Lumen de Lumine, part 4 of 5

Take our two Serpents, which are to bee found every where on the Face of the Earth. They are a living Male, and a living Female. Tye them Both in a Love-knot, and shut them up in the Arabian CARAHA. This is thy first labour, but thy next is more difficult. Thou must incamp against them with the fire of Nature, and be sure thou doest bring thy Line round about. Circle them in, and stop all Avenues, that they find no Reliefe. Continue this siege patiently, and they will turne to an ugly, flabbie, venemous, black Toad, which will be transform'd to a horrible, devowring Dragon, creeping and weltring in the Bottome of her Cave without wings. Touch her not by any means, not so much as with thy Hands, for there is not upon earth such a violent, transcendent poyson. As hast begun, so proceed, and this Dragon will turne to a Swan, but more white than the hovering, Virgin Snow, when it is not yet sullied with the Earth. Henceforth I will allow thee to fortifie thy fire, till the Phaenix appears. It is a red Bird of a most deep Colour, with a shining Fiery Hue. Feed this Bird with the Fire of his Father, and the AEther of his Mother, for the first is meat, the second is Drink, and without this last he attains not to his full Glory. Be sure to understand this secret, for fire feeds not well, unlesse it bee first fed. It is of it self drie and Choleric, but a proper moysture tempers it, gives it a heavenly Complexion, and brings it to the Desired Exaltation. Feed thy Bird then as I have told thee, and he will move in his Nest, and rise like a star of the Firmament. Doe this, and thou hast placed Nature in Horizonte AEternitatis: Thou hast performed that Command of the Cabalist, Fige finem in Principio, sicut Flammam prunae Conjunctam: quia Dominus SUPERLATIVE unus, & non tenet secundum. Unite the End to the Beginning, like a Flame to a Coale: for God (saith hee) is superlatively one, and hee hath no second. Consider then what you seek: you seek an Indissoluble, miraculous, transmuting, uniting union, but such a tye cannot be without the first unitie; Creare enim (saith one) atque intrinsecùs transmutare absque violentiâ, Munus est proprium duntaxat Primae Potentiae, Primae sapientiae, Primi amoris. To Create, and Transmute essentially, and naturally or without any violence, is the only proper office of the first power, the first Wisdome, and the first love. Without this love the Elements will never be maried, they will never inwardly and essentially unite, which is the end and perfection of Magic. Study then to understand this, and when thou hast perform'd, I will allow thee that Test of the Mekkubalim: Intellexisti in sapientiâ, & sapuisti in Intelligentia, statuisti Rem super Puritates suas, & Creatorem in Throno suo collocasti.

