(62) Munpus saith: It behoves you, O all ye seekers after this Art, to know that whatsoever the Philosophers have narrated or ordained, Kenckel, herbs, geldum, and carmen, are one thing!* Do not, therefore, trouble about a plurality of things, for there is one Tyrian tincture of the Philosophers to which they have given names at will, and having abolished the proper name, they have called it black, because it has been extracted from our sea. And know that the ancient priests did not condescend to wear artificial garments, whence, for purifying altars, and lest they should introduce into them anything sordid or impure, they tinged Kenckel with a Tyrian colour; but our Tyrian colour, which they placed in their altars and treasuries, was more clean and fragrant than can be described by me, which also has been extracted from our red and most pure sea, which is sweet and of a pleasant odour, and is neither sordid nor impure in putrefaction. And know ye that we have given many names to it, which are all true—an example of which, for those that possess understanding, is to be traced in corn that is being ground. For after grinding it is called by another name, and after it has been passed through the sieve, and the various substances have been separated one from another, each of these has its own name, and yet fundamentally there is but one name, to wit, corn, from which many names are distinguished. Thus we call the purple in each grade of its regimen by the name:of its own colour.

(35) The blood signifieth the water, and is from the water.

(69) Frorus saith: I am thinking of per- ‘fecting thy treatise, O Mundus, for thou has not accomplished the disposition of the cooking! And he: Proceed, O Philosopher! And Fiorus: I teach you, O Sons of the Doctrine, that the sign of the goodness of the first decoction is the extraction of its redness! And he: Describe what is redness. And Frorus: When ye see that the matter is entirely black, know that whiteness has been hidden in the belly of that blackness. Then it behoves you to extract that whiteness most subtly from that blackness, for ye know how to discern between them. But in the second decoction let that whiteness be placed in a vessel with its instruments, and let it be cooked gently until it become completely white. But when, O all ye seekers after this Art, ye shall perceive that whiteness appear and flowing over all, be certain that redness is hid in that whiteness! However, it does not behove you to extract it,* but rather to cook it until the whole become a most deep red, with which nothing can compare.

Know also that the first blackness is produced out of the nature of Marteck, and that redness is extracted from that blackness, which red has improved the black, and has made peace between the fugitive and the non-fugitive, reducing’ the two into one. The ‘Turba answereth: And why wasthis? And he: Because the cruciated matter when it is submerged in the body, changes it into an unalterable and indelible nature. It behoves you, therefore, to know this sulphur which blackens the body. And know ye that the same sulphur cannot be handled, but it cruciates and tinges. And the sulphur which blackens is that which does not open the door to the fugitive and turns into the fugitive with the fugitive.* Do you not see that the cruciating does not cruciate with harm or corruption, but by coadunation and utility of things?t For if its victim were noxious and inconvenient, it would not be embraced thereby until its colours were extracted from it unalterable and indelible. This we have called water of sulphur, which water we have prepared for the red tinctures; for the rest it does not blacken; but that which does blacken, and this does not come to pass without blackness, I have testified to be the key of the work.

(9) The red sap gushing forth from the tree fell in the gourd and with it they made a ball which glistened and took the shape of a heart. The tree gave forth sap similar to blood, with the appearance of real blood. Then the blood, or that is to say the sap of the red tree, clotted, and formed a very bright coating inside the gourd, like clotted blood; meanwhile the tree glowed at the work of the maiden. It was called the "red tree of cochineal," but [since then] it has taken the name of Blood Tree because its sap is called Blood. "There on earth you shall be beloved and you shall have all that belongs to you," said the maiden to the owls. "Very well, girl. We shall go there, we go up to serve you; you, continue on your way, while we go to present the sap, instead of your heart, to the lords," said the messengers. When they arrived in the presence of the lords, all were waiting. "You have finished?" asked Hun-Camé. "All is finished, my lords. Here in the bottom of the gourd is the heart."

(14) Acsubofen* saith: Master, thou hast spoken without envy, even as became thee, and for the same may God reward thee!

