In philosophers' books therefore who wishes may see,
Our stone is called the less-world, one and three.”
The stone is therefore the world in little, the microcosm, man; one, a unity, three, [Symbol: Mercury] mercury, [Symbol: Sulphur] sulphur, [Symbol: Salt] salt, or spirit, soul, body. Dichotomy also appears, mercury and sulphur, which can then generally be rendered soul and body. One author says, “We must choose such minerals as consist of a living mercury and a living sulphur; work it gently, not with haste and hurry.” [Cf. Tabula Smaragdina 9, “suaviter” ...]
Hitchcock (H. A., p. 42): “The ‘one’ thing of the alchemists is above all man, according to his nature [as a nature] essentially and substantially one. But if the authors refer to man phenomenally they speak of him under different names, indicating different states as he is before or after ‘purification’ or they refer to his body, his soul or his spirit under different names. Sometimes they speak of the whole man as mercury, ... and then by the same word perhaps they speak of something special, as our mercury which has besides, a multitude of other names ... although men are of diverse dispositions and temperaments, some being angelic and others satanic, [pg 155] yet the alchemists maintain with St. Paul that ‘all the nations of men are of one blood,’ that is, of one nature. And it is that in man by which he is of one nature which it is the special object of alchemy to bring into life and activity; that by whose means, if it could universally prevail, mankind would be constituted into a brotherhood.”
The alchemist says that a great difficulty at the outset of the work is the finding or making of their necessarily indispensable mercury, which they also call green lion, mercurius animatus, the serpent, the dragon, acid water, vinegar, etc.
What is this mysterious mercury, susceptible to evolution, lying in mankind, common to all, but differently worked out? Hitchcock answers, conscience. Conscience is not equally “pure” with all men, and not equally developed; the difficulty of discovering it, of which the alchemists tell, is the difficulty of arousing it in the heart of man for the heart's improvement and elevation. The starting point in the education of man is indeed to awaken in his heart an enduring, permanent sense of the absolutely right, and the consistent purpose of adhering to this sense. It is above all one of the hardest things in the world “to take a man in what is called his natural state, St. Paul's natural man, after he has been for years in the indulgence of all his passions, having a view to the world, to honors, pleasures, wealth, and make him sensible of the mere abstract claims of right, and willing to relinquish one single passion in deference to it.” Surely that is the one [pg 156] great task of the educator; if it be accomplished, the work of improvement is easy and can properly be called mere child's play, as the hermetics like to call the later phases of their work. (H. A., pp. 45 ff.)
No one is so suspicious and so sensitive as those whose conscience is not sensitive enough. Such people who wander in error themselves, are like porcupines: it is very difficult to approach them. The alchemists have suitable names for them as arsenic, vipers, etc., and yet they seek in all these substances, and in antimony, lead, and many other materials, for a true mercury that has just as many names as there are substances in which it is found; oil, vinegar, honey, wormwood, etc. Under all its names mercury is still, however, a single immutable thing. It was also called an incombustible sulphur for whoever has his conscience once rightly awakened, has in his heart an endlessly burning flame that eats up everything that is contrary to his nature. This fire that can burn like “poison” is a powerful medicine, the only right one for a (morally) sick soul.
Conscience in the crude state is generally called by the alchemists “common quicksilver” in contrast to “our quicksilver.” To replace the first by the second and, according to the demands of nature, not forcibly, is the one great aim that the hermetics follow. This first goal is a preparation for a further work. Whither this leads we can represent in one word—“God”—and even here we may be struck with the “circular” character of the whole hermetic work, since the heavenly mercury that is necessary [pg 157] to the preliminary work, to the purification, is yet itself a gift of God; the beginning depends on the end and presupposes it. The symbol of the prima materia is not without purpose a snake that has its tail in its mouth. I cannot, in anticipation, enter into the problem that arises in this connection; only let it be understood in a word that the end can soar beyond the beginning as an ideal.
What is to be done with the messenger of heaven, mercury, or conscience, when it has been discovered? Several alchemists give the instruction to sow the gold in mercury as in the earth, “philosophic gold” that is also called Venus-love. Often the New Testament proves the best commentary on the hermetic writings. In Corinthians III, 9, ff., we read: “Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. According to the grace of God which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, hay, stubble.... Every man's work shall be made manifest ... because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.” And Galatians VI, 7 ff.: “For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let him not be weary in well doing; for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.” The [pg 158] spirit to which it is sowed there is [Symbol: Mercury], mercury, and the gold that will come out is to be proved in the fire.
The alchemists speak of men very often as of metals. Before I cite from the work of Johann Isaak Hollandus on lead, I call to mind that lead, [Symbol: Saturn], bears the name of Saturn. The writing of Hollandus could quite as well be called a treatise on mankind as on lead. To understand this better, be it added that man in a state of humility or resignation must specially be associated with lead, the soft, dark metal.