THE LOST WORD.
Verbum Dimissum, that is, “The Silenced Word.”
Written by Anonymous Author.
Translated from the book:
"Taeda trifida chimica, das ist: dreyfache chimische Fackel Medicina universalis. Verbum dimissum. Saturnia regna"
The first thing that is required in the secret science of transmutation is the knowledge of the Matter from which the quicksilver and the Sulfur of the Philosophers are drawn; from these two the high Stone of the Philosophers is made.
The Matter from which the supreme and secret medicine of the philosophers is drawn is nothing other than very pure gold, very fine silver, and our quicksilver: all of which you see daily, yet changed and transformed through Art into the nature of a white and dry substance in the form of a stone. From this, our quicksilver and Sulfur are raised on high and extracted with strong firing and repeated destruction of the same through dissolution and sublimation.
And in this quicksilver are air and fire, which cannot be seen with bodily eyes because they are subtle and spiritual. This stands against those who believe that the fourth essence can be separated actually and visibly, and that each can be obtained separately in the work.
But these have not well recognized the nature of things, nor that among us a simple element cannot be found, although we recognize them through their effects, which are in the lower elements, in the earth and in the water, after they are changed from their enclosed and coarse nature, through which they are transformed from one nature into another.
Gold and silver, the matter of our blessed Stone, are the subject of all the sayings of the philosophers; and in actual truth our Father Hermes says: its father is the Sun, its mother the Moon. But a great doubt arises concerning the third thing which joins them together: what kind of quicksilver it is, out of which, with gold and silver, our composition is made.
To know this, one must observe that the entire work of the philosophers is principally divided into two parts, namely into the first and the second. The second part is divided by the philosophers into the white perfect Stone and the red. But because the foundation of this noble secret lies in the first part, the philosophers, hesitant to spread this secret and make it common, have given very little instruction concerning this first part.
And I entirely believe that, had it not been to avoid the science of the philosophers seeming false in its principles, they would have remained completely silent concerning this first part. For these reasons, had they not touched upon it, the Art would have been entirely lost, unrecognized, and found false within its own limits.
Considering that this first part is the beginning, key, and foundation of our mastery, without which nothing at all can be accomplished, and through ignorance of which the Art remains deceptive and false in its practice, I have undertaken to mention it to some extent, so that the highest secret, which is the Stone to which nothing foreign is added, may not remain unknown.
I do this according to the certain and true assurance which I have seen and experienced, calling God and Truth as witnesses, and entrusting it into the secret repository of the hallowed soul at its own peril and conscience. For these reasons, the philosophers have called this secret Verbum Dimissum, that is, the “dismissed,” “omitted,” or “silenced” word in this Art, which almost all have kept secret.
Therefore, it is important to know that the Stone of the Philosophers is divided into three degrees, namely into the Vegetable, Mineral, and Animal Stone.
The philosophers have specifically called this first part the Vegetable Stone, which is the Stone of the first degree. Petrus de Villa Nova, the brother of Arnold, says of it at the end of his Rosarium: The beginning of our Stone is the quicksilver, or its sulphurousness, which we must obtain from its coarse corporeal substance before it can proceed to the second foundation.
Thus, the beginning of our Stone is that the Mercury which grows on the tree be compounded and sublimated through lightening. For it is the volatile branch, which cannot nourish itself, increase, or grow without the fixed tree that sustains it, just as the breast gives life to the child.
From this it appears that this Stone is vegetable, considering that it is the sweet spirit which grows from the branch of the grapevine, which in the first work is added to the fixed whitening body, just as it is said in the treatise called The Green Tree. In that treatise, according to the text of alchemy, the practice of this Vegetable Stone is given quite comprehensibly to those who can understand the truth with wisdom. For certain rational and fair reasons, I have not wished to set it down here.
The First Degree.
Therefore, the first degree of the natural Stone is that we make our vegetable Mercury pure and clean. This is also called by the philosophers white non-combustible sulfur, which is the means of uniting the sulfurs with the bodies.
And truly this Mercury, considering that it is of a more fixed, subtle, and pure nature, is united with the bodies, clings to them, and joins itself to them even into the innermost parts, through the means of its moisture and heat.
Of this the philosophers have said that it is the means of uniting the Tincture, and not common quicksilver, which is cold, phlegmatic, and therefore deprived of all the action of life, which exists and consists in moisture and warmth. But because ours is also in part volatile, it is also the means of mixing the volatile spirits, and of attaching and uniting itself to the fixed substance of the bodies. In this is shown the cause of its necessity, which is threefold.
