A Discovrse of Fire and Salt / Discovering Many Secret Mysteries as well Philosophicall, as Theologicall

by Blaise de Vigenère

Where there are set forth three repurgative Elements, Aire, Water, and Fire; But wee must not understand (saith Saint Augustine, on his third Sermon upon such as are diseased) that by this transitory fire grievous and mortall offences, and capitall sins are purged, if they have not beene repented of in this temporall life; or to blot out the expiation on the other side, where the rest is perfected in the fire, as man-slayers, adulterers, false witnesses, concussions, violences, rapines, injustices, infidelitie, erroneous obstinations, and the like; which are directly opposite to Gods Divine precepts and commandements: but the smaller faults onely, which they call veniall sinnes, as eating and drinking to excesse, vaine words, foolish desires, and depraved concupiscences, not brought to effect: not to exercise the works of mercy, whither common charity, and commiseration cals us, and such other frailties: of which if we repent not, in this world, fire shall repurge us in another, and more sharply. To this purpose the Hebrewes make a triple distinction of sins, Chataoth are those that wee mistake against our selves, without hurting any other, but our selves, gourmandizings, inconstancies, lazines, idlenesse, anger, spite. The Avonoth, are addressed to our neighbour, which do not blot out and pardon, but by meanes of reparation: and the Peschaim the transgressions, prævarications, and impieties, directly addressed against God: They draw this first out of the 34 of Exodus 7. pardoning iniquitie, rebellion, and offences; more in the 106 Psal. 6. We have sinned, wee have committed iniquity, wee have done foolishly; and in the 9 of Dan. Chatanu, Veavinu, Vehirsannu; there are sinnes saith Zohar, imprinted above, others below, and others both in the one and in the other; above, against God; below, against our neighbour; and in the one, and in the other against our selves, bodies and goods, as well our neighbours as our owne; noting that below, the soule; that above, made after the image and semblance of God. If they bee blotted out below, they are so above. Jesus Christ after his resurrection breathed on his Disciples, and said unto them, Receive the holy Ghost; To whom soever you pardon sinnes, they shall bee pardoned; and whose sinnes soever yee retaine, they are retained. Joh, 20. 23. that which you shall binde on earth shall be bound in heaven.

But to returne to the recloathing, and to say something thereof, the superiour is alwaies clad with the inferiour, the intelligible world, with the celestiall, which is but as it were a shadow thereof, and the celestiall with the elementary: and notwithstanding it would seeme cleane contrary by the figure of Hypallage as in the 18. Psal. God hath put his Tabernacle in the Sunne, which is to say, hee hath put the Sunne in his Tabernacle, which is, heaven; for God doth not reside in this World, but rather the World in God, who comprehends all, for in him wee live, wee move, and have our beeing. Also the intelligible world should be clothed with the celestiall, and the celestiall with the elementary. But this to shew that we cannot well comprehend heaven, being so remote from us; but by that which is expounded to the knowledge of our senses here below, nor of the separated Intelligences, but by the sensible. There was nothing (said the Philosopher) in the intellect, that was not first in the sense. And the Apostle in the first to the Romanes, that the invisible things of God, are seene in the Creation of the world, by those that were made. This all conformably unto Zohar, In thee (said he; in the prayer of Elias addressing himselfe to God) there is no resemblance, nor any image interiour, or exteriour; but further, thou hast created heaven and earth, and produced out of those the Sunne, and the Moon, the Starres and the Signes of the Zodiack; and in earth Trees, and Herbs, delights in Gardens, with Beasts, Birds, and Fishes, and at last Men; that from thence things above might bee knowne. And of the superiours, the inferiours together, so that the one and the other may bee governed: Plutarch alledgeth in his Treatise of Osiris, that in the City of Sais in Ægypt, there was such an inscription in the Temple of Minerva, borne out of Jupiters braine, which is nothing else but the sapience of the Father.

