Mercury, or the principle of intelligence latent in everything, whether manifested or not; but the living essences or states in the universe which become manifested upon these three planes they symbolized by the signs of the planets, as has already been specified above. These principles are eternal; but their manifestations differ according to the plane upon which they become manifest. Thus, for instance, love is eternal, manifesting itself in the kingdom of God as divine self-consciousness; upon the astral plane as affection, desire and passion; upon the physical plane as gravitation, attraction, chemical affinity, etc. The power is always the same; but its action appears different under different conditions.
“Above all a physician should know that man exists in three substances. That of which he is made has three aspects. Those three make up the whole man, and they are the man himself and he is they, and out of these three substances he receives all his good and evil concerning his physical body. Thus each thing exists in these three substances, and the three together constitute a body, and there is nothing added to it but the life. If you can see these true substances, you then have the eye by means of which a physician ought to be able to see. To see the exterior only is in the power of everybody; but to see within the interior and discover what is hidden, is an art that belongs to the physician.” (“Paramirum,” Lib. I. s.b.)
Those who have thus far followed our line of reasoning will now be ready to acknowledge that an understanding of this superior science, the acquisition of whose knowledge requires a life-time spent by a superior mind, and whose practice involves the evolution of superior faculties, is not to be obtained by a few hours’ perusal of a book on Alchemy, and that only those who are practical alchemists are entitled to judge it. Alchemy, far from being an “exploded humbug,” is in fact the noblest object for which all humanity and civilization strives. It is the realization of the highest ideal, a feat which cannot be accomplished by anything less than that ideal itself. H. P. Blavatsky says:—
“When there appeared on earth men endowed with a superior intelligence, they allowed this supreme power (the divine spark) to have full and uncontrolled action, and from it they learnt their first lessons. All that they had to do was to imitate it. But in order to reproduce the same effects by an effort of individual will, they were obliged to develop in their human constitution a (creative) power called Kriyasakti in occult phraseology.”
We should be extremely happy to make the acquaintance of a modern man of science who obeys divine law to such an extent as to let the power of God (the Holy Ghost) have full control over his thoughts, will, and desires. Such a person without selfish desires, without ambition or vanity, without any greed for money or fame, acting as an instrument of divine love, would be a rare specimen of humanity; but unfortunately such a saint and sage will hardly be found in our present generation; for a thousand links tie the human animal to the region of his desires, and how could he who is bound by a thousand chains to the Moon employ the energy of the Sun, whose influence he will not permit to enter his nature, and which therefore cannot nourish his body and grow into a power in him. Gold and silver may form an alloy; but they never become identical with each other. Thus their spiritual representatives, Divine Wisdom and the carnal intellect, will never be one and the same, although the light of wisdom will throw its reflection upon the terrestrial mind.
As stated before, there are three aspects of Alchemy:—
Terrestrial Alchemy. This in its lower aspect includes the whole science of chemistry with all the discoveries that may be made in the future. This alchemy still recognizes four elements[21], and the fifth, the one element, from which the four take their origin; in other words four states of matter and a fifth one (partly recognised by science); namely, the solid (substantial), liquid, fluidic, and ethereal state[22]. These are described as follows:—
a.
