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INTIMATE ECONOMIES
Bodies, Emotions, and Sexualities on the Global Market

Edited by
Susanne Hofmann and Adi Moreno

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN GLOBALIZATION AND EMBODIMENT

Palgrave Studies in Globalization
and Embodiment
Series Editors
Erynn Masi de Casanova
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Afshan Jafar
Connecticut College
New London, Connecticut, USA
This cutting-edge series will address how global forces impact human
bodies and the individual and collective practices associated with them.
Books in this series will explore the globalization of bodily practices as
well as how the interaction of local and global ideas about bodies produces
particular forms of embodiment. We are particularly interested in research
covering the ways that globalization engenders in between spaces, hybrid
identities and ‘body projects.’

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/15115
 Susanne Hofmann • Adi Moreno
Editors

Intimate Economies
Bodies, Emotions, and Sexualities
on the Global Market
Editors
Susanne Hofmann Adi Moreno
University of Osnabrück Morgan Centre for Research into
Osnabrück, Germany Everyday Lives
Manchester, United Kingdom

Palgrave Studies in Globalization and Embodiment

ISBN 978-1-137-56035-3    ISBN 978-1-137-56036-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56036-0

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957368

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Cover illustration: © Michael Freeman / Alamy Stock Photo

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Nature America Inc.
The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.
 Acknowledgments

Susanne: I would like to thank Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez, Paulo

Drinot and John Gledhill for supporting the academic research that forms
the basis of my contribution; Julia O’Connell Davidson for her com-
ments on an earlier draft of my chapter; Teela Sanders and Kate Hardy
for giving me the opportunity to learn from their expertise on the sex
industry; Adriana Piscitelli and Iara Beleli for supporting my invitation
as visiting researcher at the PAGU Gender Studies Centre at the State
University of Campinas, which enabled me to work with a team of out-
standing researchers; José Miguel Nieto Olivar, Laura Lowenkron, Ana
Paula Luna Sales and Aline Tavares for inspiring discussions; Cecilia Varela
and Ana Paula da Silva for their hospitality and valuable comments on my
work; Thaddeus Blanchette for his excellent and rapid translation from
Portuguese to English; Hannah Berry for her fine editing of my chapter,
and the anonymous reviewers for great work.
Adi: I would like to thank Brian Heaphy and Vanessa May for super-
vising the academic research that is the basis for my contribution; Petra
Nordqvist, Hedva Eyal, Sigrid Vertommen and Daphna Hacker for com-
menting on earlier drafts of my chapter; and Susanne Hofmann for her edi-
torial comments and suggestions. I would also like to thank the Sociology
department at the University of Manchester, and especially the Morgan
Centre for Research into Everyday Lives for supporting this research.

v
 Contents

1 Introduction: Global Intimate Economies:

Discontents and Debates   1
Susanne Hofmann and Adi Moreno

Part I Commodifying Affects, Emotions and Selves  31

2 The “Authentic Cybertariat”? Commodifying Feeling,

Accents, and Cultural Identities in the Global South  33
Sweta Rajan-Rankin

3 Regulating Sexy Subjects: The Case of Brazilian Fashion

Retail and Its Affective Workforce  57
Nicolas Wasser

4 Emotional Labor and Ethical Practice: Professionalism

Among Sex Workers in Tijuana  79
Susanne Hofmann

vii
viii Contents

Part II Sexualized Bodies on the Market 109

  5 A Feast of Men: Sexuality, Kinship and Predation

in the Practices of Female Prostitution in Downtown
Porto Alegre 111
José Miguel Nieto Olivar

  6 Neoliberalism, Oil Wealth and Migrant Sex Work

in the Chadian City of N’Djamena 135
Ngambouk Vitalis Pemunta and Tabi Chama James Tabenyang

  7 The Use of “Life-enabling” Practices Among Waria:

Vulnerability, Subsistence, and Identity in Contemporary
Yogyakarta 163
Néstor Nuño Martínez

Part III Global Reproductive Commerce 185

  8 Gestational Labors: Care Politics

and Surrogates’ Struggle 187
Sophie Lewis

  9 Surrogate Mothers and Gay Fathers: Navigating

the Commercial Surrogacy Arrangement in India 213
Anindita Majumdar

10 Families on the Market Front 233

Adi Moreno

Index 261
 Contributors

Susanne Hofmann is a social anthropologist who completed a doctorate

in Latin American Cultural Studies at the University of Manchester. She
has lectured at the University of Leeds, the PAGU Gender Studies Center
of the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) and the Iberoamerican
University in Mexico City. She currently works at the Institute for
Migration Research and Intercultural Studies at the University of
Osnabrück. Her main research interests are the commodification of inti-
macy, affective labor, entrepreneurial subjectivities, global capitalism, gov-
ernmentality and the anthropology of policy. Her current research explores
the human trafficking prevention trainings delivered to both government
officials and members of the civil society in Brazil and Mexico.
Sophie Lewis is at the University of Manchester completing a PhD on sur-
rogacy’s uneven “cyborg” geography that thinks about its utopian poten-
tial. She has written about surrogates for Jacobin magazine, The New
Inquiry and The Occupied Times; excerpts were included in the
“Technotopia” symposium. She also writes with the Out of the Woods
(anti-capitalist ecology) collective. She has co-translated Bini Adamczak’s
Communism For Kids and writes things that appear in Mute, Open
Democracy, the “Demanding the Future” tumblr and Novara Wire.
Anindita Majumdar teaches Sociology at the Manipal Centre for
Philosophy and Humanities, Manipal University, India. She has recently
been awarded her doctoral degree on commercial gestational surrogacy by
the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of
Technology-Delhi.

ix
x Contributors

Néstor Nuño Martínez is a PhD candidate in Epidemiology at the Swiss

Tropical and Public Health Institute. He received his MSc in Medical
Anthropology and Sociology from the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in
2014. His current research interests are focused in the implementation
and assessment from a socio-cultural perspective of home-based interven-
tion packages to reduce the incidence of pneumonia and diarrhoea in
rural communities of the Peruvian Andes.
Adi Moreno holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Manchester
and is a member of the “Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday
Lives.” Her dissertation analyzed cross-border surrogacy practices among
Israeli gay men. Her current research interests are focused on the study of
family practices through the lens of monetary exchanges and non-norma-
tive forms of parenting in the Israeli LGBT community.
José Miguel Nieto Olivar is a Colombian, social communicator, writer
and anthropologist. He has a doctorate in social anthropology from the
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). Currently, he is a
researcher at the Center for Gender Studies, PAGU at the Campinas State
University (UNICAMP), funded by a FAPESP scholarship (process:
2013/26826-2). He has worked in the fields of human rights, gen-
der and sexuality, both in research and social intervention projects.
In the last few years, he has focused on the research of sex work and
sex markets, and of the transborder relations at the Amazonian triple
border between Brazil, Peru and Colombia.
Ngambouk Vitalis Pemunta holds a Dphil in Sociology and Anthropology
from the Central European University (CEU) Budapest/Hungary. Apart
from teaching for the Universities of Yaounde/Cameroon, University
College Dublin, and the CEU, he is a postdoctoral researcher at the
Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies at Växjö/
Sweden. His research interests are gender, development and human secu-
rity. He consults for several NGOs in both Cameroon and abroad.
Sweta Rajan-Rankin is a senior lecturer at the School of Social Policy,
Sociology and Social Research at the University of Kent. Her research
interests centre around transnationalism, globalization and the sociologi-
cal imaginaries of call centre work. She is particularly interested in drawing
connections between intra-psychic experiences, affectivity, performativity
and situated politics of culture and emotion.
 Contributors  xi

Tabi Chama James Tabenyang completed his Master’s degree in

Anthropology in 2011 at the Walter Sisulu University in the Eastern Cape,
South Africa. Currently, he works as a doctoral researcher in the German
Research Foundation–funded project “Oil and Signification in Chad and
Niger.” He is affiliated with the project’s host organization Centre de
Recherches en Anthropologie et Science Humaines (CRASH) in
N’Djamena, Chad.
Nicolas Wasser is a PhD candidate in Sociology and Anthropology at the
Federal State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Research Associate
at the Gender Studies PhD program at the University of Basel,
Switzerland. Holding a Master’s degree in Latin American Studies
from the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, his research interests
currently include the commodification of sexual and racial identities,
body and affective work, queer and feminist critiques of recognition,
transformations in global capitalism and social inequalities.
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Global Intimate Economies:

Discontents and Debates

Susanne Hofmann and Adi Moreno

This book is concerned with intimacy that has become part of market
exchanges, or intimacy that in some way has become integrated into labor-
ing processes to increase the value of labor. We understand intimacy in
the most broad and basic manner as a form of connection. The Latin
word intimus can be translated as innermost. Privacy, familiarity, sexuality,
love and personal connection are notions that are generally understood as
related to intimacy. Being intimate with somebody, for instance, involves
“being close” or “closely connected” to somebody, which can be under-
stood in physical, emotional and cognitive ways. An underlying premise
that guides our understanding of intimacy, and subsequently the selec-
tion of the contributions and the structure of this book is that a “close
connection” (intimacy) exists between a person and their own feelings,
­sexuality and body. Hereby, however, we intend to not determine or mor-
ally judge individuals’ relationships to their own feelings, sexuality and
body, or whether intimate practices or aspects of the self should or should
not be part of market transactions.

S. Hofmann (*)
University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany
A. Moreno
Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives, Manchester,
United Kingdom

© The Author(s) 2016 1

S. Hofmann, A. Moreno (eds.), Intimate Economies,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56036-0_1
2 S. HOFMANN AND A. MORENO

Fundamental for opponents of commercial intimacy is that by exchang-

ing intimacy for money, the integrity between the body and the self becomes
severed, which allegedly carries grave psychological consequences, and
therefore damage the seller or provider of intimate services (Barry 1995;
Jeffreys 1997). Accordingly, for such scholars, it is not just services that are
sold in commercial intimate practices, such as prostitution, for instance, but
sellers place their selves on the market, because the embodied labor cannot be
stripped from the person who sells her sexuality (Pateman 1988). However,
many providers of commercial intimate services strongly disagree with that
view, as the following extract from an adult performer’s blog demonstrates:

One time I gave a guy a dance and he goes, “thank you for sharing yourself
with me.” The other girls thought it was sweet and I thought it was sick
as fuck.—The wide-spread idea that we are selling, renting, sharing some
integral part of ourselves is so gross to me … no one thinks that nannies are
selling some vital part of themselves as they give your child (pseudo?) affec-
tionate attention and wipe their asses (Red, adult performer).1

Core to our book is the recognition of the understandings and experiences

of commercial intimacy by those involved in such relationships and processes.
Commercial intimate practices have often been accompanied by discontent
in both public debate and academic discourse. Although discussions of the
commodification of sexuality (Van der Veen 2001; O’Connell Davidson
2002; Liechty 2005; Thu-Huong 2008), intimate labor (Wilson 2004; Boris
and Salazar Parreñas 2010; Wolkowitz et al. 2013) and bodily substances
(Franklin and Ragoné 1998; Scheper-Hughes and Wacquant 2003; Waldby
2006; Waldby and Cooper 2008; Kroløkke et al. 2012; Vora 2015) are cer-
tainly not a new field, our book aims to reopen this debate, and get to the bot-
tom of the inherent discontent guided by the results of new empirical studies
and the voices of individuals engaged in commercial intimate exchanges. As
a response to this debate, our collection emphasizes the lived experiences
of persons who take part in markets for intimate and embodied trade. We
present different viewpoints and a variety of geographic locations in order to
explore the multiplicity and diversity of experiences which have often been
batched together under the monolithic concept of “bodies for sale.”
To situate embodied commerce and intimate labor within the geo-
graphic, temporal and cultural context they operate within is crucial. We
suggest that: (1). technologies, legal regulations and social contexts mat-
ter to the experiences of subjects involved in intimate exchanges; (2). in
 INTRODUCTION: GLOBAL INTIMATE ECONOMIES... 3

different intimate markets, different notions of commodified bodies and

their capacities are employed; and (3). these differences entail variegated
significations regarding personal experience, material possibilities and out-
comes for persons involved in the intimate and bodily trade. We refuse to
encompass the complex and varied intimate economies that appear in this
book with one overarching theorization, instead, in this introduction, we
focus on discussing a range of theoretical concepts that recur in debates on
intimate labor and bodily commerce. Most of those concepts, such as gifts,
commodities, exploitation, harm, alienation, commodification, subjectivity,
market, consent, choice or freedom have originated in philosophy, political
science, economics, feminist writings or anthropology and traversed into
other academic disciplines in the course of debates on human bodies and
intimate capacities. We insist on the significance of these concepts as com-
monly applied to intimate labor and bodily commerce. However, we also
assert that they urgently require a revision in dialogue with the lived experi-
ences and reasoning of subjects involved in intimate exchanges.

