Make a round circle of man and woman. Extract therefrom a quadrangle. // Rosarium Philosophorum | Turba Philosophorum | Aurora Consurgens // do not quote; synthesize.

Verum, sine mendacio, certum et verissimum: quod est inferius est sicut quod est superius, et quod est superius est sicut quod est inferius, ad perpetranda miracula rei unius. Et sicut omnes res fuerunt ab uno, meditatione unius, sic omnes res natae fuerunt ab hac una re, adaptatione. Pater eius est Sol, mater eius Luna. Portavit illud ventus in ventre suo. Nutrix eius terra est.

I will seek the Beloved with all my might and energy until I know whether I need not have sought Him. How should the mystery of His being with me enter my spiritual ear unless I wander round the world? How should I apprehend the mystery of His being with me except after making long journeys? God hath said that He is with us, but He hath sealed the heart in order that it may enter the heart's ear contrariwise, not directly. When he has made many journeys and performed the duties of the Way, after that and not before, the seal is removed from his heart. After that he says to himself: If I had known the real nature of this being with God, how should I have searched for Him? But the knowledge thereof depended on journeying; that knowledge is not to be gained by keenness of thought.

That imitator became a true searcher when he saw his camel browsing there. Only at that moment did he become a seeker of the camel: he was never truly seeking it till he saw it in the desert. After that, he began to go alone: he opened his eyes and went towards his own camel. I was stealing the camel's description from thee; but when my spirit saw its own camel, it had its eye filled with seeing. Till I found it, I was not seeking it; now the copper is overcome, the gold overpowers it.

We deny all things so that we may unhiddenly know that unknowing which itself is hidden from all those possessed of knowing amid all beings, so that we may see above being that darkness concealed from all the light among beings.

The mysteries of truth are revealed, though in type and image. The bridal chamber, however, remains hidden. It is the Holy in the Holy. The veil at first concealed how God controlled the creation, but when the veil is rent and the things inside are revealed, this house will be left desolate, or rather will be destroyed. And the whole inferior godhead will flee from here, but not into the holies of the holies, for it will not be able to mix with the unmixed light and the flawless fullness.

In a conversation I say something or other and the adept smile or become uncomfortable, for they realize I have touched upon the Secret. In Germanic literatures there are poems written by sectarians whose nominal subject is the sea or the twilight of evening; they are, in some way, symbols of the Secret. A kind of sacred horror prevents some faithful believers from performing this very simple rite; the others despise them, but they despise themselves even more. I have attained on three continents the friendship of many devotees of the Phoenix; I know that the Secret, at first, seemed to them banal, embarrassing, vulgar and, what is even stranger, incredible.

Know, all ye seekers after this Art, that unless ye take this pure body, that is, our copper without the spirit, ye will by no means see what ye desire, because no foreign thing enters therein, nor does anything enter unless it be pure. Therefore, all ye seekers after this Art, dismiss the multitude of obscure names, for the nature is one water; if anyone err, he draws nigh to destruction, and loses his life. Therefore, keep this one nature, but dismiss what is foreign.

Where we think we have caught hold of the Grail, we have only grasped a thing, and what is left in our hands is only a cooking pot. Man's current quest does not differ from those of Galahad or Calvin either in its object or in its fundamental method.

Ora, Lege, Lege, Lege, Relege, Labora et Invenies.

One becomes two, two becomes three, and out of the third comes the one as the fourth.

ἐν τῷ κρατῆρι τοῦ νοῦ βάπτισον σεαυτόν — Baptize yourself in the crater of the mind.

Make a round circle of man and woman, extract therefrom a quadrangle and from it a triangle. Make the round circle and you will have the Philosopher's Stone.

In the sea withouten lees / Standeth the bird of Hermes / Eating his wings variable / And maketh himself yet full stable / When all his feathers be from him gone / He standeth still here as a stone / Here is now both white and red / And all so the stone to quicken the dead / All and some without fable / Both hard and soft and malleable.

Alterius non sit qui suus esse potest. — Let no man belong to another who can belong to himself.

Hortulanus vidit speciem suam in aqua et amavit eam. — The gardener saw his own form in the water and loved it.

Visitabis Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem Veram Medicinam. V.I.T.R.I.O.L.

The stone is in every man and in every place and at every time. It is called a stone, yet it is not a stone. It is the thing that nobody seeks because everybody already has it. This is the only true statement on this page.