Instagram Posts Alchemy Emblems

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{"result":["[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=48\nPages: 48,49\nlegend of Atalanta and Hippomenes. Atalanta represents the volature mercury, Hlippomea nes symbolizes the\nforce of sulphur. It is the alchemist's task to unite these opposites.\nTHE EMBLEMS NOS I-L\nWITH STATEMENT OF THE SOURCES\nAND COMMENTARY\nEll/IBL.E\ufb02\u2019[ I\n(\ufb01e I) M 0 TT 0 The wind carried him in its belly.\nEPIGRAM\nWhen the unborn child, which lies hidden in the womb of the North wind,\nOne day will rise to the light, alive,\nHe alone will be able to surpass all deeds of heroism\nWith his art, his hand, bodily strength and spirit,\nLet him not be born for you like a Coeso, and not as a useless abortion,\nNot as an Agrippa, but under a lucky star.\nSUMMARY OF THE DISCOURSE\nIn the Tmlmla Smamgdimzl Hermes wrote brie\ufb02y about the work of Nature. He says among others: \"The\nwind carried him in its belly\u201d. By this he means, as it were: \u201cHe, whose father is the Sun, and whose mother\nis the Moon, will be carried, before he is born, by wind and vapour, just as a \ufb02ying bird is carried by the air\u201d.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=50\nPages: 50\nother, just as Hermes said: the wind carried him in its belly, because the birth of our son takes place in the air,\nand to be born in the air is to be wisely born ; for he rises from the earth into heaven and descends again to\nthe earth, in order to unite the higher and lower forces\".\nSOURCE OF THE MOTTO\nTalmla Smczmgdimz, ascribed to the legendary Hermes Trisme- gistus. Printed in: Tlzeatr. Chem. I, 362 (see\nalchem. bibl. Hermes Trisrnegistus),\n\"Po-rtavit illud ventus in ventre suo\",\n\"The wind carried it in its belly\".\nCOMMENTARY\nThe source which Maier chose for the beginning of his Atalanta Fugiens is one of the most ancient, shortest\nand most authoritative works in the history of alchemy.\nThe Talmla Smamgdilmz was attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, or to the Egyptian Thoth, the god of\nmathematics and sciences. The earliest known manuscript of the Tabula occurs in the work of Jabir ibn]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=49\nPages: 49\nFrom the vapours or winds, which are nothing else but wind in motion, water proceeds, when condensed, and\nfrom that water, mixed with earth, all minerals and metals arise.\nNow I am asked who it is that has to be carried by the wind. To him I answer: \"In chemical respect it is the\nsulphur, which is carried in mercury\u201d, as Lullius states in CorZ~z'cz'IZ-us\u2018-3 chapter 32.. He\n1 Theatr. CI2em., I, 362.\n3 R. Lullius, Liber, gm: Codicillus, sou vade mecmn iJIscribiim', in gun fonfes Alchimicae artis ell\nreconditioris fzlzilosopliiae tmdzmfur, rmh: has nmiguam iiazpressits, Cologne I 563, ed. pr.\nj.\n56 EMBLEM 1\nfurther says in Chapter 47: \u201cThe Stone is the \ufb01re, carried in the belly of the air\u201d. In physical respect it is the\nunborn child that will soon be born, I also mention it with respect to arithmetic, as it is the root of the cube; in\nthe \ufb01eld of music it is the \ufb01fth; in the domain of geometry it is a point, that starting-point of the straight line;]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=195\nPages: 195\non the same tops of the mountains where also the grass grows which tempers the \ufb01re by means of properties\nop- posed to the fire, namely moistness and coldness. From the moun- tains the Stone passes into the air,\nwhere it \ufb01nds its domicile. The air is its home and it is surrounded by it, because it is nothing else but that\nwhich is carried in the belly of the wind (phrase from the Tabular Smaragdfna and motto of embl. I at the\nsame time), born in\n1 Moricnus Romanus, De Transmutatione M etallorum, in: Art. Arm'f., II, 38. 3 Turba Phifosophorum, in:\nArt. Auri\ufb01, I, 95.\nEMBLEM XXXVI 245\nthe air, which has been discussed already (embl. xxxlv). Finally Mercury feeds in the rivers, that is in the\nwater and the Rasarimn says that the matter of the Philosophers\u2019 Stone is water. Mercury is called threefold,\nthat is watery, heavenly and earthly, for it is in the water, in the earth and in the air.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=50\nPages: 50\nreward Phineus showed the Argonauts the way. The Harpies, however, are nothing but the destroying\nsulphur, expelled by the sons of Boreas, when they have reached the right age, and when\nEMBLEM I\nperfection has emerged from the noxious vapours ; this perfection then shows Jason the way for obtaining the\nGolden Fleece.\nIn Clovis 63 Basil Valentine writes about these winds: \"For there must come a twofold wind, named\nVulturnus, thereafter a single wind, named Notus, which will blow boisterously from East and South, so that,\nwhen their motion stops, water has proceeded from air; be con\ufb01dent that then the material arises from the\nspiritual\u201d. And in Ports 8 Riplaeus says: \u201c \"Our Child shall be born in the air, that is in the belly of the wind\".\nSimilarly the Scale PI:r'1oso]5fzor-mn,5 graclus 6, writes: \"And be it known that the Son of Philosophy is\nborn in the air\", and gradus 8: \"And may you know that the volatile spirits rise into the air and love each]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=51\nPages: 51,52\nthat which is above is like to that which is below, to accomplish the miracles of one thing. And as all things\nwere by the contemplation of one; so all things arose from this one thing by adaptation. Its father is the Sun,\nits mother is the Moon. The wind carried it in its belly, The Earth is its nurse.\nIt is the father of all the perfection of the whole world. Its power is complete, if it be cast on to earth. You\nshall separate earth from \ufb01re, the subtle from the gross, in a smooth way, with great sagacity. It rises from\nearth to heaven, and descends again from heaven to earth, and receives the force from things that are above\nand from things that are below.\nThusyou will possess the glory of the whole world, and all obscurity will \ufb02ee from you. This thing is the\nstrong fortitude of all strength. Because it will overcome each re\ufb01ned, subtle thing and it will penetrate each\nsubstance. In this way the world was created. From this marvellous adaptations will arise, of which this is the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=271\nPages: 271\nof the emblems with a mythological theme from non\u2014alche- mical sources, from Hesiod (embl. XII), Strabo\n(XXIII), Diodorus Siculus (XLIV) and Ovid (x1.Ix).\nAs regards the pictures of the emblems, part of it agrees with the emblems from Lambsprincl\ufb01s De Lapide\nPh\u00a3losopk27co Lilbellas, but suuuanv AND concrusron 337\nas long as no illustrated Lambsprinck text from before I625, the edition in which the engravings by Marian\noccur, is known, Maier\u2019s dependance on Lambsprinck can be established exclusively in con- nection with\nLambsprinck\u2019s text. The picture of emblem X1 is in- spired by the representation of the ablution of Laton\nwith azoch et ignis from the manuscript of the Aurora Consnrgeas (Cod. Vossianus Chemicus no. 29, Univ.\nLibr. Leiden, folio 43 sq). This connection with a very mystic\u2014alchemical manuscript, which originated certainly not later than the I 5th century, points to the fact that Maier \u2014also in view of his interest in the ideals]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=69\nPages: 69\ngrow in the earth and ripen from lead into gold after thou- Sands Of Years); that is to say: \u201cThe heavenly\nPhoebus (\ufb01re as divine substance) generated a son under the earth, and mercury (the wind of embl. I) handed\nhim over to Vulcan to rear him (the \ufb01re as food for the Stone), and to Chiron, that is to the artisan\nEMBLEM V1 83\n(the alchemist) to form him, just as Ceres put Achilles into the \ufb01re to harden him\u201d (embl. xxxv).\nChiron instructed this son of Phoebus in music and citherplaying. Achilles, however, is nothing but the\nphilosophical subject\u2014for he had a red\u2014haired son Pyrrhus; if it were not for these two the Trojan war\nwould not have been fought, as we have amply shown in our sixth book about the hieroglyphs.1 For this\nreason we have also justifiable dealt with music in this book, in which we speak about the life and heroic\ndeeds of Achilles.\nFor if music did great honour to such a distinguished hero, would it not make this little book more attractive?]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=139\nPages: 139\ncircularem sibi conformem\".\nI72 EMBLEM XXI\nrninous and corporeal; however, as something becomes more hidden and out of sight, it is also\nproportionately more spiritual, more perfect and more noble. The smaller circle, however, which exists in a\nhid- den state, acts upon the larger circle and makes the larger one equal to itself\u201d.\nSo the invisible reality affects the visible reality, till the Philo- sophers\u2019 Stone comes into existence, that is to\nsay\u2014to use the terms of the epigram of Maier\u2019s \ufb01rst emblem from the Atalanta Fugr'ens\u2014till \"The unborn\nchild, which lies hidden in the womb of the North wind, will rise, alive, to the light\u201d. In the discourse of\nemblem I Maier himself connects it with geometry, by which an interaction becomes clear between emblem\nI, based on the Tabula Smeragahhza and the emblem XXI, which is based on the science of geometry, in\norder to disclose the secrets of life and the cosmos in that way.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=226\nPages: 226,227\nBut from where the Sun sinks into the Sea,\nThe Dog comes, in raging fury:\nThe one bites the other, and the other bites back, in a torturous rage,\n1 East-\u2018West has a. cosmological meaning; the world originated from East to \u2018West; a View arising from a\nSun-cult, as sun and life dawn in the East and set in the \u2018West. (In Old-Egypt, the dead were carried along the\nNile to their tombs on the west side) (sec Plutarch. Isis and Osiris. 353 A or 381 B). In the emblems of the H\norapo\ufb02o the scarab rolls its ball of dung from East to West, in order to give it in this wa_v the shape of the\nworld, which also originated from East to West (see G. Boas, The I-Iieroglypiiics of Hora- polio, Bollingen\nSeries XXIII, New York 1950).\n286 EMBLEM xLv1r\nThey were both seen furious, with their rnuzzles wide open. They are the stones belonging to each other,\nwhich are given away\nfor nothing, Everywhere, to all, at all times; may you understand them.\nSUMMARY OF THE DISCOURSE]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=249\nPages: 249,250\nvenenum, et occultum manifesta- tor\".\n\"I also say to you that that Dragon never dies ; nevertheless the philosophers have put to death that woman\nwho killed her hus- bands. For the intestine of that woman is full of poison. So may there be dug a grave for\nthe Dragon, and may the woman be buried there together with the latter, which is strongly united with that\nwoman, and the more it binds her and winds itself about her, the more its body, mixed with the limbs of the\nwoman, inclines towards death, and it turns entirely into blood. When the philosophers have seen that it has\nchanged into blood, they put it in the Sun, till its softness is consumed and the blood becomes dry. Then the\npoison appears, and what is hidden takes shape\u201d.\nCOMMENTARY\nThis emblem once again represents the union of the opposites. The quotation from the Turbo, which is the\nsource of the motto, is supplemented in an enumeration of well\u2014known alchemical state-\u2014 ments by an]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=188\nPages: 188\nabout by the very tepid fire of warm, moist dung and by nothing else, so that nothing rises, for if something\nwould rise, there would arise a separation of the parts, and that should only happen when the male and the\nfemale are completely united and when the one receives the other. The sign of this is the blackness at the\nsurface and that is also the sign of the complete solution\u201d. His birth is white because it happens on the top of\nthe mountains, which means in the air or in the top of the vessel. Rosi- nus ad Euthiciam explains this as\nfollows: \u201cTake the things out of their minerals and lift them to higher places and send them from\n236 EMBLEM xxxiv\nthe tops of the mountains and carry them back to the roots\u201d. And slightly further on: \u201cBy mountains the\npumpkin\u2014shaped receiver (cucurbita) is meant and by the tops of the mountains the helmet (alembicum). To\nsend from the top of the mountains means to catch the liquid over the helmet in a receiving \ufb02ask (to distil).]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=216\nPages: 216,217\nvulture, and is therefore rightly called the vulture by Hermes and others, as it is also slow in its \ufb02ight, black\nof colour, and becomes pregnant of its own. This meaning of the vulture also occurs in the H oragbollo (see\nThorndike, I, 333): according to the H ompollo the vulture is always female and symbolizes the Egyptian\nyear, because it is fertilized by the wind during \ufb01ve days, is I20 days with young, takes care of its young for\nI20 days, and prepares itself for the repetition of this process during the remaining I20 days.\nEMBLEM XLIV 273\nEMBLEM XLIV\n(\ufb01e 44) MOTTO\nTyphon kills Osiris by a ruse, and after that he scatters his limbs far and wide, but the famous Isis collects\nthem.\nEPIGRAM\nSyria has Adonis, Greece has Dionysus,\nEgypt has Osiris, who is nobody else but the Sun of Wisdom:\nIsis is the sister, wife and mother of Osiris,\nWhose limbs are dissected by Typhon, but which she joins together. But the phallus was lost, spread over the\nwaves,]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=49\nPages: 49,50\nwhich takes the souls from the bodies and brings them back again, and effects many other such compositions, it is he who best expresses the thought of the philosophical Mercury.\nSo I\\I81'Cl11\u2018y is the wind, which receives the sulphur, or Dionysus. or, if alternatively, Aesculapius, as the\nunripe fruit from the mother's womb, or from the ashes of the burnt mother's body and takes it to a place\nwhere it may ripen. The embryo is sulphur. engendered by the heavenly Sun and the North wind, to ripen and\nto procreate twins in due time, one of whom is whitehaired and is Called Calais; the other red-haired and\ncalled Zetes. These sons of Boreas\u2014as the chemical poet Orpheus wrote\u2014were with Jason and the\nA1'3\u00b0n3\u20181l55~ W110 Went t0 Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece. However, the blind seer Phineus,\npestered by the Harpies, could not set himself free without the assistance of these sons of Boreas. As a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=202\nPages: 202,203\nwhich he is tripped up? How very few do reach the navel and the centre of the mountain.\nFor a di\ufb01icult climb awaits him who tries\nto reach the steep heights.\nThe great strain destroys him,\nSleeplessly he tires himself out in the night near the olive-tree\nHe deplores now what he had first praised in himself,\nHe who desires to crown himself with the honour of the eternal laure1\u2014wreath.\nTherefore it is no wonder that only one in thousands completes these labours of Hercules to set foot on top of\nthe mountain and to be crowned with the 1aure1\u2014-wreath of immortality, in consequence of which those\nwho devote themselves to virtue and literature may enjoy the goods of the spirit.SOURCE OF THE MOTTO\nRosimcs ad Samtcmtam, in: Art. Am'zf., I, 333;\n\"Sume ergo ex Iapide ubique reperto, qui vocatur Rebis, et\n1)\u2018\nnascitur in duobus rnontibus. .. . \u201cSo take from the Stone, wherever it may be found, him who is\n1\ncalled Rebis and is born in two mountains...\u2019.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=248\nPages: 248\nmountains. But if you add to the eagle the cold dragon, which has its residence in the rocks, and crawls out of\nthe caves, and if you put them both in a hellish seat, Pluto will rouse a wind, and lure out of the cold dragon a\nvola- tile \ufb01ery spirit, which will scorch the eagle's feathers by its heat, and he will cause a steam\u2014bath,\nwhich acts so powerfully that the snow on top of the mountains will melt and will become water, in\nconsequence of which the mineral bath is we1l\u2014prepared and provides happiness and health for the lcing\u201d.1\nIt is really remarkable that a cold dragon emanates a \ufb01ery spirit: but that it is based on truth can be seen from\nthe experience with the burning snakes; for they give a. poisonous \ufb02ame by which the bystanders are killed.\nNot without reason did dragons become the\n\u2018 Basilius Valentinus, Practice: Cum Duadccim Clavibus e!c., key 2, in: Mics. Herm., 396-398.\nEMBLEM L 3:1]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=72\nPages: 72\nconnected in meaning with emblem v1.\nDeath and resuscitation as symbols of the transmutation of mat\u2019 Rasarizem Philasophorum, in: Art. A1m7.f., II, 311-313; fig. 1). 311.\n86 EMBLEM vi\nter, combined with the comparison between alchemical work and the germination of the grain of corn (embl.\nVI, last line of the epi- gram) brings to mind Christ's words, which he spoke when he came to Jerusalem,\nknowing that ~cruci\ufb01xion awaited him: \u201cIn truth, in very truth I tell you, a grain of wheat remains a solitary\ngrain'un- less it falls into the ground and dies, but if it dies, it bears a rich harvest\".4 The passion, death and\nresurrection of Christ are re- \ufb01ected in the alchemical transmutation process; the Philosophers\u2019 Stone\nincreases the gold by changing base metals into gold; wheat multiplies, when the grain dies in the earth, and\nChrist is the salva- tion of man by his death and resurrection. For the alchemists the death and the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=123\nPages: 123,124\nwhich the toad, nursed by the woman, also wears a gold chain (see commentary to embl. \u2018V, last paragraphs).\nIn different ways both emblems symbolize the circular course of spirit and matter in the Universe.\nEMBLEM XVIII\n(\ufb01e 18) MOTTO\nThe \ufb01re likes making things \ufb01ery, but not, like the gold, making gold.\nEPIGRAM\nAs far as there has been an active principle in nature,\nIt spreads its forces around and wants to multiply them.\nIn this way \ufb01re makes everything it meets \ufb01ery,\nAnd there is nothing that produces a. noble work without cause. By itself gold makes nothing \ufb01ery, neither\ndoes \ufb01re make gold, Each thing discerns the seed which it carries in itself.\nSUMMARY OF THE DISCOURSE\nThe procedure of Nature in acting upon all thi.ngs of the Universe is such that it uses a simple process in\norder to complete a simple motion. This becomes evident from human anatomy: one muscle serves to\ncontract the hand, another one to stretch it again and in a turning movement of one of the limbs the various]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=213\nPages: 213,214\nwere a lamp, without which there would only be dark- ness and dense fogs. However, the literature of good\nauthors should be read many times in order to be bene\ufb01cial to you. About this Bacasser says in the Tm\".ba'.:1\n\"He who is forbearing and patient, will walk in the right way of this art; whoever believes to be able to gather\nfruits from our books more quickly, will be deceived in\nhis hopes, and it were better for him if he had never seen nor touched them\u201d.\nSOURCE OF THE MOTTO\nNot found back in alchemical sources in its entirety.\nSee also Ist half of the discourse of embl. KI.\nEMBLEIM XLIII\n(\ufb01e 43) MOTTO\nListen to the garrulous vulture, which does not deceive you at all. EPIGRAM\nThe vulture is standing on the top of a high mountain,\nI\u201c\u00b0e553\u201ct1Y Calling: It is said that I am white and black, Yellow and red and I do not lie at all;\nThe same is the case with the raven, which is accustomed to fly without wings\n1 Ba-casser in the Turin: Philosophonmz, in: Art. A:mZf., I, 36-37.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/YrnLwuJpoFuccjkM5qWBYY/Helena-Maria.pdf?pdfPage=269\nPages: 269\nwork, namely at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. The \ufb01rst two emblems are a quotation from the\nTalmla Smaragdiua, ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus, a short text, which tries to summarize the changes in\nNature and the connection between Microcosm and Macrocosm, and thus tries to summarize the\nsta1'ting\u2014point of alchemy. The Tabala Smaragdina, as one of the oldest esoteric-alchemical texts, led to\nmany writings in Arabic and West European alchemy, in which writing religion, magic and alchemy were\nconnected undetachably, and further, to many commentaries on the contents of the Tabzita, which agree with\nthe thesis that the cosmic soul should be united with puri\ufb01ed matter into a. solid body, the Philosophers\u2019\nStone, with which all transmutations desired can be brought about.\nThe middle of the Atalanta Fagiens, emblems XXVI and xxvn, is based on Ola\u2019. Testament sources. In\ncontrast to the other emblems, numerous references to passages in Ecclestasticus, Sapievztia, Pro- vcrbia,]"]}

{"result":["[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=8\nPages: 8,7\nThe practice of Philaletes, presented under an amiable and persuasive exterior,\ncounts among the most subtle and perfidious fictions of hermetic literature. Yet\nit does contain the truth, but similar to poison, sometimes conceals its own\nantidote if one only knows how to isolate it from its pernicious alkaloids. As\noccasion arises we shall signal the traps, in so far as they present themselves to\nus along our way.\nThe Mutus Liber is composed of fifteen emblematic plates, some truthful,\nothers misrepresented, and disposed according to one of those beautiful\ndisorders, that, following the precept of Boileau, is an effect of the art.\nPlate 1\nT\nhe first plate that serves as frontispiece is truly capital. On its\ncomprehension depends the whole success of the Work\n.One sees there, inside a border formed by two interlacing rosaries, a man\nasleep on a rock whereon grow some languishing kermes - oaks. A limpid\nwater with metallic reflections flows out from it. Next to the sleeper, on a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=26\nPages: 26\nallegories of the philosophers but a treatise on ascesis where they would be\nvery embarrassed to explain each symbol - these pseudo-mystics see in this\nplate an image of the resurrection of man and of his return to the celestial\nfatherland, and they become blissfully enraptured by this discovery, which they\nare not far from considering ingenious.\nBut if we become pure spirit again, it follows that our body enclosed its essence\nunder its gross form and, under these conditions, one cannot deny the same\nproperty to the metals. The spirit or the fire is everywhere and in everything: it\nlies in the flint so cold in appearance, in the metals that one transforms into\ninflammable fulminates that explode upon the least shock. But, transmutation is\na phenomenon that causes the species to pass from an inferior to a superior\nplane by means of a spiritual agent, a true seed called powder of projection.\nThis marvelous product is obtained by the real death and putrefaction of a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=8\nPages: 8,9\nother red.\nOne will ask us, and not without reason, what magic word is capable of\nextracting from the arms of Morpheus our Epimenides, who really seems to be\ndeaf to the clamour of the trumpets. This word comes from God, carried by the\nangels, the messengers of fire, It is a divine breath that stirs in an invisible, but\ncertain, manner, and this is no exaggeration. Without the concourse of the\nheavens, the work of man is useless. One neither grafts trees, nor does one sow\nthe grain during all seasons. Everything has its time. The philosophical Work is\ncalled the Celestial Agriculture, and not without cause; one of the greatest\nauthors has signed his writings with the name Agricola, and two other excellent\nadepts known under the names of Grand Paysan and Petit Paysan.\nThus, the disciple will have to meditate a long time on this first plate and\ncompare it with the apologues in vulgar language. May he then be fortunate]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=9\nPages: 9,10\nTradition requires that this retort be enclosed within a second one, and this one\nagain within a third one made of wood from an old oak. Flamel expressly says:\n\"Note that oak tree\", and Vico, the chaplain of the Lords of Grosparmy and\nValois recommends it with no less interest. This insistence is significant, and\nwe must recall that in the first plate, on the rock of the Sages grows the Kermes\noak, which is the Hermes of the Adepts, because, in the Hebrew language, K\nand H are but one and the same letter, taken alternatively one for the other. But\nhere one must be on guard, the mineral kermes leads to the trap set by\nPhilaletes, Artephius, Basil Valentine and many others, and one should not\nloose view of the fact that the philosophers delight in certain verbal collusions.\n\"is the artificial mercury that amalgamates the compost.\"\nThe size of the egg is of no importance. In Nature, the egg varies from that of a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=25\nPages: 25,26\nson of science. We cannot here transgress the will of the author, who witnesses\nof his well settled design to let the symbol alone express all his thought. If these\nlines come under the eyes of an adept, he will approve of our reserve, which\nnevertheless is close to indiscretion. But for the rest qui potest capere capiat.\nPlate 15\nT\nhe fifteenth and last plate represents the apotheosis of Saturn, victorious\nover his son Jupiter who had dethroned him, and lies inert upon the ground. It\nis the solarization of the vilest of metals, his resurrection and glorification in\nthe light. The two branches of sweet-briar of the frontispiece are charged with\nred berries and white berries filled with active seeds where each one has the\npower to mault all the impure metals into gold or silver. The so-called mystics who deny the possibility of the metallic work and have found nothing in the\nallegories of the philosophers but a treatise on ascesis where they would be]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=8\nPages: 8\nwater with metallic reflections flows out from it. Next to the sleeper, on a\nladder - the Stairway of the Sages - two angels are blowing their trumpets to\nawaken him.\nAbove, a propitious and reposeful night sky: the stars are shining and the moon\noutlines its horn of plenty.\nThis initial page should bring with it a criticism not directed towards the\nlearned author, but towards the profane artist, who in reproducing the figures\nhas committed, without suspecting, a grave mistake. And it is already a great\nachievement merely to notice this, without it being necessary to insist more\nupon it. The hermetic expositions will warn the disciple, who does not judge it\nuseless to inform himself about it.\nThe sleeping man is the subject of the Work. What is this subject? Some say\nthat it is a body; others affirm that it is a water. They are both right because a\nwater called {the silver beauty} springs from this body that the Sages call the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=12\nPages: 12,13\nfrom seven to ten from the Sun. They are indicated by the flying of the birds\nand are indispensable, for they prepare the nuptial robe of Apollo and Diana,\nwithout which their mystical union would be impossible. That is why Jupiter,\nthe god who governs the eagle, presides over these operations.\nPlate 4\nT\nhe fourth plate shows how the collection of the flos coeli works. Some\nsheets are stretched out on poles in order to receive the heavenly dew. Below a\nman and a woman are wringing them to press out the divine liquor, that falls\ninto a large vessel put there to that purpose. To the left one sees the Ram; on\nthe right the Bull.\nThe flos coeli have put the spirit of the bad puffers to torture. Some have seen\nin it a kind of magical influx, for them magic is a supernatural power, acquired\nby concourse with spirits, good or bad. Others, more realistic and closer to the\ntruth, have recognized in the morning dew. The flos coeli is in fact called the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=10\nPages: 10,11\nmaterials; but the elan of the creature towards the creator can have a favorable\ninfluence on the directives, for the light comes from God. One must\nnevertheless liberate oneself from these not very effective suggestions. The\nartist's prayer is yet more his work, often hard, dangerous and incompatible\nwith too white hands.\nCount then above all on the improbus labor.\nPlate 3\nT\nhe third plate is no longer in its place. It leads us into the empire of\nNeptune. One sees, frolicking in his waves, the dolphin dear to Apollo and on a\nboat some fishermen putting out their gear. In another ship a man lies stretched\nout in a nonchalant position. In the second, a landscape with on one side a ram,\non the other a bull, which we shall find back further on and shall study at a\nmore opportune moment. Below on the left a woman holds a basket which is\nthe symbol of the grated lantern of the philosophers; on the right a man throws]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=21\nPages: 21\nof the fluid in such a way that the powder of projection obtained multiplies 100,\n1000 or 10,000 times, etc., according to the potential of the artist. Thus these\nphantasists pretend to impregnate the matter with astral spirit as one charges a\nbattery with electricity. This is what the poorly understood and randomly\napplied analogy leads to. We shall not name these singular theoreticians whose\nsincerity is respectable; but we had to signal the fact, in order to put studious\nand too confident disciple on his guard against the hazardous reading of authors\nwithout mandate and without consecration, who have never produced anything\nbut books, but who from that time pass for Masters.\nPlate 10\nT\nhe tenth plate represents the conjunction. The first figure shows, on the\nscales of a balance, on one side the salt indicated by the star, on the other the\nsulphur designated by a flower, which with its heart forms seven petals. These]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=20\nPages: 20,21\nthe point of repeating it when we were already provided with it? It is not that\nthe author of the Mutus Liber would send us back to the fields to fetch some\nmore; but surely he was obliged to repeat this symbol, the moment that this\ncelestial agent had to enter into a new combination. In one of the figures of this\nplate, we see Mercury in the process of buying a flask of this divine water from\na country woman. He therefore has need for it for some use. Philaletes\nprescribes, effectively, to wash the mercury several times, in such a way as to\nmake it loose some of its oily nature. He very carefully describes this operation\nwhich is accomplished by means of the celestial water brought to a certain\ntemperature, nevertheless moderate, for it takes only a little too much heat for\nthe fiery part to retake its path to the stars. Philaletes is a great master, his word\nhas authority and he presents the work with such ingenuity, that no suspicion of]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=13\nPages: 13\nrecognized some virtue. It is up to the disciple to form his own opinion\naccording to his own judgement. But it is beyond doubt that an agent kept\nsecret, called \"Celestial Manna\" plays an important part in the work.\nWe must declare, sincerely, that the Ram and the Bull in the plate, which one\nalways takes for the signs of the zodiac under which one must collect the flos\ncoeli, have no connection with the astrological symbols. The Ram is Hermes'\nCriophore, which is the same as Jupiter Ammon; and the Bull, whose horns\ndelineate the crescent, attribute of Diana and Isis, who are identical with the\ncow Io, lover of Jupiter, and the philosophers moon. These two animals\npersonify the two natures of the Stone. Their union forms the Azyme of the\nEgyptians, the Asimah of the Bible, hybrid monster designating the orichalc,\nthe Latten or bronze oryx, the bull of Phalaris or of bronze, the golden or\nchrysoeale calf, which differs, most certainly, from the pinchbeck of Mannheim]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=15\nPages: 15\ncarrying a silver moon on a field of gules.\nThe moon of the philosophers is not always silver, though this metal is\nconvenient to the work at a certain point. In order to lead astray the profane, the\nAdepts gave this name to mercury and its salt, the preparation of which\npresents the most grave difficulties. In order that the mercury be suitable to the\nwork, it is indispensable to animate it. This animation is performed by means of\nthe sulphur prepared to this end. In Philaletes one will find the practical\ndirections, which however must not always be followed word for word. He is\nexact, yet he fails to purge the mercury from its heterogeneous elements by\nseparating the pure from the impure, the subtle from the gross. One sees, in this\nplate, the woman who gets ready to skim the compost. It is a presentation\noverburdened with work, but in the main exact. In the Work it is in fact the\nfeminine element which performs the selection by means of its constitutive]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=24\nPages: 24,23\nmanipulations, for one may transform the metal into gold fulminate, and the\nmemoirs of the XVIIIth century report several mortal accidents following upon\nthis preparation. But if the disciple has been instructed in a good school, he will\navoid this sophistic snare and operate hermetically; he will thus avert this\nredoubtable danger. The masters know how to reach their goal by following\nother paths, which they take good care not to indicate, but which are not\nundiscoverable if one reasons with ones reason rather than with the erroneous\nbooks of the Sages. \"One needs gold in order to make gold\", says the classical\naxiom; this is correct, only there are two different kinds of gold needed to bring\nthe Work to a good end. This plate shows how one here recommences all the\npreceding operations. One must elevate the mercury to a higher degree of\nsublimation by means of the eagles, redistill it in order to give it a greater\nanimation.\nPlate 12\nT]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=22\nPages: 22,23\ngoverning of the fire and of the regimen of the Work. Concerning the latter, the\nSecret Work on the philosophy of Hermes, attributed to d'Espagnet and\nfavorably quoted, will be useful to follow, for one there finds the Zodiac of the\nPhilosophers.\nThe last figure of this plate demonstrates that the conjunction is taking place:\nthe Sun and the Moon are united. The work has given the required colors. Here\nthey have been synthesized into a circle, at first black, then white and finally\nyellow and red. The obtained product multiplies ten times, as announced by the\nnumbers.\nPlate 11\nT\nhe eleventh plate proclaims that the operator has entered the regimen of the\nSun, i.e., he has obtained the gold of the philosophers, which is not vulgar gold.\nAlthough Jupiter plays a nominal role in the operative process, it is not a\nquestion of bisulphur of tin, but of real \"mosaic\" or secret gold. Meanwhile we\nshall confess in all truth, that it is not a product of Nature, but of art.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=9\nPages: 9\ncompare it with the apologues in vulgar language. May he then be fortunate\nenough himself to hear the heavenly voice; but let him know ahead of time that\nhe will lend his ear in vain, if he has not nourished himself on the Holy\nScriptures.\nPlate 2\nT\nhe second plate is not in the order of operations. It represents the\nphilosophical egg, and yet, up to here there is nothing that could have\nacquainted us with the elements that must compose it.\nIn order to give us an idea of this, we must deliberately go over a certain\nnumber of symbols.