The interpretations Philosophical, according to the Maistery of Hermes.
I desire with all my heart that he who searcheth the secrets of the
Sages, having in his Spirit passed over these Ideas of the life and
resurrection to come, should first make his profit of them : And in the second
place, that he be more advised than before, that he sound and search the depth
of my Figures, colours, and rowles; principally of my rowles, because that in
this Art they speak not vulgarly. Afterward let him ask of himself why the
Figure of Saint Paul is on the right hand, in the place where the custom is to
paint S. Peter? And on the other side that of Saint Peter, in the place of the
figure of Saint Paul? Why the Figure of Saint Paul is clothed in colours white
and yellow, and that of S. Peter in yellow and red?
Why also the man and the woman which are at the feet of these two Saints
praying to God, as if it were at the Day of Judgement, are apparelled in divers
colours and not naked, or else nothing but bones, like them that are rising
again? Why in this Day of Judgement they have painted this man and this woman
at the feet of the Saints? For they ought to have been more low on earth, and
not in heaven.
Why also the two Angels in Orange colour, which say in their rowles,
SVRGITE MORTVI, VENITE AD IVDICIVM DOMINI MEI, that is Arise you dead, come
unto the Judgement of my Lord, are clad in this colour, and out of their place,
for they ought to be on high in heaven, with the two other which play upon the
Instruments? Why they have a field Violet and blue? But principally why their
roule, which speaks to the dead, ends in the open throat of the red and flying
Lion?
I would then that after these, and many other questions which may justly
be made, opening wide the eyes of his spirit, he come to conclude, that all
this, not having been done without cause, there must be represented under this
bark, some great secrets, which he ought to pray God to discover unto him.
Having then brought his belief by degrees to this pass wish also that he would
further believe, that these figures and explications are not made for them that
have never seen the Books of the Philosophers, and who not knowing the Metallic
principles, cannot be named Children of this Science; for if they think to
understand perfectly these figures, being ignorant of the first Agent, they
will undoubtedly deceive themselves, and never be able to know any thing at
all.
Let no man therefore blame me, if he do not easily understand me, for he
will be more blame-worthy than I, inasmuch as not being initiated into these
sacred and secret interpretations of the first Agent, (which is the key opening
the gates of all Sciences) he would notwithstanding, comprehend the most
subtile conceptions of the envious Philosophers, which are not written but for
them who already know these principles, which are never found in any book,
because they leave them unto God, who revealeth them to whom he please, or else
causeth them to be taught by the living voice of a Maister, by Cabalistical
tradition, which happeneth very seldom.
Now then, my Son, let me so call thee, both because I am now come to a
great age, and also for that, it may be, thou art otherwise a child of this
knowledge, (God enable thee to learn, and after to work to his glory). Hearken
unto me then attentively, but pass no further if thou be ignorant of the
foresaid Principles.
This Vessel of earth, in this form, is called by the Philosophers, their
triple Vessel, for within it there is in the middest a Stage, or a floor, and
upon that a dish or a platter full of lukewarm ashes, within which is set the
Philosophical Egg, that is, a vial of glass full of confections of Art (as of
the feumme of the red sea, and the fat of the mercurial wind) which thou see
painted in form of a Penner and Inkehorn. Now this Vessel of earth is open
above to put in the dish and the vial, under which by the open gate, is put in
the Philosophical fire, as thou knowest. So thou hast three vessels; and the
threefold vessel: The envious have called an Athanor, a fiue, dung, Balneum
Marie, a Furnace, a Sphere, the greene Lion, a prison, a grave, a urinal, a
phioll, and a Bolts-head : I myself in my Summary or Abridgement of Philosophy,
which I composed four years and two months past, in the end thereof named it
the house and habitation of the Poulet, and the ashes of the Platter, the
chaffe of the Poulet;
The common name is an Oven, which I should never have found, if Abraham
the Jew had not painted it, together with the fire proportionable, wherein
consists a great part of the secret. For it is as it were the belly, or the
womb, containing the true natural heat to animate our young King : If this fire
be not measured Clibanically, saith Calid the Persian, son of Iasichus; If it
be kindled with a sword, saith Pithagoras; If thou fire thy Vessel, saith
Morien, and maketh it feel the heat of the fire, it will give thee a box on the
care, and burn his flowers before they be risen from the depth of his Marrow,
making them come out red, rather than white, and then thy work is spoiled ; as
also if thou make too little fire, for then thou shalt never see the end,
because of the coldness of the natures, which shall not have had motion
sufficient to digest them together.
The heat then of thy fire in this vessel, shall be (as saith Hermes and
Rofinus) according to the Winter; or rather, as saith Diomedes, according to
the heat of a Bird, which begins to fly so softly from the sign of Aries to
that of Cancer : for know that the Infant at the beginning is full of cold
phlegm and of milk, and that too vehement heat is an enemy of the cold and
moisture of our Embrion, and that the two enemies, that is to say, our two
elements of cold and heat will never perfectly embrace one another, but by
little and little, having first long dwelt together, in the middest of the
temperate heat of their bath, and being changed by long decoction, into Sulphur
incombustible.
Govern therefore sweetly with equality and proportion, thy proud and
haughty natures, for fear lest if thou favour one more than another, they which
naturally are enemies, do grow angry against thee through jealousy, and dry
Choller, and make thee sigh for it a long time after. Besides this, thou must
entertain them in this temperate heat perpetually, that is to say, night and
day until the time that Winter, the time of the moisture of the matters, be
passed; because they make their peace, and join hands in being heated together,
whereas should these natures find themselves but one only half hour without
fire, they would become for ever irreconcilable.
See therefore the reason why it is said in the Book of the seventy
precepts: Look that their heat continue indefatigably without ceasing, and that
none of their days be forgotten. And Rafis, the haste, saith he, that brings
with it too much fire, is always followed by the Diuell, and Error. When the
golden Bird, saith Diomedes, shall become just to Cancer, and that from thence
it shall run toward Libra, then thou mayst augment the fire a little. And in
like manner, when this faire Bird, shall fly from Libra towards Capricorn,
which is the desired Autumn, the time of harvest, and of the fruits that are
now ripe.
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