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English Page · Branch 192 of 287
Philosophical Summary
German & Latin
1619 pp. 215–216 · scans ER219, ER220Diese zwey spermata haben nun die alten Weisen figuriret durch zween Drachen oder Schlangen / deren einer Flügel / der ander keine Flügel hat. Der Drach ohne Flügel ist das sulphur, so nimmermehr vom Fewer entfleuget. Die Schlang so Flügel hat / ist das argentum vivum, so der Wind hinträgt / der weibliche Samen / gemacht von Wasser vnd Erde. Darumb fleugt es zu seiner Stunde von dem Fewer hinweg / vnd ist darinnen vnbeständig. Wann aber diese zwey vnderschiedliche vñ einander abgesonderte spermata widerumb zusammen gebracht / vñ durch eine triumphirende Natur / in dem Buch deß Mercurii, welcher das erste Metall vnd der Metallen Mutter ist / vereiniget werden / so nennen es die Philosophi den fliegenden Drachen: darumb daß ein Drach / so von seinem Fewr entzündet ist / in flug allgemach Fewer vnnd gifftigen Dampff in die Lufft außwirffet: also thut auch der Mercurius, wann er ober dem eussern Fewr an seinem Orth in einem Geschirr stehet / vnnd das Fewr recht geordnet ist / das jnnerliche natürliche / welches tieff verborgen ist / anzuzünden. Als dann kan man sehen / wie solches eusserliches Fewr / so das vegetabilische genennet wirdt / das natürliche deß Mercurii entzündet. Wer auch wachsam ist / der wird sehen in die Lufft schiessen vnd darinnen lauffen einen gifftigen Rauch oder Dampff / vbel riechend / schädlich / sehr bitter / entzündet / vnnd das ärgste Gifft / welches nichts anders ist / als eines Drachen Häupt / so schnell von Babylon / die zwo oder drey Meil vmbgeben / auffgehet.
The Sophic Hydrolith: Philosophical Summary
1619 pp. 215–216 · scans ER219, ER220The ancient sages represented these two seeds by two dragons or serpents, one with wings and the other without. The wingless dragon is sulphur, which never flies away from the fire. The winged serpent is quicksilver, carried off by the wind: the feminine seed made from water and earth. For this reason it flies away from the fire in its own time and is unstable within it. But when these two different seeds, separated from one another, are brought together again and united by a triumphant Nature in the book of Mercury, who is the first metal and the mother of the metals, the philosophers call it the flying dragon. A dragon kindled by its own fire gradually casts fire and poisonous vapour into the air as it flies. Mercury does the same when it stands in its proper place in a vessel above the external fire, and that fire is correctly ordered to kindle the inward natural fire hidden deep within it. Then one can see how this external fire, called the vegetable fire, kindles Mercury’s natural fire. Anyone who keeps watch will also see a poisonous smoke or vapour shoot into the air and move through it: foul smelling, harmful, very bitter, kindled, and the worst of poisons. This is nothing other than a dragon’s head, which rises swiftly from Babylon, encompassing two or three miles.
Socrates
Reading The Sophic Hydrolith · Philosophical Summary · Philosophical Summary · Unit 2
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Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
The anonymous Water Stone of the Wise of 1619, with German text, a new English translation, 240 annotations, three companion treatises from the original volume, two separately identified responses of 1661, and the complete supplied study apparatus.
Historical Text and Translation
Anonymous, Wasserstein der Weysen. Frankfurt: Lucas Jennis, 1619. The governing e-rara copy belongs to the Stiftung der Werke von C. G. Jung, Zürich (DOI 10.3931/e-rara-8968). The work is traditionally attributed to Johann Siebmacher; this remains an attribution, not a name printed in the anonymous witness. The separately sourced First and Second Responses use the 1661 Wolfenbüttel witness, qun-642-1s, pp. 200–206.
About Diotimos Editions
This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.
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Historical texts printed in 1619 and 1661 are in the public domain. The supplied 2026 German reading text, new English translation, introduction, notes and complete study apparatus are published with the site owner’s authorization. The original triangle is credited to the Stiftung der Werke von C. G. Jung, Zürich, and e-rara, Public Domain Mark.
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