Rainwater

Use in the book

The first ground is creation. Waters originally uniform remain universal through their division, although one is subtler or more powerful than another (pp. 14-16, I.014.1-I.016.1). Rainwater is neither an animal, plant nor mineral, so the author argues that it is a universal and catholic subject (p. 16, I.016.1). Its location and lack of a particular generative commission are meant to preserve the scope of its powers.

The definition on p. 17 brings those claims together (I.017.2). Artfully made first means made by the highest, wise Creator, through the Word and from nothing, amid the initial body of waters (pp. 17-19, I.017.3). The adjective does not mean that ordinary rainwater has already undergone the practitioner’s art or become a completed elixir.

Subtle and spiritual are defended through visible and operative properties. The author says that water has a body yet only its lustre is seen, and that sight can penetrate several fathoms into it (p. 19, I.019.1). Raw rainwater standing in an open vessel evaporates entirely, which he takes as evidence of spirituality (pp. 19-20, I.019.2). Spiritual therefore does not simply mean nonmaterial or psychologically significant in this definition.⁴⁵

The claim to all colours is supported by repeated distillation and coloured appearances on dried glass (pp. 21-22, I.021.1). The interpretation is broader than the observation: colours appearing after treatment are made evidence for rainwater’s possession of all colours. Likewise, a subtle spirit, spiritual oil and salt are said to be obtainable from it (pp. 23-24, I.023.1). These products support the claim that it contains the beginnings of the other elements.

The universal medicinal power follows from common constitution. Creatures consist of elements and are nourished by what constitutes them; balanced elements are consequently proposed as able to cure all diseases (p. 24, I.024.1). The author immediately restricts the powers in the definition to potentiality, distinguishing them from independent actuality and operation (pp. 25-26, I.025.1). God works in things through the Word. Rainwater’s comprehensiveness does not make it a self-sufficient divine agent.

Part II adds the causal distinction of the universal and particular Word and reaffirms the possibility of a universal medicine from rainwater (p. 74, II.074.1). The ensuing paragraph connects the many beneficial operations of herbs with that universal source and says rainwater and especially our subject can undergo equal balancing (pp. 74-75, II.074.2). The phrase especially our subject already preserves a difference that the next discussion makes explicit.

Rainwater is closely related to the subject of the Hermetic art, yet mixing one with the other does not allow philosophical treatment or fixation (pp. 77-78, II.077.2). The author supports this warning with fruitless practice and with a physician’s report of dew mixed with the subject and earth added to rainwater (pp. 78-79, II.078.1-II.078.2). A shared universal character does not make materials interchangeable in the required operation.

The mineral evidence also has different levels of testimony. M.M. sends crystals judged good stones or topazes by a lapidary (p. 119, II.119.1). The author himself reports a spirit colouring a warmed silver spoon golden yellow (pp. 123-124, II.123.2). A person of rank reports oil prepared from rainwater tincturing silver into gold (p. 124, II.124.1). These are not all eyewitness accounts of the same event, and their descriptions should not be merged into one certified metallic transmutation.

The subsequent syllogism argues that rainwater contains animal, vegetable and mineral nature and is therefore a perfect subject, able to yield tincture as well as medicine (p. 126, II.126.1). The conclusion depends on the accumulated natural-philosophical and testimonial premises. A lexicon should explain the chain rather than either suppress the author’s conclusion or present it as an independently established chemical result.

The conclusion of the book still allows a process with rainwater and says the wet way is best applied to it, while warning that its beginning is lengthy (p. 243, II.243.1). This practical mention does not supply every manipulation. It confirms that rainwater remains a real proposed material through the closing pages, even as the precise subject, its preparation and the differences among waters remain carefully qualified.

Places to read

1. Part I · I.016.1; I.017.2; I.017.323Universal nature and the central definition.
2. Part I · I.019.1; I.019.2; I.021.1; I.023.1; I.024.1; I.025.123456Properties, operations and the distinction of capacity from agency.
3. Part II · II.074.1; II.074.2; II.077.2; II.078.2234Medicinal inference and the warning against identifying or mixing subjects.
4. Part II · II.119.1; II.123.2; II.124.1; II.126.1; II.243.12345Levels of mineral testimony, conclusion and wet-way qualification.

Translation

Rainwater is retained for Regenwasser. Artful, spiritual and simple are explained from the author’s own elaboration rather than modernized into pure, distilled or sterile. None of those modern adjectives is established by the definition.

No particular blessing or command must keep its negation and qualifier. Rainwater is created through the universal Word; it is not outside divine creation. Wet way renders via humida at the conclusion, while the separate operational entries explain the phrase’s retrospective relation to the earlier three-principle account.

Connections

Rainwater must be read beside Dew and Sea and terrestrial waters rather than allowed to stand for every water indiscriminately. The comparisons show how common origin coexists with differences of location, power, density and present specification. Subject of the art follows the further distinction between a broadly universal material and the exact subject required in a particular operation.

Experience and conjecture is especially useful for the mineral reports. Personal pouring of a spirit, a received object, a lapidary’s judgment and another person’s account of tincturing each support a different evidential claim. The author assembles them into a larger conclusion; the lexicon should preserve their individual character before assessing that assembly.

Cautions

The book’s rainwater is not established by the text as identical with the precise Hermetic subject. The explicit failed-mixture discussion makes that restraint unavoidable.

The universal cure, metallic tincture and stone identifications remain historical claims. Describing their support in the book supplies a reading guide, not an instruction to ingest collected water or reconstruct a medicine from the definition.

Regenwasser

Regenwasser — Attested source form in the cited passage. I.017.2; II.077.2.

geistlich / einfaches Ding

geistlich / einfaches Ding — Attested source form in the cited passage. I.017.2.

Spiritus

Spiritus — Attested source form in the cited passage. I.023.1.

via humida

via humida — Attested source form in the cited passage. II.243.1.