Schauberger
therefore false economic system. Further comment is now totally superfluous. In any case, it was an outsider, who rediscovered the secret of naturalesque mass-motion, and who thus perhaps rescued the whole of humanity from a ghastly end, namely to perish hopelessly from the putrefaction of water, sap and blood. [The Energy Evolution - Harnessing Free Energy from Nature, The Catalysts]
Antoine-Joseph Pernety
"Basil Valentin, (Addition aux Douze Clefs), says that he who has flour will soon have dough, and he who has dough will soon find an oven to cook it. It is as if he said that the Artist who possesses the true Sophic Matter will not be troubled about working with it; it is true, if one believes the Philosophers, that the execution of the Work is a very easy thing, and that more time and patience than expense is required; but this must doubtless be understood of certain circumstances of the Work, and when one has reached a certain point.
Flamel says (Explication des Figures Hiéroglyphiques); that the preparation of the agents is more difficult than anything else in the world. Augurellus, (Chrysop., 1. 2), assures us that an Herculean work is necessary.
Alter inauratam noto de vertice pellem Principium velut ostendit, quod sumere possis; Alter onus quantum subeas.
And d’Espagnet does not hesitate to say that there is much work to be done, (Can. 42): “In the Philosophical Sublimation of Mercury, or the first preparation, the work of a Hercules is necessary, for without it Jason would never have dared to undertake the conquest of the Golden Fleece.” Yet we must not imagine that this sublimation is made in the same manner as chemical sublimation.
So he has been careful to call it Philosophical. It must be understood, from what he says afterwards, that it consists in the dissolution and putrefaction of Matter; because this sublimation is nothing else than a separation of the pure from the impure; or a purification of Matter, which is of such a nature that it can be sublimated only by putrefaction.
D’Espagnet then quotes the following words of Virgil. The poet, says he, seems to have touched something of the nature of the quality, and of the culture of the Philosophical Earth in these terms: Pingue solum primis extemplo a mensibus anni Fortes invertant Tauri: ... Tunc zephyro putris se gleba resolvit. - Georg. I.
Thus solution is the Key of the Work. All Philosophers agree and all speak in the same manner on this subject. But there are two labours in the Work, one to make the Stone, the other to make the Elixir. It is necessary first to begin by preparing the agents; and of this preparation Philosophers have not spoken, because all depends on it, and because the second work is, according to them, only child’s play and an amusement for women.
Yet the operations of the second work must not be confounded with those of the first, although Morien, (Entretients du Roi Calid.), assures us that the second work, which he calls ‘Disposition’ is only a repetition of the first. Yet we may believe that it is not such a painful and difficult thing, since they do not say a word about it, or speak of it only to conceal it.
Whatsoever this preparation may be, it is certain that it must begin by the dissolution of Matter, although several have given to it the name of calcination or sublimation; and since they have not wished to speak clearly of it, we may, at least, from the operations of the second ‘disposition’, draw inductions by which we may enlighten ourselves concerning the operations of the first.
The first step is to make Sophic Mercury, or the Solvent, from a matter which encloses in itself two qualities, and which is part volatile, and part fixed. That which proves that there must be a dissolution, is that Cosmopolita tells us to seek a matter from which we may be able to make a Water which dissolves gold naturally and without violence. But a matter may be reduced to water only by dissolution, unless one employs the distillation of common chemistry, which is excluded from the Work.
It is well to remark here that all the terms of common chemistry, which the Philosophers employ in their books, must not be taken in the ordinary sense, but in the Philosophic sense." [Treatise on the Great Art
A System of Physics According to Hermetic Philosophy and Theory and Practice of the Magisterium
by Antoine-Joseph Pernety]
"The Decay
First, the seed must perish,
Decay, and completely die,
So that it may rise again,
Brought forth to the highest good.
Without this process, I have never
Seen anything grow on Earth here;
Without this process, path, and means,
All your toil and effort are in vain.
Only when death takes in such distress
Will the two lovers give birth,
Thus Vulcan will breathe life into them,
Giving new form and figure."
— Viridarium chymicum, c. 1688 by Michael Maier
"VULCAN. – Symbol of fire, ordinarily represented as a lame man."
— Theories et Symboles des Alchimistes, by Albert Poisson
Texts where Vulcan is mentioned:
"Many Sages have held that an Archetypal World existed long before the world of sense, when the Archetypal Light began to unfold Himself, and set forth in an Ideal World a counterpart of the Divine Mind. This belief is borne out by the words of Hermes Trismegistus, who says that when God changed His form, the universe was suddenly revealed and put forth in the Light of Actuality—this world being nothing but a visible Image of a Hidden God. This is what the Ancients meant when they said that Pallas leapt forth in divine perfection from the forehead of Jupiter, with the aid of Vulcan (or Divine Light)."
