Merélle - Alkymiens Mysterier

[] But what is alchemy actually? The best explanation given, could be the one that stems from the german chemist, doctor and alchemist, J. R. Glauber, who lived in the 17th century. He is no more remembered as an alchemist, but as the chemist that discovered karlsbadersalt, which in our days is called sodiumsulphate. His era had a special name for it, namely sal mirabile Glauberi , Glaubers wonderful salt. For it was effective against even the hardest case of constipation. Glauber discovered it when he worked with a chemical/alchemical process, for he didn’t make a a sharp distinction between chemistry and alchemy. About the Art of Alchemy he has said something very relevant and essential. Following quotation is from a chemic/alchemic work of his, published in Paris 1659:

Alchemy is a thought, an image, a discovery, through which the species of metals go from one natural state to another.

In another work, that also was published in French, Glauber says about the purely chemical side of alchemy:

The ancients have given this art the name alchemy, that is, saltfusion.

[] A researcher by the name Schønbein had noted, that water, that was left to evaporate out in the open air, formed saltpetersour ammonia from the airs nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen. Schønbein had moistened some linnen cloths with distilled water and afterwards exposed them to air, so that the water could evaporate slowly. When the cloths had dried, he took them, and soaked them in distilled water. Some substance was now drawn out of the cloths and dissolved in the water. It showed itself to be saltpetersour ammonia, as he called it, with the chemical formula NH4-NO2. The researcher now explains, that what happened was, a socalled “nitrification”. Two nitrogen atoms from the air had joined with four hydrogen atoms in the following way:

2N + 4H = N-NH4.

This again becomes a saltpetersour ammonium salt: NH4-NO2, in that two oxygen atoms attach themselves to the compound. In this way, saltpetersour salts are formed in the ground, says Schønbein. The same takes place in plants, from whose surface a continual evaporation takes place. In this way the plants form the nitrates needed for further growth.

[] There really forms a salt in the water left outside during a fullmoon night. One must remember to use distilled water, and it has to be reduced very slowly. In the bowl is then left a fine white salt, that is watersoluble. The chemist, Schønbein, did not know that the moons light gives the best result. Such an idea would probably have seemed to be both absurd and ridiculous to him, for he was a traditional chemist. The old alchemists had their own explanation for what happened to water and dew that had been exposed to the rays of the moon. The water becomes active they said, and thereby able to dissolve matters. It should be reduced to a fine salt, and this they called “Water that does not wet the hands”. Thereby they ment a dry, water soluble salt.

[] In may, during fullmoon, one spreads out linnen cloths over the dew wet grass. Early the next morning, one wrings the cloth dew out of the cloths into a vessel. Then one needs two pounds of mercury ( [] An old french pound is 489 gram). One then pours a little of the dew water over the the mercury and lets it cook ver a low heat, until the dew has evaporated. Then a new portion of dew is added and further cooked, until it also has evaporated. One continues so, until one has used all the dew. Finally the mercury is poured through a sieve of fine gauze or linnen. When the cloth has dried, some of the mercury has been transmuted into gold and caught in the fabric. One can then continue working with the remaining mercury, when one has collected a new portion of dew. This can be done for a few days, while the full moon is still present.

[] The ammonium ion itself is strange jest of Natures making, for it does not exist in free form. In reality it doesnt exist. If one tries to isolate it, it will decompose into ammonia and hydrogen.

[] From the horns of animals one extracted “hartshorn”, “hjortetakssalt”, “deer antler salt”. [] Chemically speaking, “deer antler salt” is ammoniumbicarbonate, so this salt contains the same mysterious ammonium as the dew from the meadow.

[] The rams mineral is the light green iron sulphate, also called iron vitriol. The bulls mineral is the blue copper sulphate, or copper vitriol. From these two minerals the alchemists produced- as did the chemists- mixtures of strong acids by distilling the minerals with ammonium containing salts, f. x. ammonium chloride or ammonium nitrate. Thereby they got solvents for both gold and silver. For these metalls where to be brought into liquid form, before one could continue with the process. The alchemists made all the acids they needed, themselves, for example nitric acid, hydrochloric acid, and “aqua Regis”.

