Book 1. Of the Hieroglyphics.

indications would have to be brought forward here, which we now pass over in silence: To the Allegorical and Hieroglyphic, therefore, we shall look to at least be explained most briefly: What Osiris is. Osiris, as said, is taken without any circumlocution for the matter of the art from which the golden medicine may be composed; this, placed in his sepulcher, that is, the vessel, by his brother Typhon, is torn into many parts; which, after the completion of the work, Isis collects and unites, with the combustible sulfur being segregated; and thus the collection of the parts of Osiris instituted by Isis is the reiteration of the same work, which happens until the virtue of Typhon has been extinguished, and in his place has succeeded the Soul of Osiris burning enough, so that it easily converts its mother Isis, or wife, or most loving sister to itself; which is the last perfection. What Typhon is. We have already said before what Typhon is, namely the igneous and furious spirit, which soon penetrates our Osiris, and seizes him into its own color, like a poison; which must not be done in the first, but in the last cooking: For the fire ignited in the vessel must not be sharpened too much by Vulcan in the beginning, otherwise, like the fire of Hell, it will burn the whole body of Osiris, so that he can never be restored to life by his mother. Note. Where it is to be noted that Isis and Osiris are one and the same subject, in which Osiris is the male and Isis the female, and also Osiris is the son and Isis the mother, or Osiris is the brother and Isis the sister; and thus it behaves like a hermaphrodite a combined masculine and feminine principle or androgynous having both sexes, while it is used and accepted now for Osiris, now for Isis, because it refers to both sexes; for a different respect of relation, of husband and wife, of brother and sister, of mother and son: And since this subject is unique in the nature of things, and proper to Chemistry, known to the artists, Osiris and Isis will become known to them with all their family and series of achievements: But that the Egyptian Priests have the image of Osiris, know the sepulcher alone, and assert that it is with them, yet reveal it to no one, this shows nothing other than that they themselves confess, by allegory however, that they are knowledgeable and possessors of the chemical art, which, however, they wish to reveal to no one except the most worthy: