The Hermetic Museum, Vol. I — trans. A. E. Waite (1893)

p. 223

Explication of the Opinion of Pythagoras.

This Sage asks what that is which is touched, and yet not seen. He means that the substance which is prepared by our Art is oze thing, which is tangible and invisible. "That is to say, it is felt, but not seen, nor is the mode of its operation known. He who knows it, but knows not its operation, as yet knows nothing as he ought. "This one thing, which alone is profitable for the purposes of our Art, proceeds from a certain dark place, where it is not seen, nor are its operation or its virtue known to any but the initiated. A great mystery is also concealed in the Matter itself, namely, air and fire, or the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. "This is concealed in it, and yet is invisible, as the Sage says: What is not seen, or known, is only heaven. — That which is felt, and not seen, is earth. Earth, says the Sage, is thickness, or body, which is found at the bottom of the Matter, has accumulated in the Matter, and can be felt and known. By the words, *that is between heaven and earth, which is not known," (Ze, in the world), the Sage means that the Matter of our Stone is found in the small world ; not in rocks and mountains, or in the earth, but between heaven and earth, Ze, in the air. Again, when he says that '* in it are senses, and entirety, as smell, taste, hearing, touch," he would teach us that in human nature there is entirety of mind and perception; for man can know, feel, and understand. He would also teach us how our Stone is to be found, namely, by sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. By sight, because the Matter of the Stone is thick, or thin and clear, and turns black, white, and red. By smell, because, when its impurity is purged away, it emits a most sweet fragrance. By taste, because it is first bitter and disagreeable, but afterwards becomes most pleasant. By touch, because that sense enables us to distinguish between the hard and the soft, the gross and the subtle, between water and earth, and between the different stages of distillation, putrefaction, dissolution, coagulation, fermentation, and injection, which the substance goes through. ^ The different processes of the task are perceived with the senses, and it should be accomplished within forty-six days.

Loosenzng of the Kmot of Aristeus.

"Take the body which I have shewn you, and beat it into thin leaves," Ze, take the earth which cleaves to our substance, and, by having become dry, becomes visible and knowable ; for now it is water and earth. "The earth is thus sZezvz, and divided into two parts, earth and water. Let that earth be taken, placed in a phial, and put in a warm bath, by the warmth of which it is dissolved, through its own internal coction, into water; this the Sage calls beating into thin leaves. — The body which is thus obtained is variously described as the Philosopher's Stone, or the Stone of leaves. * Add some of our salt water, and this is the water of life" That means: After its dissolution into water, it must receive our salt water to drink—for this water has been previously distilled from it, and is the water of life; for the soul and spirit of the body are hidden in it, and it is called our sea water; the same also is its natural name, because it is obtained from the invisible hidden sea of the Sages, the sea of the smaller world. For our Art is called the smaller world, and thus it is the water ofoursea. Ifthis water is added to the body, and heated and purified with it, the body is purged by long coction, and its colour changes from black to a brilliant white, while the water is coagulated, and forms, by indissoluble union with the body, the imperishable Philosopher's Stone, which you must use to the glory of God, and the good of your neighbour.

Exposition of the Saying of Parmenides.