Alchemy Unveiled

Prologue

The Main Purpose and Finis Ultimus of the Hermetic Art is not to produce Gold, as is the belief of the ill-informed lovers of Gold, but instead the study of God’s beautiful Miracles, which lie hidden in the abstruse rerum centro, and the contemplation of the Sacrarium Naturae benedictae, ejusque Majestatem occultum remoto velo. – (Axiomata, 1736)

It is well-known that the alchemists, since time immemorial, made use of a secret code, the key to which was only in the possession of the initiates. That is why Herman Fictuld said, only the true Adepts understand the writings of the genuine Hermetics.

In fact, it is totally impossible for outsiders to decipher the hidden meaning of the old writings of the adepts. Many were misled due to their greed for gold or the wonderful effective powers of the life elixirs. They experimented blindly, but their harvest was no more than great loss and disappointment. Whosoever does not understand the right theory will hardly advance to the true practice of the Philosophers’ Stone, and whosoever does not know what he is searching for does not know what he will find.

True alchemy, in reality, is a Kabbalistic art which requires a patient examination of the genuine Hermetic writings and a deep-founded study of Nature. It also requires a revelation, either through an initiated adept or through an inner divine illumination.

The style of the true writings of the adepts has always been obscure and parabolic, especially where the sages express the Hermetic art in allegorical figures and puzzles. That is where they express themselves in the clearest manner, whereas when everything seems to be clear and understandably written the art is most hidden.

The reason for this is to keep unsuitable elements away from the Hermetic art from the beginning, thereby preventing any misuse of same. If the initiates were to unveil all of the mysteries of alchemy indiscriminately, then the ignorant would treat the art with contempt because they do not understand it, and for those who do have the understanding it would be considered too easy. However, when the deeper truth is veiled in an allegorical envelope, then the deeper truth is safe from disrespect and guarantees the diligent ones the incentive to philosophize.

Under certain circumstances, this mystical veil can be taken too far, so that even the sincere seeker will not be able to explore the allegories. It is therefore a serious commandment of the hour to acquaint those who truly strive with the true matter of the Philosophers’ Stone and with the key to the language of the Hermetic art, to avoid being completely misled.

The one who first understands a true Hermetic will learn, little by little, to understand all true adepts.

In order to give the serious seekers of wisdom a well-meaning piece of advice, these writings should lift the veil which the adepts of old spread over the Hermetic art only to the point permitted by the unwritten laws of the Mysteries, so that the sincere seekers of truth will not miss the right path to the lapis philosophorum.

At the same time, through this veil, the deceitful gold makers and the lost tincture cooks, who up to now have only misused the name of alchemy, will finally be entirely led ad absurdum (towards nonsense).

In the Microcosmic Prologue of 1720, this is what is said about the pseudo-chemists:

The unworthy Lovers and Seekers, with their perverse or unnatural Subiectis and Laboribus, cannot bring the philosophical Sun and Moon child into the World. They seek this divine natural Art without the recognition of God and Nature; they do not even know what kind of thing Nature is, and they know not the inner workings of Nature. Their minds go constantly around the circumference, and they speak of the many effects of Nature, but they do not find the Center of Nature, which causes all of the effects of Nature.

They should draw out of the living fire, out of the living metals of the Sages, the seed; consequently make the Mercury through the Mercury, or make the first materia through the first materia. They do not know what the Life and the seed of metals is, nor do they know what Mercury and the first materia are. Instead, they work in dead and deceased subiectis, such as common Gold, Silver, and Mercury, and they also do this with wood, coal, lamps, or with some kind of deadly fire, being of the opinion that through this they will prepare a life-giving and life-extending Universal Remedy and Tincture; as if Life and Death were in their hands. They operate with nothing but bodies, whereas Nature deals with nothing but spermatic things. They seek an easy Art and heavy labour, but instead it is a difficult Art and easy labour. They spend great amounts of money for materials which can be had for nothing (they cannot be bought in a store or apothecary); they must be taken directly out of Nature. (Microcosmic Prologue, 1720)

The Symbolic Language Of Alchemy

It is impossible that any mortal understands this Art, unless he has been previously enlightened by the Divine Light. – (Dorn, Gerard, Theatrum Chemicum, 1602)

The terminology of the old Spagyric adepts is indeed a dark labyrinth for all those who do not thoroughly know the principles of the Hermetic sciences.

