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A Lexicon of Alchemy
by
Martin Rulandus
A ~ B ~ C ~ D ~ E ~ F ~ G ~ H ~ I ~ J ~ K ~ L ~ M ~ N ~ O ~ P ~ Q ~ R ~ S ~ T ~ U ~ V ~ W ~ X ~ Y ~ Z ~ Supplement
A Supplement To The Alchemical LExicon of Martinus Rulandus, Containing The Terms Of The Philosophers And The Veils Of The Great Mystery
A A A
ABBREVIATION --- A word which in its literal sense means to gain time is used by the philosophers, for they say that " The Stone tolerates no abbreviation," meaning that the artist must not weary over long labour, nor endeavour to speed the operation by increasing the fire, since by so doing he will destroy his process.
ABSEMIR --- One of the names which have been given by Philosophers to the matter of the art.
ACARTUM --- One of the names of Minium. Others call it Azimar.
ACALACH --- Salt-according to the terminology of the Spagyric Philosophers.
ACATE --- Soot.
ACONOR --- An Earthen Pot, pierced with a number of holes at the sides and bottom.
ACETUM ACERRIMUM --- The Mercurial Water of the Sages.
ACHACHI --- Water of Light-is the Mercury of the Philosophers, so called because its active virtue purifies the Laton, and causes it to pass from the Black colour to the White, which they term Light.
ADAM --- is a Name which the Philosophers have given to their Magisterium when it has attained the perfection of the Red, because their matter, being the Quintessence of the Universe and the First Matter of all individuals in Nature, has a perfect correspondence with that original Adam, in whom God united the most pure substance of all beings, and, otherwise, because the word Adam signifies Red, and thus expresses at once the colour and the quality of the Magisterium --- that is, Red Earth, Mercury of the Sages, Sulphur, Soul, Fire of Nature.
ADAMITE --- A kind of white tartar, or foliated earth, which the Hermetic Philosophers have named Adamic Earth, Tartar, Virgin Earth, Adamita, etc.
ADAPTATION --- This process of the Philosophers occurs when the projection of the Elixir to the white or to the red is made upon a metal that has been melted upon or reduced to its mercurial form, so long as it is of the same nature, and for this reason is in harmony and agreement with the Elixir. Thus, Adaptation means Harmony, or Natural Likeness, or Affinity, or a capacity for entering into these conditions. In effect, should any one endeavour to project the white or the red upon any substance other than metallic, he will produce neither gold nor silver, because the matter upon which he is projecting has no affinity with the Elixir.
ADDITION --- This process is mainly concerned with Philosophical Gold, or Citrine Sulphur. It is the Rubification or Tincture of Mercury, which of itself adds nothing to the work, because it inheres to the Mercury. Sometimes, by the addition of Philosophical Gold, we understand the projection of the Elixir upon a suitable liquefied or heated matter.
ADHEBE --- Has the same meaning as Adhaec.
ADHIEC --- A Spirit which Conserves Life and Motion in Animals. In Man the Hermetic Philosophers distinguish three constituents which make up his humanity --- namely, Soul, Spirit, and Body. The Soul is immortal and spiritual, and derives its nourishment and its life from God, being a kind of extension of the Deity, to make use of an expression which occurs in the Asclepius of Hermes. The Spirit occupies a middle position between the Soul and the Body; it unites them together, and has its nourishment from all that is most subtle in Nature, and from the quintessence of the elements, which it absorbs by means of respiration. Lastly, there is the gross and terrene body, which is nourished by the earth and water of which it is itself composed.
ADIRLAPIS --- Sal Ammoniac.
ADULPHUR --- Ash or Sand.
ADUMA --- The Stone of the Philosophers arrived at the Red before it has become Elixir.
AFFLICTION --- This term refers to the Grief of the Artist, who has permitted his spirits to escape or evaporate, when his vessels are broken by excessive heat, etc.
AFFAX, or AFFARIS --- Every kind of Scum.
AFFEMICUM --- This name is given by chemists to the Soul of Things.
AGAR --- Lime.
AGAZOPH --- See Adulphur.
AHALCABOR, ALCHONAR, ALASTROB, ALOMBA, AGAR-ALGIT, ALGERIT --- Are all names of Calx.
ALARTA --- Burnt Copper.
ALBUSIE --- The Sulphur of the Sages. Some chemists have given the same name to Common Sulphur.
ALCADY --- Vitriol, White Atrament, White Salt of the Sages.
ALCALHAL --- The Vinegar of Vulgar Chemical Philosophy, but this Vinegar is not that of the Philosophers, which is nothing else but their Pontic Water, or Dissolving Mercury.
ALCES UNGULA --- The Hoof of the Elk, is used by physicians as a medicine for the nerves. What is called specific hoof is celebrated for its efficacy against epilepsy, both as a preventive and a cure. It is used externally and internally, the powder thereof being administered in the latter fashion. Externally a particle is placed in a ring, which is worn on what is commonly called the ring finger, next to the little finger, and so as to face the hand. Or, it is worn opposite to that finger in a ring purposely turned to it. It is also placed on the wrist, applied to the pulse, put into the left ear, suspended from the neck, so as to touch the skin, etc. It is said to be recognised by its smell, for it yields a pleasant odour in fumigation.
ALCHAZANON --- A Slime which falls off Millstones, and of which an excellent mastic is made.
ALCHEMY --- A word composed of the Arabic article Al and of Chymia.
ALCHEMY --- According to George Ripley, the Universal Matter of all Metals is Mercury, which set over the fire, together with the purest Sulphur, will become Gold. But if either of these constituents be sick or leprous --- that is to say, infected with any impurity --- some other metal will be produced instead of gold.
He adds that as mercury and sulphur are sufficient for the making of all metals, so of these may be composed a universal medicine, or metal, for curing all the sick; which some by an error have understood as a universal metal, efficacious in all the diseases of the human body.
ALCHEMY --- Authorities therein: Among later writings on the Hermetic science, there is a French Catechism of Alchemy which, as it is founded directly on a unique Ms. of Paracelsus, is of very high authority. It says that to obtain a knowledge of the mysteries of the art, it is necessary to be acquainted with all the works of Hermes, which should be first studied, and their lessons put to heart. The disciple should then proceed in the following order with his reading:
1. The Passage of the Red Sea.
2. The Entrance Into the Land of Promise.
3. Paracelsus, especially his Manual.
4. Raymund Lully, particularly his Vade Mecum, Lignum Vitae, Testament, and Codicil.
5. The Turba Philosophorum.
6. Denis Zachaire.
7. Trevisan.
8. Roger Bacon.
9. D'Espagnet.
ALCHITURA --- Liquid Pitch.
ALCOOLIZATION --- Reduction of a Body into its smallest parts. According to the Spagyric Philosophers, it is the same thing as Philosophic Calcination. Indeed, the terms are used interchangeably, and express the same process. But Alcoolization should not be confounded with ordinary chemical calcination, for in hermetic science the latter term has only a symbolical significance.
ALCOFIL NIGRA --- One of the names which the Alchemists give to Antimony. It is also called Alophjt.
ALCUR --- Sulphur.
ALETH --- The Jupiter of the Philosophers, and the Tin of the Chemists.
ALLEGORY --- A Greek Term which signifies that words should be understood in another than their natural sense --- that is, when one thing is said, and another meant.
ALERNET --- Orpiment.
ALLOR --- Burnt Copper.
ALLUTEL --- A Vessel designed for the Sublimation of Liquefied Matter.
ALMAGRA --- Chemists of the vulgar school give this name to Bolus, to Copper, and to Laton, but the philosophers understand by it the Matter of their Stone. According to Morien, it is Laton, named Red Earth, that is, Philosophical Sulphur.
ALMAKIST --- Lltharge.
ALMAT --- Ceruse, or Rust of Lead.
ALMAT KASITE --- Quicksilver.
ALMA --- Philosophical Water.
ALOE --- An Elk.
ANABISI, or ADEBEZI --- A Term of the Spagyric philosophers, which signifies the Shell, Bark, or Rind, which encloses the true matter of the Mercury of the Philosophers. It signifies the climbing Tendril of a Vine and also a Tortoise.
ANDROGYNE, or HERMAPHRODITE --- That is to say, Bisexual Water --- a name which the Philosophers have given to the purified matter of their Stone after Conjunction. It is properly their Mercury, which they call male and female.
ANGELS --- The chemical Philosophers sometimes give this name to the Volatile Matter of their Stone. They then say that their body is spiritualized, and that one will never succeed in performing the Grand Work unless one corporifies spirits, and spiritualizes bodies. This operations is philosophical sublimation, and it is certain that the fixed never becomes sublimated without the assistance of the volatile.
ANGLE --- The thing which has three angles --- a term of Hermetic science-The Philosophers say that their matter, or the Philosophical Mercury, is a substance having three angles as regards the substance of which it is composed, of four as regards its virtue, and of two in respect of its matter, while in its root it is one. These three angles are salt, sulphur, and mercury; the four are the elements; the two are the fixed and the volatile, and the one is the remote matter, or the chaos from which all has been produced.
ANIMAL --- The Philosophers have bestowed this name upon their matter after it has passed through putrefaction. It is so called because it grows in sublimation, and Chas a soul of blood colour, namely, the invisible spirit of vitriol.
ANIMATION --- This term of Hermetic science signifies the endowment of Mercury with a metallic spirit, which vivifies it, so to speak, and fits it for the production of philosophical sulphur. Philalethes and Bernard Trevisan have written much about this animation. The latter calls it Double Mercury.
ANRIC --- Sulphur.
ANTIMUM --- Spring Honey.
APHORISMUS --- A General Rule in Medicine.
APHIDEGI --- Ceruse.
APPOSITION --- The Philosophers say that one --- must begin by the apposition of citrine red Mercury in order to pass from the white to the red. It is a philosophical figure of speech. The truth is that nothing is added, for the matter contains within itself all that is required. The matter is simply cooked, augmenting the necessary fire. Those who understand this figure of speech literally, and introduce a citrine red Mercury fall into a serious error.
AQUA OLVES --- Distilled Vinegar. Some chemists use the same term to signify Aquafortis.
AQUALA --- Philosophical Arsenic.
AQUILEGIA --- Theophrastus calls the yellow-flowered plant Genista by this name.
AQUILENA --- The plant Larkspur.
ARACAB --- The Eagle of the Philosophers.
ARACEUM --- A Slime for Sealing Vessels.
ARAXOS --- Soot.
ARCHILAT --- A Weight of Three Grains.
AROP --- The Matter of which the Stone is formed --- at least, it is the Matter of which the Magisterium is composed, which also contains but one thing.
ARSAG --- Arsenic.
ARSAVEILE --- Sublimed Arsenic. Called also Arcanec and Artanec.
ARSENIC OF THE PHILOSOPHERS --- The Mercury of the Wise --- otherwise, the matter from which this Mercury is extracted. It is also the Hermetic Matter when it has reached the black stage, and the Sulphur or active and masculine seed. Some also understand by this term that Salt, which is the bond between Sulphur and Mercury, and is one of the three principles of Nature, and of all composites.
ARSENIC --- Incombustible Arsenic of the Philosophers --- the Hermetic Stone perfected to the white degree.
ARUNCULA MAJOR --- The Matter of the Philosopher's Stone.
ASABON --- In Hermetic science, the Azoth of the Philosophers, with which they whiten their Laton.
ASABUM --- Tin; the Jupiter of the Philosophers.
ASERIT --- Living Sulphur.
ASMON --- Sal Ammoniac.
ASMUM --- Weights for weighing --- such as the pound, ounce, etc.
ASROB --- The Matter of the Philosophers in Putrefaction --- their Head of the Raven, Saturn, etc.
ASSA FOETIDA --- The Hermetic Philosophers have applied this name to the Mercury of Ripley, because it has the smell of this substance, when newly extracted from the mineral ore. This odour, according to Raymund Lully, is of the strongest kind, but it is changed by circulation into a quintessence of a most sweet and pleasant savour.
ASSALA --- An Arabic term which signifies Alum.
ASSUGAR --- Verdigris.
ASTRUM EX IGNE --- The Archetypal Form of Fire.
ATALANTA --- According to the Spagyric Philosophers is the Volatile Matter of the Magnum Opus which can only be arrested by the fixed matter, symbolically represented as the Golden Apples, since there is nothing more fixed than the radical matter of gold. When a fountain is said to be caused to burst forth from a rock, it means that the philosophical stone produces water, of which earth is made, and then again water. It is also said that Atalanta sleeps in the temple of her mother with Hippomenes, because the fixed and the volatile are placed together in the same vessel, and this is the chemical marriage which is so much talked of by philosophers.
ATIMAD --- Antimony.
ATTENUATION --- Reduction into Powder; Pulverised Matter or Substance, separated from all terrene particles, or otherwise subtilised.
ALTAR --- Some adepts have assigned this name to their Mercury and to their Matter, when operated on in the vessel.
AUTUMN --- The period when the artist obtains the reward of his labours. It is of a dry and cold complexion. It must ever be remembered that dissolution takes place in winter, coction in spring, coagulation in summer, and the garnering of the fruits in autumn-that is, the imparting of the tincture.
AYBORZAT --- Galbanum.
AZECI --- Philosophical Vitriol.
AZINARBAN --- A term by which the Spagyric Philosophers signified the Feces, or that impurity which is separated from the pure matter of the sages.
