OPERA VEGETABILE
PREFACE
To THE LOVERS OF LIGHT AND CHILDREN OF TRUTH
The most r~le and very dear nouth of our beloved LORD Jesus GIRIST has not caily itself, in its ~n voice, addressed inexpressibly gracious and above all desire kind ~rds to the poor human beings; so that those very well-neant ~rds, which issued forth fran his living nouth-when, in person or the fullness of the essential Godhead incarnate, he walked on earth in his nost holy visible form -~ and ware diligently recxrded for our ~nfort by the evangelists, especially John, can easily drive away the tears of a righteous man who reads or hears thEn, on acoount of the great graciousness of that LORD, undeserved in all eternity.
But this holy, holy, holy Light, which illi~nines all men who ~re into this ~rld, has also fran time—to-tine, in all nations ~iipped various persons adorned with gratifying, delightful gifts of the Light as messengers witnessing his outflc~’iing ~odness, and has presented than publicly to the ~rld to serve it. Neither has he left us High and L~ Germans out fran this highly valuable gift. We will not speak about other German men, rich in Light, such as Albertus Nagnus, Tauler, Paracelsus, Basili us Valentinus, etc. ,but will nc~ retEnber only the excellent philo— sopher Johannus Isacus Hollandus. Even without ~ ranarbering him, this man’ s name is without doubt kri~in in all ~irope on acoount of his extraordinary illumination and incci~arable experience in matters of natural science and philosophy which he had through the gracious illumination of the Eternal Light.
This is sufficiently a~çarant in his writings, what there is left of than, and which are held in very high regard not only by our (own) iTodest philosophers but also by those of many other nations. That is why there is a great denand by many fanciers for his other writings, of which it is known that they ware also cciiinitta3 to paper but which are withheld to this hour by envious persons. The danand is especially for his Vegetable Work, fran which he quotes over 200 chapters in other tractates written by him and already a]~vunicated to the ~,rld. The same for his ~niinal Work, which is probably not nur.h Enaller, and others which I have not yet seen; neither en I infonnati where they might be. ~ould there be sareone who possesses than, or knows about than, I ~uld request him, in the name of the fanciers who si~uld be grateful for it, to release their ~munication into their waiting hands, and in turn to be assured of the same readiness on their part. If all those ~nderful writings ware to ~te together into the hands of sincere investigators of spiritual and natural ki~ledge, zaich benefit ~uld probably accrue to than thereby. For he (Ibilander) had a special noble gift fran God for describing the great Mysteria in detail in very siiiple terms and frequent repetition of the inçortant points.
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In addition, he has such a friendly and affable style which pleases the reader so very ni~h and makes him feel inclined to read his ~rks often and to bear then in mind, all of which brings in greater returns for hun. Therefore, rerErbering all this, I could not but be helpful in the publication of these writings; also because sane tune ago there carre into my hands sate writings which, to the best of my Jcnc*~ledge have never been published, such as the secret book entitled. The Hand of the Phil oaephers, also Opus Urinae, which t~ books have not been printed, also Opus Saturni, wh.tch has been added to the Basilii Tri.uTçant-thariot, likewise Opus Minerale which has been published in the latin tongue, also Opus Vegetab.zle,of which I do not kncM if it is a part of the above mentioned Opus Vegetabile (sic), or a separate ~rk.
These just mentioned I~ German ,manuscripts ware received a short tiite ago by the son-in-law of Justus a Balbians, and then reached me. Thus I have first translated the little Vegetable Work into High German, collated it with another written copy, and amended it far as possible That is the ~rk I am hereby releasing for printing for the sake of the fanciers In regard to the Hand of the PhiloscçMrs and Opus Urinae, I have to wait then will nore copies of than are to Light, so that they may be collated and corrected should deficiencies exist in then.