PyTHacoras saith: May God also deliver thee, Acsubofen, from envy! Then he: Ye must know, O Assembly of the Wise, that sulphurs are contained in sulphurs, and humidity in humidity.t

The Turba answereth: The envious, O Acsubofen, have uttered something like unto this! Tell us, therefore, what is this humidity? And he: Humidity is a venom, and when venom} penetrates a body, it tinges it with an invariable colour, and in no wise permits the soul to be separated from the body, because it is equal thereto. Concerning this, the envious have said: When one flies and the other pursues, then one seizes upon the other, and afterwards they no longer flee, because Nature has laid hold of its equal, after the manner of an enemy, and they destroy one another. For this reason, out of the sulphureous mixed sulphur is produced a most precious colour, which varies not, nor flees from the fire, when the soul enters into the interior of the body and holds the body together and tinges it. I will repeat my words in Tyrian dye.* Take the Animal which is called Kenckel, since all its water is a Tyrian colour, and rule the same with a gentle fire, as is customary, until it shall become earth, in which there will be a little colour. But if you wish to obtain the Tyrian tincture, take the humidity which that thing has ejected, and place it therewith gradually in a vessel, adding that tincture whereof the colour was disagreeable to you. Then cook with that same marine water* until itshall becomedry.t Afterwards moisten with that humour, dry gradually, and cease not to imbue it, to cook, and to dry, until it be imbued with all its humour. Then leave it for several days in its own vessel, until the most precious Tyrian colour shall come out from it to the surface. Observe how I describe the regimen to you! Prepare it with the urine of boys, with gigt water of the sea, and with permanent clean water, so that it may be tinged, and decoct with a gentle fire, until the blackness altogether shall depart from it, and it be easily pounded. Decoct, therefore, in its own humour until it clothe itself with a red colour. But if ye wish to bring it to the Tyrian colour, imbue the same with continual* water, and mix, as ye know to be sufficient, according to the rule of sight; mix the same with permanent water sufficiently, and decoct until rust absorb the water. Then wash with the water of the sea which thou hast prepared, which is water of desiccated calx;+ cook until it imbibe its own moisture; and do this day by day. I tell you thata colour will thence appear to you the like of which the Tyrians have never made. And if ye wish that it should be a still more exalted colour, place the gum in the permanent water, with which ye shall dye it alternately, and afterwards desiccate in the sun. Then restore to the aforesaid water and the black Tyrian colour is intensified. But know that ye do not tinge the purple colour except by cold.

Take, therefore, water which is of the nature of cold, and steep wool* therein until it extract the force of the tincture from the water.

Know also that the Philosophers have called the force which proceeds from that water the Flower. Seek, therefore, your intent in the said water; therein place what is in the vessel for days and nights, until it be clothed with a most precious Tyrian colour.

(37) In Meno, Plato, speaking through Socrates, describes color as "an effluence of form, commensurate with sight, and sensible." In Theætetus he discourses more at length on the subject thus: "Let us carry out the principle which has just been affirmed, that nothing is self-existent, and then we shall see that every color, white, black, and every other color, arises out of the eye meeting the appropriate motion, and that what we term the substance of each color is neither the active nor the passive element, but something which passes between them, and is peculiar to each percipient; are you certain that the several colors appear to every animal--say a dog--as they appear to you?"

(22) The green color alludes to the vegetation which covers the face of the earth, and therefore represents the robe of Nature. The black represents death and corruption as being the way to a new life and generation. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John iii. 3.) White, yellow, and red signify the three principal colors of the alchemical, Hermetical, universal medicine after the blackness of its putrefaction is over.

(50) The ancients conceived the spirit of man to correspond with the color blue, the mind with yellow, and the body with red. Heaven is therefore blue, earth yellow, and hell--or the underworld--red. The fiery condition of the inferno merely symbolizes the nature of the sphere or plane of force of which it is composed. In the Greek Mysteries the irrational sphere was always considered as red, for it represented that condition in which the consciousness is enslaved by the lusts and passions of the lower nature. In India certain of the gods--usually attributes of Vishnu--are depicted with blue skin to signify their divine and supermundane constitution. According to esoteric philosophy, blue is the true and sacred color of the sun. The apparent orange-yellow shade of this orb is the result of its rays being immersed in the substances of the illusionary world.

(6) 'Whatever they thought looked red, they knew was the colour of fire. Whatever they thought looked white, they knew was the colour of water. Whatever they thought looked black, they knew was the colour of earth.

(1) Now those arteries of the heart consist of a brown substance, of a white, blue, yellow, and red substance, and so is the sun brown, white, blue, yellow, and red.

