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Rosarium Philosophorum (part 5)

Here is born the king of all glory
There cannot be any created
Greater in the world than he
Neither by Art nor Nature
Of what living creature soever
The Philosophers call him their son
He effecteth all things which they do
And whatsoever men expect of him
He giveth continual health
Gold, Silver and precious stones
He giveth fortitude, long life, beauty
And Purity. He expelleth Anger,
Sorrow, Poverty and diseases
Blessed is he on whom God bestows this gift.

The Answer of Luna the Queen:

Here is born a noble and a rich Queen
Whom the Philosophers liken unto their Daughter
She multiplies and brings forth infinite Children
Free from all hurt impurity and spot
She expells death and hates poverty
She gives wealth, health, honour
And all good things
She excells Gold, Silver and precious stones
And all medicines both precious and simple
There is nothing on the whole face of the Earth
That may be compared unto her
For which give endless thanks to the great God of Heaven.

Geber: We are certain by our investigation and we have considered by manifest experiences that all these words are true which have been written by us only in our volumes, and secondly we have seen those things by trial and reason which we have brought into those volumes, but we have written those things in the Sum of the Perfection of our magistery, which we by our experiences have extracted with our fingers, seen with our eyes and felt with our hands, therefore let the wise artificer study in our volumes by gathering together our dispersed intention which we have set down in divers places with the intent that it should not be made common to the wicked and ignorant. And let him prove that which he collects by studying and experimenting with politic instance of labour until he attain to the full knowledge. Therefore, let the Artificer exercise himself and he shall find. But we, to the intent we may avoid the slanders of the envious, will declare it, because we have not delivered our science and knowledge by the continuance of speech, but we have sprinkled it in diverse little chapters and to this intent, because if it should have been delivered in continuance of speech, the improbate as well as the honest would unworthily have usurped it. And for this cause, where we have spoken most plainly there we have most of all concealed and hidden it, yet not under riddles and dark questions, but we have spoken unto the artificer under plain order of speech and have delivered it in the order of talk. Let not, therefore, the Son of Learning despair, because if he seek it he shall find it, because he that shall seek it by the goodness of his own industry shall find out the science, but he that shall seek it by the following of books shall very slowly attain to this most precious art, because we have declared this art only to ourselves and to no other, being found out by ourselves only that most true and altogether certain, since we have expounded unto them the way of investigation delivered unto us, but we have written that which is found to none but to ourselves only, but the manner of searching and policy of means. Therefore, let the workman that is of a good mind exercise himself by these things which we have delivered and he shall rejoice that he hath found out the gift of the most high God. Therefore, let these words suffice for the full searching out of this most excellent art. So far the words of Geber.

Geber in his Summary in the sixteenth chapter of natural principles says thus, for we must note that after the Stone shall be purified and perfectly cleansed from everything corrupting it, and after it shall be fermented, you shall not need any more to change your vessel, nor to open it, but only to pray that God may preserve it from breaking, and for this cause the Philosopher said, that in one vessel the whole magistery is effected. And you must know that in forty days and nights the work is accomplished for white after the true purification of the Stone, because in the preparation there can be no determined time unless the artificer labour well, and in ninety days and nights the work is accomplished for the red. And these are the true times for the full perfection. Understand this concerning Coagulation which is done after purification, which purification hath nothing else to be done but in the putrefaction and conversion of the body into a mere spirit, and when thou shalt have this, praise God.

Senior: I am Luna, increasing moist and cold, and thou art Sol, hot and moist (otherwise dry). When we shall be coupled in equity of state in a mansion which is not made otherwise but with light fire, having with itself great heat in which we shall be emptied, and we shall be as a woman that wants the fruit of her increase, and Sol and myself when we shall be conjoined we shall be emptied in the belly of the house being shut, I will by flattery take thy soul from thee, if thou take away my beauty and comely shape, we shall rejoice and shall be exalted by the rejoicing of the spirit when we shall ascend the order of the aged, then the light of thy light shall be poured into my light, and of thee and me there is a commixtion made of wine and sweet water, and I forbid my melting after thou shalt have put on blackness with my colour, which is like ink after my solution and coagulation. When we shall enter into the house of love, my body shall be coagulated and I shall be in my emptiness.

Sol answers saying: If thou do this and wilt not hurt me, 0 Luna, my body shall be changed and afterwards I will give unto thee a new virtue of penetrating by which thou shalt be mighty in the virtue of the fire of liquefaction and purging, out of which thou shalt go forth without any diminishing or blackness, as copper and lead, and thou shalt not be resisted, when as thou art not weak. These are the words of Adamalus.

