Seeds of metals

Cockren, Archibald. Alchemy rediscovered and restored. Philadelphia, David McKay 1941. With an account of the extraction of the seed of metals and the preparation of the medicinal elixir according to the practice of the hermetic Art and of the Alkahest of the Philosopher. [Richardson (TX)] R.A.M.S., n.d. 115p. 

Cockren, Archibald. Alchemy rediscovered and restored With an account of the extraction of the seed of metals and the preparation of the medicinal elixir according to... 

Secondary Matter, or Seed of Metals, the primal Matter of the Philosopher s Work, to distinguish it from the Prima Materia, or First Created Matter, which is beyond the reach of the Artist. 

The silver then, often called the Doves of Diana, acts as a medium to transfer the life force of the antimony into the mercury. After the distillation, the residue of silver which remains in the retort, called now the Dead Doves of Diana, is cleaned and used again. With each cycle of amalgamation and distillation, the mercury metal becomes more enlivened and ultimately is called Animated Mercury, containing the generative power of the metallic realm. It is the fertile field wherein the seed of metals is sown. 

So where do we find the seeds of metals The Collectanea Chemica tells us quite plainly and naturally that the seed of metals is found in their ore just as they occur in nature. Certainly then, the most coveted seed is the Seed of Gold as gold contains the most perfect reflection of the Celestial Fire. 

METALLIC SEED — Seed of Metals. The Seeds of Metals are contained in the four elements, and whatever the Philosopher produces he must produce from the germ of the said thing, which is the Elixir, or Superlative Quintessence thereof It is more useful to the artist than is Nature herself So soon as the Philosopher has obtained this Seed or Germ, Nature will be ready to perform her duty and assist him. The Germ, or Seed, of anything is the most finished and perfect decoction of the thing itself, or, rather, it is the Balm of Sulphur, which is the same as the Radical Moisture. 

In Boerhaave s eyes, chemistry, of all natural philosophy, is best able to show the variety of life and motion in nature and improving natural knowledge, for chemistry is best adapted for discovering (...) latent peculiar powers of bodies. Boerhaave s admiration for the old alchemists is not surprising for the seminal principles were an important aspect of their work. They defined the seed as the interior heat, or the specific spirit, which is enclosed in the humid radical. Alchemy mainly speaks about mercury, the seed of metals. It cannot be a coincidence that Boerhaave experimented extensively on mercury towards the end of his life. Maybe he thought that insight into the... 

The seed of metals is what the Sons of Wisdom have called their mercury, to distinguish it from quicksilver, which it nearly resembles, being the radical moisture of metals. This, when judiciously extracted, without corrosives, or fluxmg, contains m It a seminal quality whose perfect ripeness is only in gold in the other metals it is crude, like fruits which are yet green, not being sufficiently digested by the heat of the sun and action of the elements. We observed that the radical moisture contains the seed, which is true yet it is not the seed,... 

The reader will be apt to exclaim here "Very fine All this is well but how shall the seed of metals be procured, and whence comes it that so few know how to gather it " To this it IS answered that the philosophers have hitherto industriously kept that a profound secret some out of a selfish disposition, though otherwise good men. Others, who wished only for worthy persons to whom they might impart it, could not write of it openly, because covetousness and vanity have been governing principles in the world ... 

To revert to the subject of the seed of metals, from the Speculum of Arnaud de Villeneuve come these words There is in Nature a certain fine essence, which being discovered and brought by art to perfection converts to itself proportionately all imperfect bodies that it touches, so that the first matter of all metals and substances is a fixed something altered by the diversities of place, temperature, etc. This Essence has always been recognized by alchemists as the Seed of Metals. 

---