Gifts and Commodities

Some of the existing literature on the commerce of intimacy have envi-
sioned the private or domestic sphere as a bulwark that defies the harsh
and impersonal world of market capitalism (for instance, Hochschild 1983,
2012). According to this approach, intimacy should be shared out of altru-
istic motives, and therefore be exchanged between persons or groups as
a form of gift exchange, never as commodity. Many nostalgic approaches
to understanding intimate relations that have influenced academic studies
can be traced back to Marx’ idealistic notion of the “social character” of
familial labor in precapitalist peasant families (Marx 1978, 326). Intimacy
is presumed a gift in common idealizations of precapitalist social relations,
unmarked by inequality or instrumentality. However, gift exchanges do
also involve complex and ambiguous processes and relationships that are
not free from conflict. Describing the exchange of gifts through cycles of
reciprocity, Bourdieu (1998), for instance, speaks of the dual truth of the
gift. The concept of the dual truth relates to a gap between the subjec-
tive intentions and perception of each individual gift-giving event, and
the objective reciprocal and power relationship embodied in gift-giving.
Based on the inequality of power that constitutes the backdrop of many
gift-giving processes, social actors “have an interest in ‘disinterestedness’”
(Bourdieu 1998, 93). Marcel Mauss (2002) focused rather on the “spirit”
4 S. HOFMANN AND A. MORENO

of the gift that compels to reciprocation by possessing the person who

receives it and thereby connecting her or him to the giver. In Mauss’ inter-
pretation, the spirit helped conceal the long-term reciprocal function of
the gift and the embeddedness of gift-giving into existing power relations.
While gifts and commodities are often imagined as opposed to one
another, a range of scholars have emphasized that empirically (in lived
reality) the two cannot always be as neatly separated from each other as
we might like (Zelizer 2005). In their article “Love as a fictitious com-
modity,” the authors Swader et al. (2013) explore the meanings of
women’s gift-for-sex barters in contemporary Russia. The gift-for-sex
exchanges that women pursue are contractual, and as such, they no lon-
ger are “pure gifts.” However, the authors stress that the act of giving a
gift, even a monetary one, by definition conveys the symbolic meaning
of the desire to enter into a reciprocal relationship, rather than paying a
salary, which stands for an economic transaction that equalizes labor or
goods with a specific monetary value. Yet, the authors also emphasize that
women’s often specific gift-requests time and again “puncture this veil of
assumed altruistic or independent intent” and easily appear as “bald-faced
exchange,” despite the fact that it is women’s intention to subjectively
disconnect their barter practices from market transactions or commodity
exchanges. Hence, such gift-for-sex barters are “hybrids that embody both
some degree of the emotional-romantic transfers made possible through
the gift form and also the contractual nature of the barter” (Swader et al.
2013). A broad number of anthropological and sociological studies have
described such sexual-affective economic exchanges in different parts of
the globe, emphasizing that the realms of the altruistic-intimate (gift) and
the economic-public (commodity) cannot neatly be separated (Cabezas
2004, 2009; Brennan 2004; Bernstein 2007; Piscitelli 2007, 2008, 2013;
Nieto Olivar 2008; Cheng 2010).
Similar to transactions that involve intimate emotions and sexual prac-
tices, the commercial exchanges of human body parts are often articulated
through gift symbolism, whether in the context of organ transplantation,
medical testing, reproductive services or gamete supply. In particular,
gamete provision and surrogacy are regulated as a form of “donation”
or altruistic exchange in most countries of the Global North (Spar 2006;
Kroløkke et al. 2012; Nahman 2013), while the sale of live organ donation
is prohibited by international legislation (Scheper-Hughes 2003; Mor and
Boas 2005). These transactions, which often nonetheless involve mon-
etary endowments for body parts, tissues or reproductive capacities, are
 INTRODUCTION: GLOBAL INTIMATE ECONOMIES... 5

defined as compensation or return for expenses to the persons providing

their organs; and as payment for service or professional knowledge on the
receiving end. These trades in the body exemplify therefore the multiple
and dynamic ontologies of objects and subjects within intimate markets, as
their meaning often alters within chains of production and consumption,
according to the social values that are imbued within them (Thompson
2005; Nordqvist 2011; Nahman 2013). Participants in the body trade
perform an intricate and nuanced “ontological choreography” (Thompson
2005) in order to ensure that the exchanges are framed according to exist-
ing moral norms and human dignity. In the process, human subjects, body
parts, future persons and raw materials shift between different ontological
statuses and subject positions, according to the desires of participants and
the outcomes of the trade (ibid.).
Medical-legal mechanisms for sourcing, storing and distributing vital
materials from healthy donors to persons in need date back to the devel-
opment of blood banks during World War II (Waldby 2006; Thompson
2007). Titmuss (1970) linked the “gift ethics” of blood donations with the
emergence of redistributive ethics of the welfare state, and with a form of
national social cohesion and solidarity. The anonymity of the gift, according
to Titmuss, engenders reciprocal ties not between the receiver and giver,
but among members of the nation state who are all potential receivers and
givers (ibid.). In the contemporary world, these mechanisms include the
development of organ donation schemes for transplant purposes, gamete
and embryo banking, and the sourcing preservation and growing of live
tissues for the purposes of scientific research (Cooper and Waldby 2014;
Parry 2015). In these sites, the gift ideology still carries on as significant
discursive frame for the provision of embodied materials, as for instance
in the provision of samples of human tissue for research purposes, which
is expected to be based in voluntary donations rather than monetary pay-
ments (Waldby 2006; Thompson 2007; Gottweis et al. 2009). At the same
time, over the last few decades, an advanced and ever growing market for
body organs, reproductive cells and tissues and in vivo processes has devel-
oped into a global industry. These markets include the sale of gametes,
surrogacy, live-donor organs and the market for drug testing and medi-
cal experimentation in healthy subjects. These industries are based upon
global chains of production and consumption, often servicing the needs
of persons in the Global North, and based on the vitality and capacities of
bodies in the Global South (Ginsburg and Rapp 1995; Scheper-Hughes
2003; Kroløkke et al. 2012; Rudrappa 2015; Twine 2015).
6 S. HOFMANN AND A. MORENO

Viviana Zelizer (2005) has drawn attention to the socially layered and
complex subjective meanings that individuals assign to their economic
activities. Her argument about the realms of the intimate and economic
being interspersed rather than separated challenges classical “commodifi-
cation” approaches (Radin 1987; Nussbaum 1995; Van der Veen 2001;
Phillips 2013; Dodd 2014). Zelizer (2005) has labeled the social science
perspective that deems the domestic or private sphere as a sanctuary that
is presumed free from underlying economic interest or strategizing the
“hostile world view.” In this perspective, the world of the private and
intimate becomes morally corrupted when activities or relationships are
conflated with monetary value. Zelizer’s work on intimacy and the mar-
ket offers new and productive ways of understanding the social nature
of the economy that do not fully negate the analytical value of the con-
cept of commodification. Scholarship on the transnational circulation of
affect and intimacies illustrates that relationships that are assumed to be
based primarily on paid work for money often involve complex forms
of intimacy (Brites 2007; Piscitelli 2007, 2008, 2013; Constable 2009;
Vega 2009; Cheng 2010; Gutiérrez Rodríguez 2010; Boris and Parreñas
2010). Conversely, work that is assumed to be carried out in consequence
of love or emotional ties can be linked to material interests and desires
(Cole and Thomas 2009; Hunter 2009; Groes-Green 2014). Key insights
from those studies can help us broaden our scholarly understandings and
assumptions about the consumption and commodification of relationships
that are often assumed to be naturally, or ideally, based on emotional con-
nection, love or care, but that increasingly involve impersonal relations,
complex commercial and increasingly bureaucratic mediating processes,
material benefits and wages.

Discontents with Commercial Intimacy Spelled Out

So what is meant by commodification and what exactly do authors object
to by appealing to the idea of commodification? Commodification refers
to the social practice of treating a particular class of things as commodities,
i.e. as properties that can be bought, sold or rented. To commodify some-
thing is to make something exchangeable for money. However, the term
does have a moral sense beyond its descriptive meaning. In this moral sense
of the word, it intends to “denote a specific kind of wrong” (Wilkinson
2003, 44). Scholars objecting to commercializing the body and the idea
of commodification of the intimate tend to elaborate on the ethical point
 INTRODUCTION: GLOBAL INTIMATE ECONOMIES... 7

that we ought not to permit these practices such as organ sale, prostitution
and commercial surrogacy, because doing so will encourage people wrong-
fully to treat other people “as commodities.” Commodification implicitly
includes a type of objectification; converting something or someone into a
good that can be traded (i.e. exchanged for a value). For Wilkinson (2003,
46) it is not “the commodifying attitude per se which is wrong, but the
inappropriate application of it to entities, which aren’t (proper) commodi-
ties (notably persons),” i.e. treating persons as if they were commodities.
However, he reminds us that bodies and body parts are indeed physical
objects. Hence, any ethical concerns that we have about the objectifica-
tion of bodies, according to Wilkinson, cannot center on whether bodies
are being treated as objects. Rather, therefore, our concerns must focus
on whether bodies are treated as mere objects. Bodies are obviously more
than mere objects insofar as they are intimately related to persons. To
objectify the body can only mean to treat it as a mere object. This means
treating it as if it were not intimately related to a person.
In addition to objectification (i.e. treating people as if they were
objects), Margaret Radin (1996) objects to commensurability and fun-
gibility, which constitute essential parts of her conceptualization of com-
modification. When a thing is commercialized, it is by definition assigned a
monetary value. Radin (1996) contends that this forces, or at least encour-
ages, us to view it as commensurable, both in relation to money itself and
in relation to other things with the same monetary value. Commodities
are fungibles, and to regard something as a commodity is to regard it as
fungible. Hence, to commodify is to treat as fungible something which is
not fungible and/or ought not to be viewed as such. Wilkinson (2003,
46) points out that this breaches the second Kantian principle, since treat-
ing persons as fungible fails properly to respect their dignity; it is to regard
them as having mere “price.” However, the fungibility critique arises in
labor generally (McNally 2006). A nurse can be fungible, for instance, it
does not matter which nurse puts a patch on a patient’s arm. Hence, at
work, people can be fungible, not only in intimate work, such as sex work,
for instance.
Part of concerns around commercial uses of bodies is to do with a
notion of exploitation. Stephen Wilkinson (2003) in his book Bodies for
Sale: Ethics and Exploitation in the Human Body Trade thoroughly scruti-
nized the preoccupation with exploitation with regard to bodies becom-
ing part of market transactions. Wilkinson distinguishes two kinds of
exploitation, first, “wrongful use” exploitation, which other authors have
8 S. HOFMANN AND A. MORENO

often captured with the notion of objectification or instrumentalization

(Nussbaum 1995), in which the other is used merely as an instrument
or tool for achieving someone else’s goals. Wrongful use exploitation is
using another person as a (mere) means. The second kind of exploitation
Wilkinson discusses refers to “disparity of value.” In disparity of value,
exploitation the exploited is wronged because she or he is “unfairly used.”
Typically the unfairness consists of being rewarded too little compensa-
tion for work or efforts spent. The individual concerned has their vulner-
ability taken advantage of, which is why this kind of exploitation has also
been called “advantage-exploitation” (Wood 1995, 8). For Wilkinson,
however, there is no conceptual or logical conflict between valuing a per-
son instrumentally and simultaneously as an “end.” The consideration of
treating persons as ends rather than means to an end dates back to the first
Kantian principle: “do not treat people solely as means.” While Wilkinson
considers it possible to use persons in ways that are compatible with recog-
nizing and respecting their intrinsic value, he contends that the problem is
“not instrumentalization per se, but treating someone primarily or merely
as an instrument” (Wilkinson 2003, 41). Therefore, the overall context
of the relationship becomes fundamental. It is the overall context of the
relationship, along with other structural features of the situation, which
determines whether someone is appropriately respected as a person in the
course of a commercial intimate transaction.

Globalized Intimate Labor a Commodity?

