Rosarium Philosophorum (Cod. Mag. 142, UL)Gideon’s dew flows down on the dead hermaphrodite. Here the dew falleth from heaven’s wave, And washeth the black body in the grave. A divine nectar – Gideon’s dew – flows from heaven like a divine intervention and washes the old body clean in the tomb. Grace, which is a unifying and sanctifying power, enters and spiritualises the remaining lunar aspect of the soul and thus begins the creation of the white tincture. The alchemist works with both the active divine creative ability of the imagination, which is referred to by the alchemist Paracelsus as the star of the soul, and with the passive and receptive principle of meditation to reveal the mysteries of the dew. The elements of the moon that are active in the grave have a softening and purifying effect on the ego, the body and the senses. This causes a movement from and a sublimation of the three lower chakras or planets in favour of the self-generating and self-sacrificing power of the heart and the pelican. This operation, in which the dew from above softens our soul, is also referred to as the baptism of ablutio or mundificatio.
Alchemy – The Divine Work (Falkenberg & Westlund)