The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

90Digestion, the last circle, acts through a silent and imperceptible motion; the philosophers therefore say it takes place in a secret furnace. It thoroughly cooks the nourishment received and converts it into parts homogeneous with the body. For this reason it is called putrefaction: just as food is corrupted in the stomach before passing into blood and similar parts, so this operation breaks down the nourishment through a ripening, stomach-like heat, and in a certain way putrefies it, so that it may be better fixed and changed from a mercurial into a sulphurous nature. It is also called burial, because through it the spirit is buried and interred in the earth as though dead. Since it proceeds very slowly, it needs a longer time. The first two circles labour chiefly in dissolving, this one in congealing, although all perform both.