stone, which is also called another little world and represents the figure of Jesus Christ in physics and metaphysics, as we shall see in its place.

Explanation of the second figure on the fourth page, depicting a flower pleasing to the sight upon the summit of a mountain, against which the north wind, etc.…

Solution.

This emblem depicts a flower very beautiful to behold upon the top of a mountain. Its stem is blue, its flowers white and red, and its leaves embroidered with rays or threads of gold; the north wind was blowing violently against it. The matrices of the philosophical tree are the mountains or rocks. Its stem is called mercury, which imparts to it the power of growth; the minerals are its bark, the flowers its leaves, and the metals its fruits. The fixed matrices and the fixing spirit give them their fixing power. Around this mountain dwell seven dragons and as many

griffins; one of them, very large and winged, savagely attacks a very small one that has no wings.

This agrees in every respect with the second figure of the second group of seven, which depicts a serpent fastened to an oak cross with iron nails. The dragon’s back is blue, and its belly yellowish, spotted with purple marks. There is, however, this difference: in this emblem there are more living dragons looking at the branch, as though, with wings spread, they wished to fly onto it, making several coils upon the ground to launch themselves at it; whereas in the other there was the figure of a serpent that was not alive but dead, fastened to the trunk of a cross with iron nails. Although it is the same matter that appears before our eyes, we nevertheless see a difference in its preparation, as we have said concerning the colors of the flower and the dragons corresponding to the serpent. All the philosophers, by the summit of the moun-

tain, mean the body of the alembic, and by the flower the matter that is to be brought to fulfillment in the whole of nature. The root of this flower, which is lead, its stem of silvery blue, its golden leaves, and its red and white flowers sufficiently explain the conditions and natures of the crude matter. Now the root of all metals is the earth of Saturn; blue mercury, which is the stem of a metallic tree, is the precious salt of nature, containing within itself fruits of gold and silver. For it tinges and gilds everything it touches, like flowers in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Likewise, salt in the mineral kingdom always foretells the harvest that is to be hoped for. For this same reason, in the third emblem on the fifth page, it has been compared with the rosebush producing white and red flowers, which rises from the fountain against a green oak. The poets speak of it in the fable of the golden tree placed in the gardens of the Hesperides and guarded by a watchful dragon; Moses also speaks of it in Genesis:

God had placed the tree of life in the midst of the earthly paradise so that man, eating its fruit, might live a long time and lack nothing that could bring his happiness to fulfillment in every way. He had called it the tree of good and evil, or of knowledge, and whoever had tasted its fruit once should assuredly deserve to be called wise, as we said in the preceding figure. The north wind blew violently upon it. This tree with golden leaves, or this golden branch, represents the earth or sulfur sublimed by the fumes or vapors of mercury to the top of the vessel, according to this axiom of Hermes: ‘The wind carried it in its belly.’ The body of gold, being very fixed and very compact, cannot be reduced to spirit before it has been violently beaten by the north wind: that is, it is dissolved, destroyed, or sublimed only by mercurial water, which is very cold and, making it crude once more, dissolves it; once it is dissolved, it raises and spiritualizes it by rarefying it. This is why the philosophers give it the names of smoke, vapor, wind, and soul of bodies; that is to say, it

carries the sulfur of gold and is its vehicle. We posit the wind Borus, blowing violently from the north, and Notus from the south; both, changed into air or cloud, are finally dissolved into water. The poets have said that these winds were like comets dissolving into showers of gold and showers of silver, and that Prince Jason’s vessel, through their favorable breath, reached harbor safely. For what is the first, if not the dry and hot spirit of gold, which gilds everything it touches? And what is the second, if not the silvery, hot, and moist water of mercury, which likewise tinges whatever it touches?

Although we have spoken of the hot and moist kind of quicksilver, it is very cold and very dry at the beginning of its preparation and in its nature. Thus, through the cold of the north wind, it is converted into the dry state, from dry into moist, and from moist into hot, in order to pass through all the elements.

Furthermore, just as it is said that the cold and dry north wind drives away the clouds and purifies the air, and that, on the

contrary, the moist and hot southern wind fills the whole region of the air with clouds that sometimes dissolve into rain, thunder, and lightning, so for the same reason no vapor rises or becomes airborne during dissolution, because the mercurial wind is then very cold owing to the fixedness and coldness of the bodies. But after dissolution the vessel is filled with quantities of vaporous spirits that from time to time dissolve into water. Then it is said that the southern winds blow upon our sea, because at that time the bodies of gold and mercury are so open that their spirits rise, whiter than snow, along the sides of the vessel. They then take on a bluish color spotted with red, and become so subtle, and their powers so tincturing, that they change crystal into precious stones of every kind, and imperfect metals into perfect ones. Finally it becomes so subtle that, having laid aside all its heaviness, it surpasses every subtle spirit; just as the very volatile mercurial water at the bottom of the vessel rises and descends

when the spirit rises toward the upper part of the vessel. If one serpent devours another, it is a monster in nature because it is cruel toward its own kind. Thus the serpent of vitriolic sulfur is strangled—that is, mortified—by the mercurial serpent; it becomes a dragon and a monster of enormous size, such as the one seen fastened to the cross, or those wandering here and there upon the mountain we have depicted.

The serpents are called by the name Rebis: one indicates the solar spirit and the other the mercurial spirit. Or, to speak more precisely, it is the mercurial spirit impregnated with the solar spirit, spiritualized in it and dissolved in its dissolution. Thus they are all depicted with wings except for two small ones, to indicate bodies that have become spirits and are ready to be sublimed, awaiting the time when they will be fixed in their dominion. This will be demonstrated in the third group of seven leaves, where a barren and mountainous wilderness is represented, ravaged by innumerable serpents issuing from four rivers, which discloses the time of

fixation, or the dominion of the fixed spirits. These dragons or griffins signify nothing but quicksilver and sulfur, represented by stagnant and exceedingly foul-smelling water: very cold at the time of its creation and very hot at the end, sharing in the nature of the lion, griffin, and dragon, and endowed with a very cold venom. They also indicate the other things that live in rocks and cold, damp caves. Because dragons are exceedingly watchful, they are appointed to guard treasures; and they can be killed only with extreme difficulty owing to the hardness of their scales. It takes the strength of Hercules to kill the ancient dragon of gold and the watchful serpent of mercury; for however forcefully they are struck and broken, both can always be reduced to their first body and first form.

It is therefore an error to teach that Mercury must be destroyed before its conjunction with gold, because gold can be dissolved only with mercury. Likewise, mercury always resumes its first form of trembling quicksilver unless it is corrupted with a natural and favorable dissolution of gold and is spiritualized. It is the same in

their dissolution; and from both, filled as they are with much venom and black bile, the celebrated theriac is made, very useful in several diseases, as will be explained in its place.

This sulfur of gold is signified by the wingless dragon or griffin, filled with fixed fire and born in the east, just as sweet and volatile mercury is born in the west. It is represented to us by the winged dragons and griffins that you see beaten and torn to pieces by larger winged creatures upon the side of the mountain, because they are young, small, and defenseless. Yet they will attain such size and strength that they will rule over everything, and will take pleasure, rejoice, and grow in the fire that will become their good and their own nourishment in the time of their dominion. If you join a cold dragon with an eagle or griffin, and they burn with the fire of hell, a fiery spirit will then be drawn from them, burning the eagle’s wings and melting the mountain snows into water. This is why it is said that