De Pharmaco Catholico

(On the Universal Medicine)

Consule te ipsum, noscas temet, et ambula ab intra.

(Take your own counsel that you may know yourself, and walk within.)

It is not without some hesitations that we introduce the readers to an original text of alchemical Hermeticism. The readers already know that the “alchemy” discussed here is not at all the infant and superstitious early chemistry, but rather the coded exposition of an initiatic teaching. In Master Giovanni Braccesco’s Espositione di Geber philosopho (Venice, 1551, f. 77 b), we are warned: “Do not be deceived and do not believe literally the Philosophers of this science, for where they have spoken most openly, there they have spoken most obscurely, namely through enigmas or similitudes.” Thus our readers must remember that, generally speaking, every substance (salt, sulfur, niter, etc.) mentioned here is also a symbol of states of consciousness and of fluidic forces, and that the relative operations indicate first of all the transformations that must be performed through initiatic realization.

The whole problem lies in interpreting the symbolism; this is difficult both because it permeates alchemy and because it is very complex and varied, as well as requiring a truly subtle power of intuition. In the footnotes we will clarify the more important points. However the readers should refer to the previous essays by Abraxas, Luce, and P. Negri, and also read the text many times with patience and intelligence. Julius Evola’s The Hermetic Tradition may also be helpful, since in that work the hermetic-alchemical symbolism is systematically explained.

What we are publishing here is not the unabridged version of De pharmaco catholico, but rather a synthesis made by its own anonymous author. This synthesis occupies pages 62–73 of the original edition found in the Chymica Vannus, which was published in Amsterdam in 1666.

The following is the first direct translation from Latin, done by a friend of ours who has assumed the pseudonym Tikaipôs.

Know first of all that everything was formed and made from three essences, similarly and analogously in the body through astral impression and elementary operation. The elements are found in the metals—not the metals in the elements—insofar as the seed of the metals is not found so far off as many know-it-alls have fancied.⁸¹ Even though the elements, in the formation of any body, must cooperate together, they are still not the philosophical Prime Matter, or that Astral Seed. However, they are cause of generation and of corruption, and the corruption of one thing is the generation of another.

According to the ancient philosophers, all things have been created by hatred and by love, by attraction and by repulsion (id est ex sympathia et antipathia), as by two qualities that are mutually contrasted in the Elements, when performing this operation, through a heavenly influx or through a specific astral impression, etc. In every mineral or metal are incorporated the Elements, from which it derives its specific characteristics. The opposite qualities through which every existing thing is conceived and born, are two and only two: Fire is the hot-dry element and Water is the cold-humid element opposed to it. Air is hot-humid and its opposite element is the dry-cold Earth.⁸² Since there is no other body to be found outside these four Elements—and since they are incorporated in all things—this is the source of contrasts in any element. For these reasons, everything under the sphere of the moon is perishable and subject to decay. When within a single subject two contraries coexist, an incessant struggle ensues, until one of the two parts is strengthened by its external element.⁸³ Then the opposite force must withdraw, giving victory to the stronger one. What ensues is a certain decomposition or breaking apart of the entire compound, until a new form appears, generated through dissolution.

The elements that constitute the metals are their three primordial matrices: Mercury, Sulfur and Salt, which are like opposites in constant tension and struggle. Mercury, as an aerial spirit, is hostile to Salt, representing the Earth. The warm Sulfur, as Fire, is the enemy of Water, and thus it too is hostile to Mercury’s humidity. Mercury, in virtue of being the water of metals, represents two elements: Air and Water. These three matrices are nourished by our visible and tangible material constituents; they struggle in their mortal sojourn until the predetermined time when one of the constituting metals, having become too strong for the other, suppresses it, as nothing else comes to its aid.⁸⁴ And just like a man becomes gravely sick when one element predominates in him—in the case of sulfur, he first loses fat, then flesh and even blood, and if we can not fix the principal element and reestablish in him some opportune harmony, he will die (thus the doctor has to know what element is active and what element is deficient)—likewise, and not otherwise as happens in the microcosm, so it happens in minerals and metals. The latter, through the strengthening of this or that element, suppress or oppress the contrary element, until decomposition and scission occur.

Those who know how to and can indeed gather the metallic sulfur (as their soul or igneous character) through that magical philosophical Fire have indeed attained the glory of this world. This igneous character is twofold: be aware that just as the two constituents have two enemies that are the cause of their whole dissolution, likewise the Wise have two constituents, or, rather, two receptacles of constituents (receptacula elementorum) through which they augment and reinforce one constituent or suppress its contrary.