ARIES --- The Sulphur of the Philosophers when perfect at the Red stage. It derives this name from its warm and dry quality, which is characteristic of the Sign Aries. The adepts say that they extract their steel from the belly of Aries, and they call their steel Magnet by this name. But when the Cosmopolite and Philalethes so express themselves, they speak of the actual matter of the work, of which their sulphur is formed.
ATTEMPER --- This is the same as Coction, and it is in this sense that Raymund Lully says that our iron attempers sharp and bitter substances.
APOCALYPSE --- While the adepts of Hermetic science claim that the secret sense of the Book of Genesis is concerned with their mysteries, they regard the Apocalypse as especially alchemical in its interior meaning. It is, in fact, nothing less than a poem in praise of Alchemy.
B B B
BAGEDIA --- A Weight of One Ounce, or a Pound according to the measure of medicine.
BALM --- Universal Balm of Nature --- is the Elixir perfected to the white or red stages, abounding in marvels and astonishing powers in the three kingdoms of Nature-vegetable, animal and mineral-for it educes their latent perfections, and is a most rare and little understood Medicine; it is an infallible and sovereign remedy of all diseases and can even resuscitate the dead.
BALSAM --- The Universal Balsam, or The Elixir of Life. According to Bernard Trevisan, the Universal Catholicon is nothing else than the reduction of the Philosophical Stone into Mercurial Water. It is also called Potable Gold. It cures every species of disease, and prolongs life even beyond the common limits of humanity. According to the same authority, the Perfect Elixir at the Red changes copper, lead, iron, and all metals into purer gold than can be produced from any mines. The Perfect Elixir at the White, which is also called Oil of Talc, changes all metals into the finest silver.
Among the many recipes for a Balsam or Elixir of Life, the following may be cited in this place. Take eight pounds of Mercurial Sap, two pounds of the Sap of Borage, using leaves and stems for the extract; twelve pounds of Narbonne or other honey, the best that can be found in the country; boil them altogether and skim. Filter and clarify. For the space of twenty-four hours set apart for infusion over hot cinders four ounces of sliced gentian root, infused in three half-pints of white wine. Stir occasionally. Pass the wine through a linen bag without squeezing it. Add this concoction to the saps and honey; boil the whole gently till it reaches the consistence of syrup. Turn it, to cool, into a glazed earthenware pan; then put it into bottles, which must be stored in a warm place. One spoonful should be taken every morning. This syrup prolongs life, confirms health against all manner of maladies, even gout, and moderates heat in the bowels. It is good for sciatica, vertigo, and generally for all internal complaints.
BALSAM --- The Sovereign Medicine, regarded from the standpoint of the Metallic Kingdom, is said to be made by taking the Stone, grinding it, powdering it, separating its terrestrial nature by the secret fire, subliming it, dissolving it in the Water of the Sea of the Wise, and then proceeding by the way of decoction. The Water of the Sea of the Philosophers is of the same nature as the Stone, because all that is comprised under the mineral and metallic nature was formed and nourished of that very same water in the bowels of the earth, whither it penetrates along with the influence of the stars.
BALSAM --- The Philosophical Stone, which is simply the Elixir of Life in another form, and under another phase, while the Elixir of Life is in like manner another phase and form of the Philosophical Stone, is the pledge not only of incalculable riches, of health ever blooming, but even, as some affirm, of immortality. The person who possesses it will find no one able to withstand him.
The philosophical theory of the Metallic Elixir is thus stated: Those Philosophers who experimented by the dry path have succeeded in rendering a part of their gold volatile, and reducing it into a sublimate, white as snow and shining like crystal. The remaining portion they have converted into a fixed salt, and from the conjunction of the volatile and the fixed, they have made their Elixir. Other Philosophers, subsequently, after another method, which is the humid way, have extracted from the interior of Mercury an igneous spirit, which is mineral, vegetable, and reproductive. In the humid concavity of this spirit is concealed the primitive Mercury, or universal quintessence. By the means of this spirit, they have attracted the spiritual seed contained in gold, and have thus obtained their sulphur, and that Mercury of the Philosophers which is neither solid as a Metal, nor of fluid-like Quicksilver, but has a medial condition between them.
BARNA --- A Glass Vessel.
BASILISK --- The Chemical Philosophers have sometimes given this name to their Mercury, because it dissolves everything. Some understand it to refer to the Stone at the White Stage, others to the Stone at the Red Stage, because just as the ancients said that the basilisk slew by the mere glance of its eye all those upon whom it fell, so also the powder of projection made of the stone at the white or the red stage, and projected upon Mercury or other metals, kills them, so to speak, by fixing them (as the eye of the basilisk killed also by fixing its victims) and transmutes them into silver or gold.
BASZIAL --- Beans.
BATH OF THE PHILOSOPHERS --- That which the alchemists term the Bath is a matter reduced into a liquid or aqueous form; thus when it is required to perform projection on a metal, that metal must be melted, and this is called the Bath, or reduction in to the mercurial form, where the King and Queen come to Bathe --- that is, the Sun and Moon-because it is liquid water.
BATH OF THE PHILOSOPHERS --- is when operations of circulation take place in the egg. The philosophers say that the King and Queen bathe in the fountain as many times as it will naturally contain them. Reference is also implied to the time when the distillation of the philosophical Mercury takes place.
BATHE --- To put in a Bath. The Philosophers say that they prepare a bath for the Sun and the Moon, for the King and the Queen, etc. In the symbolic pictures of Abraham the Jew, preserved by Flamel, there is a king so-called, armed with a great cutlass, who causes a large number of children to be slain in his presence by soldiers, while their mothers wail at the feet of the merciless military. The blood which flows from the victims is subsequently collected into a large vessel, wherein the Sun and Moon of the heaven come down to bathe themselves. This fountain is solely for the use of the king of the country. Sometimes the alchemists understand by the term Bathing the Coction of the Matter, and its Circulation in the Philosophical Egg.
BATHE --- Remark that Calcination, Tinging, Washing, Whitening and Bathing signify one operation, and that all these words signify the Coction of the Matter until it has attained its perfection.
BDELLERUM --- Saintfoin.
BDOLA--- Sulphur.
BEAST --- The Venomous Beast of the Sages and their Serpent. This is the Philosophical Stone when it is sublimated, and this by similitude as much as because the serpent glides along insensibly, and slays by means of its venom. In like manner the Stone, being perfect, enters and penetrates the metal, which is imperfect, and kills it-that is to say, annihilates its first imperfect being, together with its volatility, and tinges and fixes it at the perfect white or red.
BELISIS --- The Coral of the Philosophers.
BEMBEL --- is the Philosophical Mercury, and sometimes the operation of the Stone of the Sages --- one is often taken for the other.
BERINBRUCH --- A Stone found in the neighbourhood of Ephesus. The inhabitants of Darmstadt on the Rhine have applied this name to it on account of the effects it produces. The physicians term it Otea Colla.
BESEC --- Mercury of the Sages.
BHACTA --- Red Earth.
BLACINA --- Several Metals melted or fused together.
BOLUS, JUDAIC BOLUS --- The Marshmallow.
BOLESIS --- See Belisis.
BULESON --- Balm.
BORAX --- The Stone of the Philosophers at the white stage.
BORIN --- Vinegar, Terebinth, or Alkali.
BORITIS --- The Philosophers apply this name to their Mercury when it has reached the black stage, and is indeed very black as well as very thick. It is, otherwise the Laton which must be rendered white.
BOTHRACHIUM --- The Ash of Sardaigre, called by the botanists Apium Risus. Bozix --- Turpentine, or the Balsam which is artificially extracted therefrom.
BLAS CARDIS --- A Vital Spirit, and, consequently, a kindler of heat. The spirit is animated, and becomes the mother of the heat.
BLAS REGIMINIS --- Acts around the effluvium of the body when the moon disturbs the sea.
BRETAN --- Brefil Wood.
BRUMAZAR --- A name which some Philosophers have bestowed on their Mercury. It is a Fatty and Unctuous Vapour which the author of Clangor Buccinae refers to in the following terms: Bread which has been fermented and baked occupies, so far as it is perfect in itself, the same position as gold when it is purified by fire; it is a fixed body, susceptible of no further fermentation, unless it is mixed with Brumazar, that is, the First Matter of metals, wherein a becomes resolved into this First Matter. Take therefore this matter of which gold is composed, and by means of our art make the philosophical ferment, etc.
BRAY --- In chemical language this signifies the Coction of the Matter, and not its pounding in a mortar or otherwise.
BURN --- In chemical language this term is equivalent to assaying; it is not to be interpreted as calcination or submitting actually to the fire. It is simply the Coction of the Matter in its own vase by a moderate fire.
C C C
CAB --- Philosophical Gold.
CABALA --- The Science of the Philosophical Stone, or of Hermetic Philosophy, forms part of the Cabala, or Kabbalah, and is only orally taught.
CABET --- Iron Scales, or Filings of Iron.
CACOCHYLA --- An Injurious Sap found in certain Bodies.
CADMIA AURI --- Litharge of Gold.
CADMIA --- One of the names which the Hermetic Philosophers have given to the matter of their Stone. Some have also given the name of Cadmia to the heterogeneous parts of this matter which must not be permitted to enter into the work. It is correctly the stone in the red stage.
CADUCEUS --- The Chemical Philosophers have given to their dissolvent the name of the Caduceus of Mercury, because they affirm that the makers of the classical fable in question intended to indicate the dissolvent by the symbol of the Caduceus. The Caduceus is composed of three parts --- of the golden stem, or rod, surmounted by an iron apple, and of two serpents which seem to be on the point of devouring it. One of these serpents represents the volatile portion of the matter of the Philosophers, the other signifies the fixed part, and these strive with one another in the vessel. They are united, equilibrated, and restrained in the poise of fixation by the philosophical gold, typified in the stem or rod, and thus they are inseparably united in one body.
CAGASTRUM --- A term which Paracelsus invented, the image, or representation, or simulacrum of a real thing, or something which in itself has no reality. It is the antithesis of Yliastrum. He says that Cagastrum is what nitrous salt is to the first matter of all things, or what the flesh of man is to the first matter of that flesh. The flesh of man became Cagastrum after the fall --- a mere image of what it was in the primal state. In like manner, there are two kinds of life --- one according to Yliaster, or that of the spirit, the other Cagastric, or that of the animal nature. Consult Paracelsus in Azoth.
CAIN --- A name which the Philosophers have applied to their Matter in putrefaction and when it has reached the black stage, possibly on account of the malediction which God pronounced upon the son of Adam when he murdered his brother Abel, or because the flagitious lives of his descendants necessitated the deluge which destroyed almost the whole of the human race. This deluge is represented by the Dissolution of the Matter, and its effect by putrefaction.
CAL --- Philosophical Arsenic, or the Matter of the Chemists, not only during the period of its dissolution, when it is a virulent poison, but also when it has arrived at the white state.
CALAMBAC --- Aloes.
CALCADIN --- Colcotar, or the Matter of the Philosophers arrived at the red state.
CALCICOS --- Copper.
CALCITHOS --- Green Copper.
CALCITARI --- Alkaline Salt, Alkael.
CALDAR --- Tin.
CALERUTH --- A sign of a tendency or desire to return to the perpetual principle, as when substance desires to return to the first matter whence it proceeded.
CALIDITY or CALOR --- A quality of the Fixed Matter of the Philosophers. They have given this name to their male, or the Fixed-which is also called Sulphur, Living Silver, Frigidity, Humidity, etc.
CALIX CHYMICUS --- Glass of Antimony.
CALLENA --- Saltpetre.
CALMET --- The Antimony of the Philosophers.
CALUFAL --- Indian oil.
CALYFUR --- An Arabic word which some chemists make use of to signify cloves.
CAMBAR --- The Matter of the Sages arrived at the white stage.
CAMBIA --- An exudation, gum, etc.
CAMBILE --- The Red Earth of the Philosophers.
CAMERETH --- The Fixed or Red Mercury of the Philosophers, or the Sulphur of the Sages.
CAMES or CAMET --- Silver, or the Philosophical Matter arrived at the white stage.
CANCER --- The Stone of the Philosophers fixed at the red stage, and so named on account of its warm and dry quality, and of its igneous virtue, which has also caused it to be designated the Stone of Fire and Mineral of Celestial Fire.
CANICULUM --- The Fire of the Caniculum. Some Hermetic Philosophers have applied this name to their Third Fire or Fire of the Third Grade, which is compared to the warmth of the Caniculum or the Dog-Star, which is supposed to be the most extreme or fierce of the whole year. This does not, however, mean that we are to augment the fire up to the third degree, for we are told that it must be equal and continuous throughout the whole course of the work. The augmentation in question refers to the interior fire.
CAPE --- Mineral Earth which forms bodies and composes the metallic stones which are combined with metal but are not themselves metallic. It is the petrine matter which occasions the operations of extracting alloy from metals in order to obtain them in a pure state.
CAPITELLUM --- Water of Soap, also Caput Mortuum, or Feces.
CAPITELLUM --- Some Philosophers have applied this name to Lye and Water of Soap.
CAPITELLUM OF ALAMBAT --- This name has also been given to the Matter of the Work when it has reached the black stage.
CAPRICORNUS --- According to Mangetus some Philosophers have applied this name to Lead. He would have been correct if he had said that they applied it to the Lead of the Philosophers, or their Saturn. The name in question was given to this substance because Capricornus signifies the winter solstice, corresponding to the matter of the work in its black stage, for the Saturn of the Philosophers is also the Winter of the Philosophers.
