Philosophical and Chymical EXPERIMENTS OF The Famous Philosopher RAYMƲND LƲLLY.
CHAP. I. Teacheth, how to prepare the Salt for the white and red Elixir.
TAke, in the Name of God, great Bay-Salt as it is made out of the Sea; take a good quantity and stamp very small into a stone-Morter: then take Cucurbites of Glass, and pour your Salt therein: then take fair Well-water, and let your Salt resolve into cleer water; being all dissolved, then distil it by Filter; that is to say, hang a jag Felt or Woolen-cloath, in the Cucurbite; and let the other and hang in another Glass beside it, set as it were under it, that the Water may drop into [Page 104] it, that the Felt or Cloath will draw out, and that shall be cleer as Silver: and when that all the water is dopped over, look to it if that it be very cleer; if it be not, filter it again into another Glass, till it be cleer or Christalline: and when it is so, put it into a Glasen Pan, set it upon a Sand-Oven, and let the Water vapour away, till that it do come above like unto white-Salt: then take stone-piss-Pots, or Pots made of Cullen-Earth, such as the drinking Pots be made of, and put the Water and the Salt that remains, therein, and set upon the said Oven, and let it vapour away; and while that it doth dry, stir it with a stick, till that it be very dry, otherwayes, it will come into a lump or mass: and this being well dried, beat it in a stone-Morter very fine, as you did before, and then put it into a melting Cruce, and set them into a glowing Oven, or Say-Oven, which is an Oven that the Gold-smiths do enamel their Rings in: the Oven being very hot, take the Cruses that be filled with Salt, and set them into the Oven, and let them stand until they be glowing hot; and see that they be no hotter behinde then before; if they be, then turn them round with a pair of Gold-smiths Tongs: put but one Pot in the Oven at a time, that you may do them the better; and when that Pot is red glowing hot, take it out, and put in another to be calcined.
And then, when cold, put it again into your Morter, and break it as small as you can, the third time, and then set it in the Fire of the [Page 105] Oven to glow as aforesaid, Two or three times glowing, and breaking of it every time in a stone-Morter until seven times, and then put it into Well-water to dissolve, till it be all dissolved into cleer water.
Then distil it by Filter, until it be as cleer as Christal, then set it again upon your Oven to dry, and the Water to vapour until that it be Salt, and stir it with a stick as before-said.
And when that it is dry, set it to calcine again, as beforesaid, in the Sand-Oven; and when that all the Pots that have the Salt, be all glowing hot, then take them out, and beat them to Powder, as before; and again dissolve into Water.
Then distil it again by Filter, as before: this shalt thou do so many times, to say, dissolve into Water, and then distil by Filter, and then congeal it into dry Salt, glowing it by Fire: this do without resting until it come to be fat, and that it will melt upon a hot glowing Plate of Luna: and if it will not melt like Wax, you must dissolve, distil, congeal, until that it will come to that point or perfection: and you must be careful, lest that it should melt in the Calcination; for then all your labour is lost. Keep this for a great secret: and such a preparation doth appertain to the Salt, that which is the Riches of this world.
For otherwise thou shalt never come to the perfect end of any Elixir, without such Salt prepared, as aforesaid, to say, to the white [Page 106] Elixir, nor yet to the red.
Therefore, my beloved Son, he that doth know the Secrets of this Salt, (to say) his Solution, his Congealation, Distillation and Calcination, and can well understand, knoweth the whole Secrets of Natural Philosophy, and wise men also; that is to say, how and in what manner he ought to dissolve, distil, congeal, and calcine. Therefore let not the labour in preparing of this Salt be grievous unto thee; for without great cost you may learn herein, to distil by Filter, dissolve, congeal, and calcine; and to form all the works that be needful unto thee in this Science.
So that you come to the principal work, you shall not be to seek or to learn: Therefore be patient, and leave not off to work, until thou hast brought thy Salt to that pass as I have taught thee before, until it melt upon a hot glowing Plate of Silver, as Wax in the fire: for without this Salt thy labor is in vain; for it is the Key of this Science.
CHAP. II. Teacheth with this prepared Salt to make the Elixir to the white work.
TAke of Salt-Peter two parts, and one part of Allome, and distil thereof a strong Water.
Then take of your prepared Salt so much as you will set to work, and take as much fine Capel Luna as you have of your Salt.
Beat your Luna into thin Plates, and dissolve into the strong Water a part, in a Glass by it self.
Likewise your Salt you must dissolve in the said strong Water by it self.
And when your Luna and Salt is dissolved in both Glasses, put the two cleer Waters together, and note that you put no more Water to the dissolution of these two matters, then will dissolve them, and you shall see your Luna fall to the bottom of the Glass, white, like Milk: take the Glass properly, and shake it in your hand, and let it stand, and you shall see your Luna as a green Water to rise; above the which you shall pour properly off into another Viol of Glass: then pour upon it more strong Water, that hath not occupied, and do as aforesaid; putting the green Water off in the first green Water, shaking it, as aforesaid.
This do until all your Luna be dissolved into [Page 108] green Water, that no Feces remains; otherwise, your work will not be perfected: and when you have all into cleer Water without Feces, put the same into a Cucurbite of Glass with a Helm and a Recipient, and Lute it strongly: and when your Lutement is dry, then set your Cucurbite in Balneo, and make fast to the bottom of your Glass a round Certel of Lead, like a Fol; and as your Lutement doth dry, so increase your fire a little to distil of the flame, that there shall remain no more strength in it then common water: and to know this, put a clout in the mouth of the Alimbeck: and when the clout doth begin to look yellow, pull all the fire out of the Oven; for then the Spirits of the strong Water do begin to come.
Therefore look well to your work, lest your fire be too hot, that no Spirits come out of your Water; otherwise you shall fail in your work. Then let your Glass and Oven stand and cool two hours long: then take off the Helm of your Cucurbite, and have a Cover of Glass that may pass just in the mouth of your Cucurbite, wherein your Medicine is in, fast luted to with Lutement, or with white Wax: then set it in your Sand-Oven, or warm Ashes, not very hot.
Then take fair Capel Luna beaten very thin into Plates and cut into small pieces, and put in a little at a time till it be dissolved; and when that is dissolved, put in more till it be dissolved also. And thus let your Glass stand in warm Ashes, and look that no Air go out of your Glass nor Cement.
[Page 109]This nourishing shall continue until it will dissolve no more, but lie in the Glass undissolved two or three days long: and then is your Medicine nourished like a Child in the Mothers Womb.
Then may you let your Glass wax cold, and you shall understand, without this nourishing the Medicine cannot ingender; and therefore it is needful that it be nourished, that it may get strength of Generation: and when your Glass is cold, lute your Glass well with good Lutement, that may indure against Water, the which I will learn thee in a Chapter apart, and let the Lutement dry by it self; then set the Glass in Balneo Mariae, to putrefie fourty days long to hold it in such a heat, as the Sun in Summer: for great fire may destroy your Medicine. Therefore let your fire be alwayes of one heat: for in that there doth remain a great secret of the Medicine.
And within the forty dayes your Medicine shall be dissolved; and if it be not dissolved in forty dayes, let it stand longer until it be dissolved: for this is the primest of all the work: for the dissolution is done by heat and moisture, and congealed by heat and drowth.
This Point being obtained, you have the Key of the Chamber, and he is blessed of God that hath this point.
For this is a token of goodness, for in every Dissolution and Congealation, you do augment your Medicine and Degree: for the first time it will do projection one ounce upon seven, and [Page 110] dissolve and congeal again; one ounce will project upon fourteen ounces, and the third time upon twenty eight ounces.
And so it goeth forth double in projection every Dissolution and Congealation.
But you shall understand that the Congealation that cometh of warmth, is no perfect Congealation; but it ought to congeal in the Glass or in the Ampule with heat, (to say) standing in warm Ashes: and therefore, whenas your Medicine is dissolved in your Glass, let it cool; then take it out of your Balneo, and dry your Glass.
And look well to your Lutements that they be close, without any clefts to let out the Spirits; then set it in your Sand-Oven in Ashes: then put fire in your Oven, and let your fire be no greater, then that you may hold your finger in the Ashes: and so let it stand twenty four hours to congeal; if not congealed in that time, you may let it stand longer; and when you see that it is congealed, give God thanks, and rejoyce; for it is ready to do projection in this manner.
Take to project on,
Fair red Copper the best that you can get, and take from him his redness, which serveth not in the work: the which you shall do after this manner.