[] In french books one often comes upon the terms “sel alcali fixe vegetal” And “sel de tartre”. They are about the same salt, namely potash, or potassium carbonate, as it is also called. Concerning “sel de tartre” one might think it is about a salt of wineacid, acidum tartaricum, whose salts are called “tartrates”, but that isnt the case.

[] in the medieval age nitrogen compunds where many things. There could be different nitrates, for example potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, or ammonium nitrate, and one didn’t always discern between them. Or it could be about dew from the air, which in french scriptures sometimes would be called “salpetre”, sometimes “nitre”. Bu the terms where quite striking, for the dew contained a saltpetersour salt, namely ammoniumnitrit.

[] A good example of an alchemical riddle, that is a hard nut to crack, is the legendary unicorn. In English its called “unicorn” in French its called “licorne”. The unicorn was a horselike, friendly and beautiful animal, that had a long horn on its forehead. At the same time it had a bushy liontail. These two things, the long pointed horn, and the lionlike tail, contain its secret in unison. Firstly, that it posessed a penetrating power, symbolized by its horn. Secondly, that it has a connection to Leo in the “other end”, as shown by its tail. The lion tail is a connection to the metal gold.

The Unicorn is mentioned in greek literature already 400 B.C., and it is told about it, that its horn contains a matter, that neutralized all poisons. Here we have the key to the riddle of the unicorn. At the same time there is a parallel to the horned cattle from Mutus Liber, the silent book of alchemy. In both cases the matter is something that could be extracted from the animals horns. This matter is what we nowadays know as “hartshorn” or ammonium carbonate.

With this salt one can neutralize aqua regis, the strong “poison” that was used to dissolve gold. When the poison is neutralized, the gold is precipitated as a very fine and pure 24 karat gold powder. The same effect can be had with potash, also known as potassium carbonate. Potash has its own fairy tale, Cinderella, and it is one of the finest alchemical fairy tales known.

[] Iron has the atomic number 26. That means that iron contains 26 positive charges, plus just as many negatively charged negative electrons. If iron is to become silver, that has the atomic number 47, protons have to be supplied. Iron lacks 47 minus 26 protons, that is, 21 positive charges in order to become silver, and these must be had from somewhere. It is very likely that these could come from nitrogen, which has the atomic number 7.

[] Everything came to be in a watery element the alchemists say, and therefore all matter must be redissolved in a liquid, if it is to be brought into another form.

[] There is something “prehistoric (or ancient*), dead and spooky about the moons blue white light. This sensation is real enough, for in reality the moon doesn’t shine. It only reflects the light of the sun, and it is a completely different light that is reflected back to earth, for it is polarized. Moonlight vibrates in a different plane than sunlight, and it also has a completely different effect in nature.

[] The moon creates (regulates) the oceans respiration, and we humans still have this respiration in us. The so called (spinalmarrowrespiration) must be a remnant of our connection with the ocean, in a prehistoric age, where we didn’t have lungs. This primary respiration, as it is also called, is a rhythmical pulsation in the (brain-backbone-spinal marrow fluids) closed tubular system, and has a period of about 8-12 BPM (beats per minute), that is, very slow.

[]The great oceans contain tons of silver in an extremely (extraordinarily) high dilution, about 10 milligrams in a ton of seawater. The silver is so finely divided, that it is not economically feasible to ext ract it. But a lot of small animals, that build (snailhouses), conches and shells, do so. The most beautiful of them have violet blue, rosy red, and violet mother of pearl layers, that coat the rough chalk shell in fine layers. The many colours stem from the silver in the ocean water, and likely also from gold, of which there is almost just as much present. Because both these metals will appear with the same violet and rosy red colours in certain compounds. So it is not ordinary metal (anymore), but fine microscopic matters, that these beings have secreted onto the calcium shell with stoic calm, over many years.