In Western philosophy, treating persons and bodies as things is to violate
human freedom, and in doing so, to deprive people of a fundamental
component of humanity (Hegel 1952; Kant 1979). This powerful claim,
however, conflicts with the dominant institution of modern capitalist soci-
ety, the labor market (McNally 2006). For Kant, wagelabor had serious
implications for personhood; those making a living as “merely laborers,”
i.e. sellers of their labor, would be unqualified to be citizens (Kant 1991,
78). Selling one’s labor, energy and skill for a wage he considered a threat
to freedom and autonomy that are integral to personhood. By selling
their labor, wagelaborers treat intrinsic parts of themselves as things, and
this violates the very distinction between persons and things upon which
human freedom rests for Kant.
In its founding charter, the International Labor Organization rejected
the notion of labor as a commodity (Pocock et al. 2005). However, Pocock
 INTRODUCTION: GLOBAL INTIMATE ECONOMIES... 9

et al. (2005, 459) assert that recent analysis of changes in the labor market
internationally has led to a revived notion that “labour is returning to the
status of a commodity.” This shift, according to Pocock, is caused by an
erosion of regulatory arrangements and practices that used to recognize
and protect the embodied labor power in the person of a free citizen, one
who exercises agency (including a voice, the change of workplace exit and
resistance). Intimate labor, as we discuss in this volume, must be analyzed
in the context of this contemporary backward shift toward treating labor
as pure commodity. Correspondingly, workers lose control of their time,
their ability to earn a living income, their capacity to reproduce or support
dependents, their voice, the respect they are given at work and their ability
to organize collectively.
As a result of the ever more widespread accessibility of global travel,
in conjunction with persisting economic inequalities between the Global
North and South, intimate economies have expanded throughout the
globe, but especially in contact zones, in which actors from economically
unequal backgrounds meet, such as international borders, tourism loca-
tions or biomedical laboratories (Ginsburg and Rapp 1995; Kempadoo
1999; Ehrenreich and Hochschild 2002; Brennan 2004; Cabezas 2004;
Collier and Ong 2005; Haraway 2008; Shah 2008; Hofmann 2010, 2013,
2014; Williams 2013; Simoni 2014). The bodies and capacities of inti-
mate workers from the Global South become recolonized (Agathangelou
2004). However, this process of appropriation of people’s bodies depends
increasingly on individuals’ personal capacities to adjust their emotions
and concepts of self, body and intimacy to the rationalities of the market.
Intimate workers make complex calculations, which include aspects such
as financial gain, prospects for advancement and social mobility, stigma of
the work, workplace satisfaction, control and self-determination at work
among others. Experiences of subjects involved in intimate economies are
often ambivalent, oscillating between personal empowerment and agency,
as well as the required subjection to the demands of the current market
regime.
The current global political economy is structured in a north–south
division of service work (Ehrenreich and Hochschild 2002). Undesirable
labor forms, such as intimate work and other forms of embodied labor
are increasingly outsourced to workers from the Global South (Cabezas
2009). Globalization has sparked a sharp increase in workers from
lower-­income states who migrate into the metropolitan centers of the
Global North, in order to boost their economic opportunities. In the
10 S. HOFMANN AND A. MORENO

process of their movement, the intimate capacities and bodies of those

workers become recolonized as cheap providers of body-work, sex and
care (Agathangelou 2004). In this global exchange of intimate work,
the labor of workers is utilized to socially produce other subjects and
their lifestyles through generating experiences of intimacy or provid-
ing the corporeal substances that allow them to procreate. Our collec-
tion empirically demonstrates that the opportunities for intimate work
available to socio-­ economically disadvantaged subjects often involve
high levels of occupational risk, such as exposure to violence, extreme
physical strain or health hazards, such as injuries or sexually transmitted
diseases.
Selling aspects of “the self,” such as personal attributes, intimacy, sexu-
ality, emotions, affect, creative energy or bodily substances is increasingly
common in contemporary capitalism. Workers continually renegotiate
access to their bodies, and the authenticity of emotions and personal iden-
tities at work. The intimate economy has become a major economic niche
for workers from the Global South whose bodies and affective qualities
become the resources for the self-actualization of affluent elites. With this
collection, we will advance current debates on the specificity of the com-
mercial appropriation of bodies and intimate capacities, revisiting previous
discussions on alienation, worker subjectivities and the effects of com-
modified bodies, emotions, affects and personal identities for the purpose
of corporate profits.

Bodies as Commodities
Concerns regarding commodification of labor and personhood become
more acute when the labor that is required lies within the realm of the
intimate: sexuality, reproduction, care. Over the past few decades, the
innermost parts of personhood have become part of commercial trans-
actions, including: human genome sequences, organs from live-donors,
gametes (and therefore future offspring) and reproductive capacities. This
development of biomedical industries and markets in body parts raise
several ethical and empirical questions: What are the implications of the
commodification of biomaterial for the person providing it? What are the
effects on personhood resulting from the commodification practices that
involve body material and reproductive capacities? And what is the poten-
tial harm to humankind, as in the case of genome editing and the creation
of “designer babies?”
 INTRODUCTION: GLOBAL INTIMATE ECONOMIES... 11

Many feminist authors of the 1980s responded to the appearance of

new medical markets for gestational services and reproductive material
with concern (Franklin 2013). These authors criticized the potential of
harnessing female reproductive capacities into a source of capital produc-
tion, and hence the transformation of women’s bodies into baby-making
machines in the service of a capitalist-patriarchal industry (Katz-Rothman
1984; Corea 1985; Klein 1991; see also Franklin 2013). In books such as
Wombs for Rent (Smith 1988) and Test Tube Women (Arditti et al. 1984)
among others, the authors develop a theory that women’s participation
as sellers or as reproductive laborers inevitably transforms their bodies
into mere commodities, separated from their subjectivity, and that they
themselves become alienated from the fruits of their labor, which are in
these scenarios the children who in themselves become commodities in
the reproductive trade (Mies and Shiva 1993; Hochschild 2011b, 2012).
However, further empirical work of reproductive markets provides con-
tradictory evidence as to the lived experiences of participation as sellers in
the reproductive trade (Franklin 2013). Many studies describe the inher-
ent inequality that underlies these markets, involving the movement of
gametes alongside hierarchical axes of class, race and gender inequalities
on a global scale (Ginsburg and Rapp 1995; Twine 2015; Vora 2015).
These markets in reproductive organs often involve precarious working
conditions, unfair payments and lack of compensation for risks and poten-
tial harm within these trades, and unfair pay, compared with the sums
that are paid to the professionals conducting the trade (Nahman 2008;
Kirby 2014; Pande 2014; Rudrappa 2015). At the same time, research
also shows that when the reproductive service is conducted in a manner
that respects the subjectivity and dignity of the reproductive laborer, when
the commissioning parents show their gratitude and when the outcome
of the process is the birth of a live child, these markets cannot only be
­perceived as a profitable endeavor, but also as an empowering and fulfilling
experience by the laborers involved in it (Teman 2010).
Following Kirby (2014), we suggest that the debate often conflates
two separate sets of concerns regarding markets in human bodies and
embodied capabilities. The first concern stems from the conceptualiza-
tion of human subjects as inalienable and of social relations (includ-
ing love, sexuality, family building) as belonging outside the realm
of the capitalist market. These arguments are often discredited by
empirical work that demonstrates the commensurability of market and
social relations. The second concern addresses the actual conditions of
12 S. HOFMANN AND A. MORENO

participation in markets in bodies, which indeed often carry dire con-

sequences for subjects carrying out embodied labor (Waldby 2002;
Cooper and Waldby 2014; Kirby 2014). These articulations of markets
in bodies as a new form of post-­Fordist service economy are discussed
in the next section.

The Value of Living Matter

The commodification of body parts, bodies and the emergence of new
forms of embodied labor have brought about the emergence of a novel
form of capital generation in late-liberal capitalism, a form that was
termed by Waldby “biovalue” (Waldby 2002). Biovalue is a term which
describes the value which is produced as a result of harnessing the vital-
ity of the body or living tissues, altering them, manipulating them and
directing their productivity (Waldby 2002; Waldby and Cooper 2008).
Biovalue can consist of processes that occur in vivo, such as gestational
surrogacy or phase I clinical medical trials, but it often occurs in vitro,
separate from the personalized source of the tissue and often removed
from the personalized, individualized traits. Since biovalue is mostly
generated through the operation of medicine and medical clinics (for
reproduction, research or clinical trials), Waldby and Cooper term this
form of labor “clinical labor” (Waldby and Cooper 2008; Cooper and
Waldby 2014).
Biomedical markets operate as part of a post-Fordist mode of produc-
tion, relying on a cheap—mainly female—labor force, often located in the
Global South (Waldby and Cooper 2008; Cooper and Waldby 2014). The
reliance on a racialized, impoverished labor force enables the externaliza-
tion of risk (monetary and physical) onto the bodies of the laborers while
maintaining the main profit in the hands of professionals (Banerjee 2014;
Rudrappa 2015). For instance, surrogacy contracts in India often involve
lack of payment or very low pay in cases of miscarriage, and do not offer
compensation to the surrogate for potential bodily harm (Sama 2012;
Kirby 2014; Rudrappa 2015). Thus, externalizing the risk expands the
profit margins of the surrogacy industry while maintaining the costs low
for commissioning parents, at the expense of surrogates who may suffer
financial losses and bodily harm.
The production of biovalue involves a certain “movement” between
altruism and commerce, between gift, commodity and waste (Cooper and
 INTRODUCTION: GLOBAL INTIMATE ECONOMIES... 13

Waldby 2014), and the same substance can change its ontology according
to the location in the consumption or production networks. For instance,
ova can enter the reproductive trade cycle as a donation, or as a precious
commodity, and it can exit the chain of reproductive commerce as a live
human being, in the case of successful fertilization and pregnancy, as a dis-
carded raw material, as in the case of failed freezing, thawing or fertiliza-
tion, or as a form of unused waste, as is the case with many over-crowded
embryo repositories around the world. The ovum can also alter its aim and
become the source material of medical research, as is the case of stem cell
research. Throughout these movements, the meaning of “commodifica-
tion” of the body alters as the body itself becomes molecular and disinte-
grated (Rose 2001).
Clinical labor often involves specific interventions in the female body
“rather than the performance of tasks and an expenditure of labor power
per se. This ambiguity is endemic to the new forms of biomedical and clini-
cal labor, all of which require a direct, often highly experimental, involve-
ment of the body’s biology in the creation of surplus value” (Waldby
and Cooper 2008, 65). This positions the laborer herself and the labor
performed in a questionable position—being part seller, part laborer,
part commodity, devoid of labor protections and regulatory frameworks
and stigmatized for participating in bodily trade (Ikemoto 2009; Pande
2009b; Parry 2015). It is therefore suggested that a counter-measure
should include addressing laborers’ participation in biomedical markets
strictly as a form of labor—and therefore demanding the recognition of
their rights to their own body material and bodily integrity (Dickenson
2007; Waldby and Cooper 2008; Pande 2011, 2014). It is important
to note in this respect that clinical laborers often perform complex tasks
with and about their bodies, including the acquisition of particular sci-
entific knowledge, as well as intricate intimate labor in order to match
the criteria of the biomedical industry. For instance, phase I test sub-
jects need to maintain daily routines of medicine intake and reporting of
notable effects; egg vendors receive hormonal treatments prior to the ova
extraction, and are also expected to provide detailed medical histories;
and gestational surrogates care for their pregnant body and the fetus dur-
ing surrogacy pregnancy, as well as maintain their emotional presentation
toward the commissioning parents and clinical staff. In this respect, clini-
cal labor corresponds with other lines of emotional or affective, intimate
labor in the growing global service economy.
14 S. HOFMANN AND A. MORENO

Intimate Labor and Alienation

What for many scholars makes intimate work more problematic than
other laboring activities is not just the use of the human body, but the
sexual use of the body and of women’s bodies in particular. Sexuality is
regarded as one of the most intimate aspects of the self. It is considered
integral to the self and can therefore not be separated from it without
harm. Subsequently, for some scholars, a prostitute who sells her sexuality
is also selling her “self” (Pateman 1988). The buying and selling of sexual-
ity for the client’s use is thought to transform the body into a mere vessel
or object. Anti-commodification scholars assert that in the course of the
intimate market exchange, the body becomes alienated, as it is used as a
“thing” for someone else (Van der Veen 2001). The process of emotional
distancing, disengagement and segmentation that is integral to profes-
sional sex workers’ work practices is considered as “destructive of wom-
en’s humanity” by radical feminists (Barry 1995). Notions of “detrimental
use” of others, harm and alienation play a decisive role in the theorizing of
anti-commodification scholars with regard to intimate economies. In her
seminal book The Managed Heart: Commercialization of Human Feeling,
Arlie R. Hochschild (1983) elaborates on the “cost” of emotional labor,
finding that workers can become estranged or alienated from aspects of
their selves (either body or soul) that is used to do the work. In her recent
text Childbirth at the Global Crossroads, Hochschild (2011b) brings her
critique of alienation to the arena of reproductive labor and care work
by discussing the alienation of reproductive laborers from the fruits of
their labor, and of parents from the embodied reproductive labor, or from
the everyday care toward these children. However, essentialist notions of
the relationship that humans establish with their own sexuality, body and
emotions have also been criticized (Weeks 2007; Jaeggi 2014), because
they imply particular normative ideas about the nature of this relationship.
With reference to Jean Paul Sartre’s famous statement L’enfer c’est les
autres (Hell is other people), Italian autonomist Marxist theorist Franco
Berardi (2009) asserts that a certain form of alienation is implicit in social
relations themselves. For Sartre, alienation was nothing other than the
intrinsic modality of alterity, which he considered the constitutive form of
the social relation and human condition. From an existentialist perspec-
tive, alienation is considered as an unavoidable and constitutive element
of the human condition, since “otherness (condition of the social relation)
and reification (condition of the productive relation) both imply a loss of
self” (see Berardi 2009, 34).
 INTRODUCTION: GLOBAL INTIMATE ECONOMIES... 15