\nAll eggs comprise a germ, Purkinje's vesicle, which is our salt; the yellow,\nwhich is our sulphur, and the albumen, which is our mercury. These are\nenclosed within a retort, which corresponds to the shell. The three products are\nhere personified by Apollo, Diana and Neptune, the God of pontic waters.\nTradition requires that this retort be enclosed within a second one, and this one]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=19\nPages: 19\nseveral times. This washing with the noble water derobes the body of its\nimpurities, corrects its humors, and disposes it towards the subsequent\noperations. It is then distilled hermetically in order to loose nothing; one\nprecipitates its salt which presents itself in small and very hygroscopic crystals,\nand which must immediately be removed from the influence of the air. This is\nwhy it has to be shut up, as shown in another figure, in a flask it has to be shut\nup, as shown in another figure, in a flask with a ground stopper, and which one\nhas to have ready at hand.\nPlate 8\nT\nhe eighth plate shows us the realized philosophic mercury, whereas the\nsecond plate only showed its constituting principles. He is produced from the\nSun and the Moon that are at his feet. The eagles are flying around him,\nbecause inside the matrass he has to undergo the necessary sublimations; which\nhas been indicated at the bottom of the plate by the athanor where the egg has]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=10\nPages: 10\nThe size of the egg is of no importance. In Nature, the egg varies from that of a\nwren to that of an ostrich; but, says Wisdom, in medio virtus. Something must\nalso be said about the philosophic glass. The authors speak only little about it,\nand then with reserve. But we know, by experience, that the best is that from\nVenice.\nIt must be of a thorough thickness, limpid, without bubbles. In former times\none still used the great glass of Lorraine made by the gentlemen glassblowers;\nbut a good practitioner must learn to make his retort by himself.\nThe lower figure of this second plate represents an athanor between a man and\na woman on their knees as if they were praying, which has led certain feeble\nspirits to believe that prayer intervenes in the work as a ponderable element.\nHere it is a non operating factor. The main thing is to employ expedient\nmaterials; but the elan of the creature towards the creator can have a favorable]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=18\nPages: 18,19\nencloses the fire of Heaven; it is the dew, or the flos coeli, which we have seen\nbeing pressed out in a previous plate. One knows that the dew contains an acid\nprinciple which literally burns. The objects submitted to its action do not delay\nto turn to dust. We must observe, however, that the philosophic dew in reality\ndiffers from the common dew. Nevertheless, it is formed from the true tears of\nDawn united to a terrestrial substance, which is the substance of the Work.\nWhen Saturn has accomplished his horrible feast, one must, says Philaletes,\ncause all the waters of deluge to pass over him, not so that he drowns, but in\norder to correct the effects of a laborious digestion and eliminate the toxins\nresulting from fermentation. This is what one calls \"to whiten the negro.\" The\noperation is rude, but efficacious, if one preserves, for it has to be repeated\nseveral times. This washing with the noble water derobes the body of its]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=14\nPages: 14\nofficiating priest divides the host by means of the silver-gilt paten. This whole\nlogomachy conceals the vermillion of the Sages, or the philosophic amalgam of\nmercury, gold and the silver of art, rendered indissoluble by the flos coeli.\nOne will learn, not without surprise, that bullfighting is a dramatic figuration of\nthe Great Work. All games have a hermetic origin. The red cockade worn by\nthe animal and to which it is attached a prize bestowed upon the victor, is the\nimage of the Rose of the Philosophers. The grand concern is to be a good\nMatador. Also, according to Spanish tradition, (to accede to government, one\nmust conquer the bull) - the mystic bull, evidently. This victory confers\n(chivalry), true nobility, the one of Science, and consequently the sceptre. This\nis why, under Louis XIII, the leaders of the \"Kabbale d'Etat\" were nicknamed\n(Matadors). This species is not extinct, though obliterated and not apparent.\nPlate 5\nT]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=28\nPages: 28,29\nyou\".\nAnd you, son of science, bear in mind the eloquent sign by which the terminal\nfigures of the fourteenth plate address you, and the gloss that closes the Mutus\nLiber: \"If you have understood, work in silence and for still some time keep\nyour mouth shut on the Mystery\".\nMAGAPHON\nQuoted Authors and Works\nAgricola (Georg Bauer) 1494 - 1595\nArtephius\nAriadne's thread (Anonymous)\nMarcellin Berthelot 1827 - 1907\nThomas Corneille 1625 - 1709\nCyliani\nd'Espagnet - the Secret Work on the Philosophy of Hermes\nNicolas Flamel 1330 - 1418\nGirtaner\nDr. Helvetius - Vitulus Aureus (1666)\nTiphaigne de Lavoisier 1743 - 1749\nGrand Paysan\nPetit Paysan\nEirenaeus Philaletes - An Open Entrance to the shut Palace of the King\nGeorge Ripley\nTypus Mundi - edited by the Jesuits\nAugust Strindberg 1849 - 1912 - The Book of Gold\nthe Abbot of Vallemont\nBasil Valentine\nthe Lords of Grosparmy and Valois\nthe Chaplain Vico\nBoileau\nEteilla - Seven Hints on the Philosophic Work\nHermogenes]"]}

{"result":["[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=9\nPages: 9\ncompare it with the apologues in vulgar language. May he then be fortunate\nenough himself to hear the heavenly voice; but let him know ahead of time that\nhe will lend his ear in vain, if he has not nourished himself on the Holy\nScriptures.\nPlate 2\nT\nhe second plate is not in the order of operations. It represents the\nphilosophical egg, and yet, up to here there is nothing that could have\nacquainted us with the elements that must compose it.\nIn order to give us an idea of this, we must deliberately go over a certain\nnumber of symbols.\nAll eggs comprise a germ, Purkinje's vesicle, which is our salt; the yellow,\nwhich is our sulphur, and the albumen, which is our mercury. These are\nenclosed within a retort, which corresponds to the shell. The three products are\nhere personified by Apollo, Diana and Neptune, the God of pontic waters.\nTradition requires that this retort be enclosed within a second one, and this one]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=10\nPages: 10\nThe size of the egg is of no importance. In Nature, the egg varies from that of a\nwren to that of an ostrich; but, says Wisdom, in medio virtus. Something must\nalso be said about the philosophic glass. The authors speak only little about it,\nand then with reserve. But we know, by experience, that the best is that from\nVenice.\nIt must be of a thorough thickness, limpid, without bubbles. In former times\none still used the great glass of Lorraine made by the gentlemen glassblowers;\nbut a good practitioner must learn to make his retort by himself.\nThe lower figure of this second plate represents an athanor between a man and\na woman on their knees as if they were praying, which has led certain feeble\nspirits to believe that prayer intervenes in the work as a ponderable element.\nHere it is a non operating factor. The main thing is to employ expedient\nmaterials; but the elan of the creature towards the creator can have a favorable]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=9\nPages: 9,10\nTradition requires that this retort be enclosed within a second one, and this one\nagain within a third one made of wood from an old oak. Flamel expressly says:\n\"Note that oak tree\", and Vico, the chaplain of the Lords of Grosparmy and\nValois recommends it with no less interest. This insistence is significant, and\nwe must recall that in the first plate, on the rock of the Sages grows the Kermes\noak, which is the Hermes of the Adepts, because, in the Hebrew language, K\nand H are but one and the same letter, taken alternatively one for the other. But\nhere one must be on guard, the mineral kermes leads to the trap set by\nPhilaletes, Artephius, Basil Valentine and many others, and one should not\nloose view of the fact that the philosophers delight in certain verbal collusions.\n\"is the artificial mercury that amalgamates the compost.\"\nThe size of the egg is of no importance. In Nature, the egg varies from that of a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=8\nPages: 8,9\nother red.\nOne will ask us, and not without reason, what magic word is capable of\nextracting from the arms of Morpheus our Epimenides, who really seems to be\ndeaf to the clamour of the trumpets. This word comes from God, carried by the\nangels, the messengers of fire, It is a divine breath that stirs in an invisible, but\ncertain, manner, and this is no exaggeration. Without the concourse of the\nheavens, the work of man is useless. One neither grafts trees, nor does one sow\nthe grain during all seasons. Everything has its time. The philosophical Work is\ncalled the Celestial Agriculture, and not without cause; one of the greatest\nauthors has signed his writings with the name Agricola, and two other excellent\nadepts known under the names of Grand Paysan and Petit Paysan.\nThus, the disciple will have to meditate a long time on this first plate and\ncompare it with the apologues in vulgar language. May he then be fortunate]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=26\nPages: 26\nallegories of the philosophers but a treatise on ascesis where they would be\nvery embarrassed to explain each symbol - these pseudo-mystics see in this\nplate an image of the resurrection of man and of his return to the celestial\nfatherland, and they become blissfully enraptured by this discovery, which they\nare not far from considering ingenious.\nBut if we become pure spirit again, it follows that our body enclosed its essence\nunder its gross form and, under these conditions, one cannot deny the same\nproperty to the metals. The spirit or the fire is everywhere and in everything: it\nlies in the flint so cold in appearance, in the metals that one transforms into\ninflammable fulminates that explode upon the least shock. But, transmutation is\na phenomenon that causes the species to pass from an inferior to a superior\nplane by means of a spiritual agent, a true seed called powder of projection.\nThis marvelous product is obtained by the real death and putrefaction of a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=8\nPages: 8,7\nThe practice of Philaletes, presented under an amiable and persuasive exterior,\ncounts among the most subtle and perfidious fictions of hermetic literature. Yet\nit does contain the truth, but similar to poison, sometimes conceals its own\nantidote if one only knows how to isolate it from its pernicious alkaloids. As\noccasion arises we shall signal the traps, in so far as they present themselves to\nus along our way.\nThe Mutus Liber is composed of fifteen emblematic plates, some truthful,\nothers misrepresented, and disposed according to one of those beautiful\ndisorders, that, following the precept of Boileau, is an effect of the art.\nPlate 1\nT\nhe first plate that serves as frontispiece is truly capital. On its\ncomprehension depends the whole success of the Work\n.One sees there, inside a border formed by two interlacing rosaries, a man\nasleep on a rock whereon grow some languishing kermes - oaks. A limpid\nwater with metallic reflections flows out from it. Next to the sleeper, on a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=10\nPages: 10,11\nmaterials; but the elan of the creature towards the creator can have a favorable\ninfluence on the directives, for the light comes from God. One must\nnevertheless liberate oneself from these not very effective suggestions. The\nartist's prayer is yet more his work, often hard, dangerous and incompatible\nwith too white hands.\nCount then above all on the improbus labor.\nPlate 3\nT\nhe third plate is no longer in its place. It leads us into the empire of\nNeptune. One sees, frolicking in his waves, the dolphin dear to Apollo and on a\nboat some fishermen putting out their gear. In another ship a man lies stretched\nout in a nonchalant position. In the second, a landscape with on one side a ram,\non the other a bull, which we shall find back further on and shall study at a\nmore opportune moment. Below on the left a woman holds a basket which is\nthe symbol of the grated lantern of the philosophers; on the right a man throws]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=2\nPages: 2,4\na pseudonym.\nThe Mutus Liber also occurs in Manget's Bibliotheca Chemica\nCuriosa of 1707.\nMore information may be found in {A Prelude to Chemistry} by John Read,\nLondon 1936, page 155 et seq.\nK.H.\nKjell Hellesoe\nStavanger 1985\nAll plates courtesy of Adam McLean\nTranscribed by A.M.W. House\n~HYPOTYPOSE~\nT\nhis title, good as it may seem, has not the least pretension. It is all technical,\nthe only suitable and genuine on the subject, because it traces, in its\nconciseness the plan of our study. A hypotypose ( from , under, and , print,\nemblem ) is an explanation placed under abstract figures. Well, the Mutus Liber\nis then a collection of enigmatic images.\nAround the Mutus Liber an absurd legend has formed itself. One school which has nothing hermetic except the name - has given this work a reputation\nof impenetrable obscurity, and as such, worships it as a sacrament, without\nunderstanding it. This is an error; even as translating Mutus Liber by the Mute]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=28\nPages: 28,29\nyou\".\nAnd you, son of science, bear in mind the eloquent sign by which the terminal\nfigures of the fourteenth plate address you, and the gloss that closes the Mutus\nLiber: \"If you have understood, work in silence and for still some time keep\nyour mouth shut on the Mystery\".\nMAGAPHON\nQuoted Authors and Works\nAgricola (Georg Bauer) 1494 - 1595\nArtephius\nAriadne's thread (Anonymous)\nMarcellin Berthelot 1827 - 1907\nThomas Corneille 1625 - 1709\nCyliani\nd'Espagnet - the Secret Work on the Philosophy of Hermes\nNicolas Flamel 1330 - 1418\nGirtaner\nDr. Helvetius - Vitulus Aureus (1666)\nTiphaigne de Lavoisier 1743 - 1749\nGrand Paysan\nPetit Paysan\nEirenaeus Philaletes - An Open Entrance to the shut Palace of the King\nGeorge Ripley\nTypus Mundi - edited by the Jesuits\nAugust Strindberg 1849 - 1912 - The Book of Gold\nthe Abbot of Vallemont\nBasil Valentine\nthe Lords of Grosparmy and Valois\nthe Chaplain Vico\nBoileau\nEteilla - Seven Hints on the Philosophic Work\nHermogenes]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=24\nPages: 24,25\nanimation.\nPlate 12\nT\nhe twelfth plate instructs us how one may carry this mercury to a superior\ngradation. To this end one must recommence the imbibitions of the flos coeli,\nuntil the mercury, which is eager for them, is impregnated by them to\nsaturation.\nPlate 13\nT\nhe thirteenth plate is a repetition of the tenth, for in the work, all operations\nfollow each other and resemble each other; but this new conjunction, which\noperates with substances sublimated to the extreme, is nothing but the\nbeginning of the multiplication. The work is the same as in plate ten and, in the\ncoction, one will see the colours reappear. Its duration decreases in proportion\nas the multiplicative power becomes augmented, in such a way that in the end it\ntakes but one day to obtain the result that in the beginning required months.\nThe numbers on this plate give the transmuting powers obtained by the\nsubsequent coctions.\nPlate 14\nT\nhe fourteenth plate is mainly dedicated to the instrumentation. One there]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=15\nPages: 15\ncarrying a silver moon on a field of gules.\nThe moon of the philosophers is not always silver, though this metal is\nconvenient to the work at a certain point. In order to lead astray the profane, the\nAdepts gave this name to mercury and its salt, the preparation of which\npresents the most grave difficulties. In order that the mercury be suitable to the\nwork, it is indispensable to animate it. This animation is performed by means of\nthe sulphur prepared to this end. In Philaletes one will find the practical\ndirections, which however must not always be followed word for word. He is\nexact, yet he fails to purge the mercury from its heterogeneous elements by\nseparating the pure from the impure, the subtle from the gross. One sees, in this\nplate, the woman who gets ready to skim the compost. It is a presentation\noverburdened with work, but in the main exact. In the Work it is in fact the\nfeminine element which performs the selection by means of its constitutive]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=20\nPages: 20,21\nthe point of repeating it when we were already provided with it? It is not that\nthe author of the Mutus Liber would send us back to the fields to fetch some\nmore; but surely he was obliged to repeat this symbol, the moment that this\ncelestial agent had to enter into a new combination. In one of the figures of this\nplate, we see Mercury in the process of buying a flask of this divine water from\na country woman. He therefore has need for it for some use. Philaletes\nprescribes, effectively, to wash the mercury several times, in such a way as to\nmake it loose some of its oily nature. He very carefully describes this operation\nwhich is accomplished by means of the celestial water brought to a certain\ntemperature, nevertheless moderate, for it takes only a little too much heat for\nthe fiery part to retake its path to the stars. Philaletes is a great master, his word\nhas authority and he presents the work with such ingenuity, that no suspicion of]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=24\nPages: 24,23\nmanipulations, for one may transform the metal into gold fulminate, and the\nmemoirs of the XVIIIth century report several mortal accidents following upon\nthis preparation. But if the disciple has been instructed in a good school, he will\navoid this sophistic snare and operate hermetically; he will thus avert this\nredoubtable danger. The masters know how to reach their goal by following\nother paths, which they take good care not to indicate, but which are not\nundiscoverable if one reasons with ones reason rather than with the erroneous\nbooks of the Sages. \"One needs gold in order to make gold\", says the classical\naxiom; this is correct, only there are two different kinds of gold needed to bring\nthe Work to a good end. This plate shows how one here recommences all the\npreceding operations. One must elevate the mercury to a higher degree of\nsublimation by means of the eagles, redistill it in order to give it a greater\nanimation.