The Matters of the Great Alchemical Work

Throughout the passing of time, a lot has been written about the matters used in the Great Work. In accordance with what we have read in the great works of classical and contemporary Masters in each of the alchemical ways, a different and specific matter is used.

There are artists that affirm that the matter of the Great Work is one and universal without specifying what the matter is, nor do they give us the least of indications that would permit the investigators of the Art to recognize this matter. For that reason, we find these statements cloudy.

The reading of the alchemical texts of the great Masters written in symbolic language allows for diverse types of interpretations according with one’s knowledge. Unfortunately, in many cases, not always corresponding to what the Masters wanted to express in their writings. On the contrary, some very well known alchemical books from time to time were written in a clear language. It is only ignorance of the most elementary principles that governed the different alchemical operations written about at the time that allowed one to make such rude errors of interpretation.

Those who read that interpretation without the necessary knowledge in order to evaluate it, such as beginners who are in their first steps in the study of the alchemy, unavoidably keep misunderstanding the idea of what the matters are that are used in the different alchemical works as well as of the Modus operandi.

Not only do we refer to the matters, which are a very important part in an alchemical work, but also to the related ways of most well known alchemists.

We are not in the XVII or XVIII centuries when writing books on alchemy was in fashion, and when the authors were hidden under a motto that few knew. Example of this is the vast amount of attractive books written at that time. Their content is lacking of teachings, being for that reason money spent out.

Nowadays, to write a book on alchemy under a well-known motto, imply responsibility by the author, because a reader can compare with original works and easily perceive any inaccuracies. However the beginner in the study of the Art will not much hesitate to believe what they read because they trust that one who writes a book on alchemy knows precisely what he is speaking of.

However this is not always so, for at times we find in the writings of certain modern authors, texts lacking in their essence and doubtful descriptions without basing them on the original texts.

Following this short introduction we are going to point out which are the main alchemical ways practiced by our classical and contemporary Masters as well as the matters employed in them.

Dry way. The matter of the dry way is, par excellence, the antimony or stibnite. The old alchemists in order to distinguish the mineral from the metallic antimony called the latter regulus. For that reason, when we talk about the antimony we want to designate their mineral, that is to say, the stibnite.

Some artists affirm that the dry way is done from the glass of antimony. We are not of the same opinion because this statement doesn't have consistency and only those who don't know the magisterial work of Basil Valentine, "Le Char Triomphal de l'Antimoine", Retz, Paris, 1977, will make such statement.

The glass of antimony whose preparation is minutely described in the page 163 of this book, besides being used to make the stone of fire, is used also for the preparation of the tincture of antimony. The preparation of the stone of fire has nothing in relation, neither comes close to, with the dry way of the antimony and it is hardly considered as being the "matter".

Let’s see the cause of our disagreement. From the glass of this mineral, the mercury of the antimony is not extracted because the mercury of this mineral is the martial starry regulus highly purified.

The preparation of the glass of antimony is not so simple as to place the antimony powdered in a hearth, fuse it and so convert it in glass.

The preparation of the glass of antimony requires much experience and one will not arrive at a canonical glass if one isn't observing and practicing. And, so that you are not left to hesitation as to how much is our disagreement we are going to describe its canonical preparation.

In first place, grind the stibnite powdered very fine and pass it through a sieve of 60 lines for centimeter. The very fine powdered mineral is calcined with very strong fire in an iron recipient or clay refractory in order to extract from it all the chemical sulphur. Only after this operation is the oxide fused in a hearth with the respective cover, in a gas oven with very strong fire.

After it is well liquefied it is poured over a copper sheet or over a marble stone. If the glass was well prepared, and this operation is not within everyone’s reach, we will have a red colour very alive looking and transparent in front of a very strong light like the solar light. We have already prepared kilograms of this glass of antimony, for this reason we are able to describe with total knowledge their preparation.

The glass of antimony is soluble in spirit of vinegar with which one could extract their tincture.

For that reason it is not the matter of the dry way but this is the matter for the preparation of the stone of fire with which, on the contrary of what some artists affirm, one could make some transmutations as the Master says in the page 237 of the same book:

«Considering the proposed point that with the antimony, the stone of fire could be prepared, and it is said that this healthy stone cures some particular infections not only in man but as well in metals.»

And in the page 238:

«The tincture of this stone of fire is not universal like that of the philosophers, which is prepared of the essence of the sun, and is still less universal as to all the other stones.»

And in order to conclude in the page 249:

«In a word, this stone, as a particular tincture, transmutes all the metals into very pure gold and better than that of the mines of the Peru. It is a medicine for all the illnesses which man could suffer.»

In short, the stone of fire, is a transmuting "stone" resulting from a "particular" made through the dry and humid path, and is not the dry way of the antimony.

