Chapter 2: Speculum Alchemiae

1. The principles of all metals are Salt, Mercury, and Sulfur.⁠¹

2. Mercury, Sulfur, or Salt alone cannot give origin to metals. However, when united, they give birth to diverse mineral metals.

3. Therefore, it is logical that our Philosophical Stone⁠² must inevitably have these three principles.

4. Sulfur is the fire of alchemy, Mercury is the spirit of alchemy, and Salt is the mastery of alchemy.

5. To elaborate the red elixir and the white elixir, we inevitably need a substance in which Salt, Sulfur, and Mercury are found completely pure and perfect. This is because the impurity and the imperfection of the alloy is again found in the amalgam.

6. However,

“...nothing may be mingled with metals which have not been made or sprung from them.” — Roger Bacon, Mirror of Alchemy

It is logical that a strange substance⁠³ cannot serve us. Therefore, the raw matter of the great work must be found within ourselves.

7. We perfect the substance (the raw matter) according to the art. This substance is the sacred fire of our organic laboratory.

8. This substance, being semi-solid and semi-liquid, has a pure, clear, white, and red Mercury and a similar Sulfur.

9. Moreover, this substance possesses two types of Salt: one fixed and the other volatile.

10. This raw matter of the great work is the semen⁠⁴ of our sexual glands.

11. With our science and by means of the fire, we transform this marvelous substance in order for it to be millions of times more perfect at the end of the work.

12. We elaborate the red elixir and the white elixir with this marvelous substance.⁠⁵