Chrysopoeia: The Art of Gold Making 9789461630179

Table of contents :
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TECHNIQUE
THE WET WAY – FUSION
ILLUMINATION – PURIFICATION
THE EAGLES OR THE EXRACTION OF MERCURY
The first eagle
The second eagle
The third eagle
The fourth eagle
The fifth eagle
The sixth eagle
The seventh eagle
THE DRY WAY20
The first coction
Return to the Wet Way or the secondary eagles
The ninth eagle
Multiplications
PROJECTION
The way to take the medicine
Particulars
COMPLEMENTARY NOTES
The white work or work towards silver
The red work
Conjunction
Calcination
Phlegm
Colors
The Dry Way
The Wet Way
Note
TREATY ON THE PROPER TECHNIQUE
First eagle
Second eagle
Third eagle
Fourth eagle
Fifth eagle
Sixth eagle
Seventh eagle
DRY WAY
Techniques used in the Dry Way. The white work
The production of the sulphur
The red work or work of the elixir
The white work
Quantitative multiplications of the red work
The second and following multiplications
Qualitative multiplications
Earth of the eagles
Orientation, projection, transmutation
Potable gold
FOOTNOTES

Citation preview

CHRYSOPOEIA The Art of Gold Making

by Pierre Dujols de Valois

Inner Garden Press L003b Translated by Tristan Bruemmer for Inner Garden Press

Published by Inner Garden Press 2015, Utrecht, the Netherlands ISBN: 978-94-6163-017-9 (E-book)

Copyright © Inner Garden Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Inner Garden Press. A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library, The Netherlands.

Inner Garden Foundation Inner Garden Foundation conducts research on traditional and modern forms of Alchemy and aims to propagate and pass on the Alchemical Tradition in the broadest sense. For more information refer to: www.innergarden.org

Original French Edition Chrysopée Unpublished manuscript from around 1916

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Sr. Crepuscula Br. Os Ferrum

TECHNIQUE Chrysopoeia involves five essential operations which are: 1. Fusion or marriage 2. Purification or illumination 3. The ‘eagles’ or the extraction of mercury: the set-up is that of the Wet Way. 4. Coction, also referred to as the Dry Way. It is divided into multiple stages in order to obtain the sulfur first and thereafter the elixir. This is followed by the multiplications which are none other than repetitions of the Dry Way with sulfurs and earth that have been raised to a greater power. 5. Projection. Technically speaking this is not a hermetic operation since by way of transmutation powder this could be accomplished by anyone.

THE WET WAY – FUSION Before undertaking the work, one must first understand that all the operations of the magister must be carried out between the months of April and the end of September. The work starts at night when the moon is waxing from crescent towards full moon1and when the weather is good. Good weather in this case means without rain, wind and without clouds in the sky. One begins after sunset and one stops at sunrise, to avoid, as Cyrano de Bergerac says, ‘that the sun would burn the Phoenix’s nest’. Herodotus (2, 73) tells how the Phoenix makes an egg out of myrrh which is light enough for him to carry. First he carries it to try it out, then he empties it and puts his father’s body in it. Through the opening new myrrh is added so that its weight equals its original weight. Thereafter the opening is sealed. He then carries it to Egypt, to the Temple of the Sun. In this text we have summarized the first keys to the work, namely those of fusion and purification. The matters that are to be processed should be: 1 – ... 2, as rich as possible and well ground in a mortar so that there are enough ingress to attack the iron; 2 – This iron must consist of the purest of filings, unoxidized and shining, divided in such a way that it will be most susceptible to corrosion once the materials are ready. The fire is lit and one proceeds as follows: Heat a clay crucible until it is red hot. With help of an iron spoon, cast in by fraction the following matters after they have been thoroughly mixed

together, forming one consistent whole3: When the crucible is full and the mass becomes pasty, the fire is blown higher so that everything becomes liquid like water. Green flames escape from under the lid of the crucible4. After half an hour of fusion, one must stir the mixture with an iron rod and quickly remove the crucible from the fire. The crucible is to be lifted up with tongs. One must hit the bottom and the sides of the crucible with the iron rod in order to let the regulus settle at the bottom of the vase. The crucible is allowed to cool and is then broken. The regulus appears, coated in black gangue which must be hacked away with strong blows of a hammer5. It is matte, dark and dirty with a network of veins that run across it in every direction. Nevertheless it is the Philosophers’ Stone, albeit still too impure. This regulus is brittle and not malleable. If it can be pound flat with a hammer it is a sign that the operation was unsuccessful. The matter would therefore be lost and unusable. If the regulus was made successfully, one must proceed with its rectification.

ILLUMINATION – PURIFICATION The regulus, once purified from its gross sulfur, contains an arsenic, as the philosophers say. This arsenic must be purged off. This is when the raging battle of the two dragons must be fought. After having reduced the regulus to a powder, one must heat a new crucible, in other words a clean and proper one, until it turns red-white. In the meanwhile, one must prepare little paper packets of pure nitre and keep them within reach. This nitre is neither hydrated nor humid. It is what one could call snow [or flowers] of natural nitre. The total weight of the nitre should equal half of the weight of the regulus that is to be purified6. Once the crucible has been reddened until it turns white, the regulus must be thrown in piece by piece. One must wait for one portion to melt before adding another one. Once the last piece has been added, one must cover the vessel and increase the fire to a violent heat in order to bring the mass to a boil (around 1200°C). Whilst the fire is alight, one must prepare a large basin of cold water and a tallowed iron mold. One must cover one’s eyes with black glasses and cover one’s hands with wet woolen gloves. One can tell if the aforementioned temperature has been reached by the emission of a white poisonous fume coming from the crucible. At that point one must quickly cast in a packet of nitre that weighs around 10 to 12 grams7 and one must cover the crucible again with the lid. The lid must be held down with two hands. Rumbling can be heard and shortly afterwards internal explosions, thuds at first, then

sharper and faster like the sound of a car motor. Sometimes the force is so great that one must exert all one’s energy and lean down on the lid with all one’s weight in order to keep it down. However the battle ends relatively quickly and the noise stops as soon as flames start to shoot out. The mass in fusion has a milky appearance. It shakes with internal convulsions which project transparent marbles up to the surface of the mass. These transparent marbles are green in the middle and dark red on the edges. They may on occasion drop out and roll around on the wooden floor at great speed, but they quickly cool down without posing a fire hazard. One restarts the process by casting a second packet of nitre into the crucible. Once the deflagration following that one has ended one must cast in a fourth and then a fifth packet, until at last the entire amount of nitre is finished. The nitre is broken down into smaller fractions in order to avoid any accidents. If the nitre would be thrown in all at once, the crucible would explode and the hot regulus would splatter around. Numerous investigators of this science are dead because they did not take the precaution of casting in and administering the nitre in small portions. Take, for example, the abbe Chapaty d’Avignon who lived in the 18th Century. He was brutally burned when the metal in fusion splashed out entirely. Once the entire amount of nitre has been added one must let the fire digest the matter a little while longer. Thereafter one must pour the metal into a tallowed mold. Once it has cooled one can extract an ingot from the mold which is brown on the outside and appears to have a kind of shell formed by the union of nitre and arsenic. This is Philalethes’ Corascene Dog. This gangue is very fine and very caustic. In order to avoid any burns, one must break it with a hammer in cold water. The head of the ingot, which is less resistant, comes off in one piece as a cap of black earth. If the operation has

been successful the ingot should already show the first traces of the Mages’ Star on its top. The black cap is to be discarded. One must repeat this whole operation twice more, each time reducing the total amount of nitre that is cast in. At the end of the second purification, the gangue and the cap should be canary-yellow. Unlike the other matters this gangue can be dissolved in hot water in which it effervesces. It is, however, a useless and impure matter. After the third purification the regulus, now freed of its gangue, has become brilliant like pure silver. It is marked with a starlike pattern which is always deeply engraved. This is the chymica vanus, the chemical fan, Bacchus’ basket, Our Lady’s arbor, for the ingot is covered with fine lines which are interwoven like a basket. It is the book of the Apocalypse, the sun’s silt. It is the royal child of which Philalethes spoke which has been born and rests in his crib. If one splits the side of the ingot with a well aimed strike of the hammer, it cracks open from head to toe and reveals the stem of a tree with its foliage at the top. It is the oak tree, the palm tree, or the Philosopher’s Phoenix, the golden bough that one must burn so that it can be reborn from its ashes. Finally, this bough is the notorious baetylus8, the house of Salomon, the Temple of the Sun, etc. If the star does not appear after the third purification the matter is worthless. The Christ has not been born or in other words, crystallization will not have taken place. One will have to put aside the deficient ingot. However if it does carry a star it will show on its face, when split in two, a magnificent internal sun. This internal sun is traced on the outside by a Star of Venus which is called ‘lucran’ in Béarnaise and lucrum in Latin. This is the grain or richness because it is the seal of the sages’ treasure, the small peasant or

the hard worker’s coffer. Indeed the philosopher therewith holds in his hands the golden bough9. Before continuing some philosophical or religious considerations would be in place. Christian legend tells us that three great kings from the East came to worship Jesus in his crib. One was white and carried incense, the second was blond and carried gold, the third was black and carried myrrh. These three wise men represent the three matters in the work which work together in their union towards the birth of the holy child, that is to say the nitre, which is the fire, the power from which one makes the powder. The holy child is represented by the incense, which is called ο-libαnoç in Greek10. The gold here is that of the philosophers, also known as the iron11 σιδζρος, the fallen or terrestrial sun. Galena is a true myrrh: its body is greasy, oily and black. The reunion of these three elements in the fixed grain constitutes the magic trinity, the trinum magicum, which is a rudimentary representation of the great universal trinity which governs the world. This fixed grain which is made up from the three aforementioned materials constitute mercury, enclosed in a metallic cake. This is where the Kings’ cake comes from. The cake in which, between Christmas and Candlemas, one may find a hidden charm. This charm is either a bean or a little porcelain baby called the ‘bather’ which alludes to the misunderstood translation of the Greek pun between βαλανευς, meaning bather, and βαλανος12, meaning the head of the penis, scab and acorn. This ritual is based on hermetic science and can only be explained this way. He who gets the slice containing the bean or the baby has pulled out the king and is proclaimed king, for the adept on Earth is a true sovereign. He is considered a true sovereign because he has universal knowledge, the power to make as much gold as he wishes and a universal medicine that is beyond all profane

human medicine. He goes unnoticed by the masses but he is all the greater before God because of it. The brothers of Puits d’Amour, great hermeticists, used to celebrate the purification of the Virgin with great pomp. On that day they would give to Notre-Dame-du-Puy a symbolic painting representing one of the phases of the great work, some of which can still be seen at the museum in Amiens. It was precisely on this day that they pulled out the kings and divided up a cake called the ‘kingdom’, in which the little king was hidden amongst regular coins. The festival of the purification was named Candlemas. Why? The ignorant would respond that candles of different colors are handed out on this occasion. But if one would then ask why it is one distributes candles on this occasion, they would not be able to answer. We shall provide the answer here. Candlemas, or the making of the candle, is a mystic ceremony based on the purification of the chemical virgin. Before pouring the purified matter into a mold, one must rid it of its impurities, like the Phoenix that Herodotus spoke of. The vulgar part of the oxidized iron is converted into earth, whilst the subtle part, its tincture, settles at the bottom. The ingot which comes out of the mold has a shape like a church candle, quite thick at the top, and one can see the sign of light deeply engraved into it. This sign of light is the ‘tsimtsum’ of the Qabalah, from the Greek σανδυξ, the sanjou, the purple13 which is the chrism ChiRo or Christmas and the six-rayed star. In short, the ingot looks like this:

It can be interpreted like this:

One could even say it looked like the rim of a well with its pulley, hence the name ‘Well of Love’.