— Musaeum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum, c. 1678
"The egg, however, should be smashed by a fiery sword, which Vulcan uses in his function of a midwife, assisting the young one in being born, just as he helped Athena in her birth from the head of Zeus. This is what Basil Valentine declares when he says that Mercury is locked up in goal by Vulcan at the order of Mars, and is only allowed to leave when he is quite crushed and dead In reality, this death is the gate to a new life, just as the destruction or the death of the egg gives life to a new bird."
— Atalanta fugiens, c. 1617 by Michael Maier
"Thus the father by means of Vulcan was produced from the spirit. Body, soul, and spirit exist in both, whence the whole matter proceeds. It proceeds from one, and is one matter. Bind together the fixed and the volatile; they are two, and three, and yet one only. If you do not understand you will attain nothing."
"Wherefore I now say, that all visible, tangible things are made of the Spirit of Mercury, which excels all earthly things of the whole world, all things being made out of it, having their Off-spring only from it; for all is found therein which can perform all whatsoever the Artist desires to find; It is the beginning to operate Metals, when it is become a spiritual Essence, which is meer Air flying to and fro without wings; it is a moving wind, which after it is expelled its dwelling by Vulcan, it is driven into its Chaos, where it again enters, and resolves itself into the Elements, where it is elevated and attracted by the Sydereal Stars after a Magnetical manner unto themselves, out of love, whence he proceeded before, and was operated because it affects its like again, and attracts it to it."
— Basilius Valentinus
Translated part of the text about this emblem from the book by Mylius Johann Daniel (1583-1642), Philosophia reformata, c. 1622 https://www.e-rara.ch/cgj/content/titleinfo/3261933
"Nothing living can grow without putrefaction, nor can anything rotten produce life. Without putrefaction, the work of the alchemist will be in vain.
Therefore, the earth together with water must decay and be purified. Once purified, by the help of God, the entire work is guided.
Likewise, unless the body is dissolved, broken apart, and putrefied, and transformed into another substance, its hidden power cannot be drawn out and united with the body.
Thus, when the things of nature are corrupted and decay, then they are regenerated.
We have an example in an egg, which first decays, and then the chick is born from it, which after decay becomes a living animal: without this corruption, generation cannot happen; hence, you should study decay carefully, for the corruption of one thing is the generation of another.
Hermes says: The second step is putrefaction and tearing apart, and the disposition of the body itself."
"The secrets of the caves of metals are hidden, and the stone is miraculous, and the color of the animals is shining, and the highest mountain is above the metals. The stone of the philosopher, after the true work of transformation, is greater than gold and quicksilver. Therefore, the stone is not destroyed by accident, and that word is most precious. For this is the true work, made by nature and not by man, just as some believe.
For the philosopher’s stone is found created by nature, and by the highest God nothing more is needed except that which is removed, which is the highest."
"Therefore, prepare the material itself, and from it is drawn forth what is pure and earthly, and the dross and the impure are removed. You shall find that the stone of the philosophers is cold and moist, even though it is hot and dry in its essence. For it is the cold and the moisture that are mixed in the rotting and corruption of bodies, dissolving themselves and all things, igniting them. The dryness and heat, which are hidden and unseen, penetrate into the bodies, and they are not destroyed; this heat and dryness are the secrets of alchemy and nothing else.
Make the cold and the moisture watery, and the heat and dryness comparable in quality to what is hidden. These four elements should unite together as one and penetrate into each other, reaching down and inward.
These moistures must be destroyed by fire and the stages of heat, with a gentle temperature and moderate digestion of the mixture. Philosophical putrefaction is nothing else but the destruction of bodies. For when the form is destroyed, nature immediately creates a better and more subtle form.
This very same destruction is the rotting of what is putrid. For through putrefaction, all impurities are digested, and the separation between the pure and the corrupt is made.
When the body rots, the putrefaction immediately grows, and it multiplies in its like. It appears in the seed, which, after decay, sprouts into many stems. The foulness and stench increase and multiply as well. It is necessary for this decay to continue, due to the causes of putrefaction, for the seed must be planted in the depths of earth, and true generation comes from the union of heat and moisture. If it were otherwise, no generation would occur. If the body did not rot, nothing would be produced.
Therefore, the body must first be dissolved and united with Mercury, and one part must receive from the other. The more it dissolves, the more the work is perfected, until the female is joined with the male, and one receives from the other, and unity is achieved.
Putrefaction is the most beneficial stage because it works gently with the heat and moisture, even if there is nothing else. In ascending, it releases what is pure, while separating what is corrupt. Thus, when the male and female are perfectly united, one receives from the other, and the work is completed."
See Also
entropy
death
decompose
Entropy
myxomycetes
putrefaction
putrefactive
Vitriol