The King Showing Himself to All the World

original: "sciret" and be brought into its motion, so that it may circulate for a long time, rising and falling, until it is entirely dissolved and transformed into a beautiful, transparent crystalline water Crystalline Water: A term for the matter once it has been purified of all "earthly" dross and becomes a clear, liquid state ready for further refinement.. For our entire work is nothing other than a transformation of the earth into a water, and a constant boiling, until the earth enters into putrefaction Putrefaction: The stage of "rotting" or breakdown (Nigredo), which alchemists believed was necessary for the spirit to be released from the physical form.. This earth rots with the water and purifies itself; and when this has occurred, the entire art of our mastery is accomplished.

Nevertheless, this stone Stone: Here referring to the "Philosopher's Stone" not as a solid rock, but as the evolving substance in the vessel. of ours is only a vapor and mist, which one calls an "air"; this rises bit by bit from the corporeal mercury Mercury: In this context, the "Mercury of the Philosophers," a specialized metallic spirit, rather than common quicksilver. upwards into the heights and spreads out into its sphere Sphere: The upper part of the glass flask or "alchemical heaven" where vapors collect., then falls again into the depths through the dew. Therefore Hermes Hermes: Referring to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary founder of alchemy. named it an air, for the generation of our offspring occurs in the air, and that which is born is wisely born in the air original: "nam generatio geniti nostri fit in aëre, & nascens sapienter in aëre nascitur.". Likewise: Elsewhere it ascends from the earth to the heaven and descends again to the earth, acquiring the power of things above and things below original: "Alibi ascendit à terra in cœlum iterumque descendit in terram, acquirendo vim superiorum & inferiorum." This is a central tenet of the famous Emerald Tablet, describing the distillation process as a bridge between the physical and spiritual realms..

But through the constant boiling and unceasing heat, it becomes somewhat thicker through the continual rising and falling; yet it does not proceed quickly, because the entire body must first reach the height of its circle. For only when this cycle has passed and been brought to an end does it begin and start