exactly in the beginning we open our Body for this Fire can do and doth that which no other Fire can do for it destroys and conquers the Body and makes it no Body but a Spirit So that whatever any Sophisters may suggest our Fire is Mineral it is Sulphur and that pure it is united to the Water in one form and yet hinders not its flux nor corrupts its form This is the true Ignis Gehennae for it Eclipseth the light of the Bodies and makes them become black as Pitch which is a symbol of Hell and for its Cimmerian darkness is by many of the Wise men called Hell Fire of Nature is the third Menstrual That Fire is natural in each thing But Fire occasionate we call unnatural As heat of Ashes and Balnes for putrefying Without these Fires thou mayst nought bring To Putrefaction for to be separate Thy Matters together proportionate OUr natural Fire is as I said the true Sulphur of Gold which in the hard and dry Body is imprisoned but by the mediation of our Water it is let loose by rotting the moles of the Body under which it was detained and after separation of Elements it appears visibly in our third Menstrual For though Gold be a compact and dry Earthy Body none may think that it became what it is without the virtue of a Seed which by perfection is not extinct but sealed up only which Seed is a Fiery form of Light which nothing in the World wanteth and therefore it would be a great Anomalum if it should be only defective in Metals the choice of all sublunary Bodies Betwixt these two Fires in the time of their action and passion one upon another and from another there is made a medium which is part of both which because it is not altogether natural nor wholly against nature is called unnatural The duration of this unnatural Fire is from the time that the Body begins to open and colours to change that is in a word all the time of the rule of Saturn and part of the rule of Jupiter the whole Regimen of Putrefaction and so much of Ablution until the Dove begin to prevail over the Crow which Putrefaction as it is the turning of an intire Wheel so part of it is done in sicco when the Body is all a discontinuous Calx or Ashes and part in humido which is called a Bath when the subsident part is liquid and boils and the superiour part vapours aloft and descends Thus you see how many Fires we have and how they are distinguished wherein I have written what I know and as many as understand me will esteem my Writings highly for without boasting let me assure thee thou hast not such another Directory in the whole World I may speak it without offence being unknown to thee and thou to me This I say not to detract from any Philosopher for many were deeply seen in this Mastery but almost all were envious and the most candid would have judged my plainness deserving an Anathema maranatha I have here laid you so plain demonstrations as I go that you cannot miss if God direct you and without the knowledge of the Fires you are far wide whatever whimsies you have in your head for you shall never see the dissolution of the Body nor shall you ever make black and by consequence you cannot divide Elements as you ought to do because you proportioned not your Matters wisely in the beginning of the Work for Dimidium facti qui bene cepit habet he who makes a good beginning hath as good as half done Therefore make Fire thy Glass within Which burneth the Body much more than Fire Elemental if thou wilt win Our secrets according to thy desire Then shall thy Seed both rot and spire By help of Fire occasionate That kindly after they may be separate TAke then my counsel be not so careful of the Fire of the Athanor as of your Internal Fire seek it in the house of Aries and draw it from the depths of Saturn let Mercury be the Internuncio and your signal the Doves of Diana By the River you shall find a Tree in which is the Nest of 10 Eagles take of them 7 9 or all but take them very white which oft plunging in the River will cause with these you may overcome the Lion The heat of their stomachs is far more powerful than any Fire in the World for in it Gold will be destroyed that thou shalt not know what is become of it which yet loseth nothing from it self though exposed to the greatest violence of any flame Thus with patience thou shalt see thy desire fulfilled and thy heart shall rejoyce for a wide door shall be opened by which thou mayst behold the Mysteries of Nature in all her Kingdoms In 40 or 50 days thou shalt behold the highest sign of most perfect corruption of thy perfect Body which of a dead lump is thus become Seed in which though many cannot believe that there is any active virtue yet it is now to the astonishment of Nature made living and by its life it kills that by which it was made alive and both being mingled make one Bath which by continual decoction moving the Earth and Water below and circulating the Air and Fire above make at last one inseparable quintessence the Father of Wonders Now to God only wise the revealâ—â— of these hidden Mysteries be praise from all his Creatures for ever Of Separation the Gate must thus be won THus I have run through this Gate of Separation which might be enough for it is all but because the Wise men have made many Operations for to hide the secret and have scattered their notions here and there in every Gate oâ— Operation sometimes being at the beginning sometimes at the end thereby to puzzle the unwary I must to make this Treatise intire run through the rest with what brevity and plainness I can I Shall now sing a pleasant Elegy What did betwixt two Lovers Fall out seek the reason why This Song discovers A Wife Did lose her life Because she did her Husband revive Whose death did enforce The man to remorse To see her dead who gave him life He was a King yet dead as dead could be His Sister a Queen Who when her Brother she did breathless see The like was never seen She cryes Vntil her eyes With over-weeping were waxed dim So long till her tears Reach'd up to her ears The Queen sunk but the King did swim These Waters with the Fire which prevail'd Did him so perplex That starting up not knowing what him ail'd He sorely did vex He thought That there was wrought Some Treason but full little did know That it was a Queen Him sav'd though unseen And dy'd her self sad white I trow At length her Carcass when her Gall was broke Rose up to the top From which fum'd up so venomous a smoak His breath which did stop He found Which made him sound
