Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition
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Latin Page · Branch 110 of 204
Sulphur · Water · Passage 1
Source reference
- Latin witness
- 1616 · sequence pages 5–6; 5 printed 4; 6 printed 5
Latin
DE ELEMENTO AQUAE.
DE ELEMENTO AQUAE.
Aqua est Elementum gravissimum, plenum unctuosi phlegmatis, et est Elementum dignius in sua qualitate, extra volatile, intus vero fixum, frigidum et humidum est, temperatur aere: est sperma Mundi, in quo semen omnium rerum conservatur: est custos seminis cuiuslibet rei. Sciendum tamen est, quod aliud est semen, et aliud Sperma. Spermatis receptaculum Terra est: seminis vero receptaculum Aqua. Quicquid in aquam stillat aer causante igne, hoc aqua porrigit terrae. Caret interdum Sperma sufficienti semine, ex defectu caloris digerentis illud: Sperma enim semper est in copia, expectans semen, quod ex imaginatione ignis, per aeris motum portat in matricem: et interdum, deficiente semine, intrat sperma; sed exit iterum absque fructu: de quibus aliquando in tertio Principiorum, SALIS Tractatu latius. Accidit saepissime in Natura quod Sperma cum sufficienti semine matricem intrat; sed matrix indisposita, repleta peccantibus sulphuribus, aut phlegmatibus, non concipit, nec fit hoc quod debuit. In hoc Elemento etiam nihil proprie est, nisi ut in Spermate esse solet: delectatur maxime motu proprio, qui fit per aerem, et est miscibile rebus, propter superficiale corpus volatile. Est, ut diximus, receptaculum universalis seminis: facile in illo terra purificatur, et resolvitur: et aer in illo congelatur, ac coniungitur illi.
English
On the Element of Water
On the Element of Water
Water is the heaviest element, full of unctuous phlegm, and an element of considerable worth in its quality. Outwardly volatile, inwardly fixed, it is cold and moist and is tempered by air. It is the sperm of the world, in which the seed of all things is preserved, and it guards each thing's seed. Yet you must know that seed is one thing and sperm another. Earth receives sperm; water receives seed. Whatever air, through fire's agency, distils into water, water passes to earth. Sometimes sperm lacks sufficient seed because the heat that digests it is deficient. Sperm is always abundant, awaiting the seed which, formed by fire's imagining, it carries through the motion of air into the womb. Sometimes, when seed is lacking, sperm enters but comes out again without fruit. I shall discuss this more fully another time in a treatise on salt, the third of the principles. It very often happens in nature that sperm enters the womb with sufficient seed, but the womb is ill disposed, filled with faulty sulphurs or phlegms. It does not conceive, and what should have happened does not occur. In this element there is properly nothing except what is ordinarily present in sperm. It chiefly delights in its own motion, which comes through air, and mixes with things because of its outwardly volatile body. As I have said, it receives the universal seed. Earth is readily purified and dissolved in it, and air is congealed in it and joined to it.
Socrates
Reading A New Light of Alchemy · Sulphur · Water · Sulphur · Water · Passage 1
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
The complete supplied Latin–English edition of the Twelve Treatises, Epilogue, Enigma, Parable, Dialogue of Mercury and Treatise of Sulphur, with original preliminaries, John French’s historical English address and its separately labelled modernisation, 101 annotations and the complete study apparatus.
Historical Text and Translation
The Twelve Treatises and their concluding texts follow the selected 1606 Herzog August Bibliothek witness. The Dialogue uses the 1607 Cologne printing; the author’s preface and Alsted epigram use Frankfurt 1611. Sulphur uses the 1616 Munich and Rome witnesses. John French’s 1650 address is separately identified as historical English reception.
About Diotimos Editions
This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.
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The historical Latin texts and John French’s 1650 English address are in the public domain. The new translation, modernisation and editorial apparatus were prepared with AI assistance for Diotimos Editions in 2026 and are published with the site owner’s authorization.