the more exactly thou mixest them the better and sooner will they work one upon another in heat Then set thy Glass in a Furnace made for thy Work and give a convenient Fire in which it may boyl night and day perpetually without a minutes ceasing order the Fire so that it may in 12 or 24 hours begin to boyl and from that hour not to cease boyling subliming ascending and descending until such time as the moisture be dried up and all remain below at least greatest part in form of a discontinuous Calx But manners there be of our Conjunction three The first is called by Philosophers diptative The which between Agent and Patient must be Male and Female Mercury and Sulphur vive Matter and Form thin and thick to thrive This Lesson will help thee without doubt And our Conjunction truly bring about NOw to help thee throughly in this mystery of Philosophical Conjunction I shall particularize all our Conjunctions We have particularly three Conjunctions all which must be known by him who intends to compleat this Mastery The first is gross which I touched before it is the Amalgamation of Sol with our Mercury which because the mixture is made of two things it is called Conjunction diptative and the Compound is now called Rebis that is two things according to the verse Res Rebis est Vina confecta In this mixture there are two Natures the one more active which is the Mercury the other more passive which is Gold where note that the activity of the Mercury above the Gold is because the moving virtue of Sol is sealed that is his Sulphur is imprisoned Otherwise when Dissolution is made Sol then is most active and Mercury more passive Mercury then is as it were the Feminine Sperm which being more crude and tender it is sooner wrought upon by the Fire which Sol the Masculine Sperm feels not till it be penetrated by the Mercury and then it is forced to send forth its Seed for the formal principle resides mostly in the Gold and the material chiefly in the Water in the one being thick of constitution the formal part is sealed in the other that little which is in respect of the Body is more at liberty and so by consequence sooner active These two then must be mixed ad justam exigentiam naturae as is elsewhere hinted and prosecuted largely To this if thou hast attended thou shalt know the extent and full Latitude of this Conjunction this is a manual work and the last manual work next to the putting and sealing of it in the Egg that thou hast before thou hast attained the first degree of the Mastery The second manner is called Triptative Which is a Conjunction of things three Of Body Soul and Spirit that they not strive Which Trinity thou must bring to Vnity THe next Conjunction that follows this in order is when thou hast so administred and regulated thy Fire that thy Spirits shall so ascend and circulate until they have extracted out of the fixed Body its most digested virtue or subtle Soul which is Sulphureous or of great Firiness Then shall the Spirit and Soul descend and shall unite it self with the Body then shall the Air be converted into Dust according to the process of noble Sandivogius where they shall lye contumulate for six weeks without breath and after when the Spirit of life shall enter into them the Spirit and Soul shall by their mighty force carry aloft the Body with them so that it shall go out and return with them for now these three are made one For as the Soul to the Spirit the bond must be Right so the Body the Soul to him must knit Out of thy mind let not this Lesson flit SO then by the mediation of the Soul the Spirit is made one and incorporate with the Body for the Soul being by the Spirit drawn from the Body doth naturally desire to be united with it again and so long as it is from it is from home as it were in a Pilgrimage The Body also naturally doth desire its Soul and will as forcibly attract it as a Loadstone doth attract Iron for know that the Soul doth not ascend but it carries with it a fermental Odour of the Body by which it doth so effectually affect the Spirit that it begins to think of taking a new impression and becomes daily by little and little more and more able to suffer Fire and by consequence draws to the nature of a Body observe this The third manner and also the last of all Four Elements together which joyns to abide Tetraptative certainly Philosophers do it call And specially Guido de Montanor whosâ— fame goeth wide And therefore in most laudable manner this tide BUt yet this Conjunction doth not retain the volatility of the Compound though it is so united that the parts ascend and descend together the reason is that though by the Soul the Spirit and Body be united yet the Spirit sometimes doth carry the Body with it aloft and the Body at times precipitates the Spirit the Soul holding fast together till at length not only these parts but the Elemental qualities of them are so strongly permixt that the one doth not more in acting then the other doth in resisting by which means they are not only united to follow one another but fixt to abide Fire together This is the last and noblest Conjunction in which all the mysteries of this Microcosm have their Consummation This is by the Wise called their Tetraptive Conjunction wherein