In order to obtain this knowledge, many years or even decades of study of the old classic writings of the adepts is a prerequisite. In addition, there must be a higher enlightenment or instruction given by a true master of the art before you can truly master the theory of the Hermetic sciences. Without this, no one should dare to approach the practice of the Hermetic art.

This is why it is said in the Microcosmic Prologue:

It is with the exegesis of the Writings of the Sages, as it is with the Bible: whosoever wants to understand and interpret must ask God for both the Spirit and the Light, out of which and in which they are written; he must simply have the Light which shone for the Sages, otherwise he will judge this like a blind man would judge colours.

Alas, those who have not written out of the Fountain of Nature, but instead out of processes or out of compiled philosophical books, are seducers, because they recite truth mixed with error, to blind the reader and the innocent seeker of the pure Light. Those who understand the matter thoroughly recognize clearly in all books the truth from the lies; the pure Spirit of Nature dictates more to him than what he can write. (Microcosmic Prologue, 1720)

The uninitiated encounters the most difficulty in the multitude of meanings of the individual alchemistical symbols and their synonyms.

Mercury has often given rise to confusion, because you have to know the precise difference between the common philosophical mercury (mercurius universalis) and the Mercury of the Philosophers (mercurius philosophorum), just as the simple mercurius corporeus should not be mistaken for double mercury (mercurius duplicatus). In addition, the alchemists also knew the difference between a white and a red, a fleeting and a fixed Mercury, apart from the fact that mercury would occasionally be considered to be a sulphur or salt.

Only the truly informed have the ability to recognize certain marks or signs to indicate which Mercurius is specifically spoken of in the old writings of the adepts. It is therefore not surprising when a famous researcher, such as the well-known Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung could not find his way among the multitude of alchemistical mercury symbols, because he did not possess the key to the old Hermetic symbolic language. Without the key, alchemy remains an obscure puzzle.

Besides the ambiguous mercury, the Hermetics knew of various kinds of sulphur and salt, at least three different kinds of gold, four kinds of fire, three kinds of water, several kinds of earth, and three different materia for the Great Work. The initiate must know how to distinguish all of them from each other.

This multiplicity could deter many friends of the Hermetic mysteries. However, those who search sincerely will not be discouraged through the hardships of searching, since the reward of such a search is truly not a small one!

It is therefore prudent (necessary) to truly master the theory of the Hermetic sciences before beginning the alchemistical practice. You must have a total understanding of the old writings of the adepts and a deep insight into the matter itself.

Above all, it is absolutely necessary to have a thorough knowledge of the Hermetic theory of the elements, which must stand at the beginning of all alchemistical contemplations. This is what Eugenius Philalethes had to say:

Whosoever wants to obtain a benefit in the Art must learn to know the elements and their effects before they seek the Tincture of the Metals . . . . observe their effects and reproduce them. (Eugenius Philalethes (Thomas Vaughan), Euphrates, 1655)

The four elements of alchemy are: fire, air, water, and earth. They are in no way identical to the well-known appearances of same. The earth of the alchemists is not the coarse impure earth that we step upon with our feet, but instead the pure element of the same, the central fixed nitrum, which contains in itself the nature sulphur, through which the earth coagulates the Mercury.

When the Hermetics speak about their water they are not speaking of the H20 of the chemists, but instead the water of the sages in which they cook their fire (their sulphur).

The common chemists cook their water and their materials in the fire; the Hermetic sages cook their fire in their water!

Everybody knows how to cook water in the fire; however, if they would know how to cook our fire in our water, then their knowledge of Nature would rise above that of the cooks. (Thomas Vaughan, Aula Lucis, 1651)

Combure in acqua, lava in igne! is therefore a well-known phrase of the alchemists. It seems to sound paradoxical, but wisdom is always a paradox.