You have heard how the Philosophers—in the resolution of all metals—make use of contrary elements that I call the two fires: the sympathetic and hot hermaphroditic fire, and the cold metallic fire. The igneous element, or the soul of metals, is their Sulfur: the cold fire is that Mercury which is called the water of metals, and which is reduced through Salt.⁸⁵

Remember also that all things must be dissolved through that from which they came and to which they will return: namely Mercury, Sulfur, and Salt. The metals’ Sulfur has its own Sulfur with which it needs to be strengthened and inflamed, so that it may retain dominion: this cannot be done before the Water gives in to Fire, namely the watery Mercury to its fiery Sulfur.⁸⁶

Vulgar Sulfur and vulgar Niter are both efficacious fires, but mortal enemies to each other. If you will know how to reconcile them (and through their igneous spirit, to light up the metallic Sulfur), nobody, besides God, will be able to stand in your way to attain health and wealth..⁸⁷

Moreover, we can—through the multiplication of Salt—decompose metals through mineral or tartaric salt; however, this does not help to obtain that metallic sulfur that is the soul of all metals. Thus one first needs, paying uttermost care, to grasp it through something similar to it: namely through that flaming Fire obtained from those two opposites called Sulfur and Niter, which are often called by the same name.

In order for you to know the other Fire as well—the frigid metallic one—be aware that it is nothing other than Saturn’s Mercury, which can be combined with the metals, and calcinated on the fire, through the igneous and double element mentioned before.

Thus, you have received from me a transparent teaching that is very clear in all regards: namely, that the metals—due to a certain astral sidereal representation (sideream imaginationem) and to an action of Elements (elementaremque operationem)—are all generated by Sulfur and Mercury; that through Elements the metals must be fed and live, and finally die—that is, to be reduced to their primitive being; that metals cannot be without Elements; and that, analogously, the Philosophers only venerate two, each one having its own enemy. Fire and Water, or Sulfur and Mercury, are these two elements; and all things were formed by them, through the medium of Salt. Everything therefore needs to be decomposed through Sulfur and Mercury and reduced to Sulfur, etc. These are those magical elements that decompose everything and reveal a new product. This is the first dry solution, which I have dealt with at length in the beginning.

The second, the humid solution, is performed with Saturn’s Mercury,⁸⁸ which I have called cosmic soul (animam mundi); since Saturn is the first planet in Heaven and is called father of all planets, likewise the earthly Saturn is the first, and from it all metals originate. Therefore it can be found in all of them, and not without reason I have called its spirit “cosmic spirit.”

However, before going on at length about this solution, I must inform you earnestly once more that the Philosophers have not only two magical elements—two Mercuries and two Saturns—but also two metals. In regard to these two Mercuries I have promised to instruct you without complication or distraction on how to conduct yourself in such circumstances. Know therefore that when the philosophers talk about their Mercury, you should not think about ordinary Mercury, since theirs is a metallic Mercury and hot-dry rather than cold-humid, while ordinary Mercury is hot in all its being, and thus cannot be mistaken for philosophical Mercury.⁸⁹

Vulgar Mercury carries within it the seed of Silver. But the other Mercury receives it from the Creator of heaven and earth, the solar Sulfur, in the metallic form and property. It is therefore the solar Magnet, just as the vulgar Mercury may be called a lunar Magnet. The fact that this is so can be seen by Mercury with that half-moon with which the Wise have represented it, discriminating it and cutting it off from the authentic solar Mercury (). We can also recognize the two Mercuries from the vapor that constitutes their Sulfur; and it can easily be seen why they are volatile—fixed or fugitive—and how sooner or later they let themselves be sublimated and precipitated; this is the living way to discern the two Mercuries.

Moreover be aware that just as Nature generated two Mercuries—solar and lunar—in the same way we can prepare, through the Art, out of those two stable bodies a corresponding Mercury. It is possible to obtain live Mercury from metalloids (ex mediis metallis = by metallic means) like Antimony, Bismuth, and Arsenic, but simply for medicinal purposes; with the exception of this excellent healing virtue of theirs, they should not be regarded or proclaimed to be philosophical Mercury, which is a universal solvent (menstruum) and is born twice from Mercury—first from the lunar one and then from the solar one—and thus can rightly be called double Mercury.

