Magnet in Alchemy

Bodies so calcined must be put into a Phial hermetically sealed, and in a gentle heat of Bal.Mar. or Dew, be digested, or putrefied the space of a Philosophical Month: for a voluntary Solution is better than a violent; a temperate, than a speedy; as the Philosopher hath it. And thus is made the second and true Solution of a Metal into viscous water, or a certain Olyity with the preservation of the radical moisture, in which is the true metallick Sulphur, together with the true and most noble Mercury: for one of them is always the Magnet, and remains solving with the solved, and desires to continue inseparably, and that because of the similitude of substance.
The Tomb of Semiramis

Now therefore the Subject of this discourse being the Liquor Alkahest, the Object must be the Universal Spirit; for it is from this grand Fountain of Nature that our Chaos doth proceed; therefore thrice happy is he, that knows those Magnets that attract and make a species of this general Genus: for he is assured that there is something more than Elements in all Created Beings, even an Incorruptible and Quintessential Spirit, which is the very Life of Elements themselves; which being taken appears in Mist, Vapor or Water, even that out of which the Ancients say all things were Generated. However, the right Knowledge of this Matter is sufficiently abstruse, and the Operations thereof yet more abstruse; for I with many others know by experience, that the Matter may be known and many do know it, yet are wholly to seek in the matter and Modus of Operating thereon; and whatever some Foppish and Conceited ones may think, viz. that if they had the Knowledge of the true matter all difficulty is over; this may prove a grand Mistake, for I have been Intimately acquainted with some, that have had a true knowledge of the matter, and have wrought thereon; yet to the day of their Death, have been to seek of the Magistery.

nother Error is that many allow the Matter to be Universal, but is drawn by certain Magical magnets at select times in the Year; but this is a grand Error, for the Matter is to be found Plentifully at all Seasons of the Year, especially in such places, as are mostly enriched by Mineral Fumes, and the manner of its Attraction is rather for the Necessity of Human Life, than any Point in Art; so that the Artist must not be too curious in endeavoring to perform that which Nature hath already done to his Hand. Another Error is in those that seek for this Dissolvent by attracting the Air with Alkanizated Salts, as Tartar, and not considering, that all Alkalized Salts do only attract a Saline Aquosity, which by often Cohobations may be turned wholly into an Elementary Water, whereas the true Philosopher (as already said) does by his magnets attract a Fire, may a Fiery Spirit stronger than any Fire in the World: It is true Alkalizated Salts are noble Subjects, and deservedly claim Preeminence, being Contradistinct to all Acids, and therefore make a Dissolvent next to the great Liquor; but these can never be Volatilized without the Universal Medium, or Philosophers Diploma, together with Essential Oils and Vinous Spirits, and being so Volatilized, they become noble Spirits, yet do notwithstanding spend their Virtue in Dissolving Bodies, and Coagulate upon them into a Salt, retaining their Volatility; so that consequently those are excluded from being the Subject of this Immortal Dissolvent. If Art will from the latex obtain a Body, it must be begun with Coagulation, and with such magnetical Earth, as Attracts the Celestial Rays and Universal Spirit, and Concentrates them in the Center, for that in the Center the pure Parts of the Starry Fire is digested, and in the Center all the Influences meet, and from the Center dos the living Ferch proceed; for tis the Central Archaeus that Sublimes the Mineral Vapor or those pure Spirits that are of a dissolving Nature; this is the Body which Art is Industrious about and desirous to know, even the Body of the Universal Salt and Sulphur of the great World