Raymund Lully in his Epistle to Rupert, King of France
You must know that there is a certain oil of a golden colour extracted out of the Lead of the Philosophers, with which, if you shall sublime a mineral stone, a vegetable or an animal, after the first fixtion three or four times, it will excuse you from all labour of Solutions and Coagulations. The reason is because this is hidden which makes the medicine penetrable, friendly and conjoinable with all, and it will augment the effect thereof beyond measure, so that in the world there is not a more secret thing.

Wherefore I speak things which are miraculous, which seemed to be incredible to all the ancient Philosophers, that is, that thou shalt know well to separate this oil from the wateriness and thou shalt labour in the manner of the mixtion of them, and thou shalt be able to make the Stone in 30 days, but this is not necessary by itself because the solutions and coagulations of it (as hath been said) are quickly made and done.

But if the Sublimation of it should be made, I believe the tincture of the Stone would be much enlarged. Out of these things therefore choose your purpose. The reason of Galen whereupon Ixir or Elixir is made and he says that diverse teachers put diverse medicines. Some say that Ixir is of the minerals of mountains, some say of herbs, some of beasts and urine. But it is made of one of those things, which is put in an Alembic, and first the water comes forth in fume that is the spirit, secondly Oil in liquor, that is the Soul, but the third which remains in the vessel is earthly and it is called the body, for of those three, spirit, soul and body, Ixir is made being so decocted that it may be mingled and melted. Some say that Sulphur and Argent vive will become Ixir if a man make them fusible.

Note that neither water, nor oil, nor fire, hath his efficacy to tinct, but it is first rectified by reiteration of reduction to the faeces and distillations. We add even 8 to 10 times therefore, in all things as well to be dissolved or fixed or tincted, or in any thing to be effected there is a mean to be observed, because that intention in due order doth ornament and accomplish a thing, that is to say that imperfect bodies be duly calcined subtly washed and mollified, imbibed or cerated and put to solution in manner aforsaid. But let the spirits be subtly washed and purified and let them be put to mollification and humiliation, and let those things that are hot and dry be dissolved, calcined or sublimed according to that he shall see and it is judged better according to the sound sense of the working.

I am the true green and Golden Lion without cares,
In me all the secrets of the Philosophers are hidden.

Whereupon Lucas and Eximenus say, understand all you that search after knowledge, that no tincture is made but of our white copper. For our copper is not common copper. Common copper is corrupted and infecteth everything which is put unto it, but the Copper of Philosophers maketh perfect and whiteneth that to which it is associated.

Therefore Plato says, all gold is copper, but all copper is not gold, therefore our copper has body, soul and spirit, and these three are one, from one, and with one, which is the root of it, therefore the copper of the Philosophers is their Elixir accomplished and perfected of body, soul and spirit. So the Philosophers have named the Stone by diverse names that it might be manifest to the wise and hidden from the ignorant, but by what name soever it is named, yet is it always one and the same thing.

Whereupon Merculinus says:

It is an hidden stone and buried in a deep fountain
And cast in the ways and covered with dirt or dung
This one Stone hath all names
Whereupon Morienus, that godly man,says:
This Stone is a Stone and no Stone
It is a bird and no bird
It is Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus,
And Luna
Now silver, now gold and now an element
Now water, now wine, now blood
Now virgin's milk,now spume of the sea or vinegar
Now Sal Gemme, now common salt
Now auripigmentum
Now the purged sea purified with Sulphur
And thus they figure it because they would not reveal it to the Ignorant
Nor conceal it from those that be wise
And that the Copper which is handled be not distributed to fools
This only Luna is called by all names

And these are the orders of the operations of this Stone by the help of which this thing which we seek is engendered and is brought into actual essence.

And Sublimation is one means, Descension another, Distillation the third Calcination the fourth, Solution the fifth, Congelation the sixth, Fixion the seventh, Iteration the eighth, Ceration the ninth and many more like these they recite, which orders surely although they be diverse in reason, yet they are all one in matter, for sometimes the Philosophers considering the matter of them which when it is in the vessel and feels the Sun or the heat incontinently and breathes and evaporates away into the form of most subtle fume, and ascends into the head of the vessel. And this they have called Ascension and Sublimation. Afterwards, they seeing the matter which ascended to descend to the bottom of the vessel, they have called it Distillation or Descension, moreover they seeing that substance or matter to thicken and wax black and to give an evil savour, they have called it Putrefaction. They seeing a black and dark colour and perceiving it after a long time to cast forth an evil smell and a little whiteness to come like the colour of ashes, they have called it Inceration or Dealbation.