CARAB --- Vegetable Salt [?].
CARAHA --- A name which the Chemical Philosophers have given to one of their Philosophical Bulls. It is the first of these; the second is called Aludel.
CARDEL --- Mustard.
CARDIS --- Jupiter or Tin.
CARUMFEL --- The Giraffe.
CARSUFLE --- Same as Corsufle.
CASIBO --- The Cypress.
CASMET --- Antimony.
CASPA --- The Philosophical Matter at the white stage.
CATILIA, or CORTILIA --- A Weight of Nine Ounces.
CENTRAL FIRE --- This is the Sulphur of Matter --- the Universal Fire of Nature which informs all things. Mercury also, according to Espagnet, manifests itself by the gentle heat of Nature.
CENTRE OF THE WORLD --- This is the Matter of the Stone of the Philosophers, and the Stone itself when it is in its perfection. The Philosophers have so named it, because they say that all the properties of the universe are united and meet therein.
CERAUNO --- Fulminating Gold.
CERDAC --- Mercury.
CEXIM --- Vinegar.
CHAIA --- Matter of the Philosophers when it has arrived at the white colour.
CHALCOS --- Copper.
CHANDEL --- Coloquintha.
CHANQUE --- Nitre of the Philosophers.
CHAOS --- In order to attain to the knowledge and the execution of the physical work, the Philosopher must follow the same route that the Great Architect of the universe employed at the creation of the world, by observing how the chaos was disentangled. The chaos could have consisted of no other substance but a moist vapour, for water only is the true receptacle of forms. An illustration may be found in ordinary seeds, which always change into a certain humour. Now, this humour is their particular chaos, whence the whole form of the plant is extracted, as it were, by irradiation. The Philosopher will therefore see that from the confused mass whence the world was formed, the Sovereign Artist began by an extraction of the light, which at the same instant dissipated the darkness covering the surface of the earth, to serve as a universal form to matter. He will thence conclude easily that in the generation of all composite bodies a species of irradiation takes place, a separation of the light from the darkness, in which Nature is continually the imitator of her Creator. The Philosopher will equally understand that by the action of this light there was formed that firmament which separated the waters from the waters. The sky was afterwards adorned with luminous bodies, but things superior being too remote from things inferior, it was necessary to make the moon, as an intermediate torch between the above and the below. So the moon, when it has received the celestial influences, communicates them to the earth. Here it should be noted that there is properly but one heaven, which separates the waters from the waters. Three, nevertheless, are admitted. The first is beyond the region of the clouds, and there the rarified waters are returned towards the fixed stars. In this place are the planets and the wandering lights. The second is the abode of the fixed stars themselves. The third is the home of the celestial waters. Having separated the waters of heaven and earth, the Creator, to give a field for generation, produced a light particularly destined to this end, which he placed in the central fire, tempering that fire by the humidity of water and the coldness of earth, in order to restrain its action, and to conform its heat to the design of its author. The central fire acts continually upon the humid matter which is nearest, whence it causes a vapour to rise. This vapour is the Mercury of Nature and the First Matter of the Three Kingdoms. By the double action, or, rather, the reaction of the central fire upon the mercurial vapour, the Sulphur of Nature was afterwards formed.
Now, a truly wise Philosopher, once he has understood the foundation and order of nature which the Great Architect of the Universe observed for the construction of what exists in Nature should, so far as he is able, be a faithful imitator of his Creator. In his physical labour he should make his chaos such as it actually was, he should separate the light from the darkness, he should form his firmament to divide the waters from the waters; and, in a word, accomplish perfectly, following the path indicated, the whole work of creation.
CHAOS --- The Philosophers have given by comparison the name of Chaos to the Matter of the Work in a state of putrefaction, because then the Elements or Principles of the Stone are in such confusion that they cannot be distinguished. This chaos is developed by volatilisation; the abyss of water leaves the earth visible little by little in proportion as the humidity is sublimed and rises to the summit of the vase. It is for this reason the Hermetic Chemists have compared their work to the development of the universe out of the primeval chaos.
CHAOS, CAHOS, or CAHAS --- This is sometimes termed Water of the Dew of the Equinox, and also Menstruum of the World, or, simply, Menstruum. The Cosmopolite says in his Enigma that it is found in the belly of Aries, and in his Epilogue that the Pontic Water is congealed in the Sun and Moon, and is extracted from both by means of the Steel of the Philosophers. Both these methods of speaking have reference to the same thing.
CHARIOT OF PHAETON --- One of the designations which the Philosophers have given to the Grand Work.
CHARON --- The son of Erebus and of Night. The chemists, however, regard Charon as the symbol of the colour grey, which is intermediate between black and white. The three rivers of the fable signifies the putrefaction which takes place in the three operations of the work. These operations are termed by Gebir the Medicines of the first, second, and third order. In each the matter must be dissolved and undergo putrefaction; it must also reach the black colour, to which grey succeeds, and this grey is the mythological Charon. It is for this reason that he is called the Son of Erebus and of Night. During the course of the grey colour, the matter becomes volatile, and the philosophical Laton whitens. This is the passage of souls through or over the three rivers of the mythos, so as to arrive at the Elysian fields represented by the white stage.
CHEF D'OEUVRE --- This is the Stone of the Philosophers, the Elixir perfect at the Red Stage. Those chemists have done well who have given it this name, for it is the most excellent thing which man can possibly imagine for the realisation of his well-being.
CHELOPA --- Jalop.
CHESEP --- The Air we breathe, also that of the Philosophers. According to Avicenna and Aristotle, you will not succeed in the work unless you extract water from air, earth from water, and fire from earth.
CHIBUR or CHIBUT --- The Sulphur of the Sages when it has attained to the colour Red.
CHIMERA --- The ignorant crowd has ever regarded the search for the Philosophers' Stone as a chimera. The Adepts say that this is by a just judgment of God, who does not permit so precious a secret to be possessed by the wicked and unwise.
CHISIR --- The Sulphur principle of Metals.
CHYLE --- Matter in putrefaction.
CICEBRUM --- The Water of the Philosophers.
CIDMIA --- Litharge.
CIMMERIANS --- The Bubbles which Ascend in the Philosophical Vessel during Putrefaction.
CIRCLE --- In the terms of Hermetic Science, this signifies the Circulation of the Matter in the Egg of the Philosophers. It is in this sense that they call their operation the Movement, or Revolution, of the Heavens, the Circular Revolution of the Elements, and that they also name the Grand Work the Quadrature of the Physical Circle. Moreover, they divide the practice of the Philosophical Stone into seven circles or operations, each of which consists, nevertheless, of solution and coagulation. The first circle is the reduction of the matter into water. The second is the coagulation of this water into fixed earth. The third is the digestion of the matter, which is performed very slowly, for which reason the Philosophers say that the revolutions of this circle shall take place in the secret furnace. It cooks the nourishment for the Child of the Sages, and converts it into homogeneous parts, after the same way that the stomach prepares the aliment and turns it into substance for the body. The adept Espagnet recognises only three circles, by the repetition of which there may be performed, he tells us, the reduction of water into earth, the reconciliation of the enemies --- that is, of the volatile, and the fixed, the moist and the dry, water and fire.
CLANCHEDEST --- Steel.
CLEARNESS --- In the terminology of Hermetic Science, this signifies the Whiteness which succeeds the Blackness of the Matter in putrefaction.
COAL --- Almost all the Philosophers have said that their fire is not a fire of coal. When the regimen of the fire is concerned, that of the philosophical fire must be understood, and not that of a coal fire. Philalethes and several others, as, for example, Denis Zachaire, speak of a fire of coal as necessary to the work. According to Philalethes, a hundred measures of coal are required for the three entire years. Espagnet says that there will be few causes of expense for him who has the materials prepared and suitable, but that coal is needful.
COCK --- Sulphur, perfect in the Red Stage.
COCK --- The Fire of the Philosophers.
COLOUR --- The colour of things, and more especially of flowers, has its principle based in the sulphur and mercurial salt existing in coloured substances. There are three colours which follow one upon another in a harmonious sequence, which is, however, interrupted by intermediate colours of a transitory and evanescent nature. The first is the colour Black, which should make its appearance on or after the forty-second day. Next comes the White, to which Citrine succeeds, and this the philosophers call their Gold. Finally, the colour Red appears, and this is the Flower of their Gold, and their Royal Crown. Should the red colour be produced before the black, that is the sign of an extreme violence in the fire. The operation must be undertaken anew. The colour black is an indication of putrefaction and of the complete dissolution of the Medicine. The white indicates fixation of an advanced stage in the Matter. The red is a sign of perfect fixation. All these colours must reappear in the work of multiplication, but they are not of such long duration.
COMBUSTION --- An old term found in the works of some chemists to signify the too violent action of fire upon the matter.
COMERISSON --- One of the names of the Stone of the Sages when it has reached the white stage.
COMMIXTURE --- Some Philosophers have substituted this term in place of those of Conjunction, Marriage, Union. It is performed during putrefaction, because the fixed and the volatile then mingle to be no further separated.
COMPANION --- Philosophical Mercury Vitalised by Sulphur, and educed to the white stage.
COMPAR --- By this term the Adepts understand the fixed and the volatile Mercury and Gold of the Sages which act successively in the work. The Mercury, or the female principle, prevails first up to the end of the stage of putrefaction, at which point the matter begins to be dessicated and to whiten. Then the Gold of the Sages predominates. Afterwards, they work harmoniously together to accomplish the perfection of the work.
COMPOST --- This signifies in the philosophical vocabulary the Matter of the Stone in the Black Stage, because then the four elements are, as it were, united.
CONTRITION --- In the terms of Hermetic Chemistry this means Reduction into Powder, but only as regards the evaporation of humidity in the matter by the regimen of fire. It does not mean pounding, or braying, in a mortar.
CORPUSCULE --- The whole of the great and sublime operation of the Philosophers is performed with a single corpuscule or little body, which contains, so to speak, only feces, dross, abominations, and from which there is extracted a certain dark and mercurial moisture, which includes in itself all that is necessary to the Philosopher. For he seeks only the true Mercury. The Mercury which he should use is not that which is found in the earth, but that which is extracted from bodies. Common Mercury does not contain a sufficient quantity of Sulphur, and, consequently, we must work upon a body created by nature, in which Sulphur and Mercury are united, that is, the male and female principles, which the artist should separate. He should then purify them and afterwards join them anew. The resulting substance is the Rude Stone, Chaos, Iliaster, Hyle.
COMPOSITES --- In each Composite Substance there are three Humids:
1. The Elementary, which is properly only the vase of the other elements.
2. The Radical, which is properly the Oil or Balm, wherein resides all the virtue of the subject.
3. The Alimentary, which is the true dissolvent of Nature, exciting the internal fire, causing corruption and blackening, and informing and nourishing the subject.
CONCEPTION --- The Marriage or Union which is effected between the volatile and the fixed portions of the matter of the Philosophers during the state of putrefaction. Hermetic chemists say that the conception of the Son of the Sun, and of the Young King takes place also at this period. The term in question has been employed with analogical reference to the birth of a man or of an animal.
CONFECTION --- A Combination of Several Substances, as, for example, of the Mercury and Sulphur of the Philosophers. Flamel says that the Philosophical Egg is a matrix of glass in the form of an escritoire, and it is full of the confection of art, that is, of the Waters of the Red Sea, and of the Breath of the Mercurial Wind.
CONFECTION --- The Elixir of the Philosophers, at once a species of Stone and a Medicine for purging, curing, and transmuting all bodies into the true Luna.
CONFORMANCE, or ADAPTABILITY --- This is when projection takes place upon a metal in a state of fusion, or reduced into a liquid form, or mercurial form. It is then said that the metal has a similitude with, or is conformed to (in its Nature) the Elixir which is composed of the Mercury of the Sages. The Philosophers also recommend for the work the selection of a matter which has some conformance with the metal, because a bull is not to be produced from a tree nor from a metal.
CONGEAL --- To fix the volatile Matter of the Work of the Sages.
CONVERSION OF THE ELEMENTS --- Those who interpret the language of the Hermetic Philosophers in a literal sense imagine that the Elements of the Sages are actually four distinct and separate things, which must be extracted from one matter, and must be subsequently converted into one another-thus, for example, Oil must be made from Water, Earth from Fire, Fire from Air, etc. By the processes of common chemistry four things are extracted from composite substances --- a Spirit, a Phlegmatic Water, an Oil, and an Earth, called Caput Mortuum, or Death's Head. By others these substances have been termed a Salt, a Sulphur, a Mercury, and a Recremental, Condemned, Relegate, or Useless Earth. Those who believe themselves to have arrived at the Magistery of the Philosophers by these operations of vulgar chemistry have given the name of Air to the Oil, of Fire to the Spirit, of Water to the Phlegmatic Water, and of Earth in some cases to the Salt, and in others to the Recremental Earth. But the Elements of the Philosophers differ altogether from these substances; their operations are those of Nature and not of ordinary chemistry; their fire is enclosed in their earth, and in no case separates therefrom; their air also is contained in their water. There are therefore but two visible elements with which conversion has to be accomplished; that is to say, their water changes into their earth, in its liquid nature of water, and afterwards the entire composition which has become water must become earth. In becoming water, all becomes volatile, and, in like manner, when reduced into earth, all is fixed. Thus, when they speak of the cold and the humid, they refer to their water, and when they speak of the warm and the dry, we must understand it as concerned with their earth.
