Divine Water

The names given to this mystical something were as many as the properties which were assigned to it. It was called the one thing, the essence, the philosopher s stone, the stone of wisdom, the heavenly balm, the divine water, the virgin water, the carbuncle of the sun, the old dragon, the lion, the basilisk, the phcenix, and many other names were given to it. 

The development of our knowledge of solutions reflects to some extent the development of chemistry itself [3], Of all known substances, water was the first to be considered as a solvent. As far back as the time of the Greek philosophers there was speculation about the nature of solution and dissolution. The Greek alchemists considered all chemically active liquids under the name Divine water . In this context the word water was used to designate everything liquid or dissolved. 

And this white vapor, this white gold, to wit, this quintessence, is called also the compound magnesia, which like a man does contain, or like a man is composed of a body, soul and spirit. Now the body is the fixed solar earth, exceeding the most subtile matter, which by the help of our divine water is with difficulty lifted up or seperated. The soul is the tincture of... 

When you compound it, you should first prepare the Flowery Pond (hua-chi), the Red Salt (chiyan), the Hard Snow genxue), ° the Mysterious and White (xuanbai), the Flying Talisman (feifu), and the Divine Water of the Three-and-Five (sanwu shenshui). Only then can the fire be lit. The elixir of the first cycle confers immortality after it is ingested for three years that of the second, after two years that of the third, after one year that of the fourth, after half a year that of the fifth, after one hundred days that of the sixth, after forty days that of the seventh, after thirty days that of the eighth, after ten days and that of the ninth, after three days. 

The names of three of these methods—those for the Flowery Pond, the Red Salt, and the Hard Snow—correspond to those of the preliminary preparations mentioned by Ge Hong. As the original Scripture is not extant, however, there are no clues to identify what role these and the other methods listed above played in compounding the Elixir of Great Clarity. The Oral Instructions, moreover, does not reveal the identity of the Flying Talisman and the Divine Water of the Three-and-Five nor does it refer either to the nine cycles of heating or to the final transmutation of the elixir with cinnabar. 

Jiudan jingjue, i7.6a-b. In this method, vinegar is called shui, which stands for shenshui or Divine Water, one of its most common synonyms. 

Meinzer, O.E. (1944). US ground water geologist warns against water diviners. Water Works Engineering 97(May31) 571. P... 

Although essential for the later cultural development, Greek philosophy was basically a work of the imagination, removed from experimentation, and something more than meditation is needed to reach an approach on what happens in a process of dissolution. However, in those remote times, any chemically active liquid was included under the name of divine water , bearing in mind that the term water was used to refer to anything liquid or dissolved. ... 

Diffuse me in the Waters of Life as though / were in the wine-cellar of the eternal Solomon. Here the Fire of Thy love will receive new fuel and will blaze forth so that no streams can extinguish it. Through the aid of this Divine Fire, may / in the end he found worthy to be called into the Illumination of the Righteous. 

It is for this reason that spectroscopy offers the only experimental method for characterizing the interfacial region that is not automatically destined to run into basic conceptual difficulties. This is not to say that difficulties of a technical nature will not arise (40-48), nor that the conceptual difficulty of differing time scales among spectroscopic techniques will cause no problems (50). Nonetheless, it is to be hoped that future investigations of sorption reactions will focus more on probing the molecular structure of the mineral/water interface than on attempting simply to divine what the structure may be. 

Born in about 1214, Bacon became a monk but was educated at Oxford before gaining a doctorate in Paris. His subjects included philosophy, divinity, mathematics, physics, chemistry and even cosmology. He carefully purified potassium nitrate (by recrystallisation from water) and went on to experiment with different proportions of the other two ingredients (sulfur and willow charcoal) until he was satisfied that. 

Richard Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, 1737-1810. Professor of chemistry, and later professor of divinity, at Cambridge. Between 1768 and 1781 he published a collection of chemical essays on water, air, coal, lead, zinc, salt, saltpeter, and other common substances. He gave an excellent account of the early history of zinc... 

This illustration from four dimensions, suggesting other illustrations derivable from mathematics, may serve a double purpose in our present investigation. On the one hand it may lead us to vaster views of possible circumstances and existence on the other hand it may teach us that the conception of such possibilities cannot, hy any ditect path, bring us closer to God. Mathematics may help us to measure and weigh the planets, to discover the materials of which they are composed, to extract light and warmth from the motion of water and to dominate the material universe but even if by these means we could mount up to Mars or hold converse with the inhabitants of Jupiter or Saturn, we should be no nearer to the divine throne, except so far as these new experiences might develop in our modesty, respect for facts, a deeper reverence for order and harmony, and a mind more open to new observations and to fresh inferences from old truths. 

Aristotle of Stageiros (384-322 BCE) did not agree with his teacher s geometric bodies for the different elements. He rejected the Democritian atoms in which matter was considered a principle but form was a secondary characteristic. Nor did he accept the existence of a void. According to the Aristotelian view, the four elements arose from the action on primordial matter by pairs of qualities (warm + dry, fire, warm + moist, air, cold + dry, earth, cold + moist, water). He introduced another element, ether, as a divine substance of which the heavens and stars are made (23). 

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