Rebirth and radical union · Lexicon

From the book

Centrum Naturae Concentratum

Attributed to Ali Puli · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordRebirth is renewal at the generative root. Seminal first matter is matter understood as capable of generation; radical union is a union at that root, not mere visible mixing.
In the bookThe anonymous Love of One’s Neighbour excerpts call water the womb, define Sophic Mercury as reborn seminal first matter, and use inseparability to distinguish radical union. They allow limited benefits from crude things while reserving perfect medicine for rebirth.
In this edition“Seminal” is not restricted to animal semen. The missing sign in the ascending-elements passage remains missing, and “in a shock” is retained as difficult wording rather than explained away.
A place to readPhilosophical Discourse · Passage 14–Philosophical Discourse · Passage 15, where the exclusivity of seminal first matter is followed by a qualification allowing particular benefits without universal perfection.

Meaning

The anonymous excerpts introduced as Love of One’s Neighbour use rebirth for a change at the generative root, not just an external alteration of a finished body. Seminal qualifies first matter as a source of generation and multiplication. Radical mixture or union means a union at that root: the claim is stronger than ordinary combination, for the joined metal is said no longer to be recoverable in its former metallic form. Sophic Mercury is the name assigned to the reborn seminal matter, not a straightforward identification with ordinary mercury.

The source itself joins the vocabulary of birth to that of union. Neugebohrne, “reborn”, characterises the first matter; gebiehrt, “gives birth”, describes what it is then said to do for what joins it (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14). Rebirth is consequently both a condition attributed to the matter and an activity attributed to it. The words do not merely decorate an otherwise unchanged mixture with a religious comparison.

Use in the book

The collection marks a new source before this argument: excerpts from an anonymous book called Love of One’s Neighbour, Flowing from the Oil of Divine Mercy (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 11). Its claims should not simply be assigned to the first-person speaker of the opening J. J. F. discourse. After a short notice of difficulties in the work, the excerpt asks the reader to consider water containing fire. Water is called the first matter and the womb that gives new birth to everything because it is not without spirit and blood (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 12–Philosophical Discourse · Passage 13).

The passage then says that images of heavenly things are purified through blood in nature and art. Elemental and theological language are deliberately joined. Reading blood only as an anatomical fluid would lose its place in the network of analogies; treating it as a detachable metaphor would conceal the writer’s insistence that nature and art embody the relation (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 13). The argument moves from water’s proposed constitution to its capacity for renewal.

Sophic Mercury receives the corresponding definition in the next paragraph: a reborn seminal first matter. The writer attributes generation, multiplication and new birth to seminal first matter alone, and therefore requires metals to attain that state for radical mixture or union (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14). The claim is stronger than visible conjunction. A metal joined to this matter is said to be inseparable from it and impossible to restore to its former metallic form. That irreversibility is the text’s test of the depth of the union, not a modern verification of the asserted event.

The medical sequel qualifies the strong language without simply abandoning it. Perfect medicine is said to lie in rebirth, yet crude things may still accomplish cures. The explanation invokes centres not tightly closed, the human Archaeus’s ability to separate good from bad while it remains strong, and the closeness of some preparations to the sophic work (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 15). Particular or specific benefit is thus admitted while universal perfection remains reserved. Leaving out “while still strong” would give the internal separating power a scope the passage does not claim.

The ensuing elemental account starts from one first matter and describes its division “in a shock” into spiritual and bodily qualities. Bodily elements house the spiritual; spiritual ones give the bodily life and movement (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 16). These are relations within the excerpt’s account of differentiation, not grounds for replacing its difficult “shock” with an unsupported modern physical event. The ascending movement in the next paragraph is further limited by an absent printed sign, which the edition does not reconstruct (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 17).

The separately headed potable-gold appendix later says that the true solvent cannot be separated from what is dissolved (The Short Preparation of Potable Gold · Passage 2). This is a useful comparison with the excerpt’s inseparability criterion: both claim more than a temporary mixture. But the appendix and anonymous excerpts remain separately framed texts. The shared ideal does not identify their material referents or authorise filling gaps in either account from the other.

Places to read

Philosophical Discourse · Passage 11German“Amor Proximi geflossen aus dem Oel göttlicher Barmhertzigkeit” The heading identifies an anonymous source for the following excerpts.
Philosophical Discourse · Passage 13German“es ist der Mutterleib / so alles neu gebühret” Water is construed as the generative womb.
Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14German“eine neugebohrne materia prima spermatica” Sophic Mercury is defined as reborn seminal first matter.
Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14German“Radicalis Mixtio oder Unio” The argument requires union at the generative root.
Philosophical Discourse · Passage 15German“wenn er noch starck” The human Archaeus’s sorting power is conditional on remaining strong.
Philosophical Discourse · Passage 16German“die hat sich in Schreck in 4. Qualitates getheilet” The difficult wording describes differentiation of one first matter.
The Short Preparation of Potable Gold · Passage 2German“das wahre Solvens kan von dem Soluto nicht wieder separirt” A separately framed appendix offers a comparable inseparability criterion.

Translation in this edition

“Rebirth” keeps the theological resonance of neue Geburth more clearly than an exclusively mechanical “reprocessing”. In neugebohrne materia prima spermatica, the edition’s “reborn, seminal first matter” preserves both the state and the generative description (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14). “Seminal” must not be narrowed to animal semen, since the same argument expressly concerns metals and the generation of all things.

The paired Latin nouns Radicalis Mixtio oder Unio become “a radical mixture or union”. “Radical” concerns the generative root, and the neighbouring assertions of inseparability explain why ordinary mixing is insufficient. In Philosophical Discourse · Passage 15, wenn er noch starck becomes “while still strong”, restricting the Archaeus’s claimed sorting power. The bracketed absent sign in Philosophical Discourse · Passage 17 prevents a complete reconstruction of the ascending elemental movement; it is not supplied from expectation. All these claims about perfect medicine remain historical interpretation, not clinical guidance.

Printed forms

Attested forms: neue Geburth (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14 — 1682 pp. 58–59); neuen Geburth (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 15 — 1682 p. 59); Wiedergeburt (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 1 — 1682 pp. 49–50); neugebohrne (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 13 — 1682 p. 58); prima materia (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 13 — 1682 p. 58); materia prima (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14 — 1682 pp. 58–59); materia prima spermatica (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14 — 1682 pp. 58–59); materiam spermaticam (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14 — 1682 pp. 58–59); ☿ius Sophicus (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14 — 1682 pp. 58–59); Conjunction (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14 — 1682 pp. 58–59); Radicalis Mixtio (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14 — 1682 pp. 58–59); Unio (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14 — 1682 pp. 58–59); Mutterleib (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 13 — 1682 p. 58); generation (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14 — 1682 pp. 58–59); multiplication (Philosophical Discourse · Passage 14 — 1682 pp. 58–59). Their local senses and relationships are explained above; inflected forms and historical signs are retained.