The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

83The circulation of the elements is performed through a double wheel: the greater, or extended, and the lesser, or contracted. The extended wheel fixes all the elements in earth, and its circle ends only when the work of sulphur has been completed. The revolution of the lesser wheel ends with the extraction and preparation of each element. This wheel contains three circles, which continually agitate the matter in different ways through a certain wandering and intricate motion. Succeeding one another in order, they carry each Element around many times—at least seven—and agree so closely that, if one fails, the labour of the others becomes useless. These are Nature’s instruments for preparing the elements. Let the philosopher therefore consider the process of nature, described more fully for this purpose in the physical treatise.