ANALYTICAL DISCOURSE

...neither do I delight in dark riddles: indeed, I have revealed hidden things to the best of my ability, even if my intention is not subjected to mathematical demonstrations, insofar as fictions often stand far apart from the truth. What more? I did even more in that first Volume Referring to the first part of Fludd's History of the Two Worlds (1617). in the detection of the mysteries of nature than was perhaps right, or than would befit a good Philosopher. For it is found that all Philosophers participating in the divine mystery have praised silence and the concealment of secret knowledge. Mercurius Trismegistus (whom he calls Hermes) calls his silence "the pregnancy of goodness." And Apuleius says: “Be silent, be silent, for silence is the safeguard of speech; be sparing,” he says, “lest you contract some harm for yourself through an intemperate tongue.” How much weight the silence of Pythagoras carried (whom Kepler himself wishes to follow in his discovery of the regular solids) is hidden from no one versed in Philosophy. Even in the sacred scriptures we find the commendation of silence: For Solomon says in Proverbs 24: It is the honor of God to conceal a thing; and in chapter 12:22 of the same: A shrewd man covers up knowledge. And hence it is that the Wise Man hid his secrets under parables or proverbs: And the disciples are admonished by Christ himself to be "shrewd as serpents": And Christ did not wish for pearls to be thrown before swine, or the bread of the children to be cast to dogs; and he commanded the disciples to speak allegorically and enigmatically to the Jews, so that they might have ears and not hear, and possess eyes but not see. If, therefore, my delight were in the dark riddles of things, why would I strive to reveal the physical secret and make it known to the world? How great was the love of the ancient Philosophers and Theosophists toward dark riddles; indeed, how abundantly Solomon, the wisest of all, and Christ, the Creator and Savior of all—and Divine Wisdom itself—overflowed in such a desire; for they recognized the world to be unworthy of such great gifts.

Kepler himself seems to be a follower or "ape" of Pythagoras in his choice of the five regular solids The Platonic solids: tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. Kepler famously used these to explain the distances between planetary spheres. for establishing his Cosmographic Mystery; and yet he refuses silence in secret science. From this it is clear that his "secret" is to be considered more in name than seen in reality. Indeed, it matters nothing if he does not hesitate to publish his mystery to the world, for he is one who is ignorant of what the secret of Nature truly is. Nor does it matter, nor will any envy arise from those skilled in Philosophy, if he strives to bring forth things wrapped in obscurity into the "deceptive light" of his imaginary intellect; since vain things most rightly suit the vain. "That," he says, "is familiar to the Chemists, Hermeticists, and Paracelsians Followers of Paracelsus, who combined chemistry/alchemy with medicine and spiritual philosophy.," while "this is proper to Mathematicians." And rightly so: For it is the work of vulgar mathematicians to be occupied with quantitative shadows; but the Chemists and Hermeticists embrace the true marrow of natural bodies.

Such a "natural Chemist" was Moses himself, who extracted the substance of the whole world from the dark abyss—which St. Peter then affirmed was water—and by physical (rather than mathematical) proportions, he brought it forth into light, into regions and spheres distinct in degree by the power of the Word (which establishes the heavens): namely into the Empyrean heaven The highest part of the universe, the realm of pure light and fire where God dwells. called light; into the firmament dividing the waters; and into the earth and sea. But truly, to what part of vulgar Mathematics is that speech of Jehovah himself, speaking from the whirlwind in Job 38:2, rightly directed?

Gird up your loins like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who set its measurements, if you know, or who stretched the line upon it, upon what were its bases fastened, or who laid its cornerstone; when the morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Who shut up the sea with doors when it broke forth as if proceeding from a womb, when I made the cloud its garment? etc.

Here God seems to propose this best to the vain Geometers first, regarding the measurement of the earth, and then to the Astronomers in their fantastic inquiry into the motions of the stars. But all these things are granted to the Divine Chemists, such as were Moses and Hermes, through the acquisition of the Holy Spirit, whose role alone it is to truly teach all these things. But this Mathematical Author [Kepler] says he found all these things by his own genius; namely the measurement of the earth, its position, and even its motion: And why not? since he "found" it to be an animal and a star. Similarly, he reaches the secrets of the heavens and the harmony of the stars; for he calls the sun the "immovable fountain of motion," stripping this title from the Creator and arrogating it to a creature.

But let us see, I pray you, first of all: what is Chemistry, and who is Hermes, from whom the Chemists are called "Hermeticists." True Chemistry is indeed the science by which its Artist—penetrating most sagaciously and sharply not only nature, but the very secret of Nature and its inner recesses—has claimed for himself the name of a truer Philosopher and natural Magus A "Natural Magician," one who understands and works with the hidden laws of the physical world rather than supernatural or demonic forces.. Concerning this science, as well as the one who knows it, the book called the Correction of Fools speaks thus:

Oh happy science with the one who knows it, who possesses it as an incomparable treasure; he is born in a healthy constellation, and in this age is enriched above all others. He is called a true Philosopher for this reason: because he has known the truth; and therefore he has placed this science above the motion of nature, and the ancient Philosophers, imitating its method, were never found to have set down a lie, though they spoke obscurely; and they did this because of the nobility of the science.

So he says. But so that we may open up the duty of the true Philosopher and true Chemist even further (whereby the Reader may see whether the doctrine of the Chemists is so far removed from the truth of nature or not), it is granted to him to rightly know nature, and how she—since she is a certain infinite force—is accustomed to procreate like from like, by which power she increases and nourishes all things, and why she is said to have the names of all things within herself, and by what support animal, stone, wood, tree, and all visible bodies arise from her and her "tether"; whence she is called the bond or ligament of the elements and the power of mixing; by what way she effects the mixtures of elements in any thing of this sublunary world, and imprints the form suitable to its species, through which that thing is distinguished and separated from any other; how she is of no color, and yet a partaker and effecter of all colors, of no weight or quality of all—