The Instructed Beginner in Chemistry: A Hermetic Epistle

Therefore Paracelsus adds in his Alchemical Collections original: "Congeriis Chymicis" chapter 6, from the beginning: after our plants have been killed through the cooperation of two minerals, namely sulfur the active, combustible principle and salt the stable, physical principle, they are transformed into a mineral nature, so that finally perfect minerals emerge from them, etc. Look therefore to the author of the Chest of Secrets original: "arcæ arcani" in Volume 6 of the Chemical Theater original: "Theatri Chymici" under the 8th question on page 369. You must, however, grasp the meaning of it well. See also the Chemical Infirmary original: "Gynecaeum Chymicum" pages 675 and 696. At the same time, however, you must know how to properly connect the doctrines, etc.

Let us meanwhile see in what point, after so many secrets, innumerable clevernesses, and everywhere intermingled confusions, truly all Sages—whether old or new, Greek, Arabic, Latin, German, French, and Italian—unanimously agree. This is certain: that all, without exception, as I have shown in my Hermetic Light original: "Luce Hermetica", firmly and with a steady mind testify and maintain that there is only one single Subjectum underlying material or substance under the

heavens which is suitable for the making of their Stone. The reason is this: because the truly universal spirit alone there, in its first essence, has as yet no form, and is found perfectly pure. Nor is such a spirit—which is truly heavenly, fiery, and mercurial volatile and fluid—found anywhere else in a Subjectum material that lies beneath the moon, neither under nor above the earth. All common chemists alchemists in the whole world can testify to this, who have left nothing untried to find this spirit, but in vain, because they have never thought of this wonderful Subjectum material, or to speak better, they have not valued it because they do not know its origin. Therefore, although many seem to disagree or even contradict one another in the description of this art because of the multitude of names, they nevertheless all agree in the nature, origin, weight, taste, color, and smell, as well as where it may be found, as we shall show below. And since this Materia matter is only one, of which unity there is no doubt as all Sages testify, one