Now take the white-washed silver, reduce it with borax, laminate it again and cement it pulverized, wash and melt it again as before, and continue doing this till the silver stays white in the cement and no rottenness or blackness comes off it when it is washed. In this way the silver gets rid of all its faces without being separated. Try this in the following way: Dissolve 3j of this silver in rectified wine or Quinta Essentia, coagulate and dissolve it again, and you will not find any faeces, even if you repeated it a hundred times.
What do you think of this secret? It is a great secret in the Art. I am telling you truly, it is the greatest secret of all in the Art, more so than one can understand. The Elements are rectified without separation, and you can make an Elixir from one metal only, because it has its own proportion of weights. When the Elements are purified with solving and coagulating, it is very good, but my method is much surer, because in working with dissolving and coagulating, the element is separated together with the faeces and the three other Elements. If is a good thing if its done correctly and carefully, and if care is taken to preserve everything, to lose nothing, and that the fire is well regulated during reverberation in order to rectify the earth, so that fire, water, air can be extracted therefrom. It requires careful attention to prevent anything from being lost. When it does happen, however, you no longer have the right weight of the Elements and you will never reach a happy end. Keep this well in your hearts so that you may never forget it, for there must not be any weakness, the Elements must have the oil their own weight and proportion. It is therefore necessary to proceed very carefully in this Work where the Elements have to be separated.
It is indeed good if it is done in this way, and it makes an infinite projection, much higher than when the elements are not separated. Therefore, my Child, many of us have made mistakes and spent much time in vain before they discovered the rectification of the Elements while they are together. That is what I have revealed to you here. Therefore do not take any risks, because I worry that you might go wrong and lose something of the Elements. Then all cost and effort would be lost, as you would find in the end.
Therefore, dear Sons, keep to my method and you cannot go wrong. You may well lose dome of your powder in the washing, but what is left is perfect, because Nature does not miss. The Elements remain united and are even ore closely bound together by the Work than they were before. For when they are pure and rid of their faeces and they are set to cement 3 times, they will be so well congealed together than Luna will be fixed.
Test it in AF --- it does not attack Luna --- It retains its colors and also passes through copper. Calcination and cementation can also be made with prepared common slat, without arsenic or tartar, but it takes longer. And if you do it only with salt without arsenic and tartar, Luna will not readily cement and calcine. It has to be repeated several times --- about 3 times --- before Luna is calcined enough to be rubbed. That is why arsenic and tartar are added, as they are sharp and work easily through the laminae, so that the cementation must not be repeated often. Thirdly, they result in a white tincture suitable for a White Work. But if a Red Work is intended, I would be better to take Mercury to the Red than arsenic, just as is done in the sublimation of Sol. This then is the reason why arsenic is added to the salt; though, if ever you wished, you could achieve it with salt alone. I myself have frequently tested and done it. There is no difference in the cementation of Luna and Sol, except that mercury to the Red is used instead of auripigment. Also, Sol must not be pulverized and washed like Luna, and Sol does not contain any blackness because tartar, mercury and the salt consumes all its faeces. Then you Sol is rid of all its faeces, just like Luna. Thus you have all your cement perfect and together and well purified. Although the separation of the Elements causes a much higher and subtler projection, there is danger involved in it. This purification, however, is sure and without worry.
Now we will return to our Work, and I will first teach you how the Philosophical Mercury is to be extracted. At the beginning I showed you many a Work which other masters have performed, whom I saw working in the laboratory. Some of them are perfect, others imperfect. Be that as it may, it is necessary to have the Philosophical mercury if a good result is to be obtained. For the Mercury which comes from the mines is a crude sperma, not yet sufficiently cooked, and it would have to lie in the earth for another 300 years before it would coagulate; then again, for many more years till it would turn into a powder. Then, by long cooking in natural heat, it would become a vapor. When it is finally a vapor, it passes into the opening of the minerals. When it finds the Philosophical Sulfur with its spiritual nature, it turns into a Corpus. After the Sulfur has been separated from its fattiness, it results in a perfect metal, white or red. The Sulfur of the ignorant is foam and faeces and the combustible fattiness of Vitriol. The latter is separated well by the power of Nature which desire to rid herself of her faeces, to rid the red Sulphur of the foam of the red vitriol, and the white of the white vitriol, as is clearly indicted in the Vegetable Work.