Trifertes Sagani Or Immortal Dissolvent By

Cleidophorus Mystagogus

By further agitation and circular motion, manifested in burning flame of fire; as we find by burning glasses and by the flint and steel, but the omnipresent universal agent, the unmanifested tranquil fire must not be withdrawn but must be admitted to feed or support the fire, and it must be supplied with a subject to act upon, i.e., fuel, or else it returns to its first omnipresent state of universality, from when nevertheless, it may be remanifested by motion, by the electrical machine, or, by the flint and steel, or by any other suitable motion or action, in straight lines, by friction, or by hammering, or by circular motion. That principle will reappear everywhere, provided it is not excluded by excluding atmospheric AIR (and it is manifested in heat, in fire, or in fire and light. This is the vital principle that animates atmospheric air) in the character of spiritual or incorporeal nitre, by Sendivogius called the nitre of the philosophers, and by the moderns called oxygen. When extended in humidity it becomes universal aerial acid and when it meets with a suitable magnet, it becomes corporified nitre They [the Magi] took the offspring of Saturn in hand the stylanx or trier of Gold They found in this child of Saturn [Antimony] no actual Sulphur, but only potential Therefore they sought farther for an active Sulphur, and that most thoroughly, and at length they found it in the house Aries. This Sulphur is most greedily received by the child of Saturn it draws it to itself like a magnet, and swallows it up in its own belly and hides it, and the Omnipotent hath imprinted his royal seal thereon. The universal medicine which cures all human and metallic diseases is concealed in gold and its magnet [the Regulus of Antimony and Mars], the Chalibs of Sendivogius.

Some receive this sublimate in the form of water, some like a Salt, when the Sky is serene and clear, either by means of particular glasses by applying heat, or by laying certain Magnets, such as Mumia, human blood, Minerals or Metallic ashes; or by means of mirrors, attracting that sublimate by night and by day which must be putrefied and purified which purification is a Master piece, as the Signs of perfection and purity are well to be minded; afterwards it is to be multiplied by its own principle in Infinitum and must lastly be fermented with gold and silver therefore I will not disturb any ones good Ideas concerning such a most universal principle or Spirit, if he has more knowledge of it, than I have; and I must confess, that Sublimate Mundi

has of late given me many serious Thoughts! But there is another matter in the mineral Kingdom wherein that same universal Sublimate Mundi is most plentifully infused, and wherein he dwells undetermined and is in Spiritual operation and in full course to become a Metal, yet has never been a Metal yet nor even a Mineral. This is our true and genuine matter; some have named it Lutum Auri.
-Baron William von SCHROEDER Instructions Respecting the Art of Transmutation and Ameliorating the Metals

This is the True Materia, that is not wet, that is however an element and a water, and is only one thing, which may not be separated from the earth, for it is from the Earth, the Earth is the nourishment of such material; it is full of spiritual life; celestial, terrestrial, magnetic, it is refreshed by the pure celestial dew, the Earth harbors it and is its mother; it existed from the beginning of the world, this Spirit which attracts air, fire, and water and encloses all in one: The heavens are adorned with many stars, the Sun and Moon: This Materia cannot become fruitful without the heavens cooperative help. Also no single thing could live and endure, if it did not unceasingly receive this celestial, Astral, material, cooperative power, this spirit or salt: All life comes down from above, each life as its separate defect in the root of its Spheres, its own salt-spirit, all metals, vegetables and animals meet in the center in agreement. -Chemical Moonshine for as you find in Vitriol's body three distinct things, as Spirit, Oil and Salt, even so you may expect from its own Spirit again (which without the mingling of its oil is driven from its matter) three distinct things as you did formerly from the body of Vitriol, which well deserveth the name of Speculum Sapientiae Physicae. Separate this Spirit of Vitriol as it ought, then that affords again unto you three principles, out of which only, without any addition, since the beginning of the world the Philosophers' Stone hath been made. From that you have to expect again a Spirit of a white form, an oil of a red quality and after these two a crystalline Salt. These three being duly joined in their perfection generate no less than the Philosophers' great Stone, for that white Spirit is merely Philosophers' Mercury and the red oil is the Soul and the Salt is the true Magnetic Body.

