Henri Coton-dit ‘Alvart’,

collection particulière,

Editions Le Mercure Dauphinois.

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Today’s sharing from the Blue House of Via-HYGEIA is another excerpt from Henri Coton-Alvart’s posthumous collection of writings, ‘Principles of Alchemy‘, here excerpted from ‘Fragments d’Hermétisme’ (Hermetic Gleans), published by his friend and disciple Henri La Croix-Haute in his ‘Propos sur les ”Deux Lumières” de Henri Coton-Alvart‘ (from ‘Considerations upon Henri Coton-Alvart’s “The Two Lights”), published by Le Mercure Dauphinois in 2001. From page 73 to 77  for the introduction & from page 79 to 89 for the main text. English translation by Via-HYGEIA from the original French.

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Introduction

by Henri La Croix-Haute

When we approach a foreign land, It is recommended to learn about the aspects and customs of the new country beforehand. The same goes for discovering Alchemy; and if some twenty books can orientate and clear the horizon when we have the true patience to make a synoptic out of it, the advice of a Master is indispensable to facilitate understanding.

Compared to chemistry, it does not have the same aim: while chemistry is an analytical process to experiment the composition of bodies, alchemy is linked to the philosophical and religious tradition of the  Knowledge of the body, the soul and the mind; it is a tradition well documented in all the countries of the world, and is expressed by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BCE. to 17 CE) in the formula: ‘The world is a perpetual metamorphosis.’ This perpetual mutation obeys to an invariable law. In order to approach it, Hermeticism seeks to know the first substance (Corpus Mundi), the agent of all life (Anima Mundi) and the directing and regulating Spirit of all things (Spiritus Mundi). ‘The alchemist is an observer who witnesses the eternal functioning of a machine of which its effects are affecting him, but under some specific conditions it is granted to him to participate.’ The supreme ferment, the agent of the metamorphosis of life, had been called, ‘The philosopher’s Stone.’

‘The eternal movement of the world reveals a universal rhythm, invariable, through a succession of four states: 4 seasons (Time), 4 directions (Space or the Cross), 4 elements (Nature), 4 ages (The human being); the fulfillment of these 4 states forms an entire cycle that has been named, The squaring of the circle.’ The squaring of the circle, which is measured with a square and a compass, reveals the quintessence, an equivalent of the philosopher’s stone, that is birthing in the athanor.

For any being, let it be an animal, a plant, a mineral, quintessence is the ferment of generation, of fertilization, of nutrition, of healing, hence: of life. The internal ferment of a metal, even though quite drowsy, is of a same nature. The alchemical work consists, through the intervention of fire, in bringing back to life this ferment that is stuck in the metal. But, all pregnancy is accomplished in a concealed manner and under specific conditions of temperatures-all fires, let it be external or internal-only burn with what is combustible; therefore, we ought to prepare an agent (the philosophical mercury) able to penetrate the metal, to facilitate the separation between the pure and the impure and to ensure the conjunction of sulfur and the mercury, the male and female elements of the metal. The alchemical operation allows the quintessence of the metal to ‘resurface’ and to provide again its creativity to the masculine seed, which once introduced in the feminine body, is revivified.

It is obvious that the notions of mercury, sulfur, and more recently of salt, were invented in order to preserve the secret of the alchemical ‘magisterium‘ (the alchemical process in its sacrality), so to prevent accidents with outsiders. The ancient Greek and Arab alchemists used enigmatic words to protect themselves. Following Geber, Arnaldo de Villanueva, Roger Bacon, we find Mercury and Sulfur, and then with Paracelsus, Mercury, Sulfur and Salt; they qualified the two and then the three foundational principles of all bodies. Henri Coton-Alvart calls them ‘chemical personalities‘, because they biologically characterize the seed of every substance, while the four elements are principles valid for all bodies. It was Basile Valentine, who in the XVth century gave the most complete definition in his ‘Twelve Keys of the Hermetic Philosophy’; the quote is from the Third Key: ‘But know that the Stone is composed out of one, two, three, four, and five. Out of five—that is, the quintessence of its own substance. Out of four, by which we must understand the four elements. Out of three, and these are the three principles of all things. Out of two, for the mercurial substance is twofold. Out of one, and this is the first essence of everything which emanated from the primal fiat of creation.’

