OR
IMMORTAL DISSOLVENT
BEING
A Brief but Candid Discourse of the Matter and Manner of Preparing the Liquor Alkahest of Helmont, the great Hilech of Paracelsus, the Sal Circulatum Minus of Ludovicus de Comitibus: or our Fiery Spirit of the Four Elements.
TOGETHER
With its Use in Preparing Magisteries, Arcana's Quintessences, and other secret Medicines of the Adepts from the Animal, Vegitable or Mineral Kingdoms.
BY: Cleidophorus Mystagogus
2. Maccab. ch.1.v. 19. to the 23: The Fire of the Altar turned into thick water.
2. Esdra. ch. 14.v. 39. And behold, he reached me a full Cup, which was full as it were with water, but the Colour was like Fire.
Produced by RAMS 1982
AN
EPISTLE
TO THE
READER
Various have been the Opinions (Courteous Reader) concerning the Basis and Foundation of this general Dissolvent, commonly known by the name of the Liquor Alkahest; some imagining it to be Mercury Prepared; others, that 'tis in Urine, Blood and the like; which has been the reason of so many and difficult labours made use of, and all in vain; for that the Liquor remains at this day as great a secret in the world as ever, and 'tis like so to continue while Chemical Authors deliver the subject in such Tropes and Metaphors, which horrible and inextricable labyrinth the young Tyro's are so entangled in, that it must be by more than an ordinary Providence, that he can be disentangled and set free.
On this account it may be properly said, that these Chemical Writers had as good to have been silent; nay, ‘twou1d have been better for then so many would not have engaged in a search, where so little likelyhood of obtaining was seen whereby a great deal of Precious Time and Money might have been saved, and that Perplexity of mind which followes vain Chemical Processes might have been Prevented; for this Reason it is but just in Authores in all their discourses, tending to the instruction of others, to direct to that Subject which is the true Object of that discourse; and tho’ I must acknowledge that ‘tis not fit to be delivered or disclosed so plainly, as that every Hog that may come to the Honey Pot, yet I say that it may be Clothed with sach a decent habit, as to prevent it Abstruse enough, yet by this a certain and harmonious Concord to be seen; as for example, the Object of this discourse is the Alkahest. Man and all creatures have it, for there is no being in Nature, that is rightly and genuinely dissolved, but what may properly and truly be said to be done by this Liquor, but particularly in man after a more evident manner in all Chylifications
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whatever, but in this Act Man sucks the Quintessence of all things so dissolved for his own Nutrition and being Transmuted into Human Species, the Recrements are cast off by the common Emunctories, far more grosse and Imperfect, than the Species themselves were in their first Reception, consequently they are of no fit object to ground the discourse of so pure and Immortal a dissolvent on; nor indeed Man himself, tho’ we grant that it is plentifully in him, but ‘tis that Salt or Life in him which Concentrates all other Salts in his own Essence as a Catholick Fountain for all the Rivulets to be supplied from. So that there is no taking of it from him but by a violent breaking of the Glass and a Transplanting of the Fountain back again to that Inexhaustible Ocean from whence it first received its being. Therefore, man cannot be the Object of any discourse appertaining to demonstrate the Subject of this Dissolvent; for the pure in him, as already said, cannot be obtained without Death, which is abominable even to think on; but if it were obtained, it would not answer the end; for what is sufficient to dissolve in the Vegetable Kingdom is too weak for the Animal; and that which is strong enough in the Animal is too weak for the Minerals. Therefore, seek it in that and from that, which is the Fountain, that supplyes all Creatures and beings with it; for had it not a Source, Nature would soon cease, for as she exhausteth by the Acts of Motion and Agitation of Parts in Generation, so is she on the other hand Immediately Supplyed, not only in the Great World, but also in every Individual Part where Life is: Receiving the same through the Air, as the true Vehicle, consequently this Catholick Fountain is the Right object to ground this discourse on, as the true Subject of the said dissolving Liquor; this is a standing Truth, ‘twas Truth in the beginning, and will remain so to the end of Time. The Reason and Philosophy of it I can by Mechanical Demonstration make clear to a person worthy of such inspection: therefore by all Clouds, dark vails and Metaphors, I genuinely declare that the matter of this dissolvent is one and the same in essence with that matter from whence all the wise Antients obtained the Universal Medicine one being the Work of Art, the other Nature. One gentle, the other violent: so that by the difference of Operation they are brought to different effects.
