THE SECRET OF THE IMMORTAL LIQUOR CALLED ALKAHEST OR IGNIS-AQUA.

 

By EIRENÆUS PHILALETHES.

_____

Communicated to his Friend, a Son of Art, and now Philosopher.

By Question and Answer.

THE SECRET OF THE LIQUOR ALKAHEST.

1. Question.—What is the Alkahest?

Answer.—It is a Catholic and Universal Menstruum, and, in a word, may be called (Ignis-Aqua) a Fiery Water, an uncompounded and immortal ens, which is penetrative, resolving all things into their first Liquid Matter, nor can anything resist its power, for it acteth without any reaction from the patient, nor doth it suffer from anything but its equal, by which it is brought into subjection; but after it hath dissolved all other things, it remaineth entire in its former nature, and is of the same virtue after a thousand operations as at the first.

2. Q.—Of what substance is it?

A.—It is a noble circulated salt, prepared with wonderful art till it answers the desires of an ingenious artist; yet it is not any corporal salt made liquid by a bare solution, but is a saline spirit which heat cannot coagulate by evaporation of the moisture, but is of a spiritual uniform substance, volatile with a gentle heat, leaving nothing behind it; yet is not this spirit either acid or alkali, but salt.

3. Q.—Which is its equal?

A.—If you know the one, you may without difficulty know the other; seek therefore, for the Gods have made Arts the reward of industry.

4. Q.—What is the next matter of the Alkahest?

A.—I have told you that it is a salt; the fire surrounded the salt and the water swallowed up the fire, yet overcame it not; so is made the philosopher's fire, of which they speak; the vulgar burn with fire, we with water.

5. Q.—Which is the most noble salt?

A.—If you desire to learn this, descend into yourself, for you carry it about with you, as well the salt as its Vulcan, if you are able to discern it.

6. Q.—Which is it, tell me, I pray you?

A.—Man's blood out of the body, or man's urine, for the urine is an excrement separated, for the greatest part, from the blood. Each of these give both a volatile and fixed salt; if you know how to collect and prepare it, you will have a most precious Balsam of Life.

7. Q.—Is the property of human urine more noble than the urine of any beast?

A.—By many degrees, for though it be an excrement only, yet its salt hath not its like in the whole universal nature.

8. Q.—Which be its parts?

A.—A volatile and more fixed; yet according to the variety of ordering it, these may be variously altered.

9. Q.—Are there any things in urine which are different from its inmost specific urinaceous nature?

A.—There are, viz., a watery phlegm, and sea salt which we take in with our meat; it remains entire and undigested in the urine, and by separation may be divided from it, which (if there be no sufficient use of it in the meat after a convenient time) ceaseth.

10. Q.—Whence is that phlegm, or insipid watery humidity?

A.—It is chiefly from our several drinks, and yet everything hath its own phlegm.
11. Q.—Explain yourself more clearly.

A.—You must know that the urine, partly by the separative virtue, is conveyed with what we drink to the bladder, and partly consists of a watery Teffas (an excrementitious humour of the blood), whence being separated by the odour of the urinaceous ferment, it penetrates most deeply, the saltness being unchanged, unless that the saltness of the blood and urine be both the same; so that whatsoever is contained in the urine besides salt is unprofitable phlegm.

12. Q.—How doth it appear that there is a plentiful phlegm in urine?

A.—Thus suppose; first, from the taste; secondly, from the weight; thirdly, from the virtue of it.

13. Q.—Be your own interpreter.

A.—The salt of urine contains all that is properly essential to the urine, the smell whereof is very sharp; the taste differs according as it is differently ordered, so that sometimes it is also salt with an urinaceous saltness.

14. Q.—What have you observed concerning the weight thereof?

A.—I have observed thus much, that three ounces, or a little more, of urine, taken from a healthy man, will moderately outweigh about eighty grains of fountain water, from which also I have seen a liquor distilled which was of equal weight to the said water, whence it is evident that most of the salt was left behind.

15. Q.—What have you observed of its virtue?

A.—The congelation of urine by cold is an argument that phlegm is in it; for the salt of urine is not so congealed if a little moistened with a liquid, though it be water.

16. Q.—But this same phlegm though most accurately separated by distillation, retains the nature of urine, as may be perceived both by the smell and taste.

A.—I confess it, though little can be discerned by taste, nor can you perceive more, either by smell or taste, than you may from salt of urine dissolved in pure water.

17. Q.—What doth pyrotechny teach you concerning urine?

A.—It teacheth this, to make the salt of urine volatile.

18. Q.—What is then left?

A.—An earthly, blackish, stinking dreg.

19. Q.—Is the spirit wholly uniform?

A.—So it appeareth to the sight, smell, and taste; and yet it containeth qualities directly contrary to each other.

20. Q.—Which be they?

A.—By one, through its innate virtue, the Dulech is coagulated; by the other, it is dissolved.

21. Q.—What further?

A.—In the coagulation of urine, its spirit of wine is discovered.

22. Q.—Is there such a spirit in urine?

A.—There is indeed, truly residing in every urine, even of the most healthful man, most of which may be prepared by Art.