For a Close to this Section, I say it is impossible to generat in the patient, without a vitall generating Agent. This Agent is the Philosophical fire, a certain moyst, heavenly, invisible Heat; but let us heare Raymund Lullie describe it, Quando dicimus (saith hee) quod lapis per ignem generatur, non vident alium ignem, nec alium ignem credunt, nisi ignem communem: nec aliud Sulphur, nec aliud argentum vivum, nisi sit vulgare. Ideo manent decepti per corum caecas estimationes, inferentes quod causa sumus suae Deceptionis, & quod dedimus illis intelligere rem unam pro aliâ. Sed non est verum salvâ eorum pace, sicut probabimus per illa, quae Philosophi posuerunt in scriptis. Solem enim appellamus ignem, & vicarium suum vocamus Calorem naturalem. Nam illud quod agit Calor Solis in Mineris Metallorunt per mille annos, […]pse Calor naturalis facit in unâ horâ supra Terram. Nos vero, & multi alii, vocamus […]um Filium solis, nam primo per solis influentiam fuit generatus per naturam, sine adju[…]orio Scientiae, velartis. When wee say the stone ìs generated by fire, Men neither see, neither doe they believe there is any other fire, but the common fire: nor any other Sulphur […]or […] Mercury, but the common Sulphur and […] Mercury. Thus are they deceived by their own opinions, saying that we are the Cause of their Error, having made them to mistake […]nc thing for another. But by their leave it is not so, as we shall prove by the Doctrine of the Philosophers. For wee call the Sun a fire, and the natural Heat we call his Substitute, […]or Deputy; for that which the heat of the Sun performes in a thousand years in the Mines, the Heat of Nature performes it above the earth in one houre. But wee, and many other Philosophers have call'd this Heat, the Child of the Sun, for at first it was generated naturally by the influence of the Sun, without the Help of our Art or Knowledge. Thus Luilie: But one thing I must tell thee, and bee sure, Reader, thou doest remember it. This very naturall Heat must bee applied in the just `Degree, and not too much fortified, for the Sun it self doth not generat, but burne and scorch where it is too hot. Si cum igne magno operatus fueris (saith the same Lullie) proprietas nostri spiritus, quae inter vitam & mortem participiat, separabit se, & Anima recedet in Regionem sphaerae suae. If thou shalt work with too strong a fire, the proprietie of our spirit, which is indifferent as yet to life or death, will separate it self from the Body, and the Soule will depart to the Region of her own sphere: Take therefore along with thee this short, but wholesome advise of the same Author. Facias ergo Fili, quod in loco Generationis aut Conversionis sit talis potentia Caelestis, quae possio transformare Humidum ex natura terrestris, in formam & speciem transparentem, & finissimam. My Son (saith hee) let the Heavenly power, or Agent be such in the place of Generation or Mutation, that it may alter the spermatic Humiditie from its Earthly Complexion, to a most fine transparent forme, or species. See here now the solution of the slimie, fat Earth, to a transparent glorious Mercury! This Mercury Gentlemen, is the water which we look after, but not any common water whatsoever. There is nothing now behind but that which the Philosophers call secretum Artis: a thing that was never published, and without which you will never performe, though you know both Fire and Matter. An Instance hereof wee have in Flammel, who knew the Matter well enough and had both fire and Furnace painted to him by Abraham the Jew: but notwithstanding he err'd for three years, because hee knew not the third secret. Henry Madathan a most noble Philosopher practic'd upon the subject for five years together, but knew not the right method, and therefore found nothing; at last saith hee, Post sextum annum Clavis Potentiae per arcanam Revelationem ab omnipotente Deo mihi concreditaest: After the sixth year, I was intrusted with the Key of power by secret Revelation, from the Almighty God. This Key of power, or third secret was never put to paper by any Philosopher whatsoever. Paracelsus indeed hath touch'd upon it, but so obscurely it is no more to the purpose then if he had said nothing. And now I suppose I have done enough for the Discovery, and Regiment of the fire; if you think it too little, I must tell you it is much more then any one Author hath performed. Search it than, for he that finds this fire, will attaine to the true temper ament, he will make a noble deserving Philosopher, and to speake in the phrase of our Spaniard, Dignus erit poni ad Mensam Duodecim parium.

The River of Pearl.

