Calcination

ARISTOTLE in the Book of Origins speaks thus: “SUN and Man create a Man, for the Sun’s force and spirit give life, and the process has to begone through seven times, by means of the Sun’s heat.”

But as the Philosophers in their work have to aid Nature with Art, so have they also to govern the heat according to the Sun, so as to create the before-mentioned Stone, which as well has to undergo seven processes. For such a work requires: 

FIRSTLY, a heat powerful enough to soften and melt these parts of the earth that have become thick, hard and baked, as mentioned by SOCRATES when he says: that the holes and cracks of the earth will be opened to receive the influence of Fire and Water.