Symbols ana a

⁴ CAG, 2:43.
"This is a play un Oeiov. which in Greek means both "sulfur’¹ and 'divinity." We are referring to rhe "tires,” the internal forces of things. These expressions, like rhose following, have both a microcosmic and a macrocosmie' sense,
^s BCC, 1:400 cf Rnsinus ad Sarrarantam cphcopimi, in .Arris auri/erae quam chcmuim vocarct (Basel. 1572), 1:288.
Father and Mother of itself⁶⁷— avTOTtaropct Kai avTopt)ropa of itself it is the son, by itself it is dissolved, by itself is killed, and to itself it gives new life. The "unique tiling that contains in itself the four elements and rules over them,”⁶⁸ the "matter of the Wise, ” also called their "Stone,’’ contains in itself whatever we may need. It kills itself and then brings itself back to life. It weds itself, impregnates itself and dissolves in its own blood.”⁶⁹It is its own root—radix ipsius.
We must always bear in mind, moreover, what we’ve already said,- we are not dealing with a philosophical concept, but with the traces of a nature sub specie incerioricatis, that goes beyond the antithesis between matter and spirit, between world and superworld. And so Zacharias can say, "If we declare our matter to be spiritual, that is true and if we declare it to be corporeal, we do not lie. If we call it celestial, that is its true designation. If we name it terrestrial, we have spoken correctly.'’^{70 71} The "egg,” which Is the image of the world—xderpov pipara receives, in the Hellenistic alchemical texts, the name XiOov rov ov Xidov}¹ and Braccesco explains: "This is stone (or being, form, corporeality, tangibility] and not stone, it is found everywhere, is base and precious, hidden and visible to everyone.”⁷² "It is chaos or spirit in the form of a body (the cosmos, perceived nature], but nevertheless is not body.”⁷³ In one brilliant stroke, these enigmatic yet illuminating words of Zosimos synthesize the knowledge of the marvelous thing, via the double pathway and the double expression, k is, again in the evangelic sense, the hermetic Stone of the "Lords of the Temple' — oiKoSstmozeg—the "Engineers of the Spirit”—
Here then is the great divine mystery, the looked-for object. This is the All. From it and by means of it everything comes. It is two natures, one essence: because one is attracted by the other and one is dominated by the other. This is the luminous water (literally, "silver") that is forever fleeing from and attracted by its own elements. It is the divine Water, which no one knew, whose nature is difficult to contemplate because it is not a metal, nor the water of perpetual motion, nor a corporeality. It is indomitable. All in all, it possesses a path and a spirit, and the power of destruction.⁷⁴