PREFACE
I will not hide a science which was revealed to me by the grace of God; I will not jealously guard it for myself alone, for fear of drawing His curse. A science kept secret, a hidden treasure, what is it’s use? The science I have learned without invention, I transmit to you without regret. Envy disrupts everything, an envious man cannot be just before God. All science, all knowledge comes from God; it is a simple way of speaking to indicate that it comes from the Holy Spirit. No one can say: Our Lord Jesus Christ without also understanding: Son of God the Father, through the operation of the Holy Spirit.In the same way, this science of truth cannot be separated from Him who communicated it to me.
I have not been sent to all, but only to those who admire the Lord in his works and whom God judges worthy. Only whosoever has ears to hear His divine communication reveives the secrets which have been transmitted to me by the grace of God, and these He never reveals to those who are unworthy.
Nature must serve as the foundation and the mode of science:
the Art also works according to Nature as far as it can. It is necessary then, that the Artist observe Nature and operate as she operates.
CHAPTER I
OF THE FORMATION OF THE METALS GENERALLY FROM
THE SULFUR AND THE MERCURY
It is observed that the essence of metals,insofar as we know, is to be produced in a general manner from Sulfur and Mercury. The differences alone of cooking and digestion results in a diversification of the metallic nature. I personally observed that in a single vessel, in the same vein, so to speak, nature had produced many metals, along with some silver disseminated here and there. We have clearly demonstrated in our treatise on minerals that the generation of metals is circular, that is, one passes easily from one to another following a circle, the cousin metals having similar properties; it is because of this that silver changes more readily into gold than any other metal.
Indeed, there is not much in changing the color and weight of silver, this is easy, because a compact substance increases its weight quite readily. And since it contains a yellowishwhite Sulfur, its color will also be easy to transform.
It is the same with other metals. The Sulfur is, so to speak, their father and the Mercury, their mother.
Again, it is most true, if one says of it that in the union the Sulphur represents the sperm of the father and that the Mercury acts as a coagulated Menstruum in order to form the embryonic
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substance. The sulphur cannot alone produce, just as the father alone cannot produce.
In the same way that the male begets his proper substance, in mixture with the menstrual blood, likewise the Sulphur produces with the Mercury, but alone it produces nothing. By this comparison we make note that the Alchemist will have to raise at the outset, the specificity of the metal which has given him the Nature, then that he proceeds as nature proceeded, with the Mercury and the Sulphur prepared and purified always following the example of Nature.
THE SULPHUR CONTAINS THREE HUMID PRINCIPLES.
The first of these principles is especially elevated and volatile, one finds it in the exterior parts of the Sulphur, for the same reason, that of the great volatility of its elements, which ignite easily and consume the bodies with which they come into contact.
The second principle is phlegmatic, otherwise called aqueous; it is found in close association with the former. The third is radical, fixed, adherent to the internal parts. That one alone is general, and one cannot separate it from the others without destroying the whole edifice. The first principle does not resist the fire; being combustible, it consumes itself in the fire and calcines the substance of the metal with which one heats it. Therefore, it is not only useless, but detrimental besides, to the goal which we set ourselves. The second principle does not make the bodies moist, it does not produce, it cannot serve us at all. The third is radical, it penetrates all the particles of the matter which are necessary to its essential properties.
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It is necessary to rid the Sulphur of the first two principles in order that the subtility of the third force serve us in making a perfect compound.
The fire is nothing other than the vapor of the Sulphur; the vapor of the Sulphur, well purified and sublimed white and rendered very compact. Also the Alchemists are accustomed to skillfully raising the two superfluous principles in the Sulphur by way of acid baths, such as vinegar of lemons, sour milk, the milk of goats, the urine of infants, etc. They purify it by lixiviation, digestion and sublimation. It is necessary, finally, to rectify it by reduction in a manner so as not to have more than one pure substance containing the active, perfectible brother-force of the metal. Behold! We are in possession of one part of our work.
OF THE NATURE OF THE MERCURY
The Mercury contains two superfluous substances, the earth and the water. The earthy substance has something of the Sulphur, the fire reddens it. The aqueous substance has superfluous humidity. One easily rids the Mercury of its watery and earthy impurities by sublimation and very acid baths. Nature separates it into the dry state of the Sulphur and robs it of its earth by the heat of the Sun and the Stars.
