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This secret of both these secrets is the greatest and requireth of itself to be kept as secretly in the hearts of all wise men hereafter as it hath been of all ancient philosophers heretofore.
Understand the secret by this Figure 3, which number indeed it doth contain in itself, and is the very figure of the Trinity of the Deity.
First I will show the reasons as the marks and tokens whereby thou shalt understand and know that this is the same feminine body where is the feminine sperm of our blessed matter, which I will prove by the authority of the philosophers in this manner. First the philosophers do all agree that the metallic man in our matter is fixed and the metallic woman unfixed. If, therefore, I prove our matter to be unfixed, it is a great argument and probability that our is the same woman.
The second mark and token whereby she is known is that the philosophers agree that their Mercury or water which reduceth their Gold or Sulphur into his First Matter is the same that abideth and is permanent with it as Trevisanus declareth. There is required in our natural solution the permanency of both, viz., of the water dissolving and of the dissolved body; and in another place, no water dissolveth the metallic essence with a natural reduction but that water which is abiding therein in matter and form, which water also, the metals themselves being dissolved, are able to congeal. And Arnoldus saith, the nature of the dissolved body and the dissolving water is all one, but only that the nature of the body is complete, digested and fixed, but the nature of the water is incomplete, undigested and volatile until it be fixed by the body. And in Paracelsus our woman dissolveth her man and the man fixeth the woman. By these words it is plain that the water which dissolveth the body is the same that is permanent with them, that is to say, the woman or feminine sperm that is to be joined with the man or masculine.
Paracelsus saith plainly, speaking in the person of the figure 3, my spirit is the water, dissolving the congealed bodies of my brethren and Raymund Lullius saith in his Epistle to the King, Our water, you know, is extracted from a certain stinking menstruum, which is compounded of four things, and is stronger than all the water of the world, and it is mortal, whose spirit multiplieth the tincture of the ferment. And in another place he saith, all alchemical Gold is made of corrosives and of an incorruptible quintessence, which is fixed with ferment, but such quintessence is a certain spirit reviving and mortifying the mineral medicine. And Turba Philosophorum saith, take the black spirit and with it dissolve bodies and divide them. Now consider the nature of our figure 3, and judge if this be that water or no. It must needs be the same, for the words fit the nature of our figure 3 and no other of the imperfect bodies but her, for all the philosophers agree that she is earthly, dark, cold and stinking, and Paracelsus nameth her plainly, the water dissolving her brethren.
Consider yet another note or mark whereby she is known, as the ancient and modern philosophers do affirm that their Gold must be sown in his own proper earth, as also in the Turba, let our Gold be sown in his own proper earth.
Arnoldus in his New Light saith, with my own hands, my eyes being witnesses I have made the Elixir that converted Saturn into Sol, which matter truly I have now named, and it is the philosophers Magnesia, out of which they found quicksilver of quicksilver and Sulphur of Sulphur. To construe these words rightly, what is our figure 3 but Mercury of Mercury, and what is our Gold but Sulphur of Sulphur. I will yet impart a greater secret.
It is written by good philosophers and found true infallibly by daily experience, that the figure 3 is never found simple or pure by himself in the mine, but is ever mixed with Gold or Silver, whose grains or seeds in him are plainly to be seen to the eyes; by which means it appeareth that there is no mine of himself, but he is the mine of them and so their very natural earth.
Consider these words following from Flammellus, and thou shalt yet hear a greater secret than these. Mercury being never so little congealed in the veins of the earth, there is straightways fixed in it the grain of Gold which, of the two sperms, do bring forth true springs and branch of Mercury as we may see in the caves of Saturn, wherein there is no mine in any of which the true grain of the fixed may not be contained manifestly, that is the grain of Gold or Silver. For the first congelation of Mercury is the mine of Saturn in which it is put by nature. This may truly be multiplied into his perfections without fail or error, being, notwithstanding, in his Mercury not separated from his mine. For the metal consisting in his mine is Mercury, from which if the grain be separated it will be an unripe apple plucked from his tree, which is altogether destroyed. The fixed grain is the apple and Mercury is the tree; therefore the fruit is not to be separated from the tree, because it cannot elsewhere receive nourishment then from his Mercury. It is as great a folly to put Gold or Silver into Mercury as to fasten an apple again to the tree from whence it was taken. Therefore, that this business might be duly accomplished, the tree together with his fruit must be taken, that again it might be planted, without taking away the fruit, into a more fertile and new soil, which will give more nourishment in one day than the first field would have yielded in an hundred years, for the continual agitation of the winds. Go up, therefore, into the Mountain that thou mayest see the vegetable, Saturnian, royal and mineral herb, for let the juice be taken pure , the feces being cast away, for thereof thou mayest effect the greatest part of thy work. This is the true Mercury of the Philosophers.
