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Co this final stage we attribute the possibility of alchemi­cal transmutation as it is commonly understood; the transmutation of metals.
If you have followed our explanations up to this point, we trust you will have no need for specific arguments to be convinced that alchemy cannot be reduced merely to chemistry in its infancy—unsystematic, superstitious, and overshadowed by modern chemistry When alchemy is understood in the entire context of Western history, it surely has more than one aspect. In its essence, however, it remains a traditional science of a cosmological and initiatic character.
Given the synthetic nature of this type of science, alchemy must of course include a chemical side, particularly as a basis for symbolic transpositions. In the same way that the art of construction, or masonry could be used to express aspects of a spiritual, ritualistic, and initiatory process (an echo of this has been preserved in Freemasonry), so the physical understanding of the elements and certain opera­tions involving rhe metals can be said to have a similar function.⁴⁷⁸
Secondly, some hermetists were also practical chemists, and were able to make certain precursory discoveries as, for example, the different compounds of mer­cury, silver sulfide, various kinds of ether, quicklime, aqua regia, and various dyes

("tinctures”). But rhis kind of knowledge took only a secondary and subordinate place in a system whose premises, methods, and spirit had absolutely nothing in common with the chemical domain or any other modern science.
So if in this special sector the objective of the production of metallic gold is sometimes pursued and sometimes even attained, it is a question neither of a sensational phenomenon nor a scientific discovery. It is a question, on the contrary of the production of a sign, that is, of something that Catholicism might properly call a miracle, particularly as opposed to a simple phenomenon; or better yet, what Buddhism would call a "noble miracle”—ariya—in contrast to "vulgar” prodigies— anariya—which even though they may be supernormal phenomena, are not accom­panied by any higher meaning ^{479 480} The production of metallic gold was to alchemy a prooi of transfiguration given by a power: the testimony of having realized the Gold ©, in oneself.
But with the diffusion of alchemy through the West these understandings were separated from the others and lost their true spirit; the desire and greed for pure and simple gold, for monetary gold, became the main interest. And so that brand of alchemy was born that could be considered the infantile stage of scientific chem­istry. But hermetic or traditional alchemy has nothing to do wirh the origin of modern chemistry, says Rene Guenon correctly;^ and he adds;
It was rather the deterioration of Alchemy, in the strictest sense of the word, which took place perhaps in the Middle Ages, with the incomprehension of certain persons who, incapable of perceiving the true meaning of the symbols, cook everything literally and believing that in them there was nothing but a description of purely material operations, gave themselves over to more or less disorganized experimentation. Such persons, forever obsessed with the fabrica­tion of gold, made, here and there, some fortuitous discoveries. And it is these that were the true precursors of mcxlern chemistry. So we can say that hermetism and the Alchemical initiation are not related to modern chemistry by evolution or progress, but quite on the contrary, by degeneration. In this, as in other fields, modern science is built on the remains ot ancient sciences, which have been gutted of their substance and abandoned by the ignorant and profane.
That modern science should have acquired the precise experimental knowledge and technical mastery of a quantity of natural phenomena and in less than a century changed the face of this earth to a degree unmatched by any ancient civi­lization; and that in particular, it has pragmatically solved the problem of the transformation of the base metals into gold by means of the disintegration of atomic nuclei,⁴⁸¹ may be quite, interesting and may enormously impress the profane, but it says nothing to anyone who has any idea of what true consciousness and power are or the means of acquiring them.
Modern science enjoys general accomplishments within the reach of everyone. In the premodem world only sporadic, exceptional, enigmatic conquests were made, like flashes of lightning. But the achievements of modern science possess only a material value; and airplanes, penicillin, radio, and similar products up to the atomic bomb and other dibolical creations say nothing to anyone beyond their physical meaning. Altogether different, we reiterate, was the case for things that could be realized in the ancient world, because every phenomenon, conquest, or realization was a sign or a symbol. It testified to a spiritual level or sacred tradition, illustrating what was concurrently possible—as a culmination- for whoever had followed the path of overcoming the human condition, had risen to the supersensible and had made a tiny rip in the veil of transcendent meaning.