True, I also re~rber that what is contained in this little Vegetable %brk is also fow~d printed in part fran the German Book entitled Al chzmia Vera, or Mons Philosophorum Bit I sensed that there was in it much that was garbled and not a enall part that was left out entirely. For this reason, the printing of the Opus Vegetable has been hastened. In so doing, I am fully cr*~fident that the fanciers of the secret divine gifts will realize that I am doing it for their special pleasure, to which end, that is, to prove to then that my mind is assiducusly bent on serving, I have already done the little Thactate written by myself in German and Latin about the Sendivogián third beginning of the minerals as the Salt of the Sages.
‘lb many, this has not been unwelcxxne, as I notice. Nevertheless, it has also aroused misunderstanding in sane - this, again, being my opinion In it, I tried to reveal, they said, that I ~uld in oral thilogue reveal to anyone who contacted me, the must difficult points of the philosophical ~rk which has for so many centuries renamed secret And which an untold nijrber of the must learning and cunning men had failed to understand and that, in my verbal discussions, ~uld not hold back any of then as secret.
This ~uld indeed be a great sacrilege, because fran the beginning of this art God had instructed his philosophers that the extraction and the use of this Divine SALIS ARMENIACI should only be revealed to his servants predestined for it and by none but him alone, Him alone who knows the hearts, ~er pain of a miserable malediction to befall he who ~uld break this seal. I leave it at that. But what has been done out of goodwill in my little book, is meant solely for the other righteous lovers of God and His Art, since it may be considered the obvious ~rk of Divine Providence that God wrought us together by His favorable Divine will. For He alone knows the minds which is inpossible for us hunans to )ax~i.
I must also inform then that I know that a short tune ago sane (mien) have supposedly been found who clained that they got to kr~ me and obtained my confidence. ‘These clained to have received the revelation of these
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secrets from me, and that the same revelation is again availab],e to any other wealthy fancier for a sum of money In order to counter this kind of fraud, I hereby declare myself publicly and swear by the highest truth, which is the LORD JESUS himself, that I have not revealed to anyone in the world the whole foundation of the Matery (s.Lc) for the Philosophical Work. If someone had boasted of some revelation by me, or would boast about it in the future, seeking to profit thereby monetarily, such a one would in truth be a wicked cheat and a liar. Apd may he suffer what the Apostle Peter said to those who think that God’s gifts can be bought with money Having said this much, let this matter also rest.
Now to return to our love — and praiseworthy Hollandus Many a man may wonder at the mighty powers he ascribes now and then to the QUINTESSENCE, including the casting out of the devil from those possessed, and working such unspeakable miracles beyond all reason that it appears unbelievable to many. I cannot give these people any other testimony than to state that it is the pure, unadulterated truth. This is so not only of Hol].andus, but also of the other philosophers who had actually possessed the Quinta Essentia. This has often been experienced and found to be true, as I shall show at the end of this tractate. All this can easily be believed by one who considers and heeds just a little, the super—abundant, inexhaustible love of God for His image. man Yea, he will find that that is nothing in comparison with the depth of love - predestined to the earnest believer on Christ, even before the foundation for the creation of this whole world had been called forth and laid. About this too, I must be silent, since no eye has yet seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered into anyone’s heart, what GOD has prepared for those who love Him faithfully.
Therefore it~is not possible to ask for anything better of God but that one should love Him in (the person of) the LORD JESUS CHRIST with all one’s heart, all one’s soul, all one’s mind, and with all one’s might, and likewise all other men as one’s neighbor who is the wonderful dear image of (our) beloved God. Whoever possesses this great treasure (i.e.) that he finds some love for God within himself, let him give thanks most humbly for it; for without His Grace he would not have it. Let him also pray most earnestly for an increase of it (love) in himself and others. At the present time, when the aged body of the Christian Churches has almost grown completely cold, it is very necessary that some rouse themselves to fervent prayer and, together with men of weak faith, call day and night to our Father in Heaven with the following or similar humble sighs:
0 Glorious, most blessed Creator, dearly beloved Abba Jehova Zebaoth. I, thy unworthy worm and poor mite, am not worthy to think of Thy almighty, terrible Name, much less call upon it with my impure lips, because Thou lettest Thy wise servant bear witness that before Thee, 0 Father, the whole world is like the needle of a balance, and like a drop of dew. What then should I, insignificant little worm, be conceited about, I who am not even a mote in a sunbeam in such a great world. And yet, Thou living fount of Love and kindness, hast bestowed so much mercy and Grace
upon me, a mean creature fran my mother’s w:zrb, that I can never oount it all, let alcn~e thank Thee for it.
