Hermes: A Journal in Occasional Issues

-al man, it is clear enough: (§. 69. 70.) so one must, first and foremost, conceive of the subject of Hermeticism not as a special secondary being containing the gold-seedoriginal: "Goldsaamen." Alchemists believed that metals, like plants, grew from "seeds" or essential life-forces within the earth., but only as the means which the ArtIn alchemical literature, "the Art" refers to the Great Work—the process of purifying or transforming matter. employs to extract the gold-seed (§. 66) and to bring it to maturity. This means is the true subject of Hermeticism; it is a hieroglyph; it is Hermes.

We would not be able to unravel this deeply hidden doctrine—the true Gordian KnotA metaphor for an intricate or unsolvable problem; here it refers to the central, most difficult mystery of alchemical practice. of Hermeticism—if we did not first acquaint our readers with what the ancients say about it.

Unanimously, the philosophers assert the following regarding their highly praised subject: It is a subtle, ever-active, powerful fire-spiritoriginal: "Feuergeist." This refers to a vital, non-consuming heat or "spirit of the world" (spiritus mundi) believed to animate all living and mineral things., the spirit of the Divinity which He sent out into creation, which is kept constantly in activity through the emanations of the sun, and is incorporated into all things; through it, plants bloom, metals grow, and animals live. It is a fire of nature, not burning and consuming, nor destroying and dis-