Later, Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (1743-1794), through his genius…and his measuring scales, recorded the weight variations during the mutation of the metal. His discovery brought to alchemy a scientifical explanation that eases the experience for the experimenters, but it does deprive them of the spiritual ascesis necessary to achieve the Great Work.

This study presents the examples of copper, iron, gold, silver and lead to illustrate the demonstration in which the addition of oxygen in the oxidation process of a metal results in an energy loss for the metal-a loss we call nowadays, the electron. The intervention of an oxidating body (oxygen, sulfur or any other metalloid) which substitute itself to a metal electron, does transform the metal: a part of its energetical substance has vanished. The casting power belong to sulfur. Under the effect of other metalloids, the resulting form will be heat, a dynamic force, or a chemical affinity.

The metal therefore is constituted of a mercury (water + air), of a sulfur (earth + fire), of a salt (earth + water) and also of an imponderable substance the Ancients called ‘the fire from Heaven’.

There are three kinds of mercury: the common mercury, the constituting mercury principle of the metal, and the philosopher’s mercury that the alchemist prepares. Mercury in the metal is at rest and invisible, but under certain specific conditions he can regain its original strength, its vivacity. Similarly, experimentation discloses two types of sulfur: one is fusible and volatile, and the other one non-fusible and heavy; both are coagulating agents for mercury; the first one, due to its fusible and volatile nature can be separated, while for the second one, due to its dry and earthy nature remains frozen in the metal. Hence, the importance of the choice of a metal for treatment, and of the reactive agent able to operate such separation. The agent which provokes the reaction in the metal is the philosopher’s mercury-a constitutive mercury of the metal, but animated by a fiery power, a subtle fire, able to penetrate the metal and to re-generate it by carrying-on what nature did imperfectly in the mine.

Having read and translated a plethoric amount of ancient writings, Henri Coton-Alvart had established an astonishing synoptic-alike Jean-François Champollion who sought to discover the meaning of the hieroglyphic writing of the Egyptians-and has noticed the synonymy of the symbols used by the alchemist, from Geber to Eirenaeus Philalethes; this grid helped him to decipher the texts and to precise the sequences of the alchemical process. When the philosophers talk about mercury, they imply always the mercurial water, because they consider this mercury-principle like an embryo of a perfect metal which animates the common mercury and enables it to be more active and more penetrating: it is the white eagle of the Alchemists. Philalethes did say that: ‘Common mercury is the tool to extract the mercurial water of the metal. And Artephius said that fourteen week are needed for an amalgam to be digested under fire. The Sun’s or the Moon’s bath in this mercurial water purifies and re-vivifies the principle.’

The separation of the pure and the impure and a continual conjunction maintained by fire bring back its original and creative virtues to gold or to silver.

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A Small Addendum

from Henri Coton-Alvart’s ‘The Two Lights’

Eternal life is in the succession of cycles for created beings, as for nations: ‘everything originates from the same seed‘ (Basile Valentine), ‘Everything evolves and transforms‘ (Heraclitus of Ephesus). Only, passing through from one another, spiritual energy remains and animates the world. It is the principle of Unity under the apparent duality of the Sun & Moon (also Yin & Yang, Man & Woman, Sulfur & Mercury).

It is the awareness of the Quint-essence and of the Transmutation of Life that Alchemy teaches us. Quint-essence harbors the life of all things; it is the transporting and fixating vehicle of the original Light in the bodies; it is the food originating from another body, thus maintaining life; it is the real & substantial form of Christ’s blood; it is the Mediator, the Graal, the philosophers’ Stone.

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Henri Coton-Alvart

Principles of

Alchemy

You ask me to sum up in a few sketches the main principles of Alchemy. We can try. But, much to say will be left; so do not expect a complete exposition. I can only state, but not justify.

Alchemy has never been delt in a didactical manner. No one did really try, to either make it understood, or have it accepted, besides those who had little knowledge of it. On the contrary, the hermetists strived hard to keep it for the sole use of a minority; they transmitted anything, but through a symbolic or allusive form for the understanding of someone already in the know. This is the first difficulty for the person eager to study it.

