes one, and one dry body; for, as Maria says: The air will strike it, will congeal it, and it will become one body. And this is the secret of the balance: then the ferment is introduced into its body, which is its soul.

And this is what Morienus says: Unless you have cleansed the impure body, and rendered it whitened, and infused a soul into it, nothing in this Magistery is directed aright. Therefore the commixture of the ferment is done with the changed body, and not with an impure body.

For as Gafus says, in the perfect Magistery: Stones do not receive one another unless both have first been cleansed. For a body does not receive a spirit, nor a spirit a body, so that what is spiritual becomes corporeal, or what is corporeal becomes spiritual, unless they have first been most perfectly purified from every foulness. But when they have been cleansed, immediately the body and spirit embrace one another, and from them one perfect operation is achieved; for what was thick has been exalted to nature, and what was gross has been made subtle.

This also Astamus says in the Turba: Spirits are not joined to bodies until they have been perfectly cleansed from impurities; and in the hour of conjunction the greatest miracles appear: then the imperfect body is colored with a firm coloration through the mediation of the ferment, which ferment becomes the soul of the imperfect body. And through the mediation of the soul, the spirit is joined with the body, and together with it is converted into the color of the ferment, and becomes one with them.

This therefore is the Elixir, as Avicenna, to Asten the philosopher, says that it is tinged by its tincture, and submerged in its oil, and fixed by its lime; the water of which we find just as living silver in minerals, and its oil just as sulphur or arsenic in minerals, and its lime is lime in minerals. Yet even better: the work is more abundant and more sublime, so that the white is completed in three, in which there is no fire; and the citrine is turned by four wheels.

Concerning these wheels Maria also says: In this school there are nothing but marvels; for four stones enter into it, and its governance is true. From the foregoing, therefore, it is clear to one who understands subtly or observes, that the philosophers have spoken truly in their obscure words. For they say: Our stone is from the four elements, and they compare it to the elements themselves. And first it is asked how four elements are there.

For as Rhasis says: All things which are contained below the lunar globe are wrought by the workman, participating in the four elements, not however by vision, but by effect. For the stone is one simple thing, only one substance, one root, and one nature.

Hermes says: Begin in the name of the Lord, and know the nature of the stone. For it is from the root its own matter, which is in the same and from the same; nor does anything else enter into it except that which is born from it. Truly nothing suits a thing except that which is nearer to it by its own nature; for each thing loves its like.

Therefore Plato says: One substance and one essence; in this one there is hot, cold, moist, and dry. Therefore it is called the lesser world, because from it, and through it, and in it, and with it, are all metals. It also is like a tree, whose branches and flowers and fruits are from it and through it; and it itself is all similarly.

Nothing generates a thing unless from things similar to itself in its own species; thus this thing is one and the same, and whatever is from it is one and the same, and not diverse. Now the philosophers name this stone by the name of every corporeal thing and of every species. Hence Pythagoras says: It is called by all names, whose proper name is only one; whence the verse:

This is called the Moon by all names as one.

And Pheras says: Leave aside the plurality of obscure names. For nature indeed is one, which overcomes all things; nor do diverse natures amend that thing. Truly there is one single nature which causes itself to germinate.

Therefore, as Diomedes says, let us use the venerable nature, since nature is not amended except by its own nature; to which do not wish to introduce foreign powder, nor any other thing, nor do diverse things amend that thing. For it itself causes itself to germinate.

Maria nevertheless says: That which comes forth white and moist lime, which are one from one, are the roots of this art. And the philosophers have named that thing by many and by all names, although it is one single thing, as Morienus says.

I tell you the truth, that nothing else has led the moderns into error except the multitude of names. But every wise person knows that these names are nothing other than colors appearing in the conjunction. And thus you will not err in the path of this work; although the philosophers have multiplied sayings and names, yet they understand nothing except one thing, and one way of operating, and one alternation of heat (or of color) to be observed. And note: thus the diversity of colors does not appear in our stone except in the conjunction of the soul with the body, as Morienus says; one only change of fire moves diverse colors in it.