[] The greek philosopher Plato, who lived 427-347 BC, was familiar with alchemy through his teacher Socrates. Plato had knowledge of many alchemical processes and has said, that there is gold in (ordinary, common) sea salt, but it remains spiritual until it is precipitated in visible form. This (piece) of information is found in a work (of, from the hand) of J. R. Glauber, that was published in Paris 1659 (Des Navigants pp. 22-23)

Plato's and Glauber's statements are interesting, because we today know that gold and silver form chemical compounds with the element chlorine, of which there is a lot in ocean water, about 19%. Gold also forms compounds with sodium chloride, of which there is a lot in the ocean, and forms an orange yellow compound, sodium gold chloride. All the salts of gold have beautiful red, orange, blue and violet colours, and the same goes for silver salts under certain conditions.

[] The animals that live in shells and conches, suck in seawater and digest the matters, they come in contact with. They thereby absorb the metal salts from the ocean together with the organisms on which they subsist. Little by little, they excrete the fine organic silver and gold complexes, for they cannot utilize them. These violet and rosy/pink coloured matters are totally destroyed, if one treats them as metallic compounds, that can be dissolved in acids.

[] In laboratories and goldsmith workshops, silver items are dissolved with nitric acid. It is done under a so called fume hood, because some very bothersome and toxic nitrous oxide fumes are given of, especially if the temperature is over 16-17 degrees Celsius. The process can become so violent, that the contents flies in the air, and one must then hastily dilute with water. But he problem can be avoided. Silver is a “cold” metal, and belongs to the night and the moons cold light. If one wants to avoid the violent reaction between silver and nitric acid, one must extend the reaction time by lowering the temperature. These two things relate to each other, because at low temperature all natural processes are slowed down.

[] One now puts the silverware, perhaps folded together or broken into pieces, in a glass, it could be an empty jam jar, and places it into a box of sand []. Then one pours nitric acid over it, and not more, than the silverware is just covered. At low temperature there is hardly any nitrous oxides given of, but something is happening in the silver just the same. It takes on a yellowish colour, and sometimes one can smell very faint acid fumes. The process takes time, so one lets the glass sit quite undisturbed for a week or two. At the same time one must assure that solution sits (stands) in a place where it cannot accidentally be toppled over by cats, porcupines, or other animals. Over time the silver is dissolved, and if there is copper in it, the liquid turns blue. One them dilutes with a little water and can take the glass back indoors. One now has a solution consisting of silver nitrate plus a blue copper salt.

The silver nitrate can now be precipitated as white silver chloride, and this is easily done with common table salt, sodium chloride. So much salt is needed as to ensure that all silver is precipitated, that is, salt in excess, and it must be dissolved in water. As the whole now will take up more volume, it is advisable to pour the silver nitrate with its copper content into a large glass bowl, before one proceeds to add concentrated salt water. As soon as the salt water comes in contact with the silver nitrate solution, the liquid turns milky white. It is silver chloride that now precipitates, and it resembles lumpy (sour milk, thick milk). [] One sets the bowl with silver chloride aside and lets it sit for about an hour. Then one can carefully decant the blue copper laden liquid of, that stands above the precipitate.

The blue liquid can be stored in a separate glass and then precipitated as copper later on. This can be done with iron filings, the masculine metal in alchemy. The iron slowly dissolves and a brown powder of metallic copper is precipitated. When it is washed, dried, ad ground to a fine powder, one has an excellent paint pigment. If one adds “purified” gasoline or a binder to this copper powder, it can be used on wood, stucco, gypsum, cast iron and cement (mortar). The paint covers completely and dries fast, and the painted objects take on a beautiful golden bronze colour.

The white precipitate is now rinsed once with water, and then the bowl of silver chloride is set aside with abundant water. Something very strange will now take place. The white silver chloride will, in the course of some hours form coral like formations of snowy white branches, moving from the bottom upwards. The long fine branches sometimes resemble thin icicles with flowers, and they gradually take on a violet sheen. Sometimes they "hang down" from the surface of the liquid as thin needles with rimfrost (“icefeathers”) on them. Here we have an example of silvers cold, moonlike character. Flowers are formed, that resemble the winter nights magic with the growths of nature. The process continues for some hours, and when no more crystals are formed, they all slowly sink down to the bottom of the bowl.

Chemically seen, the crystals form at a certain (acidity level, PH) in the liquid, after the original nitric acid had been diluted with salt water and then washed once with water. [] the PH value [] was between 0,5 and 1,0, still a strong acid, but diluted with water.