heat then believe Vntil bright and shining in whiteness be thy Stone Then mayst thou open thy Glass anon And feed thy Child which is ybore With Milk and Meat aye more and more THus shalt thou keep them for the space of 150 days in which time thou shalt see a gallant Game played the Earth shall be overflown with Waters the two great Lights eclipsed the Heavens be clouded the Air darkned and all things in disorder and confusion then shall the Earth be turned into a Limus and the Water by decoction continual shall be dryed up and by moderate showrs and dews shall be moistned and by continual washing shall be cleansed then through the good pleasure of God the day-light shall spring forth and what was before dark shall now become clear and what was black of the blackest shall now be made very white This when thou shalt see rejoyce for our King is now coming from the East triumphing he hath conquered death and now is made immortal strengthen then your Fire a little prudently and with discretion continue it till such time as your Stone become white and very clear and bright sparkling like to a Sword new slipped and by driness be reduced into a Powder impalpable Now art thou come to the end of the white and thou hast a Stone perfect though this be but of small virtue yet thou mayst now take it out and use it either by Fermentation or Cibation or Imbibition or Multiplication and make it fit for projection so that if thou hast but an ounce thou mayst soon have a thousand For now both moist and dry is so contemperate That of the Water Earth hath received impression Which never after that asunder may be separate And right so Water to the Earth hath given ingression That both together to dwell have made profession And Water of the Earth hath purchased a retentive They four made one never more to strive NOw thou hast an intimate union between the moist and the dry that one is passed into another and of two there is a third made which is a Neuter from both and yet partakes of both and these two Natures that did seem so opposite are now conspired together to make one substance incorruptible For the Water which is a Spirit hath given such an impression to the Earth that it which was corporal and dry and uncapable of communicating Tincture is by it become penetrative so that it can in the very twinkling of an eye pass to the very Centre upon an imperfect Metal on which it is project as I have oft with an unspeakable content observed For it is not in our union of this Sulphur to its Mercury as it is with the union of Water to Earth though we make such comparisons for though we call our Sulphur Earth and our Mercury Water yet our Mercury will not in the Examen of the Fire flow away as Water will exhale from Loam how exquisitely soever it be contempered with it So then our Body which by our Art is renewed is advanced into the order of Spirits or Bodies glorified which though they have Bodies yet they are not subject to those Laws of gross corporeity which is in Bodies not regenerate therefore our Stone is a System of Wonders ponderous fixt and exquisitely compact and yet as penetrative as hot Oyl is into soaking Paper So that it is not now as it was at first beginning of Operation when the one was above the other below compared to two Dragons or Birds the one winged the other without wings but now both are capable to resist the Fire in its utmost fury Now hath the Water received a fermental impression from the Earth or Sulphur so that it is now made Sulphur with Sulphur as the other is made by the Water life with life This is the highest perfection which any sublunary Body can be brought to by which we know that God is one for God is perfection to which when ever any creature arrives in its kind it rejoyceth in unity in which is no division or alterity but peace and rest without contention Thus in two things all our intents do hing In moist and dry which be contraries two In dry that it the moist to fixing bring In moist that it give Liquefaction to the Earth also WHatever then we seem to say or write to the contrary all our intentional Secret consists only in two things whatever we seem to advise more is but only to intangle the unwary Our first Secret is to know our true Sulphur which many do allegoâ—ize to all the absurdities in the World This is Gold which is to be bought pure almost in any place The next is to know our Mercury which is not common but artificial drawn from three heads by the mediation of one thing which makes the two which are dry and Sulphurous to unite with one which is moist and Mercurial These are different in their qualities which difference our decoction so reconciles as to make of them sweet Harmony For the Sulphur in whose increase of virtue consists our final intent it doth give consistence to the Water yet so as that it doth not part with it from it self but with its Fermentative virtue it doth so infuse it that of a moist Spirit tender and volatile it becomes a fixt dry Fire-abiding substance But first of all the Water doth mollifie the Body and soak into it and search out its profundity for the Sun teyneth not till it teyned be for hard and dry Bodies cannot enter so as to transmute till such time as themselves be first Radically entred and changed from colour to colour till they come to perfection then it is fluid and penetrative for it will enter to the root of the imperfect and cause it to lose its imperfection and become perfect flowing upon it like Wax when it is heated by the Fire Then of them thus a temperament may forth go A temperament not so thick as the Body is Neither so thin as Water withouten miss BEtween the dry Body and the fluid Water we make a temperament which is called Impastation for it is made like unto Paste and Inceration for it brings it to the temper of Wax but most properly Amalgamation or gross Conjunction which is a middle consistence between Mercury and a Metal not so hard as the one for it may with a Knife or ones Finger be spread to and fro easily nor yet is it so currant as Mercury for no Mercury will run out of it though it be inclined one way or other I need say no more for there is hardly any vulgar Chymist who is not acquainted with the notion of an Amalgama and knows what temper that is when it will spread like Butter and yet laid declining will let nothing run from it which is thinner then the whole Compound for in a thin Amalgama the Mercury if it be declined will run to the declining side like Hydropical intercutis Water But ours is
Sir GEORGE RIPLEY'S EPISTLE TO King Edward the Fourth UNFOLDED THis Epistle as it was immediately written to a King who was in his Generation both wise and valiant so it doth comprize the whole secret both learnedly described and yet artificially vailed Yet as the Author testifieth that in this Epistle he doth plainly untie the main knot So I can and do testifie with him that there is nothing desirable for the true attaining of this Mystery both in the Theory and Practick of it which is not in this short Epistle fully taught This then I intend as a Key to all my former writings and assure you on my faithful word that I shall not speak one word doubtfully or Mystically as I have in all my other writings seeming to aver some things which taken without a Figure are utterly false which we did only to conceal this Art This Key therefore we intend not to make common and shall intreat you to keep it secret to your self and not to communicate it except it be to a sure friend who you are confident will not make it publick And this request we make upon very good grounds knowing that all our writings together are nothing to this by reason of the contradictions which we have woven into them which here is not done in the least measure I shall therefore in this Epistle take up a new Method and that different from the former and shall first draw up the substance of the Philosophy couched in this Epistle into several conclusions and after elucidate the same The first Conclusion is drawn from the Ninth Stave of this Epistle the eight first Staves being only complementall and that is That as all things are multiplied in their kind so may be Metalls which have in themselves a capacity of being transmuted the imperfect into perfect The second Conclusion in the Tenth Stave is That the main ground for the possibility of