Hermes: A Journal in Occasional Issues

artist In alchemical texts, "the artist" refers to the practicing alchemist or chemist. requires a visible or coagulated air, so spring dew had to serve as such, because Sendivogius Michael Sendivogius (1566–1636), a famous Polish alchemist. says: "There is in the air a hidden food of life, which we call dew by night, and by day rarefied water, whose invisible spirit is better than the whole earth." original: "Est in aëre occultus vitæ cibus, quem nos rorem de nocte, de die autem aquam rarefactam vocamus, cujus spiritus invisibilis melior est, quam universa terra." Until the most recent times, dew has therefore had to be considered one of the primary subjects The "subject" is the raw material from which the Philosopher's Stone is prepared.. The late Dr. Becker in Langensalza wrote a "Chemical Soothsayer" original: "Chemischen Wahrsager." about it and, after the meritorious Mr. Mining Councilor Henkel (in his Vindication of the Hermetic Art, Erfurt 1785.) proved the effects of dew in making silver calx A powder (oxide) produced by heating a metal. gold-like, there is no doubt that dew should contain much universal substance.

Rainwater coming with lightning and thunder is said to be impregnated with even more astral substance. Dienheim, as well as Walch’s commentary on the Little Peasant Referring to the alchemical text "Der Kleine Bauer" (The Little Peasant), a popular 17th-century treatise often attributed to Johann Grasshoff. speak of this in detail.

The Paracelsian Nostoch Also known as "star jelly," a gelatinous substance found on the ground which was historically believed to be the remains of fallen shooting stars or "astral matter." moved many to work with shooting stars, because they were considered the slaggy, viscous