The Turba Philosophorum (complete) — trans. A. E. Waite (1896)

water placed with those things prevents the fire from burning, and it befalls those things that the more they are possessed by the flame of fire, the more they are hidden in the depths of the water, lest they should be injured by the heat of the fire ; but the water receives them in its belly and repels the flame of fire from them. The Turba answereth : Unless ye make bodies not-bodies ye achieve nothing. But concerning the sublimation of water the Philosophers have treated not a little. And know that unless ye diligently pound the thing in the fire, the Ethelia does not ascend, but when that does not ascend ye achieve nothing. When, however, it ascends it is an instrument for the intended tincture with which ye tinge, and concerning this Ethelia Hermes saith : Sift the things which ye know ; but another : Liquefy the things. Therefore, Arras saith : Unless ye pound the thing diligently in the fire, Ethelia

The Turba Philosophorum. 163

does not ascend. The Master hath put forth a view which I shall now explain to the reasoners. Know ye that a very great wind of the south, when it is stirred up, sublimates clouds and elevates the vapours of the sea. The Turba answereth: Thou hast dealt obscurely. And he : I will explain the testa,* and the vessel wherein is incombustible sulphur. But I order you to congeal fluxible quicksilver out of many things, that two may be made three, and four one, and two one.

The Fifty-Fourth Dictum. Anaxagoras saith: Take the volatile burnt thing which lacks a body, and incorporate it. Then take the ponderous thing, having smoke, and thirsting

• Two meanings are given to this term in the Lexicon of Bulandiu. The first is Bloom, Flower, &c., understood metallurgically ; the second is a vessel of baked clay. Paracelsus uses it in an arbitrary fashion of his own to signify the skin of man's body. Compare the red Adamic earth or clay ; it is probably a variation of the same idea.

164 The Turba Philosophorum.

to imbibe. The Turba answereth : Explain, O Anaxagoras, what is this obscurity which you expound, and beware of being envious ! And he : I testify to you that this volatile burnt thing, and this other which thirsts, are Ethelia, which has been conjoined with sulphur. Therefore, place these in a glass vessel over the fire, and cook until the whole becomes Cambar. Then God will accomplish the arcanum ye seek. But I direct you to cook continuously, and not to grow tired of repeating the process. And know ye that the perfection of this work is the confection of water of sulphur with tabula ;* finally, it is cooked until it becomes Rubigo, for all the Philosophers have said : He who is able to turn Rubigo into golden venom has already achieved the desired work, but otherwise his labour is vain.

• According to the second recension : " The whole perfection of sulphur consists in the decoction of tabula."

The Turba Philosophorum. 165

The Fifty-Fifth Dictum. Zenon* saith : Pythagoras hath treated concerning the water, which the envious have called by all names. Finally, at the end of his book he has treated of the ferment of gold, ordaining that thereon should be imposed clean water of sulphur, and a small quantity of its gum. I am astonished, O all ye Turba, how the envious have in this work discoursed of the perfection rather than the commencement of the same ! The Turba answereth : Why, therefore, have you left it to putrefy ? , And he : Thou hast spoken truly ; putrefaction does not take place without the dry and the humid. But the vulgar putrefy with the humid. Thus the humid is merely coagulated with the dry. But out of both is the beginning of the work. Notwithstanding, the envious have divided this work into three parts, asserting that one quickly flees, but the other is fixed and immovable.

• The name in the second recension' is Pitheon.

i66 The Turba Philosophorum.