Ripley's Recapitulation of the Twelve Gates

RECAPITULATION

So to bring this treatise to a final end,
And briefly to conclude all these secrets here,
Diligently look at, and attend to your figure,
Which contains in it all these secrets great and small,
And if you conceive it, both theoretically and practically,
By figures and colours, by scripture plain,
It wisely conceived, you may not work in vain.

Consider first the latitude of this precious stone,
Beginning in the first side noted in the West,
Where the red man and the white woman be made one,
Espoused with the spirit of life to live in rest,
Earth and water equally proportioned, that is best,
And one part of the earth is good, and of the spirit three,
Which twelve to four also of the earth may be.

Three of the wife, and one of the man you take,
And the less of the spirit in this dispousation,
The better your Calcination for certain you shall make,
Then forth into the North proceed by obscuration,
Called the Eclipsing of the red man and his white wife,
Loosening them and altering them between winter and spring,
Turning earth into water, dark and nothing clear.

From thence by many colours into the East ascend,
Then shall the Moon be full appearing by day light,
Then is the purgatory passed, and her course at an end,
There is the uprising of the Sun appearing bright,
There is Summer after Spring, and day after night:
The earth and water which were black be turned to air,
And clouds of darkness blown over, and all appears fair.

And as the beginning of your practice was in the West,
And in the North the perfect mean of profound alteration,
So in the East after them is the beginning of speculation,
But of this course the Sun makes consummation up in the South,
There the elements are turned into fire by circulation,
Then to win your desire you need not be in doubt,
For the wheel of our philosophy you have turned about.

But turn your wheel about again two times,
Which being comprehended all the secrets of our philosophy,
In twelve chapters made plain to you, if you conceive this well,
And all the secrets by and by of our lower Astronomy,
Of how you shall calcine bodies, perfect, dissolve, divide, and putrefy,
With perfect knowledge of all the poles which be in our heaven,
Shining with inexplicable colours, never were a scene more gay.

And thus our secret conclusion know without fail,
Our red man tinges not, nor his wife, until they be tinged,
Therefore if you will lift yourself by this craft to avail,
Hide the altitude of bodies, and show out their profundity,
Destroying the first quality in every one of your materials,
And repair anon in them secondary qualities more glorious,
And in one glass, and with one rule, turn four natures into one.

Pale and black with false citrine, imperfect white and red,
The Peacock's feathers in gay colours, the rainbow which shall go over,
The spotted panther, the lion green, the Crows bill blue as lead.
These shall appear before you perfect white, and many more others.
And after the perfect white, grey, false citrine also,
And after these, there shall appear the red body invariable,
Then you have a medicine of the third order of his own kind multipliable.

You must divide your white Elixir into two parts,
Before you rubify, and into two glasses let these be done,
If you will have your Elixir for Sun and Moon do both so,
And multiply these soon into Mercury to great quantity,
And even if you had not at the beginning enough to fill a spoon,
Yet may you so multiply both white and red,
That if you live a thousand years, they shall stand you in stead.

Therefore I counsel you have recourse to your wheel,
And study well to know each chapter truly,
Meddle with no phantastic multipliers, but let them be,
Who will flatter you, feigning to be cunning in Philosophy,
Do as I bid you, them dissolve these aforesaid bases wisely,
And turn them into perfect oils with our true ardent water,
By circulation that must be done according to our intent.

These oils will fix crude Mercury and convert all bodies,
Into perfect Sun and Moon, when you shall make Projection,
That oily substance pure and fixed which Raimund Lully did call,
His Basilisk, of which he never made so plain detection,
Pray for me to God, that I may be one of his elect,
And that he will at domesday know me for one of his,
And grant me his bliss to reign with him forever. Amen

End of the Recapituation.

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