Hermet E'zine - Issue No1

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The Hermt ezine

2011copyright, rubaphilos

Produced by
rubaphilos Salflure
copyright rubaphilos 2012
I distribute the hermt entirely
from a link at my website.

http://www.rubaphilos.com/003-
ezine.htm

I hold creative and intellectual
copyrights on most written and
some graphical material herein,
except where I explicitly state
otherwise. As author of this
ezine I do not distribute by
subscription. The distribution is
free of charge. I do not mind
anyone distributing this file
themselves, but I
ask if you do,
then please do-so
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and with no
additions made to
it. Please include
a source
reference if you
quote from, or
otherwise copy
material from,
this document.

rubaphilos
AHS
_____________________
Cover art: Cover art: Cover art: Cover art: My version of
the Rosarium Fountain,
drawn for my 4
th
book.
_____________________

Issue Issue Issue Issue No No No No 1 11 1
(The orientation edition) (The orientation edition) (The orientation edition) (The orientation edition)

1. Editorial
2. Defining Hermetism
3. Alchemical Rationale
4. Pearce the Black Monke
5. The cover art

(A.C.)Clarke's First Law:
When a distinguished but
elderly scientist states
that something is possible,
he is almost certainly
right. When he states that
something is impossible,
he is very probably
wrong.

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Editorial
Welcome to the first issue of the hermt.

Hermt: (her-mt) plural: the hermt
- the community of hermetic
initiates.

It is my intention,
primarily, to use this
ezine to record ideas
about hermetism which are
of interest to students of
the Western alchemical
tradition. From time to
time I will not only
publish my own off the chuff rants on
hermetic subjects, as well as deliberately
designed rants, but will also publish items
from classic alchemical literature, excerpts
from emails, IRC channel discussion logs,
email forum posts, etc., that are of interest
(and where circumstances allow). So the
primary plan is to gather together
information and ideas that are circulating

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online, specifically. I believe this is a good
way to help people find resources that they
may previously have been unaware of, and to
expand their own awareness of just what is
going on underground (if you will). At the
same time, to help give some idea of how to
assess productive information from that which
is really just plain garbage.
In numbering these publications I have
opted for a less conventional approach. Instead
of listing them by number and then grouping
those numbers in to volumes (annual sets), I
will keep things simple and just number them
as consecutive issues. I have opted for wide
margins on the left and right both because I
think it looks better, and because it will
allow me to add margin notes (my own comments)
on occasion, especially when publishing classic
texts. I have no intention of establishing a
fixed minimum and/or maximum number of pages
per edition, nor a regular publishing cycle. I
will make each issue as long or as short as I
like, and will publish at random. Some issues
will cover a bunch of topics with a number of
articles, some only one topic and one article.
It is my desire to attempt to get at least
three editions out per year, with the
intention of more, as often as possible. But it

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all depends on available time and available
information. I will on occasion provide a list
of previously published copies of this ezine
for anyone collecting them, and will send
copies via email to anyone who has missing
editions from their collection. I also welcome
inquiries via email if I have taken a while to
get the next edition out, and you want to know
when it will be available.
I also suggest, to anyone distributing
copies of these ezines digitally or in
hardcopy, to include this first issue with any
others you pass on. This is because herein is
the only place I will be explaining all the
basic info about this ezine.
I will also accept requests for articles
(that is, I will write on subjects by request),
from readers. I will also, on occasion, accept
articles submitted by readers, where they are
sufficiently worthwhile, and as long as they
fit the overall theme of the ezine.
The range of subjects to be discussed here
are (in order of importance): lab alchemy,
inner alchemy, hermetic initiation, magic,
qabala, info about various schools within the
hermetic tradition, initiatory teaching and
learning techniques, past adepts (bios), classic
hermetic literature, hermetic art, esoteric

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history, alchemical (and other esoteric)
cryptography, astrology, divination, tarot,
magic ritual, the Hermetic Order of the Golden
Dawn, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, the Grail
and Arthurian mysteries, modern hermetic
literature, esoteric therapeutics, esoteric
psychology, chemistry/physics/botany and
biology when related to alchemy. All of which
shall be addressed specifically to the Western
and hermetic tradition. If you have an article
to submit, please, no Eastern terminology
(unless there is no Western equivalent), nor
subject matter or articles about systems which
are not Western and hermetic. Articles must
be serious and contain sound information, and
include reference notes where possible.
Many of the ideas I will present in
future issues can be found in their
rudimentary form in my official published
book material: Beginning with The Hermes
Paradigm, series. These books contain
information on all of the foundation
principles discussed in the articles which I
personally produce for this ezine, and I will
reference them frequently. (Some of them
before they are even released). Copies of those
books can be obtained from
www.salamanderandsons.com, and I will publish