The beautiful white coral branches of silver chloride can only be formed if they get time and calm, and one will not get to see them in a modern laboratory, where time is a factor one doesn’t like. When the silver chloride crystals have settled to the bottom of the bowl, one rinses several times with water and set the
precipitate aside in a moist state.

The silver chloride, that was white to begin with, now becomes more and more violet. The colour is as that of forest violets and if the silver chloride is left in the bowl in a moist state, and (s)lightly covered, so it will not be exposed to direct sunlight, the colour will last almost indefinitely. It is this blue violet colour that alchemists call the “soul” of silver. It has though, the moon's changeable nature and is so impressionable, that it can become both rosy coloured and completely red. J. R. Glauber has said the following about silver in a scripture from 1659:

There can be no doubt, that the inner of the moon (silver) contains more colour (tincture) than the sun (gold), because the moon is completely red inside, while the sun is blue, this one should note.(De L’oeuvre Minerale, p. 60). So the blue white silver chloride can become pink and red, and something similar happens in the oceans conches and shells. How they accomplish this nobody seems to know, but we can imitate them (mimic their art) to a certain degree, by using the matters they have at their disposal, and that is (common) salt,
chalk/calcium, silver and a little bit of nitrate.

One begins with a bag of pure white sea salt. A portion of it is poured into an enamelled pot or a heat resistant glass bowl. The salt is then dissolved in lots of boiling water and reduced until a dry salt remains. This is ground and pulverized, where after it is again dissolved in boiling water. The process is repeated several times, and one finally has a fine, light powder, that at the same time has lost the sharp salt taste. – By the way, this product will make a fine base for a great gourmet salt! - The salt is now to be mixed with about half the amount of chalk/calcium flour or with crushed, powdered sea shells. I have tried both, and there doesn’t seem to be any difference in the end product. When these two things are mixed, boiling water is added, until a thin porridge has formed. It is then reduced (cooked in) until its dry. Then one pours a large amount of boiling water over, and lets the mixture rest for a while.

In the meantime one can place a funnel in a bottle or over a bowl. The funnel is to be lined with heavy kitchen “roll” or filter paper. Then the mixture of salt and chalk is poured through the funnel. It is best to let the water slowly flow down the sides of the funnel, to avoid rupturing the bottom of the paper. When the salt water has run through, the paper is set aside, because the chalk isn’t needed anymore.

One then again reduces the salt, and adds a new portion of chalk, again approximately half the amount of the salt. This process is repeated about three times, and one finally has a portion of salt water, that has taken in something or other from the chalk. I is this salt that is now to influence the white or bluish silver chloride.

When the salt water has been reduced to a thin porridge, approx. the same amount of silver chloride is added. These two are mixed and heated until almost dry. It is then left to cool down. Then a very small amount of nitric acid is added. The liquid now fizzles, because there is always a remnant of chalk left, and this gives of carbon dioxide. The silver chloride now becomes deeply violet. This is a strange reaction, and is, as far as I know, not mentioned anywhere else, than in alchemical literature.

The silver chloride is washed once and then poured into a heat resistant bowl. It is then heated to dryness several times, and between each reduction/dryness. boiling water is added (dropwise). The silver chloride will now gradually change colour. Some times pink, some times dark violet or indigo coloured. If one continues heating and adding boiling water, the colour finally turns into a beautiful chocolate brown.

The same colours are to be seen in the sea shells and conches. The largest and oldest of them have had time enough to form both pink, blue, violet, and brown colours, and the latter are usually on the outside of the shell.

[]Fulcanelli in his Les Demeures Philosophales, describes how silver can be brought to show, that in its innermost it is completely  red. The experiment he mentions is exciting, but treacherous, and it confirms that silver, or Luna as it is called in alchemy, lives up to its name as a shifty, unreliable, treacherous metal. One begins with the white silver chloride. As already stated, it is precipitated in the form of a (cheeselike) heavy precipitate, when one pours a concentrated salt solution onto silver nitrate. Silver chloride is with three times as much ammonium chloride, and (is) placed in a wide necked flask that can withstand heat. The matter may only occupy the bottom of the flask, and over its (mouth, opening) is placed a small bowl of ice cubes.

