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The Treasure of Treasures for Alchemists.
By Philippus Theophrastus Bombast, Paracelsus the Great
NATURE begets a mineral in the bowels of the earth. There are two kinds of it,
which are found in many districts of Europe. The best which has been offered to
me, which also has been found genuine in experimentation, is externally in the
figure of the greater world, and is in the eastern part of the sphere of the
Sun. The other, in the Southern Star, is now in its first efflorescence. The
bowels of the earth thrust this forth through its surface. It is found red in
its first coagulation, and in it lie hid all the flowers and colours of the
minerals. Much has been written about it by the philosophers, for it is of a
cold and moist nature, and agrees with the element of water.
So far as relates to the knowledge of it and experiment with it, all the
philosophers before me, though they have aimed at it with their missiles, have
gone very wide of the mark. They believed that Mercury and Sulphur were the
mother of all metals, never even dreaming of making mention meanwhile of a
third; and yet when the water is separated from it by Spagyric Art the truth is
plainly revealed, though it was unknown to Galen or to Avicenna. But if, for the
sake of our excellent physicians, we had to describe only the name, the
composition; the dissolution, and coagulation, as in the beginning of the world
Nature proceeds with all growing things, a whole year would scarcely suffice me,
and, in order to explain these things, not even the skins of numerous cows would
be adequate.
Now, I assert that in this mineral are found three principles, which are
Mercury, Sulphur, and the Mineral Water which has served to naturally coagulate
it. Spagyric science is able to extract this last from its proper juice when it
is not altogether matured, in the middle of the autumn, just like a pear from a
tree. The tree potentially contains the pear. If the Celestial Stars and Nature
agree , the tree first of all puts forth shoots in the month of March; then it
thrusts out buds, and when these open the flower appears, and so on in due order
until in autumn the pear grows ripe. So is it with the minerals. These are born,
in like manner, in the bowels of the earth. Let the Alchemists who are seeking
the Treasure of Treasures carefully note this. I will shew them the way, its
beginning, its middle, and its end. In the following treatise I will describe
the proper Water, the proper Sulphur, and the proper Balm thereof. By means of
these three the resolution and composition are coagulated into one.
CONCERNING THE SULPHUR OF CINNABAR.
Take mineral Cinnabar and prepare it in the following manner. Cook it with rain
water in a stone vessel for three hours. Then purify it carefully, and dissolve
it in Aqua Regis, which is composed of equal parts of vitriol, nitre, and sal
ammoniac. Another formula is vitriol, saltpetre, alum, and common salt.
Distil this in an alembic. Pour it on again, and separate carefully the pure
from the impure thus. Let it putrefy for a month in horse-dung; then separate
the elements in the following manner. If it puts forth its sign1, commence the
distillation by means of an alembic with a fire of the first degree. The water
and the air will ascend; the fire and the earth will remain at the bottom.
Afterwards join them again, and gradually treat with the ashes. So the water and
the air will again ascend first, and afterwards the element of fire, which
expert artists recognise. The earth will remain in the bottom of the vessel.
This collect there. It is what many seek after and few find.
This dead earth in the reverberatory you will prepare according to the rules of
Art, and afterwards add fire of the first degree for five days and nights. When
these have elapsed you must apply the second degree for the same number of days
and nights, and proceed according to Art with the material enclosed. At length
you will find a volatile salt, like a thin alkali, containing in itself the
Astrum of fire and earth2. Mix this with the two elements that have been
preserved, the water and the earth. Again place it on the ashes for eight days
and eight nights, and you will find that which has been neglected by many
Artists. Separate this according to your experience, and according to the rules
of the Spagyric Art, and you will have a white earth, from which its colour has
been extracted. Join the element of fire and salt to the alkalised earth. Digest
in a pelican to extract the essence. Then a new earth will be deposited, which
put aside.
CONCERNING THE RED LION.
Afterwards take the lion in the pelican which also is found [at] first, when you
see its tincture, that is to say, the element of fire which stands above the
water, the air, and the earth. Separate it from its deposit by trituration. Thus
you will have the true aurum potabile3. Sweeten this with the alcohol of wine
poured over it, and then distil in an alembic until you perceive no acidity to
remain in the Aqua Regia.
