Symbols ana a

'^l CAC, 2:144

99

7. 
   Cf. H. Wirth, Der Aufgang dcr Mcnschhdt (Jena. 1928), and J. ]. Bachoten, UrrcSigion und antike Symbok (Leipzig, 1926).
   

100

^In Hippolytus (Philo sophumaia, 5.9; cl. 5.16), where the Serpent as die hermetic Mercury in Basil Valentine is assimilated to the river by the spring thar issues from the center of hden, and secondly to the Logoi; of John, whereby all things are made (an assimilation that we also find in hermetism): for Roe bine Mercury is the Sound, the Verb, the "Word nt God, manifestation of the eternal Abyss" (Aurora. 4, §§13, 14; Dc signature. 8, §56).

101

^Philalethes, fotroirus a perms, chap. 2

102

8. 
   Pseudodemocritean texts. CAC, 3:22
   

103

^ Syrian texts, CMA, 2:158.

104

' Cf. Eliphas Levi, (Hisroirc dc la magic [Laris, 1922], 13-8): "Lite is a serpent that incessantly creates and devours itself. One must ignore tear and plant one's foot firmly on its head, f lermes, by doubling it, opposes it to itself, and in eternal equilibrium makes of it the talisman (if his power and the glory of his caduceus.”

105

⁷ CAG. 2:147

106

Grillo de Givry, Muscc dcs snreiers. mages er aichimistes (Paris, 1929), 398, 414, plate 347

107

^ Pseudodemocritcan texts, CAG, 2:20 For rhe symbol of the dragon that devours irselt, see Ostanes in CMA. 3:119-20.

108

” In De signarura, 2, §7, Boehme speaks of a craving or will that cannot satisfy itself outside of itself, that is the property of a "hunger that feeds on itself." Cf. 3. §3: "This desire was present in the Nothing before itself, cannot look for anything beyond itself, and cannot find anything in nature but itself." In 3, §12: "The desire leaps up out of the Abyss [cf. the alchemical "water of the Abyss”) and in that very desire we find the beginning of nature." This touches on the symbol of the dragon that devours itself and Mercury as "burning thirst."

Apart from rhe quotations and comments in the Pseudodemocritcan texts (CAG, 2 63), it is said that Mercury hinds with the elements and cannot be separated from them, which is why it is "dominated and dominating" at the same time (amalgamation). "Viscous” soul is an expression to signify the spiritual state of man on which this force acts. Fernery (Diciionnairc, 202) speaks of a "Viscous Humidity," that is "the Mercury of the Philosophers," which is the basis for "all the individuals of the three kingdoms of nature."

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⁷ By virtue ot this fire, which is "a part of celestial homogeneity,” an ' invisible spirit,” a "soul not subject to the dimension of bodies," a ”miracle that only rhe Phllsophen can recognize,” immense, fnvisihle, apt by its virtue for action to be present everywhere. See Agrtppa, Dc occults, philuwphia, 1:514; Philalethes, V.pist. di Ripley. §§56, 57; Reguhe, chap. 10

110

^ CAG, 2:417: ”Symbolically, in enigma, arsenic was understood to mean virility.”
Thu Separation; Sun and Moon

111

^Bodime, Aurora., 13, §§55, 57: ["Die ganze Gncthdt hue in ihrer innersren nder anfanglichen Geburr im Kem gar einc scharfe, erschrecklichc Shark, indem die herhe Quah'tat gar dn erschrecklich herb, hare, finstcr und kali Zmammenziehen isi, glcich dem Wincer. wann cs grimmig kale ist, duff aus dem WaiSer Eis wird, ’’—Trans,}

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