On Animal Calcination
Aphorism I
During Calcination, the vital form of both the animal and the plant cannot be preserved.
II
The chemist does not seek form, but only the subject or matter which contains the form, and which is conserved with the power to receive other forms.
III
This matter is none other than the radical humid with its fire or its natural heat, which is the last nourishment of all the parts of the mixed; matter proximate to the seed and to the semen and to the middle substance composed of all the elements.
IV
The practice of Spagyrists on blood consists in the separation of a substance similar to milk, a volatile salt, a red oil, a fixed salt, in the purification of all these substances and in their reunion and fixation.
V
The animal secret is represented by a circle formed by two snakes, one with wings and the other without, symbolizing the two spirits, fixed and volatile, united together.
VI
The volatile spirit is the spirit of the world: it is green by its very nature, but it is the father of all colors and is the food of the fixed spirit.
VII
Raw volatile spirit is poison, but when cooked, it is theriac against all disease.
VIII
Each secret leads the mystics of its realm to perfection and not the others.