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information as new editions in the series are
released.
Lastly, it is relatively well known that I
teach hermetic alchemy within an organisation
called The HEREDOM GROUP. On occasion I will
make reference to that GROUP, since I often
write with the intention of clarifying
concepts that are part of the tuition and
research within that GROUP, for its members
and past members. Also some of the
information that ends up in this publication
will come directly out of that GROUP. So I
welcome inquires via email if anything I
mention on that subject is of interest to you.

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Article:
A Definition of Hermetism

A huge amount of rot has been included
under the banner of the concept of Hermetism.
So it would also seem reasonable that in order
to understand what I am referring to when I
use the term hermetism to provide, first, an
explanation of my definition of the term, so
there is no misunderstanding as to what I
mean by it.
There is little argument that the origin
of the Hermetic Tradition is believed to be
found in ancient Egypt. For the small number
of opinions that insist that it originated
elsewhere, such as in the far East, such ideas
are not only not supported by the hermetic
tradition itself, but they have little nor no
supportive proof. The question as to whether
or not hermetism began in an older culture,
(such as Atlantis for example), might be
inviting, but we, with all seriousness, cant
say it did.

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Hermetism itself insists that its teachings
and practices originated with a mythic king of
Egypt called Tehuti, later Thoth. Near to the
dawn of Christianity the Greeks recognised
that the attributes and accomplishments that
the Egyptians attributed to the Netjer Thoth,
were also (roughly) the attributes they (the
Greeks) had given to their God Hermes. So,
close to the dawn of Christianity it was
common to refer to both Thoth and Hermes
interchangeably, as the same intelligence, or
divine being.
In this way, the philosophic system which
now bears the name of that Greek deity,
originated in Egypt, and developed there over
at least 4000 years, before the Greeks took a
hold on it.

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Today nobody really knows any detail
about how the original Tehutian system
operated in its entirety. Little is also known
about the fundamental theory and philosophy
it taught. Anyone claiming today to understand
such ideas can only, largely, be working on
the basis of opinions elaborated upon by scant
knowledge we can attain from ancient Egyptian
artefacts. One of the things we know from
studying these artefacts is that they do not
present a view of an all encompassing and
complete fundamental system, within the
bounds of Egyptian philosophy. What we do
have is a mass of pieces of information,
grouped together in to collections of ideas
based partly on guesswork, and partly on
academic opinion, and far less frequently on
hard facts. From all of this we can safely say
that behind the outward relics of the ancient
Egyptian religion, and its more esoteric side,
is a single system of philosophy, based on a
single body of knowledge, which almost
entirely has evaded historical evidence. Even
though we dont know too much about it, from
the outer evidence of Egyptian archaeology, it
is quite obvious this underlying system did
once exist. It is believed that this historic

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evasion was accomplished by a strict practice
of keeping the source-knowledge an oral
tradition that is, unwritten. When the
principle keys to the Egyptian esoteric
tradition were taught to a new student, they
we passed on to him personally by someone who
was already an adept in that knowledge.
It is highly likely that sometime soon
after the unification of upper and lower
Egypt (if not before), there were schisms
within the original philosophic system which
acted as the basis for its old religion. We
know this because over the centuries, in
Egypt, the outer manifestations of that inner
system became discordant, and went through a
number of serious changes. How long the
original teaching may have lasted as a
complete body of knowledge is anyones guess,
but it must almost have been completely
undermined by 1000BCE. It is likely that
after that time much of the oral tradition was
still maintained as a secret, but that it was
fractured in to sects, each group maintaining
pieces of that old tradition.
At the time of the dawn of Christianity, I
think it is safe to say, that enough of the
secrets of the old tradition had crept out of
the strict control of the serious esoteric