This metallic church candle is the sign of knowledge. So on the day of the Virgin’s revelation, we sing lumen and revelationem gentium — it is the flame which lights the world. This figurative spark is also called ‘the two

doves’ which Mary presented at the temple. So the aged Simeon who held the child asks to take his leave, for Simeon14 is the light which suffered the passion, that is to say iron, and who has been destroyed and rendered useless: Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine, quia viderunt oculi mei salvatorum (‘Now, Lord, send your servant back, for mine eyes have seen salvation or the savior child’). In reality Candlemas is the same as circumcision, or the ablation of the phallus, a symbol of the semen which remains at the bottom of the container, while the ashes from the fire are expelled. This impure earth is given the name ‘raven’s head’, and it must be cut off, so say the texts, without ever being used. The ravens that have left the nest must never return to it according to one hermetic axiom. During the Sacred Week, or the Passion, the Church prepares the great pascal candle, which represents the savior who lights the world. So all of liturgy is made in accordance with the sacerdotal art or alchemy: χυμεια-Ηλιου, the sap, the substance, and the birth of the sun. One can find another example in the ‘chapelet’ [rosary], a word made from κζπζ-Ηλιου, the sun’’s crib, and which forms, with its beads laid out in a circle, the globe of the world with a cross on top which is also the symbol of the regulus. Here this image of the rosary is drawn out:

At the heart of the triangle one finds the monogram which is piously interpreted as meaning ‘Ave Maria’.

It represents the three letters A – V – M interwoven together. It is also the sacred syllable AUM of the hindu’s. The same syllable in Egypt designated the Temple of the Sun and more precisely translates as ‘rosary’, the sun’s crib. Alchemy tells us: ‘the Egyptians gave us history’. Mr. Maspero discovered certain cartouches on monuments for the dead along the river Nile that contained the name of Jesus-Christ. The famous orientalist took this for a name of a pharaoh. It is true that Jesus was a pharaoh, which in Greek means the laborer, for in the work Jesus is called the Small Farmer and the Great Farmer, in Latin agricola. It is doubtlessly by some mystical analogy that the ancient Chinese emperors inaugurated the year by digging a furrow with a plow. We must point out that the rosary so undeniably represents Hermes’ Egg that we enclose it in a recipient shaped like an egg that is called a shell. Where could this odd custom come from if it does not

come from the hermetic works, the sacred art of ancient priests or hierophants? Given its candle-like shape the regulus becomes a Yule log. In Switzerland this Yule log is hollowed out and filled with presents and gifts. ‘Mister Chalude’ is the one who brings it. In the Provence this log is called ‘cachofio’, in other words that which hides or contains the secret fire. It is also given the name of ‘calme’, which is the name of a lamp as well as of galena. One cannot refute how this all fits together by simple denial. Lapides clamabunt, the stones will exclaim the truth, Jesus said. The philosophers’ stone proclaims it triumphantly. Before concluding these mystical considerations, I would like to point out one more custom that is practiced in Marseille. On the day of Candlemas, after the religious candle ceremony at the Saint-Victor Abbey, the town’s notaries commonly get together for a meal among their guild during which they traditionally eat strawberries. Why strawberries at Candlemas one might think? What link could there be between that fruit, which was so rare at the time and so expensive in winter, and the Virgin’s purification? The explanation is a s follows. We are dealing here with a pun on the word strawberry. The rim of an upturned cone, like the caldera of a volcano, is called fraise [strawberry], and it is precisely this shape that resembles a ruff that was worn in the 17th Century and which was also called a fraise. It so happens that the Star or the purified regulus, once it burrowed deeply into it, has taken on this same shape. This is because the regulus is Etna, the volcano that not long ago was seen spewing out its burning lava, the lava that it carries up to its summit where we find the crater of Vulcan. In Greek Etna means assembly: the regulus or candle of the philosophers is the assembly of nitre, with fire and galena within them, which cannot be dissolved. The Star is their seal, in Latin their sfragis, which is a word taken from the Greek σοραγις which

means stamp, and which in particular applies to the terra sigillata of the Sons of Hermes, or the purified earth. The Latin sfragis, which is reminiscent of fraga, fraise, by way of a subtle pun gave rise to this curious tradition of eating of strawberries. Furthermore the word notary comes from notarius, he who binds different parties with a contract stamped with the seal of the state. That is how this ancient custom, still in practice, can be explained. On the occasion the notaries would even decorate their table with snowdrops, called ‘Candlemas violets’ and whose scientific name is galanthus. It is the flower which tops the regulus with a wintery white, indeed as if it had come out of the snow. I have already mentioned that the purified regulus is called ‘Niniva’ {Nineveh], the snow city, where Jonas went to prophesize the city’s ruin which is achieved through hermetic operations. The snowdrop is called galanthus because it is reminiscent of galena’s flower, in Greek γαλ-ανθος. There cannot be any doubt: it is the flower of Venus, the mother of Love, Marie-Galante as well as Cupid. Cupid, in Latin cupidus, cupida, cupidum, is he who desires, who loves. One who is in love is also desired. Jesus is called the Desire of All Nations as well as Love. He is also Mary’s son, Maria, like μαια, the mother of the word or μα-ιαν, the mother of John. Now that I have clarified the subject of purification or illumination as transparently as possible, I shall now proceed to describe the operation of the eagles or the extraction of mercury.

THE EAGLES OR THE EXRACTION OF MERCURY When the gold egg is formed inside the black hen, and when this black hen has subsequently become white, one must not brutally cut her open to take the egg out. One should remember the good old fable by La Fontaine since it is nothing but an adaptation of old hermetic texts. Philalethes indeed says that the artist can, if he so wishes, produce objects other than philosophical gold, although he by no means has to. Those who want to snatch the oak truffle away irrevocably kill the hen who lays the golden eggs. I have myself, whilst working with a friend with much experience, made the irreparable mistake15 which ruined years of work and accumulated expenses, to such an extent that my companion, discouraged by all these efforts made in vain, gave up on the work all together. For my part, I became more and more convinced of the reality of the science and I continued my studies. After much research I managed to discover the key to the philosophical extraction of mercury by way of the eagles. The philosophical treaties teach that one must revive the dead which killed the living. Iron is this dead being which has absorbed the azote or the saltpetre. The word azote [nitrogen], azotate [nitrate], comes from the Greek ζ-ζωοτοκια meaning to give life, in the form of ο-τοχος, childbirth, similar to the Toutatis16 of the Celts and the Germans. Toutatis is represented by an oak tree or betel, called ‘cairn’, from the Greek κρατζρ, the sacrificial vase. I have demonstrated that John is in the cave of Patmos, inside a vat or inside a female bear, that is to say imprisoned in flesh. No

one can free him except the eagle, αγλζ17, the light or the nitre forms the fixed powder, which is possible because nitrate or nitre is at its foundation. Indeed this powder is the veritable spark of human industry. Thanks to that we will be able to observe the hermetic volcano in action, spewing out burning lava through its crater. The eagles are indeed the notoriously misunderstood washings that are the subject of a treaty attributed to Nicolas Flamel. Mythology teaches us that Saturn — in its physical form known as galena — had swallowed a stone which he believed to be his son, Jupiter. He was even nicknamed lapis, the stone, and worshipped in the form of betel. Jupiter is ισ-πετρα, the nerve and the force of the stone, the stone of fire, the flint or the pebble, in Latin ilex, like the evergreen oak, called ‘éouzé’ in the Provence, which is the same word as ‘ouzé’, meaning Jesus and Joseph. Lore tells that Metis, wisdom itself, made Saturn vomit up the stone that he had swallowed by making him drink a magic potion. This is precisely what we are going to do with the eagles by way of nitre or nitrate [azotate]. The latter word clearly comes from the Greek αετοδζζ, which is in the eagle’s nature, being the symbol of lighting, for this bird can be seen holding lightning in its talons. In the secret philosophical work of Hermes, attributed to president d’Espagnet and the imperial knight, it is said that the philosophical sublimation of mercury (the eagles) can be accomplished by making sure that what is superfluous is removed and that what is missing is added. The passage mentions Herodotus recounting of the Phoenix emptying his nest and refilling it with new myrrh, perfectly equal in weight to the extracted matter. To this end I have mentioned earlier that one must weigh the impure matter that has been extracted during the three purifications that lead to the obtainment of the Star. The total weight of the extracted matter should be equaled by the weight of nitre that is used for the eagles. Once this sum has been found, one must administer this nitre bit by

bit, in other words by portioning the total amount of nitre into packets of 10 to 12 grams wrapped in paper. One should carry out 7 to 9 eagles but 7 suffice, so say the philosophers.

