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

When you bave prepared our gold and Mercury in the manner described, put it into our vessel, and subject it to the action of our fire ; within 40 days you will see the whole substance converted into atoms, without any visible motion, or perceptible heat (except that it is just warm). If you do not yet rightly know the meaning of * our gold," take one part of common gold (well purified), and three parts of ozz Mercury (thoroughly purged) put them together as directed (cap. xvi), place them over the fire, and there keep them at the boiling point, till they sweat, and their sweat circulates. At the end of 90 days you will find that the Mercury has separated and reunited all the elements of the common gold. Boil the mixture 50 days longer, and you will discover that our Mercury has changed the common gold into * our gold," which is the Medicine of the first order. Itis already our Sulphur, but it has not yet the power oftinging. This method has been followed by many Sages, but it is exceedingly slow and tedious, and is only for the rich of the 2earth. Moreover, when you have got this Sulphur do not think that you possess the Stone, but only its true Matter, which you may seek in an imperfect thing, and find it within a week, by our easy yet rare way, reserved of God for His poor, contemned, and abject saints. Hereof I have now determined to write much, although in the beginning of this Book I decreed to bury it in silence. This is the one great sophism of all adepts ; some speak of this common gold and silver, and say the truth, and others say that we cannot use it, and they too,say the truth. But in the presence of God. I will call all our adepts to account, and charge them with jealous surliness. I, too, had determined to tread the same path, but God's hand confounded my scheme. I say then, that both ways are true, and come to the same thing in the end—but there is a vast difference at the beginning. (Our whole Art consists in the right preparation of our Mercury and our gold Our Mercury is our way, and without it nothing is effected. Our gold is not common gold, but it may be found in it; and if you operate on our Mercury with common gold (regulating the fire in the right way), you will after 150 days have our gold, since our gold is obtained from our Mercury. Hence if common gold have all its atoms thoroughly severed by means of our Mercury, and then reunited by the same agency, the whole mixture will, under the influence of fire, become our gold. But, if, without this preparatory purging, you were to use common gold with our Mercury for the purpose of preparing the Stone, you would be sadly mistaken ; and this is the great Labyrinth in which most beginners go astray, because the Sages in writing of these ways as two ways, purposely obscure the fact that they are only oze way (though of course the one is more direct than the other) The gold of the Sages may then be prepared out of our common gold and our Mercury, from which there may afterwards be obtained by repeated liquefactions, Sulphur and Quicksilver which is incombustible, and tinges all things else. In this sense, our Stone is to be found in all metals and minerals, since our gold may be got from them all —but most easily, of course, from gold and silver. Some have found it in tin, some in lead, but most of those who have pursued the more tedious method, have found it in gold. Of course, if our gold be prepared in the way I have described, out of common 3gold (in the course of 150 days), instead of being found ready made, it will not be so effectual, and the preparation of the Stone will take 127 years instead of 7 months. I know both ways, and prefer the shorter one ; but I have described the longer one as well in order that I may not draw down upon myself the scathing wrath of the *Sages." The great difficulty which discourages all beginners is not of Nature's making : the Sages have created it by speaking of the longer operation when they mean the shorter one, and vzce vers. If you choose common gold, you should espouse it to Venus (copper), lay them together on the bridal bed, and, on bringing a fierce fire to bear on them, you will see an emblem of the Great Work in the following succession of colours: black, the peacock's tail, white, orange, and red. Then repeat the same operation with Mercury (called Virgin's Milk), using the **fire of the Bath of Dew," and (towards the end) sand mixed, with ashes. The substance will first turn a much deeper black, and then a completer vhite and red. Hence if you know our Art, extract our gold from our Mercury (this is the shorter way), and thus perform the whole operation with one substance (viz. Mercury); if you can do this, you will have attained to the perfection of philosophy. In this method, there | is no superfluous trouble : the whole work, from beginning to end, is based upon one broad foundation— whereas if you take common gold, you must operate on 7coe substances, and ZezZz will have to be purified by an elaborate process. If you diligently consider what I have said, you have in your hand a means of unravelling all the apparent contradictions of the Sages. They speak of three operations: the first, by which the inward natural heat expels all cold through the aid of external fire; the second, wherein gold is purged with our Mercury, through the mediation of Venus, and under the influence of a fierce fire; the third, in which common gold is mixed with our Mercury, and the ferment of Sulphur added. But if you will receive my advice, you will not be put out by any wilful obscurity on the part of the Sages. Our sulphur you should indeed strive to discover ; and if God enlightens you, you will find it in our Mercury. Before the living God I swear that my teaching is true. If you operate on Mercury and pure common gold, you may find *our gold" in 7 to 9 months, and *our silver" in 5 months. But when