Magia Adamica and Coelum Terrae, part 7 of 8

To the Ingenuous and modest Reader, I have something else to replie, and I believe it will sufficiently excuse mee. Raimund Lullie, a man who had been in the Center of Nature, and without all Question understood a great part of the Divine Will, gives me a most terrible Charge not to prostitute these Principles. Juro Tibi (saith hee) supra animam meam, quod si ea reveles, damnatus es. Nam a Deo omne procedit bonum, & ei soli debetur. Quare servabis, & Secretum tenebis illud, quod ei debetur revelandum, & affirmabis quam per rectam proprietatem subtrahis, quae eius honori debentur. Quiae si revelares brevibus verbis illud quod longinquo tempore formavit, in die magni Judicii condemnareris, tanquam qui perpetrator existens contra Majestatem die laesam, nec tibi remitteretur Casus Laesae Majestatis. Talium enim Revelatio ad Deum, & non ad Alterum spectat. That is; I swear to thee upon my soule, that thou art damn'd, if thou shouldest reveale these Things. For every good thing proceeds from God and to him onely it is due. Wherefore thou shalt reserve, and keep that Secret, which God onely should reveale, and thou shalt affirme thou doest justly keep back those things, whose Revelation belongs to his honour. For if thou shouldest reveale that in a few words, which God hath been forming a long time, thou shouldest be condemned in the great day of Judgement, as a Traytor to the Majestie of God, neither should thy Treason bee forgiven Thee. For the Revelation of such Things belong to God, and not to Man. So sayd the wise Raymond.

Now for my part I have alwayes honoured the Magicians, their Philosophie being both rational, and Majestic, dwelling not upon Notions, but Effects, and those such as confirme both the Wisdome and the power of the Creator. When I was a meer Errant in their Books, and understood them not, I did believe them. Time rewarded my Faith, and payd my Credulitie with Knowledge. In the Interim I suffer'd many bitter Calumnies, and this by some envious Adversaries, who had nothing of a Scholar, but their Gownes, and a little Language for Vent to their Non-sense. But these could not remove mee, with a Spartan patience I concocted my Injuries, and found at last that Nature was Magicall, not Peripateticall. I have no Reason then to distrust them in Spirituall Things, whom I have found so orthodox and faithfull even in Naturall Mysteries. I doe believe Raymund, and in order to that Faith, I provide for my Salvation. I will not discover, that I may not be condemn'd. But if this will not satisfie Thee, who ever thou art let me whisper thee a word in the ear, and afterwards doe thou proclaime it on the housetopps. Doest thou know from whom, and how that Sperme or Se[…] which men for want of a better name call the first matter, proceeded? A certain Illumina[…]ce and in his daies a member of that Societie, which some painted Buzzards use to laugh at, writes thus; Deus optimus Maximus ex Nikilo aliquid creavit, illud Aliquid vero fiebat unum aliquod, in Quo Omnia. Creaturae Coelestes & I errestres. God (sayth hee) incomparable good and Great, out of nothing created something, but that Something was made one Thing, in which all Things were contained Creatures both Coelesliall and Terrestriall. This first Something was a certain kind of Cloud, or Darknesse, which was condensed into water. and this water is that One Thing in which all Things were contained. But my Question is, what was that Nothing, out of which the first Cloudy Chaos, or Something was made? Canst thou tell mee? It may bee thou doest think it is a meere Nothing. It is indeed Nihil quò ad Nos. Nothing that wee perfectly know. It is Nothing as Dionysius saith, Nihil eorum quae sunt, & Nihil eorum quae non sunt. It is nothing that was created, or of those things that are: and nothing of that which thou doest call nothing that is of those Things that are not, in thy empty destructive sense. But by your leave, it is the True Thing, of whom wee can affirme nothing: it is that transcendent Essence, whose Theologie is Negative, and was known to the Primitive Church, but is lost in These our Dayes. This