IT is a Decompounded Substance, extreme heavy and moyst, but wets not the Hand. It shines after Night like a star, and will inlighten any Darke roome. It is full of small eyes sparkling like Pearls or Aglets. It is the whole Demogorgon, but now actually animated by manifestation of his own Inward Light. The Father of it is a certaine inviolable Masse, for the parts of it are so firmly united, you can neither pound them into Dust, nor separat them by violence of Fire. This is the stone of the Philosophers, Qui ab omni parte (saith one) circumdatus est Tenebris, Nebulis, Caligine: Habitat in mediis Terrae visceribus, Qui ubi natus fuerit, vestitur quodam viride Pallio, humiditate quadam aspersus, & non prognatus ab aliquo, sed aeternus, & parens omnium Rerum. It is compassed about (saith he) with Darknesse, Clouds, and Blacknesse. It dwels in the inmost Bowels of the Earth: but when he is borne, hee is cloathed with a certaine Green Mantle, and sprinckl'd over with a certaine Moysture. He is not properly generated by any Naturall thing, but he is eternall, and the Father of all things. This Description is very true and apposit, but AEnigmaticall: howsoever forget not the Green Mantle. This is that substance, which Gieberim Eben-Haen, or as the Rable writes him, Geber, cals Lapis in Capitulis notus: a very subtil Expression, but if well examin'd, it is the Key to his whole Booke, and to the writings of the old Philosophers in Generall. But let us returne to our River of Pearl, and for our further information let us heare it describ'd by a most excellent Adeptus, and that in the very [non-Latin script], before the full moon appears. Hoo opus est (saith he) quod mihi aliquando ob oculos posuit unicus Exechedistes, magnas quippe fornaces, atque vitro easdem Varico redimitas ostendens. Vasa erant singula, in suis sedilibus habentia sedimenta, atque interiùs dispari dicatum, sacrumque Munus. Quid vero Rem tam Divinam celeni diutius? Erat intus circumacta Moles quaedam, Mundi prae seferens imaginem ipsissimi. Quippe ibi Terra videbatur in medio omnium consistens, aquisque circumfusa Limpidissimis, in varios colles, salebrosasuque rupes assnrgebat, fructum ferens multiplicem, tanquam humentis Aeris imbribus irrigua. Vini etiam videbatur & olei, & lactis, atque pretiosorum omne genus lapidum, & Metallorum esse apprime ferax. Tum Aquae ipsae instar AEquoris, sale quodam pellucido, albo interdum, interdum quoque rubeo & fulvo, & rubro, multisque praeterea variegato coloribus inlitae, inque superficiem ipsam aestuabant. Igne autem haec omnia suo, sed impercepto quidem, atque aethereo movebantur. Id vero unum prae caeteris incredibibilem me rapiebat in admirationem, Rem haec tam multa unicam, tam diversa, tamque in suo genere integra singula, parvo etiam imbecillique adminiculo pro ducere: quo facto paulatim robustiore, redirent tandem, atque coalescerent in unum omnia, confidenter aesseverabat. Hic equidem observavi fusilis illam salis fpeciem nihil ab Aphrolitho degenerantem, atque argentum illud vivum, cui Mercurii nomen ab hujusce Disciplinae priscis authoribus inditum est, illam ipsam referens Lullianam Lunariam, adversa scandens aqua, noctuque relucens, atque interdiu glutinandi praeditum facultate. Here wee have pourtray'd unto us the whole Philosophicall Laboratorie, Furnace, fire, and Matter, with the Mysterious Germinations thereof. But because the Termes are difficult, and not to bee understood by any, but such as have seen the thing it self, I will for the Readers Benefit, I cannot say satisfaction, put them into English. This is the worke (saith hee) which I have sometimes seen with a singular, and a most deare friend: who shewed to me certaine large Furnaces, and those crown'd with Cornues of Glasse. The Vessels were severall, having besides their Triptods their sediments, or Caskets, and within them was a Holy Oblation, or present dedicated to the Ternarie. But why should I any longer conceale so divine a thing? within this Fabric was a certaine Masse moving Circularly, or driven round about, and representing the very Figure of the great world. For here the Earth was to be seen standing of it self in the middest of all, compassed about with most clear waters, rising up to severall Hillocks, and craggie Rocks, and bearing many sorts of Fruit, as if it had been watr'd with showers from the moyst Aire. It seem'd also to bee very fruitfull for wine, oile, and milk, with all kind of precious stones, and Metals. The waters themselves like those of the Sea, were full of a certaine transparent Salt, now white, now Red, then Yellow and purpl'd, and as it were chamletted with various Colours, which did swell up to the face of the waters. All these things were actuated or stirr'd with their own appropriat fire, but in very truth imperceptible, and ethereall. But one thing above the rest forc'd me to an incredible admiration Namely, that so many things, such divers and in their kind such perfect particular should proceed from one only thing, and that with very small assistance, which being further'd and strengthned by degrees, the Artist faithfully affirmed to me that all those Diversities would settle at last to one Body Here I observed that fusilkind of Salt to bee nothing different from a pumice-stone, and that Quick-silver which the ancient Authors of this Art call'd Mercury, to be the same with Lullies Lunaria, whose water gets up against the fire of Nature, and shines by night but by day hath a glutinous, viscous faculty […] This is the sense of our learned Adeptus, and for his Analogie of the Philosophic Salt, and a pumice-stone, it cannot be well conceiv'd without the Light of Experience. It is then a porous, hollow, froth-like, spongious Salt […] The Consistency of it is pumice-like, but neither hard, nor opacous. It is a thin, slippery oily substance in appearance like Mouth glew, but much more clear. Sometimes it looks like Rosials and Rubies: Sometimes it is violet Blew, sometimes white as Lilies, and againe more green than Grasse, but with a Smaragdine transparencie: and sometimes it looks like burnisht Gold and Silver. The River of Pearle hath her Name from it, for there it stands like the Sperm of Frogs in common waters. Sometimes it will move, and swim to the face of his Bath in thin leaves like wafers, but with a thousand miraculous Colours This is enough and too much, for I hold it not my Duty to insist upon secrets, which are so far from the Readers Inquiry, that I dare say they are beyond his Expectation.

