Alechemy
 
 

Hermetic Acranum 1623

The Hermetic Arcanum – Sapere Aude

Collectonea Hermetica edited by W Wynn Westcott, MB, D.P.H. (supreme Magus of the Rosicrucian Society, Master of the Quatuor Coronati Lodge)
Vol. 1. An English Translation of the Hermetic Arcanum of Penes Nos Unda Tagi 1623 with a preface & notes by SAPERE AUDE, Fra. R.R. et A.C.
Theophosical Publishing Society, 7 Duke St, Adelphi London, WC 1893

Preface to the “COLLECTANEA HERMETICA”
Hermitic students find very great difficulty in securing copies of the old Roscrucian tracts & other notable volumes of occult lore, & I have been urged by many earnest members of the Rosicrucian Society to undertake the Editorship of a series of small volumes, which are to provide some of the texts of the greatest value in Hermetic research. Among my personal friends & fellow students are many who have made a long study of the Occult Sciences, of the Kabbalah, of Alchemy, & of the Higher Magic & these have assured me of their support in this undertaking. The Notes which are added to each volume are partly those of my coadjutors. The Societas Rosicruciana, as an Institution, is not answerable for the opinions expressed; all responsibility falling upon the actual writers.

The Notes are intended to assist those who have made some progress in the study of Hermetic Philosophy; to the casual reader they may be as incomprehensible as the text itself, & where the general reader finds a simple definite statement, such is probably a Re-veiling & not a Revelation.
W.W.W.

ARCANUM HERMETICA PHILOSOPHICAE OPUS
In qui occulta naturae etartis circa Lapidis Philosophorum materiam et operandi modum canonice et ordinate fiunt manifesta.
Opus authoris anonymi,
Penes Nos Unda Tagi MDCXXIII

THE SECRET WORK OF THE HERMETIC PHILOSOPHY
Wherein the Secrets of Nature & Art concerning the matter of the Philosophers’ Stone 7 the manner of working are explained in an authentic & orderly manner.
The Work of an Anonymous Author
Penes Nos Unda Tagi – Edited by Sapere Aude

PREFACE TO THE “ARCANUM”
The Arcanum Hermeticum has been chosen for the first volume of the Collectanea Hermetica, because since its first publication in 1623, in the Latin language, no alchymic tract has been more widely read, & not other has been so often reprinted, alike in Latin, German, French, & English.

The author, Jean d’Espagnet, was sometime President of the Parliament of Bordeaux, he flourished from 1600 to 1630, & obtained a great reputation as an Hermetic philosopher & alchymist. Two of his alchymic works are alone extant; Enchiridion Physicae Restitutae & Arcanum Philosophiae Hermeticae; of these the former treats of those theories of chemical constitution upon which the possibility of Transmutation of Metals depends, & the latter of the Practice of Alchymy. The Arcanum was first published in 1623 in France; five subsequent French editions in the original Latin are known & an edition in the French tongue was printed in 1651 from the translation of Jean Bachon. Several editions were also published at Geneva, Kiel, Lubeck, Tubingen & Leipzig. The works of Espagnet are also included in Manget’s Bibliotheca Chemica Curiosa & in the Bibliotheca Chemica of Albineus.

Jean d’Espagnet followed the usual Rosicrucian custom of using a motto instead of his name when publishing Hermetic books. The Hermetic Arcanum is signed “Peres nos unda Tagi”; he also at times added the motto ‘Spea mea in Agno est”. These motto’s are anagrams. Each contains the letters of “Espagnet” & the two taken together contain also the letters of “Deus (T/I? HVH with the Shin interspersed) omnia in nos”, but there are two letters over, “AS”. The French biographer says, in error, that only one letter, an “E” – his initial – remains over.

Espagnet was not only an Alchymist, but a Mystic as well; he contributed a preface & a sonnet to a work by Pierre de Lancre, entitled Tableau de L’inconstance de mauvaises Anges, 1612. He is also notable as having taken a leading part in the prosecution of persons who were supposed to be black magicians, living in the district called Les Landes & among the Pyrenees; but this action appears to have been the result of his position in the Parliament of Bordeaux.

He ornamented the façade of his house in the Rue de Bahutiers, at Bordeaux, with allegorical sculptures & devices; the hose has been destroyed, but these ornaments are still to be seen preserved in the gardens of the mayoral residence.

As a natural philosopher, Jean d’Espagnet declined to be led by the notions of Aristotle, & preferred those of the Alexandrian schools. He postulated the ideal of one material universal basis, or hyle(?), from which all varieties of matter have been evolved by stages of development, a necessary doctrine for one hwo taught the mutual convertability of the so-called chemical elementary substances. He also insisted upon the importance of representing all manifestation as separable into three worlds, elementary, celestial & archetypal; this division is related to the scheme of the Far Worlds of the Kabalists, by a concentration which is recognized by such philosophers. He taught the origin of created things from the chaos of the first matter, which under the energetic impulse of the Divine Force, proceeds from stage to stage of development into heterogeneity. He recognized three stages of matter, the subtle, the mean, & the gross: analogous to the airy, moist, & earthy natures of the Hermetics. Upon these bases his Enchiridion is almost a text book of Rosicrucian Philosophy.

The Arcanum describes at considerable length & with obvious good faith, the procedure of one school of Alchymists in the search for the secret of the Stone of Philosophycal, & it formulates the stages of the work so that he has well succeeded in reveiling, as well as revealing, the secret of what was meant by the Prima Materia & the real nature alike of The Sulphur, The Salt, & The Mercury.

Such a work as the Arcanum written by one who knows, is not sent to print, to teach the public, to show a cheap & easy way to wealth & luxury, or to assist coiners of spurious moneys, but is intended as a treasure house in which those who have devoted life & love to the quest may find stored up the data & experiences of such as have trodden the Path & have borne tribulation & persecution, counting all loss to be gain in their progress to success & to the possession of that Stone of the Wise, which when obtained can indeed transmute the things of the material world, but does also work equally upon all higher planes, & enables an Adept to soar unheeding into worlds of joy, wisdom, & exhultation, which are unseen, unknown & inconceivable to ordinary mortals, who have chosen the alternative of physical contentment & material happiness.

The original Latin title is given on the first page, together with an English translation.

The German edition of 1685, Leipzig, was entitled: Das geheime Work de Hermetischen Philosophie, von Joannes d’Espagnet, Anagre-e-in tu. Mut. Penes nos unda Tagi. This has an additional preface & cap 138 is numbered 137. “Joannes” must be taken as “Joannus”.

An English translation was made by James Hasdle, Qui est Mercuriophilus Anglicus, this is the anagram & pseudonym  of Elias Ashmole, famous as an antiquary. Copies of his edition of 1650 are not uncommon. The present editor of the Hermetic Arcanum had at first intended to reprint Ashmoles version in its entirety, but a comparison with the original Latin has induced him to make a revision of Ashmole’s translation, because he discovered many important inaccuracies, & also because in some places the language was more forcible & plain than ous present delicate manners would appreciate.

S.A. is responsible for most of the Notes; a few are from Sigismund Bacstrom, Frater R.R. ef A.C., & others are from the marginal references of an anonymous Adept writing in 1710.