Ripley's Eighth Gate

THE EIGHTH GATE - SUBLIMATION

Here of our Sublimation a word or two
I have to speak, which is the eighth gate.
Fools do sublime, but you do not sublime so,
For we sublime not in the way they do,
To sublime truly therefore you shall not miss,
If you can make they bodies first spiritual,
And then your spirits (as I have taught you) corporeal.

Some do sublime Mercury from vitriol and salt,
And other spirits from scales of iron and steel,
Calcined from egg shells, and from quicklime,
And in their manner yet sublime they right well,
But such subliming accords never a deal,
To our intents, for we sublime not so,
To true subliming therefore, now I will go.

In Sublimation first beware of one thing,
That thou sublime to the top of the vessel;
For without violence you shall not bring it down again,
But there it will abide and dwell.
So I tell you it rejoices with refrigeration,
Keep it down therefore with temperate heat,
Full forty days, till it wax black and brown.

For then the soul begins to come out
From his own veins, for all that is subtle,
Will with the spirit ascend without doubt,
Bear in your mind therefore, and think on this,
How here eclipsed be your bodies,
As they do putrefy subliming more and more into water
Until they be all borne upwards.

And thus when they have spued out their venom,
Into the water then it does appear black,
Becoming spiritual each deal without doubt,
Subliming easily in our manner,
Into the water, which does bear it:
For in the air our child must thus be born
Of the water again, as I have said before.

But when these two by continual Sublimation,
Be laboured so with heat both moist and temperate,
That is all white and purely made spiritual,
Then heaven upon earth must be reiterated,
Until the soul with the body be incorporated,
That earth become all that before was heaven,
Which will be done in seven Sublimations.

And Sublimations we make for three causes,
The first cause is, to make the body spiritual,
The second is, that the spirit may be corporeal ,
And become fixed with it and consubstantial,
The third cause is, that from its filthy original
It may be cleansed, and its saltiness sulphurious,
May be diminished in it, which is infectious.

Then when they thus together be freed from impurities,
They will sublime up whiter than the snow;
That sight will greatly comfort you :
For then anon perfectly you shalt know,
The spirits shall so be thrown down,
That this eighth gate shall to thee be unlocked,
Out of which many are shut and mocked.

The end of the eighth gate

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