It is possible to extract and to distill lunar Mercury from the Saturnine body, though with much effort; it has the same nature and property as the lunar Mercury, insofar as the Moon was generated through Saturn. And just as from Saturn one can extract lunar Mercury, likewise from the mine of Venus it is possible to extract the warm solar Mercury, through Tartar and sal ammoniac.⁹⁰ Though the latter are held in great contempt, they need to promote this operation together. Mercury of cold Saturn and Mercury of warm Venus: he who will know how to melt them down into oil will gain the Universal Solvent. He will hold the key with which all the Sulfurs can be made potable. But let us return to our main point.

Know that the Philosophers have two Saturns; under the aforesaid double mercurial spirit they understand those two Saturns from which this or that Mercury was extracted and their spirit distilled. Many have given the name of Gold to Lead and vice versa; but I mean the philosophers’ Lead, which has remained unknown to this day. Analogously, the other Lead may well be the philosophers’ Lead, but it is not regarded as such by everyone—it is argentiferous, and so forth—while the auriferous lead is rarely found in metals (it is used in laboratories under an incorrect name); not much is made of it, despite its white and bright yellow color. In its great weight and psychophysical character (spirituale ac corporale) it may be compared to Arsenic, insofar as—being generated by Arsenic and by similar elements—it is in the same family. And just as Arsenic is friendly to Arsenic, the same goes for this hidden and ancient Philosophical Lead.⁹¹ Since the ancient Sages have used only two metals in their Great Magistery, I will limit myself to them; in regard to both these metals of the Wise I will shed the light of my own experience.

The Philosophers say that the first and the last metal are to be regarded as one and the same metal that can be used in the Art and for the making of the Universal Medicine. The first metal is the very sperm of the metals; from it, it is possible to bring to light in visible form the metallic fertilizing seed as well as Sulfur. We find this metal in the mine of Saturn. Root of the perfect metals, just as of the imperfect ones, it is endowed with a certain saturnine spirit and is manifested as the mine of Mercury. It is called Philosophical Lead or Philosophical Azoth, from which we are used to distil the Virgin’s Milk, and it has a venereal property.⁹² The last metal is called “last” because it has attained a maturity of perfect finality: the finality of metals consists in their being Gold, beyond which Nature does not operate in metals, but must cease and desist there, unless the dominating Art comes to its help. The latter, in a short time (but not without the help of Nature herself), goes beyond until a certain transparent and diaphanous body emerges from the solar mass: this is what the Philosophers call “crystallization” (vitrificationem), and it is the highest and noblest thing Nature and Art can ever do and achieve. I can only briefly mention here how this crystallization must be prepared and performed.

Take that magical igneous element that is composed, as though from Sulfur and Niter, of two opposed infernal materials. With this infernal blazing Fire, begin on the border of Nature: attack and calcify those otherwise impregnable doors of the solar fort, namely Gold: thus one fire lights the other, one Sulfur the other. While this takes place, the element Fire dominates: that which in the solar compound is the second principle, inasmuch as the Fire in the Gold is called soul and Sulfur. Thus, when the Fire achieves victory, it is up to the element Water—namely to the humid and elusive Mercury—to fly toward its star. Since the mercurial spirit is the seat of the soul, and is called the link that connects soul and body, what arises out of it is a first separation and the splitting of soul and body. What needs to be employed for this is that cold metallic fire that is extracted from a certain mineral Saturn that has not yet been melted down, also known as the Mercury of Saturn. The latter, drawn out of that unfused and rigid Lead, does not burn: in other words, it does not run like ordinary Mercury. It has within itself a dry and earthly quality, thanks to which it can preserve the solar Sulfur. Make sure that it does not get burned and that it does not fly away with its own Mercury.⁹³

When Gold is amalgamated with saturnine Mercury, it becomes a porous Gold.⁹⁴ Thus the infernal fire can calcinate that solid body better and faster, light up the solar fire throughout and thus reduce it to ashes. Then, through clear heavenly dew, we draw from it Sulfur. From the remaining mass, after a due reverberation, we lixiviate that most precious medicinal Salt of which the Wise have said, “Metallic salt is the Philosophers’ Stone.” Another Philosopher said: “Unless God created Salt, one could not make the Philosophers’ Stone.” But this Salt needs to be duly clarified with the spirit of wine. Having done that, it joins its Sulfur: and see, it is permeated by the cosmic spirit—that spirit which was distilled from saturnine Mercury—and it soon begins to putrefy and fixate in the same glass and furnace.⁹⁵ In this way the Great Work is completed until it reaches fermentation and increase; it is the universal medicine for all diseases. The souls of those who can use it are renewed and strengthened with every help they need . . .

