Central and astral salt

Use in the book

The first statement is epistemic: knowing the central and astral salt united and abundant in one thing, exemplified by the human being, would give the light needed to survey nature. This follows the account of human nourishment from above and below. The paired salts therefore belong to the microcosm argument before they enter the more compressed technical naming passage. (The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 42, The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 43.)

The later description differentiates the pair rather than treating them as synonyms. Astral is explicitly glossed as upper and described as volatile, sweet and silvery, with a saline mercurial spirit. The central salt is described as a vitriol of extraordinary power. A feminine figure, Venus, is said to be hidden in an ugly garment. Birth from the two salts explains the claimed common generation of metals in macrocosm and microcosm. (The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 52.)

The preceding compressed list places central salt beside philosophical microcosmic vitriol, and astral salt beside microcosmic mercury and philosophical Venus. Its syntax is clearer when read with the next paragraph than when every comma is made a complete definition. “Philosophical Venus” cannot simply be replaced throughout by ordinary copper, or the mercury-name by ordinary quicksilver. The subsequent reading of copper below and silver above in the mercury sign is an interpretation of a character’s shape, not a chemical analysis of a specimen. Visual interpretation, material description and the naming of the completed work therefore need to remain distinct, even within this deliberately mixed vocabulary (The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 51–The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 52).

The most important limit comes after the claims of the accomplished medicine. Many people, the narrator says, wrongly take philosophers’ mercury to be the regenerated salt itself or the philosophers’ stone. He denies this and refuses to describe how the work continues from the mercury to the masterpiece. The pair of natural salts, the named mercury and the finished regenerated object must therefore not be reduced to an undifferentiated synonym list. (The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 57.)

The conceptual relation can be stated without reconstructing a procedure: upper and lower powers are joined in the human little world; the two salts are differentiated aspects of that constitution; the book claims an accomplished product beyond the mercury but leaves the continuation undescribed. The entry supplies those distinctions and the source’s names, not instructions for separation, purification or generation. (The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 43, The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 51, The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 52, The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 57.)

Places to read

1. The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 43German“das Saltz Naturæ Centrale und Astrale” The pair first appears as a union whose knowledge illuminates nature.
2. The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 51German“das Sal centrale, Vitriolum microcosmicum Philosophicum” The central salt and philosophical vitriol names occur together.
3. The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 51German“das Saltz Astrale, ☿ium Microcosmi, ♀em Philosophicam” The mixed German, Latin and symbolic list needs the next paragraph’s distinctions.
4. The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 52German“Das Astralische oder obere Saltz” The source itself identifies astral with upper.
5. The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 52German“Das Centralische Saltz ist ein Vitriol” The central member is distinguished through its vitriol-name.
6. The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 52German“aus diesen beyden Saltzarthen” The account makes the two salts jointly generative.
7. The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 57German“der ☿ Philosophorum sey ipsum Sal Naturæ Regeneratum” The embedded equivalence is the belief the narrator immediately calls false.
8. The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 57German“schreibe ich hiebey nicht” The work beyond philosophers’ mercury is expressly withheld.

Translation in this edition

The edition expands ☿ium as Mercurium and ♀em as Venerem in translation, while retaining standalone symbols where they are discussed as shapes. Its note explains the defective or abbreviated heß as “ugly” from context, without replacing the printed word. “Philosophical” qualifies the alchemical roles of these names; it does not certify an ordinary metal as the intended material. All procedural detail is intentionally outside this explanatory entry.

In Das Astralische oder obere Saltz, “or upper” is part of the source’s explanation, not a modern editorial gloss (The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 52). The parallel description of the central salt should therefore be read as a second description, not silently substituted into the first.

The false belief at The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 57 is embedded in a sentence reporting what others suppose. The phrase naming regenerated salt appears inside the proposition the narrator rejects. A term index can lead a reader to that occurrence, but only the complete sentence explains why it is there.

Printed forms

Saltz Naturæ Centrale und Astrale

Attested: The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 43 — 1682 pp. 30–31. “das Saltz Naturæ Centrale und Astrale”

The central and astral salt of nature, said to be united in the human being.

Sal centrale

Attested: The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 51 — 1682 p. 34. “das Sal centrale”

Central salt, the lower or central member of the paired powers.

Vitriolum microcosmicum Philosophicum

Attested: The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 51 — 1682 p. 34.

Philosophical vitriol of the microcosm, a name associated with the central salt.

Saltz Astrale

Attested: The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 51 — 1682 p. 34. “das Saltz Astrale”

Astral salt, the upper member of the pair.

☿ium Microcosmi

Attested: The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 51 — 1682 p. 34.

Mercury of the microcosm; the sign carries the Latin ending of Mercurium.

♀em Philosophicam

Attested: The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 51 — 1682 p. 34.

Philosophical Venus; the sign carries the Latin ending of Venerem.

Astralische

Attested: The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 52 — 1682 pp. 34–35. “Das Astralische oder obere Saltz”

Astral, expressly glossed by the source as upper.

Centralische Saltz

Attested: The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 52 — 1682 pp. 34–35. “Das Centralische Saltz”

Central salt, described as a vitriol of extraordinary claimed power.

☿ Philosophorum

Attested: The Concentrated Centre of Nature · Passage 57 — 1682 p. 36. “der ☿ Philosophorum”

Philosophers’ mercury, expressly distinguished from the finished regenerated salt.

Related words and expressions

• Quicksilver and the reported material products
• Venus hidden in an ugly garment