CONVERT --- To Convert the Elements. This expression of Hermetic Chemistry signifies to Dissolve and to Coagulate; to change body into spirit and spirit into body; to volatilize that which is fixed, and to fix that which is volatile. All these terms refer to one only operation, which Nature, assisted by art, performs in one vessel, which is the Vase of the Philosophers, by the same process continuously persisted in, when the matter has been thoroughly purified and sealed in the Hermetic Egg. It is then simply a question of the conduct of fire.
COPHER --- Bitumen or Asphalt.
COPULATION --- Combination, or Union, of the Fixed and the Volatile, which the Philosophers call Male and Female.
CORAL --- Red Coral. One of the names which the Philosophers have applied to their Stone when it is fixed at the red stage, which is the apex of its perfection.
CORBATUM --- Copper.
CORBIN --- I'he Work of the Stone of the Philosophers.
CORDUMENI --- The Seed called Cardanom.
CORRECTUM --- Distilled Vinegar.
CORSUFLE or CARSUFLE --- The Sulphur of the Philosophers fixed at the Red Stage.
COSMAI --- Tincture or Water of Saffron.
COSMEC or CASMET --- The Antimony of the Philosophers and of Vulgar Chemistry.
COSMETIC --- A name generally applied to all Medicaments used for healing the skin.
COSUMET --- See Cosmec.
COTONORIUM --- Liqueur.
CROWN --- The Celestial Crown. This signifies in alchemical terminology the Spirit of Wine. But when Raymund Lully and other Philosophers speak of Spirit of White Wine and of Red Wine, they must not be taken literally, for they are making veiled reference to the Red and White Mercury which are made use of in the Grand Work.
CROWN --- Royal Crown. This is the Perfect Stone at the Red Stage, and qualified to compose the Stone of Projection.
CROWN OF VICTORY --- Same as the Royal Crown. Nevertheless, some Philosophers have applied the name to their matter when it has begun to issue from the stage of putrefaction and from the Black colour.
CUT --- The Operation of Cutting with Scissors or with any other instrument, signifies chemically the coction or digestion of the matter, without opening or removing the vase.
D D D
DABESTIS --- Tortoise.
DAIMOGORGAN --- By this term the Hermetic Philosophers understand that principle which animates the whole of Nature, and, in particular, the innate and vivifying spirit of the earth of the sages, which acts in all the stages of the operation of the great work.
DAMATAU --- The Gum of the Philosophers.
DATEL or ETDATEL --- Stramonium, Thorn Apple, Greater Nightshade.
DAUGHTER OF THE GRAND SECRET --- That is, the Stone of the Philosophers, according to one authority.
DAVERIDON --- Oil.
DEALBATION --- A term of the Hermetic science. It is the Coction of the Matter until it has lost its blackness, and becomes white as snow. It is also called Lotion and Lavation. It is in this sense that we must understand the philosophical term of Washing the Laton until all its obscurity has been removed.
DECEMBER --- The Magisterium in the Black Stage-the Lime of the Putrefaction of the Matter-so called because the Philosophers give the name of winter to this operation, and because the month of December is the beginning of that season when Nature seems idle, entranced, and asleep. On this account also December in some cases signifies the Magisterium in the White Stage, because snow falls commonly during this month, and the matter in the white stage is like snow, and has indeed received the latter name on the part of certain Adepts.
DECOCTION --- In Hermetic chemistry signifies the Action of Digestion, the Circulation of the Matter in the Vessel, without the addition of any foreign matter whatever.
DECOMPOSITION --- The separation of the constituents of a composite for the discovery of its prime principles. It is properly Analysis, but, as regards the Hermetic philosophy, it signifies nothing else but the reduction of the body of the gold of the Sages to its first matter, which is done by dissolution through the mediation of the Mercury of the Philosophers.
DISENGAGEMENT --- signifies the Hen, which stands for Heat-namely, that degree of warmth which the bird in question imparts to her eggs in brooding. It is the normal and natural warmth of the given substance. Therefore when the Philosophers recommend imparting to the regimen of the fire of the work, the degree of heat which is diffused by a brooding fowl, they are not counseling the making of an artificial fire of that grade, but are, in reality, directing that Nature should be left to act with the innate implanted heat which belongs to the Matter, and is no less natural in the mineral order than is that of the Hen in the animal.
DEGREES OF THE FIRE --- See Inspissation.
DELEGI --- Azfur, is Mirabolans.
DELUGE --- By this term the Philosophers understood the Distillation of their Matter, which, after it has ascended in the form of vapours to the summit of the vessel, returns upon the earth like a rain which completely inundates it.
DEMOGORGON --- See Daimogorgon.
DENUR --- Dust..
DEPOSIT --- A term of chemistry which refers to a Liquid in which Heterogeneous Matter is infused-which matter is separated and precipitated to the bottom of the vessel in which the liquor is contained. The matter precipitated is termed a Sediment.
DERAUT --- Urine.
DESENI --- Mirabolans.
DESSICATION --- Coagulation or Fixation of the Mercurial Humidity.
DESTRUCTION --- In the terminology of Hermetic science, this term signifies the Radical Dissolution of Bodies in the Philosophical Mercury, or the Reduction of Metals into their First Matter, which is the Mercury of the Sages. Destruction signifies also the blackness and putrefaction of the Matter.
DETONATION --- A kind of noise or hissing which is heard when the volatile parts of any compound are expelled with violence, or are fixed with the help of a strong fire. This hissing also takes place, according to the philosophers at the moment of projection upon the metal.
DEVENDEN --- Oil of Nard or of Lavender.
DIACELTATESSON --- A Species for Fevers discovered by Paracelsus.
DIADEM --- The Red Colour which obtains in the Matter of the Stone at the close of each process or operation. Despise not the cinder for the diadem of our King is hidden there.
DIAMETER --- Spagyric Diameter-the Equilibrium or Temperament of the Elements in the stone.
DIAMOND --- The Stone arrived at the White Stage.
DIANA --- This is properly the Matter when it has attained the White Colour, which appears previously to the red in the Work. The red colour is called Apollo. Then is Diana wholly unveiled. When the Philosophers apply the name of the Moon, they understand their Mercurial Water. Espagnet says that the yoke of Diana is alone capable of containing the ferocity of the philosophical Dragon. Philalethes calls this yoke the Doves of Diana.
DICALEGI --- The Tin or Jupiter of the Philosophers.
DICTE --- The Cavern in which Jupiter is born. It is the Philosophical Vase.
DIGESTION --- That action by which a liquid body and a fluidic body are united, either wholly or in part, to extract their tincture, to modify them, to prepare them for dissolution or putrefaction, to cause them to circulate, and thus to volatilize the fixed and to fix the volatile by means of proportioned heat. Almost all the operations of the Great Work may be reduced to that of digestion, which the Philosophers call by various names, according to the phenomena which they have remarked in the vessel at the various stages of the operation. Thus when they make use of the terms Distillation, Sublimation, Imbibition, Ceration, Inspissation, Descension, Solution, Emission, Coagulation, etc., they understand one only operation, or digestion repeated in the medicines of the first, second and third order.
DIKALEGI --- The Tin of the Philosophers.
DIMENSIONS --- The Adepts declare that their stone has the three dimensions of other bodies, namely, height, length and depth.
DIRT or SLIME --- The Philosophers have sometimes given this name to their Matter, which has led many chemists into error, for they have set to work upon mud, sediment, etc. But Philalethes informs us that the term can only be applied to the Matter when it is in putrefaction.
DISPOSITION --- A Philosophical Confection so-called by Maria, but Trevisan terms it Weight or Proportion, and others name it Composition. It is a synthesis of the three principles philosophically combined. In his Vade Mecum, Philalethes says that we must take one part of the red or the white body, which answer to the male, two or three parts of arsenic, which fulfils the office of the female; and four parts or more, up to twelve, of the sea-water of the Sages; the whole, being well mixed, must be placed in the vase, which must be well sealed, and the vase placed in the athanor, where it must be subjected to the required regimen.
DISSOLUTION --- By this term the Chemical Philosophers do not understand the reduction of a solid body into a liquid state, but the reduction of a body into its first matter-that is to say, into those elementary principles which are its ultimate constituents. They never pretend to reduce gold, for example, into air, water, earth and fire, but into mercury composed of its four elements, albeit this mercury partakes more of water and earth than of the two others, as indeed is the case in the whole mineral kingdom.
DISSOLVENT --- The Hermetic Philosophers give the name of Universal Dissolvent to their Mercury, and the same name was applied by Paracelsus and Van Helmont to their Alkaest. The anonymous writer known under the name of Pantaleon, says that the Alkaest can and does derive from the same mineral matter as the Mercury of the Sages. But it is obtained by a different method of manipulation, and furthermore the Alkaest never mixes with the body that it dissolves, while the Mercury of the Sages combines so intimately therewith that separation cannot be subsequently performed by any artifice whatever.
DITALEM --- Jupiter of the Philosophers.
DIVISION --- When the Philosophers speak of Division or Separation into two or more parts, it must not be supposed that they refer to a manual operation, but to that which is performed in the vessel by the help of fire --- in fact, they refer to Putrefaction.
DOG OF ARMENIA --- One of the names which the Hermetic Philosophers have given to their Sulphur, or to the Masculine Sperm of their Stone.
DOG OF CORUSCENE --- One of the names which the Chemical Philosophers have given to their Mercury, or Feminine Seed of their Stone.
DOVERTAILUM --- Generation of Composite Substances by the combination of constituting Elements.
DRAGON APPEASED --- Sweet Mercury.
DRAGON WITH THREE TAILS --- Mercury when animated, for then it contains the three chemical principles --- Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury.
DRAGON WITH WINGS --- Mercury or Feminine Sperm, the Volatile part of the Matter, which strives with the fixed part, and must subsequently become fixed like that.
DRAGON WITHOUT WINGS --- The Masculine Sperm, the Sulphur or fixed part.
DRIFF --- Van Helmont has applied this name to Sand and to Virgin Earth.
DRY --- To Dry; the Coction of the Matter, its Fixation, by means of circulation, up to the point of the perfection of the Sulphur of the Stone.
DUDAMI --- Mandragore.
DUE MATTER --- The due, requisite, and veritable matter. Trevisan tells us that he laboured for forty years upon innumerable substances, but could not succeed because he had not the "due matter".
DUZAMA --- The Work of the Stone.
DYAMASSIEN or DIAMASCIEN --- Flower of Copper.
E E E
EBDANIC --- Mars, or Iron.
EBISEMET --- Randeric.
EBISEMETH --- The Matter of the Hermetic Chemists during its period of putrefaction.
ECHEL --- The Matter of the Philosophical Egg when it is in a very black state, or imperfect putrefaction.
ECHINEIS --- A small, slug-shaped Fish. Some Philosophers have applied the name to their Matter when fixed, because it fixes that which is volatile, by rejoining therewith in an inseparable manner, being henceforth one body.
EDULCERATE --- To Wash a Saline Substance, until all the salt has been removed. This term, understood in its vulgar sense, also signifies moderation of the acidity and corrosive quality of salts, spirit, or other substances. Raymond Lully employs it more than once to express, or symbolize, the coction or digestion of the Mercury of the Philosophers to the point of fixation.
EFFERVESCENCE --- A physical term which means the action of two composite substances which by interpretation produce, or generate, heat, as takes place in almost every combination of acids and alkalis, as well as in most mineral dissolutions.
EFFUSION --- The First Purification of the Stone of the Philosophers, or the Medicine of the First Order.
ELEISIR --- Philosophical Elixir when arrived at the white stage.
ELKALEI --- Marsh, Pond, or Sea of the Sages.
ELMANTES --- Earthenware Glasses, Goblets, or Phials.
ELPOSILINGI --- Scum or Scale of Iron.
ELQUALITER --- Green Vitriol.
ELZARON --- This is the Salt of the Sages, which they call their Body and their Gum. "Take", says a certain alchemical writer, "The clear body which is obtained upon the small protuberances which are not the result of putrefaction but of movement only. Broil this gum with the gum that is called Elzaron and with the two smokes. For the gum Elzaron is the body which shall be the spirit".
EMBLEGI --- That is, Mirabolans (?).
EMBRYO --- The Chemical Philosophers have also given this name among others to their Mercury before it has been extracted from its ore, and to their Sulphur before it has been rendered manifest. Michael Maier in his Chemical Symbols represents them under the form of a child placed on the navel of a man, who has his arms extended, and fire emanating from his fingers and hair amidst a great cloud of smoke. Beneath are these words: "The wind has carried it in its belly". In another emblem, a woman has a globe in place of a stomach, with two breasts above, by ones of which she suckles a child, whom she is holding in her right hand. The following words are underneath: "The Earth is its nurse; the Sun. is its father, and the Moon is its mother".
EMERALD OF THE PHILOSOPHERS --- A name which has been given to the Flos Coeli, and sometimes to the Dew of May and of September. The last is looked upon as masculine because it is more cocted and digested by the warmth of the summer. The other is considered female because it is colder, cruder, and more akin to winter in its quality. Some chemists, understanding these words literally, have imagined that dew was the matter from which the Philosophers extracted their mercury, because they often say in their books that mercury is male and female. So they have deemed that the union of the Dew of May with that of September would constitute that marriage so recommended by true chemists. But they should have noticed that the matter of their mercury must be mineral because the ox will produce but the ox, the apple an apple only, and it is an egregious blunder to suppose that any metal can ever be produced from a tree or a plant.
