CHAPTER IX

E now come to the most difficult part of our
inquiry, for we are beginning to grasp the magnitude of the task that we propose for ourselves, which is nothing less than the purification of the spiritual nature to a point where it may be raised, exalted or sublimated to a real union with its higher counterparts; from which mystical marriage, as it is sometimes called, is born that which is more than human, that which may be termed divine, the risen Osiris or Christ, which is truly at one with the Eternal Gods, with True Being.
And such an undertaking involves an ascent from World to World by analogous processes in each, by becoming perfect in each. Step by step we must climb that Jacob’s ladder which stretches from earth to the super-celestial regions, purifying and purging at every stage, dissolving, distilling, calcining, imbibing, coagulating, subliming, until the goal is reached, a goal so far beyond our most vivid imaginative specula- tions that all attempts fail of describing.
For, as Porphyry tells us in his Auxiliary to the Perception of Intelligibles, “‘ When you have assumed to 76
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yourself an Eternal Essence, infinite in itself according to power; and begin to perceive intellectually an hypostasis unwearied, untamed, and never failing, but transcending in the most pure and genuine life, and full from itself ; and which likewise, is established in itself ; to this essence, if you add a subsistence in place, or a relation to a certain thing, at the same time you diminish this essence, or rather appear to diminish it, by ascribing to it an indigence of place or a relative condition of being; you do not, however, in reality diminish this essence, but you separate yourself from the perception of it, by receiving as a veil the phantasy which runs under your conjectural apprehension of it. For you cannot pass beyond, or stop, or render more perfect, or effect the least change in a thing of this kind, because it is impossible for it to be in the smallest degree deficient. For it is much more sufficient than any perpetually flowing fountain can be conceived to be. If, however, you are unable to keep pace with it, and to become assimilated to the whole Intelligible Nature, you should not investigate any- thing pertaining to real Being ; or if you do, you will deviate from the path that leads to it, and will look at something else; but if you investigate nothing else, being established in yourself and in your own Essence, you will be assimilated to the Intelligible Universe,
and will not adhere to anything posterior to it. ‘“‘ Neither therefore should you say, I am of great he
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magnitude; for omitting this idea of greatness, you will become universal, as you were universal prior to this. But when, together with the universe, something was present with you, you became less by the addition ; because the addition was not from truly subsisting Being, for to that you cannot add anything. When, therefore, anything is added from the subjective self- hood, a place is afforded to poverty as an associate, accompanied by an indigence of all things. Hence, dismissing non-being (the subjective self-hood) you will then become sufficient; for when anyone is present in himself, then he is present with true Being, which is everywhere; but when you withdraw from yourself, then likewise you recede from real Being ; of such great consequence is it for a man to be present with that which is present with himself, that is to say, with his rational part, and to be absent from that which is external to him.”
It must be our present purpose, therefore, having sketched briefly the objects proposed, and emphasised the seriousness of the undertaking, to attempt some investigation of the methods by which these ends may be attained, the modus operandi of the Hermetic Practice.
This is usually divided into two parts, termed the Gross and the Subtle, but as Morien says: “ You shall know that the whole work of this Art ends in two Operations hanging very close together, so that when 78
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one is complete, the other may begin and finish, this perfecting the whole Magistery.”
An analysis of the works of the Philosophers shows that these two operations are again sub-divided, broadly speaking, into two for the first and three for the second, though these are themselves each multiple and are infinitely varied by the different authorities, who complicate matters still further by frequent introversions of the order of the work, scattering their instructions apparently at random through their books, as they themselves freely confess, in order that they may not be too apparent to the uninitiated.
These five principal divisions of the process may be tabulated as Preparation, Solution, Conversion, Separa- tion, Reunion; though it must be remembered that each stage includes operations similar to what has gone before, recapitulations, repetitions and so forth, so that our classification is in no wise as simple as it appears.
Before proceeding to any attempt at analysing them, we would like to place before the reader a quotation from the dzoth of M. Georgius Beatus, who was, as we are informed by Vaughan in his Coelum Terrae— though he does not mention his name—one of the Fratres R.C. This extract sets forth more clearly than many the whole matter, though we are bound to admit that his meaning will in many places be more apparent to the student who has already some familiar- ity with the Holy Qabalah. Nevertheless, an intelligent
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comparison with what we have set forth in the preced- ing chapters should serve to elucidate the majority of his points, while what we have yet to say will be of service, we hope, in considering the remainder. He Says : .