(11) Paracelsus, when describing the substances which constitute the bodies of the elementals, divided flesh into two kinds, the first being that which we have all inherited through Adam. This is the visible, corporeal flesh. The second was that flesh which had not descended from Adam and, being more attenuated, was not subject to the limitations of the former. The bodies of the elementals were composed of this transubstantial flesh. Paracelsus stated that there is as much difference between the bodies of men and the bodies of the Nature spirits as there is between matter and spirit.

(3) For purple is from water, linen from the earth; blue, being dark, is like the air, as scarlet is like fire.

(10) Now the Gate of the Light stands between both these Regions, as in one [only] Center inclosed with Flesh, and it shines in the Darkness in itself, and it moves towards the Might of the Darkness and Fierceness, and sheds forth its Rays, even to the Noise of the Breaking through, from whence the Gates of Seeing, Hearing, Smelling, Tasting, and Feeling, go forth; and when these Gates apprehend the sweet, loving, and pleasant Rays of the Light, then they become most highly joyful, and run into their highest Region into the Heart (as into their right Dwelling-house) into the Essences of the Spirit of the Soul, which receives it with Joy, and refreshes itself therein; and there its Sun springs up (viz. the pleasant Tincture in the Element of Water) and by the sweet Joy becomes Blood. For all Regions rejoice therein, and suppose that they have got the noble Virgin again, whereas it is but her Rays, as the Sun shines upon the Earth, from whence all Essences of the Earth rejoice, spring, grow, and blossom. Which is the Cause that the Tincture rises up in all Herbs and Trees. 1 1. And here we must accurately consider wherein every Region rejoices; for the Sun and Stars apprehend not the Divine Light, as the Essences of the Soul [do,] and yet only that Soul which stands in the new Birth; but pthey taste the Sweetness which has imprinted [or imaged] itself in the Tincture; for the Blood of the Heart, wherein the Soul moves, is so very sweet, that there is nothing to be compared to it. Therefore has God by Moses forbidden Man to eat the Flesh in its Blood; for the Life stands in it. For the bestial Life ought not to be in Man, that his Spirit be not infected therewith.

(13) Red is the color of the passions in general, but there is a great variety in its manifestations, for instance: Red (dull and appearing as if mixed with smoke) indicates sensuality and the lower animal passions; Red (appearing as bright flashes, sometimes light lightning in form) indicates anger. In this case the red usually is shown on a black back ground when the anger arises from hatred or malice and on a greenish background when the anger arise, from jealousy, envy, etc., and without any back ground when the anger arises from "righteous indignation" and the defense of what is believed to be righteous cause. Red (crimson shade) represent Love, and varies in shade according to the character of the passion named. For instance, a dull and heavy crimson shade indicates a gross, sensual love, while the brighter, clearer and more pleasing shades indicate love blended with higher feelings and accompanied by higher ideals; and the highest form of human love between the sexes manifests in a beautiful rose color.

(37) The juice of the grape was thought by the Egyptians to resemble human blood more closely than did any other substance. In fact, they believed that the grape secured its life from the blood of the dead who had been buried in the earth. According to Plutarch, "The priests of the sun at Heliopolis never carry any wine into their temples, * * * and if they made use of it at any time in their libations to the gods, it was not because they looked upon it as in its own nature acceptable to them; but they poured it upon their altars as the blood of those enemies who formerly had fought against them. For they look upon the vine to have first sprung out of the earth after it was fattened with the carcasses of those who fell in the wars against the gods. And this, say they, is the reason why drinking its juice in great quantities makes men mad and beside themselves, filling them as it were with the blood of their own ancestors." (See Isis and Osiris.)

(21) But the living Creatures, as Men, Beasts, and Fowls, have the Tincture in them, for in the Beginning they were an Extraction [taken] from the quality of the Stars and Elements by the Fiat. And in the Tincture [there] stands the continual kindling Fire, which continually draws the Virtue or Oleum [the Oil] out of the Water; from whence comes the Blood, in which the noble Life P stands.