The philosophers have said that the stone is from body, soul, and spirit; and they speak truly. For they have called the imperfect body “body,” the ferment “soul,” and the water “spirit”; and rightly so. For the imperfect body of itself is a heavy, weak, and dead body. Water is the spirit, purifying the body, subtilizing it, and whitening it. The ferment is the soul, which bestows life upon the imperfect body, which previously it did not have, and leads it into a better form. The body is Venus and female; the spirit is Mercury and male; the soul is Sun and Moon.

The body must be liquefied into its first matter, which is Mercury, as our Morienus says: Mercury is not obtained except from bodies liquefied by a non-vulgar liquefaction, but only that which lasts until the spouses are truly joined in marriage and even united; and this is up to the whitening.

And note that the body is wholly liquefied when, in decoction, blackness has appeared; whence Bonellus says: But when you see that blackness has descended into the water, know at once that the body is already liquefied; then cook it in water with gentle fire until, together with its vapor, it is compared and fails, and the thing is made which is introduced into it from its own body. The spirit, indeed, converts the subtilized body into itself and penetrates it, and therefore it is called permanent water and water of life.

Hence Mundus says in the Turba: Mercury is the permanent water, without which nothing is done; for its power is spiritual, crushed blood, whereby, when it is placed with the body, it is turned into spirit, and there they are mingled with one another, reduced into one according to the power of powers: the body incorporates the spirit, and the spirit the body into spirit tinged, just as blood is turned; for everything that has spirit also has blood, and blood is the natural humor strengthening nature.

And quickly, the more it is decocted and the more it abounds in its own moisture, the more clearly and better it will appear.

But Morienus says: There is nothing which can remove its shadow from laton except azoth, when it is decocted in it, until it renders it colored and white, as are the eyes of fish; for then indeed it expects its good, so that it may be strengthened by its ferment. Note, moreover, that the ferment is the fixed soul of the stone, tinging, vivifying, and completing it.

Whence Maria says:

Maria: The fixed body is of the matter of Saturn, comprehending the digestion of tinctures and embracing the wisdom of the sages; without which this Magistery will never attain its effect, until the Sun and the Moon are joined together in one body.

For the whole artifice of this art, as Euclid says, is in the Sun and Mercury; for when they are joined into one, they possess an infinite tincture. For in the work a color is sought, more ruddy with blood. A small portion of this color infused into white converts a great quantity of white into a citrine color, as you can experience if you cast blood into milk or into water.

Therefore, as Josephus says: Commit fire and water, and they will be four; then make those four one, and you will arrive at that which you seek. For then a body not a body is made, weak over fire not weak, and there will be peace over it. The preparation, however, of these things from the beginning up to the end is fixed water, honored; for it manifests the tincture in projection, and it itself is the mediatrix between contraries, and it is the same as the beginning, the middle, and the end. He who understands it apprehends wisdom. Some philosophers have also said: Unless you turn bodies into non-bodies, and incorporeal things into bodies, you will not find the rule of truth; and they speak truly. For the body first becomes water, and thus the corporeal becomes incorporeal, that is, spirit; then in the conjunction of the spirit, water becomes body.

Therefore Hermes says: Convert the natures, and you will find what you seek; and this is true. For in our Magistery we first make from the gross the subtle, that is, from body water; afterward, however, we make from the moist the fixed, that is, from water earth; and thus we truly convert natures, because we make from the corporeal the spiritual, that is, from water earth; and we convert [them], because we make from the corporeal the spiritual, and from the spiritual the corporeal.

And this is what Senior says: It is the conversion of bodies from state into state, from thing into thing, from weakness into power, from thickness into thinness, from corporeity into spirituality; just as the seed of a man is converted in the womb of a woman by natural conversion from thing into thing, until a perfect man is formed from it, from whom its root and its beginning were; nor is it changed from this, nor from its root by any division.

