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Of the Experimental Method and Fermentations of the Philosophic Subject According to the Paracelsian Alchemists and Some Others

Part III, Chapter 1

Part III turns to how the Hermetic art was done. Atwood argues that the alchemists’ “first matter” is a real, substantial life that can be known only by experiment inside one’s own being (III.1 ¶3). The work is done by a higher Intellect that natural reason merely unlocks (III.1 ¶13). It goes forward by fermentation, separation, a dark death and a reunion, until a new life emerges, which is the Stone and the Elixir (III.1 ¶9, ¶21, ¶49–50). She reads the alchemists’ verse and the classical myths as veiled accounts of this one process.

The hidden subject and the inward method

For the Greeks, mind apart from its organs is “absolute substratal matter” (III.1 ¶2); the alchemists claim the same for their first matter. A few say they watched hidden nature’s whole procedure “in the experimental development of their own internal being”, and the whole Hermetic philosophy rests on this (III.1 ¶3).

Her emblem is the Sphinx at the door of Isis, whom she identifies with Wisdom (III.1 ¶5). The Ether is to the universe what the “natural intelligent Spirit” is to man. In man this is the Phantastic Spirit, the imagination-driven “natural vehicle of our life” and the “vestibule of Reason”. The Ether is “the Sphinx of the Universe” (III.1 ¶5). The Sphinx is “all things passively which the internal light is impassively”, and alchemy is aimed at the same source (III.1 ¶6).

Mesmerism is only “a first key”: it shows “the labyrinth of life” but not how “to alter and amend the Thing” (III.1 ¶8). Outward facts cannot reach spiritual causes; philosophy must return to the “a priori ground” (III.1 ¶8). Theory comes before practice: the Spirit “must be made to conceive” pure effects before it can yield them (III.1 ¶9). The healer must first be healed, because “much depends on the quality of life imparted” (III.1 ¶9). Modern practice neither uses the Vital Spirit’s “spontaneous fermentation” nor understands the ancients’ “grafting and transplanting”. That art raised the Spirit to a fifth degree “in as many representative vessels or forms”. The text does not settle whether these vessels are physical or living (III.1 ¶9). Atwood endorses the Paracelsians: the true medicine “is bound in man”, and the fire of life, which adepts call “Antimony”, must be freed by purgation, “as metal from the dark and sordid ore” (III.1 ¶10).

Reason, Intellect and the inner fire

The ancients questioned Nature “rationally”, as “lawful guests” (III.1 ¶12), and the adepts she quotes demand patience and experience (III.1 ¶13). But natural reason is only “an iron key”. It helps the spiritual intellect come to know itself, and that intellect then operates “the whole change”. Atwood equates it with Eirenaeus’ “internal fire of the sulfur of thy water” (III.1 ¶13). Quoting Eirenaeus, “Our fire is the true sulfur of Gold”. It is imprisoned in the body, which a gloss calls the “ethereal body”, and is freed by “our water”. The operator must “be not so careful of the fire of the Athanor as of your internal Fire” (III.1 ¶14).

Subduing the Sphinx means that “the Ethereal Spirit abandons her phantasy, and yields the clear light of understanding” (III.1 ¶20). Synesius says Intellect purifies the phantastic Spirit, which natural intellect cannot do (III.1 ¶20). Atwood links Paracelsus’ “Separation”, “the greatest miracle in philosophy”, with the ordeals of the Mysteries. These run from suffering, dread, dissolution and corruption “to the final resurrection of the pure Ether into Light” (III.1 ¶21). Reading the Smagardine Tablet’s “Thou shalt separate” literally, she makes “Mind to be the true Separator”. It admits no foreign mixture (III.1 ¶21). Folly, phantasy, passion and Reason are all modes of the “One only Thing”. If Reason prevails, it gathers all, “as a ferment”, into its own Light. The ancients call this Reason “Wisdom, Intellect, Gold, Sol, Sulfur, Tincture” (III.1 ¶21). Anaxagoras confirms that Intellect separates contraries (III.1 ¶22).

Ferment, death and the separated Light

The revelation of universal Reason in a purified intelligence is “that perfect beginning of Wisdom, which is half of the perfect whole” (III.1 ¶23). Atwood reads the myth of Isis cutting apart Jupiter’s joined feet as “an allegory of the Art”. The purified intelligence dissolves “the vital medium” and opens the hidden source (III.1 ¶23). Then “a small grain of the metaphysical ferment leavens the whole lump” (III.1 ¶24). The ferment’s “sulfuric Spirit” causes “a putrefaction of the philosopher’s Mercury, i.e., of the impure vapor of life”. The elements rage “like a tempestuous sea” (III.1 ¶24).

