Page 20 - Compound of Compounds

CHAPTER III

On the regimen of the Stone

The regimen of the Stone is fourfold:

1 To decompose
2 To wash
3 To reduce
4 To fix.

In the first regimen we separate the natures, for without prior division and
purification, there can be no conjunction. During the second regimen, the newly
separated elements are cleansed, purified and resolved into a simple nature. In the
third, we change our Sulphur into an open quarry of the Sun, the Moon and the other
metals. In the fourth, all the bodies previously extracted from our Stone are reunited,
recomposed and fixed, to henceforth remain conjoined.

There are those who count five degrees in the Magistery:

1 Resolving the substances into their first matter;
2 Bringing our earth, our black magnesia, to be akin to the nature of Sulphur and

Mercury;
3 Bringing Sulphur as close as possible in nature to the mineral matter of the Sun

and of the Moon;
4 Composing from sundry things a White Elixir;
5 Burning the White Elixir perfectly, to yield the colour of cinnabar, and from that

point on, the fabrication of the Red Elixir.

Next, there are those who count four degrees in the Opus, others three, others only
two: The last of these count:

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