EPHESUS, or THE BATH --- The Second Operation of the Stone, wherein the dry fire is dissolved by the humid fire.
EPHODOBUTIS --- Some chemists have given this name to their Stone when it is perfect at the red, on account of the purple colour of the vestment which formerly bore this name.
EPOSILINGI --- Scoria.
ETHEB --- A term of Hermetic science which signifies Perfect. Thus, when the Philosophers say that their powder converts so many parts of lead, tin, etc., into Etheb, they understand Gold or Silver, which they regarded as perfect metals.
EVAPORATION --- Separation of the Spirits, or spirituous matter of bodies, by the action of air on fire. The Mercury of the Sages has two original sins, says Espagnet; the first is an impure earth and sulphureous, which is separated from it by the humid bath; the second is a superfluous humidity which must be evaporated not by the dry bath of fire, but of the mild and benign fire of Nature.
EVE --- The Magisterium of the Sages when it has attained whiteness.
EXTREMES --- The Extremes of the Work are the Radical Elements of All Things, and Gold, the Perfection of the Work. We must neither take the elements for the matter of the work, nor yet Gold, but another matter, which participates in the principiating elements, or secondary matter of metallic compounds. In the same way that to make bread, we do not take baked bread, but the flour of wheat, so do we proceed in the operations of our art.
EXTREMITIES OF THE STONE --- Philalethes terms them the Dimensions, and says that Mercury is one of them, while the complete Elixir is the other. The middle substances are the bodies or the imperfect philosophical metals. The two extremities in the work are the excessive crudity of the matter before it is prepared, and its perfect fixation--in other words, crude Mercury and the Powder of Projection.
EYEB or EZEPH --- The Sun of the Philosophers.
EZIMAR--- Flowers of Brass.
F F F
FACCA DE MALACCA --- Molucca Bean.
FADA --- The Matter of the Work when arrived at the White Stage.
FAUFEL --- Cashou.
FEBLECH --- Iron or Steel of the Philosophers.
FELDA --- Lung, or Silver of the Philosophers.
FIDEUM --- Saffron.
FIDHE --- Luna of the Alchemists.
FLUX --- That which helps towards the fusion of those substances with which they are combined. In the language of Hermetic science, flux means anything which enters readily into the condition of fusion. One of the signs of the perfection of the Elixir of Philosophy, and of the Powder of Projection, is that they will flow like wax when brought into proximity with fire, and can be liquefied into all kinds of liquids.
FLUX OF THE ART --- Some assign this name to the Prepared Mercury of the Philosophers, others to the Matter when arrived at the White Stage.
FOG, MIST, etc. --- There is a thick vapour resembling Fog or Mist which rises from the Matter and Condenses in the Philosophical Air, whence it again descends to moisten, purify, and fructify the Philosophical Earth.
FORCE --- Another term of the Hermetic science, which must be understood as much of the Mercury of the Philosophers as of the Spirit which it encloses. When it is said that all its power is converted into earth, this means that it has really become a fixed white earth, which will successfully resist all tests. To "lay hold of the power of things superior and inferior", is to perform the extraction of Mercury, and to put it, when thoroughly purified, into a state of digestion, to prepare it for circulation, and finally fix it in the form of earth at the bottom of the vase.
FORCE OF ALL FORCES --- By this expression, we must understand the Elixir when perfect at the Red, or the Powder of Projection, when it has vanquished all the diseases of the three kingdoms, however persistent they may be.
FOREST --- When the Philosophers say that their Matter is found in the Forests, the assertion must not be understood literally, nor must one actually seek that Matter in the woods. But, as it is everywhere, and not in the Forests more than in other places, the term signifies the terrestrial Matter in which the true First Matter is confused, and whence it must be extracted, as from a chaos where it is well hidden from vulgar eyes, and where the Philosophers alone can perceive it, albeit an innumerable multitude of persons make common use of it, sell it publicly at a small price, for indeed it costs really nothing at all, and is found everywhere. This terrestrial and superfluous Matter, from which the true Matter must be disengaged, is that which has been termed by Philosophers, both ancient and modern, their Forests, their dark, umbrageous, obscure, and cavernous places. It is also on the same principle that they say: Make manifest that which is hidden.
FORM --- The Human Form --- The Sulphur of the Philosophers when perfect at the Red Stage. This name has been applied to it because man in his masculine quality gives the human form to the seed which produces the child in the womb of its mother, even as does the Philosophical Sulphur in respect of the Feminine Mercury of the Sages. The Philosophical Mercury is, moreover, termed Microcosm as well as Man.
FORM --- The Female Form-The Stone at the White Stage. By this term Dry Mercurial Water is sometimes understood, and at other times the Luna of the Philosophers.
FRIDANUS --- Dissolving Mercury of the Sages.
FRUIT --- The Magisterium at the Red Stage, so called because it is in all truth the fruit of the labour of the artist.
FRUIT --- with Two Breasts --- The Stone when perfect at the White and the Red, which both proceed from the same root, that is, from the Mercury of the Sages.
FRUIT --- Solar and Lunar --- The same as above, or White and Red Sulphur, produced by the Lunar and Solar Trees, of which the Cosmopolite speaks in his Enigma for the Children of Science.
FURFIR --- The Red Colour which appears in the Matter of the work as the result of coction only.
FUSIBILITY --- A Quality of Melting under Heat possessed by certain Bodies. The term is scarcely applicable to anything but metals. The quality in question is due to the Mercury of the Bodies --- those which have more Mercury being more fusible, while those which have less are harder and offer more resistance to fire. Many chemists, misled by common experience, have attributed fusibility to Sulphur, but, as Becher points out, it only accelerates fusion by absorbing the Acid Spirits and Salt.
FYADA --- This term signifies, in the terminology of Secret Chemistry, the White Smoke of the Philosophers.
G G G
GABERTIN --- The Fixed Part of the Matter of the Magnum Opus. The volatile part is called Beza.
GABRIENIS --- The Sulphur of the Philosophers.
GABRIUS --- See Gabertin.
GAME --- A Game for Children. The Philosophers have given this name to the Work of the Stone after the preparation of the Mercury, because there nature takes up the work, and it is requisite only to maintain the fire, following the rules of a certain definite procedure.
GANNANA --- Peruvian Bark.
GARDEN --- The Garden of the Philosophers is the Vessel which contains the Matter of the Magnum Opus.
GARMENT --- Dark Garment. Another of the multitudinous names by which the Adepts have described the black colour which possesses the Matter of the work during the period of putrefaction.
GAZAR --- Galbanum.
GAZARD --- The Laurel Tree.
GELAPO --- Jalap.
GELSEMIN --- The Plant Jasmin.
GELUTA --- A Plant mentioned by Paracelsus. It is the Carline Thistle.
GENTARUM --- Succinum or Amber.
GEPSIN --- A Plaster.
GERM --- The Mercury of the Philosophers, the principle and the seed of all metals, without being actually itself a metal, though potentially it is, of course, metallic.
GERSA --- White Lead.
GIALAPPA --- Jalap or Marvel of Peru.
GLASS OF MARY --- Talc and Arabian Stone.
GLESSUM --- Succinum or Amber.
GOLD --- Its Artificial Production. It is not only by the common operations of mining and digging in the profundities of the earth that it is possible to obtain Gold. It is quite within the powers of Art to imitate Nature in this matter, for Art perfects Nature in this as in many other things. We propose to provide in this place an account of a formal experiment, the worth of which has been tested over and over again, and has in fact become little less than familiar among operators in the pursuit of the Grand Work. In order to perform it a large crucible must be provided, and it must be of such a quality as will be able to resist the action of intense heat. This crucible must be set over a burning furnace, and at the bottom of the vessel there must be strewn Powder of Colophony (a kind of resin) to about the thickness of the little finger. Above this undermost layer there must be another layer of Fine Powder of Iron -that is, the Finest Iron Filings --- which shall be of the same thickness. Subsequently, the filings must be covered with a little Red Sulphur. Then the fire in the furnace must be increased till the iron filings have passed into a liquid condition. The next operation is to throw in Borax --- that kind which is made use of by goldsmiths for melting gold. To this must be added a like quantity of Red Arsenic, and as much Pure Silver as will be equivalent to the weight of the Iron Filings. Let the entire composition undergo coction by driving the furnace, taking care at the same time not to inhale the steam, on account of the arsenic in the vessel. Take then another crucible into which, by inclining the first vessel, you must pour the cocted matter, having previously stirred it effectually with an iron spatula. Proceed in such a manner that the composition will flow into the second crucible in a purified state, and devoid of recremental matter. By means of the Water of Separation, the Gold will be precipitated to the bottom. When it has been collected, let it be melted in a crucible, and the result will be good Gold, which will repay all pains and expense which have been devoted to its production. This chemical secret is contained in the "Hermetic Cabinet", and the facility with which the experiment can be performed has led many persons to undertake it. The authority cited in support of it is no less than that of the most learned Basil Valentine, who also affirms that the operation of the Grand Work of the Philosophers can be performed in less than three or four days, that the cost should not exceed three or four florins, and a few earthen vessels are sufficient for the whole experiment.
GOLD --- Its Artificial Production. It is said that all roads lead to Rome, and the student of the Adepts and their followers will sometimes be tempted to conclude from the immense variety of methods that are described in the works of the Philosophers that there are as many processes which may result in the manufacture of Artificial Gold, as there are paths leading to the Eternal City. There is no doubt that a very considerable proportion of these must be discounted, some as the subterfuges resorted to by veritable initiates to conceal their arcanum from the vulgar crowd of fortune-hunters and dealers in the curious, but many more as the spurious devices of impostors who traded in the name of Alchemy at a period when it was possible to do so. Over and above these, there is a certain proportion of neglected and unknown experiment which has no authority to recommend it, and must be taken for what it is worth. An example of this class is the Process of Caravana, a Spanish-American of the early colonial period. It runs in the following manner: Take Living Sulphur, Salt of Nitre, and Saltpetre --- the same quantity of each, that is to say, about four ounces. Having reduced the whole to powder, place it in a well-sealed glass vessel, and plaster it over thoroughly with an adhesive clay. Set it by a slow fire for the space of two hours. At the end of this time augment the fire until it burns without emitting any smoke-that is, until it is a clear glowing fire-then let a clear flame play round the neck and along the sides of the vessel, and when it is expended the Sulphur will be found precipitated at the bottom of the vase, and it will be of a white colour and a fixed consistence. Let it be removed, and having added thereto a like quantity of Sal Ammoniac, the whole must be well pounded and pulverised, and afterwards sublimed over a fire which shall be slow at the beginning, but shall be gradually increased for the space of four hours. All the sublimed matter must then be taken from the vase, including the lees at the bottom. The whole must be incorporated together, again sublimed, and this operation is to continue up to the sixth time, after which the Sulphur will be again found at the bottom, must be again collected, and again pounded, this time on a marble slab in a moist locality. It will then be changed into an oil, six drops of which must be poured upon a Ducat of Gold that has been melted in a crucible. From this another oil will result, which will congeal upon a slab of marble. One part of this oil poured upon fifty parts of prepared and purged Mercury will produce a most excellent Sol.
GOLD --- A process for its manufacture, attributed to Raymond Lully. Perfect Coction is the one thing needful in the great work of the Philosophers. To ensure this Perfect Coction, proceed in the following manner: Prepare an Ash, composed of the Wood of the Vine, and the Bones of a Horse or an Ox, well burned and calcined, until they are exceedingly white. Pulverise this Ash, place it in a Vessel of Glazed Clay, filled with forge-water, and add thereto as much Quick Lime as there is of Ash. Boil the whole together until the water is reduced by half. Then add four ounces of Fine Silver, previously beaten into thin plates of about the weight of a halfpenny. Let there be twelve of these plates. Cast them into the vessel which contains the Decocted Ash, and continue boiling until the water is again reduced by half. Then extract the twelve Silver plates; clean them at once with a white linen cloth, and leave the composition in the vessel to settle. A species of Salt will be found upon the surface, after the manner of crystals, and this must be skimmed off by means of a pewter spatula. Throw a little more forge-water into the vessel, and again boil. Then let it cool, and skim off the crystals of Salt. Continue this process until no more Salt can be obtained. Add to this Philosophical Salt four times the quantity of what is called Vegetable Salt, which is composed of Sulphur, Saltpetre and Tartar, in such a manner as good artists know how to combine them, and as indeed it may be obtained from all good apothecaries. Over and above this, take four ounces of Cement of Tiles, the reddest that can be obtained. Reduce them to a very fine powder. Then beat out as many small plates of Ducat Gold as you have already prepared of Silver, both being of the same weight. Use the best quality of crucible that you can obtain, and place at the bottom thereof a layer of your Salts, and your cement of Red Earth, with a little goldsmith's Borax. On the top of this layer place a plate of Gold. Cover it with a second layer of the Salts and Cement, and on this place a second plate of Gold. Continue this arrangement up to the twelfth time, and let the twelfth plate of Gold be covered with a final layer of Salts and Cement. Cover the crucible, seal it with adhesive clay, and set it in a burning fire, for such time as you shall judge will be required to melt your Gold, and precipitate it to the bottom of the crucible. This being done, take another vessel, shaped like a horn, and having a top which will shut or open, as required, when it is in the furnace. Transfer your Gold to this vessel, with a little Borax to melt it. When you judge that the Gold is melted, pass one of your prepared plates of Silver through the mouth into the vessel, so that the Gold may assimilate and be nourished thereby. Do this every twelve hours, till you have exhausted all your plates of Silver. Then extinguish your fire, allow your vessel to cool, and therein you shall find nearly double the quantity of Gold that you have placed therein; it will, moreover, furnish you with an excellent menstruum for augmenting Gold, if you follow the directions that have been given. It can be multiplied a million times.