(34) Bacsen saith: On account of thy dicta the

Philosophers said beware,* Take the regal Corsufle, which is like to the redness of copper, and pound in the urine of a calf until the nature of the Corsufle is converted, for the true nature has. been hidden in the belly of the Corsufle. The

Tureva saith: Explain to posterity what the nature is. And he: A tingeing spirit which it hath from permanent water, which is coinlike, and coruscates. And they: Shew, therefore, how it is extracted. And he: It is pounded, and water is poured upon it seven times until it absorbs the whole humour, and receives a force which is equal to the hostility of the fire; then it is called rust. Putrefy the same diligently until it becomes a spiritual powder, of a colour like burnt blood, which the fire overcoming hath introduced into the receptive belly of Nature, and hath coloured with an indelible colour. This, therefore, have kings sought, but not found, save only to whom God has granted it.* But the

Turba saith: Finish your speech, O Bacsen. And he: I direct them to whiten copper with white water, by which also they make red. Be careful not to introduce any foreign matter. And the Turba: Well hast thou spoken, O Bacsen, and Nictimerus also has spoken well! Then he: If I have spoken well, do one of you continue.

:

(17) Zimon* saith: O Turba of Philosophers and disciples, now hast thou spoken about making into white, but it yet remains to treat concerning the reddening! Know, all ye seekers after this Art, that unless ye whiten, ye cannot make red, because the two natures are nothing other than red and white. Whiten, therefore, the red, and redden the white!* Know, also, that the year is divided into four seasons; the first season is of a frigid complexion, and thisis Winter; the second is of the complexion of air, and this is Spring; then follows the third, which is summer, and is of the complexion of fire; lastly, there is the fourth, wherein fruits are matured, which is Autumn. In this manner, therefore, ye are to rule your natures, namely, to dissolve in winter, to cook in spring, to coagulate in summer, and to gather and tinge the fruit in autumn. Having, therefore, given this example, rule the tingeing natures, but if ye err, blame no one save yourselves.

The Turba answereth: Thou hast treated the matter extremely well; add, therefore, another teaching of this kind for the sake of posterity. And he: I will speak of making lead red.* Take the copper which the Master ordered you to take at the beginning of his book, combine lead therewith, and cook it until it becomes thick; congeal also and desiccate until it becomes red. Here certainly is the Red Lead of which the wise spake; copper and lead become a precious stone; mix them equally, let gold be roasted with them, for this, if ye rule well, becomes a tingeing spirit in spirits.t So when the male and the female are conjoined there is not produced a volatile wife, but a spiritual composite. From the composite turned into a red spirit is produced the beginning of the world.

Behold this is the lead which we have called Red Lead, which is of our work, and without which nothing is effected!

(25) Menasvus saith: May God reward thee for the regimen, since thou speakest the truth! For thou hast illuminated thy words. And they: It is said because thou praisest him for his sayings, do not be inferior to him. Andhe: I know that I can utter nothing but that which he hath uttered; however, I counsel posterity to make bodies not bodies, but these incorporeal things bodies.* For by this regimen the composite is prepared, and the hidden part of its nature is extracted. With these bodies accordingly join quicksilver and the body of Magnesia,t the woman also with the man, and by means of this there is extracted our secret Ethelia, through which bodies are coloured; assuredly, if I understand this regimen, bodies become not bodies, and incorporeal things become bodies. If ye diligently pound the things in the fire and digest (or join to) the Ethelias, they become clean and fixed things. And know ye that quicksilver is a fire burning the bodies, mortifying and breaking up, with one regimen, and the more it is mixed and pounded with the body, the more the body is disintegrated, while the quicksilver is attenuated and becomes living. For when ye shall diligently pound fiery quicksilver and cook it as required, ye will possess Ethel, a fixed nature* and colour, subject to every tincture, which also overcomes, breaks, and constrains the fire.t For this reason it does not colour things unless it be coloured, and being coloured it colours.} And know that no body can tinge itself unless its spirit be extracted from the secret belly thereof, when it becomes a body and soul without the spirit,* which is a spiritual tincture, out of which colours have manifested, seeing that a dense thing does not tinge a tenuous, but a tenuous nature colours that which enters into a body. When, however, ye have ruled the body of copper, and have extracted from it a most tenuous (subject), then the latter is changed into a tincture by which it is coloured.t Hence has the wise man said, that copper does not tinge unless first it be tinged. And know that those four bodies which you are directed to rule are this copper, and that the tinctures which I have signified unto you are the condensed and the humid,* but the condensed is a conjoined vapour, and the humid is the water of sulphur, for sulphurs are contained by sulphurs, and rightly by these things Nature rejoices in Nature, and overcomes, and constrains.

(102) Now as that quality is which is strongest, so the body of the fruit is imaged, and the colours also; in this striving or wrestling the Deity formeth itself into infinite and unsearchable variety of kinds and manners of images or ideas.