When now the aforesaid mercurial vapor is conjoined with the Philosophical Sulphur, it must still digest and cook for a long time in the bowels of he earth before this Mercury and Sulfur congeal, and this may well take over a thousand years. From this you can now understand that the mineral sulfur is still but a crude thing, from which the seed of the metals is cooked with the help of Nature, before it canes into a spirit. That is why no metal is found in Mercury mines and no Mercury in metal mines. For Mercury is a raw material, of no use in our Art. It is only an instrument and a hammer to work with in our Art, and a means for extracting the colors from metals and metallic things. But as far as its use in the Art is concerned it is considered raw material and good for nothing for reasons indicated above. I have told you all this so that you should know that all those are wrong who work with such a Mercury.
You can likewise proceed with Sol, except that Sol must stand for 18 weeks or longer before its Mercury can be separated from its earth and oil, which are always together. For Sol is a solid compact corpus. That s why it must stand longer till it opens. It would therefore be better to let it stand for 30 or 40 weeks. Then it will finally look like a sponge and become as light that it is unbelievable. And if you put calx of Sol in a glass bowl, the glass will be so full that it almost runs over. Then it can be opened and the Mercury can easily be sublimated. In this manner you can open all metals, so that you can extract their Mercury from them by sublimation, as you have heard about the metallic salts.
When you wish to proceed further, put first some cut glass on its mouth that closes tightly, lute it on immediately to prevent the powers from escaping. Then set it in the Balneum and do not give it more fire than will allow you to keep your hand in, and to drink the water without getting burnt. Let it stand thus for 6 weeks, then let it cool, break it open, lute it immediately with an alembic on top and well closed receptacles, and distill it over in the Balneum in moderate heat as ong as something goes over.
Then take it out, set it in ashes, add the receptacle, give it first a small fire, then a stronger one, till Mercury is ready to sublimate together with the * as white as snow. Let it stand thus for 24 hours to allow the Mercury to emerge from the earth. Then let it cool, remove the alembic, and weigh the mass, Thus you will know how much Mercury you have sublimated with the *. Put the sublimate back into a glass and sublimate it again. If any faeces remin, you must sublimate it till nothing is left behind. Preserve this mercury well till you need it.
But in the vessel in which you hve sublimated the Mercury, the earth and the oil of the Corpus are left. Take them out and weigh them, and you will also know how much Mercury you have sublimated from them. Put this earth in a glass and pour enough distilled vinegar over it to dissolve it clearly. If there are any faeces, pour it off, and coagulate and dissolve till there are no more faeces. Then you have a salt a clear as crystal.
Now take the Mercury sublimated with *, and the salt. Rub them together on the marble, thus dry. Then put the substance in a glass bowl and set in the tripod or in the calcinations furnace. Let it stand there for 6 weeks and give it as much heat as if you were to keep lead in flux. At the end of the sixth week, let it cool, put it in a humid cellar, cover it with a linen cloth to prevent any dust from falling into it, and within 6 or 8 days everything will dissolve into clear water. It is the Philosophical Vinegar. My Child must know that this is the right Philosophical Vinegar, and when they write Our Acetum Distillatum, they mean this water, and it is thus of which they write in such a strange way, about which we will not speak here.
Pour this water into a glass, and take 3 parts of Luna prepared in the fire, and 1 part of Sol, prepared as taught. Dissolve each in AF and beat it down, wash and dry it, and dissolve enough of each. For you must know how much you will need. When you have prepared these two kinds of calx, set the glass with the water, or the distilled Philosophical Vinegar in ashes, and light a small fire underneath, such as is used to dissolve Luna or Sol.
