Then pour on the matter some fresh oleum and spiritus vetrioli and cohobate again. Till you see you oil to rise, pour all again and let to cool down. The replace the risen oil with the same quantity of a strong spirit of wine, put together at moderate fire, so it gets rotten and all the white powder fall on the bottom. Decant the solute in a clean glass and put in a cool place: in this way crystals do take form. Remove them; and distill from the remained solution till you think other crystals may form; make them to dry, put them in a glass bowl, place it in sand balneum and heat per gradus, degree by degree. The sublimed of a day make to circulate the day after. Repeat the operation over and over, till all gets stabilized. Then take it to cellar in a glass bowl and wait for it to become an oil. Put this oil in a retort, place it in cinders balneum and distill the liquor by cohobation, when all has risen, you have the quintessence. Then take other fresh regulus antimonii, crush it well, pour this liquor on and place to digest: in this way the liquor will become red like blood. Place the glass in sand balneum and distill what wants to rise. Or decant the solution, pour over some fresh liquor and extract from it what wants to be extracted.
Then put together all the extracted and only now distill by cohobation. In this way you obtain the real quinta essentia antimonii in the form of an oil. This quintessence open the core of the mercurius vivus; with this liquor you can do what you want; you can stabilize the mercurius and make with it a lapis medicinalis by getting it go through colors. And with the lapis medicinalis you can make do the lapis universalis. But you can also pour your liquor already at the beginning ( of the main work) on the pure gold, that’s to say to dissolve the gold in it and then transform it in lapis medicinalis, and then transforming it in tincture making it to go through colors.
Also: if you don’t want to work with oleum vitrioli, take the circulatum maius or minus, although the first is the most suitable for the work, I.e. if you pour the first on mercurius coagulatus antimonii, it soon transforms the mercurius in an oily liquor universalis, while if you put on the sal dulcis circulatus, circulating sweet salt, it transforms this in salt. Thus if you pour on regulus the latter you should decant the solution. Then put it in a cold place to make the crystals to form. These crystals can be fixed again alone in a glass bowl. Then let them on cellar where they become an oily liquid. In this way you have the quintessence. It is enough to keep to all said about the secret manipulations. These are the more secret operations, most important and secure; so the brothers must keep them secret, and following their conscience they must use them uniquely to honor God and to serve the other. Here I finish and I turn to supernatural things to men’s eyes, which are the other part of the mysterium. Thus I will reveal you something of the secret magic, that’s to say I will tell you how the soul and body of the man who wants to practice it should be and how he can get to magic through the mysterium.
Eighth Chapter
On the secret magic in the mysterium.
When the Highest by the virtue of his Great Spirit had created man in his image, in the latter soon appeared the property to read the core of all the created things and name them; they in turn comprehend him; but since he cannot talk to nature and all the creatures, they fear him, although he was absolutely harmless and innocent. In fact humankind was enlightened, they lived in the light, and by it, see in the core of creatures and through them and see in the core of the mysterium and the inner center of all the things in nature and the holy Trinity. So the Lord is closer to mankind than all the created things. Consequently if man yearns uniquely to the supreme and holy essence of Spirit and, fighting and whispering sighing, looks for it sparing no efforts, he shall be penetrated by His strength.
But it is up to him, this is a task of him, to find the spirit; and to fulfill it he must detaching from all created things, giving entirely to the Lord, even to secretly enter, silently and intensely, Him, so to find in his own soul the strength he is missing, which is produced by the Great Spirit, a thing that no natural man, being impure yet, can understand. Even the real conversion is a Great Spirit creation. So he who was to take part in magic, that’s to say to enter the God’s mind and think with it, must abstain from all that is human and which has been made by the terrestrial spirit, and through fasting and prayer should give himself constantly to the Lord. Thus the Eternal Love cannot be hidden anymore but must going and join the Spirit; so in the soul, almost both in the inner and external, one shall be able to hear the Lover’s whispering.
He is such a kind-hearted and compassionate being that my pen cannot describe. Hence, when in so doing you will have grasp the knowledge, it is enough you will join the Great Mind; and you can do it everyday, hour, moment. No divine mage can serve the world, since within him all ix foreign to the world, and prevent him to tie to it. Furthermore the spirit has been so deeply enter some of our Fathers and Prophets and they have been so penetrated to the point they have disappeared. Then, by means of this new strength, thanks to your sober life, and thanks to this union, you can deeply enquire and take action in all things. This will not be difficult: it will be enough authentic seriousness, continuous detachment from earthly things and a constant silence that allows the concentration. By this power our father, after having lost searching, have found their goal, have done wonders. If you are seriously willing, go for it, as it is far better to serve the Lord than the world and its material and carnal doctrine. In fact man cannot access to the divine magic till he is subjected to the asters and they can affected him. While if he offer himself only to God, the Highest, to be blessed by the Great Spirit, can discover any secret. For this reason the learned and philosophers have never been allowed to enter these secrets and have always vilified and persecuted the saints in grace of the Most High.
The natural men, whose spirit is mixed with the spirit of darkness, being affected by the asters, express themselves with imagines which gather the men of their crowd. But these men are very far from God and will fain in joining the Great Spirit. Who doesn’t bear nor allow gods other from Him. Furthermore these petty men with their commandments prevent to the devoted souls from obeying God and induce them to get away from Unique Entity, che manifests itself in Trinity, that’s to say as spirit, soul and body. So fear the great and holy Jehova with all your heart and soul, give to Him all your strengths, so He becomes in you the supreme strength. And when you will feel in your soul the strength of the great Jehova, which is a kind-hearted light breeze, be sure you will turn down all the wealths in the world to not miss Him whose your soul loves so deeply. Keep silent and don’t tell anyone about this world, but hidden yourself and your treasure to them, the king of the world, almost the Holy in Israel, and thanks to his strength you will do wonders for the glory of his great Name.