To make matters even worse, a plethoric number of half-backed scientist or blissful ignoramuses have written upon this question much more than authors in the know. The result is an hermetic literature too abundant, representing a mix of 20 measures of lies & mistakes for one measure of good doctrine; that one measure, of course, is not decipherable at once to the untrained eye.

The perusal of this magma is bewildering and disappointing. The ‘Moderns’, who were always eager to give their two cents in this discussion about the principles of Alchemy, did but utter rubbish; insufficiently familiarized with its terminology, cackling nonsense without the risk of a rebuke. They have demonstrated that they weren’t even have aware that there was problem. I do not exempt from this motley group Marcelin Berthelot, surely a great chemist, but a man completely foreign to the very Alchemy he was eager to discuss.

Alchemy does not carry the same objective that our contemporary chemistry, which happens to not being derived from it, even though many have peddled this fantasy. There always was a chemistry linked to its modern avatar, even at the time of our Ancients; it existed outside of the hermetic spirit. It proposed to know and experiment the composition of bodies, according to a static notion. It was the hobby of those who were not able to access the great philosophical problems, only eying the restrictive applications of science. The true aim of hermetism was not about secondary applications; it aimed at the problem of the world, and was in harmony with all the other philosophies and religions. The hermetists pretended to find their doctrines at the foundation of every traditions. They said to have been entrusted of them by Mercury Himself (Thoth Hermes), who gifted humanity with this science.

In fact, the doctrine and its symbols can be often found in Chinese stories, in the Hindu Mahabharata, in the Greek mythology, even as far as the followers of the Fire religion in Persia, or in Judeo-Christian writings and the Scandinavian myths. Arabian pre-Islamic traditions do have the symbols of Alchemy. We can legitimately ask ourselves: from where does this primitive impulse come from?

Let’s briefly frame the philosophical position of hermetism. For any thinker, the world is a great mystery: Mystery of Being, because the world IS; mystery of movement, because the world only presents movement in all imaginable possibilities; not only movement through space, but internal movement in all things, making them ceaselessly evolving. Nothing perdures, neither in its given form, nor in its qualities. Ovid, the Roman poet says: ‘The world is a perpetual metamorphosis.’

Yet, this metamorphosis isn’t casual. It is not a chaotic agitation. Everything transforms according to a rule. let it be the fall of a body, the trajectory of a stone bent to an invariable law. The mechanism of the stars, the succession of the seasons, the surge of life: all are regulated in a clear design of a rhythm and of an aim. ‘The world is intelligible.’

Therefore, the world reveals itself substantial through its Being, living by its movement, intelligent by its organization. ‘It is at the same time: Body-Soul and Mind.’ Hermetism proposes to investigate & discover:

a. The first matter of all things: the Corpus Mundi, the initial state of the cycle of modifications imposed by the very nature of the metamorphoses.

b. The eternally active agent that brings life or death, that ceaselessly transforms everything: Anima Mundi.

c. The intelligence that directs and regularizes the effects of this agent upon the material patient, and tends to build withing the primitive chaos the ideal construction: Spiritus Mundi.

These considerations are linked to those of the philosophies, mundane or religious, but they are the specificities of the hermetic Idea, according to which this triple aspect of the world is in a certain measure accessible to the sons of Hermes, because He had received the principle of knowledge and can experiment ‘on a small scale‘ the process of the Great World. This experimentation is called ‘Opus Magnum‘; this Great Work, is not artificial at all; it is as natural alike the labors of a farmer, who only provides nature with favorable conditions and cast away obstacles. At the opposite of this existential attitude, the organized religion teach that no part of the divine work is to be approached by Man.

The Alchemist, therefore, is an observer that witnesses the eternal functioning of a machine he is submitted to, but a process he is allowed to participate. The inexhaustible movement of the world’s machine was named, the perpetual movement, because it perpetuates itself. The thick minds thought it meant by that the invention of an engine that never stops and costs nothing! This engine does exist, but it is the great world, and its absolute nature forbids to make another one.

