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

The Great Art page 91Operation of the Elixir according to d’Espagnet“Red Earth, or Red Ferment, three parts; Water and Air, taken together, six parts; mix the whole,and grind so as to make an amalgam, or metallic paste, of the consistency of butter, in such a mannerthat the Earth may be impalpable, or insensible to the touch; add to it a part and a half of Fire, andplace the whole in a Vase, which you will seal closely. Give to it a fire of the first degree 69 for thedigestion; you will then make the extraction of the Elements by the degrees of fire suitable to them,until they are all reduced to fixed Earth. The Matter will become as a brilliant, transparent red Stone,and will then be in its perfect state. Take from it any desired quantity, place it in a crucible, over amoderate fire, and soak this part with its red oil, saturating it, drop by drop, until it melts and runswithout smoke. Do not fear that your Mercury will evaporate; for the Earth will drink up eagerly thathumour which is of its own species. You have then in your possession your perfect Elixir. Thank Godfor the favour accorded to you; make use of it for His glory, and keep the secret.”The White Elixir is made in the same manner as the Red; but with the white Ferments and white oil.QuintessenceThe quintessence is an extraction of the most spiritual and radical substance of Matter; it is made bythe separation of the Elements which end in a celestial and incorruptible essence, freed from allheterogeneities. Aristotle calls it a very pure substance, incorporated in a certain manner, not mixedwith parts accidental to its nature. Heraclitus calls it a celestial essence which takes its name from theplace of its origin. Paracelsus named it, the being of our central heaven; Pliny, a corporeal essence,yet separated from all materiality, and freed from commerce with Matter. It has been calledconsequently, a Spiritual Body, or a Corporeal Spirit, made of an Ethereal substance. All thesequalities have caused the name Quintessence to be given to it. This name signifies a fifth substance,which results from the union of the purest parts of the Elements. The Philosophical Secret consists inseparating the Elements from the Mixts, in order to rectify them, and by the union of their purehomogeneous and spiritualized parts, to make this Quintessence, which contains all their propertieswithout being subject to their alterations.The Tincture69 The Fire of the first degree is like that of the hen when hatching her eggs, or like the natural head digesting the food toconvert it into the substances of the body, or like that of horse-dung, or, in fine, similar to that of the Sun in Aries. It is whyseveral Philosophers have recommended to begin the Work when the Sun enters this Sign and the Moon into theconstellation of Taurus. This degree of heat must last until the Matter has asssumed the white colour; as soon as the Stonebleaches, one must gradually raise the temperature until the perfect desiccation of the Stone: this temperature is equal to thatof the Sun when it passes from Taurus into Gemini. The Stone having been desiccated and reduced into ashes, one augmentsthe degree of heat until the Matter becomes perfectly red and clothes the Royal Mantle. This degree of temperature is thesame as that of the Sun in Leo, (Scala Philosophorum). The Rosarium says: The temperature of your fire must be that of theheat of the Sun in July; so that by a moderate and long coction your Water thickens and changes into a black Earth. In regardto the gradual augmentation of the degree of heat spoken of above, in Scala Philosophorum, we believe it important to addthe remark of Pernety in Dict.-Mytho.-Herm. P.221: “We must observe that when Philosophers speak of the degrees of heatto dispense to their matter, they do not understand that the fire should be intensified or diminished as commonly done byordinary chemists in their furnaces by mean of dampers, bellows, or a greater quantity of charcoal; but that the intensity ofthe secret fire of the Matter should be augmented bya more active digestion; in proportion that matter becomes more fixed,its fire augments gradually, and its degrees are appreciated by the colours which the matter assumes.E.B.