From the book
The Sophic Hydrolith, Water Stone of the Wise
Anonymous and companion authors · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
Strong waters, aqua vitae and lyes occur here mainly among rejected means of forcing a separation or transformation. Nature’s alchemist renounces his former reliance on strong waters and ordinary dissolutions. The Way’s narrator similarly lists them among failed pursuits, then argues that foreign moisture corrupts the essence of imperfect metals, while strong waters do not extract the sought essence from perfect metals. English “arsenical water” in Way of Truth · unit 32 interprets the compressed arsenicam in its list; the printed form alone does not supply a modern formula. Aqua vitae in this rejected list must not automatically be equated with every honorific “water of life” elsewhere in the collection.
Places to read
- Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 21The alchemist abandons former reliance on strong waters and ordinary dissolutions.
- Way of Truth · unit 4Strong waters and lyes belong to the narrator’s unsuccessful searches.
- Way of Truth · unit 32Foreign moisture is said to corrupt the metallic essence rather than liberate it.
- Way of Truth · unit 33Strong waters do not produce the sought separation from perfect metals.
Attested forms
starcke Wasser; Laugen; Wassers fortes; aquis fortibus; arsenicam; aquam vitæ