I am that which was, which is, and which shall bee, and as yet there is none amongst mortall men, that hath yet discovered my vaile: for Divinity is so wrapped in darkness, that you cannot see day through it. I see him not, for hee is darkened with an over dark cloud, said Orpheus: and in the 17 Psal. which made darkenesse his hiding place. Further in the 4 of Deut. You came to the foot of a mountaine that burned, even to heaven, and therein was darkness, thick clouds, and obscurity: for in regard of God towards us, light and darknesse, are but one thing: as is his darknesse, such is his light: And in the 16 of Isaiah, Make thy shadow as the night, in the midst of the noone day. The very same, as well the affirmative, as the negative; by which, that which is æquippollent unto darknesse, we may better apprehend something of the Divine Essence, but not by the affirmative, that relates unto light, as Rabbi Moses doth excellently well dispute it in his 57. chapter of his first booke of More: For the Divine light, is insupportable above all to all his Creatures, even to the most perfect, following that which the Apostle sets downe in the 1 of Tim. 6. God dwels in light inaccessible, that no man can see: So that it is to us in stead of darknesse, as the brightnesse of the Sun is to Moulds, Owles, and other night birds: which darknesses are the revestments, and as the borders and cloisters of the light; for represent to your selves some Lanthorne placed on the top of a mountaine: all round about it as from the Center to the Circumference, it shall spread its light equally, as farre as it can extend it: so that at the last darknesse will terminate it, for darknesse is nothing else, but the absence and privation of light: Even the very same, the exteriour man, carnall, animall, is the coverture; yea darknesse of the interiour spirituall: after the manner or fashion of some Lanthorne of wood, or stone, and other darke matter, which keeps that the light there shut in, could not shew forth its light, the Lanthorne symbolizing to the body, and the light within to the soule. But if the body bee subtiliated to an æthereall nature, from thence it comes to passe, as if the Lanthorne were of some cleare Crystall, or of transparent horne: for then the soule and its functions, do shine there about openly without obstacle. Sith then, to the one of these two, namely to the inner man, is attributed fire, that answers to the soule, and salt to the outward man, which is the body: as the sacrifice or man animall is the revestment of the spirituall designed by the Man, and by Fire: The vestment of this Fire will bee Salt, in which, fire is potentially shut in; for all Salts are of the nature of fire, as being thereof begotten. Geber saith, that salt is made of every thing that is burned, and by consequent, participant of its proprieties, which are to purge, dry, hinder corruption, and unboile; as wee may see in all salted things which are as it were halfe boiled, and are kept longer uncorrupt then raw, also in potentiall burning irons which burne, and are nothing else but Salt.

Will it bee lawfull for us here to bring one entire passage of Rhases in a book of the Secret Triplicity? for it is not common to all, and wee will strongly insist on this number by reason of the three Fires and three Salts, whereof wee pretend to Treat. So that there is a Mystery in this number of 3 that must not bee forgotten, for that it represents the operation, whereof Fire is the Operator; for 1, 2, 3, makes 6, the 6 dayes wherein God in the Creation of the world perfected all his workes, and rested the seventh day.

There are (saith Rhases) three natures, the first whereof cannot bee knowne nor apprehended, but by a deepe elevated Meditation: This is, that all-good God Almighty, Author, and the first Cause of all things. The other is neither visible, nor tangible, although men should bee all contrary; that is to say heaven in its rarity. The third is the Elementary World, comprehending all that which is under the Æthereall Region, is perceived and known by our senses. Moreover God which was from all æternity, and with whom before the Creation of the world, there was nothing but his proper name knowne to himselfe, and his Sapience; that which hee created on the first day, was the water wherein hee mingled earth, then came hee to procreate after, that which had a beeing here below. And in these two Elements, thicke and grosse, perceptible to our senses, are comprehended the two other, more subtill and rare, Aire, and Fire. These four bodies being, (if we must call them bodies) bound together with such a minglement, that they could not perfectly separate. Two of them are fixed, namely, Earth and Fire, as being dry and solid; the other two volatile, Water, and Aire, which are moist and liquid: so that each Element is agreeable to the other, two wherewith is bounded and enclosed, and by the same meanes, containes two in it selfe, the one corruptible, the other not, the which participates of the Divine nature: and therefore there are two sorts of Waters, the one pure, simple, and elementary; and the other common, which we use in Lakes, Wels, Springs, and Rivers, raines and other impressions of the Aire. There is likewise a grosse Earth, filthy and infected; and a Virgin Earth, crystalline, cleare, and shining, contained and shut up in the Center of all the composed Elementaries; where it remaines revested, and covered with many foldings one upon another. So that it is not easie to arrive there, but by a cautelous and well graduated preparation by fire. There is also a fire which is maintained almost of it selfe, and as it were of nothing, so small is the nourishment that it needeth; whence it comes to bee more cleare and lucent, and another obscure, darke, and burning, and consuming all that to which it is fixed, and it selfe at last. And Aire on the other side pure and cleane, with another corruptible full of legerity, for of all the Elements, there is none more easie to be corrupted then the aire; all which substances so contrary and repugnant, mingled with elementary bodies are the cause of their destruction: wherefore of necessity that which is pure and incorruptible, must be separated from its contrary, the corruptible and impure, which cannot be done but by fire, the separator and purificator. But the three liquid Elements, Water, Aire, and Fire, are as inseparable one from the other, for if the Aire were distracted from the fire, the fire which hath therefrom one of its principall maintainments and food, would suddenly extinguish, and if the water were separated from the Aire, all would bee in a flame. That if the Aire should be quite drawne from the water, for as much as by its legerity, it holds it somewhat suspended, all would be drowned. Likewise if Fire should be separated from the Water, all would bee reduced into a deluge. For three Elements neverthelesse may well bee disjoined from the Earth, but not wholly, there must remaine some part to give consistence to the Body: and render it tangible, by the meanes of a most subtill and thinne portion thereof, which they will elevate with them, out of this gross thickness that remaines below, as wee may sensibly see in glass, which by an industrious Artifice of fire, is depured of the darknesse that was in the ashes, to passe from thence to a transparent clearnesse, which is of the nature of Fire and indissoluble Salt, accompanied with a firme and solid thicknesse, having neither transpiration nor pores.

