Upward movement and withdrawal

ascendat; ascendit; abstrahe; abstrahatur; superfunde; ascendere; abstrahere

The process descriptions distinguish material rising during distillation from the practitioner’s drawing it off and returning liquid to the vessel.

From the book

Nine Books on the Nature of Things

Attributed to Paracelsus · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Meaning

The process descriptions distinguish material rising during distillation from the practitioner’s drawing it off and returning liquid to the vessel. These verbs make direction and repetition intelligible. In the metallic-tree account rising can also describe the alleged visible growth of Gold, so the subject matters. Reading every instance of ascent as the same material movement would erase the distinction between a liquid operation and its purported solid result.

Places to read

  1. Book 2 · Growth · Passage 4Latin“donec nihil amplius ascendat”