is that Nothing of Cornelius Agrippa, and in this nothing, when hee was tyr'd with humane Things, I mean humane Sciences, hee did at last rest: Nihil Scire, (sayd hee) est vita felilcissima, to know Nothing is the happiest Life; true indeed, for to know this Nothing, is Life Eternall. Learne then to understand that Magicall Axiom, Ex Invisibili factum est Visibile, for all Visibles came out of the Invisible God, for hee is the Well-spring from whence all things flow, and the Creation was a certain stupendious Metaphysicall Birth, or Deliverie. This fine Virginwater, or Chaos, was the second Nature from God himself, and if I may say so, the Child of the Blessed Trinitie. What Doctor then is hee, whose hands are fit to touch that Subject, upon which God himself when he workes, layes his own Spirit, for verely so we reade, The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the water? And can it bee expected then, that I should prostitute this Mysterie to all hands whatsoever, that I should proclame it, and crie it, as they cry Oysters? Verily these Considerations, with some other which I will not for all the world put to Papyr have made mee almost displease my dearest friends, to whom notwithstanding I owe a better Satisfaction. Had it been my fortune barely to know this Matter, as most men doe, I had perhaps been lesse carefull of it, but I have been instructed in all the Secret Circumstances thereof, which few upon Earth understand. I speak not for any Ostentation, but I speak a Truth which my Conscience knowes very well. Let me then Reader, request thy Patience, for I shall leave this Discoverie to God, who if it bee his blessed will can call unto Thee, and say: Here it is, and thus I worke it. I had not spoken all this in my own Defence, had I not been assaulted (as it were) in this very point, and told to my face I was bound to discover all that I knew, for this Age looks for Dreames and Revelations, as the Traine to their invisible Righteousnesse. I have now sufficiently discours'd of the Matter, and if it be not thy fortune to find it by what is here written, yet thou canst not bee deceived by what I have sayd, for I have purposely a voyded all those Termes, which might make thee mistake any Common Salts, Stones, or Minerals for it. I advise thee withall to beware of all Vegetables, and Animals: avoyd them, and every part of them whatsoever. I speak this because some ignorant, Sluttish Broylers, are of Opinion, that mans Bioud is the True Subject. But Alas! is mans Bloud in the Bowels of the Earth, that Metals should bee generated out of it? or was the world, and all that is therein, made of man's Bloud, as of their first Matter? Surely no such Thing. The first Matter was existent before Man, and all other Creatures whatsoever, for shee is the Mother of them all; They were made of the first Matter, and not the first Matter of them. Take heed then, Let not any man deceive thee. It is totally impossible to reduce any particular to the first Matter, or to a Sperm, without our Mercurie, and being so reduc'd, it is not Universall, but the Particular Sperm of its own Species, and works not any Effects but what are agreeable to the Nature of that Species, for God hath seal'd it with a particular Idea.

Let them alone then who practise upon man's bloud in their Chemicall stoves, and Athanors, or as Sendivow hath it, in Fornaculis mirabilibus; they will deplore their Error at last, and sit without Sackcloth, in the Ashes of their Compositions.

But I have done I will now speak something of Generation, and the wayes of it, that the Process of the Philosophers upon this Matter, may be the better understood. You must know that Nature hath two Extremes, and between them a Middle Substance, which elsewhere wee have call'd the Middle Nature. Example enough wee have in the Creation. The first Extreme was that Cloud or Darkness whereof we have spoken formerly; some call it the Remote Matter, and the Invisible Chaos, but very improperly, for it was not invisible. This is the Jewish Ensoph outwardly, and it is the same with that Orphic Night;

[non-Latin script]

O Night! thou black nurse of the golden stars.

