DiotimosReading Desk

Vessels, images and instruments

Winds, Aquilon and flight

The motion and changing qualities of mercurial spirit aquilon, north wind; Borus, Borus, source name for the northern wind; notus, Notus, southern wind; vent, wind

Wind expresses vaporous, volatile and carrying power.

From the book

The Manly Hall Manuscript Collection, Volume I

Attributed to Abraham the Jew · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordWind expresses vaporous, volatile and carrying power. Aquilon is the north wind whose cold mercurial water opens compact gold; southern wind imagery describes the later abundance of vapors and their resolution into water.
  • In the manuscriptWings, winged horse and the wind’s belly show matter made capable of ascent. The qualities attached to quicksilver change with preparation, so north and south belong to a temporal account as well as a directional contrast.
  • TranslationThe edition renders aquilon as north wind while retaining the source’s Borus and Notus as names. It preserves the awkward changes of quality rather than harmonizing them into one stable meteorology.
  • A place to readManuscript 16v–17v, scans 52–54: north wind, two named winds and subsequent vaporous circulation receive their fullest explanations.

Meaning

Wind is a name given to a material spirit by virtue of its subtlety, motion and capacity to carry another principle. The axiom that wind bears it in its belly accompanies sulfur raised by mercurial fumes to the vessel's top. Wind is therefore neither a purely decorative breeze nor automatically ordinary moving air in every sentence. The author explicitly translates it into mercurial water and prepared spirit.

Cold and warmth belong to successive conditions. The north wind first opens the fixed and compact body, making it crude again and capable of dissolution. The later southern wind accompanies open bodies, rising spirits and clouds resolving into water. Direction makes a change of operative quality vivid; the text's sequence supplies the explanation.

Wings intensify this same capacity. Perseus's buskins and Pegasus mark sublimation and volatility, while the winged horse's speed later represents mercurial spirits called winds, vapors or clouds. The author explicitly says he is speaking of these spirits rather than horses. Speed and elevation are thus properties attributed to the philosophical subject.

Use in the book

The mountain flower at 15r, scan 49, is beaten by aquilon. At 16v, scan 52, the golden tree or branch is sulfur carried upward by mercurial fumes. The very compact gold cannot become spirit before the cold mercurial water acts upon it, dissolves it, raises it and spiritualizes it through rarefaction. The names smoke, vapor, wind and soul of bodies follow from that change.

At 17r, scan 53, Borus blows from the north and Notus from the south. Both become air or cloud and finally water, like comets resolving into golden and silver rain. Their favorable breath brings Jason's ship to harbor. The first is explained as gold's dry, hot spirit that gilds; the second as mercury's silvery, hot, moist water that tinges. The source then says quicksilver begins very cold and dry and passes through dry, moist and hot conditions. Its repeated dry state is retained rather than corrected to a neater progression.181

At 17v, scan 54, cold north wind clears clouds, while hot, moist south wind fills air with clouds resolving into rain and fiery atmospheric phenomena. In the material explanation, no vapor rises during dissolution because the mercurial wind is then cold. After dissolution, the vessel fills with vaporous spirits resolving periodically into water. Gold and mercury are opened, and spirits rise along the sides, first whiter than snow, then bluish and red-spotted. Their changed behavior follows the preparation.

At 44r–44v, scans 115–116, sulfur feeds on air, smoke and wind raised to the alembic's head, then returns below in watery form. This ties wind to the circulating nourishment of a subject that can be water, corrupted fetal matter, air or fire at different stages. The name does not abolish those changing states.

At 72r, scan 171, the contrast becomes weight and volatility. The quicksilver described as exceptionally heavy is also said to sublime at slight solar warmth and to travel on the wings of winds more swiftly than air. The wind-axiom returns. The author uses the paired properties to support his account of a subject that is body and spirit, while its claimed penetrating power remains part of his philosophical argument.

At 100v–101r, scans 234–235, Pegasus's wings become greater speed in mercurial spirits. The white horse signifies the most volatile part and air; the crowned rider makes fixed parts volatile and raises them to the vessel's head. This late explanation confirms that flight is an operative capacity. The Greek-looking etymological sequence for Pegasus remains uncertain and is preserved by facsimile rather than converted into secure linguistic proof.182

Places to read

  1. Manuscript 15r, 16v · Scans 49, 522Aquilon beats the flower and cold mercurial water opens and raises compact gold.
  2. Manuscript 17r · Scan 53Borus and Notus, golden and silver rain, and Jason’s successful voyage.
  3. Manuscript 17v · Scan 54The contrast of dissolution with later vaporous circulation.
  4. Manuscript 44r, 44v · Scans 115, 1162Wind nourishes the subject above before its watery return.
  5. Manuscript 72r · Scan 171Weight and asserted volatility coexist in the quicksilver argument.
  6. Manuscript 100v, 101r · Scans 234, 2352Pegasus and the white horse express speed and volatilizing power.

Translation

North wind renders aquilon where its function is clear; the distinctive Latin-derived term can remain visible in discussions of the source. Borus is not silently changed to Boreas, since the witness supplies that form. Notus renders notus as the southern wind's name.

Wind, vapor, smoke, cloud and spirit retain their separate words even when the source groups them. Its own account explains how they relate. The edition likewise keeps winged equipment and flight as visible images, while recording the explicit material meaning. The unstable Greek sequence at scan 234 supports the history of the witness's etymologizing, not a confident reconstruction of its Greek.

aquilon

Attested: H001-S049; H001-S052; H001-S053. The north wind interpreted through cold mercurial dissolution.

vent Borus

Attested: H001-S053. The manuscript’s name for the wind blowing from the north.

notus

Attested: H001-S053. The southern wind named in contrast to Borus.

Le vent l’a porté dans son ventre

Attested: H001-S052. The attributed Hermetic axiom accompanying mercurial carriage of sulfur.

ailes des vents

Attested: H001-S171. The asserted swift carriage of quicksilver despite its weight.

Source note

Scan 53 says quicksilver begins cold and dry, is converted into dry, then moist, then hot. The edition retains the awkward repetition and the stage-dependent qualities rather than replacing them with a regular four-quality circuit.

Scan 234’s Greek-looking Pegasus etymology is uncertain and retained in a facsimile detail. The secure explanatory point is the author’s explicit identification of wings with the greater speed of mercurial spirits.