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Now therefore the Subject of this discourse being the Liquor Alkahest, the object must be the Universal spirit; for 'tis from this grand fountain of nature that our chaos doth proceed; therefore thrice happy is he, that knows those magnets that attract and make a species of this general Genus: for be assured that there is something more than elements in all created beings, even an incorruptible and quintessential spirit, which is the very life of elements themselves; which being taken appears in mist, vapor or water, even that out of which the Antients say all things were generated, However, the right knowledge of this matter is sufficiently abtruse, and the operations thereof yet more abtruse, for I with many others know by experience, that the matter may be known and many doe know it, yet are wholly to seek in the matter and modus of operating thereon; and whatever some foppish and conceited ones may think, viz. that if they had the knowledge of the true matter all difficulty is over; this may prove a grand mistake, for I have been intimately acquainted with some, that have had a true knowledge of the matter, and have wrought thereon; yet to the day of their death, have been to seek of the magistery.
These difficulties have been those sharp stones that have hindered my legal progression in twenty years travel towards the mount helicon of art; so that my labor of body has been excessive, and that of the mind much more. I have passed through the drought and scorching heat of the day, and also through the cold and chilling frosts of the night through a multitude of wants and difficulties even often to the hazard of life itself. How easy soever such, as aforesaid, may think it: I have had no other door to come in at, but hard labour and great expense, for coals and glasses have been my interpreters, and shall be so to every true son of art to the end of time. So that for conscience-sake, I'll write the truth as well knowing that there are too many sophisticated and false proceses in the world, which will not bear the touch-stone of experience; but vanishes like a reprobate metal upon the test.
But passing by all this, and much more that might be said of the like nature; I shall now address myself to the desireres of
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Wisdom, and let them know, that I have, as in a Glass, showed
them the true manner, in which and by which this Dissolvent is to be obtained. I shall now come to speak concerning its Use, and Utility when obtain’d which will abundtandly reward the Possessor for all his costs and paines bestowed about it; for as it hath been deliver'd, that the subject of this menstruum is universal, so are the acts of it the same when prepared, which plainly demonstrates from what fountain it might flow.
This liquor, as an universal fire, dissolves and opens the textures of all beings, in the vegetable, animal and mineral kingdoms, into their nearest matter, which is saline, sulphureous, aqueous and potable, diffusive in any liquor, and so comes immediately to nature's relief, and by the specifick virtue manifested from power into act, diseases tho' never so deplorable, may be overcome and cut down, as grass or weeds with a scythe in the hand of a mower; especially by those of the mineral kingdom, which may be justly esteemed the physician's crown and philosophers diadem. This is the liquors virtue in general. In particular, as it universally acts without limitation on all subjects in the world, so in this action there is something remarkable to be observed in every subject; for it fixes volatile spirits, and volatizes fixed ones. It makes salts sulphureous, and sulphurs saline. Nay it macerates the gummosities of resinous and gummy things, which the ferment of our stomachs could never do; for it being distilled from amber and terpentine (see Urbigerus "Circul. Minus" HWN) leaves them in a salt of excellect virtue: from the latter I have observed it almost as sweet as honey, and a powerful specifick in the stone; therefore by the help of this liquor of fire a few medicines being prepated will answer in deplorable cases all that the patient can hope for and the true physician expected to perform. For instance, terpentine, so dissolved, or the stone ludus. Infallibly cures the stone in the bladder; amber and hellebore hysteric fits, hypochrondiack, melancholy and madness. Cinamonm Unicorn's horn and the liver of an eel, for the speedy delivery of women in childbirth; the sulphur of Venus is an Universal Nepenthes, without opium in all diseases: the lilly of antimony for dropsies and all agues; the magistery of gold for malignant
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Fevers Pestilential Palsies and plagues: as also the glorified sulphur of the metallus masculus, by Paracelsus called Vinum Vitae and Membrorum Essentia, which also cures consumption, fixt Mercury or the arcanum coralinum and horizontal gold in leprosies, gout, palsy, epilepsy, cancers, wolves, scorbite, Kings evil, all sorts of the venereal disease without salivation or detaining the patient from business; 'twould be too long to enumerate all those medicines prepared by this fire or liquor; therefore ket these suffice, and the reward that may accrew here from, because by this way of practice, the physitian may justly and conscientiously gain honor and riches; and the patients be freed from all those cruel barbarities, which are the Adoequate parts of common practice; as if the pain and terror of death were not enough, but there must be an additional cruelty, viz. of blistering, which to some may exceed the former.