I thank Thee nevertheless for such great, untold mercy, with all my heart, in deepest htinility, especially for having best~ the Grace upon me to love Thee dearly in my ~aJc~ess. That love fran Thee also bçels me to do gladly what is dear to Thee, that is, Thy noble and solely good will and pleasure. I am a poor sinful man,I~ever, and cannot do anything except Thou givest me both the willing and the acccxrçlislmEnt. ‘Therefore, I beg Thee, I whine unto Thee, and inplore Thee, by the dear name of JESUS CHRIST, ~ slaughtered larth, to grant sara mercifuliness to me, Thy miserable creature, sanctifying me to (being) Thy faithfull servant. Since ~xu, 3a~ower of hearts, knc*iest - and I also swaar to it before Thy anniscient Majesty and before Thy Angels - that I desire or d~nand no other blessedness than that ‘flx)U makest of me, Thy faithfull servant, letting me do pleasing service for Thee and iw fellow men, and helping to increase the bonor of Thy glorified Name.
Do let me see with my eyes and let me hear with my ears that Thy }bly Name is hallowed over the wbole world. And do away with that infamous Satan and the rapacious wolves and tyrants which only c}xke and dissipate Thy poor sheep, and thus desecrate the will of Thy mercy. LORD JESUS QffiIST, at the right of the power of God, wbo art with us all the time till the end of the world, these my prayers nust be heard in virtue of Thy Almighty Name, as truly as ‘flx,U hast said that there shall be one shepherd and one fold.
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, rat~’rber the p~xznises ~u hast made to Thy servants, that ‘fl~u wilt soon bring than along by Thy Almighty Arm, and oct~plete and establish the King&in of Thy Annointed (be. Of all this, may I obtain the siirçle little part of yet bec~ning and rønaining Thy faithfull servant. ~ that ~ may Thy terrible Ibly Name, Jebovah Zebaoth, help me, and the most dearly beloved name of our blessedness, JESUS CHRIST, who will eternally p~it to shame all Thy disobedient creatures. Amen. Anen. ~en.
In such a way, beloved brethern, let us hunble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, because the prayer of the h~zble has always pleased Him, and, in His ~bst High seat in ~aven and on Earth, he has cast His gracious eyes solely upon the lowest. Let that be an unforgettable !.~orial for us througbout life and a continual reninder to learn fran the Lord JESUS CHRIST to be gentle and Iurble with all our heart. May he give us that attitnde and let Him ever protect us under His wings.
Done in England, on the first of the year 1659. From one who owes a service of love to the reader.
J.FIH.SS
FILIUs SENDI\VGII
THE VEGETABLE WORK
JOHANNES ISAAC HOLLANDUS
CHAPTER I.
Now I will teach and describe the secret of the arts, which secret is at the heart of all secrets hidden in the art of alchemy; since one will here understand the wonderful works that God has accomplished in all the things he has made out of the four elements. For I shall here teach you to know the spirits of herbs, trees, and all growing things; how to separate them from their bodies, and also how to purify the four elements and to restore them to their first being and their perfect power; that is, that when the elements are purified, how they can be put together again aind make a perfect and fixed body of them, which is then glorified and has a miraculous effect. Enough of this for now.
CHAPTER II.
