M. de Justi, Director-General of the mines of the Empress-

Queen of Hungary, proves not only the possibility of it; but its actual existence, in a discourse which he has given to the Public, the arguments of which are founded on his own experience,
he |
emu si
Lr NAT oh se 4
a> tie ¥,
Ley Pe ath Ke i" PLY paar
ve ue mes, Ui
Pbilosopbical Counsels. 125
Worship God alone; love Him with all your
eats: heart, and your neighbour as yourself. Have
always the glory of God as the aim of all your
actions; call upon Him; He will hear you, glorify Him, He will exalt you.
Be slow in speech, and action. Do not rely upon your own prudence, upon your knowledge, or upon the word and riches of men, especially of the great. Put your trust in God alone. Cultivate the talent which He has intrusted to you. Be avaricious of time; it is infinitely short for a man who knows how to use it. Do not put off until to-morrow, which is not yours, that which you should do to-day. Asso- ciate with the good and the wise. Man was born to learn; his natural curiosity is a palpable proof of this; and to stag- nate in idleness and ignorance, is to degrade humanity. The more a man knows the more closely he approaches the Author of his being, who knows all. Therefore profit by the knowledge of the Wise; receive their instructions with gen- tleness, and their corrections always in good part. Flee | from the association of the wicked, the multiplicity of affairs, — and the multitude of friends.
Sciences are acquired only by study, by medztatzon, and not by dispute. Learn a little at a time; repeat often the same study; the mind can do all when concentrated upon one sole object, but nothing when trying to embrace too many.
Knowledge, joined to experience, forms the truest wisdom. Lacking it, one must have recourse to opinion, to doubt, to conjecture and to authority. |
The subjects of Science are God, the Universe, or Macro- © cosm, and Man. Man has been made for God, Woman for God and Man, and the other creatures for Man and Woman, (Sap. Chap. 9, v. 2 and follow.), so that they should make use
126 The Great Art.
of them for their occupations, their own preservation, and the glory of theircommon Author. Above all act so as to be always in harmony with God and your neighbour. Ven- geance Is a weakness in Man. Never make an enemy; and if one does evil to you, it would be better and more noble, to avenge yourself by doing good to him.
There are ¢wo kinds of sciences, not more. Religion and Physics; that is to say, the Sci- ence of God and the science of Nature: all others are only branches of these. There are even spurious ones; they are errors rather than sciences.
God gives the first in its perfection to Saints and the chil- dren of Heaven; enlightens the mind of man so that it may acquire the second, and the Demon throws into it clouds to suggest the spurious ones.
Religion comes from Heaven, it is the true Science, because God, the source of all truth, is its Author. Physics is the knowledge of Nature, with it Man can do wonderful things. Mens humana mirabilium effectrix.
The power of Man is greater than one would imagine. He can do all with the help of God, nothing without it, except evil.
BUpborism. Of the Truth of the Sciences.
The first step to wisdom is the fear of God, the second the knowledge of Nature. By it we ascend even to the knowledge of her \ Author, (GS7Z, (Paul, Rom.) Chidjp.2o).) Nature | teaches \ to the discerning the Hermetic Philosophy. The long
The Rey
of Science.
Of Secrecy. 127
work is always Nature’s; she works simply, by degrees, and always by the same means to produce the same result. The work of Art is shorter; it outstrips Nature. The work of God is done in an instant. Alchemy, properly speaking, is an operation of Nature, aided by Art. It places in our hands the Key of Natural Magic, or Physics, and renders us | wonderful to men, by elevating us above the masses. |
The statue of Harpocrates, who had one hand OF Secrecy. over his mouth, was, among the ancients, the emblem of secrecy, which is strengthened by /
silence, and becomes weaker and vanishes by revelation. | Jesus Christ our Saviour, revealed our Mysteries only to His | disciples, and spoke always to the people through allegories and parables, Vobzs datum est noscere mysteria regnt celorum. ... Sine parabolis non loquebatur ets, (Matth. Ch. 13, v. II.— Mark ch. IV, v. £1.—Matth. ch. 13, v. 34).
The Priests, among the Egyptians; the Magii, among the Persians; the Mecubales and Kabbalists, among the Hebrews; the Brahmins, in India; the Gymnosophists, in Ethiopia; the Orpheuses, the Pythagorases, the Platos, the Porphyrys, among the Greeks; the Druids, among the West- ern races; have spoken of the Secret Sciences only through enigmas and allegories; if they had stated their true object, there would have been no Mysteries and the sacred would have been confounded with the profane.
OF the {Means The requirements necessary in order to of Brriving arrive at this Secret, are: the knowledge of at the Secret.
Nature and of one’s self. One may not understand the first perfectly, or even the second, without the aid of Alchemy. The love of wisdom, the horror of
128 The Great Art.
crime, and of falsehood, the avoidance of cacochemists, the association of the wise, the invocation of the Holy Spirit; not to add secret to secret, to attach one’s self only to one thing, (because God and Nature delight in unity and sim- plicity), such are the conditions necessary for obtaining the divine revelation. ,
Man being the epitome of all Nature, must learn to know himself as the summary, the miniature of Nature. By his spiritual part he is allied to all immortal creatures, and \by his material part, to all that which is transient in the ‘Universe.
From all material things ashes may be made; from ashes one makes Salt, from Salt one separates Water and Mercury, from Mercury one composes an Elixir, or a quintessence. A body is placed in ashes to be cleansed of its combustible parts; in Salt, to be separated from its earthly parts; in Water, to decay and putrefy; and in Spirit to become quintessence.
The Salts are the Keys of Art and Nature; without knowl- edge of them it is impossible to imitate her in her operations. We must know their sympathy and antipathy with the metals and with themselves. There is, properly speaking, only one Salt in Nature, but it is divided into three kinds to form the principles of bodies. These three are NITRE, TARTAR and VITRIOL; all the others are composed of them.
NITRE* is made from the first Salt by attenuation, subtili- zation and the cleansing from the crude and cold terrestrial parts, which are mixed with it. The sun concocts it, digests it in all its parts, makes in it the union of the Elements, and
*Itis the Serpens Terrenus of Basil Valentin.
Of the Reys
| of Mature.
Of the Keys of Wature. 129
impregnates it with seminal powers, which it bears with the rain into the earth, the common matrix.
The Salt of TarTar* is the same matter more digested by the heat of the matrix in which it was placed, because this matrix serves as a furnace in Nature. Thus from Nitre and from Tartar vegetation is formed. This salt is found wherever Nitre has been deposited, but especially on the surface of the earth, where dew and rain furnish it abundantly.
VITRIOL is the same Salt Nitre, which, having passed through the nature of Tartar, becomes a mineral salt bya longer coction in hotter furnaces. It is found abundantly in the cavities and openings of the earth, where it is united with a viscous humour which renders it metallic.
Of From the salts of which we have just spoken, Adetallic and from their vapours is made the Mercury cli which the ancients have called mzneral sperm. From this Mercury and from Sulphur, whether pure or im- pure, are made all the metals, whether in the interior of the earth, or on its surface.
When the Elements, corporified by their union, take the form of Saltpetre, or Tartar, and of Vitriol,the Fire of Nature, excited by solar heat, digests the humidity which the dryness of these salts attracts, and separating the pure from the im- pure, the Salt from the Earth, the homogeneous parts from the heterogeneous, it thickens the mineral sperm into quick- silver, then into a metal pure or impure, according to the mixture and to the quality of the matrix.
The diversity of Sulphur and of Mercury, more or less pure, and more or less digested, their union and their differ-
*A Solvent, according to Basil Valentin and a few other Philosophers.
130 The Great Art.
ent combinations give rise to the numerous family of the mineral kingdom. Stones, marcassites, minerals, differ according to the variety of their matrices and the greater or less degree of coction.
Philosophers have seemingly spoken of this Matter only to conceal it; at least when there is a question of designating it particu- larly. But when they speak of it in general they enlarge very much upon its qualities and properties; they give to it all the names of the individuals of the Universe, because they say it is the principle and basis of them. “ Investigate, “says the Cosmopolite, (Zvac¢. 7), and see if what you pro- “pose to do, is conformable to what Nature can do. See “what materials she employs, and what vase she uses. If “you wish to do only what she does, follow her step by step. ‘“‘If you wish to do better, see what can best serve for this “purpose; but remain always in natures of the same kind. “Tf, for example, you wish to press a metal beyond the per- “fection which it has received from Nature, you must take “your materials from the metallic kingdom, and always a “male and a female, without which you will not succeed. “For you would endeavor in vain to make a metal with “grass, or with an animal; just as it would be impossible to ‘“‘ produce a tree from a dog or other animal.”
This Primal Matter is commonly called Sulphur and Quicksilver. Raymond Lully, (Codzczt. c.g,) calls them the
two extremes of the SToNE and of all the metals. Others
* The matter of the Great Work was Gold and Silver united to Mercury and pre- pared ina special manner. Gvuld was chosen for its abundance of Sulphur, Silver as containing a verypure Mercury, as for quicksilver, itrepresented the Salt, mean for uniting both Sulphur and Mercury.
Of the Matter of the Magnum Opus in general*
ALBERT Poisson: Théories et Symboles.
Of the Matter of the Magnum Opus in General, 131
say, in general, that the sun is its father and the moon its mother; that it is male and female; that it is composed of four, of three, of two and of one* and all this to conceal it. It is found everywhere, on the earth, on the sea, on the plains, on the mountains, etc. The same author who says that their Matter is unique, says also that the STONE is com- posed of several individual principles. All these contradic- tions are only apparent, because they do not speak of Matter from a single point of view; but in regard to its general principles, or to the different states in which it is found in its operations.
It is certain that there is only one principle in all Nature, and that it is the same in the STONE as in other things. It is necessary then to know how to distinguish what the Phil- osophers say of Matter in general, from what they say of it in particular. There is also only one fixed spirit, composed of a very pure and incombustible fire, which has its seat in the Humid Radical of the Mixts. It is more perfect in gold than in anything else, and only the Mercury of the Philoso- phers has the property and power of drawing it from its prison, of corrupting it and disposing it for generation. Quicksilver is the principle of volatility, of malleability, and of minerality; the fixed spirit of gold can do nothing without it. The gold is moistened, ve-cucruded, volatilized and sub- mitted to putrefaction by the operation of Mercury; and the latter is digested, thickened, dried and fixed by the operation of Sophic Gold, which renders it by this means a metallic tincture.
Taken together, they form the Mercury and the Sulphur of Philosophers. But it is not enough that a metallic Sulphur enters into this Work as a leaven, there must also be one as
* That is to say of the four Elements, of the Three Principles,of the Fixed and the Volatile and of One unique Matter, E.B
132 The Great Art.
a sperm or germ of a sulphurous nature to unite with the germ of the mercurial substance. This Sulphur and this Mercury have been wisely represented with the ancients by two serpents, the one male, the other female, twisted around the golden rod of Mercury. This rod is the Fixed Spirit, to which they must be attached. These are the serpents sent by Juno against Hercules when this hero was still in his cradle.
This Sulphur is the soul of bodies, and the principle of the exuberation of their tincture;* common mercury is deprived of it; common gold and silver have it only for themselves.+ The mercury suitable for the Work, must first be impreg- nated with an invisible Sulphurt (a@’Espagnet, can. 30), in order that it may be more disposed to receive the visible tincture of perfect bodies, and that it may be able then to communicate it with interest.
Many chemists sweat blood and water to extract the tinc- ture from common gold; they imagine that by torturing it they can make it disgorge and that then they will find the secret of augmenting and multiplying it, but
Spes tandem Agricolas vants eludit artists. Virg. Georg. For it is impossible for the solar tincture to be entirely separated from its body. Art could not undo in this class that which Nature has so well united. If by means of fire,
® This Tincture is extracted from Gold. ALBERT POISSON,
j Gold and Silver prepared for the Work were called Sophic Gold and Silver. Except native gold and silver, which are sufficiently pure, these metals were first purified: gold by cementation, orantimony; silver by coupellation, that is to say, by lead.
(Jollivet Castelot.)
+ By dissolving in warm mercury pure, red hot gold in the proportion of one part of gold to seven parts of distilled mercury. See Secreta Alchemi@ of St. Thomas Aquinas.
E. B.
Ancient Pbilosopbical Tames given to this Matter. 133
or by the corrosion of strong waters (acids), they succeed in drawing from gold a colored and permanent liquor, it must be regarded simply as a portion of the body, and not as its tincture; for that which constitutes the Tincture, properly speaking, cannot be separated from the gold. It is this term, Tincture, which causes the illusion of most Artists. I concede that it is a Tincture, at least they will agree that it is altered by the strength of fire, or the strong waters, that it cannot be useful in the Work, and that it could not give to volatile bodies the fixity of the gold from which it was sepa- rated. For these reasons d’Espagnet, (Caz. 34), advises them not to waste their silver and gold in a work so laborious, from which they could derive no advantage.
[PaReeRt Db llagepbIEAl The ancient Philosophers conceal- ames given to ed the true name of the Matter of this Matter.
the Magnum Opus with as much care as the Modern. They spoke of it only in allegories and symbols. The Egyptians represented it in their hieroglyph- ics under the form of an Ox, which was at the same time the symbol of Osiris and Isis, whom they supposed to have been brother and sister, husband and wife, both grand-children of the Heaven and Earth. Others have given to it the name of Venus. They have also called it Androgynous, and Andro- meda, wife of Saturn, daughter of the god Neptune; Latona, Maya, Semele, Leda, Ceres, and Homer has honored it more than once with the title of Mother of the gods. It has also been known under the names of Rhea, awd 76 peiv, Meaning, fusible earth, and finally by an infinity of other feminine names, according to the different circumstances in which it is found in the successive operations of the Work. They
134 Tbe Great Att.
personified it, and each circumstance furnished them a sub- ject for numerous allegorical fables, which they invented as seem good to them.
Hermetic Philosophy wishes that the Latten, (name which it has also pleased them to give to their Matter), be com- posed of a gold and silver, crude, volatile, unripe and full of blackness during the putrefaction, which is called Belly of Saturn, from which Venus was engendered. This is why she is regarded as born of the philosophic sea. The salt which was produced from that sea, was represented by Cupid, son of Venus and Mercury; because then Venus sig- nified Sulphur and Mercury, Quicksilver or Sophic Mercury.
Nicolas Flamel has. represented the First Matter in hiero- glyphic figures, under the form of two dragons, the one winged, the other wingless, to signify, said he, (Explication des Signes. Ch. 4), “the fixed principle, or male, or Sulphur; “and by that which has wings, the volatile principle, or “moisture, or female, or Quicksilver. These are, adds he, “the Sun and Moon of Mercurial source; the serpents and “dragons, which the ancient Egyptians have painted in a “circle, the head biting the tail, to indicate that they were “derived from the same thing and that it was sufficient to “itself and that in its contour and circulation it perfected “itself. These are the dragons which the ancient Philoso- “pher- Poets have placed to guard the golden apples of “the Hesperidian Virgins, and those on which Jason, in his “search for the Golden Fleece, poured the liquor prepared “by the beautiful Medea: dissertations with which the “books of Philosophers are so filled, that there is no Phil- “osopher who has not written of them, from the truthful “Hermes Trismegistus, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Artephius, ‘‘Morianus, and others, up to the present time.
‘These are also the two serpents sent by Juno, who is the
Ancient Philosophical Hames given to this Matter. 135
“metallic nature, which the strong Hercules, that is to say, “the Sage, was to strangle in his cradle: I mean to con- “quer and to kill, to make them decay, rot and engender at “the beginning of his work. These are again the two ser- “pents attached to the caduceus of Mercury, with which he “exercised his great power and transformed himself as he “wished.”
The tortoise was also with the Ancients the symbol of Matter, because it bears on its shell a kind of representation of that figure k of Saturn. This is why Venus was some- times represented, (Plutarchus. zm precceptzs connub.), seated on a Goat, the head of which as that of the Ram presents almost this figure ¥ of Mercury, and with her right foot supported upon a tortoise. One sees in a philosophical emblem an Artist preparing a sauce for a tortoise from grapes, and a Philosopher questioned as to what Matter was, responded: Testudo solis cum pinguedine vitis.
Among the Aborigenes the figure k of Saturn was held in great veneration; they placed it on their medals, their columns, their obelisks, etc. /s représentatent Saturne sous la figure @un viewlard, ayant cependant un air male et vigou- veux, gut latssait couler son urine en forme dezet ad eau; cétatt dans cette eau qu ils faisatent consister la metlleure partie de leur médecine et de leurs richesses. Others added the plant called Molybdenos, or saturnian plant, whose root they said was of lead, the stalk of silver and the flowers of gold. This is the same of which mention is made in Homer under the name Moly, (Odyss. B. I0, v. 302, etc).
Les Grecs tnventérent ausst une infinité de fables a cette occa- ston, et formerent en conséquence le nom de Mercure de Mnpos, inguin, e¢ de KGops, puer, parce gue le Mercure philosophique est une eau, que plusieurs auteurs, et particulierement Raymond
136 Tbe Great Art.
Lille, (Lib. Secretorum and Alibt) ont appelé urine d enfant. De la ausst la fable a’ Orion, engendré de l’urine de Jupiter, de Neptune et de Mercure.
Walter ie atl Philosophers, always careful in concealing and yet their Matter as well as their processes, call it Simple.
indifferently, in all the states in which it is found in the course of the operations. They give to it for this purpose many names in particular which suit it only in general, and never has a Mixt had so many names. Itis one thing and all things, they say, because it is the radical prin- ciple of all the Mixts. It is in all and like to all, because it is susceptible of all forms, before it is restricted to some class of individuals of the three kingdoms in Nature. When it is limited to the mineral kingdom, they say that it is like to gold, because it is the basis, the principle and the mother of it. This is why they call it crude gold, volatile gold, unripe gold, leprous gold. It is analogous to the metals, being the Mercury of which they are composed. The spirit of this Mercury is so congealing that it is called the father of stones, the precious as well as the common. It is the mother who conceives them, the humidity which nourishes them, and the Matter which forms them.
The minerals are also formed from it; and as Antimony is the Protheus of chemistry, and the mineral which has the greatest number of properties and virtues, Artephius has named the Matter of the Great Work: Axtzmony of the parts of Saturn. But although it gives a true Mercury, we must not imagine that this Mercury is derived from common Antimony, nor that this is the common mercury. Philalethes assures us, (Juztrottus apertus, etc.), that in whatsoever man-
Matter is all and Wet Simple. 137
ner one treats common mercury, one will never make from it Sophic Mercury. Cosmopolita says that this is the true’ Mercury, and that common mercury is only its illegitimate brother, (Dialog. Mercur. Alkemtiste et Nature.). When the Mercury of the Sages is mixed with silver and gold, it is called the Electra of Philosophers, their brass, their latten, their copper, their steel; and in operations, their venom, their arsenic, their orpiment, their lead, their latten which it is necessary to whiten; Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, the Moon and the Sun.
This Mercury is an ardent water, which has the power of dissolving all the composites, minerals and stones. And all that which resists other solvents, or strong waters, can be dissolved by the Scythe of Old Saturn; which has caused the name of Universal Solvent.to be given to it.
Paracelsus, in speaking of Saturn, expresses himself thus: | “Tt would not be @ propos, that one should be instructed con- “cerning the properties concealed in Saturn; and of all that | “which can be done with and through him. If it was gener- “ally known, all alchemists would abandon every other “matter to work only upon this,” (Celum Philosoph. Can. de “ Saturno).”
