Chapter 2.

Sophic Fire
The time has come to provide a few hints for experiments and research work in the art of
alchemy. The student is here warned not to undervalue the information that is being revealed, nor
to imagine that the explanations now given are of little account. A wrong move may lead to
anxious months of waiting for something which will never happen to take place. The farmer might
just as well wait for crops that will never emerge from the ground. The prize is indeed fabulous, so
the experimenter should not expect to find recipes as from a cookery book. This is not said
facetiously, but purposely, because it has often been told that the whole art consists of first
cooking, and later roasting; and this fact appears quite true. To commence it is necessary to
become acquainted with the following factors, each of which will be elucidated as we proceed.
(a) The principles or metals necessary to take in hand.
(b) The proportions of the ingredients which form the compounds.
(c) The kind of heating apparatus suitable for continuous use.
(d) The necessary vessels, their sizes and shapes.
(e) The correct temperatures to follow in the working.
(f) The periods of time during which to expect changes to take place.
(g) The colours and signs to be expected at each stage.
First it is advisable for the novice to try to gain some modern knowledge of metallurgy. With the
aid of a simple textbook on the subject of metals, he can become acquainted with their
characteristics (with which one has to work) and how they react to one another. One should know
the colours they give off when wet and dry, their weight density and melting points, and how they
agree or disagree when amalgamated with one another.
(a) The metals necessary to take in hand
Three are essential; and these are the salt, sulphur and mercury-or the secret fire,
sulphur and mercury. Gold or silver is the sulphur, mercury is prepared from antimony
and iron, or a regulus of these two. The secret fire might be the name given to the
mercury when prepared, or might be a kind of water which acts as a catalyst. These two
names are always purposely mixed up, that is, one often being named for the other so
that mistakes may be made, but in truth they are two different things. The secret fire
which might be termed the fiery water dissolves the metals; this latter is a salt nitrate,
often termed vinegar, to be found everywhere, easily, and never valued; yet never
mentioned in any alchemical treatise by name. (A natural product found everywhere and
in everything.)
(b) Proportions of the ingredients to form the first compound From The Marrow of
Alchemy by Philalethes:
Take of the red man one (iron); of the white wife three (antimony); and mix (which is a
good proportion); then of the water four let there be . . . The mixture is our lead, which
unto motion will be moved by a most gentle heat, which . . . This makes the regulus and
will produce the mercury; and with the same proportion, add one part gold, which is the
sulphur. Do not add the sulphur until the regulus is made.
(c) The type of heating apparatus for continuous use
A modern electrical hot-plate, with thermometer, and thermostat (one which must be
reliable, for the fire must never go out from start to completion, through many months of
watching). A hot-plate which will continue to function correctly when left for many days;
and one on which the temperature may be raised as the processes are passed through.
Heat used to start from 100F. to 300F. plus. The temperature is a great secret, as too
cold may never achieve the desired objective, and too hot will spoil the work. Too hot
drives all the liquid upward and the solid matter dries out for want of it.
(d) The vessels needed

Strong heat-resisting glass flasks with long necks, up to six inches. Glass retorts, scales,
funnels, stone pestle and mortar and similar equipment used in modern chemistry. Sizes
of flasks should be from 50 ml. to 250 ml. The closures to flasks must be airtight and
perfect, else all will fail. Use modern rubber bungs or the glass may explode with the
rarefying liquid, as the rubber bung is forced out instead of the flask exploding.
(e) The correct temperatures
Nature is simple in all her ways, and this art being a purely natural process, it is
necessary that one holds in mind that everything that is carried out should be simple. In
this art, nature brings about all the changes herself, after the conditions have been set,
exactly as the farmer grows his produce. Digesting or cooking is all that nature needs,
and not the heat of a furnace, at least not until the stone is made. A furnace is required
later, but that should not be used except for the transmutation in which metals are melted
in a crucible, with the Philosophers Stone, and changed into gold or silver. Otherwise it is
only dissolving and coagulating, opening and shutting as the alchemists term it, and this
is best carried out on a hot-plate. Fermentation, projection and transmutation occur after
the red or white powder is produced, but as these will be dealt with later on in this book,
for the time being we may leave them in abeyance.
(f) The periods before changes can be expected
These are doubtful, depending upon the correct heat, the proportions used, and other
factors, but most adepts say forty-two days to the black stage, ninety days to the white
stage, and five months to the red stage which signifies completion. Once the powder is
made these times may be reduced to a few days to make any amount more with the
finished product.
(g) The colours and signs to be expected
Sir George Ripley, Canon of Bridlington, who flourished in the days of Edward IV, wrote
some books on the art, of which the chief one, a lengthy poem, was entitled The Twelve
Gates of Alchemy. This poem was divided into twelve parts, and each part was presented
as a gate. The titles of the gates taken altogether, give the whole secret and details of the
working, from the beginning to completion. Note however that nowhere is there given the
names of any actual metals to be used in the art of alchemy! Later these Twelve Gates
will be fully presented in Chapter 8 of this book, but for the present their titles are useful,
in that they outline the sequence of alchemical operations.
1. Calcination
Reducing the principles to atoms, but not by burning.
2. Dissolution
Dissolving the metals, time and nature doing the work.
3. Separation
Separating the light parts from the heavy parts.
4. Conjunction
Joining the principles. Amalgamating the elements.
5. Putrefaction
The first change to be seen. Blackness appearing.
6. Congealation
The liquidised matter congeals, or solidifies.
7. Cibation
When the matter in the vessels appear dry, it is wetted again.
8. Sublimation
Extraction by volatilisation or distillation.
9. Fermentation
Adding the required precious metal as a yeast to empower the powder or stone
to transmute.

10. Exaltation
Raising the power or virtue enabling it to transmute.
11. Multiplation
Raising the quantity and quality of the powder or stone.
12. Projection The work of transmutation into gold and silver.
Another difficulty has been the claim of some treatises that one only thing is the matter of the
stone, while others claim any number up to seven. The reader is advised to ignore these
quibbles. Indeed when the stone is made, it all comes to one thing, and only three metals are
used. The rest only come into use at transmutation into gold or silver, after the red or white
powder is made.
Yet note well, whole treatises have been written about this first hidden matter, which is nothing
else but the preparation known as the Secret Fire which is not a metal at all, but the very
necessary catalyst for melting all the metals. The Secret Fire is also the prepared mercury.
To sum up, to make the Philosophers Stone, three items are used, but never vulgar mercury or
quicksilver. Then there is a water or secret fire which is the catalyst and which some adepts
have called mercury.