The Hermetic Museum, Vol. II — 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.
CHAPTER XVIII.
Of the Furnace, or Atkanor of tke Sages.
I have spoken about Mercury, Sulphur, the vessel, their treatment, etc., etc.; and, of course, all these things are to be understood with a grain of salt. You must understand that in the preceding chapters I have spoken metaphorically ; if you take my words in a literal sense, you will reap no harvest except your outlay. For instance, when I name the principal substances Mercury and gold—I do not mean common gold in the state in which it is sold at the goldsmiths—but it must be prepared by means of our Art. You zay find our gold in common gold and silver ; but it is easier to make the Stone than to get its firstsubstance out of common gold. * Our gold " is the Chaos whose soul has not been taken away by fire. The soul of common gold has retired before the fiery tyranny of Vulcan into the inmost citadel. lf you seek our gold in a substance intermediate between perfection and imperfection, you will find it : but otherwise, you must unbar the gates of common gold by the first preparatory process (ch. xv.), by which the charm of its body is broken, and the husband enabled to do his work. Ííf you choose the former course, you shall use only gentle heat; in the latter case, you will require a fierce fire. But here you will be hopelessly lost in a labyrinth, if you do not know your way out of it. But whether you choose our gold, or common gold, you will in either case need an even and continual fire. If you take our gold, you will finish the work a few months sooner, and the Elixir will be ten times more precious than that prepared from common gold. If you work with * our gold," you will be assisted in its calcination, putrefaction, and dealbation by its gentle inward (natural) heat. But in the case of common gold, this heat has to be applied externally by foreign substances, so as to render it fit for union with the. Virgin's Milk. In neither case, however, can anything be effected without theaid offire. It was not, then, in vain that Hermes counts fire next to the Sun and Moon as the governor of the work. But this is to be understood of the truly secret furnace, which a vulgar eye never saw. 'There is also another furnace, which is called our common furnace, made of potter's earth, or of iron and brass plates, well compacted with clay. "This furnace we call Athanor, and the shape which I like best is that of a tower with a "nest" at the top. The *tower" should be about three feet high, and nine fingers wide within the plates. A little above the ground, let there be a little opening of about three or four fingers wide, for removing the cinders ; over that, there should be a fire-place built with stones. Above this, we place the furnace itself, which should be such as to exclude all draughts and currents of air. The coals are put in from above, and the aperture should then be carefully closed. But it is not necessary that your furnace should exactly correspond to the description which I have given, so long as it fulfils the following conditions: firstly, it must be free from draughts ; secondly, it must enable you to vary the temperature, without removing your vessel; thirdly, you must be able to keep up in it a fire for ten or twelve hours, without looking to it. Then the door of our Art will be opened to you ; and when you have prepared the Stone, you may procure a small portable stove, for the purpose of multiplying it.
(LIV VDADESRIESNCIEXC
Of the Progress of the Wor& during the first Forty Days.