Out of this Darkness all things that are in this world came as out of their Fountain or Matrix: hence that Position of all famous Poets and Philosophers, Omniaex Nocte Prodiisse. The middle Substance is the Water, into which that Night or Darkness was condensed, and the Creatures fram'd out of the Water make up the other Extreme. But the Magicians when they speak strictly. will not allow of this last Extreme, because Nature doth not stay here, wherefore their Philosophie runs thus; Man (say they) in his natural state, is in the meane Creation, from which hee must recede to one of wo Extremes; either to Corruption, as commonly all men doe for they die, and moulder away in their graves: or else to a spirituall, glorified Condition, like Enooh and Elijah, who were translated, and this (say they) is a true Extreme, for after it there is no Alteration. Now the Magicians reasoning with themselves, why the meane Creation should be subject to Corruption, concluded the Cause and Original of this disease to be in the Chaos it self, for even that was corrupted, and cursed upon the Fall of Man. But examining Things further, they found that Nature in her Generations did onely concoct the Chaos with a gentle heat, shee did not separate the parts, and purifie each of them by it self, but the purities and impurities of the Sperme remained together in all her Productions, and this Domestic enemie prevayling at last, occasion'd the Death of the Compound. Hence they wisely gathered, that to minister Vegetables, Animals, or Minerals for Physic, was a meer madness, for even these also had their own Impurities and Diseases, and required some Medicine to cleanse them. Upon this Adviso, they resolved (God without all Question being their Guide) to practise on the Chaos it self, they opened it, purified it, united what they had formerly separated, and fed it with a twofold Fire, Thick, and Thin, till they brought it to the immortal Extreme, and made it a spirituall heavenly Body. This was their Physic, this was their Magic. In this performance they saw the Image of that face, which Zoroaster calls Triadis Vultus ante Essentiam, &c. They perfectly knew the Secundea, which contains all things in her naturally, as God contains all things in himself spiritually. They saw that the Life of all things here below, was a Thick Fire, or fire imprisoned and incorporated in a certaine incombustible Aereall moysture. They found moreover that this fire was originally derived from Heaven, and in this sense Heaven is styl'd in the Oracles, Ignis, Ignis Derivatio, & Ignis Penu.

In a word, they saw with their Eyes, that Nature was Male and Female; Ignis ruber super Dorsum Ignis Candidi, as the Cabalists expresse it: A certain Fire of a most deep red Colour, working on a most white, heavy, salacious Water, which Water also is Fire inwardly, but outwardly very cold. By this practice it was manifested unto them that God himself was Fire according to that of Eximidius in Turba: Omnium rerum Initium esse Naturam quandam, eam q; perpetuam, infinitam, omnia foventem, Coquentem q;. The Beginning of all things (sayth he) is a Certain Nature, and that eternall, and infinite, cherishing and heating all Things. The truth is Life which is nothing else but Light, and heat proceeded originally from God, and did apply to the Chaos, which is elegantly call'd by Zoroaster, Fons fontium, & fontium cunctorum, Matrix continens cuncta. The Fountain of fountains, and of all fountains The Matrix containing all Things. Wee see by Experience that all Individuals live not onely by their own heat, but they are preserved by the outward universal heat, which is the life of the great world. Even so truly the great world it self lives not altogether by that heat which God hath inclosed in the parts thereof, but it is praeserved by the circumfused influent heat of the Deitie; For above the Heavens God is manifested like an infinite burning world of Light and Fire, so that hee overlooks all that he hath made, and the whole. Fabric stands in his heat and Light, as a man stands here on Earth in the Sun-shine. I say then that the God of Nature employes himself in a perpetuall Coction, and this not onely to generate, but to preserve that which hath been generated: for his spirit and heat coagulat that which is Thin, rarifie that which is too grosse, quicken the dead parts, and cherish the