HOW TO MAKE THE PHILOSOPHER’S
STONE USING ANIMATED METALLIC
MERCURY AND
OR
This is a translation of the essential information of “L’Ami de L’Aurore”, (The Friend of the Dawn) by Henri de LinTaut. The book is an “Editions de La Maisnie” whose address was 19 rue Val-de-Grace, 75005 Paris, France. It was published in the 17th Century from a badly damaged, hand written manuscript by Lintaut. It was later republished in 1978 in old
(or Medaeval) French. The original printing is listed in the Arsenal Library under No. 3020.
The later version was found and translated by Dr. Wilson Wheatcroft of Rochester New York while studying in Ganeshpuri, India. He completed the translation in January 1982 and forwarded the copy to RAMS for treatment. My friend Wilson then caine home.
The present document actually reflects the essence of the original and is NOT a verbatim translation. The purist may be a bit alarmed at this pronouncement, but the alchemist is assured that only lengthy (non-germane) dissertations and the non-useful “gateways” have been eliminated. Dr. Wheatcroft, a practising alchemist has distilled the spirit of the text out and left behind the caput mortuum, as it were. He adds to the text a process for treating the mercury. His comment was: “The Friend of the Dawn does not give any comment on animation of the running Mercury prior to its first combination with a very pure, very fine powder, or calx, of Sol (0) or Luna ()). It merely says to use “good” ordinary running mercury. Its method of animation follows. My suggestion is that the Mercury should be cleaned by Salt and Vinegar, as was common in those days, and distilled several times. It is possible that a “special” purification is needed. Of this I am not sure.”
An appendix will be given for laboratory processed for the purification of the vulgar and some comments on making of 0.
Below is the theory pertinent to this text.
THEORY
Ordinary, vulgar (running) metallic Mercury is purified and then animated by being made into an amalgam (āāā) with silver or gold leaf. This is digested for 6 months. The now animated mercury is then amalgamated with more gold or silver and re-digested. A putrifaction will occur. Continued heating leads to the white stage and further heating to the red stage and, ultimately, to the STONE.
(L’AMI de L’AURORE)
When the Philosophers have said that the Moon is its Mother, it is only to suggest to the Ignorant that the feminine seed of their Stone ought to be “like” silver orits mercury or sulfur, but well a mercury of the quality of the Celestial Moon, . . . of white, silver-like color. The Moon is an inconstant, cold, patient, feminine star that receives unto herself the influence of superior bodies, and gives birth to them within this lowly world. All the celestial constitutions pass their influence by the Sphere of the Moon.
When the Philosophers name the Sun the Father of their Stone, they suggest that the Sun is the metal from which the sperm and sulfur of our Stone proceeds. The Sun is warm and dry in all its works and actions, even at the extremity of its rays. It dries up elementary vapors.
Vulgar mercury, after having been heated and animated by our art, is of the quality of the fertile Moon, and is prepared thereby to conceive by the semen of the Sun, and to carry the embryo in its belly until the time of proper birth (harvest).
The semen of the metallic Sun is hot, dry, masculine. It is the agent to engender our Stone. Therefore, in sum, the Philosophers have said the Sun is the Father, and the Moon the Mother of the Stone.
In consideration of all things made from two substances, the one hot and dry, the other cold and humid, represented by the Sun and the Moon, the Philosophers have named them and respectively, saying that it is necessary for the Sister to pull at her Brother, and the Brother pull on his Sister, until the one proceeds to dissolution.
One is an instrumental actor or agent, the other a patien receiver. They are ‘Sister’ and ‘Brother’ because they of necessity are of the same family (species), differing only in sex, or outer characteristics.
Those work in vain by using with their masculine ferment a ‘water’ strong to it. . . of another blood, not its familial ‘Sister’ . . . ‘consanquinity’ also denotes that the feminine seed of our work (the ) is very much like the masculine seed (), so that little is necessary for them to become one similar thing, which remaining differences depend only on the heat of one and the coldness of the other.
Simple (i. e. ’unanimated’) ordinary vulgar (common quicksilver) is removed too much from the Sun, so, as such, it cannot serve as the feminine Matter of the Elixir. But during its preliminary mixing with a spirit of the nature of the philosophical ferment (i. e. its ‘animation’), which is its proper ‘Brother’, we do draw them so close to each other that the receives her kin, it becomes ‘like’ the Sun.
ANIMATION PROCEDURE
Take 29 parts of purified, vulgar mercury metal. With-a mortar and pestle, thoroughly mix this with L 25 parts, by weight, of 24K gold made from gold leaf that has been ground with distilled vinegar, washed, dried and pulverized into an “impalpable powder”.
This is the King, seated on the edge of the fountain of his friend, to be united with him. He will return eventually with a new body, a new youth with ten times more force and beauty, and clothes ten times more precious. All this by virtue of his bath. It is the nature of the feminine, to attract the male to its love nest, not vice versa. In the love nest the two procreate their species. Being, at the beginning, on the ‘edge of the fountain’ means that the King ( ) is very near to being amalgamated into its mercury. This is for the Red Stone. Use instead of for the White Stone.
