Cabala Mineralis

by Pseudo-Simeon ben Cantara

__________

as interpreted by

J. Erik LaPort

&

Dr Roger Gabrielsson PhD

Acknowledgments ............................................................................. i

Foreword .......................................................................................... iii

Author’s Preface ............................................................................... v

Editor’s Note .................................................................................... xi

Introduction .................................................................................... xiii

I – Prima Materia ........................................................................... 2

2 – Living Mercury of the Wise ....................................................... 4

3 – Calcination of Sophic Gold ........................................................ 6

4 – Decomposition & Germination ................................................ 10

5 – White Sulfur& Liquid ............................................................... 12

6 – Dry Earth & Red Sulfur ............................................................. 14

7 – Multiplication by Fermentation .............................................. 16

8 – Temperature Regimen ............................................................ 20

9 – Nigredo & Transition ............................................................... 22

10 – Albedo & Rubedo .................................................................... 24

11 – Exaltation by Fire .................................................................... 26

12 – Stone of the Wise, Medicine of the 3rd Order .......................... 28

Appendix A – Living Mercury Distillation in Pictures ...................... 31

Appendix B – Sophic Gold Calx in Pictures ...................................... 33

Afterword ........................................................................................ 35

While working on the Morienus chapter of Cracking the Philosophers’

Stone, a pattern began to emerge between the operative instructions of

Morienus and the synthesis encrypted in the Cabala Mineralis. Both

works present a sulphur-mercury theory for the Philosophers’ Stone, they

both do not make much ado about the seven planetry colors, both refer

to the finishing step as fermentation, both suggest the use of quicksilver

to process gold and both parallel the process for creating the

Philosophers’ Stone as a model for the spiritual journey towards

perfection. What I found most interesting however, is just how accurate

the work was as regards operative details for confecting the

Philosophers’ Stone according to a late-Alexandrian template of the type

adopted by early Islamic alchemists during the 7th and 8th centuries.

I was introduced to the work by a well-kown modern alchemist friend,

who at the time was working with his alchemy community to decipher

Our Ammonia, or more specifically, the role urine and refined urine

products may have played in the recipe. I was immediately fascinated by

the work primarily because it appeared as though the author was

attempting to actually portray the chemical reaction in a realistic rather

than figurative or symbolic manner in most of his images. In other words,

the text was an instruction manual for an exact recipe to confect the

Philosophers’ Stone realistically portraying the observable reaction in the

digestion vessel. I hoped to decode and reproduce the reaction in order

to share with other earnest researchers of alchemy. Although the work

was created toward the end of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century,

it appeared to be representative of a much more ancient form of

alchemical expression.

Comparing the Cabala Mineralis to The Composition of Al‐Kīmyāʼ by

Morienus, convinced me that the works were related in a number of

ways, which become clear in this treatment. Morienus’ work is

considered one of the first alchemy texts to be Latinized and his methods

were considered canonical by many European alchemists. The notion

that the Cabal Mineralis could have been inspired by one of the earlier

alchemical currents to enter Europe, now seemed plausible.

The title insinuates cabalistic or occult knowledge, yet I take the author

literally that it is of the mineral kingdom, which is to say the secret of the

Philosophers’ Stone. Other researchers have attempted to draw parallels

between the Cabala Mineralis and Christian mysticism, especially as it

may pertain to the Stone as a model of the biblical creation story in

Genesis or specifically the creation of Adam. While this perpective and

approach is certainly understandable and valid, it remains outside my

field of expertise and I leave those types interpretation to others more

knowledgeable in that field. The interpretation presented in this

treatment addresses chemical identities for the substances and a

discussion of alchemical processes encrypted therein.

I drew up the initial draft one lazy Sunday afternoon and immediately

shared it with two friends via e-mail correspondence and was informed

that the original text was uncolored. Nothing really transpired from those

communications other than mild interest, both expressing a desire to see

photo-documentation of reproducibility. Our laboratory was still under

construction at the time and photo-documenatary would have to wait.

Upon completing construction and performing the chemistry for Cracking

the Philosophers’ Stone, the subject of sulfur content in glass of antimony

became an al/chemistry riddle that needed to be solved before I could

progress any further.

I let the Cabal Mineralis rest temporarily until our latest research on the

role of sulfur and sulfur dioxide in the archetypal recipe for the

vii

Philosophers’ Stone reignited a spark of interest in finishing the

interpretation. Armed with a more comprehensive understanding of the

finer points of the reaction, I began to look at the Cabala Mineralis from

a new perspective. It is a beautiful and wonderfully composed work of

the type which always makes me wish I knew more about the person

behind the work, his life, ideas and world-views and a peek at his lab.

The traditional book layout in the following treatment has been altered

for more efficient reading. The text is a pictoral laboratory manual of

operations and is best read as such. It still contains a few mysteries,

primarily as to the role urine may have played in the synthesis, which is

addressed in some detail in the appendix. The temperature for fixation

also remains a mystery, as various teperatures result in thermal

decomposition to entirely different products. Without supporting

documents or knowing more about the author, research must necessarily

be limited to interpretation. An educated guess was made as to the

chemistry, and the hypothesized reaction then tested to see if the results

matched the images and descriptions in the text. Even a perfect match

does not constitute proof, only proof of concept. Any number of

interpretations may produce similar results. As is the case with most

interpretive works, the Cabala Mineralis will certainly yield alternate

interpretations by qualified scholars and independent researchers with

chemistry to support the hypothesis. Differing views supported by

chemistry broaden our understanding of alchemy and move the subject

forward, as is the case in modern science and indeed other subjucts. To

future interpreters of the Cabala Mineralis, I express gratitude in advance

for continuing this work and remain intrigued at the prospect of new

findings.