The first eagle By way of the eagles we are now going to follow the royal child to its crib, as Philalethes prescribes. I have shown that it is the eagle which brings up John little by little from within the female bear or the bottom of the well. This takes about 7 to 9 times, however 7 times suffice. Cyliani’s technique, in his Hermes Unveiled, is of great help here, if read carefully, as are the writings of Philalethes. The fire has dissolved its aurific semen and left it in the matrix of galena. This semen is like a soul without a body because the crude and vulgar skin of fire has been purged off by the purifications. Therefore one must give it, or lend it, a body that is more homogenous. This body is provided by nitre which also left behind its impurities in the matrix of lead. The eagle-nitre and the lion, the semen of iron, have embraced each other in a true Gordian knot after their long fight. Philalethes calls the body that has been obtained in this way ‘Diana’s doves’. There are two big difficulties that one must confront when conducting the operation of the eagles. These are the determination of the weight of the nitre that needs to be used and the manner and proportions of its use18. Concerning the weight, no author specifies what is required. It is up to the artist to figure it out. All that is said is that too big a fire burns the

composite while a mediocre fire leaves it wanting. It seems as if nature intended to designate the weight itself for, as the proverb goes, nature cannot abide in empty space. I have already mentioned that president d’Espagnet teaches that sublimation is achieved by removing all superfluous elements and by augmenting what is missing. Philalethes points out to those who are able to understand that what is superfluous is the mad Corascene Dog which places itself in between the fertilizing mind and the product that is going to be tainted. Lastly, Herodotus relates that the Phoenix empties its nest and fills the empty space with myrrh equal in weight to the matter that was removed. So we have emptied the Phoenix’s nest with our purifications. Hercules cleaned out the stables of Augias and got rid of the manure. I have specified that that which is added needs to weigh exactly the same weight as the matter that has been driven off. Let us assume it weighed 100 grams. It must therefore be replaced with 100 grams of nitrate. But how? The authors speak of this graduation metaphorically, calling it the ladder of the sages, which goes gradually decreases. One must follow this indication when reportioning what is called the external fire in the work of the eagles. Here is how the nitre should be portioned for each fusion. One should start by dividing the total weight of 100 grams of nitre into 7 packets of decreasing weight: 1. 22 grams. 2. 20 grams. 3. 18 grams. 4. 15 grams. 5. 11 grams.

6. 8 grams. 7. 6 grams, which makes a total of 100 grams. We can then start our first eagle by melting the well grinded pieces of the stellate regulus in a crucible. The fire must be hot in order to properly open up and agitate the material up to its very atoms. At this point one must cast in the 22 grams of nitre, divided into two packets of 11 grams. A short interval should be taken into account between each package that is cast in. One must let the nitre do its work whilst the container is kept well closed. The container is kept closed because the eagle will now begin to attack the lion. The matter blackens bit by bit inside the crucible and rises like dough. The dough encloses the yeast and a crust is formed on the bowl. Once the composite has calmed down and the reaction is finished, one must pour the matter into a tallowed mold and let it cool. The cooled ingot has a thin slag of modified nitre at the top. This must be held onto carefully, for it is the aurific oil which we are going to use for the second eagle.

The second eagle One must take the piece of slag that sits on top of the cooled regulus. This pellet is the aforementioned aurific oil, which is so called because it is impregnated with internal gold. It always rises to the top after cooling. One must grind it into a powder or into very small pieces The crushed (ingot of the) regulus should thereafter be put into the fusing crucible and must be dissolved. Once the fusion is complete, one must add little by little the fragments of the aurific oil of the slag, that is to say the scoria which topped the cooled metallic ingot. This is the operation which allows us to put the child back into its mother’s belly, according to the maxim of the sages19.

Next one must take the second dose of nitre, which amounts to 20 grams in our example. One must divide it into two packets which one must throw into the fusing matter, again leaving a certain amount of time between each one (note that since the total dose for this second eagle weighs 20 grams, each packet must weigh 10 grams). One must then leave the nitre to react for a certain amount of time and, once the reaction is over, one must pour the matter into the tallowed mold and let it cool down.  Apparently according to some authors the saltpetre should be administered in the same weight in every eagle, at a proportion of 10 to 1 which mean 10 times the weight of the violet. The decreasing scale only applies to the use of perfect sulfurs and this what is meant by ‘diminishing the fire’.

The third eagle One must again remove the slag on top of the cooled ingot. Thereafter one brings the small pieces of the ingot back into fusion. Once the fusion is complete, one must take the third dose of nitre, weighing 18 grams, split it into two packets of 9 grams, and thrown these into the metallic mould one after the other, leaving a good amount of time between the two. One must give the nitrate time to react. Once the reaction has finished one must pour the fused matter into the tallowed mold (the fusion lasts 45 mins).

The fourth eagle One must repeat the previous steps: start by fusing of the metallic ingot, dissolve the slag on top of the cooled ingot, split the fourth dose of nitre weighing 15 grams into two packets and add these one after the other.

Thereafter follows the reaction, the digestion and the pouring into the mold (the fusion lasts 30 mins).

The fifth eagle This concerns the same operation again: fusion of the metallic ingot, dissolve the slag that topped the cold ingot, addition of the fifth dose of nitre (all at once) weighing 11 grams. After a short period of digestion, pouring out of the mixture into the mold and cooling (15 mins).

The sixth eagle Repetition of the fusion of the metal ingot into which one must dissolve the slag from the cooled ingot: application of the sixth dose of nitre weighing 8 grams all at once, during digestion. Pouring into the mold and cooling (10 to 15 mins).

The seventh eagle This is the last fusion of the metallic ingot into which one must dissolve the previously cooled pieces of slag. One must add the last dose of nitre, weighing 6 grams. One must leave this to react and digest, then pour it into the mold. The cap of slag which then tops the cooled ingot is the ash of the Phoenix that contains the royal diadem that the philosopher Morien spoke of. In other words, this eagles’ earth has extracted John from his well, from the female bear, or from Patmos. None of it should be wasted. Similarly, one must take great care to preserve the metallic ingot, which will help to turn the matter red, that is to say into the elixir. If one wishes to work

towards the white, towards silver, one would have to take a different, new ingot of stellate regulus, but in order to work towards gold, one must be careful not to use a new ingot for the eagles of the elixir. In the art, that is called cooling matter which can no longer turn red.

THE DRY WAY20

The first coction Up until this point we have followed the royal child to his crib in accordance with the indications of Philalethes. We have extracted the child by way of the art or the eagles. But the author tells us that this child is still covered with impurities from which we must isolate it. Therefore we must rôtir [roast] it in accordance with the philosophical formula. It is from this that the name Rôtisserie de la Reine Pédauque [At the Sign of the Reine Pédauque] is derived, from the Greek παιδεια which means the education of one’s child. However we must first conceive the child, then educate it and guide it to adulthood. For the operations that correspond with the Dry Way which are also called the roasting of the chicken of Hermogenes, one must use a small unused crucible, well formed, in which one must put all the earth from the eagles, and the seventh piece of slag taken from the metallic ingot that was cooled after the last eagle. This crucible must be topped with another, bigger crucible, in such a way that no ash or charcoal scoria can fall in and mix with our matter. This combination of two crucibles on top of another is placed in an earth base structure called a ‘coffret’. It is used so that nothing of the product is lost in case the vase breaks. The entire assembly must be put on a fire that is hot, yet not too hot.

According to d’Espagnet, this dry coction takes a while longer than the previous operations. In any case, there is no harm in leaving the coction a little longer since our matter cannot be damaged by fire. The aim of this operation is to eliminate the superfluous humidity and to achieve the concentration of sulfur into fixed grains. This fixed form of sulfur can be observed after having roasted the compost in the middle of the stone’s damned earth. These excrements must be rejected and only the royal child, a small marble of yellow sulfur, is to be kept. It is the famous potable gold, the universal medicine that must be used with caution, for whilst it heals in small doses, if one oversteps the proper dosage it kills without fail. I will explain later on how it must be administered. The elixir or red sulfur is the same medicine, but more powerful. This red-yellow marble is the first rose or rosette. It is marked with a hexagram shaped star, like the rosette of the Légion d’Honneur’s which is also called the pomme d’amour. Indeed it is the apple of love, the name given to tomatoes in the South of France. The Spaniards in Mexico call it ki tomate, inspired by the Greek letter ki and the kiu chi that is inscribed on the part of the plant left stuck on after the fruit has been picked. It is worth noting that some pavestones or hexagons used as tiles in apartments are called ‘tomettes’ [floor-tile]. The reason for this is that the first sulfur, the second, the third, etc. are said to be worldly miracles, after the Greek ταυμα (toma, tomatos). They present the savior brought back to life and since it is an incredible thing, in the Gospel there is a disbelieving disciple named Thomas, also called Didyme, which means twin in Hebrew, for he is our hermaphrodite — in Greek, Ηρμα-φροδιτος means the double. So he presents the double mercury or Rebis.

Return to the Wet Way or the secondary eagles

During the first operations of the eagles, we applied the rule of the sages and then, using the dry coction, we fixated it. However, to elevate our sulfur to the level of dignity and power of an elixir, this sulfur or at least part of this sulfur must undergo subsequent eagles because up to this point our royal child has only been fed with the Virgin’s milk. But now he needs bread and milk, or flesh. This flesh is provided by a child which is still in its embryonic state, contained within another bit of stellate regulus, for one needs five or six (six is better) of them in order to complete the multiplications. The putting down of these regular children has been called the Massacre of Innocents, for every single starry ingot is a hermetic child. Some describe this as the king (yellow sulfur) bathing in their blood. Others say that he feasts on their flesh and from this is derived the legend of the ogre. Others still, such as Philalethes, say that on the contrary that it is the king who gives his own blood to the little children in order to bring them back to life. All of these interpretations are as true as each other, depending on the author’s point of view However Philalethes provides a particularly accurate description when he states that the king buys back his brothers with his blood. Indeed these brothers are the little Hermeses who are still lying in the crib of the regulus and who, thanks to the king, will emerge glorified. Having reached this point, which some call conjunction and others call fermentation, certain difficulties arise which we must take care to preempt. Indeed the sulfur seems to have a true aversion to return into its mother’s belly, for one attempts to put it back in the ingot which was used to perform the eagles and which had been carefully put aside. Cyliani underlines this delicate operation and the Cosmopolitan makes the same remark in the form of an apology. He describes that the master of the Small Farmer was incapable of joining his gold to his mercury because the gold kept floating in the bowl. The master therefore had to go on a journey in

order to study more. Let us follow Philalethes in this because he clearly describes the best way to proceed. He provides us with a rational approach and a solution to the problem. However, the method of Philalethes is not without its own pitfalls. Cyliani is even more clear. According to him, one must dissolve half of the yellow sulfur obtained in the purest galena which was used for the eagles — something which Cyliani calls philosophical mercury — with which he performs imbibitions on that half. The second half must be dissolved in the ingot of galena from the eagles. Once the fusion has been accomplished, one must imbibe, little by little, the half of sulfur joined to a part of the ingot of the eagles which must weigh twice the said half of sulfur. Once the reactions are over, the matters must be poured into a mould after which one must remove the slag. This is the end of the eighth eagle.

