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Cities of works that appear in English In the text will appear in their original languages in the notes, follow­ing the sources and editions from which Evola cites. No attempt has been made to include publication data on English translations for the many works to which Evola refers, (Some of these works are available in English, but many of them are no longer in print.)
Brackets in the quoted material in the text proper contain Evola's own glosses and interpolations; other brackets in the text and footnotes are clarifications and notes from the translator.

♦
rn the present work we shall use the expression "her­metic tradition" in a special sense that the Middle Ages and the Renaissance gave it. It will not refer to the ancient Greco-Egyptian cult of Hermes, nor will it refer solely to the teachings comprising the Alexandrian texts of the Corpus Hermecicum. In the particular sense that we shall use it, hcrmctism is directly concerned with the alchemical tradition, and it is the hermctico-alchemical tradition that will be the object of our study. We shall attempt to determine therein the real sense and spirit of a secret doctrine, a practical and workable wisdom that has been faithfully transmitted from the Greeks, through the Arabs, down to certain texts and authors at the very threshold of modern times.

At the outset, we must draw attention to the error of those historians of science who want to reduce alchemy to mere chemistry in an infantile and mythological stage. Against this notion are raised the explicit exhortations of the most quoted hermetic authors not to deceive ourselves by taking them literally, because their words are drawn from a secret language expressed via symbols and allegories.¹ These same authors have repeated, to the point of weariness, that the "object of ^{20 21} our precious art is concealed”; that the operations to which wc allude are not done manually; that its "elements” are invisible and not those the vulgar recognize. The same authors refer contemptuously to the "puffers” and "charcoal burners” who "ruined the science” and whose manipulations could expect "nothing more than smoke," and to all those ingenuous alchemists who, in their incomprehension, surrendered to experiments of the sort that moderns now attribute to the hermetic science. The proper alchemists have always laid down ethical and spiritual condi­tions lor their operations. In view of their living sense of nature, their ideal world is presented as inseparable from that other—which we can call Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, Qabalah, and theurgy—anything but chemistry. Likewise, with a multitude of half-expressed formulas, they have given to understand "to those who can read between the lines,” for instance, that alchemical sulfur represents the will (Basil Valentine and Pernety), that smoke is "the soul separated from the body” (Geber), that "virility” is the mystery of "arsenic” (Zosimos)—and in this wise we could cite an infinite number of texts and authors. So it is that with a bewildering variety of symbols the "Sons of Hermes” all manage to say the same thing and to repeat proudly the quod ubique, quod ab omnibus cl quod semper.^{22 23}
Jacob Boehme reveals to us the axiom on which this unique knowledge rests, this tradition that claims lor itself universality and primordiality; "Between Eter­nal Birth, Restoration from the Fall and the discovery of the Philosopher's Stone there is no difference.”²⁴
Are we standing perhaps before a mystical mainstream? If so, why the disguise and hermetic concealment? Holding ourselves to the conventional idea of "mysti­cism” (a sense which in the West it has acquired since the period of the classical Mysteries and especially with Christianity), we must point out that it is nor mvsticism. We will demonstrate rather that it is a rea/ science, in which reintegra- ;:on (with the primordial state) does not have an intended moral, but is concrete icd ontological, even to the point of conferring certain supernormal powers, one v whose incidental applications may even be the famous transmutation involving metallic substances.
This characteristic of the hermetic process constitutes the first reason for its concealment. Not for superficial monopolistic purposes, but for inner technical -easons, any science of this type always protects itself by initiatory secrets and expression through symbols. But there is a second reason, which to be understood requires the fundamental knowledge of a general metaphysic of history. Hermetico- alchemical knowledge has been described as a "sacred" science, but the prevailing designation that better characterizes it is that of Ars Regia or "Royal Art." Anyone who studies the varieties of spirituality that have evolved in what we call nistorical times can verify that there is a fundamental opposition, one that we can 'educe analogically to the conflict between "royalty" and "sacerdotality"
The ''royal” initiatory tradition, in its pure forms, can be considered the most direct and legitimate link to the unique, primordial Tradition.²⁵ In more recent times, it appears to us in its heroic variants, that is, as a realization and reconquest conditioned by analogous virile qualities suitable, on the plane of the spirit, to the warrior. But, on the other hand, there is the sacerdotal position in the narrow sense, with different qualities from the first, and at times opposite to it. This is especially so when, brought to the profane in its theistic-devotional forms, it confronts what we referred to above as the "heroic" variations of the royal tradition. From the point of what we symbolize as the original ''divine royalty,” this second tradition now appears as something crumbling to pieces, the blame for which must be attributed to the sentimental, emotional, t heisti c - de vo tio nal and mystical ele­ments—especially in the West—who are constantly gaining ground in their at­tempt to keep its esoteric elements in almost total darkness.
It is no accident that the hermetico-alchemical tradition should call itself the Royal Art, and that it chose Gold as a central royal and solar symbol, which at the same time takes us back to the primordial Tradition. Such a tradition presents itself to us essentially as the guardian of a light and a dignity that cannot be reduced to the religious-sacerdotal vision of the world. And if there is no talk in this tradition (as in a cycle of other myths) ol discovering gold, but only of making it, that only goes to show how important, in the already indicated sense of reconquest and reconstructon, the heroic moment had become.