Beat your Venus into thin Plates, and cut it in small pieces, and anoint them with this paste or pap.
Take white Arsnick and grinde it on a Marble-stone with Oyl of Tartar, that it be thick [Page 111] like Pap; and with this matter anoint your (Copper) Venus pieces: then take great Bay-salt, and put some part of it into a melting-Pot bottom, and lay your (Copper) Venus pieces upon that: and then Salt upon them, and (Copper) Venus pieces upon that, Stratum super Stratum, till all your Pot is full: and uppermost in your Pot, let there be a good quantity of Salt: take a tile-stone, and make a round Covet for the Pot, and lute it well too; and when the Lutement is dry, set it in an Oven in fire of Calcination for twenty four hours long.
Then let it cool; and then break your Pot open, and cast the matter that is in your Pot in warm Water, and stir them with your Hand, until the pieces be clean, and that the Water comes fresh from them. Then dry them, and beat them in an Iron Morter, so small as you can. Then put your Venus, so beaten, into a Canvas Bag that is sowed close up, and round like a Ball. Then take fat Clay that is mixed with hair, and therewithal streak over your Bag, thinly, that it may dry; and when that it is dry, streak it over and over again, as it drieth, until your Clay be as thick as a Pot. Then, when your Clay is luted fast about your Canvas, take a small wooden Pin, and put through your Lutement into the Bag, that the small end may remain within the (Copper) Venus.
Then put the round Ball of (Copper) Venus into another melting-Pot, the wooden Pin [Page 112] downwards; but you must remember to put among your beaten Venus, Sandever, Verne, Salt-peter, (Ana.)
Then set this Pot in a wide Furnace to melt, and the Venus will melt and run out into the Pot, wherein it doth lie: and then the Venus shall be fair and white like Luna, and shall be profitable in this work: the which, without this work of Preparation, would not be as you should do your projection.
Take seven ounces of this prepared Venus, and put it into a melting-Pot, and slow it in the highest degree of fire that you can, in a wide Furnace: then put to it one ounce of fine Capel Luna; and when it is melten, as aforesaid, put to it one ounce of your Medicine or Elixir, and nimbly stir it with a wooden stick; but let no Iron come unto it: and when it is well corporated, then take it out, and cast it into an Ingot; so you have the best Luna in the World, to abide all Proofs and Examinations; and it is far more fine then that that comes out of the Earth. When you have finished this Work, give God thanks, and remember the poor.
CHAP. III. Of the Properties of the Salt, how it is the Key of this Science.
MY beloved Son, although our Salt be the principal Key of this Science, yet can he not do any good, although he were made melting as Butter, without joyning with his Sol or Luna; otherwise, there is no Generation: therefore he must be prepared by himself, and then joyn unto him Sol or Luna, before you do any projection upon any imperfect Metal, to make them perfect.
But when you have prepared him by himself, and after joyned fine Capel Luna with him, as afore written in the other Chapter; then must the Body that you will project upon, be made clean as aforesaid, and then made living with Luna joyned thereto.
For all unperfect Bodies be called dead, saving Sol and Luna: they be called living, and full made; and the same living Body that we cast on him, or projection withal, we call Featen or Ferment, and that doth make our imperfect Body perfect; and therefore they must be all three joyned together, or else there will be no Transmutation. Thus I do shut up the Composition of the white Elixir, and now will begin with the red Elixir.
CHAP. IV. Teacheth, The Composition of the red Elixir.
TAke, in the Name of God, as much of our prepared Salt as you think good, and dissolve it in this strong Water.
Take two parts of good Vitriol, and one part of fine Saltpeter; and put so much Salt into your Water as your Water will dissolve, that there be no Feces remaining, but that it be dissolved and turned into clear Water: then fine Sol, that is passed seven times through the Cement, which I will learn thee in the sixth Chapter: take one part of the Sol that is so passed through the Cement, and two parts of your prepared infusible Salt; but let your Salt be first dissolved in the said Water, as foresaid: then put in your Sol, the which shall dissolve well in the said Water: and when your Sol is dissolved, then set your Glass upon warm Ashes; so shall it dissolve it the better into cleer Water.
Then put of the cleer Water in another Glass apart, and put other of that strong Water upon your Sol: This do untill you have put it all over into clear Water in the other Glass apart; and that there doth not remain any substance in the bottom undissolved.
Then work therewith as you have done in [Page 115] the white work, and draw the Phlegmate out with Balneo in such a heat that there go none of the Spirits out, or any strength or sharpness, and do it in all manner, as in the white work; and you must nourish the Medicine in his own matter, that is, with fine Sol, that you have passed seven times through the Cement, making it as thin as you can in Plates; and feed your Medicine therewith, as much as it will eat; and then set it on warm Ashes to congeal.
Then set it to putrefie fifteen days in Balneo, not making your fire too great; for in the fifteen dayes it ought to be dissolved: then congeal it on warm Ashes; the which will be done in twenty four hours.
Do in all things as in the white Elixir aforesaid; for his first Dissolution and Congealation doth fall upon one ounce for twenty eight: and so for the doubling.
This Elixir ought not to be projected but upon fine Luna prepared, as heareafter shall be learned; to say, That he have weight of Sol, and deafness of sound, like Saturn; so that he shall lack nothing but Colour and Fixation, the which our Elixir shall give him, through the Grace of God.
CHAP. V. Teacheth thee to do projection with the red Elixir.
MY beloved Son, if thou wilt transmute Luna into Sol, take fine Capel Luna that is prepared, in the Chapter hereafter written, being made without sounding or ringing, and heavy in weight: the which I shall learn thee.
Take seven ounces of this Luna, and melt it in a melting pot; and being well melten, put unto it one ounce of fine Sol that is passed seven times through the Cement, as I will learn thee hereafter: for there is no Sol in the World finer then this, to serve this Science.
Were it augmented in Colour by our Cement, and when it is well melten together with the Luna, stir it together with a wooden stick; but no Iron, for that will hurt the projection. These two being well mingled together, put into it one ounce of your red Elixir well stirred and mingled together, as aforesaid, with a wooden stick: then take it out, and cast it into an Ingot, and you shall finde it to be fine Sol of twenty four Charracts, to pass all proofs, more finer and better then any that comes from the Mines. Give praise to God for his wonderful works.
CHAP. VI. Doth teach the Composition of the Cement for the Sol.
TAke, in the name of God, of the finest Gold that you can get, one ounce; and melt with it the reddest Venus and fairest that you can get, one ounce: and when these two be well molten together, cast them into an Ingot; and when it is cold, beat it into thin Plates, no thicker then a Crown, and with a pair of Goldsmiths sheers cut them in pieces of the bigness of a Royal of Plate, and put them into strong red Wine-vinegar, twenty four hours long: then take old Tiles that have lain a long time in the Sun, and make them into subtil Powder, and sift them through a hairen sieve: then take common Salt that is once dissolved, distilled by Filter, and once well-glowed in the fire, and beaten into a Powder, and passed through a sieve: then take Romane Vitriol, and rubefie it as I shall shew thee hereafter: then take good red-wine-vinegar, distilled in a stillatory of Glass: and in that Vinegar, you shall dissolve your Vitriol: then distil it by Filter, very cleer: then set it on warm Ashes to congeal or dry, that the Water may vapor away, and you shall finde your Vitriol to rest very fair in the bottom: then take a new earthen Pot or Pan, and put your Vitriol therein, and set it on a cool fire, and stir it well [Page 118] with a stick, and so it shall rubefie, and wax red as blood; then let it cool, and make it into Powder, and pass it through a Sieve: and in the same Water, you shall take Spanish Green, or Verdigreece, and dissolve it in distilled Vinegar: then vapor it, and dry it: then glow it in the fire, doing all things as the Vitriol aforesaid: then take as much Salt Armoniack, and dissolve it in red-wine-vinegar that is not distilled: then take of all these substances of Powder alike much, and sprinkle lightly over with the Vinegar, wherein the Salt Armoniack is dissolved; and let there be as much of the Salt Armoniack dissolved, as there is of any of the other parts: then take a melting-Pot, and lay in the bottom of your Pot a good Ground of your Cement, and of your Sol-Venus Plates upon the Cement; so that the Plates do not touch one another: then put more of your Cement-powder upon it, and so Stratum super Stratum, till that the Pot be full: let the uppermost lain be Cement.
