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Of the True Subject of the Hermetic Art and its Concealed Root

Part II, Chapter 1

Opening the inward half of the book, Atwood stops looking at Alchemy “from without” and offers the reader a clue to its centre (II.1 ¶3). Through a long chain of adepts and philosophers she argues that the subject of the art, its matter, vessel and operator, is man himself: “Man then, shall we conclude at length, is the true laboratory of the Hermetic art” (II.1 ¶30). She then grounds this in a philosophy of a latent faculty of Wisdom, and ends by proposing to recover the “vital experiment into nature” that produced it (II.1 ¶52–53).

Not chemistry, not recipes

Atwood argues that modern chemistry shares nothing with Alchemy “beyond the borrowed terms” (II.1 ¶5). Without “the vital force” solvents and fire achieve nothing real, and modern experiment “drives out, in fact, the very nature which the ancients prized” (II.1 ¶5). The pseudo-alchemists worked mineral sulfur, mercury and salt from “literal readings of receipts”; even those who glimpsed the Universal Subject failed, ignorant of “that internal fire and vessel of the adepts” (II.1 ¶6).

The concealed vessel

The ancients hid one thing above all. Quoting Maria, philosophers explained everything “with exception of the vessel; which is a divine secret” (II.1 ¶8, n1); Hermes says “vas philosophorum est aqua eorum” (our translation: the vessel of the philosophers is their water) (II.1 ¶8). Atwood says open hints at “the concealed vessel or art of vital administration” were annulled by false commentaries: Sendivogius turns Morien’s “This matter, O king, is extracted from thee” aside into a doubt about gold in a dead man’s teeth (II.1 ¶8, n2). Such equivocations guard “that living temple” where the wise raise their “rejected Corner Stone and Ens of Light” (II.1 ¶8).

Man as the one subject containing all

Reporting Boehme, Agrippa and Paracelsus’ disciples with approval, Atwood says the Mercurial Spirit is in all things but not equally available, so the “best and noblest ought to be chosen” (II.1 ¶9). The Moorish philosopher names it: nothing equals “Man reformed by God into his image” (II.1 ¶9, n3). Agrippa adds that the soul “estranged from the corporeal senses” comprehends all, and “Whosoever, therefore, shall know himself, shall know all things in himself” (II.1 ¶9, n4). Sendivogius, endorsed here, calls man a microcosm and the soul “the king,” seated “in the vital spirit in the purest blood” (II.1 ¶10, n5).

Others concur: Geber says one who knows no natural principles in himself lacks “the true root” (II.1 ¶11); Albertus Magnus that fire, “the true aurific principle,” burns brightest in man (II.1 ¶12); Ripley’s verse that man is the “myner” from which a mercury “which cost right nought” is drawn by art (II.1 ¶13); Aliphili that man unknowingly produces “the true fiery water” (II.1 ¶14); a verse that blood “is the principle matter of each thing” (II.1 ¶15). Hermes requires the aspirant to quit vice, since the vicious “defile by an evil imagination the very Spirit that ought to be refined” (II.1 ¶14).

Three principles and the colours of the work

Atwood names three principles, “attraction, repulsion, and circulation,” present “everywhere and in all” (II.1 ¶14); the text leaves open whether these simply restate salt, mercury and sulfur. Reporting the Alchemists via Bohme: nature has lost balance, human life drifts toward “dissolution,” and only “their Antimonial Spirit rectified by Art” withstands this; the agent preparing it is “the Invisible Mercury” (II.1 ¶20–21, n16–17). The vital spirit of arterial blood is outward-drawn, “away from its First Cause,” and the Art seeks “to restore the true rector to his original rule” (II.1 ¶21). The text leaves open who this rector is.

A “modern exponent” describes the course: after three months’ circulation “the powder becomes black,” the three principles rest, and “the head of Hermes’ crow is said to be in the beginning of this work” (II.1 ¶23). Quoting Boehme, three more months give “brilliant whiteness,” three more “a brilliant yellow, red, or purpling tincture,” and the king is “invested wit the red garment” (II.1 ¶24). Atwood calls this “the process of working with the Vital Spirit”; unlike other matter, this nature “revives, fortified from every successive dissolution” (II.1 ¶25). Basil Valentine warns the true tincture is not shop antimony but extracted “from the true mineral,” the “principal secret” (II.1 ¶25); a Latin line places the stone “in te et in me” (“in you and in me”, our translation) (II.1 ¶25, n22).

Self-Knowledge as the root

Vaughan urges seekers “to change their abstractions into extractions” and speaks of an Art uniting “a Particular Spirit” to “the Universal” (II.1 ¶26). Agrippa: the pure mind “laid asleep from its present life” is enlightened, for “in us is the Operator of all wonderful effects”; Atwood says both passages allude to Alchemy (II.1 ¶26–27). Perfection is found “only by experimentally seeking at home within themselves” (II.1 ¶28). Hence man’s “life the subject, the grand distillatory, the thing distilling and the thing distilled,” and “Self-Knowledge to be at the root of all Alchemical tradition” (II.1 ¶30). Atwood concedes that nothing now proves man a perfect microcosm; the faculty of “Wisdom” once claimed for him is “now either wholly departed or the conditions are estranged” (II.1 ¶31–32).