““T am a goddess for beauty and extraction famous, born out of our proper sea which compasseth the whole earth and is ever restless. Out of my breasts I pour forth milk and blood: boil these two till they are turned into silver and gold. O most excellent subject, out of which all things in this world are generated, though at first sight thou art poison, adorned with the name of the Flying Eagle. Thou art the First Matter, the seed of Divine Benediction, in whose body there 1s heat and rain, which notwithstanding are hidden from the wicked, because of thy habit and virgin vestures, which are scattered over all the world. Thy parents are the sun and moon; in thee there is water and wine, gold also and silver upon earth, that mortal man may rejoice. After this manner God sends us His blessing and wisdom and rain, and the beams of the sun, to the eternal glory of His name.
“But consider, O man, what things God bestows upon thee by thus means. Torture the Eagle till she weeps and the Lion be weakened and bleed to death. The blood of this Lion incorporated with the tears of the Eagle is the treasure of the earth. These creatures use to devour and kill one another, but notwithstanding 80
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their love is mutual, and they put on the property and nature of a Salamander, which if it remains in the fire without any detriment, it cures all the diseases of men, beasts and metals.
** After that the ancient philosophers had perfectly understood this subject, they diligently sought in this mystery for the centre of the middlemost tree in the Terrestrial Paradise, entering in by five litigious gates. ‘The first gate was the knowledge of the True Matter, and here arose the first and that a most bitter conflict. The second was the preparation by which this Matter was to be prepared, that they might obtain the embers of the Eagle and the blood of the Lion. At this gate there was a most sharp fight, for it produceth water and blood and a spiritual, bright body. ‘The third gate is the fire, which conduceth to the maturity of the Medicine. The fourth gate is that of multiplication and augmentation, in which proportions and weight are necessary. The fifth and last gate is projection. But most glorious, full rich and high is he who attains to the fourth gate, for he hath got an universal Medicine for all diseases. ‘This is that great character of the Book of Nature out of which her whole alphabet doth arise. ‘The fifth gate serves only for metals.
“This mystery, existing from the foundation of the world and the creation of Adam, is of all others the most ancient, a knowledge which God Almighty—
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by His Word—breathed into Nature, a miraculous power, the blessed fire of life, the transparent carbuncle and red gold of the wise men, and the Divine Bene- diction of this life. But this mystery, because of the wickedness of men, is given only to few, notwithstanding
it lives and moves every day in the sight of the whole |
world, as it appears by the following parable.
‘“‘T am a poisonous dragon, present everywhere and to be had for nothing. My water and my fire dissolve and compound. Out of my body thou shalt draw the Green and Red Lion; but if thou dost not exactly know me thou wilt—with my fire—destroy thy five senses. A most pernicious, quick poison comes out of my nostrils which hath been the destruction of many. Separate therefore the thick from the thin artificially, unless thou dost delight in extreme poverty. I give thee faculties both male and female and the powers both of heaven and earth. The mysteries of my art are to be performed magnanimously and with great courage, if thou wouldst have me overcome the violence of the fire, in which attempt many have lost both their labour and their substance. I am the egg of Nature, known only to the wise, such as are pious and modest, who make of me a little world. Ordained I was by the Almighty God for men, that they may relieve the poor with my treasures and not set their minds on gold that perisheth. 1 am called the Philosophers’ Mercury; my husband. is gold 82
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philosophical. JI am the old dragon that is present everywhere on the face of the earth. I am father and mother, youthful and ancient, weak and yet most strong, life and death, visible and invisible, hard and soft, descending to the earth and ascending to the heavens, most high and most low, light and heavy. In me the order of nature is oftentimes inverted—in colour, number, weight and measure. I have in me the light of Nature; I am dark and bright; I spring from the earth and I come out of heaven; I am well known and yet mere nothing ; all colours shine in me and all metals by the beams of the sun. I am the Carbuncle of the Sun, a most noble, clarified earth, by which thou mayest turn copper, iron, tin and lead into most pure gold.” —
Let us, however, now proceed to our investigation of the various stages of the work. Firstly we have the preparation, which, as we have sufficiently indicated, involves as careful and thorough a purification of the whole nature as a constantly directed will, aided by prayer, meditation and aspiration can bring about. To this must be added systematic study to know the Matter, to understand what it is with which we are to deal, and to an elucidation of this we have devoted the greater part of what has gone before.