The AEther, or the Aire of Paradise.

HItherto I have discours'd of the first Matter, and the fire of Nature: Termes indeed commonly known, but the things signified are seldome understood. I shall now descend to more abstruse particular principles, Things of that secrecie and subtiltie, they are not so much as thought of much lesse inquir'd after. The common Chimist dreams of Gold and Transmutations, most noble and Heavenly Effects, but the Means whereby hee would compasse them, are worme-eaten, dustie, mustie papers. His Study and his Noddle are stuff'd with old Receits, he can tell us a hundred Stories of Brimstone and Quick-silver, with many miraculous Legends of Arsenic and Antimonie, Sal gemmae, Sal prunae, Sal Petrae, and other stupendious Alkalies, as he loves to call them; with such strange Notions and Charms doth he amaze, and silence his Auditors, as Bats are kill'd with Thunder at the Eare. Indeed if this Noyse will carry it, let him alone, he can want no Artillery. But if you bring him to the field, and force him to his Polemics, if you demand his Reason, and reject his Recipe, you have laid him as flat as a Flounder. A rationall, methodicall Dispute will undoe him, for he studies not the whole Body of Philosophie: a Receit he would find in an old Box, or an old Book, as if the knowledge of God and Nature were a thing of Chance, not of Reason. This idle Humor hath not only surpris'd the common illiterat Broyler, where in truth there is some Necessity for it, but even great Doctor: and Physicians: Bate me the impostume of their Titles, and their Learning is not Considerable. Hence it comes to passe that so many men are undone in the prosecution of this Art: They are so wedded to old scriblings, they will not submit them to their judgement, but presently bring them to the fire. Certainly they believe such ridiculous Impossibilities, that even brute Beasts if they could speake, would reprove them. Sometimes they mistake their owne Excrements for that Matter out of which Heaven and Earth were made. Hence they drudge, and labour in Urine, and such filthie dirty stuffe which is not fit to be nam'd. But when all comes to all, and their Custard fails them, they quit their filthinesse, but not their error. They think of something thats more Tractable, and dreame perhaps that God made the world of Egge-shels or Flint-stones. Truly these Opinions proceed not only from simple people, but from Doctors forsooth, and Philosophers. It is therefore my Designe to discover some Excellencies of this Art, and make it appeare to the Student that what is Glorious, is withall Difficult. This I suppose may remove that Blind, sluggish Credulity, which prevents all Ingenious Disquisitions, and cause men perhaps to exercise that Reason, which God hath given them for Discoveries. I shall not dwell long on any one particular, I am drawing off the stage in all Haste, and returning to my first solitudes. My Discourse shall be very short, and like the Echo's laft Syllables, Imperfect. I intend it only for Hint and suggestion to the Reader: it is no full Light but a Glance, and he must improve it to his better satisfaction.

