13Entreciens, BPC.1.85. Chymica vannus, 279, 281; cf. Braccesco, (Espusidonc. fol. 79a), "The rays of the heavenly bodies are concentrated in no Element with such virtue and power ax in Earth, precisely because Earth is the true and solid recepracle of the celestial virtues and the center of their spheres "
Cf. CAG, 3.34, 258; Livre de El 1 lahir, CMA, 3:115.
7:' Cf. Fernery, Diction naire, 33. affording it no power to escape. Pressing against the upper wall of the closed container, it is obliged to condense, anew and return below, as a distillation that will act on the residue to transform it. It is a fundamental principle of the Arc that the spirit must not fly out and escape, under pain of losing what was supposed to be achieved. Artephius says: "Do not let the spirit exhale, because if it escapes from the vessel, your work will be completely destroyed."180 That is the reason why Fires that are too violent are ill-advised: because the force of the spirits would break the vessel and every benefit would be lost;181 because of this, others insist likewise on the thickness of the glass of the flask and on the perfectly "hermetic” seal. And it is advisable to rush immediately to the aid of the Body when the Soul is stretched by having loosened its bond: otherwise "the Soul will abandon its terrestrial company to resolve into another element,182 which is not the objective that is being pursued. This is expressed in similar fashion by Zacharias: 'k is necessary to remain attentive and vigilant in order not to miss the precise moment of the birth of our Mercurial Water, with the end of reuniting it with its body that until now we have called yeast or leavening and which from now on we shall call Venom.”183 The word venom refers to the point at which the principle of the work is manifested as a transcendent and dissolving power with respect to the personalized individual states. And Boehme says: "If the spirit flees from its prison, lock it back in again.”184