It obtains thus a pure Mercury,completely free of its earthy substance, containing no more foreign particles. It unites it then with a pure Sulphur and produces in the end the pure and perfect metals in the heart of the earth. If the two principles are impure, the metals are imperfect. This is why one finds
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different metals in the mines, which possess of the purification and of the digestion according to their rudiments. This is dependent on the cooking.
OF THE ARSENICK
The Arsenick is of the same nature as the Sulphur; both tint to red and to white. But there is more humidity in the Arsenick, and it sublimes less rapidly over the fire than the Sulphur.
One knows how well Sulphur sublimes quickly and how it consumes all the bodies, except Gold. The Arsenick can unite its dry principle with that of the Sulphur, they temper each other, and once united, one separates them only with difficulty, their tincture is toned down by this union.
“The Arsenick”, says Geber, “contains much of the Mercury; it can also be prepared like it”.Know that the Spirit hidden in the Sulphur, the Arsenick and the animal oil, is named by the philosophers, The White Elixir. It is unique, miscible with the volatile substance, from this one we extract the red Elixir; it unites with the melted metals, thus as we have experimented with it, it purifies them. Not only because of the aforementioned properties, but also because there is one common proportion between its elements.
The metals differ between themselves according to .the purity of impurity of the first matter, sp to speak, of the Sulphur and of the Mercury, and also according to the degree (temperature) of the fire which produced them.
According to philosophy, the Elixir is also called Medicine, because one assimilates the body of metals in the body of animals.
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Also we say that there is a hidden Spirit in the Sulphur, the Arsenick and the oil extract of the animal substances. It is that spirit for which we search, with whose aid we will tint all the imperfect bodies to perfection. This Spirit is called Water and Mercury by the Philosophers. “The Mercury”, says Geber, “is a medicine composed of the dry and the humid, the humid and the dry”.
You understand the succession of operations: extract the earth from the fire, the air from the earth, the water from the air, since the water can resist the fire. It is necessary to mark well these teachings, they are Universal Secrets.
None of the principles which enter into the Work have strength by themselves; for they are linked in the Metals, they cannot be perfected, they are not very fixed. Each lacks two substances, one miscible with the metals in fusion,the other fixed which enables it to coagulate and fix. Also Rhàses said: “There are
four substances which change in season: each one of these is composed of the four elements and takes the name of the dominant element. Their marvelous essence was fixed in one body, and, with this last, one can nourish the other bodies. This essence is composed of water and of air, combined in such a way that the heat liquifies them. Here it is: a marvelous secret. The minerals employed in Alchemy must, in order to serve us, have an action upon the melted bodies. The stones which we use are four in number, two tint to white, the two others to red. Also: the white, the red, the Sulphur, the Arsenick and Saturn have only that one same body! But in this single body, what obscurities! And at first it is without action upon the perfect metals”.
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In the imperfect bodies, there is an acid water, bitter, harsh, necessary to our Art. As it dissolves and mortifies the bodies, it then revives them and recomposes them. Rhases says in his third letter: Those who search our Entelechie, ask from whence the bitter aqueous fundamental comes. We answer them: from the impurity of the metals. Because the water contained in Gold is sweet, it does not dissolve, on the contrary, it coagulates and fortifies, because it contains neither acidity nor impurity like the imperfect bodies”. This is why Geber said: “One calcines and dissolves the gold and silver in vain, because our vinegar takes from the four imperfect bodies; this is the mortifying and dissolving spirit which mixes the tinctures of all the bodies that we employ in the Work. We neednothlraqbut this water, of little importance to us are the other Spirits”.
Geber is right; we have not to make a tincture for the fire to adulterate. Actually, on the contrary, it is necessary that the fire give it excellence and strength in order that it can ally itself withthe melted metals. It is necessary that it strengthen, that it fix, that despite thefusion, it rests intimately united with the metal.
I will add that from the four imperfect bodies, one can extract all. As for the manner of preparing the Sulphur, the Arsenick, and the Mercury most highly acclaimed, one can bring it forth here.