the Quadrangle is reduced to a Circle in the which there is neither beginning nor end He who hath arrived here may sit down at Banquet with the Sun and Moon This is the so highly commended Stone of the Wise which is without all fear of corruption for here are by Nature all Elements Anatically mixed and united so that it cannot suffer from any for it agrees with all In our Conjunction four Elements must aggregate In due proportion which first asunder were separate THese our Elements are not such vain trifles which are idly imagined by Sophisters by the primary qualities to speak after the common phrase though I do not think that any thing attains perfection upon an account of qualities but so it pleased the Ancients to express themselves only this is most certain that what was before inconstant in the Fire now is impatible therein and what at first in the beginning of the Work discovered two distinct Natures is now one intirely and inseparably Therefore like as the Woman hath veins fifteen And the Man but five to the act of their fecundity Required in our Conjunction first I mean So must the Man his Son have of his Water three And nine his Wife which three to him must be Then like with like shall joy have for to dwell More of Conjunction me needeth not to tell OUr Stone is as it is called Microcosmos which name unless to our Stone hath been only
to their station pleasant to the Philosopher to behold Of this Separation I find a like figure thus spoken So out of our Stone precious if thou be witty Oyl incombustible and Water thou shalt draw And thereabout thou needest not at the Coles to blow THese Philosophical Operations some have had the fancy to compare with some passages of Scripture but I had rather bound Philosophy within its own Pale and not allegorize the Holy Scripture thereto where Philosophy is not understood there To the thing in hand by continual decoction our Work will shew as in Circulation a real change of the ascending Humidity the first will be white and so continue a long time which is called Water or Phlegm and after it the Water will be coloured and ascend so on the sides of the Vessel which is called Oyl and this Oyl is not combustible for it is the true Sulphur of Gold and therefore as permanent as the Mercury Yet be not mistaken nor do not imagine that because we speak of incombustible Oyl that our Work is to be performed with the Fire of a Wind Oven or of Bellows as some foolishly imagine to burn up what is combustible until the very incombustible Oyl be left for all our volatile subject is turned into incombustible fixity with a moderate decoction in our secret Athanor whose heat in its highest vigoration is but very obscurely red hardly perceptible and in its lowest degree is not full half so strong or half at the most Do this with heat easie and nourishing First with moist Fire and after that with dry The Flegm with patience out-drawing And after that the other Natures wittily Dry up thine Earth until it be thirsty By Calcination else labourest thou in vain And then make it drink up the moisture again THis is a heat which is friendly to the Bodies for it causeth the Spirit to ascend and yet suffers it to return and by reason of its ascending and returning the Matter below stands continually moist and boileth with a perpetual motion and exhalation which ascends and returns day and night every hour and minute without intermission This moist Air or liquid form at bottom with Ebullition and sending forth a spiritual smoak or Vapour in which saith Artephius the whole Mastery consists continues about six weeks or thereabouts and then the boiling will turn to a Pitchy swelling and puffing up like Leavened Dough and from that time the Compound shall grow dryer and dryer coming at length to Pitch-black Atoms or Powder impalpable and the fumes shall cease for six weeks Be patient therefore in decoction and wait with a great deal of confidence until thou seest thy Water which at first ascends white and flegmatick to begin to change colour and the Exhalations to arise discoloured within the Glass Then continue your decoction till the Cloud which is conceived be brought forth for in this Operation be sure that the Seeds begin to mingle and will give you a sign of the beginning of the Conjunction of Natures and that is the gilding of the Glass about the sides within the Concave as if it were overspread with leaves of pure Gold Continue still your decoction till the Earth at the bottom begin to appear and the moisture of the Compound begin to be terminated in Diâ—ess in colour Black which is a sure sign of your right progress and without which you can never attain the Mastery Remember that in this Calcination thou hast a portion of Water in the upper part of thy Vessel which did not descend and in the time of the ceasing of the fumes the Body grows very dry even to Calcination which when it is intirely perfected the Water is as it were by a Magnetical virtue drawn down and then follows a second Liquefaction Separation thus must thou oftentimes make Thy Waters dividing into parts two So that the subtle from the gross thou take Till the Earth remain below in colours bloe That Earth is fixed to abide all woe The other part is spiritual