Natural Philosophy of Three Ancient Philosophers: Artephius, Flamel, and Synesius

...which takes place in this first water, is nothing other than a mortification In alchemy, mortification refers to the symbolic "death" or breakdown of a substance, where its outer form is destroyed to release its inner essence. of the moist by the dry, insofar as the moist is always coagulated by the dry; for moisture is contained and held only by dryness, resulting in a body or earth. Our hard and dry bodies—place them then into our first water, in a well-closed vessel, where they will remain until they are dissolved and rise to the top; and then these bodies may be called a new body, the white gold of Alchemy, the white stone, the non-burning white sulfur, and the stone of Paradise—that is to say, the stone that converts imperfect metals into fine, white silver. Having this, we possess all at once the body, the soul, and the spirit. It is said of this spirit and soul that they cannot be extracted from the perfect bodies except by the conjunction with our dissolving water: for it is certain that a fixed thing cannot be raised upward except by conjunction with a volatile thing. The spirit, therefore, by means of the water and the soul, will be drawn from the bodies; which body will become "no-body," because in the same instant the spirit, along with the soul of the bodies, rises up into the superior part, which is the perfection of the stone, and is called sublimation Alchemical sublimation is not just a change of state (solid to gas), but a process of purification where the "spiritual" essence of the metal is lifted away from its "gross" or impure dross.. This sublimation (says Fiorentius Cathalanus A 15th-century alchemist often associated with the school of Arnold of Villanova.) is performed by sharp, spiritual, and volatile things, which are of a sulfurous and viscous nature, which dissolve and cause the bodies to rise into the air as a spirit. And in this sublimation, a certain part and portion of our aforementioned first water rises up with the bodies, joining together, ascending and sublimating into a middle substance which partakes of the nature of both—that is to say, of both the bodies and the water. Therefore, this middle substance is called the corporal and spiritual composite, Corsufle, Combar, Ethelie, Zandarith, and the good Duenech These are esoteric, often Arabic-derived names used in medieval alchemy to describe the unified "Mercury of the Philosophers" or the substance at a specific stage of its transformation.. However, it is properly called permanent water, because it does not flee from the fire, remaining perpetually joined with the conjoined bodies—that is to say, with the Sun and the Moon Alchemical symbols for Gold and Silver, respectively.—communicating to them a living, incombustible, and very firm tincture, more noble and precious than the previous one these bodies possessed; because afterward, this tincture can run upon the bodies just like oil, piercing and penetrating everything with an admirable fixation, because this tincture is the spirit, and the spirit is the soul, and the soul is the body. For in this operation, the body is made a spirit of a very subtle nature, and similarly, the spirit incorporates itself and takes on the nature of the bodies along with the bodies; and thus our stone contains body, soul, and spirit. O nature, how you change bodies into spirit! Which you could not do if the spirit did not incorporate itself with the bodies, and if the bodies, with the spirit, did not become volatile, and afterward permanent. They have therefore passed into one another and have been converted together by wisdom. O wisdom, how you make gold volatile and fugitive, even though by nature it is very fixed! It...