And precisely because to have, considered these "signs” from their utilitarian point of view would have meant a profanation and a degradation, rhe hermetic masters harbored a natural repugnance to produce them, and the alchemists them­selves repeated the gospel saying: "Do not cast pearls before swine”; finally, at a certain point, alchemy retired, without further ado, from the Western world of technology and scientism.
A few mysterious hermetic adepts continued to appear here and there, perhaps in order to confound and rock, by the miracle of gold made before their very eyes, the edifice of researchers of the "positive" mentality;⁴⁸² or perhaps in order to enlighten someone who was on the point of being overwhelmed by doubt and despair; or perhaps in order to change the course of some human existence by gifts of an irrational or capricious form. Nevertheless, the "making of gold” continued to remain a mystery for those who thought that it depended on a secret formula, or on this or that jealously guarded procedure, or on special substances, instead of understanding that they needed to direct the attenton and action elsewhere, that

what was missing was the understanding, in the first place, of the mystery of inner transmutation.
Thus, in what can be regarded as the specific argument of this chapter, it can be said chat hermetism may also contemplate the transmutation of metals, but not as a purely material operation. Among others, Artephius and Morienus say, and in the clearest terms, chat "the work that the magiscer does is not a work done by the hands" and that it depends, on the contrary, on artifice: "subtle plans and procedures";⁴⁸³ and everyone else repeats that the substances and elements of which they speak are not the same as those of the common man.
Yet even when chemistry had begun to take shape as a "science," there were still alchemists who went on talking exactly like their Arab, Syrian, and Alexandrian predecessors. An example given by Pernety shows us the difference between hermetic and vulgar chemistry. "The first," he says, "takes Principles as its material, and acts on them following the ways of nature itself; vulgar chemistry, on the other hand, takes the "mixtures” after they have reached their goal, and works on them with extrinsic decompositions, which destroy their natures, and its results are monstrous."⁴⁸⁴
By these words he wishes to convey to us that profane chemistry acts on that which the physical form has already taken, on the "corpses” of processes already used up, without considering these same processes in their supra- and presensible aspect. Hermetic chemistry, however, starts on the contrary, from the spiritual understanding of the Principles (char is, from the primordial powers of elemental qualification), and acts on the formation processes that precede ontologically that state in which the substances belong to the nature of this or that metal and obey the laws that chemistry and physics have discovered in the realm of simple phenomena.
Alchemy then, is differentiated from profane chemistry by a "metaphysic,” that is to say by an order of consciousness beyond the senses, which ultimately presupposes the initiatic transmutation of human consciousness. Between this transmutation (the latter) and the transmutation of metals no longer in the sym­bolic sense, but now real, there are analogical correspondences. So certain teachings and principles that first of all have a cosmological and metaphysical sense, can be applied not only to one but to the other transmutation—to that of man and metals "because the furnace, the path to be followed and the YVBrk are all one.”
For the operations of physical alchemy "different spiritual and corporeal forces are necessary," says an Arab text,⁴⁸⁵ "These forces musr be converging and not moving apart . . . the .spiritual and physical forces must be similar... so that they can mutually help each other.” "It is necessary that the operator be immersed in the work [oporccc openuorem interessc open).” Petrus Bonus says that the work is completed "by the adjunction of the Occult Stone, which one acquires not by the senses, but only by intelligence, inspiration, or divine revelation, or by the teaching of one who already knows [per sc lend am scicnds)."⁴⁸⁶ The intellectual principle that is the form of man (in the Aristotelian sense), ”is the beginning and end of the preparations.” Wirh the saffron color it appears precisely that "man is the principal and greatest force in the spagyric Work. "^{487 488} "Our Work is interior and exterior,” confirms another text.¹¹ It is not a question then of processes that are exhausted in a mass of external determinisms. In alchemical processes the psychic energy and the "dignity” of the operator play an essential role. They exercise an efficacious influence on the mineral forces, thanks to an inner relation with them that is absolutely beyond the reach of normal consciousness.⁴⁸⁹