transmutation is the possibility of reduction of all Metalls and such Minerals as are of metallick principles into their first Mercurial matter The third Conclusion is in the Eleventh Stave that among so many Metaline and Mineral Sulphurs and so many Mercuries there are but two Sulphurs that are related to our work which Sulphurs have their Mercuries essentially united to them The fourth Conclusion from the same Stave is That he who understands these two Sulphurs Mercuries aright shal find that the one is the most pure red Sulphur of Gold which is Sulphur in manifesto and Mercurius in occulto and that other is most pure white Mercury which is indeed true Quicksilver in manifesto and Sulphur in occulto these are our two Principles The fifth Conclusion from the Twelfth Stave is That if a mans Principles be true and his Operations regular his Event will be certain which Event is no other then the true Mystery These Conclusions are but few in number but of great weight or concernment the Amplification Illustration and Elucidation therefore of them will make a son of Art truly glad STAVE IX In the Edition 1591 but in Esq Ashmole's Theatrum it is Stave 8. But notwithstanding for peril that may befall If I dare not here plainly the knot unbind Yet in my writing I will not be so mysticall But that by study the true Knowledge you may find How that each thing is multiplyed in its kind And how the likeness of Bodies Metalline be tranâ—mutable I will declare that if you feel me in your mind My writing you shall find true and no fained Fable FOr the First Forasmuch as it is not for our purpose here to invite any to the Art only intending to lead and guide the sons of Art We shall not prove the possibility of Alchymy by many Arguments having done it abundantly in another Treatise He then that will be incredulous let him be incredulous he that will cavil let him cavil But he whose mind is perswaded of the truth of this Art and of its Dignity let him attend to what is in the Illustration of these Five Conclusions discovered and his heart shall certainly rejoyce We shall therefore briefly Illustrate this 1st Conclusion and insist there more largely where the secrets of the Art are most couched For this first which concludes in effect the truth of the Art and its validity he that would therein be more satisfied in it let him read the Testimony of the Philosophers And he that will not believe the Testimony of so many men being most of them men of renown in their own times he will cavil also against all other Arguments We shall only hold to Ripley's Testimony in this our Key who in the Fourth Stave assures the King that at Lovain he first saw the greatest and most perfect secrets namely the two Elixirs and in his following Verses craved his confident credit that he himself hath truly found the way of secret Alchymy and promiseth the discovery of it to the King only upon condition of secrecy And in the Eighth Stave though he protests never to write it by Pen yet proffers the King at his pleasure to shew him occularly the Red and White Elixir and the working of them which he promiseth will be done for easie costs in time So then he that will doubt the truth of this Art must account this Famous Author for a most simple mad Sophister to write and offer such things to his Prince unless he were able in effect to do what he promised from which imputation his Writings and also the History of him of his Fame Gravity and Worth will sufficiently clear him STAVE X. As the Philosopher in the Book of Meteors doth write The likeness of Bodies Metalline be not transmutable But after he added these words of more delight Without they be reduced to their beginning materiable Wherefore such Bodies which in Nature be liquiable Mineral Metalline may be Mercurizate Conceive you may this Science is not opinionable But very true by Raymond and others determinate WE come to the second Conclusion the substance of which is that all Metalls and Bodies of Metalline Principles may be reduced to their first Mercurial Matter And this is the main and chief ground for the possibility of Transmutation On this we must insist largly and fully for trust me this is the very hinge on which our secrets hang. First Then know that all Metalls and several Minerals have Mercury for their next matter to which for the most part nay indeed always there adheres and is Con-coagulated an external Sulphur which is not Metalline but distinguishable from the internal Kernel of the Mercury This Sulphur is not wanting even in common Argent Vive by the Mediation of which it may be precipitated into the form of a drie Powder Yea and by a Liquor well known to us though nothing helping the Art of Transmutation it may be so fixed that it may endure all Fires the Test and Coppel and this without the addition of any thing to it but
King and Queen contumulate And joyn'd as one together That which before was two by Fate Is ty'd which none can sever The King begets the Queen with Child Conjunction doth allay Their fury who before were wild Conception both doth slay The King is Brother to his Wife And she to him is Mother One Father is to both whose life Depends upon each other The one when dead the other dyes And both are laid in Grave The Coffin's one in which both lyes Each doth the other save Yet each the other doth destroy And yet both are amended One without t' other hath no joy Both are of one descended Twice fourty days do come and go To which twice five are added These do produce a perfect Crow Whose blackness chears hearts sadded Twice fifteen more produce a Dove Whose wings are bright and tender Twice ten more make the Soul above To need no Fire defender For Soul and Body so combine The Spirit interceding Tincture to give of Silver fine The Soul the Body in leading Also such fixity to add Against the Flames prevailing Which may the Chymist make full glad The Sophister still failing Who seeks in fancies for to find Our Art so much concealed Not duly weighing in his mind That 't is a Fountain sealed Which one thing only can unlock This one thing learn to know Lest you the same event should mock That thing these Lines do shew AN EXPOSITION UPON THE Second Gate Which is DISSOLUTION The Second Gate Opened Which is DISSOLUTION Of Dissolution now will I speak a word or two Which sheweth out what erst was hid from fight And maketh intenuate things that were thick also By virtue of our first Menstrue clear and bright In which our Bodies eclipsed been of light And of their hard and dry compaction subtilate Into their own first Matter kindly retrogradate HAving run through the Chapter of Calcination I now come to handle Dissolution which as I said before is the first beginning of the Spirits activity and it is the first half of the Wheel which turns up the Spirit and down the Body the second hath a contrary operation for it makes the Body active and Spirit passive so then Calcination hides the profundity of the Body which Solution discovereth It is then nothing else but a boiling of hard and dry Bodies in our Mercury in a convenient Fire so long till they be dissolved and made thin then the same Fire makes them fly and flying they condense and return in drops on the Body and moisten it This is Solution and Sublimation together for the Water circulating upon the Body doth soften it and by often returning doth at length bring it to its own nature