The Secret Book of Artephius, Alchemy

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The Secret Book of Artephius
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A Coecton of Sacred Magck | The Esoterc Lbrary | www.sacred-magck.com
The Secret Book of Artephius
Table of Contents
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A Coecton of Sacred Magck | The Esoterc Lbrary | www.sacred-magck.com
The Secret Book of Artephius
This page copyright © 2001 Blackmask Online.
(1) Antimony is a mineral participating of saturnine parts, and has in all respects the nature thereof. This
saturnine antimony agrees with sol, and contains in itself argent vive, in which no metal is swallowed up,
except gold, and gold is truly swallowed up by this antimonial argent vive. Without this argent vive no metal
whatsoever can be whitened; it whitens laton, i.e. gold; reduceth a perfect body into its prima materia, or first
matter, viz. into sulphur and argent vive, of a white color, and outshining a looking glass. It dissolves, I say
the perfect body, which is so in its own nature; for this water is friendly and agreeable with the metals,
whitening sol, because it contains in itself white or pure argent vive.
(2) And from both these you may draw a great arcanum, viz. a water of saturnine antimony, mercurial and
white; to the end that it may whiten sol, not burning, but dissolving, and afterwards congealing to the
consistence or likeness of white cream. Therefore, saith the philosopher, this water makes the body to be
volatile; because after it has dissolved in it, and infrigidated, it ascends above and swims upon the surface of
the water. Take, saith he, crude leaf gold, or calcined with mercury, and put it into our vinegre, made of
saturnine antimony, mercurial, and sal ammoniac, in a broad glass vessel, and four inches high or more; put it
into a gentle heat, and in a short time you will see elevated a liquor, as it were oil swimming atop, much like
a scum. Gather this with a spoon or feather dipping it in; and in doing so often times a day until nothing more
arises; evaporate the water with a gentle heat, i.e., the superfluous humidity of the vinegre, and there will
remain the quintessence, potestates or powers of gold in the form of a white oil incombustible. In this oil the
philosophers have placed their greatest secrets; it is exceeding sweet, and of great virtue for easing the pains
of wounds.
(3) The whole, then, of this antimonial secret is, that we know how by it to extract or draw forth argent vive,
out of the body of Magnesia, not burning, and this is antimony, and a mercurial sublimate. That is, you must
extract a living and incombustible water, and then congeal, or coagulate it with the perfect body of sol, i.e.
fine gold, without alloy; which is done by dissolving it into a nature [sic? mature?] white substance of the
consistency of cream, and made thoroughly white. But first this sol by putrefaction and resolution in this
water, loseth all its light and brightness, and will grow dark and black; afterwards it will ascend above the
water, and by little and little will swim upon it, in a substance of a white color. And this is the whitening of
red laton to sublimate it philosophically, and to reduce it into its first matter; viz. into a white incombustible
sulphur, and into a fixed argent vive. Thus the perfect body of sol, resumeth life in this water; it is revived,
inspired, grows, and is multiplied in its kind, as all other things are. For in this water, it so happens, that the
body compounded of two bodies, viz. sol and luna, is puffed up, swells, putrefies, is raised up, and does
increase by the receiving from the vegetable and animated nature and substance.
(4) Our water also, or vinegar aforesaid, is the vinegar of the mountains, i.e. of sol and luna; and therefore it
is mixed with gold and silver, and sticks close to them perpetually; and the body receiveth from this water a
white tincture, and shines with inestimable brightness. Who so knows how to convert, or change the body
into a medicinal white gold, may easily by the same white gold change all imperfect metals into the best or
finest silver. And this white gold is called by the philosophers "luna alba philosophorum, argentum vivum
album fixum, aurum alchymiae, and fumus albus" [white philosophical silver, white fixed mercury,
alchemical gold and white (something)]: and therefore without this our antimonial vinegar, the aurum album
of the philosophers cannot be made. And because in our vinegar there is a double substance of argentum
vivum, the one from antimony, and the other from mercury sublimated, it does give a double weight and
substance of fixed argent vive, and also augments therein the native color, weight, substance and tincture
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The Secret Book of Artephius
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A Coecton of Sacred Magck | The Esoterc Lbrary | www.sacred-magck.com
The Secret Book of Artephius
thereof.
