Symbols ana a

^m Exod. 34:28-30; cf. 24:12-18; Deut. 9:18-25; 10:1 0.

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^Cf, the Symbol equivalent to the dove that brought Zeus ambrosia. (Odyssey, 12.62).

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^Gen. 7:4_; 8:1-12.

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^Cf. Ignis, no. 11 12 (1925), 379ff.

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^This sentence—recalling the "1 am that which is" in rhe alchemical text of Zosimos quoted earlier— could refer to rhe experience, of the pure ego, which the preparatory purification (that very often in alchemy is associated with the symbolism of the period of "forty days”) liberates from all heterogeneous elements. Tn his spiritual regeneration—according to Caglioscro (quoted in Ignis [192.5], 148, 179)—die initiate says of himseli. "I am char T am.”

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In the zodiacal series, after Aries come Taurus and Gemini, whose correspondences to phases of the hr[ might be the Red Work' and then the Androgyne, or Rebis,

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’ Fernery, Diccionnairs, 10.

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^ Text quoted in Bert he lot, Introduction a 1 'etude de la chimic, 292. The reader will separate the allusions to the subsequent phases. Here copper is the equivalent of the Body.

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^7H We would point out to the reader who may be interested certain texts in which he can find the characteristic allusions to rransmutarion of rhe two natures to the white: d'Espagnet, Arcanum hcrmcdcum, §6811,,: Livre dc El Habir, CMA, 3:112, Zoshnos, in CAG, 2:223; Geher, Summa, BCC. 1:557;, Livre dArtephius, BPC. 2:153; Boehmc, Dc signatura, 5, §17; Filum Ariadnae, 100; Turha philosophurum. §§5, 6. We shall cite only Artepbius further who, after saying that the Water or Mercury is "the Mother who must introduce and encapsulate in her womb her Son, i.e., Gold,’’ and that "she must revive the body and restore Life to what was dead,” adds, "In this operation the Body becomes Spirit and the Spirit is turned into Body. Thereupon are established friendship, peace, accord and union ot rhe opposites, that is, between the Body and Spirit which interchange their narures . . . mixing and uniting down to their smallest parts. . . . Thereby is obtained a middle substance, a body and spirit mixture"; and it is clear that "this could not be possible, if the Spirit did not become a bexiy with the Bodies, and if by the Spirit the Bodies had not been made volatile and if the whule was not fixed and permanent" (BPC, 2:131, 1.33, 134), We shall also recall a notable passage of Della Riviera (Mondo magico, 85, 86-87): "After the celestial union [of the Moon and the Sun, corresponding to the first fixation of the invoked force), the Moon is made equal to the Sun in perfection and dignity, such that having been linked so intimately to the Sun, she is raised from the lowest to the highest of positions.- while the waters beneath the Firmament, that is to say, placed under ir, retreat little by little to a single place and are reduced until finally the dry earth appears, which drier than ever, after the summer’s extrinsic heat, and extremely athirst, draws hack to irselt again, by virtue of its power of arrraction, particles of this water, like a celestial dew , . . which gently irrigating and fecundating the earth, excites and moves the vegetating virtues in her, of which the green color is manifestated evidence, that again appears on her. The green color is die symbol of die vegecadve soul and, ar rhe same time, of die universal nature. New natures are engendered "in a water that substantially is uodiing less than the pure Spirit [of the Heaven and Earth), brought from the potential ro the acrual, and made one thing, in the same way that rwo horns are one thing. When all the celestial rain has hurst from the sky and received by the Earth, the darkness of the Earth disappears and the terra Uluminata returns all around ” lr is important to emphasize that this "terra iiluminata” to which this passage refers is the radiant form or Diana, ^ for which rhe explicit reference to Aristotle’s vegetative soul, brought to actualization, has special importance.

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