The mixture is now to be heated, until the ammonium chloride rises up (sublimes?), and settles on the bottom of the bowl, as a white sublimated matter. It is scraped of and dissolved in a bowl of distilled water. One will now see, that on the bottom of the bowl is a (highly red) fine powder. It comes from the silver and has been drawn along with the ammonium chloride. So the inner core of silver is highly red, and J. R. Glauber said the same in his (tract) from 1659.

Fulcanelli says the experiment is (treacherous) and (unreliable) , because the flask often cracks when the heating (sublimation) has taken place for some time. Or it can happen that the silver chloride migrates into the glass (walls), colours them red, where after it disappears into open air. [] The most interesting
thing in connection with the red colour in silver is, that it owes its appearance to the ammonium ion - nature's jester (trickster), that is capable of (a little of) anything. As we have already seen, it can be formed in water that evaporates in the open. This was proven by the Danish researcher Schønbein (in the) last century. According to alchemists the influence from the air is especially powerful at full moon, and it is (all in all) amazing, how much ammonium salt, that can be formed in the water.

This violet colour can by the way be (imitated, copied, reproduced) with ordinary fine and completely pure gold powder, that has been diluted and blended with water, and the same goes for silver chloride. On warmer beaches than ours (Scandinavia) one can find conches with a porcelain like brown and white spotted shiny polished shell. If one looks inside them, one finds that they are violet inside.

[] Chemically speaking potash is identical with potassium carbonate. Earlier one got this matter from the ashes, that were scraped out of the fireplace, when the fire had gone out. In that state it is a grey and (not highly regarded, almost despised) waste matter, that was thrown directly on the compost heap. But the alchemists utter as with one mouth: people should only know what it is they discard. They step on it and count (consider) it for nought. The name Cinderella comes from the word cinders, which means combusted matter from the fireplace. In French she is named Cendrillon , again formed from the word for ashes: cendre. The point (essence) in the tale about Cinderella is, that this girl is the only one, that fits the golden slippers, that are worthy of a future queen. This might at first seem quite fanciful (imaginary) and illogical, but things fall into place, when one knows, that alchemists used potash to precipitate gold in a fine and almost ethereal form. Here the golden slippers enter the picture. Potash is alkaline in aqueos solution.

When it is added to a goldsalt in an acidic solution, the gold will precipitate as a very fine dust, that settles on the bottom of the bowl, in which the solution is. This dust is completely pure 24 karat gold. J. R. Glauber called it “atomized gold”, and one needed to know how to prepare it, if one wanted to produce the Philosophers Stone. Because this product consisted of extremely fine gold particles, so tiny, they could penetrate into all existing matter. The method of using potash to precipitate gold is, as far as l know, completely unknown in our days, and I have not been able to find it mentioned in any of the traditional chemistry books. But the method works, and the gold one gets, is so fine, that it seeps into the even the smallest crack in a glass or ceramic bowl. The bowls surface takes on various colour hues, from red violet to rosy red to purpur. It was this fine gold, that was used to produce the beautiful red and purpur coloured church windows in the medieval age.

[] The first to speak is the Master La Tourbe. He refers to the Greek (wiseman, philosopher) Pythagoras. He had said, that one should find a red matter, that turns white when heated, and then turns red again. This matter was important to get hold of, because it was used to make the tincture, that gave eternal health. The red matter, that Pythagoras mentioned, is a gold salt. Because if one dissolves completely pure gold in royal water, one gets a yellow liquid, that by a very gentle and gradually (rising, increasing) heat changes colour and finally ends as a red powder. [] The red powder, that is produced, can by repeated dissolutions and precipitations (tr. solve et coagula) become completely white. It will turn red again, when heated very gently.

The next speaker in the book discloses something about the liquid, that the original metal is to be dissolved in. He calls the liquid “the permanent sea water”. So it has to be a (chlorinated, contains chlorine) liquid, namely the one, that in earlier times was called “spirit of salt”. This corresponds to (HCL, hydrochloric acid) in our days, and the alchemists produced it from sea salt and clay. When hydrochloric acid and nitric acid are mixed in the proportion three to one, chlorine is released, and if there is gold present, gold chloride will form. This matter varies in colour from yellow over orange to red.

