(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?

(49) Now the Salitter and Mercurius signify the Father, the gold signifieth 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 moveth and goeth forth therein universally.

(89) ["By the word SALITTER, in this book, is understood how, out of the eternal centre of nature, the second Principle grows and springeth up out of the first, just as the light springeth up out of the fire, wherein two spirits are understood, viz. first, a hot, second, an aerial one; whereas in the aerial life the true vegetation or growing consisteth, and in the firelife 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.

(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.

(93) Now when the wrath of these four spirits is killed, then the mineral orey Salitter stands in the water, like a tough matter, and looketh like that spirit which is predominant in the mineral ore; and the light which stands in the fire coloureth [tinctureth] it according to its own quality, be it silver or gold.

(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.

(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 excrescence.

(62) Although these are of a corrupted and twofold being, which is not living, nor has understanding; for it is but the corrupt Salitter and Mercurius, in which king Lucifer kept house, wherein is both evil and good; though it be indeed the real power of God, which before its corruption was bright and pure, as now it is, in heaven.

(88) Now in this rising up of the six spirits, there riseth up also the Mercurius, tone or sound of all the six spirits, and in the seventh nature-spirit it subsisteth as in the mother; and then the seventh generateth all manner of fruits and colours, according to the operation of the six.

(85) And the hard, spoiled or corrupt matter, which had wrought forth itself in the kindled seven qualifying or fountain-spirits, was driven together, from whence the earth and stones came to be, and, after that, all the creatures were created out of the kindled Salitter of the seven spirits of God.

(48) Of which you have a similitude in the precious gold ore, or a goldstone unseparated. First there is the matter, that is, the Salitter and Mercurius, which is the mother or the whole stone, which generateth the gold everywhere in the whole stone; and in the gold is the glorious power or virtue of the stone.

(87) This corporeal exsiccation or drying, I call in this book the divine SALITTER, for it is therein [in the seventh fountain spirit of nature] the seed of the whole Deity, and it [the seventh spirit] is as it were a mother, which receiveth the seed, and always generateth fruit again, according to all the qualities of the seed.

(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) But now the astral birth generateth the animated soulish birth, viz. the third, which stands in the word, wherein the incorporated or compacted word lies hidden in its heaven. ["The Sulphur to the (production of the) soul is the first Principle in the eternal willspirit, and cometh to life in the third Principle, and so liveth between love and wrath, and hangeth to both."]

(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.

(21) There are two things to be observed in God; the first is the Salitter, or the divine powers, out of which is the body or corporeity; and the second is the Mercurius, tone, tune or sound: thus also it is, in like manner and form, in an angel.

(62) Then afterwards, that the sound is in every power, and the tone or tune of the sound is according to the quality of every power; and therein consisteth the total heavenly kingdom of joy. From this divine Salitter and Mercurius all angels are made, viz. out of the body of nature. Question.