From the book
A New Light of Alchemy
Michael Sendivogius · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordGeneratio is coming-to-be through natural formative activity; multiplicatio is increase through seed.
- In the workThe author argues that metals cannot be excluded from the universal blessing of multiplication.
- In this editionThe words overlap in places; a glossary should not invent an invariant technical separation absent from the source.
- A place to readdivisio sexus nil creat vel producit: Division alone generates nothing; the argument turns to proper conjunction.
Meaning
Generatio is coming-to-be through natural formative activity; multiplicatio is increase through seed. Creare and its family can be used broadly, but repeated restrictions reserve creation in its strongest sense to God.
Use in the book
The author argues that metals cannot be excluded from the universal blessing of multiplication. Since trees and animals reproduce through seed, metals too must possess a real though invisible seed. This is an argument from analogy and divine equity, not an observational demonstration that metals reproduce as organisms.
The practitioner is repeatedly told not to create a human being or a plant from first origins. The already-created second matter allows nature to generate its proper form when placed suitably. The solar son and second-generation infant name a further ripening beyond common gold. In the parable this becomes the production of an incorruptible phoenix rather than ordinary mortal offspring, a claim placed in Neptune’s explanation of the allegory.
Places to read
- Treatise VI · Passage 4Latindivisio sexus nil creat vel producit: Division alone generates nothing; the argument turns to proper conjunction.
- Treatise XI · Passage 2Latinte nihil creare posse, quod solius Dei proprium est: The practitioner’s role is to disclose and assist, not usurp divine creation.
- Treatise XII · Passage 1Latinuniversali multiplicationis benedictione: The universality of the blessing underwrites the author’s inclusion of metals.
Translation in this edition
The words overlap in places; a glossary should not invent an invariant technical separation absent from the source. The heading “beyond nature” and the author’s physiological analogies state the historical explanatory framework, not verified present-day possibilities.