GOLD --- Precipitated Gold or Gold of Life. Take two ounces of Quicksilver, which has been purged and cleansed by means of Salt and Vinegar. Add one drachm of fine Oriental Gold reduced to powder. Knead them well together in a glazed earthenware dish, which must be slightly warmed until they are thoroughly mixed. Such a composition is usually termed an Amalgam. Turn this Amalgam into cold water. Should there be a small quantity of Quicksilver which has not become incorporated with the Gold, it must be again cocted and purified, after which it must be reunited to the Amalgam, and the latter must be washed with Distilled Salt and Vinegar, till all recremented matter disappears. Should the Quicksilver become diminished by these processes, it must be augmented. For one drachm of Gold, there must be eight drachms of the Mercury. Place the Amalgam in an alembic of strong glass, well luted, and sealed with adhesive earth, taking care to add two ounces of Aquafortis, and distil the composition by a sand fire. Return to the alembic what has passed into the recipient. Repeat this process five times, after which you will find a fine powder at the bottom of the alembic. Place this powder in an earthenware vessel which will withstand a violent heat. Moisten the powder with good rose-water. Close the vessel so effectually that nothing can possibly escape; place it in the furnace; raise the fire till the vessel becomes red-hot; let it cool in the same furnace; and then you will be in possession of your Precipitated Gold.
This Precipitated Gold has the power of curing the plague, the pox, leprosy, dropsy, and other maladies which resist the healing art. It is a sovereign remedy for obstructions; it will be serviceable in the case of persons who have drunk poison, or have partaken of poisoned food; it will cure severe ulcers, poisonous erysipelas, etc., whether taken in a liquid form or mixed with ointment. Half-a-penny weight --- old French style --- must alone be taken in two spoonfuls of good capillary syrup, in the case of women and children. Adult males may take one penny-weight in half a glass of good old wine.
GOLD --- To Dissolve Gold. The Blood of a Stag is an excellent dissolvent of Gold. Take two pounds weight from the veins of a stag that has just been killed. Distil it five times in the Bath of Mary by means of Cohobation, always returning the product of each distillation to the sediment which remains in the alembic. After the fifth time, place it in a strong glass phial, and this quintessence is so good, and so simple a dissolvent of Gold that you can make the experiment upon the naked hand without fear of the consequences.
GOLD --- Another Dissolvent. Take two ounces of Saltpetre, half an ounce of very dry Saw-dust of Walnut-wood. Reduce the whole into an impalpable powder. Fill a large nut-shell as full as it will hold with this powder, and thereon [that is, upon the powder] place a small plate of fine Gold, so as to cover it completely. Cover the plate with another layer of powder about the thickness of a finger; and then you will see by experience that the plate will melt and go down to the bottom of the shell, without the shell being burnt. The same experiment may be made with other metals.
GOLD --- To change Lead into Fine Gold. There are many persons, says the book on natural secrets which is called Albertus Parvus Lucii Libellus, who reject as uncertain the method of the learned chemist Falopius for the transmutation of Lead into Fine Gold, because it appears too easy for an operation of such importance. Nevertheless, he is by no means alone among the recognised Philosophers, many of whom have expressed themselves in similar terms. Basil Valentine and Odomarus say nearly the same thing. However this may be, the receipt of Falopius is as follows: Infuse one pound of Cyprus Copperas in one pound of forge water which has been well clarified by filtration. The infusion must continue for twenty-four hours in such a way that the Copperas shall be completely liquefied and incorporated with the water. Then distil it by filtration through very clean felt, and afterwards by means of an alembic and sand furnace. Preserve the result of the distillation in a globular bottle of strong glass, well corked. Then place one ounce of good Quicksilver in the crucible, which must be covered to prevent evaporation, and when you judge that it is boiling, or, rather, at boiling point, add one ounce weight of Fine and Good Gold Leaves, at once removing the crucible from the fire. This being done, take one pound of Fine Lead, well purified after a manner that shall be hereinafter set forth. Melt this Lead; incorporate it with the composition of Gold and Quicksilver; mix the three substances well together over the fire with an iron spit; then add one ounce of the Copperas Water; and let the whole digest over the fire for a time. When the composition has become cold, you will find that it is good Gold.
The method of the preparation and purification of the Lead is as follows. In order to obtain one pound of pure metal, take four ounces over that quantity to allow for recrement and for evaporation. Melt it, then plunge it in good, strong, clarified Vinegar; again melt, and plunge in the sap or juice of the Celandine (?); continue the melting process, and plunge in salt water; melt it for the last time, and extinguish in strong Vinegar, in which Quicklime has been plunged. It will then be effectually purified.
GOPHRITH --- The Magisterium when arrived at the Red Stage.
GOTNE --- Cotton.
GRASSALE --- A Pottinger.
GREAT SECRET OF ARISTEUS --- The Albertus Parvus Lucii Libellus has the following account of a process which is attributed to this celebrated artist. If the great name of Aristeus had not become celebrated among those of Adepts in the high operations of philosophy, it would be difficult to give credit to the writing which he has addressed to his son by election, as an instruction for the undertaking of the great philosophical work. It will be discerned amidst the obscurities of the document that Aristeus considered the mysterious Stone of the Philosophers to be composed of condensed air, artificially rendered palpable. And this is how he instructs his son upon the all-important subject:
My son, after having imparted to thee a knowledge of all things, and after having taught thee how to live, after what manner to regulate thy conduct by the maxims of a most excellent wisdom, and after having also enlightened thee in that which concerns the order and the nature of the monarchy of the universe, it only remains for me to communicate those Keys of Nature which hitherto I have so carefully held back. Among all these Keys, that which is most closely allied to the highest spirits of the universe deserves to take the first rank, and there is no one who questions that it is very specially endowed with an altogether divine property.
When one is in possession of this Key, the rich become miserable in our eyes, inasmuch as there is no treasure which can possibly be compared to it. In effect, what is the use of wealth, when one is liable to be afflicted with human infirmities? Where is the advantage of treasures, when death is about to destroy us? There is no earthly abundance which we are not bound to abandon upon the threshold of the tomb. But it is no longer thus when I am possessed of this Key, for then I behold death from afar, and I am convinced that I have within my hands a secret which extinguishes all fear of misfortunes in this life. Wealth is ever at my command, and I no longer want for treasures; weakness flees away from me; and I can ward off the approach of the destroyer while I own this Golden Key of the Grand Work.
My son, it is of this Key that I propose to make thee the inheritor; but I conjure thee, by the name of God, and by the Holy Place wherein He dwelleth, to lock it up in the cabinet of thy heart, under the seal of silence. If thou knowest how to make use of it, it will overwhelm thee with good things, and when thou shalt be old or ill, it will rejuvenate, console, and cure thee; for it has the special virtue of curing all diseases, of transfigurating metals, and of making happy those who possess it. It is that Key to which our fathers have often exhorted us under the bond of an inviolable oath. Learn, then, to know it, cease not to do good to the poor, to the widow, to the orphan, and learn its seal of me, and its true character.
Know that all beings which are under heaven, each after its own kind, derives origin from the same principle, and it is, as a fact, unto Air that all owe their birth as to a common principle. The nourishment of each existence makes evident the nature of its principle, for that which sustains the life is that which gives the being. The fish joys in the water; the child sucks from its mother. The tree no longer bears fruit when its trunk is deprived of humidity. It is by the life that we discern the principle of things; the life of things is the Air, and by consequence Air is their principle. It is for this reason that Air corrupts all things, and even as it gives life, so also it takes it away. Wood, iron, stones, are consumed by fire, and fire cannot subsist but by Air. Now, that which is the cause of corruption is also the cause of generation.
When, by reason of divers corruptions, it comes to pass that creatures fall sick and do suffer, either through length of days or by mischance, the Air coming to their succour cures them, whether they be imperfect or languishing. The earth, the tree, the herb languish under the heat of excessive drought; but all things are recuperated by the dew of the Air. But, nevertheless, as no creature can be restored and re-established except by its own nature, Air being the fountain and original source of all things, it is in like manner the universal source. It is manifestly certain that the seed, the death, the sickness, and the remedy of all things are all alike in the Air.
There has Nature stored up all her treasures, establishing therein the principles of the generation and corruption of all things, and concealing them as behind special and secret doors. To know how to open these doors with sufficient facility so as to draw upon the radical Air of the Air, is to possess in truth the golden Keys, and to be in ignorance thereof precludes all possibility of acquiring that which cures all maladies and recreates or preserves the life of men.
If thou desirest then, 0 my Son, to chase away all thine infirmities, thou must seek the means in the primal and universal source. Nature produces like from like alone, and that only which is in correspondence or conformity with Nature can effect good to her. Learn then, my Son, to make use of Air, learn to conserve the Key of Nature. It is truly a secret which transcends the possibilities of the vulgar man, but not those of the sage, this knowledge of the Extraction of Air, the Celestial Aerial Substance, from Air; for Air may be familiar to all beings, but he who would truly avail himself thereof must possess the secret Key of Nature. It is a great secret to understand the virtue which Nature has imprinted in substances. For natures are attracted by their like; a fish is attracted by a fish --- a bird by a bird-and air by another air, as with a gentle allurement. Snow and ice are an air that has been congealed by cold; Nature has endowed them with the qualities which are requisite to attract air.
Place thou, therefore, one of these two things in an earthen or metallic vessel, well closed, well sealed, and take thou the Air which congeals round this vessel when it is warm. Receive that which is distilled in a deep vessel with a narrow neck, neat and strong, so that thou canst use it at thy pleasure, and adapt to the rays of the Sun and Moon --- that is, Silver and Gold. When thou hast filled a vessel cork it well, so that the heavenly scintillation concentrated therein shall not escape into the air. Fill as many vases as thou wilt with liquid; then hearken to thy next task, and keep silent.
Build a furnace, place a small vessel therein, half full of the Liquid Air which thou hast collected; seal and lute the said vessel effectually. Light thy fire in such a manner that the thinner portion of the smoke may rise frequently above. Thus shall Nature perform that which is continually accomplished by the central fire in the bowels of the earth, where it agitates the vapours of the air by an unceasing circulation. The fire must be light, mild, and moist, like that of a hen brooding over her eggs, and it must be sustained in such a manner that it will cook without burning the aerial fruits, which, having been for a long time agitated by a movement, shall rest at the bottom of the vessel in a state of perfect coction.
Add next unto this Cocted Air a fresh air, not in great quantity, but as much as may be necessary; that is to say, a little less than on the first occasion. Continue this process until there shall be no more than half a bowl of Liquid Air uncooked. Proceed in such wise that the cooked portion shall gently liquefy by fermentation in a warm dunghill, and shall in like manner blacken, harden, amalgamate, become fixed, and grow red. Finally, the pure part being separated from the impure by means of a legitimate fire, and by a wholly divine artifice, thou shalt take one part of pure crude Air and one part of pure hardened Air, taking care that the whole is dissolved and united together till it becomes moderately black, more white, and finally perfectly red. Here is the end of the work, and then hast thou composed that elixir which produces all the wonders that our Sages aforetime have with reason held so precious; and thou dost possess in this wise the Golden Key of the most inestimable secret of Nature --- the true Potable Gold and the Universal Medicine. I bequeath unto thee a small sample, the quality and virtues of which are attested by the perfect health which I enjoy, being aged over one hundred and eight years. Do thou work, and thou shaft achieve as I have done. So be it in the name and by the power of the great Architect of the Universe.
Such skilful artists of the Great Work as have pondered deeply on the principles confided to the son of Aristeus, have concluded that it would be no vain operation to make an Amalgam with the veritable Balm of Mercury, and this is the way in which they claim to produce this Balm:
Take one pound of the best Mercury that can be obtained; purge it three times through a skin, and once by calcined Montpellier Tartar. Place it in a glass horn, which shall be strong enough to resist a fierce heat. With it combine Vitriol, Salt of Nitre, Rock Alum, and eight ounces of good Spirit of Wine. Having hermetically sealed the horn, so that nothing can evaporate, place it for digestion in a warm dung-hill during a space of fifteen days. At the end of this time the composition will be transformed into a phlegmatic grease; it must then be exposed to a sand fire, and the fire must be raised gradually to an extreme point, till a white, milky humour exudes from the substance and falls into the recipient. Let it then be replaced in the horn to be rectified, and for the consumption of the phlegm. This second distillation will cause a sweet, white oil to exude; this oil will be devoid of corrosive qualities; it will surpass all other metallic oils in excellence; and there is no doubt that, combined with the Elixir of Aristeus, it will be possible to perform such marvels as might be expected from so admirable an experiment.
GREAT WORK, THE --- One of the names which Chemical Philosophers have given to their Art because of the difficulty of succeeding therein, and on account also of its two great objects --- the confection of a universal medicine for the treating of all maladies in the three kingdoms of Nature, and, in particular, the transmutation of imperfect metals into Gold purer than even that of the mines.
