ON THE GENERATION OF METALS

...it burns away [the dross] of metals, but with the perfect generative part, it tints and improves. By this same reasoning, it works similar effects in animals, purging harmful humors In ancient medicine, humors were the bodily fluids—blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile—thought to determine health. and strengthening the rest. But if its burning parts are separated and the generative parts are preserved, it becomes a supreme cordial A medicine intended to invigorate the heart and spirit. without any other addition. But just as the former imperfect metals are changed into gold (☉), when a harvest original: "mess" (messis), referring to a gathered essence of these generative parts is introduced in the right proportion, it is able to weigh down and subdue the remaining parts and reduce them to a similar holiness. This is just as experienced commanders change the disposition of an army from a five-fold or square formation to any other shape in an instant by the addition or subtraction of soldiers at the base, etc.

Gold (☉), since it is the most excellent of all earthly things, consists of one part light, three parts water, three parts mercury (☿), and one part earth, from which a perfect harmony results.

Electrum A naturally occurring alloy of gold and silver, highly prized in alchemy. consists of a terrestrial base of six, but possesses a celestial harmony; it is forged from nine parts Light, 2 of water, 3 of mercury (☿), and 1 of earth. These compose a double octave or a triple fifth The author is using musical intervals to describe the mathematical ratios of the elements.. He who has ears to hear will necessarily pay attention to this celestial music.

If the aforementioned gold is first fermented with quicksilver original: "arg. vivo" (argentum vivum) along with its specific properties and generative figures until they obtain the dominion of a right-angled triangle, and then—by some specific body, either celestial or terrestrial, according to whatever course is eminent in the whole universe and in each individual—it particularly ferments that which is multiplicative and projective of its species, whether it be star, metal, mineral, plant, or animal...

HARMONY OF THE PLANETS

...it may be animated; nor is there anything imperfect, deviant, monstrous, or sterile in the whole of nature, if the method of generation is perfectly understood. These methods vary with the species of almost the entire world.

Here we must observe the great and ineffable Wisdom and kindness of God, who out of the seven planets established only one as absolutely destructive due to its extreme penetration—namely Saturn (♄)—and one also absolutely destructive due to its numbness and inability to act—namely Mars (♂)—and four amicable ones: the Sun (☉), Jupiter (♃), Venus (♀), and the Moon (☽); so that the number of friends doubles the number of enemies. He left one, Mercury (☿), as indifferent Meaning neutral or adaptable., composed from the extreme and middle geometric proportions of the rest; and thus the most wise Moderator God instituted and ordained it in the Zodiac and among the fixed stars.

The seeds of things, thus formed in the abyss by the meeting of stellar rays, are tossed here and there, and through perpetual contact, they grow as they move along, like a snowball, until at last they are powerfully attracted by a magnet composed of similar parts as they approach, and so they become cohabitants of the same body. But if they are tossed in the abyss for a long time, they pile up into a huge mass, grow, and thus become either a star or a comet, which differ only in their duration.