23. Q.—Of what efficacy is this spirit?

A.—Of such as is to be lamented, and indeed may move our pity to mankind.

24. Q.—Why so?

A.—From hence the Dulech, its most fierce enemy, hath its original.

25. Q.—Will you give an example of this thing?

A.—I will. Take urine, and dissolve in it a convenient quantity of saltpetre. Let it stand a month; afterwards distil it, and there will come over a spirit which burns upon the tongue like a coal of fire. Pour this spirit on again, and cohobate it four or five times, abstracting every time not above half; so the spirit becometh most piercing, yet not in the least sharp; the heat which goeth out in the first distillation of the liquor, afterwards grows sensibly mild, and at length almost (if not altogether) vanisheth, and the second spirit may be perceived mild, both by the smell and taste, which in the former was most sharp.

26. Q.—What have you observed concerning the former spirit?

A.—If it be a little shaked, oily streaks appear sliding here and there, just as spirit of wine distils down the head of the alembic in streaks like veins.

27. Q.—What kind of putrefaction should the urine undergo that such a spirit may be got from it?

A.—In a heat scarce to be perceived by sense, in a vessel lightly closed, or covered rather; it may also be sometimes hotter, sometimes cooler, so that neither the heat nor cold exceed a due mean.

28. Q.—How may this winy spirit become most perspicuous?

A.—By such a putrefaction as causeth a ferment, and exciteth ebullition, which will not happen in a long time if the urine be kept in a wooden vessel, and in a place which is not hot, but yet keeps out the cold, as, suppose, behind a furnace in winter, where let it be kept till of itself a ferment arise in the urine and stirs up bubbles, for then you may draw from it a burning water which is somewhat winy.

29. Q.—Is there any other spirit of urine?

A.—There is; for urine, putrefied with a gentle heat, during the space of a fortnight or thereabouts, sends forth a coagulating spirit, which will coagulate well rectified Aqua Vitæ.

30. Q.—How is that spirit to be prepared which forms the Dulech of itself with a clear watery stalagma; and also that which dissolves the same?

A.—Urine putrefied for a month and a-half in a heat most like the heat of horse-dung will give you, in a fit vessel, each stillatitious stalagma according to your desire.

31. Q.—Doth every spirit coagulate the spirit of wine?

A.—By no means; this second spirit is observed to want that virtue.

32. Q.—What doth urine, thus ordered, contain besides the aforesaid spirits?

A.—Its more fixed urinaceous salt, and, by accident, foreign marine salt.

33. Q.—Can this more fixed salt be brought over the alembic, with a gentle heat, in form of a liquor?

A.—It may, but art and ingenuity are required.

34. Q.—Where is the phlegm?

A.—In the salt; for in the preparation of putrefaction, the salt, being putrefied in the phlegm, ascends together with it.

35. Q.—Can it be separated?

A.—It may, but not by every artist.

36. Q.—What will this spirit do when it is brought to this?

A.—Try, and you will wonder at what you shall see in the solution of bodies.

37. Q.—Is not this the Alkahest?

A.—This liquor cannot consist without partaking of the virtues of man's blood; and in urine the footsteps thereof are observable.

38. Q.—In urine, therefore, and blood the Alkahest lies hid?

A.—Nature gives us both blood and urine; and from the nature of these pyrotechny gives us a salt which art circulates into the circulated salt of Paracelsus.

39. Q.—You speak short.

A.—I will add this; the salt of blood ought so to be transmuted by the urinaceous ferment that it may lose its last life, preserve its middle life, and retain its saltness.

40. Q.—To what purpose is this?

A.—To manifest the excellency which is in man's blood above all other blood whatever, which is to be communicated to the urine (after an excrementitious liquor is separated from it), whence this urine excels all others in a wonderful virtue.

41. Q.—Why do you add urine?

A.—You must know that to transmute things a corruptive ferment is required, in which respect all other salts give place to the strong urinous salt.

42. Q.—Cannot the phlegm be collected apart from the salt?

A.—It may, if the urine be not first putrefied.

43. Q.—How great a part of the water is to be reckoned phlegm?

A.—Nine parts of ten, or thereabouts, distilled from fresh urine are to be rejected, the tenth part (as much as can be extracted in form of liquor) is to be kept; from that dried urine which remains in the bottom by a gentle fire (which will not cause sublimation), let the salt be extracted with water, so that there be as much water as half that urine whence this feces was dried; whatsoever is imbibed by the water, let it be poured off by decanting; let it be strained, or purged, per deliquium; then filter it through a glass. Let fresh water be poured on, and reiterate this work till the salt become pure, then join this vastly stinking salt with your last spirit and cohobate it.

PRAISED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD.—AMEN.

Lesson: 17th-century alchemist Eirenaeus Philalethes

Eirenaeus Philalethes (the peaceful lover of truth) was a 17th-century alchemist and the author of many influential works. These works were read by such luminaries as Isaac Newton, John Locke, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Robert Boyle, and Georg Stahl. Newton's extensive writings on alchemy are heavily indebted to Philalethes, although Newton incorporated significant modifications as well.