The first is this: since we are to put together the two seeds, namely of the man and the woman, it is necessary that one be mixed with the other through a natural connection and love, and through a like or co-natural sponginess, in such a way that most of the one is attracted by most of the other, and thereafter one is mixed and united together with the other.
Therefore, when these two bodies, gold and silver, are made moist by digesting, dissolving, and subtle-making heat, then they are in the first and simple Matter, and take upon themselves the name of Seed, which is the closest state to birth, because of the impression which they receive owing to their simplicity and obedience from the instrumental heat. This heat is equivalent to the natural heat of this Mercury, which forms and seals them with the form of the Elixir; because the first part of the Stone is called the Elixir.
Therefore, this first part is the means of uniting the outermost parts of the Vessel of Nature, or the proportioned residences. In this vessel the spirits shall be transformed, so that they flee from one nature into another. In this is touched upon the second cause of its necessity.
For because the Stone is to be impregnated with spirits, it is necessary that within it there be a preserving power which encompasses them, so that they may be more easily mixed with the smallest part of the bodies. This virtue is truly in this natural Mercury. And as it is partly of a spiritual nature, so it is a true pure spirit, purified and separated from all stinking and earthly impurity.
A true and fixed spirit, I say, yet in one part volatile; for it encompasses within itself the nature of both fires, which makes manifest and testifies to its sharpness, acidity, or pungency, as appears in its effects.
For through this Mercury, after it has been mortified, common mercury is very easily coagulated, as the text says. However, it is not fixed by itself, and therefore it shall be united with gold and silver, and brought into friendship with them, so that that which is volatile in it may be fixed with these bodies.
Know that with this thing, which is composed of all these mixed matters, as well as with that which comes from the side-lines in a direct way, common Mercury may be fixed. And this is the cause why new bodies are added, for they are fixed: so that the composed fire, which is called sublimated Mercury or first Matter, may be so informed by the ferment that it can endure all the longer in the battle of the fire, however strong it may be.
And therefore Hortulanus says that that with which it should be united, that is to say fixed, is nothing foreign. Of this Mercury, Lullius says that the living silver which is made first coagulates common mercury. And that it is more common to man than the common mercury, of lesser spirit and greater virtue and usefulness, and of greater self-containment.
And therefore Geber says that it is a sign of perfection, because it is a much nobler gum than the little pearls, which transforms and draws every other gum toward its own clear, fixed, and pure nature, and ensures that it remains with it forevermore; and it rejoices in the same.
Therefore, as the text says, citing Morienus, those who desire this blessed Stone, or undertake to compose it without this first part, are to be compared to those who wish to climb to a height without a ladder; when they begin to climb, they find themselves fallen down into misery and pain.
This Mercury is now the beginning and foundation of this entire venerable Magistery, which must be fed and nourished with spirits and stronger fire in the second regimen of the Stone.
For this reason, both the fire that was enclosed in this Mercury during the first regimen, as well as that which shall be enclosed through other regimens, is called the “actual instrument” by the philosophers. This is the second thing that must be recognized above all in this high Magistery: that after gaining knowledge of the Matter with which one is to begin the work, one must first enclose the fire within the volatile and fixed Matter through heating and coagulation, along with the dissolving of the bodies, according to the teachings of natural philosophy.
This enclosing or imprisonment of the fire, the philosophers, on account of its secrecy, have called by another name: namely, sublimation or elevation of the Mercurial Matter, as if it were already elevated in its noble powers through this, and sublimated in its degree.
Therefore, Arnold of Villanova says that the Mercury is first sublimated. That is to say, because the Mercury is of a lower nature, such as earth and water, it shall be led to a high and noble nature, namely of air and fire, which are very nearly the principles of this Mercury, according to the opinion of both Nature and Art.
Therefore, when this Mercurial Stone has been thus elevated and made subtle, it is said to be exalted or sublimated with the first sublimation, for which it is necessary to sublimate further with its vessel.
For these reasons, Raymond Lull says at the beginning of his Codicil, in the second chapter of the Vademecum on the Number of the Philosophers, folio 60:
We hope in our Lord that our Mercury shall be sublimated to much greater things through the addition of that thing which tinges it, and its soul shall be exalted in glory. For he is the one who must enter again into his mother’s womb.
Therefore it is also said that he is the Firstborn, toward which first-birth the entire order of alchemical discourses has an eye, so that the courageous hearts of those who wish to work in this Art may not be robbed of their joys.