For as Aristotle says: Every generation is from things agreeing in nature. And this is true, especially in metallic generations; therefore the philosophers say: Do not cause anything foreign to enter into it, neither powder, nor water, nor any thing whatsoever; for if something foreign were to enter into it, it would corrupt it and destroy it.

Hence a certain Arab king said: Water is not conglutinated except with its like sulphur, for in this it is from it. Then we make that which is above as that which is below, that is, so that spirit becomes body and body spirit, as is in the beginning of our operation; as in sublimation, that which is below becomes as that which is above, and the whole is turned into earth.

Therefore Hermes says: That which is above is by sublimation, and that which is below is by descent; and that which is below by condensation is as that which is above by ascension, in order to accomplish the miracles of one thing. Water and earth have their place below; air and fire ascend above; water and earth conceive and nourish; air and fire act and join.

And thus these four agree in our stone, as Senior says: That the four elements in our stone are equalized, because in it water is fixed, and air is at rest, and earth is quiet, and fire surrounds all things; and in this repugnance they are reconciled in it. And it has the four natures in itself, and from itself, and through itself they are generated. It is clear therefore from the foregoing that our stone is from the four elements.

Therefore the philosophers have said that our stone has body, spirit, and soul; and thus these three are said to be from one nature, and from one thing, with one water, from one root; and indeed they speak the truth. For our whole Magistery is accomplished with our water, and from it, and from it are all things necessary. For it dissolves bodies, not by a vulgar dissolution, as the ignorant hand down, namely that they are converted into cloud-water, but by a true philosophical dissolution, so that they are converted into the water from which they were from the beginning.

Hence Socrates says: The secret of any thing and of life is water; it dissolves the body into spirit, and makes the dead living. It is the sharpest vinegar, which bites all things and overcomes all. Grind therefore our stone with the sharpest vinegar; cook it until it is thickened, yet very gently, lest the vinegar be converted into smoke and perish altogether. Likewise, this same water calcines bodies and reduces them into earth. This same water also blackens bodies, whitens and reddens them; this same water transforms them into ash, pulverizes them, and enters into them; according to what King Marchos says: Our water dissolves bodies, congeals them, and blackens them; and it washes every body, and removes all blackness, and tinges every black thing, and makes it white, and tinges every white thing, and makes it red, and vivifies all dead things into everlasting life. Therefore this water is magnified, exalted, and made the mistress of all things, nor is any agent found surpassing its operations.

Morienus also says that Azoth and fire wash laton, cleanse it, and entirely strip its obscurity from it. Laton, however, is an impure body, but Azoth is Mercury. And this water joins diverse bodies, prepared in the manner previously described, in such a conjunction that the power of fire cannot separate them.

It itself effects the marriage between the body and the ferment, and changes them into one another, and defends them from the combustion of fire. For calcined and whitened earth, seeking higher places, becomes spiritual and aerial. And that which is spiritual and aerial is incorruptible and penetrative.

Hence Hermes says: The water of air, existing between heaven and earth, is the life of every single thing; for it itself is the mediatrix between fire and water through its heat and its moisture, whence that same water supports air; for air itself supports fire, because it is near to fire through heat, and near to water through moisture; therefore it makes the marriage between man and woman. For every spirit consists from the subtlety of the vaporous air. For every animate vegetable draws spirit and life from the air. Fire therefore vivifies the water of air which is dead, effects marriage, and protects the compound from the combustion of fire. Therefore the philosophers have said: Convert water into air so that life may be made yet life with life because it itself is life and spirit, into which it enters. Therefore our water sublimates bodies, not by a vulgar sublimation, as the ignorant believe, who think that to sublime is to ascend upward; whence they take calcined bodies and mix them with sublimed spirits, as sulphur and mercury are joined with sal ammoniac, and by strong fire make a sublimation, so that bodies together with spirits ascend, and then they say that spirits and bodies are sublimed and by their ascents most excellently purified; but they are deceived, because afterward they find them more impure than they were before. For art is weaker than nature.