I will finish what I have to say concerning the Matter of the Great Work by stating certain materials which souffeurs gen- erally use in making the golden medicine or the Philosopher’s Stone, and which are excluded by some Hermetists. “I have, “said Sir Ripley, made many experiments on all the things ‘which Philosophers name in their writings, to make gold and “silver, and I wish to recount them to you. I have worked “on cinnabar, but it was worth nothing, and on sublimated “mercury which costs me much. I made many sublimations “of spirits, of ferments, of iron salts, of steel, and of their “dross, believing by this means and through these matters
138 The Great Art.
“to succeed in making the Stone; but I saw finally that I “had lost my time, my trouble and my expense. Yet I “followed exactly all that which was laid down by these “authors; and I found that all the processes which they “taught were false. I then made strong waters, corrosive ‘waters, ardent waters, with which I worked in different “manners, but always to no purpose. I had recourse after “this to egg shells, to sulphur, to vitriol, which mad artists “take for the Green Lion of the Philosophers, to arsenic, to ‘“‘orpiment, to salammoniac, salt of glass, to alkali salt, to ‘common salt, to mineral salt, to saltpetre, to salt of soda, “to salt attincar, to salt of tartar and to salt alembrot; but, “believe me, be on your guard against all these matters. “Flee from the metals imperfectly rubified, the odor of mer- ‘‘cury, sublimated or precipitated mercury, you would be “deceived in them as I have been. I have tried all, the “blood, the hair, the soul of Saturn, the marcassites, the “@s ustum, the saffron of Mars, the scales and the dross of “iron, litharge, antimony, all this is not worth a rotten fig. “T have worked much to obtain the oil and water of silver, “TJ have calcined this metal with a prepared salt, and without “salt, with eau-de-vie; I have used the corrosive oils, but all “this was useless. I have employed the oils, milk, wine, “rennet, the sperm of the stars which fall on the earth, “celandines, secundines, and an infinity of other things, and “T have derived no advantage from them. I have mixed “mercury with the metals, I have reduced them to crystals, “imagining to do something good, I have sought in the ashes “even, but believe me, for goodness sake, flee from such “foolishness. I have found only one true work.”—
Bernard Trévisan expresses himself in almost the same manner: “ And thus, says he, we have seen and known many “workmen in these amalgamations and multiplications in
Matter is all and Wet Simple. 139
“white and red, with all imaginable materials and with all “the trouble, perseverance and constancy possible; but never “have we found our gold, or silver multiplied by a third, a “half, or any part. And although we have witnessed so many “albifications and rubifications, receipts, sophistications in — & 50 many countries, as well in Rome, Navarre, Spain, Tur- “key, Greece, Alexandria, Barbary, Persia, Messina, Rhodes, “France, Scotland, in Palestine and surrounding countries, “as in all Italy, Germany, England and almost around the “world; never have we found people working, except on “ sophistical materials and matters, herbal, animal, vegetable “and seeds, and mineral stones, salts, alums and strong “waters, distillations and separations of the elements and “sublimations, calcinations, congelations of quicksilver by “herbs, stones, waters, oils, manures and fire, and strange “vessels, and never have we found people laboring on the ‘right matter. We found indeed in these countries those ‘‘who knew the Philosopher’s Stone, but never could we “make their acquaintance. ... And I began then to read “books before working more, thinking within myself that “through men I could not succeed; for if they knew it they “wceuld never reveal it; . . . thus I looked where their books “most agreed; then I thought that here must be the truth: “for they can state truth only in one thing. And thus I “found truth. For where they agreed there was the truth; ‘although one names it in one manner, and another in “another; yet zt zs all one substance in their words.. But I “knew that falsity was in diversity and not in harmony; “for if it was truth, they would speak only of one matter, what- “soever names and figures they might adopt.... And in “truth I believe that those who have written their books “parabolically and figuratively, in speaking of hair, of blood, ‘‘of urine, of sperm, of herbs, of vegetables, of animals, of
140 The Great Art.
“plants and of stones and minerals such as salts, alums, “copperas, attraments,* vitriols, borax and magnesia, and “any stones and waters whatever; I believe, I say, that this “has cost them nothing: or that they have taken no trouble: “or that they are too cruel,f ... for know that no book “declares in true words, unless by parables, as signs. But “Man must think and revise often the possible meaning of “what they say, and must regard the operations by which ‘Nature conducts her works.
‘Wherefore I conclude, and believe me: Leave sophis- “tications and all those who believe in them: Flee from “their sublimations, conjunctions, separations, congelations, “preparations, disjunctions, connections and other decep- “tions. .. . And let those keep silent, who affirm a tincture “other than ours, which is not true and brings no profit, « And let those keep silent who speak of a sulphur different “from ours, which is concealed in Magnesia, (Philosophical); “and who wish to derive quicksilver except from the Red «Servant; and other water than ours, which is permanent, “which unites only to its proper nature, and moistens noth- “ing save that which is one with its own nature.
«“ Abandon alums, vitriols, salts and all attraments, borax, “all strong waters, animals, beasts, and all that which may “be derived from them; hair, blood, urine, sperms, flesh, “eggs, stones and all minerals. Leave all metals alone: “although they constitute the entrance of the work, accord- “ing to the sayings of the Philosophers. Our Matter must ‘“‘be composed of argent vive; and argent vive is found espe- “cially in metals, according to Geber, according to the Grand “Rosary, according to the Code of all Truth, according to “Morianus, Haly, Calib, Avicenna, Bendegid, Esid, Sera- ‘“‘pion; according to Sarne, who wrote the book called Lzium,
* Vitriols. t+ In hiding their secret.
4 ie
ee,
= SeTS
=
3
Tbe Rep of the Work. 143
“according to Euclides, in his seventh chapter of Retracta- “tions, and according to the Philosopher (Aristotle) in the “third of Meteors... . And for this, say Aristotle and Dem- “ocritus, in the Book of Physics, chap. III of Meteors, let “alchemists rejoice; for they will never succeed in ripening “the form of the metals, until they reduce them to their “first Matter, ... or know, as saysin Zurba Noscus, who “was king of Albania, that from man comes only men; from “pird only birds, and from beast only beasts, and that “Nature perfects herself only in her own species.” (P/zlo- “ sophie des Métaux).
That which we have just quoted from these two authors is a lesson for Souffleurs. It indicates to them clearly that they are not on the right road; and can serve at the same time as a hindrance to those who would desire to deceive, because whenever a man will promise to make the Stone with the matters above excluded, one may conclude that he is either ignorant or arogue. It is clear also by all this rea- soning of Trévisan that the Matter of the Great Work must be of a mineral and metallic nature; but what this Matter is in particular, no one has said exactly.
Basil Valentin, (Addition aux Douze Clefs), says that he who has flour will soon have dough, and he who has dough will soon find an oven tocookit. Itisas if he said that the Artist who possesses the true Sophic Matter will not be troubled about working with it; it is true, if one believes the Philosophers, that the execution of the Work is a very easy thing, and that more time and patience than expense is required; but this must doubtless be understood of certain circumstances
The Rey
of the Whrk.
144 The Great Art.
of the Work, and when one has reached a certain point. Flamel says, (Explication des Figures Hiéroglyphiques),; that the preparation of the agents 1s more difficult than anything else in the world. Augurellus, (Chrysop., 1.2), assures us that an Herculean work is necessary.
Alter inauratam noto de vertice pellem
Principium velut ostendit, quod sumere possts ;
Alter onus quantum subeas.
And d’ Espagnet does not hesitate to say that there is much work to be done, (Can. 42): “In the Philosophical Sub- ‘“limation of Mercury, or the first preparation, the work of “a Hercules is necessary, for without it Jason would never “have dared to undertake the conquest of the Golden “Fleece.” Yet we must not imagine that this sublimation is made in the same manner as chemical sublimation. So he has been careful to call it PAzlosophical. It must be under- stood, from what he says afterwards, that it consists in the dissolution and putrefaction of Matter; because this sublima- tion is nothing else than a separation of the pure from the impure; or a purification of Matter, which is of such a nature that it can be sublimated only by putrefaction. D’Espagnet then quotes the following words of Virgil. The poet, says he, seems to have touched something of the nature of the quality, and of the culture of the Philosophical Earth in these terms:
Pingue solum primis extemplo & mensibus anni
Fortes invertant Tauri:
. Lunc zephyro putris se gleba resolvit.—Georg. I.
Thus solution is the Key of the Work. All Philosophers agree and all speak in the same manner on this subject. But there are two labours in the Work, one to make the Stone, the other to make the Elixir. It is neces- sary first to begin by preparing the agents; and of this prep-
The tkey of the Work. 145
aration Philosophers have not spoken, because all depends on it, and because the second work is, according to them, only child’s play and an amusement for women. Yet the operations of the second work must not be confounded with those of the first, although Morien, (Lutvretients du Rot Calida), assures us that the second work, which he calls “ Dis- position,’ is only a repetition of the first. Yet we may believe that it is not such a painful and difficult thing, since they do not say aword about it, or speak of it only to con- ceal it. Whatsoever this preparation may be, it is certain that it must begin by the dissolution of Matter, although several have given to it the name of calcination or sublima- tion; and since they have not wished to speak clearly of it, we may, at least, from the operations of the second “ dspost- tion,” draw inductions by which we may enlighten ourselves concerning the operations of the first.
The first step is to make Sophic Mercury, or the Solvent, from a matter which encloses in itself two qualities, and which is part volatile, and part fixed. That which proves that there must be a dissolution, is that Cosmopolita tells us to seek a matter from which we may be able to make a Water which dissolves gold naturally and without violence. But a matter may be reduced to water only by dissolution, unless one employs the distillation of common chemistry, which is excluded from the Work.
It is well to remark here that all the terms of common chemistry, which the Philosophers employ in their books, must not be taken in the ordinary sense, but in the Phz/o- sophic sense. This is why Philalethes warns us,(Exarratio Method. trium Gebri medicin.), that the terms distillation, sublimation, calcination, assation, reverberation, dissolution, descension, coagulation, are only one and the same opera- tion, made in one Vase, that is to say, a concoction of
146 Cbe Great Art.
Matter; we will see the differences between them, later on, when we will speak of each one in particular.
Yet, it must be remarked that the demonstrative signs of the Work, of which Philosophers make mention, refer espe- cially to the second work. One will observe also that the greatest number of Hermetic Authors commence their treatises with this second operation, and that they suppose their Mercury and their Sulphur already made; that the descriptions which they give in their enigmas, their allego- ries, their fables, etc., are almost all drawn from that which takes place in this second ‘“‘ disposztion”’ of Morien; whence arise the apparent contradictions which are found in their works, where one says that two matters are necessary, another only one, another three, another four, etc. Thus in order to express one’s self in conformity with the ideas of the Philosophers, it is necessary to follow them step by step; and as I do not wish to depart at all from their principles, or from their manner of deducing them, I will copy them word for word, so that the reader may not regard the explana- tions which I will give of the Fables as a pure production of my imagination. Basil Valentin is one of those who makes the greatest application of the Fables in his 7veatise on the Twelve Keys; but he employs them to form his own allegories, and not to make apparent the intention of their authors. Flamel, on the contrary, quotes some of them from time to time in the sense of their authors, therefore I will quote him here oftener than the others; and this Treatise shall be composed in the following pages of his own words.
The two Dragons, which he has taken for a hieroglyphic symbol of Matter are, says he, (Loco czt.): “The two ser- “pents sent by Juno, who represents the metallic nature, “which the strong Hercules, that is to say, the Wise must “strangle in his cradle: I mean by this to conquer and to
The Key of the Work. 147
“kill, to make them rot, corrupt and engender at the begin- “ning of his work.’ This is the Key of the Work, or the dissolution announced, the Serpents, the Dragons, the Chimera, the Sphinx, the Harpies and other monsters of the Fable whom one must kill, and as putrefaction succeeds death, Flamel says: ‘That it is necessary to cause them to “rot and to disintegrate. Being then placed together in the “vessel of the Sepulchre, they tear each other cruelly and ‘‘by their great poison and furious rage, they never leave off “from the moment when they have seized each other, (unless “cold hinders them), until both are covered in all the parts “of their bodies with their venom and the blood of their “mortal wounds, and finally killing each other, they are “choked with their own venom, which changes them after “their death, into a permanent aqua-viva. This water is, “properly speaking, the Mercury of the Philosophers. These “are, adds he, those two sperms, masculine and feminine, “described in the beginning of my P&zlosophic Summary, “which are engendered, (say Rhasis, Avicenna and Abra- “ham the Jew), in the loins and entrails, and from the oper- “ations of the four Elements. These are the Humid Radi- “calof the metals Sulphur and Argent-vive; not the common “sulphur and quicksilver, which are sold by druggists; but “the ones which give to us those two beautiful and dear “bodies which we love so much. These two sperms, said “Democritus, are not found on the earth of the living. «‘ Avicenna says this also, but he adds that they are collected “from the waste matter of the Sun and Moon.”
Putrefaction is declared in the following terms: ‘I have ‘pictured these two sperms in the form of Dragons, because ‘“‘of their offensive smell similar to that of the Dragons, and ‘because the exhalations which mount in the matrass, are “dark, black, blue and yellowish, . . . The Philosopher never
148 Che Great Art.
“smells this odour, unless he breaks the vessels; but he “judges of it simply by sight and the change of colours, “which proceeds from the rottening of this confection.” Let the chemists, or souffleurs, who seek for the Philosophical Stone in their calcinations and their crucibles judge from these words of Flamel, whether their operations are con- formable to his; and whether they are right to expose them- selves to breathe the vapours of the ill-smelling arsenical matters on which they work.
The putrefaction of the Matter in the Vase is then the principle and the cause of the colours which are manifested, and the first permanent one which must appear is the black colour, which they call simply the lack, and by an infinity of other names, which one will see later on in the course of this work, or in the Dictionary of Terms peculiar to Hermetic Philosophers, which immediately follows it.*
This colour signifies then putrefaction and degeneration which ensues, and which is given to us by the Dissolution of our perfect Body. The following words indicate that Flamel speaks of the second operation, and not of the first: “This “Dissolution comes from the external heat, which aids, and “the interior igneity, and sharp, wonderful power of the “poison of our Mercury, which resolves into pure dust, even “into impalpable powder, whatever resists it. Thus the heat “acting on and against the Humid Radical, metallic, viscous ‘and oleaginous, produces the blackness of the Matter. It is “that black veil with which the ships of Theseus returned “victorious from Crete, and which caused the death of his “father. Thus it is necessary that the father should die, in
*DICTIONNAIRE MyTHO-HERMETIQUE dans lequel on trouve les Allégories fabuleuses des poéetes, les Métaphores, les Enigmes et les Termes barbares, des Philosophes Hermétiques expliqués par Dom peesbirt aria Pernety, Religieux Bénédictin de la Congrégation de Saint-Maur.
The Rey of the Work. 149
“order that from the ashes of this phoenix another should “rise, and that the son should be king.”
The true key of the Work is this blackness at the begin- ning of its operations, and if another colour, red or white appears before this one, it is a proof that one has not suc- ceeded, or, as our author says: “One must always wish for “this blackness, and certainly he who does not see it during “the days of the Stone, whatsoever other colour he may see, “fails entirely in the Magistery, and can not perfect it with “this chaos. ... And truly, I say again, that even if you “would work on true Matter, if, at the beginning, after hav- “ing placed the confections in the philosophical egg, that is “to say, sometime after the fire has irritated them, if you do “not see this Head of the Crow, nigrum nigro, nigrius, (le ‘noir du noir trés noir), it is necessary to begin again; for “this fault is irreparable. Especially must one fear an “orange or reddish colour; because if in the beginning you “see it in the egg, doubtless you burn, or have burned the “spirit and vivacity of the Stone.”
The bluish and yellowish colours indicate that the putre- faction and the dissolution are not yet finished. The Black- ness is the true sign of a perfect solution. Then the Matter is dissolved into a powder more subtle, to speak thus, that the atoms which float in the rays of the sun, and these atoms are changed into permanent water. The Philosophers have given to this Dissolution the names, Death, Destruction and Perdition, the Infernal Regions, Tartarus, Shadows, Night, Obscure Vest, Sepulchre, Tomb, Ventmous Water, Charcoal, Manure, Black Earth, Black Veil, Sulphurous Earth, Melancholy, Black Magnesia, Clay, Stinking Menstruum, Smoke, Lamp-Black, Venimous Fire, Cloud, Lead, Black Lead, Philosopher's Lead, Saturn, Black Powder, Contemptible Thing, Vile Thing, Seal of Hermes, Stinking Spirit, Subli-
150 The Great Art.
mated Spirit, Eclipsed Sun or Eclipse of the Sun and Moon, Corruption, Black Bark, Seafoam, Covering of the Vase, Capttalof the Alembic, Naptha, Uncleanliness of the Dead, Corpse, Oil of Saturn, Nigrum-Nigro-Nigrius. They have desig- nated it by all the names which can express, or designate corruption, dissolution and blackness. This is what has furnished the Philosophers with the materials forso many allegories on the dead and the tomb. Some have even named it Calcination, Denudation, Separation, Trituration, Assation ; because of the reduction of the matters to a very subtle powder. Others, Reduction to Prima Materia, Malefa- ction, Extraction, Commixion, Liquefaction, Conversion of the Elements, Subtilization, Division, Humation, Impastation, and Distillation. Others, Xzr, Cimmarian Shadows, Abyss, Gen- eration, Ingression, Submergion, Complexion, Conjunction, Impregnation. When heat acts on these matters, they are changed first into powder, and oily, gluey water, which rises as a vapour to the top of the vase, and descends again in dew or rain, to the bottom, (Artephius,) where it becomes almost as an oily black broth. This is why it has been called Szé- limation and Volatilization, Ascension and Descensiton, The water then coagulating more and more, becomes like black pitch, which has caused it to be named fetid and stinking. It gives forth a musty odor of sepulchres and tombs. Hermés has called it the arth of leaves, “but its true name, “says Flamel, is Latten which tt ts necessary to whiten. The “Ancient Sages, adds he, have described it in the history of “the Serpent of Mars, which had devoured the companions “of Cadmus, who killed it by piercing it with his lance
“against a hollow oak.* Remark this Oak.”
*Furnace of the Wise. It is spoken, in the Fable, of a hollow Oak against which Cadmus ran through the Dragon which had devoured his companions. The lance which Cadmus used is Fire, the Serpent signifies Mercury. The hollow Oak being the Secret Furnace of the Sages, one understands why the Ancients consecrated it to Rhea, wife of Saturn. Pernety, Dict, Mytho-Herm.
The Rey of the Work. 151
But to arrive at this putrefaction we must have an agent,) or Solvent, analogous to the body which is to be dissolved. The latter is the soluble body, called masculine germ; the other is the dissolving spirit, called feminine germ. When they are united in the vase, Philosophers give them the name Resis; this is why Merlin has said:
Res rebis est bina, conjuncta sed tamen una.
Philalethes, (Vera confect. lapid. Philosoph. p. 13 and follow- ing), expresses himself thus on the subject of this Solvent: “This feminine germ is one of the chief principles of our “ Magisterium, therefore, it is necessary to meditate deeply “upon it, as upon a matter, without which one cannot suc- “ceed, since although mercury, it is not indeed a natural “argent-vive, but a certain mercury fit for a new generation; ‘and which besides its purity, demands a long and wonder- “ful preparation, which leaves to it, in its integrity, its “homogeneous mineral quality. For if one takes from this “dissolving spirit its fluidity and mercuriality, it becomes “useless for the Philosophic Work, because it has lost “thereby its dissolving nature; and if it were changed into “powder, in any manner whatever; if it is not of the nature “of the soluble body, it is lost, it has no longer any relation ‘‘or proportion with it, and must be rejected from our Work. “Those think madly and wrongly who alter the Quicksilver “before it is united with the metallic species. For this “Quicksilver which is not common mercury,is the Matter of “all the metals, and we may say their Water, because of its “homogeneity with them. It becomes invested with their “nature in its mixture with them, and takes all their quali- “ties, because it resembles celestial Mercury, which becomes “similar to the qualities of the Planets with which it is in “conjunction.”
No water can dissolve radically and naturally the metallic
152 Tbe Great Art.
species, unless it is of their nature, and can be congealed with them. It must pass into the metals as a food which is incorporated with them, and forms with them only one sub- stance. Therefore he who will take from quicksilver its humidity by means of salts, vitriols, or other corrosive sub- stances, acts asa madman. Those are not the less deceived, who imagine to extract from natural mercury a limpid and transparent water, with which they can make wonderful things. Even if they would succeed in making such a water, it would be worth nothing in the Work.
Weanitione ans Mercury is a thing which dissolves the perce metals by a natural dissolution, and which | This Mercury. : ats ee
leads their spirits from potentiality to actu- ality.
Mercury is that thing which renders the material of the metals lucid, clear and without shadow, that is to say, which cleanses them from their impurities, and draws from the interior of the perfect metals their nature and germ which is hidden there.
