There are not many records for the life of John A Mehung, however, he may be the French poet Jean Clopinel, or Jean de Meun, of Meung-sur-Loire (1240 – 1305) who famously authored Le Roman de la Rose. Regardless of the author’s obscurity, we know that the Demonstration of Nature was published in German in the Musaeum Hermeticum in 1625 and an English translation was also published by the Rosicrucian alchemist William Backhouse (1593-1662), the mentor to the alchemist Elias Ashmole.
A Demonstration of Nature concludes that the alchemical process is a natural process of purification that has been ordained by god and is acted out by nature. In this, Mehung tells us that the alchemist should put down written books and instead study nature if a true understanding of the synthesis of the Philosopher’s Stone is to be understood.
Much of his text is an open conversation with the reader, God, and Mother Nature. He asks more questions than he answers, likely in an attempt to show the reader that the true mystery of alchemy is held secret by nature and that one must experience the journey to unveil the answer. From what he does tell us though, it is understood early on that the true alchemical process is not that of physical chemistry. He says:
“I know that no credit is to be attached to the fanciful notions of the old Sages who would prepare our Stone out of a crude metallic substance.”
And:
“Unto you, I render the most heartfelt thanks for you have delivered me from my own ignorance, and from the disgrace and ruin to which all my endless alembics, quicksilvers, aquæ fortes, dissolutions, excrements of horses, and coal fires, must at length have brought me.”
With the assurance that Mehung is not discussing chemistry, we can understand that the alchemy he is discussing is of a spiritual or psychological manner. He tells us that there are only two stages that concern the alchemist, the first is the preparation of the first substance which will become the seed of the Matter from which the Philosopher’s Stone will be made, and the second is keeping the “fire” alive to fuel the process. Beyond those two steps, he leaves the rest to Nature’s capable hands.
In regards to the preparation of the first matter, he says:
“Chaos, or Hyle, is the first substance.”
Mehung uses the term hyle purposefully, as it is a term he would have understood from the work of Aristotle. In Aristotelean philosophy, hyle is a term used to describe the principle drive that causes material change. So, the first substance from which the Matter will be synthesised is that which causes change, perhaps we could read that as the changes and events that humanity experiences during everyday living. If we look at this through the lens of psychoanalysis, we might assume that the key events are those that are traumatic, for in them are golden lessons to be learned that fuel the transmutation of the mind, body, and soul. Mehung leans into this idea and says:
“The only thing in which man must aid you [nature], is, by preparing the substance, removing all that is superfluous, enclosing this simple earth, which is combined with its water, in a vessel, and subjecting it to the action of gentle heat in a suitable alembic.”
These alchemical terms are symbolic and intuition might lead the reader to understand that the alchemist is the vessel and alembic, the falsehoods of the ego are the superfluous substance to be removed, the truth of the event is the earth, the alchemist’s emotion is the water, and consciousness is the fire. Mehung then states:
“Once the seed is enclosed in the female vessel, no further trouble or work of any kind is required—everything is brought to perfection by your gradual and silent working. And the generation of the Stone, you say, is performed in a similar manner.”
The female vessel he speaks of is the unconscious mind which is impregnated by the conscious will. If the first steps in purifying the trauma, event, or first substance are undertaken correctly, then the seed of consciousness will be pure, the impregnation of the unconsciousness will be true, and Nature will ensure that the resulting birth is golden.