The Heaven of the Philosophers, or the Book of Vexations

whether anything or nothing follows from it.

10

But the Work itself must be done, by which something is reduced into a state of near-nothingness, and again something arises from that near-nothingness.

11

This is the proverb of the incredulous, but it is not altogether false; Destruction or Corruption perfects the good: for the good cannot appear in any way on account of its concealer: The good is also not at all good while it is concealed: But the concealer is to be removed, so that the good may freely be able to appear with its clarity.

12

Gloss. The concealer is the Mountain, Sand, Earth, or Stone in which the Metal is found.

13

But each one of the visible Metals is a concealer of the other six Metals.

14

And because by the Element of Fire everything imperfect is corrupted, burned, and reduced to nothing, as are these five metals: ☿ Mercury, ♃ Jupiter/tin, ♂ Mars/iron, ♀ Venus/copper, ♄ Saturn/lead: whereas perfect ones are not consumed by similar fire, such as ☉ Sol/gold and ☾ Luna/silver, which is why they remain in the fire, and they take up their own body from the other imperfect ones in which they are corrupted or destroyed, and appear visibly.

15

Who and by what title this is done can be gathered from the seven following Canons, as well as the nature or property of whatever metal exists, and what it operates with others and can do in their mixture.

16

But this is to be noted especially: that these seven Canons cannot be understood by any reader, however sharp, at first sight or light reading: For any intellect does not