Then take a Tile-stone, and make a Cover just for the mouth of the Pot, making a little hole in the Cover, or else the Salt Armoniack will break your Pot, or blow up the Cover: and when you have made this vent-hole, lute it fast together: and when your Lutement is dry, set it into your winde-Oven, and first give it a small fire two hours long, the next two hours more stronger; and thus still augment your fire, till that you see the Pot be glowing red; and so let it stand in the heat twenty four hours long: then let your Oven [Page 119] cool; and take it out, and open your Pot, and you shall finde your Plates augmented in colour.
The first, my Son, if you will make this work in the Reverber Oven, so make your fire: the first half hour, small fire of coals; and the other time, of dry wood, that may be without smoke; and work in the high Ovens a yard from the ground: and in this manner you must cement your Gold seven times, every time new Pots, and new fresh Powder or Cement, every time melting your Sol with new Venus, and beating in Plates as aforesaid; for in every Cement your Venus shall be consumed, and in the Sol no more shall remain of the Venus, but the Tincture and Colour; and your Sol shall keep alwayes his first weight, but his colour shall be so high, that none shall judge it to be Sol; and you shall understand, that if there were so much Luna, being made without sound, and augmented in weight, melted with the said Sol, it would seem to be fine Sol. But I counsel thee not to do it; for in divers meltings, it will lose its colour, and come white as afore, because your fixed Elixir, or medium, is not put to it: therefore I counsel thee not to do it; for in the end it will shame his Master; and peradventure bring him in perill of his life, if he should sell it for fine Sol. Therefore look well to thy self, and see that thou use no falshood.
CHAP. VII. Teacheth thee to make thy Luna deaf of sound, and heavy of weight, as Sol aforesaid.
MY beloved Son, Take Vitriol, and distil thereof a strong Water, and dissolve therein Salt Armoniack, as much as it can dissolve; then set it upon warm Ashes, and put into it as much living Sulphur, as there is Salt Armoniack; and then shake it together with your hands, stopping your Glass well, that no Spirits go out, and set it upon Ashes, and lute a Helm upon it with a recipient, and make a proper fire under it, till the Water be distilled forth of the Glass: then let it cool, and take away the Water, and stop the pipe of the Helm fast, that no vent come forth, and make stronger fire: then shall the Sulphur and Salt Armoniack sublime up into the Helm; keep it well: then take fine Capel Luna, and melt it in a melting-Pot, and cast of that sublime upon your Luna three times, stirring it well together in the Pot with a wooden stick, but no Iron; and this shall make your Luna heavy of weight, and deaf of clank, like Sol: and you shall understand, that if you have ten Ounces of Luna, you shall cast one Ounce of this same Powder upon it, stirring it as aforesaid; and if your Luna be black, (as it will be) that is a good token: then cast it out in an Ingot, and quench it in Water; and it shall come blue: [Page 121] then seeth it in Goldsmiths-water (that is made with Tartar and Salt-common) one hour long, and it shall come white as at first: and thus is your Luna prepared to receive your red Elixir.
CHAP. VIII. Teacheth thee the difference between the Elixir and the great Stone of the Philosophers.
MY beloved Son, Our Elixir white and red be called Stones and no Stones; for in manner to speak, there is no Stone so full made, as is our great Stone of the Philosophers, that is called Major: for the great Stone is full made, and a perfect work serving to all unperfect Metals: for to transmute them into true fine Sol and Luna after the preparation hereof; for if he be prepared into Luna, so shall he ever set them into Luna: for every one of them doth engender his like: the which great Stone I will learn thee how thou shalt make it, in his place hereafter, if it please the Almighty God. The great Stone that doth serve for the red work, or to Sol, is called, Lapis Philosophorum major; and to the white, it is called Lunary; but the Elixirs be called, Stones and no Stones; but we call them, Elixirs de Sale, that is, Elixirs of Salt, because they be compounded of Salt, to say, of great Bay-Sea-Salt, that is clarified by dissolving and congealing, as is before learned; and also with another Salt that is called Saltpeter, the which [Page 122] doth conjoyn himself to the Salt that is in the depth of the Body of Sol, when the Tincture is given him by the Cement. And if the people in times past, had well understood the meaning of this Salt, they had come to the end of their work: but for lack of understanding, they have changed the words of the Philosophers, that say, Our Stone is Stone and no Stone; for they have meant the Elixirs, the which the unlearned have not understood; and they have named it their salt, that is our Salt of Nature that we have spoken of before: our Salt of Wisdom, that is, when it is prepared: our Menstruum; for with the same our Medicine is nourished, as the Child is in the Mothers wombe. They call it also, A King, and that noble Salt, and that living Water, or Oyl of Grace, and the most precious Water of the most secrets, and the most coming, the which dissolveth Mercury; the same is the Mercury of the Philosophers: and he dissolveth all Bodies of Metals, and it is a Medicine, and the first beginning of the Stone; and it is living Water and living Sulphur; he is the Lord and Master of all Salts, and without him the other have no full power to make perfect any thing; he doth binde and unbinde; he doth joyn the Man with the Wife; he doth change one kinde with another, and makes of Bodies, Spirits; and of Spirits, Bodies: and this must all be compounded, and make perfect the Philosophers stone.
CHAP. IX. Teacheth, That our Sol and Luna is living, and the Sol and Luna of the Mines be dead.
MY Son, you shall understand, That our Sol and Luna be living, and these that are of the Mines are dead; and therefore the Sol of the Earth is not so good as our Sol that is made by this Science; for our Sol hath in him three things, (to say) a Soul, a Body, and a Spirit: without the which three things, there can no Transmutation be made, the which one alone cannot do; therefore they must be all three together, if any good should be done. And understand, That no man can do any Transmutation with the corruption of the perfect Bodies, that is Sol and Luna: for we take the Spirit of the perfect Bodies, through our Sperm, or our strong Water, and this same Spirits is holden in our Water, that is, our dissolved Salt, which is our menstruum: for where the Mother hath received the Seed, that is, the Sperm of the unperfect Bodies with her menstruum into her Body; so shall it receive no life before the Soul come into it: so do we as Nature doth ask, we conjoyn this together, till he come to cleer Water without Feces, and then we draw out the simple Phlegmate in Balneo or Ashes; and after, that we put in the Soul, or nourish it with Sol or Luna, [Page 124] according to the making of your Medicine, then be they ready to ingender her like; and then we do put them in putrefaction the time aforewritten: then is the Spirit and the Soul perfectly made, and the copulation is done; and then, when that we shall do projection upon any unperfect Body or Metal so called, then this Spirit or Medicine doth take to him a Body: and then it is called a Spirit, a Soul, and a Body, which is then living.
And this Instruction (my beloved Son) I give to thee, that thou maist know, that our Sol and Luna is living, and those in the Earth or Mines be dead: and also, that thou maist know, that our Elixir white or red, are not other then spiritual, or a Spirit: the which, when it is cast upon a dead body with the Soul, it is made living; that same then is multiplied and augmented in goodness and perfections; and in him is fulfilled that through accident, which in the Earth it did lack; (to say) that sickness which is got in the earth, is taken away through our Medicine or Elixir red or white: the which we do in this manner; We take, in the Name of God, our Earth or Metal, that is, an unperfect Body, and melt it with a perfect Body or Corpus, the which is our Leaven, with the which we do prepare our paste or dough; and then we cast upon it our Elixir, the which is our Spirit; the which then doth make it perfect, and a living Body or Metal: but the great Stone of the Philosophers, the which I will learn thee hereafter to compound it, and perfectly to make it; the [Page 125] which is of so great strength and power, that be he a dead Body or Metal, doth not onely make living and perfect, but also maketh of the same Metal Medicine, to transmute any other unperfect Metal into a perfect; and it doth the same in the twinckling of an eye: so that he may be called, and is, The Riches of the whole World. Herewithall do we conclude the first Part of this Book, to say, The Composition of the Elixirs white and red.
The true COMPOSITION OF The Great Stone OF THE PHILOSOPHERS. PART II.
CHAP. I.