This āāā so made, is to be digested one year (which apparently = 3 months) in the First Degree (40°C), and then one year (= 3 months, months being used hereafter in this ratio), at the Second Degree (60°C). This 6 months is a gentle digestion. Use a round bottom flask, with a long neck, set in sand, 2/3 of vessel empty and tightly sealed after first degree is obtained. Before being put into flask, the weak aaa should be thoroughly washed in pure water, until water is very clean, in mortar, then thoroughly dried.
The Author says that this action stirs up the hidden power in the mercury, which, totally surrounding the Noble Metal, gradually dissolves it, releasing its power ‘into’ the dissolving metallic menstruum. This mercury starts to acquire the SUBTLE SEED of the Noble Metal, thus being ANIMATED. It is an old alchemical truth: ‘Except the Body be opened by the Spirit, it will not accept the Soul.’
MAKING THE REBIS FOR PUTRIFACTION
Once this animated mercury is available, amalgamate 4 oz. of it (this mercury) with 1 oz. of (or ) in the form of an impalpable, extremely fine powder. Make this amalgam as carefully as possible in a glass mortar and pestle. Then wash it so often in pure rain water, (or distilled water), until the water used in washing is perfectly clear and clean. Then dry the amalgam with a clean sponge, or a folded piece of hot, white linen.
Weigh it. If it weighs less than 5 oz., add enough animated to it to make it 5 oz. If over 5 oz., due to excess , squeeze the excess through clean chamois leather, keeping what is on the inside of the leather, until the āāā weighs 5 oz. only: 4.0 oz animated, + 1 oz or
FERMENTATION
“Fermentation is the aggregation of the liquid and the body, with restoration of their natural heat.” This 5 oz. āāā, the Philosophers have called their “Ferment” because (or ) is the true leaven of the ELIXIR. “Marriage” will take place between the menstruum, the feminine, and the (or ), the masculine. The woman is said to draw the sperm, or “seed” of the . The seed of the Noble Metal will make the like itself, through DIGESTION alone.
PROCEDURE
Put the 5 oz. of washed, then thoroughly dried aaa into a proper glass vessel (one made of quartz, or PYREX, stone or porcelain) strong enough to endure various degrees of heat for 15 months, steadily. The vessel should be large enough so that about 2/3 of the flask is empty. It should have a long neck (I. e. volumetric or kjeldahl).
HEATING
Once it is warmed in its flask, seal it tightly (lute). It will be necessary to digest it 9 months for the WHITE and 12 months for the RED
REGULATION OF EXTERNAL HEAT
Heating should be continual, and even, in the various DEGREES OF HEAT. It is a gradual process of continuous DIGESTION. In the digestion, which occurs through external heat, an occult inner FIRE (“Secret Fire“) is released in which the feminine draws the semen of life from the masculine NOBLE METAL (only OR )used, not a mixture).
PUTRIFACTION occurs in the first Degree of Heat. Dissolution is an extended PUTREFACTION.
Sometimes the process of heating is also called SUBLIMATION, in which there is dissolution of the into , and the incorporation into the of the sulferous principle of the ,” DISSOLUTION OF THE ONE IS THE COAGULATION OF THE OTHER”.
Through the process of solution, the CALCINATION of the Noble body occurs. The liquid dissolves the Body, freeing a Spiritual principle previously hidden in the closed body. The opens the Noble Body. The now-freed-occult principle congeals or COAGULATES the mercury.
Ground glass Seal
ON PUTRIFACTION
Some selected quotations from the text follow: Putrifaction is an action initiated by the external heat acting on the
humidity of the matter in a way that corrupts it and alters it, giving it a new form. During the first 3 months, the first Degree of moderate heat, the humidity of the menstruum corrupts or putrifies the solid mass of the Sun, and in fact, reduces the gold (or silver) to a form of mercury, like itself. This is nothing but the true ‘SOLUTION of the matter’.
In this first solution, the body is made BLACK a sign that the natural heat has begun to corrupt the body. This corruption is the necessary, first stage, without which it is not possible to do anything.
Putrifaction is only a simple breaking apart of the subtle aspects.
This purtifaction continues until the matter becomes dry, and white, thus becoming congealed and animated. The BLACKENING shall also be (the sign of) the ending of the First Degree of heat, calling for the Second Degree.
Solution cannot take place without putrifaction, yet putrifaction can occur without solution. Putrifaction lasts until the matter begins to WHITEN
Solution is the reduction of a dry, definite matter into flowing mercury - - by the mercurial menstruum, and the First Degree of temperate heat, like the heat of the Sun in Europe in February (40°C). This solution ends as soon as the (or ) is itself reduced into mercury.
This makes the spiritous, and “airy” like the mercury. And the masculine seed (from the noble metal) now released, becomes airy and fiery and also tries to volatalize, like the mercury.