The ninth eagle This powder must be divided into two equal parts. One half must be dissolved in a portion of the eagles that equals four times its weight. With this the other half of the powder must be imbibed. Then one must pour it into a mold and, once cooled, take out the matter which is perfect sulfur21. In order to turn the yellow sulfur red, that is to say into the elixir, Philaletes instructs us to ‘Take three parts gold, very pure, and one part burning sulfur. Melt the gold in an unused crucible and when it has begun to fuse, add a third of the weight of the gold’s worth of sulfur, bit by bit, but not all of it. Take care not to spoil it or to lose it in carbon smoke.’ One can use a gas oven or a petrol oven, for the gold that Philalethes talks about is the philosophers’ white gold, or the nitre which will be immediately transformed into water once it is placed on a low flame,. ‘So when the nitre

(the gold) and the part of sulfur are in perfect fusion, pour the solution into the tallowed ingot mold. When this is cooled you will have a bright-red, but slightly opaque, flaky mass. This mass must be crushed into a powder of barely perceptible grains. Take part of this powder and add two parts of your philosophical mercury, that is to say the ingot which we used to carry out the eagles with, as it is very pure. Mix these products together, by crushing the fragments of the metallic ingot into a powder22’. The goal of latter operation is to stop the yellow sulfur from floating to the surface of the mould, because the metallic particles, in melting, cause the fusion of the sulfuric particles which are mixed with those of the metal ingot’. One must then take up the whole metallic ingot with which one has completed by way ofthe previous eagles. It should still be whole except for the parts that were reserved in order to be mixed with the sulfur and the nitre. This metallic ingot from which one extracts the child now is nothing else than the famous Virgin’s milk of which the philosophers speak, and by which many artists — and even more novices — have been led astray. Indeed if we were to throw the sulfur, our royal child, into the new starry ingot, with its fixed grain, we would be giving unhealthy milk from a pregnant woman to our baby. One must first break up and melt the ingot from the eagles in a dry crucible and then one must begin the regimen of Mars and the Sun which require two more eagles in order to obtain red sulfur or elixir. This brings us up to a total of nine eagles necessary for the whole sulfuric operation. Those who only perform seven eagles stop at the fifth, which is the regimen of Venus, and they then begin the Dry Way or the coction of the sulfur. But it is said that it is better, to be sure, to perform nine eagles. That is why I placed the sulfuric regimen of Venus at the seventh eagle.

Once the ingot from the eagles is in fusion, one must bit by bit add the mixture of red sulfur and ingot of galena that was used for the eagles. Thereafter one adds about 10 grams of nitre or saltpetre. After these elements have reacted, one must leave the fire to digest for a while and then pour the matter into the tallowed mould. One must remove the piece of slag that is on top of the ingot. According to Philalethes, if I have correctly understood him, one then has the matter which can produce red sulfur, the first elixir. Therefore one must repeat the Dry Way and cook this piece of slag in a little crucible enclosed in a larger one that has been placed on top of it and which is inside an earthen coffret. Once this coction is complete, one has obtained the Stone of the second degree. Evidently, in order to obtain a tangible result, it is necessary to use at least half of the first yellow sulfur and pour it into three times its weight of melted nitre. Once it has all cooled, mix in and triturate one part with two times its weight material from the eagles. Philalethes then mentions a final eagle, which elevates the red sulfur or the elixir to its third degree. He tells us to cast three parts of this sulfur into five parts of melted nitre and to pour this into a heated mould. Thereafter he tells us to mix once more one part of the sulfur into two parts of the material from the eagles, after having well crushed this metal part. One now performs the ninth eagle. The portion from the eagles is to be melted and the mix that was made last must be added to it. little by little. Once this is done, one must pour it into the tallowed mould. As soon as it has cooled one must retrieve the ingot which must then go through the Dry Way: dry coction in an unused crucible, covered in a bigger one put inside a coffret. Philalethes says that once this coction is completed one has obtained the medicine of the third degree, one part of which can transform 10000 times its weight of metal into gold. I have added, just in case, a note from Cyliani, the author of ‘Hermes unveiled’, but Philalethes does point

out to us that white gold is female, into which the male’s semen must penetrate, our semen as extracted from the iron. However it is said that our gold, our saltpetre, cannot be tainted if it does not taint itself. It is therefore the saltpetre which takes on the taint of iron and becomes the transmutative stone which taints imperfect metals. This is the reason that the intervention of the nitre seems necessary in each operation of the work in order for it to be fruitful. Philalethes speaks the truth. Technique for turning yellow sulfur into red sulfur, or elixir, and for performing multiplications After having completed the first seven eagles, we have recuperated, in the form of a piece of slag that capped the cold metallic ingot, a certain amount of earth. Some call this earth Virgin’s milk, others call it aurific oil, or even ethereal oil. This earth encloses a sulfur which must be extracted from its gangue. However, for this operation one cannot use all of the earth, for part of it must be preserved in its earthen form in order to perform the subsequent operations. The procedure is as follows.  The earth must be divided into two parts. Half of the earth must be cooked and roasted whilst dry, without added anything to it, in order to extract the first citrine sulfur. This citrine sulfur will separate itself inside the crucible from its earthliness which is called damned earth. One must take one part of the sulfur that is obtained that way and three parts of the second half of the earth obtained from the eagles. First one must melt the three parts of earth in an unused crucible and when it is in fusion, little by little add the part of the sulfur which had been put aside for this operation. One must proceed carefully, lest all would go up in carbon smoke. When the fusion has been accomplished, one must pour the mixture into an ingot mould. This fusion can be done, without any danger, in a gas oven. Before

pouring the mixture in, the mould must be heated. Once the product has cooled, one will have a red mass which can be crushed into a powder. One must then take part of this matter and two parts nitre or natural azotate and mix and pulverize these with great care. With the resulting product one must perform two more eagles in the old vase or galena which was used for the previous eagles. It is clear that Philalethes stops the first work at the fifth eagle and he performs seven in order to obtain the elixir. Philalethes makes a point of gradually decreasing the fire to avoid vitrification of the stone.

Multiplications The same vessel of galena is to be used in all previous operations, for according to the philosophers one must only use one vessel, one matter, and one fire. Therefore, once we have reached the last two eagles, one must cook the earth from the two last eagles to thereby obtain the second sulfur which will become red and which is the elixir. In order to multiply the red sulfur, one must take one part of it for every three or four parts of the first earth from the white eagles, the fifth or the seventh. This earth must be melted according to my previous instructions, whilst adding the sulfur bit by bit. Once the fusion is complete, the entire mass must be poured into a heated ingot mould. One part of this powder is to be mixed in with two parts of common nitre and this mixture is used to perform the eagles in the vase of galena. This operation can be repeated as many times as one desires because for multiplication one does not need to repeat the initial operations with a new ingot of galena.

PROJECTION Take part of the resulting sulphur, or the resulting stone, red if it is for gold, white if it is for silver. If one is working to get gold, one must orientate the stone towards gold. Therefore one must melt into an unused crucible four parts weight of pure mined gold and one part of our stone. When they are fusing, throw in the selected part of the philosopher’s stone. Once the union of two substances has been achieved, the mixture must be poured into a preheated tallowed mold. After the substance has cooled, one has obtained a mass which can easily be crushed. Then take ten parts of common mercury from the mine as can be bought in a shop or extracted from cinnabar. Heat it in an unused crucible and once it starts to spit and smoke, throw in one part to every ten parts mercury of the powder that caries the signature of gold. According to Philalethes the mercury will then fixate in the blink of an eye. Melt this substance on a blazing fire and you will arrive at a the Philosopher’s stone, albeit one that still lacks in power. It is not yet unsuitable to be used for projection, for one would waste too much powder when throwing it on common metals. One must therefore concentrate it. So one must take up one part of this last substance and throw it onto purified mercury or lead in fusion, and it will all be transformed into 24 carat gold, in fact a gold that is prettier and purer than natural gold. It is likely that if one were to predispose the powder or the philosopher’s stone with a signature of platinum or any other similar precious metal, one would obtain pure platinum. But in the case of platinum, since it is a white metal, one would need to use the white stone and not the red one. The work entitled The Seven Chapters of the Philosopher’s Stone states that “Philosophical

gold and silver (the sulphurs multiplied towards red and white) are so pure that they can instantaneously purify common gold or silver and render them into a fragile state that is appropriate to communicate the tincture that they have been given.” The action of philosophical gold and silver are even more remarkable. Project one measure of perfect elixir onto a thousand measures of purified common mercury and all will be changed into a medicine of metals. Project again one part of this medicine onto a hundred parts of common mercury, and the whole batch will become a medicine. Project one last time one part of the latest powder onto another hundred parts of mercury and it will all be fixed into gold or silver, in other words transformed in accordance to the white or red qualities of the elixir. One could calculate as follows: since a single drachma of the elixir’s powder produces a hundred drachmas of metallic medicine, and if each one of these hundred projected drachmas is projected on another hundred drachmas, one would arrive at 10,000 times the original quantity. If each of these 10,000 drachmas is projected onto another hundred drachmas then one would obtain 1,000,000 gold or silver drachmas. In order to succeed in this operation, one must envelope the projection powder in wax as to ensure that it will penetrate the metal and not evaporate. Some people simply use paper. To obtain silver one must predispose the perfect sulphur with the signature of silver by melting in an unused crucible, (nine) four parts of silver and one part of white sulphur or perfect stone. Once the metal is in fusion, one must insert one of the four silver parts of the perfect white stone. This must be poured into a pre-heated tallowed mold. Thereafter one must melt ten parts of purified mercury from a mine. Once it has started spitting and smoking, one pours in one part of the earlier obtained product, after which one melts everything on a blazing fire. This results in the white projection powder that is to be used to

transform lead and mercury into silver, the universal medicine for curing all the illnesses which can occur in a human body. One must be very careful when using the universal medicine. Paracelsus warns that one must use it discretely, for our substance is a subtle and penetrating fire which can kill as easily as it can heal. A fourth of a grain of medicine is enough to kill a man. This is how it must be prepared. Take four weighable grains of gold from our medicine. Dissolve them into an amount of good clear white wine in a large glass vase. The wine will turn deep red. Let it rest for forty days so that the dissolution is perfect. Then when the dissolution is complete, pour in, bit by bit, another measure of the same white wine, and keep on doing so until the mixture takes on a golden color. Stir the liquid from time to time with a wooden spatula. As long as any redness can be observed in the wine, the dissolution of our medicine is imperfect and in this state it would burn the body and inflame the mind. The wine will only be perfectly yellow once it shows a rim of little white filaments. Then one must filter it using Joseph paper. The filaments will remain in the filter, looking like pearls or daisies. The liquid which will be gold colored and in this state it can no longer do any harm.