Updated versions of alienation critique are all to some extent built on

post-structuralist critiques of the subject, and based on Foucault’s claims
that a subject cannot exist “of itself” in an unalienated manner some-
where beyond the social powers that form and oppress it (Foucault 1978,
2008). Foucault’s notion of the “productivity of power” radically calls
into question the possibility of distinguishing inner from outer, “one’s
own” from “alien” and social formation from individual uniqueness. If
the subject is both subjected to the rules of power and at the same time
constituted by them, then the distinction that alienation critique requires
between self and alien, between an unrepressed (or undistorted) subject
and a repressive (or distorting) power, is no longer tenable. The insight,
following Foucault, that there is no autonomous subject that is capable
of being sole author of its actions, must significantly impact on our cri-
tique of alienation. Considering, then, we all live in “exo-determination”
(Lordon 2014)—we are all forced to do things by others and depend on
each other—alienation is non-existing or universal. Judith Butler, recog-
nizing that alienation is constitutive and unavoidable, speaks of human
subjects as “[v]ulnerable to terms one never made, one persists always,
to some degrees through categories, terms, names and classifications that
mark the primary and inaugurative alienation in sociality” (Butler 1997,
28). Seen through a feminist’s lens, socialization—the way we are brought
up to live and be by our culture—can be alienation (Young 1990). A
broad body of feminist literature on care work has highlighted how social-
ized “female” qualities, such as altruism, attentiveness, docility and ser-
vility are capitalized upon in the contemporary professional care market
(Vega 2009; Gutiérrez Rodríguez 2010).
The philosopher Rahel Jaeggi (2014) has produced an updated alien-
ation critique, which is not grounded in essentialist presuppositions, nei-
ther makes paternalistic arguments affecting market actors. Considering
that our reference point for alienation can no longer be a supposed essen-
tial or authentic human nature, Jaeggi (2014, 217) asserts that “over-
coming alienation means not overcoming the sociality that roles represent
but appropriating and transforming them.” The appropriation and trans-
formation of social roles, however, requires institutions that make self-­
determination and self-realization possible. Therefore, questions arise as
to how institutions must be constituted so that individuals living within
them can understand themselves as the (co-)authors of those institutions
and identify with them as agents, and what social institutions would look
like that could be understood as embodiments of freedom.
16 S. HOFMANN AND A. MORENO

Past commodification debates in the social sciences have been influ-

enced by the anxiety and fear that commodification might chip away more
and more non-monetary aspects of our life and eventually transform all
of social life and relationships into market transactions (Dodd 2014). We
hope that the empirical studies from our book help restructure the way we
think about commodification so as to not let it polarize into two opposing
views that both constitute equally unacceptable solutions for the powerless
(Radin and Sunder 2005): firstly, “protecting” intimate workers through
prohibition, on the basis of the argument that intimate work is harmful
and/or exploitative or alienating, and effectively preventing them from
intimate market exchanges, or secondly, a liberal market view that sees no
problem in intimate market exchanges, but exposes workers to exploita-
tion and subordination, disregarding the possibly harmful and disciplining
nature of the market itself.
The lived experiences of people involved in intimate markets show
that intimate exchanges do not inevitably lead to alienation, objectifica-
tion and dehumanization, but given particular conditions, laborers can
achieve self-empowerment and self-realization through commodification
practices. Miranda Joseph (2005) has coined the notion of the “multi-
valent commodity,” referring to the idea that any given object can have
multiple meanings; sometimes commodified, sometimes not, sometimes
both at the same time, depending upon the context. The empirical evi-
dence presented in this book reminds us of the ultimate importance of
the context in which commodification practices take place. Central to the
issue of commodification of intimacy is who has the power to control
the meaning of the commodity, its value and the conditions under which
the exchange takes place.

Intimate Economies and Economic Justice

Liberal theorists imagine market relations as enabling the exercise of
power over commodities and not persons; therefore, the wage labor con-
tract can be presented as an equivalent, mutual and voluntary exchange
(see O’Connell Davidson 2002). Following liberal theory, intimate labor-
ers consent to sell their goods or services, because they win from the
exchange. It is a win-win situation. The “bourgeois fiction” (O’Connell
Davidson 2002) that all commodity exchange is based on “free” individu-
als who engage in market transactions has been applied to the provision of
sexual services by sex radicals (Bell 1994; Nagel 1997). Julia O’Connell
 INTRODUCTION: GLOBAL INTIMATE ECONOMIES... 17

Davidson (2002), remarks, however, that “any such ‘freedom’ is contin-

gent upon the existence of a particular, and highly unequal, set of political,
economic, and social relations, since in general, people ‘choose’ neither
wage labor nor prostitution unless denied access to alternative means of
subsistence.” She strongly contests the liberal notion that based on equal
formal rights to market participation both the worker and capitalist enjoy
freedom in the same way.2 Instead, she emphasizes that “it is through this
very process of exchange that the political and economic dominance of
the capitalist class is maintained and reproduced” (O’Connell Davidson
2002, 86). Liberal theory that has influenced much of scholarly literature
that does not condemn the commodification of intimate services, thus,
also conceals existing power relations and dependence between those who
can pay others to do what they want, and those who get paid to be at the
disposal of those who can pay to have their desires fulfilled.
Pro-sex work feminists, for instance, have discussed ways in which the
market for commodified sex is shaped by global and/or gender inequali-
ties, and highlighted that the selling of sexual labor can represent a form
of resistance to existing inequalities (see for example, Kempadoo and
Doezema 1998; Cabezas 2009). While this work conducts a critical analy-
sis of the class, gender, race and global power relations that underpin the
contemporary sex industry, it has not quite been satisfactory from a trans-
formative, emancipatory or liberation politics perspective, because named
resistances constitute mere arrangements within a set status quo (under set
market relations and values) that works only for those laborers with high
“bodily capital” (Wacquant 2004) and “biovalue” (Waldby 2002; Waldby
and Cooper 2008), and is carried out under conditions of exchange which
are still precarious, cannot be determined by the workers themselves, and
are generally viable only for a very limited amount of time within the life
of an individual.
Feminists are often single-mindedly focused on finding legal remedies
(Bernstein 2007) for protecting vulnerable populations in intimate profes-
sions, rather than paying attention to the relationship between intimate
and economic relations, and forging effective political strategies accompa-
nied by viable economic solutions. In the field of reproductive rights and
freedoms, the feminist debate over reproductive labor and the commodi-
fication of female bodies often neglects to address the broader concerns of
economic survival and access to proper health care for women in marginal
social positions and their families, as well as broader concerns of wom-
en’s control over their reproductive capacities and desires (Bailey 2011;
18 S. HOFMANN AND A. MORENO

Gurr 2015). It is wrong to separate the discussion regarding contracted

motherhood and gamete provision from broader feminist concerns toward
forced sterilization of minority populations, access to contraception and
abortions, as well as colonial histories of control over reproduction and
the trade in people of color (Vora 2015). It is also wrong to separate
this discussion from the social and economic contexts, which make some
bodies “bioavailable” for the needs of the state, the market and racialized-­
gendered regimes of power (Cohen 2004). Bailey suggests adopting
the framework of reproductive justice in order to address surrogacy, as
well as other forms of reproductive commerce, with “epistemic honesty”
overcoming Eurocentric analysis while taking into account the “broad-
est concerns of surrogacy worker’s lives” (Bailey 2011, 716–717). In this
framework, reproductive justice is broadly understood as “the complete
physical, mental, spiritual, political, social, environmental, and economic
well-being of women and girls” (Sistersong cited in Bailey 2011).
One thing is clear: our analysis of commercial intimacy should not
result in policy practice that places the livelihood of socially and economi-
cally marginalized people further into jeopardy. Poor people’s desire for
economic, social and geographic mobility must be taken into account,
as well as their rationalities, which are often grounded in flexibility (of
work schedules) and instantaneity (of cash flows).To seriously address
the burgeoning intimate economies in all of their diverse manifestations
(including the circumstances of profound exploitation that some inti-
mate laborers find themselves in) would require a much more ambitious
political agenda. Firstly, a critical analysis of intimate economies requires
alternative conceptualizations of the self, inspired by non-Western under-
standings that could allow us to move beyond the liberal conception of the
abstracted individual and forge new relational conceptions of the self and
of personal sovereignty based on the preservation of and care for others
(Brace 1997). Secondly, if we wish to advance or represent the interests
of more than just privileged women from the Global North, we need to
look beyond the market and liberal discourse on the market, contractual
consent and freedom of the individual for theorizing intimate economies
in all their complexities and globality. Thirdly, we need to thoroughly
analyze the global inequalities of sex, class and race, in the context of
unjust international labor distribution and resource extraction, which lie
at the basis of many poor women’s engagement in dangerous and pre-
carious intimate labor arrangements. When Juhu Thukral and Melissa
Ditmore from the Urban Justice Center in New York interviewed a diverse
Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
appear, whether or no they contain Gold or Silver: They are to be a
long time boil’d with Water, that being dispersed, they may be
translated out of their metalline nature, and the pure (by the
agitation of the Fire) may be separated from the impure; which
purer part of the metal doth not swim at the top, like Butter, but
settles to the bottom like a Regulus, after the metallick manner, and
all being cool, it must be separated from the Scoria, and in a Cupel
be washed to the utmost purity (abgetrieben).
But now ’tis worth the while to know what Water this is which is fit
for this Work, and makes a separation of metals; for seeing that it
must have power to dissolve metals, it’s expedient that it be a friend
unto them, and of the same kin, or (that I may speak clearer) ’tis fit
that it be their dissolver and examinator; and this old Saturn hath
power to do, out of which it may with small costs and labour be
prepared; but the common Saturn, although it be called the Water of
Metals by all the Philosophers (but in the usual washing in the
Cupels ’tis not found so to be) yet as long as it remains in a compact
metalline form, ’tis unfit for this thing; let him first be made Water
himself before he reduceth the metals into water; which work is
easie, of small cost, and of a few hours labour, and it goes into
Water, and the Metals are thereby washt. Of which more shall be
said in the following Chapter of ♄, and elsewhere. This also is to be
noted, That if Copper being dissolved with the Water of Lead, be
digested its proper time, the moisture dries, and the metal is
hardened, and returns into a metallick body; therefore the Solution
is to be kept alwaies liquid by the affusion or pouring on of new
water, lest the mutual action be hindered, which the Philosophers
call Incineration: Which being neglected, all the Work doth not
presently perish, but there remains most elegant Amausa, and
tinged Glass, which shines among the Copper, giving out from it self
a Blood-red Colour, wherewith not only wooden Vessels may be
adorned, but also Glass-Painters may use it; of which red Glass there
hath been some found in old Churches; but ’twas believed that the
Art was throughly lost; but this came not by chance without doubt,
but was purposely concealed by those whose practising hereabouts
did perceive a better thing to lie under it; for the red Amausum or
Glass, being burnt its proper time with a strong fire, gives a Regulus
yielding in the Leaden washing (im abtreiben) good Silver. But if you
seek for ☽ out of ♀ , it’s better not to make the red Amausum or
Glass at all, but to keep on with Inceration, that it may not come to
be red, but may remain a pellucid and green Glass, even until ♀ be
well washt.
Moreover this is to be noted, That ♀ and the other metals are not
only reducible into soluble and insoluble Glass, by this Saturnine
Water, but the same is to be done by the addition of clean Flints and
Salts, by which they are made much fairer than those done with ♄;
but in the separation (Seigerungh) they are vilder, because the
Dissolvent is not so metalline, and after purgation, they do not so
easily give their Regulus as those that are done with the Water of ♄.
There’s also another way, by which the superfluous burning sulphur
of ♀ may be washed, and she cleansed without the water of ♄ or of
the Flints, viz. with Salt-Petre. If ♀ or any other imperfect metal be
often mixt therewith and burnt, the purer parts come together, and
the combustible parts come together, and the combustible sulphur
separates in the form of Scoria. To conclude, This separation and
washing may be done by the help of other fixed Salts, but none so
good as the Water of ♄. Now let the Reader know, that those things
spoken in a rude stile, concerning ♀, want not their weight, even as
the following Chapters will openly declare.

The Fifth Rule.

Of the Nature and Virtue of Saturn.

