The Golden Fleece

...qualities, there comes out a fifth Substance, which is the White Magnesia a term for the purified alchemical matter at the stage of the white stone, which bears no wrinkle of falsehood on its forehead. And Senior, pursuing this same figure further, concludes it in this way: "When," he says, "the five are assembled together and come to be one and the same thing, the natural stone. He then makes from all these equal mixtures, what one names Diane Diana, often representing the white or lunar stage of the work." Avicenna, on this subject, says that if we can reach the fifth, we will obtain what all the Authors call the Ame du monde Soul of the World or Anima Mundi. The Philosophers explain to us under the bark of this similitude the essence and the model of their truth by the demonstration of an Egg, because in its enclosure there are four things assembled and joined together. The first of these is the top which is the shell, signifying the earth, and the white which is the water, but the skin which is between the water and the shell is the air which divides the earth from the water. The yolk is the fire and has a very delicate skin all around itself; but that one is the most subtle air, which is here at the most interior of the very subtle, for it is more adherent and closer and neighborly than is the fire, pushing...

The Golden Fleece

...the fire and the water into the middle of the yolk, which is this Fifth substance, from which will be formed and engendered the little chick that grows afterward. Thus in an egg are all the forces and vigors with the matter, from which perfect and accomplished nature comes to be exhausted; now it is likewise necessary that all these things be found perfectly in our Operation.

figure 9

A rectangular framed illustration depicts a winged, two-headed figure standing in a landscape. The figure has a single body dressed in dark trousers and a tunic, but two heads: one looking left and one looking right, both wearing rounded hats. The figure possesses two large wings: the left wing is colored red, and the right wing is light grey or white. The figure holds a circular, gold-rimmed shield or disc in its right hand while its left hand rests on its hip. It stands upon stylized green and brown rolling hills under a pale sky.

Sixth Similitude

The discourses of the most discrete are always ambiguous, and their grave writings always intermingled with some obscurity, all understanding...