27. Red Stage

The Red Stone is only a further development of the White Stone. You will obtain the White Stone first, and

then part of this you can excel to the perfection of the Red Stone.

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first it prepares the white tincture, and then the red. For the Sun and Moon are prepared by the same method, and

yield the red and white tincture, respectively

A Short Tract, or Philosophical Summary, by Nicholas Flamell, 15th Cen.

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If you are attempting to mature the unfermented White Stone, instead of the fermented White Stone, you

will need to be more careful with the heat. It might also be an idea to multiply your White Stone a few times

before attempting to make it red. This may speed up the process as the Stone will already be much purer.

To mature the White Stone into the Red Stone you should place the White Stone into a clean round-bottom

flask as before, and make extra sure it is hermetically sealed. Now place this in the water bath and heat it at

the temperature that the White Stone melts into the consistency of melted wax, which will likely be around

double the temperature during the previous stage. After a number of months the Stone will turn an ashorange

color. At this point you should now take the vessel out of the water bath and put it onto a high heat

source (such as a gas stove, heating mantle or hot plate). The degree of heat should be as high as possible

without cracking the vessel, so no more than 500°F/260°C. Leave the Stone on this heat and wait patiently

for a number of months again, eventually it will turn into a red powder.

When you have the red powder, save half, and ferment the other half with gold, and you have the Red

Stone, both fermented and unfermented.

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Take the White Stone and divide it into two parts; you will raise one part to the state of the white Elixir, as has been

said much earlier (of the kind of which you will have an indefinite amount). Put the other part in a new bed of the

Philosophers, clean, tidy, transparent, spherical and place it in the furnace for digestion. Increase the fire until by its

force and strength the matter is changed to a very red stone

[...] cook perfectly the white Elixir to give it the color of cinnabar, starting there in order to make the red Elixir.

Compound of Compounds, by Albertus Magnus, 13th Cen.

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When the White Stone is accomplished, you must dissolve one part of it, and so calcine it (as some will have it) by long

decoction till it becomes like impalpable Ashes, so soft not to be touched, coloured Citrine.

Verbum Dismissum, by Count Bernard Trevisan, 15th Cen.

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But the heat of this dry fire ought to be double at the least, to what it was before, or than the heat of the moist fire, by

the help of this heat, the white medicine receiveth the admirable tincture of the redness.

[...] Therefore you must burn it without fear in a dry fire, until such time as it is clothed with a most glorious red, or a

pure vermilion colour. For which cause Epitus the philosopher saith, decoct the white in a red hot furnace, until such

time as it be clothed with a purple glory. Do not cease, though the redness be somewhat long, before it appears. For as