The following series of illustrations is taken from the Elementa Chemicae of the Leiden chemistry professor J.C. Barchusen. He had them engraved from an old manuscript "to do a great favour to the adepts of gold-making". He was of the opinion that they described the production of the Philosopher`s Stone "not only in better order, but also with a more correct emphasis" than anything else that he had seen hitherto.
In order to attain the lapis, the alchemist had to make a fundamental decision on which path to follow: a short "dry" path, in which the separation of the matter took place under the influence of external heat and the involvement of a secret "inner fire", and a "wet" path, which was much longer and only led to its goal through many distillations. The latter is illustrated here.
The main role in this process is played by the philosophical Mercury, not ordinary quicksilver, but a mysterious substance whose origins are entirely shrouded in darkness.
The material spirit is extracted from it. The legendary Azoth comes, as the agent of the Work, in the form of a dove. Like the doves that Noah sent forth to learn whether the waters had abated, it only ends it`s flight when the lapis is finally fixed.
It`s twenty-seven-fold flight upwards and downwards here and in a related series of illustrations corresponds, in William Blake`s mythology, to the flight of the twenty-seven larks, which act as bearer`s of conventional ideas. Only the twenty-eighth brings enlightenment and an escape from the retort`s restricted field of vision. It is destroyed when the lapis is complete.
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