The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

The Arcanum describes at considerable length, and with obvious good faith, the procedure of one school of Alchymists in the search for the secret of the Stone Philosophical, and it formulates the stages of the work so that he or she who can read may run. Yet it must be confessed that he has well succeeded in reveiling, as well as revealing, the secret of what was meant by the Prima Materia and the real nature alike of The Sulphur, The Salt, and The Mercury.

Such a work as the Arcanum, written by one who knows, is not sent to print, to teach the public, to show a cheap and easy way to wealth and luxury, or to assist coiners of spurious moneys, but is intended as a treasure house in which those who have devoted life and love to the quest may find stored up the data and experiences of such as have trodden the Path and have borne tribulation and persecution, counting all loss to be gain in their progress to success and to the possession of that Stone of the Wise, which when obtained can indeed transmute the things of the material world, but does also equally work upon all higher planes, and enables an Adept to soar unheeding into worlds of joy, wisdom, and exultation, which are unseen, unknown, and inconceivable to ordinary mortals, who have chosen the alternative of physical contentment and material happiness.

The original Latin title is given at the first page, together with an English translation.

The German edition of 1685, Leipzig, was entitled: Das geheime Werck der Hermetischen Philosophie, von Joannes d’Espagnet. Anagr-e-in [unclear abbreviation] mut. Penes nos unda Tagi. This has an additional preface, and cap. 138 is numbered 137. ‘Joannes’ must be taken as ‘Joannus.’

An English translation was made by James Hasolle, Qui est Mercuriophilus Anglicus; this is the anagram and pseudonym of Elias Ashmole, famous as an antiquary. Copies of his third edition of 1650 are not uncommon. The present editor of the Hermetic Arcanum had at first intended to reprint Ashmole’s version in its entirety, but a comparison with the original Latin has induced him to make a revision of Ashmole’s translation, because he discovered many important inaccuracies, and also because in some places the language was more forcible and plain than our present delicate manners would appreciate.

S. A. is responsible for most of the Notes; a few are from Sigismund Bacstrom, Frater R.R. et A.C., and others are from the marginal references of an anonymous Adept writing in 1710.

Sapere Aude.