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t is on the above basis that we have to understand the whole idea of the hermetico-alchemical science. In a certain sense it can also be called a "natural science,’’ but completely disregarding all the present connotations such a term may evoke in our minds. Today the medieval designation of "natural philosophy” expresses rather the synthesis of two elements, now standing on two separate planes, one intellectually unrealistic (philosophy) and the other consciously materialistic (sci­ence). But, given the character of organic unity—of a cosmos—that the universe offered to traditional man, there was also an implicit anagogical power in this "natural" understanding, namely, the possibility of rising to a transcendent meta­physical plane. On this basis are to be understood such expressions as "hieratic science,” "divine” and "dogmatic art’’—T£%vr\ Qeio,, t£%vr\ Soyganid)—"Mithraic mystery,” "Divine Work’’—⁵⁵0etov ipyov appearing with the origins of alchemy¹ and which are preserved within the entire, tradition of what Zacharias would call "divine and supernatural science.’’²
And as psychic sensitivity to the deep forces of nature began to dwindle in later eras, it became common to avoid the ambiguity in the expressions of the hermetic tradition by distinguishing between the "vulgar” or "dead" elements and the
"living" ones, which are "our elements" (the "our" refers to those who had preserved the original spiritual state of the tradition): "our" Water, "our” Fire, "our" Mercury, etc.--not "those of the vulgar or commona jargon for referring to elements that were (physically) invisible, occult, "magical,” known only to the "Wise,” those "of us who have kept in our hands" those "elements of creation” that must be recognized by us as distinct from the earthy impure "created dements” that are merely the modifications of physical matter,
"The four Elements in which all things participate,” says Flamel,⁵⁶ "are not apparent to the senses, but are known by their effects.” Air and Fire, of which Bernard of Treviso speaks, are ''tenuous and spiritual” and "cannot be seen by physical eyes”; his Sulfur, Arsenic, and Mercury "are not those that the vulgar think them to be” or that "pharmacists sell,” but they are "the Philosopher’s spirits.”⁵⁷ So "Philosophical Alchemy" is that "which teaches how to investigate, not by appearances, but according to concrete truth, the latent forms (in an Aristotelian sense, the occult formative principles) of things”⁵⁸—an idea confirmed by Razi in the Lumen luminuni: "This Art is the study of Occult Philosophy. In order to follow it, one must be acquainted with hidden and internal natures. In it one speaks of the rise (incorporeal state) and fall (visible state) of the elements and their compounds.”⁵⁹ The true elements "are as the soul of the mixtures,” the others are "nothing but the body,” explains Ptrnety.^{60 61}
And if the spontaneous presence or absence of the necessary metaphysical sensitivity itself determined the dividing line between those initiates to whom alone the texts speak and for whom the techniques of the Royal Art bear fruition--and those who are not initiates (for whom it is written not to cast pearls before swine)^—for these last there still remained the possibility of attaining the necessary state by means of an appropriate asceticism, even if the miracle of illumination was missing.
We shall discuss this asceticism later, but for the moment we shall confine

ourselves to pointing out chat within the framework of hermetism, asceticism does not have a moral or religious justification. It is simply a technique. Its purpose is to provide an experience that is not limited to the "dead” or "common” aspect of the Elements—as happens in that empiricism on which the modern, profane sci­ences are based. Instead, a subtle, incorporeal, spiritual quality infuses it. Paracelsus describes this quality in this way: "She [Nature] knows me and I her. 1 have contemplated the light that is in her. I have verified it in the microcosm and have found it again in the macrocosm."⁶²
As Is said in the Hermetic Triumph, "To know the inner and outward properties of all things” and "to penetrate to the bottom of Nature's operations” is the condition that is imposed on whomever aspires to possess this knowledge.^{63 64} And so it can be said that "who does not understand by himself, no one will ever be able to make understand, do what he will,”¹¹ This science is not acquired through books or reason—others affirm—"but by action, by an impetuosity of the spirit.” "For this reason I declare that neither the philosophers who have preceded me nor 1 myself have written anything except for ourselves"—nisi soil's nobis scripsimus— "for the philosophers, our successors, and for no one else."⁶⁵