Theories and experiments by a chemist discovering Alchemy. In Traité de l’Eau de Vie, by Jean Brouaut, lays the foundation of lifting volatile substances.
“Chapter II. The Water of Life is the same in all beverages. This is a truth verified by all common manufacturers of spirits…”.
As we have seen in the previous chapter, Eau de vie, the water of life in French, can be translated as Brandy. Back at that age, there was a resistance against the idea that ethanol from wine was the same as that from cider and beer, for instance.”
You can find the previous part at Brouaut and the Alliance of Water and Fire part 1. My translation from the original French is in quotation marks:
“… this water can be distilled from every beverage and keeps the same power to bind with all sorts of Souls. I will show how this subtle water can separate Tinctures from all bodies…”.
A Tincture, in Alchemy as in ancient chemistry, is the manifestation of life and a Soul (1), because when the so-called Sulphur/Souls comes to light, the colors spectacle begins.
” … since a subtle thing attracts another subtle thing.”
This is an alchemical consideration because the Mercurius/Secret Fire can extract Sulphur/Soul. Or at least, there is a kind of transmutation before our eyes.
” The work by a spirits manufacturer is the same as an alchemist: extraction by separation ( which is a distillation, of course) inside an artificial alembic. Then rectifications by reiterations (repetitions) of distillation, then exaltations by circulations. With these methods, I have extracted some water of life from megue du lait. Gerald Dorn, the follower of Paracelsus, extracted some water of life from Lead, always by the art of distillation.”
I doubt Gerard Dorn was able to extract ethanol from lead. Here we are before our Secret Fire/Mercurius, of course. The repetitions, I repeat repetitions, of distillations may lead us to Secret Fire/Mercurius achievement. This is what an alchemist means by “art of distillation”. Extensive research on translating the word megue did not bring any solution ( a French reader can enlarge the picture on the left). Since du lait means milk, I can say it is a milk product. In any case, it is important as an example of how one can prepare a product of extreme volatility by departing substances that do not contain ethanol but probably other alcohol. Brouaut is here too focused on alcohol and fails to search and explain how Dorneus managed to get highly volatile by lead. As said, it is our Mercurius obtained from any non-volatile salt through continuous sublimations. Nevertheless, as we shall see, the departure from departing volatile substances dramatically shortens the time.
“Chapter III. The Water of Life is a radical humid ( Humide Radical) that keeps all bodies. And the plants can move and feel.
I dare to say which upsets the most that this radical humidity keeps us alive… the water of life is a radical liquor giving life to bodies… there is no difference between the radical humidity of plants and that of animals.
Chapter IV. The reasons why the water of life is the radical humid of plants.
“We have said that the water of life is humid. But the seeds do contain some of it, and they are dry. But they have a great power of life inside, which is not material fire, but moreover, as Aristotle says, a Spirit which replays to the celestial elements of stars. I believe that the seed’s warm intensity and what makes the water of life catch fire are of the same nature: a spiritual warmth. If you water a dying plant with this water of life, it comes to new life. Nature does nothing for nothing. Paracelsus called this the vital principle of nature and, more appropriately, Balsam, Mumia (2), Mercurius, Quintessence, Elixir, pearl matter, manna”.
That’s what an alchemist calls Secret Fire, the ineffable substance coming from stars and suns and still dwelling in the bodies. It is evident that all that has very little to do with ethanol. But the art of distillation can transform common brandy in all the above-mentioned Paracelsus attributes.
“Chapter V. How is the Water of Life the general seed of Plants and of the ethereal Nature.
In fact, from this, Water springs a heat, making it the real and first seed of all plants. The common belief that a plant has no other seed than its grain is a very inelegant and unrefined opinion. If you throw some Water of life into the sky on a sunny day, you can see it ascend to where it has come from. In these moments, it is more subtle than air, and no drop falls to the ground. If you want evidence of its lightness, put on a layer of common water, an oily substance, and over it some Water of Life, and you will get the oil to float within two glasses of water, one terrestrial, the other celestial.”
These are very poetical sentences, although scientifically foolish. Sadly the poor knowledge of ancient chemists crushed alchemists’ reputations as well. Our mercurial Water of Life is ethereal because its texture is under molecular size. Of course, inside molecular support, when fixed, Mercurius becomes Mercurius Philosophorum (3).
“Chapter VII. How the Water of Life does not burn in the bodies.