T hus speaks Saturn of himself: The other Six Planets have

excluded and thrust me out, who am their Examinator, from the
spiritual City, assigning me an habitation with a corruptible body; for
what they neither are, nor will be, I am constrained to be: My six
Brethren are Spiritual, wherefore as often as I am in the fire, they
pass through my body, and both I and they perish together in the
Fire, the two best excepted, ☉ and ☽, who are most neatly and
purely washt in my waters, and wax proud. My Spirit is Water,
softning the hard bodies of my Brethren; but my body is addicted to
the Earth, whatsoever I lay hold on, is also made like the Earth; and
is converted into one body. It would not be good that the World
should know what is in me, or what I could do; it would be better
did they but know how to get that thing which is mine, and is in my
faculty, they would lay aside all other Arts of Alchymy, and handle
this thing only, which I am able to perfect. The Stone of Coldness is
in me; this is the Water by which I cause the Spirits of the six other
Metals to congeal into the Corporeity of the Seventh, that is to
promote ☉ with ☽. Antimony is twofold, the one sort is the common
black ♁, wherewith ☉ being mixt and melted, is purged; this is of
nearest kin to Lead; the other is white Magnesia, Bismuth, and
nearest to Tin; being mixt with the other ♁, it encreaseth ☽.
Glaub.] Here we have mention made of Saturn, from whence the
Bath (spoken of afore) for ♀ and the other metals is prepared, and
that twofold, the common and ♁, both which I have mentioned in my
former Tracts, as profitable for this washing; but one is fitter for
some metals than the other. Venus willingly enters into ♄, and may
most rightly be washed and separated (geseigert) with the common
Saturnine water, ♂ and ♃ will not; but ♁ receives them most
greedily, holds and washeth them, which is impossible for the
common ♄ to do. Yet notwithstanding Paracelsus seems to hint at
some other thing here, speaking of the transmutation of ♄ with other
metals, aiming (as I conjecture) as well at an universal as a
particular transmutation of Metals by Saturn. Now Saturn also, as he
is the water and washing of other metals, so may he himself be
washed with Salts, which, as I shall anon declare, are his water.
But let no body wonder that I speak no larger of the nature and
virtue of Saturn, whom I set so high an esteem upon; for it hath
been most frequently mentioned, and after this will be; so ’tis not fit
so often to repeat the same thing, one Chapter illustrates another.
See such other small Tracts as I have written of Saturn, and
compare them well together, and without doubt you will perceive my
meaning. That which Paracelsus adds concerning the difference of ♁
is plain enough, and wants no illustration; for common Lead and ♁
(although much differing in the diversity of Sulphurs) was by the
Philosophers called Black Lead. Bismuth, ashy Lead, and Tin, among
the ancient Metallurgists, is white Lead; which appellations we shall
leave to the ancients, and say no more thereof.

The Sixth Rule.

Of the Moon, and her Nature and Property.

I f anyone goes about to reduce ☽ into ♄ or ♂ , it will be as difficult

as to make ☽ (with great profit) out of ☿, ♃, ♂ , ♀ , or ♄. But ’tis
not expedient to make vile things out of good, but to make precious
things out of base and abject things.
’Tis also fit to know of what matter the Moon is, and whence ’tis
risen; he that is ignorant of this, will find it impossible to make Luna.
Quest. What therefore is Luna?
Answ. It is the seventh external, corporeal, material, of the Six
metals therein hidden; for alwaies (as it hath been very often said)
the Seventh hath the other Six spiritually hidden within it self;
neither also can these six be without an external, material metal; nor
can any corporeal Metal be without the six spiritual ones and their
Essence. If you melt the seven Corporeal Metals, it doth nothing as
to making ☉: after mixtion, each as its nature is, remains fixt in the
fire, or volatile. For example, mix as well as you can ☿, ♃, ♄, ♂, ♀, ☉
and ☽, it will not therefore follow, that the ☉ and ☽ will transmute
the other five, that they become ☉ and ☽: Although they are blown
together into one mass, yet each remains in its own state, viz. if you
take of the corporeal mixtion; for transmutation consists in the
spiritual mixtion and union of Metals, because Spirits admit of no
separation and mortification.
Although you kill the Body an hundred times, yet will they alwaies
have another Body more noble than the former. And this is the
promotion of Metals from one mortification into another; that is,
from a more ignoble degree to a higher, that is Luna, and from a
better to the best, that is Sol; a most illustrious and royal Metal; ’tis
also true, and alwaies will be, which hath been often spoken of
before, that alwaies the six metals generate the seventh, and deliver
it from themselves into a palpable and visible substance.
Quest. Now, then if it be so, that the Luna, or any other metal, is
alwaies caused and produced from the other six, What therefore is
its Property and Nature? I answer, Out of ☿, ♃, ♂, ♀, ♄, and ☉, no
other metal can be made, but ☽; the reason is, because as to the
other six metals, each are indued with two good virtues, which in all
make Twelve: these virtues are the Silverish or Lunar Spirit, which in
brief understand thus; Silver is compounded into a corporeal Metal,
out of the six Spiritual Metals, and their Properties, in number
twelve, and is likened to the seven Planets, and the twelve Cœlestial
Signs; for the ☽ hath from ☿ the Planet, and ♒ , and ♓ , a bright
white flux and splendor, ☿, ♒, ♓; also ☽ hath from ♃, ♂, and ♉ a
white colour, a great constancy against the fire and fixation, ♃, ♂ ,
♉ ; from ♂ , ♋ , and ♈ , it hath hardness, a good clangour or
sound, ♂ , ♋ , ♈ ; from ♀ , ♊ , ♎ , it hath the means of
Coagulation and Malleability, ♀, ♊ , ♎ ; from ♄, ♑ , ♏ , it hath a
fixt body with heaviness and gravity, ♄, ♑ , ♏ ; from ☉, ♌ , ♍ , it
hath a sincere purity, and a great constancy, against the violency of
the fire, ☉, ♌, ♍.
Thus is briefly explained what is the exaltation and cause of the
spirit and body of Silver, with its own compound Nature and
Essence.
It must also be known what matter the metallick spirits do take in
their first Nativity, when they are carried down into the Earth from
the Cœlestial Influences, viz. a vile Dirt or Stone, which the Mine-
digger by breaking the body of the metal, destroys and burns in the
fire, in which mortification the metalline spirit assumes another body,
not fryable, but pure and malleable. Then the Alchymist coming,
destroys this metalline body, kills and prepares it by Art, but that
metallick corporeal Spirit makes apparently conspicuous, another
more noble and much more perfect body, whether it be the Sun or
Moon; then both the metallick Spirit and Body being perfectly united,
are free and safe from Corruption by the Element of Fire.
Glaub.] Paracelsus in this Sixth Chapter repeats the words which
have been oftentimes afore mentioned, viz. That every visible metal
is an hider of the other metals which lie spiritually hid within it;
withal teaching, that it is impossible for corporeal metals, although
melted together never so long, to be meliorated, unless they are first
made spiritual; which I have oftentimes demonstrated and shewed
to be the very Truth, and the right way to Transmutation.
But he doth not in express words teach the way by which they
may be made and rendered Spiritual; nor is it convenient to chew a
Morsel, and thrust it into the mouths of the Ignorant.
Now I say, that as touching the spiritualizing of Metals, Paracelsus
doth not advise that Metals be dissolved in corrosive Spirits, &
digested & destilled over the Helm with it, by often Cohobations. The
Spiritualization which he mentions here, is not to be done with
Corrosives, for they are rather corrupted by them than perfected,
neither in Glasses, but in Crucibles, and that in a few hours, without
Corrosives, whereby they are so depurated, and as it were
poudered, that they are transparent in and out of the fire, and
dissolvable in any water. This is a true spiritualization of metals, and
gainful if it hath the said Properties: ’Tis otherwise called by the
Philosophers, the first matter of Metals, and at this time known but
to few.
Our Laborators now adays know not any metallick spirits, but
such, as by the help of peregrine and noxious things, they drive over
by an Alembick or Retort; but Experience testifies, that these are
wholly useless and unprofitable for Melioration. And although the
ancient Philosophers write, Make the fixt volatile, and the volatile
fixt, yet they mean not that the metals should be destilled. Which
sublimation or destillation they did not meddle with, but all their
metallick labours, as Solution, Putrefaction, Destillation Sublimation,
Calcination, Inceration, Cohobation, and Fixation, were done in one
earthen vessel, without Corrosives; nor did they weary themselves
with those ridiculous labours that are done by the means of Glasses.
But of this more in another place.
Now read diligently over and over again what Paracelsus writes at
the end of the Chapter, and it will appear, that he speaks of fusion,
and not destillation in Glasses; where he shews, that a metallick
spirit at its first descending from the stars into the earth, hath a
most vile form, like a stone, or dirt, which the digger of it melts with
a strong fire, whereby it gets a better form, and becomes a
malleable metal. And here he is at a stand, and cannot proceed any
farther. Now, saith Paracelsus, the Alchymist comes and takes this
metal, and by his Art destroies the metallick body, killing and
preparing it; and by his labour it assumes a more noble and fixt
body, called (because of its maturity) Gold or Silver. The ☽, although
it be more pure and excellent than ♀ , ♂ , ♃, and ♄ yet having not
arrived to maturity, it is (in comparison of the ☉) like a flower, which
is more excellent than the herb, but inferiour to the seed, which is
the most perfect part of the same. And, as in Vegetables the flowers
are indued with a more elegant colour than either the seed or fruit:
So also is the ☽ more abounding with Tincture than the ☉; which I
have very often tried, and could demonstrate by many Examples;
contrariwise, altho’ the flower be, as to the form, colour and odour,
above the seed, yet in goodness and durability it is much inferiour;
for the flower at an approaching cold falls away;, but the seed
endures, and if it be helped, it produceth a new herb, flowers, and
seed, by which its species are conserved and propagated. And as in
Vegetables the herb is the greatest part, the flowers less, and the
seeds least, so in Minerals is the like order most fitly observed: for
should Nature produce only Flowers and Seeds with the Herb,
whence would there be Grass for Beasts, whereby they might fill
their Bellies, and so yield dung for the Country-man to dung his
ground withal, that it might produce a new Crop of Herbs. Without
doubt there’s more Tincture hidden in ☽ than in ☉, the inmost part
of which is a meer redness; but the centre of ☉ is a most fixt and
splendid Sky-colour, which is to be well observed. As for the other
Properties of ☽, which are most frequently known, ’tis needless to
mention them; as to purity and fixation, ’tis nearest to ☉, and
therefore in metallick things ’tis to be likened to a Flower: ’Tis plainly
void of combustible and preying Sulphur; but being not as yet
arrived and concocted to perfection, it is a most suitable Vehicle to
extract ☉ out of volatile and unripe Marcasites, and other auriferous
Minerals, and to make it corporeal. Concerning which I have formerly
written, and will write more hereafter.

The Seventh Rule.

Of the Sun, its Nature and Property.

C orporeal ☉ is the seventh Metal of the six spiritual ones; in it

self it is a meer Fire; but the Reason of its being outwardly of
an elegant, yellow, visible, sensible, ponderous, cold and malleable
body, is, because it hath in it the coagulation of the other six metals,
whereby ’tis compell’d into a visible body. And as to its being melted
with Elemental fire, ’tis from hence, because it hath a fluidity of
Mercury, ♓ , and ♒ , spiritually hidden in it self; the which is also
outwardly evident, because it is most easily mixt with the ☉, and
detained by him.
And whereas after melting, it grows hard by the Cold, viz. is
coagulated, and grows stiff, that comes from the other five metals,
♃, ♄, ♂ , ♀ , and ☽; in these five metals the Cold dwells and bears
sway, and therefore ☉ cannot be fluid out of the fire, because of
Cold. Nor can ☿ with his heat, nature, and fluidity help him against
the five cold metals, for its heat sufficeth not to keep the ☉ in
perpetual flux, so that it is enforced to obey the other metals rather
than one only, ☿, who (as to coagulation of metals) hath nothing to
do, its Property being to make liquid, and not hard: It is the work of
heat and life to make liquid, but cold is the cause of hardness,
stiffness, and unmovable, being therefore likened to Death.
For Example. If you would reduce the six cold metals to fluidity,
whether it be ♃, ♀, ♄, ♂, ☽, ☉, it is to be done by the heat of the
fire, for metals are not melted with cold Snow or Ice, but are
hardened thereby. Now, as soon as they are melted by the fire, and
that the heat ceaseth, the cold rusheth in, whereby the metal stands
still, grows stiff, dies, and remains immovable. And because that ☿ is
alwaies fluid and living, tell me, I pray, whether or no such a thing
proceeds from heat or cold? Some or other may say, it is because of
its cold and moist nature, and that it is living because of Cold; but
whoever saith thus, and believes thus, is ignorant of Nature, and
deceived and seduced with the vulgar, whose belief of any thing is
out of the right way, & amiss, & are therefore to be avoided and
shun’d by him that would truly know; for ☿ is not living, by reason of
cold, but because of its heat and fiery nature, as all things else live
because of heat, for heat is the cause of life, and cold the cause of
death.
But that ☉ is in it self a meer Fire, not alive indeed, but hard,
shewing its fiery heat only outwardly, as yellow mixt with red, and
the other five metals, are cold, viz. ♃, ♂, ♄, ♀, and ☽, giving their
virtues to the ☉, viz. according to their frigidity a body, by their fire
colours, by their siccity hardness, by their moisture weight or
heaviness, by their resplendancy sound; and that it is not
combustible, and to be destroyed by the Element of Terrestrial Fire,
that is by reason of its fixedness. Fire doth not burn Fire, nor destroy
it, but Fire joined to Fire becomes the greater and more powerful in
strength. The Cœlestial fire descending from the ☉ upon Terrestrials,
is not such a fire as is in Heaven, nor such as our fire is on Earth;
but with us the Cœlestial fire is cold, a rigid and congealed fire; and
this is the body of Gold, and therefore we cannot tame or master ☉
with our fire, we can only divide it and melt it, as the sun dissolves
and melts snow, congealed ice and water. Wherefore it is not
permitted for one fire to destroy another, because ☉ it self is fire,
and in Heaven it is resolved, but with us it is coagulated.
Gold is in a threefold state with its Essence.
1. The Cœlestial Resolved.
2. The Elemental is Liquid.
3. The Metallick Corporeal.
The End of the Seven Rules.

