An ornate woodcut headpiece featuring symmetrical rococo-style scrollwork, acanthus leaves, and floral motifs, resting on a decorative base with geometric patterns.

Hermes Trismegistus’s True Ancient Way of Nature.

Introduction.

I will make the beginning of this mystery in the name of Jesus, the Son of the eternal God, who may enlighten my and your understanding through his power and light, to his praise, honor, and glory, Amen!

The Holy Scripture says: that there is but one entrance for all people into this life, and this is also the same exit. For just as we are born into this world, we are also reduced again by the same means into the prime matter original Latin: primam Materiam; the foundational, formless substance from which all things are created, like a grain of wheat which, when cast into the Earth Symbol: ▽, is born anew through the death of putrefaction original Latin: Putrefaction; the process of decay and fermentation that alchemists believed was necessary for spiritual and physical rebirth and is multiplied into a hundredfold fruit. And all this occurs through the universal spirit of the world Symbol: ♎ (the sign of Libra); original Latin: spiritus mundi universalis. This refers to the vital life-force or "world soul" that permeates all nature, which opens and closes, and [gives] the movement to life—