This Oil of the Sun, enclosed in a retort hermetically sealed, you must place
for elevation that it may be exalted and doubled in its degree. Then put the
vessel, still closely shut, in a cool place. Thus it will not be dissolved, but
coagulated. Place it again for elevation and coagulation, and repeat this three
times. Thus will be produced the Tincture of the Sun, perfect in its degree.
Keep this in its own place.
CONCERNING THE GREEN LION.
Take the vitriol of Venus4, carefully prepared according to the rules of
Spagyric Art; and add thereto the elements of water and air which you have
reserved. Resolve, and set to putrefy for a month according to instructions.
When the putrefaction is finished, you will behold the sign of the elements.
Separate, and you will soon see two colours, namely, white and red. The red is
above the white. The red tincture of the vitriol is so powerful that it reddens
all white bodies, and whitens all red ones, which is wonderful.
Work upon this tincture by means of a retort, and you will perceive a blackness
issue forth. Treat it again by means of the retort, repeating the operation
until it comes out whitish. Go on, and do not despair of the work. Rectify until
you find the true, clear Green Lion, which you will recognise by its great
weight. You will see that it is heavy and large. This is the Tincture,
transparent gold. You will see marvellous signs of this Green Lion, such as
could be bought by no treasures of the Roman Leo. Happy he who has learnt how to
find it and use it for a tincture!
This is the true and genuine Balsam5, the Balsam of the Heavenly Stars,
suffering no bodies to decay, nor allowing leprosy, gout, or dropsy to take
root. It is given in a dose of one grain, if it has been fermented with Sulphur
of Gold.
Ah, Charles the German, where is your treasure? Where are your philosophers?
Where your doctors? Where are your decocters of woods, who at least purge and
relax? Is your heaven reversed? Have your stars wandered out of their course,
and are they straying in another orbit, away from the line of limitation, since
your eyes are smitten with blindness, as by a carbuncle, and other things making
a show of ornament, beauty, and pomp? If your artists only knew that their
prince Galen - they call none like him - was sticking in hell, from whence he
has sent letters to me, they would make the sign of the cross upon themselves
with a fox's tail. In the same way your Avicenna sits in the vestibule of the
infernal portal; and I have disputed with him about his aurum potabile, his
Tincture of the Philosophers, his Quintessence, and Philosophers' Stone, his
Mithridatic, his Theriac, and all the rest. O, you hypocrites, who despise the
truths taught you by a true physician, who is himself instructed by Nature, and
is a son of God himself! Come, then, and listen, impostors who prevail only by
the authority of your high positions! After my death, my disciples will burst
forth and drag you to the light, and shall expose your dirty drugs, wherewith up
to this time you have compassed the death of princes, and the most invincible
magnates of the Christian world. Woe for your necks in the day of judgment! I
know that the monarchy will be mine. Mine, too, will be the honour and glory.
Not that I praise myself: Nature praises me. Of her I am born; her I follow. She
knows me, and I know her. The light which is in her I have beheld in her;
outside, too, I have proved the same in the figure of the microcosm, and found
it in that universe.
But I must proceed with my design in order to satisfy my disciples to the full
extent of their wish. I willingly do this for them, if only skilled in the light
of Nature and thoroughly practised in astral matters, they finally become adepts
in philosophy, which enables them to know the nature of every kind of water.
Take, then, of this liquid of the minerals which I have described, four parts by
weight; of the Earth of red Sol two parts; of Sulphur of Sol one part. Put these
together into a pelican, congelate, and dissolve them three times. Thus you will
have the Tincture of the Alchemists. We have not here described its weight: but
this is given in the book on Transmutations6.
So, now, he who has one to a thousand ounces of the Astrum Solis shall also
tinge his own body of Sol.
If you have the Astrum of Mercury, in the same manner, you will tinge the whole
body of common Mercury. If you have the Astrum of Venus you will, in like
manner, tinge the whole body of Venus, and change it into the best metal. These
facts have all been proved. The same must also be understood as to the Astra of
the other planets, as Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Luna, and the rest. For tinctures
are also prepared from these: concerning which we now make no mention in this
place, because we have already dwelt at sufficient length upon them in the book
on the Nature of Things and in the Archidoxies. So, too, the first entity of
metals and terrestrial minerals have been made, sufficiently clear for
Alchemists to enable them to get the Alchemists' Tincture.
