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Diotimos Library · Esotericism & Spirituality Collection · Bilingual Edition

Attributed to Jean d’Espagnet

The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

A Fresh English Translation from the Complete 1623 Latin Arcanum

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The Secret Work of the Hermetic PhilosophyContextual Lexicon · Part 5

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English Introduction · Branch 237 of 244

Contextual Lexicon · Part 5

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English

This explicit distinction is valuable for symbolic interpretation. A vessel may suggest the conditions that make a transformation possible, but it cannot be assumed to have the same referent everywhere. The surrounding description tells the reader which kind of containment is at issue.

Passage Canon 109: “The vessel of Nature, also called the vessel of philosophy, is the earth of the stone, or the female, or again the womb, in which the male’s seed is received, putrefies and is prepared for generation.”

Source forms: vas Naturæ, matrix.

Read in context: canon 109.

See also: Conjunction, Digestion, Enigma and Obscurity.

About This Reading Edition

The complete anonymous 1623 Arcanum, conventionally attributed to Jean d’Espagnet, with Latin and a fresh English translation, 138 canons, original marginalia and errata, 88 modern annotations, separately identified historical reception documents, and the complete supplied Diotimos study apparatus.

Historical Text and Translation

Anonymous, Arcanum hermeticæ philosophiæ opus. Paris: Nicolas Buon, 1623. Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon copy, digitised by Google Books, uJNr_M9LDGgC. Conventionally attributed to Jean d’Espagnet; the original title page is anonymous.

About Diotimos Editions

This historical edition credits Diotimos Editions as its English translator.

Rights

Historical texts are public-domain works. The supplied 2026 fresh English translation, Latin reading transcription and Diotimos editorial material are published with the site owner’s authorization. The historical Signifer is credited to the Getty Research Institute copy and Internet Archive.