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

And with this whiteness, the soul is infused into the body—that is to say, the mineral virtue, which is more subtle than fire, seeing as it is a true quintessence quinte-essence: the "fifth essence," a purified substance beyond the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water, believed to be the life-force of matter and true life. This soul desires and longs to be born and to strip away the thick terrestrial dregs it took from the menstruum In alchemy, a "menstruat" or menstruum refers to a solvent or the primordial "womb" matter from which a substance is formed. and from the corruption of the place of its origin. And in this consists our philosophical sublimation sublimation philosophique: unlike standard chemical sublimation, this refers to the spiritualization and purification of a substance through repeated refinement, not in that wicked common Mercury Mercure vulgal: ordinary quicksilver, which alchemists considered "dead" compared to their "living" philosophical version which has none of the qualities adorning our Mercury extracted from its vitriolic caverns cauernes Vitrioliques: the sulfate-rich mineral sources from which the alchemist derives their secret spirit; but let us return to our sublimation.

It is therefore certain in this art that this soul, extracted from bodies, can only be raised by the addition of the volatile thing which is of its own kind, by which the bodies are made volatile and spiritual. In rising, they become subtle and sublimated against their own corporeal, heavy, and weighty nature; in this way, they become non-corporeal, incorporeal, and a quintessence of the nature of spirits. This is called the Bird of Hermes l'oyseau d'Hermes: a famous alchemical symbol for the volatile spirit or the Mercury of the Sages that rises to the top of the distilling vessel, and the Mercury extracted from red iron fer rouge: likely a reference to a specific metallic ore or the "Mars" of the philosophers used as a catalyst. Thus, the terrestrial parts remain at the bottom—or rather, the coarsest parts of the bodies, which cannot be perfectly dissolved by any subtle means or spiritual artifice.

And this white smoke, this white gold—that is to say, this quintessence—is also called the composite magnesia magnesie composée: a traditional term for the primary matter of the Stone, viewed as a "magnet" that attracts the celestial spirit. This contains, just like a man, and is composed just like a man, of body, soul, and spirit. Its body is the fixed earth of the Sun Soleil: Alchemical gold, which is more than ultra-subtle and rises upward heavily by the force of our divine water eau diuine: the secret solvent used to break down the metals. Its soul is the tincture A "tincture" is a concentrated essence or spiritual dye capable of transforming the color and quality of a base metal into gold or silver. of the Sun and the Moon Lune: Alchemical silver, proceeding from the conjunction of these two; and the spirit is the mineral virtue of the two bodies and of the water, which carries the soul or the white tincture upon the bodies and from the bodies, just as dye is carried onto cloth by water.

And this mercurial spirit esprit Mercurial: the active, volatile agency that binds the soul to the body is the bond of the solar soul, and the solar body is the body of fixation, containing the spirit and the soul along with the Moon. Thus, the spirit penetrates the fixed body, and the soul joins, dyes, and whitens. From these three united together is made our Stone Pierre: The Philosopher's Stone—that is to say, from the Sun, the Moon, and Mercury. Therefore, with our golden water eau dorée: the perfected solvent or the first stage of the liquid gold, nature is drawn out, overcoming all nature. Consequently, if the bodies are not dissolved by this water of ours—and by it soaked, softened, and gently and diligently guided until they leave behind their coarseness and thickness and change into a subtle and impalpable spirit—our labor will always be in vain. This is because if the bodies are not changed into "non-bodies"—that is to say, into the Mercury of the Philosophers Mercure des Philosophes: the true, spiritualized mercury, as opposed to common quicksilver—one has not yet found the rule of the Art. And this is so because it is impossible to extract from bodies that ultra-subtle soul which contains within itself all tinctures, unless first these bodies are...