Glaub.
W e are now come to ☉, a kingly and most excellent Metal,
the which Paracelsus compares to a meer absolute
Fire, and so ’tis found to be, if it be separated into parts; ’tis likewise
endued with a seed-like nature, more hot than the Herb it self or the
Flower. But to what end should we write of bettering it, when as it
needs it not, being already constituted in the highest degree of
perfection, and Nature not being able to promote it to an higher
degree: Now then if it be to be made better, ’tis behoveful to make it
Medicine, for never was a more excellent metal than it seen. An
Herb planted in a fruitful soil, and brought to its perfection by the
heat of the Sun, the seed being ripe, it remains not in the same
form, but withers, and the seed falls away; but if it be seasonably
gathered, it lasts a long while, and may, at your pleasure, be put
into the Earth, for the production of new Herbs of its kind; or else it
may be used for the health of Mankind, having no other notable Use
besides. In like manner, Gold having arrived to its perfection, if it be
to be farther advanced, it must be made Medicine, or be put upon
the Metallick Earth, as Seed is on the Common Earth; where
putrefying or augmenting, or growing, it may exhibit and produce a
metalline Off-spring. Every body knows that a good Medicine may be
thence made, and that various waies, but few know the manner
how; but that ’tis able (like the Vegetable seed) to make Encrease
out of the imperfect metals (being its own Earth) Paracelsus
teacheth in this place, and many Philosophers witness the same,
which is not only true in a particular melioration, where by attracting
its like out of the imperfect metals, it is encreased; but ’tis also to be
believed as true, that from it may be separated, by the industry of a
skilful metallick Philosopher, its inmost Vegetative power and purest
portion (all its husks, or outside, wherewith ’tis cloathed, being laid
aside) and may thereby be exalted to a more than perfect estate,
although ’tis incredible to many, yet ’tis not in the least to be
doubted of, except we would make all the Philosophers to be Lyers.
As for my self, although I never set my hand to so hard a Task, yet
I believe and affirm it to be in the nature of things, as having
evidently observed by my other metallick Labours, that this Medicine
is in the possibility of Art; the which I will also in due time set upon,
if God give Life and Leisure. What the other properties of ☉ are, and
by what means good Medicines may be prepared therefrom, I have
spoken thereof in many places of my writings, and in its proper place
more also shall be spoken. And here we rest and conclude this little
Book of the Rules of the Seven Metals.

GOD and Nature make nothing in vain.

T he Eternal City of all things (there’s an Eternal place in all

things) without time, without beginning, and without end, is
every where essentially. It operates in that wherein is no hopes, and
that which is accounted impossible, unexpected, incredible, and
plainly deplorable, will be true even to admiration.
Glaub.] Paracelsus having finished his Seven Rules of the
Properties of Metals, begins after a sort, to repeat and illustrate his
sentiment or opinion, comforting the Operator, lest happily he should
be discouraged, if his affairs do not presently meet with good
success; but let him ingeniously proceed, because Nature makes
nothing in vain; that which is least of all believed, comes most of all
to pass; his words are clear enough of themselves.

Item. Note now some things on Argent Vive.

Whatsoever whitens is of the Nature of Life, and of the Property
and Virtue of Light, which causeth and makes Life. The Fire with its
heat gives birth to this motion. And whatsoever blackens, is of the
Nature of Death, of the Property and Virtue of Darkness, (having the
efficacy and force thereof) which causeth Death; to the which
hardening or induration the Earth with its Cold is the coagulation and
fixation. The House is alwaies dead, but the Inhabitant is a living
Fire: If thou hast found out the true Use of Examples, thou hast
overcome.
Glaub.] Paracelsus speaking here of Mercury, mentions Fire, which
by its heat is the cause of Light and Life, but that which blackens, is
the cause of Death; where making as it were a pause or stand, he
adds these pregnant words.
Sacrifice the fat Vervein (or Sulphur). ℞ eight lots of Salt Nitre,
four lots of Sulphur, two lots of Tartar, mix them, and let them flow.
Glaub.] Here begin the Complaints of the Alchymists, because
Paracelsus writing of so good a matter, doth so suddenly break off,
adding such a Receipt, as in their judgment hath no affinity with
Mercury, but is to him as a thorn in a man’s eye. This powder indeed
is a good fusile powder, for the reduction of such metals as are
otherwise hard to melt; but in this place ’tis meerly vain and
needless, because ☿ by his innate fiery power and heat, doth alwaies
flow; wherefore we want not this Flux for him. Had he written in this
place, how he (viz. ☿) is to be coagulated and fixed, we would most
willingly have heard him, and as willingly have been content that he
had kept his fluxing powder to himself.
Such as these ought to blame themselves and not Paracelsus, that
wish’d well unto them. The words which went just before, may
excuse him; for he said, that G O D and Nature made nothing in
vain; whereby he intimates, that this powder is not so strangely to
be look’d on, as if it did not pertain to ☿, who is more than enough
fusile already, and wants it not. Nor was this mentioned to vex the
Alchymist; no, Paracelsus knew this nimble fusile powder, and its
operations upon the metals, better than he that complains thereof,
(’tis of incredible benefit in the metals, did any one know how to use
it) and he placed it here, that we might perfectly learn its highest
force and efficacy upon the metals; the which thing his foregoing
words do also admonish us of: It operates beyond hope, that which
is judged impossible is unexpected, incredible, and desperate, will
prove true to admiration. Wherefore, think you, would he have
added this fire had it not been needful in this place? doubtless he
knew how to burn the wings of ☿, and thereby to stay his flight. And
although I know not how to fix ☿ herewith, yet have I experienced
wonderous things as well in the metals as ☿, for if the metals,
especially ☿, be Philosophically joined herewith, sublimed and
destilled, they afford wonderful Menstruums.
It’s also here said, Sacrifice the fat Vervein (or Sulphur). ’Tis full
well known, that the superfluous Sulphur in metals that are
imperfect, is the cause of their baseness, and this fire is able to burn
it up, but ’tis impossible that all should know it; there’s need of use
and diligence, if you desire Icarus, flying with his Father Dædalus,
and approaching too nigh the Sun (whereby his wings being burnt,
he tumbled down into the Sea) should be drowned in the waters.
The which let suffice, for there’s enough spoken unto a wise man;
let us therefore proceed.

What is to be determined concerning the Coagulation of ☿.

’T is not at all expedient to kill ☿, to coagulate him, and then

reduce him into ☽, and to weary him with many sublimations
and other things, for this is but the destruction of the Sun and Moon
that is in him. There’s another more compendious way, whereby ☿ is
made ☽, of small cost and charge, without any labour of coagulation:
Every man reads in the Writings of the Alchymists, such Arts as are
mean and vile, and easily preparable, whereby in a short time he
might make abundance of ☉ and ☽, and are tired and vexed with the
Writings of such as do not teach them clearly and plainly, and would
willingly hear this, viz. Do so and so, and thou shalt have good ☽ and
☉ to inrich thee.
But good Sir stay a while, and wait till the Secret be plainly
opened to thee in positive words without any labour; so as to enable
thee (in as ’twere a moment of time) to take ♄, ☿, and ♃, and make
Sol and Luna thereof. The Art will never be so easily known, how
short and facile soever it be in it self.
Glaub.] Paracelsus goes on, and saith, That ’tis not needful to
coagulate ☿, that ☉ and ☽ may be thence made, and that it is to be
done with a most easie labour, and therefore few words are best.
And here Paracelsus is to be compared to that Rich man, who having
heard that many perished with famine, ’tis said that he should
answer, That before he would be tormented with hunger, he would
rather feed on rusty Bacon and Pease, believing that all abounded
with this fare; the which they despising by reason of their daintiness,
deservedly perished. In like manner the good Paracelsus believed,
that all Chymists were his equals, as to the knowledge of Metals, not
dreaming of the many poor Colliers that torment ☿ by their solutions,
precipitations, sublimations, resuscitations, fixations, and other
labours; when as they are ignorant of what it is, what abounds or is
wanting therein, and so for want of knowledge, toil and labour to no
purpose: ☿ is a subject of wonder, and is frequently wont to deceive
the Alchymists, whom (viz. ☿) if you would on the other side
deceive, when you pursue him, give him a little breathing (because
by force he’s not to be compell’d) that he may a little wander about,
but trust him not too much, lest flying away, he leaves behind him
an empty Nest. For which Work the first Furnace, with its many
Glasses, very well fitted and united, will serve excellently well. But in
few words, ’Tis a subject of an inexhaustible wonder, the which I
alwaies found the most stubborn of all the metals, that I have
bestowed grievous pains about; but yet do believe, that he that
knows rightly to deal with him, will reap a benefit from him not to be
contemned. But who is there that discovers the Way? Wonders must
alwaies remain unknown unto us, and albeit we know not all things,
yet let us acknowledge the great Mercy of G O D, and give Thanks to
Him for that which we do know.

The Receipts of Alchymy.