(5) Our dissolving water therefore carries with it a great tincture, and a great melting or dissolving; because
that when it feels the vulgar fire, if there be in it the pure and fine bodies of sol or luna, it immediately melts
them, and converts them into its white substance such as itself is, and gives to the body color, weight, and
tincture. In it also is a power of liquefying or melting all things that can be melted or dissolved; it is a water
ponderous, viscous, precious, and worthy to be esteemed, resolving all crude bodies into their prima materia,
or first matter, viz. earth and a viscous powder; that is into sulphur, and argentum vivum. If therefore you put
into this water, leaves, filings, or calx of any metal, and set it in a gentle heat for a time, the whole will be
dissolved, and converted into a viscous water, or white oil as aforesaid. Thus it mollifies the body, and
prepares for liquefaction; yea, it makes all things fusible, viz. stones and metals, and after gives them spirit
and life. And it dissolves all things with an admirable solution, transmuting the perfect body into a fusible
medicine, melting, or liquefying, moreover fixing, and augmenting the weight and color.
(6) Work therefore with it, and you shall obtain from it what you desire, for it is the spirit and soul of sol and
luna; it is the oil, the dissolving water, the fountain, the Balneum Mariae, the praeternatural fire, the moist
fire, the secret, hidden and invisible fire. It is also the most acrid vinegar, concerning which an ancient
philosopher saith, I besought the Lord, and he showed me a pure clear water, which I knew to be the pure
vinegar, altering, penetrating, and digesting. I say a penetrating vinegar, and the moving instrument for
putrefying, resolving and reducing gold or silver into their prima materia or first matter. And it is the only
agent in the universe, which in this art is able to reincrudate metallic bodies with the conservation of their
species. It is therefore the only apt and natural medium, by which we ought to resolve the perfect bodies of
sol and luna, by a wonderful and solemn dissolution, with the conservation of the species, and without any
destruction, unless it be to a new, more noble, and better form or generation, viz. into the perfect
philosopher's stone, which is their wonderful secret or arcanum.
(7) Now this water is a certain middle substance, clear as fine silver, which ought to receive the tinctures of
sol and luna, so as they may be congealed, and changed into a white and living earth. For this water needs the
perfect bodies, that with them after the dissolution, it may be congealed, fixed, and coagulated into a white
earth. But if this solution is also their coagulation, for they have one and the same operation, because one is
not dissolved, but the other is congealed, nor is there any other water which can dissolve the bodies, but that
which abideth with them in the matter and the form. It cannot be permanent unless it be of the nature of other
bodies, that they may be made one. When therefore you see the water coagulate itself with the bodies that be
dissolved therein; be assured that thy knowledge, way of working, and the work itself are true and
philosophic, and that you have done rightly according to art.
(8) Thus you see that nature has to be amended by its own like nature; that is, gold and silver are to be exalted
in our water, as our water also with these bodies; which water is called the medium of the soul, without which
nothing has to be done in this art. It is a vegetable, mineral and animal fire, which conserves the fixed spirits
of sol and luna, but destroys and conquers their bodies; for it destroys, overturns, and changes bodies and
metallic forms, making them to be no bodies but a fixed spirit. And it turns them into a humid substance, soft
and fluid, which hath ingression and power to enter into other imperfect bodies, and to mix with them in their
smallest parts, and to tinge and make them perfect. But this they could not do while they remained in their
metallic forms or bodies, which were dry and hard, whereby they could have no entrance into other things, so
to tinge and make perfect, what was before imperfect.
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(9) It is necessary therefore to convert the bodies of metals into a fluid substance; for that every tincture will
tinge a thousand times more in a soft and liquid substance, than when it is in a dry one, as is plainly apparent
in saffron. Therefore the transmutation of imperfect metals is impossible to be done by perfect bodies, while
they are dry and hard; for which cause sake they must be brought back into their first matter, which is soft
and fluid. It appears therefore that the moisture must be reverted that the hidden treasure may be revealed.