Indeed, when in this preparation we heat the spirit of the Sulphur and of the Arsenick, with the acid waters or the oil, for in extracting this volatile essence, the oil or unctuosity, we raise them above that which is superfluous to them; it leaves us the volatile force and the oil, these things alone are those which
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are useful to us; but they are mixed in the acid water which served us in purifying, there is no means of separating these, but at least we are rid of the useless. It is necessary therefore, to find another means to extract from these bodies in order to obtain the water, the oil, and the very subtle spirit of the Sulphur which is the true very active Tincture for which we search. We will work so with the bodies in separating by decomposition or yet by distillation of their natural component parts, and we will arrive thus at the simple parts. Some, ignoring the composition of the Magistery want to work on the Mercury alone, asserting that is has one body, one soul, one spirit, and that it is the first matter of gold and silver. It is necessary to respond to them on the truth which several philosophers affirm, that the Work is made up of three things; The Spirit, the Body and the Soul, extracted from one only. But for the other part, one cannot find in something that which is not there. Now, the Mercury does not have the red tincture, therefore, it alone cannot suffice to form the body of the Sun; it will be impossible for us with only the Mercury to direct the Work to a good end. The Moon alone cannot suffice, meanwhile this body is, so to speak, the foundation of the Work.
In whatever manner that one works and transforms the Mercury, never will it be able to establish a body. They say also: “One finds in the Mercury a red Sulphur, therefore it contains the red tincture.” ERROR! The Sulphur is the father of the metals, one never finds it in the Mercury which is female!
A passive matter cannot fertilize itself. The Mercury contains
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indeed a Sulphur, but, as we have already said, it is an earthy Sulphur. We remark finally, that the Sulphur cannot support the fusion; therefore, the Elixir cannot be extracted from one thing only.
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CHAPTER II
OF THE PUTREFACTION
Fire prodtices death and life.A Light fire dries the body. Here is the reason: Fire, coming into contact with a body, sets into motion the element similar to itself which exists in this body.
This element is The Natural Heat. The former one excites the fiery part of the body in the first place; there is a conjunction and the radical humidity of the body rises to the surface while the fire works on the exterior. Those diverse portions of the body are gone which the radical humidity united, the dead body is dissolved, is resolved, all its parts separated one from the other. The fire works here like a cutting instrument. That which it dries and contracts of itself, it can do only so long as there is a certain predisposition in the body, especially if the body is compact like one element. The last one needs a fixed agglutinate, which will have separated from the body before corruption. All this can be done by the Sun, because it is in one nature hot and humid, through affinity with the other bodies.
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CHAPTER III
OF THE REGIMEN OF THE STONE
There are four stages of the Stone: 1) to decompose; 2) to wash; 3) to contract; 4) to fix. In the first stage, one separates the natures because without division, without purification, there cannot be a conjunction. During the second stage, the separate elements are washed, purified, and restored to the simple state. In the third, one changes our Sulphur to the mineral of the Sun, of the Moon and of the other metals. In the fourth, all the bodies formerly extracted from our Stone are united, recomposed and fixed so as to rest conjointly henceforth.
There are some who count five stages in the Magistery: 1) to resolve the substance to their first matter; 2) to introduce our earth, the black magnesium, so to speak, as being related to the nature of the Sulphur and the Mercury; 3) also to render the Sulphur as close.as possible to the mineral matter of the Sun and of the Moon; 4) to compose of the several things a white Elixir; 5) to cook perfectly the white Elixir to give it the color of cinnabar, starting there in order to make the red Elixir.
Finally, there are some who count four stages in the Work, others three, others two only. These last count thus: setting up
the work and purififation of the elements; and 2) conjunction.
Mark well that which~fo1lows: The substance of the Stone of the Philosophers is common: one finds it everywhere, it is a viscous water like the Mercury that one extracts from the earth. Our
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viscous water is found everywhere, eben in the Latrines, certain philosophers have said. And, several imbeciles take their words literally, searching for it in the excrements!
Nature operates on this matter in raising something from it. its earthy principle, and in uniting something with it, the Sulphur of the Philosophers, which is not the vulgar sulphur, but a transparaent Sulphur of a red tint. For to speak the truth, it is the Spirit of Roman Vitriol. Prepare it thus: take of Salpeter and of Roman Vitriol, two pounds of each; pulverize finely.*Hence, Aristotle is right when he says in his fourth book of the meteors: “All the Alchemists know that one cannot in any way change the form of the metals, of one does not first reduce them to their first matter”. This is easy as one will shortly see. Philosophy says that one cannot go from one extreme to the other without an intermediary. At one extremity of our Philosophical Stone, are two luminaries, gold and silver; at the other extremity, the perfect elixir or tincture, and in the middle, the Philosophical Water of Life, naturally purified, cooked and digested.
