The Instructed Beginner in Chemistry: A Hermetic Epistle

chapter 11: these two things are called Re-bis, that is, res bina a double thing, namely the fixed body and volatile spirit, both brought together into one thing. For this reason, Basilius Valentinus Basil Valentine adds in his Rhymes on the True Matter of the Stone original: "Ryth. de vera lapidis materia" in the 12th Key: the body, the soul, and the spirit consist of two, from which the whole thing comes forth. It arises, however, from one, and is one thing, because the volatile and the fixed are united at the same time. And thus they are also called three, because the sal salt, as mentioned above, is ensouled, twofold, and hermaphroditisch hermaphroditic. Therefore Isaacus Hollandus Isaac Hollandus speaks in his Minor Work original: "opere Min." book 1, chapter 64: this very precious salt has a hidden soul within it, which is why the ancients called it an ensouled salt. And Laurentius Venturus of Venice, chapter 11, adds: this salt is silver on the outside, but in a hidden way it is gold. And it is resinous, which is why it is also called our resin original: "Harz". As is read in the Assembly of the Philosophers original: "Turba" discourse 18, it is also called this by Maria the Prophetess an early alchemical authority. And just as it is twofold, so Maria has written that there are two catchword: resins,

resins, and they are two sulfurs of nature united at once. They are called our sun and moon. Therefore it is said, as we have shown above, that the stone consists of three parts, namely: the soul, body, and spirit, like a human being; or from the sun, moon, and quicksilver, because the spirit is called mercurius or argentum vivum living silver. This soul, or very fixed golden tinctur dye or essence, is called the metallic soul by the philosophers, as Senior Zosimos of Panopolis or a similar ancient authority clearly explains. These are the three principles of nature and art, and they are found in every kingdom, the animal as well as the vegetable and mineral, namely Sal, Sulphur and Mercurius Salt, Sulfur and Mercury. Therefore the Sages have said that the matter of the stone is in every created and earthly thing, in you, in me, and in all, and so on. It cannot, however, be extracted from every thing in its first nature, except in our single subjecto subject, as it flows down from the universal heaven and is not yet specified, as we have shown above from Sendivogius. Therefore, he brings it forth according to each thing's appropriate catchword: nature,