For I tell you, taking God as my witness, that after the Mercury was sublimated by some, then it appeared clothed in such great whiteness, like the snow of the high mountains, under the reflection of a very subtle crystallinity. From it issued so strong, lovely, and good an odor, after the opening of the secret vessel, that its like is not found in the world.
And I, who speak, know that to my own eyes appeared this wonderful whiteness, and this thin and subtle crystallinity I have grasped with my own hands, and through my own sense of smell I have tasted this wonderful sweetness, over which I, from great joy, began to weep, being as if entirely terrified by this wonderful sweetness.
And for that reason may the Eternal God be blessed, who is high and honorable, because He has hidden such wonderful gifts in the secrets of Nature, and has not ceased to show such things to certain men.
And I know that when you shall recognize the cause of this disposition, then you will say: what is it, that such a nature should be given out of corruptible things, and which holds bound within it a seemingly heavenly nature?
I am too insignificant to recount these wonders. However, perhaps the time will come when it will be appropriate that I shall tell you many exceptional things about this nature, about which I have had no permission from the Lord of Nature to write here.
Of this heavenly nature it is written in the Prognostics of Hippocrates, Book I: “There is, moreover, in medicine a certain heavenly gift,” that is: truly, in medicine there are heavenly gifts.
But be that as it may, when you have sublimated this Mercury, then take it quite fresh with its blood, so that it does not become too old, and show it to its kin, that is to say, to the Moon and the Sun, so that from these three things, namely from gold, silver, and Mercury, our Compound shall be made, and so that the second degree of our Stone, which is called Mineral, may make its beginning.
The Second Degree.
If you now desire to have a good multiplication in very strong properties and mineral powers, through the effect of the second degree and the mediation of nature, then take the pure bodies and unite with them the aforementioned Mercury according to the weight that is known to most of those in this Art.
Unite this dry water, which has within itself the Sulfur of the Elements, and which is called an Oil of Nature, with the sublimated and subtilized Mercury, which has been dissolved and made hard through the labor of the first degree.
Nevertheless, always discard the residues and feces which it produced in its sublimation, as these no longer have any power within them. However, it is not to be understood that in our sublimation the sublimated essence remains at the top of the vessel, as in the sublimation of the sophists; rather, what is sublimated in our sublimation is raised slightly above the feces of the vessel and clings to the sides of the vessel.
Whatever is coarse and impure remains at the bottom, according to nature, which for a certain time desires evacuation or purging of its own parts, so that they may be lost; so that she may be placed into a better state by losing her impure and evil parts, in order to obtain pure and better ones in exchange.
From these things appears the third reason for its necessity, which is this: only this Mercury is pure, clear, white, and incombustible. Thus it illuminates the entire Stone, preserves it from combustion, protects it from the fire, and tempers the intensity of the fire against nature by bringing it into true mixture and unity with the fire of nature.
For this Philosophical Mercury fully contains within itself the unnatural fire, whose highest virtue is the mixing against the heat of the unnatural fire, and a friendly or assumed help of the natural fire, naturalizing it; that is to say, transforming itself into nature, or making itself natural through bodily mixture with the natural fire. This is a great secret, and is known by very few people.
Therefore Mercury is called in this passage the Earth which gives nourishment, as the one who is the branch without which the Stone cannot grow or multiply. Therefore Hermes says: the nurse of our Stone is the Earth, whose nature is the Sun, and the mother the Moon. She ascends from the Earth to Heaven, and descends again to the Earth, whose power is perfect when she is turned into Earth.
From this Earth, alongside the two perfect bodies, the true composition of the philosophers takes its birth and beginning. Let yourself therefore be satisfied with these two bodies, for they are like the thing that we seek, as Arnold of Villanova says.
That is to say, when the end of the Stone is perfect, then it makes common Mercury and the other imperfect bodies perfect by transforming them into gold and silver. Therefore this power is necessary to seek where it is. Now it is so that it cannot conveniently be found except in the perfect bodies.
For if in a pure and fine body is not found the power, strength, and virtue to transform imperfect metals in the earth, then one will certainly seek such virtue in vain in copper. I say this same thing also of silver; and among all kinds of metals, gold and silver alone are perfect, and all other metals are imperfect.
Therefore, in order to obtain this Mercurial Substance, in which is this perfect virtue to transform imperfect metals into silver and gold, you must have recourse to your two perfect bodies, and nowhere else.
Therefore it is to be known that in the composition of these two bodies is found the natural end of the final subtlety and the transformation into the first matter of the new birth. For this reason, from this composition, as from a first and simple matter, the birth of the true Elixir is made.