Identity

The real identity behind the nom de plume of Eireneaus Philalethes was long shrouded in mystery. Recent research, however, has shown that the author was George Starkey(1628-1665), an expatriate American living in London.

Works

Introitus apertus ad occlusum regis palatium (in Latin). Amstelodami: J. Janssonium. 1667.The Marrow of Alchemy, being an Experimental Treatise, Discovering the secret and most hidden Mystery of the Philosophers Elixer. London, UK. 1654.First printings of Philalethes' tracts were published between 1654 and 1683:

Subsequently translated as:

• Secrets reveal'd; or, An open entrance to the shut-palace of the King : containing the greatest treasure in chymistry never yet so plainly discovered. London, UK: W. Godbid for William Cooper. 1669. 
• Three Tracts of the Great Medicine of Philosophers for Humane and Metalline Bodies (Amsterdam, 1668, in Latin; London, 1694, in English) 
• The Art of the Transmutation of Metals 
• A short Manuduction to the Caelestial Ruby 
• The Fountain of Chymical Philosophy 
• An Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Epistle to King Edward IV (London 1677, in English) 
• An Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Preface (London 1677, in English) 
• An Exposition upon the First Six Gates of Sir George Ripley's Compound of Alchymie (London 1677, in English) 
• Experiments for the Preparation of the Sophick Mercury; by Luna, and the Antimonial-Stellate-Regulus of Mars, for the Philosophers Stone (London 1677, in English) 
• A breviary of Alchemy, or a commentary upon Sir George Ripley's Recapitulation: Being A Paraphrastical Epitome of his Twelve Gates(London 1677, in English) 
• An Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Vision (London 1677, in English) 
• Ripley Reviv'd, or an Exposition upon Sir George Ripley's Hermetico-Poetical Works (London 1678, in English) 
• Opus tripartitum (London&Amsterdam, 1678, in Latin) 
• Enarratio methodica trium Gebri medicinarum, in quibus contenitur Lapidis Philosophici vera confectio (Amsterdam, 1678, Latin) 
• The Secret of the Immortal Liquor called Alkahest (London, 1683, English & Latin) 

A number of these tracts, including the Three tracts and the Introitus were also included in the Musaeum Hermeticum of 1678.

All English works of Philalethes have been recently compiled in one volume.

Lecture: Ripley's Alchemy Part 13 RECAPITULATION

So to bring this treatise to a final end,
And briefly to conclude all these secrets here,
Diligently look at, and attend to your figure,
Which contains in it all these secrets great and small,
And if you conceive it, both theoretically and practically,
By figures and colours, by scripture plain,
It wisely conceived, you may not work in vain.

Consider first the latitude of this precious stone,
Beginning in the first side noted in the West,
Where the red man and the white woman be made one,
Espoused with the spirit of life to live in rest,
Earth and water equally proportioned, that is best,
And one part of the earth is good, and of the spirit three,
Which twelve to four also of the earth may be.

Three of the wife, and one of the man you take,
And the less of the spirit in this dispousation,
The better your Calcination for certain you shall make,
Then forth into the North proceed by obscuration,
Called the Eclipsing of the red man and his white wife,
Loosening them and altering them between winter and spring,
Turning earth into water, dark and nothing clear.

From thence by many colours into the East ascend,
Then shall the Moon be full appearing by day light,
Then is the purgatory passed, and her course at an end,
There is the uprising of the Sun appearing bright,
There is Summer after Spring, and day after night:
The earth and water which were black be turned to air,
And clouds of darkness blown over, and all appears fair.

And as the beginning of your practice was in the West,
And in the North the perfect mean of profound alteration,
So in the East after them is the beginning of speculation,
But of this course the Sun makes consummation up in the South,
There the elements are turned into fire by circulation,
Then to win your desire you need not be in doubt,
For the wheel of our philosophy you have turned about.

But turn your wheel about again two times,
Which being comprehended all the secrets of our philosophy,
In twelve chapters made plain to you, if you conceive this well,
And all the secrets by and by of our lower Astronomy,
Of how you shall calcine bodies, perfect, dissolve, divide, and putrefy,
With perfect knowledge of all the poles which be in our heaven,
Shining with inexplicable colours, never were a scene more gay.

And thus our secret conclusion know without fail,
Our red man tinges not, nor his wife, until they be tinged,
Therefore if you will lift yourself by this craft to avail,
Hide the altitude of bodies, and show out their profundity,
Destroying the first quality in every one of your materials,
And repair anon in them secondary qualities more glorious,
And in one glass, and with one rule, turn four natures into one.

Pale and black with false citrine, imperfect white and red,
The Peacock's feathers in gay colours, the rainbow which shall go over,
The spotted panther, the lion green, the Crows bill blue as lead.
These shall appear before you perfect white, and many more others.
And after the perfect white, grey, false citrine also,
And after these, there shall appear the red body invariable,
Then you have a medicine of the third order of his own kind multipliable.

You must divide your white Elixir into two parts,
Before you rubify, and into two glasses let these be done,
If you will have your Elixir for Sun and Moon do both so,
And multiply these soon into Mercury to great quantity,
And even if you had not at the beginning enough to fill a spoon,
Yet may you so multiply both white and red,
That if you live a thousand years, they shall stand you in stead.

