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

The Great Art page 85Demonstrative Signs or PrinciplesThe colours which appear in the Philosophical Matter during the course of the operations of thework are the demonstrative signs which inform the Artist as to whether he has proceeded in the rightmanner. They succeed each other immediately and in order; if this order is disturbed, it is a proof thatone has worked in the wrong way. There are three principal colours; the first is black, called the Headof the Crow, and many other names which we have given the article, entitled: Key of the Work.The beginning of this blackness indicates that the Fire of nature begins to operate, and that theMatter is being dissolved; when this black colour is perfect, the Solution is perfect also, and theElements are confounded. The grain rots in order to be disposed for generation. “He who does notknow how to render the matter black cannot whiten it, says Artephius, because blackness is thebeginning of the whiteness, and is the mark of putrefaction and of alteration. It is made thus. In thePutrefaction which is made in our Water, there appears first a blackness which resembles a greasybroth, on which pepper has been sprinkled. This liquor being then thickened becomes as a blackearth; it turns white by continued coction . . . and, just as heat, acting on the humidum producesblackness, which is the first colour to appear, so continued heat produces the whiteness which is thesecond principle of the Work.”