The way to take the medicine The patient should take a spoonful of this medicine every morning. It will purge the body of any illnesses by way of light transpiration. The patient should stay in bed to promote sweating off the malady and in order to avoid catching a cold.

This medicine purges all parts of the body. It must be taken over a period of twelve days for any chronic illnesses or illnesses that have lasted for many years. Illnesses with symptoms which have been apparent for only a few weeks are healed within two days. As for afflictions like cuts, noli me tangere23, scrofula, etc., they must be rubbed with the stone as is, without dissolving it. Healing should occur shortly afterward. The white medicine should only be given to frenetic people and those who experience dizziness. An unedited alchemical dictionary, an in folio manuscript of 642 pages each split into two columns, unsigned, dating from after Don Pernety’s volume written at the end of the 18th Century, contains a sentence pronounced by the Englishman Butler: “An atom of the medicine taken with a glass of wine or liquor is enough to transmutate metals. One must always dissolve the medicine or the philosopher’s stone in a spirituous liquid.”24 Observation: one can obviously reduce the proportions and only dissolve a single grain or even half a grain of medicine. In this case, one must also reduce the proportions of the added wine. But since one must always have some prepared elixir withing reach in case of illness, or even just to maintain good health, it is better to prepare several flasks while you are at it. I believe it is safe to say that a gram will do for several liters. One begins by dissolving it into a liter of clear white wine and, after forty days, the wine must be augmented in accordance with earlier mentioned formula of Butler.

Particulars In his book Twelve Keys, Basil Valentine assures us that a poor man which understand merely a few keys to our art can nevertheless earn a living in a particular way. It would appear that there is a way, which one could call a

particular, of obtaining our gold without the use of the perfect stone. The abbot Lenglet Dufresnoy, (Tome I, p.101) in his History of Hermetic Philosophy, describes something which seems to point to such a particular way. “The false adept Aloys,” he says, “went to Brussels in 1731. There, he met Mister de Purcel, my brother. He did not have any more powder but since he still had around 14 ounces of philosophical mercury he worked on it, albeit in vain. It was Mister de Purcel who succeeded in perfecting what Aloys could not complete, by adding philosophical ferment. He ended up with 14 ounces of a sort of sour copper-colored regulus. This regulus was taken to one of the town’s goldsmiths, who at first was not impressed. But at last, after three fusions, the substance became very cohesive and managed to turn roughly one ounce of silver into gold”. In the end Aloys ended up with 14 ounces of gold, according to Lenglet. My own experiments have shown that it is very difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish the operation described above with regulus of galena. Galena literally poisons the gold and the silver. But if one were to evaporate the regulus and collect its residue, which is our violet in its imperfect state, perhaps it could bear some fruit. This is undoubtedly what Lenglet Dufresnoy was talking about. Indeed, the violet is sour, friable, coppercolored, but it is also fire-resistant. In the fire it reddens like gold without every melting, unless one reaches a very high temperature. Quite likely Mister de Purcel first melted the silver and then dissolved the violet into it. I performed a similar operation with a gold coin and the violet dissolved into the fusing metal very well but it became sour and very red. The silver which would have dissolved the violet must have turned very sour but after three consecutive fusions it might have become cohesive, malleable, and may

have even turned into gold, for violet is the tincture and silver is the metal which is closest to gold. One can conclude that little is required to progress one degree beyond the violet. It is worth trying. If it works, one would have an excellent yield. In any case this would be the only particular way which to me seems feasible. In my opinion the violet should taint its weight in silver. Lenglet Dufresnoy on the other hand seems to suggest that one needs 14 measures of violet to one measure of silver in order to obtain 14 measures of gold. This needs to be verified. One should take note that one kilo of regulus on average gives only 5 or 6 grams of violet.

COMPLEMENTARY NOTES

The white work or work towards silver In order to complete the white work or work towards silver one must stop at the fifth eagle which is called the regime of Venus. Philalethes makes this very clear when he says: “Nothing is more surprising than what happens under this regime. The stone is perfect and can taint. The substance, if left in the same vessel, will once more become volatile and (though already perfect in its way) will undergo another change. But if you take it out of the vessel, and after allowing it to cool, put it into another, you will not be able to make anything of it, in other words turn it red. No philosopher could give any other explanation for this than it being God’s will.” Indeed, if after the fifth eagle one stops the Wet Way and switches to the Dry Way, by splitting the earth of eagles in two parts and cooking one of these halves in a crucible, alone and left to dry, in order to extract the sulphur, this stone can only be multiplied into white in order to be projected onto silver. The regime is the same as that for the red stone. One must melt three parts of the remaining earth and one part of the white sulphur, and then combine one part of this mixture with two parts of ordinary nitrate and continue as if one were performing the multiplications for the red stone.

The red work

For the red work or work towards gold one must stop the Wet Way after the seventh eagle. The earth or the ash is then split and the yellow sulphur or citrine is extracted from the first half of this earth. Then one proceeds towards the red via the eighth and ninth eagles. Through this procedure one obtains the elixir which can be multiplied in the same way.

Conjunction Gosset (p.86) states: “After all of the preparations mentioned above, our ethereal oil, the slag of eagles, has been reduced to its elementary purity. Joined this way with the common oils which were attenuated by the art and returned to their nature, it has become nothing less than a quintessence which one could conjoin with salt and vegetable mercury, which is acid, in order to fixate them together in the fire of sages. The vegetable stone, in a state of perfection, must be dissolved in ten times as much ethereal oil, from which one part should be kept aside for the multiplications.”

Calcination Id. p.86: “After distillation, once the remaining earth has been reduced to ashes, if there are still some fixed salts left in this earth, they should be separated by dissolving them in phlegm. The salt will then remain after the distillation of this phlegm and will be kept aside in order to be mixed with the fixed salt that is taken from the mixture. The fixed salt is homogenous with it and of the same nature, paria cum paribus. Via this procedure one can observe that once the earth has separated the oil and the salt from the phlegm, the oil is consumed by the calcination and the salt is absorbed by

the phlegm. The earth regains its purity and fairness and the artist can turn it into a magnet for the vegetable kingdom (that is for the eagles).”

Phlegm The phlegm here is the vase, the galena. On p.85, Gosset states that one must never add a different phlegm to this phlegm because it would spoil everything. The galena must remain intact, unviolated.

Colors Gosset states on p.167 that during distillation the saltpeter is supposed to give off a corrosive and foul smelling water. On p. 173 he states that colors appear on the tartrate salt. Is that the slag? Probably it is, for he says on p.65 that one must use half a pound of tartrate salt with three pounds of ethereal spirit. However, this ethereal spirit can be nothing other than the saltpeter. So half a measure of slag for three measures of nitrate. “The dose of tartrate salt,” he says, “is half a pound for each three pounds of ethereal spirit. This results in a salt which will subsequently attract the phlegm, which encumbers the spirit, and this salt will swell, heavy with the phlegm which will let the spirit go. This is how the ethereal spirit becomes lighter and quite exalted.” One should note that when one can draw the tartrate salt from the cucurbit in the same way it was put in, without being dissolved, this is the sign that there is no more phlegm amongst the ethereal spirit and therefore that this spirit is sufficiently rectified. Still he mentions elsewhere that this ethereal spirit should be well kept for the multiplications. It must therefore be the slag. Thus this tartrate salt is the sulphur.

The Dry Way When one chooses the Dry Way to extract, exalt and multiply the suphur, it is impossible to go back to the Wet Way of the eagles. This means that one should not put one’s substances back into the vase of galena nor use the natural niter. That is why Philalethes tells us that he doesn’t use the Athanor any more once he has obtained the sulphur. And Gosset says on p.136 that “once one has recuperated the Golden Fleece the artist has a higher level of science than Medea whom he abandoned and, being on his own and guided by the superior light of reason, ... he proceeds with certainty towards the composition with the Golden Fleece, which is the true and unique agent which can give back life to those who are dead and put back together every part of the body that was torn apart by the dissolution.” Medea, from μετρεω, to contain, to measure, is the vase, the caldron in which the old Aeson, Jason’s father, grew younger, and in which the old Pelias was cut up. It is Ariadne’s string, who was also abandoned by Theseus. That is also why it is said that the Three Wise Men who came to adore Jesus in his crib, did not return the way they came in order to avoid Herod, the heron, the hoopoe, who led the volatiles to the Simurgh, in other words the vase of the Wet Way. The Wet Way is the analysis or the division of the body into its different constituents. The Dry Way is the synthesis or the reunification into a single body. In the Dry Way there is only one substance: the earth which yields the sulphur which is cooked once more with its earth. This substance is purified while one takes care not to add any natural niter, as it is impure. The coction is to be continued uninterrupted, night and day, for if it were to cool all would be lost. It is in the conjunction of sulphur with earth that one can see the true colors of the work.

The Wet Way Concerning the the eagles in the purification and rectification of substances. Proportions. Gosset, p.64–65 wrote: “As a general rule, the first rectifications of the ethereal spirit come to a total of four. Nothing should be added to the bain-marie so that the heat is diminished with each distillation and when the distilling liquid goes insipid and the venoms cease to appear in the still, one must take the phlegm out of the cucurbit and add it to those taken from the previous distillations. After these first four distillations, one must add the fixed tartrate salt, well refined by the calcination, filtration and evaporation. This depuration must be repeated after each distillation with distilled water or the phlegm from the mixture. The dose of tartrate salt should be half a pound of ethereal spirit. This salt will attract the phlegm, which weighs on the spirit, and this salt will swell, heavy with the phlegm which will let the spirit go. This is how the ethereal spirit becomes lighter and properly exalted. It is what is commonly known as the spirit of tartarised wine but it is still far from a state of perfection.” This tartrate salt is the slag of earth which tops the cooled ingot. The phlegm is the saturnine vase in which the operations are performed. It is also the bain-marie. The first three of these four primary operations, to which nothing need be added, are designed to get rid of the impure black earth from the composite. The fourth, on the other hand, yields the primary salt of tartar. One must then continue to reprocess this salt six or eight times, each time adding three measures of natural saltpeter to each eagle.