Therefore I counsel you have recourse to your wheel,
And study well to know each chapter truly,
Meddle with no phantastic multipliers, but let them be,
Who will flatter you, feigning to be cunning in Philosophy,
Do as I bid you, them dissolve these aforesaid bases wisely,
And turn them into perfect oils with our true ardent water,
By circulation that must be done according to our intent.

These oils will fix crude Mercury and convert all bodies,
Into perfect Sun and Moon, when you shall make Projection,
That oily substance pure and fixed which Raimund Lully did call,
His Basilisk, of which he never made so plain detection,
Pray for me to God, that I may be one of his elect,
And that he will at domesday know me for one of his,
And grant me his bliss to reign with him forever. Amen

End of the Recapituation.

Lecture: Ripley's Alchemy Part 12 THE TWELFTH GATE - PROJECTION

In Projection it shall be proved if our practice be profitable,
Of which it behoves me the secrets here to move,
Therefore if your tincture be sure and not variable,
By a little of your medicine thus you may prove,
With Metal, or with Mercury as pitch it will cleave,
And tinge in Projection all fires to abide,
And soon it will enter and spread full wide.

But many by ignorance do mar what they made,
When they make Projection on uncleansed metals,
For because of corruption their tinctures must fade,
Which they would not first take away from the body,
Which after Projection be brittle, blue and black.
That your tincture therefore may evermore last,
First see you cast your medicine upon ferment.

Then brittle as glass will your ferment be,
Upon bodies cleansed and made very pure,
Cast that brittle substance and soon you shall see,
That they shall be curiously coloured with tincture,
With all assays for ever shall endure,
But profitable Projection perfectly to make,
At the Psalms of the Psalter example thou take.

On 'Fundamenta' cast this psalm 'Nunc dimittis',
Upon 'verba mea', then cast 'Fundamenta' believe,
Then 'Verba' upon 'diligam', conceive me with your wits,
And 'diligam' upon 'attendite', if you wish to thrive,
Thus make you Projections, three, four, or five,
Till the tincture of the medicine begin to decrease,
And then it is time for Projection to cease.

By this misty talking I mean nothing else,
But that you must cast first the less on the more,
Increasing ever the number as wise men tell you,
And keep you this secret unto yourself in store,
Be covetous of cunning it is no sore burden,
For he that does not join the Elixir with bodies made clean,
Surely does not know what projection does mean.

Ten if thy multiply first into ten,
One hundred that number will assuredly make,
If one hundred into an hundred be multiplied,
Then ten thousand is that number if you count it wisely,
Then into as much more ten thousand to multiply,
Is a thousand thousand, I say,
Which multiplied into as much more, is a hundred millions.

That hundred millions being multiplied likewise,
Into ten thousand millions, as I do say to you,
Making so great a number I know not what it is,
Your number in Projection thus multiply always.
Now child through your courtesy for me that you pray,
Since I have told you our secrets all and some,
To which I beseech GOD by grace you may come.

Now you have conquered these twelve gates,
And all the Castle you hold at your will,
Keep your secrets in store to yourself,
And the commandments of God look you fulfil,
See you continue your glasses still in fire,
And multiply your medicines always more and more,
For wise men do say, that store is no sore.

The end of the twelve gates

Lecture: Ripley's Alchemy Part 11 THE ELEVENTH GATE - MULTIPLICATION

Now I proceed to declare Multiplication,
Which is by Philosophers in this way defined,
Augmentation it is of the Elixir indeed,
In goodness and quantity both for white and red,
Multiplication is therefore as they do write,
That thing that does augment medicines in each degree,
In colour, in odour, in virtue, and also in quantity.

And why may you multiply this medicine infinitely,
Forsooth the cause is this,
For it is fire, which kindled will never die,
Dwelling with you, as fire does in houses,
Of which one spark may make more fire this way,
As musk in pigments and other spices more,
In virtue multiplied, and our medicine right so.

So he, who fire has less or more, is rich,
Because he may multiply it so hugely,
And so is he rich, who has in store any part,
Of our Elixir which can be augmented infinitely -
One way if you dissolve our powders dry,
And make often times of them Congelation,
Thereof in goodness then you make Augmentation.

The second way both in goodness and quantity,
It multiplies by iterated Fermentation,
As in that chapter I showed plainly to thee,
By diverse manners of natural operation,
And also in the chapter of our Cibation,
Where you may know how you shall multiply,
Your medicine with Mercury infinitely.

But if you will both loose and eke ferment,
Both more in quantity and better will it be -
And in such ways you may augment it soon,
That in your glass it will grow like a tree,
The tree of Hermes named seemly to see,
Of which one pip in a thousand will multiply,
If you can make your projection wisely.

And just as with Saffron when it is pulverised,
By little and little if it be tempered with liquor,
When with much more liquor dilated,
Tinges much more of liquor in quantity,
That being whole in his gross nature :
So shall you see, that our Elixir, the more it is made thin,
The further in tincture it fastly will run.

