A New Light of Alchemy

8He replied, “It is true, my son: all generation takes place in male and female. But because of the distinction between nature’s three kingdoms, a four-footed animal is born in one way and a worm in another. Although worms possess eyes, sight, hearing, and the other senses, they are produced through putrefaction. Their place, or the earth in which they putrefy, is the female. Likewise, in the philosophical work the mother of this thing is that water of yours mentioned so often. Whatever is born from it is born through putrefaction, in the manner of worms. The philosophers therefore called it phoenix and salamander. If it came from the conception of two bodies, it would be liable to death. But because it merely revivifies itself, once the former body is destroyed another, incorruptible body shines forth. The death of things is nothing other than the separation of one from another. In this phoenix, life thus separates itself by itself from the corruptible body.” I asked further, “My lord, are there different things, or a composition of things, in this work?” He replied, “There is one thing, with which nothing else is mixed except the philosophical water several times revealed to you in sleep. It should be tenfold in relation to one part of the body. Believe firmly and without doubt, my son, that what Saturn and I disclosed to you through dreams on this island, according to the country’s custom, is in no way dreams but the purest truth. Experience, the sole teacher of things, will be able to disclose it to you with God’s assistance.”