In order to know how you should hold to reach such a dignity, I warn you that you must not open your soul too much, otherwise you will lose all that you have conquered; or better, to this thinking you must not associated any other, even if this may appear as holy, but you must content di have found, entering yourself, He who loves your soul.
I warn you once again so He doesn’t get angry at you. Since the thing that is most undesirable is that, beyond Him, other gods are honored and loved, stays Him faithful. Also will note with amazement to have never known how the Highest manifests Himself in a holy place. No scribe and pharisee can teach you. Even, to bring water to their mill, they keep you out from God with their doctrines.
If you ask them what the Spirit of the Highest is and how does it work in the soul, you will hear and see incredible things; you will see how the pride of men to put themselves on the same level of the Highest do not hesitate to boast of miraculous powers” Furthermore you will find out the reason why thousand and thousand of men don’t reach the conversion and union with the Great Spirit, although the path heading to Him is simple and just one.
The old Tobiah was equipped with a spiritual power so great that the guardian angel of his son, the young Tobiah, must get manifested and take the form of a travel companion. And the fish which was devouring him – the fish symbolize the natural spirit – had to die and serve as food to the young Tobiah and his companions, and his liver was used to exorcise the evil.
Bear in mind, dear brother, the secret of this magic symbol: the man should be at one with God; there it is why the natural man, wild, just like the fish, should be caught and turn into food for the saints, i.e. the house of the Great Spirit. This is why il his guardian angel is willing to serve him; and all occur because of God’s power. By means of this power the angel drove out the devil and imprisoned him inside his liver’s fume. This fume is the wonderful prayer pronounced with deep conviction before the altar of the Great Spirit: Furthermore the angel walked away the darkness from the eyes of young Tobiah father, for this he regain the vision thanks to anointing with bile, to the prayer and kiss. Even here you have a magic symbol. La bile stands for venom but also anger, which within the man can cause both life and dead. Inside the bile the utmost brutality is hidden, but at the same time it is a balsam for the eyes, so we can see and offer to the Lord with a silent prayer our love and receive the kiss of Spirit.
Of the great secrets the beloved ancient had discovered and produced by communicating with the Great Spirit, no one was known by scribes, inspired by the natural world. Or better, no one of those had been recognized by the Lord worth and able to discover them. In fact as soon as the man uses the sound reason and brings before God his intellect, he turns horrible before His eyes. Furthermore all the natural knowledge, if not coming from the Great Spirit, comes from the man’s enemy, rises from the abyss of the black magic. As this spirit in its superbness always rises against the Highest. So it rises in the children of man, who then begin to impose their thinking to their brothers, and compel them to fall at their feet and adore them. In so doing they practice witchcraft, act against the Great Spirit with the purpose to impose their thinking and hinder the Great Spirit, so to worship carnal gods instead of Him.
So, if you want to be a magician, to make the Lord not to seize and devour you in His right anger for your and your pharisaical spirit is not damned for eternity, you must not turn away from him and you must not have other gods than Him; but you should fear Him with all your heart and soul and obey HIs commandment with all your strengths. You must be faithful to who loves you and has loved you till be born for the second time and incarnate Jesus in our flesh, the holy Messiah, the salvation of the world, drawing to the seven primordial spirits of His heart in a prodigious an incomprehensible to us. Jesus had to repair the fault and did wonders by the power of spirit, as did the disciples who followed him called not by the flesh but by spirit. He, as eternal and holy master, furthermore as perfect magician who knows men’s hearts, to overthrow these carnal gods, didn’t want to be followed by the learned of the world, but simple and ignorant people in the Pharisees eyes. In fact nothing can exist before Him that not put in his service. And those were made magicians and masters, because they were fit to receive the cooperating power of the Spirit.
For this reason he gave to them spirit and strength, and was able to resist to al the evil temptations the kingdom of darkness. His magic spiritual hunger was so great that the enemy tried to satiate. But He, although the devil to make Him as an earthly idol offered to Him all the reigns in the universe and the ruling of them, won all the temptations. The devil failed in his attempt to overwhelm him, because He rejected him with the power of spirit. Jesus Immanuel was the most learned of all the learned in the world, nevertheless He didn’t want the knowledge of the world, but that instilled by His Father in order to fulfill His will. Thanks to the Spirit’s strength He chose twelve apostles and instilled them His Great Spirit so they could do wonders, cast out devils and heal the sick. After having been risen to the Father he took action in His heart, and for this they felt full of sweet and heady whisper of the Great Spirit. But this happens on the Sinai Mount. Furthermore He also penetrated three thousands souls, and the strength of the Spirit came out of their mouths as tongues of fire as in these souls the igneous water has been descended.
When you have reached the union with God you’ll be in the magysterium magnum, in fact this is the real magic, you will find out what the Kabbalah is, and you will get use of it.
Previous Chapter at Testamentum Fraternitatis Roseae et Aureae Crucis. Part 4.
To be continued at Testamentum Fraternitatis Roseae et Aureae Crucis. Part 6.
- The original is “acquae” which is an italian neologism for latin “aquae”. This is another evidence that the author may have written in baroque period;
- See also Lemery & the Spirits of Common Salt with Wine ;