of moisture In this Resolution according to Artephius the Sun loseth its colour and is darkned and the Moon doth not give her light for all things are turned into their confused Chaos or first Matter in which the Elements with their qualities are hurried together One in Gender they be and in Number two Whose Father is the Sun and the Moon the Mother The mover is Mercury These and no more be Our Magnesia our Adrop and none other Things here be but only Sister and Brother That is to mean Agent and Patient Sulphur and Mercury co-essential to our intent THe cause of this is the Homogeneity of the Matter wherein they agree in essence together with the difference which is between them in Sex they being in the Glass as Male and Female and in ripeness of years one being more mature and by consequent more active to wit the Sun who therefore is the Father the other more crude in comparison of the Sun and so more passive viz. the Moon which therefore is the Mother of our Stone This Mother is our Mercury which for its eminent difference from any other Mercury is called the Moon with its internal true Sulphur which is hidden under its Mercurial form doth first move for at first our Body which is Gold is dead and liveth not till it be quickned by our Mercury then it lives it behoveth thee then to put in thy Body and thy Water and let them stand together and add nothing to them This Composition duly made we call our Magnesia and our Adrop and nothing entreth neither Powder nor Liquor save only these two species which species are the perfect Body and Argent vive These two sprung out of one Root for as I told you the Soul of thy animated Mercury is perfect true Gold yet volatile which by Art may be made to appear in a fixed form so then we joyn Consanguinity with Consanguinity Brother with Sister and make them become together Man and Wife These two by continual Fire do act and re-act the Woman first and then the Man several which then are joyned and make one Hermaphrodite acting one half of each Circulation as a Woman or Spirit and the other half as a Man or Body For each of the two principles have a Sulphur and a Mercuriality the Gold or Body hath its Sulphur external and apparent the Mercury the Spirit hath it internally hidden yet both these are co-essential each to other and in that respect they are the only subjects in the World for our Art Between these two in quality contrarious Ingendred is a mean most marvellous Which is our Mercury and Menstrue unctuous Our secret Sulphur working invisibly More fierce then Fire burning the Body Dissolving Metals into Water Mineral Which Night for darkness in the North we do call FOr with their Homogeneity they have withall such a Contrariety in opposite qualities that they do no sooner feel the Fire but they are stirred up to Work and boiling and circulating in a continual Ebullition or Vapour they do mingle their homogeneal qualities together by reason of which there is a strange medium of an unnatural Fire and a putrefying Bath ingendred then the Sulphur or Fire of the Gold which is the Fire of Nature and the Sulphur of the Water do embrace one another and these two make an unnatural Fire in which the Humidity appears and the Sulphur being hidden to the eye appears in its effects only to sight and that is it burns destroys and conquers the Bodies which common Fire never could do making them to be no Bodies but a Fume of Mineral Vapour and in this Operation the Elements are confused and make our Chaos which is void and dark for here the Lights of the World are eclipsed the Sun is darkned and the Moon sheweth not its light which watrishness of the Compositions for its abundance of moisture and privation of light we call Winter and Night and the North Latitude of our Stone But yet I trow thou understandst not utterly The very secret of Philosophers Dissolution Therefore understand me I counsel thee wittily For the truth I will tell thee without delusion Our Solution is caused of our Congelation For Dissolution on the one side corporal Causeth Congelation on the other
hastning the most beautiful Flowers of May. Now as the Winter is a sad time being cold and wet frosty and slabbery the Countries of Pleasure being dirty to the Horses belly but the Spring returns the year and pleasure with its sweet season so in our Work thy first Operations before blackness seem tedious but after blackness far more tedious for thou wilt think there will never be an end of it so variety of colours brings delight in its daily and hourly variety even to perfect whiteness Forth from the East into the South ascend And set thee down there in a Chair of Fire For there is Harvest that is to say an end Of all this Work after thine own desire There shineth the Sun up in his Hemisphere After the Eclipses in redness with glory As King to reign over all Metals and Mercury HEre thou mayst light and bait and enjoy the glory of thy white Elixir but do not for thou hadst better wait the end Proceed then with a Fire a little more increased unto the Summer or South quarter where after some colours as green yellow azure and the like thou shalt have a sparkling red like unto the flaming Fire Then thou art come indeed to thy Harvest and to the end of all thy Operations for now thou beginnest by apparent colours the uprising of the Sun after it hath been so long beclouded and eclipsed now hast thou mourned long enough now the time is come that thou shalt need no more to mourn for the Bridegroom is now come forth out of his Chamber and the Sun comes forth as a valiant Champion to win a prize now is the time come in which that of the Poet is fulfilled Ne te poeniteat faciem fuligine pingi Adferet haec Phoebi nigra favilla jubar Now hath our King of Peace attained his Kingdom whose Government is parcere subjectis debellare superbos for whatever is infected our King will cure what is lame he will heal and what is rebellious he will suppress and subdue Sic Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis And in one Glass must be done all this thing Like to an Egg in shape and closed well NOw all these our Operations as the Philosopher saith are done in our secret Fire hidden Furnace and in one Vessel for if thou thinkest to make any of these Operations with thy hand thou art in a certain way of errour Our Vessel then which for similitudes sake we call an Egg must be so closed when our Materials are set in it that the Spirits cannot possibly get out nor the Air get in else our Work were spoiled Then must thou know the measure of Firing The which unknown thy Work is lost each deal Let never thy Glass be hotter then thou mayst feel And suffer still in thy bare hand to hold For fear of losing as Philosophers have told THis done we then set our Vessel and Matter to the Fire and let it stand untouched till the Work be done so that the Philosopher hath nothing then to do but behold his Glass and the Operation in it and to govern his Fire artificially So then when once the Stone is set to work the whole Mastery is to govern the external Fire which as the Philosopher doth either perfect or destroy all if thy Fire be too slow for want of motion thou wilt hardly ever see an end and if too big thou mayst happen to seek thy fortune in the Ashes Be not therefore immoderate in governing and for better security let not your Glass neck be under a span in length but as much longer as you