Hence Albertus says in the book On Minerals:

Because two foreign humors from the substance of sulphur, when purged by the artifice and ingenuity of nature, cannot be better purged or purified by art. For nature is more certain and more sublime than every art.

Our sublimation is not to ascend upward; but the sublimation of the philosophers is to make something great, high, and pure from a small and humble thing, or from something base and corrupt. Hence when we say: “He himself is sublimated in episcopacy,” that is, he has been promoted to a degree of dignity. Thus we say that bodies are sublimated, that is, subtilized and translated into another nature. Hence to sublime is the same as to subtilize, which our water accomplishes wholly.

Whence Morienus says: Water removes the stench from a dead body in which there is no soul; and when it has whitened the soul and sublimed it and preserved the body, it removes obscurity from it and every evil odor.

Albides also says: Take the things from their mines and sublime them to their higher places, and send them to the summits of their mountains, and bring them back to their roots. Therefore to sublime is to subtilize a gross thing.

Whence Hermes says: Gently sublime the subtle from the thick, and with great ingenuity. For earth ascends into heaven, and again descends into earth, and receives the power of the higher subtility of penetration and of the lower gravity of remaining. Thus therefore understand the sublimation of the philosophers, for many have been deceived in this. Likewise our water vivifies bodies and mortifies them, leads them to setting and brings them back to rising. It causes black colors to appear in mortification, while they are converted into earth by putrefaction. Afterwards many and various colors appear before whitening, the end of all of which is a stable albedo. For it is like a grain of wheat falling into the earth, which, unless it has died, remains alone. Thus the seeds of all things growing in the earth are changed and putrefy, until corruption enters upon them; likewise they germinate and increase, just as those from which the root.

Thus our water is nourished, putrefies, and is corrupted; then it germinates, rises again, and vivifies itself.

Therefore Calidus says: When I saw the water congeal itself, then I was made certain that the thing is true as it is signified. Cook it therefore with its body until its moisture is dried away by the fire, and it becomes dry, until you see that you have gathered its spirit from it, and have made it dwell in the root of its element; and this will be when you have mortified it and have decocted the white body: then it will be spiritual water, powerful to convert natures into other natures; then it will vivify dead bodies and cause them to germinate. Likewise, our water is the matter of diverse marvelous colors; for through it the diversity of colors will appear, and this will be especially in the mingling of the water of the prepared and fermented body; for then infinite colors appear, as many as can be imagined. For then the spirit is joined with the body and the soul; for the spirit is the place of the soul, and the soul extracted from bodies is the tincture of water.

Hence Senior says: This water is the tincture dissolved in the body and carried into it, just as the tincture of dyers is carried upon cloth; then the water departs by desiccation, and its tincture remains by impression. Likewise it is with the water of the soul, in which the tincture is carried, which they bring back upon its own earth, making it white and foliated. This water Hermes calls of gold, of spikenard and of flowers, and of saffron; because it tinges their calcined earth. Hence he also said: Sow gold in foliated earth; then the spiritual water departs, and in the body remains the soul, which is the tincture of the Sun.

For it itself is like a subtle smoke, imperceptible, not appearing except in its effect. But its action is the manifestation of colors; and fire is generated from fire and is nourished in fire, and is the daughter of fire; therefore it is necessary to bring it back to fire, so that it may not fear fire, just as [it is] brought back, just as a child is brought back to the breasts of its mother.

This also they have called our stone “copper.” Hence Lucas and the excellent [author] in the Turba say: Know, all you who seek knowledge, that no tincture is made except from our white copper; for our copper is not common copper: common copper corrupts and infects everything upon which it is imposed, but the copper of the philosophers perfects and whitens whatever is joined to it.