The animating principle in all things, which makes the seed germinate, make a person grow, transmute food, engender new seeds, which pushes all things towards its own proper end, and not towards any possible becoming, is the agent of the metamorphoses of life & death; it was called the philosopher’s Stone. And, of course, the thick minds thought that a special product exists, invented to change a cheap metal into an expensive one! Yet, this product does exist, because the ‘expensive’ metal exists; but we can only take it in passing; its absolute nature forbids to manufacture it.

The eternal movement of the world, guided by thought, the regulating agent, reveals an invariable universal rhythm; a succession of four states, which, combined as a whole, forms a cycle. Four seasons in the times; four cardinal directions. four ages, four qualities engendered one by the other. Key of such transformation,  this cycle of the four elements is appliable to every object. The destiny of the four states forming an entire cycle, it was called ‘the squaring of the cercle‘. And the thick minds, again, though by that the invention of a calculation enabling the reduction of the measure of the curb to the measure of the strait line! This ratio does exist, because the universe is made only of curbs, and there is only but one strait line; this is the curb which curbing-ray is infinite. We cannot, obviously, build another.

These three scientific chimeras were called as such for a good reason: the search for the perpetual movement, the philosophers’ Stone & the squaring of the circle. Impossible at the level of the particular, they are one at the general level: inseparable, as they make life in the world. Everything that IS, lives. Everything living, participating to the perpetual movement, harbors the agent of life, the Philosopher’s Stone, the universal ferment and goes through four states, lie upon four pillars, upon four forms of the substance, upon four element: which means the squaring of the circle is being steered.

From this short opening, it results that the alchemist does not see the world like the chemist does, but more like a biologist. There is  no static structure for him, but ordered sequences of states; we only see momentaneous aspects. In all things, he seeks for its ferment, its internal agent that pushes it to journey throughout its life, to grow and wither, agent of life & death, distinct from transitory forms; those derive from the quadri-elementary constitution; but above the four elements the quint-essence is to be found, ferment, permanent agent; it exists in the metals, in the minerals, the plants and in animals as well; also in water, in the atmosphere, in the cosmic light and space. Spread everywhere, it acts diversly according to places and follows the Archea, the thought that steers it.

(A Via-Hygeia Note: Archea: 1. Biology: Unicellular micro-organism without a distinct nucleus, belonging to the domain Archaea, one of the three major domains of life with Bacteria and Eukaryotes. Cell size approximately 5 μm. 2. Alchemy: Term designating the principle of life according to ancient physiologists and various authors such as Paracelsus, who identifies it with the vital spirit governing the nutrition and preservation of beings, Van Helmont, as the active principle in bodies, and Stahl who associates this concept with the soul in his theory of animism)

The principles of Alchemy can now be delineated as such:

There is a universal matter that journeys through four stages, the four elements, under the action of the internal ferment; which, to start with it, is numb and not very active; it wakes up and frees itself and is in possession of all of its strength at the end of the cycle. It then multiplies by fragmentation, and the cycle starts all over again.

Everything in the world goes through the same cycle at a reduced scale. Alike the universal first matter, there are specific first matters. The universal ferment particularized itself in specific ferments. The analogy allows us to glimpse upon the universal process with the help of natural observation, and then to infer how to act so to extract the ferments and then how to apply them.

Because the operation of the internal quint-essence may be strengthened if we increase, through an addition,  a sort of transfusion, of the same quint-essence but steered up to its fulness of activity. It is the principle of food, if the ferment of the alimentary substance is less active than the ferment in charge of digesting it. It is also, the principle of the medicine, if its ferment is more active than the ferment of a weakened body. Finally, it is the principle of the poison, if the exogen ferment overcome the ferment of the subject, instead of matching it.

A food deprived of quint-essence does not maintain life. The food must not only be malleable. The modern idea of vitamins is but an insufficient attempt to systemize through defined chemical entities the action of the quint-essence of the food.

It is also the principle of fertilization. In principle, the egg contains everything it needs to evolve. Though, it does need the impulse given by the male seed, who is but the receptacle of the ferment, at a higher activity than that of the egg’s. The parthenogenic egg, simply received its quota of ferment during its composition, while the fertilized egg receives it later.

