The Chymical Jousting of Brother Perardua (Liber LV)

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LIBER
L V
THE CHYMICAL
JOUSTING OF
B R O T H E R
PERARDUA
WITH THE SEVEN
LANCES THAT HE
BRAKE
V AA
Publication in Class C
The Regimen of the Seven
THE CHYMICAL JOUSTING OF
BROTHER PERARDUA
WITH THE SEVEN LANCES
THAT HE BRAKE
He slayeth Sir Argon le Paresseux.

Now Brother Perardua, though he was but a Zelator of our ancient
Order, had determined in himself to perform the Magnum Opus,
and to procure for himself one grain of the Powder, one minim of
the Elixir, and the Tincture of Double Efficacy. Not fully did he yet
comprehend the Mysterium of our Art, therefore imposed he upon
himself the painful sevenfold regimen. For without the Bell of
Electrum Magicum of Paracelsus how should the adept even give
warning to the Powers of the Work of his entry thereunto?
Yet our brother, being of stout heart—for he had been a soldier
in many distant lands—began right cheerfully. His head that was
hoary with eld he crowned with five petals of white lotus, as if to
signify the purity of his body, and went forth into that place where
is no field, nor any furrow therein; and there he sowed a scroll that
had two and twenty seeds diverse.
He slayeth Sir Abjad the Saracen.

Nor for all his care and labour could he gather therefrom more than
seven plants, that shone in the blackness; and each plant beareth a
single blossom that hath seven petals—one would have thought them
stars; for though they were not of a verity in themselves brilliant and
flashing, yet so black was that wherein they grew that they seemed
brighter than suns. And these were placed one above the other in a
single line and straight, even according unto the seven centres of his
intention that he bare about him in the hollow tube that hath thirty
and two joints.
1
2 L IBER LV
He slayeth Sir Amorex le Desirous.
These plants did our brother Perardua pluck, as the mystic rites
ordain; and these did he heat furiously in his alembic, yet with
vegetable heat alone, while he kept them ever moist, dropping upon
them of his lunar water, whereof he had three and seventy minims
left of the eight and seventy that his Father had given him; and these
he had borne upon a camel through the desert unto this place where
he now was, which is called the Oasis of the Lion, even as the whole
Regimen that in the end he accomplished is in the form of a Lion.
Thus then his Lion waxed exceeding thirsty, and licked up all
that dew. But the fire being equal thereunto, he was not
discomforted.
He slayeth Sir Lionel the Warder of the Marches.

So now indeed he had wrought the first Matter to a pitch of
excellence beyond the human; for without trouble was his tincture
thus beautiful. First, it had the crown and horns of Alexander the
mighty king; also it had wings of fine sapphire; its fore part was like
the Lion, whereby indeed it partook of the highest Virtue, and its
hinder quarters were as a bull’s. Moreover it stood upon the White
Sphere and the Red Cube; and it is not possible for any Elixir to
exceed this, unless it be by Our path and working.
He slayeth Sir Merlin the Wizard.

Yet our brother Perardua—and by now he was right skilful at the
athanor!—determined to attain to that higher Projection of our art.
Therefore he subtly prepared a Red Dragon, or as some alchemists
will have it, a Fiery Flying Serpent, whereby he should eat up that
Sphinx of his, that he had nourished with such ingenium and care.
Now this Red Dragon hath seven fiery coils, proper to the seven
silver stars. Also was his head right venemous and greedy, and eight
flames were about it; for that Sphinx had two wings and four feet
and two horns; but the Serpent is one, even as the King is one.
THE CHYMICAL JOUSTING OF BROTHER PERARDUA 3
He slayeth the Great Dragon called Stooping or Twisted.
Now then is this work utterly burnt up and abolished in that
tremendous heat that is in the mouth and belly of the Dragon; and
that which cometh forth therefrom is in no wise that which went
in. Yet are these twelve the children of those two-and-twenty. So
when he had broken the cucurbirte, he find therein no trace of the
seven, but a button of fused gold—as we say, for it is not gold. . . .
Now this button hath twelve faces, and angles twenty-four
salient and reentrant; and Our Egyptian brethren have called it the
Pavement of the Firmament of Nu.
He slayeth King Astur of the Arms Argent.

Now this metal is not in any wise like unto earthly metal; let the
brethren well beware, for many false knaves be abroad. Three things
be golden: the mineral gold of the merchant that is dross; the vegetable
gold that groweth from the seed of the scroll by virtue of the Lion;
and the animal gold that cometh forth from the regimen of the
Dragon, and this last is the sole marketable gold of the Philosopher.
For, behold, an Arcanum! I charge you, keep secret this matter; for
the vile brothers, could they divine it, would pervert it.
This mineral Gold cannot be changed into any other substance
by any means.
This Vegetable Gold is fluidic; it must increase wonderfully and
be fixed in the Perfection of the Sphinx.
But this our Animal Gold is to this mighty pitch unstable, that it
can neither increase nor decrease, nor can it remain that which it is,
or seemeth to be. For even as a drop of glass unequally cooled flieth
at a touch into a myriad fine particles, so also at a touch this gold
philosophical dissolveth his being, ofttimes with a great and terrible
explosion, ofttimes so softly and subtly that no man may perceive it,
be he never so acute, nay, as a needle for sharpness or for fineness as
a spyglass of the necromancer!
Yet herein lieth the core of the matter that in this explosion
4 L IBER LV
aforesaid naught whatever is left either of the seven or the twelve or
of the three Mother seeds that lie concealed therein. But in a certain
mystical way the Other Ten are shadowed forth, though dimly, as if
the Brazen Serpent had become a Sword of Lightning. Yet this is
but a glyph; for in truth there is no link or bond between them.
For this Animal Gold is passed utterly away; there is not any
button thereof, nor any feather of the Wings of the Sphinx, nor any
mark of the Sower or of the Seed. But at that Lightning Flash all did
entirely disappear, and the Cucurbite and the Alembic and the
Athanor were shattered utterly . . . and there arose That which he
had set himself to seek; yea, more! a grain of the Powder, and three
minims of the Elixir, and Six drachms of the Tincture of Double
Efficacy.
. . . Yet the brethren mocked him; for he had imperilled himself
sore; so that unto this hour hath the name of Perardua been
forgotten, and they that have need to speak of him say in right
joyaunce Non Sine Fulmine.
*** ***** ***

[This work was first published in Equinox I (1). In the “Syllabus” in Equinox I (10) it
was declared to be Liber LV in Class C (on the grounds that 55 is the “mystic number”
of Malkuth (i.e., Σ(1–10)) as well as hn, “an ornament.” The illustration, “The Regimen
of the Seven” is by J.F.C. Fuller, whose AA mottoes were Per Ardua (Lat.,
“through hardship”) and Non Sine Fulmine (Lat., “not without the thunderbolt.”). The
index to Equinox vol. I gave the author of the body of the work as Crowley; it is not clear
what grounds, if any, F.I. Regardie in the introduction to Gems from the Equinox (from
which compilation he omitted the present document on the grounds that it “said
nothing”) had for attributing the text to Fuller.
Key entry &c. by Frater T.S. for Nu Isis Working Group / Celephaïs Press. Last revised
17.09.2019.]

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He slayeth Sir Argon le Paresseux.

He slayeth Sir Abjad the Saracen.

He slayeth Sir Lionel the Warder of the Marches.

He slayeth Sir Merlin the Wizard.

He slayeth King Astur of the Arms Argent.

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