shall see good the longer for a Tyro the better he shall work and with the more security But the usual length which we use is about 12 or 14 inches high this height being so allowed order so your Furnace as to let out about 3 or 4 inches of the top of your Glass which may come forth through the cover of your Athanor and if you can without hurt feel or suffer any part of that neck fear not your Fire but stew him without fear your Glass being strong and the quicker Fire the better Yet know that your Furnace must be answerable for do not believe that Philosophers did formerly use our Art of Furnaces but made them of Brick or Earth with Earthen Covers which had holes for letting out part of the necks of their Glasses over which if they put a Cover which they could remove and set on again at their pleasure this Earthen Cover was not so reflective of heat as our Iron Covers are but that end of the Glass which came out at the hole of the Cover they could feel without any damage and by their being able to suffer that in their hand they judged the temperament of their heat Therefore in thy Furnace let thy Cover or Top be luted with good Loam every-where at the least half an inch thick so shalt thou be sure not to have too scalding a heat in the concavity of thy Nest which otherwise thou wouldst have so mayst thou govern thy Fire at thy pleasure the necks of thy Glasses which come forth thou needest not cover so shalt thou see this of Ripley verified thy Work will go on very successfully and thou wilt ever be able to endure thy Glass in thy hand and this is the true meaning of all Philosophers to give a certain rule by which thou shalt never exceed and that is so long as you can endure to feel any part of thy Glass provided thy Nest be covered and the ends of thy Glass necks come forth Yet to my Doctrine furthermore attend Beware thy Glass thou never open ne meeve From the beginning till thou have made an end If thou do otherwise thy Work may never cheeve Thus in this Chapter which is but brief c. ANd that this is according to the â—ence of all Wise men is evident by their testimony in general and the following words of Ripley See saith he that thou open not thy Glass nor move it from the beginning to the end of the Work So then this feeling of the Glass it must be such as may be without opening or moving of the same for if the Seed be disturb'd in its beginning to vegetate the Work is undoubtedly spoiled or at least it will be so notably weakned that it will hardly afford thee thy true Signs in thy due time Therefore when thou settest in thy Egg in thy Nest take heed of meddling with it until the Mastery be attain'd but with a Wyre or some such thing or with a hole in thy Cover stay the neck of thy Glass from jogging this way or that which otherwise it will be very subject to Thus have I briefly run through this second Gate of Dissolution which is indeed one with Calcination and Separation for by a constant Sublimation is made a Solution of the Body and at length a Congelation of Spirits for they by oft ascending
which shall over-go The spotted Panther the Lyon green the Crow's Bill blew as Lead These shall appear before the perfect White and many other moe Colours And after the perfect white gray and false Citrine also And after these then shall appear the bloody red invariable Then hast thou a Medicine of the third order of his own kind multiplicable IX Thou must divide thy white Elixir into parts Two Before thou Rubifie and into Glasses Two let them be done If thou wilt have the Elixirs for Sun and Moon so do With Mercury then them multiply unto great quantity soon And if thou hadst not at the beginning enough to fill a Spoon Yet thou mayst them so multiply both the White and the Red That if thou liv'st a Thousand Years they will stand thee in stead X. Have thou recourse unto thy Wheel therefore I counsel thee And study him well to know in each Chapter truly Meddle with no Fantastical Multiplyers but let them be Which will thee flatter and falsly say they are cunning in Philosophy Do as I bid thee then dissolve those foresaid Bases wittily And turn them into perfect Oyls with our true Water ardent By Circulation that must be done according to our intent XI These Oyls will six crude Mercury and convert Bodies all Into perfect Sol and Lune when thou shalt make Projection That Oyly Substance pure fixt Reymond Lully did call His Basilisk of which he never made so plain detection Pray for me to God that I may be one of his Election And that he will for one of his at Dooms-day me ken And grant me in his Bliss to Reign with him for ever Amen A Breviary of Alchemy OR A COMMENTARY UPON Sir GEORGE RIPLEY'S RECAPITULATION BEING A Paraphrastical Epitome of his XII Gates Stanza I. Position I. That the Art is most certainly true WHich wittily conceiv'd thou mayest not Work in vain Whence observe the Truth and Certainty of the Art so Father Hermes It is true saith he without falshood certain and most true That which is above is like that which is beneath and that which is beneath is like that which is above to bring about the Miracles of one thing So Trevisan Flammel Dionys Zachary and others affirm upon their own Experience And so this our Author in his Epistle to King Edward his Conclusion of the Admonition concerning erroneous Experiments and other places of these his Twelve Gates that I need not enlarge on this Subject Stanza II. Position II. Our Work is made of Three Principles WHere the Red Man and the White Woman are made one c. Thence it is evident that our Operations are made of Three Principles yet of one Essence the Red Man the White Wife and the Spirit of Life By the latter the two former are Espoused or made One. This is that which Trevisan calls his One Root and Two Mercurial Substances crude at their taking and extracted out of their Minera's This our Author else-where calls his Trinity and Vnity the Trinity respecting the Substances as they are severall the Vnity respecting their Essence which is intirely Homogenial Therefore it is added that they live in love and rest without repugnancy which could not be were they not Essentially and Radically the same For likeness of Nature is the Cause of Love and Oneness of Essence the true ground of Union among different Substances can only be expected Confusion if not Destruction Position III. Three Substances make only Two Natures Earth and Water EArth and Water equally proportion'd that is best Here it is evident that these Three Substances make up but Two Natures of Earth and Water The Man and Wife are both Bodies or Earths the one fixed and ripe the other Volatile and unripe and by Mixture make a brittle black Hermaphroditical Body or Earth called the Philosophers Lead as Ripley in his Preface expresseth it The White Woman or Famale is otherwise called the Moon by all Philosophers and by this Author in his Doctrine of Proportions One of the Sun and Two of the Moon till altogether like Pap be done Position IV. From equal Pondus of Earth and Water Three of Water to One of the Earth is good but equal is best THen make the Mercury Four to the Sun Two to the Moon c. as it should be in Figure of the Trinity And so we come to take notice of the Doctrine of Proportion between the Earth and Water equal that is best the same saith our Author in his Chapter of Calcination This is the surest and best proportion speaking of equal Pondus of Earth and Water and gives the Reason because Solution will be sooner made viz. The more thy Earth the less thy Water be The sooner and better Solution shalt thou see And here he affirms the same of Calcination which goes before Solution Yet Three of the Water to One of the Earth will do well lest the Tincture should not have room to be sufficiently dilated in the Water and the Body opened by it and this is the Pondus of Roger Bacon which requires a longer time before the quick be kil'd and by consequence the reviving of the dead must be longer in doing For Calcination is nothing else but a killing the moist with the dry till which be done there is no reviving of the dry by the moist but they have one and the same Operation and Period of time for one dies not but the other revives nor doth the Dragon die but with its Sister Position V. The White Wife in the first Conjunction is to be Three to One of the Red Man THree of the Wife and one of the Man thou take c. From the Pondus between the Earth and Water come we to view the Proportion between the Man and his Wife Here the Pondus is laid down Three to One and so there are Four parts of Earth to Four of Water or more until Twelve that is Three of Water to One of the Earth This also is clear from the Chapter of Conjunction where the Woman is allow'd 15 Veins to 5 of the Man as to the Act of their Foecundity which is interpreted of the first Conjunction by himself that the Man must have but 3 of Water and his Wife 9 which is 12 of Water to 4 of the Earth by which it is evident that the Woman is to exceed her Husband in a three-fold Proportion Or Two to One after Reymund Or Four to One according to Alanus but Three to One is best However in Reymund's Doctrine of Proportions cited by our Author in his Gate of Calcination One of the Sun is joyn'd with Two of the Moon which make Three of the Body and to these are added Four of Mercury which is One more of the Spiritual than of the Corporal part and this the Author compares to Trinity and Vnity both are good Yea and Alanus prescribes Four parts to One which may be done but Three to One is best and equal Pondus
of Spirit and Life for compleating of the Marriage between this Royal Pair the Sun the Husband and the Moon the Wife Of this speaks this Author in his Gate of Solution One in Gender they be but in Number not so The Father is the Sun and the Moon the Mother the Mover is Mercury This Compound according to its various Considerations hath many Relations and as many Denominations Sun and Moon Man and Wife Body Soul and Spirit Earth and Water Sister and Brother Mother and Son with many others but its Proper Name is Magnesia Quest What is the Red Man what his White Wife What the Spirit of Life It may be here questioned what this Red Man is what his White Wife and what the Spirit of Life for that is the only knot in understanding the Writings of Philosophers whose various Expressions and seeming Contradictions herein do obscure the Art wonderfully Yet however they seem to differ in their Writings they mean all one thing if well or rightly understood Answer 1 st What the Red Man is The Red Man betokens the perfect Body of the Sun or his Shadow the Moon For Lune the Body which is one of the Seven is a Male and a perfect Body and fixed only wants a little Digestion and therefore the Red is hid under its visible White as White is hid under the visible Red of Sol Therefore our Author in his Work of Albification saith that the Sun appeareth White and Bright And Trevisan saith our King who is cloathed in Garments of pure Gold after he is once in the Bath appears no more till after one hundred and thirty days and then he appears White and wonderfully bright and shining And an old Philosopher saith Honour our King at his return from the East in Glory and admirable bright whiteness Therefore saith Artefius Our Water is of kin to the perfect Bodies to the Sun and to the Moon but more to the Sun then to the Moon Note this well And in all his Books he joyns the Sun and Moon the perfect Bodies Gold and Silver for the work So doth Ripley and so all Philosophers by which it is evident that either of the perfect Metals or Luminaries with oâ—r Aqua Vitae will compleat the work as Arnold expressly saith in his Questions Answers to Boniface and Jodocus Greverus in his Treatise confirms the same in these words If so be saith he thou be so poor that thou canst not take Gold then take so much Silver yet Gold is the better as being nearer of kin to our Water and Mercury Answer 2. What is the White Wife Secondly The White Wife otherwise called the Moon is a Female it is a Coagulated Mercury but not fixt A spiritual Body fluxible in nature of a Body yet Volatile in nature of a Spirit It is called therefore Mercury of the Philosophers Our Green Lyon Our immature or unripe Gold It is Pontanus's Fire Artephius's middle substance clear like pure Silver which ought to receive the Tinctures of the Sun and Moon his sharp Vineger his Antimonial-Saturnine-Mercurial Argent Vive without which â—aton cannot be whitened of which an old Philosopher saith whiten the red Laton by a white tepid and suffocated Water of which testimony Trâ—visanus affirms that nothing could be said better or clearer This is that which is intimated in the Vision of Arislaus who found a People that were Married yet had no Children because they married two Males together Such are they who mix Sol and Lune both Corporal and fixt together whom the Spirit will never revive because there is not conjugal Love Joyn therefore Gabritius to his beloved Sister Beya which is a tender Damsel and straightway Gabritius will die that is will lose what he was and from that place where he appeared to have lost what he was he shall appear what he was not before Answ 3. What is the Spirit of Life Thirdly The Spirit of Life is Mercury The Mover saith this Author is Mercury with which the Stone is to be multiplyed when it is made And it must be true Mineral Mercury without any forreign mixture as Arnold resolves expressly in his Answer to Boniface And so Ripley saith some can multiply Mercury with Saturn and other substances which we defie Distil it therefore till it be clean c. It moreover must have all the proportions of Mercury its ponderosity otherwise it could not be Metalline its Humidity otherwise the Feminine Sperm would be deficient and its siccity not to wet the hand which it can no sooner lose by Corrosives or otherwise but it straight-way loseth its first Mineral Proportion and so is no longer an Ingredient of our true Tincture Position VI. As the West Latitude is the entrance so in the North is the first alteration PRoceed then forth to the North by obscuration c. Loosing them and altering them c. The Materials being found and mixt according to the Proportions taught before is called the West Latitude because in it the Sun sets and afterwards appears no more in his Red Robes till he first be cloathed with a White glittering Robe and be Crowned with a very bright Oriental Diadem Now the progress into the North is a discovery of the Profundity of the Stone and is compared to the Winter which is in the North chiefly long tedious cold and slabbery so will it be in this Work the Signs are Capricorn Pisces and Aquarius In this there is a retrogradation of Sol into its first matter in which alteration the old Form dies the Matter rots and