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underworld, that almost anyone wishing to be
involved in the studies and practices that had
grown out of the original tradition, could
find somewhere that would admit them as a
student. At the same time it would appear that
with a vast diversity of expressions of the
once unitary tradition now popping up all
over the middle and near East, corruption was
already creeping in. So that we discover that
in the first few centuries of the Christian
era hermetically inspired publications about
esoteric knowledge were appearing everywhere,
written by people who could not themselves
claim to have been initiates of the original
school, or of a school with accurate but
partial knowledge of the original system. At
this stage hidden or underground systems
closely allied to the original system must
have worked alongside exposed systems. This
is the era during which the old underground
system of ancient Egyptian esoteric knowledge
was termed Hermetism. We have no idea what,
before this point, this roughly gathered
together body of later teaching was termed
when it was a single working system in old
Egypt. All we do know is that it was a system
preserved and practiced originally by the
powerful Priesthood of Thoth, whos political

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and spiritual centre had been in Hermopolis,
on the Egyptian delta.
It was from this melting pot of esoteric
knowledge that the Western Tradition would
eventually have its birth, 1000 years after
the dawn of Christianity. A hotch potch of
schools and individuals specialising in some
aspect of knowledge which once was a part of a
vaster integrated system. Astrologers,
alchemists, magicians, diviners, ritualists,
clairvoyants, philosophers of all kinds, etc.,
now exchanged ideas and created new schools of
thought, which would evolve main-streams of
teaching within what was now known as the
canon hermetica.
Having explained this much of my theory
of the development of the hermetic tradition,
I now am in a position to more closely provide
a definition of the term.
There are two different levels of
hermetism. The first level is the old original
level which teaches a harmonious and complete
system of knowledge, geared toward one
specific goal. I call this the underground
stream, because for most of its existence it
has remained a hidden teaching behind the
second level of hermetism. The second level is
the popular tradition. It is composed of a rag-

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tag group of ideas and schools, loosely tied
together under the single banner of western
hermetism. What is considered acceptable
knowledge and practice to be gathered under
the banner of popular hermetism changes
regularly, as old systems fall out of fashion
or a superseded, and new ideas, or old ideas
from other systems, are brought in to the
pail. Meantime many people who are involved
in the popular tradition believe that it is
the only level of experience. They believe
they are in, or a very close to, the original
source. They also believe (because of this),
that what they read and experience in the
popular level of hermetism is an accurate
depiction of serious and functional hermetism.
This, of course, is rarely the case. What we
see in the popular tradition is a marionette; a
toy-like mock-up that based on something real,
while in fact being only a pantomime of the
original. It is the brides gown, without the
bride. We know this because no matter how
impressive the popular tradition looks, the
truth is that functional results are almost
completely lacking.
So, true hermetism is a very ancient
system of philosophy which became exposed, and
was corrupted on that exposed surface. When I

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refer to hermetism I refer to either of these
two views, the original unified system, or the
later corrupted and schismatic system. I
always make it clear which view I am talking
about, because I believe that if we want to get
anywhere serious with esoteric study we must
first learn how to separate what is rubbish
from that which is reliable fact, in hermetic
teaching. The easiest way to accomplish this is
to pay attention to someone who is describing
the differences between the two levels based
on his experience. Because at the end of the
day, since real hermetism is about attaining a
specific goal, it is much harder to get there
if most of what we are doing is ineffective.
Results are what it is all about; and in order
to get results, we must have accurate
knowledge and effective practice. In a word,
this is science.

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Article:
Spiritual Alchemy, A Rationale

It still happens on occasion that,
occultists who are not directly involved in
the proper study of the alchemical tradition,
lack an understanding of the rationale behind
the inclusion of lab alchemy as one of the
paths to spiritual emancipation. It is
perceived by many students of the occult that
since alchemy obviously deals with a kind of
physical chemistry, how can it be related to
anything that has to do with spiritual
development?
Because the reasoning behind this concept
isnt understood, it is common to then assume
that real alchemy must not in fact be lab
work, but rather something else which can be
more easily argued to have spiritual merit. It
is kind of amusing that hermetic occultists
who think along these lines dont stop to
consider the mistake may not be in the

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attribution, by esoteric lab alchemists, of the
lab tradition to the realm of spiritual
development, but that the problem lies in
their own inability to grasp something about
alchemy which is beyond their own
intelligence. Afterall, alchemy is supposed to
be hard to understand ... not a matter of
simple gross reason.
It is an important question to be
answered, and not only answered but also
understood. Because lab alchemists themselves
insist that alchemy is the very key to the
deepest secrets of the Western esoteric
tradition. If this is at all true then knowing
what alchemy really is, and the role it plays
in the wider hermetic field of thought, is
essential to grasping that key.
The rationale for claiming lab alchemy as
a spiritual discipline is actually very simple,
and it is a rationale that any serious
hermetic occultist should be able to figure
out for himself without any help.
As with so many hermetic concepts the
solution to this enigma can most easily be
found in the Emerald Tablet of Hermes. The
2
nd
and 3
rd
verses of the Emerald Tablet
exclaim:

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(2) That which is above is like unto
that which is below, and that which
is below is like unto that which is
above, in order to perform the
miracles of the One.
(3) As all things were from the One,
by mediation of the One, thus all
things are born from the One, by
adaptation.

