Hermes: A Journal in Occasional Issues

raging, but rather preserving, nourishing, and strengthening. —

Furthermore, this spirit is twofold: one that makes volatile and one that binds—volatile and fixed—present in the innermost part of every seed-grain and every thing capable of multiplication; therefore, it is a vegetative principle, a sal ammoniac original: "Salmiak." In alchemy, sal ammoniac was seen as a bridge between the solid and the spirit because it sublimates (turns from solid to gas) easily., a mercurial salt, a hidden food of life (§ 65), present in the belly of the wind A reference to the Emerald Tablet, a foundational Hermetic text which states of the life force: "The wind carried it in its belly.", descending in the rain, ascending in the dew, circulating throughout all of creation and maintained by the heat of the sun in a constant cycle (§ 12) or rotation, so that it may be blessed with the powers of the Above and the Below Another reference to the Emerald Tablet and the concept of "As above, so below," suggesting the unity of celestial and terrestrial forces..

These two spirits are represented by the ancients as two dragons, one winged, the other wingless, both embracing each other as a clear sign that they must always remain together. Every mixture original: "Mixtum" yields a volatile spirit and a fixed essence (§ 14), which, when they come together, constitute a whole (its power is complete if it be turned into earth original: "Vis ejus integra est, si versa fuerit in terram." This is a key phrase from the Emerald Tablet describing the stabilization of the spiritual force into material form.), or the dew of heaven and the