and flying But thou must turn them all into one thing BUt to return to our Work of Sublimation which is as was touched before the Key of the whole Work by which Separation is made uncessantly each day and hour Thus are the Waters divided from the Waters that is the Waters above from them which are below for part of the Water ascends up like a fume and congeals and runs down the sides of the Glass in drops like veins and part remains still below with the Body and with it boils visibly and that uncessantly By this Work thou hast the subtle or thin parts of the Body and the thin parts of the Water ascend and mingle and the gross part of the Body and the gross part of the Water mixt below the one by subliming together and the other by boiling together thus is thy Body below compounded of two even the most fixed parts of Sol with the grosser parts of Lunaria and thy Water of two parts the Soul of Sol and the Spirit of Lunaria which is the true mystical ground of Fixation Thus by subliming in a continual Vapour whatever is Spiritual and Heavenly both in the Water and in the Body lightly ascending and in the upper part of the Glass taking the nature of a Spirit what is more gross earthy and corporeal will in the bottom take the nature of a Body whose colour the Soul being separated will be as Black as Pitch This Body is a middle substance between the Body and the Water a Limus a new Body or Adamica terra a medium between fixed and not fixed it is not so fixed as to be equal to Sol nor yet so volatile as the Mercury but it is sufficiently fixed to endure a Fire requisite for this Work and to suffer all the pain and woe of this our Purgatory in which it abides six weeks without fumes or vapour But as for the Spirit that is a tender thing nor is it able to endure the Fire but flys from it and abides in the uppermost part of the Glass only so long as the fumes arise the ascending do still meet with them which are above till at last making over great drops they fall down and when the fumes cease as much of the Spirit as the Concave of the Glass will hold without running down stays above until intire Calcination be perfected and then they are drawn down by a Magnetical virtue So that here is all the mystery of the proportion of the Glass to the Matter namely that it be so big and no bigger as in its Concave will hold up a competent quantity of Water after Calcination to water the dry pores while the Body below rots into Atoms Then shall you bring back the Water upon the Earth and circulate again so long till there be a total joyning till the Spirit become the Body and the Body become the Spirit and all be made true Fire or Tincture of which Conjunction
pass from darkness of Purgatory to light Of Paradise in whiteness Elixir of great might THis is a noble step from Hell to Heaven from the bottom of the Grave to the top of Power and Glory from obscurity in blackness to resplendent whiteness from the height of venenosity to the height of Medicine Oh Nature how dost thou alter things into things casting down the high and mighty and again exalting them being base and lowly Oh Death how art thou vanquished when thy Prisoners are taken from thee and carried to a state and place of Immortality This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes And that thou mayst the rather to Putrefaction Win this example thou take c. The heart of an Oak which hath of Water continual infusion For though it in Water lay an hundred years and more Yet shouldest thou find it sound as ever it was before O Happy Gate of blackness which art the passage to this so glorious a change study therefore whoever applyest thy self to this Art only to know this Secret for know this and know all and contrarywise be ignorant of this and be ignorant of all Therefore if that possible thou mayst attain the depth of this Mystery I shall endeavour to unfold it to thy capacity by similitudes and examples Thou knowest that if a solid piece of Wood lie in water perpetually it will tire the patience of the most patient expecter to see it rot for it will abide many Generations and in the end be as sound as when it was first laid in Yea some contend that in our days Pine-Trees are dug up in their intire proportion which have been buried ever since the Floud being found in such places in which no Histories ever mentioned that such Trees grew and so deep under ground as it is almost incredible which certainly have layn at least many hundred years and yet the Wood as sound as any other Tree of that sort which hath not been cut down above a year or two such is the force of constant Hume-faction to prevent the ordinary corruption of Timber But and thou keep it sometimes wet and sometimes dry As thou mayst see in Timber And so even likewise c. Sometimes our Tree must with the Sun be brent BUt contrarywise Timber which is kept wet sometimes and dry sometimes as usually the foundations of Timber Houses are if not secured by the Masons Art it would tire the Householders patience to see how soon such Timber will rot and molder away and become fit for nothing which is a thing so well known that the experience of every Rustick almost can teach it him So resolve our Stone must be used if thou intend to have