The same speaker tells, that one must carefully reduce the liquid (by, with) a gentle heat, until one has a syrupy, “thick flowing”, very viscous mass, that finally becomes a red powder. He calls the powder for “sunflowers”- Fleurs de soleil . With this name it is revealed that it is about gold.

[] The designation “le Lion vert” contains a clever(subtle, tricky) wordplay, because the adjective “vert”, green, is pronounced in the same manner as the substantive “verre”, which means glass. It comes from the Latin expression “oleum vitri”, which means oil in glass. Pronounced in French “oleum” would sound somewhat like “Lion”. Then the Latin word “vitri” (genitiv of vitrum, glass), became the French word for glass, namely “verre”. Thereby a wordplay arose, because “verre” sounds like “vert”. So the picture of the green lion could have originated as a result of a deliberate manipulation with words, to hide what the process was about. At the same time it fulfilled the medieval urge for graphic instead of scriptural expression.

The Latin designation “oleum vitri” represented the oily liquid, that appeared, after the green Lion, the immature gold, had been dissolved and reduced to “vitriol”. When that had taken place, the Green Lion could become a red powder, which was called the “Red Lion”

[] The Arabic alchemists had at an early stage in history, found out how to the mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acid was to be made. One got the ingredients from the dung of camels and goats. This was full of ammonia and sodium chloride, common salt. When the dung was dried and then ignited, it gave of ammonium chloride, and it collected on the lid of the oven in big cakes. This matter was so highly esteemed, that there was special god- Ammon- for it. He symbolized the value of this ammonium chloride, or Sal Ammoniacum , as it was called in former days. By the way, it was this matter, that we in the chapter about sliver used to bring forth the bright red soul of silver.

When ammonium chloride was distilled together with potassium nitrate- salpeter, sal petri, or sal nitre- as it was called, on got a strong solvent for gold and silver. Now if one lets the vapours from this solvent act on pure gold over a long time, the gold will little by little absorb something from the solvent, which also contains some water. The gold gradually grows heavier. It changes colour and becomes white as a skeleton, then yellow, and finally orange red as poppy flowers. Some alchemists the compare the colour of gold with the red-yellow ring in the narcissus(flower).

What happens chemically speaking, when the gold becomes heavier, is not known. But it is possible, that the weight increase comes from the water vapours in the solvent, perhaps hydrogen.

Because something happens to water, that boils for prolonged periods. Firstly it tastes different, and it probably also has a different chemical composition. At least this is what the now deceased Danish researcher, Dr. Phil. Emil Rasmussen, claims. He says that water that has boiled for a long time contains much more “heavy water” than normal water. Emil Rasmussen has never been accepted by established chemists or physicists. They said his theories were “unscientifically” based.

In 1933 came a book by Emil Rasmussen. Its title was My Atomic Teaching, an exhaustive work on 227 pages. The publisher at that time probably had no idea about, that a Dr. Phil like Emil Rasmussen later would be labelled as an unbelievable fantast by other academics. After My Atomic Teaching came out, it was discreetly kept away from all (centers of higher learning) in the country. Because Emil Rasmussen claims that the physicists have never succeeded in understanding nuclear processes. They have only found a theory that explain the processes they mention. But the theory is false, he maintains.

About water Emil Rasmussen says, among other things, that it is a false doctrine, that water can be (broken) into oxygen and hydrogen. There is water, that neither contains oxygen nor hydrogen, but in their place, one or other element, that is a gas. Pure rainwater is a very composite mixture, made of 15 different water molecules, composed of different gasses, that are neither oxygen nor hydrogen. If one boils this water for many hours or days- and this is what happens in alchemy- one ends up with having a large portion of heavy water. Water that has boiled for a long time, contains some gasses, that chemists and physicists don’t know exist, says Emil Rasmussen. So this means, that the chemical formula for water is not H2O, but a composite of various unknown gasses.

