The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine

The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine (German: Ein kurtz summarischer Tractat, von dem grossen Stein der Uralten lit. 'A Short Summary Tract: Of the Great Stone of the Ancients') is a widely reproduced alchemical book attributed to Basil Valentine. It was first published in 1599 by Johann Thölde

“The first part of the book is a discussion of general alchemical principles and advice about the philosopher's stone. The second half of Ein kurtz summarischer Tractat, under the subtitle "The Twelve Keys", contains twelve short chapters. Each chapter, or "key", is an allegorical description of one step in the process by which the philosopher's stone may be created. With each step, the symbolic names (Deckname, or code name) used to indicate the critical ingredients are changed, just as the ingredients themselves are transformed. The keys are written in such a fashion as to conceal as well as to illuminate: only a knowledgeable reader or alchemical adept was expected to correctly interpret the veiled language of the allegorical text and its related images”

The Twelve Keys of Basil Valentine, as engraved by Matthaeus Merian (1593–1650), and published in the collection Musaeum hermeticum, Francofurti : Apud Hermannum à Sande, 1678

IV. Clavis

The 9th Key

• A crow
• A swan
• A peacock
• An eagle.

“Saturn, who is called the greatest of the planets, is the least useful in our Magistery. Nevertheless, it is the chief Key of the whole Art, howbeit set in the lowest and meanest place.”

“Although by its swift flight it has risen to the loftiest height, far above all other luminaries, its feathers must be clipped, and itself brought down to the lowest place, from whence it may once more be raised by putrefaction, and the quickening caused by putrefaction, by which the black is changed to white, and the white to red, until the glorious colour of the triumphant King has been attained.”

“If the whole world's nature Were seen in one figure, And nothing could be evolved by Art, Nothing wonderful would be found in the Universe, And Nature would have nothing to tell us. For which let us laud and praise God.”