The Most Secret Secrets

...[that he] gave names to things; they also say he was the inventor of letters, and established by what honor and by what sacred rites the gods should be worshipped. Above all, he was an observer of the courses of the stars, and he discovered the harmonies of voices. They hand down that he was the discoverer of wrestling, of numbers, and of the medical art for healing bodies, as well as the lyre made of three strings—representing the three seasons of the year The ancient Egyptians divided their year into three seasons: Akhet (Inundation), Peret (Growth), and Shemu (Harvest).. For he established three tones: the high, the low, and the middle; taking the high from summer, the low from winter, and the middle from spring. This man also taught the Greeks the interpretation of words, whence they called him Hermes, which means Interpreter. Finally, even those who were writers of sacred letters in the time of Osiris report that these same things were received from him. They say Osiris also made extensive use of his counsel: and that the olive plant was discovered by him, not by Minerva, as the Greeks claim.
Note.

From these things it is clear that great honors are held for Vulcan and Mercury among the Egyptians because of the invention of so many things useful to human life.

But who is Vulcan? Is he not the master of the works of fire? And who is Mercury? Is he not all that concerning which, from which, and with which the Chemists original: "Chymici"; in this context, it refers to alchemists practicing the "Hermetic Art." work, though it is nothing common? What kind of fire do the Egyptians truly understand? Is it that of which Diodorus Diodorus Siculus, a 1st-century BC Greek historian often cited by Maier. speaks in these words: "for when a tree had been set ablaze by a lightning strike in the mountains, the nearby wood was caught by the flame in the winter time; at which thing Vulcan, delighted by the heat, added new material to the failing fire as the flame diminished, and in that way, with the fire continued, called other men to see it, as if it were his own discovery"?

This is in no way probable. Because that fire was also very well known before the flood to the first men, just as the sowing of crops was known to Abel and Cain, the invention of smithing arts to Tubalcain, and the making of wine to Noah.

Genesis ch. 4
v. 2, 22.
ch. 9 v. 20.

Whence it follows that the invention of another fire is attributed to Vulcan, namely the philosophical fire In alchemy, "philosophical fire" is not common fire, but a secret agent or regulated heat used to transform matter., or the manner in which fire is to be applied to the non-common Mercury. Hence it is said that Vulcan was the first to reign among the Egyptians; likewise Mercury is the inventor of all arts and hieroglyphic original: "hieroglyphicarum"; Maier views these not just as writing, but as encoded alchemical symbols. letters among them. For on account of him, the arts and...