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Of The Putrefaction Of Lead

Melt your lead in a crucible, and when it is melted let it stand in the fire a quarter of an hour, and put therein a little Salt Armoniack, and let it stand a while in the fire and stir it well with an iron spatula till all the Salt Armoniack be gone away in fume; then scrape the skin away out of the crucible that is upon the Lead and let it stand to cool and it will be much whiter and fairer. And thus you must purify your Lead or Tin before projection, because no other bodies are so fusible and apt to melt. Wherefore every Elixir ought to be projected upon Quicksilver and upon Lead or Tin for the making or transmuting of metals. But to the end that the manner of projection may be yet more plain, I will set down two rules which must be carefully observed.

The first whereof is that the first Medicine, that is to say the Pantarva, be projected upon the ferment always, three parts of the Medicine upon one of the ferment, and one part of this upon ten or one hundred of pure molten Gold, and one part of this Medicine thus made upon 100 parts of an imperfect body, that is to say of Mercury for Medicine.

The latter is that you must always consider the fortitude and debility of your Medicine, for it is to be projected so often upon Quicksilver as it bringeth it into a brittle Medicine, and when it falleth, then project one part thereof upon Lead or Tin for making transmutation according to the order and form of the Elixir.

These being remembered you may easily conceive the order of augmentation in virtue and quantity. These things being ended, the other three which follow are set down in order because we have spoken before of Aurum Potabile, Argentum Potabile, or potable Gold or Silver. It is therefore necessary after we have made an end of projection to set down another method of the Elixir of Life in the next place, and after speak of its virtue and power as we find it among all the ancient and modern philosophers.

But that we may come at last to the thing intended, observe this manuduction.

You know that no artificer can build, but the earth must be the foundation to his building; for without this groundwork his brick and mortar cannot stand. In the Creation, when God did build, there was no such place to build upon. I ask then, where did He rest His matter and upon what? Certainly He built and founded Nature upon His own supernatural centre. He is in her and through her and with His Eternal Spirit doth He support heaven and earth, as our bodies are supported with our Spirits. This is confirmed by that oracle of the Apostle, Omnia portat verbo virtutis suae, He beareth up all things with the word of His power. From this power is He justly styled, ap irodunamis cai pantadunamis dunamo paos, The infinitely powerful and the all-powerful power-making power.

I say, then, that fire and Spirit are the Pillars of Nature, the props on which the whole fabric rests and without which it could not stand one minute. This fire is the Throne of the Quintessential Light, from whence He dilates himself to generation as we see in the effusion of the sunbeams in the great world. In this dilation of the Light consist the joy or pleasure of the Passive Spirit, and in its contraction His melancholy or sorrow. We see in the great body of Nature that in turbulent weather, when the Sun is shut up and clouded, the air is thick and dull and our own Spirits, by secret compassion with the Spirit of the Air, are dull too. On the contrary, in clear, strong sunshine, the air is quick and then the Spirits of all animals are of the same rarified and active temper.

It is plain, then, that our joys and sorrows proceed from the dilation and contraction of our inward Quintessential Light. This is apparent in despairing lovers, who are subject to a certain violent, extraordinary panting of the heart, a timorous trembling of the pulse, which proceeds from the apprehension and fear of the Spirit in relation to his miscarriage. Notwithstanding he desires to be dilated, as it appears by his pulse or sally wherein he doth discharge himself, but his despair checks him again and brings him to a sudden retreat or contraction. Hence it comes to pass that we are subject to sighs, which are occasioned by the sudden pause of the Spirit. For when he stops, the breath stops, but when he loseth himself to an outward motion, we deliver two or three breaths, that have been formerly omitted, in one long expiration, and this we call a sigh.