GRENARD --- The Stone when it has reached the Red Stage.
GUININA --- The Magisterium at the White Stage.
GUM OF THE SUN --- The Matter of the Work when it has arrived at the White Stage.
H H H
HABITATION OF THE FOWL --- The Hermetic Vessel.
HABRAS --- A Plant known under the name of Staphis Agria, or Flea's Bane.
HACUMIA --- Same as Endica, according to Morien. See Endica in Rulandus.
HAC --- The Stone at the White.
HAGER ALIENDI --- Judaic Stone.
HAGER ARCHTAMACH --- Eagle Stone.
HAGER ALZARNAD --- The Mercury of the Sages digested and cooked till it has attained the red colour of the Poppy.
HALCAL --- Vinegar.
HALEREON --- The Eagle of the Philosophers.
HALIACMON --- A River of Macedonia which has the property of whitening the fleece of the sheep that drink from it-supposing naturally that their fleece is not already white. See Pliny (l. 34, c. 2). Hence the expression which occurs in Hermetic Terminology, that the Philosophic Dragon and Eagle must be made to drink of the river Haliacmon, meaning that the Laton must be made white, or that the Matter of the Work must proceed from the Black to the White Stage. The word cited is also written Aliacmon.
HALLS --- Glue.
HANDEL, or HANDAL --- Colocinth.
HARMALA --- Wild Rue.
HATCHET --- The Fire of the Philosophers. To strike with the hatchet or axe is to cook the matter.
HEBRIT --- Red Sulphur of the Philosophers.
HEDELTABATENI --- Turpentine.
HEIGHT --- The Allegorical and Mysterious Dimension of the Stone of the Sages. If we are to believe Philalethes, the Height is nothing else than the Matter of the Philosophers as it is manifested to our eyes during the time of its preparation. For example, the Body of the Matter of our Art, he tells us in his treatise on the True Composition of the Philosophical Stone, is black during its first decomposition which takes place by means of putrefaction. This blackness which strikes our eyes, and is called Cold and Moist, is that which is manifested to our sight, and it is this quality, state, or disposition, that we term the Height of our Body.
HELSATON --- Salt that has lost its Savour.
HELSEBON --- Common Prepared Salt.
HEMIOBOLON --- The Twelfth Part of a Drachm.
HEMIOLIUM --- Some understand by this term a Weight of Half-an-Ounce, others a Weight of an Ounce and a Half.
HENRY --- Red Colestar.
HERB --- The White Herb --- A Plant which grows on small hills. In the terminology of the Great Art, it means the Matter when cooked and perfect at the White. Some understand it of the Mercury of the Sages, some of the Ore whence it is extracted, but the circumstances under which it is used in the Dialogue of Mary and of Aros show that it is really applied to the Matter at the White, because the philosophers sometimes represent their vase and their furnace by the expression small hills.
HERB --- Philosophic Herb --- Saturnian Herb --- Medicinal Herb --- All these terms of the Great Art signify the same thing --- that is to say, the Mercury of the Sages, and sometimes the Ore whence this Mercury is extracted.
HERB --- The Triumphant Herb --- Mineral Matter, forming part of the Composition of the Philosophers. It is that which they call their Sieve.
HERB --- Potherb, etc. --- The Stone at the White.
HERB --- Saturnian Herb or Saturnia --- A Vegetable Matter from which the Hermetic Philosophers know how to extract their Mercury.
HERMES --- The name which some chemists have given to Nitre. It is also one of the names, and, in fact, it is the true and proper name of the Mercury of the Philosophers, because it is actually the Mercury of Bodies, and particularly that of all the members of the Mineral Kingdom.
HERMETICS --- The Art or Science of the Hermetic Philosophers. Hermetic Physics are a part of this science which regards all beings of the sublunary world as formed from three principles --- Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury, while it ascribes all maladies to a want of proper equilibrium in their action. The second object of the Art is to compose what is called the Elixir at the White or at the Red, which they also term Powder of Projection and Philosophical Stone. It is also claimed that by means of the Elixir at the White, it is possible to transmute metals into Silver,, and by means of the Elixir at the Red into Gold.
HERNEC --- The Orpiment of the Philosophers.
HESPERIS --- A species of the Aloe Tree.
HEXAGIUM --- According to some, a Weight of Four Scruples; according to others, a Drachm and a Half.
HIDROS --- Sweat.
HILLA --- The Jejunum (an Intestine).
HIN --- Assafoetida.
HIPPURIS --- The Plant called Horse-tail.
HOLCE --- A Drachm.
HOREUM --- Honey extracted from the Hive during Summer.
HORIZONTIS --- Potable Gold.
HUMATION --- An action by which the Matter of the Stone of the Sages is placed in the Vase to be there subjected to putrefaction. Some chemists have compared this action to the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ. But albeit Humation in the terms of Hermetic Science signifies properly the Putrefaction of the Matter, yet the term is sometimes applied to its fixation, because the fixation of the volatile is one species of death, and that which was water during dissolution becomes water after fixing.
HUMECTATION --- That Process by which Humidity is imparted to the Stone, when it is perfect, and when it is desired to multiply it.
HUMIDITY --- Ignited Mercury of the Sages animated by its Sulphur. Sometimes the Philosophers understand by this term the matter of the work when it has arrived at the Black Stage.
HUMIDITY OF THE STONE --- This is also the Mercury, for the Mercury is a dry water which does not wet the hands, and attaches or clings only to that which is of its own nature. To impart its Humidity to the Stone is to perform the work of Imbibition; that is to say, to continue the regimen of the Philosophical Fire, which sublimes this Humidity to the summit of the Vase, whence Imbibition is performed of itself, the same Humidity returning upon the earth at the bottom.
HYDOTODES VINUM --- Wine mingled with Water.
I I I
IBERIS --- A Species of Water-cress or Cardamom (a Medicinal Seed), or Lepidium, which is called Sidymbrium by Dioscorides.
IBIGA --- Chamaepytis.
IBIS --- The Egyptians employed the figure of this Bird in their hieroglyphics, to signify in the first place, a part of the Matter of the Grand Work. The Ibis in fact became a symbol of the volatile part which dissolves and volatilizes the fixed part, frequently typified by Serpents. Sometimes the White Ibis signified the Matter at the White, and the Black Ibis the Matter in Putrefaction.
ILLEIAS --- The First Matter of all things.
ILLEIDOS --- Elementary Air which nourishes the life of all things.
INDIVISIBLE --- The Chemists call their Mercury the sole Indivisible thing known to the Sages.
IMPASTATION --- When the Matter of the Work succumbs into Putrefaction in the Philosophical Egg, and has become black, it thickens or congeals into the consistency of molten Black Pitch. It is then like a paste or a sediment, and hence the name of the operation.
IMPREGNATION --- There is no Impregnation without Conjunction says Morien, that is to say, if there be no marriage between the male and the female, or, what is the same thing, between the Fixed and the Volatile, one cannot act on the other and produce a third body which participates in the nature of both. The philosophical Impregnation is performed during the period when the Volatile and the Fixed are in a condition of complete dissolution, because then interpenetration takes place between them even to the inmost of their natures, and they are, so to speak, confounded together, and that in so complete a manner that after having circulated they become inseparable. The term Impregnation is also used in Chemistry to signify the communication of the properties of one composite substance to another, in what manner soever it may be accomplished. For example, when the emetic quality of Antimony is communicated to Tartar, which is then called Stibium Tartar.
INCOMBUSTIBLE --- The hermetic chemists give the name of Incombustible to their Sulphurs, because they are so fixed that they can withstand the most assaults of fire.
INFINITE --- This name is given to the Sulphur of the Philosophers, because it can be infinitely multiplied.
INFANT --- The Hermetic Chemists frequently apply this term to their Sulphur, and sometimes to their Mercury. The Four Infants of Nature are the Four Elements of which she makes use in the formation of all sublunary beings. The alchemists say that two of these Elements are male and female, two are heavy and two are light. The Chemical Philosophers find their Infant ready formed by Nature, and their whole secret consists in the extraction of its Matrix or Ore. Subsequently, they nourish it with a milk which is proper thereto.
INGRESS --- The Philosophers Say that their Stone is piercing, tinging, and penetrating, or that it has Ingress-that is to say, that although a body, it enters into the inmost marrow of other bodies.
INGRESSION --- That action by which substances combine in such a manner that they cannot afterwards be separated. Putrefaction operates this change during the period of perfect dissolution, and when the Matter is in the Black State.
INGROSSATION --- That action by which the Volatile and the Fixed Parts of the Matter of the Sages combine and unite intimately after having contended together for a long time.
INSIPID or TASTELESS SUBSTANCE --- The Magisterium at the White.
INSPIRE --- To join the Soul with its Body. Also to Whiten the Matter, which is accomplished by means of a single substance in its proper and sole vase without any operation of the hands.
INSPISSATION --- An operation which follows that of the Dissolution of Bodies, and which, nevertheless, is really the same process, since the body does not dissolve or become spiritualised unless the spirit corporifies. Inspissation is performed by means of a fire of the second grade. On this subject, it should be remarked that when the Philosophers speak of degrees in their fire which should be administered to their matter, the expression must not be interpreted to mean that the fire is to be exalted and diminished, as the vulgar chemists are accustomed to do in their furnaces, by means of registers or dampers, or of a varying quantity of coal, but that the secret fire of Nature must be augmented by digestion. In proportion, as the matter becomes more fixed, its fire increases by degrees, and these degrees are measured by the colours which it assumes.
INTERMEDIATE --- The Third Matter which is added to the two others in chemical or mechanical operations, either to unite them, to separate them, or to set them in action. Salts which differ among themselves never unite together so well as by the means of a terrene intermediary. The Philosophers give the name of intermediary to their Mercury, and also call it Philtre, or Beverage of Love, the bond and the proper means of joining Tinctures inseparably together.
INTUBUM, or INTUBUS --- Endive, a species of Chicory.
ISCHAS --- The Dried Fig.
ISIR --- The author of the Hermetic Dictionary says that the Philosophers understand by this term the Elixir at the White, and that the Sages have so named it when it is desired to multiply it. But the Philosophers also make use of it to signify the same thing that they express under the term Iris, which see.
ISIS --- The Hermetic Philosophers subsequent to Hermes who have made use of this name understand this goddess to signify the Volatile, Humid, Cold, Passive, and Feminine Portion of the Hermetic or Sacerdotal Art.
J J J
JABORA --- Mandragore.
JANUS --- The two Visages of the Classical God signify, according to the alchemists, the Matter of the Stone Philosophical, which they call Rebris, because it consists of two things.
JONI --- To assemble --- mix --- unite one thing with another. See Inspire.
JOURDANI --- In Hermetic Science this is a name which the Philosophers have given to their Dissolvent Mercury, because this Mercury must wash the soluble body seven times in order to purify it.
JOY OF THE PHILOSOPHERS --- When the Stone or the Matter of the Philosophers has arrived at the perfect White Stage, which is the philosophical White Gold, or White Sulphur, or Endica of Morien, or the Swan, then all the philosophers say that this is the time of joy, because they behold Diana unveiled, and they have avoided all the rocks and dangers of the sea. The Code of Truth remarks: Whiten the Laton, and then destroy your books, for then have they become useless unto you, and will serve only as an incumbrance, a source of doubt and disquietude, when you should experience nothing but joy. When the Matter has arrived at the White State nothing but clumsiness can prevent the success of the work, and its eduction towards the perfection of the Red State, since all the volatile portion is then fixed in such a manner that it can withstand the most active and violent fire.
JUDGMENT --- Raymond Lully has given this name to the Projection of the Hermetic Powder upon imperfect Metals, because it is on this occasion that the artist has to be the judge of the operation, and by his success or his failure he judges whether he has operated well or badly, and he is recompensed according to his works.
K K K
KANECH --- Dew.
KEIRI, or KEIRIM --- According to some, the Narcissus, according to others, the Violet or the Yellow Gilliflower. It is also written Cheiri.
KIMENNA --- A Large Bottle.
KIMIT --- White Cinnabar.
KIRATH --- A Weight of Four Grains.
KIST --- Oppoponax. This term also signifies a Weight of Fifteen Grains, or, as some say, of Four Pounds. It also signifies Two Measures of Wine.
KUKUL --- See Kuhul, in Rulandus.
L L L
LABOS BALSAMAM --- The Water in which a Red-hot Metal has been Plunged.
LACHANUM --- Herbages, Vegetables.
LACINIAS --- A Woollen Strainer.
LAMATI --- Gum Arabic.
LAMER --- Living Sulphur.
LAMP --- When the Philosophers speak of the fire of a Lamp as of their fire, they are not to be understood as referring to a lamp that is fed with oil or spirit of wine. Their Lamp-fire is that of their Matter.
LAMPACOS --- Lampatan China.
LANDINVA --- Lingwort or Angelica.