The air of the alchemists is also substantially different from the common air that we breathe. It is a fleeting sal nitre (air salt), a mercurial moist vapour which, when driven from the inner central fire, ascends from the earth. This moist vapour mixes in the upper regions with a dry, fiery, sulphuric mist; both join under thunder and lightning into a slimy salt water (chaos, seed, prima materia), which descends again to Earth, where it coagulates to a double vitriolic salt or earthly sal nitre that is white and red in its interior (Sol and Luna).

That is why the Hermetic philosophers say that their materia is being born like the thunder and leaves behind similar signs. (Sonne von Osten, 1783)

The materia of the alchemists is threefold: the first or remotest is called the materia remotissima. She is a mist of the elements, the cloud of darkness or the water of the depth, above which, in the beginning, the spirit of God moved, the arch-chaos (Ur-Chaos); it is actually the Kabbalistic Ain Soph.

The second, and closer, is the materia remota vel secunda, in which the next or materia proxima is hidden.

The materia tertia ultimately encompasses the specific beings of the three kingdoms, i.e. mineral, vegetable, and animal.

The first materia is the Mercurius of the alchemists, the universal spirit, the world seed or primordial seed, and it is also called the materia prima universalis.

The materia secunda is our subjectum crudum, our little worldly chaos, an image of the first dark chaos. It is an electrum minerale immaturum, the magnesia of the alchemists, also called antimonium, as Basilius Valentinus attests to its meaning All in All. It is a Saturnine minera, the lead of the sages, our Saturnus philosophorum, a coagulated heaven’s dew, a saliva of the Moon, a terra damnata, an earthly cave, the sages’ vineyard and the wingless dragon.

Within this inner materia secunda, the materia proxima is contained, our true and actual primaterial subject, the central salt of the sages, the granum fixum, our virgin earth, the secret sal nitre, our smaragdine salt, also called sal Saturni and sal tartari. It is the Terra Adamica out of which the paradisiacal body of Adam was made, which was immortal and incorruptible. The alchemists called this their actual and true subject, also the root moisture, the humidum radicale, their twofold sulphuric salt, their hermaphrodite or Proteus, the chameleon of the sages, their green lion, untimely or premature gold, the fixed sulphur (white outside and red inside), their sulphuric gold fountain, their virgin mermaid or heavenly nymph: in brief, their corpus solare et lunare, the greatest secret of the whole of alchemy.

This secret central salt is called hermaphroditic because it is twofold: fleeting and fixed, male and female. The fleeting part is our mercury, the fixed part consists of Sol and Luna, which, in this instance, is our red and white sulphur, our two tinctures (red and white). That is why it is also called the sal rebis, the three-principled salt, because it has within itself all three principles: mercury, sulphur and salt.

The red sulphur on the inside of the salt is the central fire, the subterranean central sun, the seed of God, but it is also called the king or the man. The Mercurius is the water of the metals, the seed of the silver, the woman.

Even though fire and water (sulphur and mercury) are together in our virgin earth, they are only slightly connected with each other. They can separate easily from each other, so that they lend themselves to be wonderfully reunited again.

The separation and reduction is necessary to bring the imperfect to perfection. Nature created these hermaphrodites, but left them imperfect. However, where Nature ceases, the art begins, and this art is alchemy.

Because of this, it is only right that somebody makes haste with the materia and the key, until and before the whole World enters into error and the pious themselves abandon hope. (Joh. de Monte-Snyder, Tractatus de Medicina Universali)

The Subjectum Artis

The first and crude subject of our art is the materia remota vel secunda, the remote or second materia. This is the mons philosophorum, the vineyard of the sages, the metallic mountain, the best concentrated mineral, the metallic water, the sea or the chaos of the sages, the tree with the three branches, the three-headed dragon, the Cerberus infernalis triceps, the highest double Saturnus, the gold-rich cross-apple, our antimony, our crucifer, arbor vitae cognitionis boni et mali, the little irrational world, our microcosm.

Paracelsus said this:

You call the human being Microcosmum, and this is the proper name, but you never fully understood this. You should therefore understand us as we interpret the Microcosmum. In the same way as Heaven is constellated by herself, with all her Firmament, so is the