The 3
rd
verse tells us that all things
come from One thing. This means that when we
perceive the world about us as a multitude of
diversity, that vision is peculiar to our
perception of this world. That is, it is not
the ultimate reality, it is a specific reality
that comes about due to the nature of the way
we experience this world. The true nature of
reality ... the bigger picture ... is that
everything is One thing.
The 2
nd
verse tells us something about the
nature of the relationship between the One
thing, and the diversity that we experience as
this world. The 2
nd
verse tells us that the
diversity we experience here is founded in a
binary mechanism. That is, that all things

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here have a twofold nature. Nothing here, in
our experience, is unitary. The 2
nd
verse
symbolises that binary concept in the phrase
above and below. It also explains that while
we experience everything here as a state of
binary existence, in fact the binary is a
unity. It explains this idea by saying that ...
as above, so below, as below, so above. In
other words, that while there are two poles to
all things, those poles contain something that
makes them similar, something that binds them.
Verse 2 not only alludes that the poles
of the binary are similar, but that they are
interdependent and cooperative, because they
exist ... for the benefit of the One thing.
The concept explained in verses 1 and 2 is
an idea at the very heart of hermetic
philosophy.
When we contemplate the world we live in,
as occultists we learn early, and take for
granted, that that world is part physical, and
part spiritual, or non-physical. The famous
Renaissance alchemist Paracelsus expressed
that idea in this way:

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The whole machinery of the universe
is divided into two parts, a visible
body and an invisible body. [...] The
body which is not tangible, but
impalpable and invisible, is the
sidereal heaven or firmament. The
firmament that we see is corporeal
[...]. This, however is not the
firmament itself, but its body.
(Paracelsus, On Hermetic Astronomy)

At the same time, while most occultists
would accept this concept without argument, we
mustnt forget that in fact the tangible and
invisible sides of reality are in fact only
One thing. That is, in the larger reality that
which we experience here as a two-sided
condition of life is in fact one integrated
reality, that only appears divided here, due to
a peculiarity of our perception.
If you can grasp this idea, and accept its
basic premise, then understanding the
rationale for lab alchemy as a spiritual
discipline is very easy. If this reality, here,
exists as a unitary reality at some causal

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level, then the two facets we experience here
are two sides of One thing. In other words
these two sides of existence are like unto
each other. At their core they exist because
of One mechanism and One set if natural laws
... a mechanism and set of laws which appear
different in the tangible and invisible sides
of the system, but which are in fact different
manifestations of the same thing.
If this is the case then to insist, as many
occultists do, that the invisible world is the
only realm in which we can find our way back
to our spiritual inheritance, and the physical
world is disconnected from that journey, and
opposed to it, is a gross error. Both facets of
the One thing are equal ... in fact are co-
equal. What this means is that both realms
must include something in their makeup that
allows them to be vehicles for our spiritual
development.
In that concept is found the rationale for
lab alchemy being a spiritual discipline. Lab
alchemists insist that there is a way of
manipulating physical matter, just as there is
a way to manipulate spiritual substance, in

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order to gain something that is an aid in
regaining our spiritual condition.
Their rationale, though, goes even
further than that basic idea. It also insists
that because the physical and invisible worlds
are like unto each other, that everything
that exists in the spiritual realm has its
expression in the physical world. In this way
the lab alchemist can actually physically
demonstrate spiritual realities in his
laboratory. He can do this in such a manner
that he can demonstrate and prove every real
spiritual fact.
This is why the old alchemical Adepts
insisted that alchemy was the summit of
hermetic knowledge. Because it is the
measuring stick by which the actual realities
of spiritual science, as opposed to superstition
and lies, can be defined and proved. For this
reason, and this reason alone, and not because
of the ability to produce gold, have the real
mysteries of alchemy remained the deepest
secrets in the realm of occult study.
Individuals who prefer to tout the views
that western alchemy is really sex magic, or

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is really something similar to Jungian
psychology (which are the two most common
alternative beliefs), and that anyone
attempting to find alchemical answers in a
laboratory, are simply looking for easy
answers. The reality is, when it comes to
alchemy there are no easy answers. No easy
answers for those who have not laboured under
an expert who knows the truth, and afterwards
struggled for years on their own seeking
success.
Afterall, if those old Masters were
involved in a practice that your average
occultist easily grasped, then they wouldnt be
alchemical Masters, now, would they? Alchemy
is a mystery, not simply something that is
known, but takes practice, like the tango or
mountain climbing.