The Secret Book of Artephius
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A Coecton of Sacred Magck | The Esoterc Lbrary | www.sacred-magck.com
The Secret Book of Artephius
And this is called the reincrudation of bodies, which is the decocting and softening them, till they lose their
hard and dry substance or form; because that which is dry doth not enter into, nor tinge anything except its
own body, nor can it be tinged except it be tinged; because, as I said before, a thick dry earthy matter does not
penetrate nor tinge, and therefore, because it cannot enter or penetrate, it can make no alteration in the matter
to be altered. For this reason it is, that gold coloreth not, until its internal or hidden spirit is drawn forth out of
its bowels by this, our white water, and that it may be made altogether a spiritual substance, a white vapor, a
white spirit, and a wonderful soul.
(10) It behoves us therefore by this our water to attenuate, alter and soften the perfect bodies, to wit sol and
luna, that so they may be mixed other perfect bodies. From whence, if we had no other benefit by this our
antimonial water, than that it rendered bodies soft, more subtile, and fluid, according to its own nature, it
would be sufficient. But more than that, it brings back bodies to their original of sulphur and mercury, that of
them we may afterwards in a little time, in less than an hour's time do that above ground which nature was a
thousand years doing underground, in the mines of the earth, which is a work almost miraculous.
(11) And therefore our ultimate, or highest secret is, by this our water, to make bodies volatile, spiritual, and
a tincture, or tinging water, which may have ingress or entrance into bodies; for it makes bodies to be merely
spirit, because it reduces hard and dry bodies, and prepares them for fusion, melting and dissolving; that is, it
converts them into a permanent or fixed water. And so it makes of bodies a most precious and desirable oil,
which is the true tincture, and the permanent fixed white water, by nature hot and moist, or rather temperate,
subtile, fusible as wax, which does penetrate, sink, tinge, and make perfect the work. And this our water
immediately dissolves bodies (as sol and luna) and makes them into an incombustible oil, which then may be
mixed with other imperfect bodies. It also converts other bodies into the nature of a fusible salt which the
philosophers call "sal alebrot philosophorum", better and more noble than any other salt, being in its own
nature fixed and not subject to vanish in fire. It is an oil indeed by nature hot, subtile, penetrating, sinking
through and entering into other bodies; it is called the perfect or great elixir, and the hidden secret of the wise
searchers of nature. He therefore that knows this salt of sol and luna, and its generation and perfection, and
afterwards how go commix it, and make it homogene with other perfect bodies, he in truth knows one of the
greatest secrets of nature, and the only way that leads to perfection.
(12) These bodies thus dissolved by our water are called argent vive, which is not without its sulphur, nor
sulphur without the fixedness of sol and luna; because sol and luna are the particular means, or medium in the
form through which nature passes in the perfecting or completing thereof. And this argent vive is called our
esteemed and valuable salt, being animated and pregnant, and our fire, for that is nothing but fire; yet not fire,
but sulphur; and not sulphur only, but also quicksilver drawn from sol and luna by our water, and reduced to
a stone of great price. That is to say it is a matter or substance of sol and luna, or silver and gold, altered from
vileness to nobility. Now you must note that this white sulphur is the father and mother of the metals; it is our
mercury, and the mineral of gold; also the soul, and the ferment; yea, the mineral virtue, and the living body;
our sulphur, and our quicksilver; that is, sulphur of sulphur, quicksilver of quicksilver, and mercury of
mercury.
(13) The property therefore of our water is, that it melts or dissolves gold and silver, and increases their
native tincture or color. For it changes their bodies from being corporeal, into a spirituality; and it is in this
water which turns the bodies, or corporeal substance into a white vapor, which is a soul which is whiteness
itself, subtile, hot and full of fire. This water also called the tinging or blood−color−making stone, being the
virtue of the spiritual tincture, without which nothing can be done; and is the subject of all things that can be
melted, and of liquefaction itself, which agrees perfectly and unites closely with sol and luna from which it
can never be separated. For it joined [joins?] in affinity to the gold and silver, but more immediately to the
gold than to the silver; which you are to take special notice of. It is also called the medium of conjoining the
tinctures of sol and luna with the inferior or imperfect metals; for it turns the bodies into the true tincture, to
tinge the said imperfect metals, also it is the water that whiteneth, as it is whiteness itself, which quickeneth,
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The Secret Book of Artephius
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A Coecton of Sacred Magck | The Esoterc Lbrary | www.sacred-magck.com
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The Secret Book of Artephius, Alchemy

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