Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy - A Bardon Companion

-whitens, rubifies, and makes itself to be both yellow and black; it unites with itself, conceives itself,
and brings itself forth, to the full perfecting of its intention (13).
It is only in her manifold changes that nature is known and made apparent in ordinary life; but, since
these alchemists profess to have enjoyed another experience, and through their Art to have discovered
her in her simple essentiality, to be that total which works all conditionedly throughout existence, it
will therefore be requisite to consider their whole doctrine with reference to this presumed unity, and
by no means be led aside by their metaphoric language into a common misconstruction of its meaning;
but since, according to the old maxim, All is in Mercury which the wise men seek, let us seek
therefore if we may be able at all to identify this mercury, and whether the same ancient material be
yet on earth,
It is well known, that the Greeks and eastern sages derived all things in common from a certain pure
and hidden fire; Stoics, Pythagoreans, Platonists, and Peripatetics view with each other in celebrating
the occult virtues of the Ether; its all-pervading essence and perfective power: in it they place the
providential regulation of nature; it was the very life and substance of their theosophy, in which from
the highest to the lowest confines of existence, from Jove to the last link in the infernal monarchy, all
were inhabiting the ethereal world; for, as Virgil says, it lights and nourishes the innermost earth as
well as the air and starry heavens.
Principio coelum, ac terras, composque liquentes,
Lucentemque globum Lunae, Titaniaque astra,
Spiritus intus alit; totamque infusa per artus
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet (14).
And the assertions of the Ethnics, about the Anima Mundi, differ very little or nothing in substance
from the Hebrew doctrine, but in words only; neither are their opinions so heinous or ridiculous as the
zealous policy of ignorance, under a Christian guise, has too often caused them to appear. That there is
a fluid or vitalizing principle invisibly permeating all things, and resident in the air we breathe,
common experience indicates, for life cannot subsist without air, not in all kinds of air; but there is
some one quality or ingredient in the atmosphere which is a secret food of life, and on which it
immediately depends; what this aliment is, though many names have been invented, the moderns in
default of knowledge are not agreed; and seeing it escapes the test of their closest vessels and analyses,
and that it can be neither seen, heard, felt, nor naturally understood, the ancient theory of the One
Element has been very much derided. The chemist, Homberg, indeed, with Boerhaave, Boyle, and
others eminent of that period, hold with the alchemists, that there is a distinct substance universally
diffused, though sensible only in its mixed forms and powerful effects; that it is the alone pure and
active source of all things, and most firm bond of the natural elements, giving life to all bodies,
penetrating and sustaining all things, and enlivening all; that this mighty Ether moreover is always at
hand, ready to break forth into action on predisposed subjects; fermenting, producing, destroying, and
governing the total course of nature. Bishop Berkeley, too, in his Siris, contends learnedly in favor of
the same universal material, which he likewise calls ether, and a pure invisible fire --- the most subtle
and elastic of all bodies pervading all, and considers that it is from thence, and not from any mingled
property, that the air has its power of sustenance and vitalization.
These then, with a few others, in recent times have so far concurred with the ancients in distinguishing
the fontal Spirit of nature, apart from its manifestation, and as distinct from that elementary ignition
with which we are sensibly familiar; for they do not allow that to be fire indeed, but an excitation only
or effect of the antecedent potency which they describe. But then they could adduce no tangible proof
of their doctrine. The worked could not see their invisible fire. It has therefore been regarded as a mere
speculative chimera (which in part it was perhaps, in their minds, without experience), and,
accordingly, disbelieved. For philosophy, at length, laudably anxious to prove all things, yet too idle to
theorize, will suppose nothing that is not openly shown; how then should she recognize that recondite
fire?