But wherefore should wee not hereto file all in one traine, those so excellent Meditations of Zohar, sith all depends on the same purpose? God formed Adam of the slime of the earth, or according to the Hebrew, God formed man dust of the earth; which word of forming belongeth properly to Potters, who fashion of earth all that they thinke good. And touching the dust, this is but to abate our pride, with which wee may bee swolne, when wee consider the vile and corruptible matter, whereof wee are made, in respect of our bodies, which is nothing else but mire and dirt. Consider then three things (saith Zohar) and thou shalt not fall into transgression. Remember from whence thou art come, of such filthy and foule stuffe, and whither thou must at last returne, to dust, wormes, and rottennesse; and before whom thou art to render an account, and reason of all thy actions, and comportments; who is the soveraigne Judge, the King of all, who leaves no transgression unpunished, nor good worke irrecompensed. Adam then and all his posterity were formed of the dust of the earth, which had before beene moistned with the fountaine or vapour, which was highly elevated by the Sunnebeams to water and to soften the earth: For the Earth being of it selfe cold, and dry, is altogether sterill and fruitlesse, if it be not impregned with moisture and heat, whence proceed fecundity. So that Adam was composed of Earth and Water mingled together: These two elements betoken a double faculty in him, and double formation, the one of the body, in regard of this age; the other of the soule, in another world. Water shewes the celestiall Meditation whereto our spirit may exalt it selfe; and the earth of it selfe immoveable, and that can never budge from below, nor willingly mingle with the other three volatil elements, by reason of its extreame drynesse, so that it doth but grow hard by the action of fire, and makes it selfe more contrary and untractable by the spirit of contradiction hard and refractory from the flesh, against the spirit, so that shee should reject the water which men thought to put therein, if it were not by meanes of the subtill Aire, interposing and mingling therewith, and penetrating into the smallest parts: which being suckt within the water, forces the earth to feed on it, to inclose it in her selfe, as if shee would detaine it prisoner, and by that meanes remaines great; as the female by a male; for every superiour thing in order and degree, holds the place of male, to that which is inferiour and subject thereunto.