Homer and Virgil, for Atwood, share one mystic theme (III.1 ¶25). The heroes’ slain friends, Patroclus and Misenus, stand for “the celestial medial life”, which must be “cut off, even in its prime” (III.1 ¶26). Nothing improves the Vital Spirit radically until this first medial life dissolves. The motive comes from the loss of its “Understanding Light” (III.1 ¶28). Then “the Heroic Will” stirs “the bitter waters” (III.1 ¶30). Each life dies and rises better, “even to the fourth generation, or fifth” (III.1 ¶30). One should begin small: “The bough, not the whole tree” (III.1 ¶32). Finding “the true Separator” is the greatest difficulty (III.1 ¶32). The agent goes under many names, among them a “triply refined intellectual purpose”, Hermes’ “our Son”, the “Mustard-seed” of Faith and the Golden Bough (III.1 ¶36). Atwood names it the “vertical separated Light”, a divine ray from the will of the divinized. Adepts searched for it for years (III.1 ¶37). The text leaves open whether Pontanus’ secret “Fire” and Basil Valentine’s “Antimony” are this same Light (III.1 ¶37).

Two principles joined: Sun and Moon

Whoever imposes “his own blind purpose” without divine light is snared (III.1 ¶38). Quoting Boehme, the seeker must first become “wholly one” with God’s love and grace (III.1 ¶39). The hero never labours alone: in alchemy the Moon “is the Passive Intelligence”. Freed and set in conjunction, she “responds to the Will of her seeking Reason” and goes with him through the abyss (III.1 ¶40). Whether this is an inner faculty or a second person, the text leaves open (III.1 ¶40). “Both therefore have to be prepared — the spiritual agent and the spiritual patient”. Only equal Spirits are allied (III.1 ¶41). External fire alters. Only the purified internal fire perfects (III.1 ¶43). Wisdom without Power cannot act, and Power without Wisdom destroys (III.1 ¶45).

Quoting Boehme, Sol and Luna are brought “through an anguish into death” at the cross. They are then given a soul and conceive a body (III.1 ¶48). Atwood explains that “by death and contrition of the agent in the patient, and vice versa, the old life is finally crucified”. Their reunion “under another law” yields “a very real and pure Quintessence, the Mercury so much sought after, even the Elixir of Life”. With the Divine light this becomes “the living gold of the philosophers” (III.1 ¶49). In sum, “a true Rational Analysis”, repeated, dissolves the natural constitution, and what is found is regeneration: the sensible becomes hidden and the hidden reason of life manifest (III.1 ¶50). In a quoted allegory, two serpents besieged “with the fire of nature” become toad, dragon, swan and Phoenix (III.1 ¶50).

The dark passage: putrefaction and Typhon

The rule is “the regeneration of light out of darkness, of life from death” (III.1 ¶53). When the light enters, it meets “the self-willed Identity” and good and evil struggle. As Typhon scattered Osiris, the ethereal hypostasis splits into “soul, spirit, body”, also named “sulfur, mercury, salt” (III.1 ¶53). The signs are flood, eclipse and confusion (III.1 ¶53). Too strong a fire would cut the Spirit off from the body (III.1 ¶55). The roused “Efficient” is “exceeding wrathful”. The adepts call it “the Green Lion, Typhon, Firedrake”, or during mortification “Black Toad” (III.1 ¶56). This is “the Gate of Putrefaction”. Its cause “appears” to be “vital heat stirred up artificially within the blood” (III.1 ¶58). Original Sin then appears, and it is met only by humbling the Selfhood “under the exemplary cross of Christ” (III.1 ¶60).

The one unclean thing in the Stone is “the Instrument moving the gold to putrefy”. It is evil, yet “a necessary ingredient”, and once returned it makes the work perfect (III.1 ¶61). Ripley says gold is reduced to mineral water “by Crafte occasionate”. Atwood glosses “craft” as “the attractive grace of the connate spirit”, which brings the self-willed agent to mortify itself (III.1 ¶62–63). With the Sun eclipsed, “the Lunar Vulcan” plays Isis, and the opposites are reconciled “in equilibriate accord” (III.1 ¶63).

The Lion Hunt, the New Life, and the First Matter

Atwood gives, “by way of recreation”, a verse called The Hunting of the Greene Lyon (III.1 ¶64). Its Lion is “called greene for unripenes”, not common quicksilver; it eclipses the Sun yet perfects him (III.1 ¶65). The poem calls “Imbibition”, the repeated giving of “drink” to the dried matter, “the whole subtill warke”. It also teaches that the ferment “must be of such a thing, As was the workes begyning” (III.1 ¶65). Atwood adds no comment on the poem. When Original Sin is overcome, “the New Life” arises. Its virtue is “the Corner Stone or first Material foundation of the Hermetic Art”, known only to those “who have it in themselves” (III.1 ¶66). Cadmus and the other heroes stand for “the Rational Ferment”. Their companions are the mind’s other faculties, drawn into “the Opposive Principle” (III.1 ¶66).