cold. There is indeed one operation of heat, whose method is vitall, and far more mysterious than the rest, they that have use for it, must studie it. I have for my part spoken all that I intend to speak, and though my Book may prove fruitless to many, because not understood, yet some few may be of that Spirit as to comprehend it: Amplae mentis ampla flamma, sayd the great Chaldaean. But because I will not leave thee without some Satisfaction, I advise thee to take the Moone of the firmament, which is a middle nature, and place her so that every part of her may be in two Elements at one and the same time, these Elements also must equally attend her Body, not one further off, not one neerer than the other. In the regulating of these two, there is a twofold Geometrie to be observed, Natural, and A[…]t[…]ficial. But I may speak no more. The true Furnace is a little simple shell, thou mayst easily carry it in one of thy hands. The Glasse is one, and no more, but some Philosophers have used two, and so mayst thou. As for the work it self. it is no way troublesome a Lady may reade the Arcadia, and at the same time attend this Philosophie without disturbing her fansie. For my part I think women are fitter for it than men, for in such things they are more neat and patient, being used to a small Chimistrie of Sack-possets, and other finicall sugar-sops. Concerning the Effects of this Medicine, I shall not speak any thing at this time, hee that desires to know them, let him reade the Revelation of Paracelsus, a Discourse altogether incomparable, and in very truth miraculous. And here without any partialitie, I shall give my Judgement of honest Hohenheim. I find in the rest of his workes, and especially where hee falls on the stone, a great many false Processes, but his Doctrine of it in Generall is very sound. The truth is, hee had some Pride to the Justice of his Spleen, and in many places hee hath err'd of purpose, not caring what Bones hee threw before the Schoole-men; for hee was a Pylot of Guadalcana, and sayl'd sometimes in his Rio de la recriation. But I had almost forgot to tell thee that. which is all in all, and it is the greatest Difficultie in all the Art, namely the fire. It is a close, ayrie, circular, bright fire; the Philosophers call it their Sun, and the glasse must stand in the shade. It makes not the matter to vapour, no not so much as to sweat, it digests onely with a still, piercing, vitall heat. It is continuall, and therefore at last alters the Chaos, and corrupts it; The Proportion and Regiment of it is very Scrupulous, but the best rule to know it by, is that of the Synod: facite ne Easianus volet ante Insequentem; Let not the Bird fly before the Fowler: make it sit whiles you give fire, and then you are sure of your Prey. For a Cloze, I must tell thee, the Philosophers call'd this Fire their Balneum, but it is Balneum Naturae. a Naturall Bath, not an Artificiall one, for it is not any kind of Water, but a certain subtill temperate moysture which compasseth the Glasse, and feeds their Sun, or Fire. In a word without this Bath nothing in the world is generated. Now that thou mayst the better understand what Degree of fire is requisit for the work, consider the Generation of Man, or any other Creature whatsoever. It is not Kitchin fire, nor feaver that works upon the Sperm in the Womb but a most temperate, moyst, natural heat, which proceeds from the very life of the Mother. It is just so here; Our Matter is a most delicate Substance, and tender like the Animal sperme, for it is almost a living thing, nay in very truth it hath some small portion of life, for Nature doth produce some Animals out of it. For this very reason the least violence destroyes it, and prevents all generation, for if it be over-heated but for some few minutes, the white, and red Sulphurs will never essentially unite, and coagulat. On the Contrary, if it takes cold but for half an hour, the work being once well begun, it will never sort to any good purpose. I speak out of my own Experience, for I have (as they phrase it) given my self a Box on the Eare, and that twice or thrice, out of a certain confident Negligence, Expecting that, which I knew well enough, could never bee. Nature moves not by the Theorie of men, but by their practice, and surely Wit and Reason can performe no Miracles, unlesse the hands supplie them. Bee