Keep in your fire therefore both morning and evening,
So that you do not need to run from house to house,
Among thy neighbours to seek or borrow your fire ,
The more you keep, the more good shall you win,
Multiplying it always more and more within your glass,
By feeding with Mercury unto your lives end,
So shall you have more than you need to spend.

This matter is plain, thereof I will write no more,
Let reason guide you,
Be never the bolder to sin therefore,
But serve thy God the better in each tide,
And while that you shall in this life abide,
Bear this in mind, forget not I thee pray,
As thou shalt appear before God at domesday.

His own great gifts therefore and his treasure,
Dispose you virtuously, helping the poor at need,
That in this world you may procure to yourself,
Mercy and grace with heavenly bliss to merit,
And pray to God devoutly that he lead you,
In at the twelfth gate, as he can best,
Soon after then you shall end your conquest.

The end of the eleventh gate.

Lecture: Ripley's Alchemy Part 10 THE TENTH GATE - EXALTATION

We proceed now to the chapter of Exaltation,
Of which truly you must have pure knowledge,
But little is different from Sublimation,
If you conceive it right I you ensure,
Hereto accords the holy scripture,
Christ saying thus - "if I exalted be,
Then shall I draw all things unto me".

Our medicine if we exalt so,
It shall be thereby ennobled,
That must be done in two manners,
From time the parties be disposed,
Which must be crucified and examined,
And then bury together both man and wife,
To be after revived by the spirit of life.

Then up to heaven they must be exalted,
There to be in body and soul glorified,
For you must bring them to such subtlety,
That they ascend together to enter,
In clouds of clearness uniting together with Angels,
Then shall they draw as you shall see,
All other bodies to their own dignity.

If you therefore will exalt the bodies,
First you augment them with the spirit of life,
Till in time the earth be well subtilized,
By natural rectifying of every Element,
Exalting them up into the firmament,
Then much more precious shall they be than gold,
Because of the quintessence which they do hold.

For when the cold has overcome the heat,
Then into water the air shall be turned,
And so two contraries together shall meet,
Till either with the other right well agree,
So into air the water as I tell thee,
When heat of cold has got domination,
Shall be converted by craft of our circulation.

And of the air then fire you shall have,
By loosening, putrefying and subliming,
And fire you have of the earth material,
Thus by craft dissevering your elements,
Most especially well calcining your earth,
And when they be each one made pure,
Then do they hold all of the first nature.

In this way therefore make them be circulated,
Each into other exalting by and by,
And all in this one glass surely sigillate,
Not with thine hands, but as I teach you naturally,
Fire into water, then turn first hardly,
For fire is in Air, which is in water existent,
And this conversion accords to our intent.

Then furthermore turn on your wheel,
That into earth the air converted be,
Which will be done also right well,
For Air is in water being earth, trust me,
The water into fire, contrary in her quality,
Soon turn you may, for water is in earth,
Which is in fire, convertion true is this.

The wheel is now near turned about,
Into air turn earth which is the proper nest,
Of other Elements there is no doubt,
For earth is in fire, which in air takes rest,
This circulation begin you in the west,
Then into the south, till they exalted be,
Proceed duly, as I have taught you in the figure *.

In which process clearly you may see,
From one extreme how to another you may not go,
But by a mean, since they in qualities contrary be,
And reason will show that it be so,
As heat into cold, with other contraries more,
Without their means, as moist to heat and and cold,
Examples sufficient before this I have told.

Thus I have taught you how to make,
Of all your Elements a perfect circulation,
And at the figure example to take,
How you shall make this foresaid Exaltation,
And of your medicine in the Elements true graduation,
Till it be brought to a generative temperate,
And then you have conquered the tenth gate.

The end of the tenth gate.

Lecture: Ripley's Alchemy Part 9 THE NINTH GATE - FERMENTATION

True Fermentation few workers understand,
That secret therefore I will expound to you.
I travelled truly through many a land,
Ere ever I might find any that would tell it me :
Yet as God would, evermore blessed be he,
At at last I came to the perfected knowledge thereof,
Take heed therefore what I thereof do write.

Fermentations in divers manners be done,
By which our medicine must be perpetuated,
Into clear water - some looseth Sun and Moon,
And with their medicines make them to be congealed;
Which in the fire when they be examined,
May not abide, nor alter with complement:
For such fermenting is not to our intent.

But yet more kindly some other men do,
Fermenting their medicines in this way -
In Mercury dissolving both Sun and Moon,
Till time with the spirit they will arise,
Subliming them together twice or thrice;
Then Fermentation therewith they make;
That is a way, but yet we it forsake.

Some others there be which have more sense,
To touch the truth in part of fermenting -
They amalgam their bodies with Mercury like pap,
Then thereupon their medicines relenting;
These of our secrets have some hint,
But not the truth with perfect complement
Because they neither putrefy, nor alter their Ferment.

That point therefore I will disclose to you,
Look how you did with your imperfect body -
Do so with thy perfect bodies in each degree,
That is to say, first you putrefy them,
Destroying their former qualities utterly,
For this is wholly to our intent,
That first you alter before you ferment.

