The Saturnian Kingdoms Converted into the Golden Age

TO THE READER.

When we wish to prepare the stone The Philosopher's Stone; the legendary substance of the "Great Work" used for transmutation and medicine. or any fixation original: "fixationem"; the process of making a volatile or liquid substance stable and solid, particularly when exposed to heat., we must perform that conjunction original: "conjunctionem"; the union of alchemical opposites, such as the "king" and "queen" or "sulfur" and "mercury." with our dry water. original: "aquâ siccâ"; a paradoxical term for a substance—often identified with "Philosophical Mercury"—that acts as a solvent but does not wet the hands.

Besides the Apothecary, let the dyers who dye cloth also serve as an example to you. They have * Madder original: "Rubram," though corrected in the margin to "Rubia." Madder is a plant root used since antiquity to create a deep red dye. for the cloth which they wish to be soaked in red; and they have—Note Well—alum. original: "alumen"; a mineral salt used as a "mordant," a substance that fixes a dye to the fibers of a fabric so it does not wash out. The cloth is the body original: "corpus"; in alchemical terms, the physical substance that receives the "spirit" or color of the tincture.;

Perhaps MADDER original: "RUBIAM", in French La Garence*.