Sublimation, Conjunction, and Raising Up
a found poem

Tobias Seamon

Therefore, saith the philosopher, this water which is continuous, humid, vaporous, spiritous, and found out by art makes the body to be volatile when it feels the vulgar fire. If there be in it the pure and fine bodies of sol or luna, it immediately melts them. Because this water is the water of vegetable life, it causes the dead body to vegetate, increase and spring forth, and to rise from death to life, by being dissolved first and then sublimed. That is to say nothing must be removed or taken away, except the moisture, which is the blackness. By such a sublimation, conjunction and raising up, the whole, both body and spirit are made white. (all text taken from "In Pursuit of Gold," attributed to the 12th century alchemist Artephius)