Thus we can easily understand the second reason for disguising the doctrine. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the predominating principles of the West went on to become the basis for the other tradition—the sacerdotah which in its decadence was almost completely stripped of its entire esoteric and metaphysical range in order to convert itself into a doctrine of "salvation" in rhe name of a "Redeemer." Things being so, the hermetists, in contrast to other initiatory organizations that were tributaries of the same secret royal vein, instead of coming out into the light and presenting themselves for battle, chose to go into hiding. And the Royal Art. was presented as the alchemical art of transmuting base metals into gold and silver. By so doing it no longer fell under the suspicion of heresy, and even passed as one of the many forms of "natural philosophy" that did not interfere with the faith; even among the ranks of Catholics we can discern the enigmatic figures of hermetic masters, from Raymond Lully and Albert us Magnus to Abbot Pernety.
In a narrower sense, and leaving aside the fact that the various Western alchemical authors declare that they have each employed a different ciphered language to refer to the same things and the same operations, there is no question that alchemy is not simply a Western phenomenon, There arc, for example, a Hindu alchemy and a Chinese alchemy. And anyone who is at all in touch with the theme can see that the symbols, the "matters," and the principle operations correspond to one another; but especially does the structure of a physical (and ultimately metaphysical) science correspond inwardly and outwardly at the same time. Such correspondences are explained by the fact that once present, the same conceptions with respect to the general and "traditional” view of the world, life, and man, lead quite naturally to the same consequences, even in consideration of special technical problems like that ol transmutation. So, as long as this "tradi­tional" conception persists—even when only residually in lifeless philosophical and logical distortions with respect to which the differences between Orient and Occident were minimal in comparison with those that would exist later between alchemy and the modern mentality—while it has continued to remain alive, we will find alchemy recognized and cultivated by illustrious spirits, thinkers, theologians, "natural philosophers,” kings, emperors, and even popes. Dedication to a discipline of this kind has not been considered incompatible with the highest spiritual or intellectual level. One proof, among many others, is that more than one alchemical treatise has been attributed to the "angelical master," Thomas Aquinas.'¹
An alchemical tradition has enigmatically extended itself not only across at least fifteen centuries of Western history but even across the continents, as deeply into the Orient as into the West. ²⁶
Our work will not be directed coward convincing those who do not wish to be convinced. But it will supply firm points of support for anyone who reads it without prejudice. On the other hand, anyone who is in accord, be it only with a single one of our conclusions, will not fail to recognize its entire importance. It is like the discovery ol a new land whose existence was previously unsuspected—a strange land, alarming, sewn with spirits, metals, and gods, whose labyrinthine passages and phantasmagoria are concentrated little by little in a single point of light: the "myth” of a race of "kingless" and "free” creatures, "Lords of the Serpent and the Mother” to use the proud expressions of the same hermetic texts.
Apart from the introduction, the purpose of which is to clarify what we have called the "heroic” expression of the royal tradition, the present work consists ot two parts: the first dedicated to the symbols and the doctrine, the second to practice.
The limits of the present edition have obliged us to forego a quantity of quotations from Greek, Latin, and Arabic texts, so that we have saved only what is essential. We have also tried to be as clear as possible. But the reader should have no illusions. Rather than being simply read, this book demands scudy. For this reason, after having acquired a coherent vision, one must go back over basic teachings and particular symbols, which can never be understood isolated from the rest, in order to exhaust all their possible and different meanings. For our part we can assure the reader that in the present book he will find a solid basis for dealing with any hermetico -alchemic al text no matter how obscure and sybilline. For the rest, we will insist only that in the practice section there is good deal more chan appears at first glance, should the reader really want to know by experience the reality and possibilities the "Sons of Hermes" are talking about. In any case. elsewhere⁶ wc have given everything necessary for integrating all that can be learned from this book, with a view to the evocation and effective contacts of the spirit with the metaphysical, super historical elements of the hermetic tradition.