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To close this section, I say it is impossible to generate in the patient without a vital, generating agent. This agent is the philosophical fire, a certain moist, heavenly, invisible heat. But let us hear Raymund Lully describe it: Quando dicimus, saith he, quod lapis per ignem generatur, non vident alium ignem, nec alium credunt, nisi ignem communem; nec aliud Sulphur, nec aliud Argentum Vivum, nisi sit vulgare. Ideo manent decepti per eorum caecas estimationes, inferentes quod causa sumus suae deceptionis et quod dedimus illis intelligere rem unam pro alia. Sed non est verum salva eorum pace, sicut probabimus per illa quae philosophi posuerunt in scriptis. Solem enim appellamus ignem, et vicarium suum vocamus calorem naturalem. Nam illud quod agit calor solis in mineris metallorum per mille annos, ipse calor naturalis facit in una hora supra terram. Nos vero et multi alii vocamus eum Filium Solis, nam primo per solis influentiam fuit generatus per naturam, sive adjutorium scientiae vel artis. When we say the Stone is generated by fire, men neither see, neither do they believe there is any other fire but the common fire, nor any other Sulphur and Mercury but the common Sulphur and Mercury. Thus they are deceived by their own opinions, saying that we are the cause of their error, having made them to mistake one thing for another. But, by their leave, it is not so, as we shall prove by the doctrine of the philosophers. For we call the sun a fire and the natural heat we call his substitute or deputy. For that which the heat of the sun performs in a thousand years in the mines, the heat of nature performs above the earth in one hour. But we and many other philosophers have called this heat the Child of the Sun, for at first it was generated naturally by the influence of the sun without the help of our Art or knowledge. Thus Lully: but one thing I must tell thee, and be sure, Reader, thou dost remember it. This very natural heat must be applied in the just degree and not too much fortified; for the sun itself doth not generate but burn and scorch where it is too hot. Si cum igne magno operatus fueris, saith the same Lully, proprietas nostri spiritus, quae inter vitam et mortem participet, separabit se et anima recedet in regionem sphaerae suae. If thou shalt work with too strong a fire, the propriety of our spirit, which is different as yet to life or death, will separate itself from the body, and the soul will depart to the region of her own sphere.
Take therefore along with thee this short but wholesome advice of the same author: Facis ergo, Fili, quod if loco generationis aut conversionis sit talis potentia coelestis quae possit transformae humidum ex natura terrestri, in formam et speciem transparentem et finissimam. My son, saith he, let the heavenly power or agent be such in a place of generation or mutation that it may alter the spermatick humidity from its earthly complexion to a moist fire, transparent form or species.
See here now the solution of the slimy, fat earth to a transparent, glorious Mercury! This Mercury is the water which we look after, but not any common water whatsoever. There is nothing now behind but that which the philosophers call Secretum Artis, a thing that was never published and without which you will never perform, though you know both fire and matter. An instance hereof we have in Flamel, who knew the Matter well enough and had both fire and furnace painted to him by Abraham the Jew; but notwithstanding he erred for three years because he knew not the secret. Henry Madathan, a most noble philosopher, practised upon the subject for five years together but knew not the right method and therefore found nothing. At last, saith he, Post sextum annum clavis potentiae per arcanam revelationem ab omnipotente Deo mihi concredita est; after the sixth year I was entrusted with the Key of Power by secret revelation from the Almighty God. This Key of Power or third secret was never put to paper by any philosopher whatsoever. Paracelsus indeed hath touched upon it, but so obscurely it is no more to the purpose than if he had said nothing.
And now I have done enough for discovery and regimen of the fire, and more than any one author hath performed. Search it then, for he that finds this fire will attain to the true temperament; he will make a noble, deserving philosopher and, to speak in the phrase of our Spaniard, Dignus erit poni ad mensam duodecim parium.
