El Gobierno Provincial del

30. Many colors appear between the signs, but

they are unimportant

…… Statistical Significance ……… Supporting sources: 8

Contradicting sources: 0

Statistical significance: 0.9999847

This premise is statistically significant

…… Supporting Quotations ……… [320] In the course of this change from white to black, the substance

naturally passes through a variety of intermediate colours; but these colours (being more or less accidental) are not invariably the same, and depend very much on the original proportion in which the two substances are combined. In the second stage, during which the substance changes from black to white, it is already far purer, the colours are more lucid, and more to be depended upon. In the two phases there are intermediate colours; but in the first they are more dingy and obscure than in the second, and very much less numerous. In the progress of the substance from blackness to whiteness (i.e., the second phase of our Magistery), the most beautiful colours are seen in a variety such as eclipses the glory of the rainbow; before the perfection of blackness is reached, there are also some transition colours, such as black, azure, and yellowand the meaning of these colours is that your substance is not yet completely decayed; while the body is dying, the colours are seen, until black night shrouds the whole horizon in pitchy gloom. But when the process of resurrection begins (in the second phase), the hues are more numerous and splendid, because the body is now beginning to be glorified, and has become pure and spiritual. But in what order do the colours of which we speak appear? To this question no definite answer can be given, because in this first phase there are so much uncertainty and variation. But the colours will be the clearer and more distinct, the purer your water of life is. The four principal colours (white, black, white, red), always follow in the same order; but the order of the intermediate colours cannot be so certainly determined, and you ought to be content if within the first 40 days you get the black colour. There is only one caution you should bear in mind, in regard to this point: if a reddish colour appears before the black (especially if the substance begins to look dry and powdery at the same time), you may be almost sure that you have marred your substance by too violent a fire. You should be

p.112 30. Many colors appear between the signs, but they are unimportant

very careful, then, about the regulation of your fire; if the fire be just hot enough, but not too hot, the inward chemical action of our water will do the rest.

~ Philalethes, Eirenaeus. A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby. 1694 AD. Alchemical Tract

[822] Before the final whiteness of the first stage is attained, the

substance turns first of a black, then of an orange, and then of a reddish colour (which, however, is quite different from the final redness of the last stage). These colours, however, need not trouble you, since they are evanescent and merely transitional.

~ An Unknown German Sage. A Very Brief Tract Concerning the Philosophical

Stone. 15-7th Cen. (?). Alchemical Tract

[820] after the putrefaction and conception, which has taken place at

the bottom of the vessel, there is once more a change of colours and a circulating sublimation. This Reign, or Regimen, lasts only three weeks. During this period you see all conceivable colours concerning which no definite account can be given. The "showers" that fall will become more numerous as the close of this reign approaches, and its termination is signalized by the appearance of a snowy white streaky deposit on the sides of the vessel. Rejoice, then, for you have successfully accomplished the regimen of Jupiter. What you must be particularly careful about in this operation, is to prevent the young ones of the Crow from going back to the nest when they have once left it; secondly, to let your earth get neither too dry by an immoderate sublimation of the moisture, nor yet to swamp and smother it with the moisture. These ends will be attained by the proper regulation of the outward heat.

[821] While it passes from blackness to whiteness, a great variety of

colours are observed; nor is it at once perfectly white; at first it is simply white afterwards it is of a dazzling, snowy splendour.

~ An Anonymous Sage and Lover of Truth. An Open Entrance to the Closed

Palace of the King. 1645 AD. Alchemical Tract

[73] The constant and essential Colors, that appear in the Digestion

of the Matter, and before it comes to a Perfection, are three, viz. Black, which signifies the Putrefaction and Conjunction of the Elements; White, which demonstrates its Purification; and Red, which demonstrates its Maturation. The rest of the Colors, that appear and disappear in the Progress of the Work, are only accidental, and unconstant.

~ Urbigerus, Baro. Aphorisms of Urbigerus. 1690 AD. Alchemical Tract

[813] When the putrefaction of our seed has been thus completed, the

fire may be increased till glorious colors appear, which the Sons of Art have called Cauda Pavonis, or the Peacock's Tail. These colors come and go, as heat is administered approaching to the third degree, till all is of a beautiful green, and as it ripens assumes a perfect whiteness, which is the White Tincture, transmuting the inferior metals into silver, and very

30. Many colors appear between the signs, but they are unimportant p.113

powerful as a medicine. But as the artist well knows it is capable of a higher concoction, he goes on increasing his fire till it assumes a yellow, then an orange or citron color; and then boldly gives a heat of the fourth degree, till it acquires a redness like blood taken from a sound person, which is a manifest sign of its thorough concoction and fitness for the uses intended.

~ Anonymous. On the Philosophers' Stone. 17th Cen. (?). Alchemical Tract

[817] When you find it black, know that in blackness whiteness is

hidden, and you must extract the same from his most subtle blackness. But after putrifaction it waxes red, not with a true redness, of which one says: It is often red, and often of a citrine color, it often melts, and is often coagulated, before true whiteness.

[818] There appears also before whiteness the peacocks color,

whereon one says thus, Know you that all the colors in the world, or that may be imagined, appear before whiteness, and afterward true whiteness follows.

~ Bacon, Roger. The Mirror of Alchemy. 13th Cen. Alchemical Tract

[11] between the white and the red appear all colours, even to the

utmost imagination. --- For the varieties of which the philosophers have given various names, and almost innumerable; some for obscuring it, some for envy's sake. The cause of the appearance of such variety of colours in the operation of your medicine, is from the extension of the blackness; for as much as blackness and whiteness be the extreme colours, all the other colours are but means between them. Therefore as often as any degree or portion of blackness descends, so often another and another colour appears, until it comes to whiteness.

[826] And many times it shall be changed from colour to colour, till

such times as it comes to the fixed whiteness. Synon saith, all the colours of the world will appear in it when the black humidity is dried up. But value none of these colours, for they be not the true tincture: yea, many times it becomes citrine and reddish, and many times it is dried, and becomes liquid again, before the whiteness will appear.

~ Bacon, Roger (Pseudo). The Root of the World. 13-7th Cen. Alchemical Tract

[206] before Whiteness appeareth, all the Colours that may be thought

of are seen and perceived in this work, of which care need not be had, but only to Whiteness that must be expected with great constancy.

[789] It is to be noted also that our Stone in digestion is moved to all

the colours in the World, but three are principal, of which good care and notice are to be taken, to wit, Black colour, which is first and it is the key of the Beginning of the Work; of the Second kind or degree, the White colour is the Second, and the Red is the third, whereof it is said that the thing of which the head is Red, the feet White, and the eyes Black is our Magistery.

p.114 30. Many colors appear between the signs, but they are unimportant

…… Commentary ……… Between the signs there are many transient colors, an effect sometimes referred to as the ‘peacock’s tail.’ In modern vocabulary we could use the slightly improved and more literal example of comparing it to the color pattern that appears in a slick of oil – which is remarkably similar to the color pattern seen on the tail of a peacock.

This is caused by an effect which is familiar to modern science as birefringence.

These transient colors are not important, except in showing you that a change is occurring.