The intercourse of the Sun and Moon with the chemists' mercury

The first intercourse of the Sun and Moon with mercury, lying together, which takes place according to art—I say nothing of that occurring every hundred years within earth's black beds—is the one with whose amalgamation the people's ears have been so battered. For since our water was known in a form other than ordinary quicksilver,

and our sulfur in a guise other than gold and the moon, chemists thought they should marry them and celebrate celestial, royal weddings for them. They would have been right had they understood these things properly. Almost none recognized that each metal contained both sexes and was hermaphroditic in nature: in darkness the sun performs the female's functions, and in broad daylight the male's; conversely the moon acts secretly as the active principle and in broad daylight as the passive principle. Finally, what does Mercury do, regarded as doubtful and amphibious in every nature? From this great number of conjunctions of different seeds, what arises except some monstrous and illegitimate marriage contrary to nature's laws? The bed of a legitimate marriage admits no third party. Whoever is to celebrate these royal weddings must therefore above all recognize their natures, separate natures from the natures themselves, and finally have in his hands the watery sperm of our

kings, thoroughly purified of every superfluity before their conjunction.

Moreover, as in mechanics it is fitting to separate grain from straw and the hard husk enveloping it, so in art imitating nature the seeds of gold and silver, although hidden and deeply buried, must first be drawn from their husks through our water. Separated from their watery serosities and impurities, they can then lie together with the ceremonial preparation of legitimate weddings.

Sperms serve no purpose for generation while they remain in the loins, or when, dissolved with urine or some foreign humor, they unite in an improper and unsuitable manner. We have observed that those of body with spirit, matter with form, heaven with elements, and mercury with sulfur were joined through an alliance uniting them by an indissoluble bond, all the more perfect and eternal because the parts of nature or of the

substance have been pure and incorruptible. Thus the spirit plunges into matter's thick or watery parts. Being external and constituting accidental form, the aforesaid qualities are in no way admitted into the generation of perfect metals, and are in no way essential to it. That generation takes place through the pure, homogeneous spirits alone of our quintessence, discussed above, and through long cooking within the veins. It appears neither upon earth's surface nor at its center except in the form of quicksilver, whose flat, smooth surface causes it neither to rest nor to adhere to what it touches; or in sulfurous form, volatile or fixed, it—that is, its double form—can readily be reduced to fluid by fire's violence.

A great difficulty arises here: if water generated within earth's bowels is very viscous, earth's subtle substance becomes united with it through the smallest parts

through a tempered fire, so that moisture is tempered by dryness and dryness likewise by moisture. This causes it to flee this flat surface and not adhere because of its fixity. Finally, either it flees thoroughly heated by fire or remains thoroughly accustomed to fire. Because it is either difficult to corrupt, slightly corrupted, or removed from this analipticité of the elements, it cannot usefully serve the work. Much care and attention are therefore required lest it depart from this complexion of elements during preparation. To attain this end, we must seek a fire gently drawing out the spirit of our water, immersed within many heterogeneous parts of matter. For not every fire—artificial or elemental, as it exists in compounds, actual or potential—perfects this work. If it has more intensification than needed, or more relaxation, it will rage cruelly against it like a tyrant and conqueror bending everything to his will; or it will have no dominion, or very little, over it. For all the

separation of pure from impure, whether in plants, animals or minerals, takes place only with the assistance of some sovereign or celestial fire. Its office is to draw incorruptible essences from matter's filth, but through a strengthening power friendly to them, coaxing them and preserving their harmony. For them this will be the celestial fire and father of their life, whose office is to draw mercury and our water from bodies, separating them most powerfully.

This is the key or door through which one entered the deepest mysteries of physics, astrology, medicine and theology. Since they were not permitted to publish so great and sovereign a secret—indeed, doing so was a crime forbidden under penalty of many anathemas and horrible curses—they had to resort to types, characters, commonplaces, figures and enigmas, in which these mysteries were available only to the sages while veiled from the people's eyes. These characters, however many they were, were imitated after them, either by

poets, secular people, or those whom they followed, according to the rule and example they had left. They can be traced back to the first source from which they flowed and cannot be referred to anything without a bad or ill-conceived explanation. We know—and all true philosophers know—that physics is the root of all sciences and that through it knowledge of the other sciences can be attained, which is impossible without it. Consequently no one should later complain or be surprised that we have here turned sacred and divine images toward the meaning of physics. To give still less cause for astonishment, consider that I use only these foreign figures drawn from the Hebrews' mecubales—that is, the Egyptians' masters and teachers—and not their hidden mysteries, which do not concern us and bear no relation to our subject.

As the child of the Catholic Church that I am today, I believe everything that is to happen to us,

and which we hope will happen to us in future ages; I profess what she proposes for belief, hope and confession. If we draw from these figures knowledge and proofs of certain mysteries, we have presented them plainly and simply, as nature herself explains them in her works, or as it pleases God to reveal and communicate them to us through her, although we are unworthy. We have done everything possible and tried, as far as it depended on us, to set forth physics' truth. After explaining it plainly, we have sought to disclose how much truth and light these figures contain for explaining these sacred secrets. Thus everyone will learn—not from me but through himself and these emblems—what is hidden beneath them, and more than I can say. He will see that our sentiments toward God are pure and will perhaps have better ones than mine. He will not turn these things into ridiculous proverbs, but, on the contrary, will value them highly with

regard for the mysteries hidden beneath them.

Although I represent these sacred, divine emblems as greater than and above physical secrets, what prevents us from adjusting them together, so that through the latter we may attain knowledge of the former, since night communicates knowledge to night and light illuminates day? What prevents us from explaining this second work of the stone and its nature through these troops of riders? Is it better suited to anything else than this operation? What, I ask you, do these angels set free, who had been bound in the great river Euphrates, signify?

Chemists call this dissolution and resolution of matter their sea, or compare it to Achelous, most celebrated of all rivers. Great labor and strength are needed to overthrow this monster, because it clothes itself in new forms at every moment, and the crown is offered only to whoever fights most vigorously. These four spirits are the

pure spirits of metals. Before their corruption, they had been plunged into this great river and firmly chained there. When corruption comes, freed from their bonds and emerged from their dark prisons, they acquire such great power that, with much bloodshed, they destroy the third part of humanity wishing to resist them. We can understand them through the fabulous histories of Hercules, Perseus, Jason and Cadmus. Various monsters must be conquered in this work: Bugiris, who sacrifices his guests; furious bulls; Diomedes, who feeds his guests' flesh to his horses; dragons multiplying in heads or colors; lions beside themselves with fury; boars ravaging everything in rage; three-mouthed Cerberuses; three-bodied Geryons; Sphinxes; and finally Cyclopes. This means that we must overcome every heterogeneous thing coming to mercury through the elements' first original stain.

All these combats arise within this dealbation and mortification of earth, caused by