Dissolving Mercury is a dry vapour, not at all viscous, having much acidity, very subtle, very volatile to fire, having a great property of penetrating and of dissolving the metals. In preparing it, and in making this dissolution, besides the length of the work, one runs a very great danger, says Phila- lethes. Consequently he advises one to take care of his eyes, his ears and his nose.
The confection of this Mercury, adds the same author, is the greatest secret of Nature, one can scarcely understand it
Definitions and Properties of this Mercury. 153
except by the revelation of God, or of a friend; for one will never succeed by the guidance of books alone.
Dissolving Mercury is not the Mercury of the Philosophers before its preparation, but only afterwards, and it is the beginning of the medicine of the third order.*
Those who instead of this Mercury employ for the Philo- sophic Work natural mercury, or sublimated, calcined or _ precipitated mercury are greatly deceived.
Dissolving Mercury is an element of the earth in which it is necessary to sow the grain of gold. It corrupts the Sun, putrefies it, resolves it into Mercury, and renders it volatile and like to itself. It is changed into Sun and Moon, and becomes as the mercuries of the metals. It draws out the souls of the bodies, takes them away and concocts them. For this reason the ancient Sages said that the god Mercury attracted the soul of living bodies and led them to the king- dom of Pluto. This is why Homer often calls Mercury, (A’pyeodvens), Arquicida.
The Dissolving Mercury must not be dry, for if it is, all the Philosophers assure us that it will not be suitable for dissolution. It is necessary then to take a feminine germ, in form similar to that of the metals. Art renders it the Menstrum of the metals; and by the operations of the first medicine, or from its imperfect preparation, it passes through all the qualities of the metals even to those of the sun. The sulphur of the imperfect metals coagulates it, and it takes the qualities of the metal whose Sulphur has coagulated it. If the Dissolving Mercury is not animated, in vain will one employ it for the Work, universal or particular.
The Dissolving Mercury is the unique Vase of the Philos- opher in which all the Magzistertum is accomplished. Phil-
* MEDICINE OF THE THIRD ORDER. It is the preparation of the Stone which Philosophers name Multiplication. . .. This Medicine carries the Stone to its per- fection and multiplies it both in quantity and in quality.... It is also named Medicine of the superior order. Pernety Dict. Mytho-Herm,
154 The Great Art.
osophers have given to it different names, of which the fol- lowing are most used:
Vinegar of Philosophers, Field, Aludel, Water, Water of Art, Ardent Water, Divine Water, Fountain Water, Purifying Water, Permanent. Water, First Water, Simple. Water, Bath, Heaven, Prison, Superior Eye-ld, Sieve, Smoke, Humidity, Fire, Artificial Fire, Corroding Fire, Unnatural Fire, Humid Fire, Jordan, Liquor, Crude Vegetable Liquor, Moon, Matter, Lunar Matter, First Power, Mother, Crude Mercury, Prepar- ing Mercury, First Minister, Fugitive Servant, Nymphs, Bac- chantes, Muses, Woman, Sea, Crude Spirit, Concocted Spirit, Sepulchre, Sperm of Mercury, Stygian Water, Oestrich stom- ach, Vase, Philosopher's Vase, Inspector of concealed Things, Crude Quicksilver taken simply from tts mine.
But one must not forget that this Mercury is not that which is sold in apothecary shops.
When the conjunction of Mercury with the soluble body is made, the Philosophers speak of the two as of one thing; and then they say the sages find in Mercury all that is neces- sary forthem. Therefore one must not permit one’s self to be deceived by the diversity of names; and to warn against error of this kind some of the principal names are here given:
Thickened Water, Our Water, Second Water, Arcanum, Argent-vive, Goodness, Goodness which has several names, Chaos HHylé, Our Compost, Our Confection, Confused Body, Mixed Body, Copper, 44s of the Philosophers (Sophie Brass), Latten, Manure, Aqueous Smoke, Burning Humidity, Strange Fire, Unnatural Fare, Stone, Mineral Stone, Unique Stone, Unique Matter, Confused Matter of the Metals, Menstrum, Second Menstrum, Mine, Our Mine, Mine of the Metals, Mer- cury, Thickened Mercury, Piece of Money, Egg, Philosopher's Ligg, Root, Unique Root, Stone known in the Chapters of Books.
Finally it is with this mixture, or Mercury, that most authors begin their books and treatises on the Work.
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Of the Wase of Art and that of Wature. 157
Of the Vase There are three kinds of matrices, the first ban hte is the Earth, the universal matrix of the Pa eS wotld, the receptacle: of the» Hlements;.” the great vase of Nature, the place where the corruption of the germs takes place, the sepulchre and living tomb of all crea- tures. It is especially the matrix of the vegetable and mineral.
The second matrix is the U¢erus in the animal kingdom; that of the birds is the egg, and the matrix of gold and silver, is the rock alone.
The third, that of the mineral kingdom, is known by few persons. The womb being with the sperm the cause of the specification of the metal.
The knowledge of this precious Vase, and of the fixed and saxatilic* spirit implanted within it, was one of the greatest secrets of the Kabbalah of the Egyptians. It was necessary to seek a Vase analogous to that which Nature employs for the formation of the metals; a Vase which should become the matrix of the golden Tree of the Philosophers; and one has found no better one than glass. They have added to this the manner of sealing it, in imitation of Nature, so that it should exhale none of the principles. For, as says Raymond Lully, the composition which is made from the substance of the exhaled vapours falling upon the corrupted matter, to moisten and to dissolve it, is putrefaction. This Vase must, then, have a form suitable to facilitate the circulation of the spirits, and must be of a thickness and a consistency capable of resisting their strength.
*From the Latin Saxatilis, which resides in stones.
158 The Great Art.
Wammex Given The Philosophers so introduced this Vase in their allegories that one could not have the ) + least suspicion as to the idea which they had of it. Sometimes it was a tower, sometimes a ship, here a coffer, there a basket. Such was the Tower of Danaé; the coffer of Deucalion, and the Tomb of Osiris; the Casket, the Leather-bottle of Bacchus; the Golden Amphora, or Vase of Vulcan; the Chalice which Juno presented to Thetis; the Vessel of Jason; the Swamp of Lerna, which was thus called ‘from ydpva capsa, loculus; the Basket of Erichthonius; the casket in which was enclosed Tennis Triodites with his sister _Hemithea; the Chamber of Leda; the Eggs from which were born Castor, Pollux, Clytemnestra and Helen; the City of Troy; the Caverns of Monsters; the Vases which Vulcan presented to Jupiter; the Casket which Thetis gave to Achilles, in which they placed the bones of Patrocles and of his friends; the Cup with which Hercules crossed the sea to carry away the oxen of Geryon; the Cavern of Mount Heli- con, which served as the abode of Phoebus and the Muses; finally many other things adapted to the fables which one ‘invented on the subject of the Great Work. The Bed of _ Venus and Mars; the Skin in which Orion was engendered; the Clepsydra, or Horn of Almathcea, (from KrAéwlo, horn, and déwp, water). The Egyptians understood only this by their Wells, their Sepulchres, their Urns, the Mausoleum in the form of Pyramid.
But that which has most deceived those who have studied Hermetic Philosophy in books, is that the Vase of Art and the Vase of Nature are often not distinguished from each other. They speak sometimes of one, sometimes of the other, as the subject leads them, without making any dis- tinction. They mention generally a triple Vessel. Flamel has represented it in his Hieroglyphics under the figure of a
Wames given to this Vase by the Ancients. 159
writing-desk. ‘This vessel of earth in the form of a writing- “desk in a niche, is called, says he, the triple-vessel; for in “its midst there is a shelf, on this shelf a bowl] full of warm ‘ashes, in which is placed the Philosopher’s Egg, that is, a “matrass of glass which you see represented in the form of “a writing-desk, full of the Confection of Art, that is to say, “of the foam of the Red Sea and of the fat of the mercurial “wind. But it appears from the description which he gives of this triple Vase, that he speaks not only of the Vase, but of the furnace also.
It is absolutely necessary to know the Vase and its form to succeed in the Work. The Vase of Art must be of glass and oval in form;* but for that of Nature, Philosophers tell us that we must be instructed perfectly concerning its quan- tity and quality. It is the Earth of the Stone, or the Female, or the Matrix, in which the germ of the male is received, is putrefied and disposed for generation. Morien speaks of the latter in these terms: “ You must know, O Good King, “that this Magisterium is the secret of secrets of the Most ‘High God; He has confided it to His Prophets, whose souls “He has placed in Paradise. If the Wise Men, their suc- “cessors, had not comprehended what they said of the “quality of the Vessel in which the Magistery is made, they “would never have been able to do the Work. This Vase, ‘says Philalethes, is an Aludel, not of glass, but of earth; it “is the receptacle of the tinctures; and in regard to the «Stone, it must contain (the first year of the Chaldeans) “twenty-four full Florentine measures: no more, no less.”
The Philosophers have spoken of different Vases to de-
ceive the ignorant.j They have even thought to make a *‘“The Vase must be round, with a long neck, a narrow aperture. made of gjass, or of an earth of similar nature and which must possess its compactness; the orifice must be sealed.”’—(Bachon., ) (Quoted by Pernety in Diction. Myth. Herm.) t “The Vessel of the Philosophers is their Water,” (Hermes, Ludus puerorum.)
160 Tbe Great Art.
mystery of this as of all the rest. This is why they have given to it different names, according to the different denom- inations which it has pleased them to give to the several states of Matter. Thus they have made mention of Alembic, Cucurbit, of Sublimatory and Calcining Vases, etc.* But there is only one Vase of Art,} which d’Espagnet, (Can. 772 and followmg), thus describes: ‘But all deceit being re- “moved we may speak sincerely, one only Vessel of Art “ sufficeth to terminate the Work of the Elixir; for the diver- “sity of digestions requireth not the change of Vessels; yea, ‘‘we must have a care lest the Vessel be changed or opened “before the First work be ended. You shall choose a form “of Vessel round in the bottom (or cucurbit), or at least oval, “the neck a hand’s breadth long or more, large enough, with ‘“‘a straight mouth made like a Pitcher or jug, continuous and “unbroken and equally thick in every part, that it may resist “a long and sometimes an acute Fire. . . The Second Vessel “of Art may be of Wood, of the trunk of an oak, cut into two ‘‘hollow Hemispheres, wherein the Philosophers’ egg may be “cherished till it be hatched.’”t Trévisan also makes men- tion of this Trunk of Oak, in the following terms, (P/zloso- phie des Métaux, IV Partie): “In order that the Fountain “should be more powerful, and that horses and other animals “should not walk init, he erected there a hollow Oak, cut in ‘the middle, which kept the sun and its shadow.”
Finally, the third Vase is the Furnace, which encloses and preserves the two other Vases, and the Matter which they contain. Flamel says that he could never have devined
*‘ the Matter is ground, purified, and perfected therein.”’ (Calio.)
t ‘‘ We need but one Vessel, one Furnace, and one sole operation or regimen; that is after the preparation of the Stone,”’ (Flamel). The author of the Rosarium expresses himself absolutely in the same words. Pernety, loco. cit.
¢ Translation by W. Wynn Wescott, in Collectanea Hermetica, Vol. 1., p. 42.
Of Fire in General. 161
its form, if Abraham the Jew, had not described it with its proportionate Fire in his Hieroglyphic Figures. Indeed Philosophers have placed it in the number of their secrets, and have named it ATHANOR, because of the fire which is continually maintained in it, although not equally at all times because the capacity of the Furnace and the quantity of the Matter demand a proportionate Fire. For its construction see d’ Espagnet.*
Although we have spoken at length of Fire in the PRINCIPLES OF PHysics which precedes this TREATISE, yet it is necessary to say a few words about it, in connection with the Work. We know three kinds of Fire, the Celestial, the fire of our stoves and the Central Fire. The firstis very pure, simple and not burning in itself. The second is impure, thick and burning; the Central is pure in itself, but it is mixed and tempered.
The first does not generate, and shines without burning; the
*The matter of the Furnace is made of Brick, or of daubed Earth, of Potter’s clay well beaten and prepared with horse-dung, mixed with hair, so that it may co- here the firmer, and may not be cracked by long heating; let the walls be three or four fingers thick, to the end that the furnace may be the better able to keep the heat and withstand it. Let the form of the Furnace be round, the inward altitude of two feet or thereabouts, in the midst whereof an Iron or Brazen plate must be set, of a round Figure, about the thickness of a Penknife’s back, in a manner pos- sessing the interior latitude of the Furnace, but a little narrower than it, lest it touch the walls; it must lean upon three or four props of Iron fixed to the walls, and let it be full of holes, that the heat may be the more easily carried upwards by them, and between the sides of the Furnace and the Plate. Below the Plate let there be a little door left, and another above in the walls of the Furnace, that by the lower the Fire may be put in, and by the higher the temperament of the heat may be sensibly perceived; at the opposite part whereof let there be alittle window of the figure of a Rhomboid fortified with glass, that the light over against it may shew the colours to the eye. Upon the middle of the aforesaid plate, let the Tripod of secrets be placed with a double vessel. Lastly, let the Furnace be very well cov- ered with a shell or covering agreeable unto it, and take care that the little doors be always closely shut, lest the heat escape.
An English Translation of the Hermetic Arcanum of @ Espagnet, by W. Wynn Wescott in Collectanea Hermetica, Vol. 1., pp. 43-44.
Of Fire
{tn General,
162 The Great Art.
second is destructive, and burns while shining, instead of generating; the third engenders and enlightens sometimes without burning, and burns sometimes without giving any light. The first is gentle; the second sharp and corrosive; the third is salty and sweet. The first is of itself without colour and without odour; the second is ill-smelling and col- ored according to its aliment; the third is invisible, although of all colours and of all odours. The Celestial is known only by its operations; the second is known through the senses and the Central by its qualities.
The Fire is very acute in the animals, dull in the metal, tempered in the vegetable, boiling and burning in the mineral vapours.
Celestial Fire has for its sphere the ethereal region, whence it makes itself felt even to us. The Elementary Fire has for its abode the surface of the earth, and our atmosphere; the Central Fire is lodged in the Center of Matter. It is tenacious, viscous, glutinous, and is innate in matter; it is digesting, maturing, neither warm, nor burning to the touch; it scatters and consumes very little, because its heat is tem- pered by cold.
The Celestial Fire is sensible, vital, active in the animal, warmer to the touch, less digesting, and is sensibly exhaled.
The Elementary Fire is destructive, of an incredible vo- racity; it wounds the senses, it burns; it digests, concocts, and produces nothing. It isin the animal what physicians call febrile heat, and against Nature; it consumes, or divides, the radical humour of our life.
The Celestial Fire passes into the nature of the Central Fire; it becomes internal, engendering; the second is exter- nal and separating; the Central is internal, uniting and possessing the quality of rendering matter homogeneous.
The light, or fire of the sun, clothed with rays of ether,
Of Pbilosopbical Fire. 163
concentrated and reverberated on the surface of the earth, takes the nature of Elementary Fire, or of that of our kitch- ens. This latter passes into the nature of the Celestial Fire by being dilated, and becomes Central by being concentrated in matter. We have an example of these three fires ina lighted candle; its light in its expansion represents Celestial Fire; its flame Elementary Fire, and its wick Central Fire.
As the Fire of the animal is given off with an incredible rapidity especially by constant transpiration, Philosophers have studied to find some means of repairing this loss; and understanding well that this reparation could not be made by that which is impure and corruptible as the animal itself, they have had recourse to a matter, in which this required heat was abundantly concentrated. The Art of Medicine, not being able to hinder this loss, and being ignorant of the means of repairing it, has been contented with meeting the accidents which destroy our substance, which come either from the defects of the organs, or from the intemperateness of the blood, of the spirits, of the humours, from their abun- dance or scarcity, whence death follows infallibly, unless an efficacious remedy is applied, remedy which the Physicians themselves confess to know very imperfectly.
The reason which induced the ancient Sages to make a mystery of their Vessel, was the slight knowledge of the manufacture of glass which one possessed in those times. Later on the man- ner of making it has been discovered. Therefore the Philos- ophers have not concealed so much the matter and form
Of Pbilosopbical
Fire.
164 Tbe Great Art.
of their Vessel. Not so of their secret Fire; it is a labyrinth from which the most skilful could not extricate himself.
The fire of the sun cannot be this secret Fire; it is in- terrupted, unequal; it cannot furnish a heat, uniform in its degrees, its measure and its duration. Its heat could not penetrate the thickness of the mountains, nor warm the cold- ness of marble and of rocks, which receive the mineral vapours from which gold and silver are formed.
The fire of our stoves hinders the union of the miscibles, and consumes or causes to evaporate the bond of the con- stituent parts of bodies; it is their tyrant.
The Central Fire, which is innate in matter, has the prop- erty of mixing substances, and of producing; but it can- not be that Philosophic Fire so much praised, which causes the corruption of the metallic germs; because that which is of itself the principle of corruption, can be the principle of generation only by accident: I say by accident, because the heat which engenders is internal and innate in matter, and that which corrupts is external and foreign to matter.
This heat is very different in the generation of the indi- viduals of the three kingdoms. The animal possesses it in a much higher degree than the plant. The heat of the Vase in the generation of the metal must be proportional to the quality of the germ whose corruption is very difficult. It is then necessary to conclude that as there is no generation without corruption, and no corruption without heat, that the heat must be proportioned to the germ which is employed for the generation.*
There are then two heats; a putrifying external heat and a vital or generative internal heat. The internal Fire obeys the heat of the Vase until unbound and delivered from
*“ Whenever the Stone changes its colour you will gradually augment the fire, until everything remains fixed in the bottom of the Vessel.” (Isaac of Holland.)
Of Pbilosopbical Fire. 165
its prison, it renders itself master of it. The putrifying heat comes to its aid, it passes into the nature of the vital heat, and the two then work in concert.
Therefore it is the Vessel which administers the heat suit- able to corrupt, and the germ which furnishes the Fire suit- able for generation; but as the heat of this Vessel is not so well known for the metal as it is for the animal and the plant, it is necessary to reflect on what we have said concern- ing Fire in general to find this heat. Nature has so propor- tioned it in the matrix, as far as animals are concerned, that it can scarcely be augmented or diminished; the matrix in this case is a veritable ATHANOR.
As for the heat of the Vase for the corruption of the vege- table grain, very little is necessary; the sun furnishes it sufficiently. But itis not soin Hermetic Art. The matrix being the invention of the Artist, must have a fire skilfully invented and proportioned to that which Nature implants in the Vase for the generation of mineral matters. An anony- mous author says that to know the matter of this fire, it is enough to know how the Elementary Fire takes the form of of the Celestial Fire, and all the secret of this form consists in the form and structure of the ATHANoR,* by means of which, this Fire becomes equal, gentle, continuous and so proportioned that the matter may be able to be corrupted, after which the generation of the sulphur must be made, which will then take the empire for some time, and will rule over the rest of the Work. This is why the Philosophers say that the female rules during corruption, and the hot and dry male rules during generation.
Artephius is one of those who have treated at length of
*The Athanor of the Philosophers is not the furnace of the common chemists; itis the Sophic Matter itself, animated by the Philosophical Fire, or innate fire re- siding in latency in its own nature. We recommend tothe Reader the patient meditation of this part of the Treatise on the Great Art; we can assure him that he will be fully rewarded for his pains. E. B.