Therefore Plato says: All gold is copper, but not all copper is gold; for in nature gold is fixed to copper, not in heaviness, but in subtlety; but the nature of copper is nothing other than the nature of gold, from corruption in the earth and from long endurance, in fire and in the endurance of patience, and in fire and in the endurance in the sea. Therefore our copper has body, soul, and spirit; and these three are one: for spirit, body, and soul are one, because all things are from one and from one root, and with one thing, which is its root. Therefore the copper of the philosophers is their elixir, complete and perfect, from spirit, body, and soul. Thus the philosophers have named the stone by diverse names, so that it might be manifest to the wise and hidden from the unwise. But by whatever name it is named, it is always one and the same, and from the same; whence Merculinus speaks these verses:

This stone is hidden, and buried in the deepest fountain;
Vile and cast out, covered with dung or filth.
One living stone has all the divine names;
Therefore Morienus, full of God and wisdom, spoke.

This stone is not a stone, nor an animal which it is lawful to kill;
And this stone is a bird, yet this bird is not a stone;
This stone is male, offspring, and the progeny of Saturn;
This stone is Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus; and this stone is
Winged, and the Moon more shining than all as one.

Now silver, now gold, now element;
Now water, now wine, now blood, now chrysolite;
Now virgin’s milk, now sea-foam, or vinegar;
Now in a stinking ditch it is called urine;
Now also the gem of salt, almizadir, universal salt;
Auripigment, first shadow of the element;
Now sea purified with purified sulphur.

Thus they transpose what fools reveal openly,
And thus the wise are instructed, lest they be deceived;
Concerning that which fools speak, let it not be dispersed.

Again, as Morienus says: Our stone and the composition of this magistery
Are likened in order to the creation of man.
For first there is coition, second conception,
Third gestation, fourth birth,
And fifth follows nourishment.

O dearest one, understand these words of Morienus,
And you will not err in the truth.

Open therefore your eyes, and see that the seed of the philosophers Is living water, but gold-earth is the imperfect body, Which earth is rightly called mother, Because it is the mother of all elements.

Therefore, when the seed of Mercury is joined with the earth of the imperfect body,
Then it is called coition; For then the earth of the body is dissolved into the water of the seed, And water becomes one without division.

Hence Hali says: Solution of the body and coagulation are two, yet they have one operation; because the spirit is not coagulated without the solution of the body, and body and soul, when they are joined, each acts in a manner like to itself. By example: when water is joined to earth, the water, by its moisture and power, is driven to dissolve it, for it makes it more subtle than it was before and renders it like itself; because water is more subtle than earth. Likewise the soul acts in the body, and in the same way water is imbibed into earth and becomes like earth in density; because earth is thicker than water.

Therefore between the solution of the body and the coagulation of the spirit there is no difference of time, nor is there a different operation in any way, so that one thing is made from another into one, just as there is no different part of time between water and earth in their conjunction; which is recognized if one is joined to or prepared by the other in their operations. Just as the seed of the man is not separated from the seed of the woman at the moment of their coition, so also the two have one end, are made one, and one and the same operation is simultaneously carried out upon both. Therefore Merculinus calls the mixture of things coition and generation.

The seeds are mingled almost like milk, which appear to be mixed.

The second is conception, when earth is dissolved into black powder and begins to retain something of Mercury with itself; for then the male acts within the female, that is, Azoth within the earth.

Therefore Aristotle says: Males do not generate with males, nor do females conceive. For generation is from males and females, and chiefly from those mutually suited to one another. For with guiding males and receptive females nature rejoices and true generation occurs. But nature joined with an alien nature, unfit, produces no truth of seed.

Therefore join your son Gabricus, more beloved to you than all your sons, with his sister Beya, who is a shining maiden, gentle and tender. Gabricus is male and Beya female, who gives him everything that is from herself. And although Gabricus becomes dearer than Beya, yet no generation occurs without Beya; for Gabricus, when he lies with Beya, is immediately made dead, because Beya rises above Gabricus and encloses him in her womb so that nothing at all can be seen of him, and she embraces Gabricus with such love that she receives him wholly into her own nature and divides him into diverse parts.