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Article:
Pearce the Black Monke upon the Elixir
Verse on the subject of the acetate path (1400AD), from
Elias Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum (1652AD)

Take Erth of Erth, Erths Moder,
And Watur of Erth yt ys no oder,
And Fier of Erth that beryth the pryse,
But of that Erth louke thow be wyse,
The trew Elixer yf thow wylt make,
Erth owte of Erth looke that thow take,
Pewer futel faire and good,
And than take the Water of the Wood:
Cleere as Chrystall schynyng bryght:
And do hem togeder anon ryght,
Thre dayes than let hem lye,
And than depart hem pryvyly and flye,
Than shall be browght Watur schynyng,
And in that Watur ys a foule reynynge,
Invisble and hyd and unseen,

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A marvelous matter yt ys to weene.
Than depart them by dystillynge,
And you schalle see an Erth apperinge,
Hevie as metal schalle yt be;
In the wych is hyd grete prevety,
Destil that Erth in grene hewe,
Three days during well and trew;
And do hem in a body of glass,
In the wych never no warke was.
In a Furnas he must be sett,
And on hys hede a good lymbeck;
And draw fro hym a Watur clere
The wych Watur hath no peere,
And aftur macke your Fyer stronger,
And there on thy glasse continew longer,
So schal yow se come a Fyer;
Red as blode and of grete yre,
And aftur that an Erth leue there schale,
The wych is cleped the Moder of alle;
Then to Purgatory sche must be doe,
And have the paynes that longs thereto,
Tyl sche be bryghter than the Sune,
For than thow hast the Maystrey wone;
And that schalbe wythin howre three,
The wych forsooth ys grete ferly:

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Than do her in a clene Glass,
Wyth some of the Watur that hers was.
And in a Furnas do her againe,
Tyl sche have drunke her Watur certaine,
And aftur that Watur give her Blood,
That was her owne pewre and good,
And whan sche hath dranke alle her Fyer,
Sche wyll wex strong and of grete yre.
Than take you mete and mycke thereto,
And fede the Chylde as you schowlde do,
Tyl he be growne to hys full age,
Than schal he be of strong courage;
And tourne alle Bodies that leyfull be,
To hys own powre and dignitye,
And this ys the makyng of owre Stone,
The trewth here ys towlde yow evereech one.
For all that taketh any other wey,
Mouch they looseth and mouch they may,
For trewly there ys no other way of righte,
But Body of Body and Lyghte of Lyghte,
Man of Man begottyn ys,
And Beste of Beste to hys lykenes,
Alle the fooles in the worlde seeken;
A thynge that they may never meeten,
They wolde have Metalle owte of hem,

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That never was fownde by worldly men:
Ne never was fownde by Goddis myghte,
That they schould beare any such fyghte.
All Saltes and Sulphures far and nere,
I interdite hem alle in fere,
Alle Corosive waters, Blood and Hayre,
Pyss, Hornes, Worms and Saudiver,
Alume, Atriment, Alle I suspende,
Rasalger Rafalger and Arsnick I defende,
Calx vive, and Calx mort hys Brother,
I suspende them both, one and other,
For of alle things I wyll no moe,
But sowre Elements in Generall I say soe,
Sun and Moone, Erth and Water;
And here ys alle that men of clatter,
Our Gold and Sylver ben no common plate,
But a sperme owte of a Bodi I take,
In the wych ys alle Sol, Lune, Lyfe and Lyghte
Water and Erth, Fyre and Fryght:
And alle commyth of one Image,
But the Water of the Wood makyth the marryage;
Therefore there ys none other waye,
But to take thee to thy Beades and praye:
For Covetous Men yt fyndyth never,
Though they seek yt once and ever,