MY beloved Son, I here before opened unto thee the Truth, without leaving any thing needful to be known of the Composition of the Elixirs, the which is the beginning and entrance into the Great Stone of the Philosophers; and this Stone doth convert all Metals unperfect, into perfect Metals of Sol, of twenty four Caracks fine; the Metal being melted that you will transform: and then [Page 127] cast upon him his Leaven, that is, Gold, when that your Stone is made in the red work, and that Gold must be cemented as aforesaid in the other Book, and augmented in colour; that is, if you will melt a hundred ounces of unperfect Metal, then cast upon it Ferment or Leaven, which is Gold; stir it well together, and put no more but one ounce of Gold to the Mass of Metal; and then being well molten, and incorporated together, cast no more but the quantity of a Pease or Fitch of the red Stone upon it: so shall you see, that this Stone shall turn this Mass of Metal, or hundred ounces, into the finest Gold that may be in the World, of twenty four caracts fine, and shall pass all the proofs that men can do upon it, for better then that that doth come out of the Mines. And you shall understand that our Elixirs that we have before mentioned, are not come to their full perfection, but it is the beginning of the white and red stone of the Philosophers: but if you will make it perfect, as hereafter I shall learn you, the white shall transform all Metals into Silver, like as of the red is declared; that is to say, when you have melten the Metal that you will transform, then you must cast into it one ounce of fine Capel Luna, that you have made deaf of sound, and heavy of weight, as it is before declared in the other Book; and when you have well mingled them together with a stick, then cast in to the greatness of a Pease of your white Stone, and you shall finde it transformed into very fine Luna, better then any that comes out [Page 128] of the Earth: and if in case you did cast one ounce of your white Stone or of your red upon a hundred ounces of unperfect Metals; so shall that be transformed into the Elixir or Medicine, wherewith you may tran [...]form all unperfect Metals into perfect Luna or Sol, after the beginning of your work: for your white doth engender nothing but Luna, andyour red nothing but Sol, and his projection one upon a thousand: that is to say, if you will melt a thousand ounces of unperfect Metals, you need put to it no more then one ounce of this same last Medicine, and it shall set it over into perfect Luna or Sol, better then any that comes out of the Earth, to pass all proofs and examinations that may be done upon it. And herein now following, I will learn thee the composition of both these Stones to the red and white: and I will first begin with the red, and then with the white, which is called Lunaris.
CHAP. II. The Elixir of life.
THou shalt take (my beloved Son) the red Elixir here before written, and set it in putrefaction the time of forty dayes; so that your fire be alwayes of one heat, and not hotter one time then another, night and day: and the same must be done in Balneo Mariae: this time being [Page 129] ended, you shall finde your Elixir to be dissolved into cleer Water, if that you have kept the fire all the time of one heat: and your Elixir being dissolved into cleer Water, then shall you dissolve therein Mercury that is sublimed, as I will learn thee hereafter; and dissolve therein as much of the sublimed Mercury, as the Elixir doth weigh: and see well hereto, that the Spirits fly not out as neer as you can: then shake it softly between your hands, without opening the Glass; and take heed that your Glass break not through the force of the Spirits; and lute the mouth of the Glass fast with Lutement that is strong, that it may endure the warmth of Balneum, without opening: the which I will learn thee hereafter in a Chapter a part; and when the Lutement is very dry, then set the Glass in Balneo, to putrefie the time of forty dayes, as aforesaid, holding the fire of one heat continually the time of forty dayes and nights as aforesaid. The forty dayes being ended, look if all be dissolved; if it be not, let it stand longer till it be dissolved; and being all dissolved, let the Balneum cool: and in any case, see you take it not out hot, lest your Glass break: then take it our, and dry your Glass, and set it upon Ashes to congeal, and make your Ashes no hotter then you can suffer your finger to thrust it down to the bottom; and let it so stand the time of twelve dayes, without taking any thing out of it; but let it remain alwayes in that Glass wherein it was putrefied: and see well to it, that the Lutement be not broken in any place; if it be, lure it well again, that the Spirits [Page 130] flie not out: and the twelve hours being ended, it ought to be congealed, if your fire be well governed; if it be not, let it stand longer, till it be congealed: and when it is congealed, then is the Stone fully made, and perfectly ended, and it is the riches of the whole world. God grant that you may obtain it, and give unto Almighty God a good reckning of the health of thy Soul, &c.
My Son, thou shalt understand that Mercury is called a Fountain, and the first matter of all Metals, as in Truth it is, and therefore cannot be done any great Transmutation, without Mercury be joyned therewith: there may be made small Augmentations and Transmutations, like as we have spoken before in our Elixir; but they cannot do any high projection, for they do but one upon seven: but when Mercury is put thereto, and so perfectly made, it doth projection in infinitum, as here before is written: whereby it doth appear, that the Mercury is, as aforesaid, the beginning & off-spring of all Metals. And therefore, my Son, we take the Elixir, and mingle therewith our purified Mercury, and conjoyn these together with our purified Salt, which is our Sperm: so be they so fast bound together, that now, nor never, can they be parted asunder, for they do claspe and inclose together, so friendly as doth the Body and the Soul, if so be ye do it as we have written it. And when these three, to say, Sol, that is, Ferment, with the Salt and the Mercury, be joyned together, then do they make perfect all things they be cast upon, not onely it doth take away the sickness of the Metal [Page 131] and doth heal it; but it heals all Inconveniencies of mens Bodies; as one grain of this Stone, being drunk with Wine, being made hot, and then the party to go to a warm bed, and to sweat, which shall be incontinent, like as though he did lie in Water, and in three dayes he shall be made whole of what sickness soever be have. Therefore, he may think himself happy in this world, that hath gotten him this Treasure, and well can keep it secret, and use it godly to the help of the poor; for they be not all Masters, that do advance themselves in this Science to do many things: for many are called, but few are chosen.
There be many that busie themselves in this Science, but very few that do bring it to a right end: for it may be that it is not God's will: but thou, my Son, have thou no doubt, so long as thou followest these Precepts that I have left thee written in this Treatise, and continue thy self alwayes in labour and exercise, and thou shalt soon come to a perfect end of it, if it please Almighty God: for I have written thee in this Science, the right Treatise and Truth, as I have wrought it with my own hands, and brought it to a perfect end, as many people do know it in this City of Paris, although I have alwayes kept it from thee till now: that have I done for certain causes that I will not open. Therefore comfort thy self, and be patient, and think not thy labour long; for by diligent labour thou shalt come to the end sooner: with studying and reading there can come none of the knowledge [Page 132] of this Science; but onely by labour: the study doth give a man how to work, and how he shall follow Nature in his working: for the end and profit of this Science, is the handy-work: for a Cobler cannot set a piece on his shooe with reading, but he must put his hands to it, and labour to bring it to a perfect end.
CHAP. III. Teacheth, to sublime Mercury to the red Elixir.
MY beloved Son, take one pound of Mercury, one pond of Roman Vitriol, and break the Vitriol to powder; and then take one pound of common Salt that is two times dissolved and distilled by Filter, and vapoured and calcined as aforesaid is learned; and then break them to powder in a stone-Morter: occupy no Iron or Metal in this work; for if you shall, it will mar it: and when that your Mercury is mingled with the other water, with continual stirring, that you see the Mercury no more, but that he is wholly lost in the other substance, then shall you make moist with red-wine-vinegar, but not too much; and dry it then by the fire, or by the Sun; then put the same in a Glass to sublime, that is well luted beneath, and set it on warm ashes, and so long let your Glass remain open: and when you see the mouth of your Glass to look white in the sublimation, or [Page 133] that your Mercury begin to flie up, then take a linen cloath filled with Cotten-wool, and therewith you shall stop the hole above, as surely as you can; but your Glass must be somewhat high, that the clout with the Cotten that is in the mouth of the Glass do not burn, for then you shall consume your stopple: and then the Glass is well stopped: so augment your fire a little two hours long: and then four hours greater; and at the last so great as your Glass will bear without melting; and so hold your fire in that degree four hours long: then let it cool; and when your Oven and Glass is cooled, then take it out, and break it open, and you shall finde your Mercury above in the Helm as white as Snow; and some part shall lie below upon the Feces, very fair and white: then take it up as clean as you can, both that which is flown up, and that that lies in the bottom on the Feces.
Now to know whether that you have done right or no, take the Mercury so sublimed, and weigh it, and see what is diminished of the first weight: for if it be truely done, it will lack but one ounce in the pound weight; if it want more, it is not well done: for you have made your fire at the first too great, or at the last too small.
And if at the first your fire were too strong, then is there of your Mercury flown away with the moisture, so that the weight comes short: and if at the later end your fire were too great, it may be that your Glass is molten or [Page 134] crackt with the force of the fire, and then is your sublimation lost: and if at the last your fire were too small, then is there of your Mercury on the Feces, and thereby is your weight diminished.