And this is what Merculinus says:

That which had been like milk, conception changes into blood;
The pale grow black, and the diffused reds grow black.

The third is gestation: because the earth is whitened;
For water now dominates, the earth grows and is multiplied,
And from this the increase of the new offspring is generated.
Then it is fitting that you wash the black earth and whiten it with warm fire.

Hence Hali says: Take that which descends to the bottom of the vessel,
And wash it with warm fire, so that its blackness may be removed;
And its thickness may recede, and from it you may cause additions of moisture to rise,
Until it becomes excessively white ash,
In which there is no stain; for then the earth is purified
To receive the soul.

Therefore says Merculinus:

Firmness brings about change; gestation pours forth blessedness:
Things well purified are bound together in concordant peace.

The fourth is birth, when the ferment is joined to the whitened earth,
So that they become one substance and one color;
For then our stone is born into everlasting life,
Because then the spirit is joined with the body by means of the soul.
And this indeed is the composition which, as Hali says,
Is accomplished through putrefaction and marriage;

And marriage is to mingle the subtle with the gross, or the spirit with the body, and to mingle the soul with the body.

Putrefaction, however, consists in pounding, grinding, and moistening whatever things are mingled together, and they become one;
And in them there is no diversity, nor separation of water mixed with water;
Then the spirit is compelled to retain the subtle, and the soul is compelled to struggle with the fire and to endure it;
And the spirit, greatly estranged, is compelled to be poured into the bodies together with them.

Therefore Merculinus says:

As long as it is pregnant, it brings forth what is born from dung;
Life is given to what is born, not denied to what is born.

The fifth is nourishment: because the offspring, once brought forth, is nourished only with milk,
And sparingly and little by little with fire, while it is small;
And the more it grows, the more it is strengthened, and is brought forth into youth;
At which point, when it has arrived there, it is made subtle and is sufficient;
And thus you ought to act in this operation, knowing that without heat nothing is ever generated;
And intense heat causes loss, and drives away the cold bath which has been compounded;
But by a tempered and gentle bath, and by a mild fire,
The corrupting moistures of the body are drawn out.

Therefore Merculinus says:

Afterwards it is nourished, until the light of what is born is perceived;
Fire overcomes water; the furnace supplies nourishment;
Hence also our born stone is named.

Wherefore Plato says in the book Turba: Honor the King coming from the fire, crowned with a diadem, and illuminate him until he has reached perfect age; and do not burn him, nor flee from him by burning him with excessive fire; for if you provoke him to anger, he will take away from us his governance.

His father is the Sun, and his mother truly is the Moon, whom the wind carried in her womb; and his nurse is the earth. He is nourished, however, with his milk, that is, with the seed by which he was imbibed from the beginning. Therefore he must be imbibed often and very frequently, sparingly and little by little, with his Mercury, so that he may drink as much as suffices for him.

Then indeed, as Hali says, the body will be the cause of retaining the tincture; and the tincture will be the cause of retaining the color; and the color will be the cause of manifesting the tincture, in which there is light and the life of nature.

Wherefore this is the straight path, the short path, the highest perfection of the thing, and the preservation of the whole magistery. O most beloved friend, singularly dear, through this which has been said you can easily understand obscure words, and recognize that all agree in this, that the magistery is nothing other than what I have declared.

For now you have the solution of the body, and its reduction to the first matter. Then you have its conversion into earth. Moreover, the whitening of the black earth, and its levigation into air; for then, by distilling the moisture found in it, it becomes airy and ascends, and the earth remains calcined; and then it is of an igneous nature.

And you have the mutual conversion of these into one another, and it receives so great an augmentation, whose usefulness is greater than can be perceived by any reasoning.

Amen.