And now I will teach you how to make the DRAMAAH into Medicine mixed with the metals. And first Of Mercury:
The Rosie Crucians describe unto us the Mount of God and his Mystical, philosophical Geomancy, which is nothing else but the highest and purest part of the earth; for from Tetragrammaton He shines upon the Orders and they carry His power to the planets, so you see the superior, secret portion of this element is holy ground; it is the seed plot of the eternal nature. And the Chaos was divided into eight parts; the eight was deadly, but first of the seven; the matter was the body of the lapsed Angels. After light began to appear, the centre was red, an ash colour blush; the circumference blue. The second division green, fiery red and purple. In the third division the centre was fiery, the inferior waters purple and the superior white. The fourth division was azure blush, the Sun and Moon then appearing pale blush. In the fifth division the earth was red and the centre fiery, the waters blush azure, the Sun and Moon ash colour. The sixth division of the earth was a red blush, and centre fiery. The seventh apparition is the immediate vessel and recipient of heaven, whence all minerals have their life and by which the animal monarchy is maintained.
This philosophical black Saturn mortifies and coagulates the invisible Mercury of the Stars and, on the contrary, the Mercury kills and dissolves the Saturn; and out of the corruption of both, the Central and Circumferential Suns disgenerate new bodies, the Green Lion in a blush circle; the Green Lion swallowed to the hinderparts; the virtues in a purple vessel of Nature, half Moon made; the vegetable animal mineral in a blush; calcination of fiery and blue earth; sublimation fiery, airy and azure; solution black, white and azure; the Spirit descends. The masculine and feminine Mercury generated there will appear azure, purple, ash colour, yellow and red. In putrefaction our matter is black and azure; the Spirit descends. In conception our Astrum Solis is a bloody, fiery, spirited earth; the Spirit descends and the superfinals are azure. In impregnation the Astrum Solis ascends from a muddy water and the Spirit with it. In fermentation the black, shabby toad lies sultering in his vessel, and the Spirit in azure descending appears in separation of fire, air, water and earth. The toad lies in the earth black, the earth ash colour, the water green, the air blue, the fire blood-red and the aether a liquid white fire; the Spirit ascends. In conjunction of elements the fire is red, air blue, water green and earth dark ash and the Spirit descends in a clear sky. In separation of earth, fire, air and water, the earth lies in the bottom dark, the fire flaming upon it, breaking through the air to the water, and disposeth itself in conjunction of water in air; the Spirit descends in a clear sky to that blue composition; the air in the water is green, the fire red and the earth ashy. In the separation of fire, water, air in water, earth, the earth is dark, muddy, the air in water blue, the water transparent and the fire flaming red and white, and the Spirit ascends in an azure sky.
In conjunction of air in fire, fire in water, water in air, earth, the earth is dark and heavy, the water in air blue, the fire in water green, the air in fire a blush red; the Spirit descends in a clear sky. In separation air, water, fire in air, earth, the earth is ash colour, fire in air blood red, flaming through the azure water and air; the Spirit ascends. In conjunction fire in air, water in fire, air in water, earth, the earth is black, the air in water is green, the water in fire is like the sunbeams in a mist, the fire above all lies in the air blue, flaming; the Spirit descends. The next separation is flames of fire breaking out in all the elements, the earth only lies of a darker colour. The unnatural fire stands thus, air water, fire earth, the earth covered with a blue flame, the fire ascending to the central colour, water and air; the Spirit descends. The rising of the Rosie Crucians Medicines. The earth cineri coloris, a white star and moon appearing in a star; the power and Spirit ascends in a clear sky. In fermentation a dark star lies in the earth and the Spirit descends to it in a clear sky. In purgation the earth is black and the Spirit descends clear. In this separation there appears water in air, fire in water, turned upwards; below is a blue space, then the earth in fire is red, air in earth ash colour.
In this conjunction of air in fire, water in earth, fire in air, earth in water; the earth in water is dark, the fire in air red, but not violent, the water in earth green, the air in fire blue; the Spirit descends. And in this conjunction of earth in air, water in fire, and fire in earth; here in the bottom the earth is animated with a secret fire, invisible, occult, the water shadows a mild fire, the air in water above these is green and glorious, the earth in air is a bluish white; the Spirit descends.
In this exaltation of the Quintessence the Pelican is in the bottom; next above is azure; then two circles; of the first the upper is blue, the lower a white fire; the next is a green and red sea of fire environing the white matter, and this exaltation of the Quintessence is azure, a globe which in the bottom is divided in four quarters; from the East to the South is blue, from the South to the West green, from the West to the North white, from the North to the East red, and all the upper part of it azure. Above this globe the fire flames upon both sides. In fixation the branches of fire spread both ways round the white and azure globe; this projection is upon a blue and white powder, the perspect in Multiplication runs down the vessel through the azure to the matter in the bottom.
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