The Hermetic Museum, Vol. I — trans. A. E. Waite (1893)
The text is shown on its own: no facing layer is held for this issue.
The translator’s English as printed (A. E. Waite). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
Aa, cuta T
Ex.
5b
TIBLRC UBIQUE OB TUAE ZEB
O not, gentle Reader, find fault with me for speaking first about the Moon, then about the Sun, and the other planets, and only in the third place about our most excellent Medicine, ALZE. In this case that which is last is better and more honourable than thatwhichisfirst. Thesubstance must first become white, and then red ; it cannot become red unless it have first become white. Hence Simon the Sage says: * Know that unless you first make the Stone white, you cannot make it red" For by the red are the rest of the planets united, and the Medicine appears unawares unless this order is observed in the matter of the white and red. So is the Moon first taken and makes, with the white, Elixir, that is, the white of the Moon to the white of Mercury out of bodies comes to the red. Whence our Sages say that the red is hidden in the white, which they do not dare to extract, until the whole substance has become red. When the substance has been subjected to the influence of the Moon, it may then, in the second place, be brought under the influence of the Sun, which will bring the Medicine to perfection without any aid from the other planets. By which you may understand why the Medicine comes last, even as from the Father proceeds the Son, and the Holy Spirit from both of these. He thathath ears to hear let him hear, and comprehend the brief statement of our Art, which is given in * The Crowd ": * Know that the true Tincture can be prepared only out of our ore" Concerning this ore I therefore propose to give you the only explanation that is required, and I shall be careful to supplement and confirm my own opinion by quotations from other Sages. I shall speak not only about our ore, but also about our union or conjunction of water and mercury. For Eximenus says: * Nothing profitable can arise out of the elements without conjunction and gentle coction, Our ore Lucas calls the white ore, and it goes by many other names on account of the many colours which it exhibits in the various stages of the chemical process. But though the jealousy of the Sages has described it under various names, it is, and remains only one substance. Pythagoras says: * Many names are given to it; nevertheless, it is nothing else but the one and true Matter, and this is by reason of the development of its nature. 'The envious have described it by the names of all bodies, as, for instance, a coin, lead, copper, etc., according to the variety of its colours. So Lucas tells us that we have no need of many things, but only of one thing. Diamedes and Basan say : * Do not add toit any foreign substance ; for the common substance of metals is one thing, and more excellent than all other things" Hence our whole Art is concerned with water,and a twin substance that ameliorates the water. Synon tells us that sulphur and our ore are derived from one thing, and changed into four. Lucas says: "The white ore is subjected to coction till it generates itself. 'Thus it becomes united in all its four elements, and receives a living soul. It is never more than one thing, but as a man consists of body, soul, and spirit, and yet is no more than one person, so our substance consists of body, soul, and spirit The ore receives its strength, spirit, and growth from the water." The Sages say: *If the ore be often deadened in its coction, it becomes all the more excellent, and if the body have a soul after the manner of man." The body does not penetrate the soul, but the soul penetrates the body, because it is volatile. The soul, which is hidden in the four parts of the body, is called sulphur. 'These bodies are male and female, and by their mutual operation our substance becomes water. Aristeus says: * Observe the indestructible water which issues from it" Take the humidity which it gives off. Hence other Sages say: * Take water with its twin substances, and let it be dried up by means of the vapour which is like it, and coagulated in its own water." "That water is also called poison ; it is the principle of life, because itis a soul, and extracted from many things. All bodies that this Tincture enters are quickened; all bodies from which it is extracted are destroyed. ts potency is spiritual blood, which, if well mixed with bodies, transmutes them into spirits, and