The metals do not live differently than the other beings. They come from the generation of a fertilized egg. They feed, emit a seed, multiply.

A metallic ferment does not essentially differ from the ferment contained in other living being. It can equally testify of its activity. On the same line of idea, the metallic matter is not different from the matter of the other realms: it is their foundation.

The generation of metal is happening though the meeting of two principles, one female, the other male, called by the alchemists: Mercury & Sulfur. These names bear another meaning than the casual ones. Mercury, is a malleable metallic substance and sulfur is a ferment that brings coagulation and color to mercury. The artificial coupling of these two principles, assumed obtained & purified, form the ‘philosophical egg‘, containing both male & female. The maintaining of the double-matter in the appropriate conditions of temperature and air isolation that allow the internal ferment to get busy; a true gestation follows, mercury dissolves and unites itself with sulfur intimately; in turn, sulfur digests  it, organizes it, fixes it in the metal and separates the heterogenic parts. The description of the process of this coction resembles a lot to what biologist have observed in our present time with embryogenesis.

Sulfur and mercury are identical in nature, different in degrees. Sulfur is but fixed mercury; its potential qualities have become actual; as for mercury is sulfur, but in an immature and crude state. The complete alchemical operation is but a coction. It is the very long time to be spent in that coction, that allows the iron-sulfur to develop and transmute in its form the passive mercury: this is the stage of the multiplication of the ferment.

This ferment is called, in a figurative manner, fire, internal fire, secret fire, hidden fire. Ordinary fire multiplies by liberating the heat contained in the combustible. In a similar manner for the sulfur-ferment in the hermetic operation. Fertilization by pollen, by spermatozoid, the seeding of a yeast, are the applications of the action of fire, which multiplies in the appropriate substance. It is always about bringing the potential-feminine to the state of actual-male, by the conjunction of the agent in small quantities, and the patient in great quantities. But, the feminine element, called mercury, must possess in its potential state what is expected from it; fire cannot burn what is not combustible; yeast cannot ferment what is not fermentable, etc.

Therefore, comes the advice ‘to chose the mercurial matter carefully and wisely‘. Ordinary metal, even though formed with mercury, is not alive enough to evolve to the expected speed; we ought to use, the mercury called: Philosophical mercury. The origin, the preparation of this substance is not described, or if it is, always in very obscure & contradictory manner by the alchemists.

The provoked evolution of the metal is assimilated to a graft. In the plant realm, we conjoin the selected scion upon a highly evolved tree-an old weakened stump but perfected with a sprout, primitive and without qualities, but a young and vigorous stump. The hermetists talk about the wedding of the old king and the young virgin, from which the lineage of the victor and the strongest will come out. The seed of sulfur comes from the old king; mercury’s from the virgin; we find this story in most of the traditions and religions. The life span, in all things, perfects being, but ages it, weakens its strength. Perfected metals are dead; on the contrary, the metals which are ‘alive‘ are those which are in a primitive state. The Art consists to operate the conjunction between the perfect & the imperfect, of the dead with what is alive; to ferment one with the other, and finally separate the perfect double produced from the excrements, placentas, barks & matrixes that are found in every generations.

I do not want to start talking here about terminology, as it would need a thorough study by itself. I will be just be content to remain within the scope of the four elements, which, as a whole, constitute a guide of prime importance. These are the four elements among the forms of matter & the four temperaments among the human being. A person changes temperament due to aging. Childhood is lymphatic: the water element. Youth is sanguine: the air element. Water & air are the elements of mercury. In the second half of life, maturity is of a biliary nature: the fire element. Old age is melancholic: the earth element. Fire & earth are the elements of sulfur, through desiccation and maturation. It is the same with the yearly seasons and vegetation, and also of any evolving transformation of a living mineral system.

After the closing of a cycle, comes death. But in the earth element, fire is fixed and hidden. It from the dead body, fixed in the earth that the sulfur is extracted, the scion that will fertilize and catalyze a new cycle. To renew with movement, we ought to conjoin this sulfur with a mercury, meaning a water containing air.

