Quite a Kamala Jnana of the 12th century, Artephius, in his Secret Book, started description only after Secret Fire extraction when it begins its stunning performance.
Obscure to the point of legend, the Secret Book of Artephius was one of the most sought-after alchemical texts during the Renaissance period. Perhaps the first European appearance of this book was a latin translation from Arabic. Quoted by other essential authors like Philalethes, Fulcanelli, Limojon, and Coton-Alvart, it has been considered an actual lighthouse on a stormy night by generations of alchemists.
Artephius’s Secret Book is unquestionably a must to read the book. The text is mainly available on the web to download. Of course, collecting texts without reading them is pretty useless, and an understanding of the Secret Book can be a challenging experience since operations are not presented in sequence. Furthermore, the writing also lacks the beginning, as stated above. Despite this missing part, Artephius’s book remains a fundamental hermetic textbook but needs the previous paragraphs disposed of. Even a person skilled in the art must try to arrange it to make it intelligible.
Before the publication of Kamala Jnana’s Dictionnaire de Philosophie Alchimique (1), few Alchemy Researchers knew about Secret Fire and what the Labors of Hercules were really for. Fulcanelli confessed that he had lost twenty years of his life because he was unfamiliar with Secret Fire and its working. Thus you can imagine the disorientation of a Kamala Jnana researcher trying to read the Artephius Secret Book before the statement that this book was the supreme alchemical handbook. Indeed, for a reader thinking of Alchemy as supreme chemistry ( and that was probably the current belief back then), there was something strange about Artephius’s words.
Was finally Limojon de Saint Didier, aka Alexandre Toussaint, to get to the point:” …les plus sinceres même, comme Artephius, le Trevisan, Flamel, ont passé sous silence les preparations de notre Mercure“ (Le Triomphe Hermetique, Amsterdam 1689) “More truthful authors too, like Artephius, Trevisanus, Flamel keep their silence on our Mercurius preparation”. That’s to say, only after the labors of Hercules. Fulcanelli and Philalethes quoted Arthepius’s Secret Book for very important issues, that’s to say, for real Alchemy keys, which indicates how much they trusted him. And now the excerpt I chose from Secret Book, a very obliged one:
“And when you see the true whiteness appear, which shineth like a bright sword or polished silver, know that redness is hidden in that whiteness. But then beware that you take not that whiteness out of the vessel but only digest it to the end, that with heat and dryness, it may assume a citron color and a most beautiful redness. When you see, render praises and thanksgiving to the greatest and good God, who gives wisdom and riches to whomsoever He pleases and takes them away according to the wickedness of a person. To Him, I say, the wisest and almighty God, be glory for ages and ages. AMEN.”
This paragraph is only apparently the last, as you can guess from the Thanksgiving epitome. Artephius here seems to have stopped the description of the first sulfur achievement, redness (don’t be happy for the news since the rule of three provides at least five other different sulfurs). Here we could be in the Main Work ( see an Opus Magnum scheme), after Mercurius Philosophorum (2) and Mercurius Duplicatus (3) achievements.
When an alchemist watches the life tree growing, that’s to say, when one watches Secret Fire performing by itself. From black, not mentioned in the paragraph, white comes out or is being born from. And from white to red, through yellow-orange or “citrinus”.
Note that Artephius points to whiteness instead of white. That’s to say, on a state of condition and not a simple attribute. It should not be white color catching our attention but what is inside this looking white substance. In paragraph 45 of the same Secret Book, we read:” … for the vulture flying in the air without wings, cries out that it might get up upon the mountain, that is upon the waters, upon which the “spiritus albus” or spirit of whiteness is born. ”Here, Artephius catches the whole of Alchemy foundation. “… in the air without wings… upon the mountains… upon the waters… “. Without Secret Fire, Alchemy would be archaic nonsense. This is where we have to extract spirit or whiteness.
Artephius Mercurius is not just white but bright white, like a sword. For in Artephius, brightness is shown. As light usually is, coming out of black. Remember that light colors all together compose the white color ocean light we humans unknowingly live in. Artephius here uses a typical dry way symbol like a sword to indicate the return of white Sulphur (anyway a Mercurius Philosophorum), or Silver, after the second black ( don’t panic, for the ubiquitous rule of three offers many names for the very thing) while vessels are wet way prerogatives. Secret Language Code Symbols are not at all strict constructions. These inaccuracies scatter alchemy classics. Silver is another allegory for Mercurius//Luna/Moon. Indeed silver is a lunar metal.
When we read:” from one thing we do the two and the three,” we have to prepare an alchemical marriage (Mercurius Duplicatus) through a double, and then the three colors will shade into one another. Then Artephius warns us not to touch anything. But digesting. The term “ heat” ( let’s apart “dryness for now) in Alchemy is, of course, subjected to the rule of three. So we are allowed to understand “ don’t touch anything, for secret fire is working on its own” or “ set your apparatus to a certain degree”. It all depends from your starting materia tertia or raw or crude. The verb “ digest” brings to mind a natural proceeding. Is there something more natural than Secret Fire cooking?
For the first time in an alchemical classic, if I guess right, in Artephius’s Secret Book, we meet a citron color between white and red. Citron is something that has driven crazy generations of Alchemists. Kamala Jnana himself mixed up his photos to make the detection of color sequences difficult. From Artephius on, we are allowed to know Citron comes between white and red.
To be continued at Artephius and Antimonium est de Partibus Saturni on Secret Book enigmatic incipit.
- Kamala Jnana & Introduction to a Live Secret ;
- Mercurius Philosophorum, see Basilius Valentinus Azoth ;
- Mercurius Duplicatus, see Atalanta Fugiens & Mercurius Duplicatus ;