DiotimosReading Desk

Operations and material signs

Spiritualisation

Spiritualization; spiritualiz'd; Spirituality

To spiritualise is to bring a subject into the condition called spiritual.

From the book

Aphorismi Urbigerani

Baro Urbigerus · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordTo spiritualise is to bring a subject into the condition called spiritual. The book explains that condition through changing powers and relations, not simply through absence of matter.
  • In the bookA salt becomes volatile, transparent and penetrating, yet remains joined to its own spirit; the emblem describes rebirth as a passage towards spiritualisation and union.
  • In this editionThe reading modernises “Spiritualization” to “spiritualisation” and “Diaphanity” to “transparency,” preserving their association without making them synonyms.
  • A place to readLesser XII–XVIII (1690, pp. 69–73), read beside the combined body emerging from the river in the postscript (pp. 85–86).

Meaning

Spiritual is opposed in several passages to grossness, deadness or the unprepared condition, but it does not mean that a subject has ceased to have every bodily property. The philosophers’ mercury is spiritual, transparent and living at Grand XXI; the philosophers’ natural gold is spiritual and living at XII. At Grand XXVIII the whole body of the Serpent must pass over spiritual and transparent. Body is therefore something that can undergo spiritualisation, not simply a word for what spiritualisation annihilates.

The lesser work makes the meaning especially concrete. When the prepared salt receives its own spirit, it is said to become volatile, spiritual, transparent and penetrating (XII). These predicates are related but distinct. Volatility concerns its changed behaviour; transparency its appearance; penetration and separation its claimed action on plants. Spiritualisation gathers this transformed condition without being reducible to only one of the listed signs.

Use in the book

The adjective already qualifies the fixed vegetable earth of the first lesser way (IV). The second way aims to turn its prepared plant into a spiritual, ever-living fountain (V). Neither phrase supplies a universal formula for spiritualisation independent of the subject. Each belongs to a particular relation among preparation, purification and union.

The third way explains the sequence at greater length. A body prepared for its spirit must still receive that spirit in the right relation. The volatile and fixed are contrary in quality, though not in nature (XIII). The resulting union is not a disappearance of their common nature, but an inseparable conjunction made possible by their proper preparation. XV attributes to the vegetable spirit a natural power to volatilise its own body and unite with it when that body can receive it. XVI then distinguishes the sulphurous medium’s earlier assistance from the later ascent in which it must not participate. Spiritualisation belongs to the body’s union with its own spirit; the assisting medium is not to be carried along indiscriminately.

At XVIII perfect spiritualisation and real union mark possession of the lesser elixir. XXV applies the vocabulary again to what this elixir has acted upon. The recovered oil remains united with its own spirit and is said to pass over without leaving anything behind. That behaviour is called a mark of the spiritualisation, purification and regeneration it has received from the menstruum. Thus the word can describe the preparation’s attainment and a transformation bestowed on another subject; those two grammatical objects should not be confused.

The postscript places the language in the emblem. Apollo and Diana must descend into the river before rebirth, perfect spiritualisation and union. They emerge in one wonderful body, yet the author distinguishes the completed Herculean works from the conjunction still to be continued to full perfection. This material sequence is also said to exhibit truths of biblical faith. The text’s own religious claim should be preserved, but it does not authorize substituting an exclusively inward or psychological process for the stated subjects and operations.

Places to read

  1. Grand Elixir · Aphorism XIIOriginalNatural gold is called spiritual and living in contrast to common gold.
  2. Grand Elixir · Aphorism XXIOriginalPhilosophers’ mercury is spiritual, transparent and living.
  3. Grand Elixir · Aphorism XXVIIIOriginalThe Serpent’s whole body is to pass over spiritual and transparent.
  4. Grand Elixir · Aphorism XLIVOriginalSpirituality and diaphanity qualify the prepared metallic water.
  5. Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism IVOriginalThe fixed vegetable earth has been spiritualised.
  6. Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism VOriginalThe second way culminates in a spiritual, ever-living fountain.
  7. Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism XIIOriginalThe salt’s changed condition receives four distinct predicates.
  8. Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism XIIIOriginalFixed and volatile are contrary in quality but not in nature; their perfect union requires the stated right relation.
  9. Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism XIVOriginalThe strengthened spirit enters the prepared salt’s pores and facilitates volatilisation and union.
  10. Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism XVOriginalThe spirit is said to volatilise and unite with its own prepared body.
  11. Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism XVIOriginalThe medium’s role changes before and during the spiritualisation.
  12. Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism XVIIOriginalThe medium’s unwanted ascent is a sign of violent heat destroying rather than facilitating union.
  13. Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism XVIIIOriginalPerfect spiritualisation and real union define the completed lesser preparation.
  14. Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism XXVOriginalThe regenerated plant oil’s behaviour is a mark of spiritualisation.
  15. Postscript · Passage 2OriginalDescent, rebirth, combined body and continuing conjunction explain the emblem.

In this edition

The reading preserves “spiritual” even where a modern explanatory substitute might seem tempting. Note 96 specifically relates it to volatility, transparency, penetration and separation, without identifying one modern operation as its complete meaning. At Grand XLIV, “Diaphanity” becomes “transparency”; at Lesser XXV, “a Mark” remains “a sign.” The latter records the author’s criterion, not an editorial confirmation that the claimed transformation has been independently demonstrated.

Historical forms and local uses:

Spiritualization [English printed form] — A transformation described through volatility, transparency, penetration and union. (Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism V; Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism XVI; Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism XVIII; Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism XXV; Postscript · Passage 2)

spiritualiz'd [English printed form] — Made spiritual in the author’s account of prepared vegetable earth. (Vegetable Elixir · Aphorism IV)

Spirituality [English printed form] — The perfected condition of the prepared metallic water, associated with transparency. (Grand Elixir · Aphorism XLIV)