The Hermetic Museum, Vol. I — trans. A. E. Waite (1893)

THE GLORY OF THE WORLD. sn

(Z.«., plants), gives them their food (Ze. water), and imparts to them its fire, by which they are sustained. Of this you may convince yourself by ocular demonstration. For the air bears the clouds, and sheds them upon earth in the form of rain; which rain contains secret fire derived from the earth, and the rays of the Sun by which it was drawn upward—and this fire it gives to all things as food. And although the rays of the Sun and Moon are immeasurably subtle, swift, and intangible; yet the rays of our Sun and Moon are much swifter and more subtle than those which are received by the plants in their growth. For the earth digests the rays of the Sun and Moon, and they sustain in the most wonderful manner things of vegetable growth ; and all the living rays of the Sun and Moon nourish all created things. For by this digestion they obtain their life. For this reason the air may be called great, because through the grace of God it accomplishes great things.

Again, when the Sage says, * If theair becomes thick, " ze, when the Sun turns aside, or is changed, "there is a thickness, till it rises," he means that if the distilled water which is taken for the Sun, or fire, approaches its body, and is changed into it, then the Sun stoops down to the earth. Thereby the air becomes thick, being joined to the earth, and if the Sun is once more elevated the air becomes thin ; that is to say, when the water is extracted from the earth by means of the alembic, the fire rises upward, Ze, the Sun is exalted, and the air becomes thin. Again,when he says, * This also is hot and cold, and thickness, and thinness, or softness," the Sage means that the Sun is hot, and the Moon cold ; for the earth, when dissolved, is the Moon, and water, in which is fire, is the Sun : these two must be conjoined in an inseparable union. This union enables them to reduce the elements of all metallic and animal bodies, into which they are injected, to perfect purity and health. "When the Sage adds that thickness and thinness denote summer and winter, he means that our Art is mingled of thickness and thinness, or two elements which must be united by gentle warmth, like that of winter and summer combined. "This temperate warmth, which resembles that of a bath, brings the Sun and Moon together. Thus I have, by the grace of God, interpreted to you the parabolic saying of Isindrus.

Explanation of the Saying of Anaxagoras.

From the beginning of all things God is. He is likened to light and fire, and He may be likened to the latter in His essence, because fire is the first principle of all things that are seen and grow. In the same way, the first principle of our Art is fire. Heat impels Nature to work, and in its working are: manifested Body, Spirit, and Soul; that is, earth and water. Earth is the Body, oil the Soul, and water the Spirit; and all this is accomplished through the Divine goodness and lenity, without which Nature can do nothing; or, as the Sage says: * God's lenity rules all things ; and beneath the thickness of the earth, after creation, are revealed lenity and integrity." ^ Thatisto say: If the earth is separated from the water, and itself dissolved into oil and water, the oil is integrity, and the water lenity ; for the water imparts the soul to the oil and to the body, and [the body] receives nothing but what is imparted to it by heaven, that is, by the water—and the water is revealed under the oil, the oil under the earth. For the fire is subtle, and floats upward from the earth with subtle waters, and is concealed in the earth. Now oil and air and earth are purified by their own spirit. "Therefore the oil is integrity in the body, and the spirit lenity. And the spirit in the first operation descends to the body and restores life to the body; although the oil is pure and remains with the body, yet it cannot succour the body without the help of the spirit; for the body suffers violence and anguish while it is dissolved and purified. "Then, again, the "thickness of the earth" is transmuted into a thin substance such as water or oil, and thus the * lenity " is seen in the body. For the body is so mild or soft as to be changed into water, or oil, although before it was quite dry. "Therefore oil is seen in the earth, which is the fatness or life of the water, Ze, an union of fire, air, and water. Now give the water to the body to drink, and it will be restored to life. — And though those three elements have ascended from the earth, yet the virtue remains with the body, as you may see by dissolving it into oil and water. But the oil cannot operate without the spirit, nor can the spirit bear fruit without the oil and the body. "Therefore they must be united ; and all *lenity " and "integrity " are seen in the body when it is transmuted to white and red.