Hermes: A Journal in Occasional Issues

[...Saturni]ne original: "saturninae." The word completes from the previous page, referring to the "Saturnine" or lead-related substance. matter, which is to be found in the kingdom of Saturn Kingdom of Saturn: In alchemical code, Saturn represents lead, as well as the initial "black" stage of the Great Work (the nigredo), symbolizing death and potential.. Maier Michael Maier (1568–1622), a prominent German physician, alchemist, and counselor to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. calls these the "minerals, as the subjects of the art" original: "Mineras, tanquam artis subjecta" and describes such a subject as lowly, unsightly, like a king outside his kingdom, without prestige, and despised. The famous Faber Pierre-Jean Fabre (1588–1658), a French Paracelsian physician who equated chemical processes with divine creation. calls it: "A certain mineral body, most worthless, not yet shaped into a metal in any way, findable in mines, full and swelling with metallic spirit and fixed substance." original: "Corpus quoddam minerale, vilissimum, nondum in metallum ullo modo adhuc effictum, in mineris reperibile, spiritu metallico et substantia fixa plenum et turgens." Likewise: "A rough and unrefined mineral mass, from a hundred pounds of which barely one pound of pure spirit and a second pound of fixed substance can be extracted." original: "Rudem indigestamque molem mineralem, e cujus libris centum vix libra una spiritus puri et libra altera fixae substantiae elici possit." He calls this body the philosophical vitriol Philosophical Vitriol: Not the common chemical sulfate, but a symbolic "living" mineral essence or "green lion" believed to be the secret solvent of the philosophers., the seed of every thing and also of common vitriol—a being that could be called by countless names, but none more fitting than vitriol, because it possesses some of the striking properties of the common variety. (Palladium Chemicum, p. 153.) The Swedish physician Joh. Raicus Johannes Raicus (d. 1632), a professor of medicine known for his interests in alchemy and the Rosicrucian movement. says: "The subject, from which nature's spermatic and universal tincture Tincture: A potent alchemical liquid or medicine capable of transmuting metals or restoring health. can be extracted, is the mercurial water drawn forth from the BLACK original: "NIGRA" earth, or the vein of the Hermetic fountain or of Parnassus, which Pegasus opened with his iron hoof, or the Star of the black earth and hea[venly] original: "Astrum nigrae terrae et coe-." The text breaks here; it likely completes as "coelestis" (heavenly/celestial).