166 The Great Art.
the Philosophical Fire; and Pontanus confesses to having been corrected and has recognized his error in the reading of the Treatise of this Philosopher. This is what he says of it: “Our Fire is mineral, it is uniform, continuous, it does not “evaporate unless too strongly excited; it participates of the “nature of Sulphur; it is derived from another source than “matter, it destroys all, it dissolves, congeals and calcines; “it requires skill to find and to make it; it costs nothing, or “very little; moreover, it is humid, vapourous, digesting, al- “tering, penetrating, subtle, aerial, not violent, not burning, “surrounding, containing and unique. It is also the fountain “of Living Water, or Quick-Water, which surrounds and en- “closes the place where the King and Queen bathe. This ‘humid Fire suffices for all the Work in the beginning, in “the middle and at the end; because all Art consists in this “Fire. There is still a zatural Fire, a Fire against Nature, “and an unnatural Fire, which does not burn; finally there is ‘a warm, dry, humid, cold fire. Think well on what I have “just said, and work in the right way, without using any ‘strange matter.” What this same author then adds is really an explanation of the three fires; but as he calls them Fire of Lamps, Five of Ashes, and the Natural Fire of our Waters, one sees that he has wished to deceive; those who desire a more detailed account of the Philosophical Fire may have recourse to the Zestament of Raymond Lully and to his Codiczl; d’Espagnet speaks also of it from the ninety- eighth to the hundred-and-eighteenth Canon. The other Philosophers have made almost no mention of it except to con- ceal it, or have indicated it only by its properties. But in allegories and fables they have given to this Fire the names Sword, Lance, Arrows, Javelin, Battle-Ax, etc.; such was the one with which Vulcan struck Jupiter to make him give birth to Pallas; the sword which the same Vulcan gave to Peleus,
Operative Principles. 167
the father of Achilles; the club which he presented to Her- cules; the bow which this hero received from Apollo; the cimiter of Perseus; the lance of Bellerophon, etc. It is the Fire which Prometheus stole from Heaven; that which Vul- can employed to form the thunderbolts of Jupiter, and the arms of the gods: the belt of Venus, the golden throne of the Sovereign of the Heavens, etc. Finally, it is the Fire of Vesta so scrupulously preserved at Rome that the vestal vir- gins whose duty it was to guard it were punished by death if they permitted it to be extinguished.
Gisoal The Preparation is composed of four parts. | emcee: The first is the Solution of the Matter in. ___________! Mercurial Water; the second is the Prepara- tion of the Mercury of the Philosophers; the third is the | Corruption; the fourth is the Generation and the Creation of Philosophic Sulphur. The first is made by the mineral germ of the Earth; the second volatilizes and converts bodies into sperm; the third causes the separation and rectification of substances; the fourth unites and fixes them, which is the Creation of the Stone. Philosophers have compared the Preparation to the creation of the world, which was first a mass, a chaos, an empty, formless and gloomy Earth which was nothing in particular, but all in general; the second is a form of heavy, viscous water, full of the occult spirit of its Sulphur; and the third is the figure of the Earth which appeared arid after the separation of the Waters.
God spoke, light was made; it departed from its limb, and was placed in the most elevated region. Then the shadows disappeared before it; chaos and confusion gave place to
168 Che Great Art.
order, night to day, and, to speak thus, nothingness to existence.
God spoke a second time; the confused Elements were separated, the lightest took their abode above and the heavi- est below; then the earth, freed from its damp abysses appeared, became capable of producing all.
This Separation of the Water from the Earth where Air existed and Fire was diffused, is only a successive change of Matter under this double form;* which has caused Philoso- phers to say that Water is the whole foundation of the Work, without which the Earth could not be dissolved, corrupted, prepared, and that the Earth is the body in which the Humid Elements end, congeal and are burned, so to speak, to assume a more noble existence.
Then a Circulation is made, the first movement of which sublimates matter by rarefying it; the second thickens it by congealing; and the whole is finally terminated in a kind of repose, or rather internal movement, and insensible concoction of Matter.
The first wheel of this rotation of the Elements, as d’Espagnet calls it, consists in the Reduction of Matter to Water, in which generation begins; the eclipse of the Sun and the Moon then takes place. The second wheel is an Evacuation of the superfluous humidity, and a Coagulation of Matter, under the form of a viscous and metallic Earth; the third wheel causes the Separation and Rectification of substances; the Waters are separated from the Waters. All is spiritualized, or volatilized; the Sun and Moon resume their brightness; and Light begins to appear on Earth. The fourth wheel is the Creation of Sulphur.
The author we have just quoted says: “The first digestion ‘“‘operateth the solution of the Body, whereby comes the first
'*That of Water and Earth.
f dtvagd.iis hi
WR,
Operative Principles. 171
“conjunction of male and female, the commixtion of both “seeds, putrefaction, the resolution of the elements into “homogeneous water, the eclipse of the Sun and Moon in “the head of the Dragon, and lastly it bringeth back the “whole World into its ancient Chaos, and dark abyss. This “first digestion is as in the stomach, of a melon colour and “‘weak, more fit for corruption than generation. In the “second digestion the Spirit of the Lord walketh upon the “waters; the light begins to appear, and a separation of ‘‘waters from the waters occurs; Sol and Luna are renewed; “the elements are extracted out of the chaos, that being “perfectly mixed in Spirit they may constitute a new world ; “a new Heaven and new Earth are made; and lastly all “bodies become spiritual. The Crow’s young ones changing “their feathers begin to pass into Doves; the Eagle and “Lion embrace one another in an eternal League of amity. “And this generation of the World is made by the fiery «Spirit descending in the form of Water, and wiping away ‘‘Original sin; for the Philosophers’ Water is Fire, which is “moved by the exciting heat of a Bath. But see the separa- “tion of Waters be done in Weight and Measure, lest those “things that remain under Heaven be drowned under the “Earth, or those things that are snatched up above the “Heaven, be too much destitute of aridity. The third “digestion of the newly generated Earth drinketh up the “dewy Milk, and all the spiritual virtues of the quintessence, “and fasteneth the quickening Soul to the body by the «Spirit’s mediation. Then the Earth layeth up a great ‘treasure in itself, and is made like the coruscating Moon, ‘afterwards like to the ruddy Sun; the former is called the «Earth of the Moon, the latter the Earth of the Sun; for “both of them are begot of the copulation of them both; “neither of them any longer feareth the pains of Fire,
172 The Great Art.
‘‘because both want all spots; for they have been often ‘cleansed from sin by fire, and have suffered great Martyr- “dom, until all the Elements are turned downwards. The “Fourth digestion consummateth all the Mysteries of the “World, and the Earth being turned into most excellent “leaven, it leaveneth all imperfect bodies because it hath “before passed into the heavenly nature of quintessence. “The virtue thereof flowing from the Spirit of the Universe “igs a present Panacea and universal medicine for all the “diseases of all creatures. The digestions of the first work “being repeated will open to thee the Philosophers’ Secret ‘(Purnace, =
The entire Philosophical process consists in the solution of the body and the congelation of the Spirit, and both of these are made by one operation. The Fixed and the Vola- tile are closely mixed, but this cannot be done unless the Fixed is first volatilized. They finally embrace, and by reduction they become absolutely fixed.
The operative principles which are called also the Keys of the Work, or the Regimen, are four in number; the first is Solution, or Liquefaction; the second Ablution; the third Reduction, and the fourth Fixation. By Solution bodies return to their First Matter, and become crude again by Coction. Then the marriage of the male and female is made, and the Crow is born. The Stone is resolved into four Elements, which are confounded; the Heaven and the Earth unite to give birth to Saturn. Ablution teaches to whiten the Crow + and to cause Jupiter to be born of Saturn: this is done by the changing of body into Spirit. The function of Reduction, is to return to the body its spirit of which it has been deprived by volatilization, and to nourish it then on a
*Translation by W. Wynn Westcott. Zoco Cit.
t The Crow becomes the Dove.—Stanislas de Guaita.
Calcination. 173
spiritual Milk, in the form of dew, until the little Jupiter has acquired perfect strength.
“During these last two operations, says d’Espagnet, “the Dragon descends from Heaven, becomes infuriated “against itself; it devours its tail, and swallows itself little “by little, until at last it is changed into stone.” Such was the Dragon of which Homer speaks, (///zad, b. 2 v. 306 and following); it is the true image, or symbol, of these two oper- ations. ‘While we were assembled under a beautiful plane- “tree, says Ulysses to the Greeks, for the purpose of making ‘checatombs, near a fountain which issued from that tree, ‘‘there appeared a wonderful prodigy. A horrible Dragon, “with a spotted back, sent by Jupiter himself, came out of ‘the base of the altar and ran up the plane-tree. In the top “of this tree were eight little sparrows with their mother “flying around them. The Dragon seized them furiously ‘and even the mother, who mourned the loss of her little “ones. After this action the same god who had sent the “monster rendered it beautiful, brilliant, and changed it into ‘‘a stone before our astonished eyes.” I leave it to the reader to make the application.
Operative Principles in Particular.
| Common Calcination is simply the death and Calcination. the mortification of the Mixt, by the separa-
tion of the Spirit, or moisture, which bound its parts. It is, properly speaking, a pulverization by fire, and a reduction of the body into lime, ashes, earth, flowers, etc.
Philosophical Calcination is an extraction of the substance of water, of salt, of oil, of the spirit and the rest of earth, and
174 The Great Art.
a change of accidents, an alteration of quantity, a corruption of the substance, yet in such a manner that all these separate things may reunite so as to form a more perfect body. Com- mon Calcination is made by the action of the fire of our cooking-stoves, or of the concentrated rays of the Sun; Water is the agent of Philosophical Calcination; for this - reason the Philosophers say: Chemists burn with fire, and we burn with water; whence one must conclude that common chemistry is as different from Hermetic Chemistry, as is fire from water.
Solution, chemically speaking, is an atten-
Solution. uation, or liquifaction of matter under the form
of water, of oil, of spirit, or humour. But Phil-
osophical Solution is areduction of the body to its First Mat-
ter, or a natural separation of the parts of the Composite, and
a coagulation of the spiritual parts. This is why Philoso-
phers call it a Solution of the body and a Congelation of the
spirit. Its effect is to liquify, to dissolve, to open, to render
crude, to thin and to free substances of their terrestrial parts, to dematerialize the Mixt, to convert it into sperm.
Putrefaction is, we may say, the key of all
Butrefaction. | the operations, although it is not, properly speaking, the first. It reveals to us the inte.
rior of the Mixt: it is the instrument which breaks the bonds of the parts; it renders, as Philosophers say, the occult man- ifest. It is the principle of the mutation of forms, the death of the accidentals, the first step to generation, the beginning
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Fermentation. 177
and the end of life; the mean between the existent and the non-existent.
The Philosopher expects it when the body, dissolved by a natural Resolution, is submitted to the action of putrefying heat. Distillation and Sublimation have been invented only in imitation of these processes of Nature in regard to the Elements, the inclination or disposition of which to become rarified and to ascend, and to become condensed and to de- scend, causes all the mixtures and productions of Nature.
Distillation differs from sublimation, in that the former is made by the elevation of humid things, which are then dis- tilled drop by drop, instead of the Sublimation and elevation of adry matter which is attached to the vessel. Both of these are common.
Distillation and Sublimation, philosophically speaking, are a cleansing, subtilization, rectification of matter.
Coagulation and Fixation are the two great instruments
of Nature and of Art. | Fermentation. leaven is in the making of bread. One can- — not make) bread -without.leaven, and. one cannot make gold without gold. Therefore gold is the soul which determines the intrinsic form of the Stone. Let us not be ashamed to learn to make gold and silver, as the baker makes bread, ‘which is only a composition of water and kneaded flour, fermented, which differs from the first only by baking. So the golden medicine is only a composition of Earth and Water, that isto say, of Sulphur and Mercury fermented with gold; but with a virgin gold. For as one cannot make leaven with baked bread, so one cannot make
The ferment is, in the Work, what the
180 The Great Art.
a ferment with common gold so long as it remains common gold.
Mercury, or Mercurial Water, is that water; Sulphur that flour, which, by a long fermentation, become sour and are made into leaven, with which Gold and Silver are made.. And as the leaven.may be multiplied eternally, and may serve always as a material for making bread, so the Philosophical Medicine may also be multiplied, and serve eternally as the leaven for making Gold.
- Demonstrative The colours which appear in the Philosoph- signs ical Matter during the course of the opera- or Principles. :
tions of the work are the demonstrative
signs, which inform the Artist as to whether he has pro-
ceeded in the right manner. They succeed each other
immediately and in order; if this order is disturbed, it is a
proof that one has worked in the wrong way. There are
three principal colours; the first is black, called the Head of
the Crow, and many other names which we have given in the article, entitled: Key of the Work.
The beginning of this blackness indicates that the Fire of Nature begins to operate, and that the Matter is being dis- solved; when this black colour is perfect, the Solution is perfect also, and the Elements are confounded. The grain rots in order to be disposed for generation. ‘He who does “not know how to render the matter black cannot whiten it, — “says Artephius, because blackness is the beginning of the ‘‘whiteness, and is the mark of putrefaction and of alteration. “Tt is made thus. In the Putrefaction which is made in our “ Water, there appears first a blackness which resembles a “greasy broth, on which pepper has been sprinkled. This
Demonstrative Signs or Principles. | 181
“liquor, being then thickened becomes as a black earth; it “turns white by continued coction .... and, just as heat, “acting on the uwmzdum produces blackness, which is the “first colour to appear, so continued heat produces the white- “ness which is the second principle of the Work.”
This action of Fire on the humzdum does everything in the work, as in Nature, for the generation of the Mixts. Ovid says:
Ubi temperiem sumpsere humorque calorque Concipiunt: et ab his ortuntur concta duebus.— Metam. B. I.
During this Putrefaction the philosophic male or Sulphur is confounded with the female, so they form only one body which Philosophers call Hermaphrodite; ‘This is, says “Flamel, (Loco czt.), the Androgyna of the ancients, the Head ‘“‘of the Crow, and the converted Elements. In this manner, «‘T represent to thee, that thou hast two natures reconciled, ‘which may form an embryo in the matrix of the Vessel, and ‘may give birth to a very powerful, incorruptible, invincible “King... Our Matter in this state is the serpent Python, “which having been born from the corruption of the clay of “the earth, must be put to death, and conquered by the ar- “rows of the god Apollo, by the fair Sun, that is to say, by “our Fire, equal to that of the Sun. These often repeated “cleansings with the other half, are the teeth of this serpent ‘‘which the wise operator, the prudent Cadmus, will sow in “the same Earth, whence will spring soldiers who will de- “stroy each other, and be resolved into this same kind of ‘earth. . . . Jealous Philosophers have called this confection “Ress, and also Mumus, Ethelta, Arena, Boritis, Corsuftle, “ Cambar, Albar Atris, Bauderic, Kukul, Thabttris, Ebtsemeth, “ [xtr, etc., it is this which they have designated as the matter “to be whitened.” I have spoken at length of this blackness
182 Che Great Art.
in the article on OPERATIVE PRINCIPLES. The reader may reter toithis.
The second demonstrative sign, or the second principal colour, is white. Hermés says, (V/Z Chap.): Know, Son of Science, that the Vulture cries from the mountain top, I am the White from the Black; because whiteness succeeds the blackness. Morien calls this whiteness white Smoke. A\l- phidius teaches us that this matter, or this white Smoke, is the root of Art, and the Quicksilver of the Sages. Phila- lethes, (Varrat. Method. p. 36), assures us that this Quick- silver is the true Mercury of the Philosophers. ‘This “Quicksilver, says he, extracted from this very subtle black- “ness is the tingent* Mercury of the Philosophers, with its “white and red Sulphur naturally mixed in their mine.” The Philosophers have given it, among other names, those which follow :
White Copper, Lamb, Spotless Lamb, Aibathest, Whiteness, Alborach, Holy Water, Heavy Water, Talc, Argent-vive, Coag- ulated Mercury, Purified Mercury, Silver, Zoticon, Arsenic, Orpiment, Gold, White Gold, Azoch, Baurach, Borax, Ox, Cambar, Caspa, Ceruse, Wax, Chata, Comerisson, White Body, Corps tmproprement dit, December, E, Electra, Essence, White Essence, Euphrates, Eve, Fada, Favonius, Foundation of Art, Precious Stone of Givinis, Diamond, Lime, White Gum, Her- maphrodite, Ha, Hypostase, Hylé, Enemy, [nsipid Milk, Vir- gin's Milk, Known Stone, Mineral Stone, Unique Stone, Moon, Full Moon, White Magnesia, Alum, Mother, Unique Matter of Metals, Preparatory Mean, Menstrum, Setting Mercury, Oil, Oleum vivum, Vegetable, Egg, Phlegm, White of Egg, Point, Root, Root of Art, Unique Root, Rebts, Salt, Alkali Salt, Salt Alebrot, Salt Alembroth, Fusible Salt, Salt of Nature, Mineral Salt, Salt of the Metals, Soap of the Wise, (Sapo Sapientie),
*Tingent, viz, proper to communicate to imperfect metals the permanent colour of either gold or silver. E. B.
Demonstrative Signs or Principles. 183
Seb, Secondine, Sedine, Old Age, Seth, Serinech, Fugitive Serf, Left Hand, Companion, Sister, Sperm of the Metals, Spirit, Tin, Sublimate, Juice, Sulphur, White Sulphur, Unctious Sulphur, Earth, Terre Feutllée, Fertile Earth, Potential Earth, Field in which the Gold must be sown, Teros, Tincar, Vapour, Evening Star, Wind, Virago, Glass, Glass of Pharaoh, Twenty-one, Vulture, Zibach, Ziva, Veil, White Vel, Narcissus, Lily, White Rose, Calcined Bone, Ege-Shell, ete.
Artephius says that the whiteness arises from the soul of the body floating on the water as a white cream; and that the Spirits are then so closely united, that they cannot flee away, because they have lost their volatility.
The great secret of the Work, therefore, is to whiten the Latten and to leave all books alone, so as not to be embar- assed by reading them, for this reading could give rise to ideas of useless and expensive work. This whiteness is the Perfect White Stone; it is a precious body, which when it has been fermented and has become white Elixir, is full of an exuberant Tincture which it has the property of commu- nicating to all the other metals. The Spirits, at first volatile, become fixed. The new body is resuscitated beautiful, white, immortal, victorious. This is why it has been called Resus- vection, Light, Day, and all other names which can indicate whiteness, fixity, and incorruptibility.
Flamel has represented this colour in his Hieroglyphic Figures, by a woman surrounded by a white roll, to show, says he,‘‘that Reais will begin to whiten in this same manner, “whitening first at the extremities, then all around this “white circle. The Ladder of Philosophers ( Scala Philosoph.) “says: The sign of the first part of the Whiteness, is when “one sees a certain little capillary circle, that is to say, one ‘‘ passing over the head, which will appear around the matter
184 Tbe Great Art.
‘(on the sides of the Vessel, in a colour approaching orange.”
The Philosophers, according to the same Flamel, have represented this Whiteness under the figure of a glittering sword. “ When thou wilt have bleached, adds the same author, “thou hast conquered the enchanted Bulls who threw from “their nostrils fireand smoke. Hercules has cleansed the “stables full of filth and blackness. Jason has poured the “liquor upon the Dragon of Colchis and thou hast in thy ‘power the Horn of Amalthcea which, so long as it is white, “can cover all the rest of thy life with glory, honour and “riches. In order to obtain it, thou must have fought val- ‘“jantly, and as a Hercules for this Achelous, this humid river “(which is blackness, the black water of the river Esep), is “endowed with a very great strength, moreover it often “changes from one form to another.”
As Black and White are, to speak thus, two extremes, and as two extremes can be united only by a mean, the matter on leaving the black colour, does not become white immediately; the grey colour is intermediate because it participates of the nature of both.
Philosophers have given to it the name of Jupiter, because it succeeds the black which they have called Saturn. This has caused d’Espagnet to say, that the Air succeeds the Water after it has finished its seven revolutions, which Flamel has called /wzbzbztzons.* The matter, adds d’Espagnet, being fixed in the bottom of the Vase, Jupiter, after having put Saturn to flight, takes possession of the kingdom, and assumes its government. At his advent the Philosophical Child is formed, is nourished in the matrix, and finally is born with a face beautiful, brilliant and white as the moon. _
* IMBIBITION, or Cohobation, or Sublimation, is the time of the operation when the Matter gives off vapours which condensing fall as a rain upon the Sophic Earth remaining in the bottom of the Vessel and moistens it, until it is perfectly saturated. Pernety.— Dict. Mytho-Herm.
Demonstrative Signs or Principles. 185
Therefore this white Matter is a universal remedy for all the maladies of the human body.
Finally the third principal colour is Red. It is the com- pletion and the perfection of the Stone. This redness is obtained simply by the continuation of the coction of the Matter. After the first work, it is called Masculine Sperm, Philosophical Gold, Fire of the Stone, Royal Crown, Son of the Sun, Mine of Celestial Fire.
