A PROCESS, To Sublime the Coals of Sol, Mercury and Animal Sulphur into Purple coloured Flowers, with the help of a fulminating Powder.
Set a well luted Glass, or earthen Body, in a subliming Furnace till it be red hot, then cast in so much Nitre as you think will be sufficient to kindle thy Coals with, and consume them, to which purpose, thou mayst put three times as much Nitre, as the quantity of thy Coals is. When thou seest that the Nitre is red hot and in Flux, then cast in upon the Nitre a piece of thy Coals as big as a Haslel Nut, and the Nitre will immediately kindle the 🜍 and consume it, and by this means set the ☿ free; for in the burning away of the 🜍, the ☿ is forced to leave the ☉, as not being able to endure so strong a Fulmination: And having by means of the Animal 🜍, so intimately united with the ☉, as to be very hardly separable, but yet by the force of the Fulmen being fain to leave it, he in his flight takes the Heart of ☉ along with him, and brings it over in the form of a purple Sublimate, which with the Oyl of Vitriol (but much better by means of the universal Coagulator) may easily be fixed into a Tincture. This throwing of the Animal Coals upon the Nitre, thou must continue till all thy Coals be consumed, and so thou wilt obtain a ☿ impregnated and tinged with the Soul of ☉, and the ☉ remains of a white Colour, being disanimated by the Nitre.
N. B. As oft as you cast a piece of your Coals into the Vessel where the Nitre in Flux is, you must immediately clap on the Head again, that the ☿ may not fly away, but be caught therein. For the said ☿ is a great Treasure, and may easily be fixed into a fusible Tincture. Thus you have the whole Process, how by means of Animal superfluities I have handled ☿ with ☉, and what hath been the Success of it: He who shall venture to set upon this Work and finish it, will find much more than I durst set down here.
The nearest and easiest way to fix these Solar, Mercurial Animal Coals into a Tincture, according to my Judgment is, First to fix the said Coals, by means of a Fixative Sal Mirabile: Or else, to mix them with a Volatilizing Sal Mirabile, and by Retort distil from them a good graduating Water; we may also add to these Animal Coals such a Fixative water, as is employed to kill and fix the watchful Dragon or Basilisk. Every one may choose of these several ways, what pleaseth best: And if any thing by reason of the shortness of time hath been omitted here, the same will be discovered to the Laborator in his Work, if God does not hinder it, whose Blessing is all in all. Thomas Aquinas had the Art in twenty four hours time, to prepare an universal Medicine from natural Superfluities alone, without any Addition of ☉ or ☿, without Charges, Labour or Trouble, without breaking of Glasses, and without taking in any loathsome Smells. So likewise Avicenna, Albertus Magnus, Rhasis, Petrus Bonus, Joannes Lancinius Rupescissa, had a much nearer and shorter way, than here we have described, as appears abundantly by their Writings. These Authors took their Subject and putrified it in Horse-dung, and then with the Element of Fire, they fixed the ☿ with the ☉ into a Tincture, in which Labour they were much troubled with the loathsome smell of the Matter. Morienus tells us, that the Matter when in Putrefaction, sends forth a stinck like to that which proceeds from Graves, for indeed there is nothing in Man, which doth not stink extreamly, when brought to Solution or Putrefaction. When we dissolve these Animal Matters with Oyl of Vitriol, this stink is not so great, as when they are dissolved with Aqua Fortis, the same also may be said of Spirit of Salt, when ☉, ☿ and Wool are dissolved in the same, and besides doth more Volatilize the ☉ in order to Sublimation, or Fulmination than Aqua Fortis doth. If instead of the Common ☿ we take a ☿ of ♁ for this Work, it will in Fulmination carry more of the Tincture of ☉ over, and the purple Flowers proceeding thence, are much more readily fixed by the universal Coagulator, than those that are made with the Common ☿.
What this universal Coagulator is, I have elsewhere declared, the great use of it is very evident, in that volatile Tinctures can hardly be fixed without it: For this Coagulator makes all volatile Corrosive Metalline Spirits fix so as to be able to endure the Fire, which without it require a long time. And therefore, he who doth not know it, or the use of it, must needs find the fixing of volatile Spirits very tedious and troublesome, whereas those that know the use of it, may perform more as to the fixing of Tinctures in three days time, than others without it can do in a whole Year. For there is nothing in Nature so Volatile, which this Coagulator doth not fix, as Turba testifies, saying that if God had not created our Sal Armoniack, all Chymical Labour would be in vain. Which indeed is the very Truth: For without a good Sal Armoniack it is impossible to extract the Tinctures from Metals and Stones, or to purifie and subtilize them to the highest Degree; and without preceeding Subtilizing, there can be no ingress into compact Bodies: For the more that any Tincture is Subtiliz’d and Volatiliz’d, the more readily, after Fixation, doth it enter all hard and compact Bodies. Wherefore if God had not created this Coagulator, these volatile Tinctures, how high soever they might be in Colour, would be of no use for the Transmutation of Metals. Thus we find, that in Alchimy these two principal Keys are extremely necessary: The first opens, makes Volatile, and Purifies and gives Ingress; the other binds and fixeth the Volatile, so as to make it endure the Fire, without which Fixation all Volatilization is in vain. O the Pains that I have formerly taken for to fix ☿, ☉, 🜍 and other such like Volatile Metalline Spirits, whereas now it is most easie for me to do all this, and much more, with the help of my universal Coagulator, the knowledge and discovery of which must be fetched from the Principal Agent, or secret Fire of the Wise Men.
I cannot upon this occasion pass by discovering another Property that is found in our Animal Subject, viz. that it can in one distillation resolve all Metals, none excepted, into a running Mercury, which is a thing very wonderful, that fixt Gold and Silver should be so easily reducible to Volatile Mercury, seeing their Bodies are by nature kept in such strong bands. Of which Reduction of Metals to quick Mercury, no Person hath writ more clearly than Basil Valentine. The Ancient Philosophers have indeed writ much concerning the volatilizing of fixt Metals, but did never declare, that, by this Volatilization, they understood a reduction of them to running Mercury, for which reason this Art also hath been so little known. The Ancient Philosophers have recommended this volatilizing and fixing of Metals to us in these following Verses.
Fixum si solvas, faciasque volare solutum,
Et volucrem figas, faciet te vivere tutum.
Dissolve the fixt, and make it then to fly,