THE COELUM PHILOSOPHORUM, OR BOOK OF VEXATIONS
preface
Philippus
Theophrastus Paracelsus
Transcribed by Dusan Djordjevic Mileusnic
YOU who are skilled in Alchemy, and as many others as promise yourselves
great riches or chiefly desire to make gold and silver, which Alchemy in
different ways promises and teaches; equally, too, you who willingly undergo
toil and vexations, and wish not to be freed from them, until you have attained
your rewards, and the fulfillment of the promises made to you; experience teaches
this every day, that out of thousands of you not even one accomplishes his
desire. Is this a failure of Nature or of Art? I say, no; but it is rather the
fault of fate, or of the unskilfulness of the operator.
Since, therefore, the characters of the sign of the stars and planets of heaven,
together with the other names, inverted words, receipts, materials, and
instruments are thoroughly well known to such as are acquainted with this art,
it would be altogether superfluous to recur to these same subjects in the
present book, although the use of such signs, names, and characters at the
proper time is by no means without advantage.But herein will be noticed another way of treating Alchemy different from the
previous method, and deduced by Seven Canons from the sevenfold series of the
metals. This, indeed, will not give scope for a pompous parade of words, but,
nevertheless, in the consideration of those Canons everything which should be
separated from Alchemy will be treated at sufficient length, and, moreover, many
secrets of other things are herein contained. Hence, too, result certain
marvelous speculations and new operations which frequently differ from the
writings and opinions of ancient operators and natural philosophers, but have
been discovered and confirmed by full proof and experimentation.
Moreover, in this Art nothing is more true than this, though it be little known
and gains small confidence. All the fault and cause of difficulty in Alchemy,
whereby very many persons are reduced to poverty, and others labour in vain, is
wholly and solely lack of skill in the operator, and the defect or excess of
materials, whether in quantity or quality, whence it ensues that, in the course
of operation, things are wasted or reduced to nothing. If the true process shall
have been found, the substance itself while transmuting approaches daily more
and more towards perfection. The straight road is easy, but it is found by very
few.Sometimes it may happen that a speculative artist may, by his own eccentricity,
think out for himself some new method in Alchemy, be the consequence anything or
nothing. He need do nought in order to reduce something into nothing, and again
bring back something out of nothing. Yet this proverb of the incredulous is not
wholly false. Destruction perfects that which is good; for the good cannot
appear on account of that which conceals it. The good is least good whilst it is
thus concealed. The concealment must be removed that so the good may be able
freely to appear in its own brightness. For example, the mountain, the sand, the
earth, or the stone in which a metal has grown is such a concealment. Each one
of the visible metals is a concealment of the other six metals.
By the element of fire all that is imperfect is destroyed and taken away, as,
for instance, the five metals, Mercury, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, and Saturn.1
On the other hand, the perfect metals, Sol and Luna, are not consumed in that
same fire. They remain in the fire: and at the same time, out of the other
imperfect ones which are destroyed, they assume their own body and become
visible to the eyes. How, and by what method, this comes about can be gathered
from the Seven Canons. Hence it may be learnt what are the nature and property
of each metal, what it effects with the other metals, and what are its powers in
commixture with them.But this should be noted in the very first place: that these Seven Canons cannot
be perfectly understood by every cursory reader at a first glance or a single
reading. An inferior intelligence does not easily perceive occult and abstruse
subjects. Each one of these Canons demands no slight discussion. Many persons,
puffed up with pride, fancy they can easily comprehend all which this book
comprises. Thus they set down its contents as useless and futile, thinking they
have something far better of their own, and that therefore they can afford to
despise what is here contained.
FOOTNOTE
1. The three prime substances are proved only by fire, which manifests them
pure, naked, clean, and simple. In the absence of all ordeal by fire, there is
no proving of a substance possible. For fire tests everything, and when the
impure matter is separated the three pure substances are displayed. – De
Origine Morborum ex Tribus Primis Substanstiis – Paramirum, Lib. I.,
c. 1. Fire separates that which is constant or fixed from that which is fugitive
or volatile. – De Morbis Metallicis, Lib. II., Tract I. Fire is the
father or active principle of separation. – "Third Fragment on Tartar" from the
Fragmenta Medica.
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