Mercury  is volatile (water + air). Sulfur is fixed (fire + earth). The first one is extracted and purified through distillation; the second through calcination; because sublimation separates what is not volatile, while calcination separates what is not fixed.

The conjunction of the two nature must avoid their separation through sublimation & calcination which are advised for their preparation only. It is then that digestion is involved and must operate; analysis first, synthesis after. The Ancients were talking about ‘separating‘ & ‘uniting‘ (Solve & Coagula). In the organized realms, we also see male & female gametes separate from each other, then unite and grow.

The cycle of the four elements repeats itself a few times, alike the seasons which succeed themselves through time. Each cycle exalts a bit of the quint-essence and concentrate it its body-receptacle; it provokes the mutations faster and faster, reaching a point when it manages to evolve the metallic matter in the short laps of a few hours, instead of the thousand years required in the actual state within the whole nature.

The essential operations of Alchemy are:

1. Dissolution, which transforms earth in water and frees the seed that was stuck in it.

2. Sublimation, which transforms water into air and free mercury.

3. Coction, which transforms air in fire and matures mercury.

4. Fixation, which transforms fire into earth and transmute mercury into sulfur.

Hence, the cycle of the 4 states is accomplished.

A new dissolution of the sulfur will separate the pure from the impure, and so on…

All of these operations are told by the hermetists to be but a continuous coction; they mean by that: the connecting of the soul and the body, the penetration of matter by its quint-essence which animates it better and better.

The agent responsible for evolution is called ‘fire‘. We intentionally stay vague, as sometime it means heat, and some other time the internal strength of matter.

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Appendix

‘De cavernis metallorum occultus est, qui Lapis est venerabilis’. HERMES.

A direct translation into English would be:

‘He who is the venerable Stone, dwells hidden in the caverns of metals’. HERMES

This phrase refers to the central alchemical mystery—the philosopher’s Stone—concealed within the depths of the earth, metaphorically linked to the mining and refinement of metals, both materially and spiritually. The reference to ‘Hermes’ aligns with Hermetic philosophy, where the transformation of base matter into gold parallels inner spiritual enlightenment.

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English translation of the

description of the frontispiece

of the ‘Hermetic Triumph’ (1699)

by Limojon de Saint-Didier himself

General Explanation

of the Emblem

‘One should not expect to find here a detailed explanation that completely lifts the veil from this Philosophical enigma to reveal the truth openly. If that were the case, then all the writings of the Philosophers would have to be thrown into the fire. The sages would no longer have any advantage over the ignorant; both would be equally skilled in these marvelous arts.

One must therefore be content to see in this figure, as in a mirror, the summary of all secret Philosophy, which is contained in this little book, where all the parts of this emblem are also explained as clearly as it is permitted to do.

Those who are initiated into the Philosophical mysteries will immediately grasp the meaning hidden within this figure. But those who do not possess this enlightenment must consider here, in general, the mutual correspondence between Heaven and Earth, through the medium of the Sun and the Moon, which are like the secret bonds of this Philosophical union.

In the practice of the Work, they will see two parabolic streams that, secretly merging, give birth to the mysterious triangular stone, which is the foundation of the Art.

They will see a secret and natural fire, whose penetrating spirit sublimates into vapors that condense in the vessel.

They will see how effectively the sublimated stone receives the Sun and the Moon, which are its father and mother, from whom it first inherits the crown of perfection.

In the continuation of the practice, they will see in this divine liquor a double coronation, bestowed by the conversion of the Elements, and by the extraction and separation of principles through this mysterious caduceus of Mercury, which operates surprising metamorphoses.

They will see that this same Mercury, like a Phoenix that takes new birth in the fire, reaches through the Magistery the final perfection of the Philosophers’ sulfur, which grants it a sovereign power over the three kingdoms of Nature. This is what gives it its triple crown, upon which is placed the most essential character—the hieroglyph of the world.

Finally, they will see what the portion of the Zodiac and the three signs represented there signify. By uniting all these explanations, it will not be impossible to derive the intelligence of the entire secret Philosophy and of the greatest part of its practice, which is developed throughout the letter addressed to the disciples of Hermes at the end of this work.’

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Original French

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