Thus having given you a short Scheme of the Rise, Prepara-tion and Use of this Liquor, I shall Conclude this Preface in Consideration of a Person rightly qualified for the Possession hereof:
the first and most necessary Qualification is to be rightly Informed in Religious thing’s so as to know God for themselves savingly, by passing through the Holy River of Regeneration, for to walk in the newness of the Spirit, which Divine gift of the Holy Ghost enables every true Christian to walk with that Circumspection, as to be acceptable in the sight of God, to such it is a sure Guide and safe Conductor in this World towards the desired Haven of rest. It is also to them a mouth and wisdom, and that by which their Tongues are bridled and the whole Man Sealed to the Day of his Redemption, giving an earnest opinion -the Eternal Inheritance, and afterward’s a dull Possession, when our Mortal shall put on Immortality; this being the Fountain, all others that are true, follow as Rivulets from it, and ‘so give a right Qualification for the knowledge of nature and natural things as also a constancy of mind to work upon the one thing alone, and an industrious hand to effect the same. Here a blessing and success may be hoped for, and those incredible rewards for all such as wander in the circumference, and have never been admitted to the center of things; but
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to the vigilent hidden things, even those hid from the foundation of the World, shall be reveal'd: and that this may be the portion of every true Laboror in Art is the sincere desires of him, who wishes the General Prosperity of Mankind every way.
Cleidophorus Mystagogus
TABLE
OF
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Concerning the Mistake of those who have sought this Liquor in wrong Subjects and by wrong ways.
CHAPTER II
Of the true Subject matter of this Dissolvent.
CHAPTER III
The true way and manner of preparing the Liquor Alkahest.
CHAPTER IV
The Difference between this Liquor and the Mercury of the Philosophers.
CHAPTER V
The Use of the Liquor Alkahest, Circulatum Minus or Great Hilech of Helmont and Paracelsus.
TRIFERTES SAGANI
CONCERNING THE MISTAKE OF THOSE WHO HAVE SOUGHT THIS
LIQUOR IN WRONG SUBJECTS AND BY WRONG WAYS,
It is a Saying worthy of Observation, that the Industrious Hand makes Rich; so is it in all manner of Trades and Convers in the World; so is it in Art; but this Industry must be upon a tight Foundation, and, in the Chymical Art, from a Fore-knowledge of Adequate Causes; unto which it is impossible to attain without we are enlightened by that Wisdom, which comes from above, as a Ray from the Holy Heavens and Throne of the Divine Glory; for ‘tis she, that must Conduct us in all our Labours to make them Acceptable to the Great God; well therefore might the wise Man esteem of her before Riches, and Prize Understanding above the Merchandise of Silver, Gold, and Precious Stones, because she is the true Conductor to the ways of Peace and Pleasantness; nay even to that Tree of Life, where Substance is to be Inherited: For that she opens the Door of Entrance to all Mysteries Divine and Natural; and consequently without her Men grope, as it were, in the dark, even as a Blind Man does at Noon-day; for Nature God’s Hand-maid was Created by him, and Job says, that God by his Spirit has garnished the Heavens, his Hand has formed the crooked Serpent; and tho’ there is a Spirit in Man, yet ‘tis the
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Inspiration of the Almighty that gives Understanding, whence we may readily Conceive, that Human Reason is too short to Comprehend the Dignity of any true Mystery without the Md of God’s Spirit.
