An operation of breakdown or corruption that can prepare a material for separation or generation. Rainwater left for a proper time is said to deposit slime and earth. In the larger work, putrefaction belongs to the sequence through which an impure condition is opened and transformed.

Passages: II.128.1; II.143.2; II.170.1.

Rainwater

Regenwasser

The book’s central natural material and vehicle of explanation. It is defined as subtle, simple and universal in powers, having received no particular creative blessing. The author argues that it can yield medicine and tincture, while distinguishing it from the precise Hermetic subject and refusing arbitrary mixtures with that subject.

Passages: I.017.2; II.077.2; II.126.1; II.161.2.

Regimen of fire

Regimen ignis

The management of heat in the work. The author ranks it with weight among the principal practical requirements and recounts broken vessels caused by careless governance of the fire. The historical term covers an ordered treatment rather than one universally specified temperature.

Passages: II.112.1.

Residues

Excrementa

Removable, impure or non-essential material associated with the accidental portion of lower bodies. It may mingle with pure substance and carry corruption. The translation uses “residues” to preserve this broader operative meaning instead of restricting the Latin to excrement in a bodily sense.

Passages: I.032.1; II.218.2; II.220.2; II.231.1.

Salt, philosophical

Sal; Sal Philosophorum

In Chapter Two, water and earth, the body through which the other principles become visible and tangible. It is drawn with Mercury and Sulphur from one subject. In the medicinal classification a prepared philosophical salt also appears as a medicine of the first order.

Passages: II.085.1; II.086.1; II.181.1.

Seed

Semen; Samen

A generative source or capacity, not exclusively a visible botanical seed. The author distinguishes particular animal and vegetable seeds from universal elemental beginnings and denies metals a separate particular seed of their own. The distinction supports his account of preparation and perfection rather than creation of a new species.

Passages: II.059.2; II.081.1; II.132.1; II.133.1.

Separation

Separatio; Scheidung

Either removal of contrary superfluities or differentiation of related parts unequal in position and form. The two senses prevent the work from being read as a complete severing of elements whose essential bond the author insists upon. Separation can therefore serve purification without abolishing unity.

Passages: I.032.1; I.033.1; I.034.1.

Spirit

Spiritus; Geist

A context-dependent term for air or wind, a subtle operative material, an animating principle, or—in explicitly distinguished theological usage—the Holy Spirit. “Spiritual” does not by itself establish immateriality. The created spirit over the waters is expressly denied identity with God the Holy Spirit.

Passages: I.027.1; I.044.1; I.046.1; II.086.1.

Spirit of the world

Spiritus Mundi

The uniform spirit capable of different operations and properties in different orders of nature. It is described as animal in animals, vegetable in plants and mineral in minerals. The author associates it with air and wind while qualifying what it means to obtain or use it in the work.

Passages: I.028.1; I.031.1; I.047.1; II.163.2.

Substance

Substantia; Substanz

The letters first dispute substance and accident as categories, then the reply defines substance in natural philosophy as pure and simple being admitting no contrariety. In lower bodies it is distinguished from residues. Its persistence through purification supplies the account of cosmic renewal; it must not be reduced to an ordinary named chemical ingredient.

Passages: II.202.1; II.218.1; II.218.2; II.219.1; II.229.1.

Sulphur, philosophical

Sulphur

Fire in the three-principle account, and soul or form in the corresponding spirit–soul–body language. Other passages distinguish particular and universal or differently prepared sulphurs. The name therefore does not authorize an automatic identification with common elemental sulphur.

Passages: II.085.1; II.087.1; II.155.1.

Summum temperamentum

Highest balance of qualities

The most perfect balance or temperament sought through the equal balancing of universal matter. Particular substances retain their specified powers and cannot simply be combined into this universal balance. The term belongs to a qualitative historical matter theory.

Passages: II.074.2; II.076.1.

Tincture and elixir

Tinctura; Elixir

Names for a prepared operative power or perfected work, with overlapping but context-sensitive uses. The author attributes medicine, metallic transmutation and gemstone perfection to the natural tincture or perfected elixir, while distinguishing lesser medicinal orders that cannot perform every effect.

Passages: II.179.2; II.180.1; II.182.2; II.184.1.

Universal

Universalis; universale

Extending in origin, scope or capacity across the relevant orders of nature. The author’s universal medicine requires a correspondingly universal subject; the claim is argued through both principles and reported effects. “Universal” can be qualified, and must not erase distinctions between water, rainwater, dew and the precise matter of the art.

Passages: I.009.2; I.010.1; II.126.1; II.162.1.

Vapour of nature

Vapor Naturæ

The proposed generative subterranean vapour in accounts of metals and stones. Chapter Four connects it with mining expressions such as Einwitterung, Bergschwaden and Metallferch. The author reviews competing descriptions and treats the precise natural process as conjectural.

Passages: II.109.2; II.110.1; II.113.1.

Wet and dry ways

Via humida; via sicca

Distinguished modes of working within the Hermetic undertaking. Chapter Six identifies earlier discussions as indications concerning the two ways, and the conclusion says that the wet way is best applied to rainwater. The book supplies principles and general operations while withholding a fully specified sequence of manipulations.

Passages: II.121.1; II.236.1; II.243.1.