But to recapitulate, we may say with Synesius, as in Chapter VII, ‘‘ that the Quintessence is none other than our viscous, celestial and glorious soul, drawn from
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its minera by our magistery.”” And with Paracelsus that “‘that which we see is only the receptacle; the true element is a spirit of life that grows in all things, as the soul in the body of man. This is the First Matter of the elements, which can neither be seen nor felt, and yet is in all things. And the First Matter of the elements is nothing else than the life that the creatures have; and it is these magical elements which are of such an excellent and quick activity that nothing besides can be found or imagined like them.”
But even these pre-requisites do not suffice, for a knowledge of the matter must be supplemented by a knowledge of the elements—that is theoretically, for at this stage we have not advanced to any really practical experimentation such as will lead to first-hand knowledge. But when the philosophers speak of a knowledge of the elements, they do not mean corporeally, but spiritually and wisely, “‘non corpor- aliter, sed spiritualiter et sapienter.”’
Then, again, some study of cosmogony and cosmology must be undertaken, for without this, seeing that man is but the microcosm, it is not possible for him safely to obtain sufficient knowledge of himself to proceed to subsequent stages except by practising an amount of introspection that is dangerous.
We shall also see later on a further necessity for this latter class of knowledge, apart from the value of it in teaching the aspirant self-understanding by means of 84
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the parallels between the macrocosmic universe and himself.
All these are indispensable, and without them no one is advised to apply himself to this work, else, as we are plainly told, he will lose his labour and stray far from the true path. Let the aspirant to the mastery of the Alchemic Art, therefore, pledge himself from the very start to a life of stern endeavour and rigid application.
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E now come to the second part of the first or
Gross Work, which is Solution, and a study of the Alchemical writers will soon assure us that this is the most important part of the work, and the key to all the rest.
Here, also, more have erred than in any other part, and it is well said *‘ Qui scit Salem et ejus solutionem, scit secretum occultum antiquorum philosophorum,” Who knows the Salt and its solution, knows the hidden secret of the Ancient Sages.
“¢ Here lies the knot,” says Vaughan, “‘ and who is he that will untie it?’ In reply to which we may quote Raymond Lully, who tells us that it was never put to paper “ Because it is the office of God only to reveal this thing, and man seeks to take away from the Divine Glory when he publishes, by word of mouth or in writing, what appertains to God alone. ‘Therefore thou canst not attain this operation until thou hast first been approved spiritually for the favours of Divinity. For this secret is of no human revelation, but for that Benign Spirit Which breathes where it wills.”
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Despite this somewhat damping information, there is yet much that we can do, for we can at least discover, from a careful perusal of their instructions, what the solution is, and we should therefore not be unduly discouraged, for this is undoubtedly a step towards ascertaining how it might be done.
Eudoxus, in his second Key, gives us an inkling as to what it is, giving us hints how to find out the secret, encouraging us to believe that we can do so. ‘‘ The Second Key,” he says, “* dissolves the compound of the Stone and begins the separation of the Elements in a philosophical manner : this separation of the elements is not made but by raising up the subtle and pure parts above the thick and terrestrial parts. He who knows how to sublime the Stone philosophically, justly deserves the name of a philosopher, since he knows the Fire of the Wise, which is the only Instrument which can work this sublimation. No philosopher has ever openly revealed this Secret Fire, and this powerful agent, which works all the wonders of the Art : he who shall not understand it, and not know how to distin- guish it by the characters whereby it is described, ought to make a stand here, and pray to God to make it clear to him: for the knowledge of this Great Secret is rather a gift of Heaven, than a Light acquired by the natural force of reasoning; let him nevertheless read the writings of the philosophers; let him meditate ; and above all things let him pray : there is no difficulty
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which may not in the end be made clear by Work, Meditation and Prayer. Without the sublimation of the Stone, the conversion of the Elements and the extraction of the Principles is impossible; and this conversion . . . is the only way whereby our Mercury can be prepared. Apply yourselves therefore to know this Secret Fire, which dissolves the Stone naturally and without violence, and makes it dissolve into Water in the great sea of the Wise.”