\nPlate 12\nT]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=22\nPages: 22,23\ngoverning of the fire and of the regimen of the Work. Concerning the latter, the\nSecret Work on the philosophy of Hermes, attributed to d'Espagnet and\nfavorably quoted, will be useful to follow, for one there finds the Zodiac of the\nPhilosophers.\nThe last figure of this plate demonstrates that the conjunction is taking place:\nthe Sun and the Moon are united. The work has given the required colors. Here\nthey have been synthesized into a circle, at first black, then white and finally\nyellow and red. The obtained product multiplies ten times, as announced by the\nnumbers.\nPlate 11\nT\nhe eleventh plate proclaims that the operator has entered the regimen of the\nSun, i.e., he has obtained the gold of the philosophers, which is not vulgar gold.\nAlthough Jupiter plays a nominal role in the operative process, it is not a\nquestion of bisulphur of tin, but of real \"mosaic\" or secret gold. Meanwhile we\nshall confess in all truth, that it is not a product of Nature, but of art.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=12\nPages: 12,13\nfrom seven to ten from the Sun. They are indicated by the flying of the birds\nand are indispensable, for they prepare the nuptial robe of Apollo and Diana,\nwithout which their mystical union would be impossible. That is why Jupiter,\nthe god who governs the eagle, presides over these operations.\nPlate 4\nT\nhe fourth plate shows how the collection of the flos coeli works. Some\nsheets are stretched out on poles in order to receive the heavenly dew. Below a\nman and a woman are wringing them to press out the divine liquor, that falls\ninto a large vessel put there to that purpose. To the left one sees the Ram; on\nthe right the Bull.\nThe flos coeli have put the spirit of the bad puffers to torture. Some have seen\nin it a kind of magical influx, for them magic is a supernatural power, acquired\nby concourse with spirits, good or bad. Others, more realistic and closer to the\ntruth, have recognized in the morning dew. The flos coeli is in fact called the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=19\nPages: 19\nseveral times. This washing with the noble water derobes the body of its\nimpurities, corrects its humors, and disposes it towards the subsequent\noperations. It is then distilled hermetically in order to loose nothing; one\nprecipitates its salt which presents itself in small and very hygroscopic crystals,\nand which must immediately be removed from the influence of the air. This is\nwhy it has to be shut up, as shown in another figure, in a flask it has to be shut\nup, as shown in another figure, in a flask with a ground stopper, and which one\nhas to have ready at hand.\nPlate 8\nT\nhe eighth plate shows us the realized philosophic mercury, whereas the\nsecond plate only showed its constituting principles. He is produced from the\nSun and the Moon that are at his feet. The eagles are flying around him,\nbecause inside the matrass he has to undergo the necessary sublimations; which\nhas been indicated at the bottom of the plate by the athanor where the egg has]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=13\nPages: 13\nrecognized some virtue. It is up to the disciple to form his own opinion\naccording to his own judgement. But it is beyond doubt that an agent kept\nsecret, called \"Celestial Manna\" plays an important part in the work.\nWe must declare, sincerely, that the Ram and the Bull in the plate, which one\nalways takes for the signs of the zodiac under which one must collect the flos\ncoeli, have no connection with the astrological symbols. The Ram is Hermes'\nCriophore, which is the same as Jupiter Ammon; and the Bull, whose horns\ndelineate the crescent, attribute of Diana and Isis, who are identical with the\ncow Io, lover of Jupiter, and the philosophers moon. These two animals\npersonify the two natures of the Stone. Their union forms the Azyme of the\nEgyptians, the Asimah of the Bible, hybrid monster designating the orichalc,\nthe Latten or bronze oryx, the bull of Phalaris or of bronze, the golden or\nchrysoeale calf, which differs, most certainly, from the pinchbeck of Mannheim]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=4\nPages: 4\ninstructed in their proper language. One has then, to get used to this very simple\nidea, that the Mutus Liber is a book like all the others and can be plainly read,\nonce one has the grille.\nMoreover, the alchemical works, in verse, prose, Latin, French or any other\nlanguage are themselves nothing but cryptogrammes. Although written with the\nordinary letters of the common alphabet and vocabulary they remain no less\nindecipherable for those who ignore the key. To tell the truth, among the two\nstenographic procedures, the one of the Mutus Liber is still the more\ntransparent, for the objective image is certainly more speaking than literary\ntropes and rhetorical figures, especially in a matter as experimental as\nchemistry.\nWhile attaching these few pages of commentary to the allegorical plates of the\nMutus Liber, we are proposing, without leaving the philosophers mantle, to\nfacilitate the lecture, by a sincere interpretation, to the true inquisitors of]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=14\nPages: 14,15\n(Matadors). This species is not extinct, though obliterated and not apparent.\nPlate 5\nT\nhe fifth plate initiates the disciple to the laboratory operations. One there\nwitnesses a sequence of varied manipulations. One will see that it deals with\nthe coction of the fluid collected in the proceeding plate. A man and a woman\nappear to be pouring it into a pot put over the fire. In the figure below the man\nadds a viscous product and holds, in his other hand, a substance which is not\ndifficult to discover, if one bears in mind that the egg of Hermogenes is\nanalogous to the others. In the same picture, on the side, a naked person,\ndecorated by a half-moon and embraced by an infant, receives a flask, where\none notices four small triangles. They represent the proportions of elements put\ninto the work, namely one part of sulphur to three of mercury. A lunar body\nintervenes in this operation, which has been indicated by an escutcheon\ncarrying a silver moon on a field of gules.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=21\nPages: 21\nof the fluid in such a way that the powder of projection obtained multiplies 100,\n1000 or 10,000 times, etc., according to the potential of the artist. Thus these\nphantasists pretend to impregnate the matter with astral spirit as one charges a\nbattery with electricity. This is what the poorly understood and randomly\napplied analogy leads to. We shall not name these singular theoreticians whose\nsincerity is respectable; but we had to signal the fact, in order to put studious\nand too confident disciple on his guard against the hazardous reading of authors\nwithout mandate and without consecration, who have never produced anything\nbut books, but who from that time pass for Masters.\nPlate 10\nT\nhe tenth plate represents the conjunction. The first figure shows, on the\nscales of a balance, on one side the salt indicated by the star, on the other the\nsulphur designated by a flower, which with its heart forms seven petals. These]"]}

{"result":["[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=13\nPages: 13\nrecognized some virtue. It is up to the disciple to form his own opinion\naccording to his own judgement. But it is beyond doubt that an agent kept\nsecret, called \"Celestial Manna\" plays an important part in the work.\nWe must declare, sincerely, that the Ram and the Bull in the plate, which one\nalways takes for the signs of the zodiac under which one must collect the flos\ncoeli, have no connection with the astrological symbols. The Ram is Hermes'\nCriophore, which is the same as Jupiter Ammon; and the Bull, whose horns\ndelineate the crescent, attribute of Diana and Isis, who are identical with the\ncow Io, lover of Jupiter, and the philosophers moon. These two animals\npersonify the two natures of the Stone. Their union forms the Azyme of the\nEgyptians, the Asimah of the Bible, hybrid monster designating the orichalc,\nthe Latten or bronze oryx, the bull of Phalaris or of bronze, the golden or\nchrysoeale calf, which differs, most certainly, from the pinchbeck of Mannheim]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=12\nPages: 12,13\nfrom seven to ten from the Sun. They are indicated by the flying of the birds\nand are indispensable, for they prepare the nuptial robe of Apollo and Diana,\nwithout which their mystical union would be impossible. That is why Jupiter,\nthe god who governs the eagle, presides over these operations.\nPlate 4\nT\nhe fourth plate shows how the collection of the flos coeli works. Some\nsheets are stretched out on poles in order to receive the heavenly dew. Below a\nman and a woman are wringing them to press out the divine liquor, that falls\ninto a large vessel put there to that purpose. To the left one sees the Ram; on\nthe right the Bull.\nThe flos coeli have put the spirit of the bad puffers to torture. Some have seen\nin it a kind of magical influx, for them magic is a supernatural power, acquired\nby concourse with spirits, good or bad. Others, more realistic and closer to the\ntruth, have recognized in the morning dew. The flos coeli is in fact called the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=10\nPages: 10,11\nmaterials; but the elan of the creature towards the creator can have a favorable\ninfluence on the directives, for the light comes from God. One must\nnevertheless liberate oneself from these not very effective suggestions. The\nartist's prayer is yet more his work, often hard, dangerous and incompatible\nwith too white hands.\nCount then above all on the improbus labor.\nPlate 3\nT\nhe third plate is no longer in its place. It leads us into the empire of\nNeptune. One sees, frolicking in his waves, the dolphin dear to Apollo and on a\nboat some fishermen putting out their gear. In another ship a man lies stretched\nout in a nonchalant position. In the second, a landscape with on one side a ram,\non the other a bull, which we shall find back further on and shall study at a\nmore opportune moment. Below on the left a woman holds a basket which is\nthe symbol of the grated lantern of the philosophers; on the right a man throws]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=14\nPages: 14\nofficiating priest divides the host by means of the silver-gilt paten. This whole\nlogomachy conceals the vermillion of the Sages, or the philosophic amalgam of\nmercury, gold and the silver of art, rendered indissoluble by the flos coeli.\nOne will learn, not without surprise, that bullfighting is a dramatic figuration of\nthe Great Work. All games have a hermetic origin. The red cockade worn by\nthe animal and to which it is attached a prize bestowed upon the victor, is the\nimage of the Rose of the Philosophers. The grand concern is to be a good\nMatador. Also, according to Spanish tradition, (to accede to government, one\nmust conquer the bull) - the mystic bull, evidently. This victory confers\n(chivalry), true nobility, the one of Science, and consequently the sceptre. This\nis why, under Louis XIII, the leaders of the \"Kabbale d'Etat\" were nicknamed\n(Matadors). This species is not extinct, though obliterated and not apparent.\nPlate 5\nT]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=26\nPages: 26\nallegories of the philosophers but a treatise on ascesis where they would be\nvery embarrassed to explain each symbol - these pseudo-mystics see in this\nplate an image of the resurrection of man and of his return to the celestial\nfatherland, and they become blissfully enraptured by this discovery, which they\nare not far from considering ingenious.\nBut if we become pure spirit again, it follows that our body enclosed its essence\nunder its gross form and, under these conditions, one cannot deny the same\nproperty to the metals. The spirit or the fire is everywhere and in everything: it\nlies in the flint so cold in appearance, in the metals that one transforms into\ninflammable fulminates that explode upon the least shock. But, transmutation is\na phenomenon that causes the species to pass from an inferior to a superior\nplane by means of a spiritual agent, a true seed called powder of projection.\nThis marvelous product is obtained by the real death and putrefaction of a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=8\nPages: 8,9\nother red.\nOne will ask us, and not without reason, what magic word is capable of\nextracting from the arms of Morpheus our Epimenides, who really seems to be\ndeaf to the clamour of the trumpets. This word comes from God, carried by the\nangels, the messengers of fire, It is a divine breath that stirs in an invisible, but\ncertain, manner, and this is no exaggeration. Without the concourse of the\nheavens, the work of man is useless. One neither grafts trees, nor does one sow\nthe grain during all seasons. Everything has its time. The philosophical Work is\ncalled the Celestial Agriculture, and not without cause; one of the greatest\nauthors has signed his writings with the name Agricola, and two other excellent\nadepts known under the names of Grand Paysan and Petit Paysan.\nThus, the disciple will have to meditate a long time on this first plate and\ncompare it with the apologues in vulgar language. May he then be fortunate]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=14\nPages: 14,15\n(Matadors). This species is not extinct, though obliterated and not apparent.\nPlate 5\nT\nhe fifth plate initiates the disciple to the laboratory operations. One there\nwitnesses a sequence of varied manipulations. One will see that it deals with\nthe coction of the fluid collected in the proceeding plate. A man and a woman\nappear to be pouring it into a pot put over the fire. In the figure below the man\nadds a viscous product and holds, in his other hand, a substance which is not\ndifficult to discover, if one bears in mind that the egg of Hermogenes is\nanalogous to the others. In the same picture, on the side, a naked person,\ndecorated by a half-moon and embraced by an infant, receives a flask, where\none notices four small triangles. They represent the proportions of elements put\ninto the work, namely one part of sulphur to three of mercury. A lunar body\nintervenes in this operation, which has been indicated by an escutcheon\ncarrying a silver moon on a field of gules.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=20\nPages: 20,21\nthe point of repeating it when we were already provided with it? It is not that\nthe author of the Mutus Liber would send us back to the fields to fetch some\nmore; but surely he was obliged to repeat this symbol, the moment that this\ncelestial agent had to enter into a new combination. In one of the figures of this\nplate, we see Mercury in the process of buying a flask of this divine water from\na country woman. He therefore has need for it for some use. Philaletes\nprescribes, effectively, to wash the mercury several times, in such a way as to\nmake it loose some of its oily nature. He very carefully describes this operation\nwhich is accomplished by means of the celestial water brought to a certain\ntemperature, nevertheless moderate, for it takes only a little too much heat for\nthe fiery part to retake its path to the stars. Philaletes is a great master, his word\nhas authority and he presents the work with such ingenuity, that no suspicion of]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=9\nPages: 9,10\nTradition requires that this retort be enclosed within a second one, and this one\nagain within a third one made of wood from an old oak. Flamel expressly says:\n\"Note that oak tree\", and Vico, the chaplain of the Lords of Grosparmy and\nValois recommends it with no less interest. This insistence is significant, and\nwe must recall that in the first plate, on the rock of the Sages grows the Kermes\noak, which is the Hermes of the Adepts, because, in the Hebrew language, K\nand H are but one and the same letter, taken alternatively one for the other. But\nhere one must be on guard, the mineral kermes leads to the trap set by\nPhilaletes, Artephius, Basil Valentine and many others, and one should not\nloose view of the fact that the philosophers delight in certain verbal collusions.\n\"is the artificial mercury that amalgamates the compost.\"\nThe size of the egg is of no importance. In Nature, the egg varies from that of a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=25\nPages: 25,26\nson of science. We cannot here transgress the will of the author, who witnesses\nof his well settled design to let the symbol alone express all his thought. If these\nlines come under the eyes of an adept, he will approve of our reserve, which\nnevertheless is close to indiscretion. But for the rest qui potest capere capiat.