A Breviary of ALCHEMY OR A COMMENTARY UPON Sir GEORGE RIPLEY'S RECAPITULATION BEING A Paraphrastical Epitome of his Twelve GATES Written by Aeyrenaeus Philalethes ANGLUS COSMOPOLITA LONDON Printed for William Cooper at the Pellican in Little Britain MDCLXXVIII Sir George Ripley's RECAPITULATION I. FOr to bring this Treatise to a final end And briefly here to conclude these secrets all Diligently look thou and to thy Figure attend Which doth in it contain these secrets great and small And if thou it conceive both Theorical and Practical By Figures and Colours and by Scripture plain Which wittily conceived thou mayest not work in vain II. Consider first the Latitude of this precious Stone Beginning in the first side noted in the West Where the red Man and white Woman be made one Spoused with the Spirit of life to live in love and rest Earth and water equally proportion'd that is best And one of the Earth is good and of the Spirit Three Which Twelve to Four also of the Earth may be III. Three of the Wife and one of the Man thou must take And the less of the Spirit there is in this Disponsation The rather thy Calcination for certain shalt thou make Then forth into the North proceed by obscuration Of the red man and his white Wife called Eclypsation Loosing them and altering them betwixt Winter and Vere Into Water turning Earth dark and nothing clear IV. From thence by Colours many one into the East ascend Then shall the Moon be full appearing by day-light Then is she passed Purgatory and her course at an end There is the up-rising of the Sun appearing white and bright There is Summer after Vere and Day after Night Then Earth and Water which were black be turned into Air And Clouds of darkness over-blown and all appeareth fair V. And as in the West was the beginning of thy practice And the North the perfect mean of profound alteration So in the East after them is the beginning of speculation But of this course up in the South the Sun maketh consummation There be the Elements turned into Fire by Circulation Then to win to thy desire thou needst not be in doubt For the Wheel of our Philosophy thou hast turn'd about VI. But yet about again 2 times turn thy wheel In which be comprehended all the secrets of our Philosophy In Chapters Twelve made plain to thee if thou conceive them well And all the secrets by and by of our lower Astronomy How thou shalt Calcine Bodies perfect dissolve divide and putrifie With perfect knowledg of all the Poles which in our Heaven been Shining with Colours inexplicable never were gayer seen VII And this one secret conclusion know withouten fail Our Red Man teyneth not nor his Wife until they teyned be Therefore if thou list thy self by this craft to avail The Altitude of the Bodies bide and shew out their profundity In every of thy Materials destroying the first Quality And secondary Qualities more glorious in them repair anon And in one Glass with one Reg'ment Four Natures turn to One. VIII Pale and black with false Citrine unperfect White and Red The Peacock's Feathers in Colours gay the Rainbow 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 sill 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 fix 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 RIPLEYS 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 Unity the Trinity respecting the Substances as they are severall the Unity 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
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 straightway 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 many into the East ascend c. In the Work are three Dimensions Altitude Latitude and Profundity The Altitude is the Perfection of the Bodies which is Inchoate in Whiteness and compleat in Redness The Profundity is the first Matter into which they are resolved For Multiplication and the Latitude is the means through which it passeth from its Perfection to be abased and from its abasement to its Glorification In this passage are infinite gay colours like unto those as appeared before Blackness but more glorious For note the Stone hath but three colours Black White and Red In the first when compleated it stays three or four days at most in the second as long in the last it reposeth it self for ever between these Periods as the Matter is moister or dryer purer or impurer many intermediate colours appear more then can be numbred But Two viz. Green and Yellow are of long continuance before the White and the Red But many colours appear between the beginning of that Work and the first colour of Blackness And although several colours appear yet are they dark foggy and foul coloured by which it appears that Blackness is the predominant which for a space will appear like the Aegyptian darkness and is much about the same continuance so between Blackness and the White although infinite colours appear yet the Basis of them being Whiteness they are bright and very glorious which being only transient pass and go and others come in their place until the White be perfected Position VIII The South or Redness is the complement of this Mastery OF this course in the South the Sun maketh Consummation After the White the Fire being continued the Compound will become Azure Gray and then Citrine which will last a long time and at last end in a bloody Redness Position IX He that supposeth his Work ended when the Stone is brought to its redness is mistaken BUt yet again Two times turn about thy Wheel c. The Stone being by constant and long Decoction brought to this pass he who thinketh the race quite run reckons without his Host and must reckon again It is Medicine of the first Order and must be brought to the third Order by Imbibitions and Cibation which is a second turning round the Wheel and by Fermentation which is a third turning round the Wheel and brings the Medicine to the third Order and makes it then fit for Projection which at first it is not For till the Medicine will flow like Wax it cannot enter Mercury before its flight but the Powder as it is made at first is like Grains or Atoms and is congealed in a far greater heat then will make ☿ to fume yet it abides in its form of Dust or Powder which must be otherwise before it be fitted for Projection therefore the Stone tingeth Mercury into a Metalline Mass in the twinkling of an eye as our Author saith in his Preface even as the Basilisk kills by sight But the Red Sulphur converteth Mercury by a digestion of time into its own Nature viz. Powder if it be joyn'd in a due proportion and digested in a due heat Therefore saith our Author if you give it too much it must have a Vomit or it will be sick too long but the Stone will never part with any Mercury that is joyned to it in heat our Sulphur then is a Royal Infant which doth both hunger and thirst and if you can but be a Nurse to it as you ought it will repay both your Pains and cost Leave not then where you should begin but go on till you bring it to the third Order which Reymond calls his Oyls and Unguents and so our Author likewise Three Properties there are in which the White and Red Sulphurs of the first Order differ from those of
Hermaphroditical Body or Earth called the Philosophers Lead as Ripley in his Preface expresseth it The White Woman or Female 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 Reymind'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 Unity 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 1st 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 our Aqua Vitoe will compleat the work as Arnold expressly saith in his Questions Answers to Boniface and Jodocus Creverus 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 Laton cannot be whitened of which an old Philosopher saith whiten the red Laton by a white tepid and suffocated Water of which testimony Trevisanus 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 straight-way Gabritius will die that is will lose what he was and from that place where he appeared to have