putrifies and is after renewed in the East This Operation saith Flammel is not perfected in less then Five Months and the Colours of the Compound are dark obscure waterish and at length black like Pitch in which blackness the Body is rotted into Atoms which intire blackness and height of corruption lasts but 2 or 3 days and therefore saith Ripley in his Epistle the third day he shall arise the same saith Dastin in his Rosary where he allows four days for Putrefaction The same saith Efferarius the Monk in his intire Treatise published with Dastin However the whole time of blackness in coming continuing and going away is 150 days although the Sun begins to appear in 130 days if you work aright This I have added for the sake of many who expect black of the blackest in 40 or 50 dayes mistaking Flammel herein who saith the colour must be black of the blackest and like to the colour of the Dragons in 40 days which Dragons were blackish blewish and yellowish which colours shew that the Matter begins to rot into Atoms which rottenness is not perfected in less than 150 days so as to let the Sun appear with its Rays First in a small Circle of Heir of a whitish Citrine which increaseth and changeth hue day by day till whiteness be fully compleated Position VII The East denoting Whiteness is the beginning of the Stones Altitude THence by Colours
or melted Pitch but Blackness in part to wit Superficial begins about the fortieth day after the stirring up of the matter in case of right Progress and Regimen of the Fire or about the fiftieth at farthest But this drowning of him in his own Poyson and stewing him in his own Broath is the intire Blackness and Cimmerian utter Darkness of compleat Rottenness which according to the Author is for the space of eighty four days This time is not certainly agreed upon by Authors But in this they all agree they prescribe so long time until the Complement One writes That this Blackest Black indures a long time and is not destroyed in less than five months Another writes That the King when he enters into his Bath pulls off his Robe and gives it to Saturn from whom he receives a Black Shirt which he keeps forty two days And indeed it is two and forty days before he put on this Black Shirt instead of his Golden Robe that is be destroyed as touching his Solary Qualities and become instead of Fixt Citrine Terrene and Solid a Fugitive Black Spiritual Watery and Flegmatick Substance But Putridness begins not till the first Forms be put off for so long as the Body may be reduced into its former Nature it is not yet well ground and imbibed I grind therefore and imbibe till thou see the Bodies to become no Bodies but a Fume and Wind and then circulating for a season thou shalt see them settle and putrifie Saturn then will hold the Earth which is Occidental Retentive and Autumâ—al in the West then proceed to the North where Mercury holdeth the Water where the Matter is Watery and Flegmatick and it is Winter and the North expulsive But they who divide the Operation into Saturn's Rule and after him succeeding Jupiter ascribe to Saturn the whole of Putridness and to Jupiter the time of variety of Colours After Jupiter who holds but twenty or two and twenty days comes Luna the third Person bright and fair and she holds twenty good days sometimes two over and above In this Computation it is good to count from the fortieth or fiftieth day of the first beginning of the Stone to the fourteenth or sixteenth day of Jupiter's Reign wherein in the washing of Laton there is still Blackness though mixed with variety of gay Colours which amounteth to the sum of days allowed by the Author in Putrifaction to wit Eighty four days Accounting intire Blackness with Aâ—gurellus after four times eleven days and nights which make four and forty Or according to another Philosopher which saith In the first Fifty Days there appears the True Crow and after it in Threescore and Ten Dayes the White Dove and after in Fourscore and Ten Days the Tyrian Colour By Tryal then this Venom to expel I did desire For which I did commit his Carcass to a gentle Fire Which done a Wonder to the sight but more to be rehearst The Toad with Colours rare through every side was pierc'd And white appear'd when all the sundry hews were past Which after being tincted ruddy for evermore did last I Shall add my own Sentence Mix thy two Natures well and if thy matter be pure both the Body and the Water and the internal Heat of thy Bath as it ought to be and the external Fire gentle and not violent yet so that the Matter may circulate the Spiritual Nature on the Corporal in six and forty or fifty days expect the beginning of intire Blackness and after six and fifty days more or sixty expect the Peacocks Tayl and Colours of the Rainbow and after two and twenty days more or four and twenty expect Luna perfect the Whitest White which will grow more and more glorious for the space of twenty days or two and twenty at the most After which in a little more increased Fire expect the Rule of Venus for the space of forty days or two and forty and after it the Rule of Mars two and forty days more and after him the Rule of Sol flavus forty days or two and forty And then in a moment comes the Tyrian Colour the sparkling Red the fiery Vermilion and Red Poppy of the Rock Then of the Venom handled thus a Medicine I did make Which Venom kills and saveth such aâ— Venom chance to take THus onely by Decoction these Natures are changed and altered so wonderfully to this blessed Tincture which expelleth all Poyson though it self were a deadly Poyson before the Preparation yet after it is the Balsam of Nature expelling all Diseases and cutting them off as it were with one Hook all that are accidental to Humane frail Body which is wonderful Glory be to Him the Grantor of such secret Ways Dominion and Honour both with Worship and with Praise Amen NOw GOD only is the Dispenser of these glorious Mysteries I have been a true Witness of Nature unto thee and I know that I write true and all Sons of Art shall by my Writings know that I am a Fellow-Heir with them of this Divine Skill To the Ignorant I have wrote so plain as may be and more I had written if the Creator of all things had given me larger Commission Now to Him alone as is due be all Honour and Power and Glory who made all things and giveth knowledge to whom he listeth of his Servaâ—ts and conceals where he pleaseth To Him be ascribed as due is all Service and Honour And now Brother whoever enjoyeth this rare Blessing of God improve all thy strength to do him service with it for he is worthy of it who hath created all things and for whose sake they were and are created The End of Sir George Ripley's Vision Canon of Bridlington MArt Birrius hath published three Treatises of this Authors in Latin but without the Name Philalethes in the last of which entituled Fons Chymicae Philosophiae was left out one whole Chapter called Porta Prima de Calâ—inatione Philosophica with some other defects mentioned by Morhofius in his Epistle de Metallorum Transmutatione pag. 145. which Chapter I having by me and finding a void Page or two like to pass in this Sheet I thought it would neither be amiss nor improper nor unwelcome to the World with this Piece of the same Author to publish it for satisfaction to the Hermetical Students and to prevent the loss thereof W. C. Bibliop Porta Prima De Calcinatione Philosophica CAlcinatio lapidem nostrum purgat calorem naturalem restituit humoris nihil radicalis destruit debitam Lapidi solutionem inducit cautio est ut Philosophicè non vulgariter fiat Salibus aut Sulphure varie praeparatis c. Quicunque itaque Calcinare cupiunt tantisper ab hoc opere desistant usque quo nostram melius Calcinationem intelligant Destruit siquidem Corpora Calcinatio omnis lapidis humorem minuens nos quoque calces omnes aridas reprobamus humiditatem siquidem radicalem calcinando augemus nullam minuimus Nos vero