For that reason, where it is said that the dry way from the antimony is done with their glass, alchemically it doesn't have any consistency, by which they who don't know the Art will be compelled to complete error.

The dry way properly said is done it with the stibnite as it is described in all detail by Eugene Canseliet in his "L'Alchimie Expliquee Sur Ses Textes Classiques", Jean-Jacques Pauvert, Paris, 1972.

But then, who was Eugène Canseliet? Canseliet was Fulcanelli´s disciple. Fulcanelli was the nom de plume of the painter Jean-Julien Champagne.

"The Dwellings of the Philosophers" was written by Jean-Julien Champagne with elements taken from Pierre Dujols'files who was a bookseller. He was a big alchemist and had a disciple that worked with him in the laboratory.

Pierre Dujols was an erudite and the author of the first ever comments to the "Hypotypose" (a comment of "Mutus Liber") under the Magophon nom de plume.

Eugène Canseliet published the book "Les Demeures Philosophales" as a disciple of Fulcanelli. If Canseliet followed the dry way of the antimony and was at the same time a Fulcanelli’s disciple to whom he would work then his Master’s path was obviously also a dry way. "Fulcanelli devoilè" Genevière Dubois, Editions Dervy, Paris, 1992.

Concerning this way, in "The Dwellings of the Philosophers", the authors (Champagne and Dujols) describe other ways of such an amalgam, that are almost impossible to distinguish when they refer to the dry way or to the wet way. This has resulted because the descriptions given do not have a sequence. Even an expert artist will have difficulty in making the distinction.

There are artists that say that Fulcanelli doesn't refer to the dry way from the antimony and that he neither describes it.

Let’s see, then, the detailed description that Fulcanelli makes of the mineral related to the dry way in "The Dwellings of the Philosophers", Square & Janes, Corp. editors, 1973:

« All ores, through the hermetic voice, rendered homage to it with their name. It is also called Black Dragon, covered with scales, venomous serpent, daughter of Saturn and the most beloved of its children. This primal substance has seen its evolution interrupted by the interposition and penetration of filthy combustible sulphur, which coats its pure mercury, holds it back, and coagulates it. And, though it is entirely volatile, this primitive mercury, materialized by the drying action of the arsenical sulphur, takes the shape of a solid, black dense, fibrous, brittle, crushable mass rendered, by its lack of utility, vile, abject, and despicable in the eyes of man. Yet in this subject - poor relative of the metal family - the enlightened artist finds everything that he needs to begin and perfect his Great Work.»

«For this reason they symbolically depicted their matter in its first being as the image of the world that contained in itself the materials of our hermetic globe, or microcosm, assembled without order, without form, without rhythm or measure.»

Let us see, then, the meaning of this description:

Those who know well "Le Char Triomphal de L’Antimoine" of Basil Valentine, will remember the picture on page 64 Frontispiece du "Char Triomphal de L’Antimoine", where the alchemical planets (metals or minerals) symbolically represented, Saturn, Mars, Venus, Mercury and the Moon, pull a wagon lead by Vulcan. This wagon is used to carry the antimony, pictured by a lady that bears on her womb the antimony’s spagyrical symbol, i.e., a cruciferous globe, thus paying it and homage.

Some of the names by which antimony is known are Black Dragon, Grey Wolf, and most commonly offspring of Saturn.

In the "Tabla Redonda de los Alquimistas" by Manuel Algora Corbi, Luiz Carcamo, editor, Madrid, 1980, "La Medula de La Alquimia", Eirenaeus Philalethes, page 307, one could read:

«The substance that we took first is a mineral, familiar to the mercury, that cooks a raw sulphur in the earth; vile visible, but glorious inwardly, the son of Saturn. What more do you need? Conceive it correctly because this is our first matter.»

«It is colour of sable, with silver veins that appears mingled in the body, whose sparkling shade stains the connate sulphur. It is completely volatile and nothing fixed, but taken in their native crudeness purges all superfluity of the sun.»

The Fulcanelli attributed characteristics to the antimony are confirmed in this text.

Our mineral, being son of Saturn, has characteristics very similar to those of its ancestor. It is colour of sable (sable in heraldry, corresponds to the black) with silver veins and their shine is stained connate sulphur. It is all volatile and purges every superfluity of the Sun. It is fibrous, brittle, and at that time was of little utility beyond its medicinal use.

This means in current language that it is a mineral of black colour with silver veins, volatile, friable, whose shine is stained chemical connate for sulphur and that purges all the superfluities from the Sun or gold.

These physiochemical characteristics correspond to those of antimony that is, as we know, a sulphide. It was with the antimony, that the old alchemists purified the Sun or gold as one can see in the First Key of Basil Valentine.