Morienus: The whole magistery is nothing else but an extraction of water out of earth, and a casting of water upon the earth until it be putrified and this earth putrefies with water, and when it shall be cleansed, then by the help of him which ruleth all things, the whole magistery is effected. Moreover they seeing the earth to be mingled with the water, and the water little by little to be diminished by reason of his temperate decoction and the earth to increase, they have all said this to be perfect Ceration. Whereupon the Philosopher says that the earth is Cerated, Imbibed, and by the temperate decoction of the Sun, that is of the heat, it is dried with the water and the whole matter is turned into earth.

Whereupon Morienus says, this is the pure and full force if it be turned into earth.

Lastly, they seeing that the whole matter came into a certain dissipation and how it reduced itself to a hard substance, and because it melted not but stood strictly, they have said that this was perfect Congelation.

Whereupon Plato says, dissolve our Stone and afterwards Congeal it with great wariness as it has been demonstrated unto you, and you shall have as it were the whole magistery. The same man says in another place, Take our Stone and put it in a vessel and dry it with a light fire until it be broken and afterwards decoct it at the heat of the Sun until it be congealed, and know that the whole magistery is nothing else but to make true solution and perfect and natural congelation. These are the words of Plato.

Plato also says, Dissolve and Congeal and thus you shall know the whole magistery. Likewise they seeing the aforesaid matter perfectly congealed and thickened, so that by no means it resolved itself any more into water, nor into fume, they have said that it was truly fixed, because they saw that congelation and thickness or fixion, by reason of the greater decoction of heat, to come into perfect dryness and whiteness, and because that whiteness was beyond all other whiteness, therefore they have said that this was perfect Calcination. They seeing this matter to stand to its colour and to be changed with infinite colours, because this could not be done but by the resolution of the matter therefore they called this resolution Solution, for the elements are discontinuated with that resolution, and they die and suffer. And therefore the Philosophers call these elements, Man and Wife, wherefore, the foolish and ignorant are shamefully deceived who believe that the Philosophers' medicine is created out of any other thing, when as the Philosophers say. "The Sons of Alchemy and others trusting to all their Dissolutions, Sublimations, Conjunctions, Separations, Congelations, Preparations, Contritions and other deceits, vaunt themselves saying that there is no other Gold but theirs, no other water but theirs, which is also called most sharp vinegar, no other Dissolution and Congelation but theirs, which is made with a soft fire, no other putrefaction but theirs."

Plato in his Summary: Therefore let thy seeking be of the kind of both of the lights of the world, for Gold circumpasses the upper part and Silver the lower part.

Aristotle: No tincting poison is engendered without Sol and his shadow that is his wife.

Hermes in his secrets: Sol is his father and Luna his mother.

Rosarius: Whosoever endeavours to seek any other tincture without Sol and Luna, he is likened to a man that would climb a ladder without steps, therefore it is necessary that we have our receptacle fit for tincture, which is agreeable unto it, with a certain similitude unto the Father, and this receptacle ought to be Luna herself, because Sol of itself is of very hard fusion or melting, and in like sort Luna by itself, but when they are joined both together, then they both flow and melt very easily, and thus therefore the Goldsmiths make their solders.

The Philosopher: The woman is a certain receptacle of the seed of the man, because she preserves it and keeps it in her Cell and Matrix and there it is nourished and grows even to the time of his ripeness, therefore let us now choose unto him a wife, that he may have a receptacle of his seed, whom we may choose for the wife, which is nearer to him in simplicity and purity, because nothing is more near to the man than the wife which are homogenous.

Hermes says in his Allegories: Luna is the light of the night, the night is the nativity of Darkness, which God has ordained for the governing of the world. And Luna receives her Light from Sol and is beloved, because the light of Sol is in her and because the nature of Sol overcomes the nature of Luna. Our Mercury is made of a mineral and vegetable joined together, because things joined together do profit more, than if they should be separated by themselves, out of those things consider the necessity of both Mercuries.

Avicenna: The first thing in the work is to dissolve the Stone into his first matter.

Senior and Hermes: Dissolve the bodies into waters.

Plato in his Summary: Thou wantest that which thou labourest for in the Solution of bodies therefore it is meet to continue a gentle fire upon it until all the whole be dissolved, and by it the work is effected.