We have already said that most of the Philosophers begin their Treatises on the Work with the Red Stone. Those who read these works, could not pay too much attention to this; for it is a source of errors for them, as much because they cannot divine in what manner the Philosophers then speak, as because the operations and the proportions, of the matters, which are in the second work, and the making of the Elixir, are very different from those of the first. Although Morien assures us that the second operation is only a repetition of the first, yet it is well to notice, that what they call Fire, Air, Earth and Water, in one instance, are not the same things as those to which they give the same names in the other. Their Mercury is called Mercury in its liquid form as well as in its dry form. For example, those who read Alphidius imagine, when he calls the Matter of the Work, Red Mine, that it is necessary to seek a red matter for the beginning of the operations; consequently some work on cinnabar, others on minium, or red lead, others on orpi- ment, (Auripigment), others on iron rust, because they do not know that this red mineral is the perfect Red Stone, and that Alphidius begins his work only with this. But in order that those who will read this work and who will wish to operate may not be deceived, we give many of the names which this Red Stone bears:
Acid, Sharpness, Adam, Aduma, Almagra, Altum, Alzernard,
186 The Great Art.
Soul, Ram, Gold, Quick-Gold, Altered Gold, Cancer, Cadmic, Camerith, Bile, Chibur, Ashes, Ashes of Tartar, Corsufle, Body, Lody properly speaking, Red Body, Right, Déeb, Déhab, Sum- mer, Iron, Form, Form of Man, Brother, Fruit, Cock, Cock’s Comb, Gabricus, Gabrius, Gophrith, Ethiopian Grain, Gum, Red Gum, Hageralzarnad, Man, Fire, Fire of Nature, Infinity, Youth, Hebrit, Stone, Indian Stone, Indvademe Stone, Lasule Stone, Red Stone, Golden Litharge, Red Litharge, Light, Morning, Mars, Marteck, Male, Red Magnesia, Metros, Mine, Neusts, Owl_of Mars, Incombustible Owl, Red Oil, Olive, Per- petual Olive, Orient, Father, A Part, Starry Stone, Phison, King, Réezon, Residence, Redness, Ruby, Salt, Red Salt, Germ, Sericon, Sun, Sulphur, Red Sulphur, Quick Sulphur, Tamné, Third, Thirteenth, Red Earth, Theriac, Thelima, Thion, Thita, Toarech, Vare, Vein, Blood, Poppy, Red Wine, Wine, Virago, Volk of Egg, Red Vitriol, Chalcitis, Colchotar, Cochi- neal, Glass, Zaaph, Zahau, Zit, Zumech, Zumelazuli, ete.
But all these names were not given to it for the same reason; the authors, in these different denominations, have considered it sometimes in regard to its colour, sometimes in regard to its qualities. For example, those who have called ‘this’ Matters ‘Red Stone,? Acid)” Adam,; Sammer Almagra, Soul, Ram, Gold, Cancer, Camereth, Ashes of Tartar, Corsufle, Déeb, Brother, Fruit, Cock, Youth, Kibrit, Indrademic Stone, Marteck, Male, Father, Sun, Third, Neusis, Olive, Thion, Glass, Zaaph, have named it thus because of its change of constitution. Those who have con- sidered only its colour, have called it Red Gum, Red Oil, Ruby, Sericon, Red Sulphur, Yolk of Egg, Red Vitriol, etc.
“Tn this operation of Rubifaction, says Flamel, as long as “thou soakest, thou wilt have little black, but much of violet, “of blue and of the colour of the peacock’s tail: for our «Stone is so triumphant in dryness, that as soon as thy mer-
Demonstrative Signs or Principles. Toy,
“cury touches it, Nature, rejoicing in its nature, is Joined to “it and drinks it up eagerly; and thus the blackness which “comes from humidity, can show itself only a little, under “these violet and blue colours, so long as the dryness “soverns absolutely. . . . But remember to begin the Rubi- “faction by the apposition of Orange-red Mercury; but it is “necessary to pour but little of it in, and only once or twice, “according to what thou wilt see: for this operation must be “made by dry fire, sublimation and dry calcination. And, “in truth, I reveal here a secret which thou wilt find very ‘rarely written.”
In this operation the Fixed Body becomes Volatile, it mounts and descends while circulating in the Vase until the Fixed having conquered the Volatile, it precipitates it to the bottom with itself, so as to make only one body of a nature absolutely fixed. What we have quoted from Flamel must be applied to the Elixir, of which we will speak hereafter; but the operations of the first Work, or the manner of mak- ing Philosophical Sulphur, are thus described by d’Espagnet, (Lumen. I09): “Choose a red, courageous Dragon, which “has lost none of its natural strength: then seven or nine “bold, virgin Eagles, whose eyes cannot be dazzled by the “rays of the Sun: place them with the Dragon in a trans- “parent prison, well closed, and upon a warm bath, to “excite them to combat. They will not delay to grapple one “another; the combat will be long and very painful until the “forty-fifth or fiftieth day,* when the Eagles will begin to
*‘«The days of the Hermetic Chemists are reckoned differently and are not the same as our common days. Pliny says that their year consists only in one month; some say an ordinary month; some others a lunary month, and others still, an Egyptian month.—Pernety.
‘‘ Philosophers have established time of different duration for the concoction of our Art. Some ones have spoken of a year; others of a month, others of three days, and still others of one day. But in the same manner as we call day, the length of time which the Sun uses to travel from east to west, the Sages have called day the interval which separates the beginning from the end of the operation.
[8S Cbe Great Art.
“devour the Dragon. The latter, in dying, will infect the “entire prison with its corrupt blood, and with a very black “noison. The Eagles being unable to resist the violence of “this poison will expire also. From the putrefaction of “their corpses will be born a Crow, who will lift its head “little by little; and by the augmentation of the bath, it will “unfold its wings and will begin to fly; the wind and the “clouds will carry it here and there; weary with being thus “tormented, it will seek to escape; therefore be careful, lest “it find an issue. Finally wash and whiten by a constant “rain of long duration, and bya celestial dew, it will be ‘‘metamorphosed into a Swan. The birth of the Crow will “indicate to you the death of the Dragon.
‘If you are curious to proceed to the red colour, add the «Element of Fire which is lacking to the whiteness: without “touching or moving the Vase, but by strengthening the fire “by degrees, press its action on the Matter until the occult ‘becomes manifest, the indication will be the lemon colour. “Then govern the fire of the fourth degree, always by the “required gradation, until by the aid of Vulcan, you see the “red roses open, which will change into amaranths, the “colour of blood. But do not cease to make the fire act by “fire until you see the whole reduced to very red, impalpable ‘cashes.
This Philosophical Sulphur is an earth of an extreme tenuity, igneity and dryness. It contains a fire of a very abundant nature, this is why it has been called Five of the Stone. It has the property of opening, of penetrating the bodies of the metals, and of changing them into its own
Those who speak of a month, have reference to the course of the Sun in one sign of the Zodiac. Those who mention three days consider the beginning, the middle and the end of the Work: and those who fix the time at one year have in view the suc- cession of the four colours emblematical of the four seasons of the year.’’— Anonymous, quoted by Pernety, Dict.-Mytho.-Herm.
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Of the Elixir. 191
nature: consequently it is called Father and Masculine Germ.
The three colours Black, White and Red, must succeed each other in the order in which we have described them. But they are not the only colours which are manifested. They indicate the essential changes which the Matter under- goes: while the other colours which are almost infinite in number and similar to those of the rainbow, are only tran- sient and of a very short duration. These are the kind of vapours which affect the Air rather than the Earth, which drive each other away, and which are scattered to make room for the three principal colours of which we have spoken.
Yet these foreign colours are sometime signs of a mistaken regimen, and of a badly conducted operation; the continued blackness is a certain mark of error; for the little crows, so | says d’Espagnet, (Cav. 66), must not return to the nest after having left it. The premature redness is also a mark of failure; for it must appear only at the end, as a proof of the maturity of the grain, and of the time of harvest.
ey ae It is not enough to have arrived at the Phi- losophic Sulphur, which we have just described; most alchemists have been deceived in this, and have abandoned the Work in this state, believing to have carried it to perfection. Ignorance of the processes of Nature and Art is the cause of this error. In vain would one attempt to make the Projection with this Sulphurous Stone, in the red state. The Philosopher’s Stone can not be perfect until the end of the second work which is called Elixtr. From this first sulphur one makes a second, which one can
192 The Great Art.
then multiply infinitely. One must then carefully preserve this first mine of celestial fire, for the required use.
The Elixir, according to d’Espagnet, is composed of a triple matter, namely, of a metallic Water, or Mercury philo- sophically sublimated, of the white Ferment, if one wishes to make the White Elixir, or of the red Ferment, for the Red Elixir, and finally of the second Sulphur; the whole according to philosophical weights and proportions. The Elixir must have five qualities; it must be fusible, permanent, penetrating, ¢zzgent and multiplying; it derives its tincture and its fixation from the Ferment; its fusibility from the argent-vive, which serves as the mean to unite the tinctures of the Ferment and the Sulphur; and its multiplicative prop- erty comes from the spirit of the Quintessence which it naturally possesses.
The two perfect metals give a perfect Tincture, because they derive their tincture from the pure Sulphur of Nature; therefore its Ferment must not be sought elsewhere than in these two bodies. Thus colour your white Elixir with the Moon, and the red with the Sun. Mercury, first receives this Tincture, and then communicates it. Be careful not to be mistaken in the mixture of the Ferments, and do not take one for the other, you would lose all. This second Work is made in the same Vas Philosophorum, or in a Vessel similar to the first, in the same furnace, and with the same degrees of fire; but it is much shorter.
The perfection of the Elixir consists in the marriage and perfect union of the Szccum and Humidum, so that they are inseparable, and so that the Humidum gives to the Siccum the property of being fusible at the least heat. Proof of this may be made by placing a small quantity of it upon a heated copper or iron plate, if it melts immediately without smoke, you have obtained that which you sought for.
Operation of the Elixir according to 0’ Espagnet. 193
Operation of the “Red Earth, or Red Ferment, three parts; elu eee Water and ) Ain, taken) together, six) parts; to d’Espagnet. as :
mix the whole, and grind so as to make an “amalgam, or metallic paste, of the consistency of butter, “in such a manner that the Earth may be impalpable, or “insensible to the touch; add to it a part and a half of Fire, “and place the whole in a Vase, which you will seal closely. “Give to it a fire of the first degree* for the digestion; you “will then make the extraction of the Elements by the “degrees of fire suitable to them, until they are all reduced “to fixed Earth. The Matter will become as a brilliant, “transparent red Stone, and will then be in its perfect state. “Take from it any desired quantity, place it in a crucible, ‘“‘over a moderate fire, and soak this part with its red oil, “saturating it, drop by drop, until it melts and runs without “smoke. Do not fear that your Mercury will evaporate; for “the Earth will drink up eagerly that humour which is of its “own species. You have then in your possession your
*The Fire of the first degree is like that of the hen when hatching her eggs, or like the natural heat digesting the food to convert it into the substance of the body, or like that of horse-dung, or, in fine, similar to that of the Sunin Aries. It is why several Philosophers have recommended to begin the Work when the Sun enters this Sign and the Moon into the constellation of Taurus. This degree of heat must last until the Matter has assumed the white colour; as soon as the Stone bleaches, one must gradually raise the temperature until the perfect desiccation of the Stone: this temperature is equal to that of the Sun when it passes from Taurus into Gemini. The Stone having been desiccated and reduced into ashes, one augments the degree of heat until the Matter becomes perfectly red and clothes the Royal Mantle. This degree of temperature is the same as that of the Sun in Leo, (Scala Philosophorum).—The Rosarium says: The temperature of your fire must be that of the heat of the Sun in July; so that bya moderate and long coction your Water thickens and changes intoa black Earth.—In regard to the gradual augmentation of the degree of heat spoken of above, in Scala Philosophorum, we believe it important to add the remark of Pernety in Dict.-Mytho-Herm. p. 221: ‘“¢We must observe that when Philosophers speak of the degrees of heat to dispense to their matter, they do not understand that the fire should be intensifled or dimin- ished as commonly done by ordinary chemists in their furnaces by means of dampers, bellows, or a greater quantity of charcoal; but that the intensity of the secret fire of the Matter should be augmented by a more active digestion; in propor- tion that matter becomes more fixed, ifs fire augments gradually, and its degrees are appreciated by the colours which the matter assumes. E. B.
194 Ube Great Art.
“perfect Elixir. Thank God for the favour accorded to you; “make use of it for His glory, and keep the secret.”
The White Elixir is made in the same manner as the Red; but with white Ferments and white oil.
| The quintessence is an extraction of the een most spiritual and radical substance of Matter; | it is made by the separation of the Elements which end in a celestial and incorruptible essence, freed from all heterogeneities. Aristotle calls it a very pure substance, incorporated in a certain manner, not mixed with parts acci- dental to its nature. Heraclitus calls it a celestial essence which takes its name from the place of its origin. Paracel- sus named it, the being of our central heaven; Pliny, a cor- poreal essence, yet separated from all materiality, and freed from commerce with Matter. It has been called conse- quently, a Spiritual Body, or a Corporeal Spirit, made of an Ethereal substance. All these qualities have caused the name Quintessence to be given to it. This name signifies a fifth substance, which results from the union of the purest parts of the Elements. The Philosophical Secret consists in separating the Elements from the Mixts, in order to rectify them, and by the union of their pure homogeneous and spiritualized parts, to make this Quintessence, which contains all their properties without being subject to their alterations.
The Tincture. 195
When those ignorant of Hermetic Philoso- phy, read the term Z2xcture, in the works which treat of this Science, they imagine that it relates simply to the colour of the metals, as orange for gold, and white for silver. And, as it is said, in these same works, that Sulphur is the principle of the Tincture; one works to extract this sulphur by aqua fortis, aqua regia, by calcination and the other operations of common chemistry. This is not the idea of the Philosophers, either, in regard to the operations, or to the Tincture itself. The Tincture of gold, cannot be separated from its body, because it is the soul of it; and because one could not extract it without destroying the body; which is not possible for common chem- istry, as all who have tried this experiment, very well know.
The Tincture, in the Philosophical sense, is the Elixir itself, rendered fixed, fusible, penetrating and ¢zngent, by the corruption and the other operations of which we have spoken. This Tincture, therefore, does not consist in the external colour, but in the substance itsetf, which gives the Tincture with the metallic form. It acts as saffron in water; it pene- trates even more than oil on paper; it blends as wax with wax, as water with water, because union is made between two things of the same nature. It is this property which renders it an admirable Panacea, for all the maladies of the three kingdoms of Nature; it seeks in them, the radical and vital principle, which it relieves of the heterogeneous parts _ which embarrass it, and hold it in prison, it comes to the aid of this principle, and unites with it to fight its enemies. They act when in concert, and win a perfect victory. This Quintessence drives off the impurity of bodies, just as fire causes the humidity of wood to evaporate, it preserves their health, giving to the principle of life, strength to resist the
The Tincture.
196 The Great Att.
attacks of diseases, and the property of separating the truly nutritive substance of the food, from its vehicle.
One understands by Philosophical multipli- cation an augmentation both in quantity and quality beyond what one can imagine. That of quality is a multiplication of the Tincture by a corruption, a volatilization and a fixation reiterated as often as it may please the Artist. The second Multiplication augments the quantity of the Tincture without increasing its virtues.
The second Sulphur is multiplied with the same matter from which it has been made, by adding to it a small part of the first, according to the required weights and measures. Yet there are three methods of making the Multiplication, if we are to believe d’Espagnet, who describes them in the following manner: The first is to take ove part of the perfect Red Elixir, and mix it with mzve parts of its Red Water; place the Vessel in the bath, so as to make the whole dissolve in water. After the solution, one cooks this water until it coagulates into a matter similar to aruby; one then inserts this Matter in the manner of the Elixir; and from this first operation, the Medicine acquires ten times more virtue than it possessed. If this same process is repeated a second time, the Medicine will be augmented a hundredfold; a third time a thousandfold, and so on always by ten.
The second method is to mix the desired quantity of the Elixir with its Water, while keeping the proportion between them, and after having placed the whole in a reducing Vase well sealed, to dissolve it in the bath, and to follow all the regimen of the second, distilling the elements successively by their own fires, until the whole becomes Stone. Then
The Multiplication.
The Multiplication. 197
one inserts as in the other, and the virtue of the Elixir increases a hundred fold the first time; but this way is longer. One repeats it as the first, to increase its strength.
Finally the third Multiplication is, properly speaking, the multiplication in quantity. One throws an ounce of the Elixir multiplied in quality, on one hundred ounces of com- mon mercury purified; this Mercury placed over a slow fire will soon change into Elixir. If an ounce of this new Elixir is thrown upon an hundred ounces of other common Mer- cury purified, it will become very fine gold. The Multiplica- tion of the white Elixir is made in the same manner, by taking the white Elixir and its water, instead of the red Elixir.
The more one will repeat the Multiplication in quality, the more effect it will have in the projection; but not so of the third manner of multiplying of which we have spoken; for its force diminishes at each projection. Yet one cannot carry this reiteration beyond the fourth or fifth time, because the Medicine would then be so active and so igneous that the operations would become instantaneous, since their duration is shortened at each reiteration; more- over its virtue is great enough at the fourth or fifth time to satisfy the desires of the Artist, since at the first one grain can convert one hundred grains of mercury into gold, at the second a thousand, at the third ten thousand, at the fourth one hundred thousand, ete. One must judge of this Medi- cine as of the grain, which is multiplied each time that it is
sown.
OF the Nothing is more confused than the Weights Weights in the} and proportions required in the Philosophical Katte Work. All the Authors speak of them, and
198 The Great Art.
not one explains them clearly. One says that it is necessary to measure his fire clzbanically,* (Flamel). Another geomet- rically, (d’Espagnet and Artephius). The latter according to the heat of the sun, from spring to autumn; the former says that a fever heat is necessary, etc. But Trévisan advises us to give a slow fire, because then one only runs the risk of finishing the Work a little late, while in forcing the fire one is in evident danger of losing all.
The composition and life of the Mixts is continued only by the Measure and Weight of the Elements, so combined and proportioned that one does not rule tyranically over the others; if there is too much Fire the germ is burned; if too much Water the seminal and radical Spirit is suffocated; if too much Air and Earth, the composite will have either too much or too little consistency, and each element will not be free in its action.
Yet this difficulty is not so great, as it appears from the first reading of the Philosophers; some teach, (Trévisan), that Nature has always the balance in her hand, to weight these Elements, and to so proportion her mixtures, that there will always result from them the Mixt which she pro- poses to make; unless she is hindered in her operations, by the defect of the matrix in which she performs her opera- tions, or by the defect of the germs which are furnished to her, or by other accidents. We see, even in common chem- istry, that two heterogeneous bodies do not mix, or cannot remain long united; that when water has dissolved a certain quantity of salt, it does not dissolve more; that the more affinity bodies have, the more they seem to seek each other, even leaving a body for one for which they have more affinity.
* According to the proportion of the furnace. Flame) says, after Calid, ‘if thy fire is not measured Clibanically; that is to say, with Weight and Measure of the matters, which are but the Sulphur and Mercury of the Philosophers, etc.
Pernety, Dict. Mytho-Herm,.
Of the Weigbts in the Work. 199
These experiments are known, especially between the minerals and the metals.
The Artist of the Great Work sets up Nature as his model. Therefore he must study this Nature in order to be able to imitate her. But how discover her weights and combinations? when she wishes to make some Mixt she does not call us to advise with her or to assist in her oper- ations, either to see the constituent parts of that Mixt, or her work in combining them. The Hermetic Philosophers never weary in advising us to follow Nature; doubtless they know her since they claim to be her disciples. Therefore, from their works, one could learn to imitate her. But one says, (Artephius): “that only one thing is necessary to per- “fect the Work, that there is only one Stone, only one Med- “icine, only one Vessel, only one Regimen, only one Method “of making successively the white and the red. Thus, “although we should say, adds the same author, use this, “use that, we do not mean that it is necessary to take more “than one thing, to place it once in the Vessel, and to close “it then until the Work is perfect and accomplished... . «That the Artist has simply to prepare the matter as it “should be externally, because it does of itself, internally, ‘Call thats is Necessaty. to: render itseli perfect.).':, . Thus “simply prepare and arrange the Matter, and Nature will “do all the rest.”