This passion hath carried many brave men to sad extremities. It is originally occasioned by the Spirit of the Mistress or affected party, for her Spirit ferments or leavens the Spirit of the lover, so that it desires an union as far as Nature will permit. This makes us resent even smiles and frowns like fortunes and misfortunes. Our thoughts are never at home according to that well grounded observation, Animus est ubi amat, non ubi animat, the Soul dwells not where she lives but where she loves. We are employed in a continual contemplation of the absent beauty; our very joys and woes are in her power; she can set us to what humour she will. This and many more miraculous sympathies proceed from the attractive nature of the fire; it is a Spirit that can do wonders. And now let us see if there be any possibility to come at him. Suppose then we should dilapidate or discompose some artificial building stone by stone; there is no question but we come at last to the earth whereupon it is founded. It is just so in Magick; if we open any natural body and separate all the parts thereof one from another, we shall come at last to the fire, which is the candle and secret Light of God. We shall know the Hidden Intelligence and see the Inexpressible Face, which gives the outward figure to the body. This is the syllogism we should look after, for he that hath once passed the Aquaster enter the fireworld, and sees what is both invisible and incredible to the common man. He shall discover to the eye the miraculous conspiracy between the fire and the Sun. He shall know the secret love of the heaven and earth and the sense of that deep Cabalism, Non est planta hic inferiora cui non est stella firmamento superius, et ferit eam stella, et dicit ei: Cresce. There is not an herb here below, but he hath a star in heaven above, and the star strikes him with her beams and says to him: Grow. He shall know how the fire-Spirit hath his root in the spiritual fire-earth and received from it a secret influx upon which he feeds as herbs feed on that juice and liquor which they receive at their roots from this common earth. This is it which our Saviour tells us, Man lives not by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. He meant not by ink and paper or the dead letter. It is a mystery, and St. Paul hath partly expounded it. He tells the Arthenians that God made man to the end that he should seek the Lord if haply he might feel after Him and find Him. Here is a strange expression you will say, that a man should feel after God and seek Him with his hands. But he goes on and tells you where you shall find Him. He is not far (saith he) from every one of us, in Him we live and move and have our being. For the better understanding of this place I wish you to read Paracelsus, his Philosophia ad Athenienses. Again, he that enters the centre shall know why all influx of fire descends against the nature of fire, and comes from heaven downwards. He shall also know why the same fire, having found a body, ascends again towards heaven and goes upwards.

To conclude, I say the grand, supreme Mystery of Magic is to multiply the fire and place him in the most serene Aether, which God hath purposely created to qualify the fire. For I would have thee know that this Spirit may be so chafed, and that in most temperate bodies, as to undo thee upon a sudden. This thou mayest guess thyself by the Crnsoceraunos, or Thundering Gold as the chemist calls it. Place him as God hath placed the stars in the condensed Aether of His Chaos, for there he will shine, not burn; he will be vital and calm, not furious and choleric. This, I confess, transcends the common people.

Now I will teach the blessed Pantarva Rosie Crucian, their Aurum Potabile or the Elixir of life and also the way of making malleable glass.

1. Elixir of Life. 2. Gold dissolved. 3. Silver dissolved. 4. Gold melted. 5. Melted Silver. 6. Projection of the Red Medicine. 7. Projection of the White Medicine.

I have now fully discovered to you the principles of our Chaos. In the next place I will show you how you are to use them. You must unite them to a new life and they will be regenerated by water and the Spirit. These two are in all things; they are placed there by God Himself according to that speech of Trismegistus: Unumquodque habet in se semen sua regenerationis. Proceed then patiently but not manually. The work is performed by an invisible artist, for there is a secret incubation of the Spirit of God upon Nature. You must only see that the outward heat fails not, but with the subject itself you have no more to do than the mother hath with the child that is in her womb. The two former principles perform all; the Spirit makes use of the water to purge and wash his body, and he will bring it at last to a celestial, immortal constitution. Do not thou think this is impossible. Remember that in the incarnation of Christ Jesus the quaternarius, or four elements as men call them, were united to their Eternal Unity and Ternarius.

Three and four make seven. This septenary is the true Sabbaoth, the rest into which the creature shall enter. This is the best and greatest manuduction that I can give you. In a word, salvation itself is nothing else but transmutation. Behold (saith the Apostle) I show you a Mystery: we shall not all die, but we shall be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last Trumpet. God of His great mercy prepare us for it, that from hard, stubborn flints of this world, we may prove crysolites and jaspers in the new, eternal foundation, that we may ascend from this present distressed Church, which is in captivity with her children, to the free Jerusalem from above, which is the mother of us all.

Hermes, speaking of fermentation, bids us to take the Sun and his shadow. By the shadow he meaneth the Moon, because in respect of dignity, lustre and power she is much more weak and inferior than the Sun. And the Moon followeth the Sun as a shadow doth the body, and is not illuminated except by the light of the Sun. We will first speak of the body, that is to say of Gold, and after come to the shadow, of which Gold it is written in a book of chemical art in this manner: The Rosie Crucian Pantarva is made of Gold alone and only by Nature, and is more sublime than them which the philosophers affirm cureth all infirmities. According to the opinion of this philosopher, I purpose to begin with Gold alone and the Medicine, which is a new and sole nature and ancient and sound Quintessence.