Emil Rasmussen proves his theory on the fact, that all matters crystallize in a very definite form, dependent on its chemical composition. This is as known chemically correct. One can use recrystallization to separate different mixtures, precisely because different matters crystallize differently. Snow crystals, that consist of water, crystallize in many different (shapes, patterns), and there are just as many different (forms of) crystals as there are elements in the crystals. If water only was oxygen and hydrogen, all snow flakes would look alike, claims Emil Rasmussen. He says (p. 57): “Nature itself has taken it upon her to teach the doubters through a clearly visible, self evident mode of teaching , that any child can understand, and which by the way is non refutable.”

[] Chemical textbooks inform us that “ordinary water” contains a minute amount of deuterium, which is a hydrogen isotope. Deuterium is twice as heavy as hydrogen and in ordinary water there is a small amount of this heavy water- D2O, about 1 part in 5000. That means, if one has about 18 grams of water (1 gram mol), there is only 3,6 milligrams of heavy water in it. But of this heavy water there becomes more by boiling, says Emil Rasmussen. After several hours of boiling there is neither oxygen nor hydrogen left, but instead some gasses, that correspond to those we find in stellar nebulas, “dust” in outer space, for example in the  nebula of the stellar constellation the Swan.

It could be something similar, that happens in alchemy, because the (water containing) solvent is brought to cook, evaporate and condense again and again for countless hours. The receiver of the heavy water with the unknown gasses are the very fine gold particles, that thereby undergo a transformation. Alchemists call this process “magnetic”, and here lies a proof for, that the gold attracts something from the surrounding vapour, but it happens at a slow pace.

[] The point in alchemy is to get the gold, one starts out with, precipitated in an extremely fine form. This is as said before, done with potash in an aqueous solution. The royal water is only to be just neutralized with the alkaline potash solution. The liquid is neutral, when no more carbon dioxide fizzes of. After some time and after thorough stirring with a glass rod one can add a little acetic acid to remove excess potash. This part of the process is simple common chemistry, apart from using potash to precipitate the gold with. It is not taught in the chemical text books.

Gold can also be precipitated with the matter, that is found in the legendary unicorns hornif one can manage to catch one, for it is very shy. Only a virgin could gain power over it, the myths say. These often contain a truth, and in this case the hidden truth is, that from its horn ammonium bicarbonate could be extracted, also called (“hjortetaksalt”, “deer antler salt”, “hartshorn”). The same salt is to be found in the horns of deer, goats and bulls. That is why these animals are shown on the images from Mutus Liber by Altus, and it is a very important information.

The gold is to be precipitated several times after the motto: Solve et coagula- dissolve and solidify. Then it is to be washed many times and left to stand in diluted(with water) wine spirits, until it gradually turns rosy red. The alchemists relate, that the final process, which is also the last “solve et coagula”, is very lengthy, and that it requires “nesting heat”. Therefore this stage is shown as a hen, that is laying on eggs. The flask is to be hermetically sealed, as it is called after the sage Hermes Trismegistus. And no light may enter the vessel, so one has to find a way of shielding it. This can in practice be done with tin foil (tr.: now a days its aluminium foil ?), that is wrapped around the flask.

The flask itself must be so large, that the gold mass only takes up the bottom of it, because there must be room enough for the vapours, the “bird”, that during the heating begin to ascend. One shouldn’t heat for so long, that one “burns” the gold. The heat should be as a “the sun on a hot august day”, one reads. That would be an august day under warmer straits than the Nordic, and that is a strong heat. The gold will gradually change colour from yellow to red. At the same time the mass becomes more and more compact taking up less and less space. It becomes heavier. It is in this part of the work, that the nature spirit “Mercury”, consciousness, does its tricks and magic arts. What takes place in the flask is unexplainable, but what happens, is what in alchemy is called “the great wedding”, the unification of the king and the queen, that give birth to the Philosophers Stone.

The vapours in the flask give of something to the gold and thereby loose their power. The “bird” drops to the ground and disappears. What takes place, could maybe explained as a nuclear process or a fusion. The alchemist and chemist J. R. Glauber said in the 16th century, that it was a “fusion of salts”. The theory of fusion at room temperature, is, as we know, in strong focus these years. Researchers try to get deuterium atoms to fuse together, by electrolysis of heavy water or ordinary tap water. The two electrodes in the electrolytic cell are platinum and palladium, and it is on the latter, that energy is generated in the from of heat.