And now I will teach you how to draw and make Sal Ammoniac from all growing things; for from all things that have the four elements in them you can extract Sal Ammoniac, because the spirit of all things is Sal Ammoniac. That is why Sal Ammoniac is designated and pictured as the sun. For the sun is the supreme sign and the most powerful planet of heaven, since the sun lights up everything in its essence; and it warms in the whole world, and does much more which is impossible to describe here. That is why Ammoniac is compared to the sun and is a wondrous thing, because without it nothing in alchemy can be brought to perfection.
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Just as no thing or fruit can ripen without the sun, no work can be broughtto perfection in alchemy without Ammoniac. For Sal Ammoniac can unite all things that are antagonistic and cannot be mixed, so that afterwards they mix and conjugate. That, therefore, is one of its capabilities, in accordance with the following example:
The sun has so much power in the mountains and in the minerals that, by the heat and power granted him by God, it can level and unite all unlike and antogonistic things, as big as they may be.
For what is more antagonistic than heat and cold, dryness and humidity, water and fire? Nevertheless, the sun is able, by his heat and power, to level all those things and to unite them in such a way that they will nevermore separate. That is Sulphur and MercuriuS. Sulphur is hot and dry; Mercurius, however, cold and humid. But the sun, through his heat and power, unites Sulphur with Mercurius, from which then gold, silver, lead and copper are generated. According to where the minerals lie and the earth is good or bad, the metals are also generated. The sun, however, is he who must cook everything, and he cooks the metals better in one place than another, because he shines more in one spot than in another, since one area is more temperate than another. That is due to the planets under which a country is situated. In a place where the sun is too hot, he cannot cook moderately enough on account of the great heat, but finally the cooking will take place nevertheless. Instead, where the sun is too cold, the cooking is done slowly. But where the sun is temperate, that is neither too hot nor too cold and the place is under a good planet, by which is understood a well—tempered country (a country with a good climate), where there is good earth, the minerals are
cooked moderately and generated into gold and silver. It is the same with Ammoniac. It must unite and bind all
antagonistic things, mix and level them by its temperate heat. For where the Ammoniac is too hot, it will cook all the lonaer; if it is too cold, it will cook proportionately longer; but if it has the right temperature, it will cook more’ gently and therefore accomplish a higher projection.
CHAPTER III.
How is it to be understood that one kind of Sal Arnmoniac is
too hot and the other is too cold? You have to understand it in this way: Herbs are unequal; one is cold, the other hot. Nevertheless, they both have Ammoniac within them. Yet one kind of Amrnoniac is better than another. Even so, both have power to cook in this art and to make a projection and a connection; that is, to mix and unite two antagonistic things. But it may also happen sometimes that the Ammoniac is not well-cleaned or purified, that the unteirpered heat that herbs have within them is not properly killed and purified. When then Ammoniac is made from them, the poisonous heat is detrimental to it, so that the projection becomes the smaller for it.
Likewise with cold herbs. Should anything remain in them, the projection becomes the more insicmificant and small. That then is the difference: One kind of Ammoniac does not make the same sort of projection from one species or one kind of herb. Such, however, is the fault of the laboratory worker who has made the Ammoniac. (It means) that he has not purified it well enough and
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hasnot drawn it off often enough. For he who would make the Ammoniac correctly, must draw it off and off, often, till nothing remains and it becomes as white as snow. Then theAmmoa.iac is of the right temperature; then the evil, poisonous heat which the herbs or species (other things) had within them will not be a hindrance when the Ammoniac is made; or if the evil, poisonous cold was in the herbs, it will no longer be a hindrance, because now everything is cleansed and of the riaht temperature, having left behind everything that was not of the right temperature.
CHAPTER IV.
Further, my child must know that all things GOD has made from
the four elements must die, be annihilated, and cleansed, but are afterwards again created and again born. Thereafter, the recreated and reborn things will never again die or be annihiliated; nor will anyone be able to spoil or annihilate them; no fire can burn them. But they will henceforth last into eternity, because they have reverted to their prime power, given them by GOD when he created and made all things at the beginning.