Note this, the circulatory reversion of all circulary things is not effected until they be brought unto their first matter.

Rasis: Unless you dissolve the bodies you labour in vain.

Albertus Magnus: Know for a certainty that no spirit of bodies can be tincted unless it first be dissolved.

Morienus: The operation is vain in this Art unless all natural things pass into vapour by their nature, and if it shall be dissolved then the alchemical work is prepared and multiplied.

Sorin in his 11th Distinction: Perfect Solution is the beginning of the regimen, but that the body may wax thin like unto a spirit, then it is meet to dissolve them and the regimen of bodies, as I have said before, is dissolved.

Alphidius: But Argent vive which is extracted from that black body is moist and white and clean from barks, that the work perish not.

Morienus: It is convenient for thee to know that white fume is the soul and spirit of those dissolved bodies, and surely if white fume had not been Gold, there Alchemy had not been.

Rosanius: This is our most notable Mercury and God never created a more notable thing under heaven beside a rational soul.

Hermes King of the Grecians: The dissolved body is continual water congealing Mercury with perpetual congelation.

Hipocras: He that will purge bodies must first make them fluxible, the blackness of putrefaction according to the opinion of some men lasts 4 or 5 days.

Senior: The first key is the extraction of moistures and fatness, of which these are the signs, that is to say, superabundant blackness which being consumed, the soul is now in the water.

Albertus: Unless the soul shall come forth from the body and shall ascend upward into heaven, you shall profit nothing in this art.

Senior, the Parable concerning the White Tincture: If my beloved parents shall taste of life and shall be fed with mere milk and shall be made drunk with my white, and shall lie in my bed, they shall beget the Son of Luna which shall excell all his predecessors, and if my beloved shall carry him from the red tomb of rock and shall taste of the fountain of his mother, and shall be coupled with my red wine and shall be made drunk with me, and shall couple with me freely in his bed, and in my love his sperm shall enter into my cell, I shall conceive and be pregnant and at my time will bring forth a most mighty Son ruling and reigning over all kings and princes of the earth, crowned with a golden crown of victory, of the most high God who lives and reigns world without end.

The Turba of the Philosophers: You searchers of this Art when you see that whiteness appearing in all places of the glass, then imagine that redness is hidden in that whiteness, and then you must not extract it until the whole red be made to decoct.

Senior: Make black white, and every white red, because water whitens and fire illuminates, for it shines in colour like a ruby by a tincting soul, which it hath gotten by virtue of the fire.

Hermes: The seventh regimen is of Luna, that is, to dry to make red, to make hot and to fix by the space of 25 days and so you have the finishing of the work. The colour of the soul is red. White will be red. Whiteness is our redness. Likewise, this our Stone is fire and created of fire, and turned into fire, and the soul of it stays in the fire.

The Riddle of Hermes Concerning the Red Tincture: I am crowned, and decked with a precious crown and adorned with princely garments, for that I cause joy to enter into bodies.

Hermes in his Third Treatise: Come ye Sons of Wisdom and now we will rejoice and be merry together, because death is conquered and our Son now reigneth and is clothed with a red ornament and with flesh. Now our Son being born a King, takes the tincture from the fire, but death the Sea and darkness fly from him, and the Dragon flies the beams of the Sun which kept the holes, and our Son being dead doth live, and a King comes from the fire and shall rejoice in wedlock and secret things shall appear, and our Son now vivified is made a warrior in the fire and supereminent in tinctures.

