The Golden Chain of Homer

Related passages: I.10, I.12, I.19.

Saturation

Sättigung. The degree to which a dissolving medium has taken up material. The discussion of solution relates its effectiveness to the medium’s condition and capacity.

Related passages: II.10.

Seed

Semen Sperma Same. A generative principle by which a nature develops or reproduces. Universal seed and the specified seed of an individual have different places in the account.

Related passages: I.3, I.4, I.20, I.21.

Separation

Separatio Scheidung. The distinction or removal of a subject’s portions through operations. The order of separation governs the proper order of subsequent conjunction.

Related passages: I.3, II.5.

Soul

Anima Seele. A mediating or animating principle in the work’s vocabulary. It should be read beside spirit and body without assuming that every occurrence carries the same psychological meaning.

Related passages: I.3, I.10.

Specification

Specificatio Specificiren. The determination of a universal or common principle into a particular nature, kingdom or individual. It explains how shared origins can yield distinct forms.

Related passages: I.3, I.20, II.7.

Spirit

Spiritus Geist. An active, mobile or subtle principle working through a bodily vehicle. Its relation to soul and body varies with the scale and operation being described.

Related passages: I.2, I.10, II.6.

Spirit of Wine

Spiritus vini. The volatile spirit obtained from wine and used in operations of conjunction and sweetening. It also provides an example for the author’s theory of principles.

Related passages: I.19, II.10.

Spiritus Mundi

Spiritus mundi Welt Geist. The spirit of the world whose activity links natural things. The work seeks its bodily manifestations in the relation of nitre, salt, water and generated forms.

Related passages: I.5, I.10.

Sublimation

Sublimatio Sublimiren. An upward movement or operation involving a subtle material. The distinction between sublimation and merely making a substance subtler is sometimes textually significant.

Related passages: I.4, I.9, I.22.

Subtle

Subtil Subtilis. Fine, mobile or capable of passing through an intervening condition. The book explains the elements and separated portions through graded subtlety.

Related passages: I.3, I.4.

Sulphur

Sulphur Schwefel. A named mineral material and a principle associated with oil or an embodied combustible component. Its meaning must be established from the local operation.

Related passages: I.23, II.5.

Superfluous Moisture

Humidum superfluum. Moisture exceeding what is required to preserve a form. It can become a means of decay, although water still functions as a vehicle of active spirit.

Related passages: I.23, II.3, II.6.

Terra Styptica

Terra styptica. An astringent earth discussed in relation to chalk and the reception of a corrosive. The work defines it through its preparation and action.

Related passages: I.23.

Three Kingdoms

Animalia Vegetabilia Mineralia. Animals, plants and minerals, connected through common principles but distinguished by their specific forms and degrees of volatility and fixity.

Related passages: I.13, I.14, I.15, II.7, II.8, II.9.

Tincture

Tinctura Tinctur. A prepared extract, colouring principle or effective essence whose specific sense depends on its source and preparation.

Related passages: II.5, II.9.

Universal

Universale Universal. Common to the generated order or to a broad class before its determination into a particular form. The word does not make every individual material interchangeable.

Related passages: I.20, II.6.

Urine

Urina Urin. An animal material through which the author investigates the relation of excretion, salt and the powers of a living body. Its operative discussion is historical.

Related passages: II.7, II.10.

Vapour

Dampff Vapor. The mobile form through which water, influences and effluences circulate. Vapours connect the cosmological account with familiar observations of evaporation and condensation.

Related passages: I.2, I.9.

Vegetable Kingdom

Regnum vegetabile Vegetabilia. Plants considered as a kingdom intermediate between minerals and animals. Their roots, nourishment, seeds and transformations receive an extended treatment.

Related passages: I.14, I.22, II.3, II.8.

Vehicle

Vehiculum. A carrier or medium through which a principle can be conveyed or act. Water is the principal example in the discussion of spirit.

Related passages: I.2, II.5.

Vinegar

Acetum Eßig. A vegetable acid and mediating material used in conjunction and sweetening. Its strength and preparation matter to the particular operation.

Related passages: I.19, II.10.

Vitrification

Vitrificatio. The formation of glass or a glasslike state, used to discuss an especially durable and fixed condition.

Related passages: I.23, II.7.

Vitriol

Vitriolum Vitriol. A mineral salt and, in the author’s theory, a root or formative stage of mineral bodies. Historical usage does not support the same modern identification in every occurrence.

Related passages: I.15, I.23, II.9.

Volatile

Volatile Flüchtig. Able to rise or pass away under an operation, relatively to a more fixed part. Volatility has degrees and can itself be altered.

Related passages: PRE02, I.19, I.20.

Water

Wasser Aqua. The receptive body and vehicle through which spirit works. The name ranges from primordial and regenerated chaotic water to particular collected or separated waters; the context determines its scale.