Silver, when it is transformed into its first matter, is then the passive matter. For in truth the Moon is the bride of the Sun, and the Sun is her husband, to be known in a very close relationship. And so the man and woman of the gender of this Art come together, from which two are born the white and red Sulfur, which attracts and coagulates the Mercury.
Truly, the best creation and most immediate transformation is always achieved when the right man is united into one nature with his own wife. And the man is he who unites with the innermost part of the suffering matter through his natural subtlety, and transforms it even further from its own nature into another, namely into the nature of sulfur.
Of this union, Dastin the Englishman says: when the white woman is married to the red man, they immediately embrace each other, and join and bind themselves together; they dissolve through themselves, so that those who were two become one in a single body.
This linkage is the Wedding of the Philosophers and the indissoluble bond. Therefore, it is said elsewhere that these two are one through transformation, but that they contain one thing: namely, our Mercury, which by some is called the Ring of the Highest Alliance. It is also called Plato’s Chain, which unites and binds the bodies that have been brought together through love.
Therefore, compose our most secret Stone from these three pieces and from nothing else; for that which is sought by many does not lie in other things.
This amalgam, or natural composition, if it is treated in this way, can truly be called one thing. For this entire Compound is a mixture whose price and value cannot be estimated. That is to say, its price is so great that one cannot even conceive of it. For it is our ore, of which it is said in the Turba: Know all together that no true tincture is made except from our ore, that is to say, from our Preparation, which is made solely from the three things enumerated above.
And then they have the other part of our most noble Stone, and the Stone of the second degree, which is called the Mineral Stone.
Here it is to be noted that through this second regimen, or through this second work, the Stone or the Mercury, which in the beginning was born through the first work so beautiful, clear, and shining, is killed, blackened, defiled, and briefly made so shapeless and shameful, along with the whole Compound, so that it may rise again with great victory, much clearer, purer, and stronger than it was before.
For this killing is its revivification; for in making itself alive again, it kills itself. Truly, these two effects are so connected and linked together that one cannot exist without the other, as the teachings of the philosophers report. For the birth of the one is the leading-in of the other.
Yet all this nature is nothing other than to create the Sulfur of Nature and to bring the Compound into the first and nearest matter of the metallic genus. For as Albertus Magnus says in his book on minerals, one must not lead or pull the Stone too far away from the nature of metals.
Know therefore that this Compound is the substance from which this Sulfur of Nature shall be drawn, through the strengthening and nourishment of the same, bringing in the mineral power, so that it finally may be brought into a new nature, and stripped of all watery moisture which prevents digestion.
Here it is to be noted that, according to the various changes or transformations in the digestion of a single matter, different names have been given by the philosophers, also according to different complexions.
Some have named it Kassab, because it coagulates or thickens; others, Sulfur; many of them, Arsenic; some, Azoth; others, Alum and Color, which illuminates all bodies. Some others have called it the Egg of the Philosophers.
For just as our egg is composed of three things, namely shell, white, and yolk, so our Physical Egg is composed of Body, Soul, and Spirit; although, to tell the truth, our Stone is all one thing, as much in Body and Spirit as in Soul. But according to different causes and opinions of the philosophers, it is sometimes called one thing and sometimes another.
And this is what Plato meant when he said that matter continuously flows if form does not halt its flow. Thus there is Trinity in Unity, and Unity in Trinity; for there are Body, Soul, and Spirit. That is also Sulfur, Mercury, and Arsenic.
For the self-blowing sulfur, that is, the one that casts off or thrusts its smoke through the arsenic, works by binding the mercury together. Hence the philosophers say that the property of arsenic is to draw breath and to blow it out, and the property of sulfur is to coagulate the mercury, making it frozen or solid.
But this sulfur, arsenic, and mercury are not those poisonous spirits which the apothecaries sell; rather, they are the spirits of the philosophers. For in these common spirits there is more imperfection and destructiveness for the common metals than perfection for their improvement.
Therefore, they cannot give the common metals the indestructibility and perfection which our medicines are intended to perform. Hence those sophists labor quite foolishly who make their elixir with such poisonous and destructive spirits.
For certainly the truth of the highest and most subtle nature is to be found in no other thing than the aforementioned three things: in the Sulfur, Arsenic, and Mercury of the Philosophers. In these alone is found the complete perfection through which the bodies shall be purified.
The philosophers have given our Stone many different names, and nevertheless it is always only one thing. Therefore, disregard the multitude of names, and hold fast to this Compound, which one must place but once into our secret vessel, from which it shall not be withdrawn until the Wheel of the Elements be fulfilled.