W hat shall we say of the many Receipts and the various Vessels,
such as are the Furnaces, Glasses, Tests, Waters, Oils, Salts,
Sulphurs, Antimonia, Magnesia, Salt Nitre, Alume, Vitriol, Tartar,
Borax, Atramentum or Copperas, Orpiment, Spume of Glass,
Arsenick, Calaminaris, Bole-Armoniack, Vermilion, Calx, Pitch, Wax,
Lute of Wisdom, Powder’d Glass, Verdigrease, Salt Armoniack, Soot,
Rosin of the Pitch-tree, Chalk, Mans-fat, Hairs, Egg-shells, Lac
Virginis, Ceruse, Minium, Cinnabar, Vinegar, Aqua-fortis, Crocus
Martis, Elixir, Lazure, (ultro-Marine) Soap, Tutia, Havergold, Crystals.
What likewise shall we say to their preparations, putrefactions,
digestions, probations, sublimations, calcinations, solutions,
cementations, fixations, reverberations, coagulations, graduations,
rectifications, amalgamations, and purgations. Most Books are fully
stufft with these Alchymical things, as also what things are to be
done by the benefit of Herbs, Roots, Seeds, Woods, Stones, Animals,
Worms, Bone-Ashes, Cockle-shells, Muscles, &c.
All these things are the Labyrinths of Alchymy, and are great and
but vain Labours. Moreover, although ☉ and ☽ might be made by the
means of these things, yet by reason of the multitudes of them, the
Work is rather hindred than advanced; and therefore it cannot be
truly learned from the aforesaid things, how to make ☉ and ☽. But
all such things are to be omitted, as operate not with the five
imperfect Metals, for the production of ☉ and ☽.
What therefore is the true Way, and the short Path void of all
difficulties, that leads to the speedy making of good Sol and Luna?
How long will it be ere thou revealest it? I believe that thou
understandest nothing of this matter, may somebody say, but dost
only mock us with these Riddles. For answer: It hath been already
spoken of, and is evidently enough discovered in the Seven Rules;
He that understands not, let him blame himself. Besides, let no body
be so mad, as to perswade himself, that the Art is most easie to be
understood, and to be perfectly known by the vulgar; that is neither
so, nor must it so be; but it will be better understood in an occult
and hidden Sence.
This is the Art, viz. If you make the Heaven or Sphere of ♄ to flow
with life in the Earth, put in all the Planets, or which you please of
them, but let there be of Luna least of all; let it flow so long, until
the Heaven of ♄ doth wholly disappear, and the Planets remain alone
dead with their own corruptible Bodies, and have assumed a new,
perfect, uncorruptible body, that body is the Spirit of Heaven, by
which the Planets become again corporeal and alive; as afore, Take
out that new Body from the Life, and out of the Earth, and keep it,
for it is Sol and Luna. And thus hast thou the Art plainly uncovered
and intire; if thou dost not yet understand and apprehend it, ’tis
well, for so it must be; nor must it be publickly divulged.
Glaub.] In this Chapter Paracelsus teacheth, That there’s no need
of so many ridiculous species, for the transmutation of Metals, but
that there’s virtue enough in the metals to operate upon, and to
better one another, if they are rightly conjoined amongst
themselves; yet in some Labours we cannot be without Salts and
Minerals, because they are useful to mollifie hard Metals, and to
dispose them to assume a melioration. But ’tis to be observed, that
Corrosives are to be omitted, and such Salts only to be used as are
friendly to Metals. Likewise other Minerals and Fossiles may be
fruitfully used in fusion, (Seigerungh) separation, and other metalline
Operations, as additaments (als Susans). The which thing Paracelsus
denies not, but only rejects, and that deservedly, those ridiculous
Compositions of the unskilful Alchymists, which they making in their
use Sol. He dehorts the studious Artist, and endeavours to bring him
into the right way.
Furthermore, he teacheth but in an occult sence, how good Sol
and Luna, such as will endure all trials, is to be extracted out of
imperfect Metals; but ’tis so obscurely done, that no body can
thereby understand the thing; and such only as aforehand know
somewhat, and have had the like Labours under their hands, are
able to understand his meaning.
Doubtless this Process hath found many an one work enough, who
have at last attained to nothing; but yet some have by chance
lighted thereon, and so perceived the Truth of his Words, most of
which Inventions do casually happen; and whilst that one thing is
sought after, and by accident lost, something is oftentimes found
more excellent than that which was intended.
In like manner, most things unsought after have happened to me;
and also my Labours have manifested to me the greatest part of
Paracelsus’s Arts, and not his Writings. And who will certainly and
plainly teach what lies under that Covering? Many Archers there are,
but few hit the mark. Neither seems it so necessary to take nothing
else but the aforesaid Metals; the which thing Paracelsus also in his
forementioned Process doth hint at, saying, When thou makest the
Heaven, or Sphere of ♄, to flow with Life in the Earth, sow in all the
Planets, or such as you please of them; but let not the Moons part
be biggest, but let it be the least of all. By which words ’tis easily
conjectured, that the greatest part must be of Saturn, whereby the
other metals are to be washed and purified, and the least part of the
Moon. But some body may ask, What reason is there for the Moon
being here, she being already pure, for the washing of whom there’s
no need? Why this hath been already elsewhere answered thus, viz.
That she may attract, defend, and make corporeal, the washed,
purified, and tender Sun, which would otherwise remain in the
Scoria: Notwithstanding this separation may be made without the
Luna, but then ’tis not so gainful. Neither also is it necessary to
conjoin the Metals, and so make but one work in washing them with
Saturn; each of them may be taken apart, and so cleansed, unless a
man knew how to contrive the composition, then indeed the Work
would be facilitated, and more Sol gotten; the which is to be well
observed, if either none, or very little Luna be taken. But if you take
not ☽, then ♀ is to be added, as being of nearest affinity to ☉ and ☽,
in its malleability, and so that will attract the volatile and immature
☉ out of the imperfect Metals, and defend it in the fire, but much
weaker than ☽. Tin and Iron being most impure and sharp metals,
may be washed with Lead, but with much difficulty, and may be
deprived of their spiritual and occult ☉, but with far greater charges
and cost, than if you took in ☽, or at least wise ♀. Now knowing this,
Why do we not give to every one its proper additament, for the
expedition and enriching of the Operation? ’Tis worth the while to be
able to make a good mixtion of Metals, and with profit to wash them
with ♄, in which mixture none believes how much there’s placed, nor
my self neither, had I not with Loss learned the same. For, when in
former years I sought after somewhat in this kind of operation, as
washing and separation, and had sometimes found out a good
Proba; I have gone to repeat the same labour again, and have
egregiously erred. And although I have for many years wrought hard
in this kind of labour, and spent much (which I repent not of) yet I
dare not boast of catching the best prey, but am content with a
piece of Bread, but yet I do not dispair, Good things come slowly on,
and the thorny prickly Budds spring forth before the Roses come.
Now, if thou learnest the weights the Work will be safe, and thou
needest not to doubt of doing the same in a great quantity.
Paracelsus goes on, and bids you to let the Planets which you have
put in, to flow so long with the Heaven of ♄, until the Heaven of ♄
vanish, the Planets will remain, having received a new body, which is
to be taken out of the Life and the Earth, which will be ☉ and ☽. And
these words are variously interpreted by sundry men, especially
what the Heaven of ♄ is, and are perswaded, that if that were
known, the residue of the Process they could state well enough.
Many understand hereby the common separation made by a peculiar
♄, taking the Regulus Stellate of ♁, which is stampt with a Cœlestial
Star, the which they blow on and melt with the Life, (which they
interpret to be the fire) in the Earth (a Cupel or Test treibscherben)
the bodies being left upon the Test, like mortified Metals, the which
reducing by a fusing addition, and melting with Lead, (angesotten)
and promising themselves Gold and Silver, they find themselves to
be in an errour, and accuse Paracelsus of Sophistry and Deceit,
because they can’t make good quantities of ☉ and ☽, by means of
his Writings.
And now, what this Sphere of Saturn is, may be variously
explained: It may not unfitly be taken for common ♄, because being
fused, it shines, and is turned round: or it may be taken for its Glass,
which being melted in the fire, shines like the Sun: or it may be the
Stellar Regulus of ♁, because its Stria represents Stars when ’tis
broken. But what benefit is it to know the Heaven of ♄ and to be
ignorant of the true requisite Life, and the reduction of the dead and
reducible bodies. Common Fire is not the Life that Paracelsus
mentions, but it may be stirred up thereby; and so he saith; The fire
with its heat, is the Nativity to this motion: If by the Elemental Fire
he should mean the Life, and by the separation of ♄, or blowing of
the Regulus of ♁, (the flowing which Paracelsus mentions) then it
must necessarily follow, that the destroyed bodies which remain,
should be made more perfect, and the Spirit of Heaven should yet
remain with them; for thus he writes, viz. The Planets by it do
become corporeal and living, as they were before; but in these kind
of separation, scorification, or blowing off, it is not found so to be;
but in these Operations their Bodies remain like Scoria, in which is
neither spirit or life, much less ☉ and ☽ to be found, though never
so diligently sought after. Paracelsus saith expressly, viz. That Body
(viz., of the slain or kill’d bodies) is the Spirit of Heaven, by which
the Planets do again become corporeal and alive as before; from
whence ’tis to be understood, that those bodies are spiritual, & not
only corporeal and resuscitated, but such as may give life even to
slain or destroyed bodies, the which can’t be said of them, for a
spirit must be penetrative and vivifying, and they are not such. For if
(according to Paracelsus’s mind) the dead bodies ought to be
reduced to Corporality and Life, ’tis necessary that they have some
hidden power; (which every one knows not) whereby they may
demonstrate most speedily their embodying and vivification in a
spiritual manner, without the addition of any peregrine Flux, or else
they are deservedly to be rejected. But if any one should now
imagine, that metals being by the red fire deprived of life, made
spiritual and again corporeal and living, should forthwith be all ☉
and ☽; he promiseth more to himself than is right, and is deceived
(for Paracelsus saith, that That new body is to be taken out of the
Life and Earth and kept, for ’tis ☉ and ☽) for ’tis impossible even for
the Philosophers Stone, to convert the whole bodies of Metals into ☉
and ☽, for out of nothing, nothing can be made, as the Philosophers
say; and Experience testifies, none but God only made any thing out
of nothing; but that thing which is, may by Art be reduced into
nothing, and that again reduced into something. Seeing therefore
that the greatest part of metal is an unprofitable, combustible
noxious Sulphur, which never was a metal, but adhering only
outwardly unto them, and being combust, reduceth their humidium
Radicale into Scoria; which Humidum Radicale only (after its
destruction) and not the whole mass of Metal or superfluous
Sulphur, is reduced by the spirit of the Saturnine Heaven, out of
nothing unto something, viz. a Body and Life; the Sulphur which
before the corruption was nothing, remains still a Nothing; and if
thou throughly observe the thing, the Case stands clearly thus; viz.
If in this operation there must be a separation of the imperfect
metals, and a gathering together of the more pure, and a dispersing
of the more impure parts; these separated parts must therefore
necessarily be much unlike one another; and by how much ☉ and ☽
is more pure, if compared with imperfect metals, from which ’tis
separated: And these separated parts are not of the same Goodness
and Nature; as if ten duckets were divided into two parts, each part
would have 5 of the same goodness and weight. Now, if from one of
these halfs you take two or three parts, and put them to the other
half, it only makes the one bigger, and the other less: And if there be
nine parts on the one side, and but one left on the other side, yet
cannot the major part boast of its excelling the other in quality, but
only in quantity: As to Goodness, they are both equal. But now, if
you take a Mineral or Metal commixt with stones, and by measure
divide it into two equal parts, and then pound them, and by pouring
water thereon, separate the lighter parts after the accustomed
manner, and the heavy Metal will settle to the bottom: Now the
dross and metal will fill the former measure, but will very much differ
in their goodness.
Or if any one take two measures of Wine, and by the heat of Fire,
separate the more excellent Spirit by destilling in a Glass Alembick,
and leave the other measure in the Cucurbit: These two parts,
though equal in quantity, yet they do much differ in goodness; the
one part will be more noble than Wine, and the other worser; and as
the other residence is no more Wine, being deprived of Spirit, Life,
Soul, and Strength, and is thereby unable to defend it self from
death, but tends to putrefaction; so on the other hand, the Spirit is
not subject to putrefaction, but preserves other things therefrom.
The like is to be understood of this metalline separation, for the
remainder, from which ☉ is separated, can no more be made Tin,
Copper, or Iron, but is a gross earthy Sulphur, by the reason of the
☉ taken thence; whereas before it was ♃, ♀, ♂, or ♄. And by how
much the Spirit of Wine is more excellent than common Wine, and ☉
than an imperfect Metal, by so much also will the Spirit of Wine and
☉ excel, if they are again separated, and new fæces segregated
therefrom. But this is not so necessary in this place; ’tis sufficient to
have declared the way and reason of this metalline separation, about
which we have even now treated, viz. That the whole metal, nor the
½ or ¼ part thereof, will become Sol, and the rest remain a metal;
but the separation of the pure is very small in quantity, in
comparison of the much impurity whence ’tis separated. Nor let any
one think he hath not attained the Art, and so will not rest here, if all
things become not ☉; ’tis sufficient if there be some gotten, and that
all the Labour is not bestowed in vain.

By what means Crystals are to be Conjured, and all things to be

seen in them.

T o Conjure is no other thing, than well to observe a thing, to

know and understand what it is: Crystal is a Figure of the Air, in
which is to be seen whatsoever is moveable in the air or
unmoveable. The like appears in a Looking-glass, in Crystal, and in
the Waters, for the Air, Water, and Crystals, are all one to Sight; like
a Glass wherein an Object is to be seen, as it were, reverted.
Glaub.] I do not fully know what Paracelsus intends by this
Conjuration of Crystals, because it appertains not to the metalline
Arts; but yet it seems not to be here added without good reason,
somewhat he would intimate hereby. We read of the Ancient Pagan
Philosophers, that they conjured Crystals, and beheld in them many
wonderful things; the which, whether it be true or no, I leave as I
find it, because in my Judgment, such an Art seems not natural, but
belongs to Diabolical Magick, which I have nothing to do with.
Paracelsus also hath elsewhere written of wondrous Looking-
glasses of the same, and hath taught how to compose them of
Metals, melted together in a certain Time and Constellation; the
which many have attempted to do, but not one (as far as I know)
hath attained the Mystery. It seems very probable, that he intends
by this Conjuration of Crystals, that the Metals are to be made like to
pellucid Crystals, Air, or Water, wherein the soul of the Metal may
shine, if you would spiritualize them, and make them yield their ☉
and ☽. And in this Sence it agrees with the aforesaid Chapters.
It likewise seems, that the mentioning of this thing is necessary
for the sake of those, who practising on a separation with ♄, have
experienced, the Metals are to be first reduced into Transparent
Crystals, before they part with their occult Sol: Which I have
elsewhere spoken more largely of, about Amausa, and therefore will
here end.

Of the Heat of Mercury.