Thus shall you understand, that I have found it, that there is but one ounce lacking in a pound weight, being rightly sublimed.
Then take fresh powder of Vitriol, &c. and mingle your sublimated Mercury herewith, as you have done before, and sublime it again: and this must you do seven times in all points, as before, or at the first; and in every sublimation after the first, it shall diminish one quarter of an ounce, if you have done it right as aforesaid, and no more: and when it is sublimed in this manner as aforesaid, then it is ready to put into the red Elixir, to make the Philosophers stone therewith.
CHAP. IV. Teacheth thee to sublime Mercury to the white Elixir.
MY beloved Son, you shall understand, that the Sublimation of Mercury, serving to the white Stone, is done as the other before in the third Chapter: for the red Stone, there is no other difference, but that you must put in the place of Vitriol, Roch-Allom, Saltpeter, and prepared Salt, as aforesaid and written; and do [Page 135] in all points as in the third Chapter, unto seven times: and then is your Mercury ready and perfect to put to your Elixir, to make the white Stone of the Philosophers.
CHAP. V. Teacheth thee to prepare the white Stone upon all bodies.
MY beloved Son, you shall take, in the Name of God, your white Elixir, and set it in Balneo to putrefie, the space of fourteen dayes and nights; and in that space, your Elixir shall be dissolved into cleer Water, if that you have governed your fire all the while in like warmth, or else it must stand longer until it be dissolved without Feces: then put of your sublimated Mercury thereto, so much as your Elixir doth weigh.
Then take it, and shake it properly between your hands, that your Glass breaks not by the force of the Spirit; and look well to your Glass before you do shake it, that it be well luted or stopped, that the Spirits by no means fly out; for if they do, it will mar your work.
This done, you shall set it well luted with the Lutement I have spoken of in the red Elixir, and set it to putrefie in Balneo forty days, as you have done in the third Elixir or Stone, and in that time it will be dissolved, if that your fire be all that time well governed; for it lieth much in [Page 136] the government of the fire: and when it is well dissolved, set it to congeal as you had in the red Stone, & it shall be congealed in twelve days into the white Stone of the Philosophers: the which will transmute all imperfect bodies into perfect Luna, to pass all proofs and examinations; and it shall be better and more finer Luna, then any that comes out of the Mines.
CHAP. VI. Teacheth thee to make the Lutement serving to these works.
NOw to make the Lutement, so often spoken of before, that shall not untemper in the moisture and warmth of Water, and also another Lutement that shall keep your Glasses from breaking in the fire; for it must hold against the heat of the fire; and in the first place you shall take the white of Eggs so much as you shall need, and beat them till they be all thin as water; then let it through a spunge with your hand, till that it be cleer as Fountain-water: of this same take as much as shall be needful to temper the powders hereafter; take the Flower or the Meal that hangeth or sticketh about the walls of the Mill or Backhouse, commonly called in places beyond the Seas, Stuff-Meal, eleven ounces, Bol-Armoniack one quarter of an ounce, Sanguis Dragonis an half quarter of an ounce, white hard Cheese, the parings being done off, one ounce; break all these into powder, and searse them finely [Page 137] through a Sieve of Hair, & temper them with the whites of Eggs, and therewithal lute your Glasses with Linen-clouts dipped in this Lutement, in form of a plaister, & so bound about the helm and mouth of your Glasses, & let it dry by it self. This Lutement doth serve to lute the Helms upon the distilling-Pots; and also to lute the Glasses that you do putrefie in, and dissolve; & also to congeal.
And now to the other Lutement spoken of before, that doth serve to lute your Glasses, to defend them from great heat of fire, that they shall not break nor melt; for then were your work lost: you shall take to this Lutement good fat Pot-earth, whereof the Potter doth make his Pots, and mix with it a little Sanguis Dragonis, Bol-Armoniack, as much as the half of the Earth of the Potter doth come unto; and unsleked Lime as much as half the Potters Earth; make all these into fine powder apart by themselves, and then temper them all together with whites of Eggs well beaten; & the blood of Oxen alike much, or if you cannot get Ox-blood, you may take Sheeps-blood; then take Linen-clouts, and scrape off the Lint, till you have as much as the Bol-Armoniack doth weigh, and then mingle them, and temper them all together, and beat them with a piece of board, till that it be as soft as fine Paste or dough; and with this Lutement, you shall lute your sublimations under that part that standeth in the fire; and also your Glasses wherein you distil your strong Waters; for it will defend them from melting and breaking; and use it to all things that you do occupy [Page 138] in great fire: for you cannot have a better then this, to defend you Glasses against the force of the fire. Now I have written you enough of the Lutements: and in this Chapter I will write in brief a part of Philosophy as well moral as natural.
CHAP. VII. Teacheth thee understand Philosophy, as well moral as natural.
MY Son, I have given thee to understand in this Book, and declared all the Philosophy, as well to the red as to the white, so right and simple as possibly I may: for if I could have left to thee any briefer, I would not: for if that I should, thou couldst never have understood it: and therefore I have thought it good to shew it thee in plain Words and Reasons, to declare the same, to make thee perfectly to understand to make this work, that thou shouldst impute no fault to me, if that thou shouldst not come to the right knowledge of this Science; but the fault should be in thy self, and in no man else: for I have written it in right and plain Words and Reasons: but take heed that thou be not as many men be, that do think themselves Masters of all Sciences, when that they never saw the Door wherein the Science was learned: but I would have thee use thy self to reading and studying of this Book, and print all these Reasons in thy heart, and then thou maist go to work with [Page 139] a good and glad courage, and God will bless thy proceeding, if thou wilt serve him and pray to him, as it is thy duty to do; and also thou must have a diligent care to keep God's Commandments: for as I have often said, with bodily pains taking, and diligent labour, both of thy body and minde, thou shalt bring this Stone to a perfect end: for the Philosophers have hidden this Science, and have written it very darkly, and have coloured it over with many parables & dark sentences, that it is almost impossible to come to the understanding of them, without great instructions of others, Masters of this Science, or else through the great gift of God. Therefore I have written this Book, that thou maist learn the Words and Reasons that I do leave after me, to the end, that thou shalt not fall into any error, but to come to the right end of this Science.
My Son, thou shalt understand, that there be many Books (written by the Philosophers) remaining after their deaths; of the which they have written the Truth, but in a very dark sense; here in one word, there in another: the which have brought divers men unto great errors, thinking they did understand the meaning very well, when they were furthest from it. Therefore, my beloved Son, through the great love I have to thee, I have thought it good to open this Science unto thee, that thou mayst take heed of the dark sayings of the Philosophers, & that thou do exercise thy self in this Book: for if thou do observe these my precepts, you shall not come to [Page 140] any error. But I desire thee upon the salvation of thy Soul, that thou do not forget the poor; and in any case to look well to thy self, that thou do not disclose the secrets of this Science to any covetous worldly man; for if thou do, it will turn to thy hurt: for I have declared to thee, as I trust to be saved, upon my Salvation, the thing that my eyes have seen, and my hands have wrought, and my fingers have pulled forth:
To draw the Spirits out of the ponderous Body or Earth by Distillation.
MAke a great many plates of new Lead of the quantity of Groats, as thin as a peny; and hang them on a thred, or small Wyre, and fill a Body of Glass full of them, and fasten the Thred above the mouth of the Vessel: set thereon a Head, and lute it fast and surely, and put thereto a Receptory, and put it in a Furnace with as easie a heat, that you may alwayes suffer your hand under the bottom thereof, and water shall distil every day from it, fait and cleer as Rosewater: and at the last, the said Plates will wax soft, [Page 141] as they were mire, and fall down to the bottom: and then take the Glass, set it in Balneo or Fimo Equino, until the mire be dissolved into black Pitch Liquor: then put it into your Philosophers Vessel, and mix it, and continue it in easie fire, that it may by Circulation become a dry earth as black as a Raven, which afterwards shall wax as white as Snow; the which is the white Elixir; the which you shall take from the Feces that lie there-under: for as Philosophers say, Totum quod subtile est ascendit sursum in vase, quod spissum manet in fundo.
Then put the white in a Fixatory luted up, and continue it with more Fire or heat, till it be first gray, and after that citrine as a yellow Flower; and finally, purple-red, the which is the great Elixir that fixeth all Amalgems into Medicine, which altereth all Bodies into Sol and Luna.
In the Name of God, Amen. Upon Saturn, Philosopher of Holland.