it putrefie kindly our Wheel for Putrefaction must go round in a constant Elevation or Extraction of the Water or Humidity from the Body by which Operation our Man the Sun is helped in his acting and this Water must as constantly return to the Earth to moisten it by which the Woman the Moon is helped in her acting And then with Water we must it keel That so to rotting we may bring it wee l BEtween these two various Operations which one and the same Fire produceth our Body is both heated and cooled his sweat is drawn forth and returned upon him again by the which means it is triturated ground softned and made weak even unto death and dying it rots and putrefies changing colours from one into another until at the length it becomes black as Ink or Pitch which is our Toad our Crow our Tomb filled with rottenness our Golgotha or place of dead bones our Terra foliata or Earth of Leaves For now in wet c. To be shall cause it soon to putrefie And so shall thou bring to rotting thy Gold Intreat thy Bodies c. And in thy putrefying with heat be not too swift Lest in the Ashes thou seek after thy thrift OUr Operation then saith Morien is nothing else but extracting Water from the Earth and returning it again upon the Earth so long and so often till the Earth putrefie for by elevation of the moisture the Body is heated and dried and by returning it again it is cooled and moistned by the continuation of which successive Operations it is brought to corrupt and rot to lose its form and for a season to remain as dead This is the true intention and manner of our working and there is no other manner of working that can be invented that can give thee the effect of this our Operation for this is the true way and means by which thy Body of Gold will be destroyed and no other way profitable for our Art Proceed therefore as I have directed thee and swerve not either to the right hand or to the left Take this Body which I have shewed thee and joyn it with the Spirit which is proper to it which the Wise men have called their Venus or Goddess of Love and circulate these two Natures one upon the other until the one have conceived by the other But beware you urge not the Spirit too much but remember that he is a volatile substance and if he be over-provoked he will certainly break the Vessel and fly and leave thee the ruines of thy Glass for a recompence of thy over-speedy rashness which trust me will make thee fetch a deep Philosophical sigh and say when it is too late I would I had been content to wait Natures time Let the Fire then be such in which thy Spirit may be so stirred up as to return to its Body in the Glass and not so irritated as to break the Vessel and return to the Ashes or Sand of the Nest or stick about the sides of the Cover of your Nest or else fly about in the Room wherein the Artist is and lodge in his Head and so make it far more unconstant then it was before by adding to his rash giddiness a Paralytical shaking Therefore the Water out of the Earth thou draw And make the Soul therewith for to ascend Then down again into the Earth it throw That they oft-times so ascend and descend PRoceed therefore not as a Fool but as a Wise man make the Water of thy Compound to arise and circulate so long and often until the Soul that is to say the most subtle virtue of the Body arise with it circulating with the Spirit in manner of a fiery form by which both the Spirit and Body are enforced to change their colour and complexion for it is this Soul of the dissolved Bodies which is the subject of Wonders it is the life and therefore quickens the dead it is the Vegetative Soul and therefore it makes the dead and sealed Bodies which in their own Nature are barren to fructifie exceedingly Therefore if this return unto the Earth from which it first took its flight it will make it for to fructifie and to increase in Tincture and in the Earth it self will multiply
way mark that you are to meet with is the whiteness of the Compound for the Peacocks tail though with its gayness it refresheth and delights the beholder yet those colours are but transient but the white is a stable colour and it is thy first Harvest in which the moisture is vanquished and volatile Natures are fixed The Work as it is the long-wished Haven so it is performed without any help of the Artist any more then to continue a due degree of outward heat for know that thou hast not so great a desire after this sight but Nature hath as great an appetite to obtain it for it is the end of all her former Operations from the attaining whereof thou canst not hinder her if the external heat be continued as it ought Yet about this the whole company of Alchymists do mightily busie themselves who have nothing more in their hopes then to make our great Elixir do mainly labour after Congelation though in their Solution in which the Key of our Coagulation resteth they are as stupid as Blocks Some dissolve Metals with Corrosives others Salts and afterwards filter them which they think graduates them with which trumpery they intend no less a Coagulate then the true permanent Tincture but alas they are deceived for they work not upon the right Matter Others although they happen to stumble in part upon the right Matter yet