The Secret Work of the Hermetic Philosophy

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 9.

Historical Note 14

Michael Sendivogius; the anonymous inscription on his books was “ Author sum qui Divi Leschi Genus Amo.” The last four words form an anagram of his name ; he flourished 1604-46 ; his chief works are Novum Lumen, De Sulphure, Lucerna Salis, de Lapide, Dialogus Mercurii and Epistolæ.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 11.

Historical Note 15

Flamel’s work has been reprinted with a preface by W. Wynn Westcott. Nicolas Flamel flourished 1357–1413.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 12.

Historical Note 16

See Virgil. Æneid vi. 138. The original has “hunc” not “quem.”

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 15.

Historical Note 17

Virgil. Æneid vi. 190-193.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 15.

Historical Note 18

See the Chrysopœia of Aurelius Augurellus, liber x.; this author died 1514.

Diotimos concordance: historical note editorially associated with canon 18.

Historical Note 19

By these words is meant that the chemical substances used should be quite pure, otherwise the adulterations will hinder the desired result.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 21.

Historical Note 20

Probably meaning freshly prepared; perhaps what the modern chemist calls “ in a nascent state.”

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 21.

Historical Note 21

Death, the inevitable changer, Siva.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 21.

Historical Note 22

In almost all cases where sexual symbolism is used, any principle which is positive to that which is inferior, is also negative or female to that which is superior.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 22.

Historical Note 23

These names vary with different authors— Gabritius is also called Gabertius and Gabricus. Beia also is Beya. As brother and sister they mean positive and negative. See David Laqueus. Harmonia Chemica; and the dicta of Arislæus in the Turba Philosophorum. Gabritius is the fixed and Beia the volatile.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 23.

Historical Note 24

Raymond Lully. Prior Testamentum, cap. 62.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 24.

Historical Note 25

See Note 19.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 27.

Historical Note 26

Hosea vii. 9.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 34.

Historical Note 27

The rocks of Scylla and the whirlpool of Charybdis lie on either side of the strait between Sicily and Italy.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 36.

Historical Note 28

Query, dissolved.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 39.

Historical Note 29

Rebis is generally explained as that which is “double,” or is hermaphrodite, or is the result of the union of two substances.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 39.

Historical Note 30

Virgil. Æneid vi. 129, 130.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 40.

Historical Note 31

The planet Mercury is said in Astrology to act by influence upon other planets in aspect with it, rather than with independent force.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 41.

Historical Note 32

See the Chrysopœia of Augurellus, 2.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 42.

Historical Note 33

Ensigns of Diana and the Doves of Venus : query purity and love on the spiritual plane; or is the reference to Silver on the material plane. For some notes on Alchymy on the spiritual plane, see Alchymy, by Sapere Aude.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 42.

Historical Note 34

Virgil. Georgics, Book I., lines 64, 65, 44.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 43.

Historical Note 35

See Cap. 4, libr. 1., of the Perfect Magistery of Geber; he lived about a.d. 830.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 44.

Historical Note 36

See Genesis i. verses 1 to 4.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 49.

Historical Note 37

See Deut. xxxiii. v. 13 to 16. These words differ from the version of the English Bible. For “ apples of Heaven,” read “ precious things.” For “the apple of fruit both of the sun and moon,” read “the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, and the precious things put forth by the moon.” For “ the top,” read “ the chief things.” The Hebrew word translated “apple” is MGD. Parkhurst gives “precious fruits.” The Hebrew word for “top” or “chief things” is RASh, meaning head, chief or beginning. Godfrey Higgins laboured to teach that it also meant “wisdom:” it is the first word of Genesis, preceded by a Beth—B-RAShITh.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 49.

Historical Note 38

This means adulteration, impurity from its mineral origin.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 50.

Historical Note 39

Or interstitial, intimately combined with it ; yet such as can be easily driven off by a suitable heat.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 50.

Historical Note 40

Compare this purple Jovian star with the purple flower of love, the Amaranth in paragraph 53. There is a scale of colours in which Jupiter is Violet.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 51.

Historical Note 41

A versification of this beautiful passage may be found in Ainsworth, as spoken by the Sylph appearing to Ruggieri.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 53.

Historical Note 42

Note the change from she to he, negative to positive in this paragragh. Nothing is more realistic than sexual symbolism, but one has to exclude it as far as possible for the sake of the Pharisee reader.

Diotimos concordance: read with canon 59.

Historical Note 43

Let the practical Alchymist note this word, and indeed the whole paragraph, and remember that there is a butter besides butter.