We are now to speake of the AEther of the little world, which is the very same in Nature and substance with the outward AEther of the great world. That you may the better understand what it is, we will examine the Notion, before we state the thing. Aristotle in his Book de Mundo derives this word [non-Latin script], à semper currendo, because the Heavens are in perpetuall Motion. This is a generall irregular whymzie, for the stars also aswell as the AEther move perpetually: The Sea is subject to a continuall Flux and Reflux, and the Bloud of all Animals to a restlesse unwearied Pulse. The more ancient Philosophers whose Books this Enemy burnt, derived it from [non-Latin script] ardeo: but especially Anaxagoras, who was better acquainted with Heaven than Aristotle, as it appears by his miraculous praediction, and the opinion he had of that place, namely that it was his Country, and that he was to return thither after death. Indeed this last Etymologie comes neer the nature of the thing, for it is a Heating cheerishing spirit, but in its genuine Complexion it burns not. I cannot then approve of this latter Derivation no more than of the former, I rather believe that AEther is a Compound of [non-Latin script] and [non-Latin script], this substance being called [non-Latin script] from its effect and office, [non-Latin script], à semper Calefaciendo. Supposing this to be the true Interpretation, let us now see whether it relates more strictly and properly to this principle, than to any other Nature whatsoever. The AEther is a most thin liquid substance, and the Region of it is above the stars, in the Circumference of the Divine Light. This is the true, and famous [non-Latin script], which receives the Influent Heat of God, and conveys it to the visible Heaven, and all the Inferior Creatures. It is a pure Essence, a thing not tainted with any Materiall Contagion, in which sense it is styl'd of Pythagoras [non-Latin script], the free AEther. Quoniam (saith Reuclin) à materiae potentià segregatus, & praeservatus in Libertate, calescit D[…]i Ardore, ac insensibili motu Inferiora calefacit. Because it is freed from the prison of the Matter, and being preserv'd in its liberty, it is warme with the fire of God, and by an insensible motion heats all the Inferior Natures. In a word, because of it's puritie it is placed next to that Divine Fire, which the Jews call Lumen Vestimenti, and it is the very first Receptacle of the Influences and Derivations of the Supernaturall World, which sufficiently confirms our Etymologie. In the Beginning it was generated by Reflexion of the first unity upon the Caelestial Cube, for the Bright Emanations of God did flow like a streame into the Passive [non-Latin script] and in this Analogie the Samian styles Him [non-Latin script] Fontem perpetuae Naturae. You shall understand that the AEther is not one. but manifold, and the Reasons of it wee shall give you hereafter. By this I mind not a variety of Substances, but a Chaine of Complexions. There are other Moystures, and those too aethereall: They are Females also of the Masculine Divine Fire, and these are the Fountains of the Chaldee, which the Oracle styles [non-Latin script], Summitates Fontanas, the Invisible upper springs of Nature. Of all substances that come to our hands, this AEther is the first that brings us News of another World, and tels us we live in a corrupt place. S[…]ndivogius call'd it the Vrine of Saturn, and with this did he water his Lunar and Solar Plants. Ex Marimeo (said the Jew) oriuntur Nebulae, quae ferunt Aquas Benedictas, & ipsae irrigant Terras, & educunt Herbas & Flores. In a word this Moysture is animated with a Vegetable blessed divine Fire, which made one describe the Mistery thus. Ex Naturâ, & ex Divino factum est: Divinum enim est, quiae cum Divinitate conjunctum Divinas substantias facit. To conclude, the AEther is to be found in the lower spring or [non-Latin script], namely in that substance, which the Arabians call Flos salis albi, the Flower of white Salt. It is indeed borne of Salt, for Salt is the Root of it, and it is found withall in locis salsosis, in certaine Saltish places. The best Discovery of it is this: The Philosophers call it their Mineral Tree, for it grows as all Vegetables doe, and hath Leaves and Fruits in the very Houre of its Nativity. This is enough, and now I passe to another principle.

The Heavenly Luna.

THis Luna is the Moon of the Mine, a very strange stupifying substance. It is not simple, but mixt. The AEther, and a subtill white Earth are its Components, and this makes it grosser than the AEther it self. It appeares in the forme of an exceeding white oile, but is in very truth a certaine vegetant flowing, smooth, soft salt, &c.

The star-soule.

THis is the true Astrum Solis, the Mineral spiritual Sun. It is compounded of the AEther, and a Bloudie, fierie, spirited Earth. It appears in a gummie Consistency, but with a fierce, hot, glowing Complexion. It is Substantially a certaine purple, animated, Divine Salt, &c.