J. Erik LaPort

Q’era-Tech Research

Thailand

Baptized for a month, the King arises,

all-powerful, or our Stone, a perfect Medicine of the 3rd order,

mighty in its ways of projection, able to transmute all metals.

Sometime around the end of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century, an

illustrated alchemical text unusual in its elegant clarity, was drawn up

purportedly containing within its few simple images the recipe to confect

the Philosophers’ Stone of the 3rd Order. Unlike many other European

emblematic alchemical texts, the Cabala Mineralis is completely devoid

of images of nobility, wolves, lions, wedding scenes, baths, graves or most

other imagery that typifies emblematic sequences of the 17th century.

The book is divided into two distinct parts; the first includes images of

semi-realistic step-by-step visual indicators for the reaction occuring in a

sealed glass reaction vessel. In this respect, the Cabala Mineralis was

composed in a style similar to Donum Dei, parts of Splendor Solis or the

closest relative to the Cabala Mineralis, the Crowning of Nature. The

second part features landscape images that loosely follow biblical

Genesis in a style similar to the All Wise Doorkeeper series.

The Prime Material to begin work is closely associated with a product

from a mine, Earth, flowers and fumes or vapors. Sophic Mercury is

associated with roasting the Prime Material, urine, eagles and distillation.

The initial emblem appears to be an ingredient list with the three

emblems that follow easily identified as preparation of chemical reagents

or compounds. The remainder of the images in Book 1 illustrate distinct

stages in confecting the Philosophers’ Stone. Book 2 begins with an image

that appears to be a loose portrayal of a non-specific religious creator, a

theme that makes sense upon realizing that the sequence appears to

correspond with scenes from the biblical six days of creation from

LAPORT & GABRIELSSON

xiv

Genesis. These images serve a double-entendre in that they also correlate

perfectly to the standard temperature regimen for confecting the

Philosophers’ Stone. The final two images represent an ordeal by fire and

spiritual perfection. There is nothing in the work even remotely

resembling Jewish Kabbalistic themes such as the Tree of Life, the 10

sephirot, Star of David or the like. If a religious mystic theme is concealed

within the imagery, it is of the Creator, Nature and the creation of Adam.

Use of the word Cabala in the title is most likely in keeping with other

17th century alchemical texts that incorporated the term such as Cabala

chymica, 1606, Cabal sive speculum artis, 1615 and Cabala Chymica,

1658.

The subject of a cherub or angelic young boy urinating has never ceased

to fascinate researchers and there are a great number of interpretations

possible for this iconic image. It can indicate an urinaceous liquid product,

suggests that the chloride donor required to distil butter of antimony is

derived from urine directly or indirectly from processed urine salts, or

may simply indicate the use of sal ammoniac. As a potential chloride-

donating chemical reagent, human urine collected over a 24 hour period

typically contains 9-16 grams of chlorides. Aside from interpreting urine

as a reagent, it can just as easily represent the product, Sophic Mercury:

The philosophers have called this maid and blessed water by many

thousands of different names in their books. They call it heaven, a

heavenly water, a heavenly rain, a heavenly thaw, a May thaw, water

of Paradise … They also call it urine and horse piss … They have used all

these names and written of it figuratively in their books. They have

suggested that such a water is made of these things, with the result that

all ignorant people who have searched for it in these things, have not

found the desired water.

– Anonymous, A Magnificent and Select Tract on Philosophical Water

Regardless of the interpretation, the text is explicitly clear that Prime

Material is distilled with something associated with water or urine to

INTRODUCTION

xv

achieve Sophic Mercury. Antimony is the prime material and any number

of chloride donors have been employed throughout alchemical history

such as salt-saturated urine, sal ammoniac, corrosive sublimate and spirit

of salt, to distil Living Sophic Mercury.

The interpretation presented in this treatment results in a chemical

reaction that closely follows the images in the book. The greatest

difficulty in reproducing the chemistry is the need for creating a good

artisanal glass of antimony. For those without access to a kiln or furnace,

an analog can be created via a reaction of antimony trioxide and sulphuric

acid to achieve antimony oxysulfate, the chemical identity for optimized

glass of antimony. Aside from this operative detail, a modern analog can

be achieved by the use of commercial counterparts such as fine gold calx

and antimony trichloride.

As is the case with any Philosophers’ Stone recipe, artisanally preparing

one’s reagents is the most demanding aspect of the work. Reproducing

the entire work in an artisanal manner strictly according to the

instructions in the text can be very rewarding. In the interest of modern

research however, the experiment can be performed by bypassing

redundant, outmoded or inefficient processes with good results. The

interpretation presented herein is just one of many possible chemical

interpretations of the riddle encrypted in the Cabala Mineralis.

Explanations for the chemistry in this treatment are presented as

theoretical possibilities for the reactions and are offered as hypotheses

only.