Note

“One should note,” Gosset says, “that when the tartrate salt is retrieved from the cucurbit in the same state as when it entered it, without being dissolved, that this is the sign that there is no more phlegm amongst the ethereal spirit and therefore this spirit is sufficiently rectified.” And on p.69 “To return to the subject of our ethereal spirit, one can verify if the number of rectifications was sufficient not only by the fact that the fixed salt no longer will dissolve, as I have already said, but also, if one burns a bit of spirit on gunpowder, it will catch fire after all its oil has been consumed. One must put the powder into an earthenware or varnished clay bowl, for if one uses a silver spoon like I did, the spoon heats up and in doing so consumes the little phlegm which was left, mixed with the quintessence. If the powder catches fire, then the spirit has not yet reached perfection. One can also test this by dipping a piece of cloth in liquor and proceed to set fire to it. If it burns entirely then the spirit is ready.”

TREATY ON THE PROPER TECHNIQUE The eagles or the circulations, illumination and extraction of mercury There are several reasons why we use the word eagles to describe circulations and rotations. The eagle is a bird of prey which circles around its prey before seizing it. Fables tell us of this raptor snatching up a lamb, the ram with the Golden Fleece, something that the raven could not do, as it got caught in the Golden Fleece. For the eagle, from the Greek αγλαια, is light, the fire of philosophers, and the raven is our regulus of black galena. During the operation of the eagles, one can indeed see the substance turn inside the crucible, hence the terms circulations and rotations. The sephiroth signify receptacles of fire or vases of light. Therefore, when we say “eagles”, we picture the light falling into our vase, which is also our mother in which the eagle is reborn. When considering the terminology of the ten sephiroth of the Qabalist, one may envisage this being the ten operations of the eagles, during which forms the vase ten times. Because after each fusion one pours out the matter that has received the infusion of the holy spirit and, once cooled, our matter becomes the vase which each time fixates the light it receives. In reality, one requires twelve sephiroth, for there are three obscure onces which are not spoken about. These are the three initial purifications which produce the fixed kernel or the trinity, tri-unity. The three sephiroth only count as one, which, when added to the nine following sephiroth, makes up the number ten commonly attributed to the sephiroth.

The first sephira plants the seed in the vase, the next nine are representative of the nine months of pregnancy. Up til now we have cleared the egg of Hermes of the impurities which impeded the union with nitrate, with life itself and our steel. Now we shall work towards progressively filling up the hole that remains, in such a way that the replacing matter weighs the same as the refuse that was rejected. In this work, we bring back to life the dead (the iron) which killed the living, the nitrate. And we shall extract John from the wilderness or Patmos, by way of the eagles, the light, the fire of the sages.

First eagle The foundation for the composition of our regulus is a kilogram of galena and 500 grams of iron filings, but our purifications have decomposed this metal and we have rejected it almost entirely, except for the fixed kernel which we know from experience to weigh around 5 grams per 500 grams of filings. This fixed grain is our gold. We must therefore substitute this kernel, which is the soul of iron, with another, more spiritual body, in order to replace the crude body which we have gotten rid of. All the adepts agree that the extraction of mercury from the regulus can be done with seven eagles, or sometimes nine. We are going to base ourselves on the number of seven eagles. Our starry and purified regulus must be broken up in a mortar, then dissolved little by little in a heated crucible. Once the substance is quite liquid, the niter divided into little packages must be thrown into the fusing metal. A regulus which is initially composed of a kilogram of galena and

500 grams of iron one needs to use 20 grams of niter to yield a pellet of philosophical gold of around 5 grams. The metal must be left in the crucible for two hours, throwing in a package of nitrate of 10 grams once every first half-hour, and then left to digest for an hour. Once the digestion is done, the mass must be poured into a tallowed iron mold. One must then take it out of the mold, at which point one can observe at the top of the cylinder a yellow piece of slag, which is the niter. This purified nitre, transformed, is the substance for gold, for the royal water of philosophers. Operate as has already been indicated.

Second eagle One must take the yellow piece of slag which sits on top of the metallic cylinder. It must always show the signature of the star when decapitated. Once our crushed galena has again been melted in the crucible, one must add, in small pieces, fragments of our slag. These fragments will dissolve straight away. The piece of slag, made of an initial 20 grams of niter, must be treated with three times its weight of new niter, in other words 60 grams for the 20 grams what was used to make our piece of slag. The length of the fusion must this time amount to one hour during which, every 10 minutes, a packet of niter weighing 10 grams must be thrown in. In other words 6 packets in an hour, which makes for 60 grams. The niter is our fire. One must never increase nor decrease the dose. After a bath of an hour, the substance must be poured out, like during the first eagle. When it has cooled down one must remove the yellow piece of slag which obvously is bigger than the first one was.

Third eagle

The crushed regulus must be melted again in a crucible. The second pelet or piece of slag which stood atop the cooled metal ingot must be dissolved into it bit by bit, and one must add, in packages of 10 grams, the new niter which has an invariable total weight of 60 grams. The time required to fuse in the crucible is three quarters of an hour. One can intimately mix the crushed piece of slag with the natural niter, or alternatively throw in a fragment of the slag followed by a package of niter. Which of these is methods is the better one can be ascertained through experimentation. In principal the work of the eagles is simple, as we know that one must always add undissolved, that is to say new and natural niter to the dissolved and pellet-forming niter. It shoud be noted that if one did not add fresh niter every time, the slag would remain at the bottom of the vase and would not rise up any more. It is the niter or the eagle which piece by piece tears apart the Golden Fleece and, finally, lifts it up.

Fourth eagle The same operation as described above. Add 60 grams of new niter again. This operation should last roughly half an hour. Therefater the substance must be poured out.

Fifth eagle Duration of the operation: 15 minutes. 60 grams of niter.

Sixth eagle uration of the operation: 10 to 15 minutes. 60 grams of niter.

Seventh eagle Repeat the previous operations: infusion of the regulus, etc. 60 grams of niter are necessary. Duration of the operation: 10 to 15 minutes. One can tell when the substance has arrived at the prper maturity when it can no longer be dissolved and when it floats on top of the fusing metal, as the doctor Gosset said. The Cosmopolitan alludes to this as well. The explanation is as follows: When our yellow piece of slag or pellet, which Glauber calls “cream” and Cyliani calls “aurific oil”, is floating on top like it were cork, then our matter is perfect and no longer contains any phlegm. At this point our gold, or Golden Fleece, has been removed by the eagles and John has come out of the cave of Patmos. This is the sign that the Wet Way is complete and that it is time to move on to the Dry Way. The ceremony of Candlemas comprises a purification and illumination. The old man Simeon, Χευμον, who surrounds and contains the light, in other words our vase of galena or of lead, Saturn incarnate, holds the newborn child in his arms and says: “Lord, now let Your servant depart in peace...”, this means that from this moment on the vase of lead is useless for subsequent work. Indeed, according to Philalethes, this is when we cease to use the Athanor, that is to say our ingot of regulus. According to Gosset (p.176), this is when we abandon Medea, in other words the vase, from the Greek μετρεω “to contain”, “to measure”. So the child was borne from his mother’s womb alive and can no longer return to it25. But if, after the seventh eagle, the pellet sinks into the bath once more that means that one has to carry out an additional number of eagles, each time

throwing in the pellet in pieces and adding 60 grams of new niter. Normally, if the eagles are well performed, one should not require more than nine, and at least seven. Since a first lot of 20 grams of niter was dissolved, followed by six lots of 60 grams of the same substance (or 6 x 60 + 20 grams of niter), it should be noted that our seven eagles require a total of 380 grams of niter. For nine eagles (or 8 x 60 + 20) we use 500 grams. Furthermore, we added to our vase 500 grams of iron filings which we then rejected during the purifications, except for the fixed kernel of 5 grams. We have replaced the 495 grams of impure iron, which we emptied out of the egg, with 500 grams of saltpeter or astral spirit, and therefore we have done exactly as is stipulated in previously exposed theory of Herodotus, as well as the one of president d’Espagnet’s. Important note: Gosset recommends never adding any phlegm, in other words any new galena, even if it is purified and starry, in order to complete the operations of the eagles. Our vase of lead must invariably be the same, from the beginning to the end.

DRY WAY When pursuing the Dry Way one does not use anything other than dry earth. It should be noted this dry earth is dry only in appearance because it contains a wet root. This matter was obscurely described by the philosophers as the sole subject of the work while in reality it is a composite of three bodies that were employed in the Wet Way. Our earth is therefore the trinity within the unity. It is symbolized by an equilateral triangle26. When at the end of the eagles our pellet can be seen floating like cork in the bath of galena, seemingly without intention to dissolve any more, that is the sign that our substance is ready for the Dry Way or coction. It can be compared with a luminous swan swimming on a lake. Glaubert and other artists have called it cream, for our piece of slag surmounts the bath of galena like cream sits on top of milk. That is the true and Holy Cream which the dove presented to consecrate27 our king. The vase of galena is the holy vial28, from the Latin ampela, meaning vase, from the Greek αμπεχω, “to surround”, the vase of the sun. Gosset, the doctor from Amiens, found a way of testing to see if the earth from the eagles is ready for coction. “One can tell,” he says, “that the number of rectifications was sufficient when the fixed salt no longer dissolve, as I have mentioned earlier, but also by burning a bit of spirit on gunpowder29. It will catch fire after all this oil has been consumed. One must put the powder into an earthenware or varnished clay bowl, for if one uses a silver spoon like I did, the spoon heats up and in

doing so consumes the little phlegm which was left, mixed with the quintessence. If the powder catches fire, then the spirit has not yet reached perfection. One can also test this by dipping a piece of cloth in liquor and proceed to set fire to it. If it burns entirely then the spirit is ready.” One should not be thrown off by Gosset referring to our earth as liquor. The slag of eagles is a rectified saltpeter and when saltpeter is heated in a crucible it immediately turns to water. The experience of this artist from Amien can be explained when considering that our pellet of niter always assimilates a bit of galena from the bath, but does so progressively less as one approaches the final eagles. The earth has reached maturity when the slag does no longer receive any galena. At this point it rejects the bath and no longer wants to return to it — no more than a newborn child wishes to return to its mother’s womb when the period of pregnancy has passed. The technique to carry out the Dry Way is simple. Philalethes states on p.43, that “after the operation of the eagles, you will be able to rest, as there is nothing left to do except to simply let the matter cook. At this point you will find perfect peace, or rather child’s play and woman’s work. Indeed, once the fusion, purification and eagles have been carried out this completes the hard work, that which the sages call the labors of Hercules”, something that can also beinterpreted figuratively. Two authors have described the operations of the Dry Way very well, each in their own way. Philalethes, from p.185 to 259 of his profound treatise, and Cyliani, in his chapter on the confection of sulphur and the conjunction of the sulphur with the mercury of philosophers in his book Hermes Unveiled. It is preferable to follow the advice of the latter, whilst continuing to consult Philalethes in order to cross-check.