UNderstand, That out of Lead comes the Stone called Lapis Philosophorum: and therefore, when he is throughly made, he doth projection as well in a mans body as without, of all diseases that come to man, as upon Metals; and in many vegetable Books, is no greater secret then this is: for we finde not in [Page 142] Gold a like perfection as we finde in Lead: for Lead is in his inner part Sol; and therefore do all Philosophers agree: for he lacketh nothing else, but that his superfluity be taken away from him, and that is his uncleanness: therefore make him clean, and turn his inward part out, and that is his crudeness; and then is he Sol: for vulgar Sol cannot be so lightly as Lead; for Lead will quickly be dissolved and congealed, and he suffers his Mercury quickly to be drawn from him; & that Mercury which is drawn from him, if it be well clarified and sublimed, as the use is to sublime Mercury; I tell you, That that Mercury is as good as the Mercury drawn from the Sun in all manner of works, and it is better in our work then the Mercury of Sol. Also, if you should take Mercury out of Sol, you should be constrained to open the body of Sol for the space of one whole yeer, before the said Mercury of a body could be drawn or come out of Le [...]d: you may draw out this Mercury in fourteen dayes, and it is as good as the other: and if you should come to make a work of Sol, alwayes you must be two yeers about it, to do it well; but of Lead you may perfect it in thirty or two and thirty weeks at the most, and then be fully ended; the one is as good as the other, and Lead costs little or nothing, and is a shorter work, and is less labor, and of one goodness, and is truth: therefore print this in thy heart, and serve God. The same Lead is called of the Philosophers Sol, whereof they had the name until this day, and have kept it secret: for if the thing were known, many [Page 143] would work it, and the thing would be common: for the work is short, and easie, and little of value; and therefore was it kept secret, that the name might be known, lest it might have come to the hands of wicked men, and so much harm might have come thereby, and this holy Science which God hath given to those that love and serve him, should to wicked persons be a means of greater wickedness. As concerning the Lead of Sol and Luna, they have set three Glasses, and all is Lead, but there is no need to joyne any strange thing, but that onely which cometh from him; neither is there any man so poor, but that he may be able to compass this work: for you make of the Salt of Lead with little labour Luna, and with a little longer time Sol, and then they may proceed to make the Philosophers Lead. And this is altogether concluded in Lead, as much as is necessary for us; for in him is the perfect Mercury, and in him are all the colours in the world, which shall shew it self openly; for in him is the true blackness, whiteness and redness: he is ponderous, and in him is the perfect red and white bodies: look and take example, of all imperfect things the eye of man cannot abide or bear, how little soever, though smaller then a mote, yet it will trouble a mans eye terribly: but if you take Lead clean scraped, and made the bigness of a Bean, and put it in your eye, it will neither pain you, or harm you at all; and that is, because its uttermost is not perfect like Sol or other pretious Stones, that come out of Paradise, running in the stream: and in like manner Sol, [Page 144] that in him is, you may well perceive by the similitude and many other more, That Lead is our Philosophers Mercury, our Laton: for out of it is drawn in short time, our Mercury, and our Philosophers Mercury, that is, our golden Mercury, with little labor, little cunning, and little charge. And therefore I charge you, and all of you, that know his name, to keep his name secret: for if men knew it, much mischief and trouble would be done. And therefore you shall know our Lead by its hidden name, and you shall know that the water wherein our Lead shall be washed vinegar. This is the Philosophers Stone whereof all the Philosophers have written many dark Books, but there are divers and many works in the Mineral Lead.
An Abstract our of Doctor Homodlus M S. De Elixir solis Medicina universali. Of the Tincture of Gold, separated from its body, and turned to a Celestial and Spiritual Nature, called a Quintessence within the Aurum Potabile.
CHAP. I. Of the Matter of the Universal Medicine.
SInce God hath created all things for mans use, and that in all vegetable, animal and mineral creatures, there is some vertue to be helpful to humane diseases; I thought there might be something among these of incorruptible Nature, which by it self might cure all Diseases, and prolong the life of man to a long age, keeping [Page 146] his humours in a most equal temperament: and by consequence, this thing must be of it self most equally tempered of the four Elements.
Now seeking this thing in the Vegetables of Animals, I found it not, because that in all of them, there is some one humour predominant over the rest actively or passively: Therefore I turned to Minerals or Metal; but I found the Calx and Calcanth, and other things, being reduced to Ashes, could not be brought back again to their former bodies: And so I conclude, There was no perfect natural composition in them. And finding the perfect Metals thus reducible again to their own bodies, I perceived that in them was some firmer composition then in other things: yet are in all alike; for all the rest of the Metals, except Gold, by a strong Combustion, will be converted into dross and smoke; but Gold is no whit the worse after all Trials: then I concluded, That it was among all the rest incorruptible; and by consequence, of a most equal temperament and composition of Elements.
And when I understood by Marsillis joyning with Metals, could generate, I concluded, That in Gold there was a generative and regenerative vertue: but because I found the matter of Metals to be very gross and earthy, and that thereby this vertue was oppressed and kept, insomuch that it could not work, until it was delivered from the hands of its bodily Imprisonment, I judged, That is was needful to open, [Page 147] rarifie, and dissolve the body, that the vertue might actuate. Whence I concluded at last thus: That Gold was the remote matter whereof the universal Medicine was to be made up, and that the Spirit of Gold and Lune, which is also called Lune Quintessence, is the matter whereof it is made up.
CHAP. II. How to make the Menstruum, and how to circulate it.
SInce I have declared heretofore the matter of the Universal Medicine, consequently I will open the way how to make the vegetable Menstruum, and how to circulate it, that it may be reduced into Quintessence: by that means of this Menstruum, the true preparation is made, that is also a Physical preparation, to wit, Subution, Putrefaction, Overflowing, Exuberation, Multiplication and Rectification; and that with the Conservative of the former Vegetable, and with the Multiplication of the force: for this is the Menstruum or Vegetable Water, which Raymundus speaketh of in this Codicil.
Therefore Silver and Gold are dissolved in radical things of their own kinde, and in the compound of the Soul of the Art: for this is the matter by which all incurable Diseases [Page 148] are cured under the conservation of their own Nature.
Therefore this is the way to prepare it:
Gather the Vegetable Lunary of the Philosophers, in the time when the height of Goffer doth rule, which is the seventh and the first day of the Reign of Corrocay, the Ministerial Spirit of the same height, in the sixth rank, and last three hours before noon, and as many afternoon: when the day is fair, and the sky is cleer, then take the Lunary it self, pure and uncorrupted, with its grains, and bray it, and put it in earthen Vessels which are new and well glassed, and which are most carefully covered to be set in a most cold place, and there to be left a whole month, or thereabouts.
After which time, opening your Vessels, you shall finde in the bottom of each of them, the sap of Lunary, which will send forth a most sweet savour: take it and put it in another most clean Vessel from the Feces: and then again you must pour it upon its Feces, and set it again, as before, for the space of eight dayes in a cold place. After which time, it must be poured out again into another Vessel: and from thence again it must be joyned to its Feces: which third time it will be done just the same manner as the second. And so you shall have the sap of Lunary prepared in the best fashion.
But because Lunary is not found everywhere; therefore, if when your shall have need of it, and it cannot be found, you shall take [Page 149] the sap of it, prepared in the common fashion, and called by Raymund, Black baker, then black; but take of the best: then pour it either way prepared into a Glass-Cucurbite, which is a Great, or into a Pellican-Vessel, with handles on both sides, which is called Circulatory, and put the Vessel; most carefully shut in a Physical Vaporary, and let it there be circulated a whole Month: which time past, take away the blind Head, put on at Lembeck, and joyn a Recipient to it; and the Joynts being well shut up, distil in Balneo Mariae, a most subtil Spirit from it; which being first lifted up on high, is turned into the similitude of sweat, which maketh no veins: but when the Phlegm shall begin to distil like rain, take away the Cucurbite with the Recipient, and let it cool.
This being done, transfuse the Spirit from the Recipient into the Cucurbite of Glass: Loose then the first, and putting on the Limbecks Head, distil it in Balneo Mariae, with a most easie fire, till the Spirit be gone out, the Phlegm remaining in the Cucurbite.