All these things are near to perfection and preferable to the more primitive bodies of nature. Likewise, by means of average heat, the ice dissolves into water, for we have formerly had water. Thus, the metals are resolved to their first matter which is our Water of Life. The preparation is indicated in the chapters that follow. By itself alone, it can reduce all the metallic bodies to their first matter.
* (And do what with this? Heat in a flask and distill? -— hwn)
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CHAPTER IV
OF THE SUBLIMATION OF THE MERCURY
In the name of God, procure yourself a pound of pure mercury issuing from the mine. Of the other portion, take of Roman Vitriol and of common calcined salt, pulverize and mix well. Put these two latest matters into a large glazed earthenware flask and set over a mild fire until the matter begins to melt and flow. Then take your mineral mercury, put it in a flask with a long neck and drop-by-drop, pour it over the vitriol and salt in fusion. Stir with a wooden spatula until the mercury is completely consumed and it leaves no trace. When it has completely disappeared, dry the matter over a gentle fire during the night. The next morning, you will take the well-dried matter and pulverize it finely on a stone. Place the pulverized matter in a sublimating flask called an Aludel, to sublime according to the Art. Place on it the head of the vessel, and close the joints with a philosophical luting, so that the mercury cannot escape. Place the Aludel in a furnace and seal it in so it cannot tilt over but stands straight. Then make a little fire for about four hours to drive away the humidity of the mercury and of the vitriol. After the evaporation of the humidity, increase the fire so that the pure white matter of the mercury separates itself from the impurities; do this for four hours; you will see if it suffices by introducing a wooden rod to the sublimating flask by way of the principle opening, you will lower it just to the matter and determine whether or not the white matter (Mercury Sublimate -- hwn) of the Mercury is uppermost in the mixture. If it is, raise the baton, close the aperature of the head with a luting so that the mercury cannot
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escape, and increase the fire in such a way that the white matter of the mercury rises above the feces in the Aludel. Do this for four hours. Finally, heat with wood in a manner to obtain a blaze: it is necessary that the bottom of the flask and the residue becomes red. Continue thusly until there remains a little of the white substance of the Mercury adherent to the feces. The force and the violence of the fire will be spent during the separation.
Stop the fire, allow the furnace and the matter to cool overnight. The next morning, return the flask to the furnace, lift the luting with caution in order not to sully the mercury, open the apparatus. If you find a white matter, sublimed, pure, compact, heavy, then you have succeeeded. But if the sublimate was spongey, light, porous, collect it and recommence the sublimation on the residue adding new pulverized common salt. Operate in the same flask over the furnace, in the same manner, with the same very high degree of fire. Then open the flask, see if the sublimate is white, compact, dense. Then collect it and put it carefully aside so that it may serve you when you have need to finish the Work. But if again it has not occured as it should, you will have to sublime it a third time until you obtain it pure, compact, white and heavy.
Notice that by this operation you have raised two impurities from the Mercury.At first you removed from it all its superfluous humidity; in the second, you have rid it of its impure earthy parts which remained in the feces. Thus, you have now sublimed it to a clear semi—fixed substance.
Put this aside as one has recommended to you.
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CHAPTER V
OF THE PREPARATION OF THE WATERS FROM WHICH YOU WILL DERIVE THE
WATER OF LIFE
Take two pounds of Roman Vitriol, two pounds of Saltpeter, one pound calcined Alum. Crush well, mix perfectly, put in a glass Alembic. Distill the water according to ordinary procedures, closing the joints well, lest the spirits escape. Begin with a gentle fire, then heat more forcefully; afterwards heat with wood until, the apparatus becomes white, so that all the spirits distill. Then, stop the fire. Let the furnace cool. Put this carefully aside, for this is the Solvent of the Moon.CoflserVe it for the Work; it dissolves the silver and separates it from the gold. It calcines the Mercury and the crocus of Mars; it gives to the skin of a man, a brown coloration which is hard to get rid of. This is the prime water of the philosophers, it is perfect to the first degree. You will prepare three pounds of the water.
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