Drunken Saturn is “the Saturnian Will”, which grows sated as it revels unchecked. “The watchful eye of Intellect” then cuts him off (III.1 ¶68). After many battles “the Bath of Diana” is prepared, and “the Identical Spirit arises, pure, bright, and contrite” (III.1 ¶68). Eirenaeus’ verse gives the first matter as Mercury, a “water dry” in which lies “our secret fire” (III.1 ¶69). Atwood concludes that the First Matter comes from “an emancipation of the Fontal Source; and this is Diana” (III.1 ¶70). Synesius adds that the Stone’s Quintessence is “our viscous celestial and glorious soul, drawn by our magistery out of its mine” (III.1 ¶70). Atwood calls the subject “this Material of Mind” (III.1 ¶71).

The Work in this chapter

  • Matter: “Material of our Magistry a substance insensible” (III.1 ¶7): the inner vital substance, the Phantastic Spirit or Ether, figured as the Sphinx (stated, ¶5). It is the “One only Thing” (stated, ¶21) and finally the soul “drawn … out of its mine” (stated, ¶70).
  • Agent: “Mind to be the true Separator” (¶21): the supernatural Reason or Intellect, called Gold, Sol and Sulfur (stated). The “vertical separated Light” is its divine principle (stated, ¶37).
  • Operator: “should first of all heal or be healed himself” (¶9): the operator must be healed, surrendered to grace, and right in mind (stated, ¶9, ¶19, ¶39).
  • Pairing: “the spiritual agent and the spiritual patient” (¶41): an active Reason and a receptive Passive Intelligence, the Moon, both prepared (stated, ¶40–41).
  • Stages: “a small grain of the metaphysical ferment leavens the whole lump” (¶24). Ferment, then the death of the “medial life”, then putrefaction, then reunion (stated, ¶24–30, ¶49, ¶53).
  • Signs: “rolling like a tempestuous sea” (¶24). Turmoil, eclipse and blackness, then white and red (stated, ¶24, ¶53, ¶65).
  • Impediments: “his own blind purpose” (¶38): self-will (stated). “too strong a fire” (¶55) is a danger (stated).
  • Result: “the relationships of the vital elements are exchanged” (¶50): regeneration, the Elixir, “living gold” (stated, ¶49–50).

Terms introduced

  • first matter / First Matter: the alchemists’ foundational substance. It is finally named Diana and the Light (III.1 ¶3, ¶70).
  • Phantastic Spirit: the “natural vehicle of our life”, the vestibule of Reason (III.1 ¶5).
  • Sphinx: the Ether, door-keeper of the inner light. In man she is the Ethereal Spirit (III.1 ¶5, ¶20).
  • Vital Spirit: the life-spirit that ferments and is to be altered (III.1 ¶9, ¶50).
  • fermentation / ferment: a spontaneous change of the Vital Spirit. Reason works “as a ferment” (III.1 ¶9, ¶21, ¶24).
  • Antimony: the adepts’ name for the fire of life in man (III.1 ¶10).
  • perscrutinator: the searching spiritual intellect that operates the change (III.1 ¶13).
  • Separation / Separator: the Art’s main object, which Mind performs (III.1 ¶21).
  • celestial medial life: the intermediate life that must die first (III.1 ¶26, ¶28).
  • vertical separated Light: a divine ray, the Art’s true principle (III.1 ¶37).
  • Passive Intelligence: the Moon, which answers the seeking Reason (III.1 ¶40).
  • Quintessence: the new life, also Mercury and Elixir. It is also the soul drawn out (III.1 ¶49, ¶70).
  • Typhon: the wrathful Efficient of dissolution, the necessary unclean Instrument (III.1 ¶56, ¶61).
  • connate spirit / Lunar Vulcan: the inborn spirit that subdues Typhon, as Isis (III.1 ¶63).
  • Green Lion: the poem’s unripe agent (III.1 ¶65).
  • Imbibition: the repeated “drink” given to the dried matter (III.1 ¶65).
  • Corner Stone: the virtue of the New Life, the Art’s foundation (III.1 ¶66).
  • Saturnian Will: the unrestrained Will that Intellect cuts off (III.1 ¶68).

Authorities cited

Eirenaeus (inner fire, waters, Mercury: III.1 ¶13–14, ¶58–59, ¶69), Boehme (grace; Sol and Luna through death: ¶39, ¶48) and Hermes (separation, the One Thing: ¶21, ¶43, ¶53, ¶61) are cited most. The Paracelsians, Crollius and Paracelsus support the inner medicine and Separation (¶10, ¶21). Synesius, Anaxagoras, Plotinus, Plutarch and Proclus support Intellect’s work and the Sun–Moon pairing (¶20, ¶22–23, ¶45, ¶70). Basil Valentine, Van Helmont, Pontanus, Kirchringius, Lully, Ripley, Sendivogius and Maria give practical maxims (¶13, ¶37, ¶55–63). Also cited: Vaughan, Helvetius, Iamblicus, the Tractatus Aureus, a disciple of Cornelius Agrippa (¶1, ¶8–9, ¶12, ¶50, ¶70). Homer, Virgil, Orpheus, Palingenius, the Lion Hunt verse and Job serve as allegory (¶15–19, ¶25–35, ¶63–67). Bare references: Taylor, Norton, Maier, Manget, Agrippa (n1, n10, n25, n29, n72).