CHAPTER XVH.

Concerning the Preparation of the Matter for the Philosophic
Stone.
What Nature principally requires is that its own philosophic man should be brought into a mercurial substance, so that it may be born into the philo-
• Man himself was created from that which is termed limbus. This limbus contained the potenc>' and nature of all creatures. Hence, man himself is called the microcosmus, or world in miniature.— //ir Grntratione Siultprum. Man was fashioned out of the limbus. and this limbus is the universal world. — Paramimm Aliud^ Lib. II., c a. The limbus was the first matter of man. . . . Whosoever knows the limbus knows also what man is. Whatsoever the limbus is, that also is man. - Paramirum Aliud^ Lib. IV. There Is a dual limbus, man, the lesser limbus. and
that Great Limbus from which he was produced— /^r PotUigra^ s. v. dr Liinbo. The limbus is the seed out of which all creatures are produced and grow, as the tree comes forth from its own special seed. The limbus has its ground in the word of God.— /^/V/. The limbus of Adam was heaven and earth, water and air. Therefore, man also remains in the limbus, and contains in himself heaven and earth, air and water, and tliese things he also himself is. — Paragmnum Alteruffiy Tract II,
The Aurora of the Philosophers.
67
sophic Stone. Moreover, it should be remarked that those common pre- parations of Geber, Albertus Mag^nus, Thomas Aquinas, Rupescissa, Poiy- dorus, and such men, are nothing more than some particular solulions, sub- limations, and calcinations, having no reference to our universal substance, which needs only the most secret fire of the philosophers. Let the fire and Azoth therefore suffice for you. From the fact that the philosophers make mention of certain preparations, such as putrefaction, distillation, sublimation, calcination, coagulation, dealbation, rubification, ceration^ fixation, and the like, you should understand that in their universal substance, Nature herself fulfils all ihe operations in the matter spoken of, and not the onerator, only in a philosophical vessel, and with a similar fire, but not common fire. The white and the red spring from one root without any intermediary. It is dissolved by itself, it copulates by itself, grows white, grows red, is made crocus-coloured and black by itself, marries itself and conceives in itself. It is therefore to be decocted, to be baked, to be fused ; it ascends, and it descends. All these operations are a single operation and produced by the fire alone. Still, some philosophers, nevertheless, have, by a highly graduated essence of wine, dissolved the body oi Sol, and rendered it volatile, so that it should ascend through an alembic, thinking that this is the true volatile matter of the philosophers, though it is not so. And although it be no contemptible arcanum to reduce this perfect metallic body into a volatile, spirilual substance, yet they are wrong in their separation of the elements. This process of the monks, such as Lully, Richard of England, Rupescissa, and the rest, is erroneous. By this process they thought that they were going to separate gold after this fashion into a subtle, spiritual, and elementarj^ power, each by itself, and afterwards by circulation and rectification to combine them again in one— but in vain. For although one element may, in a certain sense, be separated from another, yet, nevertheless, every element separated in this way can again be separated into another element, but these elements cannot after- wards by circulation in a pelican, or by distillation, be again brought back into one ; but they always remain a certain volatile matter, and aurum potabile, as they themselves call it. The reason why they could not compass their intention is that Nature refuses to be in this way drag^ged asunder and separated by man's disjunctions, as by earthly glasses and instruments. She alone knows her own operations and the weights of the elements, the separations, rectifications, and copulations of which she brings about without the aid of any operator or manual artifice, provided only the matter be contained in the secret fire and in its proper occult vessel. The separation of the elements, therefore, is impossible by man. It may appear to take place, but it is not true, whatever may be said by Raymond Lully, and of that famous English golden work which he is falsely supposed to have accomplished. Nature her- self has within herself the proper separator, who again joins together what he has put asunder, without the aid of man. She knows best the proportion of everj' element, which man does not know, however mis- Fa
68 The Hermetic mid Aldiemkal Writings of Paracelsus,
leading- writers romance in their frivolous and false recipes about this volatile gold.
This is the opinion of the philosophers, that when they have put their matter into the more secret fire, and when with a moderated philosophical heat it is cherished on every side, beginning to pass into corruption, it grows black. This operation they term putrefaction* and they call the blackness by the name of the Crow's Head. The ascent and descent thereof they term distillation, ascensioHt and descension. The exsiccation they call coagulation ; and the dealbation they call calcination ; while because it becomes fluid and soft in the heat they make mention of ce ration. When it ceases to ascend and re- \ mains liquid at the bottom, they say fixation is present.
In this manner it is the terms o^ philosophical operations are to be understood, and not otherwise.