2. But to the end this Gold may be better and more pure, it may be purged two manner of ways, that is to say by Antimony and by dissolution and in corrosive waters with which copper plates are mixed as goldsmiths used to do, which is called Water Gold. When you have thus prepared your gold, project one part of your Red Medicine (or Red Elixir) upon 100 parts thereof, when your Medicine is augmented in virtue and all that weight of molten Gold will be converted into a red, brittle mass, which grind upon a marble to an impalpable powder.

Then dissolve these hundred parts, or so thereof as you please, in distilled Vinegar or in Spirit of Wine, and set it to digest in Balneo the space of a day or two. Then distil the Spirit of Wine in Balneo and in the bottom will remain the fixed and pure oil of the Gold, which is then true Aurum Potabile and spiritual Elixir of Life. If you will give to anyone of this powder presently before it be converted into oil, warm a little white or Rhenish wine and dissolve in either or them so much of the red powder, and the wine so tinctured it will be Aurum Potabile, but it would be better and more penetrating if it were tinctured with the aforesaid oil.

In like manner is the White Medicine to be projected after the purification of the Silver in a corrosive water as is before declared.

And so the melted Silver will be converted into a brittle powder and white mass, which likewise is to be dissolved and turned into oil, and then the white Elixir or Life is made and potable Silver, curing and healing, so far as it is able in human diseases, for it cannot be supposed that the Elixir of Luna hath so great virtue as the Elixir of Sol hath, or Aurum Potabile.

Now whereas among the vulgar and philosophers Gold hath this report, that being in his first disposition that it cureth the leprosy and hath many other virtues, this is not except by its complete digestion, because the excellency of the fire acting in it consumeth all evil humours that are in sick bodies as well in hot as cold causes. But Silver cannot do this because it hath not so much superfluity of fire and is not so much digested and decocted with natural maturity; yet notwithstanding this, it hath a fieriness occultly and virtually in it, but not so fully, because the fire causeth not such elemental qualities as in Gold. And therefore Silver, being in his first disposition, doth not cure leprosy so potently unless it be first digested by art until it have the chief degrees of Gold in all maturity. Wherefore other sick metallic bodies more weakly cure infirmities according as they differ more from them in perfection and maturity. Some differ more, some less, which is by reason of the Sulphur, infected and burning, of which they were made at the beginning in their generation and coagulation, and therefore they cure not, whereas the fire in them is burning, and so infected with the elemental feces and the mixtures of other elemental qualities.

4. Seeing, therefore, that Gold is of such vigour amongst the vulgar, and that being in his first disposition, what wonder is it if it, being brought into Medicine (as is experienced) by art and his virtue being subtiliated by digestion of decoction and purgation of the qualities, but it may then cure more, nay infinite, of all diseases.

It makes an old man young, as our Rosie Crucian Aurum Potabile will do; it preserveth health, strengtheneth nature and expelleth all sickness of the body. It driveth poison away from the heart, it moisteneth the arteries and, briefly, preserveth the whole body sound. The manner of using this Medicine according to all the philosophers is thus: If you will use to eat of this Medicine, then take the weight of two Florence ducats of our Aurum Potabile and one pound of any confection, and eat of that confection the quantity of one dram in the winter. And if you do thus it driveth away all bodily infirmities from what cause soever they proceed, whether hot or cold, and conserveth the health and youth in a man and maketh an old man young and maketh grey hairs to fall; it also presently cureth leprosy and diseases of phlegm, mundifieth the blood; it sharpeneth the sight and all the senses after a most wonderful manner, above all the medicines of the Philosophers.

5. To which purpose we thus find in the Rosary of the philosophers. In this (that is to say in this Aurum Potabile) is completed the precious gift of God, which is the Arcanum of all sciences in the world and the incomparable treasure (for as Plato saith) he that hath the gift of God hath the dominion of the world (that is to say of the Microcosm) because he attaineth to the end of riches and hath broke the bonds of Nature, not only for that he hath power to convert all imperfect metals into pure medicine and preserve both man and animal in perfect health.

To this purpose speaketh Geberhim, Hermes, Arnoldus, Raymundus Lullius, Ripley, Senotus, Augurellus, Aegidius, Valescus, Roger Bacon, Scotus, Laurentius, Venture and divers uncertain authors.

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