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An Alchemical Mass
Introitus. Our Lord, fount of goodness, inspirer of the sacred
art, from whom all good things come to your faithful, have mercy.
Christe. Christ, Holy one, blessed stone of the art of the
science who for the salvation of the world hast inspired the
light of the science, for the extirpation of the unbelievers,
have mercy.
Kyrie. Our Lord, divine fire, help our hearts, that we may
be able, to your praise, to expand the sacraments of the art,
have mercy.
Graduale. He descends like rain upon the fleece, and as showers
falling gently upon the earth. Allelujah. O blessed creator of
the earth, whiter than snow, sweeter than sweetness, fragrant
at the bottom of the vessel like balsam. O salutary medicine
for men, that cureth every weakness of the body: O sublime fount
whence gushes forth truly the true water of life into the garden
of thy faithful.
Ave Maria. Hail beautiful lamp of heaven, shining light of
the world! Here art thou united with the moon, here is made the
band of Mars and the conjunction of Mercury. From these three
is born through through the magistery of the art, in the river
bed, the strong giant whom a thousand times a thousand seek,
when these three shall have dissolved, not into rain water...
but into mercurial water, into this our blessed gum which dissolves
of itself and is named the Sperm of the Philosophers. Now he
makes haste to bind and betroth himself to the virgin bride,
and to get her with child in the bath over a moderate fire. But
the Virgin will not become pregnant at once unless she be kissed
in repeated embraces. Then she conceives in her body, and thus
is begotten the child of good omen, in accordance with the order
of nature. Then will appear in the bottom of the vessel the mighty
Ethiopian, burned, calcined, discoloured, altogether dead and
lifeless. He asks to be buried, to be sprinkled with his own
moisture and slowly calcined till he shall arise in glowing form
from the fierce fire... Behold a wondrous restoration and renewal
of the Ethiopian! Because of the bath of rebirth he takes a new
name, which the philosophers call the natural sulphur and their
son, this being the stone of the philosophers. And behold it
is one thing, one root, one essence with nothing extraneous added
and from which much that was superfluous is taken away by the
magistery of the art... It is the treasure of treasures, the
supreme philosophical potion, the divine secret of the ancients.
Blessed is he that finds such thing. One that has seen this thing
writes and speaks openly, and I know that his testimony is true.
Praise be to God for evermore.
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