This is so that the active power and strength of the Mercury, which is to be nourished, shall in no way be suffocated or lost. For the seeds of those things which grow from the earth do not grow or multiply if their strength and proper power is taken from them by any foreign qualities.
In this very same way, this nature will never multiply or be increased unless it is prepared into the nature of water. The womb of a woman, after she has conceived, remains firmly closed, so that no foreign air may enter and the fruit perish. Thus also shall our Stone always remain closed in its vessel, and nothing foreign shall be added to it; but it shall be nourished and shaped alone, enlivened through the informing and multiplying power of its nature, not only in size, but also in very strong quality.
One should therefore let flow, or bring into the mentioned material, its life-giving moisture, by whose virtue it is nourished, grows, and is multiplied.
After our Compound is made, the first thing to be done is to make it alive, or to give it the soul, bringing into it the natural warmth, or life-giving moisture, or the soul, or the air, or the life, through the work of dissolution and sublimation while coagulating.
For when the Compound is made, you must have a special and proper manner of working, so that in this way the warmth may be enclosed within. Otherwise this material would remain empty of its purpose, without a soul, deprived of very noble and high virtues, and would have no movement to give birth, like other things brought forth by nature.
But the way to bring the fire into the said material is to transform it from one disposition into another, and from one nature into another, namely from the very low into the noble.
The nature of this disposition is achieved through a proper sublimation and dissolution of the earth, and coagulation of the water, or through a thickening, mortification, resurrection, and elevation of the light elements.
Thus, the entire circle of this noble Magistery is nothing else than perfect sublimation, which nevertheless keeps bound, linked, attached, and united within itself many other special operations. Among these, two are the most prominent and close the entire circle: perfect dissolution and coagulation.
For the entire Art is nothing but to dissolve rightly and to coagulate well: the dissolution of the body and the coagulation of the spirit.
And these operations have such an affinity with each other that the body is never dissolved without the spirit coagulating. Likewise, the spirit does not coagulate without the body simultaneously dissolving.
And from this, as Lullius says, it has come that the philosophers have said that the entire work of the Art is nothing but dissolution and coagulation.
Through ignorance of these operations, many people who are otherwise great in science have been deceived. Relying on their science, they believed that they understood the circles of nature and the manner of circulation.
Therefore it is necessary to recognize the manner of this circulation, which in truth is nothing other than soaking the Compound with our Mercurial Water according to the proper weight. This water the philosophers have commanded to be called the Permanent Water.
In this imbibition, the Compound is digested, dissolved, and coagulated toward natural perfection. It is a truthful thing that, if an earthly material is to become fire, it is necessary that it be subtilized, prepared, and made simple.
Thus our Compound is made thin and subtle in such a way that the fire reigns within it. This sublimation and preparation of the earth is performed with subtle and excellently sharp and sour waters, which have no stench or evil odor, as Geber says in his Summa. It is the water of our sublimated quicksilver, which has been brought into the nature of fire under the name of wine vinegar, salt, alum, and many other very sour juices, and other such things which until now have remained secret and covered.
Through this water the bodies are subtilized and brought into their first and nearest matter of the Stone, or the Elixir of the Philosophers.
In this regard, it is to be known that, just as the child in the mother’s womb shall be nourished with its natural nourishment, which is the menstrual blood, so that it may be nourished and grow in size and strength, just so shall our venerable Stone be nourished by its own fatty nature and substance, says Aristotle.
But what kind of fatness is that which is the nourishment, life, growth, and multiplication of our Stone?
The philosophers have completely hidden it, considering that it is the greatest secret, which they have sworn never to discover or reveal to any man except alone in their books. But they have left it to God to discover or to hide this Secret when it shall please Him.
Nevertheless, the philosophers have called this fatty, life-giving or life-bestowing moisture the Mercurial Water, or a permanent and fire-resisting divine water. It is the key and the foundation of the entire work.
Concerning this Mercurial or Permanent Water, it is said in the Turba: it is necessary that the body be taken up by the flame of the fire, so that it may be broken, shattered into pieces, and weakened.
It is to be known that with this water, which is so full of fire, the body should be washed so much until it becomes entirely water. This is not the water of the clouds or of the wells, as the foolish sophists and ignorant ones suppose; but it is our Permanent Water, which nevertheless cannot be permanent without the body with which it is united. That is, it cannot remain in a fire without fleeing from it.
In our Permanent Water lies the whole Secret of the Stone. For through the aforementioned Water our perfect Stone is made, because in it lies the moisture which makes the Stone alive, because it is its life and resurrection.