Trevisan confirms the matter thus. Our work is made of one root and two substances Mercurial, taken crude, drawn out of the mine clean and pure, conjoined by fire of amity as the matter requireth it, cocted continually until that of two be made one; and in this one, when the two are mixed, the body is made spirit and the spirit is made body. Paracelsus likewise speaking plainly in the name of our figure 3 saith: It would be profitable to the lesser world if he did know or at least believe what lay hid within me, and what I could effect, for he that doth discourse upon the art of Alchemy would more profitably understand that which I can do if he would use that only which is in me, and that which by me may be done. And in another place, under an enigma, he notably discovereth this our blessed matter where he saith: Whatsoever staineth into a white colour hath the nature of life and the power and property of light, which causally effecteth life; and contrariwise, whatsoever staineth into blackness or maketh black hath the nature common with death and the property of darkness and the strong power of death. The coagulation and fixation of such manner of corruption is the earth with her coldness. The house is always dead, but the inhabitant of the same liveth, and if thou canst find forth the example thereof thou hast prevailed.
By these words it appeareth that as the tincture of whiteness is the cause of life, which is the spirit of generation, so the blackness, which is the spirit of corruption, is death; and these two tinctures are in our blessed herb. The natural blackness whereof, that is to say our figure 3, is the spirit of the corruption or mortification, which is the same earth which he here noteth with his coldness. The same dead house within the artificial digestion is the death and mortification and putrefaction of the matter, and our Silver and Gold, which is naturally included in the same, is the tincture in his first artificial operation according to the philosophers, who say there is no Gold, but first was Silver before it was Gold. This tincture of whiteness is the same inhabitant which liveth in the same dead house, according to the saying before, the house is dead but they live which inhabit it; by which means it is plain that this is the same example which he speaketh of when he saith, the example whereof, if thou be able to find out, thou hast thy purpose.
Arnoldus noteth in his Rosary. This we see, that in the calculation of our figure 3, that first it is converted into black powder, next into white, then into a more yellow or red, which words very well discover his enigma written of this matter. Elsewhere he saith thus. The thing that hath both a red head, white foot and black eyes is the materia. Likewise it appeareth by the enigma of Hermes, The falcon is always on top of the mountain crying I am the white of the black and the red of the citron. Now I will show how there is in our figure 3 that which I before spake of; the other thing is to show how it is the Hermaphrodite or Adam of the philosophers.
In our mineral herb is the number of 3 thus. First therein is our figure 3. Secondly there is our Sulphur, i.e., our Gold or Silver which is naturally mixed with him. Thirdly there is the root of these two, that is to say Mercury or Quicksilver, whereof they were engendered, and whereunto they must be reduced, in respect of which trinity in unity it representeth the Figure of the Deity. Now of our Hermaphrodite or Adam therein. What else is our mineral herb but one root of two substances, wherein is both our man or woman, that is to say our Gold is our Man, or sperm masculine, or Silver according to his natural mine, which is also the Sulphur, the tincture, the ferment and form before spoken of, having the perfect and fixed nature of the man, and the two agent elements of fire and air in them, and our woman is our figure 3, i.e., which is the feminine sperm, the patient, the aqua the menstruum, the matter, the Spirit volatile and the undigested or unfixed body, having in her the two patient elements of water and earth.
Thus you see that Sol and Luna are the masculine sperms in our matter or figure 3, which is also the natural woman, water and earth of them both, where by nature they are planted and spring. That is to say the matter of our red work is our figure 3 joined with Sol and the matter of our white work is our figure 3 joined with Luna, which matters are first to be had for more surety and security of art even in nature itself called fex plumbi or Quehaeli Hispanica. And thus dost thou see in our blessed matter, 4. 3. 2. and 1., yea and one only thing according to the words of all philosophers, and that you may not in the least doubt of the truth hereof, I have truly laid it open. The root of the operation of art in the matter shall hereafter be at large declared.
Commending, for this great and gracious mystery and secret of nature, to the Godhead all eternal glory, to Whom it is due.
The Lord illuminate my heart with His light and truth so long as my spirit remains in me, for His light is very delightful and good for the eye of my soul to see by; for so shall the night be enlightened to me as the day, neither shall the clouds shadow it. It shall not be like the light of the Sun by day because it shall not be clouded, nor like the light of the Moon by night, because it shall never be diminished as her light is.
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