Symbols ana a

^ Cf. the passage of Della Riviera, ( Monrfn magico, 19) wherein it is said that the dame virtue, on being diffused into individuals, "loses at that very moment its universal nature . , . wherefore it is useless to look tor it outside the [true] Cenrer within the limited [consequently human] Center. This Center is that which has been called the Cavern of Mercury; and rhe Spirit is no other than the gift hidden therein: and ultimately this same Mercury is the son of Maya, identified, in the ancient theology with the earth itself,” Cf. Boehme, De signatura, 8, §34: ["Der Kunsrier soil rcchr versrehen, wo die Moglichkdt }dgc ills im Sulphur (der die Grundlage a Her Operational ist). Saturntis halt ihn und den Merkur in sich zu hart gefangen; so ihm aber der Kims tier zu Hike komm r . . so wird er stark und wirft Satumum weg und nffenhart das Kind." (The artist must know sulfur well. It is the basis ol his operations, and he must liberate it and the Mercury', who are prisoners ol Saturn. Only then can the Child be manifested.)— Trans.]

250

^ Sainton, introduction to BPC, cxvii.

251

^H Pernety Dkcionnaire, 403.

252

^Ibid.. 294; d. 2%.

253

^Flamel, Desir desire, 313. We can now also cite d’Espagnet (.Arcanum hermeckae, ECC 2, §.30ff.) who says that Mercury has two inherent delects, one deriving from earth mess, which was mixed in with congelation (rhat is, individuation), and the other from hydropesis, involving an impure and crude Water (that is, which is still in its primary .state of chaos and thirst) and which has entered into the flesh.

254

^Flamel, Desir desire, 313.

255

^Philalethes, Imroirus aperrus, §11.

256

^g Ibid., §6

257

^Arnold of Villanova, Sanita semitae, 18; cf. Flamel, Dbsir desire, §1

258

^Cf. Triompbc Hcrmeciquc (BPC, 3:141): "Mercury is called Spirit of the Philosophers because only the wise know the secret of converting it into spirit liberating it from the prison of the body, in which nature had locked it."

259

^In Stobaeus, F/or, 4.107; cf. Porphyry. Sentential. 9.

260

7. 
   Apuleius, Metamorphoses, 11.21.
   

261

' Boehme, De signatura. 14, §73; 15, §51.

262

^ Tire Latin text of Porphyry (Sentenriae 9) is: "Mors duplex: altera quidem acquc omnibus nota. ubi corpus solvitur ah anima; altera verophilosophorum. quum amma solvitur a corpore nec semper a/rera a Iretam sequitur."

263

’ Cf. Incroduzione alia magia 2:305-14: Some effects of the magical discipline: the separation of the "mixture.”

264

^Pemety, Dicdonnaire, 181.

265

^Pax, in the sense of the ending of a symbolic "war'’ undertaken by the hero.

266

In BCC, 2:214. For this phase the symbol of the "sepulchre” is frequently used. The "black,” in connection with Saturn, Lead, and Chaos, is called the "Grave from which the spirit must exit in order to glorify its body” (Salmon, introduction to BPC, xv). In the Viatnrum spagiricum is seen a coffin in which are the King and Queen (the vulgar forms of © and of C) with a skeleton of Mercury alongside, and we tind it again in the Margarita preriosa and in the edition of the Rosarium contained in the Arris auriferae, in Flamel, etc. The expression is characteristic: "Here is a grave containing no corpse and a corpse not in its grave. The corpse and the grave are the same thing." (in Theatrum chemicum, 3:744).

267