The latent faculty of Wisdom

To show its possibility, Atwood argues that “intuition is the evidence and end of every rational proof” (II.1 ¶33), and that Universals known without the senses imply a latent “superstantial nature” (II.1 ¶34). Aristotle calls reason “intellect in capacity,” perfected by “a new awakening, a divine recreation” (II.1 ¶34); by “certain mystical exercises and preparations” the “Understanding Medium” touches “its Antecedent Cause” (II.1 ¶37). Plato makes self-knowledge Wisdom (II.1 ¶37); Crito calls Intellect a God-given “sight,” lost “by the essence of generation” (II.1 ¶38). Atwood: Intellect “in its highest sense, is synonymous with Wisdom,” and the Egyptian “Man should know himself” was meant “experimentally and ontologically” (II.1 ¶39). The Kabalists hold that a “principle of reunion” abides in fallen life (II.1 ¶41) and Ben Jochai that the Form of man “contains all that is in the heaven and earth” (II.1 ¶42).

The lost experiment

Leaving the outer man to “calcine, weight, and measure,” Atwood says “we look within,” seeking the method of Self-Knowledge: not trance but “the true psychical experience, catholic” (II.1 ¶45–46). The alchemists reduce nature to “discover this Latex without destroying her vehicle,” but disguised their “immediate efficient,” their fire, laboratory and vessels (II.1 ¶47). Psellus says only “material Rites” strengthen the soul’s vehicle; Synesius and Julian require “Divine Works” (II.1 ¶51–52). Atwood concludes: “Wisdom was the offspring of a vital experiment into nature, by certain arts and media producing the central efficient into conscious being” (II.1 ¶52). Since the Initiated were silent on the means, she proposes to “descend into ourselves” and seek “the shut palaces of Mind” (II.1 ¶53).

The Work in this chapter

  • Matter/subject: “This matter, O king, is extracted from thee” (II.1 ¶8, ¶16): the matter comes from the operator himself (stated). Its seat is “the vital spirit of the arterial blood” (II.1 ¶21) (interpreted).
  • Vessel: “that internal fire and vessel of the adepts” (II.1 ¶6): the vessel is within man (interpreted); “the true laboratory” is man (II.1 ¶30) (stated).
  • Agent: “the Invisible Mercury” harmonizes the three principles (II.1 ¶21) (stated).
  • Operator: must quit vice (II.1 ¶14) and be “duly initiated” (II.1 ¶37) (stated); “in us is the Operator” (II.1 ¶26) (stated).
  • Stages and signs: black after three months, “the head of Hermes’ crow”; then white, then red (II.1 ¶23–24) (stated).
  • Impediment: the light cut off “through the gates of sense” (II.1 ¶49) (stated).
  • Result: a Particular Spirit “united to the Universal” (II.1 ¶26); Wisdom made conscious (II.1 ¶52) (stated).

Terms introduced

  • vessel — the deliberately concealed container of the work; “internal” (II.1 ¶6, ¶8).
  • art of vital administration — the hidden practice named with the vessel; unexplained (II.1 ¶8).
  • Corner Stone / Ens of Light — the product raised in the “living temple” (II.1 ¶8).
  • Mercurial Spirit — spirit in all things, not equally extractable (II.1 ¶9).
  • microcosm — man as “the lesser world” (II.1 ¶10).
  • king — in Sendivogius, the soul at man’s centre (II.1 ¶10).
  • true fiery water — essence man produces unknowingly; dissolves gold (II.1 ¶14).
  • attraction, repulsion, circulation — the three principles of all motion (II.1 ¶14, ¶18–19).
  • Antimonial Spirit — the spirit rectified by Art that withstands dissolution (II.1 ¶20).
  • Invisible Mercury — “spiritual air of Antimony,” agent of preparation (II.1 ¶21).
  • true rector — the principle the Art restores to rule (II.1 ¶21).
  • head of Hermes’ crow — the black, motionless opening state (II.1 ¶23).
  • Protochemic Artifice — the practical art that alone reveals the foundation (II.1 ¶26).
  • Self-Knowledge — root of alchemical tradition (II.1 ¶30).
  • Wisdom / Intellect — the latent highest faculty, “synonymous” terms (II.1 ¶39).
  • Celestial Prototype — the form in man making him God’s image (II.1 ¶42).
  • Latex — what the reduction of nature uncovers; undefined (II.1 ¶47).
  • immediate efficient — the concealed active cause of the work (II.1 ¶47).

Authorities cited

On the vessel: Maria, Hermes, Hali, Morien, Albert (¶8, n1). On man as subject: Sendivogius, criticized then endorsed (¶8, ¶10), Agrippa (¶9, ¶26), the Moorish philosopher (¶9), Geber, Basil, Crollius, Albertus Magnus, Ripley, Aliphili, Theat. Chem. Brit. (¶11–15), Vaughan (¶26), Manilius (¶29). On the three principles and stages: Bohme and “our modern exponent” (¶20–25). On Wisdom: Locke, Cousin, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Diotima, Archytas, Crito, Pythagoras, Iamblicus (¶34–39); the Kabalists and Ben Jochai (¶40–42); Philo, Hermes, Solomon (¶43–44). On rites: Plutarch, Psellus, Synesius, Julian, the Platonic Successor (¶50–53). Also Tobit (¶7).