\nPlate 15\nT\nhe fifteenth and last plate represents the apotheosis of Saturn, victorious\nover his son Jupiter who had dethroned him, and lies inert upon the ground. It\nis the solarization of the vilest of metals, his resurrection and glorification in\nthe light. The two branches of sweet-briar of the frontispiece are charged with\nred berries and white berries filled with active seeds where each one has the\npower to mault all the impure metals into gold or silver. The so-called mystics who deny the possibility of the metallic work and have found nothing in the\nallegories of the philosophers but a treatise on ascesis where they would be]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=24\nPages: 24,23\nmanipulations, for one may transform the metal into gold fulminate, and the\nmemoirs of the XVIIIth century report several mortal accidents following upon\nthis preparation. But if the disciple has been instructed in a good school, he will\navoid this sophistic snare and operate hermetically; he will thus avert this\nredoubtable danger. The masters know how to reach their goal by following\nother paths, which they take good care not to indicate, but which are not\nundiscoverable if one reasons with ones reason rather than with the erroneous\nbooks of the Sages. \"One needs gold in order to make gold\", says the classical\naxiom; this is correct, only there are two different kinds of gold needed to bring\nthe Work to a good end. This plate shows how one here recommences all the\npreceding operations. One must elevate the mercury to a higher degree of\nsublimation by means of the eagles, redistill it in order to give it a greater\nanimation.\nPlate 12\nT]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=19\nPages: 19\nseveral times. This washing with the noble water derobes the body of its\nimpurities, corrects its humors, and disposes it towards the subsequent\noperations. It is then distilled hermetically in order to loose nothing; one\nprecipitates its salt which presents itself in small and very hygroscopic crystals,\nand which must immediately be removed from the influence of the air. This is\nwhy it has to be shut up, as shown in another figure, in a flask it has to be shut\nup, as shown in another figure, in a flask with a ground stopper, and which one\nhas to have ready at hand.\nPlate 8\nT\nhe eighth plate shows us the realized philosophic mercury, whereas the\nsecond plate only showed its constituting principles. He is produced from the\nSun and the Moon that are at his feet. The eagles are flying around him,\nbecause inside the matrass he has to undergo the necessary sublimations; which\nhas been indicated at the bottom of the plate by the athanor where the egg has]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=28\nPages: 28,29\nyou\".\nAnd you, son of science, bear in mind the eloquent sign by which the terminal\nfigures of the fourteenth plate address you, and the gloss that closes the Mutus\nLiber: \"If you have understood, work in silence and for still some time keep\nyour mouth shut on the Mystery\".\nMAGAPHON\nQuoted Authors and Works\nAgricola (Georg Bauer) 1494 - 1595\nArtephius\nAriadne's thread (Anonymous)\nMarcellin Berthelot 1827 - 1907\nThomas Corneille 1625 - 1709\nCyliani\nd'Espagnet - the Secret Work on the Philosophy of Hermes\nNicolas Flamel 1330 - 1418\nGirtaner\nDr. Helvetius - Vitulus Aureus (1666)\nTiphaigne de Lavoisier 1743 - 1749\nGrand Paysan\nPetit Paysan\nEirenaeus Philaletes - An Open Entrance to the shut Palace of the King\nGeorge Ripley\nTypus Mundi - edited by the Jesuits\nAugust Strindberg 1849 - 1912 - The Book of Gold\nthe Abbot of Vallemont\nBasil Valentine\nthe Lords of Grosparmy and Valois\nthe Chaplain Vico\nBoileau\nEteilla - Seven Hints on the Philosophic Work\nHermogenes]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=2\nPages: 2,4\na pseudonym.\nThe Mutus Liber also occurs in Manget's Bibliotheca Chemica\nCuriosa of 1707.\nMore information may be found in {A Prelude to Chemistry} by John Read,\nLondon 1936, page 155 et seq.\nK.H.\nKjell Hellesoe\nStavanger 1985\nAll plates courtesy of Adam McLean\nTranscribed by A.M.W. House\n~HYPOTYPOSE~\nT\nhis title, good as it may seem, has not the least pretension. It is all technical,\nthe only suitable and genuine on the subject, because it traces, in its\nconciseness the plan of our study. A hypotypose ( from , under, and , print,\nemblem ) is an explanation placed under abstract figures. Well, the Mutus Liber\nis then a collection of enigmatic images.\nAround the Mutus Liber an absurd legend has formed itself. One school which has nothing hermetic except the name - has given this work a reputation\nof impenetrable obscurity, and as such, worships it as a sacrament, without\nunderstanding it. This is an error; even as translating Mutus Liber by the Mute]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=15\nPages: 15\ncarrying a silver moon on a field of gules.\nThe moon of the philosophers is not always silver, though this metal is\nconvenient to the work at a certain point. In order to lead astray the profane, the\nAdepts gave this name to mercury and its salt, the preparation of which\npresents the most grave difficulties. In order that the mercury be suitable to the\nwork, it is indispensable to animate it. This animation is performed by means of\nthe sulphur prepared to this end. In Philaletes one will find the practical\ndirections, which however must not always be followed word for word. He is\nexact, yet he fails to purge the mercury from its heterogeneous elements by\nseparating the pure from the impure, the subtle from the gross. One sees, in this\nplate, the woman who gets ready to skim the compost. It is a presentation\noverburdened with work, but in the main exact. In the Work it is in fact the\nfeminine element which performs the selection by means of its constitutive]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=24\nPages: 24,25\nanimation.\nPlate 12\nT\nhe twelfth plate instructs us how one may carry this mercury to a superior\ngradation. To this end one must recommence the imbibitions of the flos coeli,\nuntil the mercury, which is eager for them, is impregnated by them to\nsaturation.\nPlate 13\nT\nhe thirteenth plate is a repetition of the tenth, for in the work, all operations\nfollow each other and resemble each other; but this new conjunction, which\noperates with substances sublimated to the extreme, is nothing but the\nbeginning of the multiplication. The work is the same as in plate ten and, in the\ncoction, one will see the colours reappear. Its duration decreases in proportion\nas the multiplicative power becomes augmented, in such a way that in the end it\ntakes but one day to obtain the result that in the beginning required months.\nThe numbers on this plate give the transmuting powers obtained by the\nsubsequent coctions.\nPlate 14\nT\nhe fourteenth plate is mainly dedicated to the instrumentation. One there]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=10\nPages: 10\nThe size of the egg is of no importance. In Nature, the egg varies from that of a\nwren to that of an ostrich; but, says Wisdom, in medio virtus. Something must\nalso be said about the philosophic glass. The authors speak only little about it,\nand then with reserve. But we know, by experience, that the best is that from\nVenice.\nIt must be of a thorough thickness, limpid, without bubbles. In former times\none still used the great glass of Lorraine made by the gentlemen glassblowers;\nbut a good practitioner must learn to make his retort by himself.\nThe lower figure of this second plate represents an athanor between a man and\na woman on their knees as if they were praying, which has led certain feeble\nspirits to believe that prayer intervenes in the work as a ponderable element.\nHere it is a non operating factor. The main thing is to employ expedient\nmaterials; but the elan of the creature towards the creator can have a favorable]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=16\nPages: 16,15\nfeminine element which performs the selection by means of its constitutive\nvirtues; but the artist must lend a hand and assist nature with prudence.\nThe other figures represent digestions and distillations. We will not be telling\nthe sensible reader anything new, by saying that a man crammed up with\nchemical formulas and apt to resolve all school problems on a piece of paper, is\nnot entitled to call himself a chemist. It is therefore necessary that theory is\naccompanied by practice, the one being the consequence of the other. Only\nlaboratory practice gives mastership, for what is practice if not controlled by\ntheory. The rigor of the former corrects the vagaries of the latter. Thus the\ndisciple must exert himself to realize all his concepts.\nPlate 6\nT\nhe sixth plate is the continuation of the fifth. One will notice that here the\noperations are always effectuated by a man and a woman, symbolizing the two\nnatures. The exterior action of the two natures indicates the interior work of the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=21\nPages: 21\nof the fluid in such a way that the powder of projection obtained multiplies 100,\n1000 or 10,000 times, etc., according to the potential of the artist. Thus these\nphantasists pretend to impregnate the matter with astral spirit as one charges a\nbattery with electricity. This is what the poorly understood and randomly\napplied analogy leads to. We shall not name these singular theoreticians whose\nsincerity is respectable; but we had to signal the fact, in order to put studious\nand too confident disciple on his guard against the hazardous reading of authors\nwithout mandate and without consecration, who have never produced anything\nbut books, but who from that time pass for Masters.\nPlate 10\nT\nhe tenth plate represents the conjunction. The first figure shows, on the\nscales of a balance, on one side the salt indicated by the star, on the other the\nsulphur designated by a flower, which with its heart forms seven petals. These]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=20\nPages: 20\novercoming the difficulty, without pretending that it has any other advantages.\nWe are thus in a position to acknowledge the operation as possible, which does\nnot imply that we adhere to its use in the actual practice. Only with the utmost\nreserve should one accept all the bizarre names, imposed by the philosophers\nupon certain ingredients. These different epithets serve the sole purpose of\ndisguising the course of operations. In this manner the same product carries a\ndifferent name all according to whether it has or has not been exalted. And it is\nabove all true that alcohol, though extracted from wine, differs from it in name\nas well as in appearance, in virtue as well as in effect, even as wine differs from\nthe grape from which it has been drawn...\nPlate 9\nT\nhe ninth plate brings us back to the flos coeli. Why this return, and what is\nthe point of repeating it when we were already provided with it? It is not that]"]}

{"result":["[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=16\nPages: 16,15\nfeminine element which performs the selection by means of its constitutive\nvirtues; but the artist must lend a hand and assist nature with prudence.\nThe other figures represent digestions and distillations. We will not be telling\nthe sensible reader anything new, by saying that a man crammed up with\nchemical formulas and apt to resolve all school problems on a piece of paper, is\nnot entitled to call himself a chemist. It is therefore necessary that theory is\naccompanied by practice, the one being the consequence of the other. Only\nlaboratory practice gives mastership, for what is practice if not controlled by\ntheory. The rigor of the former corrects the vagaries of the latter. Thus the\ndisciple must exert himself to realize all his concepts.\nPlate 6\nT\nhe sixth plate is the continuation of the fifth. One will notice that here the\noperations are always effectuated by a man and a woman, symbolizing the two\nnatures. The exterior action of the two natures indicates the interior work of the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=16\nPages: 16\nnatures. The exterior action of the two natures indicates the interior work of the\nmutually reacting bodies. In the first figure, the female agent plays a passive\nrole, and the male agent an active role. The latter is the sulphur' the former, the\nmoon.\nOne will doubtlessly want to know which is the mysterious sulphur concerning\nwhich the philosophers always speak without designating it by any other name.\nIt is the sulphur of the metals. The secret of the art consists in extracting it from\nmale bodies in order to unite it to female bodies, which requires their previous\ndecomposition. Present day science seems to consider this fact an absolute\nimpossibility. But some of the great chemists of the XVIIIth century have\ndemonstrated, in communications addressed to the academic societies, that the\noperation is realizable and that they had accomplished it. We have in our hands\na magnificent sulphur of silver obtained by analogous means and which closely]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=13\nPages: 13\nrecognized some virtue. It is up to the disciple to form his own opinion\naccording to his own judgement. But it is beyond doubt that an agent kept\nsecret, called \"Celestial Manna\" plays an important part in the work.\nWe must declare, sincerely, that the Ram and the Bull in the plate, which one\nalways takes for the signs of the zodiac under which one must collect the flos\ncoeli, have no connection with the astrological symbols. The Ram is Hermes'\nCriophore, which is the same as Jupiter Ammon; and the Bull, whose horns\ndelineate the crescent, attribute of Diana and Isis, who are identical with the\ncow Io, lover of Jupiter, and the philosophers moon. These two animals\npersonify the two natures of the Stone. Their union forms the Azyme of the\nEgyptians, the Asimah of the Bible, hybrid monster designating the orichalc,\nthe Latten or bronze oryx, the bull of Phalaris or of bronze, the golden or\nchrysoeale calf, which differs, most certainly, from the pinchbeck of Mannheim]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=26\nPages: 26\nallegories of the philosophers but a treatise on ascesis where they would be\nvery embarrassed to explain each symbol - these pseudo-mystics see in this\nplate an image of the resurrection of man and of his return to the celestial\nfatherland, and they become blissfully enraptured by this discovery, which they\nare not far from considering ingenious.\nBut if we become pure spirit again, it follows that our body enclosed its essence\nunder its gross form and, under these conditions, one cannot deny the same\nproperty to the metals. The spirit or the fire is everywhere and in everything: it\nlies in the flint so cold in appearance, in the metals that one transforms into\ninflammable fulminates that explode upon the least shock. But, transmutation is\na phenomenon that causes the species to pass from an inferior to a superior\nplane by means of a spiritual agent, a true seed called powder of projection.\nThis marvelous product is obtained by the real death and putrefaction of a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=20\nPages: 20,21\nthe point of repeating it when we were already provided with it? It is not that\nthe author of the Mutus Liber would send us back to the fields to fetch some\nmore; but surely he was obliged to repeat this symbol, the moment that this\ncelestial agent had to enter into a new combination. In one of the figures of this\nplate, we see Mercury in the process of buying a flask of this divine water from\na country woman. He therefore has need for it for some use. Philaletes\nprescribes, effectively, to wash the mercury several times, in such a way as to\nmake it loose some of its oily nature. He very carefully describes this operation\nwhich is accomplished by means of the celestial water brought to a certain\ntemperature, nevertheless moderate, for it takes only a little too much heat for\nthe fiery part to retake its path to the stars. Philaletes is a great master, his word\nhas authority and he presents the work with such ingenuity, that no suspicion of]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=9\nPages: 9,10\nTradition requires that this retort be enclosed within a second one, and this one\nagain within a third one made of wood from an old oak. Flamel expressly says:\n\"Note that oak tree\", and Vico, the chaplain of the Lords of Grosparmy and\nValois recommends it with no less interest. This insistence is significant, and\nwe must recall that in the first plate, on the rock of the Sages grows the Kermes\noak, which is the Hermes of the Adepts, because, in the Hebrew language, K\nand H are but one and the same letter, taken alternatively one for the other. But\nhere one must be on guard, the mineral kermes leads to the trap set by\nPhilaletes, Artephius, Basil Valentine and many others, and one should not\nloose view of the fact that the philosophers delight in certain verbal collusions.\n\"is the artificial mercury that amalgamates the compost.\"\nThe size of the egg is of no importance. In Nature, the egg varies from that of a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=24\nPages: 24,23\nmanipulations, for one may transform the metal into gold fulminate, and the\nmemoirs of the XVIIIth century report several mortal accidents following upon\nthis preparation. But if the disciple has been instructed in a good school, he will\navoid this sophistic snare and operate hermetically; he will thus avert this\nredoubtable danger. The masters know how to reach their goal by following\nother paths, which they take good care not to indicate, but which are not\nundiscoverable if one reasons with ones reason rather than with the erroneous\nbooks of the Sages. \"One needs gold in order to make gold\", says the classical\naxiom; this is correct, only there are two different kinds of gold needed to bring\nthe Work to a good end. This plate shows how one here recommences all the\npreceding operations. One must elevate the mercury to a higher degree of\nsublimation by means of the eagles, redistill it in order to give it a greater\nanimation.\nPlate 12\nT]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=22\nPages: 22,23\ngoverning of the fire and of the regimen of the Work. Concerning the latter, the\nSecret Work on the philosophy of Hermes, attributed to d'Espagnet and\nfavorably quoted, will be useful to follow, for one there finds the Zodiac of the\nPhilosophers.