The body, immersed m light, is manifested as Gold and the individualized form of the Soul Cf. page
76. Here we employ a symbolism according to which the Body, m the redness, takes on the masculine and Gold function by virtue of die personalizing powers of fires whose entry it brings about, while the Soul, as still distinct from such powers, is assimilated to the Mercury.
22 Comarius. text in CAG, 2:296-97 The ios of Copper is the profound power that stands at the root ot the common reddish "metal" (Copper) and that is liberated by the Work and transformed into the roor of all resurrections. 71 Geber, Summa, 1.4, proem. §2. PROPl)GClC KootnLeOqe
1 ■ et us hrtefly discuss chc supernatural possibilities deriving
I from the various levels of the Work.
general, the separation, as it breaks the chains of the body, to all intents and purposes can liberate the faculties of the awareness of, and ability to deal with, the conditions that weigh upon the body itself: that is to say, the conditions of space, time, and causality. Thereupon the adept can pass on to stages and activities that in some measure are free of such conditionings, provided he succeeds in "fixating” or mastering the process of separation. '
Thus Della Riviera, having identified as "Magic’’ the conquest of the Tree that stands at the center of Paradise, says that the first result is the illumination and exaltation of all the human faculties. Liberated from the petrification of the animal organs, the energies resulting from mental unity O, "without obstacle of any kind, can freely perceive future things, as easily as present and past.”467 Various hermetic authors such as the Cosmopolite and Philalethes discuss this prophetic ability; but it must not be seen as separate from a faculty of realization, as Agrippa says: "The soul having been purified, released from all mutation, glowing externally with freedom of movement . . . imitates the angels in its own nature and obtains what it desires, not in succession or time, but in a single instant.2