To your compound make ferment the fourth part,
Which ferments be only of Sun and Moon,
If you therefore be master of this art,
Your fermentation let thus be done,
Fix water and earth together soon,
And when your medicine as wax do flow,
Then upon amalgams look you it throw.

And when all that together is mixed,
Above the glass well closed make your fire,
And so continue it till all be fixed,
And well fermented to your desire,
Then make Projection after thy pleasure
For that is medicine each deal perfected,
Thus must you ferment both red and white.

For like as flour of wheat made into a paste,
Requires ferment, which we call leaven of bread,
That it may have the kindly taste,
And become cordial food to man and woman,
So you shall ferment your medicine,
That it may taste of the Ferment pure,
At all assays for ever to endure.

And understand that there be Ferments three,
Two be of bodies in nature clean,
Which must be altered as I have told you;
The third most secret of which I mean,
Is the first earth of his water green:
And therefore when the Lion does thirst,
Make him to drink till his belly burst.

Of this a question if I should move,
And ask of workers, what is this thing ?
Anon thereby I should them prove,
If they had knowledge of our fermenting:
For many a man speaks with wondering,
Of Robin Hood and of his bow,
Which never shot therein I trow.

For true Fermentation as I tell you,
Is the incorporation of the soul with the bodies,
Restoring to it the kindly smell,
With taste and colour by natural compacting together,
Of things dissevered, a due re-integration,
Whereby the body of the spirit takes impression.
That either the other may help to have ingression.

For like as bodies in their compaction corporeal,
May not show out their qualities effectually,
Until the time that they become spiritual,
No more may spirits abide with bodies steadfastly,
Till they be fixed together with them proportionally,
For then the body teaches the spirit to suffer fire,
And the spirit the body to enter to your desire.

Therefore you must ferment your gold with gold,
Your earth cleansed with his own water, I mean,
Nought else to say but element with element,
The spirit of life only going between,
For like as an adamant as you have seen
Draws iron to him, so does our earth by kind,
Draw down to him his soul borne up with wind.

With wind therefore the soul lead out and in,
Mingle gold with gold, that is to say,
Make Element with Element together run,
Till time all fire they may suffer,
For earth is Ferment without nay to water,
And water the earth unto,
Our Fermentation in this way must be done.

Earth is gold, and so is the soul also,
Not common, but ours thus elementary,
And yet thereto the Sun must go,
That by our wheel it may be altered:
For so to ferment it must be prepared,
That it profoundly may be joined,
With other natures as I said to you.

And whatsoever I have here said of gold,
The same of silver I will you understand,
That you putrefy them and alter (as I have told)
Ere you take in hand to ferment your medicine.
Forsooth I could never find anyone in England
Who could teach me to ferment in this way ,
Without error, by practice or by speech.

Now of this chapter needs to treat no more,
Such I intend prolixity to eschew;
Remember well my words therefore,
Which you shall prove by practice true,
And Sun and Moon look you renew,
That they may hold of the fifth nature,
Then shall their tincture evermore endure.

And yet a way there is most excellent,
Belonging unto another working,
A water we make most redolent,
All bodies to oil wherewith we bring,
With which our medicine we make flowing,
A quintessence this water we call,
Which heals all diseases in man.

But with my base, after my doctrine prepared,
Which is our calx this must be done,
For when our bodies be so calcined,
That water will to oil dissolve them soon
Make you therefore oil both of the Sun and Moon,
Which is ferment most fragrant for to smell,
And so the ninth gate of this Castle is conquered.

The end of the Ninth Gate.

Lecture: Ripley's Alchemy Part 8 THE EIGHTH GATE - SUBLIMATION

Here of our Sublimation a word or two
I have to speak, which is the eighth gate.
Fools do sublime, but you do not sublime so,
For we sublime not in the way they do,
To sublime truly therefore you shall not miss,
If you can make they bodies first spiritual,
And then your spirits (as I have taught you) corporeal.

Some do sublime Mercury from vitriol and salt,
And other spirits from scales of iron and steel,
Calcined from egg shells, and from quicklime,
And in their manner yet sublime they right well,
But such subliming accords never a deal,
To our intents, for we sublime not so,
To true subliming therefore, now I will go.

In Sublimation first beware of one thing,
That thou sublime to the top of the vessel;
For without violence you shall not bring it down again,
But there it will abide and dwell.
So I tell you it rejoices with refrigeration,
Keep it down therefore with temperate heat,
Full forty days, till it wax black and brown.

For then the soul begins to come out
From his own veins, for all that is subtle,
Will with the spirit ascend without doubt,
Bear in your mind therefore, and think on this,
How here eclipsed be your bodies,
As they do putrefy subliming more and more into water
Until they be all borne upwards.

And thus when they have spued out their venom,
Into the water then it does appear black,
Becoming spiritual each deal without doubt,
Subliming easily in our manner,
Into the water, which does bear it:
For in the air our child must thus be born
Of the water again, as I have said before.

But when these two by continual Sublimation,
Be laboured so with heat both moist and temperate,
That is all white and purely made spiritual,
Then heaven upon earth must be reiterated,
Until the soul with the body be incorporated,
That earth become all that before was heaven,
Which will be done in seven Sublimations.

