Secrets of the Adepts - A Bardon Companion

Spirit of Philosophical Wine. But if Celandine, the Flowers of Rosemary, as also the
Vegetables of our Receipt be distilled with the Spirit of Philosophical Wine, it does extract
and elevate all their Unctuosity with it self, rejecting the aridity of them, being more simple,
subtil, volatile, and less loaded with dry Particles, than the Unctuosity of crude Honey; and
so being circulated with the Spirit of Philosophical Wine; it is made indeed a Magistery, yet
more inclining to the nature of an Essence, and therefore less dry, and less altering the Spirit
of Wine, than that of Honey, and so being now deservedly united with the aforesaid Spirit, it
makes a Menstruum different from the Menstruums of the Third Kind. So the Literal Sense of
our Receipt does hitherto stand unmoved. But not to derogate from the Authority of the
Author, and his own Commentator Lully, it is necessary to suppose, that, the Spirit of
Philosophical Wine, being distilled upon the aforesaid Vegetables, he did sometimes out of
the remainder prepare an Alkali by calcination, and acuate his Spirit with it, and so make a
Menstruum of the Fifth Kind.
From these and the like Receipts, we observe,
1. That Wine, Lunaria, Nigrum nigrius Nigro, the Matter of the Menstruum of Vegetable
Mercury or Soul of Metals, is not Common, but Philosophical Wine; nor that the Spirit of this
Wine is the Common, but Philosophical Aqua ardens.
2. That a Menstruum of this kind is the unctuous Spirit of Philosophical Wine acuated,
that is, tempered with the common Unctuosity of Vegetable Oyls. Mix, digest, and distil any
common distilled Oyl with the Spirit of Philosophical Wine, and you will obtain a Menstruum
of the Second Kind much sooner; yea, you will make the same in a moment, if you mix the
Essence (Spirit) of Philosophical Wine with the Magistery of an oyly Vegetable.
3. That one oyly Vegetable (Saffron or Macis) of so many, is sufficient for the acuation of
the Spirit of Philosophical Wine; nor yet will you err, if you take Triacle; which Spirit of
Triacle, made with this Spirit of Wine, will be a Menstruum of this kind.
4. That these Menstruums are Medecines.
5. That these Menstruums made out of meer Vegetables, are properly called Vegetable
Menstruums, tho’some which we call Vegetable Menstruums compounded, are by reason of
the addition of Metals or Minerals, sometimes by the Adepts called Mineral Menstruums: so
Lully in the 34th Experiment, calls his Circulatum majus made of Gold and Silver, the true
Mineral Menstruum. But we distinguish them from the Mineral Menstruums, because they are
corrosive, being prepared with the acidity of Mineral Salts. But these are most sweet, without
any Corrosive, and do kindly dissolve things that are to be dissolved.
That a Menstruum is call’d the Soul of Metals. Soul is diversely taken among the Adepts.
6. First, For perfect Metal, Gold or Silver. So Arnold in Flore Florum: Philosophers call
the Soul a Ferment, because as the Body of man can do nothing without its Ferment or Soul,
so is it in the thing propounded; for Ferment is a Substance which converts other things into
its own Nature. And you must know, there is no Ferment, except Sol and Luna, that is Gold
and Silver appropriated to those Planets, etc. Ferment therefore must be introduced into the
Body, because it is the Soul thereof. This is that which Morienus said, except you cleanse the
unclean body, and make it white, and infuse a Soul into it, you conduce nothing to this
Magistery.
Secondly, For Metals, and other things, volatilized with a Philosophical Menstruum. So
Lully calls Gold and Silver volatilized in the preparation of his Circulatum majus,
Menstruum, or animated Spirit. Take, saith he, the animated Spirit of Sol, and the animated
Spirit of Luna, joyn them together, etc. So the Tinctures of Gold and Silver volatilized by a
Menstruum, as also of imperfect Metals, are by him called Souls. So in the 20th Experiment
he hath the Animal Water of Saturn; in the 21st Experiment, the Soul of Mars. Yea separating