This work, the Tincture of the Alchemists, need not be one of nine months; but
quickly, and without any delay, you may go on by the Spaygric Art of the
Alchemists, and, in the space of forty days, you can fix this alchemical
substance, exalt it, putrefy it, ferment it, coagulate it into a stone, and
produce the Alchemical Phoenix7. But it should be noted well that the Sulphur of
Cinnabar becomes the Flying Eagle, whose wings fly away without wind, and carry
the body of the phoenix to the nest of the parent, where it is nourished by the
element of fire, and the young ones dig out its eyes: from whence there emerges
a whiteness, divided in its sphere, into a sphere and life out of its own heart,
by the balsam of its inward parts, according to the property of the cabalists.
HERE ENDS THE TREASURE OF THE ALCHEMISTS.
NOTES
1 The Sign is nothing else than the mark left by an operation. The house
constructed by the architect is the sign of his handicraft whereby his skill and
art are determined. Thus the sign is the achievement itself. - De Colica.
2 The earth also has its Astrum, its course, its order, just as much as the
Firmament, but peculiar to the element. So also there is an Astrum in the water,
even as in the earth, and in like manner with air and fire. Consequently, the
upper Astrum has the Astra of the elements for its medium and operates through
them by an irresistible attraction. Through this operation of the superior and
inferior Astra, all things are fecundated, and led on to their end. - Explicatio
Totius Astronomiae. Without the Astra the elements cannot flourish. ... In the
Astrum of the earth all the celestial operations thrive. The Astrum itself is
hidden, the bodies are manifest. ... The motion of the earth is brought about by
the Astrum of the earth. ... There are four Astra in man (corresponding to those
of the four elements), for he is the lesser world. - De Caducis, Par. II.
3 Aurum Potabile, that is, Potable Gold, Oil of Gold, and Quintessence of Gold,
are distinguished thus. Aurum Potabile is gold rendered potable by intermixture
with other substances, and with liquids. Oil of Gold is an oil extracted from
the precious metal without the addition of anything. The Quintessence of Gold is
the redness of gold extracted therefrom and separated from the body of the
metal. - De Membris Contractis, Tract II., c. 2.
4 If copper be pounded and resolved without a corrosive, you have Vitriol. From
this may be prepared the quintessence, oil, and liquor thereof. - De Morbis
Tartareis. Cuprine Vitriol is Vitriol cooked with Copper. - De Morbis Vermium,
Par. 6. Chalcanthum is present in Venus, and Venus can by separation be reduced
into Chalcanthum. - Chirurgia Magna. Pars. III., Lib. IV.
5 There is, indeed, diffused through all things a Balsam created by God, without
which putrefaction would immediately supervene. Thus in corpses which are
anointed with Balsam we see that corruption is arrested and thus in the physical
body we infer that there is a certain natural and congenital Balsam, in the
absence of which the living and complete man would not be safe from
putrefaction. Nothing removes the Balsam but death. But this kind differs from
what is more commonly called Balsam, in that the one is conservative of the
living, and the other of the dead. - Chirurgia Magna, Pt. II., Tract II., c 3.
The confection of Balsam requires special knowledge of chemistry, and it was
first discovered by the Alchemists. - Ibid., Pt. I., Tract II., c. 4.
6 It is difficult to identify the treatise to which reference is made here. It
does not seem to be the seventh book concerning The Nature of Things, nor the
ensuing tract on Cements. The general question of natural and artificial weight
is discussed in the Aurora of the Philosophers. No detached work on
Transmutations has come down to us.
7 Know that the Phoenix is the soul of the Iliaster (that is, the first chaos of
the matter of all things). ... It is also the Iliastic soul in man. - Liber
Azoth, S. V., Practica Lineae Vitae.
END
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This book was obtained from the Internet Sacred Text Archive at
http://www.sacred-texts.com/alc/paracel1.htm and is included here on this CD with their permission.
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