Now when the whole Spirit is purified from the Phlegm, and rectified, and distilled in a Recipient; The Vessel being cooled, pour out the Phlegm from the Cucurbite, how little soever it be: then pour in again into the same Cucurbite, the Spirit; and then distil again in Balneo with a most easie Fire, as [Page 150] of the same, as is beforesaid, so oft till the Spirit be wholly purified from the Phlegm, and perfectly rectified: which Spirit so prepared, if it be fired, will not leave any work of moisture behinde it; nay, it will burn a cloth, being made well, and put into it.
And hitherto have I imparted unto thee the best manner of drawing out the Spirit from the Lunary: which Spirit being shut up most carefully in a Glass, must be set in a cold place: through the Glass shut, it will vanish away: it is subtil and heavenly, though the other part of the Menstruum or Earth of the same thing be prepared: which then being copulated with its own Spirit, maketh the vegetable Menstruum, which is the Basis and chief Foundation of Spagyrical preparations.
Therefore the way to prepare the Earth is thus:
After that the Spirit is drawn out by Distillation, and separated from the Lunary, you must take the Cucurbite, wherein the sap of the same thing was best, and put it into the Balneo Mariae, and distil it with a gentle fire, till all the Phlegm be gone out; which you shall know by this, that in the degree of heat, there shall nothing more fall in the Recipient, and the matter in the bottom of the Vessel, shall be sunk down, like Honey, or melted Pitch.
Then having the Recipient, pour so much [Page 151] of the Phlegm of the same thing upon the Mercurial part, that it swim above at least four fingers breadth; and with a wooden spattle moving the Phlegm with the thick matter, wherein is the potential Mercury, and also the Sulphur vegetable of Nature; mix them, and when the Phlegm shall have drawn its Tincture out into its self, suffer it to rest a little. Then afterward pour out the colourated Phlegm, but warily, lest that the Mercurial part be poured out with it, which doth not serve to our use, but only to the Tincture of the Mereuries, as Raymund saith in the Book of Mercury.
Here must be noted, We have called the thick Water in the bottom of the Glass, like unto molten Pitch, Mercurial; and also Sulphurial, because that the Sulphur of Nature is potentially hidden in it; which, when any will draw out of it, it is altogether necessary, that it, or rather the purest of it, be separated from the impure, and be brought to the first Mercury of the Philosophers: and then converted into the Sulphur of Nature, as shall be consequently taught: moreover, in the thick Water in the bottom, pour on again so much of the Phlegm, that it be covered the bredth of four fingers; and, as before, mix them together by Agitation, and then evacute the colourated Phlegm by Inclination.
And this work must be so oft repeated, till the Phlegm hath drawn out the whole Tincture, and the Earth remaineth in the bottom of the [Page 152] Vessel white as Cristal, transparent; which set out to be dried by the fire, or by a heat elemental of fire, not violent.
Then when it is dried, and made up into a Powder most subtil, put it into a Glass-Vessel, fit and clean: and pour so much of the Spirit that I have heretofore raught you, and prepare upon it, that it may stand four fingers breadth above it.
Then shut the Vessel with a blinde Head, and set it in Balneo to be digested the space of three dayes; which being done, take away the blinde Head, and put to the Cucurbite an Alimbeck, and joyn a Recipient unto it: and having well shut all the Joynts, put the Vessel into a Furnace; and giving it a gentle fire of the second degree, separate from hence the Spirit it self by Distillation; which inclosed carefully in a Glass, shall be kept in a cold place: for it is an animated Spirit.
Afterwards having encreased the fire with a continual course or order till all the Phlegmatick moisture, how little soever it be in the Earth, be exhaled; which Phlegm is to be cast away: for it serveth to no use at all, but unto the earth it self.
After it be well dried, and again calcined, pour again so much of the new Spirit, that it stand three fingers breath: and having glewed the blind Head upon it, put it three dayes into the Physical Vaporary; which time past, take away the blind Head, and put on a Limbeck: and [Page 153] from thence distil an animated Spirit, which joys to the first, and keep.
Then afterwards proceed to distil, till all the Phlegm be gone out, and cast; and those operations must be so often renewed, till the Earth appear white and flowing like Wax upon a glowing Plate of Iron: give no smoak at all. The Earth thus prepared, must of necessity be returned into a Calx, giving not a dissolving but a digesting heat of the fire. When this Truth is calcined, you shall put it in a fit Vessel of Glass, which must be set it temperate heat of the fire, the first degree: and in it unto the Earth must be poured one ounce of the animated Spirit: As for example, To one ounce of the Earth, you must put one of the Spirit: which animated Spirit I taught you heretofore to draw out of the Earth it self by Distillation.
Then shut the Vessel with a blind Head, and suffer it to be digested three dayes, or so long, till the Earth hath drawn up his Spirit: then taking away the blind Head; and putting on a Limbeck, by Distillation draw out the Phlegmatick and unsavory moisture, how little soever be in it.
Then again the second time, give to the same Earth of its own Spirit the seventh part; and putting the blind Head upon it, set the Vessel on the first degree of heat, to be digested three dayes space: then taking a way the blue Head, and putting on the Alimbeck, distil all the insipid moisture.
[Page 154]Thirdly, Add to the same Earth, the fixth part of its own animated Water; and putting on the blue Head, set in digestion for three days: and after that time, removing of the blind Head, and putting on the Alimbeck, distil the superfluous humidities.
Fourthly, Add again the fifth part of the animated Spirit to his own Earth, digest it, and by Distillation, evacuate the humidity.
Fifthly, Render the fourth part of the Soul of the Body, and digest it, and draw out the moisture, as I have shewn before: and so with the fourth part of it upon the same Earth, prosecute the operation by Unvivistives, Digestion, and Distillations, till the Earth have drunk up all his animated Spirit, and both be reduced to an Homogeneal Body: then take the Earth which is withheld, and white, and put it in a Vessel of Glass, divided into three parts, which being luted, and carefully shut, must be put in a Furnace to the fire of the third degree, the space or a natural day: and so the pure part of it will be separated from the impure, and will be lifted up on high, and the impure part of the Body be left in the bottom as unprofitable, to be cast away, and the pure to be gathered: and this is called by Raymund and other Philosophers, Mercury sublimate, vegetable, Sal Armoniack, and set of Lunary vegetable, wherein are so many and so great vertues, that the humane tongue of man cannot express them.
Furthermore, All things being severally prepared, [Page 155] to wit, the Spirit and the Earth, it remaineth here to shew the way to copulate the Spirit of Lunary, with the Earth of the same prepared, that is, with the Salt or Sulphur of Nature vegetable: but out of the conjunction of these two, one organical Body, to wit, the vegetable menstruum, may be made up: and the way to make it is this:
Take one pound of the Salt or vegetable Sulphur new prepared, bray it very small, and put it in a Cucurbite of Glass, which is strong and thick, and upon it of the foresaid Spirit of Philosophical Lunary: then shutting the Glass most carefully with a blue Head, so that it hath no Air at all, put it in the Balneo, and let it purifie for the space two dayes: then taking off the blind Head, and putting on a Limbeck, and joyning a great Recipient to it; After you have stopped well all the Joynts, you shall distil it in the Ashes with a gentle heat, and all will go out by the Limbeck. Nevertheless, if any of the Salt should remain in the bottom, you shall again pour of Spirit newly distilled upon it; and distil it again from hence. And this shall you do so oft, till the whole Earth as a cleer Water be brought over the Limbeck; being done, take yet one pound of Salt, put it into the Cucurbite, and pour upon it the same Spirit lastly distilled: cover the Vessel with a blind Head, and set it to purifie; and being purified, till all the Sulphur pass over the Limbeck with the Spirit; and that being distilled, [Page 156] take again, as before, of new Salt vegetable one pound; and adding the same Spirit, purifie; and then distil all. Fourthly, Take likewise fresh Salt one pound, and pour upon it the Spirit lately distilled, till all pass by the Limbeck, and nothing remain in the Cucurbite; and so the vegetable menstruum shall be made, and perfectly ended, having power to dissolve both the lights, and all other Metals, with the conservation of the vegetable form: but now it is resting to shew how the menstruum must be converted unto a celestial Nature or Quintessence: and the way is thus:
Take the simple menstruum, and pour it into a great and strong Glass-Vessel, that the fifth part of it onely be full, or at the most the fourth, and the rest be void: then shut the Vessel with a blind Head; shutting diligently all the Joynts, lest the power of the menstruum vanish: being shut, put it in the Physical Bath, or in the Horse-Belly, and let it circulate a whole Month: which time expired, put on your menstruum into another clean Vessel: and do this warily, lest the setling in the bottom by the Circulation be poured out together with the menstruum, but it must be left in the Circulation: so shall you have the menstruum purified, circulated, and celestial, which the Philosophers call, The Heaven, The Crown of Heaven, and, The Quintessence; whose brightness and transparencie doth exceed the brightness of all Lunary things, and the sweet smell of it exceedeth all other [Page 157] sweet savours prepared by Nature.
