The Golden Fleece or Golden Treasure and Art Chamber

Splendor Solis.

...held, as they naturally desired to rise up; and at last, at the ends of the earth, where many of them were gathered together, they threw a portion of the soil Erdtrich; refers here to the elemental Earth as a raw material for transformation. into heaps in one place, and another there, and created many a hill and mountain, and deep valleys. And in the places where such hills and mountains came to be, there the earth is at its very best—cooked, boiled, and mixed by the heat, cold, moisture, and dryness.

There also is found the best ore Erz; for the alchemist, metals "grow" in the earth like plants; the mountain acts as a natural furnace.. But where the earth is flat, they [the vapors] heaped nothing, for those same fumes and smoke were found there and moved outside the soil, especially where it was slimy, clay-like, and fatty.

The moisture forced its way down from above, which made the earth soft again, and it settled over itself as firmly as dough. Through the drying of the sun’s heat In alchemy, the "Sun's heat" refers both to the literal sun and the regulated heat of the alchemist’s furnace (the Athanor). and through the length of time, it became ever more firm, hardened, and baked. However, the earth which is brittle and crumbly, like small grit and sand, and is still soft, hangs together like grapes; that same earth is too meager and parched in terms of moisture, and has had too little moisture. Therefore, it is not now sufficiently baked together and remains lumpy, like an unstirred porridge, or like a mealy dough that has been too little watered.

For no soil can turn into stone unless it comes from fatty sliminess, or slimy earth well watered and mixed with moisture. For after the water is pressed out by the sun’s heat, the moisture of the earth must hold the parts together; otherwise, it remains crumbly and brittle and falls apart again.

Whatever has not yet become perfectly hard may still today, through the constant operation of Nature and the sun’s heat, become hard and firm stones. Also, the aforementioned smoke and vapors, which first arose from the properties of the elements, are locked in the depths of the earth. Through Nature and the influence Influß; the invisible "pouring in" of celestial power from the planets into the terrestrial realm. of the sun and other planets, they are cooked; and when they seize the watery vapors...