The Golden Treatise45 of Hermes Trismegistus,
concerning the Physical Secret of the Philosopher’s Stone.
In Seven Sections
section first
1. Even thus saith Hermes: Through long years, I have not ceased to experiment, neither have I spared any labour of mind; and this science and art I have obtained by the inspiration of the living God alone, who judged fit to open them to me His servant. To those enabled by reason to judge of truth He has given power to arbitrate, but to none occasion of delinquency.
2. For myself, I had never discovered this matter to any one, had it not been from fear of the day of judgment, and the perdition of my soul, if I concealed it. It is a debt which I am desirous to discharge to the faithful, as the Author of our faith did deign to bestow it upon me.
3. Understand ye then, O sons of Wisdom, that the knowledge of the four elements of the ancient philosophers was not corporally or imprudently sought after, which are through patience to be discovered according to their causes and their occult operation. For their operation is occult, since nothing is done except it be compounded, and because it is not perfected unless the colours be thoroughly passed and accomplished.
4. Know then, that the division that was made upon the Water, by the ancient philosophers, separates it into four substances, one to two, and three to one, the one third part of which is colour, that is to say—a coagulating moisture; but the two third waters are the Weights of the Wise.
5. Take of the humidity an ounce and a half, and of the Meridian Redness, that is the soul of gold, a fourth part, that is to say, half an ounce of the citrine Seyre, in like manner, half an ounce; of the Auripigment, half—which are eight—that is three ounces; and know ye that the vine of the wise is drawn forth in three, and the wine thereof is perfected in thirty.
6. Understand the operation, therefore, decoction lessens the matter, but the tincture augments it; because Luna after fifteen days is diminished; and in the third, she is augmented. This is the beginning and the end.
7. Behold, I have declared that which had been concealed, since the work is both with you and about you; taking what is within and fixed, thou canst have it either in earth or sea.
8. Keep, therefore, thy Argent vive, which is prepared in the innermost chamber in which it is coagulated; for that is Mercury which is spoken of concerning the residual earth.
9. He therefore, who now hears my words, let him search into them; I have discovered all things that were before hidden concerning this knowledge, and disclosed the greatest of all secrets.
10. Know ye, therefore, Enquirers into the rumour, and Children of Wisdom, that the vulture standing upon the mountain crieth out with a loud voice, I am the White of the Black, and the Red of the White and the Citrine of the Red; and I speak the very truth.
11. And know that the chief principle of the art is the Crow, which in the blackness of the night and clearness of the day, flies without wings. From the bitterness existing in the throat, the tincture is taken, the red goes forth from his body, and from his back is taken a pure water.
12. Understand, therefore, and accept this gift of God. In the caverns of the metals there is hidden the Stone that is venerable, splendid in colour, a mind sublime, and an open sea. Behold I have declared it unto thee; give thanks to God, who hath taught you this knowledge; for He loves the grateful.
13. Put the matter into a moist fire, therefore, and cause it to boil, in order that its heat may be augmented, which destroys the siccity of the incombustible nature, until the radix may appear; then extract the redness and the light part, till the third part remains.
14. Sons of the Sages! For this reason are philosophers said to be envious; not that they grudge the truth to religious or just men, or to the wise; but to the ignorant and vicious, who are without self-control and benevolence, lest they should be made powerful in evil for the perpetration of sinful things; and in consequence philosophers are made accountable to God. Evil men are unworthy of wisdom.
15. Know that this matter I call the Stone; but it is also named the feminine of magnesia, or the hen, or the white spittle, or the volatile milk, the incombustible ash, in order that it may be hidden from the inept and ignorant, who are deficient in goodness and self-control; which I have nevertheless signified to the wise by one only epithet, viz, the Philosopher’s Stone. Include, therefore, and conserve in that sea, the fire, and the heavenly Flyer, to the latest moment of his exit. But I adjure you all, Sons of philosophy, by our Benefactor who gives to you the ornament of His grace, that to no fatuous, ignorant, or inept person ye open this Stone.
16. I have received nothing from any, to whom I have not returned that which he had given me, nor have I failed to honour and highly respect Him.
17. This, O son, is the concealed Stone of many colours; which is born in one colour; know this and conceal it. By this, the Almighty favouring, the greatest diseases are escaped, and every sorrow, distress, and evil and hurtful thing is made to depart. It leads from darkness into light, from this desert wilderness to a secure habitation, and from poverty and straights, to a free and ample fortune.
section second
1. My Son, before all things I admonish thee to fear God, in whom is the strength of thy undertaking; and the bond of each separated element. My Son, whatsoever thou hearest, consider it rationally. For I hold thee not to be a fool. Lay hold, therefore, of my instructions and meditate upon them, and so let thy heart be fitted, as if thou wast thyself the author of that which I now teach. If thou appliest cold to any nature that is hot, it will hurt it: in like manner, he who is rational shuts himself within from the threshold of ignorance; lest supinely he should be deceived.
2. Take the flying volatile and drown it flying, and divide and separate it from its rust, which yet holds it in death; draw it forth, and repel it from itself; that it may live and answer thee, not by flying away into the regions above, but by truly forbearing to fly. For if thou shalt deliver it out of its straitness, after this imprisonment, and in the days known to thee shalt by reason have ruled it, then will it become a suitable companion unto thee, and by it thou wilt become to be a conquering lord, with it adorned.
3. Extract from the ray its shadow and impurity by which the clouds hang over it, defile and keep away the light; since by means of its constriction and fiery redness, it is burned. Take, my son, this redness, corrupted with the water, which is as a live coal holding the fire, which if thou shalt withdraw so often until the redness is made pure, then it will associate with thee, by whom it was cherished, and in whom it rests.
4. Return then, O my son, the extinct coal to the water for thirty days, as I shall note to thee; and, henceforth, thou art a crowned king, resting over the fountain as known to thee, and drawing from thence the Auripigment dry, without moisture. And now I have made glad the heart of the hearers, and the eyes looking unto thee in hope of that which thou possessest.
5. Observe, then, that the water was first in the air, then in the earth; restore thou it, also, to the superiors by its proper windings, and alter skillfully before collecting; then to its former red spirit let it be carefully conjoined.
6. Know, my son, that the fatness of our earth is sulphur, the auripigment, siretz, and colcothar, which are also sulphur; of which auripigments, sulphurs, and such-like, some are more vile than others, in which there is a diversity; of which kind also is the fat of glewy matters, such as are hair, nails, hoofs, and sulphuritself, and of the brain, which too is auripigment; of the like kind also are the lion’s, and cat’s claws, which is siretz; the fat of white bodies, and the fat of the two oriental quicksilvers, which hunt the sulphurs and contain the bodies.
7. I say, moreover, that this sulphur doth tinge and fix, and is the connection of the tinctures; oils also tinge, they fly away, which in the body are contained, which is a conjunction of fugitives with sulphurs and albuminous bodies, which hold also and detain the fugitive Ens.
8. The disposition sought after by the philosophers, O son, is but one in our egg; but this in the hen’s egg can, by no means, be found. But lest so much of the Divine Wisdom as is in a hen’s egg should be extinguished, its composition is from the four elements, adapted and composed.
9. Know, my son, that in the hen’s egg is the greatest proximity and relationship in nature; for in it there is a spirituality and conjunction of elements, and an earth which is golden in its tincture.
10. The son, enquiring of Hermes, saith—The sulphurs which are fit for our work, whether are they celestial or terrestrial? And he answers, certain of them are celestial, and some are terrestrial.
11. The Son—Father, I imagine the heart in the superiors to be heaven, and in the inferiors earth. But saith Hermes—it is not so; the masculine truly is the heaven of the feminine, and the feminine is the earth of the masculine.
12. The Son—Father, which of these is more worthy than the other, to be the heaven or to be the earth? He replies—Each needs the other; for the precepts demand a medium. As if thou should say that a wise man governs all mankind, because every nature delights in Society of its own kind, and so we find it to be in the Life of Wisdom where Equals are conjoined. But what, rejoins the son, is the mean betwixt them? To whom Hermes replies—In every nature there are three from two, first the needful water, then the oily tincture, and lastly the faeces or earth which remains below.
13. But a Dragon inhabits all these and are his habitation; and the blackness is in them, and by it he ascends into the air. But, whilst the fume remains in them, they are not immortal. Take away therefore the vapour from the water, and the blackness from the oily tincture, and death from the faeces; and by dissolution thou shalt achieve a triumphant reward, even that in and by which the possessors live.
14. Know, my son, that the temperate unguent, which is fire, is the medium between the faeces and the water, and is the Perscrutinator of the water. For the unguents are called sulphurs, because between fire and oil and the sulphurs there is a very close propinquity, even as so the fire burns, so does the sulphur also.
15. All the wisdoms of the world, O son, are comprehended in this my hidden Wisdom, and the learning of the Arts consists in discovering these wonderful hidden elements beneath which it hides completed. It behoves him, therefore, who would be introduced to
this our hidden Wisdom, to free himself from the vice of arrogance; and to be just and good, and of a profound reason, ready at hand to help mankind, of a serene countenance, to be courteous, diligent to save, and be himself a guardian of the secrets of philosophy open to him.
16. And this know, that except one understandeth how to mortify to induce generation, to vivify the Spirit, to cleanse and introduce Light, until they fight with each other and grow white and freed from their defilements, as blackness and darkness, he knoweth nothing, nor can he perform anything; but if he knoweth this, he will be of great dignity, so that the kings shall reverence him. These secrets, son, it behoves us to guard and conceal from the wicked and foolish world.
17. Understand also, that, our Stone is from many things and of various colours, and composed from four elements, which we ought to divide and dissever in pieces, and segregate in the limbs; and mortifying the same by its proper nature, which is also in it, to preserve the water and fire dwelling therein, which is from the four elements and in their waters, to contain its water; this, however, is not water in its true form, but fire, containing in a pure vessel the ascending waters, lest the spirits should fly away from the bodies; for, by this means, they are made tinging and fixed.
18. O blessed watery pontic form, that dissolvest the elements! Now it behoves us, with this watery soul, in order to possess ourselves of the sulphurous Form, to mingle the same with our Acetum. For when, by the power of the water, the composition is dissolved, it is the key of the restoration; then darkness and death fly away from them, and Wisdom proceeds.
section third
1. Know, my son, that the philosophers bind up their matter with a strong chain, that it may contend with the Fire; because the spirits in the washed bodies desire to dwell therein and rejoice in them. And when these spirits are united to them, they vivify them, and inhabit them, and the bodies hold them, nor are they separated any more from them.
2. Then the dead elements are revived, the compounded bodies tinge and are altered, and operate wonderful works which are permanent, as saith the philosopher.
3. O permanent watery Form, creatrix of the regal elements! who, having united to thy brethren and by a moderate regimen obtained the tincture, findest rest.
4. Our most precious stone cast forth upon the dunghill, being most dear is made altogether vile. Therefore it behoves us to both mortify two Argent vives together, and to venerate the Argent vive of Auripigment, and the oriental Argent vive of Magnesia.
5. But when we marry the crowned king to our red daughter, and in a gentle fire, not hurtful, she doth conceive a son, conjoined and superior, in it, and he lives by our fire. But when thou shalt send forth fire upon the foliated sulphur, the boundary of hearts doth enter in above it, let it be washed from the same, and the refined matter thereof be extracted. Then is he transformed, and his tincture by help of the fire remains red, as flesh. But our son, king-born, takes his tincture from the fire, and death even and darkness, and the waters flee away.
6. The Dragon, who watches the crevices, shuns the sunbeams, and our dead son will live; the king comes forth from the fire and rejoices in the espousal; the occult treasures will be laid open and the virgin’s milk whitened. The son, already vivified, is become a warrior in the fire and over the tincture super-eminent. For this son is himself the treasury, even himself bearing the Philosophic Matter.
7. Approach, ye sons of Wisdom, and rejoice; let us now rejoice together; for the reign of death is finished and the son doth rule, and now he is invested with the red garment, and the purple is put on.
section fourth
1. Understand ye Sons of Wisdom, the Stone declares: Protect me, and I will protect thee; give me my own, that I may help thee.