Techniques used in the Dry Way. The white work

Since we here work on one single subject which is the yellow earth of the eagles, there is no other way but to begin with the dissolution and dissection of a portion of this earth in order to obtain our first citrine sulphur.

The production of the sulphur The authors all teach that one must divide the earth of the eagles into two equal parts. One of the parts is to be put aside in a receptacle, well-sealedoff with emery, and stored in a dry place to avoid moisture getting to it. It must also be kept away from light which would take back its spirit. This half will serve for the preparation of the aurific oil and to carry out the multiplications. The other half isgently heated in a crucible and dissolved, bit by bit, using the following proportions and method. Take no more than 8 or 10 grams of the earth from the eagles to begin with. This substance will dissolve and blackens as it dries. Then one should add to this, bit by bit, 8 to 10 grams additional earth of the eagles, that is to say the Virgin’s milk otherwise known as bread and milk. The first substance will drink this and blacken as it dries. The resulting substance will begin to ferment and will swell like dough beneath which one will be able to hear slight crackling sounds. The fire must not be too hot, and the added portions of earth from the eagles should not be too big, lest the gas or the spirit would burst the crust of the composite and evaporate it. This should be avoided at all times. Once the crust has settled and the fermentation is over, the body is quite dry, and one needs to add a third dose of apportioned earth of eagles. This dose must be the same as the others, ranging somewhere in between 8 to 10 grams. Our body drinks in the humidity of this new earth, and absorbs it. It ferments, swells, then settles, becoming blacker and blacker in the process, like

carbon, at the bottom of the vase. This is what Philalethes calls “the reign of Saturn”. He says that the king, which is our earth, gives his golden mantle to Saturn, who exchanges it for a black silk mantle. One must then add another dose of 8 to 10 grams of earth of eagles, for the fourth time. However, this must still be done bit by bit, and only after one sees that the body has drank the portion of humidity administrated to it. Then one must leave the matter to dry. The blackness starts to fade away gradually and the matter soon begins to turn grey. For a fifth time, the matter in the crucible is imbibed with the earth of eagles (8 to 10 grams), bit by bit, allowing the matter to soak up the humidity. Thereafter it is left to dry out. One must add another dosea sixth time, again totaling an amount of 8 to 10 grams of minute portions of earth of eagles. When earlier mentioned instructions are heeded our substance should turn to a citrine yellow, also called saffron, and one can go no further with this technique. It is during the fifth imbibition, according to Philalethes, that one must dry out the substance in order to release its sulphur and extract this for the white work. One would then have the so-called white matter. This white matter is used for the silver work when one continues to elevate its power by the same method. However for the white work one does not continue until the seventh imbibition. The sulphur must be extracted after the fifth. This work can be carried outat any time, be it night or day, without having to consider the phase of the moon. One must merely take care never to interrupt the fire during the operation. One should note that in the prescription of the uniform dosage of earth of eagles, I have respected Cyliani’s decreasing scale. Cyliani recommends to first administer the earth as a whole, then in halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths and sevenths, in such a way that the matter always weighs more than the earth which is administered by imbibition. This is what the philosophers call the progressive diminution of fire. The indication of proportions as

given above is because the philosophers recommend to never use more than a total of two ounces of substance, which amounts to 60 to 70 grams of earth. When the seven operations described above have been completed, our substance must be turned to stone, at least in part, and this stone will be our primary yellow sulphur. At this point we can douse the fire and we have obtained the potable gold. If one wishes to push forward to silver, one need only take all of the sulphur and treat it, with the earth of eagles, by adding to it yet again in small portions a measure of earth. The same method of coction should be followed as described above. It is not necessary, however, to repeat the seven operations, five suffice. Once we have the second white sulphur it should look like a crystal, without having been entirely crystallized as that would render it insolvable. It can be multiplied at will by treating the whole stone with amount of earth of eagles equal to it. The first multiplication requires only four operations. The second multiplication, which is performed in the same way as the first, requires only three and the third multiplication requires only two operations. Any following multiplications can be completed in a single operation. One must only use the sulphur that has been petrified and one must leave the surrounding, useless earth be. To use this earth would spoil everything which is why it is called the “damned earth”. Once the white multiplications have been completed, one must orientate the stone towards silver whilst fermenting it with this metal. One should follow the method that I have described further on in this book.

The red work or work of the elixir Once our primary citrine yellow sulphur has been turned to stone, it must be separated from its “damned earth”, and a part of it must be dissolved in

earth of eagles amounting to four times its weight. In other words, the sulphur must be divided into two parts, half of which must be dissolved in four times its weight of earth of eagles in order to make aurific oil. This mixture must be cooked with the other half of the sulphur in order to raise it to a ruby or poppy red state, called elixir. Half of our sulphur is to be placed in the crucible, and one must allow it to absorb progressivelymore of the aurific oil mixture. One must proceed with caution, allowing it drink and thereafter dry. According to Cyliani after each dessication fresh aurific oil should be added in sufficient quantity, administering it drop by drop. When the sulphur has attained its full redness, a fragment of it should be placed on a blade of hot metal. If it melts without smoking, then the oil is perfect. If not, then this is proof that it is not dry enough and that it must be left to cook a while longer. I have unraveled Cyliani’s deceitful conundrum and explained the operations of the two sulphurs. One can still consult Philalethes, as mentioned earlier, in order to follow and observe his manner of operation and where appropriate heed his excellent advice. I will now proceed to describe the red multiplications. Observation: I have prescribed that the sulphur should be put directly in the crucible but Cyliani says that this sulphur, as it has not yet been cooked, could be spoiled. By doing so it would become useless for the work. He therefore believes it is preferable to put a little bit of aurific oil in the crucible first so that the sulphur can dissolve in humidity. Similarly, when Cyliani suggests that at first we dissolve our gold in ten times its weight in mercury, he simply means that one must begin the Dry Way with a starting

weight of ten grams of earth of the eagles. Which isin accordance with the basis of operation we have opted for.

The white work Cyliani states that one must always use the complete amount of white sulphur for the white work.

Quantitative multiplications of the red work A red multiplication comprises the complete repetition of the previous work towards the elixir. One must take the red sulphur as obtained at the end, and split it into two equal parts. One of these halves should be put aside in order to repeat the process which allowed us to raise the citrine yellow sulphur to its red state. One must therefore proceed to dissolve 10 grams of earth of the eagles in a crucible and dissolve half of the sulphur-elixir to bring it in a state of putrefication again. It should all turn black as coal. One must then add, bit by bit in six separate amounts, the same dose of 10 grams of earth of eagles, continuously wetting and drying our substance. In short, one operates in the same way as in the previous work to obtain the first sulphur. This consists of seven operations, during which ten times the weight of our sulphur in earth of the eagles is added each time. This is what the philosophers call “giving the sulphur its measure of water to drink”. Once the sulphur has petrified again and has been separated from its “damned earth”, it must be split into two equal parts again. One of these halves must be dissolved, once more, in earth of eagles amounting to four times its weight. Once this is done, a little bit of the resulting mixture should be put in the crucible and the other half should gently be dissolved in it. Then we

cook the second half of the sulphur, adding little by little the earth of the eagles that was prepared with the first half of the sulphur. This is continued until our product has reached its state of perfection, in other words the most beautiful red. Then one should put a fragment on a heated blade of metal and if it melts without smoking, the sulphur is well-done. If not, there is still superfluous humidity which must be gotten rid of.

The second and following multiplications The previously described two operations are recommenced but since the sulphur has multiplied in power, one requires progressively less operations to complete a cycle. Hence for the second operation one only needs to add six times and sometimes even only five times the dose of 10 grams of earth of eagles. For the third multiplication, only five or even four times the dose is required. For subsequent multiplications, the number of operations continues to decrease. However one must always, at the end of each operation, split the latest sulphur in two equal halves, one half of which must be dissolved in four times its weight in earth of eagles in order to bring the other half of the sulphur up to a perfect red with gentle imbibitions.

Qualitative multiplications In order to multiply the quality of the sulphur, all that is required is to systematically divide the most recently obtained sulphur into two halves. One half of this sulphur must be dissolved in four times its weight in earth of eagles, in order to make the aurific oil with which the other half of the sulphur is to be cooked. For each new multiplication, one must split the

most recent sulphur into two halves. Eacht time one half must be dissolved in four times its weight in earth of eagles so that the other half of the sulphur can be cooked. It is always this same operation that is repeated.

Earth of the eagles It is obvious that the constant use of the earth of the eagles means that it is consumed in abundance. It is therefore necessary, at the beginning of the work, to prepare several ingots of regulus upon each of which the necessary number of eagles is to be performed. All the sublimated and rectified earth is carefully gathered until one obtains a sufficient amount that would never run out. This is to ensure that one can continue multiplying the sulphurs and raise them to the desired degree of power. This is what Cyliani very cleverly pointed out in his allegoric reverie in which he mentions that he did not have enough astral spirit. One needs a great deal of water, Arnaud de Villeneuve says, without which we would find ourselves stuck at some point during our multiplications.

Orientation, projection, transmutation In order to orientate our stone towards gold or silver, one must take the sulphur that was multiplied until red and prime it with gold, or the sulphur multiplied until white and prime it with silver. It is best in this respect to follow the method of Philalethes. Take a part of your perfect stone, be it red or white, and melt four parts of one of the fixed metals, silver if it is white, gold if it is red. As for the rest, refer to Philalethes’ treatise.

