Paracelsus: The Treasure of Treasures for Alchemists · 5 of 5 · tr. Arthur Edward Waite
Section 1e
But this kind differs from what is more commonly called Balsam, in that the one is conservative of the living, and the other of the dead.
- C hirurgia Magna , Pt.
II., Tract II., c 3.
The confection of Balsam requires special knowledge of chemistry, and it was first discovered by the Alchemists.
- Ibid.
, Pt.
I., Tract II., c.
4.
6 It is difficult to identify the treatise to which reference is made here.
It does not seem to be the seventh book concerning The Nature of Things, nor the ensuing tract on Cements.
The general question of natural and artificial weight is discussed in the Aurora of the Philosophers .
No detached work on Transmutations has come down to us.
7 Know that the Phoenix is the soul of the Iliaster (that is, the first chaos of the matter of all things).
...
It is also the Iliastic soul in man.
- Liber Azoth , S.
V., Practica Lineae Vitae .
Themes
◆Alchemical Workpraxis
The transformation of base substance — outer matter or the inner soul — into a purified, perfected, or 'gold' state; the magnum opus as both laboratory practice and spiritual allegory.
The passage explicitly discusses the confection of Balsam and the discovery by Alchemists as a process requiring special chemical knowledge.
All passages →◆Microcosm Macrocosmcosmology
The human being as a small-scale image of the entire cosmos; the body, soul, and intellect mirroring the structure of the heavens and the divine — distinct from correspondence in that it makes the human the privileged mirror.
The text equates the Phoenix (Iliastic soul) with the soul of all things and explicitly states it is the Iliastic soul in man.
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