his golden Water, or Spirit drawn from Vitriol;, contains again a Sulphur and a Magnet; its Sulphur is the anima, an incombustible fire; the Magnet is its own Salt, which in the conjunction attracteth its Sulphur and Mercury, uniteth with the same and are inseparable companions. First in a gentle heat is dissolved the undigested Mercurial Spirit; by this is further extracted after a magnetic way by the Mercurial Spirit; so still the one is a Magnet unto the other, bearing magnetic love one to another, as such things whether the last together with the medium is drawn forth by the first, and are thereby generated and thus take their beginning. In this separation and dissolution the Spirit or Mercury is the first Magnet, showing its magnetic virtue towards the Sulphur and Soul which it, quasi magnes, attracteth. This Spirit, per modem distillationis, being absolved and freed, showeth again its magnetic power towards the Salt, which it attracteth from the dead earth; after the Spirit is separated from it, then the Salt appeareth in its purity. If that process be further followed, and after a true order and measure the conjunction be undertaken and the Spirit and Salt be set together into the philosophic furnace, then it appears again how the heavenly Spirit striveth in a magnetic way to attract its own Salt, for it dissolveth the same within forty days, bringeth it to an uniform water with itself, even as the Salt hath been before its coagulation. In that destruction and dissolution appeareth the highest blackness and eclipse and darkness of the earth that was ever seen. But in the exchange thereof a bright, glittering whiteness appearing, then the case is altered and the dissolved, fluid, waterish Salt turns into a Magnet; for in that dissolution it layeth hold on its own Spirit, which is the Spirit of Mercury, attracteth the same powerfully like a Magnet, hiding it under a form of a dry, clear body, bringing the same by way of uniting into a deep coagulation and firm fixedness by means of a continued fire and the certain degrees thereof.

This is a stone and no stone, of which is made a volatile fire in the form of a water, which drowneth and dissolveth its fixed father and its volatile mother. Mettaline Salt is an imperfect body which turneth to philosophic Mercury, that is a permanent or blessed water, and is the philosophers' Magnet, which loveth its philosophic Mars, sucketh unto him and abideth with him. Thus our Sol hath a Magnet also, which Magnet is the first root and matter of our Stone. If you conceive of and understand my saying and what Hermes saith, three things are required for the work; first a

volatile or mercurial water, aqua coelestis, then Leo viridis, which is the philosophic Lune, thirdly does Hermetis, Sol or Ferment.

Take Vinum Adustum and put it into a strong Vessel, which will endure the fire; light it with a match of Brimstone and put quickly a head of Iron or Copper upon it and the true, fiery Spirit will be resolved into a water in the receiver, which must be large. This is the true aerial, fiery Spirit of Wine. It must be subtile, penetrating, without any phlegm, pure, aerial and volatile, so that air in a magnetic quality may attract it; therefore it had need to be kept close in. It is of a penetrating and effectual operation.

All visible and palpable things are made out of the Spirit of Mercury, which is beyond all the terrestrial things of the whole world, and all things are made out of it and have their original from it. For herein is all to be found that can do all that the Artist doth desire to enquire into. It is the principle to work metals, being made a spiritual Essence, which is a mere Air, and flyeth to and fro without wings and is a moving wind, which, after its expulsion out of its habitation by Vulcan, is driven into its Chaos, into which it entereth again and doth resolve itself into the elements, where it is attracted by the Stars after a magnetical manner, out of love, from whence it went forth and was wrought out before, because it desireth to be united again with its like. But when this Spirit of Mercury can be taken and made corporeal, it doth then resolve itself into a body and becometh a clear, fair and transparent water, which is a true spiritual water and the first Mercurial Root of minerals and metals, spiritual, unperceivable, incombustible, without any commixtion of the terrestrial aquosity. It is that heavenly water of which much hath been written. For by the Spirit of Mercury all metals may be, if need requireth, dissolved, opened and without any corrosive reduced or resolved into their first matter.
-jhon dee rosicurcian secrets