and Calcination into a red Elixir which is the Sabboth of Nature and Art at which being arrived there is no farther progress without a new Marriage either by Ferment or otherwise according to the rule of Nature and Art so that indeed all our work is three Rotations and every Rotation hath three Members Solution Sublimation and Calcination The first Solution is called Inceration and Reduction or Liquefaction the second properly Solution the third Inceration The first Sublimation is called Distillation Ascension and Descension the second Separation and Ablution the third Exaltation and Sublimation The First Calcination is called Calcination and Conjunction Triptative Putrefaction c. The second Congelation Albification and Fixation the Third Illumination c. only remember thou in thy first Calcination attainest compleat Putrefaction in the second the compleat white Elixir and in the third the compleat Red. This I premise to undeceive thee that thou mayst not think to have a Calcination first a Dissolution next a Separation thirdly a Conjunction fourthly a Putrefaction fifthly c. No verily when thou first puttest thy Matters into the Vessel in the first day of thy Operation thou givest a Fire in which thy Compound boileth swelleth and puffeth visibly and drops run down in veins off from the Convex of thy Glass for in this Mercury thy Gold will beyond the nature of any other Mercury flow in the Fire as if the whole was Mercury and boyl visibly which must never cease not a moment for it brings imminent damage In the first days of your boyling which is accompanied with a constant ascending and return of Fumes your Compound grows more and more liquid now and then a skin appearing in the form of a distinguishable though not very observable whiteness At length a yellowish colour will appear less at first and more afterwards distinguishable both in the boyling Compound below and in the Fumes above and when thou seest thy Glass as if it were all over gilded where the Fumes ascend with a blewness then know that thy Man and Wife do mix their Seeds then shall an obscure greenness pass and continue a season then shall thy Fumes diminish and at length be none at all and the Compound shall boyl and swell in the bottom of the Glass After that the more you boyl your Compound will be the more black coming at last to the temper of melted Pitch for colour and bubbling which shall rot with obscure colours untill it come to the period of Putrefaction which is a most exquisitely subtle black unctuous Powder which about the 84 th or 90 th day in a good decoction will be compleat Take heed now for I shall not make such another particular Systeme of the Work in all my Writings When the fulness of compleat Calcination is perfect then will the parts begin to liquefie together again and you then shall see Vapours begin to arise again first like to a Smoak which will after return in drops condensing on the Vessel sides which believe me is a gallant sight for in this Operation as blackness by little wears away such colours will appear which thou canst not imagine that thou wilt steal from Natures due to satisfie thine eyes in the beholding of it when thou shouldest sleep This Circulation with infinite variety of colours will last between 20 and 30 days and then thou shalt see thy Matter appear pretty white which then will grow whiter and whiter till it become like a glittering Sword in the Sun-beams trust me for I have seen this shining sparkling white which yet will be quick like a most glorious Heaven-born Mercury the subject of wonders Then shall these Fumes begin to cease and thou shalt see a Congelation like to the sparkling twinkling eyes of Fishes which moving uncessantly on the Fire will glitter incomparably and wonderfully and thickning more and more it will sprout like the tender Frost in a most amiable lustre and in 25 days shalt thou have it a most impalpable undiscernable Powder Now thou needest no farther instruction only this let me tell you that the continuing your Glass in the Fire and increasing it discreetly this white will relent again and change into a perfect green and will again circulate and become perfect Azure and at the length thicken and in the end become after a long Citrinity in a moment a sparkling red pure impalpable Powder Understand this well and you will not be amazed any longer with the distinction of our Operations which is but Solution which contains Separation or Sublimation and Volatization and Coagulation which contains Conjunction Calcination and Fixation and all is but a successive action and passion of Gold the Body and his qualities and Mercury the Soul and its qualities between which intercedes a Spirit of Life which carries them up and down like a Wheel which turns till it returns thither whence it proceeded and then begins again and turns so long till it finds its rest which is in the Fiery Cathedra the red of the reddest the great Elixir commanding all Metals and reducing them to the highest period of Nature which is Gold it self having attained a plusquam perfection through the marvellous co-operation of Art and Nature Thus Gold is thy Base or Foundation the Centre to which all thy Operations return and in which they rest for they are but Circulations in their own kind and these Circulations are uncessantly carried along through the never-ceasing action of the Fire which a little intermission would retard notably an extinction of the heat would extinguish irrecoverably If any then should ask us what our natural Operation of the Stone is we would answer a making of active Natures passive and passive active by continual decoction We boyl continually and when the Spirit is active there is a constant ascension and descension and the Body is dissolved and made to fly like a Spirit and when the Body is active the Fumes by little and little cease and the Compound remains below boiling without fuming thickning and then at length calcining and this is without hands repeated three times the Fire only being kept continually and then a Sabboth of rest and perfection is attained in the mean time divers colours come and go which the dying Body and vegetative Soul do work and cause Trust me Friend and Brother thou never hadst such a manuduct as this in thy life the Reasons of my plainness my little Latine Treatise doth clearly shew The Battle 's fought the Conquest won The Lyon dead reviv'd The Eagle's dead which did him slay And both of sense depriv'd The Showrs cease the Dews which fell For six weeks do not rise The ugly Toad that did so swell With swelling bursts and dies The Argent Field with Or is stain'd With Violet intermix'd The sable Black is not disdain'd Which shews the Spirits fix'd The Compound into Atoms turn'd The Seeds together blended The flying Soul to th' Earth return'd The soaring Bird descended The