(44) In alchemy there are three symbolic substances: mercury, sulphur, and salt. To these was added a fourth mysterious life principle called Azoth. Concerning the first three, Herr von Welling has written: "There are three basic chemical substances which are called by the philosophers salt, sulphur, and mercury, but which are not to be confounded in any way with the crude salt, sulphur, and mercury taken from the earth or secured from the apothecary. Salt, sulphur, and mercury each has a triune nature, for each of these substances contains, in reality, also the other two substances, according to the secret arcanum of the wise. The body of salt is, therefore, threefold, namely salt, sulphur, and mercury; but in the body of salt one of the three (salt) predominates. Mercury is likewise composed of salt, sulphur, and mercury with the latter element predominating. Sulphur, similarly, is actually salt, sulphur, and mercury, with sulphur predominating. These nine divisions--3 times 3, plus Azoth (the mysterious universal life force), equals 10, the sacred decad of Pythagoras. Concerning the nature of Azoth there is much controversy. Some view it as the invisible, eternal fire; others as electricity; still others as magnetism. Transcendentalism refer to it as the astral light.

(99) The main point, however, is proved: the alchemical philosophers used the symbols of salt, sulphur, and mercury to represent not only chemicals but the spiritual and invisible principles of God, man, and the universe. The three substances (salt, sulphur, and mercury) existing in four worlds, as shown in the table, sum up to the sacred number 12. As these 12 are the foundations of the Great Work, they are called in Revelation the twelve foundation stones of the sacred city. In line with the same idea Pythagoras asserted that the dodecahedron, or twelve-faced symmetrical geometric solid, was the foundation of the universe. May there not be a relation also between this mysterious 3 times 4 and the four parties of three which in the legend of the third degree of Freemasonry go forth to the four angles of the cherubim, the composite creature of four parts?

(93) Now when the Wrath of these four Spirits is killed, then the mineral oary Salitter stands in the Water like a tough Matter, and looks like that Spirit which is predominant in the mineral Ore; and the Light, which stands in the Fire, colours it according to its own Quality, be it Silver, or Gold. [Or tinctures.]

(89) "By the Word SALITTER, in this Book, is understood, how out of the eternal Center of Nature, the second Principle grows and springs up out of the first, just as the Light springs up out of the Fire, wherein two Spirits are understood, viz. I. a Hot, and an Aerial one; whereas in the aërial Life, the true Vegetation or growing consists, and in the Fire-life, is the Cause of the Quality.

(43) Dardaris saith: Ye have frequently treated of the regimen, and have introduced the conjunction,t yet I proclaim to posterity that they cannot extract the now hidden soul except by Ethelia, by which bodies become not. bodies through continual cooking, and by sublimation of Ethelia. Know also that quicksilver is fiery, burning every body more than does fire, also mortifying The Turba, Philosophorum. 137 bodies, and that every body which is mingled with it is ground and delivered over to be destroyed. When, therefore, ye have diligently pounded the bodies, and have exalted them as required, therefrom is produced that Ethel nature, and a colour which is tingeing* and not volatile, and it tinges the copper which the

Turba said did not tinge until it is tinged, because that which is tinged tinges. Know also that the body of the copper is ruled by Magnesia, and that quicksilver is four bodies, also that the matter has no being except by humidity, because it is the water of sulphur, for sulphurs are contained in sulphurs.

The Turba saith: O Dardaris, inform posterity what sulphurs are! And he: Sulphurs are souls which are hidden in four bodies, and, extracted by themselves, do contain one another, and are naturally conjoined. For if ye rule that which is hidden in the belly of sulphur with water, and cleanse well that which is hidden, then nature rejoices, meeting with nature, and water similarly with its equal. Know ye also that the four bodies are not tinged but tinge.* And the Turspa: Why dost thou not say like the ancients that when they are tinged, they tinge? And he: I state that the four coins of the vulgar populace are not tinged, but they tinge copper, and when that copper is tinged, it tinges the coins of the populace.t