The volatile must become fixed, and the fixed must be made volatile. The mercury must become coagulated and fixed, and made into the nature of the Sun. This will occur if the dissolution of the is conducted slowly, in a gentle beat. Our dissolution is, in itself, the principle of coagulation. As soon as the Ferment () is dissolved, it thereby coagulates its own dissolving menstruum (the ), achieved in the continuous heat. Our , thus subtilized and reduced into its SEED, is the TRUE SULFUR or FERMENT of our STONE. (During dissolution), the does take on - - for a certain period, the EXTERIOR FORM of its dissolving, mercurial menstruum. Yet, urged by the external heat, both male ( or) and female (animated ) join in a loving embrace. Blending their inmost subtle parts, they congeal themselves. The ferment, hot and dry in its exterior, gradually consumes the humidity of the mercurial menstruum, and dries it up. The two become all of one species. This CONJUNCTION of the Male () and Female () seeds (Sulfurous and Mercurial Principles), is followed by true CONCEPTION, the joined seeds becoming ONE LIFE which develops in the belly (digestion vessel), by a proportionate digestive heat (40°C), that putrifies the Matter, thickening it so it looks like BLACK MUD, which is the principle of COAGULATION (CONGEALATION).
PUTRIFACTION leads to COAGULATION, a drying-up of the humidity of the menstruum. It becomes a UNITARY Mass, gradually - - in the FIRST DEGREE of heat (40°C) - - coming to resemble a blackish, tar-like mud. Nature, who governs GENERATION., animates the two “dead” Species, anew, enabling them to be reborn, yet not individualized but UNITED into a NEW FORM more perfect than they bad at first.
The King () is resurrected in his Fountain. His ( ’ en) Body, cut apart and dismembered, is reconstituted into a younger, more perfect form than it originally had.
Be careful with the heat. IF Whitening preceeds the Black, you have had too much heat. This is even more the case if Red appears before either the Black or White!
But when Black occurs, gradually, one should REJOICE. Black is a sure sign of complete dissolution. Blackness is engendered from the humidity inherent in the Matter. After arriving at Blackness, you will not miss achieving the White State.
Vulgar mercury, after having been animated (by ) and heated by our Art, obtains the quality of the fertile Moon. It is then able to receive the semen from the Sun. It is feminine, patient, cool, humid. The Sun is masculine, eager, hot and drying. Philosophers have said, The Moon is its mother; the Sun is its father’. This is what they meant! The Sun is the metal from which the seed - and sulfur - of our Stone proceeds. The Sun is warm in all its parts, and rays. The Sun, expanded into the Stone, extracts and dries up the rough humors of all imperfect metals. The Mother and Father, the Moon () and Sun () are, in essence, not dissimilar.MERCURY IS UNRIPE GOLD. Because they are from one unified SPECIES.
TIMING IN THE WORK
In the First Degree of Heat, the acts on the . After complete BLACKNESS occurs, increase to the Second Degree of Heat (65°C). (Depending on the animating power of the , and the subtlety (particle size) and/or “openness” of the gold powder - - or gold calx, which is better by far, and is laboriously made by Art - - the BLACK STAGE (Nigredo) should arrive by 3 months time, maybe sooner, maybe later.) After the Second Degree, the Blackness will start to whiten within 3 months more time. Once it starts to whiten, continue the same heat. It can be increased slightly (to 75°C?) when white, keeping the heat, though, constant, until the Matter passes to a stage Whiter than the Whitest Snow in the World. This degree of PERFECT WHITENESS (Albedo) may take a total of 9 months, in these degrees of heat.
CAUTION:
Do NOT hurry with the heating. (That is, if you want the Stone, versuS a Tincture or Perpetual Minera. It must putrify, then whiten, then Redden.) In the Whitening Stage, the beat is still ‘gentle’, ‘so long as the vapors are being united and fixed into the Matter.’ If the heat is raised too much before the PERFECT WHITE Stage, the matter will grow RED, which will not profit you, UNLESS it be first composed of complete WHITE and a very PURE BLACK.
At the PERFECT WHITE STAGE, it can be heated at the Third Degree of Heat. But, if the WHITE MATTER is from a ferment. (and not a ferment), and if you want a WHITE STONE, you must take care not to heat it much into the Fourth Degree, or it will go RED. If of a ferment, the heat ends with the Third Degree. But if the original ferment, and animation was , then it should be heated even to the Fourth Degree, in order to fully fix it, until it does not at all fume when put on a burning hot spoon.
For the RED WORK, after PERFECT WHITENESS, increase the heat to the Third Degree, until it yellows, and Reddens. At the RED, it must stand in the Fourth Degree a long time (2-3 months?).
In the REDDENING, the last portions of humidity are expelled by the heat, which humidity is the cause of the WHITENESS.
THE FOUR DEGREES OF HEAT
The FIRST, ‘gentle’; the SECOND, ‘stronger by half’ (=l.5x); the THIRD, ‘doubled’; and the FOURTH, ‘built-up by half, again’ (1.5 x THIRD).
1st - 40°C 3rd — 130°C (?)
2nd - 65°C 4th - 190-200°C (?)
Translator’ s Note:
There is much disagreement as to what 2nd, 3rd and 4th Degrees are, but very much agreement on the Putrifaction Temperature, 40°C-50°C.
Ultimately, the matter must become very hot, so as to be able to be melted with ...
asaniol