Symbols ana a

Della Riviera, Mondo nmgico, 20, 47-48.
Fernery, Dictionnaire, 5H.
‘ Livrc dc Crates, CAM, .769
Cf. Agrippa (Dc occulta, philosophia, 2:26): "Air is the body of the life of our sensitive spirit and does r.oi have the nature oi any perceivable object beyond that of a spiritual and elevated virtue. Nevertheless : happens that the sensitive Soul rejuvenates the Air that surrounds it and that it feels the quality of ;bc objects that act on it in an Air enlivened and joined to the spirit, that is, in the living Air.
' Livrc dArtephius, BPC, 2:139.
In CAM, 2:82, White Gold, White Sulfur, White Stone, etc , are other symbols for the ego principle _r. this state. Still another symbol is Magnesium by way of an ancient etymology that would derive this word from ’’mixing,” ptyvusiv, the Natures united by com bin atio (see CAG, 2:202). White Sulfur, :or Bernard of Treviso (Philosophic dcs metaux. BPC, 2:432). is "the simple soul of the Stone, upright md noble, removed from every corporeal density.” Then he goes on to give instructions for converting :;ils Sulfur, freed from all excess humidity, into an ’’impalpable and most subtle powder,” This last ;\pression may perhaps suggest a real inner experience, associated with the sense erf "loss erf weight," .7 lightness and airiness in contrast to the ordinary state of corporeal consciousness.


* 147

The White Vbrh: Rebirth

"By means of the Divine Water,” Ostanes teaches, "blind eyes see, deaf ears hear and the thick tongue speaks with clear words.” And he continues, "This Divine Water revives the dead and kills the living, for it makes natures leave their natures and because it revives the dead. It is the Water of Life: who has drunk thereof cannot die. When it has been extracted, perfected and mixed completely [with the principle drat has been obtained], it impedes the action of the Fire on the substances with which it has been mixed, and the Fire can no longer disintegrate [in the lethal and negative sense] similar mixtures.”³⁶²
Arnold of Villanova: "Our Water mortifies, illuminates, prunes and purifies. In one principle it makes the dark colors appear during the mortification of the body but then come other colors, numerous and various, and finally the whitening.”³⁶³ And Raymond Lully: "This water is called Water of Wisdom ... in it resides the spirit of the Quintessence that makes everything where otherwise, nothing could be made.”³⁶⁴