(48) Pyruacoras saith: We must affirm unto all you seekers after this Art that the Philosophers have treated of conjunction (or continuation) in various ways. But I enjoin upon you to make quicksilver constrain the body of Magnesia, or the body Kuhul, or the Spume of Luna, or incombustible sulphur, or roasted calx, or alum which is out of apples, as ye know. But if there was any singular regimen for any of these, a Philosopher would not say so, as ye know. Understand, therefore, that sulphur, calx, and alum which is from apples, and Kuhul, are all nothing else but water of sulphur. Know ye also that Magnesia, being mixed with quicksilver and sulphur, they pursue one another. Hence you must not dismiss that Magnesia without the quicksilver, for when it is composed it is called an exceeding strong composition, which is one of the ten regimens established by the Philosophers. Know, also, that when Magnesia is whitened with quicksilver, you must congeal white water therein, but when it is reddened you must congeal red water, for, as the Philosophers have observed in their books, the regimen is not one.* Accordingly, the first congelation is of tin, copper, and lead. But the second is comf posed with water of sulphur.* Some, however, reading this book, think that the composition can be bought. It ‘jmust be known for certain that nothing jof the work can be bought, and that ithe science of this Art is nothing else than vapour and the sublimation of water, with the conjunction, also, of ‘quicksilver in the body of Magnesia; ¢ jbut, heretofore, the Philosophers have idemonstrated in their books that the impure water of sulphur is from Ysulphur only, and no sulphur is produced without the water of its calx, and of quicksilver, and of sulphur.

(87) This corporeal Exsiccation, or Drying, I call in this Book the divine SALITTER, for it is therein the Seed of the whole Deity, and is as it were a Mother, which receives the Seed, and always generates Fruit again, according to all the Qualities of the Seed. [The said seventh Spirit.]

(143) One more table should prove of interest to Masonic scholars: one showing the relationship existing between the three substances, salt, sulphur, and mercury, and certain symbols with which Masons are familiar. This table also has an alternative rendering, based on the interblending of philosophic principles, which are difficult--if not impossible--to separate into chronological order.

(50) Pandolphus saith: If, O Belus, thou dost describe the sublimation* of sulphur for future generations, thou wilt accomplish an excellent thing! And the Turba: Dothou show it forth, therefore,O Pandolphus! And he: The philosophers have ordered that quicksilver should be taken out of Cambar, and albeit they spoke truly, yet in these words there is a little ambiguity, the obscurity of which I will remove. Seethen that the quicksilver is sublimed in tabernacles, and extract the same from Cambar, but there is another Cambar in sulphur* which Belus hath demonstrated to you, for out of sulphur mixed with sulphur, many works proceed. When the same has been sublimed, there proceeds from the Cambar that quicksilver which is called Ethelia, Orpiment, Zendrio, or Sanderich,t Ebsemich, Magnesia, Kuhul, or Chuhul, and many other. names. Concerning this, philosophers have said that, being ruled by its regimen (for ten is the perfection of all things), its white nature appears, nor is there any shadow therein. Then the envious* have called it lead from Ebmich, Magnesia, Marteck, White Copper. For, when truly whitened, it is devoid of shadow and blackness, it has left its thickened ponderous bodies, and therewith a clean humid spirit has ascended, which spirit is tincture. Accordingly, the wise have said that copper has a soul and a body. Now, its soul is spirit, and its body is thick. Therefore, it behoves you to destroy the thick body until ye extract a tingeing spirit from the same. Mix, also, the spirit extracted therefrom with light sulphur until you, investigators, find your design accomplished.

(86) Now being thus agreed, they generated also such a Spirit, which came forth at the Mouth, at the Eyes, at the Ears, and at the Nostrils, and affected or mixed itself with the Salitter that was without distinct from the Body. [y The astringent or harsh Spirit.]

(67) But thou must rightly understand this. They are made and compacted together, or figured out of the Salitter and Mercurius, that is, out of the Exit or Excrefcence.

