Vapour, smoke, and dew · Lexicon

From the book

The Sophic Hydrolith, Water Stone of the Wise

Anonymous and companion authors · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordDunst and Dampff can be rendered as vapour, mist, or smoke according to their surroundings; Rauch more directly supplies smoke, and Taw supplies dew.
In the Sophic HydrolithNature's account places ascending vapours within the first composition of minerals.
In this editionEnglish variation between “vapour,” “mist,” and “smoke” follows the local imagery rather than a fixed one-word correspondence with Dunst or Dampff.
A place to readSubterranean vapours belong to first composition and vary by retention or cloud ascent.

Meaning

Dunst and Dampff can be rendered as vapour, mist, or smoke according to their surroundings; Rauch more directly supplies smoke, and Taw supplies dew. The texts connect these words through movement, condensation, nourishment, and escape, but do not make them synonymous. Most importantly, a nourishing dew and a poisonous smoke cannot be treated as harmless variants of one unspecified “vapour.”

Use in the book

Nature's account places ascending vapours within the first composition of minerals. Their cold and moist condition explains their falling back and retention in the earth; a cloud may instead be moist and warm. The account then follows retained material into sulphur and quicksilver. These are assertions within Nature's cosmology, where location and qualities matter more than a modern catalogue of gaseous compounds.

The Philosophical Summary uses vapour in two strongly opposed contexts. Its flying dragon throws out harmful, foul-smelling, bitter fumes, described with exceptional danger. Later its garden image calls vapour or mist the dew and seed of metals, necessary to nourishment. Moderate moisture preserves fruit from drying, whereas excessive heat destroys it. The second image does not neutralize the first warning; it supplies a different relation of warmth, moisture, and living development.

The Way of Truth distinguishes black and white smoke in its reinterpretation of the philosophers' colour language. Black smoke is associated with liquor separating from essence at an initial encounter with corporeal fire. The essence, not that smoke, receives the name raven's head. White smoke subsequently signifies the flight of a protecting liquor, leaving elemental fire unable to endure. The speaker expressly warns against taking black smoke as the material to be made white. Colour words are being explained through a theory of separation and protection, not offered as self-sufficient visual checkpoints.

The three companion voices consequently give different jobs to ascending or escaping matter. Their descriptions can be compared, but a composite operational recipe assembled from them would erase both the differences and the hazards.

Places to read

Nature’s Demonstration to the Erring Alchemist · unit 5Subterranean vapours belong to first composition and vary by retention or cloud ascent.
Philosophical Summary · unit 2The flying dragon’s vapour is expressly foul, bitter and poisonous.
Philosophical Summary · unit 8Vapour/mist is nourishing dew and seed in the garden analogy.
Way of Truth · unit 13Black smoke is separated liquor, not the sought black substance.
Way of Truth · unit 18White smoke is the escaping protective liquor in the explanation of whiteness.

Translation

English variation between “vapour,” “mist,” and “smoke” follows the local imagery rather than a fixed one-word correspondence with Dunst or Dampff. The Summary's “dew” translates an explicit Taw, whereas the Via's “protector” translates the role assigned to the departing liquor. Neither the translation nor this entry identifies a chemical species from the colour or smell described.

Attested forms

Dünste; Dunst; Gewölcke; gifftigen Rauch; Dampff; Taw; schwartzen Rauch; weissen Rauch; Beschirmer