You must know that this is the first solution in the world ever to have been discovered, because here no mistake can be made in the proportion of the weights, for as Mercury is dissolved, it at once dissolves all metals, as has been taught in many other places. And it does not dissolve more than it can handle. This is the best amalgamation one can find.
When now the dissolution has been made, take another glass, such as is here illustrated. Into that pour the dissolved material from the remaining powder that is not dissolved and set it as deep in ashes as the matter is in the glass --- not deeper. Give it heat like that of the sun at noon, and not warmer. Cover the glass with a double linen cloth, and the material will coagulate into a grey powder or mass. When it is coagulated, take a round piece of glass, cut exactly to the mouth of the vessel, lute it with a strong lute, and let it stand thus till you see that your material is turning white. Then increase the fire like the sun in June, and keep it thus in this heat till it as white as snow. Now increase the fire again like the sun in Leo, and wit this heat crystalline longish stones will grow out of your material, like glass or needles. Keep the glass in this heat till you notice that no more crystals grow out of it. Now the material is fixed. You must know that if the crystals do not appear, the material has become fixed with the second heat. Be not concerned about it, for it is better for everything to become fixed in low than in strong heat. For when you first heat like the sun shining in the midst of summer, crystals will shoot as long as a hand and as broad. But that is not good.
It is better to cook the Stone in low heat, so that no crystal points or stones grow out of it. If there grow too many and you give it a little too much heat, the spirit rises in the form of a white vapor and attaches itself above to the glass. When that happens, you must open the glass and scrape the material down again. Take guard not to give it too much heat, so that your material does not rise and turn yellow and red like a pebble. Then it would be spoiled and you would have to start all over. Therefore, see to it that you do not make your fire too strong, so as not to get the yellowness or redness before the whiteness. It is better for the fire to be too small than too big.
When it is now perfectly white and no crystal points shoot out of it, the material is fixed. Divide it into 2 parts, one half to the White, the other to the red. Take the half which you wish to bring to the Red, set it in ashes and bring it to the Red. Pour Paradise Water over the other half to the white, and heat it till the White Stone is perfect --- before you give the Red its fire. But this you must understand, this Paradise Water must be extracted from Luna, and 9 parts of it must be drawn over 1 part of the White, and cooked therein till it is perfect.
After this, remove one half from the glass. Piut the other in a crucible, melt it. It flows as easily as wax. When it is melted, pour it into a wooden mold, coated with sheep’s fat or oil, and you have a Stone as clear, hard, and transparent as crystal.
That is why a small fire is always better than too strong a fire. And proceed only by degrees. As the colors change and heighten the fire is to be increased, and this not only applies to our Work but to all others as well. The right regulation of the fire is the second masterpiece of our Art, and unless the proportion is carefully observed, everything is lost.
When the material is fixed and as red as a ruby, take it out and increate it with fire paradise Water extracted from Sol, just as has been said about Luna. Pour 9 parts of Paradise Water over 1 part of the Red Stone, seal the glass above with strong lute, set it back in the furnace in the ashes, and give fire as if you were to keep lead melting, till it has absorbed all the Paradise water. Now it has turned into a grey powder --- rather black than grey. Keep the fire at the same heat till the powder is quite white. Now increase your fire considerably till you see the matter turn yellow. Then increase the fire by degrees somewhat more, till the powder is dark yellow. When al your powder is brown like saffron, so that it cannot get any yellower, increase your fire considerably till you see the red color appear. Continue with the fire till it is perfectly red like a ruby. Now rejoice, because the Stone to the Red is made. Let it cool.
Take one half out and leave the other half to multiply. Put what you have taken out in a crucible, let it melt, and pour it into a small glass coated with grease, pour the Stone into it, and it will be as hard as glass and as red as a ruby. Take 1 part of it, throw it in 2000 parts of lead, and it will turn into the best Sol, as highly colored as has ever been seen, and it can stand all tests and examination. Thank God.
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