In the First Image of the book "Speculum Veritatis", which means in English "Mirror of the Truth", Philalethes describes symbolically the First Work of his way, that is, the preparation of the martial starry regulus that we explained in detail in our website at Terravista, Planeta (with links to the matters) and in our book "La Gran Obra Alquímica", Mirach Editorial, S.L., Villaviciosa de Odón, Madrid, 1999, page 15. You will see there a lame man with a tick leg representing Vulcan, giving to two old men (alchemists) a cruciferous globe that is the spagyrical symbol for antimony like any expert alchemist knows. But like this globe has a star in its center, it represents, for that reason, the martial starry regulus.

If any analogy exists with the word "mirror", cut or break the martial starry regulus traversely after the mercurial purification's and you will verify that it crystallizes in similar layers like those of the mica, as brilliant as the more refined silver and like a mirror. For that reason many artists call it "mirror of the Art".

But we won't limit ourselves hardly to these texts in order to demonstrate to you that Fulcanelli describes unmistakably the antimony.

In the "Oeuvres" book- Nicholas Flamel, Courier Livre du, Paris, 1989, page 196, says:

«Try, in the first place, to take the first-born of Saturn that has nothing to do with the vulgar, nine parts, of the sable of steel of the warrior God, 4 parts.»

Philalethes in the "Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King", section XI, "Of the Invention of the Perfect Magistery", nr. VII, says:

«Afterwards, they were interested in an offspring of Saturn, and they tested its action over gold; it having the power to free the gold from its impurities...»

Flamel is talking about the antimony that, together with the warrior god Mars and the suitable salts will make the martial regulus, required to begin his work as in the Philalethes' amalgam path.

What is Fulcanelli talking about anyway? From what we’ve described, you’ll be able to see that the Master talks about the antimony.

The preparation of the antimony regulus is not as simple as melting it with a proper heat and moulding it, as some artist's claim.

This, alchemically speaking, would be as claiming that a car is built with four wheels and little else!

Statements like these denote a lack of knowledge of the writings of the XVII century, as the "Traité de la Chymie", Christophle Glaser, Paris, 1663, page 174, where the preparation of the antimony’s martial regulus is described in detail. Also Lemery, in his "Cours de Chymie", Paris, MDCCLVI, on page 272, describes the same operation!

The starry martial regulus is not made simply after the fusion of antimony and moulding on a stainless steel mould.

In order to make a good canonical martial regulus one needs a suitable gas oven, where one can reach a temperature near 1000º centigrade, a good mineral ore and his metallic acolyte Mars, as also the indispensable melting salts. These and the "hand work" required that only an expert artist has, are the requirements to proceed with the work.

The first preparatory operation of the dry path is called Assation. It is ignored by most and is only done when preparing a canonical work. Next comes the Purge, which consists in the purification of the mineral of its siliceous refuse in a refractory clay crucible, in the aforesaid oven. Then follows the Separation which, as its name explains, consists in separating the regulus from the antimony by use of its acolyte Mars and the suitable salts. When the metal reaches a proper temperature and is melted, it is poured into a stainless steel conic mould. After slowly cooling, the Caput is separated according to Art. From this Caput the philosophical sulphur will be extracted.

Then follows the Mercurial Purification's in order to purify the regulus with the suitable salts until the star shows up, and also to extract the vitriol or Green lion. We then proceed to the Eagles, i.e., and the sublimation of the alchemical sulphur and mercury that will have as result the Remora. Finally, the latter will be cooked with the respective salt or secret fire and as a result of this operation we will at last have the Philosophical Stone. It was at this point that Canseliet failed, due to the poor "external" conditions.

This path takes more than just a few days to accomplish. Only a greatly expert alchemist will succeed, at least until the Eagles, corresponding to the Second Work. We have gone this far ourselves, so we may speak based on personal experience.

This is the time when the Artist needs the knowledge to make use of the cosmic radiation depicted on the fourth tablet of the Mutus Liber, as well of the polarized light emissions from the moon since its first quarter until the full moon.

The Amalgam path. This was the path followed by Philalethes and Flamel. One can find its description both on "An Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King" by Philalethes, as well as on Flamel’s "Brevière"or "Testament".

A summary of Philalethes' path can be found on "Concerning the Discovery of the Perfect Magistery", chapter XI, which I highly recommend you to read attentively.

On nr. X, XI and XII is said:

«…The heavens were indeed temporarily clouded over, but after a copious downpour of rain, serenity was restored.»

«Mercury emerged in a hermaphroditic state. Then they placed it in the fire; in a short time they succeeded in coagulating it, and in its coagulation they found the Sun and the Moon in a most pure state.»

«...And when they placed gold therein, the fixed was volatilized, the hard softened, the coagulated dissolved, to the amazement of Nature herself.»