sure then to know this fire in the first place, and accordingly bee sure to make use of it. But for thy better Securitie, I will describe it to thee once more. It is a drie, vaporous humid fire; it goes round about the Glasse, and is both equall and Continuall. It is restlesse, and some have call'd it the white philosophicall Coale. It is in it self naturall, but the praeparation of it is Artificiall, it is a heat of the Dead wherefore some call it their unnatural, Necromantic fire. It is no part of the Matter, neither is it taken out of it, but it is an external fire, and serves onely to stirr up, and strengthen the inward oppressed fire of the Chaos. But let us hear Nature her self, for thus shee speaks in the Serious Romance of Mehung. Post putrefactionem sit ipsa Generatio, id q; per internum incomburibilem Calorem ad Argenti vivi frigiditatem calefaciendam, quod tantum equidem patitur, ut tandem cum sulphure suo uniatur. Omne illud uno in Vase complexum est, I gnis, aer, & Aqua videlicet, quae in Terreno suo vase accipio, eadem q; uno in Alembico relinquo; & tum coquo, dissolvo, & sublimo, abs q; Malleo, forcipe, vel lima, sine Carbonibus, vapore, Igne aut Mariae-Balneo, & Sophistarum Alembicis: Coelestem nam q; meum ignem habeo, qui Elementalem, prout Materia idoneam decentem q; formam habere desyderat, excitat. That is: After Putrefaction succeeds Generation, and that because of the inward incombustible Sulphur, that heats, or thickens the Coldness, and Crudities of the Quicksilver which suffers so much thereby, that at last it is united to the Sulphur, and made one Body therewith. All this namely (Fire, Ayre, and Water) is contained in one Vessell; in their earthly Vessel that is in their grosse Body, or Composition I take them and then I leave them in one Alembic, where I concoct, dissolve, and sublime them without the help of Hammer, Tongs, or File; without Coales, Smoake, Fire, or Bath, or the Alembics of the Sophisters. For I have my heavenly fire, which excites, or stirs up the Elementall one, according as the matter desires a becomming, agreeable forme. Now Nature every where is one and the same, wherefore shee reades the same lesson to Madathan, who thinking in his Ignorance to make the stone without dissolution, receives from her this Check. An tu nunc Cochleas, vel Cancros cum Test is devorare niteris? An non priùs à vetussissimo Planetarum Coquo maturari, & praeparari illos oportet? Doest thou think (sayes hee) to eat Oysters shells and all? ought they not first to bee opened, and prepar'd by the most Ancient Cooke of the Planets? With these agrees the excellent Flammel, who speaking of the Solar, and Lunar Mercurie, and the Plantation of the one in the other, hath these words. Sumantur ita q;, & noctu, interdiu q; assiduè supra ignem in Alembico foveantur. Non autem ignis Carbonarius, vel è ligno confectus sed clarus pellucidus q; ignis sit, non secus ac Sol ipse, qui nunquam plus justo calidus ardens q; sed omni tempore ejusdem caloris esse debet. Take them therefore (sayth hee) and cherish them over a fire in thy Alembic: But it must not be a fire of Coales, nor of any wood, but a bright shining fire, like the Sun it self, whose heat must never be excessive but alwayes of one and the same Degree. This is enough, and too much, for the Secret in it self is not great, but the Consequences of it are so, which made the Philosophers hide it. Thus Reader thou hast the outward Agent most fully and faithfully described. It is in Truth a very simple mysterie, and if I should tell it openly, ridiculous. Howsoever by this, and not without it, did the Magicians unlock the Chaos, and certainly it is no newes that an Iron-key should open a Treasurie of Gold. In this Universall Subject they found the Natures of all particulars, and this is signified to us by that Maxim: Qui Proteam non novit, adeat Pana. This Pan is their Chaos, or Mercurie, which expounds Proteus. namely the Particular Creatures, commonly call'd Individualls, For Pan transformes himself into a Proteus, that is, into all varieties of Species, into Animals, Vegetables, and Minerals; for out of the Universall Nature, or first matter, all these are made, and Pan hath their Propri[…]ties in himself. Hence it is that Mercurie is call'd the Interpreter, or Expositor of Inferiors and Superiors, under which Notion the Ancient Orpheus invokes him.