\nThe last figure of this plate demonstrates that the conjunction is taking place:\nthe Sun and the Moon are united. The work has given the required colors. Here\nthey have been synthesized into a circle, at first black, then white and finally\nyellow and red. The obtained product multiplies ten times, as announced by the\nnumbers.\nPlate 11\nT\nhe eleventh plate proclaims that the operator has entered the regimen of the\nSun, i.e., he has obtained the gold of the philosophers, which is not vulgar gold.\nAlthough Jupiter plays a nominal role in the operative process, it is not a\nquestion of bisulphur of tin, but of real \"mosaic\" or secret gold. Meanwhile we\nshall confess in all truth, that it is not a product of Nature, but of art.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=8\nPages: 8,9\nother red.\nOne will ask us, and not without reason, what magic word is capable of\nextracting from the arms of Morpheus our Epimenides, who really seems to be\ndeaf to the clamour of the trumpets. This word comes from God, carried by the\nangels, the messengers of fire, It is a divine breath that stirs in an invisible, but\ncertain, manner, and this is no exaggeration. Without the concourse of the\nheavens, the work of man is useless. One neither grafts trees, nor does one sow\nthe grain during all seasons. Everything has its time. The philosophical Work is\ncalled the Celestial Agriculture, and not without cause; one of the greatest\nauthors has signed his writings with the name Agricola, and two other excellent\nadepts known under the names of Grand Paysan and Petit Paysan.\nThus, the disciple will have to meditate a long time on this first plate and\ncompare it with the apologues in vulgar language. May he then be fortunate]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=10\nPages: 10\nThe size of the egg is of no importance. In Nature, the egg varies from that of a\nwren to that of an ostrich; but, says Wisdom, in medio virtus. Something must\nalso be said about the philosophic glass. The authors speak only little about it,\nand then with reserve. But we know, by experience, that the best is that from\nVenice.\nIt must be of a thorough thickness, limpid, without bubbles. In former times\none still used the great glass of Lorraine made by the gentlemen glassblowers;\nbut a good practitioner must learn to make his retort by himself.\nThe lower figure of this second plate represents an athanor between a man and\na woman on their knees as if they were praying, which has led certain feeble\nspirits to believe that prayer intervenes in the work as a ponderable element.\nHere it is a non operating factor. The main thing is to employ expedient\nmaterials; but the elan of the creature towards the creator can have a favorable]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=28\nPages: 28,29\nyou\".\nAnd you, son of science, bear in mind the eloquent sign by which the terminal\nfigures of the fourteenth plate address you, and the gloss that closes the Mutus\nLiber: \"If you have understood, work in silence and for still some time keep\nyour mouth shut on the Mystery\".\nMAGAPHON\nQuoted Authors and Works\nAgricola (Georg Bauer) 1494 - 1595\nArtephius\nAriadne's thread (Anonymous)\nMarcellin Berthelot 1827 - 1907\nThomas Corneille 1625 - 1709\nCyliani\nd'Espagnet - the Secret Work on the Philosophy of Hermes\nNicolas Flamel 1330 - 1418\nGirtaner\nDr. Helvetius - Vitulus Aureus (1666)\nTiphaigne de Lavoisier 1743 - 1749\nGrand Paysan\nPetit Paysan\nEirenaeus Philaletes - An Open Entrance to the shut Palace of the King\nGeorge Ripley\nTypus Mundi - edited by the Jesuits\nAugust Strindberg 1849 - 1912 - The Book of Gold\nthe Abbot of Vallemont\nBasil Valentine\nthe Lords of Grosparmy and Valois\nthe Chaplain Vico\nBoileau\nEteilla - Seven Hints on the Philosophic Work\nHermogenes]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=14\nPages: 14\nofficiating priest divides the host by means of the silver-gilt paten. This whole\nlogomachy conceals the vermillion of the Sages, or the philosophic amalgam of\nmercury, gold and the silver of art, rendered indissoluble by the flos coeli.\nOne will learn, not without surprise, that bullfighting is a dramatic figuration of\nthe Great Work. All games have a hermetic origin. The red cockade worn by\nthe animal and to which it is attached a prize bestowed upon the victor, is the\nimage of the Rose of the Philosophers. The grand concern is to be a good\nMatador. Also, according to Spanish tradition, (to accede to government, one\nmust conquer the bull) - the mystic bull, evidently. This victory confers\n(chivalry), true nobility, the one of Science, and consequently the sceptre. This\nis why, under Louis XIII, the leaders of the \"Kabbale d'Etat\" were nicknamed\n(Matadors). This species is not extinct, though obliterated and not apparent.\nPlate 5\nT]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=27\nPages: 27\na speed that borders on the miraculous.\nEvolution is the law of life: the mineral becomes a plant and the plant an\nanimal, by way of intussusception; but this transit is subordinated to the\nmediation of an exterior agent, plant or beast. If then the metals are admitted to\npass in this way from one kingdom to another with the assistance of a suitable\nelement, it is still more logical that a certain perfect and quintessential gold,\ntaken back to its radical and spermatic state has the virtue to exalt and to\nconvert like natures into itself. Is it not thus that the human embryo, during\ngestation, assumes and transforms the substance of beings of a less noble\norigin? Nutrition is a continual metamorphosis. Just as, in the three kingdoms,\neverything converges towards man, among the minerals all ends in gold. But\none cannot deduce from this, that nature, in the long run, makes gold from lead.\nFor this effect she needs to be assisted by art, i.e. by the magical ferment that]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=19\nPages: 19\nseveral times. This washing with the noble water derobes the body of its\nimpurities, corrects its humors, and disposes it towards the subsequent\noperations. It is then distilled hermetically in order to loose nothing; one\nprecipitates its salt which presents itself in small and very hygroscopic crystals,\nand which must immediately be removed from the influence of the air. This is\nwhy it has to be shut up, as shown in another figure, in a flask it has to be shut\nup, as shown in another figure, in a flask with a ground stopper, and which one\nhas to have ready at hand.\nPlate 8\nT\nhe eighth plate shows us the realized philosophic mercury, whereas the\nsecond plate only showed its constituting principles. He is produced from the\nSun and the Moon that are at his feet. The eagles are flying around him,\nbecause inside the matrass he has to undergo the necessary sublimations; which\nhas been indicated at the bottom of the plate by the athanor where the egg has]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=15\nPages: 15\ncarrying a silver moon on a field of gules.\nThe moon of the philosophers is not always silver, though this metal is\nconvenient to the work at a certain point. In order to lead astray the profane, the\nAdepts gave this name to mercury and its salt, the preparation of which\npresents the most grave difficulties. In order that the mercury be suitable to the\nwork, it is indispensable to animate it. This animation is performed by means of\nthe sulphur prepared to this end. In Philaletes one will find the practical\ndirections, which however must not always be followed word for word. He is\nexact, yet he fails to purge the mercury from its heterogeneous elements by\nseparating the pure from the impure, the subtle from the gross. One sees, in this\nplate, the woman who gets ready to skim the compost. It is a presentation\noverburdened with work, but in the main exact. In the Work it is in fact the\nfeminine element which performs the selection by means of its constitutive]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=21\nPages: 21\nof the fluid in such a way that the powder of projection obtained multiplies 100,\n1000 or 10,000 times, etc., according to the potential of the artist. Thus these\nphantasists pretend to impregnate the matter with astral spirit as one charges a\nbattery with electricity. This is what the poorly understood and randomly\napplied analogy leads to. We shall not name these singular theoreticians whose\nsincerity is respectable; but we had to signal the fact, in order to put studious\nand too confident disciple on his guard against the hazardous reading of authors\nwithout mandate and without consecration, who have never produced anything\nbut books, but who from that time pass for Masters.\nPlate 10\nT\nhe tenth plate represents the conjunction. The first figure shows, on the\nscales of a balance, on one side the salt indicated by the star, on the other the\nsulphur designated by a flower, which with its heart forms seven petals. These]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=18\nPages: 18\nsupposes a combination obtained by a procedure adapted to the nature of the\nbodies. But one should not mix the two ways: Liquids will unite to liquids and\nsolids to solids.\nIn this operation the fire plays a certain role. One of the figures represents\nSaturn devouring his son in the midst of a fire. Here one pay the greatest\npossible attention to the words of the philosophers. One of them will assure you\nthat elementary fire is the destructor of the bodies, and that their fusion\nvolatilizes the soul; another one will declare that the Sages burn with water, and\nat the same time prohibiting the use of corrosive liquors such as acids. The\ndisciple thus finds himself enclosed within a vicious circle, from which it is\nextremely difficult for him to escape advantageously. One has to take the mean\nbetween the two doctrines in order to make them agree. It is a water which\nencloses the fire of Heaven; it is the dew, or the flos coeli, which we have seen]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=12\nPages: 12,13\nfrom seven to ten from the Sun. They are indicated by the flying of the birds\nand are indispensable, for they prepare the nuptial robe of Apollo and Diana,\nwithout which their mystical union would be impossible. That is why Jupiter,\nthe god who governs the eagle, presides over these operations.\nPlate 4\nT\nhe fourth plate shows how the collection of the flos coeli works. Some\nsheets are stretched out on poles in order to receive the heavenly dew. Below a\nman and a woman are wringing them to press out the divine liquor, that falls\ninto a large vessel put there to that purpose. To the left one sees the Ram; on\nthe right the Bull.\nThe flos coeli have put the spirit of the bad puffers to torture. Some have seen\nin it a kind of magical influx, for them magic is a supernatural power, acquired\nby concourse with spirits, good or bad. Others, more realistic and closer to the\ntruth, have recognized in the morning dew. The flos coeli is in fact called the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=14\nPages: 14,15\n(Matadors). This species is not extinct, though obliterated and not apparent.\nPlate 5\nT\nhe fifth plate initiates the disciple to the laboratory operations. One there\nwitnesses a sequence of varied manipulations. One will see that it deals with\nthe coction of the fluid collected in the proceeding plate. A man and a woman\nappear to be pouring it into a pot put over the fire. In the figure below the man\nadds a viscous product and holds, in his other hand, a substance which is not\ndifficult to discover, if one bears in mind that the egg of Hermogenes is\nanalogous to the others. In the same picture, on the side, a naked person,\ndecorated by a half-moon and embraced by an infant, receives a flask, where\none notices four small triangles. They represent the proportions of elements put\ninto the work, namely one part of sulphur to three of mercury. A lunar body\nintervenes in this operation, which has been indicated by an escutcheon\ncarrying a silver moon on a field of gules.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=10\nPages: 10,11\nmaterials; but the elan of the creature towards the creator can have a favorable\ninfluence on the directives, for the light comes from God. One must\nnevertheless liberate oneself from these not very effective suggestions. The\nartist's prayer is yet more his work, often hard, dangerous and incompatible\nwith too white hands.\nCount then above all on the improbus labor.\nPlate 3\nT\nhe third plate is no longer in its place. It leads us into the empire of\nNeptune. One sees, frolicking in his waves, the dolphin dear to Apollo and on a\nboat some fishermen putting out their gear. In another ship a man lies stretched\nout in a nonchalant position. In the second, a landscape with on one side a ram,\non the other a bull, which we shall find back further on and shall study at a\nmore opportune moment. Below on the left a woman holds a basket which is\nthe symbol of the grated lantern of the philosophers; on the right a man throws]"]}

{"result":["[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=19\nPages: 19,20\nhas been indicated at the bottom of the plate by the athanor where the egg has\nbeen placed for incubation. The mercury of the philosophers, animated and\nsublimated according to the rules, must circulate a long time in the vase before\nproducing the happy effects that one expects from him. But there are several\nmercuries in the work, and Philaletes points out a second one, very\nemphatically, under the name of virgins milk. This one differs in some respects\nfrom the first, though they are both of the same essence. Philaletes, Ripley and\nothers so far as to say that it pertains to common mercury. Basil Valentine, on\nthe other hand, banishes it with malediction. Some have believed that the\nvirgins milk could be obtained by combining the two. We are acquainted with\none artist who has accomplished this tour de force merely for the pleasure of\novercoming the difficulty, without pretending that it has any other advantages.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=19\nPages: 19\nseveral times. This washing with the noble water derobes the body of its\nimpurities, corrects its humors, and disposes it towards the subsequent\noperations. It is then distilled hermetically in order to loose nothing; one\nprecipitates its salt which presents itself in small and very hygroscopic crystals,\nand which must immediately be removed from the influence of the air. This is\nwhy it has to be shut up, as shown in another figure, in a flask it has to be shut\nup, as shown in another figure, in a flask with a ground stopper, and which one\nhas to have ready at hand.\nPlate 8\nT\nhe eighth plate shows us the realized philosophic mercury, whereas the\nsecond plate only showed its constituting principles. He is produced from the\nSun and the Moon that are at his feet. The eagles are flying around him,\nbecause inside the matrass he has to undergo the necessary sublimations; which\nhas been indicated at the bottom of the plate by the athanor where the egg has]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=20\nPages: 20\novercoming the difficulty, without pretending that it has any other advantages.\nWe are thus in a position to acknowledge the operation as possible, which does\nnot imply that we adhere to its use in the actual practice. Only with the utmost\nreserve should one accept all the bizarre names, imposed by the philosophers\nupon certain ingredients. These different epithets serve the sole purpose of\ndisguising the course of operations. In this manner the same product carries a\ndifferent name all according to whether it has or has not been exalted. And it is\nabove all true that alcohol, though extracted from wine, differs from it in name\nas well as in appearance, in virtue as well as in effect, even as wine differs from\nthe grape from which it has been drawn...\nPlate 9\nT\nhe ninth plate brings us back to the flos coeli. Why this return, and what is\nthe point of repeating it when we were already provided with it? It is not that]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=8\nPages: 8,9\nother red.\nOne will ask us, and not without reason, what magic word is capable of\nextracting from the arms of Morpheus our Epimenides, who really seems to be\ndeaf to the clamour of the trumpets. This word comes from God, carried by the\nangels, the messengers of fire, It is a divine breath that stirs in an invisible, but\ncertain, manner, and this is no exaggeration. Without the concourse of the\nheavens, the work of man is useless. One neither grafts trees, nor does one sow\nthe grain during all seasons. Everything has its time. The philosophical Work is\ncalled the Celestial Agriculture, and not without cause; one of the greatest\nauthors has signed his writings with the name Agricola, and two other excellent\nadepts known under the names of Grand Paysan and Petit Paysan.\nThus, the disciple will have to meditate a long time on this first plate and\ncompare it with the apologues in vulgar language. May he then be fortunate]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=26\nPages: 26\nallegories of the philosophers but a treatise on ascesis where they would be\nvery embarrassed to explain each symbol - these pseudo-mystics see in this\nplate an image of the resurrection of man and of his return to the celestial\nfatherland, and they become blissfully enraptured by this discovery, which they\nare not far from considering ingenious.\nBut if we become pure spirit again, it follows that our body enclosed its essence\nunder its gross form and, under these conditions, one cannot deny the same\nproperty to the metals. The spirit or the fire is everywhere and in everything: it\nlies in the flint so cold in appearance, in the metals that one transforms into\ninflammable fulminates that explode upon the least shock. But, transmutation is\na phenomenon that causes the species to pass from an inferior to a superior\nplane by means of a spiritual agent, a true seed called powder of projection.