Of our most secret water the Turba speaks: the water by itself alone does everything. For it dissolves everything; it coagulates everything that allows itself to be coagulated; it shatters and breaks everything without any other help.
In this is the thing that is tinged and formed. Briefly, our work is nothing other than vapor and water, which is called the cleansing, whitening, and reddening water, and that which separates the blackness from the body.
The philosophers have called it the Permanent Water, the fixed and non-combustible oil. It is that which the philosophers have divided into two parts, of which one calcines the body, that is, brings it into lime, and coagulates itself; and the other part of the aforementioned water cleanses the body from blackness, makes it white and red, makes it fluid, and nourishes its parts.
This water is called in the Turba the most sour vinegar, for it is a very sharp moisture, which holds within itself an unchangeable tincture that cannot be extinguished.
Alphidius has called this water the mixture, or the weight of the wise, and the urine of young choleric men. This water is hidden by the philosophers under many different names, and has been recognized by very few people.
Hermes possessed it, and Alphidius concerned himself with it. Morienus has written of it; Lilium understood it; Arnold of Villanova recognized it well; Lullius faithfully revealed it; Geber knew it; to the Text it was not unknown. Rasis, Avicenna, Galen, Hippocrates, Hali, and especially Albertus have most wisely hidden it. Dastin, Bernard the Count, Pythagoras, Merlin the ancient, and Aristotle understood it well.
Briefly, this water is crowned, victorious, heavenly, venerable, and the final and ultimate mystery for making our honored Stone. Without it, the Stone is never improved, nourished, increased, nor does it grow.
For that reason the philosophers have hidden the manner of making this water as the key to their Mastery. Truly, I have read more than one hundred books on this Art, and yet have never found in any the perfection of this Permanent Water.
Likewise, I have found many worthy and learned people in this science, among whom I found not one who possessed this Secret, except for one worthy physician, who told me that he had sighed for it for some thirty-six years before he attained it.
Of this nature it is said that it is given a double nature, namely that of gold and silver, in which, and in whose entrails, just as in the actual body of its mother, the aforementioned quicksilver is nourished, lodged, purified, and transformed into white, incombustible, non-burning sulfur, which does not burn in the action of the fire.
This is because it has been properly formed therein by the Art, as the qualities of sulfur had previously been brought and introduced into this quicksilver.
Therefore, this Mercurial Water is nothing other than the spirit of the bodies, transformed into the nature of the fifth essence. It gives power to the Stone and governs it. And the Stone, or our Compound, is the preserving mother and the convenient place between the mother of the earth and the vessel of nature, which holds within itself the forming power of the Stone.
Into it the natural heat is placed, which is the forming power that comes out of the vessel through the spirit of the fifth essence. Hence it is called the nourishing mother, which imparts natural power to the sulfur, and feeds and nourishes the same.
This now is our Compound in this natural vessel, in which the spirits are transformed from one nature to another. The more they flee, the more they are transformed and changed within the containment of this vessel, and are further separated from their corruptibility and imperfection. They approach closer to the goal of purity and perfection, until they receive the fulfillment of the fifth essence.
From this they take, or clothe themselves with, a new nature, which is pure and white, stripped of all caustic earthly superfluity which is combustible and burning, and stripped also from the watery, exhaling nature.
In this transformation of the vessel of the moisture of the spirit, the aforementioned thing is enclosed through its sliminess or slippery nature, and is retained through attachment or a natural and firm union. It warms itself as in its actual moisture, which is mixed and killed with it. Thereafter the dead thing arises with joyful sublimation and birth, lifting itself entirely from the salty and bitter nature.
Then it is powerful enough to preserve itself, nourish itself, and multiply, like an already kindled fire and simple nature, which must be nourished with a little milk; that is to say, with the moisture of its life, from which it is partly born.
This is our Permanent Water, Virgin’s Milk, Water of Life, which has purified Laton, but not the Water of Life that comes from the grapevine; for these are entirely distinct from one another.
It is called Water of Life because it makes our Stone living and brings it to resurrection. It is called well-made blood, or whitened menstruum, nourishment of the child, food of the heart, seawater, poison of the living, and food of the dead; the quicksilver of the philosophers, which through philosophical sublimation is purified of its earthly stench.
Now that our Compound is made, one should put it into its secret vessel and cook it with a very gentle fire, either dry or moist, and soak it with our Permanent Water, dissolving and coagulating it a little, so often until the earth rises up in flakes.
Afterward it shall be calcined, and finally incerated through fixing with the aforementioned water, which is called the incombustible and fixed oil, until it flows as quickly as wax.
