St. John's Crystal Gold
St. John's Crystal Gold
A mysterious and possibly symbolic operation, described by alchemist Thomas Vaughan (1622-1666), who wrote under the name Eugenius Philalethes:
"In regard of the Ashes of Vegetables, although their weaker exterior Elements expire by violence of the fire, yet their Earth cannot be destroyed, but is Vitrified. The Fusion and Transparency of this substance is occasioned by the Radicall moisture or Seminal water of the Compound. This water resists the fury of the fire, and cannot possibly be vanquished. 'In hac Aquâ' (saith the learned Severine), 'Rosa latet in Hieme.'
"These two principles are never separated; for Nature proceeds not so far in her Dissolutions. When death hath done her worst, there is a Union between these two, and out of them shall God raise us to the last day, and restore us to a spiritual constitution. I do not conceive there shall be a Resurrection of every Species, but rather their Terrestrial parts, together with the element of water (for 'there shall be no more sea'—Revelations ), shall be united in one mixture with the Earth, and fixed to a pure Diaphanous substance.
"This is St. John's Crystal Gold, a fundamental of the New Jerusalem—so called, not in respect of Colour, but constitution. Their Spirits, I suppose, shall be reduced to their first Limbus, a sphere of pure, ethereal fire, like rich Eternal Tapestry spread under the throne of God."
(See also alchemy )