This is, perhaps, more enlightening for those who have some Qabalistic training—and indeed it is our opinion that Alchemy is virtually a closed book for those who have not some such key to help them—and for the benefit of those who have not, we would point out that the Great Sea is a title of Binah, the Great Mother Supernal, the third Sephira, whose analogue in the divisions of the Soul is Neshamah. To this Sephira is also referred—in the Alchemical Qabalistic Treatise known as Ash Mezareph or the Purifying Fire—Sulphur, whose fiery nature causes it to be used frequently as the symbol of the Secret Fire of the Adepts. If then we take the compound of the Stone as Salt, we have here brought together the three well- known principles of Salt, Sulphur and Mercury.
And if it should be objected that we have but slight grounds for assuming salt to be thus referred, we reply that we have the support of Khunrath in his Amph1- theatrum. ‘The philosopher’s stone,” he says, “‘ is 88
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Ruach Elohim, which moved upon the face of the waters, the firmament being in the midst, conceived and made body, truly and sensibly, in the virgin womb of the greater world, namely that Earth which is without form and water. The Son, born into the light of the Macrocosm, mean and of no account in the eyes of the vulgar, consubstantial nevertheless, and like his father the lesser world, setting aside all idea of any- thing individually human: universal, triune, herma- phrodite; visible, sensible to hearing, to smell, local and finite; made manifest by itself regeneratively by the obstetric hand of the Physico-Chemical Art: glorified in his once assumed body, for benefits and uses almost infinite; wonderfully salutary to the microcosm and to the macrocosm in universal triunity. The Salt of Saturn, the Universal son of Nature, has reigned, does reign, and will reign naturally and universally in all things; always and everywhere universal through its own fusibility, self-existent in nature. Hear and attend! Saxt, that most ancient principle of the Stone; whose nucleus in the Decad guard in holy silence. Let him who hath understand- ing understand; I have spoken it—not without weighty cause has Salt been dignified with the name of Wisdom: than which, together with the Sun,
nothing is found more useful.” Considering the foregoing and remembering what Basil Valentine has told us in previous chapters, the 89
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nature of this solution should now be getting tolerably clear, nevertheless the descriptions given are so helpful in the incidental information that we may gain from them, that we will venture to give two, the first of which will be from the same source as that we have just concluded.
‘In the first act of the physico-chemical works,”’ says Khunrath, “ by diverse instruments and labours and the various artifice of the Hands and Fire, from Adrop (which in its proper tongue is called Saturn., i.e., the Lead of the Wise) ”—and is thus the prime matter of the Stone, Salt, Saturn and Lead being alternatively interchangeable in their reference to Chokmah, the second Sephira—“ our heart of Saturn, the bonds of coagulation being dextrously released, the Green Duenech and the Vitriol of Venus, which are the true matters of the Blessed Stone will appear. The Green Lion, lurking and concealed, is drawn forth from the Cavern of his Saturnine Hill by attractions and allurements suitable to his nature. All the blood copiously flowing from his wounds, by the acute lance transfixed, is diligently collected, ule and lili; the mud earth, wet, humid, stagnant, impure, par- taking of Adam, the First Matter of the creation of the Greater World of our very selves and of our potent Stone, is made manifest—the Wine which the Wise have called the Blood of the Earth, which likewise is the Red of Lully, so named on account of its tincture, go
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which is the colour of its virtue, thick, dense and black, blacker than black, will then be at hand ; the bond by which the soul is tied to the body and united together with it into one substance is relaxed and dissolved. The Spirit and the Soul by degrees depart from the body and are separated step by step ; whilst this takes place the fixed is made volatile, and the impure body (of the Spirit) from day to day is consumed, is destroyed, dies, blackens and goes to Ashes. ‘These Ashes, my Son, deem not of little worth; they are the diadem of thy body ; in them lies our pigmy, conquering and destroying giants.”
If much of the symbolism of the above seems too involved for the taste of some, our second quotation should appeal to them more. On the statement of Thomas Vaughan it is from another Frater R.C., who was known by the title of Sapiens, and avoids much of the usual terminology of the Alchemists. ‘The state of true being,” he says, “is that from which nothing is absent; to which nothing is added and nothing still less can harm. All needful is that with which no one can dispense. Truth is therefore the highest excellence and an impregnable fortress, having few friends and beset by innumerable enemies, though invisible in these days to almost the whole world, but an invincible security to those who possess it. In this citadel is contained that true and indubitable Stone and ‘Treasure of Philosophers, which uneaten by moths
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and unpierced by thieves remaineth to eternity— though all things else dissolve—set up for the ruin of many and the salvation of some.
