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also above measure hard and stony. It is far off and near at hand, but by the providence of God invisible. In it are
hidden the most ample treasures, which the world is not able to value. This mountain - by envy of the devil, who
always opposes the glory of God and the happiness of man - is compassed about with very cruel beasts and ravening
birds - which make the way thither both difficult and dangerous. And therefore until now - because the time is not
yet come - the way thither could not be sought after nor found out. But now at last the way is to be found by those
that are worthy - but nonetheless by every man's self-labor and endeavors.
To this Mountain you shall go in a certain night - when it comes - most long and most dark, and see that you prepare
yourselves by prayer. Insist upon the way that leads to the Mountain, but ask not of any man where the way lies.
Only follow your Guide, who will offer himself to you and will meet you in the way. But you are not to know him.
This Guide will bring you to the Mountain at midnight, when all things are silent and dark. It is necessary that you
arm yourselves with a resolute, heroic courage, lest you fear those things that will happen, and so fall back. You
need no sword nor any other bodily weapons; only call upon God sincerely and heartily.
When you have discovered the Mountain the first miracle that will appear is this: A most vehement and very great
wind that will shake the Mountain and shatter the rocks to pieces. You will be encountered also by lions and dragons
and other terrible beasts; but fear not any of these things. Be resolute and take heed that you turn not back, for your
Guide - who brought you thither - will not suffer any evil to befall you. As for the treasure, it is not yet found, but it
is very near.
After this wind will come an earthquake that will overthrow those things which the wind has left, and will make all
flat. But be sure that you do not fall off. The earthquake being past, there will follow a fire that will consume the
earthly rubbish and disclose the treasure. But as yet you cannot see it.
After these things and near the daybreak there will be a great calm, and you will see the Day-star arise, the dawn
will appear, and you will perceive a great treasure. The most important thing in it and the most perfect is a certain
exalted Tincture, with which the world - if it served God and were worthy of such gifts - might be touched and
turned into most pure gold.
This Tincture being used as your Guide shall teach you will make you young when you are old, and you will
perceive no disease in any part of your bodies. By means of this Tincture also you will find pearls of an excellence
which cannot be imagined. But do not you arrogate anything to yourselves because of your present power, but be
contented with what your Guide shall communicate to you. Praise God perpetually for this His gift, and have a
special care that you do not use it for worldly pride, but employ it in such works as are contrary to the world. Use it
rightly and enjoy it as if you had it not. Live a temperate life and beware of all sin. Otherwise your Guide will
forsake you and you will be deprived of this happiness. For know of a truth: whosoever abuses this Tincture and
does not live exemplarly, purely and devoutly before men, will lose this benefit and scarcely any hope will be left of
recovering it afterward.
Zosimos
From the third century A.D. Greek adept Zosimos of Panoplis.
Back to allegories.
The composition of the waters, and the movement, and the growth, and the removal and restitution of bodily nature,
and the splitting off of the spirit from the body, and the fixation of the spirit on the body are not operations with
natures alien one from the other, but, like the hard bodies of metals and the moist fluids of plants, are One Thing, of
One Nature, acting upon itself. And in this system, of one kind but many colours, is preserved a research of all
things, multiple and various, subject to lunar influence and measure of time, which regulates the cessation and
growth by which the One Nature transforms itself.
And saying these things, I slept, and I saw a certain sacrificing priest standing before me and over and altar which
had the form of a bowl. And that altar had fifteen steps going up to it.
Then the priest stood up and I heard from above a voice say to me, "I have completed the descent of the fifteen steps
and the ascent of the steps of light. And it is the sacrificing priest who renews me, casting off the body's coarseness,
and, consecrated by necessity, I have become a spirit."
And when I had heard the voice of him who stood in the altar formed like a bowl, I questioned him, desiring to
understand who he was.
He answered me in a weak voice saying, "I am Ion, Priest of the Adytum, and I have borne an intolerable force. For
someone came at me headlong in the morning and dismembered me with a sword and tore me apart, according to the
rigor of harmony. And, having cut my head off with the sword, he mashed my flesh with my bones and burned them
in the fire of the treatment, until, my body transformed, I should learn to become a spirit. And I sustained the same
intolerable force."
And even as he said these things to me and I forced him to speak, it was as if his eyes turned to blood and he
vomited up all his flesh. And I saw him as a mutilated image of a little man and he was tearing at his flesh and
falling away.
And being afraid I woke and considered, "Is this not the composition of the waters?" I thought that I was right and
fell asleep again. And I saw the same altar in the shape of a bowl and water bubbled at the top of it, and in it were
many people endlessly. And there was no one whom I might question outside of the bowl. And I went up to the altar
to view the spectacle.
And I saw a little man, a barber, whitened with age, and he said to me, "What are you looking at?"
I answered that I wondered at the boiling water and the men who were burning but remained alive.
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