As a consequence of the sin committed by our first parents, Adam and Hevae, GOD the LORD was so angered that he spoiled the four elements and made them corruptible, so that they must now all die and come to nauaht. Then GOD the LORD himself spoke to Adam as he was giving him this command, saying: “Adam, of all the things that are in paradise, you may eat, except from this tree, because it is the wood of life. And I am telling you thus, Adam. If you eat of this tree, you and everything created of the four elements shall die, that I swear~”
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GOD made an oath there of which we have all become well aware. That is why everything created and made of the four elements must now die, including human beings, all animals, and everything that has received a body or has sensitivity in it; yes, also everything that has no sensitivity in it, such as herbs and trees and everything made of the four elements. For if some may not have any feeling, they yet live and bring forth their fruit. Just like the sensitive creatures, herbs bring forth fruit and their seed, or whatever nature GOD has implanted into them. Trees carry apples and pears, or that which GOD the LORD has bid them do. Thus live all herbs, all trees and all other things created by GOD the LORD from the four elements; and God the Lord has given a spirit to all trees, all herbs and all other things created by him out of the four elements. As many a thing or herb there may be which he made of the four elements, GOD the LOPD has given to each of them its special spirit of a particular power and a particular nature. Each has its particular body and shape, and that same body is simultaneously made of the four elements. One herb is cold, the other hot; the third is humid, the fourth dry, according to whether each has in it much or little of one or another element. That is how it happens that one herb is cold, the other hot.
But spirit is something else whiáh GOD the LORD has given to all things. And as many different things GOD the LORD has created contrary or antagonistic to each other, as many different spirits he has also infused into them. Each spirit has a miraculous power and virtue for a special sickness; and each spirit has the power to accomplish some special work, with the help of other species,
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as well in metals as in human beings, for GOD has created all things in behalf of man.
CHAPTER V
Accordingly, each spirt performs a special cure in man or in Mercurius. The spirits, however, have not znuôh power because of the impure body by which they are sullied and surrounded. For it (the body) is made of the four elements, and the four elements are so impure and dirty that the spirit is quite unable to apply the same power and do the same work for which it was created by GOD. In addition, the time of the world is up, and it is now becoming too old and weak. The sun and the elements are losing theirpower, and the elements are becoming so infected (polluted) and impure that the spirits, on account of the impurity of the elements, can only have an insignificant curative effect. Of course, at the time GOD the LORD pushed and drove Adam out of paradise, herbs had greater power than they have nowadays. That causes the world to grow old, and therefore people do not live as long as in former times. That is due to the present old ace of the world and the fact that the sun and the planets are losing their powers. Because of the age of the world and the pollution of the elements, the spirits in the herbs are so overcome by the pollution of the elements that they can no lon~er generate their powers in man as they did ages ago. If now they would still manifest their powers as they did long ago, human beings would still live today into their 200 years and beyond, and they would in everything have the same powers as they had previously; although people are now also weak and delicate and could not tolerate the spirits of the herbs if they still had the powers of years ago. They would
certainly have to take and use them tempered. If they did that, they would live even much longer and stay younger.
That is why all herbs and other things have to be killed, annihilated and reduced to powder and ashes and finally to water. Afterwards, the soul, or spirit, has to be infused back into them and a perfect body must be made of them. Then you have an earhly treasure that is better than gold and silver and precious stones. For you have a perfect glorified corpus (body) which will never pass away but will last eternally, passing through all things. And where it passes through, it will not leave any corruption or disease at all, but it will heal that through which it penetrates before leaving it. Not only will it make it healthy but much healthier than it had ever been, and it will also keep it healthy from then on. Yes, if it had never been healthy before, it would be made healthy thereby and preserved. That is why I may well say th...
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