Page 30 - Compound of Compounds

In the last operation is a reproduction of the true conjunction of the elements, for
water united with earth, air with fire. It is the union of man and woman, of male and
female, of gold and silver, of dry Sulphur and the impure celestial Water. Resurrection
of the dead bodies also happened. For this reason the philosopher stated that: “Those
who do not know how to kill and resuscitate should abandon the art.” And elsewhere:
“Those who know how to kill and resuscitate will profit in this science. That one will
be a Prince of the Art who will know how to do these two things.” Yet another
philosopher stated: “Our dry Earth may not bear any fruit, if it is not first deeply
imbibed with its rain Water. Our dry Earth is parched with a great thirst; when it has
begun to drink, it drinks down to the lees.” Another one said: “Our Earth drinks the
fertile water that it was beckoning for, sates its thirst, then bears fruit by the
hundreds.” Many other similar passages can be found in the books of the philosophers,
but they are all written in the form of parables, so that the wicked might not
understand. By the grace of God, you now possess our white foliate Earth, ready to
undergo fermentation, which will give it life’s breath. Thus the philosopher stated:
“Whiten the black earth before adding to it the ferment.” Another said: “Sow your gold
in the white foliate Earth...and it will yield fruit a hundredfold.” Hallelujah! Amen.

Let us move on to the third operation, which is the fermentation of the white
Earth. We must reanimate the dead body and resuscitate it, in order to multiply its
power to infinity, and transform it to the state of the perfect white Elixir that changes
Mercury into the perfect and true Moon. Note that the ferment can only penetrate the
dead body through the intermediary of water that consummates the marriage and
serves as a link between the white earth and the ferment. For this reason in any
fermentation, we must weigh each thing. Hence, if you want to ferment the white
foliate Earth to change it into the white elixir containing an excess of tincture, you must
take three parts of white Earth or foliate dead Body, two parts of Living Water that
you kept in reserve earlier and one part and a half of ferment. Prepare the ferment in
such a manner as to reduce it into a fine fixed white calx if you want to prepare the
white elixir. If you want to prepare the red elixir, use some very yellow gold calx,
prepared by the art. There are no other ferments but these two. The ferment of silver
is silver, the ferment of gold is gold. Do not bother to look elsewhere. The explanation
is that these two bodies are luminous, they contain sparkling rays that impart to the
other bodies the true redness and whiteness. They are connatural with the purest
Sulphur of matter, of the mineral species. Thus extract each species with its own
species and each kind with its own kind. The Work of the white stone has the goal of
whitening, the Work of the red stone has the goal of reddening. Beware of mixing the
two works, or else you will do nothing worthwhile.

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