LANGUAGE --- In the writings of Hermetic Science, the Philosophers never express the true significance of their thoughts in the vulgar tongue, and they must not be interpreted according to the literal sense of the expressions. The sense which is presented on the surface is not the true sense. They discourse in enigmas, metaphors, allegories, fables, similitudes, and each Philosopher adapts them after his own manner. A chemical Adept explains his philosophical operations in terms borrowed from the operations of common chemistry, speaking of distillation, sublimation, etc., of furnaces, of vases, of fires in use among chemists, as Gebir, Paracelsus, and others invariably do. An alchemical soldier like Denis Zacharie borrows his imagery from battles and from sieges. A churchman like Basil Valentine speaks in the terminology of moral philosophy and theology, as in his work upon Azoth. In a word, they have spoken so obscurely, in terms so different, in styles so various, that one must indeed be well versed in their mysteries to understand their meaning, and one Philosopher is frequently considerably embarrassed to explain another in any complete and intelligible manner. Some vary the names and reverse the operations; others begin their books in the middle of their practice; others again at the end; while not a few intermingle sophistic experiments, omit something that is important, and add something that is superfluous. One directs the student to make use of a certain ingredient, others advise him to avoid it. Rupecissa maintains that Roman Vitriol is the true Matter of the Philosophers, and the very writers who would maintain that Rupecissa was a veritable Adept recommend you to have nothing to do either with Roman or any other vitriol. All these manners of expression constitute a language which is exceedingly difficult to understand, but some Philosophers, the better to veil their practice, have had recourse to the Enigma. The Cosmopolite, among others, adds a very long one at the end of his Twelve Treatises. The ancients commonly made use of fables, and those of the Egyptians and Greeks were devised only in view of the Great Work, if we are to believe the Philosophers who frequently refer to them in their works. It was by following their ideas in this respect that Pernety devised a complete system of Hermetic mythology in his work upon The Egyptian and Greek Fables Unveiled. Some Philosophers have had recourse to a mute language by which to speak to the eyes of the spirit. They have presented by means of symbols and hieroglyphics, after the manner of the Egyptians, at one time the materials required for the work, the various necessary preparations, and even the demonstrative signs or the colours which appear in the Matter during the various stages of the process, because it is by these signs that the artist knows whether he has operated well or badly. Some Philosophers have added a discourse to their hieroglyphics, but the apparent explanation is invariably more difficult to understand than is the symbol itself. Such, for example, are those of Nicholas Flamel, Senior, Basil Valentine, and Michael Maier, although D'Espagnet says that those of the last-mentioned writer are a species of lunettes which discover clearly enough the truth which the Philosophers have concealed.
LAPPAGO --- Burdock.
LARON --- The Mercury of the Sages.
LARUSUS --- The Plant Mouse-Ear.
LASER --- Benzoin, an Aromatic Gum or Medicinal Resin.
LATERIUM --- Lye or Capitel.
LATHYRIS --- Spurge.
LATHYRUS --- A species of Pulse called Gerces.
LATRO --- Mercury of the Philosophers.
LAUNDRY --- The Yeoman of Laundry. A name which the Philosophers have given to Jupiter when the period of its rule is at its zenith, during the operations of
the Stone. It is the Circulation of the Matter in the Vase. It rises in vapour to the summit of the Philosophical Egg; then it condenses and falls back like a dew upon the Matter, which remains at the bottom. This dew or rain whitens the Matter, removing the black colour which prevailed during the period of Saturn. It is the Washing of the Philosophers, and what they term Whitening the Leton or Laton.LAUDANUM --- A name which Paracelsus gives to a Composition of Gold, Corals, Pearls, etc. It was a Specific for Fevers.
LAUM --- Bitter Almond.
LASCA CYMOLEA --- A Salt which forms upon Stones.
LEPHANTE --- First Tartar or Bolus, occupying a middle place between Stone and Slime.
LEPROSY --- Heterogeneous Parts, Terrestrial Impurities, which Metals contract in the mine, and which the mere Powder of Projection is incapable of curing. Gebir and some other chemists have described the vices of imperfect metals. There are two kinds-the first being termed Original; and this is regarded as almost incurable, arising as it does from the first combination of the elements in Quicksilver or Mercury, which is their principle. The second is found in the union of Sulphur and of Mercury. The more that the elements are purified, the more they are proportionally mixed and homogeneous, the more have they of weight, malleability, capacity for fusion, extension, fulgidity, and permanent incorruptibility. The second malady, which comes from a more or less impure Sulphur, constitutes the imperfection of metals, to wit, the leprosy of Saturn, the jaundice of Venus, the lachrymosity of Jupiter, the dropsy of Mercury, and the scab of Mars. The dropsy of Mercury is caused by its excessive aquosity and crudity, which results from the frigidity of its matrix. This vice is an original sin, which it communicates and transmits to all metals that are engendered from it. Although the Philosophers have named Mercury a Quintessence, composed by Nature, it is, nevertheless, so aqueous, and so cold, that it can only be cured by a most potent Sulphur. The internal Sulphur, predominating in Mercury, cooks, digests, thickens, and fixes it into a perfect body; and the external, adustible, and separable Sulphur of the true substance of metals, suffocates the internal, deprives it of its activity, and mingles the impurities with those of the Mercury, which produces the imperfect metals. The causes of these maladies are the terrenity, aquosity, combustibility, and aerosity of the elements combined in them. The first prevents the union of substances, the second makes them crude, the third inflammable, and the fourth volatile. The first prevents penetration and ingress, the second is an obstacle to digestion and sublimation of the Matter, the third interferes with incorruptibility, and the fourth is opposed to fixation.
LETA --- Red Colour.
LEUCELECTRUM --- White Amber.
LEUCCENUS --- White Wine.
LEUCOLACANUM --- White Valerian.
LEUCOPHAGUM --- A Ragout said to be a Remedy for Consumption.
LEUCOSIS --- That Operation by which the Laton is Whitened. It is performed by the circulation of Azoth in the Vase of the Philosophers.
LEVIGATE --- The Reduction of a Hard and Solid Body into an Impalpable Powder.
LIAB --- Vinegar.
LIBANOTIS --- Rosemary.
LIGAMENT --- That Unctuosity of Bodies which binds the parts together, reunites the fixed with the volatile, prevents the evaporation of spirit, and forms the composition of sublunary beings.
LIGAMENT OF TINCTURES --- The Mercury of the Philosophers, called the Medium Conjugendi.
LIGAMENT OF QUICKSILVER --- This is Philosophical Gold, or the Fixation of Mercury, which happens when the Matter of the Work has arrived at the colour Red.
LIGHT --- The Hermetic Chemists give this name to Mercury when it whitens after putrefaction, and it is then that a separation is made between the darkness and the light. They also term Light the Powder of Projection, because it seems to illustrate the imperfect metals when it transmutes them into Gold or Silver. The Philosophers have also occasionally given this name to their Red Sulphur, because otherwise they call it the Sun, and the sun transmits light to our planet.
LIQUIDITY --- That State of a Body in which the Constituent Parts do not adhere together. There are two kinds of Liquidity; one, like that of water, which wets the hands, and one which does not wet them. Such is that of common Mercury and of the metals. This latter species of Fluidity is owing to the presence of terrestial particles insinuated into the pores of the metals in an excessive quantity.
LOTION --- Circulation of the Matter in the Vase of the Philosophers. It ascends in vapour and returns in rain upon the terrestial portion at the bottom, whitening and purifying it, like a shower upon new linen at the fullers. The Lotion of the Philosophers is only a term applied by similitude. They wash with fire even as they burn with water. Their Lotion is but a purification made by the Philosophical Fire. Let no one be therefore deceived by the author who says " Go and look at the women who are employed over the washing and fulling of linen; see what they do, and do thou even as they are doing ". He simply means to say: cleanse the Matter of its impurities, and that by the Philosophical Fire or the Fire of the Matter itself, for another author assures us that it dissolves, purifies, congeals, blackens, whitens, and reddens of itself; that, as a fact, nothing is taken away and nothing is added save that which is indispensable to the success of the work.
LUMINARIES --- The two grand luminaries of the Sages are the Gold and Silver of the Philosophers, that is to say, the matter of the Work arrived at the White Colour, which they term the Moon, and the Magisterium at the Red, which they name the Sun.
LUNARY --- The Sulphur of Nature.
LUPINUS --- A Weight of Half-a-drachm. Fernel understands it to be Six Grains and Agricola Eight.
LUPULUS --- The Plant called Hops.
LYCOCTONUM --- Aconite.
LYE --- The Azoth of the Philosophers, so named because it whitens the Laton of the Sages.
M M M
MACERATION --- The Attenuation of a Composite Substance by means of its own, or otherwise, in some foreign menstruum. Maceration precedes putrefaction, and there adapts the Composite.
MACHINOR --- The Material with which Clay Vessels are Varnished.
MAGALE --- A Latin term by which Paracelsus understands every species of Perfume made from minerals.
MAGI --- The Philosophers, Priests, and Offerers of Sacrifice in Persia, persons who were renowned informer times for their knowledge and for their wisdom. Their doctrine was identical with that of the priests of Egypt, who were the successors of Hermes; it was identical also with that of the Brahmins of India, the Greek philosophers, etc. Philo informs us that the end of their science was the knowledge of Nature and of her Author, and so intimate did this knowledge become, that they could perform the most surprising and wonderful works. They were able to avail themselves of all the resources of Nature, and of the mutual interaction of her forces, the achievements that resulted being taken for miracles in their time. The Magi believed in the resurrection of the body, and in the immortality of the soul. They also professed Magic, but it was that sublime Magic, as it were, a celestial art, which was practised by the greatest men of antiquity, and to which, at a later date, the name of Theurgy was applied, to distinguish it from the superstitious and detestable art, which has its essence in the abuse of holy things, and is concerned with the invocation of evil spirits. The essence of Theurgy, on the other hand, is to be found in the knowledge and the practice of the most curious and least known secrets of Nature.
MAGIC AND CHEMISTRY --- The transformations of Magic and of Hermetic Chemistry are both nothing more --- marvellous as they may seem --- than the artificial development of natural germs. No one actually makes gold; it is Nature who is assisted to make it. The problem resolved by the Magic of Hermes is briefly this: To accumulate and to fix in an artificial body the latent Caloric, in such a manner as to change the molecular polarisation of natural substances by their amalgamation with an artificial substance. On the other hand, the problem which Thaumaturgic Magic seeks to deal with should be thus formulated: To control or to exalt the principle that governs form manifestations in such a manner as to change appearances. By this definition it is plain that the prodigies of magical fascination are in effect nothing but prestige. To make use of illusions without being their dupe is therefore the great secret of this kind of magic. He who creates illusions without being subject to them commands all vertigo and all perdition. He who is victimised by illusion is carried away by vertigo.
MAGNETISM --- Human Magnetism --- This must be regarded as one of the active principles of the Great Work. As a fact the man who himself is perfectly equilibrated becomes an equilibrating centre for the things with which he deals, and rectitude in thinking gives exactitude in operation. Now, the operations of science are so delicate that they demand minds emancipated from all passions and all species of cupidity.
MAGOREUM --- Medicaments which perform their office without our being able to discover the physical cause. Such is the Sympathetic Powder and the Unguent of Paracelsus.
MALADORAM --- Sal Gemmae. See Rulandus.
MALARIBIO --- Opium.
MALE --- The Magisterium at the Red Stage. In reading the works of the philosophers, particular note should be taken of the point at which their work begins --- that is to say, of what part of the operation they first speak. A large number of writers have omitted all reference to the Magisterium, supposing it to have been already accomplished. It is on this understanding that they say Take the male, and unite it to the female. The reference here is to the Perfect Magisterium at the Red Stage.
MALCHORUM or MALEHORUM --- Sal Gemmae.
MALICORIUM --- Orange Peel.
MALINATHALIA --- Cypress.
MALTACODE --- A Medicament into which Wax enters as one of the ingredients.
MAMOLARIA --- The Plant called Acanthus.
MANIS NOSTER --- The Dew of the Philosophers and the Magnet of the Sages.
MANUS CHRISTI --- The Hand of Christ --- that is, Pearled Syrup.
MARATHRUM --- Fennel Seed.
MARGA --- A certain Fatty and Unctuous Matter which is found in some species of Stones, whence it has been called the Marrow of Pebbles.
MARIS --- A Weight of Eighty-three Pounds Three Ounces.
MARMORARIA --- Same as Mamolaria, which see.
MARRIAGE --- There is no term in more frequent use among the philosophers than is the word Marriage. They say that the Sun and the Moon must be joined in marriage together, that Gabertin must be united with Beza, the Mother with the Son, the Brother with the Sister, and all these expressions have reference exclusively to the union between the Fixed and the Volatile, which takes place in the Vase by the intermediation of Fire. All seasons are fitting for the celebration of this Marriage, but the Philosophers especially recommend spring as that period when Nature is most impelled to generation. Basil Valentine says that the Bride and the Bridegroom must be stripped of all their vestures, and must be well washed and purified before entering into the nuptial bed. D'Espagnet and others assert that the work will by no means succeed if the male and female are not so purified that no heterogeneous particle remains in them. In this purification the whole secret of the purification of Mercury consists. The ferment or leaven must also be perfectly pure, if we desire the Son born of this Marriage to possess such a degree of perfection that he can transmit his own high quality to his brethren and his subjects.
MARTHETO --- By this term some writers describe the Stone at the Red Stage, the Ferment of the Work; but it is said in the Code of Truth, Take Martheto and whiten it. This refers to the Laton or the Matter at the Black Stage.
MASAL --- A term employed in some chemical works to signify Sour Milk.
MASARDEGI --- Lead.
MASAREA --- Creeping Mouse-Ear.
MASSERIUM --- Hermetic Mercury.
MASTACH --- A Preparation of Opium much in use among the Turks.
MATER SYLVA --- Honeysuckle.
MATTER --- The First Matter of the Philosophers. The true and primal matter of m