Here Stuart Chevalier does not mention that we humans are actually forbidden to employ the particular matter prepared by nature itself (4) since we have to be involved in some operations to obtain it in a form we can handle it.
But she is perfectly right when stating that all which is not pure Secret Fire is a dead matter or corpse.
Page 77
“Experience has it that when an animal is deprived of air it dies. While fishes die when they are out of water. A plant dies when is deprived of earth. All do not multiply anymore and die for the simple reason they are deprived of their nourishment and element.
We have to well consider all things and we are going to be familiar with a living and multiplicative sulfur to make the stone. A dead man is not able to multiply his species, and all the other beings are similar.”
Secret Fire/Mercuriusis the composition of our Spirit of life and Souls in density stairs.
“The philosophers, while describing this great magisterium, have pointed to the imitation of God in the creation of the world, that’s to say we have to make a new sky, new earth; but since nobody but God can create from nothing and make chaos, consequently we have to take a part of the chaos and this very part has to remain imperfect. We have to separate waters by means of waters and make visible the four elements, which are a part of chaos; the bodies of mercurius; the remote matter; the philosophers lead, the universal menstruum, the dragon which feeds and devours; the philosophical body; the mine of mines, and the first matter which is absolutely necessary to make the stone.”
After having extracted the undifferentiated Spirit of Life and then the differentiated Soul we can join them in a new body (5), the Philosophers Stone. Pay attention to the phrase: “we have to separate waters by means of waters“. Basically waters, in Alchemical symbolism, are not always to be intended as in liquid form, but smoke and vapors. And vapors-smokes tend to bring their alike with them.
Page 78
“These are the philosophers’ expressions on this essential point. Some state that the stone matter is the mercurius of nature, others the Neptune with his trident; the belly carrying her son who is the gold and water of philosophers, Jupiter bringing up Ganymede, the bath where the king has a wash; the vessel-vase of wises containing salt, sulfur, metals sperm and their radical humid, whose they make a philosophical mercurius by means of an artificial operation which the philosophers concur with nature to make the closest matter; but to have it that way, it must be undergone to the works of Hercules to get the virgin earth, the naked Diana, the salts of the metals, the woman waiting for her spouse, the matter deprived of its form, dried skin, royal baby, the sulfur of the philosophers who have given their matter such a great quantity of names, they have left the ignorants in the position not to be able to preferably pick up a matter instead of another, without possibility to discriminate the good from the evil.”
Page 79. “On the rules to be followed in order to accomplish the Magisterium.
One has to take some Mercurius of bodies in enough quantity and make it a Mercurius of nature by sublimating it to seven times or some.
At every sublimation a quart of the matter should be left inside the sublimating vessel; this quart is useless, it is what the philosophers called Terra Dannata.
We then need to separate the pure part from the impure and put the sublimated into a vessel well sealed; take arrangements so the remaining three quarts are empty to let the matter easily circulate.”
Not all alchemical ways or paths are similar. Some provide sublimations just in the preliminary works to achieve our Diana or Dissolvent. But some others need continued sublimations. It all depends on the starting raw matters (6).
Page 80
“The vessel has then to be placed in Balneum Mariae where it has to receive a heat analog to that of a brooding chicken. The same heat must be kept for six months, and finally the four elements will be perceptibly separated.
These four elements should be placed separately in four different vessels and firmly closed since they are of a volatile nature.
Precious earth will precipitate at the vessel bottom: This earth is the diadem, the king’s heart, which has to be carefully dried; and if we have the weight of three ounces, an ounce of white or red water should be added, then the vessel must be sealed.
The asters ( in french “astres”) will appear after on that earth, which putrifies with water and the earth gets putrified in the same way. It is the putrefaction to cause this variety of colors that later appear. Black color will appear the first; after comes white and rouge, and these are the last depending on the form one decide to give to the stone.”
Page 81.
“The matter must not be touched before whiteness and redness. Multiplication is a repetition of this operation, to increase the stone in quantity and virtue. The most perfect assumption lies on the hexagon reduction to circle by means of the numbers one, two, and three.”
Here hexagon is the Sigillum Salomonis, a symbol for fixation, while the circle is a symbol for volatilization. If you remember what I said on page 72, there is no wonder about reiterated fixations and volatilizations. In a coming article, I will deepen the concept. One, two, and three are the works.
“All things depend on a principle and tend to the same goal by means of the number two. That’s why we should try to exalt the number one from earth to the sky to take it down to the earth by the number two, which is the same operation as that done with number one.”
From earth to sky is a volatilizing operation, while “ to take it down to the earth” is a fixing operation.
“Here lies the key of the philosophers’ temple; if we are so lucky to get to the sanctuary, we will discover all the magisterium operations.
We must pay attention not to fail the choice of the matter we want to exalt and keep in mind that the whole astronomical and medical philosophy is covered by the same veil.”
- See also Kamala Jnana, Introduction to a Live Secret ;
- See also Basilius Valentinus, Salt, Azoth or Philosophers God? ;
- See also Atalanta Fugiens & Mercurius Duplicatus , Atalanta Fugiens & the Golden Apples ;
- See also Hortulus Hermeticus, Beware of the Red Laton ;
- See also Eros, Psyche and a New Alchemical Body ;
- See also Hollandus De Lapide Philosophico First Book 1 ;