Now if the Aire absent it selfe, which associates and unites them together, as being suppeditated and banished, which is moist and hot, from the extreame drynesse and coldnesse of the earth, it will force it with all its power to reject the water, and so reduce it selfe to its first drynesse; which we may perceive in Sand, which will never receive water, except it be quickly separated. Even so the earth is alwaies rebellious and contumacious of it selfe to bee mollified, be it by water, by aire, by fire; and after this manner there was a spirit of contradiction and disobedience introduced into Adam, by reason of the earth, whereof he was formed: as his Companion and himselfe do shew, when by the suggestion of the Serpent, the most terrestriall animall of all others, they so easily contradicted that extreame prohibition which was given them of not tasting the fruit of the knowledge of good and evill: for the punishment whereof, it was said to the Serpent, thou shallt eat earth all the dayes of thy life: which Isaiah resumes in 65. chap. Dust is thy bread: And to Adam, that the earth should produce nothing but thornes, briars, and thistles, by means whereof, if he would live, he must cultivate it with the sweat of his browes, till returne to that from whence he was drawne, for being dust hee must returne to dust. But water which notifies Divine speculations, disirous to mingle, and unite with all things, to whom it gave beginning, and made them grow and multiply, is as the carriage or vestment of the spirit, following that which was said in the beginning of the Creation, that the Spirit of God was stretched over the waters, or as the Hebrew word Marachephet caries it, hovering over them, fomenting and vivifying them, as a Henne doth her Chickens, with a connaturall heat; for this word Elohim imports I know not what, of heate and fire. By Water then the docill spirit, obedient to the invitations of the intellect, insinuated it selfe into Adam; and by Earth the refractory, and opiniaster, that spurneth against the pricke; for as the earth was the most ignoble Element of all others, water rejecteth it, and disdaineth it, and could agree with it, but as to a lee and excrement; but if the pure and neat spirit remaines within the water, where it made choice of its residence; for from the three natures of earth, water at least never joines with the two, (that is to say) sand, for its extreame drynesse that causeth a discontinuation of parts: Argilla. and the dirt to be fatty and unctuous: there is not any thing else, but slime only, with which some food and mingling which may bee thereof made, the water at last lets it reside below, and it swimmes over: as being of a contrary nature, the one altogether immoveable, solid, and compact; the other fluent, removing, and gliding as bloud through the veines, wherein the spirits reside; who can easily bee elevated to bee of a fiery quality, alwayes soring upward: So that the water which notifies the interiour spirit, endeavours to devest it selfe of this externall coagulation; for all coagulation is a kinde of death and waterishnesse of life; and would never more associate therewith, nor revest it selfe by reason of its contumacy; were it not that the soveraigne Master, and Lord Adonai by his providence, for the propagation of things, (as long as hee shall please to maintaine in beeing, this faire worke of his hands) constraine these two, Earth and Water, to agree in a sort together, by its Angell or Minister that rules in the Aire. Man moreover hath towards himselfe frank and free will in his full power and disposition: Gen. 4. 7. The appetite of sinne shall be under thee, and thou shalt have domination over it, Gen. 4. But if hee be adheering to the earth, (that is to say) to carnall desires and concupiscences, whereunto he is most inclinable, he shall do nothing but evill. And if to the spirit, designed by water, all that hee doth shall goe well. The River of God is filled with waters. And in the 44. of Isaiah, I will powre out water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will powre out my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. So that as long as the water doth suffer and remaine united with the earth, the good Spirit resteth with man, by which wee are admonished by the wise man, Prov. 5.15, to drinke waters out of our Cisterne, & rivers out of our own Wel. But when the earth by its rebellious and repugnant drought, rejecteth water, there resteth nothing therein but its hard and refractary obstination, till that by meanes of the aire, the spirit that joines and unites them together (which are holy inspirations) it bee newly remoistned and watered: By meanes whereof when wee have this good spirit of salutary water, whereof it is written in the 15 of Ecclesiasticus, Thou shalt give him the water of wisdome to drinke: wee must take heed of casting it away, and to make our selves all dry earth and sandy, which is not satisfied with water, and therefore produceth nothing.

But all this is more clearly expressed in the Gospell, where by the meanes of this fructifying water, our Saviour which is a Fountaine that is never dry, the holy Spirit commeth to put into our hearts that which moistneth the hardnesse of the earth, watereth it, and dresseth it, to produce the ripe fruits of good and charitable works. The water which I will give you (saith he, Joh. 4. 14.) shall be a Fountaine of living water, springing up into eternall life. Of this water the Prophets have clearely spoken, as David in the 36. Psal. Psal. 36. 6. For with thee there is a Fountaine of life, and in thy light wee shall see light. See how he joines water with light, which is fire; so that this digression seemes to bee lesse impertinent; and in the 12. of Esay 3. You shall draw water with joy out of the wels of salvation. More Jerem. 2. They have forsaken me, that am the Fountaine of living water, and have digged to themselves Cisternes, broken Cisternes that will hold no water.

In this of Zohar (as above) are comprised the principall secrets and actions of Fire, and of its contrary, the Patient, which is, Water: for the acts of Actives are in the disposition of the Patient, (said the Philosopher;) for the effects cannot better be discerned then where they act. Fire then hath three proprieties: but in this respect, wee must argue the thing more deeply.

As then, all that which is, are divided into 3, called Worlds, or Heavens, (it must not be thought strange, if wee repeate the same more then once; for from thence proceed all the secret sciences,) that is to say, the elementary here below, subject to perpetuall alteration, and vicissitude of life, and of death; the Celestiall aloft, above the Circle of the Moone, incorruptible in respect of it selfe, as well for its purity, and uniformity of substance, as for its continuall and equall motion; nothing therein prædominating the one or the other; which two constitute the Sensible world. There is afterward the Intelligible, abstracted from all corporeity and matter, which the Apostle cals the third World, where hee was ravished, this (said hee) whether in the body or out of the body, God knowes, 2 Cor. 12. 3. for not onely the World and the Heaven, are put one for the other, but yet the Heaven for Man; The heavens declare the glory of God, according to which, most part of the Fathers interpret it; and Man reciprocally for Heaven. As Origen sets it forth, upon the 25 Treatise of Saint Matthew. Mans heart is properly called Heaven, and the Throne not already of the Glory of God, as is the Temple, but of God properly. For the Temple of the glory of God, is that wherein, as in a Glasse, wee see ourselves by Ænigma. But Heaven that is above the Temple of God, where his Throne is, is to see him wholly as it were face to face: which hee hath almost transcribed word for word out of the booke Abahir to Zohar, and other ancient Caballists, whereof he consisteth for the most part.