\nThis marvelous product is obtained by the real death and putrefaction of a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=12\nPages: 12,13\nfrom seven to ten from the Sun. They are indicated by the flying of the birds\nand are indispensable, for they prepare the nuptial robe of Apollo and Diana,\nwithout which their mystical union would be impossible. That is why Jupiter,\nthe god who governs the eagle, presides over these operations.\nPlate 4\nT\nhe fourth plate shows how the collection of the flos coeli works. Some\nsheets are stretched out on poles in order to receive the heavenly dew. Below a\nman and a woman are wringing them to press out the divine liquor, that falls\ninto a large vessel put there to that purpose. To the left one sees the Ram; on\nthe right the Bull.\nThe flos coeli have put the spirit of the bad puffers to torture. Some have seen\nin it a kind of magical influx, for them magic is a supernatural power, acquired\nby concourse with spirits, good or bad. Others, more realistic and closer to the\ntruth, have recognized in the morning dew. The flos coeli is in fact called the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=24\nPages: 24,23\nmanipulations, for one may transform the metal into gold fulminate, and the\nmemoirs of the XVIIIth century report several mortal accidents following upon\nthis preparation. But if the disciple has been instructed in a good school, he will\navoid this sophistic snare and operate hermetically; he will thus avert this\nredoubtable danger. The masters know how to reach their goal by following\nother paths, which they take good care not to indicate, but which are not\nundiscoverable if one reasons with ones reason rather than with the erroneous\nbooks of the Sages. \"One needs gold in order to make gold\", says the classical\naxiom; this is correct, only there are two different kinds of gold needed to bring\nthe Work to a good end. This plate shows how one here recommences all the\npreceding operations. One must elevate the mercury to a higher degree of\nsublimation by means of the eagles, redistill it in order to give it a greater\nanimation.\nPlate 12\nT]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=8\nPages: 8,7\nThe practice of Philaletes, presented under an amiable and persuasive exterior,\ncounts among the most subtle and perfidious fictions of hermetic literature. Yet\nit does contain the truth, but similar to poison, sometimes conceals its own\nantidote if one only knows how to isolate it from its pernicious alkaloids. As\noccasion arises we shall signal the traps, in so far as they present themselves to\nus along our way.\nThe Mutus Liber is composed of fifteen emblematic plates, some truthful,\nothers misrepresented, and disposed according to one of those beautiful\ndisorders, that, following the precept of Boileau, is an effect of the art.\nPlate 1\nT\nhe first plate that serves as frontispiece is truly capital. On its\ncomprehension depends the whole success of the Work\n.One sees there, inside a border formed by two interlacing rosaries, a man\nasleep on a rock whereon grow some languishing kermes - oaks. A limpid\nwater with metallic reflections flows out from it. Next to the sleeper, on a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=14\nPages: 14,15\n(Matadors). This species is not extinct, though obliterated and not apparent.\nPlate 5\nT\nhe fifth plate initiates the disciple to the laboratory operations. One there\nwitnesses a sequence of varied manipulations. One will see that it deals with\nthe coction of the fluid collected in the proceeding plate. A man and a woman\nappear to be pouring it into a pot put over the fire. In the figure below the man\nadds a viscous product and holds, in his other hand, a substance which is not\ndifficult to discover, if one bears in mind that the egg of Hermogenes is\nanalogous to the others. In the same picture, on the side, a naked person,\ndecorated by a half-moon and embraced by an infant, receives a flask, where\none notices four small triangles. They represent the proportions of elements put\ninto the work, namely one part of sulphur to three of mercury. A lunar body\nintervenes in this operation, which has been indicated by an escutcheon\ncarrying a silver moon on a field of gules.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=24\nPages: 24,25\nanimation.\nPlate 12\nT\nhe twelfth plate instructs us how one may carry this mercury to a superior\ngradation. To this end one must recommence the imbibitions of the flos coeli,\nuntil the mercury, which is eager for them, is impregnated by them to\nsaturation.\nPlate 13\nT\nhe thirteenth plate is a repetition of the tenth, for in the work, all operations\nfollow each other and resemble each other; but this new conjunction, which\noperates with substances sublimated to the extreme, is nothing but the\nbeginning of the multiplication. The work is the same as in plate ten and, in the\ncoction, one will see the colours reappear. Its duration decreases in proportion\nas the multiplicative power becomes augmented, in such a way that in the end it\ntakes but one day to obtain the result that in the beginning required months.\nThe numbers on this plate give the transmuting powers obtained by the\nsubsequent coctions.\nPlate 14\nT\nhe fourteenth plate is mainly dedicated to the instrumentation. One there]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=17\nPages: 17,18\nusing this author's exact terminology; but we are speaking with enough clarity\nto make ourselves well understood.\nThe obtaining of the roses is subordinate to putrefaction. The putrefaction gives\nrise to a succession of colours. The first is the black; it is the key to the others.\nWithout the black there is no putrefaction; and without putrefaction no\ntransformation. If such an accident should occur, it is because the materials\nbrought into contact do not posses the desired qualities, or have been poorly\nprepared. See Philaletes for the rest and accept the subtle only.\nPlate 7\nT\nhe seventh plate is very important, but difficult to comprehend. Here we\nagain find the four small triangles with the already explained correspondences;\nbut we are arriving at a delicate operation, for it is here that Saturn devours his\nchild.\nThe fable of Saturn and Jupiter is well known. But what is this Saturn and what\nis this Jupiter? The chemical nomenclature, to be found with the authorities,]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=21\nPages: 21\nof the fluid in such a way that the powder of projection obtained multiplies 100,\n1000 or 10,000 times, etc., according to the potential of the artist. Thus these\nphantasists pretend to impregnate the matter with astral spirit as one charges a\nbattery with electricity. This is what the poorly understood and randomly\napplied analogy leads to. We shall not name these singular theoreticians whose\nsincerity is respectable; but we had to signal the fact, in order to put studious\nand too confident disciple on his guard against the hazardous reading of authors\nwithout mandate and without consecration, who have never produced anything\nbut books, but who from that time pass for Masters.\nPlate 10\nT\nhe tenth plate represents the conjunction. The first figure shows, on the\nscales of a balance, on one side the salt indicated by the star, on the other the\nsulphur designated by a flower, which with its heart forms seven petals. These]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=16\nPages: 16,15\nfeminine element which performs the selection by means of its constitutive\nvirtues; but the artist must lend a hand and assist nature with prudence.\nThe other figures represent digestions and distillations. We will not be telling\nthe sensible reader anything new, by saying that a man crammed up with\nchemical formulas and apt to resolve all school problems on a piece of paper, is\nnot entitled to call himself a chemist. It is therefore necessary that theory is\naccompanied by practice, the one being the consequence of the other. Only\nlaboratory practice gives mastership, for what is practice if not controlled by\ntheory. The rigor of the former corrects the vagaries of the latter. Thus the\ndisciple must exert himself to realize all his concepts.\nPlate 6\nT\nhe sixth plate is the continuation of the fifth. One will notice that here the\noperations are always effectuated by a man and a woman, symbolizing the two\nnatures. The exterior action of the two natures indicates the interior work of the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=9\nPages: 9,10\nTradition requires that this retort be enclosed within a second one, and this one\nagain within a third one made of wood from an old oak. Flamel expressly says:\n\"Note that oak tree\", and Vico, the chaplain of the Lords of Grosparmy and\nValois recommends it with no less interest. This insistence is significant, and\nwe must recall that in the first plate, on the rock of the Sages grows the Kermes\noak, which is the Hermes of the Adepts, because, in the Hebrew language, K\nand H are but one and the same letter, taken alternatively one for the other. But\nhere one must be on guard, the mineral kermes leads to the trap set by\nPhilaletes, Artephius, Basil Valentine and many others, and one should not\nloose view of the fact that the philosophers delight in certain verbal collusions.\n\"is the artificial mercury that amalgamates the compost.\"\nThe size of the egg is of no importance. In Nature, the egg varies from that of a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=28\nPages: 28,29\nyou\".\nAnd you, son of science, bear in mind the eloquent sign by which the terminal\nfigures of the fourteenth plate address you, and the gloss that closes the Mutus\nLiber: \"If you have understood, work in silence and for still some time keep\nyour mouth shut on the Mystery\".\nMAGAPHON\nQuoted Authors and Works\nAgricola (Georg Bauer) 1494 - 1595\nArtephius\nAriadne's thread (Anonymous)\nMarcellin Berthelot 1827 - 1907\nThomas Corneille 1625 - 1709\nCyliani\nd'Espagnet - the Secret Work on the Philosophy of Hermes\nNicolas Flamel 1330 - 1418\nGirtaner\nDr. Helvetius - Vitulus Aureus (1666)\nTiphaigne de Lavoisier 1743 - 1749\nGrand Paysan\nPetit Paysan\nEirenaeus Philaletes - An Open Entrance to the shut Palace of the King\nGeorge Ripley\nTypus Mundi - edited by the Jesuits\nAugust Strindberg 1849 - 1912 - The Book of Gold\nthe Abbot of Vallemont\nBasil Valentine\nthe Lords of Grosparmy and Valois\nthe Chaplain Vico\nBoileau\nEteilla - Seven Hints on the Philosophic Work\nHermogenes]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=25\nPages: 25\nPlate 14\nT\nhe fourteenth plate is mainly dedicated to the instrumentation. One there\nsees the matrass hermetically sealed with its pad, such as we have described it;\nthe mortar and the pestle for the grindings; the spoon for skimming; the\nbalances to determine the right weights; the furnace of the first operations\nbefore employing the athanor.\nWe recall that on must understand the grindings, the decantation, the skimming\nand all the rest in a philosophic manner, although a trituration, a decantation\nand skimming are positively necessary to render the substances fit for the work;\nbut, after that, these operations take place by themselves and, so to speak,\nautomatically by the reaction of the bodies on each other. The disciple will\nhave to meditate profoundly on the woman with the distaff, and follow her with\nsagacity in his manipulations; they are not indifferent and all-telling to the true\nson of science. We cannot here transgress the will of the author, who witnesses]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=20\nPages: 20,21\nthe point of repeating it when we were already provided with it? It is not that\nthe author of the Mutus Liber would send us back to the fields to fetch some\nmore; but surely he was obliged to repeat this symbol, the moment that this\ncelestial agent had to enter into a new combination. In one of the figures of this\nplate, we see Mercury in the process of buying a flask of this divine water from\na country woman. He therefore has need for it for some use. Philaletes\nprescribes, effectively, to wash the mercury several times, in such a way as to\nmake it loose some of its oily nature. He very carefully describes this operation\nwhich is accomplished by means of the celestial water brought to a certain\ntemperature, nevertheless moderate, for it takes only a little too much heat for\nthe fiery part to retake its path to the stars. Philaletes is a great master, his word\nhas authority and he presents the work with such ingenuity, that no suspicion of]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=10\nPages: 10,11\nmaterials; but the elan of the creature towards the creator can have a favorable\ninfluence on the directives, for the light comes from God. One must\nnevertheless liberate oneself from these not very effective suggestions. The\nartist's prayer is yet more his work, often hard, dangerous and incompatible\nwith too white hands.\nCount then above all on the improbus labor.\nPlate 3\nT\nhe third plate is no longer in its place. It leads us into the empire of\nNeptune. One sees, frolicking in his waves, the dolphin dear to Apollo and on a\nboat some fishermen putting out their gear. In another ship a man lies stretched\nout in a nonchalant position. In the second, a landscape with on one side a ram,\non the other a bull, which we shall find back further on and shall study at a\nmore opportune moment. Below on the left a woman holds a basket which is\nthe symbol of the grated lantern of the philosophers; on the right a man throws]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=25\nPages: 25,26\nson of science. We cannot here transgress the will of the author, who witnesses\nof his well settled design to let the symbol alone express all his thought. If these\nlines come under the eyes of an adept, he will approve of our reserve, which\nnevertheless is close to indiscretion. But for the rest qui potest capere capiat.\nPlate 15\nT\nhe fifteenth and last plate represents the apotheosis of Saturn, victorious\nover his son Jupiter who had dethroned him, and lies inert upon the ground. It\nis the solarization of the vilest of metals, his resurrection and glorification in\nthe light. The two branches of sweet-briar of the frontispiece are charged with\nred berries and white berries filled with active seeds where each one has the\npower to mault all the impure metals into gold or silver. The so-called mystics who deny the possibility of the metallic work and have found nothing in the\nallegories of the philosophers but a treatise on ascesis where they would be]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=2\nPages: 2,4\na pseudonym.\nThe Mutus Liber also occurs in Manget's Bibliotheca Chemica\nCuriosa of 1707.\nMore information may be found in {A Prelude to Chemistry} by John Read,\nLondon 1936, page 155 et seq.\nK.H.\nKjell Hellesoe\nStavanger 1985\nAll plates courtesy of Adam McLean\nTranscribed by A.M.W. House\n~HYPOTYPOSE~\nT\nhis title, good as it may seem, has not the least pretension. It is all technical,\nthe only suitable and genuine on the subject, because it traces, in its\nconciseness the plan of our study. A hypotypose ( from , under, and , print,\nemblem ) is an explanation placed under abstract figures. Well, the Mutus Liber\nis then a collection of enigmatic images.\nAround the Mutus Liber an absurd legend has formed itself. One school which has nothing hermetic except the name - has given this work a reputation\nof impenetrable obscurity, and as such, worships it as a sacrament, without\nunderstanding it. This is an error; even as translating Mutus Liber by the Mute]"]}