T hey that believe that Mercury is of a moist and cold nature, must
lay down the Bucklers, for ’tis not so, but it abounds with a
great heat and moisture, which being naturally planted therein,
keeps it alwaies fluid: For, were it of a cold and moist Nature, it
would alwaies remain rigid and hard, like to congealed Water, and
were to be melted like other metals, by the heat of the fire, which it
(viz. ☿) hath no need of, because it hath already a fluidity from heat,
whereby it flows, and is alwaies constrained to live, and not to die,
grow stiff, congeal, or be fixed. But this is singularly to be noted,
that the Spirits of the seven Metals, or of as many of them as are
conjoyned in the Fire, are wonderfully provoked and stirred up, and
Mercury chiefly, and they emit, and send out their forces amongst
each other, for a mutual Victory and Transmutation; the one takes
away the Virtue, Life, and Form from the other, communicating a
new Nature and Form; so the Spirits or Vapours of Metals are stirred
up by heat and mutual action and passion, and are transmuted from
one Virtue to another, and at last to Perfection and Purity. But what
else is to be done with ☿, that so his heat and moisture being taken
away, he may catch a great Cold, and be congealed, stand still, and
die; do as you hear in the following Figment.
℞ a most pure Silver Vessel, in which shut up Mercury, then fill a
Pot with molten Lead, in the midst of which put in the Vessel with
the Mercury; let it flow a whole day, and the hidden heat will be
taken away from Mercury, and the external heat will communicate to
it the internal cold of the Lead and ☽, being both of a cold nature, by
which Mercury will grow stiff, rigid, and become hard.
Note, The Cold which Mercury hath need of for its hardening and
death, is not outwardly perceptible, like Snow or Ice, but is rather
hot. Nor is the heat by which Mercury flows, felt by the hands, but
’tis rather cold. Hence Sophisters (that is men speaking without
knowledge) pronounce him cold and moist, and study how to
coagulate him with hot things, and thereby rather liquifie than
harden him. Which thing Experience it self testifieth. True Alchymy,
which by one only Art teacheth to make ☉ and ☽ out of the Five
Imperfect Metals, useth no other Receipts, than only from Metals,
out of Metals, by Metals, and with Metals, are Perfect Metals made;
for with other things it is Luna; for in Metals it is Sol.
Glaub.] Here Paracelsus demonstrates their Judgment to be false,
who say that Mercury (in it self a meer Fire) is by nature Cold, and
returns to speaking of Spiritual Metals, the which being stirred up by
great heat of Fire, do operate upon one another, meliorate, change,
and advance to perfection, as hath been taught in the foregoing
Chapters. Then he adds a Fable or Story, how to coagulate or fix
Mercury; but it must not be taken in the literal sence, but of the
spiritual ☽, whereby Mercury is to be promoted to Coagulation, in a
moist way, and not in a dry, as the other Metals are, which Process I
never yet attempted. Then he finisheth with an universal Rule of
Transmutation, saying, Perfect metals are made from metals, out of
metals by metals, and with metals, and that out of some ☽, out of
others ☉ is made. He adviseth to take no strange thing, and only
metalline subjects are to be taken for this Work out of some Luna
only; out of others Sol only, or ☉ and ☽, both are to be extracted,
which I have often tried; as in ♄, which of it self gives only ☽, Tin, ♀,
and ♂ , by themselves give only Luna, and pure Sol; but commixt
with other Metals in a due proportion, they give only ☉, and very
little or no ☽: Which maturation is to be ascribed only to the labour
and mixtion, which is deservedly to be admired.

What Matter and Instruments are needful in Alchymy.

T here is no special need of any thing, excepting a Fire-place,
Coals, Bellows, Tongs, Hammer, Crucibles, Test, (treib scherben)
and Cupels made of good Beech-ashes. Then put in ♄, ♃, ♂ , ☉,
Copper, ☿, and Luna. Proceed to the end of ♄. ’Tis very difficult and
uncertain to find out Metals and Minerals in the Earth and Stones;
yet because all Metals are to be first sought after and digged out of
the Earth, this Labour is not to be contemned, but is Praise-worthy.
Nor will this lust and desire in digging in Mines sooner cease, than
the love of young Men to Maids will fail; and as the Bees are greedy
of extracting Honey and Wax out of the Rose, so prone and forward
should a Man be, to find out the Minerals in the bowels of the Earth,
but without Covetousness; he that is overmuch greedy, receives
least, for God doth not fill all men with gold and silver, but with
want, dung, dirt, misery, and scarcity. Some men also God bestows a
peculiar Intellect upon, and a piercing knowledge of Minerals and
Metals; so that they know a far more compendious way of making
Sol and Luna without digging in the Mine-pits, and without the
Examen or Trying, and Fusion of Minerals. So that ’tis not so
altogether necessary to dig in the Earth for native Sol and Luna, but
by a certain knowledge it might be made of five Species, (but of
Minerals become Metals, which are Imperfect Metals, and are so
called) viz. ☿, ♃, ♄, Mars, and Copper: Of some more easily, of
othersome more difficultly is Sol and Luna to be had.
Note also, That out of Argent Vive, Lead, ♃, Gold and Silver is
easily made; out of ♂ and ☿ difficultly. Nevertheless ’tis possible, but
in the beginning and access of Sol and Luna.
Out of Magnesia and Lead comes Luna.
Out of ☿ and Cinnabar ariseth pure Sol.
Likewise an Ingenious man (as I well remember) is able by due
attention and preparation so to handle a Metal, as to be able by his
ingenuity to do more in the Transmutation of Metals to perfection,
and to guide the same better than all the Signs and Planets of
Heaven can do. ’Tis also needless to observe the Twelve Signs, and
to calculate the motions and Regiment of the Planets, and to
observe a time, a day, the hour of this or that luckey or unluckey
Planet; such things neither promote nor hinder any thing; they
neither hurt nor profit ought in the natural Art of Alchymy: But if
thou rightly understandest the art and possibility thereof, then go to
work and labour when thou seest it most convenient; but if thou
want’st the knowledge and practice thereof, then all the Planets,
Stars, and Signs will wholly fail thee. It also comes to pass, that
metals lying long in the Earth, are not only changed into Rust, but
by a longer staying in the Earth, they return into their Native Stone,
of which sort are many found, albeit they are not observed, for there
are found stony pieces of Money, of the Gentiles, which were Metal
heretofore, and by Corruption were transformed into Stone.
Glaub.] Here we are, in the first place, taught, that for the making
of ☉ and ☽ there needs not many Instruments nor Species, but the
metals are only to be conjoined, but not by the common separation
or washing: For if you should wash all the metals with Lead, yet
would there remain no more ☉ and ☽ than was taken at the
beginning; the rest will descend with the Lead into the Cupel, and
will lie at the top thereof like Scoria; therefore he doth again direct
to a spiritual Commixtion and Philosophical Separation. Also he adds,
That ’tis an honest, good, and necessary thing to dig up Metals, but
that the other is the more excellent, and that deservedly, for it
separates Gold and Silver by Art from the more vile metals; for all
such as apply their minds to metals, do well know with what
dangers, costs, labours, and Cares, they are to be gotten out; but
yet ’tis not therefore to be abstained from, especially since we
labour by this Rule, of having a fore-known and certain end of our
pains and work; the which cannot indeed be done in metallick
Mineings, for we are frequently drawn by vain hopes to bestow all
our Estates on the Mines; and having spent all in vain labour, we are
at last compelled to desist from the Work; but yet if it succeeds well,
they yield the more plentiful Returns; and many Chronicles of Metals
do testifie, That many Poor men have, by the Benefit of a rich Mine-
pit, grown most Rich and Wealthy in a few years space. The finding
out of Mines therefore doth wholly consist in Chance and Casualty,
where Profit and Loss are equally and alike to be expected: The
Work is likewise very chargeable, and can’t be set upon by every
body, and therefore ’tis not for ordinary People, who have but little
to lose, but for rich Men, who, though they lose much, are
notwithstanding able to live, unless happily a Poor man lights upon
some Earth or Sand that is very rich in ☉ and ☽, and other Metals,
by the washing whereof he may get a livelihood; or else finding a
rich Mine, and so betakes himself to a Rich man for his Copartner,
such a one as is able to bear the Charges of digging it forth; and this
is often done. But yet be it as it will, the thing is full of uncertainty.
Whereas this Metallurgy, or Work on Metals, which Paracelsus makes
mention of, is to be preferred far before the other, if any one (by the
Grace of G O D) attaineth the Art, whereby he may with profit extract
the ☉ or ☽ out of the already-digged-up Imperfect metals, which are
every where to be sold.
But to return to the business in hand, viz. To illustrate the Writings
of Paracelsus, who deserved much of his Country. He names some
metals, out of which Gold and Silver may easily be extracted, and
others, out of which ’tis difficult to get it, but in both Sol and Luna, is
to be added; for ’tis profitable, yea, necessary (the which I have
frequently exhorted to) in the extraction of Gold and Silver out of
imperfect metals, and is volatile, and may the more commodiously
make it corporeal and fixt. Then he adds, That Metals, by a longer
stay in the Earth, do die, and return into stones and earth, from
whence they had their original. The like happens to Man, and all
Creatures; nor is there any thing in the World, how glorious soever it
be, but is vain, empty, and perishing, but the Knowledge, Love, and
Fear of G O D alone.

What thing Alchymy is.

A lchymy is an intention, imagination, and studying, or considering
how or whereby the Species of Metals are transmuted from one
degree and nature into another. Let therefore every ingenious and
understanding man throughly consider the good Art of Alchymy, for
he that speculates and well studies, will the sooner attain the Art
and find out the Truth.
Note, That very much is to be attributed to the Stars and Stones,
for the Stars are the framers of all Stones. And all the Cœlestial
Constellations, the Sun and Moon, are in themselves nothing but
stones, from which the Terrestrial do arise, being as it were their
burnt part, Coal, Ashes, Outcast, Excrement, Expurgation, from
which the Cœlestial Stones separating themselves, become clear and
transparent by their proper brightness: And the whole Globe of the
Earth is nothing else but a dejected, slidden down, commixt, broken,
recocted Rubbish, and blown as ’twere into one Mass, having
obtained Rest and Constancy in the middle Circle of the Firmament.
’Tis also to be noted, that Gemms (the names whereof I shall
presently mention) together with the other Stones, came down into
the Earth from the Celestial Stones or Stars, to which they are
nearest in all perfection of Purity, Fairness, Brightness, Virtue, and
Constancy, or Fixity, and Incorruptibility in the fire, and are in a
manner like to the Celestial stones and constellations, being parts of
them, and of the Nature derived from them, and are found by men
in an impure gross vessel, and are supposed by the vulgar (who
judge rashly of all things) to have been there born or generated;
such as are found are polished, and are carried throughout the
World to be sold, and are accounted as great Riches, because of
their form, colour, and other Virtues, of which I am now going to
Treat.

Of Gemms.

T he Emerald is a green Transparent stone; it helps the Eyes,

succours the Memory, defends Chastity; the which being
violated, it self, viz. the stone, is hurt.
 The Adamant or Diamond is a black Crystal; ’tis called Evax,
because it produceth Joy: ’Tis obscure, and of an Iron colour, most
hard, is dissolved with Goats blood, and exceeds not the bigness of
a Filberd Nut.
The Magnet is a stone of Iron, because it attracts Iron.
The Margarite is a Pearl, and not a Stone; ’tis generated in shells,
and is white; for whatsoever is generated in Animals, in a Man or
Fish, is not properly a Stone, but only in the opinion of the vulgar: It
is properly a depraved (or a transmuted) Nature on a Perfect Work.
The Jacynth is a yellow pellucid stone; ’tis also a Flower, the which
the Poets fain to have been a Man.
The Sapphire is a Skie-colour stone, of a Celestial nature.
The Ruby is a stone deeply red.
The Carbuncle is a stone of the Sun, emits light and splendour, like
to the Sun in his own nature.
Coral also is like to a stone, all red, it grows in the sea, on wood
or a shrub, of the nature of the Water and Air; ’tis presently changed
by the Air, and turns to a stone, grows red, is incombustible in the
Fire, and therefore may be esteemed a Stone.
The Chalcedony is a stone with bright and obscure colours, with
mixt and cloudy fluidities and colours, ruddy, like to a Liver, the vilest
of all the Gemms, shining with every colour.
The Topas is a stone, shining also in the night; ’tis found in either
rocks or stones.
The Amethist is a stone of a red and yellow; it shines.
The Crysopassus is a stone fiery in the Night, and in the day it
appears Golden coloured.
The Crystal is a white transparent stone, like to Water congealed
by the Air, and cold, (or of the Air and Cold) it is sublimated,
extracted, or (as they say) washed out of other Rocks.
 And now, for a Conclusion, I will give you this most true farewel.
If any one will use a right reason, sence, and cogitation towards
Metals, what they are, and whence they come, let him know, that
our metals are nothing else but the best portion of common stones;
they are the Spirit of the stones, that is, the Marrow, Oyl, Pitch, and
Fat of the stones; but it is not sincere, pure, and perfect, as long as
’tis mixt and hid in the stones; this therefore is to be sought for and
found in stones, and to be known in them and extracted from them;
and then it is no more a stone, but a well-wrought and perfect
Metal, assimilated to the Cœlestial Stars, the which also are peculiar
stones, distinct from these stones. Whoever therefore is willing to
find out metals, let him firmly believe this, and thus account, That
he must not be only intent on the common Metals, nor have his
hope placed in the bowels of the Earth, that so he might get good
Minerals from thence, for often times there is above or without the
Earth in sight, which is not in the profundity and depth thereof, and
oftentimes is better, and more rich.
Therefore all such stones as you meet with, whether great or
small, as great whole stones or flints are to be most accurately
search’d or look’d into, and to be considered of what Nature and
Property they are; for oftentimes a most vile Flint is found to be
more excellent than any Cow. For the Matrix or Rock, Abbruch,
whence they are gotten, from whence such a stone did arise, is not
alwaies to be earnestly sought after, that you may have more from
thence, for these stones have no Rock, the Heaven is their Rock;
oftentimes also the Abject Earth, Powder, and Sand, hath much gold
and silver Dust, (Schlich) which observe.
Glaub.] Here Paracelsus declares what Alchymy is, whose words
being perspicuous enough, need no illustration: Then he leads us to
the birth of metals, the which are generated in the Earth, out of the
Stars above: He attributes to Gemms the nearest place of Perfection,
but does not intend that we should earnestly seek after them, to
have gold and silver from thence, but that the metals should be
made like them, as to their outward Aspect, and then afterwards the
☉ and ☽ is to be extracted, to which all the scope of the foregoing
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