Potable gold

Cyliani states that the primary citrine yellow sulphur is what is called potable gold. It can be treated as indicated in the chapter on the universal medicine.

THE END

FOOTNOTES

1

One must begin the work during the first quarter of the moon, but one should carry out the work especially around full moon. When the first quarter crescent moon is in force, one should carry out the work at a dry location (far from forests, waterways and wetlands). One must work with the windows open wide.

2

The original manuscript contains a blank here. One can insert here the name of a sulfide: galena, orpiment, stibnite, realgar. If our reader is a reasonably good chemist, he or she will be able to figure out which body Dujols speaks of easily enough.

3

The manuscript contains a blank space of about three lines. We could refer our reader to Kerdanek de Pornic in this respect, though one should take care, his text contains errors.

4

Green flames could indicate the presence of copper.

5

By the blows of the hammer, the product splits in two. The upper part is nothing but an iron residue which should be discarded. One should only keep the lower part, the clear metal portion. Obviously, one must not break this part, but only the gangue which surrounds it. Like the upper layer, it can be discarded.

6

If one takes into account what Herodotus states about the Phoenix, who empties his nest and fills it with new myrrh, one would have to weigh all the impure parts so that one could determine the amount of nitrate required for the eagles. Therefore, make sure to carefully weigh all the parts that are discarded during purification.

7

For 1.5 kg of regulus one must use 7 packets of nitre weighing 10 to 12 grams for the first purification, 6 packets for the second purification and 5 for the third, equating to roughly 200 grams. One can use more, because theoretically one can use up to half of the weight of the nitrate in the given amount of Regulus. But all things should be administered in moderation and if the earth is very black, one must follow the indicated measurement, or increase it.

8

In Hebrew, beth-el means ‘the house of god’, and betel means ‘virgin’; the Bethoulons are signs of virginity. Gougenot des Mousseau, in his highly erudite book ‘God and the gods’ rightly writes, P.52, that betel is the sign of the revelation.

Indeed, during Candlemas, or the festival of baetylus, the church sings ‘lumen ad revelatis...’. Baetylus is the Greek βαιτ-Ηλιον ‘the sun’s tente’.

9

The golden bough is a symbol of the gold of the sages. This is also called the king’s chaos and it lies buried in a container of galena, which is the mother, virgo paritura, the pregnant virgin going into labor. As a matter of fact one could see a human embryo as being a true chaos in which life elaborates itself and organizes itself until it becomes a child, perfect and self-sustaining.

10

λιβανοç: by Lebane, the light of the Moon. Laban is Lebanon, the Phoenician country with snow-topped peaks, near Syria, the country of the Sun. Sour, in Phoenician, is Tyr, the tyrian purple of which the texts speak. Cassius’ purple as used by the ceramicists closely resembles hermetic sulfur.

11

Iron is called common gold by the philosophers, whilst philosophical gold is called ‘our gold’. Philosophical gold is iron’s soul, its tincture which remains in the vase of galena like a marble or a little pebble similar to flint. We have been able to observe this by evaporating the galena. The artist has access to this information and so he must be careful not to extract the marble with brutal force. This extraction is the work of the eagles which pull it from the well. All metallurgists know that iron can be alloyed with any metal or metalloid apart from the azoth. It is precisely this impossibility that the philosopher must overcome. Iron contains at its heart a very pure element, which is the steel of the sages.T he iron shell must therefore be destroyed, as it is the rabid Corascene Dog of which Philaltethes spoke. It can be destroyed by galena. This naked body, once its envelop has been removed, in other words the nitrate, is instantly united with our philosophical steel in the embodiment of galena.

12

The Epiphany is the manifestation of light by the bath, βαλανευς and not circumcision which is a metaphorical parody of the Hebraic tradition in which the foreskin is removed, βαλανος, through rabbinic mutilation, similar to the African practice of excision. See also the Dionysian symbol of a van containing a phallus.

13

Sandux is an Assyrian word meaning ‘red stone’, ‘vermillion’. The Greek word is missing from our text. We can provide two possible etymologies: χζμζ means measure. It can be linked to χζμια, Egypt. Χυμενος means ‘to remain fixed’.

14   The aged Simeon is the heart of the fixation of light, the semen placed at the center of the alchemic Eon. In Greek, the letter χ is the letter representing light. Chimeon is the luminous eon, the chemical eon. χ also designates the cross which relates to the crucible.

15

One must then evaporate the galena, leaving a portion of metal at the bottom of the crucible. This was indeed the royal child, although stillborn, for unfortunately we aborted it before it had sufficientlymatured. It could therefore not serve any further purpose in the work. However this experiment, which I underwent on my wife’s suggestion, revealed to me the presence of the fixed or philosophical grain. And the discovery was a considerable feat in itself.

16

In this name one finds Thot and Attys, the two divinities who are central in the ancient doctrine of death and resurrection. Nitre is the equivalent of saltpetre which can be linked to the Egyptian word ‘neter’, meaning god. All the neters hold the Ankh, the cross symbolic of life, a tau topped with an egg that in hermopolitan theology symbolizes the birthplace of the Sun.

17

The word ‘eagle’ used here comes from the Greek εχ-λεγα, hence the root λεγ: eagle. The Greek word means ‘to pull out’, ‘to take out’, and ‘to extract’. In the old days there used to be a primitive apparatus installed at every well which was made out of two tree branches. At the end of one of the branches was a rope attached to a bucket for hoisting up water. This apparatus was called ‘cigogne’ [stork], from the Greek κιχανω which means ‘to take off with something’. A stork is a big bird. What is more, the Latin aquila, eagle, is a composite of aqui and ella which comes from elatus, ‘elevated.; The grammatically correct way of writing this would have been aqui ea. It is indeed the eagle which brings up the water from the well of the sages. The Christian power of renovation is symbolized by the eagle which flies down, old and ill, into the water and springs out full of newfound vigor. Our mother is the stellate regulus of galena.

18

In the practically impossible case that the slag of azote, after having been cast back into the regulus is unable to separate from the mold during its cooling, despite the force of the junction of the new and unused azotate, then each piece of slag has to be put aside after each eagle and, after the ninth, all the pieces must be combined in a crucible where they should be cooked to isolate the fixed grain or the sulfur. The authors say that in the work one must always sail cautiously between Charybdis and Scylla. Indeed the work with the two earths come down to this principle: solve and coagula, in other words ‘melt your composite and cool it’. In a tract entitled Sapientia vetertum, ‘The Wisdom of the Sages’, the beginning of the fifth chapter called ‘preparation’ — De preparatione physica — reads as follows: ‘In this science, one must not do anything else than take out the superfluous and replenish and augment that which is left empty or wanting. For heavy things cannot be lifted or sublimated without light things, and light things cannot fix themselves without the intermediary of heavy things.’ This decrescendo aligns well with the ladder of the sages.

19

It is what we call working in reverse order or working backwards. It is said that the wheel now turns the other way, undoubtedly because up to this point we have cleared the shell from its impurities and now we proceed to replenish it with nitre, albeit in decreasing increments as indicated in the text.

20

The ancient philosophers called the Dry Way ‘via pauperum’ or the way of the poor. But it is in fact a subtle pun for ‘via papaverum’, the way of poppies, as well as the way of seeds, of fixed grains. Papavere means poppy and seed. Indeed our stone is likened, because of its color, to wild poppies, ‘coquelicot’, which plays on the Latin colchis and eligo, ‘to tear apart’ and ‘to extract’, two words which, when contracted, make ‘coqueligo’, hence ‘coquelicot’.

21

A corrective note regarding Cyliani: it is certain and beyond any doubt that the saltpetre must be employed in every operation from the beginning to the end of the work because saltpetre is the woman that our sulfur needs. Saltpetre is that which increases and multiplies the stone. Without it, there would be no growth possible. Here Cyliani shows himself to be either inexact or ‘envious’ as the philosophers say. Indeed one must continuously taint the white gold which is the nitre and it can only by tainted by joining it to the sulfur. Gold, in Greek χρυσος, is fixed light, the philosopher’s stone is highly concentrated light which has been fixed by our work. In addition salpetre [nitre] comes from the Greek σολ-πετρα, the sun turned to stone (σολος-πετρα, etymologically speaking, is a disc of solid iron) and from the Latin ‘sol petra’: the sun-stone.

22

Therefore one should not add any more saltpetre in its natural state during the eighth and ninth eagles. This would be a mistake. Practice will enlighten the artist. However saltpetre does seem necessary for this kind of coction.

23

Translator’s note: Latin for “do not touch me”, it is here used to describe an illness often known as a “hidden cancer”.

24

Certain authors confirm that the universal medicine is made with the elixir of sulphur and a second power which is potable gold.

25

An author wrote: “when you see the sign (without designating which sign) then the operation is complete.” Indeed, the child has finished its gestation and can no longer return to his mother’s womb. The child is symbolized by a luminous swan, swimming on a lake, with the caption “cui lumen ei et amor.” ‘he who has illuminated mercury possesses love itself’, in other words the stone, the treasure. From this came the legend of the Knight of the Swan, whose boat was pulled by a swan along the Lohengrin.

26

It is during the Dry Way that the dragon devours its tail because when the earth as extracted by the eagles is put in the crucible, it is slowly consumed. Furthermore,

when the sulphur is extracted, it continues to consume the remaining earth, and so on and so forth. It is of paramount importance to prepare a sufficient amount of earth in advance for the multiplications. This undoubtedly is the basis for the legendary image of snakes feeding on the earth. It is nothing else than a reference to the hermetic dragon. The pellet which surmounts the metallic ingot is the sky of philosophers. The sky is a like a n alembic for the operations of nature, it is like a vessel for distillation, sublimation and calcination, and the earth acts like a filter for the purification of the dissolved substance (Lebreton).

27

Translator’s note: In French the word used here is “sacrer”, which literally means to make sacred, as the French kings had divine providence. This is a reference to the “sacre” (ceremony for making the king sacred) of the French king Clovis by Saint Remi. Legend has it that there was no ointment and that a dove brought it. This was interpreted as God giving his divine protection to the king.

28

Translator’s note: The French here was “ampoule”, hence the etymological link to ampela.

29

Editor’s note: Dujols here repeats the quaote from Grosset which was included earlier.