Pernety - A Treatise On The Great Art.pdf - cyjack.com

The Great Art page 72simply the Black, and by an infinity of other names, which one will see later on in the course of thiswork, or in the Dictionary of Terms peculiar to Hermetic Philosophers, which immediately followsit. 51This colour signifies then putrefaction and degeneration which ensues, and which is given to us bythe Dissolution of our perfect body. The following words indicate that Flamel speaks of the secondoperation, and not of the first: “This Dissolution comes from the external heat, which aids, and theinterior igneity, and sharp, wonderful power of the poison of our Mercury, which resolves into puredust, even into impalpable powder, whatever resists it. Thus the heat acting on and against the HumidRadical, metallic, viscous and oleaginous, produces the blackness of the Matter. It is the black veilwith which the ships of Theseus returned victorious from Crete, and which caused the death of hisfather. Thus it is necessary that the father should die, in order that from the ashes of this phœnixanother should rise, and that the son should be king.”The true key of the Work is this blackness at the beginning of its operations, and if another colour,red or white appears before this one, it is proof that one has not succeeded, or, as our author says:“One must always wish for this blackness, and certainly he who does not see it during the days of theStone, whatsoever other colour he may see, fails entirely in the Magistery, and can not perfect it withthis chaos . . . And truly, I say again, that even if you would work on true Matter, if, at thebeginning, after having placed the confections in the philosophical egg, that is to say, sometime afterthe fire has irritated them, if you do not see this Head of the Crow, nigrum nigro, nigrius, (le noir dunoir très noir), it is necessary to begin again; for this fault is irreparable. Especially must one fear anorange or reddish colour; because if in the beginning you see it in the egg, doubtless you burn, orhave burned the spirit and vivacity of the Stone.”The bluish and yellowish colours indicate that the putrefaction and the dissolution are not yetfinished. The Blackness is the true sign of a perfect solution. Then the Matter is dissolved into apowder more subtle, to speak thus, that the atoms which float in the rays of the sun and these atomsare changed into permanent water. The Philosophers have given to this Dissolution the names, Death,Destruction and Perdition, the Infernal Regions, Tartarus, Shadows, Night, Obscure Vest, Supulchre,Tomb, Venimous Water, Charcoal, Manure, Black Earth, Black Veil, Sulphurous Earth, Melancholy,Black Magnesia, Clay, Stinking Menstruum, Smoke, Lamp-Black, Venimous Fire, Cloud, Lead, BlackLead, Philosopher’s Lead, Saturn, Black Powder, Contemptible Thing, Vile Thing, Seal of Hermes,Stinking Spirit, Sublimated Spirit, Eclipsed Sun or Eclipse of the Sun and Moon, Corruption, BlackBark, Sea-foam, Covering of the Vase, Capital of the Alembic, Naptha, Uncleanliness of the Dead,Corpse, Oil of Saturn, Nigrum-Nigro-Nigrius. They have designated it by all the names which canexpress, or designate corruption, dissolution and blackness. This is what has furnished thePhilosophers with the materials for so many allegories on the dead and the tomb. Some have evennamed it Calcination, Denudation, Separation, Trituration, Assation; because of the reduction of thematters to a very subtle powder. Others, Reduction to Prima Materia, Malefaction, Extraction,Commixion, Liquefaction, Conversion of the Elements, Subtilization, Division, Humation,Impastation, and Distillation. Others, Xir, Cimmarian Shadows, Abyss, Generation, Ingression,Submergion, Complexion, Conjunction, Impregnation. When heat acts on these matters, they arechanged first into powder, and oily, gluey water, which rises as a vapour to the top of the vase, anddescends again in dew or rain, to the bottom, (Artephius,) where it becomes almost as an oily blackbroth. This is why it has been called Sublimation and Volatilization, Ascension and Descension. Thewater then coagulating more and more, becomes like black pitch, which has caused it to be namedfetid and stinking. It gives forth a musty odor of sepulchres and tombs. Hermès has called it the Earthof leaves, “but its true name, says Flamel, is Latten which it is necessary to whiten. The AncientSages, adds he, have described it in the history of the Serpent of Mars, which had devoured the51 DICTIONNAIRE MYTHO-HERMETIQUE dans lequel on trouve les Allégories fabuleuses des poètes, les Métaphores, lesEnigmes et les Termes barbares, des Philosophes Hermètiques expilqués par Dom Antoine-Joseph-Pernety,ReligieuxBénédictin de la Congrégation de Saint-Maur.