Eudoxus'un Altı Anahtarı: Birinci Anahtar

The first Key is that which opens the dark prisons in which the Sulphur is shut up. This is the tool that knows how to extract the Seed out of the Body, and which forms the Stone of the Philosophers by the conjunction of the Male with the Female; of the Spirit with the Body; and of Sulphur with Mercury. Hermes has clearly demonstrated the operation of this first Key with these words: In the caverns of the metals, the Stone is hidden. This Stone has a bright glittering; it contains a spirit of a sublime origin; it is the Sea of the Wise in which they fish for their mysterious fish. It is a King crowned with glory who has his birth in the fire, and who is pleased with the union of the spouse who is given to him. It is this union which makes manifest that which was previously hidden. But before I go any further, I have a Counsel to give you, which will be of no small Advantage to you; that is, to reflect, that the Operations of each of the three Works, having a great deal of Analogy and Relation to one another, the Philosophers do designedly speak in equivocal Terms, to the end that those who have not Lynx's Eyes, may pursue wrong, and be lost in this Labyrinth, from whence it is very hard to get out. In effect, when one imagines, that they speak of one Work, they often treat of another; take heed, therefore, not to be deceived herein: for it is a Truth, that in each Work the wise Artist ought to dissolve the Body with the Spirit, he must cut off the Raven's Head, whiten the Black, and rubify the White; yet it is properly in the first Operation, that the wise Artist cuts off the Head of the black Dragon, and of the Raven. Hermes says, that 'tis from thence that our Art takes its beginning: What is born of the Crow, is the beginning of this Art. Consider, that it is by the Separation of the black, foul, and stinking Fume of the blackest Black, that our astral, white, and resplendent Stone is formed, which containeth in its Veins the Blood of the Pelican; 'tis at this first Purification of the Stone, and at this shining Whiteness, that the first Key of the first Work is ended.