“This matter which for the crowd is vile, exceed- ingly contemptible and odious, yet not hateful but loveable and precious to the wise, beyond gems and tried gold. A lover itself of all, to all well-nigh an enemy, to be found everywhere, yet discovered scarcely by any, though it cries through the streets to all: Come to me all ye who seek and | will lead you in the true path. This is that only thing proclaimed by the true philosophers, that which overcometh all and is itself overcome by nothing, searching heart and body, penetrating whatsoever is stony and stiff, consolidating that which is weak, establishing resistance in the hard.
“It confronts us all, though we see it not, crying and proclaiming with uplifted voice: I am the way of truth ; see that ye walk therein, for there is no other path unto life: yet we do not all hearken unto her. She giveth forth an odour of sweetness, and yet we perceive it not. Daily and freely at her feasts she offers herself to us in sweetness, but we will not taste and see. Softly she draws us towards salvation and still we reject her yoke. For we are become as stones, having eyes and not seeing, ears and not hearing, nostrils refusing to smell, a tongue that will not speak, a mouth that will not taste, feet which refuse to walk and hands that work at nothing. O miserable race of g2
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men, which are not superior to stones, yea, so much the more inferior because to the one and not to the other is given knowledge of their acts. Be ye transmuted— she cries—be ye transmuted from dead stones into living philosophical stones. I am the true Medicine, rectifying and transmuting that which is no longer into that which it was before corruption entered, and into something better by far, and that which is no longer into that which it ought to be. Lo, I am at the door of your conscience, knocking night and day, and ye will not open unto me. Yet I wait mildly ; I donot depart in anger; I suffer your affronts patiently, hoping thereby to lead you where I seek to bring. Come again, and come again often, ye who seek wisdom: buy without money and without price, not with gold and silver, nor yet by your own labours that which 1s offered freely.
“*O sonorous voice, O voice sweet and gracious to ears of sages. O fount of inexhaustible riches to those who are searching after truth and justice. O consola- tion to those who are desolate. What seek ye further, ye anxious mortals? Why torment your minds with innumerable anxieties, ye miserable ones? Prithee, what madness blinds you, when within and not without you is all that you seek outside instead of within you ? Such is the peculiar vice of the vulgar, that despising their own, they desire ever what is foreign, nor yet altogether unreasonably, for of ourselves we have
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nothing that is good. Or if indeed we possess any, it is received from Him Who alone is eternal good. On the contrary our disobedience hath appropriated that which is evil within us from an evil principle without, and beyond this evil thus possessed within him, man has nothing of his own; for whatsoever is good in his nature belongs to the Lord of goodness. - At the same time that is counted to him as his own which he receives from the Good Principle. Albeit dimly that Life which is the Light of men shineth in the darkness within us, a Life which is not of us, but of Him Who hath it from everlasting. He hath planted it in us, that in His Light Who dwelleth in Light in- accessible, we may behold the Light. Herein we surpass the rest of His creatures; thus are we fashioned in His likeness, Who hath given us a beam of His own inherent Light. ‘Truth must not therefore be sought in our natural self, but in this likeness of God within us.
"True knowledge begins when after a comparison of the imperishable with the perishable, of life and annihilation, the soul—yielding to the superior attrac- tion of what is eternal—doth elect to be made one with the higher soul. The Mind emerges from that knowledge and as a beginning chooses voluntary separation of the body, beholding with the soul, on the one hand, the foulness and corruption of the body, and on the other the everlasting splendour and 94
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felicity of the higher soul. Being moved thereto by the Divine inbreathing, and neglecting things of flesh, it yearns to be connected with the soul, and that alone desires which it finds comprehended by God in salvation and glory. But the body itself is brought to harmonise with the union of both. ‘This is that wonderful philosophical transmutation of body into spirit and spirit into body about which an instruction has come down to us from the wise of old: ‘ Fix that which is volatile and volatilise that which is fixed ; and thou shalt obtain our Mastery.’ That is tosay: Make the stiff-necked body tractable, and the virtue of the higher soul herself, shall communicate invariable constancy to the material part so that it will abide all tests. Gold is tried by fire, and by this process all that is not gold is cast out. O pre-eminent gold of the philosophers, with which the Sons of the Wise are enriched, not with that which is coined.
