Sal, lumen, & spiritus mundi philosophici, or, The dawning of the day discovered by the beams of light shewing the true salt and secret of the philosophers, the first and universal spirit of the world / written originally in French, afterwards turned into Latin by the illustrious doctor, Lodovicus Combachius ... and now transplanted into Albyons Garden by R.T. ...

CHAP. 5. How the Moon is the Mother of the Spirit of the World, and the Universal Matter.

LEst any might here be deceived, he must consider, That as one of us, a Microcosm, hath a Body, a Spirit, and a Soul; even so hath the Macrocosm: and seeing nothing exists that wants these three, there must needs be great affinity amongst them; so that no one of them can be found without the other: and though two of them may seem some∣times to be separated from the subject, yet they are onely hidden in the third that remains, as a subtile and profound Artist may easily experience, by the ex∣amination of Fire. What therefore is Matter, the same is Spirit; and what is Spirit, may (and that not impertinently) be called a Body. If we consider, That they are indivisible, and by Natures

Laws so generated, that they are one and the same thing: by which account it appears, that the matter is not onely Matter, or Soul, or Spirit; but refers and represents all, because one is always generated and nourished with the o∣ther: so that in the propagation and action of one, the two other are always present.

When therefore we say, That the Moon is the Mother of the Spirit and univer∣sal matter, we speak not irrationally, nor assert any absurdity: but here we must more intimously enquire, whence this Maternity proceeds. Heat and Moisture then are the two Keyes of Ge∣neration; and Heat performs the office of the Male, but Moisture of the Female. Corruption arises upon the action of Heat over Moisture, and Generation follows upon Corruption; as we may see in the small Body of an Egg, wherein, by the heat of Fomen∣tation and Incubation, the Sperm pu∣trefies, and afterwards the Chicken is coagulated and formed. The same is also apparent in the Generation of Man; who, by the help of the natural

Heat of the Woman acting upon the Masculine and Feminine Sperm u∣nited in her matrix, is deduced to a compleat Body, perfect in all its parts.

By Corruption here, we understand Mutation and passage of one form into another, which cannot be effected without the mediation of putrefaction, (which is the sole medium and way to Generation) which is also promoted by the help of some Mercury or Quick∣silver, which is the special Conductor of the vegetative faculty: and the Sperms of all Bodies are aqueous, and, as it were, full of Mercurial humour: and if their innate Heat be brought from potency to act by the external heat of the Sun, then may their Ge∣neration be procured by decoction.

Hence the ancient Philosophers as∣sert, That the Sun and Man generate: the Sun, the terrestrial Sun, which is Gold; and Man, Man. And it is ma∣nifest, That without the heat of the Sun, the heat of the Elementary Fire is dead and barren. Whence the Sun is also called the Master of Life and Ge∣neration.

Heat then in all Generati∣ons comes from the Sun; but radical moisture, by the influence of the Moon; which influence, all sublunaries receive and feel, when this Planet is in its en∣crease or wane. And thus you have an account how and why Hermes called the Sun Father, and the Moon Mother to this universal matter: for the heat of the Sun, and moisture of the Moon, ge∣nerate all things; because heat and moisture, in a due temperament, cause conception; and upon conception, Life and Generation. And though Fire and Water be contraries, yet one can do no good without the congress of the other: but by their diverse actions, all things conceive, and are conceived.

Ainsi dans l'univers discordante concorde Aux Generations devient apte & s' accorde.

If Generation in the world be had, Then what erst discord, is in concord made.

Yet I would not have my Reader suspect, That by too hasty judgement I would abstract Hermes his prime inten∣tion,

from the broad way of all Alchy∣mists into the by-paths wherein I tread; because I know, That all good Philoso∣phers, according to his minde and will, say, That the Sun and Moon should be in conjunction, that they may absolve perfect Generation: for as Arnoldus de villa nova in Flore florum, says, The Philo∣sophers Sperm is not joyned to their Bo∣dy, but by the mediation of their Moon: which Moon is not common Silver; but the true matter of their Stone, which congregates, and inseparably retains in its belly, Body, which is the Sun; and Sperm, which is Mercury. And he speaks of this Moon in his novum Lumen, where he says, That excepting his Master of whom he learned his work, he knew none that ever operated in the true matter; but all were extravagant and erroneous in the election of their mat∣ter, as if they would generate a man of a dog.