The Metaphor of Bellinus the Philosopher concerning Sol: Know thee that my father Sol hath given me power over all power and hath put on me the garment of glory and the whole world seeketh me and runneth after me, for I am the greatest now they have known my virtue and altitude, for I am only and alone which of his grace has given me that virtue, and men seek of my servants that which is sought of me, and they have not come unto it but through me, and the earth with all her forces cannot make me humble myself. Yea, rather I am above it and above my servants, until I humble them and extract from the nature and power of them, and endue them with my brightness and fair light which my father hath given unto me in all their works, for I am excelling, which exalt and surpass all things and none of my servants can be above me but one to whom it is granted because he is contrary to me, and he destroys me, yet he destroys not my nature, and that is Saturn who separates all my members. Afterwards I go to my mother who gathers together all my divided and separated members. I am illuminating all my things and I cause light to appear manifestly in the journey of my father Saturn, and also of my mother who is an enemy unto me. But if this should not be, I could not drink of the souls of animals and of plants, but I come with the heat of the fire to expell the virtue and iniquity of them from me. I am dwelling upon the face of the mineral and I give to my servants of my extremities, and my name is called by great names and he that studies in me cares not for any thing, but he is not satisfied with me. I carry ships through the sea and I build great cities and towers, seek not in me my greatness, therefore you wise men I tell you that unless you kill me your undertaking shall not be perfect and the degree of your wisdom increases in my sister Luna, and not with any of my servants. And if you should know my secret, I am seed cast into pure earth, which growing increases and multiplies and it brings forth fruit to him that sows it, because every thing that is engendered with his kind, doth multiply the form of his own shape and of no other, as of corn there comes corn, and so of other things, and in this I have expounded all the figures. Therefore, when I shall be with my white pure moist and clean wife, I add to the beauty of her face, to her goodness and virtue, for she is obedient unto me. Therefore, when I shall be joined unto her, there is nothing more excellent and better in the world, for she shall be impregnated and shall grow and she shall be as I am in substance and colour, because by this magistery the seed is multiplied, for of me, my like is born, and when one grain of corn is sown in the ground, it springs and is multiplied, grinded and seared, and is made into bread, of which the whole world lives. And the mineral of the earth is made of me, neither does it because it is the gift of God. I illuminate the air with my light and make the earth hot with my heat. I engender and nourish natural things, as plants and stones and such like. I take away the darkness of the night with my power, and I cause the days to remain and I illuminate all things with my light that are to be illuminated, and those things in which there is neither greatness nor brightness, all which surely are of my work when I am endued with my garments, and they which seek me do make peace between me and my wife. Therefore, unless she be separated from me and be mixed with inseparable mixtion, and this may be done when you shall extract me partly from my nature and my wife partly from her nature, and afterwards see that you kill our natures, and we shall be raised again with a new and incorporeal resurrection, because that afterwards we cannot die, for after our resurrection we shall have everlasting glory and fortitude and then all shall rejoice in great prosperity which know our proceedings.

And in this is the most precious gift of God accomplished, which exceeds all secrets of sciences in the world, and it is an incomparable treasure of treasures, because Plato says he that hath this gift of God hath also the dominion of the world, because he hath attained to riches and has broken the bond of nature, but not therefore because he has the power to connect all imperfect bodies into most pure Sol and Luna, but rather because it preserves and keeps every man and brute beast in perfect preservation of health, and the crystal plate which is the White Elixir, if as much thereof as a grain of mustard seed be given to a man sick of the fever, it cures him. Likewise a leprous man, if at four times in the year he shall be purged with that plate, with red powder whereof Sol is made twice in one year in March and September, he is cured. And both the white and the red powder heals the Sciatica in the danger of death it heals also the palsy. Likewise if this be held to the nostrils of women labouring with child they are presently delivered, this Hermes affirms.

Geber also says that the red Elixir cures all cronical infirmities of which the Physicians have despaired, and it makes a man become young as an eagle and to live five hundred years and more, as some Philosophers have done, which have used it three times a week to the quantity of a mustard seed. There is an herb which is called Saturnus de Canalibus, of which such a medicine is made.

Note therefore that all infirmities which are engendered from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, if they be of one month, then they are cured in one day, if of one year then in twelve days, and if of long time then they are cured in one month, for as it cleanses all infected metals from all infirmity, so likewise it cures the bodies of men.

Wherefore, our blessed Stone is not unworthily called the greater Tiriacus, as well of the bodies of men as of metals, of which Hermes, the King of the Grecians and father of the Philosophers, speaks saying, if thou takes of our Elixir every day for the space of seven years the weight of carrobiarum, thy hoary and grey hairs will fall from thy head and black hairs will grow up in their place, and thus of an old man thou shalt be made young, lusty and strong.

Arnoldus: This our Stone has an efficacious virtue of healing all infirmities above all other medicines of Physicians, for it rejoices the Soul, it augmenteth virtue, it strengthens youth and removes old age, for it suffers not the blood to be putrefied, nor phlegm to have dominion, nor choler to be adust, nor melancholiness to be abundant, yea rather it multiplies the blood beyond measure and restores and renews all corporeal members efficaciously and preserves them from hurt, and does most perfectly heal all infirmities, as well hot as cold, dry as moist, before all other medicines of Physicians, because if the sickness be of one year, it heals it in twelve days but if it be an old disease and of long time then it will cure it in one month, and to conclude it expells all evil humours and brings in those that are good, it brings love, honour, security, boldness, and victory in battle to those that possess it and in this is the greatest secret of nature accomplished which is,