Alchymic Journals

his eyes seek after. And things irrevocably incline toward similitude because they have some rational or active virtue that directs and counsels them—as fire experiences the urge toward fire, water toward water—which accounts for the passionate flight of the soul and the body’s deep unrest. Now I say all of this will be understood by those with a legacy of interior senses while to others it must seem incomprehensible.
I SAY THE heart is an instrument of very great magnitude whose greatness cannot be expressed. The mind as well—this is very great and nothing can emerge from its sphere that was not drawn in. And whatever the heart has attracted or whatever was drawn into the mind I say will expend itself searching for an exit. And it is perilous to live ignorant of this relationship.
I SAY THAT six Tempers dominate the mind, whereby they govern and rule over humanity. These are passion, fright, alarm, joy, envy and desire. Therefore the imagination must be supervised since no place is too far for it to go and each mind impresses another, wherever it reaches. This is because not one being is able to survive apart from the next, nor from the Almighty, because all divide His wisdom.
EACH BEING POSSESSES a Chaos, yet if transported elsewhere it will die. If that Chaos be subtle, its being is gross, or if gross, we find subtlety within. Therefore a corpus should be gross if it would glide unharmed through aether, much as gnomes with subtle bodies can proceed through rock. Even so, rigid matter is capable of piercing supple matter just as a stick is thrust into water or a stone may descend into the depths of a pool. Conversely, whenever the matrix does not take offense it is possible to extract a substance, which is the case when fishes are withdrawn while leaving the river unperturbed. So does base mineral hope to improve or glorify or transform its status. And that this may occur cannot be doubted. The omnipotence of God flows unrestricted.
WHAT VAST SURFEIT of disclosures men catalogue upon deficient understanding! To assess an object below or above the animus presiding at its birth or to prize some creature more or less highly than its creator must injudiciously subvert both values, which is how we behold existences doubled by the looking-glass. Therefore we should estimate qualities not by their outwardness but by what they deposit within.
BECAUSE EVERY ITEM is equivalent in goodness to the next, as the carbuncle is not better nor worse than tuff stone, nor evergreen than cypress, so each time we valuate gold above silver we do this out of greed. Both are excellent. Consequently our judgment is developed not through wisdom but through lamentable logic. Now, should a dog fall sick it will devour grass, but would this be suitable treatment for sick men? No. Yet how very often I remark similitudes, and I think egregious pharmacopeia astonishes me less than the gratitude of moribund patients. How is this? Possibly by virtue of imagination we are able to find what we seek, a faculty derived from above since it is evident how stars preoccupy themselves with men.
IT IS TRUE that stars habitually sympathize with mankind, but which mercies proceed from the mansions of planets? A physician after he calculates his patient’s horoscope may deduce an origin to malignancy and prophesy its end. However, each disease boasts five causes—each subject to five aspects—thus no interpretation should be thought infallible. And it is true that proficiencies contribute to failure, so emptiness comes riding. Obstinate doctors adhere to foolish diagnoses more tenaciously than starfish clinging to a barren shelf, but as I am a prudent physician I do not gape upon antique charts drawn for musty lectures. My flesh, my blood and my bones constitute the merchandise I have given up for knowledge. And my spirit have I offered as pawn. And I believe God encourages me to know, but also to doubt.
WHY WOULD A man be anxious to eat and drink and breathe? Because he is conjoined with elements of food, water and atmosphere. Or why does he avoid the cold? Because without warmth he would shiver miserably and complain. This is true because we are made of mutual associations since we have been coupled to all and do not live apart from rudimentary influences, just as we have criminals that flourish and profit beneath planetary conjunctions. Therefore I say the alchymist must understand cosmology because a doctor that treats only the effect or disease is like one that would excoriate and drive winter aside by brushing a little snow from his door.
I SAY THE body demands familiar nutriment for support, albeit we need not chew bones to replenish our bones nor swallow and digest veins to regenerate our veins. The living corpus manages to subsidize each necessity, although it is hard to explain how this is accomplished. By what method does bread transmute itself into blood? Nevertheless this occurs, and upon great similarities of hermetic art we anticipate a transmutation of dross, which implies universal regeneration.
TERRESTRIAL AND SIDEREAL worlds converge upon mankind so that if any pharmacist would mitigate or alleviate fatal consequences, such as edemata from French plague, he must learn what is implicit. Hence an understanding of herbs is good and it is wise to appreciate Laudanum which is very strong. Now, cinnabar commonly is florid but with albification it can be instructed to simulate Lead, by whose virtue it expects to acquire importance. Thus, every animate substance or creature would modify its attributes while latencies must be sought. Even so, a sapient chymist will memorize the accustomed station and rising of stars if he seeks to maintain tendencies within a pattern of their setting.
MAN’S REALITY IS but an exposition of forces and essences identical to congeries on a higher scale which represent the firmament. And beside and within us all is reflected until we apprehend ourselves as