In our opinion, this excerpt describes Philalethes' other path which is a wet path, nevertheless requiring the martial regulus in order to prepare the philosophical mercury.

This mercury, when cooked in a closed vessel per se becomes Sun or Moon, i.e., philosophical Sulphur that by adding up of new mercury will enable you to proceed with your work.

But instead of cooking the mercury per se in order to transform it in sulphur, one can add to it metallic gold and continue the work as explained by the Master.

This is our understanding of Philalethes' nr. X-XIII.

On "The Marrow of Alchemy", the Master allegorically describes the preparation of the philosophical mercury and the way to his complete path. It is also described on a little treatise called "Experiments".

The preparation of this philosophical mercury is done through the amalgamation of the martial regulus turned into Solar or Lunar regulus by melting it with one of these noble metals. Only this way one will be able to amalgamate it with the common mercury. This amalgam is then distilled on a steel retort up to seven times. Philalethes calls each one of these distillations an "Eagle". One should take care as not to confuse these with the ones described in our other text titled "The Eagles".

This little treatise called "Experiments" can be found in the aforesaid book "La Tabla Redonda de Los Alquimistas", page 299, as well as in our Website at Terravista, in a portuguese translation.

We have a facsimile of these two little treatises written in ancient English that serve as a complement to Philalethes' main book "An Open Entrance to the Closed Palace of the King". These are a precious aid in order to understand the Master’s work. In our Website at Terravista you will find a portuguese translation of the original of the aforesaid treatise "Experiments" as well as a text about Philalethes' work.

The Albertus Magnus' Work "El Compuesto de los Compuestos" (The Composite of Composites), described in the book "Siete Textos de Alquimia", anonymous author, Editorial Kier, Buenos Aires, 1978, pages 18-45 as also as in "Le Composé des Composés", Arché, Milano, has a different beginning despite being also an amalgam path. It starts with the sublimation of Mercury as you can also see in our website Terravista, under the texts titled "Mercury Sublimation", "The Eagles", "Our Gold" and "O Composto dos Compostos". It has been translated into portuguese.

Wet Path. The wet path, considered by the Masters as being the noblest of them all, employs as first matter the cinnabar and the vitriol. The majority of the wet paths are usually lengthy in time, but Kamala Jnana’s way, as incredible it might seem, takes only 28 days.

These two paths are completely distinct. The cinnabar path is described with great detail in the book "Dictionaire de Philosophie Alchimique", Kamala Jnana, Éditions G. Charlet, Argentiére (H.S) France, 1961. In our Websites at Terravista and Geocities, you can find some writings on this path with links to the actual matters, not only the first matter but the secret fire as well.

Because of this, some artists have accused us of being excessively charitable, due to the uniqueness of a clear representation of these matters on the international network and in many languages. We do not agree. Kamala Jnana’s path will at first sight seem extremely simple but isn't so. In practice, we have found unsurpassable difficulties, despite our lengthy experience in Alchemy. Not only us, but also other expert artists have found the same difficulties. We will continue without weakening to strive with our brothers for the resolution of this problem.

Another wet path commonly known is the Vitriol Path. This is described in Basil Valentine’s "Le Dernier Testament" Retz, Paris, Troisème Livre.

In our book "A Grande Obra Alquímica" we describe this path with great detail. But as not to leave any doubt let us now quote some passages from the Master’s text, on page 234, referring to the matter:

«Now, you must know that such soul or golden sulphur, like salt and spirit, is found stronger and most virtuous in Mars and Venus, and in Vitriol as well, as also Mars and Venus by retrogressions can be taken back to a most virtuous and effective vitriol. On such a metallic vitriol one finds all the three principles under heaven, which are mercury, sulphur and salt, and each one of them can be particularly extracted with little work and time, as you will see when I proceed to narrate a short story of a mineral vitriol, beautiful and of a high degree, that can be found in Hungary.»

And on page 238:

«When you have found such a high grade mineral that is clean and pure, called vitriol, pray then to God to give you intelligence and wisdom to proceed with your work. And after its calcination, put it in a strong closed retort. Have it distilled, firstly under a moderate fire and then a strong one. Have the white spirit distil like snow that comes in the form of a terrible exhalation or wind, until it comes no more and every thing has been spit out. Observe that in this wind or white spirit all the three principles are contained... And because of this there is no need at all to look for these principles in the precious things.»

At the end of the Troisème Livre, on page 262, Basil Valentine, when talking to the blowers, says: «Oh, eternal God! What do these people think, being so much blind and foolish? Ah! It’s an easy task, even for a child. One thing springs from another, as one can easily cook good bread from good wheat. But the world is blind and it will remain so until the end of times. Being so, I refrain from writing any further and commend you to the Sovereign.»