And Sublimations we make for three causes,
The first cause is, to make the body spiritual,
The second is, that the spirit may be corporeal ,
And become fixed with it and consubstantial,
The third cause is, that from its filthy original
It may be cleansed, and its saltiness sulphurious,
May be diminished in it, which is infectious.

Then when they thus together be freed from impurities,
They will sublime up whiter than the snow;
That sight will greatly comfort you :
For then anon perfectly you shalt know,
The spirits shall so be thrown down,
That this eighth gate shall to thee be unlocked,
Out of which many are shut and mocked.

The end of the eighth gate

Lecture: Ripley's Alchemy Part 7 THE SEVENTH GATE - CIBATION

Now I turn my pen to write of Cibation,
Since it must here the seventh place occupy:
But in few words it will be expedited,
Take heed therefore, and understand me wisely;
Cibation is called a feeding of our dry matter,
With milk and meat, which moderately you do,
Until it be brought unto the third order.

But give it never so much, that you it glut,
Beware of dropsy, and also of Noah's flood:
By little and little therefore you to it put
Of meat and drink, as seems to do it good,
That watery humours not overgrow the blood,
To drink therefore let it be measured so,
That you never quench it from that kindly appetite.

For if it drink too much, then it must have
A vomit or else it will be sick too long from the dropsy
Therefore thy womb thou save,
And from the flux, or else it will be wrong,
But rather let it thirst for drink along
Than you should give it overmuch at once.
Which must in youth be dieted for the nonce.

And if you diet it (as nature does require) moderately,
Till time that it be grown to age,
Keeping it from cold, and nourishing it with moist fire,
Then it shall grow, and wax full of courage,
And do to you both pleasure and advantage;
For it shall make dark bodies whole and bright,
Cleansing their leprosies through its might.

Three time must you also turn about your wheel,
Still keeping the rule of the said Cibation,
And then as soon as it does feel the fire,
Like wax it will be ready unto liquation:
This chapter needs no longer protestation,
For I have told you the diet most convenient,
After thine elements be made equipolent.

And also how you shall bring thy gold to whiteness,
Most like in figure to leaves of the hawthorn tree,
Called Magnesia, as I have told before,
And our White Sulphur without combustibility,
Which from the fire will never fly away.
And thus the seventh gate (as you desired)
In the uprising of the Sun is conquered.

The end of the seventh gate

Lecture: Ripley's Alchemy Part 6 THE SIXTH GATE - CONGELATION

Of Congelation I need not much to write,
But what it is, I will to you declare.
It is the induration of soft things of colour white,
And the fixation together of spirits which are flying,
How to congeal, you need not much to care,
For Elements will knit together soon,
So that Putrefaction be kindly done.

But Congelations be made in divers ways,
Of spirits and bodies dissolved to water clear,
Of salts also dissolved twice or thrice,
And then congealed into a fluxible matter;
Of such congealing, fools fast do clatter,
And some dissolve, dividing the Elements manually,
And congealing them after to a dry powder.

But such congealing is not to our desire,
For unto ours it is contrary,
Our congelation dreads not the fire :
For it must ever stand in it unctuous,
And so it is also a tincture so bounteous,
Which in the air congealed will not relent to water,
For then our work were spoiled.

Moreover congeal not into so hard a stone,
As glass or crystal, which melteth by fusion,
But so that it like wax will melt anon
Without blast: and beware of delusion,
For such congealing accords not to our conclusion,
As will not flow, but run to water again,
Like salt congealed, then labour you in vain.

Which congelation avails us not a deal,
It longeth to multipliers, congealing vulgarly,
If you therefore wish to do well,
(So that the medicine shall never flow kindly,
Neither congeal, without you putrefy it first)
First purge, and then fix the elements of our stone,
Till they together congeal and flow anon.

For when your matter is made perfectly white,
Then will the spirit with the body be congealed,
But of that time you may have long respite,
Or it congeal, like pearls in your sight,
Such congelation be you glad to see,
And after like grains red as blood,
Richer than any worldly good.

The earthly grossness therefore first mortified,
In moisture blackness is engendered;
This principle may not be denied,
For natural philosophers so say, I declare,
Which had, of whiteness you may not miss;
And into whiteness if thou congeal it once,
Then have you a stone most precious of all stones.

And like as the moist did putrefy the dry,
Which caused in colour blackness to appear,
So the moist is congealed by the dry,
Engendering whiteness shining with might full clear,
And dryness proceeding as the matter whitens,
Like as in blackness moisture does him show,
By colours variant always new and new.

The cause of this is heat most temperate,
Working and moving the matter continually,
And thereby also the matter is altered,
Both inward and outward substantially,
Not as do fools to their sophistical sight;
But in every part all fire to endure,
Fluxible, fixed and stable in tincture.

As Physic determines of each digestion,
First done in the stomach in which is dryness,
Causing whiteness without question,
Like as the second digestion causes redness,
Completed in the liver by temperate heat,
Right so our Stone by dryness and by heat,
Is digested to white and red complete.

But here you must another secret know,
How the Philosophers child in the air is born,
Busy you not to blow at the coal too fast,
And take this neither for mockery or scorn,
But trust me truly, else is all your work forlorn,
Without your earth with water be revived,
Our true congealing you shall never see.

A soul it is, being betwixt heaven and earth,
Arising from the earth as air with water pure,
And causing life in every lively thing,
Incessant running upon our four fold nature,
Enforcing to better them with all its cure,
Which air is the fire of our Philosophy,
Named now oil, now water mystically.

And by this means air which we call oil or water,
Our fire, our ointment, our spirit, and our Stone,
In which one thing we ground our wisdoms all,
Goes neither in nor out alone,
Nor the fire but the water anon.
First it leads out, and after it brings in,
As water with water, which will not lightly twin.

And so may water only our water move,
Which moving causes both death and life
And water to water doth kindly cleave,
Without repugnance or any strife,
Which water to fools is nothing rife,
Being without doubt of the kind of the Spirit,
Called water and that which leads out.

And water is the secret and life of every thing
Of substance found in this world,
For of water each thing has its beginning,
As is shown in women, when they are unbound,
Of water called Albumen, which passes before if all be sound,
First from them running,
With grievous throes before their childing.

And truly that is the most principal cause,
Why Philosophers charge us to be patient,
Till in time the water be dried all to powder,
With nourishing heat, continual, not violent;
For qualities be contrary of every element,
Till after black in white be made a union,
Of them for ever, congealed without division.

And furthermore, the preparation of this conversion,
From thing to thing, from one state to another,
Is done only by kindly and discrete operation of Nature,
As is of sperm within the mother;
For sperm and heat, are as sister and brother,
Which be converted in themselves as nature can,
By action and passion at last to perfect man.

For as the bodily part by nature was combined,
Into man, is such as the beginner was,
Which though it thus from thing to thing was altered,
Not out of kind, to mix with other kind did pass,
And so our matter spermatical within our glass,
Within itself must turn from thing to thing,
By most temperate heat only nourishing it.

Another natural example I may tell you,
How the substance of an egg by nature is wrought
Into a chicken without passing out of the shell,
A plainer example I could not have thought,
And their conversions be made till forth be brought,
From state to state, the like by like in kind,
With nourishing heat : only bear this in mind.

Another example here also you may read,
Of vegetable things, taking consideration,
How every thing grows of its own seed,
Through heat and moisture, by natural operation,
And therefore minerals be nourished by the administration
Of radical moisture, which was their beginning,
Not passing their kind within one glass.

There we turn them from thing to thing again,
Into their mother the water when they go,
Which principle unknown, you labourest in vain.
Then all is sperm ; and things there be no more,
But kind with kind in number two,
Male and female, agent and patient,
Within the matrix of the earth most orient.

And these be turned by heat from thing to thing
Within one glass, and so from state to state,
Until the time that nature does bring them,
Into one substance of the water regenerate:
And so the sperm with his kind is altered,
Able in likeness his kind to multiply,
As does in kind all other things naturally.

In the time of this said natural process,
While that the conceived sperm is growing
The substance is nourished with his own menstrual,
Which water only out of the earth did spring,
Whose colour is green in the first showing;
And from that time the Sun hides his light,
Taking his course throughout the North by night.

The said menstrual (I say to you in counsel)
The blood of our green Lion and not of vitriol,
Dame Venus can the truth of this tell to you,
At the beginning, to counsel if you call her,
The secret is hid by Philosophers great and small,
Which blood drawn out of our green Lion,
For lack of heat had not perfect digestion.

But this blood called our secret menstrual,
Wherewith our sperm is nourished temperately,
When it is turned into the corporeal faeces,
And so become perfectly white and very dry,
Congealed and fixed into his own body,
Then decocted blood to sight it may well seem,
Of this work named the milk white diadem.

Understand now that our fiery water thus sharp,
Is called our menstrual water,
Wherein our earth is loosed and naturally calcined,
By congelation that they may never twine,
But yet to congeal more water you may not hesitate,
Into three parts of the acuate water said before,
With the fourth part of the earth congealed and no more.

Unto that substance therefore so congelate,
The fourth part put of crystalline water,
And make them then together to be disposed,
By congelation into a miner metalline,
Which like a new slipped sword will shine,
After the blackness which first will show,
The fourth part then give it of water new.

Many imbibitions it must have yet,
Give it the second, and after the third also,
The said proportion keeping in your wit,
Then to another the fourth time look you go,
Therefore pass not the fifth time and the sixth,
But put two parts at each time of them three,
And at the seventh time five parts must there be.

When you have made imbibition seven times,
Again you must turn your wheel,
And putrefy all that matter without addition,
First abiding blackness if you will do well,
Then into whiteness congeal it up each deal,
And after by redness into the south ascend,
Then have you brought your base to an end.

Thus is your water then divided into two parts,
With the first part the bodies be putrefied,
And to your imbibitions the second part must go,
With which your matter is afterward denigrated,
And soon upon easy decoction albificated,
Then is it named by Philosophers our starry stone,
Bring that to redness, then is the sixth gate won.

The end of the Sixth Gate.