Regarding this, Raymond says that the manner of ceration is that the sublimation of the reserved moist parts be repeated and begun over the Stone so many times that the Stone is circulated with its own root-like, remaining moisture, which never leaves its body in the mixture, until the right liquidity is reached.
And afterward he says: for these reasons it is commanded that you soak our Stone with this permanent moisture; for through it its parts are made clear, as is apparent.
For after the perfect purification of the Stone from all corruptible things, and especially from the two superfluous humors, of which one is greasy, fat, and combustible, while the other is moist and fuming, then the Stone is brought into the actual nature and essence of non-combustible sulfur.
Without this moisture our Stone cannot be improved, nourished, or multiplied.
And it is to be known that our Stone in its cooking is transformed into all the colors of the world, among which three are the most principal, to which one should pay attention, and not to the others: namely the Blackness, which is the first, the key and beginning of the Work; the Whiteness, which is the second; and the Redness, the third.
Therefore it is said that the thing whose head is red, feet are white, and eyes are black is the entire Art.
Therefore take heed that when our composition begins to be soaked with our Permanent Water, the entire composition is transformed in the manner of flowing pitch, and becomes entirely blackened like coal. Then it is called the black pitch, the burnt salt, the melted lead, the impure Laton, and the Magnesia.
For then one sees a black cloud which flies through the middle region of the vessel in a beautiful and lovely manner, raised to the height of the vessel; and at the bottom this same matter has flowed like pitch and remains entirely dissolved.
Of this cloud Jacob von der Burg of St. Saturn speaks, saying: O blessed cloud that flies through our vessel; there is the darkness of the suns, of which Lullius speaks.
And when this mass is thus blackened, then it is said that it is already dead and deprived of its form. Then it is called the dead body, and that which is separated from its mixture, as if divorced from its soul.
At that time the moisture is made manifest in the color of a black and stinking quicksilver, which was previously dry, white, fragrant, burning, and purified of sulfur through the first work, and is now to be purified through this second operation.
Hence the body is deprived of its soul, which it has lost, and deprived of its luster and wondrous clarity, which it had before. Now it is black and shameful.
Because of this property, Geber calls it then a stinking and black spirit, which is white in the hidden and red in the manifest, and also a dry Water of Life.
This mass, being thus black or blackened, is the beginning and the sign of the perfect discovery of the Art of working in the second regimen. And Hermes says: when the blackness is seen, then believe that you have held the right path.
Therefore this color of blackness shows the right manner of working, for in this color the mass is made formless and destroyed through true natural corruption; upon this follows birth through a new actual disposition in this material.
Through work, the body is broken apart, destroyed, made subtle, and diligently governed, until its subtle soul is drawn out from its thickness and converted into a thin, subtle, and incomprehensible spirit. Then the body is converted into an incorporeal thing, and the incorporeal into a body. This is the true and most truthful discovery and rule of working.
Accordingly, it is to be known that every body is dissolved by a sharp spirit with which it is mixed, and to which, without any doubt, it is made equal and spiritual. And when this spirit is sublimated, it is called the water which washes and cleanses itself, as was said before, in that it rises with its most subtle essence and leaves behind its corrupting parts.
And this rising the philosophers have called distillation, washing, and sublimation.
Therefore, when the perfect sublimation is brought to an end, then the Stone is made alive with its life-giving spirit, or natural soul, of which it had been deprived in the blackness. It is breathed into, ensouled, awakened again, brought back and led to the final end of all subtleness and purity, and elevated from the bottom of the vessel into a crystalline snow-white Stone, which clings to the sides of the aforementioned vessel. The dregs of the same remain at the very bottom of the vessel.
Separate this crystalline Stone from the dregs, set it apart, and sublimate it without those same dregs. For if you venture to sublimate it with the dregs, you will never bring them together for all eternity, and you will lose your labor.
For that reason, sublimate it without the dregs. It is the white foliated earth, the white sulfur, which does not burn, but afterward perfectly coagulates and fixes the Mercury, also cleanses every impure body and makes the imperfect perfect by reducing it into true silver.
When this sulfur is thus sublimated, there is no whiteness in the whole world that surpasses it in whiteness, for it is stripped of all corruption. It is a new nature, a quintessence, which comes from the very purest parts of the four elements.
It is the sulfur of nature, which does not burn; arsenic; an incomparable treasure and joy of the philosophers; their so greatly desired pleasure; the white and clear foliated earth; the bird of Hermes; the daughter of Hippocrates; the sublimated alum; the sal ammoniac; the daughter of the whole secret; and the white bird whose feathers surpass crystal in brilliance. It is white as snow, of great radiance, and has a strong, very lovely scent, of the highest purity, subtlety, and dexterity.