This Quintessence is the ground-work of all Spagyrical and Physical Preparation: for by the vertue of it, all solid Bodies are corrupted from their own Natures, and are brought to Liquors, Oyls, Spirits, Elixirs, Magisteries, Stones and Tinctures. Whence it cometh, That the Spagyrick can give to the Phisitians the best Medicines.
Of the manner of dissolving Gold, and of separating the Tincture of it from the Body, or the form from the matter; and also of exuberating or multiplying the same.
THe manner of composing the vegetable being delivered; and also, of making it celestial: it remaineth that you should be shewed how the matter of the Universal Medicine, to wit, Gold, should be prepared with the heavenly menstrual, that it may exercise its vertue upon the Body of Man: the manner to prepare it is this:
Let Gold be cemented with Antimony, that every Heterogeneal thing be separated from it: then being well purged, reduce it to very small Leaves: then of the foliated or Leaf-Gold take an ounce, and put it into a little Cucurbite of Glass, and pour upon it two ounces of the heavenly menstruum, or of the vegetable Quintessence. This being done, put the Cucurbite closed Hermetically into a Fire of the [Page 159] first degree, and then of the second; so shall the Gold be dissolved, and the menstruum shall draw into it self the Tincture of it, or the colour; and it will become citrine, bright, resplendent, shining, and most acceptable to the sight: then by little and little inclining the Vessel, transfuse the menstruum into another clean Vessel of Glass: but do this warily, lest the Earth or Feces of Gold be not poured out together with the menstruum and Cucurbite: then to the golden Earth, which is setled, pour again two ounces of the menstruum, and shut the Glass with Hermes his Seal, and set it first in a fire of the first degree, and then of a second: and when the menstruum shall have the colour of Gold, ejaculate it into another Vessel of Glass; yet so, that the Earth be not mixed with the menstruum, but may remain in the bottom; and leaving the Feces of the Gold in the Vessel, pour again two ounces of the menstruum upon it; and shutting the Glass Hermetically, set it in the heat of the first, then of the second degree.
Then empty the golden menstruum into another Vessel, taking heed lest the Feces go out with it together: reiterate these operations so oft as before, till you see the menstruum draws no more of the Tincture of Sol, and that the body of it remain in the bottom white, which will be done in seven times, if you do all these things well.
Now when all the Tincture of Gold is prepared [Page 160] from his Body, it is requisite that all the dissolutions be joyned together, and be put in a fit Vessel: then purifie.
And then lastly, having put on a blind Head: and having shut carefully all the Joynts, set it in a Furnace, and give it a heat in the second degree, and exuberate from thence the most precious Liquor of Gold: then you shall have the Tincture of Gold separated from the Body of it, and made volatile, joyned with the Heaven or vegetable Quintessence, from which it must be separated, by the way which I will shew you in the following Chapter.
The manner how to separate the Tincture of Gold from the Quintessence vegetable, and the way to circulate the same, that it may be converted into Quintessence, or Celestial Nature and Spiritual, and almost Incorruptible.
HItherto we have shewed you how to draw the Tincture from the Body of the Sun, and how they exuberate it, in a cleer and open speech. Now we intend to shew how the same Tincture may be separated from the menstruum, which is Celestial, and by Circulation is converted into a Quintessence most fragrant, and in strength most eminent, and incorruptible as the Heavens. To do this, proceed thus:
Take a Stillatory of Glass, and infuse into it the vegetable Menstruum, which is circulated; in which is the Soul of the Gold: then add to it of the Element of Water in the same thing, to wit, of the Lunary of the Philosophers, so [Page 162] much as is of the menstruum it self: then put your Vessel in a Physical Furnace; and putting an easie fire of the first degree to it, distil from it the vegetable Quintessence, and the Element of Water admixed to it: so the Tincture of Gold shall remain in the bottom like Wax melted, or like the fluid gum, and in colour most like unto a Ruby.
Take a fit Vessel of Glass, and put in it the Tincture of the Sun, most red, exulerated and separated from the vegetable Water, and pour upon it a convenient quantity of the vegetable Quintessence: and having shut the Glass Hermetically, put the Vessel in a Physical Vaporary, and with continual heat, as of the Sun, suffer it to be circulated a sufficient space; which done, you shall see in the bottom of the Glass an Earth like unto Slime, which must most be separated from the Tincture, mixed with the vegetable, as a superfluous thing; which is done by the Distillation of the menstruum with the Tincture in the fire of the second degree: which being done, put the Vessel, containing the Quintessence vegetable, mixed with the Tincture in the Physical Bath; and putting to it the fire of the first degree by Distillation, extract the vegetable Quintessence: and so the [Page 163] Tincture of Gold most beautiful, being purified from the Dregs of the Elements, and Slime of the Earth, and made spiritual and volatile, shall be setled in the bottom of the Circulit, converted into a Quintessence, and into a Celestial and Incorruptible Nature, to which no earthly thing may be compared in smell or sweet favour, nor in vertue and excellent operations. Keep the Quintessence most carefully, as a most precious Treasure: for it is the true potable and mutable Gold, The true Elixir of the Sun, Power, The true Diaphoretical and Universal Medicine, The true Mercury of the Philosophers, without which there is no Transmutation of Metals.
The way to reduce the liquid and volatile Quintessence of Gold into a fixed Stone, and transparent like to a Rubie, with the multiplication of Celestial Vertues.
ALthough I have hitherto delivered the true and perfect way to prepare Sol, and to convert it into a Quintessence; so that it serveth for all Medicinal effects universally, and needeth no further preparation: Nevertheless, because the vertues of it may be further augmented, I will now reveal how it may be fixed into a Stone; which by a manifold Solution, Coagulation by heavenly Influences, doth attain unto the highest degree, Perfection and efficacy to all effects both within and without the body of man.
The way to make it is thus:
Prepare a Fixatory Vessel of equal bigness with their heads, having heads equally proportionable, whose heads must be disposed, that the head of each one may enter into the belly of each other mutually, and that the mouth of the [Page 165] one Vessel may enter into its own head; but that the mouth of the other may receive within it self the mouth of its own head: then put in each Vessel one part of the Quintessence of Gold; and to each part severally, pour thirteen parts of the Quintessence vegetable; which being done, put the heads upon the Cucurbites, and joyn the Vessels together as they ought to be; and shutting the Joynts most carefully that there an Anchanor; and having given a most temperate heat of the other or second degree, let the Quintessence be so long moved, till the vegetable Water hath laid off the Tincture or Colour of Gold, and shall have ascended and descended no more citrine in colour, but white like a distilled Water, which will be done in three or four weeks at the most: which time being past, and when you have seen the aforesaid sign, then suffer the Furnace to wax cool of it self, then taking the Vessel from the Furnace, open them, and in the bottom of each Glass you shall finde a Stone, like unto a Rubie or Carbuncle, which is the potable Gold, congeal'd through the vegetable vertue; and the purest of the vegetable Sulphur working upon the Quintessence of Gold: from which Stone, by the Inclination of the Vessels, you shall separate the vegetable Waters: then take out both the Stones out of both the Vessels without any moisture, and you shall put it into a fit Vessel very carefully, that it suffer no harm by the Air: and when you would have this Stone to become more pregnant and powerful in operation by Celestial Vertues, proceed thus:
[Page 166]Bray it in a Marble or Glass-Morter with a Glass-Pestel; and being brayed, put it into a small Glass-Vessel, [...] to that effect; and being Hermetically shut, put it into the Physical Bath, and leave it there three dayes, in which time it will turn into a Water or Liquor very red: which Liquor, put into the Achanor, and suffer it to be digested five dayes in a temperate heat: and then again it will be conduced, and become a stony substance red, and transparent: from thence take out again the Stone, and bray it to a powder; and then again, put it into a Physical Bath the space of one natural day, and then again it will be dissolved into a most red Liquor; which again put into the Achanor to be digested, the space of two dayes; which time past, you shall finde again a Stone most transparent and like to a Ruby, which may be melted upon a red hot Plate of Iron, and will send forth no smoak at all. Now this same so prepared, hath so many Vertues, that no tongue of man is able to express them.