Raymond Lully warns us that this unique thing, is not a single thing taken individually, but two things of the same nature, which form only one; if there are two or several things to mix, it must be done with Proportion, Weight and Measure. We have spoken of this in the article on DEMon- STRATIVE SIGNS, under the name of Eagle and Dragon; and we have also given the proportions of the matters required
200 Che Great Art.
for the Multiplication. Thus one must see that the propor- tions of the matters are not the same in the first and second work.
Verp It is scarcely ever necessary to take the instructive words of the Philosophers literally; because Soee*'! all their terms have a double meaning, and because they employ those which are equivocal. When they make use of well known terms, used in ordinary language, (Geber, d Espagnet and several others), the more they seem to speak simply, clearly and naturally, the more one must suspect artifice. Zzmeo danaos, et dona ferentes. On the contrary, in the places where they appear confused, obscure, and almost unintelligible, it is necessary to study with the greatest attention. The truth is concealed there.
In order to better discover this truth, it is necessary to compare the authors, to establish a concordance of their tests, because one may sometimes permit to escape, that which another has purposely omitted, (Pzlalethes). But in this selection of texts, one must be careful not to confound that which one says of the first preparation, with what another says of the third.
Before beginning the Work, one must have so combined all, that one may find nothing in the books of the Philoso- phers which cannot be explained, by the operations about to be undertaken, (Zachazre). For this purpose one must be assured of the Matter which must be employed; to see if it has really all the qualities and properties by which the Phil- osophers designate it, since they avow that they have not called it by the name under which it is commonly known. One must observe that this Matter costs nothing, or at least
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Very nstructive General Rules. 203
very little; that the Medicine, which Philalethes (Zxarr, Meth. Trium. Gebr. medic.), according to Geber, called Medi- cine of the first order, or the first preparation, is perfected without much expense, in every place, in all times, by all classes of people, provided one has a sufficient quantity of Matter.
Nature perfects the Mixts only by things of the same nature, (Cosmopolite); therefore one must not take wood to perfect metal. The animal produces animal, the plant pro- duces plant, and the metallic nature metals. The radical principles of the metal are a Sulphur and a Quicksilver, but not the common ones; these enter as complements, even as constituent principles, but as combustible principles, acci- dental and separable from the true radical principle which is fixed and unalterable. For information regarding Matter the reader is referred to the chapter in which that subject is treated according to the principles laid down by the Phil- osophers.
Each alteration of a Mixt is made by dissolution into water, or into powder, and it can be perfected only by the separation of the pure from the impure. Each conversion from one state to another is made by an agent and in a determined time. Nature always acts successively; the the Artist must do the same.
The terms conversion, desiccation,* mortification, inspira- tion,} preparation, alteration signify the same thing in Hermetic Art. Sublimation, descension,{ distillation, putre-
* DESICCATION, — Coagulation, or fixation of the mercurial moisture.
+ INSPIRATION.—Operation which follows that of the dissolution of bodies. ... The Inspiration requires a fire of the second degree.
+DESCENSION.— To distil per descension, is properly speaking, the filtration of liquors; but in Hermetic terminology, it means the circulation of the Matter, or the reiteration of the operations of the Great Work for the multiplication of the quantity and the qualities of the Stone. Pernety, Dict. Mytho-Herm.
204 Tbe Great Art.
faction, calcination, congelation, fixation, ceration,* are in themselves different things; but in the work, they consti- tute only one operation continued in the same Vase. The Philosophers have given all these names simply to the differ- ent phases, or changes which they have observed in the Ves- sel. When they have perceived the Matter exhale in subtle smoke, and mount to the top of the Vase, they have called this ascension, Swbl:mation. Then, seeing this vapour descend to the bottom of the Vase, they have named this Descension, Distillation. Consequently Morien says: Our entire operation consists in extracting the Water from its Earth, and in returning it until the Earth rots and putri- fies. When they have perceived that this Water, mixed with its Earth, coagulated, or thickened, that it became black and ill-smelling: they have said that this was Puwutre- faction, the principle of generation. This putrefaction lasts until the Matter has become white.
This matter being black is reduced to powder, when it begins to turn gray; this appearance of ashes has given rise to the idea of Calcination, Inceration,+ Incineration, Deal- bation; and when it has reached a swan-like whiteness, they have called it Perfect Calcination. Seeing that the Matter assumed a sound consistency; that it no longer flowed, it has formed their Congelation, their /uduration; this is why they have said that the entire Magisterium consists in nat- urally dissolving and coagulating.
This same Matter congealed, and hardened so that it will no longer dissolve in water, has called them to say, that it
*CERATION. —The time when Matter passes from the black colour to the gray and then to the white. Pernety-Dict. Mytho-Herm.
+ INCERATION, or Imbibition, or Cohobation, are almost synonymous terms for indicating that part of the Operation when the Matter, enclosed in the Sophic Egg, ascends in form of vapours to the superior part of the Vessel, where not finding an egress is compelled to fall upon itself, until Matter being fixed, all circulation ceases. — Pernety-Dict. Mytho-Herm.
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by P ss! ned : a ; ' , aha , is R AJ , : - ; f i i ( ‘ " H a} RAs y cy { fee as be iN iy aia. ;
ae ’ / un! f a (i sy Ml us
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Hii
oF
Very Mnstructive General Rules. 207
was necessary to dry it and to fix it; they, therefore, have given to this pretended operation the names, Desiccation, Fixation, Ceration, because they explain these terms by a perfect union of the volatile part with the fixed under the form of a powder, or white stone.
Therefore this operation must be regarded as unique, but expressed in different terms. One will know then that all the following expressions signify also the same thing: To distil per Alembic; to separate the soul from the body; to burn; to aquefy; to calcine; ‘“cézer,”* to give to drink; to adapt; toitorce: to eat, to unite; to correct; to. sift; to tear . with tenailles; to divide; to unite the elements; to extract them; to exalt them, to convert them; to change one into the other; to cut with the knife; to strike with the sword, the ax, the cimeter; to pierce with the lance, the javelin, the arrow; to kill; to crush; to bind; to unbind; to corrupt; “‘folier;’’ | to melt; to engender; to conceive; to place in the world; to exhaust; to moisten; to water; to soak; to impaste; to amalgamate; to bury; ‘“‘zucéver;’’t to wash; to wash with fire; to soften; to polish; to file; to beat with the hammer; to mortify; to blacken; to putrefy; to turn on the lathe; to circulate; to rubify; to dissolve; to sublimate; to wash in lye; to inhume; to resuscitate; to reverberate; to grind; to reduce to powder; to grind in the mortar; to pul- verize on marble; and many other similar expressions; all this means simply to cook by a single vegzmen, until the appearance of the dark red color. Therefore one must be careful not to move the Vase, and not to take it from the fire; for if the Matter should cool all would be lost.
*See foot note, page 204: Ceration.
+ FoLIER. —It is to concoct, to digest the Matter of the Great Work in order to convert it into the leafy earth (matter at the black colour), in which the seed of gold must be sowed. —Pernety.
tINCERER. — To cause inceration, which see, Notes, p. 204,
208 Tbe Great Art.
It is, according to all the Philosophers, the | ‘Virtue of source of riches and health; since with it one ee ee | can make gold and silver in abundance, and can not only cure all the diseases which can be cured, but can also, by its moderate use, prevent them. A single grain of this medicine, or red elixir, given to those suffering with paralysis, dropsy, gout, leprosy will cure them, provided they take the same quantity for several days. Epilepsy, colic, colds, inflammation, frenzy and all other internal maladies, are unable to resist this life principle. Some Adepts have said that it gave hearing to the deaf and sight to the blind; that it is a sure remedy for all kinds of diseases of the eye, all apostema, * ulcers, wounds, cancers, fistula, nolimétan- gére,y and all diseases of the skin, a grain being disolved in a glass of wine or water, and then applied externally. That it dissolves little by little the stone in the bladder; that it drives away all venom and poison, when taken as above directed.
Raymond Lully, (Zestam. antig.), assures us that it is, in general, a sovereign remedy for all the ills, which afflict humanity; that it cures them in one day, if they have lasted a month; in twelve days, if a year; and in one month, of whatever duration they may be.
Arnaud de Villeneuve, (Rosarz.), says that it is infinitely superior to all the remedies of Hippocrates, of Galen, of Alexander, of Avicenna, and to all ordinary medicine; that it rejoices the heart, gives vigor and strength, preserves youth, and retards oldage. In general, that it cures all diseases.
Geber, (Summd), without enumerating the maladies which this medicine cures, contents himself with saying that it
* Abcesses.
+ An herpes of a very malignant character, often affecting the cartilage of the nose and causing sometimes the total destruction of this organ. E. B.
Bago a 70
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Of the Maladies of the Metals. 211
conquers all those which ordinary Physicians regard as incurable. That it makes young the old and keeps them in health, for many years, even beyond the ordinary limit, when they take only as much as a mustard seed of it, two or three times a week, before the first meal.
Philalethes, (/ztrozt. apert. et enarrat. method.), adds that it cleanses the skin of all blemishes, wrinkles, etc., that it delivers a woman in travail, when held to her nose in the form of a powder, and he quotes Hermés as proof. He claims himself to have drawn from the arms of death many abandoned by physicians. The manner of using it may be found in the works of Raymond Lully and Arnaud de Villeneuve.
Of the The first defect of the metals arises from Maladies of | the first mixture of the principles with quick- bated silver, and the second is found in the union of
the sulphurs and mercury. The more the elements are refined, the more homogeneous they are, and the more they have of weight, malleability, fusion, extension, fulgidity, * and permanent incorruptibility.
Thus, there are two kinds of maladies in the metals, the first is called original and incurable, the second arises from the diversity of the sulphur which causes their imperfection and their maladies, namely, the leprosy of Saturn, the jaun- dice of Venus, the hoarseness of Jupiter, the dropsy of Mercury, and the gall of Mars.
The dropsy of Mercury arises from too much aqueousness and crudity, caused by the coldness of the matrix in which it is engendered, and its insuffiency of concoction. This
*Fulgidity, or brilliancy.
212 Cbe Great Art.
fault is an original sin which all the other metals share. This coldness, this crudity, this aqueousness can be cured only by the heat and igneity of a very powerful sulphur.
Besides this malady, the other metals have one which arises from their internal as well as external sulphur. This latter, being only accidental can be easily separated, because it is not of the first mixture of the elements. It is black, impure, ill smelling, it does not mix with the radical Sulphur, because it is heterogeneous to it. Itis not susceptible of a decoction which may render it radical and perfect.
The radical sulphur cleanses, thickens, fixes into a perfect body the radical mercury, while the second sulphur suffocates, absorbs and coagulates it with its own impurities and crudi- ties. One sees a proof of this, in the coagulation of common mercury, made by the vapor of the sulphur of Saturn, dis- tinguished by that of Jupiter.
This impure sulphur causes all the difference of the imper- fect metals. Therefore the malady of the metals is only accidental; then, there is a remedy to cure them, and this remedy is the Philosophical Powder, or Philosophical Stone, called for this reason, Powder of Projection. To use it for the metals, enclose it in a little wax, in proportion to the quantity of metal to be transmuted, and throw it on the mercury placed in a crucible on the fire, when the mercury is at the point of smoking. It is necessary that the other metals be melted and purified. Leave the crucible on the fire until after the detonation, and then draw it out, or let it cool in the fire.
“The times of the Stone are indicated,” says d’Espagnet, “ by the Philosophical and Astro- “nomical Water. The first White work, must
Of the times
of the Stone.
ee a raat = :
H |
|
} ithe _ a Ad.
‘. a A Pine.
‘
iN ae AAA é
Of the Times of the Stone. 215
‘be finished in the house of the moon ;the second in the second “house of Mercury. The first work in the Red in the “second domicile of Venus, and the second or last, in the “house of exaltation of Jupiter; for, from him our King must “receive his scepter and his crown, ornamented with ‘precious rubies.”
Philalethes, (Loco. cit. p. 156), continually advises the Artist to instruct himself well as to the weight, measure, time and fire. He will never succeed if he is ignorant of the five fol- lowing things, concerning the medicine of the third order.
The Philosophers reduce the years to months, the months to weeks, and the weeks to days.
Every dry thing drinks up eagerly the moisture of its species.
It acts ou this humidity after it has imbibed it, with much more force and activity than before.
The more Earth and the less Water there is, the more per- fect will be the solution. The true, natural solution can be made only with things of the same nature and that which dissolves the Moon, dissolves also the Sun.
As to the time required for the perfection of the Work, one can conclude nothing, with certainty, from what the Philosophers say, because some, in determining it, do not speak of the time required for the preparation of the agents: others treat only of the Elixir; others confound the two works; those who make mention of the work at the Red State, do not speak always of the multiplication; others speak only of the work at the White State; others have their own par- ticular meaning. This is why so much difference is found in works on this subject. One says that twelve years are necessary for the Work, others ten, seven, three, one anda half, fifteen months; sometimes it is a certain number of weeks. One Philosopher has entitled his work, 7he work of
216 The Great Art.
three days. Another has said that only four are necessary. Pliny, the naturalist, says that the Philosophical month con- sists of forty days. Finally, all is mystery, with the Philoso- phers.
This entire treatise is drawn from the authors; I have, almost always, made use of their own expressions. I have quoted some of them, from timeto time, so as to show that I have spoken according to them. When I have not quoted their works, it is because I did not have them at hand. One cannot fail to remark a perfect harmony between them, although they speak only in enigmas and allegories. I had, at first intended to give many extracts, from the Twelve Keys of Basil Valen- tin, because he has, oftener than the others, employed the allegories of the gods of Fable and because, his work would have, consequently more immediate relation with the follow- ing treatise; but enigmas are not explained by enigmas; more- over this work is common enough, while the others are not SO. In order to understand, more easily, the explanations which I give in the treatise on Hieroglyphics, one must know that the Philosophers, usually give the name male or father, tothe sulphurous principle, and the name, female to the mercurial principle. The fixed is also male or agent; the volatile is female or patient. The result of the union of the two is the Philosophical child, generally male, sometimes female, when the matter has arrived only at the white state, because it has not, then, all the fixity of which it is susceptible; the Philoso- phers have also called it, Luna, Diana and Redness, Sun, Apollo, Phoebus. The mercurial water and the volatile earth, are always female, often mother, as Ceres, Latona, Semela,
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Conclusion. 219
Europa, etc. The water is ordinarily designated by the names, daughters, nymphs, naiads, etc. The internal fire is always masculine and active. Impurities are indicated by monsters.
Basil Valentin, whom I have before quoted, introduces the gods of Fable, or the Planets, as interlocutors, in the short abrégé which he gives at the beginning of his Treatise on the Twelve Keys. The following is the substance of it.
Dissolved from good gold, as Nature teaches, so says this Author, you will finda germ, which is the beginning, the middle and the end of the work. From this germ our gold and its mate are produced, namely, a subtle and penetrating spirit, a soul, delicate, clear and pure, and a body, or salt which is a balm of the Stars. These three things are united in our mercurial water. This water was conducted to the god Mercury, its father, who married it, from their union came an incombustible oil. Mercury threw out his eagle wings, devoured his dragon tail, and attacked Mars, who caused him to be imprisoned, and appointed Vulcan as his jailer. Saturn presented himself and implored the other gods to avenge the injuries which Mercury had inflicted upon him. Jupiter approved the complaints of Saturn and gave his orders, which were executed. Mars then appeared with a flaming sword, and gave it to Vulcan, so that he might execute the sentence, pronounced against Mercury, and reduce the bones of this god to powder. Diana, or the Moon, complained that Mercury held her brother in prison with him, and that he should be released; Vulcan would not hear her prayer, and did not even yield to that of the beautiful Venus, who presented herself with all her charms. But, finally, the Sun appeared, in all his glory, covered with his purple mantle.
I end this treatise by the same allegory as d’Espagnet,
220 The Great Art.
The Golden Fleece is guarded by a three-headed Dragon;the first comes from Water, the second from Earth, the third from Air, These three heads, must be united, by the opera- tions, into a single one, which will be powerful enough to devourall the other Dragons. Call upon God, that he may enlighten you; if he accords to you this Golden Fleece, use it only for His glory, the good of your neighbour and your own welfare.
Hodenda.
Dictionary of hermetic Symbols from Albert Poisson’s
Theories et Symboles des Alcbhimistes.
Hoddenda,
ANGEL. — Sometimes symbolises sublimation, the ascension of a volatile principle, as in the figures of the Viatorium Spagyricum.
ANIMALS. — General Rule: 1. Whenever two animals of the same species and of different sexes are found, they signify Sulphur and Mercury prepared for the Great Work, or also the fixed and the volatile. The male rep- resents the fixed, Sulphur; the female represents the volatile, Mercury. These animals are united to signify conjunction, (figures of Lambsprinck); or fighting to symbolise the fixation of the volatile, or the volatilisa- tion of the fixed, ( Figures of B. Valentin). 2. A ter- restrial animal facing an aerian animal in the same figure indicate the fixed and the volatile. 3. Animals may symbolise the four elements: Earth, (lion, ox); Air, (eagle); Water, (whale, fishes); Fire, (salamander, dragon).
APpo.t_o. — Same signification as the sun.
Batu. — Symbol: 1. Of the dissolution of gold and silver; 2. Of the purification of these metals.
BEep. — Symbol of the philosophical egg.
Birps. — Ascending: volatilisation, ascension, sublimation;
224 The Great Art.
descending: precipitation, condensation. When these two symbols are united in the same figure, they signify distillation. Birds opposed to terrestrial animals sig- nify Air, or the volatile principle.
BLuntT INSTRUMENTS. — Symbols of fire.
Cuaos. — Symbol of the Unity of Matter and sometimes of the black colour of putrefaction.
CHAMBER. — When the king and the queen are shut therein, it is the symbol of the Philosophical Egg.
CuiLp. — Clothed in royal robe, or simply crowned, it is the symbol of the Philosopher’s Stone, sometimes of the red colour of the Magisterium.
CIRCUMFERENCE, — Unity of matter, universal harmony.
Crow — Symbol of the black colour, or putrefaction.
Crown. — Symbol of chemical royalty, of metallic perfec- tion. In the Margarita pretiosa, the six metals are at first represented as slaves, bareheaded at the feet of the king, but after their transmutation, they bear a crown.
Diana. — Same signification as the Moon.
Doc. —Symbol of Sulphur, of gold. The dog devoured by a wolf signifies the purification of gold by antimony. Dog and bitch : Fixed and volatile.
Dove. — Symbol of the grey colour which precedes immedi- ately the white colour, or Diana’s Regimen.
Dracon. —A dragon biting its tail: unity of matter. A dragon among flames: symbol of fire. Several dragons fighting each other indicate putrefaction. A dragon
without wings, the fixed; the dragon with wings, the volatile.
EAGLE. — Symbol of volatilisation and also of the acids employed in the Magisterium. An eagle devouring a
Hddenda. 225
lion signifies the volatilisation of the fixed by the vol- atile. Two fighting eagles have the same meaning.
FLoweErs. — In general, flowers represent the colours of the Great Work.
Fountain. — Three fountains represent the three princi- ples. Fountain where king and queen come to bathe themselves has the same signification as bath, which see Bath.
HERMAPHRODITE. — Sulphur and Mercury after their con- junction; often the word ReEsis is written upon his breast.
JUPITER. — Symbol of tin.
KING AND QUEEN. — See Man and Woman.
Lion. — Symbol of the fixed, Sulphur, when alone. If car- rying wings, it represents the volatile, Mercury. The lion represents also the mineral, (green vitriol), from whence is extracted the oil of vitriol, (sulphuric acid ), which was so extensively used by the alchemists. The lion opposed to three other animals represents the element Earth. In fine it is the symbol of the Stone. The lioness represents the volatile.
Man and Woman. — Sulphur and Mercury. Naked, gold and silver in an impure state; united, conjunction; lying in a sepulchre, Sulphur and Mercury in the phil- osophical egg.
