Page 31 - Treatise on Salt

Chapter 7

Of the degrees of fire

In the coction of our salt, the external heat of the first operation is
called elixation, and is performed in humidity; but the tepidity of the
second operation, is accomplished in dryness, and is called assation. The
philosophers have marked out these two fires, in this manner: our stone
must be cooked by elixation and assation.

Our blessed work requires to be regulated conformably to the four
seasons of the year; and, as the first part, which is the winter, is cold and
moist; the second, which is the spring, is tepid and moist; the third,
which is the summer, is hot and dry; and the fourth, which is the autumn,
is appointed for the gathering in of the fruits; in like manner the first
regulation of the fire must resemble the heat of a hen that sits brooding to
hatch her chickens, or be like, the heat of the stomach, which concocts
and digests the meats, which nourish the body; or like the heat of the sun,
in the sign Aries, and this tepidity lasts till the blackness appears, nay,
even till the matter becomes white. If you don’t observe this regimen,
and that your matter be too much heated, you will not see the so much
desired head of the raven; but you shall unfortunately perceive a
precipitate, and transient redness like that of the wild poppy, or else a
ruddy oil swimming on the top, or that your matter shall have begun to
sublime; if this shall happen, you must of necessity withdraw your
composition, dissolve it, and drench it with our virginal milk, and begin
your digestion afresh with more precaution, till such times as such
default shall not appear. And when you shall discover the whiteness, you
shall increase the fire to the entire desiccation of the stone, which heat
ought to resemble that of the sun, when it passes out of Taurus into
Gemini; and after such desiccation, you must again prudently augment
your fire, till your matter attains a perfect redness, which heat is like that
of the sun in the sign Leo.

Discourse translated from verse

Take good heed of the advertisements I have given,
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