This great Defect is too evidently apparent from the deplorable Case of the Chymical Searchers, concerning the Subject Matter of this Discourse; seeing they know not where to ground or fix their Intensions in the choice of a proper Subject, but frames each to himself a different Basis, and so make an Innumerable Number of Errors concerning the same: This Immaginary Matter, which Phansy only has given Birth to, they defend with all the eagerness imaginable, concluding it to be the Genuine Offspring of Truth; when, alas ‘tis but a Bastard Brat of their own wandring Imaginations and ungrounded Thoughts, as in the Conclusion proves too Evident: This is an Absurdity so great, so common, that amongst the many Pretenders, I have never met with more than three that have escaped it: How then can it possibly be expected, that such should ever Arrive at the wished for Haven of Rest, when Ignorant both of the way and means by which they must come thither; for the Door of Entrance must not only be known, but also the Key which opens the same, without which they may never expect Admittance into Nature’s Treasury:
Therefore consequently must still remain in the horrible Mist of Errors; the most principal that have come Athwart me I shall here lay down and reckon up for Convincing of the Giddy Headed and Rash Searcher, but more Principally for the Edifying and Building up of a Son of Art.
I shall begin first with an Error, which is almost Universally received, viz • that Mercury Vulgar is the Foundation or Basis of this Liquor; this is an Error that the Authors of some Expositors are guilty of, which the Ignorant Searcher has not been aware of, but hath gone to work as confidently on Mercury for the obtaining of the Liquor 441 kahest, as others have done for the making the Mercury of the Philosophers, by several and various Preparations, as endeavouring to break its Body by Spittle, May Dew , Vinegar, and such like soppish Proceedings; also by Sublimation with Salts, and Distillation, and other such like Operations, endeavouring to make it run pe~ deliq .to obtain an Airy and Universal Nature and radical dissolution, even that they call the Magnetic Salt, or Foliated Earth, and Mercurial Chalybs; but all in vain; for that Mercury so prepared is still all one with
—2—
common Mercury: And so likewise is that, prepared by Régulus of Antimony , Silver, and for Vulgar Mercury is unripe Fruit fallen too soon from the Tree, therefore it must return to its First Fountain or Catholick Mercury to be dissolved its self; consequently is not the Subject of this Liquor; for the Philosophers Introduce Fire, not Water, into Mercury, to make her Medicinal, both in the Particular, and also in the General; by which ‘tis brought to be for ever Irreducible to Mercury.
Another Error is in those, who seek for this Dissolvent in Dew and Rain Water, not considering, that this was designed only as Nourishment for the Vegetable, having but such a Portion of the Universal Fire in it, as might serve to dissolve the Salt Nitre of the Earth, and then the Vegetable Seed in order to a new Production; this Fire or dissolver being far remiss to that of Animals, as that of Animals is to Minerals, cannot be the Philosophers Subject of this Dissolvent, for Life would be too short to extract it.
Another Error is that many allow the Matter to be Universal, but is drawn by certain Magical Magnets at select times in the Year; but this is a grand Error, for the Matter is to be found Plentifully at all Seasons of the Year, especially in such places, as are mostly enriched by Mineral Fumes, and the manner of its Attraction is rather for the Necessity of Human Life, than any Point in Art; so that the Artist must not be too curious in endeavouring to perform that which Nature hath already done to his Hand.
Another Error is in those that seek for this Dissolvent by attracting the Air with Alkaliz...
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