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Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition

Anonymous (traditionally attributed to Anton Joseph Kirchweger)

The Golden Chain of Homer

A New Translation from the German Edition of 1723

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The Golden Chain of Homer8 Water and Its Outflow

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Facing Pages · Branch 74 of 504

8 Water and Its Outflow

German & Latin

1723 pp 31–32

Denn die Vegetabilia geneust der Mensch und Vieh zur Speise, und machts durch seinen Archeum animalisch, und so der Mensch stirbt oder das Vieh, so wird es in die Erde verscharret, und wachsen wieder Vegetabilia draus. Die Vegetabilia aber geniessen die mineralischen Dämpffe, so da flüchtig durch die Erde in dero Wurtzel aufsteigen, und werden alle vegetabilisch. Die Vegetabilia aber, wenn sie verfaulen und zu einer nitrosischen saltzigen Natur werden, werden durch die Wasser resolvirt und per rimas & fissuras terræ oder per fluvium in das Meer und von dannen ad centrum terræ getragen, allda sie denn zu der mineralischen Natur aufsteigen. Hieraus siehet nun der Liebhaber, wie eins so gar natürlich ins andere verwandelt wird, und ist, wie offt gesagt, ja kein anderer Unterscheid, als das accidens, daß eines flüchtig und das andere fix wird, nachdem erlanget es eine Qualität, daraus denn die Qualitäten und Differentien eines vom andern entstehen. Nun ist der Himmel und Lufft der Vater und männlicher Saame, das Wasser ist der weibliche Saamen und menstruum, die Erde ist das Gefäß und Mutter, in welcher die obern 3. alle Wiedergeburten auswürcken, was ihnen von dem ewigen Schöpffer anbefohlen. Auf was Weise aber die Erde und das Wasser zur Geburt des allgemeinen Samens, Welt-Geistes, Spiritus mundi, Chaos regenerati in die Lufft auffahren und aufsteigen und alles in Dampff und Rauch aushauchen, soll bey dem Capitel der Erden ausführlich folgen.

1723 pp 31–32

The Golden Chain of Homer: 8 Water and Its Outflow

1723 pp 31–32

Human beings and cattle eat plants as food and make them animal through their Archeus. When a person or an animal dies, it is buried in the earth, and plants grow from it again. Plants in turn consume mineral vapours that rise in a volatile state through the earth into their roots, where all become vegetable. When plants rot and acquire a nitrous, salty nature, waters dissolve them and carry them through the cracks and fissures of the earth, or by a river into the sea and thence to the centre of the earth. There they rise to the mineral nature. The lover of the art thus sees how naturally one is transformed into another. As often stated, the only difference is an accidental property: one becomes volatile, another fixed, and accordingly acquires a quality. From this arise their qualities and their differences from one another. Heaven and air are the father and male seed; water is the female seed and menstruum; earth is the vessel and mother within which the upper three accomplish every regeneration commanded them by the eternal Creator. How earth and water rise and ascend into the air to generate the common seed, world spirit, spiritus mundi, or regenerated Chaos, exhaling everything as vapour and smoke, will follow in detail in the chapter on earth.

1723 pp 31–32

About This Reading Edition

The two-book alchemical work of 1723 in German with a new English translation, 399 notes, eight historical diagrams, chapter outlines, keyword essays, a glossary, bibliography, subject index, and 400 discussion questions.

Discussion Questions

Historical Text and Translation

Anonymous, Aurea Catena Homeri. Frankfurt and Leipzig: Johann Georg Böhme, 1723. Traditionally attributed to Anton Joseph Kirchweger; the attribution remains uncertain. Historical diagrams from the Stiftung der Werke von C. G. Jung copy digitized by e-rara.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

The supplied edition identifies the 1723 German source and historical diagrams as public-domain material. Its new English translation and editorial apparatus are published with the site owner’s authorization. The complete original files are retained unchanged.