MARRIAGE. — Symbol of conjunction, union of Sulphur and Mercury, of the king and the queen. The priest who performs the ceremony represent Salt, means of union between the two other principles.
Mars. — Symbol of iron, and of the orange colour.
Mercury. — Symbol of silver prepared for the Work.
Moon. — Volatile principle, female, Mercury of the Philos- opher, silver prepared for the Work.
226 The Great Art.
Mountain.— Furnace of the philosophers; Summit of the philosophical egg.
NEPTUNE. — Symbol of Water.
PHOENIX. — Symbol of the red colour.
Rain. — Condensation, white colour, (albification).
Roser. — Red colour. A white rose opposed to a red one, fixed and volatile, Sulphur and Mercury.
SALAMANDER. — Symbol of fire, sometimes signifies the red or white colour.
SATURN. — Symbol of lead. Figures also the black colour, putrefaction.
ScyTHE. — Same signification as the sword.
SEPULCHRE. — Philosophical egg.
SERPENT. — In general, same signification as the dragon. Three serpents, the three principles. The two ser- pents of the caduceus signify Sulphur and Mercury. A winged serpent, the volatile principle; deprived of wings, the fixed principle. A crucified serpent: fixa- tion of the volatile. A serpent with several heads represents the three principles emanating from one uni- versal matter or cosmic ether.
SKELETON. — Putrefaction, black colour.
SPHERE. — Unity of matter.
SQuaARE. — Symbol of the four elements.
Sun. — Ordinary gold, or gold prepared for the work, also Philosophic Sulphur.
Sworp. — Symbol of fire.
TREES. — A tree bearing moons signifies the lunar work, or transmutation of metals into silver; if it bears suns, it is the symbol of the G. W. or solar work. If it bears the signs of the seven metals, or those of the Sun, the Moon and five stars, it represents the unique Matter from whence originate all metals.
Addenda. 227
TRIANGLE. — Symbol of the three principles.
VeENus. — Symbol of copper.
Vutcan. — Symbol of fire, ordinarily represented as a lame man.
Wo te. — Symbol of antimony.
Hlchemical Characters.
Pernetyp—Elipbas Hevi—Albert Poisson—de Guaita, etc.
AES USTUM. 2.
Ar. roped
ALEMBIC. SO
ALKALI, SALT. Es 3
ALUDEL. | CO. ON.
Aum, Common. O 4,
AMALGAM. @aa, re, By ANTIMONY. ria? 6,
Alcbemical Characters, 229
AQua Fortis.
Aquarius, MULTIPLICA- TION, SALT NITRE.
Agua REGIA. WR ge IO at
Agua VITA,
a ASHES. ae g
ARGENT- VIVE.
ARIES: ANTIMONY, CAL- CINATION.
ARSENIC. O—O |
ASPHALTUM, CONGELATION. AZOTH. BATH.
fo) 9 B Baru, STEAM. \8 NB
BATH, WATER.
230 The Great Art.
Borax. W, [avant
BRASS. BRICK, PULVERIZED.
CALCINE, To. Cota mA
CALCINATION.
CALX. ALX C G: CAMPHOR, Oo-~O-O-
CAPRICORN, ALUM, FER- MENTATION. Caput MortTuvuM.
CERUSE.
CIMENT, To. eee
8 ‘
INNABAR 3, wh, %
COAGULATE, To. H E ' ’
Alcbemical Characters,
CONGELATION. COPPER, OR VENUS. CopPrER, BuRNT. COPPERAS. CRUCIBLE. CRYSTAL.
DAY.
Dicerst, To.
DIGESTION.
DISSOLUTION. Distip, Lo,
DISTILLATION.
FERMENTATION.
231
232 Tbe Great Art.
Fru DE ROUE. FILINGS OF IRON. FILTER, To. FIRE.
F rx, To.
FIXATION.
GEMINI, Fixation, Or- | PIMENT.
GOLD.
GUM.
HOUR.
INCINERATION.
pais (Ong: ES ‘nag aaa
Grass. Os >) 34s 0 2S +—> of
Tron, OR MARs.
Aicbemical Characters.
JUPITER, or TIN.
EAT TEN:
LEAD, OR SATURN.
LEo, DIGESTION, OR GOLD.
LIBRA, OR SUBLIMATION.
LIME.
LIME, QUICK.
LITHARGE.
Luar, Fo:
MAGNESIA.
MAGNET.
MARCASSITE.
MERCURY.
233
234 Tbe Great Art.
MERcuURY, PRECIPITATED. vot 5 U- 3 : ’ ’
MeERcURY, SUBLIMATED. ~ Pr Sn. Bn , , §
MonrtruH. | >
MULTIPLICATION. ae Rene NIGHT. ye Q NITRE, OR SALTPETRE. agers ; OIL. pneu ate ORPIMENT. (@ HEE © F pLIG,
ORPIMENT, RED.
PISCES, Mercury, Pro- ; JECTION.
POWDER.
PRECIPITATE, To.
(2 3
PROJECTION,
Alcbemical Characters. 235
PurRIFY, To. Cd
QUICKLIME. QUICKSILVER.
F
g QUINTESSENCE. Das ; z
es
Quick SULPHUR.
REALGAR. Sb ¥ xX Pas RETORT. G ; CN) SAFFRON OF MARS. a & a
r] + r) SAFFRON OF VENUS. au
? O-C, an,
SAGITTARIUS, ALUM, IN- | CINERATION. | Ky SALAMMONIAC. O-*, * SALT. =) SALT-ALKALI, pos Ney
236 The Great Art.
SALT, COMMON.
SALTPETRE.
SALTS OCK.
SAND.
SAPo SAPIENTIZE.
SCORPIO, SEPARATION.
SILVER, OR Moon.
SoDA.
SPIRIT.
SPIRIT OF WINE.
STEEL.
STRATUM SUPER STRATUM.
SULPHUR.
ey Cove ce
o"ee%e eee
Alcbemical Characters.
SULPHUR, BLACK.
SULPHUR, SOPHIC.
SULPHUR, QUICK.
SUBLIMATE, To.
SUBLIMATION. SuN, OR GOLD.
TALCU M:
TARTAR.
Taurus, CONGELATION.
TIN.
Torry.
URINE.
VERT-DE-GRIS.
ele Ps aKOk b P2*
>
& x
237
238 The Great Art.
VINEGAR. fe x , §
VINEGAR, DISTILLED. ee x Virco, DISTILLATION. | 0 Bt VITRIOL.
Ora VITRIOL, BLUE. @—+t VITRIOL, WHITE. :
WATER-BATH.
V8 Wax = oe Wick. VU Wine. | V Work COMPLETED. & Fen Very!
YEAR.
Eilphabetical Mnoder.
Vat al SUES ES Gia fe) Abraham the Jew, 24-46-147 -161 Absolute, 5 Chemical, 9 _ Abubali, 42 Abugazal, 24 Abyss, 57-150-171 Académie d’ Avignon, 9 Achelous, 184 Achilles, 158-167 Acid, 185 Action, reflex 73 Adam, 185 Addition aux Douse Clefs, 143 Adept, Prince IO Aduma, 185 Afneas, 51 7Eneid,;: * 86 fEris, I8I Zs of the Philosophers, 154 Against Celse, 39 Age, old 183 Agent, Universal, 102 Aibathest, 182 AIR, OF THE 83 Alain, 24 Albar, 181 Albertus Magnus, 24-42
Albification, 139 Alborach, 182 Albusarius, 42 Alchemy, 127 Alchindis, 42 Alchymta, de 24-42 Alebrot, salt 182 Alembic, 160 Alembroth, salt 138-182 Alexander, 208 Algebra, 18 Alibi, 136 Alkali, salt 138 Alkemiste et Nature, 137
Allegories of the dead and
the tomb, 150 Almagra, 185 Almathza, 158-184 Alphidius, 24-42-182-185 Alteration, 203 Altum, 185 Aludel, 154-159-160 Alum, 139-140-182 Alzernard, 185 Amalgamation, 138 Ambrosia, 4I Amphora of Vulcan, 158 Androgyna, 133-181
240 Andromeda, 133 Anima Artis, de 24 ANIMAL KINGDoM, 96 Antimony, 136-138 Anonymous, 188 APHORISM: ON THE TRUTH OF THE SCIENCES, 126
Apollo, Aqua viva, Aqueous Smoke, Arcanum, 154 /Grand), 55 Arcanum, Hermetic 21-45 Arcanum Hermetice Phil- osophie Opus—see Arcanum Hermetic
39-167-181-216
Archetypal World, 62 Archeus, 34-67-68 Archimedes, 19 Arena, 181
Aristotle, § 24-53-56-143-194 Argent-vive, 140-147-154-182
Argicida, 153 Arms of the gods 167 Arnaud de Villeneuve, 8-17- 43-90-208-2I1 Arrows, 166 Arsenic, 137-138-182 Ars Magica, 6 Ars Magna, 20-83 Ars Poetica, 88 Artephius, 24-1 34-1 36-150- 183-198-199 _ Art-Spagyric, 5 Ascension, 150 Ashes, 186 of Tartar, 186 ASPECTS OF MIXTS, OF THE GENERAL, 04 Assation, 145-150 Astral Body, 6-66 Astral Light, 102 Astral World, 62 Athanor, 161-165
The Great Art.
Attincar, salt 138 Attraction, reciprocal 53 Attraments, 140 Augurellus, 144 Aurora Consurgens, 25 Avicenna, 24-42-43-140-147- 208 Azoch, 182 Azoth, 50-58-102 Azoth des Philosophes, 27-33 Bacchantes, 154 Bachon, 159 Bacon, Roger gas Balm, radical IIO Bark, black 150 Barrett, Francis 4-10 Basket, 158 Basket of Erichtonius, 158 Basil Valentin, 24-27-33-90- 128-129-143-146 Bath, 154 Battle-Ax, 166 Bauderic, 181 Baurach, 182 Beccher, 17-20-29-93-95-63
Bed of Venus and Mars, 158
Beethoven, 7 Belierophon, 167 Belly of Saturn, 134 Belt of Venus, 167 Bendegid, 140 Bernard, Claude 55 Bernard, Trévisan, 24-138-
143 Bibliotheque de la Chimie
Curteuse, 30 Bile, 186 Black, 148 Black Bark, 150 Black Earth, 149 Black Lead, 149
Blackness, 149-150
Alpbabetical finder.
Black Veil, 149 Blood, 140-186 Blood of Saturn, 138 Body, 186
Body properly speaking, 186 Body, Astral 66 Red, 186
White, 182 Boerhave, 20 Bon, Pierre 24 Bone, calcined 183 Borax, 140-182 Look of Physics, 143 Boritis, 181 Borrichius, 17-44 Bow of Hercules, 167 Brahmins, 127 Brass, 137 Sophic, 154 Brother, 186 Buffon, de 19 Bulls, 184 Burning Humidity, 154 Cadmic, 186 Cadmus, 150-181 Caduceus, 132-135 Caius Caligula, 42 CALCINATION, 173 Calcination, 139-145-148-150-
204 Perfect, 204 Calid, 31-140-198 Calio, 160 Cambar, 181-182 Camerith, 185 Cancer, 186 Capital of the Alembic, 150 Casket of Bacchus, 158
of Thetis, 158 Caspa, 182 Castor, 158 Caverns, of Heliocon, 158
of Monsters, 158 Celandines, 138 Cementation, 132
241 Ceration, 204-207 Cérer, 207 Ceres, 133-216 Ceruse, 182 Chaia, 182 Chalcitis, 186 Chalice of Juno, 158 Chamber of Leda, 158 Chaos, 33-154-171 Charcoal,
149 Chemical aud Physical Ob- servations on the prop- erties and effects of
Light and Fire, 104 Chemistry, 27-28-209-41 Chibur, 186 Child, Philosophical, 184 Chimera, 147 Christophe Parisien, 24 Chrysopeia, 143 Cimeter of Perseus, 167 Cinnabar, 137 Circulation, 171 Clangor Buccine, 25 Claude Bernard, 55 Clay, 149 Clemens of Alexandria, 30-
40 Clepsydra, 158 Clibanically, 198 Cloud, 149 Club of Hercules, 167 Clytemnestra, 158 Coagulation, 145-171 Code of all Truth, 140 Cochineal, 186 Cock, 186 Cock’s Comb, 186 Codzczl, 45-130-166 Celum Philosophorum, 137 Coffer, 158 of Deuca-
lion, 158
242 Cohobation, 184-204 Colchis, 184 Colchotar, 186 Collectanea Flermetica, 21-51- 160-161 Comerisson, eT 82 Companion, 183 Comment on devient Alchi- miste, 102 Commixtion, 150 Complexion, 150
Compositione Compositi, de, 24 CONCLUSION, 216
Concocted Spirit, 154 Concoction, QI-145 Concordantia Philosopho- rum, 24 Confused Body, 154
Confused Matter of the
Metals, 154 Congelation, 139-140-204 Conjunction, 140-150 Conjuror, 6-7 Connection, 140 Conspectus Chimicorum
Celebriorum, 44 Conversion, 203 of the
Elements, I50 Copper, 137-154 White, 182
Copperas, 140 Coringius, 39 Corpse, 34-150 Corps improprement dit, 182 Corruption, I 50-164-168
CORRUPTION OF MIXTS, OF THE GENERATION AND 99
Corsufle, 181-186 Cosmic Ether, 56 Cosmopolita, 22-25-33-37-44-
46-57-61-63-79-80-82-94-I 12- 113-130-137-145-203
Coupellation, 132
The Great Art.
Covering of the Vase, 150 Creation, 168 Crow, 149-181-187 Crucible, 148 Crude Mercuty, 154 Quicksilver taken from the Mine, 154 Spirit, 154 Vegetable Liquor, 154 Cucurbit, 160 Cupid, 134 Cup of Hercules, 158 Dastin, John 25 Daughter, 219 David, 35-96 Day, 183 Alchemical, 187 Dealbation, 204 Death, 149-150 December, 182 Déeb, 186
DEFINITIONS AND PRop- ERTIES OF MERCURY, I52
Déhab, 186 Democritus, 17-24-37-48-94- 143-147 DEMONSTRATIVE SIGNS OR PRINCIPLES, 180 Denis Zachaire, 24 Denudation, 150 Descartes, 52-71 Descension, 145-I50-203-204 Desication, 203-207 Destruction, 149 Deuteronomy, IOI Dialog. Mercue., 137 Diamond, 182 Diana, 216-219
Dictionnaire Mytho Her- métique, 60-67-80-90-148- 159-184-187-188 - 193 - 198- 204
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
Alpbabetical Mnoder.
THE THREE KING-
DOMS, OF THE, 95 Dijunction, 140 Diocletian, 23-24 Diodorus of Sicily, 17-39-40-
74 Disposition, 145-146
Dissertation imprimeé par- mt les Elements de Chymic de Boerhave, 90
Dissolution, 145-148-149-150
Distillation, 9QI-139-145-150- 203-204
Division, 150
Dragons, 134-146-147-150-
171-184-187-188-199-220 Dropsy of Mercury, 211
Druids, 127 Dry Water, 75-90 Dynastia Nona, 42 {oe 182 Eagles, 187-188-199 Earth, 183 Black, 149
Fertile, 183
of Leaves, 150
Potential, 183
Sulphurous, 149 EARTH, OF THE 79 Eau-de-vie, 138 Ebisemeth, 181 LEcclestast, 33-54-71-99 Eclipsed Sun, 150
Eclipse of the Sun and
Moon, 150 Edison, 8 Eg 140-149-154-182
8) of the Philosopher, 154-
159 Shells, 138-183 Eggs, 158 Egypt, 17 Electra of the Philoso-
phers, 137-182
Eve,
243
Llectrum Minerale, de 42
Elementary World, 62 ELEMENTS, OF THE v5 Eliphas Lévi 102 Elixir, 128-160 ELIXIR, OF THE IQI ELIXIR ACCORDING TO
D’ ESPAGNET, OPER-
ATION, OF THE 193
Eller, 81 Emerald Table, 45-56 Enatiatio Method. trium
Gebrt Medicin, 145-182- 203-208 Enchyridion, 47-75 Enetd, 61 Enemy, 182
Entretients du Rot Calid
et de Morten, 31-36-45- 145 Esdras, 4! Esep, 184 Esid, 140
Espagnet, d’ 24-28-44-45-46 47-75-104 - 107 - 132 - 133- 143-160-161-166-171- 184- 187-IQI-192-193-196- 198-
200-212-219 Essence, 182 White, 182 Ethelia, 181 Ether, Cosmic 56 Ethiopian grain, 186 Etienne, 24 Euclides, 143 Euphrates, 182 Europa, 219 Eusebius, 38 Eustathius, 42 Evacuation, 171 Evangil, 98 182
244
Evening Star, 183
Evocation, 6-7
Explanation of the FHrero- glyphic fugures, —_32-70-
134-144-146-158-161-183 Eixplication des Figures
Lhiéroglyphiques—
see above Extraction, 150 Eye-lid, Superior 154 Fable, 77 Fables Egyptiennes et
Grecques dévotlées, 9 Fada, 182 Father, 186-191 Favonius, 182 Febrile heat, 162 FERMENTATION, 177 Ferments, 137 Flannel, Nicolas 8-24-32-34-
36-44-46-70-134 - 144 - 146- 147-148-150 -158 - 160-181- 183-164-186 187-198
Fleece, Golden 134-144-220 Flesh, 140 Field,
In which the Gold
must be sown, 183 FIRE, OF 85 FIRE IN GENERAL, OF 161 Fire, 154-186
Against Nature, 166
Celestial, 161-162-163
Central, 161-162-163-164 Elimentary, 161-162-163
Innate, III Natural, 166 of Ashes, 166 of First Degree, 193 of Lamps, 166 of Nature, 186 of Prometheus, 167
Che Great Art.
of Stone, 185-188 of Vesta, 167 of our Waters, 166 Strange, 154 Unnatural, 154 Venimous, 149 Firmicus, 40
First Impulse, A First Matter, 30-43-45-52-56- 75-76-81-1 11-134
Fixation, 204-207 Fixed, 80 Folier, 204 Form, 186 Form of Man, 186 Fornix, 71 Foundation of Art, 182 Freemasonry, 10 Fruit, 186 Fugitive Servant, 154
Furnace of the Sages, _150- 160-161
Gabricus, 186
Gabrius, 186
Galen, 208
Gall of Mars, 211
Geber, 17-22-24-42-140-200- 203-208
Generation, 150-164-168
GENERATION AND Cor- RUPTION OF MIxTs, OF THE 99 Genesis, _ 33-53-54-57-58-60- 63-84-85-88
Geofroy, 20 Geometry, . 18 Georg, 144 George Ripley, Sir 25 Germ, 186 Geryon, 158
Givinis, precious stone of 182 Glandula pinealis, 71
Alpbabetical Tnderx.
