Symbols ana a

^Braccesco, Espositione, fol. 82a; cf. with Agrippa, 3.50.

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^ Agrippa, (De occuka phtlosophia, 3.43): ^vHe will thus succeed in obtaining great power to immerse and insinuate himself into the spirit of other men, even at great distances, and convey to them some of His conceptions, will and desire.”

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^When the connection is established passively so as to overwhelm the personality, we have what is called entemism; in that case the person is, in a certain way, the incarnation in human form of the spirit of a given species of animal.

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^Here we can also point to objects and even to places (for example, certain traditional sanctuaries) that by consecration and imposition, have become, so to speak., storage batteries of "spiritual influence," eirher benefic or malefic. Cf. Magic of chc Creadon in Imroduzione alia inagia, 2:283ff.; and A. David- Ned, Magic and Mystery in Tiber, passim.

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^Cf., for example, Della Riviera, Moado imgico. 178-79.

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^The true "medicine,” say die alchemists, "is die srellar body," diac is, the power of life, root of die organism, with which it is now joined directly in such a way that one has the power of concentrating it on a given organ and conquering the forces that are disturbing it. Cf. Della Riviera (Mondo magico, 169): "In the same way that the life of the branches lies in the roots of the tree, so sick bodies are magically healed by the help of the radical humor, the Spirit of Life and in sum even Nature itself, by no other agent than themselves,"

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^Cf. Agrippa, (De occulta philosophic, 3.43); "The Chaldean philosophers expound at length on the power of the mind . . . which can be so full of light that it pours out its beams through the particular intermediaries [ $ and $ ) even as tar as die dense, dark, heavy and mortal hody; bathing it also in abundant light, making it radiant as a star and, because of the abundance of the rays and their lightness of weight, it can be raised to the heights as a flake of ash is raised by the fire, and so transported at once with the spirit to faraway regions.” One of the names given to the Philosopher's Stone is Lapis invisibilitads, Stone of Invisibility {cf., for example. Sendivogius, Novum lumen chemicum in Musacum hcrmcticum, .547).
The Four Stag es of Power

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^ Cl. Incrnduzioncaliamagia(third ed., [Rome, i97l], vol. ?',) in which Pietro Negri has made an attempt at an interpretation that in an alchemical text on lead considers simultaneously, the two possible aspects: the chemical and the hermetico-symbolic.

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^L Cf. Evola, Mascbera c vnko ddlu spiritualismo concemporanco anti Hie Doctrine of ebe Awakening.

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^ R. Guenon, La crisc du monde moderne (The crisis of the modern world), 106-Z

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^ it is known, however, that until now this achievement has not been feasible in practice, because the expense of producing gold in the laboratory is higher than the value of the gold to be obtained. We could almosr apply—ironically the truth intuited by Bernard of Treviso at the end of a lifetime of struggles, labors, and vain attempts: "To make gold one must already possess ir." But Bernard was talking about hermetic gold, presupposed for eventually producing physical gold.

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The noted chemist Van Helmont. and Helvetius, physician to William of Orange, were visited by strangers who produced gold, after which they entertained no further doubts about the "holy science, of transmutations." The same was repeated by the physician Fbisson who. although the operaton ol producing gold was controlled by Boyle, contrary to Galileos "Hppur si intiove, "maintained his anti­alchemical ideas to the end. We could also cite orher cases of positive testimony.

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