” The tilled whine earth corresponds more exactly to the body in the ^ state. See below, chapter 40.
231
CT. Rosarium philosphorum (in Artis aim ferae 2:233), in which it is said that Mercury triumphs even over Gold, because it is what kills and what brings to life
232
We mu it recall here the. alchemical allegory of Bernard ol Treviso, of a King cloaked in the "purple of a false royalty’’; and that of Zosimos (CAG, 2:112, if6, 207) of the Man also dressed in red who suffers the bath in a blank solution together with "the burning of the blood and bones of the dragon. ’’ The red in this case is the color of the vulgar human Gold,
On this cl. A. Reghini, Leparole sacre e dipnsso, 85 -92; J, J, Badiolen, Urrcligion undamike Symbole, 1:279. 372, etc. Let us emphasize, in passing, that the myths of emasculation may also be considered from another viewpoint, wherein the virile parrs signify vulgar Mars, the material aspect ot force. Cut and fallen to earth or into the sea, they produce, as a .seed, a plant (the almond tree of Artis) or a goddess—Venus—under whose footsteps over the Earth, die flowers spring up afresh. Likewise, the Earth produces vegetation from the blood of the bull stricken by Mithras, etc.