The benevolent reader will undoubtedly be puzzled at the clear and radical teaching I have expounded so far: especially the teaching on that frigid saturnine Mercury (and on that igneous-infernal magical element) without which nothing is worth learning in the entire alchemical science. The answer is this: even though I have put everything in clear sight (far too clearly for the experts), and in a more explicit way than any Philosopher has ever written about it, there are a few things that I have kept hidden: how it is possible to extract from a certain Saturn such an excellent and rare Mercury, and how to reduce it to a red spirit.⁹⁶ This can be attained in one way only, and through only one means. In regard to this I have given some hints: but those who will not be favored by God will not be able to get them and not even suspect their existence.

Not only have I kept partially hidden this adaptation of the frigid metallic fire, but also the preparation of that igneous magical key that, as you have often heard, is obtained from two opposite fires striving against each other, namely Sulfur and Niter. These fires, though they may be rightly called infernal fires in mutual opposition, must become the same thing and produce together the same effect. In order to understand how to bring about this unification, ask God to illuminate your soul. I have done my part in this little work and revealed to you more than enough. The reason that I have done this is love for my neighbor, whom I would like to encourage with my little experience and lead back on the straight path. . . . It is also right that whatever is good be shared among all, or at least with those who have approached and dedicated themselves to the Philosophers and belong to their number. For the other outsiders, everything takes place so that “[t]hey have ears but hear not, they have eyes but see not.” We will not cast pearls before swine, which do not care for them but besmirch them.

I will add something only about this one point, which could cause you great hesitations, concerning the first and second Saturn, or Mercury. Before you have heard: 1) from the Moon, and likewise from that frigid Saturn of Aries, it is possible to draw a certain Mercury, especially fit for the Philosophical Work; 2) from the mine of Venus it is possible to obtain a certain solar Mercury endowed of solar Sulfur, which I have called the “Mercury of the Sun,” since it is employed to generate the Sun; 3) in spite of this, I have employed saturnine Mercury to break up the Gold. To the doubt that may ensue I will reply that we could employ red Mercury in a white lunar tincture. Just as one cannot travel from one extreme to the other without going through a middle point, likewise it is not possible to attain a red tincture without having first attained a white one. In this way, the benevolent reader can solve the problem by himself, and remember that here I have written only about the true and simple Universal and not about the most universal Universal.

The most universal Universal (Universale generalissimum) is produced, as explained above, from a double Mercury; it is animated and fermented with solar Sulfur, coagulated with permanent golden Salt, and further augmented ad infinitum, both in quantity and in quality, thanks to the two other Sulfurs. Quality, as life (qualitas seu vita), feeds on Sulfur, and it increases with that aforesaid Mercury, which carries with itself not only the character and the power of a venereal property, but also the nature of frigid saturnine metal. It is therefore compared to a double Mercury—and is called duplicated Mercury—which has all the qualities: the quality of Venus, thanks to the hot Sulfur, and frigidity on the part of Saturn. The benevolent and sincere Lover of the Art would cast away any doubts and believe in the truth of my experience. In this way you will not be able to accuse me of lying, since I have not begged this out of other people’s books, in order to procure for myself fame and respect; on the contrary, I have labored on it with the work of my hands, and it was only afterward that I realized what I should have known before.⁹⁷

The fundamental mystery of the Wise, as I have expounded it above, and that I have summarized again here, needs to be understood by you, sincere Lover of the Art [tecnofilo]: for you must frequently and repeatedly read this summary of mine, over and over again, until you have been educated, both inside and out, on all things . . .⁹⁸

In the meantime, my summary is over, limited to the two magical constituents of Solvent or duplicated Mercury, refraining from describing the medicine on the basis of the mineral kingdom. Thus welcome, with grateful heart, these fruits of my labors: magical elements, Solvent and Universal Medicine (Catholicus), and First Matter, with which any metal may be led back to its three principles, and the true Potable Gold must be obtained. You could not wish me to have made clearer to you the First Matter—and even both elements, including the igneous key—with such explicit words and constant lucidity.