Glass, 183-186 of Pharaoh, 183 Goat, 135 Gold, 182-186 Altered, 186 Philosophical, 185 White, 182 Golden Fleece, 134-144-220 Goodness, 154 Which has several names, 154 Gophrith, 186 Grand Arcanum, 55 Grand Rosary, 140 Grand Telesma, 56 Great Operation, 5 Green Lion, 138 Guaita, Stanislas de 8-11-58 Guide, 5-6-7 Gum, 186 Red, 18 White, 182 Guy de Montanor, 24 Gymnosophists, 127 Hageralzarnad, 186 Hair, 140 ‘of Saturn, .138 Haly, 140 Hamuel, 24 Hand, left 183 Hans de Biilow, 7 HARMONY OF THE UNI- VERSE, OF THE 112 Harpies, 147 Head of the Crow, 149-181 Heaven, 154 Hebrit, 186 Helen, 158 Heliocon, the Caverns of 158 Heliodorus, 24 Hemithea, 158 Heraclitus, 57-61-194 Herbs, 139
Hercules, 143-146-158-167-183
245 Hermaphrodite, 181-182 Hermés, 24-34-35-38-40-4I-
45-55-50-62-66-134-159-181 211 Flermetic Arcanum, 21-45-160- I61-166-168-173-I91
Flermetism, 4-5 Hesiod, 57 Hesperidian Virgins, 134
L[heroglyphic Figures of Nicolas Flamel, see Explanation of the Hieroglyphic Figures
Hippocrates, 38-91-208 Hoarseness of Jupiter, 211 He, 182 Hombert, 20
Homer, 25-40-41-133-135-153 Horace, 88
Horn of Almathoea, 158-184 Hortulain, 25 Humation, 150 Humidity, 154
Burning, 154 Humid Radical, 109-131-147-
148 Humidum, 77-78-181 Hyle, 56-60-1 54-182 flymn to Mercury, 4! Hypostase, 182 Igneous Body, 53 Illuminati, 9 Imbibition, 184-204 Impastation, 150 Impregnation, 150 Impulse, first 73 Inceration, 204 Incérer, 207 Incineration, 204 Induration, 204 Infernal regions, 149 Ingression, 150
246 Infinity, 186 Influences, 5-7-86 Initiate, 6 Initiation, 6 Inner Man, Inspector of concealed things, 154 Inspiration, 203 L[ntroitus Opertus, 136-211 Iron, 186 Dross and scales of, 137 Salt of 137 Isaac de Moiros, 24 Isaac Hollandus, 24-90-164 Isis, 39-133 Ixir, 181 Jason, 134-143-158-184 Jaundice of Venus, 211 Javelin, 166 John Dastin, 25 Jollivet-Castelot, 11-102-132 Jordan, 154 Joseph, IOI Juice, 183 Juno, 38-77-1 32-134-146-
158 Jupiter, 39-55-77-130-137-158- 166-167-184-219
Justi, de 30-122 Kabbalah, 155
and Alchemy, 4 Kabbalists, I 66-127 Key oF SCIENCE, THE 126
KEY OF THE WoRK, THE 143 Keys oF NATURE, OF THE 128
King, 186-215 Kingdom, Animal, 96 Mineral, 95 Vegetable, 96
Kingdoms of Nature, 67 KINGDOMS, OF THE DIFER- ENCES BETWEEN THE
The Great Art.
THREE 95 Kircher, Father 30-40 Knight of the Sun, 10 Kukul, I8I Kunckel, 17 Lamb, 182 Spotless, 182 Lampblack, 149 Lance, 166
of Belierophon, 167 Latona, 38-13 3-216 Latten, 134-137-154
which it is necessary
to whiten, 137-150 Lead, 137-149
Black, 149
Philosopher’s 149 Leather bottle of
Bacchus, 158 ieda, 133-158 Leprosy of Saturn, 211 Lermina, Jules 8 Lerna, Swamp of 158 Lettrea Thomas de Bou-
logne, 45 Lévi, Eliphas, 102 Liber Chemia, 24 Liber Secretorum, 136 Liga Sharira, 66 Light, 183-186
Astral, 102 First, 65
Increate, 64-65 LIGHT, OF 102 LIGHTS AND ITS EFFECTS,
OF 64 Lily, 183 Lime, 182 Lion, Green 138 Liquefaction, 150 Liquor, 154 Litharge, 138
Golden, 186
Red, 186
Alpbabetical Mnoder.
Lithogeognosia, 90 Lover of Philalethes, 51
Lucretius, 62-76 Ludus Puerorum, 25-159 Luna, 216 Lully, Raymond 17-22-25-
43-8 1-9Q0-1 36-15 5-166-199-
208-211 Magii, Persian 127 Magisterium, 34-30-78-153 Magna et Sacra Scientia, 24 Magnesia, 140 Black, 149 ed, 186 White, 182 Maier, Michel, 24-46
MALADIES OF THE METALS,
OF THE 211 Male, 186 Malefaction, 150 Man, 186 MAN, OF 66 Manetho, 39 Manget, 30 Manure, 139-149-154 Marcassites, 138 Mark, 127
Marriage of the Sun and Moon, 24
Mars, (Myth. ) 137-1 58-186-219
Mars, Oil of 186
Marteck, 186 Martinist Order, IO Masculine Germ, IQI Materia Prima, 30-43-45-52- 56-75-76-81-130-134 Materia Secunda, 30-76 Matrices, 157 Matter, 154 First, see Materia Prima Lunar, 154
247 Confused, of the Metals, 154 Secondary, see Materia Secunda, Unique, 154-182 Unity of, 56
MATTER OF THE MAGNUM OPUS, OF THE
MATTER, ANCIENT PHILO- SOPHICAL NAMES GIVEN
130
TO THIS ie Matthew, 32-127 Maupertuis, de 122 Mausoleum, 158 Maya, 133 Mean, preparatory 182
MEANS OF ARRIVING AT THE SECRET OF THE, 127
Mecubales, 127 Medea, 134 Mediator, plastic 102 Medicine, 27-38-1 12-153 of the Earth, 115 of the Third Order, 153 Universal, 22 Meditation, 125 Melancholy, 149 Mémotre del Académie de Berlin, 8I Menstrum, 80-15 3-154-182 Second, 154 Stinking, 149 Mercury, (Myth.) —_135-136- 153-219
MERcuRY, DEFINITIONS AND PROPERTIES OF, 152
Mercury, 83-150-154 Coagulated, 182 Crude, 154 Dissolving, 153 Preparing, 154 Purified 182
248 Setting, 182 Sophic, 58-102-131-137- 145-147-153 Thickened, 154 Merlin, I51 METALLIC PRINCIPLES,OF 129 Metallurgy, 27 Metamorphoses, 181 Meteors, 143 Meteors, 84 Metros, 186 Microcosm, 73-83 Michel Maier, 24-46 Milk, 138 Insipid, 182 Virgin's, 182 Mind, 66 Mine, 154-186 of Celestial Fire, 185 of the Metals, 154 Our, 154 Red, 185 Mineral Kingdom, 95 Mineral Salt, 182 Mineral Stone, 182 Minister, First 154 Mixed Body, 154 MIXTS, OF THE GENERA- TION AND CORRUP- TION OF 99 MIXTS, OF THE PRESER- VATION OF 108
MIxTS, OF THE SOUL OF 96
Moist RADICAL, OF THE I09 Moist Radical, 85 Moly, 41-135 Molybdenos, 135 Money, piece of 154 Montanor, Guy de 24 Moon, 134-137-154-182
Full, 182 Morien, 17-24-31-34-35-36-45-
Che Great Art.
134-1 40-145-146-159-181- 185
Morienus, Romanus, see
above Morning, 186 Mortar, 39-160 Mortification, 203 Moses, 39-53-54-57-63-85-101- 114 Mother, 154-182 MOVEMENT, OF 113 Mud, 82 Multiplication, 138 MULTIPLICATION, THE 196 Muses, 154-158 Naiads, 219 NAMES GIVEN TO THE MATTER BY THE ANCIENTS, 133 NAMES GIVEN TO THE VASE BY THE AN- CIENTS, 158 Naptha, 150 Narcissus, 183 NATURE, OF 61 Nectar, 4I Neophyte, 6 Nepenthes, 4 Neptune, 77-133-136 Neusis, 186 Nicolas Flamel, see Flamel Night, 149 Nigrum, nigro, nigrius, 34- 149-150 Nitre, 128 Norton, Thomas 25 Noscus, 143
Norum Lumen Chemicum, 21- 22-46-94-187-19 1
Numus,
Nymphs,
Oak, hollow
181
41-154-219 150-160
Alpbabetical Tnder,
Od, 102 Odyss, 135 “dip. Agypt., 40 Ginigma, 46 CEs Ustum, 138 Oestrich Stomach, 154 Oil, 182 Incombustible, 186 of Saturn, 150 of Silver, 138 Red, 186 Oils, Corrosive 138 Oleum, Vivum 182 Olive, 186 Perpetual, 186 Olympiodoros, 24
OPERATION OF THE ELIXIR ACCORDING TO D’Es-
PAGNET, 193 OPERATIONS OF NATURE,
OF THE QI OPERATIVE PRINCIPLES, 168 OPERATIVE PRINCIPLES
IN PARTICULAR, 173 Order, Martinist 10 Orient, 186 Origen, 39 Orion, 136-158 Orosius, 24 Orpheus, 24-25-134 Opiment, 137-138-182 Ortu et Interitu, de 56 Osiris, 39-133 Our Compost, 154 Our Confection 154 Our Water, 154 Ovid, 181 Ox, 133-182 Pallas, 55-166 Panacea, 22-195 Pandora, 73
Panopolite, 338
249 Papus, Dr. II-52- Parabola, : eB Paraclesus, 8-34-90,137-194 Paradise, Terrestrial 75 Part A. 186 Patrocles, 158 Paul. St: 126 Peleus, 166 Perdition, 149 Peripateticians, 53 Perisprit, 66 Pernety, 2-9-10-1 1 60-66-67-80-
1 50-153-159-184- 187 - 188-
192-198-203-204-207 Perseus, 167 Petosirt et Nicepso, de 40
Philalethes, 25-37-44-90-136- 145-151-152-159-182-200- 203-211-215
Philosopher’s Stone, 22-28-
_ 35-39-183
Philosopher’s Vase, 154
Philosophical Gold, 39
Philosophic Summary, 147
Philosophie des Métause, 45- 160 Philo the Jew, 39 Phison, 186 Phlegm, 182 Phlogiston, go Phoebus, 158-216 Phoenix, 35
Physica Subterranea, 63-93-95 Physique Souterraine,
see above Pictures, Allegorical, 46 Piece of Money, 154 Pierre Bon de Ferrare, 24 PHILOSOPHICAL COUNCELS,
125 Physics, 126 Pindare, 38
250
Plants, 140 Plastic Mediator, 102 Plato, 17 Pliny, 17-41-42-194-216 Plutarch, 38-135 Pluto, 77-153 Point, 182 Poisson, Albert 11-75-130-132 Pollux, 158 Pontanus, 24-166 Poppy, 186
Pott, 30-89-Q0-QI-104-105-106- 107 Powder, Black
149
of Projection, 212 Power, first 154 PREFACE, 2 PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE, 17 Preparation, 168-203 PRESERVATION OF MIXTS,
OF THE 108 Priests, Egyptian 127 Prima Materia, 30-43-45-52-
56-75-76-81-130 Prince Adept, 10 Principles, 75
PRINCIPLES OF PHYSICS ACCORDING TO HER- METIC PHILOSOPHERS, 49
Prison, 154 Prometheus, 105-167 Protyle, 9 Proverbs, 29 Psalms, 65-96 PUTREFACTION, 174 Putrefaction, 147-148-149- 203-204 Pymander, Divine 34-35-55- 62-66 Pyramid, 158 Pythagoras, 17-99-I 34 181
Python,
The Great Art.
Quickgold, 186 Quicksilver, 130-131-I51-152 Quicksulphur, 186 QUINTESSENCE, 194 RADICAL, OF THE MoIsT 109 Raimondus Lullius, see Raymond Lulle Rain, 186
Raymond Lulle, 17-22-25-43- 81-Q0-130- 136-155 - 160-
199-208-211 Rebis, I51-181-182-183 Rebus Chemicis,de 24 Receipts, 139
Receptivity of the Mind, 7 Reciprocal Attraction, 53
Rectification, 171 Redness, 186-216 Red Servant, 140 Red Stone, 39 Reduction, 150-171 Réezon, 186 Reflex Action, Oe Reichembach, de 102 Religion, 126 Rennet, 138 Re Recta Tractatulus Chemt-
cus, de 24 Residence, 186 Resurrection, 183 Retractations, 143 Reverberation, 145 Rhasis, 24-147 Rhea, 133-150 Richard, 25 Right, 186 Ripley, Sir George 25-137 Roger Bacon, 25 Root, 154-182
of Art, 182
Unique, 154-182
Alpbabetical fndex.
Rosarium Novum, 46-160-193
208 Rose Croix Kabbalistique, 8 Rosicrucians, 4 Rosinius, 24 Royal Crown, 185 Ruah, 66 Rubifaction, 139-186-187 Ruby, 186 RuLES, VERY INSTRUC-
TIVE 200 Saffron of Mars, 138 Saint John, 98 Salammoniac, 138 Salt, 139-140-186
Alebrot, 182
Alembroth, 138-182
Alkali, 138-182
Attincar, 138
Common, 138
Fusible, 182
Mineral, 138-182
Of Glass, 138
Of Iron, 137
Of Metals, 182
Of Nature, 182
Of Steel, 138
Of Fartar, 138
Red, 186
Soda, 138 Salts, 128 Sapieutia, 32-69-70 Sapo Sapieutiz, 182 Sarne, 140
Saturn, (Myth.) 77-133-136- 137-149-184-219
Saturn, Oil of 150
Saxatilic Spirit, 155
Scala Philosophorum, 25-183- 193
Sea, 154
Seal of Hermes, 149
Seb, 183 Secondines, 138-183 SECRECY, OF 127 Secreta Alchemie, 132
Secretis Secretorum, 24 Secunda Materia, see Materia Secunda
Sedine, 183 Seed in Metals, 30-76 Seeds, 139 Semela, 133-216 Sendivogius, 46 Seniors Table, 46
Separation, 139-140-150-168- Ez
Sepulchre, 147-149-154-158 Serapion, 140 Serf, Fugitive, 183 Sericon, 186 Serinech, 183 Serpens Terrenus, 128
Serpent biting its tail, 56-134
Serpent of Mars, 150 Python, 181 Serpents, 132-134-146-147- 150 Seth, 183 Seu Codex Veritatts, 26 Shadows, 149 Cimmarian, 150 Sharpness, 185 Ship, 158 Short Enquiry concerning the Hermetic Art, 51 Siccum et Humidum, 33-77- 78 Sieve, 154-160 Silver, 182 Oil of 138 Water of, 138 Sister, 183 Skin of Orion, 158
252 Smoke, 149-154 Aqueous, 154 Soap of the Wise, 182 Solar Plexus, 68 Solomon, 33 SOLUTION, 174 Solution, 144-149-168 Sophic Mercury, 58-102-145 Sophistications, 139 Solvent, 80-137-145 Son of the Sun, 185 Soul, 186 Of Man, 65-67-73 Of Saturn, 138
Of the World, 60-61-65 Sout oF MIxTs, OF THE 96
Speculum Alchemia, 25 Sperm, 140-147 Masculine, 185 Of Mercury, 154 Of the Metals, 183 Of the Stars, 138 Sphinx, 147 Spirit, 83-183 Concocted, 154 Crude, 154 Stinking, 149 Spiritists, 66 Spirits, 137 Stahl, 17-29-89-90 Stanislas de Guaita, 8-11-58 Starry Stone, 186 Steel, 137 Stephen of Bysantium, 41 Stone, 154-186 Indian, 186 Indrademe, 186 Known in the Chap- ters of Books, 154 Lasule, 186 Mineral, 154
Philosopher’s 83
The Great Art.
Red, 186 Starry, 186 Unique, 154 Stones, 139-140 Strabo, 39-40 Stygian Water, 154 Sublimate, 183 Sublimation, 91-137-139-140- 144-1 45-1 50-184-203-204 Submersion, 150 Subtilization, 150 Sulphur, 83-130-132-145-147- 183-186 Red, 186 Unctious, 183 Vulgar, 138 White, 183 Suidas, 17-24 Summa, 208 Summer, 186
Sun, 134-137-181-186-216-219
Swamp of Lerna, 158 Swan, 188 Sword, 166
Symbola Auree Mense, 24 Symbolical philosophy, 40
Synesius, 17-24-38 Tabula Smaragdina, 45-50 Tale; 182 Talliamed, 53 Tamné, 186 ‘Rartar, 128-129 Tartarus, 149 Temperament, 113 Tennis Triodites, 158 Terre Feuillée, 183 Teros, 183 Terrestrial Paradise, 75 Tesla, 8 Testament, 45-81-166-208 Tetrasomy, 76 Thabitris, 181
Alpbabetical fnder.
Thales, sy Thelima, 186 Lheologte Physico-Grecor, 38 Theophilus, 24 Théortes et Symboles des
Alchimistes, 11-76-130 iheriac; 186 Lhesaurus Philosophie, 4-25 Theseus, 148 Thetis, 158 Theurgy, 6 Thickened Mercury, 154 Thickened Water, 154 Thing, Contemptible 149
Vile, 149 Thion, 186 Third, 186 Thirteenth, 186 Thita, 186 Thomas Aquinas, 132 Thomas Norton, 25 Thunderbolt of Jupiter, 167 TIMES OF THE STONE,
OF THE 212 Tin, 183 Tincar, 183 TINCTURE, OF THE 195 hincent, 182 Toarech, 186 Tomb, 149-150 Tonality, 113 Tortoise, 135 Tower, 158
Of Danaé 158 Tractatus ad Assem Phil-
osophum, 24 Tract on Sulphur, 46 Traité de Physiologie Syn-
thétique, 73 Tratté des Maladies, 67 Traité\Méthodique de
Science Occulte,
52-73
253
Treatise on Fire and Light, 90 Lreatise on Minerals, 43 TREATISE ON THE HER-
METIC Work, ny Treatise on the Twelve
Keys, 146-216-219 Trévisan, Bernard 10-24-45-
138-143-160-198 Trithemus, ere) Trituration, 150 Troy, City of 158
Lurba, Philosophorum 25-143 Tubercula Quadrigemina, 71
Twenty-one, 183 Uncleanliness of the Dead, 150 Unique Stone, 182 Unity of Matter, 56 Universal agent, 102 Light, 58 Medicine, 22 Solvent, 55-58-137 Universe—Archetypal, 62 Astral, 62 Elemental, 62 UNIVERSE, OF THE Har- MONY OF THE 112 rine, 136-140 Urns, 158 Uterus, 157 Valentin, Basil 24-27-33-90-
128-129-143-146-216-219
Van Helmont, 34-67 Vapour, 183 Vare, 186 Varenne, de 8 Vase, 153-154-155
Of Art, | 160
Philosopher’s 154
VASE BY THE ANCIENTS, NAMES GIVEN TO THIS, 158
254
VASE OF ART AND THAT OF NATURE, OF THE 157 Vases, Calcining and Sub-
limatory, 160 Of Vulcan, 158 Third, 160 Vegetable, 182 VEGETABLE KINGDOM, 96 Vegetable Liquor, Crude 154 Veil, 183 Vein, 186 Venimous Water, 149 Venom, 137 Venus, 133-134-135-137-158- 21 Vera Confect. Lapid. Phit- osoph., I51 VERY INSTRUCTIVE RULES, 200 Vessel of Art, Second 160 Of Jason, 158 Of the Philosophers, 159 Vest, Obsure 149 Vesta, 167
Villeneuve, Arnaud de 8-17- 24-43-90-208-211
Vincent de Lerin, 22 Vinegar of the Philoso- phers, 154 Virago, 183-186 Virgil, 61-86-132-144 VIRTUE OF THE MEDICINE, OF THE 208 Viscous Moisture, 109 Vita Mosis, de 39 Vito-humidum, 82 Vitriol, 128-1 29-1 38-140 Red, 186 Volatile, 80 Volatilization, 150 Vossius, 4i
The Great Art.
Vulcan, 39-55-77-I111-158- 166-167-219 Vulture, 182-183
Waite, Arthur Edward 4-10
Water, 154 Ardent, 137-154 Chaotic, 57 Clear, 46 Corrosive, 138 Divine, 154 Dry, 75-90 First, 154 Fountain, 154 Heavy, 182 Holy, 182 Great 154 Of Silver, 138
Of the Philosophers, 45
Our, 154 Permament, 154 Purifying, 154 Second, 154 Simple, 154 Stygean, 154 Thickened, 154 Venimous, 149 WATER, OF 80 WEIGHTS IN THE WorK, OF THE 197 Wells, 158
Wescott, W. Wynn 21-46-51- 160-161
White Marble, 39 Whiteness, 182 White of Egg, 182 White Rose, 183 White Veil, 183 Wind, 183 Wine, 138-186
Red, 186 Wipacher, 90 Woman, 154
Alpbabetical Wndexr.
Work of Three Days, The 21 I Zahau, World, Celestial 62 Zibach,
Elementary, 62. Zit,
Intelligible, 62 Ziva, Writing Desk, 159 Zoroaster, Xir, 150 Zosimus, Yolk of Egg, Uy 180) Zoticon, Youth, 186 Zumech, Zaaph, 186 Zumelazuli, Zachaire, Denis 24-200
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255
186 183 186 183 61 38-76 182 186 186
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