"But if the Sublimation of it should be made, I believe the tincture of the Stone would be much enlarged"
- Rosarium Philosophorum
“Take Mercury sublimed, & sublime it by itself 7 times more.”
- Samuel Norton, The Key of Alchemy
“Sublimatio implies that the material is heated in an alchemical swan until it is completely evaporated – thus, the operation allows a solid or liquid to become a gas. If the steam is then cooled down and condenses into its original solid or liquid form, albeit in a refined state, the operation is called destillatio. In herbal alchemy, a sublimatio can mean that the distilled water with the herbal salt from the previous operation is slowly boiled dry until all the water has evaporated. The water is boiled on low heat so that the salts do not disappear with the steam, and only a dry salt is left behind. In the alchemy of the psyche, the operation is used to describe how vital forces such as libido and primordial instincts are sublimated to higher purposes such as art and poetry. The operation involves the material making an ascent and becoming as light and airy as spirit. Imagination, visualisation and meditation are the tools by which the alchemist achieves a sublimatio in human alchemy. In the operation, the life-giving forces of the etheric body are directed towards the exalted and subtle state of the astral body rather than simply providing vitality to the physical body. In this way, a spiritualising of the human takes place.” - Alchemy – the divine work
"That which is coporeal is made spiritual by sublimation, and that which is spiritual is made corporeal by descension".
- Emerald Tablet of Hermes
"Hence the philosopher says that we must first be at pains to dissolve and sublime the two luminaries, because the primal grade of operation in Our Art is to reduce them to quicksilver. Unless the bodies lose their corporeal nature, and become spiritual, we shall make no progress with our work"
- Summary of the Rosary of Arnold de Villa Nova
"But when these two by continual Sublimation, Be laboured so with heat both moist and temperate, That is all white and purely made spiritual, Then heaven upon earth must be reiterated, Until the soul with the body be incorporated, That earth become all that before was heaven, Which will be done in seven Sublimations."
- Ripley's Eighth Gate
"But that you may not err, it is convenient for you to know that our sublimation is nothing else but to exalt bodies, that is to bring them into a spirit, which is not done but with gentle fire. For we say thus, he is sublimed into a Bishop, that is exalted. And therefore, common sublimation, which is only effect, that is to say, that the body now to be sublimed is made so spiritual, that it may be sublimed. It belongeth nothing to our work, neither is it any more required after the preparation of the first stone, because such sublimation doth not make spiritual, but only shows the effect of spirituality."
- Rosarium Philosophorum