Sal Lumen and Spiritus Mundi Philosophici

There is a spirit-body, Nature’s first-born, Most common, most hidden, most base, most precious, Preserving, destroying, good and mischievous, The beginning and end of every creature. Triple in substance, it is salt, oil and pure water, Coagulating, gathering and watering here below All things, through the dry, oily and moist, from the high heavens, Able to receive every form and figure. Art alone, through Nature, makes it visible to our eyes; It conceals within its centre an infinite power, Furnished with the faculties of Heaven and earth. It is hermaphrodite and gives increase To everything with which it mingles, without distinction, Because within itself it encloses every seed.