Common people think that heartburn causes the name “Aqua Ardens”, or ardent water. But they don’t know that this water has two kinds of heat. The first heat is conservative for life and comes from the more ethereal part, or vital Spirit; the second is destructive and comes from the phlegm we have before said. Thus, making this water very subtle is crucial to miss all the excrement. When prepared by sufficient distillations or circulations, I have learned that this subtle water is no more burning but agreeable as a mild wine like Grave or Frontignac.”
The last sentence is underlined in the original book. The underliner has handed down the clue of our Water of Life’s mysterious preparation to posterity. It is clear enough that after this preparation, it cannot be more defined as a mere distilled wine.
“Chapter VIII. How the Water of Life does catch fire.
I have already said that this Water is oil-like, but I don’t mean the common oil. I said that because only an oil-like substance can catch fire when near the fire. I give this name to all greasy, waxy, resinous, and sulfurous substances. So here I don’t mean a standard oil, but an ethereal one, distant from the watery nature and nearer to Fire. Since Fire is lighter than Air (4), I said Air because its nature is closer to Fire than Water, but it would be even closer to ether”.
Our ineffable Mercurius, when fixed, can turn into a resinous substance. The proceeding is not as difficult inside a circulatorium or circulating tool as a pelican (5). It isn’t easy to know if Brouaut here intends the substance believed to occupy space beyond the sphere of the moon or the chemical ether.
“Chapter IX. How the Water of Life is of oil nature, rather than water.
We have to admit that our liquor, taken to a perfect subtlety, is comparable to an aster element, the vapor, in the same way, can be lifted to the ethereal regions and tends constantly to go up. As though the astral regions have been its natural place.”
Our Mercurius, when not fixed, is very volatile. Much more than a standard brandy. The above description doesn’t seem related to a simple alcoholic substance. Many alchemists think that Mercurius is of the exact nature of stars. Who could blame him?
“Our liquor is not of nature of water, but is an oily vapor… “.
I guess Brouaut puts forward the comparison with Vapor because of the volatility of the substance inside the vessel, which is very difficult to handle. For this reason, a fixation on Mercurius Philosophorum is always needed (5), and circulating tools are involved. The oily attribute is due to the apparent viscosity, Quite an impalpable, translucent, and transparent balsam ( see Chapter VIII).
” … because of this oily nature, it catches fire, but when in touch with common fire. So the recipient must be well closed; if not, our water tends to fly from any available pore. It is important not to open the vessel while the vapor is on its way up. I experimented by putting a candle flame close to the opened vessel, and as a result, all the vapor caught fire, and the fire filled all the vessels. Neither Water nor Air can do that but the nature of Fire. Like our common chemical ether, it is not ether because the stars cannot burn this astral substance. In addition, this fire is very strange since it falls from the sky rather than going up. Nevertheless, I will prove this fire doesn’t burn the bodies it gets in touch with… “
Be aware that some ancient chemists used this fire to make strong oxidations on metals, a method to calcine them (7).
” My experience indicates that the more subtle this Water of Life, the less burns the inner organs. If very subtle, and without rectifications, you can use it without hurt and pain inside eyes”.
Please, never try to ingest our Mercurius Philosophorum but in tiny weights. If not, it is too much dangerous. It is perfectly able to kill. We must remember that our Mercurius Philosophorum is always contained in a molecular substance, which also depends on that. Be aware of what you ingest, as a rule.
“Chapter X. On the Water of Life subtlety.
Anybody eager to analyze the nature of wines ( which are the base matters to extract the Water of Life from) will discover that apart from a great quantity of phlegm, they always tend to rise and fly away to get rid of all their wastes, leaving the wine’s body as without Soul and Life. Putting some Turpentine into wine will dissolve, especially if you put an egg yolk inside. Some painters make a gloss by dissolving Water of Life, Turpentine, and the mentioned egg yolk, a hard gum resulting. Some apothecaries use to dissolve those resins like mastic, galbanum, bdelium and oppoponax with this mixture.
The unique way to store the wine is inside a glass bottle closed by wax enclosed in a pig’s bladder. Wine can affect either metals or earth, which are not used to keep it. It can eat and erode metals, especially earth, in a mixture of saltpeter and niter.
To see the extraordinary subtlety of this spirit, you can experiment with Passevins ( pass wines). Get a round or oval glassware vessel ( perfume bottle-shaped), with a neck high, just one or two fingers. Get an equal-sized glass on whose aperture you can put the vessel. When done, fill the glass with good wine and the round vessel with water. Then place your finger in the mouth of the latter and place it upside down over the glass so that the glass aperture gets in touch with the wine. Get your finger away and see that water and wine don’t mix; you will see the wine rise like a color wine thread or like a tiny smoke; the wine will pass through the water and gather at the top of passevins. The water has given way to the wine through a pretty miraculous transposition. In the picture, the passevins are shaped and work.
Chapter X. On Passevins and their reason to be.
I have produced this wonder to show you the water of life subtlety. This perpetual fountain is similar to Cardanus but not as beautiful as Poliphilus in Hypnerotomachia…”
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili’s fountain is an allegory of the eternal source of our alchemical Water of Life/Mercurius. Surely Brouaut would have had plenty of fountains examples if he had meant a rising hydraulic system, as the Passevins (8).
“Nature and human ingenuity give many systems for the water to rise. For instance, there are mechanically perpetual lifts in vacuo and mills, but the most wonderful devices, in my opinion (Brouaut), are the Passevins: the wine going up and the water down. Not only that, but the wine rises despite its phlegm.”
Pay attention here since Brouaut presents a fundamental aspect for the alchemical Water of Life to take form.
“The art of sublimation presents a whole series of miraculous cases, for instance, during the sublimation, or distillation of saltpeter: the water, when is very clear, distilling through the filter brings along a lot of terrestrial phlegm, which we can see during the repetitions of Calcination, Solutions, and Distillations. “
Brouaut goes on with other irrelevant considerations. But he has pointed to the issue’s core: the rising of heavy salts with a volatile substance. If you are not new to this site, you should have recognized what I mean. Our Secret Fire, coming from stars and still dwelling in terrestrial bodies, is extracted by salt volatilization. This operation is almost impossible in wet paths without being accompanied by volatile and rising liquids. The repetitions of these processes might take to Alkahest or Universal Dissolvent/Mercurius. We have already seen similar processes in Lemery’s Saltpeter distillations (9). These are called preliminary works (see an Opus Magnum scheme) or Labors of Hercules. As we will see, the following parts of Brouaut’s treatise are about that. But let’s put an end to the first book with the eleventh chapter’s synopsis.
Chapter XI. Because of its subtlety, the Water of Life transcends the Elements.
In this chapter, Brouaut, quoting Cardanus de Subtilitate or the subtle things, states that the Water of Life and Ether are similar to things, between mortal and immortal, so they cannot do any harm to human health. Brouaut has already cited Ether, the meaning of the substance believed to occupy space beyond the sphere of the moon rather than the chemical ether. He ends the first book emphasizing the ethereal aspect of this real fifth element, above and beyond Fire (10). Even so, nothing can be done without the ethanol volatility, as Starkey teaches in his method to get Alkahest (11). The following second book will start to be more technical.
To be continued at Brouaut and the Anatomy of Wine.
- See also Hollandus, How Urine Salts Extract a White and Red Dye , Guido Montanor & Regimens of Fire , Kamala Jnana, from Black to White , Stuart Chevalier, Lessons on the First three Elements , Lemery, Saltpeter & the Blood of Salamander , Cabala Mineralis or the She Horse on Urine Work part 2 ;
- See also Michelangelo & the Mumia Skin in Last Judgement ;
- See also Basilius Valentinus & Salt, Azoth or Philosophers Gold? and Basilius Valentinus & Solve et Coagula Tree , Giorgione, Tempest & Aqua Pontica ;
- See also Baro Urbigerus & the Circulatum Tree ;
- See also Kriegsmann/ Sun, Moon, Wind and Earth in Tabula Smaragdina ;
- See also Atalanta Fugiens & Coral from Waters , Cabala Mineralis or the She Horse on Urine Work part 1 ;
- See also Fioravanti & Metals Calcination ;
- Aldus Manutius & Hypnerotomachia Poliphili ;
- See also Lemery & the Spirits of Salt Armoniac , Lemery & the Spirits of Common Salt with Wine ;
- See also Two Stars in a Venetian Geocentric Sky , Stuart Chevalier, Lessons on the First three Elements ;
- See also Starkey Pyrotechnie & Volatilization of Alkalis 2 ;