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First matter and first being

prima materia / primum Ens / Chaos / Hyle

First matter and first being name beginnings, grounds or subjects, but not one securely identified material across all these writings.

From the book

The Sophic Hydrolith, Water Stone of the Wise

Anonymous and companion authors · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordFirst matter and first being name beginnings, grounds or subjects, but not one securely identified material across all these writings.
  • In the Sophic HydrolithPart I: entrance and preparation · unit 8 makes knowledge of true first matter a prerequisite to manual work, while reserving increase to God.
  • In this editionThe English openly renders the treatise's unusual 'first matter, otherwise called its second matter'.
  • A place to readKnowing the true first matter is required before manual labour.

Meaning

First matter and first being name beginnings, grounds or subjects, but not one securely identified material across all these writings. The anonymous treatise calls its subject first matter, otherwise second matter, then also first being and nature's highest good. The apparent double numbering is in the historical wording itself. It should be preserved rather than silently corrected to a single, supposedly obvious stage.

The theological application changes the force of beginning. Christ's first being is expressly without a temporal beginning, possessed from eternity. Here 'first' concerns foundational being, not the date at which a divine material was manufactured. Chaos and Hyle in the companions belong to other accounts of universal origin, each with its own explanation.

Use in the book

Part I: entrance and preparation · unit 8 makes knowledge of true first matter a prerequisite to manual work, while reserving increase to God. Part II: matter and the work · unit 3 insists on one thing without foreign addition despite its thousand names and numerical descriptions. It represents that thing as a balanced, indestructible nature above ordinary elemental oppositions. Part II: matter and the work · unit 13 then describes the first being as appearing rough, heavy and obscured and requiring preparation. Description of hidden capacity and description of initial appearance must not be flattened into one visible condition. Its indestructibility language must not erase the introduction’s explicit statement that the material restorative is itself destructible and cannot free the body from death (Opening explanation · unit 2). Those source assertions are retained rather than silently turned into a single uniform claim.

Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 8 compares the necessity of knowing material first matter with the greater necessity of knowing God and oneself. Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 10 grounds the heavenly stone's being in scriptural testimony to eternity, and warns that errors of interpretation belong to the perceiving eye, not to a defective Word. The material term becomes a way to organize theological recognition, not proof that divinity is a changeable material.

Nature's Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 3 distinguishes first matter from the proximate, proper matter for ore, while assigning elemental transformation to Nature. Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 6 calls Chaos or Hyle first matter in a cosmological account and also describes reduction of the four elements into a fifth being called first matter. The term therefore marks a relation within her generative and reductive explanation, not merely a lump available before work begins.

The Via's Way of Truth · unit 7 explains Hyle as the beginning of all things through water and fire. Way of Truth · unit 9 gives the vegetable, animal and mineral natures one origin differentiated by coction. Way of Truth · unit 29 calls their hidden root elemental fire with liquor, and accuses the ancients of using first-matter language to mislead. That critical interpretation must remain the Via's voice, not the editor's universal key to the other works.

Places to read

  1. Part I: entrance and preparation · unit 8Knowing the true first matter is required before manual labour.
  2. Part II: matter and the work · unit 3The first matter is also called second matter.
  3. Part II: matter and the work · unit 13The repeatedly named matter is called first being and nature's highest good.
  4. Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 8Knowing first matter is the principal material prerequisite compared to knowing God.
  5. Part IV: the spiritual comparison · unit 10The heavenly stone’s first being has no temporal beginning or end.
  6. Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 3Four become one most-general or universal thing.
  7. Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 6First matter governs the royal household and differentiates cosmically.
  8. Way of Truth · unit 7Hyle is glossed beginning of all things from water and fire.
  9. Way of Truth · unit 9One beginning changes into three natures by different coctions.
  10. Way of Truth · unit 29Hidden fire with liquor is one root; Hyle is called misleading, radical moisture appropriate.
  11. Opening explanation · unit 2The introductory restorative is itself destructible and does not abolish bodily death; preserve this limit alongside the first-matter description’s indestructibility language.

Translation

The English openly renders the treatise's unusual 'first matter, otherwise called its second matter'. It also retains the explicit denial that the heavenly stone has any beginning. In the Via, 'first matter' translates a learned expression whose surrounding accusation is essential: the author both explains the name and criticizes its deployment. These checked differences support a family access label, not an assertion that every source uses one attested dictionary lemma or agrees on one theory.

Attested forms

höchste gut der Natur; principal stück; Catholisch; erst Materi; primæ materiæ; primæ, alias materiæ secundæ; primum Ens; prima materia; genus generalissimum; Chaos; Hyle; principium omnium rerum; Principium; primarum materiarum; radicalem humorem