Royal Record: Transfer of Custodianship of the Encoded Elixir
22 February 2026 · ROYAL RECORD · PRESERVATION · PERFUMERY · RITUAL · ARCHIVE
Status: Sealed
Author: Cleopatra VII
Recorded By: Hand of the Inner Chamber
Provenance: A royal instruction within the House’s imagined archive, attributed to Cleopatra VII and set in the inner sanctum of the Temple of Khonsu in Alexandria, in the late first century BCE.
House Fragment — Koine Greek
ὃ τίθεται ἐν τῷ σκεύει τῆς σελήνης,
οὐ κατέχεται, ἀλλὰ φέρεται.
ho tithetai en tō skeuei tēs selēnēs,
ou katechetai, alla pheretai.
What is placed in the vessel of the moon
is not retained, but carried.
What is entrusted is not possessed, but carried forward.
Continuation
The vessel stands before the altar.
Within it is the Encoded Elixir.
Its preparation is completed.
Its custody is not.
The hand that formed the composition
is not the hand appointed to carry it.
What passes between them
is neither a portion nor a gift.
The whole is entrusted.
The Charge
He who receives the vessel
does not belong to its origin.
He is to carry it without alteration.
Nothing is to be divided from it.
Nothing is to be diminished.
He is not to present it
before the appointed time,
nor speak of it
where speech is not required.
The vessel passes into his keeping.
Its purpose does not pass into his choosing.
For One Not Present
She for whom it is secured
does not stand within these halls.
She has not received it.
The transfer recorded here
is not its arrival.
Between this altar
and her receiving hand,
the charge remains.
What Is Withheld
The elixir is not to be worn.
It is not to be consumed
or used as fragrance.
Its presence is sufficient.
To carry it
is not permission to use it.
To preserve it
is not permission to hasten its purpose.
Closing Record
Custody passes.
Ownership does not.
The vessel is entrusted
to the hand that must carry it,
for the one
who has not yet received it.
✧
References
Theophrastus, Concerning Odours, §§40–41.
On the vulnerability of perfumes to heat and the vessels used to retain their character. A material foundation for the care of an aromatic composition. Read the work (opens in a new tab).
Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book XIII, §19.
On containers, storage and the keeping of fragrance. Read the passage (opens in a new tab).
The external works provide historical context for preserving aromatic materials. They do not attest to the Encoded Elixir, this royal instruction, or the particular sanctuary and transfer imagined in this House manuscript.