This white philosophical bird is of unspeakable powers, for it is the substance of the very purest sulfur in the world, which is the simple soul of the Stone, pure and noble, separated from all bodily thickness, and drawn out from the coarseness of the body with great subtlety.
This white, non-burning sulfur must be calcined according to the duration of its dry decoction, until it becomes a very subtle powder, which is intangible and freed from all superfluous moisture. Afterward it shall be incerated with the white oil of the philosophers little by little, until it flows quickly like wax.
After the completion of this inceration, which is nothing other than bringing a solid thing into a state of liquidity, our white Philosophical Stone is finished. It is liquid and melting, whiter than snow, having within itself something of a permanent green fire, holding and coagulating the Mercury, and afterward fixing it, tincturing and transforming every imperfect metal into true silver.
Of this, cast one part upon one thousand parts of Mercury, or another imperfect metal, and it will turn the same into finer, purer, and whiter silver than that which comes from the mines.
The manner of projection and multiplication of the white and the red is entirely one and the same. However, the multiplication occurs in two ways. One is through projection, in which one casts one part upon one hundred parts of Mercury, and then it will all be Medicine, of which one part converts one hundred parts into perfect Medicine, and one part of this hundred parts becomes good silver or gold.
There are still other ways, even more useful and secret, to multiply the Medicine through projection, about which I remain silent for now.
But through multiplication the Stone is increased without end, that is to say, by making it alive through boiling and soaking with the Mercurial Oil. This oil is also called the oil of the nature of metals. This multiplication happens solely through the soaking of the Stone with the aforementioned permanent oil, by dissolving and coagulating as often as one wishes.
For the more the Stone is boiled, the more perfect it will be, and the more it will transform, for it becomes much more subtle. And in this is found the white, heavenly, sweet-smelling Rose, which is embraced by the philosophers.
When the Stone is now completed to the white stage, then one must dissolve a part of it and calcine it several times longer, so that through the power of long boiling it is transformed into ash, and becomes, as it were, intangible, or so thin that one cannot keep it in the yellow color. Then soak it with its red water until it remains red like coral.
Raymond speaks of this in the Codicil, in the chapter on the Calcination of the Earths, saying:
Do not forget that you must strongly calcine the matter of the known earths of your Stone in the kindled fire, with repetition, destruction, distillation of the water, and calcination of the body, until the earth remains white and void of all moisture. Afterward continue through stronger maintenance of the fire and soaking of the water until it becomes red like a hyacinth, as an impalpable powder.
The sign of this is publicly shown when it remains freed from all moisture in its final calcination. There he speaks of the other process, and the most noble part of the second regimen, which is to make the Stone red.
Regarding this, Geber says that it does not happen without the addition of the tingeing thing which nature well knows. Know that it must be soaked and tinged with the heavenly water, of which Lilium says:
O you heavenly nature, how you change our bodies into spirit! O wondrous and strong nature, it is indeed everything, and surpasses everything, and is the vinegar that makes gold into a true spirit, and silver likewise; without it neither blackness, whiteness, nor redness in our work can ever be made.
Therefore, when this nature is united to the body, then it transforms it into spirit, and tinges it with spiritual fire into an unchangeable tincture which cannot be extinguished.
This water Hermes called a “Water of Waters,” and Alphidius called it the water of the Indian, Babylonian, and Egyptian philosophers. It is the water through which the bodies are turned into spirit, and into their first nature and matter. Our Stone will never be perfected without this: the White without the white, and the Red without the red.
Therefore the Red Stone should be soaked with red water, so that finally, both through long decoction and through soaking, it becomes red like blood, hyacinth, scarlet, or ruby, and glows in the dark like a lit coal.
Of this Diomedes says: Honor your King, who comes from the fire, and his Wife; and beware that you do not burn them with too great a fire, so that they may first become black, then white, then yellow, and finally red, and at last a tingeing poison.
For these things shall be made through the division of the water, as Aegistus says: I command you that you do not add all the water at once, but cook it little by little until the work is completed.
From this it appears that the Stone remains red in a true, glowing redness, clear and living, flowing like wax through that tincture by which common Mercury and all other imperfect metals can be tinged and made perfect into true gold, better than that from the mines.
In this our noble Stone is completed, which surpasses all precious gems, much nobler and more precious than all stones, and is an infinite treasure, to the honor of God, who lives and reigns forever and ever.