herein they erre that they understand our Operations preposterously and interpret our meaning contrary to our true intent for all that they dream of is such Operations which are to be performed by hand thus they dissolve and congeal but stumble in operandi modo For our Congelation is no such thing as this but in every point it is contrary to it for in our Operation Nature only works who therefore doth bring forth a true and not a Sophistical Operation Our Congelation dreadeth not the Firâ— For it must ever in it stand unctuous And it is also a Tincture so bounteous Which in the Air c. Moreover congeal not c. But that like Wax it will melt anon withouten blast For such congealing accordeth not c. Which Congelation availeth us not FOr as in our Solution we do not make our Gold volatile as to shew as Fools may do but actually it is made fugitive so as that by no Art of man it can ever be fixt again but only by that Nature which made it volatile so also our Fixation doth make our flying Spirits so Fire-abiding that they by no Art of man can ever be burnt away yet it will flow like Wax Nor is it fixed in manner of flying Spirits in Vegetables which are fixed by burning into an Alâ—ali for it will never relent neither in the Air nor Water like to a congealed Salt Nor yet is our Congelation a formal Transmutation of a thing by another seminal virtue for then it would become of a Stony Flinty or Adamantine nature but by its own internal virtue the Mercury is changed into Sulphur incombustible yet so as that the Mercuriality retains some of its qualities in a very noble remarkable way furnishing the Compound with a fusible unctuosity when at the same time the Sulphur retains that fluxibility with a most noble incombustibility So then take this for the Touch-stone of all thy Alchymical endeavours if ever thou intend any thing commendable in our Art see that thy Medicine be of an easie fusion so that when it is cast on a plate of Metal heated it may enter it and flow on it like Wax or melted Pitch yea let the flux be so easie that it may flow upon Mercury and enter it before its flight otherwise brag not of thy skill for thou art yet in a way of Sophistry out of which thou shalt never escape without a more then ordinary providence of God If thou therefore list to do wee l Sith the Medicine shall never else flow kindly Neither congeal without thou first it putrefie First purge then fix the Elements of our Stone Till they together congeal and flow anon THat thou therefore mayst be sure of thy Work and not repent thy cost and pains as many do when it is too late take my counsel and know that thy Medicine never can nor shall flow as it ought except thy Solution be Philosophical Know then that our Solution is not an ordinary vulgar dissolving of Bodies either by Corrosives or any other way but our true dissolving is nothing else then putrefying that is a destroying of the Compaction wholly with a preservation of the Species This Operation be sure to make before thou dream of Congelation for then thy Spirits will naturally fix and flow together congealing and relenting so long until they come to a perfect Powder impalpable which then hath ingress into all Metals penetrating their very profundity and altering them radically For when the Matter is made perfectly white Then c. But of such time thou mayst have long respite Ere it congeal c. And after into grains red as bloud Richer c. SO then our Congelation is nothing else but the whitening of the Bodies of which the Philosopher speaketh when he saith Whiten thy Body and burn thy Books lest our hearts be broken This is the Haven at which after many a nights watching and days labour thou mayst with Gods blessing hope at length to arrive but in the mean season be patient and expect the Harvest in its season First thou shalt have thy Body whitened and all become a white living Water which being moved on the Fire continually will turn first into greater and after that into smaller grains till all at length become a Calx of an exquisite fineness and transcendent brightness which is our Lilly Candent which in the end of thy Operations by continual decoction will be turned into a purple redness which is our wonderful Secret The Earthly grossness therefore first mortified in moisture c. This principle may not be denied c. Which had of whiteness thou mayst not miss c. And if c. THe cause of all these strange alterations in one Glass on one subject with one decoction without laying on of hands is from the internal disposition of the Compound which at the first is gross and Earthy therefore in decoction it becomes very black it being the nature of all moist gross things by the Fire to acquire such a colour And this is according to the intention of all Philosophers that although thou seekest white and red yet thou must at first make black before thou canst make white profitably But when once thy Matter is become truly black rejoyce for this death of the Body will be the quickning of the Spirit and then both Soul and Body will unite into a perfect whiteness which is our Kingly Diadem The end of the sixth Gate THE BOOKSELLER TO THE READER Reader IT is an Argument of a noble and generous Soul to be freely communicative for the