Here we have a principle, that resembles what takes place in the alchemical flask. In this there might take place- as an effect of the long heating time- a nuclear fusion, and the alchemists say it happens at “nesting heat”. In reality this heat is more like the temperature of the water that runs through a radiator, around 70-80 degrees Celsius. The energy that is generated, seem to go into developing a completely new product, the Philosophers Stone. It is a heavy, glassy, poppy red matter. It has so much energy, that it can penetrate into metallic elements and transmute them into gold. But the process leading to The Philosophers Stone takes a long time and may not be shortened.

[The translator found a copy of Dr. Emil Rasmussens My Atomic Teaching. It is quite interesting reading it. Gold is not an element, but a composition of other elements. The one element that distinguishes gold from so much else is a gas. Amber consists of only one pure element. He has tables over the compositions and variations of various elements according to his teaching. Most of  what we call elements are composed of 4,5,6, or more elements, in Rasmussens view. He lists a number of “new” elements, elements that he has given names.

To make an honest and exhaustive assessment of his rather radical theories, one should read his previous book The Radiations of Elements, as this is the basis for his atomic teaching. Haven’t found this book yet, but the royal library has it. What I deduced was, that he believes that a pure element can only have ONE resonant frequency/vibration. If it has more, it is a composite of elements. Someone with a better knowledge of spectral analysis and the like might have a better foundation for evaluating Dr. Rasmussens work.

In Rasmussens atomic world there are no transmutations possible, only rearrangements of his elements. So, in his view, there would be no alteration of water that boils in a hermetically sealed vessel, unless some of his gasses could penetrate/escape glass. In any case, the main point is that H2O, is a gross simplification of what water is. ]

[] Glauber used clay to produce “spirit of salt”, which in our days corresponds to hydrochloride or chloride vapours in water. Of various reasons he had many of his works published abroad, and one of his most famous works was issued in Amsterdam in 1651. It was Opus Minerale, the work of minerals. It was issued in France in 1659 together with another script, carrying the title La Consolation des Navigants (Consolation of the sailors). This script describes, how “spirit of salt” is manufactured with the aid of clay. It is called “esprit de sel” in the text, because it escapes from the clay in the form of a spirit or vapour, that rises up. Hydrochloride contains the element chlorine, and so does common salt. When this comes into contact with clay, it gives of its chlorine, and this takes place via the following process:

One dissolves a good portion of sea salt in boiling water and reduces it to dryness. The salt is then to be dissolved and reduced again some times. It has then changed consistency and has become soft, and it does not crackle when it is approaching dryness. One then takes a lump of clay, abut thrice as much, as there is salt. The clay is shaped into little balls, the size of a doves egg. These are put in the oven and dried at about 100 degrees centigrade. The balls give of water and become greyish and dry. They are then put in a concentrated watery solution of the salt one has made. When they have soaked up saltwater for about an hour, they are taken up, and put on a piece of paper to drip of.

Now one needs a distillation set up of the type that has a closed (collector, receptacle) above the still flask. Because the vapours that are given of by the salt and clay mixture smell extremely unpleasant and also must not be allowed to escape. One puts the clay balls in the lower flask and pours a little water in the upper one. This water is to absorb the fumes given of by the clay balls. One then begins to heat, and after some time vapours will rise up, that are absorbed by the water in the collector. This water now contains some hydrochloric acid and some hypochlorous acid, which is a weaker acid than the hydrochloric acid. This liquid is to be placed in the lower flask and distilled again, and Glauber suggested, that one should put small crushed flint pieces in the flask to prevent the liquid from boiling. One then heats, and watery vapours will be given of, that are condensed in the upper flask. Thereby the “spirit of salt” is condensed, and one gets a liquid that is the mayor constituent of “royal water”, that is used to dissolve gold. Royal water consists of 3 parts hydrochloric acid and one part nitric acid, and this can be made in similar manner, by using clay and potassium nitrate.

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