The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

94The philosophers observed three kinds of fire in the matter of their work: natural, non-natural and contrary to nature. They call natural that heavenly, fiery spirit implanted and guarded in the depth of the matter and bound most closely to it. Dulled by the hardness of the metal, it lies numb until philosophical ingenuity and external heat rouse and liberate it, enabling it to move its own dissolved body. Then, by unfolding, penetrating, expanding and finally congealing, it forms its moist matter. In every compound, the fire of Nature is the principle of heat and motion. They call non-natural that fire which is summoned from outside and introduced into the matter by marvellous artifice, so that it may increase and multiply the powers of the natural fire. They call contrary to nature that fire which putrefies the compound and corrupts Nature’s temperament. It is imperfect because, powerless to generate, it does not advance beyond the limits of corruption; such is the fire or heat of the menstruum. Yet it has improperly been named fire contrary to nature, since in a certain way it accords with Nature: preserving the specific form, it corrupts the matter in such a way as to dispose it for generation.