The Golden Fleece

This is a Collection, because of the multitude put together, and a firm representation of all things that Nature comprises. This is why the Philosophers speak thus:

(sublime what can remain of it, then being distilled and communicated, make it ascend and descend again, drying it from without and from within)

and other infinite doctrines interlaced with the same ambiguities and amphibological intentionally ambiguous or capable of two meanings figures, which must nonetheless be all together, and by Conjunction followed and absolutely accomplished to finally gather the Nectarean fruit of our golden harvest; although it seems that Alphidius an Arabic alchemical authority often cited in medieval texts wishes to oppose it somewhat, in these terms:

(it must be known that when we solder and congeal, we also sublime and alchemize without intermission of time, joining by this means and purifying our Work.)

And more clearly still in what follows:

(When our body is thrown into the water and it comes to be redeemed, it will immediately be rotten, black, shadowy and obscured, then it will vanish and become like lime which sublimes and exalts itself soon after)

being thus sublimed and dissolved with the spirit, it purifies itself, which is a principle and origin very worthy of being compared to all the things of the universe, whether they have life, or soul, spirit

The Fleece

or not, whether in the living and nascent minerals, in the Elements and their compositions, in cold and hot things, in birds; and in summary all that can be produced from the earth to the Heaven, is contained and cooperates in power in our Art. These two doctrines mentioned above signify, according to the Philosophers, this black and obscure woman, who serves as a key to the whole work, and who must dominate in the strength of our Stone, namely in the blackness, the assured base of the whole foundation; or else this man who is the form of our matter, which we compare very appropriately to the Sun. Let this be said enough for a beginning of the first doctrine of this Art.

A color illustration within a red rectangular border depicts an alchemist or philosopher with a long white beard. He wears a green hood, a blue cloak with red lining, and a red tunic. He stands in a garden or landscape with small plants. He holds a long, blank white scroll in his right hand and a green glass vessel containing a stylized green tree in his left hand. A small number 2 is visible in the top-left corner of the image.