{"result":["[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=21\nPages: 21\nof the fluid in such a way that the powder of projection obtained multiplies 100,\n1000 or 10,000 times, etc., according to the potential of the artist. Thus these\nphantasists pretend to impregnate the matter with astral spirit as one charges a\nbattery with electricity. This is what the poorly understood and randomly\napplied analogy leads to. We shall not name these singular theoreticians whose\nsincerity is respectable; but we had to signal the fact, in order to put studious\nand too confident disciple on his guard against the hazardous reading of authors\nwithout mandate and without consecration, who have never produced anything\nbut books, but who from that time pass for Masters.\nPlate 10\nT\nhe tenth plate represents the conjunction. The first figure shows, on the\nscales of a balance, on one side the salt indicated by the star, on the other the\nsulphur designated by a flower, which with its heart forms seven petals. These]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=24\nPages: 24,25\nanimation.\nPlate 12\nT\nhe twelfth plate instructs us how one may carry this mercury to a superior\ngradation. To this end one must recommence the imbibitions of the flos coeli,\nuntil the mercury, which is eager for them, is impregnated by them to\nsaturation.\nPlate 13\nT\nhe thirteenth plate is a repetition of the tenth, for in the work, all operations\nfollow each other and resemble each other; but this new conjunction, which\noperates with substances sublimated to the extreme, is nothing but the\nbeginning of the multiplication. The work is the same as in plate ten and, in the\ncoction, one will see the colours reappear. Its duration decreases in proportion\nas the multiplicative power becomes augmented, in such a way that in the end it\ntakes but one day to obtain the result that in the beginning required months.\nThe numbers on this plate give the transmuting powers obtained by the\nsubsequent coctions.\nPlate 14\nT\nhe fourteenth plate is mainly dedicated to the instrumentation. One there]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=22\nPages: 22,23\ngoverning of the fire and of the regimen of the Work. Concerning the latter, the\nSecret Work on the philosophy of Hermes, attributed to d'Espagnet and\nfavorably quoted, will be useful to follow, for one there finds the Zodiac of the\nPhilosophers.\nThe last figure of this plate demonstrates that the conjunction is taking place:\nthe Sun and the Moon are united. The work has given the required colors. Here\nthey have been synthesized into a circle, at first black, then white and finally\nyellow and red. The obtained product multiplies ten times, as announced by the\nnumbers.\nPlate 11\nT\nhe eleventh plate proclaims that the operator has entered the regimen of the\nSun, i.e., he has obtained the gold of the philosophers, which is not vulgar gold.\nAlthough Jupiter plays a nominal role in the operative process, it is not a\nquestion of bisulphur of tin, but of real \"mosaic\" or secret gold. Meanwhile we\nshall confess in all truth, that it is not a product of Nature, but of art.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=17\nPages: 17\nthe leaven in the bakers dough. But may the addition of this new element not\ntrouble the minds of the sons of science. For even as leaven is made out of\nsugar and acidified water, so the ferment of metals is a product of sulphur and\nmercury, brought to a suitable state by means of art. The proportions are\nanalogous to those used in breadmaking.\nOur plate shows a second smaller rose, and a third one smaller still. Would\nthere be several roses? Yes and no. In principle there are two roses, according\nas one works for gold or for silver; and, basically there is but one. Nevertheless,\nthe Mutus Liber presents three well defined ones. This is correct; but they are\ndaughters of each other, i.e., of three different virtues. During the regimen of\ncoction, Philaletes instructs one to first obtain the white rose, which he calls the\nmoon; then the yellow or saffron; and finally the red or perfect rose. We are not\nusing this author's exact terminology; but we are speaking with enough clarity]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=22\nPages: 22\nit thinner at the desired point, while assuring himself that not even the slightest\ncapillarity is produced through which the spirit of the compost might escape.\nHaving come thus far, after having cut the glass, he turns the part adhering to\nthe matrass back on itself, and shapes it into a thick cushion (pad). Today this\noperation is very easily performed with gas, by means of the blow-lamp. Some\nvery competent practitioners employ an automatic procedure of even greater\nperfection. But whatever method is used, one thereafter places the egg in the\nathanor and the coction begins.\nWe shall say nothing about the athanor. The Mutus Liber presents its form and\ninner arrangement. Philaletes describes it very carefully. We shall add but one\nimportant remark to the sayings of this author: the construction of the furnace is\npartly allegoric, and there is much to learned on the point of view of the\ngoverning of the fire and of the regimen of the Work. Concerning the latter, the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=14\nPages: 14,15\n(Matadors). This species is not extinct, though obliterated and not apparent.\nPlate 5\nT\nhe fifth plate initiates the disciple to the laboratory operations. One there\nwitnesses a sequence of varied manipulations. One will see that it deals with\nthe coction of the fluid collected in the proceeding plate. A man and a woman\nappear to be pouring it into a pot put over the fire. In the figure below the man\nadds a viscous product and holds, in his other hand, a substance which is not\ndifficult to discover, if one bears in mind that the egg of Hermogenes is\nanalogous to the others. In the same picture, on the side, a naked person,\ndecorated by a half-moon and embraced by an infant, receives a flask, where\none notices four small triangles. They represent the proportions of elements put\ninto the work, namely one part of sulphur to three of mercury. A lunar body\nintervenes in this operation, which has been indicated by an escutcheon\ncarrying a silver moon on a field of gules.]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=9\nPages: 9,10\nTradition requires that this retort be enclosed within a second one, and this one\nagain within a third one made of wood from an old oak. Flamel expressly says:\n\"Note that oak tree\", and Vico, the chaplain of the Lords of Grosparmy and\nValois recommends it with no less interest. This insistence is significant, and\nwe must recall that in the first plate, on the rock of the Sages grows the Kermes\noak, which is the Hermes of the Adepts, because, in the Hebrew language, K\nand H are but one and the same letter, taken alternatively one for the other. But\nhere one must be on guard, the mineral kermes leads to the trap set by\nPhilaletes, Artephius, Basil Valentine and many others, and one should not\nloose view of the fact that the philosophers delight in certain verbal collusions.\n\"is the artificial mercury that amalgamates the compost.\"\nThe size of the egg is of no importance. In Nature, the egg varies from that of a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=20\nPages: 20,21\nthe point of repeating it when we were already provided with it? It is not that\nthe author of the Mutus Liber would send us back to the fields to fetch some\nmore; but surely he was obliged to repeat this symbol, the moment that this\ncelestial agent had to enter into a new combination. In one of the figures of this\nplate, we see Mercury in the process of buying a flask of this divine water from\na country woman. He therefore has need for it for some use. Philaletes\nprescribes, effectively, to wash the mercury several times, in such a way as to\nmake it loose some of its oily nature. He very carefully describes this operation\nwhich is accomplished by means of the celestial water brought to a certain\ntemperature, nevertheless moderate, for it takes only a little too much heat for\nthe fiery part to retake its path to the stars. Philaletes is a great master, his word\nhas authority and he presents the work with such ingenuity, that no suspicion of]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=16\nPages: 16\na magnificent sulphur of silver obtained by analogous means and which closely\napproaches the tincture of the Sages. But, in order to arrive at this result, a\ncertain practice and profound knowledge of the mineral kingdom is required.\nDo not trust the authors who speak of grindings, decantations, separations\nobtained by what they call (a slight of hand). The manual action only\ncontributes to the results in the manner of a kitchen maid preparing her pot-aufeu. When the ingredients have been put into the pot, the water cooks the\ncompost brought to the required temperature by the exterior fire. The coction\ncompleted, there remains but to extract the products and employ them\naccording to formula. But all untimely intervention is detrimental and darkness\nto the work.\nVery particularly we must point out the figure which represents the hermetic\nrose obtained by the foregoing sublimations. On this there would be a lot to]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=26\nPages: 26\nallegories of the philosophers but a treatise on ascesis where they would be\nvery embarrassed to explain each symbol - these pseudo-mystics see in this\nplate an image of the resurrection of man and of his return to the celestial\nfatherland, and they become blissfully enraptured by this discovery, which they\nare not far from considering ingenious.\nBut if we become pure spirit again, it follows that our body enclosed its essence\nunder its gross form and, under these conditions, one cannot deny the same\nproperty to the metals. The spirit or the fire is everywhere and in everything: it\nlies in the flint so cold in appearance, in the metals that one transforms into\ninflammable fulminates that explode upon the least shock. But, transmutation is\na phenomenon that causes the species to pass from an inferior to a superior\nplane by means of a spiritual agent, a true seed called powder of projection.\nThis marvelous product is obtained by the real death and putrefaction of a]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=20\nPages: 20\novercoming the difficulty, without pretending that it has any other advantages.\nWe are thus in a position to acknowledge the operation as possible, which does\nnot imply that we adhere to its use in the actual practice. Only with the utmost\nreserve should one accept all the bizarre names, imposed by the philosophers\nupon certain ingredients. These different epithets serve the sole purpose of\ndisguising the course of operations. In this manner the same product carries a\ndifferent name all according to whether it has or has not been exalted. And it is\nabove all true that alcohol, though extracted from wine, differs from it in name\nas well as in appearance, in virtue as well as in effect, even as wine differs from\nthe grape from which it has been drawn...\nPlate 9\nT\nhe ninth plate brings us back to the flos coeli. Why this return, and what is\nthe point of repeating it when we were already provided with it? It is not that]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=12\nPages: 12,13\nfrom seven to ten from the Sun. They are indicated by the flying of the birds\nand are indispensable, for they prepare the nuptial robe of Apollo and Diana,\nwithout which their mystical union would be impossible. That is why Jupiter,\nthe god who governs the eagle, presides over these operations.\nPlate 4\nT\nhe fourth plate shows how the collection of the flos coeli works. Some\nsheets are stretched out on poles in order to receive the heavenly dew. Below a\nman and a woman are wringing them to press out the divine liquor, that falls\ninto a large vessel put there to that purpose. To the left one sees the Ram; on\nthe right the Bull.\nThe flos coeli have put the spirit of the bad puffers to torture. Some have seen\nin it a kind of magical influx, for them magic is a supernatural power, acquired\nby concourse with spirits, good or bad. Others, more realistic and closer to the\ntruth, have recognized in the morning dew. The flos coeli is in fact called the]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=8\nPages: 8,9\nother red.\nOne will ask us, and not without reason, what magic word is capable of\nextracting from the arms of Morpheus our Epimenides, who really seems to be\ndeaf to the clamour of the trumpets. This word comes from God, carried by the\nangels, the messengers of fire, It is a divine breath that stirs in an invisible, but\ncertain, manner, and this is no exaggeration. Without the concourse of the\nheavens, the work of man is useless. One neither grafts trees, nor does one sow\nthe grain during all seasons. Everything has its time. The philosophical Work is\ncalled the Celestial Agriculture, and not without cause; one of the greatest\nauthors has signed his writings with the name Agricola, and two other excellent\nadepts known under the names of Grand Paysan and Petit Paysan.\nThus, the disciple will have to meditate a long time on this first plate and\ncompare it with the apologues in vulgar language. May he then be fortunate]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=24\nPages: 24,23\nmanipulations, for one may transform the metal into gold fulminate, and the\nmemoirs of the XVIIIth century report several mortal accidents following upon\nthis preparation. But if the disciple has been instructed in a good school, he will\navoid this sophistic snare and operate hermetically; he will thus avert this\nredoubtable danger. The masters know how to reach their goal by following\nother paths, which they take good care not to indicate, but which are not\nundiscoverable if one reasons with ones reason rather than with the erroneous\nbooks of the Sages. \"One needs gold in order to make gold\", says the classical\naxiom; this is correct, only there are two different kinds of gold needed to bring\nthe Work to a good end. This plate shows how one here recommences all the\npreceding operations. One must elevate the mercury to a higher degree of\nsublimation by means of the eagles, redistill it in order to give it a greater\nanimation.\nPlate 12\nT]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=15\nPages: 15\ncarrying a silver moon on a field of gules.\nThe moon of the philosophers is not always silver, though this metal is\nconvenient to the work at a certain point. In order to lead astray the profane, the\nAdepts gave this name to mercury and its salt, the preparation of which\npresents the most grave difficulties. In order that the mercury be suitable to the\nwork, it is indispensable to animate it. This animation is performed by means of\nthe sulphur prepared to this end. In Philaletes one will find the practical\ndirections, which however must not always be followed word for word. He is\nexact, yet he fails to purge the mercury from its heterogeneous elements by\nseparating the pure from the impure, the subtle from the gross. One sees, in this\nplate, the woman who gets ready to skim the compost. It is a presentation\noverburdened with work, but in the main exact. In the Work it is in fact the\nfeminine element which performs the selection by means of its constitutive]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=13\nPages: 13\nrecognized some virtue. It is up to the disciple to form his own opinion\naccording to his own judgement. But it is beyond doubt that an agent kept\nsecret, called \"Celestial Manna\" plays an important part in the work.\nWe must declare, sincerely, that the Ram and the Bull in the plate, which one\nalways takes for the signs of the zodiac under which one must collect the flos\ncoeli, have no connection with the astrological symbols. The Ram is Hermes'\nCriophore, which is the same as Jupiter Ammon; and the Bull, whose horns\ndelineate the crescent, attribute of Diana and Isis, who are identical with the\ncow Io, lover of Jupiter, and the philosophers moon. These two animals\npersonify the two natures of the Stone. Their union forms the Azyme of the\nEgyptians, the Asimah of the Bible, hybrid monster designating the orichalc,\nthe Latten or bronze oryx, the bull of Phalaris or of bronze, the golden or\nchrysoeale calf, which differs, most certainly, from the pinchbeck of Mannheim]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=28\nPages: 28,29\nyou\".\nAnd you, son of science, bear in mind the eloquent sign by which the terminal\nfigures of the fourteenth plate address you, and the gloss that closes the Mutus\nLiber: \"If you have understood, work in silence and for still some time keep\nyour mouth shut on the Mystery\".\nMAGAPHON\nQuoted Authors and Works\nAgricola (Georg Bauer) 1494 - 1595\nArtephius\nAriadne's thread (Anonymous)\nMarcellin Berthelot 1827 - 1907\nThomas Corneille 1625 - 1709\nCyliani\nd'Espagnet - the Secret Work on the Philosophy of Hermes\nNicolas Flamel 1330 - 1418\nGirtaner\nDr. Helvetius - Vitulus Aureus (1666)\nTiphaigne de Lavoisier 1743 - 1749\nGrand Paysan\nPetit Paysan\nEirenaeus Philaletes - An Open Entrance to the shut Palace of the King\nGeorge Ripley\nTypus Mundi - edited by the Jesuits\nAugust Strindberg 1849 - 1912 - The Book of Gold\nthe Abbot of Vallemont\nBasil Valentine\nthe Lords of Grosparmy and Valois\nthe Chaplain Vico\nBoileau\nEteilla - Seven Hints on the Philosophic Work\nHermogenes]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=2\nPages: 2,4\na pseudonym.\nThe Mutus Liber also occurs in Manget's Bibliotheca Chemica\nCuriosa of 1707.\nMore information may be found in {A Prelude to Chemistry} by John Read,\nLondon 1936, page 155 et seq.\nK.H.\nKjell Hellesoe\nStavanger 1985\nAll plates courtesy of Adam McLean\nTranscribed by A.M.W. House\n~HYPOTYPOSE~\nT\nhis title, good as it may seem, has not the least pretension. It is all technical,\nthe only suitable and genuine on the subject, because it traces, in its\nconciseness the plan of our study. A hypotypose ( from , under, and , print,\nemblem ) is an explanation placed under abstract figures. Well, the Mutus Liber\nis then a collection of enigmatic images.\nAround the Mutus Liber an absurd legend has formed itself. One school which has nothing hermetic except the name - has given this work a reputation\nof impenetrable obscurity, and as such, worships it as a sacrament, without\nunderstanding it. This is an error; even as translating Mutus Liber by the Mute]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=25\nPages: 25,26\nson of science. We cannot here transgress the will of the author, who witnesses\nof his well settled design to let the symbol alone express all his thought. If these\nlines come under the eyes of an adept, he will approve of our reserve, which\nnevertheless is close to indiscretion. But for the rest qui potest capere capiat.\nPlate 15\nT\nhe fifteenth and last plate represents the apotheosis of Saturn, victorious\nover his son Jupiter who had dethroned him, and lies inert upon the ground. It\nis the solarization of the vilest of metals, his resurrection and glorification in\nthe light. The two branches of sweet-briar of the frontispiece are charged with\nred berries and white berries filled with active seeds where each one has the\npower to mault all the impure metals into gold or silver. The so-called mystics who deny the possibility of the metallic work and have found nothing in the\nallegories of the philosophers but a treatise on ascesis where they would be]","[url_for_citation: https://myaidrive.com/rsFHP5QoqF3dPCGZRKj5ea/Adam-McLean-.pdf?pdfPage=10\nPages: 10,11\nmaterials; but the elan of the creature towards the creator can have a favorable\ninfluence on the directives, for the light comes from God. One must\nnevertheless liberate oneself from these not very effective suggestions. The\nartist's prayer is yet more his work, often hard, dangerous and incompatible\nwith too white hands.\nCount then above all on the improbus labor.\nPlate 3\nT\nhe third plate is no longer in its place. It leads us into the empire of\nNeptune. One sees, frolicking in his waves, the dolphin dear to Apollo and on a\nboat some fishermen putting out their gear. In another ship a man lies stretched\nout in a nonchalant position. In the second, a landscape with on one side a ram,\non the other a bull, which we shall find back further on and shall study at a\nmore opportune moment. Below on the left a woman holds a basket which is\nthe symbol of the grated lantern of the philosophers; on the right a man throws]"]}