(88) Now in this rising up of the six Spirits, there rises up also the Mercurius, Tone, or Sound of all the six Spirits, and in the seventh Nature-spirit it subsists as in the Mother; and then the seventh generates all Manner of Fruits and Colours, according to the Operation of the six.

(71) Bracus* saith: How elegantly Mundus hath described this sulphureous water! For unless solid bodies are destroyed by a nature wanting a body, until the bodies become not-bodies, and even as a most tenuous spirit, ye cannot [attain] that most tenuous and tingeing soul, which is hidden in the natural belly. And know that unless the body be withered up and so destroyed that it dies, and unless ye extract from it its soul, which is a tingeing spirit, ye are unable to tinge a body therewith.

(44) Moses saith: This one thing of which thou hast told us, O Dardaris, the Philosophers have called by many names, sometimes by two and sometimes by three names!

Dardaris answereth: Name it, therefore, for posterity, setting aside envy. And he: The one is that. which is fiery, the two is the body composed in it, the three is the water of sulphur, with which also it is washed and ruled until it be perfected. Do ye not see what the Philosopher affirms, that the quicksilver which tinges gold is quicksilver out of Cambar?

Dardaris answereth: What dost thou mean by this? For the Philosopher says: sometimes from Cambar and sometimes from Orpiment. And he: Quicksilver of orpiment is Cambar of Magnesia, but quicksilver is sulphur ascending from the mixed* composite. Ye must, therefore, mix that thick thing with fiery venom, putrefy, and diligently pound until a spirit be produced, which is hidden in that other spirit; then is made the tincture which is desired of you all.

(48) Of which you have a Similitude in the precious Gold-Oar, or a Gold-Stone unseparated. First there is the Matter, that is, the Saltiter and Mercurius, which is the Mother or the whole Stone, which generates the Gold every where in the whole Stone, and in the Gold is the glorious Power or Virtue of the Stone.

(49) Now the Saltiter and Mercurius signify the Father, the Gold signifies the Son, and the Power or Virtue signifies the Holy Ghost: In such a Manner also is the Ternary in the holy Trinity, only that all moves and goes forth therein universally. Men find also

(84) There are many several Sorts of mineral Oars, according as the Saltiter in Nature's Heaven was predominant at its Rising up in the Light of Love: For every qualifying or radical Spirit in the heavenly Nature contains the Property or Kind of all the qualifying or fountain Spirits, for it is ever infected, or affected with the other, from whence the Life and the unsearchable Birth or Geniture of the Deity exists: But yet it is predominant as to its own Power, and that is its own Body, from whence it has the Name.

(148) In this rising up of the Heart, the Mercurius in the Heart is stirred up or awakened, as also in the whole Salitter of Heaven there rises up in the Deity the miraculous, wonderful and fair beautiful Imaging of Heaven, in several manifold various Colours and Manners, and each Spirit presents itself in its own peculiar Form.

(29) For from the fiery Quality the Spirit becomes trembling and hot, and from the astringent it becomes severe, astringent, hard and corporeal, so that it is a Spirit, which always subsists; and from the Sweet it becomes meek or mild, and the Fierceness changes it into a gentle Bitterness; which stands now in the Fountain or Well-spring of the seven Spirits of God, and helps continually to generate the other six Spirits. Understand this rightly.

(48) As the alchemist must do his work in four worlds simultaneously if he would achieve the Magnum Opus, a table showing the analogies of the three principles in the four worlds may clarify the relationship which the various parts bear to each other. The early masters of the art of alchemical symbolism did not standardize either their symbols or their terms. Thus it required great familiarity with the subject combined with considerable intuitive power to unravel some of their enigmatical statements. The third and fourth divisions of the following table are given alternative renderings, owing to the fact that some authors did not draw a clear line between spirit and soul. According to the Scriptures, spirit is indestructible, but soul is destructible. Obviously, then, they are not synonymous. It is clearly stated that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die," but "the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." The table of analogies, as nearly as they can be established, is as follows: