Anaxagoras knew the powers of the whole firmament, and foretold that a great stone would descend from heaven to
earth, which actually happened after his death. To the Cabalists our vessel is perfectly well known, because it must
be made according to a truly geometrical proportion and measure, and from a definite quadrature of the circle, so
that the spirit and the soul of our matter, separated from their body, may be able to raise this vessel with themselves
in proportion to the altitude of heaven. If the vessel be wider, narrower, higher, or lower than is fitting, and than the
dominating operating spirit and soul desire, the heat of our secret philosophic fire (which is, indeed, very severe),
will violently excite the matter and urge it on to excessive operation, so that the vessel is shivered into a thousand
pieces, with imminent danger to the body and even the life of the operator. On the other hand, if it be of greater
capacity than is required in due proportion for the heat to have effect on the matter, the work will be wasted and
thrown away. So, then, our philosophic vessel must be made with the greatest care. What the material of the vessel
should be is understood only by those who, in the first solution of our fixed and perfected matter have brought that
matter to its own primal quintessence. Enough has been said on this point.
The operator must also very accurately note what, in its first solution, the matter sends forth and rejects from itself.
The method of describing the form of the vessel is difficult. It should be such as Nature requires, and it must be
sought out and investigated from every possible source, so that, from the height of the philosophic heaven, elevated
above the philosophic earth, it may be able to operate on the fruit of its own earthly body. It should have this form,
too, in order that the separation and purification of the elements, when the fire drives one from the other, may be
able to be accomplished, and that each may have power to occupy the place to which it adheres; and also that the sun
and the other planets may exercise their operations around the elemental earth, while their course in their circuit is
neither hindered nor agitated with too swift a motion. In all these particulars which have been mentioned it must
have a proper proportion of rotundity and of height.
The instruments for the first purification of mineral bodies are fusing-vessels, bellows, tongs, capels, cupels, tests,
cementatory vessels, cineritiums, cucurbites, bocias for aquafortis and aqua regia; and also the appliances which are
required for projection at the climax of the work.
CHAPTER XIX.
CONCERNING THE SECRET FIRE OF THE PHILOSOPHERS.
This is a well-known sententious saying of the philosophers, "Let fire and Azoc suffice thee". Fire alone is the whole
work and the entire art. Moreover, they who build their fire and keep their vessel in that heat are in error. In vain
some have attempted it with the heat of horse dung. By the coal fire, without a medium, they have sublimated their
matter, but they have not dissolved it. Others have got their heat from lamps, asserting that this is the secret fire of
the philosophers for making their Stone. Some have placed it in a bath, first of all in heaps of ants eggs; others in
juniper ashes. Some have sought the fire in quicklime, in tartar, vitriol, nitre, etc. Others, again, have sought it in
boiling water. Thomas Aquinas speaks falsely of this fire, saying that God and the angels cannot do without this fire,
but use it daily. What blasphemy is this! Is it not a manifest lie that God is not able to do without the elemental heat
of boiling water? All the heats excited by those means which have been mentioned are utterly useless for our work
Take care not to be misled by Arnold de Villa Nova, who has written on the subject of the coal fire, for in this matter
he will deceive you.
Almadir says that the invisible rays of our fire of themselves suffice. Another cites, as an illustration, that the
heavenly heat by its reflections tends to the coagulation and perfection of Mercury, just as by its continual motion it
tends to the generation of metals. Again, says this same authority, "Make a fire, vaporous, digesting, as for cooking,
continuous, but not volatile or boiling, enclosed, shut off from the air, not burning, but altering and penetrating.
Now, in truth, I have mentioned every mode of fire and of exciting heat. If you are a true philosopher you will
understand". This is what he says.
Salmanazar remarks: "Ours is a corrosive fire, which brings over our vessel an air like a cloud, in which cloud the
rays of this fire are hidden. If this dew of chaos and this moisture of the cloud fail, a mistake has been committed".
Again, Almadir says, that unless the fire has warmed our sun with its moisture, by the excrement of the mountain,
with a moderate ascent, we shall not be partakers either of the Red or the White Stone.
All these matters shew quite openly to us the occult fire of the wise men. Finally, this is the matter of our fire,
namely, that it be kindled by the quiet spirit of sensible fire, which drives upwards, as it were, the heated chaos from
the opposite quarter, and above our philosophic matter. This heat, glowing above our vessel, must urge it to the
motion of a perfect generation, temperately but continuously, without intermission.
CHAPTER XX.
CONCERNING THE FERMENT OF THE PHILOSOPHERS, AND THE WEIGHT. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]