88 The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony. 



attack the seat of the disease, and are 

 not content with a mere external wash- 

 ing away of impurities. Hence we 

 admonish all and sundry that Antimony 

 has to be freed of its crudeness and 

 poisonous indigestibility before it can be 

 safely applied as a medicine ; and this 

 transformation is effected by fire, and by 

 fire only. Vulcan is the only arbiter of 

 such a purifying process. What Vulcan 

 (fire) of the upper sphere has left crude 

 and unfinished is accomplished by the 

 Vulcan of the lower world. He matures 

 the immature, digests the crude with his 

 heat, and separates the pure from the 

 impure. By the separation and fire 

 which perfect fixation, its poisonous 

 nature is removed, and all that is evil in 

 Antimony is changed into something 

 good. Fire purges away the deadly 

 nature of our medicine, as is known only 

 to those who have fraternally co-opera- 

 ted with Vulcan, and have seen the bride 

 cleansed of all impurity in the fiery bath, 

 which enables her to lie in the bridal bed 

 with her chosen spouse. 