2. My Sol and my beams are most inward and secretly in me. My own Luna, also, is my light, exceeding every other light; and my good things are better than all other good things; I give freely and reward the intelligent with joy and gladness, glory, riches, and delights; and what they ask about I make to know and understand and to possess divine things.
3. Behold, that which the philosophers have concealed is written with seven letters: for Alpha follows two, viz. Yda and Liber; and Sol, in like manner follows: nevertheless, if desirous to have dominion to guard the art, join the son to Buba, which is Jupiter and a hidden secret.
4. Hearers, understand: and then let us use our judgment, for what I have written I have with most subtle contemplation and investigation demonstrated to you; the whole matter I know to be one only thing. But who is he that understands the true investigation and inquires rationally into this matter? There is not from man anything but what is like him; nor from the ox or bullock; and if any creature conjoins with one of another species, that which is brought forth is like neither.
5. Now saith Venus: I beget light, nor is the darkness of my nature; and if my metal were not dry all bodies would desire me, for I liquefy them and wipe away their rust, and I extract their substance. Nothing, therefore, is better or more venerable than I and my brother being conjoined.
6. But the king, the ruler, his brethren attesting, saith: I am crowned, and I am adorned with a diadem; I am clothed with the royal garment, and I bring joy and gladness of heart; for, being chained to the arms and breast of my mother, and to her substance, I cause my substance to keep together; and I compose the invisible from the visible, making the occult matter to appear. And everything which the philosophers have hidden will be generated from us.
7. Hear then these words, and understand them; keep them, and meditate thereon; and seek for nothing more: Man is generated from the principle of Nature whose inward substance is fleshy, and not from anything else. Meditate on this letter and reject superfluities.
8. Thus saith the philosopher: Botri is made from the Citrine, which is extracted out of the Red, and from nothing else; and if it be Citrine and nothing else know it will be thy Wisdom. Be not concerned if thou art not anxious to make extract from the Red. Behold, I have written to the point, and if ye understand I have all but opened the thing.
9. Ye sons of Wisdom! Burn then the Brazen Body with an exceeding great fire; and it will imbue you with the grace which ye seek. And make that which is volatile so that it cannot fly from that which flies not. And that which rests upon the fire though itself a fiery flame, and that which in the heat of the boiling fire is corrupted is Cambar.
10. And know ye that the Art of this permanent Water is our brass, and the colouring of its tincture and blackness is then changed into the true red.
11. I declare before God, I have spoken nothing but the truth. The destroyers are the renovators, and hence the corruption is made manifest in the matter to be renewed; and hence the melioration will appear and each side is a signal of the Art.
section fifth
1. My son, that which is born of the crow is the beginning of this Art. Behold, I have obscured the matter treated of by circumlocution, depriving it of light. I have termed this dissolved, and this joined, this nearest I have termed furthest off.
2. Roast those things, therefore, and boil them in that which comes forth from the horse’s belly, for seven, fourteen, or twenty-one days. Then it becomes the Dragon eating his own wings and destroying himself; this being done, let it be put in a furnace, which lute diligently, and observe that none of the spirit may escape. And know that the periods of the Earth are in the water which is bound until you put the bath upon it.
3. The matter being thus melted and burned, take the brain thereof and triturate it in most sharp vinegar till it become obscured. This done, it lives in the putrefaction; the dark clouds which were in it before it died in its own body will be changed. This process being repeated, as I have described; it dies again as I said, thence it lives.
4. In the life and death thereof we work with the spirits; for as it dies by the taking away of the spirit, so it lives in the return and is revived and rejoices in them. Being arrived then at this, that which ye have been searching for is made apparent. I have even related to thee the joyful signs, that which doth fix its own body.
5. But these things, and how they attained to the knowledge of this secret, are given by our ancestors in figures and types; I have opened the riddle, and the book of knowledge is revealed; the hidden things I have uncovered and have brought together the scattered truths within their boundary, and have conjoined many various forms, even I have associated the Spirit. Take it as a gift of God.
section sixth
1. It behoves us to give thanks to God, who bestows liberally to the wise, who delivers us from misery and poverty. Along with the fullness of his substance and his provable wonders I am about to try and humbly pray God that whilst we live we may come to Him.
