The New Chemical Light

...[extremely] moist, there are masculine and feminine, etc. Each of these by itself is most ready to produce things similar to itself in its own sphere, and thus the Most High willed: These four do not rest, but always act upon one another, and each by itself emits its own subtle substance, and they meet in the center. In the center, however, is the Archeus Archeus: a term popularized by Paracelsus referring to the "internal alchemist" or vital force that directs natural processes, the servant of nature, who by mixing those Seeds original: "Spermata" casts them forth. How this is done may be seen more fully in the Epilogue of these twelve Treatises.

TREATISE III.

The first matter of Metals is twofold, but one without the other does not create a Metal. The first and principal is a moisture mixed with the heat of the air; this the Philosophers named Mercury, which is governed by the rays of the Sun and Moon in the Philosophical sea The "Philosophical sea" is a metaphor for the universal solvent or the chaotic state of matter during the early stages of the Great Work.. The second is the dry heat of the earth, which they called Sulphur.

But because all true Philosophers have hidden this most of all, we shall explain it a little more clearly—especially the weight, for if this is ignored, everything is destroyed. Thus it happens that many produce failures original: "abortus"; literally "abortions," here meaning failed experiments or unnatural results in the laboratory. from a good starting point. For there are some who take the whole body as the matter or seed or Sperm, others take only a fragment, and all these wander from the right path. For example, if someone [takes] a man’s foot, and [a woman’s]