The Sophic Nucleus: An Interpretation of the Tincture of the Physicists of Paracelsus

Pymander The first book of the Corpus Hermeticum, a collection of Greco-Egyptian wisdom texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. chapter 1, and says: The Word original: "Das Wort"; similar to the Logos in the Gospel of John, representing divine creative reason. stood by the Moist Nature and sustained it from within; but out of the Moist Nature a clear and light Fire flew forth into the heights. In the same way, the light Air, following the Spirit, took the middle place between the Fire and the Water. The Earth and the Water, however, lay so mixed together that one could not see the face of the Earth, as it was covered by the Water. These two were later moved by the Spiritual Word.

Now then, Theophrastus Theophrastus von Hohenheim, famously known as Paracelsus (1493–1541), a Swiss physician and alchemist who revolutionized the field. is of the same opinion in this matter, except that he does not so explicitly call the materia original: "materiam"; the fundamental substance or "First Matter" of the universe. Water or a Moist Nature; he says only that it is composed of these substances (understand: those which it has locked within itself as if in an arca original: "arca"; Latin for chest or ark, used here to describe a protective vessel or container.), and here calls such three things an Eagle, a Lion, and a Golden Radiance. In his book Metamorphoses original: "in libro metamorph:"; referring to Paracelsus’s writings on the transformation of substances., he calls them otherwise: Mercury, Salt, and Sulfur original: "Mercurium, Sal vnnd Sulphur"; these are the "Tria Prima" or Three Principles that Paracelsus believed composed all material things.. This is exactly the meaning of Hermes and other philosophers, who speak of Spirit, Body, and Soul. Just as these three from the artist The text cuts off at "Künst-", completed by the catchword "ler" to form Künstler (artist or alchemical practitioner).