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Set not your Hearts in thys thyng,
But only to God and good lyvynge.
And he that wyll come thereby,
Must be meeke, and full of mercy:
Both in Spyrit and in Countenannace,
Full of Chereti and good Governaunce;
And evermore full of almes deede,
Symple and pewerly hys lyf to leade:
Wyth Prayers, Pennaunces, and Piety,
And ever to God a lover be,
And alle the ryches that he ys sped,
To do God wrschyppe wyth Almes deede.
In Arsenyck sublymed there ys a way streight,
Wyth Mercury calcyned nyne tymes hys weight
And grownde together with Water of myght
That bereth ingression lye and lyght,
And anon as they togyther byne,
Alle runnyth to Water bryght and shene,
Upon thys Fyre they grow togethyr,
Tyll they be fast and flee no whythyr;
But than feede hem fowrth wyth thy hond,
Wyth mylke and meate tyle they be stringe,
And thow schalt have there a good Stone,
Whereof and Ounc on fowrty wyll gone:
Upon Venus or on Mercury,

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Thys Medicyn wyll make thee merry.
And yow that have fowght mani a day,
Leave worke, take yowre Beades and pray,
For the longer that yow seeken,
The longer yt ys or yow meeten;
And he that now sayne would be sped,
Lysten to my Daughter Megg:
For schhe scall tell yow trewth and ryghte,
Hearken now wyth all your myght.
I am Mercury the myghty Flower,
I am most worthy of Honour;
I am sours of Sol, Luna, and Mars,
I am genderer of Iovis, many be my snares:
I am setler of Saturne, and sours of Venus,
I am Empresse, Pryncesses and Regall of Queenes,
I am Mother of Myrrour, and maker of lyght,
I am head and hyghest and fayrest in syght:
I am both Sun, and Moone,
I am sche that alle thynges must doone.
I have a Daughter hight Saturne that ys my darlyng,
The wych ys Mother of all werking,
For in my Daughter there byne hydd,
Fowre thyngs Commonly I kydd:
A Golden seede, and a spearme rych,
And a Silver seede none hym lich;

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And a Mercury seede full bryght,
And a Sulphur seede that ys ryght.
Of my Daughter wythowten dred,
Byn made Elyxirs whyte and redd,
Therefor of her draw a Water cler,
The Scyence yf thow lyst to leare.
Thys Water reduceth every thynge,
To tendernes and to fyxing:
It burgeneth growyth and gyveth fryght and lyght,
Ingression lyfe and lastyng in syght:
Alle ryghteous werkes sooth to say,
It helpeth and bryngyth in a good way:
Thys ys the Water that ys most worthy,
Aqua perfectissima & flos mundi:
For alle werks thys Water makyth whyte,
Reducyng and schyning as Sylver bryght:
And of the Oyle greate marvell there ys,
For all thyngs yt bryngyth to rednes:
As Cytrine gold he ys full high,
None ye so redd nor none ys so worthy:
And in the Erth grete marvele ys hyd,
That ys first so black, and than so red:
And alle ys done in howres three,
Thys may be cleped Gods Prevetie:
Than the Erth shall torne red as blood,

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Citrine Gold, naturall cleere and good,
And than the red Oyle to hem schall goe,
Red Ferment, and red Mercury alsoe,
And grow togeder weekes seaven,
Blessed be Almyghty God of Heven:
One Ounce of thys Medycine worthy
Cast upon two hundred ownces of Mercury:
Schall make Gold most royall,
And ever enduring to holde tryall;
Fyre and Hammer Tuch and Test,
And all essayes most and least.
And yt ys Medycen above common Gold,
To mans body as God yt would.
For Gold that cometh from Oare,
Is nourished with fowle Sulphur:
And Engendered upon Mercury he ys,
And nouryshed by Erth and Sulphur I wys,
And our Gold ys made of the pewer soules,
In the wych ys now Corrupcyon foule:
But purged pewre as clene as Chrystall,
Body and Spyryt and Sowle wyth all;
And so they grow into a stone,
In the wych Corrupcyon there ys none;
And than cast hym upon Mercury,
And he schalbe Gold most worthy,

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Now have you heard the makyng of our Stone,
The begynyng and endyng ys all one.

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Article:
The
Cover Art

I intend, in each issue of the hermt to
include an explanation of the artwork used on
the front cover.