“Come hither, ye who seek after so many ways the Treasure of the Philosophers. Behold that Stone which ye have rejected, and learn first what it 1s before you go to seek it. It is more astonishing than any miracle that a man should desire after that which he does not know. It is a folly to go in quest of that, the truth of which the investigators do not know; such a search is hopeless. I counsel therefore all and sundry scrutators that they should ascertain in the first place whether that which they look for exists
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before they start on their travels; they will not be frustrated then in their attempts. The wise man seeks what he loves and loves only that which he knows : otherwise he would be a fool. Out of knowledge there- fore cometh love, the Truth of all, which alone is esteemed by all just philosophers.
“Ye toil in vain, all exposers of hidden secrets in Nature when—taking another path than is—ye endeavour to discover by material means the powers of material things. Learn therefore to know Heaven by Heaven, not by earth, but the powers of that which is material discern by that which is heavenly. No one can ascend to that Heaven which is sought by you unless He Who came down from a Heaven which you seek shall not first enlighten. Ye seek an incorruptible Medicine, which shall not only transmute the body from corruption into a perfect mode but so preserve it continually ; yet except in Heaven itself, never anywhere will you discover it. ‘The celestial virtue, by invisible rays meeting at the centre of the earth, penetrates all elements and generates and maintains elementated things. No one can be brought to birth therein save in the likeness of that which is also drawn therefrom. ‘The combined foetus of both parents is so preserved in Nature that both parents may be recognisable therein, in potentiality and in act.
‘What shall cleave more closely than the Stone in philosophical generation? Learn from within thyself 96
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to know whatsoever is in Heaven and on earth, that thou mayest become wise in all things. Thou seest not that Heaven and the elements were once but one substance and were separated one from the other by Divine skill for the generation of thyself and all that is. Didst thou know this, the rest could not escape, unless indeed thou art devoid of all capacity. Again, in every generation such a separation is necessary as I have said must be made by thee before starting out in the study of true philosophy. Thou wilt never make out of others that one thing which thou needest unless first thou shalt make out of thyself that one of which thou hast heard. For such is the will of God, that the pious should perform the work which they desire, and the perfect fulfil another on which they are bent. To men of bad will there shall be no harvest other than they have sown; furthermore, on account of their malice, their good seed shall be changed very often into cockle. Perform, then, the work which thou seekest in such a manner that so far as may be in thy power, thou mayst escape a like misfortune.
** So do therefore, my soul and my body: rise up now and follow your higher soul. Let us go up into that high mountain before us, from the pinnacle of ~ which I will show you that place where two ways meet, of which Pythagoras spoke in cloud and darkness. Our eyes are opened ; now shines the Sun of Holiness and Justice, guided by which we cannot turn aside
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from the way of truth. Let thine eyes look first upon the right path, lest they behold vanity before wisdom is perceived. See you not that shining and impregnable tower? ‘Therein is Philosophical Love, a fountain from which flow living waters, and he who drinks thereof shall thirst no more after vanity. From that most pleasant and delectable place goes a plain path to one more delightful still, wherein Wisdom draws the yoke. Out of her fountain flow waters far more blessed than the first, for if our enemies drink thereof it is necessary to make peace with them. Most of those who attain here direct their course still further, but not all attain the end. It is such a place which mortals may scarcely reach unless they are raised by the Divine Will to the state of immortality ; and then, or ever they enter, they must put off the world, the hindering vesture of fallen life.
“In those who attain hereto there is no longer any fear of death; on the contrary they welcome it daily with more willingness, judging that whatsoever is agreeable in the natural order is worthy of their acceptance. Whosoever advances beyond these three regions passes from the sight of men. If so be that it be granted us to see the second and the third, let us seek to go no further. Behold, beyond the first and crystalline arch, a second arch of silver, beyond which there is a third of adamant. But the fourth comes not within our vision till the third lies behind us. ‘This is 98
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the golden realm of abiding happiness, void of care, filled with perpetual joy.”
This solution, we may then judge, was a dissolution or loosening of the vital bond—but not a breaking of it —whereby the soul or spirit, or soul and spirit, might be freed from the body and its bondage, whence arose, presumably, that teaching of Plato and Plotinus that it is the business of philosophers to study how to be dead, explained by Porphyry, who says that “ there is a twofold death, the one, indeed, universally known, in which the body is liberated from the soul; but the other peculiar to the philosophers, in which the soul is liberated from the body.”
This, of course, will involve us in a consideration of the mantic states of the mysteries, but we prefer to postpone this to our study of the second stage of the Subtle Work, devoting our attention in the meantime to the first stage, Conversion.