The Golden Fleece or Golden Treasure and Art Chamber

...natures—those things through which metals might be born imperfectly by Nature—can quickly and visibly be made perfect. However, through the secrecy of the Art, born out of temporal Matter original: "Materia"; the physical substance or "prime matter" used by alchemists as the starting point for their work. through Nature, Nature serves the Art, and conversely, Art serves Nature with temporal tools. This is done with such effects and in such a way as is suitable to Nature, so that such a Form In Aristotelian philosophy, "Form" is the internal principle that makes a thing what it is (e.g., the "form" of a tree makes it a tree rather than a stone). might be made. And although this must proceed with Art—in that the aforementioned Stone reaches its Form through Art—nevertheless, the Form comes from Nature. For every essential Form of every thing—whether a living animal, a growing plant, or a metal—arises from the internal power of the Matter; the human soul alone is the exception.

But it is to be noted that the essential Form cannot arise in the Matter unless it happens through the effect of an accidental Form An "accidental form" refers to external qualities (like heat, moisture, or color) that act upon a substance to change its state., not out of the power of that quality itself, but out of the power of another active substance which is the fire, or another accidental heat that works there. Of this, we take a likeness from an egg of a hen: in it arises the essential Form of putrefaction original: "putrefaction"; the alchemical process of decay and decomposition, considered the necessary first step toward transformation. without the accidental Form, which is a mixture of the red and white, by the power of the heat that works into the egg—that is, from the brooding hen. And although the egg is the Matter of the hen, the Form—whether essential or accidental—does not yet reside within it, except through the rotting original: "feulung"; a synonym for putrefaction or the breakdown of matter. which happens with the help of heat. Likewise, in the natural Matter of the mentioned Stone, neither the accidental nor the essential Form arises without rotting or cooking. How this rotting is structured follows hereafter.

The rotting or putrefaction happens sometimes with outward heat in a thing, when the natural heat or warmth of a thing that is moist is drawn out. Rotting also happens in the same way from excessive cold, when the natural heat is destroyed by excessive cold; that is actually a killing, for every thing sustains itself from natural heat, and such rotting certainly happens in moist things. Concerning rotting...