This issues cover is a reproduction of
the 2
nd
plate of the medieval woodcut series
known as The Rosarium Philosophorum. I used
this image for the cover of this edition for
two reasons. The first is that I was in the
process of redrawing various plates from the
Rosarium for inclusion in my 4
th
Book The
Hermes Paradigm, Book 4, The Third (Great)
Work. The 2
nd
reason for deciding on this
particular picture is that during the writing
of my 4
th
Book, while researching various
classic alchemical texts for resource material
I had an epiphany about the nature of the
Rosarium.
One of the key operations in the acetate
path to the Philosophers Stone is a process

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sometimes called a dry distillation, and which
modern science calls destructive or
pyrolytic distillation. During this process a
metallic acetate is heated in a special closed
distillation train. That distillation breaks
down and rearranges the molecules in the
acetate to form some new substances, as well
as to release and volatise some substances
that already exist as part of the original
acetate. Two of the new products are acetone
and a mixture of organic oil-like substances.
During the heating of the acetate, when
the temperature rises enough for the acetone
to be produced, the acetone first appears as a
white fume or smoke. Depending on how the
operation is carried out, after that white
smoke a red smoke appears, as the oil-like
substances are being produced.
It might be argued that of all the
various paths to the Philosophers Stone, one
of the key defining techniques of the acetate
path is this Pyrolytic distillation, and its
production of the white and red fumes. In
other words, the acetate path is likely the
only path which uses this technique.
It is a curious thing, though, about this
factor, is that the way in which modern
alchemists perform this process, and the

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The Hermt ezine

equipment they use, the red oil-like substance
is rarely seen as a fume, but instead it comes
over the still head as drips like blood.
Because of this for a long time I never made
the connection between explanations of the
two fumes of mercury that can be seen in
many alchemical texts. There also exist a
number of graphic and symbolic
representations of this process in classic
alchemical artwork, which I had mused over
and also never understood.
The epiphany came to me, though, when
making a deeper study of Ripleys Bosome
Book for the production of my 4
th
book. In his
explanation of the destructive distillation
Ripley clearly calls the two substances under
consideration the red and white fumes. While
contemplating this passage in the Bosome Book,
I was at the same time spending a lot of time
looking at the various plates of the Rosarium,
and re-drawing some of them (as I mentioned
earlier). Then, one afternoon, while drawing
plate 2 I suddenly realised that the author of
the Rosarium Plates had included a detailed
symbolic representation of a dry distillation
in that plate ... often called the mercurial
fountain plate. That woodcut print, included on
the front cover of this issue, is a complete a

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The Hermt ezine

complex symbol of exactly what occurs during
the process of the dry distillation of a
metallic acetate.
This fact, along with one of the other
plates (which I shall consider in the next
issue), provides a strong argument for the
claim that the woodcuts from the original
Rosarium series of plates is an explanation,
in typical symbolic style, of the techniques of
the acetate path.
The 2
nd
plate clearly shows the two fumes,
red and white. It also shows the three liquids
which are produced by dry distillation of an
acetate. They are the three funnels of liquid
pouring down from the head of the fountain,
and are labelled from left to right: Lac
Virginis (virgins milk), Acetum Fontis (the
font of vinegar) and Aqua Vitae (the water of
life). The first is analogically connected with
the animal realm, the second with the
vegetable realm and the third with the
mineral realm. Around the rim of the basin of
the fountain is written: A unity of animal
mercury, vegetable mercury, mineral mercury.
At the very top of the plate are written,
again, animal, vegetable, mineral. The entire
picture is framed in its corners by 4 stars
representing the 4 alchemical Elements, with

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a 5
th
star at the juncture of the sun and
moon (which are the red and white fumes).
This 5
th
star is the Quintessence or 5
th

Element, which arises from the unification of
the Sun and Moon with the Earth.
Once the basic theory described above is
understood, it helps greatly in not only
identifying classic texts which are
explanations of the acetate path (or attempt to
be), but it also helps a great deal in
understanding just what is being explained in
such texts.
It is curious to note, for anyone who
intends taking a closer look at the ideas I
have presented here, that the plates in the
original edition of the Rosarium
Philosophorum, were produced separately from
the English text that accompanies them. The
plates themselves came with some text in old
German, and that original text is included in
the Rosarium. Also, while the plates obviously
describe the acetate path, the English text
does not. In fact the English text is likely a
fake later addition, or an extremely poor
attempt at explaining what the author thought
the plates might mean. But whoever added that
later English text had no real idea, at all,

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about that which the woodcut plates were
themselves explaining.

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publishing requests please contact:
rubaphilos@gmail.com.
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