Treatise

But why by the influence of the number seven? Do not the true Alchemists original: "Chymici veri"—Fludd distinguishes "true" alchemists, who seek spiritual and physical transformation, from "spurious" puffers who only seek to make gold.—those far removed from the condition of frauds—say that a thing must be prepared and opened by a sevenfold soaking and a sevenfold distillation, so that light may shine forth from the darkness? And the Scriptures say that no one is worthy to open the seven seals of the book except the Lamb, who is Wisdom itself; and the Cabalists recognize that the seven beasts original: "feras"—possibly a variant or error for "fores" (gates), but translated here as beasts/wild animals as written. This refers to the trials or guardians one encounters in the ascent to the "Palace of Virtue." of the palace of virtue must be opened before it is possible to reach the glorious vision of Wisdom. She dwells in a dark and inaccessible cave, and in the center, as it were, of that Daedalian Labyrinth A reference to the complex maze built by the mythical inventor Daedalus to house the Minotaur; used here as a metaphor for the difficulty of finding divine truth.. Thus, without the instruction of a most skilled master, or the industry of an artisan taught by a spirit sent from heaven, she cannot be led out from that prison into the sight of men. Yet we are admonished to bring light out of darkness, for which a reward is promised to the one who labors and overcomes: namely, the hidden manna, or the white stone in which a name is inscribed that no one understands except the one who wins it, or the tree of life situated in paradise, or that morning star, and so on.

I would also wish that the monk referring to Marin Mersenne, who was a member of the Order of Minims. would collect his senses and consider what the seven Churches, the seven angels, and the seven candlesticks with seven candles signify. What? Are they of no value or significance? But those far wiser than Mersenne original: "Marino"—a Latinized reference to Marin Mersenne. accept that primary angel as that Wisdom which is the Alpha and the Omega. Holding the sevenfold candlestick in his right hand, he proves that by the seven candles within it, he indicates the seven planets; and through them, the seven angels—those seven Intelligences In Renaissance cosmology, "Intelligences" were the angelic beings believed to guide the movements of the celestial spheres. who govern the said globes glowing in the sky and dispose them to follow the divine will. But what need is there for these things if they do not at all pour their virtues into the lower things, and that by the number seven? Has infinite nature made anything in vain? But he will reply that the stars were ordained by God solely to give light to the earth. Truly, why would the Creator ordain such a great and immense multitude of stars—which give little and almost no light during the night—as if the sun for the day and the moon for the night were not sufficient to govern these lower things?

Job 38:31

But to approach even closer: why was the faculty of raining down influences assigned to the stars of the eighth heaven (or the firmament), and not only to the planets (or wandering stars), since the planets are closer to the earth and the elements themselves? Yet to the fixed stars, which they call the Pleiades, Jehovah himself ascribed influences in these words: Can you bind the sweet delights or the influences of the Pleiades? original: "An constringes delicias gratas seu influētias Pleiadū?" — a quote from the Book of Job. Finally, he might perhaps reply that the words of the Holy Page are expressed concerning a true and real well of the earth and the waters common to an ordinary well; and from this he concludes that such parabolic words of the Venetian Francesco Zorzi, the Venetian Cabalist. are to be held as trifles and Cabalistic fictions. To this I say—and I have even gathered this from Mersenne himself—that the Scriptures have not only a historical but also a mystical significance. For the historical text is sometimes nothing other than a type and figure of a divine mystery, just as a scabbard is to a soldier's sword, or the body is the image of the soul, or the letter is the likeness of the spirit (to use the words of St. Paul).

Therefore, let me proceed even further into that mystical discourse of the Venetian: The Father (he says) and the Son lived there, under which discourse he also seems to intimate, in an ideal manner, two persons in the Trinity of one essence. For it was also said by the Patriarch: How terrible is this place; this is none other than the house of God and the gate of heaven? Genesis 28:17, Jacob's reaction to his vision of the ladder to heaven. Whereupon rising, he took the stone and, setting it up as a pillar, called it the house of God. By a plainly similar reason, the Venetian said: The Father and the Son lived there together. And where? At Beersheba original: "Bersabah"—Hebrew for "Well of the Seven" or "Well of the Oath.", that is, the well of the oath, and the well of sevenfold influence, most rich in all necessary and desirable things: that Jacob’s stone, I say, which is dry and yet most full of living waters, and the house of the living God. In this mystery, indeed, lies the entire intention of the Magi, the Cabalists, and the wise Alchemists. But since we are dealing with the Cabala in this place, I will explain the mystery of those who occupy themselves with this subject: namely, concerning the stone, the house of God, or the well [filled] with all goodness, that is, divine...