PREFACE

This is the First Process. Let there be made a most rectified spirit of wine original: "vini spiritus"; concentrated ethanol, which through repeated sublimations lays aside its watery parts original: "phlegma" so that it becomes entirely flammable, sulfurous, and volatile. It should emerge as true alkool original: "alkool"; highly refined spirit, and so fleeting that a poured drop does not touch the ground but vanishes into the breezes; and this shall be our first solvent menstruum|A solvent used in alchemy to dissolve solid materials. Then take mercury revived from cinnabar in the usual manner through a retort original: "cornutam", and you will have mercury most pure, free from every blemish, impurity, and falsification. Take the said revived mercury, which you must still purify with salt and distilled vinegar; disturb it perpetually in a glass vessel and shake it strongly, so that the vinegar is imbued with a black mask original: "atra larva"; referring to the darkened impurities rising to the surface, which you must pour off and replace with fresh vinegar. Repeat this as many times as necessary until it no longer turns black. Then you will notice the mercury is exceedingly glittering, like a flash of lightning, which will be the proof of the best mercury for our work. Then take four parts of this resuscitated mercury and eight parts of meteorized mercury mercury that has been sublimated or vaporized prepared by your own hand; mix them together in a wooden mortar with a wooden pestle until no granule of living mercury appears any longer, which you will achieve with no small effort by grinding and mixing. Afterward, put this mixture into an aludel aludel|A pear-shaped sublimating vessel used in alchemy and commit it to a sand fire. Apply a temperate heat for sublimation, which you should increase little by little until the entire matter is "meteorized" vaporized and condensed in the upper part of the vessel. Collect this skillfully and "meteorize" it five times more, just as you operated before. Then you will possess a most nectar-like and crystalline sublimate. This is our salt, the salt of the wise, which works wonders. Grind this in a wooden mortar and reduce it to a fine powder; place it in a glass gourd original: "cucurbita", and pour over it our fiery spirit prepared above to the height of two or three fingers. Close it Hermetically sealed airtight, usually by melting the glass neck of the bottle and digest it in a very slow fire for 74 hours, moving and agitating it several times a day. When this time has passed, distill it with a slow fire, and it will belch forth the spirit of wine together with the mercurial spirit; preserve this in a well-closed vessel so that it does not exhale. Pour our fiery spirit back onto the remaining salt, close it as above, digest, distill, and store it. Repeat this until our salt is totally dissolved and has ascended through the alembic alembic|The top cap of a still that directs vapors into a cooling tube with our fiery spirit. Now you have perfected a great work; now our mercury is partially made volatile; now it will gradually be fit to receive the tincture tincture|A potent medicinal or transmuting essence of the Sun Gold or the Moon Silver. Truly, you have performed a great work; therefore, give immense thanks to God, who has led this wondrous work thus far. Now you see that this work is totally natural and partially artificial. Nor have we described this great work to you shrouded in Cimmerian darkness, but clearer than the Sun—unlike how our Ancients always imposed upon us with parables, hieroglyphics, fables, and riddles. Therefore, with all these numbers completed, take our mercurial spirit, the fiery spirit which hides our magic steel original: "chalybem nostrum magicum"; likely a reference to a specific metallic principle in its belly, and put it into a glass retort to which you connect a receiver. With the joints very well sealed, draw off the fiery spirit of wine with a very slow fire; and there will remain in the bottom of the vessel the mercurial quintessence, or the soul of mercury. Drive this through the retort with a stronger fire so that it becomes plainly volatile, as all the Philosophers say:

If you dissolve the fixed and make the dissolved fly,

And fix the flyer, it will make you live secure.

This is our Moon, our fountain, in which the King and Queen Symbolic terms for the active/sulfurous and passive/mercurial principles, or Gold and Mercury wash themselves. Keep this precious mercurial quintessence, now highly volatile, in a well-closed vessel for further use. Now let us proceed to the operation of common gold, which we communicate without deceit, wordy ambiguity, or envy, so that from common gold we may have our Philosophical Gold, just as from common mercury we prepared the Mercury of the Philosophers by means of our philosophical operation. In the name of the Lord, therefore, take common gold, purify it in the common way by means of antimony, and convert it into granules, which should be washed with salt and vinegar; it will then be pure enough. Therefore, take one part of this gold, over which pour three parts of our quintessence or soul of mercury—as the Philosophers count, namely from seven to ten, so we also count; this is our Philosophical number, therefore we begin from three and one. Let them be married together, like a bridegroom with a bride to procreate offspring of their own kind. By means of our Philosophical Heat, you will see the common gold submerged and plainly melted into a liquid original: "in deliquium coivisse", because it is of its own kind, and gold draws its origin from this fountain. Therefore, it is like a mother to it, and by reason of this wondrous fountain, common gold is converted into our gold, which none of the Philosophers has uncovered until now. Now the marriage is consummated; now of two, one is made. Thus the Philosophical Sulfur is ready, and as the Philosophers say, once the sulfur is dissolved, the stone is ready. Rejoice and exult, for you possess the Artalic treasure A reference to alchemical wealth or the secret of Artaldis, and meanwhile ask God that He may further prosper your undertakings, as He has been favorable thus far. Therefore, in God's name, take our Philosophical vessel, in which the King and Queen embrace each other as if in a marriage bed, and place it in our Philosophical Bath a water bath or controlled heating environment. Leave it there until the water has been made earth; then peace is made between water and fire. Now the elements have no more contrariety, because when the elements have been converted into earth they no longer oppose each other, since in earth all elements rest. For the Philosophers say: When you see the water coagulate itself, you are born to the true science, and your operations are truly Philosophical. Common gold is now no longer common but ours, or Philosophical, because of our operations: first highly fixed, then highly volatile, then finally highly fixed. The whole science depends on the conversion of elements. At first, the gold was a metal; now it is a sulfur capable of converting all metals into its own sulfur. Now our tincture is made into total sulfur, which has the energy to turn all diseases back into their former health. This is our most universal medicine against all diseases of the human body, even the most lamented. Therefore, give infinite thanks to the Almighty God for all these things which He has bestowed upon us, and you, when