On Animal Solution
Aphorism I
The two roots or the elements’ semen, i.e., the fixed and the volatile, are like boxes in which the two spirits are enclosed.
II
In the spagyric proceeding on the animal, this two semen must be separated, purged and united.
III
But in this work, preserving the thinnest part of the living animal, which contains most of the animal spirit, is impossible.
IV
Even the natural substance of animals loses this thinnest part as soon as it is separated from the body.
V
Such an animal cannot be born from the dead body nor the separated semen of the animal, and this is because the very thin sperm has dissipated.
VI
The animal spirit is so subtle that the senses cannot perceive it, although it is the cause of all animal movements and the subject of the sensitive soul.
VII
The animal solution is made with the two spirits together, i.e., the fixed and the volatile, as in the other mixed ones.
VIII
When the separation of the spirits is accomplished, the individual form perishes and can never return, even when the two spirits are reunited again.
IX
But, when the body is purified and the spirit multiplied, a better form succeeds the former one.
X
In living bodies, both sensory and vegetative, the artist does not seek form, but only the pure body, i.e., the radical humid.
XI
The radical humid is the immediate subject of all forms, different in essence from each, indifferent to all, and composed of two integral parts, one fixed and the other volatile.
XII
These parts are derived from the assortment of elements; the former are in composition and the latter in resolution and are of the same essence.
XIII
All the virtues of the mixture depend on these parts, while only the impediments to these virtues derive from all the other things that are mixed in it.
XIV
In the animal opera, it is necessary to minutely remove the phlegm from the matter, so that no spirit can ascend with the water because it would always dwell there, dissolved and inseparable from the water.
XV
Once the deformation is complete, the spirit rises in dry form, then, with an equally dry dissolution, it dissolves its earth.
XVI
If this volatile animal spirit is moist, it is necessary to cook it often on the fixed and always remove the phlegm continuously, until it is completely dry.
XVII
Only aerial humidity can dissolve its terrestrial humidity and converts it into air.
XVIII
Proceeding on the flesh of animals is to digest, deflect, then perform a triple infusion of new blood, the sublimation of a very pure flower of salt, the extraction of the fixed salt, the purification of the salts, and the sublimation of the fixed through its volatile salt.