2. Away then, O sons of Science, with unguents extracted from fats, hair, verdigrease, tragacanth, and bones, which are written in the books of our fathers.
3. But concerning the ointments which contain the tincture, coagulate the fugitive and adorn the sulphurs, it behoves us to explain their disposition more at large. It is the Form of all other unguents in which is the occult and buried unguent, and of which there appears to be no preparation. It dwells in his own body, as fire in trees and stones, which by most subtle art and ingenuity it behoves us to extract without combustion.
4. And know that the Heaven is joined mediately with the Earth; but the middle nature, which is the Water, is a Form along with the Heaven and the Earth. But the water holds of all the first place which goes forth from the Stone; the second is gold; but the third is our almost or medial gold which is more noble than the water with the faeces.
5. But in these are the smoke, the blackness, and the death. It behoves us, therefore, to drive away the vapour from the water, the blackness from the unguent, and death from the faeces, and this by dissolution. Which being done we have the sovereign philosophy and secret of all hidden things.
section seventh
1. Know ye then, O sons of Science, there are seven bodies—of which gold is the first, the most perfect, the king of them, and their head—which neither the Earth can corrupt nor the fire devastate, nor the water change; for its complexion is equalized, and its nature regulated with respect to heat, cold, and moisture; nor is there anything in it which is superfluous, therefore the philosophers have preferred and magnified it, saying that this gold, in relation of other bodies, is as the sun amongst the stars, more splendid by his light; and as, by the will of God, every vegetable and all the fruits of the Earth are perfected through it, so gold, which is the ferment Ixir, vivifies and contains every metallic body.
2. For as dough, without a ferment, cannot be fermented, so when thou hast sublimed the body and purified it, separating the uncleanness from the faeces, thou wilt then conjoin and mix them together, and put in them the ferment confecting the earth with the water until the Ixir ferment even as dough ferments. Think of this, meditate and see how the ferment in this case doth change the former natures to another thing; observe, also, that there is no ferment otherwise than from a kindred nature.
3. Observe, moreover, that the ferment whitens the confection and hinders it from combustion, and holds the tincture lest it should fly, and rejoices the bodies, and makes them intimately to be joined and to enter one into another, and this is the Key of the philosophers, and the end of their works; and by this science bodies are meliorated and the operation of them, God assisting, is consummated.
4. But, through negligence and a false opinion in the matter, the operation is perverted, as bad leaven on the dough, or curds for cheese, and musk among aromatics.
5. The colour of the golden matter points to redness, and the nature thereof is not sweetness; therefore we make of them Sericum, i.e. Ixir; and of them we make the encaustic of which we have written, and with the king’s seal we tinge the clay, and in that have set the colour of heaven which augments the sight of them that see it.
6. The Stone, therefore, is the most precious gold without spots—evenly tempered, which neither fire, nor air, nor water, nor earth is able to corrupt; the Universal Ferment rectifying all things by its composition, which is of the yellow or true citrine colour.
7. The gold of the wise, concocted and well digested, with the fiery water, makes Ixir; for the gold of the wise is more heavy than lead, which, in a temperate composition is the ferment Ixir, and, contrariwise, becomes distempered by an equal composition.
8. For the work begins from the vegetable, next from the animal, as in the egg of the hen, in which is the great support; and our earth is gold, of all which we make seriacum, which is the ferment Ixir.
45. The Golden Treatise, says Arthur Edward Waite in his work The Secret Tradition in Alchemy, first appeared at Leipzig in 1600 under the editorship of Dr. Guecias, and again in 1610. An English version was included by William Salmon in his Medicina Practica. Waite asserts that there is not only no Greek original but as a Latin text it is a late production. He also says Mrs. Atwood’s version which is our text differs from Salmon’s. (NOTE.—The numbering of the verses does not exist in the former texts. This is simply my own inclusion, adopted for convenience’s sake.—I.R.)