As for technology, it is necessary only to recall and apply certain principles already known to us in connection with human palingenesis. The first teaching is: "Change the nature of the body on which you wanr to act.” Equivalent sayings include: "Extract the nature hidden within”; "Make the hidden manifest and the manifest hidden”; "Remove the darkness”; "Unclothe it”; "Make the visible invis­ible and the invisible visible”; and one of the most ancient renditions of this idea: "If you embody the incorporeal substances without making the corporeal sub­stances incorporeal, nolle of the expected results will take place.”⁴⁹⁰
It is evident that this mutation in the substances on which you must act does not refer to making them pass from one physical state to another, but to make them pass from a physical state to a nonphysical state. And this is equivalent to saying that the true preliminary operation concerns the operator more than the substances themselves. An alchemical mantram goes: cransrnucamini in vivos lapides philosophicos—Be ye transmuted into living philosopher's stones—and consists in reaching that condition of the consciousness by virtue of which is precisely realized the psychic aspect of physical things, the "subtle soul” hidden by their exterior. This is the hidden that is made manifest, while the manifest—that is, the sensory and corporeal aspect—is made hidden; this is the appearance of the "hidden nature within," the "underneath” that is brought "up,” etc. Only after this condition is realized does it become possible to act hermetically on substances. "Life,”says Basil Valentine "is nothing more than a Spirit; for, all that which the. ignorant considers to be dead must live (for thee) with an incomprehensible life, visible all the same, and spiritual, and in that must he be saved."⁴⁹¹
In the same sense other authors speak of "the vision in the Light of Nature," and the Novum lumen chemicum relates the operation "of removing the shadow from hidden things” to an act that must be at once intellectual and imaginative.⁴⁹² We find in the texts frequent and quite explicit allusions to the "magical imagina­tion," which is opposed to simple fantasy. Sendivogius, in Dc sulphure, says that it is the key that the ancients have not revealed, and we must remember that Albert us Magnus teaches that all the magical techniques, which alchemy com­prises, act only when man is in a sort of ecstasy or active trance.⁴⁹³
So we can understand the. relation of "Transform the natures and thou wilt obtain what thou seekest," to the injunction to "mix" the substances with our Mercury, or Divine Water: it is a question of referring the perception of the substances to the consciousness transported to the state that corresponds to the symbols of Water and Mercury (the White Work), which we have seen in the initiatic work.
Comarius teaches that in the vapors of the Divine Water the spirits (of the substances) are revealed as divine mysteries— Beta pvGzfjpia—and celestial bod­ies— ovpavia ad)para. It is this, the appearance of the "rootsabout whose equiva­lence to the resolution in Mercury we are told in the Seven Chapters of Hermes (chap. 1). "Tine water changes the Bodies into Spirits, stripping them of their gross corporeality" says Artephius,⁴⁹⁴ you have need only of the released and subtle nature of the dissolved bodies, which you will obtain by means of our Water.”
Clearly, Zosimos tells us that the "tincture'’ of Gold (the metallic transmuta­tion) cannot be obtained in the solid state (that is, the material state) of the bodies: "they must first be subtilized and spiritualized," until "the spiritual forces, which cannot be perceived by the (physical) senses,have been made effective." It is necessary to "dissolve the substances and what then muse be transmuted to obtain the physical transmutation are the celestial natures.’’^{495 496}
Moreover, for what makes the conversion of the incorporeal into the corporeal (apart from the corporeal into the incorporeal prescribed in the formula), it is necessary to understand, by analogy with everything that pertains to the purely initiatory experience, that the consciousness must not be the pure "spirit" aspect of the substances bur, after being elevated to that aspect, it must be put back in rapport wirh rhe same substance as the body in such a way that "rhe two are made one.” Otherwise, the results would be but a step to other forms of consciousness without direct relationship to the physical plane, which is necessary for the alchemical operation. It is necessary then to form "intermediate substances” or "androgynous" substances both "spiritual and corporeal" (perception of the sub­stance and perception of its "psychic” dimension, the one in function of rhe other):⁴⁹⁷ and thus has been established the first condition for the operations of physical alchemy,⁴⁹⁸
Also important, in this regard, is the reference to a "true and not fantastic imagination" and to an "intellectual vision,” the first being accomplished in the "Light of Nature."⁴⁹⁹ ,